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Katy McKinley

I'm Katy McKinley and you are listening to "I Can Make That: Conversations with Creatives." I have been existing in a world of art, sewing and other various forms of creativity my entire life. Along my craft journey, I've collected quite the group of talented characters that I get to call my friends. Instead of keeping their wisdom wit and all to myself, I'm using this podcast to bring them to you. Behind every piece of art is a human being who went through a range of successes and failures, in making and in life.

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Katy McKinley

And I'm here to share their stories.

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Katy McKinley

Welcome to the "I Can Make That: Conversations with Creatives" podcast. This particular interview has been a long time coming. I think we originally scheduled it back in 2019, so we should probably not waste any more time and just get to it. I am basically a broken record when I start talking about all of my guests by saying I'm really excited to introduce them to you, but I'm going to say it again because it's the truth.

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Katy McKinley

I am so excited to introduce her to you. I know today's guest because of sewing, which is shocking, I'm sure. We ran in the same Facebook circles for the longest time, and I really just came to adore her. I wish this were a live video feed, because she literally has the best and brightest smile ever and her image just fills me with a happiness that I probably should not admit to in this forum, because it's starting to make me look like a creeper.

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Katy McKinley

Please welcome to the show. Brittany Shillingford. She is the owner, designer and hustle master behind the company, BizzyBCrafts, a handmade business that specializes in hair accessories. Within the last few years, Brittany quit her day job and turned her side hustle into her reality, tied the knot with her hunky hubby, and gave birth to two of the cutest babies ever.

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Katy McKinley

Her recent past has been full of amazing milestones and the constant crushing of goals, and I can't wait to go into further detail about it all. Let's do this.

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Katy McKinley

Welcome to "I can make that" Brittany.

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Brittany Shillingford

Hi Katy. Thank you so much for having me. I am smiling very, very big. That was the sweetest, nicest intro ever.

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Katy McKinley

Did you people talk about your smile all the time? Because I feel like it's got to be the thing that you get complimented on the most.

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Brittany Shillingford

Yeah, occasionally. I feel like it happened a lot when I was little. Like it always on my report card, like mentioning me just smiling and bringing joy to the class. So I guess it's carried throughout my life.

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Katy McKinley

I seriously, I start smiling so big whenever a picture of you pops up in my feed.

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Brittany Shillingford

Oh, thank you. That makes me so happy. I'm doing something right. Even if I don't say anything important.

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Katy McKinley

I first read into you in the sewing world. Oh, in the PDF pattern, like apparel side of things. It's a pretty cool place to hang out if you ask me. And you were a tester for a while with Patterns for Pirates, which I work for, and I saw you sharing a lot of your apparel sews. Is that how you got started with sewing?

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Katy McKinley

What brought you into the sewing world in the very beginning?

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Brittany Shillingford

So I actually didn't know how to sew until a customer of mine asked if I can make a specific type of headband. And it involved sewing, and I had no idea how to make it, but I did some Googling and then I taught myself how to sew. And then from there I kind of landed in the Patterns for Pirates Facebook group?

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Brittany Shillingford

I don't even really remember how. And then I started sewing clothing from there.

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Katy McKinley

So that's. When did you originally start your business with? And if it was not necessarily headband related.

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Brittany Shillingford

It was headbands that has a very uncomfortable metal hard headbands with flowers hot glued on to them, which is like sounds horrible to say, because now and I look at pictures, I'm like, Oh my gosh, people bought these, but some people did, and that's kind of how it began. So it was headbands, but they were very, very different and not comfortable at all.

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Katy McKinley

Well, I guess, Let's rewind just a little bit and talk shop. Like what? What is BizzyBCrafts? What is it that you do for a living?

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Brittany Shillingford

So I make comfortable, now brushed poly fabric headband that stay put all day don't give you headaches won't slide back and you won't have to adjust a thousand times. They're perfect for literally. Every single

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Brittany Shillingford

Type of person. I used to say that busy woman. But like, literally everybody's busy and men can wear them as well. And I think it's just so hard to juggle everything that we're juggling, no matter what your lifestyle looks like. And it's it feels impossible to do everything. And also make sure that you feel and look put together.

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Brittany Shillingford

And adding a headband just is so simple. It takes 5 seconds and it brings together a simple outfit and will hide whatever hair flaws you would like to hide and just makes you feel like you've got it going on when you don't.

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Katy McKinley

I got like such a kick out of reading about section in your website because there is this little quote says "If looking put together, despite not having had time to wash your hair is on your bucket list, you've come to the right place." So is that is that something that holds true from the beginning to the end of what you've done so far with your business?

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Brittany Shillingford

Very true. And it's funny because I started so long ago, it'll be ten years that I started my business next month. And obviously my life looked very different then. But throughout all of my different phases, the last ten years, headbands have like come in handy and I've needed them for different reasons, but kind of the same reason, like not being able to get ready or wash my hair.

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Brittany Shillingford

That has not changed, even though my life has looked different throughout this time period. And I think that's true for a lot of people.

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Katy McKinley

Where did the name come from for BizzyBCrafts? So I'm assuming the B is for Brittany and that you're busy.

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Brittany Shillingford

Yeah. So I started originally on Etsy. And on Etsy you have have to have a one word name. So there can be any spaces and it can't be something that somebody else has. So hence the spelling that doesn't seem natural. But the name idea came from the fact that my dad, who likes to tell the same story over and over again, used to always tell me that when I was little he would find me very quiet in the playroom and just sitting at the little table doing something, keeping myself busy, making some sort of craft.

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Brittany Shillingford

And I was never coming to my parents saying, like, I'm bored, I need something to do. I was always able to keep myself busy with something and I don't know why. But while I was coming up with the name, that story popped into my head and I was like, okay, let's see if this is available. And it it stuck.

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Brittany Shillingford

And even though I don't make any crafts and sometimes I wish it didn't say that it feels so part of my identity that I don't even know if I could ever change it.

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Katy McKinley

That's really cute. I am, actually. I think maybe some parents would like some parenting tips from your parents.

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Brittany Shillingford

I think. Yeah. It's just it's just, you know, not a nurture thing. I think it's just the way I was born because my brother and sister are not the same in that aspect.

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Katy McKinley

I personally have the while he's a single child, but he's always like, I'm bored and bored.

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Brittany Shillingford

Yeah, Can I help? Yeah, yeah. I mean, obviously sometimes it's good because then they, they learn what to do, you know, when the kids aren't bored, it's like you never get to figure out what to do with your time and how to be creative with it.

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Katy McKinley

Right? For sure. You've had some major life events happen all really kind of recently. And when I say recently within the like the fact the last five or so years you quit your job to become a full time self-employed. You got married to a super handsome guy that appears in photos every once in a while. And you had two babies, one very recently.

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Katy McKinley

But let's talk about married life first. He is a police officer in New York where you live, is that correct? Yeah. And maybe I read the news or watch too many TV shows, but it's tough and sometimes scary. Job with big responsibilities is being the partner of someone in the line of duty as emotionally straining as I imagine it to be?

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Katy McKinley

How do you cope?

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Brittany Shillingford

It's funny because I if you were to ask me that since we've been together for 14 years, obviously, I mean, I guess that's not obvious. But he was not a police officer when we met. We were very young. And if you would have asked me then at that time, I would have been like, Oh my gosh, I can't even imagine.

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Brittany Shillingford

That must be so stressful. But it's not. And I think it's because I just don't think about it. Like that might not be the healthiest technique. But I feel like if I did think about it, I would worry too much and not be able to live my life just like, I guess in a similar way. When you're a parent, you if you let yourself be consumed by all of the worry of what could happen once your child needs your front door, you would never be able to function.

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Brittany Shillingford

So you just kind of have to not think about it. So I feel like that's kind of what I do. I pretend he's at like a safe place, and sometimes he did. He is, you know, sometimes he's very much not in danger, but just the the potential and the news light you said and hearing about that really makes you worry or the possibility of what could happen, even if it might never happen in his whole career, if that makes sense.

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Brittany Shillingford

So I really am not good at advice if anybody for listening to this for advice. I just kind of ignore it and I'll I'll ask him how his day went but I don't ask specifics. So we don't really talk about it because then I will worry if I if I know too much.

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Katy McKinley

I can imagine it would consume you if you if you let it.

