Gift biz unwrapped episode 45 Instantly from that moment,
I was just like,
there was a fire inside.
This is John Lee,
Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,
and you're listening to the gift of biz unwrapped.
And now it's time to light it up.
Welcome to gift biz,
unwrapped your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop
and grow your business.
And now here's your host,
Sue Monheit.
Hi there.
I'm Sue and welcome to the gift beers,
unwrapped podcast,
whether you're Brick and mortar shop sell online or are just
getting started.
You'll discover new insight to gain traction and to get your
business going today.
I am so thrilled to have joining us London.
K London is a classically trained dancer who discovered her passion
for crochet.
At the age of 13,
London received a dance scholarship to NYU and after graduation dove
into the local street art scene,
she began developing her signature style by crocheting on fences.
She has adorned the windows of ABC carpet and home,
and has recently crocheted pieces for major brands,
including Starbucks Miller,
light checks mix and the TBS network.
According to Conde Nast traveler,
London K is the one to watch and we have her
here live talking to us today.
Welcome lunch.
Thank you.
How are you?
I'm good.
How are you doing today?
I'm doing great.
Good, Good.
Well, just to let our listeners know,
and some of them who may have been following me on
scope London is the one that I introduced you all to.
And I met when I was at the craft and hobby
show this past January.
So I was showing everybody,
if you remember London,
how beautiful your project was that you had put up there.
And I was telling everyone how beautiful it was.
And you said,
Oh, thank you.
And I turned around.
I'm like,
wait, who's there.
It was meant to be.
There you go.
Would you like to add anything to the intro that I've
already done before we get started?
You said it beautifully.
I have nothing more to add.
Okay. Well,
as our listeners know,
we like to align the conversation around the life of a
motivational candle.
The light shines on you while you share your stories and
experiences. So are you ready?
I am ready to write it up.
Oh, okay.
You're walking into a gift shop and you come upon a
shelf of all these motivational candles.
What color candle would you gravitate to and what would be
the quote on that candle?
The color candle I would gravitate to would be like a
nice white ivory color because I love the smell of vanilla
candles. So it'll have to be one of those.
And the quote on it would be trust your own perception.
That's interesting coming from an artist.
What does that mean?
It is a little affirmation.
I, you could say that I grabbed from the book artist
way and it just always kind of helps me through times
when I may be questioning myself or unsure of something.
I can take a deep breath,
tell myself,
trust your own perception and just keep going and repeat that
over and over again.
And it's helped me a lot.
So that would be my candle.
There you go.
You're making your own reality in a way.
Got it.
So I just recently heard about this whole concept of Yarn
bombing. And Maybe you could explain that a little bit because
in your bio,
I'm not sure that everyone's getting the full flavor for what
you're actually doing.
Can you describe what that's all about?
And you do call what you're doing.
Yes. Yarn bombing is definitely something that's new.
It's getting more and more popular.
I mean,
it feels like every day,
but it is basically where you take a piece of knit
or crochet,
goodness that you've made in the past.
And you wrap it around a tree,
a fire hydrant,
you cover something in an outdoor space with yarn and you
leave it there for people to simply enjoy.
And it's a kind of unique twist on classic crochet and
knitting. It's almost reinventing this tradition of scarves and blankets and
things that we all love and bringing it to the new
generation. It's so much fun and I absolutely love it.
And it's cool to be able to put things outside simply
to make people happy and kind of be a part of
that whole street art scene,
but doing it in a way that it doesn't hurt the
environment and doing it in a way that allows me to
do what I love most of all,
which is crochet and just surprise people.
Did you have this idea before you knew about yarn bombing
or had you seen other people doing it?
Like, how did you get started?
You're in New York city.
So it's not a small place,
you know,
it's not like rural America somewhere.
You seen people doing this already,
or how did you actually know what to do that very
first time,
I really hadn't seen it around and it was about three
and a half years ago.
And I met an artist and she used yarn and unusual
ways. So she would sell things to galleries with yarn and
that I hopped on the internet right after I met her
and just started Googling.
And that's how I discovered yarn bombing instantly from that moment,
I was just like,
there was a fire inside.
