A Staples VP, a Supplier & a Strong Partnership: Inside Working with RE-FOCUS THE CREATIVE OFFICE
Retail Buyer Interview: Staples Manager & Supplier on Partnering with RE-FOCUS THE CREATIVE OFFICE
If you’re a Retail Buyer, Office Supplies Buyer, Pharma OTC Front-End Buyer, or Independent Pharmacy seeking the next breakthrough in retail, pharmacy, office supplies, or grocery innovation, listen to this interview with Angela Stephens, CEO of RE-FOCUS THE CREATIVE OFFICE, and Frank Bielicki from Staples. Learn what it’s like to partner with a woman-owned, diversity-certified supplier innovating products designed “Through the eyes of a child with ADHD.” We’re retail ready, featured with Amazon, Staples, Temu, and launching new products regularly. Connect with us to explore how our focus tools can help your customers and business thrive. Contact Angela Stephens at angela@time2refocus.com.
Temu Opens New Doors for a Stationery Startup Tackling Mental Overload
Temu Opens New Doors for a Stationery Startup Tackling Mental Overload
Re-Focus began as a planner brand for kids with ADHD. Now it’s expanding to reach students, professionals, and seniors seeking calm in a chaotic world—thanks to Temu’s low-cost, high-visibility marketplace.
Angela Stephens started a business to solve a deeply personal challenge: helping her teenage son manage ADHD using color-coded planners and password books. What began as a homemade toolkit in Missouri in 2019 has since grown into RE-FOCUS THE CREATIVE OFFICE—a line of organizing tools now helping students, office workers, and older adults navigate anxiety, memory lapses, and digital overload.
As her product line expanded, so did the need to scale. But for Stephens, who launched this new venture in her 50s after running an executive search firm, the leap from niche to mainstream proved expensive. “I knew there were people who needed our products—but I couldn’t afford to keep chasing them,” she said. Traditional digital marketing was costly and ineffective at reaching her core demographics, she said.
That changed when she discovered Temu, a popular global e-commerce platform known for its vast selection of budget-friendly goods. In late 2024, Temu began onboarding local U.S. sellers to help them expand their reach. For self-funded businesses like Stephens’, it offered broad visibility without prohibitive upfront costs.
“The exposure Temu offers is hard to get anywhere else unless you pay heavily for it,” she said. “Here, I can focus on what I do best—designing tools to help people stay focused—and still grow the business.”
Temu is now welcoming U.S. brands to its platform. Join today through seller.temu.com to reach millions of consumers!
Small businesses generate nearly 44% of U.S. GDP, yet many struggle to scale. A 2024 Constant Contact survey cited time and resource constraints as top barriers to effective marketing. For founders like Stephens, platforms like Temu provide a cost-effective path to growth.
Re-Focus’s product line—which includes anxiety journals, password books, spiral notebooks, and academic planners—quickly found new customers. One key demographic has been students, especially Gen Z, who flocked to Temu in droves. According to a Tech Crunch report, Temu was the most downloaded app among Gen Z users in the U.S. during the first 10 months of 2024, driven by its vast selection of affordable items.
Temu was also popular with older adults, a demographic that Stephens had long struggled to reach. “If a student buys our planner on Temu, then sees their grandmother struggling with passwords, suddenly our password book becomes a holiday gift,” she said.
After experiencing symptoms of forgetfulness and difficulty concentrating herself, Stephens saw firsthand how the tools she had created for her son could serve a much wider audience. In the post-pandemic world, issues like brain fog, burnout, and digital overload have become common—not just among students, but also professionals and older adults.
Now, with Temu’s streamlined onboarding and cost-effective reach, Stephens has uploaded her full product catalog and is preparing to launch her new fidget toys on the platform first.
“I’m not just trying to grow a business,” she said. “I’m trying to make an impact on the people who need these products. With Temu, that becomes more possible.”
