Ashton Rodenhiser is an internationally acclaimed graphic recorder renowned for her sketchnoting and graphic facilitation expertise. Since 2013, she has been capturing keynotes, meetings, and seminars through visually engaging illustrations. Hailing from Canada, Ashton has collaborated with prestigious organizations such as Microsoft, Amazon, Michelin and various national and international associations.

The pivotal moment that altered Ashton’s trajectory occurred in 2013 during a workshop on graphic facilitation. Inspired by the transformative techniques she was learning, she decided to pull from her passion as a creative and the skills she had developed as facilitator to launch her business, Mind’s Eye Creative. Since then she’s been on a mission to showcase and teach others the power of visual communication and visual thinking.

Recognizing the profound impact of sketchnoting as a tool for thinking and learning, Ashton firmly believes in its power to help others engage creatively while deepening their understanding. It’s her passion to help individuals express their ideas in imaginative and compelling ways.

Key Moments

[00:04:59] Ashton had entrepreneurial tendencies growing up and decided to start a business in graphic recording/facilitating after attending a conference. They were motivated to succeed and took initiative by sending thousands of emails.

[00:06:40] Flexibility, time off, vacation, kids, studio, money control, hustler, pandemic resilience.

[00:10:29] Ashton struggles with busy and quiet seasons, finding it difficult to balance work and follow up. They are trying to diversify their income streams and adapt to the online conference trend.

[00:15:53] The importance of creativity and art in connecting with oneself and others, despite past experiences of creative suppression.

[00:18:32] Promotes sketchnoting, offers free resources, and can be found on social media.

Find Ashton Online

http://www.mindseyecreative.ca/

http://www.sketchnote.school

https://twitter.com/MindsEyeCCF

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashtonrodenhiser/

https://www.instagram.com/ashtonmindseye/

https://www.facebook.com/MindsEyeCreativeCF

https://www.youtube.com/c/MindsEyeCreativeConsulting

https://www.pinterest.com/SketchnoteSchool

https://www.tiktok.com/@mindseyecreative

$5 off ebook – Beginner’s Guide to Sketchnoting (making it only $9 USD) coupon code: enigma

https://sketchnote.school/book

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Transcript (Provided by CastMagic.io)

Seth [00:00:00]:

Entrepreneurs Enigma is a podcast for the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, the wins and the fails that we all face being entrepreneurs. How we learn from adversity. Every week, I talk to a different entrepreneur with a story to tell. I’m Seth Goldstein. Come with me on the journey. This is Entrepreneurs Enigma. Let’s get started. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Entrepreneurs. Name up. Podcast. I am, as always, Seth, your loyal host. And I guess host. I guess that’s all I am is your host. All I am is your host. Anyhow, today I have Ashton Rodenheiser. I think I said that correctly. She did put phonetically in the bio to me, so I appreciate that. Ashton is an internationally acclaimed graphic recorder, meaning that she does doodles and facilitation for things. She’s worked with organizations like Microsoft, Amazon, Michelin, and various national international brands. When I say national, I do not mean United States. She’s up in Nova Scotia in the country, where it’s a lot nicer up there, both people and sometimes the weather. Of course, right now you can’t really say nice weather for Canada, because it’s all on fire right now. But anyhow, she’s been doing this since 2013. She does workshops. She helps people learn how to do what she does. If you’re looking at the video, which you can do in our clips, she has all these little faces on the wall, which is cool. So, Ashton, welcome to the show. How’s it going?

Ashton [00:01:40]:

Good, Seth. How’s it going today?

Seth [00:01:43]:

Not too bad. So how does one get started doodling professionally?

Ashton [00:01:48]:

It’s a great question. I got into this field as a facilitator, so I was facilitating lots of different groups. And the transition actually wasn’t too much of a leap because I had already had a lot of my listening and my thinking down. When people would say something in a room, I would feed back in words. So I just transitioned over into instead of feeding back in words what they just said, I’m now feeding back in pictures. It’s interesting. Yeah. And I’m very well connected with a lot of people who do this work all around the world because we’re just like, weird, tight knit, interesting community. And everyone seems to come into this field in many different ways. So some people come more from a communications background, some people come in from a fine art background. So there’s no right or wrong way into entering this type of work, for sure. I’d always been very creative. I call myself a dabbler. And many if you name an art medium, and I’ve probably tried it, I didn’t actually draw a ton before starting this work.

Seth [00:02:58]:

But seriously, check out the show notes, because her graphics are incredible. Her people are so cute, and they’re expressionate. And expressionate is that word, expressionate.

Ashton [00:03:09]:

It’s all about the eyebrows, man. It’s all about how you drive.

