#303: How to Simultaneously Grow Your Boutique & Personal Brand

Hey, guys, it's time for episode number 303 with Mallory Fitzsimmons, the founder of Style youe Senses and the boutique shop Style youe Senses. 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 strats that actually make it happen. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub, and I can't wait to chat. This might be one of my favorite interviews yet, you guys. Mallory Fitzsimmons is not only a life and style blogger from Dallas, Texas, who talks all about affordable style and home decor and mommin, all the things mom and. But she's also turned her influencer business into a boutique business that's been crazy successful in just a year's time. She scaled an incredible business and today on the podcast, she breaks down exactly how she did it. You guys know I'm a bit of a freak when it comes to the data and the numbers and the reporting. And there was a couple times where I swear Mallory could have just dropped the mic inside of this interview because she broke down. Exactly what is her and her team looking at each week and to make decisions on in terms of what they're going to run the next week? Pretty simple stuff, but very impactful when you listen. I know you're going to love meeting Mallory and her perspective on both influencing and blogging as it relates to the boutique world, but also how she scaled her boutique business so fast. Get ready to meet Mallory Fitzsimmons, the founder of Style youe Senses on Instagram and shop Style youe Senses, the Boutique. Hey, guys. Welcome back to the podcast. This week. I'm so excited, Mallory, to get to talk to you and hear all about the insight you're going to share with us that I think so many people are going to relate to because they've had a lot of the questions roaming around. I know I see them inside of the Hub on a daily basis that you are going to answer very specifically. So, Mallory Fitzsimmons, let's do like a quick lightning round before we get into the nitty gritty details. Sound good?

Sounds great.

All right, so from the top years.

In business, we turn two next week.

Perfect. Your location and your store type.

We are in Dallas, Texas, actually a suburb. Our warehouse is in Carrollton, Texas. I live in Plano and We are online only.

Perfect. Number of employees?

10.

Awesome platform that you sell on the most.

We sell the most on comments sold primarily through our app. But we are also on Shopify and we are trying to grow that this year as a major focus.

Perfect. And your best traffic source. Where do the people come from?

Best traffic source. So I guess we'll get into this, but I transitioned my full time blog into this shop so I walked in with a very engaged audience. So I did walk in with a traffic source. So I guess those Instagram followers have kind of transitioned into our Facebook group and our Facebook group to our app. So really we've just funneled them. So I would say our app is our highest converting traffic source.

I love that. But it came from a built in relationship that you had with so many of your customers. And I want to talk more about that right now because I think as you mentioned to me before we started recording today, you know, everyone's journey to starting a boutique is so different. Some people come into this business because they were a teacher or a nurse or they had some nine to five that they wanted to walk away from for some more flexibility. Others inherently loved fashion in this industry and others like you had already built a brand and wanted to transaction transition it into another, you know, revenue source. So give me some behind the scenes of what was it like for you to start the boutique and, and start first as an influencer, I guess, and where that led you to up until this point today?

