039 | Nicole Block, The Nic Studio & Tyles on how her life inspires her work, benefits of getting a workspace outside of her home and challenges she faced when creating a new product category

Nicole Block is the owner of The Nic Studio a stationery, design and illustration studio. She's also the founder of Tyles, which is a line of sophisticated, removable wall decor made from cut vinyl! Nic and I first met on Twitter back in 2009 and she's been a part of the TSBC community since we started in 2011!

On today's episode Nicole shares how her life inspires her work, the benefits of getting a workspace outside of her home and the logistical challenges she faced when creating a new product category — including how she was turned down by more than 75 manufacturers she approached to help make her Tyles!

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:

• Nicole's career path
• Entrepreneurial grit and figuring things out as you go
• How Nicole & Katie met industry colleagues on Twitter
• Why Nicole is allergic to 'trends'
• Recognizing that your style and skills will evolve over time & how you need to create products that your audience will love
• Why she created Tyles and the story behind it.
• Transitioning from stationery market to home decor with Tyles
• Challenges when entering a new industry
• Sourcing & scaling manufacturing
• Getting turned down by 75 manufacturers
• Moving her business out of her home and into a studio space
• Creating for your audience
• Recognizing that we can't all be good at everything

KEY TAKE-AWAYS:

"Things have evolved over the years and I've realized how to do it better and within my style, but it takes a while." - Nicole Block

"Sometimes you forget that you're not just creating things that you like. You have to remember that there's an audience out there that also has to like what you do." - Nicole Block

"You have to remember that you can't force something to happen, especially if you're creating a completely new product. That's a hard thing to make work. You have to be willing to do a lot of trial and error and spend some money, not necessarily that much money, but some money trying to get the product right and find the right fit for you." - Nicole Block

"if you're not a natural marketer for your product, that you need to either learn fast or bring somebody onboard that can help you with that." - Nicole Block

"You can't be good at everything" - Nicole Block

LINKS:

Website: http://thenicstudio.com, http://tyles.co

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thenicstudio

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicstudio/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/nicstudio/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nicstudio

JOIN THE TSBC FAMILY:

Our signature Paper Camp program is back and we're now enrolling for Winter 2018!We're talking about product development sales tools, trade shows, marketing, working with buyers, sales reps and the press. Attend live or online. It's the similar content, available in different formats.

Paper Camp Conference: an intensive 2-day program taking place March 1-2 in Los Angeles.

Paper Camp E-Course: 4-week online program with live Q&A calls starting January 16th.

Figure out which program is best for you and grab your seat at www.tradeshowcamp.com/papercamp

ABOUT PROOF TO PRODUCT:

Proof to Product is brought to you by Tradeshow Bootcamp and hosted by Katie Hunt. Since 2011, TSBC has worked with hundreds of product based businesses to help them up level, scale, and build profitable sustainable companies. You can find our show notes and additional resources at ProofToProduct.com. If you like what you heard today, please head over to Apple Podcast to leave a five star review and subscribe. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week with a new episode!