We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Darion Wilson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Darion below.
Darion, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
The idea was formed from styling family and friends subconsciously and being a shopaholic. My aunt and friends would always say that I should do it for a living so I began to focus on making my gift a reality. I can remember when I was driving to Las Vegas, NV, relocating from Kansas City, Mo., heartbroken and shattered; through Utah to be exact, wondering what my new start was going to look like, praying and asking God what should the name of my boutique be. Initially I had something like Xhale; I laugh as I think about telling my sister in law the name, and her response being “Girl, that doesn’t even sound like you.” I was like what’s wrong with it? and she was like it’s boring for one!” So I’m just driving along and God drops in my spirit you are wonderfully and beautifully made, and I was like you’re right Lord I am exclusive. So I added some uniqueness to the spelling and came up with IamXclusyve….with the tag name being “there can only be one.” After that I started having visions of how it would look, and the type of clothes I would have and how I would be set apart from other boutiques. So I started out selling sunglasses. Then my brother in Christ, Leon Sariah with Sariah Marketing who would later be my marketing person, business coach and everything else that comes with the ups and downs of being an entreprenuer had me a website designed and IamXclusyve was birthed. There were trials and tribulations let me tell you. There was all these ideas and no money; but God. To make a long story short I ended up going live via online in Las Vegas, NV with about 6 different pieces. I went through the phase of giving things out for free to get my name out there, which I call the word of mouth phase. I went home back to Kansas City, Mo had a pop up show which was successful, bought more inventory and started using social media for marketing. Then everything became stagnant again. So I began to take a ride on the emotional roller coaster. I had thoughts of I tried and failed, maybe entreprenuership isn’t for me and back to I don’t have money to get new inventory. So I put it on the back burner. I moved backed home to Kansas city, Mo permanently. Leon, my friend Stephanie, and my prayer partners started encouraging me to get it back started up. I began to save money, buy a little inventory here and there with my paychecks. I even started having pop up shops more frequently. I eventually left my job stood on faith and opened my brick and mortar. I always knew that my spiritual gift was evangelism, however, I was like Moses and lacked confidence. I wasn’t bold like Paul. I didn’t know how to go and just tell someone about Jesus. So, I remember praying, telling God that I wanted him to be my foundation of my store. I made a pact with Him that if he allowed me to be successful; I would use it as my platform to exercise my spiritual gift and start witnessing to others about Him. That’s when I knew that it would be a lifelong endeavor. People would come in my store and say they felt the presence of God, some would come in and say God sent them there to pray for me, others would come and say they thought they were in luxury and the list goes on. I began to gain confidence, became creative with marketing, was strategic in the pieces I bought for the store, gained good rapport with my customers and got better with every experience. I believe I was solving problems that no one else was solving. I started personally shopping for my customers if they didn’t see anything they liked and was looking for a specific style. I was pouring into those who were broken spiritually if the opportunity was there. I was encouraging those who were insecure by sharing my story of what I went through and how I came up with the name of the store. I was literally making them feel good on the inside and look good on the outside at the same time all with no regret because they were not breaking the bank to do it. I believe that my approach wasn’t as unique as it was genuine and sincere. God created me for a need and I believe I am fulling it through IamXclusyve. Although Covid happened and post-Covid we are still not opened back up as a brick & mortar, operating online only, I believe that when we do it will be better than before. Why? Because IamXclusyve isn’t just there to provide a retail service, we truly care about the customer needs, wants and desires. We prove that by getting to know our customers effortlessly. It’s just in the atmosphere as soon as you cross the threshold. It will keep you coming back even if you’re not coming to shop. It’s a safe place to come and share as well. It’s a loving, caring establishment. We care about how you look, feel and spend. We are economical with our prices with the styles and quality of clothing that we provide and that alone makes me excited!
Darion, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Darion Wilson, I am a fashion enthusiast turned boutique owner, making dreams a reality, by empowering women, one outfit at a time. I have always loved fashion, styling friends, family and shopping. I always had a passion to make people look and feel good, which led me to owning my own boutique. I started out selling women’s clothing and men’s designer jeans. I currently sell women’s clothing only; with the hopes of selling men’s classic denim, blazers and ties. My motto is to aspire to inspire my customers, so I offer personal shopping, wardrobe styling, closet organization, affordable prices, quality clothing and stylish brands. My hopes and dreams is to satisfy my customers by embracing their individuality. My ability to make people look and feel good with faith as my guiding light, shines through in every carefully curated piece. That in itself makes me proud. I am confident that together we can embrace fashion as a tool for self-expression and empowerment.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Being an entrepreneur is very challenging. My marketing person once told me that if you want to see how strong you are be an entrepreneur. Many people look at the perks of being your own boss and setting your own hours. But what about the blood, sweat and tears that is poured into it. What they don’t take into consideration is the time, money and endurance. I can remember days when I didn’t have a sell but the rent, utilities and other overhead expenses were due, and there wasn’t enough money to cover it. Or when I had to be a two places at once and both was a priority and there wasn’t a friend or family member to open up for me, or enough money to pay someone for the day to be there. The lack of sleep because you are every position at your business, the accountant, the inventory specialist, the buyer and so on and so forth. What about when your company isn’t generating enough income but you want to hold on to your dream and not close down, or fail. when you’re all borrowed out and there’s no one else to call for monetary purposes. The sleepless nights when you’re up encouraging yourself. When it just got real that entrepreneurship is hard and you’re the only one believing in your dream. Your friends are telling you to close and the reality is that you need to listen but that drive, hope and dream is still on fire inside you. You know what I did after months, days, weeks and even years. I never lost hope. I still stayed relevant. I had pop-up shops, setup in my garage, had sidewalk sales in front of my house, networked had fashion shows never shut my website down. I held on to dream, stayed consistent in the course. I’m still here waiting on the opportunity to open me up another brick and mortar. Keeping myself prepared, staying on top of the styles, the changes, choosing to believe in myself and my dream, reassuring myself that God’s timing is right on time and it’s never too late.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I had to unlearn that your friends and family will always be there to encourage you. That you have to believe in you. You have to birth the dream. That you will start out with many and end with few. I had to learn not to take it personal because it is your dream and yours alone to endure through the valleys. As I travel this road alone and encourage myself I’m confident that IamXclusyve will not just be online. It doesn’t matter if the world is changing. It doesn’t matter that Covid shut it down. It doesn’t matter that SBA funds are exhausted. What matters is that God made me a promise. He gave me a gift. I will have a store. It will adapt to the changes of the world, but most importantly it will be successful. My backstory is that though everyone stopped believing in my dream I still believe. I believe that God is and will send others to support, encourage and provide. To depend on him. And my dream will again be a reality.
Contact Info:
- Website: iamxclusyve.com
- Instagram: Iamxlusyve Ltd
- Facebook: IamXclusyve LTD
- Linkedin: IamXclusve LTD
- Youtube: IamXlusyve LTD (tentative)
- Other: Whatsapp IamXclusyve LTD (816) 504-7879
Image Credits
Raymond Criswell