Absolutely. So I've always been deep rooted in fashion, knew I wanted to own a boutique, but kind of let that dream die after I did pursue it actively and tried to buy out a boutique right out of college, it didn't work. I transitioned into corporate retail for JCPenney and had these massive buying budgets that I was able to really like learn analytics. But still like, you know what that dream, I just kind of just put it on the back burner and then randomly picked up a camera and learned photography. And then we moved across the country from Dallas to North Carolina and I randomly started a blog because I wanted my family to kind of follow along with our journey. I was pregnant with our first baby and it was right when like Pinterest was getting ramped up and I decorated her nursery and I put it on Pinterest and it went completely viral. So all of a sudden I was here with this blog that I had no idea what to do with, but it was fun and creative and I had a new baby at home and I was new to staying at home. So I pursued it. And shortly after that I realized you could monetize it. So I was all in. And it started out as something I would do at nap times and then all of a sudden I was waking up at 4am to work on it and staying up till midnight working on it. And then my husband and I were like, you know, listen, we can make this a full time thing. So a year later I worked full time on the blog at random hours. But again, I was all in for the hustle. I started posting more about fashion, which was always like my original goal, original love, to make these women, excuse me, that I found that I was really connecting with and I could parlay my confidence to them through the right pieces of clothing. And I absolutely loved the influencing sphere. I'm what I call an OG influencer. So I started doing it in 2012 and before there were affiliates or before there were massive partnerships or anything like that. And I really grew up in influencing. Had our second baby, it was going really well. Influencing. I was able to influence through pregnancy and grow the business. And in the meantime we prayed so hard about a return to Texas just so we could raise our kids closer to our families. And about six months after we got here, blogging was still going lovely. But I just forecasting the industry and just like my guttural feeling was that, listen, this is a wave I'm riding and this income is not something I see as being sustainable long term. And I've always had that entrepreneurial, you know, I guess premonition. So I'm like, listen, I know I can sell these items. I've proven that with these partnerships and my affiliate revenue. And I'm like, I would love to somehow take it in house and about. Well, I guess kind of at the same time I was having these thoughts. I hired an assistant and we had worked together at this first boutique that I started working at. And I knew we jived and she was just helping me with the blog and I laid it on her one day and I'm like, listen, will you help me open this boutique? We're going to do it out of my home, office, my bedroom closet, and all we have to do is sell 100 orders a week to like make this a thing. I'm like, I know it sounds crazy. And she immediately was like, yes, absolutely, let's do it. And I think the first day we sold a hundred orders and we were just like, what is happening? And then it's been crazy ever since. So I guess that's my journey. The Lord Took me all kinds of different ways and here I am with my original goal and he kind of just laid everything out how I needed to learn it. I already knew photography, I knew connection, I knew, you know, social marketing, I guess. So it's, it's so cool to see the full circle.

Isn't that funny how we don't know why we're doing the things we're doing at the time? Right. We can only see the next step in front of us. But when we have the opportunity to see it all laid together, just like how beautiful that work is.

True, truly, it's it. I still can't believe it. I pinch myself every day just looking at how the path has winded so much and seeing where we are now.

So. Yeah, well, so take me back because I think people are going to have a lot of questions like, okay, nitty gritty of how to work with influencers and all of that. But to answer those questions, let's first go here. Put me in your mindset as an influencer. Before you knew anything about a boutique, you were focusing on building business. So where did that lead you? Like, where were you looking for revenue? What did you look like in partners? What was the content important to you? And when you did start to collaborate, you know, what were you looking for that really fit your audience that you built up until that point?

Totally, yeah. And I do, I'll start you off kind of at the beginning of where the industry started and where I feel like it's transitioned. And I think people are looking for a few different things. So originally, right when Reward Style launched, it was a cookie based revenue structure. So, you know, we were using like to know it. We were using our blog links from Reward Style to these different, you know, big box stores. And I was strictly looking for items that I knew were high conversion. So I was looking on Nordstrom every single day, high converting items, I would link that item. The cookie window was 30 days. So I knew if I linked an item that she would swipe up on, I had a 30 day payment window. So anything she bought within 30 days, I was getting a commission on the full, the full basket. Right. So I was strictly looking for high converting or high interest products because I was, I would say 80% of my revenue was from just affiliate linking. And that was a full time thing. You know, I was posting every single day on my blog, which I did maintain the entirety of my blogging career. My blog was my baby. I always knew that I owned the blog. And then Instagram and Facebook were just Kind of like icing on the cake. I would always drive traffic from those sources to the blog and it still lives on, you know, so I'm still collecting revenue from the blog just because of the way you built it. So I would say 80% of the revenue was from affiliate linking and then 20% was from flat fee partnerships. So I had consistent contracts with Nordstrom, Amazon, Bloomingdale, Sephora, just, you know, the, the gamut of the spectrum. Whereas I would take things that fit my audience and I knew exactly what fit them, what made them tick and what they would be excited to see and what I could create organic content around. There are so many, so many different levels of partnerships that, you know, you can take the money but it is just not an organic fit. And I feel like you lose trust. So I'm so glad I stuck with the organic piece of it because, I mean, I'm still able to maintain those people that I captured eight years ago when the, you know, nursery went viral. They, they are literally still with me and still shopping now at our boutique. And then, so I think probably about two, three years ago, Apple made a huge update in June of, I think it was 2018, where cookies just weren't tracked like they used to be. So they broke the link a lot quicker. The swipe up really wasn't working and I saw my affiliate revenue drop like you wouldn't believe. So a lot of influencers really had to scramble how they were structuring their businesses and a lot of that moved into flat fee partnerships. So this is where I kind of feel like the industry went a little rogue and where I couldn't see it sustaining is that then it was a full circle shift and 90% of the revenue was coming from large flat fee partnerships. But I had no way to track them and there was not because the cookies weren't valid anymore. You know, the cookie window went from 30 days to maybe 24 hours. We weren't getting paid on a lot of sales and I was feeling like, oh my gosh, am I even selling anything? When in fact I was selling more than ever. But because of the way these things were tracked, you just never knew. And to me, I need transparency, I need numbers to work off of. And that's when I really said I need to take some of this in house and know how much I sell and be able to build a true business, a long term, sustainable business off of it. So I do feel like the industry is still there where a lot of these people are wanting more of a flat fee partnership. Basis without a lot of numbers or data to support the ask. So that's where I've kind of like come to a crossroads because now I see it from both sides. But in order to sustain their business and listen, a lot of these women have insane influence, so they do warrant the partnership, but at the same time there's not a ton of data to back it up because of the way Apple tracks cookies. Now does that make sense?

