Send us a text A lot of the time, we think about the benefits of in-person markets solely related to the sales we do on the specific day(s) of the market. But what if you thought a little bit more strategically? This week’s guest shares how she’s approaching selling at markets as a means of direct market research for who her ideal customer just might be… or not be. Guest Resources: Yvonne's Instagram - @_yvonnerausch Love this podcast? Support an episode! Click here to learn more. Follow Th...
Aug 12, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Season 4Ep. 97
Send us a text In this 3rd installment of "The Launch" series, I'm comparing the dynamics between small markets and multi-day art fairs, shedding light on the energy and small bit of acting skills needed for face-to-face sales. As made clear by so many past interviews here on the podcast, there is a huge value to the direct conversations we can have at markets for understanding our potential customers' interests, but the thing that might come as a massive surprise to everyone...
Aug 04, 2023•39 min•Season 4Ep. 96
Send us a text Most of the time, when I talk with other makers about taking the leap to go full time, we talk about the logistical things - having a bit of savings put away in case of emergency, understanding your numbers to make sure the pricing can support your necessities, getting an email list going in order to have ownership over your audience, etc. etc. etc. And while these things are indeed important, the unsung workhorse of being able to make a living from the things you make - the thing...
Jul 21, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Season 4Ep. 95
Send us a text A 4 day work week… it’s the thing of dreams. And, according to many many studies I’ve read about in many books, actually highly linked to better productivity and all sorts of other very business-savvy things that only a fool would say no to. But in all of those books I’ve read, the examples have been from companies that had teams . So it was very easy to tell myself excuse after excuse of why it could clearly work for a team , but not work so well for us solo-preneurs, or itty bit...
Jul 14, 2023•53 min•Season 4Ep. 94
Send us a text Episode 2 of the special The Launch series! This week I reflect on our first in-person market experience - just 6 short days after it happened. So yes, I'm still tired. :) We also have some insightful questions from our Community members as our framework for this review on the highs and lows of our first market. If you want to see the visuals from the market (including the booth setup and our most popular items we sold), come visit our ceramics Instagram account @carra.terra....
Jul 07, 2023•46 min•Season 4Ep. 93
Send us a text Have you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall while someone else starts a ceramics business? From the very beginning? Well, you’re in luck! In this new series - The Launch - I’m sharing (in as real-time as I can) the reality of what it’s like for Francesco and I to start our pottery business, Carra Terra. First up, what the last 2 years of twists and turns, starts and pauses, has been like and how that’s brought us to this summer of going all in on in-person markets. Spoiler: This ...
Jun 23, 2023•26 min•Season 4Ep. 92
Send us a text Commissions… I feel like it’s a four letter word when I talk to some potters. You see them physically tense up and take a deep breath ready to do battle with a fire breathing dragon. And I’ve always been a little bit confused by this because I kind of like them. Just add it to the list of the ways that it makes me a bit of a black sheep in the art world. You can slot it right next to my love of systems and routine and willingness to talk about marketing and sales. But I digress… W...
Jun 16, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Season 4Ep. 91
Send us a text Do you feel like the time you spent in a previous career (or a current one) is just pulling you away from moving forward in clay? But have you ever considered that the “background knowledge” you have gained from other life experiences is actually part of creating your unique voice and style as an artist? In this week’s episode, Larissa Warren of Rat Bag Studios and I discuss how her previous career as a teacher directly influences her current work, how the connections and backgrou...
Jun 11, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Season 4Ep. 90
Send us a text My chat this week with Gloria Han opens up so many bit and important conversations (spoiler: this means, there’s going to be a part two!). From getting into education because of a passion for teaching (rather than it being the automatic route after graduate school as it is for so many), to balancing contemporary work with traditional making practices, and encouraging new artists to consider the wisdom of generations of knowledge before defaulting to the overused excuse of there be...
May 26, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Season 4Ep. 89
Send us a text When I sat down with Paul Blais of the Potter's Cast and a packed room of fellow makers at NCECA, we hit upon a lot of business subjects. Frankly, just one of the questions he threw my way could have been its own entire episode. So today I’m expanding on a few of those subjects in this solo episode. If there are still questions you had from that chat, send me over an email at podcast@makers-playbook.com and I’ll queue up another follow up episode as well! Because if there was...
