We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Betsy Ellor. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Betsy below.
Hi Betsy, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
Like many people I learned resilience through failing A LOT. I was a perfectionist when I was younger. Straight A student. High achiever. I struggled for a while after college because there was no longer a clear path to “success” or even a clear definition of what success meant. Early on I got fired from a job as a stage manager in Wisconsin. I had never even been reprimanded before by any job before. Needless to say I was inconsolable. I was staying in temporary housing and needed to get away from people so I walked down to the rocky shoreline nearby. There I found a couch wedged into the rocks above the waterline. I sat alone on that couch and cried all afternoon and evening as the sun went down and the sky grew completely black. I remember thinking “Well I can either hurl myself into Lake Michigan or go back, pack my things, and move forward.” It was the first of many failures. For every success there have been books that didn’t sell, jobs that didn’t pan out, creative partnerships that went south. Failure got less painful as I began to look at each as something to learn from and to use what I learned to make my next attempt better. Life taught me resilience and resilience made the bumps in the road on this journey of life less painful.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’m an author who follows her curiosity to create stories for readers of all ages. My picture book, My Dog is NOT a Scientist launched in 2023 from Yeehoo Press and has been inspiring the young and curious ever since. In 2021 my anthology Heroic Care: 35 Writers & Artists Show What It Means To Care reached the top 30 on Amazon, and my family musical Sara Crewe has been performed across the US. When I’m not writing I work to keep Endicott College beautiful as the campus’ interior designer. I live in a home filled with kid shenanigans, canine chaos and creative projects run wild.
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?
1) A working knowledge of business and some sort of plan. I have always had a passion for creative work, but one thing I wish I started out with more knowledge of is business. Not investment portfolios or high finance, but how to seek out business, how to market my work, how to price my work, how to write a contract or a grant application, how to set my financial expectations and what types of work I could do to earn a living while my creative goals were just just starting off. I learned all those things the long, hard way but not without loads of frustration. The more you have some sort of viable plan of attack on the business side of your passion, the more free you’ll be to let your passion bloom. 2) Adaptability because your plan won’t go as expected. Plans never go as expected. Fortunately, we are all capable of doing more than one thing. Take stock of what your skills are. ALL your skills. That way when an unexpected opportunity appears you’ll be ready to jump at it. And if unexpected setbacks happen you’ll be ready to roll easily into the next thing.
3) An approach to social media you can live with: Whether you are starting a business or doing creative work – part of your job is marketing and a big part of that is social media. Personally I would rather spend 100% of my time writing, but what’s the point if I never get my stories out into the world? I have to do some social media. But social media can be a huge black hole of time and a drain on your energy. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to be on all the platforms all the time so be strategic. Figure out which platforms best connect you with your target market in a way you ENJOY. (Because if you don’t enjoy it you won’t do it.) Then set realistic goals for how present you can sustain being on those platforms.
Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
The most important thing I think anyone can do is find their people. Writers face a lot of rejection. The number one thing that gets me through the rejection I’ve faced is my supportive team of writer friends. I’m part of an eleven-member critique group called the Carrot Cake writers. We do writing retreats together, challenge each other to push our work farther, share education and tools with each other, celebrate victories and support each other in our defeats. Along the way they’ve become some of my most important friendships. Find the people who get what you’re going through and who always have your back. Then keep them close.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wordsunboundstudio.com/
- Instagram: @betsyellor
- Facebook: @bewordsunbound
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-betsy-ellor-47511a9/
- Twitter: @bewordsunbound
Image Credits
Kim Idresano
