Sophia Lebano: [00:00:28] Hi guys. What’s up. Welcome back to another episode of Hear and Now podcast. I am very excited for today’s episode. I have Syd Weber on today to talk about doing well daily. So Sydney, welcome to the show.
[00:00:37] Syd Weber: Thank you for having me. Good morning.
[00:00:40] Sophia Lebano: [00:00:40] Good morning. I am so excited. Like I said, I have been following you for quite a while now.
[00:00:45] And I reached out to you after Danielle Carolan did her planner launch and you’re just the sweetest human. I love it. And I love your products. So yeah, I just really wanted to talk about doing well daily and just really get to know you. So why don’t you introduce yourself to the audience
[00:00:57] Syd Weber: [00:00:57] Sure. So my name is Syd Weber.
[00:01:01] I am based out of Atlanta, Georgia, just North of Atlanta. And I launched doing well daily. I’m the creator and founder of doing well daily, which is a company devoted to positivity, gratitude, practicing gratitude daily. I created a line of daybooks, which is kind of a mixture between a planner and a journal.
[00:01:16] They’re all traceable. So people seem to really love that. It’s a great way to harness your creativity while getting organized at the same time. So I launched that in 2019 and here we are in 2021 and things are just booming. It’s been an amazing journey. So I’m really yeah. Excited to be here
[00:01:32] Sophia Lebano: [00:01:32]. Yeah.
[00:01:33] I mean, I love the aspect of the tracing. I’m not a very great calligrapher.
[00:01:41] Syd Weber: [00:01:41] people will ask me all the time. They’re like, how are you so good at lettering? I’m like, y’all I have been doing this since I was like 14. Yeah. I realize it takes a lot. It’s all muscle memory.
[00:01:51] Oh,
[00:01:51] Sophia Lebano: [00:01:51] I have seen so many people just posting about their day books and they just have so much creativity and out of them that they can’t wait to unleash on the book.
[00:02:01] So I think it’s wonderful. So, yeah. So how did you get started with doing well daily?
[00:02:07] Syd Weber: [00:02:07] so fun fact I am actually dyslexic. And that is a big part of my story and my journey to doing all daily. So if you’re unfamiliar with dyslexia, I read and process things backwards. I also have dysgraphia, which they recently just changed the name to something else, but long story short dysgraphia is the same concept with numbers.
[00:02:25]And that was really hard growing up. I mean, math was like terrible. I didn’t really learn to like, read really like pretty well until fourth grade, which is pretty late in, in the journey of, of elementary school. But I had this incredible teacher in fourth grade and she was like, Sydney, you have to focus.
[00:02:42] On each individual letter versus the whole word that’s going to help you with your, with your dyslexia. So then I kind of got really into each letter. Okay. Well then that turned into the creativity side and I started like only caring about the letters and then it turned into lettering which turned into calligraphy.
[00:03:00] And that was kind of my process in getting into art was the dyslexia with just focusing on each letter. I just got really good at the letters and lettering in general. So then, you know, kind of fast forward through my twenties, my middle of my twenties, I was like, I cannot find a planner that works for me.
[00:03:16] I am disorganized. That’s another part with dyslexia. I also have ADD and ADHD. Which typically comes in with most of those learning disabilities, but I could never get organized. Nothing ever works for me. Everything felt way too. What is the word struc-? Like almost too structured and too rigid.
[00:03:33] And like, I felt very guilty if I missed a day or if like I didn’t do something right. It just really stuck with me and it made it very difficult because then I felt almost like very discouraged, but I also felt very defiant. I was like, okay, well, you know, Screw this planner. I’m not doing that. That just makes me feel bad in the mornings.
[00:03:49] So I, in 2019, I started working on my own planner and I knew what I wanted. I knew what I wanted in life, and I wanted it to be something that would harness creativity while still celebrating the things that made me happy in the morning. So like gratitudes and affirmation things that reaffirm who I knew I already was, but I find kinda needed to remind myself.
[00:04:08] And then, you know, the calligraphy piece and the personal growth and the tracing aspect of it. It was the 10 minutes in the morning that I could just like be creative and do what I love to do. And then you add it in, I have a knock it out list. Cause you know, you have to, you have to get things done.
[00:04:23] That’s the main part of, of, of a planner is to get things done. And I incorporated a couple of things with my health. So I had a little section that’s, you know, get moving. What am I, how am I gonna move my body today? I have a water tracker because I was terrible at the time at drinking water. And I literally can tell you I’m a, I’m a perfect example that water tracker has actually really helped me take in more water.
[00:04:44] Crazy enough when I can color in all my bubbles and like, Yes girl, you did it. You drank all your water, way to go. And then I also have a meal tracker, so that’s like the basic of, or the premise of our signature planner, but it was, I was, as I was sitting there and I was looking and I was developing, I was talking to my husband at the time and I was like, this isn’t really a planner.
[00:05:03] It’s more than a planner, but it’s not a journal, but what is it? And so I came up with the word day-, or I stumbled upon the word daybook, and I really felt like that embraced what I had built and what I had created. Cause that’s what it was. It was a daybook for me. I also have on the, on the opposite side is notes for a page for notes on the signature one.
[00:05:21] And that is even turned into like journal entries. It’s not always notes throughout the day. It can be something that’s heavy on my heart. So that’s my spiel. That’s a lot. I feel like I just threw at you, but. That’s kind of how we started, where we’ve kind of grown into and what has been developed. Oh
[00:05:36] Sophia Lebano: [00:05:36] I love seeing everybody’s creativity and take on the day. How has it been developing and seeing all these people use your things?
[00:05:52] Syd Weber: [00:05:52] I’ll tell you the — cause when I started this, honestly, And this is, I don’t want this to sound selfish, but it is a little bit, I started it for me.
[00:06:00] Like I created this planner for me in mind and I was like, you know what? I know for a fact that I have a couple of girlfriends that would love this, maybe I’ll print, you know, 20 of them, just see how it goes. So I just put it out there one day and I was like, you know what? Let’s just, let’s just see, put it out there.
[00:06:15] I think I sold 50 in my first presale and I was like, Holy crap. Like this is amazing. Like, wow, you know, this could be a little something and it kind of just progressed from there. And by creating the social media, social media aspect of it and the community on Instagram and Facebook. It’s allowed me to connect with all these other creators and creative, like creative people that are like, not necessarily just like me, but they’re similar to me.
[00:06:40] You know, we have similar interests. One girl in particular, her name is Trey. I post her on my story every single day. It’s called hashtag the daily trey and she is hysterical, but she’s one of the very first people that bought my signature planner and we connected just randomly. She followed me on Instagram.
[00:06:56] I mean, that’s how it happens a lot of times, but her people love her pages and I get hit up all the time about her pages because she does a little doodle and she does a little drawing and each day is a different subject or animal right now. She’s on the animal kick. This morning, I think she drew a chameleon and everyone, when I say the name yeah, right.
[00:07:16] Anybody that I talk to that watches my stories avidly. Yeah, I think that’s the word. They know exactly who she is. And they’re like, Oh my God, I love her stuff. And she is the sweetest person, but just connecting with these people on Instagram and in this community that we’ve kind of built. It is the most humbling, but like energizing feeling that you can ever imagine.
[00:07:37] And when you see these girls that are, cause a lot of my clientele is younger than me. I turn 30 next week and I’m about to, you know, welcome my first baby into the world and yeah. It’s just crazy that I feel like I’m helping a, I feel like I’m helping the generation right under me get to kind of where I’m at, where I’m at and they won’t have to go through the struggles that I did — is kind of how my thought process works.
[00:07:58] And it is the most rewarding is just the most rewarding feeling. And I just. Like it, literally, when I tell you it brings joy to my heart, it brings joy to my heart.
[00:08:08] Sophia Lebano: [00:08:08] that’s just our goal in life is to make people like you want to feel that way because you’re helping other people.
[00:08:16] Syd Weber: [00:08:16] There’s something about it. Helping others just put such a warm. It’s like shock of spirit into your soul. I don’t know how to
[00:08:24] Sophia Lebano: [00:08:24] You really just can’t explain it, but you just, you kinda know when you feel it, but I can completely relate because I have yet to find a planner that completely works for me.
[00:08:34] I just want something where I’m free to do what I want to do, but it has that structure at the same time. And so, you know, Doing Well exactly that and I love, I started out with bullet journaling and I can’t keep up with it. Cause it was just. I can’t create all of those pages every single day. And it’s like, I need it like hourly days, but sometimes I don’t do anything in a day.
[00:08:55] So it’s just like, I don’t want to feel bad about it. So finding a planner is a struggle. So it’s hard to be. It’s hard to be in that realm.
[00:09:03] Syd Weber: [00:09:03] I called it flexible structure.
Sophia Lebano: Yeah. Absolutely.
Structure was kind of what I was thinking when I created it. And what’s so cool. And. Well, I’m growing and learning every day.
[00:09:14] Like you got to realize this I’ve only I’ve created. So the very first day book we don’t even make it anymore because it, it was my not I’m going to say prototype because I made it. I did do it. So it’s not necessarily a prototype, but like we’ve evolved so much from the first one I learned, I got so much incredible feedback from the community.
[00:09:32] It had days of the week in it, it wasn’t dated, but it had the days filled in. So you could trace Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, a lot of girls were like, I felt terrible. When I missed a day, I felt like I just like, it was a horrible feeling and I’m like, that is not my goal. So I put tracing pages in the back of the book to teach girls how to write the days of the week and then left the days of the week open so that they could fill it in as they go because that not being dated piece really.
[00:09:59] And actually, as it’s kind of counter-counterintuitive, it actually keeps people more. On track, then forcing them to be on track when you put it in somebody else’s hands and let them make the decision versus prompting them to do it. They’ll make nine times out of 10, they’ll make the right decision and they’ll try to keep up with it every day, but we’re continually evolving and growing.
[00:10:18] And so like the next couple books I’m creating this year, it’s only going to get better from here. I really, really take into account what you guys say and try to make it the best product. No, that’s
[00:10:27] Sophia Lebano: [00:10:27] And I totally feel that I had this 90 day planner, which I feel like chunking planners out that way is so much better.
[00:10:35]Because there’s like there’s certain months, a year where I’m not even using my planner. I don’t really touch my planner during the summer. And if I do, it’s only in my Google calendar for meetings and things like that. But I, I just like, I don’t like that seeing those blank pages at the end of the year, I really didn’t touch my planner during the Christmas season or during the summer or anything like that.