Yeah, that makes sense. And I'm sure at the same time you are probably battling just how algorithms have changed and visibility on Facebook, Instagram, whatever platform it is. You may have millions of followers, but really are you drawing daily engagement and eyeballs and click throughs with the followers that you had. So I'm sure measurements on all, you know, spectrums that you covered kind of went rogue together.

They totally did. And I think it's obviously only going to continue to be that way with these new updates. And I am a huge data geek. I need to see the full gamut of analytics because that's how I kind of springboard. So when that kind of started tanking, I really lost a lot of motivation for it. Right when you see the click throughs and the engagement and the numbers, like I'm so fueled by that. But then when you lose the transparency, it really started to be a bummer.

Tell me about as we get into how our boutiques gonna work with influencers today, something that I think is so I don't know if transitionable is the word, but something you did that every boutique owner has to do today is you made the comment that you knew what made your audience tell tick. How do you own or listening today could learn from that and understand how to build the relationship that you built with your audience, just like they want to build it with their boutique audience.

So this is to. I want to answer this twofold for you. The first thing is, is truly looking at your data. If you're trying to build that engagement with someone, look at what makes them tick. Look at your top posts, look at your most engaged items. You know, what colors make them tick? What we're always analyzing our Instagram feed, like what pos make them tick? How, how do they respond to how the item is shown? Is this certain post selling the item or is it not doing it any justice? I think you can use all those backend tools to really form your voice to them and how you lay things out to them. Our girls love community. They love to laugh. Like we kind of come in and with like a what are we going to talk about today, whether it's, I mean we talk about anything and we just form that real sense of community where nothing's off limits and we always bring them like a happy vibe. I never lay out anything weighty on them. So they want to come back. They want to know that every day during our live sale they can probably laugh or they can probably see their friend Shauna from Connecticut or they just, I feel like the sense of community is so important, if you're not familiar fostering that they don't have a lot of reasons to come back because they can get, you know, an intro top anywhere or they can get free shipping X, Y and Z, but they can never get you anywhere but your own business. So I've always used myself and my team as our superpower. And to me I think that's really, really a powerful tool and pretty much your most powerful one.

Yeah. A couple things come to mind is that your, that first is what tools are you using? Are there other apps or where are you generating most of your data besides natively inside of Instagram?

So I'll share with you our data reporting. Every week we sit down for a Monday meeting. Our operations manager pulls this week, last week, this year, last year for comment, sold, sales aov, Shopify, sales aov, where we are to plan how many units we sold. I mean we have full spreadsheets that she pulls and then our social media manager pulls all of Instagram Analytics, Google Analytics, Facebook Analytics, TikTok and Pinterest and we share that and then we share the nitty gritty of the content. What were our top five, what were our bottom five? And are there any trends? What reels did the best, what stories did the best and where, where were our spikes in story views? Was it when I personally got on there or was it when we shared something funny? We really look at analytics to kind of curate our next week's feed. So I think yeah, the full gamut is really important. Like how, how those analytics also played into your high level analytics of sales, which is really what you want at the end of the day.

