Sometimes things just feel right. They click and, in an instant, you know: this is it.

Starting Satin Press was one of these moments. I can think of two or three others in my life (meeting my husband, luckily, was one of them) but they are exceedingly rare and precious.

One day, tired writing about something serious, I happened upon a YouTube video about low content and coloring books. A year or even 3 months ago I would have stopped after 2 minutes, rolled my eyes and gone back to the serious writing or made myself the umpteenth cup of tea to have an excuse to get away from the serious writing. This time I watched it to the end, all 14 or so minutes (in other words a verifiable eternity in social media time) and then I watched another. Then I allowed myself to carefully think “maybe”. Then I watched another.

Next thing I found myself doing is writing to Sabi, my friend from middle school who lives half a world away and spent her entire career as journalist and newspaper editor. We stayed in touch for more decades than I care to admit and always vaguely talked about “someday going into business together”. It was an earnest and heart-felt desire that never made it out of the idea stage, because all ideas so far were half-baked and never felt right.

But now …

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Hi Sabi:

Please don’t laugh, but I have seen this video on YouTube, about low-content and coloring books. I don’t know why I watched it and why I find it interesting but have a look. What do you think?”

Tina

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A day later (time difference and all) I received her reply.

Hi Tina:

Now you’ll laugh, but just the other day I started thinking about this as well. I am actually doing an online course about it right now. I think there is something there.

Let’s talk.

Sabi

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Two days later we had a call and made plans. There wasn’t any doubt by either one of us. Somehow it was clear from the start that this would happen, that we were going to do this and that we were the right people to do it and that we would approach it seriously and professionally, have reasonable expectations and in the end be successful (fingers crossed).

Sabi is the planner and organizer, the one who comes to meetings with lists and ticks of tasks. The one who watches yet another video to learn more about a topic. She can dig into a topic and not let go until she knows what she needs to know. She’s somebody who stays grounded and – while enthusiastic – doesn’t get carried away.

I am the one with more ideas than I can keep track of, piling up a million pieces of papers, Post-Its, backs of envelops with scribbles, and stuff I tear out of magazines on my desk, electronic notes in several places and ideas still stuck in my head that someday, I will – definitely – write down. I am a fully functional adult but one who thrives on ideas, talking strategy and thinking 8 steps ahead. Implementation, the pesky details – not my forte.

In other words: a match made in heaven. We always kind of knew it, we just needed a project to prove it.

Now we had found one.

The path from there to our first books wasn’t as straight as we had thought or hoped. There were detours, setbacks, regrouping – but never doubt or conflict. We knew then and know now that this is right, that this is concretely, what we have talked about all these years in abstract terms.

“Doing something together” finally became real.

Will we ultimately be successful? Who knows. We believe it with a conviction that I have never felt about any other business I have been involved with (and there were many). Where that conviction comes from, I don’t know and decided not to worry about it because it feels great for once to simply know “this is right”.

Join us on our journey by following us here on Pinterest and on Instagram. Also, we’d love to hear your stories. Have you ever experienced something like this: when things just felt right, when you knew, when everything clicked.