I have the most unique guest on the show today and I’m very excited. I asked her to come on the show today because she is like me and just decided to start over her life by choice. Sine she decided to start over and leave the job she had, she has become a very successful business woman, designer, she was already a wonderful artist, and became an even more amazing artist, author of 10 books. She has been featured in Women’s Day magazine, Buzz Feed and recently I read about her in Forbes. I started following her on Instagram when she had 40K followers and now she has 45K followers and owner of Crafty Chica. Welcome to Cathy Cano-Murillo
Kathy:
Hi and thank you for having me on your show!
Nora:
I want to tell you that when I met Cathy, she’s so smiley and so sweet. She has the most bubbly personality and I don’t think she ever stopped smiling. When you hear her voice just picture this beautiful smiling, peppy happy woman
Kathy:
When things are going good….. I have my moments!
Nora:
Well, I think we all do but that is one of the many things I absolutely love about you. Go ahead and share your background. You ‘ve talked a little about your family, where you grew up, what your family thought about money, and income…..
Kathy:
Definitely, well I’m third generation Mexican American born and raised here in Phoenix, AZ and I have always been into the creative arts whether it was writing or doodling, just anything creative and I just knew I wanted to make a living doing that. When I married my husband we decided he wanted to make a living doing art, music and writing. Literally on our wedding night we talked about it and we said let’s just make it happen and here it is 30 years in March. It is our 30 year anniversary and we really did make it happen. There were some trials and errors to get there, we started making hand made items and selling them to retailers all across the country. We ended up with over 300 accounts. We made hundreds of hand made pieces and we could not keep up with the volume and that’s when I went to work at the newspaper because I always thought I want to go work some place where I’m going to love it. I started in the tear sheet room and ended up as a features news clerk and eventually a double columnist there doing a craft column that was syndicated through a news service and I loved it. Because it was so popular and doing so well I decided to launch a website themed around my Latino heritage because I realized that as big as the craft industry was, there weren’t a lot of representation. I launched Crafty Chca in December 2000 and the whole craft revival movement was just getting rolling all around the country of people where crafts became cool again. At night while the family slept, I worked on my Crafty Chica website. I would take pictures and post projects and it was kind of like a mom blog too because I would document life of juggling work and being an artist and a mom and a wife and all of that. Everything was going great. I went to night school to finish my Bachelor’s and once I had accomplished those things, I had this feeling in me that was that I just knew I was meant to do something different because working as a features reporter at the Arizona Republic, that was my dream job in high school. That was what I wanted to do but once I accomplished it I had been there for a few years….I had been there 13 years total I thought wow, I think I want to do something else. At that time working at the paper there was not a lot of pay. It was wonderful to have my bi-line but the paycheck needed a better bi-line for my bank account.
I remember thinking one night, what can I do different. How can I change this course of what is happening because I just got tired of always being broke and always struggling. I thought, I have this website Crafty Chica that I had been working on every night, I have a really good following, maybe there is something there. I always go back to my parents being really realistic and stable. You can’t make a living off of arts and crafts. That’s always what held me back then I remember being in Barnes and Noble and seeing that book The Secret. Reading through the pages and I thought wow, you know what if I could make a living off of arts and crafts? I didn’t have enough money at the time to buy the book but it stuck with me at night time and I said you know what, I’m open to this and lo and behold later that month I went to speak at the International Craft and Hobby trade show. I gave a presentation about the all American Latino Crafter who is bilingual, who is college educated who has money to spend on supplies and doesn’t make things so much out of necessity like clothes for their kids but because they want to connect, they want to be generational and pick up where their grandmothers left off and celebrate those kinds of hand crafts. By the end of it I had gotten my offer for not only a National product line but for a full time salaried job and I was terrified to leave the newspaper because I was the main breadwinner for my family. To me at the time I thought that the newspaper was my retired job. That’s where you retire. Part of me was “but what if I don’t want to retire here”, what if three is something with Crafty Chica but having two kids and thinking about college for them I’m like….whatever, I only have one life so I’m just going to go for it! I ended up making double my salary by leaving the paper.