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Brittany Shillingford

Yes, exactly. That's the that's the perfect word.

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Katy McKinley

A couple of months ago, I took a leap of faith and quit my day job to be my own boss and support my family with it. Thank you. It's been the coolest thing I ever did and scariest and most stressful, but really cool. How long have you been fully self employed now?

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Brittany Shillingford

It will be four years in April. And it is the coolest and the scariest. I, I would agree with that statement.

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Katy McKinley

Is there any advice you'd want to give to someone that's trying to make the leap into this self-employed, handmade artisan life?

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Brittany Shillingford

I think my number one advice, which is like kind of practical and less like fun, is make sure that you can pay your bills before you do it. Because I think then it's not as scary. I didn't feel scared. It didn't feel like a leap to me because I was making the amount of money that I needed to pay and cover all of my expenses.

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Brittany Shillingford

So I knew that if I quit my job, we would be fine. And some people feel that way even if they don't have the, you know, numbers to back it up. But that's not really my personality. I needed to see like, okay, I could do this. And I also felt like if I can't, I'll just figure it out.

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Brittany Shillingford

I'll just work at Starbucks or, you know, go back to what I was doing before. I really just wanted to make it work so badly that I was like, I'll I'll figure it out, whatever the situation is. And of course, the way it looks now is very different from how it looked four years ago when I quit. So even if you have the proof that you could do it doesn't mean that that's going to carry through like things change, the environment changed.

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Brittany Shillingford

You know, we had a pandemic, like lots of things can happen. That's out of your control. That kind of could put a little wrench in your plan. But I think that is my number one thing when people ask me is make sure that you're being smart about it because you don't want to end up in a situation where, like, you can't pay your rent or mortgage or buy food or, you know, like provide for your family if you have one.

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Katy McKinley

Right. I think I have this like personality flaw, too, that thinks like, well, just figure it out. Like, yeah, work out, it'll be fine.

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Brittany Shillingford

Yeah, but I think that is good in a way, because then otherwise you'll just worry, you know, like, oh gosh, what if this doesn't work out? It's like, well, if it doesn't work out, you'll just figure it out when that happens. If it does, you know, because there's there's no way you can really predict and know how things are going to work, even if you try and set yourself up for it to be successful.

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Katy McKinley

Right. And I think sometimes I'm like, well, I look pretty employable, right? Because I was able to like, manage a business and and, you know, do all of it, the customer service, the, the like, you know, the paperwork side of it. And so you think if if it all goes down, someone's going to look at you and say, well, you, you kind of know how to do it all, right?

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Brittany Shillingford

Yeah. It is definitely good to know how to do a bunch of different types of jobs. Like I think that like that to do everything in your business and know how to do it. But you don't want to ever have to use the head on your resume. But if you did, it's there.

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Katy McKinley

Right? Well, you had an even bigger announcement a little bit after you went full time self-employed, where you couldn't keep up with the demands and you needed to end up outsourcing your work. So you have a manufacturer now that you use for production. And I'm super curious about the whole process of finding the right one to be able to let go of that whole control factor that you probably felt for so long.

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Brittany Shillingford

Yeah, it was so exciting and also so necessary. I was drowning and I didn't know what to do. It took six or seven weeks to get out all of the orders from the summer collection. And you know, that's a very long time for somebody to wait for a headband, you know, it's not like a fancy sneaker or something.

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Brittany Shillingford

So I knew plus obviously I could not like, mentally do it. It was way too much work and I was unable to do. Speaking of all the jobs that we had, I was unable to do the majority of them because I had to spend a lot of my time sewing and getting those orders out to customers. So it's actually funny.

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Brittany Shillingford

I didn't know what to do. I didn't even know that a manufacturer for something like this was possible, which sounds so silly because like, of course there are plenty of items of clothing and handbags and things that are sewn that are not getting made in a person's spare bedroom. But I just never thought about it. And I found them through this site called Makers Row that I heard about.

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Brittany Shillingford

through another small business owner that has a handmade sewn product. I just randomly reached out to her. We're not friends. I was a customer hers, but I reached out to her because I didn't know what else to do. I didn't know even what to Google. And she mentioned the website to me and I messaged a few companies.

