Lettering Works Business Journal - January in Review
Business Journal: a place to celebrate wins & reflect - 49th Edition
January’s highlights included a trip to Mexico City, packaging and delivering many wholesale orders, and some behind-the-scenes work on moving my course content and developing a new passion project.
Chelsie & Daniel in Mexico City (photo taken during the taco bike tour, during a stop riding through the park)
Artist Trade Program
Blood Sustains Us All Custom Button for the Field Museum
The Big Wins
Visited Mexico City! Highlights included trying lots of Mexican food and drinks (tepache, pulque, horchata and cocktails), going on a taco bike tour, exploring beautiful artisan markets, and enjoying the seventy-degree weather. If you’d like to live vicariously through my photos, you can find them in this blog post.
Reflected on the 10 Artist Trades I completed in 2023 and moved the Artist Trade Program to my website. Find information here and the trade request form here.
Delivered 1,500 “Blood Sustains Us All” buttons to the Field Museum. Highlights of the drop-off-turned-museum visit included snapping fun photos of the buttons in the Bloodsuckers exhibit, getting a private tour of some of the 40 million specimens the museum has hidden in the basement, and seeing my other products in the museum store.
Grab my new journaling freebie here!
Get your own scoliosis sticker here.
Enjoyed a visit from my parents
Say Yes Campaign Swag
Milwaukee Art Museum Building Sticker
A good amount of time this month was spent packaging orders from Faire and other wholesale restocks
General Updates + Accomplishments:
Launched a new journaling freebie to help those who want to develop or strengthen their own journaling practice. Download my daily, weekly, and monthly prompts here.
Achieved Faire’s Top Shop status and participated in the Faire Winter Market. Additionally, I fulfilled some sticker restocks outside of Faire.
Delivered Say Yes campaign stickers and buttons to Gift of Hope. I also put a new Milwaukee Art Museum building sticker into production and did the prep work for another custom sticker order.
Updated my branding proposal, 2024 work samples, and wholesale catalog. I focused on some intentional outreach and connection, as I’ve been looking for my next exciting projects and opportunities.
Began the process of migrating my courses over to Squarespace (aka this website) from Kajabi (the platform I launched my courses on). The move is set to be complete by the end of February.
Went to my first Take Chelsie to Lunch Meeting and shared key insights on prioritization on social media.
Received ACDBE/DBE renewed approval. I am a certified disadvantaged business owner with the City of Chicago, which has been helping me get my foot in the door for airport opportunities.
Enjoyed Chicago (despite the often cold and wet weather) and attended events like a Ladies, Wine & Design meetup, Thursday Therapy, and a friend’s birthday party. We hosted my parents for a quick weekend visit to celebrate my dad’s birthday.
Got updated spinal x-rays and a referral for physical therapy. Sadly, my surgeon from 2007 does not accept my insurance, so I had to switch practices from Rush to Northwestern. I also paid my 2023 sales tax and last estimated taxe payments…some things are more necessary than fun.
Worked on a new personal project that I will be sharing more about next month!
Was featured by Bradley University as part of their Alumni Spotlight Series. You can read my interview here.
January was rather packed with travel, countless events, projects (mostly wholesale-related), and a handful of potential projects starting to take shape. I am excited for what is to come in 2024 and still very much looking for new projects and opportunities. If you are interested in working together, I’d be happy to start the conversation and share more about how I can help you with your branding, design, and custom merchandise needs.
In February, I am most looking forward to visiting my friend Casey in sunny South Carolina and launching a new passion project to help highlight an important cause.
Thank you for being here, for supporting me, and for following along with my entrepreneurial journey.
PS - Have a project you’d like to chat about? Send me the details now to ensure your project gets on my calendar in 2024. Bring on all the logos, branded merchandise, + brand identity projects… let’s make some beautiful + impactful things together.
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