The Importance of Celebrating Our Biggest Accomplishments

As we move on up through our careers and lives, there are always those little souvenirs that remind us of how far we’ve come. Whether it is our college diplomas, our very first ultrasound, our first signed deal with a client, or a heartfelt recommendation letter from a boss, these all symbolize great achievements on our journey. And yet we are often so consumed (and excited) by the hustle, we often forget to stop and be proud of or give attention to our accomplishments. 

So we're taking a moment to highlight moments we are proud of--  the experiences that might not seem big to the world, but mean the world to us.

Framebridge asked Sona Gasparian, Grasie Mercedes, Leura Fine of Laurel & Wolf, and our very own founder Jaclyn Johnson to frame special moments or achievements in their lives.

Check out the frames below, and see the story behind why Sona, Grasie, Leura, and Jaclyn chose them! 

AN ENGAGEMENT 

"This was one of the most exciting, happy and natural moments of my life. We snapped this photo right after he asked and you can see I still have tears in my eyes. It's something that I treasure very much!"

--Jaclyn Johnson, Create & Cultivate 

AN INVITATION 

"I'm a huge fan of Chanel and a little obsessed to be honest, so to be able to attend the show in Paris was a total dream come true."

-Sona Gasparian, Simply Sona

MEMENTOS FROM A FIRST JOB

"I decided to go with a bunch of lanyards and my ID from my days working at MTV. It was my first job out of college and being a PA then a producer really trained me for the hard work, organizational skills and personality it takes to be a good actress and blogger. "

-Grasie Mercedes, Blogger + Actress, Style Me Grasie

A THANK YOU NOTE

"I chose the thank you note that Kelsea Ballerini sent us because it represents the incredible work we do at Laurel & Wolf everyday. The opportunity to design Kelsea's dream apartment and knowing the way we have changed her life in such a meaningful way is something that is truly inspiring. It is humbling to have worked with such a gifted and exciting young talent but most importantly, I'm inspired by helping all people design the life they deserve."

-Leura Fine, CEO of Laurel & Wolf

About Framebridge:

Framebridge is an online custom framing company, and the easiest way to custom frame and highlight all the special moments in your life as well as the things you love.
                    
They're making what has typically been a frustrating and expensive process into something easy, accessible, and beautiful. Whether it’s having them print and frame special photos or sending them a meaningful painting, invitation or textile - Framebridge is all about celebrating the things that matter most to you. Best part? Prices start at $39 and only go up to $159 - making it a fraction of traditional custom framing. 

How it works: If you have a photo or a digital print (you can pull right from your Instagram feed!), just upload it to their site or app. They'll print it, frame it and ship it to you ready to hang. If you have a physical piece you want to frame (canvas art, old photos, flags, matches - anything!) just tell them the size of the piece and they'll send you pre-paid packaging. You'll just put your piece inside and drop it off at UPS. It will come to their studio, where their team will custom frame it for you and ship it back to you in just a few days.

Not sure what frame looks best with your piece? They have in house designers ready to help. Oh, and they also have a gallery wall service! Check them out at framebridge.com.

More from our blog:

Never Make It Perfect: Laurel & Wolf CEO Breaks Down How to Launch

LAUREL & WOLF IS THE FUTURE OF DESIGN. 

At least if Leura Fine, CEO and Founder of the interior design company that offers its services online only, has a say.  

An innovator in the online design space, Laurel & Wolf has developed a platform and software to allow for easy communication between a client and a designer, from anywhere. The entire service takes place in the digital world, and has opened the industry of interior design to people who never thought they could afford such services. 

We put 30 minutes on the clock with the busy entrepreneur to pick her brain on everything from bootstrapping your business to the future of tech. 

IN THE BEGINNING YOU MAKE IT WORK & GET IT DONE, NO EXCUSES

In January 2014 Leura began concentrating full-time on Laurel & Wolf. The first version of the site was up that month. 

"I was the algorithm" she says about the company's beta site, a very bare-bones version of what exists today. Instead of spending 100k on a website build out, she paid a local LA-based developer 5k to build out eight pages with no backend. "I started spreading the word through friends and friends of family, putting it out on social media, saying, 'Hey who is looking for interior design services that only cost 300 dollars?'"

She had about 1,500 people signup over the course of six weeks. The first iteration of Laurel & Wolf took users through a "style quiz,"-- that had no outcome. What Leura was testing was the public's interest. The BIG question: Would people be willing to pay for an interior design service online? 

"It was many, many long nights, of me staying up, calculating and emailing people their style quiz results. If you had this many As and this many Bs, you were 'Contemporary Eclectic.' It was terrible to demo, but between the MVP and servicing actual paying clients, we validated that not only there was a demand for the market, but what it would be like to acquire customers."

By the time they were ready raise money the company (which was two people at that point) also had a good, working idea of what the basic functions of the platform needed to do.  

[define it: Minimum Viable Product (MVP): In product development, the minimum viable product (MVP) is a product which has just enough features to gather validated learning about the product and its continued development.] 

By June 2014, just six months later, they had launched the site. 

WHEN RAISING MONEY, YOUR RESPONSIBILITY AS FOUNDER IS TO CONTROL THE PROCESS

The interior design world provides a service that typically 1 percent of the population can afford. People like venture capitalists and those with money to invest in the business. In the beginning, there was a little pushback-- angel investors who didn't understand the service, but what Leura had was proof: the basic function of what the service needed to provide. With that proof she had the confidence to control her fundraising. The goal of Laurel & Wolf's seed round was $500k. They hit $650k in a month and a half. 

[define it: Seed Round: The initial capital used to start a business. Seed capital often comes from the company founders' personal assets or from friends and family. The amount of money is usually relatively small because the business is still in the idea or conceptual stage.]

"I received this advice early on and tell every founder I meet who is fundraising the same thing," Fine explains. "You as the founder, your job is to control the fundraising process."

"You as the founder, your job is to control the fundraising process."

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She was resolute, telling potential investors: "'This is the amount we’re raising, this is the day we’re closing, you’re either in or you’re out.'" And she got it done that way. "I couldn't continue to chase people in circles, it was crazy towns. I had to build a business." 

In both Series A and Series B she took a similar approach. She was strategic and thoughtful, meeting with VCs when it made sense and getting to know them. When it came time to raise, it was go time. She took meetings, had term sheets by the end of those meetings, and then made decisions very quickly. 

[define it: Series A: Series A is usually the first level of fundraising where VCs get involved. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchange for their investment. Usually in this round you will see the company's first valuation.]

Another part of controlling the process she says, is taking all of the multifaceted variables into account. "There are questions," she explains, "that you need to ask yourself when you talk about why you're raising money. Are you raising money to accelerate growth? Could you build this business without raising money? Do you know what your business model is? Do you know the metrics that you’re trying to hit?"

That's your job as founder: to have a business model and monetization strategy in place from day one.  

Your job as founder is to have a business model and monetization strategy in place, from day one.

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TAKE A SERVICE ONLY AVAILABLE TO 1% AND DEMOCRATIZE IT

It's a simple, but brilliant idea-- take a service that only a small percentage of households can afford, and open it up to more people. More people=more work=more revenue. 

"You’re talking about taking a small pool of people in the U.S. who could afford to hire interior designers. We’ve opened up the market to 30% of the U.S." 

This represents enormous opportunity for growing a consumer base, while offering designers the ability to extend the arm of their business. It's simple supply and demand, where both parties benefit. People get spaces they loves; interior designers get to do the work they love. 

"Design is more of a science than I think people realize," Fine says. "You don't have to be in a space to make it impactful. As long as you have good assets in place— whether that’s photos, video, and obviously dimensions, then you have the opportunity and ability to design just as well as if you were in person. And most importantly, make an impact in someone's life." 

CHICKEN OR EGG? DOESN'T MATTER, JUST LAUNCH

"I’ve been meeting with a lot of female founders," Fine says, "and I’ve had the same conversation the last three meetings. They tell me they want to wait to launch until they feel that they’re ready."

There is however, no such thing as ready. Sometimes the founders don't want too many eyeballs on an unfinished product. Sometimes they are worried about letting down a customer or not being able to deliver. 

But, Fine notes, "When you’re building a company from the ground-up there is always the chicken and the egg. You have to go for it. You have to put it out there and see what it does." 

"When you’re building a company from the ground-up, you have to go for it. You have to put it out there and see what it does."

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In the beginning Laurel & Wolf was far from perfect, but that didn't matter. "The last thing you want to do as a tech company is go out and build the entire working product from A to Z," says Fine. "You really have no idea what it needs to do and what it's going to look like."

Adding, "There is no such thing as perfect." 

THE FUTURE IS MAN & MACHINE, WORKING TOGETHER

"Our software," she says, "represents the best combination of humans and technology working together to really transform people’s lives. Our clients get to live a better way through the spaces that they spend time in." 

At the end of the day, she realizes that all the product recommendation and algorithms can’t predict how someone will feel in their space. But that’s where the designer comes in.

“A designer,” says Fine, “really understands, beyond the aesthetics of the space, the aesthetics of the person."

