Community over Competition – Low Cost, Effective Marketing for Makers – Lu & Ed Swag Bags

If you are interested in applying to be a part of Lu & Ed Swag Bags, hop over here and fill out this short form! If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at cody@luanded.com.

As an owner of handmade business, I am always looking for creative ways to reward my customers for supporting my dream and allowing me to stay home with my young children. As an advocate for the handmade community, I’m always looking for ways to introduce people to shops I love. So, several years ago, the Lu & Ed Swag Bag program was born! If you have ordered from my shop in the last 6 years or so, you probably received a sweet little swag bag with your order, full of coupons & samples from other small shops, like the ones shown below.

I’m always looking for new shops to collaborate with, and so I wanted to talk about the program’s benefits, effectiveness & perks of sponsoring the Lu & Ed Swag Bag program.

If you’re just discovering Lu & Ed and aren’t sure about my reputation – hi! My business has been featured in Parents Magazine, on Buzzfeed, in top parenting blogs around the world including Hello Wonderful, Mindful Mavericks, Destination Nursery, Punky Moms  and more! I’ve been making monsters for almost 9 years and have a highly engaged audience that frequently makes purchases from the swag bags!

It sounds a little strange, right? Send me your products to send to my customers? I was worried it might, but I know for a fact putting products right into the hands of your target audience works. Here are a few real life examples:

• I won a giveaway The Gnarly Whale Shop had 6 years ago, and after trying their lip balm from that giveaway, I became a loyal customer. I exclusively used their vegan lip balms and shampoos for years, thanks to that one sample lip balm!
• I recently got a swag bag from Mommy Con, which had a sample of a face wash & lotion in it. We now use that brand exclusively for my son, because it is the only face wash that helps with his break outs!
• I was recently drawn to test a product for Mandelin Naturals. Long story short, I just spent $40 in her shop & my mom now exclusively uses their soap, rollers and lip balms as well.

For further testimony directly regarding working with Lu & Ed, I have heard from people who won prizes in my multi-vendor giveaways I’ve held on my blog over the years who have emailed me to tell me that they purchased from the vendors many times after receiving a prize from them.

A lot of Lu & Ed Swag Bag participants receive multiple sales from the bags + some makers have gotten up to $1000 total combined first wholesale orders with repeat orders from participating in the bags over the years! Most makers participate in 2-5 rounds of the swag bags because the ROI is so high. Yay!

In addition to purchases through the bags, a lot of buyers show off their swag on social media, tagging the sponsors, which in turn offers even more exposure from the bags!

Participating in the swag bags is low cost, direct, effective marketing that isn’t costly and uncertain, like online ads, and has a much higher ROI (return on investment).

How are they so effective? Being a maker with a tiny budget for marketing services myself, I knew from the start that I wanted to make this program truly beneficial to swag bag sponsors as possible, and in doing so, I only accept swag sponsors that I know my customers would adore so that everyone will benefit greatly from it. Our target audiences need to be similar in order for the samples to convert into purchases. I have spent almost a decade getting to know my amazing customers & what they like, so I only accept swag for kids,  parents & women that fall in line with sustainable, alternative brand.

For my first initial bags, I received items from hair clips made with upcycled fabrics, eco-friendly greeting cards and bookmarks to coupons for 30% off for over ten brands for the trial bags. As the first few swag bags went out, I remember that I was a so nervous – I really wanted my customers to enjoy this extra reward and I hoped that each artist involved would benefit immensely from it. As the first bags arrived to my customers, I received instant feedback – people loved them and adored the products from the sponsors! Armed with newly inflated confidence, I set about collecting applications for round two of the swag bags – and I have now sent out swag bags with samples and coupons from over 250 different makers!

I *wish* I could do the service for free but the bags add about a half pound to every order, which greatly increases shipping costs, so I charge $5 per 25 items (or $5 per 50 art prints, as they are much lighter) though I do not make money & still lose quite a bit of profit in shipping fees, assembling the bags & in time spent communicating with sponsors, promoting the makers on social media, etc. but it is a labor of love and I adore using my established small business to help other makers grow their business!

As I have developed and refined this program, I have learned a lot about the handmade community and it’s unique needs – especially that it can be really difficult for niche shops to find effective ways to get their products in front of new consumers, and I want to bridge that gap. I want to help make it easier for like-minded businesses to be discovered and loved the way they should be for their unique offerings! I am excited to see where this swag bag program goes and how people benefit from it!

If you are interested in applying to be a part of Lu & Ed Swag Bags, hop over here and fill out this short form! If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at cody@luanded.com.

Lu & Ed’s 7 Year Envyversary Celebration!

Hip pip hooray! Today marks 7 YEARS since I launched my Storenvy shop. Whoa. I can’t believe how far my little monster shop has come in 7 years. I can’t believe how much Storenvy has evolved in 7 years! When I joined, there was barely 500 stores on the platform, and now there’s hundreds of thousands of Storenvy sellers!