A lot of it was mind set because back then I just had it engrained in my brain about the struggling artist, and squeaking a dollar out of a dime and everyone was just joking about that kind of stuff. Once I changed it from squeaking a dollar out of a dime, to how do I change $1.00 into $100.00 and that’s when everything changed.
It definitely changed the way we lived and the kind of opportunities we got, the way we valued ourselves, the risks that we took because anything big you want to you absolutely have to take a risk. That was probably the biggest risk I ever took and it paid off. It wasn’t super easy, there were struggles like always but it was definitely pointing in the right direction.
Nora:
That’s wonderful. You know what I love is that what you talked about what is key I believe is what questions are we asking ourselves? You asked yourself, “what can I do different” This wasn’t what I thought, I don’t want to do it for the rest of my life, We even have terms like for an artist, what do we say about an artist……
Kathy:
It’s an excuse to have failure or to set the bar low or for people to feel sorry for you. Now that I look back, I realize we did all of that. Even with our family were like “oh we’re artists can you help us or oh we’re artist but we don’t have a Christmas gift to give this year ….. everything was embarrassing. It was like, what are we doing here? We were on this track to just pay the bills and living paycheck to paycheck kind of thing. I was dealing with imposter syndrome because working at the paper, I sat in a pod with the art critic the movie critic, the television critic, who were all so refined in their careers and their writing styles and everything and then here I am …. I was the news clerk who went to night school who became a columnist. I did not have the same pedigree so there was always imposter syndrome going on but in a way that kind of helped set me free because I felt, what have I got to lose? I could only go up from there. That helped free me so I said ok, let me go try these crazy things!
Nora:
I love that imposter syndrome, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard that
Kathy:
Yeah it is where you feel like you don’t belong like you’re not qualified to be there and like someone is going to find you out and get rid of you.
Nora:
Well we need to get rid of that thinking because so much of what we do comes from that old programming. I’m so glad you stopped believing what you were told about artists or musicians can’t make a lot of money and of course you proved that wrong. I love what you said that even though you were terrified you went ahead and made that choice to make the change.
Kathy:
It’s always learning because even with that one job that I left, I went to be a national spokesperson for this company and I was there for several years. I had the same feeling like I wanted to do something else and that whole thing about money came back like Oh my gosh, where else am I going to make this much money because I doubled my salary from the paper and I should just be happy with this. I was in Miami speaking at an event and there was another speaker and we were talking about this. She said I think it is so funny how people pay more attention to their Instagram following than they do to their bank account. That really kind of shook me because I told her my situation. I decided I wanted to go part time at this job, I didn’t want to be full time any more. I was doing this thing that I had to make at least this much money to make ends meet and she said “No Kathy, you are free to make as much money as you want” She said why don’t you triple what you were going to make? I thought, you know what, that’s a good idea so I wrote out this whole business plan where I was gong to triple my income and I did triple it by the end of that year. I went to do my taxes and I called her and I went, “Oh my gosh you changed my mind Tina” It is always a state of learning. It is just creativity and you have to be in tune with it and bring it into your life something that is there for you.
Nora:
I love that. It is important what people say to us and what we say to other people. When people say “yes you can do it” That’s my motto on this podcast that “if she can do it, so can you!” That’s wonderful. Tell us about the business plan that you wrote. Was it something you learned to do in college or did you just sit down and do it?
Kathy:
No I jus sat down and I put down that number and I thought ok here’s the amount of money that I want to make ….. ok how am I going to make this money? I started writing lists ….. speaking engagements, brand campaigns, wholesale art orders, just all the different ways that I could bring in money. Then I started applying price tags to those things. Ok, I can do 10 speaking gigs at $1000 each, How am I going to get these 10 speaking gigs? Each item I wrote down I created another action plan under it. My one thing I can say about that is to be careful because all of them can come in at the same time then things get crazy!
I totally 100% believe in strategizing. Get that specific number or idea or goal in your head then sit down and make an action plan with a time line. Then you start working on it every day
I don’t care if it’s wanting to buy a new wardrobe, wanting to write a novel, wanting to help your kids get better with their math grades, you have to put these steps down and follow them in order to reach that goal So many times we have these dreams that stay in the cloud and they stay in the cloud because we never bring them down to put them into action I also learned that a lot of times fear is attached to that. It’s scary to think of yourself as being successful. What does that mean? How is that going to change your life? You really have to open up and think about these things and come to terms with them and you’ll realize that it’s not as scary as you thought!
Nora:
I love that because I’ve never heard that until years ago that some people self sabotage because they are afraid of success. I thought, no wait, I always thought it would be afraid of failure. I thought about myself, and I thought…I am kind of afraid of success because I love my friends and what if the friendships end because they see me driving a better car now or I’m making more money. It really did scare me but I was glad that I became aware of it I was able to help myself with that and also too and the kinds of friends I have they really are wonderful. If they’re the kind of friends that will reject me because of this and that, well, there are a lot of other wonderful people in the world
Kathy:
Really the best kind of friends are the one’s that cheer you on because they know that if you pay it forward and you help each other, they call it abundance mindset or whatever where it’s like there is enough for every body so go do your thing and don’t be shy. Celebrate other people who do it too! I’ve always found that my favorite kind of friends are the one’s who cheer you on when things are going good and who are there for you when things aren’t so good. They’re there for both sides of it. When it comes to friends, it is important the kind of company you keep. Some friends of mine talk about the rule of five…..you are the sum of the five people that you spend the most time with so choose five awesome people that inspire you and do your best to inspire them back. That helps create a good daily mindset and a good coaching for each other. All of that plays into it.
Nora:
You’re so right it is true, I’ve heard about the company of five rule too. You are going to be like the five people you spend the most time with. Income does play into that and how that can impact you..
I want to go back to your business plan. I love what you did…..you sat down and wrote down the number of income that you wanted to make and you went backwards. Sometimes we try to go the other way but you’ve got to start with how much money do I want to make? You write down all the ideas that you can do that with, you make your action plan then you fill it in.
Kathy:
With the five friends, it’s not just income, it’s currency. To me, income is just a positive vibe. That means that you don’t just surround yourself with people who have a lot of money, you surround yourself with people who are wealthy in life who are rich in the way that they think about what’s important. That’s what attracts all of the other stuff. The money stuff is just the material energy, it’s just something that flows but the real meat of it is really attitude and your vibe and how you think and treat people.
Nora:
That’s so true especially what you’re saying about how you treat people. My friend listening, can you hear Kathy smiling as she’s talking ? It’s really amazing. You have the most precious personality, I can just see you smiling. When you were on the panel, at the innovations event you were always smiling
Kathy:
I was so excited to be there,
Nora:
And that’s so awesome because that’s what I really appreciate about you. It wasn’t like there were thousands of people there. You drove all the way from where you live to this smaller city in the Phoenix metro area and I was so impressed for you to be on this podcast because I know that there are going to be a lot of women that are listening to this podcast Women Starting Over. I tend to interview women who are single because it’s a little different when you have a husband at home but I wanted to have women hear your story for one you are Latino and you made a change by choice. I love how you’re sharing with the mindset that you started with to ask yourself the right questions, different questions and you were terrified to leave the paper. I was so happy with your story. You are married and you have a partner in life, I love that he’s a musician and that’s different. Let’s talk about how creative you are. Every time I look at Instagram I think….how did she come up with that? You have the most unique creations. They’re always so different. I really am impressed
Kathy:
Oh thank you, I think it’s just always striving for innovation. I like to make people laugh, cry or say wow! When it comes to my crafts, I want them to say WOW!
Nora:
Well you have a lot of wows from me that’s for sure!
