BROOKE & SARAH - THE FINDERS KEEPERS
ON BEING A COURAGEOUS CREATIVE
In this episode, we’re chatting with Brooke & Sarah, the two best mates behind Australia’s biggest design market, The Finders Keepers.
Like all great relationships, they met each other on the dance floor, but it was their shared loved of fashion and design that saw them come together to work on a creative project; a market slash festival where they, and other creatives, could sell their own wares.
The first five years of their business was a financial struggle, until they decided they needed to build not only for love, but also for money.
We covered how they stayed motivated in those first five years, how the business model has evolved over time, why Partnerships has become a core part of their strategy, and what being a ‘courageous creative’ means to them and how it can help YOU overcome your creative blocks.
You’ll learn:
Why the duo had a fear of success, and how this played out as they hired their first employees and signed big contracts
Why Brooke calls herself the ‘hands’ of the business, and Sarah the ‘brains’
Their top tips for building mutually fulfilling Brand Partnerships
The huge impact COVID had on their business, and how they managed to stay afloat
What Brooke advises you MUST have with you as a first-time stallholder
Why thinking of themselves as being ‘courageous creatives’ has encouraged them to overcome fear and give everything a go
We hope you enjoyed this conversation – for more podcast action follow us on Instagram @lady.brains, or sign up to our monthly newsletter at www.ladybrains.com
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“So, I think that was probably a pivotal point of our growth. As Brooke said, I think that was about five years in to the journey. We had to treat it seriously and go, well, we’ve got to make more money. So that involved lots of learning and sitting down and doing small business courses, being more strategic with how much things cost and making sure that we were charging the right amount for the floor space. ”
“I always explain it as...Sarah is the brains and I’m the hands. So, anything that you see in the physical sense is me, but Sarah is the heart of the business.”
“It took us a while to find the groove because in the beginning, we both were doing everything. As much as you’d probably want to say there’s a juicy story like ‘there’s tension’, but we actually haven’t ever really had tension. It all just fell into place. That sounds like a romantic story. But it did. It literally just fell into place. ”
“One thing that we find works is the cultivation of relationships in partnerships. Sometimes they take a long time, they can take a year or longer...something that we do is invite them to our events, have a conversation, give them a free ticket, send them a product or whatever works for your business, I think they are a bit of a slow burn, it’s like PR, you really have to put in the work and build those relationships and make sure that they’re a right fit. ”
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