We recently connected with Chanelle James and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Chanelle , thanks for joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later
If I could go back in time, I definitely would have started my business sooner. I always knew that I wanted to write and had the idea of becoming an author. However, I originally was going to write short stories that related to life situations. It turned into poetry because I found that when I wrote my feelings I felt better. Being a business owner at that point was not at the forefront of my career, because my career is being an educator. Currently, I still teach and run my business. I think starting sooner when the idea of my company came to mind would have allowed me to gain the momentum needed as an author. I would not change anything about my experience today, because of what I have learned thus far as a business owner and the relationships that I have created.
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
When I envisioned my life, I always knew that I wanted to help others because of my giving, passionate spirit. I began by creating and continuing a career as an educator and developed into a writer, author, and poet. Writing for me had been technical, but as I got older, I saw more therapeutic benefits. To battle the anxiety and stressors of the world, I started to write my feelings. Those feelings turned into rhythmic, candid stories that focused on most of my life experiences along with stories that are shared with me. The poetic rhythm was birthed from my love of music. I began to share these poem stories with family, friends, and colleagues and it took off from there. After copyrighting a collection of poems, my first book, Intuitive Ramble, was born. Intuitive Ramble is a collection of candid, themed poetry. Some of the themes include love, lust, empowerment, triumph, and faith. It was officially released in May 2021. After the release of Intuitive Ramble, I established my company Empathy Wanders, LLC (Candid Thoughts That Wander). Empathy Wanders is a mindfulness, lifestyle brand that promotes candid, relatable, and therapeutic poetry to wanderers that need an outlet to escape everyday life or to just make sense of it. Currently, Empathy Wanders offers Nelle J’s new book of poetry, The Phoenix Tapes and her first book Intuitive Ramble along with novelty merchandise. In addition, you can find Raw Ramblings (poetry audio clips), newsletters, and creative writing services to be offered soon. What I am most proud about my brand is how it is evolving as far as being noticed more and what I plan to expand it to in the future.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
A lesson that I had to unlearn is thinking that just because you are passionate about something means that others will automatically be on your same level of passion. That is not always the case and that is ok. You also can not expect to become successful overnight. It takes time, dedication, willpower, hard work and faith. There have been moments where I thought that the work that I have been contributing to my brand was not yielding the best results. It was actually the opposite, because of my optimism. Success can be measured in many different ways.
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
At least once a month, to gain more clients and establish loyalty, I like to have raffles or incentives for giving me feedback. Recently, I asked clients to engage with a survey that would give me the feedback that I needed to introduce creative writing services. For their participation, I raffled off new products to promote my brand. In addition, I offer newsletters to my clients about what is going on with my business, new poems, and any news that I would like to share that is upcoming such as an event that I will attend.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.empathywanders.com
- Instagram: nelle.j19
- Tiktok: NelleJ5