From Harvard to Flailing to Calligraphy Millionaire

For the first 30 years of my life, I played by the rules. Got into Harvard (yay, me!), studied psychology, and begrudgingly went to law school because everyone thought I should. I didn’t love it, but hey, corporate law seemed prestigious (and those student loans weren’t going to pay themselves).

Fast forward a few years, and I was eating three meals a day in a cold law firm office, working insane hours for people who’d side-eye anyone leaving before 10 PM.

When I finally quit (because my body made me), I knew I wanted to do something creative. But I had ZERO entrepreneurial experience, so when I started my calligraphy business, I figured I’d live as a happy but starving artist.

Instead, what happened was:

  • 2016: Tried everything. $15K revenue.

  • 2017: Sold greeting cards, did calligraphy placecards, logos, live events… and started teaching. $50K revenue.

  • 2018: Launched my first online course. $120K in revenue.

  • 2019: Learned to market my calligraphy course by speaking to the deepest hopes, fears, and strengths of my customers. $200K in revenue.

  • 2020: Pandemic hits. I became an expert in Connected Messaging by showing up every single day to talk to my audience about what they really care about, using organic and paid channels. $900K in revenue.

  • 2021: I continued to learn about my people, refine my webinars, emails and sales funnels…my messaging to attract more and more of my best-fit customers, the ones truly excited to learn from me. $1M in revenue. (👈 and I know revenue can be misleading, so I’ll just say I had VERY GOOD profit margins)

Receipts.

Now I know them pandemic years were something special. I think I had the right business at the right time… but also, not everyone teaching calligraphy was making millions of dollars.

So what did I do that was so unique?

I didn’t just talk about calligraphy.

  • I told my story.

  • I used curse words because they delight me.

  • I spoke to my audience in words and ideas that stuck in their brains.

I understood my people deeply enough to know that what they really wanted wasn’t more course modules or HD video or bonus worksheets… what they wanted was confidence and creativity and hope for the future.

Anyway… turns out building a multi-million dollar business in less than 5 years is pretty exhausting. In 2022, I took a year-long sabbatical, then drastically scaled down. I now run a leaner, more creative business, pulling in $200K a year while experimenting like crazy and keeping my sanity intact.

And now, I’m adding Messaging and Marketing consulting as a fun side hustle because, after 10 years of running a biz, I know a thing or two about building something that actually works (without selling your soul).

I’m here to help you do the same—ditch the cookie-cutter crap, craft messaging that makes people feel seen, and sell with confidence. Let’s create some marketing magic, shall we?