Typically when I host an event, I say a few words, and pass things off to the client or guest of honor. It’s usually just a straightforward, “Hi, thanks for coming, I’m going to hand it over now…” But this past Friday, my friend Rick Martinez asked me to help host the launch of the Beautiful You Magazine here in the San Antonio market. It’s pages are filled with female entrepreneurs, tips for living your best life, and the Nerium lifestyle. I was excited and thrilled he thought of me! The curveball, however, was when he asked if I would give a small speech during the event.
After a few sleepless nights, I finally realized the easiest thing to do would be to simply share my story of entrepreneurship, or as Rick likes to call it, my “why”. Why I do what I do. Why I love it. Why it’s my passion in life. And so Rick and I gathered together bloggers, friends, colleagues, and business partners for an evening at the fabulous J-Prime Steakhouse, and it was my turn to take the mic. I sort of blacked out the memory of the actual speech, but here is the gist:
I love being a blogger, PR consultant, and owning my own business for three distinct reasons:
1. It gives me time to find out what makes me happy.
When you’re the CEO, the head honcho, the boss lady, you get to call all the shots. And when I first started off on my own, I really took some time to figure out exactly what I wanted to do. I only take only clients that I feel passionate about. I don’t have anyone else telling me what’s on my to-do list or my agenda for the day. I control how I spend my time, which is important when I’m going to be away from my babies. So if you’re thinking about starting a business of your own, craft the company in such a way that you’re only doing what you love. Nothing more, nothing less.
2. It gives me time to DO what makes me happy.
So once I figured out what I wanted to spend my time doing, the beautiful part of being my own boss meant I could actually DO it. So many people treat their passions as their side project or their “I’ll get to it when I get to it” thing. For me, I want to help clients be better, create a space on the web for powerful, poised women, and spend time with my family. So my daily life looks like running to the library for story time, then meeting with a client for lunch, then hosting an event in the evening, and then waking up and doing it all again the next day. It might seem hectic or crazy to some, but I choose this life over sitting at a desk from 9 to 5 any day.
3. It gives me time to make others happy.
When you work for another company, it might be a GREAT company, but at the end of the day you have no control over the choices they make or the brand they’re creating. You might just wake up one day to find out the values you thought they stood for weren’t so near and dear to them after all. With Haute in Texas, I wanted to exercise my right to create a little happiness in the world. I do that with giveaways, highlighting True Beauties, and making an effort to keep our online voice a positive one. I want to add to the light, not the darkness. I want my business to make money, sure, but I also want it to have a higher purpose. And that’s a benefit to entrepreneurship I treasure more than anything.
So I may have had some snoozing by the end of my speech, but fantastic Nerium raffle prizes and giveaways surely woke up the crowd afterwards! Light bites and special Beautiful You blue cocktails from J-Prime were also passed around, and of course their piano player and impeccable staff never fail to disappoint. One of my closest friends, April of Pure Happiness Photography, was photographer for the evening and did a phenomenal job capturing all the fun moments. THANK YOU APRIL!
At the end of the night, I just felt so grateful to Rick and his wife Lisa for giving me the opportunity to host, but also for unknowingly forcing me to take a step back and think about my journey with Haute in Texas. It has been so far from what I thought it would be, but so much better. Cheers, to Beautiful You, and to all YOU beauties as well!
XO,
A
P.S. I received compensation in exchange for this post and my event coordination services. Don’t worry though, all opinions are my own!