Yeah. Oh, you are speaking my love language right now. I'm nerding out like. Yes, so you mentioned it's your operations manager. So that leads me to wonder, okay, tell me about the other positions on your team and what role they play in that because you as the CEO don't have time to manage this. So.

Right. And I. Yes. And that is my big goal this year, to decentralize. You know, I don't want to be the best at everything. I don't want to have my hands in everything. And we really started off, we had a huge postmortem in 2020. If you have not taken a full day and sat down with your team and looked at your best and worst of the last year, and I'll, I'll show you a picture of our wall calendar. We have each month laid out. We've given ourselves goals for each month, what we need to land all the things. So we have given ourselves so much accountability. So the team structure in the front of the house is me. My main goals are to kind of high level oversee. I will always be in charge of buying. I hop in on the live sales. I do graphics because I'm like really loving it lately. So until I don't, I'll keep them. And then I do shoot some of the content. As far as, like, for our lifestyle and for our wall drops, I do think it's important to keep my face within the mix for the time being at least. And then Ellen is our operations manager. She's the one I told you about who really started this from the ground up with me. She handles all the day to day operations, product entry and customer service. She's incredible. I have no idea how she does everything that she does, but she really has a grip on the business like I could have never dreamed or asked for out of anyone else. I value her so, so much. And then Celeste is our inventory manager and she has come in with just running. She has full inventory spreadsheets of everything that we are tracking on order, what that rolls up to by week, by month, by year, where we are on, you know, how many styles we have on order versus how many we need for the quarter and then sorted out by category. And then she also works, you know, with our vendors to follow up on all those things and with our consolidator to kind of make sure those pallets are steadily arriving to hit our goals. And then Ashlyn is our social media manager. She's been with us about eight months and she is really taking it and running. She's 26, so we call her like the baby of the shop. So she's really in tune with all those things and really pushes me out of my comfort zone to do all the fun stuff on TikTok and do all the reels and stuff. But she's really. I'm still kind of transitioning that. You know, I had a firm grip on Instagram especially and Facebook, and I'm slowly kind of letting her take all that over and it feels amazing to see her flourish. And then Bethany's our fit model. She's just started with us, and then she takes on all of the product, editing, editing of the photos, resizing our photos, and then uploading into Shopify with alt text and descriptions and all that. And she's half in house and then half remote, and then the rest of the girls are in the back of the house. So that's our structure.

I love that everyone is, like, furiously going to be writing notes like, what did you say? Rewind. That's so good. You still definitely speak in my love language. So let's go to this next piece. So we've talked about your mindset as an influencer. We've talked about your business model and really how you're scaling right now. Now, do you. This is like the golden question. Do you still work with influencers now that you have a boutique, or what is that relationship like?

I don't. We don't have an influencer structure. I did get on reward style and we sent out, you know, a couple of influencer boxes and I just looked at the numbers, and while I think it's great for or was great for brand awareness, I didn't see a ton of return. Now, I will tell everyone listening I have not put a ton of effort into it. It is still on our docket for 2021. We just started marketing in general. So do I think influencing is dead? Absolutely not. I still think there are key ways to work with influencers and that they are amazing sources of traffic and conversion. But my biggest piece of advice, and this is what I try to follow myself, is to look at your feed or. And who you follow. Who do you think is your best girlfriend, even though you never met her? Who do you buy from? And who do you and your girlfriends at dinner find yourself talking about, hey, did you see who XYZ posted? And if they say yes, hey, that's really good. Like, she may actually have a grip on your target market. So don't look at it based on numbers, because let me tell you, there are girls with under 100,000 followers raking in seven figures because their conversion is so strong. So don't look at it from a numbers perspective. Look at it from a guttural perspective of who do you feel the most connected to? Because they might not have the biggest following, but they have a core engaged audience that's buying stuff that you'll never see unless you give them a shot. So I think the micro influencer is huge.

Yeah. I love that. I totally agree with that. It has to really fit who your market is and really who do you want to hang out with at the end of the day? Makes total sense. So I'm curious because if you are not currently working with influencers, and I know it's something you have to research and take time and you really have to build it into your structure so it feels organic and not just you're throwing your clothes on someone, but if you're thinking about other boutiques that are listening, that are curious and they want to go this route, what do you think the best forms of collaboration feel like today?

