Sketching Success: Journey from Pen and Paper to Thriving Business (with Ashton Rodenhiser)

Guest Bio

Ashton Rodenhiser is passionate about lifting the creative spirit in everyone that she meets. For the past seven years, she has followed her passion for helping people communicate their ideas and combined that with creativity by founding Mind's Eye Creative Consulting.

You’ll often find her with markers in hand as she’s helping bring ideas to life through graphic recording and graphic facilitation practices.

She’s worked with diverse groups, from non-profits to Fortune 500 companies. It may appear as if she’s the silent illustrator in the room. In fact, she’s helping to break down complex concepts and notions into an easily understandable visual language, helping others retain more information while inspiring people to continue practicing her techniques in the world.

Over the years, she has brought close to a thousand presentations and conversations to life either on paper or digitally.

When she’s not working with clients, she’s being silly with her three young kids and husband in rural Canada.

ℹ️ Introduction

Welcome to another exciting episode of the Frugalpreneur podcast! I'm your host, Sarah St John, and today we have a fantastic showcase episode featuring Ashton Rodenhiser, the founder of Minds Eye Creative Consulting. Ashton takes us through their journey as a bootstrapped entrepreneur and shares valuable tips, tricks, tactics, techniques, and tools that helped them build their business from the ground up. What's fascinating is that Ashton started with just pen, markers, and paper, creating powerful visuals during group facilitation sessions. They didn't need fancy equipment or expensive subscriptions to get started. Ashton also shares their strategy of cold pitching, which led to incredible opportunities like drawing alongside Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak on stage in front of thousands of people. While Ashton admits that not investing in business programs or coaching slowed their learning curve, they found free online tools and trials to be incredibly helpful. Plus, Ashton emphasizes the importance of building genuine relationships and staying top of mind among competitors in their industry. This episode is packed with practical insights that you can implement right away in your own bootstrap business journey. So sit back, relax, and get ready to be inspired by Ashton's remarkable story. And if you have a story to share, don't forget to visit frugal.show/guest. Let's dive in!

❇️ Key topics and bullets

- Ashton's background and business journey

- Starting Minds Eye Creative Consulting

- Realizing the power of visuals in group settings

- Transitioning to full-time drawing conversations

- Minimal tools and equipment needed to get started

- Ashton's bootstrap strategies and successes

- Leveraging existing network and building one-on-one relationships

- Receiving guidance and support from a facilitator friend

- Using a cold pitching strategy to email conferences and introduce the business

- Landing a speaking engagement with Steve Wozniak through cold pitching

- Ashton's failures and areas for improvement

- Lack of investment in business programs or coaching

- Lengthier learning curve without guidance and tips

- Realizing the benefits of investing in opportunities

- Helpful tools and resources for bootstrapping

- Utilizing free tiers of SaaS and software online

- Testing programs with trials before investing money

- Exploring annual subscriptions for cost savings in the long run

- Building relationships and networking

- Importance of connecting with people in the industry

- Supportive nature of competitors in the field

- Being top of mind for referrals from industry professionals

- Encouragement to start putting pen to paper

- Benefits of drawing and visual note-taking

- Invitation to join a free sketchnoting workshop

- Conclusion and call to action

- Thanking the listeners and sharing hope for valuable takeaways

- Invitation to potential guests to share their stories on the podcast

🧞‍♂️ Discussion questions

1. How did Ashton utilize their existing network to support their business?

2. Can you share any examples of the cold pitching strategy that Ashton used to gain clients?

3. What was the impact of drawing out a fireside chat with Steve Wozniak on Ashton's business?

4. What was Ashton's biggest failure in their entrepreneurial journey and what lessons did they learn from it?

5. How did Ashton save costs in their business by using free or trial versions of software?

6. How important do you think building relationships and connecting with others in the industry is for the success of a bootstrapped business?

7. Have you ever heard of sketchnoting before? Do you think it's a valuable skill for entrepreneurs?

8. What are some other ways in which bootstrapped entrepreneurs can bootstrap their business without spending a lot of money?

9. Do you think investing in business programs or coaching is necessary for entrepreneurial success, or can it be overcome with other strategies?

10. Would you be interested in attending a free 15-minute workshop on sketchnoting, and why?

Resources

http://www.mindseyecreative.ca

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