Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jumillah Roche. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Jumillah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur. The idea of setting my own schedule and being there when my children came home from school was extremely important to me. However, as much as I wanted to start my own business, I wrestled with the idea for several years before pulling the trigger. I am a planner to my core, and the idea of not knowing how much money I was going to make from month to month gave me an anxiety that I can’t put into words. After speaking to my mentor for what seemed like the millionth time on the subject, he finally said, ‘you’ll know that it’s time to go when the pain of staying far outweighs the fear of leaving’. Once I felt the shift happen, I did everything I could possibly do to prepare-spending as little as possible and saving as much as possible. I was able to set aside approximately 9 months worth of business expenses- from advertising to inventory and everything else in between. I was soooo proud of myself. This planner-girl had it all planned out. I was living my dream, walking in my purpose, and I felt like life just could not get any better. At this point, I’m sure you can tell that things were about to take a turn…
Three months into my journey of living my best life, my husband sits me down and tells me that he believes we’re supposed to move to Colorado. His uncle and aunt had moved there to start a ministry, and after having a thriving church for over 9 years, he passed away suddenly. His wife has since taken over the church, and for the last 5 years through much adversity, has done her best to keep the ministry in tact. Now, as much as I sympathized with her and her situation, this was NOT a part of this planner-girl’s plans. Knowing what kind of sacrifice it would take for our family, on our finances and on my business, I was not here for any of it honestly. I felt as though I had used every ounce of faith that I had to leave my full-time job, and I had nothing else to give. But as much as I tried to resist, I knew the signs were there and that this was God’s plan for us. Little did I know, all of the money that I had so diligently saved to run my business would need to be used for living expenses after the move. We spent several months paying two mortgages and utilities between Colorado and Texas. Sometimes we can fool ourselves into thinking that if we do what God tells us to do, things will be smooth sailing for us, but that’s not always the case. It was hard, and I was angry. I was sad, scared and felt extremely alone. Did I mention that I was angry? Because on a scale of 1 to 10, I was giving a strong 20.
Once I got over myself, I realized that I had two choices: I could either continue on the ‘woe is me’ train to nowhere or I could use this difficult experience to level up in my faith in God as well as in myself. Not only did I have to believe that He could (and would) sustain my business although I had no money to invest in it, but I also had to believe that I was worthy enough for Him to do it for. I remember thinking to myself, ‘chile, as much as you have complained and played that violin throughout this process, there is no way that God’s going to come through for you’. I’m happy to say that I was wrong. I’m a firm believer that God meets us where we are, and although I wasn’t in the place were I should have been, I had enough faith to step out of the place that I was comfortable in. God honored that step, and He sustained us. Now, I’m moving from being sustained with just enough to having more than enough. After moving to Colorado, my business has taken off in a way that I don’t believe would have happened had we stayed where we were. Going back to a corporate job wasn’t even a thought or option for me because I was determined to be all in no matter how long it took. Growth is scary and it’s painful, but after the pain comes the fruit. Last year I learned how to live off of next to nothing, and now a year later going into the 4th Quarter I’m on track to tripling my sales goal for 2023. I recognize that there’s no way that I would have been able to get through that season of my life without faith in God. I’m still on a journey and I have a loooong way to go. But as far as I’m concerned I’m already successful. I became successful the day I packed up that Uhaul and left everything I knew to enter a winding road with no GPS. One of the things that I’m most excited about now is letting other entrepreneurs know that even when the odds are stacked heavily against you, it’s absolutely possible to have a successful, thriving business. “I am the salt of the earth…” Matt. 5:13
Jumillah, 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?
My name is Jumillah, and I’m the owner of The Salt Society, which is an online clothing boutique. We cater primarily to women, offering business professional wear and business casual wear. We also offer a small selection of unisex athleisure pieces. I started my business in November of 2020 out of a spare bedroom in my home. That room was my office, my studio, my warehouse and my cry room. While most boutique owners have a passion is fashion, that’s not necessarily the case for me. Don’t get me wrong-I live for a look, honey. But my passion is people, and my desire is to be a builder of people. The garments that I sell are just the accessories that I use to enhance the people that I’m here to serve. My goal is to help women show up as the best version of themselves, recognizing that the ‘look’ doesn’t make them-they make the look.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
One lesson that I’ve definitely had to unlearn is that there can only be ‘one winner’. I came from a place where entrepreneurship wasn’t widely celebrated unless you were the first to do something. It was cool if you were the first to open up a hair salon, but if you were the second or third, then it became ‘chiiille, why are you copying her?’ Because clearly there’s no way possible that God could have told us both to do it, so it has to be that you’re doing what you’re doing because they’re doing it. That was the mood. Never stated, but always implied. Knowing that you’re not really going to have the support of your peers, but pushing through it anyway is difficult. Although I came through on the other side, I was heavily guarded as a result. So when I met my business mentor this year and she began walking with me through this journey, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, as it has so many times before. In the beginning, it was so hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that this woman genuinely wanted me to win-and not so she could tell everyone who would listen that she had to help me. There was a time where we both were literally selling the same dress at the same time, and she invited me to do a live interview on her platform so that I could promote that same dress to her viewers so they could shop it on my platform. Now Sis, where are they doing that at?? She’s teaching me that a win for me doesn’t mean a loss for her; in fact it’s the opposite. It’s one of the best lessons that I’ve unlearned to date, and being part of a healthy community of business owners who root for each other and support each other for real is the best feeling a business owner can have.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
I just recently did my first in-person vending event, which was absolutely amazing. It was a 3-day women’s conference (talk about diving in head first), and I was scared out of my mind. I had no idea what to expect, and of course, it ended up being an incredible experience. I met so many amazing women from all over the U.S., and many of them are clients today. It was definitely the fastest way to generate new clients, and it’s something that I’m definitely going to explore doing on a more regular basis.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thesaltsociety.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesaltsociety.co/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesaltsociety.co
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/thesaltsociety
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtW37koNcyJLgj77A-YrfXQ
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@thesaltsociety.co?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
Image Credits
All photographs were taken by me.