Chris:
All right, everybody, thank you for joining us on another episode of the Get Overit Podcast. I am your host, Dr. Christopher Fasano, and this is episode eight, Just Try It. For those returning to the show, thank you so much for continuing along on this journey with us, and for those listening for the first time, welcome aboard, and welcome to the Get Overit Podcast, where we talk with people from all walks of life to find out how they got over obstacles in their life, in their business so we can learn from them, and learn to grow ourselves. Just a reminder, you can visit podcast.overit.com for all of our previous episodes and more information about myself, Overit, and all of our guests.
Chris:
I also want to remind you that if you prefer to listen on your favorite pod player, like Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, et cetera, you could find this podcast there as well. And for those that prefer the video format, to watch this in video, we do record video with all of our guests, and you can find that on our YouTube channel, and all of these links to the YouTube channel, to the pod players where these episodes are available, can be found right there on podcast.overit.com. Now, for episode eight, we speak with Jeaiza Quinones Ivory, and we talk to her about her life journey from growing up on the US Virgin Islands, coming into the continental United States, and really talking to her, her story of her as, what I call a hustler. Someone who’s involved in a lot of different things.
Chris:
She has what we call, I like to say, I do my day job and then there’s a lot of other things that she does to hustle, including starting her own jewelry business that … what inspired me to call this episode Just Try It, is that that business that she’s going to talk to us about, she never thought she could ever have a business like that. She enjoyed jewelry, she liked it, and she was inspired by her familial origins, her relationship with her grandma and her family. And she really enjoyed doing it, but never thought that she could actually turn it into a business. And it was her husband that really said to her, “Why don’t you just try it?” And after a while of saying, “I can’t, there’s no way I can’t do that,” she just did try it.
Chris:
And now it took off, and she has a really great business doing something that she really loved and that it has a cultural inspirational tie to her. But it was that personal get-over-it moment that she had to have, where you’re going to sit there, we all do this, we all have these things we like, we all have these ideas we want to try. But how many of us are willing to actually try it. This is like the life of an entrepreneur. If you have an idea, an idea is just an idea, you have to be able to put it into action. But there’s a lot of reasons why we don’t, we’re scared, we’re afraid, we don’t have enough time, there’s not enough resources. Whatever that may be, sometimes the best way to do something is to just try it.
Chris:
I say it in the context of podcasting all the time, for people who want to start a podcast, ask me about podcasts, they come to Overit, or Overit studies, and say, “I want to do this podcast, but I’m not really sure.” The best thing you can do is just try it. You have a great idea, you sketch it, you put a lot of thought into it, and you just have to try it. It doesn’t have to be perfect right away. And as I think you’ll see on this podcast here, we have access to a lot of things. We have professional studio, we have someone doing a lot of editing, we have a lot of expertise. And I think what you’ll start to see over time is that our podcasts are going to get better and better.
Chris:
They’re going to look better, they’re going to appear better, we’re going to change our appearance, and we’re going to adjust and optimize as we go. Because at some point, you have to stop being perfect, and you just have to try it. And that is the inspiration for this episode, episode eight. Again, podcast.overit.com. Give us a file, leave us a review, let us know how we’re doing. We hope you enjoy this episode.
Chris:
Okay. Our guest on the Get Overit Podcast today is a true hustler, I love talking to hustlers and entrepreneurs. It’s one of my favorite groups of individuals and humans to talk to, because I find myself to be one of those, and to be a hustler and an entrepreneur, you have to be willing to grind. And if you’re grinding, you’re pushing. And if you’re pushing, you have a story. And we’re going to get into that with her today. And if you visit her site, which I’m going to tell her to give you that a little bit, you’re going to find out that she’s a lot of things. She’s a writer, a model, a podcast host, The Good Up podcast, wife, retired pageant queen, traveler, book lover, business owner.
Chris:
You get a sense from just the breadth of what she’s about and what she loves. And you can really get a sense for that grind. She was born and raised in Saint Croix, US Virgin Islands, and currently resides in Tucson, Arizona. I could be wrong with that, but she’s going to check me as soon as I’m done with this. In addition to her role as a program manager at a community foundation, she’s also the owner of her own jewelry company, Masha Company. And she’s going to talk to us about her journey and times in her life where she was over it, and she pushed through. Welcome to the show, Jeaiza Quinones Ivory. Thank you so much for joining us.
Jeaiza:
Thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here.
Chris:
Fact checks, Tucson, Arizona, correct?
Jeaiza:
Yes, yes.
Chris:
Okay, got that right.
Jeaiza:
I am in the desert.
Chris:
In the desert. You’re currently in the desert, you’re currently in Tucson. I want to start with, before we get into your journey, let’s talk about, I say, the current destination, where you re right now. Tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do and what your passions are, and we’ll take it from there.
