Simply On Demand

07/09/2026

Finalist.

The word still has me speechless.

I have been named a finalist for the Empower Her Community Award alongside five incredible businesswomen. To say I’m blown away doesn’t even begin to describe how I’m feeling.

This one I genuinely did not see coming.

First, a beautiful woman nominated me. Then I was shortlisted and had to submit a whole shtload of information about me, my business and the work I’ve done.

And now, out of hundreds of nominations and applications, Simply on Demand, my beautiful business, has been named a finalist.

As if that weren’t already enough, Simply on Demand is also a finalist in the She Owns It and Empower Her Community People’s Choice Award.

You know me. Community is at the heart of what I do.

It’s in the Canva hints, tips and tricks I share, the workshops I host, the knowledge I pass on and the occasional gentle kick up the backside when you need encouragement to become more visible as the beautiful business owner you are.

Being named one of six finalists is already far more than I expected.

But do I want to win this? You betcha!

On 15 October, we’ll find out who has won both the Community Award and the People’s Choice Award.

And for the People’s Choice Award, I would absolutely love your vote.

If my business has helped you in any way, what I share has resonated with you, or my values are part of what draws you into my world, you can vote here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1K1ySKGjXV/

Click the link, find the Simply on Demand name and logo, and leave either a Like or a Love. That reaction counts as your vote.

Thank you for being in my corner. I still can’t quite believe how many of you there are.

04/09/2026

It's that time of the month again ...

Teaching using Canva for social media at Onehunga High School from 10am.

It's a full day of questions and answers and many practical opportunities as well.

Because, how can you learn if you don't practice, right?

The next class is in November somewhere, so do DM me if you'd like more information the date, place, etc.

For now, let me get settled .... I'll check back later.

03/09/2026

What on earth are you supposed to write in the alt text box?

❓A description of every little thing in the image?
❓A caption?
❓A collection of keywords you hope will make the algorithm love you?

There are examples for photographs, promotional graphics and testimonial screenshots inside my free guide, How to Optimise Images for Better Visibility on Social Media.

No keyword stuffing required.

Get the free guide here: https://simplyondemand.net/social-media-image-guide/

02/09/2026

PNG or JPG ... does it really matter?

Canva leans heavily on PNG when you download a social media graphic, but is that the one you really need?

Do you need to agonise over the decision every time?

Absolutely not.

It simply helps to understand what you’re choosing and why.

My free guide explains PNG, JPG and image compression without turning the whole thing into a technical snooze fest.

You can get your copy here:

https://simplyondemand.net/social-media-image-guide/

01/09/2026

What did Canva call your last download?

Was it a useful, descriptive filename?

Or is Untitled Design(47).png currently sitting in your downloads folder alongside several of its equally unhelpful relatives?

You know exactly what the file is when you download it. Trying to find the blasted thing again three months later (to repurpose it, of course) is another matter entirely.

Giving your Canva design and downloaded file a descriptive name is one of the five clues covered in my free guide, How to Optimise Images for Better Visibility on Social Media.

It helps provide context for the graphic, but it also helps ‘future you’ find the right version again.

Get the free guide here:

https://simplyondemand.net/social-media-image-guide/

31/08/2026

You’ve created your social media graphic in Canva, downloaded it and shared it.

Job done, right?

Almost.

There are five small things that can help your audience and the social platforms understand what you’re sharing:

➡️ The filename
➡️ The file format and size
➡️ The alt text
➡️ The words surrounding the graphic
➡️ How it appears on a smaller screen

None of this needs to become a technical SEO extravaganza. You simply need to know what these clues do and what to check before publishing.

My free guide, How to Optimise Images for Better Visibility on Social Media, walks you through all five, with practical examples and a short pre-publish checklist.

Get your free copy here:

Download Stephanie Wium’s free Canva guide to filenames, PNG vs JPG, compression, alt text and mobile-friendly social media graphics.

28/08/2026

Not all 1:1 sessions MUST be long, drawn-out affairs.

Take my client Q as an example.

She had a quick couple of questions she needed to ask and didn’t want to spend time learning stuff she would never use.

So, she scheduled a short (no strategy required) session, and in 30 minutes she walked away with

→ knowing how to add depth, and
-> how to change the colour throughout the journal she was working on.

That’s it. Two specific questions answered without turning them into a long, drawn-out session filled with things she didn’t need.

The session is recorded too, so you can concentrate on learning rather than trying to scribble down every step.

26/08/2026

uh uhm … *clears throat as she gets on her ranty box …

“Try Claude or ChatGPT. Graphic designers are out of business now. Or maybe Canva.”

