Perfection Not Required: Growing an Online Business from the Inside Out

Ep.27 The Pivot from Side Hustle to Business Owner with Stefanie Furgiuele

June 06, 2022 Stefanie Furgiuele Season 1 Episode 26
Perfection Not Required: Growing an Online Business from the Inside Out
Ep.27 The Pivot from Side Hustle to Business Owner with Stefanie Furgiuele
Show Notes Transcript

When Stefanie was laid off from her job during the pandemic she was able to pivot quickly into building up the side hustle she'd primarily been using as a creative outlet.  From there she was able to branch out into more profitable areas of her business using the skills she's learned from other jobs over the years.  Her story is super approachable and I can't wait to get into it! 

We chat about:

  • Having a creative outlet and how that gave her a place to start 
  • The power in taking action and then pivoting as needed
  • Your real transferrable skills
  • The importance of support from like minded people
  • Long term potential

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Jamie Stephens:

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Breaking up with corporate today. I have Stephanie for jewelley here, and she is the owner of original jeans. Sorry. Oh, got that paws out. So Stephanie is the owner of original jeans. And Stephanie, welcome to the show.

Unknown:

Thank you so much, Jamie. So nice to be here.

Jamie Stephens:

Yes. So why don't you tell us a little bit about what you are doing today?

Stefanie Furgiuele:

Yeah, so as of today, I am running my own business full time called original jeans. So I hand paint on denim jackets. That's kind of how I started a couple years ago, started as a side hobby. And now I'm doing a full time. And along with that, due to the pandemic, I also pivoted into teaching a lot of online and now in person workshops. So the company has kind of pivoted from not only just my selling my painted denim artwork, but also into teaching, teaching workshops for everyone who wants to paint for themselves.

Jamie Stephens:

Cool. How did you get started with that?

Unknown:

It's a funny story I was working in corporate actually, and I guess is the topic of the conversation. But I wasn't, I wasn't loving my job at the time. And it wasn't as creative as I as I imagined or as I hoped. Or maybe I just didn't even realize. And so I would go home and I would just start painting for fun. I didn't go to art school, I went to business school. But you know, I just felt like there was something missing in my day to day. And so when I was home on my own time, I started painting. And I was living at home at the time. And my mom was the one who saw me paint a denim jacket one day, and she encouraged me to kind of take it and make a business out of it. And I thought she was not because it was doing for fun. But you signed me up for a market and people actually wanted to buy my jackets. And I was so so surprised. So from there, it just kind of grew into this nice little hobby, slash kind of side business. That was just fun. And it stayed like that for a couple years until the pandemic where I had lost my full time job. And there was nowhere else to really turn but focusing on my business.

Jamie Stephens:

Yeah, so would you say that that was really kind of a blessing in disguise, have you been able to really accelerate that pivot and move into that

Unknown:

100% I was a blessing in disguise. At the time, when I had lost my job, it wasn't even this big kind of crazy loss. I feel like it was something that I think I always dreamed of doing full time. But I would have never taken that leap on my own. So blessing in disguise for sure. It pushed me in the direction that I wanted. And then it was kind of the perfect, you know, perfect storm because I wouldn't have I would never want to get fired, I would never have quit. But during the pandemic when I had lost my job, you know, you couldn't even really turn to get another job. So there was no pressure from anyone to say, Oh, what are you going to do? Because no one was hiring. Right? So it was like a perfect scenario for me to just focus on my business. And at that time as well. People were being super supportive of supporting local, so I really saw that influx right away. And then that gave me enough confidence to kind of just keep going with it.

Jamie Stephens:

That's cool. And tell people where is local for you?

Unknown:

Oh, in Toronto, I'm from Toronto.

Jamie Stephens:

That's cool. So what do you remember what the first thing that you painted? was on your denim jacket? What was that?

Unknown:

Um, it was a heart with eat my shorts in it. Yeah, I

Jamie Stephens:

love it. It's so did you keep that one for yourself? Or did you end up selling it?

Unknown:

Um, I ended up selling that one to one of my best friends. She was supportive for me from the beginning. And we actually spent a summer trying to figure out our own businesses and we've we've gone our own way. But she wanted to support and she like remembers it how it kept significance from who bought it for me. So and hobbyist stayed kind of in the family.

