Latest / Build Your Own Fairytale / Look For the Magic

Transcript

Look For the Magic · Build Your Own Fairytale

0:10
Kristen: You have a great life, maybe even perfect life on paper.
0:14
Kristen: Yet, do you ever feel like you're not doing enough either at home or at work?
0:18
Kristen: Have you followed all the so-called"rules" yet somehow feel like you're missing something?
0:23
Kristen: Don't worry.
0:24
Kristen: You are not alone.
0:26
Kristen: Because guess what?
0:27
Kristen: The traditional path society let us to blindly follow were not designed for today's women.
0:33
Kristen: We are dreamers.
0:35
Kristen: We are doers and we get to write our own stories.
0:39
Kristen: And this podcast is about taking ownership of your beautiful life, prioritizing your dreams and building your own fairytale.
0:46
Kristen: Hi, I'm your host.
0:47
Kristen: Kristen Lettini.
0:48
Kristen: Join me each episode and we'll learn from real people who have boldly gone before us and share candid stories from their journeys.
0:54
Kristen: Because this is a team sport.
0:56
Kristen: When one of us wins, we all win by carving out new pathways for ourselves, our friends and our children.
1:02
Kristen: There's room for everyone to build their own fairytale.
1:05
Kristen: And listen, I get it because I'm a wife, a twin mom and a cat mom.
1:09
Kristen: I've worked in a small company and I've worked in a massive global company.
1:13
Kristen: I've gotten the degrees.
1:14
Kristen: I've been the primary breadwinner.
1:16
Kristen: I've also stayed at home with my kids briefly.
1:18
Kristen: I called in my summer of fun though.
1:20
Kristen: Technically it started out pretty far from that with the whole family getting COVID.
1:24
Kristen: But anywho- now I've changed my current status to entrepreneur, which is super exciting and scary at the same time.
1:31
Kristen: I'm calling time on sitting around and waiting for someone else or some one to swoop in and make it all happen.
1:38
Kristen: Because unlike those stories, we own the pen to this one.
1:42
Kristen: So consider yourself sprinkled with fairy dust and let's go.
1:47
Kristen: Welcome back.
1:49
Kristen: I am so excited you're here.
1:51
Kristen: I can't wait to share today's guest with you.
1:53
Kristen: Today's guest is Lauren Elizabeth.
1:56
Kristen: She has such a positive and magical vibe.
1:58
Kristen: I know you're going to love her.
2:00
Kristen: And Lauren has taken her passion for everyday magic and has continued to evolve her brand and offerings to fit her lifestyle.
2:08
Kristen: So whether that's performing as a party princess or swimming as a mermaid at the local aquarium, you will hear more about how Lauren has always found extraordinary ways to add magic to her life with her brand, Hello Whimzy.
2:19
Kristen: And she's just building her fairytale slowly but surely.
2:23
Kristen: Get ready for a little bit of whimsy in your day and let's chat with Lauren.
2:28
Kristen: Lauren, welcome to the podcast.
2:30
Lauren: Thank you for having me.
2:31
Kristen: Thank you for being here and I know three random things about you from learning about you on your website, or maybe this was on social media where you said you were made a fairy dust diet coke and anxiety
2:42
Lauren: Oh, yep.
2:44
Kristen: So, so I thought along those lines, we could learn one more thing about you and you could tell us if you could be a fairy tale or fictional character, who you would be and why.
2:53
Lauren: There's so many options.
2:54
Lauren: Right now I'm watching the Rings of Power on Amazon, and so I'm like, The rings And yeah, I'm loving sure.
3:02
Lauren: Let's say lo the rings for now, but next week it'll probably be something totally different.
3:07
Kristen: All right, that's where you are right now, Lord, the Rings.
3:09
Kristen: But I also know you've had this dream to always be a princess and a mom.
3:15
Kristen: So tell us about those two dreams and what about them has always had you so excited.
3:21
Lauren: Oh, well, who hasn't dreamed of being a Disney princess when they were little, right.
3:25
Lauren: I always wanted to be one.
3:26
Lauren: I always wanted to work at Disneyland and I live in Utah for a while we lived in Iowa, so like you're pretty much as far away from a Disney park as you could possibly get, so, Growing up always wanted to be a princess.
3:40
Lauren: Became an adult.
3:41
Lauren: I thought, Hey, I can actually like do stuff like that now.
3:44
Lauren: So I decided to start my own princess company, but at the time we had just had my oldest, so it was just me, my husband, and my newborn daughter.
3:54
Lauren: And I've always loved kids.
3:56
Lauren: I've always had wild imagination, but I.
4:00
Lauren: Knew I wanted to be a mom first, and so I wanted to be able to find something that was a creative outlet for me, but also allowed me to be a stay-at-home mom, to be able to take care of her.
4:11
Lauren: Cause it was really important for me to be there with her and create a magical life for her, kinda like I had growing up.
4:19
Lauren: So that's kinda where it all started.
