We were lucky to catch up with Cathy Williams recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Cathy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

I was born to Haitian immigrants, and in that community and many other Caribbean communities, you see parents pressure their children to become lawyers, doctors, or nurses. Those jobs/career paths are viewed as more practical and prestigious. Thankfully, my parents were not like that. Being supportive of an artistic career path was the best thing my parents have done for me. I’m thankful because as soon as my parents recognized my artistic and creative interest, they nurtured that by fully supporting it. I was able to participate in creative art activities. I got my bachelor’s degree in art, then went back and got my master’s in art. My parent’s approval was essential in developing my confidence because I was still immersed in and trying to be influenced by the expectations of other career paths from my Haitian/Caribbean community. But I already had my parent’s approval, so I knew I would never choose to do anything different.

Cathy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Moon-Seed is all about creating wearable art and statement pieces for your space. I design statement jewelry and homewares with a fun, bold play on circular forms, geometric shapes, classic art movements, Caribbean vibes, and colorful patterns.

I draw inspiration from my choice of mediums as well. I embrace many materials, such as wood, acrylic, plaster, and resin. I am proud to say that our pieces are dynamic. They are fun, sophisticated, sculptural, and incredibly unique. They are versatile and appeal to accommodate a wide range of tastes.

All the pieces are designed and handmade from start to finish in my home studio in Charleston, South Carolina. Due to the handmade nature of the process, patterns, textures, and colors may vary slightly from one item to the next, making each creation uniquely special and one of a kind.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One thing I had to unlearn is that always working equals more success. I had to learn this lesson the hard way because I am naturally a workaholic. While growing Moon-Seed, I dedicated a lot of time to late nights, working in the business, and overworking myself. I often felt that if I wasn’t working, I was being lazy or missing an opportunity to be productive. As a result, I became severely burned out and was forced to rest. During recovery, I learned how to work from a place of rest and analyze the business from an outside perspective. I shifted my thinking and operation to find ways to work on my business instead of in my business. Before that transition, my identity was rooted in how many hours I labored. But now I see that some of our most memorable successes resulted from a rested, clear mind. My creativity and ideas are fully realized and manifested from a place of clarity.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

Yes, Moon-Seed is a happy accident turned side hustle turned full-time business. I made my first pair of statement earrings using scrap material from a separate design project. I wore the earrings to the presentation, and everyone kept asking me about them throughout the day. After much encouragement, I decided to open up an Etsy shop. Initially, I gave the business little attention because I was set on taking a different career path (As a Graphic Design Educator). But, the reception of Moon-Seed was overwhelming and began to snowball on itself. I saw an opportunity for it to become a full-time business and took advantage of that.

I was able to scale the business in a few different ways. The first was through Etsy. Etsy is fantastic because they already have warm audiences looking to buy products, and all I had to do was make an effort on the platform to be visible to them. Then I would make the brand memorable to our Etsy customers if they purchased by directing them to our social media sites or websites. I was also able to scale through in-person markets. There was a season when I was saying yes, to every in-person pop-up opportunity so that I could make the connections that would move me into full-time entrepreneurship.

Making genuine connections, both online and in person, was essential for me to grow the business. Online it was fundamental for me to navigate our customers back to the brand rather than the other marketplaces. With pop-ups, it was important for me to make genuine connections where people truly understood the work, the brand, and the love/intention that went into each unique design. I owe the success and scaling of the business to those connections because we have grown almost entirely on word of mouth or repeat customers.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.moon-seed.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shopmoonseed
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shopmoonseed
• Other: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@shopmoonseed

Image Credits
All pictures are credited to Laura Saur