Growth and Healing with Hannah Skedsvold Founder of Malabella Jewels

Friends, today we are excited to share another inspiring woman entrepreneur, designer and founder of Malabella Jewels, Hannah Skedsvold.  

We fell in love with her reading a little bit of her story and this photoshoot of her in her beautiful jewels and our Dark Moon Lakshmi Gown is simply stunning. 

We are starting to find some common answers to the questions we have asked our women founders for this series. One that makes total sense now that we have read it is that many of us created our businesses as a way to heal and grow, which is exactly what Hannah shares in the article below. 

As entrepreneurs, we deal with all kinds of stress and anxiety that is really rarely shared or talked about online or on social media. We hope you enjoy this read with Hannah, we certainly did. 

Malabella Jewels

Hannah Skedsvold, creator and designer of Malabella Jewels, creates high quality intentional jewels for intention setting, meditation, and living a mindful life where every piece sold plants a tree. Infusing the alchemic properties of gemstones and high quality metals she aims to empower people to live and feel their best life while helping to heal the earth.

Healing Tools for Anxiety

Hannah created Malabella when she was looking for a healing tool for her anxiety and depression. She loves yoga, dance, meditation, crystals, essential oils and loves helping people use their own power to heal. Hannah lives and creates in the Virginia Mountains near DC with her husband John Le, their pup Bella Luna, and kitty Shea.

Where can people find your wonderful jewelry? 

On Instagram: @malabella_jewels

Website: www.MalabellaJewels.com

 

What are you excited about right now?

Oh my goodness, so many things! I have some upcoming projects/businesses that I've kept pretty hushhush for a while but the processes are starting to unfold and I'm so excited to share what we've been dreaming up.

We are also looking into developing Malabella into new lines of jewelry besides Mala beads like gemstone rings, earrings, necklaces, and more.

Our customers have been asking for jewelry to wear with their Mala beads and I'm so excited to continue to grow and expand MB. 

Personally, I'm really evolving mentally and spiritually. My practices are really teaching me how and when to evolve and I'm watching myself change in ways I never thought would happen. I have a lot of different recurring injuries in my physical body and each one teaches me a different lesson and for someone whose mental health is very dependent on movement it can be a challenging journey. 

ALSO! I just married the love of my life (and business partner) and wow! They always say your wedding is "the best day of your life" but damn, it really was! If I have any advice for upcoming brides or grooms it'd be to do what you want on your day. We really stuck to this for ours, even when it was challenging to not listen to everyone, and it truly made our day PERFECT. 

What inspired you to start this project?

 

Well, I came to yoga in search of healing. I was struggling with anxiety, mild depression, and physical pain and during my yoga journey I started to come across these beautiful beaded necklaces. As someone whose always loved high quality and meaningful jewelry, I was very drawn to Mala beads.

When I searched every new age shop and yoga studio at my college town and couldn't find any Mala beads I decided to make my own. It was such a beautiful, creative, and meditative process and when I was done I LOVED my first Mala beads but felt like they weren't meant for me, that they'd better serve someone else. So I started Malabella! 

What's your major challenge right now and what are you doing to overcome it?

Oooo! What a great question at such an important time right now.

I've always valued entrepreneurs who keep it honest and real as this journey is not always easy and SO many challenges seem to pop up. In 2017, we decided to do more festivals and it was amazing! We were meeting new customers, increasing our revenue, and able to really see how people reacted to the product in person. So for 2018 we decided to double down and focus ALOT on festivals but with the chaotic weather on the East Coast (and really all across the States) almost every festival was either rained out, wind blowing, freezing cold, or literally 108 degrees.

When the weather doesn't cooperate, people don't want to shop and we ended up losing money, time, and energy. Being a small business, it hit us hard as a lot of these festivals are not cheap to vend at BUT it taught me so many business and mental lessons.

How to persevere through challenging times and how to readjust when things aren't working out. I've had to really work on my mental health as my ego took a pretty big hit and yoga, meditation, feeling my emotions, talking to others, essential oils, CBD, and daily walks have been a huge part of healing.

For the business, we are moving forward with more strategic decision making and evaluating risk v reward when making decisions. I think I was really focused on growing the business on 2018 and now I'm adopting a new mantra of "Better, Not Bigger."

What's one daily ritual you are practising right now?

CBD in the morning and walking my dog 1-2 times a day. It's one of the only times during the day when I'm not engaging with technology or other people for work and the fresh breeze, and sun has some of the most potent healing effects. I often practice a walking meditation or use the time to gather all my chaotic artist minded thoughts. 

 

How can our community support you right now?

I'd love to connect with all of you! Follow us on Instagram @malabella_jewels and my personal @hannahsmusings , check out our blog www.Malabellajewel.blog for a lot of awesome recipes, DIYs, and healing inspiration and please feel free to email me hello@malabellajewels.com if you'd like to chat! <3

 

What is your dharma in 2 words.

 

Growth and healing!