49: How One Solopreneur Ended Content Overwhelm with a Visual System: My Interview with Emily Odio-Sutton

😰 "I Don't Know What to Post Today" - Sound Familiar?

You sit down at your desk, ready to create content for Instagram. You open Canva. You stare at the blank screen. And then that familiar panic sets in: "What am I even supposed to post today?"

Maybe you scroll back through your feed, trying to remember what colors you used last week. Or you second-guess every design choice, spending 45 minutes tweaking fonts and wondering if anyone will even notice. Perhaps you've been posting consistently for months (or years) but it still feels like you're winging it every single time.

If this sounds like your content creation reality, you're not alone. And more importantly, there's a better way.

This week on the podcast, I brought on my very first official guest (besides my husband, who doesn't count 😂). Her name is Emily Odio-Sutton, and she's an Etsy print-on-demand expert who joined my January 2025 cohort of what's now being rebranded as The Visual Edit. When Emily joined the program, she was already running a successful six-figure business. She knew Canva inside and out. But she was still sitting at her desk every day wondering what to post and spending way too much time on content that should have been systematic.

Eight weeks later? She has a complete plug-and-play content system that takes the guesswork out of showing up on Instagram.

Ready to create your own systematic approach to visual content? Join The Visual Edit waitlist for January 2026 and be the first to know when doors open.

💼 The Successful Business Owner Who Still Struggled with Content

Here's what I love about Emily Odio's story: she wasn't a beginner when she joined The Visual Edit.

She had already hit six figures in revenue on Etsy within her first 10 months of selling print-on-demand products. She was using Canva daily to design products for her shop. She had systems in place for literally everything else in her business—her Etsy listings, her design templates for products, her fulfillment process. Everything was systematized and organized.

Except Instagram.

"I use Canva a lot," Emily told me during our interview. "My business itself, I know what it is. I know how I can help people, but it was like I needed help just bringing it together, right?"

She continued: "I remember some days I would sit down at my desk and be like, I don't know what to post today. And I remember listening to you, I don't know if it was in your stories or where, and it was like, 'That doesn't work for me.' And I was like, this doesn't work for me either."

This is the reality for so many solopreneurs I work with. You're not struggling because you don't know how to use Canva or because you don't understand your business. You're struggling because designing for Instagram is a completely different skillset than designing products, creating presentations, or making graphics for your website. And without a systematic approach, you're making dozens of unnecessary decisions every single time you sit down to create content.

That decision fatigue? It's exhausting. And it's completely avoidable.

🎯 The Visual Edit: What Actually Happens Inside the Program

The Visual Edit is my 8-week intensive program (we're considering shortening it to 6 weeks for future cohorts) where I help female solopreneurs create a complete visual content system for Instagram. We limit enrollment to 30 women because this program requires serious handholding, personalized feedback, and community support.

Here's how it works:

Weekly Structure:

• New modules or lessons released every Sunday morning

• Live group coaching calls every Thursday morning for feedback and questions

• Private community where you post homework and get feedback from me, my co-coach, and fellow participants

• Accountability through weekly assignments and peer support

What We Cover:

• Your complete visual brand foundation (colors, fonts, design principles)

• Reusable template creation and customization

• Visual content planning and feed cohesion

• The A/B week posting system (more on this below)

• Batching workflows and time-saving strategies

• Platform-specific design skills for Instagram

This isn't a program where you're left to your own devices. You're getting eyes on your work every single week, learning from other participants' feedback, and building a systematic approach that works specifically for YOUR brand and YOUR business.

Listen to Emily Odio's complete transformation story on this week's podcast episode to hear exactly how The Visual Edit helped her go from overwhelmed to systematic.

🗓️ The Game-Changing A/B Week System

The breakthrough moment for Emily came when we introduced the A/B week visual planning system. This is where you map out exactly what type of post and what color template you'll use each day of the week, creating two alternating weekly schedules.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

Week A Schedule:

• Monday: Light color carousel

• Tuesday: Reel with specific cover style

• Wednesday: Photo post with text overlay

• Thursday: Dark color carousel

• Friday: Behind-the-scenes story-style post

• Saturday: Engagement/community post

Week B Schedule:

• Monday: Dark color carousel

• Tuesday: Reel with different cover style

• Wednesday: Testimonial or case study post

• Thursday: Light color carousel

• Friday: Educational graphic post

• Saturday: Personal story post

The specific content changes based on your strategy, but the structure stays consistent. You know exactly what format you're creating and what visual style you're using before you even open Canva.

"After we started doing that, it was like I never had to second guess what I was gonna be posting anymore on Instagram," Emily shared. "I wasn't like, oh, let me look back at my feed and see what color did I do last week? Like it was all very just like systematic and I could just follow that."

She continued: "For me, that took out so much of the guesswork and it's the decision fatigue... I don't wanna have to sit here and sort through this. So sitting down to create, now I do my content one day a week. I sit down and I make it for the following week and it's just kind of like clockwork and it's like plug and play."

One day per week. That's all the time Emily now spends on content creation because she has a system that eliminates decision fatigue.

🎨 The Power of Reusable Templates and Visual Planning

One of the most transformative weeks inside The Visual Edit is when participants submit their reusable templates for personalized feedback. This is where we look at your colors, fonts, layouts, and overall visual cohesion to make sure everything works together beautifully.

"That was just super helpful to get your eyes on those and really kind of start bringing together like all the branding elements, right? The colors, the fonts, the visuals, like all of that came together," Emily explained.

But the real magic happens during the visual grid planning week. This is when you take your reusable templates and actually map them out in a grid to see how they'll look together on your feed. You're moving posts around, testing different color combinations, and creating a visual map for your content.

"Being able to kind of move them around and see what looked best, what made the most sense... and then also figuring out what kinds of content, you know, we wanted to post those days, but having that visual there of this is what it would look like. Here's how things could balance out," Emily said. "And then that honestly became like a map for me every week. It was like, okay, let me refer back to this layout of what my post should look like, what colors, what templates I was using, things like that. And that just made it so much easier."

This visual planning process helps you see problems before they become problems. You notice when you have too many of the same background color in a row. You realize you need to work in more photos of yourself to break up the graphic-heavy look. You catch design issues that would have frustrated you for weeks.

And here's the thing: your branding is a living, breathing thing. You're going to want to make tweaks along the way or add new templates as your business evolves. But once you know HOW to create cohesive templates and plan your visual content, those changes become easy swaps instead of complete overhauls.

I use my reusable templates for six months to a year at minimum. Then I'll see something I like better and think, "Huh, I might retire that one and bring this one on board." But I know how to create it, I know how to design it, I know how many colorways I need of it, and it's just an easy swap.

⏰ The Time ROI That Pays for Itself

When I asked Emily what she'd say to someone hesitant to invest around $2,000-2,300 in The Visual Edit, her answer was immediate and practical:

"I would say a couple things. Number one is it really depends where you're at in your journey too. Like you have to be ready for it also. And if you're feeling ready and your business feels like you're ready to take this leap, it definitely is so worth it."

But here's what really stood out: "For me, alone in time, I've paid myself back for that. Right? Like just the time savings in posting on Instagram and creating content, like if you were to look at it from like an hourly rate, I have more than paid myself back just for what I've learned during those eight weeks."

Let's do some quick math. If you're currently spending 2-3 hours per week struggling with content creation (and let's be honest, most solopreneurs spend even more), that's 8-12 hours per month. If you value your time at even $100/hour (which is LOW for established business owners), you're losing $800-1,200 per month to inefficient content creation.

The Visual Edit doesn't just teach you what to post. It teaches you how to create a systematic approach that saves you hours every single week for the rest of your business.

Emily now batches all her content in one day per week. She knows exactly what she's creating before she sits down. She's not second-guessing her color choices or scrolling through her feed to remember what she posted last week. She's following her system, creating her content, and moving on to the revenue-generating activities in her business.

That's the real ROI.

Ready to get those hours back? Join The Visual Edit waitlist for January 2026 and create your own plug-and-play content system.

🤝 The Accountability Factor (Why Live Programs Work Better)

Here's something Emily and I bonded over during our interview: we both cannot finish instant-access courses.

After The Visual Edit ended, Emily mentioned she wanted to start a YouTube channel. I said I'd been thinking about YouTube too. So we both bought the same YouTube course. Emily finished the entire thing and is now crushing it on YouTube. I got through module one and haven't touched it since.

Why? Because I need that live component where everyone's starting together. I need the accountability. I need homework with deadlines. I need to see other people submitting their work and think, "Oh my God, I gotta get mine done too."

Emily agreed: "It did help keep me accountable because it made me sit down and do things I was kind of avoiding doing, honestly, that I was like, eh, I'll get to that later. But it really kind of made me stick to a schedule, and I don't like things to be late, right? So I was like doing things on time."

The Visual Edit isn't just about the content I teach. It's about the structure, the accountability, the community, and the personalized feedback that makes you actually implement what you're learning. That's why it's a live cohort program instead of a self-paced course.

This is not something where we can plug your answers into ChatGPT and get responses. This is so visual and we need to really look at how it's all playing out. That's why we limit enrollment and why the investment reflects the level of support you're getting.

📚 Resources & Links Mentioned in This Episode

• The Visual Edit - Emily's 8-week visual branding and content systems program (join the January 2026 waitlist)

• Emily Odio Sutton - Guest and Etsy Print on Demand expert (@ecomemily on Instagram and YouTube)

• The Gift Lab - Emily Odio's course teaching Etsy print on demand for giftable products

• Printify - Print on demand supplier mentioned by Emily Odio

• The Creative Bodega Podcast - Listen to the full interview with Emily Odio (Episode 43)

💫 Your Content Doesn't Have to Feel This Hard

If you're reading this and thinking, "This is exactly what I need," I want you to know something important: you're not behind. You're not doing it wrong. You just haven't had the right system yet.

Emily Odio had been using Canva for two years before joining The Visual Edit. She was running a successful six-figure business. She's smart, capable, and motivated. But she still needed help bringing all the pieces together in a way that felt systematic and sustainable.

The same is probably true for you.

You don't need to work harder on your content. You don't need to spend more time staring at blank Canva screens. You need a system that eliminates the daily decision fatigue and makes showing up on Instagram feel like clockwork instead of chaos.

That's exactly what The Visual Edit delivers.

Join The Visual Edit waitlist for January 2026 and be the first to know when doors open. This is where you'll create your reusable templates, nail down your visual brand, map out your A/B week system, and finally stop wondering "what do I post today?"

Because honestly? Emily Odio's story could be your story. And I can't wait to work with you.

Want to hear more student success stories and behind-the-scenes insights from my programs? Follow me on Instagram @thecreativebodega and share this post with a solopreneur friend who needs to hear this message. Comment below and tell me: what's your biggest content creation struggle right now?