Remember why you started.
You opened Bougie Hermit in 2022 because you wanted something that was substantially yours. Not borrowed, not rented. Yours. You spent a year getting the recipes right before a single product went out the door, because you knew the standard you were building to.
You didn't start this to follow a trend. You started it because you'd bought enough disappointing candles to know you could do better, and because you wanted to leave something behind. A footprint. A blueprint. Something your children could look at and know that it's possible to build something real.
It stems from 2020. From COVID. From the question that never quite goes away as a Black business owner: where do I stand? What can I build? You answered it. You're still answering it, one hand-poured candle at a time.
The goal was never just sales. It was generational legacy through craft. A business with impact. Proof, for every child who looks like yours, that this is possible.
You're doing local markets. You're on Shopify. The wider world doesn't fully know you yet, but they will.
Keep going.