October 3, 2019 • 52 mins
Have you been thinking about trying to earn additional income from your hobby?
Whether you're ready to take the plunge and turn your hobby into a full time job or you just want to earn a little extra money each month, you're faced with a big decision. Do you make this change or not? Will it be worth it? Will it even work?
When faced with the same decision, Brianna, from Life and Yarn asked herself "what do you care about more than failing?" This helped her realize the decision that needed to be made. She's here to talk about that journey today; how she said goodbye to a career path of more than 10 years and hello to a crafting business she loves.
About The BHooked Podcast
Brittany's primary goal is to inspire you and help you grow in your craft with The BHooked Podcast. Through her own stories and the stories of each special guest, you'll discover tips and tricks to improve your crochet and knitting skills and find inspiration to achieve your hobby goals. When you want to kick back and learn from yarn industry experts, grab some yarn and turn on The BHooked Podcast. There's never a shortage of all things crochet, knitting or yarn.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brittany (00:00):
You're listening to the Be Hooked Podcast, episode
136, with Brittany.
Hello there, and welcome toepisode 136 of the Be Hooked
(00:35):
podcast, the place where we loveyarn, we love to learn, and we
believe yarn can do more for usthan just make pretty things.
Now, if you're brand new to theshow, first of all, welcome.
I'm your host, Brittany, and Ispend my days dedicated to
helping you get better at yourcraft.
Now, here on the podcast, wefocus a lot on crochet and
(00:57):
knitting topics, but we alsotalk a little bit about what
it's like to have a craftingbusiness and today is another
one of those episodes.
I always think it is so fun andsuper interesting to connect
with other crafting businessowners to share their stories
and to help you potentially dothis if having a crafting
(01:20):
business or having someadditional money coming in on
the side as a result of doingwhat you love.
So today I'm joined by Briannafrom Life and Yarn, and she is
here to share her inspiringstory about how she quit her
dream life that took her 10 plusyears to build in order to do
(01:44):
what she loved even more so thatshe could be present for her
family.
And I know that is somethingthat so many of us can relate
to.
Also, we can relate to thestruggles of making a decision
that's that big.
So I'm chatting with Briannatoday about her journey.
We talk a little bit about whatit is like for us to be
(02:09):
entrepreneurs and moreimportantly, how being a
crafting business owner is alittle bit different for
everybody else.
We don't talk a lot aboutspecific resources, but I want
to let you know that the shownotes page for this episode can
be found at BeHooked.com slash136.
If you want to connect withBrianna after listening to the
(02:31):
episode, I'll have all of herinformation, her website, and
that sort of thing on that pageso you can connect with her
after hearing today.
So I don't want to delayanymore.
Here's my chat with Briannafrom Life & Yarn.
Brianna, hi.
Welcome to the show.
Hi, thank you so much forhaving me.
It is my pleasure.
(02:52):
I am so happy we had theopportunity to connect.
You're sort of saving the dayhere.
We had a last minute schedulechange.
And so we are hopping on thecall right before this episode
is live.
And I think it all happened fora reason because I was so...
moved by your story.
(03:14):
And I really just want to sharethat with the other listeners,
especially those who are makers,who have a side hustle, or
maybe they want to turn thatside hustle into their full time
job.
I think you just have aninspirational story to share.
So I'm excited to get into thattoday.
Brianna (03:33):
Oh, thank you so much.
Brittany (03:36):
So you have this really inspiring story of
somebody who rewrote theexpectations of their life.
That was one thing that really,really stuck out to me.
So where did this whole journeybegin for you?
Brianna (03:50):
Well, so I think like every creative, you know, you
kind of just grow up being avery creative person.
And I never really had a planof what I wanted to do
creatively.
I just, I just knew that like,making was always something that
I did and through high school Iactually took every single
(04:13):
elective I possibly could thathad to do with art I mean you
name it I took it and I wasbuilding a very very extensive
portfolio um and I wanted to goto art school and when the time
came around to start applyingfor colleges and figuring out
what I wanted to do I knewthat's what I wanted to do but I
had absolutely no idea what todo with it and um I remember
(04:36):
talking to my dad, and my dadwas like, I'm not paying for art
school.
He's like, no.
What are you going to do?
you know, with that degree, youhave no, you have no plan for
it.
And so I was like, well, whatdo I do?
Like, I don't know what to, Idon't know.
What do I go to college for?
And he's like, I don't know, bean architect.
And so that's what I, that'swhat I did.
(04:59):
I said, okay.
And you know, I, I, I went tomy local community college
because at this point, you know,this was like a conversation we
were having, like right beforeI was getting ready to graduate.
So I had like no plan of whereto go.
And so I just, I applied to mylocal community college And I
took their civil tech program,which was a combination of
engineering and architecture.
And that was how it started.
(05:21):
And then I transferred for mybachelor's and six and a half
years later, I graduated and Iskipped my graduation and went
right to work.
The whole time I was incollege, I was working for my
grandfather's engineeringcompany.
And then I got a really greatjob for a huge design build
firm.
And I loved it.
And that's what I was doingafter I graduated.
(05:43):
And, you know, I was collectingmy hours to submit to the state
so that this way I could startto take my licenses.
I was planning a wedding.
I was doing all this stuff.
And so that was my life forabout 10 years.
And, yeah.
Being an architect in my mindwas going to be great because I
could get my license, I couldwork from home, I could have my
(06:05):
own private practice andbasically create my own
schedule, take on as much workas I wanted or didn't want, and
I thought it was going to beperfect.
And then, flash forward, I'm...
Now I'm married and I'mpregnant and I'm, you know,
(06:26):
still working like a crazyperson.
And I mean, I was seven monthspregnant and I was crawling
around in a house that had burntdown.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, you know, doinginspections and that, that was
my life and I loved it.
And I still love it.
I mean, architecture is just,it's amazing.
And then, um, you know, I hadmy son and I kept working like
that.
(06:46):
I, you know, I was, I was on mycomputer.
I was working from home now atthis point for an architect that
I had developed a very goodrelationship with through my
time going to school and thenworking with that other firm.
And, um, life was good.
But around my son's firstbirthday, what had happened was
I pulled out my computer, and hestarted crying.
(07:08):
And a light bulb went off thatI was spending so much time on
my computer working and that hewas starting to associate my
computer with I don't havemommy.
And that was exactly what Ididn't want.
You know, I wanted to be homewith my him and, you know, be
present for him.
(07:28):
And I thought that this job waswhat was going to do it for me.
And, you know, that careerpath, and it really wasn't, I
mean, if any, if you're familiarwith architecture at all, or
being, you know, a, you know, anarchitect in your own private
practice, it demands a lot oftime and attention, a lot.
And, and my so my son wasn'tgetting the attention that I
(07:50):
wanted him to have, or that hewas needing.
And crochet, life and yarn wassomething that kind of existed
in the background.
And at that point, I kind ofknew that it was something that
I could turn into a business,but I hadn't really figured out
how yet.
And seeing my son get upsetover the computer coming out was
(08:13):
when I realized like, allright, I need to make a change.
And that was when I startedworking towards turning life and
yarn into a business instead ofa hobby.
And that was, let's see, he wasa year in August of 2017.
So now we just had August of2019 co-pass.
So that was about two yearsago.
(08:34):
So, you know, that's where itstarted.
And how it kind of came aboutwas more so me realizing that
the career that I thought wasgoing to be perfect for raising
a family and being home wasn't.
And it was a shock because Ispent 10 plus years chasing that
(08:56):
dream.
I mean...
You know, you need like youneed five years, essentially
five years worth of hours tojust to start to submit to the
state to be eligible to takeyour licensing exams.
And there's seven of them totake.
You know, so I was I was rightthere.
I you know, as of right now, Ihave my hours.
I have everything in line.
I have my degrees.
(09:16):
I have all of it.
And I just stopped dead in mytracks and said, I can't do it.
And I was hard.
It was it was it was a harddecision to make.
But, you know.
I didn't want to not be therefor my kids.
Brittany (09:31):
Yeah.
That is...
It's a lot.
It is.
That was a lot, right?
It's really a lot.
I tried to condense that.
No, I mean, it's just a lot tomake that decision and to
actually know that that is theright decision.
I think when you were goinginto it, you probably had no
(09:53):
idea that it wasn't Oh my
Brianna (09:58):
goodness, no.
until you're living it, youdon't, you don't know.
(10:29):
And that's the hardest thingis, is trying to plan for
something you don't know.
And then once you're in it,realizing it's not working, and
then trying to figure out how tochange it.
Like, it's, it's, it's scary.
It's hard,
Brittany (10:42):
you know?
Right, right.
I mean, that is a life changingdecision.
When I was in a and married andwas married at the time, but we
didn't have, don't have kids inour lives at this point.
And it was still a toughdecision to make because I went
(11:06):
through five years of collegefor something completely
different for biology, which islike so left field for what I'm
doing now.
So I can relate in that senseof saying, okay, this really
looked great when I thoughtabout it five years ago.
But the reality of it is thatthat's not what I want right
(11:27):
now.
And it's not what I wantanymore.
And I think it was, it reallytook a heart to heart
conversation between my husbandand I to realize that that was
okay to feel that way.
And it when you work foryourself, you probably, well,
you will work harder than youever worked before.
(11:50):
You will work longer hours thanyou ever worked before, but you
will love every minute of itand it doesn't feel like work.
So that's something that wassurprising for me.
And I still have to try toexplain to my family that Yeah,
I made this change so that Icould have more flexibility and
(12:11):
freedom and to do what I love.
But at the same time, I sort ofhave less.
Is that something that youexperienced too?
Brianna (12:19):
Yeah, so I knew...
I knew that once I did havechildren, I wanted to be home
with them.
So that was why I thought beingan architect was the perfect
fit because I knew that I canget my license and I knew that I
could be in private practiceand that I could be home
working.
What I didn't know was howobsessive I was going to be over
(12:41):
it.
I mean, I, around the clock wasworking.
Didn't matter what day it was.
Didn't matter if it was aholiday.
Didn't matter if it was threeo'clock in the morning.
Like I, I was working and, andI, you know, I love You know, to
sit down with somebody and talkto them about their dream home
and to be able to, you know,have the privilege of designing
it for them and building it forthem and like watching it come
(13:03):
to life is just, it's amazing.
What I didn't know was thatthat job working from home
wasn't going to fit having kids.
