Building a Leather Accessories Brand as a Full-Time Homemaker – Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hey there entrepreneurs, my name is Sushant and welcome to Treptalks. This is a show where I interview successful e-commerce entrepreneurs, business executives, and thought leaders and ask them questions about their business story and also dive deep into some of the strategies and tactics that they have used to start and grow their businesses.

And today I’m really excited to welcome Julia Hankinson to the show. Julia is the founder of Crown Leatherworks. Crown Leatherworks creates aesthetic leather accessories such as bracelets, keychains, bookmarks, and hats. And today I’m going to ask Julia a few questions about her entrepreneurial journey and some of the strategies and tactics that she has used to start and grow her business.

Now, before we dive into this interview, if you enjoy this kind of content, please make sure to hit the like and subscribe button. And for more content like this, please visit our website, Treptalks.com. So Julia, thank you so much for joining me today at Treptalks. Really, [00:01:00] really appreciate your time.

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah, thanks for having me.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So very interesting business. I’ve spoken with some leather businesses in the past as well, but seems like you started out with this, um, while you were still in high school. So can you share a little bit about your story? What kind of, uh, were you fascinated by leather products? Uh, what kind of got you into, uh, this business?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah, so I took a class in high school that, uh, in the class we made some little simple leather projects. I think we made like leather moccasins and a few other things and I really liked it and I was really attracted to just kind of the natural kind of rustic quality of leather and so my parents Helped me get my hands on some leather working tools.

And I started making [00:02:00] projects from our home, which slowly I kind of built that into, um, a business and actually started a business. Um, when I was in high school, that was back in 2013. Um, it didn’t, it’s not like it took off. I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was just learning as I went. So over, over the years, I’ve kind of honed in what types of products to make, how to navigate social media, how to run a business.

And it’s just kind of gone from there.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Were you selling first selling, um, items to your own classmates or like, were you going out, uh, in the market, like setting up tables? How did you kind of get your first customers?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah, that’s actually a good question. Uh, most of my first customers were my family members and, and then family friends.

And it kind of, you know, grew out from there, um, and friends. Um, [00:03:00] I did, I have done just a handful of, um, like markets where, you know, you set up a table and, and sell that way. I was never super on fire for the whole market kind of setup that didn’t really click with me, I guess. So I, um, once I kind of figured out.

Social media. That was my main, my main way of connecting with customers, getting new customers, um, developing my web website, obviously helped with that. Immensely having an online store. So

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: you said you never kind of went on like. eBay or Amazon kind of route. I mean, usually when some people start out early on, like it’s easiest to put your items on eBay, right?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah, actually. Yeah. I’m forgetting. I was on Etsy for a while.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay.

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Um, which that was. Fine. I [00:04:00] didn’t really know what I was doing. I was, I was, I was young, so it was fine. I, you know, made some sales there. Um, and at the time when I was on Etsy, uh, when I was selling on Etsy, I, I was making pretty much entirely one of a kind products, which is very time consuming to be uploading individual products when they’re, um, you know, You know, selling, selling things that are like 20 and you’re, you know, putting all that time in to take pictures, upload the listing, all that.

Um, that was hard to make it worth it, but I was learning a lot. So I don’t, I don’t regret any of that, but, um, kind of veered away from that as time went on and just kind of, um, directed customers to my own website. So

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: from, from a personal perspective, like this business, of course you started it. Um, from high [00:05:00] school, um, was it, was like, was it getting enough traction for you to say, uh, and I don’t know, like, maybe you have a job, uh, to say that, yeah, I’m not going to do the job, uh, you know, this is the right thing for me, I’ll continue building, you know, the revenue base for this and has it been like, is this, is this kind of your full time thing?

And is it, um, has it been, I guess, generating enough revenue over time that you’ve said, you know, I can make it my, my full time career.

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: I, me and my husband are in our family raising years. So my, my first priority right now is to be a mom. So I am not, um, I’m not really even as concerned with, you know, having to work a full time job, which makes this perfect because I can work as much as I want.

