The Papered Chef's Journey from Hobby to Online Phenomenon

Embark on a journey through creativity and connection as we sit down with the delightful Kimberly Smith, the Papered Chef herself, who's turned her passion for paper crafting into a flourishing online presence. Her tale unravels the threads of a life steeped in artistic influence, from a childhood surrounded by her mother's costume creations to the pivotal role her 91-year-old mom now plays in their joint Etsy venture. Kimberly's story is a rich tapestry of midlife reinvention; a beacon for anyone looking to weave their hobbies into a successful business.

We peel back the layers of Kimberly's paper-crafting empire, tracing the origins from a modest collection to a YouTube channel with a bustling community eager for her every post. The serendipitous leap into the digital world, ignited by a chance piece of advice at a Stampin' Up conference, underlines the power of seizing opportunities. The episode is a masterclass in authenticity, as Kimberly reveals how DIY videos, made with the simplest of tools, can captivate an audience and construct a business from raw creativity and a dash of determination.

 This episode will have you brimming with inspiration to start stitching your own community quilt, whether in crafting or any endeavor that calls to your heart.

Find Kimberly here:

YouTube: youtube.com/@PaperedChef
Podcast: hellocraftyfriends.com
Facebook: facebook.com/thepaperedchef
Instagram: instagram.com/paperedchef
Website: thepaperedchef.com

The Papered Chef
http://paperedchef.stampinup.net

The Papered Chef's Profile
https://flow.page/paperedchef

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  **The information provided on this podcast does not, and is not intended to, constitute  legal advice;  instead, all information, content and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only. Information on this podcast  may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information. This podcast contains links to other third party websites. Such links are only for the convenience of the reader, user or browser.  

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

So are you looking for more inspiration and possibility in midlife and beyond? Join me, leslie Maloney, proud wife, mom, author, teacher and podcast host, as I talk with people finding meaning in Moxie in their life after 50. Interviews that will energize you and give you some ideas to implement in your own life. I so appreciate you being here. Now. Let's get started. Alrighty welcome to another meaning in Moxie after 50. And we are getting meaning in Moxie today in the crafting world. We're going to hear all about it.

Speaker 1: 0:40

We have very special guest today, ms Kimberly Smith. Let me give you a little bit of background on her before we start chatting. Kim is a professional paper crafter and host of Hello Crafty Friends podcast. She started the Paper Chef YouTube channel in 2017 and it's quite successful, where she shares paper crafting and brother scan and cut tutorials. She is an independent stamping up demonstrator and she has made it into the top performer category, earning several cool incentive trips for starters. She also teaches on Udemy I'm going to make sure I say Udemy, we talked about this before and Skillshare, and she is a super great example of diversifying her crafty income and using her creativity to play and have fun and create all kinds of wonderful things so welcome, kimberly. We're so excited to have you. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 1:45

I am impressed by my bio that you just read. Well, thank you, I was like that's me All right.

Speaker 1: 1:51

Thank you, that's you, that's you. So I want to start with, because you have. You got this successful crafting business going on in many different avenues and I'm curious, have you always had the artistic creative bug? Let's go back to when you were a little girl.

Speaker 2: 2:11

When did?

Speaker 2: 2:12

it all start for you. Okay, yes and no. So I was always creative, yes, and not a paper crafter. At first it was my mom who inspired me. She's still alive, she's 91. She is my business partner in that we have an Etsy shop together and she does. She sews bags for my paper crafts and she makes aprons and doll clothes.

Speaker 2: 2:37

And when I was growing up she would put us in baby parades in Atlantic city, new Jersey. I have to laugh because my first baby parade I think I was an infant she put me like six feet up in the champagne glass, like strapped in on a toast a toast to the town type of float with my little, with my older brother down there on the ground level and I guess maybe that's why I'm afraid of heights sometimes. But she used to put us in parades and cut their costumes all over my house. Growing up she was the head of the mother's club and we would have a Thompson wedding where everybody would dress up and we we had a closet it's called the Cedar closet where we would just go down and find costumes. It didn't have to be Halloween, but especially Halloween was epic in my neighborhood because everybody just goes and finds costumes that she made and things that she did, and we would just play and dress up.

Speaker 2: 3:30

So, yes, I'm creative, always because of my mom. But paper crafting came way later in life, maybe, maybe, maybe in my thirties or something, maybe twenties or thirties. Little bit of scrapbooking, little bit of stuff dabbled. Now I'm. Now. I'm full on and full on.

Speaker 1: 3:51

So so you grew up in this household. Yeah, it just sounds like it was a ton of fun. You had all kinds of stuff going on. She had all kinds of different projects happening and you were absorbing that on many different levels and maybe even learning. Some of you know what what she was doing too, and now your business partners and how that that is. That's got to be a kick to be working with her in this.

Speaker 2: 4:16

She is a. She's a who like this. Today, just before this podcast, I was at the post office and I mailed. She made a bunch of aprons for infants with little chef's hats to go with them for Christmas, and then she made an outfit for someone's bunny and not a real bunny, a bunny doll, and then another doll dress. So I mailed more of her stuff today and typically I'm more male, I mail more of my stuff.

Speaker 2: 4:41

But what I do is like she doesn't. She doesn't use the internet whatsoever. She doesn't have. You know, she doesn't know how to use the internet or the computer, but she used to type really fast and so she sometimes can click a button that says play and that's about it. But I do all the labels and she does all the packing so she, she can package it up and make it all nice with the in the bags and the tissue paper, and it doesn't matter if it's my stuff or her stuff. If it's my stuff, she's helping me roll the ribbons and and count out for a card club, counting out for envelopes and for card bases in each bag and putting the labels on. Even though she has macular degeneration, you can't see very well, and even though she just, you know, finally got a hearing aid. She's just been such a great help to me and I don't think I would have been able to grow as much if it weren't for her. My husband also does a lot of post office runs for me sometimes, but he's he's a teacher and he's busy, so he's not as like. She's really, really helpful and so, yes, I did get into the things when I was growing up, like making floats and doing all the things, and so it did help me become more creative, and now she's helping me on the business side and the entrepreneurial side.

Speaker 2: 5:55

I should have mentioned, I should have given credit for my dad, because he used to be a track and field coach and we were selling t-shirts. I mean, I was as soon as I could stand, I was at track meets selling t-shirts and things and pins, and we even sold at the Olympics in Atlanta. So we've always been selling stuff in my family. My mom sold her seams, just work. My dad sold track and field paraphernalia and I don't want to call it paraphernalia, you know, I mean track and field logo items, I guess, and so that's kind of. And then I became a teacher and then later became a paper. Yeah, paper, paper, paper paper.

Speaker 1: 6:30

Okay. So you had this crafty, creative blend with the entreprenureal blend, and so it's a perfect, it's a perfect storm. And here you are today and I was just going to say for your mom, like, yeah, being involved with you. You know, that's the kind of stuff that keeps you young, keeps you sharp, being involved in that and keeps your mind, just, you know, keeps the juices flowing. What am I going to do next? When am I going to create next? And so the fact that you guys can share that together is really special. Take us through you started to get into you mentioned your 20s and 30s. You started to develop this. Take us through how this began for you in terms of the really developing what you're doing now.

Speaker 2: 7:15

Okay, so to take you back to actually your neck of the woods, and well, first I did undergrad marine biology. Grad school marine biology moved to Guam and I was teaching marine biology. So I did that for many years nine years I was there and I didn't do much paper crafting except for I made my own wedding invitations. That's the only thing I can really recall doing there and doing a lot with my class like posters and we did projects and I remember using my creativity in teaching science in that they would always have to do presentations and we did a lot of things with paper and things posters and paper and projects and so that was just more of like dabbling into the crafts and because Guam's not it's a wonderful place to live, but a lot of times we had typhoons and my stuff will get ruined or it was just too humid to even have paper and craft materials Like, right, you know, as you can imagine. So it wasn't. I mean there are people now that are. I mean I have the next time I moved back there later in life. Well, now there's a whole giant crafting community, but my first trip there there wasn't really many people doing many crafts and the power outages were like there were brownouts where you get like fluctuation and any who we later I still kept teaching overseas Like I came back to the States for a few years and then, because I was in the States and after being overseas for a while and Guam and coming back to the States, you start going like when you get to a Michaels or a Hobby Lobby or Joanne, you're like, and there was an AC more at the time that I don't know if that store is even still around but you're like, wow, look at all these stores and look at all these deals.

Speaker 2: 9:02

And I had not experienced that because you can't really shop that much overseas like you can in the States. And so, of course, I was back here for several years and started collecting crafts. I want to say collecting, because collecting meaning didn't use them a lot, right, because I didn't have a lot of stuff that coordinated together and I was just making stuff, random, random stuff. And then when I went back overseas again, I brought this stuff with me and now I had all this stuff from the States and now I'm teaching overseas again and I'm over and I did, I did a Korea first and then Germany and Bahrain, guam again, anyway, all these places. But now I have stuff and I started having craft clubs because I had all the stuff. So I would say I'm going to host. They would ask the teachers for an extra duty assignment. If you want to do an extra duty assignment, get extra pay. And I'd say I'm going to start a craft club. So that's what I did. Almost every place I lived I started a craft club and I got to use these supplies and get to craft with kids and it was so fun.

Speaker 2: 10:04

Then, in about where I was in Germany, a lady came to my house and saw. Well, she came to one of my craft classes. I met her at a craft fair and I invited her to my craft classes I was hosting at my house for adults. She's like oh my gosh, you have such an amazing craft room. She was a stamp and up demonstrator and she said well, maybe you'd want to join because you'll get a discount. I see, you can have some of our products. Well, I had some of everybody's products and it was just a whole room full of stuff. She was like this is amazing. I said, okay, well, I'll try it out. So I did. I tried it out and that was history, because after that I was hooked, because now my stuff actually coordinated and I started making things that actually looked professional.

