She Builds: 2019 Intentions

Happy new year!  

There’s just something about the start of the year that’s so rejuvenating, isn’t there? After a few weeks of slowing down, maybe a little time off work, and most definitely some fun with family and friends, the beginning of the new year brings with it a renewed inspiration and drive to create. 

We have always approached our business with an open mind, knowing that we’d be learning and adjusting along the way and, because of that, we spent a fair bit of time at the end of 2018 evaluating our business and thinking about the lessons we learned. Our mission remains the same, but we’re taking those nuggets of knowledge and applying them to our business in 2019.

If you’ve been with us since the beginning, you know we’re not huge fans of “resolutions” per se. It might be a semantics issue more than anything, but that word sends us into a spiral of self-doubt where we think we need to “fix” things. Instead of fixing, we’re planning. We’re setting intentions for where we want to spend our time and energy, and we’re setting goals for what we want to accomplish.

Our three main areas of focus for 2019 are philanthropy, community, and quality.

Philanthropy

We have always wanted to have a philanthropic angle to our business but wanted to make sure we got our sea legs under us so we could be the best possible partner to a cause we really care about. The hardest part is narrowing down where we want to lend our support, so we’re going to keep our scope a little wider for the time being. For each quarter in 2019, we’re picking a cause near and dear to us to donate 5% of our profits. There’s a big beautiful world out there and we want to do our part to protect it. 

Community

The reason we started doNorth was to adopt a community of explorers, nature-lovers, and bliss followers. We’ve loved connecting with you thus far and only hope our community will grow. Admittedly, however, we’ve focused so much on the behind-the-screen part of our community that we haven’t done the best job getting out into the wild with you. This year, we’re going to focus on engaging in more hikes, retreats and other fun events so that we can enjoy exactly what this brand is about: the outdoors, the North Midwest, and all of you. Don’t worry, though! We’re still going to show up on our socials and give you the best of what we have to offer. Additionally, we’ll be looking to partner with other like-minded brands, influencers and other partners to inspire some cool adventures. Got an interesting partnership idea? Hit us up!

Quality

One of our most important lessons learned last year is that, when we rush something, it rarely (read: NEVER) works out how we want it to. Even worse, it leaves us feeling like we disappointed our brand and you. So, this year, we’re taking our time and doing our best to produce quality content and products. This may mean that we’re not following the exact seasonal apparel launches like the rest of the retail world or we skip a day posting on Instagram. But, if we don’t feel good about it, it’s not going to happen. In addition, we’re also going to spend time learning about what you want to see from us. Want to know about the best hiking around Milwaukee? Or the best lakes in Wisconsin? Or what it’s really like to live and work in the Northwoods? Between the two of us, we have a lot of knowledge that we feel like we’ve barely tapped into. We also want to share YOUR stories and truly learn about your unique experiences in the North Midwest.

We are so excited for what’s to come this year and are enthusiastically watching to see how you’re diving into it. We’re wishing you happy trails, sunny lake days, and comforts of the cabin in 2019 and hope you’ll continue to let us be a part of it all. 

Yours in adventure,

C&M