We were lucky to catch up with Lexi Bynum recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lexi, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

In November of 2024, I hosted a 30 person Bring-Your-Own Craft Event in Atlanta. I moved to Atlanta with a deep desire to build community and rediscover myself. I was a new bride, fresh out of grad school, and working from home. So I had very few opportunities to meet new people and make friends. There was a BYO Craft Night at a local brewery that I loved, and suddenly they decided to shut down. I was really bothered about losing that third space so I started by asking the internet “would anyone be interested in a BYO Craft Night” thinking 5 people would respond and 60 ended up replying, and I realized I really needed a way to host 60+ people.

My business started as a way to build community and meet new people and BYO Craft Night is still our highest and most frequented event to date. Once I realized people were interested, I started by starting an email signup list, then creating our social media and branding. I am a designer by trade so all of that came really easy to me. Then I started figuring out what crafts people wanted to do now I host weekly workshops exploring new hobbies and making new friends.

The most challenging thing to figure out in my beginning phase was figuring out how to price workshops and events. Being more community focused, I didn’t want to still make events accessible while also doing more than just breaking even. I had to shift away from the over the top way I normally hosted and think more about the necessities and tracking spending. Now I have my own studio, my socials have grown and I am still trying to figure out how to scale this business and grow it to a profitable and fun place for people to come and learn new things while meeting new friends.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am Lexi Bynum and I run The Atlanta Craft Club. The Atlanta Craft Club is a community based business where we help people tap into their creativity and form meaningful connections with the people around them. We host monthly paid workshops and a free Bring-Your Own Craft Night that brings in 100s of people. We also host private workshops for birthdays and corporate events.

I have been crafting since I came out of the womb, I am a self proclaimed “grandma’s girl” and learned all I knew from her. I have worked really hard to create a third space where everyone is welcome and able to “touch grass”, get off their phones and be immersed in a community. I think what set’s me apart from other craft clubs and similar experiences, is I am a true empath. I put myself in the shoes of someone trying something for the first time and I am able to deliver an experience that feels achievable and empowers people to feel confident about their next time crafting.

I am most proud of the friendships people have made from my craft club. There are people that have formed deep bonds and built up their own community around this business and nothing feels more rewarding. I want potential clients to know how much I care about making the craft club an experience for all, even if you’ve never crafted before, or don’t feel creative, or are scared about feeling alone, at craft club we are able to set those things aside and truly connect with one another.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social Media and my business go hand in hand. I make sure to tell them what I’m going to do, show me doing it, tell them how it turned out and tell them again. You really want to use high quality content and camera and learn how to edit the best looking parts. Social media is quite literally a highlight reel. Don’t just show a finished product, show the process, show people enjoying the moment, show the emotion around whatever the business is.

If you’re just starting really work to develop an eye for good content.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The lesson I had to unlearn was that it is okay to do things scared. For a long time, and still in some moments I use my fear as an indicator of if I should do something. (i.e. it felt to scary to do things alone, so I didn’t for a long time and I missed out on lots of fun events)

When you’re running a business there are just some things that are going to bring about fear. Either because you haven’t done it for the first time or whatever, and that is okay. It is okay for fear to come along for the journey, it’s even okay to not know how things are going to go over. But it’s not okay to let fear rule all of your decision making.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.atlantacraftclub.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atlcraftclub/
• Other: https://atlcraftclub.substack.com