Arianna Schioldager is Create & Cultivate's editorial director. You can find her on IG @ariannawrotethis and more about her at www.ariannawrotethis.com

Roundtable: 5 Career Women Talk 'Having It All'

March is women’s history month, and there are currently more female-owned businesses than ever before in the American workforce. "Having it all" was one of the first empowering messages that helped redefine the role of woman, but for some this cornucopia of to-dos and sea change in the workplace has complicated work-life balance.

Is it possible? Is it a myth? What is about gender roles that we can’t seem to stop talking about?

In anticipation of #CreateCultivateSXSW, we checked in with some of our panelists to find out what having it all means to the modern working woman, especially when “normal working hours can sometimes become all of the hours.” 

LET'S START WITH THE BASICS. WHAT DOES 'HAVING IT ALL' MEAN TO YOU?

Silvie Snow-Thomas, Director of Strategy, Elle Communications : 'Having it all' suggests that we can get everything in both our personal and our professional lives that we think we want at the exact time we want it.  What women have been striving for, for generations, is having the same range of opportunities to choose from as men – if a man stays late at the office for example, does he face the same pressure of getting home to his spouse or kids as he would if were a woman? 

Julie Hays Geer, Director of Partnerships, Laurel & Wolf: In terms of what it's "supposed to mean," I see it, for a woman, as being able to have a career and family simultaneously. 

Bianca Caampued, Co-Founder, Small Girls PR : 'Having it all' is being being happy with everything that you have going on in your life - both personally and professionally. When someone asks you how your day was, your answer is always, "Today was the best day ever." 

Sarah Kunst, Founder, PRODAY: It means choosing a life you want to live on your own terms. I ignore other people's definitions of 'it all' and the timelines or "how it's supposed to look" that others might want me to adopt. 'Having it all' means being happy with my life and how I fill my time day to day. If I can do that, I'm winning. 

HAS THE IDEA SHIFTED AS YOU'VE GOTTEN OLDER? FROM EARLY TWENTIES-NOW?

Gabby Etrog-Cohen, SVP PR & Brand Strategy SoulCycle: In my early twenties, 'having it all' was a great job, a sick handbag, good hair, a decent body and a boyfriend. It's funny, I don't think about having it all now.

Silvie:  As I’ve gotten older, the balance I crave has shifted toward striving for a combination of great friendships, quality time with my partner, enlightening adventures and figuring out how to excel in my career. Oh, and sleep.

Julie: My view has shifted as I've gotten older, and my perspective now is to be able to have what makes you happy - whether that's a job and family, a freelance lifestyle, or the ability to travel frequently. 

Silvie: I think an important distinction for all women is to separate the idea of 'having it all' from "having it all at the same time." 

"Separate the idea of ‘having it all' from 'having it all at the same time.’" 

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DO YOU THINK YOUR "ALL" IS SIMILAR OR DIFFERENT, TO SAY, YOUR MOTHER'S GENERATION? WHY?

Gabby: My mother worked two jobs-- she ran central intake at an inpatient mental institution and had a private psychotherapy practice at night, and was an incredible mother. So she was juggling just as many balls as I am BUT, when she was home, she was home. No emailing, no conference calls...there is a different sense of connectivity, of always-on-culture that exists today that never existed for our parents.

Silvie: My mother’s generation of women who came of age just before and after Title 9 and Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act, and they faced much more overt discrimination and blatant sexism than we younger women do.

Julie: The opportunities for women are greater now. Perhaps it's all relative, but with more opportunity there's more "all" to have. Which makes having it that much harder. 

"With more opportunity there's more 'all' to have. Which makes having it that much harder."

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Bianca: I think that having it "all" used to involve starting and supporting a family, but you can have it all without that; it depends on what your priorities are in life.

Silvie: Another thing to consider: in our mothers’ generation, there were rarely female bosses. This new(er) paradigm has begun to change things, but I think we’re all still striving for more of this storied work-life balance, and as women we still are working to end discrimination, however subtle it may be, in hiring and advancement.

Gabby: I am definitely less present with my children, sadly, then my mother was with me and I have to try really hard to disconnect when I am home. 

Sarah: My "all" is personal. It's not going to look the same as another woman's now or in the past or future. It shouldn't. When 'having it all' means "having all that someone else wants you to have," you're failing. 

DO YOU EVER FEEL THE PRESSURE OF PERFORMING BOTH GENDER ROLES SIMULTANEOUSLY?

Silvie: Overall I think the societal pressure now imposed on women (and men) to work longer hours and be essentially on-call all of the time in professional jobs, while still ensuring the quality of work is exceptional, has made work life more stressful on women whether they work in a mixed gender environment or work in a female-run firm. The way of our world is for everyone, especially if you work in client services, to work harder and to ask for more.

