Category Archives: Business

Blog, Business, Reviews

Review on Milk & Honey Herbs

I truly feel the only place to put this is on my website. I will not take this down nor edit this after posting. My experience with Milk & Honey Herbs left me deeply disappointed, frustrated and angry. I enrolled in a class with high hopes of learning and growing and then becoming officially certified in medicine making, but instead, I encountered a situation that shook my trust in this organization/small business. During the first session of the course, I diligently worked on making the medicine. Afterwards, I updated my own website to reflect my experiences in the session, writing information on each plant and using my photos I took during the session. Consider this post as a summary of what happened between me and the owner of M&H.

However, a few days later after posting the blog posts to my own public Facebook page, she messaged me on instagram and the teacher said to source her materials she sent when I never used them in my posts. It came to light that the teacher was attempting to pass off my blog posts as her own material, saying I had copied or ‘summarized’ her writing, when I hadn’t and promptly excused me from class, I was shocked and outraged. As I explained numerous times I used chatgpt entirely to write my blog posts and didn’t even look at or reference the materials she had sent us. No one owns medicinal info on each plant as it has been passed down from our ancestors. There’s been several legal battles surrounding this; one locally, the Shire City Herbals dispute with two other herbalism business in this area in 2019. Not to mention she didn’t even include a sources section in her own materials!!! She is completely unhinged, a bully and a harasser.

To have my work, my intellectual property, essentially misrepresented by someone in a position of authority felt like a betrayal. It not only undermined my efforts but also eroded the integrity of the educational environment. This experience has left me questioning the professionalism and ethics of both the teacher and Milk & Honey Herbs as a small business. It’s disheartening to see such behavior tolerated and even perpetuated within the educational setting. In hindsight, I would caution others against enrolling in classes at Milk & Honey Herbs until they address and rectify these concerning issues. Students deserve an environment where their hard work and creativity are respected and valued, not exploited for someone else’s gain. I will not let her bully and harass me further on this issue. She claims this is her livelihood but makes rash decisions and isn’t understanding of the other persons’ perspective. That’s not a teacher!! Period.



Anyone associated from M&H do not bother contacting me on this matter.

Blog, Business, Marketing

Respect the Art: A Reminder on Copyright Etiquette

In today’s interconnected world, where ideas flow freely and inspiration is just a click away, it’s crucial to uphold the principles of copyright etiquette. As creators and consumers of content, we must acknowledge and respect the intellectual property rights of artists and professionals. At Kristi Beisecker Studios, we take copyright seriously, and we urge our community to do the same.

Why Copyright Matters

Copyright exists to protect the original works of creators, whether they are artists, writers, musicians, or professionals in various fields. It gives creators the exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, and display their work. By respecting copyright, we honor the time, effort, and creativity invested by individuals in their creations.

Avoiding Idea Theft

While it’s natural to draw inspiration from others, it’s important to distinguish between inspiration and outright theft. Taking someone else’s ideas, concepts, or content without permission is not only unethical but also illegal. It deprives the original creator of the recognition and compensation they deserve for their work.

Our Commitment to Copyright

At Kristi Beisecker Studios, we are committed to upholding copyright law and protecting the rights of creators. All content on our platform, including articles, images, and project concepts, is copyrighted. Users are prohibited from distributing or using this content without explicit permission.

How to Respect Copyright

  • Seek Permission: Before using someone else’s content or ideas, always seek permission from the original creator.
  • Give Credit: When you do use someone else’s work with permission, be sure to give credit appropriately. This not only acknowledges the creator but also helps others discover their work.
  • Create Original Content: Embrace your creativity and strive to produce original content that reflects your unique perspective and expertise.

Conclusion

As members of the creative community, it’s our collective responsibility to uphold copyright etiquette and respect the rights of creators. By doing so, we contribute to a culture of appreciation, collaboration, and integrity. Let’s continue to inspire and be inspired while honoring the creativity and hard work of those who enrich our lives with their art and expertise.

Blog, Business, Design, Projects

New Clients: Bowflex Barbie Fitness and Kathmandu Infosys

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Happy to welcome Bowflex Barbie and Kathmandu Infosys into my ‘client family’. These past few weeks have been extremely busy with moving among other things. Transitioning from one way of life to another has been quite difficult, more or less than anticipated. It’s weird to think that something you’ve wanted for so long can be a huge adjustment. Anyway, just taking one day at a time, week, month, etc and slowly settling in. 🙂

A new beginning….

