I love a good story, and this is one of my favs. I wanted to begin Women’s History Month with our story because it nestles so perfectly in the larger story of women making history for centuries.
ESTABLISHED IN MARCH 2019 WITH SCRAMBLED EGGS, CHAMPAGNE, + THOUSANDS OF BUTTERFLIES
I’d never launched a brand new company, so I had no idea when or how it’d be best to officially launch Ezer + Co. That’s until my then-9-year-old daughter decided to give a school oral presentation on International Women’s Day (3/8/19).
If you don’t know my Ethiopian girl, she’s so very much like her momma, even though I didn’t bear her in my body. She’s strong and sassy, tender and sensitive, opinionated and unsure of herself, powerful and vulnerable.
Her speech’s conclusion went something like this:
“International Women’s Day is important because women are strong and powerful and have changed the world.”
WHOOP, THERE IT IS! My daughter showed me now was the time to launch, when we’re in the global stream of the company of women who’ve gone before us—shattering glass ceilings, breaking down walls, staying the course in opposition, standing in solidarity with each other, holding each other’s babies so we can do it all, fighting against the barriers created to hold us back, smashing the patriarchy one brave action at a time.
I launched Ezer + Co. without ANY of the things the old business guys said we needed. We didn’t have a vision statement, values, business plan, financial model, investors. 🫣 But I believed our story needed to begin in the stream of other Warrior Women.
God asked me, “Do you trust me to build this company of warrior women IN THE COMPANY of these women and men?”
It’s been vulnerable as hell, but my answer has always been a resounding “YES! God, I trust you!”
We would make history following the women who’ve gone before us.
The day Ezer + Co. became an official business, March 13th, my attorney-friend, Lady Di and I celebrated with scrambled eggs and toasted champagne at 9 am.
It was also the day the painted ladies’ butterfly migration in Southern California was at its peak. Millions of butterflies flew through Orange County in a short few days’ time. It felt like a smile and blessing from God. (I took that picture of those painted ladies’ the day Ezer + Co. was born!)
Since my infertility years 15 years ago, God’s taught me the transformational journey of becoming a butterfly. It’s ugly. It can be dark, painful, utterly crushing, AND totally life-changing. The old is made into something new and when the breakthrough happens, there is freedom and flying.
TRANSFORMATION CAN BE DIFFICULT, BUT I’M COMMITTED TO FLYING. I BET YOU ARE, TOO.
Sipping champagne at 9 am, watching the butterflies fill the sky on their journey toward freedom, tears fell as I imagined you and me and all we are yet to become.
Four years later, here we are! We have much to celebrate this month. I’m so profoundly grateful. All month we’ll celebrate the women–past, present, and future–who are making history with their big, bold, beautiful lives.
ALL MY LOVE,
