July 7, 2025 • 45 mins
Sarah Hurley Inspires Creativity & Strategy in this Episode of Creative Living
Feeling stuck in your creativity? This episode of Creative Living is your permission slip to break out of the “I’m just a…” mindset and start building something bold. Jane Clauss chats with creative entrepreneur and trend forecaster Sarah Hurley, who shares her no-fluff wisdom on turning passion into profit and doing it with confidence.
As Sarah Hurley beautifully puts it, creativity is 'freedom… a moment to 'mess around with paints and glitter and pretty things and try stuff out.' This powerful, open-hearted spirit sets the tone for this inspiring conversation.
From overcoming imposter syndrome to embracing industry trends without losing your spark, this episode is packed with strategies, inspiration, and that little creative kick you didn’t know you needed.
You’ll learn how to:
- Use trends to your advantage (without selling out)
- Push past doubt and show up boldly
- See the creative industry as wide open not walled off
Building, reimagining, or simply soaking it all in, this episode hits refresh on your creative spirit.
'Creativity is freedom' @SarahHurley drops the most inspiring definition of what it means to be a creative entrepreneur. Listen to the full podcast now.
Want to skip around or jump straight to the good stuff? Here’s your handy timecode breakdown because we love making it easy for you. You’re welcome!
[0:00:10 - 0:02:21] Defining the Creative Industry
Overview: Sarah Hurley breaks down the misconception that the creative industry is a narrow field. She explains that creativity spans multiple industries like greeting cards, party supplies, and stationery. Creatives often limit themselves by saying "I'm just a..." when in reality, their skills can translate across numerous sectors. The key message is to see creativity as a broad, interconnected landscape with endless possibilities for growth and innovation.
[0:12:07 - 0:15:46] Overcoming Creative Business Hurdles
Overview: Sarah discusses the common challenges creatives face when turning their passion into a business. She emphasizes that most creatives start from a hobby perspective, which differs from traditional business planning. The focus is on shifting mindsets from "I'm just..." to "I am an entrepreneur." Sarah provides strategies for goal-setting, including defining specific revenue targets and breaking down larger objectives into manageable steps to prevent overwhelm and build confidence.
[0:34:55 - 0:36:04] Sustainability: Beyond a Trend
Overview: Sarah declares sustainability is no longer just a trend but a fundamental way of doing business. She notes that manufacturers are now transparently discussing their eco-friendly
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
VO (00:00):
Time to tantalize your earbuds with creative makers and
shakers. It's creative living,the podcast with Jane Claus,
Jane Clauss (00:10):
Welcome to Creative living, where we help you live
your most creative life. I'mJane Claus. Thanks so much for
jumping on and joining me today.If you've ever wondered what's
next in the creative industry,and more importantly, how to get
there, today's episode isbasically your crystal ball.
Yeah, you're welcome. I've beenwanting to talk about trends and
(00:33):
strategy and get real,actionable insights for
creatives, makers and even smallbusiness owners. And lucky for
us, my guest today is SarahHurley. She is an entrepreneur,
an educator, a creative coach,founder of the Hurley report and
the powerhouse behind the SarahHurley Academy and breaking
(00:54):
news, just newly launched, thehurleywood studios, we're going
to get into that Sarah built amulti seven figure brand from
scratch, and she is now payingit forward with advice that's
equal parts heart and hustle. Soif you're asking yourself, what
to create next, how to grow youraudience, how can I make more
(01:14):
money being creative, or wherethe creative world is heading,
get excited, because you'reabout to hear a master class in
both inspiration and innovationfrom my friend Sarah Hurley,
Hey, Sarah, welcome to creativeliving. Thank
Unknown (01:30):
you so much for having me. I'm so happy to be here. I
know we've been trying to dothis. We're both so busy, and
it's just lovely to see youagain.
Jane Clauss (01:38):
Well, I just knew I wanted to have you on this show,
and you're coming to us from theUK, because today's world is so
small, and thanks to modernmagic, you are right here in our
ears. And I am so grateful. It'slike we are having a spot of tea
together.
Unknown (01:54):
Well, I'm so used to having the American voices,
right? I spent so much time inthe US at the moment, so used to
having the US voices around me,but it's lovely to be here.
Jane Clauss (02:03):
It is lovely to be here. And I talk a lot about the
creative industry, and I getpeople that hang out with us,
that that may or maybe, think,Well, I'm not in the creative
industry. I'm just creative soclarify, what is the creative
industry? Is it a niche group,or is it just a really big
landscape that everybody's apart of to
Unknown (02:21):
me, it's a huge landscape, and I think that
that's where a lot of people gowrong, is that they look at
their specific things so they'llgo, I'm a sewer, or I'm a
crocheter, or I'm a papercrafter. I think if you can do
those things, you can then putyourself into the party
industry, the Halloweenindustry, the greeting card
industry, the stationaryindustry, like there is so much
(02:44):
that creativity touches take thewheels off. Like the landscape
is so broad and it touches somany things. So if you're a
paper craft and you can designgreeting cards, you can design
party supplies, like there isjust so much out there. I mean,
I can't even sew by designfabric. So there is just, you
know, there's so much out therefor people. And really, there
(03:06):
are so many creative industriesand so much creativeness out
there. So embrace it.
Jane Clauss (03:11):
So the creative industry, like you said, is so
much landscape. It's so broadthat you can do a big, big paint
brush stroke across it and covera lot of people that are doing
creative things, and you havethe Creator
Unknown (03:24):
pitch, the creative pitch, so it's, it's kind of
like a accessible shark tank forcreative professionals or
entrepreneurs, right? So you cancome to me, we hold it at trade
show, so it's really accessible.And you can come to me and pitch
your idea completely privately,so you don't have to, like, walk
into a room of scary people, andyou don't have to stand up in
(03:45):
front of a manufacturer. It'slike, your first time pitching.
So you can come to me just oneon one, pitch your idea, and
then we kind of pull it aparttogether, and we test how strong
it is, and I'll give you ideasand feedback and ask you
questions and all of that. Andthe one thing that I hear so
much, I would say definitelyover half, and maybe, like 75
80% of people will always starttheir pitch with just, I am just
(04:09):
a knitter. I am just a sewer. Iam just a mum who does this. And
I always say to no stop, rightthere. You're not just anything.
So say you are a just acrocheter, right? Because I've
heard this one, I'm just acrocheter, but they crochet
toys, and I go, but no, you'renot. You're a toy maker. And if
you can make toys, you candesign characters, which opens
(04:29):
up a whole landscape ofstorytelling and publishing and
world building and products andall of these kind of things that
you can then do with that. Soit's not just anything, it's
what. What we do as creators iswe take raw materials and we
create something out of it. Soif you take that scope of what
we actually do, to start withthese ingredients and create
(04:52):
something, that means we cancreate more things and bigger
things and broader things. Andit's just a matter of how big
your job. Dream, your confidenceand your vision is to go for it.
And the thing behind the theacademy was always to be that
backer for people and go, I'mhere to believe in you. I'm here
to push you forward, encourageyou and tell you that you can
Jane Clauss (05:14):
it's kind of like a mindset shift. It's what you
tell yourself. I'm just aknitter, I'm just a sewist. And
I think it's that shift thatneeds to happen, and having the
support to to make you feel likeyou're not an impostor, that you
are making something with yourmind and your hands and that it
can get as big as you want it.And I love the encouragement
(05:34):
that you are giving to all ofthe creatives that are either
deep in the business or juststarting. So let's talk about
the Sarah Hurley Academy, whichis your coaching and business
building platform. As you said,there's a transformation that
needs to happen. I'm just aknitter, or I am looking for
this, but I'm not sure. There'sall these different things that
(05:57):
people go through when they'relooking to build a business or
grow what is the mostencouragement or the most
transformational change that yousee people need to grow their
confidence.
Unknown (06:11):
So for me, the one thing I didn't notice until I
was really deep in the creativeindustries myself was that I
would say 99% definitely 95%maybe 99% of people in our
industry have come at it from ahobby and turned it into a
business. And so their mindsetis different from if we were
(06:31):
going to open like a restaurant,say, right, we would sit down,
we would write out a businessplan, we would forecast numbers,
and we would do all of thesethings. And what we don't do as
creatives. What we is that sideof it. We don't sit down with
that business plan first of alland say, we're going to build
this business. We kind of startwith something we love, and then
we go, oh, we might be able tomake money with this. We might
want to make a business out ofthis. And so the business comes
(06:54):
as an afterthought, and you'revery much learning on the job. I
came at it very differently. I'ma business person. First, I
happen to be creative. Thathappened to be where my business
went. And I didn't realize thatI was so different from the rest
of the industry until I was init. And then I looked around and
went, Oh, I can see now whypeople think differently. To me,
(07:16):
it's because they've come at itjust slightly differently. And
when I started getting down theline with it. One of the reasons
I started the academy wasbecause I could see that. I
could see that with that simplemindset shift, with that bit of
business planning, with thatlittle bit of strategy and that
little bit of oomph behind it,that I could help people take
their businesses much further,and I could help them just shift
(07:39):
their mindset very slightly andgo, Ah, yes, I am an
entrepreneur. I am a businessperson. I am a CEO. I am that
person. And I think we almostthat imposter syndrome. You've
talked yourself out of thatbecause you've come you feel
like you've kind of sneaked yourway into this industry. Like,
oh, I was just sewing, and thenI created a business. Like, I
(08:00):
just kind of creeped my way inand no one knows. You kind of
say, actually, no, you stillmade that happen, right? You
might have come at itdifferently, but you still was
the person that made thathappen. So you are still worthy
of being there, and you arestill that genius behind your
business. And sometimes it'sjust telling people that they're
doing it the right way. Andlike, yes, you have got
something and you didn't makethis money or this success or
(08:24):
this brand or whatever it is, byaccident, you've done that. So
believe in yourself. And whenpeople take the reins of it and
go, actually, it's not happeningto me. I'm making it happen when
you when they shift theirmindset and take the reins of
their business and control itand plan it. Everything changes,
and that's what I'm here tofacilitate. I don't have a magic
(08:46):
wand. I don't give you thislike, you know, if you work one
hour from a beach doing thisexact thing, you'll be a
millionaire. I don't do that.What I do is I take everything
that you've got, all those rawmaterials, and transform your
mindset into doing it foryourself. So you go, Oh, I had
it all along. You know, we'reall the ruby slippers. We had it
all along. It was always there.It's
Jane Clauss (09:06):
so difficult, though we need you. What you
have is a gift. It's a greatskill. Do you find that most
creatives, or makers, or DIYers, or, let's just call them,
creatives, do you find that westruggle with the business side
of things, and are all the goalsdifferent?
Unknown (09:25):
Yeah, I think obviously, like I said,
generally, creatives have comein it from a different
perspective. So they're notsetting like, generally in a
business, you would sit and setkind of KPIs, like your key
performance indicates for theyear, your revenue goals, all of
those kind of things. Andgenerally in a creative
business, it's like, I want tomake this I want to try that. I
want to work with this company.I want to develop this kind of
(09:47):
product. They're differentgoals, and all it is is just
changing that very slightly andsaying you can have this, like,
I want to learn to paint thisyear goal, but you can also have
a revenue goal and a KPI and allof these. Things that you where
you know you're succeeding soyou can have it all. It's just
believing you can have it all.And that's, that's literally all
(10:08):
it is.
