How Using Your Creativity Can Spark a Six-Figure Business: Art by Stephanie Roberts
Stephanie Roberts, PharmD joins Tim Church to share how she went from full-time pharmacist to full-time mixed media artist after an Instagram influencer shared her pill petri art and made it go viral.
About Today’s Guest
Stephanie grew up in the hills of Eastern Kentucky, a small rural town named Prestonsburg with less than 5,000 people. From as early as she can remember, her go-to response to “What do you want to be when you grow up?” was to be an artist. Growing up as a straight A, high achieving student, there wasn’t a terrible amount of encouragement to follow your dreams if our dreams were outside the tidy box of medical field/law/etc. Stephanie learned to think like most adults surrounding her that being an artist wasn’t a “real job” or career and never thought much of it past elementary school. Art has never left her though and even as she studied and made her way through undergrad (Georgetown College) and then into pharmacy school (University of Appalachia), she was always making and painting as a creative outlet.
After graduation, Stephanie managed a couple different retail chains for a few years (PIC at CVS and Meijer), and finally landed an amazing opportunity as staff pharmacist at the University of Kentucky, opening a new retail location for them in their newest pavilion on the medical campus. At this point she had been out of school for 4 years, married with a one-year old and art was mostly a distant memory. A few years into her new position, she leaped at the opportunity when a 30 hour / 3 days a week (still considered “full-time” for benefits purposes) was offered to her, within the same pharmacy. The extra days off gave her more time with my children (up to 2 boys at this point!) and time to take up a small amount of creativity again.
The work was enough to take up every minute of her spare time but still, she was only dreaming of making art her full-time job. Until July 2019 when her resin coasters with medications suspended inside — what she has named “pill petri” — went viral. This whacky combo she created on a whim combining her love of epoxy resin and her career in medicine, became the tipping point that truly began a whole new life for her. The business was more than she could handle and she worked literally all day and night. Stephanie hired help, all either technicians or interns from her pharmacy, and together they fulfilled orders. She started an online shop that she would stock with hundreds of coasters just for it to sell out within 2 minutes with each release. After the most exhausting 2 months of her life working 2 full-time jobs, she finally took the leap and became a full-time artist still working 1 day each week in the same pharmacy. While the income from art has far surpassed her pharmacy salary, she continues to work to retain her pharmacy knowledge and stay fresh in the profession.
Summary
Stephanie Roberts joins Tim Church on this week’s podcast episode to talk about her amazing transition from full-time pharmacist to full-time artist. Stephanie always loved art growing up and kept creating during college as a hobby. After graduation Stephanie started working with CVS, became manager and then got her own store. After that, she worked at a Meijer in her town and then decided to work at a new pharmacy at University of Kentucky hospital which she absolutely loves.
Three years ago, Stephanie started taking interest in different artists she likes and felt inspired to create more, so she did. Working with epoxy resin was really popular and she was interested in it, so she dove in, researched different techniques and started to create art pieces. She posted pictures of the pieces she made on Instagram but never put a price on them and finally decided to one day. When she did, it sold within 10 minutes. At the end of 2018, she started to make pill petri dish coasters and sell them on Instagram. In July 2019, a very popular Instagram account (@things.i.bought.and.liked) shared the pill petri coasters Stephanie makes and it made her go viral and ultimately changed her life. She had hundreds of orders come in and she couldn’t take all of them. A month after, she spoke with her pharmacy manager about going down to one day a week so she could focus on her art business.
Now, Stepanie earns more money with her art business than she would with a full-time pharmacist salary. She makes different art pieces like wall panel geodes, ocean pieces, pill petri coasters and has a commission list several months out. Every Sunday at 9 pm she opens her shop. No matter how much she lists, Stephanie sells out in two minutes.
Stephanie has brought in help from people in her pharmacy circle to aid her in making the pill petri coasters, her most popular piece. She hopes to hire a full-time employee in the future and loves that she’s able to spend more time with her three children, have a flexible schedule and do something she truly loves.
Mentioned on the Show
- Credible Mortgage Refinance
- Art by Stephanie on Instagram
- Win Stephanie’s Art: Your Financial Pharmacist on Instagram
- Eli Lilly
- Justin Gaffrey
- Things I Bought and Liked
Episode Transcript
Tim Church: Stephanie, thanks so much for stopping by and being part of this side hustle edition.
Stephanie Roberts: I am super excited to be here. Thanks so much for having me.
Tim Church: Well, shoutout to my wife for kind of getting this episode started because she reached out to me probably about a month or so ago from the time of recording this and said, “Hey, do you know who this Stephanie person is? She’s got some really cool art, and she’s a pharmacist. And I actually have one of her pieces of artwork as my cell phone background. And I think you should reach out.”
Stephanie Roberts: That is crazy. It doesn’t surprise me, but you didn’t tell me that ahead of time because, I mean, I think most of my audience is women. And I have men messaging me saying, “My wife really wants your art. Can I get it for a surprise for her?” So I feel like it comes from the females. So that’s really funny you said that.
Tim Church: That’s so cool. Well, I can’t wait to dig into the art and all the things that you’re doing in addition to pharmacy. But I want to start out with a couple icebreakers because I think it would be fun. So Stephanie, you have to sing karaoke. What song are you picking?
Stephanie Roberts: Probably anything Reba McIntyre. I think you can hear the southern accent in there, but I love me some Reba.
Tim Church: OK. And what’s — any specific one?
Stephanie Roberts: Probably “Fancy.”
Tim Church: OK.
Stephanie Roberts: I don’t know if you even know Reba, but —
Tim Church: Oh, I know Reba.
Stephanie Roberts: Right. I mean, and I’m not a big country listener. But I mean, I’ve loved Reba from the time I was little. And I have the red hair and everything, so it works.
Tim Church: Now, I did pick up the southern accent a little bit. Where are you from?
Stephanie Roberts: Kentucky. From eastern Kentucky, from the mountains. And I’m central Kentucky now. But the accent is still with me.
Tim Church: Oh, cool. Alright, I’ve got one more for you. You have to delete all but three apps from your phone. Which ones are you keeping?
Stephanie Roberts: Well, I have to keep Instagram because that’s my bread and butter. Let’s see, what else do I really use? Don’t care much for Facebook, but I guess I do still use it. And then a photo editing, again, that’s a big — I have so many photo apps, I don’t know if I could choose one. But that’s big for me and the business.
Tim Church: Cool. Well I like that. And I knew Instagram was going to be one of them, but I was curious what the others are going to be. Maybe your email, right, so you can still communicate with people that want to order?
Stephanie Roberts: Oh, I don’t know. It’s good and bad. The email folders are full, the DMs are full on Instagram. I can’t say I’m doing great at the communication. But I’m grateful for it. But yeah, I’m not too great at it.
Tim Church: Well, I want to start out with you talking about your career path as a pharmacist because obviously this show is about side hustles and how you’ve been able to grow a business. But obviously, that was not where you started. You started out as a pharmacist. So I want to hear about that.
Stephanie Roberts: Oh, OK. Well, so not the most interesting career path, but I always knew I would be in retail pharmacy. So before I had even graduated pharmacy school, I had done an interview with CVS. And they hired me on the spot. And that just seemed like a great, you know, right-out-of-school job for me. I don’t think I had planned too much into where I wanted to be, which is great if you don’t have big expectations, then you won’t get let down. So I started with CVS and quickly became manager with CVS. I floated around and then I got my own store. And from there, that was still — it was a big commute for me. I was commuting about one and a half hours, so that was pretty exhausting when you drive an hour and a half and you have a 14-hour day and you drive an hour and a half back and then you do it again the next day. So another grocery store pharmacy that was in my actual town in Lexington, Kentucky, called me because they were looking for a manager that already had experience. And so I snapped up working at Myer because that was in town where I actually lived. And so I was with Myer for a period of time and then I had a customer that would come in all the time, and he was kind of a retired pharmacist. He had worked with Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, and he was getting his license in Kentucky. He didn’t really love it; he didn’t want to, but his wife was urging him to just so he could work part-time with the University of Kentucky. And that’s where his wife was a pharmacist too. Hey Jeff, if you’re listening. And he told me they were opening a new pharmacy. And I mean, he was just — he was so nice. I wasn’t even looking for another job, but he was like, “You really, really should look into it.” So I did, and I’ve been at UK ever since. It’s retail pharmacy, but it is completely different than what most people think of retail pharmacy. And it’s been awesome. I mean, I’ve said many times, if we ever moved out, I could never do old-school retail pharmacy ever again. It’s, you know, it sometimes can be the worst of the worst. But at UK, we do a lot for the employees and stuff but mostly with the inpatient, we have a program called Meds to Beds that delivers all the medications to the patients before they’re leaving, we service a lot of our transplant patients, we continue to do their medications through mail order, we have a specialty pharmacy. It’s just — and importantly, no drive through, which is a big win for retail pharmacy. But it’s so interesting. No day is ever the same as the last. It’s just — it’s really cool. It’s been eye-opening. I’ve learned a lot. I mean, I’ve learned about medications that are probably learned about in pharmacy school, I don’t even remember, but I’ve had to relearn them because they are fast movers whereas you wouldn’t have even seen them in your normal or average retail pharmacy. So that’s where I still am today one day a week. And I really love it there. I love the people and I love the way they run their pharmacy. And they give you plenty of help. We have so many pharmacists and so many technicians working together. And it’s so great to be able to bounce off any questions, bounce them off another pharmacist or anything when you’re just unsure of something where I wasn’t used to having that before. So yeah, that’s where I am today.
Tim Church: Wow. It sounds like you’re in a much better environment and that you really have a positive working atmosphere with your colleagues and just the things that you’re able to do. What are some of the other things that you like about it compared to other traditional pharmacy models?
Stephanie Roberts: Kind of like what I said about we’re not traditional in the way that we don’t have the drive-through. We don’t have a lot of people coming — not a lot coming outside into our pharmacy as in like outside of the hospital because we’re doing a lot of discharges, a lot of the prescriptions for the patients inside plus the employees and their families. So we really get to know our patients. We don’t see a lot of drug-seeking behavior, which I saw a lot in retail pharmacy. You know, that was kind of a fear, sometimes a safety concern when you’re working until 10 at night and, you know, other pharmacies have been robbed or things just look suspicious in the store. And I don’t really have that fear at UK, kind of in the heart of the hospital and if you wanted to take something from the pharmacy, you’re going to kind of have a long run to get out and pass security into a waiting car. You know what I mean? So it’s — I love that for even safety concerns. We’ve become a 24/7 pharmacy now. That just started about a year ago. So if you even have to work overnight, it’s a great place to be. So in those terms, everything’s interesting, everything’s different. Interesting also means you have new sets of problems and things when it comes to mail order and maybe people didn’t ask for their medications in time, so you’re calling a courier to drive it to them across the state because you don’t want any of your organ transplants to lose their well-earned organ. But it’s always interesting. I just can’t even compare it to any retail pharmacy I had experience with before. It’s pretty cool.
Tim Church: Yeah, I mean, it sounds like a great place to be if you’re a pharmacist. And like you said, it’s not only — it’s challenging, but it’s interesting. And you’ve got a great support team to help you along the way. So I think that’s really cool. Now, people listening may have just picked that up and said, “Stephanie, how are you only working one day a week?” And obviously some people choose to work part-time and they choose to work as-needed, but you know, you’re working one a day a week. And obviously as we were talking about before the podcast started that that’s not how it always was. So let’s jump into how Art by Stephanie got started because obviously that’s part of the story and how you’re working one day a week.
Stephanie Roberts: Right. And it seems kind of counterintuitive when I say I’ve got this wonderful job and now it’s, you know, down to one day a week by choice because I’ve decided to do something else. But I really loved it if I was going to do pharmacy full-time forever. And who knows? One day I might go back to full-time. But that’s where I would want to be. But the art kind of fell into my lap. So I’ve always loved art since I was a little girl, that was always my go-to when somebody asked me what I wanted to be, it was going to be an artist. But you know, as you grow up, not usually — people don’t usually encourage that as a career because let’s get real, there’s not a lot of artists we know that are doing it as a full-time career and paying all the bills. I’m not trying to say I’m special in any way, but you know, it’s not something parents usually encourage their kids to do. I have awesome parents, wonderful parents. So I’ve always done it as a hobby on the side, kind of always did it through undergraduate. As I became a pharmacist, it was something that was probably let go of for a few years. I got married, graduated from pharmacy school the next year, a few years later we had our first of three kids, and so you know, life was pretty busy. And probably about three years ago, I think through Instagram and YouTube and things like that, I started really taking interest in some artists that I love. I think Justin Gaffrey is one of my first artists I ever just like fell in love with his paintings. They’re really textured, and I’m just a texture lover. I love when paintings or art just like jump off the canvas. So I really loved Justin Gaffrey. A few others that I just watched and realized they were — they had a career. I mean, they were doing great. And a lot of their interest was through Instagram. And not that even in my head at that point was I saying, oh, I could become an artist one day. It’s just like I felt inspired to create. So I did. And I would share pictures. And still, I wasn’t trying to go after anything. I was just enjoying it and it was a great creative outlet. So I did that for a few years. It really started with paintings at first. And then I think epoxy resin kind of just like hit the art scene and everybody just started getting resin and I was really interested in that. So I started resin work and kind of 50-50 between painting and resin work. And one day, I just decided after a few years of this and just posting pictures, never trying to get sales, not pushing anything, I just wanted to create and share what I was doing, I decided to put a price in the text of the picture on Instagram, just wondering, you know, I feel awkward asking somebody how much something is. So maybe other people feel awkward too. You know? You’re afraid to get that answer, “Oh, it’s $10,000,” and you’re like, oh, that’s not in my price range. I mean, I just don’t even think I could ask another artist. It’s crazy sometimes. So that’s why I thought I’ll put a price on this and see if anybody’s interested. And it sold within five or 10 minutes. And I was like, well, that was really cool. So I just continued to do that. And I think that was one of my — it was a resin piece and I called it geode, and it’s like an art panel, and it’s stained glass and it’s resin and it’s different pigments and metallics and things like that. And so it was a geode.
Tim Church: And how much was your first piece that you sold on Instagram? How much did you sell it for?
Stephanie Roberts: It was $150.
Tim Church: $150. And how much did that first piece, like in terms of the materials, how much did it cost you to build that particular piece? And then how long did it take you to make it?
Stephanie Roberts: I would say in material cost, probably under $40. I’m thinking as for time, it probably took me five or six hours because it was one of my first ones I had ever made, so everything was troubleshooting and figuring out how to do this and that, which is something I can do a lot quicker after, you know, 100 of those at this point. But yeah. So I really wasn’t doing a cost analysis on my hourly wage or anything like that. I just thought there’s nobody that’s going to want to spend more than $150 probably. Nobody is even going to want to spend $150. That’s what I’m going to price it at because I was happy to keep it. And if nobody wanted it, I was happy to keep it. So yeah, that probably wasn’t my best cost analysis. But it was still great. It was still a profit, and it kind of went on from there.
Tim Church: I mean, that’s really exciting. So what’s going through your head, though, either in the moments before you put it up to say you’re putting it up for sale or even the week or the month before you decided to do that. What’s going through your mind?
