Hello, I'm Bonny Snowdon, ex-corporate person and mother turned successful artist entrepreneur. It wasn't that long ago though that I lacked the confidence, vision, and support network to focus on growing my dream business. Fast forward past many life curve balls, waves of self-doubt, and so many lessons learned. And you'll see Ignite my thriving online coloured pencil artist community, a community that changes members' lives for the better, and gives me freedom to live abundantly whilst doing what I love and spending quality time with my beloved family and dogs, all whilst creating my best artwork with coloured pencils and mentoring others to do the same. But this life wasn't always how it was for me. It used to only exist in my imagination.
I've created the, it's a Bonny Old Life podcast to help increase people's confidence, share mine and my community's experience, and hope through fascinating personal stories, champion the other amazing humans in my personal, professional, and membership community, and create another channel through which I can support others to realize their dreams. If you're a passionate coloured pencil artist or an aspiring one who's looking to create their best work and a joyful life you love, you're in the right place. Grab a cuppa and a custard cream. Let's get cracking.
So, another year, oh my goodness. We have, we have done so much this year. We've had, my podcast was started in March. There has been my first birthday in the Academy. I can't believe a year in the Academy has been amazing. Helping so many people with their coloured pencil, with their confidence and, and helping them kind of realize their dreams and getting them set on their goals and everything. It's been fantastic, wonderful community as well to spend the time with me during, in the year, it's just been, it's, do you know as an artist having a community of people, whether you are teaching them or, you know, whatever you're doing it, it's so lovely to have that supportive network around you. And that's exactly what I've had with my community. It's been absolutely wonderful.
I think I've grown as an artist over 2022. I have certainly started to bring to light a lot of my, I don't know, I've, I've, I've really been passionate about my animals, not, not more so these animals, these naughty animals. Come here, come here. They're naughty. The naughty animals that always disrupt my videos. She's digging on the chair behind me. Yeah, I think I've really, I've really sort of come to find my passion for humans. I think I've said it before, but, but this year has really, really changed for me when it comes to drawing things other than animals. And I've been pushing myself, I've been looking to really take myself out of my comfort zone. I think if I'm going to, to be sharing my tips and my techniques, and I'm going to be helping people learn to draw, I really think it's important for me to also develop my techniques and develop my skills For me, that's really, really important.
Self-development is, is a very important part of, of me and who I am. So much so that actually I have taken some steps in improving my speaking as well. Probably not in this video, because I'm being all of the dogs and everything behind me and are being completely photo bombed, video bond, whatever. But I've, I've taken steps into trying to get my speaking better. I don't think I speak badly, but the, I've had some very helpful tips and techniques that I can start to use, which I have started to use, and actually, I've seen a little bit of a difference and, and that's given me the confidence to be able to put videos and everything together.
It, it can be quite daunting when you are recording yourself and you're putting things together. It can be quite, it can be quite scary. Putting yourself in front of a camera and, and actually understanding what you can do and how you can do it, and how you can make it better. It, it makes it less scary. Dora, what are you Doing? Come here. Come here, come here. Come here, come here. Oh God. She's, she's eating a shoe.
So, yes, so, so this year has been extraordinary. Absolutely extraordinary. It's the year that I have started my, my book. I had a book published in 2021, which was a amazing, this year I'm writing a book that will come out next year or the year after. I think it's not a drawing book, it's not a book about art specifically. It's a book about me and my journey and all of the things that I've done to help me and all of the things that I can do to, to pass on to other people and, and help them. And it's, it's been incredibly cathartic writing everything down, memories and, you know, remembering things from childhood and all of that kind of stuff. It's been, it's been really, really enjoyable. And of course I've had my wonderful Susie Pearl who's been helping me along the way as well.
So this year as well has seen a new employee, Amy, she's been working with me for the last month. I think it's nearly a month that she's been with us. So yes, Lucy and Amy have been working with me for, well, Lucy's been with me for two years, and it's, it's, it's wonderful to have two people who know the business, who understand what I want from the business and who are helping me, you know, make it even better.
Basically, we've just announced our first exhibition for my members, which is incredibly exciting. I have to say proper exhibition. It's a virtual exhibition, properly curated all of the pieces beautifully placed on the wall. So it's not just, you know, images on, on a website. It's a curated virtual exhibition and gallery where people can put their work and they can sell their work. And that's what I'm doing for my members currently, which is, is really, really exciting.
