Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jen Barcenas. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jen , appreciate you joining us 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.

My name is Jen and I’m a hugger. Hugging is important to me because it’s how I transfer my feelings, excitement, comfort, care…to the people I love. I share this because that’s how our story begins, with a “hug.”

In December of 2020 a close friend of mine lost her mom to Covid. As were the circumstances at the time, I wasn’t able to fly out of state and be there – to comfort her…to HUG her. I sent flowers, because you send flowers…but it felt empty and not meaningful enough. I continued to search for a more thoughtful gift, I searched for hug gifts and found nothing. But I did come across a teddy bear that had long arms – and I had the idea that if I attached the arms to box flaps, perhaps I could send my friend a hug. So I purchased the bear, attached the arms to the box so that it would extend for a hug upon opening. I wrote a poem – “If only my sender could fit in this box, they give you a bear hug that knocks off your socks. Alas, they’ve sent me – to be here to squeeze, whenever you need.” I sent her our first hug in a box.

It was so well received and comforted her as I hoped it would – I realized others may be looking for a lasting and meaningful gift to provide comfort to the ones they love for the moments they cannot be there in person.

There are a couple of reasons our BoxFull Hug in a Box is so compelling.

It’s lasting. It’s not a candle that burns down, fruit that gets eaten, or flowers that die. My friends mom passed away before Christmas….when Mother’s Day came around, I texted her – and I said, you know, that hug is there ANY time you need it. Long after you have received it, the hug is there as a reminder of the care a loved one shared with you.

It’s a stand in, for YOU. That teddy bear is being sent, typically, during a major emotional event for someone you care about. It can be a time for celebration, but often it’s a difficult moment in someone’s life. It’s a physical, tangible thing that you can hug, squeeze, cry into, sleep with….it’s there for whatever day you may be experiencing.

The experience of opening our HUG in a Box is one of a kind – there’s nothing else quite like it. But what I’m most proud of about founding BoxFull – it was born out of love for a friend. That love is shared with countless others, connecting loved ones, and creating a lasting way to show you care, even when you can’t be there in person.

Jen , 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?

My name is Jen and I grew up in a pretty technical family of engineers…but it was clear once I failed out as an architecture student of 3 years that I should be doing something else. Specifically – anything else than something technical. I took an assessment of skills and aptitude and everything pointed to PEOPLE; counseling, social work, Human Resources….so from there I pursued HR and have had a wonderful career the last 17 years coaching managers, advocating for employees, and helping people in a corporate environment. However, being the front line face to employees dealing with small merit increases, rolled back benefits, and not feeling appreciated can lead one to feel like – what if I had my own business and was in control of the decisions around benefits, pay increases, investment in tools, etc. So I partnered with an employee I had supported as a HRM and we purchased an existing franchised DayCare. We were both consumers of child care at that time and certainly identified with our customer. I won’t get into all of the business partner dramatics that ensued…that’s an entirely different novel to write. My husband and I ultimately sold our portion of the business to our partner just to get out of it. While the partnership was a fail – the experience of running a business was really rewarding. The point here, is that I still had the bug. Fast forward 2 years and Covid arrives. December of 2020 is when my close friend lost her mom to Covid and I sent her our first hug in a box. It was truly intended as just a way for me to try to comfort my friend from afar when we weren’t able to travel and be there for people we loved in the way we wanted to be. I believe that because I had a desire to own another business and was open to that, I was able to see the potential in BoxFull and had the impulse to run with it.

My career in HR has always been with a mindset of customer service. If it’s important to them or to the employee taking time out of their day to bring it to me – then it’s important to me. I take that same mindset into my business. It is FAR more important to me that a customer or recipient of our Hug in a Box has a highly positive and meaningful experience than anything I benefit. We take customer feedback seriously and take extra steps that take time – to ensure we are doing the right thing for the person sending the hug and the person receiving it. I care deeply about BoxFull because it began from a place of caring deeply about a friend.

Looking back on my HR career, we spend a lot of time coaching and developing employees – what are you good at, what are your strengths, what are you passionate about…I never felt what I was good at was valued. I got feedback in a performance review once that I was “the most thoughtful person” my manager had ever met. I felt bad about that for a long time, because – surely no corporation wants a super thoughtful employee…they want strategic, business acumen, etc. Well, looking back I wish I would have leaned into that more – if being thoughtful is my superpower, then I should embrace it and pursue opportunities that allow me to use that strength.

Taking what I’m good at (thoughtful superpower) and combining it with meeting a need to bring comfort in a lasting way to the people we love when we can’t be there in person….I know now, that I’ve found my purpose. To send hugs every day for a living…that’s the dream.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Sarah Blakely has been an inspiration for me and how she built Spanx. She had a mindset of “make it, sell it, build awareness.” I love that mantra – she didn’t necessarily have a lengthy, build out business plan – she had an idea and she ran with it. It inspired me to just GO. Of course you need to be thoughtful – but if I would have had to sit and write a full business plan, I may never have started. So I think it’s important to know that you can start a business many ways – sometimes you may just have a good idea and decide to run and for me, that’s better than never have started anything at all.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Early on the bear that we had been using would not be sold to us at wholesale prices. We tried many times – but they would not sell to us wholesale. It was really frustrating because that essentially made our new business a very expensive hobby; purchasing the bears at retail and reselling. So we decided early on that we needed to create our own bear. I searched on LinkedIn for a “plush toy graphic designer” and variations of that. I finally came across a woman that was a designer and pattern maker for plush toys. I reached out and she connected me with an illustrator to help us come up with our initial design. We wanted long arms to attach to the box and for it to be large so it was a substantial cuddle buddy. We added weight/beads to the feet and legs. Picked the Pantone colors we wanted for the material. The next step was engaging with the manufacturer that we were also connected with from our original reach out on LinkedIn. We had samples made, suggested changes, and then finally had our final product. We have 2,500 of them in our basement currently! It was a year in the making from the first LinkedIn email to the bears on our doorstep. But had we not taken those steps, BoxFull would have fizzled out before we even got going. You just need to figure out a way….99% there’s a way, you might just have to get creative!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sendaboxfull.com
• Instagram: sendaboxfull
• Facebook: sendaboxfull
• Other: tik tok & pinterest – sendaboxfull