Boutique Chat #008 | Why You Shouldn't Put All of Your Eggs into the Facebook Basket | Liz Ross

Get ready, guys, for episode number eight with the founder and CEO of Southern Fried Chicks. Welcome, Liz Roth. Let's talk about your business strategy and the juicy details of what actually works, from mainstream fashion to fashion on Main street and the entire ecosystem behind it. How do we scale your company and do it with the balance and the happiness that we all seek? Let's hear from those insiders, experts, and strategists that actually make it happen. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub, and I can't wait to chat. Hey, welcome back, Boutique Chat listeners. Thanks so much for tuning in to today's show because I know that today is a show that has the opportunity to inspire you for a lifetime. So I want to kick off this week on a more serious topic, one that I invite you to share with me if you're comfortable over on Instagram J. Alderson or BoutiqueHubBusiness. And it's all about the greatest challenge that you've faced in your life this far. I'm wondering, have you ever faced a mortality moment in your life? A time when your life was literally in question or it was at a significant crossroads, or maybe it was the life of someone close to you. You know, there's something about being face to face with that ultimate question of who am I and did I matter that has the power change our entire future. In fact, I can remember my own mortality moment 10 years ago. I was a young college student. I was 10 foot tall and bulletproof, without a doubt. And I was sitting in a doctor's office hearing those words that I had cancer. It was Hodgkin's lymphoma, stage 2B. And I remember that moment like it was yesterday because while those that were around me were crumbling in shock, I can remember feeling a switch turn on inside me. It was like a drive that said, it's on and I'm going to do whatever it takes to turn this thing around and be it. It was a natural human instinct, and I think it was that will to live that we all have. So after six months of chemo and, yes, all of the lovely things that come with it, my cancer was finally in remission. Glory to God. And finally, that time that had stood still for so long was mine again. And I was free. You know, that moment changed the rest of my life. And it's one of the reasons that I admire today's guest so, so much, because she, too, has had a major, major mortality moment. And it was layered even deeper with a triumphant story of overcoming adversity from a very young age. Faced with her own life or death situation, our guest today chose life and her future was literally changed forever. She then went on to build a multi million dollar business. One that's caught the attention of TV producers currently and I'm sure someday will also land her a book deal with one and a half million Facebook fans and over 175,000 followers over on Instagram. Plus a wholesale collection and a loyal tribe of Southern women. Today's guest is Liz Ross, the founder and CEO of Southern Fried Chicks. Not only is Liz gonna share her inspiring story with us today, but she's also gonna take us into her business, their growth and her love hate relationship with Facebook. Plus, she's gonna share with you a crucial security tip for your business that you are going to want to take note. I know I did as soon as she mentioned the story to me. Our hub team is also so excited to announce that Liz is going to be a featured guest speaker at the 2018 Boutique Summit this June in Dallas, Texas. So if you are interested in attending the summit, make sure you stay tuned for details over in our members area@theboutiquehub.com or at theboutiquehub.com summit. Alright guys, let's get started this week and meet our dear friend and a true boutique boss, Liz Ross. Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited today to be with someone who is such an inspiring leader, business owner and entrepreneur, Liz Ross, the owner and founder of Southern Fried Chicks.

Hey Liz. Hello. How are you?

I'm so good. Thank you so much for joining us on the show.

Thank you for having me.

Well, let's kick this off. I think we have to start at a place where if you've been following boutiques for any period of time, you must know what Southern Fried Chicks is because you guys were a pioneer in the industry. Talk about the business and where it's at today and how people can find you.

I started Southern Fried Chicks five years ago. It grew leaps and bounds. I literally thought that I was going to have to work the store by myself for two years. That was like my business plan was to open the store, work it myself for two years and then hire my first employee. And that did not happen. It was like the first week I had to hire like three or four people to help me. People were just knocking down the door. Within the last five years, the company has just skyrocketed every single year. We are just experiencing just astronomical growth. You know, a lot of things have happened. We are manufacturing our own brand now, which is kind of my background, where I came from. And we just have so many really cool, exciting things going on. Now. We're moving to a new warehouse, which is like 45,000 square foot. That's. It's huge. We don't know what we're going to do with it at first. Probably have a skating rink in it. I kind of want to have like a campus type atmosphere because, you know, we're very much like family here. I try to keep, you know, keep in tune with all of my employees. I don't want to ever grow so big that we don't feel like it's a family environment. So we're super excited about that. We have a new website coming. We have a lot of work to put in. In the next. In this first and even the second quarter, we're going to probably see ourselves really trying to make sure that this new season comes, you know, comes in and we really hit it hard. But we also have all these other jobs that we've piled up on top of ourselves. But we're kind of overachievers around here, so I think we can do it.

We were just chatting offline before we started the show about the term busy and how. Busy isn't a period in time, is it? It's a way of life, right? If you're not busy doing one thing, it's going to be another.

