{Quit Your Day Job, featuring Gadanke}

Editors note:
It has been 8 lovely months since I quit my day job to work on Gussy Sews full time — and to help celebrate the anniversary of this little dream of mine, I’ve got a handful of artists lined up over the next week or so to share their “I quit my day job” story with you :] I’m pumped!

Bio:

I’m Katie. I’m American; my husband is German. We fly airplanes, eat our vegetables, and bike just about anywhere we can. For us, home is two places: a 480 square foot apartment in Berlin, Germany and – get this – a house made out of hundreds of recycled tires in the Rocky Mountains. I’ve always journaled about our adventures. But we just couldn’t keep it all to ourselves. (The love of fun journals, I mean. NOT the jetlag. I wouldn’t wish that misery on anyone!)

So that’s what I make at Gadanke: travel journals, personal diaries with writing prompts, love letters, baby books, vintage diaries, and scrapbooks. My favorite supplies are European papers and 100% recycled paper.

The Interview:

1. What were some ways you prepared to become a handmade biz owner {your day-to-day schedule, financially, emotionally, etc.}?
My full-time job for over six months was learning German in Berlin. My best friends were Russians and Philippines, which was incredible because the only language we had in common was German. Well, an attempt at garbled German plus a whole lot of wild hand motions and dictionary searches. Being friends with these amazing women gave me worlds of perspective (and laughs).

My mission at Gadanke is to help women write their stories. Your story matters! I use writing prompts to help draw out a lot of those stories. I draw from all the experiences and women I’ve known. The best thing I learned from these girls in Berlin was a feeling of hope… like the hope that we’d ever be able to communicate without getting raised eyebrows and smothered laughs from the Germans at the same cafe!

Taking risks is a huge part of starting a handmade business. Going out there to meet this girls taught me to take risks. Go ahead, Katie – describe a buffalo to someone from the Philippines in a language neither of you can really speak! So while I thought I was just making friends and practicing German…. I was prepping myself to throw caution out the window and launch my dream.

2. Share with us a positive “ah-hah” moment from this process.
I was always afraid of failure. What if I wasn’t good enough? What if I disappointed the people I loved or made a mistake? I struggled with this gremlin for a long time.

My husband and I were back in the US for three months in 2009. He was giving me flying lessons on this teeny gravel runway in the mountains. All of a sudden, he was ready to jump out of the plane as we were taxing along.

“Time for you to solo!” he announced.

I’d say I interpreted his enthusiastic announcement more as, “Okay, Katie! See ya. It’s time for you to go crash and die.”

My face became a flood of tears. I begged him to stay in that plane. There was no way I was taking off in that plane by myself. “Please, please, please. You know I can’t do this.”

So… he didn’t get out. (Hallelujah!)

But then an incredible thing happened. I became less afraid. Two days later, I think I practically kicked him out of the plane! I was ready to fly. Alone.

What’s that got to do with my journal shop? I learned to face my fear. Now each time I start to think, “No, no, no. I can’t do this,” I remember. I give myself a little pep talk about how seriously, if I can fly a plane, sure as heck I can figure this out, too.

That’s become my mantra on facing fear. Do something you never ever thought you could do. It doesn’t have to relate to your business. But it’ll surely help you grow in business.

3. What was the time frame from when you decided you were going to quit to when you actually put in your notice/took some serious steps toward becoming self-employed?
The day we flew back from German this last June {2010} was the day I went for it full-time.

4. What was your first day like as a handmade biz owner? Describe your feelings, were you really excited? Did it seem soooo weird to be home/self-employed? Share this moment with us.
Ha! I was a jetlegged mess. I was a culture shocked wreck!

Coming back home to the United States is always a little confusing to me. My mind doesn’t know how to adjust or speak English to strangers. We flew in an American airline, yet I started speaking German to every stewardess. “Nein, danke.” “Ein bisschen.” “Vegetarisch, bitte.”

Needless to say, I didn’t actually do any business work for several days. I focused on setting up home, getting car insurance, and buying groceries.

5. Do you write out a “schedule” for each day? How do you divide and organize your time?
What can I say? I’ve lived and studied in Germany. That whole prompt and prepared attitude has certainly rubbed off… along with the intense desire to eat a lot of fresh pretzels.

6. What is a current challenge are you facing, and how do you plan to overcome it?
I’m passionate about the environment, so I think it makes sense to use recycled and repurposed materials and domestically produced products in my journal products. As we document life, I believe with all my heart that we should also be preserving it. Finding materials that meet my goals is a constant challenge that I overcome step by step.

7. What are three tips you can to pass along to someone that’s ready to make the leap? :]
Confront your fears.
Know you can do this.
Don’t think of it as leaping. Think of it as flying. (And trust me – there’s nothing more beautiful than a flight when you’re up there, cruising around and knowing just what to do.)

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