We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Candice Eden. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Candice below.

Candice, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job?

Ever since it was legal for me to have a job, I’ve always worked somewhere. Whether it was fast food, nannying, retail, corporate, I knew I needed to make money so I found multiple ways of doing so. The interesting thing is that no matter how old I was, what field I was in, what city/state I was working in, the theme was always the same: You are a number that is always easily replaced and your identity as a human being is not as important as producing what is necessary for the bottomline. Disheartening to say the least! You work hours upon hours, many times to your personal detriment only to make a barely there liveable wage and are expected to give up your life for companies and bosses who could care less about your sacrifice! It felt really yucky coming to that realization as hard as I tried to resist this truth. I knew things needed to change. And fast. I knew I’d never obtain real wealth working for someone and I’d never have autonomy over my time if I continued as an employee, so it was imperative I figure out how to work from home, and then eventually, work for myself. A huge lesson I’ve kept at the forefront of my mind is to never ever give so much of yourself to a job that you have nothing else left to give to what really matters. Do your kids resent you because you made sure bills were paid but you were never present or energized enought to be there for them? Was your spouse lonely in your marriage even though you kept the lights on? Did you have time to pursue passions and causes you believed in or were you too drained to do anything but crash after work and weekends? Questions you need to ask yourself NOW! In the end, after you’ve put in 40-50 years of time and maybe acquired a pension in retirement will you be able to say with certainty that you have been a real contributor to the world we live in because you were able to LIVE? This is something I’ll always keep at the forefront of my mind. Living life truly is the goal and I’ll never sacrifice that again just to say I receive a paycheck. I am aware that’s easy to say with a good support system but with a few gradual changes over time, even if working for a company, you can still carve out more and more freedom for you and your loved ones to enjoy.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a believer in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior which has fueled my endeavors into business, design, as well as music. My whole life, music and music artistry has been a large part of my journey and now I am also teaching about the things of God in addition to leading others in worship so it’s been pretty fulfilling! I am also a mom, divorced 8 years ago, so I have navigated solo parenting for some time now which also led me to becoming more acquainted with the nuances of special needs children after my daughter was diagnosed with autism at 3 years old. This diagnosis really catapulted me into serial entrepreneurship because I was determined to be able to be present for my child’s needs even if it meant money was scarce for a while. Thankfully, I had family to step in and help keep me from homelessness in a really difficult and dark time. I began my journey as a business owner in 2018 when I opened Arm Financial Solutions, Inc. which is a full service financial services company, specializing in legal, ethical, affordable Credit Repair Consulting, Retirement Planning, Infinite Banking and have been educating many about the realities of money, protecting your assets, and positioning yourself to thrive vs survive in an economic downturn. I also have taken a dive with my daughter as a partner into the world of fashion! We officially began designing shirts for our company Milk Apparel which is a faith, inspiration, trendy clothing company and am beyond excited for where that’s going to go! Fashion has also been such a huge part of my expression, so I love that I’m able to help people not only become financially savvy but also represent their faith and be savvy in style as well!

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Prayer! And Implementation/follow-through. I’ve found that in ANY realm-the ability to pray and seek guidance from God and then put into motion what He instructed is one of the most effective strategies one can have in life. I’ve gone through so many seasons of trying to either model what others were doing successfully or re-invent the wheel without any rhyme or reason as to why and it never amounted to much of anything. It wasn’t until I started truly trusting that the Lord knows my comings and goings and the plans He has for me that I started to see the ability to produce in a way that didn’t seem to be like a hamster on a wheel going nowhere fast. I no longer try to keep up with anyone else. I just want to make sure I’m being obedient to what He wants of me based on what He put me on earth to do. If that means my progression appears slower than others, that’s okay, I know it’ll have lasting fruit which is most important. So prayer is what guides me on what to post to my audience, how to word my posts and listings, how to tell my story in ads etc. It’s always PRAYER!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Easy. The pandemic hit and I went from 50 consistent clients per month to ZERO in a matter of weeks if not less. I felt I was in the twilight zone because of how quickly things fizzled after going so well. I had great reviews, clients loved and referred the business to those they loved, other businesses were recommending my service and even having me come in to teach their staff and then…crickets. I struggled for several years after taking this hit, and really went through somewhat of a ptsd in my emotions because I felt like such a failure. I had built this company from scratch and was thriving and well on my way to exceed my goals that year until everything ground to a halt and now I’m scratching my head on what to do to try and bounce back. I’ve always allowed myself a couple of days to wallow in self pity whenever I was devastated by something before I dusted myself off and jumped back into life-but this was so different. I was tired. Mentally exhausted and couldn’t think clearly enough to even pick myself back up. I leaned heavily into my relationship with the Lord and prayer and obedience to Him which really carried me through one of the most depressing seasons of my life. This time, unbeknownst to me, was really divinely resetting me into a new Candice. One who didn’t fear failure, or look to build business based on riches but was looking to build in concordance with God’s plan for His earth which in turn would bring true wealth and legacy. I no longer was content with pennies and things that were temporary and wither away but am seeing the bigger picture now. I am a part of something bigger than ME. With that shift internally, I have restarted my financial services company and am offering consulting services in financially planning and at the same time have launched a clothing company that will help remind people of who they are and who they’re called to be. I’m excited again!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://milkapparelonline.etsy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/milkapparelshop
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558463248375&mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Other: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@milkapparelshop?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc