September 11, 2024 • 28 mins
Cassandra Wilcox Talks Homelessness To Sales Success, Mentorship, Embracing Imperfection + More
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, it's a Wealth Wednesday, so of course Stacey Tisdale
is here.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Happy Wealth Wednesdays everybody, and today we are going to
teach you how to craft. That was really funny.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
That was very crafty.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Had a craft an eight figure business because we have
the one and only Cassandra Wilcox who has done that herself.
Thank you so much for being here today.
Speaker 4 (00:22):
Thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yes, and the name of your business is Crafting with Cassandra.
You can follow that on Instagram. And what I thought
was just wonderful is your journey to success, which everyone's
going to learn all about started in twenty seventeen because
you couldn't afford to buy hoodies for your child's basketball league.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Tell us about that. So, yeah, so my kids had
a basketball game, and of course, at the time, I'm
staying with my sister, having nine to five, it's really
not paying a lot. But I wanted to put them
in a program where they can kind of take their
minds off of the ads. I'll put them in a
Lily basketball game and the coach them to buy these
hoodies for the away games that they go to. I
(01:03):
cannot afford the hoodies, so I reached out to my
brother and I was like, hey, do you know anyone
that can make the hoodies for us? So he found
a crafter. I did not know what craft this was.
He found the craft and she made the hoodies. We
were the hoodies to the game. And now the coaches like,
we want those customazedies. We don't even want the hoodies
we have, so can you make those for us? And
then I reached back out to the craft there like hey,
(01:25):
can you show me how to make them? She was
like no, ma'am, you got to go to YouTube. I
was like, I want to get some of these coolings,
you know, But she was like, no, I can't show
you how to make them. So that's when I got
into so done.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
So you got her to do this for you, Yes,
but then you try to I said, to show you
how to make them kind of in a way mentor you.
But then she yeah, But then she probably was like
I'm not just doing that because that's taking away from my.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
That's what she said, respectless. She like, I had to
get it out of the mud, so you got to
do it too, So I'm not going to show you.
So I actually went to YouTube and then that's when
I had learned how to make the hoodies. But it
took me in entire a year, and I just felt
like if I would have had that mentorship, I could
have got there a lot faster.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Wow, Okay, I could see her saying even like, if you,
you know, we could do this together and I can
mentor you and we could split the profit exactly.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
But no, that was not the mind.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well damn well, it seemed to work out anyway.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
So did they get the hoodies because it took you?
Speaker 4 (02:23):
And no, I ended up telling them I was putting busy,
so I.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Didn't want to, like to turn it in the stuff
I got, right.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
What happened?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
So what happened between tell us what happened between twenty
seventeen and twenty nineteen.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Sisters was so business wise it was still like a
side business. So I'm just perfecting myself.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
So you learned yourself and you started and you figured
out how to order them and how to make them
and everything.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Well, what happened was so when I was getting orders
through her, she would say like, hey, you guys, I
have to go get some more hoodies from JDS. So
she was basically telling me where she was getting her
pride up from when she was making them for me,
so I already was writing down and oh, she get
her hoodies from JDS. So when I went back to
her like hey, can you show me how, she was
(03:08):
like no. It was like, okay, I just need to
learn the craft because I already know where to get
the supplies in a pera from.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
So yeah, and how do you know when you go
on YouTube to because I know YouTube is like the
greatest educational Anything you want to learn, you can do
it on YouTube.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
So you said to take you a year to learn
how to do it.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
So master masters, you need to just learn and be
like Okay, I'm gonna try next week. But you're gonna try,
you're gonna mess up, You're gonna run through equipment supply,
You're going to mess up a lot of money. So
mastering it, I would say it took me a year.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Okay, So you sold it, it looks like quite a
bit between twenty seventeen and twenty nineteen.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
That's when you really know. I didn't really sell a lot.
It was just more just learning the craft and just
forfitting it. But the sales didn't start coming into like
two years later.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
We got so many questions.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I know, I know, I've been looking at your story
and I know you did well enough in those early days.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Is that you quit your job. Yes, that was in
twenty nineteen. So yes, that's when the business took a turn.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Now what caused the business to take a turn?
Speaker 4 (04:07):
So I pivoted a little bit because at the time
in twenty seventeen, they wanted to buy these shirts with
the vinyl on there, so it just was words with
the color vinyl that you got a weed, use your cricket,
your silhouette machine. But then in twenty nineteen, everybody wanted
what we call sublimation t shirts. So you put your
faces on it, you can wear it the funerals, you
get the wings on there, like you can put your
dad face, your mom face, like actual pictures on the shirt.
(04:30):
So that process is called sublimation, where you basically take
a design, you run a design through a printer using
submission paper and submission ink, and then when it prints out,
you use a heat press to press it to a
polyester blank and then the image sinks inside of the shirt.
So that was really popular in twenty nineteen. I got
into that, and then that's when my business started taking off,
people was ordering funeral shirts. They wanted to have birthday shirts,
(04:52):
like now they.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Order How did they know to get it from you?
How did you market yourself in order to get clientele?
Speaker 4 (04:57):
So I literally unfollowed all of my family and friends
on Facebook and started following. I started following because I
was making a lot of kids shirts. I started following
parents that had kids in their pictures. So I didn't
know them, but I'm just like, if I can follow
parents that got kids, They're going to come follow me
back and be like why does she follow me? And
see that I got these custom kids shirts on there?
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Right? And it worked? It is well, that's a very
unique approach. What made you think of that?
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Because I was a parent myself and I was trying
to figure out what would I do?
Speaker 3 (05:26):
So people with random people follow you, you like, let me
go see him where.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
They fire me from? Oh, they make custom kids item,
Let me buy one.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Sell You bought the equipment to the sublimation, Yes, okay,
how much is that equipment at that time?
Speaker 4 (05:39):
So the equipment and the printer you can get it
for like two hundred dollars, The heat press about two
hundred dollars and then you got the sebormation paper ink
and then the blank probably another one hundred dollars with
those supplies. That's not terrible, No, not at all.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Okay, So you got going and I know that you've
told me that you got up to it. You were
making a thousand dollars a week, and you're like, it's
time to equipment my day jobs when your day job.
But that didn't work out.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
So all right. So I'm at the I'm at the desk,
like the orders coming in. I'm like, oh, because I
want to go home and make these shirts. Like my
phone just keep going off. So at the time, I
was already waiting on a raise for my business was
from my job because they was giving everybody else a
raise around me, but they didn't give me one. So
I walking to the HRU, I'm like, okay, let me
see if they're going to give me a raise before
I just quit. So I go in there like, hey,
(06:23):
y'all thought about that rais y'all going to give me?
They're like, well, we're still thinking about it. I'm like,
don't think no more. I'm done. So twenty minutes, give
me time to go pack up my cubicle and I'm
out of here and literally packed in my cubicle, gain
them my twenty minute notice, and then.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
I love wow.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yeah, so you knew that if they didn't say right
then that you were planning to quit or was it
just an under spot?
