The Real Life Story of a Full Time Crochet Blogger | Podcast Episode #110

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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a crochet blogger?

Maybe it’s your goal to start a crochet blog but you’re just not sure if it’s right for you. Starting a crochet blog is the best thing I have ever done. It gives me purpose, keeps me on my toes, and provides a creative outlet for my endless ideas. That’s a common theme with this week’s guest, Meg, from Megmade With Love.

Special Guest

Meg started a crochet blog not long ago and she shares the successes, the failures, and the lessons she’s learned throughout the first years of her blog. Sit back with a cup of your favorite warm drink and hear the real-life story of a crochet blogger.

Episode Transcript

Brittany:
Well, hey there, and thank you so much for joining me in episode 110 of the BHooked podcast. It’s a real joy to have you here. As always, I’m always grateful that you listen in each and every week, but I’m really excited about today’s episode because we’re doing something a little different.

Now, before we get to Meg and her story as a crochet blogger, I want to let you know that this week, the show notes page is a really special place to go. What I would rather you use the show notes for this week is to connect with other crochet bloggers. There’s a comment section on the bottom of that page and you can chat freely with one another. It’s a great way to connect with other bloggers and designers who are also listening to the show. To do so, head over to behooked.com/110.

Okay, so let’s say you are curious about the world of crochet blogging. Maybe you want to start a blog of your own. Maybe you’ve already started a blog of your own. I think you can really relate to Meg and her story of how she started her blog, how she figured out where she sat in the community, what she wanted to provide for the community. Those are all things that we have to try to figure out very early on when we’re crochet bloggers in order to be successful.

She shares some really great tips about that as well as branding and I don’t want to delay anymore. Let’s just get into my chat with Meg from the blog Meg Made With Love. So Meg, hi, welcome to the show.

Megan: 2:09
Hey, how’s it going?

Brittany: 2:10
It is wonderful. I am just so excited to have you on the show, especially to speak about a topic that, one, I would say you’re an expert in, and two, everybody seems to think it’s hard to wrap their mind around being a blogger and doing what you love full-time and making a career out of that, and I think you’ve been able to accomplish both.

So here’s a question for you, and this is a question that I still to this day have no clue how to respond to, and I’m curious to see how you answer. When somebody asks you, “So Meg, what do you do?” How do you respond?

Megan: 2:47
Usually, awkwardly. I still, like you, have a hard time figuring out the perfect way to explain this to people. But it usually starts out like, “It may sound strange, but I have an online business where I crochet things and I teach people how to do it and I sell patterns on how to do that.” And they usually are like, “Huh.” And I feel like half the time they don’t understand what it is, but that’s okay.

Brittany: 3:18
Yeah, I get a lot of those looks and those, “huh,” you know, as I’m trying to explain and sort of stumble through it. And I think it’s not that what we do is complicated. It’s just that it’s different. And it takes a well-thought-out perspective… I don’t know, thought to explain exactly what we do. You really have to put some thought into explaining what we do because it is so different.

Megan: 3:45
Yeah, yeah. And you have to be really simple and clear. And a lot of people don’t understand like doing something online. It’s like, “Okay, like, is it like Facebook?” You know, it’s like they don’t… I don’t know. It’s just a different concept compared to like a nine to five, go to an office concept.

Brittany: 4:01
Yeah. So different from the traditional norm, but I tell you what, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am happier now than I have ever been, and I would love to encourage anybody who’s thinking about being a blogger—whether it’s in crochet or knitting or whatever it may be—just do it. Just dive right into it. Get it started today because, yeah, you’re probably not going to be able to jump right out of your nine to five. You’re going to have to build it up for a couple of years before you can get to that point. So the sooner you start, the better.

Megan: 4:34
Agreed. That has been my thing. I’ve always told people when they come to me in my inbox and they’re asking, “I need some words of advice on what I need to do or what are some tips that you’d give me,” and it’s always just do it. Because there’s some valuable lessons that you won’t be able to learn just researching or just thinking about it. And just diving in is the number one thing that I would say is—that’s how you get it done and that’s how you learn.

