Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How Global Artisans Are Building Scalable Brands with Susan Hull Walker

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How Global Artisans Are Building Scalable Brands with Susan Hull Walker · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  Three, two, one, zero.
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  Ignition.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with the number one small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  Now here's your host, the small biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Hi there.
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  Welcome to another episode of the Small Biz Chat podcast.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, Small Biz Lady, your host, America's number one small business expert, and
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  I am so excited to welcome you to another episode.
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  We are the go to destination for entrepreneurs who want to build a profitable business that
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  creates freedom, wealth, and lasting impact.
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  Our mission is simple, to end small business failure by giving you the strategy, systems,
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  and confidence to succeed as your own boss.
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  Every week, you'll hear from inspiring conversations with today's top business
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  experts, successful entrepreneurs, and industry leaders who share practical real world advice
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  If you're ready to grow smarter, lead stronger, and build the business you've always
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  envisioned, you're in the right place.
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  And today we're talking about how artisan businesses can scale.
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  Now it's time for me to introduce my guest.
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  Her name is Susan Hall Walker, and she is the founder of Ibu Atelier, which is a global
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  initiative that helps women led artisan enterprises scale through product development,
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  branding, operational mentorship, and international retail.
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  A longtime advocate of women entrepreneurs and heritage craftsmanship, Susan has dedicated her
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  career to creating economic opportunities for artisan communities around the world.
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  Through ABU Atelier, she is connecting traditional makers with global markets,
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  providing that handcrafted culturally rooted products can become thriving, sustainable
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  businesses without sacrificing authenticity.
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  For more information, please go to https:ibumovement.org.
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  That's ibuibumovement.org.
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  Susan, welcome to the Small Bitch Chat podcast.
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  Thank you, Melinda.
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  Great to be here.
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  Oh gosh, okay.
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  So tell us about, I've read extensively about the work that you do and the IBU movement and
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  all of these things.
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  So just start by giving us a little bit about your background and how you got into helping
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  scale artisan businesses.
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  Well, it's a long story, but I'll make it very brief that I originally studied world religions
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  and went to divinity school, became a minister.
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  After a while, I shifted that focus, went back to school, Savannah College of Art and Design,
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  became a weaver and all the other things that you can do with textiles because I felt like
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  there was something there about how women had a voice in that world that they that I had not
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  seen in my previous work.
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  So as I went around the world studying, learning about these textile traditions I met
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  women who could still do them and here I was I had a studio I was trying to weave and making
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  installation pieces and all that and I met women who just had it in their bones you know
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  the the tools that and techniques and languages because I think it's like a language of craft.
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  So I thought I would rather create a market for these women so that they can use skills they
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  already have And it would accomplish both putting money in the hands of these women and
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  doing it with skills they already have.
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  Like a lot of women that I met were living in poverty, but they had exquisite skills and,
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  they maybe weren't even literate, hadn't had the opportunity to go to school, but they were
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  literate with their hands.
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  And I thought, okay, let's if we could start there, what they needed was a market, right?
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  They they had the skills, they had the beauty, they needed, a someone to work with, a
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  collaborator to know what you might want to buy, you know, as opposed to what what they had
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  always made for their families.
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  So I started I was in Indonesia at the time and the word Ibu is actually a word that means
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  mother but it also means like a woman of respect in any kind of way, a teacher, someone
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  like that.
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  And I thought I want every woman who is a maker, you know, every artisan to feel like a
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  woman of respect.
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  And so so I started even thirteen years ago.
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  Neat.
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  Neat.
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  Now, so how did you go about, like how does it work?
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  How does the Ibu movement work?
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  I know that you have recently gotten some support from Bank of America to sort of like
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  scale your own operations.
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  But tell me about how do you find these people?
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  Are there specific countries you're in?
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  Do these guys have to send you a sample of their work to get in
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  your network?
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  How does it work?
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  Well, because it started the way it did basically me traveling, I met a lot of these
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  groups along the way.
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  Then, you know, I went to different markets.
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  The Santa Fe International Folk Art Market is one that brings wonderful, artisans together.
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  The gift show in New York, etcetera, has a has an artisan component.
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  So, we begin to grow our base and we now work with, close to a 100 groups in, almost 50
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  countries.
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  And so it's all over the world it's Africa, Asia, South America, really any place that has
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  a textile or craft tradition also we work with beads and home decor and things like that and
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  that has trouble getting those things to market.