Kathy:
One tip that I would love to give for any women listening, maybe going through a time of struggle or uncertainty, the best thing you can do…..this is what got me through a lot of hard times….. is to every day sit down and write down five things that went right that day. Five things that worked. What happens is that we get so bogged down with worry about things that haven’t even happened or that we’re afraid is going to happen that we over look the good things that actually did happen. If you start training yourself to start taking inventory of all of those good things, it helps you stay on track for when the bad times come. I remember writing “I got through work without crying today! I had a mean editor during a period of time and I was so stressed. Another time I put “I ate healthy today” just five things that can’t come up with five come up with three. Sometimes it was like “I got out of bed and I felt good today” or “my hair looked good today” or “ I got a good job review today”. Really make an effort to notate the five things that went right because they add up and they start making you feel better about yourself and what you can do.
Nora:
That is a fabulous tip. I totally agree with you. Sometimes we downplay the little steps of success that we do. Even like you said, getting out of bed, or drinking water, I was thinking the other day that “go Nora, you’re drinking a lot of water today”.
Kathy:
Exactly because you know what like a lot of times we find ourselves saying things like “with my luck” or “oh, it figures” , “this always happens to me”. Don’t say those comments. I feel like we are typing into the matrix and I feel like there’s a word cloud over our heads and what are the words that are in the word cloud? Are they no, never, bummer, a cuss word, or are they I can, I will, I’m going to, I did this. Be conscious of those things. Sometimes people say I’m to optimistic but I feel that every little bit works so stop with the negative talk to yourself and think to yourself, what is the word cloud I’m putting over my head. What are the thoughts I’m having, and if they’re negative, change them up.
Nora:
I love that. I love that word picture, a word cloud over your head
Kathy:
Yea I’m super visual
Nora:
I love that and you’re right, we need to watch what we say and even what we think. I had a sign that that I put on my office wall one time…..Don’t believe everything you think. Because sometimes we think what we think is the gospel truth and it isn’t it’s just the thought. You don’t have to believe it, you don’t have to entertain it, you can change. There’s a man I listen to named Graham Cook and I love what he says. He’s English and he says “Beloved, change the thought, have another thought”
Kathy:
Oh yea definitely
Nora:
I love that, that’s absolutely wonderful. You have your Crafty Chica website, tell us about that
Kathy:
Well I launched it in December 2000 and it just started kind of like a place to post daily life then I started sharing my projects so now it’s like a lifestyle site. I do all kinds of projects, product reviews, it kinda folded into the who phase of influencer phase. Its super fun and the anchor of everything.
Nora:
It is the anchor of everything tell us more about that
Kathy:
Well, because I like to make a lot of lists and I like to make other ways of income I have different branches of it. When I was building my brand I looked to JLo , Oprah, Tyrah and I thought how are they doing their websites and their brands. They all have these different categories so with Crafty Chica I have product lines that I design that are sold in stores, I have original art that I sell myself through the website and in a physical store here in Phoenix, I teach artwork shops, I do speaking presentations ….keynote, panels, I do coaching and consulting. I lead a retreat every year either in Mexico or somewhere around the United States, so I found different ways to take the brand and go out and meet with. And then writing books is another thing too.
Nora:
That is amazing and I love that. You went to look at other people’s websites to get ideas because there is always somebody doing what we want to do and it’s important. When I was with Keller Williams as a Realtor, they taught us to not make up our own model, look at the models and system that other people that are in a place where you want to end up. Where you want to go so I love how you did that, That was a wonderful idea. Everything you mentioned here I’m thinking ….. is she three people, is she triplets because that a lot of activity.
