Susan Woodcock is an entrepreneur, educator, and one of the most recognizable voices in the custom window treatment world. She owns Home Dec Gal, a to-the-trade workroom, and is the founder of Workroom Tech—the only trade school in the U.S. dedicated to custom home decor sewing professionals. She and her husband also produce the Custom Workroom Conference, an annual gathering that draws passionate small business owners from across the country. Today, we’re diving into her journey, what it takes to train the next generation of fabricators, and why education is more important than ever in our trade.

Susan Woodcock’s path into the window treatment industry began in her mother’s drapery workroom and quickly grew into her own business in the late 1980s. From English drapery styles to modern fabrications, she developed her skills through real projects and long-term relationships with designers. Today, Susan is recognized as one of the most influential voices in custom fabrication and education.

While online tutorials are convenient, Susan emphasizes that hands-on experience is irreplaceable. Fabrics require physical interaction—draping, measuring, and managing large cuts—that can’t be fully captured in a video. That’s why her school, Workroom Tech, offers small in-person classes with direct mentorship, complemented by interactive online sessions that expand access worldwide.

Workroom Tech attracts students from all walks of life—young parents seeking flexible careers, professionals transitioning from healthcare or law enforcement, and retirees looking for creative encore careers. What unites them is a shared passion for fabric and craftsmanship.

According to Susan, the most important investment isn’t a machine—it’s a professional work table. Large-scale projects like draperies and Roman shades require space to spread fabric, cut precisely, and assemble with ease. With a table and basic sewing tools, many successful businesses have started from home-based setups.

Susan encourages fabricators to highlight the handcrafted, custom nature of their work rather than competing on price. High-quality window treatments last decades, and clients—whether affluent or budget-conscious—value the uniqueness and durability of custom pieces.

Susan credits much of her growth to building websites early on, which helped past clients reconnect. Social media, particularly Instagram and Facebook, has since amplified her reach, giving her a direct way to showcase projects and connect with future students.

For Susan, branding is about more than visuals—it’s about consistency. She avoids discounts to reinforce the value of craftsmanship, teaching students to maintain pricing integrity. Her strategy is simple: quality, authenticity, and confidence in the value of custom work.

Beyond the classroom, Susan co-produces the Custom Workroom Conference, an annual gathering that combines education, networking, and community. Attendees gain exposure to new methods, connect with peers facing similar challenges, and build relationships with suppliers and mentors.

The conference is known for its welcoming atmosphere—something many small business owners in this niche industry deeply appreciate. It’s less like a trade show and more like a family reunion for fabricators.

Susan Woodcock’s journey shows that the custom window treatment industry thrives on a balance of education, craftsmanship, and community. From equipping new fabricators with essential skills to fostering collaboration through events, her work highlights the importance of building a trade on both tradition and innovation.

Learn more about the Custom Workroom Conference: customworkroomconference.com

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Home Dec Gal: Visit Website

Workroom Tech: Visit Website

https://youtu.be/r3whm90EDpY

Will Hanke (00:00)
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Marketing Panes, the podcast where we talk with real window treatment and awning service providers or business owners about their successes and struggles related to marketing their business. I’m your host, Will Hanke. Today we’re joined with Susan Woodcock, entrepreneur, educator, and founder of Workroom Tech. the only trade school in the U.S. for custom home decor sewing pros. She also runs Home Dec Gal and produces the custom workroom conference, fabricators together from all over the country. In this episode, we’ll talk about her journey, the importance of hands-on education, and how workrooms can thrive in today’s industry.

Susan Woodcock is an entrepreneur, educator, and one of the most recognizable voices in the custom window treatment world. She owns Home Dec Gal, a to-the-trade workroom, and is the founder of Workroom Tech, the only trade school in the US dedicated to custom home decor sewing professionals. She and her husband also produced the Custom Workroom Conference, an annual gathering that draws passionate small business owners from across the country. Today we’re diving into her journey

what it takes to train the next generation of fabricators and why education is more important than ever to our trade. Susan, thank you so much for being on the show.

Susan Woodcock (01:24)
Hello, Will, thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be here with you today.

Will Hanke (01:27)
Thank you. So let’s jump in and talk about custom work rooms. What exactly are they? And tell us a little bit about the story of how you got into this side of the industry.

Susan Woodcock (01:39)
Okay, well a custom workroom is ⁓ usually a small business. There’s also some larger commercial workrooms that do custom work, but works directly with interior design trade to create those beautiful window treatments and custom upholstered pieces. And then some workrooms work retail and work directly with customers, helping them with their interior design. So it’s an industry full of people that work with their hands and are actually making things in their businesses.

Will Hanke (02:14)
I like that. So before focusing on the fabrication and teaching students how to sew, did you do any other types of sewing like for a different industry that moved you towards this?

Susan Woodcock (02:28)
No. I think I’ve made one dress in my life, no garment sewing, dabbled in quilting a little bit. My mother had a drapery workroom in her home, and that’s how I learned. And then I started my own drapery workroom. When I left college, I was an art major, fine arts. And ⁓ there were so many jobs for fine art majors out there, right?

Will Hanke (02:30)
Okay.

I bet. ⁓

Susan Woodcock (02:56)
So I started a drapery workroom in 1988 and been doing it ever since.

Will Hanke (03:04)
wow. What do you guys focus on mostly in the workroom?

Susan Woodcock (03:08)
draperies, round shades, slip covers, that sort of thing.

Will Hanke (03:13)
Okay, okay.

What did the early days of getting started out of college, what did that look like?

Susan Woodcock (03:19)
Well, I started out with one designer and she was very busy and very successful and she really directed the style of my work. So she did English drapery method which is bump interlining and ⁓ back then in the late 80s it was chintz fabrics and silks and valances and trims and ⁓ a lot of things that we’re seeing come back now which is exciting.

But it really gave me an opportunity to learn on the job, but just hand methods, hand sewing. And I worked with her exclusively at the beginning of my career. We had an exclusive contract and did that for three or four years. And it was a great way to learn. And it really set me off on the path that I’ve done for the rest of my career.

Will Hanke (04:13)
i love that. Has the audience changed over the years of who you’re serving?

Susan Woodcock (04:18)
No. As far as my custom workroom, no. In fact, I’m still working for some of the same customers that I worked for back then. But now it’s their children and their grandchildren. Yeah, that’s pretty exciting to see.

Will Hanke (04:26)
wow.

That’s awesome. Yeah, that’s awesome.

I love to hear that the 80s prints are coming back. I doubt some of the crazy ones are coming back, but still, that’s exciting to me.

Susan Woodcock (04:38)
I know.

Yeah,

the grand millennials are trending us towards the fashions of years ago and it’s fun to see.

Will Hanke (04:53)
That’s awesome. Awesome. So I know you’re really busy. You have Home Dec Gal, Workroom Tech, and the Custom Workroom Conference. Why do you think it’s necessary to separate them in the digital space, and how do they intersect?

Susan Woodcock (05:08)
Yeah, that’s a great question. It’s difficult when you’re self-employed to separate yourself from the businesses. The Home Dec Gal is definitely me. I’m fabricating. The customers are hiring me because they want me specifically doing their work. But for the conference and the school, we started the conference first. And it was one of those things where I said, you know, I want something to sell in the future.

and my workroom business is really tied to me. So the conference, one of the reasons we started it, one of the small reasons was to have something to build and sell later. And the same thing with the school. We do try to keep it somewhat, not neutral, but so somebody else could take it over in the future. It could be sold and grow and change and not be ⁓ so connected to me personally.

And I think it’s worked out pretty well. Sometimes, you know, they all sort of blur together. That’s okay.

Will Hanke (06:11)
Yeah, yeah.

It’s always great to start a business with kind of some sort of blurry exit strategy in the mix. Even if you’re not exactly sure what that is, just to have that kind of long-term outlook is pretty smart.

Susan Woodcock (06:19)
Mm.

