We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Annette Furio. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Annette below.
Hi Annette, thank you for being such a positive, uplifting person. We’ve noticed that so many of the successful folks we’ve had the good fortune of connecting with have high levels of optimism and so we’d love to hear about your optimism and where you think it comes from.
Optimism has helped myself and my company, Season Journals, survive our early days, come out of our dark days, and lead us through our best days. I launched my company in January 2020 — timing that would have had any entrepreneur experiencing pessimism. Instead, I immediately adopted a mindset of optimism — since we didn’t have any metrics from previous years, we could only go up from rock bottom.
Today, I keep two hand-written post-it notes on my desktop computer. One reads, “good things are coming” and the other, “feel hopeful…seed→tree.” Although we’ve been in business for a few years, I know I’m just getting started. Optimism’s cousin is persistence, another essential component to building a business. Personally, I believe if there are additional strategies to implement, different products to make, more methods to test, more roads to traverse, I’m not done yet. Optimism plus persistence is a winning formula.
My optimism comes from a place of gratitude. I do not HAVE to do any of this — I GET to do this. I also derive optimism from the unknown. To me, the unknown is exciting and full of possibility. I learned from the popular podcast How I Built This with Guy Raz, success is part luck and part hard work and determination. It is easy to be optimistic about a stroke of luck coming your way. I’d welcome that any day. As for the hard work, waking up and choosing optimism is an intentional practice that has changed my mindset and the business decisions I make each day. Paired with persistence, optimism can have the power to change the trajectory of your business for the better.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Currently, I am the CEO of Season Journals. I have been responsible for everything in the business at some point, as most founders are in the early stages of starting and growing a company. However, I’ve been making the mindset and logistical shift to bring in experts to help me in key areas, such as public relations and sales. I believe in the power of collaboration and connection, and hope to grow our team as soon as possible.
Personally, I thrive when I’m in the creative process — brainstorming, interviewing, researching, writing, designing, and sourcing. My goal is to focus more of my time and creativity on product development and bringing beautiful, unique products to market.
Season Journals exists to help people invest in their well-being and relationships through the power of journaling. Our mission excites to me because there has never been a better time to learn about yourself or your partner by putting down your phones and putting pen to paper. Journaling is now widely known to have positive effects on our mental health, a primary reason why I feel it’s so important to continue what we’re doing at Season. The thoughtful and researched exercises and prompts within our journals help people look within, ask themselves questions, and move through life’s seasons mindfully.
We help couples plan an intentional wedding in the Engagement Journal and begin their life together as a married couple in the Marriage Journal. Another important aspect of our journals is they serve as heirlooms — keepsake mementos that capture your life story through these pivotal seasons.
We are excited to announce our newest journal, the Pregnancy Journal, will be available for preorder on seasonjournals.com on May 8, 2024.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. My background and skillset in graphic and web design Without my formal training in design, getting my ideas off the ground would have proven significantly harder — not impossible, but a barrier to entry that would discourage many people from even beginning. Today, it’s table stakes to have a professional and cohesive brand identity when you go to market. Of course, while designing logos, websites, products, media kits, and more can be outsourced, it saved me a great deal of time and money by having it done “in-house” (AKA by me). If you’re just getting started, consider investing in quality design as early as possible. As consumers, we recognize good design and we can sniff out when something just doesn’t feel right. This will cause confusion or distrust, and we’re likely going to walk away from the purchase. Avoid this scenario altogether by investing in a professional brand before launch.
2. Taking action
Another quality that has moved me along the journey of entrepreneurship is my ability to take action. Now, the action is not always fast, but over the years, I have continued forward momentum nonetheless. I don’t seem to have any hangups about starting new businesses or putting new products into the world. In my experience, when you can disconnect your personal self-worth from the success of the business, you are more likely to find the freedom to explore and try new things without facing the familiar suspects of “fear of failure” and “impostor syndrome”. Cultivate an attitude of “willingness to try” and “progress over perfection” and just wait to see the things you’ll be able to create.
3. Self-motivation
Self-motivation is one of the most challenging yet essential qualities needed for entrepreneurship. This one has proven difficult for me, so my advice is to start building this skill now. Self-motivation is showing up day after day even when you haven’t made any sales, when you’re not feeling creative, when the click-rate is 0%, when you don’t have a team or investors to hold you accountable, when there’s no one to give you a raise or a bonus or a pat on the back. If we all waited for the perfect conditions to begin our work, nothing would get done. Self-motivation is making the choice to move one step forward with nothing more than your own resolution.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
One of my goals this year is to grow the Season community and collaborate with others. With the upcoming release of our Pregnancy Journal, we would love to collaborate with individuals and brands in the baby and new parent space. We have an affiliate program and welcome product collaborations. Additionally, we are looking for stockists who would be interested in carrying our Engagement Journal, Marriage Journal and Pregnancy Journals in their brick-and-mortar retail or online stores.
We also publish interviews on our website and would love to hear your story. You can book an interview with us on our Book a Call (https://seasonjournals.com/pages/book-call) page.
Last but not least, we take product research seriously and we interview customers and potential customers when developing our future journal ideas. You can book a product interview on the same Book a Call page. We’d love your feedback and input on what we’re creating.
Contact Info:
- Website: seasonjournals.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/seasonjournals
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seasonjournals
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/season-journals
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/seasonjournals
Image Credits
Nikki Kate Photography (Headshot and SeasonJournals-1.jpg)