Stephanie Roberts: You could probably ask my husband because I talk a lot, but he’s probably not listening. But I mean, at that point, I was like this is really cool. I could make more of these and I could do this and if I had so many a week, it would equal this. You know, it’s probably like, OK sure, but how many people are going to buy these? But you know, in my head I was just like, I’m going to make more and I’m going to put more price on them. I’m going to see if people want to commission these. Still not in the frame of mind like oh, this is going to be a full-time career. But a side hustle, yes. Did I need a side hustle? No. But I was, you know, I loved what I was doing. And if people were going to pay me to do it, that’s all the better reason why I would do it and, you know, not be helping with cooking or cleaning in the house or something. You know, it gives you more reason to do this hobby when you’re getting paid for it. You feel a little bit better about spending your time on it. So yeah, it wasn’t much later — I think that was about like October of that year. And this was 2018. And by November or December, I had made what I went viral for is the pill petri, which is on coasters, resin coasters, with over-the-counter medications in them. And I had put those — I just shared a picture of them on a pharmacy moms group, and I got more orders than I could handle. You know?
Tim Church: Wow.
Stephanie Roberts: It was kind of near Christmastime and everybody wanted them either for themselves or for a friend. And I mean, I’m not saying it was a million orders by any means, but I wasn’t prepared to even make 50 at a time at that point. And you know, maybe I had an order for 100. So that was pretty cool.
Tim Church: That had to been awesome to really validate that what you were doing was something that was very desirable that people wanted.
Stephanie Roberts: Yeah. It was really exciting. I mean, I still, still didn’t — I was not in the frame of mind that this was going to go anywhere, that I would keep creating and I would probably still sell on the side always, maybe people would ask me to do commissions and different work, and I was happy to do it. But it was a dream. Sure, you could ask me, “Would you want to do this full-time?” Yes. But I mean, that was a big dream. It didn’t feel like reality that that could happen.
Tim Church: Do you think that because you just focused on the art and using it as a creative outlet, something that you enjoy doing without the initial intention of monetizing, do you think that that mindset has eventually helped you along the way as to where you are now in terms of making, actually earning income from it?
Stephanie Roberts: Oh yeah. 100%. I don’t think I could have started out saying, “I want to do this for money,” and went anywhere with it. It was because I loved it, it was a passion, I was learning from other artists on the Internet and wanting to do what they did. You know, different techniques and stuff. And I mean, I worked on a lot of things that just went straight into the garbage. You know? It was just for fun. Yeah, I don’t — if I had started out this was all about money and this was all, you know, I don’t think I would have went anywhere with it.
Tim Church: So talk a little bit about what the actual products that you’re selling, you went into it a little bit with the petri dishes, but obviously we’re on a podcast so need to be as descriptive as possible. We’ll definitely share some pictures once this gets posted. But can you talk a little bit about what you’re actually creating? What’s selling the most? What’s the most popular?
Stephanie Roberts: Yeah, sure. So probably earlier — this timeframe that we’re talking about, it was earlier that summer I was working with the epoxy resin, which is a liquid that you mix and then you pour and then it cures to a hard clear kind of glass-like or acrylic end result. And being the dork that I am, I had some pills around, over-the-counter medicines, and I was like, wouldn’t this be so funny? So I put the medications into — it’s a silicone mold that you put your resin into if you’re using a mold. And I made a coaster out of them. It’s like a 4-inch diameter coaster, and it just looks like the pills are suspended in the resin. It takes a few layers to do this. So I had made that that summer, I posted pictures of it. Again, I wasn’t doing any prices back then, so it’s not like anybody even asked about, “Hey, can I buy this?” And it was later that year that — I don’t even remember, I don’t know what the genesis of it was, why I decided hey, I should make a bunch of these. But for some reason, maybe it was just being in that pharmacist moms group, I thought, this could be something that other dorks like me — and I’m just kidding — but you know, other pharmacy nerds might like too. So you know, I put it out there, this is what I’m doing if anybody would like it. And it was very well received. So those are kind of like coasters, like I said, and then I make a little bigger 6-inch diameter. It came about several months later, and I put letters and words and funny quotes in those. And I put funny quotes in the coasters now too. So a lot of customers will — especially in the beginning when I had more time to take requests, they would request, “Hey, could you do this with pink? Can you do this with black? Can you do it with glitter?” And I was happy to do anything anybody asked for. And then every time I would post a picture, there would be 300 other people that agreed with that person, man, we really want them in that color too. And it always led to a new variation of what we call the pill petri. And so now there’s maybe four or five different colors or glitters or clear, whatever, pill petris that I do. And somebody’s always asking for something different. But besides just the pill petri, I still do what I call the geodes, which are wall panels that you put on the wall and those are the resin and the stained glass and the crystals. I do these ocean pieces. Some people send me shells that they’ve collected on family vacations, things like that, and I’ve included the shells in their ocean art. And again, that’s with resin. And then it looks really realistic and pretty cool, I think. But I’ve also done pill art that hangs on the wall as well. So I kind of jump all around, which is exactly what my ADD loves is doing a little bit of everything. And honestly, what I went viral for, the pill petri, can start to feel like a manufacturing process after a while. It doesn’t really get my creative juices flowing all the time, and while it’s my bread and butter, I really try to do some other things in between to really feel like I’m using my full potential, whatever that is. But yeah. A little bit of everything. I still paint, I still have requests for paintings. I have a commission list that’s into March at the moment for a wall art that’s not just the pill coasters that I get recognized the most for. But there’s still a lot of people requesting wall art of different kinds, whatever that may be, the geodes, the oceans, paintings, pill art. Yeah. It’s kind of wild.
