Meet Innovative Woman Suzette Vearnon author, innovator and founder of three businesses including Purposeful Connections.
How and why did you start your business?
I actually started my first business at age 10 when I played the piano for the Junior Choir at my church. My older sister had been the pianist for the choir and was about to go off to college. My mother negotiated increasing the salary they paid my sister from $4 per worship service to $8. Soon thereafter a neighboring church asked me about playing for their Junior Choir. This time, I negotiated with my then English teacher myself. A whopping $15. When I think back, I realize that was my introduction to entrepreneurship and what would be a means of income going forward.
What has been your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?
My biggest challenge was not understanding that entrepreneurship was my true calling and contribution to something bigger than myself. I thought of it as merely a side hustle. As a result, I kept abandoning it to get “a real job.” It wasn’t until an Earth shaker for me – the death of a beloved family member who was exactly my age – that Life asked me a sobering question. “If you dropped dead right this minute, would have have any regrets?” My answer was “Yes.” I had not lived my life on my terms. I had spent my life trying to live up to what was considered responsible.
Socialized to regard working for someone else as more secure than launching out, it was a struggle to gain confidence to leave traditional employment. Sadly, time and time again my employer and I would come to an impasse. Sometimes after 10 year. Sometimes after 5 years. I’d leave and go to another job.
Shaken awake by that sobering question, I prayed really hard because I felt like my life was hanging in the balance and it was a do-or-die moment. Though I felt most alive when I worked for myself, I was petrified. I had tried before and failed, tucked my tail between my legs and returned to traditional employment. I was petrified!
Help came in the form of a business coach. I didn’t know her but the way I found out about her was a sign that I couldn’t overlook. We met at a time I was working a part-time temp job making $18/hour. She helped me to package my talents, skills and gifts based on what I’d need to operate my business. The Universe immediately got behind me and strategized one significant move after another. As a result, by the end of the 3-month business coaching commitment, April 1, 2013 to be exact, my company Odyssey Administrative Services flipped a client from a temp job to a would-be employer to a contract that shifted me to subcontractor and then to business owner. My business Odyssey Music Consultants secured a long-term verbal contract with a growing church in the area. My business Purposeful Connections signed paying clients and I released my first book, THE SOUND OF MY LIFE.
How do you define SUCCESS?
Joseph Campbell got it right. SUCCESS is truly the freedom to be yourself. Though sincere about being responsible, I was cutting off my air supply. Every time I abandoned myself to go down the traditional path, I slow walked my way back to frustration and compounded a lack of fulfillment. When I stepped into my rightful place in the Universe, my purpose got clearer and every endeavor since has enriched my life and the lives of others.
If there was one thing you wish you knew before you began, what would that be?
I am enough.
What makes you an innovative woman?
Again, it started when I was a child. I was 7 years old when I discovered a talent to play the piano by ear. I immediately recruited my baby sister to sit beside me on the piano and to copy what I did. Little did I know that I would do the very same thing as an adult. You see, I believed that I wasn’t special. I believed that what I possessed others possessed too. All they needed was for me to show them. Now, my sister puts me to shame she’s so musically talented.
The purity of this gift has been recovered in my being an entrepreneur, an author and a life coach.
My latest endeavor is launching STATISTICS BE DARNED. It’s a movement to empower women to own their inherent power to attract and find love. And I’m not just hopeful about it or wishing on a star. My life is proof positive for just 6 months ago, I married the absolute love of my life on my 55th birthday!
In sum, the innovation is reaching into the wealth inside and manifesting it outside. When folks truly get it, they can’t be stopped from achieving their dreams. Therein lies their power to change what they don’t like about their lives into what they envision.
That’s what makes me an innovative woman! I don’t just talk it, I walk it every single day of my life.
To find out more about Suzette visit www.suzetterhinton.com or connect with her on Facebook or Twitter.