Today we have John Li, the startup and co- founder of PickFu.com who believes in the transformative power of consumer insights to drive business success. Recognizing that better insights lead to better decisions, John advocates for frequent and in-depth market research. With experience spanning from tech giants like Microsoft to bootstrapped startu…

Today, our guest is Adrian Koehler, and we're jumping into leadership and how to use emotions in leadership to lead fearlessly. Adrian works with coaching leadership engagement and is senior partner at the executive coaching powerhouse, Take New Ground. They’ve worked with companies such as Lululemon, Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream (which we LOVE at Sti…

Today's guest is Cathy McKillip, CEO and president of RETAIL PROFIT MAKERS, a consulting business designed to help independent retail companies maximize profits through better inventory management. Cathy has over 30 years of business and retail experience and sold her retail business after growing sales to a tenfold multiple in 10 years.…

Today, we have a very special guest joining us, who refers to himself as a tax savings architect. Mark Myers is the CEO of Peak Profit Solutions, and a former Marine Corps Sergeant. Mark has over 20 years of successful business operation, ownership, and consulting experience under his belt. He has helped thousands of individuals increase their prof…

Today I’m excited to welcome our guest, Wendy Batten, also known as the Retailer’s Mentor. She is a coach, consultant and host of the podcast, “Creative Shop Talk” She also runs a membership group called the Retailer’s inner Circle. Wendy comes to us as a champion for small shop owners and creative business owners in particular. She knows firsthand…

Meagan Rodgers is an Account Manager at the agency with mad skills in the area of writing for SEO. She is a lifelong writer and former educator with a PhD in English. Like all of us at Stitchcraft Marketing, she’s a maker including embroidery, crochet, sewing, and knitting. She also publishes a writes for her website, craftculturestyle.com, where s…

Today my guest is Carly Brush, she is the General Manager of Arts and Handmade at Whatnot, a new live selling platform. Carly is an expert in live selling and she's here to share her insights on how it's changing the game for both retailers and customers. She's got a wealth of experience and knowledge in live selling, and she's going to dive into h…

Today's guest is Anneliese Johnson. Anneliese is on-half of the mother-daughter design duo behind Eye Candy Quilts, which focuses on quilt pattern and fabric design. Anneliese also has experience working in local brick -and -mortar quilt shops, and most importantly, she's also an account manager over here at Stitchcraft Marketing. She is an expert …

Today's guest is Jeffrey Madoff, an accomplished director, writer, and educator who has spent over four decades working in the creative industry. He is the founder of Madoff Productions a video production company based in New York City. He is also an adjunct professor at Parsons School for design where he teaches a course on his book, Creative Care…

Welcome to Business of Craft, a show designed to help entrepreneurs with fabric or fiber businesses become more successful. Our guests share best practices and teach effective marketing skills, that help crafty business owners learn to grow and scale. Let's start crafting a better business together! Today we welcome you to our kickoff for season si…

Today my guest is Lori Highby. Lori Highby is an accomplished entrepreneur and a marketing expert with over 20 years of experience in the industry. As the founder and CEO of Keystone Click, a digital marketing agency based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Lori has been helping businesses of all sizes to improve their online presence and grow their brands s…

My guest today Jennifer Keltner has been a maker of things from a very early age. Her first truly independent crafting involved melting crayons in an Easy-Bake Oven. She’s passionate about all things fabric, quilting, embroidering, and sewing—always trying to squeeze a little “making” into every day. As President and Chief Visionary Officer for Mar…

Our guest today, Meg Goodman, is an award-winning podcast host and producer, and the founder and CEO of Flint Rock LLC an audio production company. Early in her career, she entered the world of advertising agencies managing notable Fortune 100 accounts. After 25+ years in advertising, including a stint running an agency, she returned to her native …

DeAnna McIntosh is a business strategist and retail consultant at Retailing Evolved specializing in helping retailers drive sales and increase conversions in their business. In 2020 she founded Diversify Retail Inc to bring more attention to the issue of diversity in retailing. She joins our podcast today to give our craft retail listeners some spe…

My guest today is my colleague Michelle Walker. She’s a Financial Strategist and an Account Manager here at Stitchcraft Marketing who began her artistic endeavor at a young age with painting and sewing. She’s a small business owner of Weaverwalker, an Eco-conscious macrame-focused DIY kit & supplies business on a mission to deliver the meditative e…

My guest today Nichole Schneider is the founder and CEO of Coley International, a product development company for the craft industry. Nichole specializes in helping craft companies bring a product from concept to retail ready. She has over 20 years of buying, sourcing and product development and is an avid sewist and knitter.…

