MY EDUCATION & CAREER BACKGROUND / COFFEE CHAT!

A lot of you have asked about my educational background, and wanted to know what jobs I had before opening my own business. I will warn you: I wouldn't look at my story as a road map to get to entrepreneurship. haha - I kind of "took the long way around".

For me, my career has been a process of trial and error; narrowing down what I wanted to do based on trying things and identifying what I definitely didn't want to do. It's not the most efficient way of doing things! But I always find it interesting to hear other people's stories, and if this is of interest to you, grab yourself a cup of coffee and check out my casual "coffee chat" video below!

A PEEK AROUND MY OFFICE

Today I thought I would show you around my office, where I spend...pretty much every single day!

You may think that I would want my workspace to be a little bit more decorated or colorful, but I actually get very, like, mentally stressed by clutter, and I need my workspace to be a little bit on the boring, sparse side or I won't be able to think! The most important thing about my work area is that it is clean and tidy, just for my own sanity. Also, we don't know how much longer we will be in this house - we know that this isn't our "forever" house - so I didn't want to do anything crazy with the walls and then have to redo it before we leave. 

I definitely have plans to frame a whole bunch of my prints though, which, HELLO, are made for decorating your office, so I realize how ridiculous it is that I don't have any of them displayed. I guess just with all of the other decorating that we've been doing in the new house, my workspace has just been last on my priority list.

Anyway, enjoy this little mini tour of how my office has been looking these days! xo

Desk Area

This is where I obviously spend most of my time in my office. I try to keep my desk as clean as possible with a tray to contain the little things that I need to keep out, rather than stored away in the drawers. I like to have highlighters and a ballpoint pen ready to go, as well as a notebook. I love this phone handset thing that you plug into your cell phone - it's so much easier to have it to rest on your ear and it is supposed to prevent radiation, which is always a nice benefit!

I would love to eventually get a legit desktop Mac computer, but for now I have my MacBook and a large monitor combo that works just fine. 

I also have a bulletin board that displays my business license and other tax related papers like that (because I'm always afraid I will lose them and freak out). In the corner, I keep rolls of wrapping paper in a large trash bin, which I very rarely need but my office seemed like the best place to store gift wrapping type things. 

This is the only area of my office that has much decoration, with the tassel garland on the wall. If you watch my Youtube videos, you would probably recognize that this is where I usually film those.

Shipping & Inventory Station

I have shown you guys this part before, but this is where I sit and fill orders. I love having all of my supplies in one area so that I can quickly fill orders without having to waste time looking for things. All of the pretty products that you see are available in my shop, and you can find links for all of my shipping / packaging supplies in this post.

Photography Cart & Extra Storage

The cart in the corner is where I take photos for my shop and such. I feel so lucky to have two huge windows right there in the corner of my office! I store extra shipping labels, mailers, and other random things in the little shelf-cart things and then I store my printer and extra printer paper in the other wooden cart (maybe one day I'll get around to painting those!).

SURVEY RESULTS

Thanks so much for taking the survey that I posted last week, you guys! You have no idea how helpful it is to get your feedback.

Sometimes, as a blogger, it can feel like you're just putting stuff out into the world of "The Internets" and not getting any response. It's hard to gauge what people are liking and not liking without doing some type of formal survey, which is why I put one out every so often - thank you for your help!

If you are interested in the results of the survey, here's a summary of what I learned about you lovely ladies.

Most of you...

1. are between the ages of 18 and 24.

2. have been reading my blog / watching my youtube channel for 3-11 months.

3. found my blog through the Charm & Gumption website or Youtube (I found this surprising, as the youtube channel is quite new).

4. follow along through a blog reader, instagram, or youtube.

5. enjoy reading about small business tips, decorating, and style the most.

6. would like to see more small business tips, decorating, and personal posts.

7. didn't have any specific topic that you'd like to see less of (yay!).

8. think that the frequency of my posts is just right (yay!).

9. like having videos to go along with posts, at least some of the time.

10. stay updated with youtube or a blog reader.

There are a few changes that  I will be making in response to your feedback:

• I am going to be making an editorial calendar for the first time since I started my blog. Doing this will allow me to balance out the topics that I cover by seeing in advance what the topic will be. This will ensure that I don't cover one topic too many times. Most people seemed to be okay with the topics that I cover, so I just want to make sure that I keep the topics balanced throughout the month.
• I am making a weekly goal of posting on the blog 3 times per week, with one of those posts including a video. This seems to be what you guys are interested in, in terms of frequency and video posts.
• I am going to post a little more of the things that you like: small business tips, decorating, and more about my life and what's going on with me. This was one of the things that I found surprising. I always assume that posting about my life will bore you guys! So thank you for your interest in my life! :)

Thank you guys again for taking the survey, and for your continued support. xo!

TAKE THIS SURVEY? PRETTY PLEASE?

I would love, love, love if you guys would take a few minutes to answer this super quick, 10-question survey, which will help me gain feedback about what you want to see more of on this blog. Thank you in advance! xoxo


Click here to take survey

FASHION FRIDAY: NAVY, BLUSH, AND A BRAID

Don't you guys just love my super-fancy, professional photographer style posts? haha I'm sorry! These outfit of the day posts typically have to just be taken by me on my iPhone. But I'm hoping that you like them anyway!

This outfit is so me: simple, solid color top in a silky fabric with skinny jeans (these jeans are from Gap but these ones are really similar) and a statement necklace (from J.Crew, no longer available - similar). As you guys probably already know, I'm all about simple and classic with a little pop of somethin'-somethin' - in this case the necklace and red lipstick.

simple blush pink pointy-toe heels (these are from Shoemint).  Oh...and check out our brand new landscaping that we did last weekend!

this Target bag was such a great find!

My favorite thing about this top is the high-low length. I looovve tops that fall a little lower in the back because, I don't know about you guys, but I'm always tugging at the bottom of my shirts to try to make sure everything is covered.

PS: J.Crew Factory is having a 30% off sale with the code SALE30 if you're interested!

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