The Create & Thrive Podcast

How can we embrace change when change is either scary, or not happening fast enough? Changes might be imposed upon your business by outside forces. You may feel like you’ll never succeed because the challenges your biz is facing won’t ever change. You might even feel internally resistant to having a successful business because it changes how you think about yourself. (Fear of success i...

  Can you make a living selling OOAK handmade items online? This is a question I’ve been asked many times over the years, and now that I’ve been in the handmade industry for almost 10 years, I can confirm that my stance on this remains the same. In short: no, you can’t. Of course, there are exceptions, and good reasons why this is the case. In this episode, I outline the rea...

Are you ready to sell your handmade goods wholesale? Is that even something you want to do? In this episode, I outline 10 steps to wholesale readiness – questions you need to ask yourself to know if selling wholesale is a good choice for your handmade business, and if so, are you ready to dive in? If you’d like a free pdf copy of the questions and thinking points, scroll down and you&#...

  Do you feel ‘left behind’ when you look at other handmade businesses? Do you worry that you aren’t doing enough? That your business isn’t growing fast enough? That you should be where that person is? I’m here to tell you that this is a super-common feeling. AND that you need to stop looking at and comparing yourself to those other businesses out there. You can...

  This week, I’m bringing you something special! When I was in England recently, I had a Thriver meetup – and 5 wonderful makers (who also happen to be Thriver Circle members) came along. We spent 2 hours talking all things creative business! In the first part of the session, each maker had 15 minutes to ask questions about their business. In the second session, I opened the floor...

  Did you grow up before the Internet existed? I did. And boy, how has the world changed in the last 25 years? One of the most profound shifts has come from our ability to bypass the gatekeepers – of knowledge, and of commerce – and directly interact with each other, the world over. If you are around my age or older, you probably grew up thinking you’d get a ‘job&#8217...

Sometimes, we just need to share our thoughts with someone else. It gets us out of those endless loops inside our mind – where we go round and round on a decision without actually making one. Getting those thoughts out of our heads and sharing them with others can be just the ticket to finally breaking through and moving forward. This week, I’m sharing another Business Intensive with y...

  Do you ever feel like you will never make any money from your art/craft… or, even worse, that you don’t really deserve to? That it is somehow noble or the ‘right thing’ to not charge for what you create? That taking money for it will somehow devalue it? You might be suffering from the myth of the ‘starving artist’. This idea that you can never make money...

  How important is freedom to you? For me, it’s essential. Freedom is one of my most core values. I have deliberately designed my life to increase my sense of freedom, so that I can spend each day doing what I love. But what exactly IS freedom? It will mean different things to different people. For example: for me, freedom is being able to wake up every day and be in charge of how I spe...

  Have you used Facebook Live to market your handmade business yet? If so – how did it go (share with us in the comments!). If not – why not? Is it the fear of being live on camera? Is it that you don’t know what to talk about? Is it that you’re just not into using Facebook? Whatever the reason, I highly recommend you give this week’s episode a listen – bec...

  Handmade business is hard work.   It takes a lot of time. A lot of work. A lot of learning. And a LOT of patience. There are no shortcuts. There are no magic bullets. There is no way to circumvent doing the work. There are no ‘secrets’ to success. Success is not guaranteed. However… if you have determination, discipline, a willingness to grow and change, and a solid b...

  Today I’m drawing aside the curtain and taking you behind the scenes to share with you one aspect of Thriver Circle  community membership – namely, the monthly Business Intensives I run for members.   Since the Circle started I’ve been doing 1-2 of these Business Intensives every month during our live calls. It’s an opportunity for members to put themselves forw...

  Do you ever wonder what digital tools and software other people use to run their businesses? I do – and I get asked about various and sundry software solutions a lot, too. So, this week, I decided to do a big round-up of all the digital tools & software I use to run my own handmade business – and Create & Thrive, as well. I discuss what I use and why in detail in this ep...