We recently connected with Theresa Lennahan and have shared our conversation below.

Theresa, appreciate you joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

When I started my creative agency, it was a huge leap of faith—not just for me, but for my family. I was leaving behind the stability of a full-time job at an agency. It was walking away from a steady paycheck, profit sharing, and vacation days—all the comforts that come with full-time employment.

But deep down, I knew I wasn’t happy. I was not in a place that was nurturing my growth and the agency owners that didn’t value my skill set. The paycheck wasn’t enough to ignore the fact that my values didn’t align with my employer’s.

I worked at a place that talked about “family values” but didn’t live by them. Most of my colleagues weren’t parents, and the expectation was that work came first—always. My unhappiness started to outweigh the comfort of having a secure job working for someone else. I knew I could be a mother and have a successful career if I created the vision myself.

I didn’t make this huge decision alone, though. I knew I needed the support of my husband and family. Starting my agency meant starting from scratch, and I understood it would be a long and challenging road. I knew it would require sacrifices, but I also knew I needed to take this risk to build something I truly cared about —my dream agency.

Even though I’d spent years working at a variety of global creative agencies, I had never run one myself. This was completely new territory for me, and I had never been involved in the bigger business decisions—like choosing clients or setting the company’s future aspirations. But instead of feeling intimidated, I felt excited by the opportunity to create a different type of design agency. An agency where we created thoughtful (and beautiful) design balanced with values I was proud of.

I knew it was a huge risk, but I didn’t focus on that. I felt confident that from my experience over my 20+ year career and the support of my family, I had everything I needed to start, and whatever I didn’t know, I knew I could learn!

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 back background and context?

I am the Co-founder of Little Sundays Studio; we are a full-service, female-founded and led, boutique creative agency. We bring decades of award-winning brand strategy and design expertise to the food, beverage, kids, beauty, and consumer product categories.

Jacquie and I have been building the world’s biggest brands for 20 years, and now at Little Sundays, we thoughtfully choose to partner with family brands. We love helping family brands build their visions and authentically connect with their consumers. We understand the power of effective strategy and design for CPG brands and we know great design makes products fly off the shelves.

We are more than an agency built from creative problem solvers. Our secret sauce is building brands in multidimensionality – as designers, as strategists, and as busy moms shopping for our own families. Jacquie and I are mothers who shop at Wegmans, Target, Sephora, Whole Foods and Walmart, and we work with brands looking to reach women like us, and our kids. Each project includes a mix of strategy, design and education as we help our clients find bigger audiences and new retailers with beautiful, engaging designs that make them excited and proud.

We’ve seen time and time again how a thoughtful upgrade can transform a brand’s prospects and we love to partner with teams committed to creating high-quality products that make our lives, and our world, better.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

Jacquie and I first met almost 20 years ago at Sterling Brands, a creative and strategy agency in New York. We quickly bonded over late nights in the studio and our shared love of 90s hip-hop.

At Sterling, we both fell in love with brand design and storytelling, learning from amazing strategic powerhouses and mentors – Debbie Millman, Mike Bainbridge, and Simon Lince. They taught us how combining strategy and design can truly act as a pivot force in a brand’s trajectory.

When it comes to Jacquie and me, it feels like our creative minds were raised by the same parents! We tackle problems and build brands the same way—always with purpose, never just designing for the sake of it. We both believe that without solid strategy, design won’t succeed. That shared vision made Jacquie the perfect co-founder and partner for me.

When we started talking about creating Little Sundays, we knew right away we wanted to build brands that speak to families. As moms, it felt natural to focus on something close to our hearts as we launched our own agency.

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

For us, it’s all about building meaningful relationships. Our reputation is shaped by the strong connections we make with our clients. Jacquie and I are very intentional about who we work with, and we’re genuinely invested in their growth and success. Every client partnership is a relationship we nurture, just like our personal ones. We believe that doing great work with great people leads to happy clients—and happy clients are the first to sing your praises (and refer you to others!)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.littlesundaysstudio.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theresa-lennahan-117b9523/