367 – Reigniting Your Handmade Business Passion with Amy Feierman of Weed Patch Studio

Gift biz unwrapped episode 367.

So fascinating to me that the universe finally said,

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I there It's Sue and thanks for joining me today.

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We're going to hear from my dear friend,

Amy, who has gone through a few years of change and

transformation recently,

I met her when we were mastermind sisters in a formal

year long mastermind,

headed by Natalie act,

all of biz checks.

It was a wonderful experience.

And Amy and I in particular have continued supporting each other

ever since then.

It's always so helpful to get other's thoughts on what you're

considering as next steps.

Particularly when you know,

you can count on honesty and support.

That's what I have with Amy.

I tell you all this because you'll clearly hear how close

Amy and I are.

And her story of change is one.

I can't wait for you to learn about.

She had a solid and growing Amazon business.

It was expanding a big time as is the dream for

all our businesses.

But guess what?

Amy didn't enjoy it anymore.

Nothing was wrong.

It just didn't light her up as it once did.

So time for a change.

That's what you're going to hear about.

Now. The course Amy took to discover what was next for

her. And I got to say it wasn't as smooth jump

from one thing to another,

but it was definitely worth it because,

well, you'll be able to hear it in her voice.

Her passion and energy is back Today.

I am so excited to share with you.

Once again,

my friend,

Amy Fearman with weed patch studio over the last 10 years,

Amy started and scaled two successful businesses in e-commerce.

You can hear about all of that back in episode 191.

actually in search of something new.

She always enjoyed refinishing and updating furniture for her own home.

And when the kids went back finally to in-person learning,

she decided to try her hand at selling some of her

works. Now it's what gets her out of bed in the

morning. Amy is a furniture artist,

thrift, a Hollick and mom of two re-imagining furniture out of

her home in Royersford Pennsylvania,

Amy, welcome to the gift biz on wrapped podcast.

It is so good to be back and it's so good

to be here doing something I truly love.

And I'm passionate about.

I can,

you know,

you just hear it with the energy in your voice.

It's just there.

And I'm so excited because we transition,

you know,

as people we do,

one thing,

maybe some of our listeners here have one type of a

business. And they're thinking of maybe switching either.

They've lost the passion for the product they're making,

or they're switching from their nine to five to a business

business of their own,

I should say.

And you are just inspiration.

One mighty dynamo packed in this little adorable body.

And I can say that since I know you and we've

been together a million times,

but who knew there was so much in you,

Amy, I'm so excited to get to your story.

It's an interesting story because I fought so hard against this

side of who I am for a long time,

because I grew up as the daughter of artists and I

didn't want to do what my parents did.

So it's so fascinating to me that the universe finally said,

Nope, this is where you were meant to be.

All right.

So we're going to pick up on that.

After we do the candle,

we talked a little bit beforehand about whether we should do

a candle again,

since you did it back in the first episode that we've

done together,

but we change,

right? So our visions change our motivation and our inspiration changes.

So with that,

Amy, let's talk about what your motivational candle would look like

by color and a quote By color.

I have to go with,

it's not really green.

It's kind of,

I guess it's a Sage green,

it's calming,

it's reflective,

but it's also powerful to me.

Green has always been a power color for me,

which isn't when you look at the color thing,

green is not a power color,

but to me,

green means growth.

Green means rejuvenation green means spring and coming out of the

ground. And it really speaks to what I'm going through right

now is a transformation.

It's a change.

I went from doing something completely different to land where I

am now.

And it's all about change.

It's all about transformation.

And I love this quote because it really speaks to what

I'm going through and what anybody who transitions from one thing

into another goes through changes.

The hardest,

the beginning,

messiest in the middle and best at the end.

Change is hard.

It's a transition you are not doing.

This was one of the hardest things for me,

transitioning from what I did for almost 10 years into something

completely new was I had everything in my other business,

figured out I'd gone through all the rough patches and the

figuring it out and the learning,

and it was all making sense.

And then I decided to move on to something else because

it was a job.

It wasn't a business anymore.

It was not what I wanted it to be.

So I was at a point where I was at the

best at the end of it.

And it felt really good.

what this next thing was.

And it was hard and it was challenging.

I didn't know what I was doing at first.

And now I'm kind of in the messy middle,

figuring it out and learning as I go.

But that first part is why so many people in the

beginning they knew go,

I'm done.

This is just too hard.

It's because we don't let ourselves get to the good part.

Ooh. I love that.

Yeah. So anyone who's in the messy middle right now,

the best is yet to come.

Just keep going.

But I see Amy,

like, there've been so many stages when I first met you

back when right.

You had a hugely successful business,

making money,

growing the business,

evolving from there into building it up and growing bigger.

And I've got to imagine it had to be so difficult

to walk away from that.

So there were two parts to it.

One was,

yes, I have a successful business.

I'm doing well.

I can continue to.

And the other part of me goes what?

You don't enjoy It anymore.

Right anymore.

I don't enjoy anymore.

So I've been doing it for nine years and I got

to a point where I actually think I grew too much.

If that makes sense.

When you get to a point where you're having to look

at your business differently and it wasn't doing the things that

I really enjoyed,

one of the things I didn't realize until I started my

new business was that I was missing the hands-on piece.

About six years into my business.

I took all of my handling of all of my inventory

and outsource it to a warehousing company that dealt with all

of that for me.

