Episode 020
Why do Martha Stewart, American Craft Week, and Yankee Magazine all find Matt Beaudoin’s work irresistible? Does his success come from the love of the work or the fear of failure? Listen in to hear how Matt has taken his grandfather’s lessons to build an anchor business for his community.
A little about Matt and Mystic Knotwork
Matt started nautical knottying from his earliest memory. His grandfather Alton Beaudoin encouraged him to learn fancy knotwork since he was 7 years old. He’s been active in the knot tying hobby for 41 years and left his IT job in 2009 to pursue this full time. Mystic Knotwork now serves over 400 shops around the country and has two workshops open to the public in Downtown Mystic, CT.
“My grandfather won the first Mystic Outdoor Art Festival in 1957, which is what we use to mark the start of our business. Our first ‘modern’ award was the 2014 Heritage artisan award at Martha Stewart American Made. 2015, American Craft Week named us their Artisan Extraodinaire. 2016, we were named SCORE’s Small Business Champion, 2017, Business Insider named our work the #1 Souvenir for Connecticut, 2018, we won the Governor’s Award for CT Tourism as well as the Small Business of the Year by the Eastern Connecticut Chamber of Commerce. This year, Yankee Magazine recognized us as their Editor’s Choice for Connecticut Made work.”
To learn more about Matt and his company, visit MysticKnotwork.com.
Thoughts from Matt
Recommended Resources
Asana – project workflow
E-Myth by Michael Gerber
Quotable