Speaker 4 (06:44):
It was become a very impulsive like actor thinker, like
I do everything just like in the moment, and sometimes
it's not good. It worked out, It worked out well,
I thought it did until I got home and then
I seen that the following week people wasn't buying shirts anymore.
So I thought shirts was going to be like a
twenty four seven, three sixty five. They need them all
the time. People don't need shirts all the time. They
(07:06):
want them for funerals, they want them for birthdays, they
wanted for vacations. So that's when I knew, like, okay,
I got to come up with another business plan.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
All right, said what was next?
Speaker 4 (07:14):
So the next thing was I'm looking at the inventory
that I'm using to make the shirts. So I was
buying all of my inventory from overseas, and I'm like
looking at the inventory, like what if I use this
inventory and sell it to other craft That's like me,
So now I'm going from B to C to I'm
finna tappingto B to B okay, and I did not
have a community to sell to. So I created a
(07:34):
Facebook group and then I invited like all of my
craft friends, like, hey, come inside of my group. I'm
going to be showing you guys how to sell them
ad how to make these T shirts, and everybody started joining.
I reached out to a couple of more other Facebook
groups like hey, can you shot me out? They shouted
me out, and within that week I gained like a
couple hundred followers in the group.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
But it wasn't easy because I know between that when
you left your job and made this other pivot that
you just said personally only, it was a really challenging
time and I think you went through about to homelessness.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Yeah. So even after I got the group, I'm thinking, Okay,
I started this new business. Everybody's going to join my
group and started shopping with me. And when they joined
the group, I was selling the blanks, which is the
canvas blank. So it was a T shirt blank to
tamblo blank, and they didn't know how to actually sublimate
on the blank. So I would go live for free,
show them how to sublimate it. But then the products
(08:26):
I was selling, I was just selling to make a
sale versus a profit. So literally the same amount I
was paying for the.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Inventory here in Okay, putting nothing on it, nothing.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
On top, because I didn't know how to do it.
This is a new business for me, right, So I
ended up still failing in my eyes and got eviit
and then we had to move into a hotel of
me and my seventeen year old son.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Yeah, and the pandemic, I guess that started in twenty twenty,
so what was that like during that time?
Speaker 4 (08:52):
So during the pandemic, just as a craft, when they
mandated those masks, crafters was like, well, we want to
wear the mask, but we don't want and wear them planes,
So can you show us how to customize these masks
and we're gonna sell it to our customers as a
customized mask. And I just happen to have inventory on head,
the inventory that I really could not sell, but I
still had it, and I just started going live from
(09:14):
the hotel like, hey, you guys, let's make these masks.
Let me show you how to design. This is how
you heat press it. And then the orders like literally
took off. In May of twenty twenty. We did our
first eighty six thousand dollar month just from the community.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And that timing was like a godsend because I know
you you said if it wasn't for your son.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
Oh my god, it was definitely. It was definitely God's
timing because at the time, so when I moved into
the hotel, of course I had to move my inventory
and storage. I had to move my personal belonging to
the storage. And as so I'm standing the storage unit.
I was going to the stores juneral like five in
the mornings a pack because you don't supposed to pack
out of a storage. And I was heat pressing my
customers in the hotel. And one morning I go to
(09:53):
the stores unit and there's a whole family like literally
staying next to me, and they didn't know no one
was there. So when I seen them open up the door,
it was a baby in there, a man in there,
a whole woman in there. And I was like, man,
that could be me easily if I quit, because I'm
sitting here complaining about I'm in a hotel. I'm complaining
about I ain't got no gas, like I'm barely making it,
(10:13):
but at least I have a roof over my head.
So I'll go back to the hotel, literally turn on
my camera going live now intentionally, I'm not just going
live for the sake of it. I'm going live now, like, hey,
we got to get these products, so we got to
get some money coming in. So I'm going live from
sun up to sundown morning on a night. And it
was just at a time that I just felt like
not just giving up, like on my business because it
(10:35):
wasn't working as fast as I wanted to, but I
was really ready to give up on life because in
my thirties, here I am still trying to start a business.
I don't quit my job. I know better at this age.
Now I'm dragging my son into this with me, and
he over there playing his video game and I'm over here, like,
how am I gonna take myself out? I'm finna ask him, Hey,
(10:55):
do you want to go stay with your grandma? And
if people would have been like, yo, mom, I'm tired
of this hotel, then they would have gave me a
chance to like quit. But then when I asked him,
I was like, hey, do you want to go stay
with your aunts or grandma. He was like, no, I'm
gonna stay right here with you. It's like he knew.
And if I leave her, yeah, like she ain't mentally
stay able to just you know. So it's like I
don't know. It was crazy, like he just knew, like,
(11:16):
oh my god, I know I'm staying right here with you.
We're gonna scruggle together. And he's seventeen saying we're gonna
scruggle together. Like what So Dad gave me that motivation
I needed, like, Okay, I gotta do this for him,
show him like how I'm going to get out this wreck.
And I just kept going, I'm going live every day.
When I go live, I put up my bat drop
with my logo on it, and he's on the other
end of the back drop like playing his video game
(11:37):
while I'm like, literally, I'm teaching, hey, y'all, let's press
this shirt today, lets press master today. And then when COVID,
like I said, COVID happened in twenty twenty, that's when
we had our beat break.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
You know, It's interesting because it feels like the fact
that a lot of people didn't help you is what
motivated you to want to do these lives to actually
help other people, and it can be really hard to
be consistent when you don't see the return right away.
A lot of people don't have the patience to say,
I'm going to keep doing this every single day and
I'm want to actually help other people because I didn't
get the help when I could have used it.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Yeah, you know, that's exactly how I feel. Like I
told myself, like that was my why. I'm gonna make
sure whoever want to learn this business, whoever want to
learn how to start their t shirt business, their craft business.
I don't want them to feel how I feelt when
I asked for help. So I'm going to make sure
I help anybody, everybody, no matter what I gotta do.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
So then, now, once you finally started making some money,
what was the next move for you?
Speaker 3 (12:28):
After that?
Speaker 4 (12:29):
It was to pay my credit off, because like, that's
why I can't get right. I'm moving everywhere, like, let
me pay off easy. Big just didn't let me get
my credits together. So I literally cleaned my credit. Everybody
was like, yo, you didn't have you could have dispute that. No,
I know I owe them, let me just pay it off, right,
So I pay my credit off.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
They're right over, Yeah, I wait seven years.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Oh. I was like I have to feel like because
I don't know if this one is gonna last, Like,
let me use it to the best of my ability,
so I'll pay my credit off. End up getting approved
renting a three story house. It had a fully finished basement,
so I moved all of my inventory down there, like,
now operate my business in this basement. I moved my
mom and my son standing there, of course, and the
orders is like literally coming in now more people are
(13:16):
ordering masks. I'm like, oh my gosh, I need help.
