342 – Paying It Forward to New Handmade Product Entrepreneurs with Nicole Stevenson of Dear Handmade Life

Gift biz unwrapped episode 342.

The types of stores that we're looking for really unique and

different stuff found me and were like,

this is awesome.

And I was like,

yes, this is awesome.

You understand what I'm doing here At Tinton gifters bakers,

crafters and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.

Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.

Now you are in the right place.

This is gift to biz unwrapped,

helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

Join us for an episode,

packed full of invaluable guidance,

resources, and the support you need to grow.

Your gift biz.

Here is your host gift biz gal,

Sue moon Heights.

Well, hi there.

It's Sue and welcome to this week's show.

As we inch closer and closer to the holiday selling season,

I hope you've been putting your plan in place to capture

your fair share of the sales.

As we've talked about many times,

having your products available for purchase online,

isn't going to do it just because you have a website

or a social shop set up that alone.

Doesn't bring in customers.

You should think of it as an avenue to conduct the

final sale,

not the attraction and connection necessary to get people to buy

and posting on social over and over again about your holiday

products that are available as gifting options.

Well, we all know the low percentage of our followers who

actually see these messages as a handmade creator.

The fourth quarter holidays are the perfect time to get in

front of your customers.

Through holiday craft shows and church bizarres entry costs vary,

but there are options to fit every budget and holiday shoppers

need you as a handmade small business,

even more this year with all the supply chain issues we're

experiencing. I encourage you to sign up for your local shows

and get in front of your soon to be customers because

we need you this year more than ever.

I talked about this in my recent tips and talk episode,

number 34,

go back and take a listen to hear how you can

both help your business and customers get gifts for the holiday

shopping season.

We are going to need to depend on you this year.

So the time to act is now moving on to today's

guest. You're going to hear from a maker who's experienced struggles.

We are all too familiar with.

In fact,

at one point selling her purses was the difference between paying

rent or not.

You'll hear how she had to overcome her fear of selling

or be out on the street.

Now I get that your hesitations within your business may not

be as dramatic as this,

but I do know for a fact that you shy away

from some uncomfortable activities that you know can grow your business.

Perhaps Nicole will say something that's going to hit just right

to prompt you to stretch further,

take the chance and go for it.

From the point of needing rent money,

Nicole went on to build an international wholesale business,

and today she pays it forward through teaching and hosting her

own events.

Let's not waste any more time.

I want you to meet Nicole Today.

I am so excited to have a conversation with Nicole Stevenson

of dear handmade life.

Nicole is the CEO and creative director of deer handmade life.

At 24.

She turned her passion into a profession with her handcrafted clothing

line called random Nicole.

She started selling at flea markets and backyard craft fairs and

has grown it into a thriving international wholesale business.

Nicole's desire to help other creatives pursue their dream business and

discover the joy of making led her away from her handmade

business and into teaching consulting and running her own workshop studio.

Now she connects,

educates and shortens the learning curve for other creators by sharing

what she's learned through the dear handmade life events,

blog, and podcast.

Nicole, welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast.

Thank you so much for having me Sue.

I'm excited to be Here.

Me too.

I can't wait to dive into the conversation,

but before we do,

I have a question for you.

That's become a tradition here on the show that is to

have you describe yourself in a little bit more of a

creative way and that's through a motivational candle.

So if you could help us imagine what a candle would

look like,

that would speak all you,

what would it be by color?

And quote,

Color goes,

my signature color is a light teal,

and it's because it's so relaxing.

And I remember trying to describe what that color was.

And I was watching it.

Might've been one flew over the Cuckoo's nest.

It was a movie in the sixties and a mental hospital.

And I was like,

that's the color?

It's the color of those walls.

And so when anybody would ask me,

I'm like,

yeah, I want that mental hospital blue.

And it's because it's so calming.

So my candle would for sure be that light calming teal

color. And as far as the quote on it,

ever since I dove into art as my career,

when I was much younger,

I always thought about this quote,

it's all grist for the mill,

meaning that nothing is discarded.

Everything that goes in will be part of the results that

you get.

So I've taken a lot of risks,

made a lot of decisions that I didn't know if they

were going to pan out and you know what,

some of them did not pan out,

but even the ones that ended up feeling more like missteps

or mistakes at the time all contributed to my knowledge and

my learning experience for whatever my next step was going to

be. Even if it was something way down the road.

So kind of thinking about it that way and trying to

think about,

instead of thinking about things as a mistake or a waste

of time or something like that,

I think about them as all being grist for the mill

as part of failing forward,

as they say.

Yeah. And I wish people could understand this more when they're

in the depths of it,

even me.

And I'm sure you feel the same way.