So all I was doing was sitting at a computer and

doing the ordering and processing and all of the social media

stuff. And I'd gotten rid of the physical element of it.

And I didn't realize how much I missed that until I

got into furniture refinishing and was like,

oh, that's the part that was missing.

And so,

you know,

this is about me.

I'm not a person who likes to sit still.

Absolutely not.

That's why I say you're such a dynamo.

I need to be moving.

And so having a business where all I did was sit

at a computer,

really drained me.

And I was like,

no, this is not what I want to be doing anymore.

So pivot to something that allowed me to move my body,

I can sit and sand for hours or paint for hours.

It just feels right.

Cause I don't sit there.

And if I'm sitting in standing for an hour,

my arms are going to go down from using the Sanders.

So it's not like a constant sitting,

I'm moving around and doing things in the process of making

my art.

Yeah. I love that you bring this up Amy,

because makers,

you love your craft.

You love what you make.

And as you start to grow your business,

there is the possibility that you grow yourself out of something

that you really love to do.

And you're a perfect example.

You're saying just that.

So something to consider and you know,

nothing says we have to grow our businesses year over year

or to a certain dollar volume and keep going.

It's all an individual choice and it needs to still make

you happy,

fulfill you and enrich you and lift you up.

I actually want to speak to that point because in my

old business,

I found myself chasing other people's dreams or running other people's

bonds. Like they would have a goal of hitting seven figures,

eight figures in their business.

I'm going,

I can do that.

If they can do it,

I can do it.

Except I realized in the process of pursuing that,

that I lost what I was working towards.

I was then working for somebody else's dream because why not?

It's a million dollars who doesn't want to reach seven figures.

And it actually took me out of the joy of my

business in doing that because I grew too far and too

much. I think it's a huge risk for handmade creators.

And you might like it.

It's not to say one or the other.

It's a total personal choice.

I would go one step further into that because I grew

up, my dad's a kinetic sculptor.

He has been creating for almost 50 years.

And so I grew up,

my dad didn't have employees.

He didn't work with anybody else.

And I didn't understand that.

Especially as a creator who hand makes pieces,

you're going to get to a point where you only have

so many hours in the day and two hands can only

do so much.

And it made me realize why he's only ever done what

he does.

He's like,

I don't want to deal with all the logistics of having

employees and dealing with all of that.

I just want to do what I want to do.

And so I think that as you look to grow your

business, if that's what you want to do,

you have to think,

do I want to become a manager because that's what can

happen If growth is your plan.

And for some,

it is like I said,

there are all different ways of painting the scenario.

But if growth is your plan,

at some point you have to stop making because you can

only make a certain amount.

And then you're going to have to hire on people.

And the second you bring in our first employee,

I don't care if it's a bookkeeper or someone who is

actually helping you in the creation process.

You start to become a manager,

just like you're saying Amy.

Yep. All right.

So what did you say to yourself?

I'm walking through this transition path.

Okay. What did you say to yourself?

Because you were so knowledgeable,

you were so successful,

both financially and growth and all of that.

What did you say to yourself to allow yourself to make

the change?

Was it all that,

just that emotional that you didn't love it anymore?

Well, I got to a point where I was really struggling

with that transition.

I felt like I was quitting.

I felt like I was giving up on something that I

could do.

But just because you can do doesn't mean you should continue

doing that was one piece that I finally had to come

to terms with.

That was part of it.

But the second part was I brought the way I was

feeling to other entrepreneurs.

I said,

I'm stuck in this place.

And I was sitting in a flash mastermind and I said,

this is how I'm feeling.

And the lady next to me said,

you need to set a retirement date.

And that one moment switched how it was looking at me

leaving my business.

I was no longer looking at us.

I'm quitting,

I'm retiring and moving on to a different season in my

life. And that's absolutely okay.

You don't have to sit and be stuck in what you're

doing forever,

just because it's what you decided to do.

10 years ago,

that word retirement date,

like that phrase,

I was like,

I can set a retirement date.

No, I happened to set the retirement date for March 31st,

2020. And you did,

you did retire at that time.

I Did.

And it came in perfect time,

But here's the thing also.

And this is a great way to get into the second

stage of what I'm calling your three stage journey here is

then you didn't automatically go into weed patch studio.

No, gosh,

no. So what happened here in this middle phase,

This middle space.

And so one of the hardest parts for me first off,

make this transition to make that retirement date was I'm a

planner. I want to know what comes next.

I want to know what the next 10 20,

30 steps are.

So me taking the leap to step away from one thing

and not immediately know what I was going to do next.

That was a really hard thing.

And then in all of my years of my e-commerce businesses

and all of that stuff,

I learned a lot of skills and I knew what I

was good at.

I was like,

okay, I'm good at systems and organization.

I'm going to do that for other people in my brain

though. And I hadn't realized at this point that I was

missing the hands-on stuff.

I was like,

I'm going to do that for other people,

which guess what is,

that's go sit at the desk all day,

every day.

And so I started working on trying to build that business

and trying to figure out what that was going to be.

And now as the quote,

I said at the beginning,

everything is hard.

Change is hard.

This change felt so enormously huge.

I felt like I was climbing 10 Mount Everest,

like nothing about it felt easy.

I knew I could do this.

I knew I had the skillset to do it yet.

