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7 ways to be part of the brunch

Thank you so much for your outpouring of brunch-love!
So many of you shared the book and the brunch, I'm just overwhelmed. I can't say Thank YOU enought!

A few of you wanted to know how you could do even more to help, so I put together a quick guide on how you can spread the book-love to those who need it!

1. Tweet it! Facebook it!

Here are some ideas:

I just bought @TaraSwiger's Market Yourself! Get yours here: http://bit.ly/IbR5oM #marketyourself

Click to tweet

A simple system for sharing my handmade awesomeness? Exactly what I need! http://bit.ly/IbR5oM #marketyourself

Click to tweet

#marketyourself: It's about Right People, Delight, and Getting Out the Door. Yes, please! http://bit.ly/IbR5oM

Click to tweet

2. Pin it!

Did you know I embroidered the book cover? I did, because I'm that in love with it:

Or you can pin the actual book cover:

3. Email your friends, family and strangers (but don't be a spammer, yo!)

If you're a maker-seller then I bet you know a bunch more just like you, who would love the book. When you think of someone, send a quick “Thought you'd like this! ” note. They'll love you for it.

4. Let's brunch together at your place.

No, not your kitchen nook (although I never turn down a brunch) – your online home. You can ask me questions or just give me a topic to write about (like making dreams coming true, or simple marketing advice).

Before you do this – think about your people: what do they like to read about? What would help them most?
Some ideas:

If you sell patterns or yarn, I can answer questions/write about my own journey as a knitter/spinner/dyer.
If you sell art, I can talk about the power of buying art to express ourselves (I go on about this in the book!)
And of course, if you provide services or education to any kind of business, I can write about marketing, people-finding, and map-making.

5. Bring the party to Amazon

No, the book isn't out yet, but if you preordered, you already have the PDF version and you can review it on Amazon. Long or short, glowing or tepid, your reviews MATTER! They help strangers know what the book is about.

6. Get the book in book stores.

Got a favorite local bookstore? Call 'em up! Ask them if they plan to stock Market Yourself. If they respond with “huh?”, send 'em here + here.
(My favorite bookstore is Malaprops. If you're ever in Asheville, don't miss it! If you live in Asheville, give 'em a call for me, eh?)

7. Let's get together. Live. In person. No joke.

I'm taking this baby on the road!
May 10th: Gather Here in Cambridge, MA
May 12th: Wishstudio in Newburyport, MA

And then?
San Diego, Cleveland, and Chicago in June; Portland and Seattle in August and…anywhere else you'll have me!

If you've got a great local bookstore, yarn shop, or a friend with a big living room, ask them to host a workshop. We can talk Right People and Marketing your Creative Biz, or we can talk Map-Making.
To get this started, send a note to the place and copy me on it (taraATtaraswiger.com).

(If you hook me up with a place, I really will take you out to a real, live brunch)

Thank you!

Thank you so much for all of your encouragement, tweets, and sweet emails.
Stay tuned for even more brunch wonderfulness on May 10th!

I almost forgot to tell you! The Starship is now open. Join us here, until Friday.

You’re invited to brunch

My book, Market Yourself, is now available for pre-order and I'm celebrating by inviting you over for brunch*!

If I could, I'd take you out to Plant, order up my favorite pancakes and chat with you about your life, your business and your marketing. We'd sip soy lattes and giggle over the huge cinnamon rolls.
But we deserve it! Because sharing your thing, putting it out into the world, is hard.

Since you can't come over for brunch**, we'll have to settle for this – an online celebration of both my book and your business.

Because I was thinking of you as I wrote this book. I thought about the process you go through as you learn to think about your product, and as you learn to think like your people. I arranged and rearranged the book to make it a system that will walk you through every aspect of getting comfortable with your marketing, and growing into bigger and bigger things.

For example, I know it can be tricky to get that craft show patter just right (I've been in a LOT of awkward craft show booths!), so the Offline Marketing chapter starts with just chatting with your friends about your project. Then you branch out into your community. Finally, you're talking to total strangers about it – but instead of being scary, it's easy because you already know what to say, how to say it, and what the soon-to-be-fans might ask.

