Episode 3: Kirsten Field - Kids Crafts with BestViewsReviews

Apurv : so hello and welcome to the product Life podcast this is a show for people passionate about everything from home and kitchen to electronics all about products and on the whole episode we have questions and we are going to talk about her company kids craft so let us welcome Kirsten field, she's an owner of kids craft and has worked on it for nine years in the past she has held managerial and strategic consultant roles in prestigious firms such as Pfizer and Deloitte, so thank you so much for joining us today question

Kirsten : thanks for having me

Apurv : so could you tell our viewers a little bit about yourself

Kirsten : sure so um as you said uh previously just previous to starting the company um I had worked in Consulting roles at Deloitte N2 um in Pfizer and Accenture and then took about a 10-year break to start our family and raise our kiddos and then I started getting back in you know getting the itch to kind of get back into the business World um and about that time we had attended a Bass Pro Shops uh event with our children and they were handing out crafts and I was thinking gosh you know I could probably create something that would be a little bit more high quality um that could be an easier craft for the kids to do and so I reached out to Bass Pro Shop and uh kind of the rest was history and we became one of their top suppliers for their in-store kids event crafts um up until 2020 when covet hit and so at that point um you know we were supplying over 2 million crafts to them a year and then the business kind of ceased to exist because all events got canceled due to coven and so I was really at a position of how do I pivot this company and keep it afloat you know crafts are a wheelhouse I can create a lot of crafts I know you know we have a dedicated Factory in China that produces our crafts but what's really going to differentiate Us in the marketplace and so that's how we kind of pivoted into creating these lead her and innovate her crafts and with kind of the message of like let's Empower girls if we're going to re create an entire company my girls have watched me start a business how can I help other girls to understand that impact on on kids and so that's how the new idea came about.

Apurv : Got it so what is the differentiator of product from other competitors in this niche

Kirsten : yeah so that's a great question um so the idea came about is you know I'm a mom and I'll go into a Meyer or a Target or a Walmart and you know there's a few different dream catcher crafts out there and so again what would differentiate us you know we we include high quality materials but beyond that what else can we do and so that's really what gave me the inspiration to theme these crafts around Mighty trailblazing women that had a dream so not only are we providing a craft that say was a dream catcher but we're we're providing a story behind a mighty woman that actually had a dream and so then we create um we have a story behind them so the girls not only get a craft kit they get an educational story behind the woman that had a dream and then they get to create a tangible Keepsake craft to go along with it so the differentiator for us is creating an educational story behind The Mighty Trailblazers high quality materials and then we also include lead her question cards with each craft kit and these kind of serve as a parental resource for girls and parents to kind of talk about you know when's a time that you used your voice for change when when did you have a situation that you felt uncomfortable and wanted to tell your story and so um these kind of just serve as a parental resource to kind of go beyond just creating a craft but like let's think about your voice and the impact it has and how can you be a trailblazer as you grow up.

Apurv : oh that's quite interesting so uh actually you had actually share this statistic that two-thirds of the girls don't think they can be whatever they want to be.

Kirsten : yeah yeah so in our research a compelling fact that is found is that two girls two-thirds of girls really don't think that they are capable of being whatever they want to be and so to us that was a huge you know moment for us of like okay well how do we get education into these girls how do we show them these stories because the more examples that are shown to them of Mighty women that have gone before them and done things the more likely that they will be to think that they can do these kinds of things and so our goal is really just getting information in front of them and exposing them to the stories of these Mighty women and showing them that they have the capability as well we also have an innovate her line which is our kind of business in a box line so beyond just Trailblazers we want to show these girls that they can be entrepreneurs as well and so our innovate her craft kits are all about kind of jump starting their first business and so those um include all of the materials obviously for this one it would be pop and paper clips so they would create you know um adorable paper clip items to sell but beyond creating the items we include packaging that they can then package their paper clips so that they have a full finished product at the end that they can sell then at the end of the street or you know instead of a lemonade stand we also include a mighty girl business plan for these girls and so this is kind of their first little taste of how do you advertise your product you know um how do you call how do you cost your product you know how do you value it and so um Beyond just creating a craft we are trying to you know promote entrepreneurship and creating a full finished product that the girls can then sell and walking them through the steps of how do you actually take a product to Market and sell it.

Apurv : oh that's quite interesting now just shifting gears a little bit there are a couple of women oriented news events that have happened in the recent months for example a 22 year old Iranian woman named mahasa amini also known as Gina amini died in the hospital in Tehran Iran under suspicious circumstances the guidance protocol the religious morality meanie for not wearing the hijab in accordance with the government standards another famous news is the return of facets to power victory of Georgia Meloni she is opposed to abortion euthanasia same-sex marriage and LGBT parenting and another is the death of Queen Elizabeth II do you have any thoughts on these.

Kirsten : yeah I would say we are just at a really interesting um there are so many you know extreme political things going on right now and I think that it is more important now than ever for women to use their voice um you know when we talk about the stories that you were referring to in politics and in the world and what's going on you know women I think are tired of being told what to do and I think that they're they're standing up for who they are and what they believe and you know when we're talking about the abortion issue and you know what you have to wear but you know these are all government forced you know stories or not stories but government forced um you know rules that have been on and laws and I just feel like right now it's so important to show girls that you can stand up for change and you can be the change maker so whatever that change is um you know whether it is challenging government and wanting to wear different clothes or it's challenging government on uh you know the rights of your body it's important that you know that you have a voice and that your voice can stand up for Change and so I think that's that's how our craft kits at this point are um you know hopefully affecting a change further down the road where girls just know that by exposing them to stories of these women women and you know being an entrepreneur that you you have a voice and you can change.

Apurv : can you share some of the inspirational women's stories that come with you

Kirsten : sure so we have speak like Maya Angelou um and her story is well the themed craft around her story is be a rainbow in someone else's Cloud so at the end they'll create a full rainbow craft and so each craft is kind of themed around how these women stood up for change so Maya Angelou at one point in her young you know tween between Ages was actually mute she didn't talk at all and so then she found her voice and started using it and you know created the beautiful poems and stories that go along um you know that have been just made famous around the world and she was a big advocate for using your voice for Change and so her story is just so using her voice to then speaking beyond words you know and impacting change we have Rosa Parks here who was Brave and again Rosa Parks story was she was tired and she was told to move to the back of the bus and she was tired and she didn't want to do that and so it's standing up again for just change and I'm tired and I'm going to use my voice um Frida Kahlo her story is create she was famous for all of the self-portraits that she would do of herself and others and so that's kind of her her story and then we have again like entrepreneurial you know craft kits that speak to starting your own business and it's easier than you think and that's how you should start.

Apurv : so where did this idea of empowering girls in this manner originate from?

Kirsten : I think it just originated from my girls watching me create a business and you know I've been in business since 2013 and so um you know they've seen they've grown up with mom having a business you know whether it's running it out of our basement to moving to a warehouse to you know going to China it's um they've seen it progress and grow and I think them seeing me do it because I'm just a normal person you know them seeing me do it really shows them that they can do it too and so they would create you know Little Rock painting businesses at the end of the driveway or you know cutting our flowers and our mint down in our garden and selling those and so they've seen it they've mod they've seen it modeled for how to create a business and so that they've done it and so I think the inspiration was like if my girls see me doing it how can I affect change for other girls and how can we give them a jump start on businesses as well.

Apurv : Got it and how has the journey been so far in terms of product success sales the entire learning curve

Kirsten : yeah so the journey I just say you know for any small business covid was a huge hit right it really we were only a wholesaler prior to covid and so for us to Pivot the entire company redesign everything um was a huge shift and we didn't have a social media presence we didn't have a following we didn't have a tick tock Channel or a YouTube channel or you know any type of Instagram presence because we only were working with marketing managers and suppliers and wholesalers and so for us this has just been a huge Whirlwind of trying to um create something new and get the word out about our products and so I would say um you know we launched in 2022 in November no 2021 November of 2021 so we're coming up on one year of uh basically an entirely new company and I would say that the reception has been super positive um we have been featured in Good Housekeeping magazine we've been featured in Prevention magazine daily mom our products are so sold in my ear stores right now um we are online at HS person you know we're at Macy's stores so it's just the you know influence of these women I think is so powerful and it's so timely right now given all of the political stuff going on that um we've been met with uh positive reception to our craft kids.

Apurv : well congratulations you have done really well in a short span of time so uh do you have any plans of expanding or launching a new collection or something under kids craft

Kirsten : yes so I would say right now we are just working on again just our brand awareness and getting getting our product out there to be seen by you know so that we become you know a name for these women and um you know the products are so timely too because I think parents are looking for activities to kind of get their kids off of screen time and so it's a creative outlet that you know um can allow them to get off of their devices and you know be creative and have an educational opportunity to learn some stuff too so um the launching of this has been big, our plans for expansion would be um we have created girl power lunch boxes we have created a coloring book um some journals and so um the next phase of this would be next year introducing probably three more women trailblazing women and also adding probably an another two to three business in a box entrepreneurial craft kits for girls

Apurv : oh that sounds quite interesting so we at best views reviews use AI to analyze reviews and among the pros of your products were that kids crafts help Blends education entertainment creativity and fun into a lifestyle for preteens it is a wonderful and creative birthday gift for girls tweens and preteens it helps build up girls by teaching skills expressing through ART and encouraging to learn outside of the box however there were some minor drawbacks such as the adhesive backing may not be strong enough or the instructions may not be clear could you comment on these?

Kirsten : yeah so I think where you're talking about the adhesive backings is our create her line which is for kids three and up and um those are felt craft kits which have a self-adhesive felt sticker so that there's no glue required and so we make it really easy for young children to you know peel the backings off and then stick the felt onto the you know felt felt craft and um I think probably what that Reviewer is mentioning is just that they want the the sticker part to be even more sticky so that it stays on more um so I think that that would probably be what it is but we've kind of purposely made it easy for little hands and little kids to peel so I think that that probably um is what they're referring to there and then you were mentioning the instruction sheets we create all of our instruction sheets with picture instructions so that we can make it easy for kiddos to understand so maybe what they're talking about with regards to the instruction sheets is maybe putting more um you know text and verbiage to understand them better but um our goal was to create more picture instructions so that kids can learn and not have to be you know great readers to start out.

Apurv : yeah that makes sense well I just have one last question I just want to know like uh what is your marketing strategy to make people aware as you mentioned you're working on brand awareness

Kirsten : great question so again this has been just a huge learning curve for us um having no presence in social media or marketing I would say um our marketing strategy is we're actually working with a company that handles all of our Facebook and Instagram ads and then we're working to donate a ton of our craft kits to kind of get our name out there um one thing that I forgot to mention that's a differentiator for us is that we do give back a portion of our sales to organizations working to empower girls so beyond just us wanting to empower girls we really want to partner with those organizations that are on the ground doing that um so we have donated over 35000 in crafts already this year to organizations like Girls Inc of Westchester Girls on the Run of La girls pass activity Club so organizations that are actually doing things to empower to work to empower girls um and so I think that that alone is a part of our Market marketing strategy as well where we are just trying to continually get our name out there get in front of the community so they they can have brand where awareness of who we are and what we're trying to do we'd like to expand to Tic Tac but again it's just it's so new and we're trying to do so many things at once that you know so we want to eventually reach out to influencers as well in terms of the Tik Tok and Instagram movements.

Apurv : that's a very Noble thing that you're doing so uh I guess we're running out of time so thank you to our listeners for this for listening to this episode please support kidscraft and purchase their products by going to kids crafts and thank you for listening to this episode once again you can use a code cheer15 c-h-e-e-r 15 for a 15 discount and stay tuned for the next episode where we'll bring you an eco-conscious product and thank you Kirsten thank you once again for speaking to me and for telling us about your journey.

Kirsten : Thanks for having me.