Oh, yes. I, like I said, I tend to daydream about, you know, taking a month off and actually doing nothing and, you know, getting in my Airstream and just going somewhere and no phones, no Internet, nothing. And, you know, I guess people want what they can't have. But, you know, I tend every morning when I wake up after that daydream, when I'm going to sleep, I wake up and I'm ready to, you know, hit the ground running. As soon as my feet hit the floor in the morning, I am working, working immediately. So, yeah, that's just. I create it, I guess. I create my own madness.

And with the business that you've built, it's pretty astounding just to look at that madness that you have created. You've got a multimillion dollar business. It's one of the fastest growing boutiques in the country. A million and a half Facebook fans and 175,000 on Instagram, which is unbelievable. Do you sit back some days just kind of in awe of how this has all come together?

I wish that I could, honestly. My days are spent tending to a Lot of the things that are going on here in the warehouse, and just my employees, I have, you know, I have a pretty large amount of employees at this point, and there's. There's just always something that needs to be addressed. So, you know, I don't really get to sit back and kind of soak it all in. Hopefully one day I will be able to. I'm gonna enjoy looking back on that. But, yeah, I mean, it's crazy. You know, I can. I mean, I know this sounds crazy, but, you know, I feel like it's not really me. I give all the credit to God, you know, I think that I've been blessed and, you know, sometimes blessings are. You know, he'll just put it on your plate, and you have to listen to it. And it doesn't matter how hard it is or how much time it takes to, you know, get through some of these things. That is just your job, you know, so that's the way I look at it. But, you know, hopefully one day I'll be able to stop and smell the roses a little bit.

Well, you say that, and it's a pretty amazing story because you're very humble, because you built something amazing. But behind that, there's much more to it than meets the eye, isn't there? I would love for you to talk about the backstory of your life and kind of how you came to be an entrepreneur, because I think from the surface, sometimes people look at a business and think, wow, it must be nice building something so great. But oftentimes they miss the struggles that we have to face on our way to achieving that goal.

Right, right. Social media, you know, you see the. The surface a lot of times, and we try to break through that surface and show people who we really are, but it's hard to really touch all those people, you know, so, yeah, they. They definitely are just gonna kind of scan over and they. Their impression of us or whatever, but there's a lot. There's a lot to it. There's a whole lot, especially with us. And I know I'm. You know, I'm not taking away from anyone else is, you know, hardships or anything that. But it. It was a long, rocky road to get to this point for. For myself.

Can you go back to that. Can you go back to your childhood and kind of that overcoming of adversity that you went through?

So, you know, I. It would take. It would take hours and hours to really tell my story. It's probably a book, you know, a book eventually. But I was my Mother and father. You know, there's, I have, there's eight of us, but my father, he was born in 1933. My mom was born in 50, so there was a big, you know, pretty big age gap there. But I have other brothers and sisters and you know, my parents either, they didn't work out. And my mom, she just, she struggled and she came from a very poor background. My grandparents, they didn't have running water, we didn't have indoor plumbing. So I found myself a lot of times, you know, just struggling. My whole family did. My mom sometimes even had a hard time putting food on the table. So I just, I remember being hungry a lot. But you know, my mom was always. My mom was there for me, but she only had the tools that her parents gave her as well. And so, you know, I went through a lot of difficult stuff and you know, I don't want to go into a lot of it, but there's, you know, there's been times where, you know, I didn't even want to go go, you know, live anymore because of people hurting me. And when you're subject to those, those types of things, you can get hurt, especially a girl, you know, so if you don' people protecting you. So I went through a lot of really bad things like that. And I was always super headstrong. My parents both are very, very powerful personalities and you just had to really fend for yourself in the environment that I was in. So I became very strong willed, even in school. I didn't do well in school because I don't think I really had to. But I would go to school and I was popular because I was never scared to say anything to anyone, you know, and maybe there, you know, maybe people thought I was funny. I don't know why I was popular, but I had a lot of friends. But I got in a lot of trouble because I was kind of raising myself. And you know, I did do well in art and I did do well in like any type of activities or anything. But as far as like being book smart, I just didn't have it. And I. My attention span was so short. I've never been diagnosed with like ADD or adhd, but I'm pretty sure that I have it. So I ended up, you know, looking back, I pretty much had F's my whole life. So school just, it was really difficult for me. And then by the time, you know, I was 14 years old, my mother and I, we just bucked heads so much and I had gotten in a lot of trouble and I Didn't really respect her for a lot of things. And so she ended up kicking me out at 14. Left home and was just kind of astray for many years. It was. It was tough. I've gone through, you know, depression. I've gone through drug abuse, long stance of drug abuse. I even have, you know, a history with the law. You know, like, I've gone to jail. I didn't spend long periods of time in jail, but there were times where I got in trouble and I have a record. And I just. There was some one day I just said, you know what? I was just fighting. I was putting all my energy into not knowing what, you know, my, my future was like. I felt like I was out of control all the time. And just one day it just hit me. I was like, you know, I'm in control of my own destiny. And I don't know what really made me just kind of snap and not, you know, I blamed a lot of people in my past for where I was. And the day that I decided not to blame anyone anymore, but to hold myself accountable was the day that my life changed. So I just started working really, really hard. I'd have to. I mean, you know, I didn't have an education, so obviously I was like doing, you know, odd jobs and waiting tables and things like that. And I would even go to the flea market and I would make jewelry or keychains or like dream catchers and things like that. And I would sell them and they'd sell out immediately. But I had a hard time with. I didn't have anywhere to live for a long time and I didn't have transportation. So holding a job down was very difficult for me. If you don't have. If you don't have a support group and you don't have any transportation, that's how people really end up in bad situations and just never come back from it because it's just difficult to climb out from that hole. But I was determined. I was, you know, I went from job to job, but eventually I, you know, saved enough of money where I could purchase a vehicle. And then of course it would. It would break down because it wasn't very nice car. But I just always had these kind of experiences. It was just like another hurdle to climb. But every single time it would knock me down. I just said, you know what? I'm not gonna let this happen. It's not gonna beat me. I'm not gonna let this, you know, And I still, to this day, you know, had those same types of feelings But. But. And then, you know, I had my daughter. I got pregnant with my daughter. I said that I was never gonna have children, and she wasn'. It was definitely the best thing that ever happened to me because once I had her, it made me want to get out of the, like, the bar type scenes where I was bartending and waiting tables. And I wanted something that was going to me that I could be proud of for her, you know, and that she could be proud of her mom. And so from the day that happened was another turning point in my life where I said, you know what? I've got to do better than what I'm even doing now. So I just always have these goals and, you know, I set goals and I try to crush them. You know, I don't. I just don't want to back down from a challenge, and it's hard, but. Yeah. So, I mean, that's kind of the short of it. I could get, you know, pretty graphic with some of the things that I've been through, but it was a very, very difficult life. It really was. But I am living proof that if you want better, you can have better.

