My Perfect Path

4. Maci (Founder of Mualcaina), Turning Passion and Talent Into Profit

• Daniel Koo • Season 1 • Episode 4

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My Digital Path. Maci built Mualcaina, a personal brand with an online store, social media following, and a YouTube channel.

Unlock the secrets of turning your passion into a thriving business as we chat with Maci, the creative force behind Mualcaina. Maci's journey from a corporate job to creating kawaii-inspired merchandise is filled with ups and downs, but her story is a testament to the power of perseverance and creativity. Learn how she overcame the challenges of matching her previous income, successfully launched a Kickstarter campaign, and now juggles the daily tasks of running a small business, from packing orders to preparing for major events like Anime Expo.

Maci brings a wealth of knowledge on digital entrepreneurship, sharing how she understood her customer persona and created products that seamlessly fit into the lives of anime enthusiasts. Her transition from traditional career aspirations to embracing her love for social media, digital art, and marketing is inspiring. We discuss how her Los Angeles roots and Filipino family support have played significant roles in her journey, and how attending conventions has been pivotal for Mualcaina‘s growth.

Additionally, Maci offers invaluable advice on facing the challenges of running a small business, from dealing with online negativity to the importance of delegation and discipline. We dive into innovative marketing strategies, the shift from fan art to original character design, and the rewarding journey of owning and growing your brand. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or a seasoned business owner, Maci's insights and experiences are sure to inspire and inform. Join us for a rich and engaging conversation that strikes a perfect balance between passion and practical business wisdom.

Feel free to leave comments here!

Maci:

I would say one of the significant challenges that comes to mind on this career path was would I be able to match my corporate income? Because at the time I started my business in 2020, and I was still in my corporate job up until late 2022. And at the time I was doing fairly okay with Mualcaina, but it wasn't like full-time money. I was lucky in that I did have a Kickstarter in late 2021, early 22 that did super well and that actually got me to be able to pay myself, but it was a bit of a struggle trying to find a way to make enough money at the time and learning what other ways I can diversify my income, because I can't just rely on online business.

Daniel Koo:

Welcome to my Perfect Path, a show about chasing dreams and developing careers. In today's episode, my Digital Path, we explore the journey of Maci from Mokaina. Mokaina is a personal brand known for its online store that specializes in creating cute anime kawaii inspired merchandise, including enamel pins, vinyl stickers, apparel and accessories like bags and phone grips. Her instagram is at 52 000 followers and if you see her at anime expo or artist alley conferences, her booth is extremely busy. Before her career, Maci began by creating Instagram accounts when she was in high school. She was always in a digital life, knowing how to engage with audiences on social media. She later interned at BuzzFeed and, while working, she founded her small business Molkaina. Maci from Molkaina, welcome to my Perfect Path. I'm thrilled to have you here.

Maci:

Thanks for having me. I'm excited.

Daniel Koo:

Just to kick us off from a high level. What were some of the roles you've had in the past? I know you've had a lot, so I just want to set up some context for the listeners.

Maci:

Yeah, so some of my roles from the past. Starting with high school, I started this Instagram called Drawings by Maci X, where I basically created lyric drawings of some of my favorite songs. A lot of it was One Direction, because it was 2013, 2014 at the time. After that, I had a few entertainment internships in college. Then post-college, I had a few contract roles before I started my full-time role in a media company for about a year and a half and then fast forward to now I have my small business, molkana, for about two, three years now.

Daniel Koo:

So for this small business, what is your role in it?

Maci:

Yeah, so I would say I'm the. It sounds weird to call it like I'm the CEO, but I'm the artist and designer behind it and basically my small business is a lot of Japanese kawaii inspired anime fan art, and now I'm trying to go into original art. I first started with vinyl stickers, since I basically started this business when my love for anime was reignited during the pandemic, and now three, four years later, I have my designs on enamel pins, ita bags, vinyl stickers, apparel and a lot of other products.

Daniel Koo:

So, as a owner and founder, what does your day-to-day look like for this business?

Maci:

It varies, especially now that I'm full-on in convention prep, since it's summer con season, but typically, if it's the average day, I usually pack a lot of the online orders and I have my orders from Shopify as well as Etsy. Another part of it is a lot of content creation, so that's filming orders that I've been putting together, or even a lot of artist alley tips which we can kind of talk about later, and a lot of it is also quality checking. I do have a few friends who come in the office so they're helping with packing and just everything else in the office, but I feel like that's a big majority of what I do.

