#239: Building Your Business with Gratitude with Our Host Ashley Alderson, Founder of the Boutique Hub

Happy New Year, you guys. Hey, let's wrap up 2019 with an attitude of gratitude. So today's episode is all about being grateful, and lots of you participated to help make this episode possible. So I can't wait to share all of these messages. Inside of today's show. Let's talk about your business strategy and the juicy details of what actually works, from mainstream fashion to fashion on Main street and the entire ecosystem behind it. How do we scale your company and do it with the balance and the happiness that we all seek? Let's hear from those insiders, experts, and strategists that actually make it happen. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub, and I can't wait to chat. All right, guys, we have a special episode planned this week that I hope you love. You know, I wanted to end the year with a message that I think so many of us can relate to and share in. You know, I'm a big believer in gratitude. The more you share it, the more you have to be grateful for. And I heard a coach one time say, you cannot live in a state of anxiety and gratitude at the same time. And, man, did that hit home for me. Because it's true. You can't be anxious, you can't be fearful. At the same time that you can be grateful. Right? In a state of gratitude. So I think that's why it's so important. Every single day, we focus on all the good things that happen around us. Because what we see, what we focus on, what we notice, we see more and more of. Just like if you're driving down the road and you're thinking about buying a red car, isn't it amazing how many red cars you start to notice? And positive thoughts and negative thoughts really work the same way. The more you embrace one or the other, the more you're going to continually see. So while I'd love to make this episode about the things that I am grateful for, I think that gratitude is really meant to be shared. So I wanted to involve as many of you as I could in this message. So you probably remember if you are a member of the Boutique Hub. A while back, I asked in our groups if you would join me in helping me create this podcast and share who or what you are most grateful for so that we could surprise some friends today, some partners, some service providers, anyone that you just want to say thank you to for a great 2019 because they've helped you along the way. Sounds like fun, right? So look for these messages. I'm going to be sprinkling them in and sharing them throughout today's episode, all from your boutique besties and your members of the community inside of the Hub. I also am going to be sharing a few things that I'm grateful for, but then also I'm going to break down four daily habits that you could use to really set yourself up for success in 2020 in terms of being mindful and grateful each and every day. So let me start here. Looking back at 2019. Oh my goodness, you guys, this was such a year of growth and change for us at the Hub. I just want to kick off the show by saying, wow, thank you, every single one of you. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for listening to this episode. I'm amazed each and every week how many of you send me DMs on Instagra, Instagram, and you send me screenshots of what you're doing while you listen. You send me your biggest takeaway from the episode. You send me questions, you share stories with me. I love being able to share this with you and have this conversation with you just to be in your space. Right? I know that your time is so precious, and the fact that you're inviting me to be a part of the few precious moments you have or the few opportunities you have to learn and grow your business every single day, that means a lot. And also, it's funny, but I won't say creepy when I go to markets or different places or Boutique Summit, how many times I meet you and your husbands, and then your husbands are also like, oh, I recognize your voice. Like, I hear your voice all the time in our house. Or the people that have said, I randomly fell asleep listening to your voice last night. I'm going to pretend none of that's creepy. Right? It's just going to be awesome. So I'm telling you, thank you for listening to the show. But more important than that, thank you for being the person that takes action on what you learn in the show. I'm going to repeat this today, so bear with me. But one hour of action trumps 100 hours of motivation each and every time. So thank you for what you're doing after you listen to the show. I think about the guests that we've had on the podcast over the last year, and really, we're going to be coming up on two years that we've had the show. We'll be entering the next season of the show after the first of the year. And. And it could be easy for so many people to Think about some of the brands or some of the boutiques that have been on the episodes, like big boutiques, we'll say, and to look at them in a state of comparison. Look at her and all she's accomplished or look at how successful she is, or look at whatever, you know, thing that she has hit in her life, whatever goal she's reached in her life, and she's reached it. But I haven't. Right? That's a state of comparison. You could be looking at guests on the show in that light. But what so many of you have done and I appreciate is a lot like the story of Roger Bannister. If you've heard of Roger Bannister, he was the very first man to ever run a four minute mile. And that was thought to be impossible for such a long period of time. Everyone, you know, was striving to hit this four minute mile and nobody could do it. Well, the same year that Roger Bannister became the first man to run the four minute mile, soon his closest competitor, I think, like within the next month or two months broke the record. And in the next year, I believe it was three more men broke the four minute mile. So the reason that happened wasn't because they were in comparison with one another or in competition with one another, but it was because Roger Bannister showed them that it was possible. Right. So seeing someone else in their winning season doesn't take anything away from you. It doesn't make you any less. It only shows you what's possible for you too, if you choose to see it that way. So for me and for you, listening to the podcast and hearing these awesome stories, that only means that it's possible for you if you choose it this year. Besides the podcast, I'm also so thankful for the way that you've shown up in person because along with getting your awesome Instagram messages, I love that. I really value the relationships that we've built in the community and the opportunity that myself and that our entire team has had to meet you and to see you and to recognize you and to see your family and your staff and to build relationships with you. And bar none, our favorite place to do that is the Boutique Summit. And I just have to extend a huge layer of gratitude to you for showing up at the Boutique Summit. This was the third year that we hosted the Boutique Summit. In 2019, just over 800 of you came to Atlanta, which blows my mind. It really blows my mind, and especially that we started just three years ago with 300 of you that you Sold out, right? This year, you sold out 800 people within. It was like under 22 hours. It was crazy. And every year it sold out. The very first year, it was 300 people. And at that time, to give you kind of an idea of what the Hubs gone through and how our team has grown in the last two years, the first year we did this, which was 2017, 300 of you and three of us. Myself, Beth, who was part time. Beth was also an accountant for an accounting firm at that time. And Jesse Jarvis. And Jesse. Jesse's always kind of been part time with the Hub because she's also an influencer, and they have a ranch and we own a magazine together. So it was the three of us, two part timers and myself. And somehow we tackled bringing 300 of you to Dallas. We with carbon monoxide poisoning. All at the same time was us with carbon monoxide poisoning, not you. And the next year, it went to 500 people in Dallas. And then we made this big move to Atlanta with 800. So thank you, you guys, for believing in this event, for. Oh, my gosh, just for going for it, for leaving your family. I know what a huge commitment it is for you to leave your family, to leave your store, to travel across the country. And not to mention that so many of you have met boutique besties inside of the Hub that you've never met in person. And you told your husbands, I'm going to the airport. I'm meeting a stranger that I met on the Internet through this place called the Boutique Hub. And we're sharing a hotel room for the next three days. And I hope she's not a serial killer. Like, congratulations. So many of your husbands probably wanted to strangle you or strangle me for such crazy madness, but isn't it amazing how it's worked out? I know so many of you have built lifelong friendships with the people that you have met, met at Summit. And I think that's what makes our community so special, is how those relationships have just really blossomed and evolved from that opportunity to meet one another in person. You know, along with the Summit, not only am I grateful for everyone who's attended, but so many of you in our community also have spoken at Summit. So we bring in over 35 speakers. I can't even remember the exact number. Last year was somewhere around 35 or 38. And we do bring in big outside keynote speakers, and we'll have even more in 2020. But we do rely on people within our community. I think so many of you want to hear your peers get up and tell their stories. And it's not just the stories about the winning seasons of your business, right? There's so much knowledge and insight, not just from the highs, but especially from the lows. There's so much in learning when things don't go as planned. Just like this last year at the summit, I think so many of you resonated with Diana and Kristen from the red dress when they got up and they had this whole talk about how cockroaches don't die. It was so good. And they gave everyone a cockroach at the end of it because they talked about all the times where they had not been in a winning season, how many times it was so hard and things were not working out. But a cockroach just doesn't die. You can't kill it. And so how they survived all those seasons. So I really want to genuinely thank all of you that have shared your story on the podcast at summit, on a Facebook live, in any kind of training, because truly, what that is, what you're demonstrating is community over competition. You're not scared to share with your quote unquote competitors, as society would call them. You're not scared to share what's worked for you or what hasn't worked because you know there's more than enough to go around. So I commend you a thank you, and I cannot wait for another Boutique summit in 2020. One last thing I want to mention that we're so grateful for, our entire team is grateful for is all of you that have joined us in retail bootcamp this year. This is where Sarah and I spend the majority of our time teaching and coaching. And it is such an engaged, awesome group of men and women. And I appreciate the fact that there's so many people in these groups that have, you know, invested in themselves that they don't put up any walls, right? There's no award for being the biggest or the best or there's no award for being the person that has all the answers inside of the Facebook groups, right? There's no competition. Everyone there has been so open with one another about the good and the bad. The only reward in life and in business is just simply to be realistic about where we are and what we can do better and then to actually take the action on it. So for those of you who have been a part of those programs, who have showed up time and time again over 12 weeks, it is a grueling program, but you have taken action, even if it's learning one new thing and implementing it. Just one little nugget. Thank you for doing that and thank you so much for trusting Sarah and I to lead you and to guide you and to teach you and to bring in guest experts to help. That means the world that you have entrusted us with that. So thank you guys for that this year. All right, all right. Let's hear from several of you the things that you're grateful for. Thank you so much for sending these little nuggets in. The first one is this. Hey Ashley. I would like to thank Sharla Baumgartner for really demonstrating community over competition. She and her team put together a boutique shop hop of 10 local boutiques in our region. They have worked really hard and not only was this a big deal, but she included little old me. And I am so grateful by the way. We met in person at Summit because we are both hubbies, so this continues to be the best business decision that I have made. I appreciate all the work that you and your team do for us for the boutique hub. I am grateful this was so long, but hopefully worth it. From Key McFall from Be youe to Full Boutique on Wheels. Key, you are so awesome. Thank you so much for that message and Sharla for the boutique shop hop that you put together. The next message comes from Karen Bagley from K Posh Boutique and she says, I am so very grateful to Crystal Wright from Rose Grace Boutique. We met at the airport on our way to the Boutique Summit this summer and clicked instantly. We