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

Jordan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Before we talk about all of your success, let’s start with a story of failure. Can you open up about a time when you’ve failed?

Being a business owner and a full time mom at home raising my three kids has presented quite the challenge. Like most people I avoid failure because experiencing the feelings that come along with failure can be intense! When I first launched my children’s book business with PaperPie I experienced a ton of success. It was 2021, and most people still had their kiddos home full time and everyone wanted great books for their young readers. There were also many people looking to create the life they wanted by launching their own book business to fill the book needs for their family and friends. My business grew in sales, customers, and team members. It was a very successful year.
But it would not last! The very next year as things began to go back to normal following the pandemic I quickly realized that continuing to grow my business was not going to be as easy as it had been when I first started. I was trying to maintain customers, continue to grow sales, and manage a team as well as be a good mom with all the responsibilities that come along with being at home. I quickly became overwhelmed and of course something had to go. Because I wanted to keep my business going but also needed to be present for my family, the thing that got the ax was leadership by default. Looking back there is so much I wish I would have done differently, but at the time I just did not know better. My team began to fall away. Confusion is the default for most of us and that confusion on what to do or how to move forward led to complete inaction for most of my team members. They started dropping like flies, and it didn’t take long before my team of more than 20 dropped to 2. I had failed my team. I had failed to be a leader or to lead them by example. I had not been present for them. I had put my head down to push forward in my own personal business and when I finally looked up there was practically no one there. What I am thankful for is the few who have chosen to stay are self starters and believe in advocating literacy and I adore them, but I also know that building and leading a team means growth for all of us. I am still in a rebuilding phase of my business, but I am investing in myself as a leader to gain the skills necessary to lead a large team even though my team is very small right now. A good leader is not made when business is going well but instead when business is rough. Growth as a leader is uncomfortable, but if the work is not done in the dips of business we won’t see the successes or the highs that the business has to offer.

Jordan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have always been a book lover! My earliest memories are of being read to by a teacher or a family member. So, naturally I thought reading was both fun and easy for all!
Boy was I wrong.
When I became a mom I filled out house with books, any books, and I thought that’s all it would take to help my children love books like I do.
Wrong again!
My boys did not gravitate towards books and learning to read has been a struggle. I made a decision to find books that would be right for my kids and it was at that time that I was introduced to PaperPie by a trusted friend.
After my first experience of receiving the box of books I ordered and seeing how excited my boys got at the brand new lift the flap shark book, I was hooked.
I joined the PaperPie company as a brand partner in March 2021 and launched my book business (raising_your_reader) by providing quality reading materials for my friends and family first, and then anyone who had a reading need.
PaperPie (formerly know as UsBorne Books & More) is a company dedicated to creating quality children’s books, games, puzzles, and learning materials.
PaperPie believes in gathering for good around literacy and learning. It is a company that has been around for more than 30 years providing award winning books from UsBorne Publishing and Kane Miller Publishing companies, and is dedicated to serving, giving back, and combating the illiteracy rates in the U.S. More recently PaperPie acquired the Smart Lab Toy company which offers amazing STEM and STEAM toys.
PaperPie as a company gave away 19 million in free books over this past year!

Since joining PaperPie we have become a family that reads together! Bedtime stories are nice but we take time every morning to experience a longer book together and we spend time reading independently after school each day. It’s just become part of our everyday now.
Providing the best customer service and connection is my joy and pleasure. Being part of a larger team means being connected to other business owning women all over the world.
I am passionate about reading and literacy of course but also about helping other women discover that they too can own and run a successful business, make change in the world, and create the future they want for themselves and their families.
Being a social seller with PaperPie means using ethical sales practices, and empowering our customers and team members to be best version of themselves.”

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I have been a brand partner with PaperPie for two and a half years and already I have gone through a major thinning of my team! When I started in 2021 as a stay at home mom who was looking for remote work that would significantly benefit my family, Social Selling with PaperPie seemed the perfect opportunity! Many other workmen wanted the same thing that I did and so I had many other women join the business and begin providing books to their friends and family and schools.
What I did not realize at the time was that even in 2021 I was experiencing the Covid effect. As soon as 2022 came around and the world opened back up many of my team members left the business due to getting right back into their old busy lifestyle, and growing a business was not what most of them wanted anymore.
I went from a team of 28 to 2.
I am currently in a rebuilding period. It is a lot more difficult to find “my people” now, but I remember that I did not join because I was stuck at home during a pandemic. I joined to provide an opportunity for my family and provide an opportunity for other women seeking the same!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I have had to unlearn the hustle mentality! I truly believed that to build a successful business you had to be fast and you had to sacrifice!
Now building any business does require sacrifice but not at the expense of my mental health!
I realized the speed and intensity I was working with was not sustainable and I was burning out very quickly!
I hired a business coach who is very anti hustle to teach me a new way to work.
It is a difficult path to come back from the hustle lifestyle but it is well worth it if it means not giving up because I physically can’t sustain the hustle.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: raising_your_reader
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/raising.your.reader/?ref=share_group_link