Today we’d like to introduce you to Angelique Warner

Hi Angelique, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.

I have a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and for 16 years my career background was professional parenting. My husband and I lived in our group home, then boarding school home, with up to 14 children for the first 16 years of our now nearly 28- year marriage. I felt a strong calling to work with at-risk children to help shape their behavior for good while also helping each child reach their full potential academically, personally, and socially. My husband and I had our own four children within four years, all while caring for the many children in our home. One day I had a vision during one of our 1-year-old twins’ potty emergencies. While breastfeeding my youngest baby and helping the twins get to the potty, I had a vision of a buckled baby carrier which enabled a fully reclined ‘in-arms’ cradle position and it had built-in privacy. When I realized that what I’d seen in the vision was not yet on the market I was really disappointed because I really needed a product like this! My youngest daughter nursed every two hours for one year and would only do so in an in-arms breastfeeding position. No carrier offered this positioning. I spoke with my family and explained that what I saw in the vision was not on the market but that I saw it very clearly. My aunt told me that God gave me the vision to invent it. Because my life was so full at the time, our own four children ages four and younger, and fourteen other children living in our boarding school home, I made a deal with God. I said, ‘if this [product] is not on the market when she [my baby] turns three, then I’ll work on it. If it is, I won’t be mad’. Then I put the idea on the shelf of my mind for three years.

I took my little one to preschool on her third birthday – January 17, 2008. After I dropped her off, the vision came back to my consciousness as clear as day. I checked online and what I saw in the vision was indeed still not on the market! Even though I knew I would not have the opportunity to use my invention, as my children were then ages 3, 5, 5, and 7, I knew that other parents and caregivers would. I knew that this invention was dropped in my spirit for me to act on so, with no notable sewing or drawing skills, and with no design or engineering background, I started an eight-year journey of research and design. It was truly trial and error perfecting the design. During R&D, I employed the services of three different seamstresses before finally relying on my own intuition and divine inspiration to finalize the now patented design. This idea got me so excited because I knew there was no other baby carrier, buckled or sling, which could function like what I saw in the vision – a buckled carrier with sling functioning! GoGoVie would offer a fully reclined, ‘in-arms’ cradle position for proper breastfeeding positioning. GoGoVie would be the only 7-position hybrid sling and buckled baby carrier in existence also offering 5 private, hands-free breastfeeding positions.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

This journey through entrepreneurship has not been a smooth road, by far! There have been many twists and turns, obstacles and roadblocks, hills, mountains and valleys! Not having a design or engineering background, the R&D process became an uphill battle – an 8-year long process. I did not have the capital to hire a team of designers so I had to employ local seamstresses to help bring my vision to reality. Although typically a seamstress will use a pattern to create a product, they had to be able to sew my idea by description only. Because what I saw in the vision was like a snapshot, if you will, I had to rely on the functionality of the design as I described it to each seamstress. This process was challenging because no one can see what’s in your mind’s eye. Another challenge was learning how to run a business. After having a viable, sellable product, a business coach told me that although I have a product, I don’t have a business. That was devastating! I thought I was in the home stretch, only to find I was just beginning…

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?

I am a creative. I am visionary. I am faith-led. I am the creator of the only hybrid 7-position baby carrier, in existence, which also offers a 5-position, private, hands-free breastfeeding solution. I am the inventor of GoGoVie Premium Baby Carrier. I am most proud of being the first in many categories – *the first patented US Black female creator and manufacturer a buckled baby carrier, *the first hybrid sling and buckled baby carrier, *the first 7-position carrier, *the first 5-position breastfeeding carrier, *the first buckled carrier that can fully-recline, *the first buckled carrier with all easy front adjustments, *the first buckled carrier offered by hospitals to patients, *the first Mothers of Invention video by What To Expect, *the first carrier to offer a customizable, detachable and interchangeable privacy cover, *and the first carrier offering optimum storage with a deep, expandable front pocket, a separate cellphone pocket and D-ring strap ends to clip your or baby’s items.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?

I believe that being faith-led and having perseverance have been the two key characteristics important to my success. The design of GoGoVie was inspired in a vision. Each subsequent design revision was also inspired. I would awaken at 3a.m. with detailed inspiration about how to overcome a design obstacle I faced. I would incorporate the design edit and it would get me one step closer to the final design. Perseverance and faith kept me on the path of inventing and entrepreneurship. When times were hard and the journey seemed too long, I remembered that there is always provision for the vision. I just had to commit to not give up mid-journey and see what the end would be. So glad I did!

Pricing:

• GoGoVie retails for $179
• Cover sets retail for $24.99

Contact Info:

• Website: https://GoGoVie.com
• Instagram: @mygogovie
• Facebook: @mygogovie
• Twitter: @mygogovie
• Youtube: @mygogovie