TalkingWithTami: Hello Lolita! I love your Lolita glasses, they are sooo much fun! How did you come up with the idea?
Thank you Tami! I came up with the idea on a girls’ night out in back in Memphis, Tennessee, actually. My girlfriends’ and I were at the Peabody hotel having a great time choosing martinis from a long list on the menu. We loved how each girl decided and matched her personality. It hit me then how fantastic a line of glasses would be.
TalkingWithTami: What’s a guilty pleasure of yours?
Well I have to say there’s nothing wrong with a little guilt! Makes life interesting. And I like saying that cause I love to indulge in cheese and chocolate and never want to give that up! And, wine goes with everything, without saying…
TalkingWithTami: Before you started Designs by Lolita, what was your career?
I would say my career was always creative, which fit we perfectly. I spent years in advertising and the beauty industry making me no stranger to marketing and design. I would have to say that my best experience came from my Sales Management experience with a licensee of Donna Karan and Christian Dior Perfumes. That is where I put my marketing hat on and learned about business and how to develop a product line from start to finish. (And being a big part of launching it.) Watch out, world, for all you ladies that have an idea and some good business experience!
TalkingWithTami: Give us the skinny on what a day is like in the “Lolita world”?
The skinny, Tami, is that it is one fast-paced day after another– and I love it. There are my creating and designing days mixed in with my travel days. I often get to meet Lolita customers or collectors that want to be consider my biggest fans! How can I not eat that up!? I love their energy. If I’m at trade shows or signing parties I get to hear their stories, their ideas and desires for more products and it is very valuable and enriching experience for me. I also have a great husband, Michael Healy who is a designer, two teenage girls… and a horse, a dog, and 2 cats. You can imagine, it’s a very busy life!
TalkingWithTami: You have two beautiful daughters. What words do you tell them about being a Womanpreneur?
My girls are lovely, smart and imaginative. I’m so lucky. I always encourage them to work hard (luck seems to follow hard workers!) because it will really pay off. I think girls need good female role models in their lives both personally and professionally. It’s important for them to see women in successful careers. I like to tell them that it makes good sense to dream. And better sense to go after that dream. My favorite quote right now is “When others say your goal is too risky, rise above the negativity,” Claire Cooke, novelist. That has and always will be my motto, and I have brought them up believing it. One wants to be a famous chef and the other a designer, and they want to run their own businesses.
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