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

Rachel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I’ve built a lot of things in the 13 years of being an entrepreneur. Sometimes I stop and look back at all the things we’ve tried over the years- products, flavors, music festivals, podcasts. But Power to Pursue, it has felt different since the beginning. This idea, this vision of really creating space for women to be seen, heard & loved in. A space we can network but really a space where we can be our full selves and connect with other women who are doing the same. A space of marketing, events, story telling, and our big summit.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi! Friends! I mean, we are friends now right? I am a serial entrepreneur. I believe in creating businesses from the Heart. In my thirteen years of creating I’ve built a cookie company, Grateful Grahams- we say we are a gratitude company that makes a cookie not a cookie company that talks about gratitude. From there, our non profit Incubator Kitchen Collective was created- a shared use commercial kitchen space that supports through the lens that healthy people build healthy businesses. And from there lots of other magical things- speaker, thought leader, gratitude grams builder, gratitude junkie, Power to Pursue founder, podcast host, consultant and community builder. Everything I have built has been through my purpose- spread the message of gratitude & build community. The pillars I have created my life through.

This all makes up The Gratitude Collective – a one stop shop for gratitude and feel good businesses. I want to create businesses that remind us how good we that we are worthy of big dreams. I want every person I meet to start a gratitude practice, 3 things a day of what you are grateful for, and watch your life expand beyond your wildest dreams!

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

I think entrepreneurship is a training ground of resilience. That’s also a word that I don’t use often but a few weeks ago someone told me how resilient I am and I am still sitting with it. Resilience is defined as – “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, toughness” One definition talks about springing back into shape, being elastic. And well perhaps resilient is what I am.

I’ve lost funding. I’ve had an investor steal over $40K from us. I’ve burnt cookies. I’ve forgotten to schedule members. I’ve most definitely not kept up with social media, trends, calendars. I’ve missed meetings. I’ve missed kids’ school things. I’ve been told I am too loud, too fat, too much. I’ve been told “I don’t understand it”, gratitude being it ;-). I’ve brought products to market that have never taken off. I’ve built a music festival and podcasts and also let them go before they’ve “gotten there”. I’ve gotten “there” and walked away. I’ve fallen so many times these 13 years I have lost count.

But what I do know is this- it’s in the falling down that the true path is forged. I can lay out my ideal vision, but it’s in the falling, in the discovery of resilience, being nimble, learning to bend not break. It’s in the getting back up that impacts and defines who we are and the impact our small businesses can have.

Trying to not get stuck, it’s so easy to get paralyzed in those falls but I promise you this, falling 99 times and getting back up 100 is why I am here. It’s why I keep gratitude at the forefront and why at the end of the day my only question is – did I do MY best?

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

A lesson I have had to unlearn through all of this is my enoughness. I am worthy of bringing my dreams to life. I am worthy of an abundant life. I think through entrepreneurship we’re often shown two sides- the very beginning and the very successful. When there’s this incredible path to be full of all the in-betweens. In this in-between space of launching an idea, and then the actual work it takes to make it anything, let alone “successful”. A lesson in resilience but maybe more so a lesson in personal discovery.

First- I encourage you all to define success. Right now, if you had 60 seconds to answer that, what would your answer be? I think I had to understand what success meant for me and a big part of that is that it is so loosely defined and normally with one portion being looked at – money. As I defined success for myself I realized that if I didn’t do that I would always be chasing something vs satisfied and gratified in the actual work I get to do every single day. Success for me these days is defined by- paying bills on time, dinner with my family, weekends off to explore and be with my people and so much more!

How do I define success?
Where are my limited beliefs holding me back?
What brings me joy?

There is no simple solution here, just the work that lies ahead. My hope is folks enjoy the journey and release a little control on the destination.

My backstory is falling down 99 times and getting up 100. My backstory is learning to rest and not give up. My backstory is realizing how nimble I really am as every day I wake up to the best laid plans and every day I work through at least 1 curve ball to keep going.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thegratitudecollective.org
• Instagram: @racheldesrochers @thegratitudecollective @powertopursue @incubatorkitchencollective
• Linkedin: Rachel DesRochers

Image Credits
@tashapinelophotography (headshot/family shot) @teahlonglandphotography (Power to pursue photos)