This is iwei

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Video Transcript:

0:06
Hi.
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Yeah, yeah, I know I’m in my bathrobe.
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I know.
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To tell you…
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I’ve had to film a bunch of stuff as I get ready to release
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my brands. Well, Inshallah has already been around
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for a while but Align is getting ready to be released.
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And so my company, iwei, is getting ready to come out of the closet.
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And I am not a social media person. I don’t do social media.
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Recording this stuff is the first time I’ve recorded myself
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other than like on trips and recording fun things.
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And I know that it’s important to share, to connect with you, to
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connect with those out in the world that I’m meant to connect
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with, who are meant to connect with me, I know that it’s
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important to share my journey. And I’m not afraid to do that.
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If you were standing in front of me as a regular person, I
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wouldn’t have any problem sharing my journey with you,
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sharing how iwei came to be,
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but the idea of turning on a camera and recording it, and then
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putting it up on Facebook or Instagram or my website was a
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little…
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intimidating. And you know you worry about how people are going
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to perceive you so you care about how you look because in
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our society right now, how you look seems to be important to
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get people to notice you. So I was worried about outfits and
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what [inaudible] was gonna look like, and I realized that the only way
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I was gonna get through this and feel comfortable with to do it
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where I’m most comfortable in what I’m most comfortable. So,
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this is my bath robe. This is my fireplace…
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and this is what we’re doing. So, hi. Hi, I’m Stacey, Stacey shell.
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I live in Northern California, born and raised, Northern
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California,
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and I have a company iwei the website’s iwei.one, and I
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have, right now I have two brands: Inshallah Essential Oils, and
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Align Gemstone Diffusers.
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But I wanted to talk to you about how
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iwei came to be because I think… it’s important to me why iwei
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came to be what its purpose is. Now, I’m going to warn you that
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I might cry. I’m not crying because I’m sad. I’m crying
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because this is a big deal for me. Like, talking to you.
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putting myself out there, ready to show the world what I am. Big
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step for me. So if I cry, it’s just an emotional release.
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You’re welcome to cry with me. But you also,
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you know.. don’t worry, I’m okay, that’s just my dove flying
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around, so you can ignore the sounds.
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Okay, iwei.
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So, I used to be in the corporate world. I was a
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financial consultant. I worked for large corporations. But my
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consulting was primarily to cities and counties here in
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California.
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I also did some WIC Consulting at the federal level. I was a
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very good consultant. I was not a good corporate person. I’m not
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good at conforming. I’m not good at just accepting orders and not
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asking why. I’m really good at using my brain and sometimes
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that didn’t go along with my boss at the times, bosses at the
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time’s thought processes of what kind of employee I should be. So,
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I did well in the corporate world. I was in the corporate
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world for like 15 years. I mean, I went to college. I have
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undergrad business degrees. I have a master’s, an MBA with a
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concentration in marketing. So, corporate world is where I
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thought I was gonna live and die, and make all my money. And that
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ended up not being the case. So I lived in the corporate world
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for a long time. And it was you know, I had some good times I
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met my best friend there. He was my boss at one of my first jobs.
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I do not regret any of it but it was difficult. It was difficult
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to conform. It was difficult…
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A lot of people wanted to exert certain levels of control over
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me that I didn’t think were appropriate or necessary. So
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anyways, while that was going on back in 2015, I met who would
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become my second husband. And I just want to let you know, well,
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I’ll tell you that that’ll be part of the story, so you just
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wait. So I met my second husband, and it was a very
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unhealthy relationship. He was very abusive, not physically,
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but mentally and emotionally. He was a hardcore alcoholic, which
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I did not know when we first started dating. It took me a
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while to figure it out.
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Hardcore cheater, had relationships going before we
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got together, but he’s a soulmate. And so when I met him,
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we connected on a level I had never connected with anyone
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before. That’s my cat, William. His name is Sir One Eyed
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William. But anyways, so it was a turbulent two, two and a half
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years with him, and it was very… I can’t express to you how
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broken I became. He’s a narcissist, go I was gaslighted
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a lot. I was made to think I was the problem, the crazy one, I
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had, I can’t even go into the stories of how crazy. I should
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have left long before I did. But I loved him. And he made me,
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you know, he said he loved me, and the feelings I felt, which I
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understand now,
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were more me than they were him, and more about what I
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thought the relationship was versus what it really was. So it
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was really bad. He cheated on me a lot. He would start fights,
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and he would go off and disappear for two or three days
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so that he could drink and cheat and do whatever he was doing.