And so the crochet, which wasjust kind of a hobby at that
point, that this right now, Lifein Yarn, is more more of that.
You know, I could sit down onthe floor with Jack and be
(13:26):
working on a project and he'sokay with that.
It's not my computer.
You know, I don't have to, ifhe, if he grabs it and makes a
run for it, you know, it's notthe end of the world.
If he breaks my computer thathas all of these designs and
programs on it, you know, thenwe have a problem, but it just,
this is so much more familyfriendly than what I was doing,
(13:48):
you know?
And yeah, Trying to explainthat to people is difficult.
I mean, it's hard.
It is.
Brittany (13:58):
Yeah.
So I'm curious, what did lifein yarn look like in those very
early days?
Because I think that's anotherthing you really have to think
about when you're making thisdecision, just because you...
have all of this set up, itdoesn't mean it's an actual job
that's earning you money yet.
It takes a little while.
It takes quite a bit ofbuilding to get to that point.
(14:20):
So what did it look like thenand how is that different from
what it is today?
Brianna (14:25):
I've always– I've appreciated forever.
I mean I can't even tell youwhen I learned.
I know I learned very youngfrom my grandma and– That's
that.
And then I picked it up and putit down multiple times.
But when I was pregnant withJack, I wanted to make him
something like everybody does.
I wanted to make him a babyblanket or whatever.
And so I picked it back upagain and I kind of became
(14:46):
obsessed with it as justsomething to do in my spare
time.
But it was after he was bornwhen work slowed down just ever
so slightly because, you know, Iwasn't running around and going
on job sites with a newborn.
I then had started my littleInstagram account to just kind
of share things and that waswhen I started stumbling across
(15:06):
other makers that had blogs orwere getting sponsored by yarn
companies and you know they wereyou know as soon as finding
about about affiliate links andall these different ways that
people were taking a hobby andsomehow able to make some sort
of a you know an income from itwhether it was replacing
something or not I you know Idon't know but I saw that and
(15:31):
Jack was only a few months oldand I was kind of just like,
wow, that's pretty cool.
And so I came up with Life inYarn and I bought the website
and I made the Instagram handleand the Facebook and everything
that goes along with it, theemail.
And originally what I hadwanted it to be is I just kind
of wanted to share what I wasmaking.
I didn't necessarily want to bedoing patterns or designs or
(15:52):
anything like that.
And The life part of Life &Yarn was I wanted to be like a
mommy blogger, which neverreally happened because, you
know, life.
And, you know, that was kind ofwhere it started.
But it wasn't until, you know,I had decided to try to
transition out of working andjust be a stay-at-home mom that
(16:14):
I decided I really wanted topursue Life & Yarn as more of a
business to have some sort of,you know, a secondary income
coming in other than, you know,my husband because, you know,
Didn't want to be stressing himout that much.
And I figured, hey, you knowwhat?
If I could pay the carinsurance one month or if I can
handle food shopping, it justmakes it that much easier for
(16:34):
him.
And that was kind of where itstarted.
And then it's just beengrowing.
And it's been amazing.
It really
Brittany (16:41):
has.
So where did you transition totoday?
I know you're doing somepatterns and that sort of thing.
Is that like your primarything?
model
Brianna (16:52):
yes there that uh so I yeah I at one point thought that
I could get into markets andmake things over and over again
and I discovered very quicklythat I am not built for that um
me too and so I started doing ohmy goodness I don't know how
people do it they're amazingyou're like if you can make the
same hat over and over again andgo and sell them to people
you're a superstar I can't do itright I'm not do it um but so
(17:18):
it was Jack was about a yearwhen I decided to start
transitioning out of workingfull-time.
So that was in 2017.
By the time he was two, so thesummer of 2018, was when I was
buttoning up all of my contractsand the last of my jobs.
September of 2018 was the firstmonth that I didn't take in any
more work professionally.
(17:40):
So this past September actuallyis a year of life and yarn
being full time.
I'm still kind of figuring itout.
I mean, you know, like I justread, I just changed all of like
my brand colors.
I've just redid my blog layout.
There's a lot of stuff.
It's, it's still growing andchanging, but now it's, This
(18:02):
past year, it's been full-timefor me.
That doesn't necessarily meanfull-time income, but it's been
all I'm doing, and it's growing.
I really, really, really,really like to design garments.
Every once in a while, I'll dosome accessories or something, a
blanket or whatever, but I lovegarments.
(18:24):
I want to make stuff that I canwear on a regular basis, you
know, and that's comfortable.
And that's kind of where it is.
You know, I'm a garment person.
I love the free patterns.
I've been doing the freepatterns.
It's funny, but I feel likepeople kind of appreciate the
free patterns more than youwould think.
You know, they're willing toshare them all over the place,
(18:45):
which is great.
Brittany (18:47):
Yeah.
But that's where it is now.
That's cool.
I think there really is...
a journey that a business goeson.
And the way it looks whenyou've made that first decision
is gonna be radically differentfrom one, two, three, five years
from now, it constantlychanges.
And that's something that I, Iam still learning today, even
(19:11):
being in business.
Well, I've been doing this fulltime for two years, almost,
well, going up on three yearsnow.
And things are still changingand looking different.
And I think that's a part ofthe process.
It's also really important forsomebody to know that you don't
have to have it all figured outon day one.
Oh, no.
(19:32):
I still don't have it
Brianna (19:33):
figured out.
I still don't have it figuredout.
Definitely don't.
I will be very honest.
Brittany (19:40):
Right.
Brianna (19:41):
There are still a lot of changes going on.
Brittany (19:43):
Yeah.
And I echo that as well.
I mean, like I said, it's alearning process for everybody.
Not because you don't know whatyou're doing.
It's that what you have tooffer your community is
different.
It's different for everyperson.
And you just have to listen toyour community.
community and respond with whatthey want.
Brianna (20:06):
Yes.
You know, it's funny aboutthat.
So I know when I was firststarting, I Googled everything
and Google does not have all theanswers.
I mean, there's no one way togo about doing any of this.
And I mean, I remembermessaging random people and
being like, how'd you do that?
You know, where'd you findthat?
Or how'd you do this?
And I can't tell you how manytimes I got, you know, oh, I
(20:27):
don't know.
I just did it.
And now...
now that I've had some moreexperience with things, I'm
starting to realize, you know,those answers weren't just
somebody not wanting to help me.
It was, they didn't, theyreally couldn't help.
You know, there's, there's noset way to go about trying to
build a creative business likethis.
There's really not.
I mean, it's all trial anderror and you just kind of have
(20:50):
to do it.
And it's, it's scary.
It's definitely scary, but it'sworth it.
It's couldn't and I never everwould have thought you know
three four or five years agowhen I was designing houses that
I loved I never ever thoughtthat I could find something that
(21:12):
I would love more and I did andit's amazing it's absolutely
amazing
Brittany (21:16):
yeah now you said something to me previously that
like really really stuck with meyou said some of the questions
going through your mind whileyou were making that decision to
leave 10 plus years of buildingwhat you thought was your dream
life to just doing a complete180 and working for yourself on
a creative business.
You said some of the questionsgoing through your mind were
(21:39):
what scares you more thanfailure or what do you care more
about than failing?
Talk me through how youanswered those because I think
that is a great self-assessmentfor anybody who's looking to
make this kind of transition.
Brianna (21:55):
As scary as some decisions can be, I feel like
you need to be happy and youhave to look at, look at your
life where it is now and say, amI happy?
And if you are still doing thesame thing that you're doing a
year from now, five years fromnow, 10 years from now, you
know, are you, are you stillgoing to be happy?
(22:17):
And if you're not going to behappy with it, are you going to
be okay with that?
And you know, how much doesthat scare you?
Right.
So what scared me was I did notwant to be the type of mom that
was gone all the time.
I didn't want to be the type ofmom that was pushing my kids to
the side because I had adeadline to meet or I was on the
(22:41):
phone with a client and had toworry.
Right.
So, for example, right now, mytoddler is running around with
my mom.
I can hear them playingsomewhere in the house and I
have our newest one sleeping inmy lap.
He's he was seven weeks oldyesterday.
That's not something that Icouldn't do before.
But, you know, depending on theclient.
(23:01):
Yeah.
I would lose a lot of time thatI could be spending with my
(23:21):
husband because, you know, I'dhave some crazy job going on
and, you know, I'd be working onit all week and then all
weekend and then getting emailsfrom clients at eight o'clock at
night because that's the firstmoment they've had to sit down
and look at.
And I need to try and get backto them right away because, you
know, they're essentiallythey're paying you a lot of
money to build their dream home.
(23:42):
They want an answer.
And that's what scared me more.
It was it was the time that Iwas putting into something that
I felt like wasn't as importantas the time that I should have
been putting into, you know, myhusband and my kids and the rest
of my family.
So that was like the drivingforce behind it.
You know, that's what scaredme.
(24:05):
Yeah.
You know, and I, I knew that ifI didn't change it and
suddenly, you know, I'm lookingback and Jack's, you know, now
he's three, but say, you know,I'm looking back and he's five
or he's 10 and I'm looking atthings that I didn't get to
experience with him because allof my time went into work.
Right.
(24:25):
I, I wouldn't have been happyabout that.
So.
Brittany (24:28):
Yeah.
And that's what reallyresonated with me when I read
that is that you were able toidentify what you care more
about than failing because beingan entrepreneur, starting a
business from scratch, notknowing the answers, failing is
a humongous part of thatjourney.
Brianna (24:49):
I can always go back to what I was doing.
I mean, it would be hardbecause, you know, the The
computer programs, there's a newone every single year that it's
updated.
You know, there's new productscoming out all the time, styles
changing.
And, you know, differentmaterials are coming out that
people are using.
And, you know, so I mean,trying to play catch up there
would be difficult.
But the information there is somuch easier to find than the
(25:11):
information that you need to tryand start up a business as an
entrepreneur.
And so I know that if I decidedtomorrow, I don't want to do
this anymore.
I know that I can jump backinto the field.
Would it be difficult?
Yes.
But that's a lot easier thandeciding in 10 years.
You know, when you have, youknow, a family and you've got a
(25:33):
mortgage and you have, you know,all these other things going
on, it's a lot harder than tomake a change.
