We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Beth Kuhar-Miller a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Beth, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
This is a very good question. I think having resilience is so many things: It’s a choice. You can CHOOSE to be defeated knocked down. You can choose to see that let other people get the best of you. You can choose to give up.
Or you can choose differently.
For myself personally, having resilience is a deep knowing that no matter what challenge happens, no matter what life throws at me, that it’s not happening TO me. It’s happening FOR me. For the betterment of my growth. For a lesson I need to learn. For a reason that may not even make sense while the whole thing is happening, but will make complete sense later on down the road. The Universe (or whatever entity you belive in) always has a plan. So, I always will CHOOSE to keep going, get very curious, and ask myself questions like: what choices can I make in the moment that will give me a good/healthy/satisfactory outcome? Why do I feel this way about X situation? I journal it out, and stay curious. On the other side of whatever muck is going on, is always something so much greater than you can possibly imagine.
Hope is resilience.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I started One Sweet Thread in September of 2015 as a part time side hustle born out of my love for vintage clothes and fashion. My business is as much a part of me as my DNA. It’s more than a passion. I sincerely love what I do. The beautiful pieces of not only clothing, but every piece has a history, or, if I am lucky, a story behind it. That to me is so cool. To hold a garment that is over 100 years old is thrilling. Think of who the person was that owned it, and wonder what they were like. This person had a life, people who loved them, somehow pieces of their clothes survived, and I am lucky enough and so grateful to now be their steward. What is so exciting to me is that wearing vintage is unique in and of itself. You find that one special piece, and the likelihood that you will not pass another person on the street in the same thing is zero. Your look is as unique as you are. That is so exciting! Vintage clothes are so much more well made, and last longer than most modern clothes. Wearing vintage reduces your carbon footprint, because you are not buying fast fashion, and and you are preserving fashion history.
The boutique started traveling to antique shows this year. We started with Brimfield Antiques market in July, which was so exciting. We will be joining Brimfield again for their traveling show in Hamburg, PA September 30-Oct 1. Then we will wrap it up in Washington DC on November 4-5 at the DC Flea.
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?
Oh, man. I have worked so, so, so many jobs in the past. Name it, I have tried it! I honestly think that every job I have had has prepped me for my career. I had a lot of jobs in customer service, and I know one of my super powers is talking to people. I can talk to anyone. Sit down next to me, I will be inviting you to Thanksgiving at the end of our conversation. I think every job you have, there is something to learn and take away from it, no matter how small. If you’re in a job now that you don’t like (we have all been there!) pay attention to why you don’t like it, and the aspects you do like. Do you not like sitting at a desk all day, but you love talking to your customers? Maybe you don’t like your boss, but you think you could be a good leader? Pay attention to those things, and use them to help steer you in the right direction.
There’s always room to sharpen your skills, or learn a skill that you want to acquire. There are so many free tools out there to access on the internet to help you learn, too. My favorite place to start is YouTube. You can literally find anything on there. Or SCORE mentors is another great place to access free webinars for entrepreneurs.
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?
Without a doubt, the number one challenge I always am facing is time management. I work for myself, so I call the shots, start when I want, stop when I want. Most folks would think that this is amazing. I get to do whatever I want. In some ways this is true, and yes. It has its benefits. But it also has a lot of drawbacks. I feel a lot of days I will find there are a thousand other things I need to do even before I start working, then I find work gets piled up and I get behind. Other days, I put too much on my plate and pressure myself to finish it all in one day. I am not the kind of person who can make and adhere to a schedule, so I just have to give myself a lot of grace and be very flexible with myself and realize that it will get done, maybe not in the timeline I originally had.
Contact Info:
- Website: onesweetthread.shop
- Instagram: @onesweetthread
- Facebook: @onesweetthread
- Linkedin: Beth Kuhar-Miller
- Other: Threads: @onesweetthread