We could spend all day and then some on this topic. And yes, I think a book is probably in the future what you've gone through. But do you remember, like, during that time, was there an influence that you can remember a book that you read, someone you met, something someone said to you that was like a light or an aha moment that you finally were able to make that mindset shift and see that there was a way out for yourself?

Yes. Honestly, this is completely honest and transparent. I had friends that were dying from drug overdoses. And this was at a time where I was. I was also doing drugs, and I had been for a while. I overdosed and did not die. And so I. God, just is like. It was weird. It was just like I had a message from God that said, hey, this is it. You know, you. You're, you know, this is your last chance. You know, you either straighten up or, you know, it's just kind weird. I don't know if you've ever had an experience or if you believe in that type stuff, but I just had something come over me that said, you know, look, this is it. This is. You've got to change. And that was the turning point for me and to not accept this type of stuff that I've seen my whole life or that I had experienced my whole life that I thought was the way that you're supposed to live. And I just I just had, like, an awakening that day. And ever since then, I never touched it again, you know, and it was just. I can only give it to God because that is exactly what happened.

That gives me goosebumps just to hear that. That mortality moment and facing that. Wow.

And that's. That's the. That's the truth.

Yeah. Well, glory be. First of all, that is amazing. And God's got power that we don't even know how to begin to understand. So hearing that is a true testimony.

Do you.

Do you feel like today kind of when you look back on that, when you fight? Because we all kind of fight from time to time, I think, as entrepreneurs, too, going back to being depressed or overwhelmed or even going back to a dark place. Are there things that you remember from that time, Sayings or motivation or even just reliving that moment inside of yourself that pull you out of those dark times that still may come today?

I guess in a sense, yes. It's more of a feeling. It's not like really having to pep talk me myself. It's just like, you know, hey, you've done. You've overcome way more stuff than this. You know, stop being a baby. You know, this is nothing, what you've gone through. Hello. I mean, it could be way worse, Liz. But I tend to internalize everything, and I take everybody else's and put it on my plate. I'm really bad about that. The lady today, she told me, she said that I'm a empty. Like, empathize with everybody or like, I hold it. And she's right. I don't even know the word for that. But I carry not only my stuff, I carry everybody else's stuff around, too. So I'm trying to work on that.

I heard that you're not alone. Is that an empath or something like that?

Yes. She's like, quit being a mirror. I mean, quit being a sponge and be a mirror. You know, look in the mirror and be a mirror. Not as fun. So it's pretty strong, you know? And she's this lady. She cooks for me. I have Crohn's disease, so that's another thing that I have to deal with as well. And I don't know if it was stuff that I did to myself or it started when I had my daughter after I had my C section. Immediately after that, I developed Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis after my C section, But. So she cooks for me. But she's such a huge. Makes a huge impact in my life because not only does she help me with my body and she helps me with my soul, and she's just like, you know, stop being a sponge and be a mirror. And I'm like, whoa, that's pretty deep.

That is deep.

Oh, my goodness.

Do you think, you know, as you listen to people like Gary Vee and all these inspiring people on social media as they're talking about their stories of how they got to where they are, you know, Gary Vee flunked out of school and had all these adverse things happen, do you think that challenge that you figured out how to overcome was what sparked your entrepreneurial spirit?

Oh, you know, I think so. I think a lot of it has to do with. For me, maybe not for everyone else, but I think it was kind of a defense mechanism. For a long time. It was just like that. I had no choice but to think of new ideas and put things in motion. Because if I didn't, because I didn't have anything, I didn't have any safety net. So it wasn't any time where I could just kind of sit back and idle. So I think that has a lot to do with me always feeling like I need to go to the next phase or need to grow or need to change because I'm just so used to it, because of.

So.

I mean, my things have happened. So much has happened in my life, so I'm just maybe more, you know, desensitized by change, I think. And so I feel like that's probably why I'm the way that I am, because of having to overcome all that stuff. But I'd like to think that my daughter, you know, she's probably not going to have to deal with as much as I did as a child or a teenager. But I'm hoping that she's able to have that same spirit as I do. But I don't know the answer to that. That's something that I still haven't really, you know, figured out for myself. So it's a question that I have in my mind every day. Why people. Why people are wired different like that.

How did you get started when you had your daughter, then you went into the children's line and then began Southern Fried Chicks after that. How did that transition come to be?

Well, the recession, it was huge. So I was basically selling wholesale to, you know, tons of different small boutiques in America. And they. Once the recession hit, you know, my. My outfits were selling for, you know, retail, you know, above $100, you know, sometimes upwards in like $200. And it was pretty well known. It was, you know, it was also like one of, you know, the wear the ruffles and all that kind of stuff. It wasn't like the smocked stuff. It was kind of like I was one of the pioneers of that where it was like the more kind of like Matilda Jane ended up after me where she kind of took kind of that same look. And I'm sure a lot of people know who Matilda Jane is, but just the whole ruffle thing, that was what Chatty Patty was. So. But it was expensive because it had a lot of fabric. And so whenever the recession happened, it, you know, I sold to bigger brands like Zulily. I was like one of the first people that Zulily put on. It was like in the beginning phases of Zulily, it was. They were probably doing it out of the garage, you know, and even Hot look and Rue La La and all those. Those like, flash sale type companies. I was doing a lot of business with them because my stores were going out of business left and right. And they were actually, you know, they. I had. I had given a pretty good bit of people net terms and, you know, I had extended the terms myself. It wasn't like I did it through CIT or anything like that. So when they went out of business and they had the product, I didn't get the product back. The bank owned the product. I took a pretty big hit with that. So I just, you know, there was a lot of ways that I was able to restructure the company and downsize because I didn't have a lot of employees. So I was able to kind of go with the flow when it did, when the recession did happen and I started working with Zulily and companies like that. And so. But I got really bored with the numbers game, you know, because you're sitting in front of a computer all day long. I did design and manufacture and I flew to New York and I worked with my, you know, sourcing agents and I did all that kind of stuff. But it just got so, you know, I mean, I was behind a computer screen and, you know, I'm light brain. I need to talk to people. I need to be able to interact with people. And so I just started going to trade shows myself, which was more of like the, you know, like Southern women's show, Southern Christmas show, Junior League shows. So I could get out and about and. And just talk to people again. Because I worked from home. You know, I was a single mom and it was like I felt like I was just Kind of in my dungeon all the time, you know, so. And I didn't sewing sew anymore, but it was just more of a lot of spreadsheets and things like that. And you know, some people enjoy that, but I don't. So, so then I started going to these trade shows and doing these cash and carry things and it was just so much fun and I enjoyed it and like, you know, I just felt that happiness again and just the passion was coming back to me. And so I started buying women's stuff because at that point my daughter was over older and everybody still loved Chatty Patty. But my interests were changing and I noticed a shift in the market because back before the, the recession, people were spending ridiculous amounts on, of money on clothing. And during that time, whenever everybody, you know, zulily, it skyrocketed. I saw all these other flash sale companies start to like, really do well. I'm like, you know what? I've got to offer women's and children's clothing at an affordable price because people still want to look the same. You don't want to look any different because you're, you know, don't have the same amount of money. Your taste is your taste. And so I decided that I wanted to offer up a lower price point at that point. And I said, you know, I, I was just really dedicated to be able to find the look for less. And this was, you know, five, six years ago. And I, you know, so I started bringing these stuff, just, you know, some of these things that I would pick out, like jewelry, you know, because jewelry is affordable. You can, you could spend 20 to $40 on a piece of jewelry. And sometimes that's kind of makes your outfit. So I started out with jewelry and handbags and just like, you know, really fun niche things. And then I started going into clothing for women. I didn't make it. I was, I was just buying it and it went crazy. It took off at those shows and I had, I was posting it on my own Facebook page. And so many people were coming to my house wanting clothes, wanted me to do, you know, home parties. And I couldn't handle the amount of people that were coming to my house wanting to try on these clothes and stuff. And not to mention, I didn't want to have to have my house clean all the time. And my, you know, I had worked from home for a long time. I could work in my underwear for years. So I didn't want people coming to my house. So I had to decide to open a store within like a month. And so that's what I did. I opened a store and as soon as I opened the doors, I was my, my idea, the, with the company Southern Fried Chicks. It was a little store for people to be able to come and buy those, those things that I was picking out for women and have a design studio in the back where I'm not designing out of my home still. And to be able to, you know, work out of my Chatty Patty, have just kind of like my corporate office in the back. I still have my distribution center in Fort Mail that would ship and pick and pack and everything for. But I didn't have to have the inventory stock with me for Chatty Patty so I could have a little small space and a little store. But that's not how it went down. It was like people just were basically before I even was opened. I had to open the store like several days before we were even able to do our soft opening because I couldn't, I couldn't even paint the walls without people knocking on the door. It was crazy. It was, it was insane. So. But yeah, that's how it ended up happening. And then the progression of Southern Fried Chicks, that's a whole nother story. But that's how it started.