I can't be the picker, packer, email person creating content.
So I tell my mom, like, mom, quit your job.
And she's a one with seven kids, like literally been
working two to three jobs all her life to take
care of But she's like, wait, quit my job. Are
you sure? Like, ma'ma quit your job right now, going
in there and get your twenty minute notice like I did.
(13:38):
She's like, wait, let me do two weeks.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I'm like, mom, going there to day T shirt that's
a tea shirt.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
And she literally walked in there and came home the
same day and it was like, I'm done. What you
need me to do and that was in June and
twenty twenty. My mama have not been back to a
nine to five sends so good, so good man, so good.
So I got my mom, she's picking and packing in
the basement. I got my son, I hired my nieces,
my nephews. And now I'm still going live because I'm
(14:10):
realizing I can't make a sale unless I go live.
Like at this time, I don't know about add I
don't know about emails, I don't know about like paid marketing.
Everything is organic through the community. So I'm going line
and they're like, well, since you say we need sublimssion,
paper and ink to make this blank, why don't you
sell it? So I go with I mean, I don't
go to China, but I contact China overseas, Hey, let
(14:30):
me test out this product. And then eventually, when I
launched my submission paper line, the community bought it out
within an hour at one hundred thousand dollars, like literally
the first lunch. Within the hour. We do our first
hundred k. We ended up having a move from the
three story house because the basement was just so full.
Now we're selling paper, we're selling blanks, We got the
(14:51):
ink and then we get our first warehouse same year
in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
That's twenty twenty was your year.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
That was the year that was like, what this really happening?
We get our warehouse, do our first one hundred thousand
dollars lunch, and now I'm still going live. The community
say hey, well do you teach hands on classes because
we might can't learn online. So I turned the front
part of my warehouse into an extra hands on class
that students still come to this day every two weeks,
pack it out to learn how to craft in person.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Wow, your community was such a critical part. It was everything,
and like this whole ecosystem you put together. Talk about
how important that it's to your business and how seriously
other entrepreneurs should take that. You're creating your own customers.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Yeah, it's very important. And I tell people, like a
lot of time, you want to sell what you want
to sell versus selling what your audience want. But you
don't know what your audience want unless you build your
own audience. So that was my thing was like I'm
gonna build my own table and I'm gonna see exactly
what they need so I can know what to provide,
and every time I got in my community, I didn't
have to think twice of what am I gonna push
out next? They was telling me, Hey, do you have this?
(15:55):
I don't, but let me go create it. Hey, can
you teach us this? I don't know how to teach you,
but let me go find somebody can and bring it
to the community. So that was the best part of
just having the community of knowing what I can see
on nexts without having to break my neck to figure
out what they want.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Now, you as to talk about therapy and how beneficial
that was for you. So tell me when you decided
to start doing therapy and how that helped you.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
So it was in twenty twenty one I actually went live.
I just like to go live, like that's just how
I bring more people to my community because they see
my personality like, oh my gosh, I love her. But
this particular live, it was not like a happy live.
I was crying, like I was ready to quit because
at this point I don't retire my mom, I don't
hire five out of my six siblings, and it's just
a lot of pressure on me. Then I'm in the
(16:38):
craft community and they like, yo, this girl is a scammer.
She's making seven figures off of small businesses charging for classes.
Like I feel like everybody was against me and it
was new for me, Like Okay, the money's good, but now,
like I don't know how to handle all of this.
It wasn't fame. It was just like the negative attention.
So I get on Live, I start crying, and then
one of my students in box me like, girl, get
(16:59):
off that lives. Stop crying, and you need to join
this high you know, mentorship community and they're gonna help you,
you know, get around other sits and seven figure earners.
And in that community, they do therapy. It's like a requirement.
Like every week they're saying the therapist and these are
six seven figure entrepreneurs. I'm like, wait, is that how
they able to get through you know, their business and
(17:20):
just life in general. So I started doing therapy every
week and it's really been good because yeah, like it
it just helped me talk to somebody that understands what
I'm going through and showing me how to get to
that next level. So therapy for me is important. Even
to this day, I still do therapy every week and
then just getting around other coaches and mentors that you
(17:40):
know understands exactly what I'm going through.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
So I'm glad you went to therapy. But listening to
your story, like Angela pointed too early at your your
ability to get over yourself. Nobody helped you, but you
created a business helping people. Yea, you know everybody was
giving you a hard time, but you pulled more people
into doing that. Yeah, and now you also have scaled
to say the least of business mentoring and teaching people online.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Tell us about that. So now we are at the
point where so I was always teaching people how to craft,
how to make custom minus, but now they asking, well,
how can I become a coach, How can I start
my own find my own passion that I'm good at,
create my own community, then my own continuity program, and
then how can I do all of that? So I
do have a mentorship now where I show you guys,
(18:24):
step by step how to find what it is that
you're good at, create your community around that, and create
a continuity offer, which is a monthly membership where they
can pay you monthly to keep learning from you. So
that's what I have going on right now.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
So that's not just for anybody who's a crafter. That's
for any type of business.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
Any type of business, whether you are creative or craft
or you just know what their special skill is. I
can help you turn that into a community, like I said,
create that monthly membership and start doing challenges around it.
Like that's a lot of the revenue that I get
it comes from doing challenges.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
And I know you have a challenge. Just wrote down
passion to profits passion number two profits at challenge dot
com and it's a free seven week challenge. I want
everybody to sign up. But tell us, so you started mentoring,
you started online coaching, how many students and how big
(19:17):
a part and how profitable a part is that for you?
Speaker 4 (19:20):
So right now, with the two small programs I have,
well they're not small, they're small. So one of them
is one seventy nine a month and then another one
is one ninety nine a month, and combined we have
three thousand students in those programs paying every month, so
between three hundred and four hundred K and revenue every
month just from the continuity program. That's why I want
(19:40):
to teach you to others, Like imagine if you can
have a skill where you create a community that's willing
to pay you that kind of money every month to
learn from you. So go ahead.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
I was gonna say, it must have been really hurtful
when you said people were saying you were a scammer,
And I think, so, how do you overcome something like
that because those are really harsh allegations that for some
people can ruin their business.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
Yeah, So to me, it's just like focusing on the
people that love me versus the people that hate me,
because if I spend more time like focusing on the negativity,
and the people that really support me is going to
be like, well, wait, she don't respond to us like that,
so maybe I need to be negatiorids her to get
her attention. So I just try to focus all of
my attention on my community and not on this because
the scamming came from people are not used to you
(20:23):
charging for your knowledge. They want you to do everything
for free. But I tell them, like, if you go
to college literally pay to learn, and you still get
out of college, you win there. You still got like
why is it so hard for you to pay your
black business owner that learn from literally got it out
the mud? And I'm going to show you how to
do it before a small fee, right, and it's like
I can go to YouTube or that. Why are you
(20:43):
charging like that.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
If you can?
