The 3 Biggest Struggles That All Maker Businesses Go Through | Podcast Episode #117

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Are you struggling to stay on top of your maker business?

You’re so not alone, friend! We may not see it from the outside looking in, however, many makers are struggling with the same problems. Personal limitations, customer limitations, being original – all areas I’m sure you’re familiar with.

Special Guest

How you handle this stress will make or break your maker business. Here to talk about that in more detail (since I am not a seller of goods myself) is Cristin, from the shop, Kozy Komforts. She has called herself a maker for several years and has come out on the other side of these struggles and more.

Episode Transcript

Brittany:
Well, hello there, and thank you for joining me. I’m your host, Brittany. If you’re brand new to the show, welcome. It’s a real joy to have you here. And I have a special treat lined up specifically if you are a maker or if you relate to being a maker. Basically, a maker is somebody who makes goods and sells them. You can sell them at markets. You can sell them on Etsy, even on Facebook, wherever. If you sell your finished projects, then you can call yourself a maker.

If you’ve been listening to the show for a while, you know that I don’t do this. I like to spend my time teaching and not so much selling my finished projects. So anytime I can have somebody on the show who can speak to those specific struggles, I am just overjoyed. And that’s what today’s episode is about.

I’m joined by Kristen from Cozy Comforts. She has an Etsy shop where she sells her patterns. She also has a lot of experience with markets and selling finished projects. And we talk a lot about some of the struggles that makers face on a daily basis. So things like your own personal limitations, work-life balance, some customer issues that might come up. We even talk about planning and productivity as far as markets and how you can plan through those, but also how your unique style plays into the success of your shop. And we look specifically at how you can define your own style.

So I’m really excited about today’s show. If you have any questions, of course, you can always direct that to the show notes page. And for this week, it is bhooked.com/117. You can also feel free to introduce yourself in the comments section. If you have a shop, I would love to know a little bit about what you do. And of course, there are other listeners of the show who might want to connect with you as well.

Okay, so without further ado, let’s hear from Cristin from Cozy Comforts. Cristin, hi, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining me today.

Cristin: 2:41
Thank you for having me.

Brittany: 2:43
Now, I’m really, really excited about this one. There are a lot of makers in the audience, and I know you’ve been doing it for a while, so you have a lot of experience, and I’m really happy that you’re willing to share that with us today. But before we get started, I would love to know a little bit about how you learned how to crochet, and maybe who taught you.

Cristin: 3:02
Well, a lot of it’s self-taught, actually. I was pregnant with my first and on bed rest. So I had a lot of time on my hands and I don’t do well with boredom. So I thought there’s got to be something I can do while I’m sitting here and kind of just came out of that. And my mom also knits and crochets as well. So if I ever got stuck on something, I could always pick her brain. But most of it was self-taught out of pure boredom.

Brittany: 3:26
Now, did you find videos on YouTube or did you go the book route?

Cristin: 3:31
I tried the book route. I found that to be a little more difficult. I learn by doing, so it was easier for me to watch a video. YouTube was a great source. Pinterest was even better. But just seeing somebody else kind of go through it. And then the nice thing with the video is you could pause it at certain points if you got stuck or lost and kind of rewind it and do it over. So I like that. The instruction part of it was kind of nice.

Brittany: 3:56
Me too. I tried to teach myself through books. And even still to this day, if I’m looking to try a new craft through images, I really just struggle a little bit to make that hand-mind connection.

Cristin: 4:10
Oh, absolutely. And I find, too, that how I perceive instructions may not necessarily be how they’re supposed to go.

Brittany: 4:19
Yes.

Cristin: 4:20
Yeah. Well, I’m having somebody else do it and seeing how they do it. And then suddenly, you know, the pieces come together and it makes more sense that way.

Brittany: 4:26
That’s a very good point. So about how long ago was this?

Cristin: 4:31
Well, my oldest is coming up on 14. So I guess it’s a good 14 or 15 years now.

Brittany: 4:38
Yeah. So you’ve been doing it for, you’ve been crocheting for a really long time. You have a lot of experience under your belt. So I’m curious though, when did this like hobby and way to sort of occupy your boredom, when did that turn into more?

Cristin: 4:51
Well, it started with, again, a hobby and out of boredom and just something to do. And so that would have been in 2000. She was born in 2005. In 2011, I was pregnant with my third. And my spouse at the time said to me, you know, you make really neat things. I bet you people would buy that. And I did the usual, you know, you shrug it off. Oh, no one’s going to do that, right. And then I started, the idea sort of rolled around in my head. And the more I thought about it, the more I thought, well, why not?

