Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gina Antunes. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Gina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I hope my legacy will be of value not only to my daughter but to women in general. My business story is one of resilience, courage, kindness and being thoughtful of how I am impacting the world around me when choosing materials to work with. There will be hundreds of days you will want to give up. You will have 50 failures for every winning idea when you are a creator. Stay true to yourself and always trust your instincts. Comparative reality is your worst enemy, your goal is to only be better than you were the day before. Never measure your success against another business or person. Try new things, even if you can’t fathom being able to accomplish the tasks. My first vendor event became terrifying within 15 minutes of arriving. I was by myself and unable to open my pop up tent, 1. I had no idea how to open it, and 2. I was not physically strong enough to do so. But I was there anyways! I’ve never let anything stop me. Thankfully another vendor saw me struggling and gave me a crash course on setting up.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I arrived in the creator business during the pandemic but my story started a decade before. The daughter of a small business owner was my identity for many years. My first and only job was working for my father in his optical business. I decided in University to study Fine Arts and Environmental Studies with no true direction in what I would do upon graduation. Many years passed of continuing to work in the medical field and eventually as a stay at home mother to my special needs daughter. Finally during the pandemic as my daughter was becoming a toddler, I decided to start a birdseed art business. The two of us had created birdseed ornaments for a Christmas tree for the wildlife in our yard. Marrying my love of creating and environmental consciousness was like sliding the last piece of a puzzle in. I took off running and started to sell on Facebook. Once I realized this could be a viable niche business I opened an Etsy shop and took it on the road. I signed up for vendor events every other weekend for 8 months straight after only being in business 2 months. What sets me apart from others is I am a one woman show in a niche. I design and make all my own products, manage my social media, file my taxes, appear at all the vendor events and deliver all my orders. I make something no one else does in my geographical area. My brand is one of love. I’m not marketing to individuals to buy for themselves. My products are gifts “for the birdwatcher in your life” they are meant to be given with love. I love to hear about all the fond memories people have with a loved one who appreciates birdwatching.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I had no funding. I used pocket change to buy the bare necessities to start up. I was using scissors to shred brown paper bags from the grocery store in the beginning to make the filling for the bakery boxes. I then reinvested every penny I made to purchase things I needed to keep going.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I built my audience by posting in local tag sale pages on Facebook with a link to my Instagram where I used hash tags to appeal to people who may be interested in my products.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.sweettweetsco.Etsy.com
• Instagram: @sweettweetsco
• Facebook: Sweet Tweets Co

Image Credits
Self