HEY GIRL, HEY!

Susie Robb is a mom, decorator, owner of shopfromsusie.com and founder of The 626 Foundation. With the unconditional love of God and the support of countless women in her life, she has been able to turn pain into purpose and pay it forward with her locally sourced home décor store and her new non-profit interior design firm.

My mother was born and raised in Hermosillo, located in Sonora, Mexico. At the age of eleven, and without knowing any English, her family immigrated to the United States. I look back at the courage of my mother to embrace a life that involved such great change. Perhaps that’s just always been in my DNA; having the courage to dive into the unknown with a quiet, childlike outlook. My mother was living in California when she met and married my Texan father.

I was born in Modesto, CA in the summer of 1983. Shortly after my birth, we moved to West Texas where I would grow up with my one little sister, Victoria. She and I are three years apart and very close friends. I lived in Lubbock, TX until I graduated high school and then I moved to Salt Lake City where I had a ballet scholarship to attend the University of Utah.

It’s been so long since I’ve lived in Lubbock, but those are my roots. A west Texas town, that at the time, felt very small and set in the middle of nowhere.

MY DANCE TEACHER

I was very involved in ballet and my dance teacher was also a Lubbock native. Her dance career had taken her to Utah, Vegas, and ultimately New York.

I fell in love with creative movement and ideas about the ‘big city’ and I would later follow my mentor’s path to Salt Lake and Chicago chasing my dance dreams.

MY GRANDMOTHER

She was a self-taught decorator and I can remember flipping through piles and piles of magazines like Traditional Home, Southern Living, and Victoria in her house in Midland, TX. She and I like change, just for the sake of it! She would rearrange the living room frequently, sew her own curtains, hang wallpaper, and decorate for friends and family. In fact, if anyone we knew ever moved or wanted to freshen up their space, it was Grandma who came to help.

Usually that meant a new vegetable, but it stuck in all areas of my life. When I graduated high school, she took me to New Orleans where I fell in love with the beauty and architecture of French inspired interiors. It is her favorite city and will forever make me think of my grandma when I visit. She loves the low country too, so Savannah also became a place of great inspiration for her designs as well as mine. I think my personal design style was heavily shaped from hers and I would describe it as a mix of traditional and French country.

There was nothing my grandmother could not do; fix a doorknob, mow the grass, iron a dress shirt in under 60 seconds (she made a game of it), and repurpose anything she had into something great. That could mean making a casserole out of random finds in the pantry or decorating a room without buying anything new. She taught me so much then and still continues to do so today. I go to my grandma every time I have a question about cooking, decorating, child rearing, and even dating!

When I look back, I see that the big heroes of my youth were my grandmother and my ballet teacher. They were creatives who made things happen for themselves.

I watched my dance teacher write grants to bring in big artists from around the world to our humble studio. By creating state of the art training programs and facilities for her dancers, she later put our ballet school on the map. I just thought ‘Hey, the couch would look better over here,’ and ‘we should swap out all these window treatments for shutters.’ Friends began to commission me for help in their homes and I loved doing it.

Both of these women taught me independence. I saw them as ‘way makers.’ Between the two of them and my parent’s constant encouragement, I grew up believing that I could do anything and that the world was one giant adventure waiting to be had. My parents took us to church regularly and instilled a solid foundation of faith in God. It wasn’t until later that I would see Him as I do now, but it was my parents who taught me to pray and find refuge in Jesus Christ. At the age of 32, after more than a decade together, my marriage had fallen apart. I could feel the end drawing near and wanted to carve out a place for myself in this unknown future that I saw coming. I had been dreaming of owning my own home décor business for a while, and now seemed as good a time as any to start working towards that. However, with no retail experience and a whole lot of Godgiven wisdom, I knew that I needed an apprenticeship first.

I think a dreamer and one who believes in a good God is a force to be reckoned with. I see myself that way. There was never much room for fear in my life. I did that when I was a senior in high school, and then again in my thirties after my divorce. My optimism about the future and the foundation of a God who is always with me, has and will continue to propel me forward.

“I set out on my own with excitement, not trepidation.” I asked my girlfriends at church if they knew anyone looking for part time help, and a prayer was answered when I met a woman who owned an online décor store called Curtis Creation. I worked for about a year and half learning retail, logistics, wholesale, marketing, and much more. It was during that time that I mustered the strength to file for divorce.

I broke into the home décor and design industry later in my life. After a short-lived dance career, I worked about six years in various job roles. By the time I was thirty, I was a stay at home mom. I found myself repainting, redecorating, and rearranging a lot. It was an outlet for my creative passions but also alleviated a bit of the boredom that came with staying home and it was an escape from my toxic relationship. I designed our kitchen remodel, had plantation shutters installed, and created new outdoor spaces with arbors and new landscaping. I don’t think I realized it at the time, but I was honing a craft and polishing my skill set.

In January of 2017, I was officially a single mother. I bought a new house with the divorce settlement and I remodeled the kitchen and the exterior of the first home under my own name. One year later in January of 2018, my boss asked me if I would like to buy the online business from her. They were ready to step out and wanted me to have first dibs on the venture. I stood amazed because this is what I had always wanted and couldn’t believe it was manifesting itself. I was also terrified because I knew my own weaknesses and my limitations. I knew this would test me in every possible way.

This would be my piece of this world and I wanted it for me, Adam, and Sarah. I wasn’t afraid of failing, I was afraid of staying the same; staying small and wounded from my past. This was a gift from God above and so I said yes to the purchase of the store with encouragement and support from my family and friends.

One of the first decisions I made as new owner was to take on design clients and form an extension of the brand for interior design services. My love for decorating remained constant all those years and I wanted to use this established brand to start taking on serious projects. This service has evolved into my non-profit interior design firm, The 626 Foundation.

I’ve seen it in my own life and in the lives of others who have been touched by hardship.

Often times the home, which was once a source of great joy, becomes a place of deep heartache. Whether the spaces are too painful to keep up or the home has become a financial burden too great to bear, the refuge of home has become a prison. When we can honor the past and breathe fresh air into the present, we can give people hope for the future. (Cont. on Page 21)

The 626 Foundation is a 501(c)(3) that offers no-cost interior design services to families affected by life’s unexpected tragedies; including but not limited to divorce, miscarriage, widowhood, illness, and death. We believe the home should be a refuge. Often times after trauma, your home can become a prison. We are healing those places to help families move forward.

Our goal is to provide a better quality of life in the aftermath of life’s adversities. It is our desire that our services will help each family have more means and optimism about the future; this in turn would allow members to focus on cultivating love, support, and healing for themselves and their family.

We provide assistance by helping struggling individuals meet basic needs through two service areas. Thanks to your generous support, families chosen by The 626 Foundation are gifted with financial support and/or designed, decorated, and fully furnished space(s) at NO COST.

Last summer I hired a marketing and brand management expert and changed the store name to From: Susie. I was met with many struggles when I took over the retail shop. One of them was a saturated market in a very price-competitive industry. I couldn’t compete with other retailers who had more buying power than I or retail giants like Amazon who were starting to really break into the home décor market. For an online business, this was devastating.

The products I was buying at wholesale and photographing, staging, and attempting to sell were available with free, next day delivery at a few dollars more than my cost through larger retailers! There was no way to keep up and have enough profit margin to make a living. I started searching for ways to provide products that weren’t otherwise widely available.

I had met some incredible creatives and artisans on Instagram and I was so excited to partner with them to design exclusive products for my shop. It was also through Instagram that I found my Texas maker! Through our partnership I have been able to design products, have them made here in Texas by hand, and ship them from our facility about 40 minutes outside of Dallas. I’m so proud to offer products that are either made here in the US, crafted by female artisans, or one-of-a kind antiques.

I truly believe this sets our brand apart and keeps us out of the pricing rat race. I stand behind what we make and what we offer; knowing how much work is poured into it. Last Christmas, we started a seasonal décor box that we offer at a higher price point to help people decorate for each season. Each box contains 8-10 exclusive, hand-curated décor products complete with a style guide that shows you multiple ways to style the pieces. I have grown to love educating the consumer, not only how our products are made but also how to use them. It’s added value to our brand and the feedback has been very positive. We try to include pieces that I design in addition to artisanal creations from other women that might not be as well-known. The cross marketing that’s available when you partner with other women serves the you both and I encourage women to choose collaboration over competing. I believe in the Women Supporting Women movement; i’ve coined the phrase ‘good for her’ as part of my personal mantra. Anytime jealousy arises, we have an opportunity to bless the women who have ‘made it’ and still believe that there are good things coming our way as well. I have had mentors remind me that there is room for everyone at the table and that her gain does not mean your loss.

I learned these skills while learning more about myself and what makes me tick. Thanks to therapy and the Brene Brown books library I own; I have embraced the idea of being my whole self; unashamed and unafraid. I always want to be authentic and use the parts of my story that are ugly and painful to show others how to use it for good. My divorce was one of my life’s most devastating moments, but it has blessed me beyond my wildest dreams. Truly God has given me beauty for ashes and I’m doing what I love, creating my own path, and helping others along the way. It’s the most fulfilling way to live. The 626 Foundation is a grass roots effort as we are solely donor funded. This has given me the push to get the word out in every form possible. I try to reach audiences by being a guest on podcasts, contributing articles and expertise to magazines and continuing to push content on social media platforms. It’s a lot of work, but I believe in what we are doing both in the shop and with our Foundation. I’m grateful for every opportunity and I would like to see a book come out from all of this. It would combine my personal story of a wrecked home with my design expertise in home renovations.

I want others to know that in the same place of devastation lies our life’s appointment, Ken Page said it better with ‘our deepest wounds surround our greatest gifts.’

I can’t stress enough my gratitude for the people in my life that have believed in me and supported me throughout this journey. My parents, my sister, and her family offered me financial backing that first year. Their enthusiasm about my abilities and the risk they were still willing to take makes my heart swell and encourages me to keep going. Even today.

So many women have reached out to tell me how my story has helped them in some way or another. My direct messages are full of conversations from people I’ve never met who encourage me with scriptures, personal testimonies, and words of affirmation. I take screen shots of messages that speak life into my future and put them in a folder on my phone. When things get tough and it feels like all I can find are closed doors, I pull those out and read them. They say things like ‘God has so much in store for you!,’ and ‘Good things are coming your way!’ Even when our own cup feels empty, we can pour life into other women and fill our own sails with fresh air too! As I look back, I can see all the women who encouraged me. Not just with their words, but with how they lived their life. I know that my own daughter will grow up just like I did- believing that nothing is impossible for her. I would encourage my fellow female entrepreneurs to take the next step, no matter how seemingly small. Find excitement and accountability in the risk, carve your own path, and start supporting women in front of you and behind you.

Susie Robb is a mom, decorator, owner of shopfromsusie.com and founder of the 626 Foundation. With the unconditional love of God and the support of countless women in her life, she has been able to turn pain into purpose and pay it forward with her locally sourced home décor store and her new non-profit interior design firm.

ONLINE: Visit shopfromsusie.com and susierobb.com

INSTAGRAM: @fromsusie

FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/shopfromsusie