Canva Changed My Life – Here’s How…
Here is a little story about how Canva changed my life. Before I get to that though, I have a few other people that deserve a mention for assisting me on my Canva journey…
My background is media, new media and radio. I started building websites in the mid-nineties and launched a website forum, soyouvebeendumped.com in 2000.
Back in 2010, I began working with Gary Ennis of NS Design. One day, not long into the job, Gary made an off the cuff remark along the lines of, “Thea you could be doing these workshops”. The workshops were for Business Gateway and were all about creating effective websites, basic SEO and trading online.
Honestly, until that fateful day, I’d never once considered being a trainer. In fact, though I had been comfortable speaking to thousands on the radio, the idea of standing in front of ten or fifteen people scared the life out of me.
But that random remark stuck with me so I went to see Gary deliver a workshop in Clydebank. You know what? After it, I thought “he is right I could do that”. And with that, a brand new career path was born. Thanks Gary!
Guy Canva’s Chief Evangelist
The first person I ever saw talking about Canva was Guy Kawasaki on Google+ (remember that?). He’d heard of it from Peg Fitzpatrick and then become Canva’s chief evangelist in April 2014. I had signed up for Canva a few months before, on 19 February 2014. At the time, I’d started to mention Canva and PicMonkey in my various Business Gateway workshops, telling people how they could make website elements using it. At that time I probably found PicMonkey easier to use, but I would use Canva for free, periodically, too. Truthfully I struggled to wrap my head around Canva. I could make the designs from their templates easily enough, but I struggled with what to do with them once created…
Meeting Melanie Perkins
I was just being my overly-honest self, and didn’t intend to be rude. As super nice as she seems, Melanie took my feedback in stride, and proceeded to walk me over to her laptop. She had me create a design, which I did easily, whilst she silently watched me.
More Creative With Canva
Upon my return UK, and and armed with the newfound knowledge of Canva, I started to use it more and more. I continued to get more adept with it and was able to give quick examples in my various Business Gateway workshops.
Additionally, for marketing my own business, I’d use it for website elements, my Twitter tweets, Facebook posts and even Google Plus (remember that ole chestnut?)
Creating Killer Graphics is Born
In November of 2016 the always innovative Claire Duncan (pictured above) from Business Gateway Ayrshire called the lovely, aforementioned Gary, asking if he fancied doing a Canva workshop. At the time Gary, was too busy, and didn’t really see it as a full workshop. So as second best, Claire rang me – asking if I wanted to do one.
Absolutely, yes!!
So do it, we did. Our very first FREE workshop was the not-so-catchy titled, “Creating Killer Graphics to Market Your Business Offline & On” – where we featured both Canva and Picmonkey. After the first workshop though, we quickly realised it was way too much to cover, in just three hours, so we dumped Picmonkey. (Sorry, monkey).
That decision really was primarily due to the fact that Canva was Free and PicMonkey wasn’t.
“Scotland’s First Canva Trainer”
I Love Making Money While I Sleep
My dad would be delighted to hear of my Canva travels across Scotland. Prior to his passing, we had started to create a brand together, as a little side hustle, called Ralph Says Things. We made tshirts, mugs and merch out of some of his sayings – to make some extra money for him in his retirement. Growing up, my father tried to drill into me that passive income is the best kind of income. Here too Canva plays a starring role. I still design t-shirts, stickers, mugs, hoodies, bags, books and more – all using Canva. So essentially what that means is, that my “day job” (as a trainer) and my “side hustle” are all about Canva. That, my friends, is how Canva changed my life. 
In Conclusion
So now it’s a little funny for me to think back to those two days meeting two of its founders. None of us knew at the time where the journey would take us… Canva is now a billion dollar Unicorn company, which continues to empower anyone anywhere in the world to design graphics for FREE. Here in Glasgow, I am happy to help by empowering Scottish businesses on how to use it to market their own businesses. Suffice it to say, I am forever grateful to Cliff, Melanie, Cameron and all at Canva. You have changed, and continue to change, my life in ways I’ve not even realised just yet. Thanks again to Claire and Gary too. None of this would be possible with you two, too!
In Conclusion
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