If you've got a creative business, go here to grab the book while it's still in pre-orders and you'll get a plate of Pre-order Specialness:

Everyone who buys the book before May 9th will get an invitation to a live, on-the-phone Q+A session with the me!
You’ll have a chance to send in your questions before the call, listen in as I answer your questions, AND receive a recording (mp3) after the call. Invitations will be sent out the week of May 14th.
1/2 off a Right Person Exploration. Your discount will be sent the week of May 14th.
You’ll be entered to win a FREE, 30 minute, one-on-one session with me. On May 10th, we’ll choose 2 winners. Each winner will get an email with a probing questionnaire (so I know all about you before the session), and when you return it, you’ll schedule a time that works for you. The session will be held over a text chat and you’ll get a transcript when it’s all over.

This brunch is for everyone!

Mindy let me share my tips for staying inspired during a big project (like the book!)
I'm brunching with Jamie, and chatting about how dreams really DO come true right here.
During brunch with Jessika, I'm sharing the super-simple marketing equation.
And tomorrow, we're chatting live, during the #omhg twitter chat, at 1pm EST.

For more brunching goodness, sign up here to find out where I'll be having real, in-person brunches, workshops and conversations around the country!

Thanks for joining me for this brunch!

*Why Brunch? Read this story of brunching vs. launching

**If you are close by, let me know and I really will take you out to brunch!

The making of an entrepreneur – studying French

It doesn't make any sense, but my BA in French Lit has everything to do with my becoming a yarn-making, crafty-biz-focused marketing teacher and writer. But, how?

Lee University ped mall — my college campus

As I mentioned back in my first series about quitting my job (written nearly 3 years ago!), it goes back even further – I was a crafty kid, with an eye of doing something with those crafts. I sold friendship bracelets at church camp (and got caught, and got in trouble).

Nearly everyone I knew worked for themselves. My grandpa had a roofing business and my grams was the company accountant. My dad worked for himself as a contractor. My step-grandma built and ran a successful property management firm in southern California.

When I quizzed them (and anyone else who did something without a boss), everyone claimed that it was simple. You just start. And don't stop. They learned a skill, and then instead of trying to find a boss to pay them to do it, they found clients + customers.

But I grew up smart and college-focused. I never considered learning a “trade” and starting my own business. I loved reading. I loved college. I wanted to hang out on campus with a big library and other smart people for the rest of my life. So, I know! I'll be a professor.

And I loved French. I loved the complex system of a language. I loved that it had a kind of logic, while being beautiful. I loved that there was a right and wrong way. Even better, my college's French program was heavily literature-focused. We read a French novel a week, I wrote 20 page research papers about the French Impressionist movement reflected in poetry and music. It was Tara-heaven.

Those four years devoted to studying what I loved taught me I could devote myself to what I loved.

It's easy to say “Do what you love!” and “Follow your bliss!”
But it's another thing entirely to actually do it. For most people, it's completely out of their range of experiences. If you've spent the first half of your life doing what you're supposed to do, it's not easy to just snap out of it, it's not easy to try something crazy.

After studying French and surviving four years of everyone asking, “But what are you going to do with a French degree?” I was prepared. I was already weird.
I had already done my own thing. Although I didn't really think about when I was starting my business or quitting my job, that French degree had made me comfortable with risk, with being bold about the things I love.

And that's all it takes, one small bold step, one tiny proof that you can do it, that you can bring at least a little of what you love into your everyday…

and you start building your business, you begin to trust yourself and your passions.

What experience (no matter how tiny) prepared you to do more of what you love? What choice did you make that gave you the confidence to start your business?

PS. Why didn't I go on with my goal to be a French professor, go to grad school, etc? I student-taught one French class my senior year…and puked every day before the class. My nerves just couldn't take standing in front of a classroom of people. I decided to take a year off…and in that year I found my first business-runnin' job – more on that in the next post.

The making of an entrepreneur

The other day Kyeli asked “How in the world did you go from making yarn to talking about marketing?”