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And then he’d come back to me. And I wouldn’t know, at first I
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didn’t know that what he was doing when he was gone. I thought he was
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sitting at home sad and crying like I did. But you know, not
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the case. I started to become very emotionally
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drained, and I was seeking help. I was still working my day job.
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And I was working about 80 hours a week, so it was tough.
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But I started to seek help, therapy and stuff. And I was
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this was before we got married, that I started seeking therapy.
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And I’ve had therapy off and on throughout my life. And I it’s
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been very helpful, and this was a turning point for me. And for
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those of you that are more on the spiritual tip, he’s the
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narcissist I’m an empath. So that’s the dynamic that’s going
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on. And you can look that up, if that resonates with you for any
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reason. So, to make that long story short, too late,
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I was doing a lot of therapy, I was very broken, I was very
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lost. I was miserable at my job. And the control that my bosses
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were trying to exert over me, the inappropriateness of my
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bosses, some of the things I was encountering just became, we’re
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piling on on top of this every day adrenaline rush up and down
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of the drama of my relationship. So one day I was in… well, one
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night, we had had one of our dramas, and he had not shown up
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for a couple of days. And then he showed up at my house drunk one
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night, and the next morning, after finding photos of him and
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someone else on his phone. I had already scheduled a therapy
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appointment for myself and he pretended like he didn’t
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remember seeing this person. And he, you know, was like, How
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could this be? And this isn’t right. And I need to get help.
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And I said, Well, do you want to go to therapy with me today? And
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he said yes. It was a very difficult therapy session, and
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never take anyone to therapy that hungover because like
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they’re not even all totally there. And during this therapy
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session I was crying my eyes out. I was bawling. He was
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sitting next to me my therapist was across from us. And I was
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like, I don’t understand, why is he doing this? I would, what have I
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done? and da, da, da, and my therapist kept saying, Stacy, you need to
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choose you. And she just kept saying it over and over you need
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to choose you, and I was like, I said to her I’m here in
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therapy. I am choosing me and I brought this motherfucker with
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me. So how am I not choosing me. I didn’t realize till years later
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after lots of healing and moving away from this relationship,
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what she meant, and that I needed to show up for myself. So during
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this conversation
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I had a note pad
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and on it I wrote i – w – e – i, and I kept writing it over and over.
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And in my mind, I was thinking, how can I choose me? How can I
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stand in my strength? How can I stand in my power and my
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greatness, and then have somebody else choose them, stand in
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their power, in their greatness in their wonderousness of what
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they are? And then together we create, and that was what was
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going through my head. And
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we got through the session he immediately left and went back
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to the bar and
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all that stuff. And I kept that notepad. Now, I am a note
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person. So I turned one of my walls in my house into a
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whiteboard. I bought paint…. So I wrote iwei, and the logo, you
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see now is literally a picture of that, from my wall. That’s
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the logo, I never changed it, I’m not going to. I think it has
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all the power it needs to in it the way it is. So after about
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another year of that drama, and marrying him and only being
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married for 62 days. So you don’t have to be famous and rich
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just to have these short ass marriages. I finally one day, we
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were married 62 days, it was a trauma day, it was very
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dramatic. He had informed me that he planned on financially
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supporting this other person, even while we were married and
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had gone and secretly added her to his home while we were
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married. It hit, it clicked, I was done. I let him leave. I
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never spoke to him again. Well, for four and a half years. And I
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was done. I was not just done with the relationship. I was
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done with the bullshit. I was done with my bullshit. I was
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done with crying all the time. I was done with being mad. I was
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done with being in a world that I didn’t feel that I belonged. I
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was done feeling mediocre and lost and stuck. I was done, done,
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done, and I was done with my company. And I got really lucky.
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So he left in August, August 30th was the day I had him leave. And
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right before the Thanksgiving holiday, my boss who I
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particularly was butting heads with a lot. And the reason they
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couldn’t fire me is because I was so good at my job. But she
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said to me
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while you take this holiday, I want you to think about your
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job. And I want you to decide whether or not you’re on the
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boat. Are you on the boat with us. And if you’re on the boat,
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then what that means is you keep your mouth shut, and you do what
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you’re told, and I don’t want to hear your opinion. And all these…
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it was very surprising. And on that call I was like I’m on the
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boat. I’m like you got it because I needed the money. I
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was afraid to lose my job. I didn’t have savings. I didn’t
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have a plan.
