Making Something From Nothing: Katy Allen Of Artful Agenda On How To Go From Idea To Launch

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

…Being a little naive doesn’t hurt: There are times, looking back, when I’m glad that I didn’t know certain things before launching Artful Agenda. For instance, I might have been hesitant to even begin had I known how much money it would have cost upfront.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Katy Allen.

Katy Allen is the founder of Artful Agenda, a smart and stylish digital calendar inspired by popular paper planners but created with the digital functionality to be accessed anywhere you are. Artful Agenda is the only aesthetically focused digital calendar on the market that is compatible with Google, iCloud, and Outlook and you can even sync multiple accounts to integrate your work, school, personal, and/or family life. Whether you are tech-savvy, eco-conscious, manage a busy household, or are simply forgetful, the Artful Agenda is available at your fingertips as a web app for desktop or through the iOS Apple App Store and Android Google Play Store. Artful Agenda is more advanced and cost-efficient than many of today’s leading paper planner brands, priced affordably at just $3.99 per month or $35 annually. Born out of a life-long love affair with paper planners, Artful Agenda was founded in 2018 by Katy Allen, a mother, wife to America Idol champion Kris Allen, and creative entrepreneur, as a solution to family scheduling conflicts. Artful Agenda is 100% women-founded and operated and with over 750,000 app store downloads, it has helped countless users stay accountable, motivated, and inspired.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

I was fortunate to have had a great childhood. I grew up in Arkansas, which is where we settled when my dad retired from the United States Air Force. My mom was a teacher, and I am one of four children. I have an older brother and younger identical twin sisters. As a child, my parents made sure that my life was full of experiences and extracurricular activities. They always encouraged my creativity. I especially loved theater and gymnastics growing up.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I love this quote from Amelia Earhart, which says, “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” I find this to be so true when it comes to anything related to starting a business or improving your life in general. Taking the first step is key. Getting out of your head and into a place of action is what matters most!

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

I have two. The first is the movie “What Women Want,” starring Helen Hunt and Mel Gibson. I saw this movie when I was younger, and I was enamored with Helen Hunt’s character, who is a high-powered marketing executive. She comes in and takes over the boardroom with her creative ideas. I knew I wanted to be like her and work in a business environment where I could use my creativity and make things happen!

The second is the book “Procrastinate on Purpose,” by Rory Vaden. I read it while trying to juggle my full-time job as sales director for Usborne Books & More, as well as working on the side to launch Artful Agenda. I had a discussion with a friend about feeling crushed, and she recommended Rory Vaden’s book to me. I tell people all the time how this book changed my life. Before reading it, my approach to time management was about challenging myself to see how efficient I could be by creating lists and seeing how quickly I could get things done. I had a workhorse mentality. This book, however, opened my mind to hiring help, outsourcing, delegating, and eliminating things. Had I not read this book, I would not have been able to successfully launch Artful Agenda because it was the commissions from my full-time job that funded the development of the app. I needed to do both jobs, and that book taught me techniques to feel more comfortable with outsourcing. It’s an excellent resource for entrepreneurs.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?

I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit and the desire to be a business owner. Because of that, I had my eyes open, looking for a great idea to turn into a business. Once the idea came, I was excited and motivated to run with it.

Another thing that helped me early on to transition Artful Agenda from an idea into an actual business was a willingness to ask questions. When I didn’t know where to start, I just asked questions and kept moving forward to where the answers led me. In the beginning, I sent a few emails to people in my life that I thought might have a vague idea about how to develop an app. Those people would point me in the direction of somebody they knew who could offer me more advice, and I kept following those leads.

One of the best things I did in the early stages of launching Artful Agenda was to hire a business coach. I reached out to her initially because somebody told me that she might have useful connections in technology. She deserves a lot of the credit for my early success because she was able to advise me on things I hadn’t even thought about yet, like brand identity, social media development, pricing, and so on.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?

When I first came up with and shared the idea for Artful Agenda, a lot of people would say, “Surely that already exists.” To me, if people are continuously saying that, then it probably means that it’s a good idea. I knew that I wanted this product for myself, and the idea came about because I was searching to see if it already existed. Google made it easy to research whether or not my idea had already been created. You can also check trademarks to see if somebody has trademarked your business name. I decided that if I researched the idea and it already existed, but I couldn’t find it easily, then it didn’t even matter if it existed because the creator wasn’t bringing it to market in an impactful way.

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

The first step I took in launching Artful Agenda was asking questions and following the trail of information that it led me down, which is how I ended up with my business coach. From there, I was connected with a tech consultant who helped me “story” my app idea, which is detailing line-by-line what the app could do and how it was unique so that we could shop it to development companies and get bids on it. After getting quotes from various firms and selecting a developer, I was connected with a user interface (UI) designer who helped me design the entire app.

