E9: Part Two with ScissorsPaperPaul

Paul from Scissors Paper Paul started off as a mathematically minded individual who never saw himself as creative. However, when his son came along, he found a passion for sewing and creating various projects for his son's birthday parties.

He eventually discovered Cricut and started researching ways to create projects more efficiently. Paul's journey has led him to various opportunities such as presenting live on air for the TV Shopping Network and being flown in for various events as a Cricut Community Leader.

He also co-admins a Cricut education group with Nat, which has grown from 70 to 110k members. Their group is unique in its focus on education, which has led to engagement with Cricut groups from around the world.

 

Transcript:

Debbie:  Hey guys, welcome to part two of my chat with ScissorsPaperPaul. As mentioned last week, I didn't want to cut anything out, so I've broken up this episode into two parts. This episode, we talked more a little bit about the “mathematical side” he calls it, and almost the marriage between part art, part science, because I feel like this every day.

Me as a marketer, I look at data and I look at what's performing well and what message resonates, et cetera. But me as a crafter, I look at what font works well, will that cut well, what colour is that? What pattern – you know? So it's almost always part art, part science. I really resonated with Paul when he was talking about this ‘cause he's quite mathematical or methodical when it comes to crafting.

So we talk about that as well as a whole bunch of other things. So I really hope you find this educational but also entertaining.

If I'm on the right track and you like this type of content, please do let me know. All my socials are in the show notes, as well as Paul's socials are there too.

Also, I forgot to mention, I want to make this, this content as available to everybody as much as possible. So I've made a transcript available on my blog, which you can find the link in the show notes.

Thanks so much for listening. I hope you enjoy this, and see you at the next episode. Thanks, bye.

The amount of things that I've learned from this group, you know, for example, preheating the garment when you're doing a t-shirt. Using baking paper on top of it, every time I do a PU leather project, I always put the baking paper on top, or some sort of material. But that's not standard.

So when I do a video and people are like, “how do you do it? My PU's melting blah blah blah. I always say, “use baking paper.” So for me, it's something that I learned in the group. It's not standard for somebody else.

So when you go and ask your question, other people don't know too, and there are a lot of people that's watching and learning. So share it. If you learn something, share it.

Paul: That's how I learn from seeing what – “well, that's a great question”, or “I've never done that before” and it would go into my mind and sort of stay there, thankfully.

But yeah, those are moments and that's where I guess –  so we used to go live every Thursday in the group (which we're going to start redoing) and we're all about education.

So that's what makes us different quick for Australians versus the other groups. But when I do stuff on my socials, I'm like, “if you remember anything today, remember this baking paper.” That's all you need. Write it down. That's all you need to remember.

I really call out these things, like if you are doing, “yes, we're going to do some labels on a shampoo and a conditioner bottle –” but it's not about that. What I'm going to teach you today is how to get that consistency and the appearance. When you've got different sized objects, but you want them in the pantry to all look uniform, because you don't want one label being this big and the next one's this big and they're all that long and that short, and you want that uniformity.

So that's what I try to teach when I'm sharing sort of information, is how to get those, those types of results. ‘Cause anyone’s watching a video on cutting vinyl, right? But it's “how do I get it right?”, “How do I not forget to mirror?”

So I go, “well, this is what I do. I flip it and then I don't have to worry about it.”

Debbie: I remember one of your early videos. Oh, it was the coffee mug, and there was a website that you did with the comb thing.

Paul: Yes.

Debbie: Changing the logo so that it kind of like looks –

Paul: My second popular video, yep. 

Debbie: Really. Ok. Well, um, I can't remember how I came across it.

It was funny that I had seen that video and then that something stuck with me in that video. The thing that stuck with me was using this cone thing website, whatever. Somebody asked me, “Hey Debbie, can you do pet balls? Like dog, pet balls?” Same thing, curved surface, right?

Paul: Yes.

Debbie: And because it was a logo, it had to look straight on. So there I was – I think I went into the black hole for like three days because I was like, “okay, try the cone thing. Cut it.” Didn't work. “Try it again. Change one degree. Do it again.”

But my point was, is that group. I learned something, and to your point, it's not about the actual tangible, it's not about, “okay, I'm going to leave knowing how to cut vinyl and all that.” It's the intangible stuff. So look,like that cone website, and the fact that you have to suit your text.

Paul: Yeah, as I said, it’s my second most popular video and there's so many people obviously out there doing it.

