Jessica Peddicord of Simply Jessica Marie: 5 Things You Need To Know To Create A Very Successful Lifestyle Brand
An Interview With Ming Zhao
Create products that are easily shareable on social media! These will also be products that people use frequently or can naturally share. My customers often share them flipping the page of their calendar from my shop on the first of every month, and it’s great exposure! Word of mouth is still so crucial for growth.
As a part of our series called “5 Things You Need To Know To Create A Very Successful Lifestyle Brand”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jessica Peddicord.
Jessica Peddicord, a Grandmillennial watercolor artist, crest designer and educator who is dedicated to preserving family memories and decorating intentionally founded Simply Jessica Marie in 2013. A family-owned and operated small business, Simply Jessica Marie fills homes with color and whimsy by offering classic prints and florals, personality-packed heirloom family crests and thoughtful watercolor gifts. Passionate about teaching other small business owners, Jessica also offers online courses and her student-favorite vendor guide to help each student hone their craft, grow their own product shops and navigate their industry.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
I’m lucky enough to say that my childhood dream came true! I’ve been in love with art ever since I was a little kid — my mom has countless photos of me painting in my high chair, and I distinctly remember my sweet Nana teaching me how to color in the lines as one of my first “life lessons.”
I was never athletic, so while most kids were going to sports camps and trying out for their school’s teams, I spent my summers in art camps, and I absolutely loved it! It definitely fueled my passion from a very young age.
It is so surreal to see how my young dreams and goals came true. I’ve held onto old journals and diaries from when I was younger, and I’ve always said I wanted to be an artist when I grew up — it is such a rewarding feeling to know I honored younger me’s passion by beginning Simply Jessica Marie, creating heartfelt watercolor art that fills homes across the world with joy, beauty and whimsy.
Can you tell us the story of what led you to this particular career path?
I went to college at Elon University in North Carolina and majored in Sport and Event Management with a double minor in Business and Psychology. My goal was to study to become a wedding planner and designer! I have always been very ambitious and career-driven, so as soon as I had the chance to begin applying for internships, I did.
Throughout college, I interned with a handful of companies in the event planning and wedding industries, including Southern Weddings Magazine during the Spring semester of my senior year.
But two things really kick-started my career — beginning a blog/website the summer of my junior year of college and painting monogrammed canvases for my sorority sisters. I created the blog as a way to build a portfolio when applying for internships and jobs, and I painted the canvases to stay connected with my love for art and share my talent with my sweet friends! Without even knowing it, both of these things were the first stepping stones to owning my own business.
After I graduated college, I landed a job as the assistant wedding planner with Amber Housely in Nashville, Tennessee. It was my absolute dream job, but it was only part-time, so I began selling my art on Etsy as a way to support myself and pay rent in Nashville! My Etsy shop started with letterpress art prints (which completely flopped!) and hand-painted canvases inspired by the monogram canvases I designed for my sorority sisters in college.
My first successful product collection on Etsy was a line of Fall greeting cards, which reconnected me with watercolor painting! After about a year and a half of successfully launching product collections and running my shop, I was making as much money with my business as I was working as an assistant wedding planner. Knowing this, I took the leap to take Simply Jessica Marie full-time once my now-husband proposed and we moved from Nashville to Knoxville.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When I first started selling greeting cards, I was buying envelopes at retail price from Paper Source, because I didn’t realize I could get better pricing from wholesale vendors. I would just walk to my local Paper Source to buy the envelopes — but retail price is twice as expensive as wholesale, so I was missing out on a solid wholesale profit margin!
As I grew my shop and researched more vendors, I realized that there were a few incredible wholesale envelope companies who offered even more color and style options than the envelopes I was buying from Paper Source (and at half the price!)
This hard lesson learned is one of the things that inspired me to create my Printing and Production Partners Guide, which is an educational resource I created for fellow entrepreneurs that shares all of the vendors you need to print and ship your products beautifully (with pro tips about what I recommend ordering and how to work with the vendors). This has become one of my student-favorite resources, and has helped countless other artists start and grow their own shops! So I’m honestly glad I had that learning lesson because a lot of good has come from it!
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I would definitely say “Launch” by Jeff Walker. I read this book before I launched the Simply Jessica Marie Art School and my Printing and Production Partners Guide. I knew I had a passion for teaching and helping other artists learn how to paint and begin or grow their own shops, but I was completely new at launch strategy!
This book helped to give me a clear roadmap for how to best nurture my future students and how to sell through helping rather than sleazy marketing strategies. That really resonated with me and I still use a lot of the lessons I learned from that book both for my educational resources and my own product launches.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” — Dolly Parton
I was at a conference and this quote was gifted to us as an art print in our swag bag. It came to me at such a needed time that I immediately framed the print and put it on my desk in my studio to have it as a constant reminder.
