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

Alright, Tabitha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

I have always been a risk taker since I was a child. So as I grew into loving the idea of owning a business, I made sure that any idea that came to my mind I had to try it. I started with hair and making wigs, then I went into doing lash extensions which were both successful, however I didn’t see it as something I could do forever. It started feeling like a “job” and I hated that feeling. So one day I met this women that I began purchasing accessories from and I immediately had the thought “why don’t I sell my own accessories”. I was confident I could do it, not only because I was known for my style and taste in fashion, but it was natural to me. It didn’t feel like work… I truly enjoy it, it’s apart of who I am and I could see myself doing it forever. I started T. Accessories in 2016 and I have recently added styling services to help women feel confident in their bodies while guiding them into ways to look and feel their best. I say all this to say that taking risks are important. If you don’t at least try, you’ll never find your purpose, what you are truly passionate about or what you have been placed in the world to do.

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?

My name is Tabitha Smith, and I own T. Accessories and Styling with Tabitha Ashley. I was born and raised in the Bronx with both my parents Ivan and Lucille Smith. I am a lover for all things fashion. I love anything fashion from the trends to editorial and high fashion. I LOVE IT ALL. I’ve always been known for my style and the items I wear; I’d often get questions on what I am wearing and where did I purchase them from. In 2016 I decided to combine my love for business and fashion together and created T. Accessories. The core of my brand is for my customer to be confident, bold and to instantly feel like “THAT GIRL” whenever they put on my pieces. T. Accessories includes a range of quality accessories from bags, earrings, bracelets, necklaces and more. I have recently added Styling with Tabitha Ashley to share my gift of style with the world. As a dark-skinned African American, plus sized woman, that was not always celebrated. I had to learn how to dress for my body and feel confident even when it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I HAD to love me and learn that the only opinions that mattered was God’s and my own. So, I found joy in putting outfits together for any and every occasion. I didn’t care where I was going, I wanted to look and feel good at all times.

I understand that looking good, starts with feeling good on the inside. So, in my styling sessions I make it a priority to tap into the things my client is insecure about or may not love about themselves. My goal is to guide them in ways to make the areas they don’t love, work for them. This to me is where confidence starts to grow, simply embracing the things we don’t love by trying something new. One way I help my clients is by encouraging them to tap into different trends, clothing or fashion items that they may not be used to or afraid to try. This is something I’m super proud of because my clients trust me enough to know that my intentions are to always encourage change but at the same time allow them to stay true to their own personal style.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson that I have learned is that everything takes time, and we have to trust the process. This lesson can be for anything in life. I also learned that success doesn’t happen overnight. When I began my lash extension business, I had the idea that it would be easy and that I’d make so much money quickly. That was taught at the training seminar that I went to. So, I was excited, and I had done it a bunch of times on a practice doll thinking that I had it down packed. No one tells you how difficult it is to master doing lashes on a physical human! Especially finding out that everyone doesn’t have the same eye shape or number of lashes on each eye. I had no idea that learning a skill that was so easy to me, would take a while to learn. So, for me the biggest lessons are making sure what you are investing in is worth it so that you learn to have patience, consistency and discipline to perfect your craft or business.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

I have found that the best strategy in growing my clientele for both my businesses have been social media. I love to use Instagram and Facebook to post creative looks and outfits as daily content. This allows me to interact with people and also start relationships and conversation about them being potential clients or just about their thoughts on my look.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.taccessoriesnyc.com
• Personal: @tabithaashley___
• Business: @taccessoriesnyc
• Facebook: Tabitha Ashley