4:22
Kristen: Okay.
4:22
Kristen: Well, and tell us more about that.
4:23
Kristen: Cause you weren't just, you had your first child, but your husband was also I understand, studying.
4:28
Kristen: Right?
4:28
Kristen: He was in
4:29
Lauren: He was, yeah, he was in pharmacy school at the time and this was when we moved away from family.
4:34
Lauren: So it was just literally the three of us.
4:37
Lauren: And so it was, it took a lot of juggling and communication, so that was nice to figure out early on in the relationship, although there's always room to grow for sure.
4:47
Lauren: But So I started out there, started a little tiny company for Christmas one year.
4:52
Lauren: My mom had a professional snow white dress made for me that was like my entire Christmas present.
4:58
Lauren: It was this most gorgeous bodis with the yellow skirt, poofy sleeves, and I just fell in love immediately.
5:06
Lauren: I was like, Yep, we're gonna do this.
5:08
Lauren: And so this actually is kind of interesting cuz it ties in later but I started with that dress first one character, which was funny cuz snowy is probably the least requested character.
5:18
Lauren: So that might not have been the best idea.
5:20
Lauren: But
5:21
Kristen: So it was a start, though.
5:21
Kristen: It was a
5:22
Lauren: it was, it was a start.
5:23
Lauren: She was the first one for Disney, the first one for me.
5:27
Lauren: So, and I actually loved playing her.
5:29
Lauren: She was probably one of my favorites to ever play.
5:31
Lauren: But slowly started gathering more costume pieces.
5:33
Lauren: And one thing I really loved was the idea of making the princesses look Not exactly like the characters at Disneyland, cuz those look almost identical to the movies.
5:43
Lauren: I wanted them to look almost like the live action version or something that would be maybe more realistic, but with a fairytale aesthetic or fairytale feel to it.
5:54
Lauren: And so I started gathering, I'm not a soer, but I started gathering different pieces and I, I can piece things together.
6:01
Lauren: I just can't take a pattern and sew something.
6:03
Lauren: So I.
6:05
Lauren: My wedding dress and I dyed it yellow cuz it already looked so much like bell.
6:10
Lauren: And so that was a risk
6:12
Kristen: That was, that was a commitment.
6:13
Kristen: Okay.
6:14
Lauren: It was, but luckily it turned out, I don't know what I would've done if it had not, but it was kind of cool cuz I got to wear my wedding dress as bell.
6:21
Lauren: And like, when are you gonna wear your wedding dress again?
6:24
Lauren: Right.
6:24
Lauren: So I was actually able to wear it over and over again and so I added Belle to it and then just slowly started making a little bit more money, adding more characters here and there, and eventually it just grew into this big thing where I.
6:38
Lauren: Could hire outside help actresses and send them to parties while I could stay home with my kids.
6:44
Lauren: I was pregnant twice during this time so had two more babies And This was also a time I called before Elsa.
6:52
Lauren: Elsa came out in the middle of this, which was awesome for us cuz it was just, it was great for business, but also there wasn't.
7:00
Lauren: I don't know about you, but where, where I live now in Utah, there is a princess party company on every corner.
7:06
Kristen: There are, there are a number of them.
7:08
Kristen: I've, I've had one help me out as well when my girls are a little younger, but yeah, there are, there are a
7:13
Lauren: Isn't that funny?
7:14
Lauren: It was almost like Frozen came out and it was just like the coolest thing to do.
7:18
Lauren: And so it was awesome that we were already set and, you know, ready for it.
7:23
Lauren: But yeah, so that's where.
7:26
Lauren: It started to build and then we were done with school and I was able to sell it off because we were gonna move across country again.
7:34
Lauren: And it was just like the perfect little experience.
7:36
Lauren: I was able to work with kids, I was able to be with my own kids and give them opportunities to kind of fill magic.
7:42
Lauren: I mean, my girls had a princess at their birthday party, the first three or four years of their life, So it kind of just set a precedent for.
7:52
Lauren: Introducing magic into our lives from that point forward.
7:55
Kristen: I love it and I love, you know, you start'em young, you start'em on the right track, and then they'll always be ready and expecting the magic, so they'll look for it.
8:03
Lauren: Oh, I love that.
8:04
Lauren: That's a really great way to put that.
8:05
Lauren: Exactly.
8:07
Lauren: Look for the magic
8:08
Kristen: Yeah.
8:09
Kristen: So now you have the three kids you created and sold this princess company business and you've now moved.
8:15
Kristen: So then, then what are you left thinking?
8:18
Kristen: I gotta find something else to do.
8:20
Kristen: Do I start this princess?
8:23
Lauren: I always have to have an outlet else.
8:24
Lauren: I think my ADD will let me.
8:27
Lauren: Explode.
8:28
Lauren: So I have to have some sort of creative outlet.
8:30
Lauren: After that, we moved back to Utah and still it's getting a little bit harder to do an outside job with kids as they're getting older.
