ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Even as a child growing up on a small
farm, I liked dressing up. I would sneak
some of my mom’s dresses, shoes and
hats out to the barn and pretend I
was in a fashion show.
FEARS?
I rarely allow myself to have fears. If I have
something I want to do, I just do it. Thoughts
of failing are not part of my life. I allow my
life to evolve. If too many road blocks appear
(and they have to be big road blocks), I reevaluate what and where I am going.
MOTIVATION
My mother taught me how to
sew when I was ten, so I began learning
about different types of fabrics and eventually, made a lot of my own clothes.
While working for the federal government
as a civilian employee, I earned a bachelor’s
degree in social psychology and a master’s
in management through night and weekend
classes.
One of my positions while working for the
government was Director of Protocol for a
55,000-person, worldwide, major command. That evolved into the founding of my
first business, Etiquette Plus.
After retiring from my thirty-seven-and-ahalf-year, civil service career, I began teaching etiquette classes, including little girl
etiquette and tea classes. To make it more
fun, I provided big-girl party dresses, gloves,
purses, and made elaborate hats for them
to wear. They loved them!
Then about twelve years ago, my older sister asked me to make a red hat for her. I had
never heard of the Red Hat Society at that
point, even though I discovered it was “big”
in this area and getting bigger. I made my
sister a red summer hat, then she wanted a
winter one and before long, I was overwhelmed with hat orders.
I sold them in various boutique shops
from Springfield, Illinois, to Lake of the
Ozarks, St. Louis and St. Charles, and was
asked to be a vendor at many events with,
by this time - all colors of hats.
Each hat or fascinator I make is a one-ofa-kind original design. I founded my hat
business as Dianne Creations in 2002, and
since changed it to HATS by DI-Anne in
2012 to more specifically describe my creations.
I believe life is
a process of
continuous
learning
and making
yourself a
more knowledgeable and
better person.
As an extrovert, people and
new things give
me energy.
I also believe in helping
and mentoring ot