spent the whole trip together and have stayed in touch since. Thank you, Crystal for being such a great friend and such a great support system. I love you, girl. The next piece of gratitude comes from Desiree Holden Rae from Two Boys in a Sailor Boutique. She says she is most thankful for the small, small shop and boutique community. Sailor got sick in March, at which time we received such an outpouring of love during her inpatient stay. Calls, messages, packages, fundraisers and so much more. It led me to the boutique world and to the hub and I am so grateful for that. December Ann from Style937 Boutique says, I'm so thankful for two ladies who opened up a vendor marketplace in my area. When I decided to shift mainly to online so that I could be with my babies more and slow my brick and mortar store down, I felt really sad. But then I opened a space in the market and it allows me to get my merchandising fix, my client fix all without having to pay a sitter constantly and feel like someone else is always with my babies. And finally, Mary Meyer from Fox and the Owl Wholesale. Mary is one of the kindest people. She says she is most thankful for her Boutique Hub retail and wholesale family to each and every one of them, because it's allowed her husband to quit his corporate job two years ago so that they could work together on their dream. You guys, I want to come back and share one more thing that I'm so grateful for at the Boutique Hub this year. And this is a big project that has taken, gosh, over two years to put together something we've worked on for that long, and that is splitting off Boutique Style and the Boutique Hub. So I know many of you have had the opportunity to meet Nikki on our team, and we brought Nikki onto the team. Gosh, what's her work anniversary? Probably two years ago now, after her and I met at a Brendon Burchard conference and through our friend Nick Pigeon. And Nikki's a writer. She's super talented and loves fashion. So this was really the perfect opportunity for her to start writing all of our style blogs where she can feature every single one of you and your boutique and your fashion and hopefully help you with new customer acquisition through the Boutique Style platform. So Nikki, along with our cto Ben, our designer Kate, on our team, and all of our team, really has had a hand in this. But Nikki really took the lead on separating the boutiquehub.com with boutique style. Because I don't know if you guys remember this, but for a while, our site was super confusing by way that so many boutiques were coming to our site to find business information and to join the Boutique hub. But the boutiquehub.com was also the main domain where shoppers would come to shop and to discover boutiques. Right. And so we really wanted to create clarity around that. Like, where's the place that we want shoppers to go to discover all of your member profiles and to read blogs around trends and how to dress their body and to just be inspired with all of your fashion. But we wanted to keep that separate from business development. So finally this year, after, you know, taking a long time to put this all together, this was able to be accomplished. So Boutique Style is still in beta. It's still a baby site. We're still figuring out what works and what doesn't and how we want to grow that platform so that it's more beneficial sending traffic to every single one of you and your sites. Because we know that, you know, I just think about my own life. Right. This is kind of a throwback to why we created the boutique hub in the first place. And that is, you know, I'm a busy mom. I was from North Dakota. There wasn't that many places to shop at the time. And I just wanted to have one central place where I could find all these stores that I loved. And not only that, but with social media the way that it is, it's easy to find a million boutiques right now, and it's easy to order from several boutiques. But forget, you know, where did I buy that again? Or what was that cute boutique's name again? Or, man, when I traveled to Charlotte, what boutique did I stop and see? So we wanted to create a place where, you know, people like me, people like you that are busy, that you have all these options, they can come in and they can subscribe to a boutique's feedback, say, like, hey, I want to follow this boutique and others like it. I want to find more that fit my personal style, my taste. And then every time I log in, all of that boutique's new arrivals are showing up in my style feed. So my style feed is like a social media channel of boutique fashion that I can see. And as I want to save something to my favorites, or if I want to shop something and actually buy it, when I click on the product, it goes right to that boutique's website and. And I can purchase it right there with the boutique directly. So that's always been the idea. That's the mission. And I know we still have several other pieces of this project that we're continuing to build, but I hope that you guys love the platform and if there's ever a way, you know, or time that you have feedback on how we can make it better, I would love to hear it, because it's still a work in progress. So definitely something I'm super grateful for in 2019. All right, let's go back to hearing some of your guys messages from the community. Jordan Blades from J. Linnae Boutique said, I just hit my biggest month ever last week, and it was literally all because of this group and finding my boutique bestie Rachel Benko. I was on the verge of giving up and quitting just six months ago, and now I'm setting goals that I never thought were imaginable. That's pretty awesome, Jordan. And Rachel, it sounds like you are a pretty awesome boutique bestie. Brooke Cameron from Soul Revival Boutique. Brooke, I think I always butcher your last name. You're gonna have to help me with that. She's one of the sweetest souls we've had the opportunity to meet in person. And she says that she is so thankful to Dana hall and to Robin Brown, who have been a huge influence in her life. From bouncing ideas to lifting me up professionally and personally, I am so grateful for these two ladies. All right, one more to be thankful for is from Megan Moseley from Broken Boutique. She says, I am so grateful for a season of pruning because I know that after pruning comes growth. So 2020 will be a year of growth for me and our business. You guys, I wanted to stop right here and think about this for a second and talk about this. Isn't it the truth? Sometimes it's not the big shiny objects that impact us the most or, you know, these record setting years or months or the awards that we win. That's not all we have to be grateful for. Sometimes it's the challenges that really call us to