[00:10:54] So chunking it out. So is that what you guys do? Do you do like 90 days, 60 days? Yeah.
[00:10:59] Syd Weber: [00:10:59] So our planners are technically 90 full days. So it’s roughly three months give or take a day or two. Cause you know, some months are weird, but it is roughly 90 days. And I will never do a bigger, I get hit up all the time with like, can you please create a year, a year planner?
[00:11:14] And I’m like, guys, so part of the, part of the things with my planners too, I print them on much thicker, stronger paper. So it’s a very heavyweight paper. It’s not something that you can just rip, like they don’t tear easily, which is awesome. But because it’s all traceable, you can’t have it bleed through.
[00:11:28] So I tested a ridiculous amount of papers before I actually found the one, like my poor printers, they’re like, Oh, said you are a little high maintenance when it comes to the paper, but we get it. It’s, you know, it’s for a purpose. If I were to create a year planner, you guys would be carrying around a yearbook and
Sophia Lebano: it would be huge.
[00:11:46] It’d be ridiculous. It would be huge. It would be heavy. It would be clunky. And that’s just not really my vibe. I like the smaller, it’s a six by nine. I like the smaller size, cause it can fit in most purses in my, in my experience. Unless you carry it, like, you know, across body planter can fit in your bag, you can fit in any book bag for school.
[00:12:04]But 90 days is a great chunk because we have a lot of returning customers. I have some girls that do it every quarter, every single quarter, they buy a new planner. They do not miss a day. Some girls to two planners a year. We’ll take care of them. They’ll fill them all out and they don’t feel like they wasted money on a planner that’s going to sit on a shelf and collect dust. My goal was for that not to happen. Like the last thing I want is my debug sitting on someone’s shelf, collecting dust, not being used. If you buy one planner for the year and you use all 90 pages, awesome. Like mission accomplished. You’re getting there. I
[00:12:37] Sophia Lebano: [00:12:37] have so many planners.
[00:12:38] It’s probably not that good to talk about
[00:12:41] Syd Weber: [00:12:41] girl. You are not alone. Guilty as charged.
[00:12:46] Sophia Lebano: [00:12:46] There’s just, there’s so many. And I, I’m the kind of person that likes to test them out. I want to see what works for me and I feel bad because I wish I could just sample it instead of buying a whole planner and, you know, Burning a hole in my wallet, but that’s why I love just having things that are undated, undated that are small chunks at a time.
[00:13:04] Like I said, there’s just so many unused, unused planners out there on my shelf right there that I feel bad about. So I love that you have that mission in mind and your customers, my end for your own self experience, you know what I mean? That’s something that you felt and you’ve gone through yourself.
[00:13:20] So I love, I love when they’re CEOs or owners or anything really have their customer in mind and your ideal customers yourself too. Why not?
[00:13:30] Syd Weber: [00:13:30] it’s crazy because I get asked all the time. Oh my gosh. Do you do it every day? No, I don’t do it every day. I’m human. Like I don’t do it on the weekend unless I have something that I’m like, okay, this Saturday is going to be productive.
[00:13:43] AF. I have so much to do. I’m putting it on paper. Like I don’t use it on the weekends and I honestly probably do, probably do three, three, three and a half day books a year because I do use it every day during the week to keep myself organized. But I get hit up all the time. It’s like, Oh my gosh, you know, I know this is your product.
[00:14:01] You must use it every day. And I don’t, I mean, there’s just some reality to it with a planner. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, be aware of that. It’s just being real, you know, it real be open, be honest customers. I have noticed that if I’m just transparent with my customers and tell them the God’s honest truth, they’re like, oh, that makes so much sense.
[00:14:19] Okay. Now I don’t feel so bad about missing a day. I’m like, no. You missed a day. Cool. And a lot of them, yeah. At the end of the year, we did this this year, which was really cool because last year doesn’t — 2019, didn’t really, I’m not gonna say it didn’t really count, but it didn’t really count. 2020 was definitely like a full year of using my planners.
[00:14:36] I flipped back through my whole year and I looked at some of the things that I crossed off my list. And I looked at some of my big accomplishments and my journal entries, and it was such a reviving moment in a way to start the new year. And I was like, Holy crap Syd, look at what you accomplished in 2020.
[00:14:53] Like, look at this, you can see it on paper now you’re ready to start 20, 21. Like, let’s go. It was like a review and it was just so cool to flip back through. I save all my daybooks like I have a shelf, it’s just like a lined up.
[00:15:07] Sophia Lebano: [00:15:07] I mean, I’m sure down the road, that’ll be so cool to look back and be like, this is our first product.
[00:15:11] And let’s look at where we are now. You know what I mean? Not just personally, but like product development, it’s kind of cool just to see that. Right.
[00:15:18] Syd Weber: [00:15:18] You would die laughing if you saw my very first, my, so my, one of my good friends she’s actually about to start working for me this year or working with me for me, I don’t like saying it like that because I’m, maybe I need some help from the business side of the house that I just, I know that I need help and I’m not afraid to ask.
[00:15:35] And she is also a new mom. She’s got a six month old who’d she lives literally two houses down. And so it’s like, okay, we’re in this together. But I I’m really excited to introduce you guys to her later, probably next week. Anyway, she came up and I showed her the very first edition of doing well daily and it was not called doing well daily.
