She Crochets Cats for a Living — And Built a Business That Purrs

Hey there. Welcome back to Leap Live and Lemonade. I'm so excited this week. You know, we brought out all these episodes and I'm so excited to hear back from all of you and see which episodes will resonate with whom in my audience. And this one is one of my personal favorites. In this episode, I sit down with the unstoppable, bright Brianna Shade. Brianna is the creative force behind Kitty Minis, a widely successful crochet business which started out as a passion project and turned into a full time career for Brianna. Brianna shares with me how she went from software engineer to being a full time cat crochet artist and how she never looked back. If you've been in my world for a while, you know that I myself, I'm a knitting enthusiast and you know, I love doing it. It totally switches me off and sometimes it's. I enjoy it so much, it's so tempting. I'm like, could this be my full time job? But I'm always like, no, I would never be able to make the same money with this what I make with my, my current activity. But Brianna's example totally busts that myth and it shows that if you are truly passionate about something, you can totally build your business around your passion. So whether you are a knitter or not, if you want to connect with someone who turned her passion project into her business and she is living it every single day, then this episode is for you. Are you ready? Let's get started. This is the Leap Live and Laminate Podcast. Hi, I'm your host, Esther Goldar. Twelve years ago, I took a bold leap. I left my corporate role, I moved to a new country and I built a business from scratch in my fifth language. This podcast is for new and aspiring entrepreneurs who are ready and eager to turn their ideas into something real and thriving while making a lasting impact. Whether you are contemplating on leaving your nine to five or you are already on your entrepreneurial journey, this is your go to place for honest stories, actionable strategies, and real talk around building a business and life you love. Your best life and success story are still ahead. Let's write them together. Hey Brianna, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me.

Thanks. Thanks for your time today. Let's dive straight into it. I know a little bit about your journey and about what you do, but my audience is totally new to this. So can you tell us them what you do and why you do what you do?

Certainly. So basically I crochet these cute little kitties to bring joy to other people and I originally got into it because I crocheted these little mini look alikes of my own kitty to travel with when my husband and I quit our jobs back in 2019 to travel for time. And we hate leaving our cats behind. So this was a way for me to bring a literal piece of them with us because I actually crocheted it with their real fur. And then when the pandemic hit and we ceased our travels, I. I found that I was. I was bored, needing a break from working on our travel business and revisited this, this cat crocheting project. I loved it so much. And it's like, well, what if I made these cats look like other things? And what if I did a little. A little jellyfish cat, you know, and. And what if I made it look like Sailor Moon? And what if I made it look like a Pikachu, you know, all of these other things and posted it on the Internet? And people absolutely loved them because people are crazy cats who to thunk. And it just kind of took off. And I started by selling the finished kitties, but then that quickly blossomed into a full membership where people can crochet these kitties with me. I send out patterns and designs every single month. And it's all about the cat vibes. And we have fun crocheting geeky characters and. And all of this stuff. A little sneak peek. This is the. The kitty that they will be crocheting next month. So it's a little leprechaun kitty because we're. We're going into March, you know, so sometimes seasonal and inspired by holidays and that sort of thing. And so we have a lot of fun with it. And it really allows for folks to explore their creativity. So it's not so much about learning how to crochet. It's about taking a pattern that they are comfortable with, building that confidence, and then going beyond the pattern and making it their own. So I really encourage folks to augment them in their own ways. I give them ideas for different things that they can add or modify to really make each creation unique and their own. And so it's just this really fun, lightweight, judgment free zone for them to just play, get back in touch with their inner child, you know, and just have fun and relax with it. For me, I found that it helped with my anxiety and with my sleep. And I'm a type A, so it helps calm my brain, slow it down just a little bit. So it has a lot of mental health benefits as well. And then from all of the business, a portion of the proceeds goes to My local cat shelter. So it helps real cats as well. And that's one of my big missions.

Oh, wow. This is so much more than just just crochet. I, I'm realizing, you know, in our circles, in entrepreneur circles, this, this question comes up so many times, like, is there anyone out there who's not making money with teaching others how to make money? And then this perfect example.

Yes.

And there are so many layers. You mentioned about how it helps your, your members, how it helps even you being with, with your members or, or planning out new designs. But let's go back to when you said you, you left your, your job to travel and did you start your travel business then? So was that the original plan or.

Yeah. So it's so funny because I've gone through all sorts of different directions throughout my life. Like when I was little, I wanted to be a veterinarian. And then I went to school for vocal music and ended up having a career in software engineering. And then I quit all of that to travel the world and my husband and I started a travel business and now I crochet cats. So never think that you're stuck with whatever path you choose, because I've been all over the place. But yeah, it was interesting because when we first decided to travel, we wanted to do the full time thing. And we were, we're saying, well, you know, folks say all the time that, hey, I quit my job and went traveling. It's like, wow, that must be nice. You know, then we thought, honestly, what's stopping us? Why can't we do that? I mean, we were renting an apartment at the time. We don't have kids, we only have a couple of cats, you know, and so we aren't as like locked down to a position necessarily. And so I was like, well, what's stopping us? Let's do this. So we saved up for about three years. So we planned because we wanted to be able to just quit and go. We didn't have to want to worry about the finances or anything while we were traveling. We wanted to enjoy the travels. So we did save up. We had a specific number in mind that would get us through, through essentially a year of travel based on what we could find online, of how, what places cost and et cetera. But when we decided to do that, we started our, our travel business, but it was more just a blog. We started a travel blog and we didn't view it as a business then, you know, so we started blogging about our travels, blogging about our journey to this full Time travel endeavor. And then when we were traveling, we were blogging quite regularly. Every single week we were putting out a new blog post on the new latest destination that we had traveled to. Some of the things that we learned, our bags were stolen. So we wrote about that. Obviously, the whole Covid thing at the end of our travels and getting home and almost getting trapped in Argentina and, you know, all of this crazy stuff, we had a thousand stories, you know, and we wanted to share that with the world.

But.

But when, as we were going, we were finding, well, you know, if we do this consistently enough, we can earn money from our blog and we can get advertising revenue and we can do sponsorships and we can do all sorts of things there. And we actually did leverage some of that while we were traveling, saying, hey, we've got a travel blog. Are you willing to give us some free city passes, for example, in exchange for writing something on our blog about it? And we did that in Frankfurt and even a little bit in Cape Town, South Africa. And that's. That was, that was great. But when we stopped our travels because of the pandemic and it was no longer enjoyable for us to travel, I know plenty of people still continued traveling during that time anyway, we figured, it's not enjoyable. I miss our kitties. Let's go hunker down with the family for a bit. And we have free flights home anyway, so might as well take advantage of that. And we took the. That time to say, okay, well, now we're not physically traveling. We have all of this knowledge. Let's funnel that into a business and let's get serious about our business. We still have these monies that we saved up for the trip that we didn't entirely spend because we ended up going way under our budget anyway. And that became one of our points of interest was, hey, we are experts now on shaving off costs while traveling, and we know how to earn money while traveling. So why don't we form a business around this and teach other people's either other people how to do the same. And of course, this was 2020 and try to start a travel business in 2020 was not the greatest idea. So we, we really struggled with finding enough people who were interested in that, especially since we initially started it with, hey, we'll teach you how to become full time travelers, which was kind of a leap for people. So it, it gave us a lot of experience in figuring out how to niche, how to really frame our messaging around our business, how to pose it to other people, how to talk about it, etc, how to find what people were actually looking for, especially at that time. So it was, it was a long few years of just trying to get that off the ground, but we learned so, so much. And I was able to take a lot of that into then my kitty, when I stepped away from that business, saying, hey, you know, this isn't really fulfilling me anymore. I want to do something else. And now my husband does the travel business in much the same way. And we've honed down to that, that earn money and save money while traveling so that you can travel longer as long as you want, you know, because money is a huge barrier for a lot of folks to travel. And we're. He's here to tell you now that, you know, you could travel for free if you really wanted to. And, and we can show you how, you know, so all sorts of options there. While I am now over on the kitty business and crocheting cats and delighting people and all sorts of things, it's nothing but joy and fuzziness and purrs and, and I couldn't be happier. It's been an interesting journey to, to get here. But if, if somebody had told me like even five years ago, hey, guess what? You're gonna be crocheting cats, I'd be like, you're crazy.

Yeah, it sounds like it's your happiest place. From, from what I hear, I definitely.

Found my, my true passion. Like, I've always loved cats growing up. I've always been obsessed with them, but I never thought that I could turn it into something that would earn me me a living, you know, so it's, it's really, again, I never would have guessed. It's like, okay, maybe something with the software engineering thing, that's the practical thing, you know, whatever. Lots of folks, even in the entrepreneur circles keep saying, well, you should start a business on automation because you're so good at it. It's like, yeah, but that doesn't. The same way, like, I love helping people with automation and, and I want to serve in that way, but I don't want to form a whole business around it. You know, I just kind of, I.

Know that your stuff, the kitty stuff is, is pretty much automated to its fullest potential. It is, right?

Yes. Because, you know, we're in this program that, that helps you design a business by your design. You know, in my design is I want to be as hands off with it as, as much as possible because I want to be hands on with the actual physical creation and you know, exploring My own creativity. And I am most lit up when, when I'm able to conceptualize a brand new design, something that I've never made before. And I just have this idea and it's like, okay, how do I make this into a cat? So this, this, like I've never made this before before, literally yesterday. So I, I love living and, and existing in that space as much as I can.

That's amazing. When would you say you realize that this is a business or this could be a business? You said you first started creating the kitties. Was it like, okay, this could be a side income or was it like, yes, this is going to be a business? Was it the one specific point or it was more like a natural way it all turned into one?

I would say it all kind of came about rather organically because I started crocheting them and I was really enjoying just the, the creation of it. And then they began to collect and my husband was like, you gotta do something with these kitties because we're starting to get.

Okay, had to get them out of the house. Exactly.

And so it's like, okay, well, and, and I had been posting online, showing them off because like, oh, look at what I created.

The.

This is so cute. And people were asking like, oh my goodness, I love that. Where can I buy one? Like, oh, oh, okay. So I created an Etsy store because like, well, clearly people are interested in this, so maybe I can sell them. And started posting them on Etsy. And then a couple months later, it's like, you know, I don't want to do the whole whole Etsy overhead thing and listing and fees and, and shipping and all of that garbage. So I created my own website around that and like, okay, I'll host it all on, on my own page. And then I went to a local cat show and was showing them off there because it's like, hey, these people would get it. This is, this is awesome. I'm showing them off. Why aren't you vending here? Like, oh, I didn't even consider that. What do you mean? And then there they had some vendors there, they had people selling catnip toys and selling scratching posts and selling cat paraphernalia and whatnot. I'm like, hey, you know what? That's actually a really good idea. So March, that first year, I, I got this idea of like, oh, I could be doing like, shows. I could set up a booth and, and sell these in person. And so I started doing the local Saturday markets and finding local anime conventions and makers markets and Craft fairs and all sorts of, of things and built up this whole thing. I, I could show you like the picture of my very first booth and, and I had this, this rickety like wooden structure with strings strung in between them just so I could like clip them in between, you know, and, and now I've got this whole full blown thing with the grid walls and the, the, the sign and the, the tablecloths and booth and all of that stuff. So it's really, really exploded. And I've done like holiday markets and, and that sort of thing as well. But now, and I sell quite well at those events, but it's a lot of energy on my part to show up, set up, be there. I'm an introvert, so I'm, I'm there interacting with people and I have to be on, you know, from when it's gonna be over. Exactly.

And so you are excited. I, I used to, I used to sell children's books and I know that feeling. Like setting up at. I had to be set up by 8 in the morning. I had to stay sometimes until 8 at night and then only after that I started packing up. And sometimes it was like, oh, I do want a lot of people, a lot of people to come, but I also just want to be home already.

Yeah.

Kind of the double.

But then there's also this scenario where it's a slow day and you're sitting there and then it starts like psychologically digging into your brain of wow, nobody likes my stuff. No. Why does everybody hate me? Why won't anybody come and buy something, Please buy something from me? You know, even though it has nothing to do with you, you know, and so it's just, it's a lot of stress, it's physical of setting it up. It's mental. It's, it takes a lot from you. And I love doing the events periodically, especially when there, there's lots of people going by and they're like, oh my God, it's so cute. I've had people literally running up to my booth because they can't wait to see my stuff. I've had people literally cry from cuteness. I didn't even know that was a thing. But it's happened on more than one occasion. So it's like, okay, this is a thing.

