Story from the Soul ::: Melinda Morris, Invitation Specialist

A couple weeks ago, we asked readers to submit the Story from their Soul.  This is the story of one’s entrepreneurial journey… the story of when your soul was on fire with the passion for business ownership!  You can read other Soul Stories here.

This is the story of Melinda Morris, an Invitation Specialist & Owner of Lion in the Sun, based in Brooklyn, New York…

I say on my Blog that I was born with a Mrs. Grossman sticker in my mouth.

In 1981 (I was 10) my mother opened a business specializing in custom invitations,  paper and party decor. as a child I would be dragged to do bat mitzvah balloon archways at 6am on sat. mornings( it was after all the 80′s) So all through High School and College I worked in the family business advising clients on wedding invitations and announcements and event planning.

While I loved the special event industry probably not surprisingly my initial career choice was not to stay in the same industry but to forge my path. But after a pursing a master degree in sociology on way to a PhD, I realized that I missed being connected to real people and real events.

So I combined my passions to do Fundraising and Special Event management for social service non-profits, specifically social service organizations. The perfect marriage, I got to use all my event planning expertise and do it for a good cause. However after 10 years as special events director in the charity sector I was stressed out and burnt out and owned more black cocktail dresses than one women should. As cliché as it sounds the combination of turning 30 and 9/11 (which happened in the same week) really shocked me into pursuing what I realized I really wanted. I realized that my parents business ( still going strong) was a great model and I remembered what I had always loved about the biz is you get to work with people celebrating happy things and lend meaningful experience to their important events.!

Most importantly, I realized that the neighborhood where I lived had nothing like it and was brimming with young couples new babies and growing families and nowhere to buy beautiful paper.

So within 6 months I had quit my well paying job, had begun renovations and was sourcing vendors for my own paperie. The story is still long from there. I was blessed to have my family business behind me and a already established reputation in the field. But even more nearly 8 years later and much growth and lessons under my belt it is still a struggle. But it is a constant journey, you can never just sit back, i am always trying to be better, we expanded twice and moved to a better location, my husband has joined the business but we are still trying to figure out how to make it work the best for us for our staff and for our clients.

The most important thing is that I am constantly reminded why I am lucky to do. just about every day we get to hear happy stories of love and new babies and family celebrations and we get to help guide them through the process that can be scary, and stressful and expensive. It is rewarding to see them come out happy on the other-side…. My Favorite and seemingly most helpful thing we tell all our clients is ” Relax its just a party”!!

Thanks Melinda!

If you want to submit your soul story, you still can.  The contest has passed… but we always love a good story!  Submit here.