Jane Clauss (10:09):
So you came the creative brain. I sit here
listen, and I'm like, Oh, Idon't like the budget and the
KPIs, like, what? So for me,it's like, get from point A to
point B, but in the middle, it'snot a straight line. It's just a
squiggly fun Willy Wonka messgoing from one side to the
other. Your job is to help uskind of tame that creative mind
and understand it meanwhile,allowing us our creativity to be
(10:31):
unleashed. Yeah,
Unknown (10:33):
absolutely. And look, it's a very simple shift, right?
I don't sit down withspreadsheets and stuff numbers
freak me out. I don't want tolook at a balance sheet like I
just I'm not going to do that toanyone, because I know it's
horrific and I don't want to dothat. But what I will do is
take, you know, very simple goalsetting strategies, right? So
the very first one that I alwaysset people is, I say to them,
(10:54):
what do you want to do with yourbusiness? And I would say, most
people go, I want to make moremoney, right? And I go, Okay,
here's $10 right? Here's $10 youhappy? You've got more money.
And they're like, No. And I'mlike, right. Okay, so what's the
amount? What's the number thatmakes you happy, right? That's
your first KPI. That's yourfirst goal. So when you hit, as
I say, your goal is like, youwant to hit $50,000 this year,
(11:18):
right? So then you look at andyou go, as a very basic number,
you need to earn, like, 4000 ayear a month. Sorry, you need to
make $4,000 a month to make50,000 a year, right? So if,
after three months, you've made15 if you we look at the end of,
like quarter one, that's thefirst three months of the year,
and we go, right, you've made$15,000 you're on track to hit
(11:40):
your goal. It's a very, verysimple thing. You're on track.
So it's just that way of justwhat does success look like, and
it can be, I want to work withthis company, I want to develop
this product, and I want to makeX amount of money, but just put
in that definite thing on thatof what that looks like, not
just more, more more, becausemore is here's $10 you know,
(12:00):
right, right? What is that, interms of a number, a goal,
something we can measure so youknow you're succeeding,
Jane Clauss (12:07):
right? But let me ask you this, can everyday
makers or artists use coachingto actually grow their business
but not get overwhelmed? BecauseI know that if you're an artist
or you're a maker, and you havea tabletop or a craft room full
of project after project thatyou maybe you are doing for a
(12:29):
poster for a company or forsale, and then you have to stop
and do the business side of it,it's tough to be able to switch
on and off, and then you'reoverwhelmed, and then you go on
A spiral, and then you're justback at square one, going, Okay,
I'm not achieving my goalbecause I can't catch up. Is
that? Is that a simple help,like a time block thing,
Unknown (12:50):
is a really simple help and and the difference is,
you're not stopping to do thebusiness part. You're
incorporating that intoeverything that you do. So
there's no like, let's stop anddo the admin. Let's stop and
look at a spreadsheet. Let'sstop and put things in boxes.
We're not doing that at all.It's just literally saying, what
is the goal? How do we getthere? What are the things that
(13:11):
are on track to that goal? Andactually, it helps make all of
the decision making processeseasier, right? So if your goal
is, I want to make X amount ofmoney, or I want to develop this
kind of product that goes intothis kind of store, and someone
comes along and says, I'm goingto offer you this thing, and
this thing doesn't fit into thegoals that you've set. It's
(13:31):
really simple to just go, No,that doesn't fit my goals right
now, thank you for the offer,but no, because you are then on
a single track, right? Like alike a road trip. We're going on
a road trip. You wouldn't gowithout a map, would you?
Because we would drive around incircles and stop for snacks and
look at a pretty thing, and, oh,there's a butterfly and, and we
lost, right? Because thatthat's, yeah, you can do that on
(13:53):
a road trip, right? You can go,we're going to go from here to
here, and we can stop for snacksand we can look at the pretty
thing, and we can stop for adrink, and we can get a soda. We
can do all those things, but westill know where the destination
is, and we'll still end up thereat the end. So it's not about
stopping the fun, or stopping tolook at a spreadsheet or a
boring thing or whatever. It'snot about that at all. It's just
(14:13):
going, let's set the destinationand work backwards and work in
the the pit stops and the snackstops and the Okay, I want to do
this thing, and it doesn'tnecessarily fit, but it's fun,
and I'm going to do it anyway,right? So there's things that I
do that are not, they don'tnecessarily fit the goal, or
they don't hit my revenue goal,or they're not particularly, you
know, in the whole strategicplan for Sarah Hurley, but they
(14:37):
just took a lot of fun. Or myfriend asked me to do it, and I
just think, actually, I justreally want to go do that, so
I'll do those things as well,because you have to, you have to
keep it fun and motivational,because otherwise, what's the
point? And I see those businessplans that, you know, the the
bank give you, like templates tofill in and stuff. And I'm like,
just throw it away, don't it? Mybank manager actually uses my
(14:58):
business plan as a template nowto show. To people, because I
made it inspirational. When Ilook at my business plan, I get
excited about it because it'sgot all my goals on it. So I'm
like, I'm going to work towardsthat. So if I have, like, a
stuck moment, I'm like, I pickmy business plan up, and I get
excited about it again. BecauseI'm like, I'm nearly there, and
I'm nearly at this point, andI'm going to do this next, and
(15:19):
that's what I want for everyone,is that excitement. Stop filling
out little boxes. Stop thinkingyou have to stop for admin, you
don't. Let's create more fun,but with the goals there, so
you're having successful fun,
Jane Clauss (15:31):
but you still have to do the admin. But if we can
weave it into the successfulfun, then it becomes fun because
you see the growth happening,which will then make you want to
go back to that spreadsheet andget excited about that. I
Unknown (15:43):
get it. Okay, cool. Exactly that.
Jane Clauss (15:46):
Let's talk about the biggest hurdles. Because I
want everyone to say, oh, that'swhere I fall into or maybe not.
I mean, there's tons of hurdlesto overcome, and we can overcome
them like stuck in your own way,time management. What's the end
goal? Imposter syndrome, as wesaid, I'm not good enough to do
this. I don't have a businessplan. So those are all things
(16:07):
that people face every singleday, maybe one, maybe all of
them you're saying, with alittle bit of coaching, with the
right mind shift and mindset,you can overcome these things
100%
Unknown (16:19):
Yeah, there is nothing that is too big, too scary, too
anything. And normally, when yousit down and you take people's
fears away, and a lot of it issilly things, like, have you
ever had, right? Do you know,like, you get a headache, right?
And you sit there, you think,I've got a headache. Oh, my head
really hurts. Oh, it reallyhurts. And it seems to get
(16:39):
worse, right? Because you'resaying it right. So when you
have, like, you know, basicthings, like to do list, and you
go, I need to do this, this,this, and I must have forget
that, and I must have get that,and I've got feed the cat, and
I've got a pop and get somefabric and do this. And, you
know, get a get a coffee and andeverything feels like it's
unraveling, because it's so muchthat you have to keep on top of.
And it's just that very basicthing of, like, get out of your
(17:01):
head, like, put it on paper.Make lists. Do all these things.
You make pretty lists. Theydon't have to be boring lists.
You can, you know, create allthese systems that really work
for you. And these mindsetshifts are really, really
simple, and most of it is aboutus in our own heads, telling us
it's scary, telling us, it'soverwhelming, telling us,
(17:23):
because I don't know if you knowthis, as humans, we are pre
programmed to self sabotage. Didyou know that? Yeah, it's our
own safety so your body doesn'twant you to rush off and do
something risky. So your ownsafety net, internal safety net
programs you to self sabotage.So if you've got, like,
(17:44):
something to just say, this isthe first time I've ever been on
a podcast, right? My head wouldbe telling me not to do it.
Would be telling me to stop.You'll probably make a fool of
yourself, or you'll saysomething inappropriate, or
you'll do something you know,you'll say a word you shouldn't
say, or, you know, all of that.That's what my head would be
telling me to save myself fromany discomfort. So in your head,
what you have to do is just lookat each thing objectively and
(18:06):
go, What are the chances like?How many times a day do I blur
out something inappropriate?Yeah, hardly ever. So it's
probably not going to happen.And if I tell myself in my head
that actually I'm going to bemore on God because I know I'm
coming here, then I'm definitelynot going to do it. And once you
start putting a pin in theselittle things and popping them,
(18:27):
these little bubbles of fearbecome smaller and smaller and
smaller. So our body is preprogrammed to save us from
discomfort, and all we need todo is overcome it and go, do you
know what we've been inuncomfortable situations before?
What's the worst that canhappen. What's, you know, we've
we've succeeded 100% of timesbefore. You have succeeded
because you're still here,you're still trying, you're
(18:48):
still going. So if you've doneit 100% of times before, you can
do it again. And literally, Itell this to people in the
creative industry, and I don'tmean this to sound in any kind
of way, except the way it shouldcome across. We are not saving
lives. No one is going to diefrom a paper car or a stabbing
themselves or a knitting needleor whatever, right? We are not
(19:08):
saving lives. So the most you'regoing to do is mess up a piece
of fabric, a piece of paper.You're going to spill glitter on
the floor. It does not matter.Just keep going. Just keep
trying. Just keep puttingyourself out there, because the
worst that can happen is youneed to hover up the glitter and
start again tomorrow. That'sliterally it
Jane Clauss (19:26):
okay. You just can't. You just pivot and turn
that creative mistake intosomething else. It's funny that
you say, we are programmed tosay, No, I do so many things,
like on the air in front of abig group of people, or hosting
a thing and and I'm always like,nope, nope. What? What what do I
have to say? Why am I doingthis? Like, for a year, it's
been 30 years on TV and radio,and I would wake up, like, the
(19:47):
middle of the night going intothe studio, and I'm like, why am
I doing this? I don't know andbut now for me, it's that
thrill. So I'm hesitant andnervous I do it. And then when
I'm done, I'm like, Oh, I'm amillionaire. I'm not a
millionaire. I feel like amillionaire because I love the
rush. I don't know if that's agood thing or a bad thing, but I
(20:09):
understand where you're comingfrom, where you're like, why am
I doing this? Yeah,
Unknown (20:13):
and I think it's not like you wouldn't feel that if
you didn't care, right? So youmust. You. We want to get it
right. We want to do our best.We want to do but you can't do
your best unless you start. Youcannot do it unless you start.
And we see this all the time,right when, when people get
like, especially when they getsomething like an expensive
machine or whatever, and it sitsin the box for ages, and I
(20:34):
think, get it out. Do the firstrow of stitches, or the first
cut, or the first whatever itis, get it out and make us up,
because you cannot do your bestwork until you've started and
until you've probably messed upa few times. And even when
you've got it right, you'restill going to mess up a few
times. So just just get going.Just make a start. Do something,
anything towards your goaltoday.