I was like,
I'm taking a scarf,
I'm wrapping it around a tree outside my house.
And from that moment on,
I mean,
I haven't stopped and it's not illegal to do that.
It's not because of the fact that it's not really hurting
anything. People can hang up signs on street poles and that's
fine. So I do always do it in the middle of
the day.
I never tried to be like,
hide what I'm doing.
I'm always open to what I'm doing.
So, and I try to get permission as much as possible.
Got, and now this Has developed into a full-time business for
you. Oh yeah.
And I never could have expected ever in a million years.
That's crazy.
So talk about how that happened.
So you were out,
you were enjoying it,
you did the first one right outside your house,
and then you started doing other things all around New York.
And then what happened?
How did you get your first paid commission or just walk,
walk us through how that all developed?
Well, I had been looking for a really long time.
I was working a full-time job nine to five for a
big company and it was okay.
But I knew there was more so what I did is
I gave myself a 30 day challenge.
I was like,
if this is something I really love every single day for
30 days,
I'm just going to crochet something,
put it outside and leave it there for people to enjoy.
And with every piece that I put up,
I would put a tag next to it with my website.
And just,
I would say within that first 30 days of me doing
it every day,
people started getting interested.
My Instagram followers started going up.
I would post photos of everything I did.
And people started reaching out to me through my website.
And the first thing that actually came through my site was,
Hey, we want to do a collaboration with you for New
York city fashion week.
My mind was blown.
I couldn't believe it.
And so I knew I was onto something.
And instead of doing it for 30 days straight,
I did it for like 50 days straight without taking a
break. And that got me into this groove of being very
quick with my work.
And I just loved every second of it.
So that's how I got started.
And so that was your first paid job?
Yes, That was my first paid job.
And I want to say ever since then,
I've been very lucky.
Everything that I've ever gotten has been through people reaching out
to me through my site,
simply because of me doing something with no intention of getting
paid for it,
putting it outside,
I feel like there's some sort of like balance there.
That's allowing me to get actually paid work from,
work me just doing,
because I love it so much.
And so what do you see as your future with this?
Where do you think you're going?
I'm just going to keep,
I mean,
the biggest thing that surprised me with crocheting is that there's
so many different ways that you can use it and so
many different things that you can do with yarn.
So I'm just continuing to see where it takes me.
Try really hard,
push every boundary and explore all the different kind of areas
that open up or that I think are kind of interesting
or unique.
That's kind of where I'm going.
So give biz listeners,
if you had a chance to see on the scope,
what you put up at the cha show,
this was just not like a basic scarf.
This is a whole pattern design.
I mean the detail and the quality to what you're putting
up is spectacular.
Thank you,
mermaids and whales.
Those are my favorite things to crochet.
So when people ask me on the subway,
because I'll be crochet like a mad woman on the subway
and people are like,
what are you crocheted?
I used to be like,
Oh, I'm making a tomato now.
I just am like,
I'm making a blanket.
People just think I'm too weird.
If I start rattling off all these ridiculous things that I'm
actually making.
Have you found that there's now a community around,
you know,
like with people in different cities or even different countries,
I understand that it's going on in the UK as well.
Are you having a community now of all of you who
are doing this?
Yeah, there's absolutely a lot of people.
I mean,
not a huge number of people that are doing it,
but there is a group of people that are doing it
and really Instagram and Facebook without social media.
I mean,
I don't know how we would have ever connected or found
each other without it,
but people are doing it.
And I love,
love, love that more and more people are starting to yarn
bomb because it's just really cool.
It's really cool.
It is really cool.
And how long can they stay?
My pieces stay up anywhere between a day to nine or
10 months.
It really just depends on if somebody takes it down.
Got it.
All right.
And let's talk about now because a lot of our listeners
are people who are thinking of maybe starting some type of
a business out of a craft that they do,
perhaps it's jewelry that they make or they're bakers,
and they want to start selling their product.
What did you do to start formulating this into a more
structured business where there was going to be money exchanging hands?
It was a pretty natural progression,
but I've always been very business minded.