[00:15:53] It was called creative wellness. And I went to the ups store and I printed and had it bound. And it costs me like $98, I think. And I was because when you just print one there, I mean, they get real expensive. And it is the funniest book that you’ve ever seen and we were flipping through it and she was like, it’s just so cool to see where you started and where you’re like, you just said product development where you are now.
[00:16:17] Like it just, if you have an idea, I guess my biggest thing that I learned with that. Is at least try it, like, just go and try it. It might cost a little more. That was a little ridiculous now looking back, but like I have it and I had a prototype. I had an idea. I could see it on paper, but it is so funny to look back at the originals, like the very first additions you —
[00:16:38] Sophia Lebano: [00:16:38] need to do one of those reel where it’s like.
[00:16:40] How has where it started. How’s it going? I should, you need to
[00:16:45] Syd Weber: [00:16:45] put that on my list for this? I need to do that.
[00:16:47] Sophia Lebano: [00:16:47] I like genuinely excited to see that because I, I love seeing that. Yeah.
[00:16:54] Syd Weber: [00:16:54] That’s pretty funny.
[00:16:56] Sophia Lebano: [00:16:56] I’m going to text you next week to check up on that one for you, but yeah, like you said, how was 2020 really for your business?
[00:17:03] Because it was the first year, but you know, given obviously the year that it was, how did it impact negative, positive, anything like that?
[00:17:11] Syd Weber: [00:17:11] Yeah. So we launched the very first day book in July of 2019. I only sold probably I know the D I know the dollar amount, which I’m not. I’m actually pretty transparent, pretty open with my business because I feel like that’s gonna help other small businesses know how to kind of not measure up, but like, know that, Hey it’s okay.
[00:17:31] So our first six months we only did $7,000 in sales. And at the time I was like, hell yeah, we only did. We did $7,000 in sales. Like that’s so freaking cool. And so 20, 20, 2020 comes. And I’m like, I had no idea what to expect because you know, it was the year of. 20. It doesn’t even need words. It was just such a weird year.
[00:17:50] And I felt a little guilty saying this, but it was incredible for my business because my planners really, really, really focused on gratitude and positivity. All of my pieces of personal growth are curated. Like I spend hours finding quotes that I feel matter. And I feel like they either pushed me to do something the next day, or like really push a positive.
[00:18:12] A positive tone in the morning. So like, when I write out my, my personal gross in the morning, whatever phrase it is like today, mine was mine was it’s okay to feel your feelings. And that could not be more perfect for this day because of my hormones and just being where I’m at in life. And I’m like, you know what, feel the feelings it’s all right.
[00:18:32] But two that is, I trace it out in the morning and it sits with me all day long. So I chew on it all day long. So I’m really particular about those, those personal growth and make sure that they make a statement and an impact with that. With 2020, there was a lot of women who needed positivity in their mornings because their lives changed, whether it was students.
[00:18:51] I had an influx of moms and teachers and nurses, and really teachers that were just like, My world has been turned upside down. I need something that I can just use the time in the morning, 20 minutes by myself to get my head right. To get organized. So my business took off in 2020. It was incredible. It’s the best year.
[00:19:11] I mean, the best year I’ve ever had everything you got to do with it, but it was incredible. I mean, I, we, we grew to a point where I was like, Having a hard time keeping up to be honest with you which is a great problem to have, but it’s also a problem, nonetheless. And I had some stuff in my personal life that was really affecting it.
[00:19:30] We moved houses, we got pregnant. Like there was just a lot of change for me. And then my business is booming. I still have a nine to five. So I was just like, okay, we can do it. We just find on the prize, get through the year. We can totally do it. And then the holidays hit and boy, Oh boy, did they hit hard.
[00:19:49]The USPS and I did a big post on this, that kind of, I’m not going to say it went viral, but it was a good post. Cause it shed light into me. It gave me insight into the USPS and it gave a lot of others insight as well. Which I think is very valuable. I have been using this thing called media mail to ship out my books.
[00:20:04] And basically what it is is it’s a longer shipping time. It’s the cheapest form of shipping that you as a consumer can purchase, which is great for you guys, because I didn’t want to make my shipping so overpriced that you’re just like, man, this is a stupid expensive planner. That’s not my goal. But with that during the holidays, media mail goes out last and I had no idea of this.
[00:20:24] Nobody told, like, I mean, not saying nobody told me, but I’m a, I’m a small business. There’s a lot of things you learn as you go. I had no idea. And with the holidays and with COVID, which really affected the USBs because they are down tremendously in their manpower, it affected our shipping terribly. Like I had orders that were going out on December 1st that we’re at now, we’re at January 22nd.
[00:20:48] And I still have a couple of girls who have not gotten their day books. It’s been almost two months, like it has killed some of it and I’m not going to say killed business, but like it’s. It shipping just, it’s not in my control and like, I’d already put those stuff in the mail, so I can’t go get them back.
[00:21:03] Like, there’s only so much as a small business you can do once you’ve put your product in the hands of DBA, USBs, or any shipper for that matter. So I had to really, I’m not gonna say pivot, but I had to really take a step back and be like, okay, how do I fix this? Issue. I know I can’t really fix it, but how can I make it better for the customer?
