Today, we’re thrilled to have a guest who embodies the spirit of artistry and entrepreneurship, Janna Willoughby-Lohr. As the driving force behind Papercraft Miracles, Janna is an accomplished artist, poet, and musician, based in Buffalo, New York. Her company specializes in handcrafted paper art and beautiful gifts imbued with meaning and intent. Since founding her company in college in 2003, Janna has grown Papercraft Miracles into a pillar of sustainable creativity and business success.
Navigating Personal and Professional Challenges
Janna shares her deeply personal story of navigating significant challenges, including the loss of her mother and a devastating dorm fire that occurred on her mother’s birthday. These experiences profoundly shaped her perspective on life and art. Janna turned to creating artist books to process her grief and trauma.
The Importance of Sustainability
Sustainability is at the core of Papercraft Miracles. Janna is committed to using eco-friendly materials and processes in all her creations. From plantable paper products to upcycled materials, her company offers a wide range of sustainable options that resonate with environmentally conscious consumers.
Looking ahead, Janna shares her vision for the future of Papercraft Miracles. She aims to continue expanding her product line, exploring new markets, and increasing her impact through sustainable practices.
Follow Janna Willoughby-Lohr:
Papercraftmiracles.com
Facebook
Reach the Stars Podcast
Watch on YouTube
Transcript
Beverly: 0:42
Welcome to this episode of Sparketing Nightmare Marketing. Today, we’re thrilled to have a guest who embodies both the spirit of artistry and entrepreneurship, Janna Willoughby Lore. Did you know that the market for eco friendly products has seen remarkable growth with a 300 percent increase in consumer demand over the last decade? This trend highlights the growing importance of sustainability and consumer choices, a principle that drives companies like Papercraft Miracles.
Based in Buffalo, New York, Janna is an accomplished artist, poet, and musician, and the driving force behind Papercraft Miracles. Her company specializes in handcrafted paper art, beautiful gifts that are imbued with meaning and intent. Since founding her company in college in 2003, Janna has grown paper craft miracles into a pillar of sustainable creativity and business success. Janna’s entrepreneurial spirit has been recognized with numerous accolades, including a 25, 000 Ignite Buffalo Small business grant and being named among the 40 under 40 for stationary and gifts.
Her influence extends far beyond her business as she plays an active role in shaping future entrepreneurs through her volunteer work and mentorships. And as a voice of inspiration on her own podcast called reach for the stars. Today, we’re set to explore Janna journey, the intersections of her craft and entrepreneurial ventures, and the power of impact of combining both your passion and you’re business savvy. Welcome, Janna.
Janna: 2:15
Hi, thanks for having me.
Beverly: 2:17
Excited to have you here. It’s such an interesting kind of niche that you serve. And I’m excited to learn more about your entrepreneurial journey. So tell us a little bit about paper craft miracles and actually who you serve. So we have a background before we dive into your journey and all the things.
Janna: 2:34
So Papercraft Miracles is as you said, it’s an eco friendly handmade paper art company. We make magical things out of paper that make people happy. We help people connect, communicate, and celebrate. And since I started it such a long time ago it was always my dream to be an artist, but I didn’t want to be broke.
So I ended up creating my own college major designed specifically around entrepreneurship and creative art because the art degree had no information about how to create a career and sell any art and the business degree was like you can learn how to do business, but you won’t learn how to make art. I was like I can’t do either of those. And I made up my own major and integrated the two together, including a bunch of courses on social work. Because in order to sell art, which is not like selling any other product, you have to learn how to work with people.
And so that was really at the heart of what I wanted to do. We mainly do. Custom orders and commission based work. So we work directly with clients all the time on a project basis. We do have a lot of things that are pre made. An e commerce store. A little boutique and some things on consignment and wholesale and things like that, just to have repeat it’s steady money coming in the door in between big projects. But yeah, our jam is to like, say yes. When other people say no. Or I’ll just say that’s, let’s make it work when someone else says that’s not possible. So we have a really client focused way of working. And I say, come in, come into my zoom or come into my studio, sit on my couch.
Tell me about who you’re trying to reach. Let’s figure out the best way to say what you want to say. So that being said, we do have a couple of different departments that we work with. So we have. Corporate swag and like corporate gifting, client gifting, that kind of thing. So we do a lot of B2B kind of things like that, especially now that more bigger companies are trying to get, sustainable swag
Beverly: 4:28
and
Janna: 4:28
sustainable things like that. So we’ve been doing a lot of stuff like that for bigger companies. And then we do. A lot of sustainable weddings and events. And so those are also like on a project basis. So they could be a wedding. It could be a graduation party. It could be a nonprofit fundraiser, whatever. But we are like a one stop shop for that. We do invitations and branding. Paper flowers.Guest books, table numbers, place cards, favors, and make it all matchy and go together.
And then we also have this kind of B2C where we do a lot of custom gifts directly for our clients. People who say I need a special gift for so and so’s memorial, or somebody’s turning 75, or I just have a friend who’s really going through some stuff and needs a special thing to pick them up every day. And we really specialize, I think our sweet spot is helping people say things they don’t quite know how to say. In the purpose of marketing talk, like who’s our target market? It’s women between 25 and make over a hundred thousand dollars a year.