Like when you're in the middle of things that aren't working

out the way you want,

it's harder to see the light at the end of the

tunnel, but it's there,

like it's the path we've all had to walk those kind

of uneven steps to get to where we're trying to go.

It's part of the gig as well,

how I say.

Yeah, exactly.

And when you were saying that and you were saying,

even you were saying about yourself,

even me,

even me too,

after being in business for over 20 years,

there's still,

being someone who produces events for a living,

my entire business relied on huge amounts of people being super

close together,

you know,

usually indoors.

So when that all happened,

I definitely felt like even though it wasn't a mistake necessarily

that I had made or,

you know,

a decision that I had made,

I definitely felt like,

oh wow,

what am I going to do?

And it took a while,

you know,

we've been in COVID for a year and a half,

but I hate to use the word pivot because I feel

like we've all heard it so much,

but I ended up going in a different direction,

we'll say,

and doing a different kind of event.

And I learned so much from it.

And it's leading me into what I think is my next

kind of zone of genius area.

My next place,

where I want to be creatively.

Oh, that's intriguing.

I'm going to keep that for a few minutes from now,

because now you've piqued all of our interest.

So clearly,

I mean,

COVID forced us all to be nimble first to be optimistic

that everything can be okay in a different way.

The thing with COVID that was so crazy is it was

unknown to all of us and it was changing by the

day. You didn't know if you had the right information,

wrong information,

what was going to happen next?

And we made it through at least to the point where

we are right now.

And there's a lot to say to that.

We'll see where it goes from here.

But I think we face these types of things in our

business all the time,

maybe on a smaller scale and we need to expect them

and we're just going to have to work through them.

Yeah. When you set that about these types of things in

our business,

it made me immediately think back to when I had my

first business.

Well, my first business was actually a little stationary shop when

I was a little kid,

my first real business,

which was my t-shirt company.

It was a clothing line and accessory line,

random Nicole.

And I would order blank t-shirts from a manufacturer.

And then I would screen print on them and do sewing

on them and like embellish them with vintage fabrics.

My artwork,

these blinked t-shirts became this very one of a kind thing.

But my t-shirt manufacturer,

I was at their mercy.

And when they decided,

oh, you know what,

we're not going to produce this style shirt anymore.

And it was my best seller.

It was like,

okay, Nicole,

what are you going to do here?

So all of those lessons that I learned from that kind

of showed me,

okay. Even like lessons of being outside of business,

of having a heartbreak and getting over that,

I knew that it wasn't going to last forever.

You know,

what my business was going through during COVID I knew that

I just had to hold on.

So it was good that I already had that other stuff

under my belt.

And I already had those experiences.

So that the muscle that I had to use to be

resilient had been built up by these other things.

Absolutely. Well,

I want to talk a little bit more about how you've

developed, because I think that'll resonate a lot with our listeners.

So you started with a stationary store when you were little,

so that's like it got you kind of playing in business,

I guess.

Maybe we could say Yeah.

When my mom and I lived at,

we lived at a little condo and I was just always

making stuff and then trying to sell it.

And then when my mom met my dad,

who's technically my stepdad.

He was a barber and I used to answer the phones

at his barber shop.

And then I got this idea that I was gonna double

my time.

So while I was getting paid to answer the phones in

sweet pair in his barbershop,

I also started a chocolate business.

So I would make chocolate lollipops and sell.

Those was my side hustle.

When I was probably like 10 at the time or something

old enough to use a double boiler.

That's in melt by chocolate.

I always had that entrepreneurial drive in me and everyone in

my family is self-employed my dad's a barber.

He has a barber shop.

My mom was house cleaner.

She had her own house cleaning business.

My grandma was a guitar teacher who had a guitar school.

So I wasn't raised in a family where I had the

example of going out and getting a job and working for

someone else.

It was like,

what are you going to make out of what you have?

What are you going to create from what you have?

Well, that's amazing because you had examples all the way around

you and in different realms,

you know,

different types of businesses.

And you had experience with business because you were able to

get your feet wet at 10,

which is amazing.

I mean,

so many people don't have that because I sure you run

into this with people that you're working with,

many of our parents are like,

what are you thinking?

Are you crazy giving up your nine to five,

let's say with insurance and all of that to start something

of your own.

So you had that advantage right from the start,

which is fabulous.

But let's talk a little bit more about random Nicole,

because doing some of those smaller sideline things gave you a

ton of experience.

And then what made you decide to land on random Nicole

and really get that rolling.

It wasn't really a decision.

It kind of landed on me.

So I was in graduate school in San Francisco.

I was studying to get my master's degree in creative writing.

And I was feeling really disenchanted with my program.

