We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful I. Destiny. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with I. Destiny below.

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

So I’ve had the benefit of working as an employee, independent contractor and business owner. They all require a different level of commitment depending on a variety of factors. However when I was an independent contractor working in fashion the biggest lesson I learned was no matter what you have to do, just get the job done by the deadline. The client does not care if you show up in a full face of makeup or pajamas, if you need to take a break and have a glass of wine, if you rhinestone outside on the ground, had to blast your favorite album until the 2 am deadline…Whatever YOU have to do to get the job done, just do it.

This also is just a smart decision if you’re working in a creative environment with people that may be neurodivergent. They might have their stims, their systems or ways that they mange their time to reduce stress and achieve maximum output.

Too often in corporate environments, bosses don’t allow their employees to work in a way that is more efficient for the employee and ultimately faster for the workplace. Being too set in traditions or old systems, and not allowing employees to innovate or work in a way that’s efficient for them, really kills progress. So now that I’m a business owner, I really operate my business and manage my contractors in a way to just get the job done by the deadline; whichever is most efficient for the individual.

I. Destiny, 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?

I initially started out as a professional singer and dancer in jr high. I would get paid to do small tours (backup singing and dancing) for artists who were being shopped to labels or had just been signed. I had also been making clothes since I was a child, so when I would get hired as a dancer, they’d often ask me to style.

Around 2010 I became and independent artist, performing my own songs all over LA and writing for other artists as well. It was also this year that I began working in the fashion industry professionally and launched my own jewelry line, IDEXHIBIT. These were my two main hustles that I juggled simultaneously to get my name out there and pay the bills.

In 2015 I launched Sailing In The Desert, a boutique media company tailored to help independent artists and creative small businesses with their online presence. I wanted to offer videography, photography, web design and jewelry rentals to artists who were on a strict budget and needed high impact visuals that could compete with independent artists with a larger budget.

As of late, Sailing In The Desert has branched out to offer interviews, podcast services, creative direction, and a full service clothing rental for artists via IDEXHIBIT. And IDEXHIBIT, which initially was just jewelry, now has upcycled vintage and custom garments, a virtual showroom for artists nationwide to do clothing rentals, and an online thrift store with 500+ pieces to purchase on 5 different platforms.

This last year was just all about scaling and pushing our social media presence. I look forward to being able to work with more artists and bringing their visions to life, before the end of this year. Both of these businesses were what I wish I had when I was starting out my music career. So many of the resources for artists today are praised for exclusivity and I wanted a space that felt inclusive and easy to navigate, whether you have a manager or not.

Artists and personalities can easily head to the website, fill out an application, select the items they want to rent and pay the invoice. Garments can be picked up, dropped off or shipped depending on the project. Whether you’ve got 10 fans and want to shoot a music video or have 10,000 and do a full visualizer, that’s something Sailing In The Desert and IDEXHIBIT can handle.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

About a year into the pandemic my media company was STRUGGLING with all the events being cancelled. There were no events to shoot, fashion shows were being cancelled, independent artists weren’t renting jewelry, it was terrible. At this time I was going through a divorce and had moved in with my sister, Sasha. Just two single girls rebuilding their lives.

So one day, we were going through our closets and realized 90% of the clothes we had didn’t fit the new personas we wanted to exemplify. We wanted to feel fun, sexy and edgy. The clothes were giving prairie core, and not in a cute way. So I started posting the clothes online and we would just split the profits.

A few weeks later my sister’s friend gave her about 8 LARGE trash bags of clothes that were barely worn. I started to sell those too! Then two weeks later my friend Jameca, who I interned with in fashion years prior, dropped off several bags of clothes…And these were nice clothes, OKAY! Trendy pieces, great quality vintage, just fun pieces. Of course I kept some pieces for myself, but my apartment didn’t have the space.

Then I realized, so many artists would love to have access to amazing vintage pieces for their projects. I would rent a few favorites, upcylce the ones that needed repairs, and sell the rest. These dozen plus bags I received really helped fuel the new branch of IDEXHIBIT and funded the whole business.

IDEXHIBIT initially started as just jewelry; making a couple sales a month with maybe a couple rentals per year. So I’m grateful for every single win, every milestone whether big or small. Some memorable milestones have been getting one of my reworked jackets on Kuba Ka for the cover of Apollo magazine, setting up the LLC, hitting 4 figures in a month just 5 months after adding the online thrift shop, and seeing the positive reviews from my customers. I always love to see how they’re wearing the pieces.

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

There are SO many lessons I had to unlearn. One of the most prominent being “the aesthetic and brand of the business is most important”. This was more of a mindset than anything because everyone wants a clothing business that’s aesthetically pleasing. The color story, the voice, this style of clothes vs that. At the end of the day you need to make money to survive, so you need to fail forward. I always love this saying from Tiffany Aliche “The Budgetnista”. She says “do you have a business or are you looking like a business”. This means are you actually making money regularly or do you just have a nice website and instagram. You know what I mean?

So I had to fail forward and try things that didn’t initially fit my “aesthetic”. I initially wanted to just sell vintage, custom pieces and do rentals. But there were tons of people looking for Levis, Banana Republic, Betsy Johnson…whatever! So we sell it all. If it’s cute and someone is looking for it, we sell it. The exclusive stuff we sell in our showroom so that branding stays consistent. But I had to get over the ego and just make the sale. This is why major brands have multiple labels. So they can meet the needs of different customers.

Contact Info:

• Website: idexhibit.com
• Instagram: @theidestiy / @idexhibit / @sailinginthedesert
• Twitter: @theidestiny
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@i.destiny
• Other: tiktok @theidestiny @idexhibit

Image Credits
Sailing In The Desert Jamison Malaeloa Soulaire REECEWITHTHEASSIST!