Podcasts about missouri star quilt company

Find my new community at https://www.tkowners.com/I sat down with Al Doan, founder of the Missouri Star Quilt Company, and the guy is just electric. We talked about how he turned his mom's love of quilting into a massive business that transformed the tiny town of Hamilton, Missouri. What started as a small quilt shop and some YouTube tutorials eventually became a retail empire with 16 quilt stores, restaurants, a hotel, a magazine, and a whole lot more. Al's vision didn't just grow the business, he's also bought up nearly the entire downtown district to create what he calls a "Disneyland for quilters."Toward the end, we bounce around some really creative business ideas, especially ones you could launch in small towns that most people overlook.You can find Al on Twitter and Instagram as @DrBillNye. Check out his company at missouriquiltco.com and their deals site at quiltersdailydeal.com.Timestamps below. Enjoy!---Watch this on YouTube instead here: tkopod.co/p-ytAsk me a question on or off the show here: http://tkopod.co/p-askLearn more about me: http://tkopod.co/p-cjkLearn about my company: http://tkopod.co/p-cofFollow me on Twitter here: http://tkopod.co/p-xFree weekly business ideas newsletter: http://tkopod.co/p-nlShare this podcast: http://tkopod.co/p-allScrape small business data: http://tkopod.co/p-os---00:00 The Quilting Capital of the World03:00 Building a Quilting Empire05:49 Creating Unique Shopping Experiences09:10 The Power of Content and Community12:00 Navigating Early Challenges14:51 Inflection Points in Business Growth17:47 Owning a Town: The Hamilton Story21:12 The Future of Small Town Businesses25:25 Transforming Small Towns into Destinations32:06 Building Unique Experiences Around Hobbies37:20 Unexpected Successes in Business Ventures40:14 Innovative Home Services Business Ideas45:51 Reimagining Small Town Economies

This week the girls catch up after Rochelle has been in Arizona helping her mother learn to be self--sufficient after her hip surgery. She has to keep herself entertained, but YOU will be the one entertained listening to how she manages to occupy her time! Meanwhile, Leslie is back in Oklahoma celebrating her 50th birthday party with friends and family. It was quite a party and she is still recovering. She has an upcoming trip to Missouri with her other friends, Cara and Christa to visit with Angela Walters about a long arm! Then they will take a jaunt up to Missouri Star Quilt Company. A lot of fun adventures! Your giggle box will be upside down on this one. Enjoy!Send us a textFollow Leslie on Instagram at @leslie_quilts and Rochelle at @doughnutwarrior

Introduction: Lina Owen, a passionate quilter and entrepreneur, shares her journey from Colombia to the United States, her quilting inspirations, and how she's empowering the Hispanic community through her love of quilting. Early Beginnings (1:42): Despite only starting four years ago, Lina has made incredible strides. Learn how she transitioned from other creative mediums to quilting, inspired by her entrepreneurial parents. With top-quality tools and a supportive family, Lina's journey has been extraordinary. Learning from the Best (7:21): Lina credits her quilting teachers from YouTube, including Missouri Star Quilt Company (www.missouriquiltco.com) and Love Jenny (www.lovejennyblog.com), for shaping her skills. She candidly shares why quilting felt daunting at first but continues to captivate her. Influential Figures (8:40): Lina discusses the impact of Melanie Hamm (www.melaniekhamm.com) and Kimberly Jolly from Fat Quarter Shop (www.fatquartershop.com) on her quilting journey. Upcoming Bilingual Quilting Book (11:17): Lina is co-authoring a bilingual quilting book with Laura Raquel Duran (www.marygoroundquilts.com), set for release in Fall 2025. Her mission is to make quilting accessible and culturally resonant for the Hispanic community. Latina Quilting Leaders (12:57): Lina highlights prominent Latina quilters like Veruschka Zarate (www.prideandjoyquilting.com), Vanessa from Crafty Gemini (www.craftygemini.com), and Carolina Oneto (www.carolinaoneto.com), who are joining her initiative to celebrate and grow the community. Moving to the US (13:47): Lina opens up about moving to the US due to unrest in Colombia, her journey from Florida to Wisconsin, and the resilience her family demonstrated. Quilting became a vital source of community and belonging. BlueBelle Designs (19:07): Discover the story behind BlueBelle Designs, named in honor of her experiences and triumphs, including being a breast cancer survivor. Health Journey (21:05): Lina shares updates about her ongoing health journey, battling both MS and cancer, and how she maintains her resilience. Podcasting Adventures (22:09): Lina talks about relaunching her podcast, Las Quilteras, in September 2024, co-hosted by Laura Duran. She also teases upcoming episodes and guests. Spanish Language Quilting Retreat (27:00): Lina recounts the success of hosting the first-ever Spanish language quilting retreat with Missouri Star, detailing how it felt to see her dream come to life and the retreat's highlights. Future Plans (30:13): Exciting news: Lina is planning more retreats and previewing her 2025 Latino Sew Along. Latino Quilting Traditions (32:34): Lina explains how Latino quilts stand out with vibrant colors and the exuberant expression of “yelling” during the creative process. Community Needs (34:36): Lina emphasizes the importance of access for the Latino quilting community, advocating for more resources and recognition from companies. What's Next (36:20): Lina embraces going with the flow as she looks forward to more creative endeavors. Wrap-Up (38:00): We covered it all this time, but Lina is always full of surprises! Contact Information (38:27): Connect with Lina on Instagram at @QuiltingwithLatinas and @blue_belledesigns. Stay tuned for her 2025 book, Quilting With Latinas. Be sure to subscribe to, review and rate this podcast on your favorite platform…and visit our website sewandsopodcast.com for more information about today's and all of our Guests.

This week the girls debrief about their recent Birthday Bash trip to Missouri Star Quilt Company. They had the best time meeting several podsquaders and even helping the Doan Girls set up for their Triple Play! One of the best times had ever! Rochelle is on fire with her sewing and Leslie is trying to find her sew-jo. They also talk about the quilt alongs for Christmas and the progress they are making on those quilts. The Lori Holt Decorate the Tree kit has arrived and will be shipping out soon! They talk all things quilty in this week's fun episode! Enjoy!Follow Leslie on Instagram at @leslie_quilts and Rochelle at @doughnutwarrior

This week, the girls are in Hamilton, Missouri celebrating Missouri Star Quilt Company's 16th Birthday! They have had a blast meeting quilters from across the world, attending fun events with the Doan family (including a parade) and shopping until they dropped. If you'd like to see a LIVE from this episode, check out Leslie or Rochelle's Instagram where they recorded a live video with help from their friend, Cara. Four days of fun in Hamilton was just what they needed. Enjoy!Follow Leslie on Instagram at @leslie_quilts and Rochelle at @doughnutwarrior

The conversation today is part of an ongoing partnership with the US Small Business Administration highlighting small businesses in the Shenandoah Valley as well as offering advice and resources to all small businesses. In this episode, host Janet Michael and co-host Carl Knoblock, Virginia District Director for the SBA dive into the importance of early planning for small businesses, particularly for festive events like Black Friday and the December holidays. Janet emphasizes that small businesses often get too caught up in daily operations and miss out on early preparations, leading to missed opportunities. Carl concurs, adding that many small businesses fail to recognize the need to start preparations well in advance to attract customers during peak seasons. They discuss the tendency of small businesses to underestimate consumer behavior patterns, noting that unlike small business owners, consumers do not always wait until the last minute for holiday shopping. Carl brings up an interesting point about bus tours and the older generation, who plan their shopping trips well in advance and are a lucrative market for unique, local products. The conversation then shifts to the Virginia 250th anniversary celebrations and the various opportunities it presents for small businesses and local communities. Carl reveals that there are federal funds and grants available for businesses to develop products and events tied to the celebrations. They emphasize the importance of communities collaborating to host events that can attract tourism and boost local economies. In the latter part of the episode, Janet touches upon the significance of self-promotion for small businesses. Many business owners shy away from nominating themselves for awards or promoting their community-driven efforts, which Carl believes is a missed opportunity. He explains that recognition through awards can generate free marketing and increase business. He reminds listeners that nominations are currently open for Small Business Person of the Year on the SBA website. Click here for details. Nominees from each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam will compete for the title of the National Small Business Person of the Year, SBA's signature award. One from each will be selected. Nominees must demonstrate success in business as well as contributions to their local communities. Previous award winners include Superstition Meadery, Landmark Pest Management, Maui Brewing Company, Equator Coffee & Teas, Pacifica, and Missouri Star Quilt Company. The deadline for submission is December 5, 2024, at 4pm ET. National Small Business Week is May 4-10, 2025.  They talk extensively about data collection, especially the importance of tracking customer information such as zip codes. This data can provide valuable insights into where a business's customer base is located and help in targeted marketing efforts. Carl advises small businesses to utilize interns or marketing resources to analyze this data for better decision-making. They also discuss the value of having a dedicated website for a business, separate from social media accounts. While social media can be a powerful tool, a business website provides credibility and a platform for professional engagement. Wrapping up, the episode calls for small businesses to plan their marketing strategies well in advance and utilize all available resources for effective promotion. They encourage businesses to be proactive, leverage local tourism events, and not hesitate to seek recognition for their contributions to the community. To listen to more conversations in this series, visit: https://bit.ly/ValleyTodaySBA 