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Brittany Shillingford

And it's funny because I it's not like I interviewed five and then I picked one that was the best fit. Only one got back to me and I only met with that one. And then that one is the one that I still work with today. So I got really, really lucky, especially because I met up with them at the end of June and I remember it was like the 25th, it was the last week of June, and she said, okay, if you want to start the fall, production on the beginning of July is the best to start that.

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Brittany Shillingford

And I, I in my head was like, that's, that's literally next week. Like, I don't look, I'm not prepared for that. I don't know even where to get a large amount of fabric. I was buying small very small amounts from, you know small shops, but I somehow got it together and got it in time for them to start pretty quickly and got the ball rolling.

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Brittany Shillingford

But it was definitely it's funny, I wasn't really Yeah, the scary part was spending the money to have it made because I was not used to shelling out any money besides ordering fabric. Like when you make stuff yourself, yeah, you're spending your time, but it doesn't feel as scary because you're not handing over five, ten, however many thousands of dollars to essentially strangers and hoping for the best.

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Brittany Shillingford

You know, you don't know what the product is going to look like when they send it over to six weeks or two months later. So that for me was the scariest. But I was so relieved because I was so burnt out from sewing. Like it's not fun anymore when you're spending all of your time doing it, or at least for me, I don't know, maybe other people felt differently, but it was just too much for me.

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Brittany Shillingford

So it's a huge, huge. Really.

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Katy McKinley

You are is the manufacturer, are they local to you? Have you been able to visit?

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Brittany Shillingford

Yes. So that input plan, which on I'm located on Long Island and technically we're on the same island, but if you ask people who live in Brooklyn, they will disagree with that. So it's very close by. I wanted somebody in New York because I felt like when I started my business and up until that point, I always talked about how the headbands were handmade in New York, and I felt oddly nervous for some reason to be handing off the sewing.

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Brittany Shillingford

I was nervous that customers would be like, upset about it. I don't know why it was my own personal issue, but I felt like if I kept it in New York, I could still say handmade. In New York, it was still made within the United States and still literally handmade, just not by me. And I wanted the option of being able to go there.

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Brittany Shillingford

I felt like if I was going to have somebody take over the work and not be in control, at least I could go there, meet with the people, see them and not be in the dark about it.

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Katy McKinley

So I know you're still you're still I mean, in control of everything that is starting and finishing with your company and all of the products to go out the door. I mean, you're you're hand selecting all the fabrics still, is that correct?

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Brittany Shillingford

Yes. Yeah, I'm doing all of that. Yeah. They're just doing the sewing part and then I check everything and then ship it out. So it's like I'm still seeing it. I'm just not making it.

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Katy McKinley

Are you sewing any of the samples or is it still mostly you kind of have a set number of designs that you're using. You're just kind of switching out the fabrics at this point.

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Brittany Shillingford

Yeah, Yeah, exactly. I am hoping to come out with some new stuff this year, so I will have to be doing some testing and experimenting in that respect. But yeah, what they're making is all the patterns are all set and there's no variation or any tweaks or anything that need to be made.

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Katy McKinley

Then I've been loving new and putting out a lot of videos. I think you've probably done most of them already, but you'll show how to just how to tie these things into your hair and how to wear them and it's a it's cute to watch you like do these little little Abdu is essentially, you know, because if I see a headband I don't wear them very often.

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Katy McKinley

So my I don't know how I would wear this thing.

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Brittany Shillingford

But yeah, it's funny because it's like my number one asked question. If I put up a little question box and say, Hey, what kind of videos do you want to see? Or tutorials? People will say how to wear headband. And I read that and I said out loud, my kind of where you put on your head, like, How do I even answer that in a response?

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Brittany Shillingford

Never mind do a video. I know what they mean. Because exactly like you said, if you don't wear them, you're kind of like, What do I wear this with? To me, it's like, just wear it with whatever you wear already. Wear like this very simple concept. But I think if you've not worn headband since like middle school and they were looking very different.

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Brittany Shillingford

It is a foreign concept and it is a little bit like, okay, that's cute. Like, how do I put that into my wardrobe and actually not habits it in a draw and collect dust?

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Katy McKinley

Yeah, I feel like I feel the same way about hats.

