For two years, Leslie Daugherty was confined to a bed. Literally. A complication following surgery had left the former competitive cheerleader so weak that she couldn’t walk on her own, or even eat and drink. At 26, she became bed-bound and lost a large amount of weight.
“I’m a productive, active person, but I couldn’t work anymore. I was confined to bed,” says Daugherty. “What was I going to do?”
She remembered her wedding boots. She had embellished them herself, brightening up the pair with carefully placed Swarovski crystals for the special occasion. She had made them because she couldn’t find exactly what she wanted in stores, and they had been a blast to make and to wear.
Inspiration struck. She could be the Christian Louboutin of the cowboy boot industry.
“I started looking at my boots and said, ‘There’s nothing like this out there,’” she recalls. “Some boots have pressed glitter, but I wanted to create something that was elegant without being trashy.”
Before her long illness, Daugherty had embellished boots now and then for people who liked her wedding boots, but the projects had been more of a hobby. It was time to turn pro with her brand Ruby Sparkles.
Adhering crystals onto boots with special adhesive was something she could do herself while sitting in bed. But even that much work was a challenge.
“I had a GI feeding port at the time, so I had my IV poles on one side and my TV trays with dishes of rhinestones on the other,” she says. “At first, I was doing cheap rhinestones, until I perfected my skills. I became a dealer for several high-end boot brands, including Lane, Old Gringo, Corral and Liberty Black, and then I started buying into the Swarovski market and became a dealer for Swarovski. It has been about a 10-year road from a hobby to a business.”
Her degree from Texas A&M University Corpus Christi was in hospital administration, and she turned that business knowledge to her artisan products, identifying her clients and catering to their need for exclusivity. It’s a serious business, but Daugherty knows the end product needs to be fun for her buyers—something they can kick up their heels in.
“I hand-make all boots myself with genuine Swarovski crystals, and I only make one of each size, in each style,” says Daugherty. “Everything I do is very exclusive, very limited edition. When you buy a pair of my boots, nobody else is going to have them. You’re never going to see somebody wearing your boots because there are only six to 10 made of each style.”
Daugherty likes to create the feeling for others that she had wearing her own first pair of hand-embellished cowboy boots. They made her feel sassy and flirty.
“When I made them, I was thinking that I would wear them one time and then put them in a memory box,” Daugherty recalls. “I loved them so much and I’m already a very extra personality. I thought, ‘No, I’m going wear these all the time!’ I was just rocking it, and every time I wore them—every single time—somebody stopped me to ask where I got them.”
At first, she told people she made them, but after she went pro, she could say, “I got them from Ruby Sparkles.”
Today, Daugherty has recovered from her long illness. She has returned to her old self, wearing bright ruby lipstick and sparkling clothing. She attends trade shows and vendor events, runs her Instagram page and takes charge at photo shoots for her website, therubysparkles.com.
She still devotes hours each day to hand-embellishing boots, with plans to create her own manufactured boot label.
You might say she’s on her way to hearing people refer to Christian Louboutin as the Ruby Sparkles of French shoes.
But even if that doesn’t happen, Ruby still sparkles.
Shop now at therubysparkles.com.
| Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs In 10 years, Leslie Daugherty has taken her Ruby Sparkles from a hobby to a business. She shares five tips for aspiring entrepreneurs—good advice for the rest of us, too. 1. Find an experienced and trustworthy mentor in your target industry who is willing to coach you. 2. Baby steps first. Learn the do’s and don’ts before jumping in with both feet. Learn from other people’s mistakes. 3. Understand the benefits and detriments of relying on influencers to market your business. Find people who align with your vision and your personality to ensure a good working relationship. Don’t conform to someone else; stay true to you and your brand. 4. Know that everyone who befriends you isn’t genuine. While working with the right individuals can be a rewarding experience, there are a lot of people out there who just want things for free. 5. Learn to discern good advice from bad advice. What is best for someone else’s business might not be the right model for yours. |
This article about Leslie Daugherty and her business, Ruby Sparkles, appeared in the October 2023 issue of Western Life Today magazine. Click here to subscribe!
