#827: Boutique Marketing That Converts: TikTok, Content & Knowing Your Customer

Welcome to the Boutique Chat Podcast, where we're gonna help you build a profitable, sustainable business without you having to sacrifice your profitability, your family, or your sanity. Each week we're gonna dive into real conversations with retailers who have been exactly where you are and industry experts so you can learn and know exactly what to do next, all in community over competition. Whether you're just getting started or you're growing past an 8-figure business, you're in the right spot. So let's get into it. Welcome to this week's episode. Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. I am so excited. Madison, you have been a part of The Hub for a long time. You have been a little shining star on the stage at Magic. You're always in our showroom. I am so excited that we get to showcase you today on the podcast. Thanks for being here.

Well, thank you so much for having me.

There's lots of goodies that we're gonna dig into today. So before we get into them, let's give everyone the lay of the land. Tell me about how you first got started in business.

Okay, so if you don't know me, I'm Madison and I own Ivory Road Boutique in Dyersburg, Tennessee. And so I originally started when I was 21 in college, rising out of COVID and I started in my bedroom of my house that I was in. And as a 21-year-old who has no history of credit, trying to get a line of credit or something to help start your business, um, was hard. So I started saving up money. Um, I was already working at a boutique at the time, and, um, I started saving up money, and then my grandma helped me, um, get a small loan to get started. So I started this business with $3,000, and some people think that you have to have a million dollars, and you don't. And, um, we did 3 months— about 2 and a half months later, we did our first trade, like, set up in a booth place for, um, like a, like a teapot festival they were having. And I told my mom, I said, if we can double what we spend on this, we will find a storefront, open a storefront. And we did. We doubled it plus more. And, um, then a month later we opened our first storefront. It was 800 square feet. We are there for about a year and a half. We brought in an app. We did— we do lives. And then we moved to, um, we had to have a bigger space because it was 800 square feet with bathroom, back room, dressing rooms. It was so small. And, um, so then we moved downtown, um, who are in our town. And how our town works is downtown is full of mainly your lawyers, your offices, your government agencies. And then our uptown area is where our highway is. There's an interstate that connects you to Missouri and Arkansas. And, um, so we were not in the most populated area, but we had to have a bigger space. And so I was also teaching at the time, hated my life. Like, I drove 40 minutes to work, 40 minutes back. I literally don't know how I made it there. There were some days I was like, Did I stop at that red light? I hope so. And, um, but we made it work. But it was all about like, okay, you either have— you have to drive to us to come see us. It's not really a place where you get to drive through and be like, oh, what's that place? Um, it was like, you have to come to see Ivory Road. And that's when we really like knuckled down on our social media. I decided to quit my teaching job. And, um, and that summer I started um, full-time at the store. And then that September we have our fair week, and people don't pay their electric bills during fair week so they can take their kids to the fair. And I told my mom, I said, what am I gonna do? Like, this is so slow. And she's like, Madison, it's fair week. Like, people don't pay their car insurance for fair week. And I was like, okay, okay, like, it's fine. 4 and a half years, however many years later, it is fine. It was fine. And, um, so we were there for about right about a year, and then we moved into the building that we are in now. It's 3,000 square feet, standalone. Um, within that year 3, we opened up a very small warehouse in another county. That was a lot driving there too. And, um, I told my mom, I said, I'm just not happy with it. I have to drive that far to go pick up supplies, to go ship packages. I said, I would rather do this in store, like have a warehouse in the back, or find a closer location. And, um, we are packed out in our 3,000 square feet. And, um, and part of that is because I'm not very good at construction and I did not lay it out the best way. But, you know, it's okay. I was thinking more retail space, less back room space. And if you're listening to this, prioritize your back room. And, um, but anyway, so my mom, when I was— so we have a, like, it was like a playhouse when I was a kid, and my parents had it redone. And so that's where we keep a lot of our back stock stock and online inventory. It's at my parents' house, and she's there every night, and my dad gets in there and helps her package stuff, and he's a little mailman. He takes all the packages at night to the mail— to the post office for me. And, um, so yeah, here we are now. We are— we've been here for, I think, 2 and a half years, and, um, we, we really do enjoy it. Yeah, we're in like the prime real estate. This is what everybody says, that we have prime real estate.

