Today we’d like to introduce you to Crystal Crawford
Hi Crystal, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story is long winded and complex in a sense. I was born in Newark,NJ although it was a rough city I had a great childhood I grew up experiencing everything that comes with childhood friends, pop culture, prom you name it. Growing up I had no clue what I wanted to do in life but I knew that I wanted to create a life that gave me a lot of freedom and excitement. I was always kind of a rebel I did my own thing, took no for an answer and raise a considerable amount of hell (haha). Looking back I feel like being myself is exactly how I succeeded. held down a full time job from the time I was 14 until now. Independence and Freedom that’s all I ever wanted. However, I remember never wanting to go to college or had no clue what I was going to do with my life after high school honesty. It wasn’t until my senior year my best friend was headed off to college heck most people in my senior class were (despite the stereotypes of the black community, going to school was a must) and I felt kind of left behind so I went first for my two year degree then untimely went back for two more degrees including my MBA but from that I discovered I wanted to have a meaningful career something that allowed me to help others while being challenge. So, I wanted to be an ER Nurse and ultimately a Nurse Practitioner. I and completed 3 years of nursing school but that didn’t pan out and ultimately ended up in Life Science and Cancer Research for 14 years and counting.
Fast forward, I became a Senior Clinical Research Associate for Oncology cushy 6 figure, living my life new place, new car, traveling the world, friend, family, love, support, what more could I want or need? This was exactly what I wanted out of life.
One day I got a call from a company that wanted me to move to LA and the rest is history. I up rooted my life took the risk and moved to LA about 5 years and Liberated Eyewear was birthed here.
I was sitting up in my bed one night shopping for accessories and I saw pics of women wearing eyeglasses and I noticed how this particular accessory just elevated their style so I said to myself “I can do this”. The true catalyst was my last time getting a pair of eyeglasses from my eye doctor and I hated the style but needed to see so I additionally thought “I wonder how many people don’t wear their glasses because of the style?”
Fast forward to post Covid years I decided to start Liberated Eyewear and named it that because I wanted my brand to reflect those who are free in being themselves like I was growing up. I truly value authenticity in people. As my brand took off within a year I was on stages, in magazines, and became and award winning entrepreneur its all so surreal still til this day. It was not easy and its still not but my background in healthcare kind of gave me a lot of insight on how to run a well ran company and deal with a lot of complexities. At first I created the website and was like “Meh people will buy what they like” But no eyewear is so much more than that, Liberated Eyewear is so much more than that, it’s a brand that represents Style, Empowerment and Innovation and I wanted to create a brand that people love and go to when they want superior vision and style.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I am self taught with building this business a black owned eyewear brands make up less than 1% of the entire market so there virtually no examples to follow when it comes to take. But you know being an entrepreneur is like jumping out of a window an building a parachute on the way down. I also deal with a lot of market biases, people just don’t believe in the quality of black owned brands and women owned businesses there is still so much skepticism around quality and legitimacy and I’ve put thousands of my own money into my businesses because I believe in it that much. In addition we live in the influencer world, as I stated I am healthcare professional not an influencer or celeb and its challenging to gain traction outside of that realm. I never wanted to be in front of the camera im more of a visionary and factual driven person. In Cancer Research we aren’t the face of the medicine and therapy but we are behind the scenes making sure that the integrity of the clinical trial remains ethical so in real life I was never about having a camera on me all day. So it was challenging for me to connect with my audience I was facing on investing into models and brand ambassadors who didn’t mind the camera in their face all day (haha), networking, connecting with people etc. Iven learned that relationship building is essential and it was the relationships that I’ve built that taught me a lot about business, especially e commerce business. There are a few celebs I would like to style for example I just know our Victoria pair would look great on Beyonce, the Turks pair would look great on Rick Ross and a host of other celebs this would be a great way to showcase the brand.
The one thing that has been smooth was managing a lot, professinally I do it anyway I manage the research data and site outcome across multiple research centers across America, so managing a lot for business was a no brainer. Also understanding quality was easy. As someone who purchased really expensive eyewear before I understood immediately what to for in packaging, quality, style, etc. I just had a vision and applied my intrinsic skill set to that vision.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I love to impact lives so Liberated Eyewear for sure gives back. I make sure that my brand host and sponsor community events to foster our community skills, interest and talent I made that apart of our Social Responsibility this year. We also have a collaboration with Accra, Ghana to impact lives there and we clean up our waste with carbon natural shipment. About me personally I would say im corky and funny but don’t like being in front of the camera so I want my audience to understand that Im diligently and actively working all the time. If you ever see me in the gym in between sets in my phone, im not sending flirty text messages (well most of the time haha) but more than likely I’m scheduling content, talking to manufacturers, responding the emails, keeping my calendar up to date etc. But I plan to connect with the audience more and show myself more when I have time. Hard work is peaceful to me so iam always busy behind the scenes but impact those around me is my purpose in life honest and im not trying to push another product I still have my career that pays really well may I add. But I want to put something on the market that represents us who look for quality and style in something we need and build my own legacy. As of this year we implemented the latest technology in prescription lens meaning we offer digital lens that gives superior visual clarify this is what Liberated Eyewear is about being fly and being free and being yourself. In fact we are the only independent black owned brand that’s doing so. I have planned for the brand including beta testing smart glasses, sportswear etc. And grow my audience of people who love and appreciate what we’re doing here! More medial coverage coming up in the works as well and just overall growth for us.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
-Personally what makes me happy is enjoying and experiencing life, I love to travel the world for that reason. I love making memories with my family and friends they’re really important to me so small moments of laughter and fun is always my vibe. It also makes me happy to help others however I can and I never talk about it as much because its really just who I am as a person, as no nonsense woman I am ultimately kind hearted but not gullible. Experiencing adventures on my own, I’m a popular loner I naturally like to do things on my own, time with yourself is so important its true freedom for me honestly. Seeing my loved ones happy, healthy and successful yea those things genuinely makes me happy. And I absolutely love when people are soo happy with their Liberated Eyewear, when we get reviews and people say the look and feel gave them confidence in their style. I get excited not only because they trusted us with their business but also because they are genuinely happy with who they are and how they wanted to express that.
Pricing:
- As a mid lux brand we start at $100-$120 per pair but on the lower end $85 and some sale items for $65 per pair this includes glasses and sunglasses. Prescription lens start at $75 and we offer full customization of your visual needs no more one size fit all approach. We welcome our new Liberated fam with 10% off their first pair
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.liberatedeyewear.com
- Instagram: Liberated Eyewear
- Facebook: Liberated Eyewear
- Twitter: Liberated Eyewear
