Bloom Co-Founders Michelle (left) and Kaylyn (right)

Meet Michelle Trincia and Kaylyn Minix, the Co-Founders of Bloom Daily Planners! These young entrepreneurs are following their bliss by doing what they love: creating beautiful planners that inspire women to bloom into their best selves and stay stylishly organized along the way. With their mission to empower women, their aspirations, and their go-getter drive - they are total eff.Y.bee girls! 

Tell us the story behind creating your company!

Kaylyn and I have both been planner loves and users all of our lives! We met as college interns at our company, Student Media Group. Back then, Student Media Group solely created custom planners for colleges and universities across the US. Part of our job was putting together the planner covers, which always had to be university related (buildings, statues, mascots.) We were bold enough to ask the President of the company if we could make our own planners, specifically designed for women. We didn't want to be limited by gender-neutral college themes, and wanted to make something fun and motivating for young girls to plan with. Luckily for us, SMG's President encourages "Intrepreneurship" - the idea of being entrepreneurial, even if you're not the boss. He let us run with the idea, and we started out by putting a few fashionable planners up on eBay. They started to sell, and over the course of a crazy roller coaster of six years later, bloom daily planners is now it's own division of Student Media Group that Kaylyn and I run! We have expanded the line beyond our basic planners and now create specialty planners, desk calendars, planning pads, binders, file folders, card sets and so much more! We are brainstorming new organizational products every day!

What does it mean to "bloom"?

Blooming is a life long process! It is a continuous journey, with no end point. We always say that every year (even every day!) is a blank slate, and a fresh chance to bloom into the best version of you. To us, blooming means continual growth, learning, and self-improvement. It's challenging yourself to be better, but forgiving yourself if you fail. The goal is growth, never perfection. We try to infuse our products with this message of blooming. Anyone can put a cute pattern on a planner, but we like to think our products have brains and beauty. The differentiator of bloom is the heart and thoughtfulness that goes into every single product. We obsess over details because we understand that the little things end up making the biggest difference. We agonize over the placement of every single quote, spend days perfecting the exact wording of every monthly challenge... we want our planners to truly speak to our customers, be their cheerleader throughout the year, and pick them up whenever they may be feeling down! 

Walk us through a day in the life.

I think our favorite day of the week is Wednesdays! Wednesdays we have our creative meetings with the whole bloom team, and it's so refreshing! We start every single meeting with the same question: "What is bloom?" We ask this question and go around in a circle until everyone has had at least three turns saying what bloom means to them. We ask this same question every single week, and I don't think we've had one repeat answer yet! It's amazing. We've found that this is a really cool way to get everyone into the creative zone before our meeting, and remind ourselves of the bigger picture, and overall voice and mission of bloom. From there we discuss what we've all been working on, any challenges we've been facing, what’s on the horizon, and our deliverables for the next week. At the end of the meeting we have a "synergy session" where we brainstorm on one topic per week (ex: new to do pad styles for our planning pad line.) It's so fun! Outside our meetings, I would describe our daily lives as wonderful, organized chaos. We're at a really exciting time of growth in our company, and in a small company everyone helps out wherever they can. We're constantly focused on customer service, tradeshow planning, market research, new product development, quality control, proofing...the list goes on and on! 

What's the best advice you've ever received?

We have an entire library of quotes and advice we (try to!) live by, so can we answer in a few of our favorite one liners?

“If you never ask, the answer is always no”

Who or what is your biggest inspiration?

Our biggest inspiration is our #bloomgirls (what we call the lovely women who use our products)! Hearing from them ALWAYS makes our day, and reminds us why we are doing what we do. When someone tells you how your products have helped them make deans list, pass their boards, manage life with a job and multiple children, or simply 'bloom' and feel less stressed in any way, it melts your heart. Helping empowering women to take control of their days is such a gift, and we're so lucky to get to do that every day. We truly love all of our amazing customers! 

What are some of your goals for 2016?

2016 is already shaping up to be our busiest year ever! We have so many tradeshows planned so a big goal of ours is to maximize our reach there and meet lots of new customers/business to partner with. We're always focused on new product development, and one of our big projects for 2016 is our WEDDING PLANNER! We have so much in the works for next year, but I don't want to give too much away ;) Stay tuned for big things from bloom! We're gearing up for our best year ever! 

How do you follow your bliss?

We follow our bliss by helping women bloom! Life can get crazy busy and pretty stressful, but it's gotten to the point where bloom is simply is part of our daily life and identity. We don't leave work at 5pm, we're constantly instagramming and tweeting for bloom and texting each other ideas and inspiration at all hours of the night. You know when you're choosing to 'work' in your personal time you truly love what you do! I think the amount we both truly care is why bloom has grown so quickly so fast. We wouldn't trade what we've created for any other typical 9-5. I truly believe we are both following our bliss by helping others find/follow theirs :)

What eff.Y.bee piece(s) would be at the top of your gift list?

Well we rock our Blush & Purple Bliss Stacks daily! We would LOVE to eventually order some bracelets with custom bloom charms, and ALL of eff.Y.bee’s amethyst drusy necklaces are to die for. I mean how can you pick? It's all beautiful!