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

Emily, appreciate you joining us today. Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job?

My previous job before I launched Addie Joy Company was as a retail manager at a multimillion-dollar jewelry chain. One thing this position did for me, was help me manage/ understand how to manage the stress or pressure of holding a large title or of performance. Towards the end of my time of 8.5 years, I really felt lost. I felt robbed or lied to. Here I was working my “dream job”, a job I worked so many years to reach, but yet now that I had the position I realized how much more time, energy, and giving out of myself that I was required to do. Truthfully, the paycheck did not feel like it was worth it. I had no internal peace, and I wasn’t able to be the mom, wife, or woman I truly wanted to be. I felt like all my time was hijacked and required to be given to my job, There was absolutely no balance. I started losing myself in my title. Since work was such a huge part of my life, I had trouble deciphering what I needed to do as a performance, and what I truly wanted to do as a person, The lack of balance, and hardship is what launched me into starting my own business. I was inspired that if I could get through what I went through in 2017-2018, I can truly do anything I put my mind to. I knew starting a business would not be easy, and I knew I would make mistakes, but I knew that if I didn’t take the leap of faith I needed to, I would regret or wonder “what if” for the rest of my life. Looking back I am thankful for that last part of my journey in the corporate world being so brutal. It launched me into something that brings me so much more life & passion. I will never regret making the decision that I did. Life is too short to wonder “what if”.

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.

5 years ago, I was chasing the American dream while climbing the corporate ladder. I remember looking out my office window knowing I hadn’t seen my baby or my husband for nearly a month due to the “Busy” season at work. At that moment, I felt robbed. I remember thinking, “This can’t be the life people strive & hustle for.” I was recently promoted to my dream job right before I became a brand-new mom to my firstborn daughter, Adeline. I had worked extremely hard for the past 8 years to obtain my current position, so I should have been over the moon happy about it. On the outside, my life would’ve seemed successful, but on the inside, I was constantly fighting the battle of denying myself the true opportunity of one of life’s greatest blessings– motherhood. I ended up suffering a severe back injury in the beginning of 2018, which ultimately forced me to make a decision to leave my current job and start my own business. Due to the severity of the injury I had, staying at my current job meant I would not have the option of having any more children naturally. Becoming a mother changed me for the better, and I wanted every person to experience the joy of parenthood. This is where the idea of the Addie Joy Company was born. I wanted to create a business that sold children’s products that in turn donated a portion of profits to help families who were unable to have children biologically and needed financial assistance with their adoption fund. I launched Addie Joy Company in the middle of summer back in 2018, and now it has grown into something that I am very proud of. In the fall of 2021, we launched our very own branded children’s clothing line we designed and it has scaled our business tremendously. We have been able to donate to many adoptive families over the years, and we are excited about the new designs we are currently working on for the fall season of 2023.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Coming from my previous job in retail management, I had to learn to manage in survival mode. What I mean by survival mode is, it’s a way of managing to get the job done, but you can not do it well or give it your best when you are just surviving. I learned to manage in constant chaos, things never going right and doing things at the last minute because I had to. It taught me a great deal of flexibility, but what it did not teach me is that success doesn’t just happen by luck or chance, you have to have a plan and carry out that plan to truly be successful. Yes, you need to have flexibility because life happens, and sometimes even when you plan you will have to change it, but ultimately you can not be successful if you never plan and never have a vision for what needs to happen next. I ran the business for the first 3 years in survival mode because it was all I knew. I played it safe, too safe. I felt frustrated when the business didn’t seem to scale the way I thought it would. The reality was, I was running the business in survival mode because I was scared to give it my all and fail. By doing things at the last minute, I was telling myself, “This is the best I can do, because I don’t have much time.” It was a false sense of security for me because if I waited until the last minute, I could blame failure on the timeline, versus taking responsibility for myself. It wasn’t until I consciously made the decision to stop running/ managing my business in survival mode that I started to see results. I finally believed that failure will only come if I give up. I had felt like a failure for the first 3 years, but I knew I hadn’t given it my all or even tried my best yet. Once I started planning, visualizing, and giving it my best– this is when the business truly took off.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I first launched Addie Joy Company, I launched with a lot of wooden toys and items I had purchased wholesale. It didn’t take long for me to learn that the wooden toys were way too expensive to ship and left me with no profit margin. The wholesale items had such a small profit margin built in that I was unable to offer any type of competitive pricing. My original idea of Addie Joy Company was going to be a children’s toy boutique, but once I launched and found out that the market was geared towards children’s clothing we started pivoting to find better more reliable children’s clothing suppliers. We pivoted to our own branded children’s clothing in the fall of 2021, and now we only carry organic fabric children’s clothing that we design ourselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.addiejoycompany.com
• Instagram: @addiejoycompany
• Facebook: @addiejoycompany
• Other: Pinterest: @addiejoycompany

Image Credits
Lindzee Merrill Photography