We were lucky to catch up with Alanna Knobben recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Alanna, 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?
Carry You With Me came from a phrase that I would write over and over again in my journal after losing my son Marshall at two weeks old. In the first year after losing Marshall, I began writing in a journal a friend had gifted me. It became a new way of communicating with my son and with myself. Looking back at the entries over that first year, they all seemed to have the phrase “I will carry you with me” or some version of it within the text.
When I wrote the first version of the Carry You With Me storybook, and years later decided to bring it to the world, I knew the title of the book and the name of my business had to be Carry You With Me. It embodies my deep beliefs and what I hope to inspire in others, that I will always carry my son with me.
Alanna, 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?
I am the author and founder of Carry You With Me. Day to day, I work as a community builder, creator and grief educator. My journey to becoming a grief educator and parent advocate started over a decade ago when our son, Marshall James, passed away in our arms at two weeks old in 2010. Marshall’s life was a precious gift and from his seed the roots of Carry You With Me began to grow.
I created the Carry You With Me Storybook celebrating all the ways we carry him with us. I founded a growing online Community for bereaved parents to find support, connection and inspiration. The Community is an easily accessible and safe place to learn and share with other’s walking this path where we explore themes, insights, activities and host guest speakers throughout the year. The CYWM Online Program – Navigating Life After Loss was created to offer a much deeper dive to support others in transforming their grief and cherishing the love that remains after pregnancy, infant and child loss.
The Carry You With Me Online Program offers a unique and immersive online experience. There are so many things that are not said, shared or expected when stepping into life after loss. I spent several years reflecting on a decade after loss, unpacking my experience and finding language and a platform to communicate it, knowing I could serve others more deeply. To make addressing things, like triggers, physical pains, communication, conflict, relationships, healing and finding joy again easier. Not offering to take the pain away, but to help people work with it and balance living in both the joy and the pain. It was something I wished I would have had when we lost our son. I needed something that was on my own timeline and pace. It is hard to “schedule”in your grief work at specific times when typical services are available or for a scheduled group. I wanted to know I wasn’t crazy and find access to insights and techniques that would help me when I was feeling consumed by my grief in the middle of the night, after a tear filled shower, or being triggered by a song in the car, in unexpected and unplanned times. It is built as a complimentary resource to access from your own place and at your own pace. Combining stories, research and tools to help bereaved parents connect with their story and empower their steps forward.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
The value exchange in offerings and pricing. Working in a field of grief and loss, it has been an ongoing evolution to feel confident and comfortable in valuing and pricing my offerings to create an aligned exchange with the consumers I serve. As this business is tied to so closely to the heart (as I wager most small businesses are at some level) in addition to experience and passion, I have had to tap into external resources such as courses, coaches and conversations to unlearn the beliefs and fears I had about charging for the services I offer. Learning from others who have walked this path offers new approaches to help me navigate decisions and direction for my business as I grow as an owner and a person.
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
Connection is a huge part of growing a business and can be a tricky thing to figure out. I am still working on it and always looking for new approaches. There are a few ways I have built up over the past few years for connecting with clients and fostering brand loyalty but the top ones that I continue to work at are a weekly newsletter, the online community, direct message voice notes, and the hidden heart community challenge.
Creating a weekly newsletter to communicate with my community allows me to stay connected while sharing recent updates, product and service highlights, meaningful insights and share more about me personally.
A simple and easy idea is connecting with new members on social media or within the community through voice messages. I find reaching out with a quick and authentic voice direct message, hello and welcome, is a well received way to connect with others. It helps new members to connect with me as a real, live, person instead of just a brand.
Across all platforms, I created a community challenge called “The Hidden Heart Challenge”. Signs and symbols can play a big part in connecting with our loved ones that have passed and in working with our grief. In our family we began to look for little hidden hearts that would show up throughout the day in water droplets, the shape of foods, clouds, patterns, rocks, etc. The hearts became a reminder of the love that remains and felt like little love notes. I expanded our families search to the broader Carry You With Me Community and “The Hidden Heart Challenge” began. I now get notes, texts, tagged in posts from members around the globe of the hidden hearts they find in their lives. It is simple, sweet and aligns 100% with what Carry You With Me is all about from our double heart logo to the whole mission and foundation of the brand. It is a beautiful way for our customers to be involved with the mission and values of it all.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://carryyouwithme.com
- Instagram: @carryyou.withme
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carryyouwithme
- Youtube: @carryyouwithme
- Other: www.carryyouwithmecommunity.com