Sep 05, 2022

Retailer Spotlight: Rad Lady Enterprises

We are so excited to be highlighting our fab retail partners here on the PleaseNotes Blog. They truly are at the heart of our business. So many wonderful organizations have placed their trust in our PleaseNotes goodies and are passionate about sharing them with their customers too so it was only fitting we share these ahhmazing companies with you too!

Our next retail spotlight is shining brightly on, Rad Lady Enterprises.

What is your name?

Trista DeVries

What are your pronouns?

She/Her

What's your business name?

Rad Lady Enterprises

How long have you been in business?

12 Years

The Juicy Stuff

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of joy to the greatest amount of people, what would that be?

My simple answer is that I would want a movement that inspired more play in everyone's daily lives. But it's really not that simple. Being able to embody joy and have space for play is a privilege. It is the result of a specific set of liberated life conditions that give us the opportunity to feel joy and find ways to play. So, if I could inspire a movement, it would be one that created real equity for all people, so everyone has what they need to truly thrive. It's impossible to find time for more joy when you're wondering where your next meal will come from or if you will be discriminated against at work. If I could inspire one thing, it would be a movement that brought about true liberation for *everyone*.

How did you get into your line of work and why are you passionate about it?

Such a long story! The Reader's Digest version is that I had an online project I started in 2008 that I didn't have the money to hire a web designer for. I had always loved computers, websites, and the web (and all the potential it had), so I started trying to do it myself.

Over time, I learned more than your average web designer about how the web works, how to manage servers, how to find the right host, using SEO, and so much more, that I started very critically looking at my friends' websites. They needed to be better! They deserved so much better!! And that's when I made the leap to designing websites professionally.

I wish I could say I've never looked back, but that's not the entrepreneurial journey (LOL), but I love my job to much. It's such an honour to help amazing women grow their businesses with web and brand strategy.

What is a quote that made an impact on you? How did it come into your life and how do you use it?

I think that Ruth Bader Ginsburg's quote "Women belong in all places where decisions are being made," has always made an impression on me.

When I was younger, it helped me see a world where I could be included, but now I see it as a mantra for inclusion. If women belong in all places where decisions are being made, then so do BIPOC. So do trans people. So do members of the LGBTQIA community. So do people with disabilities. So do fat people.

If a decision is being made and people from those groups aren't in the room, the wrong decision is being made. Which, I think, is how we got where we are in current society.

What piece of advice would you give the 2012 version of you? Why?

Stop. Fucking. Shrinking.

Just stop it.

Stop making yourself smaller, different, less loud, more palatable.

No one needs that and trying to be something that you're not isn't helping anyone. And it's creating more crap you gotta undo.

Just go be a fucking star.

(Full disclosure, I am still working on this. Daily. It's so much easier in concept than reality. But the me today is so much more unapologetically myself than the 2012 me.)

What activities do you do for self-care and mindfulness?

I walk my dog. I cross-stitch. I pull cards. I talk to friends. I also do laundry and dishes and other things that make my environment peaceful and tidy. I'm not great at meditating, so I do activities that are just like meditating!

What was situation that made you stronger? How did you make your way through it?

Ugh. I think like a lot of women -- humans? -- there are a lot to choose from. Possibly too many.

The one that sticks out in my mind is caring for my mother in the last two years of her life. She had Multiple Sclerosis for 25 years and when it became clear she couldn't live on her own, my husband and I changed our entire lives to care for her in our home.

The stress of living with your mother as an adult and after 20 years, was significantly compounded by how poor our health care system is for the terminally ill. The extreme stress of constantly navigating multiple providers and having to bargain or beg for every scrap of support put me into clinical burn out.

But I didn't know that's what it was, so I just soldiered on. It was impossible to care for myself in that situation, because no choice was a good choice. The people in the medical system cared only so long as it didn't cause more work for them, so there was ultimately no support at all.

It's been 6 years since my mother passed -- which resolved one kind of stress and replaced it several others, albeit much less intense -- and today I don't push myself. I do what I can do and no more. I've structured my life and business around prioritizing rest and mental health.

Like so many high-performing women I know, I had to push my health to the brink before even noticing there was a problem. I am not willing to do that anymore, under any circumstances. There's always a better, kinder way.

When you're feeling unsure of yourself, what do you do to realign yourself?

I usually do one of my self-care things, like walking with my dog or chatting to a friend. I have had a lot of coaching and therapy, so I'm sure that I use those things without even knowing that I'm doing it. I'm pretty good at talking myself off my own ledges.

What's your zone of genius and how do you use it to impact others?

Oh, my zone of genius is absolutely my ability to see people clearly, not only for who they want to be seen as, but who they truly are. I have an amazing capacity to really "get" people intuitively and also to meet them where they're at.

This is really useful in my work because it helps me to support my clients in being seen by their customers. It helps me create brands and websites that really reflect who a person is and create a deep connection to them, even in a digital space. I secretly call this digital alchemy, but I'm sure that someone has trademarked that term LOL

What do you want your legacy to be?

Honestly? No legacy, please. I want the people who knew me to say I was fun to be around, that they felt genuinely cared for in my presence, and to generally think well of me when I'm gone. But I think a lot of Very Bad Things have been done in the service of legacies by people who look like me and I'm okay with not having one.

That and I just really want people to know how much I love dogs.

About the Products

Why did you decide to partner with Cheryl Sutherland & PleaseNotes Goods?

Because Cheryl's commitment to supporting other people in living amazing lives that they create for themselves is genuinely inspiring. Plus! I own many PleaseNotes products and regularly recommend them, so why not partner and share them even more!!

What items have you used and given as gifts?