Follow Your Bliss

The other day Laryssa shared how she followed her bliss and started decorating wedding cakes and isn’t she fantastic at it?!? I LOVED my wedding cake! I thought I would follow in her footsteps and share how I came to follow my bliss and exactly what that is.

I have always had a love for photography (I get it from our Grandpa) so while in High School, I took photography to fill an elective spot. I was immediately hooked. Towards the end of the semester, my teacher asked if I would submit one of my floral pictures for an art contest and I totally jumped at the chance (didn’t win though). One of the requirements was that the image had to be enhanced with a photo editing program. I had never even looked at Photoshop prior to that moment but the second I learned how to use the dodge/burn tool, I was totally hooked addicted. I purchased Photoshop Elements not long after and taught myself all the many tools and techniques. So that’s how it started. That turned my interest into restoring old photographs and editing new ones, that lead to a job as a seniors photographer and photo editor my senior year in high school. After China, I came home and started teaching myself other Adobe programs like Illustrator and InDesign. I messed around doing different photo layouts, scrapbook pages, etc. I was working full time and going to school part time trying to fulfill my general classes. I could not make up my mind about what I wanted to do. Psychology has always intrigued me but my ultimate goal was to have my own business. I also thinks it takes a very special person to do Psychology and I’m not sure that’s me but I continued to go to school, hoping something would jump out at me. I was still fulfilling generals when I met Kyle and it wasn’t long after we met that we got married. About 2 weeks prior to our wedding, an old roommate of mine was getting married and had asked if I would design her wedding invitations. A month later, a friend of hers called and said they had recommended me to them to do their wedding invitations. For the next 3 years I would have a couple of “corporate” jobs and inevitably I would be reminded of why my dream was to have my own business. After the last job, I decided that instead of looking for another job, I would completely throw myself into building a business. Let me tell you…it’s hard work. There were days that I seriously wondered if it was worth it or if I should hit the job hunt again but I kept at it because after all, I was following my bliss…

I picked a name, made some business cards, made a Facebook Page, made a blog, got some odd jobs here and there, did some more marketing research, changed the name (a year later), found Etsy, set up shop, researched more marketing, made more business cards, made a different Facebook Page (new name) and my business was officially born!The 1st year was very slow but steady growth. The 2nd year was better but still slow. When the clock hit midnight of January 1st of the 3rd year, business boomed. Through the 3rd year I tweaked my keywords, tweaked my designs, tweaked my logo, and many other things. I’m now in the 4th year and having a blast trying to keep up with business. I can’t even tell you how many days this year I have begged Kyle to let me hire an assistant…or maybe a maid. One of these days, I’ll convince him.

I love designing invitations for the special days in people’s lives and I've been pretty lucky to have some of the best clients.

Here are just a few of my favorite designs. I’m lucky that I have had such a supportive husband who always saw the potential and always encouraged me when I questioned whether or not I was insane for trying to start my own business.

So is starting a business hard? You bet! Are there days that you want to scream and pull out your hair? Absolutely! Are there days that you actually do scream and pull out your hair? Only a handful of times and thankfully, I have a lot of hair so I’m not bald, yet. Is it so stressful that you think you’re going to spend your entire income on massages alone just to be able to relax? Sometimes, yes. Is it worth it? 1000000000% YES! I absolutely adore my job! I can’t tell you how many times I was told to not make my hobby into a career because I’d end up hating it but with each passing day, I love my job more and more and am constantly overwhelmed with gratitude that I’ve been able to do something that I love so much and provide for my little 2 person family while Kyle went through Law School.

My business is a huge blessing in my life and it all started because I followed my bliss…
We want to know….What is your bliss? How did you discover it? Is it your job, a hobby, something you only have time to do every 3rd Saturday of every 4th month? Is it a musical talent, playing sports, or are you a killer chess player? Let us know and if it’s something that you’d like to share with the world, submit a post to us! We’d love to have you guest post and tell us how you followed your bliss.