Jamie Stephens:

So whenever people come to you, like are they buying what you're painting? Or are you painting specific to what they're requesting a little bit

Unknown:

of both. During the pandemic, it kind of went more custom because I wasn't doing any in person, like markets and stuff like that. So before the pandemic I was selling a lot at local fairs and like little local pop ups and so I would just have a whole bunch of jackets pre painted and people would buy them. But because I didn't have a storefront and it just kind of naturally went that way during the pandemic that a lot of the businesses now custom, but I see it see it slowly starting to get back as well. So 5050 BOTH

Jamie Stephens:

Yeah, so I saw on your Instagram that you also do shoes like custom painted shoes, which I think is really neat. How did you get started in that just like adding

Unknown:

also a pandemic. I mean, there was lots of time so I had never done shoes before, but I was like, we might as well try them now. It wasn't really too different from jacket painting, although I do like painting jackets more, I would say. But I decided to just kind of experiment and see the reaction. And I ended up getting a huge positive reaction from my followers on Instagram. So I just decided to keep going with it. And I get a quite a bit of shoe requests as well.

Jamie Stephens:

And people like send you the shoes are you going by on and then

Unknown:

with the shoes, people send them to me, I don't carry inventory and sizes just because there's so so much to carry. Yeah. So people will send me their shoes, or they're like order it to my house. That's the easiest way if they're online anyways, where the jackets, I have a ton of jackets in stock. And they're a lot easier to source.

Jamie Stephens:

Gotcha. So how, like I've done in my past ventures, I've my sister and I had a business where we did like screen printed T shirts. So how so and I know that like inventory is crazy, like with sizing and all the different things that you have to consider? How have you kind of learned that skill of what to keep on hand? And what to kind of maybe special requests? Like how did you navigate all of that?

Unknown:

That is a really good question. Because I completely agree with you, it's so difficult, oh, how much to have on hand, I'm just conservative in nature, especially after like losing my job I, I never want to, you know, put too much money into inventory. So a lot of the times I kind of keep like maybe five to 10 jackets on hand, not a ton, maybe not even 10, I would say like Max seven. And I kind of go through those and I rotate. So if someone comes to me and says, Oh, I want a jacket, this is my size, I usually have like one or two in their size. And I'll show them a picture. And they can choose of the ones I have at that time. Which is working out for me. And then if they don't like those particular jackets, I'll be like no worries, I'll just go see one. So it's it's actually quite nice that it's a little bit more of a reactionary, you know, inventory by versus having to carry way too much on hand. When it comes to the paint kits and all the stuff I do for the corporate parties, that's where it definitely gets difficult because I found at one point, you know, I was doing the same thing where every time I got an an event or you know an order, I would just go buy the inventory for that specific event. But that was a lot of driving to my supplier driving all the time, it took up so much time. So over time, it was just practice and having a little bit of faith in myself that the business will keep coming and just buying larger quantities at a time. So maybe instead of going once a like once a week, literally, I was going, you know, once every two months. And that's yes. That seems to work now, too.

Jamie Stephens:

Yeah. So I've got two questions that came up. And you said that the first. I'm curious, do you also do like, is it all new inventory? Or is it do you have like vintage pieces that you're applying are

Unknown:

all actually they're all pre loved? That's a great question. I forgot to mention that. They're all pre loved pieces, or I try to do them at least like if I don't have a size online, then that's when I would like to wear a size on hand. That's when I might say, Okay, well, here's a link to one that I think would fit you maybe in that particular case, especially if they're like in a rush, we'll just offer it. But for the most part, I do love keeping everything free love. There's just so many vintage jackets, so there that need to be sold before we buy new. So yeah, I try to keep them I try to keep them free for

Jamie Stephens:

us. That's great. I really liked that. Alright, I'm curious how much time that takes? Like, are you buying those things online from like? Or like, are you going to Goodwill or whatever the Canada version of goodwill is or