So I am so excited for you.

Okay.

Couple things I just have to say. One, I just wanna apologize to all the school districts across America because you and every other former teacher that now owns a boutique, like, I think we need a support group for all of you, like former teachers unite. Um, so that's amazing. And starting when you're 21.

So yeah. And my mom was a teacher. She taught 31 and a half years and she quit. Well, she retired to help me. Yeah.

Oh, I love it. I love it. Okay, well, you, you're in charge of the support group whenever we start that. No more teachers. Uh, but also, that's a lot of growth and a lot of movement in a short period of time. And I love that you emphasize at the beginning that you started with $3,000 and you started reinvesting what you were making and just growing sustainably. And I think that that's a common misconception, that you have to start with maxing out every credit card and Taking on all this debt and you, you really don't. But because I know you, there's something that you've prioritized, 2 things along the way that have really probably helped you with that growth, right? And that's number one, your margins.

Mm-hmm.

And number 2, your marketing's pretty awesome as well. So let's dig into those 2 things. Let's talk about the money first, because how did you grow sustainably? Like what did you focus along, along the way to help you reinvest that money back in your business?

So I love talking about margins. Um, and I know at first, like starting out, you want to keep a lower price because you want to, you want to reach customers. And, um, we, you know, our margins are higher now than what they were when we started. Um, but when we started and we, we were online, we had no rent, no electric bill, like nothing, because it was out of my house and my parents were paying for the house in college.

Yeah.

So they rented it out to my roommates. And, but when you get a building and you grow into numerous buildings, like your electric goes up, your rent goes up, everything goes up. And if you keep your margin at, you know, just doubling your price, you're not going to be able to sustain, you know, sustain. Either you're gonna have to buy more or raise your margins. And especially with gas prices high right now, everything is going up. I mean, Walmart and Target are going up. So I think, you know, as a boutique owner, if you want to be able to sustain for years, you have to. And so like, I have a, I have a set margin on what I want to get out of all my clothes. So we sell, we sell women's clothing small through 3X, which we carry children's clothing, um, and those we also carry like gifts for women that sit well in our store that we have built a love story around. We also have kids gifts that are great for, you know, baby shower. We don't do a lot of big kids clothes because we monogram, and a lot of times when you get to like 5T, 6, and up, they don't want to monogram. So we keep it small and we just refer you to the next store that has those bigger kid sizes because that's not what our customers coming in for. And so on all my clothes and majority of my gifts that I can, I make sure that I get my set margin price when we go to market.

Yeah.

If I can't get that out of it, 9 times out of 10, I'm not going to carry it. Because I care about my margin. And, you know, at the end of the day, we want to make a profit. Like, we're not in this to, you know, not make a profit. We're not in this to go in the hole. Like, we are supporting our families, our employees, our communities, you know. So you have to be able to do that. And there's a few brands that, you know, are branded— like Gold Hinge. We sell Gold Hinge for the price that they have on their website. Now, that's still a good margin. It's not the best margin, but we also have you know, clothing brands that we can get a better margin on to help with those, with those lower margin areas. I'm not saying like don't go for a brand if, you know, you don't have that margin, because I still carry a few. But if I go to market and there's a top that I love and it wholesales for $50, I'm not gonna carry that because I can't get my margin on it. And like, we carry Queen of Sparkles and Brianna Cannon, but those have set prices and those are for you know, a select clientele. Like, we have customers all over, all over the country who buy from us because we have Queen of Sparkle. And so that's different. It's not what's going to be in our average store in, you know, in Dyersburg, Tennessee, or to our average customer. And, um, we did— so our website is through Josh Orr, and he really helped me, like, nail down on my perfect customer.

Yeah.

