Launching my business

When you leave home at 17, you don't know where you are going, and can't know that choices made out of passion or caprice will lay the foundation for the rest of your life.

I left San Francisco as an artist, skater and punk, propelled by teen angst to follow a drummer boy to Europe. Eventually, home became the fabulous city of Berlin, where I blossomed as a social elite, the wife of Baron Elmar von Hoesslin.

On the way, I'd worked in rococo garb, as a sexy singer backing up Sin With Sebastian - a mid-90s Euro two hit wonder. Sebastian's fashion sense ranged from gold lame and wings to fuzzy coat, a pink heart emblazoned tee - accessorized by a giant teddy bear. We toured globally, performing his #1 hit: Shut Up (And Sleep With Me).

(Google it and embarrass me. Go ahead, I deserve it).

During the Berlin years I had also been a fashion designer, worked at the opera as an extra, a translator in the film industry, jazz singer... Life was exciting with everything from red carpet parties to underground clubs, art shows, Love Parades, salons, and, of course witnessing the Wall come down. German life was art, fashion, culture, romance and love - all the things a girl could want. Elmar and I would travel the world as well. We were happy.

Change washed over me again while on tour, in Cornwall, England, Summer 1997. I discovered surfing.

I had found a new passion. In ensuing years I would embark on surf trips abroad, frequently alone. One day, on my return, the D word arose. I was crushed. We both cried.

I arrived in Santa Cruz, CA, after 17 years abroad, a piece of flotsam on the jetstream tide. My world had morphed. I needed my own fiscal life, and a vocation that embraced a surfing lifestyle. I stumbled on a fledgling belt company, which a friend needed help with and soon sold to me. Betty Belts was born, and the ride began.

Soon I was in Bali, sourcing sustainable materials and young female artisans, who eventually became the core of my company. We crafted a workflow that embraces their culture and enhances their lives. I made many trips to Indonesia and my family there became extensive, while in the US, Betty Belts grew and morphed from being solely wholesale, to retail also, as I opened the Betty B. store in historic downtown Ventura, CA.

Today my environmentally sustainable fashion accessories are marketed globally. We invest in being a socially responsible company and many designs have the names of the incredible women who partner with me in spreading the message of peace, beauty, strength and sustainability through ecological responsibility.

Recently Betty Belts won recognition, receiving awards for environmental excellence from Ventura Mayor Christy Weir, Governor Schwarzenegger, Assemblyman Pedro Nava, and Congress members Elton Gallegley and Lois Capps, and a Green Wave Award from international surfing publication The Surfer's Path.

This grant would help provide funding in a time where it is difficult for a young, female-run business to acquire working capital.

Advice for others

While it is crucial to follow your bliss and passion because it makes for a happy productive you, fulfilling market need in a timely manner and giving back to the entities which supply your living, is life blood itself to a company. Some call it karma, but when you give, it is given back to you and your company in abundance. Do that, and you will be successful. Love is what it really needs to be about. Business should be all about going the distance. Love always seems to find a way to do that, oh and Quickbooks too.