I started my first scarf business when I was 13 years
old. I grew up at a dance studio and I would
always crochet scarves for all the different girls at the studio.
And they would pick their colors and this and that.
I went on to buy my car with the money I
made from crochet and scarfs.
Then I needed a break.
So then when this all started up,
I was always thinking about how it could turn into more
than just the passion behind it.
So the website was huge.
I used Squarespace consistently updating my website,
having a blog on my website,
guiding people to my website was probably the first step.
And having that contact form in a way for people to,
it may sound a little silly,
but a way for people to give me money through my
site, I've had stores up on my sites,
selling different products like crocheted sneakers or bags.
There's always been some way for people to give money or
support what I'm doing.
That's easy and accessible.
It's so easy when we have a company and we are
presenting a product.
We forget sometimes that we need to walk the path from
the consumer.
Who's going to be interacting with us,
you know,
do you have everything in place?
And just as you're saying,
you know,
how are you going to run that transaction through in a
professional manner?
So really good point for people who are starting out or
anyone who has a business think about that from the customer's
standpoint, how does it feel to be a customer of yours
and are your processes smooth?
Do you have everything in place that you need to be
able to conduct a full transaction?
Yes. And also I just remembered,
I do think it's so important.
Also finding that balance.
We're making these things from scratch and the value of that.
It's so easy to be like,
Oh, you can buy this from me for $20.
Great. But that was something that was handmade.
That took a lot of time,
like actually charging what your time is worth was a big
obstacle as well is getting comfortable saying those numbers that maybe
are a little higher than what my pocket book is.
Okay. With.
That was another big kind of like way to take the
business to another level.
I'm really,
really glad you brought that up London because it's true.
We always under estimate.
If we've made something with our own hands,
we underestimate the value that that has to notorious in this
industry. Yeah.
So how did you arrive upon your price?
I mean,
it took a really long time,
but really it was just coming up with a good numbers,
spreadsheet or Excel spreadsheet where now it's very formulaic.
If somebody wants something of this size,
I can simply plug in how big they want it.
And I've put in all my costs,
I put in how much I want to be paid per
hour and how much it'll cost for the,
like behind the scenes and figuring things out on that side
of it.
And then it just shoots out a number at the bottom.
So that has made it easier for me because then also
for your client,
they can see this very in depth breakdown.
So they understand why it's costing this.
It's not just a big number that they're like,
well, how did you come to that?
So that's helped a lot.
And do you put your margin then in with your production
time? Yes.
Got it.
All right.
Super. Okay.
So this sounds so fun because yarn,
as we all know,
is beautiful,
colorful, Creative,
And all of that,
but there had to be some challenges that you met up
with along the way.
Can you give us one story of something that happened that
kind of caught you off guard or made you stop in
your tracks a little bit?
You had to rethink and figure out how to deal with
it. Oh yeah.
My mouth.
Well now I'm curious just by that reaction.
I mean everything cause you're right with yarn,
it's so positive.
It's happy.
It's colorful.
It's fun.
All right.
So I live in Bushwick,
Brooklyn, which is a really like the cool area.
We got a lot of street art going on,
tons of painting,
fun coffee shops,
bars, the whole nine.
It's great,
but the neighborhood is definitely gentrifying.
So there's a lot of different people from all different backgrounds.
And I recently over the summer,
so, well now it's not so recently,
but in August of 2015,
a gentleman purchased an empty lot and he was going to
have a flea market there for people to sell their goods
and all sorts of things.
And he wanted more art in the space.
So he asked me if I wanted to crochet a mural
for him for this wall,
I spent months,
it was three 15 tall people.
I did this for free simply to like have the experience
of making something of that size and spent months making it.
I go and install it.
It takes days.
I like it.
It's not my favorite piece,
but I really like it a few months later,
the neighbor to this lot is not okay with it.
And apparently the gentleman who's flea market is,
did not ask the correct permission to get my art put
there. And it turns into a huge issue.
There were protests in front of my mural.
There were news stories written about it and I was kind
of caught in the middle,
but it was the first time that I ever really realized
how much my art or art in general really can affect
the community and how important it is to have a deeper
meaning to everything you do and do more research with everything
you do,
because you never know how it's going to affect people.