So I started looking into local sales and craft fairs and attending them as a shopper first and kind of getting a good idea of what people were looking for and then took that leap and away it went.

Brittany: 5:34
Yeah. So you did some markets.

Cristin: 5:36
I did.

Brittany: 5:36
Did you do Etsy then as well or were you just selling like in person?

Cristin: 5:42
No. At that point, I was just in person and then I opened up my Etsy shop and I actually connected with a really great market out of Thorsby here, just close to my home. And back then it was called the White Barn Market. And they’ve since renamed and rebranded and they’re called Made Local now. And so she’s actually having her first sale on May 11th in Leduc. I’m not a vendor at that sale, but I’ve given up markets because I don’t have time anymore.

Brittany: 6:10
Yeah.

Cristin: 6:11
But yeah, that’s… It just sort of evolved. It was one of those snowball effects, right? Before I realized what was happening, it took off.

Brittany: 6:18
Yeah. It’s so cool when it happens that way. So was it always Cozy Comforts or is that something that sort of developed?

Cristin: 6:26
Yeah. It always was from day one. So back in 2011, it was January of 2011 when I officially went live and I purchased the trade name through my registry. Yeah. I don’t even remember how the name got in my head. It just did one day and it sort of stuck. And it was one of those things that no matter how many other different ones I thought of, nothing seemed to fit right. So it just popped in my head and stuck. And that was the name that we went with. And I’m glad that I did. But yeah.

Brittany: 6:56
Yeah, I can relate to that, too. I remember driving in my car and just trying to figure out what I wanted to name myself, which at the time was an Etsy shop. And it just kind of stuck. It popped in my head, and I thought, oh, yeah, that’s kind of catchy. There’s a little bit of meaning behind that. And like you, I’m kind of glad that it happens that way.

Cristin: 7:17
Yeah, it’s sort of nice when it plays out like that. I thought, too, no matter what I’m making, it could cover anything. It wasn’t a specific sort of name of something, you know?

Brittany: 7:27
Yeah, I feel like that’s really smart. I am sort of– that is the one thing that I wish I– maybe could change. So I have always really been known for be hooked crochet, having that at the end. And I’ve since started to dabble into more knitting and of course a podcast and that sort of thing. And so it’s really more short form now for be hooked and it sort of encompasses everything I want to do. So luckily I have that flexibility, but if there was one thing I could do differently, it might be that.

Cristin: 8:00
Yeah, yeah. I think when you have, you know, crochet or knitting or whatever the craft is that you’re doing on the end of your name, it’s sort of, in a way, I feel like it limits you to just that one thing. And then people become, they start to know you for that. And if you do branch into something else, it’s a little bit harder. So yeah, it’s nicer when you have a more ambiguous name for sure.

Brittany: 8:20
Yeah, it’s definitely a challenge, but it’s a happy challenge when you can pivot a little bit and take the short form of it.

Cristin: 8:30
Yeah, if you can evolve or make it work for you, that’s great.

Brittany: 8:33
Yeah. So now this is like your primary focus, right? Is selling on Etsy and doing that sort of thing?

Cristin: 8:37
Yes.

Brittany: 8:38
Okay. So you know a lot about the struggles that go on with makers. This is something that I really can’t relate to. And so I love talking with people who can share this because I really can’t speak from personal experience.

My experience with trying Etsy is probably like a lot of people’s first intro to Etsy is it’s really hard to get noticed and it’s really hard to make sales. And for me, the other aspect of it was I didn’t really love to make the same thing over and over, which is a little bit of a problem. So fortunately, I was able to really find my passion and do something a little bit different. And I just admire somebody who can do that, who can make the same thing over and over, who can be found on Etsy and have a successful maker business. So I feel like you’ve accomplished all of that with grace.

Cristin: 9:39
Well, maybe it looks graceful on the outside. It definitely has its challenges where I’m sure all makers have had this point where you’re sitting, you know, middle of the night in a cross-legged and you’re living on the floor with your hands in the air just gasping in frustration.

But, you know, I did start off, you know, doing what you said there, making toques over and over and over again and to the point where you start to memorize the pattern and you don’t even need it anymore because it’s in your head. That does get old and I do lose focus when I’m in that kind of realm.

So I kind of… I guess I acknowledged that about myself about two or three years in that this isn’t what I wanted to keep doing because it was going to get boring and I wasn’t going to love it anymore. And I always said if I didn’t love doing it anymore and it started to feel like work, I wouldn’t want to do it.

So then I started getting into, I actually have a friend who went back to school and is a graphic designer. She’s amazing. And I really lean on her a little bit for perspective because she gives it to me straight, which I really appreciate. But she said to me, why are you continuing to make these things over and over and over again? If it’s your own design, why not build a pattern?

