March 19, 2019

Meet Kimberly Clausen of Women Warriors Boutique in Anaheim

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kimberly Clausen.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Cancer has been a part of my life since I was young. I have been a friend or family member to fallen warriors, fighting warriors, surviving warriors & a supporter to many other warriors fighting their way through a variety of difficult challenges. As a warrior supporter the hardest thing for me was the lack of control and the overwhelming sense of hopelessness. Having to sit back and watch as the people I loved so much struggled through mental, emotional and unspeakable physical pain without being able to fix it or take it away. This hurt in a way only a fellow supporter could understand.

Being the owner of re N vinted Jewelry, a small jewelry business, and a parent to three small children money is usually tight. But I was determined to find a way to help small businesses grow & give back to deserving warriors in my community and after several years of designs, making plans and finally, my mom being diagnosed with cancer, I decided it was time to start making things happen. And so, Women Warriors Boutique was born.

Women Warriors Boutique is an event planning business that Raises Awareness, Funds & Hope for deserving non profit organizations already helping warriors in their community. We raise money through vendor fees, auctions, bake sales, donations, etc. The idea for W.W.B. Came to me as I was working on a few designs for some hand crafted sterling silver cancer ribbon pendants in honor of a friend who had passed and another who was newly diagnosed. I wanted to sell the Fighter, Survivor and Supporter necklaces and donate a portion of the profits to a charity helping people fighting cancer. But it wasn’t until August 2017 that I was able to make this dream a reality.

My first event I was nervous but ready to make things happen. I had the perfect date set up in October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, an amazing charity, Stripes of A Warrior, to be the benefactor and a few local businesses interested but it felt like the odds were stacked against me. The venue I had fell through and no one else was signing up and I had a new baby and 2 toddlers. But I kept persevering and working on getting the word and our mission out there to the public. And things quickly fell into place. Rose Drive Friends Church saved the day and offered their venue and vendors started calling. I was starting off modestly expecting at least 20 vendors but after a few weeks I was turning vendors away because we had reached our max of 60 vendors! It was very humbling and proof that what I was doing was the right thing.

Our first year it was just me, a few family members and one event. Now, less then 3 years later we have 4 annual events and have raised over $10, 000 for non profit organizations. I design jewelry pieces for each of our big events and re N vinted Jewelry donates 20% per purchase to the charity Women Warriors Boutique is benefiting. So my dream of selling my jewelry and growing my small business while giving back has come true! Except now I have two small businesses 🙂

We now have an overwhelming response for vendors and donations for every event. We have our Winter Women’s Self Defense event hosted by Bear Pit Fitness benefiting Operation Underground Railroad to help rescue children from sex trafficking, our April Pop Up Boutique with nominations and grand prize winners in honor of Autism Awareness benefiting The Soothing Stitches Project, our big Women Warriors Boutique in October with nominations and grand prize winners benefiting Stripes of A Warrior, and our pop up Fall event benefiting The Orangewood Foundation helping local foster youth. We hope to continue each of these events annually and add a summer event benefiting Mental Health in the future.

Getting to where I am now wouldn’t have been possible without the love and support of my friends, family and most of all, my husband. He has always encouraged me to do what I love and not to give up on my dreams, especially when it gets hard. We still run into obstacles but we are excited to keep growing and helping my community. I now have an amazing group of vendors, volunteers, charities and businesses that I am honored to work with. Helping people is the most rewarding thing I feel I can do aside from being a parent. I worried this dream would take me away from my family but luckily my businesses allow me flexibility so I can be with them, grow my businesses and give back. I feel blessed to be able to teach my children by example what it means to love and serve others while fulfilling your dreams and providing for a family.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Women Warriors Boutique was just a dream in 2013 and remained that way for several years because my husband and I had just been laid off from our jobs, decided to go back to school, moved to another state and had a 2 year old at home so financially it wasn’t a possibility. From there we graduated and moved several times and went from job to job and had babies 2 and 3. We had several big life changes during these few years but the biggest was my mother’s cancer diagnoses in fall of 2016.

It was a shock to our entire family and really brought things into perspective. I am a fixer so watching her hurt was very difficult for me. I had to do something to ease my feelings of helplessness. So I decided not to wait to put my dreams into motion and started full throttle getting things set into place for the first Women Warriors Boutique scheduled to take place in October 2017. I started feeling discouraged when no one signed up when I opened registration but then when the venue fell through in August I was devastated. I thought that it was a sign to quit and go another route but was encouraged by several family and friends to keep trying. Then after dozens of calls and prayers I came across Rose Drive Friends church and they saved the day! Once they offered to let us rent their venue everything else started to fall into place. The next couple years had ups and downs and lots of learning curves but also lots of friendships, blessings and So much growth.

Please tell us about Women Warriors Boutique.
Women Warriors Boutique is an event planning business that Raises Awareness, Funds & Hope for deserving non profit organizations already helping warriors in their community. We raise money through vendor fees, auctions, bake sales, donations, etc. We organize different events throughout the year- galas, self-defense classes, pop-up boutiques, etc. but no matter what the event is we always have a boutique element that helps local small companies grow their businesses.

We have a fantastic group of vendors and businesses that donate items and services for, what I believe, is our best feature and I am the most proud of. I believe it sets us a part as a business and allows us to involve more of our community in our events.

We collect items and services and place them into 3 grand prize baskets for our October event. The Fighter, Survivor and Supporter baskets have become a great tradition at our October event that we just love. It provides us a way to give back to more people struggling their way through cancer. We have now extended that tradition to our April Autism event where we will give away several gifts and baskets to deserving individuals and families connected to Autism. We give our social media audience, customers, vendors and community the opportunity to nominate members in the community that they believe deserve to win our Grand prize baskets and we draw winners at our events or soon after depending on the situation.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Hmmm, that is a hard question, because honestly I dont think I would have changed anything when it comes to challenges or lessons I learned. I think everything happens for a reason and in the right season. If I had to choose though. I think I would have started sooner and not waited so long to make this dream a reality.

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