DIY Your Dreams with Vickie Howell | Podcast Episode #56

This post may contain affiliate links. See our Disclosure Policy for more information.

What Kind of Dream Are You Building?

I truly believe that the only way to turn your dreams into a reality is to set consistent, attainable goals. When we take some time to figure out what we want to accomplish and where we want to be in life, the path starts to form, and calculated actions turn into steps toward that goal. I love this topic because it’s not only relatable to us in our craft businesses but also to our goals as crafters.

Special Guest

I have to pinch myself and make sure I’m not dreaming here because today I’m joined by, Vickie Howell, author, TV show host, broadcast personality, and my unspoken mentor. She shares her story, entrepreneurial journey, and wisdom to help us DIY our dreams.

Episode Transcript

Brittany:
Hi friends, welcome back to another episode of the B Hooked Podcast. I am ecstatic about today’s guests. Ever since I started the Be Hooked Podcast, I’ve had one person in mind who I’ve always wanted to have on the show, but for whatever reason, I thought that I couldn’t get her to be on the show.

Well, it was silly of me to think that way, and we actually talk about that right at the start, but I am joined by my unspoken mentor, Vicki Howell. Today, she’s going to talk about DIYing your dream. She has a very unique perspective. She’s very knowledgeable on this topic, and I know you’re absolutely going to love it, and you’re going to get so much out of our talk today.

Well, on the topic of DIYing your dreams, one big dream of mine has always been public speaking. But for me, that goal has been a little bit further in the distance. I never really thought that I would be standing here today telling you about my keynote speaking opportunity in Chicago this summer. Yes, that’s right.

I think the reason why I put off this goal was because maybe I was a little bit intimidated by it, right? I love the… It’s a little bit of a feat for me, but that’s how I know I’m doing the right thing. And when we initially started making plans for this keynote speaking opportunity, yes, I was a little bit nervous, but now I am so incredibly excited about the opportunity.

I’m really excited about the topic that I’m going to share with the audience, and I would love nothing more than to have you sitting right there in the audience. Now, I have joined up with the wonderful people of Our Maker Life and reserved the 25 tickets for people that are just within my audience. That’s you.

And there are still a few tickets left to be purchased if you would love to see my keynote speaking. But more importantly, come and meet me in person. I would absolutely love nothing more than to connect with you in person and share our excitement together.

Well, if you want to go to this event, all you need to do is head over to BeHookedCrochet.com/OML. That’s behookedcrochet.com/OML. You can purchase your ticket. And when you go through that link — and make sure you do — that is going to separate you from the rest of the attendees. And I’m going to have something really special in store for the people who are visiting me from within my audience and at this event. So make sure you use the link, and I hope to see you there.

One of the big things that I look for in a yarn company is something that is easily accessible and affordable so that anybody can follow a pattern that I write. Well, Yarnspirations has been that company for me over and over, and I’m so grateful for them for sponsoring this podcast.

Yarnspirations is the online destination for inspiration and the yarns you love, like Patons, Bernat, Caron, and Lily Sugar’n Cream. Well, just for you, a Be Hooked Podcast listener, you can get 20% off your order of $40 or more from Yarnspirations.com, and all you have to do is enter the coupon code BEHOOKEDPOD, that’s B-H-O-O-K-E-D-P-O-D, at checkout.

Now before we dive into my chat with Vickie, I want to let you know that the show notes page can be found at BeHookedCrochet.com/session. There are a few different resources that Vickie has available that I really would love for you to check out. So you can find all of that information right there on the show notes page.

And as always, feel free to leave your questions and comments in the comment section below that page.

Let me just say, I DIY’d my own dream by reaching out to Vickie and just asking her if she would be on the show. I wasn’t sure if she was going to say yes or no, but I kind of just put that doubt behind me and asked — what’s the worst she could have said? And I’m so glad that I took that first step because she said yes. And here she is on the Be Hooked Podcast.

Vickie: 5:03
I am thrilled to be here. Thank you for having me.

Brittany: 5:05
Well, I am equally as thrilled to have you here. I have wanted to have you on the show for so long now, and my dreams are kind of coming true right now.

Vickie:
Well, all you had to do was ask.

Brittany:
I know. I know. And that’s a message in itself.

Vickie:
It really is. Hey, we’re already dropping the knowledge.

Brittany:
We are. We already are dropping the knowledge. So ask. What you want and you shall receive.

Vickie:
Exactly. And if you don’t ask, it’s never going to happen.