Tim Church: Yeah. I was going to ask you, because I feel like every time I check out your Instagram profile — which is awesome, by the way — I mean, even if you’re not going to purchase anything, I think you need to just go and visit it because you’re going to have a lot of fun. And there’s so many cool designs that are on there, some of which appear to be edible. But they are not, correct?
Stephanie Roberts: Thank you, yes. Yeah, those would be the textured paintings that I love to do. And I use piping bags like you would if you were decorating a cake to make a lot of the ones that you’re talking about that edible with the flowers and things like that and pellet knives and things. But yeah, I just, I love art that looks like it’s just jumping off the wall.
Tim Church: But some of the petri dishes, they actually have real candy in there as part of the design, right?
Stephanie Roberts: Oh, yeah. Right. Yeah, no, I have the candy coasters and things too. And I’m even collaborating soon with a big sprinkle company because the sprinkles I think have been my favorite, which is kind of full circle in my life just because I’m addicted to sweets and sugar. I wish I wasn’t, but I am. And I grew up loving ice cream just covered with sprinkles, almost as many sprinkles as you had ice cream. And I would get gallons — I mean, just huge containers of it in my stocking for Christmas. That was like a gift my parents — I remember my grandmother giving me sprinkles as a gift. I mean, that was a gift that people would give me. I mean, that says you have an addiction, right there. But so it’s kind of cool that’s full circle that I’m doing the coasters with the sprinkles and other candy in them and things like that because truly, that’s just who I am, addicted to sugar. So that’s kind of fun for me too, just another side of my personality to be using in art as well.
Tim Church: So one of the things I noticed, I feel like every time I go to your profile and I go on your shopify, everything is sold out. So I was going to ask you, what’s going on with that?
Stephanie Roberts: Well, it’s really funny you say that. But I usually have a shop opening and I’ve kind of — it’s kind of become a Sunday tradition and I’ve kind of stuck with that Sunday, it kind of worked for me, at 9 p.m., I don’t know, it just worked out to be a good time. And no matter how much I put in the shop, it sells out in two minutes or less. And it’s crazy. But people still ask me like, can’t you just have your shop open all the time and just take orders all the time? Or somebody will say, “Can’t you get a real website?” And I’m just like, I don’t know what a real website is versus my shopify account, but it’s not going to increase how much product I have to sell, which I don’t think always registers with people. But if I just had it open to take, you know, requests too, I don’t know how to humbly say this, but I mean, it would be a year’s worth of orders because I can see how many people are on there at shop time when it opens versus how many people get an order through. And you know, they want to take preorders and things like that, and I don’t want for their safety and for mine, I don’t want to take preorders that are six months in advance, which some people say they’re willing to wait when you don’t know what could happen in life, happen to me, happen to my family, my house. I don’t want to hold your money in preorder status. So I like to just sell either what I have or what I can make within the week. And it seems to be working out really, really well. Right before Christmastime, about a month before Christmas, was my biggest preorder I ever did just so people would know whether they got an order in or if they should be shopping for something else if it was a gift for somebody. And that’s why I did it at that time. So it was in November, and I took how many orders I guesstimated I could do in the month before Christmas, and I was exhausted. And even then with to me, the huge amount that I put in the shop, it was still sold out in two minutes.
Tim Church: Wow.
Stephanie Roberts: So that’s just — it’s just — I mean, it’s crazy.
Tim Church: I mean, that’s incredible. That’s incredible. I was wondering if this was like a marketing tactic you were using. But it actually is the fact that you would be too overwhelmed with the amount of orders that’s coming through, which is — I think it’s a good problem to have, right?
Stephanie Roberts: Yeah. I never in 1 million years would I ever dream I had this problem. I mean, in my most earnest hopes and desires, I was like, oh, I think I could push out this many a week and that equates to this much money and that’s almost equal to pharmacy. And oh, we could cut back on things and I could become a full-time artist. I mean, never, ever, ever, ever, did I think this would be “a problem” that I would have that things would sell out. So and that — just to back up, I know I’m jumping everywhere. But last July, things changed when somebody on Instagram shared the art she had purchased. And her Instagram name is @thingsIboughtandliked. And when she bought it from me, I didn’t know who she was. But apparently she was the Oprah of Instagram. And when she shared — I mean, she only shares things that she purchased with her own money and she likes it. That’s the title of her Instagram, that’s exactly what she does. When she shared it, my life completely changed. That night, I had probably — oh gosh, I don’t know because I never did get through all the messages — like 400 or 500 messages. She shared about 9 p.m. my time. She’s in Texas. At 4 a.m., I decided to go to bed after answering as many messages as I could because I thought, well, this is the only rush I’ll ever get in my life. Like I better take every message and every order I could. But even by 4 a.m., I hadn’t got through even half of the orders. And so from her sharing that, I mean, thank God for her. That’s when life changed. So that was in July, and by maybe a month — not even a month later — I had talked to my manager about going down to one day a week and becoming a full-time artist. It was that life-changing. It was crazy.
Tim Church: Wow. So at that point when she shared that, how many hours were you working?
Stephanie Roberts: I was a 30-hour pharmacist at that point. So I was working three 10-hour days a week, which is amazing. And back when I took that — so when I started at UK, I was your regular 5 day a week, 40-hour person, kind of banker’s hours. And then a few years into it, they knew I was interested in going to 30 hours, which is still full-time benefits, and that’s what I took on. And at that point, I was doing some more art on the side, and it was like oh, this is great. I’ll have more time for art and just feeling like the human that I want to be, a little bit of everything. And if I’m going to be a good mom, obviously that was more time for kids too. So you know, it was — everything was great. But so I was 30 hours when she changed my life. And yeah. I realized burning the candle at both ends, I wasn’t sleeping, I was working around the clock to fulfill these orders, you know, it was — self-care didn’t happen for like four months. It was crazy. So I knew something had to end. Either I had to just give it up and I can’t be the person that can fulfill all these orders or I can, and I’ve got to let go of pharmacy, which was very scary when the whole family is on my insurance because the hospital has amazing insurance and benefits and things like that. And my husband has benefits, but you just can’t compare to how awesome the hospital benefits are. So it was scary, and it was something we had to weigh as a family and what we’re losing, what we’re gaining, pretty cool to be at home whenever the kids do need me because definitely the mom guilt has added up over the years. Every time they’re sick, my husband’s job is he has the best job ever and he’s flexible and he can be there for them. But man, it really hurts when you can’t be there when they’re sick. So now I can. I can be there for the kids and just so many other benefits. So that’s where we are. And I have the most supportive husband — this would never happen without the husband I have. Like I can imagine there’s a good percentage out there that would kind of be like, let it go, Stephanie. You know, you’ve got a great job — which I did. Pharmacy was great. Let’s count our blessings, let’s move on with what we have. But he’s been really supportive, and I’ve had some really pie in the sky dreams, and he’s just kind of like, go for it. I think you can do it. And without him, again, I just — without support, I don’t know how you could do it. So I’m thankful for that too. And he’s had to — when I was saying that I was burning the candle on both ends, I mean, he’s a wonderful father. But he really had to step up his game even more and really do a lot of the home things with the kids and everything it takes to run a family and a home. And he enabled me to be able to just devote everything I could to both jobs and stuff. So pretty awesome.
Tim Church: Yeah, I mean, that’s just wild how one post, and a bazillion orders come through and everything changes and no longer is pharmacy your full-time gig but now it becomes the other way around. And I think for a lot of people, that maybe they want to make that transition or do that change, but there’s obviously a lot of fear that goes behind that. Like you mentioned, obviously the healthcare benefits, that’s one, and being able to afford healthcare when that’s something that’s part of your employer benefit package. But then also, are you going to continue to get orders like that? Is it going to continue to have a demand? Or is it a one-time spurt like that? I think that probably had to be going through your mind at that time as you’re making that decision with your husband with how you’re going to proceed.
Stephanie Roberts: Oh yeah. I mean, looking back at it, I don’t really know how we made that decision. Why did we really think it would continue? I don’t know. I mean, there was kind of markers where you’d say, yeah, it looks like people will continue. But we didn’t know. This was only a few months later, but I still look back and think, why did we really think it was safe to make that jump? I don’t know, but thank God it was. And it’s continued to be — it probably took me 10 shop openings to be like, you know, every time before it opens, are people still going to be there? Are they still going to shop? Are they still going to buy things? And now I feel confident they’re going to be there because they’re in my DMs, they’re in my messages, they’re saying, “When is the next shop opening?” And I feel confident. And I might even feel confident like that it will continue for a year, but I don’t know what the future holds. I’m hopeful. But like I said before, and maybe this was while we weren’t recording, but you know, I hate to let go of pharmacy in case I need to get back into it. It’s an amazing safety net. I can’t think of a lot of people, you know, that I’ve learned about over the years, amazing authors and artists of every variation that have held onto their side job for as long as they could while they were still trying to make it. I don’t know of any side job that was as great as pharmacy is, so it was — I mean, I’m so happy that’s my safety net, even if I had to go back to the trenches of some retail pharmacy that I would prefer not to work in. It’s still a blessing, it’s still there, it’s still wonderful. So yeah. I just kind of pinch myself every day that this is happening.
Tim Church: I mean, it’s incredible. I mean, I just, I’m sitting here behind the mic like, I’m just so fascinated and intrigued with your story and how you made that jump but also how you continue to make it happen and just the demand being there. I mean, it’s just wild. So I think a lot of people are probably thinking, alright, Stephanie, you basically said you’re crushing it right now. You can’t even hold your shop open for more than a couple minutes before you sell out of your business. Can you give us just an estimate — I mean, how much are you actually earning in the business? And is it comparable to what you were making full-time as a pharmacist?