Yeah. Especially if it reminds them of, of a real.

Maybe there is some of that as well. But, but yeah, like college age kids are like, I don't know why I'm crying. They're just so cute.

Oh yeah. Okay. I get that we have A, we have a 17 year old in the house, so I get that.

So maybe it's just hormones, I don't know.

I think it's, it's true expression of, of emotions. And then we, we learn to tame them for better or worse. But they have it. They'll lose. Yeah.

Oh yeah, absolutely. But I love seeing that and that lights me up and that to know that I can delight other people in that way. People will resonate with a specific design. My husband really loves, like the Darth Vader kitty that I've made or the little alien kitty.

Oh my God.

Other people, they see these things and like, oh my goodness, it's a caterfly, it has little wings and all this other stuff and they love these creations, you know, and, and it just brings them so much joy even if they don't buy anything, you know, and so I love being there and showing up for that. But then when they do buy and it's a whole like little adoption process and I take their picture and, and all, all this stuff and, and they, they get a little kitty pin and you know, okay, so you have a.

Whole process around it. It's not just like, yeah, it's, it's.

An experience, you know, and I love delighting people in that way. But like you said, that's only one layer of it. So I'm trying to boost my online sales, of course, because I don't want to be forced to go to the in person events. While I love them and I love the energy around that, it's very draining on me. So I want to do only like one per month kind of thing and then have more of the sales online. But then that's why I introduced the membership because I was also in the membership experience before I, I got into James Wedmore's world and, and all of the business by design things. And Stu McLaren does this whole thing on memberships, you know, and it's like, well, how can I turn this into recovery recurring revenue? And I knew right off the bat I did not want this to be a kitty of the month club, you know, where I'm delivering physical finished products, because that's going to put a lot of strain on me. I'm the bottleneck. So how can I create something that's more scalable and through the groups, the entrepreneur groups that I was in and my husband, they suggested, well, what if you did like a kit membership where folks can make their own and you send them the materials and all of that. And I'm like, oh my goodness, that's brilliant. Let's do that. And so I started that July of the first year I was in business in 2023 and it really took off. People loved this idea of, hey, I can crochet cats. I love this. But then of course that became heavy because I'm still putting together kits and I'm spending a few hours every month spinning.

So that was still like the monthly, like each month there, there was a new design and you were sending it out to everyone.

Yeah, yeah. So I, I evolved that then to a digital only subscription. I put a cap on the physical membership. I still have a cap on my physical membership. So I still offer the physical kits, but it's a limited amount and I've got completely outsourced that now. So I have a local person helping me put together those kits. In fact, they will be doing that this week, you know, because that's, that's where we're at in the month. And it's wonderful to be able to say, okay, here's the pattern for the month. You go do the thing and they'll put together all of the kits and all of this stuff and I just sit back and let them take care of it. And then I only have to worry about putting together the actual design of it. So I make the prototype and I write up some notes and I have a virtual assistant who will help me write up the pattern. I integrate ChatGPT for a lot of minor steps for some like the rough drafts and that sort of thing to help automate my business and help everybody along the way, you know, do their job better. And then I can focus on just the design aspect of it and still provide such value to my members. So now I have both a digital side and a physical side of my membership. I still do sell the physical finished products, but now it's much more on my terms because I'm not like forced to accept that income, you know, I don't have to go to shows every single weekend just to make ends meet. And so it's a much better place to be in, but it's taken me several years to you get to that point, you know.

So, yeah, let's, let's go into that a little bit. How does one go from like doing everything by themselves? Because I guess that's how it started to outsourcing the part that might not be your, your favorite and being able to focus fully on, on what you wholeheartedly enjoy. What was the process there? Was it like little by little or were you instances when you tried and it didn't work or how was that process?

Yeah, so it's definitely a little by little kind of thing where you realize there are certain things that I really shouldn't be doing anymore. And especially as somebody who came from the corporate world and migrated into this idea of being an entrepreneur entrepreneur and running my own business, I really struggled with this concept of what do you mean I don't personally have to do everything? What do you mean I should outsource. But that's going to cost money. You know, I don't want to pay somebody else to do something that I can just do in five minutes. It's like, yeah, but that five minutes adds up, especially, especially when you start to scale your business. And I realized that there was a lot of hesitation around my even wanting to invite more people into my world because it felt heavy because I was working on so many things. But I mean, you start with little things and you try to iterate up from that. So I started with the, the kitties that I was making and selling into markets and I was trying to find, okay, what are ways that I can better automate, say, my inventory that, that I'm keeping track of. And so I, I've got all of these Excel spreadsheets and, and everything else, so I can keep track of everything. And then, okay, well, now I'm putting together these kits and I was actually like stretching out string against a, a yardstick to measure out all of the yarn that I needed. And then I discovered there, they actually make these little rotary meters that you can just thread the, the yarn through and you pull whatever and it'll count up the length of the yarn.

Oh, really?