I had gone to our department chair and basically said to

her, what am I supposed to do with this degree?

I'm graduating in a couple of months.

Like why isn't there a class on what's next?

And she said,

well, pretty much you can get another job and right.

Or you can be a teacher.

And I felt really depressed by that.

I was only 23 and I didn't feel ready to be

a teacher,

to people who were,

you know,

there are a lot of people in my program who were

twice my age and I didn't want to keep being a

waitress and writing and just trying to get a story published.

And at that same time,

I had a friend that I was a waitress with.

After we get off our waiting tables shifts,

she was an art student.

We would go to her apartment in the Tenderloin and she

had one of those apartments with a Murphy bed.

And so she would pull back the Murphy bag and put

it up and we would bring out all the paints and

all the canvases and all the magazines and collage material and

Jesso and matte medium and drink beer and sit on the

floor and make art.

I wish I was there with you guys.

It was so fun.

I didn't have a purpose for the art I was making.

I was just hanging out with my friend and keeping my

hands busy,

but I ended up making a bunch of paintings that were

kind of similar.

They were mixed media.

They were kind of these portraits of women with like a

lot of weird,

bright colors and a lot of weird stuff on them and

like texture and collage and things.

And my friend Paige was doing this open studios show down

in San Francisco.

And she said,

Hey, do you want to like use a little bit of

the wall space?

And you can put up these paintings.

And she said,

do a couple more.

So it's like a series and you can put them up

there. And I did.

And all my paintings sold and I was like,

this is awesome.

This feels great.

I loved making these.

And something else happened that coupled with that experience with my

department chair at school.

And I was like,

all of those things together,

just kind of combined to make me think that the path

I was on wasn't right for me anymore.

So she and I packed up our Stephanie U-Haul.

We moved down to Hollywood where her sister lived and stayed

with her sister and a couple other girls in this tiny

one bedroom apartment.

And we went down to Venice beach on the boardwalk and

we would sell our art there,

which was a very intense experience.

Most of the other artists there were homeless.

Like we were considered lucky,

even though we slept on a bean bag on the floor,

you know,

we had a roof over our head.

So we were kind of like the rich girls,

you know,

even those,

a lot of times we wouldn't even have gas money to

get home from there.

And we were in like a borrowed truck that didn't even

have a seatbelt in it.

So I was down there for,

it was only a summer,

but it was just,

life-changing being down there seeing these other artists who had given

up everything for their art and who welcomed us into their

circle there.

Like I said,

most of the artists there lived on the streets and they

would stay really close by to where the boardwalk was and

an alley or something.

And we were the only girls down there,

so they kind of protected us and they would get to

the beach before we would.

So they would save us good spot.

And they really taught me community over competition.

Like truly living that.

Tell Me what year that was approximately.

That Was like probably,

I think I was 24 maybe around there.

Okay. And I can totally envision it because my son used

to live in Venice beach.

Yeah. So I was one of the people down there and

do that.

If you ever saw two women down there,

it was me and my friend page.

We were the only ones down there I moved on from

there. I started selling at flea markets and decided to do

paintings on canvases and sew them onto purses that I sewed

from. Like,

I kind of took all of us girls that lived in

that apartment,

all of our old jeans that we were done with.

And I cut them into little squares,

like square patches and sewed them together and then did a

little painting on a piece of canvas.

And so that on the front as a pocket.

So then that was when I started making purses.

So I put my art onto something more functional,

and I kind of liked that more than just painting,

having it be functional art.

And it really just kind of chose me.

I had to work really hard to do a lot of

things I didn't want to do.

I mean,

I remember eventually all the other girls moved out of that

apartment and it was just Paige and I,

and our rent was more than a hundred dollars a month.

So it was like friends do I don't have the money.

And I would put all my purses that I had made

in like a Rubbermaid tote and just drive around to boutiques

in LA and casual Woolley.

You walk in there and like with one of my purses

and wait for you to start a conversation away for the

shop keeper to say like,

oh, that's a cute person for me to say,

oh, thank you so much.

I made it,

you know,

dah, dah,

dah, it start kind of telling my story.

And it's actually,

I have some purses out in my car.

I bring those in.

And it was like a hated doing that.

I had to psych myself up.

I would sit in the car sometimes for like 20 minutes

going, come on,

Nicole, you have to go in,

you have to go in.

And every time I went in,

I would have a good experience whether they bought something or

not, but it was just like,

I didn't have a choice cause I had to pay my

rent and that was how I was going to do it.

So it really forced me to push myself way out of

my comfort zone and get my stuff out there.

Yeah. Yeah.

