Kathy from Lamonster shares some publicity secrets

Kathy’s exposure in the media is inspiring.  Her products are totally amazing, perfect unique and beautifully made which is a pretty good start, but the way she has been successfully featured in several ‘big name’ publications is a fantastic boost to the handmade network here in Perth.  Thankfully Kathy is a generous soul and shares her ‘publicity secrets’ in her words below.

I started Lamonster in February 2012 and since then have been lucky to have been featured in publications such as Frankie Magazine, Peppermint Magazine, Tickle the Imagination, Kid Magazine and Kid Independant.
To be included in both Frankie and Peppermint Magazines has been such a highlight and so exciting mainly because they are my two most favorite magazines. Ever. But also because of the amazing exposure that they have brought me.

In each instance I visited the website for each of the magazines – they have a ‘submissions’ section and give you the email address for the best contact. I try to contact a magazine a month – there is no harm in trying! In the past I have emailed editors directly – sometimes I have gotten responses, but sometimes I just get emailed back a media pack.

When I contact magazines it’s normally very informal, I like to introduce myself and offer a bit of a background of what I do. I explain (very briefly) the processes involved and attach some promotional pictures and links to my website, Facebook and Etsy shop which I believe gives a complete view of what Lamonster is about.

I think the reason I was selected for both Frankie and Peppermint is that my style is absolutely on par with their target audience – mainly because I am their audience! I make clothing for children with an interesting/playful and vintage twist and both magazines love handmade, unique items. In particular Peppermint has a strong leaning towards garments made with an ethical/environmental consideration – so garments made in limited supply using organic or recycled goods would be favoured.

If I had 5 tips to offer they would be:
1.    Know your target audience and aim for the magazines you know they would read;
2.    Email the submissions contact provided in the magazine or on the magazine’s website;
3.    Be informal in your approach;
4.    Provide a little background on yourself and your business;
5.    Link to all web content (Etsy/Facebook/webpage/blog) to give them a clear idea of your brand.

And remember that you have nothing at all to lose in trying! Who wouldn’t want free exposure to thousands of people who may otherwise not know about the fantastic things you have to offer?
Good Luck!!
Kathy

Kathy is a regular stall holder at local Perth Markets and is also a member of Montage Pop up shop open until 11 May 2013
www.lamonstershop.com  

www.etsy.com/shop/lamonstershop

www.facebook.com/LamonsterHandmadeClothing

Pop Up shops – a quick chat with Annie from Montage

Annie from Osmosis creates beautiful lazer cut and cross stitch jewellery. She is a founding member of Perth pop up shop MONTAGE. Montage Pop-up shop is a temporary store of local designers creating handmade goodies. Everything from jewellery, bath products, toys, aprons and homewares to fashion, art and papergoods plus a few surprises in between, all hand made and produced in WA! Montage’s mission is to create a unique shopping experience using the ‘pop-up’ concept of temporarily appearing in a location before disappearing and ‘poppingup’ again. Montage also hopes to encourage customers to support local handmade products by West Australian designers. Montage Collective have opened several successful ‘pop-up shops’ previously, in Fremantle, Northbridge and the Perth CBD.

Annie shares some insights into the increasingly popular retail trend ‘Pop Up Shops’

Why did you start The Montage Collective (Montage)?

It was started when one of a crafty group of friends found out about the possibility of getting a low rent shop for a couple of weeks in Freo. It was such a success we just kept going

 How did you find each other?

We knew one another initially via an Etsy forum that is no longer going, but many of us have kept in touch since.

What were your goals for the first pop up?

Personally I saw it as an experiment to see what would happen & if it would be worthwhile financially. Also as a way of getting my work seen by more potential customers. I then realised that it’s also a great way to spread the “locally hand made” word & show that shopping does not always have to done in chain stores. I think it has worked on all levels.

Where was the first Montage pop up?

Adelaide St, Freo

How do you find your next shop?

Keeping our eyes open for empty shops in potential areas & trying to persuade owners to give a reduced rent for a short stay (not always easy!!) Also repeat shops where it has gone well.

Whats the best part of being involved in a pop up?

Making can be such an isolated activity, it’s great to work on something as a team.

Whats the worst part of being involved in a pop up?

Scheduling meetings – we are scattered all over Perth and many of us have jobs so getting everybody to come is really hard.

What are your future plans?

We’d love regular venues in various suburbs so we can move around without having to deal with new landlords every time. I sometimes think a full time shop would be great, but that might make it a lot harder in many ways. I like to make more than I like to sell!

Do you have any advice for someone wanting to start a pop up?

The people you work with are just as important as the product they make. Get to know any potential members a bit before you approach them.

Make sure you have some sort of rule as to what is or isn’t going to be in your shop. It makes decisions easier. e.g. we only have people who are hands on with what they make & that it’s made in WA. E.G. We might find somebody with a fab product, but we find out it’s actually made in Asia to their design. We are strict about this rule so we can’t stock them however much we like what they make.