RE-FOCUS: THE CREATIVE OFFICE
Building an on-going relationship with Springfield Public Schools in Springfield Missouri with the GO-CAPS Program on Student-Led Innovation Projects
Springfield, MO / May 1, 2025:
RE-FOCUS THE CREATIVE OFFICE is excited to announce a new partnership with GO CAPS Missouri, engaging high school students in three dynamic, real-world projects through the end of May 2025 with plans to continue in 2026. This collaboration will immerse GO CAPS students in data gathering and research, social media marketing, and video creation, providing hands-on learning experiences that bridge the gap between education and industry.
GO CAPS (Greater Ozarks Centers for Advanced Professional Studies) is a nationally recognized program that fully immerses high school juniors and seniors in professional environments, where they solve real-world problems, use industry-standard tools, and receive mentorship from actual employers—all while earning high school credit. GO CAPS exemplifies how business, community, and public education can partner to deliver personalized learning experiences and prepare students for high-skill, high-demand careers1.
Through this partnership, students will:
- Conduct data gathering and research to inform business decisions and creative
strategies.
Design and execute social media marketing campaigns, gaining experience in digital communications and brand engagement.
- Develop and produce original video content, learning every stage of the creative process from concept to editing.
“By working alongside industry professionals at RE-FOCUS THE CREATIVE OFFICE, GO CAPS students will gain invaluable insight working with a National BRAND that is headquartered in Springfield, MO and now in national retailers. The opportunity to work with our team is a great partnership to help students build their skills giving them true real-world projects helping them be ready, bring experience and develop dynamic skills that are vital for the workforce of tomorrow,” said Angela Stephens, CEO for RE-FOCUS THE CREATIVE OFFICE.
The projects span several GO CAPS pathways, including Business and Entrepreneurship, where students tackle targeted business projects and engage with business partners, Communication and Technology, where they hone their skills in digital media and marketing, and help to conduct national research with students of tomorrow. This partnership underscores a shared commitment to fostering innovation, entrepreneurship, and career readiness among Missouri’s youth.
For more information on GO CAPS, visit the Springfield Public Schools website: https://www.sps.org/gocaps
RE-FOCUS THE CREATIVE OFFICE a woman owned diversity company is a BRAND that is certified as a woman owned company. The company specializes in creating products that help individuals focus who have ADHD or anyone who wants to focus better
The company creates specialized organizational products with ADHD in mind. In fact, all of their products are created: “Through the eyes of a child with ADHD...” Angela Stephens, CEO, was a single mother for ten years who began working with her son who was diagnosed with a high level of ADHD to find ways to help him stay focused and organized in third grade. Drake Stephens, her son and the company’s co-founder, was diagnosed with ADHD two years later. Her son was diagnosed with ADHD in the 5th grade, Angela was diagnosed at age 45.
RE-FOCUS THE CREATIVE OFFICE has the unique advantage of founders who understand how people with ADHD may struggle with regular organization tools – they even use their own products. They started creating products that would help individuals’ focus and ease their anxiety. There is a reason behind each product.
Their methods, such as color-coding and compartments, help people with ADHD take advantage of the way their brain works. Their products can be beneficial to anyone, even without ADHD, as they offer a level of visibility, focus and organization not seen in other office tools. The company is currently reaching individuals from 14-65+.
Their products include password books, calendars, pill box organizers that can hold IDs and fold shut, college scholarship timeline sheets, annual and academic calendars, notebooks, magnet pads to-do lists, guided anxiety journals and more.
The company has also been featured on ABC’s Good Morning America Deals & Steals seven times in the past seven months.
