For many entrepreneurs and small businesses, social media can be an absolute game-changer! All it takes is one viral post and a business can suddenly take off.
At Like A Voss Social Media, we’re highlighting local businesses and entrepreneurs who are killing the online game. This week’s spotlight is on Paige Vanderkemp, Artist and Designer!
About Paige
“I would describe myself as an explorer. In a literal sense, I seek outdoor adventure – from hiking, to boating, and everything in between. I truly love where I live and find inspiration in the smallest facets within our natural beauty on the coast. From a more rooted perspective, I find myself continually exploring what moves us, where our lines of comfort are, breaking through those thresholds, and finding new solace in the unknowns. My story is by no means unique, I’ve experienced love and loss, passion and pain, comfort and unfailing disappointment, but what drives me in all of these seasons of life is the magnitude and sheer force of grit, resilience, and our innate ability to abandon fear and grasp onto something bigger – our own inner wilderness.” – Paige
After being the SUPER LUCKY winner of a giveaway and meeting Paige, our CEO Mandi asked if she wanted to be interviewed about her secret to success in business and in life. We also got some awesome insights into what she thinks makes social media such an effective tool in business.
A Little Bit About Being a Female Entrepreneur
1: How long have you been in business?
I kind of fell into this industry naturally at a young age, and began selling my work at the age of ten. My Mum had a retail shop on the coast at the time and it was a process of serendipitously popping my work onto the wall. The public really embraced it and ran with my love for expression and capturing our natural coastal beauty on canvas.
2: What made you decide to start your art business?
To be honest, I have a hard time pinpointing just exactly when it became a true business, but I suppose the natural evolution of exposure and being approached for gallery events is what pushed me into the realm of taking myself a little more seriously in the industry. It happened more fluidly when I was studying at Emily Carr University getting my undergraduate degree in Industrial Design, so being a full time designer and selling my work in local shops and galleries collectively was definitely a contributor to taking that step into true business.
3: What do you love most about being a female entrepreneur?
My work on the artistic side of my ethos has truly become a form of self-expression. Capturing the ebbs and flows of my own journey in paint has a very open dialogue with a diverse audience, and I think that stems from simply embracing an honesty in my work that allows people to immerse themselves and really apply their own journey to the conversations they see in the art. I’m not sure that being a female necessarily aids or denies my efforts in this industry, although allowing my own perspective as a woman in today’s world to influence my brush is absolutely a force that is uniquely my own.
4: What is the hardest thing you have had to overcome as a female entrepreneur? Something you did not foresee when you decided to start selling your art?
I think in this case my age was both for and against me. A young girl with a confidence in her art attracted attention from people in a very positive way. The support and encouragement I received from my hometown at that age, the art community, my university family later on, was undeniably the most fulfilling part of starting a business in fine arts. However, the flip side is the reality that this is a hungry, eager, difficult industry to crack. The notion of a “starving artist” is a very present force, and for people who had spent years trying to gain sales that I had gotten quite young, there was a slight air around me that was hard for me to understand in that time. To that effect, it was also my youth and the genuine heart behind my work that pushed me through that confusing liminal space. Confidence is entirely from within, so realizing that myself and finding my own voice and discernment in the choices I made along the way is the key that allowed me to freely create and stand confidently in who I was as an artist.
5: What is one thing about working in the art industry that people would be surprised to learn?
For me personally it is an industry that is very much reflective of where I am physically, emotionally, and spiritually as an individual. There are times that I just don’t paint, and I have come to a point where that is completely ok in my books. Authenticity drives my practice, and sometimes that means actually taking some space from the business itself and regrounding. All too often in those early years I would try to push through it, and like trying to drive a car on no sleep, the art lost its light and it became a chore. Finding that joy in the work, and letting it be the main priority is essential in creating pieces that reflect the honesty I aim to keep with myself.
And Now Onto The Social Media Questions!
6: Do you have a favorite social media platform? Why?
Instagram is such an amazing resource, for my own work but more importantly for connecting with other amazing creatives. The way it integrates storytelling into a simple yet effective visual brief is so easily tailored to each brand that there is always a new way to share your story. Your voice becomes very unique on Instagram, and I love that.
7: What made you decide to start using social media as a way to promote your company?
My background in industrial design was teeming with influence from many brand advisors and talented professors that encouraged integrity within everything we learned and executed. I have wholeheartedly carried that forward into my own interdisciplinary approach to art and design today. Social media is a beautiful way to capture those honest ongoing moments within a brand story. So often we think the polished brands with perfect photography are killing it, when in reality it’s the designers, artists, influencers, and business people who share the everyday snippets – those little peeks into the real life behind the brand – who are giving fresh space for consumers and clients to breathe in the experience of your work without the pressure of feeling they need to purchase or invest in it. The beautiful thing is, that type of interaction between brand and client is invaluable, it builds relationships, and over time those people become your biggest supporters and investors.
8: How has social media impacted your business? Would you say that it’s an effective marketing tool?
Absolutely, with marketing at the forefront it is supremely effective. However, what I’ve learned over the course of my experience is that when you focus solely on marketing as an objective you tend to miss out on the deeper rooted connection opportunities your clients are aching for. Focus on the story, and the rest will follow.
9: What advice would you give to other businesses and entrepreneurs who want to use social media as a way to connect with customers?
Be real, and people who are meant for your brand will embrace you with open hearts. Those who are meant to follow, love, share, and comment – will. The rest are simply meant for someone else. Also, to embrace an attitude of gratitude. Pay attention to the connections you make on these platforms. They are real people on the other side of that profile picture and when you’re setting your goal on getting to know them, supporting their desires as consumers, encouraging their own craft, it brings the most joyful return to your own efforts.
Connect with Paige
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Do you know a female entrepreneur who loves social media as much as we do? Contact us today – we’d love to tell her story!