Jeaiza:
Cool beans. Currently, my full time job is as a program manager at the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona. I like to say that I stumbled upon this job and this field of work by accident. I have a background and public relations. I got my master’s degree from Syracuse about two years ago. My goal was always communications, somehow I ended up in non-profit work, and that tends to be the story for everyone who works at a non-profit. We just end up here, we followup with it, and we stay. Certainly not for the pay, but mostly for the work and just how it makes you feel.
Jeaiza:
At nighttime and early mornings, and all times outside of my full-time job, I run the Masha Company. It is a handmade jewelry store. I love earrings. It’s been an obsession of mine since I was younger, and I created the business, I think, out of needing something to do during the pandemic. And it grew larger than I expected, and it’s something I created in honor of my late grandmother and just really where my heart and soul is. And you wouldn’t expect to hear someone say that about something as small as earrings, but it’s really, I think fulfilling and [crosstalk 00:06:47]-
Chris:
That’s a new thing that’s recently launched, then?
Jeaiza:
Yeah. It will turn one in September.
Chris:
Like you said, it sounds like something small, but like you said, you did it in honor of your late grandma. There’s meaning there. And I want to talk about that. Let’s go back. You grew up in Saint Croix, you grew up on the US Virgin Islands. It’s a beautiful place. You grew up there, how long were you there? How long were you on the island? How long were you out there with your family?
Jeaiza:
Born and raised. I did not leave to come to … It’s the US Virgin Islands, but we refer-
Chris:
Right, continental.
Jeaiza:
Yeah. We refer to the United States separately.
Chris:
Correct.
Jeaiza:
Yeah. Didn’t leave to go there until I was 18, my first year of undergrad. Spent pretty much my entire life in the US Virgin Islands. Very much a Caribbean upbringing, although it is a US territory. There’s small American [crosstalk 00:07:47]-
Chris:
It’s a US territory, but it’s not like growing up in the US, continental US, right?
Jeaiza:
Yeah. Yeah, not at all.
Chris:
There’s a lot more culture and a lot more different stuff than we got going on here, right? That’s what I want to ask you-
Jeaiza:
Yeah, it’s actually very different.
Chris:
… what was it like there? Was it a lot more cultural? Did you have certain things? You’ve seen both, you’ve lived here, in what we’re calling the continental US, and there. And do you feel like it was more enriching in a certain way? Or what about it did enjoy or did you not like about being born and raised there?
Jeaiza:
Oh, I loved being born and raised there. Life is a lot slower, I will say that. There are somethings that we aren’t afforded that I think being in the US I’ve been really grateful for, just having more access to things. Better access to certain technologies, just more immediate access to be able to grow especially as a content creator. But the Virgin Islands in terms of just the richness of the culture, the friendliness of the people, that phrase, “It takes a village to raise a child,” was very much my childhood.
Jeaiza:
It’s not such a small place that every single person knows every single person, but odds are that someone you meet on the street knows someone that you know. It’s very small town. Carnival, just … you name it. But we’re a very tight knit community and we take our culture just very seriously. And I think that because I was raised there, I grew up with a mindset of everything that I do is not just for me, it represents where I come from. So, if a Virgin Islander does something huge or something that’s considered an accomplishment, it’s big news back home. For example, Tim Duncan is from the Virgin Islands, and we adore him. Everything that man does, we’re just super proud of. For me it’s like, okay, if my business succeeds then, if this blows up, this is a representation not just of me but of them.
Chris:
Right. You’re representing. See, that’s so interesting. Because I feel like we don’t have that in the proper continental US. It’s like everybody does something, it’s a dime a dozen. We don’t have that … people say, “I rep my zip code,” or, “I rep my area code,” but you don’t really have … It’s a different, it’s a very different, different game, especially from what you’re talking about. Talk to me about that island has a lot of tourist driven economy, right?
Jeaiza:
Yeah.
Chris:
What’s that like? Did you see that? Were you around a lot of people? I’m not sure where you’re from exactly. Did you see a lot of people coming into your country and … I’m just wondering what that was like, watching a lot of people coming in and out of your homeland, and what is that like?
Jeaiza:
I have a love/hate relationship with tourism, and I think most territories or countries that depend on tourism feel that way. And it’s because sometimes you get people who come in and they really appreciate the culture, and they really just genuinely want to enjoy it. But then you have people who see going to the Caribbean as just this stereotypical, tropical vacation. And they see the Caribbean as a monolith, and not as hundreds of different island nations who have their own culture and are very different people.
