Meet Taylor Watts: A River of Gratitude

As a brand ambassador for ROX Jewelry Shop, I have been blown away by the inventive ways this company gives back! A portion of every purchase goes towards the charity of your choice. Talk about creating a better world. With this being my first official post for the “Empower” section of my website, the six questions you see below are the same six questions I will ask each entrepreneurial woman I have the privilege of learning from. Without further ado, let’s hear from the beautiful Taylor Watts, Owner & SheEO of ROX Jewelry LLC! And yes, she is nothing short of a SheEO to the core!

1. Tell us about the mission of your brand- how does it empower women? 

We started out as only a jewelry brand with a mission to bring beautiful, handmade jewelry from high quality materials to the marketplace and give back to charity in the process. Giving back is huge to me–I knew there was no way I would ever start a company unless giving back was a part of it.  

When it comes to empowering women, I'd say that the more examples women have of other women being successful in leadership positions and following their dreams, the better.  We're bombarded daily with thousands of messages and inputs, and over time, those messages become beliefs we have.  That can be anything from Instagram posts, to billboards, to a phrase on a coffee mug–we absorb all of it.  So why not put some positive, empowering messages for women out there?  That's what got us motivated to start on our Empowering Women Collection.  That collection is full of everything from shirts to home decor, with every piece having a message like "Boss Lady" or "Girl Gang." I worked hard to get pricing on every item affordable enough that it wouldn't break the bank, because I wanted to be able to spread the message that women can be/do/get what they want if they just stand up and go for it.  

2.  What is the biggest challenge you’ve had to press through as a female entrepreneur? What are the steps you had to take to overcome it?

I'm going to break this one into two pieces: my biggest challenge in general, and my biggest challenge specifically being a woman. 

• My biggest challenge by far has been medical.  Last year around this time, my right lung spontaneously decided it was done being inflated, which led to a bit of time in the hospital, a major lung surgery, nerve damage caused by said surgery, and if that wasn't enough to really test me, right as I was beginning to see major improvements in my nerve damage, I got in a rock climbing accident and broke my leg.  At the time of the lung collapse, I was the only person working at my company, so I worked (against my doctors orders) from my hospital bed.  As horrible as all of that sounds, from it I learned just how tough I was.  From it, I learned that you can always get to where you want to be if you just don't give up.  There's a quote from my favorite book "You are A Badass" by Jen Sincero that goes "When taking great leaps forward, life often turns to shit before it turns to Shinola." Well that was true.  After I fought through all of that, ROX started taking off! I'm talking exponential growth.  Enough so that I was able to hire a team! 

• Specifically being a woman, and even more specifically being a young woman, I've come across many challenges.  The greatest of these is people not taking me and my business seriously.   I've had printing companies do a horrible job because they didn't think my orders mattered as much as an older clients'.  I've gone to networking events where someone literally laughed in my face at the idea of growing a business that gives back to charity.  The trick to getting through all of these was just having faith in what I was doing, and never doubting for a moment that it would be successful.

3.  What sets your brand apart from others? 

We are the only company I'm aware of that gives back to the charity of our customer's choice.  We did that because we know everyone has different causes they are passionate about.  I didn't want to limit people by choosing a cause for them.  We're also the only jewelry company I've seen that's founded by a geologist.  That's been huge for us, because I've been able to source better materials at lower prices; I mean who can argue about rocks better than a geologist? 

4. How do you collaborate with others working towards a better world?

I'm a HUGE proponent of collaboration over competition.  This has manifested itself in my business in so many ways.  For starters, we added Logos Stamping (another women-owned handmade jewelry line) to our site, because I loved her products, and thought it would be wonderful to give her the opportunity to showcase them.  We've also collaborated with “A Moment of Magic Foundation” to create the Kylee Choker which gives $25 back to the foundation for each purchased at retail price of $45.  We've collaborated with subscription box brands like “Earfleek” and “She Club Monthly” to give discounts to each others' customers.  I think all of these make a huge impact in the world because everyone's purchase gives back.  The more we can give, the more change we can make.

5.  What advice would you give to female entrepreneurs in the beginning stages of launching their brand or business? 

I actually wrote an article about this on my personal blog!  The full post can be found here, but I will bullet point it here:

•  Choose your company's name extremely carefully.

•  Make detailed plans for one month, three months, six months, and a year from now.  Then don't freak out when everything doesn't go exactly to plan.

• Your mindset is arguably the most important thing to overcoming any obstacles and being successful. You will need to be resilient. Determined. Unwavering in your commitment to make this dream a reality.

•  Stop using the excuse that there's not enough time.  There is, you just have to become great at using it.

•  Say goodbye to your comfort zone.

6.  Anything else you want to share with our readers?  

I'd like to thank them for being interested in learning more about myself and ROX.  I'm so honored to have had the opportunity to share my thoughts with you on topics that I consider to be extremely important.  My heart is a river of gratitude.

Thank you so much Taylor for your thoughtfulness and KILLER advice to empower women everyday.

XOXO,

Stina Marie

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