We recently connected with Vera Schmitz and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Vera thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I’ve always dreamed of becoming an Olympian.

My whole life I’ve been in athletics. I trained for years to try and make the US Olympic Track and Field Team as a pole vaulter. When training for a goal like this, there are inevitable highs and lows. If you’ve ever watched the Olympics, you know what I’m talking about.

In order to keep my mind focused during the day in and day out, I would write bible verses on my arm in sharpie marker. While I was practicing or competing, I would try and memorize them. Sometimes, I’d have these big long verses strung along my forearm and they were hardly legible. My sister in law tipped me to an idea: just take the first letter of each word of the verse and string them along in a line. Then she encouraged me to challenge myself to recall the verse. Well, not only did it take up less space on my arm, but I found it remarkably easy to memorize the verse. Through the setbacks of surgery, the excitement of major competition, and the grind of everyday training I wasn’t just writing verses on my arm, I was writing them in my mind. When fear arose, disappointment lingered, or pride set in, my verses helped me dwell on better, more true things. They gave me hope and direction for my dream.

After coming up short at the 2016 Olympic trials, I retired from sport.

I had no idea how tough it would be to close that chapter of my life. Never had I experienced so much sadness and anxiety… maybe even depression. What would my life be now without this dream I’d chased for nearly 20 years? There was such an enormous void. More than ever I NEEDED the truth’s of God. I recited them day and night and continued to write them on my arm. Slowly, and I mean SLOWLY, what I memorized in these verses healed my heart and brought me out of the pit I was in. They were my lifeline.

And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. What if those 20 years of sports weren’t really about sports. The true goal wasn’t being in the Olympics for its own sake, the true life lesson was in this amazing life skill I had picked up along the way: I knew the beautiful peace of focusing on God’s truth. My question then was… if I’d needed the very words of God so deeply, didn’t others? What if I shared this verse memory tool with everyone? And that is how Dwell was born.

We launched in December of 2017 with a monthly membership to help people get God’s Word into their hearts and minds. Our membership features a new verse and a new verse design every month, and our goal is to not only memorize the verse but to dwell on it, let it sink in, and allow it to change us!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

At Dwell, we help people memorize and meditate on one bible verse a month. Why? Because one word from God is more powerful than 1000 words from any human. Within one verse, there is power to change not only what we think about, but our thoughts then change our beliefs about ourselves compelling us to take action in our lives. We use the Dwell method to make this happen. Simply put, we take the first letter of every word in a bible verse, we make a beautiful and unique verse design out of the letters, and then we place that design on tools to help our followers and members memorize the verse. Our membership includes temporary tattoos, a keychain, and a print as well as digital components like wallpapers for your phone and coloring sheets. We know that 65% of people are visual learners, and so we want to equip this generation with effective tools to know God through his Word.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I’ve had to unlearn the idea that more is more. When I was an athlete, more actually was more. More reps, more workouts, more drive and determination would lead to more success. I believed that if I worked harder than everyone else, I would beat everyone else. And often times this was true: I won multiple state championships, Big Ten Championships, All- American honors, and even became an Olympic Trials Finalist. It was in the last few years of training that I learned that more can actually be too much. I started working with a world class coach that had me doing probably 30% of what I used to do, but doing it really well and with high intention and tracking. He taught me that over training leads to injury, exhaustion, run-down, and plainly stated is unsustainable. I had to really trust him that less would be more.The result? A healthier body and mind, and ultimately, better performance. I try to remember this lesson now as a business owner. Unfortunately though, there are seasons as a wife/mom/entrepreneur where long hours are my reality, and my body and my family pay the price. The difference however, is that the seasons are just that- seasons. I recognize that the way of life that is glorified in start-up culture is no way to live. It is unsustainable and ultimately not how I was created to be. I remind myself that there is always work to do, its really quite endless, and longevity and quality of life are what I’m really after! I am so grateful for my husband and our team at Dwell- they are committed to helping me enforce the boundaries around work that are right for me.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

My sister is my Co-Founder! When Dwell started in 2017, I remember thinking, “man, I should really be sending out a weekly email to help people dive deeper into the verse we are memorizing.” And so I called up my sister Natalie who is a pastor’s wife and Engish major, and I asked her if she’d be willing to edit these emails I was writing. After the first few weeks of this, she suggested “why don’t I just write these!” DEAL. From that point on, we worked in tandem, me on the design and operations side, and Natalie on the content side. She now hosts our weekly podcast, writes our weekly blog, and teaches regularly. It is such a gift to have her. We worried at the beginning if working together would hurt our friendship and sisterhood, but I can honestly say that it has only strengthened it! It is so cool to do our work, for God’s kingdom, together!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dwelldifferently.com
• Instagram: @dwelldifferently
• Facebook: @dwelldifferently
• Youtube: @dwelldifferently
• Other: Podcast: Dwell Differently