Lessons

Lesson Info

Class Introduction

Hi everybody welcome to creative live my name is lily crystal and I'm your host for our class monetize your craft with vicki howl now if you'd like to make money doing what you love this is the class for you we have an extraordinary instructor for you the cow is designer, a tv host and ambassador for crafting projects around the world she's hosting nitty gritty that's a d I y network and she's also been on pbs's knitting daily tv with vicki howl vicki is also a craft author who's written twelve books and her latest we garter stitch must have nits for newborns modern babies and toddlers is out in may please welcome vicky house a creative live much I'm so excited to be there were some decided so have you how are you so good is really, really fun and I can't wait to dive into the subject with everyone we can't wait to have listen, tell your lessons and you know we were talking earlier and you said you were really passionate about this subject and I'm wondering what inspired you to do this...

course today? Well, I think there were a couple of reasons and one of them as personal when my mom when when we were little my mom put her education career on hold and you know, to raise us like a lot of moms dio and she needed some extra money and she used to walk around the neighborhood with her handmade pillows uh to try to sell them just for that extra spending cash for us and that's really a vulnerable position to be there was a lot of door there were a lot of doors slammed in her face and she kept on persevering but I just thought I thought now is an adult myself and what children myself what would she have been able to dio had she had the tools that we have now so I apply that to why I'm here today as do people know about these tools we've got all of this these amazing you know, aps tools websites but not everybody knows about all all of them so that's one of them it's just sort of a personal thing I want to empower women and men who either want to have a career and crafting or really just want to bring in those extra few box like my mom did so that's part of it thie other reason what I find so fascinating about the creative industry and I kind of I kind of lump in a lot of things to that one bucket we're talking about crafts but you can have a craft beer your craft khun b film your craft khun b music I use that as sort of a general term because I fully believe that all creative ways of forms of expression are really bound together and so I wrote a book a few years ago several years ago called craft court and I interviewed a bunch of professional designers, professional quilters and artists and spokespeople and I found it so fascinating that we all sort of had come together would see each other a convention so we're kind of on the same pathway but we had completely different backgrounds so you can you can have a career or even just a side gig doing something creative with a g e d or a masters and fine art and you might run in the same comer in the same general circles and I find that fascinating that so empowering because that means that you're in total control over where your future is and that's what I want tio sort of empower you all here in the studio and at home and around the world with knowing that you have the power to monetize your craft and make it everything that you wanted to be so I'm going to go ahead I should I should have probably told you who I am first on what idea what you did a little bit you get a little bit but uh let me just step back a little bit who am I so I came to this industry and sort of a round about way actually and it was more of a kismet way I had been crafting since I was old enough to hold up glue stick in my hand you know? So always but it wasn't something that I was going to do it the career it's just something that I loved is something that I used to do with my mom and my friends and I used to hand made gifts but I was actually on track to be in the entertainment industry are was in the entertainment industry I was working as assistance to producers and and working my way up to becoming a producer and I worked in talent agencies and then when I got pregnant with my first son I got laid off and if you know anything about hollywood if you can't give birth during your lunch hour and then come on right back they're not so much interested so I decided I decided to just you know, not to just stay home I decided to stay home uh with my son and that is an amazing, wonderful experience but if you are somebody that has really ambitious and career driven it is it's a culture shock it's a shell shock because all of a sudden your entire identity is with this tiny human all of your conversation is what this tiny human how who hasn't learned how to communicate yet and that's not healthy for anyone you really have to have something that fills your well right so I started this was way before there were any there weren't blog's there the internet was relatively new I started a website and I was one of ten ten craft sites penn not just here everywhere which is awesome because I don't know if I'd be able to dio it was great timing for me but really but there was no marketing set in place there was nothing you know we just kind of did it we we took all the pictures there were cell phones with you know, cameras on him he had to take the pictures you have to scan him in you had to upload him in slices which means it had to be separate pieces because everyone was on dialect it was it was it was a commitment but for me so I started this business called mamma roma and it was handmade goods for mama's and their babies and it was really just like me in my kitchen I think my dad maybe gave me five hundred bucks you know, to get some I was making my coded towels, that kind of thing and I just did it and I was taking checks than you had to go get credit card you know? It was it was a lot there was a lot so I didn't have any sort of business background at all and so the business itself didn't do all that well but it opened up a world for me that really changed my life from there not only did it feed me. Not only was I getting what I needed to feel like I wasn't only identified by one role, but also because I was promoting it, I was creating my own images to promote it. I ended up also starting a stitch and bitch group, so for the knitters and chris shares and so it's out there, that is just a group it's, a name that was reclaimed from the fifties and it's, just a group it's basically an old school knitting circle. But it was during the time where we were like, yeah, taking it back, you know? And so I've started one cause I didn't know any crafty friends, and so I started that and I created a couple logos, and then we decided to move to austin because it was more affordable, and I just thought I was leaving the entertainment business behind. And so ironically, here I am, you know, in my kitchen and austin and because I had put up that logo, that picture of that stitch and bitch group a a producer from california, had done a a web search for young hip knitter and that not the young but the hit mitter that the hip mitter was in the tag line that's how she found me. And I had always wanted to do my own craft show I just didn't think it was a thing so I was going to do the other way, you know, because there weren't a time there was carol duval but there just weren't a ton and certainly not somebody who was thirty you know, at the time and so I had had my very first pattern published on a publication called midi, which is I believe, the first the publication in the knitting industry and it was just a guitar strap but I really enjoyed teaching people how to make stuff and because I had that up there at that exact same time and because I had had that logo and they had done a search they found me and they could also see that I'd met and I wanted to do it so I called my pitched and I used the experience from being in the entertainment industry to know how to pitch myself so they said to me you look like exactly what we want do you think that you could get yourself down here there's not a lot of glamour and kraft television not going to get you? Could you fly yourself down here and audition and it just so happened that I already had a ticket bought because I was going down to meet my best friend we were about to fly out for a trip for my thirtieth birthday so two days later I flew out and I auditioned and that is where this entire career began now that's not normal, I mean that's not a normal story, right? But the reason why I like to tell it is because even if one of your projects doesn't work out, it opens a window it might open a door, you you doing what you love you feeding that well, but not keeping it within yourself, opening yourself up, you never know who's attention, you're going to get there's a world of possibilities out there, you just have to lift your head up and look for them. And so now since then, you know, I hosted eight seasons of a tv show and a couple seasons of another show in a few seasons of another show, and I just, you know, I took the bull by the horns and I felt like this was a gift like this was a gift on my lap and I was going to hold on to it as tight as I could and I just started pitching, you started pitching books, and so since then I've written a bunch of books and I've been super fortunate I've been able to develop products, but all of it has been based on working really hard to believe in myself, which is hard working really hard to be able to pitch myself which is even harder and knowing that it's not personal if I get rejected that I should get up and pitch something else and that's the very foundation of what we're going to be talking about in this class all right, so what suspect from this class? So I want to be real clear that that this class we're not going to talk it's ton about financials I'm not going to break it down for this is how much you could make during this month if you do this this and that that's really not what this is about because frankly we're in a creative industry or you want to be in a creative industry creativity is not within one box right it's fluid and so is this structure so it's not just about the financials but it's really about the possibilities of what you could make for yourself come true all right, you're also going to get I'm also going to give you a bunch of tactical take away so even though that that last thing that I said sounds a little like earth mama, I am actually going to give you some tactical takeaways because I want you to feel and powers like and even if it's just one nugget even if there's just one thing that sparks your interest follow it see where it takes you all right so and then speak to what I what I just said this course isn't just for somebody that wants tio do what I dio or make a living one hundred percent crafty or even fifty percent crafty if you want to do that, you rock on with your bad self and I will be back there cheering for you but you should know that you're gonna have to hustle you have to hustle but it's worth it because you're doing what you love but that said if that's not your gig, maybe you just want to bring in those extra few dollars like I mentioned earlier I'm gonna tell you how to do that too. I consider all of these things that I tell you kind of like that like options on a dim sum menu you choose what works for you and your goals all right? So the next thing that you can expect is what I've been saying already I just wanna give you a foundation I want to give you the ground to stand on the foundation to flourish so please, you know, when it comes to the questions portion, don't be afraid to speak up ask questions, I'm here for you all right? And so then we're we're getting down to it we're getting down to the nitty gritty if you will wear going to be talking about, I've broken them down into nine there are a bunch of different ways, but I breaking them down into nine separate ways. Separate methods that you could make money utilizing your craft.