Are there any resources you think are valuable for those looking to start a pop up?

You need to think creatively for venues, just keep your eyes open online, when out shopping, driving and passing real estate agents. Visiting handmade markets is a way to get to meet makers as a customer & see their product  in person. Private Facebook groups & Google docs are great for discussions and decision making plus keeping track of finances.

The next Montage Shop (number 7!) will be popping up Early April 2013 in Northbridge.

website: http://montagecollective.blogspot.com.au/
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/montagecollective

Team Spirit

A big THANK YOU to all or our wonderful tam members that nominated our team for the Team Spirit Awards!

In case you missed it, Cynthia (Shiny Rabbit) was quoted and her photo was posted in the international ETSY Blog HERE

And this wonderful ETSY email (below) was sent by Kim Konen  to our team leader Peta (Petrafanella).

It would be awesome if we were to be supported even more by ETSY. What a wonderful finish to a fantastic 2012! Lets hope 2013 thrives and continues the momentum.

Watch this space, keep checking the team forums (sign up for the daily email digest if you haven’t already), stay tuned and keep involved, we all love the community spirit and the wealth of knowledge we all have to share.

Etsy Team Spirit Award 2012.

Please nominate us (WA Street Team) We are fantastic! I just popped in a nomination for our team to the Team Spirit awards… feel free to do the same if you love our team and all it has to offer…

Nominations can be made HERE

Selling With Success Seminar details

Still a few days to grab you tickets for the conference.

Grab them from HERE

Check out the awesome lineup for the day!

In case you have no idea where the conference will be, a little map is included here:

https://maps.google.com.au/maps?ll=-31.951955,115.854754&spn=0.002119,0.004128&t=m&z=19

We look forward to seeing you on this exciting day of knowledge and fun! If you have any inquiries please contact us on streetteamwa@gmail.com
See you then!
The WA Street Team

YOUR HANDMADE GIFTS FOR ETSY

Etsy are coming to WA and we want to give them a bundle of handmade goodness to take away with them.

We at the WA Street Team and Made on the Left would like to give Etsy staff a package of WA handmade items to take back east with them.

We are calling out for WA makers to provide one SMALL item for inclusion in this pack. (remember they have to take it back over east!) We will include your item with your business name/card firmly attached. Due to luggage limitations, we cannot include more than one item from each maker and we cannot include excess promotional material.

Please contact Davina at Fluid Ink or <design@fluidink.com.au> for more information and where to deliver/post items.

Products will need to be received no later than Wednesday 31 October.

Thanks in advance

Davina

Registrations for the EtsyAU seminar in WA are now open!

The Selling With Success EtsyAU Seminar  is held over one day on the 3rd of November at Form with other networking events being held around the date as well. Tickets are only $15 per person for the seminar which will help cover some costs.

Please pop over to the new WA Street Team store and take a look at the ticket listings for all of the details (and there are lots of them!) We have some fantastic knowledge-sharing set up for the day by some wonderful speakers. This is really exciting stuff and could be one of the best things you ever do for your Etsy business!

Selling With Success Seminar Tickets are available by clicking here. Register now by purchasing a ticket – seats are limited.

Any question, please email the Team on streetteamwa@gmail.com. See you on the big day!

Expressions of interest – attending the WA Etsy Seminar!

Etsy is coming to town!

Hi All, we are taking a very quick poll on the level of interest in an Etsy focused seminar for November 2012.

We have an Etsy staff member lined up to speak at the seminar along with some other interesting speakers and subjects all focused on successful Etsy selling.  There may be a nominal fee charged for the day to help cover our costs and will be on a Saturday in November in a central location.

Please let us know of your interest level by ticking the appropriate poll response. The poll is open to everyone with an interest in Etsy! You can be an Etsy seller or even just starting to consider being an Etsy seller – it’s open to everyone who has a creative interest and an interest in selling on Etsy.

Click the most appropriate level of interest here!

Thanks!

from the WA Street Team folks

New Western Australia Team Newsletter

We have a new team newsletter and a team email address!!

You can sign up to our newsletter here:-
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP

WE NEED YOUR HELP

To make this a vital and informative newsletter, please email any news, hints, tips, – anything that would be useful to our readers to: streetteamwa@gmail.com

Newsletters will be sent on a monthly basis and will include info on team members sales, exhibitions or events, important team news and support and updates on relevant Esty information and events such as the upcoming Etsy visit to WA.With a team as big as we now have (over 400!! Go WA!!), it is the most efficient way to contact members.If you have relevant news you want to have considered for the newsletter, please send it to the Street Team email address.Dont forget to ‘like’ our facebook page too HERE!

Guilt is for the guilty!