But thank you for sharing that because your story about how

you started and then getting scrappy,

like doing what you needed to do first on the boardwalk,

then going into the stores,

even though you didn't want to,

because boy,

can, I relate to that?

The fear of having to do something and thinking,

and just like psyching yourself up to actually do it.

But then when I loved what you said is that you

always had a good experience,

you know?

No one's shooed you out of the store or was mean

to you,

I'm guessing.

Did that help motivate you or allow you to get easier

for this time that you still needed to do that?

Yeah. I mean,

like I said earlier about the resilience and kind of building

up that muscle,

that's where it comes from everything.

Like if you've never taken a risk before,

if you've never experienced rejection,

if you've never had to put your art there before your

muscle to do that is really small and weak.

So it's going to be really hard.

But the more you do it,

the more you build up that muscle.

And it's not that you're just going to park the car

and like bound in there with like all the confidence in

the world.

But that time period you spend in the car,

psyching yourself up,

we'll get a little shorter because you know,

I was able to say to myself,

when I would feel like,

oh, I don't want to go in there again.

I would say,

listen, Nicole,

you've done this before.

Dozens of times,

every time,

even if they don't buy your stuff,

just like you said,

no one chews you out of the store.

Everything's going to be just fine.

So it would be two minutes of psyching myself out versus

20 minutes of doing it.

I mean,

I'm thinking of the people who are listening here,

who haven't done their first flea market or no,

there's a craft show in the community,

but they're like,

should I do it this year?

Maybe I'll wait and presenting all of the excuses in front

of them instead of doing it,

the best thing is get that first one under your belt

because you will survive.

You'll learn.

And the next one gets easier and easier and easier just

like Nicole sharing with her experience.

So that's amazing.

How then did you go from that to your international wholesale

business? What were the steps there?

So I was selling regularly at a flea market in Hollywood.

It's still around,

it's called the Melrose trading post.

And I sold there every Sunday for like a year and

a half.

And that kind of created a regular fan base for me.

And because it was LA,

there were some celebrities there.

My stuff ended up in some TV shows and things like

that. And I met other designers who wanted to build their

businesses too.

So I think that that part about meeting the other designers

was key.

And the community that we started to build together was key.

So another,

at least two girls that had a booth whose stuff was

very, very different than mine.

Not the same style at all said,

Hey, listen,

you know,

we are going to do this trade show and we have

a little bit of room in our booth.

Do you want to split it three ways with us?

But this,

I think it was like a 10 by 10 or something

split three ways.

So I had three and a half feet wide by 10

feet long or six feet long or something.

Cause somebody had the back wall and then like we shared

the front sides and I was like,

yeah, that sounds awesome.

And I think my share of the booth was $900,

which was like,

it might as well have been a million dollars.

It was so far from an amount of money that I

could put together at one time.

But luckily the girl said,

listen, we already paid for the booth.

You just pay us every week.

Every Sunday pay us however much you can pay us as

long as you're paid off.

By the time we do the show.

So that's what I did.

And I just put everything I had into that booth.

And I ended up getting a bunch of wholesale accounts.

My stuff was all handmade,

which this was,

I don't know,

15, 20 years ago.

And there wasn't handmade stuff at trade shows like mine.

So the types of stores that were like looking for really

unique and different stuff found me.

And we're like,

this is awesome.

And I was like,

yes, this is awesome.

You understand what I'm doing here?

Whereas like some other shop owners were like,

are these all going to be different?

They were bummed out about it.

Other ones were like,

these are all going to be different.

And I'm like,

yes, I use vintage fabric.

And they were like,

that's so cool.

So it was just a matter of me finding my right

people. And so I got some shops that way.

In fact,

just recently somebody contacted me on Instagram and she was like,

do you remember me?

I was one of,

I met you at that.

And I was like,

you are my first store ever that I was ever in

any way.

So I did that trade show and then just kept reinvesting

everything I made into my business ended up getting a rep.

So at a showroom in downtown LA,

I mean,

that was terrifying going in there to show my stuff off

to an official rep,

you know,

pretty much did their,

and like criticized.

Everything was like,

Hey, if you want me to rep you,

here's what you have to do like this,

this and this.

But I also liked that she,

you know,

knew what she was talking about and she meant business.

And she was like,

if you want to sell,

this is what you need to do.

If you want to make whatever you want,

go back to the flea market.

So I had to make a decision,

like, do I want to just mess around with this?

Or do I want to turn this into like a serious

business that I can scale?

So from there I got more reps and more trade shows

and it just really built from there.

And I moved away from doing the craft shows in the

flea markets and the retail shows and into being,

doing more wholesale,

The great story.

So a couple of things I want to point out and

underline, and then I have a question for you.