My business has grown so much thanks to all of you – thanks to your support, cheering me on, kind words, orders, referrals, fan photos to keep me trucking when my eyes are crossing from sewing too much. Thank you all. I couldn’t have made it this far without my sweet, awesome, wonderful monster loving fans!  I have made some super amazing friends through the Storenvy community – and I decided to reach out to some of my favorites to together a huge giveaway to thank you all for your constant support & love, and to celebrate 7 years selling on Storenvy! Woohoo!!

Sidenote: This will be one of the LAST giveaways I host this year, so if you want a chance to get your hands on some free Lu & Ed monster merch, make sure to enter and come back daily to earn your daily entries every day this week, too!

Speaking of daily entries, this giveaway has a ton of ways to earn entries, including some that involve Storenvy functions like Watching & Envying items on Storenvy. I’ll post screen shots on how to do that below – but first here’s the prize line up!

Small Semi-Custom Mon-stor – Winner chooses color scheme!

Zombie Tee from Zom’s – Winner picks size and style

Winner’s Choice – Four hair bows or one headband from Bow Peeps

Delicate Star Necklace from Wilde Designs

Double Set Kitchen Towels and Hot Pads from We R Crafts

Red Pendant Necklace from Wired Heart

Spring Headband by It’s a Girl Thing by Trinidad

Art Print from Be You, Not Them

Cardinal Field Cards from Pinecone Grove

Rainbow Unicorn Egg from Landon’s Toy Box

Now, like I said above, you can sign up for Storenvy to earn a good chunk of extra entries, so click over and sign up – the process takes less than one minute if you aren’t already a member, and it is one of the coolest online shopping platforms out there so we def want to make sure you get all signed up. 😉

Here is how to earn the Storenvy centric entries:  Watching a shop. This is like favoriting it so you don’t miss product drops! Here is a photo example – just click the “Watch” button! Then input your Storenvy username on the giveaway widget to complete the entry. (So I can double check the entries when selecting an winner!)

Entries can also be earned by Envying a product. An Envy is basically “liking” the product. Your Envies will show up on your user profile so you can easily find items you’ve liked to purchase at a later date. They also show in the feed of anyone who follows you, allowing you the opportunity to start trends and become a popular user on Storenvy! Photo example below!

Super easy peasy! You can also earn entries by sharing products from the stores to social media – you can do one blog post a day with products from each shop, share on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, or even pin some items to Pinterest! Then just post the URL of your share into the giveaway widget for the entry to count!

Here is all the official rules: Contest is open from 12AM EST 4/10 to 11:59PM EST 4/15. Giveaway is open world wide, where allowed, to entrants over the age of 18. International winners must pay shipping prior to their item being shipped. One lucky winner will reap all the prizes, selected at random by Rafflecopter!

Now, let’s get down to winning some stuff! The more entries you earn, the better your chance of winning all of these epic prizes. So click the  link below and start earning your entries!

>>> Click here to enter! <<<

Where do Mon-stors come from? Tacky jammies!

For today’s magical transformation, I’m sharing this funky leopard print nightgown turned radical and adorable Mon-stor! Yup, I converted this discarded nightie…

Into this mega adorable Mon-stor toy storage bag! How cute is she?

This month, I have been hard at work turning other textile discards into cute monsters, and I am stoked to be turning my textile recycling efforts into a fun keepsake monster project launching soon, called Memory Monsters!

I still need to make a few more prototypes from various materials (Tee shirts! Receiving blankets! Sweaters!) before I am ready to launch, plus figure out what sizes of clothing I can feasibly turn into monsters (just in, newborn sized sleepers are too small to cut monsters from!). But be sure to follow along on Facebook or Instagram to check out the prototypes as I post them, and sign up for my newsletter to get an email when they launch, so you can send me your child’s special article of clothing or lovey blanket to be converted into a monster!

Monster Mash! Easy Peasy Monster Halloween Costumes & Accessories

This year, I had the honor of collaborating with Opposite of Far for a monster themed Halloween photo shoot done by the lovely Qiana K! Opposite of Far launched her Monster Masks, which are fun, colorful, and when paired with basics from Primary.com & monster trick or treat totes or stuffies from my shop – make the cutest simplistic monster costumes ever!

Aren’t these little monsters the cutest you ever did see?! Hurry to place your monstrously awesome Halloween orders – it’s spooky how soon it will be here!

 

Making Back to School Monstrously Awesome – Qiana K Photo Shoot!

Just because we’re homeschooling this year, didn’t mean I didn’t get to have fun with back to school photos! I was honored to be able to send some of my monsters to the awesome brand photographer Qiana K to be a part of her Back to School shoot – and boy, I love love love what she did! Here’s a collection of images from the shoot – Qiana made it easy to make back to school monstrously fun, with cute clothing, great fall accessories and fun monster toys to give as back to school gifts from yours truly. 😉

Other brands featured:

Little Nugget Knits / The Wishing Elephant / Bright Eyed Baby  / Greyson & Cole / FJ’s Pop Shop / Pegheads / Sunshine by Channon / Spunky Onion

Aren’t these images darling?! Those grins! Gah, these little dudes stole my heart!

If you are a maker looking for awesome brand photos, definitely be sure to book a session with Qiana – her work is amazing, she is incredible to work with and her fun style & great attitude is infectious! Coming soon: A gallery of images from my monster mash Halloween collab shoot by Qiana, with Opposite of Far!

Home schooling as a maker mama – it’s not easy, but I love it.

In years past, back to school was always a little hectic, but as a work from home monster making mom, it made it a little easier to get out the door in the mornings. We had our system – clothes laid out the night before, breakfast items on the counter, lunches packed & in the fridge ready to be grabbed on the way out the door.

This year, like all other routines & just life in general since our move, is totally different. My son hated the public school he went to here in WNC last winter/spring. Here’s a quick example of just one of DOZENS of examples of my son’s horrendous short time in Haywood County schools last year: during a science discussion, the teacher told the class the Milky Way is NOT a galaxy, galaxies don’t exist. She told them there’s just one universe, and that’s the Milky Way. When my son tried to correct her by telling her, actually the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, one of at least one hundred billion of potential galaxies in outer space, he was reprimanded and given a silent lunch for “lying” & I received a note about how disrespectful he was. Oh, and first week of school, when I tried to ask for more challenging work for him because he had already learned what they were covering in first grade, she told me right in front of Gauge that he wasn’t as smart as I think he is, even though right before we moved from Missouri he was testing at 8-9th grade level in almost every subject in 4th grade… so it didn’t take much convincing when he asked me if he could be home schooled this year rather than go back to school in this district.

So, we officially “started” home schooling July 1st. We started in the middle of summer because when the new baby gets here, we’ll be taking a week or two off to bond & adjust as a family. A little over two months “into” home schooling, we are finally starting to find a little balance & normalcy – though with this pregnancy nearing it’s end, it’s been a lot more difficult to balance this new life style, home schooling, running Lu & Ed, and growing a tiny human all at once. But we have found a few things that work really well and for any other maker mamas out there considering home schooling while running their biz,  cheers! You can do it! Here’s what has helped me balance lessons & making monsters!

wake up before the kid(s)

Usually way, way easier said that done. But thanks to baby brewing in my belly, most mornings I am up between 4-5am. It’s rough. And I won’t lie, a lot of times in the past few weeks, I haven’t been able to muster the energy  to get out of bed and do productive things. But some mornings I somehow find the spunk to roll out of bed, brew some coffee, soak up a few minutes of me time while I set intentions for the day, and then get some work done before Gauge wakes up (like right now! 6am & I’m up blogging! Go me!!!). You can read my previous post about making the most of summer mornings as a maker mama here – a lot of it is still applicable as a home schooling mom, too!

create lots of opportunity for independent studies

This will vary based on the age of your child, but for us, after we work together through math, vocabulary words & science, my son has the rest of the day to work on reading, creative writing or studying history/social studies independently (right now we are covering Early American History, from the discovery of America to the Industrial Age, and I let him pick which time period to study in the evenings that week – right now he’s obsessed with the Revolutionary War!), which is usually done through reading historical stories/biographies, work books, or watching documentaries. While he is doing his independent studies, I get in some sewing! If he finishes up daily lessons while I’m still working, or before his dad gets home/dinner time, his options are educational programs, reading, art projects or outside play. This gives me about 4-6 hours a day to dedicate directly to my business. There’s a ton of ways to provide resources for independent study that allows you time to balance your handmade business – from work sheets to iPad apps, nature documentaries to free play with creative toys (Legos, blocks, fort building, marble mazes, obstacle courses, creating Rube Goldberg contraptions) or “recess” outside if you can work from a place where you can supervise your children!

make your creative business a priority

Home schooling while running a creative business from home means your kids are around you 24/7. It can be a little overwhelming at first adjusting to the new schedule and constant contact if in previous years, you’re child went to school outside the home. This is why it’s so important to set boundaries for you, your partner, and your child(ren). I made sure before we started my son knew that just because he was going to be home, didn’t mean he would 1) play video games all day & 2) have my undivided attention all day long, because I do have a business to run. So he knows during independent study time, to work through problems on his own, research & try to find the answers himself & we’ll review materials/lessons the next morning – so there’s no need to bust into my room while I’m sewing eleventy billion times to ask me questions about his current lessons. (Note: providing age appropriate study material with clear directions is essential to making independent study time, and therefore time for mama to make things, a success!)

get creative: utilize activities & classes

As moms, and makers, and creative business owners, we often feel as we have to do it all alone. You don’t! There’s so many amazing resources, both conventional and more creative, to utilize to make home schooling easier & more enjoyable.

Find your tribe. This was hard for me, because we couldn’t afford a co-op this year, but even if it’s just one other home schooling parent you can meet to have coffee with, chat about your day, share lesson time with or swap kids with for a day for a few hours to get some work done, find those people, love them, give them coffee and chocolate, and schedule a bunch of play dates! Finding a few great home schooling buddies (for both my son & I!) has proven to be the greatest home school aid. Taking time for social gatherings is essential for mental health, plus getting out of the house regularly keeps the creative juices flowing.

Consider outside specialized classes & use community resources. Not only does this take a load off of you if say, you aren’t feeling on par with current math or science standards, or your child wants to learn something you have no clue how to teach (like coding, sign language, Spanish or theater), there are many community resources that offer once a week classes for 1-6 hours a day that your child can participate in – which gives you a little more time to invest in your creative business! If you are in the WNC area near me, check out Elevate’s class list – they have a huge list of interests and subjects, from history & science to dance & parkour! Local zoos, museums & nature centers often have programs for home school students as well. And don’t forget to check your local library’s list of activities – most libraries have “after school” clubs for 1-3 hours a day, once a week. Ours has a Lego club that meets every Tuesday from 4-5:30, a Minecraft club, and a few other specialized interests clubs. Not only does specialized classes & community resources like these give your child a chance to socialize & explore new interests, you can bring your laptop & get some computer work done, or bring along your current hand sewing/crocheting/knitting projects to work on, while your kid enjoys their classes/clubs! This winter, my son is taking coding & Spanish classes. 🙂

teach your child(ren) about entrepreneurship

Having your kids home with you while you run a creative business is a great opportunity to teach them about commerce, budgeting, consumer math, graphs & charts, conversion rates, scheduling, money management, ROI (return on investment, AKA measurable data for an action & it’s corresponding reactions, like purchasing an ad on a blog & tracking traffic/sales that it generates to gauge how much value that action garnered) and most importantly – the value in hard work & dedication to making your dreams come true! Involve them in the process. Give them simple, age appropriate tasks to do to help make the functions of your creative business run more smoothly – my son helps me a bit each day with things like stuffing monster bits, pairing fabrics, sewing, cutting things out, packing orders, and doing postal runs. He also has learned a lot about conversion rates, profit/loss charts, income projections, marketing, photography, public relations & more. He’s always been an active part of my business, but this year I’m really showing him more of the functionalities & processes that go into running an ecommerce business & how he can apply those skills to other parts of his life.

accept that some days, you aren’t going to get it all done

At first I was completely, totally overwhelmed, and between trying to find a good rhythm for lessons & try to find time to sew while dealing with third trimester exhaustion, there was a lot of bad days. For instance, I like to sew first thing in the mornings – Gauge does better with his math first thing in the mornings, and it’s one subject he does need more supervision & guidance on. So I have had to sacrifice my most creative time to do my least favorite thing ever (ugh, math), which sometimes ruined an entire day for me creatively because it just saps my juju; but after a few weeks of this, settling into a new routine of sewing after lunch (while not as creatively charged) is still a routine capable of productivity. It just requires a bit more effort!

I know here in a few weeks when Baby Z gets here, that’s going to throw our entire system out the window and we’ll be starting from scratch again. And that’s okay, because I also know we’ll find our rhythm again (eventually). If you are considering embarking on a home school journey as a maker mama, stay flexible, don’t be afraid of adjusting your schedule time & again, and know that once you find what works for you & your child(ren), it gets easier to balance productivity for your business & lessons for your kids!

Any other maker mamas out there home schooling their kids?

I would love to hear your advice, opinions & thoughts on balancing it all, what works for you, and what concerns you may have about running a creative business while educating your child. Let’s discuss in the comments!

5 Tips for getting more exposure in the Storenvy Marketplace (or possibly getting featured on their social media accounts!)

A lot of people struggle with leveraging the Storenvy Marketplace. While the dream is being able to just throw some listings up, walk away and make sales, unfortunately, that’s not how selling online works. You have to put in a lot of effort, do a lot of research, network and make connections, and become established as a Marketplace seller to start to really see the benefits of being a part of the Storenvy Marketplace – or any online e-commerce marketplace venue!

But! There are a few things you can do to get more exposure as a Storenvy Marketplace seller, and possibly even get featured on their social media channels! They have over 67,000 Facebook fans, 23,000 Twitter followers & almost 10,000 Instagram followers, so anything you can do to increase the possibility of getting your products selected as an Editor’s Pick or featured by Storenvy should be a priority!

Have amazing, well lit, clutter free product photos.

Have you SEEN their Insta feed?

Storenvy rocks a highly curated, drool worthy Instagram feed featuring unique items with bright, well lit product photos. There’s no clutter, distracting backgrounds, dark shadows obscuring any details of the products. All of the images singularly focus on the product, they all have excellent lighting and composition and they are all very unique products – however if you visit the shops they are from, you’ll notice the branding from one photo carries over to all the images, providing a very consistent, professional look in their stores. In order to possibly one day see your items hit this line up – you have to deliver photos of ALL of your products that are equal to the quality of images found in their Insta feed. If your product photos don’t meet the aesthetic Storenvy is trying to create, they won’t get featured. Besides good images increasing the likelihood of being featured on their social media channels, they also increase your odds of becoming an Editor’s Pick (meaning your product shows up in every single Storenvy users feed, plus it’s been proven again and again the better your photos, the more likely people are to purchase your products.

Have an active marketplace store

Storenvy loves all of their sellers, but won’t feature shops that don’t have active Marketplace stores on their social media pages, plus you can’t become an Editor’s Pick if you aren’t in the Marketplace – so make sure all of your products are listed for sale in the Storenvy Marketplace! But active doesn’t just mean having listings up, either. The more traffic, Watchers, Envies & sales your Marketplace store is generating, the more likely you are to be featured. So be sure to join the Storenvy Community Group & The Storenvy Collector’s Group I run on Facebook – both will get you active and involved in the Marketplace & increase your odds of getting featured! Also be sure to let people know about your Marketplace side store – pin items from it from time to time, blog about it, let people know they can Envy an item to save it for later if they aren’t ready to purchase. Obviously our goals is to promote our custom Storenvy websites, where sales are free, but the more you work to generate traffic to your Marketplace store the higher your products will appear in search results, which results in more organic traffic as well!

Tag #storenvy & @storenvy in all your posts

Make sure to use the #storenvy hashtag and tag @Storenvy in all your Insta and Facebook posts. This gives them an easy way to find your posts & discover your goods! Plus it groups your posts with other #storenvy posts, so people browsing for Storenvy shops to buy from can find you!

Make sure your Storenvy URL is in your bio or linked on your fan page

Obviously, if Storenvy is going to feature goods from a seller, they want link backs to benefit them. So make sure your Insta bio links to your Storenvy shop, not your Etsy or blog URL, and the same goes for Facebook. As an aside, NOT linking to their Storenvy shop is the main reason a lot of people AREN’T making sales on Storenvy. If you want people to find you on Storenvy, you gotta make sure that you are directing them there. Having the links on your social pages direct to Storenvy will also increase inbound traffic, which boosts your listings in search results. Yay!

Encourage people to shop the Storenvy marketplace

Do you know why Etsy is so successful? Because everyone just says “I got it on Etsy” or “have you tried looking for it on Etsy?” So, it stands to reason, the more people talk about Storenvy, the more sales sellers will generate through the Marketplace.

But also replying to posts on Instagram or Facebook & tagging @Storenvy will show them you’re an avid supporter, which is a lot more likely to put you on their radar than anything else. See a post where someone is talking about selling online? Suggest @Storenvy. Tell them why you love it. When someone asks where to shop for something? Suggest @Storenvy. Put up a post about why you love Storenvy & why people should sell/shop there. Wear your support for the platform on your sleeve and encourage others to as well! It will help the Marketplace thrive, increase organic traffic for all shops, plus let Storenvy know “Hey, guys, I love you. You are doing a great thing here, and I’m happy to be a part of it.” Active community members are more likely to get noticed than silent sellers – so be active and an advocate!

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These are just a few of the tips I have for increasing your presence on Storenvy & also increasing your odds of getting featured on their social media channels – I hope you find these tips helpful!

Do you have a specific question about selling on Storenvy? Feel free to leave a comment & I’ll do my best to get a post up with an answer. ♥

3 things your social media campaign should be doing for your followers

It’s crazy to think I’m in my 7th year as a maker! I’ve devoted a lot of those 7 years to market analysis, social media experimentation & researching different methods of campaign building. While I can tell you what works for the accounts I manage (did you know I offer social media consulting/management? Sure do! Feel free to email me at cody@luanded.com for more info!), I’m also a huge consumer, and work to connect makers with consumers. Given my experience in the maker movement, I always try to wrap up my knowledge into some info packed blog posts to help other maker mamas get their footing & give them things to experiment with on their own journeys.

When you are running a successful social media campaign, it should be capable of doing these three things almost effortlessly, all of which result in higher sales conversions and consistent audience growth in my experience, as well as more opportunities for exposure, both locally and globally. Implementing some of the simple posting tricks below into your campaign is a definite way to increase interactions & pave your path to becoming established as a maker, which looks a little different for everyone.

So grab your favorite drink, curl up & evaluate your social media campaign – can it do all three of these things?