Will Hanke (06:26)
Yeah. So ⁓ let’s talk a little bit about Workroom Tech. What inspired you to launch that after the first conference, I guess? And what made you feel like there was a need for that?

Susan Woodcock (06:34)
Mm-hmm.

When we started the conference, the one thing people kept saying to me was, this was great, but we need hands-on training. We can sit in a seminar, it’s great to see exhibitors and to meet other workrooms, but I need to learn hands-on. And we heard them. And we moved to an area, Tri-O, North Carolina. It’s a lovely small town.

I looked around and said, you know, this is a great place for people to come to visit, to take classes. Not so much when we were living in the Charlotte area. You know, we would have been, you know, in an office park somewhere. But here, our classes, our building is in the middle of town. So it really, the town sort of helped us make that decision. We rented a space and said, you know, we’ll give it.

three years, we had a three year lease, and see how it goes? And after three years, we bought a building, I mean, we were committed. So it’s been very successful, and I come from a long background of teaching, started teaching in 2003 for Cheryl Strickland, who had a trade school, and that was the only trade school in the US at that time, which ⁓ she passed away. The school sold and moved, and during the recession, it didn’t survive.

So there was a gap in the industry for about five years with no hands-on school. And we decided to try to fill that gap. And we did it differently. It’s not the same as the school that Cheryl had, but it’s been pretty successful and we’re pretty proud of the students that have come through here.

Will Hanke (08:16)
That’s awesome. Speaking of students, what kind of students typically come to Workroom Tech?

Susan Woodcock (08:23)
oh boy we have it all. We have everything in age from 17 to 70. People that are starting careers, young moms who want a stay at home career, people that are retired that want an encore career that’s creative and satisfying. We have a lot of people that have been in medicine, ⁓ law enforcement, ⁓ military. ⁓

Accounting, you name it. A lot of healthcare people, a of nurses that want a career of working with fabric. Everybody loves fabric and that’s why they’re here.

Will Hanke (09:01)
That’s awesome. I love the variety in who’s going to come through the door, right? The next, the next course. That’s great. ⁓ Could you, could you walk me through like, what is a typical training week or course look like?

Susan Woodcock (09:05)
Mm-hmm.

A typical class would be two or three days and they’re specific for style. So we have custom draperies level one where they make three drapery samples that give them the tools to take that back home and make full-size drapery, pleated drapery, agroma drapery, a gathered drapery. We have a class for Roman shades, same thing, get you started to learn about cord safety, learn how shades are made.

black L shades and line shades and the different lift systems that are available. Same across the board for pillows and cushions. ⁓ Basic upholstery, we don’t do ⁓ too many upholstery workshops here. We have a basic upholstered ottoman and our introduction to re-opholstery class that’s really popular. So most of our classes are geared towards getting people started.

Will Hanke (10:03)
Okay, wow.

Yeah.

Susan Woodcock (10:10)
and

then they can go home and they want to come and take more classes right away and like you kind of need to practice first.

Will Hanke (10:16)
Nice. Well, that’s a testament to the ability of the teaching, I think.

Susan Woodcock (10:22)
Yeah, that’s great. Yeah, we have great teachers here.

Will Hanke (10:23)
Yeah,

that’s fantastic. ⁓ How does somebody coming to take a course with you differ than, let’s say, just watching YouTube videos?

Susan Woodcock (10:35)
Oh, yeah. Well, hands on is a different way to learn, especially when you’re working with fabrics, when you need to have tension or you need to drape something. It’s really difficult to show that through a video. When we started Workroom Tech, our hamburger, we were going to make one really good hamburger and our hamburger was hands on training. And then COVID came and we had to switch and add

Will Hanke (10:49)
Mm-hmm.

Susan Woodcock (11:05)
online classes. So we have been doing online classes since 2020 and they’ve been very successful. So I don’t know why I was, I had pushback on that. I personal pushback. I was devoted to hands-on training, but the online classes have really brought us more students. So they didn’t replace the hands-on training.

Will Hanke (11:13)
interesting.

Interesting. But still the online’s, mean, you’re still demonstrating, you can answer questions, that kind of stuff. It’s not like a one-sided video where you can’t ask any questions when you’re watching it. Yeah.

Susan Woodcock (11:36)
Exactly. Yeah,

the online classes are interactive and students get the recording where they can work on their projects and have a recording, but they can ask questions during the class. And ⁓ I can make changes. Like I have a class that I did on Roman Shades and now that system’s not available. So, you know, I had to make some changes. can, the same class, but, you know, switch out the system at the end. And ⁓ so they’re pretty easy to keep updated.

Will Hanke (11:48)
yeah.

Susan Woodcock (12:04)
And so I’m not just making one video and then selling the same video over and over. It’s new every time.

Will Hanke (12:08)
Right.

OK, very cool. What is the ratio, do you think, for online classes versus in person?

Susan Woodcock (12:17)
Well, we have a very small class sizes for in-person. So we have about 75 students a year that come here to try on to take classes. And then we have at least double that, you know, or more than online classes. Because they’re class sizes for hands-on classes, we only have three students. And that’s about the best ratio for teachers.

For some classes, like we just had a lampshades class where they’re not using the industrial sewing machines and needing as much equipment. We have more students and the teachers can handle six students. yeah, it’s about for the hands-on classes, it’s three students and they each get their own work table, own industrial machines, own staple gun so that they’re not having to share. And it’s real life experience. It’s just like working in a work room anywhere else.

Will Hanke (13:11)
Yeah.

I love that. That’s great. If there was one course out of all the ones that you offer, what is the one that you wish more workroom pros would take?

Susan Woodcock (13:21)
Probably Roman Shades just because there’s so many things to learn to keep it up with the industry. And custom draperies is the mainstay and that’s one of our most popular classes. Our instructor Terry Sandlin does a great job with that and once you learn to make drapers in Roman Shades you can learn anything else.

Will Hanke (13:42)
Okay.

Wow. Okay. Well, you heard it here. That’s the class you need to be watching for, right? That’s a good one. What’s been the most surprising student’s success story?

Susan Woodcock (13:57)
wow, we’ve had so many. I mean not just surprising, but it’s to see someone come here, take classes and start a business and then five years later they’re successful. I we have students that started with us that are now teaching for us and they’re being published and it’s just really exciting to see what people can do with hands-on training and

Will Hanke (14:16)
wow.

Susan Woodcock (14:25)
and going home and getting started. And it’s not a lot of money to get a workroom started. You can start pretty small. Yeah, gosh, there’s so many, so many examples. I ⁓ always joke with the students because I don’t have children. So I said, you your success, I’m like a proud grandma. Every time I see you post something online, that’s like my grandma moment, you know?

Will Hanke (14:43)
No.

That’s great.

Sure, yeah. It’s always good to see your kids have success, right? Or your grandkids. That’s awesome. So we will add information on Workroom Tech to the show notes if anybody wants to learn more about your upcoming classes. But I want to talk about the custom Workroom Conference that’s coming up as well. ⁓ It’s right around the corner from when we’re taping this live and you do this every year. Is it always in the September range?

Susan Woodcock (14:51)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, we try to keep it last week of September to first week of October. And if we go any later, too many workrooms are hitting their Christmas deadlines starting October 1st. Yeah.

Will Hanke (15:31)
Yeah.

Okay. And is it always in the Tennessee area?

Susan Woodcock (15:36)
No, it’s all over the place. We’ve done them in North Carolina, ⁓ South Carolina, Virginia, Rhode Island, Tennessee. We try to move it around. probably will not go, we’ve done Ohio. We probably will not go too far west. know people always want us to come to California, but most of our exhibitors are East Coast or.

Will Hanke (15:38)
Okay.

Wow.

Susan Woodcock (16:05)
Midwest and attendees as well. Not as many small work rooms and our target audience are small businesses.

Will Hanke (16:15)
Right. Yeah. Well, this year, 2025, it’s in Tennessee and pretty you had to twist my arm pretty hard to come to ⁓ Tennessee in the end of September when the when the leaves are just starting to maybe change a little bit. So very excited about that.

Susan Woodcock (16:31)
Yeah, it’s in the mountains. It’s a really gorgeous venue. it was a surprise when we went to do our site visit. Why is this here in the middle of nowhere? It seems like the middle of nowhere. But it’s ⁓ in Kingsport, Tennessee, which is near Bristol, Virginia, Johnson City, Tennessee. It’s a great area for outdoor sports and hiking and biking in small towns and country music. And the venue has a golf course and it’s a

it’ll be a retreat as much as an educational conference.

Will Hanke (17:02)
Yeah.

Wow. That’s great. And what are the dates on the conference for this year?

Susan Woodcock (17:07)
September 23 through 25.

Will Hanke (17:10)
September 23 through 25. Okay, awesome. So let’s talk a little bit about the workroom owners, things that happen with them. What are some common mistakes or misconceptions that you see new workroom owners make?

Susan Woodcock (17:26)
watching a YouTube video or going on Instagram and just because they saw it on Instagram they think that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Yeah, we get a lot of that here. Students come in and, well, I was doing it like this because I saw it on Instagram. ⁓ Yeah.

Will Hanke (17:28)
Okay.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Okay.

Susan Woodcock (17:50)
I was just going to say, I always tell students there’s at least three right ways.

So don’t feel like they’re doing anything wrong because they’re doing it one way. There’s probably two more ways you can do it. there can be, on social media, can always be voices that are not supportive and they see you do something one way and they’re like, that’s wrong, you never should do it that way. And I give them permission to go ahead and do it the way that works for you. ⁓ Because there’s things that…

Will Hanke (18:18)
I love that. I love that you have an open mind.

Susan Woodcock (18:22)
that are shown on Facebook groups and on YouTube that some workrooms say you always do it this way and students will come and I’ll say well I’ve never done it that way. you you have to broaden your knowledge and that’s why learning from as many different teachers as you can is valuable.

Will Hanke (18:44)
Yeah. So taking a course I think is great. Is there any one tool, let’s say for somebody starting at home, any one tool or skill that they absolutely need to get going?

Susan Woodcock (18:55)
They need a work table. A professional work table is the most important tool. You can get started with a home iron with a domestic sewing machine, but a work table, you can’t work on the floor. You can’t work on a dining room table or kitchen island. And that’s the one thing about custom window treatments that is different than other sewing is you’re working with really big pieces of fabric.

And that’s what’s really intimidating. The skills are not extraordinary. It’s not like sewing clothing. That’s like, know, couture sewing is amazing and quilting. But draperies has a lot of big pieces, long seams, but you have to have space for these 120 inch long cuts. So a table is very important.

Will Hanke (19:49)
Okay, that makes sense. ⁓ When it comes to fabricators trying to explain their value, you know, either to designers or to end clients, do you have any tips there?

Susan Woodcock (20:00)
Yeah, handcrafted is key and it’s so valuable. It can’t be outsourced. It’s custom for that individual, whether they’re wealthy or not. You can have custom window treatments that are affordable, they’re custom. Of course, a lot of what we do is for extremely affluent people. And having something handcrafted,

to order. I mean, that’s amazing. Yeah.

Will Hanke (20:32)
Yeah, for sure.

And it can be a talking point, you know, for your living room or something like that too.

Susan Woodcock (20:39)
Yeah, and custom window treatments and upholstery lasts for years and years and years, know, 25 years. If you invest in good materials and workmanship and craftsmanship, end product is really highly valuable and our part is just a little part of it. know, the cost of the fabrics far exceeds the cost of the labor, I can tell you.

Will Hanke (21:07)
Yeah, yeah, cool. So I wanna talk a little bit about your self-employment growth strategies, obviously marketing a little bit. What’s one thing that’s really helped you get the word out about the school, workroom tech, Home Dec Gal and maybe they’re not all the same thing?

Susan Woodcock (21:26)
Well, I started Home Dec Gal 2013, I’m trying to remember. And I put up a website and I took a gap in my career when I was getting a divorce and I moved to North Carolina. And when I put my website up, one of my old customers called me within days.

Will Hanke (21:53)
Okay.

Susan Woodcock (21:54)
and said, see you’re back in business.

So whenever a workroom’s like, I don’t really need a website because I work to the trade, I was like, you know what? Yeah, that works. Now that was before Instagram. That’s been huge for us. But the websites for all three of our businesses are what drives most of our traffic. And the workroom tech website,

people find us so easily. Because there’s nowhere else. When you put in trade school for custom draperies, we’re it. So we really try to take advantage of that.

Will Hanke (22:36)
Yeah, I love that you’ve cornered the market on it, Yeah. ⁓

Susan Woodcock (22:39)
Well, trying to.

For our little school, you know, it’s a pretty big deal. People come here from all over the world and it’s been remarkable. And our town is just blown away. They’re like, people are here from where? To take a sewing class? Yeah.

Will Hanke (22:54)
that’s awesome. Right? Yeah. that’s great.

I love the effect that you’re having on the community as well. That’s great. Cool. So you said you had somebody reach out a couple of days after you went live with your site. Tell me a little bit more about the personal branding and how that mixes into what you’re doing.

Susan Woodcock (23:03)
Yeah, it’s fun.

Yeah, so for Home Dec Gal when we working on the logo and everything it was to be approachable, to be kind and quality, right? Quality craftsmanship. And all of that ties in as well with teaching. So when I’m teaching, I’m always thinking about our brand. And so for…

classes here at Workroom Tech, we never offer discounts because we don’t want our students to feel like they need to offer discounts on their labor or on their products, right? So we’re not going to start doing, you know, buy one, get one free when I don’t teach that in my classes. So we’re always trying to keep the branding unique to us and always have that same sort of theme throughout.

all of our companies and to reflect our core values and try to work with people that also respect that.

Will Hanke (24:20)
Yeah, yeah, I think working with affluent people, which is obviously the probably the target market for the majority of people doing this. they kind of look down on discounts, right? They they immediately assume you’re reducing your value. So I love that you teach that.

Susan Woodcock (24:29)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And you, we would be surprised at what people will pay who value the handcrafted products. Yeah. And not everybody does. Not all affluent people value handcrafted products. They’re happy to buy ready-made shades at a home improvement store and they value other things. You know, maybe it’s cars or, ⁓ you know, vacations or something else.

Will Hanke (24:45)
yeah. Yeah.

Susan Woodcock (25:04)
So it’s, and there’s people that are not as affluent that save for years to have custom things done. So it’s all about people that value that handcrafted product.

Will Hanke (25:14)
Definitely. I think that’s a smart strategy. What marketing channels have worked best for your audience?

Susan Woodcock (25:18)
Yeah.

Instagram and Facebook, most of our students are women and we’ve had really great success through Facebook and Instagram. And there really isn’t anywhere else for us to advertise. We do a podcast with Sealed to Google IAMU with a So Much More podcast that’s once a month. That’s been really great for us.

for Workroom Tech to have the monthly podcast. And word of mouth, know, when people attend custom Workroom conference, they tell their friends. And the best marketing for us is when somebody attends a class or attends the conference and then talks about it online and shares their experience.

Will Hanke (26:04)
Nothing better than personal referrals.

Susan Woodcock (26:07)
Yes.

Will Hanke (26:09)
Nice and warm right off the bat, right?

Susan Woodcock (26:11)
Yeah,

I know. I wish more people would do that.

Will Hanke (26:14)
Right, yeah. How do you balance sharing educational content on Instagram, those types of platforms, with promoting services?

Susan Woodcock (26:23)
Probably look at it in thirds. So a third promotion, a third something of value, and then a third just, you know, something fun. Vacation pictures or inspiration pictures or sharing other people’s content, sharing your students when they succeed. And it’s not, I don’t make a true effort every month to make sure it’s a third, third, third, but I sort of try to remind myself when I’m

doing promotions that the next one needs to be something of value.

Will Hanke (26:58)
Yeah, yeah. People obviously love the value, but you know, have to be careful about providing value without giving away the farm, right?

