We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stefani Reeder. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stefani below.
Stefani, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later
I officially opened my shop ‘The Kamikaze Butterfly’ in summer of 2020. I actually started it as a new creative hobby and pass-time in lock down, but it pretty rapidly grew and became my full time work. I think everything that happened was in perfect time; during lockdown, we lived online. We spent more time on the internet than ever before with social media, online shopping, etc. So opening up even the smallest lane to express a new form of creativity (especially showcased online) was definitely the right move.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m an artist, musician and business owner based in Nashville TN. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and was surrounded by art and music in Seattle, which was the artistic king in the 90s. I couldn’t escape it if I wanted to. I embraced it and ran with it, and it branched out in hundreds of directions before rooting itself professionally in a couple of fruitful plots. I’ve always been a creative, but it wasn’t until 2020 that I could call art my full time career. Visual arts have always been a fun outlet for me but was never taken as seriously as music. I heavily pursued music throughout high school and my early 20s, but once my shop TKB took off in 2020, it took a little bit of a backseat for a minute. Excitingly enough, I’ve been releasing music again now too (you can find me at REEDER)! So that’s exciting now to have these correlating creative pursuits to work with.
Something I never expected to be was a shop owner, though, so that part is still something I’m adjusting to! The art is the “easy” part!
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
I handmake every single product I sell.
Something interesting I’ve learned along this process is marking something “handmade” doesn’t necessarily mean the artist/seller hand makes it. I am the only person working in my shop at any given time, and every product I sell is created, made, packaged and sold by me. It can be good and bad though, it takes sway longer and can cost way more to do things this way. Something I’ve learned in the process is to appreciate truly handmade items more than I ever did before. I’m much more patient and understanding when it comes to processing times, shipping times and small imperfections. I actually sort of prefer a little bit of humanness showing through the product when I order handmade goods online! I definitely embrace the tiny mistakes.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Since 2020 my shop TKB has been my full time income, but of course it has its ups and downs.
Money can be inconsistent, orders can get overwhelming. Handling the creative process as well as running a business as well as keeping calm and pleasant during tough customer service interactions, it can all wear on anyone.
I think my resilience shows because I’m not quitting anytime soon. No matter how busy or slow my day/week is I’m still in that studio working on new products and exploring new realms of my shop. I’m an artist for life, if all of this went away tomorrow, I’d still spend the rest of my life creating art and music and I can’t even fathom that not being a major part of my life. I’m not going anywhere!
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.Etsy.com/shop/thekamikazebutterfly
- Instagram: @TheKamikazeButterfly / @StefaniReeder
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3adOdW7vNhIudLH11gbBSd?si=WKAg1FZ0SxusHZWFUEtmYQ
Image Credits
Product photos taken by myself Self photo taken by Audrey Crawford