So was it. It was in person and the vendor shows first and then commerce that took off like wildfire.

Second, yes. The E Commerce didn't come until a little bit later. And the reason why E Commerce came was because number one, you know, I had already had websites with, with Chatty Patty, but I had more of a whole. I had a wholesale website. I never did retail because I didn't want to compete with my customers. That was back then. That was a big, big, you know. No, no, you know, our store, the stores, those higher end boutiques, they didn't want to compete with you. It was a different game back then than it is now. Now people just, you know that brands don't care. They're so they'll sell to wholesale and they'll sell retail. You know, there's just no lines really with that. I don't think anymore. Maybe there are. If they're, if there are, I don't know about them, but back then I didn't compete with my customers. I wanted them to feel like I was protecting their price point, you know, because I put it on sale a lot easier than they could and I still could do that now. So I mean, that's just kind of the way that it works, you know, because my margins are better at retail, you know. But, but yeah.

So how did you make that e commerce site then when you started on the retail side with Southern Fried Chicks, how did that take off? Was it those local customers who were already so excited about what you were doing, they jumped on it with their friends and it went viral or how that though.

So I started a website because I was already in, you know, already was aware of E commerce just in a different level, but I was doing wholesale, but I had a lot of traffic wholesale. So I was already doing it, but just on a wholesale level. So with that already being something that I'm used to, I'm like, I would just have to have a website because I already had websites. It was like I probably had four websites with Chatty Patty. And so, you know, it was just one of those things. You've already done it several times. Why wouldn't you do it with this company? So I opened it with not any like real hopes of that, that that was gonna completely take off because I didn't think that I could sustain it anyway, you know, with already having Chatty Patty opening the store, the store was like really hard to handle because I mean it literally the first month that it was open, I mean, I couldn't believe how much sales I did. And I didn't even decorate the place. It really looks very makes shipped. But you know, when I did open the website, it wasn't like this full on like great e commerce platform. It was just like a, just a really inexpensive website. So I started a Facebook page because I was tired of people asking me to buy stuff on my personal page at that point. So I opened, you know, the Southern Fried Chicks pages and we had 2,000 followers within like a couple weeks. And I'm like, whoa, like I am on to something. Something is up with this Southern Fried Chicks thing. You know, maybe I need to start thinking about it a little bit more than Chatty Patty. So I started really actively myself putting all my time into the social media part of Southern projects. Not Chatty Patty anymore. And once I shifted my, shifted that, that, that energy into that one, it completely skyrocketed. Okay, so it didn't go viral until probably about three to four, maybe three to six months later. I'm not sure the timeline, but there was a day and that's. This is crazy. I don't even know if you would believe this or who's going to believe this, but the day that I went viral, my employees, when I was posting the picture that I was going to post, it was before all the algorithms and everything. And it was a picture of a giveaway that I was gonna do. And my employees thought that I was crazy. They're like, oh, my God, you're gonna post that. That is. That looks awful. I'm like, but this is my company. I'm gonna post it. And you guys have to respond to the post. You know, I get a lot of kickback from some of the people that work for me because I always push the envelope, but I posted it anyway. But the post before I posted the giveaway was. It was like a. It was a note, and I hope I'll try to send it to you one day, but it's saying all these beau. Beautiful things. And it was just like a handwritten note. And at the end it was signed, God. That was the post that I posted right before this other one, this other post with the. With the bracelets. It went viral, the giveaway. It went viral. And literally for like a month, my phone at the shop, I would pick it up, it would ring, I would pick it up. People would ask me for. For to buy these bracelets. I would hang up and then they would call me right back. It literally went viral, and it lasted for a very long time. My website at the time had. We didn't have stock really right in the website. I was just a little tiny store. The thing that I did share on the giveaway, it was in the website because obviously I was trying to sell it online, but it let the brace set a bracelets order infinity. So I woke up the next day after this thing went viral, and I had 500 orders in the queue just for that one set of bracelets. And I'm like, I don't even have 500 bracelets. What am I going to do? How many did you have on stock at that time? Oh, probably five. I don't know. Maybe one. I don't know. That's a good question. Probably one. But with, you know, the way that I am, I was like, there is no way. I'm not going to get these people what they want. I am going to get them what they want. People wanted them so bad that I couldn't turn away, you know, So I ended up finding the manufacturer. Because I have a manufacturing background. I kind of know some of the secrets. You know, I've been doing it for a long time. I knew how to, you know, kind of smoke it out, I guess you would call it, or I would call it. And I found these bracelets. I found the supplier in China and I ordered like 30,000 of them. And I Sold every single one of them. So that's how it started.