They care about the environment. Where their money goes. They want to make a difference. To do business with someone where it’s going to make a difference. They value handmade items, but don’t have any time to make them. Those are my clients,
Beverly: 5:45
I’m creative, but I don’t have the time to do the creativity sometimes. And because I’m creative all day. Last thing I want to do is be creative for a personal it’s hard to be that creative for a personal gift. Like I probably could create something, but. I don’t have time for that or the energy. So you’re like hitting a very good sweet spot for me. I love it.
Janna: 6:02
People come and they, and it like, sometimes I have dreams about it, actually. Like I’m more of a concept artist, right? So people come to me and they’re like I have this idea for this thing, but I don’t know how to say it, or I don’t know how to make it, or I don’t quite know how to bring this idea to reality. And I say, just tell me the story, tell me all about it, tell me the story. And I just, I think that’s my superpower. It’s like hearing the things people aren’t really saying, or like getting, picking out the, the important parts of the story, all those little details and saying, okay, we could incorporate those in this way.
So for instance, we had clients who had their first date at a pizza place and they were like, we want to make special wedding invitations. And I was like, Oh, let’s make them on a basil. We can show people where we come from, right? So it’s not just telling the story of your first date. And every single person who went to that wedding remembers those invitations. They remember that story because they heard it while they got to hold it in their hands.
Beverly: 7:02
Oh, I love that so much. Cause it, cause everybody’s tactile. It probably even was like cause basil is very strong. Maybe even like a smell, like you’re hitting all the senses, Janna. You are like getting everything, which is a lovely story all wrapped into it too. So that’s great. Very cool. So how did you get to here though? Like how did you went to college for art and business and social work, but how did you get to this custom, very niche focused were you always artistic as a kid like, how did you get here?
Janna: 7:30
It’s a magical story. So I had always done. Artsy things and I originally went away to school to be a poet. I have been writing since I was 5 and doing performing. I started performing when I was 12. And started doing poetry slams and stuff like that before I went away to college and I want a scholarship to for poetry. So I went there to do that.Then I saw that they had all these classes about paper, making and book binding.
And I had always had a journal and I collaged and would cut up magazines and, do vision boards and that kind of stuff. I was always using repurpose materials because we were broke and I had no art supplies and stuff like that. As soon as I saw that was a thing you could actually take classes in. I was like, what, mind blown got to take this, like doing that. So I took all those classes. And then when I met with my advisor at the end of that year, I said, these are all the classes I took. What major am I working toward?
And he goes, those are all electives. So nothing, and I was like, I was there on a scholarship and I was like like crap what am I supposed to do now? And he could have just said major in communications and called it a day, right? Like most of us would do but he didn’t and I thank him every single day. John Casey that he said, what do you want to do? And I was like, I want to be an artist, but I don’t want to be broke. How do I do that? And he’s the person that said, we have this major called integrative studies. You know what you want to do. He’s most people don’t even know by the time they’re 45, what they want to do, you’re 19, do it, spend your four years, figuring out how to sell art and do it.
So we did. And while I was in school, my first semester of my junior year, three years into the school year, my mom passed away on Friday the 13th. Which sucked and I was going to school 900 miles away. My brother and I inherited her house, but she had no will. And anyone who’s been in that situation get a will, okay. Get a will, do it for all the people around you.
Cause when you don’t have one, it makes everything so complicated because everyone still has to deal with all the stuff. But they have no money to do and so my brother and I were 20 and 23, 900 miles apart, inheriting this house and taking care of it, somehow trying to take care of it while we had no, no financing, no resources, no nothing. And then 4 months later, the day before the new semester was supposed to start for school, my dorm burnt to the ground.
Beverly: 9:46
Oh my gosh!
Janna: 9:48
While I was in it, on my mom’s birthday. The first birthday she would have had after she died. And I was like, seriously, like, where’s the cancer in the bus? It’s coming to hit me. Cause wait, this is my life now. Like what? And then they cut my financial aid for my senior year because I couldn’t put her on my FAFSA anymore. So all in the middle of this, I was trying to figure out. How I was going to wrap up my major. Like I knew I wanted to be an artist. I knew I wanted to use my creativity and I was still doing poetry, still doing music, making art, doing all these things.
I was like, how do I tie all these things together? And after all of that stuff happened like three days after the fire, I looked at my roommate and I was like, dude, all our crap burned up and I started laughing. She started laughing and we started rolling around the ground. After that, like it had to be funny at that point. I kept thinking, I don’t know if you’re like a woo numbers person, but many times since my mom passed away, she has shown up for me.
Physical tangible, very visual ways. And a lot of them revolve around numbers. And so I knew that have the fire happening on her birthday, where she would have turned 55, five is my lucky number. I was like, there is something this is happening to me for a reason, right? I don’t want to be everything happens for a reason people. Sometimes terrible things just happen and they’re terrible and there’s no good reason for that. But this was 1 of those things that I was like, there’s something I need to learn here. And 1, 1, 55 is too lucky. So there’s 1, me and everyone who was in this building, all these drunk college students at 4 o’clock in the morning, everyone got out alive and no, 1 was seriously injured, which, it’s just amazing.