Unknown:

no, no goodwill, village, same thing. Um, you know, I actually don't find too much luck in those types of stores. It's it's very hit or miss. And to your point that it takes a lot of time to keep popping in. Those are those places where you have to be like an avid Thrifter. And you're pulling in like, you know, once a week. What I've been doing is, you know, going on Facebook marketplace a lot, or Poshmark is really helpful because it gets sent directly to me. But over time, like now that I've been getting busier, I actually found wholesalers in the city so I can do like one big stop. And sometimes like right before the summer I'll do one big purchase and know that in the next few months, I'll get through them. So that's

Jamie Stephens:

fun. Yeah. Cool. Um, the other thing that you brought up that I'm aware of because I was creeping on your Instagram, but my guests may not know, tell me about these corporate painting parties. How did you get started and what did they do and all of your connections?

Unknown:

Yeah, so same thing. Again, it was a as a product, the pandemic but while I was painting these denim jackets, there was just a huge need for people to be connected online. And it started with a paint party that I hosted with my gym. So was a really small, intimate gym and everyone was friends. And you know, we saw each other every day, we love working out together, and we weren't hanging out anymore because we couldn't see each other. So the owner was nice enough to kind of co host an event with me where I dropped everyone off some paint supplies, and then we just all hopped on the Zoom and painted together. And it was a really nice way that wasn't just like sitting in kind of silence or awkward silence on Zoom, where we actually were doing something. From there, I was like, Okay, there's a huge need for this. And I started reaching out to some groups, I started with some charities thinking that they might, you know, they might need some fundraising done for them. So I started with a local charity and asked them if they wanted to offer it to their members. And they said yes, and lucky for me, I ended up getting a lot of corporate clients, because somehow on my website, I nailed the SEO. And after posting a few things on Instagram, posting some pictures on my site, I ended up getting a lot of hits. Again, I still don't know how I rank in Google, but I do but people find me and the first holiday season and 2020 There was a lot of corporate people who asked me for the paint parties, and it just kind of started from there.

Jamie Stephens:

That's great. That very first one, did you charge for it? Or was it just since it was your friends just kind of practice?

Unknown:

Oh, the very first one? No, well, I charged for the supplies. But it was it was very much a practice. I didn't even really know what I was expecting. Right? It was just kind of like, Let's just all hang out and do something. And so they charged me for the supplies. But that was it. Now it's like I charge for my actual time and time making the kids and all that.

Jamie Stephens:

Yeah. So out of the things that you have pivoted to during the pandemic, is there like one thing that has stuck out more than the other or like a direction that is more profitable than the others are? One that Yeah, I mean, like, tell me kind of what you've tried and what stick? What has

Unknown:

given one second? So no, that's a great question. During the pandemic, like I said, I've been trying so many different things, I still love painting jackets, like that's kind of truly my passion. That's how I started in terms of what's more profitable, and what, where I see the company going the eventing is something that I'm loving and something that definitely gives me most of my revenue and like a lot. But you know, I don't want to give, I would never give up the painting jacket. So that kind of gives me that cool factor that edge. You know, people see my Instagram, they're like, oh, wow, she can actually paint and it's not just all those canvases, you always see it those nights. So I feel like it really gives me my edge will always continue to, to paint denim. But definitely the after these two years have passed, I can see there's such a need for people wanting to create, I think what will change and like the whole event industry is you know, we went from maybe attending a lunch or like a big fancy dinner, to having to pivot to these creative workshops. And I think that's going to stick just because people have been liking them so much. And so going forward, whether it's in person, or some people are seeing virtual, the eventing is kind of going to be the main focus.

Jamie Stephens:

That's really neat. So I'm sorry, I got so involved in that, that just, like totally forgot what I was gonna say. Give me just a second here. I'll take a drink, it'll come back. Oh, I was gonna talk about kind of where you were before. If, like your work, quit during COVID Was it laid off is that what happened? I was

Unknown:

laid off, I actually got the job back. So I've had many jobs since I graduated and went to the industry. But my most recent job before I had lost, it was actually an event planner. Cole was kind of in sales and events where I would have clients and I would, they would come to me with their needs. And then I would make events for them. So I was working for an agency. And it was it was really short period of time that I had been working there before the pandemic hit. But obviously that industry got hit. The hardest and fastest was eventing. But in my short time there, I had learned a lot about how to run my own events. And that's kind of what also gave me the confidence to pivot into these events once the pandemic did hit.

