Death Really Changes Your View of Life

It's been 2 weeks since my granddaddy passed away. It's still hard to believe he's gone...

It all seemed to happen so quickly and was a shock to all of us. Besides one Facebook post, this is the first time I've been able to sit down and write about the experience.

I've been really lucky in my life. While I've experienced the death of great grandparents and people I know, this was my first experience with the death of someone I was close to. The hardest part for me has been the shock of talking with someone one day and them being gone the next. The whole idea is difficult for me and is taking some adjustment.

Granddaddy and I had many conversations in the weeks before his death, but one in particular stands out. I was visiting him in the hospital and, as usual, PhotoStasher came up. He looked right at me and said "You've worked so hard and put so much time into PhotoStasher, I hope it's really successful and all your hard work pays off". This was the first of several conversations we had that seemed kind of strange to me at the time. Each had a finality to it like he was giving me some final advice, sharing his hopes and dreams for my future, and wishing me well. After his passing, I realized he was making sure to say everything he needed to before he died.

In the days after his passing, the family was at my nana's house looking through photos to take to the funeral home. There were photos of my dad and his siblings growing up and many photos of granddaddy through the years. A few months earlier, my aunt and uncle put together a video to music for my grandparents' anniversary party. It does an amazing job of documenting their entire lives.  This was also on repeat at the funeral home for everyone to watch. I cherish my copy of this video and can't wait to show it to my children one day so they can learn about their heritage and see family they never knew.

During this time of intense grief and trying to comprehend and accept what had happened, I found myself treasuring the photo memories that my nana had made sure to keep safe. I don't always like getting my picture taken, but this experience made me realize how important it is to document our lives so we can remember good times gone by and the people we love who have gone before us.

This whole experience has reaffirmed that I'm on the right path with PhotoStasher. Now more than ever, keeping photo memories safe is important to me. I've come to realize how precious photos are to preserving our history and that they are the only reminders I have to remember granddaddy. I can't imagine not having those boxes of photos to look through of my time with him and even his life before me. One thing I never realized until we started going through photos was how much my brother looks like him. This whole experience has made me even more encouraged about PhotoStasher and proud of what I'm doing. I know I'm making Granddaddy proud too.

The photo below is one of the photos I found at my Nana's house of Granddaddy and me looking through the window of the nursery after my brother Cameron was born.

Don't forget to tell your loved ones what they mean to you!

All the best,

Lauren

Perfect Gifts for Mother's Day

With Mother's Day fast approaching, I wanted to help you come up with the perfect gift. To me, gifts should be personal and special and not just cookie cutter or what's expected...

One of the reason's I created PhotoStasher was to make gift giving simple and easy, yet personal. You can go to PhotoStasher and find the perfect Facebook photos to add to the gift you are creating just for your mom.

Here are some suggested gifts as well as sales and discounts for each. Just enter these codes when you complete your order. I know she will love your gift!

(4/25-5/1)- Use promocode MOTHERSDAY to get 60% off photo necklaces and bracelets

(Through 4/28)- Use promocode 5FREECARDS to get 5 free 5x7 or 5x5 cards

50% off photobooks and 20% off on most photo gifts automatically. No promocode required!

Go to PhotoStasher to Create Your Gift

All the best,

Lauren

MOTHERSDAY: Offer expires 05/01/2013 (11:59 P.M. PT). Offer is good for 60% total savings off photo necklace and photo bracelet when combined with the sitewide sale at shutterfly.com. Offer valid for one-time redemption per billing address. Taxes, shipping and handling will apply. 

Have a Dream? Just Take the First Step...

It's been awhile since I've written...definitely need to get better at that! A lot has been happening since my last post which really isn't an excuse, but it's exciting! We are oh so very close to finishing up building the remaining features and implementing the new UI design. I cannot WAIT to go live with all of this so you can see the new PhotoStasher. These changes are finally in line with my original vision of what I wanted for my customers. Actually they're even better than I first imagined.

But enough of that- to the point of this post. Many of you probably don't know that I originally wanted to be a doctor. I majored in chemistry in college, took the pre-med requirements, and just knew that this is what I wanted to do. One day during my sophomore year, I saw a photo on Facebook that I wanted to be able to print, but didn't have a way of printing it. From that point forward, I've had a burning passion to make PhotoStasher a successful company. Just like that my life took an unforeseen turn.

The important point here is I knew nothing about how to even begin to make my vision a reality, but I was willing to learn and just decided to take the first step down this path. The funny thing is that as I started to work on my idea, the next logical step would present itself and the next and before I knew it I looked back and realized how far I had come.

Did I ever stop and think- "wow, I have no clue how to do this"? Yes, of course I did. But each and every time I would teach myself through books, the abundance of resources online, experience, trial and error, and bringing people on my team who had experience in different areas. I've found that when you really want to do something, it's more than possible.

So no matter what challenges you are facing or what dreams you have, I encourage you to start down the path and see where it takes you. Remember, you only have to take one step at a time, and each step gets you closer to achieving your goal. It reminds me of driving down the road at night and how your headlights only show you some of the road up ahead. Isn't it always enough to help you keep going and know where to go next?

Whether you want to run a marathon and you've never run a mile in your life, or maybe you want to go back to school to finish or obtain another degree, or maybe you want to start a business like me, I encourage you to just take the first step and see where it takes you.

