Are you ready...!!!!

okay loyal readers...get ready for an upgraded view! I have switched to wordpress & my lovely designer tracylynn of three heart photography & design made my vision a reality.

Soon this blog will automatically be redirected to the new one, but just about everything here is now there. I have a few glitches to work out & some content to add but it is so close to being done that I thought you should see it! I hope you enjoy & surely leave me a comment to let me know (a) you made it & (b) what you think!!! I'm so excited!

www.styleberryhome.com

Here's where I ask for your help...

Okay, so I hope this doesn't come across in the wrong way, (cause I never enjoy doing this sort of thing) but I am in the process of putting together my website & am looking for some accolades.

If I have ever helped you with decorating in your house, and you have something to say about how I helped you, what you liked or just how I am to work with, here's how you can pay me back!

Shoot me an email (comment me if you don't have it) with a little blurb (specifics are great, whether it was color, decor or cordinating something etc.) about your experience. Also let me know it's ok to post on my new website [first name & last initial only].

Thanks everyone! I am uncomfortable doing this "asking you to say nice things" hullabaloo, but starting your own business means a whole lotta doing things you are uncomfortable doing! So if you can help me out, it would be greatly appreciated. :)

drumroll please...

I'd love to hear what you think! This has undergone many revisions, but the final is exactly what I want! I wanted a logo that I could use without using my name...that was fun & hip and modern & simple & clean...no small vision!

Much thanks to the fabulous Tracy Lynn of Three Heart Design, who has been so wonderful to work with!

a new big fat time stealer...

So, if you have say, an hour or two to spare, you might want to check out this site. The fabulous new graphic designer I am working with on my logo & marketing materials introduced me to it so she could best get a feel for what i like and i am so addicted! Currently loving "high strung" (imagine that) but we'll see what the lovely Tracy Lynn of Three Heart Design comes up with. I am loving her first draft...she edited my tag line and it is better than ever...!!!

sneak peek

I have been working very hard the last few days to begin branding myself & my business...I finally hired a designer to help me with a logo and she will whip something up next week. For now...this is the direction I am heading. This is just what I have created by myself...and I am obviously no graphic designer! It is NOWHERE near complete...but it's a start...

my first paying job as a designer

Well, today was the day! It was my very first step into the world as a designer. I got my color chips in order, slipped into my navy dress and put on heels for the first time in a loooooong time. I was walking down the stairs thinking..."surely I have not yet balanced this flight on heels...is it really this steep...sheesh!?!" I plugged the address into my trusty little garmin & off I went. Not a nervous twinge in my body.

I arrived and spent the next two hours with a lovely older couple who are doing a full kitchen remodel & needed some serious color help. I got them all set up, kitchen & the rest of the home. Project will begin on September 22.

I helped people. I was creative. And they were so appreciative. I gave them something they couldn't have done themselves. I spent two hours doing a few of the very things I LOVE doing most...and I got PAID to do them!!!

I love working with color
I love making homes more beautiful
I love helping people & making them happy
I love having the freedom to schedule my day
I love that no day looks or feels the same
I love not working for anyone but myself
I love that my brand will look just how I visualize it
I love that I will get out of my business just exactly what I put into it

If ever I could imagine what empowerment feels like...it would have to be the way I feel right now...!!!

so this is how the story goes...

there once was a girl who went to a military wives social event who let it slip through her lips that she loved to decorate. then without even thinking she announced to the group "I want to have my own business someday." she came home, not realizing what she had said, but knew that since that phrase came from somewhere so unplanned and instinctual, it had to mean something. she thinks and ponders how to make her decorating hobby something she gets paid for and tries very hard to talk herself out of it and just suck it up and go back to the corporate world. feeling sick at the thought of doing the corporate-shmorporate bobblehead routine again, she starts seriously thinking about her own business. she meets a neighbor that points her in the direction of a course set up for decorators & home stagers actually looking to make a profit and run a successful, legitimate business. she researches...and then the phone rings. one of the wives at the military social event calls and invites to her home for a color consultation. it goes very well. the girl finds a painter to give an estimate, who is the top referral at the local benjamin moore paint store. the painter offers to make her referrals to him something that she can profit from too. the painter is impressed at the color pallette and utilization of color in the home and wants to partner with her for future client color consultations and decorating job referrals, since he just lost his two go-to designers. this girl, with no business cards, no website, not even a local phone number just landed herself a new career.

as if there was ever a doubt this is what she should do with her life...!!!

I need your help, friends!

Okay , I promised I'd take you along on this journey with me and I have come to a crucial point...what ever shall my new business be called??? This is a HUGE decision and I think I am getting there. I have pages of brainstorming and my vision is just coming to me and I am starting to fall in love. Let me take you through my process, and then your part is at the end.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this brand and it inspires me: pinkletoes. I love the energy that she creates and I am a part of her PT4P that has provided me with the marketing materials that will make my new business beautiful.

I was most inspired by the design that Marina created on this blog, and I especially love the logo next to my name at the bottom of each post. So I started writing words, words and more words. I rearranged words. I found that I am MOST productive brainstorming on the treadmill (which makes the recording them down part challenging-picture that!) And I found a name that stuck. Then, (again on that stupid treadmill-who needs an ipod!) I built on the name and began to visualize what I want the "feel" of my business to be. So here are some of my thoughts out loud. (your part still at the end!)

• want something in the name that clearly is the reason for the coordinating logo, watermark & theme, including a coordinating tag line
• want a couple of words in the name that clearly define me as someone who "styles homes"
• want a theme that is lively, provokes interest, unique & makes me approachable
• want to stay faaaaar away from the stuffy & serious design/decor companies that are intimidating so I create the feeling that “I am just one of you, who happens to have a knack for this & let's have fun together making this space work” as opposed to “I am the expert tell me a little about what you like and I’ll do everything.”
• I envision a leave behind (there's the drug rep in me speaking!) that is a bowl or vase full of berries, with a thank you, reminder of my brand & referral cards etc.
  

So what I need from you is your opinion. I wouldn't be asking if I didn't want your honesty. I know you can't see the "brand" like I can, but tell me what this name says to you. If you saw a business card with it on there, would you want to call me? What do you think of? BE HONEST. Got an idea to make it better? I want that too! Collaborate with me! ...off to the treadmill for more brainstorming...this start your own business thing is GREAT for my health!

and everything happens for a reason.

We're getting new neighbors tomorrow and I have noticed that, just like I did, my new neighbor woman is at the house every single day checking on the progress. I decided to go introduce myself last night when she was over there with her 4 kids (& one on the way!!) and long story short...I am convinced the events in my life are being orchestrated for me...

So this woman is a stager/decorator. Military wife. Since moving here 6 months ago, she has had plenty of work, with no marketing and no functioning website. Just word of mouth and a listing on her certification site. I checked into her certification and it's one I haven't heard of before but is quite legitimate. I am spending today researching the heck out of it to see if it is worth the investment. After having a heart to heart with the hubby last night, (and doing some negotiating) he gave me his blessing. Let me tell ya, he's a keeper.

So once again I have to believe that everything in my life happens for a reason. I fought moving to Omaha and it was the best thing that has happened to me. I dreaded moving down here but maybe this is just the shakeup I needed to get me out of corporate America and begin establishing myself as a brand, a business. Sometimes the journey is unclear and scary but soon enough the path shows itself and you choose to take it or not. I am at that point right now. It will be difficult and challenging and stretch my creativity to the max. But I somehow keep thinking that those three things are exactly what were missing with my previous job that made me hate going and doing it everyday.

So...thinking out loud...but this is the most excited I have been in a while! Thought I'd take you along on this journey with me. :)

they say go with your gut...

and my gut is speaking loudly.

Most of you know I recently relocated and am "in between" careers. I did everything I could to transfer with my previous job. It was great. Great company. Great products. Great colleagues. I just don't think that my heart lies in selling drugs. I was good at it, but I think you can be good at anything if you try really hard. Doesn't mean you're gonna be happy.

My wonderful husband told me that I could do whatever I wanted to do when we got down here, as long as I did something so I didn't go stir crazy. So here I am. Trying to find out what that something is. It's exciting, it's scary, it's confusing. "Do whatever you want babe, I want you to be happy" but what will make me happy?!?

I have put the feelers out to see if there is a genuine need for color & decorative consulting and as it turns out, there certainly is! Just through my wonderful new network of military wives I have three interested "clients" that are inviting me into their homes. So...I am running with it. I am building my portfolio. (for free, so if you live in San Antonio and need some help with your home and are willing to let me take pictures, let me know!) Funny thing is, I don't even consider it work...I am genuinely excited! I think that says something...

So I am running with it...as fast as I can.