This week I've had to up my outreach game, and it has paid off. Generally, the fellow creators that I've reached out to have been very receptive to collaborating with me. The big news of the week is that I'm launching a partnership with [Un] Tethered Planet, an organization located in St. Louis whose mission is to keep textiles out of landfills. They have access to a plethora of textiles that have been donated or discarded. I am working to finalize a design for dog beds that utilize scraps and less-desirable clothing items such as underwear, socks, etc for the filling. It has been so fun to experiment and it really makes this little project feel real to have a partnership in the works. Here are the beds I've created so far:
Another exciting connection was one who I've talked about before, Dan Pontarlier. He's a Sustainable Fashion Advocate and designer. We chatted about our parallels and I was super grateful for his words of encouragement.
It's been really fun to discover the existing community. If it wasn't for CoStarting and the requirement for using social media and putting myself out there, I would just be a girl alone in a room sewing which can get depressing. It's hard to try to change the world by yourself. It's easier to try to change it with people who share the same passions and drive.
I also created a LinkedIn page for Giglet's Garments, but now I'm trying to find it and it's not showing up, so I'll have to make it a goal in the coming weeks to up my LinkedIn game as well.
My creations this week centered around the dog bed project, but I did have a little bit of time to dabble:
Goals Recap
Goal: 5 Youtube Subscribers
Actual: 8 Youtube Subscribers
Goal: 5 Newsletter Subscribers
Actual: 6 Newsletter Subscribers
Goal: 8 videos released
Actual: 8 videos released
Goal: 4 newsletters released
Actual: 6 newsletters released
Goal: 3 Partnerships in the works
Actual: 3 Partnerships in the works
The only goal that I feel was a little bit questionable was the collaborations. I began doubting what it was I wanted to accomplish with the collaborations, and so I was wishy-washy with how I approached the other creators. If I could have revised my goals, I would've concentrated on one partnership and maybe had a smaller goal of simply connecting with other creators. It was very useful to have to make the connections, but coming up with 3 fully fledged collaborations in just 2 weeks spread me a little bit thin in addition to the content creation I needed to do.
What comes next?
Obviously, I am not done with this project. In addition to my exciting collaborations, I'm hoping my fellow cohort-members will want to continue with a peer group as it's been incredibly useful for me to have the goals and accountability the program has provided.
I have been tossing around the idea of creating my own store with Shopify or a similar platform, but I am a bit hesitant of the amount of work required to market myself without the help of Etsy. I believe one of my big tasks over the coming weeks will be researching the best way to get my products in front of people.