Stephanie Roberts: I think my husband wishes I was a little bit better with numbers and keeping up with things like that, but Shopify and having that online presence has really helped me to see that and see my profits and, you know, tax season is going to be really interesting this year as we figure out what we’re doing with a new business. But after this year, hopefully we are more informed about everything we need to do better next year. But yeah, it’s doing better than pharmacy. I think I would have made that jump even if it was maybe doing a little bit less than pharmacy. I think we could have handled that in our finances. I have, again, my husband has a Master’s in business and education that I don’t even understand. But you know, so he’s wonderful to have around. I call him the CFO. But yeah, it’s doing better than pharmacy, which is a huge surprise. I would go ahead and estimate that it’s going to be over six figures this year. And I mean, that’s pretty cool. I don’t know that I could ask for more. So —
Tim Church: I mean, that’s incredible right there because I mean, I know there’s a lot of people that obviously are doing — designing art and doing creative works. And I think they dream of even getting remotely close to what you’re making. And so the fact that you’ve been able to do it and replicate the process and continue to have — there’s a need out there, obviously, for people that want your designs. I mean, that’s just incredible.
Stephanie Roberts: It is incredible because who would have even thought outside of the pharmacy network I was going to find an audience for pill petri? But I mean, it far surpasses just people in the medical field anymore. I mean, there’s all the nice, fancy blog influencers, I mean, Instagram influencers and things like that. Again, other people buy it and then share it. And it’s — I would have never imagined that somebody that wasn’t in pharmacy or medicine period would want these. So I mean, yeah, just crazy. And I feel humbled by it but also feel like gosh, I look at some people that are just so talented and I wonder if their sales are like this or they’re close to this and things like that. I don’t feel worthy of it. But it’s — I’m grateful. And it’s been a really fun ride. So yeah. I put my time in at least. I may not be as wonderfully talented as they are, but I have definitely worked my butt off. I can say that. I have put the time in for sure.
Tim Church: It’s easy to tell that. And like you said, coming from your initial motivations for even pursuing art were way beyond the ability to monetize it. So I mean, I think that’s really cool. Now obviously, you’re the secret sauce of the business and creating these awesome designs. But does anybody help you with different aspects of it?
Stephanie Roberts: I have been bringing in more people, and they are to help with it. Like I said, the coasters at this point are — it’s almost like manufacturing. We make hundreds a week, and it is probably more time-intensive than anybody ever assumes when it comes to how many layers of resin you pour and putting the pills in, creating the capsules we make with the glitter and the sprinkles inside, I mean, I have thousands of those we make. So it’s not just buying over-the-counter drugs, but it’s making the glitter capsules that are kind of, again, the secret sauce that people are just like, where do you buy those? We don’t buy them. We make them. So the people I have helping me, funny enough, are technicians I’ve recruited, interns I’ve recruited, and somebody just started for me recently as one of my fellow pharmacist’s daughters. So it’s been kept close to home. I hope to hire somebody really full-time and, you know, become more of an assistant. I always tell people when I say, “Do you want to come over and help?” I mean, obviously, they get reimbursed. But you know, it’s not the most fun. But you know, we try to make it fun. It’s just time-consuming and we listen to our podcasts and we watch TV on the iPad or do whatever. So we keep it as lively as we can. And it’s not boring. It’s not the most fun. But it’s, you know, it’s better than on your worst day in pharmacy for sure. You know, the days when insurance is down and you know the customers don’t understand that and somebody’s sick and the very worst days, you’re like, yeah, you know, at my worst I may be a little bit bored on some occasions. But yeah, it’s still pretty great. I like the day-to-day
Tim Church: What about an accountant or a lawyer to help with some of the legal issues with the business? Anything — any of those people supporting you?
Stephanie Roberts: Well, I don’t have a lawyer that I have kept on staff or anything like that. But in the beginning, before we jumped this as a full-time career, my husband said, “You really need to figure out if this is legal. Legal, legal, legal.” I had kind of already been doing it, but he’s just like, you can’t jump to this full-time — and I had researched it on my own as much as I could to make sure everything was OK. So I think I contacted three different pharmacy lawyers that I knew of. So they were pharmacists plus attorneys. And they were all gracious enough — I mean, just on a friend basis looking into it for me. And nobody could find any reason why this would be, you know, illegal. Again, they’re over-the-counter medications, there’s no prescription medications in there. People shouldn’t be able to get — I mean, to get into the resin to get into a medication, you would have to use a drill. And by the time you got down to the pill, it’s going to be obliterated. So you know, good luck trying to get that Tylenol out of there to take it, but I don’t think it’s going to hurt anybody.
Tim Church: I was going to go for the Sour Patch Kid or the Swedish fish.
Stephanie Roberts: Oh, OK. Yeah, I mean, just swallow the coaster whole. That would probably easier to do than to get down to those. And on the gummies too, I mean, I’ve covered those with like shellac-type substances. So yeah. You’re not going to want them. So definitely have an accountant that will be helping us with our first tax season as a sole proprietorship this year. Plan on becoming an LLC. Should have done that last year, but time definitely got away from me. LLC I think would be much more beneficial. But yes, an accountant is a must. I don’t think we would do this on our own. Not yet. Maybe in the future. Probably not. But — and I hope I never need a lawyer, other than the initial, “Hey, is this legal?” I hope I don’t need another one for any reason.
