SDH 056: Design Your Day with Whitney English, Founder of Day Designer

Whitney English is business’s best combination: inventor, investor & entrepreneur. At age 22, she used her earnings from babysitting to start a wholesale stationery company for ten years. Unfortunately, the business failed and she was back to living at home in her parents’ house. Instead of using her time to grieve the death of her business, she used her ingenious skills to come up with the solution to every working woman’s chaotic day, The Day Designer. Topics to Help Manage Life -How she got the idea for the planner -The Biz Designer course -What helps her keep focus -Why she believes napping is key -Her love for organization -The process behind making the planner -Lovely book recommendations Neat Quotes: “When you are building a company you have to tell the truth. Anything that is not the truth is not sustainable.” “There is a fine line between logic and fear… There are other things that fear steps in and says we can’t do, that we really could do if we put our minds to it. I think that holds some people back and it’s a mindset of ‘she can do it and I can’t. That’s fear talking.” “I need to be so focused on surrounding myself with mentally healthy people: who are humble, smart, making a difference in this world, because those are things I want to do.” “I love organization, that’s a natural love, but naturally being organized is really hard for me.” “It’s a process that became very personal to me. It wasn’t like we picked up a similar planner on the market and said ‘okay we are just going to put a day designer planner brand on top of this and re-do it. It was from the ground up, something that came from my heart.” “We all have different strengths as entrepreneurs, but when you are in that start up mode, you have to prepare for obstacles.” “The best way to get an energy boost is drink a cup of coffee, nap, before the coffee kicks in, 20 minutes, and then wake up and keep going.” [Connect with Whitney: Twitter (@WhitneyEnglish), Instagram (@whitneyenglish) Pinterest (daydesigner), Website: daydesigner.com, whitneyenglish.com] RESOURCES: InDesign Mindset by Carol Dweck Rising Strong by Brené Brown A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne