Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Pamela Tomlin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Pamela thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I guess I have always been creative and I get from my family. My great grandfather had a slew of vaudeville theaters – my grandmother was artistic and so was my mother. From a young age I loved singing and dancing… and studied theater at Rollins college. After school I got into TV and became a successful producer and traveled all over the world doing all kinds of stories. And my husband is a TV producer – yes I married my boss – lol. After living in NYC for 25 years John and I moved to Ipswich, Ma. There I was producing freelance tv for all the local news organizations, but was getting sick of traveling 2hours each way for work. In January of 2020 – I was out of work and bored to tears watching Grey’s Anatomy around the clock. My husband pleaded with me to get a hobby. So I decided to paint a nautical flag sign that spelled out the name I gave to our house “Clambox” – because it was so small.
Then Covid hit… and we were sitting around the outside fire pit looking straight at the sign I made that we hung on the house – and a friend suggested I make more. That night I put a picture on Facebook and got 10 orders!
That was April 20, 2020 – and so I got busy in my one car garage and driveway. I actually found the painting to be very soothing and rewarding. But what was even more rewarding was the reactions I got from people who ordered them. I loved it… and so Ipswich River Craft took off. I feel like I have used my creative gene’s mixed with my producing experience and created a great little company. I paint, shoot lots of video’s and have made almost 3800 people pretty happy.

Pamela, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I grew up in CT living on the water and and always loved nautical stuff. The colors, the sports, the water and beach. – And I still live on the water now in Ipswich Ma. I feel like what i am doing – making nautical flag signs was always meant to be for me. My entire creative life has brought me back to the water and I love it.

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

My entire career pivot story happened because of Facebook. I posted my sign that I made and everyone wanted one. I took and online seminar to learn more about how to navigate the site and now I post regularly. I’ve joined lots of groups and when a post get a lot of eyeballs I then boost it with money. And I have tried to focus on people who love the water like me – targeting water towns and getting a presence. My local town loved my art and its hanging all over in and on peoples houses. Ipswich made me.

But I also aggressively promoted my little hobby. I got people to write about me in a bunch of newspapers, magazines, and on TV. I was even features on ABC World News Tonight with David Muir… for being Made in America. It was giving Tuesday November 30, 2021 and they talked about my service plaque. It has the united states military service flag on it along with the vets 3 initials in nautical flags. For all made we donate to Homes For Our Troops – an organization that helps severely injured vet with housing. As soon as that TV spot aired my computer started dinging like a Las Vegas casino – and the orders poured in. We got 700 orders in 2 days all needing to be done for Christmas. We did it – it was crazy but I just put on my producer hat and hired 30 elves and got it done. It’s been sooooo rewarding.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I love making people happy – and thats what i do. When I was a tv a producer I loved producing stories – I felt like it was artwork and it was and i was so proud of my work. And now I love being an artist and having my own business that makes people happy. And therefore making people happy makes me happy.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ipswichrivercraft.com
• Instagram: @ipswichrivercraft
• Facebook: ipswich river craft also Pamela Hadden Tomlin
• Linkedin: Pamela Tomlin https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamela-tomlin-a39493/
• Youtube: ipswich river craft. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lL8584Ew1E