That is so awesome. Oh, my gosh.

All new bracelets.

Did you save some for yourself? So you have a keepsake? I hope you did.

No, I didn't. I'll sell everything that I have. I don't keep anything, honey. No, I am going to sell it.

Man. So at that time, did you know when you were building it? I mean, a lot of times when boutiques get started, their ideal customer is a lot like themselves, a lot like the owner. Did you feel like it went viral because you immediately were sharing some of who you were? Like that note from God that you shared before those bracelets?

I would. I would think I would. I'd hope. Think so. You know, when your company gets out of hand, when it grows that fast, it's really hard to really, you know, build your branding because the company kind of took a life of its own. It still does. I mean, I call it Taming the Beast. All right, I'm gonna go in and tame the beast today, you know, because. Because that's what it is. If you don't tame it, it just has a life of its own. And, you know, now I'm trying to, like I said earlier with you before we started, you know, I'm trying to slow down to go faster. I can't really infuse who I am and what I want to do because the sales are so rapid and trying to keep up with the orders and trying to make sure that the customer service is on point. So then I have all these behind the scene things that I'm dealing with, with. And I can't really even focus on putting that out there. But I hope. I really, really hope that I can. And this is a start of that, you know, me taking the time before, I would have never sat down to talk to anyone. I've never, never done pr. I've never done any. I mean, for that matter, I haven't even done, like, much SEO or, you know, I haven't done Google, AdWords. All these things that everybody's so, like, really wrapped up in. I haven't been able to do because I've had to wrangle this whole, like, crazy beast of a company and not knowing anything about it, you know, and trying to teach myself as I go.

So let's talk about that, because I'm sure there's people that are going to be listening, going, but how, you know, but how do I replicate that? Or how do I do that? Which you and I both know some of that is luck. God. Being in the right place at the right time and just having that magnetic energy and personality. Right, right.

Absolutely. Very important energies. And I find. I mean, I'm worn out a lot. You know, it's difficult. You know, people ask me how all the time. I wish I could tell them, but I think, yes, it's luck, and there's also, you know, blessings and all that stuff. But it's also. You have to put work before yourself. Yes, I have lost a lot of myself in the process because it's really hard to balance. You know, I used to work out every day. I used to, you know, be able to spend time with my. I still have my Christmas tree up. That is a real thing that's happening in my life. I can't. I was lucky to have a Christmas tree. I didn't have a Christmas tree for four years. That's a joke. So I wasn't even able to have a Christmas tree because throughout the holidays, I didn't even know it was the holidays because I'm having to make sure that everybody else's holidays are okay and that they get what they want. So, you know, you have to put your customers before yourself, and you have to put your employees before yourself, because you. If they're out sick, you got to jump in and do their job. That's your. That. That's your job. That's your title, you know, so if you're not willing to, you know, if you're not willing to give up your, you know, things that you want for yourself, you're not. You're not gonna. You're not gonna be able to succeed in this type of business. It's a very selfless business business because you have to be here. You have to be present. If you step out for, you know, a week or two, you come back and there's a lot. There's a lot that's happened because it is fast fashion. And it's been coined fast fashion. And it is. It's the truth. I feel like it's the truth. It's so hard to. To plan. It's so hard to even, you know, gauge what is going to happen, because it is fast fashion. And my. I think. And this is probably a topic that we can talk about in a little bit. Hardest part about dealing with fast fashion. I mean, this is a space, this is a niche, and I am in that type of fast fashion niche. I'm trying to change that with manufacturing and building my brand because I am relying on so many different small companies that are Affordable prices for my own success and their quality and their timing and the way that they send their POS or their boxes or their quality control, that all affects me. So that's the hardest part. It's really, really, really difficult dealing with these brands that we're dealing with.

I want to come back and definitely talk about that. I want to talk more about wholesale, but I want to go back to something you mentioned. Just a minute to go first. And that's your team. I want to go back because you can't do it alone. You, you know, already got to be selfless. How do you keep your team engaged? How do you build culture and how do you retain them once you've got them hired?

