Thank you to everyone reading who gave me your vote this year for a Charlotte Magazine Best of the Best Award. You've voted a lot, and this year again, I was lucky enough and am very grateful to have received a Voter's Choice award for Best Personal Stylist/Shopper. I absolutely love what I do. When my youngest son, Worth, was born in March of 2011, I decided to take a step back and reevaluate my professional and personal goals. At the time, I was eight years into operating a Nanny Placement Service, Private Placements, Inc., that was another unbelievable (and I'll say lucky) experience. Sure, I worked my fanny off, but I feel very grateful that I know some wonderful..... Hard Working, Smart and Well-Mannered people, who have welcomed and allowed me into their sphere.
In the Fall of 2011, I submitted a story about my Grandmother and Great-Grandmother, both stylists, buyers for a department store and women whose style was far ahead of their time, to Lucky Magazine. Lucky ran the story on their back page in November, 2011. In reaction to this, I decided to go for it. I nabbed a domain name with my very first blog post. It was a place to hold my passion, an on-line journal of sorts. I sent an email to friends and family about it. They signed up to follow. I decided I'd go ahead and do a Facebook page. Other people starting reading. I got my first contributing column with Charlotte Parent Magazine, where for three years, I wrote a Mommy Style column. As a Mom of a newborn and toddler, I knew what it was like to feel and BE completely in the trenches.... as a mom, wife, housekeeper, business owner, friend, you name it.
I wrote about anything and everything style related on my new website that I loved. Then, people emailed and asked if they could pay me to style them. It was more or less a domino effect. My lifelong and DNA infused passion turned career became a reality. I've been told "no" lots and lots of times. Others have gotten jobs or opportunities I would have loved to have had. But you see, that's okay. With each time I've fallen, I think I've learned a little more about resiliency. I believe there is room for all of us. Like my Grand-Daddy who owned The Easy Pay Store on the corner of Confederate and Main in small town Fort Mill, South Carolina, USA for 43 years said, "competition breeds business," and with a mindset of abundance versus scarcity, I feel the same.
If you are my client, colleague, supporter of any kind, thank you. Those of you who come here and read what I have to say... in a sea of mega bloggers and in a city of talented stylists, THANK YOU. There are a number of Charlotte stylists who have all worked very hard to make a name for themselves. Not everyone's styles or business practices are the same, but they are all successful at what they do. Certainly, the industry folk are a healthy part of my desire to keep working, keep learning and keep getting better at this thing I love so much. To the voters, thanks for voting, and to my fellow talented stylists, thanks for keeping me hungry and excited to work in such an exciting field of great talent!
