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

Heather, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

My current business wasn’t an intentional plan – it was more of a happy accident. I started my entrepreneurial path as a pediatric sleep consultant in 2019, but today, I manufacture and sell ADHD-friendly products that help people manage their whole life, simply.

After having my second child and while launching my consulting business, I found myself struggling to juggle motherhood, entrepreneurship, and daily life. Despite trying many, none of the planners I tried worked for me, Out of frustration, I created my own. For 2.5 years, I used and refined it, tweaking the design until it was exactly what I needed. In 2022, I turned it into a product that would support moms in my consulting business.

The following year, I was diagnosed with ADHD in 2023. Receiving my ADHD diagnosis was like a lightening bolt and everything finally made sense. My struggles weren’t just about motherhood – I had been white-knuckling through life with undiagnosed ADHD. I knew others were facing similar challenges and that my planner could help.

Though I never planned to shift from consulting to products, I couldn’t stop talking about the planner. It was unlike anything else on the market. Last year, as I reflected on my 2024 goals, I knew I had to go all in on products. Nine months ago, I rebranded as Calluna Creative. After months of designing and manufacturing, I launched an expanded product line last fall, including planners, notebooks, productivity notepads, and stickers.

What sets Calluna Creative apart is the quality materials and simplicity of design. Calluna Creative’s products allow for messy, jumbled brains while creating structure within the chaos. Customers and retailers rave about the luxurious paper, the flexibility of an undated planner, and the unique, yet functional, format of our products.

Heather, 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’m Heather Reed, Founder of Calluna Creative, a paper goods company that embraces the unique needs of ADHD thinkers—helping them stay organized while prioritizing their well-being.

Before starting my business, I spent 13 years in the interior design, commercial construction, and real estate project management fields in corporate America. Though I stumbled into my current path, it feels like the perfect combination of my skills applied in a new way.

After my ADHD diagnosis in 2023, I realized my success as a project manager came from developing organizational systems that worked for my brain. Meanwhile, many entrepreneurs and clients struggled with challenges I had already navigated and overcome.

With Calluna Creative’s first collection, I focused on the most common frustrations: managing daily life, boosting productivity, maintaining self-care, overcoming task paralysis, and tackling big projects.

A key feature of my products is their simplicity. ADHD brains can be overwhelmed by excessive colors, patterns, and fonts, so my planners and notepads feature clean black-and-white layouts. This allows users to add color coding, stickers, or patterns in ways that work for them—I personally love color coding my planner!

I take great pride in manufacturing in the USA, with many products made just 15 minutes from my home by another small business. Ethical, local sourcing and high-quality materials are core to Calluna Creative’s brand.

Five years ago, I never would have imagined that I would have created this business. The tenacity and determination it’s taken has shown me that I can do anything I set my mind to – and my products exist to show you that you can, too!

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

Manufacturing is a complex process—one I’ve spent countless hours researching over the last 3 years. While I don’t personally manufacture my products, I’ve carefully chosen ethical partners in the US who pay livable wages to their teams versus outsourcing to China.

I started selling the Say Yes To You Planner as a print-on-demand product 2.5 years ago, which minimized financial risk. This decision also allowed me to refine the design based on customer feedback before investing in higher-quality printing and stocking inventory.

When I was ready to sell to retailers, finding the right printing company took time. Switching manufacturers at this stage meant reformatting all planner layouts due to differing print requirements for the new manufacturer. My first batch of Wire-O bound planners was also a sharp increase in manufacturing cost compared to the print on demand version. After meeting with my first retailer, I was quickly humbled to find out that the manufacturing costs were too high for wholesale.

Frustrated but determined, I searched for a U.S.-based manufacturer that could produce a high-quality planner at half the cost – quite the challenge! After extensive research, I found the perfect partner that offered the size, print options, and paper quality I needed. To my surprise, the paper quality was even better than my first manufacturer’s!

Manufacturing partners are crucial to a brand’s success. Had I done more wholesale research before finalizing my designs, I could have saved a lot of time. However, I’ve learned a lot from it and ultimately, the process led me to the right partners which I’m so grateful for.

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

One of the biggest challenges in launching Calluna Creative was funding it without investors. Every expense – rebranding, product development, inventory, website updates and more – came directly from the business. This required me to be scrappy and creative.

When my original product line came in over budget, I pivoted. Instead of scrapping the entire business, I let go of the idea of offering four planner cover styles and three notebooks. After taking time to brainstorm, I decided to introduce notepads. Not only were they more affordable to produce, but they also filled a gap in the product line – offering a lower-cost, entry-level option for customers. For example, The Daily Plan Notepad became a simplified version of the Say Yes To You Planner’s daily layout. Not everyone is ready to commit to a whole planner, but many are open to trying a small, accessible tool to get started.

I’m proud of my resilience and creativity when faced with challenge. In fact, I think the end product ends up even better than originally planned in situations like this. It’s like a little nudge from the universe to expand my thinking and creativity even more. I don’t see obstacles as roadblocks – I see them as detours leading us to find a new approach.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.calluna-creative.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/calluna.creative
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/callunacreativestudio

Image Credits

Amanda Waltman Photography for main image, Fernanda Bertrand for image in white button down shirt, Heather Reed / Calluna Creative for all other images