Susan Woodcock (27:08)
Yeah, yeah, that’s right. And you’d be surprised what people love to see. Sometimes the simplest tip, if people just go crazy over it, you just never know.

Will Hanke (27:20)
Yeah,

yeah, yeah. I love that you’re using the different platforms though. ⁓ If someone is hesitant to market themselves, what advice would you give them?

Susan Woodcock (27:32)
Start with micro photos of your work. And that’s our students that don’t have a body of work to share. So on your Instagram account, you don’t have to show a finished room. You can show in the work room a close up of hand sewing, a close up of applying fringe, know, your hands doing something, pulling the fabric over the frame.

know, stapling things in place, hang stuff up in your workroom and take photos from below. So just try to get some detailed photos and get the most mileage that you can out of what you’ve done.

Will Hanke (28:12)
That’s great. I think that’s a good start. So let’s talk about the upcoming conference. Want to make sure everybody gets a little bit of a sneak peek about that. And if you’re listening to this after the fact, you do this every year in a different place, as you mentioned. What can first timers expect when they come to the custom workroom conference this year?

Susan Woodcock (28:14)
Yeah.

it’s different than any other trade show. And we hear that over and over and over again. It is welcoming. It’s friendly. It’s warm. And everyone there is excited to meet another small business owner. So many people in this industry work by themselves or in a small group, you know, one or two employees.

So to get out and see all these people from around the world together that all make things with their hands in their businesses, it’s amazing, it’s remarkable. It’s like a family, more like a reunion. And we have the metrics for this year, we have almost 40 % of the people are first time attendees and 60 % have been in business under 15 years. So there’s a lot of new people.

Will Hanke (29:22)
Okay.

Susan Woodcock (29:29)
So don’t be shy, know, don’t be, feel like you’re gonna be the only person there that’s never attended. ⁓ And we give a ⁓ little designation on the name badge if it’s your first time attending, because the exhibitors wanna know that too. They’re really excited to meet people for the first time.

Will Hanke (29:44)
Yeah, very good. ⁓ How has the conference evolved since it started?

Susan Woodcock (29:51)
⁓ The very first one we did, we said, you know, there hasn’t been a conference for the industry in a long time. Let’s try to do something. Maybe we’ll get 50 people, and we got 200 people. So we learned really fast with that first conference. And that was in 2016. It has evolved to include more upholstery. So once the National Upholstery Association started, we’ve been partnering with them.

And of course we partner with the Window Coverings Association of America as well. But to get, I would love to see 50-50, upholstery and drapery people. I mean, probably about 30-70 right now. But over the years, I’m starting to see more upholstery people taking window treatment classes and more window treatment people taking upholstery classes. And that I love. I love to see that cross education. We’re all serving the same customer.

Will Hanke (30:41)
yeah.

Susan Woodcock (30:50)
So there doesn’t need to be a separate upholstery industry trade show and one for trapeze. The customers are all the same.

Will Hanke (30:55)
Sure. Yeah.

Right, yeah. Without giving away too much, are there any themes or sessions you’re especially excited about?

Susan Woodcock (31:08)
Well, I’m teaching a class this year, so that’s kind of fun. I don’t always teach classes, but I’m doing a class with ⁓ my friend Terry Sandlin on dual and tandem Roman shades. And one of the things that I do here at Workroom Tech is product development and ⁓ fabrication development, trying new methods. other people and their businesses don’t have time to try new things, so I’m always trying new things for them.

Will Hanke (31:10)
Oh, there you go.

Susan Woodcock (31:37)
So if I can come up with a ⁓ new method or try something new in the industry, a new head rail or a new drapery lining, I can do that here. So I developed a tandem Roman shade, which is two shades on one head rail and ⁓ either a roller tube or a ⁓ head rail track with spools and drive rod. And ⁓ it’s pretty cool, so I wanted to share it. So ⁓ I talked Terri into teaching with me because

I might be tied up at the first half of the class. Because I’m sort of spinning a lot of plates while I’m at the conference. But I wanted to show that at the conference. yeah, I’m excited about teaching a class. And we also have two classes this year ⁓ with teachers from England. One of them is a drapery class and one’s an upholstery class. And so that’s really exciting.

Will Hanke (32:09)
yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you are running a conference. Yes.

that’s great. I’m also going to be speaking digital marketing on a budget, so I’m excited to be sharing some information there as well.

Susan Woodcock (32:35)
Yes.

I’m looking forward to that. I can always learn something new to help us with marketing because it’s always changing. I don’t even know how you can teach a class. like the day before, they’re going to change something that you have to be up to speed with.

Will Hanke (32:43)
Yeah.

for sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. There’s a little effort to keep yourself educated in this world because Google, like you said, is always they’re always up to something, right? Yeah. Well, cool. Where can go where where can people go to learn more and get involved with the CWC? ⁓

Susan Woodcock (33:03)
my

Customworkroomconference.com is our website and the event brochure can be found on the website, their list of teachers, a list of exhibitors, all the information is there and we can be contacted through the website as well.

Will Hanke (33:26)
Yeah, so somebody wants to attend this year, they could still contact you.

Susan Woodcock (33:30)
Yes, so even though the registration deadline is September 1st, but we can still get you in. I’ll just have to do the name badge. It’s a little different. No big deal.

Will Hanke (33:40)
Yeah, they’re custom. That’s all.

Susan Woodcock (33:42)
Yes, custom, custom

made. Yeah, I should print them on special paper.

Will Hanke (33:47)
Yeah, yeah, that’s

cool. ⁓ Well, cool, thank you for sharing all that. ⁓ A couple just wrap up fun questions if you don’t mind. What’s one fabric you love working with but others might avoid?

Susan Woodcock (34:01)
⁓ Probably linen. People hate linen because it’s so unpredictable. I always tell the students it’s like owning a cat. It’s beautiful to look at, but you can’t train the linen to do what you want it to do. But I love working with linen and I have some linen draperies coming up, getting ready to cut. It’s a linen fabric from Scotland that was custom printed for the customer. So yeah, I’m excited about that.

Will Hanke (34:16)
yeah.

Susan Woodcock (34:31)
But yeah, there’s a lot to think about when you’re working with linen, but it’s beautiful.

Will Hanke (34:33)
Yeah, wow,

wow. What’s something outside of work that keeps you creative?

Susan Woodcock (34:40)
I love to paint and draw and do art. So that’s my mental health ⁓ break is when I can paint and in the evenings or draw and I try to keep a art journal, even if it’s just a simple five minute sketch and it just sort of takes me away. That’s the one time when I’m not thinking about work or anything else is when I’m doing art or listening to music. So ⁓ art and… ⁓

the arts, I should say, really are important to us.

Will Hanke (35:13)
Which makes sense, you got a degree in that. My wife ⁓ also enjoys painting. I got one over here that she does. So I can understand the whole getting away and kind of just focusing on what you’re doing aspect of things.

Susan Woodcock (35:16)
Yeah, true. Yeah.

nice.

Will Hanke (35:31)
So if you could go back 20 years ago and give yourself one piece of advice, what would that be?

Susan Woodcock (35:37)
Personal Susan or business Susan?

Will Hanke (35:43)
either one or both.

Susan Woodcock (35:45)
Personally, Susan, I would have gotten a divorce earlier.

Will Hanke (35:48)
Okay,

fair enough.

Susan Woodcock (35:53)
business, Susan, probably would have been more organized as a business professional. I’d been better with investing and, you know, it’s difficult when you’re self-employed to wear all the hats and try to do everything yourself. ⁓ 20 years ago, I should have had more help from accountants and ⁓ I should have had an LLC.

You know, I did that later. But, you know, now that we take advantage of those other professionals to help us run our businesses, you know, we have an accountant and we have a payroll person and a good lawyer, ⁓ the business really, the investment is worth it. Yeah, I mean, the businesses make so much more money and they do so much better. so don’t be shy about getting the help you need. And the parts of the business that…

You can’t do it all. Yeah.