And for the listeners, what we're talking about is when you've got, let's say a coffee cup where the sides aren't just perpendicular or straight up and down to the surface, it starts off wider at the top and narrows at the bottom. What if you cut that dead straight horizontal, like you put in normal design, it basically bows when you apply it to that cone surface.

So it was a way to be able to basically bend your text or curve your text so that when you put it on and looked at that mug straight on, it actually appeared to be straight, and really, really cool.

Debbie: And that’s a perfect example of part art, part science. Like, you know, and that was me wanting to put that on a cup.

Like, I literally wanted to make that — it was one of the hot chocolate ones. I can't remember what it sit on, but the design actually in the end had cocoa in it and sachet and some marshmallows and I bundled up as a gift. So it was me and I had it, and I went to put the vinyl on and I'd gone, “hang on a minute, this isn't going to work.”

So I'd go research how to find out how to do it, and that's why I thought, “wow, I'm going to share this with other people.” Everybody needs to know how to do it.

Debbie: Everyone needs to know. Well, it worked on me, so it really helped me.

Paul: Awesome. Yay.

Debbie: No, I wanted to ask about — are there any particular things in the group that – certain types of projects, you know, we had already talked about this curved thing, but is there any kind of regular themes that you find, and so for someone like a moderator, how do you guys take that information and use that to figure out, I don't know, what's next in the Craftathon, or how do you do the educational aspect, and how do you know what's popular? So many questions.

Paul: I think what's popular really is the same stuff repeated over and over again. That's the reality. There are so many tutorial videos that Nat and I have done over the years, and Jules, when she was there, that are in the group. They're in there under the guides.

They're all segmented by whether it's sewing whatever as iron, iron on whatever, all the different projects. I mean, I just gave up telling people ‘cause everyone's on tutorials and stuff, no one mentions out my YouTube channel. Everyone's recommending all the influencers from overseas.

Debbie: I do, I just mentioned your cone thing.

Paul: No, no. It's funny ‘cause we’re like, “oh follow this is Jennifer Mako, follow the –” and it's like, “hello ScissorsPaperPaull.” Anyway, we do see the same sort of stuff. So a lot of it is just repetition, unfortunately because people just don't really like to go searching for things.

They kind of just want to ask a question and they just want to be told, and ‘cause that is the internet. We normally go to the internet and we type a question and we get an answer. So I get it, and there's nothing wrong with that.

So I wouldn't say we see trends – sometimes we see trends, but we really kind of mostly see the same stuff or we see it happen over and over, repeat.

So every year – just so anyone that's a member of Cricut for Australians, if you need to write it down, write this down.

Every year, leading up for Christmas – everyone knows I'm about to say, probably around July, baubles. Oh my god, here we go. Here we go.

Debbie: It’s bauble time.

Paul: We do try to get ahead of some things with Australia Day and Invasion Day or whatever you want to call a very sensitive time every year. We tried to get ahead of that this year, but it doesn't matter what we do, it's always a pain point. But I think we did a lot better this year than previous years.

So I think we just try to anticipate a few things so that people don't get annoyed or — ‘cause baubles, they just take over. So we just try to contain those —

Debbie: That’s how I found out at one point – I searched in the group Christmas thing, something. I think she said she had three bauble tutorials.

Paul: She's got probably more, I'd say. We did it actually at our first bootcamp. She did it as well. Because what's old is new, ‘cause people start and then they find these things and they're like, “oh my god, have you seen this?”

And you don't want to go, “ugh”, roll your eyes and go, “oh my god, yes, three years ago”. Of course, you want to be excited, you want to support their passion and things like that. We don't get to comment in as much as we'd love. I try to like as much as I can ‘cause I cannot keep up with my notifications at all now. It's completely out of control.

It’s just so many. I try to follow the main ones, but I do miss some now and again. So definitely what we try to do with the Craftathon, for example, is in the previous years, we've been fortunate where there's been a new product coming out. 

So we've been able to showcase something that hasn't been seen before. Like our first bootcamp, we actually got to show the auto press. We had the first, we had one of two that were for Australian standards. So we got to show that, which we’re hands on, and I literally got it two days before. Nat hadn't seen it. She wasn't with me, that one.

Debbie: I'd be scared. I'd be like, if there's only two in the country, it's like –

Paul: I don’t if you attended it, but it was so funny because I didn't use it. I didn't actually practise with it. I thought, “oh well, people are going to see me use it.” I plugged it in and everything.

