My Mom is The Most Creative Person I Know
Since I can remember my Mom has always been passionate about creating something. In my early years she scrapbooked every adventure during our yearly family trips, in middle school and high school she started designing and creating clothes (very helpful for me because I’m only 5,0’!) or more recently she has become a passionate quilter. Now if you had asked her about her quilting a few months ago, she would proclaim that she was no expert and that this was simply a hobby that she was passionate about.
Don’t Let Her Modesty Fool You
She is Black Martha Stewart, Oprah of quilting, and Bobby Flay on the sewing machine. Each piece of fabric is labored over with a critical eye, thrown up on her wall to wall pinboard and repositioned until perfection. Over time, her friends began asking her to quilt pieces for them or make them gifts for their loved ones. She would approach each one enthusiastically, never considering charging them for a profit only charging them for the materials it cost to create it. Upon discovering this on a recent trip home in the winter, the hustler in me just couldn’t take it! “MOM you know you could charge for this right?! We’re putting all of this stuff up on Etsy… TODAY.” We took down all the quilted wall hangings in the house, stripped the beds, and got help from Dad to take pictures with his fancy camera. I sat down that night and learned the basics of Etsy, made a chic professional logo and uploaded her inventory.
Now there is no stopping her. She has recurring clients, a budding online presence, and is slowly but surely monetizing her Etsy.
Here Are Some of Her Creations:
My Mom’s Advice to You
1.Learn your audience
Different audiences are going to require different attention and value propositions. What you make and what you are selling is only as valuable as the market demands it to be.
2. Know your worth
Be convicted in how much you matter. Too often creatives become disappointed because their creation isn’t received by their audience in the way they wanted. For example, if I price my quilt at $400 and someone turns around and sells it for $2,000, I can’t be salty. That was my mistake. Don’t sell yourself short.
3. Be willing to say no to the hard things.
Don’t call your hustle a hobby. Creative hobbies become side projects. Side projects become businesses. Businesses…well they change things. It just starts with an idea. Know your worth, embrace it and build it.
With love,
Morgan