8:40
Lauren: Cause when they were little it was easy.
8:41
Lauren: I could work during nap time.
8:43
Lauren: I could just schedule things on the weekends.
8:45
Lauren: But then we started into soccer and stuff and I was like, Oh man, this is getting a little crazy to handle.
8:50
Lauren: And so I I wanted to transfer a little bit of that into my next project, and I had kept one of my characters, I had an original mermaid character with a silicone mermaid tale, and I wanted to somehow incorporate that into, My next idea, and I didn't know what that was yet, but I was like, Something's there.
9:14
Lauren: I've gotta figure this out.
9:17
Lauren: But turned out I had two little.
9:21
Lauren: Rhyming children's stories in my head about This mermaid character I came up with.
9:25
Lauren: I named her sonnet and I wrote these two little stories out into like a children's book.
9:31
Lauren: And I decided she was gonna be the stay at home mermaid and we were gonna have fun little quirky adventures and what it would be like to have a mermaid as a mom,
9:41
Kristen: I love that.
9:42
Kristen: Stay at home Mermaid.
9:43
Lauren: Yeah.
9:44
Lauren: And so I would just take random pictures of me and my mermaid tale with my kids doing just whimsical, cutey little things and I'd share those online.
9:54
Lauren: And then not too long after that, I found a job at a local aquarium and I was able to swim with all the sharks and stingrays and stuff like that.
10:04
Lauren: And it was, it was short lived cuz I.
10:07
Lauren: Again, being a mom was more important to me and leaving all the time to go work was so much fun, but it was more important to be home.
10:14
Lauren: So I was like, well, it was a fun run and it was.
10:16
Lauren: It really was.
10:17
Lauren: It was so cool to be able to swim in the tank and meet other kids and stuff and just watch their jaws drop
10:25
Kristen: Yeah.
10:25
Kristen: Wait, Wait, Did you have like some special breathing thing?
10:27
Kristen: You would just hold your breath for a little bit.
10:29
Kristen: Go under.
10:29
Kristen: How does that
10:30
Lauren: Yeah, just hold your breath and go on her and come up every once in a while.
10:34
Lauren: And to tell you the truth, I really was not that great at swimming.
10:37
Lauren: So like I would just do some really, really simple things, and it all worked out.
10:44
Lauren: Like I could totally fake it till I made it, I guess.
10:48
Kristen: Awesome.
10:48
Kristen: Okay,
10:50
Lauren: I didn't think I was gonna get this deep into this conversation, but I'll just air out all my dirty laundry
10:57
Kristen: that's fine.
10:58
Kristen: So stay at home roommate.
10:59
Kristen: You did that gig
11:00
Lauren: It all sounds so funny talking about it like this.
11:02
Lauren: This is over a couple of years, so no worries.
11:06
Lauren: So after that we moved again, just kind of across town.
11:10
Lauren: During that time my husband was in residency and so then he got a permanent job and we moved again and kept doing the mermaid thing for a while.
11:19
Lauren: I had multiple different colors of hair and just always loved doing that, but then started to get more into Disney bounding cuz I could involve my kids into that.
11:30
Kristen: Yeah.
11:31
Kristen: And tell us, tell us what Disney.
11:33
Kristen: Is cause I had not heard that term before.
11:35
Lauren: I am so glad I can share the news.
11:37
Lauren: So Disney bounding is when you take normal clothes, so it's not a costume and based on colors or styles or shapes, you make it look like a certain character.
11:49
Lauren: So if I were to Disney bound as Snow White, I would find.
11:53
Lauren: The colors that she uses, she uses blue, red, and yellow, and I would incorporate that into an outfit so that it looked like maybe what Snow White would wear in these modern times or in, just depending on how you style it, you could do something super simple like t-shirt and jeans or you could go all out like I did and I would get super poofy sleeved shirts and a skirt and like a vest and go all out.
12:20
Lauren: But I, I just love the fact that when you.
12:24
Lauren: Style, normal clothes, you're kind of emulating that character that you love.
12:28
Lauren: So one thing I like to tell my kids is like, Are you feeling a little nervous today about something?
12:33
Lauren: Well, let's dress you up like Meredith.
12:35
Lauren: She's super brave, so let's put on these colors.
12:38
Lauren: And it was just a fun little way to give either boosted confidence or just keep that magic throughout your day, even if nobody else recognizes it, it's for you to wear.
12:48
Lauren: And I loved that.
12:50
Kristen: I hadn't thought about the kid piece and like what that little dose of magic could put in their day just by, you know, keeping that to themselves.
12:57
Kristen: Like, I feel brave today.
12:59
Kristen: So because I'm dressed like I love that.
13:02
Lauren: I know it's super cute, but I love seeing them too because they've gotten.
13:06
Lauren: Pretty good at spotting things too.
13:08
Lauren: We we're at the store walking around and they're like, Hey mom, that looks like a Dory outfit, or that looks like, you know solely from Monsters Inc.