Brittany: 5:01
Yeah, it’s so true. Now, I was going through your website yesterday, and you recently published a blog post that was called The Two Biggest Lessons Learned in Two Years of Crochet Blogging. I really want to tap into that a little bit. Before we get to that though, tell me how your blog started—how this whole idea came about.

Megan: 5:23
I had been crocheting for a really long time. And I started when I was really young. My mom taught me. And it was kind of just always another craft that I always did because I was always just a creative type and I like to do everything. But I had blogged in 2011 in college. I picked it up. I decided I wanted to start crocheting again when I saw some really cool patterns and stuff on Ravelry—that’s when I was first introduced to Ravelry.

And I decided, I can make some stuff. I can make some really cool stuff. I had seen a bag online at that point that was really cool. It was like a designer bag that had these raised stitches on it that are bobbles. I always tell this story on Instagram, but I didn’t know what bobbles were at the time. And so I created the raised stitches on that purse by crocheting little pieces individually and individually sewing them each on instead of creating the bobble stitch.

And that was my very first pattern back in 2011. I just went with it, took what knowledge I had, and I just applied it to that pattern. And I posted it on my blog. And that was a different blog. It was called Not the Norm and it’s not running right now, and I’m glad it’s not because it was kind of ridiculous.

So that was my first introduction, but then it kind of died off because I was in college. I didn’t know what I was going to do. And then I had done some other odd-end jobs creatively. Before I started this blog, I was painting and making wooden signs, but it just wasn’t fulfilling me creatively.

At the time, I had just had my son and I was really craving that creative aspect, but I was also really wanting to stay home with him and to earn income online. I had seen some examples of it from other people—that they were earning income online by doing this. I was like, “You know what? I can do this too. I can pick up my crochet hook again and I can make some really cool stuff—stuff that I would want to wear myself.” And so that’s kind of how it started. And that was back in 2016.

Where did the name come from? I like it. It’s really catchy.

Hey, thanks. I don’t even know. I did a lot of thinking on that one. I just—I like making things. At first it started out, I was going to do DIY projects and crochet patterns. And I just… it’s cool. Like, I like the “Meg Made.” I was just brainstorming and it sounded cool, but I don’t know. It just kind of randomly came.

Brittany: 8:01
Yeah. It seems like they often do. I know when I was coming up for a name for Be Hooked and back in, gosh, 2012 or so when I was having this conversation in my mind about, “Oh, I think I want to do something with crochet.” Of course, back then it was an Etsy shop and not even a blog.

But I remember driving to the store and I was just trying to think of all these different ideas. I knew I wanted to incorporate “crochet,” “hooked” in there because I knew that crochet was my jam. I sort of had this like super love-hate relationship with knitting at that point because I had just tried to learn and failed.

And so I knew it was going to be mainly crochet. And if I knew then what I know now, I probably would have done things a little bit differently. But I thought it was really fun to incorporate part of me in there. And I did so with the letter “B” because my name is Brittany, but it also is sort of like a dual meaning so that somebody can be hooked.

And the rest is kind of history. It just sort of caught on. And I thought it was kind of cool but catchy and a little bit weird at the same time. And it’s grown on me ever since.

I feel like that was probably one of the hardest things to do in terms of coming up with a blog—is really coming up with a name that’s going to stick. Because out of everything, you can change in so many ways, but your name is probably not going to change so much. And if it does, it’s difficult to do.

Megan: 9:33
Yes, and that is so true. And that—and like you explaining that—it sums up how I came up with Meg Made With Love. I wanted to incorporate “Meg” and like “making,” you know, so “made.” And like you said, it is a big deal because that’s what you’re known for. It’s what people are going to call you. It’s what people are going to think of whenever they think of your business. So it’s kind of a big deal.

Brittany: 9:59
Circling back to this blog post though—you summarized the two biggest lessons that you learned after two years of crochet blogging. Can you share a little bit about what those two lessons are? I feel like this is a really great way for somebody to start their journey—is to learn from somebody who’s already been there first.

Megan: 10:19
Yeah. So the first one, and this might be the biggest one, was consistency. And I called it “Consistency Is Your Friend” because it was a big deal to me at the beginning—starting my blog to stick to two posts a week consistently and stick to that for a year.

Because I had a bad habit of starting business ventures and then kind of giving up because I was afraid that I might fail. And so I was like, “No, I’m going to stick with this—two posts a week for a year.” And if it didn’t end up by the year marker successful, or if it wasn’t something that I wanted to do, then I’d give it up. But if that year was up and then I did like it, then power to me—I’d have a whole bunch of content to show for it.

So, consistency was the biggest one. And then the next one was viewing failure differently. And that kind of goes in with it because I had that track record of just being too afraid of what people thought and just being afraid of crashing and burning and just having everyone there to point and laugh. When in reality, that’s not really true. It’s only just in our mind mostly.

So I viewed failure differently by the terms of just viewing it as data—seeing it in a whole different way. Like, it’s not the end of the world if something doesn’t become successful. It’s just another thing that I learned and I just need to keep on going. And that was a big thing. That was a big thing for me. And I would have never learned it if I didn’t just jump in and get it done, you know?

Brittany: 11:59
Yeah. And set that goal for yourself that you said, this is something I’m not going to compromise on. This is something I’m passionate about now. And I’m pretty sure that at the end of this one-year mark, I could really have something here. But I love how you just stuck to it. And you set that goal, even though you weren’t really sure if you could meet that.

I want to talk about consistency because I too completely agree. That is the single most important thing in blogging—especially it has been for me. It’s really easy to just make something your hobby and you just sort of do it in your spare time and you might put up a post or publish a pattern once a month or once every couple of months.

I was doing that in the early days. When I first started, I was doing more video than blogging, but I did it in my spare time. My husband would go out of town for a day or two on the weekends, and then I would sit there and stay up until three, four o’clock in the morning just making projects and filming videos and editing them. And I just loved the experience.

But I only did that on days where he was out of town and I was staying at home, you know, tending to our fur babies. And that’s how it started for me. I didn’t really see a whole lot of traction during that time until I really started to realize that, oh hey, when I do this more than once, people learn to rely on me as a source for information. And that consistency is what helped me continue to grow.

But you do have to get through that really uncomfortable grind sort of phase where you’re just doing and doing and doing and not seeing results. It’s like it’s almost in an instant—you just really start to see the traction pick up. And if you aren’t consistent, you’ll never get to that hump.

Do you kind of feel like it was the same for you too?

Megan: 14:00
Yeah, for sure. And whenever you were talking, it reminded me of this thing I have up on the side of my wall right on my desk. It’s: Don’t treat it like a hobby. Because we could so easily default to that because it’s something we enjoy so much, you know?

And so I have to remember, I have to continually remind myself that it’s not just a hobby. Like people are relying on me as a professional to provide content—to provide quality content—and consistently. So that has been a big thing, is to just not… it’s not a hobby. It’s a business, you know?

Brittany: 14:37
Yeah. And that’s a great mindset to have. Now, you are doing this full time, correct?

Megan: 14:43
Well, I mean,

Brittany: 14:43
Stay-at-home…

Megan: 14:45
Mom slash business owner, you know? So I’m staying at home with my kiddo. So I guess I could consider it full time, but I don’t know.

Brittany: 14:53
Yeah, yeah. I mean, aside from being a mom and maintaining a household, this is your primary source of income that you’re generating for yourself. So I think you have a unique situation where you can speak to a full-time blogger, but you can also speak to the full-time blogger who is also doing it while maintaining their households.

I love this perspective. I’m curious to figure out how your typical day is like. This is one thing that I just totally geek out on—as far as processes or different habits that are the reason for success.

First of all, can you run me through what your typical day looks like? I know it’s probably different from day to day, but if you could summarize it, how do you maintain that business focus, but then also being present and available for your family?

Megan: 15:49
Yeah, this one is kind of funny because I don’t have an exciting life.

I usually… during the day, I try to focus on my son, Sawyer. I wake up, and I’m blessed that he is kind of a sleeper-inner, and he sleeps in—and I’m thankful for that because I stay up late, and that’s when I get the work done. So I wake up in the morning and we have a slow morning and he plays, and I sometimes play with him too. And he’s only two years old, and so it’s not like I’m doing school or anything. So we just hang out all day basically, and I like to put my focus on him.

