As I Began To Love Myself
I believe people come into your life for a reason, and always at the right time. I have several examples of beautiful souls that recently crossed my path just when I needed their influence and wisdom. One of them is a special lady who sent me this poem written by Charlie Chaplin on his 70th birthday. In this phase that I currently find myself in, I recognise so much of this poem that I just had to share it with you.
”As I Began To Love Myself” – Charlie Chaplin
As I began to love myself I found that anguish and emotional suffering are only warning signs that I was living against my own truth. Today, I know, this is AUTHENTICITY.
As I began to love myself I understood how much it can offend somebody as I try to force my desires on this person, even though I knew the time was not right and the person was not ready for it, and even though this person was me. Today I call it RESPECT.
As I began to love myself I stopped craving for a different life, and I could see that everything that surrounded me was inviting me to grow. Today I call it MATURITY.
As I began to love myself I understood that at any circumstance, I am in the right place at the right time, and everything happens at the exactly right moment, so I could be calm. Today I call it SELF-CONFIDENCE.
As I began to love myself I quit steeling my own time, and I stopped designing huge projects for the future. Today, I only do what brings me joy and happiness, things I love to do and that make my heart cheer, and I do them in my own way and in my own rhythm. Today I call it SIMPLICITY.
As I began to love myself I freed myself of anything that is no good for my health – food, people, things, situations, and everything the drew me down and away from myself. At first I called this attitude a healthy egoism.Today I know it is LOVE OF ONESELF.
As I began to love myself I quit trying to always be right, and ever since I was wrong less of the time. Today I discovered that is MODESTY.
As I began to love myself I refused to go on living in the past and worry about the future. Now, I only live for the moment, where EVERYTHING is happening. Today I live each day, day by day, and I call it FULFILLMENT.
As I began to love myself I recognized that my mind can disturb me and it can make me sick. But As I connected it to my heart, my mind became a valuable ally. Today I call this connection WISDOM OF THE HEART.
We no longer need to fear arguments, confrontations or any kind of problems with ourselves or others. Even stars collide, and out of their crashing new worlds are born. Today I know THAT IS LIFE!
Love yourself!
Nadira
Full photo diary including all ready to shop outfit details below:
Shop my look (Click on the product pictures to go to shop):
Photography by Jesse Verboog.
Hipster – Beyond Style: Personal Branding
This summer we’ve launched our Wulterkens’ Hipster Party Collection, which consists of fashionable t-shirts, crop- and low cut tops with funky, unique personas, we call the Hipsters. What I personally love about the collection is that they’re all different in their details, and I believe most of us can find ourselves, or our alter ego’s within atleast one of the designs.
Next to the Hipster’s, I wanted to create a female superhero line, with powerful words, in a playful, comicbook style that just makes an awesome statement. By now, lots of lovely people are walking around in the collection, which is amazing!
If you haven’t checked it out yet, visit: www.wulterkensclothing.com.
We named it the Hipster Collection, because it simply fits the definition of being a trendsetter; to lead when others follow.
Apart from our awesome collection, I do believe in setting a trend beyond fashion.
Personal Branding, is one of the things I’ve been exploring recently, which is basically, profiling yourself to stand out from the mass. It’s about stating who you are, why you are different and it’s all about influencing the way others perceive you as a person.
In today’s ”social media” generation, I believe we all (mostly unintentional) are exerting some form of personal branding, yet there are only few who master it.
I’m not a personal branding coach, so I will not be able to give you all the insights. But a good start would be to start asking yourself these questions:
1. Who am I? / How would I describe myself?
2. What drives me in life (mission)?
3. What gets me out of bed every morning (passion)?
4. What am I good at? (skills)
5. What are my most important values?
6. How do I think others see me?
7. How would I like others to see me? / What would I like to be known for (Vision)?
Take these questions as a guideline, and with the answers you can start with a plan.
As a (almost master) marketeer, I would also like to share with you the 6 P’s of Personal Branding (Source: Business 2 Community):
1. Probe – Determine what exactly your personal brand is. See it as a life-changing exploration of your passion, mission and skills. By doing this, you can discover your personal brand and with this you know exactly how to position yourself.
2. Present – Figure out how you will present yourself. Create a marketing plan.
3. Produce – Original Content. Establish your expertise through content marketing.
4. Promote – Your content, through social media, speaking at events, traditional marketing and so on.
5. Personalize – Make sure to continuously add authenticity to your content and marketing efforts.
6. Perfect – The last, but continuous step of Personal branding. Constantly assess your work, and make adjustments. Learn and grow, make sure that’s visible through your content. Sometimes you will have to take a step back to perfect even more. Be thorough with refining whatever it is that you portray.
There you go, personal branding in a nutshell. If you would like to know more, feel free to comment or contact me through email.
Good Luck & Lead When Others Follow!