Jane Clauss (20:55):
Well, which is exactly the answer to my next
question, which was, if somebodyis listening right now thinking,
I need to do this. I want to trythis. I'm overthinking it. I'm
in my own way to grow theirbusiness, or just get started.
And the simple answer is, we'lljust get started. But what would
you say to them right now?They're listening. They're
waiting. What
Unknown (21:13):
is it so the the one analogy that I use all the time,
someone said it to me years andyears ago, and it's never left
me, because it just, it justtickled me, right? Is, how do
you eat an elephant one bite ata time? Yeah, right. So your
goal is an elephant, right now,but if you start with just one
bite, if you break things downinto tiny goals, then the
(21:34):
elephant doesn't seem so big,because you eat it one bite at a
time.
Jane Clauss (21:38):
Amazing. I knew when I saw you speak in the
meeting of creativeprofessionals. I wanted to have
you on the show. I really andtruly did, because you have so
much to offer. Not only do youhave the creative pitch, not
only do you have the SarahHurley Academy, where all of
this wealth of knowledge can beshared with anybody that signs
up, you also have the HurleyTrend Report. It gives creative
(22:00):
entrepreneur is just a leg up onwhat's coming in the industry
and how to prepare for it. Sobut the thing is, you just don't
spot the trends. You translatethem into strategy for everybody
in your academy. And that iswhat I love about what you do.
And you hit it a little bit ago.You said it's like driving in a
car with a map. The Hurleyreport shows us the map, and the
(22:23):
Sarah Hurley Academy teaches ushow to drive the car. You could
steal that if you
Unknown (22:28):
want. Thanks. Yeah, that's exactly that. So I
realized that most trend reportsare very, very specific. So if
you want to be a greeting carddesigner, you would buy a trend
report on greeting cards. Itwould cost you several $1,000
and it would only tell you aboutthat and what it doesn't tell
you that if you can designgreeting cards, you could
probably design paper craftsupplies, or you could design
(22:50):
wedding invitations, or youcould design stationary, and the
world is really open to you. AndI realized that, and I just
thought, This is so stupid thatno one's thought of this, that
as creatives, what we want to dois create more, right? So my
Trend Report I developed to bereally inclusive and show you a
(23:10):
path for growth. And like yousaid, the the Trend Report is
the map and the Academy is likethe guidance to get you there.
And that's exactly what I wantedto create was, let's get this
trend report so that you can seehow all of these specific
industries work together toactually grow what you do not
(23:30):
just sticking your one littlecategory and go, I'm just going
to stick. I mean, you can stickin your one category. Of course
you can, and I'll give you theinformation to do that. But
like, how to use thatinformation inside of your
business to actually grow it andbe successful.
Jane Clauss (23:45):
So can, we're going to get to trends in the trend
report in a second. But Cansomeone running a small shop, or
someone that has a side hustle,can they use the trends
strategically without chasingevery shiny new thing, meaning
all these trends are happening.I'm going to keep doing all of
it, you know, like withoutlosing their track or losing
(24:07):
their voice. Can they chase thetrends, or do they pick the ones
that work for
Unknown (24:12):
them? We all have to pick the ones that work for you,
because we can look at so forme, for instance, my style is
very colorful, very bold, verymodern, right? So if the trend
is like, vintage Junk Shop kindof look, that's not going to
work for me, because that's notmy style. So you do have to be
really selective in what worksfor you, and pick something and
(24:32):
run with it, and then knowingthe different. And we we explain
all this in the report of like,knowing the difference between
long term and short term trendsand how to use them. But the one
thing I'll say is you need tothink outside the box for these
things, right? And I tell thisstory a lot of the first time I
ever done a Trend Reportpresentation, and I said, Oh,
the first trend that I'm goingto be talking about today is
cupcakes. And this guy in thefront row kind of went, Oh, like
(24:55):
that. And he got up and startedto walk out. And I went, hang on
a second. I went, can I just askyou why you. Going to leave. And
he went, Well, I own a fabricshop, so this isn't relevant to
me, and blah, blah, blah. So hewas very agitated that he'd
given up, like, three wholeminutes of his time. And I'd
said cupcakes, right? So I saidto him, hang on a minute. I
mean, you can get fabric withcupcakes on it. You could make a
fabric pin cushion. You couldmake some kind of cupcake item.
(25:18):
You could put it on an apron.You could do all of these things
in your classes, in store. Andhe went, oh yeah. And then he
sat down listen to the rest ofthe trends. And I tell that
story a lot because it just goesto show how we can just in our
own little box, go, oh, thatdoesn't apply to me. But
actually, when you start to lookoutside of your box and you
start to think about otherthings around you, you can go,
(25:40):
actually, I can make that apply.I can strategically. And you
don't have to do it with everysingle thing, because you're
absolutely right, especially ifyou are working alone or in a
very small team, you know, likea small family business, you
could get stuck in just chasing,chasing, chasing. You don't want
to do that. You want to picksomething that aligns really
closely or speaks to you, orthat your customers have been
(26:00):
asking for it. I would say thatthat's a big one. Is just listen
to your customers and whatthey're asking for, and use
those trends selectively toappeal to those people, or to
look and go, actually, you know,who is my customer and what do
they like? So you know, if younotice your Cust, if you own a
fabric shop and you notice yourcustomers have all been to the
cake shop next door before theycome into you, then maybe you
(26:21):
should get the cupcake fabric,or run the cupcake sewing class
or whatever that is, right? Sojust being aware of picking and
choosing what really aligns withyou, yeah,
Jane Clauss (26:31):
like what speaks to you, and then use that concept
to paint broad strokes, meaning,how will that play into what you
already do? This is why I'm asucker for trend reports. When
we met, I said, I love a goodtrend report, because this is
how I this is my diving board,and this is how I use it into
the things that I'm into. I findthe pieces that I like, if, you
(26:52):
know, some kind of weirdflowers. And I'm like, Okay,
well, I'm gonna sublimate thatflower on a piece of polyester,
and I'm gonna turn it into atote bag. And now I'm part of
the you know, the flower trend,which I love. So when you
decided to come out with theTrend Report, did you notice
that there was a gap in themarket for this type of report?
Or was there an aha moment thatyou thought, I need to be the
one to do this?
Unknown (27:13):
So that first trade report that I presented was
actually someone else's reportthat I had stood up and was
presenting, and it was someoneelse's research. And I did just
think, this is very narrow, andthe more I looked at kind of I
get, because I work acrossmultiple Creative Industries, I
get a lot of information fromvarious sources. And so I
noticed myself saying from oneclient, going, well, you know,
(27:36):
we're looking at homeware overhere, and I've just been, you
know, designing a collection formy wedding industry client over
here. And I've noticed that thewedding industry stuff
translates to home decor, or thehome decor stuff translates to
wedding and they would be like,Oh, I didn't know that. I hadn't
thought of that. Blah, blah,blah. And so actually, that's
when I started noticing that. Afew years ago, I was noticing
how narrow stuff was. And thenobviously, with the academy,
(27:59):
just talking to people and themgoing, well, I don't know where
to go next. I don't know whereto take my skills. I don't know
how to get from this thing tothat thing, from greeting cards
to weddings, or from greeting orfrom cards into greeting cards,
or whatever that is. And so as Iwas doing that, I started kind
of thinking to myself, I havegot enough knowledge, enough
(28:19):
industry experience and enoughanalytical experience to put
this together. And I sat downand I spoke to a couple of
people, and they were like, Oh,it will never work, but these
are the same people that told memy magazine would never work,
and it did. So I was like, thefact that you're telling me it
doesn't work, tells me it'sgoing to work, yeah. And then I
said it to my friend whoactually runs events. And I was
(28:42):
like, Look, tell me if I'mcrazy, but what do you think?
And he went, I think you shouldcome and present it exclusively
at my next event. And I waslike, brilliant. And it was
packed. It like there werepeople standing room only. And I
was like, people are hungry forthis knowledge. I can see it. I
can feel it, and theoverwhelming response since has
(29:04):
been incredible. It is off thecharts, the success of it. So I
know that it's right
Jane Clauss (29:10):
when you know, you know. And there are other trend
reports that come out, yours isjust a little bit different than
the the typical ones. Yeah, Ifeel like yours gives you the
trends, but you're giving themin styles and palettes and
emerging platforms and consumerbehavior. I mean, it's such a
broad trend report that thereare nuggets from it that
(29:31):
everybody can insert into theirbusiness or their creative life
and use it if you're using itwisely or just be informed. Tell
us this. How do you find thetrends? How do you predict what
is going to happen in thecreative industry? Or is that a
secret?
Unknown (29:48):
Um, it's, I mean, it's semi a secret. I'm not going to
tell you the whole thing. Um, Ido obviously, like I said, I
work across multiple industries,so I see patterns forming. I get
a lot of knowledge. And also.Because I have my business, so
this is the one thing, right? Isee a lot of people give trend
information, and they've got itfrom like chat, GPT or Google or
(30:08):
whatever, and I think that'sfine to a point, until you're
actually investing money intoit, and then it becomes a bit
dangerous, right? Because you'renot interpreting that data or
looking at it contextually,which is a problem because I run
a lot of brands across multiplethings have a lot of context and
a lot of data and a lot ofpersonal experimentation. So I
(30:30):
can be very, very confident thateverything I say is right and
it's contextual and it'sapplicable, and I've translated
it and giving you all of thatknowledge behind it. So I could
just go on chat, GPT, and go,What are the top five trends?
And go, yeah, cupcakes. Again, Icould do that, but I would never
do that because it's notspecific enough. And I just feel
(30:52):
like people need detail. Theyneed fine, granular detail that
they can apply to theirbusiness. And that's what I give
you.
Jane Clauss (30:59):
Yeah, you give us the why. So here's the trend and
here's the why. And when I saypeople, I thought, What's your
why? No, this is the why, whythis trend is happening, why it
works, what you saw, how youfound it, where you gathered the
information from. And you kindof bring it full circle, and you
fill it out for us. So is there?I'm going to ask you. Have to
tell us all the trends, but justgive us a couple nuggets. One
surprising trend in this year'sreport.
Unknown (31:22):
Um, I don't think there's anything massively
surprising. The one that I'mvery excited about, though, is
this new style. Ja, I think lastyear we saw nostalgia, and this
year we're seeing what I callvibestalgia, which is a bit
different, right? So we've hadthis kind of throwback, 80s,
90s, 70s, 60s, and what we'veactually seen this year is it's
not a time period, it's a vibe.So it's that what we're all
(31:47):
looking for, that thing thatmakes us feel good, right? And
for some people, it's going tobe something 80. It's going to
be like, you know, we're seeingflip phones coming back and all
of that. For some people, it'slike, you know, that Fleetwood
Mac, have you seen all those,like, really retro kind of 80.
They'll be like, you know, Ijust bought a house in 80s
Florida, and it'll be like, AIgenerated videos on Tiktok.
