Hey there. It’s been a long time. Just over a month, though it seems like six.
A couple of things happened that Hoovered my attention away from this little ‘Stack:
Out of necessity, I’ve been working some serious overtime hours at the corporate job. There’s an opportunity to take on OT, and there’s most definitely a need, so, really, there’s no choice. I simply have to take it. This means 13 hour days or thereabouts. Fun times.
The good news there: I scored a small raise and have made some good connections. Weirdly enough, I like the work.
The other thing is the leather working side hustle. A few weeks back I tweeted about a bracelet I’d made just as a throw-away, one-off kind of thing. Just looking for an attaboy, really. It generated a shockingly big response: something like 240 likes and doubling my follower count. Now, I know these things seem dumb to normal people, but if you’re trying to leverage the awesome possibilities of social media on a shoestring budget, that’s a pretty big deal.
That one tweet generated more than some vanity metrics - I actually made some totally unexpected sales. Not a lot, and I hesitate to even mention the figure, but it was 100% more than expected.
So, I ran with it. I went into production mode.
More than creating a whole lot of new leather bracelets, I went to work resurrecting my Etsy store, processes, and even the website, which evidently had gone dormant due to some kind of upgrades with Square, which meant I had to rebuild it from scratch. All of this is still very much under construction, but man, I needed that reminder. There is a market out there, and all I have to do is connect with it and make it easy to buy.
That, of course, is easier said than done. It’s the whole ballgame. Lol. “How does one sell stuff online?”
“It’s easy - all you have to do is find and connect with your audience, and make it easy to buy. Simple!”
The urgency is there, as always. Wolves at the door, the family needs…everything, really…and remember - I made that declaration of intent to hike the Zion Subway sometime this summer.
But there’s something else driving me right now: the need to connect with my sons. It’s easy to connect with my girls. Snuggles, hugs, Eskimo-kissing tuck-ins, horsey rides… But my boys are of an age where they need to build, climb, explore, compete, wrestle, etc. When Daddy is gone literally all day long working overtime, and there’s just no money to get them into the various combat-surrogacy sporting events and clubs, not to mention no way to get them to these things because we’re a one-car family, it’s tough to give the boys what their growing bodies and souls need.
And there’s a whole digital world aggressively trying to break in and steal those young bodies and souls. Despite our best efforts, the phony digital world has already established a foothold in our home.
It’s disturbing, to say the least.
The way out? Or, ‘a’ way out? Working with my boys to energize their creativity and need to build and, ideally, get paid for it. They’re not totally into the leatherwork, but what they are into is time with Daddy, using their hands and, just maybe, watching the Hobbit or something together while we dye and stitch.
Hey - you work with what you’ve got. It’s very Stoic.
So, we’re plunging in and seeing where it takes us. Here’s a little bit of what we’ve been working on:
As it happens, getting good pics of the bracelets has been a challenge. Lighting is the big hurdle, as is the excellent resolution of a late-model smartphone, which tends to highlight the flaws and leave out the “rugged vibe.” Nonetheless, it’s all coming together.
So that’s what I’ve been working on. That, and aggressive corporate advancement. I’m not sure why anyone would necessarily care about this, but it does go right to the heart of what I’m trying to do here. Here at the bottom of the career arc, no idea is too crazy to consider, and like I said, you just have to work with whatcha got. For me, it’s this budding skill and a grab bag of marketing hacks.
Thanks for reading. More soon. After I sleep. And file taxes. And retake the yard back from nature…
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Oh yeah, and here’s a link to the Last Chance Customs website. This week I’m uploading inventory, so if you’re interested in an item, but you don’t see what you’re looking for, feel free to reach out to me at chris@lastchancecustoms.com.
This project is entirely free, but if you’d like to help support the effort, please consider upgrading to a paid membership here: