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Hey, babes!

I'M AMY

A Midwest unschool mama, quilter, crocheter (yep, we’re making it a word!), and graphic designer who turned my "little hobbies" into a dream career. I’m all about BLTs with basil mayo, diving into fantasy novels, and pretending it’s fall year-round (pumpkin spice forever, amiright?).

My unofficial mission? To prove that you can make every day just a little more magical.

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5 Steps to Monetize Your Hobby Without Selling Out


5 Steps to Monetize Your Hobby Without Selling Out - Amy Lollis


Listen, I know you've had that moment where you want to monetize your creative passion, but you don't want to turn your passion into something that feels, well, icky. We've all seen that one creative on YouTube or TikTok that tells you how much money they make (and it's always a metric sh*t ton and totally unrealistic). You don't want to feel that way. You want to really connect with your audience, not just beg for their money!


This post will cover a few ways that I learned to monetize my hobby, connect with my audience, and not feel like I had to constantly be pitching.


If you're new here, you probably haven't seen the Instagram post where I basically told the entire quilting industry to f*ck off. It was...cringe. But it also started a TON of conversations around what it means to be in a creative business, and how most professional creatives are overworked, underpaid, and we're all just supporting this massive consumerist industry. I love being a professional creative, but I don't want to be part of this vicious cycle of getting quilters to buy things they don't need and probably won't ever use! I want to have a lasting impact, and if you've read this far, I'm guessing you do, too.


Step 1: Identify your WHY.


This was the part that I lost sight of when I burned out. I create because it helps me connect my mind and body. It makes me feel connected to the generations of women who came before, and I love making things that are both useful and beautiful. When I started selling my patterns, my creativity was limited to what I thought would sell. The irony? When I was designing what I wanted to make, sales were great. When I started getting sponsorships, I had to design things that would sell fabric. Spoiler: this ruined my connection with my audience. They can smell an inauthentic email or blog post a mile away!


If you only take away one thing from this blog post, it's this: remember your why, and sell that.

What transformation does your craft give you? Does it help you with trauma healing? Does it give you an outlet to decompress from a stressful job? Tell that story to your audience over and over. Connect with them on a deeper level than just "buy my thing."



Step Two: Create Free Content


Free content does several things:

  • It builds trust, so when you do launch a product, it doesn't come across as sales-y

  • It gives you something to send to the folks on your email list

  • It gives you more opportunities to do sponsored posts (but ONLY if it aligns with your why)

  • It gives you an opportunity to see what resonates with your audience. That post that went viral? Make more things related to that.


I've heard it a million times from dot-com gurus: serve first, then sell. Make the thing for free, then charge for it after you've gotten feedback. This is especially true if your thing is a new idea, and you aren't sure it'll work! Think of the money you "lost" by doing it for free as being your R&D dollars.


Bonus tip: giving away your knowledge is a great way to get some killer testimonials, and testimonials sell.


Step Three: Automate, Automate, Automate


This is one of those lessons I had to learn the hard way:


An entrepreneur builds a business that they have to run. A CEO builds a business that runs without them.

I didn't want to spend money on automations, so instead I spent HOURS every day doing it all myself. Those were hours that I couldn't spend making art, playing with my kids, or enjoying my actual life. I started automating the things I wasn't good at, and it freed up so much brain space that I was able to make WAY more content, write more patterns, and take on more contract work because I wasn't putting all my time into trying to make every Instagram post and email campaign from scratch.


Here are a few of the things I automated to free up my time:


  • I made Lightroom presets to simplify photo editing

  • Copy and paste email templates for newsletters. I promise, no one is going to care that you use the same template as last week. In fact, it can be part of your brand: your subscribers know what to expect from you!

  • I use ManyChat to automate sending Instagram followers to my email list

  • Chat GPT helps me edit my copy


All of this costs me around $50 per month, but I get HOURS of my life back. That's hours that I'm not stuck in indecision mode and trying to reinvent the wheel, so I'm able to really connect with my audience from a place of rest, not obligation or exhaustion.


Step Four: Find A Community To Help You Grow


I can't begin to tell you how valuable it is to have like-minded entrepreneurs to bounce ideas off of, to help promote your launches, and to reign you in when you're spiraling (and trust me, you're going to spiral once or twice!). You don't need to join a $10K mastermind, though, there are lots of communities that are really helpful for under $50 per month.


Here are a few of my favorites:


  • Homeschool CEO

  • Crash! by Jessica Stansberry (for YouTube creators, but also includes a ton of help with SEO)

  • The Craft Industry Alliance

  • That Marketing Club ($7 per month for a done-for-you social media plan)


Making the leap to knowing you can't do it alone is a HUGE milestone for any entrepreneur. My personal standard is to reinvest at least 10% of my revenue into learning, whether it be courses, memberships, or in-person events. There's something so life-giving about being around other creative entrepreneurs!


Step Five: Show Up Authentically


I made this mistake over and over in my new business. I wanted to be seen as a "professional," so I only showed up when my studio was clean, my hair was fixed, and I had perfectly curated content to share. I was in "fake it till you make it" mode, and it was soul-sucking.


Then I got a little unhinged, and you know what happened? My content (and sales) took off! I got job offers, requests for magazine submissions, and a whole lot of new followers (that turned into customers and friends). I always thought that as my business grew, I'd show up more professionally, but the opposite happened: I learned that it doesn't matter nearly as much as I thought it did. Now I'm all over social media with no makeup, in my pajamas, and with a lived-in house because the content I provide is SO much more important than looking perfect.


Conclusion


I know it's hard to build a sustainable business, make money, and not feel like you're selling your soul. Thankfully, we can combine technology and human connection to help us meet our need for connection so we can be there for our audience.


If you're struggling to build your brand or find your audience, you can snag my free Brand Magic mini-course here.



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