041 | Melanie Karlins, Grey Moggie on retail craft markets, overcoming creative blocks and redefining success for different seasons in life

TSBC alum, Melanie Karlins of Grey Moggie started letterpress printing in 2008 as a creative outlet while she was in law school, and later taught letterpress classes at a local art center. In 2011 she started selling her products at local craft fairs and picked up wholesale accounts through her Instagram feed. Today, Grey Moggie is Melanie's full-time job and her greeting cards are sold in stationery and gift shops all over the United States, including Paper Source

On today's episode, Melanie is sharing how retail craft markets shaped her business and product line, how she overcame creative blocks, and why her definition of success shifts with different seasons in her life.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:

• Melanie's motivation for starting Grey Moggie
• How she began teaching letterpress classes
• The types of products she creates and the motivation behind them
• How craft shows shaped her business and how it shaped her product line
• Merchandising tips for people considering retail shows
• The benefits of selling her products at a weekly market
• How she determines if a retail market is a good place for her to be
• Managing her wholesale line and the retail line and how she does it on a day to day basis
• How being a mom has impacted the way she runs her business and how she prioritized her time
• Melanie's definition of success in her business
• The advice she would give to someone just starting out in a product based business
• What's next for Grey Moggie

KEY TAKE-AWAYS:

"The day after exams my second year of law school, I took a letterpress class and I just couldn't give it up." - Melanie Karlins

"That was one big thing I learned from customer feedback, was that everyone's looking for something new." - Melanie Karlins

"You can kind of tell upfront before you even get to the show what kind of help you're going to get onsite or what the scene is going to be like onsite." - Melanie Karlins

"My biggest takeaway is through really trying to make my business a business and becoming a mom at the same time was just that everything has a season and you can't necessarily plan ahead for it." - Melanie Karlins

"Self-care is so important to the creative process and the decisions that we're making within our business." - Katie Hunt

"It's important to revisit our definition of success and what we hope to achieve with our business and with our time and the effort that we're putting into these things." - Katie Hunt

LINKS:

Website: http://greymoggie.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GreyMoggiePress

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greymoggie/

JOIN THE TSBC FAMILY:

Our signature Paper Camp program is back and we're now enrolling for Winter 2018!

We're talking about product development sales tools, trade shows, marketing, working with buyers, sales reps and the press. Attend live or online. It's the similar content, available in different formats.

We have two seats remaining for our Paper Camp Conference, March 1-2 in Los Angeles.

Join us here!

ABOUT PROOF TO PRODUCT:

Proof to Product is brought to you by Tradeshow Bootcamp and hosted by Katie Hunt. Since 2011, TSBC has worked with hundreds of product based businesses to help them up level, scale, and build profitable sustainable companies. You can find our show notes and additional resources at ProofToProduct.com. If you like what you heard today, please head over to Apple Podcast to leave a five star review and subscribe. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week with a new episode!