Speaker 2: 10:49

Then I started going to craft fairs. I had already started to going to craft fairs before that, but now I was more successful at craft fairs. The one change in having coordinated products and making them look nicer it made all the difference in how I sold items. The next thing, you know, I was meeting friends and having an entire crafting community over there when I was overseas Americans, but still in the community of crafting mostly Americans they were overseas as well. That's how my business at the same exact time about I joined in 2016,. I'm like I'm just joining for the discount. I'm a teacher, I don't need to make any money from this. Now, whenever anyone says to me they don't need to make money from this, it makes me go crazy, because you need at least to pay for your supplies and all the things you're doing, even if it's a hobby. Everyone should think about how to make some money back so that you can keep on at least feeding your hobby and getting more supplies.

Speaker 2: 11:48

In 2017, I went to Amsterdam for a conference that Stampin' Up was hosting. The lady said this is one of the speakers. She's like write down your goals. I just started rolling my eyes. I'm like oh, not again Another person just telling us to write down our goals. I'm like, okay, I'm going to write down. Then I'm going to start a YouTube channel. I'm just going to do what she says. They gave us a notebook as part of our swag bag. I write it down. And then she's like, well, it doesn't matter what you wrote down if you don't take any action. I'm like, okay, I've heard this before, but I'll just go start a YouTube channel right now.

Speaker 2: 12:26

I walked out in the lobby and turned on my camera and I just filmed the cards people had made for the conference. I posted it and I started getting views instantly, immediately, and they were like 30 seconds, really bad, shaky videos with my camera. Everyone's speaking in different languages and kicking me out of the way. I'm trying to not kicking me at like rude, but just everyone's trying to look at these cards. Then I said I better do six videos, because I can't move. I cannot move in front of this poster board. I did six separate little 30-second videos that are still there on my YouTube, because you got to keep your old, really bad videos on your YouTube channel to laugh at later. But I did, I walked out and so now I teach people how to set goals and it's very important to write down your goals. But at the time I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, here we go. We heard this before. Then, if you don't take action, that's the point. She was like go take action. I'm like, well, that can't be that hard, let's go start a YouTube channel right now.

Speaker 2: 13:20

I didn't know what I was doing. I hadn't accounts since 2012, but it had been five years. I just never posted. I'm like, well, I have an account, let me just click post. And you couldn't go live at the time until you had a certain number of followers and a certain number of videos and watch time at the time. So I said, well, I'll just record and upload with the slow internet. I did and people started watching because I put the words I met this Amsterdam on stage event stamp it up. I put the keywords in the title. People were searching for that. It was a trending thing happening at the moment, even though not many watched it. I was just like somebody's watching this. I have no idea who. I didn't tell anybody I had a channel, except my friend Anne. I didn't tell anybody, so who could be watching. When somebody started watching, it's such a thrill because you're like someone's watching, and I didn't tell them to watch.

Speaker 1: 14:09

Right, but you took action and that is such a great point, because that is the key. So often we have these ideas, we're going to do this, we're going to do that, and we talk ourselves out of them. You had that moment of no, I'm going to go do it right this second. I'm going to do something Right. Look what happened. Then you got that instant feedback, which is amazing that just probably once. From there, you started to get a steady feed of the interaction.

Speaker 2: 14:42

Yeah, About the first year, I didn't really have much traction because I just was, and here's a key for anybody that wants to start a YouTube channel. Well, first, if you want to start anything, do it sloppy, do it. Yes, just do it. Do it scared and do it sloppy, and then you'll get better. Right, you'll suck less.

Speaker 2: 15:00

I've heard the term you'll suck less Amen Until you get better all of a sudden, you'll keep sucking less until, all of a sudden, you're like I'm good at this, or I don't even know if I'm good, I'm just better than I was. So the thing about it was it's like you got to have a lot of patience, so a year of just what kind of videos work. Now, the mistakes I made at the beginning were just not having any coherent themes or topics. I just went in my craft room, grabbed something and did a video about it. Then another type of thing I had no themes. I had no series I mean series like a television series. So now I have themes and series.

Speaker 1: 15:39

Can I stop you from starting Sure, Sure when you're talking about at this point, you're not just into the paper stuff, so you're doing videos on. Give us a couple of examples. Yeah, so I got a good.

Speaker 2: 15:50

I would use this machine and it would be like a machine nobody had. I'd say a couple of hundred people might ever watch this. It's called the Big Shot Pro machine, a professional machine. So it's in the schools and I had one personally. I still have it. It's a professional die cutting machine. It's a giant, large format die cutting machine. The teachers are the only people in the world hardly that use it, right, and a few other people and I'm like how to make a popcorn box, for how to make a box using the Big Shot Pro, and it's so like this one die there might be a couple hundred ever made to the couple hundred people in the world that would ever have this machine that would watch it.

Speaker 2: 16:26

And I literally was making like a video about how to do this and it's like wait a minute, nobody has this Not. I mean, you don't just want to make videos for people to watch, but at the same time, you don't want to waste your time either. So if you only have so much time, you need to make videos on things that people are going to watch or the products that people might have or might want to get. So what really took off for me after doing. I mean, then I did stuff with the Big Shot, like how to make a miniature suitcase for a teacher appreciation gift, and it's like who's searching for? They might even search for teacher appreciation but like miniature suitcase, like what? Right, yeah, a little obscure, you know, it's so specific, and I was doing this all over my house. I'm like, oh, I'll make a thing out of this and a thing out of this. And then it was still paper crafting, but it was like all these obscure topics and what took off for me is I'm watching, I'm over in Germany and I'm watching this English, you know, from the UK channels because I'm in Germany, so the only English channels are from the UK. While I'm in Europe and there is this thing it's like the home shopping network but it's called Create and Craft TV and I'm hooked.

