Kat Gaskin
Published September 2019
Meet Kat Gaskin, the content planner
Meeting Kat Gaskin is like meeting a ray of sunshine.
When we first met Kat, her energy radiated pure beachy sunshine, and just like the sun, her energy warms and energizes. A conversation with her is always inspiring and motivating by serving up some real-mean tips that are knowledgable, focused and actionable.
In our Make Lemonade Entrepreneur, we sat down and interviewed Kat to learn more about her experience running her business. Experience her energy in the video and blog below!
Video by White Lioness Media
My name is Kat Gaskin. I'm the founder of The Content Planner, I spend my days going to the beach, planning my next travel vacation and running my business. The Content Planner, it's an e-commerce business where I created the first and only physical planner for your blog and social media content.
Start Somewhere
By trade I'm a graphic designer. I used to work full time nine to five in downtown Toronto and I had that “A-ha” moment at my desk sitting there completely bored off my ass thinking: “I am not truly living my purpose. I am so unfulfilled. My creativity is being completely wasted” and that is when I made the conscious decision to become my own boss. I started my own personal brand called Salty Pineapple. It's tropical beach sunset inspired. It's where my soul is creative. It's where I play and it's how I got started in freelancing. I built a scalable business that is product based. I run it completely remote. My warehouses in America, all of the people I contract out are also remote workers, so I'm still able to work and travel at the same time.
Think it, want it, get it
My parents thought I was batshit crazy for quitting my job because I saved for 11 months. I made a list of all of my dream clients. I assigned myself projects at the time when I didn't have the kind of client work that I wanted coming in. I created myself, because as the saying goes “do things for free and eventually you'll get paid to do it” and it sounds crazy thinking back now, but I get paid to take pictures of pineapples. You truly learn a lot about your personality, your weaknesses, amplify, but your strengths also get stronger.
Photo by White Lioness Media
When Life Gives You Lemons…
My co-founder broke up with me through text. She didn't want to move on with the business and I truly believed in what I had created so I was heartbroken, devastated. She was like family to me and for her to just break up with me through text message and cease all contact, it was really hurtful and I decided to make lemonade by starting up the business again, founding the company on my own, and running it all by myself to this very day.
BOSS
the highlight of my freelance graphic design career was definitely coming up with the quote, “be a pineapple, stand tall, wear a crown and be sweet on the inside.” and I shared it on social media. It has since gone completely viral. It is all over the world. It’s in the States and Canada, I've seen it in Africa, in Peru, in a tiny cafe in Bali. I'm getting it engraved on my grave.
“Be a pineapple, stand tall, wear a crown and be sweet on the inside”
Slow down and take time to discover yourself. I moved to Australia and it was one of the most incredible trips of my life because when you're by yourself, you really get to know who you are. And when you are around complete strangers, you kind of get to be the person that you've always wanted to be and how well you know yourself will translate into how well you can build a brand and how well you can communicate to your followers in your community and your customers. So when people ask me, how do I start a personal brand, how do I build a brand that's recognizable? You do that first by knowing who you are.
Thank you to Kat Gaskin, and White Lioness Media for helping to bring together this blog!
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