Meet Mikaela Haas | Writer, graphic designer, and small business owner.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mikaela Haas and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mikaela, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I have always been a creative person, and before I started college, I had the idea to sell some stickers at my mother’s store, General Store 45 in Littleton, Colorado. The issue, though, was that I lacked graphic design experience. I wanted to use my creativity to generate money and business while still going through school, but I couldn’t yet without the skills.

When I started at Purdue, I took a lot of hard classes early with the thought that I could start applying the skills I learned to real life since I wouldn’t graduate till 2025. I took Digital Design and Production in the first semester of my sophomore year, and I owe a lot of thanks to that class. I learned the basics of both Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, and I never missed a single class, even if I was sick, because I couldn’t bear missing out on a tutorial. After the class was over, I wanted to dive into this sticker designing idea. During a road trip, I created about 15 sticker designs on Illustrator initially. I continued to create designs while going to school full-time and working a part-time waitressing job. I was hustling.

After my sophomore year, I studied abroad in London during the summer while working an Internship. When I got home, I also got to work. I created an entire sticker catalog and turned my business into an LLC called Essentially Sticky. I have a sales rep as well and plan to get on Faire this summer. For the last two years of college, I have spent so much time and money ordering stickers, shipping stickers, and sending invoices. I also have other products like keychains, magnets, and pins. My business is still very small, but while running it, I have been going to school full time, and had a part-time job all 4 years of college. I even had an internship this last semester. My thought was that if I could have something real and running by the time I graduated, I could make it bigger once I had a degree. I also thought it would help give me entrepreneurial skills that will be beneficial for a full-time job after graduation. I now have business skills, graphic design skills, and writing skills. I can guarantee that my business will continue to grow from here. You can find my catalog in my portfolio.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I was dead set on Professional writing once I picked a major at Purdue. I was so against creative writing because I never felt that I was good at it. I never liked poetry, specifically when I read it throughout high school. It was required to take Intro to Creative Writing at Purdue, and I am so glad. Talking through poetry is what changed my mind. I realized that anyone can have a different interpretation of poetry and that there would never be one right answer to what the author is trying to convey.

I struggled writing poetry for the first time. I had a Word doc open, just writing and quitting and starting a new page and quitting again and again. Until I finally went back and rewrote some of the drafts I had. There I found something that wasn’t so terrible, but instead was overlooked. I wrote my first full poem. It was a very long one, and one I have changed countless times since, but to this day very proud of. I wrote about my ex-boyfriend since the breakup was very hard in my freshman year of college, and writing the poem helped me get through that breakup. I owe a lot of thanks to poetry and have since developed my love for it.

I have a small poetry portfolio consisting of 12 of my poems right now. I don’t think they are the best poems in the world, but to me, they have helped me with so much and mean a lot to me. They are my art, and they are very honest. For me, I am just proud that I have changed my mind on something I once so stubbornly hated, and created something beautiful out of an epiphany that poetry is beautiful.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I love Colorado so much that it is easy to brag about our beautiful state. I predict this would be during the summer because while I do ski, I am not an avid skier, and my friends always visit in the Summer.

Monday: I would take them to Red Rocks to watch the sunrise at the amphitheater and hike afterward. After, we would grab breakfast at my favorite bakery, Taste of Denmark. We would likely nap in the afternoon, and my mom would make one of her best dinners. I would take them to my mom’s store as well, so they can get some fun souvenirs and shop downtown in Littleton.

Tuesday: It would be a day trip to Saint Mary’s Glacier. We would drive up and hike to the glacier. Then we would go cliff jumping into the freezing water. On the way home, we would stop at Bojangles for some pizza in Idaho Springs.

Wednesday: Another longer trip, but I would want them to get the most out of their trip, so we would go down to Colorado Springs to see the Garden of the Gods. After spending time there, we could hang around town and even potentially go to the Manitu Zoo. There is also a giant arcade down there that brings me back to my childhood.

Thursday: At this point, I’m sure my friend might need more of a chill day, but I would still want to do something fun, so we would go paddleboarding at Chatfield reservoir since my family owns paddleboards. We could relax on the lake and just soak up the sun. At night, we could go to dinner at Hops and Pie, which is my family’s favorite pizza place. Afterwards, we could get ice cream at any of the following: Littleman Ice cream for the iconic milk jug, Sweek Cow because it is amazing, or Magils because it is right next to my house and is nostalgic to me.

Friday: We would drive up to Boulder to meet my best friend who lives up there. We could shop and get dinner on Pearl Street and then go bar hopping at night. My friend always takes me for a good time when I visit her at college. We would spend the night and drive back on Saturday.

Saturday: I would get brunch with my family somewhere and do something with them. Later, we would go to dinner at our favorite restaurant, J’s Noodles Star Thai 2. Genuinely amazing Thai food, and it never misses. We could also go bar hopping in Denver, which could be fun.

Sunday: I would see about doing another day trip to hot springs, potentially. Buene Vista is lovely, along with many other mountain towns. There are also a ton of other options, but this to me is a pretty good starting point.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
It may be pretty obvious, but I would love to shoutout my parents. My parents raised me and pushed me with both sports and school growing up. They also pushed me to start my business, and because of my mom’s store, I was able to start selling them there first. My dad pushed me to go to college in the Big 10 because he went to Michigan. I fell in love with Purdue, and without them, I would never have been able to pay for college. Next, I would shoutout Purdue because I genuinely think I got a great education and also great friends. I have a whole second family thanks to Purdue. When I joined Purdu,e I went in undecided and came out with two majors: Professional Writing and Creative Writing. I also have a minor in Communication. With the help of the Exploratory program, I found a perfect fit for my skill set.

Website: https://mrghaas.wixsite.com/website

Instagram: @mikaelahaas

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaela-haas-2ab3021b7/

Image Credits
Mikaela Haas