Crafting Success
“Even if you don’t understand something, buy into it like you do, and then you eventually will. When I first opened my own business, I had no idea what I was doing. But if you create that level of confidence, you’ll find success.”
– Becky Hedges Pospisal ’04
Becky Hedges Pospisal ’04 doesn’t consider herself an artist. She would even go so far as to say she isn’t “the crafty type.” And after more than a decade in social and nonprofit work, she had no idea how to manage and operate a business. But Pospisal was ready to learn something new, to be her own boss.
To achieve her new career goal of owning a business, she applied a lifelong lesson she learned from Softball Coach George Wares ’76 during her time as a member of the Central softball team: Fake it ’til you make it.
And in 2016, Pospisal debuted The Knotty Nail.
“I know that’s something not a lot of people say to themselves, but that’s something coach said to us,” Pospisal says. “Even if you don’t understand something, buy into it like you do, and then you eventually will. When I first opened my own business, I had no idea what I was doing. But if you create that level of confidence, you’ll find success.”
The Knotty Nail, located in West Des Moines, Iowa, is Central Iowa’s original string art and laser cut design studio. The shop offers DIY art workshops for those who want to flex their creativity while socializing with family and friends — and sharing a glass (or two) of their favorite wine. The store front also has witty gifts, chic home décor and do-it-yourself craft kits. The Knotty Nail is now among the Des Moines area’s well-established businesses in the greater Central Iowa community, but it took Pospisal a lot of work to get there. She started the business out of her home while being a mom and working a full-time job.
“I had no money for The Knotty Nail when I first started,” she says. “I 100% poured myself into it, and there were a lot of sacrifices I had to make. But about eight months later, I quit my job and moved into my first studio in downtown Des Moines and was there for two years. Now, I have my own brick-and-mortar.”
Forever Grateful, Forever Dutch
Pospisal learned invaluable lessons as a student and teammate on Central’s softball team that continue to thread their way through her personal and professional life.
In 2003, the softball team won the fourth NCAA Division III national championship in the program’s history. But before Pospisal was part of a championship team, the Dutch came in second place on the national stage in 2001.
“I remember the disappointment of how hard the team had worked all year and then to not win. It was really difficult,” Pospisal says. “But I remember learning a lot about how important it is to really commit yourself and persevere. It was really ingrained in me that I had not experienced that level of success before, and I wanted to get to that point again, but win. I really fell in love with the program after that.”
After hundreds of practices, tough games, taking tests on buses and faxing finals back to campus, Pospisal and her teammates finally experienced that level of success.
“Knowing when you work hard and everyone on your team works hard — and you spend all of this time together and travel together and basically live together — that you can have all of these great successes is something I will never forget.”
But what’s more important than the success she found on the softball field and with her own business? The memories and lasting friendships that are forever engrained in her life.
“Being Forever Dutch means looking back at my experience at Central and being appreciative of the lessons I learned,” Pospisal says. “I learned so much about life. And to this day, I’m close friends with a lot of my teammates. Who would have thought playing softball at Central would have shaped my life like it has? But it did. And I am forever grateful to be Forever Dutch.”