Today we’d like to introduce you to Zandra Zuraw and Karen Grant.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Little Yellow Couch came about primarily because we wanted to work together! We wanted to create a work life that would feed us creatively and act as a structure of support for two women who felt they’d be better together than on their own. Through all of the iterations of LYC, we’ve always come back to this feeling of incredible gratitude to have a business partner who also could relate to being a mom, a wife, a daughter and a person with multiple passions. Our first business idea was to curate a monthly subscription box filled with high-quality, handmade goods. We wanted to not only support talented artisans, we wanted to emphasize the notion that bringing handmade items into your home gives you a feeling of personal connection to other people, stories and places. At the same time, we started blogging about home and the substance behind style when it comes to interiors. We soon realized we needed to concentrate on the blog instead of the boxes to develop a relationship with our audience. We were blogging 5x/week with all original content, including photography, editorial essays, DIYs, and monthly parties. We’re really proud of that content and it definitely honed our writing and photography chops, as well as our understanding of social media, marketing and the online world of a service-based business. But we were getting burned out on our rigorous schedule. Around this time, we discovered podcasting. We realized that the beauty behind the medium is that we can talk directly into the ears (and hearts!) of people who feel as energized by interiors as we do. It felt much more personal that our blog and has opened the door to communicating with our audience in a way we hadn’t done before. Our podcast is called Style Matters and every week we interview top interior designers and stylists about, well, WHY style matters in our lives and how it affects our overall sense of happiness! We also have a monthly episode called “On the LYC” where the two of us talk in depth about a particular theme in interiors or modern homemaking. We’ve been at it for over 2 years, aired over 100 episodes and have about 20,000 downloads per month. And we’re still loving it! In October, we’re hosting our first ever Style Retreat where the ideas behind Little Yellow Couch will be put into practice with a small group of women who are passionate about their homes. We’re really excited about that!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Our biggest struggle has actually been in figuring out how we want to engage with people on a monetized product. We can come up with content till the cows come home. And we are absolutely passionate about inspiring people to create a home that they love and reflects where they’ve been, who they are and who they want to become. But these days, that kind of content is largely free. You’ve got blogs, online magazines, videos and social media that people devour like Skittles. It’s not only a crowded and noisy market, it feels more and more temporary and disposable. It’s not just about how you stand out, it’s about how you create lasting, meaningful connections with other humans. That’s why we’ve decided to create these small group retreats where people can meet others in real life who share their obsession with home, work on personal projects that they then share at the end, and do a little antiquing and DIY-ing and leave with a sense of personal renewal and community. It’s the Style Matters podcast, come to life.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Little Yellow Couch – what should we know?
Our podcast is the core of what we do. It’s how we share the mission of our company, which is to inspire others to fulfill their passions when it comes to their homes. We believe that when you put love, sweat and tears into your home, it gives something back to you. We want to inspire others to use their homes as incubators for autobiography, generosity, creativity and self-care. Our mission is to help others find and express the connection between their inner lives and their homes. We are known for our interviews with designers and stylists who have a lot of experience in creating homes that matter. Our goal for the podcast is to inspire our listeners to do something in their homes that makes a difference in their lives. Something that makes them truly happy. Right now, we are using stories, through audio, to inspire and create a feeling of community, in that people who listen will feel like there are others out there who care as much about their homes as we do. What sets us apart from all of the media out there that shows jaw-dropping, exquisitely appointed homes, is that we are more interested in homes that aren’t perfect and that are in process, rather than completely “done.” We talk a lot about every-day struggles and dreams and the process of creating a home yourself, with real limitations where money and time are issues that we all face.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
We’ve been told that people love hearing the two of us together on the podcast. Something about our friendship seems to resonate with others. Friendships between women are powerful–they’ve been the subject of novels, movies and biographies because they can run deep and have a major impact on one’s life. So maybe that’s what people relate to. But as for our success as a business, I think that putting our heads down and just really focusing on one aspect of growth at a time has always been what’s taken us to the next level. We don’t always do that because the temptation to try every new shiny marketing or business idea out there is strong! But we’re pretty good at noticing when we’re doing that getting ourselves back on track.
Contact Info:
- Address: Little Yellow Couch, 36 High St, Natick, MA 01760
- Website: https://littleyellowcouch.com/
- Phone: 5083143615
- Email: zandra@littleyellowcouch.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/littleyellowcouch/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Little-Yellow-Couch-129646707221550/
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/lilyellowcouch/
Image Credit:
Karen June Grant
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