Brittany:
So my thought was, well, my ultimate goal is to have Vickie on the show because I’ve listened to your podcast. I obviously have seen you everywhere and I’m like, that is goals right there. I want to have her on the show. She’s got some serious knowledge to share with people. But I thought, well, I’m brand new. I have this baby podcast and I need to be bigger before I can approach her.

So that’s why I waited for so long, and it’s so silly that… you’re a lot more approachable than I probably thought you were.

Vickie: 6:00
That’s so interesting that the perception is that I wouldn’t be because I feel like my whole gig is, in general, accessibility — mostly making creativity accessible — and within that, you know, a smaller niche, mostly knitting and crochet and other needlecraft. So, man, do I need to smile and jazz hand more?

Brittany: 6:22
No, I don’t think it was anything that you did wrong. I think it was just… just me. I’m a little bit more introverted kind of myself. And for me, because you are so well known in the industry, I think it was a false perception on my part that you weren’t right there behind your brand.

Because sometimes people are harder to get a hold of. I guess I imagined that a lot of people were pulling at your attention, and I didn’t want to be that one person adding to it.

Vickie:
So, they are, but I’m a big girl. I could say no.

Brittany:
Yeah, you’re absolutely right. I have no excuse here. And I will.

Vickie: 14:00
Yes. That it’s really important that we support each other and that we help each other rise so that our industry can do well. And so before a lot of the other maybe platforms that would pull away, I hope to — as much as I can — to support, you know, colleagues or, you know, really anybody within the community, you know, as it fits into my…

Brittany: 14:27
Yeah. And this was definitely a lesson learned on my part that, like you said, just ask and it could definitely happen.

Vickie: 14:34
That’s a really hard lesson learned. To learn in general, you know, and it’s definitely a work in progress. And there’s a certain level of vulnerability in asking. And that’s something that I really talk about. I just recently gave a keynote at Midwest CraftCon about DIYing your dreams.

And vulnerability was a big sort of part of that talk — about tuning in to what’s out there and about making yourself vulnerable. Because when you’re vulnerable, you’re open. And when you’re open, the creativity flows.

And whether that’s just you tuning in to something that’s always been there or maybe just appearing more open so people can approach you, it’s a really important lesson, especially for us creatives, because we need that flow.

Brittany: 15:25
Yeah, we really do. I want to tap into some of that too, because I know that there’s so much value and so much to be learned about seeing somebody who we have as a mentor — to learn from their journey.

So let’s start there. I’m really curious to hear about where you started. I know you didn’t just— maybe you did. Maybe one day you just said, hey, I want to be an entrepreneur. This is the business I have. Walk me through just those initial days.

Vickie: 16:00
Well, so I have sort of a strange story, and some of your listeners may have heard it a million times, so I’ll keep it in the sort of like Cliff Notes version.

I started out in the entertainment industry. I got my first job when I was 19, and that’s always what I wanted to do — to produce television. And through a series of events, I moved to different places. I lived in L.A., I moved to different companies rather. And then I got laid off when I was pregnant with my first son and I was 25, 26 at that point.

And so, long story short, I wasn’t going to go back to the entertainment industry. I wanted to kind of be home and present for my son, but I desperately needed something to feed me creatively and also just push the drive. I’ve always been really driven, you know, and I came from a… the entertainment industry is really sort of like — you know, head-on. It’s always like baptism by fire, and you’re always going at 110.

And so, you know, I started a couple of small businesses online. And it just happened to be the time where there weren’t any — you know, we didn’t have Etsy, we didn’t have blogs, we didn’t—this was probably 2001, 2002. And so there really wasn’t a ton of competition.

And although those businesses in and of themselves weren’t necessarily successful, they did open me up to a whole community of other creative entrepreneurs. And I didn’t even know— I still— it’s only been within maybe the past five years I felt comfortable using the term entrepreneur. I didn’t even realize that’s what I was doing.

I really was just doing what I’d always had to do, you know, as a kid growing up with frankly not any money. It was just like hustle. Just make things work. Just do what I had to do.

And because I leaned into the craft side of me, the creative side — which had always, you know, it always been a passion — leaning into that passion opened doors that I hadn’t expected.

And I ended up, you know, because of a couple of businesses and I’d started two Stitch & Bitch groups, one in LA and then one in Austin, I… you know, a producer found me. She found me and asked if I knew of anybody that was interested in hosting a knitting show.

And it was just like all the pieces started falling into place. You know, I knew how to pitch myself because of working in the entertainment industry. I just happened to have had my very first design up on Knitty, so they could see that I at least knew how to knit, and she could also see what I looked like.

And it just happened that I had a plane ticket already to go to LA for a totally unrelated thing two days later. And it was just one of those things where it’s just like, you know, the sort of world opened up. And I’ve always felt like when the universe hands you a gift like that, it’s your responsibility to run with it. So I have been doing that ever since.

