#306: Simple Strategies for Business Success

Hey, you. It's episode number 306 with my friend, Nicole J. Palmer of Nicole J Boutique. 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. I can't wait to chat. Throughout 2020, I had the opportunity to watch so many boutiques get out of their comfort zone and try new things and build the trust and rapport of their audience in a whole new way because of how they were handling the global pandemic. And one of the boutiques that I enjoyed watching the most is a longtime Hub member and my friend, Nicole Palmer of Nicole J Boutique. Nicole had a brick and mortar storefront, and as she battled the shutdowns of the pandemic, began to build an online relationship with her customers in a brand new way, completely raw and authentic and transparent. And her customers loved how this turned out. Today on the podcast, I talked to Nicole about what it was like to start marketing in a whole new way throughout the pandemic and what success that led to her and her business. But also when she was forced to let her staff stay home during the pandemic and she had to step up and fulfill all of the roles, plus be the boss, what did she learn? How did she become more successful and streamlined and automated and review systems and processes that benefited her for the long run? You guys, Nicole is as real as they come. She is an active member of the Hub who really lives the motto of community over competition. In an example for all of us, I know you're going to love getting to meet her and you're going to love all of the insight that she has to share. This is a great episode. You guys, meet my friend, Nicole Palmer of Nicole J Boutique.

Hey, guys.

Welcome back to the show this week. I have to tell you, I think that we all play games of phone tag with people sometimes. Well, today was a game of podcast tag, and I'm so glad it came to an end. Nicole, I'm so pumped to have you on the show today.

Thanks for joining me, Ashley. Thank you so much for having me. We have definitely played phone tag, but I'm so honored to be here.

We survived 2020 together. I think we first started to schedule this the beginning of 2020, so K. Just standing back and watching you conquer. What a crazy year that was. I'm pumped to be able to tell that side of your story today.

Thank you. Yeah, it's. What a year it has been for all of us, and I'm glad to put it behind us. But, you know, it's. It was interesting. Yes, for sure.

So let's just do a quick lightning round as we get started, so everyone kind of gets a little bit of glimpse of who you are and what you do and where you come from. Tell me about your store type and location.

Okay. So we are online and we have a retail location, women's clothing boutique. And I have been in business. I opened the store in 2012.

2012. And where are you located?

We're in Delaware. Middletown, Delaware.

Perfect. And is your online or your brick and mortar Bigger?

So this past year, online for sure. With everything that happened and around Covid prior to that, it would have been the store. Perfect.

How many employees?

So right now we have myself and two others. Prior to Covid, we had about 10 employees on payroll. Perfect.

Your online side of your business, what platforms do you mainly use?

So right now we have a Shopify website, which would be our main thing, and then I show up daily on Instagram. I utilize Instagram stories all the time. And we have a Facebook group page where we do some selling there as well. Perfect.

And where does your number one source of traffic come from?

Facebook. Definitely our Facebook. We've been working on growing the business page, testing out some Facebook ads and things there. But my group page, for sure brings in the most sales traffic to the website.

Perfect. And we'll kind of dive into that. For those of you that are listening, I think that's such a big part of your story and what's working for you right now. And I want to ask you all the questions about what's working and why it's working. But just for a little bit of context, tell me a little bit about your backstory and how you got into owning the boutique in the first place.

Oh, my gosh. Okay, so where to begin? So it's funny, I feel like when I listen to these things and talk to other boutique owners, the first thing thing is like, fashion has always been my passion. Right. Well, for me, fashion kind of found me. So I was always a tomboy growing up. I actually raced motocross for several years.

So I did not know this about you.

Yes. That's awesome. I have two brothers, so I was, like, always around the guys, you know, I mean, I liked clothes and fashion, but it was never really my thing. So my grandmother started to teach me to sew. When we were at her house, she had a sewing machine, and just for fun, we would do some crafts together. Well, in 2003, my grandmother suffered from a brain aneurysm, and when she got sick, she could no longer teach me to sew. So it's something that I wanted to continue to do for her. She was a miracle. She made it through that, and it was really hard. But I took a sewing class for her at joann Fabrics. Like a local joann Fabrics. And I would make her things and bring them to her, and she was just so excited and so proud. So I really started to find a love for sewing and creating. And in high school, I actually went to a prom, and there was about five other girls wearing the same dress as me. It was like a $50 dress from Macy's. And I was mortified. You know, like, that's the worst thing ever in girl world. So I decided to start making my own dresses. So for homecoming dances and proms, I made all of my dresses. And that's kind of when fashion found me. Was in high school. I loved sewing. Like I said, I love the creative aspect. I continued to take sewing classes and decided that I wanted to study fashion design. So I moved to New York City a month after graduating high school. I graduated high school in May 2008, and I started college courses in June 2008. Dove right into it. I interned in New York City for several different companies and just really spent a lot of time getting real life experience in the fashion industry, trying to figure out what it was that I like to do. It's very competitive in New York. I thought I would be there for a lot longer than I was living in Delaware. You don't really want to stay in Delaware, but now I have a family of my own, and I love where I'm at. But I stayed in New York for a few years and interned and really just worked my butt off learning as much as I could. I started working for a buying office, and they had me going to New York Fashion Week. I would go to shows. I would write trend reports for them to send out to their clients, which were boutique owners. And I really found a new love for buying. So I love the designing aspect of it, but the buying was really intriguing to me. I got to go to markets with them and learned the whole process of how to buy for a boutique. So when my time was up in New York, I was dating somebody at the Time. And I didn't admit it at the time, but I pretty much moved home for him, back to Delaware. And at 21 years old, I found out I was pregnant with my daughter. My whole world was rocked. And I got to this point of, okay, well, either give up on this dream. You know, at this time, when I moved back, I was making custom pieces, so I was making prom dresses and things for the local girls, the local high school students, and I wasn't really making any money. I was just kind of doing what I could to make a dime here and there. And I came to a point where I was like, all right, well, gonna follow this dream or give up and get a real job, as they say. And I just remember thinking, if I don't follow my dream, I'm never going to be able to look at my daughter one day and tell her to follow hers. And it was just this overwhelming feeling of, don't give up. Make it work and figure it out. And my daughter was born on her first birthday. I launched the website for the boutique. This was in 2012, and it's been kind of crazy since then, so. So we launched the website, and I found myself as a single mama of two a few years later, trying to run the store, run the website, and I just never gave up. I just worked really hard with the website. We opened the retail location. We're now in another location. I don't know how much more you want me to talk about with that, but that's kind of the quick story of how I got started with the boutique.

I love it.

You know something?

I feel like we get asked a lot, and I know you see this too. Inside the Hub is there's always people asking the question, what's the secret? What is the thing that you did? And just hearing what you said, there is no secret.

You got that right. It's funny. Somebody just messaged me on Instagram this morning. I get this a lot, like, can I pick your brain? Can I pick your brain? How did you get started? Any advice? And my answer is always the same. I worked really hard, and there's no magic answer. Just a lot of trial and error and just going for it.

Yeah, I totally agree. I feel like even in the Hub, you know, when we tell people, like, go to the training library, find these things, you know, there's not one thing you do and then you do the next, but it's trying all the things and seeing what works and then just trying to build systems and processes around it, right?

Absolutely. I always say I Have a degree in fashion design, but I also have a degree in Google and YouTube and just figuring things out.

Take me back to the first couple years you were in business, because we do get this a lot from podcast listeners in the first, like, two years. And there. There must have been times where you were like, I don't know if I'm.

Going to make it.

What were things we were doing at that time that you feel like were the steps in the right direction that led you to the next two years?

Oh, that's a good question. I feel like that's been over the last 10 years since I've been open. You know, there's always times where it's like, oh, my goodness, what am I doing? Is this going to work? You know, So I feel like a lot of it was any time where I felt like I was getting off track or getting lost on what was ahead or what the next step was to take. It was always when I felt like I needed more, like I needed more space or I needed more inventory or I needed more customers or I needed more followers. You know, anytime I felt myself getting off track, I just told myself to connect with the customers. Connect with the customers. I always say if you have two followers, that's two people who are showing up to see you and to talk to you and hear from you. So for me, I guess it's just making sure I'm always connecting with the customers when I'm feeling a little lost or that I need more, I guess. Yeah.