[00:21:19] So my customer experience or my customer service, I made sure it was like top of the line. If someone emailed me, I did my absolute best to get back to them within 24 hours with a solution to their problem. We sent out a lot of free daybooks and replaced a lot of daybooks and I said, And that’s a lot of inventory that’s going out on my end, you know, that I’m, I’m eating the cost on a lot of that, but it’s also not fair for the customer to spend 50 bucks on my planner and not get it, you know?
[00:21:45] So it’s like, okay, where, what can I do here? Luckily, a lot of my customers are just like top notch people. They’re just really great human beings. We’ve created a really positive group here and I am so freaking grateful for that, that when their first day book did arrive, they emailed me. He said, my first day book came in the mail.
[00:22:04] Do you want me to send it? How can I send it back to you since they had already I’d sent them a free one already? So a lot of girls, I sent back mailers. I mean, I sent back pre mailed shipping labels and they mailed it back. And then some, I gave her a lot of them. I gave the option, Hey, you can purchase the second one at a, you know, a little bit of a discount.
[00:22:20] And they did. They’re like, you know what? That’s a great idea. Now I have two for the year or I can give one to a girlfriend. So that worked out. 2020 was a challenge, but it was really good challenge. Like I was glad I learned so much in 2020 that I think 20, 21 is just going to be incredible. And I learned some really hard lessons, the really hard way.
[00:22:39] Oh, absolutely. I’m sure a lot of us did. A lot of people did, but all in all, like for our business, it was, it was a great year of growth.
[00:22:48] Sophia Lebano: [00:22:48] I’m not a product based business, so I can’t a hundred percent speak to that. But from a consumer perspective, like I purchased something I think on black Friday and it just got here last week.
[00:22:59] So thankfully I ended up giving it to my friend for her birthday, so it worked out. But I was like, why, why this year? And it was just so frustrating for so many people. And I know small businesses really did suffer from that, but I’m really grateful for it. You know, that you have such an amazing customer service and for clientele that really just, you know, are like, okay, whatever, we’ll do what you need, you know what I mean?
[00:23:21] Yeah.
[00:23:22] Syd Weber: [00:23:22] And they weren’t really open to it. Like a lot of people were, I only had maybe. Less than 10 people that were like super pissed, like super, super upset that I, that I couldn’t get, like, I didn’t know where their package was. And I was like, guys, I don’t know any other way to say it. Like there was one day on social media, which I had vowed that I would never cry on Instagram because that is just not who I am.
[00:23:44] And I got real close one day because people are like, how can you not track your package? How can you not know this is your product? It’s your, I mean, they just, weren’t going all in. And I’m like, I had to take a step back and I had to take a breather and just be like, this is out of my control. There’s only so much I can control.
[00:24:00] I know what I can do. And I had to really like self-reflect. But they only had like 10 Karen’s. So we were okay.
[00:24:08] Sophia Lebano: [00:24:08] Okay. That’s not bad, but, but Karens in general, but I remember, I remember you posted that reel or video or something of the package that’s just continuously flipping that’s exactly what it was happening, but no, I mean, my mom, my mom and I.
[00:24:25] launched a merch shop in November or something. And , I don’t even know if these shirts are going to get here in time for Christmas. And it just, it was stressful, especially if like the tracking said it was stuck in one place for, for so long. And then it would show up at your doorstep two days later.
[00:24:40] So totally unpredictable.
[00:24:42] Syd Weber: [00:24:42] And I had one, I think what, what shocked me the most and shocked all of my followers was I have one that I’m in Atlanta. And so Athens, Georgia, which is where Danielle goes to school, which is UGA, it’s an hour and a half from my house. Okay. Hour and a half. I had one girl that ordered her day book on like black Friday.
[00:25:00] And it was the beginning of January and she still hadn’t gotten it. And I had gotten one from my house to Germany in six days and I was like, How is this possible? Like, how is it possible that I can get a book from Atlanta to Germany and six days, but Atlanta to Athens in a month, like, It was unreal. I just, I just couldn’t, I couldn’t fathom it.
[00:25:23] It didn’t make any sense.
[00:25:24] Sophia Lebano: [00:25:24] Exactly. I mean, one of the packages I ordered was from Connecticut. That’s like, not very far from where I am, I’m in Pennsylvania, so that that’s crazy. But, but since you brought it up how was your launch with Danielle? I was so excited to see that play in or come out and I was waiting for that moment.
[00:25:40] Syd Weber: [00:25:40] Awesome. We looking back, might’ve made a little more sense to launch it a little earlier than when we did. We launched it on black Friday or we launched it like right after black Friday, we launched it December 4th or December 3rd, I think, which was great in, in our minds. It was like, Christmas is this perfect.
[00:25:58] It’ll get there in time and all this and all that. Whew. I was overwhelmed. I had a house full of books. We had just moved. All of my life is in boxes. I mean, I had to hire help immediately. I got my little one Libby and then my cousin Tyler and Libby’s brother chase. I got, I mean, we had, basically, my whole family was here at one point, wrapping up day bugs, putting them in envelopes, like trying our best to get them out the door because we sold just to kind of give you guys perspective.
[00:26:24] We sold like almost like 800 books in. Like a matter of an hour and a half, I was gonna say they sold out right away. I mean, and it was, it was incredible from a while we did this perspective, but from a logistical perspective, we were like, Holy crap, like, Oh my God, now we gotta get these things all out the door.