I kept putting up barriers to actually doing the thing,

if that makes sense.

And so I realized as I was going through that,

it took me a year.

It took me a year trying to figure this out,

to realize that maybe this isn't really what I'm supposed to

be doing.

And that was hard because I invested time,

energy, effort,

and money into building this thing.

That was like,

you know what?

This just doesn't feel like it's the thing.

I still didn't know what the thing was,

but I decided to step back and say,

I need a break.

This is obviously not going in the direction that my brain

thinks it should or that I feel like it should.

And I took a step back and I said,

we're going to take a break because I'm just putting a

lot of money and not getting any money back,

coming back in my direction.

So I want to stop you here.

When you talk about time in and all of that,

you built a gorgeous website,

you built the whole customer journey in terms of what you

would be providing.

You had all the documentation you had,

all of it built out again.

So here's another place where just like before,

you know,

with your e-commerce businesses,

you could have said,

I've put so much time in.

I've just got to continue and see this through because of

all that I've done already,

but yet no,

you took the break.

So what,

again, in your mind allowed you to do that,

I felt like I was building myself a job versus a

business. You were getting into the same thing that you just

got out of.

Correct. And that was what I was trying to get away

from. Not live in,

In a new form with a new coat on or something.

Correct. It was the same thing,

just a different position.

And I was like,

this is not what I'm trying to do.

I'm not trying to make this to be something that I

don't enjoy doing.

I don't want to be a person.

I work for myself.

Right. I don't go to a nine to five that I'm

miserable at,

but I'm at just because I have to,

I work for myself.

So I don't have to make myself miserable.

So let's take a step back and let's look at what

is it that I really want out of a business,

just because I can doesn't mean I should have that.

That was the thing that I had to keep reciting in

my head.

It's just because you can do these things doesn't mean that

the things you need to do for other people,

and there've been many iterations of what I've done for work,

I've done a lot of small things along the way,

trying to figure it out.

Even before I started my first business.

And I've realized that doing work for other people stresses me

out. Furniture is different.

I don't know.

I don't feel that way about that,

but like I did logo design for people for awhile.

And that was so hard for me.

And I was starting to feel that same way about having

to do systems for other people.

It's like,

I know how to do systems for myself.

I am very good at building them.

And they worked really well.

And then I have to try and do it for somebody

else. I felt like I was pulling teeth.

I didn't want to go to work.

It's like one of those things when I don't feel like

getting out of bed in the morning and that just didn't

feel right.

I was like,

this doesn't work.

So pausing felt right in that moment to say,

okay, we need to stand back.

Everything was built.

Everything could just sit there.

It didn't need to go anywhere.

And so I just said,

we're just going to wait and see where I can come

to by just taking a pause and digging into what is

it that I really want in this next business.

And sometimes it takes a while.

Like it's not,

you can just go out for a walk one afternoon and

say, I'm going to figure it out on this walk and

come back.

Sometimes you just have to wait and let it come to

you and listen to your feelings.

I would imagine.

And just observe what feels good,

what doesn't and let it come to you.

Right, Amy.

And let it come to me is what exactly what happened.

So I,

in the process saying,

I'm taking time off.

I stepped away from my computer.

My kids birthdays are in may and I'd promised both of

them. I would repaint their rooms because it's been five years

in. Both of them have grown up significantly in the room,

color choice.

Wasn't what they wanted anymore.

And so I was like,

I will start with that.

I asked them what kind of rooms they wanted.

And my daughter wanted a Minecraft room and my son wanted

a spaceship theme room.

And so in the process of doing that,

I've always loved to paint.

I love painting walls.

I love painting my house.

I love doing that.

But I also did the furniture and I also set this

entire thing.

So that whole process got me thinking,

well, I really like doing this.

Is this something I can do?

And part of what I was doing as I was doing

the furniture for my kids' rooms is understanding how to paint

correctly so they could be durable.

So I was doing a lot of searching on YouTube.

And what is YouTube really good at?

It starts showing you similar videos.

And so I started seeing videos for people who were hand

painting and refinishing furniture.

And that honestly is one of those things that had never

crossed my mind as something to sell.

I've done it for all sorts of stuff in our own

house. And I was like,

that's interesting.

And you know,

I went along and did my kids' rooms.

And then I was like,

well, I'm just going to go see if I can get

a free piece of furniture and see if it's something I

enjoy doing to sell.

Okay. So earlier on you were talking about how you were

watching what your dad did and you resisted that idea,

even though you knew you loved the activity,

you were resisting that can you shed some light on now,

why you think that was and how you overcame that to

start and look at that very first piece you were going

to do.

I would say that I was a teenager who was being

very Well.

The word teenager says it all.

Probably I don't need to say much more than teenager in

that sentence because I mean,

I grew up in it.

I would did all the art stuff.

I took art classes.

I did all that.

I was even an art minor in college.

I enjoy art.

I enjoy going to museums.

I enjoy all the things that are has to offer.

This is weird.

Both of my parents are self-employed.

So like the fact that I had this,

like, but I need to go out to the world and

I need to get a nine to five.

And it feels weird that that's where my brain was,

but that's very much what society was like,

this is what you should do.

And I remember my dad always say,

he's like,

you're never going to be happy until you're working for yourself.

He just saw that about me.