Even though I hear this all the time from my college friends (How did a French major end up writing a book about marketing a craft business?), for some reason Kyeli's question really grabbed me.

How did I end up here?

Since I first realized I was going to eventually grow up and move out (at about age 15), I've been unflinchingly focused on the near future. What do I want next year to be like? What can I do now to be ready for that? What classes can I take in high school to prepare me for college (heck, I started attending the community college while still in high school)? Where's this job going to lead? What's next?

With all this focus on the future, I don't spend much time thinking about the past. I'm not into nostalgia. I'd rather feel hope for the future, than nostalgia for the past. I'd rather you tell me what you're going to do than what you have done.

But sometimes that means that I jump into the next thing, without explaining (or even thinking about) what led here. I focus on what I'm doing now, not all the stuff in my past that qualifies me to do what I do (I'm not a fan of qualifications – can you do it? Do it!).

But there are so many lessons I learned in my past jobs and experiences – lessons that I bring to the Starship + Explorations – that I don't want to forget.

My about page gives the short version of this path to full-time business-runnin + lovin, but the full story has many more twists in turn.

There's my first job, in my extended family's business (I stuffed envelopes from age 12, and made a $12/hour.)

Then the college job at the scrapbook store, where I grilled the owner for details on how she started her business.

My first post-college job, at a paint-your-own-pottery studio, where I became the manager in 3 months and ran the whole operation for more than 2 years.

Then the yarn store I first sold my yarn to (and began to help manage).

And finally, the total shock of moving away from both of those management jobs, to a small town in East Tennessee where I realized NO ONE would hire a French major with two years of small business managing to do anything interesting. I temped all around the local college campus: in a basement Accounts Payable office, a fancy (and so so strict) fundraising office, and finally landed as a Executive Aide, responsible for maintaining a department website and recording, editing, and introducing podcasts to the local medical education community.

All the while, of course, I was slaving away nights and weekends on my escape plan.

There were moments of deep depression, of unbelieving frustration (I graduated with honors! I paid for my entire education with scholarships! I hired and fired people!… And now I'm maintaining your CALENDAR?!) and the kind of I must work for myself resolve that comes from realizing that relying on someone else for a paycheck will always, always leave you underpaid and underappreciated.

And of course, after working for myself, and answering other people's small biz questions, I gathered even more experiences, stories and lessons. As a First Officer, I've worked in creative businesses both large and small, as a community manager, a copywriter, an Idea Partner, a teacher, a mentor. I've crafted plans that have worked, and those that have sputtered. I've marketed products that have sold out in a day, and those that never hit it big.

It was all these experiences, these bosses, and this on-the-job learning that got me here. To the place where I'm about to publish my first book. To the moment that I'm about to turn 30 and am realizing I really love what I do.

Over the next few posts, I'm going to take a break from my future-staring and share what I learned from each of those jobs, the lessons I learned about running a small business, becoming clear about what you offer, and eventually marketing your work. I'll also be asking questions of you – what did you learn in past jobs?

How can you take your experience in an unrelated field and apply it to what you're doing today?

Selected Press

Katie, from Yarn Love, says:

Tara –

I want to tell you a story. Even though you might not have realized it at the time, you're one of the heroes of the story.

Way back 2006 I started Yarn Love. We had our growing pains, but together Yarn Love and I have been steadily making more money than we spend. We even reached the point where family members (Ok, my mom & my husband, but they're the Big Two anyway….) started bragging about how well we were doing to co-workers and acquaintances.

After a lot of thought and planning I hired a marketing company to help us forge new connections and to provide some assistance with small tasks so I could spend more of my time increasing sales. And it worked! 6 months into the new partnership we had gross sales which were equal to our two previous yearly totals. I was working my tushie off, but making sales!

The problem was that I made –$1800 during that time. Yes, I had new connections, and new sales but every time I received a bill it was for more money. There were extra charges that I didn't know about before hand, but the work was already done. I was spending more money than I was making and I felt totally out of control.

