For months now (maybe even years), I have wanted to open an online shop to sell some of the things that I make. And for exactly that long, I have held back. Recently, I have tried to take some time to figure out why, exactly, I wasn’t doing the thing I so badly wanted to do. Guess what I found out?

Despite always saying, “I don’t care what people think”, I really, really care about what people think.

What if everyone thinks all of my stuff is crap?

What if they tell their friends that they think my stuff is crap?

What if people I work with think my stuff is crap? I have to see them almost every day!

What if my family thinks my stuff is crap and they’re just telling me it’s not crap because they love me and don’t want to hurt my feelings?

The more I looked into why I was thinking these horrible things, the more I found that these kinds of thoughts are common among makers and creatives like myself (side-note: I still have trouble calling myself an “Artist”, even though others call me such. Maybe I’ll get over that someday too).

I can’t say what it was that finally pushed me to just go ahead and start making with the intention of selling. Maybe I’m finally comfortable enough in my own skin to be able to take criticism when it comes my way. Maybe I have just wanted to do this for so long that I decided to go ahead with it so if failure was the outcome, at least I tried. Whatever the reason, Podunk Posh is now, officially open for business.

Right now, I am offering custom wood burned signs, but I have future plans for art prints, shirts, wall mounted bottle openers, and lots of other things that stray just a little bit from your typical outdoorsy decor.

Because if you’re going to offer the same things as everyone else, why bother?