I was asked to write a piece for a Magazine about Risks and such…I thought I would share some of what I wrote.

How do I think about risk…What role has taking risks played in my life/career?

I mean, let’s get real, walking out the door in the morning is a risk, being a small business owner…massive Risk!  Dealing with 175 different “hippie’ Artists…well now that is just silly…but from one risk branches another…and one failure viewed as a lesson instead, can lead to the next risk being successful…so you never know…it is all an adventure.

For me personally, there is never a risk…it is a choice of doing what you believe you need to do and having faith in your ability to make it happen.

Risk taking honestly is more actually just surrendering to life and your circumstance and being okay with it and trusting your gut.  And yes, it is scary…I have panic attacks on the reg...you have to second guess yourself, but you also have to trust your gut.

I guess one might say that my entire life is a risk.  I don’t really march the beaten path, and being a tall redhead, I never really fit in…sometimes you just have to embrace being weird and flaunt it. 

Sometimes I need to actually rein in the risks, because my mind never stops…the rainbows…the spirals…the sparkles…wow…

When I first purchased the shop that I had managed for years, I had one main vendor, we had a contract for how much inventory I would purchase and a contract on the price.  He wanted to raise the price by 25% right after we signed the contract for no reason besides he wanted to, and I was like “NO.'' He said he would just stop supplying me with tiedye.  I tried to work with him a little because he was my main vendor and I thought my friend, but then he called me a slut &  said I would fail without him. 

If there is one thing I love taking a risk on, it is proving someone wrong when they tell me I can’t do something that I know I can do…and don’t ever call a woman a slut…one is just asking for trouble on that one!

And so the Collective began… We started with one artist, and then got more.  Now we are up to 175 Artists with more coming each day.  If I had a better handle on my email and time management we would have even more!

Creating the Collective also widened my customer base & community…it wasn’t about what one artist did, it was about what everyone did…it was about all of us…it was inclusive…it was something that hadn’t been done before with one of a kind items.  Bringing together so many artists from around the world, brightened our Rainbow to a level I did not know possible.

When we were closed for over a year due to the pandemic, I just stayed inside and built a massive online store and starting working with more artists so we could all get by.  I wasn’t going to risk my health or my employees' health, but I was not going to lose my shop either...I had a vision, and I was going to accomplish it.

When we were closed the amazing geometric mural on the outside of the shop got tagged a bunch…this beautiful beautiful piece of art that I thought defined who we were as a shop.  The reality was, no matter how hard I tried, that graffiti was not coming off, and to be frank, the old owner never  primed the shop before the mural was put up so no matter what I did, it was never going to be right.  So I stepped back and decided to paint the shop….a massive risk with how loved & photographed the old mural was.

Everyone freaked out…I got hate mail and texts, people were pissed, the building was all white and everyone started coming into the shop trying to figure out what was going on…

I got two of the most amazing artists in the world to paint the shop.  And it was a brighter rainbow than ever before, we needed it after the pandemic…

People stopped freaking out and started to thank me…it was magical and so fulfilling.

We decided to have a party to celebrate the new mural and the artists were going to come out and finish it, but emergency circumstances and they couldn’t make it out to finish…but I had the band, I had the party, I had the permit, and I was going to have to get this mural finished.

So the mural became a collective and we got almost 10 more artists, including myself, because come hell or high water, this risk…needed to work out.  The shop is my baby…and my baby is always going to look EPIC!

And LOVE looks so amazing & inspiring, she is now the most beautiful shop inside and out…because putting Love and Energy into your business and community will always be a risk that works out.

I can still add to the mural as time goes by, I can always add more artists to the collective…the shop inside and out is now a living ~ breathing ~ growing thing.

I guess what I am trying to say is that you are never going to take a risk sticking to your principles, values and your gut, the risk is in how you choose to react to your circumstances and trying to achieve your final goal.

I would recommend that as you ride the “Risk Rollercoaster” of life you Breathe, Surrender and have faith that it will all work out the way it is supposed to…

Sunny Thought of the Week:

TAKE THE RISK…just make it work!