We've got all sorts of things coming up in the academy as well. We've got our Academy awards next year. Yes, I've got some really exciting courses that I'm writing for 2023. I've got my simple marketing course, which is something that I was, I'd planned on writing in 2022. And it never, it never kind of materialized. I think I had too much going on, but it's something that I have got in my head. I know exactly what I want to do, and it will be coming out as a short course in 2023, basically aimed at those who just have no idea how to market their work. A lot of people started off like I did, they started off as someone who just came to drawing and just loved drawing and got excited about it, and then all of a sudden people start asking about commissions. And then it's like, oh gosh, I think I can do something with this. I think I might be able to earn a little bit of money with this or, or ultimately make a living from this. And, and this is what this course is about. This is what I want to help people. I help people anyway. I have my business drop-in in the Academy. Anybody who wants any help, I, I will always help. This is a course specifically for those who have absolutely no idea what they're doing. And it's gonna be very simple. It's gonna be using very simple, simple structure. No, no sort of big words or complicated, anything like that. I don't like complicated.
So we've got that coming out and I've got a really exciting project that I'm working on, and it, I think it's something that is going to help a huge amount of people that I think is gonna come out quite early on in 2023. Again, I've got it all in my head. I just need to write a course, write it, you know, put it down. I'm not sure whether it's gonna be a course or whether it's gonna be, I think it's gonna be a course and an ebook, I'm not sure. Not expensive, but incredibly useful. Again, it's been, it's been in my head for a long time. We've been kind of mulling ideas around, will it look like this? Will it look like that? What, you know, and, and I think I've finally got it in my head what it's, what it's gonna be.
And then the other big thing for 2023, hopefully again, something that I've been talking about and banging on about for a while. I want to create a mastermind group for artists, not necessarily coloured pencils artists, obviously that's my genre, but a mastermind group where we come together on a regular basis and I help other artists who are committed and really want to develop their business, their art business. And, and, and I, I have the skills to be able to do that. I've, I've shown that I have the skills, I've taken my, I've taken my business to a point now where, you know, we we're, we're forecasting big things for 2023, which is amazing. I have a, a, a great team around me, plus I'm, I'm really entrepreneurial. I, I love all of these new ideas and I have a passion for business the same as I have a passion for my art. And I think that mix is wonderful to have. And I think if I can share that wonderfulness and I can share how other people can kind of take their business, you know, to new heights, then I really want to do that. So that's something again that I want to do pretty early on in 2023. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna set up a, a a waitlist so that people can join that waitlist and, you know, find out a little bit more about what it is that I'm gonna be doing. It's gonna be probably a year's commitment. We'll be getting together quite regularly. I dunno how many people I'll take on. Probably not very many. Maybe maximum 15, 12, 15, something like that. And then I'm also gonna look at, I don't, I haven't really kind of figured it out yet, but it is, it's gonna be, it's gonna be amazing. There will be a coaching element in there and there will be an element of looking at, at, at people's businesses and kind of working out a plan of action and everything. But mostly having 15 people in a group who meet on a regular basis, you know, live, meet, not face-to-face, but over Zoom who are passionate about growing their business, who have all got different ideas as to what they want to do and how they want to do it. Being able to be in a room and discuss that is so exciting. I, I know what it feels like to be in a room full of people who are wanting to grow their businesses, wanting to,to, to develop themselves. And it, and it, that, that excitement and that that, you know, fantasticness brushes off and, and that's why I surround myself with amazing people because their amazingness brushes off onto me. And, and hopefully you can grow that way. So that's another thing that I'm very excited about for 20 24, 20 23. God, I'm a year ahead. It is 2022, isn't it?
So yeah, so always, always growing. I, I think, and, and it's not because I, I, I dunno, I dunno why I, I, I just have a head full of ideas and, and I really want to help people. I think that's the main crux of it. I want to help people. I know I kind of over-deliver an awful lot of the time, which, which can be overwhelming, but again, it's just my people-pleasing thing. I just want, just, you have this and this and this. So yeah. So lots and lots of exciting things going on, the Academy is, is growing with what we are offering.
So I'm now offering, obviously all of my animal portraits. I have my fantastic course that I offer as part of the, as part of the Academy. So anybody who's joining in January, you know, you get the foundation's course, you get all of my previous live streams, you get all of my back catalogue of tutorials, you get all of the stuff coming in the future. The critiques are a massive part of the academy. I critique a hundred pieces a month, and that might sound like a huge amount of pieces to critique, but you know, I do have a lot of members within the academy, and it's a service that I think is incredibly important for growth. So I do 25 a week, and it is one of my favourite times of the week to see people's work and to also see how people are developing. You know, I'll have critiqued something six months ago and then critique again for the same person six months after. And the development is unbelievable. It, it's absolutely fantastic. The passion that my students have and the commitment they have to developing their work is just wonderful to see.
And you know, it's not just about following along to a tutorial and copying what I do. There's so much more. It's all about, what I try to do is I try to help people understand why we're doing something, why we're using those colors, why we're doing this, what could an alternative be, why this isn't gonna work. I show things like mistakes, all of that kind of stuff. And it's, it's really, really important, I think, to, to show all of that. I'm a very laid back teacher. I'm not structured. I know, you know, there have, there have been a couple of people this last year where my teaching wasn't for them because they just needed a completely different style. Everything had to be absolutely perfect and spot on and, and line arts had to be exactly the same. And, you know, and I, I don't work like that. I don't work and I don't want to work around being perfect. I may, I'm laid back, I make mistakes and that's okay. You know, I, I don't, I don't want my art to become this thing that's rigid and inflexible and everything has to be perfect to the nearest millimetre. That that's just not me. It's just not me, you know? And I, and I, and I, I don't want to teach that way and I don't want to teach people that way. I want to teach people the fun. I want to teach people how to use mad colours if they want to use mad colours. I want to teach people to grow in confidence, and I want to teach people to follow their dreams and be successful in whatever it is that they want to do. That's what I want to do, and that's how I teach.
So, again, a big growth part for me for 2022 was to understand that not everybody likes me, which is fine because I, I don't like every, everybody, you know, I like a lot of people, but there are some people I don't, and that's okay. You know, we're all like that. We can't like everybody. And, and I want to work with people who share similar values to me and who share, you know, who are committed and who want to develop and are, and are happy to come out of their comfort zone. That's, those are the kind of people that I want to teach because it's fulfilling for them and it's really fulfilling for me. So, gosh, that went a bit bit serious, didn't it? We don't want serious. Yeah. So, so fabulous year, absolutely amazing year.
We've always started doing my, my member of the month as well. So, so far we've had the wonderful Judy Wysocki over in the States. We've also had Karen Simpson, wonderful, wonderful artists, grown incredibly over the last few years. And I've got a, a wonderful member again to come in January. Super, super chap. And I can't wait to share all of his information and his, and his, his drawings and everything. Another brilliant member. So yeah, so that's about it really.
Still got a, a, a little bit left of the year, but it's gonna be sort of crazy. We're, we're sort of closing down over coil saying we're closing down over Christmas. I'm not closing down over Christmas. Everybody else is stopping working and I'm taking on everybody else's work over Christmas now, Nah. And I've got the most fantastic piece on my drawing board at the moment, which is my Christmas present to myself. So hopefully I'll be able to share that the, the finished piece with you, maybe when this video goes out, I, I've, I've decided that I really need to take time to do drawings just for me. A lot of the time it's a commission, which is fine, or a video. If it is a video, I have to record it or record parts of it. And this piece I've chosen, especially for me, it's my Christmas present to myself. And I, I sat there last night and I was just in complete awe of, of what I'd done. And that sounds really big-headed. Just sits there going, oh my God, it's amazing. But I'd visualized it, I'd thought about it, I'd sourced this photograph. I absolutely love it. I love the colours. I knew what I wanted to do. And to see it come to life before my eyes is just the most wonderful thing. I haven't had that feeling in an awful long time.
I love my drawings. Every single one of them. I'm, I'm hugely proud of what I do. This one for me is another level. This one for me is being able to take, almost being able to take anything and, and then draw it in my representative style. And that is incredibly exciting for me. I, I'm, I definitely have reached a different level, I think with my art over the last couple of months, pushing myself and still absolutely loving it.
January the first 2023 marks my six years as a full-time artist. And it has been the, with the best six years of my whole life. I, I, it, I think the, my whole life was kind of the run up to becoming a full-time artist. I had no idea where I would be, you know, if, if, if I'd looked at myself, you know, 1st of January, 2017, and I'd have said in six years time, you know, you're gonna have a team of people working with you. You're gonna have the most amazing teaching Academy. You're going to have been able to create a home that you're really proud of. I, I just wouldn't, I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have believed it. I just, I just wouldn't have done it. I just wanted to draw and that's all I wanted to do.