This week, Leslie updates Rochelle on a project for her house. They are going to expand their patio, so lots of plans! Leslie talks about her daughter and updates Rochelle on her new love life. They also dish on the trip to Gainesville to visit the Common Threads Quilt Guild. Ro brings a new treat for Leslie to try. She also updates on her recent trip to Tennessee. They talk about Quiltfolk and the honor of being featured in the Oklahoma issue that was just released. Missouri Star Quilt Company is celebrating their 16th birthday in September and the girls are excited to be a part of it! Rochelle travels to Tennessee and get to meet a couple of interesting fellas on the flight. The girls talk about some current events and their feelings about the inappropriate behavior (in a bad way) of our country's worst. We have to be better. We can be better. Let's model the best our country has to offer! Enjoy this episode and stay inappropriate (in a good way)!Follow Leslie on Instagram at @leslie_quilts and Rochelle at @doughnutwarrior

Send us a Text Message.Lina Owen has burst onto the scene to open up the discovery of quilting in her native language of Spanish through teaching, her DISCOVER QUILTING community and her podcast. And when I say burst I mean, she's started a podcast, she teaches afternoon quilt classes for children, she created a brand new open studio in March and she has launched a series of annual English and Spanish speaking retreats on bag making and EVEN with Missouri Star Quilt Company each November! Lina Owen on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/blue_belledesignsLina's Spanish Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/descubre_el_quilting/Lina's Website - https://bbdesignsshop.com/Quilter on Fire Website - https://quilteronfire.com/OLISO IRONS - Host of the Quilter on Fire Podcast Lounge each year at QuiltCon!BUY YOUR OWN OLISO MINI PROJECT IRON RIGHT HERESquare One Textile Art WorkshopLink to Brandy's email listKristy's Quilt Picture BookQuilter on Fire PatternsFree Quilter on Fire Holiday Table Runner VIDEO BIG NEWS!!! Watergirl Quilt Co and the Quilter on Fire have teamed up to sail the seas on the Celebrity Millennium. Sail with us on a JAPAN CRUISE in 2026! Registration is now OPEN! The first 16 people are eligible for the VIP package of goodies worth over $175 dollars. SIGN UP TODAY! https://gravitate.travel/stitch-sail-japan-with-quilter-on-fire-and-watergirl-quilt-co/Support the Show.Thank you for listening to the Quilter on Fire Podcast.

This week on Billion Dollar Creator, Nathan sits down with Eric Jorgensen, CEO of Scribe Media.Join us as we explore traditional and self-publishing, dissect book marketing dynamics, and discuss the strategic power of audience engagement and content creation.They also delve into Eric's journey from author to publishing company CEO, the concept of “creator capitalists,” and exactly how Warren Buffet leveraged his public image.If you enjoyed this episode, please like and subscribe, share it with your friends, and leave us a review. We read every single one.Know more about Billion Dollar Creator: https://www.billiondollarcreator.com/Follow Nathan:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nathanbarry/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanbarry/Twitter: https://twitter.com/nathanbarryWebsite: https://nathanbarry.com/Follow Eric:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erjorgenson/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erjorgenson/Twitter: https://twitter.com/EricJorgensonWebsite: https://www.ejorgenson.com/Featured in this episode:The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: https://www.navalmanack.com/Berkshire Hathaway: https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/Epic Gardening: https://www.epicgardening.com/Missouri Star Quilt Company: https://www.missouriquiltco.com/Highlights:02:38 The Almanack of Naval Ravikant is one of Nathan's favourite books16:44 Nathan provides feedback on Scribe Media's business model27:14 Discussing Dan Martell's flywheel38:29 Uncertainty from Nathan on whether or not to publish his next book traditionally59:30 Nathan on Justin Rhodes who makes $3 million/year homesteading01:00:51 Nathan says Trent Dyrsmid has a plethora of transferrable skills01:03:05 Nick Huber and the power of an audience in professional niches01:04:22 How much of Warren Buffet's success is attributed to his public image?

In this episode, Al Doan, the founder of the Missouri Star Quilt Company turned investor at Rolling Fun, shares his journey as an entrepreneur and investor. He discusses starting the quilt company as a way to support his mother and how it grew into a successful business. He also talks about his transition out of the company and his ventures into tech startups, investing, and real estate. Al shares his passion for revitalizing small towns and his experiences as a founder, including the challenges and sacrifices involved. He emphasizes the importance of finding happiness and fulfillment beyond financial success. In this conversation, Al Doan discusses the importance of setting realistic goals and reflecting on past aspirations. He emphasizes the need to adjust goals as one grows and changes. Al also shares advice for his younger self, encouraging patience and a focus on personal fulfillment. He highlights the value of learning from failures and frustrations. Additionally, Al discusses finding joy in the journey and the importance of enjoying the process. He shares his reading preferences and talks about his exciting projects for the year, including involvement in local politics and exploring various hobbies and trades. You can watch/listen to the podcast on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple.Chapters00:48 Starting the Missouri Star Quilt Company02:16 Transitioning out of the Quilt Company03:13 Starting Let's Make Art04:33 Venturing into Tech Startups05:01 Investing and Real Estate09:24 Revitalizing Small Towns10:35 Balancing Work and Family12:14 The Therapeutic Catharsis17:52 Stepping Back from the CEO Role20:14 Finding a New CEO22:44 The Challenges of Being a Founder23:10 The Happiness of Founders25:30 The Cost of Being a Founder28:19 The Addiction to Validation29:17 The Illusion of the Finish Line30:58 The Ego-Driven Nature of Founders32:06 The Loneliness of Founders33:27 The Difficulty of Letting Go33:45 Setting Unrealistic Goals36:06 Reflecting on Past Goals36:18 Advice for Younger Self39:30 Lessons Learned: Patience and Timing41:37 Finding Joy in the Journey44:36 Reading Preferences45:30 Exciting Projects for the Year45:53 Interest in Local Politics46:47 Exploring Lost Trades and Hobbies

Would you believe that a tiny town like Hamilton, Missouri could become the ultimate quilting hub, earning the nickname ‘the Disneyland of quilting?'In this episode, Nathan is joined by the Founder of Missouri Star Quilting Company, Al Doan, who shares the power of physical community and the three Cs of the business's focus: commerce, community, and content. Hear the inspiring story of how Missouri Star Quilt Company was founded and the challenges and rewards of starting a business in a town with a unique identity and appeal. Learn more about the power that physical communities can bring to a business and the importance of forming strong partnerships when embarking on ambitious creative ventures.Subscribe to the Billion Dollar Creator YouTube channel to watch live: https://www.youtube.com/@BillionDollarCreator_

En este episodio comparto un poco de los resultados de muchos estudios realizados sobre los beneficios del quilting en la salud fisica y mental de una persona y al mismo tiempo comparto mi historia y como el Quilting me ha ayudado en muchas situaciones dificiles. Hasta la proxima! Recibe el 15% de descuento en Missouri Star Quilt Company aqui --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lina-owen/support

En este lindo episodio les comparto lo que sucede para Descubre el Quilting y mi nuevo estudio costuril que se abrira en marzo 2024. No olvides en visitar a Missouri Star Quilt Company y obtener 15% de descuento. Haz click en DESCUENTO Hasta la proxima! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lina-owen/support

En este episodio tengo el placer de platicar con Vero Arnolfo y hablar sobre la Expo de Patchwork/Quilting que esta coordinando en la ciudad de Morelia, Mexico. Te invito a que sigas a Vero en sus redes sociales y si quieres particiar en la Expo escribele en el WhatsApp: Facebook: Amistad creativa con Vero Arnolfo Instagram: @amistadcreativa WhatsApp: +524432016088 Les tengo un regalito, si quieres comprar cosas relacionadas de Quilting/Patchwork con un 15% de descuento visita esta enlace: https://glnk.io/mzmmj/88i de Missouri Star Quilt Company. ¡Hasta la proxima!