And so it was, you know.
do it or don't at that point intime a couple years ago for me
Brittany (25:45):
yeah yeah I think it's important to have that peace of
mind too but how might somebodylistening be able to make that
same self-assessment that youwent through that you kind of
talked us through that can helpthem through a big decision
right now like I know there area lot of people in the audience
who have a full-time job and whoare also trying to make their
(26:07):
side hustle maker businesssomething more but they're just
afraid or there's somethingholding them back, how do you
recommend they make the rightdecision for them?
I know it's deep, right?
It's really difficult and it'sdifferent for every person, but
(26:28):
I'm curious as somebody who wentthere first, what would your
advice be?
It's
Brianna (26:33):
definitely different for everybody.
So you know what?
Honestly, I don't know.
I don't I what I the last thingI'm going to say is just do it
because I am not a just do ittype of person.
I mean, I know when I say thisis what I did, I'm trying to
make it as like, simple anddirect as possible.
But it was a big decision.
And there was a lot of thingswe talked about.
I mean, just just to try tostart to do it, you know, we, it
(26:56):
was a matter of like, okay,well, if I can try to save, you
know, a little bit of money onthe car insurance, and the cell
phone bills, you know, that Ican work X amount of hours less.
And I can try and get myselfdown to part-time.
Or how do I save money on foodshopping?
And just trying to slowlytransition out of that while
then also trying to build abusiness.
(27:18):
In the background, that's kindof how we did it.
And it was a matter of nottotally stepping out of where I
was comfortable, which was witharchitecture and design and all
of that.
And trying to build...
life and yarn in thebackground.
So, you know, when we got tothat point where I was working,
(27:43):
you know, essentially part-timeand able to make the same amount
of money with life and yarnthat I was making with my
part-time work doing, you know,the architectural stuff that,
you know, that was kind of oursignal to know like, all right,
I can start to really thinkabout not doing the architecture
(28:04):
anymore because if I have thatextra time that I'm not doing
the architecture I can push lifeand yarn more you know what I
mean yeah definitely was not youknow a one two three here's the
decision let's do it so Iwouldn't ever tell somebody just
like walk into your job andquit but if you can try to look
for ways to slowly transitionout of one thing and into
another like then I'd say that'sprobably the best way to go
(28:27):
about doing things does thatmake sense
Brittany (28:29):
yeah it does I don't know That's helpful or not.
That's just how we did it.
I think it is.
I think it's really helpful tounderstand that you have to be
building this before you makethe decision because it's not
going to be.
Yes, 100%.
It's not going to be just asnap of your fingers and you're
making money on day one.
It just doesn't happen thatway.
(28:50):
So I was building Be Hooked forthree years.
Let's see.
Yeah, three years before I wentfull time with it.
And I was earning some incomewith it at the time.
Yes.
that conversation that you havewith your family is like a must
(29:39):
so that you're on the same pageand making the decision.
It wasn't just,
Brianna (29:43):
it wasn't just my husband and I, and then talking
about her.
So, I mean, it was my parentstoo.
Like I was terrified, like myparents.
Okay.
So like my parents, mysiblings, like everybody kind of
knew about life and yarn.
It was, I was just like alittle hobby in the background
and whatnot.
But I remember when I reallydecided this is it, I'm done.
I'm not taking in any morearchitectural work.
(30:04):
I'm finishing up thesecontracts.
I'm done.
There's no more of this.
It was a terrifying thingbecause for how long had I been
pursuing this career and myfamily had supported me through
all of it and it was scary.
Like it was, it was, it was ascary, scary, scary thing.
But I mean, I, I'd have to say,I think my parents are more
(30:25):
proud of me now and, you know,and my husband are more proud of
me now trying to do this,something that's not so safe
because I'm a very safe personwhen it comes to making
decisions that, you know, to, tolook at, at someone and watch
them really trying to follow adream and actually doing it is,
um, It's a huge deal.
(30:46):
So while it's scary to thinkabout what you're expected to do
and how you're expected to livea life, it's it's definitely
very freeing to make thedecision to try to follow a
dream like that yeah so Iwouldn't tell anybody to just to
just play it safe all the timewith with something like this
(31:07):
there's ways there's ways to doit safely but yeah there's
always a risk involved
Brittany (31:12):
now I'm curious on the other side of that decision we
talked about this a little bitthat as a new business owner you
work crazy hours because it'ssomething that you're really
driven about it's part Oh mygosh.
Yeah.
Brianna (31:46):
it's definitely done both I said yes to a lot in the
beginning because I really Ijust wanted to try to get my
foot in the door every singleplace I possibly could and it
was a blessing and it was acurse at the same time like I
remember Jack was a few monthsold and I would get him to go to
sleep.
And I mean, he was probablycloser to a year at this point.
(32:06):
And there was things that Isaid yes to.
And I was still working fulltime.
And I was hiding in thebathroom at like three o'clock
in the morning, making thingsand trying to work on stuff and
take pictures.
You know, it was just it was itwas madness.
But living like that and tryingto do so much definitely taught
me that I have to be choosyabout where I spend my time and
what I say yes to.
(32:27):
But there was a lot there's alot of stuff that I said yes to.
that definitely opened somedoors and it gave a lot of
experiences to me that Iwouldn't have had if I had said
no.
But now at this point, Sayingall the yeses and regretting
them has led me to a point wherenow I know what to say yes to
(32:48):
and I know what to say no tobecause now I have more of an
idea of where I want mybusiness.
So what I would tell somebodyis basically, I think you should
say yes to as much as youpossibly can in the beginning so
that this way you can learnwhen to say no.
But learning when to say no isthe hard part because you have
to look at it as if you'resaying no to one thing, then
(33:09):
you're there's otheropportunities that can come in.
And I think too many peoplewill say yes to everything.
And then something that theyshould say yes to comes up.
And then they can't becausethey've said yes to too many
things.
Does that?
Yeah.
Brittany (33:24):
Yeah, it's a balancing act.
And I, I definitely, Iexperienced the same thing.
I said yes to everything that Ipossibly could.
And at the time, I rememberthinking to myself, like, why do
I keep saying yes?
Why am I doing this?
But it made me realize thatthat I learned when to say no.
by saying yes, because I wasable to figure out what took me
(33:49):
a lot of time to work through orwhat I didn't really love doing
or what didn't really resonatewith the people that I was
trying to serve in my community.
I mean, you have to get to apoint where you can learn all
that stuff because it's going tobe new.
It's going to be completelydifferent for you than it was
for me and than it was for you.
You know, everybody is in aunique situation and they're
(34:11):
serving a unique set of people.
I'm sure a lot of that doesoverlap but yeah you become the
go-to person for that thing andyou figure out what that thing
is by saying yes and figuringout what lights you up and what
doesn't exactly exactly so
Brianna (34:30):
they're a lot better than i did um but no but it is
it's it's true I mean, if you'rejust starting, you should
probably try and say yes to asmuch as you can, because if you
don't, then, you know, you won'tknow what you do and you don't
love.
Yeah.
And I think there's some thingsyou have to learn the hard way.
Brittany (34:46):
For sure.
Yeah.
And I think one thing that Iwish I knew then that I know now
is to learn to manage my timebetter.
Gosh, when I was doing my...
Brianna (34:58):
time management right now is key.
Brittany (35:00):
Yeah.
It's a real struggle.
But what I didn't understandand or just didn't really think
about.
Mm-hmm.
my time a little bit better Iwould have known realistically
(35:42):
there is not a space in time forme to make this commitment at
this time so I think that wouldbe my little tidbit of advice as
far as saying yes I think it'sa great thing to do but be smart
about it and try to give thatcommitment a space in your
calendar
Brianna (36:01):
oh yeah and I would definitely say you got to give
yourself a little bit of wiggleroom too because you never know
what's going to come up Ifinally started to get into the
swing of things with Jackrunning around chasing him as a
toddler and like really knowingwhen I could and couldn't do
things.
And then we found out we werehaving another baby and, you
know, that just changedeverything.
I mean, right now I'm justtotally trying to keep my head
(36:24):
above water and readjust to anew, a new normal.
And that's fine.
And I think that's somethingelse that people as, you know,
new business owners andentrepreneurs need to keep in
mind is that, you know, youreally have to try and be
flexible in those early daysbecause things come up all the
time.
Yeah.
Whether it's a new whether it'sa new baby or, you know, who
(36:48):
knows what?
There's always something.
And that I think is is a hardthing for a lot of people to
accept.
I know that I'm like thatbecause I'm you know, your
typical type A that wantseverything planned out and
perfect.
And it just doesn't really workwith this type of business.
Brittany (37:04):
Right.
Right.
So now I imagine you haveprobably got some practice in
with saying no to things.
Oh,
Brianna (37:10):
yeah.
Brittany (37:11):
How has that been for you?
Good.
Brianna (37:15):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, it's it's definitely beengood.
I mean, the past.
So I I had to do a lot ofreevaluating when we found out
that we were having another babybecause, you know, with Jack,
my pregnancy was amazing and notthat this one wasn't, but this
time around I, I had morningsickness, which was different
because I didn't have the Jackand we were both, we were having
(37:35):
another boy.
So I was totally confused bythat.
I would have sworn we werehaving a girl, but, um, you
know, I was sick and I was doinga lot.
And at that point I was stillreally, really overwhelmed with
so many things that I had saidyes to.
And that was when I, you know,I remember sitting back and
talking to my husband and justbeing like, I've said too many
things to where now, you know,life, you know, day-to-day life
(37:57):
just doesn't work.
And, and it was reallydifficult to kind of sit back
and look at things.
I mean, I wrote, I wrote down alist of all the different
things that I was trying to doand marked things off.
Do I love this?
Do I like it?
Or is this just stressing meout?
You know, cause if it's goingto stress you out and if it's
going to just make things moredifficult and if you're going
(38:18):
to, you know, dread having to doit and drag yourself It should
for you to do something.
You probably shouldn't be doingit, you know, and that was the
position that I was findingmyself in with a few different
things that I was involved inwas just that it would spark
that excitement that it should.
And so it would take me so muchlonger to do, you know, a task
(38:38):
than I should spend on it.
Does that make sense?
So like designing something orworking with a specific yarn
that I didn't love, you youknow, that somebody asked for me
to promote or, or whatever.
And, and you just kind of haveto say, you know what, I, it's
not going to work and you haveto walk away from it.
And it's really hard to dosomething like that because you
worry about either offendingsomebody or hurting feelings or,
(39:01):
you know, burning a bridge witha company or a person or, or
whatever.
But, you have to like sit backand look at all of those little
things.
And that was what I had to dovery, very recently,
specifically when I was havingmy morning sickness.
Um, but that put me in a reallygood position now that we've,
we've had the baby, we had him,um, in August and now everything
(39:26):
that I have on my plate issomething that I love.
And that makes me really happyand really excited for the
future of life in your, but itdefinitely took a Um, it was
stressful getting there.
Yeah.
Brittany (39:39):
Yeah.
And now I have to ask, I knowyou said this was a little more
recently, but do you, do youhave any regrets?
Like has some of those fearsthat you had about saying no,
did any of that become real?
Brianna (39:55):
Um, no.
Brittany (39:57):
No.
I think that's so important forpeople to hear, that we build
things up in our heads.
Yes.
It's usually not going tohappen.
People understand.
And I think a lot more peoplewill respect you when you do say
no because it's not the rightfit.
Brianna (40:15):
Yes.
It's hard– I mean, the anxietyaround having to write an email
or send a message or say likethis isn't working is
terrifying.
It's a scary, scary thing todo.
I mean, think about likequitting a job.
You know, I mean, that's kindof what it is.
You know, you're essentiallyeven though it's just a little
blip on the radar of somethingthat you're working on in the
(40:37):
big picture of everything.
It's like you're quitting a joband it's scary.
It's hard.
And, you know, at the time, Iremember, you know, after you
send that email or you send thattext.
message or DM or whatever, youhave that moment of like, Oh my
goodness, did I really just dothat?
You know, stomach dropping.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's the stomach dropping out.
(40:58):
And like, I need to take a stepoutside and take a deep breath
and make sure that that wasokay.
And, you know, it's, it is, youknow, those maybe like the
first week after you turnsomething away or, or stop doing
something, you might feel likescared or, or wonder if it was
the wrong decision but in thelong run now I know I I don't I
(41:23):
don't regret any of it saying noto anything
Brittany (41:26):
yeah I think that's really important to to hear but
I also don't want to totallysugarcoat it I remember hearing
advice and still to this daywhere people say say no to more
things and more opportunitieswill open and everything is
rainbows and unicorns and yeahsometimes it is no that's not
true but it's totally not alwaysthe case and Sometimes you
(41:48):
might say no to something andrealize that you do regret
saying no, but there's not awhole lot you can do at that
point except for learn fromthat.
And I think it's also importantthat you don't burn that
bridge.
So that way, when theopportunity comes up for you and
that person or that brand orcompany to work together again,
(42:11):
in a way that it's mutuallybeneficial, you can still do
that.
Brianna (42:17):
However it is that you say no or you go about, you
know, changing an agreement onsomething, you have to do it so
that no feelings are hurt.
And, you know, it's done in aprofessional manner.
And if there is an opportunityin the future, the last thing
you want is for somebody to belike, well, you know, they went
about not taking this seriously.
(42:39):
opportunity or leaving anopportunity in a bad manner.
So that's definitely greatadvice.
Brittany (42:47):
For sure.
Now, I know that's certainlypractical advice from two
entrepreneurs to somebody whomight be in a similar situation.
So as a final word of advice tosomebody who's in a familiarly
uncomfortable situation, part oftheir life be it they're about
to make that decision to quittheir full-time job or go down
(43:10):
to part-time what would yourfinal word of advice be to that
person to help them find theright answer for them at that
time I
Brianna (43:19):
think you have to be as honest with yourself as
possible you really have to lookat what it is you're doing.
Does it make you happy?
Is it going to make you happyin the future?
And I think you just have to bereally, really honest about
where you are in your life andwhat you want from it.
And I don't think anybodyshould ever be scared to make a
(43:40):
change.
But I think when you do try tomake a change, especially a big
one, something going from like,you know, your normal everyday
nine to five that, you know,pays your bills to suddenly
turning around and decidingthat, you know, You know, you're
going to take on trying tobuild a creative business where
there's really no set way to dosomething that, you know, you
(44:01):
make that decision.
You know, you don't take itlightly.
You know, it takes a lot ofplanning.
And I think that the best thinganybody can do when trying to
do something like that is, youknow, to try and do as slow and
as easy of a transition aspossible.
Try to keep one foot on eachside of the line so that this
way you can see when something'snot working.
(44:22):
The last thing I wouldrecommend somebody, and I know
some people say that they'vedone this before, they'll tell
you to do it.
Don't just go walk into yourjob and tell your boss, like
quit and walk out because itmight feel great in that moment.
But when you're, you know, upin the middle of the night and
trying to figure out how to, Idon't know, do something on your
website.
And you have no money comingin.
(44:43):
You're going to be kickingyourself, you know.
So I think be honest withyourself and chase the dream.
But at the same time, I thinkyou should also kind of play it
safe.
And there's there's ways to dothat.
Brittany (44:52):
Yeah, I think that's great advice.
And I love your list tip.
The thing that you said you satdown and wrote a list.
I am.
I'm a list kind of girl.
So that totally speaks to myheart.
it's one thing to thinksomething it's a completely
different thing to write it downand to see it you feel
something when you write it downyou can say yeah I really don't
(45:15):
like that just by writing itdown I don't know there's some
kind of connection that's madeat least for me that when I
write something down I all of asudden realize yes like that is
the case so I think even ifyou're not a list kind of person
just try it
Brianna (45:33):
another great thing that you can do so like you know
what I it's this was a lot ittook a long time to you know for
me to start to really make thistransition but like initially I
had a goals list of things thatI wanted life and yarn to be
and I actually they're all overthe place I you know I just
randomly will write down alittle list and stick it
somewhere and forget about itbecause you know mom life I just
(45:57):
get distracted but um there wasone of the I came across the
other day of goals and I'mlooking at some of them.
I'm like, wow, I don't careabout that anymore.
And I, and I think that that'sa big thing too, is, you know,
sit down and write down somegoals that you have and just put
it in a corner somewhere andcome back to it in a month and
then look at it and say, do youreally still care about those
(46:18):
things as much as you thoughtyou did then?
Yeah.
You know, and I think that canreally help guide somebody to,
and figuring out whether or notthe change that they want to
make is the right one for them.
Brittany (46:29):
Yeah.
Brianna (46:30):
And I think if you can do that over the course of an
extended period of time, that'llhelp you decide what you really
want to do.
Brittany (46:36):
Yeah, I agree.
I think that is a great tip andgreat note to end on.
I do want to give listeners achance to connect with you after
they've heard today's episode,because I know that, like I
said, there's so many people whomight be in a similar situation
and I think we can help eachother in the community.
So where would you send them tosee more of what you have going
(46:57):
on and to connect with youafter listening today?
Brianna (47:00):
I'm Life and Yarn everywhere, except for on
Instagram.
I'm Life and Yarn, but I have aperiod in between each word.
Instagram is, that's my mainplace.
I'm there, you know, I'm on itevery day.
I'm posting basically everyday.
That's where, you know, You'llsee what I'm working on, you
(47:20):
know, behind the scenes, newdesigns that are coming and just
kind of what I'm doing in myday to day life and my stories
all the time.
And then secondly, is my blog.
My blog is my other big spot.
So that's, you know, life andyarn dot com.
And my newsletter is big.
There's a pop-up that'll comeup so you can sign up.
But I try to keep my newslettersubscribers in the loop with
everything that I'm doing.
But those are basically my bigspots.
(47:42):
And that's where you can findme.
If you go over to my Instagram,I do have a link in my bio that
will bring you directly to myblog.
And that has the directory onit that gives you everywhere
that I am.
That's basically it.
Perfect.
I'm easy enough to find.
Brittany (47:56):
Yes.
Okay.
So I will have all of thatincluded in the show notes as
well.
So if you do want to check thatout, you can visit that in go
directly to those places.
And Brianna, thank you so much.
It has been such a pleasure toconnect with you and to hear
your story and to share yourstory.
I know it's going to helpsomebody who is in a similar
situation.
And for that, I am reallygrateful.
(48:16):
Thanks for having me.
All right.
Once again, that was Briannafrom Life and Yarn.
Be sure to check her out onInstagram where she likes to
hang out.
Although it's different forevery person, One thing I want
to point out is that althoughsomething might feel scary, we
might build something up whenwe're about to say no to an
(48:39):
opportunity that we really wantto say yes to, or whether we're
ready to make our hobby, ourfull-time or part-time job,
whatever your situation may be,we always build up these
decisions in our head so thatthey seem really scary.
We think the absolute worstcould possibly happen, and
(49:00):
that's not always the case.
Yes, it's really uncomfortableto make decisions that we don't
want to make or that we're notready to make.
And we do need to take a safeapproach, as Brianna mentioned,
but I think it's also reallyhelpful to know that on the
other side of that decision, nomatter what the outcome is, you
(49:22):
have learned from thatexperience and it's time well
spent.
Whether it be a failure or asuccess, you learned something,
you grew from it, and youprobably became a happier person
because of it.
And remember that we have awonderful community.
And I know there are so manypeople out there who are willing
(49:45):
to help and to listen.
We're building you up, friend.
We're strengthening you.
And we understand what you'regoing through right now.
Now, today's episode wasbrought to you by my blueprint
course, Tunisian Crochet forBeginners.
I just want to say a big thankyou that you listen to these
little sponsor roles here tohelp fund what happens here
(50:07):
behind the scenes of thepodcast.
Just full disclosure, that'show it works.
So my blueprint course wasdesigned to help you learn
Tunisian crochet from scratch.
So if you maybe have heard ofwhat it's called, but you don't
know how to do it or what it is,this course is for you.
Tunisian crochet is a slightlydifferent form of crochet that
(50:31):
allows you to do differentthings.
You have a little bit morestitch options and the whole
process is quite different,although similar in some areas.
I like to go to my Tunisiancrochet hooks when I need a
break from traditional crochet.
If I need to shake up things inthe routine, Or if my hands are
(50:52):
sort of feeling a littlefatigue from too much
crocheting, the motions are justdifferent enough to help me
through that.
So if you want to give Tunisiancrochet a try, if you want to
help the show, just head over tobe hooked.com slash T C F B.
That stands for Tunisiancrochet for beginners.
That will redirect you toblueprints page where you can
(51:14):
see all of the lessons that areavailable in that course.