Brittany: 19:03
That’s so true. It sounds like you were really just in the right place at the right time. What do you think it was that prompted you to get into knitting and crochet and structuring your business around those two things?

Vickie: 19:17
My business was not at all structured about knitting. It had nothing to do with knitting and crochet. My businesses were — first one was hip handmade gear for babies and their mamas. And then the other one was a vintage resale where we altered some of the vintage stuff. We’d add embroidery or dye the vintage slips, that kind of thing.

It wasn’t until… but so— but at the same time that that was happening, I learned to knit, because I’d done all of the other crafts since I was a child. And so it was really just… I just loved it.

And so I started these groups, but I didn’t have anybody else that knew how. And I just wanted to hang out with other people that dug knitting. And so I started a couple of Stitch & Bitch groups. And it was that — it was having the Stitch & Bitch group logo that I’d started.

And then I just, you know, I created this guitar strap during a time where that was considered edgy. It was just that — it was just me doing what I loved. But because I had that business up online with the logo too, I just happened to have— you know, that was back when you linked to other things more often.

It was just the culmination of that. My business didn’t start until I got Knitty Gritty.

Brittany: 20:36
Ah, okay. So tell me about that. How did that unfold?

Vickie: 20:39
Well, like I said, the producer found me and I flew out and auditioned and, you know, I got the job. And as soon as I got the job, I pitched my first book.

I learned how to write a book and design while writing that book — ish, although there was a bunch of other contributors. And I’ve just always pitched things and figured — and I still do that — just, you know, I’ll figure it out as I go or I’ll figure it out later.

And so it just sort of has evolved. And so now, you know, what is it, four TV shows and I’m working on my 13th book now later. You know, I just keep on keeping on.

Brittany: 21:22
Yeah, it’s such an inspiration really to hear that you — it sounds like you set a goal for yourself and you just make it happen.

Because one person can be very lucky, yes, but can they be lucky 13 times? Or can they be lucky four TV shows later? I have to imagine that you knew what you want and you went out and you achieved it.

Vickie: 21:49
I definitely would not say it was luck. I think two things: continuing on a path of really feeding your passion, and then what you want is there — you just have to tap into it.

And the second thing is you have to be willing to hustle, work hard, take risks. Don’t be afraid of failure. Be vulnerable.

Brittany: 22:17
Yeah. That’s such a great message just in itself. And it kind of circles back around to what we were talking about at the beginning. Just ask, right?

Vickie: 22:38
Right.

Brittany: 22:38
And same thing. Figure out what you want and tap into it. It’s not going to happen if you just think that it’s going to fall in your lap.

Vickie: 22:38
Yeah.

Brittany: 22:38
So tell me a little bit about The Knit Show. Now, this is something that I got really excited about. And maybe I’ll jump back a little bit.

I think the first time that I learned who you were was seeing your face on one of my favorite yarns. And that was the point where I was like, wow, this is what I want. This is my dream — to have my own yarn line.

And I… I can learn from somebody who’s already kind of been there and done that. And ever since then I’ve really watched you very closely just to kind of learn from the sidelines, to be inspired by the direction that you’re constantly going in and trying to figure out a way that I can take some of those pointers and maybe apply it in my own life or my own business.

But The Knit Show was something that was so much fun. Everybody was so excited about that. And I want to hear maybe like an insider’s perspective. What was that time like for you?

Vickie: 23:41
Well, The Knit Show, I had no doubt that I could produce a show that was as good as Knitty Gritty, but accessible to everyone. I knew what it would take. And the production part was my wheelhouse—the pre-production and the production part.

The fundraising for it is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done professionally. To me, that was the hugest lesson in vulnerability that I personally could have learned. Asking people for money to fund my dream with the prospect that it was possible that I could fail was… really, really difficult for me.

And I had to really sort of adjust my mindset to: I was doing this to provide a service for people, and knitters and crocheters were asking for that and had asked for that for a decade. And so I had to really shift my mindset to we’re doing this together. And we did.

It was over 1,200 people that funded the show and more people that have donated. And we’ve bargained and we’ve worked together for advertising or product giveaways or whatever it is to make it happen. And so it was a really tough lesson for me. And there were times through the Kickstarter process that I just… was in a dark place, but I flipped it around.

I read a really great book called You’re a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero, who I was interviewing. I was only interviewing her—I wouldn’t have read it if I wasn’t interviewing her for my podcast, Craftish. And it just was, again, the universe. It came like a week into the Kickstarter or two weeks into Kickstarter when I was just in a place, and it helped me shift that energy.

And so that was rewarding and exhilarating and hard. But then going into the production, it was also rewarding and exhilarating and hard. But it was also just magical. It was magical because so many people believed in it.

Where we shot it was just so cool. It didn’t look like a typical studio—because it wasn’t. It was like a cool old warehouse, and it was owned by one of my best friends. And, you know, the art director, Tracy Gowdy, she brought in—she made it truly special. We wanted it to be an experience for the guests that came.

And so she had an art co-op come in and decorate stuff that the audience will never see—the whole place—with art and a succulents place bring in. And we had tastes of Austin and it was just, it was just really special. We had 20 guests come in from all over the United States and Brazil and Canada. A lot of them on their own dime.

It was just a really special experience. And we shot—not including the field pieces, which obviously took longer—we shot all of the studio portions of the episode, all 10 episodes in five days.

Brittany: 27:29
Oh, wow.

Vickie: 27:29
Yeah, which we had to do for budget reasons, but we were ready to do it. Karen Strom and I knew how to pre-produce. We made sure that all of the pieces were ready to go so people could walk on and immediately shoot their piece.

So it’s been a great ride. I’ve been happy to see that most people, like a huge majority, have said positive things. And now I need to—

Brittany: 27:29
—figure out how to make more. Oh, I know that that was the next thing on my mind: when’s the next season?

Vickie: 27:36
Because that’s everybody’s—that’s everybody’s next question.

Brittany: 27:39
Right, right. And you’re like, “I need a breather.” That was—we can only imagine how much work went into that.

Vickie: 27:44
And the truth is, what I raised wasn’t nearly enough to pay for it. And so, you know, we all made sacrifices—all the team that was a part of it—production, for myself and everyone involved.

Brittany: 27:58
Yeah.

Vickie: 27:58
Yeah. The same thing happened—you know, a season came out, and they went to bed, it came out, and then they woke up in the morning and people had already binge-watched the entire season. I wanted to know when was more. And they were like, “I just put a year and a half of my life into this.”

Right. And, you know, within a matter of eight hours—like, it’s not enough. And that’s—I mean, of course you want people to want more, but also, there’s a certain amount… the insatiability of content right now is overwhelming.

So, you know, we’ll see. I want to produce two seasons at a time. It’s more cost-effective. But also, it’s really important to me that not any one yarn company… yeah, yeah… that means that I’m going to have to do a little more work and figure it out. So I will do it.

I still think that there’s work to be done with this season. I’d like to get it—there are 19 countries that I’ve counted so far watching it. I’d like to get the episode subtitled. So I need to get that sponsored, ’cause that’s an investment as well.

I think there’s—you know, most people don’t know about The Knit Show. Most knitters don’t. Most of my fans from Knitty Gritty don’t know about it. So we still have a lot of work to do. We spent our budget on the publicist instead of a digital campaign. And that’s something that I would do differently next time. So, we’ll see.

Brittany: 30:10
Yeah. I think it’s interesting, too, to think that now that there’s already something tangible for people to experience, that it has to grow moving forward because… people can see the value in it and the entertainment and how much they got out of it personally. So I think it can only grow from here through word of mouth.

And I mean, that’s probably the main thing. I know when I first started hearing about it, I didn’t know what to expect, but I knew it was going to be great. And so… when I started watching the season for the first time, I told myself, “I’m not going to binge-watch it. I’m going to spread it out. I’m going to appreciate each episode and just dedicate some time each day.”

And it just couldn’t happen. I think I did it in two sessions where I binge-watched the whole season. And I’m glad I did it that way, but it did—it definitely left me very excited to hear about another season.

But hearing it from your perspective too—knowing that you weren’t just putting the show on, like being the host of that show, but you were actually very active behind the scenes, producing it and putting everything together—I can only imagine how taxing that was on you.

Vickie: 31:33
Yeah. So I was basically the showrunner. I was the creator, one of the executive producers, one of the producers. I mean, it was truly a labor of love for sure. But I—you know, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I just would like to have it more easily funded. Yeah. So that’s a goal.

But meantime, I still have—I’m a mother of three. I have a kid about to go to college. I still have to make my own living too. So things take a little time.

Brittany: 32:09
Yeah, they definitely do. And you’re definitely a testament to being able to have multiple dreams, right? I don’t think we have to settle on just one thing.

Vickie: 32:20
I don’t think we can in our industry. There’s not one designer in our industry that makes his or her living solely on designing. There’s not one teacher that makes it solely on teaching. There’s not one knitting book author that makes it solely on writing books.

