We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stephanie Rabinowitz. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stephanie below.
Stephanie , appreciate you joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
Many of us have ideas. Some more complex, some very simple. What’s the difference? Actually, nothing if we move forward with our ideas and dreams. No matter what it is, there is no right or wrong way to jot them down. It boils down to one thing… what and will we do anything with it? Your answer should be a great indication to what the outcome may be.
Ideas come to us from our thoughts, what we may witness or even experience. When we have an idea, some of us will start the process to work towards executing them and some of us may take notes and put them aside, for days, weeks, months, years or maybe forever.
A big reason many of us do not start to execute our ideas is that we are unsure, don’t know how to proceed, or afraid of failure, so we wait. You will never know unless you try. Truth.
I have been there myself. It took me a long time to think about it, do some research, organize, oh and let’s not forget all the excuses I made to delay it, plus life getting in the way. After years went by and I still believed I could and should at least try this, but was too afraid, I finally pushed myself and decided to go for it!
I kept myself busy with learning the ins and outs of e-commerce. I was only familiar with my background – which only consisted of the brick and mortar world. All this internet stuff was new and scary. “Sink or Swim” I decided to swim! I started to surf the web, learning what I needed to do to get started on Youtube, plus join webinars with mentors who have more experience than me and learn from them. By the way, the learning never stops. There is always new information coming out. Do what you can to keep up with it.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I was born into a family of entrepreneurs. My father started in South Africa with cheese, to furniture to lingerie. The lingerie brought us to America where we launched Le Mystere. Also known as Oprah’s favourite bra. All this was and still is in my comfort zone. I have had jobs and tried many things in life, but what I enjoy the most is coming up with ideas, working on them to see if I can get them into fruition. Some work and some do not, but the cool thing is… you will gain knowledge and have experience with everything you do. It’s all good!
In 2019, I decided to launch my own pet business where it would not be just another pet store but rather a passionate pet lover (me), who wants to educate as many pet parents as possible to keep their pets safe. I would also be selling quality products that are well made and safe for the dogs and cats. After all, it’s all about them!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I have spent my whole life from birth through to my early 30’s working in the family business called Le Mystere. I have learned and experienced plenty of knowledge from the day we started that business to the time we were endorsed 4 years in a row, by Oprah, on her show “Spring favourite things”.
After the recession started in 2007, things shifted for everyone. I also had a mishap (very bad trip and fall, causing health issues) in 2013. This would change my life going forward. Besides learning a lot about myself and making big changes in my life, I decided to try my entrepreneur skills and dedicate it to my passion. Dogs and cats! That was a big shift in my life and knew I could only move forward from there.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Woking hard to carry high quality and safe products for pets. I also have the desire to build human trust with all my customers and their pet parents. I am happy to go that extra mile to help each customer be satisfied with their concerns and purchase. I do not want to leave anyone feeling left in the dark. I work as a personal concierge with each customer that I come in contact with because it really matters to me that pet parents get what they are looking for.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lepetluxe.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lepetluxe/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LePetLuxe
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanierabinowitz/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lepetluxe
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr-QJ47ZmSjXjIkbWQ-CKQQ
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/lepetluxe2019/
Image Credits
Image Credit by Le Pet Luxe