Today we’d like to introduce you to Chynna Denny.
Hi Chynna, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Chynna Denny. I’m a mother, globetrotter, author, and creator. I own and operate Chynna Creative Co. A multi-faceted boutique agency specializing in publishing, book consulting, and creative services. I was born and raised in Canton, Ohio, and spent the last decade of my life living abroad in Europe with my family. Although I was able to support my partner with his career, I struggled to make a living in another country.
Early in my career, I was an inexperienced photographer who was severely undercharged for sessions, and my career became a stressor more than anything else. At some point, I stepped away from photography and started to work as an ESL teacher for kids in China. I was making a steady income from that position and eventually used it as a crutch to ignore my business altogether.
When COVID started to surface in China, ESL teaching slowed down and it forced me to make a choice. I needed to bring my business back to life, but photography wasn’t going to be the answer while still living abroad! I decided to put my time and effort into writing and illustrating my children’s book titled, I can’t, I can’t… I CAN! A story about a little girl who had to overcome her shyness and face her fears to accomplish her goals. The story and illustrations are based on my experience growing up as a shy child.
In my experience growing up, there weren’t too many book characters that looked like me, so it was important for me to have diverse characters inside of my book as well! This book was a stepping stone for the revamp of my business. It received great feedback from my peers and sold enough copies to reach best-seller status on Amazon!
From there, it was the push of a business peer working on a cookbook of her own who needed me to step in to format and complete the publishing process of her book. After I was able to successfully publish her book, she nudged me to turn my personal publishing experience into the “bread and butter” of my business; thus, Chynna Creative Co. was reborn!
After years of hardly bringing in income from my business alone, 2020 was the year I finally became profitable as an entrepreneur. Since then I have scaled to helping hundreds of clients become self-published, best-selling authors and plan to launch an online course in 2023, that will serve as one-stop-shop teaching aspiring authors how to correctly and successfully, self-publish books!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It took a lot of trial and error to find the right niche for me. I wasn’t always confident in my abilities and my earlier years I was always discouraged by how many people didn’t see the value in my pricing and services. For a long time, I didn’t have the confidence that I would ever be able to solely rely on being an entrepreneur.
Even now I still run into struggles. Having limited resources means I am my web designer, social media manager, virtual assistant, accountant, and business talent. It has been hard to scale my business, keep my business and personal life separate, and juggle active family life simultaneously. However, though things can get really difficult, I enjoy and am thankful for the opportunity to be so hands-on with my business and involved so heavily with my child’s growth.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’ve been called a Swiss army knife of creative services. I’ve had my hand in learning digital illustrations, photography, videography, video and photo editing, book formatting and publishing, etc. There’s nothing I can’t teach myself when it comes to creative services.
My eagerness to try new things over the years led me to the accomplishment I am most proud of, my children’s book (I can’t, I can’t… I CAN!). This book is extremely personal, as I wanted to prove to myself that I am capable of overcoming fears and completing projects. Growing up, I used to draw a lot and loved it, but I stopped due to bullying.
Since then, I was very hesitant to show anyone my art because I was always afraid they wouldn’t like it. If I could go back and tell my 9-year-old self, that she’d grow up to write and illustrate a book, she wouldn’t believe it! Completing the illustrations for this book and seeing it through to publication was an incredible feeling and was also the starting point of my business’s rebrand to what it is today!
What are your plans for the future?
Now that I have a consistent clientele, it is important to me to continue reaching a bigger audience without burning myself out. I have been working on content to produce an online course that will help educate my clients and give them the tools needed to write and publish their books.
I set the expectation for my clients that being a self-published author means that you not only assume the role of a writer, it means you could also be an editor, graphic designer, formatter, marketing rep, agent, social media manager, and publicist, and more, using your resources. My course will give authors step-by-step instructions on how to go from zero to the self-published author, as well as resources to find any vendors or outside help they’d need within their budget.
Be on the lookout, Brainstorms to Best-Sellers™ is coming in 2023!
Contact Info:
- Website: chynnacreativeco.com shychybooks.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/chynnacreativeco instagram.com/shychybooks
- Facebook: facebook.com/chynnacreativeco facebook.com/shychybooks
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/cant-CAN-Chynna-Denny/dp/0578574489/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1G934YPHJ90RE&keywords=chynna+denny&qid=1671694262&sprefix=chynna+denny%2Caps%2C189&sr=8-1
Image Credits
Kamron Khan Photography and Christina Jones Photography
