How Violent Cat Lady Used KnitTok to Build Her Own Business

Before she became Violent Cat Lady, one of KnitTok’s top indie designers, she was Jade Berghoff, an inquisitive maker with an entrepreneurial spirit. Now, with over 2,000,000 likes and 100,000 followers on TikTok, plus another 66,000 on Instagram, Jade has turned her craft business into her full-time job. She not only designs patterns and knit kits but is also releasing a new yarn line, Bloom, inspired by the Montana wilderness surrounding her backyard. Welcome to the Business of Craft podcast, where we’ll talk about business models, marketing strategies, and crafting tactics so you can grow your business and your passion for your craft. One viral TikTok video helped Jade go from a full-time marketing job to a yarn-sourcing, pattern-designing, knit-kit-bundling career. Jade grew her business organically, through social views, a (surprisingly powerful) email list, and a focus on her audience, not the view count. If you want to get into the monetization of your following, Jade offers some crucial considerations: Will you be an influencer with brand deals, or will you use the following to monetize your own business? And: why views aren’t the point; why Instagram Stories are much more effective than you think, and why being the brand is a double-edged sword (that’s worth the balancing act!). -------------------------------------- Schedule Your Free, 30-Minute Consultation with Lisa: https://stitchcraftmarketing.com/cont... Connect with Jade! Check Out “Bloom,” Jade’s New Yarn Line: https://violentcatlady.com/pages/vcl-... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/violentcatl... TikTok:   / violentcatlady   Get the Pattern Jade Wore on Today’s Show: https://violentcatlady.com/products/b... Connect with Lisa! 🧶Instagram: @lisashroyer_ or   / lisashroyer_   🥾TikTok: @bootsandskeins or   / bootsandskeins   💻 Work with Me! https://stitchcraftmarketing.com/ Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:48 Welcome to The Business of Craft! 03:04 The Violent Cat Lady (Not Really) 04:28 School Bus Knitting to Selling Patterns 07:32 100K+ Followers on KnitTok 13:40 Turning Her Patterns Into a Business 16:32 Her New Yarn Line! 20:25 Quitting Her W-2 for Yarn 23:07 Inspired by Wilderness 24:42 Being THE Brand 29:44 Email Marketing Isn't Dead! 33:31 Views Aren't Everything 38:42 What Designer Are You? 41:50 How Lisa Would Optimize Jade's Business 44:15 TikTok Shop and Social Commerce 52:57 Work with Lisa!