If things are getting too busy, I can just, [00:06:00] um, you know, I kind of can tweak some things and slow it down. So, um, that’s my priority right now, which has been awesome, you know, being your own boss. To be able to have that flexibility. Um, someday I, I would be happy to have it be my full time job. Once the kids are in school and all that, that’d be, that’d be fun.

But I also have dreams to, for some other businesses too, maybe in the future. So we’ll, um, you know, keep working on all of it and see where,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: see where it takes me. For sure, for sure. So your products, can you talk a little bit about, um, of course you have different product categories and so forth. Are you, um, hand crafting them yourself at home?

Are you outsourcing some of these things? Are you buying them and putting your logo on them? Can you talk a little bit about your product manufacturing or sourcing [00:07:00] process?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah, so I buy materials and, um, build and assemble and in our home, uh, I have my workroom in our house and I last year, I believe I bought a laser engraver.

So I use that for pretty much everything. Um, and I’m always trying to kind of transfer my designs over to be able to, um, make them on the laser engraver. Cause that is just the best system. It’s like the best use of my time. Um, that has been, that has actually really, really helped. Um, so, you know, I’ll buy, uh, leather from a leather supplier, buy hardware from all sorts of places, you know, get, get it all over.

But, um, and then engrave the leather on my laser in our, in [00:08:00] our home. And, um, then I can put, you know, logos, I can customize things for people. And. recreate the same designs over and over again for restocking and, and all that.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Right now, I mean, because there is a certain custom aspect to a lot of your products I see, um, are you selling mostly B2C?

Like, is it mostly individual customers coming on your website and saying, you know, engrave my name onto this wallet or, you know, this, the, this notebook? Uh, or is it that you’re selling mostly B2B?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: It’s mostly B2B. Um, so, uh, I guess the second half of the story of Crown Leatherworks has been, um, since getting the laser engraver and getting, kind of setting everything up in a way that I can create, um, more with my time, with my limited time.

I have been [00:09:00] utilizing a website called Fair Wholesale, um, which has been just great, um, for me. So I’ve actually been advertising my own website much less because of that, um, because it’s keeping me plenty busy with just selling to, you know, it’s like boutiques, it’s all resale. So they have to kind of pass some, um, they have to be like, verified that they’re reselling the products.

Then it’s all wholesale B2B. So.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: No, I think that sounds really good, and because I think selling B2C, of course, there’s a cost of customer acquisition, and, um, you know, if you can bypass that and sell to other businesses in bulk, uh, I guess it, it probably reduces your profit margin a little bit, but, uh, it, it’s giving you distribution, right?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah, and yeah, and the time savings of being able to, um, make, [00:10:00] uh, kind of limits of how, how many of each type of product the businesses need to order means I’m making just, you know, at least a handful of the same item each time, which saves a lot of time.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: For sure. So can you talk a little bit about FAIRE?

Is that the only kind of B2B platform you’re using? And what is it like? Um, I mean, it’s a, it’s a marketplace, B2B marketplace. And is it as simple as going to the, going to their website and listing your products? And then basically they are, you know, the, the businesses that That are searching for these kinds of items, contact you.

Like, is it as simple as that or you have to do some, uh, additional marketing there as well?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah, it’s, it’s basically Etsy, but for businesses for wholesale. So it’s really, um, It was pretty, I’m trying to remember now what, what setting it all up was like, but yeah, you just, you list your products and then it’s a search engine.

So anyone [00:11:00] can, um, uh, any businesses can make an account and search your products. And, um, I think they, they’re still developing a lot of things on fair. Like I noticed. Just recently made it so that you can advertise and kind of bump up your, your products in the search

or

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: your shop and their, and their search engine.

So they’re still, still kind of developing. It seems like, but I’ve had a really good experience on FAIRE. Um, lots of great, great, this has just been a great way to find new customers, like high, high quality customers too.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And then once you have these businesses working with you, then I guess you have the opportunity to build deeper relationships with them, right?

