Lizzie has always been drawn to aesthetically beautiful things and all things interior design, but when she landed her dream job at an interior design studio, she soon realized that it wasn’t all that she had hoped it would be. Feeling drained and unfulfilled, she called it quits and decided it was time to follow her passion and make her entrepreneurial dreams come true.
Today Lizzie Campbell is the founder, curator and creative director behind Asteria, a full-service creative studio for interior and lifestyle brands. She’s a self-taught designer that turned a blog that she started in her freshman year of college into a full-time career and a thriving design studio by the age of 25. Tune in to her incredible journey on this episode of Creator Stories!
Asteria Studio’s website: https://madebyasteria.com
Jessmyn:
Welcome to Interact’s Creator Stories podcast. Interact is the easiest way to convert cure’s people into loyal and happy customers by using a lead generating quiz on Creator stories. We get to hear the Entrepreneur’s Journey. This is a podcast about how those creators took their knowledge and experiences to carve out a place in the world, owned what they know is special about themselves and turned it into a successful company. Today we get to speak with Lizzie Campbell, the Founder and Creative Director behind Asteria Studio, a full-service creative studio for interior and lifestyle brands.
All right, let’s get started. Hi guys, and welcome back to Interact’s Creator Stories podcast. I’m your host, Jessmyn Solana, and as always, so excited to be with you here. And today I have with me Lizzie Campbell. Lizzie, thank you so much for being on our show with us. You also did one of our quizz-spirations, so keep an eye out for that. But yeah, do you want to just jump in, say hi, talk a little bit about your business as it is right now. They got the formal breakdown, but in your own words, and then take us back to the beginning. How did you get started in all of this?
Lizzie Campbell:
Sure. Well, thank you for having me again. This is exciting. Yes. Like Jessmyn said, my name is Lizzie Campbell, so I am a branding and web designer. I own my own branding studio called Asteria. And so we typically partner with female led lifestyle and creative businesses. So we create branding, web, packaging, all sorts of fun stuff. And so I have been doing that full time for nearly four years now. Sorry, my dog.
Jessmyn:
We love dogs on the show, so it’s okay.
Lizzie Campbell:
And so I technically got started way back in 2013, so I was a freshman in college and I was a journalism major and I was just feeling really not creatively fulfilled by the journalism classes. For those who don’t know, you can’t really be all that creative with journalism. You have to be very stick to the facts and stuff. And so it really just wasn’t what I was expecting. And so I wanted a creative outlet that I could just have. And blogging was really, really big back then. Seems sad to say way back then, but it was a while ago. So I, one day on a whim, just started a blog. I think it was on Blog Spot was my first one. I don’t even know if that exists anymore, but it was just lifestyle and fashion and all that stuff. I mean, it was terrible, but I had fun with it.
And because of that, I started learning a little bit about design, branding, web design, marketing, all that stuff. And I realized I really, really liked that. So I kept digging into it, learning more, and it complimented the classes that I was taking and stuff. I wasn’t going to change my major, it was too late at that point, but I got more into the marketing side of things. So I started taking on some clients on the side. So first, I called myself a virtual assistant, and then I went more on the social media manager and then finally designer sphere. So I did that throughout the rest of my college career, which was really nice because it helped me pay my way through college. And then my senior year of college, because of all of this, I actually landed an internship in the marketing department of my university. And that turned into my first full-time job.
And then in 2018 I got a job offer for what I thought would be my dream job as a social media manager for an interior design company in Chicago. So I moved here in literally three weeks. It was insane. And I worked there for about 10 months. Unfortunately, it was not at all a good experience and it was definitely not my dream job. It was very toxic environment. So I spent the whole time, I was still doing stuff on the side and designing and taking on clients here and there and blogging. And I would sit at my desk every day just feeling miserable and listening to Jenna Kutcher’s podcast and podcasts like that. All these stories of creative, typically women who went out on their own and took the leap and built businesses. And I was just so, I guess, jealous or inspired or wished that I could do that too.
And then in October of 2018, basically it got to the point where I definitely couldn’t stay at that job. It was just too much. So luckily, I’d created an Etsy shop and been designing T-shirts and stuff on the side. So that kicked off and it allowed me to have some savings built up. So I quit my day job and decided to just go into it full time. And it was really crazy. I definitely was not prepared, but it worked out okay because four years later I’m still doing it, so.
