Desires of the Heart

Soooooo, I used to have time to blog regularly. Then I started a business. Then I had a baby. Then I went back to work. Then business started picking up. Life became crazy but the whole time, I was working on myself. Not just growing my business but growing as a person. Improving how I manage my time. Improving my relationships. Loving myself more. Not being so hard on myself. Reading more. Meditating. Eating better. I also began to grow out of things. Outgrow relationships. Outgrow activities. You get the point.

Fast forward to today. I have finally fully retired from healthcare to pursue my passion. And, also, allowing what has been chasing me my entire life to catch up to me. You see, I grew up in a salon. I feel like every woman in my family has a cosmetology license, including my mother. I even worked in a salon while in grad school and apprenticed under my mother but never took the exam. What some may see is a woman who started small, business picked up, opportunities are presenting, so I decided to go for it. What people don't know is that this was written. Business is picking up, so I need more space to manufacture. What will that space look like? Eventually, it will be a beauty salon. That's the 2 year plan. All that running from cosmetology has come full circle. LOL!

In college, even though my career path was not clear, I knew I did not want to work beyond the age of 35. At the time, I thought I would work a little bit and then my husband would take care of me. LOL! I mean, my mother is a stay at home mom, why can't I be one too? No one knew this. I never shared it with my husband. Why? Well, life happens. Reality hits you. I assumed that we could not sustain our lifestyle on one salary, so my intention was to stay in healthcare until I was retirement age. While I had reached my career goals by the age of 30, I thought I'd develop new ones for healthcare related advancement in my career. Nope. That's not what happened. Once I mastered my job function, I was looking for a new challenge. This was right around the time when I began my journey in multilevel marketing.

Say what you want about multilevel marketing, but for me, it was an eye opener. I was open minded
and I realized how powerful I really am. I learned about myself. I realized that sitting in a windowless office, tucked away in the corner of a blood bank was not what Jehovah intended for me. I thought that multilevel marketing would be my ticket to a Fancy Free life but it didn't work out that way. Turned out that Fancy Free was my ticket. It had been right under my nose for about 2 years. I started selling the hair product. More and more women were scheduling natural hair consults. Fancy Free business was picking up. 500% growth in my second year of business. Those numbers happened during a year where I was working on a HUGE project at work, pregnant, oh yeah, and had a baby. This all got me thinking. If I grew this much with wishy washy, inconsistent marketing, imagine what I could do if I focused all of my energy on Fancy Free. Endless possibilities. No limits.

So there it was, staring me in my face, my destiny. But how was I going to transition? Our household

budget included my, now half time, salary. Simple. Get out of debt. If we paid off all of our credit cards, we could afford to live off of my husband's salary. Simple. Not easy though. LOL! So we got to work. Scaled back on splurging. We were chopping that debt down, big time. The whole time, my work environment was becoming more miserable. Once my focus shifted from being a Specialist in Blood Bank to growing as a CEO, I no longer wanted to spend time blood banking. I wanted to be building Fancy Free. So EVERYTHING irritated me. It was time to go.

Once we set a date, that's when the magic began. You see, when you begin to walk in your purpose,
the flood gates open and everything works toward helping you receive the desires of your heart. Things lined up in a way that I couldn't have even imagined for myself. I never told my husband I wanted to retire by 35. I kept it close to my heart. Between Jehovah and I. But I was open and flexible. The silence while meditating let Him speak to me. I just listened. Now, here I am at 36 years old and retired. Only one year behind schedule. I mean, the Jews wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, so 1 year isn't so bad.

No, all of our debt isn't completely paid off but we're on our way. No, I don't have a building yet. But the reality is, all of your ducks are never going to line up the way you want them to before you take the "jump". Jehovah wants you to rely on Him and not your own understanding. When we humble ourselves, accept that there a lot of things that we just don't know, and actively seek guidance, things happen, BIG things happen.

What are the desires of your heart? Go after them with all you've got. There is nothing you can't do once you've made up your mind.

Shameless plug alert:
Fancy Free, LLC. is the manufacturer of quality products for hair and skin. Our motto is "Keeping you chemical free." Visit our website, www.fancyfreellc.com, to see a full range of our products and services. Sine up for our mailing list to receive natural hair tips and stay up to date on sales and the latest happenings with Fancy Free.

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Did You Ever Think That You Would Be This Rich?

Haha! Well, from our point of view, we aren't rich....YET! BUT we have come a loooooooonnnngggg way.
Last week, we finally purchased dining room chairs for our formal dining room table. A small purchase but the significance of that is we went almost 3 years with no chairs. Like, we had this fancy a$$ table and would pull out folding chairs for dinner and company. And guess what? I ain't care. LOL! We did that because I am a firm believer in waiting on the perfect thing instead of rushing into buying something just to say you have it. AND...remember that budget thing I've been talking about? Well, based on our budget, dining chairs just weren't an immediate priority.

Sunday morning, I made myself breakfast and sat at the head of my dining room table and started singing R. Kelly's "Did You Ever Think?" to myself. Which essentially asks someone who's finally "made it", did you ever think that you'd ever accomplish all that you've been working for all these years? Now, we are no hip hop stars or don't claim to be rich or well off or anything like that but we are just now getting to a space where we are starting to see some of the fruits of our labor. It's a great feeling.


To put things into perspective, we purchased our home from a prominent defense attorney in our city. Now HE has made TONS of money in his career. We aren't there yet but life has a funny way of coming full circle. The previous owner is also one of my really close friends' mentor. In 2005, when my friend graduated from law school, his mentor, the previous owner of now OUR home, hosted a white party, which my husband and I attended as boyfriend and girlfriend. Me, maybe a year into my career and my boyfriend had just finished his second year of medical school. We were still thinking in college student budget numbers and hadn't started any businesses so we were, for lack of better terms, thinking small time. We always tell the story of us sitting in the corner of that very same dining room at that party back in 2005, looking across the house thinking "Wow! Do you think we'll ever be able to afford something like this?" and laughing at ourselves for asking such a ridiculous question. OF COURSE NOT!!! But look at God, 5 years later, we purchased that VERY SAME house that we thought we'd never be able to afford.

Buying the house was not the epitome of our accomplishments, it was a symbol of all the hard work we put in within those 5 years to be in a position to do that. We were proud of ourselves. Our parents were excited. Our family felt blessed as well. Yes. The house was empty for a good 2 years after we moved in. In fact, we had a church fellowship hall folding table that was left there for us as our dining room table for 3 years before we actually bought a real one. Hahhahahahahahhaa!!! So to sit in a real dining room chair at my formal dining room table that is decorated with Marshalls, Home Goods, thrifting and traveling finds felt really good.

It made me think about Beyonce's HBO documentary, "Life Is But A Dream", she said something about
taking it all in that really resonated with me. Imagine being Beyonce, a legend, a business woman, a true talent, and a wife with strong family values. It's sooooo easy to get caught up in the next opportunity or figuring out what your next move is going to be because you want to make sure your family is taken care of. So much so that you don't even enjoy what you're doing in the moment or even what you've accomplished up until that point.

I'm a woman on the move. Like Beyonce, I'm always thinking of the next step but I'm learning to just take it all in every now and then. It's ok to pause and pat yourself on the back. I had a busy day on Sunday but I took my time to eat breakfast and sent my husband, who was at work, an affirmation text. I thanked him for his role in my life and being a blessing to me and my family as well as our unborn son. It felt good to just take it all in and just be thankful.

While we never settle and are always looking to improve and grow, your blessings only increase when you are grateful for what you have. We have seen much increase in our 13 years together. We are grateful. We share our blessings. We are thankful. We are just getting started!