An Ideal Customer? Find confidence in YOU.

I've heard this thrown around a lot but never thought it applied to me. I thought it applied to photographers or wedding planners booking their ideal client that matched their brand and dream image.

I haven't been worrying about an ideal customer at all. I also haven't been worrying about my own style at all.  Instead I spent the last year producing products to fit the market. Burlap and lace. Got it. Yellow and Gray. Got it. Blush on blush on blush? Got it.

So when I was asked about my style and specifically to show pictures of some of my favorite orders and color combinations I was stumped. I thought for sure they existed until I started scrolling back in my camera uploads, further...and further...and further.  My products didn't look like me. They looked like me thinking too hard and too carefully about what I think everyone else wants. Did I confuse you? Case and point.

That, friends, is a big mistake. You know why I didn't make designs that were 100% me? Because it's scary!

Because I like unique color combinations.

Because I like bold and bright.

But if I'm being truly honest. It's mostly because I am afraid my sales will totally plummit if I make what I love.

I think as artists we need to find a balance. If we need to make money, we need to make money and we can always target whatever market we want. But we can't lose our creative identity in the process. Because then, our businesses are just businesses, not creative businesses.

I'm making a promise to myself to make what I love, to be inspired by the colors I love, and to share that with you. I'm excited to see what is in store!

Creative at Heart Birthday Bash: Photos and Reflection + You are definitely "good" enough.

On one of the first days of January, a fellow creative friend and I headed out to Richmond for the Creative at Heart Birthday Bash. This was an event celebrating one year of the Creative at Heart Conference, a conference that provides education and inspiration to all types of creatives. Now, I actually hadn't gone to any of their conferences the previous year, you know having a baby and all, so I wasn't sure this was appropriate for me to go to - but MY did their pictures look gorgeous advertising the event. I read on their website that this wasn't just for alumni of their conferences but for new faces who were potentially interested in the future. Ok, yes, everyone says that but did they really mean it?

I could have spent days overanalyzing this convincing myself that this wasn't for me, I wasn't good enough to go to something like this, I'm not a "real creative." And the list goes on and on. But something Jess Connolly of the Influence Net said during a webinar I attended was (quoted to the best that I remember :)) "Who told you that? Who told you that this event wasn't for you? That you aren't good enough? That you aren't a real creative? God certainly didn't tell you that. Can you imagine your child looking up at your saying "I'm not good enough"...don't do that to your Father in heaven either!"

And that is the truth!

So we bought tickets and headed out. I'm not going to say I was suddenly perfect and didn't second guess my outfit, how I introduced myself, or if my business cards looked good enough..because I did. But I reminded myself of the truth Jess shared and went in!

Friends, I am SO glad I had the courage to go to this, it was just a lovely event with finishing touches on every detail. First of all it was at Paisley and Jade.  Pause right now and go look at their website, but don't get sucked in. Come back to me. But do it. Seriously. It's gorgeous. 

Second, the speakers were phenomenal!! So encouraging and real. They talked about the exact insecurities and fears I highlighted above. Natalie Franke, photographer and founder of the Rising Tide Society, spoke about not believing the lie that "everyone else is successful." She talked about how we are flooded with success stories on instagram and gorgeously photographed highlight reels of life. In fact, there were a lot of failures that led to those successes and we shouldn't be afraid of them. We should also define our OWN version of success and not struggle trying to figure out what success is to the world around us or how to get to the place someone else is at on instragram or on a blog, etc. It was wonderful and exactly what this girl (me) needed to hear, as I'm sure many of the other lovely creatives did too.

So what does this mean for you? First - check out the Creative at Heart Conference coming to Annapolis, MD this March. I won't be there but hope to go in future years when baby girl is a bit older and can handle being away from me for more than 35 seconds (seriously, that's what we're at right now with this whole teething thing...). Second - don't ever think you're not good enough. Don't ever think you're not creative enough. Don't ever think you just don't fit in in this beautifully curated instagram world. Remember that many of the accounts you are following are BUSINESSES. They are advertising. They aren't writing a feel good blog. If you're looking for business mentors try to meet the people behind the feeds, join a Rising Tide Society Tuesday Together group (it's free and I'll talk about this in a future post next week) and get to know people in person.

You are a creative masterpiece, you are made in the image of our awesome God and you are certainly, definitely, good enough.

Now enjoy some drool worthy photos from Hope Taylor Photography and find the rest of the vendors involved listed below.

  

Photography: Hope Taylor Photography 
Venue: Paisley and Jade
Videography: The Herrinton's
Name-Tags: Jess Creates
Florals: So Lovely Weddings & Blooms
Cakes & Sweets: Sorby Sweets
Sponsor/Mugs: Rising Tide Society
Behind the Scenes, AV: Handspun Cinema

Rebranding: who we're working with & how we knew it was time! + Questions to think through if you're considering rebranding.

Up to this point in my business I thought I had to be good (read - perfect) at everything. This shop helps support us while my husband is in school and therefore I haven't had much of a budget to invest back into growing my business. Because of this, I have found myself wearing all of the hats: accounting, strategic business decisions, crafting, packaging and shipping, logo design, product photography, trademarking and business formation, social media marketing etc. I started this business because I wanted to make paper flowers. I wanted to put them on crosses, I wanted to put them on tiny signs and I wanted to share a piece of my passion with people everywhere. I did not start this business because I wanted to learn how to take and edit photos in Lightroom, how to strategically use social media to market and run promotions, how to apply for a trademark, and the list could go on and on.

Naturally I understand as tiny shops starting out without money to invest we HAVE to do all of this our selves. However, when you're stressed  because you're not spending any time being creative and instead you are trying to learn 15 new skills and not only learn them but be PERFECT at them, it might be time to take a breath and step back.

For me, that meant that there are a few things I just had to let go of. (Italics because I want you to know that it was and is still not an easy thing for me!)  Learning how to be a professional product photographer was one of them. Learning how to be an SEO (search engine optimization) expert was another one. And most importantly, learning how to be a graphic designer and website creator....I'm done with that! I've spent countless hours fiddling with fonts and logos and spending money that adds up on bits and pieces here and there. I've also spent hours upon days upon weeks learning some basic HTML coding to make the tabs and social media buttons at the top of my blogger up there. See them? Yeah, you better appreciate those things because I'm pretty sure my husband didn't see me for a week.

I'll talk more about letting some of these other things go in later posts but for now I'm going to focus on the biggest one:

re-branding and website design. 

**Before you read this. If you're  thinking there's no way you'll ever have the funds to pay someone else to do ANYTHING for your shop, don't get discouraged. I honestly never thought I would either, and this may not be an appropriate decision for you, now or ever - who knows?! Our businesses are all so unique and working to achieve different goals. I'll be sharing in the coming weeks about how to lessen the burden of product photos, making etsy listings, social media marketing, etc. All things you can do for free or a small monetary investment to take a load off and give it your best shot for success!

Yes, re-branding and desiging a website is definitely a financial investment. But it's just that, an investment. We prayed about this and felt that now, three years in and in the final months before my husband starts his new job, was the time to give things a final push. To see what the capacity of this little shop is and to fine tune our processes so that when we do move and start up a new routine we know *as much as we can* about what the shop and we can/can't handle.

Here's some of my thought process and advice I'd offer to you, yes you, you unsure business owner who doesn't think your shop is good enough for a re-brand, or you - you wild thing - who keeps no business records and is slowly eating into your child's college fund pursuing your crafting passions!

I encourage you to first set financial goals for your shop because this can be a rather large expense. For instance:

• when I reach two months in a row with XX profit I will invest in a branding package, or 
• when I reach a year of XX income from my shop I will invest in a website outside of Etsy.

I think having goals like this in mind that you write down, talk about, and stick to, can be extremely freeing. *Cough* While I didn't do this, sitting down with my husband at the end of the year and looking at trends, revenue, and profit led to some great goal setting conversations and the decision that I'm now at a benchmark where this is appropriate. Boy, would they have been helpful to have earlier!

If you're wondering exactly what that looks like I'll share a bit more that I normally would for the sake of helping you think it through. It means that:

• last year I had enough profit to cover this branding package and website re-do without putting us in a bad financial situation. Do you have profit set aside from your business? Are you willing to make the jump right at the beginning and invest your personal money in this, or wait and try your best and invest business profit (if you earn any) later? 
• my shop has started to stall/decline when it comes to profit because of more competition. I know the potential it has financially for us and we want to invest in this branding package to attract customers, keep up with and surpass competitors, and see if we can get it back to what it use to be and beyond. Who is your competition? Is your business declining? What does your logo/website/etc look like compared to your competition? Why specifically do you think updating your look would help you stand out amongst the competition? What other issues could there be with your product or business practices beyond your look?
• we have a specific monetary goal in mind to help us pay for student loans that we start payments on in November and investing in the business now will hopefully help us invest in our personal future later. If it doesn't work - that's totally fine. But at this point if we didn't try we would always wonder. This gives us enough time to build the shop up before those payments begin. What is your goal for your business (personal, financial, etc)? Is it worth investing in? Investing how much financially? Are you and any other financial decision makers on the same page? What evidence do you have that rebranding will help you meet financial goals? What if rebranding doesn't help your business? 

So, now the best part.

I am literally over the moon excited to show you the mood board for our new/updated look coming soon by Chelsea of 23&9 Creative.

What do you think?! I'm so in love.

Don't worry I'm still here. I can't think of a title. This is a post about blogging in 2016.

One thing I pride myself on is the consistency of this blog.

Hilarious.

My little piece of the internet went from a wedding planning journal to a DIY paper flower wall series. It detailed my journey in trying to become a pinterest home maker (don't remember this part? yeah I barely do either...hahaha) and then became a pregnancy journal. I could actually list about ten more topics.

It's a pretty common piece of advice that consistency is key in building a readership and voice for your blog.

WOMP.

Well, I don't have consistency but I can tell you it is a goal of mine for the future. A lot of topics go as quickly as they came because I never want to force a post or write about something I don't care about. I'm also not going to lie and tell you I'm definitely going to be consistent this year, because well - that's just setting myself up for failure. But I have good feelings about where this is going for 2016.

I'm hoping to use this blog as a place of encouragement. Encouragement for everyone but I'm hoping it will specifically resonante with creatives. Creatives who are struggling building a business, who are overwhelmed with an unexpectedly successful business, who are putting their business before their marriage, who don't have a business but desperately want a business, who are working a 9-5 and side creative business and totally stressed out, who are too afraid to share their art but want to. I want to offer encouragement for all of these types and do so by sharing personal stories, highlighting other creatives' stories and spotlighting business to help gain exposure among other things.

It won't only be that. You'll still hear from me about my paper flowers and about the bajillion huge life changes we have coming in 2016. Hey, maybe we'll even try to get a bit of that fantastic pancake art back up here.

Sound interesting?