Just going back, you said something before we started to record this podcast today that, as I hear you say that you kept saying to me that you're going back to the basics. Back to the basics in 2021. Do you feel like that's something that has been kind of a stay for you throughout your journey that's helped kind of keep you centered and focused on the right systems and processes.

Oh, definitely. So this past year, that was something I repeated to myself over and over again. What worked in the beginning when I was hustling hard to grow my business, and I just kept telling myself, get back to the basics. And that was showing up every day, sharing the good and the bad, keeping it super real, always, and just connecting with my customers, meeting them where they're at and being relatable. I think people just want to know that. They want to know the person behind the business, who they're buying from. So for me, in the beginning, that's everything that I did. As soon as Facebook Live rolled out, I was on Facebook Live as often as I could. And I wasn't overthinking it. I didn't have a script. I would just do that, three, two, one, sweat for a second and then just go live and start talking. I was doing the try on sessions, which I got away from for a little while. And this past year, back to the basics. Try on sessions worked in the beginning. Selfies worked in the beginning. I think we see so many different businesses doing so many different things that it's easy to lose sight of what works for us, what works for our business.

As I watched in the last year, you basically go back to the basics and just go live like you did. You shared a lot of vulnerable things, right? Like you went live not just to sell, but just to relate. Talk to me about some of the most vulnerable things you've shared on Facebook Live. If someone is not familiar with that process or that experience, if they feel like they only go live to sell.

It'S funny, I feel like most of my lives aren't selling. Most of my lives or Instagram stories are me just being me. And so we have three kids. Ellie's nine, Jace is six, and my stepson Shane is 11. Our house is crazy. And just like a lot of my customers, we've been dealing with the virtual learning. My husband is a paramedic, so he's been working through this pandemic. And I've just showed up and told my customers when I was having a good day or was it when I was having a bad day? And, you know, I think it was something that they could relate to. So I. Most of my content with video is honestly not selling Ashley. It's more of just connecting and talking and checking in with my customers. Like, how are you guys doing? Is everybody okay? And I found that my customers want to talk about themselves just as much as they want to hear from us, you know, and they often relate with one another in addition to relating to me. So it's that connection piece for me with the live videos and the Instagram stories is I don't like feeling salesy. That's just not me. I love what I do. I love our clothes. But I think building that trust factor with your customers, of them just getting to know you. Like, my customers know me. They, you know, we keep some things private, but for the most part, they know what my kids are going through with virtual learning. They know how I feel about it. And it's just I'm always real with them.

I like that, you know, something that you do such a good Job of as I watch from from afar, and you alluded to this, is not only are you communicating to your customers and they're communicating to you, but this is the beauty of Facebook groups, and that's that they're communicating with each other. And absolutely, if anyone here doesn't have a Facebook group, I think that's the single most important factor as to why you should is because now you've got all this, like, diagonal communication between customers that truly builds a community around your brand and that personal relationship. Would you agree? Or how else do you feel like you can really build that relationship in a Facebook group?

I totally agree. I think the community aspect is everything. And when we're in the store, it's funny. So we were closed for a little while and I guess we could talk about that too. But now that we're open again for a couple days a week, when customers are in the shop, they're not just talking with me and getting advice from me. They're getting advice from each other, too. And once they start talking, they'll recognize each other's names from the group page, which is really funny because we have become this community. We all talk with one another. They'll share. If they share a picture to the group page, we're hyping her up. You know, we want them to feel beautiful, like, post the picture, girlfriend. Because not only am I going to tell you you look amazing, you have thousands of women in this group who are going to tell you look amazing, too. And then one thing we started this year, Ashley, which I didn't tell you about, we started a membership page. So we have two group pages going actually right now. So we have the community page, which is the page I started as soon as Facebook groups were a thing. And then we actually have a paid membership group page, if you're interested in hearing about that.