Good. I'm glad you asked this question. So I think, I think you should always have an affiliate structure because here's how I looked at it. From being a full time influencer, if someone offered to send me free clothes once you get to a certain level. Now listen, starting out, I would have probably taken the shirt off your back and been so happy with it. But like once you are full time and that influencer is paying for childcare and paying to host their website and all these things, it's a legitimate business that she has hard costs for, so she needs to make revenue. So at a certain level, if someone said, hey, can I send you some free T shirts to post about, well, no, because honestly I looked at that like work on my desk that I was never going to get paid to complete. Right. So I would always politely decline, especially if they didn't have an affiliate structure. But if there was this cute boutique who offered me, hey, we have a great affiliate structure in place. I offer a 10% commission with a 30 day cookie window and I'm happy to track them either on my end through Shopify or you can use reward style, whichever is easiest for you, then I would be like, okay, you have really cute stuff. My audience would really like it and appreciate the diversification from just like a Nordstrom, Amazon, Sephora, consistent reel. And I'm still able to earn money for posting it because that influencer has really worked to build her platform and the engagement and she knows her worth and she absolutely should know her worth because if she doesn't, she's probably not all that legit. So it's okay for her to ask for these certain things. And listen, if she converts, then she's worth the flat fee that she'll probably propose to you. And I think that's a great way to build the beginning of a relationship. But if someone just comes back at you with a 5 or $10,000 flat fee I just don't see now some girls definitely can, but overall the ROI on that is nearly not achievable.

Yeah, I want to go deeper into that because I think that's a big question that I feel like boutique owners have looming. You know, does it mean I, I, this influencer is using X, Y and Z products, man, should I order deeper because now they're going to sell out because no one wore them or do you think it's better that we look at it as this is just an introduction. This is like one friend saying, hey, you should meet my other friend. Introduction's been made. You may gain some new eyeballs. But you boutique owner, it's your job to convert the eyeballs into true followers, build trust, and then the sales will come later. How do you look at setting the expectations so you're both on the same page with the hard and the soft roi?

I think it's got to be a mix of both. I think if I just as a follower saw one try on from one random boutique, I'm probably not even likely to follow. But if my girlfriend comes back and be like, hey, like three different times, I continue to get like cute stuff from here. Oh, I may follow over and if she has a coupon code for me, oh, I'm even more likely to go over. So I think it's the boutique owner has to set the expectation that the first and second time that they post your ROI is probably going to be pretty low because you never know who Instagram is showing your stories to that day. You never know what the algorithm is going to be like that day. And I think just like anything, just like you can't expect to throw money at Facebook advertising and you get a 10 times ROI the first week, it's kind of the same way. So I think offering them and expecting the investment to be a consist more on more of a consistent basis. Low at first, of course. And then once you start seeing the roi, know where to better invest your money. And if by the end of three or four trials she's still not converting, it's probably time to move on.

Yeah, I like that. How do you. I know you had mentioned using reward style earlier. I know there's always some questions that linger about exact apps that you're using, whether that's the Shopify app you're using to track, you know, conversions and leads, affiliate revenue, or walk through the back end of getting on reward style. Because again, I feel like I see boutique owners asking like, hey, I have to have like it's not shareasale but like some other type of affiliate tool, it isale.

So you have to sign up with shareasale first, pay their onboarding fee and then then you're able to be cataloged through reward style. It's still an application process and another fee. So I would say you're looking at an investment of about $2,500 off the bat to be connected. But when you think about what that opens up, you know the like to know it app is pretty powerful. So you know all those girls are going to be able to include your links in their collages and or their mirror selfies or whatever that may be. And you know, direct swipe ups are just great for that. And a lot of influencers find that their catalogs are easily sorted and organized in the reward style app. It's a an amazing app for ease of use on the influencer side. So being with reward style is really about ease of use for the influencer. I personally now the cookie window, the tracking on reward style I have always said to me has never been transparent enough. So there's that. I also use affiliate ly if the influencer is not on reward style or chooses not to be on reward style. So affiliately is connected through Shopify. I feel like it's great. You can set your own parameters, your own cookie window and commission amount and all that stuff and it does track more easily. And then I also feel like a coupon code is a great way to really track the true conversions and see what makes her customer tick and what you should use maybe in your email flows, you know, at the end of the flow to end up converting again and again for that audience.