And you can sign up if youthink it's something that you
want to give a try.
All right, that wraps up thisweek's episode of the Be Hooked
podcast.
Thank you so much for tuning inweek after week.
If you haven't subscribed, Iwould love for you to do that
because although it doesn't seemlike much, it really does help
the show.
If you just go into yourpodcast player, hit subscribe,
(51:37):
you'll see the new episode everysingle week and that's a big
help.
So thank you and I will see younext week, my friend.
You're listening to the Be Hooked Podcast, episode
136, with Brittany.
Hello there, and welcome toepisode 136 of the Be Hooked
(00:35):
podcast, the place where we loveyarn, we love to learn, and we
believe yarn can do more for usthan just make pretty things.
Now, if you're brand new to theshow, first of all, welcome.
I'm your host, Brittany, and Ispend my days dedicated to
helping you get better at yourcraft.
Now, here on the podcast, wefocus a lot on crochet and
(00:57):
knitting topics, but we alsotalk a little bit about what
it's like to have a craftingbusiness and today is another
one of those episodes.
I always think it is so fun andsuper interesting to connect
with other crafting businessowners to share their stories
and to help you potentially dothis if having a crafting
(01:20):
business or having someadditional money coming in on
the side as a result of doingwhat you love.
So today I'm joined by Briannafrom Life and Yarn, and she is
here to share her inspiringstory about how she quit her
dream life that took her 10 plusyears to build in order to do
(01:44):
what she loved even more so thatshe could be present for her
family.
And I know that is somethingthat so many of us can relate
to.
Also, we can relate to thestruggles of making a decision
that's that big.
So I'm chatting with Briannatoday about her journey.
We talk a little bit about whatit is like for us to be
(02:09):
entrepreneurs and moreimportantly, how being a
crafting business owner is alittle bit different for
everybody else.
We don't talk a lot aboutspecific resources, but I want
to let you know that the shownotes page for this episode can
be found at BeHooked.com slash136.
If you want to connect withBrianna after listening to the
(02:31):
episode, I'll have all of herinformation, her website, and
that sort of thing on that pageso you can connect with her
after hearing today.
So I don't want to delayanymore.
Here's my chat with Briannafrom Life & Yarn.
Brianna, hi.
Welcome to the show.
Hi, thank you so much forhaving me.
It is my pleasure.
(02:52):
I am so happy we had theopportunity to connect.
You're sort of saving the dayhere.
We had a last minute schedulechange.
And so we are hopping on thecall right before this episode
is live.
And I think it all happened fora reason because I was so...
moved by your story.
(03:14):
And I really just want to sharethat with the other listeners,
especially those who are makers,who have a side hustle, or
maybe they want to turn thatside hustle into their full time
job.
I think you just have aninspirational story to share.
So I'm excited to get into thattoday.
Brianna (03:33):
Oh, thank you so much.
Brittany (03:36):
So you have this really inspiring story of
somebody who rewrote theexpectations of their life.
That was one thing that really,really stuck out to me.
So where did this whole journeybegin for you?
Brianna (03:50):
Well, so I think like every creative, you know, you
kind of just grow up being avery creative person.
And I never really had a planof what I wanted to do
creatively.
I just, I just knew that like,making was always something that
I did and through high school Iactually took every single
(04:13):
elective I possibly could thathad to do with art I mean you
name it I took it and I wasbuilding a very very extensive
portfolio um and I wanted to goto art school and when the time
came around to start applyingfor colleges and figuring out
what I wanted to do I knewthat's what I wanted to do but I
had absolutely no idea what todo with it and um I remember
(04:36):
talking to my dad, and my dadwas like, I'm not paying for art
school.
He's like, no.
What are you going to do?
you know, with that degree, youhave no, you have no plan for
it.
And so I was like, well, whatdo I do?
Like, I don't know what to, Idon't know.
What do I go to college for?
And he's like, I don't know, bean architect.
And so that's what I, that'swhat I did.
(04:59):
I said, okay.
And you know, I, I, I went tomy local community college
because at this point, you know,this was like a conversation we
were having, like right beforeI was getting ready to graduate.
So I had like no plan of whereto go.
And so I just, I applied to mylocal community college And I
took their civil tech program,which was a combination of
engineering and architecture.
And that was how it started.
(05:21):
And then I transferred for mybachelor's and six and a half
years later, I graduated and Iskipped my graduation and went
right to work.
The whole time I was incollege, I was working for my
grandfather's engineeringcompany.
And then I got a really greatjob for a huge design build
firm.
And I loved it.
And that's what I was doingafter I graduated.
(05:43):
And, you know, I was collectingmy hours to submit to the state
so that this way I could startto take my licenses.
I was planning a wedding.
I was doing all this stuff.
And so that was my life forabout 10 years.
And, yeah.
Being an architect in my mindwas going to be great because I
could get my license, I couldwork from home, I could have my
(06:05):
own private practice andbasically create my own
schedule, take on as much workas I wanted or didn't want, and
I thought it was going to beperfect.
And then, flash forward, I'm...
Now I'm married and I'mpregnant and I'm, you know,
(06:26):
still working like a crazyperson.
And I mean, I was seven monthspregnant and I was crawling
around in a house that had burntdown.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, you know, doinginspections and that, that was
my life and I loved it.
And I still love it.
I mean, architecture is just,it's amazing.
And then, um, you know, I hadmy son and I kept working like
that.
(06:46):
I, you know, I was, I was on mycomputer.
I was working from home now atthis point for an architect that
I had developed a very goodrelationship with through my
time going to school and thenworking with that other firm.
And, um, life was good.
But around my son's firstbirthday, what had happened was
I pulled out my computer, and hestarted crying.
(07:08):
And a light bulb went off thatI was spending so much time on
my computer working and that hewas starting to associate my
computer with I don't havemommy.
And that was exactly what Ididn't want.
You know, I wanted to be homewith my him and, you know, be
present for him.
(07:28):
And I thought that this job waswhat was going to do it for me.
And, you know, that careerpath, and it really wasn't, I
mean, if any, if you're familiarwith architecture at all, or
being, you know, a, you know, anarchitect in your own private
practice, it demands a lot oftime and attention, a lot.
And, and my so my son wasn'tgetting the attention that I
(07:50):
wanted him to have, or that hewas needing.
And crochet, life and yarn wassomething that kind of existed
in the background.
And at that point, I kind ofknew that it was something that
I could turn into a business,but I hadn't really figured out
how yet.
And seeing my son get upsetover the computer coming out was
(08:13):
when I realized like, allright, I need to make a change.
And that was when I startedworking towards turning life and
yarn into a business instead ofa hobby.
And that was, let's see, he wasa year in August of 2017.
So now we just had August of2019 co-pass.
So that was about two yearsago.
(08:34):
So, you know, that's where itstarted.
And how it kind of came aboutwas more so me realizing that
the career that I thought wasgoing to be perfect for raising
a family and being home wasn't.
And it was a shock because Ispent 10 plus years chasing that
(08:56):
dream.
I mean...
You know, you need like youneed five years, essentially
five years worth of hours tojust to start to submit to the
state to be eligible to takeyour licensing exams.
And there's seven of them totake.
You know, so I was I was rightthere.
I you know, as of right now, Ihave my hours.
I have everything in line.
I have my degrees.
(09:16):
I have all of it.
And I just stopped dead in mytracks and said, I can't do it.
And I was hard.
It was it was it was a harddecision to make.
But, you know.
I didn't want to not be therefor my kids.
Brittany (09:31):
Yeah.
That is...
It's a lot.
It is.
That was a lot, right?
It's really a lot.
I tried to condense that.
No, I mean, it's just a lot tomake that decision and to
actually know that that is theright decision.
I think when you were goinginto it, you probably had no
(09:53):
idea that it wasn't Oh my
Brianna (09:58):
goodness, no.
until you're living it, youdon't, you don't know.
(10:29):
And that's the hardest thingis, is trying to plan for
something you don't know.
And then once you're in it,realizing it's not working, and
then trying to figure out how tochange it.
Like, it's, it's, it's scary.
It's hard,
Brittany (10:42):
you know?
Right, right.
I mean, that is a life changingdecision.
When I was in a and married andwas married at the time, but we
didn't have, don't have kids inour lives at this point.
And it was still a toughdecision to make because I went
(11:06):
through five years of collegefor something completely
different for biology, which islike so left field for what I'm
doing now.
So I can relate in that senseof saying, okay, this really
looked great when I thoughtabout it five years ago.
But the reality of it is thatthat's not what I want right
(11:27):
now.
And it's not what I wantanymore.
And I think it was, it reallytook a heart to heart
conversation between my husbandand I to realize that that was
okay to feel that way.
And it when you work foryourself, you probably, well,
you will work harder than youever worked before.
(11:50):
You will work longer hours thanyou ever worked before, but you
will love every minute of itand it doesn't feel like work.
So that's something that wassurprising for me.
And I still have to try toexplain to my family that Yeah,
I made this change so that Icould have more flexibility and
(12:11):
freedom and to do what I love.
But at the same time, I sort ofhave less.
Is that something that youexperienced too?
Brianna (12:19):
Yeah, so I knew...
I knew that once I did havechildren, I wanted to be home
with them.
So that was why I thought beingan architect was the perfect
fit because I knew that I canget my license and I knew that I
could be in private practiceand that I could be home
working.
What I didn't know was howobsessive I was going to be over
(12:41):
it.
I mean, I, around the clock wasworking.
Didn't matter what day it was.
Didn't matter if it was aholiday.
Didn't matter if it was threeo'clock in the morning.
Like I, I was working and, andI, you know, I love You know, to
sit down with somebody and talkto them about their dream home
and to be able to, you know,have the privilege of designing
it for them and building it forthem and like watching it come
(13:03):
to life is just, it's amazing.
What I didn't know was thatthat job working from home
wasn't going to fit having kids.
And so the crochet, which wasjust kind of a hobby at that
point, that this right now, Lifein Yarn, is more more of that.
You know, I could sit down onthe floor with Jack and be
(13:26):
working on a project and he'sokay with that.
It's not my computer.
You know, I don't have to, ifhe, if he grabs it and makes a
run for it, you know, it's notthe end of the world.
If he breaks my computer thathas all of these designs and
programs on it, you know, thenwe have a problem, but it just,
this is so much more familyfriendly than what I was doing,
(13:48):
you know?
