It’s Nashville Lifestyles’ 10th anniversary. It’s also my 10-year anniversary since moving to Nashville from Scottsdale, Ariz. Wow! So, this is a very special celebration for me personally. A great deal has taken place over the past 10 years. Nashville has been wonderful to me, and this has been one of the best decades of experience in my life. I love Tennessee. When I first moved, friends and family in Arizona gave me six months to come running back to the big city. Yet here I am, still. I think I was always meant to be a Southerner. It just feels right. Tennessee is my home and it’s where I found business success and more importantly, my soul mate, who’s also a Tennessean.
The very first week I arrived in Nashville, I found myself wandering through an aisle in a drug store. There it was, my very first issue of Nashville Lifestyles (little did I know that it would play such a huge role in my life and career). I picked it up and it became my go-to guide for finding everything in town, and in some ways, a new friend.
It was one year later when I was honored to be on the pages of the “25 Most Beautiful” list. New in town, this inclusion opened doors for meeting new people, and helped me burst onto the design scene. Nashville Lifestyles was also the first place I ever placed an advertisement to further my design career. It was a tough time. Money was tight and I was just starting out, but I knew it was a good investment for my new business to be seen in the city’s premier magazine. Six months later, I met Stacie Standifer, one of two women in Nashville who I owe so much to. Stacie and I first had lunch in the back at The Palm. I will always remember that day. I was late because I experienced a mishap at the hair salon (a chemical haircut) and had to run home to get a hat. Seriously, this happened.
I sat down across the table from a gorgeous brunette with huge aquamarine eyes and a Demi Moore-esq voice. I instantly found this “girl” to be smart, funny, and a true entrepreneur—no nonsense and straight to business. She was interested in my career path and future goals. We laughed, talked, I pulled off my hat and showed her my hair disaster and we became fast friends. She then offered me my very first column. Over the years, the column evolved and grew into an incredible way for me to connect with people. Stacie has offered useful advice and straight talk about my work when necessary. We traveled together for work on multiple occasions. That’s when we really got to know each other better. I grew to admire her more after sitting with her for hours on end in airports.
She’s not the kind of businesswoman who would just publish anything to help a friend or show favoritism. To be published in the magazine is a true complement. If she saw a design project I had completed (and she saw many), and asked to photograph one or feature it, I was incredibly flattered. It was a nod to “well done.”
Another woman who has made this an incredible 10 years is Kitty Moon Emery. Otherwise known as “the treasure of Nashville,” this icon in the city and I connected immediately. She and her husband Pat became family to me. Kitty read over my hundreds of pages of chicken-scratch on yellow legal pads and my columns, and convinced me that I could write. She then gave me a computer and a desk and said, “Go for it.” She mentored me and put her time, energy and love into helping me to build a brand. Together, she helped me organize my thoughts and pushed me to write the first draft of my first book, Change Your Home, Change Your Life. Kitty also introduced me to my husband Charlie. To this moment, she is always there for me and I for her.
These individuals have changed my life in perfect, but very different ways. They both have the essence of what we, as women, should aspire to be. In a word: mentors. Women who are honest, loving teachers and friends are rare finds. Most importantly in the case with these two, they are great leaders in our community and always giving back to it.
Thank you, Stacie and Kitty; thank you, Nashville; and now thank you, Knoxville. And especially, thank those of you reading Nashville Lifestyles for 10 years of some of my “Most Beautiful” experiences.
Moll Anderson
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Change Your Home, Change the World™
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