The Create & Thrive Podcast

It’s back! Those of you who are long-time listeners to the show may remember the original Making It Podcourse I ran in July 2018.

Well, I’ve re-organised the lessons, and am bringing this free course to you again in September 2019 – but this time, in weekly chunks. 

Each episode will be approximately an hour long, packed full of lessons.

Today is the first week of the course, and in it, I tell you what to expect, as well as sharing a little bit of my own story for those of you who don’t know me.

Over the next four weeks, I’ll be releasing an episode once per week, via the Create & Thrive Podcast – on the topics of mindset, money, marketing, and business management.

To create this course, I’ve drawn on my 10 years of experience running my own successful handmade business, coupled with over 6 years of teaching other makers about handmade business right here at Create & Thrive.

I wanted to create something that was actionable and practical for all makers, no matter what stage of business you are at: and that would allow you to dig deep into 4 key aspects of the crafty biz journey.

I hope it helps your handmade business to thrive!

If you want to take your learning to the next level, the course conversation is happening daily over in my private membership community for makers – the Thriver Circle.

You can find out more about the oodles of benefits of membership right here. Membership will open on September 16th, 2019.

Jess x

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You can make a secure donation (of the amount of your choice) via the Paypal button below.

Each donation helps cover the cost of hosting, show-note writing, research, interviewing, recording, editing, etc. etc.

In short – it helps to cover the time and financial costs of putting together a free weekly show to help you grow your handmade business.

You can also:

My guest this week has done that – and in spectacular fashion.

Patrick Adair has grown a 7-figure jewellery business and a 6-figure supplies business over a few short years by leveraging the power of YouTube.

Patrick is in his early 20s, and as a digital native, saw the power and potential of YouTube very early on – having experimented with other channels throughout his teens.

He publishes regular, detailed videos showing him creating a unique ring design – many of which go on to be sold in his shop. As of publishing this episode, he has over 660,000 subscribers on YouTube (and over 100,000 subscribers on Instagram).

If you’ve never thought about using YouTube to grow your handmade biz – or if you have, but have questions about how to best make it work for you – don’t miss this detailed episode! 

You can make a secure donation (of the amount of your choice) via the Paypal button below.

Each donation helps cover the cost of hosting, show-note writing, research, interviewing, recording, editing, etc. etc.

In short – it helps to cover the time and financial costs of putting together a free weekly show to help you grow your handmade business.

You can also:

Quotes and highlights from this episode:

My guest on this episode – Katie Salmon – is a self-proclaimed marketing geek and spends her days dreaming about how to help business owners sell more stuff. Since 2016, she’s been serving clients through her boutique marketing agency Katie Does Marketing, where she has helped shop owners turn email marketing into a lucrative sales channel.

But Katie knows that not all businesses are ready to outsource their marketing, so this year, she co-founded Shop Pop, a one-stop resource center with marketing education and templates. Through Shop Pop, Katie hopes to help shop owners get the skills and confidence they need to do better their marketing in less time.

In this episode we discuss:

You can make a secure donation (of the amount of your choice) via the Paypal button below.

Each donation helps cover the cost of hosting, show-note writing, research, interviewing, recording, editing, etc. etc.

In short – it helps to cover the time and financial costs of putting together a free weekly show to help you grow your handmade business.

You can also:

Quotes and highlights from this episode:

Do you find you leave out/forget important steps in the process?

Do you get the same questions from customers over and over again, and have to write out the same answer multiple times?

Do you make mistakes (hello, sending the wrong order to the wrong person *cringe*) and have to deal with the unpleasant consequences (P.S. I have TOTALLY done this – do not recommend).

A LOT of the work we do in business is repetitive. And we can speed things up, reduce errors, cut down the mental load, AND make it easier to teach others how to help us if we properly document our business systems.

In this premium episode I’m going to:

This is a premium episode, available only to members of the Thriver Circle. If you want the whole episode, you’re in luck – membership is opening on August 19 for just a few days! So you’ll be able to get access to the FULL episode, as well as ALL past premium episodes when you become a member.

You can make a secure donation (of the amount of your choice) via the Paypal button below.

Each donation helps cover the cost of hosting, show-note writing, research, interviewing, recording, editing, etc. etc.

In short – it helps to cover the time and financial costs of putting together a free weekly show to help you grow your handmade business.

You can also:

Heidi Luerra is the founder and force behind RAW artist showcases, which she founded in LA 10 years ago.

She’s also the author of the upcoming book The Work of Art: A No-Nonsense Field Guide for Creative Entrepreneurs.

