From Idea to Kindness-Focused Brand: A Student Story with KeriAnne from Kind Words Count

In this heartfelt episode of Creative Juggle Joy, Co-host Delores sits down with her student KeriAnne Daniels, founder of Kind Words Count — a kindness-centered card and gift brand born from love, friendship, and a very personal story.

KeriAnne went from “I’m not really an artist” to building a full creative business in her 50s, learning digital design from scratch and turning one handmade gift into a thoughtful product line now sold both retail and wholesale.

Together, Delores and KeriAnne talk about:

💌 How a dear friend’s cancer journey sparked the very first “positivity cards”
 🎨 Going from hand-painted cards to learning Affinity Designer & digital design
 📦 Developing a tangible product line: printing, packaging, and retail-ready details
 🛍️ Moving from Etsy and online sales into boutiques and wholesale markets
 🧠 Mindset, journaling, and being a lifelong learner (especially when starting “later”)
 🌟 Encouragement for creatives who feel like they’re “starting from zero”

If you’ve ever wondered whether you can turn a tiny idea in your heart into something real, beautiful, and meaningful — this conversation is for you.

✨ Connect with KeriAnne:
 Website: kindwordscount.net
Instagram & Facebook: @kindwordscount

Transcript

Delores Naskrent: [00:00:00] Hi friends. Welcome back to the Creative Juggle Joy. This is a space where we talk honestly about what it means to live and work creatively, the winds, the wobble, and everything in between.

I'm your host, Delores Naskrent, and today's episode comes straight from the heart. You know, every once in a while I get to witness one of my students completely blossom. Not just in skill, but in confidence, in creativity, and in courage. And that's exactly what today's guest, KeriAnne Daniels has done.

KeriAnne went from knowing almost nothing about digital design, to building a full creative business called kind words count. She has a line of heartfelt cards and gifts that spread positivity and kindness in the most beautiful way. Her story started with love and friendship, and through trial and error, she turned that spark into a [00:01:00] thriving product line.

Now sold in retail and wholesale markets. If you've ever wondered how to take an idea in your heart and turn it into something real and meaningful, this conversation is going to inspire you. Let's dive in. KeriAnne, welcome. I'm so glad to see your face here today. 

KeriAnne: I am so glad to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me.

Delores Naskrent: Well, for those of you who haven't met you, can you introduce yourself and tell, I mean, I know you and we have you in our group every week at the Thrive meetings. You're always very generous with all of your information, but I'd like you to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about kind words Count.

KeriAnne: As Delores mentioned, my name is KeriAnne. I live in the San Francisco Bay area and was born and raised there. I'm a single mom and raised three beautiful now adult children, and spent almost 30 years in the corporate world, and now am an [00:02:00] artist and entrepreneur. My company really is rooted in kindness, as you can tell by the name.

It's all about helping people connect encourage and celebrate one another. My products offer. Simple ways to share kindness in a world that, like, really, we need it now more than ever. 

Delores Naskrent: Yes. Absolutely. I love the heart behind your brand. We've talked about this before and I know it began as something deeply personal.

Can you share the story of how your friend Maria inspired this idea? 

KeriAnne: Yes, I would love to. My dearest friend Maria was diagnosed with cancer at Christmas time in 2022, and, during her treatment, she really only wanted Be surrounding her. She was a fighter and she did not want, anyone telling her the negative stories that some people like to share.

And we were walking partners along with [00:03:00] lots of other, we had lots of other relationships, we loved to take long walks together and she would share, some of her mantras and kind of inspiration, as she was starting her treatment with me. I would literally pull out my phone and. Jot them down.

I didn't really know why at the time, but what happened was I was inspired to create her own set of positivity cards. I went home and hand painted, using some stencils and stamps and washy tape. These, set of inspirational positivity cards, and she put them next to her bed and posted them and she would meditate on them.

And one day she said, Hey, my cousin Judy was over and we both think you should sell these on Etsy. I thought, that is crazy. It takes me four hours to paint a set. I'm not really an artist. There's no way I could do that. A few months later, I was holding my coffee mug and I looked at it and I, for some reason, I thought I could make those cards digitally.

[00:04:00] So literally the next week I went and bought an iPad. Love it. That's how I started that journey. 

Delores Naskrent: That's how we met actually. You started taking my classes. 

KeriAnne: I literally bought the iPad and, found you on Skillshare. 'cause I realized I needed to learn a software program.