Also, what I love about what you've been talking about is

how your connection with other people in the industry helped you

progress further first.

It was all the other people,

you know,

on the boardwalk and all that.

But when you got to the trade shows,

it was the other two people who helped you be able

to be in your first show.

And you probably helped them just as much because they probably

couldn't afford that whole booth price too.

So even if you paid weekly,

you know,

it helped all of you,

but then you also got in that environment and learn the

system. And then when you were working with that rep who

was critiquing a little bit,

she's got her finger on the pulse of what's selling.

So that helped advance your business.

Totally also.

So it's all connections and interactions and working together with people.

So I'm saying that to any of you who are listening,

because I don't know Nicole,

if you see this,

but people are so concerned about sharing what they're doing,

because they're afraid someone's going to steal their idea or take

their customers or that type of thing.

But once you start doing it and you realize that there's

enough business for everybody and people who buy handmade purses might

buy multiple hand-made purses.

So it's not just one or another.

If someone likes your product,

they're going to like your product in multiple ways potentially.

Yeah. I definitely agree with that.

I mean,

that's the rising tides raise all ships and I feel like

it's so true in the handmade world.

So here's your Question with this story?

How did you then handle the increase in production for your

handmade product?

You'll hear what Nicole has to say about this right after

a quick break to hear from Anita,

who's our community and customer service specialist over at the ribbon

print company.

Hi, I'm Anita community manager for the ribbon print companies,

customer support program.

You'll also find me when I accompany suit to exhibit at

trade shows where we get to meet many of our existing

customers in person and introduce new people to the world of

ribbons printing.

It's always fun.

Seeing the reaction people have during a demonstration,

when a ribbon is created with their company name,

a related image or their own message that they helped to

design on the spot.

They're always amazed that within seconds their message will print right

before their eyes.

Of course,

that's rewarding for me too,

as I get to enjoy the smiles and the excitement that

this is even a possibility.

And that's when they realize how easy it would be to

do this in their stores too.

So can you,

you can personalize ribbon for your customers to celebrate birthdays anniversaries

or whatever you like,

but we're also seeing a lot of our customers use the

ribbon printer for their branding by adding logo,

ribbon, or labels to products or for flavor or scent designations

to our number.

One comment we hear when we're out with our customers is

that the ribbon printer is a game-changing addition to any business,

large or small.

I'm proud to be part of the ribbon print company team.

And I'm even more thrilled that we're there to ensure our

customers, that they can use their printer with ease all while

bringing in additional revenue along the way to learn more,

go to the ribbon print company.com.

I had to figure it out as it happened.

So it started getting to the point where I couldn't so

everything myself and I had a couple of things happen that

forced me to delegate.

Like I was sewing and I sewed through my finger.

So I couldn't so for awhile.

So I had to find someone to help me.

So I wish like looking back that I would have had

a mentor who told me that I was running my own

business, not to have myself working for my business,

but out to have my business worked for me.

I knew that,

but I didn't know how to live it at the time.

And I was really attached to the idea that I had

to have my hands on everything.

You know,

that it was my small handmade business.

And I had to be the one picking up the fabric.

This was sewn by me.

This was made by me.

And then eventually,

you know,

it was handmade,

not necessarily by me,

but by individuals like based in LA.

And I wish that I had someone to kind of hold

my hand and guide me through the idea of scaling and

systems and things like that,

because it got to the point where the business was.

I did everything that I could do with it.

You know,

I grew it as big as my imagination could see.

I couldn't see any further than where I grew it.

And then I was kind of like,

now what?

Yeah. And then you limit yourself too,

because you can't grow anymore.

You're only one person.

How do you possibly do it?

Yeah. I mean,

I did have employees,

I had six people part-time working for me,

but I just didn't know what was the next step.

I didn't know where I was going.

I had gotten it to the point as far as my

imagination could see.

And then I had a really big company found me when

I was at one of the trade shows and wanted to

buy out my company.

And so I met with them.

It was a bunch of corporate business men in suits and

in big,

beautiful office building.

And I showed up with my way of wacky dressing and

my blue hair at the time.

And looking back what they offered me was really good.

But at the time I said no,

because they were going to own my designs.

They were going to own my name.

And I wish I would have said yes,

maybe in retrospect,

but I just wasn't willing to give up that control.

And as it turns out just a few years later,

I was like,

I'm done with this business anyway though.

So I think that that was a big lesson that I

learned there.

That is probably my biggest lesson of all of my business.

That I'm still learning now that I have definitely not perfected

yet. So what would be the advice then?

I mean,

I think for makers where that came from the value of

your product that someone wanted to purchase,

there's more of that to come cause that's inside you.

