We recently connected with Krystle Hamilton and have shared our conversation below.

Krystle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Our mission is to help women merge planning, productivity and goal setting to reach their highest potential.

Planning has saved my life multiple times. It helped me graduate from my graduate studies on time, which was the last goal my mother got to witness prior to passing away from breast cancer. It has been my pain to purpose after losing my father to colon cancer. In both instances, my planner gave me the organization I needed.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

First, I’m creative at heart. I’m a mom, wife, Full-time employee (for now) and business owner of Kansas City’s first black owned luxury planner and stationery company, Pretty Planner Co.

I started this journey three years ago prior to COVID because I wanted to create something different. I’ve always been a planner user, especially when I’m craving structure. I used a planner in grad school, while my mom was undergoing cancer treatments and maintaining my work schedule. Same thing when I was helping my stepmom take care of my father. I was juggling family, work and helping out with him.

At that time I was in the market for a new planner. I liked the idea of choosing what went into my planner, having a nice leather cover that had character and being able to use it for multiple purposes. And that’s where the idea for Pretty Planner Co. was born.

What I bring to the planner community is experience. Every insert that we carry was created based on experience and not industry trends. My favorites right now are the Malia two toned leather covers and our updated CEOThings inserts. The Malia cover is named after my daughter, Malia, because she chose the colors. It also comes with a planner case instead of a dust bag for customers to use at their discretion. CEOThings is an ever evolving insert that changes as I evolve as a CEO and learning what information can be stored, planned or tracked in a planner. It really challenges the user to think about their business goals and strategies so that they can grow. There are more inserts that we carry that were also created based on experience.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

At this time we are using WooCommerce. One pro is the cost is low because you’re not paying monthly fees like you would on other platforms like Shopify.

The con is WooCommerce sites have to be built, updated often and require multiple plugins to efficiently run the site. You have to make sure the plugins you want are compatible or they’ll crash the whole site. It’s a nightmare lol.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

How we built our repertoire in the planner community is just being different. When everyone else has black, white or nude, we show up with a hot pink lol.

Having great customer service and being consistent. You have to prove to customers that you’re here for the long game. They’re invested in you, so you have to be just as invested. Show up!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.prettyplanco.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/pretty_planner_co
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/prettyplannerco
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UC_9NMqGcy7juRoMRywUSFpw

Image Credits
Headshot by Our Gathering Studio