The Random Email That Kickstarted My Business
While I’ve told this exact story so many times, to many different people, every time it begins the same - ‘you won’t believe this. Truly, you won’t believe what happened to me…’
On Monday, January 30, 2023, I received an email that changed my life forever. Without me realizing at the time, this email pushed me over the threshold that I was inadvertently straddling. You see, since I left Corporate America back in October of 2022, I had been toying around with what I wanted to do next. There were numerous ideas swirling around in that big ole brain of mine (trust me when I say there still are), but one in particular stood out amongst the rest. Those of you who’ve been following me for a while know that I love all things vintage, antique, thrifting and everything in between. Nothing gets me going like what I like to call a good ‘treasure hunt,’ and most of my free time is filled with trips to estate sales, antique malls, resell boutiques and the like. It’s my happy place. It’s when I truly feel in ‘flow state.’ So it should come as no surprise that that one idea that stood out amongst the rest was starting my own vintage reselling business. The hunt is the fun part for me and I fully recognize that the hunt is, well, the not so fun part for most everyone else. Why not use my God-given talents and share them with others?? I mean how fun, right!? Not to mention how fulfilling!
The seed was planted. As it had been for many, many months. But for most of that time I was stuck in a 9-5, not thinking about anything other than making it through another week. Just get to Friday afternoon, just get to Friday afternoon. Certainly not contemplating the intricacies of starting my own business.
But then I left the 9-5 and my world opened up. Not to mention my calendar. Although I did leave Corporate America right before the holidays and right before a monthlong excursion to Lisbon, Portugal, so in actuality my new routine in this new life path I was charting, didn’t fully start until the beginning of 2023. Once we were back from Portugal, once the holidays were over and we settled back into life at home in Austin in the new year.
January was mainly plagued by analysis paralysis in which that dream of mine still lingered in the periphery but its growth was very quickly stunted by the realities of starting my own business. Sourcing for inventory, storing inventory, photographing said inventory, building a new website, selling from that website, starting an LLC, filing all the necessary paperwork…you see what I mean? Analysis Paralysis. That isn’t even the full list of everything that had to be done and I’m sure that’s enough for most of you to turn away, kick the can down the road and say ‘maybe next week is a good time to start.’ And as we all know, next week turns into next month which turns into next year which turns into ‘I used to have a dream of doing that,’ and that one oft thought about dream quickly becomes a very distant memory.
I wasn’t quite to that point yet but you better believe I was intentionally checking everything ELSE off my to-do list BEFORE starting any of the aforementioned ‘starting a business’ checklist items. We’ve all been there. There’s that one, maybe even two things that are on your to-do list and likely have been for a while, however there are ten other things that don’t instill panic and fear in your psyche the second you start thinking about them. So you go for the other ten first, right? You’d give anything NOT to do those dreadful one or two tasks you’ve been putting off. Yeah, I was in that place.
That is until January 30 when I received an email that would change my life forever. Yes, yes we’re back to that. Now it gets good…
On January 30 I received an email by way of my (now) old website/blog - AlmostFabulousMe.com. In it the sender informed me that a dear friend of hers had suddenly passed away in December of 2022. She painted a picture of this woman as a lifelong collector and lover of vintage clothing, not to mention a seamstress and a true artist when it came to her sewing capabilities. She indicated that her friend had sadly left behind a hefty collection of vintage clothing and while she used to take pieces into Sacramento to sell to shops and people in the city (Sacramento is where I’m from FYI), she wasn’t sure what those shops were or who those people were and truthfully had no idea what to do. She was overwhelmed and wanted more than anything to keep her friend’s beautiful collection out of the landfills.
Hearing that for the first time without any context, what’s your first thought? Because I’ll tell you mine. It’s a scam. There’s just no way this could be real?! However upon further inspection, the email address seemed quite legit and I was even able to track down an obituary for this woman who passed based on a few minor details provided in the initial correspondence. Well, I thought, it may seem strange and perhaps a little bit suspicious but honestly, what’s the absolute worst that could happen? Whatever it was, it didn’t seem too bad.
So I responded.
And thus began my journey to inheriting one woman’s lifelong collection of vintage clothing. Over 500 pieces to be a bit more precise.
Have I piqued your interest yet?
I’m sure you’re asking yourself a number of questions at this point - don’t worry, I would be too if I were you - in fact, I WAS asking myself a number of questions at this point in time, but I was simply going with it. The woman who reached out to me initially (I’m going to leave her anonymous so as to respect her privacy), found me by way of a Google Search. A GOOGLE SEARCH!!! Being that I’m from Sacramento and spent most of the pandemic living and vintage shopping in Sacramento, not to mention posting about it by way of my blog and social media, I guess I just so happened to come up in her search. Reaching out to me was actually a last ditch effort. She was overwhelmed not only from the tragic and very sudden loss of her best friend, but from having to pick up the pieces after her departure from this earth, one of those pieces being managing her vintage collection. A collection that her friend obviously cherished and wouldn’t want to see end up in a landfill somewhere. Rightfully so!