Yes, sign me up. Tell me all the details.

So one thing we have found with our customers, and I know everybody, I see this being posted in the boutique hub all the time, getting to know your inventory of how much should you have on hand, how often are you restocking? How are you handling wait lists and all that thing? All those types of things. We like to create urgency with our customers. So some things we do have sell out immediately and then we'll restock so that hype is there to buy quickly. And one thing we wanted to take advantage of was having a first access group. So that's really where the idea of the membership came from. So in May, just to have a little Additional income. We came up with this idea to have a group who would get first access. They pay a monthly fee. They get first access to all new collections. They have about an hour shopping window before everybody else does. They get free shipping always. And then in addition to that, it's become its own community in itself. We do monthly zooms where we just hop on, have a glass of wine. I don't talk about clothes. We literally just laugh and connect with each other and have fun. And we do members meetups now. So with COVID that's been a little tricky with in person and all the restrictions. But we've done, I think three different meetups now. And they've gotten to know each other on a whole new level. So it's become this new community of Nicole J members is what we call it. And we have so many more plans to turn this into so many different things this year. But that's definitely a unique thing we started this past year.

Can I ask what you charge for membership?

Yeah. So we do. Right now it's 39.99amonth. And that includes free shipping, always first access, which to be honest with you, they end up spending so much more than the $39.99 a month. Yeah. With that first access. And that's like our founding members price. So going forward, whoever has has been a founding member, they're locked into that price. And then we're going to increase it in the next two months because we're actually adding in like a subscription box into the mix. Oh my gosh. So excited.

Awesome. Like that's super innovative. I've seen people do like free shipping clubs, which I guess would be similar. But to me this is. It kind of takes it to another level where it's much more personal.

It's so much more personal. And I'm big on self love. I call myself a self love stylist. So. So I'm huge on just different mindset shifts. I love journaling. So in the group I'm talking about styling tips and different things that I don't talk about outside of the group. But I also give just simple journaling prompts. I go live every week in there and just chit chat and I give them a journaling prompt if they want it. I'll suggest a new book that I've been reading. And then of course we talk about fashion too. But for the most part it's just become this whole self love little community. It's really amazing.

I absolutely love that. Congrats. Super.

Thank you.

And what A great, like, recurring revenue is so powerful. That's an entire. Another topic that I could talk about is, yeah, MRR and the power there, but super cool. So take me back to this. We. We both loathe homeschooling. So we're a mom with three kids. I know how important your time is to you. And so when you talk about going back to the basics and keeping it simple, how have you done that? How have you systematized your business so that you can manage both sides of your life in this way?

Oh, Ashley. I feel like that's been my biggest lesson from 2020. And I didn't realize how badly I needed to slow down until I was forced to slow down. Yeah, you know, I. And to be honest, if this hope, I mean, this past year didn't happen, I'd probably still. I hate the word hustle, but be hustling and just. I didn't realize how much time I was actually working. That was unnecessary. Does that make sense? So the shop was open seven days a week prior to Covid. I wasn't there seven days a week. I had a team running for me. But you guys know, even if you're not there, you're still there. The phone calls still come in. If there's an issue, you're still being called. And it just felt like I was on 24 7, you know. So when we were forced to shut down in March, I had to adapt and pivot. And luckily I had been spending the last really two years growing our online presence and social media presence. So I had good systems in place to really push online sales. But when we were able to open back up again, I had to figure out, okay, well, when am I going to open? How is that going to work with the kids being home and in school and, you know, yeah, it sounds like a great idea to have them in the back room, but am I actually getting anything done? And we did. In the beginning of all this, we furloughed our entire staff, which was just awful. But my husband being so close to the pandemic and dealing with patients who were exposed, we didn't know what was happening. So I was the only one working the shop from March until July or August was when we brought my employees back. So I was helping the kids at the house, modeling the clothes, doing the buying and back end of the business, unpacking inventory, getting it on the website, sending out the emails, doing all the social posts, and then packing orders too. Yeah, I had to get really strategic with my time because, you know, it Was all about adapting and not letting my business go down. I was not giving up this year, so I had to get really specific with an intentional with my time. But I didn't want to just not be there for the kids too because that was hard on them as well, you know, So I. Oh my gosh. Every day was different, to be honest with you, Ashley. Luckily my mom was able to help out a little bit, but she works full time as well. So when my husband was working, if she was on a conference call, the kids would be with me until she got off. And it was just. It has been so chaotic. Yeah.

