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Hello pinners! I’m Aaron De Simone, graphic designer, and curator of I Heart Luxe, a weekly email newsletter that covers fashion, design, food, lifestyle and travel and a member of the Pinterest community since pretty much the very beginning. I thought it would be fun to tell you a bit about how the people I’ve met through Pinterest are a big part of where I am today.

I recently made a major life decision; I quit my job, only took what would fit in two suitcases and moved from Canada to San Francisco all to follow my passion of discovery and sharing.

In 2010, I attended the Alt Design Summit and during the conference I met and made some great friends, most notably Christine Martinez, Sara Jensen, Mat Thorne, and Mackenzi Farquer and I had a chance to meet some of my favorite bloggers like Victoria Smith from SFGIRLBYBAY and Jaime Derringer of Design Milk.

Shortly after the conference I was invited to the alpha version of Pinterest. At that time I didn’t really have an efficient way to organize everything I was curating, so I was really excited to give Pinterest a try. Within a few days of using it I knew I would never go back to how I was doing things. Before Pinterest, I used to save links and images in a folder on my desktop and then have to re-visit all of the sites and try to find the proper sources for things - It was kind of a nightmare and it took forever. Now, everyday I have a list of sites I visit for inspiration and I use Pinterest to not only share inspiration I’ve found but to keep track of the features for the next newsletter. I also use Pinterest as a graphic designer to collect sources of inspiration for all the projects I’m working on. I found that I spend less time on the computer and doing more things I love.

Fast forward to January of this year, where I decided it was time to make a change; I liked my job and I worked with some awesome people but it wasn’t where my heart was. Over the next few months, I was lucky enough to meet and become friends with amazing pinners like Jennifer Chong, Vanessa Correa, Kate Arends, Maia McDonald, Jonathan Lo, Erin Hiemstra, Jeanne Chan, Elise Yetton, and Bri Emery. (#protip: you should be following all of them!) Seeing their passion for what they were doing inspired me to make the change so that I wasn’t just sharing what I loved but doing what I loved.

The reason I started I Heart Luxe was because I loved discovering and sharing beautiful things. I wanted to be part of a company that had a similar vision. I started looking for a new job but I wasn’t having much luck, until in May I was contacted by a super creative and ambitious start-up in San Francisco and they were really excited about what I had been doing on Pinterest, blogging and through my newsletter. Their vision was so closely aligned with what I was passionate about, that after thinking it over for only a few days, I accepted the job offer, gave my notice, said goodbye to my friends and family, packed my suitcases and began my new adventure.

Because of Pinterest, I’ve made some life-long friends and the platform has enabled me to connect with others and discover new things. It has opened more doors for me than I ever could have imagined and I am grateful for the opportunities it has given me.

I get asked a lot how to get more followers or repins + likes, but the truth is it isn’t about any of those things its about pinning what you love. It’s all I did.

—Aaron De Simone, Graphic Designer, and Curator of I Heart Luxe, Currently obsessed with pinning to design.