March 15, 2025 • 72 mins
In this episode, recorded on the go, I take you through a fiber-filled weekend, exploring the world of weaving with linen, learning about its rich history, and navigating the craft of slow marketing at a creative fair. From her experience in a weaving workshop with Eva Klee at Clay Handwoven to networking with fellow business owners at Crea Weekend, she shares insights on learning curves, personal growth, and the power of understanding your brand identity. Whether you’re a maker, a fiber enthusiast, or a small business owner, this episode is packed with inspiration, practical takeaways, and a good dose of humor.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Have you ever had a moment where you were so
immersed into your craft thatthe world around you just faded
away?
Or maybe you've been told thatsomething is too difficult, only
to find that diving inheadfirst was exactly what you
needed?
Well, today I'm bringing you aweekend filled with exactly
those moments, from weavinglinen for the first time to
(00:22):
navigating the world of slowmarketing at a craft fair.
This episode is all aboutembracing new challenges in
business and crafts on your ownterms.
Now, before we dive in, a quicknote I recorded this episode
actually in my car on the wayback home, so you might hear
some background sounds from theroad.
(00:42):
And since I'm multitaskinghello, adhd brain I'm speaking a
little slower than usual, butdon't worry, the insights and
stories are still there.
In today's episode, I want toshare three key lessons I've
learned this weekend that applyto both craft and business.
One don't believe the ghoststories.
(01:04):
Whether it's weaving linen orlaunching a new offer in your
business, people will tell youit's too hard, but often the
challenge is just a learningcurve, not an impossibility.
Two slow marketing is worth it.
At Crea Weekend, I connectedwith fellow business owners in
person, without the pressure ofsocial media.
(01:25):
Real conversations lead to realbusiness growth, and three
brand clarity matters.
I asked small business ownersto describe their brand in three
words and you'd be surprisedhow hard that was.
If you can't define your brandquickly, it's time to refine
your message.
If you can't define your brandquickly, it's time to refine
(01:48):
your message.
So here's your takeaway fortoday.
Whether it's in your craft oryour business, lean into the
challenge, step outside yourcomfort zone, ignore the ghost
stories and get clear on whatmakes you unique.
And, if you haven't already,take a moment to define your
brand in three words.
It's harder than it sounds, butit might just change the way
you show up for your business.
All right, let's get into it.
(02:10):
Buckle up, literally andfiguratively, and join me as I
take you through a weekend ofFibercraft's business insights
and slow marketing in action.
Hey there, and welcome toPattern Shift, the podcast where
creative business owners likeyou learn to build a business
that's inspiring, fun andsustainable.
(02:32):
I'm Saskia de Veyter, a businessstrategist, guide maker and
all-round creative entrepreneur.
I help business owners in theneedle and fiber craft world,
just like you, navigate allthose icky words, branding,
marketing and strategy in a waythat actually works for your
creative brain.
(02:52):
Here we talk about everythingfrom running a values-driven
business to simplifying yourmarketing without burning out
Whether you're just starting outor looking to refine your
business burning out.
Whether you're just startingout or looking to refine your
business, you're in the rightplace.
So settle in, grab a cup of tea, coffee or, you know, brugladig
(03:28):
.
You do you and let's getstarted.
All right, so this is a littlebit of a different recording.
I'm actually in the car, but Idid bring my microphone, so it's
going to be interesting whenI'm editing, because I'm gonna
have a lot of pauses as I'mshifting my focus.
On the other hand, I am so muchbetter at focusing while I'm
doing something else Hello, adhd.
(03:50):
So this is actually potentiallya very good idea.
Here we go.
This weekend I've had a verytextile fall weekend, a very
(04:13):
textile full weekend.
On Saturday I took a workshopwith Eva Klee at Klee Handwoven
in Amsterdam.
I booked that workshop thissummer, right after I came back
from my course in Sweden, whereI learned the whole process from
f the flex plants, once theywere harvested, retted and dried
(04:55):
.
From that point on, we learnedhow to process it into handspun
linen.
So when the fibers are nottwisted, it's still called flax.
When they're twisted, it'scalled linen, the threads are
called linen and the fabric iscalled linen.
(05:17):
The plant is called flax.
And as I usually seem to getmyself in this interesting
complication of learning theoryand practical skills in
different languages, whetherthat be English or, in this case
(05:40):
, swedish, my vocabulary is sucha muddled mess that usually I
don't even remember any of thelanguages, any of the words.
I just know the process, whichis great.
I can always look it up, but itmakes, sometimes it makes me
feel like, wasn't that the pointright to like, wasn't that the
(06:04):
point?
Right To learn, so that you canshare.
And if you don't know any ofthe words, it's becoming harder
to share.
But that's okay, I'll just,we'll muddle through.
Luckily for this episode, it'sneither here nor there what the
(06:25):
exact words are in terms of theprocess.
What is important is that I wasso intrigued by the whole
process and the idea of beingable to grow your own fiber in a
way that's much easier thanherding and keeping sheep Less
(06:46):
cute though, I have to say, butalso a lot less hassle.
So that quickly became thisidea of I want to do more with
this and I had gone toSeterglenten.
I still don't have a greatpronunciation.
(07:12):
It's fine.
I had gone there on three otheroccasions where I've had such
an amazing time and I justreally wanted to go there to
learn.
And I just really wanted to gothere to learn, although in the
Netherlands, and specifically inBelgium, we have a rich linen
history and there's multipleplaces that I could have learned
(07:34):
it here.
But you know, I just love Swedenand and my oldest daughter
tells me I'm a sweebo, and myoldest daughter tells me I'm a
sweebo, sweebo, somebody thatlikes Sweden.
And yeah, that is the case.
So I love the language, I lovethe aesthetics, I love the way
(07:57):
the land looks, the forests, Ilove the people I've connected
with.
I'm sure there's a bunch ofe-holes there as well, but up
until now they've been wonderfuland yeah, that's why I learned
in Sweden, because I just feellike that's a little bit of my.
(08:21):
There's a word, a Swedish wordthat I've used before.
Let me think what is it again?
Ah, ja, smulstrån, somethinglike that.
It's like a strawberry patch,the space on the fields that is
(08:41):
extra special.
Field that is extra special.
So there is.
I feel like that when I'm onany Scottish island and I lie in
particular.
I've only been there once, butI truly feel that is I don't
know.
Some of my ancestors come fromthere, I don't know.
There's something there.
And the same goes for Swedenand the crafts and the way yeah,
(09:10):
the way the crafts are stillgoing strong there in a lot,
lots of ways.
Okay, enough about that.
So I was falling in love withthe linen, the idea of being
able to grow my own fiber andprocess it, that as well.
So I needed another step, andthe next step would be either
(09:36):
knitting with linen, which Ialready know how to do, or
weaving, and I have a rigid headof loom with a little bit of
experience.
But then I thought how aboutweaving linen?
(09:57):
And when you go online,especially YouTube, there's
loads and loads of ghost stories.
We call them ghost stories inthe Netherlands I think that's a
little bit of a too literaltranslation, but stories of woe
where the people that have madethe videos are warning you about
(10:23):
weaving with linen, as they sayit's hard, the linen will break
and lots of other reasons.
Why not to do it?
And of course, they'll havevideos on how you can do it.
But it seemed like it would besmart to stay clear of it, and
(10:44):
as soon as somebody tells methat, of course I'm heading in a
straight direction, straightline to where I want to go
anyway.
And so I found Ava's workshopthrough a simple google search
by googling weaving linenNetherlands workshop, something
(11:05):
like that, and she had aworkshop for winning a kitchen
towel, and I thought it wasperfect, because my big dream is
being able to make my owntextiles for my own use, whether
(11:27):
that be my clothes or myhousehold.
I want to make it all myself,or at least some of it, and so
this was perfect.
The description on the websitesaid that you had to have some
weaving experience, and Ithought I have loads of
(11:48):
experience.
I only kind of forgot that myexperience was not necessarily
in weaving as much as inpreparation of the fiber and a
whole bunch of other textilecrafts.
But I conveniently just piledthem all up together and my
(12:12):
general sense was I've got lotsof experience, I'll do.
Which was hilariously when Ifound out when I eventually,
months later, got the email withthe details for the workshop
and then I thought let me check.
Wait, how well do you have tobe able to weave?
(12:34):
And then I checked and it saidsome experience.
But you know what is someexperience?
So I reached out and Ava wasable to quickly put my mind at
ease and say listen, you're fine, you'll be fine and I was.
It was a wonderful, wonderfulday with two other lovely ladies
(12:57):
that had different, that wereon different spots in the
learning curve.
I was definitely the biggestbeginner, but it was fine.
But it was fine and from yearsof taking craft workshops, I
(13:31):
have learned how to learn andI've learned not to be too hard
on much, having a perfectproduct at the end of it,
letting that go a little bit,and that makes it so that it
(13:52):
will always be a success,because I will always learn.
Whether I go to a beginnerworkshop and I am so much more
experienced than everybody else,I will still learn new things.
Or whether I'll go to aworkshop or course that is
taught in Swedish and it feelslike a way over my head and I'll
(14:16):
still be able to learn so muchjust from watching.
So, yeah, that was amazing.
And I managed to weave a dishtowel and what's that called in
English?
A dishclothoth, I would say.
(14:37):
At the end of the day, I alsohad my loom was set up to do a
twill I think it was a twill, Idon't really remember kind of a
weaving setup and I did well inthe beginning.
But the end fabric as you'llsee on my website in the show
(14:58):
notes, the end fabric, as you'llsee on my website in the show
notes, the end fabric had somuch to say and to tell the
story of how my brain was doingis really, really interesting.
Thread snipping through thewhole day, which was pretty good
(15:21):
and nobody else had anythingsnap, so we were okay.
Now Ava is going to finish offthe towels and finish the fabric
and then send them to us and Ican't wait to start using it
because I don't know, it's soempowering to be able to do
(15:45):
these things yourself.
I could have brought my ownhomespun linen but honestly it
was at our holiday cottage and Ididn't want to completely go
and take the detour.
That wasn't important enough tome, so I just used what she had
(16:07):
there and of course that waswonderful quality and it made
everything look really nice.