Jeaiza:
And then too, because it’s the US Virgin Islands, I think that a lot of Americans have this mentality of, “You guys belong to us, and this is our vacations spot.” And they approach it in that way. I’ve always been an advocate for the Virgin Island being a bit more autonomous and finding ways to survive economically without being so dependent on tourism. But at the same time I recognize that people are going to travel, and I would rather be the person who … for example, I incorporate culture a lot into my content, because I want people to learn about the Virgin Islands, so that if they want to go there, it’s to immerse themselves in the culture.
Chris:
Right, it’s more of an experience rather than just like, “Yo, get a drink and so I can just drink and sit on the beach.”
Jeaiza:
Right, right.
Chris:
Right. Because there’s a lot more to it than just that, to your point.
Jeaiza:
Oh, yeah. There’s so much more to it, definitely.
Chris:
We’ve used the word culture a lot, and you mentioned your grandma, your late grandma, who inspired you with your company. Tell me about your family. What was your family life there? How close you were, you mentioned your grandma, were you all very close, living around each other? What was that like? And tell me a little bit about how that shaped you going forward.
Jeaiza:
Yeah. My grandmother definitely played a very large, central role in my upbringing. Again, the island is small, so she lived down the street from us. There was never a time where I didn’t have access to her. If there was a sick day at school, that was whose house I was going to. When we came home after school, we waited at her house so my mom could get off work and come pick us up. She pretty much had that role in raising us as well. And that’s how it is for a lot of Virgin Islanders, the extended family is so close by that it’s not … And I think that’s a big difference in what I’ve seen from US culture. A lot of times your grandparents might be in different states. And you go visit them for holidays or over the summer. For us, our aunts and uncles and grandparents are down the street, and you see them almost every day.
Jeaiza:
Family is very important to me, and it’s tied back to that mentality of everything I do represents my culture, it’s also everything I do is a direct reflection of my family. I was the first person in my immediate family to get a graduate degree. I was the first one to go as far as I did in terms of leaving and going to undergrad in a state that was thousands of miles away from the Virgin ISlands. A lot of what pushed me was, I need to be able to get this done so that I can help take care of my family, or be the person who’s a representative of the family.
Chris:
Right, right. It’s a bigger purpose, right?
Jeaiza:
Yeah.
Chris:
You have something, there are people around you that you’re doing this for. As an Italian, growing up in the United States, like you’re saying, I actually had a similar … I grew up in an area where my aunts and uncles, all six of them, six pairs of aunts and uncles, lived 10 minutes from where we were. My grandparents were all right there. I would be there every Sunday for dinner, I saw them. They were a central part of my life. In fact, my grandma, she’s still alive, she’s turning 90, and we’re doing this thing where we’re making a video for her, every one of her grandkids, she has 24 of them, and all of their kids now.
Chris:
And we have to say a memory. Like, you know, in the video. And I can think back countless … If I think back on my childhood, I can tell you there’s so many memories I have of being in that basement, or in that craziness of family all around, the smells … it’s so visceral to me. And it really does shape you, it gives you this broader sense that you’re a part of something. And I couldn’t imagine what my life would’ve been like without that. And it does really shape you, and being around all these different opinions and idea, because god knows, they had a lot of them around the dinner table.
Chris:
And it got a little crazy every once in a while, people started yelling. But what it did is it exposed you to things. You saw things, you heard things. And I think that’s what gave me some of my fire that I have. And I guess I want to ask you, you have that drive, and you have that hustle in you, does it come from this, from your family experience? Are other people like that in your family? Or was it something born out of, “I need to change, I need to be the one.”? Where do you see where that fire came from?
Jeaiza:
There are people in my family who are like that in terms of just keeping busy, always working. My grandmother was definitely that person. She was the woman who took care of all the grandkids, cut her own grass, did her own yard work, laundry, cooking, all that. I would see her do all of that in a day. And she was, by that time, in her early 70’s. She was that type of person who just never stopped going. And I think for her it was born out of necessity because she had to leave school in the fourth care to take care of the rest of her siblings. She had that very, you’re the oldest daughter, you have to take care of everybody else mentality. But I think for me, it came out in the hobbies that I got into versus me doing work out of necessity.
Jeaiza:
I was always interested in everything and my parents were the type of parents who, they didn’t believe really in saying no. Not necessarily no as in I was spoiled, but not saying no to, “I want to join band,” “Okay.”
Chris:
Right. Like your aspirations or your things they-
Jeaiza:
Yeah.
Chris:
Right.
Jeaiza:
Yeah. “I want to join band,” “Okay, great.” “I want to do a pageant,” “Great, that’s fine.” For my mom it was like, okay, your going to find sponsors and a way to pay for that, but you can do it if you want to. She would challenge me to find a way to get it done. And I think because they instill that, “You can do anything you want to do but you have to put the work in for it,” it just grew into more and more and more things. And the more access that I had, especially when I left the Virgin ISlands and went to the US, there was so much more access.
