I used to hate Sundays. Mainly because it meant I was either due at school or the office the next day. I’m sure you all know that feeling.

Today, on the last Sunday of the month, I only feel anticipation and excitement for tomorrow. As I say hello to March and the promise of Spring, I feel a certain inner peace knowing I’m about to close the door on the stress that was February.

So, as I lay here in bed with my coffee, I wish you all a wonderful Sunday. My Sunday will include pancakes, the typical household chores, some R’n’R to later be topped off with a movie (The Time Traveler’s Wife). Bliss!

What does (did) your Sunday entail?

UPDATE: So my Sunday didn’t go as planned above. The pancakes were replaced by brunch out and the chores, R’n'R and movie were replaced by staying out to watch the hockey game. The atmosphere was too addictive to leave. I had an awesome Sunday! HELLO MARCH!

Photo Credit: Rootedinstyle

Now that I figured out a new plan of attack for modernemotive I want to go back to basics and start looking at my brand as it stands today. I’m not just talking visual esthetics here (people often assume “brand” means your logo but it doesn’t – more on this later) but how it’s perceived by you. This is where I need your help.

What words/emotions come to your mind when you think of modernemotive and my products?

After announcing last week I was going to rebuild some foundations over here, Silvia of Silvia Reitsma Creative Photography asked some questions that got me thinking:

“When you say you have to do some foundation work, what do you mean exactly with that? What do you consider the foundation for your business, in a practical way? Do you have any idea, plans? How to start building the base?”

Truth be told, these questions left me stumped for a few days but eventually the answers started to reveal themselves. Bare with me as I try and show you how they are all intertwined.

“The foundation of modernemotive is my creativity.”

Pretty simple declaration huh? So why did Silvia’s questions leave me stumped? The answer to that is simple too – I stopped being creative and lost sight of everything. I truly think this is why I have been so unfocused and disoriented lately.

Creativity fuels me and allows me to keep going. So, as sales increased and orders began taking all day to process, there was no longer any room for creativity and I ran out of steam. In essence, this shook my foundation and cracked it. That’s why it is in need of some work.

How am I going to fix it? I only have one choice and that’s to make “creativity” the driving force behind modernemotive again. Not sales, not delivering product lines because they are working for others nor worrying about (and sometimes envying) my competition. With creativity back in the driving seat, those sales will come, I’ll deliver product lines true to me and one day I’ll be able to share the same successes as those I admire in the stationery world. I just need to believe in my creativity, my foundation.

So, how do I start building my base? By listening to myself. Yesterday, Michelle of Holley & Gill asked this simple question of me:

“What at this point in your life would you be the most happiest doing on a daily basis?”

Again I was initially stumped and my response was scattered. But now that I’ve redefined my foundation – my creativity – I’m able to respond with a more clear and defined answer.

If my answer to this is to simply be creative as much as possible, I need to eliminate anything stunting that creativity. Here’s what I’m currently considering:

1. Outsourcing printing and production – not only will this allow me to expand my line beyond greeting cards, but it will also expedite order fulfillment as everything will be ready to ship.
2. Discontinuing personalized stationery as it stands today – more on this another time.
3. Focusing on wholesaling my product line rather than being the direct point of sale myself - As much as I love working with my customers, as one person, the effort needed to make those sales can be a full time job in itself. While I am truly honored with every sale I get, in order to take modernemotive where I want it to go, I need to generate revenue that allows growth at a faster pace than it’s at today. Therefore I need to focus on moving 100s of product units at a time rather than securing a sale of one card. Make sense? This doesn’t mean I won’t sell direct to the customer too, just that my primary focus needs to shift.

Of course, all of the above requires more thinking and will not happen overnight. For example, I know I’m not in a place right now where I can outsource my whole product line. However, with small, deliberate steps it all seems achievable. I just need to keep leaning on that foundation whenever I have any doubts.

As many of you commented that you too were going through an identity crisis with your businesses, I hope sharing my thought process over the past few days helps you redefine your foundations too. To end, I’d like to share some advice inspired by one of my favorite quotes:

“We cannot direct the winds, but we can adjust our sails.”
Author Unknown

Think of your business as a sailing boat out at sea. Elements are going to come along that will unexpectedly take you off course. You have a few options. You could turn the boat around, return to the habor where it’s safe and go nowhere. Or you could trust in your sailing boat (your foundation), adjust your sails (to compensate for the elements rocking your foundation) and keep going towards your destination. Once reached, you’ll have the confidence to get back out there and keep sailing to new destinations.

Photo Credit: S@ilor

I don’t usually write my blog posts at 5 am in the morning, but seeing as I’ve been up for an hour already, here I am armed with coffee starting my day. Morning folks!

For the past few days I’ve developed this internal clock that screams “Wake up Adele!” around 4.30 am. Someone please tell it to shut up because I really need some sleep. Though usually a morning person, being up this early is pushing it a little too far.

What about you… are you a night owl or a morning person?

Photo Credit: Thom Woolley

I’m sure it’s evident from my posts lately that I’m going through a bit of an identity crisis with my company and perhaps if I’m honest, with myself too. Previously I’ve attributed this to the usual culprits such as confidence, life’s ups and downs, lack of motivation… we’ve all been there and some of that holds true. However, after sharing this post, once again, Jan of Daisy Janie threw some words of wisdom at me that made me dig a little deeper:

“You said you’ll just rip the carpet up to reveal the concrete…the foundation of your home, your life. Well, why can’t you do the same with modernemotive? Rip the surface layer off and get to the foundation. What’s down there? What do you see? How can you make it functional? What will it take to build on it?”