Daniel Koo:

So I guess half of it is very home-based and half of it is intense outdoor, you know, going to cons and things like that. Yeah, I think, to set up some context, Maci goes to these conferences like Anime Expo and kind of involved with the Artist Alley so she would have to pack cases and cases of merch that she's made and selling. So it's an intense like three, four days of a lot of business and a lot of selling and at the same time she creates vlogs. So it's a very intense life, I would say. But I think it is paired with a lot of like at homework where you're doing editing and you know you're managing inventory and also designing things. Definitely, yeah, very cool. Who is your customer persona and who is your target audience for your small business?

Maci:

I would say my target audience for my small business is people who probably go to anime conventions like on the side as a side thing and probably prefer more subtle anime merch. I have seen some businesses that have very obvious like, oh, that's definitely anime, but I'm trying to go into the direction where, as an adult, you might not want all of your stuff to be anime.

Daniel Koo:

I've definitely seen cars with anime plastered on the side, but I guess you're targeting more anime as a lifestyle, so you have a little bit of merch here and there with your favorite characters and favorite stories there, exactly, okay. So for this episode you chose the word digital for your adjective, so this episode is called my Digital Path. Could you share with us why you chose that adjective?

Maci:

I would say a lot of my life has been via digital means, especially since I started going on social media and actually using it very frequently. Since high school and it's been about 10 years now that I've been working on social media, being on social media and even a lot of the designs I do. They're all very digital. I don't necessarily do traditional art like with a pencil paper. A lot of my work has been on an iPad using Procreate and then vectorizing everything on Adobe Illustrator, so a lot of it is very much digital based and I feel like that encompasses all of my business and lifestyle right now.

Daniel Koo:

I think we'll take that as like a theme throughout this episode. You'll be able to see things you would work in high school, the things you worked after. It's all very digital related and very creative, so I'm very excited to dig into that. And also, if you fit the customer persona, please go to Volcano and buy a ton of merch. Also, if you're interested in this kind of lifestyle, I think it's great to look at Maci's podcast and her YouTube videos. They're very detailed and they give you a lot of tips on how to become a creator and also owning your own small business. So please visit. Yeah, okay, for the next segment, we're going to cover some information from your early influences. So the question would be can you share a bit about where you grew up and what your childhood was like?

Maci:

Looking back on my childhood, I was basically born and raised in Los Angeles, I think. Growing up I wouldn't say I had traditional Asian parents, even though they did immigrate here from the Philippines. Growing up I was very supported with my career options, even though, being Filipino, sometimes they would say like, oh, you should be a nurse. And initially I was interested in the medical field. I did want to be a surgeon up until, I think, my sophomore no freshman or sophomore year of college and I realized I'm not good at chemistry, nor am I very interested in it and I'm not good at those.

Daniel Koo:

And at the time I realized I'm not good at chemistry, nor am I very interested in it. No worries, I'm not good at those either.

Maci:

And at the time I realized because of the Drawings by Maci X account, I was very much interested in the entertainment industry and because of my newfound interest in social media and marketing, I thought, you know, I should just try and see where that can take me. And here I am now.

Daniel Koo:

Were there any particular experiences or individuals that influenced your direction at a young age?

Maci:

I would say my parents, though this answered the previous question. My parents were very supportive of whatever I did, even like growing up as the art kid. I would often be gifted art supplies because of my love for art, and it was never discouraged for me to go into an industry similar to that, even though it wasn't something I was considering at the time. And even now, with my business, my mom has always been very supportive of what I do right now.

Daniel Koo:

Do you think that played a big part in being able to continue with art at a young age? I come from a Korean family as well, Although I became an engineer. It was not like a pressured environment. They were very encouraging on what you do. Do you think if they weren't supportive at that time, you would have gone with a totally different career track?

Maci:

I think so. I'm fortunate now that not only my parents but even the family that I do have in LA, they've always been very supportive with whatever I wanted to do, even with my business. No one's ever commented anything poorly about it, and maybe it's also because I am doing well with my business that they're not saying anything bad. But a lot of them like to go to some of my events, like for 626 Night Market that one's local to some of them, so they like to visit just to say hi or get me some food, and I don't think I would be where I am right now if it wasn't for their support.

Daniel Koo:

Do you think being in LA that helped a lot as well? I know there's a lot of creators here.