So that’s obvious, but I was like, what’s the other lucky thing? And I just kept thinking like my mom. Was a total hoarder. Like we grew up in a very unpredictable house and she was also a chain smoker. And I was afraid that we would die every day of my life. I went away to college where it actually happened.
And I just, it just hit me like on that third day, I was like, she’s sending me a lesson that she didn’t learn when she was alive, that your stuff doesn’t matter. None of that stuff matters. Even the things that are super special and you think are really important. If they’re gone, you don’t need them. You don’t need them. And so in the middle of all this grief and trauma and, figuring out how to come back to life after so much of what feels like dying, I was like, what can I do, she would never want me to quit school. I have to figure it out.
She would be so mad if I gave up on my dream of being an artist because she gave up on her dream of being an artist and it didn’t make her feel any good. So I was like, you know what, I’m just going to do it. And I went into the art studio and I started making all of these artist books, which are a really special art form. Where the form and the design and the materials and the illustrations and the words and how you interact with it and what it sounds like when you open it and what it feels like when you interact with it all work together to make one bigger concept or a bigger idea.
And I was like, I’m going to start making all these artist books about my experience, about grief and trauma and love and having a completely different perspective on life than most people I was going on. And I didn’t realize at the time, but when you’re 20 years old in college, your measure of success is the things that you have. Cause you don’t have a house. You don’t, you don’t have a career. You haven’t established yourself anywhere, but you’re like, Oh, I have these nice things in my room. I set about doing these sort of show and tell events with this art that I was making to Tell people, Hey, wake up.
It’s amazing that you get to be alive right now. And I started doing these events and telling the story of these books and showing them to people. So many people would come up to me afterwards and be like, I had no idea that I was dealing with some stuff. I’m a different person than I was five minutes ago before I saw them.
Beverly: 13:57
That’s amazing.
Janna: 13:58
Like people, I would show them to people, and they would cry. Just knowing that making them healed me, but sharing them healed other people. I was like, I don’t care what I do for the rest of my life, but I want to do that. And I want to do that as often as possible and as intentionally as possible every single day. Cause you never know when you are doing something or saying something or having that conversation with someone that changes their life forever. They might never even tell you that happened.
So as long as you put it out there that. Not necessarily giving unsolicited advice for people, but, inspiring people as often as possible and working to change people’s perspectives and say, in the grand scheme of life, this is a small thing. Whatever that drama is at the office is a small thing. There are so many more things to be grateful for and to embrace as beautiful in the world. And that if you’re going to have stuff around you, it better be cool.
Beverly: 14:57
It better spark some joy.
Janna: 14:58
And so I started making a lot of like handmade books and things like that kind of. Art pieces that help people connect like that. And after I graduated I ended up, I had a business plan. When I graduated, I thought of a name for the business. I made a really crappy angel fire website, totally dating myself. You could not make a website where you could buy things in 2004. It was not possible. But I had a website, it had five pictures on it and they were this big.
But I had them and started building my internet presence. And I did that. I had a print, little tiny print catalog I made and some business cards and I graduated and I came back to Buffalo and I still had a house that was about to fall apart and needed to get a day job. But on the side, whenever I had time, I was still making art for people. And as my friends were getting married or having babies, I was making stuff for them’cause I was broke and I didn’t have any money to buy them a gift. But I knew I could make something that they would keep forever. And as I was making these invitations or making people a guest book or a photo album or whatever, people at those events would see it and say, wow, that’s really cool.
That’s really beautiful. Where’d you get it? And they would share the story of where they got it. And I started building up more clients like that. So mostly I did a lot of B2C type of stuff for a long time. I did some vendor events. Figured out where my audience is and where my audience is not which is really important for anyone who’s like trying to sell things, especially handmade things, like your people are not everywhere. If it’s in a church basement, my people are not there. If it’s in a VFW, my people are not there which is fine.
I just know not to go do those shows. So I did a little bit at a time like that and did it very much part time made a couple of grand a year enough for my accountant was like, yeah, you should start collecting sales tax. And you can eventually by 2013, I filed all the paperwork and did it right. But I had this business plan with the name paper craft miracles on my show. I still have it on my shelf now. And it had that name and I called it Papercraft Miracles cause it’s the miracle that saved me when I literally had nothing.
Beverly: 18:19
It’s a beautiful story. And I think it resonates with me very strongly because at 19, I was diagnosed with a very serious virus and my whole life changed. I was in college and when you’re 19, 20 years old, you think the whole world’s ahead of you and nothing could possibly hurt you. There’s such a naivete and trust in the world at that age. I think that you don’t really get the power of the moment. And I actually planned my own funeral because I thought I was going to die at 19 and I live life very differently from the people who have not had those experiences. They change a fundamental thread of who you are and how human you are and what matters to you. I did not have arts to get me through it, but I had writing.
Janna: 19:03
Still are,
Beverly: 19:03
and I think right. But I wasn’t a visual sharing of that. The writing I have slowly over the years shared different parts of it through the process. It definitely, it was, you’re going down a road and the road didn’t like just go, it went woo And you have to like re-figure out who you are in that, with that new knowledge, that new information that you have. Whether it’s trauma or grief or an awareness or all the things, and certainly resonates very strongly with me in the sense of definitely getting on a path of the things that matter and why it matters.
