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

Doretha, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Starting my business was the biggest risk I’ve ever taken. My life tends to be so vanilla, and for some I can be pretty predictable. No one tells you the odds and statistics that are literally stacked against you when you start a small business, and to say the least, very few are successful. But the odds has always been stacked against me, by being raised in a single family home, with low income. So my drive comes from knowing where I came from, and what I’m trying to maintain. To say that I’ve had a lot to prove to myself is an understatement, because of my ADHD, I can be flakey and have a short interest. But after at least 7 years I’ve maintained.

Doretha, 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?

My drive comes from what I didn’t have as a child, and showing my children that they can have so much more. I got started into fiber arts by, initially wanting to make my family Christmas gifts and it blossomed from there. Although I can still only do basic techniques with the needles. Then I was intrigued about make hats and found the round looms, and then just any looms in general and got obsessed. I’m often referred to as the loom knitting queen. And then I wanted to make different kinds of plushies, so I attempted crochet, which took me five years, because I had to transfer my thought processing from knitting to crochet. And I wasn’t consistently trying to make the transfer, but I’m so glad it finally clicked. These days I mostly to crochet, because it’s more convenient, but I’ll literally only knit blankets, and crochet everything else. My most proudest items are when people ask for something handmade in celebration of a baby being born.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

My favorite thing to talk about is how I built my community on Tiktok. I always suggest having a niche initially, this helps hone you down through the billions of other people who are just doing things in general. But once you get enough followers you can start to branch out in different directions because you have an established community. The next I would say is post often with at least 3 videos a week being the least amount you post. And always post a video before going life. And lastly on Tiktok, going live for a couple of hours at a time will get you the most followers. I also then transfered or asked my Tiktok community to help me build my YouTube channel by subscribing and it was uphill from there. And on YouTube, now that I’ve gotten my community, it’s all about the shorts, and posting it on a schedule for at least 3 times a week. And to always remember the first 3 to 5 secs is your hook, do something fun or shocking.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

The best way society can support creative is by having more conversations about their importance. Voice that they would rather have handmade items over manufactured. And avoid buying from companies with their cheap knockoffs.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doe_s_crafte_?igsh=M3pnb2MzdGJpdXdk
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doretha.james.1?mibextid=ZbWKwL
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@doescrafte?si=TV38dwG5oqe0H3bl