Elisa | SoulKu Co-Owner

I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. On my 18th birthday, I left home and moved to Los Angeles, CA. I wanted to become an actress and spent years and years waiting tables, doing theater roles, independent films and very small TV roles, and attending conservatory schools. My last theater education experience was at Balliol College in Oxford, England through Julliard.

It was an honor and a privilege to study something I loved so dearly and to have opportunities to perform, but eventually I had to face the music that I was not going to make a living as an actress.

I moved on to teaching acting and private coaching for working actors, and I found work in commercial and music video production. I also started writing, which satisfied the artist in me yearning for self-expression. I got married in 2001 and had my son Brody two years later. My husband and I decided it was time for a radical change from our LA lifestyle and literally picked Asheville, NC out of the blue.

It was a rough transition as you can imagine, but we wanted our kids to grow up in a small town, like we both had, and Asheville seemed like the perfect place. My daughter was born in 2006, and I was lucky enough to stay at home with my two small children and be fully present for them.

Jump cut to today. I am now a single mom (through a divorce), and I my kids are now teenagers—Brody,17 and Sophie,15. And I guess you could call SoulKu another one of my babies. Allison and I started SoulKu in 2010—so she's 11 now!

Being a mother has been my greatest privilege. My kids are remarkable people who have definitely not had an easy upbringing. Their resilience has taught me about living life and embracing all the things that happen that you hope never will. I have been humbled again and again by their love and generosity of spirit. They are both so different from each other. Brody loves working with his hands and spent his year in quarantine taking apart and rebuilding a car. Sophie was an elite gymnast in her tween years and has since turned her laser focus on school and pre-law plans for the future. They make me beam with pride.

SoulKu too has had a bit of a messy upbringing. Lots of fits and starts and back to the drawing boards and hanging on for dear life and giving it everything we have when times get tough. I am so ridiculously blessed with a business partner like Allison who is more of a sister, who respects and honors what I'm good at, and lets me do that. She is patient and so very, very wise, and I would NEVER be where I am today without her.

When we started SoulKu, Allison and I wore every hat. Now we've grown enough to employ more staff so that I can devote my time and attention on product creation and marketing with a focus on writing. I write almost all the emails you receive, and it is my absolute HONOR to have you read my words.

While we created SoulKu, we both drew on our experiences and frustrations of being stay-at-home moms and have luckily been able to incorporate a stay-at-home aspect to our mama production team. I love that this is part of our company.

For years and years I wore our Pearl Goddess Soul-Full of Light necklace. It helped me remember the Goddess within me. I recently traded it out for our new Ethiopian Opal necklace for Amazing Mom. And I have worn a Super Power Peach Moonstone Sacred Cherish necklace (a limited edition style from last holiday season) for almost a year now, and it helps me to remember to cherish myself.

If there is anything I can say I've learned from being a mama to both kids and a business, it would be to remain flexible in every way possible. And to allow room for the divine to intercede. Things are never going to turn out exactly how you planned, and it's how you deal with that that will make or break you. And while things are not turning out the way you want, if you can open yourself up to the bigger plan the Universe has in store for you, you will be golden.