And, like, he builds you down, he, he tears you down and builds you up, but it's where it works. And I have— it's helped me so much. And especially everything that y'all say in Retail Boot Camp and Summer Camp about, you know, knowing your perfect customer. Like, if you're not a part of— if you're not a part of Boutique Hub, do it. The first thing I did when I got my business license was join Boutique Hub. So I mean, it's worth it. And, uh, but I, I have learned my perfect customer. And now when you're in a storefront, it may not— you have a much wider variety. But when you go online to our website, you're gonna see fun clothing. Now we still have neutrals because those are still a good piece, but they're not just a black top. It may have a print on it, or it may have some type of like ruffle or frill to make it a little more dressier. But it's fun clothing that the working woman can take into her daily life, but also wear it out for a girls' night or a date with their spouse.

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Thank you.

How have you nailed social media both for the local customer and then to attract a nationwide customer to your website and to your, to your lives as well?

So I feel like it's hard to like tell you exactly like, oh, this is what my perfect customer does on the weekends. Like, she's— most of the time she is a mom, but I'm not a mom. And I am not, you know, I still wear everything that we put out and I still love it. So I don't want to say that, oh, she's a mom, because we have a lot of customers who aren't. So I like to say that she's a working woman who wants to look fashionable and trendy, and that she— but she also wants to be able to wear it to work. and wear it out with her friends. Whether she changes, you know, with some jewelry, adds some bracelets, maybe, you know, untucks it, whether she just makes a small change, she is able to wear it. And it's, you know, something that's easy, easy to style. And, um, you know, so it has really helped. Like, I— so in our, you know, like I said, in our storefront, there are so many people that come through, but we have high schoolers and we have older ladies. And what I have noticed is the high schoolers and the older ladies that we pull in They want to dress how I dress, how the average Ivory Road girl dresses. You know, they're not, they're not wearing pantsuits and they're not wearing crop tops. They want to dress cute, they want to wear cute boutique tops, and they want, you know, to look stylish. Now there are still, like, we have— we carry Lululemon. And again, like, when you're in this whole retail world, you hop on the trend train and you go. Like, we're selling dumplings and butter squishies, like, because we have a kid store, and like, people are coming in crazy for it because they want them. And Those baby dumplings. Yeah, the dumplings. And so we hop on the trends too, and Lily Mac has been a great brand for us, and, um, we love it. I wear it, and I've got, you know, 50-year-old ladies who are like, well, Madison, you look so cute in it, I want to wear it too. And then of course the high school girls want to wear it as well. But like, we have— speaking of, in like our actual town, we have places where your older lady who want pantsuits can go and your younger girls who want crop tops, party dresses. And so like, there's a— there's formals all the time, and we do not sell party dresses. I tried it one time, it did not work for us, and that is okay. Like, when you come in and we'll show you what we have, we will also refer you to somebody else because I know that we are not a party dress. Now, you need a funeral dress, we got you, okay? We are right next door to a funeral and we have you covered. And, um, if you need a wedding dress, a baby shower dress, like those types of things that you know, your like average woman would go to. We have those things for you. And so that's who I buy for. Like, I have a few high school girls, and I only keep like 1 or 2 high school girls. And right now I pretty much just have 1 because— and I don't really use them modeling. I hate to say that. Like, she is absolutely beautiful, and if I have to use her to model, I will. But your person who models is me, or maybe 1 or 2 of my like friends or people who work in the summertime, they can come up after school and help me model because we are that age. I used to have my high school girls model, but a high school girl doesn't always look the same in a, in an outfit like I would. It doesn't always appeal to my customers, right? And, um, so that's, you know, I don't buy for high school girls.

Yeah.

And I'm like, I'm sorry, I don't. Like, we have Go Hint. My 80-year-old ladies are rocking it, and my 40-year-old ladies are rocking it too. But, you know, my primary customer, she's gonna be that 25 to 55 range of— and I know that's broad, um, especially for online, but I have a lot— a lot of my good customers are older. You know, they're— they have kids, maybe they're getting a little grown, but they may also have younger kids. Most of them have like a mix of kids, but they are a working woman. I don't like to put an age on it because, you know, that really like narrows it down. I'm talking about like a working woman who wants to dress very professionally, but also can wear it, you know, on a date night. And, you know, she may grab the Gold Hinge to wear on Saturdays out running around town.