Jeaiza:
There was a Walmart, and I was like, “Oh my god, this is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” Having that type of access to new things, I think it just made me work even harder because I was never told no, it was like, I want all these things and I know that I can have them, and I know that I could do it, I just have to work for it.
Chris:
But I think that’s the most critical part, and as a parent, for myself, this is something that I try to do with my kid, because of the world nowadays with parenting and kids, it’s just very, very different. In that, like with my parents, it was always like you said, “Sure, you could do that, but you better figure out how you’re going to make that work.” It was never … Like, I transferred colleges, and I remember having to call and talk to them about it, and the answer wasn’t no. The answer was, “Sure, you can do that, but are your credits going to transfer? What about your financial aid and scholarships? You got to figure all that out. If that all works out, we don’t really care what, go ahead.”
Chris:
And it was, “How’d you do on your test?” “Oh, I got a 94.” “Okay, that’s great, but happened with the six points?” And you look at that, and you’re like, “That’s aggressive.” But it was always this, “Yes, but you got to … ” And that makes you feel like when you do get there, you can accomplish it because you figured it out, you said you wanted to do something, and you had to take the steps necessary to actually get there. And that matters in this world today, where it’s like you have to be able and willing to put the work in to get there.
Chris:
And I feel that could go away. A lot of people, a lot of parents are just like, “Yeah, we’ll help you, we’ll take care of it.” And that doesn’t put that drive into you. It sounds like you had that encouragement, but you also had that rash, realistic part where you got to figure that out.
Jeaiza:
Yeah. And they were super supportive. And I think a part of it, on top of just them being supportive, a part of it was just they didn’t have the time necessarily to dedicate to doing it all for me. Both my parents were law enforcement officers, my dad worked at the local prison, my mom worked at the supreme court. They had these really, really busy jobs. And for them it was like, “Great, you can do all these things, but make it work because not only can we probably not afford this, but we’re not going to be able to stop work to dedicate the time to helping you get there.”
Jeaiza:
So, it gave me this sense of independence that I think I took with me throughout undergrad, because I was that far away. They weren’t there, and they had also not gone to college. A lot of things I had to learn for myself. Financial aid, which I knew nothing about, I had to learn about that. And I had to transfer schools at one point, and I had to do that on my own too, because as much as they wanted to help, their assets was limited, and their knowledge on that stuff was limited too.
Chris:
I want to talk to you about the pageant, just because I’ve never spoken to anyone that’s done it. I want to understand, first of all, where did that come about, and what was it like? Tell me about that, was it back when you were on the island? When was that?
Jeaiza:
That was born pretty early. The funny thing that not many people know about Caribbean culture is that pageants are huge …
Chris:
Really?
Jeaiza:
… in the Caribbean. It’s such a huge thing. In the Virgin ISlands pageants, it’s an event. People will go out to support their person, and it gets pretty heated. People here-
Chris:
Oh, word? It’s like they got, “Yeah, I’m going with this person,” they’re … ?
Jeaiza:
Yeah. They’ll wear shirts and makes signs and everything. Pageants, I would consider it a sport in the Virgin Islands.
Chris:
Wow.
Jeaiza:
They take it very seriously. There’s all these school pageants. So, you essentially become the representative of your elementary school or your high school. There’s different community pageants, and then there’s more regional. You can be Miss Saint Croix, or Carnival Queen, or Miss US Virgin Islands. There were all of these tiers of pageantry, and I started pretty early in elementary school. I did some in high school. And just, I did it because it was fun and a big thing in pageant back home is that talent segment. And I used to sing, so I loved getting on stage and performing. But also I think pageantry, I feel a bit differently about it now, but back then, it was a great way to make friends.
Jeaiza:
It was just a great way to put yourself out there and build your confidence. I thin that my comfort with public speaking and just being present online and on camera has a direct link to how much pageants I was a part of. And going into undergrad, I participated in a pageant again, and that ended up being the pageant that I think really put me on the platform that I’m on now, because that was the biggest one I’d ever done, and as a result of me winning that pageant, people started learning who I was and following me. And I was at this school with 10,000 students. So, they were all like, “Okay, well, who’s in Miss Prairie View?” So, they would follow me and …
Chris:
What was this pageant? what was this one?
Jeaiza:
The last one I did was Miss Prairie View, A&M University, which is the undergrad school that I went to. That pageant essentially makes you one of the four top student leaders at the school. So, there’d be the student government, president, vice president, Miss Prairie View, and then Mister Prairie View. You’re the ambassadors for the university. Literally they’ll put you on a billboard, you’re in a lot of the advertising, the marketing, [crosstalk 00:23:20].
Chris:
It’s like an ambassador, you’re the …
Jeaiza:
Yeah.
Chris:
yeah, that’s cool.
Jeaiza:
yeah, it’s a huge thing, especially in HBCU culture, a lot of historically black colleges have a Miss, pageant position. And it’s a big thing. I got to undergrad and two years in I decided I wanted to go for it. And going for that put me on that platform of just knowing so many more people than I’ve ever known in my life, especially being from the Virgin Islands. And I think it made me better at marketing myself, and creating content and all that stuff, because a lot of my platform ended up being virtual, and doing a lot of events online. Yeah, that’s a big part of I think who I am now, was doing that.
Chris:
Yeah. I guess it’s like a performance, you’re getting up, you’re doing something in front of people. You said though now, you think it’s changed your view of pageants or pageantry, why?
Jeaiza:
Yeah.
Chris:
I’m curious. What is it about it that has changed for you? Is it something in you that you see different, or is it something in it that has changed?
Jeaiza:
I think both. After that undergrad pageant, I ended up working as a PR director for another pageant franchise. This franchise was directly linked to the Miss Universe pageant. And I don’t know how much you’ve seen or heard about that, but that’s essentially the biggest pageant in the world.
Chris:
Yeah, yeah.
Jeaiza:
They have franchises in different countries that send their representatives to the big pageant. And I worked for the US Virgin Islands franchise, and it didn’t end well in terms of my work with them, and I think what ended up happening is I began to see the side of pageantry, especially international pageantry, that can be very misogynistic. It can be very racist, very sexist. Just there were a lot of negative things that I think in being a participant I didn’t see, but then in going to the other side and being on the staff side of it, I saw it and I didn’t like it. And I think that pageantry just has a lot of work to do in terms of unlearning that our pageant winners have to be very blonde and blue eyed, and skinny, and yeah.
Chris:
Is that still a thing? Is that still, in your opinion … I mean, I don’t follow it, but when I think of pageantry, as a US kid, and pageants, I think of that, what you’re saying. A very stereotypical look. But I don’t follow it anymore. I would imagine it might’ve adapted. Does it still have that mold a bit?
Jeaiza:
I think there are people breaking the molds. The last Miss Universe was a black woman from South Africa, and she was really amazing. And we’ve had different types of girls break through that mold and win these national titles. But for the most part, a lot of the systems are still looking for that stereotypical representative. A part of it is the people who run the pageants, a part of it is the fans. When I was a PR director, one of my jobs was running social media, and a lot of the racist comments and comments on our representative’s body that I would see and have to delete, would come from pageant fans, especially in other countries. Yeah, it’s one of those things that’s systemic. So, it’s not something that can be easily undone.
Chris:
Right, you can’t just be like, “We got to fix that,” right.
Jeaiza:
Yeah.
Chris:
It still blows my mind what people will say, on social, et cetera. I’m not on Twitter for that reason. But it’s crazy to me. You know, I think it’s crazy that people still think those things, and have those really gross, racist ideas. But the fact that people say them out loud in total like, “No problem, it’s sunny out today.” They say it like that, it’s that matter-of-fact. And for a woman of color, you must know it and you must see it more than me, but it’s still wild to me, where we are, and what is said, and how social has given people license to do such things, which would make it difficult to do certain things like pageantry, because you’re so susceptible now and open to the critique. And that’s not even a critique, right?
Jeaiza:
Yeah.
Chris:
That’s just aggressive behavior. I have to imagine that also makes this thing difficult.
Jeaiza:
Yeah, it definitely did. I think for the person I worked with at the time, who was our Miss Universe, and I had to work with her closely to market her in a good way on our pages, and all that stuff… but it took a toll on her, especially because a lot of times people are so protected behind a computer screen that they think that what they post online is harmless, and that it won’t hurt the person who’s on the receiving end of it. And for her, it was painful to deal with, and to see all of the comments.
Jeaiza:
And she would be posted as one of the contestants on the larger Miss Universe page, which has millions of followers, and the same things would happen. And I don’t think that that larger platform did enough to protect the people who were receiving that type of hatred online. So, it definitely changed how I viewed pageantry in terms of just not enough is being done to correct the harmful side of it. But I still think pageants can definitely be a way to network yourself, to put yourself on a larger platform, to ironically gain confidence because performing like that does help build your confidence. But yeah, it’s a very complicated relationship.
Chris:
I’m sure it is, especially nowadays with people having the ability to just say what they want about you in any possible way. I want to talk about the jewelry business. One of the things that I love to talk to people about is, what they did to take that step and to actually launch a business, or to take an idea, or something that was a passion and say, “You know what? I’m going to do this.” Because there’s idea people, and then there’s people that put ideas into action. And the ideas into action people are not as many as the ideas.
