2019 My Year in Review
2018 was such a huge year for my business; I built my studio, I invested more money than I had ever invested in anything (other than when we bought our house) so there was quite a lot of pressure placed on 2019 to be a bigger and better year. It was, but not for the reasons you might expect…
Contrary to what you may think, I’m always hugely self-conscious when writing about myself but if you’re reading this you’re one of the very important people who contribute to my business through your constant support and interest, so as ever I wanted to check in with you and this time of year seems like the perfect opportunity to reflect and share a little context behind my business and life!
Nearly exactly year ago, I wrote a blog post about all the things I was going to achieve in 2019 (it’s still up on my blog if you want a nose). Amongst my many goals were; starting an online pottery course, creating a podcast, designing a range of ceramics for a big brand and turning over £60k. I can’t help but snort as I type that list of things now - I must have been bonkers to think I could even just fit all of that in a single year. Little did I know, as the year progressed, life would unfold beneath my feet in a twisty path of combes and cliffs.
Despite the freezing temperature and the snows, the year started well, I was thrilled to have been chosen as one of the Potter’s Cast listener’s favourite episodes of 2018 - ( I’ve shared the episode at the bottom of the page). A short trip to bonnie Scotland reminded me how great it is to travel and I planned a few more trips for the summer. Soon after returning from Scotland, I lost my first ever big batch of work due to a massive kiln over-fire. Hundreds of £££ of pottery lost. Which sucked. We also lost all of our personal photos from the past 15 years on a hard drive which got corrupted - that sucked even more. We managed to piece together pivotal moments like our wedding, honeymoon and holidays from CDs, social media, friends photos and by reaching out to photographers but both were big blows which took months to recover from.
Having dusted myself off from February’s losses, by spring time I was back into a regimented making routine; throwing, trimming, firing, glazing. Repeat. I hadn’t missed a monthly shop update since September the year before but this level of production was hard to maintain and a shift was brewing from deep within my business (and myself). It was starting to dawn on me that it was near impossible to work on any of the ‘goals’ that I set myself or even just to be creative whilst working to such a strict production regime. I began looking for examples of other ways of working and different ways of creating a successful business.
March & April saw lots of reevaluating. What do I want from my business? What is it giving me? What am I giving back? My instincts were shouting loud at this point. I wanted things to shift. I needed things to shift. I had to get away from just endless production. I read the book ‘A Company of One’ by Paul Jarvis, which had a huge impact on my mindset surrounding the way I was working and the ways we’ve been told we need to work in order to be ‘successful’.
In the mean time, I was thrilled to have been invited back on the Potter’s Cast to talk about my website, branding and marketing (episode 518, if you’re interested- linked at the bottom of the page).
May brought one of my favourite moments of the year: I hand delivered over 80 pieces of pottery to Le Cochon Avegule in York, one of the UK’s top restaurants, owned and run by talented chef and sommelier team Josh and Vicky Overington, who commissioned me to make most of the restaurants crockery. It was super proud moment. I even got the chance to eat from my own work during their heavenly 12 course tasting menu - a surreal ‘pinch me’ moment.
Later that month, I went on a glazing course with the fabulous and uber talented chemist and potter Linda Bloomfield. This was the start of the most challenging yet rewarding evolution of my work to date - creating my own range of glazes. You can read all about the ins and outs of that on a previous blog post also shared at the bottom of this blog post.
In June I travelled. Thomas and I went to France. We ate, swam, read and relaxed. Soon after our return I departed on a solo trip to Canada to visit my best friend (of over 15 years) who emigrated to BC in 2013. It was a truly beautiful, life-changing trip. I was immersed in the natural wonders of an enchanting country. We hiked and hiked and hiked and talked and talked and talked, we experienced snow in June and I even saw bear. It was magical. BUT having so much time out of the studio was tricky business-wise. No making = no pots, no pots = no money. Playing catch up from being away so long had a knock-on effect well into the rest of the year. It is truly one of the a hardest elements of running a solo business; how to have time away from the studio and not have it negatively effect you financially for months. Despite the monetary challenges, I had the time of my life. The time spent travelling crystallised what I wanted from my business; it needed to facilitate my life, not the other way around. I was deep into the process of creating my new glazes - work that also took me away from production - yet it was deeply rewarding and even though this was a hard summer finically, life felt great.
July saw the start of some changes. I invested in an extension for Derek the kiln, now known as Big Derek (BD). He’s 110 litres of fire power and I love and respect him in equal measure. It took a while for me and Derek to get aquatinted but his extra space meant my studio could be more efficient; firing bigger batches of work in one go rather than several smaller batches is great for time and electricity saving.
I made the decision to hire a studio assistant, an idea I had been toying with for some time. I needed help. I couldn’t continue to do it all on my own anymore. I’d had friends and my husband help me in the past but I needed a more permanent arrangement. There is so much groundwork which needs to be done before you can even throw a single mug. My Company of One is now a Company of Two. Layla (thank the Lord for Layla), now works for me one day a week - I know one day a week doesn’t sound like a lot but it’s all I can afford at the moment plus when you’ve been doing everything on your own up until that point it takes time to adjust. This decision has made a huge difference.
July also saw us commence our walking adventures. If you don’t already know, Tom (hubby) and I are walking the entire length of the South West Coast Path. Bit by bit. Mile by mile. It’s one of the most beautiful experiences of my life so far. I started to share the pictures of our walking adventures on Instagram and it really seems to resonate with folks. It brings me so much inspiration and creative energy. Each stretch is a free 4 - 5 hour long therapy session. Every time we cover some miles next to the ocean it resets something in my brain. We have both felt immense benefits physically and mentally. Not to mention it directly inspired my new glazes. We have walked over 100 miles of the 630 miles so far and I can not wait to begin marching over the cliffs again come the spring.
