We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ali Arakawa. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ali below.
Ali, sincerely appreciate your selflessness in agreeing to discuss your mental health journey and how you overcame and persisted despite the challenges. Please share with our readers how you overcame. For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.
The topic of mental health is something I’ve never been very open about, even with the people who are closest to me. It’s something I learned to hide very well throughout my teenage and adult life, because it was instilled in me at a young age that this was something private that you don’t share with other people. I think it’s important to talk about, so I’m happy to share my story on how I’ve overcome and dealt with the challenges related to mental health issues over the years.
“Every (Wo)Man Has (Her)His Secret Sorrows Which The World Knows Not”. If you asked everyone who knows me, the majority would never have guessed that mental health issues are something that I deal with on a daily basis. Actually, I think most of them would be shocked. For me it started when I was very young. I was hospitalized in my early teens for clinical depression, which was a traumatic experience in itself. The truth is depression, anxiety and OCD are things I’ve struggled with for as long as I can remember. Intrusive thoughts, low self esteem, bouts of insomnia or sleeping too much, asking myself “Why can’t you just be happy? or saying “You have a good life, there’s no reason to feel depressed or anxious”. It took me a long time to recognize that depression and anxiety don’t work that way.
I believe my mental health issues dictated most of my major life choices, I mean this in a good way. I personally hated having the routine of a “9 to 5”. Because of my mental health issues I struggled and would have to force myself to go to work and school. I would be ok for a while, then not ok for a longer while, sometimes in a constant fog, sometimes I physically couldn’t get out of bed to go to class or work. I ended up dropping out of high school, and later in life abruptly putting in my two weeks notice at a long time salary job with benefits. I had no plan, but I was willing to risk that I would just figure it out. I wasn’t happy and needed to make a change. I believe this decision is what lead me to being a small business owner today.
This is when I started freelancing. There was flexibility, I didn’t need to force myself to be somewhere everyday. I was able to work when I mentally could. Finding jobs with a creative outlet put me on a career path that ultimately gave me the ability to work and function. It gave me the flexibility to have a side hustle selling vintage. I read a study on how depression can function to drive creativity, and I think this is true for me. People ask me all the time if I ever want to open my own brick and mortar, the answer is always “No”. I like the idea of it, but I don’t think I could commit to being somewhere consistently every day. My depression and anxiety are too unpredictable, and that’s fine. It’s the reason that I created a path and a small business that work for my situation.
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?
My name is Ali Arakawa. I was born and raised in Queens, NY and currently living in Southern Vermont. I am the owner of a small business called Fare Well Trading where I sell an eclectic collection of vintage and antique home decor, housewares, accessories and fine jewelry. I have a background in sourcing, styling and propping vintage, so it was a natural fit for me when it came to sourcing and selling vintage for my own company. Most of my career has been as a freelancer for retail brands doing creative direction, interior decorating, event production, store display and experiential pop ups. I’ve also done set design and propping for plays, movies and commercials. At first Fare Well Trading was my side hustle throughout all of that, it’s become something that I now do full time. Which is so amazing to me. I “retired” from my freelancing career in October 2021 after my Mom, Felice, passed away. At first I planned to take a hiatus to process the grief, and it just never felt right to return to it. I guess because I was a different person after that, the death of her was also a kind of death of who I was before she passed.
My favorite thing about being a small business owner is the freedom to do whatever I want whenever I want, and selling vintage has given me that freedom. I like that it is something I can do from anywhere. If one day I decide I want to move to Italy, I can do that and work from there. I really enjoy traveling and sourcing from different areas around the country, seeing what the vibe of the vintage is in each state. Meeting all sorts of characters and forming relationships with other sellers, some of whom I’ve known and been buying from for 10 plus years now. I always factor in extra time for sourcing to talk with other sellers. I enjoy learning from them and building on those relationships. What I love about the actual vintage and antiques is the quality, the design, the colors, the typography. Something about it really speaks to me, certain pieces give me an unexplainable joy. I just appreciate it so much and certain items are so special to me. My earliest memories of these feelings were age 8 in my grandmother’s basement. She had boxes of collectibles stored away down there, things that hadn’t seen the light of day in years. She would let me “treasure hunt” and take home anything that I fell in love with. It’s always exciting to me to find something that I’ve never seen before, anything bizarre or unique sparks my curiosity. Sometimes I’ll look at a piece in amazement, like wow! This has survived 100 years and its probably going to survive another 100. I feel like I’m saving something from being destroyed, hidden or thrown away, keeping things out of landfills, preserving them…. finding someone else to love and appreciate them. Especially with fine jewelry. A lot of these pieces are sent to be melted for their gold content, so it’s important to me to not let that happen. It’s also important to me to have a business that is as environmentally friendly as possible. My wish is for people to invest in quality vintage and second hand pieces that will outlast them, things that will become heirlooms, decor that doesn’t break in a year or loose its value. A lot of what’s mass produced today takes its design inspiration from different vintage eras anyway, so you might as well buy the higher quality vintage version… the real deal thing.
I’m excited about a new project I’ve been working on where pieces will be made from 100% up-cycled vintage and antique materials. I would also love to eventually sell vintage clothing, as it’s something I’ve always worn and enjoyed, but haven’t fully taken the jump into selling yet. My husband and I have been renovating a timber frame barn on our property that will partially be the future workspace for Fare Well Trading. Having a designated work space separate from my living space will allow me to work more efficiently, and I’ll be able to fully enjoy my home without the distraction of work. Something I’m really looking forward to.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Ok, this is where I think my OCD has actually helped me succeed in being a small business owner, and in turn, being a small business owner has been a great outlet for my OCD. I’m a perfectionist, extremely determined and sometimes obsessive when it comes to accomplishing projects and bringing ideas to life. I’m detail oriented and get hyper focused when it comes to taking product photos or working on my website. I become obsessed with researching the history of the items I find, I need to know everything and usually end up in an internet spiral for information. It’s given me a wealth of knowledge when it comes to sourcing. Most of the time I know exactly what something is, the year it was made and the company that made it. I’m constantly questioning and critiquing what I’ve done and currently doing. I’m also an impulsive person which has given me the ability to take major risks and follow my gut, do what feels right to me in the moment. Sometimes being your own boss is hard, especially when you’re a workaholic who’s riddled with self doubt and anxiety. I like to stay B U S Y, and it’s hard for me to take a day to myself to just do “nothing’”. I end up feeling guilty and lazy, like I’m being unproductive. Being ok with taking breaks and having down time is a skill I’ve been trying to work on lately. Someone recently told me “You’re supposed to rest before you’re burnt out. Not after” and I think that’s really good advice.
An important quality for running a small business would be having persistence and consistency. It takes time to build a following and brand, sometimes years but I think if you’re always growing, learning, evolving then it’s always worth it. For me Fare Well Trading started as a side hustle, I slowly found myself shifting more and more of my time from freelancing over to the vintage business until eventually I was like… wow I can barely keep up at this point, I think I can just do this and be ok. I believe that took around 4 years.
My advice for folks who are early in their journey is don’t take the easy way out by copying what other people are doing. You have to figure it out for yourself, the most important thing with owning a small business is learning and adjusting along the way. It’s all trial and error, finding out what works for you. It’s healthy to take risks, sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t, and that ok! It’s all an essential learning process. It’s the only way to be successful and happy in what you do. I believe that’s why I’ve been successful all these years and why my business continues to grow. I don’t compare myself to what other people are doing, because they aren’t me. It’s important to ask myself questions like is this working for me? Does this make me happy or excited? Am I spending my time and energy efficiently? Do I need to take a break to reset and re-evaluate?
The other main thing is to trust your gut and stay true to yourself. This applies in any small business. For me personally that means curating and stocking my online shop with pieces I like. I don’t follow trends or buy things that I think other people will like, and in turn I end up setting entirely new trends by finding unique pieces that most people haven’t seen before. Same goes for the way I decorate my personal space. It’s my space so I make choices based on what feels like home to me and makes me happy. My style and taste don’t appeal to everyone, and that’s ok with me. You’re never going to appeal to or please everyone, so it’s important to make yourself happy and do what works for you first and foremost. Everything else will fall into place after that.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
Directly, the most impactful thing my parents did for me was be present and support me in all of my decisions. They knew I was going to do whatever I wanted anyway so I usually had the support of at least one of them in my life choices. I could talk to my mom about anything without judgment. My parents were complete opposites so I ended up getting a well rounded amount of support and advice between the two of them. My mother was an artist and teacher with a background in art therapy. I have hundreds of her drawings, prints and paintings from the 1960’s-1980’s that I cherish. Many of them are displayed throughout my home. We were always crafting, and I think growing up in a creative environment, with the most creative person I’ve ever known has had the biggest impact on me. She always encouraged me to be my authentic and unique self, she taught me how to confidently express myself whether it was through art or the way I dressed.
My parents impacted me indirectly as well. Seeing both of their work ethics, them setting examples on how to treat people and be professional. My dad started a small business with his two brothers when he was 18, he’s 72 and is still in business to this day. Seeing how hard he worked and watching him run his business made a huge impact on me. Same thing with my mother. She always worked (except when my sister and I were first born), she liked to make her own money. She had great taste and appreciated buying nice things for herself. She also had a small side business selling fine jewelry and non-vintage collectibles. She would often take me to trade shows in the city and to jewelry appointments on Long Island. My parents would remodel and re-decorate our home pretty often. I think that rubbed off on me as I find decorating to be a therapeutic way of expressing myself.
Contact Info:
- Website: https:// www.farewelltrading.com
- Instagram: @farewelltrading
- Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/FareWellTrading
Image Credits
Ali Arakawa
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
