Name: Jamie Irene

Age: 34

Location: Seattle

Education: B.A. in Elementary Education and Language Arts degree, Seattle Pacific University

Job Title: Designer and owner, Jamie Irene Design Studios

What She Does: Jamie designs and makes cozy hats, stylish bags, and children’s accessories—including her line of animal pillows—which she then sells in boutiques and at trunk shows.

How She Got Her Gig: Four years ago, Jamie started Krafthaus, a one-day holiday sale at her home, to help herself and fellow artists embrace creative careers. For the event, she turned her house into a boutique for a day, and set out food and champagne for vendors and shoppers. “I wanted to provide people like myself, who had serious craft or art hobbies, with a venue to sell their work to the public,” says Jamie, who received such positive feedback on her handbags at the first year’s event that she decided to make the leap to designing full-time.

A Moment With Martha: Last November, Jamie made an appearance on The Martha Stewart Show to help Martha make an Eli the Owl backpack for kids. (Martha had discovered her through her website.) “Going on The Martha Stewart Show was one of the most confident moments of my life,” says Jamie. “When I walked out onto the set in front of the live studio audience, I pushed my shoulders back and willed every nerve out of my body.” But her appearance on the show didn’t quite provide the increase in business she thought it would. “I wanted to be prepared for a potential mountain of orders, especially being on the show right before Christmas,” says Jamie. “So I expanded my studio space, trained a small crew of people to help produce, and bought an ample amount of supplies. In hindsight, I would have just trained one person and then waited to see what happened.”

Get Up and Go: Jamie says she loves the freedom of setting her own schedule, but that it’s often tough to keep herself motivated. “Because I’m only accountable to myself, I feel like I can take too many liberties. But I’m kind of hard on myself. I always think I could be doing more and doing better,” she says.

Creating Balance by Giving Back: Jamie creates balance in her life by working with a nonprofit called the Kenya Education Fund. In the past, she’s traveled to Kenya to help them with administrative tasks and fund-raising; this year, she’s merging her designing skills with her volunteer work by helping Kenyan artisans in their craft and developing product with them under fair-trade practices. “Since I’m already there a couple of times a year, I wanted to do something in the design field that would benefit Kenyans. I want to provide decent jobs and a venue for Kenyans to sell our collaborative work in the U.S.,” she says. Right now, Jamie is working on a line of baby clothes with a Kenyan women’s textile group, and with a jewelry designer in New York to have some of her wooden pieces made in Kenya.

This Job Is for You if: Jamie says you need to be creative, unique, good at marketing yourself (or good at finding someone to do it for you), and able to constantly reinvent yourself to succeed in this field. “Try to get bread-and-butter accounts and then do special projects that feed your creative, artistic side,” she says. “If you know in your heart that it’s meant to be and what you’re made for, then the success will come and you’ll make sure the right pieces fall into place.”