Julie: I didn't come from a household of gender role norms, so this isn't a mindset I grew up within. My dad ironed, both parents were home on different nights to cook dinner for the kids. I started my career in a predominantly female industry with great female role models. I recognize the issues at hand for our society, but in my day to day life I luckily don't feel this pressure. 

Bianca: By cultural definitions I guess the answer is yes, but I can be pretty androgynous in style and I think that translates to personality. I don't usually think about things falling into gender role categories - it's just a role. Societal constructs have labeled certain actions or personality traits as skewing male or female, but I'm just doing things that need to get done or based on my intuitive reaction.

Gabby: I don't really think about gender roles. I am constantly striving to be a good person. Not a good woman. 

"I am constantly striving to be a good person. Not a good woman."

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ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE TIME-MACHO CONCEPT? HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT? WHAT DO YOU THINK NEEDS TO CHANGE IN THE AMERICAN WORKPLACE FOR WOMEN?

Silvie: I am. I believe the term was coined by Anne-Marie Slaughter, who went from an academic job at Princeton to the State Department as Under Secretary for Policy for Hillary Clinton. I agree with Slaughter that the intense competition to demonstrate one’s professional value by working longer hours, having more “face time,” doing more travel, etc. is wearing professional workers down physically and mentally just as stagnant wages and on-demand scheduling is harming lower income workers.

Sarah: Some women want to be a slave to their job and some men want way more free time. The problem is finding a job and work culture that fits what you want out of life and if you do choose to work the 80+ hour workweek, making sure that you're actually producing valuable work and not just amping up face time.

Gabby: I fall prey to that as well. But the truth is, it's OK to go home, take time for yourself and then go back to work, versus staying at the office until midnight without a break. As a mother, I have learned to be incredibly resourceful with my time. I make every single minute count. I just don't have the luxury to waste time. So if I am getting a manicure, I am on a conference call at the same time.

Bianca: Boundaries are extremely important and time in the workplace isn't everything. Time in life, however, is everything. All we really have is time, and it's precious and should be protected, not racked up as a currency for worth in the workplace.

"Time is precious and should be protected, not racked up as a currency for worth in the workplace."

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Sarah: We need room for much more broad roles in society and work than "men love working and women want time off to see their families." We need to allow everyone to be their real selves at work and have the roles and flexibility that allow for more than one kind of job or worker. 

Silvie: I think a lot of my friends in the same age bracket have been working like this since we were in our early 20s. In the U.S. the number of salaried workers clocking 50 or more house per week has grown steadily since the 1970s when 9-5, 40-hour work weeks were the norm.

Bianca: I don't believe that putting in more time or all-nighters in the workplace means more value.

Silvie: The technology we have today allows for a great flexibility, but the flip side of that is "normal working hours" can sometimes become all of the hours. Here’s one thing I’ve learned slash have been forced to understand: sleep is crucial to clear thinking, and to keeping your passion and energy levels high.

Bianca: The most important thing is trying to manage time so you're not putting in all of those additional hours at work, yet are still maintaining productivity, while allowing space for your personal needs.

IS WORK-LIFE BALANCE A REALITY OR MYTH IN OUR ON-DEMANDS WORK ECONOMY?

Julie: I like to think of it more as needing to have a separation between the two vs. a balance.

Silvie: I wonder often, is there a way we can change the mindset in this fast-paced economy and always-connected life to concentrate first and foremost on people’s long-term health and to ensure continued creativity? Can we measure productivity and product quality differently to ensure continued success but also to ensure peace of mind? 

Julie: When you spend 5 out of 7 days each week at a job, that's not balance.

Bianca: I often say it doesn't exist, from my own personal experience, but there is a part of me that has hope it is real.

Julie: Striving to not always bring your work home with you, or taking time to shut down and live your life without checking your email on the weekends, that separation can be a reality.

Gabby: There is no such thing as work-life balance. At least, I don't think so. There is integration. Some days I bring my kids to work. Some days I have conference calls from home. Some days I am failing as a mom, some days I am failing at work and some days I am failing at everything! But, then there are those days when you think, damn, I can actually do this. 

Sarah: For those not in poverty, work-life balance is more about the choices we make and relentlessly pursuing the life and lifestyle we want. Balance doesn't mean a 9-5 job for most of us, it means having the space to be human.

"Balance doesn't mean a 9-5 job for most of us, it means having the space to be human."

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Arianna Schioldager is Create & Cultivate's editorial director. You can find her on IG @ariannawrotethis and more about her at www.ariannawrotethis.com