About a year ago, I shared that I had my first BIG failure when I decided to close my e-commerce brand. Some of you knew it as leia collection when we were focused on sunnies and jewelry; then it became VERIE where we launched more jewelry, pajamas, activewear, and dress collections; and eventually, it evolved into VALERIA where we were focused on ready-to-wear clothing. As you can see by the changing names alone, we were going through it. And it’s no surprise considering that e-commerce success rates are less than 20%, not to mention the difficulty of retail manufacturing and logistics.
I went into the e-commerce world VERY green. As my ambitions grew larger beyond accessories, we built a team and infrastructure to accommodate. Looking back, I am so deeply grateful for the love and support this community gave me – through all the production delays, the branding changes, and the limited collections. I’m grateful to STILL be receiving messages and tags from people who love and continue to wear what we created 🥹 It was a labor of love for four (extremely fulfilling) years. I’ll never be able to fully explain the pride and excitement of seeing orders roll in on launch day or seeing someone wear our pieces in the wild. But as fulfilling as it was, it was also really, really hard.
In early 2023, I was feeling the burnout of running the e-commerce brand alongside VALERIA INC. Every day I tried my best to show up as a business owner, in my marriage, and as a mother and, more often than not, I felt like I was falling short. I also felt myself losing steam – losing the passion – for what we were creating. And I’d argue that that is one of the most necessary elements of success, your drive to make something work. Having passion doesn’t always mean it’ll turn out how you want it to but it definitely gives you a better chance. So, after months of deliberation, I made the difficult decision to close my brand and move forward toward other endeavors.
Deciding to close the door on e-commerce opened several doors for me to pursue other passions and interests, including spending more quality time with my family, exploring podcasting (shameless plug for @notalonepod), and building value & community for the creator industry with @creatormethod. Letting go allowed me to open myself up to other possibilities. I learned SO MUCH in the process and I truly wouldn’t change anything about the journey to where I am now.
Which setback set you forward? Share your proudest failure with #WorthItResume #LOrealParis 💪🏻 Thank you L'Oréal Paris for giving me the opportunity to share mine ❤️
