We held our second Craft Savvy Market on November 3, 2018 and we had a blast. Apply to be a vendor for our upcoming market here.

We gave you our Market #2 reflections and thoughts Part 1 (here), and we are back for Part 2. Reflection allows us to the opportunity to identify what works for us and the things that do not work. As a team, we have incorporated reflection as a necessary practice because it allows us to look back and improve as well as celebrate. m

The importance of Confidence – Lessons From CSM #2

You can have the skills,  and talent, but confidence will lead you to a success. A few months back when we started planning for Craft Savvy Market #2, we decided to take more risks, challenge/encourage each other, and boost our confidence in our abilities to produce a successful event. As a result, we  pulled of a great market event. This personally encouraged me to step out with confidence in every area of my life. One specific example: was creating our photo wall backdrop. Charlene challenged us to make our own creative photo wall, and we accepted the challenge. As a result, we collectively created an amazing photo wall for our event. That added an extra boost to my self-confidence.

Did we have fears? YES!!! Did we doubt somethings? Of course we did. We decided to focus on the Big GOD we serve; and grow our confidence from what He did during our first market event. We grew confidence in our abilities,  so we didn’t allow fears to rise within up. That confidence helped to free us to push even harder. It has helped me to move out of my self-restricted comfort zone. With that level of Confidence, I am ready to work harder for a greater outcome. With all this confidence, love, support,  and teamwork, I am excited to see what happens next. I know that the next market day will be bigger and better. So with that been said, if you are embarking on a new undertaking, have supportive people around you to help build your confidence.

Mina 

 

Pace Yourself – Lessons From CSM #2

This time around, I learned to pace myself in regards to creating products. One of the challenges of being selling handmade items is producing items to sell. Because many of us are a one / two man show, failure to adequately prepare in this area often times means we are left scrambling at the last minute, or we have a very limited supply of our products.

In preparation for market day, there was quite a few things that had to be taken care of from a market stand point and from a business owner’s stand point. Sometimes, it got overwhelming, but one thing I improved on was not waiting until the last minute to create products.

I intentionally set goals for the number of products I wanted to have on hand and broke down how many items I would need to produce over the time I had in order to be fully prepared. And every week, I made progress towards this goal. I didn’t necessarily meet my weekly goals every week, but it was much better than when I started. Instead of being a last minute producer (which impacts the quality of my product), I became more goal driven. This made a huge difference in the amount of products I was able to produce and it preserved my sanity and lowered my stress levels as well.

Jandi 

 

How do you reflect as a creative? Share your ideas and thoughts with us below.

Click here to read Part 1 of our lessons learned.