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Mollie Jenkins | Episode 250
Born and raised in Columbus, GA Mollie took her first ceramics class in High School and from then on has had a passion for turning clay into functional items. While attending Auburn University she began to sell her pottery and then started Mollie Jenkins Pottery. Upon graduating with a BFA from Auburn in May 15’ Jenkins moved back to Columbus to focus on her business and in February she made the move to Nashville, TN where she has since been growing her business and pursuing pottery as a career.
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When you are starting over you are going to be experiencing a lot of change, how do you keep from resisting that change?
So for me, moving up here, I guess I kind of lucked out. It was a little bit of a seamless transition. The biggest thing I faced was finding a studio that I felt fit for me. I looked around and looked around and found a few but I didn’t think they were a great fit so I just waited it out for a little while and ended up with this fabulous community and studio that I am in now. But resisting the change I think is probably difficult. I don’t really love change, I have lived in the same place for the majority of my life. So I really lucked out and feel this was a great fit.
How much planning was required to pull this move off?
A little bit.We came up and did house hunting for awhile and that was a bit challenging. Planning wise. this probably wasn’t the best way to go about it but we kind of just moved and once I got up here I got my feet on the ground and starting looking for studio space and every thing else that is involved in a move. I guess I kind of did it a little backwards and just came on up here and figured it out when I got up here.
How do you go about building new relationships once you are settled in?
A lot of it has just been mutual friends and with so many people moving here there are a lot of people from school who have moved up. So it’s been really nice that this has been kind of a hub for people who have graduated from school and there are a bunch of colleges that are up here as it is. It’s a bit of a young person community I feel like.
How important is dreaming and setting goals for your success?
I think that is very helpful. For me I kind of have where I’d like to be in ten years, and that is kind of my aspiration and where I imagine my pottery business will be. I think it is extremely important. Even for me I try to set goals kind of on a weekly basis because I end up veering off into something that I didn’t need to get done.
We tend not to see our own quirkiness but our friends tend to see it, so what is one of those quirks that your friends have pointed out to you that you had no idea that you did ?
Oh gosh, I think I have some sayings that usually aren’t typical and a lot of times I kind of get them a little backwards. Or I tend to whistle a lot more than I thought I did. I took video of a friend in our studio working on his pottery and the next day when he posted it on Instagram he said, I didn’t notice at them time, but when I posted it I realized you were whistling the whole time. I tend to do things I don’t know that I am doing.
What has been the best business advice you have gotten from the book you recommended?
Really it’s kind of the nitty gritty on personal finances versus business finances. I am not financially or business savvy so reading through this book opened my eyes to what I need to pay attention to and how I need to organize everything on the business side of it.
BOOK
Small Time Operator by Bernard B. Kamoroff
Contact
Instagram: @MollieJenkinsPottery