I think I was always headed towards a creative entrepreneur career but didn’t always know that! I started so many businesses as a kid and knew I wanted to do something creative by the time I got to middle school, but I don’t think it clicked until later on that the fact I had started so many businesses and wanted to do something creative meant I could run my own creative business.

I’m very independent and very driven, so I knew that I would enjoy being my own boss and that I would be able to handle the near 24-hour day work schedule that it requires. I’m also a huge problem solver so the idea of figuring out how to start, run, and grow a business was really intriguing to me.

This is a tough one for me. I’m a firm believer that school isn’t for everyone, and I spent the majority of my school days bored to tears and on a quest to challenge the curriculum that was laid out for me. 

I approached the head of the Public Communication department [at American] to ask if I could veer from the typical requirements and do an independent study. He agreed, and that’s what I used to build the first version of Studio DIY!

Outside of that, I took on multiple internships and jobs in the fields I was interested in. If I had stayed on the path laid out for me—and I’m being honest—I don’t think it would have contributed much to my career. But because I wasn’t afraid to ask questions and fight for what I knew I wanted after college, I was able to get a head start, which was a huge advantage in the long run.

I had about six months after I left FIDM and before I went to American where I interned in New York. I was one of the first interns for StyleCaster when they were brand new and then left to intern for Bridal Guide Magazine. Going from a start up environment to a corporate environment taught me just how different they were—and that I loved the feel of a start-up.

Working at Bridal Guide was my first foot in the door of the wedding industry, and I then worked for a wedding PR company, wedding planner, floral designer, and wedding blog while at American. I quickly learned that working in the thick of the wedding world wasn’t for me, but really enjoyed the blog and media aspect of it I experienced. I’m so grateful I had all of those opportunities to teach me exactly what I liked and didn’t like before graduating.

I always intended for Studio DIY to be my full-time business, though certainly not in the form it came to be. I always treated it like a business and not like a hobby or side project. Of course, to pay the bills I took on additional freelance jobs at other blogs, but I worked quickly to build Studio DIY and gradually phase each one of my side jobs out.

I’m very much a “just do it and figure it out later” type of person, which has worked in my favor and also not in my favor in the past. Ha! But when I decided to quit my final big freelance job, I just kind of…did it. I knew the workload at Studio DIY was growing, though certainly not enough to support me completely, but I also knew that in order to continue to grow it, I needed more time to devote to it. I always say, if you’ve waited until you’re comfortable, you’ve waited too long. The fear that comes with leaving a well-paying gig is the fear that pushes you into making your own business succeed. It’s incredibly important. You can’t make the jump too soon, there will definitely be a period where your plate is overflowing managing both, but never wait until you feel safe either. It’s a delicate balance!

Every day is so different than the last but I’ll try to break down what a typical shoot day is like, which is every Tuesday for us! I wake up around 7AM every morning and am at the studio by 9AM. My drive to work is one of my favorite times of day, where I blast music and car-dance to get pumped for the day!

Samantha, my Operations Manager, arrives at 9AM as well. We spend the next hour or so checking in on emails, social media, and going over what needs to get done that day. At 10AM, the rest of the team arrives and we start setting up our first shoot. Our styling assistant, Annie, and I consult about what we want the photos to look like and then she works to execute it with Jeff (my husband/photographer!). I approve everything and jump in where needed. In the meantime, I’m handling a lot of big behind the scenes projects right now that require quick decisions and lots of conference calls. 

We break for lunch around 12:30 and wrap up any shoots after that before spending the rest of the day brainstorming as a team for future posts and projects. We all head home around 5PM where I take a quick break to catch up on Instagram and Snapchat before making dinner and working well into the night, usually on blog posts or sourcing items for a shoot. I fall into bed around midnight on a good day and then wake up and do it all over again the next day!

The hardest part is being pulled in 1,000 directions and never feeling like I’ve accomplished everything I need to. The work is never done when you’re running a small, but quickly growing business, and even though I have an awesome team to help me now, a lot of the weight and decisions still fall on my shoulders. Emails, decisions, photo selections, blog posts, instagrams, Snapchat, bills, payroll… I spend most of my days ping-ponging between tasks and wake up the next day with a to-do list just as long! 

I try not to live with any regrets in business, though I do wish I concentrated on growing my email community more from the start. It’s a big risk to have your largest audience on social media platforms you don’t control since they are constantly changing. But when you’re starting out you’re never going to make all the right decisions, so you can’t dwell on them too much.

I’m a very open person, so discussing things publicly like my cancer story, our marriage or our infertility struggle is easy for me and actually really helpful. I am, however, far more protective of my family and friends who didn’t choose to have a spotlight cast on them like I did. When Jeff and I have kids, we don’t plan to share their lives publicly, so it will get even more difficult then, but for now I try to put my phone away whenever I’m spending time with family or close friends. I love sharing my life with my community, and having them share their lives with me, but life is short and sometimes it’s more important to be focused on the people who are right in front of you.

To stay true to myself and my brand, I’ve developed a checklist of filters, if you will, that I think through in my head before I post anything. Those include visual things like “Is this colorful, fun, happy, or bright?” and more overarching things like “Is this appropriate for my younger audience?” or “Does this feel like something I would say out loud in real life?” It’s worked really well for me.

Everywhere! I find this a very tough question to answer. My eyeballs are constantly in tune with what’s around me, and my brain is always turned on, so inspiration can strike anywhere. What’s been really fun as the team grows is to have group brainstorming sessions where we all play off of each other’s inspirations and come up with some really awesome ideas.

Be ready to work, work, work, work, work, work. Running my own business is the most rewarding but also the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I can’t stress enough how important it is to stay true to yourself. It’s very easy to see what someone else is doing, and how successful they are at it, and emulate them. But in the end, if you aren’t being true to yourself, that’s going to wear on you heavily and your audience will quickly see through it. But with all that in mind, just make the leap! Getting started is the biggest hurdle of them all, and you do not need to have everything figured out before you do. Dive in, and you’ll be surprised at what you can do when there’s no turning back. And you’ll simultaneously realize we’re all just kind of winging it and that’s A-OK too!

I take a break or I call a team meeting where we can all discuss and brainstorm together. I’ll occasionally adventure into the nearby fashion and flower district to see if any materials spark ideas, but I often find just having someone to talk over ideas with is the best way to overcome a creative slump.

Even though I hated it at first after working from home for so long, I really look forward to going into work every day. It’s fun to have a space dedicated to the business and a team to work with too. This year we have so many huge, HUGE changes coming to Studio DIY that I can’t help but be excited to work on them each day, and I can’t wait to share what we have cookin’ with our awesome community. There will be lots of new ways for our readers to connect with Studio DIY this year...but sadly, that’s all I can say right now!