That's so much faster. So you pair that with a little yarn spinner and you're just spin, spin, spin, spin, spin until the, the meter displays the number that you want. And that was so much faster. But that costs money to get that particular, particular tool, you know, or I like, like we said, I love automation. And so what can I do with SAP here at Chat, GBT and my emails and all of this other stuff to automate as much as possible and, and fill that in. But then you start hitting these, these ceilings of okay, I, I kind of doing everything that I can right now and I want to continue to create, grow. I'm not at that barrier yet, but I'm already feeling the pressure of if I got X number more people, then it's going to put strain on me and I don't want that. So I'm naturally going to resist inviting More people in, you know, it's this weird cosmic energy thing that that kind of happens. And you will literally self sabotage. And so it's like, well, I don't want to do that, so what can I do to expand my bubble? And my dad at the time, I was staying with them after the pandemic. So my dad at the time was tutoring a local high schooler. And so I, I. And she was coming over to the house and so I said, do you think she'd be interested in spinning up kits for me? He's like, well, I can ask her. High school student looking for some extra cash. Why not? You know? And so I, I paid her something like 17 bucks an hour or whatever. And it's like, well, that's a good going rate for high schoolers in my area. It only takes like, like three hours, whatever, to, to put up these kits. And so I was like, yeah, I'm willing to do that. That's like, you know, 50, 60 bucks out of my pocket for, for this, this person to take care of that. And then that's three hours I don't have to deal with. And poof, they're just like, magically done. So I was like, awesome, let's do that. And that was a good return on investment that I saw. And that was my first foray into that. You know, it's like, okay, awesome. And then as soon as I saw that, I was like, I come out out of the room three hours later, and boom, they're all done. It's like, this is kind of like magic. I kind of like this. Let's keep doing this. And so I looked at some of the digital sides of my business and it's like, well, I have social media that's really heavy, and I was inconsistent with it and I wasn't even doing it. And it's like, I don't even know what works on social media. I hate social media. I don't want to show up there, whatever else. So it's like, what if I just threw that off to somebody else? And honestly, I don't care what she does over there, as long as it, like, represents me well, you know, whatever else. And just for the consistency, whatever else, let's just hire somebody else to do that. And found a lovely gal in, in the Philippines who is doing all of my social media. She schedules it through a third party, so she's, she doesn't have, like, direct access to any of my accounts or anything like that. And I let her play. And honestly, that was great. For both of us, because she could have that autonomy to do whatever she wanted to be creative and, and create all these things, and she was making all these great reels and, and everything else. And it's like, wonderful that's happening and I don't have to do anything about it. But then over the last year, it's like, okay, well, now I want to be a little more deliberate with what I'm doing on social media. I kind of have a better idea of which direction I want to take it. So I'm now kind of reining her in of, okay, well, what. I want to stay within these pillars from million dollar messaging that we. We both went through of. Hey, these are ways that we can kind of slowly, gradually move people more toward the sale while providing them value on social media. And so I'm not just posting funny cat videos just for the sake of filling space.

Yeah.

You know, so it's a lot more deliberate there. And then, of course, that evolved to. I also hired a gal for my Facebook ads, and she's been doing great. And I only just recently hired one more virtual assistant to kind of handle everything else. So putting together the. The graphic design work of the patterns every single month and of kind of responding to customer service emails, you know, all those little things that over the past two years, I've learned, I don't want to do this anymore. Let's find a person to take care of this stuff for me. And so. And she's been great so far. So, yeah, it. Again, it kind of all, like, grew organically just over time as I found I had those needs. I once had a mentor tell me, never buy anything until you feel limited by what you have. And so I've kind of used that. That concept. Although I'm. I'm looking a few steps ahead because I don't want to be limited. I. I'm looking. Okay, well, I will be limited by this very, very soon. So why don't I put this in place so that I'm not.

Mm. Wow, that's fabulous. Like, little by little, you always added the. The right person. So it's not like, let's hire a team, let's go.

Oh, yeah. I. I'm talking to fellow fellow entrepreneurs, and they're trying to hire like, three VAs right off the bat. And then they got to train them all at once. And it's like, no, no, no, don't do that. Yes, you want to offload as much as possible as quickly as possible. Start with one person, get them up to speed. Get them rolling, whatever, so that you don't have to worry about it anymore and then you're, you're off to the races.

Yeah. And when you have someone, it also keeps you on track. Because I know when, when I want to get things done by myself, they are probably in that bucket of the things that never get done. But when I work on it with, with someone with a va, they are like, okay, what's next? Give me, give me the next step. So then each week I'm responsible for, for moving forward and, and keeping the pace.

So that's, that's exactly. And I've been realizing that myself where it's like my focus very suddenly changed from how can I get all of these tasks done today? To how can I offload all of these tasks today? Because I literally have a person sitting there waiting for work and how do I give her as much as I can to keep her busy?

Yeah. What would you say is your job now? So with, and with everything, all of these things handed off to people, what is it that you are concentrating on with regards to the membership on a daily weekly basis?

So primarily I am orchestrating my people. I am currently still kind of overseeing the automations because sometimes something will, there's a bug or something, something doesn't quite go right or you know, automation isn't perfect so sometimes it can break down and you need to update it or whatever else. So I'm still managing that. Eventually I'll hire somebody to, to oversee all of my automations as well, but that's down the road and then I. Oh. So I'm not sure if, if. Did you hear everything or did I cut out?

Wait, it's cutting, it's cutting off. Oh.

Can you hear me okay? Can you hear me okay now?

Yes, No worries. That's all right.

I will make sure nothing else is running on my computer. Sometimes our Internet blips, it's like we're in the middle of a city. It shouldn't happen but, but it still blips sometimes. So sorry about that. Can you hear me okay now? So yes.

So you were orchestrating them. You are taking care of the automation which sometimes can have some glitches.

Yes. So eventually I will hire somebody to oversee all of my automations as well to who will be like an automation expert under, under me. So that's one of the last things I'm going to let go because I really enjoy the automations and seeing, solving those little puzzles and whatnot. So I get some joy out of that. But I know eventually, in order to get myself that, that promotion inside of my business, I'll need to let go of that as well. But I really want to be able to focus on, on the designing, the creation, the ideation, the where am I taking the business next? What new offers do I want to put out? How can I improve the experience for the people who are already in my membership, that sort of thing. So I mean I have a number of additional offers that I'm entertaining at the moment. So for example, a set like Mommy and Me package where it's like a six month or a 12 month program where they get set patterns and I can deliver those once a month for them. And it's this dedicated time between moms and their kids or could be moms and a friend or it could be two friends or a couple or whatever, you know, any, any pairing but like two kits every single month and they know exactly which kits they're getting every single month and everything else. But it's this dedicated time together is kind of the idea. So I'm, I'm contemplating that as an offer. I'm also looking at potentially working with some local schools on offering some kind of crochet program to help with their focus. And they're helping to keep fostering that creativity, perhaps even in like high schoolers for example, where they often it's drilled out of you, you know, during school. So to really keep that alive. So things like that, I would love to entertain some of those ideas, but I would need more help with facilitating a lot of that or some of my own free time to make those kinds of things happen. And right now I'm still really focused on core business and growing that to the level that it's sustaining me and sustaining itself and, and all of that. So again, all of this kind of organic growth, I'm, I'm very slowly growing the business, but it's on a wonderful trajectory and I will continue to hire out as I need additional help with, with those different areas.

So yeah, all those plans, super exciting. Out of curiosity, when it comes to pricing, whenever I work with people who work with physical products or with an audience that is not like how to make money. So basically a hobby or a lifestyle type of product, and especially if the creator fully enjoys the process as well, they might have this fear or, or block on asking a price that they actually won't regret going down the road. Did you ever face these fears? Do you, did you ever have those blocks? How, how do you manage that? If it's.