13:16
Lauren: And I'm like, Wow, these are better than
13:20
Kristen: Do you think those people know that they look like selling
13:23
Lauren: That's when, The other thing too, when you see someone who you like know is maybe Disney bounding, it's almost like instant friends.
13:30
Lauren: You're like, Are you Disney bounding right now?
13:32
Lauren: Did you know you look like.
13:34
Lauren: Captain Hook,
13:35
Kristen: Yeah,
13:36
Lauren: It's like, oh, I kind of do.
13:38
Lauren: I kinda like that.
13:40
Lauren: So it's actually kind of a fun little community too.
13:43
Kristen: it is awesome.
13:44
Kristen: So you share about it on social, is that the extent of Disney bounding or is there.
13:50
Kristen: Further business model.
13:51
Lauren: That's a good question too.
13:52
Lauren: There is like a whole community that loved these kind of things and I loved finding stuff and.
13:58
Lauren: I have a small community, but they are the best community and they send me things sometimes and they would always be like, Well, where did you get this?
14:06
Lauren: And I'd be like, Oh, let me tell you.
14:07
Lauren: So it kind of started off with just sharing where I got things and then it kind of turned into Me being able to open my own little shop and provide those kind of things.
14:17
Lauren: And that turned into, you know, whether it's just a simple t-shirt cuz everybody has a different style, everybody has a different comfort level.
14:23
Lauren: And so I loved to be able to provide ideas on how to do things as well as some of the specialty items of apparel or clothing that you might not find.
14:35
Lauren: Target, and be able to provide that to other people.
14:38
Lauren: I love doing that.
14:40
Kristen: That's really cool.
14:40
Kristen: And hopefully this is airing right around or before Halloween,
14:44
Lauren: Yes, ma'am.
14:45
Kristen: you've had a lot of posts or ideas for how we as parents can, can channel that Disney bounding flavor, if you will.
14:54
Lauren: Oh, for sure.
14:56
Kristen: do you have any tips and tricks for us, especially if we're down for last minute here.
14:59
Lauren: Oh, that was a good idea.
15:01
Lauren: I am one of those people who like to think about costumes and outfits all year round.
15:05
Lauren: And then I.
15:07
Lauren: Down to the wire, and then I'm like, Ugh, I gotta come up with something.
15:11
Lauren: So I actually work a lot last minute too.
15:13
Lauren: But I like to provide different ideas.
15:16
Lauren: Mostly my target audience is moms and stuff for them to wear.
15:21
Lauren: So I do like to provide.
15:23
Lauren: Little graphics of maybe ideas and inspiration that they can throw together, whether it's something from their closet, like find a white dress you can get a red belt some red shoes and let's think, what else does she have?
15:35
Lauren: I'm thinking Mary Poppins here.
15:37
Kristen: I was trying to see where you're going, who this was.
15:38
Kristen: Okay.
15:39
Lauren: and so, I mean, it's super easy to just throw together pieces like this and come up with a cute outfit.
15:45
Lauren: Especially cuz I feel like as moms our focus is on our kids' costume.
15:49
Lauren: For such a long time and then it kind of comes down to it and run to a family and we're like, Oh, I have nothing My kids look great.
15:57
Lauren: But I kind of neglected myself there.
15:59
Lauren: So a lot of times I like to share how to hunt your closet.
16:04
Lauren: I like to share different color palettes because Disney bounding really is about just the colors and I like to teach.
16:11
Lauren: You don't have to necessarily have the right colors in the right places to give off the vibe of a certain character.
16:16
Lauren: And then, so a lot of times our closet is our go-to, but other times too, I've got Amazon links to things that should get there in time.
16:25
Lauren: Wash your fingers.
16:26
Lauren: You never know these days, but
16:28
Kristen: Yeah.
16:29
Lauren: I do like sharing those kind of things too.
16:30
Lauren: And I've done personal styling sessions before too, where somebody's like, I'm going to Disneyland.
16:36
Lauren: This is my favorite character.
16:37
Lauren: Can you help me find an outfit to wear.
16:40
Lauren: That's the other thing I like.
16:40
Lauren: Two costumes are so uncomfortable, but like normal clothes, you can walk around Disneyland in so yeah,
16:48
Kristen: Well I can, I can hear the excitement in your voice when you talk about it as you were speaking.
16:53
Kristen: I just remembered, I think I did.
16:56
Kristen: Only without knowing I was dizzy bounding because for Halloween, one year, my girls were dressed up as Mallon ed from the Descendants and
17:05
Lauren: That was so popular.
17:06
Kristen: and so my husband and I were Bell and the Beast.
17:10
Kristen: Right.
17:11
Kristen: The parents of.
17:12
Lauren: Uhhuh
17:13
Kristen: King Ben and I got a yellow dress on Amazon, and in my mind I was modeling after the mom in descendants, but really she was kind of dizzy, bounding by just wearing yellow all the time.
17:23
Lauren: That's awesome.
17:24
Lauren: That movie actually is a really good example of Disney bounding cuz it's
17:27
Kristen: It's all over.
17:28
Lauren: clothing.
17:29
Lauren: Yeah.
17:29
Kristen: Yeah.
17:31
Lauren: If you need an excuse to go watch Descendants.
17:33
Lauren: There you go.
17:35
Kristen: Well, who needs an excuse for that?
17:36
Kristen: It's so great.
17:37
Lauren: It's on all the time at my house.
17:40
Kristen: So that's awesome.
17:41
Kristen: I didn't know any of this about the Disney County before and now.
17:44
Kristen: It seems so fun.
17:45
Kristen: The whimsical.
17:45
Kristen: And then what else you do?
17:47
Kristen: Cuz I know everything now is under the Hello Whimsy brand and name.
17:52
Kristen: So he said Whi made me think of it, like you just keep adding to it.
17:55
Kristen: So what else?
17:56
Kristen: You're now building, building a home.
17:59
Lauren: trying to, it's been pretty crazy, but Yeah, we've found we've been kinda looking for some property for a while.
18:06
Lauren: My husband grew up on a farm and he always wanted horses, and I never thought I'd be a country girl, but here I am,
18:14
Kristen: Where Where are you from?
18:15
Kristen: Cause you mentioned Utah and Iowa.
18:16
Kristen: Where are you then from?
18:17
Kristen: From
18:18
Lauren: so we're in little, little town in Utah County where his family's from.
18:23
Lauren: And so that's where we're living now and we've found some awesome property.
18:27
Lauren: We found it and I immediately fell in love.
18:29
Lauren: I'm like, Gavin, if we don't get this, I'm gonna be super sad.
18:32
Lauren: and my kids actually came up with the name for it.
18:36
Lauren: We always like to name things.
18:37
Lauren: Our car has a name, our truck has a name.
18:40
Lauren: You know, everything has name.
18:41
Lauren: And my kids are like, we should call it whimsy willows.
18:44
Lauren: And I was like, Yes, That was another proud mom moment.
18:49
Lauren: I was like, I have raised these kids, right?
18:51
Lauren: At least in that regard, let's not talk about other parenting stuff.
18:54
Lauren: And so I was like, Yep, we're gonna call it Lindsay Willows.
18:56
Lauren: We have a beautiful willow tree.
18:58
Lauren: It's about, Five and a half acres and our plan is to build our home there and have a couple of animals horses for sure.
19:07
Lauren: We recently got some highland cows, which I'm so excited about
19:12
Kristen: I'm seeing you share pictures of them.
19:14
Lauren: I never, like, I never thought I would've lived out in the country with highland cows.
19:19
Lauren: I always loved them, but I never thought it would ever be possible.
19:22
Lauren: Have a couple let alone one.
19:26
Lauren: So here we are.
19:27
Lauren: So they are currently on the property right now.
19:29
Lauren: They're just chilling there while we get our ducks in a row.
19:32
Lauren: We've planned our little, I like to call it a cottage homestead.
19:36
Lauren: I love the old world type architecture and stone and, you know natural wood.
19:43
Lauren: And so we've got some fun ideas for really pretty little cottage like.
19:49
Lauren: Fairy tale Homestead
19:51
Kristen: you're literally building your.
19:53
Kristen: Like you're
19:54
Lauren: I know.
19:55
Lauren: So when I saw the name of your podcast, I was like Instant friend.
19:59
Lauren: Hello.
19:59
Lauren: That's awesome.
20:01
Kristen: Yeah.
20:01
Kristen: It's a match.
20:02
Kristen: It's a match.
20:03
Lauren: It is for sure.
20:05
Kristen: So, oh my goodness.
20:05
Kristen: This is like a lot of, a lot of different fun things.
20:10
Kristen: Like how do you.
20:13
Kristen: Manage it all with the kids, with your husband working with moving, like There's a lot of moving pieces here.
20:20
Kristen: So what words of wisdom do you have for how you keep your sanity and also keep the business or business is going?
20:27
Lauren: That is a really good question.
20:28
Lauren: I don't I don't balance it.
20:31
Lauren: That's probably the secret right there.
20:32
Lauren: I have kind of scaled back on the business side because right now we're living with in-laws while we're trying to build and save some money.
20:40
Lauren: And it is harder when you're not in your own space.
20:43
Lauren: And I'm like, Oh what can I, you know, just push the side for now.
20:46
Lauren: And I'm like, Business, totally.
20:47
Lauren: I need to be present to help out with things here.
20:51
Lauren: And so right now it's a little bit on the back burner, but I still need it for my soul.
20:56
Lauren: So I'm still doing it.
20:57
Lauren: It's just scaled back.
20:59
Lauren: As far as like everything else, I think there's a time and a place for everything, and it can get discouraging when you're like, I really need to those creative muscles, but I just don't have time right now to just either schedule it in or just know that it's just a phase.
21:18
Lauren: It's not gonna always be like this.
21:20
Lauren: You can always go back and do more.
21:22
Lauren: So that's one thing I am constantly telling myself,
21:25
Kristen: Yep.
21:26
Kristen: That mantra
21:27
Lauren: Yes, a mantra for sure.
21:29
Lauren: But yeah, there's another thing that my friend says all the time that I've totally adopted is another mantra is do things when you're inspired, not required.
21:38
Lauren: And I love that because so many times I feel like I have to do something to either stay in Instagrams, good graces or not lose traction on certain things.
21:49
Lauren: But really the most important part is taking time to.
21:54
Lauren: Be with family and not to force yourself into these things so it feels not inspiring or fun anymore.
22:02
Lauren: So there are times when I feel super inspired and I jump on stuff as quick as I can while I'm filling that, and I get as much done in that time as I can.
22:12
Lauren: And then when that's over, I have to set that aside and then focus on the next thing.
22:20
Lauren: Yeah, it's, it's kind of slow going that way, but it's the only way I've known how to do things without going completely crazy.
22:27
Kristen: Listen, it's working.
22:29
Kristen: It's working and I love the do it when inspired, not required.
22:33
Kristen: It's really very closely linked to like stop shoulding on yourself, like you don't.
22:37
Kristen: Just because you should doesn't mean you.
22:40
Kristen: need to.
22:41
Lauren: Yeah, exactly.
22:43
Lauren: Exactly.
22:43
Lauren: And it's kind of nice too to like slow down and kind of think more about what's really important and why you're doing all these things.
22:52
Lauren: I want my kids to have a nice, magical, warm, loving home.
22:56
Lauren: And even though what's that saying, when you're in the forest, you can't see the forest through the trees.
23:02
Lauren: It's hard.
23:03
Lauren: It's hard to like remember why you're doing things.
23:07
Lauren: Also just remembering it's a phase and focusing on what's important in the moment
23:13
Kristen: I like that.
23:13
Kristen: Very, Very, important, very valuable.
23:16
Kristen: And also, I just had to point out, cuz you've talked about needing this creative outlet, you're not the first guest to talk about.
23:22
Kristen: In fact, I feel like every guest I've interviewed has mentioned in some way, shape, or form, like needing that creative outlet.
23:27
Kristen: So I just, I'm starting to wonder if maybe people don't even know they wanna be entrepreneurs, but they just have this desire, this passion, like, I need to do something that's fun and creative for me.
23:38
Kristen: That that's the key.
23:40
Kristen: the common thread here.
23:41
Lauren: Yep, absolutely.
23:42
Lauren: I think too, as a mom, you often kind of just forget yourself and like kind of like before with the Halloween thing, you kind of put your kids' needs first and you kind of put your own stuff on the back burner.
23:53
Lauren: But I was talking to my husband and I'm like, I am a much better mom if I can take time to fill my soul.
24:01
Lauren: Before I try to take care of everybody else's needs, and again, I have to remind myself of that a lot, but it really is so true.
24:11
Kristen: It's so true and I'm glad that you said it because mom or not, like whatever your role is, whether it's at work or home, like Yeah.
24:20
Kristen: If you're not filling your, your own cup, if you're not paying attention to your needs, your wants, like at some point or another, it's gonna really,
24:29
Lauren: backfire.
24:31
Lauren: Yep.
24:31
Lauren: Totally agree.
24:32
Kristen: You can only hold it in for so long.
24:34
Kristen: Okay.
24:35
Kristen: I love that.
24:36
Kristen: So then you have like pushed through and created lots of things from what seems like you start with not a whole lot, but then you build it, right?
24:44
Kristen: So what is one piece of advice you have for our listeners who may be just starting to dream up an idea or like, Oh, I wish I could do that.
24:53
Kristen: Like what's that piece of advice?
24:54
Kristen: They could just start with?
24:56
Lauren: The hardest part I think is like just deciding to do the smallest step because you're like, Well, if I try to do that, it'll, it's just too much work.
25:07
Lauren: I can't handle that right now.
25:09
Lauren: Just the, literally the smallest little step that you can take forward is a step in the right direction.
25:16
Lauren: So I've got a friend who just messaged me this morning and she's like, Hey, I, I just bought a Mermaid Tale And I'm like, Awesome.
25:23
Lauren: And she's like it started for her a while ago where she's like, I'm coming up with a backstory for my mermaid, and so like, yeah, that Mermaid Tell was probably a step further down the line, but she first thought about it.
25:36
Lauren: She first started saving for it.
25:37
Lauren: She first started coming up with a story about it and what she wanted to do for it, and so those small steps just at the beginning to either get you excited or move you in the right direction, I think is an awesome foundation.
25:51
Kristen: Very simple, but very profound Because yes, any step forward, large or minuscule is step in the right direction.
25:59
Kristen: So
26:00
Lauren: Yeah.
