This is the third post in my series about people who inspire me; For this one I am going to be talking about why Shelley Harper inspires. Shelley is the owner of Con*Quest Journals, which creates amazing products that are really useful, especially for people who attend fan conventions. She is very nice, intelligent, helpful, creative, hard-working, organized, and absolutely amazing. Shelley inspires me because of the things she makes; with all of her supernatural content and the variety of products that she has, from many different fandoms. She’s made con journals, a John Winchester replica journal, Supernatural and Harry Potter themed 2019 planners, and so much more. Shelley is a vendor spotlight at Creation Entertainments Supernatural conventions, and has vended at many other conventions. She has accomplished so much in her life and I cannot wait to see what else she does.
Shelley inspires me because of the things she has done. She made her very own company, her own company. Now I don’t have my own company, but I have seen other people who do and who have come to my school; to talk about what they do and how they did it. And from what I can remember, it seems like a lot of work; not only to start it, but then maintain it afterwards. Planning things out, making the product, promoting it, selling it, etc. Some people may not be able to do those things, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do it. But Shelley and her team did it. They are doing it. She has her officially licensed Supernatural and Harry Potter merchandise, Game and Gen Con merchandise, and other fandoms as well. She has many different products that are all amazing, whether it’s the design, function of it, whatever. Everything about her products is amazing. Not only did Shelley make her own company and has all of these beautiful products, she goes from con to con talking with fans and selling her merchandise; and when you have a company with as much products as she does…it’s a lot to take from place to place. Then there is getting the booth set up, and organizing everything, and running it all weekend long, etc. It can be hard to do all that, also her daughter Hailey has been helping her out recently, but that’s still a lot of work for two people or more.
Shelley inspires me because she keeps coming up with these new ideas for different things and products, and other stuff as well. They thought of the idea of Con*Quest Journals in January of 2014, and they are still producing new content, new ideas, new products. To me, that is so incredibly amazing and so inspiring; to be able to come up with new things after doing it for that long. Kind of like Supernatural, it’s been on for 14 years, it’s about halfway through its 14th season at the time of posting this, and it’s still bringing new content and new stuff to the table. The people at Con*Quest Journals have been coming up with new ideas, promoting them, selling them, producing them for almost 5 years. That’s pretty awesome…and there still doing it and hopefully will continue to it.
Shelley inspires me because of the person she is. Shelley is smart, thoughtful, artistic, a good worker, kind, funny, affectionate, loyal, enthusiastic, passionate of her work and other things as well, determined, confident. When you put your work out there whether it’s artwork, photography, videos, products, etc. It can be reacted to in many different ways. If you put a lot of work into something, like Shelley’s new character themed notebooks for example, they could be a big hit and sell like crazy, or no one could want them at all (but everyone loved them of course). But you have to have confidence and hope in yourself and your work and believe in yourself, when you do that. And Shelley does and I hope she knows that her work is amazing. Everything that she and her team does in extraordinary. Seeing her interactions online and at cons because of Alana King’s convention vlogs, and from what I saw in Cleveland this year; she is so nice and sweet to everyone who comes to her booth and talks with her online. When you own your won company I’m sure it comes with a lot of work and could come with some stress and struggles.
I had the chance to meet Shelley at the Supernatural Cleveland Convention this year which was part of the new Giving Back Tour that was headlined by Misha Collins. If you would like to read my recap of the convention, you can read my Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3. Shelley was lovely and very sweet to both me and my mother. I got a picture with her and she signed my journal, funny enough that was made by her. And Shelley recognized me from online because I constantly like and comment on her stuff and I support her company with all my heart. To quite the lovely Charlie Bradbury from Supernatural, “I’m a wee bit obsessive, if a ‘wee bit’ means completely”. I said hi to Shelley throughout the weekend and talked with her as much as I could. It was awesome meeting her and if you get the chance to I would highly, highly recommend it.
Shelley inspires me because of what she has accomplished, both in her life and with Con*Quest journals. She has gotten her merchandise to be officially licensed Supernatural merchandise, as well as officially licensed Harry Potter and Gen Con merchandise. She also has her merchandise in Hot Topic stores in the United States, Canada, and maybe other countries as well. If the merchandise isn’t in stores then it’s probably on the Hot Topic website to buy online. Shelley and Con*Quest Journals have grown and accomplished so many things since the idea of it all the way back in 2014, and I for one cannot wait to see what they do in the future.
Shelley's Website: https://conquestjournal.com/
Shelley's Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quest_Journals
Shelley's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conquestjournals/
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