They're very big right now, andit's just a vibe, right? So this
(32:11):
is the thing that I've beentelling everyone. It's all about
feeling good, helping peopleswitch off and have that moment
of like, peace and calm, becausethe world is a very stressful
place right now. So the onething that I've been telling
everyone I've been presenting inall of my reports for the last
few months is vibe. So thinkabout your customers, who they
(32:31):
are, what makes them feel goodand at peace and reminds them of
a simpler time. And reallyharness whatever that energy is,
whether that's a bit 80s or abit 90s or a bit 70s, and really
harness that energy. And if youknow those Tiktok videos I'm
talking about, there's a certaintrack that people are using on
it. And I guarantee you, if youhear this, like, really
(32:51):
nostalgic kind of, it's a bitlike Beverly Hills, cop 80s kind
of music over the top of it. Assoon as you hear it, you cannot
swipe past it. You have to sitand watch this thing. And it's
all kind of like those, likepalm trees and, you know, peach
printed arm and overstuffedFlorida armchairs and the sun
coming in through the window,and the glass of sunny day on
(33:12):
the table, and all of those kindof things. And it's just, it's
just such a nice it makes youfeel like you're 10 years old
coming home from school again.And all of those kind of things,
just it's, it's an amazingfeeling, so capture that
feeling, harness that feeling,and work out how to give that to
your customers. And that will bedifferent for every business
because your customer base is
Jane Clauss (33:32):
different. It will be different for every business
because the customer base isdifferent, or your esthetic is
different, yeah, now is the timeto take the Vives delja, that
idea for all of us, craves, putit on the back burner. I always
say, like, let it simmer withwhat you do, and somehow, some
way, it will blend, and you'llfigure out what your vibes delta
is with what you do. Are thereany friends that we should just
(33:57):
gracefully let go of? Bye? Bye.Oh, that's a difficult
Unknown (34:01):
one. Um, gracefield at gov, no, because I think they
all come back around, right? SoI would say for now, like I did
just see that. I don't know if Ican say it, but a certain phone
manufacturer has brought back,has relaunched their kind of
most famous mid 90s phone with,like, an advanced version of the
snake game on it and stuff likethat. And I think we can all
collectively agree to let thatgo now. So that's the only thing
(34:25):
that I'm like, let's not dothat. But saying that I did
while I was out shopping theother day, I bought a puffball
skirt, and I think I should at,you know, over 40 years of age
have probably respectfully letthe puffball skirt go, but I'm
not going to. So I just think,if it makes you feel good. Just
do it. Just do it. I'm going todo it. It's
Jane Clauss (34:44):
in. It is I wrote a blog post about it a couple
months ago because I knew it wascoming in. So at least I knew
one thing. What aboutsustainability? Is that just a
buzzword, or is that here tostay?
Unknown (34:55):
It's here to stay. I've actually stopped using that in
trend reports, because I don'tthink it's a trend. Anymore. I
think it's a given. I don'tthink people are looking for it
as a buzzword or as it used tobe just kind of, you know,
people used to put, like, an FSClogo on something and be like,
I've done my bit slap, like, putthe sticker on it, and it's
done. And I think now we're alljust so much more educated about
sustainability that you cannotjust slap a sticker on something
(35:19):
or say, oh, you know, it's like,fine or whatever, and just kind
of leave that we have to bereally educated about it. And I
think manufacturers realize thatthey're we saw at the the trade
shows, and I've seen at thetrade shows I've been at since
that all of the manufacturersare very transparent now about
the manufacturing processes andtheir packaging processes and
(35:39):
all of these different thingsthat they're doing to make
things more eco friendly andmore sustainable and all of
that. And I don't think that's atrend anymore. I think that is
just the new way that we're allgoing to work and operate from
now on. So I am not puttingthat, I mean, I sort of touch on
it in in different ways in thetrend report, but I think that's
(36:00):
past being a trend, and it'sjust a way of life. Now it's
here to stay.
Jane Clauss (36:04):
Yeah? So I always say I'm not mad at the
manufacturers, or I'm not mad atfashion houses. I do a lot of
sustainable fashion, so I'm notmad at fabric makers. Let's just
do something with the oldfabric, or let's just do
something with the old clothes.So it is sort of part of life or
a way of life. And now everybodyknows, just give me your old
clothes. I'll make yousomething. Yeah, you're lucky.
(36:26):
You talked about Tiktok, andwatching the vibes videos on
Tiktok, I have heard that Tiktokis coming up with maybe a new
app that is just photo based,sort of like Instagram. Are
there any creative platforms ortools that are rising in
popularity right now are part ofa new trend that's coming.
(36:48):
Again,
Unknown (36:48):
this is very much going to depend on who your audience
is and where they are. So peoplesay to me a lot like, should I
be on this platform? Should Isell on that marketplace? Should
I do a piece for this magazineor appear on that podcast? And I
always say to them, the answeris, where is your customer? Be
there. So if your customer is onTiktok, be on Tiktok. If your
customer is on Instagram, be onInstagram. If your customer is
(37:11):
maybe slightly older, they mightprefer like Facebook, live
classes and things like that. Sobe where your customer is. So I
would say in terms of platforms,marketplaces, media sources,
those kind of things, not somuch to look at trends, but to
just look at where your customeris and meet them there. It's as
simple as that. So meet yourcustomer where they are and
don't over. Don't try and beeverywhere, because it's
(37:33):
exhausting. As a small businessand as a creative you will burn
out. So don't try and beeverywhere. Work out the two or
three places your customer isand meet them there. It's as
simple as
Jane Clauss (37:44):
that. As a creative you will burn out. That is such
a great thing to remember,because it's not okay when
you're like, I can't keep up anddo it all well, because you're
going to burn out. Sarah Hurleyjust told you you will, and you
don't have to be everything toall people find where your
customer base is or your peopleare. We have breaking news right
(38:05):
after this question, you havesaid that trends are esthetic,
they're cultural, they'reemotional, they're economic.
Unpack that a little bit for us,and I think you might have
already done that. But what doesit really mean for creatives?
Unknown (38:20):
Trends are things that we see all over the place and
that, yes, they come and go, butthere are long term trends and
short term trends, right? So youhave to figure out, what are
your long term trends, what yourshort term trends, and what are
the things that fit you? Andagain, if you're if you're
looking at something like myTrend Report, you need to pick
out half a dozen key bits ofinformation that fit your
business and go with that. Youcannot be all things to all
(38:44):
people. And it's the biggestmistake I see people make, is
they look and they go, Oh, she'sselling things with butterflies
on. So I'm going to make thingswith butterflies on, and they're
selling things that are pink. SoI'm going to sell things. Stop
doing that. Look at where yourcustomers. Look at where the gap
is. If they're selling thingswith butterflies on, sell things
with birds on, so that they youcan collaborate and do birds and
butterflies together. And, youknow, don't, don't feel like you
(39:07):
have to chase, Chase, Chase.Very much. Take it on board, but
settle into it. So trends arealways going to come and go, and
you do have to kind of jump onthem a bit. Don't wait for it to
be perfect. Just kind of get outthere. Especially it's a
cultural moment, you know, it'ssomething that's like a Tiktok
sound or a moment in a TV show,like jump on that as soon as
(39:28):
possible, if you can do it. AndI always say if it's something
like that, if it's a Tiktoksound or a cultural moment in
like a TV show or a music videoor something like that, that
you're trying to harness, if youcan do it in an hour or less. If
you can put something togetherand jump on that trend in an
hour or less, do it now. If it'ssomething that you think, I'm
going to put that off till nextweek, next month, just forget
(39:49):
it. Just forget it right now,because you would miss the
moment. So just let that go.Because no one wants to be the
person that's trying to do thetrend, like a year later or
three months later, or whatever,because then you're. Like, you
know, the person turning up lastat the party in your dad jeans
and, you know, all of that kindof thing. So you don't want to
be that person, right? So do itin an hour or less now, or leave
(40:11):
it there are longer term trendsthat you can kind of plan in a
little bit. You know, somethinglike vibes do is something that
will stretch for a year, maybe18 months. So you can kind of
work on that, and that will thendevelop into something else,
because this has come fromsomething else, right? We've
been through the 80s, we've beenthrough the 90s. Now we're in
this, like, vibes, Doug kind ofthing, and there'll be something
(40:31):
else that comes after that, soyou can kind of track that
through, right? Um, yeah. Ithink trends are exciting.
Trends are something that shouldbe embraced, but they're not
what you should base your wholebusiness on. There has to be
meaning, purpose, something atthe core of your business that
goes beyond a
Jane Clauss (40:49):
trend. I want all the trends. I want you to tell
us every single one of them, butI know you're not going to do
that. So if people want to findout how they can get the trends,
because this is such a greatteaser. Where do they go?
Unknown (41:03):
So go to Sarah Hurley academy.com Again, Sarah Hurley
academy.com if you're acorporate, get the report and
the presentation. If you're asolo entrepreneur or small
business, join the membership,and I'll help you break it down
Jane Clauss (41:14):
and coming in right now on the wire, dee, dee, dee,
dee, dee, we've got breakingnews, friends, breaking news.
Sarah Hurley has just announcedHurley wood studios. Sarah
Hurley announcing the newlyformed Hurley wood studios.
Lucky for us, she is on theshow. Sarah, what is the hurly
wood studios?
Unknown (41:35):
Yes. So I decided two businesses weren't enough,
right? So I have my brands and Ihave my academy, and I thought,
why not let the wheels come offand we'll launch the third
business. But in allseriousness, the content side of
my business has been developingastronomically over the last two
years, and so we restructuredslightly because we are building
out a complete contentdevelopment part of the
(41:55):
business, which is HollywoodStudios. So the first projects
launched later this year inaround September, October time.
I'll be confirming dates very,very soon, but I'm very, very,
very excited, because this issomething that I've kind of had
in the back of my head for along time, and it's all just
rushed forward in this moment.And I just launched Hollywood
(42:16):
studios at the license and Expoin Vegas this month, and I'm so
excited to start launching theseprojects.
Jane Clauss (42:22):
That's super exciting. I'm so happy for you.
Another business under yourbelt. I know you're going to be
successful, because guess what?You are the academy. So if you
need some help, you just talk toyourself in the mirror. Well,
yeah. I mean,
Unknown (42:35):
do you know what? I think that's so important if
you're looking for a businessmentor, is to look for someone
who has done it, or is doing itright, because we can all listen
to the people that have done it,like 30 years ago, or thought
about doing it, or kind of havea theoretical application of how
to do it, but I like to listento people who are in the thick
of doing something that I wantto do, and I want to listen to
(42:57):
everything that they had. Andyour ideal business mentor is
not necessarily me, because youmight be listening to me and
thinking, oh my gosh, Does sheever stop? Right? And if you're
thinking that, then I am notyour girl, and that's completely
fine. You need to find someonewho you can relate to, who's
doing what you want to do, andwho's advice and guidance makes
sense to you and your business,and then jump all over that
(43:19):
person. Listen to everything,absorb all their information,
and go for it.
Jane Clauss (43:24):
Go for it, and take little bites of that elephant,
and you'll get through it.Sarah, I ask all of my guests
the same question, and that is,what is creativity mean to you?
Freedom.
Unknown (43:36):
For me, it's just freedom, because I just it's
like the escape at the I lovethe business part of it, and I
do think business is a verycreative thing, but that moment
at kind of the end of the day orthe end of the week, when I can
mess around with kind of paintsand glitter and pretty things
and try stuff out, yeah, it'sfreedom.