Seth [00:03:12]:

It is. It is. So you start out as a facilitator. So how did this whole thing start? Have you always been an entrepreneur? Have you worked for the man or the woman or the person beforehand? I got to make sure that’s gender neutral.

Ashton [00:03:28]:

Yeah, I guess. I did work at a family center. That’s how I got into the field of facilitation. My formal education is an early childhood educator, so I worked in that field for a bit. When I was younger. I was a very good student. I probably could have went to any university, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do. So I was like, I’d always worked with kids, so I’m going to do that. And I know I wanted to be a mother at some point. It’s pretty important.

Seth [00:03:57]:

Have you own her own heard?

Ashton [00:03:59]:

I have heard. I’m done. I’ve got three. Three is plenty of children.

Seth [00:04:04]:

Three is enough. Three is good. The husband can take one and you can take one and you have one. What do we do with this one exactly?

Ashton [00:04:13]:

Well, once after we had two and we were like, what was I thinking? We’re outnumbered now. But no, they’re wonderful and amazing human beings, but are they drawers? You know what? My ten year old is drawing a comic book right now and I cannot take how amazing. It’s so amazing. They’re called flower friends and they’re little faces. I can’t handle how cute this thing is. So I told her I’m going to help her redraw it on the computer, clean it up, and then maybe put it together as an actual book. That’s a project.

Seth [00:04:45]:

We’re going to work on Amazon, make them a published author. We’re going to take a quick break here from our sponsors and get right back to the show.

Ashton [00:04:53]:

Exactly.

Seth [00:04:55]:

That’s awesome.

Ashton [00:04:59]:

I guess I didn’t really think about it, but I did have very entrepreneurial tendencies growing up. Like, I did sell things. It does, yeah. But I never really thought about it as an option for me. For some reason, I never thought going in through high school and then into my twenty s, I didn’t even know it was a thing that I could choose, to be honest with you. I think it was just more of a traditional career path, was just like, that’s what you’re supposed to do. So when you want to do this type of work, no one’s hiring full time. Graphic recorders, graphic facilitators. I’ve only ever heard of a handful of companies that have hired full time. And so you’re kind of forced into starting a business. I was like, I guess if I want to do this and when I decide to do something, I go in 100,000,000%, right? I’m in it to win it. So I went to a conference in 2015 in Austin, Texas with people from all over the world who do this type of work. And I was like, man, if they can figure this out, I can figure it out. Like, if they can make a living making this. I can probably make a living doing this. So I left that conference. I was seven months pregnant in Austin, Texas in July. And then after I had him, my second child, then it was about a year later, then I was like, okay, I’m going to really do with this and do it right and go all in and joined a co working space and just did it and figured it out, sended thousands of emails and the rest is history, basically. Yeah, rest is history.

Seth [00:06:36]:

That’s awesome. So what is the best thing about being an entrepreneur for you?

Ashton [00:06:40]:

I want to be a bit cliche and say the flexibility, but I’m really bad at giving myself time. I was mad at myself recently. I was like, Ashton, you started this thing to have flexibility and you don’t give yourself time off. You don’t like, I’m actually going on vacation tomorrow. I’m like, I need to actually have the flexibility. That part of the reason why I started this in the first place. But I do. Most days I can walk down and get the kids off the bus. I do like that I can just roll out of bed and go into my beautiful studio that I’ve worked on over the years and be in here and just do my thing. I do appreciate that. And that I’m not going to lie. I like that. I can be like the master of how much money I make. That’s pretty nice. It’s very scary sometimes when you have a month. That’s a little on the sad side. But I’m definitely kind of a quote unquote hustler in a sense. I don’t like hustle culture, but I’m a bit of a hustler. When I’m like when the pandemic hit, I was like, I don’t care. I worked hard to get to this point. I’m not going to let a little thing like a pandemic slow me down.

Seth [00:07:47]:

A little thing like a pandemic.

Ashton [00:07:50]:

So I did my business model on the fly and it was like, basically acted like how I acted years prior. It was like, I got to figure this out. Yeah. I like that I can manage my own destiny when it comes to how I have my time set up, how I manage things. But I am a bit of a workaholic. I am. But you have to watch that. I know, I do. It’s awful. I’m really trying to be protective of my time this summer, especially during the summer.

Seth [00:08:26]:

The kids are the kids in the camp?

Ashton [00:08:27]:

Yeah, they’re with my husband right now because we’re getting ready for our vacation tomorrow. But I know it’s a very exciting, well deserved, see my family. Yes, I just launched a book last week because why not launch a book before? Why not that I’d been working on for a year and a half is, let’s just launch this book. But part of me was like, I just want to get it out there. And then when I get back from a vacation, then I’ll figure out how.