Maci:

I would say LA definitely helped a lot, especially with my current business, because it does require a lot of conventions and a lot of events, and a good majority of the more successful and big events are in Los Angeles, like Anime Expo, for example, is one of the biggest anime conventions in the United States I believe. They boast about over 100,000 attendees, and especially with AX it's such a big chunk of my income that it would be a lot more difficult if I wasn't local to LA to do Anime Expo. I know some people who have to fly from across the country. They have to spend money on plane tickets, shipping, everything and that adds up. However, in my case, I'm not too far from the LA Convention Center, so then I can just restock items if I need to, and it's not really a problem for me. And again, all of the conventions are in LA, so my costs are very low and it's very convenient for me to go there versus not living in SoCal.

Daniel Koo:

When did you first realize what you were passionate about? Was there a specific moment or an event? Or maybe it was something related in your high school, your experiments? When did you first realize what you were passionate about?

Maci:

I realized I was passionate about social media and art, together with the Drawings by Maci X Instagram account. Because at the time growing up, when I think of art or being an artist, I thought, oh, you're not going to make a lot of money. But when I realized when I would sell my drawings on social media and on Etsy and Redbubble, I realized like, oh, there is a market for this and there is a possibility of making money off of my art. And at the time the peak follower account for that Instagram was around 150,000 followers. And that's when I realized I did have a knack for social media. I just wasn't sure at the time how I can make that into a career.

Daniel Koo:

I see I mean to say the least. I think 150,000 followers on Instagram is actually a very big achievement, yeah.

Maci:

Especially at the time too, like I think that was 2013,. 2014.

Daniel Koo:

That makes me look at my own Instagram and I'm a little sad now but it's okay, I'm not an influencer, we'll see. But I think basically from earlier on there were signs that you could use as confidence right as a metric that you can use for evidence that you can go through this career and you'll make it. I think that's definitely something that really helped you kind of grow and be more confident in that area. I kind of had a similar experience as well when I was in eighth grade, I think. I went to a Center for Talented Youth camp and there was a computer science course that I did and it was just about introduction to Python and I realized then that coding was something that I really wanted to do and I knew earlier on that this is my path. I didn't actually dig into coding until the end of high school, but I think just having done something earlier and knowing really helps you get inspired and it pushes you through.

Daniel Koo:

We'll talk about early career, moving into your early 20s. What were some of the pivotal choices you faced? I think maybe it's good to kind of zero in on the internship experience, how that changed your view and why did you choose an internship versus just maybe going out there with social media. Did you not have enough experience in that, or did you not think that was a real career path? What was the decision point there?

Maci:

I went with my music industry internships mostly because I was also in a marketing club at the time for college and it was pretty much drilled in us to network with people. I did go to a smaller Cal State and were competing with people who went to university or like USC and I feel like we need to prove ourselves a little bit more because we don't have the name brand of a school and I felt that I needed to network with a lot of people in those industries, get to know them and have them know myself as well so that I can pursue a career in that industry.

Daniel Koo:

So when you say music entertainment, were you actually doing music related things or was it kind of in the music industry but art related or design related?

Maci:

It was just in the music industry but it was more marketing related. So we would put together like one sheets for artists with some other stats. Or one of my internships was within the fan engagement aspect, so we would work with a lot of music influencers, like for one of them. We were targeting influencers who shared a lot of vinyls and we had a campaign with this particular artist. We wanted to send these influencers that artist's vinyl so then they can promote, and it was a lot of that business aspect rather than working with music.

Daniel Koo:

So you've also worked with influencers at that time. How did your internship affect your career path from that point?

Maci:

Because that internship experience exposed me to working with a lot of influencers and working with social media from a large business perspective. I was able to get a few skills from those positions and apply it to my small business, with knowing how much social media content to output, how influencers should be treated in a way when working with businesses for these brand deals.

Daniel Koo:

When you were working there, was it more of strategizing or was it a lot of on the ground hard skills? Were you developing a lot of editing skills or was it talking with people and timing things out and you know, scheduling things out and those things?

Maci:

Oh yeah, I think it's a little bit of both. However, my internship did involve a lot of soft and hard skills, but I would say, because I was an intern, it was mostly the hard skills, with me being the liaison between my manager and the influencers that we were working with, Making sure that these influencers posted when they wanted, making sure these influencers posted when we needed them to post, getting their analytics, so then we can put it into a deck to send to the higher-ups for my manager's presentations. And really seeing how that played out helped me a lot with my business because I better understood what these businesses wanted for myself. And I think a lot of the other influencers within my field in the artist alley scene aren't super familiar with that aspect because they're usually involved with the art aspect of it, and my experience and background with business helped support myself in being an influencer in that way.