Jane Clauss (43:56):
Freedom. I love that short, concise, easy to
swallow, perfect. I have to askyou, if somebody hasn't changed,
and they haven't evolved in 10years, 15 years, they're still
doing the same craft that theywant and make it into a
business. It's not too late.It's
Unknown (44:11):
never too late. It's never too late. Literally, life
is so short. And you know, yes,yesterday would have been a
great time to start. Last yearwould have been a great time to
start, but the next best time tostart is right now. To start. I
told you it
Jane Clauss (44:26):
was going to be a master class. So today, we
learned that creativity is aboutstaying curious and tuning into
emotional and cultural shiftsand using trends as tools, not
rules. And also, creativity isfreedom. Sarah Hurley,
academy.com is where you go.Sarah Hurley, you are amazing.
Thank you so much for yourinsights and wisdom, and
(44:49):
especially thank you for joiningus on creative living. Thank
Unknown (44:52):
you so much for having me. I've absolutely loved
chatting with you.
VO (44:56):
Live better creatively for more inspiration. Visit. At Jane
claus.com, thank you forlistening. Jane.
Time to tantalize your earbuds with creative makers and
shakers. It's creative living,the podcast with Jane Claus,
Jane Clauss (00:10):
Welcome to Creative living, where we help you live
your most creative life. I'mJane Claus. Thanks so much for
jumping on and joining me today.If you've ever wondered what's
next in the creative industry,and more importantly, how to get
there, today's episode isbasically your crystal ball.
Yeah, you're welcome. I've beenwanting to talk about trends and
(00:33):
strategy and get real,actionable insights for
creatives, makers and even smallbusiness owners. And lucky for
us, my guest today is SarahHurley. She is an entrepreneur,
an educator, a creative coach,founder of the Hurley report and
the powerhouse behind the SarahHurley Academy and breaking
(00:54):
news, just newly launched, thehurleywood studios, we're going
to get into that Sarah built amulti seven figure brand from
scratch, and she is now payingit forward with advice that's
equal parts heart and hustle. Soif you're asking yourself, what
to create next, how to grow youraudience, how can I make more
(01:14):
money being creative, or wherethe creative world is heading,
get excited, because you'reabout to hear a master class in
both inspiration and innovationfrom my friend Sarah Hurley,
Hey, Sarah, welcome to creativeliving. Thank
Unknown (01:30):
you so much for having me. I'm so happy to be here. I
know we've been trying to dothis. We're both so busy, and
it's just lovely to see youagain.
Jane Clauss (01:38):
Well, I just knew I wanted to have you on this show,
and you're coming to us from theUK, because today's world is so
small, and thanks to modernmagic, you are right here in our
ears. And I am so grateful. It'slike we are having a spot of tea
together.
Unknown (01:54):
Well, I'm so used to having the American voices,
right? I spent so much time inthe US at the moment, so used to
having the US voices around me,but it's lovely to be here.
Jane Clauss (02:03):
It is lovely to be here. And I talk a lot about the
creative industry, and I getpeople that hang out with us,
that that may or maybe, think,Well, I'm not in the creative
industry. I'm just creative soclarify, what is the creative
industry? Is it a niche group,or is it just a really big
landscape that everybody's apart of to
Unknown (02:21):
me, it's a huge landscape, and I think that
that's where a lot of people gowrong, is that they look at
their specific things so they'llgo, I'm a sewer, or I'm a
crocheter, or I'm a papercrafter. I think if you can do
those things, you can then putyourself into the party
industry, the Halloweenindustry, the greeting card
industry, the stationaryindustry, like there is so much
(02:44):
that creativity touches take thewheels off. Like the landscape
is so broad and it touches somany things. So if you're a
paper craft and you can designgreeting cards, you can design
party supplies, like there isjust so much out there. I mean,
I can't even sew by designfabric. So there is just, you
know, there's so much out therefor people. And really, there
(03:06):
are so many creative industriesand so much creativeness out
there. So embrace it.
Jane Clauss (03:11):
So the creative industry, like you said, is so
much landscape. It's so broadthat you can do a big, big paint
brush stroke across it and covera lot of people that are doing
creative things, and you havethe Creator
Unknown (03:24):
pitch, the creative pitch, so it's, it's kind of
like a accessible shark tank forcreative professionals or
entrepreneurs, right? So you cancome to me, we hold it at trade
show, so it's really accessible.And you can come to me and pitch
your idea completely privately,so you don't have to, like, walk
into a room of scary people, andyou don't have to stand up in
(03:45):
front of a manufacturer. It'slike, your first time pitching.
So you can come to me just oneon one, pitch your idea, and
then we kind of pull it aparttogether, and we test how strong
it is, and I'll give you ideasand feedback and ask you
questions and all of that. Andthe one thing that I hear so
much, I would say definitelyover half, and maybe, like 75
80% of people will always starttheir pitch with just, I am just
(04:09):
a knitter. I am just a sewer. Iam just a mum who does this. And
I always say to no stop, rightthere. You're not just anything.
So say you are a just acrocheter, right? Because I've
heard this one, I'm just acrocheter, but they crochet
toys, and I go, but no, you'renot. You're a toy maker. And if
you can make toys, you candesign characters, which opens
(04:29):
up a whole landscape ofstorytelling and publishing and
world building and products andall of these kind of things that
you can then do with that. Soit's not just anything, it's
what. What we do as creators iswe take raw materials and we
create something out of it. Soif you take that scope of what
we actually do, to start withthese ingredients and create
(04:52):
something, that means we cancreate more things and bigger
things and broader things. Andit's just a matter of how big
your job. Dream, your confidenceand your vision is to go for it.
And the thing behind the theacademy was always to be that
backer for people and go, I'mhere to believe in you. I'm here
to push you forward, encourageyou and tell you that you can
Jane Clauss (05:14):
it's kind of like a mindset shift. It's what you
tell yourself. I'm just aknitter, I'm just a sewist. And
I think it's that shift thatneeds to happen, and having the
support to to make you feel likeyou're not an impostor, that you
are making something with yourmind and your hands and that it
can get as big as you want it.And I love the encouragement
(05:34):
that you are giving to all ofthe creatives that are either
deep in the business or juststarting. So let's talk about
the Sarah Hurley Academy, whichis your coaching and business
building platform. As you said,there's a transformation that
needs to happen. I'm just aknitter, or I am looking for
this, but I'm not sure. There'sall these different things that
(05:57):
people go through when they'relooking to build a business or
grow what is the mostencouragement or the most
transformational change that yousee people need to grow their
confidence.
Unknown (06:11):
So for me, the one thing I didn't notice until I
was really deep in the creativeindustries myself was that I
would say 99% definitely 95%maybe 99% of people in our
industry have come at it from ahobby and turned it into a
business. And so their mindsetis different from if we were
(06:31):
going to open like a restaurant,say, right, we would sit down,
we would write out a businessplan, we would forecast numbers,
and we would do all of thesethings. And what we don't do as
creatives. What we is that sideof it. We don't sit down with
that business plan first of alland say, we're going to build
this business. We kind of startwith something we love, and then
we go, oh, we might be able tomake money with this. We might
want to make a business out ofthis. And so the business comes
(06:54):
as an afterthought, and you'revery much learning on the job. I
came at it very differently. I'ma business person. First, I
happen to be creative. Thathappened to be where my business
went. And I didn't realize thatI was so different from the rest
of the industry until I was init. And then I looked around and
went, Oh, I can see now whypeople think differently. To me,
(07:16):
it's because they've come at itjust slightly differently. And
when I started getting down theline with it. One of the reasons
I started the academy wasbecause I could see that. I
could see that with that simplemindset shift, with that bit of
business planning, with thatlittle bit of strategy and that
little bit of oomph behind it,that I could help people take
their businesses much further,and I could help them just shift
(07:39):
their mindset very slightly andgo, Ah, yes, I am an
entrepreneur. I am a businessperson. I am a CEO. I am that
person. And I think we almostthat imposter syndrome. You've
talked yourself out of thatbecause you've come you feel
like you've kind of sneaked yourway into this industry. Like,
oh, I was just sewing, and thenI created a business. Like, I
(08:00):
just kind of creeped my way inand no one knows. You kind of
say, actually, no, you stillmade that happen, right? You
might have come at itdifferently, but you still was
the person that made thathappen. So you are still worthy
of being there, and you arestill that genius behind your
business. And sometimes it'sjust telling people that they're
doing it the right way. Andlike, yes, you have got
something and you didn't makethis money or this success or
(08:24):
this brand or whatever it is, byaccident, you've done that. So
believe in yourself. And whenpeople take the reins of it and
go, actually, it's not happeningto me. I'm making it happen when
you when they shift theirmindset and take the reins of
their business and control itand plan it. Everything changes,
and that's what I'm here tofacilitate. I don't have a magic
(08:46):
wand. I don't give you thislike, you know, if you work one
hour from a beach doing thisexact thing, you'll be a
millionaire. I don't do that.What I do is I take everything
that you've got, all those rawmaterials, and transform your
mindset into doing it foryourself. So you go, Oh, I had
it all along. You know, we'reall the ruby slippers. We had it
all along. It was always there.It's
Jane Clauss (09:06):
so difficult, though we need you. What you
have is a gift. It's a greatskill. Do you find that most
creatives, or makers, or DIYers, or, let's just call them,
creatives, do you find that westruggle with the business side
of things, and are all the goalsdifferent?
Unknown (09:25):
Yeah, I think obviously, like I said,
generally, creatives have comein it from a different
perspective. So they're notsetting like, generally in a
business, you would sit and setkind of KPIs, like your key
performance indicates for theyear, your revenue goals, all of
those kind of things. Andgenerally in a creative
business, it's like, I want tomake this I want to try that. I
want to work with this company.I want to develop this kind of
(09:47):
product. They're differentgoals, and all it is is just
changing that very slightly andsaying you can have this, like,
I want to learn to paint thisyear goal, but you can also have
a revenue goal and a KPI and allof these. Things that you where
you know you're succeeding soyou can have it all. It's just
believing you can have it all.And that's, that's literally all
(10:08):
it is.
Jane Clauss (10:09):
So you came the creative brain. I sit here
listen, and I'm like, Oh, Idon't like the budget and the
KPIs, like, what? So for me,it's like, get from point A to
point B, but in the middle, it'snot a straight line. It's just a
squiggly fun Willy Wonka messgoing from one side to the
other. Your job is to help uskind of tame that creative mind
and understand it meanwhile,allowing us our creativity to be
(10:31):
unleashed. Yeah,
Unknown (10:33):
absolutely. And look, it's a very simple shift, right?
I don't sit down withspreadsheets and stuff numbers
freak me out. I don't want tolook at a balance sheet like I
just I'm not going to do that toanyone, because I know it's
horrific and I don't want to dothat. But what I will do is
take, you know, very simple goalsetting strategies, right? So
the very first one that I alwaysset people is, I say to them,
(10:54):
what do you want to do with yourbusiness? And I would say, most
people go, I want to make moremoney, right? And I go, Okay,
here's $10 right? Here's $10 youhappy? You've got more money.
