Spotlight: Christen Carter
CHRISTEN CARTER is the Owner and Director of Busy Beaver Button Co., a custom button shop in Chicago, IL. She is also the co-founder of the Busy Beaver Button Museum and co-author of The Button Book (which will be out with Princeton Architectural Press in 2020).
Christen took Concepts & Conception in 2017, and in late 2019, Amelia Hruby reconnected with her to hear her reflections on Feminist Business School and learn what she’s up to now. This is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.
How did Feminist Business School change your business in a significant way?
The Let It Be Easy theme has been huge for me. I love the idea, because I'm a person who will put a lot of effort into something, and I'm used to working so hard to make things happen. But that doesn't always work out. So the concept of removing obstacles and then reminding yourself that it can be easier has been a big life perspective switch. Plus I’ve found that removing the obstacles instead of pushing through them has been so much more effective and that's better for everything!
The You Have a Body principle has also been really helpful. Listening to my body and honoring it is a work in progress for me, and I think it might be for a long time. But I guess along the lines of working really hard, it's easy for me to forget that there's a body that's making the work happen. Just remembering to breathe and walk around has been a big thing. Since Feminist Business School, I do more walks than I used to, because just getting my body moving has been so helpful.
What parts of the course were most valuable?
I also really enjoyed being encouraged to gain different perspectives, especially from the natural world. I learned that I really like talking to inanimate objects like trees. It’s really great because it's such a perspective switch and helps me feel really grounded. So I have my two trees that I talk to—one near my house and one up in Wisconsin where I go often. Checking in with them makes some of the business things I'm worrying about feel insignificant or not as heavy as I'm putting the weight on.
And I find myself thinking about the myth of the meritocracy and the concept of scarcity mentality a lot. Some of these ideas at first felt a little conceptual for me, but I find I refer to them all the time, because I catch myself supporting or engaging them more often than I thought I did.
Who would you recommend Feminist Business School for?
I’d recommend Feminist Business School for anyone setting up the foundation of a thoughtful business, or stepping back from being a practitioner to work on the vision of their business. It's a pretty big time commitment, which I struggled with, but I know that I got a lot out of it, even if I felt like I did maybe 25% of all the reading and activities provided.
I’ll also say that lately everybody—at least in my world—is thinking about how screwed up capitalism is. I feel like we're all talking about it more now than we ever have. So, I love that Feminist Business School is a whole community [of womxn in business] who are experimenting with ways to do business that make sense to us. And I love the larger goal of changing how business is done by building a mass of people who are doing things differently.
You mention moving from a being practitioner in business to working on the vision of the business. Is that something you’re working on now, or could you say a little more about that idea?
Yes! I'm right in the middle of it, so I'm kind of excited about it. Right now, I’m working on a book that's going to come out next year. When it does, I really want to be able to do a book tour and do talks around it. I’ve also found that the button museum is taking a lot more time, and I'm finding it really interesting.
So those two things have been an impetus for me to consider moving from being in the midst of the day-to-day of the business to more of a visionary, advisory role. As I'm working through this, I'm finding that if I get into the middle of some things, it just doesn't go as well. Sometimes thing goes better if I step away, because everybody here is so smart, and it’s not like they need me to tell them how to do things. So I’ve been working on letting people have more ownership over their work in the business.
That’s so exciting! I can’t wait for your book and other button-ventures. What else is up next for Busy Beaver?
Right now, we're working [on buttons] for a lot of political campaigns and then nonprofits or grassroots organizations that support issues or sometimes candidates. That's a lot of fun for me. I really like the political customers, and we were able to get a few presidential campaigns to do buttons, and also, some of the big races around the country.
Overall, things are kind of changing at Busy Beaver. I have a new self-awareness that I’m excited about. I don't know where it's going exactly, but I think it's going to make everything more open and free here. I know that's not very specific, but I do have a feeling that everything’s expanding somehow. Like, “Oh, there's a lot more than I thought there could be.” And I can make things happen.
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