reevaluate what we're doing and why we're doing it. Sometimes those are the things that we have to be most grateful for. You might think I'm such a nerd when I tell you this, but one of my favorite artists is Casey Musgraves, and she talks about in this one song. If you want to find the silver lining, you've got to face a cloudy day. And if you want to find the honey, you can't be scared of the bees. And if you want to find a four leaf clover, you got to be able to get a little dirt on your hands. And she goes through all these analogies about, you know, the fruit only comes after the labor. Right? You put the nutrients in the soil in the field before you plant your crop. And so I loved Megan's gratitude so much because sometimes we just have to be thankful for a year that might be a total dumpster fire that we just have to learn to prune, because after the pruning comes the growth. So, Megan, thank you so much for being real and honest and showing us that we can have gratitude even if it's not a big shiny object. Wonderful lesson to learn and to share. All right. Two more things I want to share with you guys that were brand new in 2019 that I want to share gratitude for to all of you for helping make possible and to our team for helping make possible. The first I'm super grateful for is the Boutique Boss Planner. So this was a wild idea for quite a while, and two members of our team, Sarah Burks and Jesse Jarvis, just decided to run with it and make this puppy possible. And you would think, like oh, designing a day planner, like, not that big a deal, but really when you design something totally from scratch, like there wasn't a manufacturer out there that made these. We went to every manufacturer we could find that already does day planners and asked if we could white label a planner and like use their formatting and their production manufacturer, all those things. And we resoundingly got all no's. Like, nobody was interested in doing that. Plus the product would have been super duper expensive. So we were like, okay, well, you know, where there's a will, there's a way. So we had our own designer who helps design Western Runway magazine for us, and we started to build this thing totally from scratch. So what are all the things that we love about day planners? What are the things we hate about day planners? What. What do boutique owners really need? You know, what are checklists and business tips and all the unique things that we can put inside? And so Sarah and Jesse went to building this and we launched it just after the summit in 2019, a six month version. And you guys loved it. I mean, there was definitely some things that needed to be improved. The tabs, the COVID There were some things that were definitely first timer mistakes, just rookie mistakes that we got fixed. And now, you know, we've just launched the 2020 version. And I am so incredibly grateful for that. It's beautiful. There are still things that I will nitpick about it that I know I want to change for the next year. But really, content wise, like, you don't get value out of a planner based on how pretty it is. Right? Or what color the COVID is. Because I know so many people like, oh, I want my own custom cover. That's great. Like monogramming your planner, wonderful. But monogramming your planner is not going to grow your business. So what's important to us is really the meat on the inside and also the habits that it helps to build. So if there's one takeaway that I really hope that everybody who has the planner takes away from this is they have a daily and weekly date with their numbers, that numbers are no longer intimidating, but that the planner breaks down those barriers and helps you understand. Man, I'm so empowered by my numbers. And when I take action on them, when I read them, when I file them, now I know what marketing actions I can take. And it's empowering me to be better at my marketing and better at my buying and to be a smarter boutique owner overall. So I ask you, and I've mentioned this before to you guys, but write this down, put this on a sticky note. Only attract number grows. And really that's the key with the planner. The more you focus on those numbers and the growth, the more you're going to see of it. So thank you. Thank you for supporting the planner and helping make that project possible. The other thing that was brand new in 2019 that I want to just share gratitude for is the Content Sanity program that came after so many questions from many of you on what's important to have on my social media every week. How many times should be posting on social media every week? How can I possibly get all of this crap, excuse my language together and post it on social media? I don't have time. Like, how can I efficiently do this? And so that caused me to really take a step back and go, you know what, there has to be a better way. There has to be a smarter way. Then I started to analyze what's working for most of the boutiques I'm working with, right? What things are working? What are we all doing that we have in common? What's smart? And we put it into a system that included six essential pieces of content. And then how we take each of those six pieces of content and dice them up several different ways for each social media channel. So I know a number of you have taken it. It's definitely not like a black and white do this and do X and see why, but it's very much like, here's the best practices, here's a guideline, and here's how you can start to test it and implement it in your own business and then tweak it to what your customers really respond to best. So to everyone who's taken a part in Content Sanity, the Content Sanity Masterclass, I thank you. That has been a work of love from my desk to yours, just based on your questions. So keep the questions coming. It always inspires me to try to find answers that serve you so that you can keep working on your business. And you can see the forest through the trees, right? If someone's helping, look out for you. All right, a couple more pieces of gratitude coming from you guys that I wanted to share. This is from Melissa Kolstead from Baby Girls Boutique. And she said, I am so thankful for my boutique bestie, Tanya Wagner. She's also a member of the group and she has been an incredible mentor, advice giver, rant listener, and more. And I would not be the owner I am today without her. I am so incredibly blessed to have Tanya in my life. Michelle Starbeck from Stacked Consignment and boutique says she is so thankful for her boys. Even on bad days, even on hard days, on long days, they give me something to look forward to, and they remind me that someone is watching and learning from me, to never give up and to work hard. The fact that I'm in the