Just over five years ago I moved “home” to Los Angeles. While I grew up here, I had spent the last 20
years living in London. I was working as
an executive producer in the entertainment industry and had a fabulous career –
I was very lucky with both the people I worked with and the places I had
travelled.
After 25 years of working in showbiz, I had had enough. I needed a new challenge, but wasn’t quite
sure what that was going to be. Going back
to college to finally finish my degree was on the list, and perhaps further
studying alternative medicine as I was always very interested in that. Or maybe business law, I had studied that in
London in night school.
I’m a believer in everything happens for a reason. Soon after I arrived back in LA, I got a
call from Ryan Seacrest’s producer. They
were putting together a new show and needed some help. I agreed to do it for a couple of weeks just
to kick it off. I had sworn off of
showbiz, remember??! I so enjoyed
working with Ryan and the new challenges his show gave me, that I signed up to
stay on as the supervising producer of his national show.
The very first day I was an employee, so the very first day
of having insurance, I was wheeled out of the studio in an ambulance. A long term illness hit me flat out and I
believe it was waiting to do that until I was home with my mom.
It’s a long story about hospital stays, surgeries, etc ..
but the final outcome was pretty devastating.
I could no longer keep up with the hours and pressure of that job and
had to leave. While the doctors were
trying to figure out what was wrong, I got out my crafting supplies and started
making jewelry. A friend suggested I
sell it on Etsy. I hadn’t heard of it,
so checked it out and opened a shop that day.
It was a life-saver.
Ok, not so much life, as mental.
I was too ill to have a normal social life, I couldn’t go running around
local restaurants and bars with my girlfriends, so it was pretty lonely
compared to what was very recently, a busy life.
What I found at Etsy was not just a sales tool, but a
community. I soon found the chat-rooms
and they were my new social life. What a
fabulous thing! To be able go online day
or night and find like-minded creatives – especially as many of them were in
similar positions to me.
I can’t even count how many hours I spent chatting away,
meeting new “friends” and selling my jewelry.
It took the loneliness out of my life.
Then one day, Etsy announced they were closing the chat rooms. To say people were devastated is an
understatement. Where would I spend my
time now? How would we stay in touch?
Having been a life-long crafter, a business-woman, and
someone who hadn’t known what next direction life was going to take me … a
spark went off in my head: creative
small business owners NEED a supportive community. And there weren’t any others around.
When I began to feel better, I did a short consultancy at
The Home Shopping Network. I learned a
lot in my time there and one thing stuck out: if people at home are watching
moving pictures of products and buying them, why can’t we do something similar
for small businesses? This is where my
business and production background met and that earlier spark turned into
fireworks.
And … that’s how this whole thing started. The CraftStar: an
e:commerce site for creative small business, based on community and a
production platform.
I can’t emphasize enough how important COMMUNITY is to the
success of us small businesses. We talk
a lot about it in our LIVE broadcasts on The CraftStar, and from the emails we
receive, we know people agree. Community
comes in many forms – social media, the live events we do, and the groups you
may participate in.
I still miss those days of the Etsy chatrooms and how
fulfilling they were … and annoying at times when that little hamster wouldn’t
let you in a full room! (anyone who
participated in the chat there will know what little critter I’m talking
about!).
But … there’s no reason to miss them, as we can recreate
them. We have an even more sophisticated
style of chatrooms on The CraftStar. We
can have as many “rooms” as we want, we can share and show off listings with
links and images … and most importantly, we can be there for each other!!
So, we’re going to start taking more advantage of this part
of The CraftStar site. While you can
chat whenever you want, The CraftStar team will be setting up regular rooms on
Wednesdays (Noon PDT / 3pm PDT) and Fridays (4pm PDT / 7pm EDT) to chat
away! You don’t need to be a seller on
The CraftStar to join us, you just need to sign up to access the full site.
We look forward to getting to know you, seeing your latest
listing beauties, making new friends, and answering any questions you may have!
So, please join us tomorrow and tell your crafty friends –
the chat is back!
With Best Wishes,
Bethan
Founder / CEO
The CraftStar
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