Seth [00:08:53]:

Soft launch it. That’s what we call soft launch.

Ashton [00:08:56]:

Yeah. And follow this, the philosophy that I use to write this book, part of it is a launch year, not a launch day. So when I get I’m going to actually map out what my launch year looks like and plan things for the next twelve months of things that I’m going to do to help get the book into the world. And I did beta reading process. Like, I had 82 beta readers. I did three rounds of beta reading. It was quite an interesting process that I undertook to write this book. Yeah, it’s exciting.

Seth [00:09:31]:

We’ll have to put the link in the show notes. You have to email me that and we’ll put that in the show notes.

Ashton [00:09:35]:

If it’s the errors, I will. Yeah. It’s called Beginner’s guide to Sketch Noting. So anybody who wants to sort of learn how to draw your own notes, it’s like really lean in on the beginner word because it’s really for people who may or may not know how to draw, but what I like value. Yeah.

Seth [00:09:54]:

That’s wild. So what keeps you up at night, besides the kids?

Ashton [00:10:00]:

I think I guess part of me with the book, I’m trying to shake up my business model a little bit because I think that’s the biggest thing that keeps me up at night. With up until this point, my work has been predominantly time sensitive. So hey, I have literally, literally in.

Seth [00:10:25]:

The conference drawing live, so it’s kind of time sensitive.

Ashton [00:10:29]:

Exactly. This is just a little bit but I really struggled with there’s my busy seasons. May, June, September, October, November. Those are the busiest months out of my year and I can’t even keep up those months. But then in the wintertime, in the summertime, which is okay, this summer to try to take some time off, but it’s a little bit quiet. Yeah. Everyone just wants to go to sleep in the winter. Like no one’s having conferences in December. Right. All or nothing. Kind of like when it’s conference season, I am working until three in the morning, but when it’s in the middle of winter, it’s quiet. So I think that’s the thing that I’ve really struggled with, what kind of keeps me up at night when I have such big swings of work, it’s like I’m really busy and then I don’t have time to follow up with people or market myself. But then when it’s in a lull, it’s like, oh man, I wish I had time to actually work on my business two months ago. So it actually inverses on all of that. Yeah, exactly. I’m pretty actively working to try to change that and add in different streams so that the lulls really is a little bit more of a they’re not as painful. Yeah. Because even with the pandemic, I was actually 100% in person before the Pandemic, so I really had to switch everything to working online. Yeah, just totally changed sort of that. But I still put all of my eggs in the conference basket. I still was like, well, that’s what I know. And I know people are trying to do conferences online, so I’m just going to it’s either. Online conferences are nothing right now, so I still continue to put all my eggs in that conference basket, and it’s very exhausting.

Seth [00:12:26]:

Are you hybrid now?

Ashton [00:12:28]:

Yeah, I’m pretty hybrid right now. Yeah. I still do a lot from home, which I’m really grateful for. And I’m trying to do that more. I’m trying to be as remote as possible, but I have been doing more in person stuff since the fall of 22. In person, being in person and drawing, it’s a totally different energy. So I do love it, what I can, but I am trying to balance I want to be able to balance some of that and my capacity around that too.

Seth [00:13:00]:

You’ll go?

Ashton [00:13:02]:

Yeah, yeah. Like before the pandemic. I was all through the US. I was over in Europe, a know, all across like all over the place. Yeah. Because where I live is so the the market here is you get a.

Seth [00:13:16]:

Break from Nova Scotia, which is kind.

Ashton [00:13:18]:

Of nice, and you have to come back. Exactly. Yeah. I appreciate a good city. I love visiting them, but I don’t want to live in one.

Seth [00:13:28]:

What is the most important thing to carry with you all the time?

Ashton [00:13:31]:

I think the most important thing that I carry with me all the time is my outlook on the world when it comes to I believe that everybody can experience and benefit from creativity. And that’s sort of like my core philosophy. So I think that’s what I carry with me in everything I do is my core philosophy that everybody is creative, and when someone says they’re not, I’m like, no, yes, you are. Everybody is. It’s just a matter of having an opportunity to explore that in a safe and a supportive way. Before I started my couple of years before I started my business, I started an art festival in my town, and it was a project where definitely a doer.

Seth [00:14:22]:

Definitely a doer.

