I suppose it all began when I was just 5 years old. We vacationed in Cape Cod each summer and my mother would drag the entire family to the Christmas Tree Shops, which back in the day was the real treasure hunt of retail shopping in the U.S. But with two brothers and a father who had absolutely zero interest in shopping, it made for a difficult trip.
I decided at that time I had two choices; I could either sit in the brown and white striped station-wagon impatiently with the boys complaining about how unconscious Mum was about other peoples’ time, or I could insert myself into her undeniable love affair with shopping and really learn the ropes when it came to browsing and purchasing.
So we shopped. Much like her mother did with her, and her mother’s mother, it was a trade that was passed down, with true skill-set and rules built around this process of finding hidden gems in amongst an overwhelmingly competitive retail landscape.
We had such fun, Mum would keep me home from school some days to head to the mall. Before all you mothers gasp in horror, I wasn’t one to struggle with academia at any point, so falling behind due to shopping was never a concern. In some respects, you could say it led me here and was an education in itself. (My mother will laugh at that.)
As a 10-year old child I would pull my girlfriends into dressing rooms and force them to try things on that I deemed ‘perfect’ for their pre-adolescent bodies. I would decorate, re-arrange and re-decorate my room weekly, and ensure that my visitors (parents) knew exactly why I had moved the three horizontal art sketches over my bed instead of my dresser, due to where the eye looked first when you walked into my yellow & blue childhood bedroom.
Fast-forward to university, when I fell deeply in love with business and marketing. The art of sales came later, which was fitting given that both brothers, my father & grandfather were all exceptional when it came to the sales world.The money drew me in first, I loved the concept of commission because I was a penny-pincher throughout most of my life. A compensation model that deterred most turned me on, and my competitive drive from sports made the lulls in sales fairly insignificant. I truly enjoyed adding value to people’s lives through my offerings and the relationships and learnings I took away from the sales world have been my most valuable asset to date.
Oprah once said: ‘Do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do.’ And so here we are. Two long-time love affairs finally colliding. I hate when people sign off by saying, ‘Big things to come!’ Who knows, maybe very small things to come. All I know is that the best entrepreneurs are relentless and completely aligned with their passion. So here’s to chasing dreams while keeping your feet firmly on the ground.
XoNatalie
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