My guests today are Morgan Huff and Jim Huff, Co-Founders at Impact Analytics Group. We're discussing data analytics and software that is compatible with most point of sale (POS) systems, such as POSIM, Shopify, and even LikeSew, to provide additional information that can guide your marketing efforts.…

Mark Hyland is the CEO of Handi Quilter and former CEO of Premier Needle Arts. Mark has been involved within the craft and hobby industry for more than 18 years, manufacturing, producing and marketing of leading world wide consumer enthusiast brands found within Crochet, Knitting, Sewing, Quilting, and Longarm Quilting categories. Mark currently se…

My guest today is Lyric Kinard, founder of the Academy for Virtual Teaching. Lyric is a fiber artist, quilter and author of the book, Art + Quilt: design principles and creativity exercises. In 2011, she won the award for International Association of Professional Quilters Teacher of the Year. She has written extensively for Quilting Arts Magazine, …

My guest today is Anastasia Williams, founder of M1R Marketing. She specializes in creative direction, consulting and coaching for the fiber world, and hosts the podcast “Fiber Radio”. She joins us today as a marketing expert to talk about a grab bag of four often misunderstood topics: funnels, understanding your ideal customer, finding your why an…

My guest today is the founder of Knit the Rainbow, Austin Rivers. In addition to being a Diversity, Equity, and iInclusion professional and activist, he is also a professional actor –having toured the USA as well as 20 countries worldwide. He holds a BA in Politics as well as a Masters of Public Administration. Lastly, Austin currently serves as th…

My guest Cecilia Nelson-Hurt is currently the chief diversity officer at Heidrick & Struggles, an executive talent and leadership advisory firm. Prior to that position, Cecilia worked at L’oreal USA and JPMorgan Chase in prominent VP roles, further refining her expertise in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion. In our industry, she goes by t…

Today's guest is Elizabeth Townsend Gard, Endowed Professor of Law at Tulane University. She is the co-author of the a two-volume casebook, “IP: Doctrine and Application in Two Volumes” and she is also the host of the podcast Just Wanna Quilt, a research podcast focused on quilting, entrepreneurship and copyright. Elizabeth is also the director of …

Rebecca Inkrote, goes by the name Bex Marie, owns the company Bex Marie Design. Since 2010 she’s been building websites for creative professionals. Bex is going to chat with us today about new challenges in website design. This is an encore show with Bex as we had her on BOC back in January 2020 with our wantrepreneurs series where we learned all a…

David Jenyns is the founder of Systemology and SystemHub software. He is the author of the book SYSTEMology: Create time, reduce errors and scale your profits with proven business systems which has over 350 reviews on Amazon scoring 4.6 stars. He also hosts the podcast Business Process Simplified. He’s a frequent keynote speaker and has a Tedx talk…

Our guest today is Erik Jensen, Chief Strategy Officer at Predictive ROI. Erik developed the podcasting strategy that helped bolster the agency to over $2M, which was featured in the book Profitable Podcasting. Erik is also a co-author of the book, Sell With Authority.

Since 2006, my guest Benjamin Levisay has been the CEO & Director of Marketing and Sales for XRX also known as the Knitter’s Universe. Founded over 35 years ago by his uncle and father, XRX is the publisher of the now retired Knitter’s magazine as well as books and Stitches events. m2yvcc7f

Chad Hendricks is the founder and president of Brand Outcomes, an agency focused on helping businesses recruit and retain truck drivers. He also hosts the podcast “Recruit and Retain: Trucking Edition” on the same topic.

Michael Bird is the co-founder and CEO of Spindustry, a digital marketing agency based in Des Moines IA. Spindustry is a leader in producing e-commerce solutions, web applications, and digital marketing programs for their clients. In Episode 3 Leanne and Michael discuss bringing on an e-commerce component to your business and some of the challenges…

Our guests today are Abby Glassenberg and Darrin Stern. Abby co-founded Craft Industry Alliance and now serves as its president. She’s also a sewing pattern designer, teacher, and journalist. Darrin Stern is the Business Development Director at Koelnmesse, Inc. Darrin and Abby have partnered together to bring Koelnmesse’s successful European indust…

Have you been thinking about how your fiber or fabric business can continue to adapt and thrive? Well, you’re listening to the right show because that’s our theme for Business of Craft season three…Resiliency! Today Leanne Pressly is chatting with Laura Cameron, Director of Operations at Stitchcraft Marketing. The two cover lots of topics and tips …

A quick preview of what's coming up in Season 2 of Business of Craft, launching March 1, 2022.