In our industry, you have to be a Jack or Jill of all trades. And so—fortunately, that’s kind of my jam. I think that I would not do well being in the grind, you know. To me, coming up with the next thing or how to enrich the current thing is just as creative as design.

Brittany: 33:04
Yeah. I think there’s some excitement in just changing your focus every now and then too. It kind of reignites that fire.

Vickie: 33:12
Yeah, absolutely.

Brittany: 33:13
Yeah. Do you have any ideas of maybe why that is the case for our industry?

Vickie: 33:20
Oh, it’s the age-old question, isn’t it? Our industry has just fluctuated a lot. I think e-commerce, I think social media—I think a lot of things have really thrown many industries for a loop.

Publishing is going through a rough bout, and they were a huge infuser of excitement into the industry because they were always cultivating new authors and new talents. And that really fed the industry.

I think that local yarn stores aren’t doing well, and that really affects the sort of independent lines. I think that in the craft world, a lot of the craft companies are private labeling, and that affects the larger craft companies.

I think we’re just—because there’s only so much real estate—I think we’re just in a state of flux right now and evolution. And so we’re just figuring it out.

Brittany: 34:24
Yeah. I’m curious, do you think there’s any way for us as dreamers to help the industry maybe get through or grow from this transitional phase?

Vickie: 34:35
Well, I mean, I made a TV show to try. So all we can do is get out there and keep the excitement up, I think. Expose our audience—build our audiences, expose them to not just our own stuff, but all of the things all of the time.

Share our excitement. Encourage people to be creative. There’s a lot of fear around creativity. You know, do our best to sort of cheerlead through that. Come up with new ideas.

You know, a lot of companies know that they need content, but they don’t know how to execute it in the current landscape. Pitch a lot. I think just keep on keeping on.

Brittany: 35:18
Yeah, that’s a good point too. I think a lot of people—and I actually was just speaking to somebody a little bit ago for a previous episode—and one thing that came up was there was some fear in approaching brands and not knowing whether or not they were going to take her seriously or just be able to find some common ground to help them both.

What advice would you have for somebody to pitch maybe whatever they have going on, whether it be a piece of content or a design?

Vickie: 36:20
Do you mean for approaching or actually creating a pitch?

Brittany: 36:22
Well, I guess for—let’s say for bloggers. Probably the most common pitch might be, “I have this design in mind and I want to use your yarn. How can we work together on this?” So maybe that kind of pitch. Is that something that you even need to do or that you should do?

Vickie: 36:20
I think that’s the easiest of pitches. Yarn companies will give you yarn all day long. It’s getting actually paid for things—that is my focus. And I think it’s something that’s really important. I believe that designers should not work for free or just for product.

Brittany: 36:36
Yes.

Vickie: 36:38
Preach it, please. It sets a really bad precedent.

Brittany: 36:43
It does.

Vickie: 36:45
There’s value in the time, and it’s more than the $50 worth of yarn—or in the craft world, $10 worth of yarn.

Brittany: 36:50
Mm-hmm.

Vickie: 36:51
And that’s something that we have to push through. And it’s a challenge because companies don’t have money. But we as women often lower our values to accommodate others. And so we’re our own worst enemies when it comes to this particular conundrum.

And it’s really important to say, now that doesn’t mean that you can’t ever do a trade. If there’s a company that you’re really trying to get into that you really want to work with, and it matters to you that much, you know, approach them. And if they say, we’ll give you some products, say, I will do this for this first time. This is so great. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity and we will see what it opens up for the future.

Brittany: 37:34
Yeah, I think that’s a great way to start the conversation. I did that myself, just really be put on their radar to let them know, hey, I’m here and I love your brand and I want to advocate for it. So, and that’s worked out really well. They’re brands that I’m still working with today.

So I think that’s a way that we can just kind of dip our toe in in this uncomfortable situation that we might feel that we’re in when we approach a brand for the first time. And then you do have to figure out how to make that transition to ask them for an exchange of value, you know, money for product rather than product for service.

Yeah. So you recently spoke about DIYing your dreams, right? I’m curious to maybe learn some of the– now, I didn’t have the pleasure of going to that conference, but hopefully next year we can make it out there. Are there anything–

They’re not having one next year. It’s 2020, so you’ve got a little time to save.

Okay, okay. Honestly, I didn’t even know about that conference. I feel like there’s another need, really, a resource that kind of lists out all of the different fiber-related conferences because I always seem to find out about them when they’re occurring. So are you able to share any of your tips from that talk? Because I know that there’s some real value bombs in there.