Jamie Stephens:

Yeah, so I'm curious about that. So like you said, you nailed the SEO, which is search engine optimization, if y'all don't know that yet. In what medium like were you on LinkedIn, or was it on your website? Or I'm just kind of

Unknown:

yeah, um, you know, I got a couple connections from posting on LinkedIn, but most of the hits came from from my personal website.

Jamie Stephens:

Nice. That's really I mean, like, You say that like, it's not any big deal, but that's like a really big deal too. Be

Unknown:

acknowledge the SEO hill that first season that first holiday season, I was like, how are these people finding me? Like, what is going on? Why is my phone ringing? So? Yeah, trust me. I know, I know, it was very crazy that that happened.

Jamie Stephens:

That's really cool. Because I mean to be I mean, with your words in the industry, the event part of it for such a small period of time, and then to be able to take that and really pivot, like you have with that. I mean, it just shows how I think maybe tenacious is the word I'm looking for, where it's just like, okay, whatever it is, like, I'm gonna figure it out, I'm gonna pivot, I'm gonna do these things. Like, how, where did you get that? Have you always been like that? Or is it like a learned skill that you've

Unknown:

got? Maybe? I'm always been like that. But, you know, it's funny that you said, I think that I wouldn't have been able to kind of pivot so quickly if I didn't have so many jobs. And I didn't really have that experience beforehand. Like if I just graduated and decided to go out and decided to just start a business, I don't think that I would have been able to, like, have the street smarts and you know, know how to do all these things. But having all those experiences before I went into running a business, I think helped me and is what made me so experienced in knowing what to do next. And you know, it's funny that you say, like, if you're not really fulfilled from your job, you can learn and like you, you learn a lot more than I think you might realize, at your day to day when as soon as you leave it, and you have to use those skills. Yeah.

Jamie Stephens:

Yeah. So tell me about some of your job. multiple jobs. Yeah. Cuz I mean, like, I'm the same as far as like, I mean, and they haven't all been in corporate. But just like, since I was old enough to work, like I've always had a job, various jobs, and I think, all different industries. And it's given me such a different perspective, whenever I go in somewhere, just just like, there's all these different boxes you can access to where it's like, oh, well, in this industry, they did it this way. But I can see how if I take this piece, it'll work over here. And I think that that's something that people don't necessarily value on paper, you know, because it's like, not the linear path that everybody talks

Unknown:

about, promoted. It's like, no, no, but I tried all these different things. And these are all things I learned, right? If we're talking to jobs from like, my very first job, I'm with you, I've had so many I was always working since I was able to do mostly in retail or serving, which, honestly, those jobs give you the customer facing, you know, personality the most. And it kind of builds you up to be competent, you have to talk to people and like put on put on a show type of thing. So since I was able to work, I've been working those jobs. But when I graduated business school, I went into fashion. And I started at the corporate office at Hudson's Bay, in the Bible, in the buying teams. So if you're not familiar, I was working with a buyer. But essentially, our jobs was to use our budget to purchase the clothes and the items that you see in the store. That's always what I wanted to do. When I got like, when I went into university, you know, I wanted that job. I got it when I when I graduated, and it was a great job. But I didn't know as soon as I was in the real world, I guess I never had like a real office job. And it was not for me. It was it just wasn't. So I was there for about two and a half, three years. And that's when I started painting was when I would you know, I was on Excel all day, or I was doing these like insane, tedious tasks on my computer. I'm staring at my screen all day long. When I went home, I didn't want to be on my screen anymore. So I started painting. And I've always been a creative person. But if you look at my first few jackets, I mean, I'm shocked people bought them. But thank you for doing that. But yeah, it started from there. So I was working his job, dude. And then that's when I started building this little business for fun on the side.

Jamie Stephens:

So whenever that came whenever you did lose your job, like what size was your business? Was it like supporting you financially, like outside of your corporate job, or it was still

Unknown:

not at all. Um, I think I was selling maybe like, two jackets a month. Just really, really side hobby. So when I had lost my job, definitely not full time at all. But it kind of just, I was able to grow it there in the last year.