Speaker 2: 17:38

I get this Brother Scan and Cut machine and it's 220 in a volt or whatever. It's. Not even I get it over while I'm in Europe and I get this machine, but you can still use it in the US, just as you know a different model. But I start, I start cutting out stamped images with it. I get this little stamp set while I was in Amsterdam that gave it to me for free, like a prize. It's called this Little Piggy, still so affectionate of this stamp set. It's my favorite stamp set still, because it was my first stamp set that I actually that my channel took off from and I said my title was like this Little Piggy Loves the Scan and Cut, or something.

Speaker 2: 18:12

Later I realized I should write Cutting Outs. I should title it like cutting out images using your scan and cut. That's what I should have titled it, something they're searching for. But I still have that. It's still my video. That like sort of took off.

Speaker 2: 18:24

So you teaching people how to use the scan and cut. Now this was like you know me duct taping my camera to the tripod. I even have a tripod. I had like a regular tripod, not for a phone, but like it was a. So I'm duct taping my camera. I don't have real tripod that will hold a phone or I'm walking around my table showing things I made with the scan and cut, like with my shaky camera. It didn't matter if I showed it holding one hand with the camera and one hand operating the machine or if I taped my camera to hold it still and it was shaking. Those videos took off.

Speaker 2: 18:52

I'm like, okay, well, people want to learn about this machine, and I'm like I better teach myself how to use it, and so I think that's really what made my whole entire business in stamping up not because it was a stamping up product and my entire business as a YouTuber and as a I mean everything you to me courses everything took off because of that type of content that I became really specialized in by teaching myself how to use that machine. Now I have four of them and I just keep on teaching that and many other things. I have a lot of series now. That's one series how to use the Scannacut, and I have another series on my Card Club and another series on each product each month. That's what I mean by a series. That way, when someone finds your content, your own content is being suggested to that person again so they can binge watch, just like we can binge listen to this podcast, which I'll be doing.

Speaker 1: 19:49

So I wonder if, because you were sort of just, it was imperfect. You're going around with your camera, it's shaking, but people can watch it and get something from it and it's real, it's in the moment, and made it relatable for people to go yeah God, yeah this, and it caught their eye. Instead of having it all nice and shiny and perfect and edited, you just sort of went with it.

Speaker 2: 20:16

Yeah, I hardly ever edit. I've hardly ever edit videos really Because I just show my table or show my. Sometimes I talk and show my face, sometimes I show my table. But in that case people were amazed because they're like what? I can just stamp something on a piece of white paper and cut it out with this machine and it's still really. It's a patented or whatever we want to call it. It's a specialized or a unique thing that only that machine can still do, even after all, these other machines are awesome about like there's the cricket, there's the silhouette.

Speaker 2: 20:50

All these other ones can do things if you print and you align them and they can cut it out. This is the only one that so independently, right out of the box, you stick it on your table and I can draw a flower or anything and I can cut that out, or I can stamp something and cut it out, or I can put patterned paper in there and cut it out, meaning no software needed, no nothing, you just turn it on and do it. So I was like, like I said, when I saw that Create and Craft TV lady doing it, I was like, oh my gosh, I have to have this. And then I started showing people how to do it with the products I sell, and now they're like I have to have this machine and now I have to have the product so I can follow you along. See, that's how I started actually selling the products, because my I mean the company's been around for 35 years.

Speaker 2: 21:34

The one that I've been a demonstrator on just for a few years right At the time, or a couple of years by that time and there are people that have been like demonstrating the products for so many years. So here I come along as a new person and there's and the way my brother likes to say it is you create crafters. Like you create people that want to be crafters in that like you're showing them something and now they want to go do it. Like there was already people that already had someone to get their items from, but now people want this machine and now people want to do what I'm doing and now they want the products I'm using on that machine. So a lot of times in that case I think a lot of people just became they bought that they might have already been crafters or like this machine, but they bought that product because I showed them how to use it.

Speaker 1: 22:20

And it sounds like and this is the teacher in you, the natural teacher in you it sounds like you've got a way to communicate it and show people that they can look at and go oh all right, I think I could do that and you're inspiring them because you know there are some people that can't. They know how to do it, but they can't really show and explain how to do it. So that's where your teaching is.

Speaker 2: 22:41

I'm sure has come in Right right because everything I do is and I've only had like a couple of negative comments about like you repeat yourself all the time. You have to just brush off your negative feedback, but it's a source of pride that I repeat myself all the time. I'm probably gonna do it on this podcast because, like I actually do, I start out every lesson and I call it a lesson on YouTube and I'll say this is what we're gonna cover, and then I do it, and then I go over what we covered and then I might show it five times. Oh, let me show you from another angle, let me lift this up and tilt it and let me show you again and let's make another one. And sometimes I repeat myself because I really want them to know it and see it. So, yeah, and it does make my videos very long compared to others. So that is one thing that's unique about my channel is I might take an hour to show a project on my channel for a lot of the time. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:37

It sounds like you've built a really cool fun community around you. How many followers do you have on YouTube? Currently Just fall apart About 38,000.