Anyway, it does make a bit of a noise when it opened. So I'm there, I'm talking about the benefits and I've got my project on, jabbering like I love to do and then *boink* and I'm like, “ah!” Gave you such a ride. I wasn't ready for it. That was cool.

We got to showcase, to show the foiling, before that came to Australia. We got to, “Oh yeah. Lots of fun things” and we've beamed people in, we've had a lot of the people that you would've seen potentially over the time Cricut doing their education. We've had in some of our events. So if there's something, we try to look at something new if we're allowed to talk about it. So that's really cool. 

Otherwise, again, it depends on the event. We just go – uh, the Craftathon’s more on socials, so we just sort of think, “what time of the year are we going to do it?” “What do –” for the Craftathon, there's generally an iron on – and then we think, “oh, what would be fun?

What would be a little bit different?” So I'm not going to say there is a Craftathon happening later this year, or what projects there might be, but it'll be a little bit different, but same, same. And actually Deb, I've got to speak to you about that as well.

‘Cause we don't want — for those that attend every year, we don't them to be like, “oh, boring.” Because I remember one year we actually made, the Brisbane one, that golf course, we made the leather handbags, the little satchels, and I've gone to the girls, “We can't ask them for like 400 things of leather, real leather.”

And they're like, “why not?” Well, we did, yeah, that's fine. So that process — if you want to know, do you want to know how that process works? Do I speak about it?

Debbie: Yup!

Paul: Just so everyone who is listening understands, what we do is we, Cricut for Australians, will get together, Nat and I, and we go, well, “what do we want to do this year?”

What are we going to do for the Craftathon? Will we do it online? Do we want a theme? What time of the year? What kind of projects? So we get all of that together first, and then we go to Cricut and we say, “okay, this is what we want to do. We might have some project links just as sort of ideas. But we want leather, we need a bright vinyl. We need metallic iron on, we need glitter, we need infusible ink. This is what we need. We'll say, “oh, it could be Joy-sized.”

Debbie: It's like a wishlist.

Paul: Yeah. Then they go away and see if, one, they can get it here in time, and two, there might be something else that they go, “oh, what about this? Could you incorporate that?” I'm like, “oh yeah, we’ll use that in reverse.” Actually some of them were really good. So for this last Craftathon, I think it was, we used insert cards but in different ways. We actually used the insert sort of layering as part of an insert card. It was really cool.

We were sort of going a bit beyond the standard, but also things like people going, “oh, well,” even me, I didn't even think of using them to layer, because they’re a match, they're colour way. They're in packages that are already colour-matched.

So that was very cool, and the sticker paper, using that to layer as well, that was really cool. That's kind of the process and Cricut would come back, and they actually never said no. 

They're always going, “yep, yep, yep.” and we're like, “oh my god, I can't believe we're getting all this stuff.” Then prizes, we go, “can we get this? Can we get that? And can we get this and that?” and they're like, “yep, yep, yep.” “Or what about this?” “Yep, we’re cool.” and then that's how it's born. Then we decide, then we flesh it out in terms of the timings and dates and details and who's gonna do what and so on.

Debbie: Wow. I feel like I'm getting an inside scoop into how it is —

Paul: I think a lot of people think Cricut come to us and say, “oh, this is what we want to do this year. Here's the rundown, here's the projects.” but no, not at all. It's a complete reverse. 

They are very good in terms of going, “are you doing one this year?” Nudge, nudge. They're very involved. I mean, you know, again, like every year we've had, well we've had Ashish, not in person unfortunately ‘cause of COVID, but we certainly had a lot of events. We had a live, as I said, one of the Brisbane events, but he has either beamed in or sent a video message specific to the guys here in Australia, which has been just so amazing.

To think that even though I've spoken to him – I actually launched the Cricut Joy globally on TVSN because they launched it globally on the same day, ‘cause we're ahead of everyone else. I was on TVSN, I think we had three shows planned, another lesson is to always wear shoes on set because they had me a little popup thing to sort of promote the show, and then the host, she goes, “oh, what's back here?”

We’re like, “oh my god” and we stepped back, but they only had a little popup thing and I knew, “oh my god, I haven't got shoes on them. I've got these brightly coloured socks on.” So I stepped back. No shoes on. But anyway, that sold out.

