Today we’d like to introduce you to Soco Reynoso.
Hi Soco, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started my entrepreneurial journey when I was 25 and living in Oakland. Myself and a colleague launched a non-profit called Shining Daughters designed to help young girls build up their self-esteem. Since then, I’ve incorporated a few handfuls of times. The businesses that have legs now are my private psychotherapy practice, Soco Rey Therapy in Inglewood, and my newest business, Magnolia West, a psycho-spiritual candle line. I have received so many blessings from devotional or prayer candles, but never were they non-toxic, never did they contain aroma therapy, and never could I fully relate to the imagery. As a psychotherapist, I sit and hear so many of the same problems with the same root issues. It’s challenging to know how to help folks but to not be able to reach as many as you want and know you can. I am using this pivot to the product world to allow me to expand my reach and offer my learnings with more than just those who I have time to sit and be with. I am Daughter to a Black mother from Mississippi and a Chicano father from the San Gabriel Valley, and their merging, in many ways, speaks to the culture of Los Angeles, the city where their love story began and where two of their daughters now reside. Creating these candles and offering them brings me a lot of joy and excitement. I’m glad I followed the calling within.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has not been a smooth road at all, and it’s mostly emotional issues, not financial ones. I was unaware of the many ways I overgave, mostly rooted in trauma. As well, I didn’t realize that I couldn’t make the lives of my family members better even if I wanted to; that was an inside job only they could do. Before I knew that, I overworked myself in the name of hoping to strike it big to give them the lives I wanted for them. The biggest blow was realizing that my success pushed on the wounds of family members who didn’t believe in themselves or make the moves that were calling them. I expected their support, but instead, I received ill treatment because they felt I was neglecting them when, in fact, I was just a single Black and Brown woman without any financial backing building a business in one of the most expensive and largest metropolitan areas of the world. I realized I’d likely be treated better or have my time-honored if I was nursing a child or planning a wedding. In other words, being a business owner sometimes leads to being misunderstood. It’s been a lot of learning how to be my own ally and best advocate and how to let the opinions of others remain with them. It’s allowed me to express righteous anger and to heal, and I now find myself in a more compassionate place. Business ended up being a route to healing for me. I think that’s the case for many, but not what we thought we signed up for.
As you know, we’re big fans of Magnolia West. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Magnolia West, House of Intentional Living, is a psycho-spiritual candle line. We as a human species are in a time of rapid evolution and survival of the fittest right now — this time, depending on the strength and power of the mind and thought. We need support in moving toward the light. Magnolia West candles are designed with themes around healing and/or shifting narratives to support our evolution and expanding consciousness. Other features that set them apart are that they are all-natural and scented, which is not the standard for prayer candles as we know them. I designed these candles because I find prayer candles very helpful, and I have always been struck by the overlap of psychology and spirituality. In the end, we are all working toward the same thing: loosening our grip on life and learning to trust in the flow of life or the conspiring of the divine. Magnolia West speaks using the messaging of the third culture created by my mother and father, so it’s unique and unable to be duplicated. It feels authentic and true. I created these candles in hopes that people will feel connected to them, use them to carry them through a moment and so that moments similar to that will be met differently (and with more ease) in the future as a result. They stand to serve as tools for healing and self-actualization. They stand to shift our thinking so that we experience less suffering and feel more joy.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The most important lesson I have learned along my journey is to fail fast. If you have an idea and it won’t let you shake it loose, take the first step to see it through. Act. Don’t wait for the perfect time or until you have it all planned out — just move and keep moving. Take none of it personally. Tune into your body’s intelligence and use that; it will set you apart from most disembodied entrepreneurs. You’ll have peace within and that’s what we are all actually working toward. The money will come. Also, do you. Learn yourself, don’t mimic others. You are the brand, so find what makes you YOU and what sets you apart.
Pricing:
- 44
Contact Info:
- Website: www.magnoliawest.co
- Instagram: @magnoliawestla
Image Credits
Matt Lopez
Ana Cervantes
