We recently connected with Cassandra Allen – Brown and have shared our conversation below.
Cassandra; so good to have you with us today. We’ve got so much planned, so let’s jump right into it. We live in such a diverse world, and in many ways the world is getting better and more understanding but it’s far from perfect. There are so many times where folks find themselves in rooms or situations where they are the only ones that look like them – that might mean being the only woman of color in the room or the only person who grew up in a certain environment etc. Can you talk to us about how you’ve managed to thrive even in situations where you were the only one in the room?
Is there any other option other than to be successful if you’re the only one in the room who looks like you?
All of my life I have been the only one in the room who looks like me. With the exception of middle school and high school all of my adult career life I have typically been the only one in the room who looks like me. The only one at the law firm who looks like me. The only one in the office who looks like me. The only one at specific events and gatherings and corporate functions and annual holiday parties who look like me. This has been my norm.
Due to the fact that it has been my norm, I believe I have been able to transition into owning my own business, and being the only one in the room in the fiber arts industry as a local yarn shop owner, who looks like me. Success, is what you make of it. Every day when you get up you should have the opportunity to be the best version of you that you can possibly be. I find that for me personally, there’s a specific quality of life that I need on a daily basis. My parents raised me to understand respect, consideration of others, thoughtfulness, kindness, self-determination, manners, etiquette, self-esteem, and at the end of the day how you treat others, and how you want to be treated by other people also determines your success. After it is all said and done, I want to be one of those people who everyone knew I treated them with respect, hospitality and kindness. I believe this has allowed me to be successful personally and professionally. I understand who I am.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Wow, I do not know where to begin! Lol!
How about we just start with today. June 27th. Today is my 59th birthday! I had a fabulous day! My book that I just penned: Yarn Shop Start – Ups, arrived via ups the day before my birthday. It is my first author’s copy. I am so excited! I began writing my memoirs 9 years ago on how I transitioned from being a litigation paralegal for 33 years in the legal profession, into opening my own yarn boutique in downtown Denver, Colorado in the Central Business District. I put my book on hold, basically stopped typing back in 2016. I had sent it to a number of publishers and they all turned me down. I decided to just wait a while. During the pandemic in 2020, I decided to sit down at my desk pull up my book and almost rewrote the entire thing! I loved it. I sent it to a few more publishers they turned it down said it was too expensive for them to publish. Then one day out of the blue, a publisher contacted me and said that they would love to publish my book, they feel it has value. I was so excited! I spent the next year or more working with my book project coordinator on edits. OMG! I recall telling my son one day that if it had not been for the fact that I had been a litigation paralegal for so many years, I literally would not have been able to finish the book. The edits were so intense, it reminded me of when I would write legal documents called pleadings that you then file with the court. Had I not had that everyday Hands-On writing experience, I would not have been able to complete the edits on the book. It’s really funny how in life at least for me, I’m just doing my thing being me, and when I look back on something that has occurred I can really see how the Lord has brought me full circle, and is showing me that I had to go through A, B, and C before I could get to XYZ. But during the time when it was all transpiring, I didn’t think anything of it. I was just doing what I do. Basically he was just ordering my steps for me to do what he wanted me to do in fulfilling my purpose. He is so awesome like that. He gives you what you need, and he’s so eloquent and gracious and merciful about it that you barely even recognize that for most people, it would have been a tremendous struggle, would have knocked most people out, but he brought you through it with grace. He is ordering your steps in the direction that you need to go. You just need to have faith, and listen.
I feel very strongly about Yarn Shop Start – Ups!, helping each person who is passionate about whatever their talent and skills and gifts are, but are unclear on how to start, and where to begin. Yarn Shop Start – Ups!, is a guide that will give them step by step instruction of how to see it, how to literally organize their day and thoughts. Reach the point where they can truly visualize themselves as a business owner doing something that they love so much that at the end of the day they would absolutely do it for free! Because quite frankly, when they are handcrafting whatever that is that they do, it is for free. They give what they make to their family and their friends for free. Now they can actually earn an income! This book will guide them on how to do it.
I feel strongly about providing individual knitting, crochet, pattern reading, and special project classes. Another service that I provide in my yarn shop is private consultations. Starting your business possibly as a work from home, internet-based. That’s how my business began. BagsByCAB.com is my original business. The bags are literally handbags that are crocheted and then felted in the washing machine. And then I add really cute jewelry and buttons to just make them pop! When I first started making my bags, everyone loved them. I would take them to the office and they would just sell! One day a neighbor told me that I should start a website. I didn’t know how to do that and I asked her if she would do it? She said she was just too busy and that I would have to do it. I’m so thankful she said no she couldn’t do it. Because then I discovered a whole new person within myself that I didn’t even realize existed! I began designing my own websites, creating my own content, blogging, taking professional photos, making my own marketing materials, selling and promoting my products. Eventually, that led to me opening my first location as a yarn shop owner and moving to downtown Denver. I absolutely love downtown. I love the vibe, the feel, the scene, the transition of the energy and how it moves throughout the day into night! I love that feeling of everyday when I drive into downtown to Yarn Shoppe Denver! I feel like I’m going to an event EVERY day. I love meeting customers from literally around the globe. Customers walk into my Yarn Shop and they are so excited to be there! And I am happy to greet them. I greatly appreciate them and their business.
If you are interested in learning how your gifts and talents that you are passionate about, can create a physical business for you, please feel free to pre-order your book and I will sign it for you and ship it directly to your home:
https://yarn-shoppe.square.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Discernment. Consideration. Thoughtfulness. To be honest, spiritual guidance on a daily basis allows me to fine tune my judgment skills that turn into analytical thinking is so important, not only as a skill but it is a quality that you need to develop over time. I believe that when you are working at whatever job or career and whatever industry you are in, and you are the assistant to whoever that department manager is, or in my case managing senior partner, you literally think about how you can make their job easier by anticipating in advance what they need. I tell this to my daughter periodically. It is so important to understand that. Because it puts you a step above the average employee just working their job. You are not only thinking about how to do your job to the best of your ability and be highly efficient, you are thinking about your boss’s job as owner of that company and or business. That means you are thinking twice as hard for yourself and someone else to the point where it becomes commonplace for you to be able to anticipate what they are going to need for the next meeting, the next appointment, the next telephone call, the next client meeting etc when you anticipate in advance what they need and you know them that well, you can plan for anything for yourself! I had one position at a law firm as a legal assistant and I worked 32 hours a week so not quite 40. I would leave every day around 3:00 to go pick my kids up from school and drive them home because their school was way outside of the school district where we lived and we had a long drive. When I left that law firm, I was told by multiple people that the firm hired three people full-time to replace the one job that I did. Wow!
The next two qualities that I would say is key in developing your career or business and even your personal life, is the ability to have consideration and be thoughtful and mindful of others. I find today that so many people are just very self-absorbed! So if you find that everything is always about you, you, and you, then you are going to need to sit down with yourself and start being mindful and considerate of others around you in your family, the workplace, the community where you live. That’s a good turning point to get you on to the path of success.
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
My Dad. I am an only child. Both of my parents did an outstanding job with just spending quality time with me on a daily basis. My Dad worked very long hours. My Mom worked a more traditional eight hour shift . However, my Dad really from as early as I can remember, spent so much time with me when he was not at work and it was just me and him taking a drive, or going out to eat. He would explain to me how to order off of the menu from a very young age. I know that may sound strange right now, but it really had an impact on me the way he would explain things to me at a very early age. When we would travel as a family on vacation whether we flew or most times we would drive because it was less expensive. My Dad would explain to me how to interact with other people out in public, how to observe what other people are doing and pay attention to your surroundings. It was just amazing. As I got older and our income increased, he and I would fly together all of the time to Los Angeles. He would tell me that we were going to switch seats and I would drive because he said he wanted me to know how to drive in LA when I go there by myself. The manners that he and my Mom both taught me while growing up have been very instrumental in my life. They both taught me how to share. A lot of people during my entire lifetime find it very hard to believe when they see that I am a sharing and giving person. It’s just shocking to them. I will never forget when my daughter and granddaughter and I were going to California on vacation like we do a couple of times each year, I invited one of my daughter’s friends to come along as a surprise because it was my daughter’s birthday and I knew she would love having her friend come along on vacation for the weekend. I told her friend that I would buy her airline ticket for her if she wanted to come along. She said yes! Apparently, when she explained to everyone in her entire family her parents and her brother none of them believed I would buy her an airline ticket to go to another city and state on vacation. They all told her they did not believe her. She had to show them the text message that I sent to her on her cell phone. They all read it but they still didn’t believe it. Her mother told her “I don’t believe her“. So of course they were in shock when she went to the airport, got on the airplane and I picked her up at the airport in California! I say all of that to say it is very important to share and care and be considerate and thoughtful about other people. You want to give people an experience. Something outside of their normal day to day. That is what I try really hard to do at my yarn shop. I want customers to feel so welcomed that they literally feel like the only person on the planet when they come in. I want them to feel relaxed, comfortable and welcomed so that they feel like they are just at a very close friend or family’s home. Because when they leave, I know that they’re going to step back into what their normal daily activities are and it will be the hustle and bustle of life.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.yarnshoppedenver.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/yarnshoppe_denver
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/yarnshoppestudio
- Other: Google Maps: Yarn Shoppe Denver (720) 473-2598 https://g.co/kgs/qC9fpf
Image Credits
Yarn Shoppe Denver.
