The Create & Thrive Podcast

It’s time to STOP searching for ‘the secret to success’ in business ! So much marketing in the biz space tells you ‘this is the secret to success in….’ It’s rubbish. There is no such thing as a secret – only something you haven’t learnt yet. I hate this language, because it couches knowledge as something only the select/elect few know, and that you must learn from them. It’...

We talk a LOT about online business – but what about traditional brick & mortar maker business? My guest today is a traditionally trained jeweller with a successful small business in South Australia – Shannon Cornish . I’ve known Shannon online for a few years now (she’s a member of my Thriver Circle community) and I’ve always admired her beautiful work. In this e...

As of this month, I’ve been fully-self employed as a maker for a whole decade ! It got me thinking – what are some of the things I wish I’d known about running a handmade biz when I got started? Things that surprised me, challenges that I didn’t expect – and some of the things that made all the difference between failure and success over the long term. That’s ex...

If you sell on Etsy, ranking highly in search is the holy grail!  That’s why I am SO excited to bring this workshop to you today! Today’s podcast and video are a replay of a live workshop I gave in early November 2019 – in partnership with Etsy themselves. Yep, that’s right, I literally worked with Etsy to create this presentation – to make sure you have all the corre...

Have you ever considered selling your products via subscription? I have done just that – many years ago, I ran an Earring-of-the-Month Club, which was quite successful. Customers could sign up for a monthly subscription, or they could buy 3, 6, or 12 month subscriptions (which made great gifts!). In this episode, I tell the story of why I started the club, how I ran it, and why I eventually...

Imagine starting a business because you just wanted to make yourself the perfect wallet… and then looking back 6 years later to discover that you’ve got 12 employees, 2 children, and over a million dollars in revenue?  That’s the position that my guest today – Ryan Popov – finds himself in – and as he stated himself in the podcast, he never dreamt he’d be...

It’s the silly season! And that means that you’re going to be busy – real busy – both in your business and in your life.  So how do you make sure to stay on top of everything while maintaining your sanity? That’s what today’s podcast is aaaaaall about. I’ve got 16(!) strategies that will help you stay sane and survive the silly sales season when you’...

It can feel like the worst thing in the world to have an unhappy customer. And I get it, I’ve been there – it’s almost impossible to not take it personally, especially the first time it happens to you in your business journey. The fact is: it’s inevitable that at some stage in your business you will have an unhappy customer. The old saying ‘you can’t please 100% of the people 100% of the time’ hol...

Have you ever thought about running your own Instagram challenge? Maybe you want to grow your followers and your community. Maybe there’s a cause you want to promote, or something you want to celebrate. Whatever the reason, Instagram challenges can be a lot of fun, and a great way to engage your followers… but they are also a LOT of work. In this episode I chat to my friend Amanda Adam...

Have you ever had that moment where you thought ‘I just don’t want to do this any more’? This happens to most of us eventually – especially those of us who have been in business for a long time. How do you know if or when it’s time to quit? In this episode I give you some food for thought, and outline a few key questions to ask yourself in order to decide if it really...

Etsy, Shopify, WordPress – oh my! How do you choose the right platform for your handmade shop & website? There is no one-size-fits-all solution to this question – but in this podcast episode, I do my best to lay out all of the things you need to consider when making the decision. I outline 15 different aspects to consider – things like price, security, design & much more!...

Welcome to the Making It Podcourse! 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...

Welcome to the Making It Podcourse! 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...

Have you ever thought of using YouTube to grow your handmade business? 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 –...

You’ve heard you should be using email to market your handmade business – but how do you get people to open – and act on – your emails? 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 m...

How often do you find yourself doing a repetitive task in your business, and thinking… ‘what’s the next step again?’ 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 *...

You know I’m all about no-nonsense advice about growing a creative business – and my guest today is aaaaall about that. 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 ca...

Have you ever wanted to hear the other side of the story? 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, N...

So you want to get your handmade products into shops, galleries, or boutiques… BUT – how do you find the right ones to approach? 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...

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 tim...

Do you have big ideas… but struggle to make them happen? 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...

Can you be ‘successful’ in handmade business AND have a day job? 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. One, there is no rush! Don’t just quit rashly and end up regret...

At what point do you make the leap to quit your job and run your business full-time? For Katherine DaSilva, that point came not too long ago. Since then, she’s been running her business – The Handmaker’s Bag – full-time. In this episode we discuss how she made the decision to quit; the challenges of convincing family and friends that what she’s doing is a ‘real...

Is your to-do list a hot mess? Do you find yourself wasting time because you don’t know what to focus on next? Do you over or underestimate the time tasks will take, and continually push things off your list to ‘get to later’? Do you feel like you’re on an endless treadmill – never moving forward, but sometimes even falling off the end? I know how that feels – a...

I’m thankful to be able to share this story with you today – the story of how craft – specifically, jewellery-making and metalsmithing – helped SuzAnne Taylor to find new purpose in her life. SuzAnne was a combat medic in the US Army, and after a tour in the Middle East, returned home with a severe case of PTSD. I’ve known SuzAnne online for a few years now, but when...