Well, when it rains, it pours. The girls talk all about the crazy t-shirt issues and how they are fixing everything, including some interesting conversations with vendors. Leslie talks about her Jenny's Countdown to Christmas Celebration box from Missouri Star Quilt Company and encourages everyone to sign up for it in 2024. It's spectacular! Rochelle shows Leslie an amazing piece of yardage from their friend, Robin's shop but she is going to surprise us with what she is going to do with it. Leslie also gasps at the quilt Rochelle just finished for her and can't wait to snuggle with it this weekend. They also do a quick recap of where Rochelle landed with her three seasonal jobs. This episode is a hoot and half and you don't want to miss a minute of it!Follow Leslie on Instagram at @leslie_quilts and Rochelle at @doughnutwarrior

Jenny Doan is a sewlebrity who has grown a YouTube presence with educational quilting goodness to over half a million subscribers. She is known for her pre cut friendly tutorials, making quilting accessible to everyone. And with her family by her side, they have built their business from the ground up from struggles to thriving success. Over the last decade and a half, Missouri Star has changed the footprint of small town Hamilton, Missouri, to be the ultimate quilter's experience that many have called the Disneyland of quilting. We have such a fun episode in store for you today, as we'll be talking about Jenny's rise to fame, her family, her latest book, and the annual birthday bash, which just celebrated a huge milestone.Jenny's website - Missouri Star Quilt CompanyJenny's book - How to Quilt an American Dream TODAY'S SHOW SPONSORS:Sew Yeah Quilting  (affiliate link to support this podcast)Rosie Girl Quilting (use the code FIRE15 at checkout)Support the showThank you for listening to the Quilter on Fire Podcast.

In this episode, Such and Such (Cara a/k/a "the queen") comes to visit and joins the podcast. Brace yourself for some gross stories (I warned you), some rude comments about Leslie's age and how to become our friends via stalking. It is all over the place when the three of them get together! Rochelle catches us up on her trip to Nebraska to hang out with Mike, Mary and Cheri (great friends of the podcast)!  Leslie is getting a new featherweight and talks about the idea of collecting machines. Finally, we want to wish a very HAPPY 15th BIRTHDAY to Missouri Star Quilt Company! Jenny, you're the best. Interested in Mike's goodies? Check out his website http://ossquiltworks.comSew Nebraska  - July 24-27, 2024 Inspiraguides by Leslie's friend, Samantha Pitman Follow Leslie on Instagram at @leslie_quilts and Rochelle at @doughnutwarrior

Jenny Doan is more than just a quilting icon. She's a wife, mother, and popular YouTube personality. Her professional quilting journey began over 27 years ago, back when her family first moved to rural Missouri. Little did she know their random point-and-go selection of the Midwest guided them to an epic adventure atop a quilting empire. Watch this week's podcast episode and learn how Jenny's children led the way to the formation and exponential growth of the Missouri Star Quilt Company and its corresponding quilting channel on YouTube.Website https://www.missouriquiltco.comYouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/@MissouriQuiltCoInstagramhttps://www.instagram.com/missouriquiltcohttps://www.instagram.com/jennymsqcFacebookhttps://www.facebook.com/QuiltingDealsPinteresthttps://www.pinterest.com/missouriquiltcoThrift Bookshttps://www.thriftbooks.com/a/jenny-doan/1881208

The story of Jenny Doan and how she (and her family) created the incredibly successful Missouri Star Quilt Company.Work Your MagicHave you ever worked for a company that required employees to cross-train in multiple jobs in case someone called in sick or quit unexpectedly? I have, and it doesn't work very well.At the start of my programming days--over 30 years ago--the organization required each programmer to rotate through the other job functions in the department. We all took the same leadership training classes, learned how to run applications on the mainframe, took turns doing production support, and more. When I got to do the rotations I enjoyed and excelled at, I loved my job. When I had to take my turn on the mainframe or do support, I struggled and felt deflated. I'm embarrassed to admit that when others rotated into my wheelhouse, I thought those who couldn't do the work lacked smarts and probably didn't belong at the company. Only later did I realize how silly it is to make everyone do the same job regardless of their aptitudes and interests. Doing so is not good for the employees or the company.This week, I'm speaking to Jenny Doan, co-founder of the Missouri Star Quilt Company. In addition to telling us how she and her family started a business that transformed their lives, revitalized a town, and modernized the entire quilting industry, Jenny says that people work best when their jobs align with their "magic"--the things they are really good at and enjoy doing. She also explains how she discovered the power of sharing her own magic.What You'll Learn In this Episode:What prompted the Doans to start a YouTube channelHow the Missouri Star Quilt Company evolved Why Jenny says YouTube is the great equalizerWhat this business means to the people of Hamilton, MissouriHow to work together in a family businessWhat it means to find your magic and why it matters so muchStories of people who found healing through watching JennyAnd so much more.Mentioned on the Show:Read Jenny Doan's book: How to Stitch an American Dream Visit the Missouri Star Quilting Co: Website and YouTube ChannelDiscover your magic! Pick up my book: Return to Work with Confidence.Take my course: I'll walk you through the process.Connect with me: LinkedInFind out when a new podcast drops: Join the Mailing List~~~~~PLEASE: Rate and Review this podcast so other women can be inspired in their faithful career moves. Visit the website: FaithfulCareerMoves.com: Faith-based Career Coaching for Stay-at-Home Moms Get the book: Return to Work with Confidence: A faith-based guide to help stay-at-home moms re-enter the workforce Follow us: Instagram @FaithfulCareerMoves Facebook @FaithfulCareerMoves

Celebrate the ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of Inappropriate Quilters podcast! Leslie and Rochelle sit down with Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company in Hamilton, Missouri.  Pull up a chair (to your sewing machine, of course) and enjoy the conversation that will have you laughing until you cry while also leaving you inspired and with a warm heart.Jenny Doan is a quilter, author, and YouTube personality. She rose to prominence as the face of Missouri Star Quilt Company, the largest quilting supply vendor in the United States. Referred to as “The most famous quilter in the world,” her YouTube channel has surpassed over 270 million cumulative views, and she is regarded as a leader in the pre-cut quilting movement.Follow Leslie on Instagram at @leslie_quilts and Rochelle at @doughnutwarrior

Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company is on the podcast today! Today Carina and Jenny talk about her book How to Stitch An American Dream. Learn more about Jenny Doan at https://www.missouriquiltco.com/ Find her book on Amazon and many other book retailers.Episode 219 on the Make and Design Podcast: How to Stitch An American Dream with Jenny Doan__________Download Carina's free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY __________About Carina Gardner:Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.Find out more at https://www.carinagardner.comCheck out her most popular program Design Bootcamp here: http://www.carinagardnercourses.com/designbootcamp Watch this episode as a video at https://www.makeanddesign.com/

Special episode alert! We reached 500 Instagram followers and 100 subscribers on YouTube!! So joining me today is my husband Abe! Reaching these milestones means I get to teach him how to quilt. We talk patterns, process and how he's feeling about it all. Please enjoy! Online Shops I Like (Unaffiliated) Fat Quarter Shop: https://www.fatquartershop.com/ Farbric.com: https://www.fabric.com/ Missouri Star Quilt Company: https://www.missouriquiltco.com/ Etsy has some great shops as well one of my favorites is https://www.etsy.com/shop/thegreyfinchcompany Don't forget to follow Amanda on instagram! @SweetPeaDesignCompany https://www.instagram.com/sweetpeadesigncompany/ Purchase handmade quilts and more on Etsy! Sweet Pea Design Co. shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetPeaDesignCoShop/ Join our Patreon and help us keep the show going! https://www.patreon.com/notyourgrannysquiltshow You can also find us here: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/not-your-grannys-quilt-show/id1590692352 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5xlx19xEptSVzx3N98vZ2W