May 21, 2023•35 min•Season 4Ep. 88
Send us a text When I say “making a living” what do you think I mean? Do you immediately think of income and how much money you make? Or do you think of how you spend your time? Do you think of the balance between working hours and leisure hours? I don’t think there is one particularly correct answer, but on this episode of The Maker’s Playbook, our guest, Danny Meisinger does put this phrase into some very helpful perspective for those of us trying to figure out the financial side alongside the...
May 12, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Season 4Ep. 87
Send us a text It’s our final replay week! Season 4 starts out next week, with someone who has been on my personal bucket list to interview for quite a long time. Before that though! Our final replay of one of the most popular conversations from last year - with someone who I have absolutely loved watch grow over the last two years. Jackie Wright was one of the inaugural members of my very first cohort for The Maker’s Photography Styling System. And frankly, she’s worked that system better than ...
Apr 28, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 86
Send us a text While I take a long overdue break from the screens, we're replaying some of our most popular episodes! At the end of this original episode I reference The Community - our online home for makers. One of the coolest things about The Community (aside from being an amazingly supportive group of makers from all over the world rooting each other on and joining together to creatively brainstorm around the myriad of problems we all have to find solutions to), is that the doors are al...
Apr 21, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 85
Send us a text While I take a long overdue break from the screens, we're replaying some of our most popular episodes! And it’s no wonder these 4 episodes are some of our most listened to over the last year, because as I compiled them, I realized they are all on topics that really never end… Just as I mentioned in our Live taping at NCECA (episode 335 in case you were curious), one of the most unexpected things about being a business owner is that you essentially are always in a cycle - it’s...
Apr 14, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 84
Send us a text While I take a long overdue break from the screens, we're replaying some of our most popular episodes! In the original episode, I referenced our 6-week photography course specifically for potters: The Maker's Photography Styling System. I'll be hosting this course again this year, but I don't quite know the exact dates just yet. If you are curious about it and want to be the first to find out when doors open again, be sure to pop your email address onto the Wai...
Apr 07, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 83
Send us a text LIVE from NCECA! Our recording of the joint (but mostly Paul interviewing me ) episode with the Potter’s Cast is here! We touched the surface on a lot of business topics in this one hour. Anything from the importance of finding your own work before market research, how business is mostly just the scientific process on repeat, and a lot lot more, including direct questions from the live audience that was sitting in front of us the whole time. The room was absolutely packed and fran...
Mar 31, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Season 3Ep. 82
Send us a text How often do you remember the name of someone’s Instagram account before you actually learn their real name? It’s a little weird. But it can also be freeing for some people, because it means you can choose how much of yourself you want to share. You can create an alter-ego of sorts. Not a dishonest representation of yourself - I’m not suggesting we start “catfishing” - but instead, the ability to create a comfort zone for what you share publicly and what you choose to keep private...
Mar 17, 2023•53 min•Season 3Ep. 81
Send us a text If there was a store that was only open for 10 minutes out of the year, would you go to it? Do you think it would even stay in business? What would the business model even look like for such a store? This sounds crazy to describe doesn’t it... Every business advisor out there would tell you that a store needs to be available to people when the people are ready to purchase. Random last minute birthday gifts, mother’s day, of course the lead up to the crazy end of year shopping seas...
Mar 10, 2023•56 min•Season 3Ep. 80
Send us a text Building a business as an independent maker can be hard. And when you add on top of that the financial realities of doing it in an urban center… well, it takes a special level of drive, determination, work ethic and grit to make that happen. All of which, I can safely say Sarah Hussaini undoubtedly has. Sarah (owner of Not Work Related) and I connect on a lot business topics. So many, that I couldn’t contain all of the nuggets of hard earned knowledge in one episode. That’s right ...
Mar 03, 2023•48 min•Season 3Ep. 79
Send us a text One of the most surprising things for many makers pursuing self-employment is that the brainstorming, troubleshooting, and all-around scientific method of experimenting, testing, observing, and pivoting never really ends (unfortunately or fortunately, depending on the day). The strategy you had for selling your pots 10 years ago might not work today, and it can feel like you are back at the drawing board, practically starting from scratch all over again. What you decide today, wel...