Yes. So you might be selling off just that portion of

whatever the potential purchase would have been,

but that doesn't mean you've tapped dry.

You know,

there are so many more things that you can create,

but it's hard.

Like I think that everyone who's listening would feel the same

way. Like nobody can create the product as good as you.

And if it's your designs,

your artistry designs,

it's even more so.

Yeah. And I have this mentality,

like I remember thinking they're gonna own me.

Like, they're gonna own my art.

I'm not going to do that.

That's like selling out and now I'm like,

no, it wasn't.

Yeah. I think of it differently now.

So I think my advice to anyone is to realize that

everything in your business can be done by someone else,

even the creative work,

which is the work that we are last to delegate.

So thinking about it that way,

and now I do this thing,

I call it delegation a day.

So every day I try to find something to delegate.

Even it could be something that's like a long-term delegation,

like from now on,

I'm going to have so-and-so reach out to my podcast guests,

or I'm going to have so-and-so prep,

these blog posts or something like that.

Or it could be like a short-term or personal delegation.

So for example,

I'm going to ask my husband to give my son a

bath tonight so that I can read book or do some

extra work or whatever it is.

Cause even something like that,

I was like,

no, I have to give my son a bath every night.

It has to be me,

even though I had spent the entire day with him.

So I was not the one who had to give him

a bath.

My husband is a grown adult man in his middle forties.

That's perfectly capable of giving a one and a half year

old, a bath,

especially when I give him such specific instructions for how to

do so.

So that's what I try to do now.

And I don't necessarily do a delegation every single day,

but every single day I'm like,

okay, Nicole,

what's going to be your delegation today.

Like, what are you going to do?

Yeah. And,

you know,

I think just keeping it top of mind that there are

always things and being on the lookout for things that could

get delegated out,

because look at what's happened to you.

I mean,

moving into the next part of your story,

your interest in the creation part kind of was waning because

that's what you had just mentioned earlier because your interests were

going somewhere else.

I mean,

we change and evolve over the course of years too,

so you never know what's going to happen.

So this is I believe where you're going to talk to

me about how you started to gravitate into wanting to share

forward. What,

you know,

in terms of coaching,

is that where this comes in?

Yeah, for sure.

I think I had been running random Nicole for about 10

years and all of that stuff was going on.

Like I mentioned with the company trying to buy me out.

And around that time I had already been teaching.

I taught when I was in college,

you know,

I taught creative writing and I was teaching art classes to

kids and adults and things.

And I really enjoyed teaching other people to be creative.

And I just started getting more into that sphere.

So my aunt who was my we'd be ended up becoming

business partners.

We're no longer business partners,

but together we started a craft show called patchwork show.

And that was because I had moved out of San Francisco

and out of Hollywood and down to orange county and orange

county was like kind of a bummer at that time.

It was like not a lot of cool stuff going on.

So she and I created this cool event called patchwork show,

which was a maker's festival where we had vendor booths and

food and all kinds of stuff.

And at that time there were only like 20 vendors and

that's been happening for 13 years now.

You know,

we have several different cities.

We're just coming back now after our COVID break.

And then around that time,

we started having these kind of vendor nights for our vendors

where we would invite them to all come.

She and I had stores next door to each other.

So we would invite all of our vendors to come to

the store and we would have like cupcakes and drinks and

we would have somebody do a talk about marketing or whatever

it was.

And we just saw there was such a need for not

only the education that we were offering them,

but also the camaraderie that they were experiencing.

Because when you're at the craft show,

you're busy trying to sell your stuff and you see other

makers you want to talk to,

and maybe you have a minute here and there,

but this was an opportunity for them to talk to each

other and share resources and say,

yeah, B2.

And we saw how just transformative that was for them.

And we started a craft cation conference,

which is a five day business and makers conference that happens

once a year in the spring in Ventura where we have

over 200 craft and DIY workshops,

everything from jewelry,

making a stained glass to sewing,

to screen printing.

I mean,

it varies every year.

We've had perfume making,

I mean,

all kinds of different things weaving and then also business classes.

So everything from panels about imposter syndrome to marketing and branding

and social media and profit and loss and planning your financials

when you're a freelancer and things like that.

And then a lot of fun social stuff there too.

And plus it's at the beach,

which is a great part of it because I think that

when we are creative business bosses,

we are very dedicated to our businesses.

So this offers people,

a chance to get that community,

get that education,

get that creativity.

And then also get that time for themselves to relax at

the beach.

And we have meditation and yoga and all those kinds of

things too.

So everything that I did kind of evolved into that as

to being more of a curator and to trying to give

other whether it was,

you know,

curating vendors for the event or curating presenters to share their

knowledge or curating an experience to try to give these creatives

the things that I wished I had that I feel like

would have helped my business grow faster or grow smarter.

