We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennifer Cox a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer, thanks for joining us today. Along with taking care of clients, taking care of our team is one of the most important things we can do as leaders. Looking back on your journey, did you have a boss that was really great? Maybe you can tell us about that boss and what made them a wonderful person to work for?

The retail shop, Make.Do., is one of a couple of businesses I run, but this one is the business that gives me the most back. I had always been trained through high school, college and graduate school to be a high-performer, rewarded for hard work. That turned into me thinking I had to always do the most often at the expense of my physical and mental health. My last year of grad school, I had a fabulous mentor/colleague while working at PBS in Alexandria, VA in the General Counsel’s office. Chrissy Stroh, a lawyer in the office told me once as she was leaving for the day, something along these lines, “Jen, you spend so much time working and doing more than what’s asked. You’re missing out. You have in front of you the most beautiful horses, waiting for you to experience them, ride them, be with them, but you’re spending all your time in the stables cleaning up.”

Those weren’t her exact words, but the metaphor about missing out on horseback riding time in favor of cleaning the stables stuck with me. It’s informed the way I want to be in the world as a business owner for my staff (and customers!) at Make.Do., and for my colleagues at my consulting practice. I come from a place of assuming we all show up wanting to do our best, but that we also deserve to screw up, to take a break, to enjoy the process and not be defined by our end product, whether it’s that first sweater, or a client project. Life is too short to live in the stables.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started Make.Do. hoping to fill a personal void I felt in the craft community. I often felt patronized at best, or unwelcome at worst in places that purported to celebrate creativity and creative self-expression. My consulting practice, Ministry of Culture, is predicated on the idea that we should see color, we should see difference, we should learn to celebrate both. So, in my crafting life, I wanted a place where everyone — regardless of skills, regardless of resources, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation could feel valued and listened to. And, it started with snacks! I’m a firm believer in the power of breaking bread together as a means to forge community and build relationships. Our brand is about making making fun … with snacks. It’s a terrific way to ease tension and calm nerves when the first thing I ask people who enter the store is, “What snack can I get you?” It is the best kind of ice-breaker and put nervous new makers at ease, skeptical first visitors in a welcoming space, and encourages repeat customers to keep coming back for the salty/sweet that’s a vibe, not just snacks!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Well, we opened the doors at Make.Do. a week after COVID hit. So, it was a struggle to get through the first 6 months. I think the biggest lesson from that time was that asking for help or asking for patience while we worked through things would not be seen as a sign of weakness, but as a willingness to be transparent and that people would step up. We set about changing up our primary business model from bricks & mortar to online sales and had to quickly get up to speed about making digital and social a core focus of our operations. We also started to reach out to other black-owned shops around the country, and allies within our city, to do collaborative online events and virtual teach-ins. Those turned out to be some of the best relationships we have, and set the stage for ongoing “rising tide lifting all boats” work that we continue to do today.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

This JUST happened! I’ve wanted to diversify the revenue streams for the shop so that we’re not dependent on the cyclical nature of our industry. I thought, “Well, how hard could it be to organize a retreat for makers? Or, for makers of color?” Turns out, super hard. There’s a reason that businesses are built around event planning, and those skills are well outside of my wheelhouse. We were able to come up with a different approach leveraging existing events, and having us show up as the curator for travel to them. The risk for me was, I had to pre-pay for the coach and driver and wasn’t sure that the shop vibe would transfer to travel. I sent out a marketing email about the trip late on a Friday, and by Saturday, we’d reached 75% of capacity on the trip, with 2 weeks to go.

Contact Info:

• Website: heymakedo.com
• Instagram: @heymakedo