Summary: Larissa Russell of Creative U Healing is a coach that uses printables to earn passive income. Stop trading hours for dollars and start selling printables and other digital products. Find Larissa at www.CreativeUHealing.com or www.CreativeU.ca .
Larissa is running a Gratitude Sale! Click here for the sale! Use coupon code ‘GRATEFUL’ valid now through the 25th of November, 2023!
Check out my Shopify course, Printables Ecom Academy!
SPEAKERS: Becky Beach, Larissa Russell:
Duration: 30m:14s
Becky Beach: 00:00
Did you know, you have the power to change your life? It all depends on your beliefs. If you have limiting beliefs, you’re limit yourself. I’m Becky Beach. I’m here to help you overcome your limiting beliefs. So, you can design your dream life. This is the Becky Beach show.
Becky Beach: 00:18
Hey, everybody, welcome to the Becky Beach show. I’m Becky Beach and joining me today is Larissa Russell, she’s a creativity coach.
Becky Beach: 00:25
Welcome, Larissa.
Larissa Russell: 00:26
Thank you. I’m excited to be here.
Becky Beach: 00:29
So, I understand that you had let go during COVID. So, you’ve been having to rely on your printables business, is that correct?
Larissa Russell: 00:36
Well, my printables business kind of grew a little bit after but yes, I was let go just before COVID which people were let go at the same time. And I’ve been doing sort of my business off the side of my desk. And so, it was the push, I needed to get really in depth in it. So, I do healing with creativity, coaching. And the printables came about this year after I took your Shopify course and so that was really exciting. Because I was like, “I need to do something different. I need to have a little extra”, I like to have things in different parts, if you will. And your course was just the thing I needed to kickstart me.
Becky Beach: 01:14
That’s so great to hear, love hearing that to how the course is helping people. Yeah, because I’ve struggled and I was first learning, it’s great to have something the- all in one, you can just go through whenever you want.
Larissa Russell: 01:25
Yeah. And well, and the course was, like, I literally built my store on Shopify, well, I did your course, boom, I was done. And I love creating printables. But I also love that there’s PLR out there that you can customize for yourself and so that’s really fun. But I really enjoy the creation of them and being able to create them for my clients for all the different things we do. Like we do art journaling, we do actual journaling. So, we have journals, and planners and things like that and so it’s been really a lot of fun to do that.
Becky Beach: 02:03
Wow, that is like so great. Yeah, for those that don’t know, PLR stands for private label rights and are these commercial use printables that you could customize usually come in like a Canva or PowerPoint template, where that normally, you can customize now as your own and add your own logo, and anything you want. They’re really great for coaches like, Larissa here, because she could just rebrand and with her logo, and her colors, because she has brand colors and everything, so then she can resell them in her store.
Larissa Russell: 02:31
Yeah, and I do that for some of it. So, some things I’ll take and change it around a little bit. So that it’s a little better with my colors and sometimes the wording things like that. And then other times, I just have so much fun creating them. It’s one of my when I sort of get overwhelmed with everything else, I go and create printables, it’s so fun.
Becky Beach: 02:55
Yeah, it’s like, you sit there you can just praying your mind is just kind of blinks out, and you’re just like, you’re just moving your hands, you know, making this and, like really awesome, I love it.
Larissa Russell: 03:07
Yeah, you just lose yourself in it and it’s been a really great because, for me, the printables has been sort of my side hustle, if you will, for my coaching business. And it’s worked out so well because it goes hand in hand with it. But it allows me to sort of have that creative time for myself when I’m doing the printables and then also sharing the printables and doing other creative activities with other people. So, we have classes that we get together twice a week, and I’ll often use the printables to do an art journal spread or something like that. So, it can be used in so many different ways and that’s what I love about them.
Becky Beach: 03:48
That’s just so great. Like for anyone listening. Was it really hard for you to learn how to make printables? Or did you take a course or anything for that?
Larissa Russell: 03:58
I didn’t take a course. I mean, I’ve done a bit of graphic design, off and on throughout my careers and so I say careers because I kept switching. So, I’ve done some graphic design throughout, but then nothing as fun as creating the printables. So that but whenever I get stuck, I just check out the PLR and get start from there. But typically, no I don’t. I don’t have any problem with it because it’s just playing with a graphics program. whatever one you want to use, I use Canva I use PowerPoint. Those are the two I use the most for creating them.