Well, imagine her surprise when her last ditch effort just so happened to respond to her cold email inquiry and with such enthusiasm too! Imagine MY surprise to find out that she wasn’t looking to sell this collection nor to find people in Sacramento who would want to buy it (which was my initial assumption), but instead she was looking to quite literally gift it to someone in the vintage fashion industry to manage it. Ideally the entire collection, not piecemealed out either. Uhm, WHAT?! Remember when I was (slightly) suspicious this was all a scam? Yeah, those concerns came flooding back in at this point in time (only kidding). She wanted to give it all away?? I could hardly believe my eyes dancing across the page of my desktop screen, reading and re-reading (and RE-reading) this email over and over and over again…
Now I want you to think back to earlier in this blog post when I first talked about starting my own vintage reselling business…remember that? Remember one of the things on that dreaded to-do list had to do with inventory?…here was a remarkable woman’s lifelong collection of vintage inventory that quite literally fell into my lap. All it needed was someone who was willing to pick it up and run with it.
If I haven’t yet convinced you that this has been divinely planned from the start, don’t worry there’s more…
For those who don’t know, while I’m originally from Sacramento, California, I live in Austin, Texas. Of course, this woman found me and my blog due to my connection with Sacramento so of course she was located (as well as the vintage collection) just about an hour and a half outside of Sacramento. Now how on God’s green earth was I going to get my hands on that inventory??? Great question. Well, that initial email came Monday, January 30, I was flying home that Friday, February 3 for my friend’s baby shower. A trip that had been planned for over a month, and would put me back in my hometown that very weekend which meant I didn’t need to plan a separate trip to Sacramento, at all. All I had to do was rent a Uhaul, show up and load up.
And that’s exactly what I did.
My mom and I rented a nine foot Uhaul van and drove up just North of Sacramento. We met the collector’s dear friend (whom I had been communicating with via email and over the phone up to this point) as well as her son and his partner. We learned more about her, witnessed her creativity and artistry firsthand in the clothes that filled her incredible sewing room, sewing barn really, and then we packed up her collection and promised to fulfill the dream that she hadn’t had the chance to. She wanted to share her vintage collection with the world but in large part due to her technological challenges with getting it up and running on the internet, as well as all the countless other overwhelming steps to starting an online business (remember that dreaded, running to-do list I had???) she wasn’t able to fulfill that dream before she suddenly passed last year.
Papaya Drive is more than just my dream realized, it’s hers. I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason in our lives, the good, the bad and the in between, and I can’t help but think that that random email message on a January evening very much happened for a reason.
There are 52 weeks in a year, how is it that that correspondence found its way to my inbox the WEEK I was planning on going home to Sacramento? Just days before in fact…
How is it that just as I was kicking the can of starting my vintage business further and further down the road, an entire collection of inventory landed in my lap, challenging me to try and come up with an excuse as to why I couldn’t start my business?
Not only do I believe that everything happens for a reason but I believe that once we as humans step into our greater purpose and path, the universe rewards us accordingly. I took a very scary leap of faith back in October of last year. I left behind stability, the company I had known and worked for since I graduated college, friends, family, a steady paycheck, and not to mention my home state. I had moments where I was truly tested over the last few years and now looking back, I think those tests did exactly what they were supposed to do. They pushed me farther and farther toward taking the steps I always dreamed of - leaving Corporate America and chasing this wild and crazy dream life I’m currently living. Just as that random email on a January evening pushed me (FINALLY) to the starting point of starting my vintage business.
Oh, and if you’re wondering HOW I then got all those clothes from Sacramento to Austin? Yeah, that’s a funny story too. My mom already had a trip planned to come visit at the end of March for Round Top so instead of her flying out here I cancelled her flight, bought myself a one way ticket to Sacramento, booked the most spacious and luxurious mini van you’ve ever seen in your life, and drove it all back to Austin. I spent about a week in Sacramento before driving back to Austin, going through all the clothes, organizing them, putting them in garment bags and prepping them for their journey to the Lone Star State. Which is where I’m happy to report, they now reside.
I told you you wouldn’t believe it. I lived this entire thing, I experienced it firsthand, and I STILL can’t believe it.
This experience has been extremely emotional for me as I’m sure you can imagine. If I’m being honest the last eighteen or so months have been extremely emotional. Be sure to read my blog post, ‘I Walked Away From My Job and Toward My Authentic Self,’ if you haven’t already to learn a bit more about some of those challenges I’ve faced over the last couple of years. I’ve been tested in more ways than one but I’d like to think I came out victorious. I didn’t always make the easy decision but I firmly believe I made the right decision and you know what? The universe has rewarded me accordingly.
Papaya Drive is fulfilling more than just my lifelong dreams. This business is beyond me. It’s for Anita who tragically passed before getting the chance to properly share her collection with the world. It’s for her best friend who took a chance on a stranger she Googled and reached out to on a whim. It’s for Anita’s family, that they can rest easy knowing her legacy, her passion, her artistry, will live on forever by way of these beautiful clothes finding their new homes and acting as integral parts of celebratory moments - weddings, proms, graduations, and so much more. It’s for these beautiful clothes. That they can be honored and showcased in the way they deserve to be. With each of you.
So, any piece you see on Papaya Drive that says ‘Anita’s Collection’ under it is a part of those initial 500+ pieces that I inherited from Anita. Her memory lives on in Papaya Drive as it will live on with each of you who are able to secure a piece of history. Of her history. Of Papaya Drive’s history.