Speaker 2: 23:52

Yeah, wow, yeah, about 38,000. Working on 40 just coming up, and that's just. Youtube channel I know over 30,000.

Speaker 2: 24:00

Yeah, that's YouTube, and so YouTube is my main jam and I started I've always been a Facebook personal user but I started the business page way later in the Instagram and I started TikTok. But I used I just did a Kimberly Smith one for TikTok, not a paper chef, but I did. Do I have a paper chef Instagram? I have a paper chef business page and those are not as many followers, maybe like five and 10 or something 1,000. I mean that's still a lot for, yeah, yeah, I mean it's still a lot. But I'm saying that my main community is, I would say, my source of leads. Let's put it that way my source of leads are my YouTube channel. That's my YouTube channel and they're the ones that if I have a new course, I show them. If I have something, I actually show that audience first. Do you do and I do it long form, long form content there.

Speaker 1: 24:56

Do you do? I know in the crafting world they have retreats and things like that. Do you lead retreats too?

Speaker 2: 25:04

Well, yes, we did one in the summer. My team, my upline Hattie she's the one that I joined with in Germany. She's now in South Carolina, so she has a studio, and we did an event in South Carolina, not near her studio. We did it at a hotel and with Susan and Jenny and other people on my team other and Lisa there was we each made projects right and then we all ran the retreat together. So like one person got the venue and did the little logistics and the food, that was Susan. She was amazing, and then the rest of us all did chip in and make the projects and share them with everybody.

Speaker 2: 25:41

But I tend to not do in-person events that much. I used to when I was overseas, like now I'm in the boonies, now I live in the boonies, but when I was overseas I used to have events at my house and events at the community centers. When I even when I lived in a different part of Georgia, hobby Lobby would let me use their room. When I was in this little city, they would let me use the room for free and I just I didn't say you didn't advertise it as it's a stamping up class, but they would be okay with you saying it's a Halloween crafting class, it's a Christmas crafting class, it's a Easter class for kids. I mean, sometimes kids came they had to have a parent with them, sometimes it was just a crafting class. So, yes, I do events, but my events that I do. Now I'm done with the personal events Cause, honestly, they're not very scalable and I do it to help people out, like I'm gonna do the Georgia demonstrators group and stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 26:40

I'm gonna be in my community, right, and help, not help them out, like me, I'm gonna be. If they ask me to present, I feel like, yes, I'm part of this community. I should present when I'm asked, but I don't wanna be the organizer of the in-person events because they're not scalable. Meaning, if I do online virtual events, I can scale them. I could have a hundred people there in a Zoom bingo. My husband helps me call the bingo cards, the bingo numbers, and I can have. I don't ever get a hundred people, but I could. I'm saying maybe I get 30, right, usually about 30 people coming to an online bingo, but if I had one at my house, there's no way.

Speaker 2: 27:20

They only know that, many people within an hour driving distance, so you know what I'm saying. But so, like a virtual events, I do run for prizes, of course, crafty prizes, right, stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 27:31

So, yes, and that's a great way. People can just be in their home and yet interacting in the community. Right, and I'm at that. That's just. That's gotta be feel really gratifying for you to have build a community like that and now see how it's changed. You got, I'm sure, a lot of the same people that have been with you and just what that the connection and what that means in their life in terms of their creativity.

Speaker 2: 27:57

Right, so you're familiar with, like your Facebook groups, because we met on one. We met on a Facebook group so that I just decided a couple of years ago, let me start a group on the scan and cut. So I have paper chats, paper chefs, scan and cut user group, and then I met a demonstrator and he's in Ian, his name's Ian and he was using the scan and cut and he was also a demonstrator. He's in the UK and then all these people were trying to join and I'm like can you help me, because you're in a different time zone, so when I'm asleep you can let people into the group, and then, when you're asleep, I can let people in the group. So we're the admins and now we have several thousand members and it was getting to be like so hard to answer everyone's questions and now they can answer each other's questions, which is so great.

Speaker 2: 28:41

It's so great to build a community where they you're sitting back like they're my babies. I'm so proud because they're I don't have to answer basic questions anymore and because they are, when someone asks a basic question, someone asks jumps in before I even get there and they answer it and I can stick to the more advanced questions and then I have you speak. You know, speaking of communities, I have a team, a large team, of stamping up demonstrators and then that's in a VIP group of my customers and demonstrators. So I have a VIP community, a team community. My mom has Anne's aprons. We put her aprons there. She doesn't manage that, my sister and I do, but we put her aprons for sale. And we have the scan and cut group. And now I have my HelloCrafty friends, a podcast group and a bunch of pages now and all kinds of stuff.

Speaker 2: 29:31

So yeah, taking people through a journey, a customer journey, you don't invite them to like 10 groups. The second, you meet them, right. That would be kind of awkward, right, but somebody finds me somehow and I just say something, like you know, here's my link if you want to order or something, and if they do order, then as a reply that you get invited to the VIP group. Or if they take a course, they get invited to a VIP group, something right. Then they're in the VIP group and they're like now they're invited to my group bingo or my VIP bingo and they're on my email list and they get invited. And now they're like oh and people. I always give everybody a chance to say hi during the events so that some half the people at the bingo will say I'm on Kim's team and then they'll be like, oh, they're on Kim's team. So then they're looking around like I'm at bingo and like half of us are and half of us aren't on her team. And next thing, you know, like they slowly start joining my team. Right, because they met my team, they realized that my whole team is like a bunch of people that just love to craft and like to have fun together.

Speaker 2: 30:33

And a lot of them, a lot of a barrier to maybe joining something like Stampin' Up is they think they need to be a business person like me and 99% of my ever business, or my team, of all 99% of people who've ever joined my team, just do it as a to get the discount, to do it as a hobby. So they see that. They see that at the bingo when people start saying, oh, look what I made for my grandkids and look what I did, and like I just joined for the discount or they introduced themselves and show what they're making. And then they start looking around and they're like, wow, everybody in this bingo is like me, like they all like to craft and they like to have fun, and then they associate. So then they wanna join my team because they met my team and then maybe become a team member and then hopefully I'm working on it Hopefully some of them get promoted to a leadership level. That's what we're working on now.

Speaker 2: 31:27

I have a Crafty Business Group. I'm helping to mentor some people. So that's the journey they go on and hopefully a few become business builders.

Speaker 1: 31:36

Yeah, yeah, and what an amazing. I mean you wanna talk about a positive side to the internet. That's it right there. I mean what you've created and the community you've created and everything that's happening is. You know, we talk about sometimes the wild west part of the internet, but that is the cool, that's the definite blessing. And I wonder certainly you must have seen an uptick in your during COVID. I would imagine even more so people were really reaching out.

Speaker 2: 32:05

I think I kind of I long for that aspect of COVID, but only that aspect, right. Because that was when people, I wanna say, had stupid money because they were like they didn't need. They didn't have the commute right to work, so they didn't have. They weren't spending all the extra money on gas, they were getting some government money, some people. They were also not dry cleaning clothes, because you're sitting around your pajamas, right, and you also had all this time on your hands because you save a couple of hours in commuting. If you did commute right or if you worked from home, it wasn't as hard. And you still have like, as soon as you're done, you're done. And now I had it was the perfect storm. I'm so glad I was positioned perfectly for that Because I mean, I earned an incentive trip. I had the biggest team at that point. I think that I ever had, I had the best sales that I ever had. And then you know, it's still okay, I'm supplementing with other sources of income, but I'm like, oh, if I could do that, I mean, I know it's. The good thing is, you know it's possible.

Speaker 2: 33:06

So that was a good year for some businesses shut down, but the online business of crafting and things that took a lot of time, and I feel bad for the in-person businesses that shut down. But those of us that were online, like I, stopped teaching there for a while. I mean I did go back to teaching half time later, but then now I'm full-time crafter, but I'm saying that was like, like you said, the wild west of people trying to figure out and I don't do any of those. I don't do like funnels really. I mean I do have funnels. I mean my YouTube channel is a funnel but what I mean is I didn't do like ads, I didn't do like pay for ads and all that stuff. I just create content and organic traffic comes.

Speaker 2: 33:46

So anybody trying to do anything like this don't think like, oh you know, it's gonna take. It does take time. That's what it takes. It takes a lot of time, but it doesn't take a lot of money. It takes a lot of time. Well, time is money in a way, but I'm saying to Time to build, time to build, and you have to just keep on creating content and people.

Speaker 2: 34:05

You're gonna find your tribe, and the more specialized the better. I mean specialized tribe, I mean you wanna find I mean not specialized Like you wanna find a niche that's passionate about. Yeah, it's not too specialized, but I'm saying enough that you can build a community around. Like knitters aren't gonna come find me, right, the knitters I'm like, but they might find that my podcast and that's cool because it's crafty business that's gonna pertain to them. But they're not gonna come join my VIP paper crafting group or whatever, see, but they still might resonate and that's cool and you could find your tribe and just stick with it that way, because people might think, oh, you know, I see a lot of people really successful online, but you don't know how much they spent to get to that point, like how much they spent in ads and how much they spent of their soul or whatever to get to that point. And then, but it can be done without any of that stuff, like no ads.

Speaker 2: 35:02

You just gotta keep giving value to people, give them valuable content and they will want to be in your community and they're going to want to buy from you and support you.

Speaker 2: 35:14

And when they have extra money, there was a time when they had extra money and they spent more and then after that everything got locked back down and they had to go back to work and I had people that aren't even on my team anymore. From that they're like I don't have time to craft anymore. I had to go back to my office, like they were on my team for two years, there for a while, and at one point they're like I can't do this anymore, like they could spend enough to stay active and all that, but they were just like I have no time to craft anymore. So it's sad, but a lot of my people make time to craft, but full time. You can still make a few hours a week to craft when you're full time. But now I have a lot of senior citizens as well that have a lot of time and they follow me and stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 35:54

Yeah, you were mentioning when we were talking earlier about your branding and how the papered chef at first was a little bit confusing and what you want to explain that. I think that's a really good lesson for somebody who's trying to put themselves out there.

Speaker 2: 36:13

So when you first think of a name and it comes to you like a lightning bolt, like this one did. We were at I was at a pampered chef party. We were in Germany, I had you know, I just joined Stampin' Up recently and my friend said come over to my pampered chef party and sell your crafts. You make such nice crafts and you sell them at craft fairs, so just put them on my table and we'll sell them. While we're cooking stuff. And because she's having a party, right, so I'm like okay, so I bring over all my little stocking stuffers and my cards. And people are shopping around and she's like and her name is Rachel, and she's like well, you're the paper chef and she's the pampered chef. You know, like we she kind of came up with we were both looking at each other right, we're like oh my goodness, I'm the paper chef and she's the pampered chef, right, Like we came up with that and I was like, I just immediately was like that's my name, from now on I'm the paper chef. So then, like, and and I just went on and got the domain. You know, I got the. There was already someone with the domain paper, but not the paper. I saw I got the paper chef the domain. That's very important. If you think of a name, you have to get the domain. And then I got. Then I got all the names, like the Instagram hand. No, I didn't get the Instagram handle till later, but on YouTube I have that. I'm at paper chef, I think, on Pinterest, I mean everywhere I went and claimed it, claimed it everywhere.

Speaker 2: 37:31

Now I I didn't think this through because I never tried to search for myself, right, I just started creating content and then I started telling people I'm on YouTube and stuff. And then people were like I can't find you. And this was like the first year. I'm like what do you mean? You can't find me? I have the paper chef channel, it's paper chef, and they're like every time I click it I get pampered chef. And I'm like what do you mean? Every time? Let me try this. So I start trying it and sure enough, it says do you mean pampered? And I'm like no, I don't mean pampered, I mean papered. So no matter how many times I would try it, it would keep sending them to the bigger company. And that went on. For I mean, and I would type it in, I'd have to physically type it in or send someone a link, and it was so hard the first year because in Google search too, you would search for it and would you retype it. You're thinking you did a spelling error.

Speaker 2: 38:17

That's frustrating, yeah About a year I couldn't be found by anybody and until I gave them links. So I just kept creating content, never gave up because it's already once you're invested. I went to Fiverr, I got my logo made. I got my business cards made at Vista Print. I'm in, right, I'm in because everything, the domain and you're already putting blog post I'm like I'm not starting over with a new name.

Speaker 1: 38:43

But that's a testament to staying with it, because even with those barriers in the beginning and the confusion, you stayed with it. You stayed with the brand and you just kept at it and built it, built it, built it until it did become a thing and did become recognizable. So now it won't ask you did.

Speaker 2: 39:01

You mean like you could type it in and it will actually take you to my content now and it's pretty cool. It took like a year. It took about a year because one of the tricks is to have a lot of content, like to, really before you're taken seriously by any search engine. And I kept introducing myself on my videos as paper chef. I'm like I'm not going back because I'm not re-editing these videos or nothing. So I am the paper chef and they finally started showing up there in the search. So just keep that in.

Speaker 1: 39:39

So now you're starting a podcast. Hello Crafty Friends, I love the name of that. What do you intend to do there, or is this kind of continuation of what you're already doing on these other channels?

Speaker 2: 39:51

Okay, that's a good question, because one of the things about having a YouTube channel that I would totally recommend doing at the beginning that I didn't do is collaborations right With collaborations with other people, and that would have been really cool because we could have grown our audiences together and I see people doing it like we're doing right now, side by side and everything. Well, I thought, well, how can I collaborate? But not in a way where we're actually just teaching, just talking about crafts. So I just wanted to collaborate with people. I wanted to either find friends I haven't seen in a while and get to know them better, like we're doing here, have conversations with crafters, but I also so that's always a selfish reason to have a podcast. I make time to connect with my old friends that are crafters that I don't have time to always connect with, so that's a selfish reason. But then I thought, what if I bring people on that are more successful than me in the business side of things, and also people that are successful in different areas? There's always someone more successful than you in a different area, right? So we always can learn from each other. So, even if I'm really good at YouTube, I want to bring on someone that's really good at Instagram and help my audience, help them grow their crafty business. So I asked.

Speaker 2: 41:14

But I started out with friends. My interviews have been. So one is Florida Tech. I went to Florida Tech and my next door neighbor in the apartments was actually in physics education major. Okay, so now she runs. She became a crafter later in life. We and her and I were creative, but again, not really crafty, we were just creative in the kitchen. At that time, right, we were doing paper crafts back in college and she has a crafting retreat center crafty crops. So like she came on, I've known her like most of my life. Right, she's come on and she talked about her dream of having a crafty retreat center and how that started. So that's, that's like a totally different aspect of anything I do. You know people come and like it's a hotel for crafters.

Speaker 1: 41:59

How cool is that. Right.