Chris:
A lot of people have great ideas. But it’s taking an idea, and making it work, and turning it into something that is a business, or something that takes that idea to the next level. Talk to me about that, and what was that moment? What were those moments where you were like, “You know what? I’m going to do this.” Given everything you’re doing, your job that you have, talk to me a little about that, and what was the decision there and how you got into it.
Jeaiza:
Yeah. Funnily enough, the store started off as a thrift store and not as a jewelry company. This was last summer, middle of the pandemic, I’m stuck at home a lot, I’m working remotely. And I realize … and this is born out of me being an influencer and doing a lot of brand deals through Instagram … I was working with these companies who were sending me clothing in exchange for content. And my closet started getting fuller and fuller and fuller, and I was using and wearing the clothes, but not fast enough to where I felt like I wasn’t wasting the clothes that they were sending me.
Jeaiza:
I was like, well, how can I find a way to get rid of this clothing without turning this into something that I’m making loads of money off of, because I received it for free.so, I thought of creating an online thrift store where people would come, they could mail me clothes or drop off clothes, and I would refurbish it, or whatever, and put it online and sell it. In the beginning, it was a great idea, a lot of people bought into it, they were really interested. And I think within two or three months of me doing the thrift store, one, it started to grow a lot faster than I had the capacity to operate it. So, sifting through boxes and boxes of clothing, and getting it listed online, and all that stuff, while working a full-time job just became really hard. But then also, I wanted to makes you’re that if I was spending that much time doing something, that at least there was some type of profit to it.
Jeaiza:
And one day I sat down and I looked at it, and I realized that the amount of money and time that I was spending building the store, and putting the clothes up, and doing all of this, and mailing everything out, wasn’t being returned to me. And funnily enough, I was creating earrings for fun while operating the thrift store. The earring part was just a hobby because I love earrings. Anybody who knows me knows that I’m wearing a different pair everyday, they’re huge, they’re eccentric and just weird and different. My husband came to me one day, and he was like, “Well, why don’t you just make earrings?” And I looked at him like, “That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, what are you talking about?” I was like, “Why would I sell earrings?” It just, it didn’t [crosstalk 00:32:53]-
Chris:
But why, though? Why? Why do you think you shot that down? Because it was just, you’ve never heard of that before? What was it? It was just like, “That’s stupid,” it was just this innate feeling like, “No, that ain’t going to work.”?
Jeaiza:
I think because I saw it as a hobby, and I wasn’t as good at … I think that’s the part there. I wasn’t as good at making earrings as I was at everything else, at first. Other things came easily to me. Content creation comes very easy to me. I’m the person who her parents gave her a book in third grade and she sped through it. I’ve just been very good at doing things. So, when I was creating earrings, they weren’t cute, but I was like, “I would never sell these, these are not great.” And he put the idea in my head.
Jeaiza:
So, I transitioned out of the thrift store, got everything else sold, cleaned up and sat there and thought about it for a while, and decided that I would just practice on earrings, and get better, and try to do different things. And one day I decided to list some earrings that I had just been practicing on, or just post them on my Instagram. And I said, “Hey, practiced on these earrings, they’re not great, but if you want to buy them for $5, just let me know.” And it was only two pairs of earrings and I got 15 direct messages like, “I want to buy these.” And I was like, “Huh … “
Chris:
You were like, “Okay, all right.”
Jeaiza:
Yeah, the light bulb went off, because I realized that I doubted myself before I even put a feeler out there of what other people would think about the earrings and whether they would like them. The interest just started building, and I decided, okay, I’ll try this, and created a few different styles. And it started growing pretty quickly. People were just super interested. I think when I really got confident enough to say, “This is the direction I’m going in,” is when everything was just constantly selling out, and I was burnt out because I was trying to create faster than it was selling out. And I realized like, okay, I can do this. This is something I can do. And went from there.
Chris:
You had that, “I can’t do this, this isn’t going to work, and there’s no way I can actually make this work.” And your toe in the water was, “Well, let me just see. Let me just put something out there and see what happens.” And then sure enough, it worked and took you there. I think that’s always a really good lesson for people is that, I always say like podcasting. When I talk to people about it, I’m like, “Don’t go into podcasting expecting to make money. Go into podcasting because you have something to offer, and you feel like you can talk to people about a topic. And then money comes from that. But you can’t get to the one without starting something.
Chris:
And it’s always like, “Well, it’s not perfect, I don’t have the right lighting, and I don’t have this.” I’m like, “It doesn’t matter, just do it. Just try it. Just get on a microphone, get something going, and then start with 20 people listening. And then you go from there.” And you have to be able to get over it, and move forward, because if you don’t, it’s just going to be in your head. And then you’re going to think back and be like, “Oh, man … ” or someone’s going to come out with a show that’s like yours, you’re like, “I had that idea.” Or someone would’ve had earrings similar to yours, and you would’ve been like, “Yo, I could’ve done that same thing.”
