Kyle Durrie is the founder of Power and Light Press, a ship-shape letterpress print shop built to handle all of life’s messy emotions.  On today’s episode we covered a lot of ground including the pros & cons of different trade shows, how Kyle has grown her team and why she makes travel and down-time an important part of her life. We also talked about how Kyle has donated over $80,000 to Planned Parenthood through the selling of her Stand with Planned Parenthood Tote bags - how she did it, her motivations for giving back and how she dealt with public backlash.

ON TODAY’S EPISODE:

• Power and Light Press, and the products they make
• Hiring on help when you can’t do it all anymore
• Kyle’s background and what led her to letterpress
• What lead her to start her own business & her favorite part of being a business owner
• Her Power and Light Press team and the roles they play
• The pros and cons of different trade shows
• Donating $80,000 to Planned Parenthood and her motivations behind it
• How Kyle handles negative attention and “trolls”
• How she structured the tote and the donations
• Why she makes travel and downtime an important part of her life
• The advice she would give to somebody wanting to start a product based business
• What’s next for Power and Light Press

KEY TAKE-AWAYS:

“You need to balance between what your interests are, what your passion is, but then also, what's the best use of your time.” - Katie Hunt

“I do love being my own boss. I love setting whatever weird schedule I want to stick to.” - Kyle Durrie

“When I step back and think that I make a living and help support other people's lives by making stupid greeting cards, I'm constantly blown away by that.” - Kyle Durrie

“It makes such a difference to have a team you can trust, that you have confidence in, for when you can't be there.” - Kyle Durrie

“It was all for a good cause and I still believe in it and I am really proud of what we've done and what my team has managed to do.” - Kyle Durrie

“I made this product and I better stand behind it and know what I'm talking about because I was being challenged, and I think that was really useful for me to not just throw some meme up online and then walk away.” - Kyle Durrie

“It's got to make sense for your business because all the good will in the world, if it ends up putting you out of business, it maybe isn't ... Maybe it wasn't the best idea.” - Kyle Durrie

“You can do good in the world without it being a drain on your business or without it negatively impacting the sustainability of your company.” - Katie Hunt

“It's always been a really important part of my life to kind of resettle me and to re-inspire me to just make me feel like a complete human being.” - Kyle Durrie

“It's really such a good time for me to reflect and step away from my personal life, from my work life, and just kind of re-figure myself out.” - Kyle Durrie

“It makes such a huge difference when you're not stressed out because your rent is $1500. You don't need that right away. Start in your closet or wherever you have some space and then just kind of grow as it demands” - Kyle Durrie

“ I think there are a lot of people nowadays that want just the playbook or whatever it might be, and the fact of the matter is, even with a playbook you've still got to go through the trial and error of learning and figuring out what works best for you.” - Katie Hunt

LINKS:

Website: www.powerandlightpress.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerandlightpress/

JOIN THE TSBC FAMILY:

Do you want to scale your business and add new revenue streams?  Are you ready to get a handle on your cash flow and tuck money away for retirement?  

Maybe you are interested in increasing your visibility and fine-tuning your marketing outreach?  Perhaps you have a team that you want to nurture or need help building your team?

Our newest on demand program, Paper Camp+ can help you with all of these things and more.  The program includes 5 keynote presentations and 2 panels from a wide range of business experts.  You can watch what you need, when you need it most and revisit the videos as often as you’d like.  

This course was built for anyone running a product based business, and extends way beyond the paper industry.  Enroll at www.tradeshowcamp.com/pcplus

ABOUT PROOF TO PRODUCT:

Proof to Product is brought to you by Tradeshow Bootcamp and hosted by Katie Hunt. Since 2011, TSBC has worked with hundreds of product based businesses to help them up level, scale, and build profitable sustainable companies. You can find our show notes and additional resources at ProofToProduct.com. If you like what you heard today, please head over to Apple Podcast to leave a five star review and subscribe. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week with a new episode!