We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Akiko Strock a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Akiko, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

When I was coming up with the name for my business I knew it had to be something meaningful. It needed to be genuine and authentic to what my aim is for my entire business. When I take a step back and look at my big ‘why’ for my business, it goes back to my big why for everything I do in my life, and that is the glory of God. You see, I am a Christian and the aim of my business is to provide tools for my fellow Christians to aid them in their journey with God. And so as I was developing the name of my business I wanted to center my focus on what I believe is, arguably, the central theme to Christianity and that is ‘newness.’ Jesus, through His life, death, and resurrection, provides a new life and a new birth to those who place their faith in Him. When talking about the development of my business name I would be remiss if I didn’t include the mom-in-me portion that sort of flowed into it. For those who don’t know I’m a mom and my children are so dear to me, and so, every morning when my kids and I wake up I open the blinds and say, “Thank You Lord for a new day!” So, I decided to call my business “New Day 2!” Within that name is a question- or questions. The question is today is a new day to…? You get to fill in the blank! God blessed us with a new day, now what will we do with it? How can we draw closer to God and live out our purpose? The question is really open-ended.

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.

I got into having my own business because I wanted to spend more time with my children as well as contribute to my family’s income. I have also had a passion for ministry and helping others get closer to God. When I was choosing what I wanted to sell I wanted it to be something that can help people read their Bible more and pray more. So I started with creating journals. When I first started reading the Bible I had a journal to write down verses and how God was using those verses in my life. Since writing scripture down is so helpful to studying and memorizing the scriptures I wanted to create a Bible study journal. I also created my one of a kind Prayer and Answer journal. The significance of this journal is that not only is one to write down their prayers, but also their prayer’s corresponding answers from God! It serves as a special record of one’s journey with God and how He chose to answer someone’s prayers.
But the problem came when I couldn’t find a printing company to print in color with spiral bindings. Really, its double loop wire bindings (a little prettier than spiral). So I started printing and binding my journals myself! Then I started reaching out to other journal retailers who had similar issues. Instead of going to China, I provided USA made wholesale journals to other businesses. I was able to offer color interior, hard and soft covers, and beautiful double loop wire bindings-something that was hard to find at an affordable price.
I am very proud of the fact that I am able to design, print, and bind all types of journals, even custom journals, for people for both retail as well as wholesale.
Soon enough my printing and journaling business flourished into a boutique. I began selling books, Bibles, tote bags, home decor and many other products that encourage one’s faith.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

In my business I had a time where I had to pivot. I wanted to sell retail but success wasn’t over night. As I was looking for printers to print my journals I had a hard time getting what I wanted without sacrificing most of my profit margin. I refused to take my business to China, so I had my first couple journals printed by print shops. I was limited in my options including getting colored interior and getting double loop wire bindings. I decided to learn how to create journals on my own and bought the equipment to do it. I was very happy with the outcomes because not only could I choose colored interior as well as beautiful double loop wire bindings, but I could get matte, glossy, semi-glossy, soft, or hard covers! I realized this was probably a common pain point for other businesses making and selling their own journals. So I decided to start doing wholesale journals and charge other businesses a fraction of what they could purchase from other print shops. I’ll admit doing wholesale isn’t as glamorous as doing retail but it has it’s perks, such as not having to be as present on social media. You get to be behind the scenes of other businesses, but it was nice for me because I was helping others as well as making a profit.
Another time I decided to kinda pivot was when I made the decision to not only be an ecommerce business. I am from Colorado, and we have stores called Painted Tree here. At Painted Tree you can rent out space and sell your merchandise there. I am renting out space in both the Northglenn location, as well as the Colorado Springs one. It’s been a challenge to having a physical location, because you have to keep up with inventory and what not, but its been really nice to give my customers a chance to touch and feel my products before buying them.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I keep in touch with clients and foster band loyalty through a few ways. One is email marketing. Emailing customers is a great way of rewarding them for their loyal subscription. They get to see what’s new in my business, and sometimes I send an encouraging email without putting any call to action, just to let them know I care. Through emails I’ll invite my customers to share their prayer requests to build a sense of community. Another way is through keeping a blog. Blog posts is where I talk about Biblical topics and provide a deeper study of specific scriptures. These blog posts are a way to brand my business so that customers see that we at NewDay2 really see things from a larger picture and that God and His Word are what is most important. The products I sell are just an invitation to bring people into that bigger picture and serve as tools to foster and value the importance of Gods word. Another way is through social media. There, I can engage with customers and create more community that is centered around NewDay2’s mission. Another thing I do to foster brand loyalty is to have plenty of handcrafted items and items that are designed by me. For example, during Christmas I created an Advent Calendar. And on Easter I created a rhyming book all about Jesus. Both of these books can only be found by NewDay2. So when I design my own products, as opposed to purchasing at wholesale and reselling (which I do some as well, and is not a bad thing), I provide my customers with an item that is unique to my business. Plus, these books really help to nurture family devotional time which is central to NewDay2’s purpose.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.newday2.com/
• Instagram: newday2byakiko
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087286670395
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akiko-strock-1a20a8370
• Youtube: UCZLGxiVRWuzfizna6U1xEXw
• Yelp: https://biz.yelp.com/home/kVCnOTCgrFlq6AgCbWDh-g/

Image Credits

Eileen Sumerlin Grace 1895 Photography