hello hello welcome to another video i'm alice if you didn't already know i thought
we could do a little q a because it's been a long time since i've done one of these
and i feel like a lot of life things have happened so as always i asked on my instagram for questions
if you don't already follow me over there make sure you do because that's like where i'm the
most active and we're just gonna go heads up the sun keeps coming in and out of the clouds so uh
apologies for if i turn into casper the ghost at any point because i i mean i'm pale enough as it
is the sun doesn't do me any favors so i haven't even planned this i'm literally just gonna read oh
by the way this case is from case to fight and the pop socket is just like a pop socket own one so
what videos can we expect to see when all the restrictions have been lifted do you know what
i haven't actually really thought about this probably because i don't want to get my hopes up
about the restrictions so if you're not in england you won't know but england have been locked down
three times and we had like a little bit of freedom sort of during summer but it's basically
been a year of lockdowns and obviously that's kind of hard for mental health and content and
all that kind of stuff so i haven't really thought about it but house buying and moving is happening
this year so i guess my content will flick over to that but i do have some more questions around
that so yeah i'm not sure how i'll adapt the content yet but i'll keep you posted are you
still friends with your uni group i am i'm still in touch with them quite a lot actually obviously
jade i live with jade in third year i message her like every week i was speaking to mattie i speak
to lena every so often and i'm so excited for the day where we can all have a big sleepover at my
house because i'm just i love those guys we've gone so well and i feel like the uni friendships
are on like a whole other level so yeah i love those guys do you earn enough money to sustain
a living people are very interested with this question like i get asked this question a lot
maybe it's because it doesn't seem like i do enough to earn enough money but obviously i
only ever really film little tiny parts of my day you don't see all like the behind the scenes
but yes i earn enough to sustain a living i mean i'm buying a house got a deposit buying a house
i earn enough money don't worry about me obviously right now i live with my parents
so it's enabled me to save more money than i would have done if i was renting or anything like that
but even if i wasn't living my parents i would be able to still afford it so don't worry about
me i got it sorted and i'm actually really good with money so i'm definitely a saver which helps
did you ever think about using etsy to launch your shop in the beginning to be honest
i've actually had an etsy store for years i had it right back when i did like my first ever like
merch whatever you want to define it as i've never really found success on etsy i feel like you need
like a really specific niche on etsy and i'm not very good at that i like to try different things
maybe i'm just not doing it right maybe i just wasn't putting enough time into it i love the
control and the aesthetic of having my own website because i can make it look how i want it to look
and obviously there's like less fees and it's my own like if etsy closed tomorrow which obviously
it won't but if etsy closed tomorrow that'd it that'd be it that'd be my shop gone so i see like
more value in having my own website but there are so many people even people i know in person who've
got amazing etsy sales and have been open for a couple months so yeah i'm definitely just doing
something wrong but i prefer the website side of things is graphic design now your full-time job
yeah it's been my full-time job for the past like when did i finish uni 2018 i kind of left uni and
then just went straight into graphic design slash youtube so i guess it's youtube and graphic design
like obviously some of my income comes from ads and google ads videos and stuff like that and
like sponsorships but the nature of my videos is design and so i guess it's graphic design youtube
i never really know what my job title is would you be able to be self-employed just from your soul
and fire business right now probably not because sales have been slow i mentioned it a couple of
weeks ago that march sales were super slow and it kind of got me down but i've heard
through the grapevine that a lot of small businesses they've had the same sort of experience
so right now probably not i wouldn't be able to be self-employed i've never really thought about
it like that because i wouldn't ever just run soul and fire by itself i like that it's more of a side
thing i wouldn't want to think that was like my only earner i love doing youtube i love doing like
brand work and instagram and stuff like that so right now no but maybe in the future yes
and then the plan is i'll hopefully hire my mum for two days a week as opposed to one and then
yeah i don't know is your link to your discounted illustrator course still available so i actually