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Brittany Shillingford

Yes, I think they look so cute, but I'm like I it's not for me as problematic.

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Katy McKinley

How do you wear a hat? Put it on your head, Katy.

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Brittany Shillingford

I get that. It's very simple. Yeah, but I guess really the question is how do you style a hat? How do you style that headband like that is what I actually want to know. How do you how do you wear it in your lifestyle.

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Katy McKinley

And how does it look Natural. Wearing it Not like you're wearing a costume.

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Brittany Shillingford

Yeah. Or some people will be will say, I want to wear them, but I don't want to look like a kid. And it's like, okay, well, you're not wearing like little Mary Jane shoes and a little smock dress, you know, like you're not going to look like a kid because you're an adult. Like, put it on your head, you know, where what you would normally wear.

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Brittany Shillingford

And there you go. You're all set.

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Katy McKinley

Well, I know you're not sewing your headbands for manufacturing purposes, but do you do much sewing of apparel, clothing or anything outside of that? Just for fun sewing, I guess.

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Brittany Shillingford

I don't. The last time I did was before my probably a while before my first baby was born. I just kind of like I, I ran out of time. And then even when I got the manufacturer, I would and time opened up for me. I just felt like as this happens all the time, once your time opens up, you just fill it with other things, like you just find other other tasks you or other business things to focus on now that you have this spare time.

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Brittany Shillingford

So yeah, sadly no. I do miss it sometimes. I'm actually looking right now at one of the made for mermaid shirts that I have in my closet. I miss it because it's so funny. Able to wear something and telling people that you made it when they compliment it. That was like my number one favorite thing about sewing clothing.

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Katy McKinley

It's like a high almost. And you're like, Thank you. I made it.

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Brittany Shillingford

Yeah, yeah. If you don't say that, then something's wrong. Yeah. Like, it's like part of the joy of telling people because then they react. You know? It's not a very common hobby, I feel like, especially for somebody that thirties. And I think it's just really fun for people to be like, what you did, how do you do? What have you said, Oh, have you noticed?

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Brittany Shillingford

So it's like just as sets and definitely a fun way to start a conversation led.

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Katy McKinley

Okay, so let's go back and talk. You said babies. So now I have to talk with you about your babies. You are a mom to two little ones now and congratulations. Super.

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Brittany Shillingford

We're super, right?

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Katy McKinley

You just had a baby like what, in January. So that's you just added your second family member?

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Brittany Shillingford

Yes.

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Katy McKinley

Oh, gosh. How how different is life now? Like what? How is adding two new members to your family and all of the responsibilities that come along with it change your work life balance?

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Brittany Shillingford

So I can't really speak to the second one because he'll only be four weeks tomorrow. But but the first one was a very big adjustment because I feel like as a small business owner, I have a different lifestyle. I don't I didn't have a 9 to 5. I didn't have an especially because of my husband's job. We weren't the type of couple that eat dinner together every night because a lot of the times he wasn't home.

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Brittany Shillingford

So we kind of lived together but linked separately in a healthy way, like not like we hated each other or something. But, you know, we had our own lives. We got together when we we wanted to and we spent time together when we wanted to, but we were able to kind of go with the flow. If I wanted to work more, I did.

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Brittany Shillingford

If I had more to do, I stayed late. Like I just was able to kind of be flexible. That's one of the big things and reasons why people think it's cool or want to become a small business owner and it's wonderful. But when you add a child into your life, you can't do that anymore. You can't just run over to your office real quick to pack that one pending order and then dropped off at the post office.

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Brittany Shillingford

Like that simple task becomes a whole production. Like you got to get your baby in the car. Who screens 24 seven and it's just not possible. So that was a huge, huge adjustment and I think it's probably about a year before I was like, okay, we got this. Like we have a schedule, we got a babysitter. Like I had my workdays and then we had another baby and now we're doing it all over again and it feels like, how will we figure this out?

00;24;21;18 - 00;24;54;20

Brittany Shillingford

But I know, you know, I know we will. I don't know what it will look like, but, you know, if you've done it once, you can do it again, that's for sure. But it's been really wonderful to be able to be home and then also go to work. I don't have a boss telling me, okay, you need to come in once your baby is six weeks old or something outrageous and sending my child to daycare because I don't have a choice and waking up at 5 a.m. and commuting and you know, I know so many moms who have to do that and it stinks.

