Introducing Me: Kerry

Hi everyone! I have been taking on more of the blog, Facebook and Twitter duties around here and thought it would be nice to formally introduce myself. My name is Kerry Burki and I live in Chicago, Illinois with my husband and two little boys. I am originally from Scottsdale, Arizona.

I grew up shopping at vintage stores and going to craft fairs with my mom, taking dance and gymnastics classes and developing a fondness for the unconventional.  These adventures have led me to being the editor of this blog and a yoga teacher.

I started working at Waste Not Paper in 2006. It is the wholesale side of Paper Source and a fun place to work. I worked directly with stationery designers and store owners. I really developed an eye for design as I helped set up and design our booths for the National Stationery Show and the International Gift Show in both New York and San Francisco. This job sparked a love and obsession for beautiful paper that has not subsided.

While I loved this job, it was a 9 to 5 and when I became pregnant with my first son I began to think about trying to teach yoga full-time. I decided to give it a go, but I struggled to maintain my classes because I went back to teaching less than a month after I had my son.

My former boss called me and asked if I would like to come work with her at a Green Paper Company, a new, small endeavor focused on post-consumer recycled paper for stationers. The bonus was that I could bring my baby to work with me! The job was part-time and I could continue to teach my yoga classes.

I learned even more about design as I helped shoot photographs for the blog, email blasts and catalogs. Since there were only two employees I also learned a lot about customer service, packaging, accounting, shipping, inventory, email marketing, blogging and pricing. In 2010, the company moved to Ohio where the founder lives and I was once again teaching yoga full-time.

I began teaching 10 classes a week–all nights and weekends–and when I became pregnant with baby number two I knew that schedule would not work. Then I saw that Jordan was looking for a virtual assistant. Perfect! I could continue teaching yoga but also work with the creative community from home. Once I started to focus on the blog, I became the editor and here we are today.

I go back and forth about whether or not I should be putting my efforts into two different jobs but I feel that I am drawn to both and am passionate about both so I should just go with it. Up to now, I have kept them separate but I am going embrace both and share what I learn from both.

It is all about accepting ourselves and learning to be happy with ourselves right?!

All of the small business advice I source for the blog has been extremely helpful to my yoga career and many of you could probably benefit from me telling you to stop and take 5 deep breaths on Twitter.

My current life as an entrepreneur:

- I am researching contributors and ideas to share on Handmade Success

- I  have a personal blog called Kema & Co.

- I am trying to establish myself more professionally by creating a yoga website

- I have some ideas for yoga shirts and eye pillows that I might sell on Etsy

- I feel like I am still learning how to use Facebook and Twitter for business

- I trying to figure out optimal pricing as a yoga teacher

- I struggle with the amount of time I should spend on different projects

- I spend a lot of time by myself or with kids

- I am not a self-starter and yet have two jobs that require me to be one

I feel that I have a lot in common with you and really wanted to share with you where I am coming from. I hope to get to know you more as Handmade Success grows and I hope to help you and your business thrive!

Always feel free to get in touch with any questions or ideas!

Comments RSS You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.