Diana Frost is the owner of a colouring book company called Colouring It Forward. Diana is Algonquin Métis, an artist and a musician. Diana was an engineer for 20 years, then had a dream about creating a series of colouring books and decided to pursue her creative side. “It started with a series of coloring books that I made with artists and elders from different nations. The coloring books include real artwork, and also stories and teachings from the elders. It's a way for people to learn a little bit about the First Nations culture in a positive way.” Colouring It Forward was rapidly successful, with 2500 copies being sold in the first 6 weeks of launching. This captured the attention of CBC, radio, and print news sources.
When the pandemic happened, retail bookstores were shutting down, which negatively impacted the B2B side of the company. However, Colouring It Forward already had a Shopify website, so Diana began to utilize more digital tools to focus more on selling directly to customers. The Bold Leadership Program assisted Diana greatly; she went into the program knowing she was going to implement what was needed to further her business. With AWE’s support, Diana has been able to optimize the website, merge her email so that everything was in one place, and launch her subscription box with assistance from Angus Gastle (AWE coach).
“I came up with the idea to make a gift box, like an Indigenous wellness box, called Equinox Box. While I was still doing the program, I think it was on March 1, I launched it.” The launch was successful with 30 purchases. Then after some media attention, it took one week for the subscription boxes to nearly sell out. “So, I opened up [sales] for another 50 boxes. And they sold out the next day. Again, I sold 50 boxes that day, and then the next day, they were completely sold out.” The Bold Leadership Program propelled Diana’s business forward in replacing the dependable income she had lost from bookstores closing due to COVID-19.
Diana had a very positive experience in the Bold Leadership Program and expressed great gratitude. “The coaching has been tremendous. Angus has done so much work on my platform and putting me in touch with people. They’ve helped with simplification of my platforms. I really appreciate knowing that there's someone there that I can ask for help. Anything that has to do with the digital platforms, I can ask Angus, and he'll help. Having people you can ask questions to, or to give you feedback is invaluable.”
“I feel like I have a better understanding now where my weaknesses are digitally, and my strengths. The Bold Leadership Program helped me with identifying goals and objectives specific to the digital platforms I was using. As a solopreneur, you don't have a lot of time. You end up putting fires out all the time and you don't have a lot of time to plan. Being part of the program gave me that time; it was forcing me to listen and answer important questions. I knew I had to grow digitally.”
When asked about advice for entrepreneurs growing their business in this digital era, Diana touched on the dilemma many small business owners face. “I think the most important thing is to make sure your messaging is consistent and to be patient. Interact with your prospected clients, or your customers. Try lots of new things but don't try too many platforms right at the beginning. Pick one or two and do it well. I remember at the beginning of my business I was trying to do so much for different platforms, plus doing B2B as well; it was too much.” Diana also highlighted the importance of consistency when using digital tools like social media. “Some people say you have to post every day, but I don't think so. I think what you need to do is be consistent. Make it quality over quantity. Make sure you check back on your posts because if people leave you some kind of comments, they'll want you to responded to it somehow.”