My client work has helped with the transition not only with the finances but with focusing, allowing myself to take a break from moving and day-to-day activities to focus on things I simply enjoy doing. My freelance projects have been there when things got scary, OK and now when things are transitioning. I know there will be a time when they won’t be… but for now they are the one thing that can’t be taken away from me…

 

In this day and age of graphic design being a competitive field, gaining clients regardless of the competition, is extremely satisfying, especially going after clients whom you’ve made proposals for or connected through other means and those means ending but still wanting to work with you regardless. Building something up from the ground is not easy, and can be hard to let go.

Loyalty

Client loyalty is also huge, in addition to two new clients, a previous client had come around again after a long hiatus asking if I still want to be on the team. Building business relationships isn’t just about the money, work or what have you but about the relationships and community that come from it. This particular client had been reworking things on their end as well and it would’ve been a shame to just say ‘no’ just because of things falling through. Life happens, and I wish more people would better understand that. To build a independent freelance business, one must focus on client loyalty, do good work and maintain lasting relationships through a collaborative, creative process. Otherwise it may just fail or you’ll be struggling and going from one project to another without much longevity. To sustain any business is to focus on longevity, to take your day-to-day activities and energy and think about what will this do to make my business last?

 

 

Give a shoutout to Bowflex Barbie Fitness —> https://www.facebook.com/bowflexbarbiefitness/

And Kathmandu Infosys —> https://www.facebook.com/kiecpage/

And continue to follow along for updates on these projects and their whereabouts 🙂

 

Also a thank you to Copy Cat Printing for their negotiations in working towards making these projects a success 🙂

 

Business, Design, News, Projects

New Client: An American Craftsman Galleries

Super excited to announce that I will be working with An American Craftsman galleries on their branding and marketing. While job searching I came across an opportunity to work for them with their gallery in Stockbridge, MA. I reached out he was really into my graphic design work. We’re currently working on the nuances of this client relationship but the possibilities coming out of this are quite exciting. Look for future updates and projects over the course of this year and beyond. 🙂

 

An American Craftsman Galleries showcases the work of talented emerging artists alongside well established artists working in wood, clay, fiber, metal, glass, leather and mixed media. A wide range of work is represented… from unusual gifts to decorative art objects, from furniture to sculpture, from art glass to jewelry… for first-time buyers to seasoned collectors. An American Craftsman offers an ever changing collection of beautiful American made fine crafts.

An American Craftsman Galleries was founded by Richard & Joanna Rothbard as an exhibition space for contemporary American artists working in all craft media. The Rothbards, artists and art show organizers, opened the first AAC in Greenwich Village in 1980. Now located in two locations in midtown Manhattan and in Stockbridge, Ma, An American Craftsman has become a chosen destination for thousands of travelers from around the world.

American Art Marketing is an affiliate of An American Craftsman Galleries which produces some of the finest art events. Please visit AmericanArtMarketing.com

Business, Projects

New Client: CyclePottery

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During the summer, I connected with Kathryn over at CyclePottery in Florence, MA and we brainstormed on a few graphic designimg_7195-800x1067 projects. This past week we officially got the work off the ground and it’s been reinvigorating working on something new! CyclePottery is a pottery studio that offers workshops, camps, classes and much more. We’ll be working on a-frame poster design, brochure and web site revisions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Business, Reflections

I am a People too.

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It’s been awhile since I did a business-y type of post. But the following subject is something that I’ve been struggling with for awhile and I know I’m not alone. Throughout the last 3 years of my professional life, I have felt like giving up. Some days are hell; when I loose a client, or progress has plateaued or family conflicts, or what have you. But the one thing that may ultimately push me over the edge one day is the way I get treated in this industry.

I was a part of a group once on facebook who attracted photographers but aimed at creative entrepreneurs and wanted to focus on the community aspect of entrepreneurship versus the competition aspect and a photographer posted a hard experience she had with the client. The client said in an email regarding her dissatisfaction with the results that she [client] was buying a service, and the photographer had written a blog post about wanting to establish a friendly-based relationship with clients before entering a project. While I understand both sides, the client’s and the photographer’s, I can’t help but feel sorry for the photographer. I’m sorry, photographers are people too. Graphic designers, are people too. Artists, are people too… web designers are people too. You get my drift.