Vickie: 38:56
Yeah, sure. I actually need to turn that into a post. It’s just it’s on the list. It’s one of the things that’s on the list. Yeah.

So we already talked about the big one, vulnerability, right? And we talked a little bit about really the first one, which is vulnerability. You know, relentlessly follow your passion.

So just, you know, I, as I mentioned, I got nitty gritty because I was following my passion and I was, I wasn’t because I was trying to go get a, you know, to become a host of a knitting show. It was because I truly loved knitting and I wanted to be around it and I wanted to learn more about it and I wanted to talk about it and, you know, and because of that, and then I put myself out there and started groups. That’s how that opportunity came.

So even when it seems like you don’t, if it ever seems like you don’t know exactly what you’re working towards, and you may not always—obviously it’s become clearer for me as my career has blossomed over the past 15 years—but if you’re really, truly relentlessly following your passion, then opportunities will open up for you.

Now you will have to grab them, embrace them, you know, and make them yours, but they really will open up.

Another one is create your own opportunities. Yeah. You’re a creative person. If you’re in this industry, you create garments or you create content. So also create those opportunities.

As I mentioned before, often companies don’t necessarily know what they want or what they need. So pitch to them. Pitch crazy stuff. I’ve pitched vanity magazines in an elevator before. Like it doesn’t always work, but just pitch it.

You know, come up with stuff. Even if you’re not entirely sure how you’re going to execute it, you’ll figure it out. I mean, not if it involves, you know, don’t go crazy. Don’t, you know, don’t pitch a $2 million deal with a zero budget in your bank, you know, but pitch. But be creative.

And then the next one is big, you know, but then also embrace failure. Know that a lot of these ideas, if you’re truly an entrepreneur, you know that you’re going to take risks and risks don’t always pan out.

But know that along the way, some of those failures are going to either teach you lessons or potentially open up other opportunities. Again, my businesses, Mama Ramen, Ruby Goes Retro, were a failure on every sort of level as from a business perspective.

But they laid the groundwork for me for my ultimate career. So even though they in and of themselves seemed like failures, they opened up my future. So just embrace those failures.

And then the last one other than be vulnerable is have gratitude. It’s so important. I’m sure we all know—they may be even within our own household—people who go to an office every day and don’t love what they’re doing and maybe are even miserable.

We’re lucky. We get to get up every single day and be creative in some way. That’s a gift.

So have gratitude instead of getting up in the morning and being like, oh, shoot, how am I going to make this happen? How am I going to do this? This is so hard. Get up, shift that energy and say, I am so—I am so lucky that I have the opportunity to pitch whatever I want to pitch, to truly craft my own career.

And, you know, it’s interesting once you’re open and grateful again, the opportunities—there’s room for those opportunities to flow through you versus you being so tight and so stressed that nothing can pass through you.

Brittany: 42:53
Yeah. It’s a perspective shift, really. I talked about this a few episodes back, where gratitude is a very important part of my morning routine.

And it wasn’t until I learned about this thing called the five-minute journal, I saw the value in that. But what I realized is, well, the way this book is set up, it really is very quick. You write down three things that you’re grateful for. That’s like the first thing you do.

And when I initially started I found myself really having to think about what I was grateful for. And that, I mean, not only kind of felt pretty icky to me, but what it made me realize is that I knew I was going to do it the next morning and the morning after that and the morning after that.

So when I was driving home from work or anytime I had some downtime, my wheels were turning. I was thinking about what I was going to write on those lines the next day.

And just the act, the unconscious act of thinking about the things that I’m grateful for, I feel like it just made me a completely different person.

Yeah. The other thing I want to tap into a little bit is maybe how somebody can take some of this advice. It’s great to hear, but maybe what is one thing that somebody could do today to just move that needle forward just one notch?

Vickie: 44:19
Well, I think mentally we’ve talked about readjusting and that’s important, but from a more sort of tactical perspective, I’m a huge believer in building community.

And so if someone can just pick one social media platform to focus on for a month or for six months, whatever works, and really cultivate that community, then they’re creating a platform for their businesses to stand on.

It’s so much better and more important in this day and age and really hard to—we’re expected to have all of these numbers now as influencers or designers or spokespeople.

But the truth is, it’s so much more important to have 1,000 truly engaged people who will absolutely go out and buy your product or support your show or whatever it is than it is to have 10,000 who maybe check in and just keep scrolling.

And so if you can focus on one and really build that, it’s a really great platform—not only for future customers—but also just sounding boards.

Now our followers are also truly community. You can ask them about what they would like. You can tune in to what they’re responding to. You can really sort of have an interactive relationship.

And to me, that’s been a game changer for my own life.

