Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Stephanie Tear, a serial entrepreneur and wellness advocate based in Los Angeles, CA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I am a wellness advocate with multiple e-commerce businesses. I own a company called Only With Love which is vegan, cruelty-free, and conscious beauty and skincare items as well as an eco-friendly lifestyle line called Core and Wild. I created products that enrich people's lives and drive them towards a more meaningful and intentional daily practice. You could say we master the art of slow living, mindfulness, and spiritual connection. My customers are a beautiful sea of variety. Our main customer base is women ages 15-33. People who are into spirituality, veganism, sustainability, crystals, slow living aesthetics, and more!

Tell us about yourself

I actually got my start as a makeup artist and wanted products that worked for me and my busy schedule much more efficiently. I'm avid about taking things and making them better! I started formulating products based on products that I felt were good but had found the gaps that could make them truly next-level. People loved that I had one foot in the consumer door just like them but also the perspective of someone behind the scenes seeing how products are formulated and how many corners brands cut just to sell something that may not even work. I now work full-time for my business and have for roughly four years. I do all things health and wellness, including running a podcast called Truly Wild and hosting women's healing retreats across the country!

What motivates me is my internal visions of all the amazing things I want to create. I have such a mind for product development, and I see products in my head before they come to market, and that process is a type of satisfaction that's unexplainable. To create something from nothing is indescribable! I would love to say that it's the customers and the brand love that motivates me, but the truth is that I don't sugarcoat because women need to know what they're getting into. You can't let other people be the reason you show up for your business. This is coming from your heart, from your deeper passions, it has to be FOR YOU. Otherwise, you'll burn out and find yourself checking off accomplishments from someone else's log of life goals. Don't make that mistake so many of us do when we first jump in, and yes, I did!

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I think just being able to build something that other people believe in. Enough to spend their money, their time, and their energy on for years now and on such a consistent basis. That still kinda blows me away. The fact that it started with an idea and that you're able to build something from your mind to the hearts and homes of other people's daily lives. How crazy and amazing! It's definitely multi-faceted, but in that, being able to have an impact on people's daily lives through products and creating the initiative for more wholesome, self-love-driven routines makes me proud that I chose to keep going. It turned into a ripple effect of more self-care and self-love for others because I created what I envisioned because I took the leap.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

Believing in yourself is the life-support of your business and your life if you're going for it full-time. The issue is when you get down or are struggling, you have to remember that this rides on you and your belief, your fire, and your passion to make it happen. So if you aren't willing to consistently and continually BE THAT supportive system for yourself, you won't make it. You have to be able to shift, change, and try new things. You must be willing to look at your crap to see what isn't working and/or how it's hindering your business and be decisive and quick on your feet for solutions. Otherwise, you'll be spinning your wheels and making no progress. The one who builds the unafraid muscle becomes a success!

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Just stop thinking and start feeling through what you truly WANT to do and create and just follow that. It's the map, the only one you need!
  2. I would tell them very adamantly to stop outsourcing. And I am not talking about getting help with physical or technical things which you cannot do. I am referencing the way we outsource our ability to 'make it' through other peoples' ideas, formulas, sales funnels, marketing strategies, etc. It's a waste of your time because YOU are your greatest resource. Any time you find yourself sourcing outside of yourself for a solution, you won't find it permanently resolved. You have it all inside!
  3. Things changing is a NECESSITY. Don't think this phase or the next one is forever; embrace what it is, look at how far you've come, and recognize that certain things you're doing you once prayed for. Don't rush. Trust the process and know that you can literally find a solution to anything if you just follow your heart. Things will change, that's inevitable. But what matters to you and how you express that will always come through to your audience if you're staying true to yourself and your vision.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website (Business): https://www.coreandwild.com/
Website (Business): https://www.onlywithlove.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephanietear/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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