We recently connected with Jane Butler and have shared our conversation below.

Jane, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

30 days before our wedding, my fiancé was experiencing intense headaches that were not curable with over the counter medication. After a trip to the Emergency Room and a MRI, there was a 9 cm mass that was quickly growing. He was scheduled for brain surgery a few days later and the tumor was removed. The importance of care and support during difficult times and reality of our mortality was highlighted to us in a way we’ve never experienced before.

Fast forward 8 years later, we’ve grown our family and invested in our careers where he was diagnosed again with another tumor where he had to undergo another surgery. We felt supported and loved by our family and friends here—but it highlighted to me that we don’t take the time to fully recognize and prepare well enough for when difficult times hit.

After many hours of researching and discovering some incredible companies in the end of life and grief space, we wanted to create a platform that highlighted them all and elevated the conversation of care, comfort and celebrate during times of grief, terminal illness and loss.

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 am an an award-winning designer, entrepreneur, mom of 3, and founder of Near, a platform to help people care and celebrate life during difficult times. I have helped hundreds of small businesses get off the ground and into the world of effective, online marketing over the past 10 years. Her attention to detail and wide range of styles makes her extremely compatible with pre-existing teams and brands.

I am passionate about communicating a message with clarity and helping consumers discover the best possible solution to their problems. I care deeply about how humans relate, understand and connect with the brands they need and use.

I’ve built effective user interface designs that simplify and clarify what someone should do and when. I’m hopeful to bring more clarity into the grief and end of life space that can be confusing and overwhelming.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Christy and I have worked for over 7 years and have grown a marketing agency and launched several brands from the ground up.

We actually met each other through a networking group on Meta. She was looking for a designer and I knew I needed more strategy in my designs and client work. We merged our services in 2017 and worked with clients until we made it official in 2018 to establish Well Refined Marketing Agency: an agency built for startups and their founders.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

As a creative director and someone who cares about the final user experience and design, I’m reminded how much I need to apply the Lean StartupMethod.

As much as we want to come out with a full, complete and beautiful product initially, we need to remember that product research, validation and traction is what’s most important. Once we can get those numbers and identify the true problem we are solving, then we can expand and improve the things that can help with conversion, but aren’t needed when you’re just trying to do in the early stages, and that’s to establish the most viable product.

Once you have the traction there, then you can dream, grow and develop more of the company.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://staynear.co
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/staynearco/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/68129307/

Image Credits
Photography by Kelsey Schwenk