Reclaim Your Joy :: A Spotlight 31 Interview with Paige Yelle
It’s time for the May edition of Spotlight 31!!
Over the last year (or few!), I’ve had the chance to get to know some pretty amazing women. These are everyday moms like you and me, moms who are trying to keep their families first and serve the Lord in the small things. They also have developed ministries, small businesses, or blogs that share their heart for the Lord and provide other moms with resources that simplify life, encourage hearts, or serve as tools for raising kids today.
I am so grateful to know these women, and I really wanted to find a way to connect you with them too. Not just on a product level (though I DO love their products!), but on a mom level. A regular woman level.
The thing I love about each of these women is how real they are. How dedicated to serving the Lord they are. And how fiercely they fight to keep their families first. They are inspirational to me, and I know they will be to you too!!
So, about once a month or so, I “spotlight” one of these women, and share an interview with them that will hopefully inspire and encourage you, both in your role as a wife and mom, and maybe in that dream that you’re keeping quiet in a corner of your heart!
Today, we’re introducing my friend Paige Yelle. I met Paige a few months ago in North Carolina, at the Making Things Happen Conference. She is the sweetest southern girl I’ve ever met, and I so enjoyed getting to know her! And believe me, you will too!
Paige is the owner of Little Journal Company, and has created The Little Gratitude Journal. But it’s not your average gratitude journal – it’s full of fun things to do, like coloring, learning to draw, and more! The whole idea behind this little book is to get your eyes off your phone, and remember the simple things that bless you & make life fun. I love this idea, and Paige’s heart for women!!
So, today I’m going to step back and let you hear from Paige. I know her words and her heart will inspire and encourage you!!
Tell us about who you are, a little about your family, and what you do as a business.
Hello! I’m Paige Yelle and I am married to my sweetheart, Tony, and we have 2 little girls, Allison and Sarah. They were born 15 months a part to the day….. I’ll let that soak in a minute. We live in Tulsa, OK and enjoy lots of outdoor adventures and traveling.
Because I didn’t venture out to shop much with my children when they were babies, I became an avid online shopper and that probably contributed to my future online business development. I own Little Journal Company and I created My Little Gratitude Journal in the Fall of 2015.
Think back to when you got started… What problem were you trying to solve? What inspired you to create the business that you’ve built? Is that still your mission? If not, how has it changed?
I printed and sold my first gratitude journal last November, 2015. What started as just a thought over 2 years ago, became real when my husband challenged me to *finally* make that journal idea a reality and do it in 8 weeks. Well, I did it!
The problem I wanted to solve was the fact that I saw so many people (whole families) looking down at their phones instead of living life, even while their most precious people were mere inches from them. I saw this played out multiple times at restaurants and parks and coffee shops. I began to wonder if they just didn’t know what to talk about or forgot what interested themselves in the first place. I had already realized, after becoming glued to my own screens, that I had lost touch with what truly made me happy most of the time. I mean, I could see fantastic staged photos everywhere I looked, and online I could see all sorts of things that I really couldn’t measure up to a lot of the time. It wasn’t so surprising that it was becoming difficult for the little things in life to keep my attention.
My Little Gratitude Journal was made for everyone. It’s a little book that holds places to record gratitude in an undated format and also includes activities and questionnaires to help you reconnect with yourself and your interests. The main goal is to help one FOCUS on the abundance in your life instead of what is lacking.
It’s turned into a beautiful thing with the release of this little book. It is available in 8 different cover choices to suit many personalities! So far, the gold dots and mosaic cover are the most popular!
*In June, we will release several new cover choices and a special masculine version nicknamed the DUDE Edition.
What is is one thing that sets you apart? How do you do things differently from other similar businesses?
I’m a one woman show. I do not have help with ideas, marketing, or distribution. Because of this, I don’t have all the systems figured out and all the social media things perfect and that is okay. I set up my own sales, market them, and distribute right from my home office, which is usually filled with 2 puppy dogs and 2 little girls.
I do, however, hire the assistance of a graphic designer who helps with all the technical stuff of which I do not know how to do. Believe it or not, this one thing put me behind so many times with starting. I thought because I didn’t know how to do the design part, I couldn’t make my book! Asking others and burying that fear was the answer.