And so it was her little comment that kind of steered me into maybe I should start making patterns and empowering other people to create their things too. So that’s what led me down the pattern path, and I find that that was a much better decision than making 150 toques in the winter season kind of thing.

Brittany: 11:06
Yes, yes. And I feel like you learned a lot about a personal– limitation. And I even hesitate to call it a limitation because I feel like that’s just more about knowing what makes you happy. And I feel like that’s a good thing.

But what are some other instances where you’ve learned about your own limitations as a maker and now especially into the pattern world? Because I feel like it’s probably a lot different than making and selling goods.

Cristin: 11:34
Patterns are different because it’s, you know, you’re taking a piece of yourself that you understand in your head and you’re trying to translate it in a way that anybody can read and understand it. So when you do release that pattern to a tester, you have your fingers crossed hoping that, you know, they’re able to comprehend it, understand it, and write it in a way.

So when I get feedback from people and they say, you know, it’s well written, I understand it, I was able to follow it, that makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something and I get that gratification from that for sure.

So I really like doing that, but in the first couple of years, trying to get noticed as a maker and trying to stand out from the people around me, we all make the same things. When I get asked questions from people that are just starting out, they always ask me, like, how do I get noticed? How do I get off the ground? How do I get people to know that I exist?

And I always tell them, we all make the same stuff. We all make toques. We all make blankets. You’re not selling a toque to somebody, you’re selling an experience, you’re selling yourself. And that’s not something that anybody else can replicate. You can’t copy someone’s personality or style of doing things or how they treat their customers.

And you can sell a toque, but I think when there’s some meaning behind it, it’s a little bit different. So in the beginning, I had a hard time saying no to orders. I would take on every single order, no matter what, no matter how pressed for time I was. And I still remember doing deliveries on Christmas Eve like Santa Claus on doorsteps just so people could have their stuff under the tree on Christmas morning.

And it’s exhausting. And I thought, you know, I can’t keep doing this because it’s not good for me and I’ll stretch myself too thin and then that will affect the quality of the business I’m able to give people.

Brittany: 13:18
Yeah. So when were you able to… just say okay enough is enough and was it a certain pivotal moment where you just said okay I’m going to do things differently I want to do things a little bit more for me so it becomes more fun or is it something that maybe you know maybe it was a different story

Cristin: 13:38
Well, it was… there were a number of things. I mean, I have three daughters and I’m a single parent now. So it became about a balance thing. How much time do I have really to allocate towards this that I’m willing to allocate towards it without jeopardizing anything else in my life?

And the turning point for me, I think, was when I felt so exhausted. And you’re getting two, three hours a night of sleep. And I also work full time. So you’re not getting any sleep, you’re not eating well, you’re not taking care of yourself. And I think when you’re not doing that or you’re neglecting your self-care, that’s not good for anybody. And that’s when I reached a point where I was like, enough is enough.

And I literally took, I think, an entire summer off from about May until September. And I didn’t do any markets. I didn’t do any orders. I closed my shop. And I just took a few months just to hang out with my kids and do fun things. We traveled to Vancouver Island. And we just really took it easy and kind of checked back into life.

And when I came back out of that, I was like, okay. It’s going to be different. I’m going to have a plan and a structure, and I’m going to learn to say no to certain orders. Or maybe it’s something I can make, but I don’t really want to make it. I could refer them to a maker that I know is starting out that would appreciate getting the business to the referral.

So I started actually referring people to other makers in my area that I knew could do the work or could do the job and would be happy to have it. So learning to say no and sharing the load, definitely.

And we have a local sip and stitch group here in Edmonton and I joined that with Sarah from Mama Knows Luxury and we have a bunch of women that we meet every once in a while. We haven’t met in a while, but we always get together and we have a group on Facebook.

And I really like this group because it’s not competitive. We’re always trading ideas and talking about markets and asking questions and it’s just so welcoming. And it’s almost like a support group, I guess, for makers, but also just to talk about anything—not necessarily things that you need support on—but if you have a question about yarn or you’re looking for a specific type of yarn.

So finding that tribe of women that were like-minded and being able to share ideas and swap ideas, that was really good too. Because I know in the past I’ve had some new makers that have approached me or messaged me and almost always the first sentence is, I’m sorry to bother you, and it’s okay if you don’t want to answer, but…

I always answer those questions, even if I’m not able to answer right away. I always respond back to them because I thought, you know, at one point I was new and I needed that guidance, and I couldn’t get people to talk to me either. So I think it’s important, if you’ve been in it as long as we have, that when someone asks you a question, it’s okay to answer. It’s okay to share ideas.

