We recently connected with Rachel Burch and have shared our conversation below.

Rachel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

When I think of the word legacy and the legacy I want to leave one day, I think of the legacy that my my cousin, Mary, left when she passed away. We lost my beautiful cousin two years ago, unexpectedly. She was the brightest light to everyone around her, her family, friends, co-workers, and acquaintances. Mary never took one second for life granted. She was beautiful, kind, empathetic, hard-working, generous, loving, gracious, charismatic, courageous, brave, and intuitive. She shined so brightly and helped others find their light and do the same. I was truly inspired by her and the way she greeted and treated others. The legacy I want to build is one that embodies all that my cousin was. I want people to remember me as someone who they could depend on and feel a sense of peace, warmth, and vulnerability around me. I hope they remember the ways I mentored and stewarded them towards positivity and light. We live in a dark world, a place that is broken and uncertain. Life is challenging and will test you. Even when it tests you, how will you respond? Will you respond with optimism and joy, or will you let it deter your path and story? You story does not define you. It is how you choose to rise up from it and create a story that you are proud to tell others. And when I think of my cousin, I think of her story and how she constantly rose above her circumstance and chose to embrace life with humility, joy, laughter, and grace. That is who I want to be and the legacy I want to leave. There have been so many time when I let my story get the best of me, the best of my happiness and my character. I want to tell people that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. That the place you are in is not forever. You can change the course of your story. You can be a source of light, encouragement, hope, courage, and positivity. A warm greeting from someone can be life-changing. Acknowledging another person and hearing their story, is life-changing. In my career, profession and dreams, that is my goal.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am the owner of “Light to Life Jewelry” and “Pop & Pour Bar Cart Rental Service, LLC.” I started Light to Life Jewelry when I was a hard place in my life. I really wanted to shed light on the positive things in my life, even though it seemed like it was really hard coping with the circumstances that were taking place. I took my pain and sorrow, and I channeled that into creating time to do something I love. Which is to make jewelry for others. The mission and purpose of my jewelry is spread joy and light. It is to create beauty for others and add light to their lives, despite what their lives may look like. With “Pop & Pour Bar Cart Rental Service,” my sister and I started that out of our family’s kitchen, with the intention to provide a service to others for big milestone events. Growing up, I always felt like there were so many of life’s big moments and we found joy in celebrating and toasting to those. We wanted to put that joy back into the community and offer a champagne cart for those big milestone events. Our hope is that people feel united and welcomed at those gatherings and through our service. We are proud to offer services that are tailored to clients needs and that feed into their event themes and designs. We want others to know that we are there for them through the ups and downs in life and we are rooting and cheering for you along the way. If there is any way to make life more purposeful, fun, positive and joyful, then we have completed our mission.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I think we all are innately strong and have built-in resilience. Life will test you and throw difficult curveballs your way. But where you are, is not where you’re going and it certainly is not your forever. There is goodness ahead and there is so much to be thankful for. It was about 2 1/2 years ago and I was in a really hard place in my life. I was coping with grief and loss in my family, bouncing from job-to-job, dealing with a broken heart, and suffering from deeply rooted depression and anxiety. I felt like the walls were caving in and life felt unstable. I wasn’t sure who to turn to or what I could do to make things better. I felt weak, lost and hopeless. Then, one day, my old roommate and kind friend had this idea to invite me to a church called, “Crosspoint.” I decided to give it a try and open my heart to a new community. I went to the church and fell in love with it. I felt called by God to go every Sunday and to make my faith a priority in my life. It was since that moment that I decided to turn my life around for the better. I go re-baptized at the church in March of last year, began training for races, playing intramural soccer, focusing on my mental and physical well-being, and made strong friendships and connections through a bible study group. I also found a job at a school that was enriching and all-around positive for me. This story demonstrates my resilience. It shows me that I didn’t give up when I thought I should and it gave me the courage to start again- even though I was fearful and afraid. It takes strength to stand back up again when you feel like you’ve bene knocked down so many times. It takes courage to keep fighting for your goals and your dreams despite what others many think. I found that when you stop listening to the noise, you can focus on yourself and actually listen to your head and your heart. You can actually show up for yourself. I think that is resilience and a profound strength that is admirable. We all have resilience inside of us, but it is how we choose to see our circumstances and how we respond that help us to find it and use it.

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

I feel as though social media is the main outlet for marketing businesses these days and it can be difficult to reach an audience if you don’t have a big following. The way that we built our now audience on social media (which is still fairly small by the way!) is by reaching out to local artisans and businesses to get connected and share more about who we are as a business. I think if you’re offering a service, it is always key to ask other businesses how you can help their business thrive and also ways to work collaboratively. This grows your audience and business network as well. The point isn’t to solely focus on selling your services, but to network and learn about the growth and stories of other businesses and find ways to contribute to that in a way that aligns with your brand/service. I would say for those starting a new business, it is key to persist and continue to network and market. Just because you’re not seeing results right away, doesn’t mean you should give up in that pursuit. It takes time to build your social media presence and it is not quick result. When you invest and watch a dream come to fruition, it is going to take persistence and patience. Results do not happen overnight. However, they do happen when you keep seeing a “no” as a means to push harder and continue on until you get a “yes.” And that is the same concept for brand and business building. Making connections and networking with others on a genuine level is going to take you and your business farther than wishing, hoping and waiting for things to happen. The advice I would give is to persist in marketing and fostering authentic connections with businesses that can help your product and presence grow on social media.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nc-pop-pour-llc-c7dl1.zensmb.com/. https://www.etsy.com/shop/lighttolifejewelry/?etsrc=sdt
• Instagram: @popnpournc @light_to_life_jewelry
• Facebook: Light to Life Jewelry

Image Credits
Self- Rachel Burch