As with most people, I have a tendency to get lost in my own little world of niche interests. Case in point — I've owned a greeting card business for the past four years, have worked in the stationery world for the past six, and have been the person making a beeline for the card aisle in any gift store for basically my entire life. So, I tend to forget that not everybody's Instagram feed is full of beautiful paper goods. That not everyone knows that a postcard stamp isn't the same as a forever stamp, that the unit of measurement for paper weight is GSM (grams per square meter), or that "stationery" and "stationary" are not the same thing.
Enter my husband, Joe.
Joe is, as his fellow New Englanders would say, wicked smaht. He's a published writer, an educator, and a perennial bar trivia winner. In short, he knows a lot about a lot of things. But until he met me, the stationery industry was not one of them. On one of our very first dates, I shared that my business had sold over 60,000 cards so far that year — he later admitted that he was especially impressed because he figured that was a solid chunk of, like, all the cards sold in a year (the actual number is in the billions, hah).
He’s come a long way since then — and as of this year, he’s officially the second member of the Amy Zhang team! I’ve still got lots to teach him regarding the ins and outs of running a stationery business (I’m still learning new things every day, after all). But he’s showing great promise in picking up all of my Super Official Systems™️ — so far, his favorite is “patterned cards always come with a white envelope, except when they don't!"
In any case, this is all a long-winded way of saying that Joe brings a unique perspective to our business. One that allows me to take a step back and laugh at how overly seriously I can get about puns — and wonders why there aren’t more pro-wrestling themed greeting cards. So I’m asking him to share his self-proclaimed non-expert opinions with you, and I can’t wait for you to experience it all first hand. Check back soon for posts ranging from “Things That Confuse Joe About the Stationery Industry” to “Cards That Joe Wishes Amy Would Design.”
x Amy
