Adriana Carrig of The Little Words Project
We met Adriana during Women's market last fall in NYC and fell in love with her brand and amazing story! As a fellow female entrepreneur and believer of paying-it-forward, I'm so happy to be able to share her story and more on Little Words Project in our Influencers feature this week!
Tell us a little about yourself, your brand/company and how it started?
My name is Adriana Carrig, I am 27 years old and newly married. I started my company as Adriana Botti back in 2013 right after graduating from The College of New Jersey. While I was in school, I created a version of these bracelets to be passed around my college sorority. The girls were so obsessed with the idea of “sharing kindness” that it really took off. When I graduated, I wanted to bring this type of “sisterhood” to women everywhere, so Little Words Project was born. Little Words Project as it exists today, is a pay-it-forward movement meant to inspire kindness amongst females of all ages. The idea is to pick a word that means something to you, wear it for as long as you need it, then pass it on one day to someone who needs it more than you do. Our customers can register their bracelet on our website or mobile app, where she can put in her story, interact with other “Nice Girls” in our community, and track her bracelet as it moves from girl to girl.
What advice can you give for starting your own business or turning your passion into a career?
Just go for it. It can be so easy to talk yourself out of something, and it’s much harder to believe that you can do it. But if you do your best, and just take a chance on yourself, the rest will almost always follow. Be diligent, hard working and perseverant and you will succeed.
What drives/motivates/inspires you?
Seeing the need for this product drives me the most. Not a day goes by where I don’t witness a woman talking badly about another, or demonstrate just how important kindness amongst females really is. It’s so important to empower one another as women and yet it’s shocking how infrequently that happens. That is exactly what drives me- knowing that I’m working towards (hopefully) changing the way women treat one another one Little Word at a time.
What are you most proud of/ biggest accomplishment?
I am most proud of the team I have put together over time. Growing a team I can rely on has probably been the most difficult part of this job, so the fact that I finally have a team in place that can run this company effortlessly is such a major accomplishment. Without them, we wouldn’t be even close to what we are today.
What was biggest challenge you have faced and how did you overcome it?
Everyday is a challenge when you have no background in business. Starting this company has been a daily struggle and learning process. Everything I do, I’ve never done before, so I am constantly faced with challenges that need to be overcome that I can’t pinpoint just one that has given me the most stress. That’s one thing you have to be prepared for if you start your own business- the reality that you will have to work really really hard to accomplish what you set out to do.
What is the best business advice you have received?
“You should be writing this down.”
What advice would you give an aspiring entrepreneur?
Be a sponge. Learn everything you can about everything you need to do. Write things down, listen to your peers, ask questions and LEARN. If you don’t know how to run a business, you never will be able to. So figure it out and work your butt off to become an expert in your field. Also, hire well. Once you get to a point where you can bring others into your dream, you have to be willing to step aside if that person knows something more than you do. We check our ego’s at the door here at LWP. If you have a problem with learning something from your peers or knowing less than the new girl, then you’re in the wrong place.
What is your ideal working environment?
This one! I come in to work in casual attire and enjoy working with my friends every single day. We play music, we joke around, but we get everything done at the same time. We inspire one another daily and together we get to build a business that we love.
What do you do in your spare time?
I LOVE interior decor! My husband and I recently bought our first home together so our weekends will be filled with home projects and antiquing for quite some time and I cannot wait!
How do you maintain a healthy balance?
I do my best to shut off work as soon as I get home. It can be so easy to be glued to your phone these days, but I try my hardest to check out of the job and focus on the things and people I love. This enables me to be refreshed every day that I come into work and allows me to focus on the day before me rather than feel overwhelmed and bogged down.
Be sure to shop her site and follow her on social media!
www.littlewordsproject.com // instagram @littlewordsproject