Chapter 1: What is the main focus of The Top podcast?
This is The Top, where I interview entrepreneurs who are number one or number two in their industry in terms of revenue or customer base. You'll learn how much revenue they're making, what their marketing funnel looks like, and how many customers they have. I'm now at $20,000 per top. Five and six million. He is hell-bent on global domination. We just broke our 100,000-unit soul mark.
And I'm your host, Nathan Latka. Yesterday, I interviewed Tai Lopez and it got hot. I said, Tai, no one thinks you actually own that Lamborghini in your YouTube video. Do you? You're not going to believe his response. Okay, top tribe, today our guest is none other than Molly Hahn, who began her daily meditative sketch practice in 2011 after a series of traumatic life events.
Her Buddha comics, light in heart but deep in intent, greatly helped her in her own healing process. To share and pay forward this joy, she began posting Buddha Doodles online and was delighted when they quickly found an audience. The Buddha Doodles community is now over 200,000 strong and growing at BuddhaDoodles.com.
Molly and I met via Sean Malarkey, who we spoke with in episode number 17 in Santa Barbara, California. And you can find her hanging out there with her feline artisans, Biscuit and Basho. And she also does freelance illustration at MollyKuhls.com. Molly, are you ready to take us to the top?
That was amazing. Thank you so much. I'm blushing.
Can we just say really quick and the top tribe listening right now, you're either jogging or you're driving to work. I want us all to say Buddha doodles three times in a row as fast as we can. Ready? One, two, three. Buddha doodles. It's a tongue twister, but I love the name, Molly. What did I miss in the bio? Did I get everything?
Oh man, that was great. Yeah. There's always something that I'm up to outside of that.
Well, it is always a joy in my day because I have liked your fan page when I wake up in the morning and I see one of your sketches. But more importantly, you don't just show the finished product of your sketches. You show the process, which I love. And I think that's so important on social.
But walk people through what exactly what Boodle Doodles does, kind of the mission behind it, and then help us understand how you're generating revenue to support you making more Boodle Doodles.
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Chapter 2: How did Molly Hahn start her journey with Buddha Doodles?
I was freelance illustrating. I'm super grateful for the work I was having. But it was definitely a creative drain and like a contract fell through and just some other things were happening in my life. And I really felt lost.
And like, totally like out of alignment with my purpose, because I had, you know, been touring conventions for a while and took a break from doing that sharing my self published work and kids books, but kind of like got off track. And so I started the Buddha doodles to remind myself of the important things in life. You know, like just simply a meditation each morning for me.
It was like medicine for me. And it helped. I noticed that I was actually very skeptical of affirmations initially. But I remember a speech a mentor of mine gave during this like self-employment training course I took here in Santa Barbara a few years ago. And she stressed the importance of affirmations. And so I was like, okay, I hit rock bottom. I was like, I need something.
Yeah.
And so I'm a very visual person. I'm also super kinesthetic. And so it's like, if I'm going to do the daily affirmation thing, it's got to be in my own way. And so Buddha Doodles came from that. And I've been sharing my work online since 2001. So I started out with this pretty DIY image map Dreamweaver site like way back in the day. So I've been sharing work online.
So it felt natural to just share my sketches. And I had a daily sketch practice that was different from
buddha doodles before that uh i started that comic so yeah i just started tumblr and noticed that people liked the comic and uh and it started getting an audience on tumblr that was the first place i started sharing it and you know check back me like oh there's like 100 new followers that's interesting like nothing i'd ever put out there had like magnetized that kind of audience that quick of a rate like i just was exponential like suddenly i had 3 000 followers and it was like
just it just exploded and i was like wow this is this is really special um and that was in 2001 molly right The Buddha Doodles, I started in 2011. And then I've been cartooning, sharing my work online before that, since 2001. Okay.
And can you help us, can you give us a sense, I mean, because you're now doing like taking your doodles and putting them on all kinds of physical products and merchandise. I mean, help us understand you are like a really a creative person. More than just an inspiration, I mean, really a creative genius, the way you're putting this stuff together.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Molly face before finding success?
Gifting what you love to do, it doesn't necessarily have to be daily. I recommend daily. That's what my mentor back in the day told me to do when I took his advice to heart.
Just some kind of consistency, right?
Yeah, at least three times a week. I would say no less if you really...
Yeah, and it sounds like it's built great momentum for you, but help us understand. So again, you have now so many products on your site. I'm on, I was on it, you know, prepping for this. You have prints, throws and pillows, free stuff, totes, doodles, free doodles, decks of cards. You have a new book coming out, a hardcover. What's selling best?
And if you can, Molly, you know, to the degree that you're comfortable, your articulated rock bottom for you is losing a $10,000 contract that you needed to support yourself. Are you able to support yourself on the income that Buddha Doodles is making? And maybe to the extent that you can't and pull back the curtains there.
Oh yeah, I'd love to. So absolutely. Um, I love talking about this because I am so excited to be doing what I love to be supported a hundred percent by Buddha doodles. That is the reality for me is the gift shop supports what I do. And I'm really like so grateful for my fans and for everyone that has supported me along the way. I was looking at my reports last night and
First month opening the shop, $582. Wow. First month? Yeah.
Wow.
May 2013. And then we had a peak month last year, of course, during the holidays where we made $28,000. What?
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