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Created by Roselis Cortez • Co-host: James Stanley
Seam Notes explores luxury as behavior
How you think, how you move, and the standards you hold when no one is watching.
This isn’t about status or appearance. It’s about composure, discernment, boundaries, and self-respect. The things that quietly shape how you live.
Through lived experience, we talk about growth, outgrowing environments, and learning to move differently without losing yourself in the process.
No performance. No exaggeration. Just real conversations about what it takes to hold your own.
New episodes every Wednesday.
Roselis (00:01)
This is SeamNotes, Taste Standards, and the Decisions Nobody Sees. I'm Roselis the creator with my co-host James. And today's episode we will be talking about how and why we are here in this channel talking to you and how SeamNotes came to be.
James (00:24)
The birth of SeamNotes by this lovely lady.
Roselis (00:27)
Indeed. The birth of SeamNotes I don't know if you guys know, but I have been in the real estate world now for the past sixteen years in New York.
And I certainly enjoyed a lot of what I did
James (00:43)
we met at The Centurion in New York City, I.M. Pei building, very famous, and we had the same office, in same floor, It in the same floor. And we hit it off. It was like we would just chit chat and she would refer stuff to me. it was just, it was synergy right from the start. Yeah.
Roselis (01:03)
from the start and that was what 14 years ago something so one of the things that happened was that 2025 was a culminating and quiet year for me. What I mean by that is it was a quiet introspective year that a lot of healing took place.
James (01:06)
Something like that, yeah, yeah.
Roselis (01:23)
it's almost like there was a finality to a lot of the things that I had been working on for so many years. I've discussed this before. I've been in therapy since I was eighteen. On and off, mostly on. So for forty one years I've been in that introspective learning process.
Last
I had been dealing with autoimmune thing and was going through some healing process. it's not gone but it's managed now in a way that it hadn't been managed in all those years. So it was a very, very healing year. And the idea of doing a what I kept calling a channel was present for a long time.
James (02:07)
Yeah, I remember you talking about it
Roselis (02:08)
And you know, everybody was suggesting doing it in real estate and
I didn't feel the connection that I needed to feel at this stage of my life doing something.
James (02:23)
So I was really surprised when you came to me and said, I don't really want to do this anymore. And I was like, whoa, OK. OK.
Roselis (02:34)
Yeah, I think it surprised a lot of people, But for a long time that My Cup is Full was not happening for me And I feel like in order for me to be able to give it my all I need to be there.
James (02:41)
Yeah, I understand
Yeah.
Roselis (02:48)
the thing that was missing, The fun was no longer there
Okay. So yes, it it still exists in some of the things that I'm doing in real estate. and I limit it to the things that I enjoy now.
James (03:00)
What a luxury is that? Talking about life's luxuries, being able to couture your life, do the things that you enjoy, that accentuate your talents, that's true luxury.
Roselis (03:14)
So here's what happened. I had had this idea of the channel, if you will. I knew I wanted to do something. I hadn't been on social media really hardly at all because I didn't want to put myself out there in in a random manner that didn't represent
what I wanted to give, nor did I wanna open up a door to my life that was random.
James (03:46)
didn't see another, we don't need to see another person's meal or travel experience. That was... That was...
Roselis (03:51)
That didn't interest me in sharing,
right? So
James (03:57)
I love you but I don't want to see what you're eating and where you're going. Really.
Roselis (04:03)
And I mean there's only so many angles of a seared foie gras that you can take. It's the same no matter what. So I had thought about doing a channel with my best friend, talking about friendship women who've gone through thirty-five years of being extremely close.
James (04:07)
Exactly
Roselis (04:24)
that always make it a point to get together and see each other. We moved into different cities and all of this and it's been phenomenal and I really thought that we were gonna get somewhere with this and she just was not gonna have And then the other thing that I also wanted to discuss and these sat on my plate for about a year, year and a half.
James (04:38)
having it.
Roselis (04:48)
Was the transition, the life transition period of perimenopause and menopause, and what aging entails in your physical being as well as your mind and your spirit, because there is a real psychic, physical, chemical change that takes place in your body, and you have no clue what's happening as it's happening, So all of these.
James (05:15)
And men experience this too, by the way. I am experiencing this right now. I cannot tell you the hot flashes are driving me nuts.
Roselis (05:25)
And that happens. It happens to both sexes. Not both sexes wanna admit it, but it is a part of it all, And so I'm sitting with all of this. It's now December of 2025 and I get together with this gentleman for a cup of coffee. We hadn't seen each other in
Quite a few months and we were talking about transitions that were happening in your life at the moment.
James (05:50)
freaking tidal waves and feeling
it doesn't fit anymore the way it used to like yeah
Roselis (05:57)
what you were doing, what you had been doing. And
so I mentioned to him the idea of perhaps doing something together. There was no concept or really any topic. He was like, I'm intrigued. Let's talk about it. And that was it.
I go off with my husband on a trip for New Year's we came back it's January sixth or eighth or something like that.
And I am not feeling my best. You had already called me a couple of times and said, Hey, when are we getting together? When are we gonna talk about this? Definitely caught your interest
James (06:31)
Yeah, yeah, was like, what's up?
So I was into it. I was like, yeah, bring it you know, the universe brings us things, It really does. And if we're open to the opportunity.
We can open the door,
Roselis (06:44)
This is magical. Because I knew that I wanted to do something new when the year started. So I say this to James, I go off on my trip, I come back
And I get sick a road trip of ten days it's a long time to do road, it's a long time to go from one hotel to another, driving from one place to another
And so I fall out. But one day I decided to take my computer and a notebook and I was like, what am I doing this year? And I had had this idea about a garment that I wanted to create. I wanted to do high end knits and I still do.
with images because I know that people really love to wear a t-shirt and I wanted to do a beautiful high high count and weight with really beautiful stitching with beautiful graphics that when you saw them from afar they caught your eye but when you got close to them there would be a hidden message.
Within the graphic, So I'm playing with the idea and I can't really make the message be present within the graphics without it becoming too obvious and vulgar, if you will. And the reason I use the word vulgar is because I wanted this to be an elegant
piece and I still do, I want it to be something that really is luxury, that feels great next to you, that when you look at it you wanna be in it and not it be some loud thing.
James (08:33)
Yeah, not something with a big label across it or on the back.
Roselis (08:36)
And I wanted them to be messages about internal work. About all of that stuff that I just talked about that I healed from..
James (08:52)
all the work that you've been doing your whole life.
Roselis (08:53)
so I was thinking, well this could be in the seam of that garment instead of it being on the garment. And one thing led to another and then I was like, well, you know, wanting to do this conversation
James (09:03)
see what she did right there. Seam
Roselis (09:14)
Is talking about the internal that we hold within the seam of ourselves. And then visually it was the spinal cord that came to my mind and thinking of it as a zipper that you were able to zip up and be complete and feel whole and be all of these things, And so this is the roundabout way.
That the Seams and the Notes came to be the name of it. And it all got created in that one day. I was working on a garment. I wasn't working on this. It wasn't that I was prepping myself to have the conversation with James about what we were gonna do. as I'm working on this, this is what happens.
what I know is that later I looked back and it happened to be January eleventh. One eleven was birthed and I thought, my God, I've been seeing ones all over the place and then this happened on
James (10:15)
You want to love it. Very auspicious, 11 is a master number, so.
Roselis (10:18)
For me it gave me all the assurance, even if it's just in my mind and for those who don't believe in any of this kind of stuff, I feel like I'm embarking on the right path doing this. So I'm like, OMG And I don't have the notebook here, but it was
Seam Notes and then it had standards and inner things and it's inner luxury is what I had written. What you do behind closed doors that nobody sees is where the luxury in life lies. and that was really it. That's how it came to be.
James (10:55)
Totally.
And I think it's very interesting to point out at this stage that the thought of luxury, she gave birth to the thought of luxury,
as working on self, saying luxury is really what the work is inside.
Roselis (11:13)
Right,
right. And that's how this came to be, luxury from the inside out. And so I come out of the bedroom and I go, I got it I say to my husband, I got it and he's like, What are you talking about? 'Cause he had no idea that I had been in there working on this.
I was so elated because it so completely resonated with me. And so I shared it with him and he said, that sounds like a great idea, this is stuff you talk about all the time. It is, what you believe in. So it makes all the sense in the world. So a few days later, James came over and I
James (11:29)
Of course, as it should be.
Yeah, yeah.
Roselis (11:50)
Presented it. Yeah. And I basically said I wanna talk about luxury from the inside out.
James (11:56)
what's interesting is I don't think you were thinking James Stanley luxury because my brand is very luxury right? I've tried to you were? interesting
Roselis (12:07)
Absolutely. At
that moment when the luxury from the inside came. Of course, because I think that having also the experience of luxury in our lives influences a lot what we are able to talk about because we've had luxury experiences.
James (12:21)
Right.
The material luxury life,
Roselis (12:32)
Exactly.
And because you deal with so much in that luxury world,
James (12:37)
Okay. Yeah. she says to me, you know, luxury from the inside out. I'm like, what? But I think from a point of view of because
luxury is always something I've been very attached to from the material world and also from the spiritual world thinking, OK, that's a conflict of interest. do not believe it is, by the way, but just from just hearing it, I'm like, huh?
And then as I contemplate, of course, the true luxury, the true awareness, and we're equating luxury to awareness is going inside. So then as soon as I got it, I'm like, that's brilliant because both of us, our brands and our background is luxury in the material world, but also in the, sense of spiritual awareness, mental health.
all of that. then I thought, brilliant, of course, to weave in that sense.
Roselis (13:32)
Well and I knew that because we've had these conversations through the years that he was the ideal partner. I mean, we didn't know this back in December when I, even suggested that we do something together but any time that he had some sort of media concept or idea that could possibly come up, he would reach out to me and be like, Would you be interested in doing doing this? you were always including me in that
James (13:44)
Right, right.
Roselis (13:59)
I wouldn't hear from him for like seven months and he'd be like, my god, I got this thing going, it might be it may not and I was like, Whatever, let's do and so I think that the conversation has been there, how we both feel that everything is about who we are.
James (14:07)
Yeah, true.
Roselis (14:22)
And how we experience life in this trajectory, in this body that we inhabit today, And for me after all this period of processing and healing and all of that, the greatest luxury is this sense of calm and peace that I carry through with me in all most
most because there are moments when we're human, We get rattled, things happen, But at most times I'm able to keep level headed and be okay with whatever situation I'm confronted with.
James (15:04)
Exactly - Agreed, agreed She really is, I have to tell you that, she, again, paying you a compliment, but I truly believe this, and I've said this to you before, Roselis can really stay right here. When, in business, and we've done some business together, so I know this from that perspective, that, when shit's going awry, and it's going to, and it has, that she kind of stays here. And I'm like, whoa, that's kind of cool, because we can really solve anything if we
stay level-headed and we don't get too attached and all that. So you really are able to do that quite well.
Roselis (15:36)
Thank you for saying that, James. Thank you. and it's passing it on, I mean, really, what is the purpose of having all this knowledge or all this experience and all these things that we've done in life if nobody else can benefit from the things that we have gone through,
And look, in anything that we share, we're not saying learn from us and avoid going through it. No, because everybody has to go through it in one way or another.
James (16:07)
Correct, correct. I use the term birthing SeamNotes But if we thought about it as an actual child that's growing, the podcast, which it is, it's kind of like a child that's growing. The child must go through all the experiences,
Roselis (16:20)
We nurture it.
James (16:24)
I'm a firm believer that we have to go through the experience, even though it's tough, because how do we learn? You can listen to us all day long, A lot. But it's really, have to go through it. So if we can share some insight, and then when you're in that situation that's going to come up, because it is going to come up, ⁓ maybe you can navigate a little bit better.
Roselis (16:33)
And we can talk a lot.
So you know, that's where it came from. It came from being ready to move on.
James (16:59)
How did you know you were ready to move on?
Roselis (17:01)
Because it didn't fit. What I was doing in my life didn't fit any more.
James (17:05)
but how do you how does one know that? Were there signs? It was.
Roselis (17:10)
Just
a feeling. It was a heavy feeling. A a dread.
James (17:17)
Dread. That's a big word. Heavy word.
Roselis (17:21)
⁓ you know, having to push through something. It was almost like here's a wall and I'm having to push it to get there. And I didn't want to do that anymore. And I've had periods of life where things have birthed in the creative process and I haven't been in a creative process in a very long time. And I knew that from this healing
James (17:36)
Yeah.
Roselis (17:46)
that the creative part of my life had been missing for a very long time and this, even though it is conversation, it is very creative. A lot of different ideas of how do we present it, what do we do with it, how can the concept, the idea, be passed on to somebody else where they will be able to receive it and see what the luxury really is it.
James (18:15)
Right?
Roselis (18:16)
some of it took so long for me to learn and I was such a a a hard headed student.
James (18:24)
You? I'm so surprised. I'm shocked.
Roselis (18:28)
With a lot of it. I was very resistant Or or which we've talked about in another episode here, not having the emotional connection for it to put an imprint within to cause the change,
So I had to get free enough of some of the turbulence that was there in order to be able to connect with it emotionally and be able to learn and grow from it. Because otherwise I was not gonna learn from it.
James (18:59)
Right, because you're just going to continue the cycle.
Roselis (19:01)
because I would leave it behind and I'd forget about it. I was so used to just like letting it go, you know, but then the other thing right and it just repeats and it dressed in a different cloak I mean it doesn't have to be the same. It never looks the same and then five years down the road you go, ⁓ wow this is the same situation. How did I not see it?
James (19:08)
But then it repeats.
1000%
You're back.
Roselis (19:25)
Because whenever you were going through the first one you weren't connecting to it emotionally to really learn the lesson, I mean I have periods of my life that I don't remember at all. in childhood years, there's many years I don't remember at all. I remember tiny little bits.
I was completely disconnected from it. It was the only way that I felt that I could survive, So
James (19:49)
through a trauma, Yeah, agreed
Roselis (19:52)
So I continue to do that pattern through all my life, And so ufff you know.
James (19:58)
So you did have a need to voice maybe part of Seam Notes as a need.
Roselis (20:02)
to share the message the biggest message is luxury doesn't lie in all of our expensive things
It's about the pleasure, the enjoyment of the thing, the act the activity, the whatever it is that you're doing.
James (20:15)
you don't have to go out there and search for it.
Roselis (20:18)
that's why this is exactly what it is, This is why this was birthed, Because we need to recognize that. those things are great,
but again we wouldn't connect to those things the way that we do and find them to be luxurious if we didn't enjoy them, They would lose their luxury So it doesn't really matter. It's not really a monetary thing and that is the whole idea behind all of this, right? That it is about what we carry inside, who we are, how we respect ourselves,
James (20:39)
They would lose the value.
Roselis (20:54)
The only person that we really, really need to love and take care of throughout life is ourselves. If we're not there to do that, we can't do anything for anyone else. And no matter what, husband, children, family, cousins, friends, they will pass on.
And what if you outlive them all? You better love the person you are. And that is what the message of all of this is. How do you take care of yourself? How do you protect yourself? How do you experience luxury? How do you deal with others? How do you deal with all of these things in the most luxurious way so that you can have a life that gives you joy.
James (21:50)
Enjoy.
Roselis (21:51)
And you can then impart that on to somebody else. And that the moments in which you struggle, because we will share about the things that we've been through. And experiences have been and what they taught us. Because we want you to know that you're not alone. That all of us go through all of this at one time or another.
James (22:03)
are going through.
whatever you're experiencing, highs and lows, we've all experienced. So another question, if I may. So you gave birth to SeamNotes It is now episode eight? Yeah.
Roselis (22:23)
Yes.
Is that
James (22:33)
This is episode 8. This is episode 8. At episode 8, how do you feel about SeamNotes
Roselis (22:44)
I love it. I love it. I believe it has a long way to go. I believe that we have no idea what this will actually bring. will it remain, SeamNotes as a podcast? Will it change into another form? Will it offspring other things? I have no idea what this is to bring.
But what I'm doing today, what I plan on doing for a while with this is exactly what we just talked about and whichever form it takes or what it transforms into from here, I'm open to anything. But for the moment, for now, I feel good about what we're doing.
James (23:30)
it's giving you this creative outlet. It's giving you a way to voice your, whom you are, what you've learned. She really loves to share with others and help others. And I think that's where.
both of us really get on the train together and are in the same car, so to speak, is that we really want to help others.
I wanted to hitch my wagon to yours.
because if I can, give someone a word that's going to positively influence their moment, why would I not do that? And if I have the opportunity I definitely want to do it.
Roselis (24:09)
Exactly. Exactly.
I'm having so much joy doing it.
And it's exciting
I'm not skipping any of the steps. I am going through it, diving into it, learning from it because this is something I firmly believe in and if one person benefits.
James (24:29)
That's it, right? Exactly. I hitched my wagon to hers. I get involved and
I come here, and I don't contemplate what we're going to say what we're going to shoot. I have confidence that she's going to have an idea or outline of where we want to kind of go,
I don't know what switches I fall into this mode of really loving to give. It's really not about what I know or she knows or we know collectively. It's more about just giving. If we can say one thing that's going to help somebody in a moment.
It's wonderful.
So We're giving to someone. I sit here and I get excited about
whatever the subject is because I really feel, we can help somebody with this. Somebody is gonna hear it and be able to go, huh.
Roselis (25:23)
Exactly. And that was, part of the reason why when this came up this way and we had already had that conversation about having conversations on camera, I knew that this was the right topic because We've been talking about this for years. This isn't something that we are just discovering amongst the two of us.
I have all the confidence in the world that we're gonna be able to have this conversation because that's what all of this is. It's just a conversation that we're having together and sharing it with you. And our luxury with SeamNotes is being able to give
Freely of what our experiences are.
James (26:03)
Correct
being fulfilled from that experience.
Roselis (26:07)
And being able to share with you that
You have go through it and that it's okay no matter what that is, I mean right now I'm having the fortunate experience of going through creating this and working on this. but it was given from a space where something had ended and it was just the right opportunity and life just gave that gift to me to to be able give you you you at this moment
James (26:36)
Yeah, Yeah, yeah.
Roselis (26:38)
we've covered everything that there is on how we came to be and what we wanna do and it's lovely to hear from other people that
What we are talking about resonates.
James (26:51)
Has an impact. Something sparked,
Roselis (26:54)
These episodes live in perpetuity and you can always go back and take a look at them and see the why or get the why or go to a line that, touched you or you remember, like you do with a book, So thank you so much for being here with us.
James (27:15)
Thank you for giving birth to SeamNotes
Roselis (27:18)
Thank you, James, for being a part of it as well. Until next Wednesday, this is Seam Notes. Luxury from the inside out.