Business of Craft Episode 37 Kylie Gersekowski

WELCOME TO EPISODE #37 OF BUSINESS CRAFT

My guest Kylie Gersekowski is the owner of Little Moo Designs located in South West Queensland Australia. Kylie started out her crafty career in crafts in 2009 which included making baby clothes and then in 2011 bespoke hobby horses. Her business evolved again and in 2014, with sewing designs for handbag and purse clutches made from combinations of leather and fabric and cork. She has been published in numerous e-zines and she currently has 37 PDF patterns. She currently lives in Australia. In addition to selling bag patterns, Kylie also is a master at offering masterclasses and that’s the subject of our episode today. 

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#1 Tell us a little bit about your crafty business. You told me an interesting origin story about the name of your business. Can you share that with our listeners? [2:30]

#2 You say “Understand your WHY for wanting to do a masterclass or retreat”.  How did YOU discover your why for this endeavor? [3:53]

#3 Was that true for you and what would you advise as far as how long it might take someone to build a reputation as a good teacher? [6:10]

#4 Your next step is also one of the most important marketing exercises that we recommend to clients, which is to identify your target customer avatar for each of your masterclasses. I would assume this changes from venue to venue, so how do you do the research to figure this out? [8:02]

#5 Do you just let them (the local shop owners) choose anything or do you try to influence them to a pattern that suits them best? [10:03]

#6 I love your advice for the next step about setting timeframes for the class because I think this is where a lot of people get hung up. You say, for example, your Fold Party Clutch just takes 2 hours for you to do it, but when you do a class you allow 6 hours. How do you recommend people do this step of the planning to figure it out? [11:30]

#7 You also recommend that you allow time to help people feel at ease and to get to know you and your teaching style. How do you do this? [13:09]

#8 One of the things you do is to try and pair up your objectives with your marketing copy, which one do you start with? [15:35]

#9 What are some of those best practices and tips you offer for planning the course materials? [17:00]

#10 One of the other experiences you share is to be prepared to change your methods and adapt if your students need that. Can you share an example of when you needed to do that? [18:15]

#11 You also had some potential pitfalls for new teachers so I wanted you to share those with the audience, one of them was about mobility limitations and other considerations. What else should they be thinking about for planning the venue? [21:46]

#12 Walk us how you determine the pricing? [24:22]

#13 You can do all this planning and preparation but if you don’t market well, they won’t come right? [27:22]

#14 What about the booking piece? How do you recommend setting up student enrollment? [31:00]

#15 I love that you also include your game day preparations that help you be a great teacher. Can you share with us what you do? [32:12]

#16 Did you have any experiences of complete flops or failures with your masterclasses? [34:00]

#17 You also do a great debrief after classes for constant continual improvement. How do you do that? [35:00]

#18 I understand you also have a new book coming out? Can you tell us about that? [37:00]

#19 I always ask a quirky question and I know you live on a farm, so what is one thing that you might do on the farm that Americans would be intrigued by? [38:15]

Additional Resources

Connect with Kylie Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Website

Planning a class with Little Moo Designs handout– PDF Handout

Simon Sinek’s Ted talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPYeCltXpxw

The Escape Travel Set by Kylie Gersekowski