We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Hope Hughes a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hope, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Covid has brought about so many changes – has your business model changed?

We officially started our little company in 2017 to create products we loved – books and art decks. Matt went from a full-time corporate job to contract work, which stressed our finances, so we decided to put all our creative energy into the business we created and grow our product line. Luckily, the metaphysical market grew faster than I anticipated, and we could sustain our profitability. Matt and I created our first tarot deck together ( a project he began as a gift for me) and our first illuminated book, which we crowdfunded on Kickstarter. Then the virus and lockdown came as we started producing the following two illuminated books and our second deck. As a small company, we faced hardships with printing and distribution; the costs of materials, lockdowns, production standstills, and halting of deliveries became a logistic nightmare. The quality of our products became compromised, and damage control became a priority to ensure our customers were happy. It was a daunting and exhausting task for two people. The indie deck did well, which luckily landed us a deal with the amazing company US Game Systems for The Ethereal Visions Tarot. That relationship helped us sustain our company for the upcoming years when CV-19 shut down everything and limited resources for small, independent businesses like ours. The lockdown made us decide to stop the printing and distribution side of our business and focus on our products’ design, concept, art, and marketing. We approached USGS about the possibility of handling printing and distributing our creations. It was a terrifying concept of giving up total control, but one that proved to be the best decision we made, and we have a fantastic partner company to work with to produce high-quality products and worldwide distribution. Something that we could not do given the problems stemming from CV-19.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

Our business started from our passion for art, myth, literature, and storytelling. The company enabled Matt to produce amazing art, and I am free to delve into researching the stories, histories, and myths that come to life in our decks and books! Matt’s stunning style of Golden Age of Illustration and Art Nouveau works perfectly with the stories I love. We wanted to create products that sparked joy and insight in anyone who used them – whether it be books, tarot, or oracle.
The goal of our company is to produce beautiful objects using traditional methods and techniques. We approach every project as an heirloom that will, hopefully, become something that end-users will cherish and pass on to others to appreciate over the years. Essentially, we want our mark on this world to be a beautiful one. I feel we accomplish this with every book and card deck we share with the world.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I finished university in 2009 with a degree in communications and followed it with my personal training certificate and then a certificate in plant-based health education. I trained, gave talks, and hosted a podcast, and although I loved the health industry, it wasn’t fulfilling. My passion lies in books, music, and art – they kept calling me back. Matt has always been an artist; this is not simply a title but who he is. He is an accomplished oil painter and illustrator and spent most of his free time in his craft. Like most of us, he took a corporate job after college, which started to kill his creativity and energy.
We both left our careers to find our calling – it was hard, but the circumstances pushed us into letting go of what stifled us to create a business that taps into what fulfilled us.
It was the best decision we made. We are grateful and fortunate to have a business where we can be creative. It is stressful and complicated, but a different kind of stress; it is our stress, and we love it!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

It was a sink or swim situation. We completed crowdfunding campaigns for our tarot deck and the Edgar Allan Poe book, and I had just incorporated our business. I was going to focus on growing our products while Matt continued to work a corporate job (he was employed there for almost 20 years.) We had just moved into our new home, and he got the news that his company was splitting, and they cut his position. It felt like the rug was pulled out from under us. All our plans we had were in peril. After the shock and anger wore off, I told Matt that we had something that was ours. Something we could build, and we should dig in and try. Luckily, he had a 401k that kept us afloat during the lean times, and we put 100% into our new business. It was challenging and stressful – we were met with pitfalls and had to change direction many times, but we’ve made it so far. And we’re both the happier for it.
Being malleable and resilient is something I have to practice every day. I know nothing is certain, especially with small businesses, but it’s rewarding and worth fighting for.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://evpub.info/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/etherealvisionspub/
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/matthughesart/

Image Credits
We have all rights for pics provided.