Stitchography with Cheryl Sleboda

This week my guest is Cheryl Sleboda.  Don't you love that t-shirt.  She is the designer of the sewing skull and she sells those t-shirts and other items with that imprint.  You cam find them on her website HERE.

 

 1.  Please introduce yourself (actual and professional name) and describe your areas of expertise

I'm Cheryl Sleboda aka Muppin of Muppin.com.  I'm a quilt and textile artist from Plainfield IL who is now a full time quilt teacher/ artist/ cosplay maker.  I also teach artist business courses and do business consulting, and just started a new cosplay business in addition to my quilting business.   I have a line of products from sewing skull shirts and merchandise to light up "eTextile" kits to tools for teaching heirloom sewing techniques. 

 2.  What is your background and how did you arrive at your current job(s)

I spent the last 20 years as an executive at a comic book distribution company, but my love of quilting soon started a side business.  I was constantly asked to teach my techniques on lighting up quilts or doing fabric manipulation.  I used every vacation day I had to travel for quilting, and now the side business is my main job!   I love to teach and I have even started teaching cartooning for quilters to show you that anyone can draw and turn those drawings into a quilt.

 3.  How many hours a week do you devote to your job?

I put in anywhere from 60-80 hours a week. 

 4.  Where do you physically work?

I work out of my home studios and office.  I have both a sewing studio where I sew and a video studio where I shoot my YouTube videos.  

 5.  What do you sell and how do you sell it? (It can be a service)

My products are mostly sold when I'm teaching in person or at my website.  I do my consultation work over the phone or Skype, and I am about to launch some online courses, which is exciting. 

 6.  What are you working on now?

I'm in the middle of doing a big cosplay costume project, an art quilt, and writing a book and an online course at the same time! 

 7.  What do you do when you are not working?

I love comic books, and I read them voraciously.  I also love hand stitching and TV, so it's like a two-for-one. I also read a lot of business books...for fun. 

8.  Perhaps an indelicate question, but people starting out want to know - what are your income sources?

This is different for everyone, but for me, my income is mostly related to in person teaching.  The sales, kit fees, and other marketing I'm able to do in person far outweigh strictly online sales.  I do a blog post every year breaking down my revenue streams. You can find that here: http://muppin.com/wordpress/index.php/a-peek-behind-the-curtain-comparing-2015-to-2016/  It's a lot of spinning plates to have so many, but its important not to have all your eggs in one basket. 

 9. If you could give one suggestion to someone starting out, what would it be?

I say this in my most popular lecture... Do a lot of work.  I don't mean work 60-80 hours.  I mean put in the time for making lots of quilts or whatever it is you do.  Perfect your techniques.  If I didn't do that, I would not be in a position to be able to pull from all of that expertise. 

 10.  Where can people find you and/your products? (FB, blog, website, IG, Twitter, stores

You can find my main quilting page at www.muppin.com, and my new cosplay business at www.sewmuchcosplay.com.  I'm on FB at https://www.facebook.com/muppindotcom/, on Instagram as @muppindotcom, and twitter as @muppin.