Hey,
I'm Phoebe
Nice to meet you! Keep scrolling to read more about my story, and why I started Girl Gang Craft.
My story
Together
we rise
It all started when I was making really terrible jewelry, and waitressing, and teaching yoga. Around the 2016 election when Trump called Hillary a "Nasty Woman" I created a relief print with. a uterus that said "Nasty Woman." That uterus then became a screenprint which I printed onto patches that I sewed onto vintage jackets, I made pouches, and then it became our uterus enamel pin which still exists today.
During that time I started to dabble in the craft fair world. Often Craft fairs are exclusive and expensive to participate in. Some craft fairs in the Bay Area are about $800 for artists for the weekend, and I wasn't always getting in. I wanted to create a space for beginning artists to sell their work for an affordable price and have fun while doing it, so I gathered 15 makers I knew and threw the first Girl Gang Craft in my friends cafe (Lucky duck Bicycle Cafe). It was a magical event, so I did it again, and again.
Eventually our Oakland craft fairs had 120 participating vendors, we expanded to LA, and had plans to expand to Sacramento in 2020.
Obviously everything halted in 2020. I ran an events business, how on earth were we going to continue onwards. Some of my peers kept moving events, counting on them to return. I did not want to do the back and forth thing. So I decided in spring of 2020 that we were going to count on events NOT happening in 2020.
We brought everything online.
I had been hosting classes in person on branding. We brought these online through zoom. We tried several formats, but eventually landed on evergreen courses on emailing marketing, content creation, and brand partnerships hosted on Teachable and a 6 week live creative cohort called Level Up Academy. Community is important, we wanted creatives to connect with each other while learning to expand their biz. We offer scholarships to Black creatives.
During the holidays we created our first GGC Holiday Directory, a digital guide to 150 small businesses from California and beyond. Not only was this financially successful for us, but gave an opportunity for vendors to step into their power as advertisers (a foreign experience for many makers who rely on the craft fair model and making their booth fee back immediately). We also provided a tool for the community to find cool gifts for the holidays and support small businesses.
This year in 2021 we launched the Clique Membership. A membership for creatives to connect and explore scaling their businesses. We offer guest teachers and inhouse workshops on things like Learning TikToks + Reels, Scheduling + Productivity and Tech Demos from our partners.
In May of 2021 we are bringing back our #smallbiz summit online. 4 days of panels from small business owners.
And we are continuing our work of offering smallbiz directories online year round.
Hopefully we can have in-person events sometime this year.
What's next for GGC? Continuing our mission of helping creatives make money online. And hopefully some events in California and nationally. We currently have a small but mighty part time team of 4.
When I am not working I am outside hiking, camping, and smelling pretty flowers. At home I can be found with a book in my hand, or on the yoga mat in child's pose. I try to soak up as much sunshine as I possibly can.