And it took me,

oh, about eight years of working for other people to realize

that this isn't really a good fit for me.

And I got laid off twice from both of the small

businesses I worked for.

I got laid off and I was like,

okay, that's the world telling me,

Nope, that's move on.

And so it was something that I felt like I had

to do.

And I feel like I am better off for having experienced

what I did in those eight years,

working for other people.

It took all those parts and pieces along the way for

me to get to where I am now to be like,

I am enjoying this and it's not the art my parents

do. I think it's a good point for anybody who is

in that place of discovery.

Maybe they're working for someone else right now and they just

want to start something on the side.

Maybe they're easing into retirement.

They see a little bit more time for themselves because the

children are getting older or they just want extra income,

whatever the case is,

just this sense of discovery of looking and opening yourself up

to all types of possibilities.

What did you like when you were younger,

what you do and what your skills are currently doesn't mean?

That's the only thing that you can do.

So to your point,

Amy, like not staying solid and just like so rigid that

you're so good at some of the things that you're doing,

that that has to be your business.

And I think that was really interesting about it is there's

an evolution that happens in,

I think it's an,

any thing that we do.

We start off doing one thing and it changes and evolves.

And I see this happening with a lot of different furniture

refinishers or other makers for that matter is they start off

doing all of the things.

And I even did this when I was an e-commerce,

you start off doing all the things and you eventually narrow

it in on what you really enjoy doing.

I could do all sorts of different kinds of furniture,

but there are certain kinds that I tend to stick to

because they're the ones that I enjoy doing the most.

Some people love doing really ornate stuff.

Some people enjoy doing day crew posh and all sorts of

crazy stuff on theirs.

I do very simple,

modern clean lines because that's what my aesthetic is.

And I really like doing that.

And so I think that as we evolve and as we

change, whether it's spending time trying to figure out what comes

next, whether it's starting a new business or transitioning as you

are in the business that you're currently in,

it really helps to evolve what you're doing.

And I think part of that comes from learning new things.

I keep trying new techniques.

I keep trying new things.

I want you to videos all the time,

trying to see what other people are doing,

because sometimes somebody has a way of doing things.

It just makes more sense or is something I really want

to try.

And that helps me learn and try new things.

And I evolve my own way because I picked up stuff

from other people,

Right. And the experience that you've had all the way along

here has helped you get this business up faster.

I find an incredible,

and I just have to throw this in here.

It doesn't necessarily mean anything.

I don't know.

Remember the website that you put up and I loved the

colors so much.

They were the red in that lime green,

like the vibe of the site.

I mean,

you are a pro at building websites and I know this

is not going to be your business,

but then you go now to weed patch studio site,

it's a whole different feel.

So just the energy and the emotion and the style of

the brand.

You're so good at changing from one to another,

because you didn't just take a style that was feeling good

to you for one thing and just overlay it on top.

Did you start thinking about who your customer was going to

be and the style of your furniture,

and then back into the vibe of the business in terms

of how it was going to be reflected on the website.

I started with trying to do different styles of furniture is

what came first.

I really dug in and was trying different things.

I really didn't know,

like the first part of building any business is I'm just

going to throw spaghetti at the wall.

See is really what I did.

I'm just going to try it pieces and put them up

there. And well,

That was the point of your first piece,

right? You tried your first piece.

I tried my first piece and then it sold and then

I was addicted.

Oh, it only took one,

One. It was the same thing I used to sell on

eBay. It only took one sale.

And I was like,

okay, I'm going to keep doing this for awhile.

So you started with the style that you liked and then

the product that you are going to produce.

Cause that's great.

I mean,

you could probably do ornate furniture or all different styles,

but you've narrowed in on what the style of your furniture

was going to look like.

And then that backed into how the brand would recognize that

style Very much.

So there are people out there who put bold,

vibrant colors on everything and I'm planning to do a few

pieces like that.

Cause I have some ideas to just throw my creative juices

at something and just go crazy with it.

But that's not my normal aesthetic.

I tend to be more calm muted with a color,

a big bright color every now.

And then what I realized in doing when I designed the

website. So the website came and then the logo actually the

colors and then the website and then the logo came was

an interesting backwards way of doing it.

Start even back further than that.

How do you decide on the name,

lead us through the progression of the development of the business.

So you did that very first piece.

It sold,

you were excited and typical.

Amy, you're ready to roll.

You'll hear what happened next.

Right after this quick break.

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Amy. I was ready to roll.

The first thing was that first piece I really was excited

that I got a set of end tables.

I took paint I already had,

and I made it look nice,

but it wasn't what I was seeing other people do on

the web.

It wasn't what I wanted my quality of piece to be.

And so part of what I did first was I want

to get myself to a certain level of quality.

There are two parts to what I did there.

One was make sure my painting technique is better realize I

really don't like chalk paint.

And then I also want to work on getting quality furniture.

I learned that you don't want to do cheap furniture because

you're spending all the time and you're not going to be

able to charge as much for it.

So I started looking for solid.

And so all of those parts and pieces that I'm putting

together that I'm learning from other people are helping me build

the brand.

I mean,

my tagline is quality furniture.

Re-imagined, I'm not going to take an Ikea piece of furniture

and remake it because it's not a quality solid wood piece.

I really try to go for vintage solid wood pieces that

I know are going to last for other 50 or 60

years. They just need some love.