And it was a huge to do for about a month.
But now that it's all passed,
I've learned a lot,
but I never thought a little bit of yarn could get
caught in the middle of such a big,
hot topic.
Wow. That is a crazy story.
So you're saying it took a few months for everything to
wind down and get back to normal.
What did you have to do?
Or how did the whole thing ended up resolving itself?
Did you just take it down or what happened?
I did take it down and that helped,
but I think the biggest thing was the people on the
internet, everybody there's always something new that's going on and something
that's catching people's eye.
And I mean,
it wasn't like 15 minutes of fame really,
but I think the mass majority that people were not happy
with it.
There was something else that came into their spectrum and one
day kind of it all just shifted.
Yay. The next big thing.
Exactly. The next thing just kind of came and we moved
on. Yeah.
Well, you know,
you did say that,
you know,
you learned a lesson in terms of doing research and all
of that,
you know,
sometimes, especially with you in,
in your field as an artist,
you, you,
we're all gonna take chances and there will be things that
aren't going to work out.
Right. So what do you do?
You work through it as best you can learn from it
and go on.
Definitely. What types of things do you do now?
And I think I know already what you're going to say,
but I'll wait for you to say it.
What do you do now so that you are visible and
that where you can capture business?
I'm always continuing to do yarn bomb.
So, I mean,
just this week,
I've put up two because I just love it so much.
So that's a great way to always be putting out new
material and connecting with people on social media.
Also, I always carry around these little crocheted hearts that I
make and we'll give them to people,
any customers that I meet or meetings that I have,
everybody will always get a handmade,
crocheted heart with a number on it and a little card
telling them about the project and what I do.
I want one.
Yeah, definitely.
I will make sure to send one out.
So you put up Your yarn bombs that are free.
So that's kind of like your PR call when,
you know,
when you put those up and then just sharing when you
run into people,
face-to-face with the hearts and the cards,
just like you're saying,
Right. It's a lot of just doing things like random acts
of kindness.
I'm such a big believer on the more that you give
to the universe and the world,
then, then you know,
more will come back to you.
Absolutely. And do you do anything then with some of these
big names that you were talking about before,
you know,
Starbucks, Miller light,
do you do anything to try and spread the word?
They may have some context too,
for you in terms of referrals.
Yeah. It's,
I'm lucky with the crochet niche.
And I think a lot of people in the gifting world,
we all have such a great opportunity because we have a
specific thing that we do with that comes pressed.
So because there's this first ever crocheted billboard in times square
for Miller light,
that's going to catch on through the media and then other
companies will see it and then come back to me to
do more work.
Got it.
Let's talk just a little bit about Facebook and Instagram,
cause you've mentioned both of those and that you're using both
of those platforms for exposure.
Can you take each of those platforms and just talk a
little bit about the type of things you posting,
what you're seeing,
just your experience from an advice perspective for our listener?
Yeah. I started with Instagram because with art,
it is,
you know,
it could be gone tomorrow.
So I like to take a picture to capture it.
And I definitely think about at the beginning,
I was trying to get followers,
followers, followers.
It was about gaining people to follow me using you always
want to use the right hashtags,
but not too many hashtags.
So I tend to stick to two good ones on each
post and go with it and looking up different things that
you're interested on Instagram.
We'll start with that one to be specific.
So I like street art.
I'll go through photos that have hashtag street art and look
at files like a few photographs,
maybe comment on one.
That's a great way to kind of build your following is
finding other people who are interested in what you like.
So you're saying that by going and finding something you're interested
in and then commenting on their photos,
they come back,
look at your stuff and then follow it.
Exactly. And you don't necessarily have to follow them so that
they follow you.
As long as your account is a really nice looking profile.
I am not one to post selfies.
I don't post socializing.
I don't post food.
It is what on my Instagram account.
It is totally curated to look beautiful and just have yarn
bombs so that when people get to that account,
they're like,
Oh wow,
this is really cool.
I'm not going to get like an ultrasound on this,
on this account.