Honestly I, I second Guess my pricing almost on a daily basis. You know, when I first started, I knew I would not undersell myself because you go to any of these craft markets and you see people will have. Have things like this, and they're like, well, how much is this? $5. I'm like, goodness, no. That wouldn't even cover the materials. What are you talking about? Absolutely not. And so. And even my. My family has no idea. My uncle saw, like, all of my kitties when they were starting to collect. He's, like, asked me how. How much do I sell them for? Like, five, ten dollars. I'm like, no, try, like, tripling that at least, you know, to. To start. So my most basic kitty, if it's just like a single color kind of kitty, I. I sell for, like 25. And they sell because they are unique. They're my own design.

They can't find them anywhere. Someone who. Who does this as a hobby, and.

I. I came about that price based on how long it broke again.

Oh, sorry, I lost you.

No worries. Am I back? I didn't see a notice this time.

I lost. I lost you after you said you charged 25.

Oh, well, I heard what you were saying. Yeah, but so. So yeah, for. For the most basic, it's 25. And I based that basically on how much time it takes me to make one of these kitties. And on average, for the most basic ones, it takes me about an hour and a half to two hours. So it's like, okay, I'm gonna pay myself a living wage for this with materials, etc. So my Most basic kitties, 25. And then I use that as a base point for how I. I price everything else. So something that's more complicated than just a basic kitty is more like 35, $40, you know, or something like this. That's. That's quite involved and took a lot of work, is probably closer to like 50, $55, you know, and I've had a number of people come to my booth. Booth, and they're. They're like, oh, my goodness, this is so adorable. And they're expecting them to cost like 15 or something, like. And like, okay, I want this one. How much is it? And I tell them the price, or I have the pricing on the bottoms, and they look at it. They're like, oh, oh, okay. Actually, I can't afford that. That's too expensive. I'm like, that's okay then it's not for you, because these are not cheap little, you know, plushies. That is like, if you. If you want you, you're more than welcome to go to another crocheter. They probably have some cheaper options for you. That's wonderful. But it's going to be the same kinds of things that everybody makes. It's going to be the bees, it's going to be the jellyfish. Jellyfish. It's going to be the, the loaf cats. It's going to be all of these things that you can find a thousand other places. And these are unique. These are my, my personal designs. They, they are made with love. And you're helping to support your local cat shelter when you purchase from me. So it is definitely worth the price. But I have to even convince myself of that on a regular basis. But people keep buying them at those prices, so that really helps to validate me. And yeah, I'm not selling out left and right because it's a no brainer, but I also don't want to sell them so quickly that I'm constantly on this hamster wheel of creating more kitties. I want to be in this space where I'm in control and I can make whatever ones I want and whatever I have available. That's what I have. And I'm not gonna have this really rich, lots of diff, lots of stock and you can just buy 15 of them and, and call it good, you know. So I, I deliberately wanted to create a more deliberate business around that. And it also helps. So I've made friends with a gal on Instagram who does something kind of similar. She does ceramic cats and they're all different and she never makes like the same one twice kind of thing and whatnot. And her cats, they're little ceramic cats. They, they about, you know, comparable size, same size. And she, they start at $250.

Oh wow.

They start at that. So it's like, okay, well. And she sells out constantly. Like she has monthly drops and they're, they're gone like instantly. So it's like that's where I want to get to. So I do look at other businesses who are doing maybe similar things, if not exactly the same kinds of things. But I have to make sure I'm looking at the correct businesses for me because I don't want to look at other crocheters. I don't definitely don't want to look at any TEMU resellers who will buy things at like 30 cents a pop on TEMU that are art, that are crocheted, whatever, by folks overseas and then sell them at like $2, $5, whatever. I, that is not the business model that I want.

There's a whole different world of.

Exactly. Nope, these are. And I get that question a lot too. When people will come up to my booth and they'll ask me, so, did you make all of these?

It's like, yeah, where are these?

Yeah, of course I did. Why wouldn't I? And then I realized, oh, well, there are these other people who simply buy them in bulk and then resell them. And it's like, that's just. That's. I don't know, I feel so icky about that as a maker of doing that. That doesn't feel right to me. Because you're under selling.

Especially if. If you are at the maker's market.

Right.

You better be a maker.

Why are you there? I don't know. I don't know. That irks me. That's kind of like AI art, you know, I don't appreciate that when people are at a place and they're trying to sell AI art, it's like, but you didn't make it. You had a computer help you. I'm all for AI and automation and everything else as an assistant, but it should not replace the artistry. You know, that is a human thing, and that's irreplaceable in my opinion.

Quick sip of a lemonade. Time. Do you ever catch yourself wondering what the actual F I'm doing? Same happens to me at times. That's why I created a secret podcast series to get you out of the chaos and back into. I got this energy in just five days. It's cozy, it's actionable, and it will reconnect you to the version of you who already figured it out. Grab it for free@astrogoldor.com WTF? Or click the link in the show notes. And now back to our episode. You mentioned you had a whole experience around the. When you sell physical products. What is it that. So how does the membership experience look like? Do I. When I. When I'm a member, is it like, do I interact with. With other members in your membership? Do I. Can I ask questions? Or is it more like getting. Getting the monthly Digital Kids? Because you said it. It does change people's. It calms them down. It helps them with their mental balance. So how does your membership do that?