Becky Beach: 04:40
Oh yeah. For those who don’t know, canva.com is a free program that you could create printables in it and it’s really easy. you just do mostly like drag and drop and there’s all these images you can get that are all commercially used. There’s a commercial use license on the on the images, even if you have a free Canva, make sure to pay attention to the licensing. There’s also Canva Pro which just get access to even more images.
Larissa Russell: 05:03
And you can also upload lots of others into it, which I do often as well.
Becky Beach: 05:08
Where do you find your graphics?
Larissa Russell: 05:10
I need graphics from all different places, sometimes I draw my own often, I’ll go through Creative Fabrica, or I have some other Pixabay, places like that to get some, depending on what I need, I have different sort of hunts that I go to pixabay.com is one of them for PNGs, which is really good for like black and white images and things like that. You can do elements and stuff that, but I tend to get more like the coloring book type images from them. And then also Canva has a lot, Creative Fabrica has a lot. Also making sure you check your licensing, things like that. So, there’s so many different places.
Becky Beach: 05:56
Yes, like we most talk about licensing, especially, if you want to create things to propel yourself or for commercial. For commercial use rights, you need to flatten the images, if you get anything from Creative Fabrica or Design Bundles, or any of those graphic sites, you have to flatten the images, what you do is just to, like, save them all together into one JPEG and then put it in your planner or your other printable, you have to flatten them, you can’t just sell it with images all altogether. So, it’s someone can extract them, so it’s really important to pay attention to the licensing. so that’s a really good tip there.
Larissa Russell: 06:30
Yeah, it is. it’s important to know that, if you’re doing this for your business, you need to know what you can and can’t do. And I know there’s a lot of people who do things that may not be exactly- what’s the word we want to use, may not be exactly legal?
Becky Beach: 06:49
And ethical too maybe. Yeah.
Larissa Russell: 06:52
I try really hard just to stay within the boundaries of the rules if you will.
Becky Beach: 06:58
Yeah, that’s so important because its business drivers [sysco 07:02] getting sued, most recent, there’s been people getting sued for like, further sites not being ADA compliant in those law that going on. And these big graphic sites, they have a team of lawyers, and you got to make sure you abide by the license. I am not trying to scare you, buddy. But it’s very important. Just make sure you read the license and ask for help. If you don’t know, ask for support, to get confirmation about what you should use it and what you shouldn’t use it for.
Larissa Russell: 07:26
Yeah, absolutely. So always check that out before you start. And but yeah, just building the principal’s business on the side has been a lot of fun. And I just wanted to say thank you so much for the course because it was one of those things that I had thought about numerous times. And then I was like, “Oh, how do I set up a store? – Oh, I don’t really want to deal with Etsy”. so, you know, all of those things. So, it links directly to my website with my business, which is great. And so, I really like it. So, I just want to say thank you, to you for that.
Becky Beach: 08:02
Thanks. So, I appreciate, you bring up a good point here, well Etsy, is like really hard to sell on because it’s so saturated? would you agree?
Larissa Russell: 08:13
I would say that like, it is a good place because it’s almost like a Google search, if you will, people will go there to look but then there’s Ray [sysco 08:21] there’s just so many people who have it. But I find that Etsy just keeps changing the rules, I used to sell on before when I used to create- not printables, but different books and things like that I did and so like actual purchasing of them, and I made my own books. So, I used to sell on their and my art as well. But I just found that they kept changing the rules. And I like to be more in charge of my own things. And I find Etsy is in charge of everything that way. But it’s a really great place for people to get started if you don’t want to lay out any money. Because they take a cut, instead of you paying a monthly fee for like Shopify. So, depending on what you need, I would rather- I just pay my monthly amount and that’s it and I get to keep all my money.
Becky Beach: 09:13
Yeah, that’s really important thing to bring up because though- it isn’t costly anything, but the list thing is 20-20 cents, like about 20 cents to list things on Etsy. And you’re charged that like you’re charged every month, I just can’t recall.