I mean, you know, if they have questions like that, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to empower other people or mentor other people as well. I don’t know if that makes sense, but…

Brittany: 16:40
Yeah, I completely agree. There’s a really great saying that says a candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.

Cristin: 16:45
Absolutely, yes.

Brittany: 16:46
And I feel like that is so very true. So learning to say no in terms of taking on new orders and just… in general. I know I’m not so great at saying no either. So I’m curious, how did you train yourself to kind of rip the bandaid off there and be able to say no when you knew the job wasn’t right for you?

Cristin: 17:08
It puts you in a scratchy place where you feel a little uncomfortable because you think to yourself, If I say no, is that going to somehow affect me later on? Am I going to miss an opportunity later on if this person comes back to me?

And I had to… you know, and there’s lots of, I don’t know, there’s lots of other people you can ask too. And learning to say no and just saying, No, I’m not able to take this on at this time, I discovered, oddly enough, that when I did say, No, I can’t, I’m booked for this month, about 85% of the time they would say, That’s okay, I can wait till next month.

You know, so it didn’t actually turn people away. They understood, I think, or they could relate to the fact that, you know, you’re a mom and you work and you’re busy. And I think when people can relate to you on a person-to-person level, they have a bit more understanding.

I mean, not all customers are like that, but I would say 99.9% of people are amazing and totally understandable and they get it. You know, they know life happens and sometimes you just don’t have the ability to take on new responsibilities and that it’s okay to say no.

But yeah, it wasn’t easy at first. Absolutely. Because I had a lot of self-doubt and a lot of anxiety about saying no, about all the what-ifs that roll around in your head. What if this? What if that? What if this triggers a domino effect? And I think you just have to kind of get your head out of that and just not try and think about it if you can help it.

Brittany: 18:37
Yeah, it’s almost like a conditioning kind of experience where the first time you do it, it’s like really uncomfortable and it feels icky and you don’t want to do it. But you do it anyway and you’re just waiting for like catastrophe to happen. And when it doesn’t, you’re like, okay, it might be a little less difficult to do it next time.

Cristin: 18:58
Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s the key. Every time you do something, any kind of pattern or behavior, the more you do it, the easier it gets.

Brittany: 19:08
Exactly. So this is definitely a limitation that you have sort of like struggled with. What about—you mentioned also the idea of customer limitations as being a struggle for a maker. And I would love to learn more about that.

Cristin: 19:24
Customer limitations. Like I said, 99.9% of people are absolutely outstanding. And then there’s the 1% where, you know, I think as a maker, we want to be able—our reputation is what we’re selling. And if we can’t do a good job and, you know, people talk about a bad experience.

If they have a bad experience with a business of any kind, whether it’s handmade or, you know, a box store or whatever, they will tell people about that. And I live in a small community where if you treat somebody terribly, it doesn’t take very long for it to get around. And you certainly don’t want to be known as that person who didn’t help out or didn’t do anything.

So I think, you know, some customers I’ve had in the past where I really had the feeling like no matter what I did, it wouldn’t have mattered. Like I could have done everything within my power and it still probably wouldn’t have been quite right or quite enough. And I think at that point, you kind of have to sit back as a maker and say, You know what, like we’re just going to have to agree to disagree because it’s not coming to a resolution, right?

Brittany: 20:28
Yeah.

Cristin: 20:29
But I’ve had to… I had an experience here recently, actually, where I created something. The item was horribly damaged once it was received—not in transit, but through neglectful use of the item.

And the person came back to me and said, Well, I want a refund. And I said, Well, I can make you another pair. I’ll make them better. I went out of my way to try and make it right. And at the end of the— I think this went on for about two or three weeks. And I had actually created the item about three times over by this point.

So finally, I had to say, You know what? This is the last time I’ll be creating it. I won’t be making another one. And that was that. I kind of had to put my foot down and be a little bit firm. I had to stick up for myself. And that’s really uncomfortable for me to do as well.

But I think if you don’t stick up for yourself, then… my parents were… they’re very fond of saying that there’s a saying that they have that what you allow will continue. And I think that’s very true in every aspect of your life—whether you’re a handmaker or, you know, a mom or anything. If you allow a certain behavior or action to keep happening, it’ll just keep happening. At some point you have to say, No, this is not okay.

Brittany: 21:44
Yes. And like you said, stick up for yourself because I feel like you’re—as a maker, you’re putting everything into that piece. You’re making it the best you can because I know for me when I was—and one of the reasons that sort of steered me away from selling my goods—was I just sort of lacked the confidence that I needed that it was good enough, that it would hold up to everyday wear and maybe some neglect to an extent.

And I feel like you put so much into the piece and the product that you have to stick up for yourself when it comes to an issue like that because you know that you’ve done everything that you can.

Cristin: 22:24
Like you said, too, you have to have the confidence to stand behind your work and say, I know this is good. And sometimes that’s a scary thing to do—to have that much confidence. And you said, too, you’re selling a piece of yourself. You’re very attached to every item that goes out the door.

Brittany: 22:43
Yeah, so an instance like that is sort of painful twofold because it sort of feels like a personal hit on something that you created, but then it’s also sort of… you have to question what happened in that instance. You either question yourself or you question your customer, and that’s just an icky situation to be in.

Cristin: 23:07
Well, and you’d like to give everybody the benefit of the doubt and not assume that anybody is deliberately doing something or treating you a certain way because that’s their goal. I mean, legitimately, some people are very upset. And for the most part, I think it’s pretty easy to differentiate between someone who’s genuinely upset and versus someone who is, you know, they’re bent on getting something out of you.

But yeah, thankfully, that doesn’t happen very often. But, you know, and I think too, other businesses must have that happen too—you know, even non-handmade businesses.

Brittany: 23:43
Yeah. Yeah. I think those are important things to address because like you said, they don’t happen often, but they do happen. And it’s not something that’s easy to talk about and easy to know what to do in that situation.

Cristin: 23:56
Well, and you’re not prepared for it. You’re hopeful for success. You’re not hoping for defeat. And, you know, I still remember that sick feeling I got in the pit of my stomach the first time I ever got a private message from someone who was mad or unhappy about something.

And you’re right. You sit there and you look at that message and you reread it dozens of times and you think, How do I handle this? How do I respond? How do I fix this?

Brittany: 24:19
Yeah. And you just have to sort of trust your intuition a little bit. And the best policy, at least that I have learned—not as a seller of finished products—but as a consumer, I think when you’re upset about something, I feel like you’re just looking for that company or that person that you dealt with to just relate to you a little bit, just to understand where you’re coming from. And I know for me, that always makes me feel a lot better.

Cristin: 24:49
But I found too that over the years—this is more specifically with my parenting—but it worked very well in handmade as well. If you validated somebody’s feelings, if they came to you upset about something or concerned and you validated them—because for the most part, I think all they want to know is they want to be heard, first of all. They want someone to listen and they want someone to say, You know what, you’re right. That’s frustrating. I’m sorry that happened to you.

And you can probably diffuse most people by just saying, You know what, I completely understand that you would be upset by that. And, How can we find a resolution? And for the most part, it’s worked out very well—just validating somebody, how they feel.

And so when you get those messages or that comment—sometimes it’s a public comment on a public forum—and, you know, you think to yourself, Do I respond or do I delete it? Like, what do I do? And I think, yeah, if you just respond with validation, most of the time you can just diffuse it.

Brittany: 25:47
Exactly. I think that’s really great advice. So I know another struggle that comes into play is with work-life balance. I feel like a maker sort of has an extra element of difficulty in that aspect because you can take your work with you anywhere. You can throw it in a bag and you can work while you’re sitting in the car line or wherever you are. And that has a tendency, I’m sure, to weigh on your self-care and that sort of thing. So what are some ways that you try to maintain a healthy work-life balance?

Cristin: 26:26
That’s a good question. I’m actually a very huge outdoor enthusiast. So the winter is a bit more difficult here in Canada. We have some pretty awful winters, so you can’t always get outside. But during the nicer parts of the year, you know, right now, spring, summer, every opportunity that we can get outside, we’re outside.

And I have three kids. They’re very active. Luckily for us, there’s quite a few things in the area that we can go and do. And they’re old enough now that it’s not cool for mom to hang out and play with them. So they’re more than happy for me to take them to the river or the splash park and just set up a little blanket and I’ll sit on the blanket and either watch them play or maybe bring something simple with me to work on.

They’re used to seeing yarn in my bags and hooks everywhere. But I think sometimes too, you get to a point where you have to go, you know what, this is not as important as what’s happening right now in front of me and you just leave it at home.

You know, so, for example, when we go to Vancouver Island as a family, I always bring along one item to work on. And I call that my project, my vacation project or travel project. And it’s usually a selfish knitting or a selfish crochet project. So the last time that we went, I took along the tank top pattern from Chantel over at Knittitude.

Brittany: 27:42
Mm-hmm.