So now what I did kind of, ifyou look at, a learning curve I
kind of stepped in at the end alittle bit, but I loved Eva's
way of teaching.
Because she said you knowweaving the basics.
(16:29):
If you know the basics youbasically know.
After that it is practice,practice, practice.
You can learn how to dopatterns, but if you know the
basics there's not so much of acurve anymore, which I thought
was very welcoming spirit and itmade me feel like I made the
(17:04):
right decision, because now Istepped into something kind of
skipping over a few steps.
Anyone else might start withweaving on a piece of cardboard,
then moving on to a RichardHaddell loom, moving on to a
table loom, then moving on to afloor loom, if I'm using all
these terms correctly.
But I had gone from the rigidloom straight to the floor loom
(17:33):
and put in quite a few hours, awhole day.
So I now know what that feelslike.
I now know what the end resultscan be, and so now I can decide
if either I want to go back astep or that I'm going to find
out if I actually want a floorloom and do more weaving.
(17:58):
And of course, then there's thesteps of how you will get one.
Will you buy new or second hand?
For me it will always be secondhand, and I was able to ask her
.
So to ask to ask her about thislearning curve.
Where am I?
And should I go a few stepsback now?
(18:20):
If I'm interested, if I reallywant to learn more, should I do
this?
What?
Where should I go?
And that's sometimes the hardthing with learning a craft.
I just recently heard somebodyask how do you do that?
And the only answer can be well, you need to book a workshop or
(18:46):
a.
Uh, what's another answer.
But that's not the answerthey're looking for.
(19:07):
They want to know what thesteps are and what the technique
is, and you cannot answer thatquestion in one sentence.
So it's going to take somelearning if you don't know what
you don't know.
So it's also very hard to askthe right questions and with
(19:29):
this approach that kind ofhappened.
Because I was just soenthusiastic, I now have an
answer to one of the beginner'squestions without going through
a whole lot of steps.
And when I taught knitting Ilearned in the first couple of
(19:53):
years that different people needdifferent kinds of approaches.
People need different kinds ofapproaches.
Some people really want to dothis step by step, like if you
buy something from Ikea, they gothrough the whole booklet like
meticulously, because they don'twant to fuck it up and other
(20:16):
people just start building.
I mean, there's a whole Legomovie about this topic and other
people just start building.
I mean, there's a whole Legomovie about this topic.
But then somebody came into myshop and was like, I want to do
two colored cables.
And I asked them how muchexperience do you have?
(20:36):
And they said, well, not a lot.
And at that point I believedthat they had to do the step by
step.
But if I'm honest, for me aswell, sometimes I need to just
do something really, really hardto just get a bit of a frame of
reference, so to speak, to knowwhat it actually is you're
(20:57):
talking about, and I know that Iwon't get discouraged by it.
It will just show me how hardit is and it will show me if I
want to go a few steps back toreally learn it or just move on.
But for some people they getdiscouraged and they would have
(21:19):
loved the whole process if theytook it step by step.
So it's really.
It really depends on how youlearn and how much effort you
want to put in, and the moreinformation you get about
(21:41):
crafting in general or I thinkthat would be the same for
cooking or something else, themore you will be able to kind of
fill in the blanks in terms ofhow hard something will be, how
much time you want to spend onit, how much you love it or how
(22:04):
much you will potentially loveit.
So there's that.
I know from this workshop andfrom working with the material
that I will potentially love toweave my own textiles very, very
(22:26):
much.
I had one big.
Well, I had a couple ofquestions, but one big question
for me was will I be bored whileI'm weaving?
Sometimes, if I'm spinning,I'll get bored and I just want
to pick up my phone and get alittle bit of a dopamine hit,
(22:50):
and that is not ideal In theory.
I want to be able to reallylean into it and really enjoy
the process.
But the reality is that usuallyI do that for a while and then
(23:12):
I want to do something else.
So that's why I mix and matchmy crafts, why I mix and match
my crafts.
One day I'll do some spinning,one day I'll do knitting, sewing
.
It's just really ADHD friendlyto want to make your own
(23:32):
wardrobe because you can do allthe things at different times,
but with weaving it's quite acommitment.
Like a floor loom is the size ofa small bathroom Well, really
small, but not so much inEuropean city terms.
You could fit a shower and atoilet on the space where a
(23:55):
floor loom goes, I guess.
And that's a commitment interms of space, in terms of
money, of course, and also interms of guilt, because it's not
hidden in a jar.
So it's not one of thosehobbies that you kind of feel
shame around, and it's finebecause you never think about it
(24:17):
anymore.
Anyway, like my lino printingand things like that and my
screen printing, I don't seethat it's in the cupboard.
So, yeah, I need to know ifI'll get bored doing it.
While I definitely wasn't bored, I think it was completely the
other way around.
(24:38):
My brain was so occupied doingthings with my feet as well as
my hands that I wasn't able toform any other thoughts.
I was just so into it.
And I imagine that once you geta rhythm going and get lots and
lots of experience, that willprobably change.
(24:58):
Then you'll probably startdoing other materials, other
patterns.
Like with handicraft, the it'sendless in how proficient and
how good you can become and dohard things and all of that.
(25:19):
So I'm not worried about thatanymore.
Then this week I also took theother step in making that whole
plan.
Reality is that I signed up forone square meter of linen a, a
(25:40):
project that started in Sweden acouple of years ago.
You sign up, you get seeds forone square meter of flax
actually, and then you'llreceive all the information you
need.
Actually, what I learned inSweden you'll receive all the
(26:01):
information you need.
Actually what I learned inSweden the theory of how to grow
it, how to process it.
There will be a day where youprocess it together and you can
use the tools or you getinformation on how you can make
those tools to do it yourself.
Now, as we have a holidaycottage and some land around it,
(26:21):
I have space and they say it'snot that hard to grow flax.
So my mind was already kind ofwandering through fields of flax
, fields of flags, but I thoughtit might be a little bit more
(26:45):
wise to start perhaps with 10square meters this year.
So I signed up and got someextra seats and the coming month
we're in March now I think endof March or beginning of April
is going to be the time where Istart sowing the seeds of love
(27:08):
and of flex.
So that's a whole thing.
If I have time and otherresources, I'll have linen ready
to use, or at least to save upa couple of years so that I in
(27:36):
the meantime can save up andperhaps get a workshop or two
extra and get better at weaving,and then I'll be able to grow
and weave my own linen fabric.
And that is not a promise, butit's a big wish and it's a goal.
(27:59):
So we'll see how that goes.
So that was saturday.
That was the first free, myfirst weekend day full of
textile amazingness.
And then on sunday I visited.
I visited the Crea weekend inHardenberg and which basically
(28:24):
create create Crea is uh, shortfor creativity weekend which is
a fairly new craft fair marketthat runs over three days Friday
, saturday and Sunday in themiddle north, I guess, of the
(28:47):
Netherlands, and it's coveringdifferent kinds of crafts, so
not just needlecraft, there'salso journaling, bullet
journaling as well, and allsorts of other crafts that don't
(29:07):
appeal to me and are not for me.
But that's fine.
What is amazing about this showis that every business owner
that's there that I talk to aresuper enthusiastic about the way
it is organized.
They love how the organizationis so friendly and they take the
(29:32):
time to greet every stall owner, every business owner.
It's very spacious, so nocramping, no cramped alleys or
pathways.
The food is good, I mean it's.
(29:52):
It's a pretty enjoyable spaceand place to be.
I've helped out Lisette fromSchap en Draag a few occasions,
also this market, and this timeI was there to do my own work,
which I've probably talked toyou about before.
(30:14):
I've talked to you about thison numerous accounts that I
practice, where I finally nowI'm just using a term for it
slow marketing.
So social media has its placein that, but it's on the
sidelines, very much to thesidelines For me.
(30:35):
I cannot convey what it is thatI do, the person that I am,
solely through social media or,for that matter, this podcast.
I work with a lot of Dutchpeople and my business has grown
internationally.
So I've always communicated inEnglish when I'm online, but
(31:01):
obviously in real life.
When I'm online, but obviouslyin real life, I speak Dutch.
I work with a lot of Dutchpeople and when we do our Zoom
calls together, it depends onwhat the group is like.
If it's a Dutch group, we'll doit in Dutch.
If there's anyone from outsideof the Netherlands, switch to
English, which for most Dutchpeople is not a big issue.
We all get taught English atschool and our lowest level of
(31:27):
English is pretty darn good.
I mean, yeah, I think myclients all speak amazingly
English, and when there's ever amoment that we don't have a
word for anything that we don'tknow which happens to me a lot
we help each other out, andthat's as simple as it is.
So, uh, I'm there speakingdutch, showing who I actually am
(31:54):
, what I look like, how I speak.
When it's not edited, I cantell you there's different jokes
, there's awkward moments,there's lots of stuff that
doesn't make the podcast.
But yeah, I was there to let'sjust call it what it is.
I was there to network and totalk to business owners in the
(32:18):
field and ask them questions andsee if they can use my help,
and my slow marketing is very,very interesting because I have
the help now of at least twoambassadors.
My clients that are already inthe business circle are
(32:43):
spreading the word.
They're telling people aboutthe community and about our work
together and how it has helpedthem to finally start their
newsletter and actually enjoyingit or to move to a point of
sale system Different thingsthat they've now done that they
(33:04):
weren't able to do before.
So they're spreading the word.
I'm meeting new people, but I'mreturning to shows as well, so
I'm reconnecting with peoplethat I've met on other occasions
, and so I'm gradually buildingconnections with people and I'm
(33:27):
making sure that I learn from it, because I spoke to, I think,
nine different small businesseson this occasion.
Small businesses on thisoccasion and half of them, I
know, are not interested inworking with me, or a little bit
less than half, but that's fine.
(33:48):
I can still learn so much fromthem and they can still spread
the word.
They can still talk to somebodyelse and say, hey, perhaps you
can reach out to Saskia and askif she can help you, because,
yeah, it's not for me or not atthis point, but it might be
something for you.
So I was there at 10 o'clock andI think I left at 2-ish, at
(34:15):
which point I was exhausted.
My back was hurting.
I couldn't say full sentencesanymore.
Anything that came out of meeither didn't make sense or was
awkward, and this is my year ofsimplifying my business and
listening to my body.