Like, do you have to continue working through FAIRE because I’m, I’m assuming FAIRE takes a cut out of it as well, or like once you have acquired the business, then you [00:12:00] can kind of, uh, work with them directly. Or, or, or maybe there’s some benefit of you working through FAIRE as well, like in terms of payments and, uh,

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah, there, well, they do incentivize, uh, keeping everything on FAIRE because they offer terms to the, uh, wholesale buyers.

So they can pay within 30 or 60 days and FAIR pays. It’s kind of like a middleman. FAIRE pays me right away, but then they receive their payment, you know, when the, when the terms expire. You know, within the term limits, whatever, um, and, um, they do have. Ways to, um, kind of migrate your existing wholesale customers over to their platform, um, where you don’t have to pay any, um,

you won’t

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: be any commission, correct?

So, [00:13:00] um, that’s been really nice because then it’s all just in 1 spot. So, as long as your customers sign up with your link and you let, you know, or you let fair know, like, hey. You know, I already, this was already my customer. Then you don’t need to pay commission and everything’s all in one spot. And it makes ordering a lot easier too.

It’s just, it’s all right there for them. So,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: no, I think that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. I’m curious. Like, are you the only one creating these products? I would assume, how much time do you. kind of related to creating these items.

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: I usually, I usually don’t work every single day. I, I kind of book it for a few hours for a few days in a row.

And then I take some time off. I’ll try to kind of batch batch orders together and, and, um, get all the materials and to, to make them and then, um, and then, you know, sit down and. and get through them all. But it is just me. It’s just me and my [00:14:00] laser and a few, a few, um, hand tools too that I still am using, um, for certain products and certain parts of the process.

Um, yeah, it’s just, it’s just me though. It’s keeps, keeps me busy. So

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: what is, um, um, What is kind of like your value proposition, selling proposition? Are you using, because I’m assuming even on FAIRE, there are other vendors who are selling leather products like these kind of products, maybe even custom engraved products.

How do you kind of stand apart from them? Are you using like a special kind of leather? Are you you know, giving them some other kind of terms, uh, or is it that, you know, your design is kind of unique. And so, you know, if anybody wants this design, it’s only you in the market.

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah, that’s a great question.

That’s something I’m always working on, too, because anyone can get a [00:15:00] laser and engrave leather. Um, the things that I really kind of focus on is, one, using high quality leather, um, which I, which I do add, you know, I kind of, Kind of talk that up. Um, I use just about as high quality of leather as you can use.

And as you’d want to use for the types of products that I make. Um, and, uh, so proud of that, but also I, I choose colors of leather that are pretty trendy. So again, like aesthetic leather accessories, um, um, I’ve got my. My set of shades of leather that I kind of, my go tos that I use for every product almost, and, um, they’re just kind of trendier, you know, more, more, um, aesthetic modern, maybe a little, a little girly.

[00:16:00] Colors and marketing, you know, it kind of fits in with, with my branding and everything. Um, and, uh, and then, uh, the personal, you know, personalized aspect as well as a big one that I lean into, like I can customize anything, whether it’s for a, um, a, uh, another business for reselling or, or a customer or retail customer.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Um, I, I was just looking at your, uh, leather banners and they, they look beautiful. They’re very nice. I, I’m assuming that people can, uh, frame them. Uh, is that how they use?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: You know, I actually put, uh, like eyelets, little holes with, uh, some, like, it’s like a little hardware. hole in each corner so you can tack them up with, uh, nails.

It’s kind of, kind of the thought process. So it’s like a banner that [00:17:00] hangs right on the wall. You could frame them too. They’re, they’re thin enough to frame probably. Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: No, very nice. Um, what have you learned about your customers? Like the business customers that are buying from you? Are they, are they fit in a certain category?

Like are they arts and crafts kind of stores? Are they, you know, um, fit in a certain niche? What have you learned about your customers? That’s

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: a great question. So I would say the number one thing is it’s almost primarily. It’s almost entirely they would have their um, Their market their target market customers would be women for one thing.

So it’s boutiques and Um, you know home decor um a lot of my wholesale customers are also kind of uh, like Local based so almost like souvenir shop type type. [00:18:00] Um, Situation, but not necessarily like, uh, just a souvenir shop, like, you know, boutiques, it’s like you go out and you go shopping and you’ll see stuff with your state or your location, you know, type, um, Type things for sale, like a hat with Minnesota on it, stuff like that.