It can be so easy as an entrepreneur to let your work consume your life. Honestly, it was all I really focused on for the first five years of running Simply Jessica Marie. Work-life balance always felt like something that only people with traditional 9–5 jobs got to have until I began creating better systems and setting better boundaries, and took the leap into hiring a team to help me balance my workload. It has made such a huge impact on my life, mental health and relationships!
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. For the benefit of our readers, let’s define our terms. How do you define a Lifestyle Brand? How is a Lifestyle Brand different from a normal, typical brand?
I believe that lifestyle brands at their core inspire customers to do more than just purchase their product, but to live their ideal lives. This is done not only through the products they sell but also by how they capture content showcasing their products in an aspirational way, demonstrating how they can better themselves and their customers’ lives, along with embodying their brand values and ideals through their actions, while leading others to do so as well.
Lifestyle brands are so much more than just a transaction with a customer — they are about taking the time to connect with your customer base, learn what resonates with them on a deeper level and aim to both inspire them and put them first through each product launch, service and so on.
What are the benefits of creating a lifestyle brand?
In my experience, lifestyle brands create a more connected customer base than the average brand — both connected with the brand and with other customers. I do this every day within Simply Jessica Marie by being active with my customer Facebook group — speaking with them directly and learning about their interests, what excites them and what they’re looking for — as well as by sharing customer photos on Instagram stories so my customers feel connected to and inspired by the entire Simply Jessica Marie family.
Having a lifestyle brand also creates a loyal, repeat customer base that falls in love with the experience of the brand. I see this throughout my product launches at Simply Jessica Marie — my recurring customers have been empowered to love and trust any new product we create, and they are often the first to purchase our new products on a collection launch day. By taking the time to build a solid relationship with and cultivate a positive experience for your customers, you’ll benefit by consistently seeing them come back to your shop — of all my customers this year, 30% of them have had such a meaningful experience, they’ve come back to place multiple orders throughout the year!
In your opinion, what is an example of a company that has done a fantastic job building a believable and beloved Lifestyle Brand? What specifically impresses you? What can one do to replicate that?
Nicola Bathie of Nicola Bathie Jewelry! Nicola really embodies an aspirational lifestyle brand in my opinion. She sells luxury jewelry (and collaborates with incredible designers for apparel and shoe collections like Antonio Melani for Dillards). She showcases how she wears her gorgeous jewelry every day with different outfits, helping her customers envision how they could wear her pieces daily, too, making them feel more attainable and desirable.
I’ve personally purchased a few of her pieces of jewelry, as well as a dress from her collection, and always feel extra special wearing them because I know they’re “Nicola approved.” That feeling of having a stamp of approval from a brand goes to show how deeply I feel connected to her brand as a customer.
I think we can all take a lesson from Nicola by trying to show our products consistently, whether on Instagram stories or a newsletter, to help our customers see how they would be such an ideal fit for their own lives!
Can you share your ideas about how to create a lifestyle brand that people really love and are ‘crazy about’?
- Always be sure to put your audience/customer first! Design with them in mind rather than purely what you love. Once you start growing your shop, be sure to analyze which products and/or designs are selling the most and lean into that style. For example, I know my customers will typically love anything I design that features a bow!
- Find ways to make practical products that people need and use every day seem pretty and special! I began selling beautiful watercolor mugs in my shop and they have been an absolute hit — and I get tagged in Instagram stories of my customers using them every week!
- Products that are purely beautiful will of course sell, but when they’re a product that someone will reach for to use or wear on a daily/weekly basis, they’ll likely keep coming back to buy more styles of that product and recommend it to friends.
- Create products that are easily shareable on social media! These will also be products that people use frequently or can naturally share. My customers often share them flipping the page of their calendar from my shop on the first of every month, and it’s great exposure! Word of mouth is still so crucial for growth.
What are the common mistakes you have seen people make when they start a lifestyle brand? What can be done to avoid those errors?
A common mistake I’ve seen in my industry is creating products based purely on what the brand-owner loves instead of polling their audience to gain insight into what products and designs they want and need in their lives. I always recommend polling your audience if you’re debating between a new design idea (like which color to use for a new product design or a scent for a new candle) and then doing a bigger, more formal survey at the end or start of the year. This not only gives you great insight into what your customers prefer, but it also helps them to feel like they’re a valued part of your brand.
Let’s imagine that someone reading this interview has an idea for a lifestyle brand that they would like to develop. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?
- Brain dump a list of all the products and designs they’d love to create
- Refine that list to begin with a small collection of cohesive products that complement each other and don’t have a high cost (either financial or opportunity cost!)
- Poll your audience to make sure your ideas align with their needs
- Do competitive research to make sure that your ideas are different from what’s currently on the market
- Research the best wholesale partners that will create quality products for your shop with a profit margin that benefits you! There are so many options out there, that it can feel exhausting to any brand owner, which is what inspired me to create my Printing & Production Partners Vendor Guide.
