Rachel Maxwell on homesteading, the turning point for her online business, and how Facebook has helped her creative biz

{Photography by Jon Carpenter Photography}

1. In a sentence or two, could you tell us what you do?

Sure! I am a homesteader, hand-maker, healthy-liver (or I try to be J).  My passions are many, and I share them all in one way or another through my blog and my Etsy shop.  I work during the day as a program coordinator for a spirituality center in St. Paul, where I live.  On evenings, weekends, and everywhere in between, I create with my blog and my Etsy shop, and am in training to become a yoga instructor.

2. How did you get started?

My husband and I moved into our first house (with a backyard!) a little over a year ago, and we both do what we can to create from scratch.  I come from a background of working on organic farms and teaching garden/environmental education, so it was really exciting to have a backyard to garden in and to do this with my husband.

We decided we wanted to share our adventures in backyard gardening, preserving our harvest, creating (and eating!) recipes from whole foods, and everything in between.  So my blog, This Original Organic Life, developed as a way of making us accountable to truly living in a sustainable, creative manner and as a creative outlet for sharing our adventures in a way that inspires us and others.

My blog has really grown over the last year since I started it up (formerly as Wildflowers & Wheatgrass), and it was only in the last few months that I’ve really started moving ahead with consistency and a clear vision.

My Etsy shop was born because I’d been creating jewelry for a few years and people had been encouraging me to sell on Etsy.  I finally decided to take them up on this offer, and voila!   

3. What three words best describe your personality?

Passionate, creative, and intentional.

{Photography by Jon Carpenter Photography}

4. What character {from a book, movie or television} do you most relate to? Why?

I’d like to pretend any character played by Michael Cera.  He is the perfect mix of witty, awkward, and endearing.  That’s my secret side.

My more public side (this may seem incredibly cheesy/cliché) relates to Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love.  I say this not because Julia Roberts would play me in a movie (it would probably be Michael Cera), but because I’m always seeking, trying to navigate my path, and find joy in who I am along the way.

5. What’s your favorite part of your creative business?

Creating!  I love putting things together, not always knowing what my end product or project will look like, and then seeing it grow into something that I’m proud of.

I also love being able to contribute to the world in a positive way through my work both in my Etsy shop and my blog.  As I mentioned, I have a background as an educator in the environmental sustainability field and am very passionate about gardening and food as a catalyst for creating a healthier humanity and Earth.  I see my blog as an extension of this passion, and have really begun to see my work as a form of education in a way I hadn’t realized when I dove into this.

I love being a part of this amazing, mysterious, vast, and wonderful world of online creatives because I know I can really touch people through this venue.  My hope is to move people toward positive change in their lives through sharing my own stories, ups-and-downs, advice, how-tos, and dreams of what can be.

{Photography by Jon Carpenter Photography}

6. What’s a typical workday like for you?

Since I do have a more full-time “day job,” (that I happen to really enjoy!) I have to work all this other stuff in wherever space exists.

I usually do my blogging and Etsy-ness in the evenings and on weekends, as one would expect, but I often have ideas throughout my day and jot them down.

If I’m spending a day working on my creative business, I start with a breakfast, perhaps some eggs, grapefruit, and a lovely cup of coffee.  I check emails, catch up with my different outlets for my business – my blog and stats, Facebook, Etsy, Pinterest, Twitter, you know the drill.  I like to spend some time working my online presence in all these forms, which I’ve found to be very crucial for my business.  Honestly, most of my work in my creative business is spent connecting, networking, marketing, all those things that really make my work worth doing.

Then I’ll get going on a blog post – for example, by making a recipe, which I photograph myself.  I have outlines at least in my head of what the post will come out as.  I also follow a loose schedule on Excel that I’ve developed as a way to store and organize all my post ideas.  One post can take up to a few hours, sometimes longer.

I have to factor in things like how long the actual recipe, DIY project, etc. takes to do (since I typically document my own walking through the project rather than reposting content from someone else’s blog), then my own writing up of the post, editing of photos as needed, and marketing it via my networks once I’ve got it up.

When I’m making jewelry, it’s usually more fluid and I can create while listening to music or a podcast.  This, too, involves quite a process of taking photos, editing them, and then listing everything on Etsy.

{Photography by Jon Carpenter Photography}

7. How do you stay productive working for yourself?

Coffee is wonderful.

But really, I am motivated by my own excitement and passion for what I am doing.

Keeping a schedule and setting goals also helps.  I set realistic expectations; I would love to write a post a day, but I know that this is something I can’t invest in right now or the quality of my content would suffer.  Instead, I set a goal of posting at least 1-2 times/week and keeping up with my Facebook daily.  Then, if I exceed these goals, it’s just a wonderful bonus!

8. What is homesteading? And, how did you get started with it?

The way I define homesteading is intricately connected to sustainable living.  For me, it’s a physical practice of creating things from the most basic of ingredients I can find.  At the same time, it’s a spiritual practice of eliminating the unnecessary, living more simply, more connected to the earth and to my own rhythms.

Homesteading in action is doing what you can to live more self-sufficiently and as close to what nature intends as possible – i.e., cooking from your garden or from basic, whole ingredients rather than eating packaged foods; making your own laundry detergent rather than purchasing it; creating your own entertainment and fun that is tied to productive work rather than being more passively entertained by television.

I got started as I began learning how unhealthy (both for people and for the environment) the industrial food system is.  I read lots of books at first, and then took some time to live and work on a few organic farms to really put my blossoming values around living more healthfully and closer to the land into action.  I became very aware of the many ways we can impact the health and wellbeing not only of ourselves and the environment, but of others, through the many choices we make in a day – from what we eat, to the clothes we wear, to where we choose to purchase things from.  Homesteading is a way to eliminate some of the wasteful and harmful consumption that we’re often accustomed to.  Though I live in the city now, I have stayed close to my values of living lightly on the earth – which for me has manifested in the form of urban homesteading.  

{Photo provided by Rachel Maxwell}

9. What would you suggest as the first steps if someone is interested in homesteading?

I think starting simply and not being too hard on yourself if you aren’t Miss Suzy Homesteader right away is the best suggestion I can offer.  I am not her either – sometimes I eat subs from Jimmy John’s or create way more waste than should be allowed.

Finding an entry point that you are naturally drawn to and then building from there will make things more accessible and enjoyable.

I started as a gardener/farmer and then naturally became drawn to cooking healthfully because I wanted to use what I was actually growing.  Then from there I became interested in learning about herbs and natural health, which has led me to make my own cleaning and body products.

It’s been a journey for me, a progression over a number of years, and I still have a long way to go before I am Miss Rachel Homemaker.  It is fun, though, and that is part of the point – to find where you fit and have fun with it!

There’s such joy and a sense of accomplishment, peace, and fulfillment that comes with creating something yourself and knowing that you and others will be nourished and uplifted by this creation rather than harmed in some way.

10. What has been the most difficult thing about building your creative business online?

I think so many of us starting out in the creative online business/blogging world are doing other work to really make ends meet, so we look at our online business as “just a hobby” and it is hard to really own it at first.

I started my blog and Etsy about 1 year ago, and it took me really until just a few months ago to put myself out there to my friends, family, and the social media world!

A barrier I see is this tendency we have as a society to name ourselves as one distinct thing.  I am a _______________.  She does _____________ for a living.  This is important in some ways, but can also be very limiting and confusing for those of us who have lots of interests!

I see myself as a Renaissance woman of sorts – a blossoming one at best – but what I mean is that I have many passions and varying talents.  There are so many Renaissance men and women out there that may be stifling some of their creativity because they don’t know what to call themselves or how to live into their multi-faceted abilities.

For a while, because we are told to “pick something and stick with it,” I had (and still do at times) struggled with feeling that my interest in so many things meant that I am fickle and unable to commit.

The turning point for me in my online business and blog has been really owning who I am and what I am doing.  I decided to claim my varying interests and let go of any projections I had put on myself from others that I had to be and do one thing, and do that well.  Instead, I am meant to be a lot of things, and to do some of them really well, and others not so well – and that is okay with me because this is who I am!

Once I claimed my identity and allowed myself to really delve into all these different parts of myself, I have found my creativity really taking off and with that, my business and blog have as well.

So most of the difficulties I’ve had and continue to have are with myself.  Luckily, I can have an influence on these and turn these challenges into successes.

{Photography by Jon Carpenter Photography}

11. If you had to pinpoint one thing that has helped your business more than anything in the past year, what would it be?

This may or may not surprise people, but Facebook has been amazing for that!  One of the more successful things I’ve done is actually indulging in some Facebook advertising, which helped me go from having just a handful of “likes” to having hundreds, literally within the span of a couple of weeks.

I know people have a hard time investing in Facebook advertising, or other ads for that matter, but for me it has really proved to be an amazing way to grow my business and blog.  Also advertising on others’ blogs/websites whose readership is similar to mine has been great.

12. What’s the best creative business advice you’ve ever received?

Network.  Making connections within this amazingly populated and rich blog world is the best thing I have done.  There are so many other creatives out there making it happen; it has been wonderful to not only learn from these trailblazers, but also to connect and partner with them so we can symbiotically support one another in our work.

13. What books or magazines are you currently reading?

I love Organic Gardening, Urban Farm Magazine.

As far as books, I’m always running around with different ones half-read, written in, and piled up here and there.  I’m currently really into Parker Palmer, a Quaker teacher and activist who writes a lot on spirituality, purpose, and healing.  I also like Wendell Berry for his inspiring words on agriculture, community, and living the good life.

14. What are your top three favorite blogs? 

Going Home to Roost

Growing Up Herbal

She Makes a Home

{Photography by Jon Carpenter Photography}

15. What are you currently working on? Anything new coming up?

My husband and I are developing more creative outlets for our antique spoon creations.  We have found that people really love the recycled spoon bracelets, rings, and garden markers we make.  I say we because he has really been the impetus for using spoons as a medium in jewelry.   We are working on doing more personalized pieces by letter stamping bracelets with names, words, and quotes.  We’re also working on some necklaces from spoons that we are excited about!

On my blog, I’m working on really investing in some cohesive, professional, but still personal and whimsical brand identity and design.  I’m still in planning stages and seeking some great designers right now, but am really excited about the future.