Tim Church: But one of the things along the lines I was going to ask was, do you have any patents or other protections on your designs?
Stephanie Roberts: I have looked into patents, and patents on art are pretty difficult. You can get them, but then you have to enforce them. And when I get into something, I really — I get into 175%. So I have done every online course and researched other entrepreneurs in every field and even people like — I think it’s Sarah Blakely that does the Spanx brand. As a male, I don’t know if you’re aware, but I mean, Spanx is a huge brand. So maybe at this point you know what that is. But I mean, even on her designs, she said she had patents and people were ripping it off here and there. And she’s like, you know, I didn’t have enough time, I didn’t care enough, really, to go after every one of them. I just was focused on what I was doing. And that girl is into making billions these days. So there’s a lot of stories kind of like hers that make me believe there’s copycats. I already have copycats. And I try to just see it as flattery. They’re not doing as much. But —
Tim Church: Their shops are open, right?
Stephanie Roberts: Yeah, yeah, their shops are open all the time, just like — yeah, exactly. But yeah, I think I’m just going to keep my blinders on and keep trying to do what I’m doing and always stay ahead of them. That’s kind of one thing, it’s kind of motivated me to always stay ahead and be thinking of more, not to get comfortable or same like, you know, looking ahead, maybe we could assume I have some business in the future. But let’s not always assume. Let’s just work and earn that business and keep your clientele and keep the customers coming back for more. So it has motivated me in that way to not get comfortable and say, this is easy-peasy from here on out. No. I need to always be doing more. So that’s pretty cool.
Tim Church: So Stephanie, what advice would you give other pharmacists out there who have other interests and passions beyond pharmacy that maybe have the potential to be monetized?
Stephanie Roberts: I don’t know if I would say, jump into it. But you can do it. I mean, I just, I really think if you have a passion and a will — I saw this quote I think just two days ago, and it’s so simple. But it just really hit home for me, and it was just like, “I don’t know how, but I’m going to do it.” I mean, it was something like that. But I don’t know how, but I’ll make it happen. And it’s just like yeah, that’s exactly what it is. I don’t always know the how, but I’m going to figure it out and I’m going to do it. And I think anybody can. I think as I’ve entered my 30s and the more I’ve listened to and digested all these wonderful podcasts that exist that interview all these amazing entrepreneurs and people doing — it’s just like, you can do it. I mean, it’s amazing you can do it, how you can think outside the box and really make it happen. Growing up, I just really didn’t do that. It just seemed like degree all the way and that’s all you can do. And now I really want to educate my kids on — I mean, college is wonderful and I hope they go to college, but there’s so much more outside of that with being creative thinkers and finding a solution to a problem and that’s how some of the best inventions are made. I would just say if you’re really into it and you have a passion for it, do it. I don’t think money is always the best motivator. I think after awhile, you would get — you’re going to be exhausted and give up if it’s only about the money because I know from experience if this had only been about the money, oh, I would have given up a long time ago. It’s been exhausting. It’s been hard. But like I said, with three little kids at home, it’s not been easy. But I wanted it. So I kept on going. And I went days with only three hours of sleep every night. And that really takes a toll on you. But I wanted it. So I was going to keep on going. And I don’t think if you’re doing it only for the money that you would push through all the time. So you know, if you find something you’re passionate about, go for it.
Tim Church: I love that. Well said, Stephanie. Well thank you so much for coming on the show, sharing your story, really looking forward to hear how you continue to just explode this business. And I look forward to the day when you’re shop’s open and possibly I can order something for my wife. But also I like the coasters too, so even though you said you’re catering to a lot of women out there, I definitely think that there’s some really cool designs that you’ve done, especially if you’re a pharmacist or have that background that are really cool to have in your house. So I would encourage you to check out some of the designs. So if someone wants to reach out to you or learn more about what you’re doing and Art by Stephanie, what’s the best place to go?
Stephanie Roberts: Well thank you so much. And I have made some male designs for some male pharmacists and some doctors that did not have glitter pills in them. That’s all it takes. You just subtract those out, and it’s a male coaster. But Instagram is the best place to find me, and it’s pretty simple, but it’s @artbystephanieroberts. And you can get everything you need from there. The link is in the profile for my shop. Again, that’s most Sundays. But you know, @artbystephanieroberts on Instagram, you can find my email from there. And that’s really the place to go.
Tim Church: Thank you for listening to this episode. And as always, if you liked the content and want to hear more side hustle and pharmacist entrepreneur stories, please leave us a review on the Apple podcasts app or whatever player you use so we can get the message out and help other pharmacists on their financial journey. Just a reminder, if you want to win some of Stephanie’s art, follow @YourFinancialPharmacist and @artbystephanieroberts on Instagram and then comment on our audiogram post that’s going to be posted on Instagram Friday, March 13. And you’ve got one week to do this, and we will announce the winner the following week on Friday, March 20.
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