Interview With Willie Smith - Building His Knitting/Clothing Business - Social Media Marketing (DIY)

About this video

RJ interviews his childhood friend Willie Smith of Willy-Nilly Knits. Smith traces his background in Banning, California, where school and sport were, in his words, his way out of poverty: varsity track from 9th to 12th grade, varsity football, basketball, swimming and Olympic weightlifting, and a senior-year class rank he recalls as around 12th. He says he learned to knit around 2007-2008 in a college gender studies class after seeing a classmate knitting a purple scarf, pestering her for weeks until she taught him the basics, then spending a summer making scarves and hats. Smith says people asking to buy his work in 2019 — he dates the turn to October 19 — pushed him onto Instagram to take orders and build the business. He focuses on smaller handmade items — hats, headbands, cowls, boot cuffs, socks, fingerless gloves and baby garments — because they cost less and take less time to make, plus occasional toys and sweaters. He explains his wife dyes their high-end yarn (undyed superwash merino and wool-silk blends bought wholesale, arriving white) and that a hat typically takes about a week or less, roughly six working hours over three days, while he runs several projects at once. On marketing, Smith says people buy you, not just the hat, so he builds his audience on camera, mainly on Instagram, then Facebook and YouTube, and is not yet on TikTok. He offers virtual knitting classes at, he says, $25 per hour, teaching a pattern alongside the student.

Key takeaways

• Smith says he learned to knit in college around 2007-2008 after asking a classmate for weeks to teach him, then practiced all summer
• He says demand in 2019 turned the hobby into Willy-Nilly Knits, starting with Instagram and taking orders
• Focus on smaller accessories and baby garments: lower material cost, less making time, endless variations
• He uses high-end wholesale yarn (e.g. superwash merino, wool-silk) dyed by his wife; a hat is about a week or less, roughly six working hours
• Smith’s marketing rule: people buy you and the brand, so show your face on video — his ranking is Instagram first, then Facebook, then YouTube

Episode details: published November 28, 2020 · 44:40 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are RJ Martinez’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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