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Wow, go ahead, Oh yes, it's right, right because yeah,
I do think that courses and coaches and those are
all things that you invest in it. And I think
sometimes that said, when you're paying for something, you feel
more of an obligation to make yeah, to actually do
it because now you've invested into something, and then you're
paying for that community of people that can hopefully support
(21:08):
And I think the other thing that's important is that
you have success stories and you have people that have
been part of your community that have paid for the coaching,
that can say, thanks to this, here's what I've been
able to accomplish.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
It's the proof of concept.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Yes, definitely.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
And you not only have success stories, you are a
success story. So this all started in twenty seventeen. And
now how much is your business grown to? What's your business?
Speaker 4 (21:30):
So right now to this day, we have done fourteen
million dollars in sales. Totally wrong, Yeah, so crafting.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
We you guys for step by step?
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Yes, so from twenty nineteen, I mean twenty twenty when
I actually like started making the sales. So now twenty
twenty four we have done fourteen million revenue.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
You knew and talk about just listening. This is I mean,
I love it because we are giving us like step
by step how you broke down your story. Yeah, knowing
to pivot at the right time.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
Oh, this is very important. Like I said, a lot
of the times we want to seal what we want
to sell versus knowing what to sell and not just
knowing what, but knowing when when is it? When is
it in demand? Like right now, teach my students, Hey,
we're in football season, basketball season, you should not be
selling Valancine's. They stuff like focus because they just love
(22:22):
to crowd, just love to do everything all the time.
It's like, no, let's focus on focus on what's in
demand to get people to buy, and then we're gonna
move on to Christmas items and then you know, New
Year's items in February. But just making sure they know
what to market, when to market, and how to market
that's very important.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
What are some unusual trends that you've seen as far
as what people went, Like divorce parties. I know those
have gotten a lot more popular, and like, what are
some things that you're.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Going around when I got to divorce?
Speaker 4 (22:51):
Like they they love to hop on trends like well
with the uh the cat Williams, Like they love to
make okay, yeah when that and what I don't like that?
I tell them not to do. They love jumping on
trends like when somebody passed. So it's like I want
to make a rich homey show and I'm like, no,
like this just happened, Like don't.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Do that, like be sensitive to the family and yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
I know it'll be profitable right now, but don't do it.
So just making sure they know like what's the marketing
and who the market and how to market because everything
is a trend, but it's just not the right time
for it.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
So and then some things you need to really quick
turnaround for people, right, because trends do come and go
so fast, and it'll be like a phrase that's really
popular and then next thing, you know, somebody want to
make you know, some some type of merch and.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Right, what was that thing that happened with the boat
with the.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Chair like Montgomery Broun, Yes, oh my god.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
That was like a heavy money maker. Like everybody was
making those designs with the chair with the sands. So
that was a really hot trend.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Right now.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Yeah the murr, Yeah you can't see.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
And for general advice for entrepreneurs talking about this and
you like called me out, you said, just give up
the idea that everything has to be perfect.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
Yes, that's my favorite favorite slogan. It's like, you don't
have to be great to start what you got to
start to be great? And a lot of people don't
start because they want to perfect it. They wanted to
be right. They want to wait till I get this
all this way. I want to wait to get this
car to this house. Like, no start now, perfected as
you go, because you won't even know what you even
want to sell, Like I said, until you got the
audience that tells you what to do next. But if
(24:28):
you're not even just starting to see what it is
that they need, like how would you know? Don't let
the time pass you by, like start it now.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Do you touch to people from your old job that
you quit? You can't with any of them old coworkers.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
I actually went back and hire my manager, So it
was back then, I want to say, twenty tweeny, twenty
twenty one the guy that hired me when I was
working at tent service jobs. I actually went back to
him and gave him an offer for the year to
quit his job, that can help me with my business.
And literally it was just like, wait, what what are
(25:03):
you doing? Are you telling don't know?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
These t shirts are maybe a year or so.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
You're like, yeah, like come help me with my business,
and yeah, that's what happens.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
It's also important to note that there's a certain point
in time in a business that you have to hire
the right people. And that's always a struggle too, no
matter what business you have is hiring, like, it's.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Still a struggle for.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
You're unusual that you made all this work with family.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
That's what I'm gonna say, like.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Trying to say that nicely. Yeah, some people would tell
you not you family.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
You know, my family is different. That's when I was
telling somebody earlier, like my mom had seven kids and
she made sure we was always tight knit, and we
all made a pact that like, hey, whoever comes up
first or you know, blows up first, we got to
make sure we take care of our mom and the
rest of us until we can all get to that
next level. So when I first started hiring ours, hiring
people that was like my friends and I would pay them,
(25:58):
but I can be a disaster, right because I felt
like they was just like in it for the money,
for the fame, for the lavish trips and all that stuff.
But they was like the work wasn't working, like they
wasn't doing the work. And when I told my family,
they can make you not.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Be friends anymore too, Oh, totally, girlfriends, I lost a lot, Yeah,
because they take advantage of the situation. They can't look
at themselves sometimes as an employee employeer of relationship. They're
gonna look at it like this is my friend while
you're doing.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
And when I told my family, I'm like this businessman
to go down if I don't hire some real help.
My sisters and my brothers they were like, look, don't
hire nobody else. We're going to give our twenty minute
notice and we'll be there. So like my brother quit
his y'all.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
My sisters, who's coming with me?
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Like everybody, And it's been years later and they still
working for me to just leave their job they've been
at for years and believe in my business and just
give up their whole livelihood to come, you know, focus
on my dream and they've been here ever since.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Let's see if we can get this go and everybody
go to Wealth Wednesday's Instagram. I want to start hashed.
Have twenty minute notice. Twenty minute notice.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
We're not already for that, y'all, don't. I don't do
it right. You ain't got to cassate in your life.
Just relax.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
How can people work with you and tell us about
the free masterclass.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Yes, but we do have a free master class going
on right now. I'm definitely joined at Passion the Number
two Profits Class dot com. And if you can follow
you on all social media's TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube
at crafting with Cassandra.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
And that's Passion number two Profits with an us A
challenge dot com shoot free. I'm there.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
Thank you. Well. The challenge is the actual challenge with
the class. If they put in Passion the Number two
Profits Class dot Com, they can be able to say
in my weekly lives that I'm doing for free right now.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Okay, thank you so much, All right, amazing, congratulations.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
I really wanted you.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
To come share your story. It's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
I know your son is hype like he's then they're
like going crazy. I'm gonna stick by my mom.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Oh yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Congratulations and Happy Wealth Wednesdays.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
Everybody well,
Well, it's a Wealth Wednesday, so of course Stacey Tisdale
is here.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Happy Wealth Wednesdays everybody, and today we are going to
teach you how to craft. That was really funny.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
That was very crafty.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Had a craft an eight figure business because we have
the one and only Cassandra Wilcox who has done that herself.