Love,
Nadira
As you guys know by now, I love to go on adventures when shooting. We always come across the craziest places. This time we literally broke into the ruins of an old theatre. It was extremely dangerous, because there were sharp things flying around, it was cold and extremely windy, which lead to zero control over my hair, which is pretty clear in all the pictures. However, those who know me, know that I occasionally crave a little bit of danger in life. A little adrenaline rush never hurt anybody right?
As for the look, I wanted something matching with the statement of the Wulterkens’ Hipster collection, so I went with a mixture of funky, sporty and edgy.
I hope you guys enjoy these pictures, for which we’ve risked our lives for taking!
Outfitdetails: Wulterkens Badass Crop Top & Wulterkens Venice Low Cut Top.
Wulterkens Varsity Jacket (Sold out); High Waisted Striped Shorts: Ebay (old), Leather Look Leggings: Zara (Old); Shoes: All Star Sneakers & ZARA Heels. Leather Jacket: Mango (old)
”Life isn’t about finding yourself, but about creating yourself” – George Bernhard Shaw
‘‘Be yourself, everybody else is taken” – Oscar Wilde
“Personal branding is about managing your name — even if you don’t own a business — in a world of misinformation, disinformation, and semi-permanent Google records. Going on a date? Chances are that your “blind” date has Googled your name. Going to a job interview? Ditto.” – Tim Ferriss
Against A Lot Of Odds
I’m back from what I’ve experienced as a too fast going rollercoaster that launched me right into zombieland.
We moved into our beautiful and much larger office space where we can divide our 2 businesses, a separate office for Customized wear and a special showroom for Wulterkens Clothing, while still connected. For us the perfect combination. We did have some bumps in the road though, one of it was that the first few days we didn’t have any central heating, while still winter, so it was freezing, which got me very sick. There were some other issues as well, but I will not bore you with those details. Right before moving, we launched our new sport collection (part 1), but had some problems with delivery on our stock, so everything piled up. So much to do, so little time, lots of difficulties… and not long after I had my Business Marketing exam, which of course required a lot of studying. For those of you who don’t know, I am doing a part time Master program at the University in Amsterdam. (*Update 31-3-2015*: Just heard I aced my Business Marketing exam with a grade of 8,5 (out of 10), so I guess it was worth it!)
As excited as I was for all the new things happening (new office, new collection), I think you can imagine the amount of cortisol (stress-hormone) flowing through my body, while struggling to recover.
So it’s safe to say I’ve been a little busy, but hey what else is new! We’re back and we’ve just launched part 2 of the Wulterkens Sport Collection, check it out on www.wulterkensclothing.com! Coming soon (April) is our Summer Fashion Collection and another surprise, so stay tuned for that.
What I’ve learned from the pas month is that I can do and handle so much more than I thought I could. Another confirmation, in retrospect, that we tend to limit ourselves in our minds most of the time, but when certain situations demand action on our behalf and it’s just an absolute must (you know you can’t hide under the bed covers even if you’d really love to), it suddenly appears that you are able to do whatever it is you need to do.
If someone would have told me a month ago, what was going to happen (read: go wrong), I would have thought ‘’No thank you, I can’t handle that’’ and I would have skipped the entire moving part and a few other things.
‘’All limits are self-imposed’’, one of my favorite quotes and it’s nice to have a good reminder of it! So whenever you get into a crazy busy, too much to handle, everything going wrong and demanding your attention kind of phase, just breathe, and go with the flow. Don’t go hide in a corner, because although the temptation will be strong, it won’t solve anything and may lead to even bigger problems. So take responsibility, do all you can and it will pay off. If it doesn’t kill you, it only makes you stronger.
I’ve started training and eating healthy again since this week, in preparation for summer. #hotsummerbody, who’s with me?
Controlling my sugar & carb intake and keeping a regular workout schedule was just too much for me during the past month, so I let myself go a little, which has become visible in the mirror and I’m not happy with it, so it’s time to get strict and back at it.
I will be doing an update post on my fitness routine, as I will have a slightly different approach for the next few months. I’m also planning on doing some videos, with some good exercises that you guys can try that do a lot of good. If you girls/guys have special requests, please let me know, I will try to incorporate that.
Another great thing I just found out (to my surprise!) from the statistics of the blog is that for 2015 Lead When Others Follow has been viewed by awesome people from over 60 different countries. How cool is that! I want you all to know that I never expected this when I started blogging and I am extremely grateful to all of you who find my crazy life interesting and I really hope you can learn a little bit or get inspired.
Lots of love to all of you!
Nadira
Outfitdetails: My Wulterkens Varsity Jacket is from the new Functional Fashion Collection, Sporty, but chique, check it out here, also available in black & white.
Pants from ZARA Basic, Sneakers from All Star, Turtle Neck Sweater from WE.