Daniel Koo:

Yeah, I think that makes sense. I talked to a couple of people who have like hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and they're usually marketing and branding people. You know, they're really good at framing the story and controlling the audience and like they know exactly what the audience wants to hear. They know how to prep an audience for a launch and it's very strategic, but they make it seem so casual. I mean, I think that's probably where you got your skills as well, for your YouTube videos and your marketing throughout social media. The next segment is going to be challenges and overcoming them. The first question is have you ever faced imposter syndrome and how are you dealing with it? Have you gotten over it? What's your process?

Maci:

I would say in the beginning, mostly when I was doing anime conventions was when I first started to experience imposter syndrome, because at the time this was early 2022.

Maci:

I had a very small table display and I was basically tabled next to someone who was a little bit more established. I would say he was in the industry for a few years now and I remember during that convention, while I did get a few sales here and there and luckily I did profit from that con his booth was always full and there were always people talking to him and I feel like everyone knew him at the time, like all of the artists there, the vendors all knew him, and I remember that that was the instance when I realized I wanted to do this full time, potentially because I saw how well connected he was and well established he was and I realized, oh, this is what I want to do, but it seems very intimidating. Luckily, I'm at a point now where I don't feel that way, but it definitely took a lot of years to gain that confidence and get to that point.

Daniel Koo:

Yeah, I think when we see people ahead of our career, we feel a lot of imposter syndrome. Were there any people online that discouraged you for doing what you were doing? Because I know there's a lot of haters online that would randomly comment something mean or things like that. Did you experience that at all?

Maci:

Fortunately not Amongst the other artists. I don't know of anyone who publicly felt that way about myself. I did get some hate. I feel like that's pretty natural when it comes to creating public online content. I just developed a skill of ignoring or mentally forgetting that comment. I can't even recall a lot of the hate comments that I get.

Daniel Koo:

I mean that's good, that's good, that's definitely good. I also did hear that having some online haters is actually a good sign. You know it means you've made it, so you know we'll take it so throughout your career. It's something that you've never faced before building a small business. What were some of the significant challenges that you faced?

Maci:

I would say one of the significant challenges that comes to mind on this career path was would I be able to match my corporate income? Because at the time I started my business in 2020, and I was still in my corporate job up until late 2022. And at the time I was doing fairly okay with Molkana, but it wasn't like full-time money. I was lucky in that I did have a kickstart in late 2021, early 22 that did super well and that actually got me to be able to pay myself. But it was a bit of a struggle trying to find a way to make enough money at the time and learning what other ways I can diversify my income, because I can't just rely on online business, and in that way I realized, okay, I need to figure out those ways. One of them is by doing conventions, and that definitely helped. However, right now, it's incredibly difficult to get into these cons now with how competitive it's been, because Artist Alley has become a lot more popular to vend at.

Daniel Koo:

So there are obviously a period of time when you're doing both jobs right. So you're doing the full-time job and you're developing Molkana. What gave you the final push to quit your full-time job and pursue this content creator and small business career?

Maci:

I would say that the final push for me from going my full-time corporate job to Molkana full-time. There were two things that happened. So one, my contract was already ending with my full-time job and it was about to end in August of 2022. And fortunately, at the same time, Molkana was doing super well online and at conventions, because I believe I went viral for one of my Instagram reels in like July of 2022, where I gained like 20,000 followers within like a couple weeks and so a lot of online sales were happening at that period of time.

Maci:

And at the same time, at conventions, I had been getting into some of the major conventions like Anime Expo, Fianame and a lot of bigger and a lot of the SoCal conventions that were doing pretty well for me and at that time that did give me some consistent income monthly and all of those things were basically happening as it got closer to my contract ending. And even though I did go on a few job interviews to have that transition from that previous corporate job to potentially another nine to five corporate job, when I went to those job interviews I realized even in my answers there wasn't that same spark that I had when I was interviewing for these music industry roles, compared to when I did Molokena and did those conventions that were on the weekends, even though I was working my media job. I took PTO to do these conventions and it just did not feel the same way, and so I realized I should take the risk, while I don't have a lot of major responsibilities, and pursue Molkina full-time.

Daniel Koo:

I see. So there was a lot of passion and it was a natural kind of transition period for your job and you've kind of come to realize that you know you'd rather do this other business and it really kind of feels your passion and it kind of seems sustainable. Yes, is that a correct summary?

Maci:

Yeah, I would say that.

