Meet Alexis Graybill

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alexis Graybill a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Alexis , so happy you were able to devote some time to sharing your thoughts and wisdom with our community. So, we’ve always admired how you have seemingly never let nay-sayers or haters keep you down. Can you talk to us about how to persist despite the negative energy that so often is thrown at folks trying to do something special with their lives?

I am able to keep focus on what matters most for my business, which is the ability to listen to my supporters and own intuition rather than someone’s negative opinion of me or my services.

I’ve always had this understanding that you can’t please everyone but the ones you can will help you grow through word of mouth recommendations. In knowing this fact, my persistence on achieving even the smallest goals or daily tasks kept me going. There were times I thought I was a failure and wanted to give up but like many great leaders before me, they didn’t give up because the act of giving up is the real failure.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

My job isn’t really a job, it’s a lifestyle. I love being a fairy godmother to brides whether I am Custom designing a gown or help styling and altering a gown for them. My duty is to make sure the bride’s wishes for their bridal look is fulfilled with my very own magical hands with gifted sewing skills from my grandmother.

My grandmother’s teachings was an integral part of why I started my business. She knew my passions before I did. She would tell me often that when I was a baby I would pick up the sewing books she would have and look at the pictures and smile. So, she decided to teach me how to use a sewing machine and make different patterns for a quilt when I was eight years old. A little later on we moved from quilting to dresses. So that’s more so the reason behind why I started my own collection of dresses and why I offer alterations.

My favorite part of my business is getting to know each bride and their love story. Getting to know them and their partner really helps me as a designer/stylist/seamstress to help make their bridal visions come to life.

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?

The three most important qualities and or skills that impacted me most during my business journey was perseverance, integrity, and communication. Perseverance is important because it’s easy to give up or never start rather than to get up and set small goals each day to achieve. When you start something you should see it to the end because, like life, it can be a bumpy ride but it’s definitely worth the effort to create a legacy behind for others to be inspired by. Integrity is imperative to create bonds and trust in business relationships and in the community! Communication is the key to success when marketing and promoting your brand or business, this is an essential element to building integrity within your industry and community.
All three of the qualities and skills make any business valuable. We all have value! Why not show it in your work ethic? Never quit, always do! No idea is perfect, but you have to start somewhere and make sure you surround yourself with people who are passionate, knowledgeable, and supportive of your dreams! Even if your support system is small at first you can watch it grow from a seed to a sapling, and eventually your dream will blossom to so much more than you could have imagined.

Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?

I think it’s very important to become a well rounded person professionally speaking. Strengths help us find our confidence but we all have weaknesses and making improvements to those weaknesses will help us grow in those areas and create more opportunities.
For example, I had to move from my first location due to financial difficulties. I was not making enough income to afford certain expenses. I still struggle with this situation sometimes, especially during my slower sales months. Luckily, I found a place I could afford but after the third month after moving, I realized I still needed to adjust pricing to make a profit. I have since learned my lesson and have been able to keep up with a steady income flow to continue my business. I feel we all have weaknesses and areas we struggle most in. So in order to continue growing we need to look into our own weaknesses and try to improve them and turn them into strengths.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lovelacebridalva.com
• Instagram: _lovelacebridalva_
• Facebook: Love & Lace Bridal Va

Image Credits

The 1st 3 photos and personal photo: Kat Stroble

The last 5 photos: Madison Thurman