Ok. Thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our discussion. What are your “5 Things You Need To Know To Create A Very Successful Lifestyle Brand” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Create genuine connections and relationships with your audience
I always try to not only share about my business but also my personal life on my Instagram. I’ve had multiple clients/customers tell me that they already feel like they know me even if it’s our first time talking or meeting — and that’s the goal. You want to let your customers into your life to a point where they really feel like friends in a truly genuine way!
- Put your audience and customers first — lean into their wants and needs when designing products
A good example of this is the letterpress prints I started out with — they had my own phrases/mantras on them that were significant to me, but really didn’t connect with my audience, so they hardly sold. Now, I always analyze my best-selling products, and try to lean into them! I know my customers will always love a product if I put a bow on it, and it’s an easy way to show them that I’m listening and I care and I am creating products with them in mind. Same with ginger jar products — I’ll continue painting them because I know my customers love them. I also include my customers in the design process! For example, I polled them to ask about which flowers they’d love to see in the ginger jars for my new series.
- Create an experience people want to share to increase word of mouth and build a larger customer base
I strive to do this through my packaging! Each order is packaged with intention. All of the products themselves are packaged beautifully and are presentable to the point where they look like gifts, and then everything is tucked into my signature blush pink tissue paper with a beautiful green “special delivery” sticker — which gets my customers excited about their order as soon as they pop open the box, and many customers share photos of that sticker/package!
I also include sweet notes with handwritten messages from myself to help my customers truly feel like I see them and care. This experience adds up to make them want to share their order, and the lovely products inside their package seal the deal with them about adoring and trusting the quality of my brand. So much so that they recommend them to friends, and oftentimes come back to buy gifts for their friends!
- Use authentic marketing strategies vs sleazy marketing strategies to sell products
The first time I launched one of my Simply Jessica Marie Art School courses, I did what was called an “open cart launch,” which meant people could only enroll in my courses for a limited time. If they missed that window because they couldn’t afford it, or even because they discovered my brand after the launch, they would be forced to wait for the chance to enroll for another six months. This is what the marketing professionals recommended at the time for the best possible enrollment and profitability because it essentially scares students and customers into enrolling/buying before they miss the opportunity.
After a short time, I recognized that this just didn’t sit right with me — especially when someone told me they really wanted the chance to learn, and I couldn’t give them a good reason for why they couldn’t yet. So, I trusted my gut instinct and switched to what’s called an “evergreen” model, where people can enroll in my courses at any time they’d like.
Have I seen fewer enrollments since changing to that model? Yes, slightly. But I feel much more honorable in the way that I’m selling to help other small businesses and I’m readily available for my students when they need me the most. That’s what’s most important to me — and it helps build trust with my students, who then become raving fans and share my resources with their artist friends!
- Set boundaries and prioritize work-life balance to be the best version of yourself, therefore helping you run the best business you can
I can still vividly remember thinking that it was “normal” to be working after dinner while watching TV with my husband — as long as it was a simple or “fun” task such as painting ornaments, sleeving art prints, folding tea towels, etc. Honestly, it’s something I saw my parents do, and continue to do, as busy doctors, so I didn’t think enough about how it might be impacting my relationship with my husband until he mentioned to me that he really wanted to feel like I was being present with him and putting as much value on our family as I was my work.
I won’t lie and say I was able to flip that switch overnight but I’ve worked really hard over the past couple of years to unplug after work, adjust the expectations I set on myself for what I should/need to be doing in my business (I was really bad about self-imposed deadlines that just weren’t necessary or healthy!) and hiring help so that I wasn’t the only one trying to juggle all of the tasks in my business!
I can honestly say my life is so much more peaceful and fulfilling now. I have been more intentional with my relationships, and have even picked up hobbies, which I never used to think I’d have time for!
Super. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I would love to begin a movement within high schools and colleges to implement a curriculum that dives into entrepreneurship and running a product shop! I know so many young minds have goals of owning their own business one day like I did, and I felt pretty lost when I first started! Beginning to prioritize their dreams as much as schools prioritize preparing students for 9–5 jobs would empower so many future small business owners and instill in them the confidence and tools they need to be successful.
Seeing that there were so many gaps like this for hopeful future entrepreneurs and product shop owners is what inspired me to begin my educational offerings, sharing all of the wisdom I learned along the way through trial and error and being a support system to my students!
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I would love to meet Reese Witherspoon! She has such a heart for supporting artists and small businesses which I love. I’ve always been obsessed both with her brand Draper James — I visited it in Dallas and they really did make it feel like a lifestyle experience, greeting guests with sweet tea! — and with who she is as a person. She seems like she’d be such a good mentor and cheerleader.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
