Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Danina DiBattista. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Danina, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Vespertine was born in 2020 when I retired from doing freelance makeup artistry after 8 years. That creative energy needed to flow somewhere! Seeing someone light up when truly being heard and understood, and being able to to bring out a confidence in others is so rewarding. I started with making crystal sun catchers, and I went down the rabbit hole pretty quickly! By 2022, I was making jewelry, carrying a large selection of hand selected crystals and booking vendor shows around Pittsburgh and other cities. Creating an exceptional experience for my clients is something that will always be my top priority and biggest passion. Whether that is chatting about crystal properties, remembering someone’s last purchase, or being that open door for every walk of life – this space is all about making awesome connections mixed with finding that special piece that you’ve been looking for.

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 offer a retail store experience, but in a pop-up style. I offer hand-selected crystal carvings, of which I curate and choose each item personally from a family-owned supplier & carver. Most of my jewelry is made my yours truly, and my current top sellers are custom carabiner jewelry on Stainless Steel or 18K Stainless Steel – each one is unique and features crystal pendants, charms, or talismans. All of my jewelry is on either Stainless or Sterling, and any jewelry that is not made by me, is sourced from incredible specialty artisans.

I’m most proud of the environment and experiences that I create for my clients. I am a firm believer that people buy from people. There are a lot of jewelry vendors and when someone chooses to spend a few minutes to talk with me and allow me to show them a few items that I think will suit them and their needs, or fit their style – that is such an honor. It’s not about the sale, or the transaction, it’s about how special it is to exchange time, words, stories, and laughter with other people.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I have a background in a lot of different industries and positions. From Small Businesses, to Corporate, to Private Equity-backed Startups, and Mergers & Acquisitions. Holding positions from entry-level through executive-level, and everything in between. Being able to leverage that experience and learning how to lead teams of 2 or teams of 50, it helped to build those muscles and skills to navigate through the small business world. Working with great mentors and leaders challenged me to grow and be a better leader. And when I had the unfortunate run-in with a not-so-great leader, it was a learning moment and reminder of how NOT to make others feel. Other influences that I often come back to in my decision making around leading teams, creating experiences, or simply remembering that we’re all human:

– My Father, Sabatino DiBattista
– Brené Brown
– Simon Sinek
– Will Guidara
– Gary Vaynerchuk
– Adam Grant

At the end of the day, the biggest thing I try to remember is that people want to connect with other people, Emotional Intelligence is a super power, and Empathy is harder to come by than you may think.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

You know the saying “hindsight is 20/20”?
As time goes by, that phrase gets used more and more. And I’m not sure that any one person is more or less resilient than another…we are just all given different challenges and have to use our life experiences, resources, wit, and creativity to move through those challenges in our own way.
For me, some of the challenges that impacted my business were Covid, 2 layoffs (2020, and 2024), the rapidly changing landscape of retail, and oversaturation of the market with crystal sellers and pop-up events.

– Covid & Layoffs are the things that were out of my control. I needed to get back in the game quickly in 2020 along with tens of thousands of other job seekers. It took me 12 months of applying for jobs to finally find something new. Vespertine helped to carry me through that year, from both a morale standpoint, and from a financial standpoint.
– The retail landscape – this is changing at a rapid pace, and if businesses can’t keep up, they will get left behind. This is a challenge all on it’s own. Between the economy, the quick-changing trends, and unpredictability – you have to be willing to flex your business and leave your ego behind.
– Oversaturation of crystal sellers. My clientele is looking for specialty pieces, top quality, one-of-a-kind and higher end materials. They want to have a memorable experience when they shop, learn about their items, know the name of the person that carved their piece, and have more than a transaction.
– Oversaturation of of pop-up/vendor events – this came down to zeroing in on who my clientele is, what they’re looking for, where they are, and how to curate my event calendar around reaching the most people that are looking for what I have to offer.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.vespertinegoods.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vespertinegoods
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vespertinegoods

Image Credits

I have the rights to these images