And that's pretty much what I do now of what's behind

it. But I think there wasn't that opportunity as you were

growing and building,

we didn't have the linkage that we do now,

you know,

either technology or even getting together as we're doing these days

and the events that you're describing sound amazing for our industry.

Absolutely. For sure.

So, and the patchwork show is still going on,

right? Yep.

I think this is our 13th year.

all of our shows are in California,

so Northern and Southern California.

And we're crossing our fingers that everything's going to work out

with that COVID wise.

Yeah. I think you're going to be in luck.

Cause like I said,

I just got back from my first show.

I have two more coming up in September and I think

we should be well on our way.

I hope so in whatever that's going to look like,

right. Like I'm not blind.

I know that we're not done with this yet,

but that's very exciting.

Do you have a date already tentative date?

We do have a date it's April 6th through 10th of

2022 in Ventura,

California. And if you're listening and you're not familiar with Ventura,

it's about an hour or so,

depending on traffic north of LA and it's a beach city.

So the hotel where we're at as a block from the

beach and it's a really cool beach town and that it

kind of has that old school,

California beach field where you'll see surfers in vintage VW buses.

And it's not really pretentious.

Like some beaches can be,

it's a really good fit for conference.

We are.

I would say that we're kind of like a down to

earth, diverse,

inclusive group of people.

So it fits really well for us to be in a

kind of a down to earth beach town place.

Got it.

Let's talk a little bit,

some challenges that you see that are really specific to the

handmade community.

If you were to share maybe three things that you find

that people,

when they come to get help or they come to Craftcation,

where are they?

A big struggle that I see is in marketing.

I don't do a lot of consulting and coaching right now,

but I do do it occasionally whenever I can make the

time for it.

But marketing is such a big one.

And having that,

wanting to make a business off of your art because you

enjoy making your art and then finding out when you make

a business off of your art,

you spend a lot more time on the business part than

the art part.

And a huge part of the business part is the marketing

and feeling like you have to be everywhere on all the

social media and all of the newsletters,

building your lists,

doing stories,

doing reels on Pinterest,

making evergreen content,

all that.

But right.

You know,

I had a call this morning and someone was,

well, I did a Q and a this morning in my

group. And one of the questions that came in is I

need help with my marketing.

I'm like,

okay, so let's break that down.

Like what specifically do you want to talk about?

Because marketing,

we could sit for a week,

right. And talk about marketing.

But I think that whole point that you're saying is getting

the visibility and getting the attention to your product and then

being able to share it is the only thing that's going

to make it a business.

If you agree that to be a business,

you have to be exchanging money.

Exactly. No one's going to know you unless you're marketing in

whatever way that's going to be.

And I think that the most helpful advice that I can

give to people who are feeling overwhelmed by having to post

all the things in all the places is don't post all

the things and all the places look for what type of

content you enjoy baking that you feel is your strong suit

and that you enjoy and then look for where your customers

are and figure out where that overlap is.

If you can imagine that's a Venn diagram,

where do those two circles intersect in the middle?

Is it on Instagram?

Is it on Facebook?

Is it on Twitter?

If you're a creative business owner,

it's probably not on Twitter.

It's probably on Instagram,

depending on your age demographic.

And then what kind of content on there?

Just because video is where it's at right now and everything

is moving towards video doesn't mean that everything you post has

to be video or you have to dance on a reel.

So maybe you do IgE lives,

Instagram lives or Instagram TVs,

maybe longer format video is a better fit for you.

So just looking at it and trying to find,

I've been trying to think about social media as an opportunity

instead of as an obligation.

And that changed my whole thing about it.

I mean,

I kind of started this in November and then I took

a break from social media and kind of rethought my strategy.

And then I just came back from another social media break

where I took three weeks and I just studied for those

three weeks.

I studied a ton of social media strategist for creatives.

I watched a bunch of stuff.

I took a course.

I started working on my own strategy.

I created like 25 reels and I just did what I

thought was going to be fun.

I was like,

okay, I've got this really fun sequined jumpsuit.

Like what can I do in this?

I feel like putting this on and wearing a wig,

you know,

what am I going to do here?

Okay. Nicole 25 reels is super impressive.

I'm just going to start with that.

It wasn't my goal to do that.

My goal was I'm going to come up with some real

ideas and make a dozen reels or something.

And by the time I started brainstorming and my list of

ideas was I think 72 ideas on my spreadsheet.

So then I just picked out some of them and started

doing them good for you.

I'm actually taking a different approach to all of the social

media options.