This week's guest is my friend, Kevin Espiritu. Kevin is the founder of Epic Gardening, the world's biggest gardening education platform. We became good friends over the internet--Kevin and I talked about the trend of parasocial relationships and how you can get to know someone despite having little to no in-person interaction.   We talked about how Kevin transitioned from making a living out of playing poker, to building websites, to marketing and blogging, and finally, working full-time on Epic Gardening. This project went on to garner the biggest gardening audiences on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram and has branched into direct-to-consumer business without any ad spend.   Kevin relates his mistake in scaling the company revenue faster than he built the team, saying he likely left growth on the table. Leveraging people was a challenge at first. He says he thinks of himself more as a content creator and not really as a writer or YouTuber or podcaster, which eventually helped ease the process of trusting new team members to take on such responsibilities as he grew the company.   Kevin is now raising PE money and making an acquisition as an independent entrepreneur. We've had such a wonderful conversation that goes beyond Epic Gardening and into fun stuff like how creators can implement web3 tools, Kevin's short career as a male model, pink pineapple piracy, and so much more.   Additional Resources   Epic Gardening - https://www.epicgardening.com/ Epic Gardening on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/EpicGardening Epic Gardening on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/epicgardening Epic Gardening on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/epicgardening/ Epic Gardening on Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@epicgardening The Epic Gardening Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/epic-gardening-daily-growing-tips-and-advice/id1221085548 Scribe Media - https://scribemedia.com/ Missouri Star Quilt Company - https://www.missouriquiltco.com/ The Fish that Ate the Whale by Rich Cohen - https://www.amazon.com/Fish-That-Ate-Whale-Americas/dp/1250033314   Topics   (1:22) - Thoughts on Podcasting & being ‘internet friends' (3:35) - How do you feel about accidentally becoming famous? (4:48) - Kevin's story: Poker, Blogging & Epic Gardening (15:09) - Scaling platforms & building a team (28:07) - Introducing Products (32:36) - Balancing loving gardening and running a business (38:08) - Kevin's Consumption: YouTube, Podcasts, etc. (39:46) - Book writing & publishing (45:41) - Raising capital & compounding patience (54:50) - Kevin's stint as a male model (57:13) - Acquisitions & Plant commerce Logistics (1:00:44) - How does IP work in the agricultural world? (1:04:51) - The opportunity cost of reading (1:06:16) - Web3 & Crypto (1:15:23) - To what extent can we all be growing our own food? (1:22:11) - A return to wholesomeness (1:25:34) - Wrap up   Additional Episodes If You Enjoyed: Jason Hitchcock: Your Guide to Web3 (DeFi, NFTs, and The Metaverse) Nick Huber: How to Build Leverage, Buy Businesses, and Go Viral on Twitter   If you want to support the podcast, here are a few ways you can:  >> Buy a copy of the Navalmanak: www.navalmanack.com/  >> Share the podcast with your friends and on social media  >> Give the podcast a positive review to help us reach new listeners  >> Make a weekly, monthly, or one-time donation: https://app.omella.com/o/9Bufa  >> Follow me on Twitter: @ericjorgenson >> Follow @FirstsFamous on Twitter  >> Learn more and sign up for the “Building a Mountain of Levers” course and community: https://www.ejorgenson.com/leverage  I appreciate your support!     Important quotes from Naval on building wealth and the difference between wealth and money:   How to get rich without getting lucky. - Naval Ravikant   Making money is not a thing you do—it's a skill you learn. - Naval Ravikant   I came up with the principles in my tweetstorm (below) for myself when I was really young, around thirteen or fourteen. I've been carrying them in my head for thirty years, and I've been living them. Over time (sadly or fortunately), the thing I got really good at was looking at businesses and figuring out the point of maximum leverage to actually create wealth and capture some of that created wealth. - Naval Ravikant   Seek wealth, not money or status. - Naval Ravikant   Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. - Naval Ravikant   Money is how we transfer time and wealth. - Naval Ravikant   Ignore people playing status games. They gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games.    You're not going to get rich renting out your time. You must own equity—a piece of a business—to gain your financial freedom.  - Naval Ravikant   The most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner. You have to know how to learn anything you want to learn. The old model of making money is going to school for four years, getting your degree, and working as a professional for thirty years. But things change fast now. Now, you have to come up to speed on a new profession within nine months, and it's obsolete four years later. But within those three productive years, you can get very wealthy. - Naval Ravikant     Important quotes from the podcast by Naval on Leverage:   “Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I will move the earth.”  —Archimedes    To get rich, you need leverage. Leverage comes in labor, comes in capital, or it can come through code or media. But most of these, like labor and capital, people have to give to you. For labor, somebody has to follow you. For capital, somebody has to give you money, assets to manage, or machines. - Naval Ravikant   Fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, people, and products with no marginal cost of replication (code and media). - Naval Ravikant   Capital and labor are permissioned leverage. Everyone is chasing capital, but someone has to give it to you. Everyone is trying to lead, but someone has to follow you. - Naval Ravikant   Code and media are permissionless leverage. They're the leverage behind the newly rich. You can create software and media that works for you while you sleep. - Naval Ravikant   If you can't code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts. - Naval Ravikant   Leverage is a force multiplier for your judgment. - Naval Ravikant   Apply specific knowledge, with leverage, and eventually you will get what you deserve. - Naval Ravikant   “We live in an age of infinite leverage, and the economic rewards for genuine intellectual curiosity have never been higher. Following your genuine intellectual curiosity is a better foundation for a career than following whatever is making money right now.” - Naval Ravikant   Important Quotes from the podcast on Business and Entrepreneurship   There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes. - Naval Ravikant   You have to work up to the point where you can own equity in a business. You could own equity as a small shareholder where you bought stock. You could also own it as an owner where you started the company. Ownership is really important.     Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That's a fine way to start.    But usually, the real wealth is created by starting your own companies or even by investing. In an investment firm, they're buying equity. These are the routes to wealth. It doesn't come through the hours. - Naval Ravikant

This week is Thanksgiving in the United States, so we're reflecting on the good things in our lives and sharing the quilty things we're thankful for. We also chat with Jenny Doan, the founder of Missouri Star Quilt Company, a well-known YouTube personality and quilter, and now author. We discuss her new memoir, How to Stitch an American Dream: A Story of Family, Faith & the Power of Giving,  For more resources from today's show, visit the show notes here: https://www.allpeoplequilt.com/magazines-more/quilting-podcast/episode-533-sew-thankful Email us at APQPodcast@meredith.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's episode Sherri welcomes Jenny Doan, founder of the Missouri Star Quilt Company to the podcast! Jenny's new memoir, How to Stitch an American Dream is available now. Jenny's positivity will inspire you, and she also offers helpful ideas for quilters. Her complete bio can be found below. Thank you Jenny for sharing your quilting life with us today!Show Notes Blog Post: https://www.aquiltinglife.com/2021/11/a-quilting-life-podcast-episode-42-show-notes.html/Jenny's Book: How to Stitch an American Dream: https://amzn.to/3jYkWr3Wildgrain Black Friday Week Discount: $30 off the first box + a free extra Sourdough Loaf in every box! Click link below for discount.https://wildgrain.com/?rfsn=5985703.7e4060&discount_code=AQUILTINGLIFE&discount=10&utm_source=refersion&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=august2021&utm_term=5985703Farmhouse Garden (Quilt on the Wall): Found in Labor of Love: Scrappy Quilts at the Heart of Home book.Cottage Charm (Quilt on the Table): Found in Labor of Love: Scrappy Quilts at the Heart of Home book.Labor of Love signed copies here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/762279321/labor-of-love-scrappy-quilts-at-the?ref=shop_home_feat_4&frs=1Labor of Love quilt book on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3wxcW5rNOTE: Some of the links provided here are affiliate links.Where to Find Jenny:MISSOURI STAR QUILT CO WEBSITE: https://www.missouriquiltco.com/YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/c/MissouriQuiltCoFACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/MissouriQuiltCoTWITTER: https://twitter.com/missouriquiltcoINSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/missouriquiltco/JENNY'S INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/jennymsqc/Jenny's Bio:Jenny Doan is the smiling face of Missouri Star Quilt Company. Stitching together simplified quilts full of love and laughter, she makes quilting easier, more accessible, and friendlier than ever before. Watching her tutorials feels like coming home again. With over 750,000 YouTube subscribers and more than 230 million views to date, Jenny has sparked enthusiasm for quilting and warmed her viewer's hearts across the globe. When she moved with her growing family to Missouri over 20 years ago, she never imagined that someday they'd have a successful quilting business. Like many small towns across America, employment was scarce, so in November 2008, on a modest budget, the Doan family bought a building in Hamilton and started Missouri Star Quilt Company. At first they offered basic quilting supplies and machine quilting services, but business picked up when they started posting videos of Jenny teaching quilting tutorials online. From that time on her life changed forever.Almost 13 years later, Jenny now teaches quilting tutorials on YouTube once a week and continues to share her story everywhere she goes. It's a labor of love and a dream come true for her. Hamilton, Missouri, has become a quilter's paradise, attracting visitors from around the world. With the help of Jenny's husband, Ron, her seven children, and 25 grandchildren, this family business has grown to include an entire community.Visit the A Quilting Life YouTube channel for more great video content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmSR-jDR956ATQe30JHX87wEnjoy what you heard? Be sure to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and your review could be read on the show!

How Jenny Doan, a grandmother of 25, came back from poverty and domestic violence -- and rode the YouTube boom to launch the Missouri Star Quilt Company. Her memoir is How to Stitch an American Dream: A Story of Family, Faith and the Power of Giving.

Today on the show we're talking about building a quilting empire with my guest Jenny Doan. Jenny Doan is the smiling face of Missouri Star Quilt Company. Stitching together simplified quilts full of love and laughter, she makes quilting easier, more accessible, and friendlier than ever before. Watching her tutorials feels like coming home again. With over 750,000 YouTube subscribers and more than 230 million views to date, Jenny has sparked enthusiasm for quilting and warmed her viewer's hearts across the globe. When she moved with her growing family to Missouri over 20 years ago, she never imagined that someday they'd have a successful quilting business. Like many small towns across America, employment was scarce, so in November 2008, on a modest budget, the Doan family bought a building in Hamilton and started Missouri Star Quilt Company. At first they offered basic quilting supplies and machine quilting services, but business picked up when they started posting videos of Jenny teaching quilting tutorials online. From that time on her life changed forever. Almost 13 years later, Jenny now teaches quilting tutorials on YouTube once a week and continues to share her story everywhere she goes. It's a labor of love and a dream come true for her. Hamilton, Missouri, has become a quilter's paradise, attracting visitors from around the world. With the help of Jenny's husband, Ron, her seven children, and 25 grandchildren, this family business has grown to include an entire community. +++++ This episode is sponsored by Divine Social. Divine Social is a marketing agency that helps eCommerce stores who sell to makers, creators, crafters, artists & DIY enthusiasts.  They are behind some of the biggest brands in the creative industry, responsible for strategies to move your online traffic from prospects to buyers to raving fans.  Just in time for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday rush, the team at Divine Social is offering a customized review of your shop to help you uncover what's keeping you from selling more. Go to divinesocial.com/cia for more details.  +++++ To get the full show notes for this episode visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our supportive trade association. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Join today.