So a lot, a lot of them are looking for things like that marketed toward women. So that that’d probably be my main thing that I’ve, I’ve noticed. And part of that too, is because fair is definitely. Um, like their branding, their marketing, it’s probably more marketed toward women as well. So their women are the, I think that’s still true, women are the big buyers.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Well, I wonder if, um, um, thinking about men, like if I, I wonder if you create like leather wallet or something, [00:19:00] like add that as a, as a new product category, but I, but then that also makes me think that’s going to change. Probably take a lot more time to create those things. So at a certain point, like if you are growing your business, you probably have to think about, you know, either hiding some, you know, Crafts people, leather crafts, people who, who can create this for you, or maybe find some way of outsourcing it or, you know, sourcing it through China or something.

I don’t know. But, um, because one person yourself, you can only make so many products and you can only make so many products in, you know, in a day and a week and a month. So, um, What do you think, like, uh, you know, do you think about adding new categories or something in the future, like a wallet or something for men as well?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah, I, I’m always trying to, uh, think of ways to make my, my real, um, Kind of the limiting factor is always going to be [00:20:00] my time. So like you said, wallets is like with hand stitching. I have everything I need to make a wallet. I have all the tools and everything. Um, and I make wallets for friends and family, but I don’t, I don’t really sell them I have in the past, but, um, cause they are so time consuming.

It’s hard to make like the, the, um, the markup I can get off of a key chain.

It’s just, you

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: know, no comparison to what I can make off of a wallet or vice versa. So it’s just, um, it’s my, actually one of the, one of the things that I really enjoy trying to kind of tinker with is if I, like, if I’m going to make a wallet, I want to make a pattern for the wallet where it’s as few stitches, as few rivets, whatever, and whatever kind of, um, whatever kind of.

Uh, you know, [00:21:00] like, um, methods I’m using to fasten it together, just as simple as possible. It makes more minimalistic design, which aligns with my business anyways, and the aesthetic of Crown Leatherworks. So making, yeah, just making it like a wallet design that is as simple as possible so that it’s taking me as little time as possible to make.

It’s like, then, like, if I can find that sweet spot, then I’ll, then I’ll list it and I’ll sell it. but you, but you never

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: think about, um, outsourcing it or finding other people who, like, so that what you’re doing is mostly managing the business or growing the business versus. Actually, yeah, making the products.

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah, I would love to someday. Actually. Um, I, yeah, I think, I think, like I said, I have a, like, [00:22:00] another business in the works kind of that has been working on. So, um, depending on how. How we want to orient our lives. If I’m going to be putting more time into that, then yeah, I can run Crown Leatherworks and outsource.

I mean, even maybe hiring a few people locally to help assemble that kind of thing, or to help with customer service. Um, that’d be fine. If, if. I have thought about outsourcing and, you know, having a company or factory overseas make things. I’d need to, I’d need to learn how to do all that. I guess I kind of learn as I go, but, um, But I have considered it.

So someday in the future, yeah, I like, I like it being American made, you know, that’s kind of a bit of a selling feature too. So, um, I mean, it’s, yeah, I mean,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: it’s, it’s American made [00:23:00] and it’s also handmade. Like it’s, it’s a, in a way it’s handicraft also. Right?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah. So I do feel like, you know, pricing would have to be adjusted because right now I’m kind of, I kind of price, you know, My, my products are priced kind of at the top of what, what most similar that there’s not a lot of people actually doing exactly what I do, but, um, similar types of products.

Uh, my, my products are priced more at the high end of, of that range. So I would, you know, if I’m outsourcing, I would need to. I think that changes, changes some things. So I

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: mean, I, I think your pricing is fine. I mean, you know, given that you’re, it’s handmade and, you know, personalized and everything, I don’t think, I don’t think it’s, I mean, these days it’s like.