Jessmyn:
I love that though. Hearing you talk about, sounds like the universe was literally pushing you towards this way and it ended up working out. But I guess my question is, do you feel like having that experience at your last job was, I guess in a way, a blessing or was it really scary to just be like, You know what? I’m going to go on my own?
Lizzie Campbell:
It was scary at the time, for sure. I didn’t know, I didn’t have any clients on the side when I quit. It was just Etsy shop and it was definitely scary. But in hindsight, I think it definitely was a blessing in disguise because I feel like if I hadn’t had that experience, I never would’ve been uncomfortable enough to take that leap and go full-time in my business. Or maybe it would’ve been several several years later. So it was definitely a terrifying experience in a way. But yeah, I’m a better person for it. I’m glad that it happened because now I’m here.
Jessmyn:
Right. Right. And if you’re open to talking about it, I guess, what was it like thinking you landed your dream job and then realizing it was not at all what you expected?
Lizzie Campbell:
It was heartbreaking, honestly. I was so excited. And it just was a slow dissent into like, oh, this isn’t good. I don’t want to get too much into it because it’s a small world. But definitely, it was not a good environment. I’ll just say by the time that I left after 10 months, I was the second most senior person there because there was so much turnover. And in hindsight, there were a ton of red flags. But going back to what you said last too, it’s really, really helped me realize a lot of what I don’t want to be doing and how I don’t want to be as a business owner because it was a small business. So I feel like I learned more from that experience about what not to do than I have from any of the positive experiences that I’ve had.
So again, it’s that blessing in disguise. It wasn’t fun at all to deal with, but I do feel like I have such a good baseline of, oh, I don’t ever want to be like that as a boss. I don’t ever want to be like that as a business owner, et cetera, et cetera.
Jessmyn:
I love that though, because there is so much strength in figuring out what you don’t like and what’s not right for you. My job prior to Interact was your very typical nine to five, very structured. You couldn’t quite go outside of what you were there to do. They were a bigger company at the time I was there and going into Interact, I was like, wow, this is awesome. And I like to think of myself also as a creative. So I always felt like if you are a creative person, being stuck in a really structured job or a job that you thought would be amazing and perfect and it’s not what it is because you can’t, I guess, act out or put that creativity to use. Once you’re in an environment where you can, that’s where things start to get really cool.
Lizzie Campbell:
Yeah, definitely. I would agree with that.
Jessmyn:
So I always found it interesting how when people go from a position that’s not right for them, it’s it. I think, yes, maybe a toxic environment has a lot to do with it, but also figuring out, okay, when I make my next step, now I know exactly what I’m looking for. Gives you so much more information than if you were like, Yeah, this has been going great, but I don’t really know what to do besides this.
Lizzie Campbell:
Yeah, well, that’s exactly the case too, because my job that I had, I was a social media manager, I ended up doing all sorts of things like many social media managers do. So when I quit, I was like, I know that I could easily get social media management clients because I’ve been doing it and I know it inside and out, but I’m exhausted and I’m burnt out and I don’t want to think about other people’s Instagram metrics or anything for a while. So that’s when I decided to go full force into design. Obviously, like I said, I don’t have any formal education. I took a couple of design classes in college, but they were focused on editorial design for newspapers. So it wasn’t really relevant. So it was a big learning curve and I’d been teaching myself or learning design for several years before that. So I didn’t have no experience, but it was definitely a left turn from what I was doing.
Jessmyn:
I will say, looking at your website, I would’ve never guessed that you had no formal education on it or real practice. I mean, I know you did, but if you were to tell me that, I’d be like, no way. So if you guys are listening, you should go check it out because you’ll be like, there’s no way.
Lizzie Campbell:
Yeah, I definitely feel, and from talking to other designers who did go to design school, they all said the same thing that I feel like most of your learning and most of your experience comes after school anyways. So you might learn the specifics of Adobe Illustrator, but you’re not going to necessarily know how to design for clients and stuff like that. So yeah, I think experience on the job is the best teacher.
Jessmyn:
Yeah, I hear that a lot. You had mentioned of feeling burnt out by social media, not wanting to go back in there, but I’m sure in your business now part of it ties into, or social media part ties into that a little bit. So I guess how do you go back into something that you once loved after being so exhausted by it?