Laura Piland is a quilter, pattern designer, and homeschooling mom of three boys. She's also an ex-math teacher - and with a last name like Piland - there's a strong love of pi in her house! Laura publishes new quilt patterns from time to time, and likes to spend time offering supporting events such as quilt-alongs. She is also a teacher of her craft, particularly sewing for kids.  Watch for her on upcoming episodes of the Missouri Star Quilt Company's YouTube channel! Laura has a remarkable Facebook group - it's all about offering you the best deals in the quilting and crafting world...multiple times a day! Seriously, if you're looking for a great deal on tools, or stocking up for winter crafty projects, check out the feed often. You're pretty sure to find what you're looking for.Website: SliceofPiQuilts.comFacebook: Slice of Pi QuiltsFacebook page:  Quilting and Sewing DealsI would love to hear from listeners who'd like to nominate a crafter with a story to tell! Email me at info@stitchedbysusan.com.And here's where you can find more of my work:Website - home of my teaching-style blog, plus info on classes and quilting servicesFacebook | Instagram - current projects and photosPinterest - photo galleries and tutorialsYouTube - LIVE & UNSCRIPTED episodes & other tutorialspodcast.stitchedbysusan.com - past episodesSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Stitchedbysusan)

In this bonus episode, Gina and Christyn talk about their favorite ways to unwind.0:18 - Welcome to the Episode0:45 - What is Five Minutes on the Fifth Thursday1:07 - Topic of the Day: How do we unwind?1:25 - How Gina unwinds2:25 - What are Christyn's favorite stress busters3:41 - Links to show notes4:05 - Take time to unwind in your favorite wayTea Christyn is enjoying right now:Harney & Sons Malachi McCormickHarney & Sons Emerald IsleBooks Christyn is reading right now:A Room With A View, E. M. Forster Parenting Beyond the Rules: Raising Teens with confidence and joy, Connie AlbersGina's favorite places for quilting suppliesHappy Hands Tatting (Lisbeth thread)Missouri Star Quilt Company (online retailer)Specialty Quilts (favorite LQS - local quilt shop)Prairie Point Junction (the BEST place for wool felt)Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=KESW6393PZFRL)

Jenny Doan and her husband, Ron, lost most of their savings in the 2008 financial crisis. Retirement was just around the corner, and they didn’t know how they would make it through. That’s when the family went all-in on an unlikely business—a quilt shop.

Rob talks to us about his philosophy, sewing, and being Mansewing. He also talks to us about Missouri Star Quilt Company too! Here is his website: https://robappell.com.

Rob talks to us about his philosophy, sewing, and being Mansewing. He also talks to us about Missouri Star Quilt Company too! Here is his website: https://robappell.com.

