We were lucky to catch up with Ella Adler recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Ella, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
For 11 years of my life, I was a member of a competitive swim team. Early on, participation in this sport was natural, partly due to a lack of hand-eye coordination, but mainly due to the easy-going & positive environment on the pool deck. As I got older I started to take the sport seriously. With an increase in seriousness came an increase in commitment & decrease in the easy-going environment I was familiar with. In the highly competitive & intense world of club swimming, I thrived.
Participation in a high-level sport taught me the power of self-motivation & importance of sticking to a schedule. These two qualities have contributed to a strong work ethic in other aspects of my life. Swimming is such an individual sport; sure, you are racing the person next to you, but the end goal is always to beat your personal best. This practice of self-competition that was drilled into me is evident in my life outside of swimming. In the past year, 5 years since my last swim practice, I have put in the training & completed my first marathon. I also started my own small sustainable jewelry business with my best friends. The drive to complete tasks at the edge of my comfort zone & hold myself accountable in pursuit of these things would not be there without the time I dedicated to swimming, & the skills that were introduced by my coaches & parents.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
For the majority of my childhood, my mom was a stay-at-home mom. As an extrovert, this low social-interaction occupation was slightly draining; so, my mom started making jewelry to sell at craft shows. This small side hustle gave her something to fill her time with & a way to interact with other, non-screaming, human beings. It also gave her an excuse to peruse the World Wide Web for an endless stock of beads & jewelry supplies. She stocked up fully on everything: beads, pliers, wires, chains, and clasps. Eventually, my mom went back to work & the supplies went into storage, but every now & then, she should pull out her bins so we could make necklaces & earrings. She taught me the ins & outs of creating beautiful jewelry. During my freshman year of college, I brought a few beads & tools to my dorm & would periodically make myself & my friends pairs of earrings. I began receiving compliments on the items I would create and saw the potential for making a little extra money. I taught my roommate, Morgan, how to make earrings, & soon after we created our little side hustle: Happy Humans Jewelry Company.
Since the beads & items we used to create our pieces were all donated to us by my mom, we decided to commit to creating sustainable pieces. We began to hunt down beads in thrift stores & on Facebook Marketplace to prepare for our first market at a local coffee shop. This market was a huge success. I fell in love with sharing our creations & connecting with our customer base. Fast forward 17 months & we have participated in a handful of markets, grown our social media presence, & now have our work displayed in stores along Main Street in Grand Junction, Colorado.
As a student of Mass Communications, I am focusing on Marketing & Media Strategies. Happy Humans has allowed me to practice the skills that are preached in class & textbooks. Morgan, our new partner Jana, and I hope to continue to grow our business & learn from other small women-owned companies.
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 feel slightly underqualified to offer advice to those “early in their journey” as I am so early in my own. That being said, the top three items that I have found useful are being well-researched, having a willingness to do things that make you uncomfortable, & not taking on more than you can successfully do.
Being confident in the area of business or work that you are hoping to succeed in will put you one step ahead of your competitors. Knowing things like industry terms, specifics about your product, & information about your target audience allows you to insert yourself into the business world in a well-received way.
I am not one for cheesy quotes but in a recent self-improvement seminar that I attended, the speaker presented a slide that said “Thrive in the discomfort.” This notion is one that I hope to endlessly pursue. Setting goals that require growth & improvement not only keeps things exciting but allows me to push myself far more than I ever expected to be possible. Recently, I have been trying to embody the discomfort by starting conversations with every person I sit with on the chair-lift while skiing. This small interaction is so intimidating to me but has led to connections & small interactions that brighten my day.
The issue of overbooking is an obstacle that many college students place in front of themselves. As students, we have full-time class loads & jobs to pay the bills. In addition to these necessities, we want to maintain social lives, incorporate healthy workout habits, maybe cook a meal or two a week, & be involved in resume-building pursuits. To be a successful student, employee, future employee, & friend is exhausting. It is imperative to your mental health & success to find a balance between all of the things.
Prioritizing these three elements has helped me pursue success in many aspects.
Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
There are so many cliches about being in your 20s. At least according to rom-coms and articles, it is the time you are supposed to fail the most, while simultaneously finding the secrets to success. You’ll probably find love & lose love, make deep connections & discover fake ones. It turns out that the cliches might be right. In the past 12 months, I have experienced immense growth in my personal relationships. Learning how to maintain & nourish close friendships has been my greatest area of improvement in the last year. I have gotten closer to a small group of girls & grown apart from people I thought I would spend the rest of my life alongside. I have found a safe space; I feel like I can be completely & unapologetically myself—the feelings of self-consciousness & constant worrying about what others think have diminished.
The confidence I gained from close friendships seeps into my professional life. I challenge myself to meet higher goals & start conversations that I never would have before.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellakadler/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ella-adler-23868722b/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1b4blwmNa7LJrps5X6EmTg
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/happyhumansjewelry/
Image Credits
Swim Photo: Christy Decker Photography, Portrait: Betti Briggs Photography