And they're like, No. And I'mlike, right. Okay, so what's the
amount? What's the number thatmakes you happy, right? That's
your first KPI. That's yourfirst goal. So when you hit, as
I say, your goal is like, youwant to hit $50,000 this year,
(11:18):
right? So then you look at andyou go, as a very basic number,
you need to earn, like, 4000 ayear a month. Sorry, you need to
make $4,000 a month to make50,000 a year, right? So if,
after three months, you've made15 if you we look at the end of,
like quarter one, that's thefirst three months of the year,
and we go, right, you've made$15,000 you're on track to hit
(11:40):
your goal. It's a very, verysimple thing. You're on track.
So it's just that way of justwhat does success look like, and
it can be, I want to work withthis company, I want to develop
this product, and I want to makeX amount of money, but just put
in that definite thing on thatof what that looks like, not
just more, more more, becausemore is here's $10 you know,
(12:00):
right, right? What is that, interms of a number, a goal,
something we can measure so youknow you're succeeding,
Jane Clauss (12:07):
right? But let me ask you this, can everyday
makers or artists use coachingto actually grow their business
but not get overwhelmed? BecauseI know that if you're an artist
or you're a maker, and you havea tabletop or a craft room full
of project after project thatyou maybe you are doing for a
(12:29):
poster for a company or forsale, and then you have to stop
and do the business side of it,it's tough to be able to switch
on and off, and then you'reoverwhelmed, and then you go on
A spiral, and then you're justback at square one, going, Okay,
I'm not achieving my goalbecause I can't catch up. Is
that? Is that a simple help,like a time block thing,
Unknown (12:50):
is a really simple help and and the difference is,
you're not stopping to do thebusiness part. You're
incorporating that intoeverything that you do. So
there's no like, let's stop anddo the admin. Let's stop and
look at a spreadsheet. Let'sstop and put things in boxes.
We're not doing that at all.It's just literally saying, what
is the goal? How do we getthere? What are the things that
(13:11):
are on track to that goal? Andactually, it helps make all of
the decision making processeseasier, right? So if your goal
is, I want to make X amount ofmoney, or I want to develop this
kind of product that goes intothis kind of store, and someone
comes along and says, I'm goingto offer you this thing, and
this thing doesn't fit into thegoals that you've set. It's
(13:31):
really simple to just go, No,that doesn't fit my goals right
now, thank you for the offer,but no, because you are then on
a single track, right? Like alike a road trip. We're going on
a road trip. You wouldn't gowithout a map, would you?
Because we would drive around incircles and stop for snacks and
look at a pretty thing, and, oh,there's a butterfly and, and we
lost, right? Because thatthat's, yeah, you can do that on
(13:53):
a road trip, right? You can go,we're going to go from here to
here, and we can stop for snacksand we can look at the pretty
thing, and we can stop for adrink, and we can get a soda. We
can do all those things, but westill know where the destination
is, and we'll still end up thereat the end. So it's not about
stopping the fun, or stopping tolook at a spreadsheet or a
boring thing or whatever. It'snot about that at all. It's just
(14:13):
going, let's set the destinationand work backwards and work in
the the pit stops and the snackstops and the Okay, I want to do
this thing, and it doesn'tnecessarily fit, but it's fun,
and I'm going to do it anyway,right? So there's things that I
do that are not, they don'tnecessarily fit the goal, or
they don't hit my revenue goal,or they're not particularly, you
know, in the whole strategicplan for Sarah Hurley, but they
(14:37):
just took a lot of fun. Or myfriend asked me to do it, and I
just think, actually, I justreally want to go do that, so
I'll do those things as well,because you have to, you have to
keep it fun and motivational,because otherwise, what's the
point? And I see those businessplans that, you know, the the
bank give you, like templates tofill in and stuff. And I'm like,
just throw it away, don't it? Mybank manager actually uses my
(14:58):
business plan as a template nowto show. To people, because I
made it inspirational. When Ilook at my business plan, I get
excited about it because it'sgot all my goals on it. So I'm
like, I'm going to work towardsthat. So if I have, like, a
stuck moment, I'm like, I pickmy business plan up, and I get
excited about it again. BecauseI'm like, I'm nearly there, and
I'm nearly at this point, andI'm going to do this next, and
(15:19):
that's what I want for everyone,is that excitement. Stop filling
out little boxes. Stop thinkingyou have to stop for admin, you
don't. Let's create more fun,but with the goals there, so
you're having successful fun,
Jane Clauss (15:31):
but you still have to do the admin. But if we can
weave it into the successfulfun, then it becomes fun because
you see the growth happening,which will then make you want to
go back to that spreadsheet andget excited about that. I
Unknown (15:43):
get it. Okay, cool. Exactly that.
Jane Clauss (15:46):
Let's talk about the biggest hurdles. Because I
want everyone to say, oh, that'swhere I fall into or maybe not.
I mean, there's tons of hurdlesto overcome, and we can overcome
them like stuck in your own way,time management. What's the end
goal? Imposter syndrome, as wesaid, I'm not good enough to do
this. I don't have a businessplan. So those are all things
(16:07):
that people face every singleday, maybe one, maybe all of
them you're saying, with alittle bit of coaching, with the
right mind shift and mindset,you can overcome these things
100%
Unknown (16:19):
Yeah, there is nothing that is too big, too scary, too
anything. And normally, when yousit down and you take people's
fears away, and a lot of it issilly things, like, have you
ever had, right? Do you know,like, you get a headache, right?
And you sit there, you think,I've got a headache. Oh, my head
really hurts. Oh, it reallyhurts. And it seems to get
(16:39):
worse, right? Because you'resaying it right. So when you
have, like, you know, basicthings, like to do list, and you
go, I need to do this, this,this, and I must have forget
that, and I must have get that,and I've got feed the cat, and
I've got a pop and get somefabric and do this. And, you
know, get a get a coffee and andeverything feels like it's
unraveling, because it's so muchthat you have to keep on top of.
And it's just that very basicthing of, like, get out of your
(17:01):
head, like, put it on paper.Make lists. Do all these things.
You make pretty lists. Theydon't have to be boring lists.
You can, you know, create allthese systems that really work
for you. And these mindsetshifts are really, really
simple, and most of it is aboutus in our own heads, telling us
it's scary, telling us, it'soverwhelming, telling us,
(17:23):
because I don't know if you knowthis, as humans, we are pre
programmed to self sabotage. Didyou know that? Yeah, it's our
own safety so your body doesn'twant you to rush off and do
something risky. So your ownsafety net, internal safety net
programs you to self sabotage.So if you've got, like,
(17:44):
something to just say, this isthe first time I've ever been on
a podcast, right? My head wouldbe telling me not to do it.
Would be telling me to stop.You'll probably make a fool of
yourself, or you'll saysomething inappropriate, or
you'll do something you know,you'll say a word you shouldn't
say, or, you know, all of that.That's what my head would be
telling me to save myself fromany discomfort. So in your head,
what you have to do is just lookat each thing objectively and
(18:06):
go, What are the chances like?How many times a day do I blur
out something inappropriate?Yeah, hardly ever. So it's
probably not going to happen.And if I tell myself in my head
that actually I'm going to bemore on God because I know I'm
coming here, then I'm definitelynot going to do it. And once you
start putting a pin in theselittle things and popping them,
(18:27):
these little bubbles of fearbecome smaller and smaller and
smaller. So our body is preprogrammed to save us from
discomfort, and all we need todo is overcome it and go, do you
know what we've been inuncomfortable situations before?
What's the worst that canhappen. What's, you know, we've
we've succeeded 100% of timesbefore. You have succeeded
because you're still here,you're still trying, you're
(18:48):
still going. So if you've doneit 100% of times before, you can
do it again. And literally, Itell this to people in the
creative industry, and I don'tmean this to sound in any kind
of way, except the way it shouldcome across. We are not saving
lives. No one is going to diefrom a paper car or a stabbing
themselves or a knitting needleor whatever, right? We are not
(19:08):
saving lives. So the most you'regoing to do is mess up a piece
of fabric, a piece of paper.You're going to spill glitter on
the floor. It does not matter.Just keep going. Just keep
trying. Just keep puttingyourself out there, because the
worst that can happen is youneed to hover up the glitter and
start again tomorrow. That'sliterally it
Jane Clauss (19:26):
okay. You just can't. You just pivot and turn
that creative mistake intosomething else. It's funny that
you say, we are programmed tosay, No, I do so many things,
like on the air in front of abig group of people, or hosting
a thing and and I'm always like,nope, nope. What? What what do I
have to say? Why am I doingthis? Like, for a year, it's
been 30 years on TV and radio,and I would wake up, like, the
(19:47):
middle of the night going intothe studio, and I'm like, why am
I doing this? I don't know andbut now for me, it's that
thrill. So I'm hesitant andnervous I do it. And then when
I'm done, I'm like, Oh, I'm amillionaire. I'm not a
millionaire. I feel like amillionaire because I love the
rush. I don't know if that's agood thing or a bad thing, but I
(20:09):
understand where you're comingfrom, where you're like, why am
I doing this? Yeah,
Unknown (20:13):
and I think it's not like you wouldn't feel that if
you didn't care, right? So youmust. You. We want to get it
right. We want to do our best.We want to do but you can't do
your best unless you start. Youcannot do it unless you start.
And we see this all the time,right when, when people get
like, especially when they getsomething like an expensive
machine or whatever, and it sitsin the box for ages, and I
(20:34):
think, get it out. Do the firstrow of stitches, or the first
cut, or the first whatever itis, get it out and make us up,
because you cannot do your bestwork until you've started and
until you've probably messed upa few times. And even when
you've got it right, you'restill going to mess up a few
times. So just just get going.Just make a start. Do something,
anything towards your goaltoday.
Jane Clauss (20:55):
Well, which is exactly the answer to my next
question, which was, if somebodyis listening right now thinking,
I need to do this. I want to trythis. I'm overthinking it. I'm
in my own way to grow theirbusiness, or just get started.
And the simple answer is, we'lljust get started. But what would
you say to them right now?They're listening. They're
waiting. What
Unknown (21:13):
is it so the the one analogy that I use all the time,
someone said it to me years andyears ago, and it's never left
me, because it just, it justtickled me, right? Is, how do
you eat an elephant one bite ata time? Yeah, right. So your
goal is an elephant, right now,but if you start with just one
bite, if you break things downinto tiny goals, then the
(21:34):
elephant doesn't seem so big,because you eat it one bite at a
time.
Jane Clauss (21:38):
Amazing. I knew when I saw you speak in the
meeting of creativeprofessionals. I wanted to have
you on the show. I really andtruly did, because you have so
much to offer. Not only do youhave the creative pitch, not
only do you have the SarahHurley Academy, where all of
this wealth of knowledge can beshared with anybody that signs
up, you also have the HurleyTrend Report. It gives creative
(22:00):
entrepreneur is just a leg up onwhat's coming in the industry
and how to prepare for it. Sobut the thing is, you just don't
spot the trends. You translatethem into strategy for everybody
in your academy. And that iswhat I love about what you do.