Debbie:  Love it.

Paul: We had to cancel the other shows. Ashish rang me personally asking how it went. So that was really, really cool. Really, really nice.

Debbie: That is really cool. I wanted to ask — I wanted to go back to the group and you were talking before about how do you know what's popular and all that stuff, and it's pretty much just requests and that type of thing.

But how do you — okay, how do I explain this? In the group, there's a whole lot of people on, they're all at different varying abilities, right?

Paul: Yeah.

Debbie: Someone might have just literally turned on the machine and that's all they've done, but someone's an expert and someone else comes up with a different way of doing it, like you're talking about the layering sticker.

Paul: Mm-hmm. Yeah. 

Debbie: That's got to be hard to manage. How do you – 

Paul: So, if you’ve ever had access to – if you're a moderator or an admin of the groups, there is some information you can get, but as I say, you can see not trends per se, but popular posts.

But the thing is, most popular posts could be, I don't know, someone falling down the stairs. but they didn't drop their Christmas bauble or I've never seen them as really sort of trend identifying, unfortunately, or there'll be just ones that people really gossip about or talk about or have a bit of a laugh over.

Not really the technique or the skill or a medium or anything like that. So it's kind of a balance, but the software that I use when I go live – I'm a Mac person at home, so I use a program called Ecamm Live, and I can actually pull up comments and stuff while we are live. 

So when we do any of our events, I can bring in Nat, I can bring in you as an interviewee. You can see all the comments coming up as well. There's a green screen, a green room per se, where I could jump in and actually chat you separately that no one can see.

It's quite sophisticated, but bringing their comments in and I think engaging your audience, that's where someone will go –- like the KK method you might hear me talk about.

So one of the tips that I love, it's like the epiphany thing, when I'm trying to do fussy cutting or I'm trying to maybe size something, but I can't see behind it. If it's a cut, I'll change it to draw and then all of a sudden I can see behind it. But KK, told me that while I was on a live. 

So I can bring the comment up and say, “oh my god, there's a –”, I always say, “well, if you've got a better way of doing it, let me know in the comments and then I can bring it up and I can share it and also I'll learn from that as well.”

So that helps with the variabilities because not only do you know if the project — projects we try and do are generally for everyone to a certain extent. So it'll be like, print and cut stickers, but maybe I'm foiling them, you don't have to do foil if you just want to print and cut stickers, I'm going to show you all the skills that you need to do that. But if you want to take it to another level, then “hey, you can actually add flow to these as well.” and it's stunning.

So we try to kind of give that sort of reach as well –

Debbie: It’s like options. Mm-hmm.

Paul: Yeah. And in the live environment, people will comment as well, help each other. 

So if you do have a beginner, someone will say, “oh, we're going to get that.” you don't have to answer all those questions. When we are doing our Craftathon online, I think we had over 800 people chatting. There's no way we're going to get to all of those answers. 

So we have people in there that are either you guys help each other out, which that's the biggest resource. Where to buy something, they're sharing links, they're doing this, they're doing –  and that's the community part, right? 

So when I first started, and I'm not going to lie, I'm still a bit obsessed with Instagram, I've got one of those ticketed over things, I've gotta put some shelves up and start my YouTube channel and try and encourage people to follow me on socials. I'm obsessed with YouTube, but Instagram for me goes up, down, up, down, up, down.

Debbie: Yeah.

Paul: It's like 10 steps forward, eight steps back. Oh my god.

Debbie: It’s the algorithm. The algorithm’s always changing.

Paul: Facebook is fantastic, but they're different audiences, so Instagram I definitely use for inspiration. So it's a pretty – it's what it looks like. It's me getting the lighting right or whatever. I post hopefully a lovely picture and put that on Insta.

But on Facebook it's like, “oh my god, fabulous deal that Deb just told me about this deal. It's amazing.” Or those, “I saw your newsletter and those gorgeous little bit backpacks.”

Debbie: Oh, the Teddy Bears.

Paul: Which I should have bought one, ‘cause you know the little bunny one that I bought, I'm not giving that away. I'm actually keeping it for myself ‘cause I thought it'd be fun to go to a party or dance party or festival.

I was joking, partly joking, and my friend goes, “keep it. And I went, yeah, bugger. I need a bag anyway.”

So when I see stuff like that, I'm just like, “oh my god, I'm obsessed with this. You've got to do it, and I'll always share stuff that, look, “I'm an Amazon affiliate. If I post an affiliate link, I'll always let you know.”

But the stuff that I share nine out of 10 is not on Amazon. It supplies like yourselves and who I buy from because I like your product, we don't have any financial arrangement. There's no nothing like that. Although, you know, by all means, if you want to start something, let me know.

Debbie: You take that one offline.

Paul: I don’t know whether it's that passion piece that also maybe comes across when I do post that. But anyway, Facebook is growing for me really, really fast, and people engage with it. I sometimes I'll just look at a post on my feed and I'll think, “oh no, nobody really liked that” and then I'll look at it and go, “oh, a hundred reactions” which I – ‘cause I can't keep up with my notifications.

I think, “oh wow, well, everyone loved that,” but they also love that personal side. Anyone again that's wanting to get out there and maybe do that social side more, you know, lean towards me as a business versus product per se.

Personal, oh my god, if I share something personal, if I fell down the stairs and stubbed my toe, that's what people want to know on Facebook. They want to get to know you as a person, and I love that. When I posted something the other day because, I think in one month, I got a thousand reactions which, for me, is a record.

I posted and I said, “you guys are the best” I mean, I try to not repeat the same things, but honestly, I mean it. It absolutely warms my heart when I just see people react to stuff, and ‘cause I feel the personal connection, I don't feel that on Instagram at all, but on Facebook I do. So very different audiences. You've got to share stuff differently and they work, definitely.

Debbie: Yeah. The marketing in me –  So the algorithms are different, obviously. When you think of Facebook, you go there because you want to see what's happening with friends and family. The latest video that they're sharing, whatever it is. Life, you want to see life. 

But on Insta, the personality of Insta, if I'm calling it, you go to Insta for that inspiration et cetera. It's really interesting because I sync my content, and because I'm a small business owner and I don't have the time.

Paul: I do, too.

Debbie: So whatever video I post on one channel will go to the others, but you will know what's going to do well. I had a reel go viral - I don't know if that's the term, but I think it was 17,000 views, reel views. 

Paul: Wow. That's amazing.

Debbie: Literally, I just decided on a whim to make my Sunday coffee and edit it together in a minute and it went up. So you just don't know what's going to resonate.

Paul: Yeah, and I guess going back to the thing about trends and stuff, I made this baby announcement that basically just blew up, right? So it's my most popular video on YouTube. In fact, like Cricut shared someone else's, who had made it the other day, which is fine, sort of, but could've shared mine in the first place.

Anyway, it's great. But it's also frustrating because one, can you tell people where you got the inspo from? Because I do try – if I'm actually using someone's design or idea, I'll say, “oh, this was from Deb, or this is from blah.” Or where I get stuff from, supplies, all the bags from here, the bags from there.

What I think of it, like those duffle bags, if anyone's listening, please buy those duffle bags. I mean, honestly, I think I could actually sleep inside it. It's huge.

Debbie: Did you know the Maker 3? The Maker 3 fits in it.

Paul: The quality's amazing. I'm just looking at it now ‘cause I'm going to Brisbane soon. I've got to do all the stuff for my niece.

But yeah, share.If you like something I do, please share it so other people can know as well, and those sorts of things can grow. I cross-pollinate, but then there's times when I'll go, “well that's not Instagram-worthy.” or I wouldn't put on Instagram about Spotlight sale. I'll just do that on my Facebook.

Because, again if you're listening and you're sort of – I call myself a micro influencer at best, they are different platforms. People want different things, but also you want people going to those platforms to do different things.

Debbie: To see different things, yeah.

Paul: You don't want them going and saying, “oh, well I won't follow Paul on Instagram because I can see everything on Facebook.” Well, no, you might not see everything because it's different stuff.

So anyway ,it could be all sorts of things. It's not always just, “oh I've got to make that” or “I've gotta make this.” and actually, if I give anyone any advice as well, write this down. If you are new, we've all gone through it. I call it procrastination.

Debbie: Oh my goodness.

Paul: And I still do it. We've got a list as long as your arm and you spend hours every night, screenshotting and Pinterest and blah, blah, when you could be crafting with that time. So put your list down.

Debbie: I need a font version of that because I'm always looking at the font.

Paul: Stop downloading files. Stop downloading fonts. Make something, use one of them because oh my god, I've got so many files. I actually started cleaning out the other day that I'll never use, downloading every freebie you can imagine, everything, and never used it.

