Hey Reader
Happy Thursday aka Eduletter day!
Can I tell you something that took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out?
For years, I followed every piece of business advice that came from someone more successful than me. I built the email funnel. I created the freebie. I posted the Reels. I did the webinars. I wrote the welcome sequence.
And you know what? Some of it worked great.
But a lot of it? A LOT of it was me doing things because someone I admired said I should.
Not because it made sense for my business model. Not because it matched where I was in my journey. Not because it served the people I was actually trying to reach.
I was “shoulding” all over myself.
I should have a lead magnet. I should be on TikTok. I should launch a membership. I should send emails five times a week.
And every single “should” came with a side of guilt when I didn’t do it, or frustration when I did it and it flopped.
Here’s what I eventually realized: not all good advice is good advice for YOU or good for you RIGHT NOW, or good for YOUR business.
That realization saved me thousands of dollars, hundreds of hours, and honestly? My sanity.
So today, we’re busting two myths that keep pattern designers spinning their wheels on strategies that were never meant for them. And then I’m giving you a tech hack that will help you filter every piece of business advice through your own unique lens before you waste another minute on it.
Let’s get into some gorgeous art first, though.
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Catherine Endres – Mediterranean Feast
Bold Storytelling Through Illustration Olives, lemons, sardines, wine — this pattern is basically a love letter to slow living on the Mediterranean coast. The illustrated vignettes framed in tiles give it wallpaper-level drama with fabric-friendly structure.
Framed Block Repeat with Maximalist Energy Each motif lives in its own decorative frame, creating a grid repeat that somehow feels totally un-gridlike. It's organized chaos in the best way — your eye wanders but never gets lost.
Great for Wallpaper, Table Linens & Boutique Hospitality Statement wallpaper, placemats, tea towels, boutique hotel vibes. This one belongs somewhere with a charcuterie board nearby.
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Angela Blundell – Summer Kawaii Fruits
Pure Joy, No Notes Smiley suns, kawaii watermelons, cheerful strawberries — this design is sunshine in repeat form. The pastel teal stripes keep it from going full sugar rush, which is exactly the right call.
Stripe-Based Repeat The vertical stripe structure gives rhythm while the scattered fruit motifs keep it playful. It's structured enough for production, fun enough for a farmer's market.
Great for Baby Apparel, Bags & Fabric Collections Baby rompers, drawstring bags, sun hats (as modeled!), quilting cotton. If it makes someone smile in the fabric store, it's doing its job.
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Nathalie Curlès – Mediterranean Tile
Timeless Pattern Heritage Lemons, olives, and traditional tile geometry — this one taps into something ancient and totally on-trend at the same time. The warm terracotta and blue palette feels like a sun-soaked afternoon in Valencia.
Diamond Grid with Botanical Accents The tile structure is the backbone, but the scattered botanicals soften it beautifully. It walks the line between geometric precision and organic warmth like a pro.
Great for Tile-Inspired Home Décor & Kitchen Textiles Kitchen tiles (literally), placemats, aprons, ceramic-inspired gift wrap. It would also make a stunning shower curtain or outdoor cushion cover.
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I want to talk about something that doesn’t get discussed enough in the creative business world:
The difference between good advice and advice that’s good for you.
There’s a LOT of business advice out there that is genuinely good. It works. It’s proven. People have built empires with it.
But it might be completely wrong for your business.
Not because the advice is bad. But because the person giving it is solving a different problem than the one you have, serving a different audience than the one you serve, or operating at a completely different stage than where you are right now.
Let me show you what I mean.
Tip #1: Myth — All "Successful" Advice is Good Advice (for you)
I was on a coaching call recently where a designer told me she was burned out. She had done everything to have a successful career in surface pattern design, but nothing was working.
That’s a red flag to me. When I hear someone say “I’ve done everything…” I immediately follow- up with, “What sort of everything did you do?”
She had spent the last five months ‘diversifying.’ She was creating accounts and uploading patterns to every platform possible.
I actually felt pain for this poor woman.
She’d watched a course from a very successful online entrepreneur who was a big proponent of not putting all your eggs in one basket. The problem was this advice wasn’t geared toward surface pattern designers. It wasn’t bad advice in general, but it was really bad advice for her.
It was such bad advice that she had burned out and was thinking of quitting.
Her goal was to get a licensing deal by pitching to home goods companies. Was it a good idea for her to focus her time and energy into uploading designs to every platform imaginable? No.
Art directors look at your portfolio, check your social media, and decide in about 30 seconds whether your style fits their brand. They don’t care if you have patterns uploaded to one site or sixty sites.
The Advice Filter Framework
Before you implement ANY piece of business advice, run it through these four questions:
1. Who was this advice originally for?
Most business advice comes from coaches, course creators, and digital marketers. Their business model is fundamentally different from selling art. They’re selling information and transformation. You’re selling visual work and creative skill. The strategies that fill a coaching program are not the same strategies that get your patterns on products.
2. What stage of business were they in when this worked?
Someone with 50,000 email subscribers telling you to “segment your list and create a 12-email nurture sequence” is giving advice that worked at their scale. If you have 200 subscribers, your time is better spent getting your work in front of more people, not building elaborate automations for a tiny list.
3. What’s their revenue model?
This is the big one. A coach selling a $2,000 course needs a completely different marketing strategy than a designer selling $15 patterns on POD platforms or pitching $500-5,000 licensing deals. The math is different. The customer journey is different. The trust-building timeline is different.
4. Does this solve a problem I actually have right now?
Not a problem you might have someday. Not a problem that sounds important. A problem you are currently losing sleep over or losing money because of.
Here’s what this looks like in practice:
Advice: “You need to post on Instagram every single day.”
Filter: Who was this for? Influencers and coaches who monetize attention. What’s their model? Ad revenue, sponsorships, course launches. Do I have this problem? Maybe — but if I’m trying to land licensing deals, spending that time sending targeted pitch emails might get me further, faster.
Advice: “Create a signature course and sell it on autopilot.”
Filter: That’s great for someone with an established audience who wants to teach. But if my goal is to get my art on products, my time is better spent building collections and strengthening my portfolio.
Advice: “You need to be on every platform.”
Filter: Absolutely not. You need to be where your actual buyers are. If art directors find you through Instagram and your portfolio site, then that’s where you show up. Full stop.
Your challenge:
Think about the last piece of business advice you implemented (or felt guilty for NOT implementing). Run it through those four questions.
Was it actually meant for someone like you? Or were you “shoulding” yourself into someone else’s strategy?
Tip #2: Myth — You Need a Lead Magnet
Oh, this one. THIS one.
I cannot tell you how many pattern designers I’ve talked to who are stressed about creating a lead magnet.
“Mandy, I know I need a freebie to grow my email list, but I don’t know what to make. Should it be a free pattern? A brush set? A color palette guide? A checklist?”
And every time, I ask them the same question:
Who are you trying to get on your email list, and what do you want them to do once they’re there?
Because here’s the thing most people won’t tell you: lead magnets are a strategy for businesses that sell TO their email list.
Coaches use lead magnets to build a list of potential students, then nurture them toward buying a course. SaaS companies use lead magnets to capture leads, then sell them software. Online entrepreneurs use lead magnets because their email list IS their primary sales channel.
But for most pattern designers? Your email list is not how you make money.
You make money when an art director licenses your work. You make money when someone buys your patterns on a POD platform. You make money when a client hires you for a custom project.
None of those people found you because they downloaded your free brush set.
When a lead magnet DOES make sense for pattern designers:
I’m not saying lead magnets are always wrong. They make sense in specific situations:
If you’re teaching other designers (like I do), a lead magnet helps you build an audience of people who want to learn from you. That’s a coaching/education business model, and lead magnets are perfect for it.
If you sell digital products directly to consumers (like printables, brushes, or digital paper packs), a freebie can give potential customers a taste of your work and move them toward a purchase.
If you run a fabric shop or product line and you want to build a customer email list for new collection announcements, a discount code or free sample works great.
When a lead magnet is a waste of your time:
If your primary income comes from licensing, your energy is better spent building your portfolio, pitching to companies, and showing up consistently where art directors actually look. A freebie PDF isn’t part of that equation.
If you sell primarily on POD platforms, the algorithms on those platforms are what drive your sales, not an email list. Your time is better spent optimizing your listings, creating more collections, and understanding what sells on each platform.
What to do INSTEAD of a lead magnet:
If a lead magnet doesn’t fit your business model right now, here’s where to redirect that energy:
Build your portfolio. A strong, cohesive portfolio does more selling for you than any freebie ever will. Art directors don’t want your free color palette guide. They want to see that you can create a complete, licensable collection.