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I was just starting a divorce from a guy had been married for
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62 days. I mean, I had no clue. We got off the phone. And right
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around the Thanksgiving time. I was like, Wait a minute,
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I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to be on that boat. Fuck
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that boat. I want my own god damn boat. So what did I do? I
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went to an attorney. And they luckily took my case, you know
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where they get a percentage after we settle. And I basically
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got out of my job. I got a settlement for some
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inappropriate behavior that I had been tolerating and
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complaining to HR about. And that was it. I was done. I
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didn’t go back. I didn’t go back to that job. I had no plan. I
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had no savings. I had a little bit of money from the
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settlement, not enough to get someone by for more than a
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couple of months who has to pay a mortgage and bills and all of
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that stuff. But that was it, I knew I needed to start iwei and I did.
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I went out,
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I think,
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I incorporated in January of 2019. I left my job of January
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2018. And that whole year was a complete disaster for me. I had
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to, I had to break to be reborn. I had to break to rebuild. The
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divorce if you’re wondering took 14 months. So during that time,
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I was a disaster recovery
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volunteer for the American Red Cross. I did a lot of
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volunteering for that year, as I found myself. I was very lucky
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to be supported by my mother, who has never not had my back.
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And I went on a trip to Egypt in 2018, with a friend of mine,
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which is where I found my fifth generation perfumer
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for Inshallah oils, but I didn’t buy the oils – And that’s
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a whole other story – but I didn’t buy the oils to sell, I
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bought them for myself. But when I came home, I realized I bought
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way more oils than I can ever use. And that’s where I started
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to think about this business. So I incorporated in 2019. And
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during that 2018 year, one of the things I kept saying is I
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wanted diffusers that look like gemstones. And all these ideas
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started coming in things that I talked about at a surface level
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with friends or thought about my head, but never gave it any
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thought because I had an 80 hour week freaking job. I had a crazy
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ass husband that I, couldn’t keep it together, what lie he was
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telling and what was going on. And this whole time, I’m
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thinking I’m the one that’s the problem. And I’m miserable in
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this existence, and I didn’t want to be miserable any more.
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So here I am. It’s 2023.
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And I am releasing my diffusers. My Inshallah line has been
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around for over a year and a half. And it’s starting to pick
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up now that I’m getting into social media.
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I am on the brink of greatness at my company. It’s just me. And
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then I have the support of a couple of friends who are doing
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some of the work that I don’t have the skill set for, like the
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editing and all that stuff. And that, that’s that’s how I came to
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be here. And that’s why I’m here talking to you right now. I’m
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here to, to
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be authentically me. And know that’s enough. And
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to create the reality that I want to live in, not the reality
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that I’m told I’m supposed to be in or that I’m supposed to
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accept or that statement “Well that’s just the reality.” I don’t
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believe that. I believe that we can create our own realities.
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I’ve done it. I’ve been doing it for years now.
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And the purpose of iwei,
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the purpose of iwei it is so that me and you can be in our greatness,
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can be our perfect selves, whatever that is. And then together
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we create the reality, the world, the universe that we want to see,
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that we believe in.
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And it’s not something that’s in the future. Oh, maybe
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one day we’ll have world peace. Maybe one day everybody will be
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rich. Maybe one day everybody’ll have a cat and a dog and be
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perfectly content. That is today. I am living that today and
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everyday I live that,
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and that’s what I want for you. So iwei right now, my major
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brands are essential oils and diffusers. But that is not the
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purpose of iwei. The purpose of iwei is limitless creation.
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It’s a space for you to create limitlessly. It’s a space for me
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to create limitlessly. It’s a space for us to create a whole
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new universe that we want to see, and it will become real, because
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my diffusers were in my head for years. And now they’re real,
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like real.
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And I know you can do that too with whatever you want. And so
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I’m creating a space, I’ve created a space that’s going to
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support that. For every single person that comes into my
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reality. Every person I meet, you seeing this video, it is not a
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coincidence. It is not a happenstance. There is a reason.
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And it’s time for me to be out there and say, Hey, I’m here.
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I’m here for you. I’m here for me, and we got this.
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So that sounds very dramatic. And I feel very dramatic at this
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moment.
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But that’s iwei. And we have other brands that will be coming out, a
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construction brand so that we can help you build what you want
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to build, or take what you already own and make it what you
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want it to be.
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We’ll be
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doing, we’re building a music studio to help independent
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artists get their labels out there without having to sell
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their souls, without having to give up the creative rights that
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they deserve.
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And there’s so much more planned. So, thank you for
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joining me today in my living room, in my bathrobe, in front of
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my fireplace.
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But I look forward to creating a reality with you.
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I look forward to peace and happiness and alignment. I have
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found it within myself by following and trusting and
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taking risks, what we would call risks and leaps of faith.
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And I wouldn’t change it for the world. So thanks for being here.
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Thanks for choosing to be on this planet right now. Thanks
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for being you, the greatness that is you. Thank you for your
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light. And I look forward to building this company with you.