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

Alright, Molly thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Quality control is a challenge almost every entrepreneur has had to focus on when growing – any advice, stories or insight around how to best ensure quality is maintained as your business scales?

The Clayful Co. was born out of a need for quality earrings. Having highly sensitive ears, I was limited in the earrings I could wear. I started making clay earrings after discovering how lightweight they are, knowing I could use high-quality posts to keep my sensitive ears happy. Gone were the days of boring studs! As this endeavor turned from a hobby into a business, quality has been at the forefront of every decision. Giving others with sensitive ears an option to rock fun, bold earrings has brought me tremendous joy.

The business began to evolve about six months after opening. My husband, Jake, is an engineer; he used his skill set to 3D print clay cutters (think mini-cookie cutters to cut the shapes out of clay). My creative designs and Jake’s engineering background made a perfect combination. We set out to create the sharpest clay cutters possible while also remaining durable; a rare combination. We have since sold thousands of clay cutters, yet we continue to tediously hand-inspect and sand every cutter that we sell. Jake and I spend countless hours each week doing this to ensure our quality never wavers.

This past year, our business has expanded yet again. Jake and I have created the ultimate resource for others who are interested in making clay earrings; our Premium DIY Polymer Clay Earring Kit. When I first started making earrings, I searched and searched to find a kit that had everything I needed, yet everything I found was extremely cheap, low quality, and left a lot to be desired. I ended up wasting countless hours and money researching all of the necessary tools/materials and buying them all individually. I knew there had to be a better, easier, and less-intimidating way for others to learn this craft. Our mission became creating a high-quality kit that includes everything needed to make 40 pairs of professional-grade earrings, all at an affordable price. Offering top-of-the-line materials, tutorial videos, and digital color recipes, sets our kit apart. We are thrilled to be able to bring quality into a space that was lacking options.

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?

I’m Molly, owner and creator of The Clayful Co.! The Clayful Co. offers polymer clay earrings, as well as hundreds of tools to create your own clay earrings.

I am a speech-language pathologist for an elementary school by day, and a small business owner by night. I have always had a passion for art. It has been a dream come true to see this life-long passion turn itself into a business. It is such a privilege getting to share my art through both clay earrings and the tools I design.

My incredible husband, Jake, is the behind-the-scenes mastermind of The Clayful Co. He has a degree in Aerospace Engineering and uses all of that knowledge to engineer the best cutters out there (I may be a bit biased, but it’s true!). His savviness is also how we got our clay tools on Amazon Prime (WOOP WOOP!). I’m forever grateful to have him not only as my husband but as my business partner as well. The Clayful Co. would not be where it is today without him.

I started making polymer clay earrings as a hobby/creative outlet in 2019. In March 2020, the pandemic put the world on pause for a while. After about a week of binge-watching Tiger King and baking lots of cookies, I realized it was time to find something productive to do with this gift of time. I decided to list my earrings on Etsy and was blown away by the positive response I received. Quarantine’s hidden blessing became evident: the birth of The Clayful Co. Over the course of the next five months (until the school year started back up again) I dove head first into developing my business. I suddenly found myself wearing countless new hats: social media manager, website developer, product photographer, customer service provider, product development, accountant, etc. This was one of my greatest seasons of personal growth and learning. When I started back up at my day job, I spent all of my nights and weekends working on the business. My husband, Jake, realized that he could add tremendous value by utilizing his engineering and business background. Jake was the missing piece that The Clayful Co, needed. From this point on we expanded into creating clay tools for fellow clay makers and have since designed over 100 clay cutters. We became the first small business to sell clay cutters on Amazon Prime. Looking back at all of the milestones throughout the lifespan of our business is an incredible feeling. Over the past year, we have developed the product we are most proud of: a Premium DIY Polymer Clay Earring Kit that includes EVERYTHING needed to make up to forty pairs of the highest-quality clay earrings. This is the kit I wish I had when I first started out. After a year of product research, recording video tutorials. and creating digital content, we launched our kit which is now helping others gain easier entry into this craft that I love so dearly.