Make something and print out your list or do whatever with your list. You don't have to start at the top.

I'm not saying go in that chronological order, but something on that list, make it, and you will feel so good. If I have a dry spell I'm not making, oh my god, I cannot tell you the endorphins that just – my blood literally starts pumping when I make something.

Because for me, I again, ‘cause I'm making for someone, the amount I put on your duffle bag, that pink bag I put, which pretty much looks white, the UV Colour Change Cricut Iron On. The amount of times, it's here, I just did it before. I've turned it towards the sun or I'll run outside of the balcony with it and see it change colour. I love it. I love it.

I get so much pride. I'll walk around the house and I'll see a thing I've made and I will literally stop sometimes and just look at it and it's not of me just being a complete what? I just look at it and I go, “I made that.” and I really love it, and I feel really proud that I can do it, that I can make these incredible things that I just never thought I would be able to produce. The quality, the creativity now is beyond my belief that I could ever achieve these sorts of things. Enjoy that as well.

Debbie: Yeah, I think that's the wonderfulness – is that a word? The wonderfulness of crafting because you don’t know what you're going to make and you surprise yourself with the amount of things that I get tagged in with people and blanks is such a –

‘Cause everytime you bring something in, you don't know if it's going to be popular, you don’t know. Then it gets shipped out and somebody else has like a massive light bulb and they’re like, “you can do this and this and this” and my mind is just like, “I can't even, I would not have even thought of that.”

Paul: Well this design that Cricut shared someone else's make of it which, again, is fine. Not better at all. They have been made so many times. But also I thought, “oh, well that went really well.”  I'm sorry I'm defending them and I've actually got them in my, I've got two that I actually made recently for some other friends.

I made these boy-girl, well, whatever, doesn't have to be boy-girl spaceship theme and also a mermaid theme, very similar. I did it on YouTube, how to make them, and they're very much laid and they're so cute. Nah, nobody cares.

Debbie: People do care. They just consume it and they’re like — It did not.

Paul: Well you think, “oh my god, everyone loved that. I've got to do more of that.” So I tried it. So it doesn't always work, you've just got to keep at it.

Debbie: Just keep at it. Just keep making, that's the whole premise of this podcast. Just keep making.

Paul: Yeah, just keep making and try something new. Try something different. Don't be put off by people that say it's a saturated market or things like that. I mean, if all you want to do is make decals, for example, like one colour decal stickers for people's cars, we'll just do that or whatever. You don't have to make everything, you don't have to do everything the same.

Also you have value, alright? Don't undervalue yourself, your time. Don't just look at it, “oh, that cost me 50 cents of materials. I'll charge a dollar.” No, do not do that. You are worth more than that, and if you don't sell one, well, if you're going to sell one 10 every 10 times more, that's better than selling 10 for 10 times less.

Debbie: Yes.

Paul: So don't undervalue your effort, your time and learn how to do something, get it right and you can fail, you can just do it again. Learn from of those mistakes. Go for gold, I’d say --

Debbie: This is my last question, but I wanted to touch on what you said about it being an oversaturated market and all of that.

‘Cause on my side, when they message me and they're like, “Debbie, I want to start a business, but everyone's doing it and blah, blah, blah.” What, what is your opinion on this? 

Paul: Well, what I love — what I always knew actually, and I'm not going to lie ‘cause I'm thinking, “oh, I'm on this podcast ‘cause I don't have a business.”

But do you know when we were talking, you were saying, “oh, because you went a different way. You went sort of – you are the good, it's goods.” I went, “oh, I'm a business.” A business was always going to be I was selling something like a hard commodity.

Debbie: Your path has been different to everybody else's, but you've still kind of made a living out of – yeah.

Paul: I always thought small business, for me, I thought, “what's my passion? What's my passion? If I was going to have a business, what would it be?” ‘Cause I wanted it to be born from a passion.

That's what happened here, is that I never thought I was going to be on TV. TV? Are you kidding me? Or flown around the country to attend an event. Although I would be running events online for over a thousand people, like never did I think these things would happen. But it's slowly just turned into this thing.

Which, to be honest, it gets much bigger. I'll be registering for GST soon and all that sort of thing as well. But that's amazing and I love it, and years ago, Cricut was advertising actually for an account manager, and that's what I do. I'm an account manager during the day when I'm not a superhero.

