Meet Elaina and Janell of Sunshine Shoppers in Metropolitan Phoenix

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elaina and Janell.

Elaina and Janell, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Stylist, it all started with tea! Weird right, well Janell and I love everything tea, tea-inspired, tea flavored, just tea! We’ve wanted to start this really cool tea company since 2015, however didn’t know where to begin or have access to capital. That’s when we put our creativity to use. Janell and I love to shop, we thrift, shop local boutiques and roam departments stores. Together, we have always been able to pull great looks, great brands for a great price. It was at this time that we realized we could totally use these same skills to help fund our tea dream.

In March of 2019, Janell and I ventured into the world of e-commerce and began curating amazing pieces for a large e-commerce audience. Additionally, we would receive inquiries asking if we did personal styling or would be willing to style photoshoots. Since Elaina use to do personal and wardrobe styling; we felt it was a great fit and began offering personal and wardrobe styling to our customers. Since March of this year, we have been working extremely hard to use the Sunshine Shoppers platform to bring special pieces and looks to closets all over. We hope to continue curating great looks for our customers through closet edits and personal as well as wardrobe styling. Janell and I have taken our talents and what we truly enjoy, and have developed multiple businesses that are helping to fund our tea dream that we plan to launch.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Ha, it’s so cliché, but Janell and I truly don’t believe anything worth having will just be handed to us challenge-less. This year has been EPIC! Full of learning curves, personality clashes as well as many opportunities. But hey, we are up for the challenge and enjoying the ride together. Janell and I are 11 years apart and have completely different personalities. That alone comes with its own challenges. We have had many disagreements, got on each other’s nerves and had to take mini breaks (for less than 12 hours) to regroup. It’s one thing to have a relationship with your sister and get in an argument, but when you’re in partnership with your sister there is little to zero room to stay irritated forever! We both had to quickly come to the realization that our dream is bigger than us, and will hopefully positively impact others within and outside of our community by pursuing it. So if not us then who! We always pull it together, quickly apologize and move forward with the project and mission. Besides we have a sister that’s pretty much our older peacekeeper, who tends to keep us in line. While there are so many challenges that tend to come our way, it’s our faith, bounce back and accountability partners that help us push through. We haven’t yet arrived, but we’re progressing daily.

Please tell us about Sunshine Shoppers.
Gosh, Janell and I love sharing what we specialize in. Together we complete closet edits offer personal shopping and develop signature looks for our clients. Not only do we offer personal styling to our clients, but we also offer wardrobe styling for photo shoots and marketing content. We take our personal clients on a complete wardrobe journey to help them dress to their heart, personality, and their brand, by developing individualized looks.

When Janell and I style looks for photo shoots, we curate looks that match the vibe of the brand our customers desire to exhibit. We also pull pieces from boutiques to create great looks that will translate who our client is and where they are going on print.

On our spare time, we shop, we hunt and find special pieces that we are able to bring to our e-commerce platform.

What are you striving for, what criteria or markers have you set as indicators of success?
Janell and I define success based on a few basic principles:
Are we doing what we feel we were placed on this earth to do?
Are we being true to who we are as individuals?
Are we utilizing the gifts and the talents that are within us?
Are we helping someone along the way?

Janell and I don’t believe that money, fame or a ton of likes equates to success, although it’s nice! But at any given moment those things can quickly dwindle away. But the four principles we choose to measure our success by can never be taken away spent or even disappear. Many things are temporal but ultimately impact last is forever. Our hope is that we leave a footprint on the earth that generations to come are able to benefit from.

Contact Info:

• Phone: 602.330.9659
• Email: sunshinshoppers7@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunshineshoppers/?hl=en

Image Credit:
Olivia Sheppard

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