I was so discouraged. I was crushed. I thought more than once about closing Yarn Love just so I wouldn't have to deal with disappointing myself and my husband.

But I didn't. I found you.

I dug your book off my shelf and got started. I gave myself 6 months to turn things around. Along the way I purchased your Map Making guide to help me with a tidy, executable plan, because I can work a plan like nobody's business.

I'm 6 weeks into my first quarterly map.

I HAVE EXCEEDED MY INCOME GOAL!

In 6 weeks, I have made more than $5000 of profit. I have streamlined my business processes. I have spent half of every other day at the pool with my kids. (In other words, I'm rocking family life and having fun, too.)

So thank you, Tara. You were just what I needed. There aren't enough words in the English language to express my gratitude for your help and insights.

This is the best thing I've done for my business! I appreciate your insight, the worksheets, and your insistence that this must be done.

-Mary Carol, Azalea Bindery

Working with Tara always gets me so excited to keep working– the energy to get stuff done is as invaluable as her advice! No more Avoidypants!

-Amy, AntemoretemArts.com

Heatherly says,

Over a year ago I bought Market Yourself. After reading it, I stepped back at recognized what it was about me that was unique, a niche.

Out of that I wrote a book proposal. It was accepted, instantly, no questions asked!
Which means I have a book coming out.
I am now working on book two.

Thank You!

Abby Kerr says:

Tara Swiger has this special thing about her which her right people recognize immediately: she's got the ability to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those she's teaching, while at the same time, standing out as a leader and a go-to voice in the craft-your-own-business niche.

She's kind, funny, smart, empathetic, resourceful, and masterful.
She knows her stuff and is invested in making sure you know yours, too.
She wants you to succeed on your own terms, not hers or anyone else's.

Lori-Ann says

The Starship has sure helped me keep going, even at my (sometimes very) slow pace.

I appreciate knowing that there is an audience out there of supporters and experienced colleagues who can chip in with ideas and thoughts and suggestions about what I might have going on. Or want to have going on, but don't really yet.

Kirstyn says,

It was a lot of fun. The material really guides you look deep into what you are trying to not only communicate with your blog, but take a deeper look into who your customers are, why you are communicating with them and provide clarity into what your business is all about.

I am getting a great deal of insight from the questions, the feedback and all the discussions from everyone!

I'd sign up for another class in a heart beat!

Kristine says,

I love that the Starship is filled with different kinds of crafters, all moving to the same goal: expanding their knowledge and growing themselves and their business. And Tara, the brave leader of our Starship, is here to *nurture* us in being comfortable with our decisions, and *nudge* us to make smart steps forward.

Skaja says,

Working with Tara helps me bring focus and clarity to what I’m doing for my business. The classes help answer a lot of the questions I have, and there hasn’t been a single instance of me talking with Tara (or any of the other awesome people in the Starship) that I haven’t come away with a great idea or way of accomplishing something on my list. She deserves lots of sparkle points for the work she does.

I got so much from the most recent class! SO incredibly informative and helpful! I dub thee Tara Awesomepants!

-Joyce, FlyingKettle.com

Wow. Just…wow. That was so helpful. The stuff I kinda already knew, Tara totally put it all together and crystallized it in a way that really, really helps.

-Anna P.

Scott says,

At the time I hired Tara, I was completely swamped with client work. I needed someone to fix my messaging without a lot of back and forth or direction. I was skeptical that I’d be adding more work to my already-full plate.

This is what happened: we talked on the phone for an hour and a few days later Tara emailed me a fully formed offer page for my website. That was it.

Not only did she distill and clarify the the main elements of my mission, she cut through the crap that was holding me back from explaining myself in a straight-forward way. I’ve started quoting her words directly when talking to potential clients.

The whole process was easy, low-pressure, and exactly what I wanted.

Havi Brooks says,

I think I might have sprained my wrist, I was scribbling Tara's brilliant ideas so quickly. Seriously, I am in AWE of the sheer amount of usefulness her brain can spew out. It was all so crisp, so clear and so exactly what I needed. But my favorite part was how completely non-judgmental Tara was with the stuff I wanted to figure out, and how genuinely excited she got about my latest project-babies.