26:00
Lauren: Cause you can't, you can't do it all at once.
26:02
Lauren: Like if I had tried to do my princess party business all at once, I would've felt so overwhelmed and would not have been able to do anything.
26:10
Lauren: But I started off with the one character.
26:12
Lauren: I think the first time I advertised, I put up a little.
26:17
Lauren: Facebook post on like the community neighborhood, and I'm like, Does anyone have a daughter who wants a princess to come to their party?
26:24
Lauren: I'd be happy to, you know, do it in exchange for review or anything like that.
26:30
Lauren: So really little steps.
26:31
Lauren: I, I didn't add other characters until I started making money, and that took a while,
26:36
Kristen: hearing you say that too, like can you just elaborate on that?
26:39
Kristen: That first step doesn't always have to be like you book and you make millions, right?
26:43
Kristen: You just said it was an exchange for review.
26:45
Kristen: Right.
26:46
Kristen: It's just
26:46
Lauren: Mm-hmm.
26:46
Kristen: step in the direction.
26:48
Lauren: Yep.
26:49
Lauren: And just to get your name out there, like, and it's, I wish I had an answer for every little niche or genre or anything like that, but, Yeah, that those first small little steps, The first thing I did actually was I worked for another company here in Utah and college where I did maybe two parties.
27:06
Lauren: It was all but it, it kind of gave me a fill for it.
27:09
Lauren: I volunteered for those too.
27:11
Lauren: And so I think a lot of times you do need to know your worth, but also, yeah, you gotta be a little more flexible at the beginning part and work your way up
27:23
Kristen: Yeah.
27:23
Kristen: Well, and also it's making me think, go back to the shoulds.
27:26
Kristen: I should be getting paid for this.
27:27
Kristen: Yeah, maybe but you also need to build your reputation, build.
27:33
Kristen: Those checklist items are, so yeah, that'll come.
27:36
Kristen: Don't your ego of like, I should be making money.
27:38
Kristen: I need to make money right now.
27:39
Kristen: Get in the way of, No, this is a step in the right direction.
27:42
Lauren: Yep.
27:42
Lauren: And it, and it helped me realize too, yeah, I do wanna do this instead of sinking all that money into it and then being like, Oh, I hate know, like, that would be terrible.
27:51
Kristen: Well, I know you're at this phase where you said some things are dialing back because you're getting ready to build, but what visions do you have next part of your fairy tale here?
27:59
Lauren: So hopefully once we get into the house, I, I'm gonna, I've got two separate accounts.
28:03
Lauren: I've got my Hello Whimsy account and I've got my Whimsy Willows account.
28:07
Lauren: And hopefully my whimsy, willows, our homestead will be, will be able to document kind of everything that we're doing cuz we're doing it all ourself.
28:15
Lauren: We're being our own general contractor, which, May not be the best idea, but it's gonna be great And so I think we're gonna learn a lot along the way and maybe share not just what works, but what doesn't work.
28:27
Lauren: And I, I think it's gonna be entertaining because we literally are flying by the seat of our pants here.
28:33
Lauren: So we're gonna be posting on there a little bit and that process.
28:36
Lauren: But at the same time, my passion really is the Fashion
28:39
Kristen: That rhymes.
28:40
Kristen: Here we
28:40
Lauren: I did not mean for that to rhyme but I do wanna do more of that.
28:45
Lauren: Right now I'm focusing on doing some t-shirt designs.
28:50
Lauren: Those are nice because I don't have to keep actual inventory on hand and so I can design those and send those in and get those out there.
28:58
Lauren: And, you know, everybody loves a good so Focus on that, maybe on the next year or two.
29:03
Lauren: But then after that, after we're in our house, like I just want to be posting all the whimsical things I wanna share fashion and lifestyle, show our, our cos and horses and chickens and ways you can find your own fairy tale every day and the magic and every day.
29:20
Lauren: And Even if nobody were to look at it, it's for our family.
29:23
Lauren: I'm so excited to share that with my kids.
29:26
Kristen: I love it.
29:26
Kristen: I think.
29:27
Kristen: Inspire lots of people with it, hopefully mostly your own, but I think lots of people out there will love it and it'll inspire them.
29:33
Kristen: So I need to know, do you have any Disney inspired rooms in the plan for this?
29:38
Lauren: My daughter wants an enchanted forest room, so I'm like, Thank you for that.
29:44
Lauren: That'll be fun.
29:45
Lauren: I do have, I went and bought this really cool it was like a wardrobe type thing and we're gonna make it look like a Narnia wardrobe and it's gonna be a secret door into one of the bedrooms.
29:56
Lauren: And so we're gonna have lots of little things like that kind of all over.
30:01
Lauren: I'm sure we'll probably do a hidden Mickey here or there.
30:03
Lauren: Yeah.
30:04
Lauren: Oh, definitely I don't, I don't really know how to style things.
30:07
Lauren: Not in a fairytale way.
30:09
Lauren: That's kind of all I know, but I'll take it.
30:12
Kristen: I love it.
30:14
Kristen: tell us, how can listeners find you, follow this journey?
30:17
Kristen: Buy the t-shirts, get some Disney bounding inpo.
30:20
Kristen: Where?
30:20
Kristen: Where can that happen?
30:21
Lauren: Mostly Instagram.
30:23
Lauren: I've got the two accounts, but my main one is the Hello Whimsy account and the whimsy is spelled whimsically.
30:30
Lauren: It's with a Z W H I M Z Y.
30:33
Lauren: But yeah, mostly there.
30:35
Lauren: That's my jam.
30:36
Kristen: Awesome.
30:37
Kristen: Any final tips for us listeners who wanna have a little more magic in their day, even if they're not starting a business?
30:43
Kristen: Like what's one simple thing we can do to some more whimsy to the day?
30:48
Lauren: I know anybody can listen to music.
30:51
Lauren: I, I'm always inspired by music.
30:53
Lauren: I love listening to it, and when I hear it, I often start to get ideas that maybe I wouldn't otherwise Start there.
30:59
Lauren: Listen to some Disney playlists or even.
31:03
Lauren: You know, you know my favorite one actually is Oh, good.
31:07
Lauren: It was the 2003 live action Peter Pan with Jeremy Sumter is Peter Pan.
31:14
Lauren: Oh, he was so cute.
31:16
Lauren: That's, that's one of my all time favorite soundtracks.
31:19
Lauren: I love that soundtrack and every time I hear it, I get new ideas and new inspirations, so Totally.
31:25
Lauren: Look that up.
31:26
Lauren: It's so magical.
31:27
Kristen: I'm gonna, check out 2003 Peter Pan, cuz I haven't watched that one.
31:31
Kristen: gonna check it out.
31:32
Lauren: listen to the music and watch the movie
31:35
Kristen: Okay, watch and listen.
31:37
Kristen: Noted.
31:37
Kristen: I was gonna share that I am so inspired, what, I've shared this before, but the Amazon remake or update of Cinderella
31:44
Lauren: Ooh, I haven't watched that one.
31:46
Kristen: I love it.
31:47
Kristen: It's like an update on Cinderella.
31:49
Kristen: They have all modernish, I guess, songs with telling the same story.
31:54
Kristen: And I just love it.
31:55
Kristen: I'm so inspired every time I'm like, Yeah, gonna do it.
31:57
Kristen: And then she does.
31:58
Kristen: And
32:00
Lauren: I do love Cinderella.
32:01
Lauren: I love that story.
32:03
Lauren: So I'm gonna have to put that on my to be watched list.
32:06
Kristen: Awesome.
32:08
Kristen: Lauren, are you still feeling Lord of the Rings or is there any other character inspire you or are we still on Lord of the Rings here,
32:14
Lauren: Hmm.
32:15
Lauren: Now I'm filling Peter Pan.
32:17
Kristen: are you, Wendy, are you, are you, Or who are you?
32:20
Lauren: I feel like sometimes I'm Tinker Bell I can have one emotion takeover I can be hyper focused and feel that one thing for a while and get a lot done, but other times I feel like I'm totally Peter Pan or I'm just always up for an, an and just that childhood at heart type thing.
32:38
Lauren: I do love Peter Pan.
32:39
Lauren: It's probably my favorite story.
32:41
Kristen: Nice.
32:41
Kristen: Well, it's a classic, I guess, for a reason,
32:44
Lauren: For sure.
32:45
Kristen: I can see the kid at heart, the love of the, the whimsy and the magic, and just your excitement talking about these things.
32:52
Kristen: So thank you so much for sharing all of it with us
32:54
Lauren: Thanks so much for having me.
32:55
Lauren: It was a delight.
32:56
Kristen: It was impossible not to smile and laugh while hanging out with Lauren.
33:01
Kristen: I hope he takes some of that positivity with you today, too.
33:04
Kristen: My top takeaways from this conversation.
33:06
Kristen: Number one, slow and steady, slow progress is still progress and not all phases will last forever, which I know you've been there with me.
33:14
Kristen: There are those phases when you just cannot wait to get out.
33:17
Kristen: So it's a great reminder that we won't be there forever.
33:20
Kristen: Number two.
33:21
Kristen: It's not just for kids.
33:23
Kristen: We can all benefit from some whimsy or magic in our everyday lives.
33:27
Kristen: And number three, follow your passion and the rest will follow; do things when inspired not required.
33:33
Kristen: I love that.
33:35
Kristen: If you know someone who may benefit from this episode please go ahead and share it with them.
33:40
Kristen: Spread the love.
33:42
Kristen: Last, but not least, thank you again for being here.
33:45
Kristen: I'm not giving up on my dreams and I hope you won't either.
33:48
Kristen: I'm Kristen Lettini and this is Build Your Own Fairytale.