Taking My Creativity Seriously

As I drove home from CO, some of my time was spent listening to podcasts. One podcast I listen to regularly is “Elise Gets Crafty”.  I love her insights into crafting as a business, not just a hobby. I listened to an episode titled “Taking Creative Work Seriously”.  

She asks the question “Are you taking your creativity seriously?” and talked about how to decide if you’re crafting as a hobby or as a business.  (I’m paraphrasing, so if you want the exact quotes, check out her podcast, episode 45.)  A hobbyist generally is making one item at a time, not caring how long the process takes, and is making the item for their own use or as a gift for someone else. A business crafter is making multiple items, needs to make them in a time and cost efficient manner, and is looking to create an income by selling the items.  A business crafter also has to craft whether they’re in the mood to or not. It’s work. 

If you are a business crafter (I am), you also need to be good at self-promotion (I’m not!).   Ack. Not an easy thing to do!  The gist of her beliefs is that if you don’t toot your own horn, who will? Good question, I guess. She goes on to discuss ways to make your business more open with its current and future customers by sharing parts of your craft with them. I’ve been comfortable with posting pictures on facebook or instagram of what I’m working on, but I’m going to go out of my comfort zone and post a blog entry once a week in an attempt to share some portion of what I do. It might be an informative post or just a picture of what’s on my worktable.  If you have an idea for me to post about, let me know.

Thanks for letting me work on my self-promotion skills!