Welcome to the Girl Gang Craft podcast, where we dive in deep to all things business, wellness, creativity and activism for artists and entrepreneurs. We talk with impactful, female driven companies and founders for an inside look at the entrepreneurial experience, where you'll come away with tangible steps to elevate your business. Are you ready? I'm your host, Phoebe Sherman, founder of Girl Gang Craft, artist and designer, and marketing obsessed. We're here to learn together how to expand our revenue, implement new organizational techniques, and cultivate business practices as we work towards creating a life doing what we love. Let's get started.

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Oh. Hello, hello. Welcome back to Girl Girl Craft the Podcast. Before we hop into our episode, 101 couple things. Our holiday gift guide is live on the site Girlgangcraft.com/giftguide and it features 60 plus fam owned businesses to shop from this holiday season, and that will be up till after the holidays January 8th, so you have plenty of time to shop and pass it along.
As we know, it's really more important now than ever to shop fam on businesses to put our dollar towards the causes and people that we believe in. If you have plans to shop for the holiday season, I urge you to put your dollars into local and small businesses and said instead of some of these big corporate box stores, big box stores that maybe support some of the politicians that we don't like, that you know, maybe don't have sustainable practices, that maybe don't have good labor practices, etc., etc..

So I urge you to use our gift guide as a way to empower your local communities and artists and small business owners. And of course, that applies for our events. Next event is our Salem event, November 23rd. Then we have our December and our Oakland and our Providence event December 7th. And then we finish with our new event in Malden.
That's December 14th. So I hope to see you at one of our events. And if you can't make it to one of our events, our gift guide is online. Plus, all of our vendors are listed on our blog for each of that. So that can also serve as a resource to shop small shop, amazing family owned businesses. We wanted to do something special for our 100th episode and we didn't get to do something special, but we had a lovely interview with Michelle, but we wanted to do something for you all, specifically from my mouth or all of your mouth about entrepreneurship.
We were are tired. The 100th episode didn't happen, and then we're like, okay, great, 101. That's going to still be really important and special and a milestone. So I do want to take a moment to give our community appreciation for sticking with us for 101 episodes. If you have not listen all the episodes, you can totally go back and listen to some. If this is your first time listening to us, welcome! We have tons of episodes for you to go back and listen to. So today's intention was to give entrepreneurial advice and that doesn't quite feel right. We as a team are feeling a little sucked dry with the double booking for two of our events or the election for our events, so I know I'm not alone in that. I know a lot of other people are feeling this way for hello, it's just holiday season for small businesses, and you probably don't like the results of the election and feel exhausted and feel unheard and unseen and scared and all of these emotions, and they're 100% valid. So I want to talk about resilience in the form of work and art.

