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

Daniela , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

It was January 2018 when the first Dreamerwhale post was published on Instagram.
A logo with a blue whale and a caption that started with “Hello Dreamers!!”. And that was the beginning.
The bookish community in Italy at the time was just starting to grow and bookish boxes weren’t something known yet as much as today!

One day, I stumbled upon a small business in France run by a very creative girl which made these very beautiful handmade bookish boxes – all decorated by hand one by one by herself, filled with bookish gadgets and a surprise fantasy book to read!
It was the first time I saw something like that, and thought: “Well, why not bring it to Italy? And why not do it myself?”

And so I did! It all started in my bedroom, with just 10 boxes, decorated and painted by hand one by one, doing the best I could with paper cut outs and bookish gadgets handmade by myself.
Seven years later, Dreamerwhale is the biggest bookish company here in Italy, with a market that is growing more each year also all through Europe and overseas.

If I would have to point out what it takes to be successful, I would say these 3 things:

1. Have a very clear vision that must be your own! When I first started I had a dream in mind, and I wanted to grow a business that could reflect my very personal vision. It’s not easy, because at first nobody truly understands you or believes in you, and then what happens when you start growing is that everybody then wants to jump in. They all start telling you what to do, and what they think it’s the best way to achieve success. It’s very important to always keep in mind that you are creating something new, something special and different, and what other people think success is, isn’t what you want. You must always know exactly where you’re headed and have a 10 year plan in mind – at least!

2. Create the best supportive team possible! There’s this idea of “Being successful means you are like Superwoman, managing everything by yourself and perfectly”. Nothing could be further from the truth. True success can only be achieved if you create a network of talented people that help bring your vision to life in the best way possible.
It’s not always easy to find the right supporters, and I had of course very bad experiences at first with people who actually nearly ruined Dreamerwhale. But I was fortunate enough to never give up, and keep searching.
The team we have today is made of truly talented and hardworking individuals that are the truly the backbone of our business!

3. Top-notch customer care! Our customer care is one of the things we curate the most. People who have followed Dreamerwhale since the beginning have grown in the italian bookish community with us, and are used to share their enthusiasm about our boxes with direct messages letting me personally know what they think.
It’s important to be present, to show you care very much about their feedback but especially to solve as quickly as possible any problem. If a customer knows that you will be there no matter what, they will be there for you also.

Daniela , 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’m Daniela, Ceo of Dreamerwhale, an italian bookish box company.
We specialize in fantasy ya special editions, but it’s been a couple of years we also curate romance books.

Our boxes include bookish gadgets and exclusive special editions, that are in italian language, if you get our subscription boxes, or in english language if you purchase our “Extra Boxes”.

Our bookish box has gained a lot of popularity for our very deatiled designs and original concepts, and we are very happy in bringing a very unique vision for each exclusive special edition we create!

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I’m neurodivergent and have ADHD. One of the many consequences of this is that I’m not particularly great with social skills or social cues. And my social battery in general is very low – so quite the challenge having a business like mine where I’m 24/7 having to talk to people and solve problems in the best and most effective way possible.

My normal day would consist in answering from 50 to 60 emails, and talking to publishers, artists, suppliers and of course all my team colleagues. All these people look up to me, and need very quick and effective problem solving.

How do I manage without stumbling into burn-out?
1. First, organize the day into compartments. So for example 9.00 to 12.00am: answer emails. 1.00 to 3.00pm, talk to artists and my team. I make it my priority in those hours to give them my full attention and communicate clearly what needs to be done.
Also, I make sure they always know their feedback is very important and that I trust them with what they are doing (or I woudn’t have chosen them, it’s as simple as that).

2. Second thing, I make sure there’s a good balance in their work load. On one hand, I think it’s important company deadlines are always very clear and have to necessarily be met. On the other hand, I make sure to recognize all wins, big and small. Dreamerwhale is what it is thanks to the work of each of them, so even though it can be really challenging and stressful, I think when we see how happy customers are of the final result, it is the best reward possible.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

There was this moment, 2 or 3 years ago, where I almost gave up and thought Dreamerwhale was at a dead-end.
It all happened at once: gadget costs went up, production timing was taking longer and longer each month, negative reviews were piling up, sales were going down and nothing seemed to work anymore.
On top of all this, collaborators at the time that I had trusted for many years were making everything worse, making it impossible to work and solve the situation.

I really thought there was no solution at the time and had a very severe burn-out episode that made me totally unable to work for various months. I was thinking of giving up.
But then one day things changed and something in me clicked.
I remember I went from a shadow version of myself with no hope to actually being just…furious.
With everything and everyone, myself included. I told myself this would not be the end, and I woudn’t let anybody bring Dreamerwhale down and I would do everything I could to make the company flourish again.

So I cut away all those negative people that were making it impossible to work effectively. And I changed completely everything, keeping in mind once again my vision and what I wanted.
It was difficult at first, but it worked. And Dreamerwhale hasn’t stopped growing since.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dreamerwhale.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dreamerwhaleboxes/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Dreamerwhale-100078179242312/?locale=it_IT
• Other: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dreamerwhaleboxes?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc