We were lucky to catch up with Joanna Revel recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Joanna, thanks for joining us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?
This is a question that one often hears, but in essence is one that requires a bit of mileage over time to really understand fully, how does one measure success is a question, that has alot of layers, I truly feel to he successful one has to really be able to evaluate your inner most strengths, combined with what truly lights you up, a true passion. True success comes from a strong vision, strong focus to take initiative, and persistence, the last ingredient is an instinct or openess to find new avenues to grow an existing idea, all of this combined, creates not only a more exciting path with one’s idea, but helps an idea flourish into success, ultimately creating more happiness and meaning.
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’m a California native, and for as long as I can remember, I was drawn to visual communications, cinema, music, art, also being raised in a family with an older brother that played music at a young age, it definitely sowed the seeds of me channeling into a more creative way of seeing life and my role in it. I’ve always had an independent spirit and early on gravitated to fashion merchandising, after graduating from college with a Communications degree, this passion channeled into developing an original fashion boutique of highly visual presentation, of my own vision and independent local labels, my road to this is a combination of a degree in visual communications/film/TV degree, working diligently for other fashion stores, developing a strong work ethic and love for visual merchandising, help push an idea forward, a strong vision I had in having my own business. Along this journey, there were setbacks, I dusted myself off and it made me stronger, more focused and .ore accountable to what works in business and what doesn’t, I found new ways to market and present an idea, and after many years, was recognized in the local chamber of commerce with an Independent woman of business awared in 2022, ultimately, aside from creative vision, I believe in strong customer relations, a strong attention to detail with a client’s questions, and requests and diligently keeping that as a focus in the business, a delightful, highly visual atmosphere with a strong customer focus! Is what keeps my business strong
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
When I started the business, my mindset was more conventional in terms of how to present a business, being a highly visual more creative minded, my attention to details was more challenged, although at the time I thought it was all under control, when the recession of 2007, occurred, many changes and financial challenges started to snowball, and inwas forced to re-evaluate and confront these challenges and find solutions, my conventional mindset of a physical location was challenged and I learned new business models that worked, organizing well marketed pop up shop shopping events, really learning effective online estore presentation, I rose above the highly challenging moment, difficult emotions. And pulled out a very steadfast side of me that focused on a solution, and Even worked an evening job for two years to pay off a business loan during the recession years, this was an incredibly humbling experience and it resulted in developing a strong resilience to pull through and grow a vision, a passion. For having my own small business, that I truly love having
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
My journey into social media was most certainly a gradual one that I slowly dipped my toe in, but once I got into it, I quickly saw the benefits for marketing in this high technology atmosphere. I started with a focused Facebook page and fan page, my love of visual arts pushed My interest into creative photography and also hiring professional photographers to shoot my organized, vision for location photos with my shop’s items, these highly visual photos were very instrumental to creating a social media presence that garnered more attention and slowly grew more clients fanbase online, I eventually meandered into Instagram and soon loved the highly visual opportunity for photos and focused marketing with the diverse tools such as daily instagram story for daily interaction, Weekly Virtual online vendor events with Facebook and daily Instagram stories, has helped market my business and grow its following, the main ingredient is consistency, with online presence and growing a social media presence, that would be my main bit of advice, stay as consistent as you can. And fund a realistic routine to keep the business interesting and communicating with your growing audience in a weekly manner that’s truly visual and engaging
Contact Info:
- Website: www.bluevioletfashion.com
- Instagram: Blue Violet Fashion
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/shopblueviolet
- Linkedin: Joanna Revel
- Yelp: Joanna Revel
Image Credits
I took photo