And to be honest, you need these same skills. Now post this election as we move into another Trump presidency. And also before that happened, we need a lot of resilience as small business owners, as creative, as artists, for all of the reasons for being pushed back against, for the hardships of balancing a business and your job and your family, whatever. Maybe you've been historically marginalized. Maybe you're really I'm not gonna name all the reasons why it's hard to be a small business owner. That's not what this is about. But I think we need some of these same skills as we move forward alongside this historical unfolding, if you will, as we did before. A lot of these apply. So I'm talking about resilience. I'm talking about still making art. I'm talking about showing up at your desk when things are hard, sending emails when you don't frickin want to. And maybe this helps you. The idea is it's really important what you're doing, and it's really important that you encourage yourself to still show up, even if it may be hard, especially as we move into this busy holiday season. Like post this sort of shocking news cycle. How do we move forward to do this thing we love, or do this thing that we have to do when we really maybe don't want to and are dealing with the weight of things? So like, why should we sell our art when the world seems to be falling apart? How do we cultivate our why? How on earth do we care and move forward? How do we get up from doomscrolling and like, send a frickin email? And I think it comes to some soft skills, quote unquote, and also some hard skills. I don't know if I like those words, but those are the words that are coming out. I think we're going to do a number one is you need to figure out why. Why are you doing this? What is your purpose? Why are you creating art? Why are you running your business? There are no wrong answers. Are you just trying to, like, bring some beauty into the world? Do you like making things? Does. Has art saved you in some capacity? Hasn't saved other people? Do you just want to make money doing something that you love I urge you to take a moment and literally pause the podcast. Take a few moments and write this down. If it helps, I can share my why before you do this, or after you do this. Here's my why I just I don't want to work for someone else. I don't want to work for a boss. I don't want to work for a man.
I don't want to work for an abusive or manipulative boss, or even just a regular one at this time. Who knows if that'll change, but I mostly my whole life I've not wanted to work for someone else, and I've had bad experiences. And also I've done a pretty good job of avoiding working for other people. The majority of my life. I don't want to keep regular hours. That has never worked for me. I don't like to have to ask for time off. I want to take vacations when I want. I want to, you know, nurse my migraine or my cramp. I want to go frolic in the sunshine. If it's a really nice day, I don't want to have to ask someone for time off. I don't want to have to live in someone else's expectations of me. I want to show up every day for myself, for my passion, for my projects. Like I'm super interested. This is number two. I'm super interested in my work and that motivates me. I get to sort of decide the direction of my business at all times, and what projects I work on and what projects I don't, and I don't have that same opportunity if I'm working for someone else.
Number three, I have to continue getting up every day to pay for my apartment. My dog. I don't have another job. My thrift adventures, and now my team. I have to make more money and then I pay them every month. And so that that encourages me to get to my desk, to send those emails, to try and figure out how I'm going to make money each month to pay them and to live.
I believe working for yourself, this number, for really working for yourself is a freedom, and I want to help other historically marginalized folks gain access to that freedom. I want to help you quit your job with your shitty boss. I want you to flourish doing the thing you love. I want you to take vacations. Whatever you want. I want you to take a break. When you have a migraine, I want you to more than struggle to make money doing what you love. I want you to flourish doing it. I want you to be able to pay for vacations. I want you to be able to pay for your hobbies, to support your family, to make a difference in your community. And number five, I believe my art and my work at Girl Gang Craft is making a difference. I believe my politics is moving the needle. It's making changes and at the very least it is creating a space for other people that believe. Similarly, I'm going to have sex here, which I didn't write before, but my work, most of it is fun and interesting. And so these are my wives. So yeah, take a moment here and pause the podcast. If you'd like to think about your whys and write it down. Or maybe you listen to the rest of the podcast first. But so yeah, these wise make me return to my desk, dive into my inbox even when it's really hard. This week has been this past few months have been really hard. I have been on the verge of tears. I laughed, that's we've already discussed this. That's how I deal with my humor and my horror. I have a chuckle in my voice. I don't know what that is. We can dive into therapy at a different time, but I have been it's been very challenging for me to move forward. And these whys are a big reason of how I keep on returning to my desk and making these events happen. When it feels hopeless, or like when my body feels so heavy. Yeah, these whys literally keep me going.