So I listened to my body and Isaid, okay, that's a wrap, this
(34:38):
is how far I can go, and sotoday I'm not so extremely tired
as I could have been if Ipushed myself to do more and I
hopefully said some good thingsand I left in time.
Last time when I went to amarket or fair it's always so
(35:00):
hard to decide which it isfestival I interviewed a bunch
of people.
You can listen to the episodeit's a few episodes back.
I interviewed small businessowners and a lot less
conversation, but theinterviewing is much more
draining for me.
(35:20):
So, because I already had a dayof peopling in Amsterdam with
the weaving workshop, I wastired, so I needed a way to
connect to people that was fun,efficient, helpful and leading
somewhere in the future.
So I thought of one question toask everybody just one question
(35:45):
, not recording it and thatquestion was can you describe
your brand in three words?
I asked this to nine businessesactually seven, because two of
them are already in my communitybut I was teasing them and
testing them to see if theycould do it any better than the
(36:06):
rest, because they should beable to do it better.
They knew where I was goingwith it, which is a win, and
they were a bit better as well,but when somebody asks you this
question.
You really should be able toquickly come up with something.
Your brand and how it differsfrom somebody else should be
(36:30):
something that quite easily likedrops out of your mouth.
So being tired and just havingthat one question meant that
what I did was I gave up to themand I said either hey, how are
you doing Nice to see you again?
Or hi, I am writing a blog postor making a podcast.
(36:53):
I didn't actually know at thetime which I was going to make,
or make you both.
And I have just one questionfor you Would you like to
participate?
And usually they would.
I asked the question.
They frowned because thatquestion is quite hard if you've
(37:14):
never tried it before.
And then, with that information, I wrote the three words down
on their business card, whichgave me an opportunity to ask do
you have a business card?
I can write it down so I canremember, and then when I have
the blog post or the episodeready, I will let you know and
(37:36):
I'll get in touch with you.
So that turned into quite a fewinteresting conversations.
Some conversations were alreadykind of came from my
ambassadors and they just saidgo and talk to her, and we
immediately dove deep and Ispent some time talking to two
(37:57):
or three different occasionswhere I was spending quite a bit
of time with these businessowners and had an amazing time
getting to know them andfiguring out how they feel about
coaching, even though I'm notan official coach yet.
Ps, I started my education andif you want to get coached by me
(38:21):
in the future, I have a waitinglist ready.
You'll be waiting for a while,but because I'm learning, I'll
probably need people to practicewith and those sessions will be
either free or at a very lowcost.
And if you get on that waitinglist, I'll have a group of
(38:42):
people to work with, which isgreat, and you'll get some free
or cheap coaching.
So just look at the show notesfor that.
But people call me coach anyway,even if I don't call myself
that, and some people started toshare with me their experience
with coaching and coaches ortheir idea of it, so I could
(39:05):
really debunk a lot of myths andbe clear about what it is that
I actually do now and what Iwill do in the future with
coaching and how.
That's different.
And that was amazing, becauseone of them had some pretty well
hard questions, but they werevery Dutch, like very uh, no
(39:30):
shame, just ask, just tell youwhat I think about it.
And I enjoyed that so muchbecause that gives me the
opportunity to be my truest self, because there's no point in me
selling something about myselfthat is not true or is not real.
(39:50):
If they have a differentexpectation and I sell it as if
I could do that or if I could bethat, then that would be really
sucky for me at one pointbecause that's not what I do.
So I have to be super, superhonest and one of the things
(40:13):
with that is my community atthis moment is quite small and
that could not be a greatselling point for people.
But I know why it is small and Ican explain why.
It's because I started off withmy customers from my shop and
(40:38):
my followers on social mediafrom my shop and my followers on
social media.
That group was large, but nowmy business has niched down to
only aspiring business ownersand business owners and,
(41:04):
although they are craftersthemselves, the whole bulk of
people that were in my communitybecause they were crafters have
slowly moved away from thecommunity because what I share
there is more focused aroundbusiness and self-care and still
has a lot of crafting there,but it's aimed in a different
direction.
So, yeah, of course I'll haveless people there and actually
(41:28):
at the moment, I'm deep cleaningmy email list so that I know
how many people there actuallyare, so that I know how many
people actually are interestedin what I offer these days and
what I do right now.
(41:48):
So being able to talk to peopleand being yourself and being
clear so that they know whatthey can expect, and you know
what you can expect and youactually can kind of figure out
if you actually want to workwith this person or not, because
that sometimes is so importantas well.
(42:09):
I have met business ownersbefore.
That I don't think would be agood match and, yeah, if you can
make a choice there.
So the slow marketing is isreally starting to to move
(42:32):
things along with theambassadors, with the repeatedly
meeting the same people andtalking to them, building a
relationship with them, whetheror not they want to work with
you.
I just love providing someinsights.
So what I'll do is I will sendan email and say, listen, I saw
(42:55):
this on your website and itwould be really helpful if you
tweak it just a little bit sothat this and this can happen,
and you can say that'sunsolidated advice, but I like
to think of it as small gifts,small insights, a
do-it-it-what-you will.
(43:16):
I will never be sad orfrustrated or I will never have
emotions about people not doinganything with it.
It's for theirs to receive andI love to give it.
So, yeah, I felt really, reallygood by the end of the day, and
(43:39):
this part of the episode isgoing to go into what their
answers were and how I receivedwhat they were, and this part
sorry, I was a little bitdistracted because I just drove
(44:00):
by a truck full of pigs and thatalways makes me so, so sad.
Um, yeah anyway.
Um, so this part of the episodeis about the answers they gave
me to the question can youdescribe your brand in three
(44:22):
words?
Of course, now I'm in the carso I don't have my notes, but
there are different things thatI can tell you that I've learned
from this and that I kind ofknew might happen and that we
can talk about, and then, at alater point, I might share with
(44:47):
you the actual words, if I stillthink that's useful.
I don't think that is the point, the specific words, but they
are something for me to workwith when I talk you through
this.
So why would you want I talkedabout it earlier in this episode
(45:07):
why would you want to be ableto talk about your brand in
three words?
Well, when I entered thebuilding, I was given a folder
that had the map of the building, where all the stalls were, and
it had lists of the businesses.
(45:29):
On the left-hand side it was afew pages Businesses with their
name on the left-hand side.
On the right-hand side were thedescription of their business
and then the number of theirstall.
Of all the names, there'ssomething I can make a podcast
(45:51):
episode about.
It is fascinating.
Please, if you start a business,try to find a list of
businesses and look at the namesthe names, because there can
(46:19):
only be so many studios,ateliers and business names with
creative in it.
The S and the A were fullyrepresented in the alphabet of
names.
It could be really practical tohave a letter in the beginning
of the alphabet, but that'sperhaps a little nitpicky.
It's cool to think about a namethat's easy to remember.
(46:41):
I think that would be numberone Easy to remember.
It doesn't particularly have tosay what you do, but that could
be really convenient If yourbusiness model is going to
markets, then you will always bearound other similar businesses
(47:05):
, so you want to stand out.
If your business model is sellmy yarn only at elderly people's
homes, in a van that I drive upto different elderly people's
homes, which is completely agreat idea, I think, so go ahead
(47:26):
, do that, then your name is notso important.
If it's good that it's easy totype, that you can find a
website, that you can actuallygoogle it, the business names
that have letters for two andfor four use a Z instead of an S
(47:48):
.
Those are just so frustratingto Google and to find anything.
Stay away from that.
I would say Perhaps I should doa whole episode about this.
Anyway, I thought it was reallyinteresting to see all the
names.
Some of the names are verysimilar and I did make a mistake
of saying the different name toa business owner for the other
(48:11):
business that had a similar name.
So that can happen.
Then the three words on thenext to the names.
They all had to give theorganizer a sentence of what
their business is or does orwhat it sells, and of course,
(48:31):
you can say I sell hand-dyedyarn or colorful hand-dyed yarns
.
There will probably be a wholebunch of other descriptions just
like that.
It's not wrong because it'sclear, and if people are kind of
scrolling old-fashionedscrolling with their eyes
(48:55):
through the list, they will knowwhat you do, and that's the
point.
But you also want to stand out,so we're coming back to the
three words how are youdifferent from the other?
Let's stick with the indiedyers.
How are you different from theothers?
(49:16):
What makes you stand out If youhave a pretty large collection
of plant dyed yarns?
That's a unique selling point.
That's something very specific.
You don't see that a lot.
You don't see that a lot.
This occasion there wereactually at least two hand dyers
that dye plant fibers, and sohow do you distinguish yourself
(49:40):
from the other one?
Is it because you are a vegan?
If you want to support thevegan community, do you really
want to make a point out of thesustainability aspect of it,
(50:01):
which is a topic for discussion?
But that's that's not what thisis about.
I'm just.
I'm just giving you directionshere.
Um, so how are you different?
That sentence is something thatshows who you uniquely are.
That's the sentence that shouldgo on your website, above the
(50:22):
fold, the space before you startscrolling, that's the first
thing people see One sentencewho are you?
What do you do?
How are you different?
With these three words, you arestarting the building blocks of
that sentence, aka yourone-liner.
(50:43):
So now, what did they say?
What were their three words?
Well, I am not going to waittill the end, I'm just going to
immediately say it.
I think all but one saidcolorful, and the one that
didn't say colorful was a bulletjournal.
(51:05):
Somebody designed stickers andstationery.
Somebody designed stickers andstationery, and her style was
more earthy, more toned down, soher thing wasn't immediately
colorful, but everyone that hadsome sort of textile, their
(51:26):
first word or second word wascolorful or something along
those lines.
Well, that's what part of yoursentence already doesn't make
much of an impact, becauseeveryone has colorful yarns.
So that's something to thinkabout.
Right, that's very interesting.
(51:48):
Then, of course, just like withthe names, creative is a word
that comes up a lot.
So what happens is people weredescribing their business.
Compared to the local groceryshops, like compared to the
baker, the butcher, thecandlestick maker, you'll have
(52:10):
colorful, creative yarns,absolutely, and that it makes
sense, but it doesn't make asmuch sense.
