Today we’re excited to be connecting with Kristin Sremba again. We’re excited to feature one of their products in our gift guide – learn more below and we encourage you to use your gift budget to support small businesses & creatives whenever possible.

Kristin, thanks for joining us again. We’re so excited to have a product focused conversation today. Can you bring our readers up to speed on the product side?
I started Happy Thoughts by Kristin ® to promote more self-love and healing through handwritten affirmations I call Happy Thoughts. Happy Thoughts started on mirrors many years ago to help through dark thoughts. After starting a business, I battled anxiety by writing those thoughts from my mirrors on paper and handed them to everyone I met. While selling and Happy Thoughting, the idea for a Happy Thought product was born!

Happy Thoughts by Kristin ® is a 365 page deck; each page holds an uplifting and empowering affirmation from an inspiring human. There are no dates, so you can start/stop/pause when you want, have one every day, or just give them away! Happy Thoughts can be put in cards, lunchboxes, street meters, restaurant checks, mirrors, bulletin boards, under windshield wipers, and more! They’re being used in classrooms, offices, wellness spaces, treatment centers, hospitals, and simply given to family, friends or strangers.

There is a simple spark of connection created when giving someone a Happy Thought; I guarantee sharing Happy Thoughts will change your day! I’m now offering a 100% money back guarantee :)

What’s been the most exciting part of the journey of taking this product from idea to real life?
Happy Thoughts turned into a product in the most genuine and haphazard way and I am just SO happy to be on this ride! I quit my career to start a business 3+ years ago and started selling knit and sewn goods. I’d been writing affirmations on my mirrors for 10+ years to help me through hard thoughts and I started writing those thoughts down on little pieces of paper to help me feel brave enough to go sell my handmade things. I handed out over 100,000 Happy Thoughts in 3 years and those free Happy Thoughts are what created this product.

The process of learning printing and business was tumultuous at best, but in two years, Happy Thoughts went from a thought to selling 4,000+ units in 10 states! I live in a van with my cats now and travel selling Happy Thoughts. We are now selling online at thehappythoughtproject.com, Amazon, and Faire for wholesale!

Have you tried any fun, non-traditional marketing ideas? If so, we’d love to hear the story and details.
Handing out Happy Thoughts has turned into such an inadvertent marketing hack. As I was handing out Happy Thoughts, a person looked at the blank back of the paper and said “you really should have your business info on here,” and I thought “yes, that’s very true!” I now have a QR code on the back of each Happy Thought that goes to all my Happy Thought links, every person who gets a Happy Thought has access to Happy Thought information on social media, my podcast (Happy Thoughts Podcast) and online ordering!

Do you have any advice for folks who are just starting out?
To anyone starting something, GOOD JOB FOR STARTING! Trying doesn’t get enough credit.

Starting is just another word for trying. It is so scary to put your own creation and thoughts out into the world! My biggest advice, and really the only thing we’re actually capable of, is to just take tiny steps. One of the Happy Thoughts says “just do the next right thing, one thing at a time.” (Glennon Doyle) The big moments are just of a bunch of tiny unremarkable moments. Having a thought, writing them down, or just talking about your ideas are such big little steps. Figuring out what doesn’t work is just as valuable as figuring out what does. If you’ve missed the mark, you’re trying to get there! That’s not nothin. Give yourself hugs. We don’t get a bulls eye without missing the entire board dozens of times.

Image Credits
Photos by Dominique Duba