My husband comes home for lunch and I fix him something, and then he goes back, and my son and I will do an activity in the afternoon. So my days just look like… just mom, really.

And so then my husband comes home from work in the evening and that’s when I can kind of start to get stuff done. And it’s still not a clear schedule ever. Like sometimes he’ll come home and I can get some computer work done while he watches the kiddo. Or sometimes he’ll come home and we’ll all watch a movie and I will crochet, you know.

But the real work gets done whenever my son goes to sleep, and my husband usually puts him to sleep and gets him ready. And so that’s when I put business hat on and take off the mom hat and I begin to do computer work usually. I answer emails, and I do Etsy convos, and I do blog posts then. I write patterns then.

But sometimes, I will admit, during the day I try to sneak in some work while I’m also doing mom deal. I have to take pictures when it’s light out. So I’m taking pictures during the day, and it reminds me of the other day whenever my son was trying to sneak a half-eaten waffle into the photo shoot and I just ended up giving up after the fifth time and just taking a picture with the waffle in it because—I mean—it was kind of endearing, but I just wanted to give up because I was just sick of throwing it away.

But it’s not very clear. It’s not really ever the same day to day, but it’s usually mom during the day and then business Meg during the night.

Brittany: 18:08
Yeah, I think that’s a great way to summarize it too. And that’s a trend that I’ve seen. I’ve had the pleasure of talking to a lot of different designers who also are moms as well. And I do see a trend as far as—it’s business mode at night, it’s mom mode during the day.

And I seriously just commend you for being able to pivot that much. I tend to like to be pretty structured and I have my days planned out in as much detail as I can. I try to be as productive as I can with my time. But I find that I’m not so great at multitasking. And I find that if you’re a mom and you’re a blogger, you kind of have to be pretty…

Megan: 18:53
Good at that. Exactly. And your expectations for anything have to be thrown out the window because you just have to kind of go with the flow. And if you’re trying to post something online while your child is screaming in the background, it’s like so hard to get done.

And so it’s like you have to be really filled with grace for yourself and for your kid and just kind of really flexible overall.

Brittany: 19:18
Yeah. So are you still sticking to that two pieces of content every week now?

Megan: 19:48
Yeah.

Brittany: 20:03
How are you able to stick to that so well? It’s so easy to make a promise to yourself and break it because you’re not letting anyone else down. You’re just kind of letting yourself down.

How are you able to really stick to your guns on that and say, “No, I’ve committed myself to this and I’m not going to stop for at least a year?”

Megan: 20:23
I think the biggest thing was that I had my goal in mind—and that was to stay at home with my son. Like, I really cared about that. And so I kept that… I think I had a post-it on my desk at that time of what—like—I wanted: to stay at home with my son. And that was my why, you know?

And there were times when I would miss a week, like miss a post, and I was okay with it. But for the most part, I stuck with it. And it was because I was thinking about my why, you know?

Brittany: 20:56
Yeah, I think that’s so important too. When you’re trying to achieve a goal, especially if you’re making a promise to yourself—like I said, it’s so easy to break—just remembering why you do it.

So nowadays, your publishing schedule is a little bit different. What are you committing to this year? Are you doing like maybe one post a week or one pattern a month or how does that schedule look like for you now?

Megan: 21:20
Right now, it’s kind of in the works of what I’m expecting for this—especially this year. I haven’t completely set what exactly I’d like to do. But after writing that post about the two things I learned, I kind of realized I had gotten really lenient on that and I wanted to go back to the drawing board and think about what I wanted from my blog and what I wanted to deliver.

And so I’m still kind of in the works on that, but I’ve been thinking I want to be posting at least one crochet-related article a week. And I also want to be providing at least two patterns a month.

And that is kind of in the works still because I’m also doing physical products on Etsy. So it kind of draws me away from being able to design. So that’s in the works, I guess.

Brittany: 22:11
Yeah. I feel like the name of the game here is just to maintain a balance, and you really have to try and see what works so that you can figure out what you have time to do.