Jamie Stephens:

That's incredible. And then just trying all of the different things and how it all kind of connects and can work cohesively together. So, yeah, I mean,

Unknown:

I think I can definitely clean it up a little bit. There's there's kind of two sides of the business now, which is like my personal art and eventing. So sometimes it gets a little bit confusing because I'm like, I can offer all these things. And customers don't really like that too much like you don't immediately sometimes your choice is not a good thing. I'm so definitely working on how to really refine it. But yeah, it was definitely because of the eventing that I've been able to to grow it.

Jamie Stephens:

Yeah. So are you selling? Are your jackets available like on Etsy? Or is it just all through your own private like website?

Unknown:

I started on Etsy and then I pivoted to my own private website. And they also have now been selling it in a couple of retailers, which is nice. Primarily, the big one is Hudson's Bay. So I'm on their marketplace.

Jamie Stephens:

Which comes full circle, right?

Unknown:

I know. Yeah. It really does. Um, so it's nice. And my best friend works there. Now, Phil. So they want to kind of get me up on the site, which is nice. And so yeah, I'm telling it a couple of retailers, but primarily through my own website, and honestly, still to this day, so many customers just come through Instagram.

Jamie Stephens:

Yeah. So did you have a very, like active Instagram before this started? Or was it just kind of like a casual thing that you

Unknown:

did? It was, it was pretty active, to be honest with you. Like, when I was done, like what I liked to do was just on my weekend, take photos, I would ask my friends pictures for me. And it was just something fun. So I did keep it pretty active. I was I mean, I think I had under maybe 2000 followers when the pandemic hit. Not that I have that much now. But still, there's a difference. But yeah, it was it was always fun. I love doing photo shoots, my friend love doing photo shoots, so I would have quite a bit of content to keep pushing it out. But like I said, it was like maybe a couple of orders here and there. But nothing crazy.

Jamie Stephens:

Yeah. So I'm curious, what are you doing? I mean, like, what are your friends doing like that you used to be working with? Are they have they pivoted and to their own thing? Or is it like people are finding jobs? Again? I'm just kind of curious, like,

Unknown:

no, no, it's a good question. A lot of them are doing the same job. Maybe they're not necessarily at the bay with me that I started. But a lot of them have got their job and either pivoted to a similar role in another company. I'm the only one of my friends who, who has doing my own thing.

Jamie Stephens:

Yeah. And so how are you? Like, I don't want to say supporting yourself. I don't mean like financially, but like that emotional support that. I mean, I didn't realize how much I would never you don't have that built in. It's like, oh, like, I have to actively seek this out. If that's something that I want.

Unknown:

One thing that I would say like when people ask me like, what it's like running my own business, my mind doesn't even go financially. Like, that's not, I mean, obviously, it stresses me out. But it's like, the up and down just mentally. And if I can actually do it, can I personally make it you don't? I mean, it was definitely a lot. I would say when I first started, I was like, What am I doing? Because to your point, none of my friends lost their jobs and pandemic, I was the only one. And I'm like, Am I doing something wrong like that I just picked the wrong path in life, like what is going on? And you start getting really in your head? And then, you know, I was focusing on my business. I'm like, is this the right thing? Your mind goes up and down all the time. Yeah, I think just now that I have like a full year under my belt, that has helped a lot, because I can really take a moment every time I feel that way and be like, Okay, I did this much in a year. Like, imagine where I'll be in five years. You know what I mean? Yeah, so taking that time to breathe and really reflect. I'm lucky enough, my boyfriend, he said, had started some business last year, too. And he's the most mentally tough person that I know. And so he keeps me grounded all the time. When I'm feeling that way. I can like call him and he'll definitely call me down and just like, just keep going like, you know, you're doing great. Because it's hard when someone doesn't have that experience, who are just working in a corporate job. And you're you're calling your friend being like, oh my god, what am I doing? You're like, they don't have that same support that someone who's going through the same thing does,

Jamie Stephens:

right? Yeah, it's a total just mine twist, biggest therapy session all the time. I mean, like everything that you've ever worried about comes up.

