003: DARING to Create & Market a Unique Aesthetic with Bloom & Blueprint

April 21, 2020

EPISODE SUMMARY

Authenticity is the name of the game with the ladies of Bloom and Blueprint. We absolutely loved chatting with Kate and Erika and hearing about the brains and beauty of their colorful wedding planning business. Their partnership shows the importance of zeroing in on your niche and how that helps you find your community.  

No matter what stage you’re at in your business, you’ll be inspired by these 2 lifelong friends who have managed to navigate friendship, business and boundaries!

RESOURCE LINKS

KATE & ERIKA DARE YOU:

Lean into your authenticity. I genuinely think people try to create something that feels like it’s what other people want, but it’s not true to who they are.

You’re going to have the most success when people feel like they get to know the real you and when your brand reflects that. So find your authenticity and lean in.

FAST FACTS ABOUT KATE & ERIKA OF BLOOM & BLUEPRINT

What is the favorite tool that you love to use in your business? 

  • From a logistics perspective? I’m gonna shout out to Aisle Planner. So we started using them at the very beginning of our business and they have evolved just as much as we have in the six years. They’re a fantastic cloud-based software that helps you really streamline processes and we use it for a lot of pieces of our business and it definitely keeps me sane. As well as Instagram and clippingmagic.com

 What is your favorite post wedding stack?

  • There is a restaurant called Zipps, and we love their veggie burger and Erika has made it even more amazing by adding blue cheese and Buffalo sauce.

What is your wedding pump up jam that gets you ready to go?

  • Erika: I know this was such a hard one for me because my husband jokes that I hate music, which is not true. Kate and I grew up dancing and that’s how we became such good friends. And so I think repetition of music literally gives me PTSD because of that. My husband loves to listen to the same things over and over again, and it drives me nuts that I just want silence.
  • Katie:  I really want to listen to the nineties alternative, like coffee house music.

So what are your favorite things to do outside of planning and design?

  • Erika: For me, it’s spending time with my family. I have a two year old, which is a really fun age and so really anything that I do with him is hilarious.
  • Kate:  Erika has always cooked. When we lived together like post-college, she would like to make us family meals.  I genuinely have never cooked, so I would say what I like doing is going out. Time with my family as well, and then Disneyland and just a front runner in my life. We just love it for sure. My favorite is Space Mountain of course. But, Peter Pan’s flight is like my ultimate favorite.

What is the best education or book or podcast you’ve learned from in your business?

  • Erika: I enjoy reading, but for some reason, I never read content that will help us as business owners, which is terrible. But several years ago, I read a book called the happiness advantage by Shawn Achor, and it’s about positive psychology. I’m definitely more of a realist. I wouldn’t call myself a pessimist, but I also wouldn’t call myself an optimist. And I think that the happiness advantage helps you retrain your brain into thinking about situations in a positive way as opposed to a negative one, which is how our bodies are like pre-wired.

What is one daring leap you’ve taken in your business?

  • Every leap has been daring. I think anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. Like nothing that you do in business feels comfortable. I would argue that like, genuinely every pivot we’ve made has felt really overwhelming and really daring and so far they’ve all paid off. And so that has been really a hallmark of how we’ve Bloom and Blueprint is that every six months we do a pulse check and we say.
    • Are things going well?
    • What can we be doing better? 
    • How can we better empower our team? 
    • How can we better empower each other? 
  • And then we change. Sometimes, that gives our team a little bit of whiplash but in the end, I think it has evolved us in a positive way over the course of six years. The few times that we’ve made a big leap and it’s been like, Oh shoot, we shouldn’t have done that, we can easily go back to old processes.

What is one thing each of you feel like you’re great at, you’re in your business?

  • Erika: For me, processes.  I love processes. We’ve spent a lot of energy being intentional over the course of our business.
  • Kate: I feel like I’m a good listener. and I can really kind of dissect. What people are staying and what they’re trying to describe to me, in a way that makes them feel comfortable and validated.

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