Jennifer Lake

tyI love making people feel good but, admittedly, gift giving and receiving is not my love language. I’ve had to learn the value of it in business, which I’m thankful for. Each month, I get a little better at it.

I’ve started making sure that writing handwritten notes and sending little gifts to my customers, clients and business partners is a part of my regular routine. I love getting creative with what I give.

Each month I pick 10 people that I want to make feel really good and let them know that I’m thinking about them. This, I believe, will make them feel valued as a customer and want to continue to work with me.

This month, I created a Party-In-A-Jar to give as my gift. In each card, I wrote something I was virtually celebrating with them (job promotion, exciting news, new baby, etc) or told them to keep it on their desk until it had been “one of those days.” That way they could have a little party and pull themselves out of their funk.

 

This was insanely easy to do with a few clicks from Amazon. You ready?

Shopping List:

Confetti Punch

Bright Paper Pack

12 Pack of Mason Jars

12 Pack of Party Poppers

12 Pack of Slap Bracelets

12 Pack Mardi Gras Necklaces

24 Pack of Drink Umbrellas

100 Pack of Balloons

12 Pack Whistle Bracelets

12 Pack Bubble Tubes

40 Pack Finger Lights

Sheer Ribbon Multi Pack

Avery 22830 Labels

That’s it! Just punch your confetti, put everything by color into different jars and then move onto printing and applying the label on the lid.

CLICK HERE to download a free copy of the Let’s Have A Party (In A Jar) label sheet for you to print off onto the Avery 22830 Labels.

Put the lid on your jar and throw some of your coordinating ribbon around the top. Put the label on and you’re good to go!

Don’t forget to write a handwritten note and put your business card into the card to go with the jar. It’s so important.

I would wrap each of the jars in bubble wrap and put them inside some matching tissue paper. For your out of town friends, throw them into a Medium Priority Mail Flat Rate Box. Seal & Send.

I’d love to see your version of the Party-In-A-Jar. #LTMClientGift

I made it a goal to get the pictures from our weekend right into a Project Life spread. I’m so glad I did.

I realized how much I miss making time to scrapbook. It’s just good for my soul to sit down and get creative and think through the memories of the photos. It makes me grateful and I can be one of those people that misses the little moments because of a big to-do list on the brain.

Here’s are the pages I did for this weekend. I am always drawn to bright colors and my pages usually reflect that.

Left side:

Right side:

Here’s both together:

This was made with only the Project Life and Ali Edwards elements. Super easy and quick.

Every year, I do this thing where I remember I know how to take photos and I bust out the SLR to document what normal looks like to us. The first time I ever did this project I took some of my favorite pictures to date. I will continue to do it as long as I can remember how to work that camera!

Here are a few of the results I got:

Take out your camera and start documenting. Photograph the normal stuff for your kids to see and for you to remember. Don’t worry about the mess. Don’t worry about what they look like. Don’t worry about imperfections. Worry about authenticity. Worry about making sure you’re in at least one of the photos. Worry about missing something worth remembering. Pick the best and put them somewhere you will remember. For me, that will be a project Life page. I’ll share that soon.

XOXO,

Every so often I’ll come across a section of a book that will stop me and I’ll have to read it 100 times to think about how I can properly get this point across to entrepreneurs as they struggle to build a business.

I’m knee-deep in my January book list and I’m loving what I’ve read so far. Right now, I’m reading a book that you’re going to have to open your mind to be able to read. If you aren’t about an F-Bomb, this book is likely not for you. Personally, I sometimes think that a cuss word or two (or 100) makes me pay a little more attention to the words because it’s not what most would consider “professional”…or so I’ve been told.

I’m reading a book called The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson. Again, I warned you about the cusses. There are lots of them but if you can be okay with them, you’re going to learn something here and you’ll probably laugh along the way.

There’s this common issue I find among entrepreneurs and that is how hard they try to stay off of the strugglebus. I mean, they’ll really work at it, sometimes harder than just buckling down and doing what needs to be done. Then that doesn’t work out (because SPOILER ALERT: the struggle bus is the only route to entrepreneurial success) and they complain. And when that doesn’t move their business forward, well, that’s when they quit. I see it all the time. Quitters everywhere because the struggle wasn’t worth the reward.

How many times have you heard, “My business isn’t growing like INSERT NAME HERE” or “This is just not fast enough” or “I thought it would be faster” or “This just isn’t for me” from someone struggling to grow their business?

I hear it A LOT. It’s a resounding message in the emails I get asking for advice. It’s frustrating because there isn’t much I can say back to that person except to start rattling off things they haven’t tried before. At best, that holds them over until those things don’t work fast enough either.

Here’s the thing, nobody gets a struggle-free ride, even if the people you’re wrongly comparing yourself to (hand slap) have social media feeds that are lying to you about their perfect lives. And guess what? We don’t deserve a a struggle-free ride either. We deserve nothing. We are entitled to nothing.