I was exploring which one to dive into. And your Skillshare affinity classes hooked me. 

Delores Naskrent: So that's what made you design or start designing was just the idea that, okay, I gotta make these. How do I make these and then straight into classes on Procreate was where you started, right?

You started on Procreate and then you, 

KeriAnne: dabbled a little bit, but really Dove into Affinity Designer, 

Delores Naskrent: Because I know you more as an Affinity designer user. Was there a transition period or was it just like you decided, no, I prefer this. 

KeriAnne: I prefer this. I think it allowed me to do what I discovered I needed to do.

Delores Naskrent: Tell us about the first set of [00:05:00] cards you created and how you went from hand painting to digital. How did you do that? 

KeriAnne: Yes. I, started taking your classes. I discovered that I really wanted my product to have the same feel as the hand painted ones.

I learned that I could take all my stencils that I was using and my stamps, my lettering that I was using, and, create them. As assets and upload them into affinity designers. So that's really where it started. I, I really opened me up to be like, oh wow, I can really do this. And I, I look at my original cards to the ones that I am doing now, and there's been a huge transformation.

in terms of the refinement and what I think is the, the quality and the design of it, but the look and feel is still very similar to the original. 

Delores Naskrent: That's something I can absolutely agree with you on because I think [00:06:00] you've really captured that whole feeling of, you know, stamping and washy tape and little any.

Additions, like little stamps of flowers, and you've got it all kind of put together with some really cool lettering it all looks handmade and that's coming out of this software. So that's really cool. I love that idea and. I love the fact that you have also then taken it a step further this was just between you and a friend, but then you've now decided and gone through the whole process of trying to figure out how to retail this project.

You've gone through all of this, so you've now developed, not just the product, but you've learned about printing. Packaging and the whole idea of retail, what did your first sale feel like when you were just like, oh my gosh, in person. 

KeriAnne: Well, there were my first sale when I first launched, you know, [00:07:00] I sent the email to friends and family launching my business, and of course it was my friends and family.

I did start getting orders on my website, and that felt really special and good. But then when I had my first sale. From somebody I didn't know was really spectacular. That was very cool. And I, you know, I did create an Etsy shop after my first year, or maybe it was actually the first few months I realized I should do an Etsy store.

So I did do that. Then. What felt more special was when I had a repeat customer. Like that was the best. I have this woman who loves my notebooks, and so she keeps reordering my notebooks. And that is really, I think kind of the full circle. 

Delores Naskrent: So how did you learn about, the printing?

Because what you're doing now at this point in your, journey, you're mass producing really, I mean, you know, you're printing. You're packaging and you're putting the product out there, like what, [00:08:00] how does it go from, I'm playing on Affinity Designer on my iPad to, I have a full product line.

Tell us a little bit about that process. Yeah. 

KeriAnne: Well, there's so many components to that. So what I first realized is that I wanted, my business to become a brand. I wanted it to be more than just, selling some cards on Etsy. I wanted to reach people and have people connect.

Having my products be a vessel to connect people with encouragement strength courage friendship, and self care. So all of those things.

Delores Naskrent: And thankfulness.

KeriAnne: Yes. You have a set of those.

Delores Naskrent: Yes.

KeriAnne: My original ones. So, yeah, I had to do everything from, figuring out what the card set looks like. I call it card art, I wanted them to be substantial and feel quality and have a thickness to them. So they're almost like a coaster.

Yeah. So I, I found a printer that would, I had no idea this [00:09:00] existed, but there's this thing called duplex printing where they connect two pieces of basically card stock together and make it really thick. And then I have a soft touch finish on it. And so their, all my products feel really nice. People pick 'em up and go, oh, this feels so nice.

So that was the first. Piece of it to really educate myself, in that. Then there was the packaging. I had some wholesale reps tell me, your product is cool, but you are not gonna be able to put it in stores. 'cause people, they're not gonna know where to put it because it's not a greeting card and it's not a set of affirmation cards.

It's somewhere in between. So they won't know where to put it in the store. Packaging became very important. Luckily I have a friend who's an expert, in product marketing. She's worked in the industry for several years and she worked with me on designing a Box, and the box is, it's giftable what I really had the vision of.

I wanted this to be a gift, so I wanted you to be able to buy it in a store and hand it to somebody you didn't even need to put it into a bag or [00:10:00] wrap it. So the box looks like that, but then there's the whole marketing aspect how do you market that and what does that look like?

