We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Arielle Sweetwood. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Arielle below.

Arielle, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Almost every entrepreneur we know has considered donating a portion of their sales to an organization or cause – how did you make the decision of whether to donate? We’d love to hear the backstory if you’re open to sharing the details.

Cryptknotic does in fact periodically donate a portion of profits to different causes throughout the year. The very first donations were put toward a fundraiser to help get a friend’s music venue up and running. Music has always, always been critical to the culture surrounding the business. I was vending local punk shows before I ever vended local markets or conventions. Skulls kind of fit in with any genre of rock music, so my skull candles were very popular at shows. Thus, I’ve always tried to help the local scene. I wouldn’t be where I am without that scene nor have met the fantastic people I’m blessed to have in my circle.
So I made it a point to focus on music related donations. Punk Rock Saves Lives is my favorite non-profit. They have benefit shows with a booth where they sign people up for the bone marrow registry, give out emergency Narcan and GHB test coasters, fentanyl test strips, all kinds of stuff. They’re actively looking to make the music scene safer for people, so I love when I’m able to make contributions to them.
I don’t foresee Cryptknotic ever being disentangled from local music.

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?

Cryptknotic has really been a new lease on life for me. I’m a stage 3 breast cancer survivor and I spent five years too sick to hold a regular 9 to 5 job. Treatments and side effects left me incapacitated for days or weeks at a time. I worked different customer service and data entry jobs from home that weren’t too demanding.
Once I was formally in remission, I just wanted to do something for myself, something I would enjoy. I’ve always been an avid lover of the dark and macabre and wanted spooky goodness all year round. A big part of being stuck at home while I was battling my illnesses (I also have an autoimmune disorder), was trying to maintain an ambience that didn’t make my apartment feel like a prison. So candles were a big part of that ambience. I decided to learn how to make my own.
I started making jar candles and molded pillar candles in the shapes of skulls, ghosts, and different creepy shapes. I got invited to vend local markets, punk shows, and eventually started doing conventions and wholesaling my products.
I’ve since expanded to making custom product for bands to carry at their merch tables.
Just looking at how far I’ve come is wild for me. I was so sick for so long. I walked with a cane for two years when I wasn’t bedridden. Now I go to events all over and pull all-nighters dancing to metal and/or 80’s pop while I work.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Not getting discouraged has been a continuous battle. There have been times setbacks have definitely gotten under my skin and I was ready to quit. Events I couldn’t manage to vend, supply issues, and budget constraints were certainly frustrating; especially when they all hit at the same time.
I’m also not the only small business owner in my circle of peers. For a time, it was discouraging seeing people getting ahead faster than I was. It took longer than it should have for me to learn that it was worse for me in the long run to try to rush my progress. I found so much support within my local vendor community and eventually was able to discard the mindset that what I was doing wasn’t enough or wasn’t making headway as quickly as I wanted. But, man, that was one of my biggest hurdles; however, it gave me a broader perspective. I had to partake in a good amount of self-reflection because I was proving to be my own worst enemy. Before I recognized that, I was close to throwing in the towel more than once because I had managed to convince myself I wasn’t doing well enough.
Now I’m more self-aware and less influenced by the progress of others. I’m able to cheer them on and just keep my own steady pace. But Cryptknotic almost crumbled before I figured things out.

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

Without a doubt, the biggest thing I had to unlearn (and that I still struggle with if I’m being completely honest) is that working oneself into the ground is a good thing. There’s this perpetuated narrative in our society that it’s a noble trait to not take breaks or days off.
I sometimes pull back to back all-nighters, though not nearly as much as I used to. Now I only do it if I have a significant deadline to meet that I was unable to plan better for; like times I’ve been suddenly asked to vend a market or had an event application accepted last minute. Impromptu markets are a good problem to have to an extent, but they can easily turn into a LOT of work. I used to run myself into the ground trying to accept every opportunity that came my way.
Being able to step back and assess my own needs is still something I occasionally lose sight of, and I’m having to exercise patience during the unlearning process. I’m now more deliberate about resting. Burnout is a surefire way for efficiency to drop and I see that more clearly than I did before. I was shooting myself in the foot by not having a single day off for a month or more.
Growing up in a household that valued hard work and instilled the importance of earning what you have wasn’t entirely a bad thing. But I do feel my folks fell prey to the same vicious cycles and weren’t able to recognize it the same way as generations after. Moderation and self-care have been the new lessons for me,

Contact Info:

• Website: https://CRYPTKNOTIC.COM
• Instagram: https://INSTAGRAM.COM/CRYPTKNOTIC
• Facebook: https://FACEBOOK.COM/CRYPTKNOTIC
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAIDdN0I9BRMyIdxZFb1ceQ