And you hit it a little bit ago.You said it's like driving in a
car with a map. The Hurleyreport shows us the map, and the
(22:23):
Sarah Hurley Academy teaches ushow to drive the car. You could
steal that if you
Unknown (22:28):
want. Thanks. Yeah, that's exactly that. So I
realized that most trend reportsare very, very specific. So if
you want to be a greeting carddesigner, you would buy a trend
report on greeting cards. Itwould cost you several $1,000
and it would only tell you aboutthat and what it doesn't tell
you that if you can designgreeting cards, you could
probably design paper craftsupplies, or you could design
(22:50):
wedding invitations, or youcould design stationary, and the
world is really open to you. AndI realized that, and I just
thought, This is so stupid thatno one's thought of this, that
as creatives, what we want to dois create more, right? So my
Trend Report I developed to bereally inclusive and show you a
(23:10):
path for growth. And like yousaid, the the Trend Report is
the map and the Academy is likethe guidance to get you there.
And that's exactly what I wantedto create was, let's get this
trend report so that you can seehow all of these specific
industries work together toactually grow what you do not
(23:30):
just sticking your one littlecategory and go, I'm just going
to stick. I mean, you can stickin your one category. Of course
you can, and I'll give you theinformation to do that. But
like, how to use thatinformation inside of your
business to actually grow it andbe successful.
Jane Clauss (23:45):
So can, we're going to get to trends in the trend
report in a second. But Cansomeone running a small shop, or
someone that has a side hustle,can they use the trends
strategically without chasingevery shiny new thing, meaning
all these trends are happening.I'm going to keep doing all of
it, you know, like withoutlosing their track or losing
(24:07):
their voice. Can they chase thetrends, or do they pick the ones
that work for
Unknown (24:12):
them? We all have to pick the ones that work for you,
because we can look at so forme, for instance, my style is
very colorful, very bold, verymodern, right? So if the trend
is like, vintage Junk Shop kindof look, that's not going to
work for me, because that's notmy style. So you do have to be
really selective in what worksfor you, and pick something and
(24:32):
run with it, and then knowingthe different. And we we explain
all this in the report of like,knowing the difference between
long term and short term trendsand how to use them. But the one
thing I'll say is you need tothink outside the box for these
things, right? And I tell thisstory a lot of the first time I
ever done a Trend Reportpresentation, and I said, Oh,
the first trend that I'm goingto be talking about today is
cupcakes. And this guy in thefront row kind of went, Oh, like
(24:55):
that. And he got up and startedto walk out. And I went, hang on
a second. I went, can I just askyou why you. Going to leave. And
he went, Well, I own a fabricshop, so this isn't relevant to
me, and blah, blah, blah. So hewas very agitated that he'd
given up, like, three wholeminutes of his time. And I'd
said cupcakes, right? So I saidto him, hang on a minute. I
mean, you can get fabric withcupcakes on it. You could make a
fabric pin cushion. You couldmake some kind of cupcake item.
(25:18):
You could put it on an apron.You could do all of these things
in your classes, in store. Andhe went, oh yeah. And then he
sat down listen to the rest ofthe trends. And I tell that
story a lot because it just goesto show how we can just in our
own little box, go, oh, thatdoesn't apply to me. But
actually, when you start to lookoutside of your box and you
start to think about otherthings around you, you can go,
(25:40):
actually, I can make that apply.I can strategically. And you
don't have to do it with everysingle thing, because you're
absolutely right, especially ifyou are working alone or in a
very small team, you know, likea small family business, you
could get stuck in just chasing,chasing, chasing. You don't want
to do that. You want to picksomething that aligns really
closely or speaks to you, orthat your customers have been
(26:00):
asking for it. I would say thatthat's a big one. Is just listen
to your customers and whatthey're asking for, and use
those trends selectively toappeal to those people, or to
look and go, actually, you know,who is my customer and what do
they like? So you know, if younotice your Cust, if you own a
fabric shop and you notice yourcustomers have all been to the
cake shop next door before theycome into you, then maybe you
(26:21):
should get the cupcake fabric,or run the cupcake sewing class
or whatever that is, right? Sojust being aware of picking and
choosing what really aligns withyou, yeah,
Jane Clauss (26:31):
like what speaks to you, and then use that concept
to paint broad strokes, meaning,how will that play into what you
already do? This is why I'm asucker for trend reports. When
we met, I said, I love a goodtrend report, because this is
how I this is my diving board,and this is how I use it into
the things that I'm into. I findthe pieces that I like, if, you
(26:52):
know, some kind of weirdflowers. And I'm like, Okay,
well, I'm gonna sublimate thatflower on a piece of polyester,
and I'm gonna turn it into atote bag. And now I'm part of
the you know, the flower trend,which I love. So when you
decided to come out with theTrend Report, did you notice
that there was a gap in themarket for this type of report?
Or was there an aha moment thatyou thought, I need to be the
one to do this?
Unknown (27:13):
So that first trade report that I presented was
actually someone else's reportthat I had stood up and was
presenting, and it was someoneelse's research. And I did just
think, this is very narrow, andthe more I looked at kind of I
get, because I work acrossmultiple Creative Industries, I
get a lot of information fromvarious sources. And so I
noticed myself saying from oneclient, going, well, you know,
(27:36):
we're looking at homeware overhere, and I've just been, you
know, designing a collection formy wedding industry client over
here. And I've noticed that thewedding industry stuff
translates to home decor, or thehome decor stuff translates to
wedding and they would be like,Oh, I didn't know that. I hadn't
thought of that. Blah, blah,blah. And so actually, that's
when I started noticing that. Afew years ago, I was noticing
how narrow stuff was. And thenobviously, with the academy,
(27:59):
just talking to people and themgoing, well, I don't know where
to go next. I don't know whereto take my skills. I don't know
how to get from this thing tothat thing, from greeting cards
to weddings, or from greeting orfrom cards into greeting cards,
or whatever that is. And so as Iwas doing that, I started kind
of thinking to myself, I havegot enough knowledge, enough
(28:19):
industry experience and enoughanalytical experience to put
this together. And I sat downand I spoke to a couple of
people, and they were like, Oh,it will never work, but these
are the same people that told memy magazine would never work,
and it did. So I was like, thefact that you're telling me it
doesn't work, tells me it'sgoing to work, yeah. And then I
said it to my friend whoactually runs events. And I was
(28:42):
like, Look, tell me if I'mcrazy, but what do you think?
And he went, I think you shouldcome and present it exclusively
at my next event. And I waslike, brilliant. And it was
packed. It like there werepeople standing room only. And I
was like, people are hungry forthis knowledge. I can see it. I
can feel it, and theoverwhelming response since has
(29:04):
been incredible. It is off thecharts, the success of it. So I
know that it's right
Jane Clauss (29:10):
when you know, you know. And there are other trend
reports that come out, yours isjust a little bit different than
the the typical ones. Yeah, Ifeel like yours gives you the
trends, but you're giving themin styles and palettes and
emerging platforms and consumerbehavior. I mean, it's such a
broad trend report that thereare nuggets from it that
(29:31):
everybody can insert into theirbusiness or their creative life
and use it if you're using itwisely or just be informed. Tell
us this. How do you find thetrends? How do you predict what
is going to happen in thecreative industry? Or is that a
secret?
Unknown (29:48):
Um, it's, I mean, it's semi a secret. I'm not going to
tell you the whole thing. Um, Ido obviously, like I said, I
work across multiple industries,so I see patterns forming. I get
a lot of knowledge. And also.Because I have my business, so
this is the one thing, right? Isee a lot of people give trend
information, and they've got itfrom like chat, GPT or Google or
(30:08):
whatever, and I think that'sfine to a point, until you're
actually investing money intoit, and then it becomes a bit
dangerous, right? Because you'renot interpreting that data or
looking at it contextually,which is a problem because I run
a lot of brands across multiplethings have a lot of context and
a lot of data and a lot ofpersonal experimentation. So I
(30:30):
can be very, very confident thateverything I say is right and
it's contextual and it'sapplicable, and I've translated
it and giving you all of thatknowledge behind it. So I could
just go on chat, GPT, and go,What are the top five trends?
And go, yeah, cupcakes. Again, Icould do that, but I would never
do that because it's notspecific enough. And I just feel
(30:52):
like people need detail. Theyneed fine, granular detail that
they can apply to theirbusiness. And that's what I give
you.
Jane Clauss (30:59):
Yeah, you give us the why. So here's the trend and
here's the why. And when I saypeople, I thought, What's your
why? No, this is the why, whythis trend is happening, why it
works, what you saw, how youfound it, where you gathered the
information from. And you kindof bring it full circle, and you
fill it out for us. So is there?I'm going to ask you. Have to
tell us all the trends, but justgive us a couple nuggets. One
surprising trend in this year'sreport.
Unknown (31:22):
Um, I don't think there's anything massively
surprising. The one that I'mvery excited about, though, is
this new style. Ja, I think lastyear we saw nostalgia, and this
year we're seeing what I callvibestalgia, which is a bit
different, right? So we've hadthis kind of throwback, 80s,
90s, 70s, 60s, and what we'veactually seen this year is it's
not a time period, it's a vibe.So it's that what we're all
(31:47):
looking for, that thing thatmakes us feel good, right? And
for some people, it's going tobe something 80. It's going to
be like, you know, we're seeingflip phones coming back and all
of that. For some people, it'slike, you know, that Fleetwood
Mac, have you seen all those,like, really retro kind of 80.
They'll be like, you know, Ijust bought a house in 80s
Florida, and it'll be like, AIgenerated videos on Tiktok.
They're very big right now, andit's just a vibe, right? So this
(32:11):
is the thing that I've beentelling everyone. It's all about
feeling good, helping peopleswitch off and have that moment
of like, peace and calm, becausethe world is a very stressful
place right now. So the onething that I've been telling
everyone I've been presenting inall of my reports for the last
few months is vibe. So thinkabout your customers, who they
(32:31):
are, what makes them feel goodand at peace and reminds them of
a simpler time. And reallyharness whatever that energy is,
whether that's a bit 80s or abit 90s or a bit 70s, and really
harness that energy. And if youknow those Tiktok videos I'm
talking about, there's a certaintrack that people are using on
it. And I guarantee you, if youhear this, like, really
(32:51):
nostalgic kind of, it's a bitlike Beverly Hills, cop 80s kind
of music over the top of it. Assoon as you hear it, you cannot
swipe past it. You have to sitand watch this thing. And it's
all kind of like those, likepalm trees and, you know, peach
printed arm and overstuffedFlorida armchairs and the sun
coming in through the window,and the glass of sunny day on
(33:12):
the table, and all of those kindof things. And it's just, it's
just such a nice it makes youfeel like you're 10 years old
coming home from school again.And all of those kind of things,
just it's, it's an amazingfeeling, so capture that
feeling, harness that feeling,and work out how to give that to
your customers. And that will bedifferent for every business
because your customer base is
Jane Clauss (33:32):
different. It will be different for every business
because the customer base isdifferent, or your esthetic is
different, yeah, now is the timeto take the Vives delja, that
idea for all of us, craves, putit on the back burner. I always
say, like, let it simmer withwhat you do, and somehow, some
way, it will blend, and you'llfigure out what your vibes delta
is with what you do. Are thereany friends that we should just
(33:57):
gracefully let go of? Bye? Bye.Oh, that's a difficult
Unknown (34:01):
one. Um, gracefield at gov, no, because I think they
all come back around, right? SoI would say for now, like I did
just see that. I don't know if Ican say it, but a certain phone
manufacturer has brought back,has relaunched their kind of
most famous mid 90s phone with,like, an advanced version of the
snake game on it and stuff likethat. And I think we can all
collectively agree to let thatgo now. So that's the only thing
(34:25):
that I'm like, let's not dothat. But saying that I did
while I was out shopping theother day, I bought a puffball
skirt, and I think I should at,you know, over 40 years of age
have probably respectfully letthe puffball skirt go, but I'm
not going to. So I just think,if it makes you feel good. Just
do it. Just do it. I'm going todo it. It's
Jane Clauss (34:44):
in. It is I wrote a blog post about it a couple
months ago because I knew it wascoming in. So at least I knew
one thing. What aboutsustainability? Is that just a
buzzword, or is that here tostay?