Cristin: 27:43
And all I did was bring just those needles, just that yarn, and just that pattern. And I worked on it off and on when they had some downtime on our vacation. And when we came home, I had a finished top that every time I wear it, it reminds me of our trip.

But yeah, I don’t work on any business orders when it’s family time. And because I worked full time during the day, I have my office job. And then I go home and we do the mom-kid thing. And then basically once they’re in bed is when I pick up my yarn and my hooks.

And I’m a night owl anyways, but I used to stay up till 3, 4 in the morning, and that’s when it was becoming a problem. And then I had to set that limitation for myself and say, okay, you know what? You can have yarn in your hand until 10 o’clock, and then you need to put it down. Yeah. So I started doing that, and yeah, I mean, everything gets better, right? People just function better with better sleep.

Brittany: 28:34
Oh, yes. That’s something I am learning the importance of too. There’s a really, really great book that I read almost a year ago, I would say. It’s by Shawn Stevenson. It’s called Sleep Smarter. That book was an eye-opener for me. I might have to find that one. It’s a really good one. It’s a pretty quick read. I read it in just a few days, which is kind of crazy for me. I’m a little bit of a slow reader and I just– I loved it. It was just an easy read and it was informative.

There were some chapters that were a little out there for me that I thought, that’s a little bit strange or weird, but there’s a lot of really good advice in there. And for me, I love to sleep, but I always felt like I needed to stay up and work on things.

For me, the way my dynamic sort of works is during office hours, I am working in my office. I’m writing patterns. I’m doing calls like this. I’m basically doing things on the computer. And then in the evening, I have my family time with my husband. I cook dinner. We hang out a little bit. And then I will pick up my hooks or my needles, my project in the last couple hours of the evening.

Sometimes that was getting longer and longer because I had deadlines and things that needed to get done. And the only way I felt like I could get it done was to sacrifice that sleep. And that caught up to me eventually. It made me realize that sleep is very important for so many aspects of our life.

Cristin: 30:09
Absolutely.

Brittany: 30:09
Yeah, so definitely check out that book. I will link to it in the show notes if anybody is curious about Sleep Smarter.

Now, are there any apps or tools or anything that you use to help you stay focused and productive? I kind of geek out on this a little bit.

Cristin: 30:27
I’m not as tech savvy as most people. I definitely have my iPhone always pretty handy. I rely heavily on my calendar that’s in my phone, mostly because I can set up those automatic alerts and those notifications.

With three kids in three different places most of the time, I have to have that calendar. And I have tried having like a pen and paper agenda and something on the fridge. It usually worked for about a month and then I get, you know, I forget to put things in.

So I find I always have my phone on me. So when something comes up, I can just pop it in the calendar and I’m good to go. I can add notes in there. So it sounds so simple and so basic, but it really is just the calendar on my phone that has saved me many, many, many times.

And sticky notes. I’m really bad at writing sticky notes everywhere on everything. Sometimes I’ll even write on the back of my hand or I have, if I’m at work and I need to remember to do something, I’ll email myself at home. So when I get home at the end of the day, I’m like, oh yeah, I got to do that.

So yeah, just about anything. I make lists too. I’m a big fan of lists and spreadsheets. I absolutely love a good spreadsheet. And this is where I get a little geeky because math is not my strongest subject, but I budget, like I do all the budgeting in our house for bill paying and all that kind of stuff. And I absolutely love my spreadsheet. I’ve been using it for years. I don’t know what I would do without it. I really don’t.

Brittany: 31:55
Yeah, I can relate to that too. I’m not super savvy when it comes to spreadsheets, but I can do enough to be productive.

Cristin: 32:04
Yes.

Brittany: 32:05
Yeah, I like to use a spreadsheet actually to plan out future stuff like future episodes of the podcast, future episodes of Be Hooked TV—all of that’s in a spreadsheet and I live by that. If that spreadsheet went away, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.

Cristin: 32:20
Oh, I would be completely lost, absolutely. Because I mean everything planned and I usually plan a couple of months in advance just so I know what’s coming up, what’s happening, and just try to stay on top of stuff.

And even if I still forget things, absolutely. I mean, I have shown up for, you know, school meetings a half an hour early because I have this other bad habit—I used to be really late all the time and it drove me nuts. I know it drove other people nuts.

So in an effort to correct that flaw that I thought I had, I would actually put things in my calendar and I would put them in 15 minutes before I had to actually be there. So then by the time I got to the appointment, I would look and go, oh, yeah, I have to be there at two o’clock.

So a couple of weeks ago, I went for a school meeting and I got there right at two o’clock. They kind of looked at me funny. And then I texted my daughter’s dad and said, well, aren’t you coming? And he texted me back and said, well, isn’t it at 2:30? And I thought, oh, gosh, I’ve done it again.

