Armor up and slay.
For a long time, I kept my Stella & Dot business quiet. I still keep it TOO quiet. Especially for how much joy it brings and how good I am at it. Humility is tough! In thinking about how I wanted to present my business to the world, I had to think about what it actually was. What I was selling and what the job afforded me.
In the beginning, it gave me joy. At a time when my day job was sucking my will to live and making me sick. Like anti-anxiety meds to get to sleep and another dose in the morning to get into the parking garage. Where I would cry for 20 minutes. Add this to the fact that I was becoming a shit employee making barely enough to cover daycare and the benefits of 9-5ing were becoming less and less. So jewelry and sparkles and bags and girl time gave me joy. And some fun money.
Then it gave me a tribe. Of like minded women. And then a team of women who I worked alongside with to help them get their hustle on. It was a great deal of fun and fulfillment. Then, along with a research opportunity that fell into my lap at Dunkin' Donuts, it gave me freedom. Do you know what freedom gives you? Power! It gave me power!
But what's in it for you, right? Why bother? You can go to Target or Anthropologie or Nordstrom and buy jewelry and bags. And not make your friends pity/pressure purchase so you can get freebies. I get it. I hear ya. But when you get your girls together for that style session, you get me. And you know what I am? A goddamn shining ball of light and love and laughter. That's right. That is what I sell. I sell love and joy and empowerment in the form of sparkle. I can put a necklace on you and make you feel sassy, classy, maybe a little bad-ass-y. Then when it arrives and you put it on? You feel those things again and the item becomes associated with these incredible memories. It's not just accessories. I learned it first hand.
My last day at my 9-5, I decked myself out in all the arrows I could find. Say something without saying anything at all. Let my style speak for me. Watch me follow my arrow.
When I attended an exciting and potentially nerve-wracking family event, I put on the fanciest, most beautiful armor that I could find. I felt powerful, protected. I also looked amazing. (FYI, Kim Kardashian has worn this necklace. Consider it a pro or con as you wish.)
When I spent days in the NICU, rocking a 4lb baby and knowing she needed me but so did her brothers at home. When I was up every 3 hours pumping for a baby that I didn't know when, or if, was going to come home. I wore a black diamond necklace that symbolized strength and abundance and an engravable that said "breathe".
So you're saying, fine, whatever, it's jewelry. How important can it be? How much meaning and weight and symbolism can one attribute to it? How much can putting something on transform me? I don't know. Are you married? Look down at your hand. That engagement ring and wedding band? Important, symbolic and meaningful. Transformative, right? As much so as when they are gifted to you and you put them on as they are when you take them off. Now do you see?
Thanks for coming along on this journey with me. Think that what I am saying is worth sharing? Please do. It'll help a girl out!
Click this affiliate link, I mean website of love, empowerment and transformation, and know that this single momma will be adding happiness and joy into the House of KB's food budget. When I go shopping decked out like a Kardashian!