Today we’d like to introduce you to Kourtni and Omiko.
Hi Kourtni and Omiko, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
We were honored to see our mother and grandmother display their gift of giving to others at a very early age. Our grandmother and her siblings often volunteered their time, service, and wisdom to those in church, community, and family. Our mother did the exact same thing, but she began creating special things for special people at an affordable cost. We watched her craft gifts, events and memories that would last a lifetime and form repeating customers. I think the most memorable was watching her plan, design and make all our floral arrangements, favors and decorations for our weddings.
We enjoyed going with her to setup for events and talking to the customers. When our mother became the primary caregiver for our grandmother, she sat aside events, planning, and creating. During that time, our mother had us hooked with the crafting spirit plus it was already in our blood. We wanted follow in her footsteps, so we began doing birthday party favors, wedding invitations and favors, hosting bridal showers, etc. People around us told us we should start a business. For years, we didn’t listen! We did service events and gifts for little to nothing and frankly most of the time free. We didn’t formally start our business until 2009 with our first Etsy store. We knew we wanted to honor our mother and grandmother some type of way, so we name ourselves Rudi’s Girls because we are our mother’s daughters. (Her nickname is Rudi). Our mission, like our grandmother, is to help people create gifts and memories at an affordable cost.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
When you love what you do, it’s not a job or chore but that doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges as an entrepreneur. The biggest challenge has been employed full-time as an educator and HR specialist. We both love learning (we had no choice coming from a family of educators) and teaching others. We love creating too but the challenge is how much time do you give to both your full-time professional career and your full-time personal career that is blooming into something big and special. This struggle is a little more complicated deciding if you leave your professional career that you have had for 20 plus years and turn that personal career into your new professional career. We don’t have the answer just yet, but we are working diligently on getting to a concrete answer soon. The other struggle has been hiring help. We struggle with trusting others to care, have the same passion as much as we do about quality, cost and memories. We are working through all of that gradually and have officially hired a part-time contractor to assist with errands.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
How do you feel when your father has finally shared with you his secret on cooking that special turkey that everyone requests? Or even better how would you feel if someone gave you a cutting board with your father’s handwritten recipe engraved in the cutting board. At Rudi’s Girls, we believe that the greatest gifts aren’t bought they are created. We know that people love to share memories but often don’t have the creativity to make it happen. We are here to listen to your experience with your family and make memories that will last for generations.
We love to create gifts/favors for your themed event. For example, if you are creating a women’s retreat and your key message is to let women know they are under construction because it is a continual process to improve, we will create a flyer for your event, customized journals for your participants to take notes, a t-shirt, and a wood craved hammer with engraved scripture on the handle to remind participants, that a “wise women builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands”, Proverbs 14:1. We have learned over the years to take those unpleasant memories we all experience like death and trauma and turn them into learning opportunities for us and share with our customers.
For example, after dealing with two major deaths in our family our wellness wasn’t something that got priority. Despite being overwhelmed, tired and mental drained we kept pushing ourselves. We realized how the mental stress impacted our physical bodies, emotions, and actions. After many sleepless nights, discomforting pain, and days of worry, we knew we had to do something. During our search, we found a natural alternative to pills—essential oils. We begin learning about them and how they can be a holistic approach to achieving balance in our lives. As a result, we are now selling some oils and creating custom products for them. For example, we are creating a wooden stand to hold oils on your nightstand, a custom personalized pouch to store your favorite oils in your purse or satchel. Oils have been used for centuries in Asian, Greek and Roman cultures, as a symbol of strength and healing so we created a t-shirt, “Blessed and Well Oiled”.
We also have a special place for children both the two-legged and four-legged ones. We have custom items for babies like custom sippy cups, personalized pacifier holder and learning boards. One of our favorite kid items is an acrylic learning board that children get to practice writing their name. And just like any other parent, we like to give our four-legged children nice things. We also enjoy making customized pet items like personalized t-shirts, handmade leashes, bandanas, pillows and squeaky toys.
How do you think about luck?
We don’t believe that we have been lucky. We believe that we have been blessed. Who we are today is solely based on God’s grace and the prayers of our parents, grandparents and family and close friends. Things might not have always gone like we want them or at the time we want them, but it always manages to work out in our favor—and that is God’s plan. We want to make sure that we continue to align ourselves with those that support, encourage, and motivate us to continually grow and challenge us to do better.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@rudisgirls.com
- Website: www.rudisgirls.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rudisgirls
- Facebook: rudisgirls
Image Credits
Lydia Williams (Diaography)