I thought, “oh my God, tick, tick, tick.” or – that's what I do, dude. I mean, hello, and I love Cricut. But then I thought, “well then it's not going to be a passion, it's going to be a job. It's not like I get to sit there and make stuff I see.

Cricut, if you’re listening, and I do get to sit there and make stuff all day. Give a call.

Debbie: They should create a new role for you – part account manager, part creator.

Paul: Oh and Better Homes and gardens, and covers and magazines and Better Homes and Gardens. I mean, are you kidding me? We've done the cover. Well, the Christmas tree, Christmas cover.

But anyway, so what I’m saying is, if you're passionate about it, then go for it. Because if you're passionate about it, don't get obsessed about how cheap things other people are doing things for.

Just make something that you love and that you're proud of, and that has value, and you'll see the value in it. People ask me all the time, “do you sell?” And I say, “no.” And they go, “why not?” And I say, “because you wouldn't pay my hourly rate as simple as that.” No one's going to pay me a hundred bucks for a shadow box with some cardboard in it.

No, but that's what I'm going to charge you. If you want it from me, that's what it's going to cost. Because it is awesome and it's beautiful, and it's been made with such care and precision. Especially that I was going to sell it, there'll be no missing dots and things like that.

But that's why I don't sell because I just don't want to be mass producing things that I — because that's what I love, and that's when it comes to I don't want to be mass producing decals ‘cause I'm not going to be passionate about it.

But if you are passionate about it, doing these beautiful key chains and bookmarks and – ‘cause I have some of those blanks, but I need someone to give it to. Someone's going to come to me and go, “oh, I need a little gift.” My aunt will come to me and say, “oh, I need a little gift for someone.”

And I'll say, “oh, what about – do I read? I've got these beautiful acrylic bookmarks. Maybe you could put a little design down.” Yes, it's a basic decal, but who's it for? What's the — I like that sort of creative process.

So what I say is, don't just try and don't go to someone else's page and go, “oh okay, so they're doing this and they're doing that. Ok, well I'll buy all of that and that's what I'm going to do.”

Buy stuff that you would like, buy stuff that you would like to receive. What is it about it that you love? It? Is it a monogram? It’s not just a sticker on my little key chain. It's a monogram. Maybe that's your thing. What's your audience, who you're actually selling to? Does that help? 

Debbie: Totally. I feel like, you figure out what fills your cup.

Paul: Yep. If you are passionate about it, your passion will come through. Do you know — Okay. I'm going to share without sharing too much, because to be honest, first time ever, actually I'm going to share. I won't give anything away.

Okay. ‘Cause this person has sold hundreds, hundreds, hundreds, hundreds of this item, which can be very easily customised without any cutting other than just taking something and putting on something else. Hundreds, and it actually made me think, “oh my God, maybe I'll start selling." 

Because it would be like, let's say you’re getting a mug and sticking a piece of vinyl all the way around it, and selling it. I just don't want to bust them ‘cause they've obviously got a successful business out of it. But that's all she does, she sells this one product.

Basic — stick the wrap around it or whatever sells them, sold hundreds and for a really, really good price. Really, really good price.

Debbie: Mm-hmm.

Paul: So that's what she loves doing. People love buying it.

Debbie: And she's mastered that.

Paul: It doesn’t have to be complex. Maybe yours has got a cut out initial of yours, and maybe that's what makes yours different, but you don't have to sell it cheap. If you love it — and coaster is a good one for me ‘cause I'm obsessed. I made these black and white ones years ago for a TV show and I thought, “oh, I'll never use them.”

Well now with my new apartment and now I've got my Tom Ford coffee table book with these gold bars on top, blah, blah, blah, and I'm like, “oh my god. They look amazing on there.” They look amazing. So I'm like, “oh my god, where are they? And I've only got two, so I have to go make another two. But they're literally just getting the infusible link as it is patterned cuz they did some new ones just on the coaster.

They're beautiful I think. If I think they're beautiful, I can sell that, and you can too, and your listeners can as well. But just don't focus on being like everyone else, just be you.

Debbie: Totally, and I think that's why I found blanks. What fills my cup is when someone messages me and says that they use one of my items for whatever it is, and they, you know, they've sold something or they have gifted it or whatever it is.

But the point is that they've created something with my item that I spent hours sourcing, finding quality, checking, all of that. That's what fills my cup.