So I've spent a lot of time refining that part of it. It's been super fun. 

I love your packaging by the way, that could be an episode in itself. Just the packaging. KeriAnne is designed a really cute, it almost looks like a jewelry box 'cause it's very solid and it has a lid that has a clear top to it, so it shows her product within.

It looks gorgeous as a gift. And then it has a little clasp that kind of has a magnet on it. It's really gorgeous. So it's a product in itself. It's like a product within a product. Is that something you have found helpful for retailing the gifts as well?

Because you're now not only retailing direct to consumer, but you are also now in the wholesale market. I wanna hear a little bit about that. What have you learned about selling to the gift [00:11:00] market or getting your work into shops?

I'm sure our listeners would love to hear. 

Yeah. I'm just starting that journey. And that has been very exciting. I do think that my packaging has made a huge impact on being able to do that. From the retail side, this will be my first holiday season that we're going into where I will have the boxes because I just got them, over the summer and have been figuring out how to use them.

Some of the challenges are I have this great product and then I pick up the box, put my product inside. I also have two ways of displaying the product. It's a set of eight cards and I have a round wooden stand that I've, gotten made. And then I have ribbon and clips. So you can hang it on a bulletin board or on a mantle or whatever.

But when you pick up the box. You turn it over to see like, oh, what's inside this box? The little sticker on the back, it all fall out, fell kind of loose, jostled itself. So then I had to figure out, okay, I have to keep that [00:12:00] in place when it's in a store. And so now I'm a shrink wrap expert. I have a whole shrink wrap station in my basement.

But there's a lot to have learned within that process meeting with those wholesalers and Yeah. Realizing that they may only want a certain. You know, they don't want all my products, they only want these five of my products. And that is a blessing in itself. I have another, wholesale, potential client that is looking at my baby line, which I'm like, oh, I need to expand that quickly and get that.

'cause that's very exciting. But that's perfect for her clientele. Just like being in popups or marketplaces, clientele is different everywhere. And so that's something that I've had to. Realize and be like, okay, that is gonna be really important for me going forward and figuring out which, stores I really want to, approach.

Yes. And who is their clientele and who do I want my clientele to be? 

That is really interesting. I hope I answered that. Yeah, you did. [00:13:00] And that kind of speaks to both sides of it, the creative part and the business side because there's both parts to it.

As most. People in your position, and I have been one of them many times 'cause I've gone through many iterations of selling my business, as have many of the other students and people in my community, they've had to really. Balance creativity with the business side.

So there's that whole, you've talked about already, the basics of packaging and trying to figure out exactly how to present your work you've talked about the experience of the customer and I know as having been a recipient of one of your little gift sets, that it really is an experience from you.

You get this packaging that's so pretty, and then there's that sort of do it yourself. Oh, I can hang this ribbon and I have these cute little close pins that will hang up my motivational phrases [00:14:00] so that you've got that, that you've totally worked into this, which is so huge. And then you're talking also now about the experience of the business owner you're presenting this to and how they need to cope with being able to present it, which is also probably what you have to deal with when you're doing your craft sales

all work, and this is all the business stuff that's going on behind the scenes for it started with pretty art and I like doing pretty art. Now you're at this point where you've done all of these other steps. What has surprised you the most, KeriAnne, about running this creative business? 

I think what has surprised me the most is, 

the continuous ideas popping in my head, both from the creative side and the business side, like constantly, oh, I could do it this way, I could do it that way. Not having grown up in this artistic world. I'm not a person with a paintbrush in my hand from birth, 

this is very new to me in my [00:15:00] fifties. The creative binge. Sometimes I just can't stop myself, we get into this mindset, I'm gonna finish this and things just flow out. That has been, really surprising and, amazing for me personally, I, 

Delores Naskrent: I love that.

I'm sure you call yourself a lifelong learner. You're one of those people. How has that mindset helped you through your challenges? When you came up against some kind of an obstacle, how do you think being a lifelong learner has helped you? 

KeriAnne: Yeah, I feel like, life is full of challenges.

Whether we have a challenge in our personal life or in our work life, or sometimes it happens at the same time, I think that's just, part of life. I found that really paying attention to my mindset. Has been really important to making it through those challenging times there's that saying when you fall, it's important to get back up. I really [00:16:00] feel like those are important, life lessons for me. It could be just little hiccups or big falls, but it's really how you get back up and move forward 

through it and forward. 

one thing I think over the last year especially that's really helped me is that I wake up every morning and I start with an intention, and it could be just one word or a phrase, and then I go make my coffee and I spent 15 minutes and I journal about it.

And it could be just lettering the word in my journal and coloring around it while I think and process about it. Or I could write three pages of words about it depending on what's. Happening. So in terms of being a lifelong learner, it's really been more recently, learning about myself and helping me through my journey and I love journaling.

So that, has really helped me and it helps me get centered for the day. Within the moment. Of every day, but also moving forward. 

Delores Naskrent: I love that. And you're not the first person that I've talked to about this in the last couple of weeks. This has [00:17:00] become, a really great way to cope.

You know that morning mindset and you're the perfect person for it. You have all these great phrases, you could just look at your own cards. True that. All right, KeriAnne, what advice would you give to other students who feel like they're starting from zero with just an idea?

KeriAnne: Oh, I think if you have an idea, you can do it. I think another one of my sayings that I have, well, I have a couple that I really love, that I write down all the time is, I am bigger than the mountain. Things may feel daunting and overwhelming, but you are in charge of your own destiny.

You're not alone. There are, lots of resources out there. Get involved in communities like I've been with Delores, also, you know, friends or even acquaintances that has been so valuable to me is just to have coffee with somebody and learn from them, and then all of a sudden they're like a resource for you.

[00:18:00] So really you're not alone. There's resources out there. Utilize them. People are there to help you along the way. You just need to ask and you know you can do it.

Delores Naskrent: Oh, I love that. Thank you so much. Yeah, I'm just drinking that in right now. So, KeriAnne, what's next? For kind words count.

Gosh, have you got any new things I'd love to hear? I like being on the inside track here. 

KeriAnne: I do have some new things. So, I, I guess 2026, I'm really gonna put on my business hat, and focus on that. I love the business side of things. That's kind of where, I was in the corporate world for years and years, so that's what comes more naturally to me, I think.

Delores Naskrent: And what did you do? 

KeriAnne: Corporate hr, and I did a lot of business consulting and kind of organizational development. That's where I started. I think, in like what's ahead I, I am gonna continue to focus on getting into brick and mortar stores.

I am going to actually start a blog.

Delores Naskrent: Nice.

KeriAnne: And the, new yeah, upcoming [00:19:00] blog where I can, you know, just share my inspiration and my story and other people's stories. I have some new products. I have a product that I've been working on called Notes to Self. They're journaling prompt stickers that I will be coming down.

Mm. 

The pathway. And then I also have a, like a card deck, of kind words to give. 

A friend of mine inspired this one where you're in an airport and you see somebody that is just looking a little down or having a hard time and you just hand them a card of kindness or, a coworker that's been having a hard day.

That is, kind of a spinoff on my joy jar, which I have, 

Delores Naskrent: that's awesome. 

Where can listeners find you

KeriAnne: my website is a great place to start. It's, kind words count.net. Okay. And I'm also on Instagram and Facebook at kind words count.

Perfect. I do have an Etsy store. It's not quite updated with all of my new products right this minute, but you can find me on Etsy as well. 

Delores Naskrent: That's perfect. I'll put all [00:20:00] the, links into the show notes here, but, let's end on one kind word or message that you, KeriAnne would love to leave our listeners with today.

KeriAnne: It's your time go. 

Delores Naskrent: Love it. Perfect. It's just been a pleasure to spend time with you today

thank you so much, KeriAnne, for being with me today.

KeriAnne: Well, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. It's been super fun. 

Wasn't that wonderful. To all my listeners, I love how KeriAnne's story reminds us that starting from scratch doesn't mean starting from nothing. And thank you, Maria, for starting KeriAnne on this journey. Every bit of kindness, curiosity, and persistence we give to our work really does add up.

If there's anybody that. Makes me believe that more and more every time I talk to her. It's KeriAnne, KeriAnne, your cards, prints and products [00:21:00] are such a reflection of the heart behind your brand. And I'm so glad that you said that about just creating a brand. I really think that's something that a lot of us as creators don't stop to think about and don't stop to do at the beginning.

And it's great that you've done this at the beginning. If you're one of my students listening in, I hope this episode gives you that extra bit of encouragement to keep going, even when things feel uncertain or slow. You never know where your first digital brush stroke might lead.

Thanks for joining me today on the Creative Juggle Joy. Keep juggling. Keep creating and most importantly, keep finding joy in the process.