Pattern Shift

Send us Fan Mail Hey there, welcome to this awesome episode of our podcast! Today, we've got a burning question to tackle: "Is the Ja, Wol Business Circle program the right fit for you?" If you're thinking of joining the next cohort in September, we've got something super cool for you – two fantastic businesses that have been through the program will spill the beans on the...

Send us Fan Mail The big question on this episode is; How do we bend time our way? Can we make more of it so we can get out of overwhelm and stress. I’ve invited my friend and coach Kim Witten because she’s the perfect partner for a hilarious but insightful journey through linguistics and philosophy. Which are all fancy words for we have a lot of fun figuring out an the issue of never having enoug...

Send us Fan Mail Ready to conquer that overwhelming clutter and skyrocket your small business productivity? Join me, Saskia de Feijter, as I reveal the secret to unlocking your mental clarity and focus through decluttering your workspace. Say goodbye to the myth that creative chaos fuels inspiration and discover how tidying up can actually boost your motivation and creativity.    In this PatternSh...

Send us Fan Mail Are you taking yourself seriously as a business owner, do you set boundaries, are you being professional, It’s time to start owning the tasks that come with running your business, to stop feeling icky around business terms and accepting what you need to know about your needs and applying business strategies in order to balance and grow your personal and business life. How business...

Send us Fan Mail As you might have heard in the last episode I did with my friend Zoe Edwards, A Smaller Life is evolving into a podcast that is similar but a bit different. I was always talking to and with crafters and business owners in the field, from now on I will focus more on providing business owners in the needlecraft industry with practical business insights and actionable tips to help yo...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, podcast hosts Zoe Edwards of Check Your Thread and myself discuss how we approach our podcasts and how we make it work for our businesses. We talk about how we’ve shifted our focus over time and how our podcasts have evolved along with our businesses. We also discuss advertising and how it may or may not fit into our podcast and business models. And… there’s a big...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode of A Smaller Life, Pilar and Saskia discuss several key aspects of running a creative business. They emphasize the importance of having a clear vision for your business, delegating tasks to others, and finding support from peers. They also address the fear of being copied by competitors and suggest owning your brand as the best way to combat this. Finally, they hig...

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Send us Fan Mail In this episode we’re flipping things around. Kathleen Kettles, one of the most enthusiastic members of the Ja, Wol community and a podcaster herself is interviewing me. Her podcast ‘In conversation with Kathleen’ is all about how her guests define success. I was invited and I loved the atmosphere of this conversation so much that I wanted to share it with you as well. The main to...

Send us Fan Mail In this podcast episode upcoming knitwear designer Maaike van Geijn, shares her ideas, processes, hiccups, and successes as a designer like how her first three designs were immediately published by Laine Magazine, Kate Davies and la Bien Aimée. We’re discussing topics such as her daily routine, submitting patterns to magazines, designing for multiple sizes, pattern writing, and th...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of A Smaller Life, Marshall Conley of Slø Jeans, joins the show to discuss how this sustainable fashion brand started. The values and steps they had to make before they could start selling inclusive and sustainable jeans. Marshall discusses the challenges of starting a sustainable fashion brand and the importance of creating a positive impact in the fashion industr...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Saskia and Leigh Metcalf, founder of Top Stitch Makers Social Community, discuss the importance of building a safe and valuable space for garment sewers. Leigh shares her journey of finding her ideal customer, reaching them through various channels, and how she puts aside the financial treadmill of retail to focus on what really matters to her customers. They also...

Send us Fan Mail In this amazing episode full of gold nuggets, you’ll hear from Gillian Caughey Gillian is the founder of Fearless Financials, an accountancy business that offers life centered accounting for folks that dare to be themselves in business. They love to work with creatives businesses and help them achieve their financial goals. I was quite nervous about this interview as I am about a...

Send us Fan Mail Zoe Edwards joins us again! This time, we covered sustainable sewing and lots of things in between. I've asked Zoe to help me while I'm still quite new to sewing, to get a good foundation to a more sustainable sewing practice. From learning how to choose patterns to fit your body so you will get the most wear out of them -always the most sustainable option after not gett...

Send us Fan Mail My coach, Kim Witten, teaches us the difference between coaching, mentoring and therapy. Then, we move on to topics such as the struggle we creatives have balancing structure and freedom (for our craft), and also have an enlightening conversation about “imposter syndrome”. Kim shares a comforting perspective and cites the two psychologists who coined the term in the 1970’s. Enjoy...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode I talk about the Ja Wol Community pledge that has been spontaneously started by our member Kathleen.  I jumped on her idea and we had a zoom call together and made it happen.  In the episode I share my personal pledge and invite you to join us to see how you can make the curating and creating of your wardrobe in 2023 fun and meaningful. A new way of curating and cr...

Send us Fan Mail May Lin Bang (Maya) joins us from Knit With Attitude in High Street London, but not before we do a little celebrating for our 50th episode! Tune in to hear shout outs and interesting stats in the first 10 minutes, and then get cozy for our 50 minute conversation. Maya is an inspiration who has run a successful ecological yarn shop as an immigrant for more than 10 years. She had an...

Send us Fan Mail In this cinematic, on-the-road episode, you’ll hear all about the wool and shepherding industry in the Faroese Islands or Faroes (Føroyar). You’ll get to hear a spinning machine, special background music from the feat-of-modern-egineering underwater tunnels, reports from the traveler’s log in the ferry cabin, and spontaneous interviews with shop owners and workers. You’re going to...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, you’ll hear from Elizabeth Joy of Conscious Style. Elizabeth is a content creator that cares about fashion and style in a conscious way. We talk about green washing, the use of wording and descriptions in the field of conscious fashion and educating through podcasts and other channels.  Elizabeth Joy MAIN TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE The Big Brands often co-opt wor...

Send us Fan Mail Before The Holland Wool Collective came along, tons of wool was going to waste. There was a gap between people who had wool, people who processed it into a usable product, and wholesalers or designers who needed the material. Farmers in the Netherlands needed more options as far as who to send their wool to; there wasn’t anyone gathering that material to send it to be processed it...

Send us Fan Mail We welcome Alice from The Ethical Move this week on A Smaller Life! Alice owns a branding firm, and she runs an online community (with the help of dedicated others) that's focused on ethical branding / marketing. How do we attract customers without using lead magnets?  How can we appeal to our customers without manipulating them?  These are the kind of questions they ask at h...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode I talk about the role of strategy in your small business and how you don't have to change all that much to make better use of the time and effort you are already investing in communication, marketing, branding and all those other 'icky' business words. Hopefully you'll get some information about how thinking things through just a little bit more...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, you’ll hear from Melody Hoffman, the knitting pattern designer behind B Mandarines. She's a soft spoken nature loving, foraging business owner. She doesn't like the word branding as she feels completely connected to what she does. It's not a brand, it's her.  Listen to Melody talk about how her values, her choices shape her work. Find links to...

Send us Fan Mail On my summer break I answer listeners' questions and share some of my personal strategies and tips in short & compact episodes. Short, sweet and simple but elegant and packed with value if it's something you were looking for. If it is, consider supporting the show so I can continue to build and grow valuable episodes for makers and sellers alike.  Go to asmallerlife....

Send us Fan Mail On my summer break I answer listeners' questions and share some of my personal strategies and tips in short & compact episodes. Short, sweet and simple but elegant and packed with value if it's something you were looking for. If it is, consider supporting the show so I can continue to build and grow valuable episodes for makers and sellers alike.  Go to asmallerlife....