Ep 240 | Adriana Carrig

Written By Yasmin Nouri

Bootstrapping a Jewelry Business to Over $20 Million Using the Power of Kindness & Community

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Adriana Carrig is the founder and CEO of Little Words Project, a jewelry company that’s on a mission to inspire and spread kindness one word at a time. 

Adriana was motivated to start her business due to her personal experience with bullying growing up. She started making bracelets that acted as gentle reminders or affirmations for her and her sorority sisters in college. While being an entrepreneur was never in her plans, she immediately saw the value of her idea and was quickly affirmed when she saw how her sorority sisters continued bracelet-making long after she graduated. Seeing this fueled her to start a business and in 2013 the Little Words Project was born. Adriana has self-funded the brand with $5,000 of her own money and grew it to over $20 million in revenue before they brought on their first investor. 

She understood the impact of what these wearable affirmations can do for the rest of the population and the rest is history. The brand has also built a cult following of loyal customers and boasts celebrity fans including Lance Bass, Kourtney Kardashian, Alicia Keys, and more. The company has over 1,000+ retail partners – including Target and Nordstrom – and is set to have 12 retail stores by the end of this year.

In this week’s episode, we talk to Adriana about how she went from beading bracelets and shipping them out herself at her parent’s basement (while she had a full-time job) to growing the business into what it is today. We talk about her experience with bullying growing up and how it has inspired her to start her business, what it means to fail forward, and the importance of just starting where you are and taking the first step. She opens up about how she dealt with naysayers who thought that she couldn’t build a real business around $25 bracelets, the steps she took from Day 1 on building the most incredible brand and community and the messy truth about entrepreneurship that no one talks about. The interview is all about intuitive entrepreneurship, how listening to your gut can be your biggest superpower, and so much more. 

Show Notes:

  • The power of taking the first step. [04:16]

  • Burnout and infertility experience. [08:10]

  • Adriana’s childhood and upbringing. [14:19]

  • Facing bullying and cultivating confidence. [14:17]

  • The inspiration behind the Little Words Project. [20:28]

  • Facing doubts and criticism in product development. [26:23]

  • Developing her initial products. [34:02]

  • The rewarding and challenging experiences of growth. [39:40]

  • Building a self-funded, sustainable business. [46:39]

  • Organic brand growth and community relationships. [50:31]

  • The messy truth about entrepreneurship. [52:32]

  • Intuitive entrepreneurship: Embrace what feels right. [55:46]

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Ep 241 | Dr. Uma Naidoo
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Ep 239 | Dr. Rena Malik