always have a discounted link so if you go on my website which is alicethorpe.co.uk go into the adobe
illustrator page i'll leave it all linked in the description and on there you get a big discount
anyway because you've gone directly through my website whereas anyone that just goes through
the international open academy's website gets like the full i think it's 99 pounds for like the basic
price so yeah the link's in the description oh what is your favorite lincoln cafe or coffee shop
so i never really went in coffee shops because i don't drink coffee and at the time i didn't
have much money so i didn't want to spend it on something i don't actually drink the first
place that always pops into my head is madame waffle those of you who've been to lincoln or
know lincoln will know madame waffle if you don't you're missing out so good they sell the nicest
waffles they do like fresh juices i always had the oreo waffle and i am going there as soon as i can
to just experience that i miss it i really want to walk up steep hill which i never thought i'd
say again and i really just want to take in the vibes you know i had three years there at uni so
yeah it's definitely madame waffle have you put a deposit down on a house or are you still
searching i've also got how is your house buying journey going how's the house hunting going so i
have put a reserve on a house so a couple of weeks ago we got the mortgage approved
and we're just waiting on some like documents and then the house needs to be finished being
built because it's a new build so yes we're buying a house i'm buying it with my boyfriend
and i'm very excited it's a dream come true and i'm just very grateful and lucky and happy
and excited for like what the future will bring i suppose this kind of comes into
the question i was on about earlier about what am i going to film when lift out lift down when
lockdown is lifted to be honest i kind of want to film actually i definitely want to film the
process of moving but i don't know how to really incorporate it into this channel because i feel
like this channel has ended up quite graphic design related so i have a question if the poll
thing that youtube does is still there i'll put it on screen should i put my like moving vlogs
and like house tour and whatever should i put them on this channel as like a bonus video a week
so maybe i'd go to two videos a week and do it like that or should i create like a vlog channel
i'm swaying towards putting it on this channel because i don't really want the responsibility of
another one but also i don't want to alienate all those people that have subscribed to this channel
for graphic design content i hope that makes sense so let me know in the poll i think that's probably
why my views in comparison to my subscribers is quite different well it's very different because
my content has changed over the years so i haven't got like a very niche audience i've got audiences
that have come in for different reasons so that's why generally my views are like very
different unless i do like a super graphic design based video which usually gets a great response
but i don't know i always wanted my channel to like be me and i'm constantly changing so if i
think about like that my channel will constantly be changing i went on a bit of a tangent there
what's your favorite product you've released so far okay i'm gonna show you it i'm literally sat
next to my drawers so it's a toss-up between this the make it happen daily list planner
or this the get [ __ ] done planner i'll leave these links in the description as well
but yeah i just love this especially i'm actually really low on stock for these so maybe when i
reorder them i'll do some like different colors or a different cover design but you can kind of see
the vibes lots of daily planning space and i just think these are so handy to like chuck in your bag
when you're going to work or school or whatever so yeah they're definitely my top two why did you
choose the cricut you chose so i'm actually sat next to it hence why i'm looking at it i chose
this cricut because it has more functions than the other one and at the time i could afford to buy
the upgraded version i think it's like 100 pound more so i was like whilst i'm buying one
i'll buy the best one i can afford i've always had that sort of attitude even when i bought
my dslr when i was like 17 i bought like the one that was more pricey because i knew it would last
longer and i was able to do more things so that's basically why because you can cut balsa wood you
can cut fabrics whereas the cricut air only cuts like paper and like thick card i've never actually
used it for any of like the fancier cuts which kind of defeats the point of me buying it in the
first place but i'm looking to do that i'm hoping once i've got my new office and i've got more room
i can like fully organize and like have the time and like the brain space to do things like that
because right now this office is tiny and it's very full i've grown out of it but i do love it
i'm not gonna get rid of it it's so fun to have a cricut how are you oh thank you thanks for asking
i'm okay i have my ups and downs definitely a lot better than i was this time last year
