We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Taryn Jerez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Taryn below.
Taryn, appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so one thing we think people don’t talk about nearly enough is investments – either time or money. What’s one of the best or worst investments you’ve made and what did you learned from the experience?
I can honestly say that the biggest investment in my business in the last 7 years came from community. Whether that community was an investment of time, money, vulnerability or all three- community will always be where you’ll get your biggest ROI (return on investment)! It took me too many years to realize that just because you can build your business by yourself, it doesn’t mean you have to. Those first few years working desperately to build my coaching business while working in my full time corporate design career came from a mixture of passion and scarcity- I knew who I wanted to serve but I even desperately knew I needed to get out of my corporate job for my mental health. There were times where I felt really lonely and the isolation that we hear about in entrepreneurship was in full force. I got to a place where I realized that I needed to find my people and begin forming relationships that I could show up as myself and share my business goals without feeling like I had to hide anything or underrepresent what I was doing. I began building relationships with other local business owners and carving out specific time to meet up for coffee and just have great conversations. Eventually I saw that there was a need for more community for creative entrepreneurs in my own city so when I couldn’t find what I was craving I decided to invest in community by launching a monthly meetup called Cupcakes & Creatives. I hosted this donation-based monthly meetup every month for nearly 3 years where I’d have a woman owned business come and share her experience and teach for a portion, and have time for community building before and after. The relationships that were built during this time not just for attendees but for myself were everything and taught me so much about being a business owner and how important prioritizing and investing in community really is.
Taryn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I want to live life on purpose. I’m someone who is never satisfied unless I’m working towards something bigger than just me and while some days I need to remember to slow down, I’m grateful for the drive I was given. I’m a lifelong DIYer, thrifter extraordinaire, drinker of chai lattes, wife to my high school sweetheart, mama of one adorable little boy, and if I could visit every small bakery in every small city I would! I am a Creative Business Coach, founder of One Crafty Miss and host of the Empowered for Profit Collective and both businesses make my hands and my heart full! I love working one-on-one with my monthly coaching clients, teaching workshops and leading my monthly membership community.
After interning in NYC my senor year of college and landing a design job after back home in Tampa, FL I realized very quickly I needed an outlet where I could be my own creative director. I started a creative lifestyle blog covering everything craft and DIY related and after a year started working closer with fellow makers and creatives. I realized after some time, that I enjoyed answering their questions and helping them build their brands more than I did blogging. I realized the value I could offer and decided to begin teaching and that led to coaching. I really never set out to start a business which is crazy to think about, but I felt really lead to this path and I’m really grateful I listened to that calling.
I have a heart-centered on teaching and serving creative women who have a vision for their business and their life who haven’t quite figured out how to marry the two. My biggest goal with my clients is to help make their business feel lighter, where they can really focus on making meaningful moves they know are getting them closer to their goals. I work with creative women owned businesses, so everything from artists, designers and photographers to coaches and bloggers and more. Providing really intentional education and creating simple strategies to help make that vision happen is my superpower! I think it’s really important to have a trusted, unbiased sounding board in your business that look at what you’re doing from the outside, in. I love being able to point out things a client can be doing to make more money or work smarter that they may never have even thought about before, or help them realize they don’t need anyone’s permission to stop doing certain things in their business they don’t’ really want to be doing.
The Empowered for Profit Collective is my monthly membership for creatives and I honestly built it out of knowing everything I wish I had when I first started my business. That feeling of knowing there’s more for you…more support, more resources, more community. I love my one-on-one clients but there’s something so special about seeing The Collective members grow in their business but grow together at the same time. I love the accountability the group offers and being able to really get members moving forward in the direction they’ve been craving, feels amazing.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Everyone has a different journey into entrepreneurship. It’s so easy to compare and feel like there’s all these “throw caution to the wind” risk taking journeys where someone just woke up one day and decided to go for it and leave their full time job and go all in and there was the overnight success they had been looking for. THAT is not the journey for most of us and it’s ok to realize that your version of success and your journey to get there is allowed to look different. In fact, it should! I found myself trapped in that comparison for too long thinking my business was “less than” because of how I was building it, the full time job I still had while I was growing, the fact I wasn’t “hustling” 24/7 anymore as my priorities shifted. I’m a calculated risk taker, definitely not throwing caution or anything else to the wind! I took a lot of baby steps to go full time for my business and it was the right decision for me and my family and that’s what mattered. I am a big believer in doing things scared and going for it before you’re ready, but there’s a middle ground there where you have to really listen to your heart and trust your gut. Your journey doesn’t need to look like anyone else, their not going where you’re going.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I think living our live, building our businesses, that’s all a very real form of resilience in itself when you think about all we’re put up against most days. There are some seasons that have really taught me about my own strength and the strength that God has given me. In 2018 when my business was experiencing a huge shift of growth I experienced a really difficult, painful season of loss after miscarrying our first pregnancy. This wasn’t something I shared outwardly especially with clients or on social media. As many women know it’s a very personal loss but it’s also something that not everyone talks about openly. I took time to grief silently for the most part along with my amazing husband but I was still working on my business throughout it all. In that season I had time to really reflect on where my life was and the state of my mental and physical health- the truth was, I was working all the time. If I wasn’t working at my 9-5 corporate job and traveling for them, I with my laptop blogging and building clientele and pushing all the time. That loss and that season helped me realize what I really wanted my business and life to look like and I made decisions to help me start to work towards that, decisions I know I never would have made without that experience. Sometimes when really devastating things happen that are meant to knock us down, we learn a lot about ourselves and it pushes us towards where we’re meant to be. I look at where I am now, the balance I have in my life, the beautiful sweet boy that calls me Mommy, my amazing clients and membership members and I can see how God used that dark season for my good in the long run. I’m glad I pushed myself to get honest and really dig into what I wanted life to look like.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://onecraftymiss.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onecraftymissblog/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onecraftymiss
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taryn-jerez424/
- Other: Empowered for Profit Collective https://www.empoweredforprofit.com/
Image Credits
Madalyn Yates Photography Siobhan Lorraine Photography