In my search for the ‘perfect job’ (if there ever is one out there for me). My ideal position would be to be treated more than just a skill. More than just a service that is hired and then laid off. I am a people too. Treat me well, and I’ll do my job well. Treat me like crap and quite frankly, I’ll leave or find better clients. I’m tired of being seen as a skill or service that is hired to just be checked off a ‘to-do’ list. Yes, I produce, yes I make, I design, but at the same time I am a people too.

I have bills and materials to pay for. Being treated just as a service or skill, something tangible and that can be thrown away is one of the most degrading feeling ever. And unfortunately is too often the case in the creative industry. I GET IT. You want to hire us to make you something but at the same time I’m not a machine. There’s a person behind those skills who deserves to be treated fairly as you would treat a friend, or an acquaintance.

Many successful pop stars and musicians often feel this way too. Lady Gaga once said she almost quit the music industry because she didn’t want to be ‘a money-making machine’. While obviously I don’t make nearly as much as her, I get it. To be treated as a production machine , to keep producing, making, outputting without being treated like a human is degrading. I get that for some people work is work, and that friendly acquaintances should be kept out of it. But on the other hand, they are people too. If someone held the door for you, would you treat them like shit, or thank them?

 

 

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Articles, Business, Lifestyle, The Essential Girl, Wellness

Top 5 Nutrition Hacks for the Busy Woman

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In a world that never stops moving, life can get pretty busy, overwhelming even. And even when nutrition is a priority, it can often fall down your list of priorities and become forgotten. Because your job is more important. Or your kids are more important. And of course these things need to be taken care of. So when you only have a minimum amount of time to think about nutrition, using nutrition hacks can save the day.

I live a busy life: between working on my master’s and curating my blog into a business, sometimes it seems like I don’t have any free time. BUT over time I’ve developed a few tricks to keep up with my nutrition even when it seems like there’s barely time to breathe. Here are my top nutrition hacks for the busy woman.

• Sneak in nutrients
• Plan to go shopping once a week
• Pre-make meals
• Make snack packs to take with
• Know when to compromise

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Sneak in nutrients

This is a fairly simple strategy, and one of my favorites. In short, it’s a game of replacements. Replacing one less nutritious food with one more nutritious food takes practically no effort, apart from remembering to actually do it.

There are two ways to look at this strategy: one is to look at it as adding a more nutrient dense food, the other is to look at it as removing a more harmful food.

In the first strategy, for example, you could replace your morning breakfast toast with fresh fruit. And to be honest fresh fruit might take even less time to prepare, as it’s generally ready to eat. Fruit is more nutrient dense than toast because calorie for calorie, it contains more nutrients.

In the second strategy, for example, you could replace your standard, sugary peanut butter with natural peanut butter (i.e. the only ingredient is ground peanuts and maybe salt). In this way, you’re eliminating not only unnecessary sugar, but also harmful preservatives. This takes literally zero extra time, and can make a huge improvement on your health.

As time goes on, you can replace more and more foods, making a seamless and time-efficient transition into a healthier diet.

Not sure what foods to replace? Grab a copy of my Unhealthy -> Healthy Food Replacement Cheat Sheet from my free resource library by clicking the photo below

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Plan to go shopping once a week

The biggest mistake busy people make is not planning meals ahead of time. It can seem so much easier or faster to just stop by the store everyday on the way home to pick up what you need for dinner, but I can guarantee that this is actually wasting your time.

Not only are you spending extra time in the store, but you’re also leaving yourself no room to pre-make meals, which can be huge time-savers. You’re also leaving dinner up to a whim, which often means you’re not making the healthiest choice you could be making.

What I have found is the most efficient way to deal with shopping and meal planning is to sit down once a week and write out all my meals for the week, then just do one big shopping trip. Now there are a few tricks to making this planning process efficient and effective, and you can read about my process in my post “Top 5 Meal Planning Tips to Help You Stay On Track.”

Pre-make meals

As I mentioned above, pre-making meals can be a huge time-saver. To cite the classic example, making up lasagna and then sticking it in the fridge in the morning so you only have to throw it in the oven when you get home. Another example would be something like pre-forming/seasoning some burger patties on the weekend so that you just have to throw them on the grill when it’s time to make dinner.