Painting a clear picture of what exactly it is that you do

This is the one I deem the most important, and while it seems like a no brainer, there has been a huge shift in how makers present their products, thanks to the brand rep movement. It makes it harder to distinguish artisans from wholesalers. So when I say your social media account needs to paint a clear picture of exactly  what it is that you do, I don’t mean “I make monsters, so I should have a picture of monsters on my account and say I make monsters.” I mean, you should be showing very clearly how involved you are in the processes of your business. From sourcing materials to product creation to packing orders. This can be done many ways, from regularly posting WIP (works in progress) Insta posts to a blog post showing the steps of your process for products from time to time. It’s important to integrate those behind the scenes photos; while having a stylized feed of modeled product shots is great, it can alienate you from those grass roots connections that could lead to many, many sales & opportunities – from features in blogs, magazines, and other publications to vending and wholesale opportunities – even opportunities like being nominated as Best Indie Crafter of your region.

For a quick example: Back when I ran the Daft Crafts blog, I did hundreds of product & maker features- but if the social media accounts were just stylized images, I was uncertain if the products were actually handmade. So those makers were never featured, because I didn’t have the time to individually contact every person with a product that caught my eye to verify they were made from raw materials and not purchased wholesale & were just being resold (which is another concern with highly styled feeds, but that’s a post for another day), and so some makers missed out on the opportunity of being featured on my blog with over 10K page views a month. There are literally thousands of blogs like Daft Crafts out there – and odds are, if their editors can’t distinguish if your products are handmade very quickly upon glancing at your site or social media campaign, they won’t be selecting your wares for features any time soon. Transparency is crucial to success in the maker movement.

So post those WIP photos! Show off your work space! Snap a shot of you out in the wild, sourcing materials!  Get someone to take pictures of you working that screen press or sewing machine! Hire a professional for a shoot if you want the images just right – but you need at least one behind the scenes image a week to be cropping up in your feeds to show consumers & publicists alike that your products are indeed made from hands and heart.

Not only do publishers love it, but consumers do, too! As a consumer, I personally don’t purchase from a shop if I can’t tell if their products are actually handmade and not drop shipped or purchased wholesale, and have had several discussions about this barrier between consumers & makers. Transparency completely eliminates this concern for consumers and handmade advocates.

From the maker standpoint, it’s very important for me to share my business processes. For every behind the scenes photo I post, I gain numerous new followers that day as well as see an influx in the likes and comments on photos both before and after the work in progress photo, as well as an increase in sales. I think it’s because it intrigues the audience – a lovely shot of something being made! What IS THAT?! So they click over to learn more. And isn’t the goal of social media that, to effortlessly create content that intrigues people about it to become a follower, then potentially a buyer, without having to give away product or spend time trying to make a sale? Showing the process of creation drives a genuine connection between you & your products, streamlining audience growth & widening your sales funnel.

I do want to address that I know it’s hard to let go of the Instagram mentality – that everything has to look the exact same, all your images should be similar – but really, you can build your branding into the process shots. It’s all about styling images, using key elements in your photos & having consistent lighting in your images. Baby Jives does an incredible job of maintaining her branding and stylized images even in WIP shots, as does Honey & The Hive, who also does a great job of sharing her family life and interests without straying from her brand, making her feel very authentic and personable.

Igniting conversations

I’m not saying every post should be some eloquently crafted conversation starter – but at least one a week should be.

With both Facebook & Instagram’s algorithms, posts with more authentic comments & likes (i.e., you aren’t link dropping or using comment pod groups)  pushes your posts and account higher in the algorithm and gives you better visibility. Both services have ways to detect inauthentic comments – ones that come from a link, for instance, or if 50 people are all commenting on each other’s accounts, it’s apparent to the algorithm these are not authentic comments. The algorithms are set to measure comments from followers or people who find you through hashtags, and tracks how many people who scroll past your photo/posts in such ways actually stop to interact with it. Those authentic likes and comments are what you want.

So at least once a week, create something great to talk about. It doesn’t have to be deep, or meaningful, every time – but it does have to be something worth talking about, or people won’t. Simple as that. I have a post here with ten Facebook statuses to get people talking – use it for a jumping off point and go from there!

Fostering community

And once you get people excited about your social media campaign & get them talking, keep them talking. Reply to their comments, ask questions, tag people who can relate to their reply – make them feel valued, like their words matter. Because they do – they spent valuable seconds of their life, time they can’t get back, investing in your business. They matter. So show appreciation!

Audience members who feel valued & appreciated are more likely to purchase & be a repeat buyer. Even if it’s as simple as saying “Thank you! How was your weekend?” when they say your latest photo is awesome on Instagram. Invest in your audience. Make them feel connected. They will only leave so many comments without reply or acknowledgement before they click that unlike/unfollow button.

Basically…

You want your social media campaign to feel like a place where people gather excitedly, happily, like an open studio night. Your social media campaign should be able to show people who you are, what you do, start conversations with them and keep those conversations going. Makers need to be as transparent as possible about their processes, to open themselves up to even more opportunities – maybe that’s their city’s indie craft niche, for instance, which can lead to newspaper or television features which leads to dozens of other opportunities, or maybe an invite to an exclusive maker’s group that is teeming with knowledge and support channels. There are so many benefits to sharing your processes with the world!