[00:26:44] And it was, you know, it was a lesson learned. So we’ve made some changes, but it was an, it was a great launch. Danielle is wonderful to work with. She is sweet as pie and she has you guys, her following is incredible. I mean, she has got. Some of the SU I have made some of the sweetest friends just by working with her that are girls that are just very, very positive, very outlook online.
[00:27:06] And you being one of them outlook on life, doing their own thing that I just love to see like small business wise and the side hustle. It’s just so cool. It’s so cool. To a partner with her and see what her community is like. So, I mean, I loved every minute of it. We sh we work really well together. We, we bring in different, different sides of the house, so we have a lot of balance and she’s just, she’s really, she’s really funny.
[00:27:27] And she’s really fun to work with. She’s very positive in any of like my. I’m not going to call them fumbles learning lessons that we had throughout 2020. And like, she rolls with the punches, which we kind of have to, but when you’re working with somebody that you don’t know, super, super well, you get a little anxious going to them and saying, We had a fumble or like, Oh, we had a slip up and she was just super gracious and, you know, knows that we’re doing the absolute best we can.
[00:27:54] All in all, it’s been a great experience in our book is awesome.
[00:27:57] Sophia Lebano: [00:27:57] I can totally get that vibe from her and her videos. I don’t know her personally, but she’s just so sweet. And I was so cool. It was just so cool to see you guys come up with such a cool planner. That was so on-brand by the way for her so on brand.
[00:28:12] Syd Weber: [00:28:12] And if we could have made that yellow, even more bright yellow, I think she would have, she would’ve done it. My printers were like, this is as bright as we can go. And Danielle’s like, can we go brighter? She was all, it was very on brand. And it’s really funny because our brands are very different. Like my colors are.
[00:28:28] Like light blues, Sage greens, the lavender, like kind of more muted colors. And she is very bright yellow, like shockers for me that I’m like, this is so not my brand, but this is so her brand we’re gonna, we’re gonna do it and make it work. It was just, it was a funny, like, it was a funny experience.
[00:28:46] Sophia Lebano: [00:28:46] Yeah.
[00:28:46] Yeah. How long did you guys, how long had you been planning it before it actually came
[00:28:51] Syd Weber: [00:28:51] out? So we started talking about it. Cause you know, she took a social media break for about two and a half months, I think, almost three months. And we had talked about it in the beginning and then she took her break and we were like, you know what, let’s take it a full let’s make it a full break.
[00:29:04] Like let’s she needed some time on, on her end. And I respected that because I’m a big believer in that if you need time, you have to set your boundaries and step away. And I’ve done that on my own too. And it’s very refreshing and it puts you in a much better mindset. So we actually started working on that day book.
[00:29:20] Very end of October. So I created, we had probably four or five meetings touch points throughout, like every like week period. She would kind of give me some feedback on the format that she, you know, on the format, things that she wanted to add of like conceptual pieces. And then I did all the design.
[00:29:35] So like I come in and I’m like, all right. And so I played with a bunch of different things. We would, we would get together, we’d review the different slides and say, Hey, we love that. We love the way that looks. I don’t think that’s going to work X that out. And we just made it work. We knew we had a deadline because if I didn’t go to print by like, not November.
[00:29:54] I think it was like 14th. We wouldn’t have them. Like I knew we had, we had to be on a certain deadline. So we created that day book in under a month. And I will tell you what it was one of the hardest things that I’ve ever done in my professional career.
[00:30:06] Sophia Lebano: [00:30:06] oh my gosh. I can’t imagine, like I was expecting you to say no, we’ve been working on it since like may June or something like that.
[00:30:12] Oh my gosh guys.
[00:30:14] Syd Weber: [00:30:14] One of the things that I don’t think people realize, cause I don’t talk about it a ton. 95% of everything in that book is hand drawn by me. So it’s all, I mean, it, it is daunting when you have to draw 90 pages of quotes and, and, you know, make sure that everything is lined up correctly. I mean, just the, just the details alone are a lot, but we, I mean, the fact that I could sit here and for me to say, I freaking created this day book in less than a month for client was the coolest thing ever.
[00:30:45] I was like, wow, said you bit off that piece of that Apple and you did it. Like, it was just, it was, I’m still, I’m starting to sweat thinking about it so much. It was so tough, but it was like, so like a personal motivator. I don’t know how to explain it. No, absolutely.
[00:31:02] Sophia Lebano: [00:31:02] Yeah. Yeah. And I remember when she talked about it and she’s like, yes, Syd’s pregnant.
[00:31:05] And I was like, wait, what. You guys did this while she was pregnant, too. That’s insane. You guys are such to go getters.
[00:31:12] Syd Weber: [00:31:12] We are. And that was one thing I loved about her was that she was as much of a go getter as I was. And so, like, we knew that we had a goal and we were like, all right, we’re doing this. Like, we are both all in.
[00:31:22] We’re making this happen. We both believed it was going to be a success. And it was, and it’s it’s it still is. It’s amazing to see that how many women. And it’s not even, it’s not even just like, I don’t want to say girls y’all’s age, I’m talking women, I’m talking moms, I’m talking 45 year olds that love it, which has been really cool too.
