About

A Note from the Founder

If you had told me twenty years ago that I’d one day co-found a successful e-commerce business and eventually help other women build businesses of their own, I never would have believed you.

Like so many women, my career didn’t follow a straight path, and looking back, I’m so grateful it didn’t.

I graduated from San Diego State University with a degree in Interior Design and spent nearly ten years doing what I loved: designing beautiful spaces and helping clients create homes they truly enjoyed living in.

I thought that would always be my career.

Then life had other plans.

In 2012, my husband’s career in the Marine Corps brought our family from San Diego to Pensacola Beach, Florida. Starting over in a new city wasn’t easy, but it gave me the opportunity to discover something I never expected.

I continued doing AutoCAD drafting and design work on the side, but I also opened an Etsy shop where I bought, restored, and flipped vintage furniture and home décor.

At first, it was simply a creative outlet.

But with every order, I found myself learning something new about entrepreneurship. Photography. Pricing. Customer service. Marketing. The excitement of building something from the ground up.

Around the same time, my sister was running a handmade jewelry business from New York.

One conversation turned into an idea.

“What if we combined our strengths and built something together?”

That simple question became One Affirmation.

When we launched in 2015, we had no background in e-commerce. No investors. No blueprint. No one showing us what to do.

We figured it out one step at a time.

We taught ourselves SEO before AI existed. We learned Shopify, Etsy, email marketing, product photography, manufacturing, shipping, customer service, and just about every lesson the hard way.

In those early days, we wore every hat imaginable.

We cut fabric ourselves, packed orders from my dining room table, answered customer emails late at night, and even learned to sew before eventually hiring retired seamstresses from the military base in Pensacola. One of those incredible women is still part of our business today.

In 2017, my family moved to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and One Affirmation came with us. I continued packing orders from home while raising two young boys and slowly building the business one customer at a time.

Then came 2020.

Like so many businesses, COVID changed everything.

Demand grew faster than we ever imagined. My sister moved from New York to Texas, and in 2021 we opened our warehouse in Southlake, where One Affirmation continues to operate today.

People sometimes ask what made us successful.

The truth is, it wasn’t one big moment.

It was thousands of small ones.

Learning SEO when no one was talking about it.

Taking thousands of product photos until we got them right.

Writing better product descriptions.

Testing marketing strategies.

Listening to our customers.

Making mistakes.

Fixing them.

Showing up again the next day.

Over and over.

Today, my sister and I each bring different strengths to the business. She enjoys being on camera and creating content. I love building everything behind the scenes: the strategy, the operations, the marketing, the systems, and finding better ways to grow.

Neither approach is better.

They’re simply different.

And that’s exactly why I created The Founders Edit.

Because I know there are women with incredible ideas who believe they have to become influencers before they can become entrepreneurs.

I don’t believe that’s true.

If you love being on camera, that’s wonderful.

But if you’re like me, someone who would rather build the business than become the brand, I want you to know there’s another path.

That’s the path I want to help you build.

Everything you’ll find inside The Founders Edit comes from real life.

The wins.

The failures.

The expensive mistakes.

The lessons I learned through years of trial and error.

And the systems, strategies, and shortcuts I wish someone had handed me when I was first starting out.

My hope is simple.

That what took me years to learn might help shorten your journey.

That you’ll feel more confident taking the leap.

That you’ll build something you’re proud of.

And that one day, you’ll look back and realize the business you dreamed about became the life you always hoped for.

Thank you for being here.

I’m so honored you’re part of this community, and I can’t wait to see what you build.

With gratitude,

Shari Nicol

Founder, The Founders Edit