We recently connected with VASILIKI GKARMIRI and have shared our conversation below.

Hi VASILIKI, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

This business was seeded almost 30 years ago, when I set foot in a bead store for the first time and was mesmerized by the colors, textures and sparkle of design elements-beads, yarns and textiles stole my heart. I became a collector on the spot and creating jewelry became an outlet for expressing my creative spirit, a hobby next to my other artistic endeavors like painting and writing poetry.

I started teaching myself how to design and create jewelry in my parents’ basement, in Thessaloniki in Northern Greece. You Tube was not there-those were the days when the internet and cell phones were not part of our lives yet.

Meanwhile, I was studying to become a doctor.

The second act came when a piece of jewelry saved my first ever lecture on stage as a young doctor-it was an eye-opening experience that made me realize how what you wear has the power to communicate things about you not only to other people but most importantly to yourself. This realization stayed with me throughout my medical career and down the line played a significant role in the birth and scope of this company. It also led me into studying jewelry design on the side and honing in on my skills, so that I could grow as an artist.

The third act came with immigration.

When we decided to start the immigration process, I was an established physician in Greece with a significant career and my artistic outlet was my hobby on the side-however, it was the help of my family on both sides that made everything sustainable. I quickly realized that in the States, without any outside help, I would have to choose.

I took courses on career change and personality tests seeking an answer, but I found a question instead:

If you were to die tomorrow, what is the ONE dream you will regret not having given a chance to come to life?

I had a lightbulb moment- in my medical career I had gone beyond my wildest dreams and expectations, but I had this dream in the back of my head that at the age of 67, when I would retire from medicine, I would own a bead boutique and sell my creations to help women look and feel fabulous like Goddesses. THAT was the dream I was keeping close to my heart but not giving a chance to flourish in my present.

But taking a chance on this dream meant leaving medicine on the side in my new life overseas.

It was one of the toughest decisions I ever had to make-and a great risk. I was going back and forth for a while wondering about the right path to take. It was the support of my husband and digging into my values and my family’s needs at the moment, together with my own dreams and aspirations, that pushed me to take this leap. I took the final decision on the long immigration flight, and I CANNOT say I haven’t looked back-but my heart knows it’s in the right place.

On the business side of things-there are no guarantees in business, let alone a creative one. What makes the endeavor worthwhile is what you’re bringing to it-your desire to change the world in some way. On my end, it started with creating beauty-wanting to be surrounded by beauty and wanting to help women feel this joy of the moment when you put on a piece of jewelry and you feel SO gorgeous, SO powerful and confident like a Goddess.

This moment, when a woman can express on the outside her inner vivacious spirit, when her outfit tells the world and herself the story of who she is and how she wants to feel as she goes through her everyday life-this moment is powerful. I wanted to be a part of this story with my jewelry-in an empowering way. And this is how it all started.

From the very start we wanted this business to give back. A percentage of every purchase goes to In Kind Boxes to support US postpartum moms and babies in need with care essentials. So, every sparkle we spread is also doing good.

A main way of us being sustainable and reducing our environmental impact is making everything by hand to order in the States. This helps us keep minimal inventory and not contribute to the fast fashion waste. Our designs are made to last-fashionable but evergreen so that they can be worn beyond a wear or a season.

Many of the elements I use in my design come from my personal collection. We source our new elements worldwide and primarily in Greece, to ensure the highest quality and safety standards for our materials. This way we also contribute to both countries our children were raised in-Greece and the States.

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?

Hi, I’m Vasiliki (but everyone calls me Vicky).

I am the Greek immigrant designer and co-founder of Next Door Goddess where we help women unleash the Goddess within and stay unforgettable.

We do it through the jewelry I design and create by hand in my studio in Plano, TX.

Can you imagine going through life not feeling beautiful? Dove did research and they found that only 4% of women would describe themselves as beautiful. Not feeling beautiful can start a vicious circle-we’re on a mission to change that. We’re here to help women look their best and feel fabulous just as they are.