Daniel Koo:

Do you feel like there are specific skills or talents that are crucial to your success in this field and by success I don't mean like an insane amount of revenue or anything like that, but, you know, having a good cycle of you know you have customers, you have new ideas that you can always try out, do you?

Maci:

think there are specific skills or talents that would be crucial. I would say that for this business, some of the skills that would be particularly helpful is being good at social media. It's not imperative that you have a really strong social media following, especially if conventions are your full-time? However, as mentioned, getting into Artist Alley is incredibly competitive and difficult at this point in time because there are a lot of Artist Alley influencers and because they share their revenue and expenses. Naturally, people are going to be interested in potentially doing the same thing, and so right now, it is pretty much a bloodbath to get into artist alley and it's not helpful to rely on conventions as a stable source of income. So having a social media following helps to have more consistent income because it builds on that community and people can also find you through social media, though it is a little bit difficult now compared to 2020 TikTok.

Daniel Koo:

Could you share with us what the process is like and just how rough it is to get into Artist Alley?

Maci:

Yes. So to get into Artist Alley there's typically three different application processes. So there's first come, first serve, which is similar to buying concert tickets. There's lottery, which is pretty random, and then there's a juried. So a lot of conventions now are moving away from first come, first serve, because usually tables sell out within seconds and now a lot of cons are going with either lottery or jury. Lottery is difficult because you can get into one convention but if the lotto gods are not in your favor, you might not get in the following year and that's a lot of loss of income.

Maci:

The third option is juried, which, even though there shouldn't be any bias, there's always going to be some kind of subconscious bias and I've experienced with one convention. I got in pretty consistently last year and the year prior, but this year I did not get in and that was a big chunk of my revenue, which is really unfortunate. And I feel like for a lot of people who are trying to get into Artist Alley now, I've noticed that a lot of them are doing very poorly when it comes to juried work because one they probably don't have an actual table display, because they've never been to a convention and I feel like a lot of juries are going to lean towards artists who might have that experience and have a really nice developed table display versus someone who is just starting out, which in some cases is very unfair, especially for someone who's trying to get into the artist alley scene. But even for us who are developed in our career path, it's been incredibly difficult to get in.

Daniel Koo:

So I want to get into more of what the specific process is like for the juried conference. What are the risks involved in applying? Is there a deposit or is it just the risk of not being able to go?

Maci:

For a juried convention. Luckily, there's actually not a lot of risk involved. It's not like college apps, fortunately, where you don't have to pay anything that I know of. I think there are a couple cons who do require payment for applications, but it's very, very few. But when it comes to applying for a juried convention, usually they have a very small time window for you to apply. It ranges from filling out a google form to actually filling out like a proper website form and usually you'll hear back within a few months.

Maci:

However, the issue with that is you might find out that you got into a convention which is far from you. Let's say I'm in LA and the convention's in New York. If I get in, they tell me maybe a couple months prior to the event. But then obviously for me to get there I need to book hotel, plane tickets and so on and so forth and even more merchandise so that I have enough to sell at the event. But it's hard for me to plan when I'm relying on a convention to tell me if I got in or not, and I wouldn't know until very close to the event.

Daniel Koo:

I see it's usually very last minute. It seems like close to the event. I see it's usually very last minute, seems like yes, and we all know that you have to book plane tickets like months in advance to get the cheapest price. That must be quite the risk for you actually. Do you ever book flights and hotels ahead of time and try to cancel later, or how do you manage that?

Maci:

I do. Actually I like to book my hotel as soon as I apply because, especially on bookingcom, most of them are free cancellation and I usually prioritize free cancellation, just for peace of mind. For plane tickets, I don't mind booking later on. I know a lot of the Artist Alley people like to go with Southwest because of the two free check baggage per passenger. I usually just wait until it gets closer to the event. It's not really a big deal for me passenger.

Daniel Koo:

I usually just wait until it gets closer to the event. It's not really a big deal for me. Was there any conference where you basically had to book really late and it was really expensive or you got into some trouble because of that.

Maci:

Fortunately, no, I usually book as soon asI receive the acceptance. It's funny because there is this Discord called the Artist Alley Network Discord. A lot of Artist Alley people I think there's like 7,000 people on that Discord Artist Alley Network Discord A lot of Artist Alley people I think there's like 7,000 people on that Discord. And apparently, for context, anime Expo is less than a week from now and this one person, I think they're in Northeast US. They haven't even booked their plane tickets yet. I think they forgot.

Maci:

So, good luck for them, because AX is 4th of July weekend.

