For the next several months, on Thursdays, as founder and CEO of the Indie Business Network, I will guide you on a walk down memory lane to celebrate our nearly fourteen years of service to handmade and creative beauty entrepreneurs worldwide. We start our journey with a look back nearly 20 years when I was preparing to leave my full-time job as an attorney to follow my bliss. The head shot was taken in 1997, by Valerie Woody, after three (yes, three) hours of professional makeup application by celebrity stylist and makeup artist Derrick Rutledge (also known as “the Makeup Maestro”). The image on the right is of the title of my first published article in the handmade world, from the inaugural issue of Saponifier Magazine. (My surname was once “Roberts.”)
Back then, I didn't have a real plan about exactly what I wanted to do. But I felt a strong and specific calling to leave the “safety” of a traditional career in order to help women be successful in businesses of their own.
I had no Plan B.
I had no safety net.
Back then, jobs were plentiful. It was unheard of for anyone to actually leave a well paying job to do anything other than take an even better paying job. Everyone in my life thought I had lost my mind. No one understood. But I didn't care. I had work to do, and I wanted to do it on my own terms.
I Wanted to Serve Women
I wanted to serve women. I didn't know how I would do it, but I knew the path would open before me if I took the first few courageous steps. So I did.
Within months of the above photography session, my dearest and most trusted friend passed away. That was my confirmation. It was a “now or never” moment. I knew what I had to aim for.
I quit my job weeks later and except for a moment of madness in 2000, when I briefly held a full-time job, I have not looked back.
So this is where it all started. With a calling, a makeup brush, an article published in a magazine that is now read by hundreds of thousands of people around the globe, and the passing of one of the most amazing women I know.
I could have chosen an easier path, but I could not have chosen a more rewarding one. It is an honor and a privilege to serve you, and if you're not a member, I invite you to join. You can see a list of benefits and our member application here.
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You can learn more about Derrick Rutledge here, and learn about Valerie Woody here, and learn about The Saponifier Magazine here.
QUESTION: What memories do you have of the start of your business? Did you feel a calling? A responsibility? A need? What prompted you to take the leap?
