There’s a creative, supportive and innovative message in each 5-inch greeting card that Kristen Doornbos creates and sends out to her customers.
While each individual card may say something different, the concept of every card and her business, the Paper Trails Greeting Co. remains the same, and is used as a hashtag on the company’s website and social media pages.
#EveryRunnerBelongs
“Paper Trails Greeting Company is about celebrating every runner,” Doornbos said. “I believe that every runner deserves to be celebrated and that every runner belongs.”
Doornbos started the Paper Trails Greeting Co. during the COVID pandemic in 2020. She saw her work as a massage therapist come to a halt due to the pandemic, which gave her extra free time to create the company.
“There was a product that I wanted that didn’t exist,” she said. “I thought, I have all the time in the world now, why don’t I create it myself and start a business.”
Doornbos thought that the company would originally be a side project. Now, it’s a vibrant, up-and-coming business.
“I thought that it would be kind of more of a side hustle that maybe makes a little bit of money,” she said. “I did not expect it to become a legit business, but here I am.”
The company offers over 40 different greeting cards, with multiple topics including encouragement to those battling injuries, support for coaches, creative self-encouraging reminders and more.
While the advances of technology have taken over and the traditional “snail mail” has taken a backseat, the art of the written word is not lost on Doornbos, especially when done in a thoughtful and personalized way.
“I think there’s something really important about saying the meaningful things in an intentional way and taking 10, or 15 or 20 minutes out of your day to do that,” she said. “I think there’s also added steps in finding the perfect card for someone that you know they will appreciate and putting their name on it, a stamp on it and putting it in the mail.”
Social media planning, taking trips to the post office and working on design projects are just a handful of things that Doornbos accomplishes in a day when making cards for her company. But there’s one thing that she has incorporated in her workday that helps her when creating cards for the company.
“I do feel like running is part of the job because so much of my content and creative thinking happens when I’m running,” she said. “It’s not a break from my workday, it is built into my workday as an integral part of what makes me tick and what makes me able to keep coming up with creative ideas.”
The Paper Trails Greeting Co. acknowledges, encourages and honors everyone in the running community with no strings attached. As the company continues to grow, the message of Doornbos and the theme of the company will never change and is very clear: every runner belongs.
“That’s the main thing that I want to come back to all the time,” she said. “It doesn’t matter where you’re from, or what level you’re at in running. If you run, you belong and deserve to be celebrated.”
As originally posted to Lactic Acid with Dominique Smith