Thank you so much for being here today.
Speaker 4 (00:22):
Thank you guys for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yes, and the name of your business is Crafting with Cassandra.
You can follow that on Instagram. And what I thought
was just wonderful is your journey to success, which everyone's
going to learn all about started in twenty seventeen because
you couldn't afford to buy hoodies for your child's basketball league.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Tell us about that. So, yeah, so my kids had
a basketball game, and of course, at the time, I'm
staying with my sister, having nine to five, it's really
not paying a lot. But I wanted to put them
in a program where they can kind of take their
minds off of the ads. I'll put them in a
Lily basketball game and the coach them to buy these
hoodies for the away games that they go to. I
(01:03):
cannot afford the hoodies, so I reached out to my
brother and I was like, hey, do you know anyone
that can make the hoodies for us? So he found
a crafter. I did not know what craft this was.
He found the craft and she made the hoodies. We
were the hoodies to the game. And now the coaches like,
we want those customazedies. We don't even want the hoodies
we have, so can you make those for us? And
then I reached back out to the craft there like hey,
(01:25):
can you show me how to make them? She was
like no, ma'am, you got to go to YouTube. I
was like, I want to get some of these coolings,
you know, But she was like, no, I can't show
you how to make them. So that's when I got
into so done.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
So you got her to do this for you, Yes,
but then you try to I said, to show you
how to make them kind of in a way mentor you.
But then she yeah, But then she probably was like
I'm not just doing that because that's taking away from my.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
That's what she said, respectless. She like, I had to
get it out of the mud, so you got to
do it too, So I'm not going to show you.
So I actually went to YouTube and then that's when
I had learned how to make the hoodies. But it
took me in entire a year, and I just felt
like if I would have had that mentorship, I could
have got there a lot faster.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Wow, Okay, I could see her saying even like, if you,
you know, we could do this together and I can
mentor you and we could split the profit exactly.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
But no, that was not the mind.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well damn well, it seemed to work out anyway.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
So did they get the hoodies because it took you?
Speaker 4 (02:23):
And no, I ended up telling them I was putting busy,
so I.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Didn't want to, like to turn it in the stuff
I got, right.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
What happened?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
So what happened between tell us what happened between twenty
seventeen and twenty nineteen.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Sisters was so business wise it was still like a
side business. So I'm just perfecting myself.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
So you learned yourself and you started and you figured
out how to order them and how to make them
and everything.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Well, what happened was so when I was getting orders
through her, she would say like, hey, you guys, I
have to go get some more hoodies from JDS. So
she was basically telling me where she was getting her
pride up from when she was making them for me,
so I already was writing down and oh, she get
her hoodies from JDS. So when I went back to
her like hey, can you show me how, she was
(03:08):
like no. It was like, okay, I just need to
learn the craft because I already know where to get
the supplies in a pera from.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
So yeah, and how do you know when you go
on YouTube to because I know YouTube is like the
greatest educational Anything you want to learn, you can do
it on YouTube.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
So you said to take you a year to learn
how to do it.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
So master masters, you need to just learn and be
like Okay, I'm gonna try next week. But you're gonna try,
you're gonna mess up, You're gonna run through equipment supply,
You're going to mess up a lot of money. So
mastering it, I would say it took me a year.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Okay, So you sold it, it looks like quite a
bit between twenty seventeen and twenty nineteen.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
That's when you really know. I didn't really sell a lot.
It was just more just learning the craft and just
forfitting it. But the sales didn't start coming into like
two years later.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
We got so many questions.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I know, I know, I've been looking at your story
and I know you did well enough in those early days.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Is that you quit your job. Yes, that was in
twenty nineteen. So yes, that's when the business took a turn.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Now what caused the business to take a turn?
Speaker 4 (04:07):
So I pivoted a little bit because at the time
in twenty seventeen, they wanted to buy these shirts with
the vinyl on there, so it just was words with
the color vinyl that you got a weed, use your cricket,
your silhouette machine. But then in twenty nineteen, everybody wanted
what we call sublimation t shirts. So you put your
faces on it, you can wear it the funerals, you
get the wings on there, like you can put your
dad face, your mom face, like actual pictures on the shirt.
(04:30):
So that process is called sublimation, where you basically take
a design, you run a design through a printer using
submission paper and submission ink, and then when it prints out,
you use a heat press to press it to a
polyester blank and then the image sinks inside of the shirt.
So that was really popular in twenty nineteen. I got
into that, and then that's when my business started taking off,
people was ordering funeral shirts. They wanted to have birthday shirts,
(04:52):
like now they.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Order How did they know to get it from you?
How did you market yourself in order to get clientele?
Speaker 4 (04:57):
So I literally unfollowed all of my family and friends
on Facebook and started following. I started following because I
was making a lot of kids shirts. I started following
parents that had kids in their pictures. So I didn't
know them, but I'm just like, if I can follow
parents that got kids, They're going to come follow me
back and be like why does she follow me? And
see that I got these custom kids shirts on there?
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Right? And it worked? It is well, that's a very
unique approach. What made you think of that?
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Because I was a parent myself and I was trying
to figure out what would I do?
Speaker 3 (05:26):
So people with random people follow you, you like, let me
go see him where.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
They fire me from? Oh, they make custom kids item,
Let me buy one.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Sell You bought the equipment to the sublimation, Yes, okay,
how much is that equipment at that time?
Speaker 4 (05:39):
So the equipment and the printer you can get it
for like two hundred dollars, The heat press about two
hundred dollars and then you got the sebormation paper ink
and then the blank probably another one hundred dollars with
those supplies. That's not terrible, No, not at all.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Okay, So you got going and I know that you've
told me that you got up to it. You were
making a thousand dollars a week, and you're like, it's
time to equipment my day jobs when your day job.
But that didn't work out.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
So all right. So I'm at the I'm at the desk,
like the orders coming in. I'm like, oh, because I
want to go home and make these shirts. Like my
phone just keep going off. So at the time, I
was already waiting on a raise for my business was
from my job because they was giving everybody else a
raise around me, but they didn't give me one. So
I walking to the HRU, I'm like, okay, let me
see if they're going to give me a raise before
I just quit. So I go in there like, hey,
(06:23):
y'all thought about that rais y'all going to give me?
They're like, well, we're still thinking about it. I'm like,
don't think no more. I'm done. So twenty minutes, give
me time to go pack up my cubicle and I'm
out of here and literally packed in my cubicle, gain
them my twenty minute notice, and then.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
I love wow.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yeah, so you knew that if they didn't say right
then that you were planning to quit or was it
just an under spot?
Speaker 4 (06:44):
It was become a very impulsive like actor thinker, like
I do everything just like in the moment, and sometimes
it's not good. It worked out, It worked out well,
I thought it did until I got home and then
I seen that the following week people wasn't buying shirts anymore.
So I thought shirts was going to be like a
twenty four seven, three sixty five. They need them all
the time. People don't need shirts all the time. They
(07:06):
want them for funerals, they want them for birthdays, they
wanted for vacations. So that's when I knew, like, okay,
I got to come up with another business plan.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
All right, said what was next?
Speaker 4 (07:14):
So the next thing was I'm looking at the inventory
that I'm using to make the shirts. So I was
buying all of my inventory from overseas, and I'm like
looking at the inventory, like what if I use this
inventory and sell it to other craft That's like me,
So now I'm going from B to C to I'm
finna tappingto B to B okay, and I did not
have a community to sell to. So I created a
(07:34):
Facebook group and then I invited like all of my
craft friends, like, hey, come inside of my group. I'm
going to be showing you guys how to sell them
ad how to make these T shirts, and everybody started joining.
I reached out to a couple of more other Facebook
groups like hey, can you shot me out? They shouted
me out, and within that week I gained like a
couple hundred followers in the group.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
But it wasn't easy because I know between that when
you left your job and made this other pivot that
you just said personally only, it was a really challenging
time and I think you went through about to homelessness.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Yeah. So even after I got the group, I'm thinking, Okay,
I started this new business. Everybody's going to join my
group and started shopping with me. And when they joined
the group, I was selling the blanks, which is the
canvas blank. So it was a T shirt blank to
tamblo blank, and they didn't know how to actually sublimate
on the blank. So I would go live for free,
show them how to sublimate it. But then the products
(08:26):
I was selling, I was just selling to make a
sale versus a profit. So literally the same amount I
was paying for the.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Inventory here in Okay, putting nothing on it, nothing.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
On top, because I didn't know how to do it.
This is a new business for me, right, So I
ended up still failing in my eyes and got eviit
and then we had to move into a hotel of
me and my seventeen year old son.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Yeah, and the pandemic, I guess that started in twenty twenty,
so what was that like during that time?
Speaker 4 (08:52):
So during the pandemic, just as a craft, when they
mandated those masks, crafters was like, well, we want to
wear the mask, but we don't want and wear them planes,
So can you show us how to customize these masks
and we're gonna sell it to our customers as a
customized mask. And I just happen to have inventory on head,
the inventory that I really could not sell, but I
still had it, and I just started going live from
(09:14):
the hotel like, hey, you guys, let's make these masks.
Let me show you how to design. This is how
you heat press it. And then the orders like literally
took off. In May of twenty twenty. We did our
first eighty six thousand dollar month just from the community.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
And that timing was like a godsend because I know
you you said if it wasn't for your son.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
Oh my god, it was definitely. It was definitely God's
timing because at the time, so when I moved into
the hotel, of course I had to move my inventory
and storage. I had to move my personal belonging to
the storage. And as so I'm standing the storage unit.
I was going to the stores juneral like five in
the mornings a pack because you don't supposed to pack
out of a storage. And I was heat pressing my
customers in the hotel. And one morning I go to
(09:53):
the stores unit and there's a whole family like literally
staying next to me, and they didn't know no one
was there. So when I seen them open up the door,
it was a baby in there, a man in there,
a whole woman in there. And I was like, man,
that could be me easily if I quit, because I'm
sitting here complaining about I'm in a hotel. I'm complaining
about I ain't got no gas, like I'm barely making it,
(10:13):
but at least I have a roof over my head.
So I'll go back to the hotel, literally turn on
my camera going live now intentionally, I'm not just going
live for the sake of it. I'm going live now, like, hey,
we got to get these products, so we got to
get some money coming in. So I'm going live from
sun up to sundown morning on a night. And it
was just at a time that I just felt like
not just giving up, like on my business because it
(10:35):
wasn't working as fast as I wanted to, but I
was really ready to give up on life because in
my thirties, here I am still trying to start a business.
I don't quit my job. I know better at this age.
Now I'm dragging my son into this with me, and
he over there playing his video game and I'm over here, like,
how am I gonna take myself out? I'm finna ask him, Hey,
(10:55):
do you want to go stay with your grandma? And
if people would have been like, yo, mom, I'm tired
of this hotel, then they would have gave me a
chance to like quit. But then when I asked him,
I was like, hey, do you want to go stay
with your aunts or grandma. He was like, no, I'm
gonna stay right here with you. It's like he knew.
And if I leave her, yeah, like she ain't mentally
stay able to just you know. So it's like I
don't know. It was crazy, like he just knew, like,
(11:16):
oh my god, I know I'm staying right here with you.
We're gonna scruggle together. And he's seventeen saying we're gonna
scruggle together. Like what So Dad gave me that motivation
I needed, like, Okay, I gotta do this for him,
show him like how I'm going to get out this wreck.
And I just kept going, I'm going live every day.
When I go live, I put up my bat drop
with my logo on it, and he's on the other
end of the back drop like playing his video game
(11:37):
while I'm like, literally, I'm teaching, hey, y'all, let's press
this shirt today, lets press master today. And then when COVID,
like I said, COVID happened in twenty twenty, that's when
we had our beat break.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
You know, It's interesting because it feels like the fact
that a lot of people didn't help you is what
motivated you to want to do these lives to actually
help other people, and it can be really hard to
be consistent when you don't see the return right away.
A lot of people don't have the patience to say,
I'm going to keep doing this every single day and
I'm want to actually help other people because I didn't
get the help when I could have used it.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Yeah, you know, that's exactly how I feel. Like I
told myself, like that was my why. I'm gonna make
sure whoever want to learn this business, whoever want to
learn how to start their t shirt business, their craft business.
I don't want them to feel how I feelt when
I asked for help. So I'm going to make sure
I help anybody, everybody, no matter what I gotta do.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
So then, now, once you finally started making some money,
what was the next move for you?
Speaker 3 (12:28):
After that?
Speaker 4 (12:29):
It was to pay my credit off, because like, that's
why I can't get right. I'm moving everywhere, like, let
me pay off easy. Big just didn't let me get
my credits together. So I literally cleaned my credit. Everybody
was like, yo, you didn't have you could have dispute that. No,
I know I owe them, let me just pay it off, right,
So I pay my credit off.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
They're right over, Yeah, I wait seven years.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Oh. I was like I have to feel like because
I don't know if this one is gonna last, Like,
let me use it to the best of my ability,
so I'll pay my credit off. End up getting approved
renting a three story house. It had a fully finished basement,
so I moved all of my inventory down there, like,
now operate my business in this basement. I moved my
mom and my son standing there, of course, and the
orders is like literally coming in now more people are
(13:16):
ordering masks. I'm like, oh my gosh, I need help.