So with. Okay, so that's, that's a, that's going to be probably a long winded question. I mean, answer too. So with me being who I am, I tend to want to gravitate to people that I might be able to help make a difference in their life that doesn't necessarily have the training or the experience. And so if I have, if I feel good about you in my gut a lot of times, then, you know, you're hired. I'm gonna find something for you to do. That has hurt me and that has helped me. The way that it's helped me is it has created an environment that I can stand to work in because of the people and to know that we are trying to do something different. But at the same time, a lot of times they're not experienced in what we're doing here. So it can cause problems and some setbacks. But at the end of the day, I have to remember this is not just about how far we can go. It's about, you know, how we're gonna do it while we're doing it and how many people we can make happy. That's what we. What I really like to focus on. And the customer comes first. And then the people that do work here, they, you know, they love it. It's. They're very passionate people as well, so they tend to really love the company. But a lot of times they get way over invested emotionally because it is hard, you know, and so they pick up on like a lot of things that I'm going through and they, they want to, you know, dive in and try to help with a lot of those things. And it's difficult. And sometimes people, it breaks them, you know, because it's, it's not a regular company, it's not a regular kind of job. So you learn a lot working Here. And a lot of the people that. That are here now, they're just. They're. They're so ready. They're so ready for the next step. All these big things that we're to going one. There's people that have. It has broken, and they come back now. It's just so funny. Like, even yet today or yesterday, I got a friend request on Facebook from a girl that I thought I would never see again because she was just so upset when she left here. But now she's looking back on it, she's like, wow. You know, it's a. It's a. It's a lot of hard work, and it's blood, sweat, and tears, and it's very gritty. It's not fabulous. And, you know, this. A lot of people think, oh, I'm going to get in the fashion industry. It's going to be, you know, know, glamour, glitz and glamour. But that's not what this is about. Maybe having a storefront is that way, but even a storefront, you know, you're having open boxes, steamed clothes, you're having to put it out. It's kind of dirty, too. You know, it's a. It's a great job. And so some of these girls, they come in thinking that it's going to be some kind of, like, you know, fashion show all the time, and it's just not. And so I think. I think keeping them around is if they can. If they can make it through a couple seasons, then. Then they're good to go. They're going to stay here. But sometimes, you know, especially during Cyber week and Cyber Monday, I mean, people fall off. You know, it's hard because you've got to work. And when everybody else wants to be with their family at Thanksgiving, when everybody wants to be Christmas shopping, we're just not allowed to do it. We're having to work overtime at that time, you know, so it's hard.

Do you think the same is true? I apologize for interrupting. Do you think the same is true not just for your employees, but also new retailers in this industry? Do you think new boutique owners come in and. And don't always know how hard it.

Is to give up? Absolutely. My daughter. I just remember my daughter having to go to sleep underneath, you know, my desk a lot of times, you know, even on school nights, because, you know, you just. You had to be there, you know, if. If your sales were down that. That day and you had a big shipment that come in that you've already paid for, well, you're gonna have to. You're gonna have to tag it and price it and put it out, you know, because you're leaving money on the table if you don't. And you've got to pay payroll and you have to, you know, you have to. To filter that product out. And that's another thing. I've never had business loans. All this is paid, paid for. It's all paid for cash. So, you know, that's another reason why it's so difficult for me, because I never wanted to bite off more than I could chew, and I didn't want to have a bunch of business loans or I want to be able to sleep at night when I do get home to sleep, you know, so. But yeah, it's. It's. It's a lot. It's a. It's a lot. And if you have a family, you just have to prepare yourself. You know, your. Your child is going to have to be infused into your business. There really no separation with my life. I don't have a balance. My balance. Everything's the same for me. Even when I'm on vacation, I'm still working. And even if it's not that I'm on my phone or on a computer, there's people asking me what I do for a living. And then I always find myself in these conversations because they're just like, they want to know more. They want to know more. So I end up having conversations about Southern fried chicks all the time. So. So, yeah.

Would you say that the benefits far outweigh some of those challenges? Like, as you look back, do you say to yourself, I wouldn't have it any other way. It's a challenge. Balance is a struggle. But by gosh, I am here.

Absolutely. I would never change one thing, even if I do not make it. If something happens and Southern fried chicks falls into the earth and burns, you know, I would never change one thing. Only because I follow my heart.

Let's go back to that. How. Because you are spot on with where you've come from, what you've created, and it's 100% worth it when people are listening and they. They want to get there, too. Let's talk about riding that Facebook algorithm wave, right? Some people talk about the stock market crash, and we talk about the Facebook algorithm crash. How do you guide those waves and still continue to grow through all of that?

That is really hard because that's a really bad subject for me right now because I'm really dealing with that right now emotionally. I have invested so much time, money, and Just everything my heart and soul into, you know, social media platforms, Instagram, I didn't jump on that boat as soon as I should have. If I would have, I would have had probably over a million followers too. But with Facebook, I have spent so much and even helping them create their platform, you know, if it wasn't people like me that has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, they wouldn't have all the money that they have to be able to do all these powerful things. And, you know, I feel like we're going through some more shifts and changes again. I know we are with Instagram, but even with Facebook, it's just a constant change. And I understand that you have to keep it fresh, but I think that the way that they have, you know, basically decided who sees what has just really put a bad taste in my mouth because I have followers that have chosen like me, because they want to like me. They want to see my stuff. And now they don't have. They don't have the chance to even see it unless I pay for it. And I think that's wrong because I paid my dues with them. And so now with the percentage rate that sees my actual post, it's very depressing. It really is. And so if I would have spent all of that money that I have put into Facebook, into Instagram, into my own SEO or my own manufacturing, you know, where would I be right now? Because right now I feel like I've been robbed. I feel like I'm getting like, strong arm robbed every day because of the way that Facebook is doing everybody at this point. So it's a pretty bad subject with me right now because I have spent.

