Meet Jyssica: Style Opal
Jyssica, founder of Style Opal, a social media agency, and Upper Left Ladies, a network of 1000+ women in Portland Oregon, will be your new best friend the instant you start chatting with her. She is the most down to earth, easy to get along with, lady empowerer ever! Style Opal has a way of taking business and making it personal- Jyssica has built her agency on the principle that skill + relationship will set up your business for success and longevity. Read on to discover how exactly she has managed to do just this!
1. Tell us about who you are and your journey to where you are now!
I can start with how I was as a young girl. Our child selves are so telling! I grew up with a sister and two cousins who were close to our age. I was the oldest, and I was always choreographing little dances for us to put on for our family. As I got older, that turned into writing plays my friends and I would put on for our classmates and families. I don't identify with "I've always been an entrepreneur" in the way of lemonade stands and selling pencil grips (though I did make some side cash selling ladybugs and putting a "wishing well," AKA hanging a beach pail from a tree with a rope in front of my house one summer) as much as I do starting bands and making websites that were all about my best friends and me. Yes, real deal millennial here.
Something happened in those in-between years of middle and high school, as does to a lot of women, and I lost some of that confidence that had me believe I could create or be whatever and whoever I wanted. I learned, performed, competed and had a lot of fun, but I didn't feel like a leader. In college, things came full circle when I accidentally created a role for myself for the first time. I created a street-style blog for my university's first fashion magazine, and the next semester, they opened the shiny new role of Street Style Editor for me.
This helped me build the confidence to start my own style blog when I went to live and study fashion in Florence, Italy. I named it Style Opal, to reflect my belief that our personal style doesn't need to fit in a box or ascribe one-dimensional angle of "bohemian" or "punk rock." Most of us can be and dress any way we like, contrary to what we may have been taught. Style is a reflection of our stories; who we are, who we want to be, our moods, our travels, our relationships, and our dreams.
When Style Opal evolved into a styling and social media agency, I applied this same philosophy towards branding. I would say I'm a connector, a creative, a storyteller, a feminist, a stylist, a cat mom.. and a definite Sagittarius!
2. What is the mission of your brand? How does it empower women?
Style Opal's mission is to help women tell their story and grow their business through social media and content marketing so they can reclaim their time, do what they love, and empower other women in return. We do this through social media management and strategy, photo and video shoot production, copywriting. I also love working with women in 1-on-1 strategy consults or my biannual virtual group course, Instagram Bootcamp!
3. How do you collaborate with women working towards a better world?
We hire almost all women on the team at Style Opal. Our photographers, Content Director, and Influencer Marketing Specialist are all women who share the same value of lifting each other up in a very real way. I also co-founded Upper Left Ladies, a community for womyn entrepreneurs + creatives in the Pacific Northwest over three years ago. We have monthly meetups, a book club, an engaged community of over 1,500, and we had our inaugural Upper Left Summit last year!
4. What is the biggest challenge you’ve had to press through as a female entrepreneur and what are the steps you’ve taken to overcome it?
Some of the biggest challenges I've faced have been self-imposed: mindsets, limiting beliefs, and habits that didn't serve me. We all have stories we've learned or have told ourselves that don't contribute towards the truest, most alive and aligned versions of ourselves. When I recognize a harmful story I have been telling myself, surrounding rejection, for example, I reverse and literally rewrite the story down on paper. Then I say it out loud. For example, if I catch myself thinking "What's the point in going for this big job? They're just going to say no." I catch myself, and say aloud, "my dream clients are coming my way right now. They're so excited to work with us on XYZ and to have social off of their plates!" It's most helpful to get as specific as you can with affirmations and manifestation this way. I've also invested in coaches and programs that have helped me upgrade my business, clientele, systems, and mindset in big ways.
5. What advice would you give to a female entrepreneur in the beginning stages of launching her brand or business?
Don't wait for someone to give you permission, or until you've (done that thing) to start! You don't need a gorgeous website, you usually don't need that next degree, you don't need ten thousand followers. You need your first client or customer. I'm not saying you need to quit your day job today, I'm saying you need to take the next step ahead of you that is calling your name.
6. What sets your brand apart from others?
I am proud of our our storytelling - our copywriting, in visual terms. Our ability to really nestle into a brand's message and tone, and to tell that brand or person's story as if it were truly themselves writing it. I know this is often an entrepreneur's hesitancy in hiring out social media management or copy in general. We hear "I can't believe I didn't write this" or "it's like you were inside my head!" time and time again from clients.
For Upper Left Ladies, we are literally giving womyn resources like new lifelong friends or biz besties, housing, access to jobs and clients, skills, and most of all, community. I can't ask for much more than that.