I mean, clearly, you know, there's been an awful lot of sadness over the last few years, which I mean, I, there's, there's no silver lining you can add to anything that, that, that to do with, you know, losing a, a family member. You can, you can't add a silver lining to that. However, what has come from that is that I have now started working with an amazing charity, the Independent Domestic Abuse Services in York. You, you don't really see me talking about me donating to them. You, you'll have seen me sharing bits and pieces about them, and I want to do a little bit more for them. In 2023, I'm going to be doing, probably doing some kind of an auction or something like that. I've got quite a few pieces that need to go on somebody's wall and I want to raise more money for them. And I've done an awful lot of reflection on myself.
So I've done an awful lot of work on me internally, which has enabled me to grow as a person and to get to where I am today. And, and I guess that's the kind of the, the, the silver lining, isn't it? It's not a silver lining of course, but it's enabled me to really dig deep. It's made me go and have therapy, if you like, you know, to, to, to sort out all of the things that were going in my head that I wouldn't allow out. And I have talked about this before in, in other posts and, and, and it's, it's, it's really important. And this year has been huge, huge for that. The last two years actually been, been absolutely huge for me, finding out who I finally am and being comfortable in myself. You know, I'm, I've just done a piece on, on limiting beliefs and my limiting beliefs are that I'm, I'm, I'm old, I'm not particularly attractive and I'm fat. And and they're really, I mean, you know, I am old and I am fat, you know, but, but they, they limit me. They stop me from doing things.
So, you know, being, being overweight was gonna stop me joining the, the lovely spa that I joined, you know, because I thinking, oh gosh, people are gonna look at me and think, oh God, you know, look at her. People don't, they don't look at you at all. And half the time I'm in the flipping pool, you know, nobody can see me. I'm swimming away. But, but those limiting beliefs stop you. And the, the, the help I've had over the last couple of years has really, really helped me understand what my limiting beliefs are. That I believe that entrepreneurs are these young, trendy, beautiful people. Well, entrepreneurs can be anything you like, you know, and, and, and me, you know, sitting here having made, I don't, I don't like talking about money, but I think it's really important to understand what you can do. You know, I'm an ordinary single mum, and this ordinary single mum has made half a million pounds in the last year. And that to me is extraordinary. And that's helping people. That's giving people a, an amazing service. And to me, that, that just kind of throws all of those limiting beliefs out of the window. You know, if I can do that, anybody can do it.
And I think this year I finally realized how, if you just go for it, if you just believe in yourself, how absolutely utterly brilliant life can be, you know, don't worry about what anybody else is doing. Don't compare yourself. Don't, don't fret about other people. Don't take any notice of anybody who's being unkind to you. And the more you grow, the more people become jealous and they get unkind and everything. You just ignore those people. They don't matter. What matters is you, your dreams and how you're gonna get there. And 2023 is going to be an awesome year for so many people. If you can just put those limited beliefs behind you, if you can just decide to go for it, decide that. Do you know what? Nothing else matters. I I'm just gonna go for it. Life's too short. I'm gonna have fun and I'm gonna do what I want to do. And that is what 2023 is about. It's the year of you. We're all tingly now.
Anyway, I'm gonna stop waffling. I'm gonna say Happy Christmas, or I hope you've had a happy Christmas. I dunno when this video's going out. Anyway, I hope you've had a lovely, fabulous family, festive time, whatever you're doing. And here's to the most amazingly brilliant 2023.
I really hope you enjoyed listening to this episode of my, It's A Bonny Old Life Podcast. If you did, I'd be so grateful to you for emailing me or texting a link to the show or sharing it on social media with those you know, who might like it too.
My mission with this podcast is all about sharing mine and my community's experience and hope by telling your fascinating personal stories, championing the other amazing humans in my personal, professional, and membership community. And to create another channel through which I can support you to realize your coloured pencil and life dreams. If you haven't done so yet, please help me on my mission to spread positivity and joy throughout the Coloured pencil world by following me on my socials at Bonny Snowdon Academy or by getting on my waitlist at BonnySnowdonAcademy.com.
And remember, I truly believe if I can live the life of my dreams doing what I love, then you can too. We just need to keep championing and supporting each other along the way in order to make it happen. Till next time,