Lizzie Campbell:
Yeah, it’s definitely hard. It’s always been easier for me to do it for myself, I guess, because I don’t have to think, or I guess I would say rather, I don’t think so strategically about it. I just post, not necessarily just what I want to because I do have a business that I’m trying to promote and run, but it is a little bit different because I don’t have to try to get in the mindset of somebody else or a different brand. It’s been long enough now. I’ve been dabbling and offering Instagram strategy for my clients and stuff like that. Instagram specifically is definitely my, I’d say, it’s my favorite one. I think everybody has a love-hate relationship with it at this point. It’s been through so many changes, but I’ve just been there for so long I don’t know where else to go.
I’ve discovered that I think what was so maybe burning me out was the day to day posting and engaging and stuff. So I like the planning and the strategy and the content side of it a lot. That goes back to my background in content marketing and stuff like that. But yeah, I think just trying to have fun with it for my own brand and business. And it’s nice because I do have that background. So I think that’s a leg up from a lot of other people that might start their businesses and not have any idea what they’re doing, which is fine. And there’s plenty of places to learn, but it’s nice that I do have that foundation of being able to market myself and stuff like that.
Jessmyn:
Right. Right. And how long did you take before even going back into working in general from being burnt out?
Lizzie Campbell:
So I definitely made the mistake of I felt like I was in survival mode when I quit because I didn’t have any clients lined up. So actually basically during my two weeks notice from my job, I managed to land three different clients. And the first two were social media because, again, it was something that I knew I could easily find. And I did a terrible job because I was so burned out and so tired. And I still four years later feel so guilty about that because I just did… yeah, they were short lived projects because of that. But that’s the final straw that was like, I can’t do this anymore. I need to focus on what I actually enjoy. So after that it calmed down a little bit. Also, it was funny because like I said, I had started the Etsy shop and I quit very, my last day was either October 18th or 28th, I can’t remember now. So it was going into the holiday season, which means that my Etsy shop exploded. I can’t remember, I think it was that first year. I actually, one of my project products, sorry, got featured on Buzzfeed, and so-
Jessmyn:
Whoa.
Lizzie Campbell:
Yeah, so it blew up. So I ended up focusing on that for the rest of that year, which was a nice change of pace because it was really more about dealing with customer orders and talking to people and taking pictures and marketing it. And that part was fun. So that was a nice break in between the hardcore working with clients thing. So then the beginning of the year it picked up again with that one-on-one work.
Jessmyn:
I love that though, because I always had this question of when you’re trying to “rest from burnout”, how do you keep yourself busy in a way that feels fulfilling during that time? Because when you’re burnt out, a lot of it is a lot of feelings of, wow, I suck, I wish I did that a little bit differently. You have a lot of negative self talk. So there’s this point where it’s like, yes, I want to do literally nothing, but also if I do literally nothing, that’s all I’ll do. It’s just talk to myself super negatively, which I don’t recommend. And it’s finding that balance between something that doesn’t feel hard but you really love and you can still rest in a sense versus just doing nothing and then feeling like, okay, well now I’m just in my head all day.
Lizzie Campbell:
Yeah, it was really nice. It’s been a while since I thought about it, but it really was a nice respite. It was still allowing me to have some income, which I obviously needed. But I can remember the first few month or so before that kicked off when I was still trying to work with clients, I was just spinning my wheels all day, getting nothing done, but being on my computer for 14 hours it felt like. And that was just exhausting and it just exacerbated the burnout. But I can remember it was really nice working on the Etsy shop because it was something I could do while I was sitting on my couch watching Christmas movies. It was a nice little holiday break. Dealing with customer service is always a little stressful, especially around the holidays. But it was just talking to people on Etsy’s chat and stuff and it was fun because I was just designing things that I wanted and posting, sending them to my Etsy shop and then it was like, Oh wow, people like this. That’s fun, so.
Jessmyn:
I love that.
Lizzie Campbell:
It was nice.
Jessmyn:
So what you learned from that experience? How did that play a part in the business that you have now?
Lizzie Campbell:
Yeah, I feel like there’s so many things that I still draw from both those experiences of first starting out on my own and from being in that toxic job. I learned very quickly what I can and can’t tolerate and how to walk away a lot more quickly from things that are burning me out or things that are clearly not healthy I guess. So that’s been really helpful. I feel like my boundaries, personal and professional, just got so much more resilient throughout that whole experience, which is something that you really, really need as a business owner.
So I got a lot better at setting those and saying no to things when I knew it wasn’t right for me. Which is always scary at first, especially when you’re just starting out because you’re like, I need to pay my bills, but I also know if I take this project I’m going to be miserable and it’s not going to be good work. So that’s definitely an important lesson is learning which things to turn down and which things to say no to.
I also would say just the whole experience with the Etsy shop has cemented in my brain that it’s always a good idea to have diversified streams of income, just because you never know. And I don’t have it right now. I’m actually working on setting it up again. I took a break after, the pandemic was hard, honestly, that thing. But it’s nice because typically around the holidays every year, client work slows down because everybody’s spending time with their family and they’re not thinking about that stuff. And so it’s nice because at that exact time, the e-commerce side of things ramps up and so it’s good to shift to that and have something coming in while your one a month projects are maybe slow. So there’s been a lot of different ways over the years that I’ve diversified income and it’s always just nice to have a cushion in the background of passive income. It’s definitely not passive, but it’s something else, so.
Jessmyn:
That’s great advice though. Do you find it difficult to make that switch when you need to?
Lizzie Campbell:
Sometimes, yes. It really just depends. So I have ADHD, which is both a blessing and a curse for being a creative person because it means I have a ton of ideas all the time and my squirrel brain is bouncing between them. So if I’m in the zone on one thing and if I’m really into designing new products or something, but I know I have a client deadline coming up, it can be hard to switch back over and force myself to work on the client stuff. But that’s something else that after years of dealing with it and years of running a business and stuff, I’ve learned ways to cope with that or plan my schedule around that to give myself a big buffer so that I can work on the things that I feel motivated to work on in the moment and not run myself up against deadlines.
Jessmyn:
I like that. I like that a lot. I think there’s a lot of pressure, especially when you’re like, okay, by this time, especially if you notice a pattern of around the holidays, this tends to do really well. I think I would get a lot of anxiety around August. Thinking, oh, okay. I got to get it ready because the holidays are coming up and you have to keep up with all that stuff. So I think that’s a super good way to look at it. But do you also feel that, say you make your switch to making products, are you like, oh no, I have to make X amount of products in X amount of time and I was not prepared for this?
Lizzie Campbell:
Yeah. It’s hard. I’ve been terrible in the past about. By the time it’s, like you said August, you’re supposed to be planning out your Christmas things. And I’m not good with forward planning like that because of just the way my brain works. So the first couple years I would get really frustrated and be like, Oh my gosh, I totally forgot about this. Now I have to cram and try to make a bunch of Christmas products at the last minute. And by the time they’re ready, nobody wants them anymore. I’ve just decided to just go with the flow at this point. I’m not trying to do any crazy holiday themed campaigns or anything. If I remember and if I feel motivated to do it ahead of time, I will. But I’ve learned to just give myself the grace of people will buy what they want to buy and it doesn’t really matter.
Jessmyn:
I love that so much because I mean, even at Interact, we’re a pretty small team, so it’s so hard to keep up with stuff like that, even if it’s just a promo for whether it’s a holiday or a themed month, things like that. We are so bad at it. But it’s because when you see companies do it, they’re gigantic companies. They have all these resources. So for small businesses, I used to beat myself up when I’d miss something, I’d be like, Oh no, I don’t even know what theme this month is right now. It’s a API month, at the time of recording this. But I was just like, Oh God, we don’t have anything ready. I don’t have anything ready. And I’m Asian. I feel like I should have had this ready months ago. But that was me a couple years ago and now I’m just like, okay, what we get out when we have time and resources for, I think it’ll be okay. So as a small business, I totally understand that where you can’t always get to everything and then, and that’s just, okay, you got to just go with it and whatever you have time for with the resources that you have is where you have to just go with it.
Lizzie Campbell:
Yeah. And going off that, I’ve learned that you’re not going to do your best work if you’re forcing yourself to get all these crazy deadlines in. So it’s better to just take your time and create stuff that you are actually passionate about. And I think that’ll show, and that’ll always, no matter if it’s content or products, it’ll perform a lot better in the long run.
Jessmyn:
Yeah, I’ve definitely noticed that. I like to play around sometimes on social media for myself, and not that I have my own small business right now, but every time I post something that’s totally off of what I’m comfortable posting, it never goes anywhere. I do have a public profile for Instagram, but it never goes anywhere. And then when I post something that I’m like, wow, I love what I said here. I just happen to pick the right hashtags that have to do with this and boom, there you go. I think my best reel got 13,000 views and it’s the only time it’s ever happened to me, but it had to do with self-care and really listening to yourself and whatnot. And I was just like, Oh wow. Maybe this is… is this my niche? I don’t know.