Embrace the maker movement & wear it proudly! Show the world the person, processes and personality behind the products, and you’ll feel a shift in how your audience responds to your content.

How important do you think these three things are to social media campaigns?

On hanging tough, even when it sucks: How my divorce impacted my handmade business

This isn’t a happy-go-lucky how to find success in difficult times story. This is me being raw with the world about the realities of being a small business owner, and how making a life choice can have a detrimental impact on your business.

It all started last year, and when my ex-husband and I agreed to separate in October of 2015. It probably seemed sudden to pretty much everyone, but it wasn’t. There wasn’t any infidelity. There was no big, messy divorce. It was a simple matter of an inability to compromise, on both our parts, and failure to handle life changing events in an understanding way, on both our parts, over the course of several years. There’s no single person at fault, we just weren’t the right people for one another. I can say this with confidence, because he’s moved on, I’ve moved on, and mutual friends who were actively there during our seven year relationship and marriage openly tell me that we are both so much happier and better off without one another. We tried to make it work, and it didn’t, for the simple fact we just weren’t right for one another. And that’s okay.

Shortly after filing for divorce and moving half way across the country to NC, I deleted over a hundred people from my personal Facebook page. Old friends from KC, some random crafters I had added but never spoke to, my old hair stylist (who I loved and miss very much!), obviously my ex-husband and his entire extended family. No hard feelings against any of them, I just needed time to heal, and privacy. I kept only my close friends and family in the loop through that transitional period. I valued Facebook as this weird, sort of sacred space as a place to share my journey into my new life with only those I felt intimately able to open up to. I figured there were so many other channels to connect on, Twitter, Instagram, email, phone calls and text, that I could still keep in touch with anyone else I removed from my personal Facebook page during this time. What I was going through was very personal though, and my logic was if anyone was concerned about me during that period, they would reach out and ask me how I was doing, or if I wanted to talk about it. And I would have! Because reaching out to someone is personal, and my preferred method of discussing personal business is one on one, heart to heart conversations.

Inspirational card via Print Therapy

Perhaps severing those connections wounded some. That wasn’t my intention. I was simply taking the time & space I needed to heal. My business felt the almost immediate throat punch of my transition though, more than I did at the time. Upon my move, I lost my support network I had built in KC over 6 years. Some to bitterness from being removed from Facebook, I’m sure (if they had asked I would gladly have explained why!), some perhaps simply to the fact I wasn’t a local business anymore. Either way, I was fully unprepared for the next 8 month stint in which online sales slowed almost to a halt right when I needed them the most, as I was fully reliant on my monster making income for the first time in the history of being a small business owner.

I struggled with feeling deflated & depressed about my business during those months; After years of successfully growing Lu & Ed, suddenly, the silence was overwhelming. The lack of income was terrifying. I attempted to find a job locally but was turned down for every position I applied for because my work history – having owned my own company for seven years & the list of skills that went along with that “overqualified” me for every position I tried to apply for, even when I dumbed it down. Tax season helped a bit; I was able to use money from my return to secure my own place, where I thought if I had more room to produce more inventory, sales would increase. Unfortunately, not the case. And now I had rent and utilities to worry about it. And the cost of living in WNC is much, much higher than I anticipated.

It was a very scary point in my life for me.

Thankfully, my family & support network here helped me as much as they could – my brother let me live with him for the first five months free of rent so I could save money. My mom and dad pitched in when I couldn’t make ends meet after I moved into my place in March and had the slowest month for sales ever recorded in the history of Lu & Ed. They all encouraged me to keep working my dream, to keep making monsters. They split foods in bulk from SAMS Club to offset food expenses for me in April, which enabled me to finally able to write my first rent check completely on my own for the month of May.

Me mailing the very first rent check I wrote all on my own since moving!

From there, things began to look up. My new partner, Kris, moved in with me to help alleviate living expenses & help raise our son. I was able to relax a little about bills & reinvest a small portion of my income into doing local shows to help establish my little business here. While the shows were hit or miss, and I had to back out of a few for time issues or health reasons, I have had several good stockings in my shop since then, and sales are steadily picking back up. I secured a seasonal wholesale account with Scout & Timber Co in Colorado, a consignment deal with The Littlest Birds here in Asheville, and will be meeting with another children’s store locally this month to discuss another wholesale opportunity.

I also started babysitting a few kiddos during the week, which has greatly helped while I work to become established here in WNC with my monster biz, and it’s also super helping me with making connections & building my mama tribe here!

So slowly, things are coming together. True to my word of the year, the first half of 2016 was all about grinding off the jagged edges to expose the loveliness underneath. I couldn’t have gotten through these last few months without my family, and Kris. I am so thankful to have them, and to be so very close to my parents, my siblings, all my nieces and nephews. It’s such a beautiful life here, even when things are scary, volatile and uncertain.