[Just a quick warning that we’re going to be throwing around some curse words in today’s episode so if you’ve got little ears listening or that kind of language just isn’t your thing, you can make an informed choice about that.] My guest today is Amy E. Smith, aka The Joy Junkie. Amy is a certified professional career coach and her personal mission…

My guest today is Glenn Martin, a business consultant with over 30 years of experience. In 2002 he founded Trakstar, a human resource software application which he grew to 250K online users in 35 countries before he sold the company in 2016. Glen is formally retired but lends his expertise as a counselor with the Central Mountain Small Business Dev…

My guest today is Bex Marie of bexmarie.com. Bex, short for Rebecca, is a graphic design professional and since 2010 she’s been building websites for creative professionals. Bex is going to chat with us today about considerations in launching a new website.

Welcome everyone to the second season of Business of Craft where our theme is wantrepreneurship-- and our episodes are covering all the baby steps you need to take to launch your new business in 2020. My guest today is Jamie Billesbach, she is the Center Director of the Small Business Development Center for the Central Mountain Region of Colorado. …

Welcome everyone to the second season of Business of Craft where our theme is wantrepreneurship-- and our episodes are covering all the baby steps you need to take to launch your new business in 2020. My guest today is Susan Dunn, she is a graphic designer by trade but a whiz with the numbers. She’s been a consultant with the small business develop…

My guest today is Shawn Allison, a business and marketing consultant with the Central Mountain Small Business Development. Shawn has more than 20 years of experience in business development, direct marketing, strategic planning, budgeting, marketing automation and graphic design. Shawn is joining us today to give the down and dirty lowdown on how t…

My guest today Robin Waite is one of the most successful professional business coaches in the United Kingdom and author of the book "Take Your Shot: How to Grow Your Business, Attract More Clients and Make More Money". I wanted to have Robin on the show today to talk about some of the struggles that new entrepreneurs face in starting off on the rig…

A quick preview of what's coming up in Season 2 of Business of Craft, launching February 15, 2020.

My guest today Amy Singer is pioneer publisher of the quarterly digital e-magazine Knitty.com. We discuss the evolution of pattern publishing and Patreon support.

My guest today is Janet Kafadar, an online business coach who’s passionate about helping entrepreneurs package their brilliance into a sustainable, profitable online business. She’s come on Business of Craft show today to talk about starting a business after hours.

My guest today Stephen Koenig is the co-founder of Sommer Street Associates, a publishing intermediary working to connect craft publishers and retailers utilizing a whole new model. Steve is also adept at building audiences, monetizing content and helping digital brands grow to their full potential.

My guest Katie Salmon is the founder and CEO of a digital marketing consultancy business called Katie Does Marketing. Katie helps shop owners and makers develop strategies to simply SELL MORE STUFF.

My guest today is Laura Bellows, owner and founder of Jul Designs, an internationally collaborative company producing knitwear and body jewelry designs. Doctor Laura Bellows also happens to be a PhD trained cultural anthropologist, well-versed on the issues regarding cultural appropriation in business. She joins our show today to help crafty entrep…

Some listeners might recognize my guest today as a friend and former employee at Stitchcraft Marketing, Benjamin Krudwig. Benjamin makes his mark in the fiber industry as a talented weaver, garment-maker and fashion designer. He is currently the social media manager at Schacht Spindle. I wanted to have Benjamin come on the show today to talk about …

My guest today, Felicia Lo, is the founder and creative director of Sweet Georgia Yarns. Since 2005 Felicia and her team have focused on bringing “unapologetic colors” for fiber enthusiasts. Felicia is the author of Dyeing to Spin & Knit: Techniques & Tips to Make Custom Hand-Dyed Yarns. She is also a lecturer and teacher and has offered classes th…

My guest today is Meg Sutton, owner of Belle and Union, a specialty paper and home goods retailer in San Antonio Texas. Meg started the business in 2012 after falling in love with letterpress while working in a boutique shop. Meg and her husband Josh run the business together with a focus on a brick and mortar model with all American sourced goods-…

My guest today is TL Robinson. She is the founder and CEO of Mass Eden, a natural body care products business. I wanted to have her come on the show to share her journey about leaving her corporate job to take the leap and following her passion into creating natural body care products. Today we discuss the attributes you need to be a successful ent…

My guest today, Louis Boria, is the founder and owner of Brooklyn Boy Knits, a company that produces custom knitwear. In addition to building a thriving business, Louis is on a mission to combine his love of fiber arts with his passion to combat bullying and to champion inclusion and diversity in the fiber arts community. He has been featured in th…