Absolutely. So again, I am very passionate about my business and I wanted this to be an interactive experience. So a lot of folks. And again, I'll get those. Those folks who comment on my. My Facebook ads saying, wow, I'm not paying $19 a month just for a Pattern. And it's like, well, it's so much more than a pattern. And even if it was just the pattern, that is perfectly legit because I created it, I designed it and tested it and all of this, this other stuff. So trust me, you're getting something good. This is not just, I'm buying it off of somebody, off of Etsy and reselling it again, that, that whole thing. So. But no, it's, I, I want it to be an experience for people because I love interacting with people who are as obsessed with cats as I am. And so I want to facilitate a container for people who are likewise loving cats and wanting to talk about them and whatever else. So the membership consists of four major deliverables, I guess, if you will. Number one, it's the pattern for sure. So it's a written PDF pattern. They can print it out if they want, but it's delivered digitally so that they can have access to it immediately, take notes on it, do whatever they want. Then I also record video tutorials on everything that is new for each design. Now they're all like the same base pattern, so they get used to it very quickly of, oh, okay, I know how to make an ear now because it's exactly the same, but they augment on top of that. So for this you've got the little hat that is a little different than your typical little cat ear, you know, that sort of thing. And so I will have video tutorials showing them how to do each of these, these steps. And then we have a private Facebook group where they can post their progress, they can ask questions, they can say, hey, this is the other pro, another project that I'm working on, or, or hey, my cat did something super funny today. Look at this cute picture. Whatever. They can post cat memes if they want, whatever. So it's really an interactive the community for that. And then we come together once a month on Zoom, where they have direct access to me, they can ask questions about that month's pattern. They can get some direct assistance if they need because sometimes certain aspects are a little more challenging. With amigurumi, which is the style of crochet, crocheting three dimensional creatures. Most amigurumi start with what's called the magic circle. And because every project starts with this, you would think, well, that's the most basic whatever. But it's actually, it can be kind of complicated and a lot of people struggle with it. And so that's one thing that I can demonstrate and walk them through it. They can show their thing on their Camera. And I can say, oh, well, you're doing this thing, why don't you correct it this way? And so it's that more hands on guidance for that or if they have questions about how they might augment something. Because again, I encourage them to stray from the pattern is like, don't just replicate exactly what I made because that's kind of boring. I want you to put your own unique flair on this. And then I have some bonuses throughout the time where we'll do periodic classes. I'm trying to do those once a month. Excuse me, once a quarter. And I actually use those as my business launches. But existing members get free access. So we just recently did a, a class on making little kitty snowflakes. So it's a smaller project that theoretically should take less time. And it's typically seasonal. We've done like little kitty flowers. I did coasters last year which were super fun. I want to do maybe a little like bug or, or cup cozies that happen to have cat ears, you know, that's sort of thing. So all sorts of little things. And I like to sprinkle in little bonuses. Around Halloween, I gave them some extra little patterns for my annual members. I love to spoil my annual members. Last month we did a devil kitty. I don't think I have that one on me at the moment with like a little black cat with, with like red wings and the red eyes and the, the, the horns and everything. This cute little devil kitty. And for my annual members, I also gave them the angel kitty, which is pretty much exactly the same design, the same wings and everything else, except you do it in white, you know. So it was just this super fun way for, for me to spoil them. And when they get those, those kits, they're like, oh my goodness, this is fantastic. And, and they get those little surprises throughout the year. So. Yeah. And the other thing that I did I commissioned locally from an actual, from a friend of mine who is a, a local artist as well, a crafter. I made these, these little. I had him make these little bags. It's. I know it's. It's kind of blown out. It says kitty crochet club on, on the little tag.

Oh, wow.

The inside has like little paw prints and it's this super cute, just little tote bag and I use it to carry, carry my on the go kitties. And so for those who like hit their anniversary, I surprised them with, with sending them these, these cute little bags, you know, So I. Wow, you're going.

All in on this.

I Love it. I'm so, I, I love to, to delight them and surprise them and, and make it an experience because it's not just you get a pattern every month. It's not just, yeah, you're off on your own doing this little crafting thing. I want it to be an interactive thing and as like a pure happenstance side effect. You also get the mental health benefits. And down the road I'm also one of those other ideas is I would love to host retreats. You know, go out to the coast or something. Hire somebody who's an expert in meditation or yoga or something like that and really lean into that mental health side of things and do that as part of a retreat. I think that would be so much fun and I would have a blast with that.

So it totally makes sense. Wow, I love this, like the way you describe this. Maybe you should, once this episode, episode is out, we should cut this and you could use this in your launch how you just described the membership because it was so like exciting and it, you took me on a whole journey just with explaining what it will be like once, once I meet.

I love my membership, I love my members because I'll get some folks who will reply to certain, certain things and say, wow, you know, this, this kit totally made my day. I, I was having a bad day and I came home and I saw the blue package because that's the other thing too that I can show you. Yeah, I send every single package out with this little blue mailer, this little teal mailer and it, it says meow on it and every single one comes with this. So they, they've learned to, to recognize it. And so this particular member was like, I saw the, the teal package and I, I literally squeed as I ran to the mailbox because it totally made my day. And then I opened it up and I saw there was a bonus kitty and I screamed and you know, so it just delights people and, and I love being a part of that because cats make me super happy and I want to share that with other people. And you know, it's, it's just, it's, it's too fun not to, you know, and we're all about cats. The, the online hub is called the catio. You know, we encourage cat memes. Cats are invited to our, our, our monthly crafty hours on, on Zoom. You know, all of that stuff. I, I, I talk to, to their cats and in my emails and you know, all sorts of stuff. It's, it's, it's Good fun. My, my virtual automated assistant is named Kitty. You know, so it's, I, I'm all for it. I, I, my P.S. is P.S. so it's, I'm all for the cat puns and everything. Everything else, yeah, full blown. It's. If you're, if you're a cat lover and you enjoy crafting, especially crochet, this is definitely the place for you because we are crazy cat lovers here.

Okay, now that we have totally sold it, where can people find you?

Yes. So I have my website. I made it super easy for, for it to, to be said and understood. Kitty minis.com super easy because they're like little, little mini kitties. So kitty minis.com and you can find out more about the membership there. All of my social media is linked. The name of my business is Kitten Kazoidal. But I don't expect anyone to know how to spell that or anything. So I, I, I put everything under Kitty Minis. That's a lot, a lot easier there. But yeah, yeah, definitely reach out, out to me. You can find me on Instagram. I, I post little adoption video pictures of people who've gotten their kitties and reels of my own kitty mochi, my, my little tuxedo and yeah, all sorts of fun stuff. So.

Amazing. We'll put this into the show notes. Now let's talk a little more about you. I wanted to ask you what's the best part of running this business? But I think you just told us.