It was also on our coastal walks that I came up with the idea for my online Pottery Club - a concept which promised to change my business and how I work forever. Giving folks all over the world a regular fix of their pottery addiction. A place where I can share my knowledge of ceramics, help others with their pottery adventures, grow a loyal following - moving away from reliance of social media and do it all in a sustainable, financially and creatively rewarding way. I am super excited to grow this part of my business in 2020 and can’t wait to grow this community. If you’d like to know more about my Pottery Club click here.
In August I had the pure pleasure of chatting to Nicole Antoinette of Real Talk Radio. Whilst Nicole was traveling around the UK she asked to pop in and record a podcast episode with me. We felt like old friends. I could have chatted to Nicole for literally weeks. We had soooo much to talk about: long distance hiking (Nicole is a great inspiration for our coast walking as she herself has walked vast sections of the Pacific Coast Trail and the Appalachian Trail) making a small creative business work, life, love, kids (specifically the absence of them and the affect that has one’s life ) My discussion with Nicole on and off mic clarified a fair few things for me both in terms of my work and my life in general. I will link to the episode at the end of this post.
I decided I do not want to do a shop update every month, the constant level of production was causing me stress and exhaustion. I also decided I needed a life coach...a bit more on that shortly.
September felt like a pivotal month for my business. I launched my Pottery Club to my mailing list and shortly after to my Instagram followers and I had my first shop update featuring my new glazes. Terrifying and exhilarating, both projects required so much more effort than I ever imagined but with equal levels of immense satisfaction and to my relief and gratitude both were greeted with a very warm reception. I made the decision not to offer my new glazes out to my wholesale stockists. Instead choosing to limit to selling it from my online shop only, for the first year anyway. Following my new Paul Jarvis inspired mantra ‘Focus on better not more’. I scaled back wholesale a lot during 2019, to give me the head space and time to perfect my glazes, focus on building my Pottery Club and strengthen existing relationships with individual customers (the folks who I am most grateful for).
With October came further changes and challenges. Big Derek was misbehaving and due to my inexperience and their dynamic nature my new glazes were causing all sorts of chaos. Numerous kiln shelves lost and dozens of pots came to a very sticky end. But it was a reminder of a very important lesson in pottery and in life - failure is not only inevitable but can and should be embraced. It temporarily sucks but within those failures are the lessons. The lessons you’ll never forget. Those failures made me a better potter, a more patient human. With risk, sometimes you’ll win, sometimes you’ll loose. In October, I lost a lot but growth isn’t possible without risk.
In the Autumn, I started working with my coach, Sas Petherick - she has and is still helping me navigate through some pretty hefty personal and business stuff. I am still working through it all at the moment which I don’t feel comfortable sharing right now (I may never feel comfortable sharing in public) but it’s been an integral shift, one which has moved me to my very core. I am very grateful to Sas for her help so far.
November and December went by in a bit of a blur of pots and packing peanuts. I wanted to make up for some of the financial shortfalls of the summer, my £60K target from Jan was laughable at this point but I could at least capitalise on the holiday season. This might sound contradictory to some of my beliefs but making money is still and will always be essential. My business needs money to survive. If my pottery does not make me a living then it is nothing more than an expensive hobby. Not that there would necessarily be anything wrong with that of course but I need it to be more. This is something that has never changed - it’s the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ which have evolved. So, in November - remembering the mantra ‘better, not more’ - rather than trying to pack and ship orders at the same time as make pots, I made the decision to shut my shop so I could fully concentrate on making my best work for my December update (which historically has been the most important time of the year for me financially.)
2019, the stats:
Pots made = >1,000
Pots lost = >200
Pottery students taught in my studio = 25
Pottery Club Members = 70
New glazes created = 7
Turnover (not profit) = £35K
Adventures = countless
I turned over just over half of the original financial target I set myself back in January but this year has taught me that from now on I should measure myself in many different ways, not just the business targets I set myself.
2019 turned out to be nothing like I expected. The universe threw me many curveballs. Many things contributed to feelings of general unease; - political, environmental and personal. But what this year has taught me is that choosing a different path is ok, both in life and in business. Failures do not define you. Business, heck, life plans can change and evolve and that’s ok. You don’t owe anyone an explanation for your life choices. 2019 felt like a lot of loss came my way but also a lot of letting go. This year made me look at the path ahead in a different way, challenge my unconscious beliefs and in turn lean into life and into business with renewed vitality. It taught me you don’t have to choose between life and business but making it work for you takes a lot of experimentation and it will take time to work it all out. My very wise husband described 2019 as ‘project catapult’ - I had to go back before I could spring forward. I didn’t tick off any of those January ‘goals’ but I am very proud of what I achieved. I grew creatively and as a person, I created things of which I am truly proud, I saw some amazing parts of the world and spent time with people I loved, what could be better than that? I won’t be sharing any goals for 2020 other than just one: ‘grow’.
If you enjoy my blog, found it helpful or inspiring - take a moment to consider supporting me via my Pottery Club. My Pottery Club is a place where I share even more insights into my pottery world - monthly real time video pottery tutorials, lessons and learnings from my 15 Years of potting, PLUS limited edition work and seconds sales and in return you will be supporting my work- I’d love to see you there!
K x
You can read all about the ins and outs of making my own glazes here.
Below are the links to listen to the Podcast conversations I mention in this blog post: