XO HANNAH is now Sunrise Collective
Sweet, wonderful friends.
I'm writing to you today, from a cute little coffee shop in St Augustine, Florida. To be honest with you... I sat down to write this blog post at least 10 times in the last month, and couldn't quite nail down where to start. Today I decided to just pour my heart out and do the best that I can to share our life updates and where I am now.
If you received this in your email, you're one of our select XO Hannah OG friends. Part of the tribe that followed me from LuLaRoe to my own boutique. The amazing humans who inspired me, learned with me, and helped me as a young woman trying to get my very first business off the ground. My heart is so full when I think of all of you. How precious those bonds were. Hours on facebook live, periscope, coffee and mimosas in my basement boutique in White Marsh. Such a beautiful, blessed season full of gratitude for me as a young mother. It's hard to believe it's been almost 10 years since I first jumped into this space.
Two months after we moved from Baltimore to Frisco TX, I brought into the world my spunky little girl, Clara. Many of you followed our journey during that time, and it was special sharing her birth story and our boutique growth with you! We spent one very lonely year in Texas, as Covid hit shortly after Clara's birth, and just like so many of you, the pandemic turned our lives upside down.
At the end of that year, we decided to pack up and "temporarily" move to be near Jordan's family in NWI, by Chicago. That temporary move turned into THREE YEARS, and what I thought was going to be an incredibly difficult time, turned out to be a very beautiful season for our little family.
We moved into a tiny, old little house near a historic, absolutely adorable square with ice cream parlors, restaurants, bars and coffee shops all within a 4-7 min walk from our home. We had family nights with the cousins and grandparents every single Friday. We made new friends and connected with old ones. I kept my boutique rolling online, but was beginning to feel like it was time for a change.
Shortly after, I was offered the chance to enter the corporate world. It was a perfect fit too. I joined a company that served boutique owners, and slowly transitioned from owning my own business, to helping others own theirs! Training, inspiring, encouraging, and bringing women in business together was such a life changing season for me.
I LOVED that job.
It was very difficult for me to keep my own business running while pouring my heart and soul into start up culture, so I sadly watched as my online boutique slipped away, and I made peace with the fact that it was simply my turn to help others do what I had once done.
I moved to another company in the same field and continued on that path. I am not quite sure how else to say it, except that 2021-2024 were filled with me losing myself a bit as I shined my light brighter and brighter for other people's brands and forgot about my own. The corporate world sucked the life out of me. I didn't even recognize myself sometimes, and that really hurts. I dropped almost completely off off social media because I couldn't quite sort out my place in everything and it felt like noise that I couldn't process.
In the fall of 2023, our family relocated to St Augustine for a new job for Jordan (he's still a freaking rockstar btw!) and acclimated to the humidity, intense heat, BUGS... and ALLIGATORS! :)
Being completely vulnerable, as much as I loved my jobs serving boutique owners, I dreaded going to work every week. I missed my customers. I missed my community of amazing XO HANNAH humans. I missed the person I was before. I felt I had lost some of my spark and bright spirit.
I left my corporate job a few months ago, and really spent a lot of time and energy trying to figure out what I wanted my life to look like for the next phase. I spent a lot of time at the beach. I planted a garden, grew a motherhood channel on tiktok just for fun, started a little promo merch company, and most recently, decided to relaunch my own shop... in a DIFFERENT way this time.
I chose to use the word Sunrise in my rebrand because I've always been a fan of new beginnings. This one is particularly special to me because I don't want to be just another shop selling overpriced clothes or products that I don't love just because the market wants them. I decided to launch small, meaningful collections of products that make me smile. Things that make me feel like sunshine. New arrivals monthly instead of weekly.
And of course, I chose to integrate mystery bundles because those have always been a favorite of mine to curate, and a customer favorite in our shop! (stay tuned, they'll launch soon!)
I know we've been apart for a while now, but If you'd like to support or follow along, I'd be so so grateful. Be sure you're subscribed to our email messaging. I'm still deciding how tied I want to be to social media, but If we do relaunch on FB & Instagram, I'll let you know! Check out my new little collection, you can get free shipping on orders over $50 with code "SHIP50"
As always, please know my heart is full of gratitude for the connections and support you've offered me through the years. I hope this relaunch is a start to reconnecting to new beginnings and sunshine for us all! I'd love to hear from you!
xoxo,
Hannah
Sunrise Collective