Paul: And that's why I love you as well, ‘cause I'm passionate about your products because I don't feel I'm seeing it anywhere else, and look, maybe I could get them somewhere else, I don't know.

l love your passion. I love that you just pop up all over the place. I just see the cutest things. And honestly, I bought some stuff off you recently, I wanted to buy much more, but with the Teddy Bear backpack, for example, I didn't, it was in there and it was not in there. It was in there and it wasn't in there. I totally wanted one, but I'm like, “who am I going to give it to?” Like, just a minute, thank you.

Debbie: You just keep it, you alternate your bunny backpack and your Teddy Bear backpack. Alternate.

Paul: Yeah. Maybe if they come back again, maybe I'll spoil myself, but it was so cute and I just wanted it.

Debbie: I have emergency stock, it’s okay, I’ll send you.

Paul: Yeah, but hopefully listeners can hear my passion. Could you imagine me doing a live and I'm going, “I got it from Only The Sweet Stuff and it's linked, but look at this thing.” and I love that I can do that. So genuinely.

Again, I'm making this for my niece and she's going to look so cute with it or whatever. ‘Cause I make for people that I love as well. So be authentic, and that is big particularly in situations like this.

So going live. Going live is very scary. Going live is weird because if you go live on Instagram, if you go live on Facebook, if you go live on YouTube, when you do it the first time, there's probably no one watching, be ready for that, or there might only be one person, you have to be ready for that.

But you know what? They might watch the replay, so don't forget that as well. The other thing, if I can give you a tip, if you are going to do that sort of stuff, as well, don't talk to the masses, “oh my god, guys. oh my god, look at you all. You're all, oh my god, there's a hundred of you. Blah, blah, blah.” No, there's one of you.

When I look through that lens, it's Deb, now you're listening to the podcast. “Hey you.” They say, “oh my god, thanks for being here. It's so good to see you. What are you up to? Tell me where you are. Are you in Australia? If you're not in Australia, let me know. If you're new, let me know.”

“I want to hear from you ‘cause I want to ask you all the questions. Maybe you can send me chocolate or something. What are you up to today? Whatcha are you up to for the weekend?” Can you hear that sort of change? 

“Oh my god, where am I from? Ah she’s from Melbourne.” “Oh my god. I'm from Melbourne. Oh yeah, I'll send you chocolates.” You're getting that one-on-one engagement.

Debbie: Yeah. It's a conversation.

Paul: I'm one person on the other end, so you know, if you start talking to the whole universe, I'm not going to be as engaged.

You're talking to me, I'm like, “oh my god, I'm new here.” And then you come back in the comments and go, “where are you from?” I'm like, “oh my god, this is so cool.” Then you start following people for a long time and if they ever respond to you, “oh my god”, and it still happens to me.

I met Carla from Bankstown at a Cricut event for Christmas, and I helped her mum make some stuff and she followed me. I go, “ah! This is crazy.”

Debbie: I love it.

Paul: Be authentic. Be yourself and don't be anyone else. Again, make mistakes. Be kind, have an opinion. It's okay to have an opinion. I would caution you to have, whether how strong an opinion, but you can have sides. That's fine.

Not everyone's going to like it, and I upset the Apple Cart the other day with the post. But I wasn't backing, I apologised if I had upset them. I understand where they're coming from and I do. Everyone has their own point of view as do I. I didn't try and defend myself or handle the point. I just moved on, and that's okay as well. Just some hot tips for you.

Debbie: Amazing. Well, thank you so much for your time. I really, really appreciate it. We kind of said this before, but I feel like I know you just by watching and learning from you and all of that. I hope everyone has learned something from this because you have such a hive of information, so thank you.

Paul: All good, and it's the same. I can't believe we've actually never met. We've never spoken. Are you kidding me? I didn't even realise because I'm so used to seeing your face, and I love it with popping up and packing and all that stuff, although I don't think you packed mine live, and I did put that in my request, so maybe next time.

Debbie: Oh I’m sorry.

Paul: But I love you Deb, and I love your stuff and I love what you're doing as well for the community. I think it's really good to support people that I've been told they can't start a business. Again, it's thinking outside of just the standard box as well, like these tangents. You could go my way. Maybe you're ironing on other things you're selling, maybe you make things so, and you want to customise quilts. Just think about it and make it come from the heart and you'll always be successful.

Debbie: Amazing. Thank you.

Paul: Thanks for having me, Deb.

Debbie: No worries.