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Okay, so here are some practical ways to keep making art and getting paid when the world is falling apart. So we already discussed your why giving yourself a reason to do the thing is my biggest motivator and it might be yours. Again, these are take what you want from these, take what resonates and leave the rest. Make time for inspiration. So I'm a big proponent of walks or I mean I say like going to museums. I never actually really do that often, but I when I do make time for it, it's really beautiful. But like I try to find inspiration in like flowers in, you know, the things that surround me even trying to like, visit a different niche. So, you know, maybe I get a lot of inspiration from interior designs or even like the thrift store. How can we imply apply these moments of inspiration to our current work? Be kind to yourself. This is the most important thing. How? Or even just the opposite. Like don't beat yourself up. Like catch yourself saying something shitty to yourself in your head and and correct that. And then maybe the kind of stuff on top of it. But some of those, like affirmations feel a little bit to woowoo or like really falls from your moment. Just catch yourself saying the bad things and like maybe make them more neutral. Build community. This is really important. Find other people doing what you do, or find other people who are doing similar work than you. Obviously, the girl gang craft community is something I'm passionate about. I promise you, you can find some good people in this community at our craft fairs, on our socials, you know, get out into your neighborhood, find some local stuff like I am. I've joined a new fam book club and it's really giving me life over here. Like, how can you make connections to support you to feel good? And I think I've talked about this before too. Like I'm an ex extrovert, so sort of managing what it means to have friends now and to be social is different than what it used to be for me. And I believe even if you're an introvert, you need friends and community. You need people to support you emotionally and even sort of moving into a little bit more radical framework. If the world falls apart, like you need to lean on your neighbors and your community for sources of fuel, for like fuel in all senses of the word, find ways to monetize. Right now, we're still working within the capitalist system. We need to make money to pay for our lives and feed ourselves. As an artist. It's really important to have multiple revenue streams, and I have other podcasts that go into some of these opportunities for multiple revenue streams. Right. Wholesale licensing. It depends what your work is. Partnerships. Right? I'm big on partnerships. We have a class about it, but I am going to revamp for quarter one, figure out how to make money. If your goal to do what you're doing is to make money, or if your goal is to survive, doing this thing that you're doing like you need to make money.
So figure out how to monetize. And that's why we're here. That is why we're here. Boundaries keep boundaries. It is challenging to keep these boundaries with other people, with friends, with family, with people who believe in you, with people who don't believe in you, with yourself. Those are the hardest boundaries to keep. Get off the internet. Y'all. Do other things.
I'm saying this as I've been completely death doomscrolling on for the past two weeks, but I'm trying my best to pick myself up. Okay, I need to do something else. What am I actually craving right now? Maybe movement instead? Maybe like drawing something, maybe a walk? Maybe I actually have to do work and I'm avoiding that. How? Just notice your amount of time Doomscrolling. And also it's okay if you've been doomscrolling. It really is. Scheduling. This is a really important way to also combat some of these boundaries. And Doomscrolling I do have talked about the to do list being dead and my my structure in my scheduling. There is a podcast episode on that. I think we have a free class on that somewhere too. How can you schedule things in time blocking not only scheduling in things that you have to do, but like things that are going to prep you for the future time blocking like blocking off time in your calendar to do the thing that you have to do that maybe is not as immediate as the other things you have to do, and that is a challenge. I know, like Nicole from Dear Handmade Life, schedules and creative time every day. I don't know if she's doing it every day anymore, but however many times and that feels really lovely to me. Can you schedule in creative time for yourself? Maybe outside your business, maybe within your business? If you put it on your calendar, you're going to commit to it, and that is important. Do whatever you can to figure out how to make this work. Just figure out how to run your business. Put your energy into it. Take classes. Think outside the box, hire people. Do whatever you can to make this work. If it's important to you, and find time to create for fun. I started just alluded to that, but it's really important to make things like outside of your business. For me, that's been like ceramics, that's been thrifting, that's been interior design. I also just got like a new sketchbook and I'm trying to get back into sewing. Like these are all things that are not necessarily integrated into my business, but are just to fill me up, make time for that, and then also find time to rest, whatever that looks like for you, whether it's movement or a bath or a hot tub, skincare or TV, whatever it is, take a break, put down your frickin phone, do whatever you can to take care of yourself. I think that's all I have to say. As we move into more and more uncertainty, I urge you to take care of yourself. Take care of the people around you. Show your support as an ally. However you need to do that. Have tough conversations and keep making this work. I hope to see you at our events this season. This is probably my last solo episode of the year. We'll take a break after I think like, 13th or 12th or something that week. That'll be our last podcast episode. We'll take a break. I take a break. I take like three weeks off. I urge you, if you can, to take time off during the holidays. It is so, so, so, so important. Or like whenever you can arrange for that time to decompress, to do other things besides work, or maybe even like long term projects. Like I might dabble in the website a little bit. I might, I might do some big thinking. I'm for sure not sending any frickin emails or having any meetings. I pull out my puzzle, I knit, I do like really cozy activities. But anyways, that's not really here or there. Well, it is. It might be here or there. I think it's all important. And taking care of ourselves and each other is is the most important thing we can do. Okay, thank you for listening. Make sure you're on our email list. Make sure you're following us at Grog and Crafts. Subscribe. Review. Following me personally, Phoebe Sherman and I hope to see you this holiday season. Take care of yourself. You can connect with Frankie on Instagram at Virgo Creative Social or check out her Linktree link TR dot slash Virgo creative.

Thank you so much for listening to the Girl Gang Craft podcast. Head to Girlgangcraft.com/podcast for Shownotes and more.