Ashton [00:14:23]:

I’m a doer. I am. I’m an overachiever, that’s for sure. When I found out my blood type was A positive, I was like, of course it is a plus. Of course it is. That art festival was like a community project disguised as an art festival and sort of that philosophy because it was about allowing people to experience different forms of art in not just a traditional sense. So the program was always developed by what artist came and said, oh, I want to do this or I want to do that. And I try to have a lot of interactive opportunities for people to make something, even if it’s just like chalk on the ground or play an instrument or whatever. Because I feel like people can’t appreciate not just the creativity and their art community around them, but for themselves if they don’t have an opportunity to experience it for themselves. So I’m always looking for a different and I feel like doodling is such a low entry, like a low barrier to entry, because most people have some sort of experience, maybe not with art or with drawing, but if you say doodling, it’s a totally different energy. Right. You’re like, oh, yeah, that’s imposing. Yeah. And they’re like, oh, yeah, I got in trouble when I was a kid for doodling in my notebook or whatever. When there are studies now that say just doodling helps you retain information.

Seth [00:15:50]:

Some of these doodles are pretty elaborate.

Ashton [00:15:53]:

Yeah. I just am trying to encourage people to put pen to paper. So yeah, just going back to your question, that’s what I sort of carry through with me is, like this philosophy that everybody can be creative. You don’t have to draw anything like I do. It’s not going to end up in a museum. You don’t even have to show anybody. But you can use putting pen to paper or doing anything else creative to help you think, to help you learn. Like, we should be using art and creativity as a way to help us connect to our own ideas, to connect with people around us. Right. And I think the pandemic did sort of uplift art in the sense of like, yeah, what are people doing in their homes? They’re doing something. Probably they’re watching a movie. People don’t think about watching movies as art. It is we’re surrounded by creativity all the time. And absolutely, I think it can be such a powerful way for people to connect with the world around them, to connect to their own self, their own ideas. So that’s something that I’m always, like, trying when I get a chance, like now, to stand on a soapbox and talk about it. That’s what I like to talk about the most. Yeah, that’s what I like to talk about the most. Because I feel like a lot of people, too, I encounter they have a story, and it’s actually the first page in my introduction of my book of like, most people have a story where creativity was squashed, and they remember that. Right. Mine is my grade four teacher telling me I couldn’t, like, I was painting wrong, and I was like, I can’t paint. Then I guess I think I’m an anomaly. Whereas when I got older, I was like, no, I can do this any way I want. And that’s why I fell in love with folk art, because folk art, you don’t have any experience. You paint with whatever you can find. Like, I really love that sort of idea with folk art, but most people aren’t necessarily going to do that. They’re just going to have that experience be like, well, someone told me it was sort of squashed out of me at one point. I never returned because I felt defeated and I felt like I couldn’t do it. If you ask a child if they’re an artist, they say yes, because they’ve never been told that they’re not an artist. Right. We carry that through our absolutely. Yeah.

Seth [00:18:26]:

So where can people find you online if they want to learn more about Minds Eye Creative?

Ashton [00:18:32]:

Yeah, mindseyecreative.ca. Because I’m up here in Canada. CA. Yes. If you want to talk about an event that you want me to live, illustrate or something, do that. Or if you want to see all what this sketch noting thing is about, which is drawing your own notes, then you can go to sketchnote school and that I’ve got some free stuff on there. My book is on there. I’ve got a community on there. There’s a whole I know. Look at me go. Yeah. If you want to learn, you want to read up on learning, sketchnoting for yourself. How to draw. Even if you don’t know how to draw, I really handhold you through the whole process so you can go to sketchnote school. Yeah, I’m pretty easy to find, I think, on socials. Yeah.

Seth [00:19:25]:

You have a name? Ashton. Which is easy. Then Rodenhiser. There’s no Z, just so you know.

Ashton [00:19:32]:

There’s no there is no but yeah, you can find me on Pretty because my name isn’t super common. I’m pretty easy to so pretty easy to find.

Seth [00:19:41]:

And also it’ll be in the show notes, so that’s kind of helpful, too. So if you wanted these links, I’ll have them in the show notes. They’ll be a good so Ashton, this isn’t so great. I’m glad the Internet held up for us, too. So that’s a good thing.

Ashton [00:19:54]:

Yeah. No, it was fun. It was so fun. I could have talked to you for an hour easily.

Seth [00:19:58]:

We’ll have to do it again sometime soon, and we’ll see everyone next time. That was a great show. If you’re enjoying entrepreneurs Enigma, please view us in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps other podcast listeners find our show. If you’re looking for other podcasts in the marketing space, look no further than the Marketing Podcast Network@marketingpodcasts.net.

Ashton [00:20:26]:

You.

Seth [00:20:48]:

Goldstein hopes you have enjoyed this episode. Episode this podcast is one of the many great shows on the MPN Marketing Podcast Network.