00;24;54;20 - 00;25;22;05

Brittany Shillingford

You know, it sounds terrible. I love that I'm able to do a bit of both. Of course, it involves a lot of juggling. And sometimes I'm like, oh, if I had to go to an office, it would almost be easier because then there would be no choice there. You know, it would just, I have to do it. But I'm glad I don't I'm glad that, you know, I have to figure it out, even though it is a little bit challenging and juggling with both of our schedule.

00;25;22;16 - 00;25;44;29

Brittany Shillingford

But it is really, really cool, especially now that my daughter's older and she knows Mommy's office and she'll come with me and she'll basically trash the place. She doesn't help yet. She's only two. But it's very cool that now she say Mommy's office and when she sees a picture of it, she knows that's what that is. And you're she'll she'll get a better grasp of what exactly I do.

00;25;44;29 - 00;26;01;14

Brittany Shillingford

But I just think it's really cool, especially because she's a little girl, to show her that you can create something out of nothing. You can teach yourself how to do a skill, and then you can make a business out of it and people will buy your product and support you and support your family. And it's just really, really cool.

00;26;02;11 - 00;26;21;29

Katy McKinley

And I like to think that you're probably at least I feel this way about my son. I'm I'm really instilling like a work ethic and like, he's he's like he actually sees the work happening rather than just, just like leaving going to an office. They come back and kind of not really having that, like, connection to what work really is.

00;26;22;16 - 00;26;49;18

Brittany Shillingford

Yeah, exactly. Like when my husband leaves to go to work, my daughter will just say, Oh, Daddy went to work, you know, she doesn't know anything about it and she'll never see it. You know, let's don't think it will be taking daughter to work. But he able to have her experience that and maybe one day want to help and want to spend time there and be involved and help me pick patterns and do things that you wouldn't get to do if you worked at a different type of job with your kid.

00;26;50;00 - 00;27;01;11

Katy McKinley

Right. And I'll just warn you ahead of time to once you start to get an actual schedule down is when they start going to school. And you have to, like, change everything about you figure it out.

00;27;02;11 - 00;27;03;01

Brittany Shillingford

I feel like.

00;27;03;01 - 00;27;04;06

Katy McKinley

That I'm doing right now.

00;27;04;19 - 00;27;31;20

Brittany Shillingford

That's been the biggest thing so far that I've learned is like as soon as you've got it, something change it and then you adjust. It's just like, Oh, we're good. We got three naps. Okay, Nope, now it's down to two. Like they're just always changing and adjusting and yeah, it's not really my style, but I really learned to be more go with the flow and just adjust as needed and, you know, not be able to do certain things.

00;27;31;20 - 00;27;36;02

Brittany Shillingford

And yeah, but you're totally right that that's just going to keep happening.

00;27;36;04 - 00;27;48;21

Katy McKinley

Well, I feel like you have been constantly crushing goals, my friend. Like, what is the next big thing we will be seeing from you? Do you have any big goals or dreams coming up in the nearest future?

00;27;49;05 - 00;28;10;12

Brittany Shillingford

Well, I don't know how near it is, but I would love to. Well, I did just hire a seamstress very recently, like within the last few weeks. And so far it's going well because I'm like at home with the baby and she's new and she's never done it before for work. And I've never had woman before. So it's definitely a learning curve of trying to figure out what that will look like.

00;28;10;22 - 00;28;28;05

Brittany Shillingford

But I would love to have several people sewing for me and have kind of like a warehouse space where I can have a little spot for my office, a little spot for sewing, a little spot for you, a little retail shopping where people can buy headbands and then also maybe stock with some other of my favorite small business products.

00;28;28;05 - 00;28;53;02

Brittany Shillingford

I love having the manufacture there. Great. But like you mentioned earlier, I don't have control. I'm not seeing the product. If something goes wrong, I'm finding out after the fact. And I think it would be really amazing to have everything right in-house and be able to make smaller batches, make a last minute restock and do different things that I'm not able to do now.