The initial developer I selected failed to complete the job in the time frame they were contracted for, and it was a very emotional experience for me. I felt as if I had spent so much money and had nothing usable to show for it. I was devastated. I went into the sourcing and contracting process far too trusting. I learned that when you get into a serious business deal like that, you have to have a contract in place that is designed to protect you and ensure that you are getting your product for your money. Thankfully, my UI designer helped me hire an alternative firm, and I transferred my code to Twin Sun, who fixed and finished my code. I learned my hardest lessons during this phase of the process.

Once I conceptualized, storied, shopped, designed, and developed Artful Agenda, it was finally time to launch. In its original form, it was a web app for desktops, and only a few hundred people signed up initially. In order to recoup the money I had invested in Artful Agenda, I realized that I needed help with marketing. My developers referred me to a firm with experience in technology marketing, and this connection changed the course of my business. Marketing was a significant investment upfront, which was a concern after spending so much on developing the app, but their team was so driven by ROI that I could see the trajectory. At that point, I had invested too much to let it fail. I realized I needed to be willing to spend more money to see it succeed, and thankfully it worked. As soon as I backed Artful Agenda with real marketing dollars, it took off. This generated enough funds to launch the mobile app one year later.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?

1. Being a little naive doesn’t hurt: There are times, looking back, when I’m glad that I didn’t know certain things before launching Artful Agenda. For instance, I might have been hesitant to even begin had I known how much money it would have cost upfront.

2. The product you develop is only as good as the marketing plans to support it: Your marketing plan is equally important to the product you develop. You need to put marketing dollars behind your product so that it can reach the right audience and yield profits.

3. Spend money on legal advice: Invest in having an attorney look over your contracts to ensure that you are going to receive a usable and acceptable product and outline your legal recourse if you have to go elsewhere in the end. I learned this the hard way!

4. The cost of app development does not stop when it launches: When you build an app, expenses continue to accrue even after it’s released. I was initially under the impression that I would spend money on developing an app, and then it would generate income without further investment. I didn’t realize that I would have ongoing expenses to maintain the app, provide technical support, expand features, and so much more.

5. Hire a business coach: There is no shame in asking for help or getting a second opinion as an entrepreneur. My business coach helped me plan for things I wouldn’t have thought of and connected me with the people who helped grow Artful Agenda in ways that I could never have.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

The first is to see if it’s out there, to begin with. Even if it already exists, that’s okay, you might be able to do it better. Then, start asking people in your life who might be able to put you in touch with the right people in your sphere of business. After that, begin building out your idea line-by-line, as detailed as possible, to showcase its capabilities. You need a comprehensive model because you can’t get bids on developing it without that. There is a lot of behind-the-scenes preparation work required before you can bring a product into the world.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

A business coach was extremely helpful for me as an entrepreneur. I didn’t pay an exorbitant amount, and I wouldn’t recommend that somebody spend a ton of money on a coach because you can hire one for a reasonable fee. Having some sort of guidance and support during the invention process, even if it is a topic or field you already have some experience in, can help you think things through with more clarity.

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

I bootstrapped Artful Agenda the entire way, and I own 95% of the company. I gave my development company 5% because they are so invested in my business. It’s hard for me to tell someone not to bootstrap it because I did, but I also recognize that I was fortunate enough to have a stream of income that I could allocate towards my business. I don’t think there is anything bad about using venture capitalists, but as a bootstrapper, I have enjoyed being the one to call all the shots.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I would like to think that Artful Agenda betters the world by helping its users live the life they want to live. A life where they are less stressed, more motivated, and feel more in control and inspired in their daily lives. The entire idea behind Artful Agenda was to give people a tool to help them be more productive and successful in their own endeavors. My hope is that the more Artful Agenda grows and the more people it reaches, the more value it will bring to people’s lives.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I am working with a couple of my close friends to create a mastermind network that will be led by female business owners who aspire to live lives of excellence. The idea for the mastermind network resulted from working with all of the people who championed me while building Artful Agenda. I hope I can do the same for other aspiring entrepreneurs.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Reese Witherspoon. Growing up, everybody told me I looked like her, which is fun, but I really admire how her businesses focus on empowering women. As a female-run company, we also try to do that at Artful Agenda. I think Reese and I share a lot of business interests, and I have a feeling she would love Artful Agenda. I would jump at a chance to collaborate with her and create Draper James covers for our users. She really is such an inspiration to me!

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.