We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Quanda Bryant a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Quanda thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?
Diamonds & Pearls Events, LLC is near and dear to my heart, not just because it’s my business but because it serves women by pampering, encouraging, and inspiring them to live intentionally. My company creates self-care events, kits, workbooks, and journals for women to promote self-care, something many have neglected because of hectic schedules and an increasing responsibility to be everything to everybody. But the company didn’t start out that way. When Diamonds & Pearls Events, LLC was born, it did what was intended – create memorable self-care events to remind women that their lives had value and purpose aside from their daily responsibilities. It was our mission to create an experience for women that made them feel pampered and special; to encourage them to target and live out their God-given purpose – to live successful lives. Our mission was accomplished by creating themed social events such as tea parties, paint and tastes, elegant balls, wine tastings, spa parties – and the like, in order to act as the backdrop to a life-changing learning experience. It included instruction from a diversity of informative certified professionals on women’s health and wellness, wealth building, entrepreneurship, and business branding. Our events catered to details including fine entertainment, delectable foods, elegant aesthetics, as well as an array of vendors. Sounds exciting right? Well, it was and all was well until… the quarantine. Who would’ve guessed that no one would be allowed to meet in person. Obviously, since my company was events based, this threatened to devastate it. I had to think fast, and that’s when it hit me… put the self-care experience in a box and ship it out. My self-care kits carried the company through the quarantine like a champ. I actually generated more revenue from these kits during that time than in the previous years with my events.
Quanda, 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 Quanda Bryant, CEO of Diamonds & Pearls Events, LLC, a self-care company that not only creates an experience for women that makes them feel pampered and valued; but educates and encourages them to target and live out their God-given purpose. And as cliché as it may sound, it all began right in my home with ten well-deserving ladies. I’ve had the honor of knowing women who were hard-working business owners, caregivers, homemakers, and professionals. I observed their tenacity, resilience, and dedication to serving others, but they became lost in it. Their identity became synonymous with the work they did, and so self-neglect was inevitable. I selected ten of these women to be guests in my home where they’d receive pampering, fun, and a reminder of who they were… women with purpose and value. This was the person that they were to pursue. By doing so, they’d not only fulfill their duty and obligation to others but also to themselves. I mean, think about it… you can’t effectively help others if you yourself are operating on reserves. We all must be poured into and replenished.
So, each guest received a self-care kit, full body massage, a facial makeover, and a private one-on-one consultation to guide them towards their purpose. It was a success, and it was the guests that encouraged me to share these experiences with other deserving women in the public. So, I did. And over time, we’ve evolved from being a company that just does events, to one that provides self-care kits, a diversity of workbooks, journals – and we’re still evolving. We also added “Diamond Mind Blog” which provides self-care tips that work! Each week I share proven strategies I’ve used in my own life that transformed my thinking and removed hinderances. The goal is to provide you with tips that will help you master your thoughts, remove blockages, and move you into your destiny.
As we grow, it will always be with the intent of empowering women and steering them towards being happy, whole individuals who know who they are, their life’s calling, and strategies on how to accomplish it.
Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?
In regard to the products I offer, such as the self-care kits, workbooks, and journals, they are sold on both the company website and Amazon. There are pros and cons to both platforms. Amazon offers a print on demand option for books that contain high and low content which is great. There is no up-front cost, and they use high quality printing materials. You also have to consider Amazon’s platform is international which increases the product’s exposure more so than if only using a website. However, they take more than the lion’s share of the profit which is unfair considering the amount of time and labor you put in towards research, design, and development of your product. I purchase my copies wholesale from Amazon and sell them on my website. Selling from my website allows me to enjoy more of the fruits of my labor.
When dealing with such large platforms such as Amazon, Etsy, or Cratejoy (and I dealt with them all) you benefit from being well versed in knowing key words that will increase the visibility of your product if you want to see any real growth in revenue. This can be a real challenge and if you’re not careful, you’ll lose money due to fees associated with companies like Etsy and Cratejoy.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
As I mentioned earlier, Diamonds & Pearls Events, LLC began in my home and developed into a business under the advisement of my guests. Like many entrepreneurs, my company began as a side hustle. My full-time job or shall I say career, was being a middle school teacher. I spent several years creating and implementing lesson plans in order to develop young minds into productive individuals. Not surprisingly, my function as a teacher and what I do now are not really that different from one another. Both required a love for people, research, creativity, management, etc. However, operating my own company allows me to do it on my terms and affords me the freedom of time – time to think and create without being micromanaged. You have to be sensitive to timing. Life as a teacher trained me for what it is that I do now. Knowing when it was time to take that training and use it towards the next phase of life was wisdom. It’s all a part of fulfilling my purpose, my destiny.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.DiamondsPearlsEventsllc.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/diamondsandpealseventsllc
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/DiamondandPearlEvent/
- Twitter: twitter.com/Diamonds&PearlsEvents,LLC@Bryantquanda
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/2QyBJ-zR3aI?si=-TgU_jVlG5YUGkNA
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/author/diamondspearlsevents https://www.diamondspearlseventsllc.com/post/you-are-what-you-eat-how-to-guard-your-heart-and-mind
Image Credits
Photography by Luisa Pinzon Photography