midst of entrepreneur chaos, that I can keep two extra people alive means that I must be doing something right. Michelle, touche. You definitely are doing something right. And I appreciate this perspective, too. I know that so many of you got into this business because you love the balance of it all. You love the freedom and the flexibility to really be able to design your own destiny, but do so with the flexibility of being a mom. And now I know we've got men in the hub. We've got a lot of men in the hub, but overwhelmingly, we have a lot of women in the hub that are mothers. And I commend you because it is not easy. It is not easy to balance it. And Michelle, I agree. Keeping boys alive until they're 18, that's half the challenge, right? So I commend every single one of you for being the leaders and the role models that you are, showing your kids that they can have a dream and they can go after it, that they can work hard. They can really write their own path. So, Michelle, I'm proud of you. I know your boys are proud of you. And each one of you keep doing it because your kids are one watching, and they are totally worth it. All right, Gisela. And Gisela, I hope I did not butcher your name. I know you're from Alaska, from Arla's Boutique. She is so thankful for Nadia Martinez. She has been a great support for me and my business. I can bounce ideas off of her. She always talks me in the right direction. Whenever I felt like giving up. She has talked to me and encouraged me. She's been such a great support, even though she may not know it. And I have to agree with this, you guys. I know a lot of you work with Nadia on Facebook ads inside of the boutique hub, and Nadia, when you have a chance to meet her in person. I was lucky enough to meet her because she spoke at the summit this last year. She is so gentle and kind and just compassionate. She's one of those people that you just, you know, you kind of, like, let your shoulders down, like you relax and take a deep breath when you're around her because you know she's going to be so thoughtful in her words and in her actions. And I know that's why she's built such a great business and has been able to help so many of you with your businesses as well. So that's awesome. All right, another piece of gratitude. Shelby Danley from Willow House Boutique says, I'm so thankful for my supportive husband who's encouraged me every step of the way. I'm also grateful for my friends and family who are always eager to jump in and help me no matter what I need. I'm very thankful for a supportive community. I opened my brick and mortar in March, and I've been amazed at the support in our small community. And I'm so thankful for the hub, and the information is priceless. I've learned so much this year, and I look forward to what's to come next year. Hey, Shelby, thank you so much for that. Thank you for being a part of the hub, plain and simple. I really appreciate that message. But I also really appreciate that you are sharing gratitude for your spouse. I know some of you that listen, you're married or used to be married, or some of you are dating. Some of you are single. I know we've got the whole range. But to those of you who are married, I know it's not always easy to be entrepreneur. And if your husband is not an entrepreneur, the two of you may think differently about things. You may see your path a little bit differently. And just based on my own experience, man, communication is so vital in marriage around, you know, growing a business. And I can remember at the very beginning, for us, when the boutique hub was brand new, I'd left a great career that, you know, paid well and was stable, and I loved it. We moved across the country, and it was for my husband's career. He had a great job. But then we decided, man, this is our opportunity to take all of our savings and find a website developer and start to build this wild idea called the boutique hub that everybody thought was crazy. And I worked on this and worked on this and worked on this for probably almost two years, and it really wasn't producing any kind of income. We had a lot of family who didn't understand what it was. They didn't think it would ever work. There was a lot of negativity around it. And, you know, there was people asking my husband, well, don't you just think Ashley should go get a job? You know, like, this thing isn't going to work. Wouldn't it be easier on you because you're working so much, Eric, if she just went and got a job? And I admire my husband. Let me share Gratitude for him because, you know, he said at one point his job was so stressful, he was working so hard that he was just praying about this, like, what do I do in this situation? And he said, gosh, I just felt this message so clear from God to say, just let me handle it. Just let her be. Let her build this thing. And truthfully, like, he stood by me. He supported me every step of the way. He never told me to go get a job. He did whatever he could to help me and to help our kids and to help us get through the chaos and time of life that we were in. And whether, you know, today even whether that's feeding horses in 13 below weather like he did this morning, watching the kids when I travel, taking the kids to school in the morning and then I pick them up at night. He does all the not so glamorous parts of the boutique hub now. All the CRM management, email segmentation, the contracts, the insurance, the legal, the estate planning, the not glamorous things. He does all of that. He is so supportive. And for those of you that have spouses, I just encourage you to be an open book with them. Just have a conversation. You know, for us, we came from. It was a hard time for a long time, but it got so much better. But there was times when he would say, ashley, you know, just show me your plan. Just show me that this is going to work at some point. Just, you know, help me see what you see so I can be a better support to you. Because I think that's the thing. If your spouse feels like you're burning the candle on both ends, but you don't ever have a plan to make money at the end of the day to support your family, it feels like, gosh, is this worth it? Or should you go get a job? You know, I don't know if you've ever had a spouse ask you that, but after having that real conversation, Ashley, just show me a plan. Then I understood how to communicate with him better to show him a plan that, you know, I had this idea and it was going to be worth it. Just trust me. Let's just get, just go with it. So, for whatever that's worth, I hope you are able to have those conversations with the people in your life that matter most. And I am incredibly grateful for my husband. I don't know if you've had an opportunity to