Meet Melissa Galbraith

 

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Melissa Galbraith. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Melissa below.

Melissa, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

From a young age my mother had my sisters and I in her sewing room making all sorts of hands-on crafts. I have early memories of digging through her scrap bin to make myself a cavewomen outfit from magenta and black animal print fleece. As I got older, my mom always gave my sisters and I the opportunity to try new crafts. I learned how to crazy quilt my first quilt (it only took me 4 years haha!), make bobbin lace, hand embroider pillow cases, and in high school I even designed my own dresses for school dances and my mom made them for me.

The ability to feel comfortable diving into a craft with unfamiliar supplies helped me build confidence and believe I could try anything. Admittedly, I might not be good at it the first, second, or 10th time around, but because of these early crafting experiences I’ve always felt I can give things a try.

This has been extremely beneficial as a micro small business owner. I never saw myself starting my own business, let alone one based on a craft I love, but the ‘just give it a try and find out’ mentality has made the process easier and fun.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

Melissa Galbraith is the fiber artist behind MCreativeJ. She was born and raised in the desert of Washington state where her mother instilled a love of making things by hand at an early age. Melissa shares her love of nature through whimsical and modern hand embroidery kits, patterns, workshops, and her books, How to Embroider Texture and Pattern, and forthcoming DIY Embroidered Shoes.

Melissa was reintroduced to hand embroidery after finding her desk job monotonous and needing a creative outlet. She loves that embroidery is like coloring with a needle and thread. Melissa found that many craft enthusiasts also wanted to learn how to embroider but were daunted by where to start. Thanks to this and a love of teaching, Melissa began to share her hand embroidery knowledge.

Melissa makes it easy to learn a new craft for makers of all skill levels. She enjoys seeing makers fall in love with the needle arts, especially that magical ah-ha moment of learning something new.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1- I’ve found it extremely important to remind myself that everyone is on a different journey. We all work and thrive at a different pace. What works for one business might not work for yours. It it important to figure out what works for you. This might include a lot of trial and error, but those ‘fails’ are always lessons learned in moving forward.

2- Don’t try to squish yourself into a mold that doesn’t fit. When I first started my small business, I sold finished hand embroidered decor. I’d spend hours on an embroidery only to have it not sell or not feel comfortable selling it for what it should have been worth. This is because I’m not a natural sales person. I don’t enjoy selling to people. Instead, I found that many people wanted to learn how to embroider and make similar creations. In turn, I found I enjoy teaching and sharing my skills with others so that they’re learning a new craft as well. And yes, I still sell my embroidery kits, but I feel more comfortable selling them because I’m helping makers of all skill levels learn something new and have fun.

3- It’s ok to take breaks and find help. Running a small business means you wear all the hats and do all the things. This isn’t feasible and can quickly lead to burnout. Instead, I’ve found it’s important to rest when my body tells me to and also ask for help as needed. Even though I do all the things for my small business that doesn’t mean I’m an expert in that area or that I enjoy it. If I can find someone to help with things I don’t enjoy as much and need expert help in, like SEO and taxes, then it’ll not only save me time but also help me ensure it’s done right.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

MCreativeJ has grown over the past 7 years and is not at a point where I can’t do it on my own anymore. I’m currently looking at my systems, time, and network to see how I can add support or implement new ways of doing things to help with continued growth.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

All images courtesy of MCreativeJ

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