Larissa Russell: 09:28
I can’t remember exactly because it’s been a while since I’ve done it. And then sometimes I seem they have lose access to it, like even just for shopping. They’re like, “Oh, yeah, your account is closed” and it’s like, “but I bought something last week”. So, I like Shopify, because I can just, I know where everything is and I’m in charge.
Becky Beach: 09:50
That’s so important that, that’s what gravitated me towards Shopify. Like, we’ll have a story time here. It’s like kind of a short story but like I used to sell on Etsy for five years, I sold coloring pages and in there’s competitor also sold coloring pages and she left me a bad review. I knew it was her because I searched the name, she had a different name, and she left the review under. And I searched name on Google. And it was one of her names on another account. So, I contacted Etsy for help, and they didn’t do anything. It made my account look so bad. But that one-star review and it was really negative. She said that my printable print out really bad. You know what it was like fuzzy and stuff, and it just totally ruin my sales, overnight. So, I decide to close my store. [sysco 10:30]
Larissa Russell: 10:34
Just talking about that, and people who do things like that, I think people don’t understand about reviews, enough how important those are. But somebody like that knows what they’re doing and to consciously try to destroy somebody else. I work with women all the time. And we’re about building up each other because I don’t like just because you do well. And that whole mindset of they’re taking away my business, that come from a place of lack, and a place of fear. And so if we can all work together to build each other up. I think it works so much better. So definitely leave reviews but leave positive ones. If you have nothing nice to say. Don’t say anything unless it’s really bad. Like, you know, there are times when people are actually scammers out there, but reviews are super important and let’s work together to build each other up.
Becky Beach: 11:31
Yeah, so agree. Like, if I have a problem with something, I’ve actually contacted the seller, I’m just like, “oh, this product bullshit, don’t buy it’s awful, no good”. Like, I don’t do that or anything. Like I make sure to contact them first and say, “Hey, there’s a problem with like such and such do you mind?” they say, “Oh, sure”, they are than happy to help me like they’re more than happy.
Larissa Russell: 11:51
Because it’s important to them. Like what I put out in the world, it’s important to me that you find value in it and if you don’t I want to know about that. But we can fix it if there’s a problem with it because I want it to work for you. So yeah, I totally agree.
Becky Beach: 12:08
You know, in also Shopify, you can actually get this plugin called Lux reviews, there’s other review plugins. And with Lux reviews, people can leave picture reviews, you can also set it so a review will not post unless it’s three stars and above or four stars and above, that’s whatever you want. Like the review won’t even post like it’s only as a one-star review on your Shopify. No, nobody’s going to say it, [inaudible 12:28] you can approve the post, but then you can do like automatically approved ones or three and above.
Larissa Russell: 12:35
Yeah, I think that’s what I have it set for because you told me that in your course, too. So, I have that plug in, I hope I don’t get a one-star review, but I would definitely want to know what that was about. But when it’s somebody a competitor, actually trying to destroy your business, that’s just not cool.
Becky Beach: 13:00
Yeah, it does happen. There’s a lot of competition on Etsy. And if you run ads, like I was wanting to ask to my store, but they only promise [sysco 13:07] there’s competitors on my shop listing so that they will get my sales and I was like, I’m not getting that many sales and look at the money I am spending on all these ads. So, if you have the money to spend on ads, by all means just open a Shopify store, at least you’re going to your store, someone else is going to take your business.
Larissa Russell: 13:24
Yeah, exactly. And yeah, and that’s what I like about Shopify is the fact that it is my business, It’s not somebody else’s and I have it attached to my website. So, you can go back and forth between them. It’s all one. I really appreciate that part. And that was because of your course, the things you told me. So yeah, because I had a website already, and trying to figure out how to put a shop into it, because that’s one of the things I’m on Kajabi and that’s one of the things they don’t have, is a shop. But it was easy to integrate with Shopify. So
Becky Beach: 14:06
that’s awesome. Well, you remember before you told me that you’re coaching use printables to grow your business, like to get more passive income. Can you tell us more about that? Yeah. So
Larissa Russell: 14:16
When I’m working with people, I do basically art therapy, but I don’t have the masters that is required to call it that. So, we do healing with creativity and so we do a lot of different exercises. And we were using sheets I created for my clients. Whether it be coloring sheets or exercise sheets or cutouts to use an art journal, different things like that and so now it just gets access to so many more people to have those experiences and work on different exercises and things like that. We have printables for journaling, printables for working in your art journal. We just released our planner stickers, are brand new November is out, we’ll be doing monthly planner stickers, because we have different planners as well for different things. So, it became sort of this extension of the business because we were already doing it internally, we decided to allow other people to have those same experiences. So now what we’re doing is trying to create some of the videos, so that people know how to use those printables, and things like that. So that’s coming.
