Up in My Business

I guess in the end, it's natural to think about the beginning.  5 years ago today, I opened the Voxn flagship in downtown Boise. I still remember my very first customer--It was my neighbor's wife and her friend. I remember exactly what was bought. I remember what we talked about. I remember her ice cream earrings. I remember how red my face got because I was overthinking how to look natural and what to do with my hands. I was an official entrepreneur.  I remember meeting one of my first team members at a coffee shop when Voxn was chicken scratches on notebook paper and napkins inside some puppy binders. I bought the puppy binders because I thought that they were cute, they were on sale and I was ready for my idea to be taken seriously. I'm pretty sure we both thought I was crazy, but she was in. We rallied those in the community who were as excited about fashion as we were. Our first fashion show was a shot in the dark. We had no idea what we were really doing, but we survi...

"It's getting bad here. People are dying. The government is closing our doors. We have to stop all production and we are running out of medical supplies. I will let you know more as I know. Please take care of yourself, Erica. God bless."  A frantic email sent from on of my international manufacturing partners warning me of the severity of Covid-19, early January 2020.  Partners I have created great relationships with, spent years of business with. Respectable, hard working, never complaining. Then, a frantic email out of character followed by... radio silence.  Like most people, I was scared. Listening to the news and reading as much as I could, scavenging the internet. There was nothing. nothing. Thinking back to my relation to the BioTechnology field, it made sense why masks were backordered and harder to come by. What is going on with the Supply Chain? I fished out an old medical mask and took measurement on it. My intent was to send them overseas. They need help....

Love. People have a natural biological and psychological desire to feel acceptance and community through love. That’s why, even with so much independence to this day, people are still dating.  Oh, dating.  I was having a conversation with a friend the other day who loves the show the Bachelor. They were filling me in on all the details (which were juicy), but ended the conversation with a hypothetical, "Would you date the Bachelor?" Anyone that knows me well could probably agree that I am a decently laid back person. I am very go with the flow and see where life takes me. I am open to learning new things and new ideas, but I have my few things I have strong opinions that I won't wavier on. As a business owner of a growing company, finding time to switch gears from a packed schedule to slowing down and enjoying the moment with my partner is difficult. Personally, I do not like dating. I have never liked it. It takes so much to get me out on a date because I am not attracte...

Technology. An efficient advancement in society, yet a scary field to navigate when it comes to security, web/software customization and intellectual protection.  I'll be the first to admit that I am not an absolute expert in technology. However, I do know enough to take a company website and email down during a c-panel data migration by pointing all the name servers to a different host and changing the DNS MX Records to a 24 hour TTL propagation during a peek period. (So, enough to be dangerous. Very dangerous.) But, that's a story for another day... and don't worry, I'm much better now.  If starting a business hasn't been hard enough in the past, revolutionary inventions like the internet have come to present us with new terrain to navigate. Whether you are an online commerce or only brick and mortar, having and protecting your online presence is crucial in the world we live in today and can deem equally as important as your physical locations.  While this may see...

Did you know that anytime economic crisis hits, there are some companies who see no economic impact simply because of their customer? One of my favorite examples is the fashion icon Prada. Prada's customers is wealthy and values the finer things in life. They typically have a sound financial setup to afford luxuries. This may have been inherited, gifted or built. When markets waiver due to national or global economic hardship, (aside from catastrophe) Prada doesn't typically see much fluctuation in revenue. Why? Prada's customer has build a strong loyalty and is fixated on their products. Their customer has made their product a priority in their expenses and will actually make lifestyle adjustments to continue to afford those products. This can include things like deciding to walk more places versus taking a taxi or skipping the morning coffees to save for what they value more.  If you know me personally, you know that I am not a collector of material things. I am not a sh...

Did you now that Jeff Bezos has his day planned out down to the minute? It truly explains why he has become as successful as he has. In any aspect of life, managing your time is so incredibly important. You will have to find healthy ways to feed your focus and starve your distractions to match the life you envision. This can be very complicated, especially in the interconnected world we live in today.  Here are five tips to manage your time: Limit Social Media Use Have you ever gotten on social media to check one thing and the next thing you know, an hour goes by and all you've done is read about other people's lives. This can be a very dangerous habit to get into. Not only is it a time waste, but it is also a huge reason so many people compare themselves to others and then feel bad about themselves. Stop doing that. You truly don't have time. I get that social media is such an integral part of our lives and this can be hard. To help you easy yourself out of this comparison...

The brain. Such an incredible creation and so very complex . Humans have been studying the brain for centuries to understand how people learn, love and process information. It's incredibly fascinating. We are only scratching the surface of the brain, but congruently are creating technology that resembles the brain known as artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence or AI is intelligence that is demonstrated by machines. How does AI work? First, let's look at how the brain works. Your brain has different regions the process different types of information through messengers called neurons. Neurons are the basic working unit of the brain. Neurons use electrical impulses and chemical signals to transmit information to different areas of the brain and from the brain to the rest of your body's nervous system. A more complex, entangles system of these neurons is called a neuronet. Your neuronet is your first line of defense when processing information from the outside world ...