We were lucky to catch up with Kathryn Christenson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kathryn, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

In our case, our company name, She Said It, happened automatically. Our stationery line
features beautiful artwork that features amazing, relevant quotes from historical women. Anna
(daughter and co-founder) and I were kicking around ideas and I said, “She Said It”. Done, that
was it. When we’re introducing the line now, we’ll say, “She Said It,” and people will nod their
heads and then there’s an ah ha moment when they get it…generally they just smile…

Kathryn, 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?

Launched in late 2019, She Said It is a line of greeting cards, stickers, and stationery goods that
feature quotes from historical women. Kathryn (mother) and Anna (daughter) Christenson are
the co-founders. She Said It is empowering, positive and pretty. Every product, card, sticker,
notepad, flat note, gift tag, begins as an original watercolor painting created by Anna. The art is
then scanned and printed in one of several presses located around the USA.
I think Anna and I had different goals when we started She Said It. Anna was an undergraduate
at the time and I wanted to teach her a little bit about business as she was looking at majoring in
biochemistry. My background, pre-kids, was in marketing, so I was familiar with printing and
what it takes to market a product line (however, my experience was pre-social media, so I’ve
had a steep learning curve to climb). I wanted to give her a little exposure to marketing just to
make sure she wanted to really focus on scientific research. Anna likes to be busy, enjoys
creating art and loves to learn, so she happily began creating the art for She Said It.
Late 2019 was not a great time to start a business, due to COVID hitting in early 2020. We did
farmers markets through COVID. Anna finished her spring semester from home and every
Tuesday and Saturday we packed up and did farmers markets the spring, summer and fall of
2020. We learned a lot from selling the line at farmers markets. At the time, we just had about
12 styles cards and 6 styles of stickers, but people really liked the line and what we were doing.
So, now, about 4 years later, our “little project”, turned “side-hustle” is now a true small
business! Anna is now a grad student at UC-Berkeley studying Molecular Cell Biology and
painting as much as she can. I’m running the business. She Said It is sold in over 200 stores
around the country, as well as in Barnes & Noble stores nationwide and the Bas Bleu catalog.
Both Bas Bleu and Barnes & Noble have licensed She Said It art (tote bags, t-shirts and
planners). We’ve expanded the line to include about 85 card styles, 15 + sticker styles, some
really cute notepads (printed on super soft, gorgeous paper), fun flat notes and the cutest gift
tags and enclosure cards. Luggage tags are our latest addition.
In a world of many, many greeting card options, She Said It cards and stationery goods fill a
niche for those looking for a beautiful card or stationery gift with a positive message, printed on
quality paper, and created, printed, and hand-finished in the USA.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Well, we are in the midst of a pivot. Anna is a busy grad student and we’ve had increased
demand to build the line and offer more styles faster than she can produce. We have been
releasing about 12-15 new designs annually and we need more. In order to meet that demand,
we’ve invited additional creatives to provide art for the cards which will be featured as our new
“Meadow Series”. Anna will continue to create the art we use for our primary range, but the
“Meadow Series” allows us to introduce new artists and their art to our customers and it’s a
totally different look. One artist’s style is very whimsical and the other is very delicate. I think
they all complement each other well and customers will find the breath in the She Said It line to
meet their card-buying needs. We’ll be releasing new styles from Anna as well as the first of the
“Meadow Series” in January.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

We’ve been very lucky as I got us started from savings from my job as an interior designer.
Those “design dollars” got us going. Since then, we’ve invested earnings back into the
business and She Said It continues to be funded in that way.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shesaiditcards.com
• Instagram: @she.said.it.cards