Becky Beach: 15:33
That’s really amazing, that’s a great selling point to create videos that teach people how to use your printables. I actually have done that myself, I also sell spreadsheets that people can use, and I make videos to teach them how to use the spreadsheets. So that’s really good. you got do it for your printables as well. I didn’t think of that.
Larissa Russell: 15:51
Yeah. And I’ve found- A few times that I’ve used them in videos that I’ve put up on my YouTube channel and things like that. People go straight to the shop. So, if I am creating a video specifically on how to use some of these printables, then I think that will definitely drive more people. But it also allows more people access, because if they don’t know about it, they don’t know how much it can help.
Becky Beach: 16:17
So yes, so true. Yeah, because when I am designing printables, I used to be a UX designer for American Airlines. So that’s what I was doing for several years. So, I kind of applied the user intent. And when I’m making printables, like, how’s it going to benefit the user and I make it really user friendly. So that’s a great idea to use a video to also help them even further and some of that were providing the user with the best experience, so that’s really awesome. I really recommend by to try that.
Larissa Russell: 16:44
Yeah, and even sometimes it’s the simple things like, our planner stickers are available in like, you can print in a PDF form on to sticker paper or regular paper, but you can put in the images so that you can actually print it on a cutting machine. So, I test them out on our Cricut that we have here and so the stickers will cut out, so they can, it’s digital stickers and they’re all set. you just loaded into your machine in a way that goes. So having different formats of your principles is often important as well.
Becky Beach: 17:23
Yeah, very true. Because people use all different kinds of programs to view them like MCG, JPEGs, IPT, PNGs and PDFs and stuff like that, like various formats.
Larissa Russell: 17:33
Yeah, depending on what they need. Yeah, absolutely.
Becky Beach: 17:36
The most common printable type, I would say, is a PDF, because you can just read it in the browser, or you can download Adobe Reader, which is free to be able to read it with, like, most people have it.
Larissa Russell: 17:48
Yeah, and most of ours are the PDF but the ones because if you’re going to use a cutting machine, we do a print and cut and you need an image, but you need no background. So, no background and so we just do an image with a transparent background. So, a PNG, with a transparent background and loaded into design space, because we use Cricut and then it just prints beautifully.
Becky Beach: 18:15
Yeah, that’s awesome. We also do Cricut craft, for those that don’t know, a Cricut is a cutting machine that like cuts paper and various other things depending on the type. There’s like Cricut makers, which cut like wood and like metal and there’s explore so they also cut paper, it just makes it really cool. You do stickers and all kinds of things. It’s like really good, like a crafter’s heaven for that.
Larissa Russell: 18:49
Yeah, and it was my niece was actually purchasing printables to make into stickers and I’m like, “wait a second, we can do that”. we have journals and planners, why aren’t we making our own, So we started making our own.
Becky Beach: 19:05
Oh, yeah, you bring up an excellent product, stickers are big bucks on Etsy. Especially and also if you sell in your Shopify store too. they just bring a lot of money they’re so easy to make, all you do is just take like an image you put a white edge around it. You can do this really easily, in Cricut and design space and they change it like they call offset or something now, you can make it in Photoshop and all kinds of things.
Larissa Russell: 19:30
Yeah, it’s really great. And Canva allows you to do that as well. You can use the shadow to create a white border. So that’s really handy as well, and so that allows us to create it and download it ready for people.
Becky Beach: 19:48
That’s great. So, you save it with no backgrounds that way they can cut it because in Cricut, you can use like a PNG and that just cuts around the edges.
Larissa Russell: 19:57
Yeah. That’s what we do. So that They can print. So, you put it into the Cricut design space, it prints on your printer, and I printed on sticker paper, and then cut on the Cricut. And so, it’s wonderful. So, we’re going to be doing some prints of stickers and sending them but we’re not quite there yet. So, we’re working on just the digital products right now to put into our store.