00;28;53;03 - 00;29;18;06

Brittany Shillingford

So that has been a goal of mine for a while. It felt very far away. But now that I have the one seamstress, I'm like, okay, I think this kind of I don't know how warehousing my warehouse will be, but in my brain it's pretty big. But I know I can I can take baby steps and get like a different type of space so that it's not as far away as it feels.

00;29;18;27 - 00;29;27;25

Katy McKinley

That's awesome. That would be such a like a visa to get to like, bring it all back home by yourself. Yeah. Outsourcing the work, essentially.

00;29;28;07 - 00;29;29;11

Brittany Shillingford

Yeah, exactly.

00;29;29;22 - 00;29;49;12

Katy McKinley

Well, here's my final question. I really want to spread the love to other individuals in our lives. And what better way to do it than shout outs through a podcast, right? Who is your favorite creative person to follow on social media and is there anything that makes them extra special or has them stand out to you more than others?

00;29;50;05 - 00;30;13;02

Brittany Shillingford

So this is really hard because I feel like I could list like 40 different small businesses, but a new one that I found recently. Her brand is Elise Brianne Design and she was actually she's she's seen as pretty young. I don't actually know her age, but I know that she actually went to law school to become a lawyer and then kind of like took a turn to run her business.

00;30;13;02 - 00;30;39;24

Brittany Shillingford

And she does like digital design. So she designed like really, really pretty floral patterns. And then she makes them into like notebooks and stickers and bags, laptop bags and different things like that. It found her just randomly, I think, on Etsy, but she has her own website and she just opened up a store in North Carolina and I don't know her like we're not friends, but I just love following her because I don't have any drawn skulls.

00;30;39;24 - 00;31;07;27

Brittany Shillingford

So I'm just fascinated by the fact that she can just take a little and or an iPad, you know, pencil and just like drop flowers and have them look like real flowers. And I'm just really impressed that she had this enormous warehouse. Like, it just feels like one of those dream things, you know, like overnight grill, even though I know that's not real, but it's very it's very cool how she to watch her.

00;31;08;04 - 00;31;23;14

Brittany Shillingford

And the short time that I found out about her and watch her videos of her story is really cool. And she does make really cool videos and it's definitely fun to watch somebody else kind of go from having one type of job to having their own business.

00;31;24;06 - 00;31;47;13

Katy McKinley

Yeah, that sounds like a heck of a pivot to do. Go. Yeah, you said law school too. Yeah, that's. But I don't know. I think that's how so many people have started. Like, I know so many people that have began in like nursing and now they do, you know, sewing as a full time business or something. It's it's really interesting to see how life, the ebbs and flows of life and how you get to where you are.

00;31;47;28 - 00;32;06;05

Brittany Shillingford

Yeah, definitely. And it feels like there's no way I would have ended up here had I not gone along this path. So it never feels like, Oh, I wasted my time or I wasted my money getting my degree at, right? No, because I would never be doing this. And that didn't happen. Would not be it would not have been a path.

00;32;06;13 - 00;32;18;02

Katy McKinley

You learn so much from that, though. You take it, you know, move into your new life. So I don't know. Nothing is that more wasted. Well, thank you so much, Brittany, for letting me borrow some of your time.

00;32;18;09 - 00;32;20;29

Brittany Shillingford

Of course. Thank you for having me. It was so fun.

00;32;21;05 - 00;32;47;12

Katy McKinley

I know it's been a blast, and I think I can hear your smile through my headphones. So it's kind of scary to think about for everyone listening. Thank you again for joining us for another episode of I can make that conversations with Creative. And I would just like to let Britney take the mic right now and use this moment to tell us how to find her online so we can make sure to support her, her business and her family.

00;32;47;21 - 00;33;04;25

Brittany Shillingford

So you can find me on Instagram where I hang out the most at BizzyBCrafts and you can find me at bizzybcrafts.com and you know, dm me, tell me hey and let me know that you heard about me through Katy.

00;33;05;04 - 00;33;43;00

Katy McKinley

Everyone's going to come find you. I'm sure of it. 

Thank you for tuning into. I can make that conversations with creative transcripts from this episode, along with links and more information about today's guests can be found at www.wildandwanderful.com. See you next time.