Secret packages, golden tickets and other behind-the-scenes excitement
On involving our children in the work that we do
Our little cottage has been a hive of industry over many dark nights these past few weeks, and I thought I’d share a little about what we have been up to, ‘we’ meaning me and my two daughters, although our efforts are regularly fuelled by hot blackcurrant and mini mince pies courtesy of Mr K.
Our small business, Do What You Love, is very much a family affair - Mr K quit his career in engineering to start working with me the day we returned from our honeymoon, and since our children were little we have tried to explain what ‘work’ is to us, not least because it’s quite different from the ‘work’ many of their friends’ parents do.
This year, as we were preparing to celebrate fifteen years of Do What You Love, we had a casual family meeting to chat about how we could make it really special. We do a big sale every year (up to 50% off everything), as a way of thanking our wonderful community for making our work (and the flexible way we live) possible, and once a year I offer personalised signed books as bonuses for anyone who registers for a bundle of courses, but we wanted to do something extra for this anniversary.
We talked about all the things we love - stationery, beautiful paper things, wrapping and so on - and decided we would make a very special gift to go with early registrations for a new class being launched in the sale. The class is a live writing and career development immersion called LIFE+TIME, so it felt fitting to put together a special package that would be in keeping with the themes of that class - things that would encourage class participants to spend time with their words as they explore the personal stories that have shaped their lives, and their thoughts about life itself.
Our children, aged 10 and 11, helped me choose the Japanese notebook we would include, making me proud with the way they stroked the paper in the samples, and checked that ink didn’t bleed through the pages. They helped me wrap each one in special tissue paper, and insisted we include some stickers, which we all love and use to make our to do lists and diaries look cheerful.
I knew I also wanted to make a limited edition set of letterpress postcards to commemorate the anniversary. I while back I had received a gorgeous note from my friend Rachel Hazell featuring her signature, The Travelling Bookbinder, letterpressed onto heavy cardstock. It was exactly the kind of thing I had in mind, so I asked for her advice to source the postcards. She didn’t hesitate to recommend Glasgow Press, who have done the most beautiful job creating a set of three postcards featuring my words, designed to inspire and uplift. One is gold foil on on dark indigo, and the other two feature dark ink on heavy paper in baby blue and baby pink. All are blank white on the reverse so they can be used as postcards, or stuck into a journal or onto a wall for inspiration and encouragement.
When they arrived in their smart brown boxes, my daughters took so much care to lay them out into sets of three, and then to transfer them into beautiful Traveler’s Company kraft envelopes. We made wishes for the future recipient as we carefully wrapped the string closure of each one.
(NOTE: Since posting this I have had a few requests about where you can buy the postcards. Thank you for your interest but you can’t buy them! They are part of the secret stationery gift sent out to anyone who registers for my new class Life+Time before midnight GMT on Thursday November 30. And now back to the story…)
And then the real fun began. We created a unique writing prompt for each gift package. I can’t say too much about this, except it involved our beloved badge machine, and some magnetic words, and some printing and some vellum envelopes… What a joy it was to create these together. Along the way they came up with more than a few ideas for stories from the prompts they were wrapping up.
At that point I thought we were done, but no. They had another idea. “Mummy, you know sometimes you help people on the computer?” “You mean mentoring?” “Yes that. Why don’t you make a surprise voucher for one of those meetings and put it in one of the parcels?”
And so the Golden Ticket for 1:1 mentoring was born. It was their idea, and they hid it somewhere - I have no idea which parcel they tucked it into. But someone who gets one of the free gifts will also find a Golden Ticket, much like Charlie Bucket’s, except this one is for mentoring with me on anything you like - growing your business, building your audience, pitching a book, building your confidence, making a career change, staying motivated - anything! All you have to do to be in with a chance of finding it is to register for my new writing + career development immersion LIFE+TIME before November 30, 2026*.
I should add that the Golden Ticket is in one of the parcels in the first batch we made, most of which have now been allocated - thank you if you have registered already, and good luck! There are only a handful of those parcels left, so if you want the chance to find the Golden Ticket, it might be wise to hurry up and register soon ;-) (That’s what my children told me to tell you). Of course we can make some more of the individual parcels up until the deadline of November 30, but the ones that might have the Golden Ticket in will be gone very soon… ;-)
Which is all to say my children have great ideas, and I try to listen to them as much as possible, and show them that their ideas have been taken on board. Obviously I don’t pay them from my business - they are too young for that - but their time and energy is often rewarded by a personal contribution towards their Christmas present budget :-)
One of my favourite parts, besides the mindful, joyful process of hand wrapping each gift alongside each other, is the questions that they ask as we are working. Questions such as:
Q (them): Who gets a signed book?
A (me): Anyone who chooses one of the main bundles of courses in our sale.
Q (them): What’s a bundle of courses?
A (me): It’s a collection of courses that I put together to help people who want to do something specific, like be really inspired to write, or to write a book, or to feel happier in their life. It’s a bit like making a gift basket (they love a gift basket) but instead of filling it with things, you fill it with experiences.
Q (them): How do you know what they want?
A (me): That’s a really good question. Sometimes it’s because it’s what I wanted a bit earlier in my writing life. Sometimes it’s because they tell me, when they write me emails or letters etc.
Q (them): What do you write in the books when you sign them?
A (me): I write their name, and I add secret messages, based on what I know about the person. For example if they have been in one of my classes before, and I know they want to write a book, I might write something which will encourage them to keep going with that dream. What would you write if you were writing the message?
Oldest daughter: I would write ‘Never give up.’ (Me: Oh that’s a good one).
Youngest daughter: I would write ‘You are great.’ (Me: Oh I would love it if I got a signed book and someone had written that in it for me.)
This is how our average weekday night goes… :-)
I actually think this kind of involvement in our work is so important. It’s like ‘take your child to work day’ but in a much more involved way.
Just a couple of weeks ago I was in a big city, standing at the traffic lights when the guy in front of me turned to his eight(?) year old daughter and said, “You know I use AI to make smarter AI which will eventually be smart enough to create robots that are smart enough to make other robots that do most things a human can do, right? So what are you going to do when you are older? It’s going to have to be something that a robot can’t do?” “Hmm…,” she said, thinking for a moment. Then, just as the lights changed to the green man, she decided, “I’m going to create a place where humans can gather, and have a nice time together." before skipping across the road, father in tow. It made me smile. Are we looking at a new generation of cafe owners, I wonder?
Who knows whether our children grow up to run cafes (it’s one of my secret dreams), or be community leaders, or be the kind of people who bring a human touch to what they do, even if it something as simple as taking great care in preparing and wrapping secret gifts for others, but these kinds of practical, thoughtful activities can only be a good thing, I think.
Out of interest tell me, what would be in your ideal little stationery gift package? And how have you involved any younger people in your life in the work that you do? I’d love to know.
Beth Xx
PS If you are interested in my new live writing and career development class LIFE+TIME (which is a seven-week deep dive class to help you explore who you are as a writer and consider multiple income streams for your work) and you’d quite like to register for 30% off, get a lovely free stationery gift in the post, perhaps with the chance of winning that golden ticket, do take a look at the course and register asap, and definitely before midnight GMT on November 30 if you can (because that’s the cutoff for free gifts).
You can also get the free gift if you sign up to any of the curated bundles which include LIFE+TIME and are 50% off in the sale. These include: The Flourishing Writer Bundle and The Book Dream Bundle.
Right, that’s it from me. I’m going back to wrapping secret gifts…
*No purchase necessary. I will also be keeping back one of the free gifts as part of a giveaway prize for someone who enrols in this year’s Winter Writing Sanctuary (which is free). Who knows, that one might have the Golden Ticket in it.
Photos: Holly Bobbins unless otherwise credited
I love this. I will open my package (that Mr K has confirmed will be in its way soon), remembering all the care, love and magic you and your daughters have woven in to it. Thank you 🩵
My parents had a business that I grew up in, and look back now on all the life skills, and belief in bringing dreams to life that experience gave me. It is a huge gift to give to a child.
This is so lovely and heart warming, what wonderful warm evenings together spreading some sunshine to others.