All the things back up for a second because you said, what does your husband do again?

He's the paramedic.

Paramedic.

Okay, I'm sorry.

Oh, I spaced that and missed it. Okay, so go back. I'm just thinking I'm putting all of this together in my head of like how you even work backwards through this. Tell me about like SOPs or processes you've created that you're able to hand off to other people.

So I had to get really specific with day to day tasks. So for me, my schedule every week is laid out to be the same. Of course, have to be willing to adapt if somebody gets sick or, you know, things don't go according to plan. But for the most part, my week is pretty much the same. Mondays are admin days. That's when I'm sitting at my computer. That's when I'm checking in with vendors. That's when I'm placing orders, inputting anything into Shopify and kind of just looking at my week as a whole, what we have coming in. Okay. And then through Boutique Hub, through the retail, I have a numbers day, so that's perfect. Usually, yeah, it's usually by Monday or Tuesday. Typically Tuesdays in the morning I'll have my numbers because that's when Shopify deposits are made into my bank account. So I can dispute things like I followed profit first, which has been a game changer for me this past year. So Tuesday mornings I'll do that, follow up with any orders if needed and then I'll go into the store and package orders. So we have launches on Saturdays, Saturday morning. So Monday's admin day. Saturday, Sunday's family time, minus the launch, which I'll talk about that. But Monday, Tuesday, admin package orders now. Wednesdays and Thursdays we are open from three to six. Both days we do curbside hours and in store hours now, which we weren't doing. I feel like every Week is just different depending on what's happening in our Covid world. And then I have help again. So I have a virtual assistant, Melissa. She's fantastic. She helps me schedule out posts, anything that goes to Instagram and Facebook group. Those are like my babies. So I post mainly there, but she helps me on Facebook. She helps me answer emails, customer service, and then she also makes sure all products are tagged when things go on social media. So she's doing that throughout the week for me. And we check in on Monday and Tuesday as well, my admin days. And then Wednesdays and Thursdays I have Abby in the store with me and she helps me unpack inventory, tag inventory and get it out on the floor. And then Fridays, Fridays are marked off for content content day only. That's the one day a week where I do my hair and makeup usually and just crank out content, do my try on session, take my pictures, get all the photos uploaded to Shopify, and get the launch really set up so that Saturday morning I can launch it, post a couple of things, make sure the email sent out, the text sent out, and then I step away and I let the launch do its work. And then Saturdays and Sundays are family time for me. One weekend a month we're going to be open and I'm going to do. We call it style weekend and I'll be open, but other than that, just Wednesdays and Thursdays we're open right now.

Man, I love.

People are always asking the long answer exactly what I was after.

People are always asking for like blocking. And really what you just described, like that's our formula in retail bootcamp is to set something up very similar to what you just did. So that's so spot on.

I just think anytime I'm feeling overwhelmed, it's usually because I don't have like a set plan and I'm all over the place. You know, we have a million things we need to get done if we can just tackle three a day. I call it my big three. Every single day I have three things I need to work on. That's my focus. If not otherwise, I'm like squirrel, squirrel, you know, and then at the end of the day, I sit down like I didn't get anything done. So if I'm more intentional with time blocking and just knowing which day, and like I said, not every day goes that way, things happen. This has been the year of adapting and going with the flow. But for the most part, that's my structure for the week. And I'm checked out by five O', clock, six o' clock at the latest. And that's family time and weekends. Family time. Those are just. That's just important to me.

Yeah, I love that.

That's.

Do you also implement. I know this is something we talk about a lot in the hub, but the three big rocks are so big at the beginning of the day. But have you started to do a to done list at the end of the day so you can like cross off all the things you accomplished?

So my virtual assistant is super type A. She is the best. And she's big with trello boards. So she really keeps me organized in my trello boards and then I have a Google calendar that I check off and you know, I definitely a person who has to cross things off at the end of the day.

I love that. So did you mention, you mentioned a couple of your team members? Did you go through all of them? You said it was you. And then just so your virtual assistant and then your social media.

So virtual assistant is social media. So she helps me with social, with emails. She's going to be helping me more with the membership because we're going to, we. It's not open all the time. It's been closed since May, so we're going to be opening that up a couple times a year. She's going to help me keep that organized. She just keeps me organized in all aspects. All aspects. When we do giveaways and stuff, she has that all written down. We try to do weekly giveaways. She'll reach out to them, make sure they get the gift card, all of the little nitty gritty things. She does that for me. And then Abby is my other employee. Abby was. She had a baby in October. So she was out for a little while and she just came back. I'm so happy to have her. She just gets me and she knows what needs to get done. When a box comes in, she unpacks it, she tags it, it's already in the system. She prints the label and puts it in the floor. So having her help again has been a huge relief because then I can do the selling, you know, the posting, the taking pictures and then just being home with the kids too. Yeah.

Talk to me about your launches for a second. I'm always curious people that love to dig into numbers and systems and processes. Talk to me about how you plan how many arrivals are coming in for your launches and you're making sure that that lines up with your projected sales for the month and where you feel like you need to go in and Fill items that haven't sold, but you need to restyle, reshoot, repost them. Like, how are you managing that inventory flow to make sure that you're showing enough product to meet your sales goals?

Yeah, absolutely. I feel like this is one of those things, too, that I know there's formulas and all, but the magic answer is just trial and error, too. I feel like I've changed my buying system and strategies so, so many times. For the most part, what works for me is I buy weekly. We have a set goal. I like to have at least double of that in inventory on hand. That's just kind of what's worked for us. To reach those goals, we are going to be increasing that. We're adding comments sold back into our flow. So right now we do a weekly launch. I was doing daily for a while. Then we were trying to do twice a week. But I found that what works best for me, so I don't feel like I'm taking pictures constantly, is that Friday, like I mentioned, is content day. Get everything I need for a Saturday launch. For me, I prefer to have one or two huge sales days a week, and I'm okay with smaller sales days throughout the rest of the week because I'm working towards the launch. Does that make sense? Yep. I know those launch days will make up for a slow day on Monday or Tuesday because I don't want to be stressing out about, like, okay, what are we posting? We need to post this on Monday because nobody's buying. Okay. But we're also getting our systems in place, so that way, our weekend launch is going to be killer and make up for it. Yeah, that's super helpful.

Man, you have dropped so many golden nuggets today. I hope everybody's been taking notes. If you think about where you are right now and what's working for you right now, and you think about the people that are listening to the show today, what's, like, the best thing? Granted, I know there's no magic bullet, but, like, the thing that you want to really let other people know that is working for you. Take this piece of advice and run with it. What would that thing be for today?

The first thing that comes to mind, Ashley, is just do what works best for you. For you. I mean, we see so many other boutiques out there doing what works best for them and the growth they experience and all of that. And it's amazing. Like, I live for success stories in the boutique hub. I love that. But I think it's so easy to get caught up in what other people are doing and wondering what their hours are, wondering what their square footage is, wondering how they're storing their online inventory. You know, their process may not work for you. And that's okay. That's okay. I think we get so caught up in what other people are doing, and then we kind of lose track of what means most to us. Like, for me, I felt like I needed to be open seven days a week. I thought that that was what would work best for us. Now that I am only open a couple days a week and one weekend a month, and I can actually spend more time with my family, that means everything to me. And me sharing that with my customers, they respect it. They're not expecting me to answer an email on Sunday anymore or be open Monday through Sunday anymore. Like, they understand that my. My family is my priority and that I'm doing what works best for me, and that is completely okay. I think being real with your audience and just honest with them is everything. And. And they're going to respect that. And if they don't, guess what, they're not your people. They're not your people, man.

Boundaries are such a healthy thing. And you were talking earlier, and all I could think about is the analogy I keep going back to is, I think about 2020, and that's this hamster wheel. Like, we've all been stuck on this stupid hamster wheel for far too long. And 2020, like, that hamster wheel broke and we all fell off of it. And I keep telling people, don't get back on. It's a trap. Don't do it. And so to hear you talk about the importance of setting a boundary and your customers actually respecting it, I hope. I hope everyone listening takes that to, like, home with them because it's easy to feel like, well, they message me at 10 o' clock at night. Of course I have to get back to them or what are they going to think of me?

Yep. And I. I have anxiety, Ashley. I have struggled with that for years. And the messaging thing, I. If I felt like I needed to answer right away, always. But you know what feels amazing? An auto message on Facebook that sends them to your email. And you log into your email in the morning and you answer it when you can turn off the notifications, they'll survive.

Totally agree. Nicole. This has been so good. I'm so glad that you were able to join me today. When we went on our season break and I asked, you know, who do you want to hear from on the show? Your name came up multiple times.

So it's so. Really. I love that. Oh, that's awesome.

And they're taking note to it, so I'm so glad that this worked. Real quick, if anyone wants to follow you personally follow you at the boutique, we'll link this up in the show notes, of course. But where can people get in touch with you?

So on social media, I'm just Nicole J Boutique. We're actually doing a little bit of rebranding, so I don't know when this is going to go up, actually, but it's either going to be Nicole J Boutique or styled by Nicole J. And my website right now is Nicole jboutique.com perfect.

Well, last question. And you and I both know, as I think about this question, that we're not here just to sell widgets in this world, and we're not here to sell shoes and all the things that we do. But it's so much deeper than that, you know, as illustrated by the relationship that you have with so many of your members and your customers. Right. So when you think about your business 30 years down the road and you're sitting there with your three kids and your grandkids and your family, and you're talking about this crazy year of 2020 and this life that you lived and the businesses that you built, what's the thing that you really want them to remember the most about you?

Oh, my gosh. That makes me want to cry. Is that crazy? No. My kids have always been my why? And I said that with my daughter especially. And I think anytime, especially this past year when we felt like, what is happening? I just kept thinking of them and one day sitting with them and them realizing what we just went through together and that we didn't give up, we did all that we could and that I've never given up. I mean, that's everything to me. And I. I really want the kids one day, whatever it is they do with their life, to hopefully look at me as an example of, like I said, not giving up, but then also coming to me for advice, you know, asking for help and just knowing that I did it and they can do it, too, with whatever it is. I mean, that's everything to me. And I think just being kind to people is a huge part of what I do. I love my customers so much, and my kids see that. They see how I treat people. My daughter asks every time I come home from the store, was everybody nice to you today? Mom. She's seen the good and bad with customers, you know, and they. They see how I handle situations, and I just want them to know that they can do whatever it is they want to in life. Never give up. And just to be kind to people along the way.

I love that. Well said.

Yeah.

Well, Nicole, thanks again. Thank you for being such a huge member of our community at the Hub and being a guiding light for so many stores that, you know, see the life that you're living and see just the real nature of who you are. And, you know, being so willing. You're always so willing to share a tip or a piece of advice or feedback or whatever. And, you know, that doesn't go unnoticed either. That's a really big deal in what it truly means to live in community over competition. And I just think there's big reward at the end of the day for living by that example. So I commend you for that. And again, thanks for being on the show today.

Thank you, Ashley. That means so much to me. I have no idea. I'm an open book, so I'm here. And I wish so badly that I had the Boutique Club in the beginning when I got started. So I love what you guys are doing, and I think the whole community over competition is just absolutely amazing. You guys are doing amazing things with this. So I'm so glad I found you. Thank you.

I appreciate that. 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, guests, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week.