Brittany: 46:11
Which platform did you start on when you were really trying to build a resource for the community?

Vickie: 46:18
MySpace.

Brittany: 46:19
Oh yeah.

Vickie: 46:20
Yeah. Well, I mean, I had a website from day one. I mean, that’s how I got found. I mean, so yes, back in the day, my websites, that’s how I met, um, you know, a lot of the people like, you know, Jennifer Perkins, one of my best friends, she does videos now for Facebook Lives for HGTV and DIY.

We met because of our websites, you know, years and years ago. And then we were in Austin Craft Mafia together. So if we’re talking about, you know, going way back, yes, that.

But then I started blogging on MySpace, and then transferred over to Facebook, and then Twitter after that. And then probably—well, Flickr was in there too. That was just sort of the first photo one.

I mean, I’ve kind of dabbled in them all. For whatever reason, Facebook has sort of taken off a little bit more for me. I dabbled in Ravelry and I honestly have not—I have not thrived there. It’s not necessarily my best thing.

And then Instagram—I’m working on Instagram. I’ve gotten nowhere near where you have. I haven’t put enough into that because Facebook seems to be—you know, 43% of the people that click through and back to The Knit Show came from Facebook.

So I really sort of try and cultivate that because I feel like it’s important to nurture the audience that’s there while also trying to build more. So, you—

Brittany: 47:46
I’m constantly experimenting. Yeah. Would you say maybe the platforms that have done well for you are the ones that you enjoy being on?

Vickie: 47:56
Yes, but also the platforms where I can interact a little bit more dynamically.

Brittany: 48:04
Yeah.

Vickie: 48:06
People from me want conversation. They want nurturing. They want to talk. They want to hang out.

And so I find that, you know, something like Facebook does better for me than, you know, a Pinterest.

Brittany: 48:30
Yeah.

Vickie: 48:31
Because people want live video, or they want actual videos, or they want to be able to, you know, either via comment or me actually answering them on video. Or, you know, they want to hear conversations through podcasts or whatever. So, so yeah.

Brittany: 48:50
Yeah. I think that’s important to consider too, is not only what you’re looking to build and maybe your goal for that platform, but, but what your people want. I think ultimately we’re, we’re doing this, we’re building this for them and, and understanding their wants and needs is probably the the thing that’s going to be the difference between, quote, success and maybe not success in terms of numbers since that tends to be what brands and things look for.

Yeah, that’s been the case for me on Instagram. It really has– it was just a platform that I really loved. I’m able to be more organic, more natural, more sporadic, I guess, just– I don’t really plan much that goes into my Instagram page. It’s really just what’s happening right then. I like to share what’s going on and I like the community of people there. They are very willing to engage and that’s been really rewarding for me.

Vickie: 49:53
Yeah, a lot of artists have felt that way too because there is a lot of introversion in artistry often and Instagram has really offered a way to just, to just speak using visuals. Like it doesn’t, it’s not as intensive. There doesn’t have to be a whole big write-up around it. There doesn’t have to be like the, even the commenting is different.

Um, I’ve, I’ve heard that a lot, uh, from a — that’s interesting that you say that you don’t, that, that you find that you’re able to be more sporadic because so many people, you know, they’re, they’re planning out their grids so that aesthetically it all looks the same. And that’s been a really big challenge for me because I work with so many different companies and so many different, I have so many different avenues that getting my entire grid to look, you know, to be in the same color palette or to look the same is just, I just have not. I could do it for someone else for their brand. But for me, it just, it’s not the best laid plan.

Brittany: 50:53
Right, right. It’s probably not something that you feel like sometimes one day you might feel different than another day. And and maybe those that color palette isn’t the same. But yeah, I honestly I I don’t even take that into consideration.

I think because they they haven’t given or the well, they didn’t give us the ability to schedule posts out on Instagram for so long that it’s — that’s why for me it’s the place where I can be more in the moment because I wasn’t able to schedule. And I think people respond to that because it’s less– I feel like it’s more raw and more natural and less sales pitchy. People don’t feel like they’re being pitched to when they go to Instagram. I feel like they can just feel inspired by what they see.

What about some things that you have coming up? Do you– Do you have anything like new and exciting that you want to share?

Vickie: 51:51
I do. I do. I’m really excited. And I actually have not even announced this yet. I am in April for pre-orders. I am launching my own knitting subscription box business. I’m really excited about it.

I’ve teamed up with the sort of subscription box giant Crate Joy. And together we are going to be putting out monthly boxes that will have little bits of yarny happiness that will come to subscribers. It’s called Yarn Yay by Vicki Howell. And, um, it’s my effort to not only fill what was a goal for me.

