Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Destiny Finn. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Destiny, so excited to talk about all sorts of important topics with you today. The first one we want to jump into is about being the only one in the room – for some that’s being the only person of color or the only non-native English speaker or the only non-MBA, etc Can you talk to us about how you have managed to be successful even when you were the only one in the room that looked like you?
You need to force yourself to be you.
It’s easy to want to form to the masses, because to be authentic, to create from your raw vulnerability, to create something worth pursuing it’s gonna take guts.
When you take up the courage to carve your own path out of the blood, sweat and tears of your own soul and you listen to your gut to create the things you long to create and you do it to the best of your ability for the Glory of the Divine, whom you are made in his image, then you are successful.
Being you, the messy, human, goofy and imperfect you is your gift. No one else has your same set of gifts, dreams and ideas; those are unique to you.
For me I had to develop a strong sense of self worth and self love. I had to approve of myself before I could ever begin to approve of my work; because without that self love it didn’t matter what I did or achieved externally because internally I felt like the world’s biggest failure. And when your mindset is crooked then your art isn’t gonna be genuine which means procrastination will kick in and you’ll stop being effective because you’ll just become a consumer instead of a creator.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am the visionary and Founder behind Finn and Burk Trading Company which is an outdoor adventure company for the nomads, travelers, adventurers and everyone in between.
I create the artwork of all our designs which are inspired by adventures I’ve had out in the Alaskan Wilderness. I love being able to bring those adventures back to life and share them in fun and unique designs which are then printed on the clothing and products you see, that way no matter where you go you can carry a piece of the adventure with you.
Finn and Burk was launched in October of 2023 and over this past year it’s been truly incredible seeing it bloom in all the ways it has. We went from simply being an online store to getting our products into physical store locations in downtown Juneau Alaska, the same place our company was founded up on glacier.
Up and coming in the near future we will be launching more product designs as well as hopefully continuing to expand our in person store locations as well are only at this time able to ship domestically to the USA.
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?
For me the three qualities that were most impactful on my journey were definitely: Courage, Authenticity and the Ability to Dream.
Without those three qualities you won’t get far in life. You need to be able to dream of the life you want, you need to be authentic when dreaming up those dreams and ideas and then you need to have the courage to pursue them.
You will also need courage to stand boldly against the criticism you will receive at times for doing things that are authentic to you and for pursuing your dreams because at that point you are different than most of society. You will also have to be okay with being misunderstood, but take heart because your dreams don’t have to make sense to anyone but you.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
When you are doing something new, whether that is starting a business, trying a new hobby or carving a dream into reality there will be times you will feel overwhelmed because you’ve never been here before doing what you’re currently doing; and that’s a good thing.
When I was in the dreaming process of Finn and Burk I’d dream for hours on what to name it, what design, what vibe etc. I’d draw, scratch and redo. Then when I designed the website I can’t tell you how many times I nearly chucked my computer out the window because I got so overwhelmed and frustrated by the growth pains I was experiencing.
But what I found to help is to take a step back and breathe. Usually when you are getting overwhelmed it’s because your brain is processing too much at once or it’s focusing on all the things that could be going wrong and that’s when panic sets in. But if you can get yourself out of the forest then you’re able to see the trees more clearly and when you take yourself out of the current problem you’re overwhelmed about you are more clearly able to see your solutions to problem solve.
We usually always have the answers inside of us it just takes being still, breathing and quieting the commotion we got going on in our brains to hear our gut instincts.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://finnandburk.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/finnandburk/profilecard/?igsh=MWUweTVsMXJ5anhraw==
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