Becky Beach: 20:24
Yeah, sure I recommend it, if there’s any coaches out there, they’re just working hours by hours and they’re not getting any passive income, I recommend them to start printables or, like, start a course, like some form of passive income. That’s what I preach, I try to get people to start like a passive income business on the side, even though you’re going to have a coaching services, you want to just rely on your services? like when if you get sick? when if you’re not going to be able to bring in money? does that help you not feeling stressed?
Larissa Russell: 20:50
Yeah, absolutely. Because it’s a regular and it’s building. Like, it’s only been a few months and it’s building every month with our sales. And so, it’s one thing that is fun for us to do, but it’s also just always there, That passive income, and if I do get sick, or if I do want to take holidays, which as an entrepreneur is sometimes hard to do, but I can do that and not worry so much, because that income is still there.
Becky Beach: 21:16
Yeah, that’s so good. That’s the beauty of passive income, I got really sick last month, I didn’t have COVID or anything. But I just felt so sick, I did not want to get out of bed but guess what, I still made a bunch of money that day, because of my store and my affiliates and I was just making money, you know, and passive income is where it all is, because you don’t want to work hours by hours, because maybe you’re a coach and you love your job. So, you can have your own business but now you’re like working even more and like it’s stressing yourself out, you have no time for your family. And it’s just unbelievable amounts of stress and burden but now you stepped the passive income now you’re bringing all this money. it’s all coming to you and coming to you like, “Oh my god, so much money Yay!”.
Larissa Russell: 22:03
That’s exactly it and that allows me to work less, having that passive income.
Becky Beach: 22:10
That’s great. you just have to work less, more time for your family because I understand you are a grandmother.
Larissa Russell: 22:15
I am my grandmother, my oldest granddaughter, and I just actually wrote a book recently. And yes, we’ve been doing lots of fun projects through COVID. So, it’s good to be able to have time for them because of the passive income. Yeah, absolutely.
Becky Beach: 22:36
So, I understand you got a website too, www.creativeu.ca/. I’ll put this in the show notes, all about Larissa’s websites. You can check it out, though. The show notes are at www.mombeach.com/podcast.
Larissa Russell: 22:56
Yes. So, we have the shop, we do a lot of summits on healing with creativity. So, we have a lot of great presenters for that. We also have books, we have classes, membership. We do wonderful creative days. We have twice a week that we get together just as a community and create together. So, there’s all sorts of fun things that we do.
Becky Beach: 23:21
That sounds amazing. How can I sign up? I want to be a part of this. I love arts.
Larissa Russell: 23:26
Yeah, absolutely. So, we actually have a sale going on. I don’t know when this is airing, but we have a sale going on.
Becky Beach: 23:32
Oh, I want to hear more.
Larissa Russell: 23:35
There’s a sale going on till Thanksgiving and then we’ll be doing- I haven’t even told my community yet. But we will be doing Black Friday and Cyber Monday as well in the shops. Lots of great deals but we have all sorts of fun things on our website. Just check us out.
Becky Beach: 23:52
Oh, excellent. Wow! So, what are they getting in this sale? By the way,
Larissa Russell: 23:57
we have sales on our summit. So, we’ve done a number of different summits and some of them are on sale. So that could include anywhere from 15 to some 30 workshops in one of our summits. So, they’re all recorded, you can watch at your own pace. We have a fun contest going on right now. You can win a free 52 session summit.
Becky Beach: 24:22
That’s amazing! 52 Sessions.
Larissa Russell: 24:26
Yes. So that is the contest we have going on right now and then we also have some of our memberships. We have some free trials going on. So, you can spend two weeks free in our morning calm, which is a meditation and journaling program that we do every single weekday morning, live online. And we also have our divine creative which is about healing with creativity that has a free month membership going on right now.
Becky Beach: 24:54
And Larissa is outrageously talented for those who have the privilege of watching this on YouTube, hinder [sysco 24:59] is the most beautiful artwork I’ve never seen so many vivid colors, she has a great eye for color. Wow!
Larissa Russell: 25:06
Thank you. Yeah, I do a lot of abstract art. So, I really enjoy it. It’s my therapy. That’s the whole reason I started my business actually- was “the healing with creativity” because it got me out of a really bad depression.