Speaker 2: 42:02

I mean it's so cool. And then I have friends. Like last night I had a you know friend from Guam. Come on and she's really good at craft fairs and and and do and in community in person events, okay. And then I had another friend that I met through our group that we're in with our podcasting and she's an artist, Dawn. So she came on and talked to. She's an author and an artist, so that relates to crafts, because she does like making homemade gifts and she talked about selling her art and and things like that. And then I have an Etsy like a top ex, cause I'm I'm on Etsy but I have a couple hundred sales. You know a few hundred this lady has like are they 18,000 sales on Etsy? It's like she's a top seller on Etsy.

Speaker 2: 42:42

And so she came on and I met her through my community because she was one of the first people who ever took one of my courses online and did a review for me. So for the longest time I had screen shot at her review before I. You know, when you're trying to get students you need to show reviews. So I took a little screenshot and it was on my webpage forever to get my first students. And then I'm like, oh, forever indebted to her for being my first student, you know, like my first review. And then when I did my podcast, I'm like, will you be my first guest? And her name is Tracy and she was my first guest. So, like that's so cool because I got to know her during that interview in a way that I didn't get to know her from my groups. I'm in with her and then I got to reconnect with a friend from college and reconnect with a friend from Guam and then meet someone from our podcast group. So like to me it's awesome in that regard.

Speaker 2: 43:32

But the idea behind it is, whenever you want to start a podcast, again, people have to know. This too is you have to have a theme. You can't just go I'm going to talk about anything, because if you talk about everything, no one will find you. If you talk about everything to everybody, like, no one will find you. And so I don't even know. I haven't even checked my downloads. Maybe you can show me later, like, where I even find that information. I have no idea how many people are listening. I have no. I mean, I can tell them the ones I put on YouTube, how many people, but I have not checked any stats yet, I don't know. I've done three, well, nine. Okay, I've done solo episodes as well my YouTube journey, multiple sources of crafty income. You know things like business related, finding your why and then I did how does it press gratitude for things? You know different Thanksgiving that was my Thanksgiving theme. So I've done four solo episodes and like five interviews.

Speaker 1: 44:29

So I'm I'm just another platform, another platform when do I want to go with?

Speaker 2: 44:36

it is just I want to help people with their crafty business or like I want to encourage other people to start a podcast so they can find their voice, and just just. I just think it's a lot of fun. Yes, it's a time consuming endeavor, you know I'm not going to lie Right, okay, but I do it once a week. I mean I've committed.

Speaker 1: 44:53

Yeah, you find your pace with it Absolutely Well. It sounds like, yeah, you've just got so many cool things going on and we will put all this in the show notes. As far as where, where you can find Kimberly and all the fun stuff that she's doing and has created, I always like to sort of wrap up with this question what does a meaningful and moxie filled life look like and feel like to you?

Speaker 2: 45:27

Okay, that's a good question. I feel like the only way to really be fulfilled and have a meaningful moxie, moxie I love that meaning moxie. All right, the only way is to never, never, reach your destination, ever, like, always, enjoy the journey. You're never going to reach a destination and don't even try to reach one, don't? I mean, yes, that goes, but don't ever think that you're going to be fulfilled when you reach that goal, because all you're going to be, all you're going to do, is disappoint yourself. If that's the case, you have to love the journey and like.

Speaker 2: 46:01

So. For me, I mean, it's I don't know what's next, but it's like. When you get there, you're like, oh, I got to do this now. All you do throughout life is level up. That should be your destiny. Every, everything you do is to get to the next level and when you get there, just be happy that you're there, but just go. Oh, what's the next level, what's the next thing, what's the next step? Because if you don't enjoy that journey, then you won't be fulfilled. So just be happy with the journey and you'll have a really meaningful, moxie filled life.

Speaker 1: 46:32

Oh, so well said I, that's so well said and so true. That was some real truth right there. Yes, enjoying the journey, I mean it's, it's real, it is not. It sounds, you know, cliche-ous, but it's not. I mean it's, it's a real thing. Enjoying that journey, and I like the what you said about the leveling up too and thinking of it that way. Well, listen, I know that you're a busy lady and I don't want to take up any more of your time and I've just so. It's been an education for me learning about this and learning about how you've built this amazing business and this amazing community, and I look forward to, I look forward to, listening to the podcast and pop it in there. I'll get a little inspiration there and start crafting with you you never know. And then hey, I hope so.

Speaker 2: 47:21

We have to. We have to talk after this, but we I'm definitely listening to yours as well, and you are on the path to form a huge community around this whole topic of women and over 50. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I think everybody I interviewed so far was pretty much fits that category too, and and we're all so passionate about what we do, like, so, like, that's great for you, fine, like we found each other through this, yeah, so I'm happy to have met you, and so, I really appreciate you inviting me on today.

Speaker 1: 47:54

Yes, and I'm so thrilled right back at you. So, anyway, all right everybody. So you know we're to. We're to find Kimberly's information in the show notes and you can link up with her in all a variety of different ways. So go and check her out and remember hello crafty friends. Her podcast is out there on all the major platforms, so go there as well. So, once again, thank you. Thank you so much, and I know we'll be in touch. Take care everybody. Bye now, until next time. Be well and take care, yeah.