The idea of Into the World Designs began all the way back in 7th grade for me. We had a project to create a business and I created and "opened" a coffee shop. From there, my dream to be a business owner began, and my love for business has only grown since. When I was in high school, I wanted to have a small business of some sort or start a blog, but I never really had any strong ideas of what my business or blog would be about. Ever since 5th grade, I have been absolutely obsessed with planners, pens, and anything stationery or organization related. In 5th grade, I was able to get my first planner and I was more than excited. My favorite part of having a planner was that I could use so many different colors of pens to write my to-do list (because we all know how busy a 5th grader's schedule is) :). I fell in love with pens, as weird as that sounds, and all the options that came along with them. I continued to enjoy planning and pens, and in 8th grade I discovered the wonderful planning technique called "bullet journaling." Being so young, I did not have a lot of money to spend on a bullet journal, so I had to make do with what I had at home. I watched Youtube video upon Youtube video (too many if you ask me) about how to bullet journal and I became captivated by the idea of creating an entire planner customized to my life. Going into high school, I wanted to try yet another method for planning: The Happy Planner. This planner was super cute and I loved everything about it. Sophomore and Junior year of high school, I returned back to the bullet journal planner and loved how creative I could make it and not feel bad if I didn't write something everyday, like I did with planners that had pages designated to every day/week of the year. As Junior year was coming to a close, I started to think about what other planner I could use Senior year to change things up. After more extensive research, I discovered the Day Designer. This planner has a full page designated to each day and gave me plenty of room to doodle, write my extensive to do lists, and plan out my day. In addition, during my last year of high school, I got an Adobe account and loved using Photoshop and actually started designing printables that I could use for planning; whether it be monthly calendars, workout schedules, or budget planning, I made it in Photoshop. Then, over quarantine in the spring of 2020, I stumbled upon the wonderful site of Etsy, and really wanted to open a business, but had no idea what I would sell, so I put the idea on hold. Looking back on the past eight years of my life and my interest in planning, designing, and business, it seems so obvious that I would sell organizing printables on an Etsy shop, but it didn't click until Christmas break 2020. I really wanted to sell calendars on my soon-to-be Etsy shop, so I worked really hard to design two calendars before the new year. The only thing holding me back at that point was a name. I had been thinking for a long time, what my design business would be called; all I knew was that I wanted it to have something to do with Matthew 28:19,20 where Christ tells us to go and make disciples of all nations. In my eyes, an Etsy shop was such a great way to reach many people with God's Word and I wanted the name to reflect that. So, I sat my mom down and told her I needed help coming up with a name and we started bouncing ideas off each other, but nothing was sticking. I was starting to get frustrated because it felt like we had exhausted all possible names. Then, my mom said, "what about 'Go Into the World?'" From there, Into the World Designs was born and I was ready to open my Etsy shop. The idea of owning an online store where I could practice business techniques I was learning in school was so intriguing. I look forward to being able to share God's Word with many people as well as getting experience in the business world, even if it is on a small-scale. Looking back all the way to 5th grade when I got my own planner, to falling in love with the idea of owning a business it seems so obvious that having an Etsy shop that sells planning printables would be something that I do. All in all, I am beyond blessed and excited to have this opportunity to share my passions and interests with others; I can't wait to see where this business goes and see how I grow from this amazing opportunity. If you made it all that way through this extensive story, congratulations! I hope you stay along for the journey of Into the World Designs! --Mara Rugen
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