Welcome back to Selfmade Stories, our series with Office Depot OfficeMax where we speak to emerging entrepreneurs from our virtual business course Selfmade. This week, we chat with Cari Abaunza, the force behind Well-Made Heart — a creative wellness business specializing in helping women in creative fields avoid burnout — on the importance of thoroughly researching your target audience (however niche it may be) and how listening is the key to truly understanding their needs.
B + C: If you were at a dinner party describing Well-Made Heart to a guest, what would your elevator pitch be?
Cari Abaunza: Well-Made Heart is a creative wellness business specializing in helping creative entrepreneurs avoid creative burnout through wellness practices, resources, and coaching.
B + C: Where did the inspiration for Well-Made Heart come from?
Abaunza: WMH actually started as a DIY blog back in 2015, however, my desire was always to merge the idea of working with your hands as a therapeutic approach as well as the creative benefits.
B + C: Where were you in your own life when the idea struck?
Abaunza: Once I stopped DIY blogging, I still had the desire to keep WMH alive in some way. It wasn't until seeing the repeating pattern of creative burnout in my life, and one particular job that really pushed me to the edge, that I realized that I wanted to finally move WMH into that creative wellness space.
B + C: What did you feel was missing from the marketplace that led you to Well-Made Heart?
Abaunza: I know there are tons of coaches out there, and plenty of creative businesses, but I wanted something specific for creatives that would help them continue to pursue their creative calling. Burnout is a topic everywhere, but narrowing this down to just creative burnout felt like the area I really wanted to focus on.
B + C: I imagine there’s a LOT of research involved in launching your business. Can you walk us through your process for gathering info/data/research and how that’s being used to develop Well-Made Heart?
Abaunza: Yes! It started with gathering my own creative burnout experiences, understanding how I have managed to work through and overcome it, and then building a framework. From there it has been about researching all there is to know about creativity, the challenges creatives face in their work, and of course, understanding the basis for burnout. I'm in the process of talking to creatives to understand what they truly need while in burnout and how best to help them through it.
B + C: What are some of the key challenges that your business is trying to solve for women?
Abaunza: In this day there are still more men than women in leadership positions in the creative fields. Many women get so burned out that they drop out or stop pursuing their creativity early on. My desire is to help more women continue pursuing their creative passions by helping them learn about creative burnout, recognize the symptoms and what to do, and develop an overall creative wellness lifestyle so that they can go further in their creative careers.
B + C: How do you imagine your business to look?
Abaunza: At this point, it's a coaching business but eventually, it will be a brand that sells guided journals, cards, and other paper goods to help creatives thrive in their creativity.
B + C: What stage of the business launching process are you at and what are some of the challenges you are facing at the moment?
Abaunza: Right now I am setting up my coaching services. This means getting certified as a coach, learning how to put together an offer, and learning how to market myself. This in itself is a challenge!
B + C: And what are some of the breakthroughs or successes you've experienced that's propelled you forward?
Abaunza: Gaining clarity in the steps to my final goal. I didn't set out to first be a creative coach, however, the more I worked into how I wanted to understand my audience the more I realized that I wanted to have one-on-ones before creating material to help them. So this has helped solidify my business plan.
B + C: Creative burnout may look different for folks depending on where they are in their personal lives or their careers. When it comes to Well-Made Heart, how do you define “creative” and what are the different ways women of all creative stripes can benefit from your service?
Abaunza: Creative burnout may look different but often has the same underlying tones and symptoms. As Well-Made Heart, I define "creative" as anyone who works or participates in arts and expression whether as an entrepreneur, employed, or hobbyist. This can be through the arts (such as writing, painting, designing) or through other areas such as ideation, social media, content creation, etc. Creative burnout isn't limited by how you create, rather it can strike any creative at any time, from the master to the newbie; the small business owner to the side hustler. My hope is to educate, support, and coach all creatives in ways they can avoid burnout, develop lifelong creative wellness practices, and essentially thrive in their creative calling.
B + C: Can you explain more in-depth about what the MWH guided journal is and how you came to develop this?
Abaunza: When I first started with Selfmade I had an idea that I wanted to create a course for those in creative burnout. After polling many creative women working in art and design fields, I came to the conclusion that in fact, they did NOT want a course. This was an overwhelming concept to them while in burnout. So instead, I decided on a guided journal that could be worked through slowly and that would also have the ability to QR scan certain pages that would lead to small snippets of teaching. With creative burnout, rest is essential. I figured a guided journal would be a balance of rest, self-awareness, and teaching all in one.
B + C: For you, how do you balance the creative aspects with the business aspects?
Abaunza: As a creative myself I have found that this has been a challenge. I finally had to make a schedule for myself and allow my early mornings to be about creativity such as painting and writing, and my mid-mornings to afternoons to be about business.
B + C: What do you hope women will get out of Well-Made Heart?
Abaunza: I hope that in finding WMH and interacting that they will come to understand the importance of creative wellness in their lives and how crucial it can be to create boundaries to protect your creativity.
B + C: How have you approached marketing your brand and raising awareness?
Abaunza: At this point I'm developing one aspect at a time, which means for now I'm establishing my Instagram and will then move further onto other social platforms more in-depth.
B + C: What are some of the ways you maintain your mental health or ways you stay focused while embarking on your entrepreneurial journey?
Abaunza: I have to constantly evaluate how I am feeling and assess my nervous system while also remembering what my end goal is. I can lose sight quickly when I feel overwhelmed. Learning to find what is essential and to choose to take things off my plate that are unnecessary has been most helpful.
B + C: What’s the best piece of professional advice you’ve ever received that you would pass on to others?
Abaunza: Probably to choose to see what is essential over what is nonessential and to make a choice for less but better.
B + C: Who or what keeps you inspired?
Abaunza: I think I've had a desire for building this for so long that I just keep remembering that and putting one foot in front of the other.
B + C: What has receiving the scholarship to Selfmade done to help you grow your business?
Abaunza: Receiving the scholarship helped me take a tiny idea and turn it into my now reality. Without Selfmade's weekly accountability, meeting of amazing entrepreneurs, great support and teaching, and of course, my admittance into the program with help from Office Depot OfficeMax, I know I would not be as far along on my business as I am today.
B + C: How have Office Depot OfficeMax services/products helped you accomplish more in your business?
Abaunza: I purchased a printer right away, which has already helped me in printing documents for my business! And I hope to also get other necessary paper products.
B + C: What's next for Well-Made Heart?
Abaunza: Next is taking on one-on-one clients, building out the coaching portion of the business, and eventually prototyping the guided journal and material for clients to experience.
Thanks Cari! You can follow Well-Made Heart on Instagram.
Outfitting your work space with the right tools can make all the difference when it comes to creating a successful business (see: Cari’s printer). Office Depot OfficeMax can help you get there — from signs, posters, and banners to promote your business, to marketing materialsto keep your customers informed, there’s a full suite of business services and solutions available to get your business rolling.