Pitch consistently. Sending five well-researched pitch emails to the right companies will do more for your income than spending two weeks designing a lead magnet that sits on your website collecting dust.
Show up where your buyers are. Whether that’s Instagram, your portfolio site, a Spoonflower shop, or industry trade shows — spend your time where the people who actually pay you are paying attention.
The permission slip:
If you’ve been carrying guilt about not having a lead magnet, consider this your official permission to let it go.
You don’t need one. Not right now. Maybe not ever, depending on your business model.
And the next time someone says “you NEED a lead magnet to grow your business,” remember: they’re probably right — about their business. Not necessarily yours.
Okay, so we just talked about filtering business advice through YOUR specific situation. But sometimes it’s hard to know whether a strategy applies to you, especially when the person giving the advice sounds really convincing and has the screenshots to prove it works.
So here’s a practical hack: use AI to pressure-test advice before you spend weeks implementing it.
I’m talking about ChatGPT or Claude (I use both, but honestly Claude has been incredible for business strategy conversations lately).
The "Should I Actually Do This?" Prompt
The next time you hear a piece of business advice that makes you think “Oh no, I should be doing that…” — before you spiral, before you add it to your ever-growing to-do list, before you buy the course — open up ChatGPT or Claude and use this prompt:
Copy this prompt and customize the parts in [brackets]:
I’m a surface pattern designer. Here’s my current business situation:
- My primary income comes from: [licensing / POD sales / direct product sales / client work / teaching — pick your main one]I currently have about [number] social media followers and [number] email subscribersMy main goal right now is: [landing licensing deals / growing POD sales / building my portfolio / getting my first clients / etc.]I spend about [number] hours per week on my business
I just heard this advice: “[paste the specific advice here]”
Can you help me evaluate whether this advice actually applies to my specific business model and stage? Specifically:1. Who is this advice typically designed for?2. Does it match my current revenue model?3. Is this the right priority given where I am in my business?4. If it doesn’t apply to me, what should I focus on instead?
What this actually does:
Instead of you trying to figure out whether advice applies to you (which is hard when the advice sounds smart and you’re already second-guessing yourself), you’re getting an outside perspective that takes YOUR specific details into account.
And the AI doesn’t have an agenda. It’s not trying to sell you a course. It’s not invested in being right. It’s just analyzing whether the strategy fits your situation.
A real example:
I tested this myself. I plugged in a scenario about a pattern designer with 800 Instagram followers who was told she needs to start a podcast to build authority in the industry.
The response broke down exactly why podcasting is a fantastic strategy for coaches and thought leaders, but a terrible use of time for a designer whose goal is licensing deals. It suggested she spend that same time creating two more collections and sending pitch emails instead.
That’s the kind of clarity you can get in about 90 seconds.
Pro tips for getting better answers:
Be specific about your numbers. “I have a small following” is vague. “I have 1,200 Instagram followers and 340 email subscribers” gives the AI something concrete to work with.
Include your revenue model. This is the most important piece. The advice that works for someone selling $47 digital downloads is completely different from advice for someone pitching $3,000 licensing deals.
Ask it to suggest alternatives. The best part isn’t just finding out something doesn’t apply to you — it’s getting a suggestion for what WOULD work instead.
Run multiple pieces of advice through it. If you’ve been collecting “shoulds” for months, take 20 minutes and evaluate them all. You’ll probably cut your to-do list in half.
That’s it for this week.
Here’s the thing I want you to walk away with: trusting yourself to filter advice is a business skill. It’s not something most people talk about, but the designers who are building sustainable businesses aren’t the ones who follow every piece of advice. They’re the ones who got really good at knowing which advice is for them and which advice isn’t.
So the next time you feel that familiar pang of “I should be doing that…” — pause. Ask yourself: is this actually for me? Or am I shoulding myself again?
You have full permission to say no to good advice that isn’t good for you.
And if things still seem overwhelming, you just need another set of eyes on your work, or you have specific questions about your creative business, I'm opening up coaching calls April 1st. The waitlist is open. Click here and get on the list so you don't miss out.
Do you have a “should” you’re ready to drop? Hit reply and tell me about it. I read every single response, and honestly? I love hearing about the “shoulds” you’re letting go of. There’s something really freeing about giving yourself permission to stop doing things that were never meant for your business in the first place.
Now go delete something from your to-do list. Seriously. Do it right now.