So that was the first part of this building of what

I wanted this to be.

Once I got the quality part figured out,

I was like,

okay, now I feel like I'm going to keep doing this.

It's not just,

I'm going to do it for a month or two to

figure it out.

I really want to keep doing this.

And that next piece was okay if I want to do

this, I need a brand.

So I was having people I'd meet.

And when I was picking up French going,

what are you doing?

Like I refinished furniture.

Oh, can I see your work?

Now I have a Facebook store,

but like there was no easy place to direct them because

I was selling everything on marketplace.

And so I realized,

okay, I need some presence.

I need to know what this is going to be.

And for awhile I was re-imagined by Amy or redesigned by

Amy or something along those lines.

And it was blue and red colors and it just felt

not right,

but I didn't know if I wanted my name to be

attached to it if I want it to be its own

business, same.

And so I spent some time marinating on what I really

wanted this to be.

And as I started working through that,

I realized I tend to be very neutral and pestles around

what it's like.

It's like muted colors.

So Sage greens or that type of things that are not

vibrant purples,

but they're not all neutral.

Some makers do just neutral.

And I was like,

I need some color.

But in that we patch,

I don't remember where it popped into my head,

but I was going through trying to think of names from

my life.

In my mom's side of the family,

we name our homes.

And so like my parents has asked me hill and all

of the cottages my grandparents had when my mom was growing

up, had names to them.

And so that was part of where I started going.

And what are things from my world?

Cause a lot of people use their street number or the

street that they live on.

But let me tell you,

I live on pine street.

You can't have pine street studio,

pine street,

anything because everyone's already taken cause there's pine streets everywhere.

And so trying to find the name and then I landed

on weed patch,

which was my great-grandmother's house name because when they bought the

home, it was just a weed patch with a house in

the middle of it that needed some love.

And I really connected to that.

I connected to the color palette of what a weed patch

is. It's muted greens and Browns.

And it's very calming.

It's very soothing.

And I liked that aesthetic.

It's a lot of the colors that I use and what

I do as like that fits me in this stage of

life. Right?

I'm a very vibrant dynamic person.

No, I bounce all the time.

This is who I am,

but that doesn't mean that's who my brand needed to be.

And I was trying to build a brand that had that

same vibrant energy,

but my furniture isn't that.

And so the calmer energy of the brand actually fits what

I do.

It's a beautiful,

I mean,

I would not like a name like pine studio or something.

Yeah. Pine makes sense because that's wood,

but this is so much more creative.

It has a flare to it.

It's unique and different.

It's perfect name,

no question about it.

That was the creative piece of it for me is that

people are going to want to know from your name,

what you do.

And I'm like,

I'm an artist.

That's not necessarily the case.

And I was looking at all the other refinishers and seeing

like, none of them say anything about refinishing furniture or hand

painting furniture.

That's usually the tagline,

but it's not what their names are.

And I was like,

I want something that is unique to me that I'm not

having to fight for URLs.

And there's lots of other common ones out there.

I wanted something that was unique to me.

And this one really did that.

It was either this one or the pricker patch,

which is the property next to my parents' house is called

the pricker patch.

So it was one of those two,

the poker patch just felt like a mouthful to say,

and that's important when you come on a podcast and can't

say the name of her business correctly,

and clearly it's a problem Or spell it.

You know,

I'm not sure I would know how to spell pricker patch.

I could guess The problems though with weed patch is everyone's

like, well,

weed is a big thing.

Everyone's going to think you're about selling weed.

And I'm like,

but I'm not.

And it's weed patch and it's not,

when you go click on the link and you figured that

out, plus I'm not going to show up for those types

of searches.

Interesting. Okay.

Yeah. And I could see where people would say,

well put what you do in the title for SEO,

but if it's a tagline or to description or it's integrated

all over the site,

then you're fine.

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. So let's keep talking,

let's go through the development of the business.

So you are experienced with what you're doing.

So luckily it's easier for you.

A lot of the steps along the way are easier for

you because you've done them before.

And anyone who is at this stage,

something that you're already doing in the current job that you're

in or past experience can also help you.

You can apply skills that you've had to something new that

you're creating.

So certain steps will be easier than others So much.

So I have now in the course of the past 10

years, designed multiple websites for my various different businesses.

It is not complicated and hard for me to go and

sit down,

spend a couple of weeks designing and putting together a website.

I know all the steps I know the tools to use.

I can do my graphics.

Like I have certain things that I've learned along the way.

I also have learned the hard way,

unfortunately, the importance of bookkeeping and making sure you're tracking everything

because in the first business,

in the first couple of years,

that was a little sketchy.

And so from this one,

I've started out from day one tracking all of that.

And so it's all those little things that you learn along

the way can help you in your business when you don't

expect it to be able to.

And so I'm doing my,

I don't even know what number business,

it's my third reel.

I've set,

stuck with it for more than a couple of months business.

It is really a culmination of all of the things I've

learned over the course of my life.

And so it's interesting to see where different things organization plays

a huge role in my transformation of furniture business here.

Right? So when I started,

I could never find the paintbrush or the paint or the

screwdriver, where'd it go like all of those things.

And so I spent way too much time trying to find

my tools.

So I got some pegboard and made a pegboard wall and

now everything's organized and has a home.

So it gets put back at the end of the day.

So when I need it tomorrow,

I have it.