Oh, I'm taking the right road,yes, but when you're in a market
that's full of creativebusiness owners and you are
(52:35):
sharing one third of the marketwith other textile crafts
business owners, then it becomesa little bit more important to
distinguish yourselves from therest.
Now finding out, how are youdifferent?
And are you that different?
Well, talking to one of thesebusiness owners revealed that
(53:00):
she said colorful.
But when we talked a little bitlonger, she really had some
strong ideas about color and sheused a lot of sentences to
describe them.
But of course, after a while,you can easily well, maybe not
easily, but you can find thewords that really match the
(53:21):
actual yarns.
She also said I'm usingrainwater.
I actually don't know if we sayrainwater in English.
Yeah, rainwater, she usesrainwater to rinse her yarns.
So there's something that'svery different.
(53:45):
Somebody else, when I talked alittle bit more about it, said
in terms of colors, I reallylike full colors.
Most of my colors, even if I goa little bit less bright,
they're all very, they're allvery saturated.
(54:08):
So for her saturate colors.
Other person, when talking moreabout colorful, said well, I
just can't do anything that isnot colorful.
I don't want to be boring.
So there's something there.
(54:29):
Then there was somebody elsewho also does bright colors.
But they are all different.
All the people that havecolorful yarns, they're all
different.
And I think there must be somepeople listening here that say,
(54:49):
well, more and more indiediaries are doing the same thing
.
I don't think they're differentat all.
They all have the speckles,they all follow the same trends.
And even if that's true I don'tthink that's true at all from
what I saw yesterday but even ifthat's true, your brand is more
(55:10):
than just the colors.
It's you, it's how you connectwith people, it's actually how
your ball bands, the labels look.
It's more than just the product.
It's the whole experience ofhow you connect with your
customer after the market isover.
Connect with your customerafter the market is over.
(55:31):
Will you be ready to sell themmore of the same thing right
away?
Will you be open for businessand open for questions right
away?
All those kinds of things arewhat makes your brand, what
(55:57):
makes your brand.
And so taking some time andreally figuring out who you are
as a person and what your brandis because this is where this
story comes in really nicely, Ireconnected with one of the
business owners that was in thelast interview episode and I
asked her the same question andshe said my God, that's so hard.
(56:17):
And she came up with not threewords but a sentence that was
three words, and it was sogenius.
This was specifically what Imeant.
So, because it was so smart, Iwas not going to mention the
(56:39):
names with the specific examples, but this was kind of brilliant
.
She said which means this is me, three words that describe her
brand.
And although that wouldn't workas a sentence because that
(57:04):
doesn't tell you anything aboutwhat kind of products she has,
it does tell you a little bitabout what her work means to her
and how much she puts into it.
It really brings across amessage.
And it's not the end of theexercise, but I thought it was
(57:26):
so creative.
Her brand also, her brand name,also reflects that.
It's called Ikke.
In Dutch, translating freely,loosely means what would I
translate it like?
Just me, or me, or me here.
(57:48):
If you would say, if you woulduse it in a sentence, it would
be.
If you would say who wants tocome?
In Dutch she would say ikke me.
So that's her brand name.
Her three words were this is me, and that all tied together
(58:08):
into one thing and, as I said.
Of course it's not really aone-liner, but for the sake of
this exercise, it was reallywell done.
Someone else also saidsomething along the lines of
they mentioned their name andtheir name is also in their
(58:31):
brand.
So that was on the same kind ofline of thinking.
They mentioned their name andtheir name is also in their
brand.
So that was on the same kind ofline of thinking.
What I wanted to do with thisexercise is give people a notion
of what branding actually isand how you could use it to your
(58:53):
advantage, doing some work tofigure out how are you different
from the rest?
Because there's a bunch ofindie dyers on each market that
you will be at, even if it's amore general creative market,
there's a bunch of other peopleand what you actually want to do
is build a business and a brandthat people can distinguish
(59:19):
immediately from the others.
They know your name, they knowyour brand name.
That's also two differentthings.
It's very important.
Lots of business cards did nothave the name of the owner and I
had to look it up, and thenit's also not always very clear
on their websites.
So your business card you giveto people to connect with you
(59:46):
and your business, so your namereally should be on there.
I got so much from a few hoursat this market, coming back home
taking the business cards, thethree names that they have, then
going to their websites andtheir Instagram accounts, seeing
(01:00:08):
if how they're building theirbrands, if things are connected
to each other.
If I was a person that saw themat the market, was back at home
, remembered something aboutthem and then trying to get back
in touch to either get more ofthe same yarn because now I know
(01:00:31):
that I want to make a wholesweater instead of just a hat
with that beautiful yarn and Ido want to spend money on it
because, in fact, I loved it somuch I couldn't sleep and then
the web shop is closed becausethey're counted the yarn,
because they don't have a POSsystem set up, and that makes
(01:00:55):
sense, and as a customer, youcan really understand why they
do it.
But that means that you have tocome back at another moment and
will you be able to do it?
Will you remember it?
Will you even want to?
So, making the whole process ofconnecting with you, whether it
(01:01:20):
is for buying or for justtalking to you and building a
relationship, you should reallymake that process very easy on
the customer.
So they come home, go to yourwebsite.
(01:01:43):
They should be able to sign upfor your newsletter before they
even scroll down to the bottomof your page.
So you should have a newsletterBecause they can follow you on
Instagram but they will misshalf of what you post and you
(01:02:05):
won't be able to build arelationship as good as you
would if you had them on anemail list.
Talked about the email list alot of times before.
Uh, actually the last episodewas all about uh lists, so go
ahead and listen to that if youwant to learn more.
(01:02:28):
So just another small story fromone of the business owners I
talked to, not completely in thefield that is, the textile
craft industry, but as I also ama bullet journal official
trainer, I also talk to peoplethat either sell bullet journals
(01:02:49):
or do something with stationary.
So when I asked one of thepeople that sell stationary what
their three words were, she wasthinking about it.
She took it very seriously.
This doesn't happen a lot, butthis person is also a
(01:03:14):
professional marketer, so shecouldn't right away mention it,
but she had an idea of what thewords would have to be and she
was already going into the I'lldo it perfectly mode.
So she was finding the exactright words and that took her a
(01:03:35):
little bit of time, but not allthat long.
But when she was thinking aboutit and I was actually helping
her to find this word that shecouldn't, it was actually not
that she didn't know the word,she just could grab it from the
drawer in her, like the samething.
That happens to me a lot.
So you know what it is, youjust can't find it Very
(01:03:56):
professional looking.
The whole brand looked spotless,amazing.
And then I said, why don't weask the customer?
And then within two seconds,the customer was happy to play
along and came up with the exactwords.
And that is gold.
(01:04:16):
I mean, that means that whatyou have envisioned for your
brand is exactly what thecustomer is getting.
And that's where you need toconnect and talk to your clients
, your customers, your audience,and figure out how do they see
(01:04:38):
you, how do they see your brands.
Does it match with what youhave in your head?
That's something we need totalk about another time when we
talk about, when we talk aboutinterviewing your customers and
clients and really figuring outwhere you're on track and how
(01:04:59):
can you help them to the best ofyour abilities.
Thanks for listening.
I'm getting a little bit likemy throat.
I need to drink something.
I had such an amazing time.
I want to thank all the businessowners that were happy to play
along and provided me with a lotof information.
(01:05:20):
I was so happy to talk to you,to connect to you, to see you
again or meet you for the veryfirst time.
In the show notes you'll findall the links to these
businesses so I can give them alittle bit of a shout out.
So here's a little shout out toall the businesses that were
happy to play along.
This is editing Saskia, becauseof course I couldn't do it by
(01:05:43):
heart.
So I've got my bullet journalin front of me and here are the
people that were happy toparticipate, and starting off
with Lisette from Schaap enDraak and Françoise at Bad
Cattoo Yarns, because they weremy ambassadors at the fair and
everywhere.
Honestly, they are clients ofmine and they do such a great
(01:06:07):
job of saying all the positivethings.
Thank you guys.
Thank you so much.
And then I talked to some newfriends and some older friends,
which were Ingrid at Icke,lisette at Woolly Adventures,
meerte at Frogmouse Studio,martine at Stoffen en Stiksels,
(01:06:28):
vinnie at Vinnie's Wall.
I also spoke to a few businessowners in the realm of bullet
journaling and stationerybecause it was a mixed creative
weekend and of course I lovebullet journaling.
I also really enjoy talking tobusiness owners in that industry
.
So that was Ilse at BujoBoutique, anouk at Nookson and
(01:06:53):
Viljana at Cart Studio.
If you're curious about thesebusinesses and the words that
they gave to describe theirbusiness, I actually got an
email the other day from someonethat said oh, wait, wait, wait,
can I still change it?
Which I love because it meansthat she was really thinking
about it and I will change it.
Of course I will.
So you can see it in the shownotes on the website
(01:07:15):
patternshiftfm, you'll see apicture of the stall and the
names of the brands and you candecide for yourself if they
nailed it or perhaps you haveideas for them and you can share
that by reacting to the shownotes.
I'd be very interested to seeall your reactions.
Let's go on with the episode.
(01:07:36):
So the next step you want totake if you want to spend some
more time thinking about thesethree words for your business,
why don't you do it in threeways.
Why don't you do it in threeways?
You can think about textures,colors actually going into what
(01:08:00):
does your product, your mainproduct, look like?
You can also focus on how doesyour product make your customer
feel.
You can focus on who you are asa business owner and what your
values are and, bringing allthose things together, you can
(01:08:21):
start working on creating aone-liner that's really clear
and tells your customer who youare, what you sell and how can
they get it.
I'm going to leave it here fornow.
Enjoy your exercise If you wantto do deeper work or if you
want to hear me out on somethings, if you need support on
(01:08:46):
anything.
I finally found a way todescribe myself, so you can see
that for me as well, it's anongoing process of tweaking
until you get it right.
I am a support professional inthe needle crafts and fiber arts
community and industry and Ihelp small businesses to grow
(01:09:08):
their business in a way that'shealthy for them and healthy for
the world.
Hopefully you've got somethingout of this.
Let me know.
I am eagerly awaiting all yourquestions, all your feedback, so
that I can make more episodesthat are exactly what you need
and what you like listening to.
