People Doing Cool Stuff – Chalk of the Town | Megan Manning

I’m lucky enough to meet a lot of people from all over the world who are doing cool stuff!

 

Having spent a lot of time working in pubs with prominent chalkboards like the Belgian Beer Cafe, The Greenwood and The Albion, I know how important it is to have them done professionally so they are neat, legible, and inviting. And I know it’s MUCH harder than it looks!

Let’s have a chat with Chalk Of The Town’s Megan Manning and find out how she does it!

Tell us a bit about yourself and your business – what is Chalk Of The Town all about?

I’m Meg and I run and operate Chalk of the Town signwriting.  What’s Chalk of the Town you ask? Well, I’m an artist and I work mainly with Chalkboards.

 

Tell us about your journey, how did you get to this point?

I started my little business when I lived in Europe and needed to start making some money. I have always been creative and good at art so when the opportunity to work closely with a local artist to learn my trade arose I jumped at the opportunity.

I trained alongside my mentor for 6 months in Spain before returning to Australia and starting up my little business here 2 years ago and haven’t looked back yet.

Have you ever seen one of those fancy colourful chalkboards in a pub or a restaurant and wondered how or who did that? Well that’s what I do. I’m the person they hire to create those masterpieces!

I also create beautiful signage for weddings, parties, events and businesses which is cool because I get to work with other businesses and wedding vendors on photoshoots and all sorts.

 

What music/song have you got on high rotation right now?

Well, It’s a pretty funny story. Most likely a ‘you have to be there kind of moment’ but, our kids LOVE Detroit Rock City from KISS so as we can imagine we have to play this every time we get in the car or are at home listening to music.

They all know the words (even the 2 and 3 year old) and jump around like crazy when it comes on. They are so cute!

 

How do you stay motivated?

Hmmm, this is a hard one because sometimes I do struggle to motivate myself BUT I Love what I do so I just remind myself of that and it kicks me up the butt on the days that I need it.

 

What/who inspires you?

This is so super soppy of me but I would have to say the person who does inspire me if my Husband to be. He is the most amazing person I have ever met and he inspires me to be the best person that I can be and to always work hard and to never give up.

 

How do you deal with impostor syndrome?

Well, I just remind myself that I AM good at what I do and how far I have become.

 

What’s your favorited place/way to relax?

My husband and I both work fulltime and we have 3 kids so we never really get to relax, because as you can imagine our life is pretty full on!

But when we do get a chance to have some ‘us time’ and relax our number 1 destination is Busselton, We often grab our snorkelling gear and go off snorkelling for the day. In this beautiful country it would be stupid not to, Right?

 

If you hadn’t started your business what do you think you’d be doing right now?

A long long time ago before I became a mum I actually studied Graphic Design at university (this also comes in very handy for my business now) so most likely I would be doing something creative anyway.

 

What’s been your most successful Social Media platform for your business? Do you think you’d be in the same place if it wasn’t for Social Media?

My Major Marketing Platform that I use is Facebook. About 99.9 % of my clientele has seen my work on Facebook or via word of mouth.

 

Have you hit any huge problems that made you re-think your whole career? How did you get around it? What was your approach to solving the issue?

Yes, but only with Bride funnily enough.

I recently took 6 months out because of some not very nice people. I won’t go into details but it was a very stressful time that was completely unnecessary.

Thankfully thought I fought back and came out even stronger and more determined than ever.

 

What is the hardest thing about your work?

I love my Job, I love the creativity and the freedom but sometimes you just meet people that have no idea about advertising, or don’t have a creative bone in there body and they are so adamant on an idea of what they want which is complete poo but they just won’t listen to your advice.

I find this hard because number 1 its my name on the artwork and number 2 it makes me cringe haha, but apart from that I am really luckily to be doing what I do.

 

How do you manage it all with such a busy schedule?

It’s taken me A long time to balance work with life but we are getting there. I am very strict about the hours that I work and where I work.

I have to work from home so I can take care of my children and I will not work after hours or at the weekend as that is family time. I have found balance and I manage to do all of my work and be a mum and wife at the same time. Its great.

 

What’s next for you?

I would like to teach some hand lettering courses to the general public so that could be something I look into this year.

We will see how we go.

 

How do we find and follow your cool story?

Facebook

Website

 

Make sure you stay tuned for more cool stories! And if you think you’re doing something cool – get in touch!