Another way to look at this is to plan leftovers for dinner. I like to make a big pot of chili on the weekend and then eat the leftovers for lunch or dinner throughout the week.

Make snack packs to take with you

Snacks are often the undoing of our nutrition plan. Say you get hungry at work. It’s still 2 more hours til you get off, so you walk down to the vending machine and grab whatever looks good. You know it’s not the healthiest, but you gotta eat right??

The best way to avoid this trap is to bring snacks from home. Not only are these cheaper, but they will be a much healthier choice come mid-afternoon.

Some of my favorite snacks to bring to work are raw almonds, carrots, hummus, and homemade granola. The biggest idea here is to make sure you’re not just bringing your own bag of chips rather than buying them from a vending machine.

Related: How to Painlessly Cut Junk Food Out of Your Diet

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Know when to compromise

My final tip is to know when to compromise. You aren’t always going to have the time to be healthy, no matter how much planning you do. So it’s important to know which things are least-harmful to compromise on.

For example, take the mid-afternoon snack craving we talked about above. If you really are hungry, you can compromise and get something from the vending machine. At the same time, you can choose to get something healthier than potato chips. In terms of health, if they have Nature Valley granola bars I would choose one of those. If you’re more concerned about clean eating, Fritos are actually the way to go, because they have no preservatives.

Another example might be one day you realize you’ve forgotten to plan a lunch for the day and you’re already trying to rush out the door. Instead of skipping lunch to have a pity party, it’s healthier for you to go ahead and buy something on your lunch break. Just as long as you’re not reaching for something that comes with fries.

Really, the key here is moderation. You won’t always be able to perfectly keep up with your nutrition, and that’s ok. As long as you keep unhealthy foods to a minimum, your overall health should be just fine.

So now my question for all you busy women out there is: What do you do to keep up with nutrition? Are these all things you already do, or do you have a few extra tips you could share with me and my readers? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear from you. ☺

About Rachel

UntitledRachel is a blogger and Bioengineering masters student who lives in Clemson, SC (go tigers!). After studying conventional pharmaceuticals and how they target specific ailments, she applied that knowledge to figuring out how essential oils can work to treat the same ailments, and ended up creating the blog The Essential Girl. When she’s not blogging or sciencing the shit out of something in the lab, she likes to drink tea, nom on popcorn, and binge Netflix with her Astrophysicist boyfriend.

Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theessentialgirlblog
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/essentialgirl22/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theessentialgirl/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EssentialGirl22
Email: rachel@theessentialgirl.com

 

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WORCESTER, MA – Gluten and Allergen Free Expo

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Gluten and Allergen Free Expo

WORCESTER, MA – Saturday I attended the Gluten and Allergen Free Expo. I was invited as a blogger to participate and network and cover the event. I’m not sure if this is coming from a non-gluten-free patient, but I found the event to be slightly disappointing. I am trying to translate some food items in my life because of my hypothyroid disease and found the information that I did get to be informative, but most of the booths are food-based which is great and all and was fun to taste the different gluten-free products out there. I was surprised by the quality of some of them and how some of them did taste like the ‘real thing’ (if you will). But there weren’t many informative booths. People I could actually come up and talk to without being swarmed by crowds of people wanting to taste the food. The people that were there where swamped with handing out samples, which made things to be very unapproachable. A few booths did have a spokesperson there but otherwise it was hard to network. Also definitely one of the smaller conventions I’ve been to. The Boston Travel Trade show was huge, but that was also more centered around sales and marketing so the people whom I wanted to talk to where right there. Here it was a bit different.

Regardless, I am glad I went as it did give me an eye-opener and how to approach switching gluten-based products to gluten-free ones. Below are a handful of pictures from the event.

Getting There

I travelled an hour by car from Northampton, MA to Worcester, MA. It is very close to Boston, MA as well as many other suburbs of Boston. Use the widget below to find a place to stay and you’ve got an interesting weekend trip for sure.

 

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Stonington, CT – A Day in the Life of…

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Tuesday of this past week, a colleague and fellow entrepreneur invited me to be her assistant for a cover shoot for a luxury magazine that she is building. The team she built was coming from New York to Stonington, CT. She had booked a mansion that was on the market (which was actually right across from Taylor Swift’s!), an up and coming pop star – Kristine Elezaj for a cover girl (who made iHeartRadio’s Top 20 Rising Star competition), fashion designers; Carmen Marcvalvo, Bibhu Mohapatra and Slyvio Kovacic. It was a great day for a shoot.

I woke up very early on Thursday for the cover shoot and drove to my colleague’s house. Then we drove to Stonington, CT for the day. 13533150_3145000224227_2026566947744880184_n

 

We had gorgeous weather for the shoot and it was fun to meet and network with like-minded individuals and creatives. Sometimes if you are not living in New York or LA it’s hard to network with the right crowd. I don’t have any connections in the creative industry in New York so it was great for me to network with these people but also to have this experience. I hope something will come out of it! FullSizeRender

As an assistant of my colleague, I got to help out with the little things; a main job was to hold the reflectors for the different looks and shoots, but also to take behind the scenes pics and other miscellaneous things. I’d love to do more things like this. It’s a nice balance of contributing and being a part of a major production. Maybe something I can add to my repertoire of my visual marketing brand.

The biggest surprise and fun of it all was literally the day after the shoot, I woke up to find my instagram feed from the people I’ve followed from the shoot flooded with press buzzing about it! The photos were featured on Enquirer, OK, Star and Radar magazines.

 

Check out my behind the scenes short:

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Art, Blog, Business, Events, Travel, World

Boston, MA – Americans for the Arts Convention

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As I lay here trying to sleep, I figured I’d do my write up for the Americans for the Arts Convention that I attended this past weekend. I came back to Wellesley on Thursday to attend a convention that the Mass Cultural Council invited me to. I had been looking for events and networking opportunities over the winter to attend to this year. 13450098_3131250960504_2202132617928704052_n

While the theme of the convention this year was Public Art and I originally felt that it wasn’t really up my alley being a photographer, I still learned a lot from it and gained some inspiration. There are new trends and innovations within the arts community that are crossing over to the corporate world which I find interesting. It was also a unique convention in the sense that since it was public art so you were mingling with city officials from all over. Unfortunately a lot of it I felt was related to policy, which to me is totally unrelatable. Not to mention I felt like it was hard to network with some of these people since they were 10, 20, 30, 40 years older than me. Though it did give me some insight and direction as to where I should aim in my career.

In terms of learning, I felt that the skills, management and processes to produce these monumental projects were of like-mind in the sense that project management is project management no matter what the outcome was, which was very relatable for me. Coming to this event from a marketing/journalism background I thought was interesting. As many of these people were administrative/policy/advocacy members and then wearing the artist hat, it was interesting to see the other sides of the judging panel.

Although the best parts were seeing a colleague of mine and a community that I have been in contact with out here in Western MA there. It was nice to see the staff at the Arts Extension Services there. As if it wasn’t for the class that I took with them, I would not have met my current landlord! I also met and introduced myself to Jane Echelman whom I have admired since college. I told her that I had seen her at her Wellfleet talk last summer and that I wrote a paper about her work in college comparing it to 1960s sculpture; she seemed flattered! Then properly handed her my biz card with a copy of my photographs on it. 🙂

All in all, I’m glad I went, though I’m glad I was invited by Mass Cultural Council. Unless the theme was really up my alley, I don’t think it was worth $500 to attend, though I did get a lot of inspiration from it.

Business, Editorials, Intern, Introductions, Lifestyle, Reflections, Spirituality

I’m Niles

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LIFE IS WILD. ENJOY THE RIDE. 13043577_10205931100545589_1830278714234636204_n-300x300

I enjoy looking at life through the lens of the bigger picture. To me, this reveals that our most powerful tool is our free will. It provides freedom of choice that ultimately affects our well-being and happiness. Perspective lends inspiration to exercise my free will, and new experiences build my appreciation for the art that is my ambiance.

Myself, along with everyone in this world is unique and has something compelling to offer. I believe answering the simple question of why I get out of bed in the morning holds the key to becoming fully authentic and fulfilled throughout my life. To express my true self I am actively pursuing everything that inspires me to be a better version of myself day in and day out. If I can align my battles with passion and joy, in my mind I’ve won the game of life.

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