So very powerful story and storytelling is such a big part of branding and I love that your story who you are, where you’ve come from. I love that. What frustrates you or makes you angry about your industry? Like art, paper crafts, sustainability, like what is the thing that, that you, that you want to change? Cause I feel like you’re doing something very different. So what is the thing that you really want to change that makes you frustrated from?
Janna: 20:07
Initially the thing that made me most frustrated is that like back in 2004, and I was like, I want to make journals. I want to make stationery. I think writing letters to people is super special and important. And I had so many people say, Oh my God, you’re making books. You’re making journals. No, one’s going to write in a book ever again. Everyone’s going to be on live journal.
Beverly: 20:26
Yeah, I can see that.
Janna: 20:28
So I had a lot of like naysayers and stuff like that. And I just did it anyway.The live journal came and live journal went right. Then Facebook came and Instagram came and Twitter and all, like all the social media, and email and everything. Like we grew into this world where everything is so intangible and people spend so much more of their day indoors and not having face to face conversations with people. And, pre zoom, pre FaceTime, you weren’t even having that, right?
So it was all digital. And what happened? That huge swaths of people were like, why am I so depressed? Why does life suck? I so lonely? Everyone else’s life so great? And mine is terrible. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I just noticed how different the world was than what and no one had a cell phone. And we sat around in dorm rooms, and we sat around campfires, and we sat in the woods, and we talked. We had deep conversations.
Painful conversations about life and our place in the world. And all of a sudden people weren’t doing that. Everything was like likes on a picture or only showing the best parts of your life on your social media and putting a filter on yourself and hiding all your scars and pretending everything is great all the time. And what happens people see it and other people who everything isn’t great all the time. They feel terrible. You feel terrible because you see somebody else’s beautiful pictures and their bed where all their sheets are white. No one’s sheets are white. Okay. No one’s sheets are white. Remember these things.
Okay. So I really get frustrated with people who only show the best parts on social media. And I started doing a lot of the things that I’m doing now to combat that, to help people learn. How to have conversations again, how to talk about stories, how to tell their story and feel like they matter, that their story is important, that the things they have to share and the ways they can connect with people can change the world.
Beverly: 22:39
And that life isn’t so sanitized. Like it’s not, it’s rich and deep and messy and it’s okay. One of the things that I really valued Janna when you’re talking about is you leaned into the pain, the grief, the, you didn’t oh, I just have to make it better. You’re like, how do I get process this work through this? And what am I going to learn from this? And I think that is such a powerful form of resilience that so many people don’t understand or try to do. They just try to sanitize everything. And I think that’s an unfortunate byproduct of a very digital space. But yes, I agree with you. Like it’s rich and wonderful and all of its messiness and glory. It’s glorious. So yes.
Janna: 23:20
Yeah. I’m definitely not knocking social media. Social media is great. It has allowed me to connect with people all over the world and market my business for free, which is amazing. Seeing as I am a mompreneur and I have three small kids now. But Rewinding a little bit as to, like, when I really started doing what I’m doing now after I had my 1st son, my husband, I had bought this commercial building where we live. We live upstairs and we had commercial tenants downstairs and we had a huge mortgage.
That was terrifying. And a commercial building, I don’t know if anyone knows this when you buy commercial property, especially in New York state. Anyway, not only do you have to put 20 percent down in cash, but you need to pay that mortgage in 5 years. We bought our house and we had to pay it off in five years. Two years into it I got pregnant with our first son and the job where I was working, because I still had a day job and, pay the mortgage. Where the job where I was working said, you have to either come back full time after your leave or figure something else out. And I was like you don’t pay me enough to cover healthcare and daycare.
If I come back full time, I will pay someone else to raise my kid and come home with negative dollars. That’s not worth it for me. So I guess I’m going to figure something else out. And I was terrified because I had been an independent, taking care of myself person since I was 20 years old. I owned a home and took care of it and hired contractors and paid homeowners insurance and all that kind of stuff. And taxes since I was 20 years old. Quitting my job.
Also having this huge mortgage and now also having the expense of having a kid was really terrifying for me. And my husband said, because he’s amazing, he was like. He’s we’ll figure it out. Just stay home and do your book thing. That’s what he said in quote, do your book thing. Because at the time I was really still just making books and journals and stuff like that, because I didn’t have a lot of equipment. I didn’t have a big studio.
My, my office was one of the bedrooms in our house. And I quit the job and immediately, all the money I’d ever made in my business, I put in a bank account and used it to buy supplies. I never took money out because I didn’t have to, I had another job. And I was like, I’ll just bank this because someday I’m going to buy all this equipment. Someday I’m going to do this. Someday I’m going to do that. Got to put it out there, manifest that stuff. And I quit the job. I hired a friend of mine, a fellow mama to help me rebrand the company. Got a new logo. She showed me how to use Squarespace. And I finally got to build a website where people could buy things.