Yeah, I think that's spot on. You can't get too, you can't get too narrow and you can't get too broad, but I love how you've really defined that. So in order to really attract that working woman into the store, your content has been spot on, like your TikToks, like all the content you're putting out, like you're obviously attracting the right person. So what's your content strategy? How are you planning what you want to put out and what channel you really want to be on?

So I do collections every week and I buy it 1 or 2 collections ahead. Like this week when I'm— mine is going to go out in, you know, it's bought at market, but it, it's ready to ship and comes through. It'll be like in 2— it'll be the collection in 2 weeks. I look at what, you know, what seasonal— what seasonally is going on. You know, Memorial Day is coming up, 250 Years of America. So we're fixing to run this week and next week is our 2 big patriotic collections for the week, or for the year. And, um, yeah, so I look at seasonally, but every time we go to market, I sit down with my mom and we are building out collections. We, we come up with our names. Now, we may not actually use those names, but we have an idea of this is where we're wanting to go. And when we're at market, we are, you know, finding pieces to go into those collections, checking the ship dates to make sure that they will come in at the time we want, and we're talking with our vendors We have built a great relationship with several vendors, and they're like, you know what, like, we buy a lot from Odie. Um, he's the guy that we do work with, is Odie, and they carry a full-size run, which we love over here, full-size run. And he knows, he's like, okay, here's everything you want. Whenever it comes in, I'm just going to send you an invoice and you tell me when you want it, and we schedule it out and it comes in. So all my collections are together. We do a Rich Hippie collection every year, and it's one of our best. Our customers love it. Um, but I'll tell you when I really saw a shift. So we, you know, we rode this high of through everything, you know, there for a minute, like every year to a year and a half we were moving locations, or we were building a warehouse, you know, had a warehouse, those things, you know, we had big things going on, getting new customers. We were doing lives and going to market. Well then, Back in the early fall, um, we had— we lost a lot of our cash flow. We had to buy a new embroidery machine, and those are very expensive. And our cash— we were at market, so I had to buy blanks. And we were at Dallas, so I had to buy— we went into Patty and got all Patty and blanks and all. We had to refuel our entire kids section. And, and that was like no insurance money to help, no, you know, nothing to help build that but what was in our bank account and cash flow. And, um, and the boarding machines, I mean, they could— you could buy a small car with how much they are. And what we had to do that because that is a big part of our, you know, business, and the embroidery is really good when you— when you talk about your profit. And, um, so we got back from market and, you know, school had just started. It was a little slow and I was panicking. Like, I was like, I don't know what to do. Like, we're Disney adults over here. We had 2 trips planned. I was like To my husband, who is like the boutique husbands are awesome. But I was like, babe, I don't know what I'm gonna do. Like we lost our cash flow. Like yes, we're gonna build it back, but it takes a long time to build that back. And I was just panicking. And I was like, you know what? I remember because because that summit the past this past summer, um, I don't remember who exactly it was, but there was a TikTok you know class. And I remember them saying TikTok wants you to succeed. They push out your videos. They want you to succeed. I'm like. The algorithm is a whole lot better. I'm like, you know what, we're gonna, we're gonna take TikTok. We're gonna see how it goes. And it— we've started with, I think, like 1,100 followers, and now we have almost 5,000 in less than a year, which, you know, it's not the biggest, but, you know, I'm pretty proud of it.

And I'm so proud of you.

That is awesome.

You like— way to come to Summit and like learn something and implement it. Shout out Devin and Crystal, uh, because that was their business, uh, doing the presentation. So Madison, okay, keep going.

This is So good. So, uh, um, uh, so we, you know, got— we have a lot of followers now, but now I'm not on TikTok Shop because that takes up to 30 days, if not more, to receive your funds. I don't do that. I'm not on that platform. I'm already on Shopify and CommentSold, so I just direct them to my site. And we've had several videos, you know, get 20,000, 30,000 views. We've had some, you know, have 1,000 likes, comments. But the most important thing is they're actively going to my site and buying without me running ads. I have not ran many ads. Like, I have only ran 2 ads my entire time being here. And for someone who is new and doesn't have a lot of money to invest in ads, like, this is a great way to grow your business. And, um, and so we— and then people have asked, like, I just comment my site, I'll message them my site.