To learn more about RE-FOCUS THE CREATIVE OFFICE, visit the Company’s website: https://time2refocus.com/
About Angela Stephens, CEO and RE-FOCUS THE CREATIVE OFFICE: Six years ago, RE-FOCUS THE CREATIVE OFFICE was founded by Angela Stephens. It is a woman-owned business, certified with WBENC, WOSB, SBA, Disability: IN DOBE, and ACDBE. Her business has been met with quick success. You can find RE-FOCUS THE CREATIVE OFFICE products on Amazon, Walmart, Staples, Shein, Wayfair, Michaels, Hy- Vee, Oriental Trading, Newegg, eBay, Pharmacy Gift Shops, Independent Gift Shops, in 200 Staples Retail Stores and with Amerisource Bergen now Cencoras Pharmacies worldwide.
Their products are also offered in University and College Bookstores. Most recently, Angela was interviewed by WBENC’s “Women Who Own It Podcast.” Angela was interviewed twice by Dr. Ned Hallowell, a well-known Psychiatrist in the ADHD field. The most recent interview can be found at this link: The Wonderful World of Angela Stephens - Dr. Hallowell (drhallowell.com)
She also hosts two of her own podcasts, “Re-Focus with Angela” www.refocuswithangela.com and “Re-Focus Careers.” www.refocuscareers.com/podcast or wherever you listen to your podcast. Amazon has written 2 articles about the company:
https://sell.amazon.com/blog/seller-stories/re-focus-creative-office
https://sell.amazon.com/blog/seller-stories/amazon-sellers-conquer-challenges
Angela Stephens recently graduated from the 2023 Top Shelf Retail program from the WBDC Program, sponsored by Walgreens and BP. In addition, she also graduated from the 2023 WBDC Scale Higher Program, sponsored by Wells Fargo.
You can find more information, products, and her podcasts at www.time2refocus.com.
Through his eyes: How Angela Stephens helped her son manage ADHD
For mom Angela Stephens, necessity became the mother of invention when her son Drake was diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). To help him focus and get organized, she took matters into her own hands.
When Angela Stephens’ fifth grader son Drake tested at a high level for ADHD in 2010, she ached for him. The diagnosis provided a small sense of relief for the former single mom who also ran her own executive candidate search business—now there was an explanation for why he constantly forgot his lunch at home, forgot to turn in homework, and was easily distracted. But, it was just the start of their journey, as she tried to find resources to support him.
Angela Stephens, CEO and founder of RE-Focus, the Creative Office
“As a mother, it broke my heart, and I wanted to figure out how to help him,” Angela remembers about her son who is now 22. “We had tried everything. We tried counseling, biofeedback, everything. Medication worked, but it wasn’t enough.”
Her “lightbulb” moment came when she decided to try and experience life through her son’s eyes. She observed Drake as he got ready for school, taking note of the various steps in his morning routine.
One big challenge Drake was dealing with was forgetting to turn in his homework. Angela looked in his backpack and noticed that, while the assignment was done and ready to turn in, he couldn’t find it in the moment because his folders were all the same color.
Angela started creating color-coded files for her son—red files for art, yellow for history, and green for math. Her system worked, and it was a turning point for Drake. With additional help from medication, tutors, and counselors, he went from being a D-student to an A-student within a few months. Angela then started to think up and design new products to help him become even more successful in daily life.
Time to RE-FOCUS
Things came full circle when Angela herself was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 45, scoring just as high as her son had back when he was tested. She had sought help because she was having memory issues and missing deadlines.
“I thought I was getting dementia early on because I would go somewhere and I’d forget why I was even there,” she says. “I got on the right medication, and I was fine. But during that time, I had to work harder. And so then, I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to start a business, and I’m going to start doing it on ways to refocus because if I’m struggling with this, I know other people are as well.’”
RE-Focus creates guided anxiety journals.
It was during this process of discovery that Angela’s new business, RE-Focus, the Creative Office, was born. Launched in 2019, RE-Focus, the Creative Office creates products that help make work, school, and life easier for those who may struggle with ADHD, attention deficit disorder (ADD), dementia, or other ailments that can affect a person’s attention and organization.