And I started building up my social media while I was at home with a baby and I wasn’t trying to sugarcoat any of it. I was like, this is my journey of quitting my job and trying to really do it for real. This dream I’ve had my whole life has been on hold for so many years while I had to adult when I didn’t want to adult. I posted all about this is the struggle of being a mom and trying to build a company. This is the struggle of how do I find time to teach my kid how to use a spoon?
How do I find time to clean my house and also grow a business and work on projects for clients? And how do I meet with the clients in a professional setting when I have goldfish crackers ground into the carpet in my office? Like, how do I do that?
And I was posting pictures and stories. This is all before you could do a lot of video on Instagram way back in like 2016. And I just started growing my Instagram by doing that. And there were so many other creatives who followed me and were like, if she’s doing it with a little baby on the floor, I could do it. I could do it. I could do it. And just seeing so many other artists just like spring up and teaching them things about how to run a business. Because I knew a lot about business stuff that other artists didn’t know.
Because nobody teaches artists that stuff. They just don’t. They don’t have those classes. I looked. Little by little, I was like building that up and I would sign up for, education programs. I did this artists as entrepreneur bootcamp and learned more and built up my website and just little, a little bit at a time. And I had a whole Pinterest board of business tips and I would go on there in the middle of the night when I was nursing my baby and trying not to fall asleep. And I would research, how do you grow your Instagram?
How do Build up an email list. How do you do these things? And I just implemented as many of those things as I could. I tried tons of stuff that didn’t work. And just kept working on it a little bit at a time. And then two months after I quit my job, I was up on Instagram in the night and I searched hashtag papermaking. So I was always looking for what other papermakers were doing. Cause I’d been wanting to have a papermaking studio since before I graduated college. I was like, I want to do this. Part of the reason we bought the building we bought is because it had a space where someday I could do that in the space, even though I had no equipment, no, nothing. It was like, this space was there. It was just waiting and I searched for it.
And I saw somebody’s post that said, paper, making equipment available with the email address. It was like, 3 o’clock in the morning, and I emailed them and I said, I’ve been trying to start a studio forever. What you got? And they sent me back the list. They must also been up at three o’clock in the morning, sent me the list. And I had to have a list of all the equipment that I was planning to buy someday when I had enough money, it was like 30, 000 worth of equipment. I had this list tacked up on a bulletin board over my desk for 12 years.
Beverly: 28:42
Wow.
Janna: 28:43
Every single thing I had on my list was on their list plus a whole bunch of other stuff. It was really cheap. And since I had a bunch of money in my business bank account, even though it was terrifying to have no money and to make this big purchase when we have this huge mortgage, I took that risk and I said, would you take five grand for all of it? They said, yes, we’re in Indiana and I’m in Buffalo, which is pretty far from Indiana. This is not like a, put it in the mail and ship it to me. This is like a truck full of stuff.
Beverly: 29:14
Yeah. You have to go get it like rental truck and go get it. Yes.
Janna: 29:18
And so I immediately, I’m like kicking my husband in the middle of the night. I’m like, babe, wake up. And he’s what is the baby? Okay. I’m like, the baby’s fine. I found paper making equipment. And he’s do I need to know this right now? Yes, you do. You do. This is amazing. So long story short, it made more sense for him to take two days off work. He flew to Indiana. Rented a truck. Loaded it up and he brought it back. Brought it and brought it all into the basement. He installed the sinks so that I could make paper. And I said, take this baby. I’m going to go make paper. Okay.
Beverly: 29:46
Oh,
Janna: 29:47
and I made so many batches of paper that first couple of months I made all the stuff for my best friend’s wedding, which was a huge launch for me. Cause you know her family was a lot of people who could afford my services. And they all got to see all the stuff that I made. She made me put my logo on the back of her stuff and put up signs all over her wedding that I made them. Cause she’s the sweetest. I would normally never do that. But.
Things like that. It just launched it. Then I was going to all these regular vendor events, but all of a sudden I had all this paper and stationary and a lot of paper makers make paper that looks like it came outta the ground. And I make paper that looks like it came from outer space. People were like, what is this?
I didn’t even know this was a thing. I don’t even know what I want to do with it, but I just want to buy it and have it and put it in a drawer and look at it. So over the years I have refined the things that we offer, but in general, all the new things that I started making. We’re because a client came to me and said, Hey, I have this idea. Or I saw this thing, is this something you could do, or could you do this better than somebody else’s doing it?
And I ended up adding paper flowers. Cause somebody said, can you make paper flowers? I’m like, yeah, I could probably make paper flowers. I started making them and now it’s 30 percent of our revenue is paper flowers. And I got better at it than a lot of people and that type of thing. And then people said, Hey, can you make seed bombs, which are recycled paper embedded with seeds, you dip them in water and plant them in a grove. Most people make them and they look like little lumps. They’re not cute, whatever. I was like, that’s a good idea, but we can do that better. Now we’re like the leading source of any type of custom seed bombs. Not only are they great for the environment, but what a great. Icebreaker.
For anybody, right? Like business or otherwise, but we have tons, like metric tons of like corporate clients now who buy custom seed bombs, shaped in their logo or in their logo colors with full packaging. And when they hand that out, if they’re at a vendor event or they’re out somewhere and they’re giving something out instead of a business card, they hand that out, instant conversation.