I have a good feeling about the second half of 2016. Still got some grinding to do, but I feel like things are going to start smoothing out soon – I am stronger than I was before, and more eager than ever to embrace this brave new life, no matter what it throws at me!

Here’s to a beautiful second half of the year!

Tips for Maker Moms: Make the most of your summer mornings.

Summer break can make being a maker mom exceptionally difficult, especially if one or more of your kids are school aged and you have gotten adjusted to having several kid-free hours a day to get things done for your little handmade biz. I’m far from a list making, future planning, staying on schedule mama/maker (I’m actually REALLY FAR from even being remotely organized in any way, ha!) but I do have a few things I’ve implemented over the years that really boost summer productivity for your life on the maker end of things, while allowing lots of time for summer fun with your kids, too!

wake up early

I opt to wake up early, since my son stays up fairly late in the summer some times to use his telescope or watch a movie together or something. Plus, night time is my time – it’s time I invest in my partner, and myself. I watch some TV, color, read, have a sweet snack or just sit and stare at the wall. Gotta get that me time in! Self care is so important. Some mornings “early” is 7am, some mornings (like this morning) it’s 5:30, when my partner’s alarm goes off and my eyes pop open and I immediately know there’s no way I’m going back to sleep. This gives me between one and four hours of kid free time center myself & tackle some projects.

drink some water

Seriously, before your coffee, drink a glass of water. It really does wonders to wake up your body through hydration instead of caffeine. For me, I feel more focused, less achey, and more awake after drinking water than I ever did when I drank a cup of coffee right after waking up! Add in some lemon for some extra health benefits while you’re at it!

eat breakfast

Eat something nutritious for breakfast to give yourself an extra boost of energy & get your gut moving. I don’t know why, but eating first thing in the morning helps set a good foundation for the day and helps to keep my energy levels up through the day,  while helping wake my body up naturally.

“meditate”

I put quotations around mediate because I feel like it’s different for everyone. I don’t expect you to pop into lotus position and “ommmm” your way to peace – just find your inner zen, set some intentions. Maybe you do this in the form of stretching, doing some yoga, or just drinking some tea/cocoa/coffee while it’s still hot (you know, since you’re up early, before the kids, and are able to enjoy it all, right?). Whatever centers you – do that. For me, I drink my water, then I light some incense and make a cuppa cocoa. I sit for a while and just breathe and enjoy it, and think about what I’d like to accomplish today for a few moments. Usually this practice lasts about a minute, sometimes five minutes. Sometimes I take a little extra time and color a picture in one of my zen adult coloring books while I drink my cocoa and just let my mind wander for a bit before I get up and set to work.

get some sh*t done

After I’ve “meditated”, I use this quiet time before the kid(s) wake up to tackle some projects – whether that’s drafting some blog posts, scheduling social media content, cutting out monster bits, sewing, playing around with some design work, reordering business cards, packing up orders – I use it to do something, anything to move my business forward & keep up productivity. The more I can get done before my son wakes up, the more time I can spend with him! I still have to a bit of work while he’s awake, but there’s a lot less pressure to be working, checking social media, posting to social media, even thinking about my business if I am up early and getting things done before he’s awake. Sure, I’m a little more tired some days, but that’s just a reminder to go to bed a little bit earlier the next night (hello, back to the whole self care thing).

set up independent play in the mornings

For my son, whose 10, before he can play video games or we go out to do fun summer activities, there’s a list of things he has to do independently – all total it takes about two hours. I help with some of it (checking his work in his work books & math lessons) but the other stuff, like doing the dishes, tidying his room, reading, practicing Spanish, doing an art project – those are all things he can do independently and it gives me a little more time in the mornings to get some work done when I need to prep for shows or stockings or I’m rushing to finish a wholesale order. Depending on the age of your kids, this could be settling them in for a TV show or to color for a bit while you type up a blog post. They could have special toys they are only allowed to play with this during this time. It could be them running around the yard while you watch from your work space. This may not be feasible for you at all, and that’s okay – it’s just something we have found works really well for us during summer vacation because it provides my son with unplugged activities for a few hours, prevents boredom, promotes a healthy variety of interests & gives me a bit more time to dedicate to my monster biz. Whatever works for you, do that.  It may be something completely different for you. Plus, having the “quiet” activities be the first activities of the morning is just so peaceful – after about ten, things get cray & noisy up in here.

take days off

Sometimes, throw work to the wind and just embrace being a mom. Take a day to go hiking, go swim in the rivers (or the pool if that’s more your thing), go to the art museum or science museum or something! Completely unplug for a while and just enjoy time with your kids. I bet being home with them is one of the driving forces in your mama maker business dream (I know it is for me), so live it.

And that’s how I do around here, to keep things running smoothly over summer break. Feel free to weigh in down in the comments – how do you keep up momentum when all you want to do is just sloooow it down & relax in the summer?

Do you struggle with productivity in the summer?