And yeah, Trying to explainthat to people is difficult.
I mean, it's hard.
It is.
Brittany (13:58):
Yeah.
So I'm curious, what did lifein yarn look like in those very
early days?
Because I think that's anotherthing you really have to think
about when you're making thisdecision, just because you...
have all of this set up, itdoesn't mean it's an actual job
that's earning you money yet.
It takes a little while.
It takes quite a bit ofbuilding to get to that point.
(14:20):
So what did it look like thenand how is that different from
what it is today?
Brianna (14:25):
I've always– I've appreciated forever.
I mean I can't even tell youwhen I learned.
I know I learned very youngfrom my grandma and– That's
that.
And then I picked it up and putit down multiple times.
But when I was pregnant withJack, I wanted to make him
something like everybody does.
I wanted to make him a babyblanket or whatever.
And so I picked it back upagain and I kind of became
(14:46):
obsessed with it as justsomething to do in my spare
time.
But it was after he was bornwhen work slowed down just ever
so slightly because, you know, Iwasn't running around and going
on job sites with a newborn.
I then had started my littleInstagram account to just kind
of share things and that waswhen I started stumbling across
(15:06):
other makers that had blogs orwere getting sponsored by yarn
companies and you know they wereyou know as soon as finding
about about affiliate links andall these different ways that
people were taking a hobby andsomehow able to make some sort
of a you know an income from itwhether it was replacing
something or not I you know Idon't know but I saw that and
(15:31):
Jack was only a few months oldand I was kind of just like,
wow, that's pretty cool.
And so I came up with Life inYarn and I bought the website
and I made the Instagram handleand the Facebook and everything
that goes along with it, theemail.
And originally what I hadwanted it to be is I just kind
of wanted to share what I wasmaking.
I didn't necessarily want to bedoing patterns or designs or
(15:52):
anything like that.
And The life part of Life &Yarn was I wanted to be like a
mommy blogger, which neverreally happened because, you
know, life.
And, you know, that was kind ofwhere it started.
But it wasn't until, you know,I had decided to try to
transition out of working andjust be a stay-at-home mom that
(16:14):
I decided I really wanted topursue Life & Yarn as more of a
business to have some sort of,you know, a secondary income
coming in other than, you know,my husband because, you know,
Didn't want to be stressing himout that much.
And I figured, hey, you knowwhat?
If I could pay the carinsurance one month or if I can
handle food shopping, it justmakes it that much easier for
(16:34):
him.
And that was kind of where itstarted.
And then it's just beengrowing.
And it's been amazing.
It really
Brittany (16:41):
has.
So where did you transition totoday?
I know you're doing somepatterns and that sort of thing.
Is that like your primarything?
model
Brianna (16:52):
yes there that uh so I yeah I at one point thought that
I could get into markets andmake things over and over again
and I discovered very quicklythat I am not built for that um
me too and so I started doing ohmy goodness I don't know how
people do it they're amazingyou're like if you can make the
same hat over and over again andgo and sell them to people
you're a superstar I can't do itright I'm not do it um but so
(17:18):
it was Jack was about a yearwhen I decided to start
transitioning out of workingfull-time.
So that was in 2017.
By the time he was two, so thesummer of 2018, was when I was
buttoning up all of my contractsand the last of my jobs.
September of 2018 was the firstmonth that I didn't take in any
more work professionally.
(17:40):
So this past September actuallyis a year of life and yarn
being full time.
I'm still kind of figuring itout.
I mean, you know, like I justread, I just changed all of like
my brand colors.
I've just redid my blog layout.
There's a lot of stuff.
It's, it's still growing andchanging, but now it's, This
(18:02):
past year, it's been full-timefor me.
That doesn't necessarily meanfull-time income, but it's been
all I'm doing, and it's growing.
I really, really, really,really like to design garments.
Every once in a while, I'll dosome accessories or something, a
blanket or whatever, but I lovegarments.
(18:24):
I want to make stuff that I canwear on a regular basis, you
know, and that's comfortable.
And that's kind of where it is.
You know, I'm a garment person.
I love the free patterns.
I've been doing the freepatterns.
It's funny, but I feel likepeople kind of appreciate the
free patterns more than youwould think.
You know, they're willing toshare them all over the place,
(18:45):
which is great.
Brittany (18:47):
Yeah.
But that's where it is now.
That's cool.
I think there really is...
a journey that a business goeson.
And the way it looks whenyou've made that first decision
is gonna be radically differentfrom one, two, three, five years
from now, it constantlychanges.
And that's something that I, Iam still learning today, even
(19:11):
being in business.
Well, I've been doing this fulltime for two years, almost,
well, going up on three yearsnow.
And things are still changingand looking different.
And I think that's a part ofthe process.
It's also really important forsomebody to know that you don't
have to have it all figured outon day one.
Oh, no.
(19:32):
I still don't have it
Brianna (19:33):
figured out.
I still don't have it figuredout.
Definitely don't.
I will be very honest.
Brittany (19:40):
Right.
Brianna (19:41):
There are still a lot of changes going on.
Brittany (19:43):
Yeah.
And I echo that as well.
I mean, like I said, it's alearning process for everybody.
Not because you don't know whatyou're doing.
It's that what you have tooffer your community is
different.
It's different for everyperson.
And you just have to listen toyour community.
community and respond with whatthey want.
Brianna (20:06):
Yes.
You know, it's funny aboutthat.
So I know when I was firststarting, I Googled everything
and Google does not have all theanswers.
I mean, there's no one way togo about doing any of this.
And I mean, I remembermessaging random people and
being like, how'd you do that?
You know, where'd you findthat?
Or how'd you do this?
And I can't tell you how manytimes I got, you know, oh, I
(20:27):
don't know.
I just did it.
And now...
now that I've had some moreexperience with things, I'm
starting to realize, you know,those answers weren't just
somebody not wanting to help me.
It was, they didn't, theyreally couldn't help.
You know, there's, there's noset way to go about trying to
build a creative business likethis.
There's really not.
I mean, it's all trial anderror and you just kind of have
(20:50):
to do it.
And it's, it's scary.
It's definitely scary, but it'sworth it.
It's couldn't and I never everwould have thought you know
three four or five years agowhen I was designing houses that
I loved I never ever thoughtthat I could find something that
(21:12):
I would love more and I did andit's amazing it's absolutely
amazing
Brittany (21:16):
yeah now you said something to me previously that
like really really stuck with meyou said some of the questions
going through your mind whileyou were making that decision to
leave 10 plus years of buildingwhat you thought was your dream
life to just doing a complete180 and working for yourself on
a creative business.
You said some of the questionsgoing through your mind were
(21:39):
what scares you more thanfailure or what do you care more
about than failing?
Talk me through how youanswered those because I think
that is a great self-assessmentfor anybody who's looking to
make this kind of transition.
Brianna (21:55):
As scary as some decisions can be, I feel like
you need to be happy and youhave to look at, look at your
life where it is now and say, amI happy?
And if you are still doing thesame thing that you're doing a
year from now, five years fromnow, 10 years from now, you
know, are you, are you stillgoing to be happy?
(22:17):
And if you're not going to behappy with it, are you going to
be okay with that?
And you know, how much doesthat scare you?
Right.
So what scared me was I did notwant to be the type of mom that
was gone all the time.
I didn't want to be the type ofmom that was pushing my kids to
the side because I had adeadline to meet or I was on the
(22:41):
phone with a client and had toworry.
Right.
So, for example, right now, mytoddler is running around with
my mom.
I can hear them playingsomewhere in the house and I
have our newest one sleeping inmy lap.
He's he was seven weeks oldyesterday.
That's not something that Icouldn't do before.
But, you know, depending on theclient.
(23:01):
Yeah.
I would lose a lot of time thatI could be spending with my
(23:21):
husband because, you know, I'dhave some crazy job going on
and, you know, I'd be working onit all week and then all
weekend and then getting emailsfrom clients at eight o'clock at
night because that's the firstmoment they've had to sit down
and look at.
And I need to try and get backto them right away because, you
know, they're essentiallythey're paying you a lot of
money to build their dream home.
(23:42):
They want an answer.
And that's what scared me more.
It was it was the time that Iwas putting into something that
I felt like wasn't as importantas the time that I should have
been putting into, you know, myhusband and my kids and the rest
of my family.
So that was like the drivingforce behind it.
You know, that's what scaredme.
(24:05):
Yeah.
You know, and I, I knew that ifI didn't change it and
suddenly, you know, I'm lookingback and Jack's, you know, now
he's three, but say, you know,I'm looking back and he's five
or he's 10 and I'm looking atthings that I didn't get to
experience with him because allof my time went into work.
Right.
(24:25):
I, I wouldn't have been happyabout that.
So.
Brittany (24:28):
Yeah.
And that's what reallyresonated with me when I read
that is that you were able toidentify what you care more
about than failing because beingan entrepreneur, starting a
business from scratch, notknowing the answers, failing is
a humongous part of thatjourney.
Brianna (24:49):
I can always go back to what I was doing.
I mean, it would be hardbecause, you know, the The
computer programs, there's a newone every single year that it's
updated.
You know, there's new productscoming out all the time, styles
changing.
And, you know, differentmaterials are coming out that
people are using.
And, you know, so I mean,trying to play catch up there
would be difficult.
But the information there is somuch easier to find than the
(25:11):
information that you need to tryand start up a business as an
entrepreneur.
And so I know that if I decidedtomorrow, I don't want to do
this anymore.
I know that I can jump backinto the field.
Would it be difficult?
Yes.
But that's a lot easier thandeciding in 10 years.
You know, when you have, youknow, a family and you've got a
(25:33):
mortgage and you have, you know,all these other things going
on, it's a lot harder than tomake a change.
And so it was, you know.
do it or don't at that point intime a couple years ago for me
Brittany (25:45):
yeah yeah I think it's important to have that peace of
mind too but how might somebodylistening be able to make that
same self-assessment that youwent through that you kind of
talked us through that can helpthem through a big decision
right now like I know there area lot of people in the audience
who have a full-time job and whoare also trying to make their
(26:07):
side hustle maker businesssomething more but they're just
afraid or there's somethingholding them back, how do you
recommend they make the rightdecision for them?
I know it's deep, right?
It's really difficult and it'sdifferent for every person, but
(26:28):
I'm curious as somebody who wentthere first, what would your
advice be?
It's
Brianna (26:33):
definitely different for everybody.
So you know what?
Honestly, I don't know.
I don't I what I the last thingI'm going to say is just do it
because I am not a just do ittype of person.
I mean, I know when I say thisis what I did, I'm trying to
make it as like, simple anddirect as possible.
But it was a big decision.
And there was a lot of thingswe talked about.
I mean, just just to try tostart to do it, you know, we, it
(26:56):
was a matter of like, okay,well, if I can try to save, you
know, a little bit of money onthe car insurance, and the cell
phone bills, you know, that Ican work X amount of hours less.
And I can try and get myselfdown to part-time.
Or how do I save money on foodshopping?
And just trying to slowlytransition out of that while
then also trying to build abusiness.
(27:18):
In the background, that's kindof how we did it.
And it was a matter of nottotally stepping out of where I
was comfortable, which was witharchitecture and design and all
of that.
And trying to build...
life and yarn in thebackground.
So, you know, when we got tothat point where I was working,
(27:43):
you know, essentially part-timeand able to make the same amount
of money with life and yarnthat I was making with my
part-time work doing, you know,the architectural stuff that,
you know, that was kind of oursignal to know like, all right,
I can start to really thinkabout not doing the architecture
(28:04):
anymore because if I have thatextra time that I'm not doing
the architecture I can push lifeand yarn more you know what I
mean yeah definitely was not youknow a one two three here's the
decision let's do it so Iwouldn't ever tell somebody just
like walk into your job andquit but if you can try to look
for ways to slowly transitionout of one thing and into
another like then I'd say that'sprobably the best way to go
(28:27):
about doing things does thatmake sense
Brittany (28:29):
yeah it does I don't know That's helpful or not.
That's just how we did it.
I think it is.
I think it's really helpful tounderstand that you have to be
building this before you makethe decision because it's not
going to be.
Yes, 100%.
It's not going to be just asnap of your fingers and you're
making money on day one.
It just doesn't happen thatway.
(28:50):
So I was building Be Hooked forthree years.
Let's see.
Yeah, three years before I wentfull time with it.
And I was earning some incomewith it at the time.
Yes.
that conversation that you havewith your family is like a must
(29:39):
so that you're on the same pageand making the decision.
It wasn't just,
Brianna (29:43):
it wasn't just my husband and I, and then talking
about her.
So, I mean, it was my parentstoo.
Like I was terrified, like myparents.
Okay.
So like my parents, mysiblings, like everybody kind of
knew about life and yarn.
It was, I was just like alittle hobby in the background
and whatnot.
But I remember when I reallydecided this is it, I'm done.
I'm not taking in any morearchitectural work.
(30:04):
I'm finishing up thesecontracts.
I'm done.
There's no more of this.
It was a terrifying thingbecause for how long had I been
pursuing this career and myfamily had supported me through
all of it and it was scary.
Like it was, it was, it was ascary, scary, scary thing.
But I mean, I, I'd have to say,I think my parents are more
(30:25):
proud of me now and, you know,and my husband are more proud of
me now trying to do this,something that's not so safe
because I'm a very safe personwhen it comes to making
decisions that, you know, to, tolook at, at someone and watch
them really trying to follow adream and actually doing it is,
um, It's a huge deal.
(30:46):
So while it's scary to thinkabout what you're expected to do
and how you're expected to livea life, it's it's definitely
very freeing to make thedecision to try to follow a
dream like that yeah so Iwouldn't tell anybody to just to
just play it safe all the timewith with something like this
(31:07):
there's ways there's ways to doit safely but yeah there's
always a risk involved
Brittany (31:12):
now I'm curious on the other side of that decision we
talked about this a little bitthat as a new business owner you
work crazy hours because it'ssomething that you're really
driven about it's part Oh mygosh.
Yeah.
Brianna (31:46):
it's definitely done both I said yes to a lot in the
beginning because I really Ijust wanted to try to get my
foot in the door every singleplace I possibly could and it
was a blessing and it was acurse at the same time like I
remember Jack was a few monthsold and I would get him to go to
sleep.
And I mean, he was probablycloser to a year at this point.
(32:06):
And there was things that Isaid yes to.
And I was still working fulltime.
And I was hiding in thebathroom at like three o'clock
in the morning, making thingsand trying to work on stuff and
take pictures.
You know, it was just it was itwas madness.
But living like that and tryingto do so much definitely taught
me that I have to be choosyabout where I spend my time and
what I say yes to.
(32:27):
But there was a lot there's alot of stuff that I said yes to.
that definitely opened somedoors and it gave a lot of
experiences to me that Iwouldn't have had if I had said
no.
But now at this point, Sayingall the yeses and regretting
them has led me to a point wherenow I know what to say yes to
(32:48):
and I know what to say no tobecause now I have more of an
idea of where I want mybusiness.
So what I would tell somebodyis basically, I think you should
say yes to as much as youpossibly can in the beginning so
that this way you can learnwhen to say no.
But learning when to say no isthe hard part because you have
to look at it as if you'resaying no to one thing, then
(33:09):
you're there's otheropportunities that can come in.
And I think too many peoplewill say yes to everything.
And then something that theyshould say yes to comes up.
And then they can't becausethey've said yes to too many
things.
Does that?
Yeah.
Brittany (33:24):
Yeah, it's a balancing act.
And I, I definitely, Iexperienced the same thing.
I said yes to everything that Ipossibly could.
And at the time, I rememberthinking to myself, like, why do
I keep saying yes?
Why am I doing this?
But it made me realize thatthat I learned when to say no.
by saying yes, because I wasable to figure out what took me
(33:49):
a lot of time to work through orwhat I didn't really love doing
or what didn't really resonatewith the people that I was
trying to serve in my community.
I mean, you have to get to apoint where you can learn all
that stuff because it's going tobe new.
It's going to be completelydifferent for you than it was
for me and than it was for you.
You know, everybody is in aunique situation and they're
(34:11):
serving a unique set of people.
I'm sure a lot of that doesoverlap but yeah you become the
go-to person for that thing andyou figure out what that thing
is by saying yes and figuringout what lights you up and what
doesn't exactly exactly so
Brianna (34:30):
they're a lot better than i did um but no but it is
it's it's true I mean, if you'rejust starting, you should
probably try and say yes to asmuch as you can, because if you
don't, then, you know, you won'tknow what you do and you don't
love.
Yeah.
And I think there's some thingsyou have to learn the hard way.
Brittany (34:46):
For sure.
Yeah.
And I think one thing that Iwish I knew then that I know now
is to learn to manage my timebetter.
Gosh, when I was doing my...
Brianna (34:58):
time management right now is key.
Brittany (35:00):
Yeah.
It's a real struggle.
But what I didn't understandand or just didn't really think
about.
Mm-hmm.
my time a little bit better Iwould have known realistically
(35:42):
there is not a space in time forme to make this commitment at
this time so I think that wouldbe my little tidbit of advice as
far as saying yes I think it'sa great thing to do but be smart
about it and try to give thatcommitment a space in your
calendar
Brianna (36:01):
oh yeah and I would definitely say you got to give
yourself a little bit of wiggleroom too because you never know
what's going to come up Ifinally started to get into the
swing of things with Jackrunning around chasing him as a
toddler and like really knowingwhen I could and couldn't do
things.
And then we found out we werehaving another baby and, you
know, that just changedeverything.
I mean, right now I'm justtotally trying to keep my head
(36:24):
above water and readjust to anew, a new normal.
And that's fine.
And I think that's somethingelse that people as, you know,
new business owners andentrepreneurs need to keep in
mind is that, you know, youreally have to try and be
flexible in those early daysbecause things come up all the
time.
Yeah.
Whether it's a new whether it'sa new baby or, you know, who
(36:48):
knows what?
There's always something.
And that I think is is a hardthing for a lot of people to
accept.
I know that I'm like thatbecause I'm you know, your
typical type A that wantseverything planned out and
perfect.
And it just doesn't really workwith this type of business.
Brittany (37:04):
Right.
Right.
So now I imagine you haveprobably got some practice in
with saying no to things.
Oh,
Brianna (37:10):
yeah.
Brittany (37:11):
How has that been for you?
Good.
Brianna (37:15):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, it's it's definitely beengood.
I mean, the past.
So I I had to do a lot ofreevaluating when we found out
that we were having another babybecause, you know, with Jack,
my pregnancy was amazing and notthat this one wasn't, but this
time around I, I had morningsickness, which was different
because I didn't have the Jackand we were both, we were having
(37:35):
another boy.
So I was totally confused bythat.
I would have sworn we werehaving a girl, but, um, you
know, I was sick and I was doinga lot.
And at that point I was stillreally, really overwhelmed with
so many things that I had saidyes to.
And that was when I, you know,I remember sitting back and
talking to my husband and justbeing like, I've said too many
things to where now, you know,life, you know, day-to-day life
(37:57):
just doesn't work.
And, and it was reallydifficult to kind of sit back
and look at things.
I mean, I wrote, I wrote down alist of all the different
things that I was trying to doand marked things off.
Do I love this?
Do I like it?
Or is this just stressing meout?
You know, cause if it's goingto stress you out and if it's
going to just make things moredifficult and if you're going
(38:18):
to, you know, dread having to doit and drag yourself It should
for you to do something.
You probably shouldn't be doingit, you know, and that was the
position that I was findingmyself in with a few different
things that I was involved inwas just that it would spark
that excitement that it should.
And so it would take me so muchlonger to do, you know, a task
(38:38):
than I should spend on it.
Does that make sense?
So like designing something orworking with a specific yarn
that I didn't love, you youknow, that somebody asked for me
to promote or, or whatever.
And, and you just kind of haveto say, you know what, I, it's
not going to work and you haveto walk away from it.
And it's really hard to dosomething like that because you
worry about either offendingsomebody or hurting feelings or,
(39:01):
you know, burning a bridge witha company or a person or, or
whatever.
But, you have to like sit backand look at all of those little
things.
And that was what I had to dovery, very recently,
specifically when I was havingmy morning sickness.
Um, but that put me in a reallygood position now that we've,
we've had the baby, we had him,um, in August and now everything
(39:26):
that I have on my plate issomething that I love.
And that makes me really happyand really excited for the
future of life in your, but itdefinitely took a Um, it was
stressful getting there.