I can't be the picker, packer, email person creating content.
So I tell my mom, like, mom, quit your job.
And she's a one with seven kids, like literally been
working two to three jobs all her life to take
care of But she's like, wait, quit my job. Are
you sure? Like, ma'ma quit your job right now, going
in there and get your twenty minute notice like I did.
(13:38):
She's like, wait, let me do two weeks.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I'm like, mom, going there to day T shirt that's
a tea shirt.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
And she literally walked in there and came home the
same day and it was like, I'm done. What you
need me to do and that was in June and
twenty twenty. My mama have not been back to a
nine to five sends so good, so good man, so good.
So I got my mom, she's picking and packing in
the basement. I got my son, I hired my nieces,
my nephews. And now I'm still going live because I'm
(14:10):
realizing I can't make a sale unless I go live.
Like at this time, I don't know about add I
don't know about emails, I don't know about like paid marketing.
Everything is organic through the community. So I'm going line
and they're like, well, since you say we need sublimssion,
paper and ink to make this blank, why don't you
sell it? So I go with I mean, I don't
go to China, but I contact China overseas, Hey, let
(14:30):
me test out this product. And then eventually, when I
launched my submission paper line, the community bought it out
within an hour at one hundred thousand dollars, like literally
the first lunch. Within the hour. We do our first
hundred k. We ended up having a move from the
three story house because the basement was just so full.
Now we're selling paper, we're selling blanks, We got the
(14:51):
ink and then we get our first warehouse same year
in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
That's twenty twenty was your year.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
That was the year that was like, what this really happening?
We get our warehouse, do our first one hundred thousand
dollars lunch, and now I'm still going live. The community
say hey, well do you teach hands on classes because
we might can't learn online. So I turned the front
part of my warehouse into an extra hands on class
that students still come to this day every two weeks,
pack it out to learn how to craft in person.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Wow, your community was such a critical part. It was everything,
and like this whole ecosystem you put together. Talk about
how important that it's to your business and how seriously
other entrepreneurs should take that. You're creating your own customers.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Yeah, it's very important. And I tell people, like a
lot of time, you want to sell what you want
to sell versus selling what your audience want. But you
don't know what your audience want unless you build your
own audience. So that was my thing was like I'm
gonna build my own table and I'm gonna see exactly
what they need so I can know what to provide,
and every time I got in my community, I didn't
have to think twice of what am I gonna push
out next? They was telling me, Hey, do you have this?
(15:55):
I don't, but let me go create it. Hey, can
you teach us this? I don't know how to teach you,
but let me go find somebody can and bring it
to the community. So that was the best part of
just having the community of knowing what I can see
on nexts without having to break my neck to figure
out what they want.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Now, you as to talk about therapy and how beneficial
that was for you. So tell me when you decided
to start doing therapy and how that helped you.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
So it was in twenty twenty one I actually went live.
I just like to go live, like that's just how
I bring more people to my community because they see
my personality like, oh my gosh, I love her. But
this particular live, it was not like a happy live.
I was crying, like I was ready to quit because
at this point I don't retire my mom, I don't
hire five out of my six siblings, and it's just
a lot of pressure on me. Then I'm in the
(16:38):
craft community and they like, yo, this girl is a scammer.
She's making seven figures off of small businesses charging for classes.
Like I feel like everybody was against me and it
was new for me, Like Okay, the money's good, but now,
like I don't know how to handle all of this.
It wasn't fame. It was just like the negative attention.
So I get on Live, I start crying, and then
one of my students in box me like, girl, get
(16:59):
off that lives. Stop crying, and you need to join
this high you know, mentorship community and they're gonna help you,
you know, get around other sits and seven figure earners.
And in that community, they do therapy. It's like a requirement.
Like every week they're saying the therapist and these are
six seven figure entrepreneurs. I'm like, wait, is that how
they able to get through you know, their business and
(17:20):
just life in general. So I started doing therapy every
week and it's really been good because yeah, like it
it just helped me talk to somebody that understands what
I'm going through and showing me how to get to
that next level. So therapy for me is important. Even
to this day, I still do therapy every week and
then just getting around other coaches and mentors that you
(17:40):
know understands exactly what I'm going through.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
So I'm glad you went to therapy. But listening to
your story, like Angela pointed too early at your your
ability to get over yourself. Nobody helped you, but you
created a business helping people. Yea, you know everybody was
giving you a hard time, but you pulled more people
into doing that. Yeah, and now you also have scaled
to say the least of business mentoring and teaching people online.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Tell us about that. So now we are at the
point where so I was always teaching people how to craft,
how to make custom minus, but now they asking, well,
how can I become a coach, How can I start
my own find my own passion that I'm good at,
create my own community, then my own continuity program, and
then how can I do all of that? So I
do have a mentorship now where I show you guys,
(18:24):
step by step how to find what it is that
you're good at, create your community around that, and create
a continuity offer, which is a monthly membership where they
can pay you monthly to keep learning from you. So
that's what I have going on right now.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
So that's not just for anybody who's a crafter. That's
for any type of business.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
Any type of business, whether you are creative or craft
or you just know what their special skill is. I
can help you turn that into a community, like I said,
create that monthly membership and start doing challenges around it.
Like that's a lot of the revenue that I get
it comes from doing challenges.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
And I know you have a challenge. Just wrote down
passion to profits passion number two profits at challenge dot
com and it's a free seven week challenge. I want
everybody to sign up. But tell us, so you started mentoring,
you started online coaching, how many students and how big
(19:17):
a part and how profitable a part is that for you?
Speaker 4 (19:20):
So right now, with the two small programs I have,
well they're not small, they're small. So one of them
is one seventy nine a month and then another one
is one ninety nine a month, and combined we have
three thousand students in those programs paying every month, so
between three hundred and four hundred K and revenue every
month just from the continuity program. That's why I want
(19:40):
to teach you to others, Like imagine if you can
have a skill where you create a community that's willing
to pay you that kind of money every month to
learn from you. So go ahead.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
I was gonna say, it must have been really hurtful
when you said people were saying you were a scammer,
And I think, so, how do you overcome something like
that because those are really harsh allegations that for some
people can ruin their business.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
Yeah, So to me, it's just like focusing on the
people that love me versus the people that hate me,
because if I spend more time like focusing on the negativity,
and the people that really support me is going to
be like, well, wait, she don't respond to us like that,
so maybe I need to be negatiorids her to get
her attention. So I just try to focus all of
my attention on my community and not on this because
the scamming came from people are not used to you
(20:23):
charging for your knowledge. They want you to do everything
for free. But I tell them, like, if you go
to college literally pay to learn, and you still get
out of college, you win there. You still got like
why is it so hard for you to pay your
black business owner that learn from literally got it out
the mud? And I'm going to show you how to
do it before a small fee, right, and it's like
I can go to YouTube or that. Why are you
(20:43):
charging like that.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
If you can?