The person they give it to is like, what is this thing? I love the story. They get to open it up and say, Oh my God get this. This is what they do. But we had them custom made just for us. And we even make them, sometimes we have clients who have shredded office paper that they want to get rid of and I’m like bring it to us We’ll make your favors out of it. You can say these are made from our waste material.
Beverly: 32:16
That’s cool
Janna: 32:17
We want to keep this out of a landfill Like we want to make this have another life before it gets thrown away before it gets put in the ground We want to have people plant a garden and then every time it blooms and say I know who I got those from and they Think of you all the time So they got another koozie. No one wants
Beverly: 32:36
nobody wants a koozie. Please don’t do koozies. And that’s just landfill. That is just literally landfill
Janna: 32:42
signs at a wedding. Don’t. Like you were like, what makes you really mad? People who want those like nine foot tall acrylic seating charts. That are like 9 feet by 15 feet to tell people where to sit at a wedding on a gigantic piece of non biodegradable, hella expensive, very heavy, space consuming plastic. Don’t buy those anymore. Please. Can we get Can we just get like the trend and not go there anymore? No acrylic at weddings. Zero.
Beverly: 33:13
Anyway. So your customers tend to drive your products, it sounds oh yeah. What they’re wanting or what they’re seeing around. Do you have, do you see any other trends or things that are emerging in the paper craft market?
Janna: 33:26
Plantable paper for sure is majorly on the upswing and we’ve made plantable paper for ages. My wedding invitations were made on plantable paper in 2011. I’ve been doing it for ages. And we have been working really hard on increasing our tech capabilities to be able to print in house on any of the papers that we make. Yes, we have arrived at that zone. In mass, because we were getting these requests from huge companies.
They’re like, can you make 50, 000 quantity of this insert card to go with our new eco friendly sweatshirt or whatever. And I was like yeah, but like you got a year cause I got to pay someone to stand at the printer and put one sheet at a time in the printer. I’m like, or you’ve got to letter press them, which is really labor intensive and expensive. So I was like, we got to figure out a way to bring the cost down on this because this is what people want. Like we got to figure this out.
So we’ve been doing a lot of stuff with plantable paper and working with a lot of different companies and using it for product packaging, using it for insert cards, labels, tags, all those kinds of things where you normally would have a piece of paper or a piece of plastic or non recyclable glossy paper, what can we do to interrupt that space and to make that a storytelling capability, right? There’s an opportunity to tell a story when. You take the label off something, and you could feel that it’s not your regular piece of paper and it has a little thing on it. Hey, did, this is where this came from. And it tells the story, so we’ve been doing that kind of stuff.
Lots of seed bombs, lots of things that are plantable. Anything that is made entirely sustainable, ideally. Low to minimal packaging if there is packaging that it’s recyclable or compostable, ideally home compostable, which hopefully the industry goes further in that direction. So people can actually compost them at home and don’t have to pay someone to come pick up their things that are compostable, but need to be in a machine facility. Just in general reusing repurposing upcycling, it’s huge. Any way that you can do it. It’s huge. We’ve been seeing that.
Beverly: 35:28
I can see that. I can see that for sure. Our old real estate agent, she just sent us a card and it was just a packet of seeds, like generic packet of seeds. Like what a difference it would have been to have a very customized personable Seed bomb that had been made what a difference in a story and a brand experience for that. I can see just elevating everything a little bit. And the story that it tells isn’t just about the brand, but that you care about the earth and the sustainability and growing and all of that, which is very cool. I have a section called the lightning round. Where we get into your favorite business insights, tools, things that inspire you and all about it.
Janna: 36:10
What’s your favorite way to connect and network? Oh, in person. If I can do it in person all day. Oh, is there like a
Beverly: 36:18
specific like coffee shops or like network, networking events, or like doing public speaking? Is there a specific type of in person that matters to you?
Janna: 36:26
If I’m going to say what is the best bang for your buck? Networking organization, NAWBO, National Association of Women Business Owners. Sign yourself up, get in a chapter. If you’re not in your chapter, sign up as a virtual member. Hands down is the best money I’ve ever spent in my business.
It’s empowerment, it’s training. It’s a sisterhood. People who have your back, who will mention your name when you’re not in the room. Nationwide, every event I’ve gone to is, it’s just the same, it’s the same type of people who like all networking is not created equal, right? Like everyone who’s in a business has gone to a networking event. You walk in the door and you’re like, all these people want something from me. They all want to give me their card so I can give them. Hate it, right? So not genuine, it’s not genuine at all. And it’s forced. It was like, what if I don’t know anyone who needs life insurance right
Beverly: 37:17
now? Yeah.
Janna: 37:19
Maybe I’d mentioned your name, but who are you as a person? What do you care about? Like, how do I get to know you? And if I know you as a person, maybe I will refer my friends and family to do business with you. Not just going to take your card and remember it forever. That doesn’t work. Yeah. But every single time I’ve gone to a NAWBO event, I walk in the door and I get that feeling like all these people genuinely want me to succeed.
Beverly: 37:43
What is your favorite business or marketing book?