I—

when I do a video, you know, it can be music, it can be just me talking, um, I tell them like, go download our free app, Ivy Road Boutique, in the App Store. Go to our website, ivyroadboutique.com. And my customers are actively going to it. So when we were at Magic, um, 2 weeks ago, the day before we left, we had 600 sessions on our website, which, you know, now we weren't converting— That's so good. We weren't converting 600 people, but since then we are still, you know, you know, yeah, I think one day this week we had 300 sessions on our website. And I'm like, okay, now my— I was telling Samantha, I was like, now I'm like rolling. How can I actually convert all those 600 people? Now there are things, and I'm sure Josh is going to get onto me for this, but there are things that I need to clean up on my website that we are working on in the next couple weeks. We have a very small staff and we're going to work on that. Um, but now I'm like, okay, I've seen this, the foot traffic, so how can I convert that?

Yeah.

And, um, a lot of it is, I think, our marketing. I have a preset that I use It does not change the color of the fabric, um, but it just lightens it, enhances it. And, um, I'm really good friends with Jenna from Generation, and she's like, Madison, your personality is just so good. And she's like, are you not doing lives? I was like, yes, we do lives once a week. She's like, girl, you need to be doing more lives because your personality.

Yeah.

And one thing I talked about was like finding your secret sauce, because everyone's like, oh, the secret sauce, like, what's your secret sauce? Well, there is not a like, here's— here, here you go, Ashley, here's your can of soup of secret sauce, like, here you go. That's not it.

I get asked that all the time.

Yeah, your secret sauce is you. Like, as a business owner, you need to be the face of your business because like, you don't want to— if you can't, I understand, but if you have an employee, it's really dangerous, I feel like, to have them be the face of your business because what if they leave or move to another store? all your customers may go with it, with them, because they are— they've built that connection with them. I try to make sure that I'm building connections with my customers, whether it's in store or online. And if they're online, I just— I have a little card and we write them a sweet note. I send them a text message if there's a way. If there's a question or anything, any way I can get communication with them, I send them a text message, especially my embroidery customers.

Yeah.

Um, a portion of our embroidery sales is going into a fund for IVF to help give back to women in our area who are going through IVF. Me and my husband are on our own fertility journey, and so, you know, every single one of my embroidery customers who are online, I send them a message. I'm like, hey, thank you so much for ordering. A portion of your order went into our IVF fund. We're really appreciative of it.

And oh, that's amazing. I hope everyone heard that.

And so a lot of them have, you know, repeat customers to come back and buy more because they believe in the cause, and we have built some type of relationship with them.

Yeah, what a way to just tie it to something so personal and a giveback. And I think that's what sets boutiques apart from big box stores and everybody else is, number one, you personally message them. Let's not forget the power of the personal message, but then the cause on top of it. So I think that's so beautiful. Madison, I want to know this, like thinking about your TikTok account and all of this content you're putting out in your collections, um, how are you planning how much of that content is product-focused versus entertainment and just getting people to engage with you on TikTok, Instagram, wherever?

So 90% is product because at the end of the day we want to make sales off of it. Um, but I do a lot of fun videos. I try to at least post 1 to 2 fun videos a week, and a lot of those have gone viral. Like we did the one that was about how do I feel about my friends shopping at other stores. Well, I made one of my friends like get under my car, and I was like, oh, it doesn't bother me at all, and I stepped over her like we had run her over. But I was— it got so many views, single comments, so many people followed us. So a good mix of both. I like to do a good mix of both. Um, so typically what I do, if I've got, you know, 10 pieces in a collection, I do 2 videos like per outfit, and I am usually like head to toe styled, um, in an outfit. It's like our patriotic collection's coming up. And yes, I've ordered brand new things, but if I can pull like anything red, blue, or white that's already in my store, whether that's gifts or tops that may not have sold good, re-picture them, restyle them, put them under new collection. Because someone who's seeing your site for the first time doesn't know how long it's hung on the shelf.

Right.

