Jess Coppom

About Jess Coppom

I’ve been DIYing for a long time. Like I suspect I might have knit my own placenta in utero. Creating is just what has always made me happy. Before starting the crochet site MakeAndDoCrew.com, I worked in advertising doing stuff most people would generally call “creative.” I wrote commercials for the likes of Geico, Comcast, Wal-Mart and other giants of capitalism. After a decade of late nights at the office and client presentations that were dying a slow death on my hard drive, I began to wonder:

Could I find a way to use all the skills I developed working in advertising to create content I cared more about? And maybe, just maybe, there was a way I could earn a living from it?

Well, by golly, with a lot of experimenting, failing, sticky notes and La Croix, it worked!

Okay, but let's back things up for a sec. My mom taught me to crochet when I was 8-years-old. I went on to teach my sisters and many of my cousins. As a kid, I had a casual crochet club where I'd hold them all hostage while I honed my "leadership" skills. Ha.

Now in my business, Make & Do Crew, I work along with my mom and sisters to share free patterns and tutorials that make crochet modern, approachable and fun. We celebrate a handmade lifestyle where creativity and self-expression are attainable for anyone with a hook and a few balls of yarn.

As an auditory learner and entrepreneur with adhd, I listen to podcasts endlessly. I could talk forever about the creative process, believing in yourself when your boss says you're "committing career suicide" by starting your own business (yup, that happened) and the stamina required when you reinvent yourself professionally.

More specifically, some of my favorite topics to discuss are crochet (duh), content marketing, monetizing content and what it's like to run a business and a family as a female business-owner.

There's a lot more to the story, but I'm out of characters here. If you'd like to chat more or learn how to crochet (kidding...sort of) , get in touch!