YOU GUYS!
A “pinch-me-I-can’t-believe-this-is-happening” opportunity has happened for me. It has been a long time in the making, and I STILL can’t believe it is happening.
I am going to be one of Annie’s crochet experts for Annie’s Creative Studio!
Working with a large crafting business like Annie’s is a dream come true, and I still cannot believe this opportunity was presented to me!
So want to know the deets on how this happened? Well, it didn’t just fall into my lap.
Back up to Summer of 2019. I got an email from a company called “Skillpop”. They said they were looking for crochet teachers and wanted to know if I would interview for the position. I opened the email, briefly skimmed it, and wrote it off as spam.
Later that week my husband aka Mr. Nooks mentioned the email and asked if I was going to pursue it. I laughed and said no way that it was just junk email. He insisted that he thought it was a real company, and I should do the interview. He said that at the very least it would be good practice refining my job interview skills even if I wasn’t going to accept the job.
I reluctantly agreed, but had every intention of saying no. It just did not seem like a legit company to me. I really don’t know why I thought this. I guess I am a very skeptical person when it comes to emails?
Anyway, I interviewed, understood how cool the company is, and became one of their crochet teachers! It was SO MUCH FUN! I loved it. And it was because my husband pushed me out of my comfort zone and encouraged me to go for it.
I had very little experience teaching crochet. I had taught about 8ish 10-year-olds one time, and another time I taught 3 12-year-olds for about a month, but that was it. Did I feel unqualified? Yes. Was it a ton of work? Yes. Was I nervous before every class? Yes. Did I give up? No.
My husband jokes that he is my manager, and it is basically true. He does SO much behind the scenes work for me, which allows me to have more time to pattern design. He jokes that basically every company I have worked with is because of him, and I think it is true with the exception of maybe one company haha.
Anyway, fast forward a few months.
October 2019 my husband reached out to Annie’s (pretending to be me, shhhhh), and introduced who I was, what I did, and said I would love to connect with Annie’s and work with them in the future.
He does this with a lot of companies that I have expressed interest in collaborating with. It is about a 50% response rate, and then from the 50%, I only end up working with 25% or so, which to me is a pretty good success rate.
But this wasn’t always the case. This last year has been the most “yes’s” I have received in the 7 years I have been doing CND. I don’t know if I crossed an imaginary “threshold”, I have enough designs under my belt now, if it is because I now have a blog, or maybe I have gotten better at pitching myself. Not sure, but don’t be discouraged in the no’s! Move on and continue pursuing.
Surprisingly, Annie’s ended up responding, and I connected with a lot of the people that work at the craft company. There are so many different branches of the company that I didn’t realize what the company all encompassed. More on that in a different blog post, though.
One of the contacts was to potentially work with their filming division. I didn’t know what that entailed, but I interviewed, got the job, and started filming for Annie’s Creative Studio division!
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One of the best parts of working for them? I don’t have to edit the videos myself! Haha. That is always so time consuming.
It feels a bit overwhelming to work next to such big names in the crochet industry, but I am excited for the new experiences! And all of this happened because I had “crochet teacher” on my resume (from a company I was convinced was a scam haha) and because Mr. Nooks reached out to Annie’s.
So when you feel unqualified, too “small”, awkward, nervous, or don’t know what to say when reaching out to companies, know that you are not alone. I would venture to say that we all feel that way! Don’t cut yourself short and go for it! Put yourself out there, contact these companies, show them how you would be beneficial to them, and don’t wait for them to make the first contact with you. If you want it, you have to go after it!
I am here to tell you that you can, and I get so excited for other makers’ successes in the industry, so tell me them! If you’ve landed an exciting gig (big or small), let me know! Everyone needs a cheerleader, and I would love to join in at applauding your successes, so let me know in the comments!
This is SO exciting!!! I’m happy for you!
Thanks, Jenny!!! <3
This is awesome!!! What an achievement! Congratulations!
Thank you, Kristina! It has been so fun to work with them!