Wow! It’s been waaay to long since I’ve posted but I have had some pretty awesome adventures and I can’t wait to share them with you!! The first being able to find this cute & chic boutique quaintly located in Barberton, Ohio. She does one-on-one personal shopping and styling appointments to make sure her guests get the personal shopping experience they deserve. LOVE THAT!! So naturally we decided to collaborate so I can show you how to style some of her pieces and where you can get them locally from a small business owner.

I’m not normally a tutu wearer but when I saw it I absolutely fell in love plus I had the matching shoes! Sometimes you find some nice creations when putting random pieces together and that’s what you will notice below. This denim pearl jacket, a plain white t-shirt, and tutu can be jazzed up with heels for a night out with the girls or taken down a little less formal with white tennis shoes.

What do you think, can I rock the tutu??

“Don’t be into trends. Don’t make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress and the way to live.” —Gianni Versace

I sat looking at my vision board thinking about the goals I have for the year and my theme is “Make your own opportunities.” This is the story of how I came to embody that theme….

Last year, I started thinking about all the plans I had and the things I was going to do for the year. I had one goal in particular that I went after that seemed a little impossible. You see this goal was totally out of my comfort zone, I really wasn’t fully qualified and not 100% sure how it would turn out. There was a contest Lebron James had for a TV show called Cleveland Hustles. I saw the criteria for applying and talked myself out of it thinking “you know they won’t pick a salon”, “your business isn’t established enough”, “don’t waste your time or energy because you just won’t get it.” I’m sure many of you have doubted yourselves and talked yourself out of doing something at one point in life.

Fast forward, I watch the show and guess what business was on there???? You guessed right, a salon! I wanted to shoot myself in the foot!! I could have been the salon chosen to be on the show but now I’ll never know because I took my ownself out of the running. That day as I watched another woman who didn’t let fear stop her live out a potentially life changing opportunity I decided I would NEVER let that happen again. That day I decided if I had the thought to do something I would go after it, ready for rejection, but knowing whatever or whoever would have to tell me No! No longer would my own voice say it and no longer would I disqualify myself in my mind.

So I’m thinking (my mind clearly never stops going) about how I approach opportunity and I’ve simply decided that I’m not waiting on her to knock on my door anymore. (And you shouldn’t either) The reason : while you’re waiting on opportunity to knock at your door, I’ve gone and knocked on her front door and have the understanding that if she doesn’t answer the front door I’m going around back.  She can’t come knock on your door when someone has already occupied her time. You have to be relentless in your pursuit of your dreams. You can’t let the No’s stop you and  sometimes you have to remind yourself to get out of your own way. We talk ourselves out of so many things that have the potential to be game changers in our journey. I have found that even if I don’t hit the target I still get some amazing failures. I can live with the failures I can’t live with the what if’s…..

Challenge: Write down things you would do if fear wasn’t present. Then go after them!