Welcome to Lord, Have Merci podcast. I'm your Host Shauntae and today's episode five. It's really an impromptu episode. But it's an episode that I needed to share with you guys. On today's episode, we're talking about:
Why was House of Merci created?
What does the word Merci mean, past and present?
And what will House of Merci look like in the future?
Those are the questions that I get all the time. And to be honest, I usually just think off the cuff. But today, I got it, I have it. I think I've always had it. I've just have not had the bravery to express it. But today, I do.
So why was House of Merci created?
House of Merci was created because it was a passion of mine, to build a business to where I wanted women to feel confident in their skin, empowered, beautiful. No apologies for who they were. Not realizing that I was really doing that for me. I didn't really have confidence, I looked like I have confidence. But I really didn't. I was lacking the ability to believe that I could be something I wanted to be. And so House of Merci was a business that actually turned into a passion that turned into saving me from myself. I know it's a lot but sometimes you don't realize why things are started or why you create things. You think you're creating it for something else but in reality, it may be something for you. And this is what House of Merci turned out to be.
Style to me is a way for me to show my beauty and my confidence. Because I was lacking something internally.
I knew if my style could make a statement, I knew I would be fine. And I was but then when I would take it off, I would go back to feeling the way I felt before. House of Merci is a way for me to say thank you to myself or even starting this business. It was a way for me to say thank you to the people who supported me and my vision. It may not have understood at the time, but they still rode with me, which I'm very grateful for. And also thankful to the clientele that I have. The people that have purchased from me that people have sent me DMS. Those are all the reasons why I keep house of Merci going. So it was created because it was a way for me to be able to express myself, to wear I felt confident, beautiful and aware of self thinking I was doing it for other women. And maybe I was but I think it was a way for me to be able to show you who I was. The word Merci passed. When I created House of Merci. As I stated earlier, the word Merci was Thank you. Thankful. This business kept me sane, even though it has been difficult and they're stressful moments. I'm thinking myself for actually stepping out on a limb and doing something that I always wanted to do but didn't have the guts to do at the time. So Merci to me was a way of saying thank you to self as well to others. Present Merci. And this is the kicker. And the funny thing is the present Merci was actually created in my therapy session. It was a moment of wow, I didn't even think about that. And so, Merci present, is saying Shauntae give yourself mercy. You're doing an amazing job. People out there, give yourself mercy. You're doing an amazing job.
That to me, is the icing on the cake because I never thought about giving myself mercy or grace. I've always thought about all the things that you're doing is still not good enough. All of the handclaps and the love the positive feedback, it didn't fulfill a need. And that's because I was hard on myself. Even though I was receiving love about House of Merci and the effects that House of Merci was having on people, it didn't resonate to me because I was too busy, being hard on myself, and not giving myself mercy.
There are some times I think that God can speak to you in a way that you think that you're doing for others, but you're really doing for self. Merci present, at least for me means Shauntae, you're doing an amazing job. It's not easy. It's not meant to be easy. But you're doing an amazing job.