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  So people say, well, why don't you deal with groups in The U.
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  S.
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  And we do actually have one DNA now the whole group that we work with here, but most people
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  in The U.
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  S.
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  Can't access a market.
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  We are dealing with people who are in villages, in remote places that cannot sell to their
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  neighbor because their neighbor can't afford what they make.
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  So it's how to get those goods to market.
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  So I first of all we get to know the groups.
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  It's very relational.
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  I mean we know these leaders that we we need to work with someone who has a strong leadership
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  position who's in charge of the group.
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  And then, so I've either met them in travel or met them here, but it's we build relationships.
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  And then we work on a traditional wholesale retail model.
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  They tell us the price that they need in order to do the work that we have asked.
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  And we also, we have a designer.
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  So but we don't just impose our designs on them.
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  We start with their particular skill, their technique.
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  What do they do?
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  What have they always done?
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  What does it mean to them?
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  Learn about that and then say, how can we translate that for this market?
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  So our designer is always in that conversation, meaning the relationship builds you know, over
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  time.
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  And then they, you know, they name their price, which is a living wage, not just a fair wage.
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  And of course, all of their work is also very sustainable.
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  It's worked by hand.
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  It's It is small scale and we're going to get to scale in a minute, but you know this is
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  where they started.
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  Handmade work takes time.
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  And so yes, they send us samples.
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  First we talk, you know, in conversation about what it is we can do together.
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  We throw out ideas, they come back with their limitations and strengths and we work on that
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  together.
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  And then, you know, when the samples come in, sometimes they look very different from what we
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  imagined.
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  And so we, you know, we keep tweaking, we keep working.
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  It takes a long time, takes a long time this process, but it eventually come, we get to
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  something truly exquisite.
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  And then we try to build on that season after season into new colors and new designs.
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  But with silhouette, we create the silhouettes, the patterns because we know, you know, what
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  our customers, what their body shapes are and what they, you know, what they like.
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  And so that is one of our contributions that sort of bridges the gap.
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  Now would you say that your organization is benefiting from the fact that consumer
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  preferences are shifting away from fast fashion and towards homemade, ethically produced goods.
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  I mean, there's such a craze now of crocheted items and things going on in But this what do
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  you think is driving this change and why is now the right time for artisan brands to try to
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  expand globally?
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  Great question because that is absolutely driving a lot of this interest because, well,
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  climate change.
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  And so people understand that the fashion industry is one of the most polluting
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  industries in the world and fast fashion is at the top of that.
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  So people who want to treat the planet well, who want to take care of our rivers and not
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  pollute them with all the dyes from the fashion industry, they are looking for alternatives.
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  So they look to vintage pieces of course but they're also looking for handmade and I said it
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  thirteen years ago when I started this people wanna they wanna belong to something, not just
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  to a brand, you know, write, you know, a brand name all over your T shirt.
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  I think there's a deeper need to really belong to the, in this case, to the other women of the
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  world, to celebrate other cultures and what they've done, all these different, to celebrate
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  women and all and the sort of beauty and literacy of their hands, the power in their
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  hands.
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  So sustainability is a big factor, yes.
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  So tell me, so many of these artists create beautiful products, but they're really just one
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  lady making it.
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  So what are some of the biggest operational challenges that you guys swoop in and try to
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  help them with so that their business can actually be sustainable?
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  Well, it's almost always a group because these are these are women who have you know bonded
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  and bound themselves together in order to be more effective and more efficient.
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  So we're working with a group and we have seen that as soon as we start working with them the
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  group grows because if they are earning money then even their husbands which a lot of people
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  think their husbands are going to be angry or jealous or what no.
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  If a woman is earning money then, she is you know receives respect not only of the men in
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  her family but the community and then other women see and then they want to be a part of
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  it.
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  So we've been able to see groups grow.
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  And so that is, just an important part of like how many women can we be impacting.
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  Tell me about the, Dwarka Artisan Network.
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  I know that they, well, that was one of the groups I read about actually on your that has
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  like a thousand makers.
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  Yeah, they're amazing.
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  Dwarka is in Bangalore in India and their founder Anita Reddy was a local woman who had
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  always been involved in activism.
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  And she saw that there was this particular skill called Kalamkari, it means hand painted
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  and where hand painting on cloth was used.
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  And I mean, literally by hand, no stencil, no black print, you know, and it's a fantastic art
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  form, but the artisans were becoming almost beggars.
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  They were going through the streets because nobody was buying and they couldn't support
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  themselves.
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  So she went to the village, she saw under a tree over here, had a whole group of women.
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  Women had never been a part of this art form and they were just waiting, hoping that maybe
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  they could have a chance at this.
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  So she set up the whole program and now not only does she have something like a thousand of
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  these people working, but she is introducing that, taking them back to the natural dyes they
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  used to have because they had gotten into chemical dyes.
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  And so she and she's giving them a market we just had her to Charleston South Carolina which
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  is our headquarters and we had an event we always have an event on International Women's
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  Day she was one of our global champions and she was so inspiring as she talked about just the
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  changes in people's lives because a lot of these people are at the, you know, they have
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  not had any other advantages in life.
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  Let's just say that.
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  And so this chance to earn, you know, a living a living wage and do it with the creativity of
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  their own hands, that's part of what comes with the self respect and what respect from others
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  is life changing.
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  So how do you guys transform a local craft tradition into a globally recognized brand?
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  Well, this is where the Ibu Atelier comes in.
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  So Ibu is a whole movement working with these 100 groups but, we received something called
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  Artisan Alliance from, the Aspen Institute which was their way of working with artisans
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  and we said what what can we do to really move artisans forward And first we thought we would
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  do a training or a membership group and we, you know, assessed.
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  We talked with all the artisan leaders, and they said, no, we're trained.
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  We know what we're doing.
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  We don't need more training.
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  We need more sales.
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  So how can we get their product in front of more eyes?
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  So we then created the Ibu Atelier.
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  This is what Bank of America has funded.
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  And so we go deep with 10 groups a year and that involves particular attention to the
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  design like really kind of pushing the envelope on design, but it also involves marketing that
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  group getting, we've PR and marketing firms that are working to get their brand in front of
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  people in their own country and in other, you know, surrounding areas as well as in The US.
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  So it's not marketing Eboo, it's marketing their own their own brand.
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  And and we are just we we do training in terms of branding.
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  We you know help them think about branding, photography, and how to how to speak on behalf
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  of their brand.
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  And so this is sort of the an incubator kind of program to really go deep with each one.
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  And they are at a point where they are ready to scale.
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  They've, you know, we've worked with them for ten years and now they're saying, okay, now
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  we're ready to like really take the next step and they have the leadership to do so.
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  So tell me, where do you see the global artisan economy really in the next five to ten years,
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  especially, you know, with the advent of AI and all these other things.
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  Yeah.
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  It's so interesting because it's exploding and I think it's a total counterpart to AI and
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  technology.
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  In other words, things have become so removed from our own hands and our own making that this
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  is sort of the corresponding, know, it's not a backlash, it's just, you know, a compliment to
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  it and where people are saying, but they're really interested in something they can touch,
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  something they can feel and know and wear even because these are clothes we're making.
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  And so it really it's like hand in hand with the AI because people are still wanting to be
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  human, wanting to be real.
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  And this really, really speaks to that.
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  And they're wanting to know who made their clothes.
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  We have on our tags, we try to put the names or the pictures of the women who are making this
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  and where they live and what their technique is.
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  So it's a lot of education on our parts and the marketing is really in our case education.
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  All right, well, what is the best business book you have ever Not the best business book,
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  excuse me.
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  What is the best business advice you have ever gotten?
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  I think it was advice, Well, a great marketer once said to me, you know what you're doing is
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  allowing us to see these women through your eyes.
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  In other words, I think these women are remarkable.
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  They're brilliant.
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  They are resilient.
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  They're ambitious.
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  And he said, are letting us see them through your eyes.
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  He said, you don't need to sell.
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  You just need to keep inspiring people by these stories.
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  So I've focused on that.
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  I think it's true.
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  It's not really about the kind of hard sell that some businesses have to do.
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  We have a story and the story itself, it stands.
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  It stands.
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  I love that.
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  I love that.
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  Well, thank you so much, Susan, for being a guest here.
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  Any of you interested in checking out the wares from all of her women around the world, you can
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  go to the IBUMovement, that's ibumovement.org.
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  So check that out, support them.
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  Their stuff is absolutely fantastic and it's beautiful.
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  And thank you so much, Susan, for being here.
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  Thank you so much, Melinda.
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  It was
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  my honor.
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  advice that is shared here on the Small Biz Back podcast.
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  Thanks for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us next Wednesday for
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  more fantastic information and interviews.
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  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
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  website, succeedasyourownboss.com.
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  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.