[00:31:38] That it’s just, it’s not it appeals to the masses almost. I, like I said, I’m literally, I’m literally sweating thinking about it for how hard it was, but also with being pregnant, there’s not a lot you can do when you’re pregnant and when we were in COVID. So, you know, we were isolated at home. We weren’t going out.
[00:31:54] We weren’t seeing our friends. So we would turn on, you know, the sports or whatever we wanted to watch and me and my husband would hang out and I would just sit there and do pages and I’ve made it made a plan where if I could do, I think it was like 12 pages a night, I could get full. So I knew it just had to get done in a day.
[00:32:11] Sophia Lebano: [00:32:11] That’s amazing. Oh my gosh. You’re so incredible. I love it.
[00:32:15] Syd Weber: [00:32:15] It was really cool. I love it. When I tell you, I love it with my whole heart. I cannot believe that I have created it company that I’m this passionate about.
[
[00:32:27] Syd Weber: [00:32:27]I just don’t even know how to explain it to you.
[00:32:30] If I could give this to everybody and like, say anything to everybody, it’s go after it and try it because the reward is so it’s so rewarding. It’s just hard to explain.
[00:32:41] Sophia Lebano: [00:32:41] Oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, one of my dreams is to create a planner in myself too, and like have that vision and just have it become a reality like that, like that, just so it’s so incredible.
[00:32:50] So anybody plans for the future, you know, you just did this launch with Danielle. Do you have something else in mind that you could maybe hint at,
[00:32:57]Syd Weber: [00:32:57] Besides bringing life into this world, which I’m super excited about? I am actually. In the midst of creating a men’s book. It’s very different than our day book.
[00:33:05] So it’s like a whole different format. It’s not even the same binding, like any of it. Okay. You’ll you’re the first to hear any of this. So we’re just gonna, it. I actually got reached out to, by this company called Oxbow leather out of Texas. And it’s these two college boys who are ridiculously, like ridiculously cute, by the way, there are two Texas football players.
[00:33:27] They created their own leather company and it was so cool. They’re best friends. And they create men’s wallets right now and they have some other cool other stuff. They have their own journal. That’s not really a journal. It’s more of like just a notebook, your standard notebook size.
[00:33:45] And they create the leather binding. they reached out to me. They were like, Hey, we would love to maybe do something with you with a leather and put leather around your day book. And I was like, Hmm, that’s not really my vibe for my day book for my women, but for what I’m going after for my men.
[00:33:59] That is. And so what it is is they’ve created a leather binding similar to a wallet, and I’ve created the insert that goes into the leather and with the leather, it’s going to be a little bit more expensive because it is leather and it’s a nicer thing, but it wears. And so like it absorbs the oil in your skin and it wears like a wallet.
[00:34:17] So it like gets better over time, which I love. And those inserts there. I think we’re probably going to end up doing monthly inserts. If not, like maybe I can squeeze in two months, it’s a smaller format, but the inserts are super, super affordable. So like once you’re finished your book, you just take out the insert by a new insert and put it all in.
[00:34:36] There’s no tracing for men. There’s, you know, it’s a little bit thinner paper. I don’t really, my husband uses my daybook every day and he never tried. I mean, let’s be honest, he doodles all over it, but he never traces my quotes. I mean, he’s a dude, he’s not into calligraphy, but he does use it avidly and. I wanted to create something for him that was still motivational.
[00:34:55] So there’s still that motivational piece in there. There’s quotes at the end of every day. But it’s really designed for men, men who like to put pen to paper, men who liked to have things written down. So I’m really, really excited about that. I’m excited to partner with this other small business to try to help them grow too.
[00:35:10] And I just love that they’re, you know, they’re two guys that are going after their dream. It’s just, it’s super cool to see. And that’s one of my favorite things about this business is that it’s opened my eyes and opened my door to other small businesses. That I can collaborate with and create more incredible things.
[00:35:24] Sophia Lebano: [00:35:24] Oh my gosh. No, that’s so exciting. I love that. It’s kind of like a Filofax mentality. Right. which I love — those were the best, but they’re so thick. No. Oh my gosh. That’s so exciting. Like all the men in their lives.
[00:35:34] Syd Weber: [00:35:34] really excited and I will, my goal is to have it ready, like way before. Ready, packed up, ready to go out the door by fathers, but like before father’s day.
[00:35:47] So. I’m really excited for it. So we get the samples here soon, so we can start like, like feeling it and actually seeing how things are going to come together. So that’s one of the big things for 2021. And then one more thing that I’m very excited about is. I’m doing a mental, more of a mental health focused daybook.
[00:36:06]So I have a girlfriend who is a therapist and she is incredible. She has her own, her and her husband had their own practice in Atlanta. It’s called ATL Welco, and she’s expanding to some other stuff. And we are then going to try to create this masterpiece together. Mental health is so important right now.
[00:36:25] And I did a poll the other day about, you know, what do you want to see from 2021? And I cannot tell you, I mean, I had over a thousand women vote on that poll and say they wanted mental health book. And I was like, you’re
[00:36:37] Sophia Lebano: [00:36:37] like, yeah. Okay. Got it. You
[00:36:40] Syd Weber: [00:36:40] guys were heard, let me get to work. Like,
[00:36:42] Sophia Lebano: [00:36:42] wow. That is so incredible.
