32 Influences for Hourglass Media

⌛  By Kaylin R. Staten ⌛

I love lists, and I have loved them since I was a little girl. 

I keep daily to-do lists to keep me on track and use bullet journaling when I don’t have a lot of time to write but want to chronicle what’s going on in my life. I feel like lists save my life on a daily basis, especially as a pregnant small business owner who would forget pretty much anything at this point! 

To give you an example, I’ve kept lists of the following: what I wanted in a future husband (I know that makes me sound crazy, haha), where I want to travel, what I want to accomplish by a certain timeframe, how I want to decorate my house, etc. I have so many lists, but it’s fun to reflect upon these to see how I have changed over the years -- or how I have remained EXACTLY the same.

Pro tip: We use Asana to keep digital to-do lists, create deadlines, and manage files and communications for our growing team. This isn’t a sponsored post, but I wanted to share a service that works for us #behindthehourglass! 

Today, as I enter Year 32, I wanted to shed light on an inside look about what inspires me and Hourglass Media as a whole. This isn’t your typical blog post, but it may influence you to craft your own master list to create your own company’s brand voice or just to keep tabs on your current interests.

The following items are in no particular order:

  1. “The Wizard of Oz,” from Dorothy’s ruby slippers to the Wicked Witch of the West’s hourglass

  2. Art Deco and 1920s design influences (films, architecture, general aesthetic)

  3. 1940s and 1960s design influences (secondary aesthetic)

  4. A wide array of books, anything from the classics “A Moveable Feast” and “The Great Gatsby” to business and life skills books

  5. Leia Organa and Carrie Fisher in general 

  6. Music, à la the Hourglass Queen playlist on Spotify

  7. Our color scheme: teal, red, gold, black (and color palettes and names of colors in general)

  8. “Star Wars” and space travel

  9. Calligraphy

  10. Travels to Paris, London, New York, Seattle, etc.

  11. Futuristic and clean designs, such as cyberpunk

  12. Vintage and modern cameras

  13. Photography

  14. Physical copies of magazines, stamps, postcards, and other printed materials

  15. Our home state of West Virginia

  16. Crumpled paper to symbolize the writing process and notes

  17. Typewriters

  18. The Hourglass Principles (link)

  19. The evolution of mass media

  20. The Public Relations Society of America and the PR industry as a whole

  21. Rainy days

  22. Free workbooks from a slew of helpful people on the Internet

  23. Classic TV shows, from “I Dream of Jeannie” to “Star Trek: The Next Generation”

  24. Advertisements from multiple eras

  25. COnversations in .gifs

  26. Learning something new every day

  27. Passion for work and love stories

  28. The Myers-Briggs personalities and enneagrams 

  29. Video games, from the classics to present day

  30. Cats

  31. COFFEE, especially from a French press

  32. And… hourglasses. Naturally.

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Kaylin R. Staten, APR, is an award-winning, accredited public relations practitioner and writer based in Huntington, WV with 18 years of professional communications experience. As CEO and founder of Hourglass Media, she uses her compassionate spirit and expertise to delve into the heart of clients’ stories. She is a recovering perfectionist, mental health advocate, wife, Luke’s mom, cat mom, and Leia Organa aficionado. Connect with Kaylin on LinkedIn.