In 2011, I lost everything. My furniture business, which I had built into a 14-million-dollar company, crashed and burned after the 2008 financial crisis. My husband and I were in the middle of building our dream home, and we lost it. Our church family abandoned us, and although we came out with a roof over our heads, I sank into a deep depression, feeling like I had experienced a death in the family. Grief comes in many ways.
I decided to volunteer with hospice to get out of my own head, and serving others became a major key to unlocking my own healing. I eventually began dreaming of a new business, and what materialized in 2012 was a bakery called Marche de Macarons. In 2019, I opened another business, Blue Poppy Designs, and just after I signed the lease on a new workspace, COVID hit.
I remember that day so clearly – we got the word that everything was shutting down; ten of the festivals where I had paid for booths to sell my goods for the year were canceled. I came home dazed and sat down at the kitchen table with my husband, Rob, who said to me, “Amy, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but if anyone can reinvent from nothing, you can.” It was as if God was speaking through him, to remind me of the strength to overcome that He’s granted us all.
Those words became the fuel I needed to move forward through the pandemic. As I put my energies toward turning the macaron shop into a to-go business, Blue Poppy’s wholesale market took off in a way I never expected. In 14 short months, Blue Poppy went from being sold in one shop to nearly 400 in 49 states.
I learned through these experiences that failure is not final. I try not to spend a whole lot of time crying over things that don’t work, because I know what will work is right around the corner. After all, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.
His Divine Providence will inspire the right idea with the right opportunity even when it seems impossible.
Amy Shippy, Blue Poppy Designs, Lottiebelles, Lady BizWiz