I know for me, I try to take projects on—and not necessarily projects in terms of like a crochet project—but for example, the podcast. This is a weekly commitment. It’s something that I decided to do in 2017, that I would be a weekly podcaster. And my why behind that was because I wanted to provide something for the community that wasn’t there when I was looking for it several years ago.

And then… I took a couple of years. I did that weekly show—and we’re still doing the weekly show—for two years before I decided to add something new. Because it took me two years to figure out how to make the show run properly, smoothly, how to coordinate everything, and find the time around all the other things going on.

And now this year, I have set another commitment to do another weekly show—this one being the video side of things. So my commitment for this year is a weekly TV show and a weekly podcast. And it’ll probably be a couple of years before I evaluate and see if I’m able to add on another timely commitment.

It’s really easy to publish a pattern here or there whenever you have it available, but it’s really difficult when you’re setting a deadline for yourself and saying, I’m going to produce two patterns every single month, which is a ton of work.

Megan: 23:49
Yeah, exactly. And that would be a good thing to think about if you’re just starting out because you gotta take a step back and think about what would be good for me and my pace—and not set yourself up to comparison to the people who are already out there and have been doing it, you know?

It’s like you gotta just be realistic with the time that you have and what you feel comfortable with, like you said. And I think that what you have going is a really good system—like getting comfortable with automating your business to where you can make it flow and then adding on to something whenever you feel comfortable. And I think that’s really cool.

Brittany: 24:28
Yeah. When you think of a blogger, you think, oh, this is somebody who writes. They write a weekly blog or they write an article—it could be educational, it could be entertainment—but I feel like the word blogger can mean so many more things nowadays.

For me, I still consider myself a blogger, even though I probably write less and then I create video or create podcasts or patterns.

Do you have any advice for somebody who is trying to figure out what their one thing is—like the one thing they need to focus on right now to get things up and running—that they can commit to for a set amount of time before they move on to that next thing?

Megan: 25:07
I think it’s just about, like I said earlier, taking a step back, evaluating what you’d like to provide and what you think is missing—like you mentioned earlier, what was missing out of the crochet community and you provided it.

What is something that is missing that you wish was there for yourself? And then be that in the community. And what is a realistic weekly thing you could be doing to provide something yourself to that need in the community?

And I think that is where you could start—by just seeing the need, fill the need, you know? And then, too, realistically with what you’ve got on the plate time-wise, figure out what you could do weekly to tackle that.

Brittany: 25:54
Yeah, I think another good approach too is to think about what you really enjoy doing as well. So if you’re thinking, let’s say you love to write and that’s your outlet—you want to write some type of crochet-related article or a knitting-related article that serves the community to educate them…

Well, if you were to sit down and think about it—like just sort of extrapolate it out—if you’re committing to a weekly article, that’s 52 pieces of content that you have to create. And if you can sit down and open up a blank sheet of paper or a spreadsheet or whatever, and type out half of that—you know, 25 different topics—before you sort of run dry, that’s a good indicator that you’re probably choosing the right thing because you’re passionate about the topic. You know enough about it to be able to create those pieces of content every single week.

But if you open up the spreadsheet and you write one or two and you’re thinking, I don’t really know what else I would write about, that’s maybe not the right topic because you’re sort of setting yourself up for failure right at the start by not having enough information to share. So there’s no way you can make that 52-week commitment, you know?

Yeah, exactly. So let’s touch a little bit on branding. I know this is something that is really big in terms of how the community views you and how you sort of portray yourself. It’s something that you have done really well.

For somebody who has never really heard of that topic before—what is branding exactly, and why is it so important for bloggers?

Megan: 27:41
Branding to me is what your audience feels whenever you let your design out into the world—or your pictures or your product or anything. Whenever you put that out to the world, what does your customer feel when they come into contact with that?

It’s kind of like the experience that your brand is giving to your customer. And it’s a big thing for me—like I geek out about branding because I think it’s so important, what people think about your brand and how they experience it.

The big thing for me, whenever I was first starting out, it was: what is something I can put out—whenever I’m taking pictures or whenever I’m designing something—that I personally would obsess over? What is something that I would have to make? What is a picture that I would obsess over? What is something that speaks to me, that I would just love and ooze and gush over?

