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Hello, and welcome to the

Crochet Business School podcast.

2

I'm Kelly Thomas, and let's talk

about, uh, if you'll change direction

3

in your crochet business, do you

really have to start from scratch?

4

Can you salvage anything

from what came before?

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So you're in a place where

you realize something needs to

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change in your crochet business.

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Selling what you make is

just not working for you.

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No matter how hard you try,

you cannot balance that

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problem of time versus profit.

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You know a change is needed,

but it feels like a lot.

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It feels like you're going

to have to learn so much.

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It feels like you're gonna be throwing

everything away and starting again.

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But that's not entirely true.

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You have learnt so much from when you

started selling the crochet that you

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made, and maybe you don't realize just

how much you actually know, because

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you have actually learned so, so much.

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And when you sit down and think

about it, you've learned how

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to start a social media page.

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You've learned how to grow

an audience on social media.

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You've learned how to network

and bring a new audience in.

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You've learned how to take your pictures

so that they stand out to the right crowd.

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You've learned what type of

pictures you need to take.

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You've learned how to start a

newsletter, how to write newsletters,

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what to say, how to write descriptions.

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Maybe you got an Etsy shop and you've

learned how to set that up and write

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descriptions and everything Etsy needs.

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You've learnt a ton.

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You've learnt a huge amount, and all

that learning is gonna go with you.

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You still need all of that knowledge, so

you're not entirely starting from scratch.

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There is a catch, and

it's not all good news.

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The worst part of this is, is that

when you are doing something different,

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the audience you have now are not

gonna go with you because they are not

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following you for the same reasons.

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They followed you because they

liked looking at your crochet.

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They liked seeing what you

made and what you had for sale.

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But when you're changing direction and

you're not going to sell the crochet

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that you make anymore, that audience

isn't staying with you because now

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you're doing something different.

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So you have to build your audience again.

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But everything else transfers

over, and because you can still

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use all that knowledge you learned

before, things will be much easier

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and much faster this time around.

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So when I stopped selling what

I made and transitioned into

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selling crochet patterns, I was

surprised by how much I already knew

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And how much that I didn't need to learn.

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I thought I'd be having to learn a huge

amount to restart, but actually I didn't.

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I didn't need to learn

an awful lot at all.

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It was very surprising.

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But what I'll say about the audience

problem is, is that it is a shock I

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had built up quite a big audience.

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I was getting sales.

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My circumstances meant that

I had to switch overnight.

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I had a husky glitter problem, so I

couldn't sell the crochet that I made

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anymore, so I had to stop completely

and I had to stop immediately.

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That meant there was

no time to transition.

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You don't have to turn

the taps off like that.

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Your circumstances mean that you might

be able to do both at the same time.

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Keep on making the sales that

you are, and at the same time

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start building the new path.

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Although it's gonna be tempting to s- sell

the crochet that you make on your existing

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social media and using the same profile

to start what, what's next and what

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you're gonna be doing instead, I wouldn't

because of the way the algorithms work.

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So if you confuse your audience, they're

not going to engage with your posts.

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And what these platforms will see is

that you have, you know, the audience

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that you would normally take a look

at your crochet are now not bothering

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with your post at all, and that means

that the algorithm works against you.

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Only a small percentage of your followers

see your posts as it is anyway, but once

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you start posting things that they're

not interested in, even fewer people

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will see them because no one's engaging.

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So it actually works against

you if you try and do this.

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So it's a much better idea

to start a brand-new profile.

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But that gives you a chance to keep

on making sales if that income is

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really what you need to keep while

you transition Keep doing that.

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Maybe just take on fewer orders if

time is a big issue, and use the

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other time that you have left to

start the new profile and introduce

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people to what you're doing next.

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It's unlikely to keep your branding

as is, because again, that might

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be confusing for your existing

audience as you transfer over.

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Start again.

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There is nothing wrong

with starting again.

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You could keep your current

business name, your bus- your

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current logo if it will work.

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But don't try to shoehorn it in.

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Starting from scratch, having

a fresh start could well

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be the thing that you need.

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But because you already know how to do

it all, it's going to go a lot faster

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than what it did when you first started.

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So think back to when you

started selling your crochet.

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It was probably all cobbled together,

and you figure it all out as you

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went, so it felt like it took forever.

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I was surprised how

quick it, it was for me.

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I started growing an audien-

audience very quickly.

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I had everything I needed to know

to get started because I was writing

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crochet patterns, and I knew what

patterns needed to look like.

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I knew the information they

needed to go in, in there.

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W- with selling what I made, I already

knew how to set up newsletters.

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I knew what to write in them.