(01:09:29):
Thank you you so much.
Find all the details in theshow notes and we'll see you
next time.
Until next time, take care andeat and process your fibers,
process your fibers.
I'm getting poo images.
Uh, we'll leave it in there.
Bye.
Have you ever had a moment where you were so
immersed into your craft thatthe world around you just faded
away?
Or maybe you've been told thatsomething is too difficult, only
to find that diving inheadfirst was exactly what you
needed?
Well, today I'm bringing you aweekend filled with exactly
those moments, from weavinglinen for the first time to
(00:22):
navigating the world of slowmarketing at a craft fair.
This episode is all aboutembracing new challenges in
business and crafts on your ownterms.
Now, before we dive in, a quicknote I recorded this episode
actually in my car on the wayback home, so you might hear
some background sounds from theroad.
(00:42):
And since I'm multitaskinghello, adhd brain I'm speaking a
little slower than usual, butdon't worry, the insights and
stories are still there.
In today's episode, I want toshare three key lessons I've
learned this weekend that applyto both craft and business.
One don't believe the ghoststories.
(01:04):
Whether it's weaving linen orlaunching a new offer in your
business, people will tell youit's too hard, but often the
challenge is just a learningcurve, not an impossibility.
Two slow marketing is worth it.
At Crea Weekend, I connectedwith fellow business owners in
person, without the pressure ofsocial media.
(01:25):
Real conversations lead to realbusiness growth, and three
brand clarity matters.
I asked small business ownersto describe their brand in three
words and you'd be surprisedhow hard that was.
If you can't define your brandquickly, it's time to refine
your message.
If you can't define your brandquickly, it's time to refine
(01:48):
your message.
So here's your takeaway fortoday.
Whether it's in your craft oryour business, lean into the
challenge, step outside yourcomfort zone, ignore the ghost
stories and get clear on whatmakes you unique.
And, if you haven't already,take a moment to define your
brand in three words.
It's harder than it sounds, butit might just change the way
you show up for your business.
All right, let's get into it.
(02:10):
Buckle up, literally andfiguratively, and join me as I
take you through a weekend ofFibercraft's business insights
and slow marketing in action.
Hey there, and welcome toPattern Shift, the podcast where
creative business owners likeyou learn to build a business
that's inspiring, fun andsustainable.
(02:32):
I'm Saskia de Veyter, a businessstrategist, guide maker and
all-round creative entrepreneur.
I help business owners in theneedle and fiber craft world,
just like you, navigate allthose icky words, branding,
marketing and strategy in a waythat actually works for your
creative brain.
(02:52):
Here we talk about everythingfrom running a values-driven
business to simplifying yourmarketing without burning out
Whether you're just starting outor looking to refine your
business burning out.
Whether you're just startingout or looking to refine your
business, you're in the rightplace.
So settle in, grab a cup of tea, coffee or, you know, brugladig
(03:28):
.
You do you and let's getstarted.
All right, so this is a littlebit of a different recording.
I'm actually in the car, but Idid bring my microphone, so it's
going to be interesting whenI'm editing, because I'm gonna
have a lot of pauses as I'mshifting my focus.
On the other hand, I am so muchbetter at focusing while I'm
doing something else Hello, adhd.
(03:50):
So this is actually potentiallya very good idea.
Here we go.
This weekend I've had a verytextile fall weekend, a very
(04:13):
textile full weekend.
On Saturday I took a workshopwith Eva Klee at Klee Handwoven
in Amsterdam.
I booked that workshop thissummer, right after I came back
from my course in Sweden, whereI learned the whole process from
f the flex plants, once theywere harvested, retted and dried
(04:55):
.
From that point on, we learnedhow to process it into handspun
linen.
So when the fibers are nottwisted, it's still called flax.
When they're twisted, it'scalled linen, the threads are
called linen and the fabric iscalled linen.
(05:17):
The plant is called flax.
And as I usually seem to getmyself in this interesting
complication of learning theoryand practical skills in
different languages, whetherthat be English or, in this case
(05:40):
, swedish, my vocabulary is sucha muddled mess that usually I
don't even remember any of thelanguages, any of the words.
I just know the process, whichis great.
I can always look it up, but itmakes, sometimes it makes me
feel like, wasn't that the pointright to like, wasn't that the
(06:04):
point?
Right To learn, so that you canshare.
And if you don't know any ofthe words, it's becoming harder
to share.
But that's okay, I'll just,we'll muddle through.
Luckily for this episode, it'sneither here nor there what the
(06:25):
exact words are in terms of theprocess.
What is important is that I wasso intrigued by the whole
process and the idea of beingable to grow your own fiber in a
way that's much easier thanherding and keeping sheep Less
(06:46):
cute though, I have to say, butalso a lot less hassle.
So that quickly became thisidea of I want to do more with
this and I had gone toSeterglenten.
I still don't have a greatpronunciation.
(07:12):
It's fine.
I had gone there on three otheroccasions where I've had such
an amazing time and I justreally wanted to go there to
learn.
And I just really wanted to gothere to learn, although in the
Netherlands, and specifically inBelgium, we have a rich linen
history and there's multipleplaces that I could have learned
(07:34):
it here.
But you know, I just love Swedenand and my oldest daughter
tells me I'm a sweebo, and myoldest daughter tells me I'm a
sweebo, sweebo, somebody thatlikes Sweden.
And yeah, that is the case.
So I love the language, I lovethe aesthetics, I love the way
(07:57):
the land looks, the forests, Ilove the people I've connected
with.
I'm sure there's a bunch ofe-holes there as well, but up
until now they've been wonderfuland yeah, that's why I learned
in Sweden, because I just feellike that's a little bit of my.
(08:21):
There's a word, a Swedish wordthat I've used before.
Let me think what is it again?
Ah, ja, smulstrån, somethinglike that.
It's like a strawberry patch,the space on the fields that is
(08:41):
extra special.
Field that is extra special.
So there is.
I feel like that when I'm onany Scottish island and I lie in
particular.
I've only been there once, butI truly feel that is I don't
know.
Some of my ancestors come fromthere, I don't know.
There's something there.
And the same goes for Swedenand the crafts and the way yeah,
(09:10):
the way the crafts are stillgoing strong there in a lot,
lots of ways.
Okay, enough about that.
So I was falling in love withthe linen, the idea of being
able to grow my own fiber andprocess it, that as well.
So I needed another step, andthe next step would be either
(09:36):
knitting with linen, which Ialready know how to do, or
weaving, and I have a rigid headof loom with a little bit of
experience.
But then I thought how aboutweaving linen?
(09:57):
And when you go online,especially YouTube, there's
loads and loads of ghost stories.
We call them ghost stories inthe Netherlands I think that's a
little bit of a too literaltranslation, but stories of woe
where the people that have madethe videos are warning you about
(10:23):
weaving with linen, as they sayit's hard, the linen will break
and lots of other reasons.
Why not to do it?
And of course, they'll havevideos on how you can do it.
But it seemed like it would besmart to stay clear of it, and
(10:44):
as soon as somebody tells methat, of course I'm heading in a
straight direction, straightline to where I want to go
anyway.
And so I found Ava's workshopthrough a simple google search
by googling weaving linenNetherlands workshop, something
(11:05):
like that, and she had aworkshop for winning a kitchen
towel, and I thought it wasperfect, because my big dream is
being able to make my owntextiles for my own use, whether
(11:27):
that be my clothes or myhousehold.
I want to make it all myself,or at least some of it, and so
this was perfect.
The description on the websitesaid that you had to have some
weaving experience, and Ithought I have loads of
(11:48):
experience.
I only kind of forgot that myexperience was not necessarily
in weaving as much as inpreparation of the fiber and a
whole bunch of other textilecrafts.
But I conveniently just piledthem all up together and my
(12:12):
general sense was I've got lotsof experience, I'll do.
Which was hilariously when Ifound out when I eventually,
months later, got the email withthe details for the workshop
and then I thought let me check.
Wait, how well do you have tobe able to weave?
(12:34):
And then I checked and it saidsome experience.
But you know what is someexperience?
So I reached out and Ava wasable to quickly put my mind at
ease and say listen, you're fine, you'll be fine and I was.
It was a wonderful, wonderfulday with two other lovely ladies
(12:57):
that had different, that wereon different spots in the
learning curve.
I was definitely the biggestbeginner, but it was fine.
But it was fine and from yearsof taking craft workshops, I
(13:31):
have learned how to learn andI've learned not to be too hard
on much, having a perfectproduct at the end of it,
letting that go a little bit,and that makes it so that it
(13:52):
will always be a success,because I will always learn.
Whether I go to a beginnerworkshop and I am so much more
experienced than everybody else,I will still learn new things.
Or whether I'll go to aworkshop or course that is
taught in Swedish and it feelslike a way over my head and I'll
(14:16):
still be able to learn so muchjust from watching.
So, yeah, that was amazing.
And I managed to weave a dishtowel and what's that called in
English?
A dishclothoth, I would say.
(14:37):
At the end of the day, I alsohad my loom was set up to do a
twill I think it was a twill, Idon't really remember kind of a
weaving setup and I did well inthe beginning.
But the end fabric as you'llsee on my website in the show
(14:58):
notes, the end fabric, as you'llsee on my website in the show
notes, the end fabric had somuch to say and to tell the
story of how my brain was doingis really, really interesting.
Thread snipping through thewhole day, which was pretty good
(15:21):
and nobody else had anythingsnap, so we were okay.
Now Ava is going to finish offthe towels and finish the fabric
and then send them to us and Ican't wait to start using it
because I don't know, it's soempowering to be able to do
(15:45):
these things yourself.
I could have brought my ownhomespun linen but honestly it
was at our holiday cottage and Ididn't want to completely go
and take the detour.
That wasn't important enough tome, so I just used what she had
(16:07):
there and of course that waswonderful quality and it made
everything look really nice.
So now what I did kind of, ifyou look at, a learning curve I
kind of stepped in at the end alittle bit, but I loved Eva's
way of teaching.
Because she said you knowweaving the basics.
(16:29):
If you know the basics youbasically know.
After that it is practice,practice, practice.
