Hobby To Hustle Podcast · Gemma Dillon & Candace Lam

Season 2 catch up | Ep. 17

·27 min·1 clip

Candice says bilateral strabismus surgery fixed double vision that made drawing and living difficult.

1. Hobby To Hustle Podcast returns for season 2 after a break that ended in May. 2. Gemma and Candice are the two business owners hosting the show, and they matter because they speak from running creative businesses themselves. 3. The episode is a catch-up about what changed during the break and why the season will be shorter and more focused. 4. Candice says she had bilateral strabismus surgery for double vision that made drawing and daily life difficult. 5. She says the surgery left her unable to see clearly for about a month and required repeated follow-up checks. 6. Candice also describes a summer of events, dragon boating market work, and several pop-ups before stopping pop-ups around August. 7. She says she opened a second Makers location in Guildford Town Centre while still selling in Metrotown in British Columbia. 8. Gemma says she took time off from workshops, forced herself not to open email or social media, and completed a jigsaw puzzle over two working days. 9. She explains that summer was off-peak for workshops, which made it possible to take two weeks off even though she planned three separate weeks. 10. Gemma says workshops have picked up again, including private workshops and teaching on the other side of the country. 11. The most concrete business update is Gemma handing in her notice at her part-time job to become a full-time artist again. 12. She says this transition feels scary because she will be fully dependent on her own business income. 13. Candice responds that Gemma has done this before and has more experience than the first time she left salaried work. 14. Candice says she has been thinking about a Coco Island rebrand since the end of April and has slowed product production to plan the change properly. 15. She mentions creating a new character called Blossom and says the rebrand is why the business has not launched many new sticker designs lately. 16. The episode also covers Candice’s new engagement and the start of wedding planning, which she describes as stressful and already painful around venue decisions. 17. The tone is informal, conversational, and openly rambling, with both hosts interrupting themselves and each other. 18. The format is a long catch-up that ends by explaining the show will move to shorter fortnightly Tuesday releases. 19. Listeners who like creative-business updates, workshop logistics, and candid founder talk would likely enjoy this. 20. Listeners wanting a tightly structured or topic-specific business lesson may skip this.

As heard by us

A loose return that gets real about full-time creative work and the nerves around it.

Gemma and Candice pick up after a long break with a candid look at how rusty they feel, from forgetting what they are doing to needing about 30 minutes to get going.

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Why you'd press play

You get a rambly season-two catch-up about going full-time again, business nerves, and social updates.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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