I said, well, at least I’m here. Right, right. Hopefully you had a—

Brittany: 33:16
Project with you.

Cristin: 33:18
Yeah, well, I mean, I did have some stuff with me just for an extra 10 minutes and stuff. But I thought, you know, and I kind of had a laugh about it.

But my daughter’s dad is very fond of saying five minutes early is 10 minutes late. He loves to be early and so I sort of trained myself to either be on time or be very early for things.

And sometimes I’ve forgotten that I do that to myself in my calendar. So when the alert comes up and says you have an appointment at two o’clock, it takes you—I don’t know if you have an iPhone—but in the calendar sometimes it’ll actually tell you how long it would take you to drive you from your current location.

Brittany: 33:54
Man, that’s really handy.

Cristin: 33:55
Yeah, so I’ll get an alert at my office saying, you have an appointment at 2 o’clock. It should take you 27 minutes to drive there. You should leave now.

Brittany: 34:01
Huh, I need that in my life.

Cristin: 34:04
It’s fantastic. I’m pretty good with directions and navigation, but if it’s a new place I have to go, I put the address in. So I absolutely love my phone calendar for that reason because it has saved my butt more than once.

Brittany: 34:19
Now, I’m not an iPhone user. I have a Google Pixel. I love Google products. Yes. So I use Google Calendar, and that updates me pretty much everywhere I go. But that is one feature that they don’t have, I don’t think. I need to look into that and see if they do. Oh maybe I will.

Usually I calendar block the drive time in and that’s like an extra step for me because I have to add a separate like appointment, if you will.

Cristin: 34:46
Yeah, yeah so you can block off the time.

Brittany: 34:47
Yep.

So I know this isn’t something that you focus on anymore, but when you are doing markets was there a strategy or a system that you had in place to help you know what stock you needed to make and help you like stay on time with that sort of thing? I know there’s a lot of people in the audience who have had that question and sort of struggle with that.

Cristin: 35:08
I struggle with that. Absolutely. When I started doing markets, it’s very much a learning curve sort of thing. You try out a couple just to see what it feels like or you talk to other makers that have been to those markets and you ask them like, what was it like? You know, what’s the traffic like? So you kind of get an idea of what people are looking for.

When it came to what items I would bring to the market, I started off by making tons of everything. And that was never a good thing. Because I find, even as a shopper, if I go to a market and it looks very busy, I feel like I’m missing stuff when I’m looking at tents and tables. And I feel like if there’s too much stuff on the table, I might be missing something.

So as a maker… to get around that, I started just focusing on maybe three to four items and making a lot of those three to four items. So when someone came by the shop, you’d have toques, scarves, and blankets, for example. And so it was a lot easier. Things didn’t get lost in the shuffle.

And sticking to a color palette that was three to four different colors so it wasn’t too busy with colors or products was really good. And I found too, I seemed to make really good connections at markets when I made eye contact with people that were walking by.

So as a shopper, if I’m walking through a market and I see a vendor sitting behind a table, looking down at their phone or talking to the neighboring vendor, but they’re not really connecting with people that are walking past, I probably would just keep walking.

But if someone looks up and says, oh, hi, how are you today? Where are you coming from? It’s almost like they sort of verbally pull you into their booth. And before you know it, you’re having a quick little conversation. And while you’re talking to them, you’re looking at the stuff they have.

So I think it’s really important that when you’re a vendor at a market, like make contact with those people that are walking around, smile at everybody, you know, pull them in, ask them how their day is going, ask them where they’ve come from, if they’ve driven far, just little things like that, I think are really handy.

And a lot of moms bring kids to the market. And as a parent, nothing makes me smile more than when someone actually gets down on the same level as my kid and acknowledges them. So when they say, oh, you’re shopping with your mom today, that makes the kids feel important too. So they’re not just being dragged along to a market with mom. They’re actually having fun and doing stuff too.

So whenever I was selling, I always used to have something for the kids there too. So whether it was like fruit snacks or like a little… bowl of candies. One time I think I baked cookies and they would come around and I actually have a friend who brought her daughter one time when I baked cookies and every time after that she referred to me as “you’re the lady with the cookies.” So it was kind of cute.

But yeah, I mean kids like that stuff too, right? So just making sure you connect with people and not having too much stuff and, you know, even your setup—keeping it simple.

