Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristen Marshall.
Hi Kristen, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Love Advocate Boutique originally started back in 2018, first known as Esteem Trends Boutique. Back then, my vision for my company was to run it as an online Women’s apparel boutique but to also have a t-shirt line, Self Love, that would be sold exclusively through the boutique. At the time, I was working full time as an Assistant Branch Manager at a local credit union, so I really wasn’t putting my all into my business, I just knew that it had always been something that I wanted to do after graduating from MTSU with my degree in Fashion Merchandising. I wanted women to relate to my Self Love brand while encouraging them to always love themselves and knowing that you are beautiful, flaws and all. The boutique started off doing fairly well on the clothing side, but my Self Love shirts weren’t really being marketed as well as I should have. I suppose my heart wasn’t fully in it at the time. About a year after launching my boutique, I became pregnant with my son and it ended up being a very complicated pregnancy, so my business got pushed to the back burner and eventually just shut everything down.
Fast forward to July of 2020, I got permanently laid off from my job at the credit union due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As frustrating as it was, it was kind of a sigh of relief because I knew that I was not really happy with my career there. With a supportive husband by my side, I decided not to return back to “corporate America” and made the decision to take a step back and revamp my previous business model and get my boutique back up and running. I wasn’t really sold on using the same boutique name, so I tried to figure out a new name to go by. I knew I wanted to still incorporate the “Self Love” idea no matter what I did. I had already begun considering myself an advocate of self-love, so I came up with the “Self Love Advocate” idea as a clothing line. I wanted my boutique to not only represent self-love, but love for all, so I decided on the name of Love Advocate Boutique. Not only will you find Self Love Advocate merchandise on the website, but also clothing that advocates empowerment, love, and positivity. My revamped boutique now features both adult and children unisex apparel and accessories so that people of all ages can express themselves through fashion.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road hasn’t been smooth at all. I doubted myself a lot in the beginning. Wondered why people who I expected to support my brand weren’t very supportive at all. It made me feel like maybe this idea isn’t good enough or that I should just give up and go find a full-time 9-5 job again. I had to sit back and realize that I have to keep pushing my brand no matter who supports me or not. I learned from the mistakes that I made the first time around and knew what not to do this time. It’s definitely trial and error. I’ve always been a shy and quiet person, but this has really forced me to come out of my shell by getting out there and networking and not being afraid to push my brand.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am an online retailer that sells merchandise advocating all things LOVE! From T-shirts to bags to water bottles, all of our products have some type of encouraging wording incorporated on them. What makes my boutique special is that I have my own exclusive brand of products that I sell through the boutique. My brand is called Self Love Advocate. I have hyped the brand up via social media by telling customers to join the “Self Love Advocate Movement”. This movement is just to basically allow people to show everyone how they love themselves and ways that they practice self-care. I love to see happy customers so I tell them to post a picture of themselves in their Self Love Advocate merchandise and use the hashtag #selfloveadvocatemovement to be featured on our page. It’s something fun that I came up with to be able to interact with customers and see all the ways that my merchandise is uplifting them.
What matters most to you? Why?
The thing that matters most to me, I would say, are two different things. The first is showing my children the concept of hard work and dedication. I don’t want them to ever feel like they can’t do anything. I want them to get older and be able to say “My mother is a successful businesswoman, she never gave up and constantly pushed herself.” The second most important thing is just the whole self-love concept. There are so many people in the world who are struggling with their sense of self and that’s where I want my brand to play a part with helping to empower and heal themselves and become a better person mentally and emotionally. Self Love is not selfish at all. You have to know how to love and respect yourself first before you can even begin to properly love someone else. Speaking Self Love Affirmations over your life, such as “I am beautiful”, “I will succeed”, “I am enough”, are all key to changing into a positive mindset.
Contact Info:
- Email: kmarshall@shoploveadvocate.com
- Website: www.shoploveadvocate.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/loveadvocateboutique
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/shoploveadvocate/
Image Credits
La Bella Vida Photography
