Jess Lively

Today I’d like to share a lesson that I’ve learned the past few weeks over at Jess LC. I usually wait a bit longer to share things that I learn there, but this one is at the top of my mind and I think it might be helpful for other business owners now or in [...]

Happy Halloween! This morning I would like to remind everyone interested in coming to our second Business in the City event that it is coming up in Chicago this Thursday from 6:30-8:00. There have also been a few changes from the previous event including the fact that Next Door is now opening up this event [...]

Action! I read this awesome article on Monday and it’s really stuck with me all week. It’s all about the “Entrepreneurial Insecurity” that you may recognize in yourself or from some of my previous posts. My take-away message was this line: “Action is the antidote to fear.” How fitting then, that Jess posted her message [...]

[In direct opposition (okay, not completely) to this morning's post, I'd like to share a really important aspect to business which is about when it's not good to look for inspiration outside of yourself and your company's unique DNA.] Pardon me, but I’m a little fired up today. While standing in line at the CVS [...]

Fact #1: Over the summer I really, really, really wanted to buy an expensive pair of Tory Burch boots which were only available via Tory Burch stores. By the time that I made my decision to plunk down the $500 for the boots, they were all sold out. They had only had a limited quantity [...]

More and more often people have asked me what advice I have for them whether it’s regarding a business, a makeunder, or designing a life with intention. And really, I always have the same thing to say…

As I write this I realize how surreal this is for me: yesterday my apartment was added to Apartment Therapy’s House Tours. Four years ago when I first moved to a not-so-great studio apartment, I discovered AT and their amazing house tours. This was years before I read any blogs and I was amazed and [...]

I have a confession to make: after four product launches (Ainslie, Belmont, Quincy, and Webster) this fall, I have one more collection to launch, the biggest one yet, and I don’t really feel like finishing it out. Yep, I’m exhausted from learning how to make great products that are totally outside my realm of previous [...]

Re-frame Hitting Week 20 is quite the milestone! And to be honest, I wasn’t sure what I was going to write about this week. In general, the last couple of weeks I’ve been feeling grumpy and crappy, like I simultaneously need a nap AND an exciting getaway. But I didn’t want to write another whiny [...]

Recently I’ve been thinking about what I’d do if I was starting out with a brand new business while at a corporate desk job. Don’t ask what exactly prompted this, I think it has something to do with the stories I hear from Business With Intention clients and from our recent Business In The City [...]

The time has come for another Email Intervention! If you are new to MML you can catch up on my epiphany about why I didn’t really like my job (even though it’s awesome) and why email is a privilege. I strongly believe that the decision to not check email on nights and weekends has been [...]

  This morning I had an “aha moment” that I’d like to share. It all came from something that Joyce Meyer mentioned in a recent show about the bible passage regarding “rejoicing in your suffering.” (As you may know, I’m not Christian, but I was raised Catholic and I have continued to study spiritual teachings [...]

After the success of the first Jess LC Pop Up Shop earlier this summer we are doing another this Saturday in Chicago’s Millennium Park! It will be a part of the Style Chicago event in the huge tent on Chase Promenade North (the south side of the silver Bean) from 10a – 6p. And… as [...]

Well, hello there! I have been in such a rush launching the recent collections, growing Business in the City, prepping for our next collection (due out in November), and so forth that I feel like it would be great to fill you in on my life lately and my current intentions. First, I will say [...]

Self-Educating There’s a reason he’s one of the greats! Room by decorator Billy Baldwin from the 1970′s (though it looks current!) Like much of the Western World, I was saddened and touched by the recent passing of Steve Jobs. It surprised me, in a way, just how much it affected me – I didn’t know [...]

Earlier this week I did a pretty good job covering how I grew Jess LC‘s online shop for Anja over at A Heart and Soul Story. She kindly allowed me to re-post my response here as well because she thought it would help MML readers and Midnight Hustlers. How I Succeeded at Marketing and Selling [...]

Epic vs. Enough Hi MML, it’s Cathy from Fiscally Chic with another post about finance with intention. If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ll know that I recently attended the inaugural Financial Blogger Conference. It was an amazing experience. I made new friends, learned more about blogging in a weekend than I have the in past year, and [...]

Thanks to the great response to the first Business in the City event we had in October (we had 18 wonderful people!), I am going to have it again in November. My hope is that this meet up group for people with business ideas and business questions can be a roughly once a month event [...]

Recently the crew at Bobbi Brown asked me to participate in a campaign to feature Pretty Powerful women from all walks of life. And though the obvious benefits – the ability to get and give a custom makeup palette to the person I chose and to a reader on MML was exciting, I really got [...]

I have big news! I’ve been working over the past few months with Claudia Smith, the amazingly talented stationery designer behind Fig. 2 Design Studio to create a collaborative limited edition line of note cards for Jess LC! The two metallic foil card styles, Cheers and Merci, come in single flat cards ($3) and eight [...]

I came across this video on Rockstar Diaries this morning and thought it was a pretty interesting (read: kinda extreme) way to makeunder distractions. For me, the idea of letting go of distractions is great, but I find that my email intervention is a great method to calm the distractions in my off hours. Any [...]

Are you a success or a failure? How do you measure success? Is it being free to do your own thing, enjoying the work that you do, or spending quality time with your loved ones? Or does it maybe have (just a little) something to do with money? Here’s the tricky thing with working for [...]

Sorry for the delay on the post. This morning Danielle and I were shooting the next lookbook for the new Jess LC collection debuting next week. The shoot is a bit different this time compared to past lookbooks due to the nature of the products, so I can’t wait to reveal the collection! Now it’s [...]

First, I’d like to say a quick thank you to all of you who showed up last night at the first Business in the City event! I had such a great time meeting you all and hearing more about the businesses you are starting or thinking about starting. I’ll be posting in the weeks to [...]

The big day is finally here! Well, sort of. It’s time for the first Business in the City event in Chicago at Next Door from 6-7. Please feel free to bring business questions, business cards, business ideas, and/or treats to share (the event is totally free). We’ll be in the awesome room in the back [...]

Recently I was asked to share The Girl Effect and though I typically try to keep things beyond the scope of designing a life with intention to a minimum, this video got my attention. As I sit here thinking about what to write or “share” about the movement, everything I think of just kind of [...]

Over the years I’ve evolved the focus of MML to be more and more pointed to the theme of “designing a life with intention.” And in many ways, it’s a great shift for the blog. But lately I’ve been finding some other, not-so-intentional, things that I’d like to share. So for the next week or [...]

[download full-size wallpaper] Happy October! This is one of my favorite months of the year. My birthday, pumpkin flavored treats, fall leaves, and cooler weather all combine perfectly during these 31 days. This month’s wallpaper quote comes from, you guessed it, my favorite book. I really want to take the time this month to figure [...]