Will Hanke (36:54)
Yeah,

I would definitely 100 % agree with that. Yeah, that’s smart. Well, ⁓ thank you again so much for being on today. I really appreciate it. ⁓ I love all the different things that you’re doing at the same time. ⁓ As you mentioned, kind of spinning lots of different plates. ⁓ But the things that you offer to the industry are fantastic.

Susan Woodcock (36:58)
Yeah.

Thank you. We really have a great ⁓ business. We just love the people that come to the school, that come to the conference. That’s what really drives us is the relationships with the people that we’ve met, whether they’re suppliers or students or other workroom owners. So it’s just amazing. We love it.

Will Hanke (37:39)
Yeah, very good. We will put links to everything related to this in the show notes, of course. And if people want to learn more, they can reach out through the websites. ⁓ And appreciate you being on today.

Susan Woodcock (37:52)
Thank you, we all look forward to seeing you next month at CWC. Yeah.

Will Hanke (37:54)
Thank you. Yeah, not too long, so very

good. Well, thanks again to Susan Woodcock for joining us today and giving us a closer look into the world of custom workrooms, education, and entrepreneurship. If you’re thinking about leveling up your skills or simply want to connect with others in the trade, make sure to check out Susan’s sites, homedecgal.com, workroomtech.com, or join the custom workroom conference this year.

And if you like this episode, send it to someone who’s dreaming about starting their own workroom or needs a little nudge to grow. We’ll see you next time on Marketing Panes

Will Hanke (00:00)
Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Marketing Panes, the podcast where we talk with real window treatment and awning service providers or business owners about their successes and struggles related to marketing their business. I’m your host, Will Hanke. Today we’re joined with Susan Woodcock, entrepreneur, educator, and founder of Workroom Tech. the only trade school in the U.S. for custom home decor sewing pros. She also runs Home Dec Gal and produces the custom workroom conference, fabricators together from all over the country. In this episode, we’ll talk about her journey, the importance of hands-on education, and how workrooms can thrive in today’s industry.

Susan Woodcock is an entrepreneur, educator, and one of the most recognizable voices in the custom window treatment world. She owns Home Dec Gal, a to-the-trade workroom, and is the founder of Workroom Tech, the only trade school in the US dedicated to custom home decor sewing professionals. She and her husband also produced the Custom Workroom Conference, an annual gathering that draws passionate small business owners from across the country. Today we’re diving into her journey

what it takes to train the next generation of fabricators and why education is more important than ever to our trade. Susan, thank you so much for being on the show.

Susan Woodcock (01:24)
Hello, Will, thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be here with you today.

Will Hanke (01:27)
Thank you. So let’s jump in and talk about custom work rooms. What exactly are they? And tell us a little bit about the story of how you got into this side of the industry.

Susan Woodcock (01:39)
Okay, well a custom workroom is ⁓ usually a small business. There’s also some larger commercial workrooms that do custom work, but works directly with interior design trade to create those beautiful window treatments and custom upholstered pieces. And then some workrooms work retail and work directly with customers, helping them with their interior design. So it’s an industry full of people that work with their hands and are actually making things in their businesses.

Will Hanke (02:14)
I like that. So before focusing on the fabrication and teaching students how to sew, did you do any other types of sewing like for a different industry that moved you towards this?

Susan Woodcock (02:28)
No. I think I’ve made one dress in my life, no garment sewing, dabbled in quilting a little bit. My mother had a drapery workroom in her home, and that’s how I learned. And then I started my own drapery workroom. When I left college, I was an art major, fine arts. And ⁓ there were so many jobs for fine art majors out there, right?

Will Hanke (02:30)
Okay.

I bet. ⁓

Susan Woodcock (02:56)
So I started a drapery workroom in 1988 and been doing it ever since.

Will Hanke (03:04)
wow. What do you guys focus on mostly in the workroom?

Susan Woodcock (03:08)
draperies, round shades, slip covers, that sort of thing.

Will Hanke (03:13)
Okay, okay.

What did the early days of getting started out of college, what did that look like?

Susan Woodcock (03:19)
Well, I started out with one designer and she was very busy and very successful and she really directed the style of my work. So she did English drapery method which is bump interlining and ⁓ back then in the late 80s it was chintz fabrics and silks and valances and trims and ⁓ a lot of things that we’re seeing come back now which is exciting.

But it really gave me an opportunity to learn on the job, but just hand methods, hand sewing. And I worked with her exclusively at the beginning of my career. We had an exclusive contract and did that for three or four years. And it was a great way to learn. And it really set me off on the path that I’ve done for the rest of my career.

Will Hanke (04:13)
i love that. Has the audience changed over the years of who you’re serving?

Susan Woodcock (04:18)
No. As far as my custom workroom, no. In fact, I’m still working for some of the same customers that I worked for back then. But now it’s their children and their grandchildren. Yeah, that’s pretty exciting to see.

Will Hanke (04:26)
wow.

That’s awesome. Yeah, that’s awesome.

I love to hear that the 80s prints are coming back. I doubt some of the crazy ones are coming back, but still, that’s exciting to me.

Susan Woodcock (04:38)
I know.

Yeah,

the grand millennials are trending us towards the fashions of years ago and it’s fun to see.

Will Hanke (04:53)
That’s awesome. Awesome. So I know you’re really busy. You have Home Dec Gal, Workroom Tech, and the Custom Workroom Conference. Why do you think it’s necessary to separate them in the digital space, and how do they intersect?

Susan Woodcock (05:08)
Yeah, that’s a great question. It’s difficult when you’re self-employed to separate yourself from the businesses. The Home Dec Gal is definitely me. I’m fabricating. The customers are hiring me because they want me specifically doing their work. But for the conference and the school, we started the conference first. And it was one of those things where I said, you know, I want something to sell in the future.

and my workroom business is really tied to me. So the conference, one of the reasons we started it, one of the small reasons was to have something to build and sell later. And the same thing with the school. We do try to keep it somewhat, not neutral, but so somebody else could take it over in the future. It could be sold and grow and change and not be ⁓ so connected to me personally.

And I think it’s worked out pretty well. Sometimes, you know, they all sort of blur together. That’s okay.

Will Hanke (06:11)
Yeah, yeah.

It’s always great to start a business with kind of some sort of blurry exit strategy in the mix. Even if you’re not exactly sure what that is, just to have that kind of long-term outlook is pretty smart.

Susan Woodcock (06:19)
Mm.

Will Hanke (06:26)
Yeah. So ⁓ let’s talk a little bit about Workroom Tech. What inspired you to launch that after the first conference, I guess? And what made you feel like there was a need for that?

Susan Woodcock (06:34)
Mm-hmm.

When we started the conference, the one thing people kept saying to me was, this was great, but we need hands-on training. We can sit in a seminar, it’s great to see exhibitors and to meet other workrooms, but I need to learn hands-on. And we heard them. And we moved to an area, Tri-O, North Carolina. It’s a lovely small town.

I looked around and said, you know, this is a great place for people to come to visit, to take classes. Not so much when we were living in the Charlotte area. You know, we would have been, you know, in an office park somewhere. But here, our classes, our building is in the middle of town. So it really, the town sort of helped us make that decision. We rented a space and said, you know, we’ll give it.

three years, we had a three year lease, and see how it goes? And after three years, we bought a building, I mean, we were committed. So it’s been very successful, and I come from a long background of teaching, started teaching in 2003 for Cheryl Strickland, who had a trade school, and that was the only trade school in the US at that time, which ⁓ she passed away. The school sold and moved, and during the recession, it didn’t survive.

So there was a gap in the industry for about five years with no hands-on school. And we decided to try to fill that gap. And we did it differently. It’s not the same as the school that Cheryl had, but it’s been pretty successful and we’re pretty proud of the students that have come through here.

Will Hanke (08:16)
That’s awesome. Speaking of students, what kind of students typically come to Workroom Tech?