You can learn how to dopatterns, but if you know the
basics there's not so much of acurve anymore, which I thought
was very welcoming spirit and itmade me feel like I made the
(17:04):
right decision, because now Istepped into something kind of
skipping over a few steps.
Anyone else might start withweaving on a piece of cardboard,
then moving on to a RichardHaddell loom, moving on to a
table loom, then moving on to afloor loom, if I'm using all
these terms correctly.
But I had gone from the rigidloom straight to the floor loom
(17:33):
and put in quite a few hours, awhole day.
So I now know what that feelslike.
I now know what the end resultscan be, and so now I can decide
if either I want to go back astep or that I'm going to find
out if I actually want a floorloom and do more weaving.
(17:58):
And of course, then there's thesteps of how you will get one.
Will you buy new or second hand?
For me it will always be secondhand, and I was able to ask her
.
So to ask to ask her about thislearning curve.
Where am I?
And should I go a few stepsback now?
(18:20):
If I'm interested, if I reallywant to learn more, should I do
this?
What?
Where should I go?
And that's sometimes the hardthing with learning a craft.
I just recently heard somebodyask how do you do that?
And the only answer can be well, you need to book a workshop or
(18:46):
a.
Uh, what's another answer.
But that's not the answerthey're looking for.
(19:07):
They want to know what thesteps are and what the technique
is, and you cannot answer thatquestion in one sentence.
So it's going to take somelearning if you don't know what
you don't know.
So it's also very hard to askthe right questions and with
(19:29):
this approach that kind ofhappened.
Because I was just soenthusiastic, I now have an
answer to one of the beginner'squestions without going through
a whole lot of steps.
And when I taught knitting Ilearned in the first couple of
(19:53):
years that different people needdifferent kinds of approaches.
People need different kinds ofapproaches.
Some people really want to dothis step by step, like if you
buy something from Ikea, they gothrough the whole booklet like
meticulously, because they don'twant to fuck it up and other
(20:16):
people just start building.
I mean, there's a whole Legomovie about this topic and other
people just start building.
I mean, there's a whole Legomovie about this topic.
But then somebody came into myshop and was like, I want to do
two colored cables.
And I asked them how muchexperience do you have?
(20:36):
And they said, well, not a lot.
And at that point I believedthat they had to do the step by
step.
But if I'm honest, for me aswell, sometimes I need to just
do something really, really hardto just get a bit of a frame of
reference, so to speak, to knowwhat it actually is you're
(20:57):
talking about, and I know that Iwon't get discouraged by it.
It will just show me how hardit is and it will show me if I
want to go a few steps back toreally learn it or just move on.
But for some people they getdiscouraged and they would have
(21:19):
loved the whole process if theytook it step by step.
So it's really.
It really depends on how youlearn and how much effort you
want to put in, and the moreinformation you get about
(21:41):
crafting in general or I thinkthat would be the same for
cooking or something else, themore you will be able to kind of
fill in the blanks in terms ofhow hard something will be, how
much time you want to spend onit, how much you love it or how
(22:04):
much you will potentially loveit.
So there's that.
I know from this workshop andfrom working with the material
that I will potentially love toweave my own textiles very, very
(22:26):
much.
I had one big.
Well, I had a couple ofquestions, but one big question
for me was will I be bored whileI'm weaving?
Sometimes, if I'm spinning,I'll get bored and I just want
to pick up my phone and get alittle bit of a dopamine hit,
(22:50):
and that is not ideal In theory.
I want to be able to reallylean into it and really enjoy
the process.
But the reality is that usuallyI do that for a while and then
(23:12):
I want to do something else.
So that's why I mix and matchmy crafts, why I mix and match
my crafts.
One day I'll do some spinning,one day I'll do knitting, sewing
.
It's just really ADHD friendlyto want to make your own
(23:32):
wardrobe because you can do allthe things at different times,
but with weaving it's quite acommitment.
Like a floor loom is the size ofa small bathroom Well, really
small, but not so much inEuropean city terms.
You could fit a shower and atoilet on the space where a
(23:55):
floor loom goes, I guess.
And that's a commitment interms of space, in terms of
money, of course, and also interms of guilt, because it's not
hidden in a jar.
So it's not one of thosehobbies that you kind of feel
shame around, and it's finebecause you never think about it
(24:17):
anymore.
Anyway, like my lino printingand things like that and my
screen printing, I don't seethat it's in the cupboard.
So, yeah, I need to know ifI'll get bored doing it.
While I definitely wasn't bored, I think it was completely the
other way around.
(24:38):
My brain was so occupied doingthings with my feet as well as
my hands that I wasn't able toform any other thoughts.
I was just so into it.
And I imagine that once you geta rhythm going and get lots and
lots of experience, that willprobably change.
(24:58):
Then you'll probably startdoing other materials, other
patterns.
Like with handicraft, the it'sendless in how proficient and
how good you can become and dohard things and all of that.
(25:19):
So I'm not worried about thatanymore.
Then this week I also took theother step in making that whole
plan.
Reality is that I signed up forone square meter of linen a, a
(25:40):
project that started in Sweden acouple of years ago.
You sign up, you get seeds forone square meter of flax
actually, and then you'llreceive all the information you
need.
Actually, what I learned inSweden you'll receive all the
(26:01):
information you need.
Actually what I learned inSweden the theory of how to grow
it, how to process it.
There will be a day where youprocess it together and you can
use the tools or you getinformation on how you can make
those tools to do it yourself.
Now, as we have a holidaycottage and some land around it,
(26:21):
I have space and they say it'snot that hard to grow flax.
So my mind was already kind ofwandering through fields of flax
, fields of flags, but I thoughtit might be a little bit more
(26:45):
wise to start perhaps with 10square meters this year.
So I signed up and got someextra seats and the coming month
we're in March now I think endof March or beginning of April
is going to be the time where Istart sowing the seeds of love
(27:08):
and of flex.
So that's a whole thing.
If I have time and otherresources, I'll have linen ready
to use, or at least to save upa couple of years so that I in
(27:36):
the meantime can save up andperhaps get a workshop or two
extra and get better at weaving,and then I'll be able to grow
and weave my own linen fabric.
And that is not a promise, butit's a big wish and it's a goal.
(27:59):
So we'll see how that goes.
So that was saturday.
That was the first free, myfirst weekend day full of
textile amazingness.
And then on sunday I visited.
I visited the Crea weekend inHardenberg and which basically
(28:24):
create create Crea is uh, shortfor creativity weekend which is
a fairly new craft fair marketthat runs over three days Friday
, saturday and Sunday in themiddle north, I guess, of the
(28:47):
Netherlands, and it's coveringdifferent kinds of crafts, so
not just needlecraft, there'salso journaling, bullet
journaling as well, and allsorts of other crafts that don't
(29:07):
appeal to me and are not for me.
But that's fine.
What is amazing about this showis that every business owner
that's there that I talk to aresuper enthusiastic about the way
it is organized.
They love how the organizationis so friendly and they take the
(29:32):
time to greet every stall owner, every business owner.
It's very spacious, so nocramping, no cramped alleys or
pathways.
The food is good, I mean it's.
(29:52):
It's a pretty enjoyable spaceand place to be.
I've helped out Lisette fromSchap en Draag a few occasions,
also this market, and this timeI was there to do my own work,
which I've probably talked toyou about before.
(30:14):
I've talked to you about thison numerous accounts that I
practice, where I finally nowI'm just using a term for it
slow marketing.
So social media has its placein that, but it's on the
sidelines, very much to thesidelines For me.
(30:35):
I cannot convey what it is thatI do, the person that I am,
solely through social media or,for that matter, this podcast.
I work with a lot of Dutchpeople and my business has grown
internationally.
So I've always communicated inEnglish when I'm online, but
(31:01):
obviously in real life.
When I'm online, but obviouslyin real life, I speak Dutch.
I work with a lot of Dutchpeople and when we do our Zoom
calls together, it depends onwhat the group is like.
If it's a Dutch group, we'll doit in Dutch.
If there's anyone from outsideof the Netherlands, switch to
English, which for most Dutchpeople is not a big issue.
We all get taught English atschool and our lowest level of
(31:27):
English is pretty darn good.
I mean, yeah, I think myclients all speak amazingly
English, and when there's ever amoment that we don't have a
word for anything that we don'tknow which happens to me a lot
we help each other out, andthat's as simple as it is.
So, uh, I'm there speakingdutch, showing who I actually am
(31:54):
, what I look like, how I speak.
When it's not edited, I cantell you there's different jokes
, there's awkward moments,there's lots of stuff that
doesn't make the podcast.
But yeah, I was there to let'sjust call it what it is.
I was there to network and totalk to business owners in the
(32:18):
field and ask them questions andsee if they can use my help,
and my slow marketing is very,very interesting because I have
the help now of at least twoambassadors.
My clients that are already inthe business circle are
(32:43):
spreading the word.
They're telling people aboutthe community and about our work
together and how it has helpedthem to finally start their
newsletter and actually enjoyingit or to move to a point of
sale system Different thingsthat they've now done that they
(33:04):
weren't able to do before.
So they're spreading the word.
I'm meeting new people, but I'mreturning to shows as well, so
I'm reconnecting with peoplethat I've met on other occasions
, and so I'm gradually buildingconnections with people and I'm
(33:27):
making sure that I learn from it, because I spoke to, I think,
nine different small businesseson this occasion.
Small businesses on thisoccasion and half of them, I
know, are not interested inworking with me, or a little bit
less than half, but that's fine.
(33:48):
I can still learn so much fromthem and they can still spread
the word.
They can still talk to somebodyelse and say, hey, perhaps you
can reach out to Saskia and askif she can help you, because,
yeah, it's not for me or not atthis point, but it might be
something for you.
So I was there at 10 o'clock andI think I left at 2-ish, at
(34:15):
which point I was exhausted.
My back was hurting.
I couldn't say full sentencesanymore.
Anything that came out of meeither didn't make sense or was
awkward, and this is my year ofsimplifying my business and
listening to my body.
So I listened to my body and Isaid, okay, that's a wrap, this
(34:38):
is how far I can go, and sotoday I'm not so extremely tired
as I could have been if Ipushed myself to do more and I
hopefully said some good thingsand I left in time.