Um, I’ve not had a retail aspect of my business, which is something that I’ve wanted to work on, but also, um, it’ll give me the opportunity to expose a mainstream audience to some of the amazing, you know, yarn spinners and dyers and, and great tool makers out there in bite-sized bits so that it’s affordable so that they can then you know make a decision to maybe go out and support their local yarn store by buying full hanks or or by buying more like a sweater’s version instead of a wrist warmer version.

Um, so there’ll be yarn and there’ll be some kind of tool usually and some kind of, you know, there’ll be a pattern that I’ll design and it’ll always be quick and accessible which is totally my jam.

And I’m creating a community about it so there’ll be a private Facebook group so people will — Yeah. Yeah.

Brittany: 53:38
Oh, that’s really exciting. I definitely want to try that. I recently just dabbled with a subscription box of my own. And honestly, that solved a problem for me that I didn’t realize I had.

And I say that because as a designer, I mean, obviously that’s my passion. I love doing that. It fills me up so much to sit down with a hank or a skein of yarn and just create something from it.

But through that experience over so many years I kind of lost touch with the with the meditative practice that you can experience while crocheting and specifically when you’re following a pattern that somebody else has written and pattern tested and you don’t have to do anything but sit there and enjoy just enjoy your craft.

So I’m excited to give this box a try because it’s, like I said, it’s a solution to a problem I didn’t know I had. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I will definitely include a link to that in the show notes page so people can access that too.

Yeah. Man, Vicki, it’s been such a pleasure talking with you today. Thank you so much for sharing some of your story and your wisdom. Are there any other resources that maybe you would like to share, maybe some things for people to check out to connect with you?

Vickie: 55:06
Well, they can check out Craftish, my podcast. It’s been on hiatus, but there’s 41 great insightful conversations with people. And then, you know, I’m on Facebook Live every Monday.

I have the sort of longest running Facebook Live series in our genre. It’s called Ask Me Monday at noon Central time every Monday. And people can come and I always teach something and then answer live questions.

And then if people, you know, tell people… Tell everyone, all of the people to watch The Knit Show. The last five episodes have crochet included as well. You know, we need the community to spread the word.

So post on groups, anywhere, Ravelry, social media, everywhere, so that we can get more made.

Brittany: 55:54
Yeah. And just because an episode maybe features a knit pattern or a knit project, what I found is that there are so many lessons learned within those episodes that are also relatable to crochet. So definitely watch the whole series. It’s amazing.

Vickie: 56:10
Thank you for that.

Brittany: 56:11
You’re so welcome. Well, thank you so much, Vicki. It’s been such a pleasure.

Vickie: 56:14
Okay. Thank you.

Brittany: 56:16
Now don’t forget to check out the show notes page to find all of those resources that Vickie has available. I’ve included some of those that we talked about today—the Knit Show, so you’ll find the information there, the Yarn Yay, and her website, which is a really great hub for everything that she has going on.

But I also included a link to her Ask Me Monday on Facebook, which has been a really great resource for the community. So if you haven’t watched that, you don’t have to actually be there live when she’s on. You can watch the replay and learn a lot from that resource that’s available to you.

I’ve also included a link to all of the books that she has available. If you’re a book person, you’ll find everything that she has written right there on that page.

And I do really want to stress the importance of sharing The Knit Show within the community. Now, I am not getting any kind of kickback whatsoever for promoting this, but I really feel passionate about what Vickie has started. I think that it can be a beautiful way to uplift our community, and our industry.

And so if you know somebody who loves knitting or crochet, then please share The Knit Show with them.

I appreciate you so much for tuning in to today’s podcast and sharing in this excitement with me as I had one of my biggest mentor guests right here on the show. It was such a treat for me, and I hope it was a treat for you as well.

And once again, I’d like to thank your inspirations for sponsoring the show today. Whether you knit or crochet, Yarnspirations.com is the place that you need to go to find free patterns, video tutorials, and you can order the yarn directly from the source.

In case you missed it at the beginning of today’s podcast, listeners are offered 20% off your order of $40 or more at Yarnspirations.com by using the coupon code be hooked pod. That’s B-H-O-O-K-E-D-P-O-D. You can enter that code at checkout. You’ll save your discount and it’s a win-win for everybody.

Now our maker month will conclude with another amazing repeat guest. None other than Jewel from Our Maker Life. She has a great topic to discuss, and I can’t wait for you to hear that next Thursday. So be sure to tune in.

Subscribe to the show if you haven’t done so already so you won’t miss that episode. And I will see you then, guys. Thank you so much. Bye-bye.