(Anyone thinking about hiring Tara — you will get soooo much more than what you’re paying for. This service is basically the best thing in the entire world.)

Where ARE you?

Last week we talked about the difference between self-promotion and marketing. Marketing is made up of 4 aspects: Place, Price, Product and Promotion. In my next few posts, we're going to have examples of how you can use each one to share your work with more people.

The following example is an amalgamation of the work I've done with several fabulous knitwear designers.
If it sounds like you, that's a sign that your worries are normal!

Went to Lambikin's Hideaway yesterday for some needles

Lindsay creates knitting patterns. She has an online shop on her site and sells through Ravelry. She has a well-read, well-liked blog (she's writing about the kind of things her Right People – knitters – want to read about).

But her sales have plateaued. She wants to reach a bigger audience and is thinking about doing some sort of promotion (buying an ad in a knitting magazine, offering 2 patterns for the price of 3)…and she wonders – is this the best way?

The problem with this plan:

Holding a sale is not a good match for her objective (reaching a broader audience) because who will she tell about her sale? Her current audience! A sale might generate more purchases from your current audience, but unless you pair it with something else, isn't going to introduce you to many new people.

While buying an ad on Ravelry might increase her Ravelry sales, buying an ad in a magazine is going to reach a lot of people who don't shop online, and who shop mainly in their local yarn shop.

And there, buried in her problem, is a hint for the solution.

She can reach a broader audience by focusing on Place instead of Promotion.

She can make her patterns available to more people by being in more places.

What are some of the places she could offer her patterns?

She can offer a wholesale line of patterns to yarn shops.
She can submit patterns to print magazines (the magazine pays you and their subscriber base becomes familiar with you and your work).
She can vend at knitting and stitching shows, fill her booth with samples of her work and sell printed versions of her patterns.
She can hold a trunk show at her local yarn shop (or even a regular boutique!) with samples of her work in a variety of sizes, so knitters can try on a pattern before they commit to making it.

Where else could this designer put her patterns to reach her people?

Have you thought of how Place is a marketing tool you can use? Where else can your products show up?

Don't know where your people are looking for your product?
Let's research that during an Exploration.

Self-Promotion vs. Marketing

I'm allergic to the term “self-promotion.”

Lots of crafters call it that, getting their work in front of other people, and it's not just a malapropism; it's dangerous! It distracts you from what you should be doing.

Beau begs you to stop calling it self-promotion.

Self-promotion sounds gross. In fact, just promoting yourself, telling everyone how great you are, is kinda gross. No one wants to be around the girl who can't stop talking about how great she can sing. (You know the girl.)

But calling it self-promotion is dangerous.

If “promotion” is the only way you're thinking of marketing, you're avoiding it. And that's dangerous, because you're probably avoiding all the other aspects of marketing, too.

(Or you're the other kind of creative, that just accepts the gross aspect of self-promotion and fills your twitter stream with “just listed [link to shop]”…but I'm pretty sure that's not you.)

Marketing, however, is the process of communicating with your people, about your product, your business and how it can help them.

Promotion is only (a small) part of the marketing equation.

It might help to know that traditional marketing (as defined in my past-life, MBA marketing classes), Promotion is just one of the 4 P's of Marketing.
In other words, it's only a quarter, of all the marketing you do for your business. In creative businesses, I have a theory that it's even less than 1/4, but we'll get into that in a bit.

The 4 P's of Marketing is a framework for thinking about your marketing mix (all the things you do to communicate with your people). Inherent in the concept of a marketing mix is the belief that Promotion isn't everything; that your focus should not only be on telling people about your work.

The other P's:

Product
Price
Place

Product – It all starts with what you're selling – Is it something people want? If so, what about it do people want? Is that clear? Is it remarkable? Is there a new product you can add (or delete) from your line to reach a new market?

Price – We already know that pricing is not a benefit…but it is a tool for marketing. Not just special pricing (a sale or discount), but the overall pricing strategy: Do you have a range of prices? Do your prices appeal to one market over another? What does your price say about the quality of your product?

Place – Where your product is sold directly effects the market it reaches. Is your product where it's people can find it? If you only have an online store, do you know your Right People shop online? When you pick a craft show, do you make sure your people will be there? How do you pick a shop to carry your goods? Where does news of your business show up? Is that really where your buyers are?

See, there's lots of marketing to do that doesn't involve promotion. In my next few posts, I'm going to share stories of how specific businesses can market (and grow) using the other Ps.

What Ps do you use in your marketing mix?

Is there one you want to explore?

Irony

It's a little ironic that my next class is about how to blog for your business when I am not, how shall we say, much a blogger.

my fancy note-taking process

The truth is, most of the work I do is behind the curtain. I spend most of my day working with people, not trying to find new people (which is what a regularly-written blog can do). I answer questions, teach Starship-only classes, send yarn to subscribers. I do my best, I write most helpfully when it's for a specific audience, when I know exactly who needs my answer (this is why I create free mini-courses via email instead of just blogging them).

This is why we created the class.

Because not everyone needs a big flashy blog to create a booming business.

Our new class (which I'm teaching with Diane, because she is a woman who knows how to blog!), is about that, the process of figuring out what you want from your blog, what your people want from it, and then creating a plan for it. Instead of numbers, you focus on reaction – What brings in your best customers? What helps them move towards you (and your products?)

When you pay attention to what your customers want, and what you want to communicate, you may even find you don't need or want a blog.

That's what happened in my crafty business, at Blonde Chicken Boutique.
I realized that even if blog posts got comments, they didn't do anything for sales. My emails helped people buy. My special customer-only emails have an crazy high open rate and an even crazier click-through and buy rate. I realized (after quite a few years of fighting it) that my yarn lovers aren't blog readers. They visit my site, sign up for the emails and then expect to the emails to remind them to buy.

So now I use the blog as a resource. I show off what customers have made and give pattern ideas… but it's less of a blog and more like an archive of helpfulness. When my retail customers (which represents the largest percentage of my business) ask me what they can make with my yarn, I send them to past posts. Since I don't have an active shop (I sell one yarn a month, to email subscribers only), I don't need to do a lot of showing off of new products, I just email it directly to the people who want to buy it.

This is weird, I know. When all the rest of the world is tell you to blog! And make videos! And tweet! I'm telling you – you have permission to do what works.

It's not particularly glamorous.
But it works (really well).

Your way, the way that works for you and your people, might be something else entirely. You might want to blog daily. Or weekly. Or never.
I want to help you figure that out.
And more than anything, I want you to know that you have permission to use whatever works for you.

Crafting an Effective Blog

How to make a blog that actually works for your business

(without being spammy)

Your crafty business came with a pile of shoulds.

You should blog.
You should blog more, for more traffic.
You should, should, should…

And it's exhausting.
Following the plan (if you can even narrow down the various advice and shoulds into a plan) just isn't working for you. It's not getting you more sales, it's not building relationships, it's just…work.

What you need is a way that works for you. That works for your people, your product, your life.
It has to be doable, and it has to be effective.

This workbook will help you make your own plan for an effective blog.

Most ecourses I've come across are for beginners, but this is for more intermediate, for people who have got started but want to take their biz to the next level. This isn't about following a formula, it's about taking the time to analyze your situation and create a solution that works for you. Practical, hands-on, and with the support of two amazing teachers.

-Kate

Crafting an Effective Blog is a downloadable workbook that will examine YOUR business and YOUR blogging and YOUR ideal readers (buyers, strangers, even the press), and help you see not only whether a blog makes sense for you, but if it does, how you can create a blog that’s a more effective tool in sharing your thing.

What we cover:

In Lesson 1, we’ll find our what specific marketing results you want your blog to achieve, whether you’re an artisan seeking customers, a writer seeking a book deal, or a designer seeking freelance clients (or something else entirely).

In Lesson 2, we’ll come up with the overall themes you want to be communicating to the world and the waysyou are best suited to do it.

In Lesson 3, we’ll look at your audience (real or imagined!), and find out who they are and how to make themfall in love with you.

In Lesson 4, we’ll work out an editorial calendar for your business blog. You’ll decide what kinds of blog content will do the best job of communicating what you need to say, to the people you want to reach.

You’ll finish the workbook with a blogging plan you can put to work right away.

What you get, for $24:

4 lessons on creating a blog that works for you, your goals and your people.
5 worksheets that ensure you really do find the balance for YOUR business.
2 bonus lessons on getting more traffic and testing out what’s working

“I found the focus I needed to decide how to handle my blog and where and why it will work within the mission of my business goals.”

-Gabrielle

” Through the information, worksheets, and feedback, this blogging class really leads you from wherever you are — whether it's a new blogger or someone looking to improve what you've got — and helps point you where you want to be. Diane & Tara are full of insights, and even better, they are awesome at helping you find your own insights where you'd mislaid them when you weren't looking.”

–Amy

How it works:

Click the buy button, and your workbook will be emailed to you immediately. (It'll be sent to your Paypal email address, so check it!)

“It was a lot of fun. The material really guides you look deep into what you are trying to not only communicate with your blog, but take a deeper look into who your customers are, why you are communicating with them and provide clarity into what your business is all about.”

–Kirsytn

Is this workbook for me?

Have you heard that you “should” have a blog for your small business, but aren’t sure how it’s supposed to help you?
Have you tried blogging, but haven’t found it to be a very effective marketing tool?
Do you struggle to find something to say?

If you’re nodding along (or grumbling along), then yep, this class is for you.

If you’re looking for technical information (or turning your existing blog into a business), we can suggest other resources, just ask!

Who are the instructors?

Tara Swiger is a writer, a maker, and a Starship Captain. She's the author of Market Yourself: a system for smart + creative businesses, and she leads explorations into your just-right business.

Diane Gilleland is a craft writer and teacher who produces CraftyPod.com, a blog and podcast that are central to her business. She’s written three ebooks on craft-business blogging and teaches live classes in social media for creative business-owners.

Still got question?

Don't hesitate to ask!

Want to hear our stories of effective blogging? Watch our hour long conversation with craftybiz smarties*:

*Our special panel of craftybiz smarties include:

Allyson Dykhuizen, The Sweatshop of Love
Abby Glassenburg, While She Naps
Stacey Trock, FreshStitches

In safety, I found YES

Quite by accident, I'm writing this exactly one year later.

Last year, I wrote that my theme, quite unwanted, was safety.
It wasn't what I wanted to focus on, but it's what I needed.

One year later, what I realized (thanks entirely to Leonie's yearly planner) is the RESULT of all that safety.

Instead of putting up walls, instead of creating a hard shell, focusing on safety allowed me to open up, blossom, and risk things I never would have imagined.

Quite unexpectedly, 2011 was about saying YES, even when I wasn't sure I was enough.

I said YES to two big clients who sought me out, doing completely new-to-me kinds of work, things I never would have dreamed selling.

I said YES to a sudden goal to get a book deal before my 30th birthday (which is still 6 months away). Even stranger, I said YES to that book deal and to a writing schedule that might just result in having a finished book by my 30th birthday.

I said YES to the bizarre idea of the Starship. And then I said YES to putting in the daily work to build it, to lead it, and to support all of the captians aboard it.

I said YES to travel. I said YES to writing.

I said YES to the things I (secretly) wanted.
I said YES to things I thought I was afraid of.

And with every single one of those things, I had a clear, panicked moment “Me? Really? What? Can I even DO THIS?!?”
And then I did it.

Because I sought to cultivate safety and internal (and external) support, I had the confidence for YES.
Because I make sure I feel safe and cared for, before I say yes.
Because I (finally!) prioritized what I deeply need.

I still have so much to say about safety and where I found it and how it surprised me and what it taught me, but that will come later.
For now, I'd love to know:

What did you say YES to? What do you need before you can say YES?

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