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 curveballs, 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 Aa 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 realise 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.
I'm what you'd call ordinary. Honestly, I really am. Born in 1970, I did have a relatively privileged upbringing. We lived on a farm where my love of animals must come from. We as children and there were six of us, were always told from a young age that we could do whatever we wanted to do. There was no real pressure and we lived a life of outdoor fun, making up games, going on picnics, feeding the ducks, getting stuck in hen houses and sending the fastest child out to run and get help as the cows were herding around us.
Tanya, if you're listening, that was you breaking into the village church to ring the bells and going on adventures, including living on a bus while our new house was going through. As a child I was confident in who I was. I loved my own company and familiar surroundings, happiest around my animals and playing outside. My confidence really left me. At secondary school I was more of a follower, not academic.
Although I was bright but lazy. I didn't really do any work and I laughingly talk about the only book I read on the run up to my O-Levels was Gilly Cooper's riders. A failed art student at 17, I started my first job as a tea girl in an advertising agency where I learned the old fashioned art of paste up taught myself to type and became a typesetter.
I stayed in the design business until 2015 when, after taking a degree in business coaching, I became an exec coach and finally started to understand who I was. At 45, my job was was stressful. I worked away from home a lot and my marriage wasn't happy. I had huge debts and I found myself needing some kind of outlet to help distract my unhappiness. My daughter gave me a colouring book and some pencils for Christmas 2015.
And that is when the magic started to happen. I found my creativity in a medium that led me to where I am today. I've always had strong values, the strongest being that of faith. Not necessarily in the religious sense, but faith that everything will be okay, everything will work out somehow. I've never been a worrier, and I've always been very happy in my own company. When I started drawing, it was never my intention to make a living from it.
It was a form of relaxation. And in fact, at the beginning, I never wanted to draw for other people. I was very happy colouring. A friend asked me to draw their dog, which I did. Posted her on Facebook, and from that small drawing, I started getting a lot of interest from people who wanted their pets drawing. It snowballed and by mid 2016, I had so many people wanting portraits that when my sister suggested I become a full time artist, I already had full books for a number of months.
January 1st, 2017, I became a full time artist. It was the most wonderful sense of relief. Relief that I didn't have to commute to work every day. Relief that I could be at home in an environment I was so happy in. An utter joy that I could spend my days doing something I truly loved. Fast forward a couple of years, and due to my natural sharing personality, I had made a bit of a name for myself in helping other artists and sharing techniques and tips like experimenting.
So anything I found that worked, I would share. This was a strategy that, unbeknownst to me, was the thing that catapulted me into the world of online teaching. I already had a captive audience, and when I launched my Patreon teaching channel, I had people clamouring to join. I remember the day I launched so well. It was February 1st, 2019, and I was having a day at a spa with my sisters and cousins.
It was a real treat, and I remember checking my phone every now and again to see if anyone had joined and feeling totally gobsmacked. That's. That's a Yorkshire term for amazed to see that I had upwards of 60 plus people joining me. By the end of the week I had over 200 members, and the 200 pounds a month extra I was hoping to get from Patreon turned into 2000.
This subconscious strategy seems to be inbuilt in me and is something I use whenever I'm launching something new. Moving to 2021, I decided I wanted to have my own teaching platform. I didn't want to have to rely on someone else controlling my customer service and I wanted a platform that was easy to navigate and that was all mine. After around six months of really hard work, both internally and externally, on the 17th September 2021 I launched the Bonny Snowdon Academy.
I was expecting around 200 people to join me and again was gobsmacked when over 700 people joined me in my first launch. Three years on, my little company has turned over two and a half million pounds in revenue. Now an annual turnover of over 1 million, has over 4000 members and has enabled me to create a home I am so proud of. I've taken on new offices for my employees to work from and best thing of all, I have created something that is literally changing people's lives.
The message I'm trying to put across here is you never know where life will take you. But if you keep an open mind, if you do the work to build your confidence and self belief, if you trust that things will work out well, who knows where you might be? I'm sitting here deciding on a subject I'll be drawing during one of two teaching cruises next year. Can you believe it?
Me teaching on a cruise? Who'd have thought it? Trust the process, try to stay positive and above all, steer yourself to things that make you happy.
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 realise 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 list 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.
