We recently connected with Ray Daly and have shared our conversation below.
Ray , so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
I don’t think that imposter syndrome is something that ever fully goes away. As I grow and I take on new, less familiar, tasks I’m still hit with the feeling that I’m unprepared or don’t know what I’m doing. That feeling always spurs me to action though. I think to myself about the ways that I can learn more about what I don’t know. The important thing isn’t to feel like you’re not an imposter, but to show up even when you feel like one.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Ray’s Reusables was born out of a desire to make a positive impact for the environment. Only 4-6% of plastic is recycled, so rather than feeding in to a broken system, we try to help people reduce plastic waste over all.
The mission of the store is to help eco-conscious shoppers reduce waste by offering reusable alternatives to disposables, in addition to 50+ refillable cleaning and body care products.
At Ray’s people are encouraged to bring their own container to fill with things like laundry detergent, dish soap, hand soap, even deodorant! By reusing the same container over and over again our shoppers are able to reduce a huge source of plastic waste in their lives: packaging! We also partner with other sustainably minded local businesses to offer various recycling programs.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think that the skills that have aided me most in my entrepreneurial journey are my resourcefulness, my willingness to try new things, and patience.
Being able to recognize what you don’t know and then seek out the answer is the single most important one of these skills. There are so many things you don’t know go on behind the scenes of a small business before you start one, so you always got have to be prepared to learn on the fly.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
I’m a very passionate person, so when I have something that I’m driven by I can lose sight of giving that same level of attention and care to myself.
It can be really easy to center work when it’s something mission driven. I love what I do, so I want it to be successful, but I know that you can’t pour from an empty cup. Over the last year I’ve been trying to focus on giving myself more time and space to pursue the things that I like as a person. It’s been really great to reconnect with hobbies I’d fallen out.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.raysreusables.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rays_reusables
Image Credits
Zara Neifield (photo of me only, others are my photos)
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
