and how I’m getting it done.

Yesterday I sat down for dinner with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while. We went to a Cuban restaurant after a movie and found a cozy corner in the restaurant to sit in. She sipped on her coffee and I took one large gulp of my craft soda.

I felt nervous. Like I was announcing a pregnancy. I could hear myself think “well it IS a birth of some sort…” and pulled my focus back to the present.

“Well,” I started, “did I tell you that husband and I are launching a business” I said (more like asked) casually, knowing fully well I had not told her. We celebrated and I felt the same relief I’d felt when I told my parents about baby # 2.

No one ever asks you why you’re starting a business. That is not a judgment, just an observation. I think this is because people assume that you start a business to make money or to work for yourself, and since that is always true in some way, the question is answered. Your mom might ask you, or you bank, but it’s not usually the go to question for anyone else.

Here is my why.

I am a paralegal by trade and someone who loves beautiful and ancient things. I am also a mother and a Latina and a thinker. All those things together create the theme and the drive for the business. They’ve made someone who is effective, has the ability to execute, passionate and romantic, and visionary. I fall in love with ancient beauty recipes, find them in modern age beauty products and I want to share them. That’s the practical answer.

When I think about my life now, I understand that value of my time and the way I can get more time is exchanging my services for value. Value can be quantified as money or time, but it’s both really. I’ve decided to create a space for myself to provide services and create value based on the skills and passions in life I enjoy most:

Self care, beauty, rituals and the magic of self-love.

I have a daughter and a son with whom I want to spend all the time in the world. I talk to my daughter about the warehouse we will have one day, and dream about the first job that we’ll give her. I relish the idea of waking up in my home that I own and turning the corner to my home office and home warehouse, where I test and try all the products I curate for our store.

The dream is generational wealth. The goal is to be the boss. But that’s not the point. The point is to create something that fulfills all parts of me, not just the part of me that provides financial security.

I understood that about myself this year and it changed everything for me. I was coming from a place of lack and insecurity at all times. Constantly needing to earn more and learn more in school because I was insecure with what I had, I had assumed that it was never enough, so it never was.

But I had a deep realization that this scarcity mindset limited me from realizing my true potential, the person who always has and does not worry about being without. I only ever saw myself as someone who needed to provide. Provide myself with an education, because my parents couldn’t afford to, which needed to turn into a job to provide for myself in general, then the provider for my family because that’s how it works for us, and that was it. Never a moment to be the Creator or the Lover, the Boss or simply me, Bee.

That wasn’t enough so I challenged myself to dream of a world where I was the woman I wanted to be. What was she doing, who did she look like?

Part of that was creating a job for myself that no one can take away, setting the conditions that dictate my life because traditional 8–5 wasn’t cutting it, and creating a company that makes people happy and connects two different cultures through self-love and the ritual of self care.

I am starting a business because I realize that life is short and I want to do something that I love to uplift and inspire. I want to bring joy to others and myself, and spend more time with my family. I am creating a way to travel for work and provide opportunities for those around me. I’m trying to spoil my grandparents and treat my parents to dinner.

I hope you follow along on our journey, we’d love to have you!