It took a while for the “light bulb” to turn on, but when it did it hit me like a ton of bricks. I’m not struggling because my vision isn’t there, nor my passion or drive. I’m struggling because I’m standing on top of a foundation that was rushed and not given time to set. A foundation I’m not confident can withstand the load if I keep building. There are too many cracks that need filling with long-term solutions and goals, not just temporary fixes. Some of that foundation is me and hey, I need a little repair too.

You might think I’m over-analyzing this, but recently I was presented with a few opportunities that would of taken my attention away from modernemotive indefinitely. The fact that I seriously considered them reinforced my belief that the foundation of my company needed some work. They both fell through within 24 hours of each other and the relief I felt made me realize modernemotive is still my home and I’m not ready to up and leave.

So, if I’m going to stay in these digs, it’s time to do some foundation work. Going forward, I need to be able to build on top of what I have with confidence and strength, so it’s time to rediscover and redefine things. Once my foundation is set, I’ll start to brick this goddamn house. After-all, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Photo Credit: mauresque

My age as of today. Here’s to being another year older and another year wiser (?).

Photo Credit: StgoDöllPosse

So, I totally dropped the ball on Project 365 this month. As you can imagine, I was mad at myself and went through all the feelings of failure and embarrassment. Scrambling to remedy the matter resulted in an idea to take a bunch of photos for the missing days so I would be back on track but that only fueled the self-imposed stress about it. Pretty silly huh?

Anyway, I woke up this morning and thought “fuck it”. Who cares if I missed a few days? Do you? I’m going to guess no. The only person that cares is me and only because I choose to. Well, not anymore. I’m going to look at those photo-less days as a representation of where I was at the time – kinda lost, confused and disoriented. My personal intention of Project 365 is to capture my life on that particular day, so those blank spaces represent those days better than any photo could.

I guess in some ways, this post really isn’t about Project 365, but more about learning to give myself a break. Sometimes we are so goddamn hard on ourselves and at the end of the day it is completely unwarranted. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… sometimes, when you look hard enough, you’ll actually see perfection in your imperfections and that can be a beautiful thing. Embrace it, don’t let it put you at a stand-still and just keep moving.

Yikes, it’s been a little quiet around here this week huh? I’m feeling a little lost for words. Truth be told, I’m feeling pretty lost in general. So, to re-spark some conversation, I wanted to invite you to ask me anything over on Formspring.

Don’t be shy. Ask away. I don’t bite I promise. :)

Photo Credit: Lisa-Mari

It’s funny, even though I design stationery, I never send out cards/notes via traditional mail. Pretty crazy huh? I vowed last year to make an effort to do so and well, I didn’t, so I won’t set myself up a fail again by saying I will now. I’ll just sit here slightly embarrassed at myself.

Thankfully, others aren’t as lazy as me and choose pretty paper vs. email for their correspondence. What about you? Do you send out handwritten notes? Cards? If so, why? It not, why? Yah, I’m full of questions today.

I’m not talking about the typical commercial driven stuff like Holidays, but you know, the random notes just to keep in touch or say thanks. Oh, and if anyone wants to be penpals, my email can be found in the top right corner of this blog. ;)

Photo Credit: geo3pea

You know, I think I jinxed myself bitching about February because she’s dealing more crap to me. The latest happenings over here is a bedroom carpet* ripped up along with some baseboards courtesy of Riley. Yah, the cute boy down below. Looks like butter wouldn’t melt huh?

Seems he got himself locked in there while we was out yesterday and was determined to eat his way through the wall. WTF? He ain’t a puppy, don’t only puppies do stuff like this? Of course, I can’t be angry at him, he’s cute and shit happens, but still, February, seriously, can you not reserve some of your challenges for March, April, May… ?

Anyway, rather than bitch some more, I wanted to talk about drive. You know the motivational kind. For me, it’s been slightly lacking this month. Even though we’re only 8 days in, I’ve done eff all in terms of what I had planned. Let’s just say my motivation and optimism has taken a trip elsewhere. I’ve even looked at my business as a whole and debated throwing in the towel. Yah, it’s gotten that bad at times.

But see there’s a problem. I have this drive I can’t ignore. I didn’t quit my job, invest money and talk the talk to later walk away due to a few bumps in the road. Yah, I might be driving under the speed limit right now, but let’s face it, all I need to do is put my foot firmly down and step it up a notch.  And hey, if I need to pull of to the side to refuel that’s okay too. That final destination isn’t going anywhere, it’ll still be there whether I arrive tomorrow, next month or even next year.

I’m curious, what drives you to keep going? These roads we are taking, whether personal or professional are rarely smooth, so what gives you the drive to keep at it?

* After 30 minutes of thinking my place is a shambles, I saw the bright side of things. I’ve always hated that carpet. Besides latching on to every bit of dirt that comes its way, I just hate carpet period. So, screw it, I’m ripping it up and exposing the concrete. I already have exposed concrete in my condo so I think it’ll work. I’ll keep you posted.

Photo Credit (bottom): Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (ClintJCL)