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Verve


I own a stamp company.  Yep, I certainly do. 
Here's the link...  http://shopverve.com.  


You should really check it out if you love uplifting and inspiring clear stamps with a story to tell. You really should.  I'll totally wait if you want to click now.  Go ahead, I'll be right here waiting when you get back.


Okay, so you're back.  Glad to have you.  It's hard to believe as I write this that eight years ago I started Verve. My journey to owning my own company was not one I expected.  By nature, I'm shy, reserved and cautious.  I like things I can bank on, set schedules and not being in the spotlight.

My husband, Mark, actually majored in Entrepreneurial Management.  I thought it was such a strange major to have. Who would want to run their own business, anyhow?  Not me!  But, then 10 years later, I found that I didn't enjoy going to a traditional job every day.  I didn't like being billed out at 6 times my hourly wage and never being rewarded for my efforts. And I really didn't like clients critiquing me and telling me how to change my art.

Sometimes it's those painful parts of life that move you to grow and stretch outside your comfort zone.  I might still be stuck doing something I didn't love, toiling away for a fraction of my worth at a dead-end job if it wasn't for a wake-up call we received back in 2006 letting us know a dear friend of ours had attempted suicide.  It was like I had been half asleep for years and finally my eyes were wide-open and I knew I had to do something different. So I walked into work and gave my 2 weeks notice with no plan for the future.  Just a spark growing deeper inside me that I needed to make a difference in the world, that I needed to move and not be caught standing still.

If you'd asked me then if I'd start a stamp company, I would have laughed.  I enjoyed graphic design, and tried the freelance route for a little while, but still didn't enjoy making customer revisions to my work. But I did like stamping, and ribbon, and paper, and embellishments, so I decided to open an online shop to sell the things I loved and hopefully make enough to support my paper crafting spending.  I thought it would be a part-time thing.  I fully expected my long vacation to soon come to an end and need to return to the traditional work force. But at the very end of the start-up process I decided to design a stamp set and see if it would sell.  So glad I did, because here I am 8 years later and I've never returned to an office job.

Since the beginning of Verve, my passion has always been helping to uplift and encourage.  I try to keep everything in my stamp line upbeat and timeless.  Four years into the business, I found out I was having twins. After almost 15 years of marriage, and a full-time one woman business, kids were definitely not in MY plan, but they were in God's.  I've struggled through years of postpartum depression and have had little time to devote to Verve these last four years.  I'm hoping as my amazingly energetic, beautiful, and precious gifts, Kellan & Trevor, start pre-school I'll have the renewed energy and creative passion to resume regular releases and see what the next four years of Verve holds.  And hopefully be able to uplift and encourage others once again.

1 comment

ionabunny said...

Thanks for sharing. Glad you found your path. Hugz