I talked about one of my favorite public figures last time and I am just as excited to share about another one of my favorite girls this week.
Jordan Lee Dooley is the founder of SoulScripts and the SHE podcast. This woman is so inspiring and I adore listening to her wisdom.
She started out her business in the basement of her sorority house during college. If you asked me the best place to start a company, that definitely wouldn’t be my first guess. Or third. Or hundredth.
But that’s what makes it so cool. Jordan had a passion for calligraphy and after a few months of doodling for fun, her boyfriend (now husband) convinced her to start an Etsy shop. She laughed at the idea at first, but then realized that it had potential. As a poor college student, she simply wrote bible verses and encouraging words in calligraphy on some pieces of paper, took pictures of them, and uploaded them to her shop. And one day, out of nowhere, they started selling like crazy.
It was getting to the point where she expanded to canvases and mugs and was shipping to countries all over the world. All of her sorority sisters had to help package them all up because she couldn’t handle all of the work herself. She had no idea this was going to take off.
Jordan began to add the slogan she created onto some of the artwork and to her Instagram page. I am sure you have seen the phrase, “Your brokenness is welcome here” on at least one sweatshirt around campus. These few words began to change her life and thousands of girls all around the world.
She grew this tiny side project into a brand, and now has over 230k followers, wrote a book, created merchandise, and started a podcast. She is speaking truth to so many women and it is so encouraging.
It’s so cool to remember that God doesn’t need anything fancy. He doesn’t need you to be rich, or be a marketing genius, or know how to run a company, or have a warehouse and team in order to glorify him. All He needs is a genuine love for Him and passion. So who cares if you’re throwing together random doodles in your dorm room? God can use that. God will use that. God will use you to do amazing things…you just have to get out there and do them.
This is such an amazing story! My younger sister has done something similar with her own artwork. Out of our basement at home, she started this Instagram page @thewillowartworks to share some of her art and an Etsy shop came shortly after that. It’s so incredible to see all the way God has blessed people, especially when those people use their gift to glorify Him.
Wow, I love this. I saw her sweatshirts around campus, and have even seen her posts on social media, but never knew the origins of what she did. Reminds me of the tagline our guest speaker said in class today: “God’s Success Despite My Involvement.” Even when we don’t have the capability of fulfilling a simple set of Etsy orders in the beginning of our journey, God can use us in amazing ways. Thanks for writing!