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

Raelyn, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

No problem at all. I appreciate the opportunity you have given me to share my story with others. I believe what matters most is making sure you have passion, perseverance, persistence, and faith. All of those things are so vitally important because the passion for what you are building ensures that you are going to take every part of the process seriously. You’re not going to lallygag or fumble the bag due to distractions. You need perseverance and persistence because you may not get everything right with the first try. Everyone is not going to say yes to you, but in spite of it all you have to continue to keep pressing forward. Don’t let a no scare you into giving up. That’s where persistence comes in. Don’t let a setback cause you to be scared of returning to the drawing board and setting yourself up for a major comeback. You’re going to have to go back to the drawing board a few times but it’s okay, because the time you spend making sure your i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed is what everyone will appreciate in the end. Faith is the last key component but also the most important because without faith your ship can’t sail to the destinations God planned for you to reach. See, we often set destinations and pinnacles that we want to hit for ourselves but Faith in God takes us further than we could have ever imagined. You have to put your faith in front of you at all times in this business industry because sometimes what you see can be scary, confusing, intimidating, and difficult to see yourself getting past but with the help of God as your guide, you’ll be looking back like “How did I think that little part was going to stop me?” Faith doesn’t make things easy, it makes things possible.

Raelyn, 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?

Sure, I’m 26 years old and I am the founder of the non-profit Daughters of Destiny For Young Girls, I am an author, and the business owner of a clothing line called Raelyn Tarrol Collection. I got into this industry because I wanted to make clothes that promoted a positive self image and a positive message. I have a 2 in one brand where one entity consists of Streetwear for men, women, and children and the other entity consists of clothing for not only working women but also women who like to look modest while not having to compromise on style. I am a PK (Preacher’s Kid) and I absolutely love getting cute and being fashion forward. I often had a hard time finding things to wear to church in local stores that were cute but not showing too much or vice versa. I always felt like I had to compromise one for the other and I didn’t really like that. So I decided to solve the problem and create a line of clothes that you could wear to work meetings and to church without having to look too young, too old, or show too much or not enough. Everything is very well balanced. No more compromising style for modesty you get both at the Raelyn Tarrol Collection. I would find dresses in some stores where the front of it had me sold but the back of it was completely cutout and it frustrated me. I figured I wasn’t the only one who was having this problem, so I did something about it. As for the Streetwear entity of the brand, I wanted to create something that was urban, stylish, but promoted positivity. I’m the author of the book From One Girl To Another: Daughters of Destiny and a chapter in it is called “Stay Up” and in that chapter I talk about how you have to Maintain a Prevailing Mindset in order to Stay Up and after writing that chapter God directed me to make that into a clothing line. Maintain a Prevailing Mindset is the motto and meaning behind Stay Up the brand. The clothes and design is what will draw the people in, but the message behind it all is what I believe will keep the people connected to us. What I am most proud of is my nonprofit organization, that’s my baby. It’s called Daughters of Destiny for Young Girls. I brought it to life in 2017 and one of our biggest events that we have is a back to school pop-up beauty shop for girls who are going back to school, grades K-12th. I sponsor and ask others to sponsor all the supplies and hair so no family has to come out of pocket for anything. I ask stylists to lend their services for free to help our children look nice on the first day of school. I remember how it felt to not have enough money to get the hairstyle I really wanted for the first day of school and I understand that times are tough for so many parents, so why not give them resources that can really benefit them? It’s hosted in my hometown, on the south side of Chicago and we have more and more girls every year. It’s my biggest blessing to be able to be a blessing to others. There have definitely been some times where I felt like I should give up in spite of me not wanting to give up, but I defeated my mind in those moments by overriding all the negativity that wanted to make its way to me. I’m proud of the fact that I have accomplished so much in short periods of time and I’m impacting more and more people on a daily basis. I live to love on others and be of any assistance I can to them while I can. I am almost 2 years in the clothing industry and I haven’t stopped designing, putting out merch, or trying to find new ways to reach people. It’s tough, but I know after it’s all said and done it’s worth it. I want my followers and supporters to know that I am true to the call to help spread love, positivity, and to add to making a difference in this world. I’m not in this for the money. I’m in this because I truly have a heart for people. Everything I have accomplished is not for myself, but for others as well. I wrote my book to help, inspire, and uplift girls and women who may have gone through the struggles I shared in my book but didn’t have anyone to talk them through it, lead them through it, or get them to the other side. I talk about Dating and relationships, self-esteem issues, family problems, and so much more. But I like to say, only broken eggs can make cupcakes. No matter what you’re going through God can make something sweet out of anything you face.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

I sell all of my products on my personal site www.thertcollection.com. I chose that route because I wanted to maintain control of my company. I didn’t want anyone robbing me of the experience of packing and shipping my own orders. I’m very hands-on in my company and I understand that as it grows I have to take my hands off of it more and more but the truth is, I like growing with my company. I like monitoring its growth and realizing little things like “dang last month I only shipped 30 orders and this month we’re at 50.” Stuff like that hypes me up and really gets my gears going. That’s why I chose to sell on my own personal site rather than places like Amazon, Etsy, etc. Although some of those places still allow you to pack your own, it just wouldn’t feel like I’m promoting myself to the fullest extent on someone else’s platform. I also believe people take you more seriously when you have done the work to have your own site as well. The con to having your own site is having to do all of the marketing and promoting of your products yourself in addition to everything else. Many of the platforms mentioned make it easy for people to find you, but in a world filled with a billion websites you have to put in extra work for others to land on your page.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

I initially put together the capital for starting my business by basically being an in-home nanny. My aunt just had a baby and she hired me to stay with her and her family 4 days a week to watch her baby girl. When the pandemic hit I began working for different churches and I got into brand managing a little bit for a few instagram brands while taking gigs to help churches in Chicago and Gary, Indiana stream their services on Facebook lives. I took all of that money and invested in my future by investing in my business. From then on the business has been flipping its own money and I’m proud of that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thertcollection.com
• Instagram: @Irockoriginality and @thertcollection
• Facebook: Raelyn Purham
• Youtube: Raelyn Purham
• Other: www.raelyntpurham.com