AMA: How I Turned Thrifting Into A Career

How to build a career doing what you love

As much as I love sharing my vintage finds on social media, Instagram and Tik-Tok can be a grind. There’s an incessant need to post content — and it has to be content that people will click on and share and comment on — but that doesn’t necessarily mean it needs to be valuable. Shareable trumps valuable on many social media platforms and as a result, you see a lot of people who get a lot of views, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to an audience that sticks around, or one with whom you can really open up.

Here on Substack, I feel I’ve found a smaller, more intimate, but ultimately more engaged community — as a result, I can get a lot more personal, without the fear of losing followers or getting nasty comments. Don’t get it twisted, I’m not leaving the other platforms. I just think of this one as my favorite child lately. And as such, I want to really nurture it and provide the most valuable content I can.

So, today, I’m rolling out the first in a new series — and it’s a bonus, so it comes in addition to the other weekly content. I asked you all to submit questions for a Q&A covering all manner of topics. This week, I’m focusing on career, and answering two questions: What’s your advice for turning a passion into a career? and How did you turn thrifting into a career?

I’ve answered in brief below, with more in-depth responses available only to paid subscribers, who also get access to a new feature: audio. So that you can listen to this newsletter in your car, on your laptop, on a plane… wherever.

Thanks for your questions. Keep ‘em coming.

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Q: What’s your advice for someone who wants to turn their passion into a career?

A: Get comfortable with being less passionate about it. That’s not meant to be discouraging, but monetize anything and the fun will be sucked out of it pretty fast. Thrifting is fun, but once you’re buying items specifically to sell, you’re worried about a new set of constraints: the pressure to buy what sells, the incessant need to market your product, the storage, the shipping and packing costs….

Starting a business of any kind requires an investment of both time and resources, and success never happens overnight. So you have to be willing to get really serious about launching a business (and that means being able to answer: what am I selling? and who is buying it?) and to be patient when it inevitably loses money in the short-term.

I’ve monetized many of my hobbies and it’s taught me that not everything needs to be monetized! I spent many hours drafting a cookbook pitch, for instance, that I’ve never sent out, mainly because I worry about A. shifting my focus from other endeavors (which are actually revenue-generating) and B. eventually hating cooking, one of my great joys in life. Currently, I do it purely for fun and without restraint! If I make something that sucks — who cares? No one paid for it and my family members can suck it up for one meal. If it isn’t pretty enough for a photo — that’s okay! I simply won’t take a photo of it.

Q: How did you make a career out of thrifting?

A: This is such a funny question because, like, did I? Is that my career? I guess I still don’t think of it that way. My success as a vintage-seller (which has evolved more, I think, into a vintage expert and educator) hinges on the fact that when I started selling antiques, it was not my sole source of income. I had a salaried job. I still have a salaried job! With benefits! So I am not reliant on thrifting to make ends meet. Instead, I used the income from my primary career, as a writer, to sustain my side-hustle, as a vintage seller. But that side hustle evolved considerably for me, because it turned into a book, and speaking engagements and even another side hustle as an artist.

More details — plus a more fleshed-out answer, in audio form , below.