DeepSummary
In this podcast episode, host Yasmin Nori interviews Adriana Carrig, the founder and CEO of Little Words Project, a jewelry company that aims to inspire kindness through wearable affirmations. Adriana shares her journey of starting the business from her parents' basement with just $5,000, motivated by her personal experience with bullying growing up.
Despite facing doubts and criticism, Adriana persevered, building a loyal community and brand around the simple yet meaningful bracelets. She discusses the importance of taking the first step, failing forward, and listening to one's intuition as an entrepreneur. The conversation also touches on the challenges of balancing entrepreneurship with personal life, including Adriana's struggles with infertility.
Adriana emphasizes the power of community, word-of-mouth marketing, and creating a brand that resonates with customers. She bootstrapped the business to over $20 million in revenue before taking on outside funding, highlighting the importance of starting where you are and embracing discomfort as a growth opportunity.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- The power of taking the first step and taking action, even if it's small, is crucial for entrepreneurial success.
- Building a loyal community and fostering word-of-mouth marketing can be more powerful than traditional advertising for growing a business.
- Embracing discomfort and uncertainty is an essential part of the entrepreneurial journey, and never truly goes away, even with success.
- Listening to your intuition and pursuing what "feels right" in the moment, rather than strictly following conventional wisdom, can be a powerful approach to entrepreneurship.
- Perseverance and resilience in the face of doubters and critics are key to achieving success as an entrepreneur.
- Balancing personal and professional life as an entrepreneur can be challenging, but it is important to honor and prioritize personal needs and well-being.
- Starting small and bootstrapping a business can be a viable path to success, even for a product or service that may seem simple or inexpensive.
- Creating a brand that resonates with customers and aligns with your values and mission can be a powerful driver of business growth and customer loyalty.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “I always say the people who doubt you or the people who are your haters now are going to one day tell people that they know you.“ by Adriana Kerig
- “I think it's just about intuitive entrepreneurship. Right? Like, what feels right in that moment? What do you need to do to light your soul on fire in this moment?“ by Adriana Kerig
- “And true entrepreneurs, when you're working on your business, you feel it in your bones. Like, you feel you're doing the right thing.“ by Adriana Kerig
- “Probably how you never get out of a place of discomfort. Like, you think you're going to get out of the place of discomfort and you're going to get to the bigger stage and it's still really uncomfortable and you never feel like there are times and there are moments within that I feel really in my pocket and I'm like, ooh.“ by Adriana Kerig
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Person
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Episode Information
Behind Her Empire
Yasmin Nouri
1/22/24
Adriana Carrig is the founder and CEO of Little Words Project, a jewelry company that’s on a mission to inspire and spread kindness one word at a time.
Adriana was motivated to start her business due to her personal experience with bullying growing up. She started making bracelets that acted as affirmations for her and her sorority sisters in college. While being an entrepreneur was never in her plans, she immediately saw the value of her idea and was quickly affirmed when she saw her sorority sisters continued bracelet-making long after she graduated. Seeing this fueled her to start a business and in 2013 the Little Words Project was born. Adriana has self-funded the brand with $5,000 of her own money and grew it to over $20 million in revenue before they brought on their first investor.
She understood the impact of what these wearable affirmations can do for the rest of the population and the rest is history. The brand has also built a cult following of loyal customers and boasts celebrity fans including Lance Bass, Kourtney Kardashian, Alicia Keys, and more. The company has over 1,000+ retail partners – including Target and Nordstrom – and is set to have 12 retail stores by the end of this year.
In this week’s episode, we talk to Adriana about how she went from beading bracelets and shipping them out herself at her parent’s basement to growing the business into what it is today. We talk about her experience with bullying and how it has inspired her to start her business, what it means to fail forward, and the importance of taking the first step. She opens up about how she dealt with naysayers who thought that she couldn’t build a real business around $25 bracelets, the steps she took from Day 1 on building the most incredible brand and community and the messy truth about entrepreneurship that no one talks about. The interview is all about intuitive entrepreneurship, how listening to your gut can be your biggest superpower, and so much more.
In this episode, we’ll talk to Adriana about:
* The power of taking the first step. [04:16]
* Burnout and infertility experience. [08:10]
* Adriana’s childhood and upbringing. [14:19]
* Facing bullying and cultivating confidence. [14:17]
* The inspiration behind the Little Words Project. [20:28]
* Facing doubts and criticism in product development. [26:23]
* Developing her initial products. [34:02]
* The rewarding and challenging experiences of growth. [39:40]
* Building a self-funded, sustainable business. [46:39]
* Organic brand growth and community relationships. [50:31]
* The messy truth about entrepreneurship. [52:32]
* Intuitive entrepreneurship: Embrace what feels right. [55:46]
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Follow Yasmin:
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminknouri/
* Stay updated & subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.behindherempire.com/
Follow Adriana:
* Adriana's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adrianacarrig/
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/littlewordsproject/
* Website: https://www.littlewordsproject.com/
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