That's how my brain works.

So it's important to utilize those skills,

to make your job easier.

It's really that actually made my productivity go up because I

wasn't spending way too much time.

The next piece of what I have to figure out is

how to not touch my inventory as much because that's,

you know,

each, every part of this is an evolution I've acquired way

too much inventory because I really liked furniture.

I really liked the thrill of the hunt is as much

fun for me as the transformation of the piece,

the re-imagining of it.

So I now have a garage full of furniture and I

want to get one piece,

but it's in the back.

And so I've have to work on that piece is going

to be my next evolution of how I handle my business.

Well, and didn't,

we have a conversation that when the weather gets nicer and

you can pull some things out,

you'll be able to reorganize.

And then also you'll have more room to work because some

of the stuff you can do outside That started to happen

here in the east coast,

the center of the country don't have that fun,

warm weather.

Yet. We had a 70 degree day yesterday and my entire

driveway was legit.

I had 15 pieces in my driveway.

I pulled everything out of the garage so I could organize

it by what I was going to do next.

So I know what I need to pull out and can

pull it into my office.

My office is on the first floor right next to the

garage. So I can just pull things in and now I

can do it in a more organized fashion.

And I also get the benefit of standing outside,

which is so much nicer than having to figure out how

to stand inside during the winter.

It's just much easier to stand outside and let's just go

everywhere. Well,

plus being outside,

that's gotta be so fun to do,

you know,

just the,

with the breeze and the weather and you're working,

but you're untimely outside,

not just in an office with an open window.

Oh, it's so funny though,

because when I have all the furniture out,

of course,

the dog walkers that go by my house are curious and

one of them came up yesterday and she goes,

can I get your business card?

I'm like,

absolutely Love that.

Also stop from my driveway.

I see some videos coming up with you working in the

front yard,

sanding, Oh,

there will be videos.

So it's interesting because I did so much of the video

and stuff for my previous business.

I haven't gotten into it as much with this,

but I've just started with Instagram,

really focusing on working through stories and putting up reels with

me, working,

what people don't realize,

makers who listen to this podcast,

realize that when you do that type of stuff,

it actually takes a lot of time out of what you're

actually trying to do to do the videos to post.

And so I've told myself that I will do one a

week and it will do one thing.

Like I'm not going to try and go crazy with it.

I've done courses.

I've done all of the sold,

all the things I did,

a podcast,

all of the things.

And so I have a lot of the skillset to be

able to do that.

And what I told my coaches here,

I was like,

I'm not doing any of that this year.

She be,

she'd be good at it.

Like I might be good at it,

but I want to really hone my craft.

I want to focus on the main part of how I'm

trying to make money right now,

which is not creating additional content and all that.

Maybe someday.

That's how I supplement on the months that it's slower.

But right now it's really just like sanding and painting Well,

and your pieces are selling.

So, you know,

a lot of the reason we're doing social media is to

get visibility for our business and with you with a higher

priced product.

Anyway, if they're selling,

let's face it,

you're not gonna whip out three dressers in a day,

you know?

So it stands to reason that you wouldn't be doing it

all the time.

Like you might with another business again,

it's also individual,

I think.

All right.

So you are up and running your stuff is selling your

website's gorgeous.

What other types of things did you implement into the business

as you were getting started?

Oh, what else did I implement?

That is such a good question.

So when I started,

I started in a tent on my driveway.

I started in the spring and it was a a month.

I was just in the warm weather and I'll just do

small pieces,

nightstands and whatnot in the winter.

But then I started selling dressers and realizing that the profit

margin was much better for not less work,

not more work,

there's slightly more work that goes into a dresser,

but it really takes me about the same amount of time

because there's still a lot of surface area and detail to

most nightstands.

And so I started doing more dressers and realizing that I

could make more doing that versus the small pieces.

And then winter came and I had to really restructure how

I thought about how I did things because I can set

up eight pieces in my driveway and be at various different

stages on all of them in the spring and summer.

But I can't do that in the winter.

I can only work on so many pieces.

And so I had to be more selective and I also

had to learn how to better organize my office.

Cause there's wait.

I have probably 10 pieces of furniture in my workspace right

now off to the sides.

Most of them are completed waiting to be picked up,

but I also needed to adjust.

And I'm actually looking forward to being able to go back

outside and do that.

But each phase,

each new season,

each new technique I learned,

I'm learning a dry brush technique right now,

which I have two pieces of furniture.

I usually like to flip,

well, I was flipping three a week and I realized that

I was just putting pieces out to sell and not really

spending as much time to make them the best that they

could be,

at least in my mind because I'm a perfectionist.

And so I've started doing,

is I work on one to two a week,

but I don't force myself to finish anything.

By the end of the week,

I will list it whenever it's ready.

I will send it out to my small email list.

Cause they get first dibs.

I've started growing that.

I think it's the one thing I've taken from my other

business and understanding the importance of having an interest list.

I know that my dad has that now my dad has

been selling for almost years and he sells all of his

pieces via auction now.

And he sends out an email to his interest list saying,

Hey, we're putting this piece up for auction.

Here's the information.

And it sells within two days.

Oh wow.

But he's been doing that and he's built up this entire

thing over the past 50 years now,

the internet changed my dad's business for sure.

But like,

he's been able to build that.

