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Tom Guell | Episode 651
Tom Guell of BlueGuell Pottery is a hobby potter living on the farmland of rural Wisconsin. Like many other hobby potters, Tom is trying to find the balance of juggling a full time job, spending time with his family, building a small pottery business, and pursuing other hobbies.
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Even though it seems like you are flying by the seat of your pants there is a kind of plan isn’t there, a dream you are chasing even though you don’t know all the steps? Is that accurate?
Yeah, definitely. I am kind of using it as a plan to slowly build the business and take care of all the big expenses, buying the wheel, buying the kiln, and hopefully buying some of that bigger studio equipment now while I am working and having other sources of income and don’t need to dip into my pottery money, don’t need to make a certain amount of money to afford this. And hopefully I can walk away from the heavy construction at some point later in life and walk right into this business that I have spent this time building for the last twenty, thirty years, whatever it may be.
Does that mean instead of having a written down plan that you are functioning more along the lines of instinct?
Yeah, I am not one to write anything down or make any plans, I am about the biggest procrastinator in the world, so even if I did make plans I would put them off. I guess it would probably motivate me more if I set goals and wrote them down but at this time I have so much other stuff going on that it is kind of nice just letting it be what it is and still having it be fun for me and not letting it get too serious where it stresses me out.
So when you are planning a show do you put a lot of value in guesstimating?
I guess so, yeah.
I like how you answer with, I guess so ! (laughter)
if you don’t give a definite answer then nobody can hold you to that, right?
Yeah, I’m sorry go ahead. You put a lot of value in guesstimating…go ahead.
Yeah, the first craft show I did kind of gave me an idea for the next one and that gives you an idea for the next one and you just kind of base it on past experience to plan out your future.
So then how do you approach your social media marketing, because you do most of your sales through Etsy so how do you approach marketing, do you just kind of do what you want?
Yeah, pretty much. I just do what I think people are going to like. I don’t want to post a hundred videos of me making coffee mugs or post a video of me making a coffee mug every week. I feel like people get bored with that so I try to…when I feel like I have something of value to put out there, I put it up and pretty much leave it at that. I definitely could do more. Again it comes down to the time thing. I just don’t have the time for it right now.
It seems that in order to fly by the seat of your pants you have to be willing to not be the expert and just kind of do what you can do.
Yeah, that’s my approach to it, I guess. It might not be the best if you are trying to build your business right here right now but for me it is all I really feel the need to do.
Does that mean you can have more fun on the way instead of being results driven?
That’s the goal, I guess. If it’s not fun I would probably lose interest real quick and I’ve got plenty of other hobbies that I would just kind of phase this thing out of my life if it got to be where it wasn’t fun and I would pursue something else.
What is you favorite thing to do with your family (your daughter)?
Boy, just mess around and be silly. Go play in the yard and jump on the trampoline. One of my friends dropped off a little toy four-wheeler that she buzzes around the yard on now. Just watch her be a kid and do silly things.
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