Art of Reinvention: First Words, First Steps 👣

IN THIS ISSUE

Rewind/on my mind: celebrating a year of firsts + real talk on reinvention

What’s in store: pick-your-favorite journal GIVEAWAY!

Poem for the road: for my Wild Honey collectors

_{Terms and Conditions: No entry form needed. For this drawing, an individual can be entered multiple times—once for every Wild Honey Words order they have placed. A single winner will be selected at random and notified via email the first week of January 2024. One of the two Wild Honey Words tote bags pictured above (winner’s choice) will be given to the winner free of charge, shipping included. Bag must be claimed by January 31, 2024 by replying to winner notification email with product selection and shipping address.}

A lot of entrepreneurial stories start at a kitchen table; mine starts under the dining room table, when I’m about eight years old.

I sprawl on the floor for hours, poring over mail-order catalogs. Weirdly obsessed with a gourmet breakfast gift basket company my mother never orders from, I drool over luscious spreads of honey-drizzled English muffins. Another favorite catalog offers a potpourri of products—artsy earrings, quote plaques, wind chimes, colorful dresses. Catalogs capture my imagination: to me, they’re illustrated story collections.

Before long, I open The Cozy Cottage Shop, a pop-up shop in my bedroom. On Sunday afternoons, my parents and siblings come through to look at the wares I’ve laid out on my bedspread, mostly trinkets and found objects, with prices noted on tiny scraps of paper (1 or 2 cents each).

One summer, I give my mom an elaborate birthday present: a handmade gift catalog called Bouquet of Wishes, from which she can select items custom-crafted by yours truly—one order per month for a full year. 

In fourth grade, when I’m introduced to a book of poems about colors, I fall in love with poetry and decide to be a poet when I grow up. (When you know, you know.)

Despite being painfully shy, I join the Young Writers Club at the public library and sign up to perform in intergenerational poetry slams twice a year. I start a journal outlining a vision of owning an artsy coffee shop that sells my books and cards and features a Magnetic Poetry wall and an open-mic space.

At age 11, I start designing greeting cards and coordinating envelopes and hang out my shingle: Young Wisdom, “cards with a purpose.” I purchase a carbon copy receipt pad and feel so legit fulfilling mail orders from relatives and hand-selling cards to friends at school. 

…And I soon learn that selling handmade cards for $1.00 to $2.50 doesn’t earn me much as a maker, given the time it takes to create each one. I experiment with small batch assembly and color copying and dream of having my card designs reproduced commercially for wider distribution.

In high school, I expand into accessories and start selling snap hair clips embellished with nail polish, painted stripes or clouds, and star sequins. I also start creating under a new name, Lighthouse Cards. 

Fast-forward 20 years. Armed with a Creative Writing degree and years of experience freelance writing, pairing words and images in the book publishing industry, and serving on retail’s front lines, I reemerge as a poetry-meets-art boutique owner.

The end is another beginning. I announce the official launch of my online gift shop, Wild Honey Words, at the tail end of 2022. (I’ve been to known to ride a metaphor one stop too far, and my opening day post stirs up a little confusion. Just to be clear, my business = my baby, and she’s an only child.)

When I share with my friend Cynthia the prequel to founding Wild Honey Words, she exclaims, “Emily, it’s you come true!” I couldn’t have said it better.

(Btw, I’m still planning to return to my roots… While manufacturing issues have delayed their release, Wild Honey Words greeting cards are coming in 2024!)

REAL TALK: Reinvention + My Age in Boss Years

Fun Fact: Every day, our bodies replace about 330 billion cells. Living is an ongoing renewal process. I can see now that I am who I’ve always been—AND I’m an entirely different person than I was one, two, three, nearly four decades ago.

If I’m parenting a one-year-old business, does that make me one year old in parent/boss years? Creating and learning new things sure feels like being one all over again. It’s exciting and frustrating, everything in reach and out of reach at the same time.

When we start out small, it can seem like everything is easier for the giants towering above us. Maybe you’ve wondered, as I have, How did they get to be so big, so confident?

As humans, we move through dozens of micro-yet-momentous developmental stages before taking our first steps or successfully communicating our first words. Many of those moments are unseen.

It’s been a year of countless firsts. Here are a few of the more tangible milestones in my journey as a creative entrepreneur.

YEAR IN REVIEW: 5 Highlights of 2023

1. Debuted poems and talked about creativity, entrepreneurship, and being human with Rattle magazine editor Timothy Green on Rattlecast (my first podcast feature).

2. Added a communal playground page to my Wild Honey Words website that features free, original writing and art prompts (aka Creative Jumpstarts) for the creatively curious.

3. Relaunched and upgraded my flip-phone-era newsletter, reimagined as Wild Honey Wordbuzz—expanding to share more facets of the creative entrepreneur I am today, in a more interactive format. Poetry and prose reflections, visual art and ideas, peeks into my process, and of course, offerings from my gift shop, Wild Honey Words. 10 issues and counting…

4. Gathered inspiration and traded ideas while visiting with two of my longtime supporters: on a sister trip up the coast of California and in Massachusetts with my dear friend (since first grade) Stacey, a fellow artistic entrepreneur and co-owner of State of Serenity Gifts.

5. Introduced 30 new items at Wild Honey Words.

Big love and deep gratitude to all my Wild Honey collectors out there! Thank you from the bottom of my honey jar for reading and listening, sharing, subscribing, ordering from my shop, and letting me know which words resonate with you most. Your engagement and support mean so much to me.

As I—and Wild Honey Words, and my creative career—continue to grow and change, I hope I never outgrow my sense of wonder over fireworks, fireflies, and every size of miracle in between.

As I blow out the candles, my not-so-secret birthday wish is that we can be gentle with ourselves and with each other as we transition into 2024. May our first words be words of genuine kindness, gratitude, and connection. May our first steps be brave steps, however small. May we honor every inch of progress.

On words and upwards,

P.S. Want the Wordbuzz delivered?

Looking Forward:

» What’s one step you want to take in the new year towards a dream, goal, or aspiration of yours?

» How will you celebrate your progress?