When a woman expresses her inner vivacious spirit through her outfit, she tells a powerful story of who she is and how she wants to present herself, without saying a word. We’re here to serve women with eclectic, vibrant style that wish to infuse their outfits with a luxury bohemian vibe and feel gorgeous.

My jewelry designs are inspired by Greece and the Mediterranean terrain-the colors, the amulets, the textures and shapes, the myth and history. Our elements are sourced worldwide and primarily in Greece, with exceptional quality and longevity in mind. Many of them are part of my personal bead collection that spans almost 30 years.

Each piece is mindfully made by hand to order, and they are limited edition or one of a kind. They are designed to age gracefully and be worn and loved for years to come. They all give back, to make every sparkle matter.

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

It’s not just a lesson I had to unlearn-it is the definition of success itself.

Coming from a significant career in the medical world, and a 50-page CV, to ground zero has required not only resilience and mindset skills but redefining what success is.

Here’s what I found:

When you start building a business in a place where you hardly know anyone, let alone when you do so online, organically, amidst a pandemic, you CANNOT measure success in the traditional way-and you shouldn’t compare your achievements to those of seasoned businesses that are well established and have survived the initial turbulent phase.

To stay the course and be resilient you need to know where you’re standing but you also need to be able to celebrate your wins-big or small-and to do so, you need a different approach.

I realized that, to find and celebrate my wins, I had to look on the inside and measure success by my core values in life. Instead of asking “How much money did you make and how many followers did you get” I shifted my questions to:

Had I been able to serve the needs of my family while seeding this business?
Had we been able to give back to the best of our abilities?
Had I been able to serve our first customers in a stellar way, and were they inclined to come back to us?
Had I been able to progress in my art and my design?
Had we been able to overcome the challenges in a way that was sustainable?
Did I have meaningful interactions on the platforms I was presenting myself and this brand?

There have been times that things were rough, and finding something to celebrate wasn’t easy. But there is always a win somewhere if you look for it.

You may have noticed I use “I” and “we” interchangeably- I am the designer and face of this brand but the other half is my husband who has been there for me and with me all the way. This business would not have been here without his help, guidance, and support-both on the business and on the family part.

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

I can’t say our social media account blew up overnight-but it keeps growing in an authentic, organic way.

As a result, I can’t share advise on how to achieve a high number of followers or likes-but I wouldn’t recommend making these vanity metrics the cornerstone of your online existence as a business, either.

Here’s what I would recommend for growth that matters, from personal experience and by following the wisdom of people that have been my mentors on social media:

-Hone in your message and what you stand for.
-Stay true to yourself and who you are as a person behind the brand.
-Don’t outsource your social media before you have a clearly defined brand voice and messaging.
-Find your own comfort zone in building the boundaries between yourself and your brand. (This one is very personal and has a lot to do with the specific strategy/vision of every owner, but it’s best to define it earlier rather than later).
-Stay away from buying followers and likes-it will hurt your brand, skew all metrics, and you will have no clue about how to progress down the line.
-It’s better to post than not to post. Not all posts will get the same interactions and only by posting will you be able to discern what your audience wants from you-and when.
-Focus on finding the posts and products that drive sales and those of high engagement and likes (they may be very different).
-If you need to take a break, take a break, your mental health is your Nr. 1 priority.
-Consistency is your best friend. High quality consistent content will outperform all else.
-Everyone else may be looking like they have the perfect brand/life/sales/whatever it is that you wish you had. Remember what you see on social media is the slice everyone has chosen to show.
-You don’t have to follow every account that follows you and many engage in a follow/unfollow tactic anyway. Follow accounts that inspire you or that you genuinely want to learn from and/or interact with. From time-to-time revisit and clean your list.
-Social Media takes a lot of time to grow organically. If you are a business and not a creator or an influencer, and you are not in the place to outsource everything yet, I would suggest picking one platform and growing from there- you can always add more in the future if you wish. However, keep the relevant handles in the rest of the platforms.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nextdoorgoddess.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nextdoorgoddess_/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nextdoorgoddess

Image Credits
Photos of Vasiliki and her husband and co-founder Dimitrios by Lauren Bethany Photography Product and model photos by Atali Samuel Photography in Black And Light Studio