Becky Beach: 25:22
Tell us how creativity can help you with your depression. I’ve heard that before, too.
Larissa Russell: 25:27
Yeah, it’s so important. Like, for me, I went through, I had many years of often on depression and whenever I’m creating, it’s much better and about six, seven years ago, now. I went through a really bad doubt of depression, ended up hospitalized, they released me in the middle of the night, because they needed the bed for somebody else. I walked home, about a 45-minute walk, it was like 01:30 in the morning, and I if I had not been so exhausted, and if I hadn’t already, I needed to write those letters to my kids and I hadn’t. So, I went to bed, and I woke up the next morning, and something had changed in me. I knew I couldn’t rely on anyone else and so I needed to call on my own self. And so, I started journaling and journaling is how I started. And then from journaling, I was able to start painting and from painting, I was able to start doing more and through that. It’s been that many years now, six or seven now. And I have not had one doubt of depression. I have bad days, everybody has bad days, but I do not have that constant creativity and getting into flow with what’s important to me. This is why, I now teach healing with creativity.
Becky Beach: 26:48
That’s amazing. I have bipolar disorder myself and I also use creativity as my outlet, really helps heal me. So, I really recommend you do something creative if you’re suffering with a mental illness.
Larissa Russell: 27:01
Yeah, absolutely. It’s so important and I think writing is especially important. So, we do a lot of journaling and all of our- but anytime that you can, in whatever way it is for you creative. So that could be baking, it could be gardening, it could be picking up a paintbrush, whatever it is for you, to allow your creativity out. For me, a lot of times now it’s creating printables because I have so much fun with that, but I love my painting and I write all the time as well.
Becky Beach: 27:33
That’s outstanding. it’s going to unleash your creativity!
Larissa Russell: 27:36
Absolutely. So important. So, I invite anyone who is interested to check us out at www.creativeu.ca/.
Becky Beach: 27:49
I’ll make sure I’ll link to it in the show notes. And also, I hired a transcriptionist and they have been transcribing all the previous episodes. So, if you’re hard to hear, and you can also read the transcript.
Larissa Russell: 28:01
Oh, good. We’ve been talking about doing that with our podcast as well, so we haven’t done it yet.
Becky Beach: 28:07
I know you had a podcast too.
Larissa Russell: 28:09
Yes, we do creative soul healing, and it’s about healing with creativity.
Becky Beach: 28:14
Okay, I’ll make sure to link that in the podcast notes too, again it’s www.mombeach.com/podcast. You’ll have all the information, we’ll have her site and where you can sign up to her upcoming sales and everything.
Larissa Russell: 28:28
Yeah, absolutely. I look forward to it.
Becky Beach: 28:31
Oh, it’s such a joy to have you on today, Larissa. I’m just so impressed by everything you’ve done. how you overcome the obstacles, even though you got let go of your job, from the layoff, you still ventured out and you had a side hustle, you grew that into this thriving coaching business with printables. I’m just so happy for you.
Larissa Russell: 28:53
it’s so important, just on that note, is to actually step forward and I think one of the reasons I lost my job is because I wasn’t stepping forward and the universe just said, “You know what, if you’re not going to do it, we’re going to do it”. So, I was doing it sort of half assed off the side, and maybe I shouldn’t say that but of my desk, and then I was all in, I had to be, and it’s been the best thing ever and now I help other women live their best lives ever.
Becky Beach: 29:23
That’s so admirable, as well. I love hearing about this.
Larissa Russell: 29:27
Yeah, thank you!
Becky Beach: 29:29
Okay, well, again, check out www.mombeach.com/podcast, for all the show notes and the transcription, and of all of Larissa’s information. Well, I have an excellent day. Thanks again, Larissa, for joining me today.
Larissa Russell: 29:42
Thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure.
Becky Beach: 29:44
Goodbye.
Larissa Russell: 29:46
Bye everyone.
Becky Beach: 29:47
Thank you so much for listening to the Becky Beach show. Please go to www.mombeach.com/podcast, to learn more about my podcast and for show notes. If you want a 2023 free printable Gold planner, please go to www.mombeach.com/subscribe. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. Have a great day, goodbye.
Transcribed by Neeraj_Chand