Unknown:

It's so funny that you say that, because yes, that's exactly what it is. I'm like, I feel like I'm having a breakdown. Everyone's like, not not as often anymore. But at the beginning, it was like, every two days, it was hard and low highs and lows, something good would happen. I'd be riding that wave for like a day, and then the next day I'd be in tears again. I definitely have regulated, so I don't feel like that anymore.

Jamie Stephens:

That's good. So it's been about a year since you have left there. How would you say things have been like financially? Are you on a path now to replace your income or have you or

Unknown:

I've matched my income, which is nice. But you know, things are just getting it's more expensive every day. I wasn't really making that that crazy the income beforehand. So you know, some days I'm like, Oh, I think it would be nice to just kind of get a job and don't have to worry. But no, I mean financially. I'm Totally finding APR. It's just all those really like, extra really fancy crazy vacations. I would love to go on. I'm still not there. Yeah.

Jamie Stephens:

And it is, I mean, it's such a slow build. And I think that that's can be misconstrued sometimes online whenever? Well, I mean, and maybe not like, any fault of like, the creator or anything like that. But whenever you finally start to notice somebody, and you look at their Instagram, or whatever, and it's just like, oh, gosh, they've got it all together. And this was just, you know, however long ago, and it's doesn't seem that long. But then it's just like, it's so hard to, obviously, you can't compare yourself to that, because all of the iterations that that came before that, so but yeah, like you look at that, where am I going to be in five years? I mean, that's where the big differences because it's like, okay, I'm matching my salary now. And that's great. But like, your salary at a job versus your earning potential here in five years. I mean, there's just, I mean, there's no contest.

Unknown:

I know. And sometimes, you know, like, like we've talked about you have those days, where you think like, oh, would just be easier to get a salary. And I think that, you know, that does cross my mind every once in awhile, but I'm like, but no, it's not. Because who's to say that you've been financially stable, you could be 20 years into your career, and then lose it? And then what are you going to do? We're enemies. So there's pros and cons to either one, I don't think one is more necessarily secure than the other because anything can happen. So I always kind of remind myself that you actually are probably more secure doing your own thing and pivoting when something goes wrong, versus just kind of being left with nothing. If anything were to happen in your like, corporate job that's giving you a salary.

Jamie Stephens:

Yeah. Was there anything in any of like your pivots or your parties or anything like that, that you've done? That was just kind of like, oh, shit moment, like, what have I done? Or not like, what have I done? But like, what seemed like a mistake or something like that? And kind of how did you pivot from that? I mean, not necessarily pivot, but like, recover like,

Unknown:

yeah. There's so many things I've been learning along the way. I think the biggest struggle if you talk to anyone who ships products, though, is shipping is so expensive, and so hard, like, so right now I'm using shipping services, but you still have to manually track everything. And so when I first started when I first started, there was one particular event where I just kind of, you know, I'm using the system was my first time using the system and I uploaded all the addresses and things I thought they would all get to their spots in two days. I don't know why I thought that I thought they would everything was shipping so fast as I can, I'll be fine. But it was like, the day of the event, and nothing was there. And oh, what happened here? Or stuff? And I was like, Oh, that was bad. So I don't know what I was thinking. But thinking you were Amazon. I don't know what was going on. I just didn't even check. I was like, oh, everything else has been going so smooth. I just assumed that it was gonna get there. But there was a huge order that just didn't get there are huge part of this event. Yeah. And that was like, like, I'm laughing. That was lots of tears. I was figure out what to do. My dad was so smart. And he was like, why don't you find someone in their cities? Because it wasn't that wasn't the local ones that didn't make it. It was all the random ones in the US and stuff. And so he's like, why don't you find the local art store and see if they'll deliver. And that's what I found out that Michaels, the craft store will actually same day delivery service. And that saved me now in so many situations score. Yeah, so I was able to do same day deliveries for all those people. So they got double the kids, but it was a learning because now I've used that as an emergency service. Like all the time, I'm gonna get there because of like the weather or got lost. That's always been a backup. So it was a nightmare at the time, I was super apologetic to the client. And that's fine. That was a big one that stuck out because that was like my first first panic.

