Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Natalee Kafka. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Natalee, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I’ve always been a creative and artistic person and knew that I needed to incorporate that into my professional life from a young age. But, growing up success was always defined by having a “good job” with benefits and the security that comes with full time employment. I started off in college majoring in Interior Design, which allowed me to use my artistic side and my analytical side. After a year, I realized it wasn’t for me so I switched to a major in Advertising with a double minor in Art and Web Design. I knew that a career in advertising would allow me to use my creativity and analytical abilities as well as provide the security of a full time job, even if I wasn’t truly passionate about it.
After graduating college, I worked in Advertising and Marketing for 10 years before quitting and pursuing my own passions. During that time I worked on an in-house marketing team and most extensively with an advertising agency. I found my career to be fulfilling in many ways early on, but I always felt like something was missing and I was often frustrated with the stress level and workload I experienced. I wanted to be making a difference with my work and I wanted to feel like I was working towards a purpose rather than just being another cog on the wheel.
After my first child was born, I took a huge step back in my career to be able to stay home with her. I cut my hours drastically and worked remotely for a few years. As she got older, she started going to part-time daycare and I began to increase my hours again, but my heart just wasn’t in it. As a creative outlet, I started making jewelry for myself at nights and quickly found a new passion that I knew I wanted to pursue.
I began making jewelry for friends and family and eventually opened up my own Etsy shop. Right around the time I launched my Etsy shop, I found out that I was expecting our second child. I continued to work on growing the business throughout my pregnancy in addition to working my regular job and taking care of my daughter. It was challenging to find the time and energy some days, but I truly loved what I was doing and knew it would be worth it.
During my maternity leave, I was able to focus solely on the jewelry business (in addition to adjusting to life with a newborn and second child). It was then that I realized I was dreading going back to my regular job. I knew that my career had not been fulfilling for many years and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to make a change.
When my son was 5 months old, and a little over a year into my jewelry business, I quit my regular job to focus on my true passions. I wanted to continue building my jewelry business as well as work as a freelance marketing consultant. There were many challenges and bumps along the way. Loss of steady income, finding the time to devote to my now two businesses, raising my children who were both home with me a lot of the time, as well as just keeping up with life in general. But, while it has been challenging, it has also been extremely rewarding. I am successfully running and growing two businesses that I am truly passionate about and I am able to keep my kids home with me most of the time, which was always important to me. It has definitely not been an easy or smooth road, but I would not change it for anything!
Natalee, 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?
I make handmade crystal jewelry. I specialize in selecting stones to align with astrological zodiac signs, planets, transits or birth chart combinations. Each piece is carefully made by me with love and attention. I use high quality crystals and hypoallergenic stainless steel components.
My venture into jewelry making started as an interest in crystals, astrology and how the two can work together. I found a deep interest in astrology after getting a birth chart reading for my then two year old daughter, which completely changed my view of her personality and the way I was parenting her. Around the same time, I also became very interested in and intrigued by crystals and the way their energies can affect our own. I started buying and wearing crystal jewelry and working with the energies of the crystals and setting intentions around wearing them each day.
All crystals have different energies and can help us in different ways. Each crystal is associated with a zodiac sign(s), element(s) and chakra(s) so you can choose which crystal is right for you based on those qualities, or you can use your intuition and go with whatever crystal speaks to you at the time. I love helping my customers select unique crystal combinations to align with their natal astrology, or different issues or healing qualities they’re currently needing.
I absolutely love creating each piece of jewelry. It’s so relaxing and fulfilling to me to see the crystals turn into pieces of jewelry that people can wear with them all the time.
I also work as a Freelance Marketing Strategist specializing in email and digital marketing. I work mostly with clients in the health, healing, wellness and alternative/metaphysical spaces as that is where my own personal passions lie. This venture came about after a decade of working in corporate marketing and primarily at an advertising agency and feeling unfulfilled with my career and client projects. I wanted to be able to work with small businesses with similar interests, services and values as my own so that I could feel truly invested in my work.
Starting two new businesses, leaving my regular job and doing all of this while raising two small children has been very challenging at times, but it has also been the most fulfilling few years of my life. I finally feel like I am doing what I’m supposed to be doing and am truly passionate about my work.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
It is so vitally important to support local artists, creatives and makers in your community. Finding local markets, art shows, or vendor events is a great place to start as well as getting involved with any local artist communities. I think it’s really important to create more opportunities for artists and makers to showcase their work in person. Many times, it’s much easier to shop for these items when you can see them in person, touch and feel the quality and get to meet the actual person who made it with their own hands.
This past year, I hosted and organized a Holiday Pop Up Market on Small Business Saturday for local artists, makers and creatives to showcase their products during the holiday shopping season. It is a goal of mine to continue organizing more markets and events like this and continue to create awareness for supporting local businesses in the community.
If your community does not have very many markets or events for local artists and creatives to showcase and sell their work, consider organizing one yourself or finding someone who can. Oftentimes, venue spaces are more than happy to support this kind of event and may event be willing to sponsor part of the cost of the event. Another great way you can support local artists and makers is to purchase their products when shopping for the holidays or other gifts. These items make really great, personal gifts and you’re supporting a local person at the same time instead of big box stores and corporations.
However you go about it, supporting your local creatives is more important than ever to ensure the success of our economy and keeping your dollars in your community. Artists, makers and entrepreneurs are passionate about their work and highly skilled at what they do. Without them, we all end up with the same mass produced stuff and lose the creativity and uniqueness of our communities.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
The main thing I had to unlearn throughout this journey has been the safety and security of a steady job. I went from 10 years of getting a steady paycheck every two weeks, to relying solely on sales of my jewelry and winning client work for my freelancing to pay the bills. I am extremely lucky to have built up enough of a safety net and also be able to rely on my husband’s full time job to support our family during this transition, but it has been a difficult shift in mindset to say the least.
Growing up, success was always defined as getting a “real job” and having the safety and security that comes with that. I feel that women especially can often feel pressured to have a career and be focused on climbing the ladder so it can be difficult to see success as anything else. I’ve had to change my view of what success looks like for me and adjust my lifestyle to fit my new career. I think it’s important to remember that each person has their own unique path and purpose on this earth and what success looks and feels like for them may be vastly different than it is for someone else. That’s the beauty of the human experience and it’s our only job to live our lives as fully and purposefully as possible.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://turquoise-rising.square.site/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/turquoiserising
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TurquoiseRising
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataleekafka/
- Other: https://www.8thhousemarketing.com/ https://www.instagram.com/8thhousemarketing https://www.facebook.com/8thhousemarketing https://www.etsy.com/shop/TurquoiseRising