And so I understand the importance of the email list is

a pain in the I've done it too many times and

I'm not loving the beginning because you feel like I have

five people on my email list.

Oh look,

I have 20.

And so I try and not think about it,

but I realize the benefits.

I've got a lot of people who come and say,

oh my gosh,

I love your work.

I don't need any of these particular pieces yet,

but I want to follow you.

And I'm like,

get on my email list now because that's the best way

you're going to find out about the pieces first.

And then I can post them on Etsy and marketplace.

And so it's been an interesting way to get,

keep those people who contact me on Facebook or Instagram,

like, oh my gosh,

I love this.

Or it's a it already sold.

I don't have another one.

Like it.

Well, if you want to find out about when I release

new pieces,

join the mailing list.

We all know the importance of email lists.

We talk about that here all the time.

And a lot of people there is such a huge barrier

in doing it for whatever reason,

you can understand why but not do it.

But I love what you've baked into your email is there's

value to open each and every one,

because I'm going to see a new piece that's available.

And if I want it,

I should act fast first off.

And secondly,

I feel special because I'm on your list.

And so I get to know first.

Absolutely. You know,

those are two beautiful things.

If you can integrate them into a business,

I bet your email open rates are great,

no matter what the size of the list and just by

nature, they're going to stay that way.

They're going to want to open it because it may be

a piece it's for them and it may not.

And if it is they'll click through and see more information

about it,

but it gives them a reason to want to open.

There's actually two pieces to it now because not only am

I sending them information,

I'm also starting to write stories about each one of my

pieces. Now these stories vary.

Some of them include how I came to meet the piece,

which are always interesting.

Like I was driving down the road and this one was

happened to be sitting on.

And if somebody driver with a big free sign,

I write stories and the background and the history of the

pieces that I've learned from people.

And so I putting stories together,

some of which I share on social,

but some of which will be part of what I send

to my email list,

my active interest list so that they can feel a connection

to the work and to the piece.

Love it.

I love it.

I don't think I'm on your email list,

Amy and I don't know why.

So as soon as we're done,

I'm going and getting on the email list because I want

to see all of this.

So what was an unexpected challenge?

You talked already about the logistics of the pieces and how

much you could do,

and then also your interest in being able to finish it

with your heart and not put pressure on yourself in terms

of getting it done by a certain deadline.

What else surprised you as you were getting weed patch studio

started In the beginning.

My brain always said furniture is going to be hard to

come by.

Good furniture is,

can be hard to come by.

So get it when you can,

which has brought me into an entire garage and a storage

unit full of furniture,

which is great.

But I've also realized now that that was an incorrect assumption.

There's always furniture to be had.

I have great thrift stores around me that there's always furniture

and Facebook marketplace.

I swear there's always an estate sale.

There's always somebody getting rid of something.

And so I've had to make a mental shift of,

there's not a scarcity piece anymore.

There is no need for me to have that scarcity mindset

that I won't have enough furniture to refinish.

I will always be able to get my hands on some.

So now it's a selection issue,

which are the best pieces that you really want.

It's about understanding brands.

It's about understanding the quality of the piece because for example,

Bassett furniture,

which is still in production today,

went through some phases where their quality wasn't as good as

it is now,

or was it other times.

And so you can see it's a Bassett furniture piece,

but until you see it up close and you realize it's

not a great quality materials,

maybe I shouldn't go with that.

And so I've been learning about brands and techniques and all

of that information helps make what I do better.

I have some clients that are very much,

I want a branded piece and some like,

I don't care if it's solid wood,

it's quality.

Like that's fine.

I don't care if it has a brand on it or

not. Some want the thin Allen piece.

Some want it for the name,

some don't care.

Do you ever take furniture that people want you to refinish

for them?

I do do custom work.

I've done that once or twice the challenge.

Most of the time I do not provide pickups services for

my clients.

I won't go to your house and pick it up.

I am a five foot tall woman.

I am strong,

but I cannot carry a dresser by myself.

And I don't have somebody who can come help me pick

it up.

So it just makes it the logistics not possible.

Now there are services out there now like Dolly or you

ship or anything that can help with that.

But the cost right now,

especially with gas prices on the rise is expensive.

And so a lot of times people don't know how to

get the furniture to me,

which has been a challenge.

It's been a challenge,

both for me and shipping to people and for people to

deliver it to me is it's how do I get it

to you and not have to pay a ridiculous amount of

money to get it to you?

Right? And as our shipping costs are so expensive right now

and going up,

you'll probably do more local work,

but I was shocked to hear,

as you were telling me for everyone,

who's listening,

Amy and I kind of have a joke together.

It's like,

Sue, I need to talk.

Can't wait to tell you what's new or you're not going

to believe what's new.

But when you did that with me with weed patch studio,

one of the first things I'm thinking is,

well, you're going to be limited because you can only do

within the local area,

which I come to find is not true because you can

ship elsewhere and you have been,

of course it will be limited.

Now It is still limited.

Shipping coast to coast is really cost prohibitive right now.

It's cost prohibitive.

Usually. I mean,

I'm east coast.

So people,

me for quotes in California,

I'm like,

you're going to be playing twice as much as the piece

costs, But it's doable.

It's doable.

You can do it.

If somebody is really in love with a piece and willing

to pay it,

sure I'll ship it.

