Changed.

All the time I get asked what happened to me and why Happy Little Flame changed so drastically since it's rise to success in 2021.
Well, here's the story...

Two years ago, I found Jesus on my bedroom floor.

It was early spring in 2022, and I was working my way through a virtual 30-day mind-and-body renewal program, hosted by a yogi I had been following on Instagram for a while. I was proud of my progress, but my journey through “modern spirituality” (a blend of pseudo Buddhism & Hinduism) was long and tiring, and never seemed to produce the inner peace and happiness I was searching for.

I was stressed, exhausted, burned out, anxious, and lost. My business was really struggling, so much so that I was ready to throw in the towel and just be done with it all. I was overcome with guilt due to never really being present for my kids - my mind was always focused on a million things at once. I felt like I could never catch my breath.

On this particular morning in April, I was sitting on my bedroom floor, cross-legged and palms up, meditating. As I was attempting to "synchronize my energy with the universe", I suddenly got this overwhelming sense of trepidation.
This feeling paralyzed me.
For a few seconds I sat there, disoriented, and really confused. Then goosebumps covered my whole body and I felt like I wasn’t alone.
I hadn’t said a real prayer in over 22 years, but right then, I got the most intense urge to pray.
I don’t really know how much time I spent there on the floor, but I felt God’s presence all around me. It was like He was sitting right there next to me, talking with me about life and holding me as I cried.
It was then that I realized this was what I was missing. Not some self-attained enlightenment.
It was Him.
HE was what I needed all this time.
That morning I asked God to take my life and make it His. And when I did, it was as if every drop of the shame, fear, anxiety, and guilt I had been carrying, drained out of my body. It was gone. All of it. I immediately felt full and whole for the first time. I felt alive. There was a peace that came over me that I had never felt before.

As the weeks went by, it became more and more obvious that I was different than I was before and that my lifestyle, habits, and business didn’t match the person I wanted to be. I knew, deep down, that I would be living a lie if I didn’t fully commit to this new life. This was all or nothing. I had to go ALL IN.
In addition to making several dramatic changes in my personal life (which included full sobriety, changing my language, attending church, spending time with God every day, etc.) I made some dramatic changes within my business as well. I put everything in God’s hands and fully embraced my role as a steward. I wanted more than anything to just do it all HIS way. I removed all of my sweary & snarky products (which, at the time, were my #1 sellers and about 85% of my revenue) and replaced them with joyful, inspiring, and faith-based ones. I began to openly share my journey on the social media platforms I had spent years building, knowing that by doing so I was risking loss of followers AND income. But I didn’t care. My heart yearned to share what God was doing in my life. Through the first several months, my business struggled due to a drop in sales, and lots of customers reached out asking me to bring back the products I had removed. To me, it felt like they were asking me to be something I wasn’t. So I stood firm, and faithful.

Today, it's been 2 years, and not only have I grown in grace and strength on a personal level, my business is thriving like never before. I have an incredible team, a clear mission, the most supportive and encouraging customers, and a revived sense of direction. I’m spending more time with my family, more time in the Word, and really learning how to be the person I was created to be. Life is GOOD.

It hasn’t been easy, though. In fact, 2022 and 2023 were some of the most challenging years of my life; growing as a believer without the support of my husband (and helping my girls in their spiritual journeys as well), processing past traumas and learning to forgive, all while restructuring and re-building my business with absolutely no idea where the money would come from. It was during these years that I learned how to be patient and really lean on Jesus during difficult times, to ignore judgement, keep my eyes on Him, and just do. the. work. And you know what? God provided exactly what I needed when I needed it. Every single time.

I’ve had a number of people tell me that I shouldn’t bring religion into my business, or that my business would be more successful if I left God out of it.
And here’s what I say to that:

Being a follower of Jesus isn’t something you just half-commit to. It’s not something you do in your spare time, or a hobby you pick up and put down when you feel like it. It’s a way of life. It’s the breath in your lungs.
When something incredible happens to you, something that dissolves the fear, anxiety, and guilt you’ve carried with you your whole life (and into your business), all you want to do is tell people about it!