That was somebody’s response when a business owner asked for recommendations for a logo designer.

I had thoughts. In fact, several of them.

I use AI, and I use Canva (obviously). I love Canva, and I gotta admit, I do love AI as well. And I still think this is bloody awful advice.

Can AI generate an attractive-looking graphic? Absolutely. But an attractive graphic and a properly considered logo are not automatically the same thing.

Your logo needs to represent your business, be recognisable and work wherever you need to use it. It should still do its job when it’s tiny, enlarged, printed, displayed online or used without colour. You also need to know whether the design is genuinely distinctive and whether you have the right to use it as your own.

AI can give you an image based on a prompt. It cannot guarantee that what it produces is unique to your business, that something confusingly similar doesn’t already exist or that you’ll have exclusive rights to every part of it.

And then there’s Canva.

I am one of Canva’s loudest cheerleaders, but I will never recommend choosing a Canva logo template, swapping out the business name and calling it your own unique logo.

Those templates are available to other Canva users too. The same applies to Canva’s stock graphics. You are licensed to use them, but they are not exclusively yours.

That doesn’t mean an original logo can never be created using Canva. Canva allows you to build one from scratch using fonts and simple lines and shapes, or you can upload an original logo created for you by a designer.

But choosing a premade logo template because it looks nice? That is very different from commissioning somebody to create a logo specifically for your business. Asking AI to generate one for you is no substitute for that either.

Use AI for ideas. Use Canva to create the marketing material that carries your brand into the world. But if you need an original logo that you want to own, protect and build a business around, please speak to somebody who actually knows how to create one. (I'm not that person)

Graphic designers are not out of business.

And a generated graphic is not automatically a logo.

*steps off ranty box ...

25/08/2026

How easy is it to make a sandwich when you’re peckish?

Well, for starters, you need to have bread in the house to make said sandwich ... or you can just make your own.

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to avoid gluten for health reasons. The first thing to go was bread, once the last loaf had been eaten, of course. 🙄

I’ve experimented with a few gluten-free flours, but I haven’t found one I like better than the rest yet. Millet flour is out. Completely.

I made millet flour buns, and they were truly disgusting. The fact that I didn’t use a recipe specifically created for millet flour is beside the point. I generally wing it with baking/cooking, and mostly it’s entirely edible and more-ish

Today’s experiment was a quick coconut flour loaf. It’s yummy and will do the sandwich job very nicely.

I’ll need to double the ingredients next time if I want something that resembles a proper, higher loaf, but this one is not bad at all.

The difference between the sh*tty millet buns and the yummy coconut loaf came down to knowing what I was working with and how to use it.

And that brings me, as things so often do, to Canva.

You can have all the content for a lead magnet and know how to get the words and pictures onto a Canva page. But that doesn’t mean you know which Canva tools and features will help you turn those individual pages into something your audience can easily read, follow and use.

I know Canva inside and out. I know how to choose the right type and size of document, organise your content across the pages, create layouts that make sense, work with your photographs, keep everything consistent and add the links or other useful bits your lead magnet needs.

In other words, I know how to make Canva do what your content needs it to do.

Because just as you can’t swap coconut flour for millet flour and expect the same result, you can’t drop your content into any old Canva template and assume it will become the lead magnet you had in mind.

If you have the content but aren’t sure how to make Canva do the rest, send me a message. Let’s talk about turning it into a lead magnet that’s ready to put in front of your audience.

* Photo of the coconut flour loaf I made, with the recipe in the background

24/08/2026

I don’t know what shutter speed means; I don’t understand aperture, and trying to judge the composition of a photograph through a tiny little screen is a whole other skill set.

Yet, on my morning walks, I love taking photos.

Some are interesting, to say the least. Others are just plain cringe, and some of them, I can “see” what I want, but I can’t manage it (yet).

Does that stop me?

Oh hell no! I love taking photos.

The photographer I’m helping with a lead magnet at the minute feels much the same way about Canva.

In her words: “I know how to get stuff on the page, but then I don’t know how I can make it fit together properly.”

And I knew exactly what she meant.

She knows how to get the content onto the page, and I know how to get the most out of Canva and use it to make that content work together across an entire lead magnet.

It’s the Canva equivalent of me pointing my phone at something beautiful and hoping I’ve lined it up properly.

She doesn’t need to become a Canva expert to share her photography knowledge. That’s where I come in. She brings the content and her beautiful photographs, and I help her turn them into a lead magnet that fits together visually and represents her business properly.

You have the content for a lead magnet but not necessarily the knowledge of how to make it all fit together in Canva, so send me a message. Let’s talk about what you need.

*some photos from my recent morning walk