Things are getting more expensive anyways with inflation. So I think I think your pricing doesn’t seem too out of uh, yeah

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: That’s good. You know, the funny thing is it’s like [00:24:00] you go on etsy and you search for what other types of you know like a leather engraved, uh Keychain with your name on it and it it is created overseas somewhere, you know, it’s not They’re not usually made in the states so that does that makes a difference and they can always beat me with price, but that’s why You know, the home, uh, Or handmade, you know, American made, like, that’s what part of what you’re paying for.

So

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: for sure. Um, so you’re selling mostly in the U. S. right now. Are you selling in other markets? Like you do get businesses in Europe wanting to sell this product or you’re mostly focused on U. S. market?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: So I would, the vast majority of my customers are in the U. S. Um, uh, both on my retail website and on fair, I can sell, I do ship to other countries, um, from my website, just, uh, you know, select [00:25:00] English speaking countries and on fair, they, they’re pretty, pretty open.

I don’t know, I don’t have, you know, the list of countries memorized, but they do ship worldwide. And so I sold some things to, you know, Italy. I don’t, I don’t recall, I guess. All the countries that I’ve shipped to, but yeah, there’s, there’s a, there’s Crown Leatherworks all over the world.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Wow. That’s very interesting.

You’re selling to Italy. I mean, Italy is supposed to be like the leather center, right? I get

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: leather from Italy. It’s the funny thing. I’m like, Oh, it’s just going back and forth, I guess.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, I mean, they’re, they’re quite fashionable, so I’m not surprised. Um, uh, in terms of, I mean, you mentioned a little bit about shipping.

Uh, does, does your shipping, is fair doing your shipping or do you ship yourself like once you get the order?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah, I ship. So yeah, the order comes in and they just have a [00:26:00] shipping label that you print out to include with the order and then, um, yeah, I’ll usually batch whatever, whatever orders I have done at the time, bring them in together and, and ship them at once, you know, a couple of times a week or once or twice a week.

Yeah, so they and then they do, they have it all set up right on fair to print out the shipping labels. So I just have to, you know, get it to the post office or wherever it needs to go. Um, it’s a pretty. Pretty straightforward system, pretty slick. They make it easy for us.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, for sure. Um, anybody who’s buying your items, let’s say through another business, um, is there, I mean, your business, you don’t run into like some price competition where, you know, one business is kind of undercutting another business or anything like that.

Do you like to set up like a minimum [00:27:00] selling price or something like this?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Can you say that again? Sorry, you’re breaking up a little bit.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So, like, when, because you’re selling to other businesses wholesale, right? So, let’s say there are two stores, uh, selling your items in the same neighborhood or same, same area.

Um, there’s no issue with price competition, right? Where somebody is selling your bracelet for, let’s say, 15 and, you know, Uh, other, other person is selling for 20. So, you know, they’re undercutting each other. Um, do you set some sort of like a minimum, uh, selling price or something like this, uh, rule for, uh, businesses?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah. So, uh, fair will have their, you know, their, what, what is it? MSRP type, what, what the they’re recommended, you know, it’s like a hundred percent the value of the wholesale cost. So they, they list it right on there when, when, um, [00:28:00] customers are buying the product, they do have an option. It’s it, I’m looking at it right now.

It says it’s in beta for exclusivity. So that’s something with. You know, uh, this type of product and my type of business where you can sign up, um, or a shop can ask for exclusivity. So a certain area code, maybe you can’t ship to besides, Besides this one store, I don’t really, I’m not real interested in participating in that, in that, unless I got, you know, a really big customer that’s like, then, you know, we can talk about that.

But, um, most of the, most of my customers are not. More bigger, but you know, it’s not, it hasn’t been a issue yet, I should say. So if it comes up, I’ll reassess, but yeah, exclusivity is one thing that. That they do, [00:29:00] they’re just starting to offer. So you can, you can, um, set that up with a customer if you wanted to.

Which is pretty nice. I mean, talking

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: about big businesses, I guess, uh, you’re, if you want to approach like a really big chain retailer or something that’s in arts and craft or, you know, um, these, uh, home decoration kind of space or something, I guess, uh, One of the barriers for you would be, you know, because you’re the only person creating these items, they would probably want bulk.

So I think that would be the big barrier. But have you, uh, have you tried approaching any of the big, bigger retailers to stock your products?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: I haven’t actually, I, Man, like I said earlier, I’m, we’re focusing on raising a family right now. So I have to, I have to kind of like pull back even though I would, I would be interested in like, you know.

[00:30:00] You know, hitting it hard, but, um, no, I do have a few retailers in mind that would fit the kind of the market and the branding, the aesthetic, um, that would be a good fit for each other. So I kind of keep those, those are kind of in the back of my mind for now,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: for

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: maybe someday reaching out or connecting with them.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: For sure, for sure. So, so to me, it seems like you are, I mean, you’re, you’re busy with the family. You have this business kind of, you’re running as a, you know, uh, as a side business and, uh, in the meantime, you’re working with your husband to create some sort of a new business. What does the future look for, uh, for you?

Like, do you see yourself like when your kids are a little bit older to go more, uh, directed in your business become, you know, more, uh, spend more time just, uh, building your business? Like, how, where do you see yourself or your business, let’s say [00:31:00] five years down the road?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Sure. Yeah. Five years. I would say the next step for Crown Leatherworks, just the next step would be, um, renting out a space for production and shipping, getting, um, more higher end lasers that can produce faster.

That would probably be just the logical next step. Um, and then hiring. A couple employees to help with assembling and, and customer service. So that would be, you know, a few years down the road, just the logical next step. Um, you know, uh, 10, 15 years down the road, maybe that’s when I would probably see maybe starting to think about, um, outsourcing and, and, you know, uh, just kind of being established more that way.

So

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: awesome. Um, [00:32:00] In every business, there’s always, uh, mistakes made lessons learned failures. Um, what has been, I mean, you’ve been running your business for, you know, 10 years or so, it seems like, um, what has been like a big lesson that you’ve learned or, you know, mistake that you may have made? Uh, what did you learn from it?

And what can other entrepreneurs learn from your mistakes?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah. Yeah. That’s, I love that. Um, thankfully I. I consider this whole endeavor to just be sort of, um, almost like, it’s just fun. And it’s like, trial and error. And to me, that’s like, not a bad thing. That’s just like, I want to learn how to do this.

Okay, I’m gonna learn how to do it. And so there’s a lot of errors that happen along the way, I would say, my personality, um, is, it’s like, I really want to focus on like, just the tiny minutiae of little details, like getting Every product like to [00:33:00] within, you know, just as, as similar as it can be kind of thing and making it’s like my, my joke is like I would spend all day making sure all my spreadsheets are all the same, you know, they all look the same and that’s, there’s no value in that.

So. Focusing on the, on the bigger picture, drawing back and focusing on the bigger picture, for me, is something that I’ve had to learn how to do, um, because that was, uh, yeah, it’s not, it’s not necessarily my personality to do that. Had to, had to, had to learn how to do that. So, and then I found a lot of joy in that too, though.

It turns out it’s, you know, it’s fun to dream big and not just, you know, hunker down and work, work, work.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Mm-Hmm. So, so it sounds like, I mean, you’re more of the artist, right? And, and you enjoy just, uh, the, the art and creating the items and, and then of course, you know, , [00:34:00] you’re Yeah. More focused there rather than, you know, the, the bigger picture.

But, you know, of course you slowly have to, if, if, uh, you want to grow the business, that’s. Yeah,

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: it’s actually, it’s funny that you say that because I would say when I was younger, I was more invested in just the creation and the art of it. And as I’ve gotten older, kind of, um, figured out, learned and enjoyed learning and growing.

And, um, You know, focusing more on the bigger picture. It’s like now I think it’s like almost more fun to just run a business and, and plan those bigger things. Um, and, um, I still have a good time making things I like to make and create, but. Yeah, it’s, it’s nice to be able to do both actually, kind of.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: For sure, for sure.

Engage your left brain and right brain and, you know.

