I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebrating with your loved ones and having the opportunity to reflect on what you're truly thankful for. Today is November 27th and it's my birthday and I'm grateful for my friends and family because today I received so many messages and calls from them wishing me a happy birthday.

I'm really excited to celebrate this day. Another year, and I'm truly grateful for that.

I'm thankful for the opportunity to be a first time homebuyer this year, as I had the chance to celebrate and host Thanksgiving at my home with my family. My older brother and his family came down from Minnesota, and then my older niece and nephew, they flew in as well, and it was... It was amazing for all of us to be in the same space celebrating Thanksgiving and just to be together. We, we don't really have the opportunity to do that because we're spread out, but when it happens, it's a beautiful moment for us.

The other thing that I'm grateful for is I've had the wherewithal to persevere and not self sabotage myself when it comes to building my leather goods brand, Pamoja.

I've come across numerous hurdles in product sampling of new bags this year, having a fair share of costly and timely mistakes. In fact, I'm still waiting for my sample order I placed five months ago. I factored in delays, but I didn't think it was going to take this long, quite frankly. And it shouldn't take this long, especially when my product specs and materials are clearly laid out.

Unfortunately, I'm realizing that the manufacturing partner was not the right person for this job. I'm still pretty new to this whole sample making process, and there's so much for me to learn, and I know I'll eventually lock this part of the process down. I took notes from some of the mistakes and failures, and um, I'm just gonna apply it going forward.

The thing about it is this delay is going to prevent me from participating in a showroom in February, which was a huge milestone I was working towards. But in the process, I recognized it's so easy to blame others for not accomplishing or reaching the milestones I set out for myself in pursuit of chasing perfection.

And I want to emphasize the part on chasing perfection.

With this delay, I've had to pivot. It's not a straightforward path. It's not black and white, recognizing that I can do other things to achieve the ultimate outcome, which is to broaden distribution, working with boutique wholesale accounts. So being in a showroom is not the only way for that to happen.

So how do I reach this goal in another way? Ultimately, it's about building and nurturing relationships. So first, I created a list of boutique stores in the U. S. that I believe Pamoja would fit in and bring a unique advantage to the overall store assortment. In addition, earlier this month, I shot a lookbook with the first iteration bag samples. So when I do the outreach, I have lifestyle shots of the bags accompanied with a line sheet. And a line sheet essentially lists out all of your products with the color variations of the bags. In this case, I hired a photographer to color correct the bags, and he did an amazing job. So, for example, just to describe it, I have a large black bag, and I'm going to offer this bag in five different colors. I only have this sample in one color, but I need to show it in the other four colors. So what he was able to do was Photoshop and change the color of the bag. And it looked exactly how it needed to look. I don't know how they do it. I was trying to figure it out myself, but you know, it was just one of those cases where you're like, where I'm like, I need to just hire a professional to do this because I don't have the time. I don't have the skillset and. It is what it is. And it turned out amazing. So I'm really grateful for that. In addition to listing out the products in the different colors, the line sheet also includes details around specification of size and pricing. So essentially, all of the information that a boutique store needs to place an order is available to them. They can make that decision with that information or they can decide to continue a conversation with me.

And from this experience, I realized I can get a lot done with a little. I didn't need samples in every color. And I almost went into this horrible cycle of self sabotage, you know? So at the end of the day, you live and you learn. If it meets 80 percent of the vision, it's time to execute and move on. I can continue to tweak and make my changes along the way. The important thing is that I started and I will get better for having done it.

As I celebrate my birthday today, I reflect on where I was a year ago and where I am today. And it's so important because, you know, like, If I was in this position a year ago, I'm not sure if I would have pivoted in that way. You know, it's so easy to give up and lose hope when things aren't going your way, when things that are beyond your control are not happening in the way you need it to happen.

And I'm just extremely grateful. I'm grateful that I had that level of maturity and the mindset to shift focus on the things that truly mattered. So I'm celebrating the growth for one. Secondly, I'm celebrating the wins. And I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I was officially granted my U. S. design patent on October 31st. So, you will see, as I continue to build out Pamoja and introduce new bags, I have a design patent for a unique handle design, because handbag handles are pretty much standard, a bit boring, in my opinion, and so I spent quite some time, I spent years, trying to figure out how to do something differently. And finally figured it out, and this handle is it. Um, and it's going to be a core element to Pamoja's design, and I'm really excited about that. I have a design patent granted in China, a design patent in Europe, and now I have one in the U. S. for this handle.

The third thing for me is to stay blessed and be humbled. This journey is a very humbling experience to say the least. You know, I wish I was where I wanted to be already with Pamoja and who doesn't want to already be where they want to be in life, you know, but I'm learning to appreciate the slowness. I'm learning to appreciate the hurdles because it's growth at the end of the day. And that's what makes my story unique, but yet relatable. And I truly hope that you're able to take tidbits of what I'm sharing and apply it to your life.

It's so important to not stay stagnant. It's important to not give up because your door is a platform for others.

I want to end this episode with a clip from Tyler Perry's story, Maxine's Baby, which I highly recommend, by the way. It's available on Amazon Prime. And Bishop T. D. Jakes shares some inspiring words on The journey on how greatness takes time, and it's just so important to recognize that. So here goes the clip.

Bishop T.D. Jakes: Don't be upset if it doesn't happen when you're 20 and it didn't happen when you were 25 and it didn't happen when you thought it was going to happen. That doesn't mean it's not going to happen. You see Tyler now, but you didn't see him then. Tyler is 50 years old. Greatness takes a while.

Greatness takes a while. Greatness takes a while. Greatness takes a while. You can't get there overnight. But if you withstand the storm, and the attack, and the test, and the wears, and the wave, something good is going to come out of this.

God opens up a door, an amazing door, and somebody finally hears you, or sees you, or notices you, and they open up a door for you.

And I want to thank Tyler Perry for not stopping. And having a door for yourself, but your door is our platform. You open up a door so that people who would never get noticed anywhere else could walk through and have a chance and that deserves a clap and that deserves a shout and that deserves emulating and imitating that deserves praising God.

But you floated on top of what other people drowned in and if you never succeed you ought to shout because you survived. You must be willing first to be a survivor before you can be successful. Everything that went wrong in your life is what made everything go right in your life.

Stephanie: And that's a wrap. So own it and make moves. One day, I want to share your journey on this podcast.