About honestly, so, so I, yes, I love the people, but I also love the cats, of course. And so I really want to reiterate that my entire business, 10 of all proceeds, goes directly to my local cat shelter. And every single month I get to write a check, metaphorically speaking. And that just brings me so, so much joy knowing that I'm able to actually help real cats in need. I have this mission of every cat in a loving home because they have such a profound impact on us as humans because they love unconditionally and they get us through such difficult times. We humans are messed up and we go through, through these periods of time of depression or there's crazy things happening in the world or something happens, you, you have grief or your, your life isn't going the way that you want, you're under a lot of stress, whatever, and cats are just there and they're unconditional and they don't judge you like, like humans would. I mean they, they'll silently judge you in, in, in the way that cats in the Endearing way, you know, all the time. But. But, I mean, countless times I've. I've lost past kitties, and the ones that I still had got me through that loss or really stressful times. The whole pandemic era, my kitty got me through that. And for a lot of people, especially if you're neurodivergent like I am, then a cat can be sometimes your sole companion to the only creature on the planet that you can feel like you can truly be yourself around. And a lot of folks can't open up to other humans or they feel like they are alone or that they have literally nobody else. And oftentimes it's their cat that keeps them from doing some terrible things to themselves, and it gets them through those periods of time. And so cats are just amazing creatures. And I know a lot can be said for dogs as well, but obviously I. I am a little biased with cats and that they're. They're always there for you and they can be these amazing healers for your soul. And so I. I really advocate for the cats, and I want to keep them in the world and. And I want to keep them healthy and happy and partnered with as many humans in need as possible because it's such a symbiotic relationship.

That's beautiful. I totally get that. I can't have pets here where we live, because my husband, he says he's allergic. I know he's not. It's just an excuse, but for now, I'm accepting it. But we do. We do dog sitting and cat sitting.

Oh, wonderful.

And whenever it's cats, you know, we go on those trips and we try to do our work as well, but I always just end up touching cats. The last one, we had four. It was five cats.

Oh, wow.

Indoor, one outdoor cat, and two of them were super cuddly. You know, it's really bad when we go for a sit and I'm like, oh, finally, I'm gonna go cuddle with this cat. And they are not the cuddly cat, but two of these were cuddly cats. And.

Oh, I was.

I was.

Did you know that purrs can literally heal? Right?

I. I know that by experience. Like, I. From that trip, you know, I'm wearing this Whoop. Which tells me about my physical state. I was. We came back from the trip, it said I slept better. My whole. Like, all my results were better. And we were wondering, was it Portugal? Was it the. Was it the different sunshine? But we are just literally on the. On the same. How do you Say this. Oh, my God, this expression in English. Latitude. Yeah. So it couldn't be that. It could be the different bed sheet, but I think it was the cat.

Cats.

It must have been the cats, because that was the only key difference. So, you know, I always take these tablets for my. My husband in case he gets super allergic and we never use them, so that's how I know it. You know, with four indoor cats, if. If you are allergic, there's gonna be some symptoms, so.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

And I know in Japan a lot of folks live in very tiny o apartments and they can't really house a dog. So cats are very popular because they're this compact little animal and you can still have that companionship in those tight spaces. And I love that they're so independent to where we can leave for a weekend. And Mochi, our cat, is. Is perfectly fine while we're away. I don't like to leave her, but she's okay for a couple of days. And dogs need a lot more attention. They need a lot more love. And so it's a little more difficult to live our crazy, busy human lives. Not that it's impossible, but. Yeah, okay.

Yeah, we are totally biased here. Yeah. What would you. What would you say to someone who is listening? Maybe they are in their daytime job and they see. They hear your story and they're like, oh, my God, this is. This is amazing. This sounds like a dream. And it worked out for her. But with. With what I love to do, for sure you. You can't make it because this is. This is so different. Although I see yours as. It's the quirkiest ever, and it works, so it. It must work with other things as.

Well if I could do it.

But if they are hesitant on start. Besides that, where. Where would you suggest they started? If they have something they. They truly pass, they are truly passionate about and they could imagine making a living out of that. Where. Where would they start? Start. Should they start this as a. As a side hobby or what. What's the first step?

Honestly, I would say the first step is really live in the space of how. How could this be successful? How might you monetize it? How might you see this as something that can earn you a living? Because when I was looking at it and it's like, well, I don't want to be creating a cat every single month and sending that out as. As a thing. You know, it's like, well, what could I do? And really thinking, how else could I monetize this? How else could I make this my everyday, you know, and so just really living in, in that space of possibility. And I think that's a really good place to come from because then you are constantly thinking and you're open to those ideas. So even if you don't have the answers right this moment, you can think, oh, well, what if it was like this? And then as you're observing your world around you, see what other people are doing and say, is there any way I could apply some kind of element of that to what I want to do? Could I turn this into a membership? Could I teach other people how to do this? Could I? Because, I mean, I could go down the road of teaching other people how to create a crochet business if I really wanted to. But that's not the, the route that I want to take. But I know it's a possibility out there and I know that's one way that I could monetize this. I could do a whole bunch of affiliates where it's. I mean, I could probably partner with the Woobles, for example, and do something like that, or I could affiliate for certain crochet tools or, or what have you. So there are options. And so you gotta keep an open mind when it comes to that so that you're not thinking immediately. This is impossible. There's no way I can make money doing this. Because I'm here to tell you, if I can make money crocheting cats, literally anybody can make money doing whatever you love. Seriously. And so I challenge you to really think in those possibilities. Once you are. Once you have an idea and you feel like you are ready to run with it. Honestly, I find a lot of strength in community. And so I would find even an entrepreneur group in Facebook or find a local entrepreneur group if you have those. I know a lot of cities do. You might have to look for them a little bit. You might try something like meetup for here I've got like Rain Catalysts, which is a thing in the US across multiple cities. You could look to see if you've got a chapter near you, your local sbdc, for example, your small business something community.

I'm forgetting what they are, I have no idea.

Development community. I don't know. But a lot of schools will have business departments as well and they can provide you some support. Just somebody where you can bounce ideas off, where it's not your typical circle of people. And I say that very deliberately because most people, especially if you are in a 9 to 5, especially if you're talking to your co workers Especially if you're talking to your family, who's only known a 9 to 5, they will shut you down, but out of love, because they think, oh, honey, that's, that's a wonderful idea. But I really don't think that's going to be very successful. I mean, if I came to my family and said, hey, I want to make money crocheting cats, they're like, that's lovely, honey. Come back to me next week when you get a real job, you know, and so they love you and they want to see you succeed, but they don't see the same possibilities that other entrepreneurs can see. An entrepreneur is a rare breed, somebody who can actually make it as an entrepreneur, because it takes a lot of work, and I'm not going to sugarcoat, is a lot of dedication. It's a lot of ups and downs. You will have this period of time that is going to be so, so hard getting a message saying, it's reconnecting. Can you still hear me?

