Let's Work Together

The power of people coming together to support one-another is amazing. I saw it when the entire design came together in supporting me with Designers Care, and again when I attended Jess Lively's Business and Life With Intention workshops.

Since I first set my networking goal last year, I have really put myself out there and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I've met people I probably would have never had the guts to meet had I not challenged myself to step outside of my comfort zone. I also discovered that I love sending sincere emails to people I admire. Not because I want anything from them, but because I just want them to know they they've helped me or inspired me in some way. When I get those types of emails it always makes my entire day/week, and I absolutely love being able to put that type of energy back into the world.

So, as I continue down the road of growth this year, and with some big business changes coming, I'm thinking that maybe you and I should ban together and collaborate on something amazing. Let's support one another - maybe you're an event planner and you're in need of the most special party invitations ever, email me, I'd love to collaborate and maybe you can help me plan something special for my branding relaunch! Maybe you're a photographer and you have clients that love high end specialty printing, let's make it happen! If you're planning a styled photoshoot,  if you're a web programmer looking for an updated logo, if you're a marketing specialist in need of a killer business card - please reach out to me and maybe we can help each other out!

I look forward to working with all of you and hearing your great collaboration ideas!

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Dealing with Mistakes with Sincerity and Grace

The past few months have been so life changing for me - I've made the choice to bring intention into my business plan, and I have some big changes happening behind the scenes. While I am really excited about the great things that are happening for my business, I don't want to mislead you and have you think that gorgeous custom projects and pretty features are the only things that go on for me.  Trust me, I have had a few "I don't think I can do this" days, and "what on earth have I gotten myself into" moments.

A few weeks ago I had one of my worst days since the iPad cover fiasco. I don't want to bore you with the details, but I'll say that involved a pretty big spelling mistake on the information card for custom letterpress invitations that were a rush order. The spelling mistake was never caught during the proofing stage and got approved for print with the mistake - the letterpress printers didn't catch it, and the assembly folks (ahem, my husband) didn't catch it either. In fact, the mistake was so easy to miss, that I think my bride may have sent a bunch of her invitations before realizing it.

As a designer, I felt like I failed. But after curling up in bed, and briefly allowing myself to feel like an absolute failure, I realized that moping wasn't going to solve anything. I gave myself about fifteen minutes to feel like crap, and then I got the heck out of bed and began reaching out to my designer friends for support and working my butt off to make the situation right. I emailed my bride immediately and apologized, apologized, apologized. I also found my best way to fix the situation and quickly gave her my recommendation. While we couldn't have the cards reprinted using letterpress, I was able to have them flat printed on the same cotton paper and mailed to my bride within 24 hours.

Was the situation ideal? Absolutely not. Did I handle it with grace and sincerity? I think I did. And to be honest, the fact that such a bad thing could happen and I was able to handle it in a way that my bride still trusted me and loved working with me is such a huge compliment that it absolutely reaffirmed how much I love doing stationery.

So to all of you small business owners, newbies, designers, or whatever - mistakes happen. Bad days happen, guilt happens, tears happen. It all happens and it's not fun, but it will not break you and does not mean you aren't good at what you do. These things happen so that we can learn from them and make our businesses better because of it. Emily Ley says it best in that we should hold ourselves to a standard of grace, not perfection. We cannot be perfect, but gosh darnit, if we can handle those imperfections with grace, we have accomplished a whole lot.

Do any of you have a mantra that has gotten you through a particularly bad day? I'd love to hear about it in the comments section.

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Custom Recap: Davis Family Branding

A few months ago I had the pleasure of working with a a member of my extended family, Gayle, who is my uncles mother, to create some really beautiful stationery for her and her husband, Ron. This past year, Ron and Gayle officially entered retirement, and decided to sell their home near Boston and split their year between a home in Florida and a home in Maine. Gayle was looking for a way to let family and friends know about their move, and how/where to contact them throughout the year.

The more Gayle and I chatted, the more I thought the project was along the lines of a family branding - so I went to work creating a style that we could use for calling cards, folded stationery and flat note cards. I came up with the idea of "Pine to Palm" since their year was spent half in the pines of Maine, and half in the palms of Florida.

I absolutely love the way everything turned out - the soft neutral colors, the gingham backer pattern and the blue envelope pull all of the different pieces together perfectly.

On their first drive down from Maine to Florida, Gayle spent a good portion of the multi-day drive writing notes to friends and family on her new folded cards - letting them know about the move.

She also keeps a stack of calling cards with her at all times, so that she can quickly give them to friends when they ask for her contact information. These cards might be my favorite part of the project, they are just so perfectly compact and pack a huge amount of information. These little cards clearly communicate what time of the year Ron and Gayle will be in Maine, and when they will be in Florida, plus their phone numbers and addresses for each location. What a great idea!

And the last element of the set is the flat stationery, which Gayle plans on using for special notes and correspondence. I love the idea of having an entire theme throughout all of the stationery you use, it's something that brands and businesses do - and I hope the trend catches on for families. It's such an organized, sophisticated way to represent yourself.

If you love the idea of family branding as much as I do, I would love to work with you and create your perfect set of stationery to represent all of the different aspect of your unique life. Contact me to start talking about making your ideas a reality.

3 Ways to Bring Purpose into Your Business

Just the other day I shared my experience with Jess Lively's Business and Life With Intention workshops, however I did not share how my own purpose changed/evolved because of the workshop. While I'm not completely ready to share all of the details, I am excited to share a few insights along with three key learnings that I think you can apply to your business immediately.

 1- Make sure that your brand is truly your brand. Does your company name really fit that special thing that you do, and does it roll off your tongue with pride when you tell others who you are? This was huge for me - and where I spent the majority of my focus during the workshop. It's also why I will be changing my business name in the very near future. I can't share the new name yet, but I guarantee that it feels to me like a warm comfy sweater I never want to part with (thanks to Elizabeth, for suggesting it! And thank you Jess for encouraging the brainstorm session that it resulted from!)

2- Does your branding actually fit you? I'm not just talking about your name here, but I'm talking about the design. The colors, fonts, textures, packaging, logos etc - do they all look like things you'd have around your house? Are they something that you're friends would see in the store and know immediately that it's so you? For a long time I felt like I needed my brand to be different and unique, but after much trial and error, what I found is that I actually needed my brand to be just the same as everything else in my life. Luckily, my colors and branding are very much my style - and in fact, if you were to have attended my wedding or walked into my home, you'd find yourself surrounded by the same whites, creams, aquas and corals that are also part of my brand. Correction, the style is part of my brand, it's part of me and it just so happens that my wedding, home and brand are all also parts of me. Is your branding an extension of who you are?

3- Just because you can do it all, doesn't mean you should. Find other experts that are able to do what you want to do, but can do it better than you could ever do it yourself. Delegating and reaching out to other talented people is a tool to use. For me, I built my entire website myself because I didn't have the budget to hire somebody, but now that I am going to be rebranding, I'm reaching out to people that I know can help me way better than I could help myself. Plus, but letting other people help, I am freeing up my time to focus on other aspects of business. Anybody out there a marketing pro and want to help me get my brand out there more?

Are the above things that you thought about when setting up your business? Are you thinking about them now?

Growing a Business With Intention

This past month has been huge for me. Not because of high sales or profit, but because of direction, purpose, inspiration and growth. For the longest time I felt like I was clawing along for my business, but that all changed a few months ago when I decided to stop clawing, to stop trying, to stop forcing and to start being true, honest and confident in myself and my business. My new direction was solidified after this post, when out of the blue Jess Lively called me to talk about a new collaboration (more on the collaboration to come in a future post!).

After talking to Jess on the phone, I just sat at my dining room table, perfectly still. My stomach was doing flips and the big-blue-peaceful-pool inside my gut was filled with the kind of joy that comes just before something life-changing is about to happen. I knew at that moment of stillness, something big and amazing was happening and that I would never exactly be the same.

Attending one of Jess's Business With Intention workshops has been on my radar for some time now, and collaborating with her offered me the opportunity to attend the Boston workshop. I was terrified to be traveling by myself, to a place where I didn't really know anybody, and to meet somebody that I really admired. However, keeping true to my goal for networking, along with the feeling of big things coming, was enough to motivate me to face my fears and just do it. Boy, am I so grateful that I did.


Not only am I kind of convinced that Jess is a long lost friend that I never knew I had, but she's one hell of a genuine person too. She's generous, giving, open, honest and she is passionate about serving others. Her workshop was exactly what I would have expected from such an amazing person - it was filled with purpose and intention, and it was 100% focused on helping each person build a more purposeful business.

We had an intimate group of 4 ladies plus Sophie, our Boston Foodie and Allison, Jess's Boston Assistant/stylist attend the Business With Intention workshop, and every single one of us came out with 6 new friends and allies in our purposeful business ventures. Jess led the group beautifully and spent a lot of time with each of us on our businesses. I can tell you that some amazing things are going to be happening for us 6 ladies - Elizabeth is about to blow the world away with her amazing statement jewelry and personal style; Ashley is finally taking her branding expertise and investing in her own perfect couture branding; Ashlee is helping guide GenY-ers find their purpose and change their lives; Sophie is going to teach all of us how to cook just as we'd like to; and Allison is helping us all through interior design and styling (and she's already working with me on a new project of my own!)

The first day was focused on business, while the second day was the Life With Intention Workshop. Again, we had an intimate group of 4 plus Sophie and Allison. Elizabeth joined me for the two day journey, by also attending the Life With Intention workshop, in addition to Sheerly and Patrick, who were such a pleasure to get to know! Just as she had done on the first day, Jess spent significant time with each of us, talking about our lives, dreams, goals and intentions. It was intense, but it was the good kind of intense - the kind of intense that leaves you on a high for weeks and weeks.

After the workshop was over, Jess hitched a ride back with me to NYC - we chatted about everything from our pups (her adorable Franklin and of course my Miss Juliet), to ice-cream sundaes and smoothie cleanses. Jess is one of those people that just makes life better (and long car rides) - she's contagious and I feel honored to have had the experience of getting to work with her and to know her better. If you ever have the chance to attend one of her workshops, I HIGHLY recommend it. However, if you can't attend a workshop, you should absolutely follow her website, which is filled with tips and purpose for life and business.

Over the next few weeks you will see all of the changes that I plan on making as a result of attending the workshops. While I would love to share it all now, I'm leaving it for a future post - but know that it's major, and positive, and filled with intention and purpose.

How do you bring intention and purpose into your business? Is it working for you? I'd love to hear all about it!

Sign up for all the Inside Scoop and BIG Announcements

Tomorrow I will be sharing the start of a new journey with you. A journey in which BIG changes will be happening, and BIG announcements will be made. As I move forward with making my business the best possible business it can be, I want to make sure my readers, customers and future clients can come along for the ride. While there will be announcements here on the blog, I will be sharing them through my new Newsletter first.

So please sign up, and let me share with you before I share with anybody else.

And since I know you value the space in your email box, I promise you won't be bombarded with emails from me. You can expect to get at most 5 emails from me over the next two months (containing really big announcements), and then one per month after that.

I look forward to bringing you on my journey to a better business, and sharing some big announcements with you in the Newsletter.

Custom Recap - 80's Themed 30th Birthday Invitations

Back in October of 2012, Danielle, the photographer behind Danfredo Photography, reached out to me with an awesomely awesome and super secret party collaboration. Danielle had gotten married a year before (on her birthday), but her wedding didn't exactly live up to her expectations. So for her one year anniversary (and her 30th birthday), she was looking to throw a huge 30th birthday celebration that would double as a top secret vow renewal. She told all of her guests to wear their best 80's attire and she provided the glow sticks, spin art (yes, spin art), neon colors, confetti and ballons. Just when guests thought things couldn't get wilder, Danielle and her husband surprised everybody with a rooftop vow renewal. The rest of the evening was spent singing, dancing, celebrating and getting paint splatter everywhere (ok, that's what spin art does!).

I had so much fun working on these invitations, and I think I perfectly married (ahem, pun, ahem) the crazy 80's theme with my own sophisticated style and typography. Here are the invitations I created for her special day.

To view an adorable video from their wedding day, please visit the Danfredo Rivera blog.