That's the,

I ship to South Carolina,

Massachusetts, Northern New Jersey,

and all of those have been so back up,

one of the other pieces of things that comes into,

I know how to do it.

Shipping is not scary to me.

I've shipped everything.

My dad's sculptures.

I used to help pack those.

When I was a kid,

when I sold online,

I packed all sorts of things.

I've packed everything from a Lilo and stitch coffee jar to

a giant three foot by two foot,

right on dinosaur.

So shipping big,

awkward things.

It does not phase me.

I have done a lot of learning on how to properly

prepare furniture to be shipped,

but wrapping it up and getting it ready to go to

have somebody pick up is not something that overwhelms me like

it does a lot of people.

And so when I first started my Etsy shop,

I was like,

I might as well not do local pickup.

It opens up me up from a much bigger area than

just the tri-state area around Eastern Pennsylvania.

And so I was like,

where can I take that?

And it is,

what's brought in,

I get at least two sales a month on Etsy right

now. It's not big,

but it's two sales that I didn't get locally.

It exposes you to a whole different audience.

Yes. Wonderful.

All right.

So looking out this next year,

what do you see happening as you continue on in the

upcoming months?

Oh, lie.

What do I see happen?

Because You're still in your first year.

You're only in the second half of your first year.

I guess something like that.

I am in like eight months in,

at this point.

And the hard part with any kind of entrepreneurial business is

the ups and downs.

I don't yet have a good idea of what the slow

months are like when people buy and when people don't and

it may change year to year.

But what I learned in when I was selling e-commerce,

there's a cycle.

There are times when you sell more than you do others,

some are tends to be slower.

I have no clue if that's going to be the case

with this business.

And I really am trying to understand also what to sell

when for example,

a big seller that I've learned that I didn't do last

year. Cause I didn't know any better.

I said just started my business was tables right before the

holidays, people are looking for a new dining room table or

a new piece for the holidays before they entertain.

And so looking at the pieces that I have in getting

certain kinds of pieces for certain times of the year,

I'm really focusing on,

better understanding my market and understanding what I need to present

to them when Yeah,

that makes so much sense.

And during those slow periods,

if it holds true that your slow period would be in

the summer,

then you get to sand away,

baby outside.

Exactly. And the hard part for me is,

I know a lot of people get rid of stuff in

the spring and summer because that's what we do.

Like it's the summer,

the spring clean out,

we get rid of all of their stuff.

And so I'm like,

I need to get rid of the stuff I have now,

so I can buy more Right Of the hunt.

I love finding quality pieces of furniture I found.

So tell me,

Bahama has a furniture line.

They do.

Tell me about how it's by Lexington.

I'd never heard of it before.

I was at a yard sale last fall,

and they had a little three drawer.

It's a dresser kind of end table.

It's a really big end table,

but it would work.

And they had a five drawer tomboy dresser,

and they're asking a hundred bucks.

I was like,

that's actually not bad for two pieces of furniture.

They were really good condition.

I knew nothing about the brand.

I brought them home.

The tall boy dresser sells for three grand.

Oh My gosh.

Okay. I learned something new today.

And so that's been a big part for me is really

starting to learn and understand brands and arrows.

What is truly mid-century modern?

What is a knockoff mid century modern and really starting to

understand those things so that I can make sure I'm buying

quality pieces.

Oh my gosh.

I am so excited to watch how this evolves,

because even within these eight months,

just what you're talking about,

you know,

updating your techniques in terms of the quality that you're offering,

what you just talked about in terms of your knowledge of

furniture overall just continues to grow the depth,

the professionalism that you have,

and that you're an expert,

you know,

we always talk about,

well, how do you become an expert in what you're creating?

It's by this,

what you're doing Amy.

Right. Exactly.

And what's interesting is I've learned at being an entrepreneur,

the importance of being an expert and really understanding what you

do, because it allows you to do what you do better.

And when you understand what you do,

you create the best work that you can.

And it also comes across to your customers.

Yes, absolutely.

All right.

Where can people go see your pieces?

See your Etsy shop,

social media sites.

What do you want to share with us?

I'm going to share two things.

The best place to interact with me is on Instagram.

And that's at weed patch underscore studio,

or to check out my website,

which links to my Etsy shop,

which is weed patch,

studio.com. Wonderful.

And it will be a great experience when you jump over

there, because you'll see what Amy was talking about,

about the vibe that she brings to the business.

It's absolutely gorgeous.

Top-notch professional,

no surprise from you.

Amy Is what I strive for and all that I do.

Well, you succeed,

Amy. Thanks so much for coming on,

sharing how you've evolved over the course of time with multiple

businesses and weed patch studio.

I could not be more excited for you and your future.

Well, thank you so much for having me on again.

I look forward to coming back and telling you how it

goes in a couple of years.

Sounds great,

Remaining passionate,

and keeping that feeling of excitement.

If you're a business,

not on any given day,

but over time starts to weigh you down.

It's time for a change.

It may not be an entire pivot like Amy did.

Maybe it's just a refresh of how you're doing things.

So it's not the same old,

same old listen.

We started our own business to add something to our lives,

right? If that's changed for you,

you're not stuck take Amy's advice and retire from that business.

So you're free to create another.

Before you move on to your next activity today,

make sure to get your name on the list for at

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Next time for the gift biz unwrapped podcast.

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

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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

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