I lost dedication, but then it came back. But if you don't mind repeating the sentence, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So there will be some down times where you'll have to go through a period of nobody's buying your stuff, nobody's coming, nobody's doing anything, and you're to going, gonna feel like you want to give up and maybe this is impossible. And what am I doing? I still get those moments where it's like, am I really on the right path? Am I doing the right things? And to be surrounded by people who get you, who are in those same struggles with you is absolutely paramount. And I cannot, cannot recommend surrounding yourself with as many entrepreneurs who understand the struggle as, as you can, because for some people, they say on average, it takes you like three years for a business to become profitable. And so as long as you're willing to dedicate the time and you are committed to what you're doing and you have the support of people who can help give you direction of, who can help be your cheerleaders in, in, in your corner, who will help you keep moving forward even through those tough times, then you can make it. You can be one of those people who actually have a success, successful business doing what you love. So it's definitely worth it. But it is hard. So I'm, I'm not gonna, not gonna lie to you. It's not, it's not this super easy thing of make $10,000 overnight kind of kind of deal. It takes a lot of dedication and a lot of work. But in the end, it's totally worth it. So you really need somebody who will help you through those. Those tough times. And maybe a cat as well.

Yeah. What would you say changed in. In you as a person through this process? Let's say from leaving your. Your 9 to 5 to 9 now. How are you different?

My goodness, That's a big question. I am so, so different. Like, gosh, I'm.

I.

Entrepreneurship is also a personal development journey. Just FYI, if you're not into that, you probably don't want to sign up for entrepreneurship. But I find myself even. Gosh, even a week ago, I'm a different person even a month ago. Whatever. In the more I. I've diverged from my original person. Like, I wouldn't even recognize her now. So from the nine to five, I. I was a really good employee. A really, really good employee. I was a straight A student growing up. My dad instilled me in me all of these really wonderful habits. I knew how to follow rules. I knew how to do things more than was asked of me. I knew how to do the perfect job, you know, all of this kind of thing. I was a brilliant little cog in the wheel and. But because I was so good at that, it made it so difficult for me to unlearn a lot of those things in becoming an entrepreneur. And I've really struggled being an entrepreneur. And it's not easy for me to be an entrepreneur. I don't. It doesn't come easily to me on how to sell my stuff, on how to necessarily talk to people. It's taken me years to describe my business the way that I did today. And in order to draw people into my world, I still struggle with that. And I'm still learning. I'm still learning my. My messaging around my program and what people really want from me and how to position my solution as a solution to what they're struggling with. And so that's. That's not easy all the time. But it is something that is worth pursuing, and it requires a change. It requires you being willing to change. So you ask what kind of person I was then and how I've changed. It's like I don't even know where to start. I'm a completely different person. I see the world differently. I see the world with a lot more possibilities. I see myself as a lot more capable. I don't have to wait for somebody to tell me what to do. I can just go and do it. I could be responsible, Possible. I can step into that role. I can be this confident individual who knows what I'm talking about. I still suffer with a lot of imposter syndrome, but I've learned how to cope with that and how to overcome that and quiet that little voice in my brain that says, what are you doing? Maybe you should just settle back into this, this comfort zone of, of a, of a job just over broke. And maybe, you know, that's, that's very comfortable. And so I've learned how to be uncomfortable. I've learned how to really push my boundaries and really try new things and say, who knows, maybe this will completely flop. But then again, maybe it'll be a complete success, or maybe people will hate me, or maybe people will really resonate with me. You never know. And it's uncomfortable, it is difficult, but it's a beautiful journey to be on. And yeah, I'm. I'm nothing like the person I was back then.

In a good way. In a very good way.

In all the best ways, for sure.

Fantastic. Wow. I love this. I love this. Thank you so much, Brianna. Thank you for sharing all the little nitty gritty details that's behind of this amazing project, amazing business that you have. And thanks for not sugarcoating it. I think that brings it even closer because people might think, oh, my God, it worked out perfectly for her. It will never work out for me. But once people understand that it doesn't work out for you because it was just magically perfect. It worked out because you keep going. Yeah, that's what I'm. That's what I'm getting.

Absolutely. And even though I stumbled into what I would consider a slam dunk, I think a lot of that is because I finally discovered my own Dharma, my own purpose. And it's like, oh, this is where I'm supposed to be. And I finally got into alignment with my passion, and that was huge for me. So I can't tell you what that is. I can't tell you. Oh, just start a business that's centered around cats because people love cats. It's going to be different for you. If you're a dog lover, then a cat business just is not going to work for you. But if you're a dog lover, hey, maybe you can start a business around dogs and people will love you for it.

You know what? The other day we visited some family, and I'm. I'm totally into puzzles. And once I get my hand, hands on the puzzle, you. You can't move me from that spot. And I'm the same way. We now have plenty of them at our house. And We. We can't. Can't really have more because we don't have room for where to put them. And then we go and visit family, and they are like, oh, we got this beautiful photo of us made into a puzzle, and we got it as a Christmas present, and it's up there on the top of the shelf. We started it, but we only have the frame done, and we don't know if it. We will ever, ever have it done. And I was like, hold my beer. And in three hours, they had the whole thing done. And then my husband was like, oh, my God, you should make a business out of this. People can pay you, so you do their freaking puzzles. And that was so funny. And I was like, ah, okay, this is totally crazy, but your business is completely following along these lines.

You know what I immediately think of when you say that? I think maybe, like, puzzle cafe. So you know how you have, like, a cat cafe or whatever else. You have this cafe where you can go and you can get some coffee or tea or little light snacks, whatever else, and people come together to work on puzzles together, and you've got all of these puzzles and you leave them all on these nice big tables and people can work on puzzles together. I think that would definitely work as a business.

All right, I'll put that on the list. We have a tea and lemonade place on the list, so there might be puzzles there as well. So cool. All right, Brianna, thank you so much. I appreciate you. I appreciate all your shares and. And I wish you all the very best with this venture. And I wish your local shelter or even more shelters, whoever you get to, and your members get to support a lot of amazing support coming from your community. And, yeah, who knows, maybe we talk again here in a year or two and you can tell us about all those amazing steps you outlined that are ahead of you. I love your journey, and I'll be looking out for all your successes. Congrats and thank you so much.

Thank you for having me. It's been lovely talking to you.

Thanks.