I want them to pile them on to the point where

you couldn't possibly do everything because then to your point,

you pick and choose.

Then what's the best for you in the beginning,

it used to be only Facebook,

Twitter. So of course,

as they started developing,

you felt like you needed to be on everything.

Now it's getting to be just so It really is.

And I think the other thing is to realize that you

don't have to be constantly turning out content and you can

repurpose your content and you can use the same content on

other platforms because maybe two to 3% of your audience is

actually seeing your content.

And out of that,

two to 3%,

how many people there are going to remember it when you

post it a month later?

I mean,

I don't think it's ever happened where I've seen a post

and thought I already saw this.

I'm sure I have.

That's a good point too,

for sure.

And on Pinterest,

you can take the same content and just make different images

also. So yeah,

there's a lot of opportunity and every platform is unique,

but I think the breath of fresh air that you're presenting

Nicole is you don't need to be on everything.

No, you do not.

And there was such a thing as business before social media

too. You know,

I think we forget about what we call old traditional ways

of marketing.

And I think once social media becomes not the new child

anymore, which I think there's still that hype around it.

A lot,

some of it might even level out like I'm even hearing

people talking about doing billboards more.

Now it's a little bit,

I actually just did radio ads for my last round of

patchwork shows and direct mailing.

So I just decided I'm going to try a bunch of

different things.

So I did in-house advertising,

you know,

through our newsletter and social media and all of that.

I did paid digital advertising,

paid advertising in our local paper,

paid radio ads.

And then I also did direct mailing and I was just

like, let's throw it off and see what happens.

Absolutely. Well,

and especially now with the way Facebook ads are performing.

So it's going to be interesting things keep changing.

They don't leave us without anything to talk about.

That's for sure.

So talk a little bit more about dear handmade life.

What's coming up in the future.

What do you want everybody who's listening here to know.

So what's coming up in the future,

our fall patchwork shows,

and I think everyone will be listening to this sometime in

November. And that's when our shows are.

So you can just head to our website,

dear handmade,

life.com to check out our show schedule and see if there's

a show near you.

then our newest venture that actually isn't public at the time

that we're recording this,

but it's your handmade life,

the club.

And it's an exclusive members,

only online community for creative business owners,

where we have expert led business classes,

group mentorship,

sessions of resource hub,

and so much more in there and membership opens every quarter.

So you can head to dear handmade life.com/the

club. And you can see if membership's open at the time,

you're listening to this.

So I'm very excited about that.

It's completely remote and everything is also recorded.

So it's self paced and you can join from anywhere in

the world.

That sounds amazing.

And back just a few minutes ago,

when you were talking about starting off and being at the

shows and how you felt like you were all by yourself

as a handmade creator,

and now you fill that niche,

none of us need to feel alone with support,

with education and all of that through the services that you

provide and the events.

That's why I started this because it's great to have that

community when we're at our patchwork shows or once a year

at Craftcation.

But so many of people in our community myself included want

that year round.

Absolutely. Well,

this has been fabulous.

Any parting words for our listeners Nichol?

I would just say,

I mean,

thinking about that first thing that I said,

when we were talking about my candle,

that it's all grist for the mill.

And if you happen to be in a low valley right

now, you will come out of that valley.

And the only way you're going to get out is to

keep moving.

So just keep moving,

keep pushing,

look for your community,

reach out for help.

And you can totally do this.

It's hard,

but it's worth it.

Absolutely. Couldn't agree more.

Thank you so much,

Nicole. I really appreciate your being here today and sharing with

us your story and all that you are now offering in

the world of handmade.

Thank you.

So it was great to meet you and chat.

As a reminder,

Nicole shared a lot of information that you may want to

resource. If you didn't catch it during our talk,

it's all available for you on the show notes page to

access that head over to the gift biz unwrapped website,

or scroll down on your podcast app.

And the notes with links will appear.

Make sure to join me next Saturday for more business advice,

from a seasoned strategist who has many tips to share.

And of course you can also tune in on Wednesdays for

my tips and talk episodes.

I really,

you spending time with me today.

If you'd like to show support for the podcast,

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So it's a great way to pay it forward.

Also make sure to follow the podcast.

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That way you don't miss a thing and now be safe

and well.

And I'll see you again next week on the gift biz

unwrapped podcast.

I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook

group called gift is free.

It's a place where we all gather and our community to

support each other.

Got a really fun post in there.

That's my favorite of the week.

I have to say where I invite all of you to

share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,

to show what you're working on for the week to get

reaction from other people and just for fun,

because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody

in the community is making my favorite posts every single week,

without doubt.

Wait, what,

aren't you part of the group already,

if not make sure to jump over to Facebook and search

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