Unknown (34:55):
It's here to stay. I've actually stopped using that in
trend reports, because I don'tthink it's a trend. Anymore. I
think it's a given. I don'tthink people are looking for it
as a buzzword or as it used tobe just kind of, you know,
people used to put, like, an FSClogo on something and be like,
I've done my bit slap, like, putthe sticker on it, and it's
done. And I think now we're alljust so much more educated about
sustainability that you cannotjust slap a sticker on something
(35:19):
or say, oh, you know, it's like,fine or whatever, and just kind
of leave that we have to bereally educated about it. And I
think manufacturers realize thatthey're we saw at the the trade
shows, and I've seen at thetrade shows I've been at since
that all of the manufacturersare very transparent now about
the manufacturing processes andtheir packaging processes and
(35:39):
all of these different thingsthat they're doing to make
things more eco friendly andmore sustainable and all of
that. And I don't think that's atrend anymore. I think that is
just the new way that we're allgoing to work and operate from
now on. So I am not puttingthat, I mean, I sort of touch on
it in in different ways in thetrend report, but I think that's
(36:00):
past being a trend, and it'sjust a way of life. Now it's
here to stay.
Jane Clauss (36:04):
Yeah? So I always say I'm not mad at the
manufacturers, or I'm not mad atfashion houses. I do a lot of
sustainable fashion, so I'm notmad at fabric makers. Let's just
do something with the oldfabric, or let's just do
something with the old clothes.So it is sort of part of life or
a way of life. And now everybodyknows, just give me your old
clothes. I'll make yousomething. Yeah, you're lucky.
(36:26):
You talked about Tiktok, andwatching the vibes videos on
Tiktok, I have heard that Tiktokis coming up with maybe a new
app that is just photo based,sort of like Instagram. Are
there any creative platforms ortools that are rising in
popularity right now are part ofa new trend that's coming.
(36:48):
Again,
Unknown (36:48):
this is very much going to depend on who your audience
is and where they are. So peoplesay to me a lot like, should I
be on this platform? Should Isell on that marketplace? Should
I do a piece for this magazineor appear on that podcast? And I
always say to them, the answeris, where is your customer? Be
there. So if your customer is onTiktok, be on Tiktok. If your
customer is on Instagram, be onInstagram. If your customer is
(37:11):
maybe slightly older, they mightprefer like Facebook, live
classes and things like that. Sobe where your customer is. So I
would say in terms of platforms,marketplaces, media sources,
those kind of things, not somuch to look at trends, but to
just look at where your customeris and meet them there. It's as
simple as that. So meet yourcustomer where they are and
don't over. Don't try and beeverywhere, because it's
(37:33):
exhausting. As a small businessand as a creative you will burn
out. So don't try and beeverywhere. Work out the two or
three places your customer isand meet them there. It's as
simple as
Jane Clauss (37:44):
that. As a creative you will burn out. That is such
a great thing to remember,because it's not okay when
you're like, I can't keep up anddo it all well, because you're
going to burn out. Sarah Hurleyjust told you you will, and you
don't have to be everything toall people find where your
customer base is or your peopleare. We have breaking news right
(38:05):
after this question, you havesaid that trends are esthetic,
they're cultural, they'reemotional, they're economic.
Unpack that a little bit for us,and I think you might have
already done that. But what doesit really mean for creatives?
Unknown (38:20):
Trends are things that we see all over the place and
that, yes, they come and go, butthere are long term trends and
short term trends, right? So youhave to figure out, what are
your long term trends, what yourshort term trends, and what are
the things that fit you? Andagain, if you're if you're
looking at something like myTrend Report, you need to pick
out half a dozen key bits ofinformation that fit your
business and go with that. Youcannot be all things to all
(38:44):
people. And it's the biggestmistake I see people make, is
they look and they go, Oh, she'sselling things with butterflies
on. So I'm going to make thingswith butterflies on, and they're
selling things that are pink. SoI'm going to sell things. Stop
doing that. Look at where yourcustomers. Look at where the gap
is. If they're selling thingswith butterflies on, sell things
with birds on, so that they youcan collaborate and do birds and
butterflies together. And, youknow, don't, don't feel like you
(39:07):
have to chase, Chase, Chase.Very much. Take it on board, but
settle into it. So trends arealways going to come and go, and
you do have to kind of jump onthem a bit. Don't wait for it to
be perfect. Just kind of get outthere. Especially it's a
cultural moment, you know, it'ssomething that's like a Tiktok
sound or a moment in a TV show,like jump on that as soon as
(39:28):
possible, if you can do it. AndI always say if it's something
like that, if it's a Tiktoksound or a cultural moment in
like a TV show or a music videoor something like that, that
you're trying to harness, if youcan do it in an hour or less. If
you can put something togetherand jump on that trend in an
hour or less, do it now. If it'ssomething that you think, I'm
going to put that off till nextweek, next month, just forget
(39:49):
it. Just forget it right now,because you would miss the
moment. So just let that go.Because no one wants to be the
person that's trying to do thetrend, like a year later or
three months later, or whatever,because then you're. Like, you
know, the person turning up lastat the party in your dad jeans
and, you know, all of that kindof thing. So you don't want to
be that person, right? So do itin an hour or less now, or leave
(40:11):
it there are longer term trendsthat you can kind of plan in a
little bit. You know, somethinglike vibes do is something that
will stretch for a year, maybe18 months. So you can kind of
work on that, and that will thendevelop into something else,
because this has come fromsomething else, right? We've
been through the 80s, we've beenthrough the 90s. Now we're in
this, like, vibes, Doug kind ofthing, and there'll be something
(40:31):
else that comes after that, soyou can kind of track that
through, right? Um, yeah. Ithink trends are exciting.
Trends are something that shouldbe embraced, but they're not
what you should base your wholebusiness on. There has to be
meaning, purpose, something atthe core of your business that
goes beyond a
Jane Clauss (40:49):
trend. I want all the trends. I want you to tell
us every single one of them, butI know you're not going to do
that. So if people want to findout how they can get the trends,
because this is such a greatteaser. Where do they go?
Unknown (41:03):
So go to Sarah Hurley academy.com Again, Sarah Hurley
academy.com if you're acorporate, get the report and
the presentation. If you're asolo entrepreneur or small
business, join the membership,and I'll help you break it down
Jane Clauss (41:14):
and coming in right now on the wire, dee, dee, dee,
dee, dee, we've got breakingnews, friends, breaking news.
Sarah Hurley has just announcedHurley wood studios. Sarah
Hurley announcing the newlyformed Hurley wood studios.
Lucky for us, she is on theshow. Sarah, what is the hurly
wood studios?
Unknown (41:35):
Yes. So I decided two businesses weren't enough,
right? So I have my brands and Ihave my academy, and I thought,
why not let the wheels come offand we'll launch the third
business. But in allseriousness, the content side of
my business has been developingastronomically over the last two
years, and so we restructuredslightly because we are building
out a complete contentdevelopment part of the
(41:55):
business, which is HollywoodStudios. So the first projects
launched later this year inaround September, October time.
I'll be confirming dates very,very soon, but I'm very, very,
very excited, because this issomething that I've kind of had
in the back of my head for along time, and it's all just
rushed forward in this moment.And I just launched Hollywood
(42:16):
studios at the license and Expoin Vegas this month, and I'm so
excited to start launching theseprojects.
Jane Clauss (42:22):
That's super exciting. I'm so happy for you.
Another business under yourbelt. I know you're going to be
successful, because guess what?You are the academy. So if you
need some help, you just talk toyourself in the mirror. Well,
yeah. I mean,
Unknown (42:35):
do you know what? I think that's so important if
you're looking for a businessmentor, is to look for someone
who has done it, or is doing itright, because we can all listen
to the people that have done it,like 30 years ago, or thought
about doing it, or kind of havea theoretical application of how
to do it, but I like to listento people who are in the thick
of doing something that I wantto do, and I want to listen to
(42:57):
everything that they had. Andyour ideal business mentor is
not necessarily me, because youmight be listening to me and
thinking, oh my gosh, Does sheever stop? Right? And if you're
thinking that, then I am notyour girl, and that's completely
fine. You need to find someonewho you can relate to, who's
doing what you want to do, andwho's advice and guidance makes
sense to you and your business,and then jump all over that
(43:19):
person. Listen to everything,absorb all their information,
and go for it.
Jane Clauss (43:24):
Go for it, and take little bites of that elephant,
and you'll get through it.Sarah, I ask all of my guests
the same question, and that is,what is creativity mean to you?
Freedom.
Unknown (43:36):
For me, it's just freedom, because I just it's
like the escape at the I lovethe business part of it, and I
do think business is a verycreative thing, but that moment
at kind of the end of the day orthe end of the week, when I can
mess around with kind of paintsand glitter and pretty things
and try stuff out, yeah, it'sfreedom.
Jane Clauss (43:56):
Freedom. I love that short, concise, easy to
swallow, perfect. I have to askyou, if somebody hasn't changed,
and they haven't evolved in 10years, 15 years, they're still
doing the same craft that theywant and make it into a
business. It's not too late.It's
Unknown (44:11):
never too late. It's never too late. Literally, life
is so short. And you know, yes,yesterday would have been a
great time to start. Last yearwould have been a great time to
start, but the next best time tostart is right now. To start. I
told you it
Jane Clauss (44:26):
was going to be a master class. So today, we
learned that creativity is aboutstaying curious and tuning into
emotional and cultural shiftsand using trends as tools, not
rules. And also, creativity isfreedom. Sarah Hurley,
academy.com is where you go.Sarah Hurley, you are amazing.
Thank you so much for yourinsights and wisdom, and
(44:49):
especially thank you for joiningus on creative living. Thank
Unknown (44:52):
you so much for having me. I've absolutely loved
chatting with you.
VO (44:56):
Live better creatively for more inspiration. Visit. At Jane
claus.com, thank you forlistening. Jane.
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