I can follow that for my love of art.
Right. And you're not confusing anybody either when they get to
your site,
they know exactly what it's about.
Exactly. So those would be my biggest Instagram tips.
So you post that on Instagram whenever you have a project
completed. Oh yeah.
Okay. Every once in a while I'll do work in progress.
It's pretty rare.
I usually just like to show the finished,
finished work.
Okay. And then for Facebook,
I, it's a little more personal for me,
not in the sense that I'm posting photos of me and
my friends.
Just more like I like to give a little more of
a story.
So I was just at the event,
the craft and hobby show,
and you'll tag them in your Facebook post to kind of
get their eye on it as well.
And I give a little more background posts,
maybe three or four photos about that.
And hashtags,
I don't really use on Facebook,
but I like using it because I make a different from
the Instagram,
just in the sense that you can include a little more
information. And I think it's a nice compliment to just Photos.
Are you doing any Facebook video yet?
No, I'm not.
Sometimes I'll post videos on Facebook,
but it is that new.
It is.
Name is new.
Yeah. You can do video short little clips of video and
they go directly to Facebook.
Well, I will have to check it out.
Yeah. That,
that could be cool.
Like just when you're putting something up or you're taking a
break for a minute and show your progress or,
you know,
who knows what,
who knows what your artistic mind will come up with.
So that's a great tip.
I love it.
What I really like about what London's just been talking about
is she has very specific reasons behind what she's doing on
each platform you heard from her that on Instagram,
it is very much all about the business finished product,
very clean and beautiful and colorful,
which is a great way for her to be attracting people
to want to follow her on Instagram.
And then on Facebook you heard,
you know,
she's still doing the same thing it's for business because especially
as you're attracting bigger names,
you want every single picture that you put in really any
platform to be something that would be all right for others
to see in terms of the larger brands,
but she takes a little bit more of a personal approach
with it.
So even though they're both visual platforms,
Instagram of course being more so she's using the platforms into
different yet comparable ways,
I guess is the best way for me to say that,
say what my thought is.
Perfect. Yeah.
That sums it up beautifully.
All right.
We're going to move on now into our reflection section.
This is a place where we take a look at you
and kind of unpeel.
What has made you successful along the way?
What would you say is one natural trait that you've always
had that you call upon in your current success For this
business? That I'm in?
The biggest thing that's helped me is how much I just
love to crochet.
I will crochet all day every day and it would not
bother me like that's an ideal day.
So having just that passion for being in this field is
the one thing that's helped me succeed.
So there's never been a time when you're like,
Oh, I just want to be done with this project.
Yeah, well,
yeah. Yeah.
I have had that feeling,
but it's never been like,
Oh, I just want to be done with this project and
take a break from crocheting for two weeks.
Like I just want to be done with this project so
I can crochet something else.
Okay. And again,
you know,
I've seen this consistency within podcasts that we've been doing is
a lot of people are calling on things that they absolutely
loved as children and turned them into businesses.
You know,
there's something about that innate very innocent passion that you have
when you're younger.
That is interesting to look back on and I would suggest
anybody who's listening.
Who's thinking about starting a company because we also have people
who, you know,
they know they want to quit their nine to five.
They want to start some type of a business,
but they have absolutely no idea what it's going to be.
What did you like to do when you were younger?
Or what do you love to do now that you could
just sit and do for hours and hours?
Like London's talking about something to consider and see what it
could turn into in terms of a business.
All right.
Back to this London,
what tool do you use regularly to keep you productive or
to keep balance in your life?
I actually just a,
this holiday season,
my sister,
she gave me this planner.
It's called my shining life.
She got me one in particular called my business's shining life.
And we laid out.
It just goes through.
And has you set goals and has you kind of list
all your achievements from the previous year and where you want
to go this year and really get serious with the numbers
on how you're doing in your business?
And it took us two days of working on this,
my shining business planner.
It was so great.
And I think it's really kind of like put some good
goals in place for this next year.
And even without that,
I guess it would just be setting goals even this week,
every week I have,
post-its where I write,
you know,
this week,
these are my goals.
Cause it gets easy to forget you.
