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

Alright, Yolanda thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I definitely hope to be remembered by my family as someone who loves them more than anything in world. My children, how they navigate adulthood, the way they treat others, how they represent our family, that’s important to me. I hope my family remembers how they are cherished and knew that I would do anything for them, I’m always in their corner and their biggest cheerleader.

In business I hope I have and continue to inspire both kids and adults to try something new, to not be afraid to make a mistake. Allow yourself to freely create and express yourself. I hope I have inspired others to not be intimidated by sewing and to keep the art alive and pass it on. I hope that I have inspired others to know that you don’t have to follow traditional career paths. You can create a career you love, doing what you love. Know that it requires a lot of work and self discipline but you are more than capable.

Yolanda, 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?

Sewing is in my dna. I grew up in Mississippi with my grandparents and taught myself to sew through trial and error and just watching my grandmother. I started out with doll clothes but quickly transitioned into creating my own clothing.

As I grew into an adult and moved to California, I went the traditional route and got a “good corporate job”. Most of my career was in retail both on the sales floor and in the buying office.
Once I was married and had children, I realized a traditional 9-5 job, however as a salaried employee it was often far over an 8 hour day, just wasn’t the best for my family. I had tremendous mom guilt. I was missing so much and knew that I was paying someone else to take care of my kids. I wanted to be a traditional mom not a traditional employee. I’m all for parents doing whatever works best for their own family. As for me, I wanted to participate in the pta, be the ice cream lady, be there for school events, bake cookies and make lunches. Something had to change but I knew I still needed an income.

Thanks to the support of my husband, I was able to leave my corporate job and enter the entrepreneurial world. Initially when I left my job, I created a kids’ clothing line, Itsy Glitsy. I sourced all the materials, created and sewed all of the designs, all by myself. I hit the pavement and got my designs into 8 local boutiques, including Kourtney Kardashian Barker’s store Smooch in Calabasas. Kourtney was nothing but kind and gracious to me and gave me lots of great business advice. As my company grew, I realized that it was taking so much of my time away from my family, the reason I left my corporate job. Creating a line, sewing, pitching to stores was a tremendous amount of work. I was just as busy and I got very little sleep. I needed a career that would free up more of my time. I began to notice when my daughter’s friends would visit they were fascinated with my sewing machine and loved creating little projects. The idea of teaching kids to sew was birthed!

Currently, we at Sew Contagious offer afterschool sewing classes, host birthday parties and Girl Scout Workshops. I have been at it for over a decade and I would say my business is still not where I want it to be. I absolutely love introducing the art of sewing to children. I love the ideas they come up with and the look of pride on their faces when they complete and often wear their own creations.

I currently rent a space from Degas Dance Studio in Encino and travel to my customers for birthday parties and Girl Scout Workshops. My goal, my dream is to open my own sewing studio, a creative space for both kids and adults to unwind, to create, to sew.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn not to devalue my gift and not to charge what I’m worth. Kourtney Kardashian helped with this early on. She was my first client when I had my kids clothing line and actually explained to me that I needed to increase my cost to her and why. Throughout the years I’ve had other wonderful women in my life to remind me to charge my worth, and then add tax.

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

Social media is a huge part of my marketing and it requires a lot of work! I initially started with a Facebook page for Sew Contagious. I would post photos of kids sewing, along with highlights from Girl Scout Workshops and birthday parties. I began to see an increase in my followers when I started posting tutorial videos, especially when I would go live and sew and answer questions. You have to take a look at your analytics and know who is viewing your content. You also need to know the audience you want to target. When my Facebook account was up and running next came Instagram, followed by Pinterest and now TikTok. I would say about 80% of my content is sewing related, tutorials or sewing tips. I will occasionally post quotes, funny videos or polls to spark engagement. I also add in a bit of my personal life to create more a connection with my audience.
I think for me an important part of social media is consistency and authenticity. Be yourself, don’t try to be perfect, just do something, add value! There are many social media platforms however, I tend to focus on just the four. It’s easier for me to manage and maintain a regular posting schedule.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sewcontagious.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sewcontagious
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sewcontagious
• Youtube: https://www.YouTube.com/sewcontagious
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/sewcontagious
• TikTok: https://www.TikTok.com/Itssewcontagious

Image Credits
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