We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Caressa Cameron – Jackson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Caressa below.

Caressa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?

I’ve learned over the years that you cannot pour from an empty cup. As a wedding planner it was really easy to fall into patterns where I was constantly accessible to my couples, or feel like if I stepped away for even a moment things would fall apart. What I soon found out is by not stepping away I often ended up feeling burnt out & not being able to show up as my best self in any area of my life. It is with that in mind that I consciously pause to take time for myself & I’ve created boundaries on my time. As tempting as it may be to want to answer an inquiry at 10pm when I hear my phone ping, I know that rest & reset is vital to keeping my brain sharp. As easy as it would be to answer e-mails while my kids are in the pool, I know that is more important to them that I actually get in. As business owners we have to trust a few things:
1. Automation can be our friend, set-up those auto reply’s that give your clients a reasonable expectation of when they can expect to hear from you or receive a product. Set times in you work day that you commit to production, follow-up e-mails, in-person meetings, calls or virtual appointments. When that time is up, honor your rest boundary & start again tomorrow.
2,We KNOW what we are doing, & we have created these business to showcase our expertise. People are seeking us because of the quality of our products or services. Rest in that. What is the point of not “punching a clock” if you aren’t going to utilize the freedom being a business owner should provide.
3. Your client is YOUR client, if you think that you will lose a client because you do not reply to a correspondence that comes in at 1am, they may not have been your ideal client anyway.

Caressa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My entire life I’ve been a naturally meticulous person, and I’ve always believed the best way you can share and express love is through making people feel as though you have planned and prepared the way for them. If you think about it, that’s truly the magic of the Holidays!

I spent the beginning of my professional career curating events for National Non-Profit Organizations in Washington D.C. and on the weekends, purely for the love of it, I’d take the lead planning the milestone events of my friends and family. It was in the moments of watching the faces of the people I love the most light up that Caressed By Design was born at the intersection of creativity, love and logistics.

​Caressed By Design exist so that our clients can enjoy the fun parts of planning and leave the stress behind. Our clients depend on us to make their planning process stress-free and to discover what will make their day uniquely special. We make design and planning simple for our clients – and simple isn’t easy.

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Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

As I shared before, my background was in event management for non-profits. It was through executing events for friends & family that my first set of real referrals came in. Eventually my husband said to me “you are really good at this and your weekend is full to the brim executing events, you should really explore branching out on your own”. It wasn’t until a year later I was actually ready to make that step. What pushed me toward it was finding out was pregnant with our first child. I knew I wanted the flexibility of being there for my kids in the early years without having to go into an office everyday but I didn’t necessarily want to stop having my own income and completely surrender to being a Stay At Home Mom (all hail those queens!) For the first year of my sons life I spent it researching business loans, investing in marketing opportunities, website building & trade shows. I only took 6 clients that year. The next year I sat down and created my first set of S,M.A.R.T goals with a specific target of growing my client base by 50%. As a hungry business owner I ended up increasing my client base by 225%. While most people would view that as a success, for me it made me realize I needed to restructure my business to cater to a specific sort of client (of those couples maybe 75% were really my “ideal” client). I have now tailed my business to be boutique company, where my staff & I take on a limited amount of clients & only clients that align with our overall vision as a company.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

As a milestone brand we take time each year to honor our clients on their special day(s) via social media, an e-mail, a personal call or a card when time permits. In addition, we offer a brand loyalty program where they receive some sort of value added to every event they plan with us. For example when on of our wedding couples chooses us later in life to host a birthday party, baby shower, graduation etc. we offer them special gifts or even discounts on certain services where applicable.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.caressedbydesign.com
• Instagram: @caressedbydesign
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=caressa%20cameron-jackson%2Fcaressed%20by%20design
• Twitter: @CaressedXDesign