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

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

I started Goldmine and Coco in 2017, two months after I had given birth to my daughter. At the time I was working at the bank and realized I didn’t want to be there anymore. I wanted to be able to be home with my daughter just like I’d done after having my son.

As a new mom of a little girl, it was important to me for her to grow up in a world that thinks of her primarily, and not as an afterthought. I had a girlfriend who I’d talked about this with before and one day she just asked me “Why don’t you do what you love to do?” I was confused and then she went on to say “You’re always playing in a planner with some stickers, it’s time for you to do what you’re supposed to be doing.” At the time planning was only a hobby for me. It was how I spent the majority of my free time. Making plans, playing with the stickers– I loved all of it! Yet, I was SO tired of going into retail and specialty stores and not seeing images that represented neither myself nor my family members. And as a go-getter, I took her advice and ran with it. It helped that she was willing to use her experience to help me start my Etsy shop and help me find an illustrator. I went to my husband and told him my idea and asked that he just give me a year to grind it out and turn our situation around and he supported it. His only thing was to make sure all the bills got paid. We had like $100 in our account that didn’t go to bills at the time; I took that to get started and the rest is history!

Felicia, 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?

Of course, I am the founder and CEO of Goldmine & Coco, a stationary and lifestyle company. Goldmine & Coco was born out of frustration from going into retail and specialty stores and not feeling represented. I didn’t see images that looked like me, my mom or any of my family members. Representation is a necessity and became one of the driving forces behind our mission. Our mission is to inspire, uplift, encourage and motivate women with the proper tools to help them elevate their thinking and plan for success. We position ourselves as the go-to within our industry by providing our customers with more than a planner, notebook, or sticker. We allow our customers to see themselves in our brand, not only where they are now but where they’re striving to be. With more than 35K supporters, our customers have access to a community that they can lean into and connect with like-minded women. The true buy-in of being a part of the Goldmine & Coco community is that we SERVE first and sell second. We teach systems that demonstrate how to actually make products work for their own needs. We engage with our community in a multitude of ways and we celebrate them. We truly pour into our community. I often teach them how to build the life they desire through goal setting, planning, and overall inspiration. We let them know that black women deserve luxury and to live well, unapologetically.

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

Throughout my journey as an entrepreneur, I’ve had a lot of experience with pivoting. One of my most recent experiences occurred when I was planning to host a large-scale event for my company’s community. In the planner community, we often have meetups and conferences. I’m not the biggest fan of conferences, but I love a good meetup so much that I sometimes pop up at the ones I see my customers planning. This time I was excited about the opportunity to offer my customers a weekend-long luxury meetup featuring activities, planning sessions, and more. Before ticket sales even launched, I had already invested nicely. I’d gotten an event producer, and a photographer, and even paid a deposit to secure an ideal location. Once ticket sales finally launched, I found that the event I was so excited to serve my community with may not come to fruition due to low participation. This was gut-wrenching and now I had a decision to make. My options were plain: postpone the event in hopes of participation increasing and risk a higher cancellation cost or cancel now and pay a lower cancellation cost while I was ahead. Let’s be clear both costs were significant. I was at a crossroads, and I made the decision to not put my company at risk for more loss, it was time to pivot and cancel. The lessons I learned from this turned out to be rather expensive and truly hard. But I learned to always trust my gut and pay attention to actions as commitments without action aren’t solidified. I’d had moments where I was unsure about committing to so much upfront without customer commitment. Of course, people will always tell you they’re excited but what matters are the actions that follow that excitement. Had I trusted my gut I would have never made such a commitment without insurance that it would pay off.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

The one thing that has helped build my reputation in this industry is that I have always been my authentic self and stayed true not only to my mission but also to the vision that God has given me and I don’t shy away from that. In being authentic, I’ve been able to always tell my own story and even more allow my work to speak for itself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://goldmineandcoco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goldmineandcoco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/goldmineandcoco
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/feliciajarrell
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/goldmineandcoco
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/GoldmineCoco

Image Credits
Marrica Evans and Shardai Johnson