I love that. Tell me more about email flows that you do have set up both on the influencing side of your business, but on the boutique side of your business as well. Because I think automation, if you don't have email flows and automation, I mean this is the list you own. I cannot preach that enough how important it is. But how do you save time and build conversion?

Well, so that's a huge goal of ours is to really put more of our business into what I call like an Autopilot mode for 2021. So like we grinded so hard in 2020 and just because we had no idea what the next day would bring. But through the bougie cub I found Jane Casper and she set up all of my klaviyo email flows and all my postscripts and I cannot even tell you what a big deal that's made for us, I mean just this found revenue that we have found is, is a lifesaver and on a bad day it can totally take you out of the gutter. So we have. I think I would be lying if I even told you how many flows that we have on for each. But she set them up so seamlessly and they work on autopilot, which is so cool. Crazy just to have all those, you know, your customers study in a funnel that fits them and knowing that you have so many conversion opportunities that are just kind of set on auto. And then it's been really fun to learn post scripts as well. We just instituted text marketing and seeing the conversion there is crazy. So I'm so thankful for all those flows and, and just more autopilot mode so that you're not having to hop on live sale every day so you don't burn yourself out and feel like you're boring every day that you know your business does run on its own. And I think that was a big learning curve this past year for us.

Man, that's so true. You've got to be able to make money while you sleep, right? Again, yes.

Or vacation girl, take me to a beach.

I'm with you. All right, well, last question. I think about how much you've grown in the last two years, right? This business is capping difficulted for you in a pretty short period of time. Talk to me about what helped you scale the most. I mean, you mentioned some pretty in depth reporting and analytics that I think a lot of people miss along the way. How did you get into the systems and the processes and the strategies that helped you scale the most? If there was like two or three things you think are most important to share, what would they be?

Yes. So don't be afraid of the numbers and know your strengths and weaknesses. When it comes to the numbers, I can take a big old skill seven figure goal and break it down by month, by week, by day, no problem. I can assign how many units I need to reach that goal. What my AOV is how much I need to buy in what category? No problem, that's my gift. But when it comes to accounting, no thank you. So I hire out accounting. She's on retainer and we work so seamlessly together where I break down the big goals, she makes sure that, you know, my profit and loss statement lines up and looks great and it's a perfect marriage. So I would just say really know where your strengths and weaknesses are and use them to the best of your ability and hire out for your Weaknesses sooner than later, because the more you let those weaknesses fester, the more balls that get dropped and you're not growing to your fullest capabilities. Gosh, what else would I say? I would say, just like, I have learned to keep your head to the ground, stay in your lane, and grow at your pace. And, you know, never be complacent, but be so content and grateful with your growth. It may not be someone else's growth. It never will be. I always say if, like, we don't still have opportunity or weaknesses within our business, like, we're pretty boring and we're not going to grow very much longer. So I triumph when we find, like, areas of improvement. Like, we almost high five, and we're like, okay, great. Everything's figureoutable. Like, how can we improve here and there and everywhere? And I think that mindset. Mindset being the leader, number one, having that mindset, it also trickles down, and everyone feels empowered to help you grow. So we've tackled quite a few things in a short period of time. I mean, I didn't even. I knew nothing. I didn't know how to ship. I started the business. I didn't have a label printer. I had. It didn't even cross my mind that we had to ship this stuff out. I am not kidding you. I was like, okay, well, how do we ship it now? And so we had to figure that out. But everything is figureoutable, and you can't wait on someone else to tell you how to figure it out. You are capable, you are smart, and you have Google. That's what I always say. You've got this girl, so don't let the problems fester. Figure them out sooner rather than later and tackle them with a can do mindset. And you literally can do anything you want to do.

Oh, my gosh, I love that. I love that advice. And you know what? I get this question all the time of, what's the secret? You know, Mallory? What's the big secret? But really, what you just said, that's the secret. It's everything at your fingertips, but you just gotta go get it. Gotta spend more time doing than you spend time worrying. And you.

That is so true.

Yes. Yes.