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I knew how to speak to an audience.

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I, I knew all that.

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I knew how to set up an Etsy shop.

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I knew how to write all my Etsy listings.

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The two things I needed to learn was

how to, uh, set up a Ravelry account and

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get listings there, and how to deal with

the testing process for my patterns.

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Everything else I already knew.

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It all transferred over with me, and it

made life so much easier You can do this

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gradually or you can do it immediately.

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It's gonna depend on your circumstances,

it's going to depend on how much time you

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have, and that's going to be depends…

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It's gonna be unique to everyone.

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There is no right or wrong way to do this.

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And if you're still thinking,

"Can't start again, that's just

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so much work, it's gonna be so

hard," let me ask you a question.

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If your social media got hacked

tomorrow, what would you do about it?

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Would you shut up shop and give up or

would you go, "Okay, let's start again.

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Let's set up a new page.

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Let's get back on our feet."

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Which would you do?

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Because I don't believe that you won't not

try again, because often when social media

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pages get hacked, they're gone for good.

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There's no getting it back, which means

that you have to start a new page.

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You have to start all over again

building your audience and finding

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the people who will follow you.

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Yes, you may have a newsletter

list and you can let them know

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where you are, but the vast…

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Well, maybe not the vast proportion, but

the, a good portion of the people who are

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following your social media pages will

probably not be on your newsletter list.

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The only way they had of seeing

you was through your social media,

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so you've got a lot of building

up to do if you get hacked.

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This is the same thing.

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If you get hacked, you would start again,

so why not start again when you're getting

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onto a new path for your crochet business?

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What's the difference?

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The difference is fear.

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One forces you to do it,

the other is a choice.

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But if you don't make the choice, in

six months time, where will you be?

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Probably still tired, frustrated,

not making the money you need,

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and crocheting all hours.

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You'll still be there in six months time.

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You have to do something.

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Something has to change.

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Your circumstances are not going

to change by just sitting and

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waiting for something to happen.

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You do have to, for want of a better

phrase, take the balls by the, bull

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by the horns and get on with it

It's not easy making this change.

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You are feeling like you're going

to be abandoning everything you've

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built, like you're throwing the

baby out with the bathwater.

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You're not.

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You are changing your audience.

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You are not forgetting

everything you've learned.

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Your crochet dream is still alive.

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It just needs a slightly

different direction.

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It needs you to do

something a bit different.

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But you are still able to

make the dream come true.

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You are still able to make a living

from your crochet, take control of your

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time, take control of your finances.

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That is very much still on the

cards and is actually one step

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closer because you are changing

direction, doing something different.

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It's just a case of getting past

that fear, feeling like you are

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destroying everything you've built,

when actually this is just chapter two.

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Chapter one was getting started, giving

something a go which when you started

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it you had no idea where it would lead,

you had no idea if it was possible,

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but you decided to give it a go anyway.

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So take that energy and put

it into this new direction.

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If you feel like you don't have the time,

sure, how much time are you spending

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on your crochet business right now?

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You're crocheting all

the hours that you can.

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You're on social media every chance

you get trying to find opportunities.

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If you're not doing that anymore,

how much time are you going to have?

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How much time will that free up for you

to work on chapter two, your journey

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to making your crochet business work

the way you need it to, to having that

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money flowing in, to taking control

of your time and getting that back.

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What's that worth to you?

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Maybe taking on a few less orders,

maybe crocheting a bit less time,

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less time scrolling on social media.

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Even if you just give half an

hour a day to this new business,

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to this new direction, you can

make a big inroads very quickly.

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When I switched from selling what I

made to selling crochet patterns, I

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tripled my income within six months.

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It doesn't have to take a lot of time.

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It will not take as much time as it did

the first time around simply because

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this time you know what you're doing.

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You're not gonna be cobbling everything

together in bits and pieces as you learn.

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You already know everything.

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You know everything you need to know

to change that direction and get things

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moving, get things up and running.

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That's there.

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It's waiting for you to use that knowledge

again and get out of this exhaustion trap

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and get on the right path for your crochet

and to make all those dreams come true

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So next week, I'm going to be

talking about what options you have.

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What are these other paths that

you can explore for your crochet?

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What other options do you have to

make your crochet make your living?

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I've got seven different ways, and

which one you choose is gonna be

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entirely down to you, what suits you

best, and what interests you the most.

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So tune in next week to listen to that.

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If you haven't caught the other

podcasts in this series, I do have a

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playlist where all of these are listed.

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You can check those out in the

playlist in the show notes.

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So thank you for listening, and I sh- I'll

see you next time for the next episode.

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Bye for now