Meet Ashley Littlefield | Social Media Marketer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ashley Littlefield and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ashley, what is the most important factor behind your success?
For Maker’s Market TN, it has always been about the Makers!

What started as a church donation drive event has blossomed into a deeply-felt mission for us as a couple! What was meant to be a summer event became a means to connect people, to bring attention to the hard-earned craft of some of the most talented people we’ve ever met. Novice or experienced Maker, we wanted to meet and encourage them all.

As Makers ourselves, having gone through more than six years of other craft markets; it felt like once the craft booth fees were paid, we had to then just figure it out ourselves and make mistakes along the way. It felt as though the organizers of the craft show wouldn’t or couldn’t help inexperienced Makers figure out the process of being a Maker. There were times where we wouldn’t even meet the organizers until after the event, sometimes not ever. We learned a lot of valuable lessons as a result of those events.

The most important factor that has led to our success is our passion for any and all Makers before and after the events. Ashley does the social media shoutouts for each Maker on our Instagram account, and R. Carnie creates the webpages, marketing posters, and handout flyers that each Maker can share across their own socials. We live and breath by the success of each Maker who feels confident enough to step out into the competitive world of handcrafted creations, even if it’s their very first time. We offer tables, tents, and POS systems for rent to enable every Maker to take the risk and say “I can do this” and not worry about the minor details. We have free popcorn for our dear Makers made by R. Carnie and we do our very best to make each one of them feel welcomed and ready for the show.

What makes us successful is that every Maker stay successful, to the point that we’re usually the first and last ones buying our favorite little handmade items to display in our own home. We’ve made a promise to never allow MLMs, premade goods such as FunkoPop, or anything that’s not handcrafted to ensure that every Maker is given the best opportunity to stand out. We keep each event at no more than 45 Makers and do our best to prevent overlap in each genre, such as multiple soap brands. We carefully curate the list of Makers at each event, and Ashley works out a booth diagram that maximizes the flow of the visitors through the show.

We’re Makers for the Makers and want nothing more than for a newfound Maker to say “I want to do that again!”

What should our readers know about your business?
If I’m honest, it’s never been easy but it’s been a passion project for us both as a couple, sometimes working side by side on different branding, graphics, or marketing posts well past midnight. I think what we’re most proud of is that it’s made us stronger as a married couple, and made us realize that we can accomplish anything together when we’re having fun doing it.

It’s been challenging not having a public space of our own to host events, and finding organizations with affordable rental space has been even harder. We’re a husband and wife team, we don’t do this to make a ton of money so there’s not a lot we can afford when it comes to rental venues. The biggest lesson has been to stay light on our feet and keep hope in our hearts that we’ll find and partner with the right people at the right time and in the right place. We keep praying for that opportunity.

While we’re waiting for the right venue to come our way, we’re still working on some exciting things for our Makers! The new Maker’s Magazine will be released digitally starting in January 2024, and “Maker’s Meets” which will be short online interviews celebrating past and present Makers.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If we had friends or family visiting for a week, we would definitely take them to one of our favorite brunch spots, The Butter Milk Ranch. For those that enjoy trying new dishes, we would also recommend Boqueria for tapas! If you don’t mind a little bit of a road trip and sightseeing, we would suggest checking out a nostalgic favorite known for their biscuits, Loveless Cafe. And of course there’s also plenty to do and see on Broadway! There’s plenty of shopping and eating in the Gulch area. One of our favorites is Milk & Honey!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
We owe everything to God as He continually drives us to explore our passion for people through this event in all iterations. A resounding “thank you!” to our old church Hope Chapel in Austin, TX where this all started, to our new friends in TN where we’ve had several Markets within the last two years; we couldn’t do this without the organizations that believed in us enough to let us use their parking lots, or indoor/outdoor spaces (Here’s to you Brass Horn Coffee Roasters and Magnolia Farms!).

Our Makers deserve the most recognition! We’ve continued to get questions like “when’s the next show?” even during our hiatus, and it’s inspired us to keep trying and keep going. We’re so grateful to every Maker who has joined our events multiple times, that we have a Makers Page on our website for just that reason: to permanently showcase their hard work. Please go check it out for more of their life stories. Thank you Makers! Without you, there would be no Maker’s Market TN.

Website: https://www.makersmarkettn.com/

Instagram: @MakersMarketTN

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MakersMarketTN/