And I. I was. I was telling my husband the other day, I was like, there does come a time, like, it is normal to wake up every single day at the beginning of your business and be like, it's over. Like, no one's gonna buy from me today. No one. I. I don't know how I got lucky so far, but like, it's done. But, like, you do. And I just, as a point of encouragement, you do get to the point where you wake up and your feet hit the ground and you're like, I got this. Like, I know how to run a business. I know what it takes to sell. I know what it takes to grow. And like, with that, I call it, like, entrepreneurial confidence. You can literally do whatever you want. And that does come. So if you're in a place of worry, like, you will get there, which it's the most freeing feeling.

I love that. So true. And I think if there's someone listening that's like, dude, I can't even sell $100 today. You know, I'm at that beginning stage of my business, man. If I could sum up, you know, one of the biggest lessons I feel like I learned from you today, it's that it's okay to take a step back from your business and just go back to what is most important. What is the queen bee role of your business? And that's building a relationship with your customer. And like you said, knowing what makes makes them tick. Stop posting your product today and just go share a funny. You know, go make a real. Make a TikTok, make them laugh, build a relationship, build trust, and then come back to sharing product and building that brand. I mean, because that's what I feel like has really made you successful from the start. And then all the business acumen, that all comes later.

Bingo. Because, listen, you could be sharing a funny, and inadvertently, she's going to also want to know where your shirts from, because she's your friend, right? So don't be afraid to not always be so salesy because, you know, I share my skincare routine and they're like, oh, my gosh, those shoes on your feet. I'm like, we're talking about toner right now. But they always inadvertently want the other thing. So don't be afraid to not sell the shirt that you thought you were going to sell. Just put yourself out there and she's going to connect with you and want your confidence in sharing that. And a lot of times that comes through the clothes you're wearing, so she'll want to buy it.

So, so good. Okay, quick lightning round as we wrap up. Okay. Favorite book?

Oh, God, I don't read. Don't Hate Me.

Is it all podcast, YouTube channel? Like, where else do you get your inspiration?

Oh, my gosh. If you want to know the truth, my inspiration, truly every morning comes from, like, jamming worship music. Like, it grounds Me. It centers me. I just. I. That's how I start every day. And, like, you know, in prayer, through worship music. And I do love the Boutique podcast. I told Ashley I found the Boutique of in general through the podcast probably about eight months into running the business.

I love that. You know what? I have so many people that say, like, that I run into at Market, for example, and they're like, I listen to the podcast, and then I'm like, but are you a hub member yet? And they're like, no. No. Why? But I'm not yet. So what made you join the hub? And, like, were you shocked once you joined?

Okay, so I had found you on the podcast. I didn't even know, honestly, that there was a hub, even after listening to podcast comments. Old sent me a planner last year, and I'm like, oh, dang, this girl, like, knows her stuff. So I'm like, well, I'm joining. And we really have. I feel like it's a wealth of knowledge. I've met some amazing women in there who I'm, like, so happy to call my friends now we have, you know, consistent chats going on and, like, ideas always bouncing between us. So what you're doing is insane, and I'm just so, so thankful to be a part of it. And, like, thanks to you for, like, the continued effort.

Oh, thank you. That means a ton. And I did not know that about the planner. That's so funny to see that all come full circle.

So, yeah, it's totally working.

All right. Do you have a motto for the year?

I think it's everything is figureoutable that's stolen from somewhere. Not stolen, but I don't even remember where it's from. But we use it all the time. We're like, how can we do this? How can we do that? Everything is figureoutable. How can we get there?

It's such a good motto. It's a book. It's Marie Forleo.

Yes, it is. That's it.

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh. I've clearly never read it, but I'm sure someone on our team has. But, yes, I think. Did Jen Hatmaker used that in something that I listen to? I don't know, but it's great.

Perfect. All right, last lightning round question. What is your favorite trend of the moment?

Oh, my God. Our whole spring season is so boho. Washed, pastels, neutrals. I am so here for it. The feminine details. It's probably my favorite season we have ever, ever done.

I love that. Do you? This is a personal question that I've been battling and I'm gonna go down like a quick rabbit hole hearing your excitement to tell me the answer to that question. There's a part of me that feels like sometimes in boutique land, things get very stale and stores to look like one another and sometimes the element of like true fashion and style and things that are unique and curated kind of gets lost. Where do you see that going and how do you feel like you continue to bring, like, truly trend and style and unique ways of curating products together? Where's that inspiration come from for you?