Susan Woodcock (08:23)
oh boy we have it all. We have everything in age from 17 to 70. People that are starting careers, young moms who want a stay at home career, people that are retired that want an encore career that’s creative and satisfying. We have a lot of people that have been in medicine, ⁓ law enforcement, ⁓ military. ⁓

Accounting, you name it. A lot of healthcare people, a of nurses that want a career of working with fabric. Everybody loves fabric and that’s why they’re here.

Will Hanke (09:01)
That’s awesome. I love the variety in who’s going to come through the door, right? The next, the next course. That’s great. ⁓ Could you, could you walk me through like, what is a typical training week or course look like?

Susan Woodcock (09:05)
Mm-hmm.

A typical class would be two or three days and they’re specific for style. So we have custom draperies level one where they make three drapery samples that give them the tools to take that back home and make full-size drapery, pleated drapery, agroma drapery, a gathered drapery. We have a class for Roman shades, same thing, get you started to learn about cord safety, learn how shades are made.

black L shades and line shades and the different lift systems that are available. Same across the board for pillows and cushions. ⁓ Basic upholstery, we don’t do ⁓ too many upholstery workshops here. We have a basic upholstered ottoman and our introduction to re-opholstery class that’s really popular. So most of our classes are geared towards getting people started.

Will Hanke (10:03)
Okay, wow.

Yeah.

Susan Woodcock (10:10)
and

then they can go home and they want to come and take more classes right away and like you kind of need to practice first.

Will Hanke (10:16)
Nice. Well, that’s a testament to the ability of the teaching, I think.

Susan Woodcock (10:22)
Yeah, that’s great. Yeah, we have great teachers here.

Will Hanke (10:23)
Yeah,

that’s fantastic. ⁓ How does somebody coming to take a course with you differ than, let’s say, just watching YouTube videos?

Susan Woodcock (10:35)
Oh, yeah. Well, hands on is a different way to learn, especially when you’re working with fabrics, when you need to have tension or you need to drape something. It’s really difficult to show that through a video. When we started Workroom Tech, our hamburger, we were going to make one really good hamburger and our hamburger was hands on training. And then COVID came and we had to switch and add

Will Hanke (10:49)
Mm-hmm.

Susan Woodcock (11:05)
online classes. So we have been doing online classes since 2020 and they’ve been very successful. So I don’t know why I was, I had pushback on that. I personal pushback. I was devoted to hands-on training, but the online classes have really brought us more students. So they didn’t replace the hands-on training.

Will Hanke (11:13)
interesting.

Interesting. But still the online’s, mean, you’re still demonstrating, you can answer questions, that kind of stuff. It’s not like a one-sided video where you can’t ask any questions when you’re watching it. Yeah.

Susan Woodcock (11:36)
Exactly. Yeah,

the online classes are interactive and students get the recording where they can work on their projects and have a recording, but they can ask questions during the class. And ⁓ I can make changes. Like I have a class that I did on Roman Shades and now that system’s not available. So, you know, I had to make some changes. can, the same class, but, you know, switch out the system at the end. And ⁓ so they’re pretty easy to keep updated.

Will Hanke (11:48)
yeah.

Susan Woodcock (12:04)
And so I’m not just making one video and then selling the same video over and over. It’s new every time.

Will Hanke (12:08)
Right.

OK, very cool. What is the ratio, do you think, for online classes versus in person?

Susan Woodcock (12:17)
Well, we have a very small class sizes for in-person. So we have about 75 students a year that come here to try on to take classes. And then we have at least double that, you know, or more than online classes. Because they’re class sizes for hands-on classes, we only have three students. And that’s about the best ratio for teachers.

For some classes, like we just had a lampshades class where they’re not using the industrial sewing machines and needing as much equipment. We have more students and the teachers can handle six students. yeah, it’s about for the hands-on classes, it’s three students and they each get their own work table, own industrial machines, own staple gun so that they’re not having to share. And it’s real life experience. It’s just like working in a work room anywhere else.

Will Hanke (13:11)
Yeah.

I love that. That’s great. If there was one course out of all the ones that you offer, what is the one that you wish more workroom pros would take?

Susan Woodcock (13:21)
Probably Roman Shades just because there’s so many things to learn to keep it up with the industry. And custom draperies is the mainstay and that’s one of our most popular classes. Our instructor Terry Sandlin does a great job with that and once you learn to make drapers in Roman Shades you can learn anything else.

Will Hanke (13:42)
Okay.

Wow. Okay. Well, you heard it here. That’s the class you need to be watching for, right? That’s a good one. What’s been the most surprising student’s success story?

Susan Woodcock (13:57)
wow, we’ve had so many. I mean not just surprising, but it’s to see someone come here, take classes and start a business and then five years later they’re successful. I we have students that started with us that are now teaching for us and they’re being published and it’s just really exciting to see what people can do with hands-on training and

Will Hanke (14:16)
wow.

Susan Woodcock (14:25)
and going home and getting started. And it’s not a lot of money to get a workroom started. You can start pretty small. Yeah, gosh, there’s so many, so many examples. I ⁓ always joke with the students because I don’t have children. So I said, you your success, I’m like a proud grandma. Every time I see you post something online, that’s like my grandma moment, you know?

Will Hanke (14:43)
No.

That’s great.

Sure, yeah. It’s always good to see your kids have success, right? Or your grandkids. That’s awesome. So we will add information on Workroom Tech to the show notes if anybody wants to learn more about your upcoming classes. But I want to talk about the custom Workroom Conference that’s coming up as well. ⁓ It’s right around the corner from when we’re taping this live and you do this every year. Is it always in the September range?

Susan Woodcock (14:51)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, we try to keep it last week of September to first week of October. And if we go any later, too many workrooms are hitting their Christmas deadlines starting October 1st. Yeah.

Will Hanke (15:31)
Yeah.

Okay. And is it always in the Tennessee area?

Susan Woodcock (15:36)
No, it’s all over the place. We’ve done them in North Carolina, ⁓ South Carolina, Virginia, Rhode Island, Tennessee. We try to move it around. probably will not go, we’ve done Ohio. We probably will not go too far west. know people always want us to come to California, but most of our exhibitors are East Coast or.

Will Hanke (15:38)
Okay.

Wow.

Susan Woodcock (16:05)
Midwest and attendees as well. Not as many small work rooms and our target audience are small businesses.

Will Hanke (16:15)
Right. Yeah. Well, this year, 2025, it’s in Tennessee and pretty you had to twist my arm pretty hard to come to ⁓ Tennessee in the end of September when the when the leaves are just starting to maybe change a little bit. So very excited about that.

Susan Woodcock (16:31)
Yeah, it’s in the mountains. It’s a really gorgeous venue. it was a surprise when we went to do our site visit. Why is this here in the middle of nowhere? It seems like the middle of nowhere. But it’s ⁓ in Kingsport, Tennessee, which is near Bristol, Virginia, Johnson City, Tennessee. It’s a great area for outdoor sports and hiking and biking in small towns and country music. And the venue has a golf course and it’s a

it’ll be a retreat as much as an educational conference.

Will Hanke (17:02)
Yeah.

Wow. That’s great. And what are the dates on the conference for this year?

Susan Woodcock (17:07)
September 23 through 25.

Will Hanke (17:10)
September 23 through 25. Okay, awesome. So let’s talk a little bit about the workroom owners, things that happen with them. What are some common mistakes or misconceptions that you see new workroom owners make?

Susan Woodcock (17:26)
watching a YouTube video or going on Instagram and just because they saw it on Instagram they think that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Yeah, we get a lot of that here. Students come in and, well, I was doing it like this because I saw it on Instagram. ⁓ Yeah.

Will Hanke (17:28)
Okay.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Okay.

Susan Woodcock (17:50)
I was just going to say, I always tell students there’s at least three right ways.

So don’t feel like they’re doing anything wrong because they’re doing it one way. There’s probably two more ways you can do it. there can be, on social media, can always be voices that are not supportive and they see you do something one way and they’re like, that’s wrong, you never should do it that way. And I give them permission to go ahead and do it the way that works for you. ⁓ Because there’s things that…

Will Hanke (18:18)
I love that. I love that you have an open mind.