Announcer:                      00:01                   You're listening to Trade Show Live! On the Road featuring conversations with the people who bring trade shows to life, including attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, and trade show industry thought leaders. We attend trade shows around the country in a wide variety of industries from healthcare to consumer products and everything in between. The podcast is a production of The Trade Show Manager, a trade show, consulting firm, and now let's go on the road with Trade Show Live!. Janet:                                00:29                   Welcome to Trade Show Live! On the Road. This podcast is a production of The Trade Show Manager and features an in depth look at the people, companies, and organizations that bring trade shows to life. In January 2019, we're going to CES the Consumer Electronics Show with an amazing group of startups and business leaders will be in Eureka Park and displaying some of the best new ideas coming from the startup community in North Carolina. One of our featured guests is sponsoring a couple of scholarships for members of our North Carolina Startup pavilion is the team from NC IDEA. NC IDEA empowers entrepreneurs to reach their full potential by offering support when they need it most. With me on the podcast is the president and CEO of NC IDEA. Thom, welcome Thom. Thom:                               01:18                   Thank you, Janet. It's a real pleasure to be here with you. Janet:                                01:21                   You have had an entrepreneurial mindset for many, many years. Thom:                               01:27                   Yes, I have. I like to say tongue in cheek. I spent the first 20 years of my career starting and growing companies and then I've spent the last 15 years helping others acquire that gene mutation. So that has really given me quite a career of advantage and great pleasure, because it really is a privilege to do the work that we do. Janet:                                01:50                   You know, you make me wonder about the age old question. Is it nature or nurture? Can you make an entrepreneur or are you born with that mindset? Thom:                               02:01                   yeah. I, I appreciate this question. I love debunking it every chance I get because I think it's an insidious inference. That you have to be born with entrepreneurial DNA, so to speak. it's my firm belief that we're all hardwired to be entrepreneurial, but what isn't equally distributed are the resources, the encouragement, the environment, the assets to realize or accentuate or pronounce that innate ability that we all have now, and for some people it's just they just never get a chance to express it, but if you give them that opportunity, that encouragement, that support, everybody's got the potential to be quite entrepreneurial. Janet:                                02:46                   I think of it a very essentially is the ability to be creative and to problem solve. And sometimes that's to make money for yourself. Sometimes that's to make money for your business and sometimes it's to figure out what to do when you burn the cake. Thom:                               03:02                   It's a way of thinking. We refer to the vernacular that's very common now is calling it the mindset, right? We define that as the underlying beliefs and assumptions that drive successful behavior. So what is it intrinsically that motivates you, that drives your locus of control to say, I'm dissatisfied with my current state of existence. I want something better. I want to be something better. And I can express that I can achieve that goal by providing value to others and that value is manifest in either a product or a service or a performance that I do for, you know, an existing employer. But somehow I bring value to others and for that, you know, I have economic stability in my life. And then all the rest is a question of scale. So you can do that for more people in, at a higher scale than your economic reward for that is greater. But that's the essence of really what drives what we do. Janet:                                04:04                   Thom, I'm dying to ask you this question. It's about the hustle mentality and there's a lot of really strong debate on both sides going on online between those Internet entrepreneurs that have gone out there and said, hustle, hustle, hustle, work seven days a week, put it all in. And then ultimately you're going to get rich. And let's face it, the get rich part is going to be probably a single digit percentage of folks out there. The "make a good life, make a good living" part is much greater. But the hustle mentality that you, you are not a good entrepreneur if you're not working, you know, 16 hours a day, seven days a week. Thom:                               04:47                   Yeah. I think that's again, one of those wonderful myths or cliches. Probably a better way to state it, of entrepreneurship, right? That you have to deplete yourself and sacrifice sleep and relationships and everything else in furtherance of your entrepreneurial pursuit. To me that's just silly, right? A ton of effort without direction is meaningless. There are certainly times when you're going to have to burn the candle on both ends, right? Product launch, you know, large, large event. You got to prep for the CES show for example. But yeah, you're going to have to have a couple of weekends who are going to go sleep deprived and you got to burn the midnight oil. But if you are doing that as a sustaining a status quo without understanding why, then you should really be questioning what you're doing. And I think the smarter play or, or let's just say that more balanced play is if you get to some sort of self defined equilibrium, you know, I need to financially achieve x, Y, or Z, or I need to have a company that allows me to control or the flexibility to work when I choose to work, whatever that is, that's different for different people, right? Thom:                               06:05                   But if you can "know thyself," so to speak and work a plan that achieves that, then I think you've accomplished something. And if that means you can do that 20 hours a week, you know, God bless you, that's great. If you have to do 60 hours a week to attain that, well, and that's what you have to do. And then at some point you need to decide does that work for you? But, but understand why it is you're doing what you're doing. I didn't give you the red meat answer to that. Thom:                               06:34                   Really what it says. I think it's just a stupid argument and people really delude themselves on, and I've seen this where people are unsuccessful and then they throw their hands up in the air and go, how can I be unsuccessful? "I've been working 16 hours a day." If you've been doing 16 hours a day of the wrong stuff, it doesn't matter that you're doing 16 hours a day. If you were doing six hours a day of the right things to do, you might be wildly successful. Right? So this notion that I have to suffer for my craft, that's part of the process. That's just, again, that's movies, this the stuff of lore and legend, not reality, Janet:                                07:14                   Right. Well, and we all get sold a bill of goods because what we're looking at is the online influencers, public persona. We have no idea what happens when he gets home to talk to the wife or the kids and a lot of the other things. We're only seeing the story that is the way they choose to portray. Thom:                               07:36                   It's crafted. Everybody has a perfect life on Instagram and Facebook, Speaker 2:                        07:40                   Entrepreneurial mindset. I think I've had it my whole life. I just never quite saw how to put it into action and I understand that part of what NC IDEA is doing is actually creating facilitators to help people think through that process. Thom:                               07:59                   We are absolutely helping facilitators and others help other people get that orientation towards action. You know, we find, and I have found doing the work I do literally all over the world in services, some great organizations like the World Economic Forum, not to mention Kaufman and others that people can get to that exciting excitement stage. Like I've got the idea or I've got a notion of an opportunity, you know, I get this antsiness like I really want to do something about it and that's where it stops, right? Because they get home and the kids are driving them crazy and there's a good movie starting tonight or I jump on facebook and three hours later, you know, I'm not getting anything done. So we really want to help people understand that it's a bit of a self awareness. When am I failing to do anything beyond just getting excited? Because there again, right? Excitement and energy without action is a very little value. Thom:                               09:08                   The law of diminishing returns, a accelerates very quickly there. So what we try to do is say, you know, recognize that in yourself when you're at that stage and say, okay, for those that can then you know, and maybe it could be the epiphany of, oh, this is going to be harder than I thought and I'm not going to do it. Then great. At least you can stop deluding yourself that, you know, "I coulda been somebody". Obviously I'm being tongue in cheek with that, but, but more to the, our hope is that people will go, oh, okay, now I understand. I, I have to now do small tests, right? I have to see, okay, how viable is this idea and how do I start getting some feedback and how do I just for me and the team here is probably tired of hearing me say it. Thom:                               09:53                   I call it. It's a game of forward momentum entrepreneurship. Unfortunately in public it looks like these giant strides, right? It went huge. I sold it and made a ton of money. In reality, it's really more about just moving forward. Some days you're going to move forward by an inch. Some days it's going to be by a mile, right? But as long as you're moving forward, you have forward momentum. You're, you're doing all right and you should be happy with yourself that you're doing all right because that will, as long as you're moving forward, you'll have something to react to that you didn't have to react to yesterday because the market will tell you something, potential customers, we're telling you something. Suppliers will tell you something. Employer employees will tell you something. You'll be learning and then making decisions that are informed by the goal at the end, Janet:                                10:43                   You're doing such a great job with myth busting. I want to throw another one at you and that is one of the things that I have heard is your business, your entrepreneurial ideas never going anywhere unless you are 100 percent all in in essence, basically saying, if you haven't saved up enough money to quit your job, you know too bad, you're not going to be a success. If you're not all-in, what do you think about that? Thom:                               11:11                   I think that this notion that you have to be all-in in order to be successful is nuanced and again, I think it distracts from more relevant questions, but I'll. I'll bite and give you a reaction to it. It's this notion, right? When an explorer hits the foreign shore, they burn their boats because they know now going back is not an option and the theory is that that somehow puts you in this mindset that you'll work harder, you'll work longer. It feeds this narrative of the suffering entrepreneur and that's why I'm not very keen on this notion. That being said, there is plenty of data that says, Hey, if you're still keeping your day job right, which is presumably 45 hours a week and you're trying this other thing, you probably don't have enough hours in the day to apply to your entrepreneurial startup. That's where this starts, this are you all in or not. Thom:                               12:13                   That's when the narrative starts becoming way more nuanced. That means maybe your company is going to grow slower than it might otherwise if you were full time, 50 hours a week on it, you know, like you are at your job and those, those aren't wrong or right answers. Those are just certain realities of time utilization and applying it towards things that need to get done. And so when people try to cast this notion like, well, we can't like that because you haven't quit your job to do this yet. Would just say statistically I have a bias against potential the potential for that from a pay standpoint. But if you can show me how, what time you can apply to it is adequate for the progression, the forward momentum, as I alluded to earlier for the business, then I'm fine with that. Janet:                                13:05                   All right, that makes sense. I'd love for you to compare and contrast the US entrepreneurial mindset or ecosystem with your experience in the World Economic Forum as you've worked with, I assume, countries around the world. What's different and what's the same? Thom:                               13:25                   Thank you. That's an interesting question. I have worked with and for NGOs, universities, foreign governments, and quite literally, I like it because of the alliteration, but literally from Brazil to Bangladesh and have seen every slice of entrepreneurial humanity that the world has to offer. And there's a couple of observations I have from this first and foremost, and this goes into public perception and myth busting right? I think in the US there's this notion that we are the world leader in entrepreneurship. And again, spoiler alert, we're not. What has been the kind of the, American secret of entrepreneurship that is been unleashed around the world and the rest of the world is awakening to what had been historically a US competitive advantage. So thank Israel, for example. Israel on multiple ways that you might measure is probably the world leader right now in entrepreneurship and early stage activities. Thom:                               14:31                   They've put billions of dollars into funding startup early stage type of things. They've invested heavily in technology transfer and commercialization from universities. They had great corporate partnerships. They reach internationally, they go anywhere in the world where if there's a piece of technology that advances something. So there's that reality of our observation. The other observation I've had is I'm the kind of learning and teaching front of entrepreneurship. In the US, what dominates a lot of curricular or training programs or on entrepreneurship or what I refer to loosely as the silicon valley narrative, which is a plan and pitch type of entrepreneurship curriculum, namely I have to come up with a big idea. I write a plan around it. I shopped that plan to some folks to fund it. I grow something very quickly and I exit and you've heard that a thousand times over, right? Thom:                               15:29                   That dominates, especially in academia, in higher ed. That dominates many of the programs. And that's really, I think it's problematic in a couple of ways. First of all, and most importantly it presupposes or it begins with an individual that has already identified as being entrepreneurial. So like if I'm a student now I'm opting in to major in entrepreneurship. As silly as that is of a notion I've already self selected. Right? So I've been activated. So what higher ed and academia is missing is that broader, much larger swath of the population that has entrepreneurial potential. They just haven't been activated yet. They haven't been exposed to something that flips that switch, so to speak, and that's the difference internationally. So there. Then I use the example of the Ice House curriculum that I we talked about earlier when we were deploying that curriculum at my time in Kauffman. We were deploying it in the US and we're deploying it internationally and I'm happy to say that that program is actually being taught on five continents right now and it's been translated into other languages like Spanish and Portuguese. And what the rest of the world has understood is that if you go earlier stage and you focus on the mindset, we can mobilize more people working towards something entrepreneurial and whereas nobody can predict, you know, the winners and losers. It's still is a numbers game and if you can fill the top of the funnel, you know much faster with more numbers, you're going to have better outcomes on the bottom and adoption of that program. And, and deployment of that program. Is actually growing faster outside the US than it is inside the US. Janet:                                17:19                   Now Your Ice House entrepreneurship program, you are talking to community colleges, four year universities, small business centers. I contend you're in the wrong place. You need to be in elementary school. Thom:                               17:31                   Well, we're certainly already in a middle schools and high schools. So you're absolutely right. You know, and this is the work of Ted Dinter Smith and Tony Wagner and others that are working on kind of a innovation narrative much earlier and there's been studies on this too, right? We beat creativity out of kids going through the, you know, the public school and public education process. So I couldn't agree with you more, you know, and, and even in a very unsophisticated way, I just look at my own kids. I have three children and they're adults now, but they were all entrepreneurs growing up because they've lived in a house with a crazy dad who started and sold a company every three to five years. And you know, for them that was kind of the water that they swam in. So, you know, all three of them graduating college. No student debt, you know, my son just bought his first starter home, didn't need me to co-sign. That's because they had been starting and growing companies and my, my youngest daughter was I think started the earliest at nine, but they all were running businesses and they just saw entrepreneurship as a way to get what you want from life, right. That we have to make a more common experience for as many people as possible. Janet:                                18:48                   Right. Well, I remember seeing a story in social media about the young man who had the hot dog stand and somebody called to complain about him and for once government did the right thing. They worked with this kid to get a health license. They got him the things that he needed to make sure he was testing the heat of the water, and they made him a more successful entrepreneur than shutting him down. And when I hear about people calling the cops on lemonade stands, I'm like 'Really?' that's not in the right mindset. Thom:                               19:22                   Wouldn't it be wonderful if there were more of those types of examples? There was one of the stories I'm most enamored with I had the good fortune several years ago to meet the founders of a company called Missouri Star Quilt Company in the Missouri Star Quilt Company is in Hamilton, Missouri, a population I think like 2,400. So this is small town USA, you know, anywhere in the country, the abandoned main street. From what I understand it is the birthplace of JC Penney, long since gone. And there was this family, it was a family with seven children that really out of a notion to give their mother or something to do or their mother, Jenny Doan was very much into quilting. Quilting was her passion, her hobby. So they bought. I'm giving you the very abbreviated story. There's tons of videos on this and I encourage you highly to google it, but they basically bought her a piece of equipment so that she could start doing some quilting activity. Thom:                               20:29                   And they thought, well, you know, maybe we could put a little small business around this, what we would call a side hustle today. Right? And then they use tools that are out there, they taught themselves things like youtube as a broadcast channel. And what can we do? Jenny has very, the camera just loves her. She's got this just genial style to her teaching. Quilting comes natural to her and pretty soon, you know, they had 500 followers. They had 5,000, they had 50,000. They now have followers on their channels that are seven figures in the. Fast forward to the present. Missouri Star Quilt Company is a very large company. It's the largest employer within a 50 mile radius. They processed 2,000 orders a day, right? And this is supplying the quilting industry. This isn't an APP that whatever cracks your DNA for you. this isn't a biotech life science, you know, bionic, you know, artificial limbs, better solar powered. Thom:                               21:32                   This is quilting fabric and patterns and colors. And, and, and to say nothing of how they've revitalized the whole downtown. So the company is pretty much bought up all of main street and it's a destination. It's a Disneyland for quilters and they have B&B's. Now there they have multiple themed storefronts, so there's seven or eight, so they have one Missouri Star Quilt Company and it's all things fourth of July, they have one that's all things Halloween. One thing that's all things Christmas and it's a destination and it's revitalized this town and it's not high tech and any of that stuff. Right? That just demonstrates that the potential to transform especially large parts of our rural communities that it becomes so economically disenfranchised. Entrepreneurship has the power to turn that around. Thom:                               22:26                   I love this story so much because it is the power of a few people building something amazing. And recently Raleigh has been in a situation where we've been competing to bring a very, very large presence, both apple and Amazon to our town. And I see that as kind of the exact opposite, but I'm not sure that the upside of something that large is very good. Thom:                               22:56                   So, you know, I'd like to say tongue in cheek that we won both hq two and the apple by not winning. And I think that's true for a lot of the communities. We're, we have the good fortune in the triangle here that we are flush with resources, so we probably could have afforded or accommodated whatever exorbitant financial incentives package was given to them, but certainly many of the communities, that pitched for these opportunities could ill afford it and if they had won, it would have been financially catastrophic. Beyond that, what's more perverse to that process than trying to bribe large established companies that have the kind of cash reservoirs at both of those companies have, beyond that, what's perverse about that is the missed opportunity to think if we have the collective political will and are willing to allocate the resources we going to throw at these companies, why don't we invest in ourselves? Speaker 3:                        24:02                   Why can't we see a way forward to, to draft policy and programs that put money into economic gardening so that we plant the seeds and build the next Amazon, the next 10. Amazon's as opposed to trying to buy them or bribe them. Right? This is a challenge. This, this smokestack chasing as an economic development practice, needs to die a swift and ugly death because it is flawed in its thinking. If you want to see an example of how that might look, you only have to look to my home state or at least used to be home state because now I'm proudly as citizen of North Carolina, but Ohio passed several years ago. This initiative called the third frontier initiative and it passed by voters. It was a referendum that went to the ballot and it passed twice. So there was the initial $900MM allocation and then another I think $400MM or $500MM bond issuance. So Ohio through popular vote that sustained and survived transitioning from an R to a D and back to an R. So it wasn't a partisan football, right? They both parties had enough sense not to kill the golden goose and that what it did was it it pumped, it injected, you know, close to one and a half billion dollars into early stage entrepreneurial support activities and it has paid multiples multiples on returns. Thom:                               25:40                   This is the kind of thinking I would love to see come to North Carolina. I don't know in the current political environment if there's the political will because it, it seems nowadays that an idea is measured by who had it versus the merit of it and I'm hopeful that there's going to be some political winds of change coming so that we can start once again arguing about the potential of ideas and not based upon who had them Janet:                                26:10                   Exactly. As you referenced, the Gardening Motif. We need to be planting seeds and seeing what grows and creating a fertile environment to make that happen. If you just try to bring in a fully grown pumpkin and plop it down, ultimately it's going to kill what's under it and ultimately it's going to decay and I don't see a big, big move like that. If they were talking 3000 jobs, maybe that would have been much healthier, but 10,000 has got to canibalize what's going on in our current community. Thom:                               26:46                   I couldn't agree more and I think if you need evidence of that, read very closely. A lot of the public narrative around that and see if you can pick out what's absent from a lot of that public narrative and what I am now. I'll lead the witness here. What's absent is very a heartfelt, genuine support from the large corporate community and who would blame them, right? Every large corporation that's been a great tenant and steward in North Carolina has been growing without handouts, right? Without incentives. Just quietly going about doing their thing and being loyal to the state. They are all. Everybody's competing for talent right now and there's a great shortage and now you're going to say, oh, here's this great big thing that's going to be the sexy new that's going to be competing for the people. You can't find it as it is, and we're going to pop that right in your backyard right now. It's hard to get excited about that. Yeah, yeah. They're going to be good citizens. They'll give some perfunctory statement, but I know people that work at these organizations and they have many of them told me privately, yeah, we're not going to shed a tear if they go elsewhere. Janet:                                28:05                   So that's the biggest of the big. Now let's talk about the smallest of the smallest briefly. One of the things that I love about NC IDEA is what you call your family and that people who've been through one of the NC IDEA programs, processes, grant awards, they're very vested in that aren't they? Thom:                               28:28                   Yeah, I mean we really think and know through our own experience. We have the privilege to work with our folks at a discrete moment in time, a discrete point in their adventure, their journey of entrepreneurship. You know, we want them to know that for the time we were officially together, which might be defined by the term of the grant period, we're vested in their success and, and forward momentum, but well beyond. We want them to know that we're here for them and a resource to go forward because, you know, this is this critical mass feeds the ecosystem and where we can have more and more people getting involved and having these peer to peer relationships. This virtuous cycle starts from it. So for example, we host, with, with relative frequency, a, what we call kind of tongue and cheek, alumni events. Thom:                               29:24                   We bring folks, we invite people. We have a newsletter that we publish lucidly just to alumni. We have a slack channel just for them. And so every other month or so we say, okay, you know, I'll, I'll pick up the beer tab and we'll have some hors d'oeuvres thrown out there, but you know, if you want to come by and catch up and talk to others, you know, feel free to do. And we are always humbled by the number of people that want to come in. And they just, they say, listen, thank you. We appreciate this because it's kind of, you know, that designated time to stop and take a breath and get our batteries recharged. They just tell us the most flattering things that warms your heart and you realize, oh yeah, that's right. That's why we do what we do, right? Because we're helping these people and when they're wildly successful, then we've been very specific and deliberate about this particular. Thom:                               30:18                   Next point I'm about to make is we say, hey, listen, remember to pay it forward. At some point you're going to get, you're going to be successful and you're going to be in a capacity of not begging for resources and help and other things, but you actually going to be in a position to offer resources and help. And so please consider and remember us when, when that happens, we had it was, this was several of our labs cycles ago. one of the folks going through the labs program was just so enamored [with the program]. He came into my office, he snagged a piece of stationary. We have these cards that have our logo on the top and he grabbed it, grabbed a pen and a scribbled out I o n c idea $1,000,000. And he signed it. He said, I have no idea what I'm going to make good on this, but I will someday and I hope you'll be here and you'll have this when I can come in with that check. And obviously I don't expect that, but, metaphorically, the sentiment of what he is saying is what we're striving for, where everybody feels that they're part of something bigger because at some point a critical mass that again, that virtuous cycle kicks in. Janet:                                31:29                   That is awesome. And I very, very much look forward to having some of the scholarship recipients that you guys are going to be awarding attending CES with us this year. I think that is such a cool idea. Thom:                               31:44                   It'd be my pleasure and I'm expecting great things from them. Janet, thank you so much for helping make that happen. It's going to be very cool to see North Carolina has such a coordinated effort and, and frankly something that's going to make North Carolina look even better than it already does. Janet:                                32:00                   Absolutely. Well, thanks for being here, Thom. Thom:                               32:03                   It's my absolute pleasure. Janet:                                32:05                   You've been listening to Trade Show Live! On the Road, a podcast that's production of The Trade Show Manager and features an in depth look at the people, companies, organizations that bring trade shows to life.  

