We were lucky to catch up with Amy Peterson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Amy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
In 2013 I was living in Detroit pursuing my childhood dream of working in baseball, particularly focused on becoming the first female general manager. I had worked my way up to achieving the position of associate counsel for the Detroit Tigers. There were a lot of challenges being a woman in the industry, particularly with my ambitions. At the same time, I was living right next to a well-known women & family shelter in Detroit. I would come home from the games and connect with some of the residents. These women were very inspiring. Many shared stories how they left challenging situations in search of a better opportunity for themselves and their family members. These connections along with my own personal experiences led me to think “what if I could create a company that was solely dedicated to empowering women”. We would employ women directly from the shelter and provide them not only with employment, but also all of the wraparound support that they need assist in their transition to an independent life. This ah ha moment is where the journey started. The next thing we needed to determine is what were we going to produce in order to create the employment opportunities. I loved the idea of repurposing material and thinking sustainably about our product. I was on a run in Detroit and stumbled upon some fallen street art that was laying on the ground. I loved the way it looked, with all of its layers and history. My business partner and I discovered a way to draw out the layers creating a unique material from which our company would create one of a kind jewelry. Our jewelry is all about instilling confidence from the time of creation when the designer’s vision is translated into the jewelry and that confidence transfers to the new owner. To date we have hired 36 women out of the shelter and graduated 34 into the traditional workforce.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I was working as an attorney in the sports industry and there were a lot of challenges being a woman in a mostly male world. I wanted to start a company that was solely dedicated to empowering women. Rebel Nell was started with the goal of creating a company that is mission first. We exist to provide employment, equitable opportunity and wraparound support for women with barriers to employment. We hire directly from local shelters and teach the women how to make unique one of a kind jewelry from repurposed and meaningful material. The goal is to teach a woman to fish. To date we have hired 36 women out of shelter living and graduated 31 into the traditional workforce.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I actually think running a business is all about the pivot. I believe a company’s ability to pivot is what creates a long lasting company. I pivot every single day. However, just looking at Rebel Nell in total over the past 9 years, there have been key moments, some you don’t even realize in the moment, where the pivot moment is what saved us or changed the course of our company. Almost every small business owner had to pivot during the last 2 years. When all of our retail locations were shut down, as well as our retailers and our manufacturing was closed, we really leaned into our digital platform. Fortunately we had extra inventory and were able to quickly shift the focus of our team to concentrating on our e-commerce website www. rebelnell.com. We were able to do this remotely and in a safe way that cared for our team during this time. Through the sales we were able to cover a majority of the lost wages for our workforce. Now we are faced with a new challenge. The most recent ios system’s data privacy changes have been incredibly detrimental to small businesses. Essentially all of the effort we put into online during covid was erased and we had to build a customer profile from scratch. As a small business this is very time consuming and we are still catching up. However, we still need revenue coming in. Again, our team has pivoted to focus on experiences and corporate gifting, as well as opening new retail stores to continue to grow our business. Pivoting is the name of the game in small business.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Let me start by saying, I am a work in progress. I want to unlearn my workaholic ways that have me worried about the future, riddled with anxiety as to what may happen. Instead, I want to focus on being more present. I admit, I love to work. It brings me a lot of joy. I need to unlearn that success is measured by the amount of time you work. There is more to life than just the hours you put in. As my mom once said, no one will ever say when they die, “I wish I had worked more”. It is a matter of defining your own success. For clarity, I don’t believe in work life “balance’. There is no right answer. The answer is for you to determine. Some days I am a great leader and amazing CEO but not the most present mom. Other days I am an amazing mom but sacrificed something at work. I am working on being present in the moment and let go of what I can’t control. This will make me a better mom, a better wife and a better leader for my team. Best advice I ever received breathe, be present and drink water.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rebelnell.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebelnell/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebelnelldetroit
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rebel-nell
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/rebelnell/_shop/ https://www.tiktok.com/@RebelNellDetroit
Image Credits
The first 4 are Jasmine Sumlin The last 2 are Jacob Lewkow