The Create & Thrive Podcast

In 2016, Catie Miller started listening to the Create & Thrive Podcast. Fast-forward to 2019, and she now has a full-time, growing ceramics business! She listened to the show from the start, and used it as a ‘roadmap to success’. I was so excited to chat to someone like Catie who has actually used this podcast to find success in her handmade business – and she has a fabulous...

Do you have an intentional brand for your handmade business that draws in your ideal customer – and actually repels those who aren’t? People make a split-second decision about your business the moment they see your branding – whether that’s your website, instagram feed, business card, market stall… any touchpoint they have with your business. Are you sending the right...

Are you ready to harness the Power of Pinterest? The #PinterestChallenge is happening again in June in the Thriver Circle , so I have recorded a podcast episode to help you get set up for success! If you are new to Pinterest, this episode will help you set up all the important elements of your account. If you’re not new, it will be a great refresher! This is a premium episode, available only...

Jill from For Strange Women works with natural ingredients to make perfumes. Which she sells – with wild success – on the internet. Jill started on Etsy in 2009, and today, she not only sells online, she also has her own store in downtown Kansas City. With over 35,000 sales in her Etsy shop alone, Jill’s business is incredibly successful – and all based on selling something – scent – that people c...

What is it really like to own a brick & mortar retail boutique in the current economic climate? My guest today – Meg Sutton of Belle & Union – has an interesting business trajectory. She was working full-time, doing wedding invitations on the side… and then decided she wanted to launch her own business. Instead of just opening an online shop, she worked for a full year be...

One of the most common laments I hear from my students is that ‘I’m not where I thought I’d be by now’. There are oodles of reasons this may be. Life happens. But one of the most common reasons is a lack of commitment and focus. If you don’t commit to carving out the time to do your work – and then actually doing it – you simply won’t move forward. O...

What the heck do I do next? How often do you ask yourself this question? How often do you feel stuck and overwhelmed, and like you can’t move forward? Often, we get stuck because we’re in analysis paralysis – there are no good options, or too many good options – and we just don’t know which way to go, or what to choose. In this episode I share 9 strategies you can use...

To celebrate the 4th anniversary of the start of The Create & Thrive Podcast, I’m answering YOUR handmade business questions in this episode. I got a ton of great, meaty questions – and I answered a number of them in this episode. If I didn’t answer yours, never fear! I do plan on doing a follow-up episode answering more questions in a future episode. I answer questions like:...

Do you want to teach your craft? Do you dream of running in-person, live workshops to pass on your knowledge? Or – maybe you already teach handmade workshops, but want to make them even better? My guest in this episode – Dr. Rie Natalenko – is a teacher, writer and textile artist. She’s an expert in the art and science of teaching creative workshops to adults. She has penne...

A lot of potential issues with your handmade business customers can be side-stepped through the judicious use of  policies . A well-planned policy preempts a lot of issues, and makes sure everything is spelled out clearly to your customer prior to purchase. It also keeps everything fair and transparent, and makes sure you can’t be accused of making up one set of rules for one customer, and another...

As per popular demand in the Thriver Circle (my membership community for makers) – this premium episode is all about stats. I cover the what, why, when & how of tracking stats in your handmade business  – and I’ve got a downloadable spreadsheet you can use right now to get started! Enjoy!    >>Become a member of the Thriver Circle and listen to the full episode<...

Selling your craft online via etsy, another venue, or your own website has so many benefits. Having an online presence is one of the most important things you can do for your handmade business. If you are yet to launch your online shop; are on the fence as to whether it’s worth it; have been thinking about it for a while and don’t know where to start; or you have one but you aren’t sure about how...

I see it over and over again in facebook groups – people posting, asking ‘should I put my etsy shop in holiday mode?’ They’re asking because they’ve heard horror stories – where people have put their shops in holiday mode, then re-opened to crickets. It drives me nuts to see so much misinformation and scare mongering, so I wanted to address this always-contentio...

Can you successfully transition from selling at markets and in shops to selling online… when you make one-of-a-kind designs? This is a very special episode of the show – in which I take you inside my membership community – the Thriver Circle – and share one of our Business Intensives. Each month, I offer 2 Business Intensive spots to members, during which I hop on a live ca...

Craftivism: the act of combining activism with craft. In this episode I bring back previous guest Cath Young to talk about this topic, which she embodies in her business My Bearded Pigeon. I first spoke to Cath on the show way back in Episode 47 . I loved chatting with her so much, I’ve been looking for a topic to talk about with her on the show ever since – and thanks to a social medi...

Do you ever feel the pressure to ‘grow, grow, grow’ your business? The dominant cultural narrative is that ‘bigger is better’ and that we should always be striving to grow our businesses bigger. But… is it necessary? What if you just want a small business with a modest income? What if you only want a part-time business? In this episode, I share why I deliberately keep...

Are you the type of person who must have a detailed plan before you begin – or do you prefer to just start and go with the flow? Overplanners are great at making stuff happen… but they can also be a bit too rigid, missing out on unexpected opportunities. They can also suffer from analysis paralysis – where nothing ever gets done because the plan isn’t perfect. Underplanners...

At what point do you stop going it alone, and invest in help to grow your business? In this episode, my guest, Catherine Hildner from Kitty Meow Boutique, shares her journey to craft the business she’d dreamt of.  We discuss her business journey, including her recent decision to invest in a coach, a photographer and a website developer to help her re-vamp her brand. We also discuss the impor...

Like many of us, Jacinta’s business started when she couldn’t buy something she wanted – so she figured out how to make it. Fast-forward a number of years later, and she’s developed a successful niche business making products out of laminated cotton. One fascinting element of Jacinta’s business development has been the way she’s focussed on customer-driven produ...

Is email marketing part of your strategy for 2019? If you have a business that lends itself to cultivating customers who buy from you again and again, then I strongly suggest email marketing should be a vital part of your marketing strategy. There are so many benefits to email marketing – not only do you get direct access to potential customers, but people are much more likely to buy from an...

There are so many ways we can market our handmade business – and different methods will work more effectively depending on your business model. For Aidan Mackinnon of Cut Throat Knives, PR has been, by far, the most successful marketing avenue. In this episode, we discuss why this is, as well as chatting about various other lessons Aidan has learnt since he turned his knife-making hobby into...

Usually, we focus on getting more traffic to our handmade shops online. However – have you ever thought about your conversion rate ? Out of the traffic you get through your virtual door – how many of those potential customers become actual customers ? In today’s episode, I’m going to be sharing 8 possible reasons why your shop is struggling to convert those visitors into cu...

So you want to take amazing product photos of your handmade goods, but you don’t have a DSLR. Can you use your trusty iPhone or Android Smartphone to take Etsy-worthy photos? The answer is ‘yes, absolutely’ and here to tell you exactly how to do it today’s guest, Chaitra  Radhakrishna. She  is the founder of Pinkpot, a design and photography studio for creative handmade bus...

Welcome to the Create & Thrive Podcast Summer Series, where I replay the highlights from the show in 2018. If you’re a long-term listener, and you’re looking for fresh content – why not check out my NEW show –  The Business of Making ? Also! In this ep I announce the return of my free mini-couse –  Look Back Move Forward  – which will be kicking off on January 1st! Click here &n...

Welcome to the Create & Thrive Podcast Summer Series, where I replay the highlights from the show in 2018. If you’re a long-term listener, and you’re looking for fresh content – why not check out my NEW show –  The Business of Making ? Also! In this ep I announce the return of my free mini-couse –  Look Back Move Forward  – which will be kicking off on January 1st! Click here  to find out more...