[00:36:45] Oh, my gosh. Yeah, you have so many big things coming other than, you know, the baby, big things coming in your business. So what are some of your goals like longterm? I
[00:36:55] Syd Weber: [00:36:55] want to do this full-time so, you know, that is, that is the, that is the light at the end of the tunnel for me. And I really do, I think.
[00:37:05] I feel weird saying this. I feel like I can make that happen sooner than later. So my, just to be completely open, open my midterm, my company that I worked for, I’m in cyber security. And I have been for years and I love it. It’s just totally different from my creative side of the house. And I think that’s why I love it so much because I have to.
[00:37:21] Two very different things that can kind of balance each other, but it’s, it’s hard. It’s hard work. And before cope, you know, before 2020, I was traveling nonstop. I mean, I had my last cyber security company, took me all over the world, Dubai. I mean, I got to go to Dubai in my twenties and it was the coolest thing I’ve ever done.
[00:37:36]Barcelona, like just really cool places. But being a new mom, you don’t want to travel that much. You don’t want to be gone from your baby, you don’t. And I know that it’s going to be true, but my maternity leave is six months, which is absurdly amazing and incredible. I think I have the most maternity leave out of any of my friends.
[00:37:52] I mean, it’s just wild. And so I’m really gonna use that time to kind of, I’m gonna use that time, of course, for baby, because that’s the priority, but also to kind of take a bite of the Apple of what it would be like to work for doing well daily full-time. And making it work. And if I can do it, I’m going to do it because I believe in this company and I believe in my goals and my dreams and I believe about what I’m putting into the world.
[00:38:14]So that is my goal is to go full time and to have a whole line of daybooks that, you know, if you get on my website and you’re like, What do I need, do I need this format? Am I a hustler that starting a side business that really needs the format of balancing work and my side hustle? Do I need, am I, am I a man that needs a men’s book?
[00:38:35] I, somebody that, you know, really struggles with mental health every day and really wants to focus and grow my mental health. Like I want to have a daybook for each, each kind of person so that anybody that comes to my website they can find something that’s going to bring value and benefit their day.
[00:38:50] That’s my goal.
[00:38:51] Sophia Lebano: [00:39:24] So I’m so excited to watch you grow in your business more than you already have, but, well,
[00:39:30] Syd Weber: [00:39:30] it was kind of cool because like I’ve even had people reach out that like don’t know who Danielle is because. They just, they’re not that, that age group, but they loved the format because they were, they have a full-time job and a side hustle and we Danielle and I specifically made it to where it separated the work full-time and the side hustle.
[00:39:50] That was like a very big piece that we were like, that has to come out in this book. And so that’s been really cool too. It’s just, it’s, it’s getting to understand the different women in their walks of life and their journeys and what they really need to make their day, the best
[00:40:02] Sophia Lebano: [00:40:02] doing well daily, you know,
[00:40:06] Syd Weber: [00:40:06] do well every day, like that is my goal for, for my friends and for my people.
[00:40:11] Just do, do your best and do well as much as you can. It’s not every day, but more days than not. We’d love for it to [00:40:20] Sophia Lebano: [00:40:20] that’s the goal. Absolutely. Well, this was so amazing, but the last question is where can people buy your doing well daily journals and of course, where can they connect with you?
[00:40:29] Syd Weber: [00:40:29] Of course.
[00:40:30] So my biggest thing is Instagram clearly. That’s like my, my bread and butter. I love Instagram to be honest with you. So it’s at doing well daily. We’re now on Tik TOK because that’s a thing. I said, you guys can find me on tik Tok now, too. I don’t dance. It’s pretty warning. I haven’t gotten to that part yet.
[00:40:46] I might do that, baby mama dance. Cause that’s a new thing. I might do that. And then you can purchase any of our daybooks on doing well daily.com. We’re also locally too. So we’re getting into wholesale, which is really cool, which I’ve loved. So I’m at a couple stores around Atlanta.
[00:41:02] We’ve got a store in Tampa, Orlando and Nashville. It’s pretty cool. It’s around the Southeast now, but that’s another big 2021 goal is to get into some more local boutiques and local shops. So girls can find us locally as well. I’m
[00:41:16] Sophia Lebano: [00:41:16] sending it north,
[00:41:19] Syd Weber: [00:41:19] if you know anybody in PA, let me know. Oh, absolutely. Like, Hey, this is my
[00:41:23] Favorite gift shop. You should reach out. Hit me up.
[00:41:27] Sophia Lebano: [00:41:27] Well, I will, I will include all those links for people to do that and to buy your day books. But this was absolutely incredible. I am so glad that we got the opportunity to chat and have you on like it’s super inspiring.
[00:41:37] Syd Weber: [00:41:37] Thank you. Thank you for having me.
[00:41:39] I just, I love what you’re doing. I love your mission and I have loved connecting with you.
[00:41:43] Sophia Lebano: [00:41:43] Me too. Yeah, guys, thank you so much for tuning into this week’s episode of Hear and Now Podcast. Don’t forget to follow doing well daily, check it out, get a book, super exciting. And again Syd thank you. And we’re so excited to see your new baby, by the way.
[00:41:56] Thank you guys. Bye bye.
SHOW NOTES:
It’s the 79th episode of Hear and Now Podcast! Thank you for joining me this week as I have Syd Weber on to discuss her company, Doing Well Daily.
Where to find Syd: Instagram, Doing Well Daily Website
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