In this interview, she describes how RAW came to be (and her background as a fashion designer); how she’s grown it into a global organisation; and she shares some tips from her book on how you can be more successful as a creative entrepreneur.

You can make a secure donation (of the amount of your choice) via the Paypal button below.

Each donation helps cover the cost of hosting, show-note writing, research, interviewing, recording, editing, etc. etc.

In short – it helps to cover the time and financial costs of putting together a free weekly show to help you grow your handmade business.

You can also:

Quotes and highlights from this episode:

What’s it like to be the partner of a creative entrepreneur?

What’s it like working full-time with your spouse in your business?

Who does the washing? (Spoiler: not Jess.)

We answer all these questions and more in this special, 200th episode of the Create & Thrive Podcast, where I interview my husband and right-hand-man, Nick Bianchi, on the show!

I did a call-out for questions… and boy, did you all deliver! So I asked, he answered, and we bantered about our experience working together and sharing all aspects of our lives over the last decade – since before Epheriell even began.

We had a lot of fun recording this, so I hope you enjoy listening to Nick’s experiences, and this glimpse ‘behind the curtain’ of a self-employed couple. 

You can make a secure donation (of the amount of your choice) via the Paypal button below.

Each donation helps cover the cost of hosting, show-note writing, research, interviewing, recording, editing, etc. etc.

In short – it helps to cover the time and financial costs of putting together a free weekly show to help you grow your handmade business.

You can also:

There are a ton of ways to do this – many of which we teach in my newly available course – Wholesale Know-How – but in this episode, I’m outlining just 5 of the strategies you can use to track down potential new stockists who would be a perfect fit for your product.

It’s important to get this step right, so you don’t waste time approaching the wrong type of stores. Of course, not every store you approach will say yes (even if you are a perfect fit!) but you vastly increase the likelihood of a store buying from you if you do the research and hard yards beforehand to make sure they’re a great fit. 

Do you love the idea of just making, and letting someone else do the ‘selling’ for you?

Do you want to get your work out into the world, because you know people will fall in love with it if they could just see it right in front of them? 

The self-study course – Wholesale Know-How – will show you EXACTLY how to make that happen.

You can make a secure donation (of the amount of your choice) via the Paypal button below.

Each donation helps cover the cost of hosting, show-note writing, research, interviewing, recording, editing, etc. etc.

In short – it helps to cover the time and financial costs of putting together a free weekly show to help you grow your handmade business.

You can also:

Do you struggle to set boundaries in your handmade biz?

Maybe you feel like you have to respond to every email or message RIGHT NOW.

Perhaps you feel like you should ALWAYS be working.

Maybe you struggle to focus when there are chores catching your eye around the house.

Or do you find it hard to say ‘no’ to family and friends when they want your attention during what should be work time?

In this episode, I go into detail about all the different sorts of boundaries you need to set in your handmade business – around your time, your privacy, and much more.

I share a few challenges I’ve faced over the years to set boundaries (and why I took Facebook off my phone…), and share many tips about why boundaries matter, and how you can set and enforce them. 

This is a premium episode, available only to members of the Thriver Circle.

You can make a secure donation (of the amount of your choice) via the Paypal button below.

Each donation helps cover the cost of hosting, show-note writing, research, interviewing, recording, editing, etc. etc.

In short – it helps to cover the time and financial costs of putting together a free weekly show to help you grow your handmade business.

You can also:

I can’t count the number of projects I’ve never started, or not done properly, or been up at all hours trying to finish by a deadline!

Why does this happen?!

Because we don’t project manage properly, that’s why.

Today’s guest is here to save us from all of that! Kate Hutcheson of the Efficient/Creative has turned her years of project management experience to helping creatives like you and me work out how to get big things done.

She outlines a super-simple method for you to follow in order to plan and execute your next project… properly!

You can make a secure donation (of the amount of your choice) via the Paypal button below.

Each donation helps cover the cost of hosting, show-note writing, research, interviewing, recording, editing, etc. etc.

In short – it helps to cover the time and financial costs of putting together a free weekly show to help you grow your handmade business.

You can also:

The question of ‘should I quit my job?’ is not an uncommon one.

Answering this question is a tad tricky as there are variables, and the answer will be different for different people.

However, there are three points that are key to remember as you ponder this.

In this episode I cover a number of key points that you need to consider before you chuck in the day job.

You can make a secure donation (of the amount of your choice) via the Paypal button below.

Each donation helps cover the cost of hosting, show-note writing, research, interviewing, recording, editing, etc. etc.

In short – it helps to cover the time and financial costs of putting together a free weekly show to help you grow your handmade business.

You can also: