Jewelry, Tampa Bay, Florida

Meet Silver Jewelry Consultant
Donna Phelps-Leynse

A respiratory therapist for 25 years, Donna Phelps-Leynse always had a nagging feeling that respiratory therapy just didn’t fit her personality. She also had always wanted to run her own business. A friend tried her best to convince Donna to sell kitchenware through home shows. But Donna loves meeting new people and she knew that networking would play a big role in her overall marketing of a new business. “You can’t wear a $150 pot when you go out but you can wear a $15 necklace.”

Donna launched her own business as a Silver Jewelry Consultant, this past January. Despite being in the learning curve of entrepreneurship, she says it is already highly rewarding. She is enjoying learning so many new things, meeting new people, and marketing her business, much through networking, where she does indeed always wear the uniquely designed .925 sterling silver jewelry that she sells. She is especially happy to learn that she is good at running her own business, an insight that contradicts the messages she grew up with. “I was told my whole life that I would not be good at this, so I followed the path that was expected of me (becoming a respiratory therapist).”

Donna was born in upstate New York and moved to Florida with her family when she was a senior in high school. She describes herself as a very “outdoorsy” person who enjoys hiking, camping and boating. She lives in Seminole with her new husband – they were married last October – and her 9-year-old son. Her 15-year-old son lives with his father, Donna’s first husband. She says their house is a regular zoo, as they have a dog, cat, bunny, bearded dragon (a type of lizard), fish and turtles – “all the things you’d expect with a 9-year-old boy,” she says.

Donna Phelps-Leynse

Donna Phelps-Leynse says you don’t have to attend a home show to buy jewelry from her. She is glad to mail you a catalog or you can view the catalog on her Website.