And, um, and so like, that's what we'll be doing. And I do a full head-to-toe outfit, another thing that TikTok has helped me do. You know, you can copy the shirt, like everybody can carry an insert shirt. But the way you style it is different from your average, you know, average person. And, um, and so I really focus on how do I style it, how do I market it to my customers to where they like it. And so like I said, I do 2 videos. One is me talking about the outfit, you know, I'll be like, you know, this top comes in small through 3X, it fits roomy, it's true to size. Um, and then the next one is either like, you know, a song or a dance or just something fun and cute to grab attraction of people.

Yeah, I love that. That's perfect.

Yeah, so what I want to mention is like that way, you know, like, so, so let's say 10 new outfits, 2 videos, that's 20 videos that you can post for the next 2 weeks. Plus I'll have pictures and other graphics on my social media. That gives you so much opportunity to work with. And I, you know, I know I'm not good about posting 2 or 3 things every day. I try to at least post one a day. Um, I don't want to flood it too much. Um, but you know, I do try to— you know, you have all this, you have all this possibility. Same thing with going to market. You have a floor full or floors full of content options, you know.

Yeah.

I'm posting things like we carry a lot of Treasure Jewels. I'll stick everything on my arm, be like, new Treasure Jewels coming soon. And, and I'll use that graphic. I may not post it right then and there, but I'm going to use it maybe when we go live and do our jewelry live of it to Post new treasure drawers dropping tonight on the app.

I think what you mentioned is so important because so many retailers, I think content becomes an afterthought. Like you get to Thursday morning and you're like, oh crap, what am I gonna post today? But just like you said, it's more about the process on the front end. Okay, I'm going to market. Here's a shot list of like 20 things I could get. Or, hey, I'm gonna launch this collection. You know, today is photo day. You know, here's 25 different shots I could get versus just taking a photo of the product. Um, so the pre-planning creates the content on the backend. I really love that. Um, all right, Madison, I have a lightning round group of questions for you. Are you ready?

Yes.

Okay. Um, if I give you 2 hours back in your day to work on income-generating activities, what do you focus on first?

Hmm. I would definitely say focusing on probably perfecting the way that we drop collections and reaching to our customers. Perfecting email marketing, text marketing, those ways to let those customers who maybe have bought from me the first time be a repeat buyer.

I love that. Spot on, spot on. What's been the hardest lesson you've had to learn in business?

Confidence. So, you know, starting at 21, you know, you may not have a lot of confidence. And people ask me at Nashville, like, how do you gain confidence? And I was like, Well, I said, you know, I can be very introverted. Like, you see me out at Walmart, I'm gonna be like, oh, let me, let me run this way so I don't get talked to. But it's because I talk so much every single day and on social media and to people. But, and I do love people, and I will talk to you if you're at Walmart, so don't think I won't. But, um, you know, I'm also an only child, so I feel like only child syndrome— either had to learn to talk to people or I was talking to the wall. But, um, so confidence though, because even when I was asked to speak at Magic, I was like, oh, I don't, I don't feel like I'm deserving of this. Like, there's so many great people out there. Why are you asking me? But I'm like, one of my friends helped me. She's like, Madison, look at what you have built in 5 years. She was like, some people who are, you know, 15, 20 years in the, in the works or have been doing this 15, 20 years aren't where you are. You aren't where you are. There's some who may be bigger than you, and that's okay. You have your own time. And so I have really been remembering, okay, I have worked hard. I have stayed up here for, you know, midnight to 6:00 AM before working on stuff. I'm at home working on stuff, and I was like, you need to remember that you have the confidence. And like, especially with like buying new brands and bringing things in, like, we're in our town, we have a lot of, lot of places where you can go and buy something from a small business. And so like Sweet Grace, Volcano Diva, like all those brands are already taken. So when I went to gift market for the first time, I was like, okay, I need to find brands that I think my customers will like, that we can build a love story with. And we have some awesome brands in our store that, you know, may not be a huge brand, but to the Ivory Road customer, they're their go-to gift, their go-to scent for their house. They love the brand because we have built a love story with it. And I was like, you know what, we didn't even need those other brands. We have the brands that we, you know, do well with. I love that.