Fueled by her passion for helping others, the now 54-year-old seeks to emotionally connect with, and empower, her customers. Inspired by her own experience as a single mom for 10 years, Angela created guided anxiety journals, which she describes as being an alternative for people who do not have social support groups. Her colorful pill boxes feature positive, inspirational phrases that can create a bright moment for a customer. Other products include calendars, to-do list legal pads, and designs specifically for left-handed people. Angela shares how each product is designed to help her customers:
All of our products are created through the eyes of a child with ADHD...That child is my child. I’ve been an entrepreneur for years, and I saw a need. There’s plenty of calendars out there, so, it has to be something that has a meaning behind it. We have a mission statement that says, “Once a person (whether or not they have ADHD) is focused, organized, and finds their ‘calm’, they can be brilliant!” I’ve seen that with my own son, because today, he’s in his second year of college. He’s a co-founder of the company, and he created our first suite of products.
Initially, RE-Focus sold its products on its own website and in retail stores, but soon the company turned its sights to Amazon. “Amazon is such a valued partner to us. When you first start selling in the Amazon store, it’s a learning curve, but now I can do it blindfolded,” she says. “People think, ‘Oh, if I create this product, I’ll be so wealthy.’ It doesn’t work that way. You have to put in the work. I look at Amazon Seller News every day. I’m a self-help junkie. So, when Amazon has the Seller University webinars, I listen again because I think there’s something that I could have missed [the first time]. Or I’ll have my staff listen, because Amazon is constantly making adjustments to help business owners and brand owners.”
Growth spurs new product ideas
Hearing from grateful customers who have family members with ADHD or just need help managing their focus, has helped fuel Angela’s entrepreneurial spirit and inspired additional ideas.
“I started getting emails from people saying, ‘I’ve always gotten onto my son. He was always disruptive, but then I got your password book—or calendar or to-do list legal pads,” she says. “They say, ‘Where have you been? I wish I’d known about you years ago.’”
Having been an entrepreneur for 30 years, Angela is always coming up with new ideas for ways to help people. She continues to run her executive search business, and in 2020, she created a podcast called RE-Focus with Angela Stephens where she interviews CEOs, ADHD coaches, teachers, surgeons, professors, and disability educators on how they focus and refocus when they face adversity. For the podcast’s 100th episode, Angela interviewed David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue Airways, who also has ADHD.
Drake and Angela Stephens huddle together for a selfie.
More recently, when Drake was getting ready to apply to college, she noticed that in spite of her numerous reminders, he wasn’t submitting college applications or chasing down scholarship opportunities. “I thought, ‘I’m a mom, I love him, I’m going to help him,’” Angela recalls. She made a list of colleges and started visiting their websites. “After the sixth link back and forth, I was overwhelmed. I thought, ‘If I’m overwhelmed, as a mom, how can I ask my son to do something if it’s overwhelming for me?’”
Angela created a cardboard timeline of sorts and pasted it up on the wall in Drake’s room. It had a place for college names, their deadlines, and notes. On the other side was an area for scholarship names, early application deadlines, etc. Her idea not only worked like a charm, it is now a fully-developed product called College Scholarship Timeline Sheets that helps applicants organize and plan out college and scholarship applications.
“I tell parents to put this in front of their video games,” she says. “Put it in their bathroom. Put it in their car. Put it in their bed. By the third time, Drake was filling this out, and now he has a scholarship and he’s in college, and it’s the only thing I can say that worked.”
Angela continues to travel the country, speaking at conferences and pitching RE-Focus products to retailers, sometimes accompanied by Drake, who has made a few successful pitches of his own. Her experience has taught her many lessons along the way, and she has some words of advice for new entrepreneurs.
“Just keep going,” she says. “It’s not a race. I never knew that I was creative earlier in my career. It was truly in my 40s that this creativity was inspired through the journey of loving my son and helping him be the best at whatever he desires in his life. As a recruiter for over 30 years, I thought that was the toughest sell ever. But getting a product into retail and to the consumer? That is a journey. I had no idea how difficult it was, and I’ve learned it, and so I would just say, keep going.”