You're like,
Oh, I'm not doing well,
but it's like,
Oh wait,
you achieved something.
So I think having those little moments of little achievements that
have happened in your life,
I think it's very important to be able to be aware
of that.
Yeah. And when you have some big,
huge goal breaking it up into smaller goals,
like you're saying makes it seem like it's not so insurmountable.
Yeah. It makes you feel good too,
when you can accomplish the little things.
And then of course the big things are great as well.
There's nothing Like checking off something from The list.
That's for sure.
Definitely. What book have you read lately that you think our
listeners could find valuable?
Oh, the tipping point by Malcolm Gladwell.
I don't know if you guys have read it or not,
but it's so great for businesses and just getting your mind
thinking. Cause it's about how little things can make a big
difference and how just starting small and trends can pick up
and start to happen.
And it was very inspiring to read and has always been
the one book that I always go back to.
He also writes one called David and Goliath.
It's about how the little guy can work its way around
the big guy and ultimately have greater success.
So I'm all about doing things in unusual ways and not
going about it the way that maybe your mom or dad
did before you and both of those books are great examples
of ways to succeed.
I love both those books,
so great recommendations London.
I appreciate it.
And give busy listeners just as you're listening to the podcast
today, you can also listen to audio books with ease.
I've teamed up with audible for you to be able to
get an audio book like both of these,
that London is suggesting and you can get them for free.
All you need to do is go to gift biz,
book.com and make a selection.
That's gift biz,
book.com. All right,
London, we are going to wind out in our dare to
dream question and I can not wait to hear what you
have to say about this.
I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.
It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
This is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable Heights
that you would wish to obtain.
Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
What is inside your yarn wrap Box?
Thank you so much for my yarn wrapped box.
The ultimate dream for me has also I'm opening it right
now, by the way.
Okay, perfect.
Just like the candle.
I'm like always just known that when I have succeeded,
I will be able to just sit and crochet blankets on
the beach.
So this goal who knows when it'll happen,
I hope it's not tomorrow because I love what I'm doing.
But the ultimate goal for me is just to be able
to sit on a warm beach,
crocheting blankets,
then I know I've made it Go,
Oh, I can see it.
I can already see it happening.
You Can already do it on vacations.
You just can't do it forever yet.
Right? Exactly.
And I don't want to it's life is too fun right
now. Wonderful.
Love hearing that.
And you can hear it in your voice,
just how you talk.
I mean,
it's very clear how much you love what you're doing that
shines through for sure.
Oh, so give biz listeners.
I will have all of the contact information for London on
our show notes page,
but London,
for those of people who are in the car or who
may not jump over to the show notes page,
cause they're out and about listening while they're running,
walking their dog,
et cetera.
If they wanted to take a look at some of what
you're doing,
can you share with us your Instagram page and maybe your
Facebook page?
Sure. Well,
my name is London K London,
like the city K spelled K a Y E.
So you can check out my website,
London k.com
or on Instagram.
I'm at made by London and for Facebook I'm under London.
K. Perfect.
Thank you for that.
And thank you so much London.
You've given us really a good insight into such a fun
and interesting creative business.
I love how you've gotten started.
I love where it's progressed.
I love your enthusiasm and all that you're doing to grow
the business.
And I am going to watch and follow what you are
up to.
And thank you.
Thank you.
Because really,
if I can do it honestly,
anyone can,
I believe that with all my heart.
So keep making things and then life will be beautiful.
And I look forward to the day when I see you
putting in yarn kind of symbolic,
beautiful girl,
sitting on the beach,
just crocheting away.
Thank you.
That is what we hope for your future London and may
your candle always burn bright.
Learn how to work smarter while developing and growing your business.
Download our guide called 25 free tools to enhance your business
and life.
It's our gift to you and available@giftbizonrap.com
slash tools.
Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the
next episode.
Today's show is sponsored by the ribbon print company,
looking for a new income source for your gift business.
Customization is more popular now than ever grander products with your
logo or print a happy birthday.
Jessica driven to add to a gift,
right at checkout,
all of a sudden,
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check out the ribbon print company.com
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