We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alyssa Ficcaglia. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alyssa below.

Alyssa, appreciate you joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

Lemon Squeezy came to be from the saying ”when life gives you lemons make lemonade”- a phrase I’m all too familiar with. Business ownership wasn’t in my original plan; I was following my “dream” of becoming a journalist when, on a whim, I started selling handmade decor as a way to be creative and make a little extra money. Two months into launching my Etsy shop, I was laid off. Unable to find a new job, I dove into entrepreneurship, transforming my hobby into a thriving business over two years. After that, I decided to shake things up and welcomed my son in 2021 but unexpected challenges soon followed.

My journey into motherhood started out on rough waters. I thought I was prepared for it all and naively thought “I’ll be back at it in a month tops”. For months I could barely leave the couch and since using power tools with a baby strapped to my chest was out of the question, my business came to a screeching halt. Feeling out of options, an opportunity to design a logo appeared. Making a pivot into graphic design, Lemon Squeezy was born two years later.

Life has a way of throwing you lemons when you least expect them, but it is what you do with those lemons that sets the tone for your next chapter. My business thrived not in spite of life’s lemons but because of them.

Alyssa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a full time stay at home mama to a toddler and proud owner of a growing brand studio. I got into logo and brand design in 2021, but originally was selling handmade decor on Etsy and before that I was pursuing a career in Journalism. Branding is basically visual storytelling, and with my background in Journalism, it just has felt like the perfect fit. I get to be creative and help business owners share the unique and inspiring stories behind their businesses, through the compelling visuals that I design for them. I get to help them transform their life’s unexpected twists into extraordinary brands.

But most important is I take a lot of pride making sure my client’s experience with working with me is as stress free as possible. My process is easy peasy because business owners have enough to worry about day to day, and don’t need me adding more to their plate. I really value collaboration between the client and I, and always want them to feel like they are being heard.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

As mentioned before, my business actually started out as a handmade decor Etsy Shop. It grew to be bigger than I ever imagined and we really had a lot of success those first two years in business. I have always been a really hard worker and never really took time to establish a good work/life balance. So, I think going into maternity leave 2021, I was very naive in thinking that my business would be able to return to operating business as usual quickly after my son was born. That ended up not being the case and I wasn’t prepared for it.

I had a really tough postpartum experience. There were times when I could barely leave the couch or put my son down, and this went on for months. It became clear very quickly that my business could no longer be what it was. I couldn’t continue the woodworking aspect of my business and that is all we did. I didn’t have a back up plan and started scrambling to find a solution. I was launching new products and coming up with new ideas every week. In a way I was throwing everything I could at the wall in hopes something would stick.  During that time, I had redid my own personal logo and that actually got the attention of a few other businesses who wanted logos created for them. That was like a light at the end of a tunnel for me and things took off from there. I really fell in love with brand and website design. I began learning everything I could about it. I watched a ton of YouTube videos, took some online courses, joined Facebook groups for graphic design/brand design, and learned through other designers on TikTok. The rest of history as they say. I truly believe everything happens for a reason, and when life gives you lemons you should try to make lemonade.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Not sure this qualifies as content, but it is worth sharing because it changed everything for me and my business.  I truly think the best thing I ever did was hiring a business mentor. I recently worked with one, who was someone I had followed on TikTok for a while in the creative service industry, and he was instrumental in helping me work past some mindset issues, and get to the core of what my business is all about and what my goals are. Finding someone in your industry who has already gone through a lot of the struggles you have and can give you insight on how to work through it is life changing. It can be hard to see what you need to do when you are in the thick of it, and your business is like your baby so your judgement can get clouded by that sometimes. Having a fresh set of eyes looking from the outside in can be really beneficial for your growth. You will find more often than not that people want to help others succeed. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or to ask for help when you need it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lemonsqueezybrands.com
• Instagram: @lemonsqueezybrands
• Facebook: @lemonsqueezybrands
• Other: TikTok: @lemonsqueezybrands

Image Credits
Carina Danielle