Susan Woodcock (18:22)
that are shown on Facebook groups and on YouTube that some workrooms say you always do it this way and students will come and I’ll say well I’ve never done it that way. you you have to broaden your knowledge and that’s why learning from as many different teachers as you can is valuable.

Will Hanke (18:44)
Yeah. So taking a course I think is great. Is there any one tool, let’s say for somebody starting at home, any one tool or skill that they absolutely need to get going?

Susan Woodcock (18:55)
They need a work table. A professional work table is the most important tool. You can get started with a home iron with a domestic sewing machine, but a work table, you can’t work on the floor. You can’t work on a dining room table or kitchen island. And that’s the one thing about custom window treatments that is different than other sewing is you’re working with really big pieces of fabric.

And that’s what’s really intimidating. The skills are not extraordinary. It’s not like sewing clothing. That’s like, know, couture sewing is amazing and quilting. But draperies has a lot of big pieces, long seams, but you have to have space for these 120 inch long cuts. So a table is very important.

Will Hanke (19:49)
Okay, that makes sense. ⁓ When it comes to fabricators trying to explain their value, you know, either to designers or to end clients, do you have any tips there?

Susan Woodcock (20:00)
Yeah, handcrafted is key and it’s so valuable. It can’t be outsourced. It’s custom for that individual, whether they’re wealthy or not. You can have custom window treatments that are affordable, they’re custom. Of course, a lot of what we do is for extremely affluent people. And having something handcrafted,

to order. I mean, that’s amazing. Yeah.

Will Hanke (20:32)
Yeah, for sure.

And it can be a talking point, you know, for your living room or something like that too.

Susan Woodcock (20:39)
Yeah, and custom window treatments and upholstery lasts for years and years and years, know, 25 years. If you invest in good materials and workmanship and craftsmanship, end product is really highly valuable and our part is just a little part of it. know, the cost of the fabrics far exceeds the cost of the labor, I can tell you.

Will Hanke (21:07)
Yeah, yeah, cool. So I wanna talk a little bit about your self-employment growth strategies, obviously marketing a little bit. What’s one thing that’s really helped you get the word out about the school, workroom tech, Home Dec Gal and maybe they’re not all the same thing?

Susan Woodcock (21:26)
Well, I started Home Dec Gal 2013, I’m trying to remember. And I put up a website and I took a gap in my career when I was getting a divorce and I moved to North Carolina. And when I put my website up, one of my old customers called me within days.

Will Hanke (21:53)
Okay.

Susan Woodcock (21:54)
and said, see you’re back in business.

So whenever a workroom’s like, I don’t really need a website because I work to the trade, I was like, you know what? Yeah, that works. Now that was before Instagram. That’s been huge for us. But the websites for all three of our businesses are what drives most of our traffic. And the workroom tech website,

people find us so easily. Because there’s nowhere else. When you put in trade school for custom draperies, we’re it. So we really try to take advantage of that.

Will Hanke (22:36)
Yeah, I love that you’ve cornered the market on it, Yeah. ⁓

Susan Woodcock (22:39)
Well, trying to.

For our little school, you know, it’s a pretty big deal. People come here from all over the world and it’s been remarkable. And our town is just blown away. They’re like, people are here from where? To take a sewing class? Yeah.

Will Hanke (22:54)
that’s awesome. Right? Yeah. that’s great.

I love the effect that you’re having on the community as well. That’s great. Cool. So you said you had somebody reach out a couple of days after you went live with your site. Tell me a little bit more about the personal branding and how that mixes into what you’re doing.

Susan Woodcock (23:03)
Yeah, it’s fun.

Yeah, so for Home Dec Gal when we working on the logo and everything it was to be approachable, to be kind and quality, right? Quality craftsmanship. And all of that ties in as well with teaching. So when I’m teaching, I’m always thinking about our brand. And so for…

classes here at Workroom Tech, we never offer discounts because we don’t want our students to feel like they need to offer discounts on their labor or on their products, right? So we’re not going to start doing, you know, buy one, get one free when I don’t teach that in my classes. So we’re always trying to keep the branding unique to us and always have that same sort of theme throughout.

all of our companies and to reflect our core values and try to work with people that also respect that.

Will Hanke (24:20)
Yeah, yeah, I think working with affluent people, which is obviously the probably the target market for the majority of people doing this. they kind of look down on discounts, right? They they immediately assume you’re reducing your value. So I love that you teach that.

Susan Woodcock (24:29)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And you, we would be surprised at what people will pay who value the handcrafted products. Yeah. And not everybody does. Not all affluent people value handcrafted products. They’re happy to buy ready-made shades at a home improvement store and they value other things. You know, maybe it’s cars or, ⁓ you know, vacations or something else.

Will Hanke (24:45)
yeah. Yeah.

Susan Woodcock (25:04)
So it’s, and there’s people that are not as affluent that save for years to have custom things done. So it’s all about people that value that handcrafted product.

Will Hanke (25:14)
Definitely. I think that’s a smart strategy. What marketing channels have worked best for your audience?

Susan Woodcock (25:18)
Yeah.

Instagram and Facebook, most of our students are women and we’ve had really great success through Facebook and Instagram. And there really isn’t anywhere else for us to advertise. We do a podcast with Sealed to Google IAMU with a So Much More podcast that’s once a month. That’s been really great for us.

for Workroom Tech to have the monthly podcast. And word of mouth, know, when people attend custom Workroom conference, they tell their friends. And the best marketing for us is when somebody attends a class or attends the conference and then talks about it online and shares their experience.

Will Hanke (26:04)
Nothing better than personal referrals.

Susan Woodcock (26:07)
Yes.

Will Hanke (26:09)
Nice and warm right off the bat, right?

Susan Woodcock (26:11)
Yeah,

I know. I wish more people would do that.

Will Hanke (26:14)
Right, yeah. How do you balance sharing educational content on Instagram, those types of platforms, with promoting services?

Susan Woodcock (26:23)
Probably look at it in thirds. So a third promotion, a third something of value, and then a third just, you know, something fun. Vacation pictures or inspiration pictures or sharing other people’s content, sharing your students when they succeed. And it’s not, I don’t make a true effort every month to make sure it’s a third, third, third, but I sort of try to remind myself when I’m

doing promotions that the next one needs to be something of value.

Will Hanke (26:58)
Yeah, yeah. People obviously love the value, but you know, have to be careful about providing value without giving away the farm, right?

Susan Woodcock (27:08)
Yeah, yeah, that’s right. And you’d be surprised what people love to see. Sometimes the simplest tip, if people just go crazy over it, you just never know.

Will Hanke (27:20)
Yeah,

yeah, yeah. I love that you’re using the different platforms though. ⁓ If someone is hesitant to market themselves, what advice would you give them?

Susan Woodcock (27:32)
Start with micro photos of your work. And that’s our students that don’t have a body of work to share. So on your Instagram account, you don’t have to show a finished room. You can show in the work room a close up of hand sewing, a close up of applying fringe, know, your hands doing something, pulling the fabric over the frame.

know, stapling things in place, hang stuff up in your workroom and take photos from below. So just try to get some detailed photos and get the most mileage that you can out of what you’ve done.

Will Hanke (28:12)
That’s great. I think that’s a good start. So let’s talk about the upcoming conference. Want to make sure everybody gets a little bit of a sneak peek about that. And if you’re listening to this after the fact, you do this every year in a different place, as you mentioned. What can first timers expect when they come to the custom workroom conference this year?

Susan Woodcock (28:14)
Yeah.

it’s different than any other trade show. And we hear that over and over and over again. It is welcoming. It’s friendly. It’s warm. And everyone there is excited to meet another small business owner. So many people in this industry work by themselves or in a small group, you know, one or two employees.

