We can help each other

This past summer, I was sitting at my desk when an email popped in my box from one of our incredible interns.  She sent me a spreadsheet with ideas of like-minded companies we could potentially partner with in the future.  As I was clicking through the websites, I felt this overwhelming sadness.

It was strange.

What I was looking at, wasn’t sad.  It was actually beautiful.  The companies founded by female socialpreneurs (female entrepreneurs committed to making a positive social change through business) really got to me.  They are doing such amazing, good in the world, while creating these beautiful products for us.

But what I felt was this gut wrenching angst about knowing how incredibly hard it is.  How hard it is to do great work that makes a difference.  How hard it is to find the right people who care enough about your story to take action and do something. To stick with you.

In my heart, I wanted to call them up to say,

I see you!  

What you’re doing is beautiful and needed and SO important.

Don’t stop!  Please don’t stop.

We need you.  

I wanted to encourage them, to support them in some way, but what could I really do?

Nothing.

My palms got sweaty (like they always do when I get emotional) and I just couldn’t take it. So I got up.  I walked into the bathroom.  As I stood there washing my hands, I saw myself in the mirror and it hit me.

I can do something!

You see, I’ve spent the last two years building HeartStories to encourage women to replace the negative noise of old stories that sometimes hold us back and hear love instead.  To live the stories of our hearts.  Our focus is to amplify the love that drives us towards being all we’re meant to be and doing what we are uniquely meant to do.

I really hope it’s encouraged you.  This work has called me by name.  I know it’s exactly what I’m meant to be doing and yet, let me just say this:

It’s been really hard.

Don’t get me wrong.  It’s also been insanely rewarding!  There have been some amazing highs.  There’s been so much encouragement and positive feedback, it’s been astounding at times.  And I’m incredibly grateful for it all.

It’s just that in the midst of all of it, there are lonely days.  Really lonely days. Days when I don’t know what to do next and I start to wonder if anyone would notice anyway.  Days when I look at the bank statement and fear it won’t ever be different. There may have even been days I crawled back into bed and pulled the covers over my head hoping tomorrow would bring a miracle.

I’m just sayin’.

Hard.

And lonely.

That’s why I felt it.  I could feel their pain, even when it’s wasn’t apparent to anyone else.  Even when it looks like everything is going great and no one else knows how hard it is, I can see it.   Because I’ve been there.

So, standing there looking in the mirror, I connected the dots.  

We can help them. Through HeartStories, we can support them.

We can connect them to each other and to an amazing gathering of women who care about all the good they’re doing.  Women who want to see them succeed at following their hearts. Women who want to support the kind of work that creates positive social change.

Even some who, deep in their hearts, want to find the courage to do that kind of good work.

We can share their stories.  Not just the polished, marketing highlights.  The real stories.  The grit.  The pain. The excitement. The tears. The joy. The trials and errors.  The highs and lows.  The reality of putting themselves out there to do the work that called them by name right alongside the incredible stories of the lives they’ve changed along the way.

By purchasing their products and sharing their stories, together we will encourage them to keep going.

And along the way, they will encourage us too.

They’ll encourage us to take the first step, or maybe to stay the course, in the work that our souls are calling us to do.  They will encourage us to care more, to do more good.  Whatever that looks like for each of us.

They will encourage us to live our own heart stories.

I’m so excited about this I can hardly see straight.  It’s keeping me up at night (and it’s certainly keeping me out of bed during the day). 😉

We are mobilizing to create a marketplace that enables you to shop for meaningful products all in one spot, side by side.  A place you choose based on the story that resonates most deeply in your heart.  You’ll be excited to share it with your friends because through your purchase, you become part of the story of the change being made through that product.

We think you’re going to love it.

In fact, I’m betting that you are the kind of woman who cares enough to do something with it, to get involved.  And when you do, it will improve your life in the process.

It’s time for a new story for women everywhere and we can help each other.

If this get’s you excited too and you’d like to help or share ideas, by all means, send them to me here.  I’d absolutely love for us to all create this new space together.

To more love!

Crystal

P.S. If you know of a female socialpreneur creating products you love, would you please share her info with me in the comments below or drop me a line here?  I’d really love to get in touch.

#YourTurnChallenge #Day 7