And that’s been a good thing for me—learning how to be the brand. I guess that’s branding to me.

Brittany: 28:51
Yeah, that makes total sense. And it’s a great way to make sure that you’re not being somebody else. You know, it’s really easy to draw inspiration from other places. I mean, if you’re wanting to be a crochet or a knit blogger, it’s probably because you follow other knit or crochet blogs. And it’s easy to be impressionable for somebody else’s style.

And the only way that you can be sure that you’re not portraying somebody else’s style—I mean, it’s being true to yourself. And like you said, only publishing, creating, or designing something that you would just absolutely love.

Megan: 29:32
Yeah, yeah. And I heard it on another podcast years ago, when I was first starting out and I was kind of geeking out about branding then, and they were talking about it. And they mentioned: If you posted the photo, would your audience know without a doubt—before seeing your name on it—would they know it was your photo?

And that’s always been big for me to remember. Like, is this the go-to Megan photo that they would know was Meg Made With Love, you know? And that’s been a big standard too. And I think that’s helpful—Is this something that your audience would know comes from you?

Brittany: 30:10
Yeah, that is really key too. I know scrolling through Instagram and scrolling through Pinterest, there are certain crochet and knit bloggers that you don’t have to see any text or anything at all—you can just look at the photo and know exactly who created that.

And I just love seeing that because those people—I just admire because they really have their branding figured out.

Megan: 30:34
Exactly. And I think it comes down to being really clear on what you want to deliver. And I talked about this—I did a photography series on my blog—and I talked about finding a theme and kind of a brand for your photography.

And I mentioned going to Pinterest and pinning images that are inspiring to you, things that catch your eye and things that you really love. And then going and pinning them all to one board, and then going back to that board and seeing—what are the things that are common in all of these photos that really stick out? What is the common theme that I see here?

And that’s kind of what makes you see—because sometimes it’s hard to see for yourself what you like, you know? Because so many things are pretty. But what is the common thing? Like, is it bright and airy photos, or is it moody? Is it cheerful, colorful things, or is it dark?

There’s so many different things—so many directions you could go. And I think that was a cool little tip to do whenever you’re not sure what your brand is or what you really want to stand for: go and pin some images and see what really strikes your eye—and those commonalities.

Brittany: 31:47
That’s a great tip. That’s really interesting. I hadn’t thought to do that. I really find that it’s a struggle for a lot of people to own what they love. It’s really easy to point here and there and say, oh, I like that, or I like this shirt, or I like this photo or this color or whatever it may be. But connecting all those dots is really difficult—especially when you’re trying to wrap a brand around that.

Megan: 32:11
And whenever you’re not really clear and you’re not really narrowed down into what your brand is, it’s really confusing for the customer.

Because—I mean—I can fall victim to this too. Finding really, really colorful things appealing to me, and finding really contrasty things appealing to me… but it would confuse my audience if I was all over the place with my images, all over the place with my colors and my lighting on my photos.

And so I think it takes a lot of discipline. And it’s hard to make a decision, but it’s good. It’s so good to simplify for the purpose of not confusing the people that you’re trying to deliver to.

Brittany: 32:51
Yeah. How do you feel about changes? Because I think the most important piece of advice when you want to be a crochet blogger is just to start somewhere. But by just starting somewhere, you’re likely going to pivot in a different direction and maybe even a little bit to your branding. Maybe you like certain colors when you start out, but you learn that your style develops into something a little bit different.

Do you feel like that is okay to sort of change the look and feel of your photography and your branding? Or is that like kind of blogger suicide?

Megan: 33:28
You know, I don’t think it’s bad. I don’t think it’s bad to do that because I started out and I liked everything. I thought super colorful things were pretty. I thought really simple things and really neutral things were pretty too.

And thinking back to one of my first blog posts, I created this really colorful kind of Mexican serape blanket–type pattern into a purse, and it was really, really neon colors. And thinking back to that, like, that is so not what I would design right now. But I had to learn that’s not what I wanted.