Last time when I went to amarket or fair it's always so
(35:00):
hard to decide which it isfestival I interviewed a bunch
of people.
You can listen to the episodeit's a few episodes back.
I interviewed small businessowners and a lot less
conversation, but theinterviewing is much more
draining for me.
(35:20):
So, because I already had a dayof peopling in Amsterdam with
the weaving workshop, I wastired, so I needed a way to
connect to people that was fun,efficient, helpful and leading
somewhere in the future.
So I thought of one question toask everybody just one question
(35:45):
, not recording it and thatquestion was can you describe
your brand in three words?
I asked this to nine businessesactually seven, because two of
them are already in my communitybut I was teasing them and
testing them to see if theycould do it any better than the
(36:06):
rest, because they should beable to do it better.
They knew where I was goingwith it, which is a win, and
they were a bit better as well,but when somebody asks you this
question.
You really should be able toquickly come up with something.
Your brand and how it differsfrom somebody else should be
(36:30):
something that quite easily likedrops out of your mouth.
So being tired and just havingthat one question meant that
what I did was I gave up to themand I said either hey, how are
you doing Nice to see you again?
Or hi, I am writing a blog postor making a podcast.
(36:53):
I didn't actually know at thetime which I was going to make,
or make you both.
And I have just one questionfor you Would you like to
participate?
And usually they would.
I asked the question.
They frowned because thatquestion is quite hard if you've
(37:14):
never tried it before.
And then, with that information, I wrote the three words down
on their business card, whichgave me an opportunity to ask do
you have a business card?
I can write it down so I canremember, and then when I have
the blog post or the episodeready, I will let you know and
(37:36):
I'll get in touch with you.
So that turned into quite a fewinteresting conversations.
Some conversations were alreadykind of came from my
ambassadors and they just saidgo and talk to her, and we
immediately dove deep and Ispent some time talking to two
(37:57):
or three different occasionswhere I was spending quite a bit
of time with these businessowners and had an amazing time
getting to know them andfiguring out how they feel about
coaching, even though I'm notan official coach yet.
Ps, I started my education andif you want to get coached by me
(38:21):
in the future, I have a waitinglist ready.
You'll be waiting for a while,but because I'm learning, I'll
probably need people to practicewith and those sessions will be
either free or at a very lowcost.
And if you get on that waitinglist, I'll have a group of
(38:42):
people to work with, which isgreat, and you'll get some free
or cheap coaching.
So just look at the show notesfor that.
But people call me coach anyway,even if I don't call myself
that, and some people started toshare with me their experience
with coaching and coaches ortheir idea of it, so I could
(39:05):
really debunk a lot of myths andbe clear about what it is that
I actually do now and what Iwill do in the future with
coaching and how.
That's different.
And that was amazing, becauseone of them had some pretty well
hard questions, but they werevery Dutch, like very uh, no
(39:30):
shame, just ask, just tell youwhat I think about it.
And I enjoyed that so muchbecause that gives me the
opportunity to be my truest self, because there's no point in me
selling something about myselfthat is not true or is not real.
(39:50):
If they have a differentexpectation and I sell it as if
I could do that or if I could bethat, then that would be really
sucky for me at one pointbecause that's not what I do.
So I have to be super, superhonest and one of the things
(40:13):
with that is my community atthis moment is quite small and
that could not be a greatselling point for people.
But I know why it is small and Ican explain why.
It's because I started off withmy customers from my shop and
(40:38):
my followers on social mediafrom my shop and my followers on
social media.
That group was large, but nowmy business has niched down to
only aspiring business ownersand business owners and,
(41:04):
although they are craftersthemselves, the whole bulk of
people that were in my communitybecause they were crafters have
slowly moved away from thecommunity because what I share
there is more focused aroundbusiness and self-care and still
has a lot of crafting there,but it's aimed in a different
direction.
So, yeah, of course I'll haveless people there and actually
(41:28):
at the moment, I'm deep cleaningmy email list so that I know
how many people there actuallyare, so that I know how many
people actually are interestedin what I offer these days and
what I do right now.
(41:48):
So being able to talk to peopleand being yourself and being
clear so that they know whatthey can expect, and you know
what you can expect and youactually can kind of figure out
if you actually want to workwith this person or not, because
that sometimes is so importantas well.
(42:09):
I have met business ownersbefore.
That I don't think would be agood match and, yeah, if you can
make a choice there.
So the slow marketing is isreally starting to to move
(42:32):
things along with theambassadors, with the repeatedly
meeting the same people andtalking to them, building a
relationship with them, whetheror not they want to work with
you.
I just love providing someinsights.
So what I'll do is I will sendan email and say, listen, I saw
(42:55):
this on your website and itwould be really helpful if you
tweak it just a little bit sothat this and this can happen,
and you can say that'sunsolidated advice, but I like
to think of it as small gifts,small insights, a
do-it-it-what-you will.
(43:16):
I will never be sad orfrustrated or I will never have
emotions about people not doinganything with it.
It's for theirs to receive andI love to give it.
So, yeah, I felt really, reallygood by the end of the day, and
(43:39):
this part of the episode isgoing to go into what their
answers were and how I receivedwhat they were, and this part
sorry, I was a little bitdistracted because I just drove
(44:00):
by a truck full of pigs and thatalways makes me so, so sad.
Um, yeah anyway.
Um, so this part of the episodeis about the answers they gave
me to the question can youdescribe your brand in three
(44:22):
words?
Of course, now I'm in the carso I don't have my notes, but
there are different things thatI can tell you that I've learned
from this and that I kind ofknew might happen and that we
can talk about, and then, at alater point, I might share with
(44:47):
you the actual words, if I stillthink that's useful.
I don't think that is the point, the specific words, but they
are something for me to workwith when I talk you through
this.
So why would you want I talkedabout it earlier in this episode
(45:07):
why would you want to be ableto talk about your brand in
three words?
Well, when I entered thebuilding, I was given a folder
that had the map of the building, where all the stalls were, and
it had lists of the businesses.
(45:29):
On the left-hand side it was afew pages Businesses with their
name on the left-hand side.
On the right-hand side were thedescription of their business
and then the number of theirstall.
Of all the names, there'ssomething I can make a podcast
(45:51):
episode about.
It is fascinating.
Please, if you start a business,try to find a list of
businesses and look at the namesthe names, because there can
(46:19):
only be so many studios,ateliers and business names with
creative in it.
The S and the A were fullyrepresented in the alphabet of
names.
It could be really practical tohave a letter in the beginning
of the alphabet, but that'sperhaps a little nitpicky.
It's cool to think about a namethat's easy to remember.
(46:41):
I think that would be numberone Easy to remember.
It doesn't particularly have tosay what you do, but that could
be really convenient If yourbusiness model is going to
markets, then you will always bearound other similar businesses
(47:05):
, so you want to stand out.
If your business model is sellmy yarn only at elderly people's
homes, in a van that I drive upto different elderly people's
homes, which is completely agreat idea, I think, so go ahead
(47:26):
, do that, then your name is notso important.
If it's good that it's easy totype, that you can find a
website, that you can actuallygoogle it, the business names
that have letters for two andfor four use a Z instead of an S
(47:48):
.
Those are just so frustratingto Google and to find anything.
Stay away from that.
I would say Perhaps I should doa whole episode about this.
Anyway, I thought it was reallyinteresting to see all the
names.
Some of the names are verysimilar and I did make a mistake
of saying the different name toa business owner for the other
(48:11):
business that had a similar name.
So that can happen.
Then the three words on thenext to the names.
They all had to give theorganizer a sentence of what
their business is or does orwhat it sells, and of course,
(48:31):
you can say I sell hand-dyedyarn or colorful hand-dyed yarns
.
There will probably be a wholebunch of other descriptions just
like that.
It's not wrong because it'sclear, and if people are kind of
scrolling old-fashionedscrolling with their eyes
(48:55):
through the list, they will knowwhat you do, and that's the
point.
But you also want to stand out,so we're coming back to the
three words how are youdifferent from the other?
Let's stick with the indiedyers.
How are you different from theothers?
(49:16):
What makes you stand out If youhave a pretty large collection
of plant dyed yarns?
That's a unique selling point.
That's something very specific.
You don't see that a lot.
You don't see that a lot.
This occasion there wereactually at least two hand dyers
that dye plant fibers, and sohow do you distinguish yourself
(49:40):
from the other one?
Is it because you are a vegan?
If you want to support thevegan community, do you really
want to make a point out of thesustainability aspect of it,
(50:01):
which is a topic for discussion?
But that's that's not what thisis about.
I'm just.
I'm just giving you directionshere.
Um, so how are you different?
That sentence is something thatshows who you uniquely are.
That's the sentence that shouldgo on your website, above the
(50:22):
fold, the space before you startscrolling, that's the first
thing people see One sentencewho are you?
What do you do?
How are you different?
With these three words, you arestarting the building blocks of
that sentence, aka yourone-liner.
(50:43):
So now, what did they say?
What were their three words?
Well, I am not going to waittill the end, I'm just going to
immediately say it.
I think all but one saidcolorful, and the one that
didn't say colorful was a bulletjournal.
(51:05):
Somebody designed stickers andstationery.
Somebody designed stickers andstationery, and her style was
more earthy, more toned down, soher thing wasn't immediately
colorful, but everyone that hadsome sort of textile, their
(51:26):
first word or second word wascolorful or something along
those lines.
Well, that's what part of yoursentence already doesn't make
much of an impact, becauseeveryone has colorful yarns.
So that's something to thinkabout.
Right, that's very interesting.
(51:48):
Then, of course, just like withthe names, creative is a word
that comes up a lot.
So what happens is people weredescribing their business.
Compared to the local groceryshops, like compared to the
baker, the butcher, thecandlestick maker, you'll have
(52:10):
colorful, creative yarns,absolutely, and that it makes
sense, but it doesn't make asmuch sense.
Oh, I'm taking the right road,yes, but when you're in a market
that's full of creativebusiness owners and you are
(52:35):
sharing one third of the marketwith other textile crafts
business owners, then it becomesa little bit more important to
distinguish yourselves from therest.
Now finding out, how are youdifferent?
And are you that different?
