We were lucky to catch up with Megan Ryan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Megan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My mission, being a maker supporting local makers in my community.

I started hosting outdoor markets in Nov of 2020 as a safe way to bring people together during Covid. After my first couple of events I realized how much I enjoyed hosting and making connections with others in my community. It made me feel good to give people a safe space to share their crafts with others.

In January of 2021 after a couple of test runs of markets, I turned my side hustle into my job and established my business, Freckled Hunnies LLC. The name came from the commonality of people having freckles and hunnies as a pronoun for persons across the board.

Freckled Hunnies is for EVERYONE. The connections and friendships I have made through this business, has been the most rewarding part of it all.

As a maker myself, I understand the struggles of getting your work out there and finding the right methods that work for your own business. With this background, I know that paying high fees and being 1 out of 100 vendors can make it difficult to push your work. I pride myself on being a makers market that has a reasonable vendor fee and hosts smaller events to give people a realistic chance on growing their business. It should be about the artists and their dreams coming true. W

Megan , 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’m a maker and host of makers market held in downtown Cary, NC at Crosstown Pub, 154 E. Chatham St. I love creating and hosting events because the joy I see it brings others makes me happy. There is no feeling comparable to making someone feel seen and their art feel appreciated.

I personally create jewelry, digital and hand painted art, and small home decor items. Through my craft I have been able to collaborate with other artists in my area and create amazing art together. Networking is so important in this industry and that’s something I try to push with my vendors. It can lead to opportunities and grow your business. I have known artists from Freckled Hunnies events that have started side businesses together because they could team up and make create something great. Seeing people’s businesses grow as a result from my markets, is the testament of Freckled Hunnies.

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

Personal rejection, it fuels me to keep going for myself and other artists. It is hard and vulnerable putting your work out there for people to see. Even after years of making art and doing markets, I still get bummed out when people don’t buy my work and try hard to not take it personally, that I know and understand everyone has different taste in art. But when people purchase from me and tell me how they genuinely love my work, it’s an amazing feeling and something I’m proud of. I know my vendors and other artists have experienced this too. Having a community to vent about these feelings and moments of self-doubt is important and it’s good to process it. Having the community to lean on and offer that space is what keeps me resilient.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Yes, I did turn Freckled Hunnies and my art business, Evergreen Studios into my full time career. My professional career journey has been interesting, I have always juggled multiple jobs. During 2021, I have been running my two business while working at my husband’s family business, Crosstown Pub as a manager. On top of all that my husband and I have a daughter that is almost two years old and she’s my favorite job.

When I started Freckled Hunnies, I hosted one event a month, then twice a month, and then it became an every weekend thing. It got to the point that I realized with my events and vending at them myself, I was making a profit to live off. To make it clear, Freckled Hunnies vendor fees mostly go to the event, I pay myself out a small portion of that for my time invested in hosting. The majority of my income comes from art sold at Freckled Hunnies and other markets I participate in.

It has taken me 2 years to get to this point in my career and finally being my own boss. I’m so proud to be at this point in my life and the freedom it has brought me. I get to do what I love and spend more time with those I love.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.freckledhunnies.com
• Instagram: @freckledhunnies
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/freckledhunnies

Image Credits
Sara Joy Tiberio of Sara Joy Studio