I hope everybody who's listening right now is just like, I, I can feel your energy. And I'm just thinking about this confidence thing that you just talked about and just the love story you mentioned. I hope everybody just can feel like how much energy you exude. And let me just back up to mention why you spoke at Magic. It's because of that. It's because of who you are as a person and the way you show up. And you always are like ball of energy. You're always smiling. You're always sharing. You live community over competition. You are so generous. So keep leaning into that. And again, I hope everyone can feel it because it is really amazing, Madison.

Well, thank you.

Yes. Okay. Well, that brings me to my last question. Um, and it's the big question. So at the end of the day, let's fast forward like 30, 40 years down the road and you're on your front porch with your family and your friends and you're looking back on, oh my gosh, I started this at 21. You know, like, I, I've lived so many lives since then. I've touched so many people. As you reflect on this journey you've been on, what's the thing at that point in life that you really want people to remember the most about you and how you lived?

I think people want me to, um, I think people want to remember me by being like a servant. Um, I have really been trying to figure out like, what is, what is Lord, what does the Lord want me on this earth for? Because You know, like, I've— this store has been so successful, and it is because of him and my customers, and I'm putting him first. But I have, you know, when you have a boutique owner and your life is out there, everyone thinks it's perfect, and it's not. Like, me and my husband are going through fertility issues, and I have— there have been moments when I have cried in the back of this back store, the back room of this store. You know, the, you know, sadness and just so much things are going on in our personal life. And, um, one of my friends had said, why don't you pick a portion of your store to go into helping you pay for IVF or IUI or whatever path you decide? And I was like, that was a good— that was a great idea. And I was like, well, you know what, what if I don't need it? Or what if that's not in God's plan for us? I was like, what is a way that I can serve our community? Because, you know, we give to schools, we give to, you know, all these nonprofits that come in. But like, but what is something that me, Madison Johnson, her and Ivory Road can do to our community. And I was like, we're going to start an IVF fund. And it's very new, you know, we've only been doing it the past couple weeks and we just announced it to our customers. But in 30, 40 years, I hope I have kids and grandkids running around. But I hope that my customers, or that somebody, can say, hey, she helped me have our child. Like, she gave a portion of our— of her sales to us to help us on our IVF journey. Or that we were able to help somebody with their miracle. I just want, you know, 30, 40 years down the line, someone to remember us by— not by the clothes or the racks, you know. I want us to— I want you to love us as in our store. I want to be your favorite store. But most importantly, I want you to remember that we gave back to our customers who may not could have ever had that opportunity if it wasn't for somebody donating to them.

So I have never had anyone answer the question that way. That is seriously the most beautiful, like, to say, I hope she helped me have my child. Like, what an incredible blessing you are to so many people. And I just hope, like, that you are blessed in the same exact way. Madison, that is so beautiful.

Well, thank you. I, you know, it's just been laying on our heart and I told my husband about it. I said, I think I really wanna do this. And I, my best friend is our accountant and I called her. I was like, do I need to do anything special? Like, before I Announce this. I said, I really want to do this. I said, because, you know, whether we have to get on that path or not, somebody else is going to have to go down that path, whether they shop in here or they're just somebody in West Tennessee, or maybe not even in West Tennessee, somewhere local. Maybe they can— uh, Thomas said maybe it'll grow into a whole foundation and we can help so many people.

Oh, well, you are going to help so many people, and you are helping so many people. I get choked up listening to this. Madison, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. I'm just so incredibly proud of you and excited for you, um, and can't wait to see where your business continues to grow and where your personal life continues to grow as well. Thank you for sharing with everybody today.

Yes, thank you so much.

Hey guys, thanks so much for listening to this week's episode. If you found it helpful, please share it with a friend or feel free to subscribe. And I would always love it if you would leave a rating and review. Hey, if you want more tools and education and just support, head on over to theboutiquehub.com. Or if you have feedback or episode ideas, DM me personally, AJ Alderson, on Instagram. Thanks so much for being here and listening to this week's episode. I'll see you next week.