Wow, friends. I remember the day that the big truck came. It was raining and I was wearing my new navy blue and pink rain boots. Thankfully, Brady was napping as the big white truck somehow turned around in our cul-de-sac and parked in front of my long driveway. A man got out of the truck and ran towards me in the rain. “You Emily?” he said. “Yep,” I replied with a smile as big as Texas. I knew what was in that truck and I was one part thrilled and one part terrified to see it. He took a look at my boots, chuckled and said “I have no idea how we’re going to get these crates up this driveway. Especially with…” his voice trailed off as he pointed to my new shoes. Didn’t he know these rainboots were brand new and were equipped with super powers?

Together, we pushed two tons of Simplified Planners into my garage. As we were rolling the last crate up my driveway, the wheel slipped and I felt a pop in my foot. Sprained foot. “Nice,” I thought. A battle wound.

This would be my first battle wound, but I knew a second was coming. Along with the Simplified Planner binders, I’d ordered our calendar pages from the same manufacturer. Before the giant crates were shipped, the manufacturer sent a packet of samples (from the finished sets). I remember opening the calendar sheets furiously excited in my kitchen.

They were wrong.

Boom.

I’ll spare you the days of fret and worry and kicking myself I did after that. One tiny miscommunication and they were unusable. I called the recycling company a few weeks later, after I mustered the courage to accept my mistake and move on. Twenty four boxes of calendars were swept away, along with my pride.

Thank goodness.

We made those pages so much better than they would have been. I ended up with time to really re-evaluate and make them exactly what we wanted. I’m grateful for that costly mistake. It was worth it. By sticking to my guns and making the Simplified Planner the very best it could be (no second rate calendars, here, my friends!) we made magic happen. Well, “we” includes an amazing local printer we found to create these pages for us. And yesterday we sold out of our turquoise planners. Today we’re running low on tan and pink. I believe we’ll sell out by the end of the year.

Wow. After a sprained foot and pricey mistake and a lot of nights staring at InDesign on my computer, we did it.

Thanks, guys. Thanks for supporting this little dream I had of turning my handy dandy binder system into a planner to help make life easier for women all over. I can’t believe we’ve nearly sold 500 of these beauties. Coming soon — a post with tips on how to use yours. Check out our new 2013 Starter Kits while we still have them in stock!

xo,

Emily

Image is a screenshot from our video by Indie Atlantic Films.