We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Paulina Lainez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Paulina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I began to look for custom gold hoop earrings for myself but I wanted to make sure to support a small business and avoid purchasing from a big box retailer. Many businesses were struggling at the time and I wanted to do my part to help support a small business. Seeing a lack of representation in the market, I taught myself how to wire letters to create my own custom hoops earrings. Like many folks during the pandemic, I was able to start working from home and so I had time to search for a creative outlet. This just felt like the perfect opportunity. As a Latina, accessories are one way I can celebrate my culture on a daily basis. After months of practice, I decided to start selling those earrings in hopes of finding other Latinas who felt the same. Eres Una Maravilla was born and my intention for this small business is for the Latinx community to feel seen and celebrated through jewelry and accessories. With the help of my husband, Alvaro, the business quickly grew from wire hoop earrings to polymer clay and 3D printed earrings and accessories. Eres Una Maravilla is a tiendita that celebrates Latinx cultura.

Paulina, 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?

As a first-gen Latina, I was the first in my family to graduate college. I earned my B.A. and M.A. in Communication Studies from CSULA. I had a set career trajectory in my head but creating my small business changed everything for me. I have always been a creative person. I was always the friend who made personal, handmade gifts for friends and family and so Eres Una Maravilla really allows me to be creative on a daily basis. My husband has also become an integral part of this business. His background is in Drafting and Design and so together we design the earrings and other items that we sell. We work together to perfect items and brainstorm ideas for future collections. It’s amazing to have a partner that is fully invested in the business like I am.

Eres Una Maravilla is meant to celebrate our cultura. I was tired of seeing the same types of earrings and accessories everywhere. We strive to make items that make people feel proud of their culture and I never list anything for sale that I wouldn’t wear or use myself. I love hearing customers tell me how many compliments they receive when wearing our designs or how a keychain they purchased sparked a conversation. Those are the moments that make everything worth it.

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

Growing up in a Mexican home, I was taught to work hard and to not accept failure as an option. It was tough! It meant trying my best to be perfect and make my parents proud. It meant fearing failure and not asking for help. As a small business owner, there is no way that this mindset is sustainable. There is failure at every corner and it is something that I have come to appreciate! When something goes wrong or if a collection doesn’t go as well as I thought it would, I start to ask myself questions. Why didn’t these items resonate with people? Is there a different design that’s better? Did I do everything I could for the success of this collection?

Failure use to paralyze me. I took it as a sign that what I was doing was wrong and that I needed to move on to a new idea. If I still subscribed to this way of thinking, my business would have closed about 3 months in. We will be celebrating our 3 year anniversary in November!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

When I went back to school for my M.A. in Communication Studies, I decided to specialize in marketing. I wanted to own a marketing agency in the future and help small businesses reach their target audience. So, my education definitely helped when I decided to start my business but, social media changes rapidly!

Consistency and transparency are two things that I have found help my social media presence. I try my best to post consistently throughout the week but, that may look differently for every business. The point is to choose how often to post and try to stick to it. More importantly, transparency is key to connecting with people online. Everyone is being bombarded with so much content on a daily basis and a lot of the content looks the same. When I first started my business, I worried about sticking with every trend online and it was exhausting. It got to the point where I ignored recording content because I was just tired of doing it. At that point, I decided to only create content that worked with my business and my schedule. I also find that it is crucial to share about myself online. It’s important for my community to know who I am and who is behind the business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shopmaravilla.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eres.una.maravilla/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eres1maravilla/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@eres.una.maravilla