Emily McDowell: Irreverent Art With a Huge Heart.

Nov 28, 2016

Ask episode

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

Emily McDowell is a writer, illustrator, and entrepreneur who specializes in chronicling the human condition.

In 2012, she left a successful career in advertising to launch her greeting card line, making cards for the relationships we actually have. Now a multimillion-dollar stationery and gift company, Emily McDowell Studio products are sold online and in nearly 2,000 stores worldwide.

In 2015, Emily’s Empathy Cards, designed to help people connect around serious illness and loss, struck a nerve around the world and gave people a way into conversations that seemed brutally hard to begin and deepen into.

Her first book, There Is No Good Card For This: What To Say and Do When Life Gets Scary, Awful, and Unfair To People You Love, will be released in January 2017.

In today's conversation, we take a step back in time, explore the experiences in her younger life that were defining moments, revealing who she really was and how Emily began to connect with an irreverent blend of art and humor that touches so many.

We explore what happened when she was diagnosed with cancer at a very young age and watched friends struggle to figure out how to be there for her. We dive into how she compartmentalized this experience, seeking to not let it define her, both as a person and, soon enough in art and business. We also track the launch and growth of her company and her recent move to rework the business in order to not just serve a "customer" need, but also give her what she needs, the ability to do the work that most lights her up.

Mentioned in this Episode:

+++

The 108: Conscious Business Collective - Entrepreneurship is lonely. To build what you're here to build, not just in business but in life, you need people. Nobody does it alone. The 108 is a conscious business collective of entrepreneurs helping each other rise. Move into 2017 with a powerful new family of allies, mentors, champions and collaborators as you work to build a living and a life on a profoundly different level. Learn more now.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.