By Cynthia Verspaget

I confess, I am writing this because I can’t get my brain past a writing roadblock for my postgraduate study. Writing makes you a better writer (or so I have been told) so I am combining two tasks I feel I have been inhibited by my increasing daily schedule – that of being a contributor to my creative community counterparts and that of finishing my study.  I have been pondering during this period of task limbo on my guilt over not achieving all of the things I need to do on my list and fair warning I tell anyone who will listen in a kind of attempt to get a social supportive hug from ‘the collective’.  I know others like me are out there because creativity seduces people like us; we are the do-ers of the world.

So, here’s what I am doing with my life currently (I did warn you!). I study full time and am in the last year of a very long PhD, I work almost full time as a sessional academic (which never has clear work time boundaries), I am undertaking staff training this month and its intensive, and I am trying to run a creative business making jewellery and home wares with my partner Adam – who also has a full plate!  For others, its being a new mother or an experienced mother with other young ones in the mix, running a business and working a regular (or sometimes not) job, for the men its usually looking after the unpaid jobs for everyone, working long hours, being a father and/or a good husband and running a business.  It’s just not easy being creative these days because for a long period, to get towards ‘success’ (whatever that is), we need to support ourselves and those we love in more practical ways.  In all of that gurgling tumultuous ocean, we can somehow forget to support those we love in more intangible ways.

I have been working towards trying to get everything practical done and through realising I let some other important things slip be it practical or that intangible stuff, I have hit a beautiful wall of forgiveness – in all likelihood the reality is, I won’t get it all done.  I am sort of becoming OK with that! I am starting to see that the guilt I feel is about some misconception of what it is to be a complete human being.  Practical and the intangible stuff that I find myself doing in life is part of an organic process. Not finishing something today is maybe not meant to be finished today.  I am not solving the world’s problems, I am trying to make my world a little better in some way be it financially or emotionally.  Furthermore, it’s not the tasks that make me complete but how I treat myself so I and others who love me can actually enjoy me and my life!

Tara Gentile talks about how she manages this by releasing some of those tasks we think must be done into the ‘it can wait’ section of the bench. I like that approach because as your responsibilities increase you realise that what you thought was important turns out to be quite unimportant.  For Tara, the dishes might be able to wait tonight, for me, if someone comes around and sees my mess (which I expect to be there for the next year) who actually cares? We know we care more if our babies have a healthy mother, we know we care more if our hearts feel fulfilled – we know this!  Dishes look silly in importance next to that fulfillment stuff.

So here are some tips I have started implementing and I am not going to lie to you, you will fall off the guilt free band wagon because we are just more complex than we give ourselves credit for but these tips have been helping me to remind myself that guilt is for the guilty! And I am not actually guilty of anything!

Combine tasks

They don’t call it juggling for nothing. This idea that we should do A, B and C then A again isn’t always practical.  I don’t juggle well, if I did I would have run away to join the circus a long time ago.  If you can combine things – do it. Right now I am writing this because I need to get my motor functions hooked up with my writer’s brain for my study.  I am killing both the robin and the raven with one giant rock because I am also fulfilling my desire to contribute to the creative community.

Procrastination is good!

I call it “setting up business foundations” sure it’s a word thing but it makes sense too. Procrastination isn’t a bad thing if it leads to productivity later. You just need to ask yourself and be honest whether you are following the next rule (taking time out) or whether you are setting up some good healthy foundations for productivity because this helps you feel less guilty about what it is you are doing.  But either way, taking time out or organising papers or pens are both ways of setting up for productivity later.  Procrastination is not a dirty word – embrace it and let it happen because it always leads somewhere good.

Take time out

Gosh how many times have you heard that one?!  It’s ever-present for a reason. Everyone and everything needs a break even machinery. What happens if we don’t switch off now and then? Our pistons melt.  You need to be functional, especially with everything that’s on your plate.  It’s such a surprise how much can be achieved when you release yourself from self slavery now and then and just breathe. This brings me to my next point…

Forgive yourself

Guilt is for the guilty. Seriously, you have done nothing wrong by trying to make a living and be a great mum, provider… (or insert other role here) but it’s all valid time stuff.  Taking care of the role though is all about taking care of the person who plays it.  The major tasks may need to be shaken off for today.  Isn’t the best gift you can give those you love, a healthy happy parent/wife/husband/provider? You should never feel guilty about wanting this ultimate gift for the loved ones in your life and if it takes you dropping a meeting, or doing an all nighter tomorrow and spending time having a soak in the bath or taking a walk in the park today then just forgive yourself already and do it! You are your best asset in business and in life, think of loving yourself as a fantastic insurance policy!   All the rest is gravy.

Either way, we need to be kinder to ourselves and realise that we are the force behind our lives, our desires, and our pursuits and it serves no one let alone our businesses to be abusing ourselves through work and sacrificing the important concept and action of creating balance.  It’s time to forgive yourself if you are inclined to feel guilty about commitments you may have missed today, to stop questioning yourselves if you find yourself procrastinating and just living in the moment because that is often where we find we are present in the lives of those we do all of this for and that is what is most important.  The rest can wait until tomorrow.