Well, talking to one of thesebusiness owners revealed that
(53:00):
she said colorful.
But when we talked a little bitlonger, she really had some
strong ideas about color and sheused a lot of sentences to
describe them.
But of course, after a while,you can easily well, maybe not
easily, but you can find thewords that really match the
(53:21):
actual yarns.
She also said I'm usingrainwater.
I actually don't know if we sayrainwater in English.
Yeah, rainwater, she usesrainwater to rinse her yarns.
So there's something that'svery different.
(53:45):
Somebody else, when I talked alittle bit more about it, said
in terms of colors, I reallylike full colors.
Most of my colors, even if I goa little bit less bright,
they're all very, they're allvery saturated.
(54:08):
So for her saturate colors.
Other person, when talking moreabout colorful, said well, I
just can't do anything that isnot colorful.
I don't want to be boring.
So there's something there.
(54:29):
Then there was somebody elsewho also does bright colors.
But they are all different.
All the people that havecolorful yarns, they're all
different.
And I think there must be somepeople listening here that say,
(54:49):
well, more and more indiediaries are doing the same thing
.
I don't think they're differentat all.
They all have the speckles,they all follow the same trends.
And even if that's true I don'tthink that's true at all from
what I saw yesterday but even ifthat's true, your brand is more
(55:10):
than just the colors.
It's you, it's how you connectwith people, it's actually how
your ball bands, the labels look.
It's more than just the product.
It's the whole experience ofhow you connect with your
customer after the market isover.
Connect with your customerafter the market is over.
(55:31):
Will you be ready to sell themmore of the same thing right
away?
Will you be open for businessand open for questions right
away?
All those kinds of things arewhat makes your brand, what
(55:57):
makes your brand.
And so taking some time andreally figuring out who you are
as a person and what your brandis because this is where this
story comes in really nicely, Ireconnected with one of the
business owners that was in thelast interview episode and I
asked her the same question andshe said my God, that's so hard.
(56:17):
And she came up with not threewords but a sentence that was
three words, and it was sogenius.
This was specifically what Imeant.
So, because it was so smart, Iwas not going to mention the
(56:39):
names with the specific examples, but this was kind of brilliant
.
She said which means this is me, three words that describe her
brand.
And although that wouldn't workas a sentence because that
(57:04):
doesn't tell you anything aboutwhat kind of products she has,
it does tell you a little bitabout what her work means to her
and how much she puts into it.
It really brings across amessage.
And it's not the end of theexercise, but I thought it was
(57:26):
so creative.
Her brand also, her brand name,also reflects that.
It's called Ikke.
In Dutch, translating freely,loosely means what would I
translate it like?
Just me, or me, or me here.
(57:48):
If you would say, if you woulduse it in a sentence, it would
be.
If you would say who wants tocome?
In Dutch she would say ikke me.
So that's her brand name.
Her three words were this is me, and that all tied together
(58:08):
into one thing and, as I said.
Of course it's not really aone-liner, but for the sake of
this exercise, it was reallywell done.
Someone else also saidsomething along the lines of
they mentioned their name andtheir name is also in their
(58:31):
brand.
So that was on the same kind ofline of thinking.
They mentioned their name andtheir name is also in their
brand.
So that was on the same kind ofline of thinking.
What I wanted to do with thisexercise is give people a notion
of what branding actually isand how you could use it to your
(58:53):
advantage, doing some work tofigure out how are you different
from the rest?
Because there's a bunch ofindie dyers on each market that
you will be at, even if it's amore general creative market,
there's a bunch of other peopleand what you actually want to do
is build a business and a brandthat people can distinguish
(59:19):
immediately from the others.
They know your name, they knowyour brand name.
That's also two differentthings.
It's very important.
Lots of business cards did nothave the name of the owner and I
had to look it up, and thenit's also not always very clear
on their websites.
So your business card you giveto people to connect with you
(59:46):
and your business, so your namereally should be on there.
I got so much from a few hoursat this market, coming back home
taking the business cards, thethree names that they have, then
going to their websites andtheir Instagram accounts, seeing
(01:00:08):
if how they're building theirbrands, if things are connected
to each other.
If I was a person that saw themat the market, was back at home
, remembered something aboutthem and then trying to get back
in touch to either get more ofthe same yarn because now I know
(01:00:31):
that I want to make a wholesweater instead of just a hat
with that beautiful yarn and Ido want to spend money on it
because, in fact, I loved it somuch I couldn't sleep and then
the web shop is closed becausethey're counted the yarn,
because they don't have a POSsystem set up, and that makes
(01:00:55):
sense, and as a customer, youcan really understand why they
do it.
But that means that you have tocome back at another moment and
will you be able to do it?
Will you remember it?
Will you even want to?
So, making the whole process ofconnecting with you, whether it
(01:01:20):
is for buying or for justtalking to you and building a
relationship, you should reallymake that process very easy on
the customer.
So they come home, go to yourwebsite.
(01:01:43):
They should be able to sign upfor your newsletter before they
even scroll down to the bottomof your page.
So you should have a newsletterBecause they can follow you on
Instagram but they will misshalf of what you post and you
(01:02:05):
won't be able to build arelationship as good as you
would if you had them on anemail list.
Talked about the email list alot of times before.
Uh, actually the last episodewas all about uh lists, so go
ahead and listen to that if youwant to learn more.
(01:02:28):
So just another small story fromone of the business owners I
talked to, not completely in thefield that is, the textile
craft industry, but as I also ama bullet journal official
trainer, I also talk to peoplethat either sell bullet journals
(01:02:49):
or do something with stationary.
So when I asked one of thepeople that sell stationary what
their three words were, she wasthinking about it.
She took it very seriously.
This doesn't happen a lot, butthis person is also a
(01:03:14):
professional marketer, so shecouldn't right away mention it,
but she had an idea of what thewords would have to be and she
was already going into the I'lldo it perfectly mode.
So she was finding the exactright words and that took her a
(01:03:35):
little bit of time, but not allthat long.
But when she was thinking aboutit and I was actually helping
her to find this word that shecouldn't, it was actually not
that she didn't know the word,she just could grab it from the
drawer in her, like the samething.
That happens to me a lot.
So you know what it is, youjust can't find it Very
(01:03:56):
professional looking.
The whole brand looked spotless,amazing.
And then I said, why don't weask the customer?
And then within two seconds,the customer was happy to play
along and came up with the exactwords.
And that is gold.
(01:04:16):
I mean, that means that whatyou have envisioned for your
brand is exactly what thecustomer is getting.
And that's where you need toconnect and talk to your clients
, your customers, your audience,and figure out how do they see
(01:04:38):
you, how do they see your brands.
Does it match with what youhave in your head?
That's something we need totalk about another time when we
talk about, when we talk aboutinterviewing your customers and
clients and really figuring outwhere you're on track and how
(01:04:59):
can you help them to the best ofyour abilities.
Thanks for listening.
I'm getting a little bit likemy throat.
I need to drink something.
I had such an amazing time.
I want to thank all the businessowners that were happy to play
along and provided me with a lotof information.
(01:05:20):
I was so happy to talk to you,to connect to you, to see you
again or meet you for the veryfirst time.
In the show notes you'll findall the links to these
businesses so I can give them alittle bit of a shout out.
So here's a little shout out toall the businesses that were
happy to play along.
This is editing Saskia, becauseof course I couldn't do it by
(01:05:43):
heart.
So I've got my bullet journalin front of me and here are the
people that were happy toparticipate, and starting off
with Lisette from Schaap enDraak and Françoise at Bad
Cattoo Yarns, because they weremy ambassadors at the fair and
everywhere.
Honestly, they are clients ofmine and they do such a great
(01:06:07):
job of saying all the positivethings.
Thank you guys.
Thank you so much.
And then I talked to some newfriends and some older friends,
which were Ingrid at Icke,lisette at Woolly Adventures,
meerte at Frogmouse Studio,martine at Stoffen en Stiksels,
(01:06:28):
vinnie at Vinnie's Wall.
I also spoke to a few businessowners in the realm of bullet
journaling and stationerybecause it was a mixed creative
weekend and of course I lovebullet journaling.
I also really enjoy talking tobusiness owners in that industry
.
So that was Ilse at BujoBoutique, anouk at Nookson and
(01:06:53):
Viljana at Cart Studio.
If you're curious about thesebusinesses and the words that
they gave to describe theirbusiness, I actually got an
email the other day from someonethat said oh, wait, wait, wait,
can I still change it?
Which I love because it meansthat she was really thinking
about it and I will change it.
Of course I will.
So you can see it in the shownotes on the website
(01:07:15):
patternshiftfm, you'll see apicture of the stall and the
names of the brands and you candecide for yourself if they
nailed it or perhaps you haveideas for them and you can share
that by reacting to the shownotes.
I'd be very interested to seeall your reactions.
Let's go on with the episode.
(01:07:36):
So the next step you want totake if you want to spend some
more time thinking about thesethree words for your business,
why don't you do it in threeways.
Why don't you do it in threeways?
You can think about textures,colors actually going into what
(01:08:00):
does your product, your mainproduct, look like?
You can also focus on how doesyour product make your customer
feel.
You can focus on who you are asa business owner and what your
values are and, bringing allthose things together, you can
(01:08:21):
start working on creating aone-liner that's really clear
and tells your customer who youare, what you sell and how can
they get it.
I'm going to leave it here fornow.
Enjoy your exercise If you wantto do deeper work or if you
want to hear me out on somethings, if you need support on
(01:08:46):
anything.
I finally found a way todescribe myself, so you can see
that for me as well, it's anongoing process of tweaking
until you get it right.
I am a support professional inthe needle crafts and fiber arts
community and industry and Ihelp small businesses to grow
(01:09:08):
their business in a way that'shealthy for them and healthy for
the world.
Hopefully you've got somethingout of this.
Let me know.
I am eagerly awaiting all yourquestions, all your feedback, so
that I can make more episodesthat are exactly what you need
and what you like listening to.
(01:09:29):
Thank you you so much.
Find all the details in theshow notes and we'll see you
next time.
Until next time, take care andeat and process your fibers,
process your fibers.
I'm getting poo images.
Uh, we'll leave it in there.
Bye.
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