Janna: 37:48
It’s not really a business or a marketing book, but the Enneagram this book right here this book right here, the wisdom of the Enneagram finding out your Enneagram type and learning to recognize. Like what type other people might be is hands down the best way to learn how to work and connect with other people that I’ve found anyway, knowing like how you interact and how you act when you’re in a healthy place how you respond and how you react when you’re not in a healthy place.
And just because I love tons of cheerleadering and things like that works really well for me, knowing that doesn’t work well for someone like my husband, who’s a completely different type. Really helps us to be able to work together better. And being able to recognize that, cause I’ll, one thing that’s that I take me forever to learn about marketing is that whatever story you’re telling, whatever you’re posting, whatever you’re offering, it’s not for you. It’s for them. It’s for your customer. Yes. So you need to learn how to, like always, they always say, the golden rule is treat people how you want to be treated, not treat people. How they want to be treated.
Beverly: 38:56
Amen.
Janna: 38:58
That is the secret to marketing is figuring out how somebody’s, how does somebody speak, what kind of language do they use, what kind of things. Draw them in and what kind of things make them feel good and help them open up. And that’s how you reach people.
Beverly: 39:13
Very powerful. So you have a podcast, but what’s your favorite podcast to listen to?
Janna: 39:19
I can’t, I was thinking about this earlier because I was reading your questions. I was like, I can’t think of just one that I love more than anything else. But I’m going to say a couple. One, how I built this with Guy Raz. Oh my God. Yes. He’s the best. I love those shows. It is so inspiring for me to learn. About all the trials and tribulations and things that these people were super successful were like I first did this and it was a total fail. And then I kept going. I love that. And there’s always so many golden nuggets on there. Lately my new fav is lead like a woman, Andrea Houston’s podcast. Definitely check that out. It is amazing. I also really I like armchair expert with Dax Shepard. That’s a great one. It’s fun.
Beverly: 40:07
What is your favorite business tool or app that you use every single day and could not live without?
Janna: 40:15
How do I have one? Oh, I can’t pick one. I would say the thing that saves me the most amount of time is acuity scheduling. Everybody loves them some Calendly, but I don’t I think acuity scheduling is amazing and ability to be easy for people to understand.
You could set all these different forms so people can, depending on what type appointment they’re booking, they can pay a deposit, they can fill out a form, it saves all the information, it’s really easy to do that, integrates with Squarespace, it’s great. Other than that, I use Zoho One for CRM, email marketing, all the other things. If I didn’t love Acuity so much, I would use their booking too, but I love it. So yeah having a good business, Organizational suite of apps like that, that makes everything super easy and they all play nice together.
That is the key. I’m just getting into that. And then as a maker, like the one app program that I could not live without is called crafty base. And it’s inventory management software that is for ideally, it’s made for people who make things by hand and you can enter all your materials, all your products, all your recipes. It syncs to all your sales channels. It pulls your orders in automatically. You track, say I made a hundred of these. It adds them to your inventory as you sell them. It pulls them from your inventory.
Do reports. It’s amazing. You can track where your consignment sales are located in different people’s stores. And as you get checks for them, you could check it off. Anytime where all your stuff is and how much to the penny it costs you to make things in parts and labor. Very helpful for a business. Hundreds and hundreds of hours worth of time. But yeah, those are my top couples
Beverly: 41:49
So this question was not on the preview list. So if we need to take a minute You can but if your business was an animal What would it be and why?
Janna: 42:01
A koala.
Beverly: 42:03
Why?
Janna: 42:06
Because It’s rare and it’s so cute and sweet and they make stress go away and they just are, it’s just so cute. But they also have like sharp claws and could like really cut you if needed to be, but mostly they, it just it hangs out and it’s sweet and it makes you feel good.
Beverly: 42:26
What’s your favorite marketing tactic? Okay.
Janna: 42:30
Think it’s really a tactic, but just being really authentic and genuine, being real with people getting my face in front of the camera, talking to people. Telling a story, showing and telling, show and tell, show and tell. I will say that, show and tell.
Beverly: 42:46
It goes back to first grade basics,
Janna: 42:48
Like you don’t want your marketing to look or feel like an ad. I heard the episode of how I built this with Gary V, right? Everybody knows what Gary V is.
Beverly: 42:57
Oh, I love Gary V. Yes.
Janna: 42:59
Marketing, right? So that, there was two episodes where Guy Raz was talking to Gary V and one of them, he was talking about. Kind of like guerrilla marketing where you don’t want your marketing to interrupt what someone is doing. You want your marketing to be the thing that they pay attention to. So you don’t want it to look and feel like an ad. You want it to be something that people feel like they have a part of, or that is entertaining for them, like not just entertaining cause it’s funny, but you want it to go with the flow and of what they’re already interested in.
Beverly: 43:35
Who or what is your biggest source of inspiration?
Janna: 43:40
For most of my life it was my mom. The first day of kindergarten, I was already writing in cursive and writing poems and stuff like that. And I, even though I went to the Gifted and talented school, like the first thing they had us do was color a dinosaur. And I came home and I was like, mom, kindergarten is boring. That’s so boring. And she said to me, do it because you can not,’cause anyone’s gonna make you if you’re bored, you’re not trying hard enough.
