Creating Your Own Path

Today’s episode brings me to Common Space here in Sacramento, which is a rentable space for events, photoshoots and other fun things, to chat with writer and photographer Ashlee Gadd. Ashlee is the founder of Coffee + Crumbs—a collaborative blog about motherhood—and she was kind enough to help me continue my segment on those who teach their craft to others. Recently, she and the team at Coffee + Crumbs launched a writing workshop that looked incredible! So, I knew I wanted to catch up with her to chat about the blog, the workshop and everything else she’s working on these days.

In the interview, we talk about the amazing community surrounding Coffee + Crumbs and how Ashlee believes that the workshop has strengthened that community. She also chats about how Coffee + Crumbs came about, what the team is working on right now (she may have given us a little inside scoop on that front, by the way) and her best advice for those looking to share their knowledge with others through workshops and classes.

The full episode + show notes can be found at creatingyourownpath.com.

Today’s episode is the first in a new series focused on those who teach their craft to others and it brought me to the studio of Jen Hewett in San Francisco a few weeks ago.

Jen is an illustrator, printmaker and surface designer who has been teaching block printing to others over the last several years and she has just recently transitioned to working on her art full time. I was, of course, curious to see how adding the element of teaching to her business model made that transition possible.

In the interview we talk about some of the issues that come up around teaching others to do what you do and why Jen actually wants to see her students open their own block printing shops and studios. She also chats very candidly about how she sets boundaries regarding her time and skills, how she's committing to breaking out of her routines this year and much more.

You can find the full episode + show notes at creatingyourownpath.com.

Today’s Tuesday Tips + Tricks episode is sponsored by Melissa Camilleri of Compliment and the 21-Day Insta-Course. If you listened to episode 72, which was the first episode in this sponsored series, you may remember Melissa as my guest interviewer.

As I mentioned on that show, she was actually one of my very first guests on the show in Season 1 and since that first interview she’s been growing her brand in other ways by teaching business owners how to share their story on Instagram through The 21-Day Insta-Course.

She was kind enough to come on the show today and talk about things like how we’re all going to be okay—even as Instagram rolls out the new algorithm, why she believes that building relationships should be at the core of any strategies we implement and so much more.

Not only that, Melissa is offering a really great deal on course registration. Those interested in taking the course can find all of the details at bit.ly/21DayInstaCourse and enter IMREADY, in all caps, at check out to get $25 off registration. The offer is only good through April 8, 2016, which is this Friday, so don’t wait too long if you want to get in on the next session of her course!

I reached out to Amy Stringer-Mowat of AHeirloom back in 2014 after winning one of their Instagram contests and told her I had big plans to take my show on the road and interview her in Brooklyn in 2015. As most of you probably know, Brooklyn did not make the cut during last year’s travels. Luckily, she was kind enough to hop on Skype to chat with me remotely after all this time!

A Heirloom creates beautiful home goods like cutting boards, cake stands and more—and they design, manufacture and ship from right here in the U.S. In the interview, Amy and I chat about the ways in which she and her husband Bill scaled their business very quickly, why she believes in using the tools she has at her disposal to create and how much fun she has collaborating with others.

For the full episode and show notes, visit creatingyourownpath.com.

Today’s episode is the third installment of the segment dedicated to those making physical products for a living and it brought me to Benjamins Shoes here in Sacramento to chat with Benjamin, himself! I’ve followed his work for a while now and have been really inspired by both his work and his story.

In the interview he talks about how NOT winning a start-up business contest actually lead him to a preferable outcome, which I thought was a great lesson for all of us out there who are worried about rejection or failure or simply having things not work out the way you thought they might.

We also go into the fun story behind the Benjamins brand, how he started with one really, well-thought out and well-designed shoe and expanded from there, why he’s looking to increase efficiencies in an effort to scale his business and why he believes the success of his business comes largely from in surrounding himself with people whose knowledge base differs from his own.

The full episode + show notes can be found at creatingyourownpath.com.

Today's Tuesday Tips & Tricks episode is sponsored by me and my e-course Perfecting Your Pitch!

Perfecting Your Pitch, which starts on April 4, 2016, is designed to help fellow business owners understand the basics of reaching out to media. The three-week course covers topics like which media outlets to pitch, how to find and properly reach out to media contacts, press release basics, maintaining relationships with the media and much more.

My friend Melissa Camilleri of Compliment (a recent course participant) was kind enough to be a guest interviewer for today's show and in the episode we talk about why I decided to create the course, tips for those who are just starting to think about reaching out to the media, why traditional tools like press releases still matter and much more.

For the full episode + show notes, visit creatingyourownpath.com. Don't forget: CYOP listeners can get a $10 off the regular price of Perfecting Your Pitch by heading over to jenniferesnyder.com/perfectingyourpitch and using the offer code CYOP at checkout.

Today's episode brings me to the Oakland studio of woodworker and designer, Melanie Abrantes. Melanie has built a career around making and designing beautiful home goods out of different types of wood and cork.

In the interview she talks about her transition from studying product design in school to landing graphic design jobs after graduation and, eventually, finding her way back to product design with her current work. We also go into her connection to her materials, why focus is such a crucial part of her work and how she comes up with her various products.

You can find the full episode + show notes at creatingyourownpath.com.

Welcome to CYOP Season 3! I'm very excited to kick off this new season with a four-interview series focused on those who are making physical products for a living. Sarah Perez of Electric Sun Creatives is my first guest and I had an opportunity to chat with her in her beautiful studio at the Warehouse Artist Lofts here in Sacramento, California.

If you're not familiar with Sarah's work, she makes really striking wall hangings and mobiles using found driftwood (along with other wood products) and brass. In the interview, we talk through Sarah's recent press coverage through social media and how it's changed the way she manages the logistical side of running her business. We also go into her material choices, how she ended up making the products she does today and how she plays with limits to spark her own creativity.

For the full episode + show notes, please visit creatingyourownpath.com.

Today I'm sharing details about what you can expect from Season 3 of the Creating Your Own Path podcast. In the episode, I chat about the future of my CYOP Road Trip shenanigans, some small (but important) changes to the content that will be coming your way and the new sponsorship opportunities I'll be introducing this year.

You can find the full episode + show notes at creatingyourownpath.com.

Today I’m chatting with Simone Anne, a professional photographer and avid traveler based out of Berkeley, California. She’s very talented and offers up insight beyond her years. Truly—some of the things she says in this episode had me thinking deep thoughts about the meaning behind my work.

In the interview Simone and I talk about how she got started with photography at a fairly young age, why traveling makes her better at her job and what made her decide to pursue hobbies that have absolutely nothing to do with photography.

She’s an incredible person and her work speaks for itself. I can't think of a better way to wrap up Season 2!

The full episode + show notes can be found at creatingyourownpath.com.