So to get out and see all these people from around the world together that all make things with their hands in their businesses, it’s amazing, it’s remarkable. It’s like a family, more like a reunion. And we have the metrics for this year, we have almost 40 % of the people are first time attendees and 60 % have been in business under 15 years. So there’s a lot of new people.

Will Hanke (29:22)
Okay.

Susan Woodcock (29:29)
So don’t be shy, know, don’t be, feel like you’re gonna be the only person there that’s never attended. ⁓ And we give a ⁓ little designation on the name badge if it’s your first time attending, because the exhibitors wanna know that too. They’re really excited to meet people for the first time.

Will Hanke (29:44)
Yeah, very good. ⁓ How has the conference evolved since it started?

Susan Woodcock (29:51)
⁓ The very first one we did, we said, you know, there hasn’t been a conference for the industry in a long time. Let’s try to do something. Maybe we’ll get 50 people, and we got 200 people. So we learned really fast with that first conference. And that was in 2016. It has evolved to include more upholstery. So once the National Upholstery Association started, we’ve been partnering with them.

And of course we partner with the Window Coverings Association of America as well. But to get, I would love to see 50-50, upholstery and drapery people. I mean, probably about 30-70 right now. But over the years, I’m starting to see more upholstery people taking window treatment classes and more window treatment people taking upholstery classes. And that I love. I love to see that cross education. We’re all serving the same customer.

Will Hanke (30:41)
yeah.

Susan Woodcock (30:50)
So there doesn’t need to be a separate upholstery industry trade show and one for trapeze. The customers are all the same.

Will Hanke (30:55)
Sure. Yeah.

Right, yeah. Without giving away too much, are there any themes or sessions you’re especially excited about?

Susan Woodcock (31:08)
Well, I’m teaching a class this year, so that’s kind of fun. I don’t always teach classes, but I’m doing a class with ⁓ my friend Terry Sandlin on dual and tandem Roman shades. And one of the things that I do here at Workroom Tech is product development and ⁓ fabrication development, trying new methods. other people and their businesses don’t have time to try new things, so I’m always trying new things for them.

Will Hanke (31:10)
Oh, there you go.

Susan Woodcock (31:37)
So if I can come up with a ⁓ new method or try something new in the industry, a new head rail or a new drapery lining, I can do that here. So I developed a tandem Roman shade, which is two shades on one head rail and ⁓ either a roller tube or a ⁓ head rail track with spools and drive rod. And ⁓ it’s pretty cool, so I wanted to share it. So ⁓ I talked Terri into teaching with me because

I might be tied up at the first half of the class. Because I’m sort of spinning a lot of plates while I’m at the conference. But I wanted to show that at the conference. yeah, I’m excited about teaching a class. And we also have two classes this year ⁓ with teachers from England. One of them is a drapery class and one’s an upholstery class. And so that’s really exciting.

Will Hanke (32:09)
yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you are running a conference. Yes.

that’s great. I’m also going to be speaking digital marketing on a budget, so I’m excited to be sharing some information there as well.

Susan Woodcock (32:35)
Yes.

I’m looking forward to that. I can always learn something new to help us with marketing because it’s always changing. I don’t even know how you can teach a class. like the day before, they’re going to change something that you have to be up to speed with.

Will Hanke (32:43)
Yeah.

for sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. There’s a little effort to keep yourself educated in this world because Google, like you said, is always they’re always up to something, right? Yeah. Well, cool. Where can go where where can people go to learn more and get involved with the CWC? ⁓

Susan Woodcock (33:03)
my

Customworkroomconference.com is our website and the event brochure can be found on the website, their list of teachers, a list of exhibitors, all the information is there and we can be contacted through the website as well.

Will Hanke (33:26)
Yeah, so somebody wants to attend this year, they could still contact you.

Susan Woodcock (33:30)
Yes, so even though the registration deadline is September 1st, but we can still get you in. I’ll just have to do the name badge. It’s a little different. No big deal.

Will Hanke (33:40)
Yeah, they’re custom. That’s all.

Susan Woodcock (33:42)
Yes, custom, custom

made. Yeah, I should print them on special paper.

Will Hanke (33:47)
Yeah, yeah, that’s

cool. ⁓ Well, cool, thank you for sharing all that. ⁓ A couple just wrap up fun questions if you don’t mind. What’s one fabric you love working with but others might avoid?

Susan Woodcock (34:01)
⁓ Probably linen. People hate linen because it’s so unpredictable. I always tell the students it’s like owning a cat. It’s beautiful to look at, but you can’t train the linen to do what you want it to do. But I love working with linen and I have some linen draperies coming up, getting ready to cut. It’s a linen fabric from Scotland that was custom printed for the customer. So yeah, I’m excited about that.

Will Hanke (34:16)
yeah.

Susan Woodcock (34:31)
But yeah, there’s a lot to think about when you’re working with linen, but it’s beautiful.

Will Hanke (34:33)
Yeah, wow,

wow. What’s something outside of work that keeps you creative?

Susan Woodcock (34:40)
I love to paint and draw and do art. So that’s my mental health ⁓ break is when I can paint and in the evenings or draw and I try to keep a art journal, even if it’s just a simple five minute sketch and it just sort of takes me away. That’s the one time when I’m not thinking about work or anything else is when I’m doing art or listening to music. So ⁓ art and… ⁓

the arts, I should say, really are important to us.

Will Hanke (35:13)
Which makes sense, you got a degree in that. My wife ⁓ also enjoys painting. I got one over here that she does. So I can understand the whole getting away and kind of just focusing on what you’re doing aspect of things.

Susan Woodcock (35:16)
Yeah, true. Yeah.

nice.

Will Hanke (35:31)
So if you could go back 20 years ago and give yourself one piece of advice, what would that be?

Susan Woodcock (35:37)
Personal Susan or business Susan?

Will Hanke (35:43)
either one or both.

Susan Woodcock (35:45)
Personally, Susan, I would have gotten a divorce earlier.

Will Hanke (35:48)
Okay,

fair enough.

Susan Woodcock (35:53)
business, Susan, probably would have been more organized as a business professional. I’d been better with investing and, you know, it’s difficult when you’re self-employed to wear all the hats and try to do everything yourself. ⁓ 20 years ago, I should have had more help from accountants and ⁓ I should have had an LLC.

You know, I did that later. But, you know, now that we take advantage of those other professionals to help us run our businesses, you know, we have an accountant and we have a payroll person and a good lawyer, ⁓ the business really, the investment is worth it. Yeah, I mean, the businesses make so much more money and they do so much better. so don’t be shy about getting the help you need. And the parts of the business that…

You can’t do it all. Yeah.

Will Hanke (36:54)
Yeah,

I would definitely 100 % agree with that. Yeah, that’s smart. Well, ⁓ thank you again so much for being on today. I really appreciate it. ⁓ I love all the different things that you’re doing at the same time. ⁓ As you mentioned, kind of spinning lots of different plates. ⁓ But the things that you offer to the industry are fantastic.

Susan Woodcock (36:58)
Yeah.

Thank you. We really have a great ⁓ business. We just love the people that come to the school, that come to the conference. That’s what really drives us is the relationships with the people that we’ve met, whether they’re suppliers or students or other workroom owners. So it’s just amazing. We love it.

Will Hanke (37:39)
Yeah, very good. We will put links to everything related to this in the show notes, of course. And if people want to learn more, they can reach out through the websites. ⁓ And appreciate you being on today.

Susan Woodcock (37:52)
Thank you, we all look forward to seeing you next month at CWC. Yeah.

Will Hanke (37:54)
Thank you. Yeah, not too long, so very

good. Well, thanks again to Susan Woodcock for joining us today and giving us a closer look into the world of custom workrooms, education, and entrepreneurship. If you’re thinking about leveling up your skills or simply want to connect with others in the trade, make sure to check out Susan’s sites, homedecgal.com, workroomtech.com, or join the custom workroom conference this year.

And if you like this episode, send it to someone who’s dreaming about starting their own workroom or needs a little nudge to grow. We’ll see you next time on Marketing Panes