Happy almost weekend er´body! If you follow along my adventures over on my Instagram page, you likely know of my partnership GIVEAWAY with Charlotteś SouthPark neighborhood luxury retailer, Specialty Shops. For those of you who have been following along the Queen City Style from the beginning, you know it all started with me brazenly embracing the philosophy: ¨I am first and finally my only model.”
When this all started, all I had was myself. I was a free entity, and so I was my own writer, idea pitcher, model, bookee, marketing tool, publicist, admin, business manager, what have you. Except photographer. My husband —children in tow— took all of my images for the first few years. They patiently tolerated my vision or desire to create images, which I realize seemed silly at the time—and a lot of the time. BUT, they did it, and the show went on, and the business was built on that.. and here we are almost 10 years later, body guard Brandon in tow, making my own tarts in a restaurant grade kitchen with highly acclaimed Italian chefs and being fed grapes. Ten years later this November to be exact.
Still with me? Okay great. I knew you would be! And so when I received an email from the marketing director for Specialty Shops who was seeking help with an upcoming project, I excitedly replied, ¨Ill be happy to help you!” The marketing director expressed an interest in engaging social media to help bring attention to some great local businesses who have been hit hard by the pandemic (Oh holla if you hear me. Cause I hear you…. being dubbed ¨NONESSENTIAL¨ and all). And so of course, I replied again, ¨Iĺl be thrilled to help, and I can recommend some great influencers I know would be PERFECT for the job!¨ And to that she replied, ¨No, we want YOU as the influencer. Surely she wanted to hire me to CONSULT. Yes, but nope. They wanted me as the influencer.
And so… 10 years later, while it has never been my MO to be an INFLUENCER, here I was being hired to do the very thing, which turns out to be the very thing I was doing from Day 1. And let me tell you, in doing so I got to experience something I do not experience in real life. I experienced THE most delightful day of pampering, and I got to do it alonside THE BEST artists in Charlotte with all the creative freedom to do what I absolutely LOVE doing most—bringing attention to others by way of smiles and telling stories through quirky, fun, fashionable images—I could not have been more thrilled with the opportunity and pleased with the images and outcome. Even Brandon got a little pampering of his own over at the SouthPark Barber Shop.
If you made it alllllll the way to the bottom of this post—well then thank you very much. You deserve a gold star. So now head on over HERE for your chance to win your very own Day of Pampering sponsored by Specialty Shops, Renaissance Patisserie, Anthony VInce Nail Spa and DryBar Charlotte. Be sure to follow the instructions in the post, and Good Luck!
Photography: RIchard Israel, Hair: DryBar, Makeup: Artistry by Andre