Feb 17, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Season 3Ep. 78
Send us a text What if there was a way to grow your audience or broaden your reach without hustling on social media? What if you could focus on fostering a handful of really close relationships with people who understood and appreciated your work, and then in turn, spent their own time working to promote that work and get it out to a curated audience of people interested in possibly purchasing that work? Does it sound too good to be true? Well, this week on the podcast, we talk about a possible ...
Feb 10, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Season 3Ep. 77
Send us a text My chat this week with Virgil Ortiz is packed with insights. From pragmatic business advice, like protecting your intellectual property, to the less tangible topics of manifestation and trusting that things have a way of working out. The history of clay for the Cochiti people and how Virgil’s work, truly almost accidentally and yet oh so beautifully connects generations of storytellers is nothing less than astonishing. If you’ve only recently found the podcast and are feeling disa...
Feb 03, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 76
Send us a text “There’s only so much people can show you until you actually go and do it and fail and practice and practice until you get it….” This week on the podcast, I virtually sit down with Yairs Abraham who started his self-taught pottery journey in Buenos Aires, then moved to New Zealand, and now is potting away in his home studio in what spare time a baby and full-time job allows. But here’s the catch… he prefers it that way. And if his fantastically designed website is any indication, ...
Jan 20, 2023•55 min•Season 3Ep. 75
Send us a text This week, my conversation with Page Kelly of Zephyr Valley Ceramics twists and turns, much like her career paths. A self-proclaimed “late bloomer,” there is this stunning moment in this conversation at about the 46-ish minute marker when Page discusses the narrative body of work she is currently producing, where I hear literally every experience she has had in the last 2 decades - inside and outside of working in clay - come together. It’s an encouraging moment, especially for th...
Jan 13, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Season 3Ep. 74
Send us a text For all of you out there who have been listening to the podcast and thinking, “It’s too late for me to make a career move… I’m too far into this corporate job with the 401ks and the healthcare and all the stuff…” Well, this episode, my friends, is for you. Rebecca of GravesCo sheds light on the decades of experience she had before she “magically”created an “overnight success.” We also nerd out a bit on the way spreadsheets allow us to make creative decisions and I for one, am not ...
Jan 06, 2023•1 hr 29 min•Season 3Ep. 73
Send us a text Ceramics is not exactly an easily mobile art form. And depending on what you are making, it can take up a fair bit of space. So what the heck do you do when you move to New York City, but you know you are only going to be there for 2-4 years? And yet, you are fresh in the beginning stages of getting your business off the ground? Well, that’s exactly what Alex Olson is working on figuring out and this week we’re talking all about it, along with the reality of trying to build new he...
Dec 23, 2022•54 min•Season 3Ep. 72
Send us a text In order to have kept my small business afloat for the last 12+ years, I had to learn a LOT of other skills that have absolutely nothing to do with crafting a photo. In fact, as you’ve heard from many past guests here on the podcast, once you go full-time with your craft, more often than not, you aren’t spending 100% of your time IN that craft. Instead, there’s admin and website updates and taxes and paperwork and customer service and…. Well, the list goes on, but I think you get ...
Dec 16, 2022•59 min•Season 3Ep. 71
Send us a text How often do you find yourself listening to another maker or hearing about another artist’s story to get to where they are now and saying, “Well that worked for them but I…” But I’m not in my 20s. But I’m married. But I have a dog, but I… It can be really easy for any of us (myself included) to come up with all the reasons we can not do something. Until, you hear about someone who, even with all of those things, is doing the thing. This week on the podcast I’m chatting with Ido Fe...
Dec 09, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Season 3Ep. 70
Send us a text The irony of publishing this episode on Black Friday isn't lost on me. But here's the thing: Your emails are NOT the same as the big box stores. At least, not if you are actually (regularly) engaging with the people who have trusted you enough to give you their email address... The true irony is that oftentimes, thanks to our nerves around feeling like we might be spamming people, we wind up only emailing them when we have a shop update or an announcement about a market ...
Nov 25, 2022•39 min•Season 3Ep. 69
Send us a text Dream with me for a minute - What if instead of stressing out over figuring out everything , you simply take the next step? This week on the podcast, I’m interviewing Horacio Casillas, who is currently a resident at Companion Gallery. And he’s spending this unique time as a resident artist doing just that - taking the time to slow down and think . He doesn’t have the next 5 years of life already plotted out and ticking off the to-do list towards whatever crazy goal that demands to...
Nov 18, 2022•1 hr•Season 3Ep. 68