meet him or to see him at market. I hope you do. I hope you're able to say hi. He loves to laugh and giggle and joke. He Loves funny movies and Will Ferrell as much as I do, so you might have that in common with him, but he is an absolute gem. All right, a few more pieces of gratitude from our community. Christina Eiley from Clothes Cottage says this year our lives turned upside down. Two nights before our regrand opening, after a huge expansion, we went from empty nesters to full time guardians of our granddaughter. Besides a bassinet, diapers and a few sleepers, we had nothing else. And our customers brought in a rocking chair, bags of clothes, tummy mats, a pack and play and so much more. And we set up an area in our boutique for her and my staff to all become instant babysitters. They absolutely love her and they help raise her. We've now adjusted and are in the schedule. Had the best year ever. Thank you to boot camp and a great planner. And to Mary from management. One for all the support and keeping us on track during chaos. So, Christina, thank you so much. We know how much life can change on a dime and man, having awesome customers to support you in that, that definitely means a lot. Okay, I love this piece of gratitude. Two members who I hope that you guys all have a chance to meet. They are two of the sweetest women I know. They're sisters and they're from my neck of the woods. They live in Minneapolis. Krista and Jillian from Chic Avenue boutique. You guys are so sweet. Jillian says she knows this, but Krista, I wouldn't be able to do this without her. I'm grateful for goals and constantly adjusting to grow and learn how to better serve our customers and community. I'm also so grateful for my supportive husband, family and friends for lifting us up toward our dream job and to those who don't support support us for giving me the drive to help make them believe A to the men. I think we all have those people in our lives too. Krista says. Jillian, I'm so grateful to you, my sister and my business partner. Thank you for helping me reach our goals, our dreams and our dreams that we don't even know our dreams yet. Cheers to 2020, to growing, to learning and to leaving our you know, what's behind. I love this. You two girls are so positive. You're so uplifting and you always embrace community over competition. I just want to say thank you to you guys for being members of the Boutique hub. All right, last piece of gratitude is Carrie Rouse from Bold Soul Boutique who says I am grateful for growth this year to support these littles in Pestel Haiti and their education. I'm so grateful for these little ones. I love them because I have found my passion and my why behind what we do at our boutique. Carrie also posted a picture with this comment of some adorable little children that she donates to in Haiti. And I just want to stop here and kind of make this inflection point. I know we talk a lot about this in general in the Hub and in Bootcamp, but having a why a deeper mission in our business is so vital. Because you guys know what it's like. There's so many ups and downs. There's highs and lows, and you always have to have something that helps keep you pushing forward, right? Something that inspires you to keep going even when it's tough. And I love that. Charity is a big mission for Carrie. So I hope every single one of you has an opportunity this year to think about how you want to give back and how you want to impact the world around you through your boutique. Because I know and you know that we are not in business just to pay the bills, right? We're not in business just to draw a paycheck. But we're here because we literally want to change the world around us. And as entrepreneurs, we have such an awesome opportunity to do that. All right, guys, one last thing that I want to share with you that I am so grateful for. And really, this is the biggest and the most impactful. My most gratitude is for all of the relationships that we have been able to build in the last year. And I want to talk about this in two parts. The first is, I feel like the more we travel, whether it's through the Boutique Hub. I'm sorry, the Boutique Summit or meetups at markets or small meetups, the LA experience, whatever it is. The more we travel and do events and trainings, the more opportunity we have to get to know you, all of you. And I feel like we have such a vested interest in your life and in your business and making sure that you succeed. You know, from celebrating babies with so many of you to celebrating goals even to going through and walking through tragedies and loss or health, cancer, you name it. Tragic accidents. We are a community that stands together, and I'm so grateful for so many of the relationships that we've been able to build along the way. And, man, if you see me in person, please come say hi. Please introduce yourself. If I don't know you right away, I guarantee the second time I see you, I will know you right away. I won't forget you. Because your relationships, that is why we do what we do. And I feel like, you know, more than even people I live next to, I don't feel like I have that many people that live in the same community as me that really understand what I do or who I am or what I'm passionate about as much as all of you do. So truly, some of my best friends are in this community. Some of the people I love and respect and admire the most are in this community. So please take this opportunity, if you haven't already, to get a boutique bestie to meet someone to build relationships, because it's been life changing for me, and I know it's going to be life changing for you. And the second way I want to talk about this is none of this. None of this exclamation point would be possible without our team. I talked about our growth this last year and how much things have changed for the hub. You know, we literally went from what did we end the year last year with five people, maybe to 15 people. Like, that's just like a crazy year of. We all were so maxed out and overwhelmed, and we had all these projects we wanted to do, but we couldn't keep up with them. And so we started to hire. And I'm so amazed. People ask us all the time, how did you find your team? How did you find this team member, that team member, your team in general? Because we love each other that much. And I will only tell you that God picked them up and plucked them and put them into our life because they all came in the most amazing, unique ways. And these are 15 humans that I consider to be family, who I love dearly. And what's amazing about that is our whole team works remotely. Like, I work at home, everyone else works at home, so we seldom get to see each other. So this year, for the very first