All the best,
Lauren

How I Finally Came to Understand Your Perspective

So don't get me wrong, I'm not entirely naive, I've known for a long time that our website as well as PhotoStasher itself could use a face lift. But to be honest, it's just not been our priority until this point.

For one thing it's something we didn't think we could afford as a start up, and when I recently started looking into UX/UI (user experience/user interface) design, I was told by one company they wouldn't talk to me for less than a really large amount of money. I'm glad that I saw it over email or I may have not been able to resist laughing in the guy's ear over the phone.

Luckily, Alex (head of PhotoStasher development) suggested that I start looking at freelancers online. After doing some research, I found an amazing designer at a much more affordable rate. This guy is absolutely awesome. He's easy to work with and has come up with some sharp looking designs. Finding him has taught me that when you really want something you MUST pursue it and research it for yourself instead of just assuming it's not possible for you.

But back to my original point...

It finally dawned on me why I hadn't been giving as much attention to the UI design (or what you see when you use PhotoStasher and visit our website) besides the fact that it seemed too expensive. Honestly, I just felt like people would take the time to look past the appearance and see our value and usefulness. My passion and love for this business stood in the way of common sense. I had to ask myself- would you use a new service you knew nothing about just because you liked what it did even if it looked like it was built in the 90's? Heck no. When a company has a polished, professional, clean looking website I take them more seriously and my trust in them increases a hundredfold.

So why has it taken me so long to realize that I wasn't holding my business to the same standard? Well, all I can relate it to is the mother who loves her child so much she's able to easily overlook their faults and shortcomings and only see their positive attributes. My love for this business caused me to overlook appearances and focus solely on adding more features rather than realizing I needed to make a great first impression for first time users.

I get it now, and I can't wait to show you our new logo, new website, AND the new user interface of PhotoStasher!

A Valentine's Day Gift from Me to You!

I wanted to tell you about several sales that start today and run through next Wednesday 2/20. There are many ways to take advantage of these sales- you can create a photo book to document Valentine's Day or even create a belated gift for someone special.

• Use promo code SWEETSALE for 20% off your entire order
• Use promo code SHIP30 for free shipping on orders over $30

To take advantage of these sales, go to PhotoStasher where you can easily choose Facebook photos and add them to any photo product.

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope it's a great one.  ~Lauren

Photo credit- ButterflySha

Good Things Are Happening (When I Least Expected Them)

So for awhile now it has seemed that progress in every aspect of PhotoStasher has been kind of stagnant. I had expected a lot of growth and a full launch at the Holidays, but for one reason or another this just wasn't in the cards.

I have to admit for awhile this was quite depressing for me and I was wondering what was going to give and when. But then I would remind myself of something that I've learned is the case when building a business, things just take time.

For one reason or another, things don't always happen when you think or how you think. So what did I do? I decided to make peace with this. To let it go. After all, sitting around feeling depressed was getting me nowhere and just making me feel worse about things.

And here's what I realized: for one, I wasn't about to give up on PhotoStasher and for two, I'm always very aware when something needs to be done and, being the type A person I am, I get it done quickly and do it well.

So given these two things I concluded that it was absolutely a waste of time and energy to worry, feel depressed, beat myself up, etc.

Then the most amazing thing happened! A short time after I let things be, everything started happening at once...another developer which I wasn't even searching for came into the picture, I came across a UI/UX designer who is absolutely amazing, and some other amazing things are happening that I can't talk about ;)

Having a UI/UX designer to completely redesign PhotoStasher as well as the website has been much needed (as you have probably seen), but it's something that I never thought we would be able to afford at this point in the process, but I was obviously wrong.

You have no idea how long things just seemed to be lagging behind and how, all of a sudden, it was jump started again in ways I could never have imagined.

In the past, I would always worry it to death by trying to plan it all out and I can assure you, not only has this not worked in the past, but I never could have come up with what happened in the last few weeks.

So the moral of the story today applies to every aspect of your life whether you are starting a business or not- stop worrying, stop trying to figure it out, let it go, and you may just be surprised to see what happens next. Above all else, don't give up on the situation/relationship/issue because just when you think nothing good can come of it-- it always seems that something does!

Always happy to share what I've learned and I hope it helps you! Have you been in a similar situation or you're in one now? What happened or is happening? I would love to hear from you...

HUGE Announcement!

Hey guys! I hope you had a happy holidays and a wonderful beginning to 2013!

I'm excited to say that PhotoStasher is launched! It's live! I've been waiting for this moment for a long time...

Check it out for yourself- PhotoStasher lets you print Facebook photos using Shutterfly!

Over the past few years this dream of mine has been evolving. It seems like every time we came to a bump in the road or needed something to boost us forward it happened, even if sometimes it was quite stressful.

My team has worked extremely hard on making PhotoStasher THE place to print Facebook photos.

This journey has taught me that (as cheesy as it may sound) you should follow your passion and see where it takes you. I've grown more through this experience than I ever realized that I could and I know I will continue to become a better person moving forward.

More about PhotoStasher...

We have taken advantage of the many social connections on Facebook so that you can easily find photos that you want to print or use to create gifts!

The ordering process is quite simple- find photos you want to print, click on them to add to your photo cart, go to Shutterfly.com, then add the photos in your "PhotoStasher" album to the product of your choice.

We're only getting started and have many more awesome features to roll out soon! I hope you will continue to follow me on this journey as I blog about the experience...

Please check PhotoStasher out for yourself and let me know what you think- Give PhotoStasher a Try!

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

Lauren