well hello there, maker!

If you want to *make it* as a handmade business owner, you’re in the right place. Welcome to the brand-new Business of Making podcast, with your hosts Jess Van Den, Mikaela Danvers, and Deborah Engelmajer. Between us, we have over 20 years of experience in the handmade industry, and that, combined with our various degrees in education & business, means the 3 of us bring to the table a wealth of knowledge & experience about how to teach, learn, and succeed in business. In our individual businesses (Create & Thrive, Tizzit.co, and The Maker’s Collective) we’ve all spent years working with makers just like you – teaching you what you need to know to make a craft business a success. We decided to join forces to bring you something bigger and better than any of us could do on our own! If you’d like to know more about who we are, and why we’re doing this, you could click here to hop on over to our About page... or, even better, have a listen to our very first episode below, where we introduce ourselves and our various accents 😉

• Find out how Jess accidentally created a full-time craft business (that she runs to this day).
• Discover how Deb went from working in the marketing department of Sephora in Paris to running an online summit for makers.
• Hear what Mik learnt from running a brick & mortar space for makers in her city, and why she’s starting her PhD.

We hope you enjoy listening to the show every week, as we get together to riff on topics related to the business of making.

~ Jess, Mik & Deb 

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Jess, Deb, and Mik are three women, based in Australia, who thrive on helping other people who want to start their own business and be their own bosses. They are working together to offer different perspectives and bounce ideas off of each other.

get to know each one of them in this first episode!

Jess Van Den has had a full-time handmade business since 2010, but it started out as a hobby business in 2008. She initially wanted to be a research scientist but became a teacher instead, however learned during her time as a manager that her initial idea of sales as negative was not necessarily correct – as long as you believe in what you’re selling, you know it is valuable, and you know your product helps other people, sales isn’t a bad thing. It all then lead to where she is now, she also helps makers how to thrive and make a profitable handmade business.

Deborah Engelmajer has a background in digital marketing and has always wanted to work for herself or help small projects (charities, small businesses). She used to work for Sephora in Paris but realised it wasn’t quite for her… She needed less city, and more ocean and decided to move from Paris to Australia.  After working as a freelance marketing consultant for a few years, she went back to uni to do a graphic design degree and also learnt web design. She gradually stopped taking on clients that weren’t handmade shop owners and is now focusing entirely on teaching makers and handmade shop owners via her membership site and the Maker’s Biz Summit.

Mikaela Danvers has known since childhood that she had entrepreneur skills.  She also loves creating things just for fun. She has a background in graphic design, education, & photography. She currently teaches graphic design at the University of Canberra and is also helping people grow their business and sorting their strategy. Aside from teaching and running her own business, she is also taking up her PhD.

what we cover in this episode:

• Collaboration over competition – this podcast is the perfect example! 
• Jess mentions our “excessive education” – we like learning, we like teaching, we loved school and homework growing up
  
  
• Whilst we all offer our own memberships, courses, and more… we want you to take the course that works for you and that will help you to push forward in your business 
• Our intention for the podcast to be straight, real talk, with no sugar coating (there will also likely be some swearing from Mik!) 
• Doing whatever it takes for you to succeed in your business, because while it takes a lot of time, effort, and learning, having a successful handmade business is do-able

So if you want to leave your 9-5, choose the lifestyle you want to have and make your creative endeavour into a profitable business, these Maker Mavens will help you in the right direction!