The Story Behind How I Decided To Just Go For It

by Camryn Conner August 29, 2019

The Story Behind How I Decided To Go For It

Hey y’all. I wanted to tell you all my story so you know how I had the courage and ability to start my own online clothing boutique and the full-story leading up to it all. My idea is to help as many people as I can because I’ve been in that miserable place of knowing 110% that I was made for something bigger but having no clue what or how to even get started. If I can help even one person with my story, then that’s all that matters to me. So let’s dive in.

I remember being super young and knowing I was going to help people one day but had no clue what that looked like. When I was 15, I started working at the “go-to” retail gift shop in my small hometown. I LOVED it, y’all. Fave job to this day. After working there, I knew I wanted a store one day. But I wanted to dive more into the fashion side of it all. I’ve always been in love with fashion. I remember growing up and girls making fun of me because of the shoes I was wearing or the clothes I was rocking. Joke was on them because, it always ended up “in-style” a few weeks later and they ALWAYS ended up getting that same pair of shoes or that same shirt. Anyways, I wanted to go to Oklahoma State University and study fashion merchandising and later open up my own brick and mortar clothing boutique. Well, as the good ‘ole saying goes, “Man plans and God laughs.” Needless to say, that plan did not even come close to happening. Instead of moving 5 ½ hours away from home, I ended up moving two hours away from home. I moved to Amarillo, Texas a YEAR before I was suppose to even move out. I graduated high school a semester early, got my own apartment, worked two jobs and started paying bills. To this day, I look back and have no clue how I did it all. Persistency I suppose? Yeah… We’ll go with that.

January 2017, only 5 months into living in Amarillo, I got accepted at West Texas A&M University a week before school was suppose to start back. Talk about whirlwind. I started at WT with a Sports Exercise Science degree in mind. As the months went by, the major kept changing. From Sports Exercise Science, to Business, then back to Sports Exercise Science only to change it to Dental Hygiene. After a year of being in limbo, I made the decision to just start working and figure out if Dental Hygiene was really something I wanted to do before I invested more money into college classes. I started taking online classes to become a licensed dental assistant and I got a job QUICK. Unfortunately, it ended up that I just wasn’t as happy as I thought I’d be. I was hoping I had found my “calling” but it was far from it. I just didn’t feel like I was staying true to me and who I was. So the question was… Who was I?

4 months into dental assisting, I went to a trade show one weekend to shop around in hopes of gaining ideas/motivation of what my next move was. That ONE weekend, that ONE trade show; reminded me of a few things. 1.) The store that I use to daydream about was still a desire of my heart and 2.) I could do whatever I wanted to do with my life. It was up to ME and only ME. I was the one in control of my dreams and my life and knowing that truth is so powerful! That weekend I decided to start “3C Boutique.” That was November of 2018. My online store officially launched August 1^st, 2019. The months in-between knowing I was going to start my store and actually starting it were HARD. I like to call that “The Waiting Season.” In all honesty, I am not a patient person at all. When I decide I am going to do something, I go for it with everything I have and every way I know how. There were months where I wasn’t sure if it was ever going to happen. But ultimately, it came down to knowing and trusting that God had a bigger plan for my life and this store was either meant to be or it wasn’t. It was either in His divine plan for my life, or it wasn’t.

So let’s talk about “The Waiting Season.” It lasted approximately 9 months. 9 dang months you guys. I literally birthed a store baby! Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic but it’s kind of ironic if you think about it. God knew what He was doing. God also knew what He was doing when He made Abraham wait years for the son He had promised him, He made Hannah wait years for a baby, Joseph, Job, even Jesus himself had to wait. Odds are, if He’s making you wait, there is often a reason. But there is a difference between God making you wait and God waiting on YOU. Here’s the thing, if it keeps popping up in your head over and over for a long period of time, chances are, it’s a desire of your heart. God already knows this about you. He knows all the desires of your heart. Trust that. Lean into that.

After 9 long months of waiting, 3C Boutique finally launched! And believe me when I tell you, it’s been a big learning experience! Big, HUGE. But the biggest lesson I have learned so far, you ask? Learning how to be happy right where I am at, in the newest season I have entered into; “The Good ‘Ole Growing Season.” Sometimes, we live our lives for the next best thing. I partly blame society for this. But the thing was, I wanted the store and once the store got started, I wanted to make more money, I wanted to gain a following fast, I wanted this, I wanted that. It’s okay to dream big, don’t get me wrong! But often, we get in a hurry and we neglect the here and now. We take it for granted because we want the next best thing. My best advice about this topic would be to embrace the here and the now. Embrace the growing season that you are in so you can accurately grow the way God intended you to.

So now that you know the main details behind how I decided to just “go for it” so they say, I want to give you 3 tangible facts about fear that you need to know in order to shoot for the moon and make your dreams happen.

Fear: an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

Fear of Failing: Having a fear of failing is 100% natural. Everyone fears failure at some point in their lives. It’s what you do with that fear that shapes you as a person and helps you grow your business. You can choose to let fear overcome you and invade your business and your personal life or you can choose to overcome and embrace that fear. By overcoming and embracing the fear inside you, it proves that you are in control. You are in control of your own life and your own dreams and you aren’t going to let fear takeover. Choose to be an overcomer!
Fear of the unknown: This is also 100% natural. There are so many people who won’t ever go after their dream because they’re afraid of it not working out. They’re afraid of the unknown that comes along with going after their dream. But here’s the thing. By not going after your dream, you’re only holding yourself back. You don’t know if your business is going to skyrocket or plummet. But you can CHOOSE to start. You can choose to fight for it every day. You can choose to grow. Even on the hard days, you can choose to say no to the fear that pops into your head.
Fear and Self-Doubt Go Hand-in-Hand: All self-doubt is, is a lack of confidence in oneself and one’s abilities. Do you not believe in yourself? Because ultimately, that’s what self-doubt boils down to and then that’s where fear comes in. CHOOSE to believe in your abilities. If God brought you to it, He will bring you through it.

See how I threw the word “choose” into every key-factor? That’s because ultimately, it’s our CHOICE whether or not we are going to fear this thing we are about to go do. Our life, our choices. Choose to chase the dream, choose to believe in yourself, choose to have a good day, choose to smile, choose to not give up, choose to be persistent, choose to grow, choose to dream bigger than you ever thought possible. Then, WATCH it all come true. Watch it all come true because you decided to put in the freaking work. Now… Because we all knew there was going to be a Rachel Hollis quote in here at some point, and I’ve said it before but I’m going to say it again for the people in the back. “I cannot have fear about this thing that I am about to go do. Because if I have fear about this thing that I am about to go do, it’s implying that I am in charge. I have to believe that this is something God gave me. That this was planned for me. Because He who started a good work in you shall see it through. So if I have absolute faith that God brought me to this place, then I can’t have fear walking into it because this was already planned for me.”

So to conclude, here’s a nice truth bomb for you. You are not failing. You are growing. Continue to grow. Continue to be an overcomer. Excuse my language but, say “hell yes” to fear. You might as well get comfortable with it and embrace it because fear doesn’t go anywhere. It’s what you do with the fear and how you handle it and overcome it that either makes or breaks you!