time, we had a retreat and everyone flew to Minneapolis. Now, granted, there's several that live in Wisconsin, which makes it nice, but we all went to Minneapolis, and it was November, so it was cold. We went and threw axes and did a team retreat. We did team building. We did goal setting. We reviewed our mission and our vision. And, you know, why do we do what we do and how can we do it better? And what would best serve our clients? What do we want to work on in 2020? All the things. Plus drank crown and wine. Crown and wine. Played silly games and had a ton of fun. And gosh, you guys, you can have a job and you can work hard because you have to work hard. But it's different when you work hard. Because you want to work hard. Does that make sense? Our team is so connected to the mission and to every single one of you that they serve. Because just by watching, they see the impact in your lives every single day. They see when your business changes, your life change, your family's life changes, your team's life changes. And they have so much appreciation for you and for one another. I tell you what, we are one eclectic bunch of people. We are team rodeo versus Team Non rodeo. Don't know anything about rodeo, which we think is hilarious. So we all go back and forth and tease each other about this, but we all have such different backgrounds and different experiences, but we literally would bend over backwards for one another. And our culture and our relationships are our top priority on the team. Like, if someone comes in, that just isn't a good mesh for our team. Just doesn't, you know, gel well or get along well with one of our team members. It's just not going to be a good fit. Right. Because how we interact with one another, I think is a direct impact on how we're going to interact and serve every single one of you. So to all of our team, if any of you are listening, which I'm not sure you are, I love you guys and I am so grateful for you. All right, guys, last piece of wisdom I want to share with you today is just about gratitude in general. And I realize this is like the marathon of all marathons and podcasts, so, you know, thanks for bearing with me. But I want to talk to you about four ways to harness more gratitude in your own life. Because I feel like this is something that I don't think I grew up with on purpose. Like, it wasn't a lesson, so to speak, that was taught to me, but something that I was thrown into or immersed with or, I don't know, somehow came to realize. But I want to share with you four specific ways you can harness it in your own life. For me, I think gratitude and the practice of gratitude again started before I really realized it. During the time when I was going through chemo. During that time, I was so focused on what I was working toward in my life. I was going to school and I had a job and I was doing this rodeo queen thing, right? And I wanted to be Miss Rodeo America. I had all these things that I was so focused on and every single day, even in the midst of chemo, and it wasn't fun. Like, I'll tell you, it wasn't fun. It was rough. But because I was so focused on being Grateful for the things I was working on. It was like, it kind of made it a blur. And it gave me a diversion, right? It got me out of what could have been a deep, dark hole for me. And what's funny about that, and, you know, even watching my own dad go through chemo. So many people, when you see someone who is sick or been through a tragedy, our gut, like, knee jerk reaction is to show them pity. Like, oh, I'm so sorry. And, you know, when you say, oh, I'm so sorry, like, think about those words and how they feel coming out of your mouth. They're kind of like, you know, like Debbie Downer on Saturday Night Live, like, and it's not positive. So during that time, for me, man, I was only interested in hearing the positive. Like, yeah, great, you know, thank you for the words. I appreciate it. But, oh, tell me about your life, like, what's good in your life? And I'd always try to spin it back to positive because I was so focused on what I was working on and what I was working toward and so focused on not letting the negative get to me at that time. And again, nobody like, taught me that, like, for whatever reason, that became instinct for me, kind of like fight or flight, I guess, at that point. And so that I feel like, is what's really propelled my business life and this life to move forward in the same direction. So the point is, here's four ways you can harness that same power in your own life. To be a shield for negativity and to absorb so much more gratitude. Number one is have a daily reminder of gratitude, future gratitude, and current gratitude. So current gratitude is, I'm so happy to be healthy and happy. My kids are healthy. Thank you for a great marriage. All these present things. Future tense is what are the goals and vision that I have set for myself in my business, and how can I be present for them now and act as if I am in them now? Thank you for allowing me to meet and exceed my goals. Or I'm so happy to donate $10,000 to charity annually. Whatever it is, show gratitude for not only where you are, but where you are going. Number two, physically. Physically show gratitude. So not just by writing it down or thinking about it or meditating on it or saying a prayer, but physically. So, for example, in 2020, my goal is there's 365 days in the year, 365 people, I want to reach out to one person every single day and show them real gratitude, whether it's a call, an email, a Text, a written card, sending them something in the mail, a Starbucks card, or doing a random act of kindness. There is something different about physically taking an action versus just thinking a thought. So pay it forward so that so many other people will do it too. Third tip is rethink your daily conversations and who you're having them with. Brenda Burchard once said that you have three types of friends. There's old friends, maintenance friends, which that could also be family friends, growth friends. Surround yourself with growth friends who know who you are, but more importantly, who you are striving to be. Because those are the friends that are going to support you and help get you there. Guys, I don't know about you, but if you've ever been to a family get together that feels like a bash fest for other relatives or people in town, or like small town drama, you don't need that garbage in your life, right? So at some point you've got to recognize, like, man, where is the positivity and where's the negativity coming from? And surround yourself with the people you want to be. You are who you surround yourself with. So if you've ever heard the analogy about the crabs, when the crabs are in the net, right, like off the boat, they pull all the crabs up in the net. If a crab tries to crawl up and out of the net, the other crabs will latch onto it and pull it back down in the net. They won't let a single crab escape. They will keep each other contained in the net on purpose. Humans can be like crabs. So make sure you're not surrounding yourself with any. Make sure you find someone who wants to see you fly the coop, right? They want to see you leave the nest and spread your wings and fly. And not the crabs that continue to try to pull you down in the net. All right, fourth and final thing, last thing, is find yourself some triggers that help you to recognize your gratitude. What do I mean by triggers? There's a few things in my life where I know I've had like, turning points or like memorable things have happened that help remind me to be grateful. For example, I remember what it was like to have like $3 in my pocket in college. I only had enough money to buy a can of tuna and some crackers, saltine crackers, right? Because they were on sale for 99 cents and I would take it to my dorm room and that's what I would eat for dinner for like, you know, a lunch and a dinner out of one can of tuna. I was broke. I was dead broke. I remember times in our marriage similarly where we were dead broke. And at those times, you guys, I love Target. It's probably one of my favorite stores on earth, admittedly. And I remember having to go to Target for different things and walking around feeling like, oh my gosh, like, if I could just splurge at Target, how amazing would that be? And just having that desire, like, I just want to buy myself something pretty at Target, like some stationery or, you know, like this cactus pen that I didn't even know that I needed out of the dollar section. So now today, when I go to Target and I can buy those things, you know how much that blows my mind. Oh, my gosh. I will never forget to be thankful when I'm in Target. Walking into Target 100% is a trigger for me. Walking into Starbucks 100% is a trigger for me. Our horse trailer is a trigger for me. I'm so grateful for our horse trailer. Simple, random thing. I know how long I longed to have a horse trailer with living quarters in it and could never afford one. And finally, when we bought one for our family and we literally use it every single weekend all summer long, and it is such a source of joy. I will forever be grateful for that and the smell of it. So there's all these different things, and I know that you have them in your life, too, but they only happen when we train our brains to slow down and think about them and digest them. So every time you cross an item off your to do list, accomplish a project, get to purchase something, get to hear someone tell you thank you and show gratitude to you, slow down. And don't forget to soak in gratitude. Soak it in when people share it with you. I don't know if you're the kind of person that hates when people give you compliments and you're like, oh, thank you, but my thighs really are big, right? You all know those people. Be the person that says, thank you so much, that means so much to me, and soak it in. Because when you do, it becomes a trigger for you. And you will never forget the way that that made you feel. And that's only going to allow you to share it with more people. Guys, if you look for the good in life, you will find it. But beware, because whatever else you look for in life, you're going to find that, too. I know that every single one of us has an opportunity to be grateful each and every day. And personally, I am so grateful you're here. I had no idea long ago I had hopes and I had dreams that this business in this community could take off and to be something. But I had no idea it could be this amazing. And when I say amazing, it's not because of any accomplishment, any project, any task. It's only amazing because of the people that I get to share it with and because of the movement that you guys have created. Truly like living in gratitude and living in community over competition. That is something that is so irreplaceable that I could have never dreamt would have been created in the way that it did. But you guys made that possible. So thank you. I am eternally grateful for you. Thank you for changing my life, my kids lives, my husband's life, our future. Thank you for making this possible for so many other boutique owners who come along beside you and before you and who will continue to come after you. You guys, I thank you so much from the bottom of my heart and I wish you the most amazing 2020. That was a marathon of an episode, but oh, it's so good. I'm so glad that all of you participated. Thank you for sending in your messages and showing your gratitude to one another. Man, it means so much to actually verbalize what someone else has done for you in your life. So again, thank you for everything you guys have done for me, for our team, for our mission at the Hub, and for one another. A few quick updates, you guys. Merry Christmas last week and Happy New Year. You know we are ready this week actually starting tomorrow to kick off the best year yet challenge. So this is our way each and every year to start the year off strong with basically our own mini business course over a five week period. So each and every week you will see Sarah Burks or my or our team going live in our group. We've got downloads, we've got videos, we've got action plans and accountability threads so that you can participate with us live every single week for five weeks to show up and start your year off right now. We've done this best year yet challenge for the past, I think three or four years and those past trainings are all inside of our training library at the Hub as well. If you are looking for something to do to spruce up your business, honestly, take those challenges anytime throughout the year. They're amazing, super powerful and this year is going to be one of our best yet. We're going to dive into five different aspects of your business and talk about how to maximize them in 2020. So we're not only starting a new year, but we are starting a new decade and we're going to do it together. So get ready. The Best year Yet challenge coming to you. Watch your emails. Watch your messages inside of our membership at the Boutique Hub. Hey guys, thank you so much for listening to this episode. We hope that you loved it. Don't forget to hit subscribe and leave a rating and review down below for a chance to be one of our featured listeners each and every week. For more information on our spirit of community over competition and how to access complete show notes and bonus download downloads from our guests, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week.