And I think it’s more important to just dive in and figure out what you like than to just try to figure it out without putting anything out there—without putting any content out there. Because I think at the beginning, your audience isn’t super huge, and so it’s okay to experiment.

Brittany: 34:20
I completely agree. Now, I’m curious, did you keep that post up once you decided that it really wasn’t your thing or really wasn’t your style? Does it still live there today or did you remove that?

Megan: 34:32
No, it’s still there. I doubt it gets many views because it was just… I don’t know, it was just not one of my better patterns. But I don’t know, I find it beautiful to look back and see my change. And it may hurt me, I don’t know, but I find it cool to look back and see how I’ve transformed.

Brittany: 34:50
Yeah, I do the same too. I have changed in a lot of ways too and several years in the making. And I will update all of those posts and those patterns just to keep them relevant, but I don’t really delete them. I think it’s kind of fun to see the journey.

Megan: 35:06
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that’s also valuable to the person who’s just starting out too—to be like, she did that too. She had not-so-great patterns at the beginning too. And maybe that is okay for me too, you know?

Like it kind of helps them see not everyone starts out knowing exactly what they want to do or the type of stuff they want to start putting out. And so it’s probably encouraging to someone just starting out.

Brittany: 35:31
Yeah, we’ve talked a lot about branding and sort of positioning and that sort of thing. Well, let’s be real a little bit. It’s not all rainbows and unicorns over here. So what is your biggest struggle that you have faced as a crochet blogger?

Megan: 35:47
Probably the planning and the scheduling aspect. That has been the biggest thing for me. Like I think just… it doesn’t come naturally to me. I’ve always been the type of person—like the artist, the typical artist—just to create and fly by the seat of my pants and just go with the flow.

But you and I both know that’s not how a business is run. You can’t just go with the flow or it’ll just go crazy and you won’t be able to get anything done because you have to have set guidelines. And so that has been kind of a hard lesson that I’m still continuing to learn—that I need to set deadlines and follow them and actually not slack.

You know, because that’s just not my nature. It’s my nature to just do what I want because I want to create and I want to create something beautiful, you know. And so it’s been some training on my part in the scheduling aspect and the planning.

Brittany: 36:46
Oh yeah. I actually love this aspect of being a blogger—just doing what I love. I think if I weren’t doing this myself, I would really enjoy helping people manage their time. It’s just something that I kind of geek out about, but it’s not something that I am great at either. And that’s something that I will openly admit.

My schedule has changed so much in the last two years. And even this year, I’m doing things completely different than I did last year. And I feel like it’s all just about experimenting, seeing what works, seeing what doesn’t, and doing more of the things that work and less of the things that don’t.

And utilize all of the free things that are at your fingertips to help you organize that. I use the whole Google suite for pretty much everything, and it’s been a lifesaver. And the best part is I don’t have to pay any money out of pocket. So that’s really great for bloggers too. A lot of them are doing this out of their pocket for the first couple of years.

Now, as we wrap up, let’s say we have a listener who is interested in starting a blog, they’ve made the decision, they’re going to do it—what is your best tip for that brand-new beginner?

Megan: 38:02
My biggest thing, and we’ve touched on it a little bit, is just start doing it. And it sounds so cheesy and so simple, but that’s how I did it. And that’s what helped me get over the fear of failure and the overthinking—just to do it and to commit to it.

And you’ll learn so many valuable lessons, like I said earlier, by just doing it. I don’t know—like there’s someone out there that is doing it and not knowing what they’re doing and they’re getting ahead. And meanwhile, there’s someone else who’s not doing it and just gaining all this knowledge and not really getting anything out there—not going anywhere.

And so I think it’s so valuable just to click publish on that first blog post and not think it’s a super big deal—because it’s not—and just get out there and just work and get to work and get over yourself essentially. Yeah, get over your fears and just get to work.

Brittany: 38:52
Yeah. And expect that only one or two people will look at that initially. I know the first couple of patterns I ever published, my mom probably saw them, my husband, and myself. I had three page views. And that’s tough. You’ve got to work through that. But if you know that expectation, it’s an easier pill to swallow.

Megan: 39:11
Yeah. And like everyone who started, they didn’t have any audience either. But it just takes time. And sure, it’s discouraging at times, but reach out to people who are already doing what you’re doing. Everyone has started without an audience—I mean, everyone has started without an audience. We all started. And so it’s just how it goes at the beginning.

Brittany: 39:35
That’s really sound advice too. And I feel like that’s a tip that can hold true for somebody who has already started a blog and is maybe not seeing the results or the momentum that they want. What would your tip be to that person?

Megan: 39:49
I think it’d be wise to take a step back and start asking some questions. To look at your blog or your website or your designs from a different point of view and start asking questions like: If I were scrolling through Pinterest and I saw this post, or if I saw this design, would I be stopped in my tracks and would I have to click that?

Or is it too complicated to understand? Is it too all over the place? Just different questions I think would be good to ask yourself. And maybe even grab someone that you know, if you don’t have an audience—ask someone like your mom or your friend: Is this something that represents me? Can you tell that this is something that I made? Would you make it? Are you drawn to this?

Another question could be—if you do have an audience—what inspires you? Or, what is the one thing that, if you could only make one thing this year, what would it be? And kind of get into the mindset of your audience. Because more than likely, you’re not speaking to people and you’re not connecting.

And I think it just comes back to trying to connect with your audience.

Brittany: 41:02
Yeah, it’s really hard to disconnect yourself from what you’re creating. You might have written something or created a pattern or whatever it might be. And I feel like it’s impossible to look at something that you have created from the perspective of—

Megan: 41:39
Yeah, I agree. And it’s kind of a skill that you learn. I think it’s kind of a… it’s like an art to step out of yourself and look back like, Why didn’t someone click with this?

And it’s something that I’m still learning to do. And it’s important. And it’s so valuable to get in touch with the people that are receiving what you’re putting out there.

Like you said, it’s hard to get outside of yourself sometimes when you’re so intertwined with what you’re putting out there.

Brittany: 42:07
Exactly. I think that’s a great place to end on too. So this has been a really insightful conversation. It’s always fun to hear how somebody else works and hear the story of how your blog and your business has come about.

So if somebody who is listening—they want to connect with you now after hearing your story—where would you send them?

Megan: 42:29
I’d send them to my Instagram. I hang out there a lot over on Instagram, and my name is Meg Made With Love. And I’m also on my blog, my website, which is megmadewithlove.com.

Brittany: 42:40
Wonderful. I will have links to all of that in the show notes page, so you can have easy access to that if you head over to behooked.com/110.

And Meg, thank you so much. It’s been such a pleasure.
Thank you. It’s been fun.

Alright, that was Meg from Meg Made With Love. I encourage you to check out her blog and her website so you can see some of the things that she talked about, how that branding has come about for her, and just so you can get an idea about what it looks like to have and run a crochet blog.

You’ve heard her perspective, and now it’ll be fun for you to see it from the other side. So I will have the link to Meg’s website over on the show notes page. Once again, that is behooked.com/110.

I also hope that you will visit the show notes page to connect with one another. I know there are a pretty big handful of crochet bloggers in the audience here, and there’s strength in numbers. We learn from one another. And it’s one of the best tips that I have to be successful in the blogging world—connect with one another.

And the first step to do that could very well be just introducing yourself on the show notes page. And who knows what might come of that.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode today and I hope you will tell me about it. You can reach out to me directly on Twitter @BHookedCrochet or on Instagram @BHooked.

If you loved this style—if you want to hear more crochet blogger and designer stories—let me know. I am here to serve you. And if this is an episode that you found extremely valuable, I want to make more of them for you. So follow me on those social channels. You can connect with me directly there.

And now, that’ll do it for another episode this week. But do stay tuned for next week’s episode. If you’re not subscribed already, you might want to do so. If you’re particularly interested in tech editing, I have the pleasure of speaking with a tech editor.

She’s going to share all of her knowledge as it relates to us as designers but also as it relates to us who are following patterns. So stay tuned for that episode next week. Subscribe so you don’t miss it, and I’ll see you there, my friend. Have a wonderful weekend. Bye for now.