I mean, I know my cousin sells at markets as well, and she has a couple little shelves, and I don’t even think she has a table anymore, actually. She just has a couple little shelves, and they’re very light, easy to transport, and her setup is fast, and her takedown is even faster. It—

Brittany: 38:21
Seems counterintuitive a little bit, too. I know that’s something I have always heard, too. It’s better to really know what you want to sell and just do that one thing really well. But it almost feels like you’re going to miss out, like you’re not serving everybody who might show up at that market. But I feel like it’s really impossible to do that.

Cristin: 38:43
It’s hard to, I mean, you’ll never make everybody happy, but some things that can help with that if you have concerns, and I’ve done this before too, is, you know, you can have like a little lookbook at the table that people can flip through or even one of those, you know, the electronic picture frames where you can scroll through photos or whatever.

Yeah. Something like that that shows your products in use or things that you make. So as people are standing there and looking at your two or three items and they’re flipping through the lookbook, they go, oh, you make this too? That’s what, you know, I need your card.

So you can kind of market other things that you make. And I think that’s important too. And even just rather than just, you know, making a couple of toques and throwing them onto a table, it’s worthwhile to get a couple of really nice quality photos of someone wearing those toques and having those on display with the toques so people can see what they look like on someone.

Brittany: 39:35
Yeah, I feel like that’s really important. I know in the early days, I really didn’t like to be in my own photos. So I would just lay my project out and take a photo of it. And that’s always the number one question: can I see what it looks like on? Because it’s hard to visualize that.

Cristin: 39:54
Well, and I think too, people are more likely to buy things if they can envision themselves wearing it. So that’s a marketing thing too.

Like I can show a toque to anybody, but if I show them a picture of a, you know, a lovely girl out in the mountains hiking with this cozy toque on, the immediate thought process in a customer is that could be me. I could wear that toque. I like to hike. You know, they start making those connections.

And I keep telling people, you have to market, you have to know who you’re marketing to and who you’re selling to. And if your target audience is outdoorsy type people, then take pictures of your products in outdoorsy type settings. And, you know, you’ll market it to those people that would be interested in buying it.

So, you know, and I’ve seen too that some people have hired brand reps where they’ll, you know, provide product for somebody to go and take nice photos and they use that for marketing. That’s also a great idea.

Brittany: 40:46
Yeah. How would somebody get into something like that?

Cristin: 40:50
A lot of the times the maker may advertise that they’re looking. I feel like that’s a great idea, but you might get inundated with a lot of requests.

I tend to follow a few people that are—they’re other makers, but I’m also friends with them. As an example, Brianne Birch from the Jewelry Rack. I’ve known her since the beginning. She makes bullet earrings and antler jewelry. And that really aligns with my lifestyle and the way I live and things I do in my personal life.

So she also takes absolutely gorgeous photos. Her Instagram feed is just—it’s envious. And she has the cutest little kids and the cutest little animals on her hobby farm. So for her, she actually has a lifestyle that works really well with my products.

So every once in a while, I’ll provide her with something or she’ll purchase something from me. And then she takes these absolutely gorgeous photos. And I get to use those in my marketing. And it’s really a mutually beneficial arrangement because she’s also a maker.

So it works out for her. You know, she gets the exposure. There are a lot of lifestyle Instagrammers as well. And I find that’s very frustrating for me sometimes, not all the time.

But I’ve had over the years a handful of Instagrammers who have messaged me privately and said, I’m a lifestyle Instagrammer. If you provide me with da da da da da, I’ll do this. And a lot of the times what they’re asking me for is almost $1,000 worth of product, which is extremely hard for me to justify.

And I want to make sure that if I’m going to do that, that there’s going to be a value added, right?

Brittany: 42:29
Right.

Cristin: 42:29
So another example. So Brett Kissel is a country singer here in Canada. He’s from Alberta, actually, from St. Paul. And his wife, Cecilia, messaged me. And she wanted a couple of items, which… She asked if I would make them for her, and I said absolutely. And I happily provided them because she is very public on social media, and they’re very passionate about supporting local businesses and handmade businesses.

So I like the message that they have. I like that they have such a strong support for local and handmade, and I have no problem providing products to people like that that I know have those kind of values.

Yeah, that’s really cool. Yeah, I mean, it’s important to know. I think if you’re going to do it, it’s a great idea. It’s fantastic. It’s a wonderful marketing opportunity, but make sure that there’s value added and it’s not costing you money and that the person’s values and the way that they present themselves aligns with what you’re doing.

Brittany: 43:29
Right, right. So it makes sense for all parties.

Cristin: 43:33
Yeah absolutely.

Brittany: 43:34
Now, another thing I’m really interested in digging into, I know it comes up a lot, especially in the Instagram community and in the maker community. And that is the struggle of finding your inspiration, but like still being very true to yourself.