issue #139 I soft-launched my brand illustration-only package, "Brand Brushstrokes," in last week's newsletter and signed the first of four beta testers that same day - but what happened next revealed something I've been noticing for years. By Wednesday, my first beta tester, Ash, was in my DMs with second thoughts. For some context - the Brand Brushstrokes offer gives you three custom brand illustrations & a pattern... with an option to add on a brand identity refresh, including an updated...
10 days ago • 4 min read
issue #138 Quick Disclaimer! If you already got this newsletter, MY BAD! I missed a link, tried to edit - and somehow canceled! Let's try this again! I've never NOT been booked & busy. Not since I launched Cedar June in 2021. Sure, I've been fortunate with client referrals flowing in like clockwork. And yes, I've said yes to projects that weren't 100% aligned but still taught me valuable lessons (and paid the bills in the meantime... amiright?) That is, until now. I have the entire next...
16 days ago • 6 min read
issue #137 I was pretty clueless the first time someone asked me to build them a website. But like most things in my life, I figured it out — taught myself Kajabi, translated my design aesthetic into a website, and called it a day. 21 websites later, you couldn't pay me enough to build on Kajabi — and now I definitely know what I'm doing. Yet somehow, teaching myself a new platform over the last few weeks has felt like being a beginner all over again. 😅 When I first met with Pamela at Painted...
24 days ago • 6 min read
issue #136 "Your brain can't go from managing a to-do list to creating - it's too far of a jump... You can't expect yourself to manage two businesses, be a mom, and still take care of yourself all inside your head." That's the truth bomb I dropped on my brand bestie client via our weekly Zoom earlier this week. It was no wonder she was feeling scattered and stressed when she was trying to hold all her brilliant ideas, client projects, content creation, and family responsibilities in her mind...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
ISSUE #135 "Can I have my cake and eat it too?" The copywriter on the other end of the Zoom audience research call I was conducting was wrestling with something I've seen lurking in my SEO research for years... A question and struggle that has come up time and time again—collecting digital dust under my content ideas tab in Notion. How to balance your personal & professional brand. More specifically: Whether to build a polished, "professional" business brand that appeals to established,...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
ISSUE #134 I was sitting at the table in our little blue kitchen on Cedar Street, greeting Kyle as he took off his boots. He still hadn’t taken off his coat when he uttered a sentence I don’t think I will EVER be able to forget. “ I decided today that it’s just going to be easier for us to knock the kitchen down, but the foundation is good so we can rebuild on the same footprint”. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Depending on how long you’ve been on my list, you may or may not know that...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
One of my more shameful moments in life occurred in a Dunkin' Donuts parking lot while talking to a police officer…. in of all things Zubaz. And on the off chance you don’t know what those are - here’s a visual reference ↓. It is not the outfit anyone wants to talk to a police officer (on the main street in their hometown, for that matter) after causing a car accident. It was nothing major - but it was still totally my fault. My mistake. My choice is to send a quick text in stop-and-go...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
It isn’t often that I send my newsletter a day late. And god knows, you probably wouldn’t have noticed I didn’t bring it up. But there is a point to starting my newsletter off, pointing out my late send. And that point is burnout. More specifically, I share my own experiences overcoming cycles of burnout, something I have been working on for the last 5 years. This email list feels like a safe space to admit that the last year has probably been my toughest in business. I am far from the first...
about 2 months ago • 8 min read
My creative tank is on E. I've worked as a full-time creative for long enough to know that creativity ebbs and flows. But there is a difference between a creative lull and a creative burnout. And I can feel a bit of the latter right now. I blame: The online world My period And unchecked doom scrolls for the last week or so. All of which have resulted in an information overload. Information overload kills creativity, clarity — and can be frustrating as hell. Have you ever just wanted an answer...
2 months ago • 5 min read