The Path to Curtsyland
Curtsy Mama here - it's my turn to write the blog today. Danielle and I get asked at least once a week how we came to open Curtsy Bella - if we have backgrounds in retail. Since I have control of the keys today - I'll spill about my Path to Curtsyland.
My background is rather varied. When raising Danielle and her brother Josh, I lived in Prescott, AZ and built custom homes with my ex-husband. I worked both in the office and on the jobsite and loved to get my hands dirty, and my shirt and my hair...well you get the idea!
When I turned 40, my life took a different turn when I took my first flying lesson. I had such an amazing feeling of accomplishment after my first solo flight that I vowed that day to become a flight instructor. Two years later, I had reached my goal and the school hired me as an instructor. Six months later I bought the school! I owned the school for a little over 2 years, but when a tragedy took the life of one of my flight instructors, I decided to sell the school and get out of the business.
It was after selling the school that I got my start in retail. Danielle was in high school and already working for a retail specialty store. The couple who owned this store was preparing to open their third shop and they hired me. After a year, I was able to work in the same store as Danielle and we found that we worked very well together. Our secret is that I let her think she's the boss and she let's me think I'm the boss - works out quite well!
Once Danielle left for college at the Fashion Institute in Los Angeles and her brother was in college at the Berkeley Institute in Boston, I made my way to Seattle and fell in love with the city and the thoughts of opening a store here someday began to bloom.
I made a 2 year detour to south Florida where I was Diretor of Staff Development for a drug and alcohol rehab center. Great job, great pay, great benefits - when I quit and moved all the way back across the country to sink everything I owned into Curtsy Bella, more than one person assurred me that I was nuts.
I have a saying by Helen Keller on the wall in my bedroom which I try to live by - "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all" I'll take the daring adventure every time - I may fail,I may not but I'll have a hell of a time doing it!
XOXO
Mary Jo
My background is rather varied. When raising Danielle and her brother Josh, I lived in Prescott, AZ and built custom homes with my ex-husband. I worked both in the office and on the jobsite and loved to get my hands dirty, and my shirt and my hair...well you get the idea!
When I turned 40, my life took a different turn when I took my first flying lesson. I had such an amazing feeling of accomplishment after my first solo flight that I vowed that day to become a flight instructor. Two years later, I had reached my goal and the school hired me as an instructor. Six months later I bought the school! I owned the school for a little over 2 years, but when a tragedy took the life of one of my flight instructors, I decided to sell the school and get out of the business.
It was after selling the school that I got my start in retail. Danielle was in high school and already working for a retail specialty store. The couple who owned this store was preparing to open their third shop and they hired me. After a year, I was able to work in the same store as Danielle and we found that we worked very well together. Our secret is that I let her think she's the boss and she let's me think I'm the boss - works out quite well!
Once Danielle left for college at the Fashion Institute in Los Angeles and her brother was in college at the Berkeley Institute in Boston, I made my way to Seattle and fell in love with the city and the thoughts of opening a store here someday began to bloom.
I made a 2 year detour to south Florida where I was Diretor of Staff Development for a drug and alcohol rehab center. Great job, great pay, great benefits - when I quit and moved all the way back across the country to sink everything I owned into Curtsy Bella, more than one person assurred me that I was nuts.
I have a saying by Helen Keller on the wall in my bedroom which I try to live by - "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all" I'll take the daring adventure every time - I may fail,I may not but I'll have a hell of a time doing it!
XOXO
Mary Jo
posted by Curtsy Bella @ 5:41 AM
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