Proof to Product

Kelly Parker Smith is a multi-talented business owner and creative artist. Kelly is a rubber stamp designer and manufacturer living just outside St. Louis. She has grown her shop, Hello World Paper Co. , with the idea that great products become even better when paired with top-notch customer service, a little surprise and delight, and the perfect packaging! Kelly is also the co-host of the Creativ...

TSBC alum, Lisa Sarmento is the owner of Tiramisu Paperie a sassy brand located in Nashville that sells greeting cards, gift wrap, pencils and other gift items. Lisa has had tremendous growth in her business over the last two years. She attended our Paper Camp conference in February 2016 and describes those two days as the launching point for Tiramisu Paperie. Her products are currently carried in...

Jessica McSweeney is the owner of Little Well Paper Co, a letterpress greeting card company aimed at celebrating and deepening the connections between loved ones. Prior to starting Little Well she taught herself calligraphy and offered wedding calligraphy and invitation services. Jessica's calligraphy work has been featured in The Knot, Southern Weddings Magazine, and Once Wed. Jess attended Paper...

Megan Auman is a designer, metalsmith, educator, and entrepreneur who has built a multi-faceted business around her passion for art, commerce, and visual content creation! (Which is just a fancy way of saying she's obsessed with Instagram and Pinterest.) In addition to running her Megan Auman jewelry line, she runs the site Designing an MBA , where she writes and teaches about the intersection of...

On this episode, Katie shares how she overextended herself in 2016 and how it caused her to refocus her priorities and make some difficult decisions about her business. If you've ever felt stuck, stretched thin or pulled in too many directions, this episode is for you. Katie talks about how she realized she was over scheduled and how she fixed things — including discontinuing manufacturing, pushin...

Lichia Liu is the founder and creative director of Gotamago , a stationery & gifts brand based in Toronto, Canada. A self-taught illustrator, Lichia took a detour from her urban design career in 2013 to start Gotamago when she realized that she needed more authenticity, autonomy and artistic exploration in her work. Besides running Gotamago and being a mom, Lichia is a musician, an urban sketcher,...

TSBC alum, Kim Burks is the founder of Ramona & Ruth is a boutique letterpress studio located in Omaha, Nebraska. Kim started Ramona & Ruth in 2009 with her tabletop letterpress in a spare bedroom of her home. Kim makes simple and thoughtful letterpress greeting cards and a variety of other paper goods including gift wrap, notebooks and planners. Ramona & Ruth products can be found in retail shops...

TSBC alum Zoe Scarf is the co-founder and Chief Brand Officer at Greetabl –a personal and easy way to make your friends feel super loved. If you're not familiar with Greetabl, you should be. It's an impressive gifting service where you choose your packaging, gift and personalize your message and they take care of the rest — getting it in the hands of your recipient. Greetabl has delivered 200,000...

Emily Thompson is an author, educator and web designer. She's the founder of Indie Shopography and co-host of the Being Boss podcast, where she inspires, writes and curates content to help creatives own their path and be more boss. With over 3 million listens, the impact of the podcast inspired Emily and her business partner and co-host on Being Boss, Kathleen Shannon to write their first book cal...

TSBC Alums Laura Hooper Leader and Alyssa Bobbett of Laura Hooper Calligraphy have served clients with hand calligraphy and stationery needs for weddings, showers events & more since 2002. These sisters have grown a dynamic business that includes their custom work, ready made product, calligraphy kits, offer in person and online educational programs and these girls wrote a book last year. On today...

Meet Autumn Witt Boyd, an attorney who specializes in helping ambitious entrepreneurs reach their big goals faster and smarter — guiding them as they go. Autumn loves helping creatives put together collaborations and partnerships, grow their brand with trademarks, and protect their content with copyrights. Autumn is also the host of the Legal Road Map podcast , which teaches business owners about...

Richele Silva is the founder of Richie Designs , a boutique design and letterpress studio located in Long Beach, California. Richele is an art director, stylist, designer and printer. She founded Richie Designs 12 years ago, first as a side hustle while she worked at an advertising agency. Richele's products are sold at Paper Source, Urban Outfitters and Sugarfina along with hundreds of independen...