Quilting, one of America's oldest pastimes, is now also a great American success story. Alexis Ohanian visits Hamilton, Missouri, to meet Jenny Doan, founder of Missouri Star Quilt Company and her son, Al, to learn how they rebuilt their life, their town, and created a global quilting community...one "four-patch block" at a time. Be sure to subscribe and review Business Schooled after listening, and learn more at synchrony.com/businessschooled

Jenny Doan talks about the correlation between family history and family quilts Jenny Doan and her family started the Missouri Star Quilt Company. A decade later, Jenny's quilting tutorials have been watched by millions, and her love of quilting has spurred people around the globe to create quilts of their own. Along the way, fans have sent stories behind the family heirloom quilts that have been collected into several books. Jenny discusses quilting, the importance of family stories, and how the two are related. Family History Idea, compliments of Jenny's mother: Fill a jar with writing prompts; during family gatherings, pull out a slip and ask your family elder or answer the question yourself. Over time, these brief pieces will add up to a long narrative. Links & Stuff Books mentioned:Stitched Together, Stories for the Quilter's Soul, Volume 1. Click here or here. Stitched Together, Stories for the Quilter's Soul, Volume 2. Click here or here. Stitched Together, Stories for the Quilter's Soul, Volume 3. Click here or here.   Block Magazine More on coffin quilts, along with a beautiful example  by artist Barbara Todd. Jenny on the Road, a list of scheduled visits to towns across the US.

