We were lucky to catch up with Ammie Williams recently and have shared our conversation below.
Ammie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?
The running joke for business owners is that you quit a 9-5 in order to work 24-7. Unfortunately, it’s true. The feeling of never being off, guilt at taking rest or time away from the business, and the lack of boundaries between personal and professional is exhausting. At the time of writing, I’m coming out of an extremely successful holiday season where I worked more than I didn’t, often clocking in 14-16 hour days and even a couple all nighters to get orders out the door. I am tired, I am cranky, and I gave up my holiday to make the money that I did. Because I make the bulk of my yearly income in the fourth quarter, I can’t complain about this set up. The sacrifice is what I signed up for. But, in these moments of rest after the hurricane that is the busy season, I think, how nice would it be to have an office job where I leave it all behind at 5pm? An ex-boyfriend showed me the difference between people who work to live and live to work. He was happy with his unfulfilling desk job so that he could spend his nights and weekends doing what he loved. I just can’t do that. Now that I’ve been on both sides, I can’t imagine making money for someone else or having to be at a place at a certain time everyday. The flexibility I have in my work is priceless, even if it means I’m flexible to work a 16 hour day.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Ammie Williams, aka Ammie Y’all. I’m a ceramic artist in Atlanta, Georgia. I have always been an artist, specifically a painter, and when I moved to Atlanta to go to college, I needed a part time job to keep me afloat (aka buying beer and clove cigarettes). I found a studio where ceramic pieces had been fired once and were on the shelf, ready to be picked and painted by walk in customers. I was dazzled. This is an art form I’d had little experience with and I loved how it was so unlike painting on canvas or paper. The chemistry that each piece undergoes in the kiln was amazing. I started a studio assistant position there, helping customers understand how the ceramic glaze worked, processing pottery, and loading and unloading kilns. When I graduated college with a BFA in Art Education, the owners approached me to create a class program for kids and adults at the studio. I wasn’t ready to enter a traditional classroom so I took on the challenge, building a class and camp program from the ground up. That included creating classes, teaching classes, training staff, and managing the classes and camps. A lot of overworking, underappreciating happened, and ahead of my 10 year milestone with the company, I was unexpectedly laid off. Losing that job sent me into a tailspin I was not prepared for. I’d made my entire personality into that job and felt completely lost without it. I’d started to make a name for myself in the Paint Your Own Pottery (PYOP) industry, working with glaze and bisque manufacturers to create projects and teach at industry conferences. I no longer knew where I stood in this industry that had been home. A couple years before, I’d dreamed of launching a service where I could sell directly to PYOP studio owners, like so many businesses I’d seen at the industry events. This idea felt even more pressing given my current joblessness.
I’d agreed to do a 3 weekend long Christmas market after I was laid off, and by the second weekend, I was over making Santa related pieces for suburban moms. I decided to make a mug with a pastel colored rainbow on it, adding black patterns on the rainbow and my signature black splatters. I posted the piece on my Instagram as a preview and the response was surprising. The mug sold at the market within the first hour and I was getting requests to make more. I was taking orders in my direct messages and before long, realized I needed a more sophisticated way to sell these mugs. I started researching eseller platforms and the first attempts at building a site began in December. (Spoiler alert: it was out of my wheelhouse and I hired someone. Always just hire someone…)
In March 2020, I launched my website and first product- a subscription service for PYOP studio owners where one project pack is provided monthly, including step-by-step instructions for a project, a template, a list of glaze colors, and marketing photos. The reaction from studio owners was extremely positive and the program surpassed all my hopes, gaining 50 members on the first day.
Shortly after I’d gotten the subscription settled, I started listing custom Rainbow Mugs for sale. I began this journey as a custom pre-order for a few reasons- I didn’t want to be sitting on unsold stock if they were not popular. I was so shaken by the lay off, that I no longer felt confident enough to make artistic decisions that people would like, so having the customer choose the colors felt safe. Lastly, I wanted to be able to charge what I really felt like they were worth, and that’s a lot easier when there is a custom aspect to the product.
The first couple of drops sold out in a couple of hours, the next few in 25 minutes, and by the 5th drop, they were selling out in 30 seconds, literally breaking my website. There were times when there were so many people trying to buy the pre order spots that in the half a second it would take my website to move from the check out page, to completed order page, it was letting in double the amount of preorders I’d listed.
It has now been almost 3 years since the launch of Rainbow Mugs and they are by and far my best seller. They’ve become a sort of collector’s item and status symbol. At the end of 2022, I have made and shipped 1,000 Rainbow Mugs.
I am most proud of my ability to pivot, figure it out, thrive, survive, whatever you want to call. I have proven to myself that I can trust myself to make enough money, to meet a certain goal, and to be successful.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I tell people all the time that I am the last person having fun on the internet. Instagram is my place. I have built and nurtured an extremely engaged audience there and am proud of the brand I have organically built. My Instagram journey began when I was working at the PYOP studio. I’d created essentially an account to act as a portfolio, because I didn’t want to share what i was working on on my personal Instagram. I worked from home often, and it was extremely lonely. I couldn’t just call my girlfriend up at work every time I wanted to chat, so I took to my Instagram stories. The feature was new and not many people were on it because they were worried about how they looked or hated listening to their voice on playback. I simply didn’t care. I treated it like my own personal diary or reality show. I loved sharing what I was working on and felt absoluitely no pressure to be cringey or fail because, like, 3 people were watching. But the thing about being honest, real, silly, and open online is that people start paying attention and get hooked. Before long, I’d grown and people loved checking in with me.
I’ve kept at my Instagram, placing boundaries when I need to and sharing exactly what I want. It has resonated deeply with my audience and I’m morphing and growing every day. I am no longer just sharing my work, I’m sharing parts of my life. I’m sharing funny moments from the day, my workouts (I always perform best for a camera, anyway), what I’m reading, what I’m eating, my wins and losses. There is something for everyone and I pride myself on the authenticity I show online. What you see is really what you get.
Have you ever had to pivot?
2022 was a really tough year. Chronic back pain kept me bedridden for months and if I don’t work, I don’t get paid. Renegotiating contracts and asking for more money, resulting in the contract not being renewed has lost me vital monthly income. Rent has been raised at my home and my studio. Hiring someone who wasn’t a good fit but not having the language to explain that was a costly lesson. I have retired my monthly subscription service after 3 successful years because I am no longer fulfilled by it. My business is primed for a pivot right now but I have no idea what I want to do or where I want to go. That’s not something I see a lot of my fellow small business owners sharing. We tend to just see the rebirth, but I want to see building the fire and jumping in, too. At the end of the year I take a few weeks off from in studio making. I spend time relaxing and catching up on laundry (it’s so bad) as well as mapping out plans for the upcoming year. This year feels very big and important,therefore scary, and I am not sure exactly where I want to go but I’m looking forward to finding out.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Gabriella Valladares LePage, Well Kept Studio @wellkeptstudio