Jamie Stephens:

Yeah, I could I could see that. I mean, that is just like, oh, gosh, I mean, I Yeah, that's really hard place to be where you're like, Well, good thing for your dad. Is he? Like an entrepreneur as well? Yeah, he's like, experienced with all this. He's like, Okay, you could try this, this or that? You know?

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah. No, he's definitely a critical thinker. So yeah, he was very helpful. He's been so helpful talking about emotional support. He he has been too.

Jamie Stephens:

That's great that you have that. I mean, that's like half the battle right there. It's just having that support and having that sounding board whenever your brain like, it's telling you how stupid you are for doing all the things.

Unknown:

It's true. And you know, there's a lot of people that it's not that didn't mean to not be supportive, but like my grandmother, for example, I love her. But she's old school. She's old. She isn't. She has no idea. She's like, why? Are you not getting your job back? Please? She's so confused. She's like, Okay, so are you gonna go get a job now? Like, no, I have a job. This is what I do. And it's taken a while for us to get in a place where she understand now, but that it's not to her fault. She just doesn't understand. But those little things can really trigger you. Because, you know, you need that support constantly. And like, I personally need to be nurtured almost like every minute. Oh, when she says stuff like that it really brings those feelings back. But and there's other people in your life who might say the same thing. But it's about kind of being mentally strong and figuring out how to not give in to those triggers. Yeah. You can't you can't stop them. No, they'll happen without, like, not on purpose. But they're there.

Jamie Stephens:

Yeah. And, you know, it's so true. Because people mean, well, I mean, they're just looking out for you, because they love you and are, you know, but yeah, somewhat those questionings it can really just feel like, you know, especially if you're in those beginning stages, where everything is just messy, and you're unconfident. And you know, it's like all of those things. It's just like,

Unknown:

Uncle being like, Oh, so you're gonna keep doing this? And I'm like, yeah.

Jamie Stephens:

Shut up. That's funny. So your support system, and just kind of your tenacity, is there anything else that you would say just really kind of was something that really just helped you push forward through everything to kind of get where you are today?

Unknown:

Um, yeah, like I said, every, I've been able to take something from all of my jobs and apply it. And one of the biggest things is my, my previous job in sales, so in between my event job and my Hudson's Bay job, I had another corporate job where I was in sales for digital marketing services. And I didn't really know what I was getting into when I accepted the job or like what sales really entail. But that is, I think, what made me tenacious and what builds up my thick skin, like, sitting there, emailing cold calling, is a job I think everyone should have. And everyone will learn from and so no skills, you're laughing, because like, you know, if you know how hard it is. And so those skills of like picking up a phone and not being shy, has helped me a lot. And that's kind of where I get my tenacity from, from that one sales role that I did have. Because a lot of that a lot of my business, not all of it, but you know, some of my web, some of the business customer site, which is great. But a lot of it is me calling up businesses are finding their LinkedIn email and be like, Hey, I think my services would help you and then getting on a call with them. So that's definitely helped me pivot and propel as well.

Jamie Stephens:

That's great. Not Yes, yes. I mean, that's something that I've had to really just kind of break out of my shell because I'm an introvert by nature, and it's not. It's not well, it's getting better. But like, it's it wasn't my comfort zone to

Unknown:

it's weird. You. Listen to me pay attention to me. Like, you're like, when you're in a corporate job. You have a marketing department for that, or you have not right but when you're it's just you you're doing all of it.

Jamie Stephens:

All the hats, huh? Yeah. All right. Well, why don't you tell people where they can find you how to spell your company, all that stuff because it's jeans as in? Not in blue jeans, but genetics.

Unknown:

No, my company is original jeans but it's Jean spelled genetic. So a little play on Word. So original, g e n e s.ca is where you can find my website if you want to reach out to me or CD, my current inventory. And then my Instagram is original jeans underscore to

Jamie Stephens:

Awesome. All right, thank you, Stephanie. So much.

Unknown:

Thank you so much, Jamie.

Jamie Stephens:

Okay, I'm gonna stop recording