So many times, I hear women wondering how someone else “does it all”. That’s always an illusion though! No one does it all. So, let’s break down your work week. How much time would you say you spend, on average, working each week? How do you make this happen? (Are your kids in school, do you bring on a nanny, does your husband help, etc.?)
Oh, this is always tricky for me. Let me first say that I need a real fast from social media, mainly Facebook!! Haha! I kid, because I do have a business page there and I enjoy seeing the “goings on” of my friends back home, but truly it is a time waster. (Side note: I felt such relief when I was at MTH and put my phone away for 2 days, whew!) I wrote a book on putting the phone away and I still have issues.
Okay, so my work week changes frequently due to sales going on, but I am working on a progress not perfection way of doing business and a schedule that I am content with.
My girls are in school full time and this gives me about five and a half hours daily to do stuff related to my home, business, or just ME time.
I work about 13 hours a week on real work related stuff. I set up sales for daily deal sites, ship items, order my journals from the publisher, schedule social media (when I remember) and order supplies for shipping.
I also contact people of influence I’d love to work with. Currently I’m developing a larger journal in several different and new cover designs that will be available in June. And after repeated requests, I am debuting a men’s gratitude journal as well in 3 cover choices. All this makes me a little sweaty actually because I have such a fear of getting it wrong! Last November, I just said a prayer that at least 100 journals would sell by Christmas and today over 4,000 have enjoyed buying or receiving them as gifts! That’s a blessing and also a wake up call that I have to stay on top of things.
It’s a process for me, but 2016 is the year I get my schedule in order so my business is a blessing and not a curse.
Have you had to make any hard decisions in relation to pursuing your business/ministry? (Sacrificing something business-related for the sake of your family, following God’s call for your life instead of what you wanted to do, etc.) Could you share that experience with us and how it’s shaped you?
I’ve never gone in debt for my business. From the start, I used money that was saved to use for developing my business. I *borrowed* from our savings account and then paid it back. This was not always the easy way, because one can always see all the sparkly things they’d like to have or use for the business. I am just now building a more feminine website with a developer that will debut in June. I am thrilled to be able to finally do this, but believe me, I wanted it from day one. Instead I just started with what I had.
If you wait for perfect circumstances, you will never begin. (See Ecclesiastes 11:4)
What’s your favorite thing about what you do?
I LOVE receiving notes from people that are enjoying the journal for themselves and getting them for friends and family. Also, I LOVE surprising people with a little extra in their package like an extra journal for a friend for a random act of kindness.
My hope is that people really are starting to stop, think, and react differently than they have previously concerning their screen time, specifically social media.
Share with us one tip, trick, or tool that keeps you from going insane.
One tip for me: schedule my hair appointments every time I get my hair done. This way I know I will have 2 hours of alone pampered time for me every 5 weeks or so.
Also, each week I try to make sure I talk to a friend on the phone or meet up for coffee to share and be there for each other.
Lastly, LAUGH A LOT!!!
What advice would you give to someone who has a dream/talent/message they feel called to pursue, while also raising a family?
- Tell someone your dream or idea, write it down, and make a plan.
- Research the steps to take and begin, but DO NOT try to do all the steps at the same time as this will lead to fear and failure.
- Reduce TV watching and instead work that plan to start your dream.
- You can do it!
Isn’t Paige just the sweetest? I love her heart for women, and her creativity in coming up with a tool that will help us break our addiction to social media. I hope she’s inspired you today as much as she inspires me!
Paige lives and works in Tulsa, OK where she runs Little Journal Co. She loves spending time with her little family riding tandem bikes or chasing adventure with her husband, Tony–like skydiving and mountain climbing in CO all in a weekend.
She developed My Little Gratitude Journal in 2015 to help others reclaim their joy by seeing the abundance around them instead of what’s lacking in their life. Grab a Little Gratitude journal through one of these links:
PIN IT
Kayse Pratt serves Christian women as a writer + designer, creating home + life management resources that help those women plan their days around what matters most. She’s created the most unique planner on the market, helped over 400 women create custom home management plans, and works with hundreds of women each month inside her membership, teaching them how to plan their days around what matters most. When she’s not designing printables or writing essays, you’ll find Kayse homeschooling her kids, reading a cheesy novel with a giant cup of tea in hand, or watching an old show from the 90’s with her husband, who is her very best friend.