Since meeting at the Society of Creative Founders conference in 2018 (I’ve got a blog post for that!), I really found who I call “My Paper People”.
They are my tribe.
And this week, I welcomed my tribe to Ocean City, Maryland for what was our first of hopefully more immersion retreats!
Wait, a what?
It’s ok, we didn’t realize that something like this had a name too. I’ve kind of just always called it “working together”, in person, in depth. We more thoroughly understood the concept when Kat Schmoyer of Creative at Heart shared her experience of “immersing” herself in her business with like-minded entrepreneurs, and you can read about that, here.
An immersion retreat is not about goal setting, organization workshops, sharing big dreams, or break-out sessions often held at conferences.
It is the opposite.
It is the chance to fully immerse yourself in your business here and now in order to clean it up and make it better than it has been before. When your tribe joins you, you also get the perks of accessibility to colleagues to problem solve, collaborate, and optimize workflows of your small business.
Painting the Picture -
Before the retreat, we talked for MONTHS about a small checklist of things we wanted to accomplish together, and a much larger list with individual business tasks that needed to get done without typical life distractions. This list came with us, and we checked it off one by one.
Between Heather, Laura and I, we have nearly SIX businesses, THIRTEEN kiddos, and “all the things” to be involved with at home. Accomplishing the tasks on our lists would have been so much more drawn out in time if we had not had the chance to get together (stay with me here).
The most important thing to keep in mind when participating in an immersion retreat is to not get distracted. Now if you followed my instagram stories, you may have seen what was a lot of distractions but the bayside dinners, boardwalk trips and the 1.5 hour sunset cruise was truly just a work break. Most days, we stayed shacked up in a single spot. We would watch the sun rise and set with our laptops in our laps, rather than kiddos.
What tangible evidence shows this?
In just three days, I:
Completely updated JesSmith Designs. I gutted what I am no longer offering, updated SEO, included updated pictures (it’s been since 2019 ya’ll!) and… ready for this? WROTE THIS BLOG POST which has also been since 2019. I even started a second one!
I scheduled all my social media posts for JSD in the month of September.
I completely built the back end of Script and Grains website and have ALL of our current product options ready to go. Due to technical glitches on the website host, the only thing I have left is cosmetics. But I am confident that we will stick to our launch date timeline of October 1st because I had the time!
I created REELS for S+G on Instagram, in case that really is the new “algorithm” thing. And the latest one makes me cry.
I took a “break” by sending out two bridal proofs to current clients.
Organized email
Am completely up to date on book keeping.
I would say that if hours were tracked, our working hours were close to a full time week in just three and a half days together.
Tying things up
So whats next? I am partly writing this blog as a reflection in order to digest what we accomplished. Something about just laying it out and seeing tasks completed is just oh-so-satisfying. But before we go, we are talking about our “what’s next” together, potential collabs, and making a list to take home of tasks to keep the ball rolling. More than anything, our little group chat will be our small space for accountability.
But you met with other designers?
Sure did, and I am so thankful for this! By title, we are all “stationery designers” but we are also oh-so different. Laura manages selling her printed products primarily on ETSY and is now launching a digital-download version, all of which she laid the foundation for here. Heather not only designs semi-custom wedding invitation suites, but she is also an educator to other stationery designers on how to successfully run their businesses.
We have the same love and passions, but in different ways.
We speak the same language, share ideas, and can work together knowing that we are just better together with strength in numbers.