Lizzie Campbell:
Yeah, I just think somehow when you create content that you are really passionate about it’s really authentic, somehow that shines through and can overcome the algorithm, I think people can really tell. Whereas when it’s just like, hey, we’re having a sale because it’s Black Friday. Okay.
Jessmyn:
Yeah. Cool.
Lizzie Campbell:
Great.
Jessmyn:
I love that. I think that’s awesome. And it’s actually a great way to prevent burnout in the future. There’s different practices and I mean, that’s not to say that burnout will never happen again because stuff happens. Life happens. But it’s these little things I think that you put in place that you just start choosing yourself first in a sense. And you’re like, Okay, I’m cool with that. I’m not cool with that and I need to just relax. I even think that this recording we rescheduled a couple times and one of them, I was like, I just don’t feel up to it this week. I’m so sorry. And it’s totally okay to just choose yourself in moments, especially if you own a small business and you’re the one running it.
Lizzie Campbell:
Yeah, absolutely.
Jessmyn:
I love that. I love that. Sweet. Well thank you so much Lizzie, for telling us your story and sharing your tips and tricks. I have a couple of last questions to close out with if you’re up for it.
Lizzie Campbell:
Sure.
Jessmyn:
Sweet. So second to last question is, what are three things most people would not know about you?
Lizzie Campbell:
Actually, okay, I was actually just putting together a fun fact section for my website, so I’m glad I did that.
Jessmyn:
It prepared you for this moment.
Lizzie Campbell:
Yeah. Okay. So I would say first one was that I was a theater major for eight months in college.
Jessmyn:
Wow.
Lizzie Campbell:
I did it in high school and I thought that’s what I wanted to do, but it was not. Let’s see. My first job, I worked at Starbucks for four years, so I feel like I still know literally all of those recipes by heart.
Jessmyn:
Ooh.
Lizzie Campbell:
It’s fun. It’s nice to be able just whip something up for myself. What’s the last one? Last one. Oh, okay. I feel like because everyone only exists on the internet, nobody fully knows what people look like. So I’m insanely short. I’m only five feet tall.
Jessmyn:
Wait, I beat you. I’m 410. Really?
Lizzie Campbell:
Oh my gosh, that’s never happens.
Jessmyn:
People are probably going to be like, wait, what? I know. It’s so funny. One of our contractors, she’s in Tennessee and she saw a team photo of us recently and she was like, I did not realize you were so short. And I was like, it’s weird because I mean, obviously I’ve known how tall I was my whole life, but I would’ve never guessed you were that short either just by… I mean, we’re only sitting down, but it’s so weird. Right? So weird. So weird. Sweet. So last question for you. If you could give yourself a single piece of advice at the start of it all, what would it be?
Lizzie Campbell:
I think I would probably tell myself to focus on graphic design earlier. Again, all of my varied experiences have been really helpful, but knowing how much I love graphic design and how versatile it really is, as even just a job candidate or a small business owner, I wish that I had realized that upfront and started that so I could be maybe even further along. But it is what it is.
Jessmyn:
It is what it is. I love that though, because I don’t think I… no, it was high school that I took a graphic design class and we learned Photoshop Illustrator and I just messed around on there. That class was not something that I took super seriously, but now in marketing I’m like, wow, it would be so cool if I knew how to use this still and I could make my own graphics. But here we are. I’d have to take an online course.
Lizzie Campbell:
Yep, there you go.
Jessmyn:
Well, before I forget, can you please let everyone know where they can find you online?
Lizzie Campbell:
Yeah, so my website is madebyasteria.com. And my Instagram handle is the same thing madebyasteria. So that’s where I hang out most of the time.
Jessmyn:
Oh, sorry, I had to cough. My coffee went down the wrong pipe. Oh, did you want to add in your Etsy shop for the holidays if people hear this around that time?
Lizzie Campbell:
Yeah, it’s going to be, I think under the same name. So madebyasteria. I’m changing up a few things this year.
Jessmyn:
Awesome. I love it. I love it. And we will link that for you guys, so don’t worry about it if it changes in this time.
Lizzie Campbell:
Yeah.
Jessmyn:
All right Lizzie, well, thank you so much. And guys, thank you for listening. As always, if you ever have any questions, hit us up, let us know and we’ll see you next time. Bye.
Lizzie Campbell:
Bye.