Dorm-room DIY to global success: The creative founder whose buyers include Missy Elliott, Obama, and Target

+ I *was* with the band: Why I quit my cool job in the music industry with no solid plan

Hot dam!

Busy Beaver Buttons Founder Christen Carter celebrates 30 years in business

Just like I started my magazine Venus in my college dorm room in 1995, Christen Carter started her custom button-making business the same year — as we did in the DIY Business Era.

Fast-forward three decades and Busy Beaver Buttons is going strong in Chicago, having produced more than 63 million buttons for bands, artists, political candidates, nonprofits, and booming businesses. Missy Elliott, Daft Punk, Barack Obama, and Target are among Busy Beaver’s many customers.

In addition to selling buttons, stickers, and other custom products, Christen, a Midst community member, opened the Busy Beaver Button Museum in 2010. Now a 501c3, the museum has amassed a 60,000-plus button collection and operates under the mission to tell as much American history as possible through pin-back buttons including “pre-buttons” worn at George Washington’s inauguration.

All that dedication has been internationally recognized — the museum even holds the Guinness World Record for Largest Museum Display of Pin Badges.

Christen and collectables expert Ted Hake also wrote the book on buttons: Button Power: 125 Years of Saying it With Buttons in 2020.

You can read all about Christen and her book in this story we published several years ago: Christen Carter grew a DIY product into a million-dollar business with Busy Beaver Buttons.

— Amy Cuevas Schroeder

3 things I learned from building my business for 30 years

By Christen Carter

1. Build community with other entrepreneurs

The biggest and best thing that's helped me grow is talking with and being in groups of fellow business owners. We all are trying to solve the same problems and honestly, it is a little lonely being the boss.

Being part of a community of fellow business owners helps me remember that we're not alone and we can work through concepts and ideas together.

2. Don’t grind too hard — you’ll burn out

I don't have to put my nose to the grindstone all the time; in fact it makes everything worse. I'm such a Gen X DIYer and always bootstrap. It's hard for me to know when to stop.

Some things just don't matter and other things can just take time. As of recently, I'm being more chill about that and I have to thank younger people around me for this attitude. Having said that, I really love what I've created.

3. Invest in other assets (like real estate) if you can

Owning the Busy Beaver HQ buildings have been smart moves. In the end, no matter what happens to the business, I have this building that I can sell. Plus, I really like having this type of control over our space — the work we put into it, we'll get out of it. And we can stay as long as we want!

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I *was* with the band

Why I quit my cool job in the music industry with no solid plan

The day the music died marked my next chapter

By Emily Rosenfeld

“What came first — the music or the misery?”
— Rob Gordon, played by John Cusack in High Fidelity

I cannot recall a time in my life when music was not a central component. As my pre-school friends enjoyed their Disney tapes, I was busy putting on epic concerts for audiences of exactly no one in my room, performing what I can only imagine were horrific renditions of Tiffany, Prince, Whitney Houston, and George Michael.

I played piano from ages 5–18, devoured magazines like SPIN, Rolling Stone, and Alt Press, attended my first concert sans parents at 14, and was always the go-to resource to answer the question, “who sings this?”

I’ve gone on tour, booked an NPR’s Tiny Desk, attended SNL afterparties, had one of my bands make Rolling Stone’s Top 50 AOTY list (#37!), and have (of course) dated my share of musicians. (Word to the wise: DON’T). But, like many overly romanticized dreams of youth, it’s often better not to meet the man behind the curtain — because he’ll probably disappoint you. That’s exactly what happened to me, and it took me 23 years of working in entertainment, mainly as a film and music publicist, to figure that out.

Seven weeks ago, it dawned on me that concluding every absurd story about that week’s current band drama/campaign hiccups/influencer “emergency” with my go-to bit of “but hey, that’s showbiz, baby!” was getting old.

So I quit my job. I resigned from a company where I had moved up and was paid well yet remained extremely frustrated at the fractured structure and lack of compassion and support from leadership.

I’ve never quit anything in my LIFE — it was legitimately not a word used in our household growing up — especially with no plan B, except for knowing I was leaving the entertainment industry forever. But quitting in this economy, you ask?! Emily, are you insane?! Yes, probably! But hey, that’s showbiz, baby! (That’s the last time, I promise).

I know this sounds very complain’y, so I do want to say that during my 12 years as a publicist and my four years doing paid influencer strategic marketing, I did do some really fun things. I was the lead publicist for the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, was able to work with nearly every major studio as well as a few of the indies; I even dabbled in some brand partnerships, one of which was an insanely fun project for the launch of Hyundai’s new 2025 Tucson.

Some of these influencer collabs were ones that came to life so perfectly with people who were such a joy to work with, so, if anyone needs a serotonin break, please feel free to give these a watch, especially if you are a person who loves The Pitt, is curious to see how one family helped us promote the Bleacher Report/Max add-on before landing a major Gillette TV ad, or simply would like to give me props for the sheer amount of views this this video has amassed (14.7M!). Also, re: “band dudes”: My initial warning against them is not totally justified, as some of them are dear friends and very lovely. I have attended their weddings, know their children, and above all, got to know just how dorky they all really are, and I love that for all of them.

ANYWAY, I'm now toying with the idea of becoming certified as a career counselor, focusing specifically on women in the entertainment industry who are early on in their professional lives. Starting my Substack was a test to see if I had enough to say — and advice to give — should I move in that direction. My core lesson: it took me far too long to realize I deserved better at work, and to advocate for more — more pay, respect, influence in meetings, and opportunities for power and responsibility.

So while I can't turn back time — although Cher really seems to be proving one can (this woman is 80 years old!) — I love the idea of having the chance to guide a new generation of smart, ambitious young’uns into a better headspace and stop them from crying in the bathroom as much as I did because honestly, most of those tears weren’t worth it.

This story is also published here on The Midst Substack.

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