We were lucky to catch up with Brooke Happe recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Brooke , thanks for joining us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

When I started b.e.happe in 2016 it was a hobby, something that I could do when my kids went to bed. Once I started doing in-person markets locally it was becoming more and more difficult to keep up with making our handcrafted hats. I knew that I needed help making our knit and crochet hats. I reached out to our church knitting group to see if anyone would be interested in joining my team. What I thought would be an easy process of I am a knitter- she is a knitter turned into a much bigger thing. There are a lot of knitters, but what I can to realize is that just giving someone a pattern doesn’t mean the hat will turn out the way that mine does. This was the point where I had to decide, do I keep b.e.happe small or do I scare it. I decided that if I wanted to make an impact and give back to children’s hospitals as much as possible I had to grow. So I started to implement systems for adding b.e.happe team members. Honesty even after 4 years since adding my first team member, I am still altering my onboarding of team members.

Brooke , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a career-gal and goal-oriented mom of three who chose to follow her heart. In 2015 when I was expecting my third child I decided to step away from my career as a Doctor of Physical Therapy to be a stay at home mama. As a life longer learner I wanted to teach myself something new that would keep my hand strength I had gained as a manual therapist. I bought a crochet hook and yarn, sat down after the kids bedtime and taught myself to crochet. I was struggling with the transition from a career gal to a mama and wanted to feel more put together. I couldn’t find a multi-seasonal hat to hide my dirty mom hair do I made a crochet slouch hat. I could throw it on to run errands and go to preschool drop off feeling more confident. Others moms asked to buy the hat and b.e.happe started in February 2016. I sold at local markets and opened up an online shop. Early on b.e.happe did a buy one hat-give one hat to our local children’s hospital. In 2018 b.e.happe was growing and I could keep making hats to sell AND to donate. I was looking for another aspect of social good, and really scary 10 day PICU stay for our 3 year old opened my heart and eyes. Isolation for 10 days with an active kiddo is no joke, child life specialist were a breath of fresh air and I knew this where we could make an impact. We started using a portion of the proceeds each month to donate wish list items to the Iowa children’s hospital where we lived. This health scare opened our eyes to how fragile life is and we started to reflect on the life we had built. I brought up the idea to my husband soon after this hospital stay to sell everything to travel the U.S. Simplify life, spend time together and show our kids the country. 3 years and 27 states later we are still traveling and I have grown my brand yo a team of females from across the U.S.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Taking b.e.happe from a bedroom office with walls of yarn storage to a 40.5 foot RV with no specific office or storage was a pivotal moment. What it taught me is that simplifying your business can actually make it thrive. I quit selling a variety of handcrafted items to only hats. I could focus on what sold all the time. Running a business from a small space also requires you to use the resources you have, I only buy the supplies I need instead of filling up my office space with colors of yarn I may use.

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

As an introvert, showing my face on social media is not my favorite thing to do. But as the trends of video and personal branding have come about when I started sharing more and the brand, behind the scenes, our story and really connecting with people I saw our community grow. A small group of loyal and true supporters is much more impactful than a large following who shows up sometimes. Don’t get discouraged by the numbers.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.behappedesigns.com
• Instagram: www.Instagram.com/b.e.happe/
• Facebook: www.Facebook.com/behappedesigns

Image Credits
Amy Cloud Photography