Kathy:
I have different people who help me. I have a couple of different people that help me with production work, I have a brand manager, I have a graphic design person who helps me so I have learned the value of hiring out for help so I’m not doing it. I’ve been through that area of trying to do it all myself and that accomplishes nothing. That’s only fixing on the small things when I need to focus on the long term things so that’s why I miss money. That’s another tip is to invest in yourself and that’s why I do and it’s been really helpful
Nora:
And that is really good. I think the E Myth book is the book that talks about the difference of working in your business instead of working on your business. Nobody does everything by yourself and because of the variety of the things you do, we can’t be experts in everything that has to do with our business. Like I love how you have a brand manager, and the production person, they’re experts in what they do and when you get the right team working with you and for you, that is going to free you up to be working on your business rather than in your business. You end up being a lot more successful
Kathy:
Yea definitely
Nora:
Love that. Anything else as we come to a close here that you want to share?
Kathy:
I would say a take away from this that I would love people to do is write down what is that one thing they want, don’t be afraid to write it down or to believe that it can happen then really put it in the picture like be specific with it. I had a friend that does PR and she said she wanted to have her own firm some day. We said ok, where is it located? It’s in this building and it’s on the second floor, and there’s huge windows and I have a girl that works the front desk….. really get specific and write it out. What would you have to change in your life in order to make this happen? What do you have to give up because when you add something in you have to take something out. That’s when you start cataloging your days and reflect on what you are spending your time on? We have more time when you really think about it. You find those pockets of time. If it’s important enough to you, you will find the time to do it.
For me I like working on my Crafty Chica Site ….. even writing my first novel the only time I had was after the family went to bed. Now it’s 9:00 at night and I had to be at work at the paper at 8:00 am sharp the next morning. So from 10:00pm at night until sometimes 1:00 or 2:00 am, that’s when I worked on my brand because that’s the only time I had. I did that maybe three or four nights a week. Then it came down to Sunday. I needed a full day so I wrote emails to all of my family, my in-laws, every Sunday is going to be my production day so I can’t go to parties, I’m Latino so our families have parties every Sunday. I said please don’t be offended if I’m not there, I’m working on stuff for the family for our business and they supported me with it but I had to let them know. Even my kids and my husband, I had to let them know that I was off limits on Sundays. Sunday is my day to do what I need to get done.
I would get so excited then what happened is that during the week I wouldn’t get as frustrated because I was saving it for Sunday. I would get up at 6:00 am on Sunday and stay up as late as I could until it was time to go to bed and it felt really fulfilling. Be really aware of your schedule and the things you need to take out so you can add new stuff in there.
Nora:
That is true. Kathy I love how you communicated with your family and friends because setting the expectations ….this is what I need, this is what I’m going to do because when you do that ahead of time it helps with relationships and staying close because sometimes the expectations we have can cause conflict
Kathy:
And it’s really changing it for your kids to because I grew up with my parents were like oh look at this sacrifice I made for you….. it was all guilt guilt guilt. I didn’t want to put that on my kids so I explained to them that I needed to make this many pairs of earrings so we can have this so and so and they understood it. It gave them a good work ethic as well. Both of our kids are grown adults and they’re very open about talking about everything. Sometimes guild does creep in, you can’t help it but for the most part we are really open about it and communicate
Nora:
Oh that’s absolutely wonderful I love that. This has been absolutely amazing and our reading, that is Latina, Mexican American, please share this amazing story about Kathy because it is very unusual. I’m very impressed. Remember her take away here ….. write down the one thing and be specific. I agree with Kathy about what do you need to change? Especially in this day of social media and technology, we have so many distractions that we need to get away from. You might think…..oh no, I can’t stop doing that because I need to see what my kids are posting.
Remember that what you do will trickle down and be a blessing to your family and everyone around you.
This has been absolutely wonderful and I am honored to have you on my podcast. I know there are going to be a lot of people that are going to be encouraged by making a choice. Sometimes we have to start over but you made the choice. It’s absolutely wonderful
Kathy:
It’s the best thing you can do. People say life is short and days are long. That’s a lot of days to fill so go do what you want, have as many experiences that you can.
Nora
Absolutely and my friend reading, if Kathy can do it, so can you!