Daniel Koo:

That's going to be very difficult for that person. I was just looking at plane tickets for Thanksgiving and it was just atrocious.

Maci:

Oh no, how much are tickets?

Daniel Koo:

I think if I want to go when I actually have my vacation days, it would go up from $500 to $700. Oh my gosh. But I try to always go either way before and try to stay for longer, just so I can kind of curb that price. But yeah, it's pretty atrocious still, even months out, so I can only imagine trying to keep the cost low. That must be difficult. So for these skills that you need to have success in your field. Do you believe that these skills were innate or did you develop them over time?

Maci:

I would say it's a bit of both, because even when I look back on my childhood I feel like some of the marketing skills have been innate, because I remember running for commissioner of publicity in seventh grade and one of the more traditional ways of marketing that I was running for that position I made like a sandwich board for one of my friends to wear. I said like vote Maci for commissioner of publicity and I had them walking around during recess and lunch.

Daniel Koo:

Wow, that's amazing.

Maci:

And I don't recall anyone doing that as well, besides putting posters on walls.

Daniel Koo:

That's very bold for a seventh grader to do.

Maci:

I mean I wasn't the one walking around, I had my friends walk around. That's very bold for a seventh grader to do.

Daniel Koo:

I mean I wasn't the one walking around. I had my friends walk around.

Maci:

That's true, that's true, and I feel like I had that knack of. I mean maybe it's thinking outside of the box, but oh, definitely.

Maci:

Just thinking a little bit more unconventionally helped a lot, even with Anime Expo right now. I wanted to promote my business with the free promotional tote bags and they're pretty big. I think it's like a 14 by 5 by 14 or so like tote bags. It's pretty big and I wanted to make sure that my logo was like pretty big. So then people who do buy something that's like 50 plus they receive that tote bag and if they're walking around Anime Expo with it, people who might be familiar with that logo might be.

Daniel Koo:

Will be reminded.

Maci:

Exactly, it's like oh, Molkana's here. I completely forgot they're probably in Art of Sally.

Daniel Koo:

You know, that reminds me of how I built this podcast, joe Malone, when they were first launching two weeks before the first store was opened in New York. What they did was they basically hired a lot of actors to hold the Joe Malone shopping bag and just walk the streets of New York and that basically created so much suspense, so much, I guess, marketing pressure, that even on their first launch, the first store, there was a super long line and it was just because they're reminded as you're going past, and actually that reminds me of that. That's so funny.

Maci:

I would also say that, especially like that marketing social media skill is definitely learned, because a lot of these things I had to learn through my internship experience, through college and even going on YouTube. I had to learn a lot of those social media skills because, again, like the social media algorithm is always changing and a lot of those things I probably would not have learned if it wasn't for these outside sources.

Daniel Koo:

Do you have a mentor that you rely on to learn these things, or do you mostly learn them by yourself?

Maci:

I would say learn them mostly by myself, but there are a few YouTube channels that I like to check up on for these different strategies. One of them is Think Media, which is mostly for YouTube strategies. Vanessa Lau is really good for YouTube and Instagram. I believe her name is Katie Steckley and she's really good with small influencer strategies for different social media platforms.

Daniel Koo:

What advice would you give to someone looking to develop these skills?

Maci:

I would say, if you're new to all of this and you don't know where to start and you want to develop these skills, I would highly suggest looking into free resources like YouTube. There's so much content on how to expand, like your YouTube, social media strategies and even just working on your own. You don't have to officially launch. Let's say, if it's for a business, you don't have to officially launch that business right away. If you don't feel comfortable, it helps just playing around with it, maybe not on your personal account, but just some random account dedicated to something else. Figure out what works for you there and then you can apply that to your business.

Daniel Koo:

So this next question is going to be to whom would you not recommend this career and to whom would you recommend this career? But I think for you there's many different strains of career, kind of mixed into one. So if you could answer based on maybe combining all of them you know, just being a solo entrepreneur doing your own small business, your own social media channels and doing all your marketing to whom would you not recommend this career?

Maci:

I would not recommend this career if you don't have discipline or at least self-discipline, because everything is reliant on yourself and, compared to a nine to five job, if you take time off, someone else not going to work, or it's not going to happen if you don't work on it and if you don't have the discipline to actually get that done, it's never going to happen.

Daniel Koo:

Would you say you've had to use a lot of discipline to push your career along, or would you say it's more passion that kind of pushed you along?

