Meet Ashley Earl

We were lucky to catch up with Ashley Earl recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ashley, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

I definitely got my work ethic from my family. Growing up, my parents valued productivity and industriousness, and they taught me and my sister how to cope even when you want to be doing anything but work. Both my mom and dad worked really hard to advance at work and to keep getting better, and they each had a later in life career shift. Watching them put in all the work that comes with getting good at doing something different and having it work well for them really instilled in me a fearlessness to chase my dreams. My little sister also had a pretty big shift in her college major and career aspirations. I watched her go back to college, work her ass off to pay for school and living expenses on her own, and graduate with a degree that she immediately put to use. She’s off living her best life because she was never afraid of hard work. She has a great job and is back in school, and this time when she graduates, she will surpass all of us and be the first person in our family to get a master’s degree! I’m so lucky I have them proving that the accomplishments are worth all the work.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Hi! I’m Ashley, and I accidently got a degree in fine arts that I’m currently fortunate enough to be putting to good use! In college I thought I wanted to major in chemical engineering. Every semester I would take a few art classes as a way to break up the difficult science and math curriculum, and I was shocked when my advisor let me know I had all the credits to graduate with a fine art degree! Right after school I went into banking and did small artsy things here and there, but nothing serious. Now I design and produce art full time, and am so lucky to be able to make things that I am proud of and that I love. To date, I have designed over 175 stickers- a mix of puns, things that make me laugh, lgbtqia+ designs for every flavour of queer (it’s really hard to find merchandise some of the groups/flags, and I really want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to see themselves represented), and funny mental health stickers. I also have about 35 art prints of the dark, spooky, gothic variety available- this is the area when my imposter syndrome really kicks in because I am just as shocked when someone buys a print as I was the first time I sold one. I love knowing that little pieces of my imagination are out in the world making other people happy! I designed my business’s webpage so it’s a little rough, but I try to keep up with posting where/when I’ll be out slinging stickers and trying to make enough money to give my dogs the life they deserve! eightarmeddesigns.com

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Knowing how to properly use google searching and evaluating the trustworthiness of information has been the single most valuable skill you can develop for successfully establishing a new company or venture. There’s a lot of steps required to get licenses, permits, file sales and income taxes, funding, marketing, etc. I would have been totally lost without researching skills!
Resilience is one of the most important qualities an entrepreneur can have. There are going to be so many days where it feels like you’ll never succeed and where it would be very easy to give up. Last year I attended several fairs and markets where I didn’t make enough to pay for booth fees and gas. I didn’t make my first non-friend sale on etsy until about the 6 month mark. I’m so glad I have my own cheerleading squad because I wanted to quit so many times. Now that we’ve been open and working hard to get our stuff in front of people, I’m getting several dozen orders on etsy at a time, and my booth is hoppin at every market I attend!
I believe that some of my success can be attributed to having worked fast food and retail in the past. I can handle difficult customer interactions smoothly, I know how to merchandise and set displays from my time in retail, and having the right product and sign placement is key to a successful market.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

Around 14, I fell in love with Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” in the first ten minutes of starting the book. The main character is constantly striving for the next big thing, even though he’s a child, and that really resonated with me. One of my favourite passages is “Ender’s anger was cold, and he could use it. Bonzo’s was hot, and so it used him.” I often think about how I can cool my own anger so I’m able to use it to make the changes I want to see.

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