Interview with Meredith Looney, owner of the i like book,
the treasured books in which parents can communicate
with the special children in their lives
...and there is one for couples too!
The i like book is a super fun, wonderfully intuitive and caring way to let your kids know how much they mean to you. (And there is a Couples version too!)
BerryBestMoms.com: I'm really excited that we recently started carrying your awesome i like books in 6 colors and two versions (one for kids and one for couples). It seems perfect for Valentine's Day, which is coming up! Tell me a little bit about them.
Meredith Looney: The i like book is a fun & organic way to connect with your children using positive affirmations & reinforcement. It comes in 6 cool colors & an open date format to capture what you ‘like’ about your kids and share it with them. Every child should be so lucky to grow up with an i like book in their life.
BBM: What’s the story behind how they were invented? How did it all start?
Meredith: When my husband & I were married we attended a 'newly wed' class. The common theme was to express 3 things daily that we appreciated or liked about each other. Three things every single day sort of seemed like a job instead of something fun so we began our own ‘like’ book to each other. When our kids were born we started one for each of them & it just became a wonderful part of our lives. We had talked for years about the impact of speaking positivity & encouragement into our kid’s lives. In late 2009 after doing 'likes' for each other for 8 years we decided to share it with the world. The i like book concept became a reality & a passion to help other families connect at a deeper level.
BBM: Once you decided to move forward, what was your first step? What have the challenges been?
Meredith: Taking a concept and turning it into reality was quite a process and a huge leap of faith. As a mom of 2 boys, we had passionately used our own ‘like’ books for years and I knew that this book needed to come to life. The next step(s) were to find a brilliant designer, printer, website and many more things including funding.
BBM: What has the best part of this all been?
Meredith: There have been so many wonderful things to come from creating the i like books. Probably the closest to my heart is that I now get to spend a lot of time with my two boys. The other wonderful thing is that my passion to help families create more meaningful relationship is something I get to do every single day!
BBM: What are your plans to grow the business? Anything new on the horizon?
Meredith: The i like book collection will expand through the years. We will be releasing an I like book for women before Mother’s Day this year. I am so excited about this wonderful book. My hope is that women will find inner peace, inspiration and freedom when expressing what they ‘like’ about their life.
BBM: Do you have any advice for other entrepreneurs starting out?
Meredith: One of the biggest things I learned within my 1st year was not too order to much inventory on the first or second order. The reason is that most likely you will want to make some important adjustments to the product itself or the packaging. By not ordering too much you will have the opportunity to receive feedback from customers and direct users to make some needed changes. The second thing I would suggest is that if you are really committed & LOVE what you do then don't hold back. Pour your heart into your passion and all the details will follow. Trust me, I know that is hard because I am a detail oriented person.
BBM: What makes these books stand out above the rest?
Meredith: The i like books are no ordinary book collection. They aren’t traditional in any sense of the word. I like books aren’t something you pick up & read once and put back on the shelf. These books literally can change the course of a child’s life forever with something as simple as a compliment from mom or dad.
BBM: How do you balance family and being a business owner and entrepreneur?
Meredith: Balance is really a daily struggle. I’m so in love with my family that I have to consciously separate the two and put the cell phone down, turn off the computer & focus on my kids. I office out of my house which can make it more confusing to the kids about when mommy is working & when mommy is mommy. I am passionate about my work and am so lucky that I get to affect people’s lives in such an intimate way but I focus a lot of time with my kids expressing my love for them.