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Wow, go ahead, Oh yes, it's right, right because yeah,
I do think that courses and coaches and those are
all things that you invest in it. And I think
sometimes that said, when you're paying for something, you feel
more of an obligation to make yeah, to actually do
it because now you've invested into something, and then you're
paying for that community of people that can hopefully support
(21:08):
And I think the other thing that's important is that
you have success stories and you have people that have
been part of your community that have paid for the coaching,
that can say, thanks to this, here's what I've been
able to accomplish.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
It's the proof of concept.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
Yes, definitely.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
And you not only have success stories, you are a
success story. So this all started in twenty seventeen. And
now how much is your business grown to? What's your business?
Speaker 4 (21:30):
So right now to this day, we have done fourteen
million dollars in sales. Totally wrong, Yeah, so crafting.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
We you guys for step by step?
Speaker 4 (21:42):
Yes, so from twenty nineteen, I mean twenty twenty when
I actually like started making the sales. So now twenty
twenty four we have done fourteen million revenue.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
You knew and talk about just listening. This is I mean,
I love it because we are giving us like step
by step how you broke down your story. Yeah, knowing
to pivot at the right time.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
Oh, this is very important. Like I said, a lot
of the times we want to seal what we want
to sell versus knowing what to sell and not just
knowing what, but knowing when when is it? When is
it in demand? Like right now, teach my students, Hey,
we're in football season, basketball season, you should not be
selling Valancine's. They stuff like focus because they just love
(22:22):
to crowd, just love to do everything all the time.
It's like, no, let's focus on focus on what's in
demand to get people to buy, and then we're gonna
move on to Christmas items and then you know, New
Year's items in February. But just making sure they know
what to market, when to market, and how to market
that's very important.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
What are some unusual trends that you've seen as far
as what people went, Like divorce parties. I know those
have gotten a lot more popular, and like, what are
some things that you're.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Going around when I got to divorce?
Speaker 4 (22:51):
Like they they love to hop on trends like well
with the uh the cat Williams, Like they love to
make okay, yeah when that and what I don't like that?
I tell them not to do. They love jumping on
trends like when somebody passed. So it's like I want
to make a rich homey show and I'm like, no,
like this just happened, Like don't.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Do that, like be sensitive to the family and yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
I know it'll be profitable right now, but don't do it.
So just making sure they know like what's the marketing
and who the market and how to market because everything
is a trend, but it's just not the right time
for it.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
So and then some things you need to really quick
turnaround for people, right, because trends do come and go
so fast, and it'll be like a phrase that's really
popular and then next thing, you know, somebody want to
make you know, some some type of merch and.
Speaker 4 (23:34):
Right, what was that thing that happened with the boat
with the.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
Chair like Montgomery Broun, Yes, oh my god.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
That was like a heavy money maker. Like everybody was
making those designs with the chair with the sands. So
that was a really hot trend.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Right now.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
Yeah the murr, Yeah you can't see.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
And for general advice for entrepreneurs talking about this and
you like called me out, you said, just give up
the idea that everything has to be perfect.
Speaker 4 (24:06):
Yes, that's my favorite favorite slogan. It's like, you don't
have to be great to start what you got to
start to be great? And a lot of people don't
start because they want to perfect it. They wanted to
be right. They want to wait till I get this
all this way. I want to wait to get this
car to this house. Like, no start now, perfected as
you go, because you won't even know what you even
want to sell, Like I said, until you got the
audience that tells you what to do next. But if
(24:28):
you're not even just starting to see what it is
that they need, like how would you know? Don't let
the time pass you by, like start it now.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Do you touch to people from your old job that
you quit? You can't with any of them old coworkers.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
I actually went back and hire my manager, So it
was back then, I want to say, twenty tweeny, twenty
twenty one the guy that hired me when I was
working at tent service jobs. I actually went back to
him and gave him an offer for the year to
quit his job, that can help me with my business.
And literally it was just like, wait, what what are
(25:03):
you doing? Are you telling don't know?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
These t shirts are maybe a year or so.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
You're like, yeah, like come help me with my business,
and yeah, that's what happens.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
It's also important to note that there's a certain point
in time in a business that you have to hire
the right people. And that's always a struggle too, no
matter what business you have is hiring, like, it's.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Still a struggle for.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
You're unusual that you made all this work with family.
Speaker 4 (25:30):
That's what I'm gonna say, like.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Trying to say that nicely. Yeah, some people would tell
you not you family.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
You know, my family is different. That's when I was
telling somebody earlier, like my mom had seven kids and
she made sure we was always tight knit, and we
all made a pact that like, hey, whoever comes up
first or you know, blows up first, we got to
make sure we take care of our mom and the
rest of us until we can all get to that
next level. So when I first started hiring ours, hiring
people that was like my friends and I would pay them,
(25:58):
but I can be a disaster, right because I felt
like they was just like in it for the money,
for the fame, for the lavish trips and all that stuff.
But they was like the work wasn't working, like they
wasn't doing the work. And when I told my family,
they can make you not.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Be friends anymore too, Oh, totally, girlfriends, I lost a lot, Yeah,
because they take advantage of the situation. They can't look
at themselves sometimes as an employee employeer of relationship. They're
gonna look at it like this is my friend while
you're doing.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
And when I told my family, I'm like this businessman
to go down if I don't hire some real help.
My sisters and my brothers they were like, look, don't
hire nobody else. We're going to give our twenty minute
notice and we'll be there. So like my brother quit
his y'all.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
My sisters, who's coming with me?
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Like everybody, And it's been years later and they still
working for me to just leave their job they've been
at for years and believe in my business and just
give up their whole livelihood to come, you know, focus
on my dream and they've been here ever since.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Let's see if we can get this go and everybody
go to Wealth Wednesday's Instagram. I want to start hashed.
Have twenty minute notice. Twenty minute notice.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
We're not already for that, y'all, don't. I don't do
it right. You ain't got to cassate in your life.
Just relax.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
How can people work with you and tell us about
the free masterclass.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Yes, but we do have a free master class going
on right now. I'm definitely joined at Passion the Number
two Profits Class dot com. And if you can follow
you on all social media's TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube
at crafting with Cassandra.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
And that's Passion number two Profits with an us A
challenge dot com shoot free. I'm there.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
Thank you. Well. The challenge is the actual challenge with
the class. If they put in Passion the Number two
Profits Class dot Com, they can be able to say
in my weekly lives that I'm doing for free right now.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Okay, thank you so much, All right, amazing, congratulations.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
I really wanted you.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
To come share your story. It's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
I know your son is hype like he's then they're
like going crazy. I'm gonna stick by my mom.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Oh yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Congratulations and Happy Wealth Wednesdays.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
Everybody well,
Host
Angela Yee
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