Meet Quest Maker Margaret Winter
Quest Makers are women in their 40s and beyond who've declared
"now it's my time," and then set off on their own journeys to realize their dreams. Every month a Quest Maker is featured in the FREE e-newsletter, Your Next Quest Chronicles. Click here to enjoy archived issues.
Quest Maker Margaret Winter
From asking to be laid off to a life a million times better than the one she left
Who would have thought that hammers and nails would have anything in common with feathers and netting? To Margaret Winter, they're different facets of the same thing - helping women feel better about themselves. At age 55, Margaret asked to be laid off from her job. Following her hands and her interests into the world of home improvement and, serendipitously, into the world of fascinators has led to a life that is a million times better than the world of publishing that she left behind.
(Photo: © Juliette Coughlin)
At what point in your life did you decide to embark on your journey?
I had been working in publishing for more than 24 years and during that time there were 8-9 restructurings. Every time we restructured, I absorbed someone else's job. l'd begun losing my hearing and being in sales was becoming increasingly difficult as a result. About 2 years ago, I just couldn't take it anymore. So at age 55 I asked: "Can you please lay me off this time?" I wasn't sure what I would do.
How did your quest unfold?
Right after I was officially not working, I went back to school for graphic design. One of the classes was just design and I kept finding that the products I was creating were home designs. That morphed into the handywoman because I had always been the person everyone called up with a project to do. At the time I was also working on a Habitat for Humanity Women Build and loving it. I was actually born on a construction site; my family lived in the basement while my parents built the house above us. So home improvement is in my blood.
In no way was the schooling a waste because I use those skills all the time when I make a floor plan and it sharpened my eye. I used the graphic design to make myself a business card with a logo of a pair of hands. It really does all fit together.
For about 3 months after finishing school, I worked for free to make sure I knew what I was doing. I was able to hone my skills and work slowly at the beginning. Then in August 2007 I started my business. I also worked on renovating a house in Portland for a friend of mine. I would travel to Portland for about one week every other month. As the work progressed, I still did a lot of physical work and designing, but I switched to overseeing the general contractor and helped my friend find tradespeople.
Being a handy woman is a spurty kind of thing and I sometimes wonder "no one is ever going to call again." Yet I couldn't stop being a handywoman because of the Portland job. I couldn't stop working on that 100 year old house in a historic neighborhood. That was not most people's first project, and besides, when I was there I could make a month's worth of money in a week's time.
How did you make time for your dream?
By getting laid off! I was fortunate that I worked for a major company for years and was able to leave with a severance package so I had the luxury of not needing income right away.
Can you describe how you dealt with any obstacles on your adventure?
When I was laid off, I was able to join a Habitat for Humanity Build on Wednesdays when retired guys in the trades—electricians, carpenters, masons— also worked. They were a little bit of a tough group to crack. The first job I got was sorting nails. I told myself "I am going to stay here sorting nails until I am happy sorting nails." I also remembered what one of my sisters used to say, "If you go to a party and don't know anyone, stand by the punch bowl and you'll meet everyone." I knew on a job there was nothing you needed more than nails and by the end of day I had met everyone.
At the beginning when I went to the build they were still giving me the girl jobs, but I waited very patiently. Then the third week I was there, it was like a bolt of lightening struck. One of the men called out, "Honey can you come here? I need another pair of hands." That gave me the opening to say "that's the name of my business" and tell him what I did. After that, I was one of the boys and they were such a great resource. I loved that I could use that time to ask questions and ask them to show me how to do things. Sometimes, I am another pair of hands and instead of doing the work I’m the one flipping the circuit breaker.
I think that the main obstacle, though, was the lack of support from certain quarters of my friends and family members. What I'm doing has been traditionally a male field.
I didn't have a business card for close to a year because I needed to describe what I was doing. Instead I used a brochure to really explain what I was able and not able to do and to let people know that I have design skills a traditional handyman might not have. The brochure helped people understand and decide whether I was the right person for them. I left the brochures at the dentist's, the eye doctor's, the paint store around the corner.
What's been the secret to reaching your goals?
One thing I know about myself is that I work well with a deadline. I assessed my finances and figured out "This is what I have to work with. If I'm not self supporting when half of my cash is gone, then I'll have to do something else." Once I got to the halfway point, it was amazing how much more aggressive I got about finding jobs.
What helped you stay on your quest's path?
Well, my sister Barbara Winter for one thing. She talked me off the ledge every time I said "I can't do this." Then there was that house in Portland to finish.
Looking back, what's one thing you wish you had known as you set off on your journey?
Just the nuts and bolts of running a business. You have to figure out pricing, insurance and the local construction codes. Here in California, the laws regarding handyman are nebulous. For example, I can't provide an estimate or be paid by the job. I can only give a vague idea of how long a project will take and I can only charge for time and materials. This is all very important information to know.
My doctor told me that when she went into private practice someone gave her a binder laying out everything she needed to know to get started. I would have loved to have had something very specific like that. It would have been a wonderful thing.
Do you have a new quest around the corner?
I think making fascinators is my new quest. [Note: A fascinator is a headpiece commonly made with feathers, netting, flowers and/or beads. It's attached to the hair by a comb, headband or clip and can be worn in lieu of a hat or even a bridal veil.] This new profit center, or way to earn income, happened on the spur of the moment.
This past September, a friend of mine, who was about to be married, handed me a box of feathers, netting and glue, and asked me to make her a fascinator, as she headed out the door for her wedding rehearsal. The one I made was really fun. I didn't think much about it because I had no preconceived ideas of what a fascinator should look like. It was such a hit!
Everyone at the wedding was so surprised that I had made it. My daughter wanted one and then others began asking for them. The first one I made was seat of the pants. Then I made them for holiday parties and it has evolved from that. I've really been making them in earnest for about a month as a business. In January, my daughter helped me create my website for Over the Top Fascinators where I have photos of ones that I have made.
Fashion Week Ventura is coming up (February 25-28), too. This year's theme is "Green Piece" and I've created a fascinator for the Green Piece Fashion Show called "Onion Top" using recycled materials and I’m also making fascinators for the swag bags. Prom season is coming up too.
Fascinators are a very temporary thing, very much a fad. Right now they are a hot accessory for proms and weddings. It's great fun while it's happening and I'm not ceasing to unplug anyone's drains. With fascinators, though, I never have to worry about a leak destroying someone's home!
What's the best advice for your quest that you've ever received?
Actually, a lot of advice I received was really bad, like "Get a job." I found that people would tell me to do things the way they would do them or try to orchestrate things in directions I didn't care to go. That helped me realize how wrong that path would be for me. People think I'm crazy now for making feathered things for the hair and still being a handywoman at the same time.
Handywoman and fascinators may seem like wildly disparate jobs, yet I think they're very related. They are just different aspects of the same thing. At the heart of them both are ways of making women feel better about themselves. I just feel bad for women who are not comfy in their homes or their skin. With the fascinators, I help women feel glamorous. With Another Pair of Hands, I can teach them how to fix a leaky faucet if they're interested or help them to understand color or teach them how something works so they don't panic when things do happen.
The house in Portland was a horrible wreck and, at first, my friend was really intimidated by the whole thing. Now she knows things will break and everything is fixable. In the beginning, all she wanted were white walls and by the end she was really opinionated about color. She feels so much more comfortable.
What is the one essential quality that you'd tell women to pack for their own path?
Faith in themselves, I'd say, and in the dream that they have. There are always going to be people looking sideways at you and thinking you're crazy, including the person in the mirror sometimes!
My daughter is a great cheerleader but she's worried I will go broke. Even now, a lot of friends ask me "what are you doing?"
I was making good money at my job and now I'm not anymore. The Villa of Reduced Circumstances, the title of a book I read, describes my situation. Maybe financially that's so, except the quality of my life is a million times better than it was.
Is there a particular quote, a movie, a book or a person that has sustained you?
Not everyone has a sister who has written a book called Making a Living Without a Job. Barbara has been such a good cheerleader. It would never occur to her that I could fail. (Note: Barbara Winter's new website is worth a visit. It 's a punch bowl all on its own!)
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
I am really comfortable letting things lead me. If you open yourself to it, there is a similar feeling of empowerment when you have installed your own fixture or placed a feathered fascinator on your head.
I feel sorry for those who are laid off and think the job they had is the only job they can ever have. They don't give themselves a chance to try something different.
I have a friend who got laid off from her job as a pharmacy buyer and then spent three years trying to find another job doing the same thing. Yet she loved antiques and lived only a half mile away from a center for antique stores. She wouldn't give something she loved a shot because it would have looked bad on her résumé during her job search. She ended up as a pharmacy buyer again because that was her comfort zone.
If we are in our 50s and if we have a brain in our head, we have socked away some money. It's a shame when how you measure your worth is by the income you make for someone else. Now is the time to live your life and do the things you have always wished to do. If I come to retirement age without so much money, it will be better than being a rich miserable person.
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| Margaret in her Another Pair of Hands guise, tearing down a closet in the Portland house. | © Juliette Coughlin Margaret wearing a fascinator she created, the '56 Nomad. |
To get in touch with Margaret, you can visit her website, call her at 805.217.3299 or send her an email.
If you'd like to read the essay and the Journal Sparker inspired by Margaret's interview, click here to enjoy February's YNQ Chronicles.
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