somewhere between the school run and the late-night emails,
between washing lunchboxes and sketching new prints,
i realised i was building more than a brand ~
i was building a house.
~
when I started GRECH & CO., it was simply a lifeline ~
a way to find beauty and survival in the same pair of hands.
i was a young mother, far from my california roots,
learning a new language, a new country, a new version of myself, in a less than perfect relationship and environment.
I designed during lunch breaks,
answered customer messages while pasta boiled,
packed orders after bedtime with tired eyes and a hopeful heart.
I thought I was just creating pieces for children ~
sunglasses, hair clips, tiny essentials for everyday life ~
but what I was really creating was a way to say
there’s magic in it all ~ the good and the hard, and all the in-between.
~
years passed.
GRECH & CO. grew from a small idea into a full childhood world.
seasons changed, collections came and went, my children grew taller,
and yet one thing stayed the same ~
my inbox kept filling with stories.
mothers writing to say
“your pieces are in all our holiday photos.”
“my daughter will not take off these sunglasses.”
“this print feels like my childhood.”
and then there were the other messages ~
from founders and creatives and women in the middle of their own big stretch ~
“how did you start this?”
“how do you balance this with kids?”
“will you ever teach this?
will you ever share the behind the scenes?”
every time I read a message like that,
something in me whispered ~
there is more to build here. share your story. be of service.
~
for a long time, I told myself
“later, when the house is nicer”
“later, when the business is calmer”
“later, when things feel more stable.”
but life has a particular sense of humor.
as GRECH & CO. grew, so too did the complexity ~
more collections, more logistics, more responsibility.
and in the middle of all of it,
I became a solo mama of four ~ now with 100% custody, living in a foreign country ~ with no help.
there is no “later” when you are leading a company
and tucking four small bodies into bed at night.
there is only now ~
and the question:
how honest am I willing to be about the reality of this path, while honoring my comfort zone?
~
the biz diaries was my first answer to that question.
I wanted a place where I could sit with a friend, and help her to become a founder, while sharing my founder story ~ the things we usually only whisper:
~ how the post-covid boom nearly broke our industry,
~ what it means to build without investors or a safety net,
~ how many times we think about quitting, right before the next good thing arrives.
~ But most importantly ~ you don’t have to go this path alone
I asked my friend Julia to join me
because she holds a different side of the same coin ~
where I have lived the long years of building,
she is living the pivot, the trying, the learning in real time.
together, we created a room in the House ~
a room where founders can exhale,
where strategy and storytelling sit in the same chair,
where we can say:
you got this sister, look how far you have come
you are not failing ~ you are just building something new in a world that moves too fast
~
but there was still another room asking to be made.
a room for the women who write to me and say
“I have an idea, but I don’t know where to start.”
“I’ve started, but I feel lost in the noise.”
“I want to grow this, but I don’t know how.”
that room became the creative life society.
the creative life society is the place where I gather
everything I’ve learned by trial and error ~
product development, manufacturing, branding, storytelling,
systems, sustainability as practice,
the quiet inner work it takes to keep going
when no one is clapping yet.
it’s not a hustle club..
it’s a creative learning and resource space for aspiring and established founders and creatives
who want to build with story, soul, systems and structure ~
who want their work to feel like a home they can live in,
not a performance they have to constantly maintain, or perfect content they struggle to create.
inside this space, I get to be what I never had ~
a guide who is still very much in the middle of it all,
sharing templates and frameworks,
but also the messy, honest parts
that don’t fit into a pretty square on social media.
~
people sometimes ask me why I keep adding more
when life already looks so full from the outside.
the truth is ~
none of this feels like “extra” to me.
GRECH & CO. is the heart of the house ~
the pieces our children wear as they live their everyday magic.
the biz diaries is the long kitchen table
where founders sit down, pull up a chair, and tell the truth, while we listen and learn.
the creative life society is the study
where we spread out the papers, the plans, the dreams
and quietly build structures that can hold them.
they are not separate projects.
they are different rooms of the same story.
and the story is this:
you are allowed to build a life that is both practical and poetic ~
you are allowed to grow something beautiful and real
without burning yourself to the ground for it.
~
i am creating this space
because I know what it feels like
to google answers at midnight with a baby in the carrier, too excited and inspired to sleep, yet secretly knowing ~ the crash will come because of it
I know what it feels like
to sign production orders with shaking hands and held breath
hoping I’ve made the right call ~ only to later, see the mistakes.
I know what it feels like
to sit at the edge of your bed and whisper through quiet tears
“there has to be an easier way to do this ~ I can’t do this anymore”
the creative life society is my answer to that whisper.
the biz diaries is the conversation around it.
GRECH & CO. is the living proof that
magic lives in the everyday
when we design our lives with intention,
one small decision at a time.
~
so this is your invitation ~
not to hustle harder,
not to become a different version of yourself,
but to step into this house we’re building together ~
to walk the hallways between parenthood and making,
between stability and risk,
between who you’ve been and who you are becoming.
I’ll be here in the quiet hours,
writing, recording, creating, learning,
still packing lunches, still sketching prints,
still figuring it out in real time with you.
because the work I am doing “on the side”
has never really been on the side at all ~
It is the work of the creative life,
lived as honestly and gently as I can,
offered back to you
so you can build your own ~ in good company
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