From homeless to lifestyle designer
Leanne Necklace is made with clear quarts that, according to Harris, amplifies any intention or energy attached to it.
“I can make something out of nothing. I have made furniture out of cardboard boxes, I just make anything that I want to create out of what I have,” Nicole Harry said.
Nicole Harry, 36, a self-titled lifestyle designer, lost everything in the economic crash 2008. Without a job, a house or even a family she could turn to for help, she relied on friends’ hospitality, while creating her own business out of the misery.
As a lifestyle designer, she works with a network marketing dedicated to travel, she designs personalized crystal jewelry and coach people to create their dream life.
“I help people look and feel fabulous while traveling the world for less,” is how she describes her purpose. She wants to inspire her clients through her own holistic lifestyle choices and provide the services that they are interested in.
“When I talk to people, I listen to what they want. What goals do they have? Then I provide them with tools to try different things to achieve that goal. But ultimately it is to live the holistic lifestyle. If someone needs therapy though, I will send them to therapy,” she said.
Nicole went to college for interior design, relying on only herself to put herself through school. Post-graduation she worked for a black-owned mother-daughter interior design company in Chicago, but then the stock market crashed and they went bankrupt.
“It was scary to lose everything because I was more by myself and I didn’t have a home to go to,” she tells me with sadness in her eyes.
She turned to crystals, and network marketing, for comfort and healing. Having had a mother who believed in crystals, the presence of crystals was constant but up until that point Nicole had not taken to the practice.
“I needed something else to add to my healing and to keep myself together,” Ms. Harry explained as she showed me her collections of crystal jewelry and bath salts. To maximize their healing energy, she wanted to carry them around all day, which is why she started to create jewelry.
Giving away her jewelry as gifts, she realized people really appreciated that there was a purpose with every piece. She soon realized she could turn this passion into a business.
The aesthetic of her jewelry brand, Nicole Designs All or NDA, is still shaped by the wire wrapping technique, reminiscent of a medieval look, with the natural shapes of the gemstones and pearls preserved.
Growing up, her family struggled financially as well. At one point her family was living in a van, parking in various campsites and roadside stops in the state of Washington. Sleeping in the van there was Nicole and her two younger siblings, their parents and their three pets, two mastiffs and a cat.
“It was around the same time as the Green River Killer was loose,” Nicole recalled. “I used to take one of the dogs and a sleeping bag and sleep outside because it was too crowded in the van. But I knew I was safe with the dog,”
The staircase leading down to Nicole’s basement room is decorated with this art piece portraying a goddess.
In the backyard to her Bushwick apartment, her current dog, Bentley ran around trying to get her attention by barking and scratching on the door.
Her New York home works as both her creative studio and her living space. Downstairs you find her, by New York standards, large bedroom, and studio. She has divided the basement into two sections, you are first greeted by a crafts table filled with crystals and the walls are bejeweled with her creations.
“There were times that I didn’t have a roof over my head, so for me, also being an interior designer, I wanted it to feel good at home to keep that vibration going to keep going and reach higher,” Ms. Harry explained.
The aesthetics of the basement embodies the image one might have of a spiritual household, with a bit of a fairytale vibe added to it. A somber blue canopy covers the ceiling above the bed, and there is a light strand lighting swirled around the large branch that holds the fabric in place.
“I believe that the ‘most high’ gave us all we ever needed. We were born naked, we were born free, we were born with no fear, and we can tap into that higher power if we want
to,” she said.
She believes she is different from her family because she always has understood the law of attraction, even before she knew what that was.
The law of attraction is the theory that you attract positive or negative things depending on the energy you put out into the world, it is a term originating from the New Thought philosophy.
“Hate does not trump hate, love trumps hate, and the strongest energy will win,” Klairkia Charles, Nicole’s friend, chimed in.
“Most people are not present enough to get out of their own way, so they keep adjusting the same things every time, it is groundhog day for them,” Klairkia said about the self-discovery journey both of them have been on.
According to Klairkia, people who are angry will keep being angry until they adjust their vibration, as she puts it.
Nicole Harry nods in agreement, she thinks she is on a different vibration level than her family, which is why she felt the pressure to help them once she got her businesses up and running. She felt as though her parents saw her as their ticket out of poverty.
“Nicole is gonna be the one to get us the house, they used to say. My sister had to be the one to tell me that I did not have to save the family, that it was not my job,” she explained.
Her childhood led her on this path of self-development. Now, 10 years after the financial crash she uses her experience to help people achieve their dreams.
“In five years, I want to host traveling retreats that combines the various elements of my business,” she said enthusiastically.