How @tlyarncrafts used crochet-a-longs to reach more customers + nurture her community feat. Toni from TL Yarn Crafts

I know how frustrating it can be to see business advice that doesn’t seem like it relates to YOUR business. (As you hopefully know by now though, almost all business advice is just that: advice about business. And at the end of the day business is business and no matter what you’re selling, you’ve got to market it. So keep an open mind as you hear things! You can listen to an episode I did about that here: https://www.merriweathercouncilblog.com/2019/02/product-sellers-are-marketers/ One thing that often gets a lot of traction in service based businesses is CHALLENGES. You’ve probably seen some of your favorite bloggers run challenges for things like growing your email list, or batching content. And if you’ve ever participated in one you saw how it works and how it does engage the community that blogger is trying to reach. Which of course, is awesome. So how can something like that translate to a handmade business owner? That’s the question we are answering on today’s episode featuring my friend and fellow maker in business, Toni Lipsey of TL Yarn Crafts. If you don’t know Toni, you might live under a very large boulder. That ends today though! Toni was just as excited about this subject as I was when I reached out asking her to be a guest on the show! And she so willingly shared her insights and tips and experiences with running challenges in her community. Specifically she has been running CALs — or, Crochet-A-Longs. Similar to a knit-a-long. These are essentially the same idea as a challenge and she explained everything in this episode. I have been following Toni for some time so I know how hard she works and how present she is in her community. This was a great strategy for her to implement and I’m excited for you to hear about it. In this episode you’ll learn more about challenges or “whatever-a-longs”, how you might use this idea in your own business, the surprising thing Toni did in hers that is uncommon but worked and what she learned along the way. For full show notes and links mentioned in this episode, visit merriweathercouncilblog.com/104   For more free handmade business advice, visit merriweathercouncilblog.com/podcast   To learn about our handmade business community visit the jointhecouncilnow.com