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: That’s what I was thinking. Yeah,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: left and

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: right, they work better together, [00:35:00] so.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay, so now I’m going to move on to our rapid fire segment. In this segment, I’m going to ask you a few quick questions, and you have to answer them maybe in a word or a sentence or so.

So, the

first question.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: The first one, I know you’re very busy with kids and everything, but, and I don’t know if you get time to read books, but do you have any book recommendations for entrepreneurs and why?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: You know, I, okay, rapid fire. Okay. I was going to say 12 rules for life by Jordan Peterson.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. So I don’t know

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: if I get to explain or, or elaborate.

Why

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: is that the choice?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Well, I would say my personal interests are more, it’s like, I don’t, I haven’t read a whole lot of entrepreneur based books, you know? So I don’t have any recommendations for that besides from books from when I was in school. But, um, uh, It’s, you know, the idea of developing yourself, if you can develop yourself, um, the business, it’s almost like a by product of yourself.

So, [00:36:00] um, that’d be my, my reason for 12 rules for life. It was a good, it was a good one.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I mean, that it’s very interesting. I mean, Jordan Peterson is a Canadian, of course. And, um, and, uh, yeah, he’s, uh, he’s, uh, he’s an interesting fellow. And it seems like he’s

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: very controversial. I know, but I don’t think that book was very controversial.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: No, no, I’m not talking about controversy. I mean, I, it seems like his message is more for, for men, but I’m, I’m, I’m, uh, pleasantly surprised that even you’re finding value in that.

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Oh, yeah, yeah. I’m, I’m actually, if I have free time, I’m usually spending it learning about psychology and, and, um, things along that, that vein.

So,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: uh, an innovative product or idea in the current e commerce retail or tech landscape that you feel excited about.

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Oh man, I didn’t, didn’t have a great answer for that one. I, let’s see, e commerce, retail. [00:37:00]

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Any, do you, do you use any products, uh, tech products, anything that you like? It’s like a indispensable thing for you in your personal or business life.

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: I have to pass.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: So your, your, your life is very low tech. Okay. Wow. Okay.

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Um, An iPhone. I don’t know.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hey, I mean, iPhone is the good answer. iPhone, iPhone is

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: the

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: computer.

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: That’s been helpful. I mean, it’s,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: yeah, it’s, it’s a, it’s a very, um, uh, it’s a computer. Yeah.

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: I should say, I should say lasers, uh, uh, diode laser.

That is what I use. And that, that’s, they’re getting cheaper all the time because, you know, technology gets cheaper. That’s amazing. You can get, I was surprised when I started shopping around for a laser engraver, just how cheap you can [00:38:00] get one for, um, uh, Like, if you really don’t care about breathing and fumes and smokes, fumes and smoke, you can get one for under 200, I think.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Wow, okay. How big, by the way, are these lasers? Are these big enough for you to put on a side table or something?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah. So I have, I have the laser I use is on a small desk. Um, it’s like, like a large printer size. Um, but they come in all sorts of sizes. So I’ll, I’ll, uh, cut up a piece of leather to fit right on the, the laser bed of that.

And, um, yeah, so someday when we have a bigger workshop, get one that’s bigger than, you know, have more, more space to work. So yeah, lasers.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: A business or productivity tool or software that you would recommend or a productivity [00:39:00] tip?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Um, or productivity tip. Well, I would just say utilizing AI or chat2BT, um, and then Canva for businesses like mine or, um, small business owners who are doing their own Their own, uh, marketing.

Canva is like phenomenal. I know designers kind of hate on it a little bit, but it’s, it’s so much easier to use than Photoshop. So

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: yeah. Canva is a great, yeah. Canva is a great tool. Yeah, for sure. Uh, by the way, do you, do you take your own pictures? Like the ones that you put on your website or social media, are these all taken by you?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: They are all the product pictures are taken by me. Yes. Yeah. Uh, I have a few, just a handful of professional ones, uh, that were taken by other people. But, um, those are more like the styled photos. Like I think the banner photo on my website was taken by, [00:40:00] yeah, taken by a photographer. Actually, that’s another, another tip is there’s a Facebook group.