I am so delighted that Jenny agreed to do an interview with me for this podcast: Beyond Good Intentions. She shares incredible stories about creative mothering through hard times, and now being a traveling grandmother. When she told me about making matching clothes for her kids for family pictures, she became my newest soul sister! She had no way of knowing how much I love taking family pictures, but I just loved this about her. Head to her podcast full show notes on my website KristenDuke.com  If you are new to this podcast, I encourage you to scroll through the other titles, and also read the summaries. Choosing to sum up a life in just a few words for a title has proven to be VERY challenging for me!  I truly believe there is something for everyone in each episode.  To see pictures and full show notes of this interview, head here: Jenny Doan Interview.  Our conversation was filled with so many fabulous nuggets, here are just a few to look forward to when you listen: How she dealt with kids fighting Her spin on "filling our buckets" How she learned to sew as a pre-teen What she FIRST thought about quilting What her dad smelled like after work Mailing notes to her grandkids (I told her about my free printable jokes to help!) Dating your spouse Creative "fun mom" ideas Why someone chewed her out How her company started after an intimidation of hers Selflessly expanding their family through adoption A few favorite quotes: "If you can't get along in your living room, how will you get along in the world?" "You love the people you serve." "I remember the year I realized I couldn't do everything." "You can't always have your bucket full, but sometimes you just need to fill a little cup." "They're so empty that they are reacting instead of acting." "Nothing compares to the heartache of parenting adult children, because you can't fix it and make it all better." "When you make a quilt, that outlives you. It becomes a treasured piece of art." Continue the discussion and share your favorite part on Instagram: @CapturingJoy.KristenDuke

Jenny Doan is...well, Jenny Doan! She has taught a generation of us how to quilt on YouTube, and Missouri Start Quilt Company in Hamilton, MO is a quilt destination point for many, many quilters. We are thrilled to chat with her, and for this interview, Judy Walker (a professional journalist!) joins us, which was awesome too. For more on Missouri Star Quilt Co., go to https://www.missouriquiltco.com. To listen to this podcast, you can go to www.justwannaquilt.com, and also episodes can be found at iTunes, Stitcher, Spreaker, iHeart Radio, and many more platforms.

Jenny Doan is...well, Jenny Doan! She has taught a generation of us how to quilt on YouTube, and Missouri Start Quilt Company in Hamilton, MO is a quilt destination point for many, many quilters. We are thrilled to chat with her, and for this interview, Judy Walker (a professional journalist!) joins us, which was awesome too. For more on Missouri Star Quilt Co., go to https://www.missouriquiltco.com. To listen to this podcast, you can go to www.justwannaquilt.com, and also episodes can be found at iTunes, Stitcher, Spreaker, iHeart Radio, and many more platforms.

What is it like to be part of a group of peers, who meet regularly, to discuss your most vulnerable challenges that may or may not be related to your business? What does that interaction do for you and your leadership? How does that affect your organizations? In this episode, Al Doan (founder of Missouri Star Quilt Company), Christine Carrillo (CEO of JOANY), Keeley Tillotson (CEO of Wild Friends Foods), and Bryan Birsic (CEO of Wunder) come together to talk with Jerry Colonna about how important their peer groups have been for their personal and professional lives. They talk about the bonds that form and connections made beyond company size and title to a shared humanity, and the importance of space to speak honestly about fears and concerns and struggles, as well as wins. They also touch on how supportive conversations and deep listening fosters accountability at one’s growth edges, self-discovery, and a practice of vulnerability that ripples out into their companies, families, and friendships at large. And, how through their peer groups, they arrive at better versions of themselves and better leaders in their own organizations. Links Reboot Circles/Peer Groups - http://www.Reboot.io/circles

On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we’re talking about building a career as a designer with my guest, Christine Ricks. Christine is the Creative Director for Missouri Star Quilt Company’s publishing department, working with a team to design and produce their magazines, Block and Modblock. She’s trained as a graphic designer and has taken up quilting as another medium to express her creative self. Christine spent the 10 years prior to her current position working in surface pattern design and contributing to several fabric lines for BasicGrey produced by Moda. She also contributes to the Modern Quilt Guild’s Quilt of the month and served as president of the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild last year. +++++ This episode is sponsored by Craft Industry Alliance, a trade association for makers, designers, suppliers, and content creators in all sectors of craft from knitting and crochet to quilting, sewing, paper crafting, polymer clay, embroidery, cross stitch and more. Founded by myself and Kristin Link in 2015, Craft Industry Alliance now has 1,300 members. Get a professionally written digital journal twice a month with up-to-date information on what's happening in the industry, tune in to webinars taught by experts in their field, and join a supportive community of fellow creative business owners. Check it out at craftindustryalliance.org. +++++ Please note that this show used to be called the While She Naps podcast. The name has changed, but the content and host have stayed the same. To get the full show notes for this episode, visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our supportive trade association. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Meet with show host, Abby Glassenberg, each month for our Craft Business Roundtable, get access to courses and webinars taught by industry leaders, and much more.

On today's episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we're talking about teaching quilting online with my guest, Rob Appell. Rob is the host of Man Sewing, a YouTube channel of the Missouri Star Quilt Company. He is a quilter and national quilting instructor who travels and teaches at many premier quilting shows and retreats. We talk about overcoming life obstacles in order to focus on pursuing a creative life. Hear about how Rob first became acquainted with Jenny Doan and what it's like to prepare for and tape videos for Missouri Star. Rob gives us tips on staying organized and continuing to pursue art even when making art is your job. Today's episode is sponsored by Pattern Workshop. Hundreds of students - both aspiring and well-established designers - have used Lauren's step-by-step method to create their first PDF sewing patterns or improve upon their current processes. Learn more at: http://bit.ly/1V5zUXP Please note that this show used to be called the While She Naps podcast. The name has changed, but the content and host have stayed the same. To get the full show notes for this episode, visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our supportive trade association. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Meet with show host, Abby Glassenberg, each month for our Craft Business Roundtable, get access to courses and webinars taught by industry leaders, and much more.

Jenny Doan and her husband Ron, live in a small Missouri town and love the rural life. She has seven children and twenty-one grandchildren. She also has an infectious smile, and a knack for breaking down even the most challenging quilt projects into quick and easy steps. In 2008 Jenny and her family started The Missouri Star Quilt Co and began producing weekly tutorials on YouTube. Since then, she’s been featured in numerous articles, and is the subject of the wildly popular quilting magazine, BLOCK. With more than 300 YouTube video tutorials, that have been viewed over 50 million times, it’s no wonder that Jenny Doan has been called “the most famous quilter in the world”. Motivational Quote Business Inspiration“Is this a thing?” [7:08] Her children identified an opportunity [11:13] A Candle Flickering MomentThe hurdle of adding that first employee [14:09] Clues on the identifying the best people and the to hire [16:20] Business Growth InsightsLove what you do [12:20] You Tube and overall internet impact [18:20] From a customer’s mouth [20:52] Success TraitCheerful and nice sounds small but has huge imact [23:55] Productivity/Lifestyle ToolReading … why it’s important for her [27:21] Valuable Book No One to Trust (http://amzn.to/1TwiB53) by Iris Johansen Contact Links Website (http://www.missouriquiltco.com) Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/QuiltingDeals) Twitter (http://twitter.com/missouriquiltco) Instagram (http://instagram.com/missouriquiltco) If you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe and leave a review in (http://www.giftbizunwrapped.com/GooglePodcasts) . That helps us spread the word to more makers just like you. Thanks! Sue

What started out as a creative way to help his parents in their retirement has turned into an international, award winning business. Alan Doan Co-founder along with his sister Sarah Galbraith of Missouri Star Quilt Company talks about the inception of the company in 2008 and how it's grown to where it is today, including the most recent honor. Alan and his sister Sarah were named as the National 2015 Small Business Persons of the year. The award is presented each spring as part of the U.S. Small Business Administration's National Small Business Week. In addition to growing his business, Alan and host Kelly Scanlon discuss how Missouri Star Quilt Company is bringing life back to the town of Hamilton, the rural town of about 1500 in Northwest Missouri. Listen to additional shows hosted by Kelly Scanlon at our archives Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What started out as a creative way to help his parents in their retirement has turned into an international, award winning business. Alan Doan Co-founder along with his sister Sarah Galbraith of Missouri Star Quilt Company talks about the inception of the company in 2008 and how it's grown to where it is today, including the most recent honor. Alan and his sister Sarah were named as the National 2015 Small Business Persons of the year. The award is presented each spring as part of the U.S. Small Business Administration's National Small Business Week. In addition to growing his business, Alan and host Kelly Scanlon discuss how Missouri Star Quilt Company is bringing life back to the town of Hamilton, the rural town of about 1500 in Northwest Missouri. Listen to additional shows hosted by Kelly Scanlon at our archives Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices