Today on the 99th Episode of Proof to Product I’m joined by our friend and Tradeshow Bootcamp alumni, Emily Asher. Emily is an artist, calligrapher and the owner of Emily Rose Ink, a boutique wedding stationery studio based in Chicago. Emily started designing wedding stationery as a side hustle while working as a high school English teacher, but since taking the leap to make it her livelihood, her wedding stationery has been featured in countless publications and blogs, including Vogue, Martha Stewart, Style Me Pretty, and Oh So Beautiful Paper.

Early on in her business journey, Emily made the decision to intentionally narrow her focus, from art prints and greeting cards, to custom wedding stationery. Although this felt like a risk at first, this allowed Emily to perfect her design aesthetic, grow customer relationships, and solidify her business foundation. As a result, Emily’s wedding stationery business took off and her designs made celebrity status. Seriously… She just did Hillary Swank’s invites!

On today’s episode, Emily shares her startup story. She talks about how she got her foothold in the stationery industry, what inspired her to dive fully into her business, and why it was important for her to narrow her focus to solely doing custom wedding work. Emily also shares what she learned from celebrity weddings, how she manages her growing business today, and what’s coming up next for Emily Rose Ink!

My guest this week is Viola Sutanto and she’s here to tell us how she made the leap from solopreneur to serial creative entrepreneur, and how she successfully runs multiple product-based businesses. I first met Viola in 2008 or 2009 when she owned the brand Chewing the Cud, a letterpress greeting card company that also sold reusable fabric gift wrap, which distributed to more than 1000 stores nationwide.

Since then Viola has founded MAIKA, a stylish and sustainable soft goods brand inspired by delightful trade and everyday living, and co-founded LimeLoop, a recently launched full-circle shipper packaging company. What impresses me most about Viola, in addition to her superhuman ability to run multiple businesses is how she manages to maintain the same core values across all three companies- although unique in their offerings, each represents a desire to create sustainable, well designed, products that solve problems for their customers.

On today’s episode, Viola and I talk about transitioning from one business to the next, using trial & error to find manufacturing partners overseas, building a team, and time blocking. We also discuss Viola’s perspective on managing transition, how she aims for simplicity in business and what’s up next for her new ventures.

This week I’m sitting down for a special two-part interview with two incredible entrepreneurs – Rachael Hetzel of Pistachio Press and Briana Feola of Brainstorm. Both have been on the podcast before to share their startup stories and I’m really excited to have them both back to shine a spotlight on what it means to keep things small and intentional as business owners and still grow in revenue and creativity.

Rachael Hetzel is the owner of Pistachio Press, a boutique letterpress printing and design studio based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 2007, Pistachio Press produces a wholesale line of sweet and slightly snarky stationery products that are sold nationally and internationally. Pistachio Press also creates social invitations, business stationery, and prints commercially for a variety of clients. If you want to hear Rachael’s start-up story, head back to check out Episode 11.

Briana Feola is the co-owner of Brainstorm, a print shop and collaborative design studio working from a historic mill in Dover, New Hampshire. Brainstorm is rooted in the production of original art prints inspired by science, nature, and the outdoors. They design for people and companies that appreciate the creative process, enjoy collaboration, and want to make something tangible in an increasingly digital world. Briana and her husband, Jason Snyder shared their co-founding story back on Episode 8,so put that one on your listening list too!

Today is Part 1 of my interview with Rachael and Briana. On this episode, we talk about freedom versus stability, why there is pressure to keep up with the Joneses and why we can’t worry what others are doing. We also talk about overcoming FOMO, letting go of constantly optimizing and not being afraid to stick to what works best for your business.

On Part 2 which will air on Thursday, we’re talking about why bigger doesn’t always mean better, knowing your why and communicating your company’s core values so that you’re attracting the right type of clients, customers, and team members.

Natasha Case is the CEO of Coolhaus, a Los Angeles based ice cream company specializing in unique, sweet-meet-savory flavors. This is Part 2 of her interview. If you missed Part 1 which was Episode 86, I recommend you head back and listen to that one first.

In Part 2 of her interview, Natasha talks about her approach to scaling, how she tackled grocery and scoop shops at the same time, and how she continues to entwine the three arms of the business to support each other. We talked about how she balances deadlines and creativity, the importance of thinking outside the box, and how Natasha’s perspective of leadership and management has changed over the years. Natasha also shared the importance of building new relationships and innovating ideas that keep Coolhaus on top of its game as zealous expansion continues.

Here’s the background scoop on Coolhaus in case you missed it earlier- Natasha first began exploring the concept of “Farchitecture” – or, Food + Architecture – in her graduate architecture program. She started baking cookies, making ice cream, and combining them into “cool houses”. In 2009 she met co-founder Freya Estreller, and together they staged Coolhaus’ unforgettable launch in a refurbished postal van at the famous Coachella Valley Music Festival.

In less than ten years, Coolhaus has snowballed into a nationwide company. They now distribute to 6,000+ grocery stores ranging from Whole Foods to Safeway to Publix markets with 30 SKU’s including hand-crafted ice cream sandwiches, artisan pints, and chocolate-dipped bars. Natasha has been named Forbes 30 Under 30 for food and beverage and Zagat’s 30 Under 30 in New York City. She is also the co-host of the Start to Sale podcast, where she invites the brightest entrepreneurial minds to discuss all that it takes to build a company from launch to exit.

Danni Hong is a designer, business owner, and lover of all things paper. She started oh, hello friend in 2008 and has been hustling ever since at craft shows and trade shows worldwide! Her ultimate goal thru her business is to convey joy thru oh hello friend products and brighten someone’s day.

Danni attended Tradeshow Bootcamp’s Paper Camp prior to exhibiting at her first wholesale show, but she has a lot of experience exhibiting at craft shows near and far which she talks about in today’s episode. We also talked about Danni’s journey of scaling up and scaling down. She shares her experiences exhibiting at craft shows near and far. She also talked about her experience opening a brick and mortar shop and how she decided which products to carry in her store. Danni also discussed what it was like operating three different arms of her business.