Yeah.
Brittany (39:39):
Yeah.
And now I have to ask, I knowyou said this was a little more
recently, but do you, do youhave any regrets?
Like has some of those fearsthat you had about saying no,
did any of that become real?
Brianna (39:55):
Um, no.
Brittany (39:57):
No.
I think that's so important forpeople to hear, that we build
things up in our heads.
Yes.
It's usually not going tohappen.
People understand.
And I think a lot more peoplewill respect you when you do say
no because it's not the rightfit.
Brianna (40:15):
Yes.
It's hard– I mean, the anxietyaround having to write an email
or send a message or say likethis isn't working is
terrifying.
It's a scary, scary thing todo.
I mean, think about likequitting a job.
You know, I mean, that's kindof what it is.
You know, you're essentiallyeven though it's just a little
blip on the radar of somethingthat you're working on in the
(40:37):
big picture of everything.
It's like you're quitting a joband it's scary.
It's hard.
And, you know, at the time, Iremember, you know, after you
send that email or you send thattext.
message or DM or whatever, youhave that moment of like, Oh my
goodness, did I really just dothat?
You know, stomach dropping.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's the stomach dropping out.
(40:58):
And like, I need to take a stepoutside and take a deep breath
and make sure that that wasokay.
And, you know, it's, it is, youknow, those maybe like the
first week after you turnsomething away or, or stop doing
something, you might feel likescared or, or wonder if it was
the wrong decision but in thelong run now I know I I don't I
(41:23):
don't regret any of it saying noto anything
Brittany (41:26):
yeah I think that's really important to to hear but
I also don't want to totallysugarcoat it I remember hearing
advice and still to this daywhere people say say no to more
things and more opportunitieswill open and everything is
rainbows and unicorns and yeahsometimes it is no that's not
true but it's totally not alwaysthe case and Sometimes you
(41:48):
might say no to something andrealize that you do regret
saying no, but there's not awhole lot you can do at that
point except for learn fromthat.
And I think it's also importantthat you don't burn that
bridge.
So that way, when theopportunity comes up for you and
that person or that brand orcompany to work together again,
(42:11):
in a way that it's mutuallybeneficial, you can still do
that.
Brianna (42:17):
However it is that you say no or you go about, you
know, changing an agreement onsomething, you have to do it so
that no feelings are hurt.
And, you know, it's done in aprofessional manner.
And if there is an opportunityin the future, the last thing
you want is for somebody to belike, well, you know, they went
about not taking this seriously.
(42:39):
opportunity or leaving anopportunity in a bad manner.
So that's definitely greatadvice.
Brittany (42:47):
For sure.
Now, I know that's certainlypractical advice from two
entrepreneurs to somebody whomight be in a similar situation.
So as a final word of advice tosomebody who's in a familiarly
uncomfortable situation, part oftheir life be it they're about
to make that decision to quittheir full-time job or go down
(43:10):
to part-time what would yourfinal word of advice be to that
person to help them find theright answer for them at that
time I
Brianna (43:19):
think you have to be as honest with yourself as
possible you really have to lookat what it is you're doing.
Does it make you happy?
Is it going to make you happyin the future?
And I think you just have to bereally, really honest about
where you are in your life andwhat you want from it.
And I don't think anybodyshould ever be scared to make a
(43:40):
change.
But I think when you do try tomake a change, especially a big
one, something going from like,you know, your normal everyday
nine to five that, you know,pays your bills to suddenly
turning around and decidingthat, you know, You know, you're
going to take on trying tobuild a creative business where
there's really no set way to dosomething that, you know, you
(44:01):
make that decision.
You know, you don't take itlightly.
You know, it takes a lot ofplanning.
And I think that the best thinganybody can do when trying to
do something like that is, youknow, to try and do as slow and
as easy of a transition aspossible.
Try to keep one foot on eachside of the line so that this
way you can see when something'snot working.
(44:22):
The last thing I wouldrecommend somebody, and I know
some people say that they'vedone this before, they'll tell
you to do it.
Don't just go walk into yourjob and tell your boss, like
quit and walk out because itmight feel great in that moment.
But when you're, you know, upin the middle of the night and
trying to figure out how to, Idon't know, do something on your
website.
And you have no money comingin.
(44:43):
You're going to be kickingyourself, you know.
So I think be honest withyourself and chase the dream.
But at the same time, I thinkyou should also kind of play it
safe.
And there's there's ways to dothat.
Brittany (44:52):
Yeah, I think that's great advice.
And I love your list tip.
The thing that you said you satdown and wrote a list.
I am.
I'm a list kind of girl.
So that totally speaks to myheart.
it's one thing to thinksomething it's a completely
different thing to write it downand to see it you feel
something when you write it downyou can say yeah I really don't
(45:15):
like that just by writing itdown I don't know there's some
kind of connection that's madeat least for me that when I
write something down I all of asudden realize yes like that is
the case so I think even ifyou're not a list kind of person
just try it
Brianna (45:33):
another great thing that you can do so like you know
what I it's this was a lot ittook a long time to you know for
me to start to really make thistransition but like initially I
had a goals list of things thatI wanted life and yarn to be
and I actually they're all overthe place I you know I just
randomly will write down alittle list and stick it
somewhere and forget about itbecause you know mom life I just
(45:57):
get distracted but um there wasone of the I came across the
other day of goals and I'mlooking at some of them.
I'm like, wow, I don't careabout that anymore.
And I, and I think that that'sa big thing too, is, you know,
sit down and write down somegoals that you have and just put
it in a corner somewhere andcome back to it in a month and
then look at it and say, do youreally still care about those
(46:18):
things as much as you thoughtyou did then?
Yeah.
You know, and I think that canreally help guide somebody to,
and figuring out whether or notthe change that they want to
make is the right one for them.
Brittany (46:29):
Yeah.
Brianna (46:30):
And I think if you can do that over the course of an
extended period of time, that'llhelp you decide what you really
want to do.
Brittany (46:36):
Yeah, I agree.
I think that is a great tip andgreat note to end on.
I do want to give listeners achance to connect with you after
they've heard today's episode,because I know that, like I
said, there's so many people whomight be in a similar situation
and I think we can help eachother in the community.
So where would you send them tosee more of what you have going
(46:57):
on and to connect with youafter listening today?
Brianna (47:00):
I'm Life and Yarn everywhere, except for on
Instagram.
I'm Life and Yarn, but I have aperiod in between each word.
Instagram is, that's my mainplace.
I'm there, you know, I'm on itevery day.
I'm posting basically everyday.
That's where, you know, You'llsee what I'm working on, you
(47:20):
know, behind the scenes, newdesigns that are coming and just
kind of what I'm doing in myday to day life and my stories
all the time.
And then secondly, is my blog.
My blog is my other big spot.
So that's, you know, life andyarn dot com.
And my newsletter is big.
There's a pop-up that'll comeup so you can sign up.
But I try to keep my newslettersubscribers in the loop with
everything that I'm doing.
But those are basically my bigspots.
(47:42):
And that's where you can findme.
If you go over to my Instagram,I do have a link in my bio that
will bring you directly to myblog.
And that has the directory onit that gives you everywhere
that I am.
That's basically it.
Perfect.
I'm easy enough to find.
Brittany (47:56):
Yes.
Okay.
So I will have all of thatincluded in the show notes as
well.
So if you do want to check thatout, you can visit that in go
directly to those places.
And Brianna, thank you so much.
It has been such a pleasure toconnect with you and to hear
your story and to share yourstory.
I know it's going to helpsomebody who is in a similar
situation.
And for that, I am reallygrateful.
(48:16):
Thanks for having me.
All right.
Once again, that was Briannafrom Life and Yarn.
Be sure to check her out onInstagram where she likes to
hang out.
Although it's different forevery person, One thing I want
to point out is that althoughsomething might feel scary, we
might build something up whenwe're about to say no to an
(48:39):
opportunity that we really wantto say yes to, or whether we're
ready to make our hobby, ourfull-time or part-time job,
whatever your situation may be,we always build up these
decisions in our head so thatthey seem really scary.
We think the absolute worstcould possibly happen, and
(49:00):
that's not always the case.
Yes, it's really uncomfortableto make decisions that we don't
want to make or that we're notready to make.
And we do need to take a safeapproach, as Brianna mentioned,
but I think it's also reallyhelpful to know that on the
other side of that decision, nomatter what the outcome is, you
(49:22):
have learned from thatexperience and it's time well
spent.
Whether it be a failure or asuccess, you learned something,
you grew from it, and youprobably became a happier person
because of it.
And remember that we have awonderful community.
And I know there are so manypeople out there who are willing
(49:45):
to help and to listen.
We're building you up, friend.
We're strengthening you.
And we understand what you'regoing through right now.
Now, today's episode wasbrought to you by my blueprint
course, Tunisian Crochet forBeginners.
I just want to say a big thankyou that you listen to these
little sponsor roles here tohelp fund what happens here
(50:07):
behind the scenes of thepodcast.
Just full disclosure, that'show it works.
So my blueprint course wasdesigned to help you learn
Tunisian crochet from scratch.
So if you maybe have heard ofwhat it's called, but you don't
know how to do it or what it is,this course is for you.
Tunisian crochet is a slightlydifferent form of crochet that
(50:31):
allows you to do differentthings.
You have a little bit morestitch options and the whole
process is quite different,although similar in some areas.
I like to go to my Tunisiancrochet hooks when I need a
break from traditional crochet.
If I need to shake up things inthe routine, Or if my hands are
(50:52):
sort of feeling a littlefatigue from too much
crocheting, the motions are justdifferent enough to help me
through that.
So if you want to give Tunisiancrochet a try, if you want to
help the show, just head over tobe hooked.com slash T C F B.
That stands for Tunisiancrochet for beginners.
That will redirect you toblueprints page where you can
(51:14):
see all of the lessons that areavailable in that course.
And you can sign up if youthink it's something that you
want to give a try.
All right, that wraps up thisweek's episode of the Be Hooked
podcast.
Thank you so much for tuning inweek after week.
If you haven't subscribed, Iwould love for you to do that
because although it doesn't seemlike much, it really does help
the show.
If you just go into yourpodcast player, hit subscribe,
(51:37):
you'll see the new episode everysingle week and that's a big
help.
So thank you and I will see younext week, my friend.
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