So I. I definitely struggle with this and more than I even thought I would going into the boutique world. So as of now, what I can affect right now, I never hesitate to bring trend in. I always do it. Even if I just buy less deep in it. I bring that trend in. I show her how it makes me feel and why I'm so jazzed about it. And usually it translates. Usually we sell out of trend, no problem. Because I don't want to look like everyone else. I want to be taking the risks on trend pieces because I want her to go out there in the trend clothing and her friends be like, dang, girl, where did you get that? Like, that's a new silhouette on you. You look like you feel amazing in it. And that's only going to work in my favor in the end. But I think in the industry as a whole, I don't know if I've.

Even told you this, I.

But for. But I think it is overarchingly stale and vendors carry over so many different styles from last year. I'm even seeing things from when I first started buying so two full years ago. And I think vendors need to be less afraid. And I'm always pushing. I'm like, I want muslin this year. I want ruffles here. I want maxis. I think we all need to push forward for that trend because that's how we separate ourselves from the big box stores and that's how we capture some of those lost sales that they're experiencing right now. We have to bring the trend in and it's not going to be, you know, floral moo moos for 10 more years.

To the men on all this, you know, before the pandemic hit, that last trip I took to magic, I was so excited because I really did like the Little House on the Prairie look like I was really digging this. Cool. It felt more fashiony than just another leopard striped color blocked tunic that I right 9 million times. And then, and then all of A sudden all we wore was tie dye jogger sets. Like, lord, going somewhere again in this world.

I totally agree with you. My, my pipe dream is to have like a boutique co op manufacturing facility. So I'm putting that out there in the world. If anyone wants to bite at it with me, let's do it.

I love that.

So, yeah, I totally agree with you though. And we, we can't get caught up in last year's trends as far as each piece. The sales trends will always stay and she will always be willing to spend money in the same typical months, but we're the authority on what she buys. I've been prefacing that I'm loving muslin for the spring since November, since I was in LA in November. And I'm like, I want this for the spring. And I'm going to keep prefacing that it's coming for four months to get her excited about it too.

I love that. Okay, Mallory, like you are any gal pal, so thank you so much for being on the show. Real quick, where can everyone find you? Both your influencing side of the business and your boutique?

Yeah, come follow me. It's at Style your senses for Instagram. My blog's pretty dead right now, but I'm still fairly active on Instagram. And then the boutique is shopstyle your senses.com and shop style your senses on Insta. I would love to chat with everybody.

Love it. And you're inside the hub too. If you have any questions there for link it all up in the show notes. Last quick question. And I know you've heard this question, but I mean, going back to a lot of the points that you made, I think this is pretty relevant. We're not in this business just to sell widgets, right? Just to sell off of our back. We've got a much greater purpose. So when you think about your business 20, 30 years down the road, if you have the business or you sold the business or passed it on or whatever your plans are, and you are sitting on the front porch talking to kids and grandkids and family about the life that you lived, what is the thing you want people to remember the most?

That I always use my platforms to glorify God in any way that that was possible. Whether it's through my actions or how I treated my employees or how I still managed to like, you know, be there for my kids and husband running, you know, a business like this, like always for his glory through any and everything that I can do. So I hope they, I made them feel good all you know, through that as well.

I love it. Mallory Fitzsimmons, thank you so much for being with us today.

Thank you so much Ashley. It was so great talking to you.

Hey guys, thanks so much for listening to this week's episode with Mallory. I hope you took a ton of notes because there was some gold in this episode for you. Mallory is so generous and it's such a shining light in this industry, both influencing and having a boutique. So I hope you do give her a Follow One quick thing I want to remind you of this week. If you are still struggling with ideas to post on social media and just keeping up with the rat race of all of it, make sure you check out our 2021 marketing bundle. I've got it linked for you inside of this week's show notes, but it's 365 days of social media ideas, 300 plus engagement questions, marketing ideas and event ideas for every single month of the year. Plus tracking for all of your social media. It's 75 plus pages of content ideas to help keep your social media, all of your digital marketing and your campaigns going strong. So check that out in the show notes. And guys, I can't wait to be here with you next week. We've got a big episode planned for you so come back soon. Can't wait to catch up with you guys. Thanks for listening. 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 downloads from our guests, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week. Sam.