Three Amazon sellers who conquered challenges to achieve success
https://sell.amazon.com/blog/seller-stories/amazon-sellers-conquer-challenges
In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re highlighting stories of three women business owners who faced challenges that disrupted their operations. Each found a way to triumph as they grew their businesses, expanded product lines, and emerged stronger.
How Angela Stephens survived an email phishing scam
Angela Stephens is the founder and CEO of RE-Focus, the Creative Office, a business that creates products to help people with focus issues. In 2019, she faced a setback when a wire transfer went awry. Discover how she maintained focus on her goal despite the chaos surrounding her.
Angela Stephens interviewed with Amazon at Amazon Accelerate in 2022.
Angela Stephens, founder and CEO of RE-Focus, the Creative Office, was baffled when a foreign-based manufacturer claimed it hadn’t received a $12,500 wire transfer she’d sent to cover pill box production.
Angela and her now 22-year-old son Drake founded RE-Focus in 2019, after she successfully created various products, such as calendars and to-do list legal pads, to help manage Drake’s ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder). Customers who needed help with focus issues really embraced the RE-Focus mission, fueling Angela’s entrepreneurial spirit and inspiring new ideas.
The pill boxes were the latest addition to the company’s product line, designed to help customers manage their daily medications. The manufacturer, with whom Angela was working for the first time, notified her team that the product was ready, but the money was a no-show.
“They said, ‘You haven’t sent the money.’ I said, ‘Yes, we have,’ Angela recalled. “And so, we showed them the wire details from our bank.” After some back and forth, the manufacturer threatened to sell the product to other clients, leading Angela to send another $12,500 from her personal funds, thinking the first payment was lost in transit.
However, when the manufacturer still hadn’t received the second payment, Angela and her husband Darold Sauber, the CFO of RE-Focus, got on a call with them. Angela says, “We did a video and we said, ‘Look, this is the wire. You got it. You said you got it.’ They said, ‘That’s not our email.’ They showed us our email and we said, ‘That’s not our email.’”
"We lost $25,000. We didn’t lose $25 million. If this company reaches the level of my vision for where I see it going, this will just be a bump in the road"
Angela creates products, like pill boxes, to help people with focus issues succeed daily.
Turns out RE-Focus had fallen victim to an email phishing scam, where scammers use fake emails or texts to steal sensitive information. According to Comparitech, a pro-consumer cyber security website, as many as 79 percent of US organizations experienced a successful phishing attack in 2021, with business email compromise scams being particularly lucrative. Angela reported the incident to law enforcement authorities, but was informed that nothing could be done unless the amount in question was $100,000 or more.
In order to get the pill boxes, Angela and her team ultimately had to negotiate with the manufacturer through a broker based in the same country. But the money was gone. Angela cautions other sellers who have no prior experience working with overseas manufacturers to use payment methods that reduce risk to the company. She also credits Amazon’s Brand Protection program for helping to protect brands who sell in the Amazon store, as well as their customers, from fraud and abuse.
Despite the setback, Angela remains upbeat, and has put the painful episode behind her. “One of the biggest lessons I learned was really to calm your team because my team was upset and freaking out about what happened. We lost $25,000. We didn’t lose $25 million. If this company reaches the level of my vision for where I see it going, this will just be a bump in the road.”
In 2022, three years after the incident, RE-Focus made over $400,000 in sales selling in Amazon’s store. “That experience could have put many people out of business, but you have to keep going,” she says. “We just had a staff meeting, and we were talking about that, and everybody said, ‘We learn every day in this business. That’s what makes this journey awesome.’”
Angela's Linkedin Page is the following:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelastephens/
Learn how Angela’s son’s ADHD diagnosis inspired the launch of a business.