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

When I started The Clayful Co., I was a social media newbie, so if I can learn, so can you! I am by no means an expert now, but have learned a lot along the way. Here are some tips that I have found to be the most helpful:

Build a Community:
The best thing you can do for Instagram growth is create and foster community. An amazing piece of advice I received was to genuinely invest in 100 loyal customers rather than pouring energy into attempting to reach huge audiences. As a bonus, you will make so many incredible new friends! I devote time daily to interacting with others on social media, whether that be commenting on their posts, sharing helpful information whenever I can, or (my personal favorite) gossiping with my instagram friends about last night’s episode of The Bachelor. By fostering those relationships and putting yourself out there, you allow others to get to know and trust you. Research has shown that customers are far more likely to make a purchase when they feel that they know who they’re purchasing from. This means interacting with your followers, developing genuine friendships, and yes… showing your face on your social media! I used to be terrified to post about anything non-business related, but I have found that my engagement actually increases when I mix my personal life into my social media. Yes, I know it can be uncomfortable at first, but it gets easier I promise! So my challenge to you is to show your face on your stories at least once per week; this does not have to be business-related (tell us a funny story, show us the delicious meal you just made, or best of all- show us your cute pup!). Additionally, your Instagram bio should have your name in it; this is a MUST! Adding your name is such a simple and easy way to help your customers feel more connected to you.

Consistency (with Balance):
Posting consistently drastically increases growth. Find out what post schedule works for you (whether it’s once a week or 5 times a week), and try to stick with it. At one point, I attempted to post a reel every day for 30 days, however, this was incredibly draining. I saw the same amount of growth posting daily as when I post 2-3 times per week (my sweet spot). I have also learned, however, to give myself grace with this. It can feel incredibly overwhelming to have the pressure of posting multiple times a week. To help with this, I batch edit posts/reels when I have the time to do so, then post them throughout the upcoming weeks. On weeks that I do not have the time to do this, I either recycle old content, or just simply don’t post and remind myself that it is okay (and healthy!) to take breaks from social media. Social media is important, but not more important than maintaining your work/life balance.

Have Patience:
If you would have told me back in 2020 that I would now have over 15k followers on instagram, I would be shocked! Despite all this growth, I’ve never had a “viral” moment where I gained a huge amount of followers overnight. My growth has been a slow, consistent incline. Patience has been key! Do not let yourself get discouraged, especially when you are just starting out. It is easy to feel that your growth is slow in the moment, but if you continue to build your community and post consistently, you will see that growth over time.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

We sell our products on our own website (through Shopify), Amazon Prime, and Etsy. We have found that there are pros and cons to all three platforms, which is why we find it beneficial to utilize all three.

Etsy: Etsy was the first selling platform I used. Selling on Etsy is a wonderful way to have your product discovered by customers! One of the greatest assets that Etsy brings is that the customers who are shopping on Etsy are already looking to shop small. The biggest downside to Etsy is the high amount of fees on each transaction.

Shopify: I built our website utilizing one of Shopify’s templates. I had absolutely zero knowledge of how to build a website, but the templates made it relatively easy to figure out. I love our Shopify store! It allows us to have total control of our product listings, create email lists, offer discounts, the list goes on and on. The only negative to using your own website is that customers have to directly search to find you.

Amazon: A major factor that sets our business apart is offering our tools on Amazon Prime. Learning how to have successful listings on Amazon has taken a TON of research; it is by far the most complicated of the three platforms we sell on. Some additional downsides are the transaction and fulfillment fees (the highest of any of the three platforms), having to create bulk inventory upfront to ship into Amazon warehouses, not gaining access to customers’ contact information, and having to compete with large companies selling cheap, mass-produced products. Despite these downsides, we have loved selling on Amazon. The large potential customer reach, time saved by utilizing fulfillment by Amazon, and providing our customers Prime shipping are the primary ways that Amazon helps our business.

Contact Info:

• Website: theclayfulco.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/theclayfulco
• Facebook: facebook.com/theclayfulco
• Youtube: youtube.com/channel/UCZTFW_uTShKr7ibqQk74u2A
• Other: Amazon storefront: amazon.com/stores/page/BFE32A55-773A-46F4-AE1B-124B4276C2C2