Chris:
But I think that’s always got to be the lesson. If you really feel passionate about something, just try it. It doesn’t hurt you to get out there. I mean, it’ll take you time, but that’s what it is. Now, where are you at with that now? How do you keep up? Do you have other people helping you? What is the structure of the business like? Is it just you making earrings?
Jeaiza:
I do make the majority of them, yeah. I’ve had friends come in and they’ve been kidnapped for a weekend, and had to sit in my … we have a little loft upstairs in the house where I work out of, and they’ve sat there and made earrings with me. But for the most part it’s me. I wake up early in there morning, and the majority of the earrings that I make are using resin. So, resin is a process that takes about 24 hours to [inaudible 00:37:15] mold and cure and all that stuff. So, I wake up early in the morning before work. I’ll design the earrings, pour the resin, get ready for work, leave, come back.
Jeaiza:
There will be another set of earrings that I worked on the day before, then I’ll start sanding those and putting those together. It’s definitely having a second job. On weekends, that’s what I’m doing. But I think what really pushes me to work as hard as I do on them is that it doesn’t feel like work. I legitimately just enjoy sitting there and making the earrings. It’s the first time, I think, in my life, that I’ve done something by hand. I always told myself, “Well, I can’t draw, I’m not artistic, I can’t paint, I can’t do this.” All of my talent was either music, because I was in band, I play clarinet, pageants, or digital. So, a big part of it has been content creation.
Jeaiza:
In doing this, it allows me to practice meditation in a way, because your brain focuses in on this thing that you’re doing with your hands. I think I really enjoy it because it, unlike everything else that I do, this is the one thing that lets me slow down and just focus on this one thing. Yeah, I balance it with a lot of other things, but it’s fulfilling.
Chris:
It almost serves as a balance for you.
Jeaiza:
Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
Chris:
And I also have to imagine too, to bring it full circle, bring back to the island and to your family, it connects you there too, right?
Jeaiza:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Chris:
I imagine, like you said, you draw inspiration from that, and it’s part of your culture. And that brings you full circle and keeps you still connected to what you don’t have really maybe near you now. That’s really nice. I imagine that serves as a nice purpose for you to keep going with it, right?
Jeaiza:
Yeah. And people give their input too. Especially people from back home, because they’re so invested in it. I’ve had my fifth grade art teacher, who’s friends with me on Facebook, she’s messaged me and said, “Send me your mailing address, I have this idea for your earrings and I want to send you some material.” And there was a time she sent me turquoise chips, broken up turquoise gems. And se was like, “I think you should put these in your earrings.” And at the time I was like, “Okay, great, sure.”
Chris:
[crosstalk 00:39:42] Awesome.
Jeaiza:
Yeah. But I tried it, because, if anything, I wanted to be able to create a pair of earrings for her, and send it to her because I was grateful for her giving me that idea. And those ended up being some of the most popular earrings in the store, and they sold out super quickly.
Chris:
Geez.
Jeaiza:
People, they’ll message me and be like, “Have you tried this color?” Or, “I saw this style and I thought of you,” and they’ll just send me ideas, and it’s always people from back home. And I think because, one, there’s that familiarity of community and, okay, we grew up together so I feel comfortable sharing this idea with you. But also there’s the, this person has a great business, and I really want them to succeed at it, because they’re from the Virgin Islands. So, it’s definitely ingrained into the business, it’s very much ingrained.
Chris:
It’s themashacompany.com, right? That’s where you can go.
Jeaiza:
Yeah.
Chris:
And tell me, Masha, what is the significance?
Jeaiza:
My grandmother, that’s what she called me. At least I thought it was just me, growing up. And we never knew what it meant. It was just a pet name, and then, at her funeral, I said something about just the pet name that she called me, I was like, “I’m going to miss her calling me that.” And then my sister was like, “She called me that too.”
Chris:
You’d be like, “Yo, they call me that too.”
Jeaiza:
My sister was like, “She called me that too.” And then my older sister was like, “Me too.” And then our cousin, a female cousin of ours was like, “She called Masha too,” and we were just like, “What the hell?”
Chris:
That was your thing. Even more it’s a way to memorialize her is by using something, a name that you guys maybe don’t really even know, but she clearly had a thing to say, you know what I mean?
Jeaiza:
She gave us that connection. And I think, obviously, that was a very sad day, but it allowed us to laugh and realize that we have that connection with each other. And when I started the store, I looked up the word just to see if it was trademarked, or if it was a big brand somewhere else. And I came to find out that the name Masha is a nickname for Maria in Russian. My middle name is Maria, my two sisters both have the same middle name, which is Marie, and then our cousin has a middle name which is Maria. I don’t know that my grandmother even knew-
Chris:
You don’t know if that’s really what it was, but …
Jeaiza:
Yeah, but it just-
Chris:
But that’s a crazy coincidence, if anything.
Jeaiza:
Yeah. Yeah. It just ended up being that way that she connected us even after she was gone. And my way of honoring her and her legacy, and her life, was to name the store after her, but also make sure that everything that everything that I could do in terms of the store. So, just my work ethic, and how I treat the people that I work with, and saying thank you to people who help me, that’s just my way of being like her and emulating her in that.
Chris:
Hell yeah, that’s what’s up, I love that. We’re about time to finish, but before I do, I always like to humanize the guest in a way. We always talk about, we’re talking about all of the things that you’re doing, and your hustle and these great things, but I imagine it comes not without struggle. I imagine like any other human, you must hit … I think I read somewhere, maybe in your posts, that you’d like to try to meditate. You talked about making those earrings as a way to connect. I just want you to talk a little bit about, if you don’t mind, as a human who struggles, what are some things that you struggle with? And some ways that you work on it, to overcome and get over it, really?
Jeaiza:
Yeah. I deal with anxiety, a lot. That’s something that I learned through therapy, which I would recommend for everyone who’s every thought about it. I think therapy is absolutely beneficial.
Chris:
Same. I feel like it should be just as required as an annual physical. But that’s just me.
Jeaiza:
Exactly, yeah. I think that if you have to go to the doctor to check in on your physical health, you absolutely should have to check in on your mental. And it should be accessible and affordable. But yeah, I deal with a lot of anxiety, I deal with impostor syndrome sometimes. So, as much as I think that I can be good at things, there’s that level of self doubt that comes in, where I’m like, “Okay, well, this isn’t selling as fast, did I do a good job on this?” Or, “I got great sales this month, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to get great sales next month.”
Jeaiza:
There’s that negative inner voice that comes in that I have to deal with a lot. And before I think that I let the negative inner voice, a lot of times in my life, have more power than it should have, and it forced me to do things like procrastinate, and to just really doubt myself and to give up on things. But in going to therapy, and I think in practicing meditation and grounding, I really learned how to have power over that negative inner voice. I think a lot of people sometimes feel that just because they have a negative thought about themselves, that it’s accurate and that it’s true, and we don’t practice the habit of stopping ourselves and saying, “Okay, well, what’s making me think that? What evidence do I have to prove that my store is going to fail?” Like, “What is happening right now that’s making me believe that this thing is true?”
Jeaiza:
It’s things as simple as that, as asking yourself that question. “Okay, I think I’m bad at this, but who’s told me that I’m bad at this? Or what happened to prove that?” And sometimes, by telling yourself, “Okay, well, nothing’s happening right now that proves that this is true, I’m just going to ignore that and I’m just going to keep working,” that definitely helps me a lot.
Chris:
I think it’s a lot easier said than done, but one of the things about mental health, and these defeating thoughts and these anxieties and these feelings, is that most of it all is controlled by us. We create these thoughts and feelings. And all they are, are made up thoughts. And it’s as simple, in theory, as thinking, the same way you think, “There’s no way I’m going to make this happen, there’s no way that this store is going to be a success,” you could just as easily say the opposite.
Chris:
And for some reason, we focus on, always, the other way. And if we, like you said, empowering yourself to learn how to overcome that, if you can do that, and it’s never perfect, because it’s always a struggle. It’s just, I always say it’s like a treadmill, you’re walking and you go back, you’re walking and you go back. But if you can focus on some of those techniques and try to incorporate them, then you can get over it. And it might be temporary, and you’re going to fall back, but you’re going to have that toolbox, and you’re going to be able to keep pushing. And I think it’s really, really important. Because once you get so far buried in the negative, it’s really hard to pull yourself out.
Chris:
It’s really, really difficult, and I think that that’s a really important lesson for everybody is, learn to control those thoughts and get power over them. Because you’re really giving power to the negative. So, take it away, and empower the positive. I think that’s really great. Let’s see, do we give the information? If people want to check out more information about yourself, maybe your content, like your podcast and stuff, where can they go?
Jeaiza:
They can find me on Instagram @jquinivory. J-Q-U-I-N-I-V-O-R-Y. My website is jquinivory.com, that links to everything else that I’m involved in, including the store, which is themashacompany.com. I’m always online, I think anybody who wants to ask questions or get connected with me has pretty easy access. That’s where you’ll find me.
Chris:
Hell yeah. Well, she is Jeaiza Quinones Ivory, I am Chris Fasano, this is the Get Overit Podcast, where people come together from all walks of life to discuss the various ways we stop getting through it, and start getting over it. Thank you so much for taking a little bit of time out of your day and talking with us, we really appreciate it. (silence)