#meetthemakermonday Special Edition w/ New Origin Shop
All images via @neworiginshop
She wears all the hats and shares what she’s learned along the way.
We’ve decided to take this week’s IG #meetthemakermonday series online to share the full interview with our friend & talented maker, curator, & shop owner Sierra Lewis of @neworiginshop. We're dropping all the good stuff below talking about her entrepreneurial journey, some of the challenges, and some amazing tips to help other small business creatives along the way. Enjoy! Happy #meetthemakermonday
More from the Maker:
What are the things you make vs the things you choose to curate?
Our New Origin Shop collection includes fiber accessories (think scarves & hats when it’s cooler), home decor, handbag accessories & jewelry. For our collection I crochet, macrame, knit, & use some aspects of embroidery to hand-craft our wares. Since our beginnings our shop has evolved into a lifestyle destination, a space created to provide unique & affordable wares to shoppers who are eager to support independent makers & small businesses. I curate from makers & artists who I absolutely adore in jewelry, clothing, home decor, & apothecary to name a few. You can view our collection by category on our website, neworigin.shop where our products are categorized & also list brand name, origins, etc.
We love your brand & all the vibes. What brought you to start New Origin Shop?
Thanks so much, I love everything about A People Party Productions too. My brand started as a means of self expression. At the time, I had recently relocated to Austin from New York City & I was in my first year of working a really demanding Special Education teaching position. For one, I was truly inspired by the change of pace the move to Austin presented in my life, & I was really fascinated w/ the intentionality of being a “bagless” city. Secondly, I needed a way to decompress from the physical, emotional, & consistent demand of teaching teenagers. So I turned to crochet as an outlet. First by crocheting minimal, stylish reusable bag alternatives. Before I knew it, I had so many bags that I chose to open my Etsy shop.
Were you always an artist of many interests and talents growing up?
It’s so funny when speaking with my parents we can’t specifically recall when I learned to crochet or knit or if I used the sewing machine--I requested from a catalog one Christmas as a gift-- very much. Most of my creative projects were centered around trips to the local A.C Moore or craft store. Since as long as I can remember I’ve always had a knack for creativity and an interest in business,style and fashion. I studied Fashion Marketing in college, it’s been my dream to own a lifestyle boutique since I was a teenager, I just never imagined I’d play the role as designer + creator.
How have you acquired the skills to make all the things you do plus operate a creative business?
Through research and practice I’ve taught myself the skills used to create our wares. My husband’s a graphic designer and marketing professional so I’m always picking his brain to brainstorm and for feedback. He’s amazing, he helps with production of certain fiber accessories and is the brains behind our handmade fiber stationary cards.
What would you say are the top three most essential tools for a creative small business to operate well? It could be a website, an app, a mindset, social media, anything really - what are your thoughts from your experience?
Definitely a positive mindset, lead with passion, resilience and consistency, it’s no easy task sharing and convincing others to believe in your dreams. A simple, easy to navigate website. We’ve tried a few since our beginnings, and have recently made the switch to Shopify, believe the hype, it’s that good. We love the ability to design our own site, the app center and the helpful content they create to help us be more successful. This website could be an online shop, portfolio etc it’s a cornerstone in establishing your brand and has been our saving grace given our current norm. I’m team Instagram all the way. I love being able to share our content, connect with our clients, other creative businesses like @apeoplepartyproductions and find it to be very informal and friendly.
What excites you most about your business?
I’m excited by the person I’ve become after starting the business, I’ve always been a hard worker, but the determination, persistence and courage needed to own a business is like no other experience. It’s very fulfilling.
Being able to share my vision and values. I want each piece in our shop to have that “minimal statement” feel. Our products should be accessible, affordable, empowering, and conscientious.
Lastly, is the opportunity to connect with others. Even when I lived in New York, surrounded by millions of people each day, it was hard to feel connected to anyone outside my own social circle. Being an entrepreneur—and having to interact with so many new faces at shows—has really broadened my horizons. I think that it has reinforced that we’re all different and unique—but also have enough in common to be open to new connections.
What is your least favorite part of the job of being a micro business creative?
My least favorite part would have to be ALL the many different roles I have to fulfill to make sure the business is a business. Juggling the day to day tasks like taxes, accounting and marketing (SEO, traffic conversion whattt) and the creative aspect (design, curating, social media), also POP UP EVENTS, it’s a lot being a one woman show. But I’m grateful for the support and encouragement that I receive and look forward to the day when I can grow our team to tackle all of these tasks. #motivation
As a small business ourselves we know how much time goes into creating engaging content. Your visual content is always fresh and inspiring - tell us more about your process and inspiration for creating content for your business.
Thank you, that means so much to me, although challenging I really enjoy creating content for our brand and I’m excited to grow in this area. It’s a multi step process that starts with us. I usually create,search or save to repost compelling content like inspirational quotes, text graphics and inspirational photos, it helps to balance out the feed. It’s a rule of thumb to adapt posts into our stories by using saved templates, adding polls and questions to help us engage and to add links when helpful. Some content like Instagram polls for data, blog drafts, etc are brainstormed and stored in a google doc by suggestion of my husband. Most importantly our content needs to feel inspiring, uplifting and encouraging. I hope that it mirrors our customer. They work hard, live thoughtfully, enjoy simplicity but appreciate making a statement and admires the beauty in everything.
With everything still uncertain do you have plans for markets or pop-ups for the rest of 2020?
We’ve been taking it day by day as all of our spring/near summer pop-ups have been canceled. We have just a few more shows on the calendar we’re waiting to hear word from.
We love you macrame tutorial vid!! Do you plan to do more of those?
Thank you! Creating tutorials has been on the to do list for awhile now, I’m very excited I’ve ripped the band aid off (videos really aren’t my preference) and completed it. When we did Pop-ups the first thing most people would say when they learned our items were handcrafted was that there's no way they could be as creative and that’s simply not true! We hope to encourage others to roll up their sleeves, to learn a new skill and to get creative by creating more tutorials and DIY kits in the near future. Link to watch and subscribe.
What advice do you have for anyone needing encouragement as a creative small biz?
The best encouragement I tell myself is:
1. To keep my “why” at the forefront and to take time to remind yourself of that when needed.
2.To remain positive, as tough as that can be when I’m feeling low or doubting myself I remind myself of times I felt successful.
3.To remain consistent, most opportunities, endeavors and notary moments stem from consistency (consistently posting, engaging, updating the shop, etc).
4. To be kind to yourself and to grant space when needed.
5. Seek out support, from family, friends and other creative entrepreneurs who are 100% familiar with what you’re going through.
