We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kyrsti Wess a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kyrsti, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
I started Luxe + Linen as a side project while working full-time, and it quickly turned in to the desire and dream to turn it into a full-time business for myself. From a young age, I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, and over the years I started (and failed) to maintain different small businesses. The thing is, I never saw my past businesses as failures; I learned something valuable from each one I started. The experience I received from running these businesses, as well as the experience I was gaining during my full-time corporate jobs along the way, paved the path for me to arrive to where I am today. This is how I see success and what it takes to be successful: learnings instead failures, and persistence instead of defeat. I believe in the mindset that failure is not an option, and that you must keep trying until something sticks with the audience you want to reach. Always keep an open mind to receiving and, most importantly, accepting feedback from those who give it; whether it’s positive or negative, it will always give you insight and perspective. Stay current on the ever-evolving trends in your industry, respect like-minded businesses, and always find a way to provide a value-add to your clients that sets apart your brand from the rest. I believe that successful people aren’t always smarter or more creative than the rest; I believe that they simply have a resilient mindset and unwavering willpower to achieve success and therefore eventually will.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Kyrsti and I’m the founder of Luxe + Linen, a boutique event signage company based in Orange County, California. I design and handcraft custom and semi-custom signage for weddings, events, and businesses using unique materials including raw stone, marble, leather, and linen to offer a one-of-a-kind, personalized touch for events of all sizes. I come from a professional background in digital marketing, branding, sales, and residential interior design, which has all lent a hand towards my passion for creating aesthetic, detail-focused products. My heart has always gravitated towards events and the limitless possibilities for design potential within each celebration. One of my personal passions is hosting events for my friends and family, and curating the decorative details has always been my favorite part of the process.
I started Luxe + Linen as I was planning my own wedding, and in a way I fell into the business. For my wedding, I wanted to incorporate natural elements to reflect my personal style of bringing the outside indoors in a clean and modern way, and because I was planning a micro wedding, it made the most sense for me to hand-make many of the details that I envisioned. I started playing around with a few different designs, and ended up with quite a bit of excess materials as I was deciding which details to use for my wedding. I had the idea of putting a few of these extra products up on Etsy in the meantime to make a little extra money for my wedding, and I quickly fell in love with the idea of starting a whole brand around those products. I will forever feel lucky that the first three items I listed on my Etsy shop sold incredibly fast, and kickstarted the whirlwind of Luxe + Linen that became my first year in business (and the same year I got married!).
As a brand, Luxe + Linen was founded upon the desire to bring curated, one-of-a-kind details to beautiful weddings and events. The purpose behind Luxe + Linen will always be to help others bring their vision to life by creating details that feel uniquely theirs; hand-curated to make their events stand out for years to come. At the heart of each product created for Luxe + Linen are the benchmarks of the brand: crafted to inspire, designed with intention, and rooted in elevated aesthetics – all while playing off the beauty and texture of natural materials. Each product is designed for those who want their guests to have an experience that feels thoughtful and breathtaking while leaving a lasting impression. Think of Luxe + Linen like your cool-girl bestie who always turns everything into an aesthetic ‘moment’ and is here to handle all of your event and wedding details for you!
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
I started Luxe + Linen while I was planning my own wedding and working full time. The joy and fulfillment that I received from connecting with so many amazing brides, wedding planners, and other vendors through Luxe + Linen fueled my spirit to continue creating for like-minded clients and grow the brand into what it is today. During the day, I worked my 8am to 6pm job, followed by daily errands and cooking before I started working on Luxe + Linen from 10pm until oftentimes 3am. As Luxe + Linen grew, I began both waking up early and staying up late (in addition to working on weekends), just to manage my orders around my full time job (all the while planning my own wedding!). During my lunch breaks from my full-time job, I would answer emails and inquiries for Luxe + Linen, and put together designs for my clients. When I first started the business, I was making all of the products by-hand with my Cricut vinyl cutting machine, as well renting time with the laser cutting machine at the MakerSpace of my local library. I quickly realized that this was not sustainable if I wanted to scale the business and stay ahead of my growing order queue, so I began to research both new machinery that I could fit into my home workshop, as well as ways to refine my creation processes and materials to keep things moving at a quicker pace of production. It took two full years to grow and scale the business (and many sleepless nights) before I decided to focus my full intentions on Luxe + Linen. I am still very much in the growing phase, and have been so thankful for all of my clients and industry partners who have allowed Luxe + Linen to expand so quickly!
How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.
I utilize a multi-prong approach through the power of Etsy and social media alongside my own website. I come from a background in marketing and sales, and I believe the best way to reach your audience is to meet them where they’re at. It’s important to jump into the mindset of your customers; to determine where they are already shopping, and where they are already looking for inspiration (in my case, for their events and weddings). As I was planning my own wedding at the time that I started my business, I was in a way my own test client. I scrolled for hours through Instagram and TikTok for decor ideas, and pinned countless photos on Pinterest to determine the aesthetic of my wedding. The reason I chose to launch my business both on my own website and on Etsy was from past experience owning previous businesses on both platforms. I was very familiar with the benefits of SEO (search visibility) on Etsy, as well as the knowledge of it being a place to connect with many brides-to-be. My website is the connection between social media and Etsy, as it helps showcase more of the brand purpose and promise and mirrors the products that are listed on Etsy for a cohesive brand across the internet no matter where my clients experience us.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.luxeandlinen.com
- Instagram: @luxeandlinen
- Other: TikTok: @luxeandlinen