Katie Hunt, Founder of Tradeshow Bootcamp and Host of Proof to Product shares three important business lessons that her daughter used to sell Girl Scout cookies — things we should all remember in our own businesses. Listen to more episodes of Proof to Product at www.prooftoproduct.com

TSBC alum Caroline Hull is the founder of Caroline Creates . A designer and owner, Caroline has a background in music and was actually a ballet dancer at the University of Oklahoma before finding her niche in design and podcasting. Caroline has a passion for helping other small business owners like herself through her podcast, Creative Biz Rebellion . On today's episode, we're talking about switch...

Heather Haynie and Dani Antol are the owners of Rock Paper Scissors , a custom invitation and paper goods shop in Charlottesville, Virginia. Rock Paper Scissors is the go-to destination for locals and visitors alike looking for laugh-out-loud greeting cards, journals, dec accessories, calendars, planners and modern gifts. On today's episode we talk about a wide range of topics including what it ta...

Renee Griffith, the founder of HeartSwell , designs and creates her products using her original hand lettering style, incorporating patterns, colors and textures inspired by her deep love of the ocean and lush landscape where she lives in South Florida. Renee is a TSBC alum who has attended our Paper Camp Conference twice, once when she was starting her business and a second time after she had rev...

Beth Penn is a professional organizer, speaker and life hacker. She is the founder of Bneato Bar , a professional organizing service whose clients range from corporations looking for big-picture management solutions to busy individuals simply flooded with email, paper or stuff in their home. Beth has been featured in Real Simple Magazine, Oh Joy!, DesignLoveFest, and more, and has collaborated on...

TSBC alum, Melanie Karlins of Grey Moggie started letterpress printing in 2008 as a creative outlet while she was in law school, and later taught letterpress classes at a local art center. In 2011 she started selling her products at local craft fairs and picked up wholesale accounts through her Instagram feed. Today, Grey Moggie is Melanie's full-time job and her greeting cards are sold in station...

Rebekah Tennis is the founder of Wild Ink Press, a letterpress studio and retail storefront located in northern California. Rebekah started Wild Ink Press in 2009 and was part of our very first Tradeshow Bootcamp class in 2011. The Wild Ink Press brand offers witty and pretty greeting cards, stationery, and other paper goods that can be found in hundreds of retail shops nationwide including the Co...

Nicole Block is the owner of The Nic Studio a stationery, design and illustration studio. She's also the founder of Tyles , which is a line of sophisticated, removable wall decor made from cut vinyl! Nic and I first met on Twitter back in 2009 and she's been a part of the TSBC community since we started in 2011! On today's episode Nicole shares how her life inspires her work, the benefits of getti...

Happy Holidays friends! This episode with Katie Wilson of The Good Twin is a crowd favorite and I'm so excited for you to listen to it again! Katie is one of our TSBC alumni and she has such a unique story and fresh perspective on small business life. Katie is inspiring in how she runs her business; balancing her love of art and creativity with savvy business smarts. I love sharing the stories of...

Happy Holidays friends! You may want to relisten to this episode with Tonya Dalton of Inkwell Press twice! Seriously. Tonya is the queen of productivity and goal setting -- fitting topics as we enter the new year! Tonya is an incredible businesswoman and a natural teacher, I'm thrilled to reshare this episode with you. Enjoy the show! -------------- Tonya Dalton is the owner of Inkwell Press and h...

Happy Holidays friends! Oh boy, this episode with Jen Gotch was one of my favorites and I'm excited to reshare it with you. Not only is Jen an inspirational business woman, but she's honest, open and real with sharing both her successes and her failures. This episode is a great reminder that we all start in the same place -- the beginning. Enjoy the show! -------------- Jen Gotch is the chief crea...

Happy Holidays friends! I'm so excited to reshare this episode with Kimberley Yurkiewicz with you. Not only is this one of our most downloaded episodes, but its hands down the one I get the most emails about -- podcast listeners praising Kimberley and telling me how helpful the episode was in building their catalogs. <3 Kimberley is one smart cookie and incredibly generous with sharing what she...

Erin Dollar, the owner of Cotton & Flax is an artist and textile designer, focused on creating home goods and bold surface pattern designs. Her background as a printmaker guides her work for Cotton & Flax, and the entire collection of Cotton & Flax home goods are designed, silkscreen printed, and sewn in California. On today's episode we're talking about how Erin licensed her artwork for a line of...