Oh shoot. What’s it called? It’s a Facebook group called something where, um, it’s, uh, professional photos for small businesses. Um, where photographers and small businesses can join and trade products for pictures. So, that’s how I first got, um, some of my first professional photos, because it’s like, if you don’t have a lot, a lot of, Money that you’re working with you can just trade products for pictures.

That was That was a

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: good tip for

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: me when I was starting out too.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay, uh another startup or business Um could be in e commerce retail or tech that you think is currently doing great things Are you are you excited about any any other different? [00:41:00] Business or startup?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah. Well, there’s a startup in minnesota completely different from what i’m doing called mirror matrix where they are taking Pig organs, stripping them down and rebuilding them with human DNA.

Okay.

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: I forget which organs they have very, very specific, but mirror matrixes. But one to keep an eye on, it’s really cool.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Very nice. Um, a peer entrepreneur or business person whom you look up to or someone who inspires you?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: You know, I, I not a peer. I had thought I had a great answer for that. And now I’m realizing not a peer.

I

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: mean, it doesn’t have to be a peer. Yeah. It’s anybody who inspires you. Yeah.

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Um, Naval, uh, familiar with Naval, I don’t know how to say his name, Naval, yeah,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: [00:42:00] Naval, Naval, Naval Ravikant, okay, yeah, I know,

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: yeah, yeah, yeah, my, I love listening to him when he’s, um, I don’t think he has any of his own books, but he, they’re, they’re You know, he doesn’t waste his time, so he’s, he’s really careful with his time, but if there’s, uh, you know, any podcasts that he’s on, yeah, that’s, that was, that was a good lesson.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. I think, I think he is, uh, uh, either he’s a billionaire or he’s, he, he definitely has a lot of money. I think he created some, some, some of these tech companies, right?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I appreciate that. He seems like a decent person, despite being probably filthy rich. So yeah, he’s the

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: founder of AngelList.

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah. Yeah. Yep. That’s right. Yeah. Good insights.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. Yeah. He has some good ideas also. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Um, final question. What is the best business advice that you have ever received or you [00:43:00] would give to other entrepreneurs?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Um, okay. Um, if I would say the, the, the best thing that I’ve learned at least is if you want, if you’re unhappy with something or your circumstances, whatever, you have to change yourself to be the type of person that can handle those circumstances or that can make the changes that you have to make.

So, you know, working on yourself, changing, getting out of your own way. It’s, it’s like, if you have some sort of problem or some sort of habit or some sort of anything, it’s like, we all got something just like that should be your, your number one, like list item, like take care of that, focus on that, get that out of the way so that you can excel.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think it’s, um, uh, self awareness, right. It’s like many people are kind of. Live in [00:44:00] such autopilot that, you know, it’s like, you know, you wake up in the morning and you, you have your own habit created. And so I think at a certain point, like you have to be able to, if you, if you are self aware enough to recognize that, you know, maybe some habit or, uh, things that you’re doing is kind of sabotaging you, then you have to change that.

So, yeah.

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah, yeah, I love that. And I had another part to that as well, or another answer, which was to embrace competition. I see a lot of small business owners, they’ll go on social media and kind of rant about like, Oh, someone says copying my products and all this stuff. It’s like, if you didn’t patent it, move on, think of something better, like don’t get caught up in that.

It’s, there’s a million ideas, like you can use competition to propel you to the next thing. Don’t just get, All all sucked into feeling feeling all bad about it. So

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: yeah competition is definitely a great thing. Um, Well, julia, thank you so much. Those were all the [00:45:00] questions that I had Um, thank you so much again for sharing your story for sharing your successes lessons learned business advice.

Um, if anybody’s trying to Try to uh, look looking to check out your products or want to buy them Uh, what is the best way they can do that?

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah, well, social media or the website. So social media, all at Crown Leatherwork and the website is crown leatherwork.com. You can reach out any of those ways, so, uh, Instagram and Facebook are most active for, for socials.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Well, thanks for having on. Yeah, thank you so much again, Julia. Really appreciate your time and wish you all the very best.

Julia Hankinson of Crown Leatherworks: Yeah, thank you. You have a good one.