because the first lockdown sort of happened around this time and i hit like a very deep
it was probably depression anxiety ended up back on my medicine etc now i'm more settled in myself
in like the world situation i guess we've just kind of got used to it but i definitely
still have days where i just feel a bit empty like you probably understand if you're also in
england or if you're also i mean in another country experience in lockdown i feel a bit
just empty like there's nothing to talk about because we've not been doing anything it's just
a bit difficult isn't it like there's not much to kind of keep your brain occupied i'm so fed up of
watching films i don't want to craft anything else i've done enough crafting to last me a lifetime
i don't know you know it's just been like a repeat and a repeat and as a self-employed person it's
so easy for me to just like work through the weekend just to pass time and have something
to do and that's so unhealthy so in this past couple of months i've been trying so hard to
actually take the weekends for me rather than just working through them for something to do but yeah
i'm just excited for lockdown to be lifted a bit more but then i'm also quite scared of it because
i don't know i think i'm in that kind of group of people that's a bit anxious about things
being unlocked like i haven't booked a table in a pub garden like i haven't booked a table
anywhere like i'm just gonna see what happens and that's kind of what i did last time we were
released from lockdown but yes i'm all right i'm excited about the house i just i'm dying to go
house shopping in person and to experience more things with my family with my boyfriend i just
want to live my life on a scale of one to ten how excited are you to move out i'd say a solid 12.
i cannot wait i packed my first box the other day and now i'm officially on box
collecting duties so every time i get a parcel i'm like collecting the boxes i'm very excited
did you do graphic design at college or uni and do you have any tips on starting a design
business so i did a course called media production at university if you follow me then i do have
a lot of like university related videos on this channel if you guys can go back into the archives
i did that course which was loosely based on design so in first year you did six different
topics like photography design film script writing radio and then in second year you chose two so i
chose digital media and design so digital media was more like after effects creating animations
things like that and design was this like creating magazines and print based things then
in third year i did just design but it definitely definitely wasn't on the level of like a graphic
design only course i don't know the level of things that an actual graphic design student knows
so no i technically didn't do graphic design at uni although i learned a lot of skills
from uni and i definitely developed my confidence with like dealing with clients and things
at uni so i definitely don't regret going a lot of people do actually say to me don't you feel weird
that you didn't like make the most of your degree i think i have like i'm so happy i went to uni i
wouldn't be the person i am today i wouldn't have the friendships i wouldn't have the confidence
the life experience and obviously it's a lot of money and a lot of like dedication just for some
life experience but it's more than just that like my business and my mindset and like where i am
today wouldn't be anything what it is if i hadn't have gone to uni so i think the investment was
well worth it however on the flip side if you don't want to go to uni or you can't go to uni or
whatever don't think that you have to go too you need to be a designer just look on like tick tock
there's so many creative people out there who've never even studied it in the slightest and they
are so skilled like anything art related you can really learn and teach yourself
anywhere especially with like the availability of like youtube and tutorials and all that kind of
thing like you don't have to have that my tips for starting a business is just to do your research
prepare yourself make sure you've got a bit of a plan in place if you're going to do a product
based business be sensible with your money so don't fully bankrupt yourself on a launch if
you haven't tested the waters first so maybe just order like a small selection of things
see how it goes and then like re-evaluate just take things step by step and follow like-minded
people who are doing the same thing as you and then hopefully you'll sort of pick it up along the
way that's basically what i did and i still don't consider myself to be like fully fledged designer
fully fled shop owner i'm sort of like learning as we go that's the whole nature of this channel
that's the whole nature of what i do but yeah hopefully me sharing it kind of helps and we can
sort of learn and develop together i guess that's it for this q a thank you so much for watching and
listening to me babble on for this long thank you as always for the support don't forget to
give this video a thumbs up if you did enjoy it and i'll see you next time for another one