Maci:

I would say it's a bit of both, because for me passion can only go so far. It's like I don't believe there's fully a dream job. Or when people say, if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. I don't necessarily think that's fully true, because there's a lot of aspects in my business that I also don't like. It's usually like bookkeeping or just maintaining expenses. I don't like that, but someone has to do it, so I have to do it. Of course, passion does help a lot, because if you're not passionate about what you do, it's very hard to find that motivation, because money can only get you so much.

Daniel Koo:

To whom would you recommend this career?

Maci:

I would say, if you really love it enough that you don't mind working 24 seven on it, this career is probably good for you. It's hard to say because that might also just be because of myself and the people that I surround myself. We all have that similar mindset that we're pretty much working almost 24-7. It's not a very healthy mindset but at least in the beginning, when you are trying to grow your business, it will get to that point where you're working on your business.

Daniel Koo:

It's like a lifestyle.

Maci:

Exactly, and I feel like if you don't have I suppose that passion could be applied in this case If you don't have that passion to do that whenever you have free time, it's hard to be successful. I wouldn't say it's impossible, but it's hard to be successful in a steady, quick way.

Daniel Koo:

I actually have a quote that I prepared. It's from Amelia Earhart the most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity. I didn't know it was going to fit so well with your answer here on discipline, but I think that's really true. You know, when we want to do something, we really have to put in the time and the effort, and I hope that's an inspiration for our listeners today. I want to talk more about what is your current business look like and where is it heading?

Maci:

So right now, looking at my business, a lot of the products are geared towards, I would say, like 50 to 60%, anime fan art and then the remaining percentage is a lot of original characters. And right now I'm at a point where I really want to push my original characters because, again, as anime conventions become a lot more competitive, there are a lot of issues, and there's a lot of issues with fan art and anime cons and like IP. But I don't want to be in a position where my very popular anime fan art pin has been taken down by Etsy or Shopify and I can't sell it anymore because that has happened to me with one of my pins and I won't have that issue as much with original characters. And there are also a lot of conventions that are geared towards original characters that I'm not able to apply to because of my fan art and I don't want to close that opportunity on myself. So right now I am mostly focusing on just slowly phasing out my anime work and then introduce more original character work.

Daniel Koo:

I guess that makes sense. It's kind of like how Netflix is slowly making their own originals, and I think that's actually a really great move for you going forwards and relying less on other characters or companies. It's actually a lot more self-contained. Is that something that you've learned from others, or is that something that you kind of came out by yourself or you just felt like that was the next step?

Maci:

I feel like that's a lot of artists' natural step when it comes to being an artist dolly, especially when a lot of them start out with fan art and then eventually move into original characters. Usually it's more difficult to start with original characters because a lot of people don't know that character or a lot of people are not familiar with you as a brand and having fan art kind of helps them slowly acclimate to your work. And I feel like I'm at a point now where a lot of my original designs, even like the Ida bags, have sold really well despite it not being affiliated with a particular anime or other IP. And I'm also running into the point where especially like for example for Anime Expo, if you have fan art you can't sell in Exhibitor Hall. Exhibitor Hall has like minimum 10 by 10 booths but you can have bigger booth sizes. So in my case I would have to sell in Artist Alley.

Maci:

Artist Alley only allows like a six by two foot table. I have so much product that it's very difficult for me to fit everything within a six by two table. But for me to have a larger space I can only sell original art. But I don't feel comfortable just completely taking out anime because and I've talked about this with other friends I still have an affinity for anime and making my designs as I see fit, like associated with, like one piece and whatnot. But in order for me to have bigger spaces and be allowed in those bigger spaces, I would have to have a lot of original work. And I want for me to have bigger spaces and be allowed in those bigger spaces, I would have to have a lot of original work. And I want to get to that point maybe next year or in two years. Hopefully I can just have original work, but slowly working on it.

Daniel Koo:

Was it difficult to create your own designs and start splitting your time, because I'm guessing original art would take a lot more time. How did you balance that transition?

Maci:

Surprisingly, it felt like a pretty natural transition from working with anime and original characters, because after my One Piece fan art I think this was one or two years ago I couldn't think of any other anime to draw from, with new enamel pins and whatnot. And I feel like One Piece and Jujutsu Kaisen was the last of my fan art and now I would much rather pour my time and energy into original characters. It was difficult trying to figure out what type of characters to design, because there's only so much you can do with a cat like a cute cat, a cute bunny In my case it's like a cute cat, bunny and bear, which is pretty basic at the same time.

Daniel Koo:

Do you have names for them?

Maci:

Yes, the cat is Miruku because it's like milk, the bear is Mitsu because Hachimitsu means honey in Japanese, and then the bunny is Momo because it's pink and it's like peach. So I wanted them all to be M's, because Molkena it's like M.

Daniel Koo:

Gotcha, that's your brand. Yeah, very good.

Maci:

And for me to make them slightly different from the typical cat bunny bear. Their little blush is like scribbled on, so it's a little bit more different than like the typical blush which is usually like a big circle or whatnot. And same thing with how I'm trying to push them even for like anime expo, like the freebies are all like the three characters, so like the fan is just the cat bunny bear and hopefully people can start to associate those characters with my business and this is all kind of done through your iPad and just drawing yes, yeah and I guess you've already done that a ton in high school, so it's been easy for you as well.

Daniel Koo:

It's not a new platform, or?

Maci:

anything. I never had a proper drawing iPad until four years ago, because in high school, even though, like, social media was a digital aspect of it, a lot of it was traditional. So I would draw with a pencil and then I would outline everything with Sharpie oh, wow, yeah. And then everything was just scanned, because I don't think I could afford an iPad at the time, nor did my parents want to buy me an iPad. So I would like scan everything and that's how I would sell my prints and my drawings.

Daniel Koo:

Wow. So actually that was a much bigger effort than I originally thought, because you know you would do it on paper and then get it online.

Maci:

This is also like maybe class favoritism, but I would draw a lot of those works like during class and like I think the teachers noticed but because I wasn't that type of disruptive kid or I was doing decently in those classes, they didn't say anything.

Daniel Koo:

I mean, that's a blessing as well.

Maci:

I think Very efficient.

Daniel Koo:

So what's one piece of advice you'd give to someone carving out their own path, someone who wants to do what you're doing right now? What's something that you would say to them?

Maci:

I would say one don't be afraid to just start. But not just start, start it slowly. I've seen some people who just jump into something, are willing to spend this much money and invest this much money, but you don't know if it's going to work out for you. And being able to slowly get into this career path is probably the best bet, because you also don't know. One, will you actually enjoy it besides, like what you see on social media? And two, you don't want to waste a lot of money trying to pursue a path that probably can be worked in a different way.

Daniel Koo:

So starting slow would be your recommendation.

Maci:

Yes, yeah, like starting slow would be very helpful. And then, while you're starting slow, it helps you figure out what works best for you, because the way I'm going about it might be too much for you or it might not work out for you, but if you figure out what works best for you, you're not wasting that much time and energy by going at it slowly.

Daniel Koo:

I think just the way you can approach the business. You have a lot of discipline. Do you ever try to delegate a lot of these things, like if you don't want to do something, rather than trying to push through with your discipline, have you considered delegating it to a service or something else?

Maci:

Yes, I have to delegate some things. Now I realize that I really don't like quality checking my EDA bags because it's a lot of work. Fortunately, I do have a couple friends that I do pay that come in like a couple times a week and usually I just give them the tasks that I don't like to do. So that's quality checking bags, quality checking enamel pins, counting up backing cards or putting those pins on backing cards. And it's a lot of effort on my end to let go of those things, because in the beginning I feel like I can be a bit of a control freak in wanting to have that sort of control. But then once I just gave them a little bit of a trial run, like, okay, you should try grading the EDA bags If no one says anything, if no customer emails like, oh, what's wrong with blah, blah, this eat a bag, it's fine. And I realized like I saved so much time by having them do those things and it allows me to put in energy and time into things that I can only do.

Daniel Koo:

Yeah, that seems like what a lot of creators try to do, you know, for all the manual labor they try to delegate so that they can do something that they can only do, and that usually has the biggest impact for your business, I'm assuming. So, to kind of summarize what we talked about, I think the biggest thing I've learned from you is the discipline portion of it, and especially for those who you don't recommend this career to, if you don't have a lot of discipline and if you can't start small with these things, I think that's something to be wary of. But I do feel like we laid out a lot of items here today to show what it takes to become one, and if you feel like you have those things, I think you should go for it, and I'm assuming it's a different feeling when you have something of your own 100%.

Daniel Koo:

And being able to say you know, this is my brand, this is something that I've made, so thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I really appreciate your time and your stories and I hope you know this episode will inspire a lot of people to pursue this path, being wary of what they need to do and what they need to have in order to pursue it. Thank you so much.

Maci:

Yeah, thank you for having me. I was nervous in the beginning, but it was great.

Daniel Koo:

Yeah, I think your answers were super great yeah.