I think about that a lot where it’s am I able, is this something I’m able to do? Can I do it? Something is really boring to me, how can I make it interesting? How can I change gamify whatever I’m doing. So for years and years, that was like my number one source of inspiration. And now I think it’s a toss up between my dad and my daughter. My dad was brilliant. World changing scientists. He just passed away right after Christmas. We weren’t super close, but I just knew the ways that he dedicated himself to the things that he was passionate about in his career. He literally changed the face of science forever and the ways that he came up with new discoveries.
And then he created all these different tools to be able to continue the study and help other people figure out how to use the data and the research that he was coming up with for other purposes. Scientifically he changed the world and I, look at his resume and I’m like, that’s a lot to live up to. And there’s days when I think about how I didn’t see him very often because he was always at work, where I know that there’s part of that in me, there is part of that drive. To be at work 19 hours a day and change the world and do the things.
But, if you only do that, then your kids only remember you as the parent that was that work. While I do believe that leaving a legacy with your work is also important, making sure that your kids know you enough to know why you were doing that is also important. I have 3 kids, but my daughter was our she’s our surprise baby. I like to say that some of the best gardens aren’t planned. She showed up at a time where I was really struggling to find contentment and to not try to run away. She’s a Covid baby.
So I was like, oh, my God, I got to get out of here. Not that it wasn’t fulfilling, but it was just like, life is so short and I need to do all the things and I need to do them all right now.
And she showed up to be like you are going to lie down on the couch. You are not going to go and add things to your plate right now, you’re going to confront those things that you’re hiding from. You are going to sit with those feelings that are hard and you’re going to confront them. And she made me slow down.
And to, I didn’t think I was going to have another baby. So all of those little baby things that I had rushed through with my, especially my second kid I was so focused on my business and focused on everything else and very overwhelmed with being a work at home mom and trying to do it all by myself, that I missed a lot of those things with him, and so I purposely I, I took maternity leave and my staff ran my business without me.
For 3 months, I live upstairs, so I was around, but I wasn’t managing everything. I was hanging out with my baby every day and. Every morning I get up and I’m now doing exercise and she comes out and she’s I can see her like try to sit next to me, like trying to do the exercise. She’s two years old. And I was like, baby, I did it. I did it. I did the exercise. And she goes, yay, mom. And just knowing that I have the power to shape how she sees the world..
Beverly: 47:37
The idea of your children cheering you on. My son is my biggest fan. I won an award and he wanted to take the award to school with him and show his classmates. I think it’s very humbling and very centering when you have a child. And you share your achievements with them and what that looks like for them in their world. Because they’re so free to give you the love and the support that it’s really beautiful. So I can definitely relate to that. If you could give 18 year old Janna some advice, what advice would you give her?
Janna: 48:08
Don’t try to free prisoners who are in love with their chains. But I would have accomplished a lot more in my life had I not wasted time on trying to help someone who wasn’t ready to be helped or didn’t want help or didn’t need help. Or wasn’t benefiting them to help. And if I had spent all that time on helping myself and putting myself out there more than I even was and honestly, not giving a crap about dudes, like not focusing my life on any dudes at that point would have been way better. I would have been in a way better place if I had been desensitized to the dramatics of relationships way earlier in my life.
Beverly: 48:53
And, I, a part of me agrees with you. Part of me thinks that those experiences also help shape who I am, too. So that was like a necessary process, Kissed a lot of frogs to get to where I am. And the frogs actually helped me determine who I wanted to be with. There is a distraction for sure, because you are not investing in yourself. But I also think that, love and romantic relationships. Maybe I’m a romantic. I think all of that is needed to in this world.
Janna: 49:15
Yeah, it’s definitely needed. I think it’s more funny, a friend told me once that when you’re looking for a partner, expect the best and accept nothing less. And it’s not saying expect someone that’s perfect, but know that you deserve. Someone who’s better than you think,
Beverly: 49:36
You’ve shared some great stories. But before we go, please share with our listeners where they can learn more about you, your projects. Thank you.
Janna: 49:42
So the easiest way to find me is on my website. It’s just papercraftmiracles. com super easy. I’m also at papercraftmiracles on Facebook and Instagram. And tick tock, but I’m not on there very often. It sucks me in. And my podcast is called reach the stars podcast. And you can listen to it on all the major podcast networks and you can find it in the media tab on my website, on your podcast. It has all videos of everything and audio of everything. We have almost 60 episodes at this point and not stopping anytime soon, but it’s a collection of conversations with cool people who do cool things.
Beverly: 50:17
That’s exciting. Thank you so much for sharing with us today. As we conclude the episode, I just want to thank you, Janna, for sharing your wealth of knowledge, and expertise in sustainable creativity, let’s take a moment to reflect on the power of passion, creativity and sustainability in your business. And let’s carry the inspiration forward as we continue on our own entrepreneurial journeys and our own paths. Stay tuned for more inspiring conversations and actionable tips to ignite your marketing and your business journey on future episodes of the Spark and Ignite Your Marketing Podcast. And until next time, keep sparking and igniting.
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