So much money and you're not alone. I hear that so much. Do you feel like you're working right now to diversify what that looks like?

I mean, I'm just trying now I'm just trying to swallow the big pill, you know, I'm trying to swallow the big pill emotionally that I basically feel like I'm getting robbed. I don't know if you've ever been broken into before or had anybody break in your house, but it's very similar feeling that when you, you put so much in trust and, you know, investment into something and then someone just basically takes it from you or it's just like, ha, just kidding, you know, so right now, emotionally, that's what I'm dealing with it now internally, we having meetings every day and we are trying to somewhat, you know, figure out how to keep our same business model. I've had to change my business model so many times because of our social media. And you know, that's, that is really difficult. But if you're wanting to, you know, stay in this social media game, that's just what you got to do, you know, and we're not ready to give up on it yet, you know, because, I mean, look how many followers we have. You know, what do you do? What do you do at this point? But yeah, I mean, that's another reason why we're doing a lot of these other changes is because we'll have a lot more space to manufacture and to have better margins on our things and to be able to put more money into advertising in other places. I think that's kind of my goal right now. I like to see Facebook and Instagram, you know, really care about, you know, the, you know, the little guys. I guess, you know, the big box stores are going to come back. You know, we're putting people like that out of business. But it's a money's game at this point. So that's a little, that's a little unnerving because, you know, the people that did invest all the money in the beginning, it's. We don't really have a lot to show for it.

Tell us about you were hacked on Facebook not that long ago. What was that experience like?

Well, and you're talking, I mean, another bad subject with Facebook. You know, I, again, I was hacked and we've tried to contact them for several days. We could not get a phone call back. We couldn't get response the someone. Okay, so it's kind of a long story. I'll try to keep it as short as possible. My employees, they log in and they do, you know, nights and weekends on social media. Well, one of the girls that worked for me at the time, she had a Galaxy phone, it was like a Galaxy Note and she was ha. She had some type of malware on her phone. Apple products, they don't have that as much. It can happen, but it's, it's very rarely that it does. Well, they, they put some malware on her phone and it was a keystroke repetitiveness basically. And so she would, she had typed in the password several times. So we got hacked. So they ended up taking these people. We found out later that they were in Kosovo and, and the FBI, you know, they have all this stuff to the information of who they were, but it was bait clicking and they were basically served. They took me off as a, you know, and put me as a moderator and I couldn't I couldn't do anything. I couldn't shut the site down or anything. So they were posting pornography, very raunchy stuff. Even like children, like very inappropriate things. The way bait clicking works is that companies, real legit companies will advertise with these companies that do this bait clicking. I don't know if you've ever seen like, even some of these raunchy kind of like kind of cartoonish looking things and people just, it's kind of like a train wreck. They can't not look at it. You wouldn't believe the click open rate that our site skyrocketed for analytics because it was showing all these nasty things. But it was just basically advertisements. Once you get in there, it was companies advertising with them. So there's like all these, like foreign companies that do this. So anyway, anyway, I had, I couldn't get any help with Facebook and I was, to the point that I was, I was having a nervous breakdown because I. The stuff that was being served was, you know, exactly what my brand is not about. It was, it was just, it was disgusting pornography and stuff. And so I just kind of balled up in the corner and, you know, I couldn't do anything. I didn't know what to do. And my husband, he was, he's not my husband at the time, but he was, he was there. He came in one day and it was like four days later. We had already lost probably a hundred thousand followers at that point that I had, you know, really worked hard on getting. And he says, you know, Liz, there's this lady that I've heard on a podcast. He listens to podcasts. I've never, you know, I've never listened to podcasts, but he listens podcasts. She worked for the White House. She did Internet security. He's like, I'm going to figure out who she is. And I'm like, find her. She's in Charlotte somewhere. We were right outside of Charlotte. And so within like a day, he had found her and she was out of town and we couldn't get in touch with her. And I sent her a note and I told her what was going on and what the people were doing and how many girls that I had working for me and how many women that I have following me and, you know, and showing her some of the pictures. And immediately after I sent that email, she called me. She's like, look, she's like, I'm out of town right now at a soccer thing for my son, my daughter, son. She's like, but I'M getting on this right now. She's like, you know, one of her co workers, he was in India at the time. And she said, he's in India, but he's flying in tonight. As soon as he gets home, I'm gonna have him get on it immediately in the morning after he rests. She had my site back up. I mean, well, my Facebook back within like several hours.

Wow.

It was unbelievable. But I had to pay for it, you know, so. So the reason why I want to tell this story is because I was lucky enough that I had the money to pay her, you know, and it was not cheap. It was not cheap. But, you know, Facebook did not protect me. They did not do anything about it. So you are responsible for your own, you know, logins and things. You have to change your logins. You have to be careful with what devices you log in on. The two step verification process is beautiful. Probably eventually they'll figure out how to hack that too. I'm using this thing called LastPass now where you don't even have to type in anything. You go into LastPass and you put all of your passwords in there so you don't have to do all that. But LastPass has been hacked too. So there's a lot of hacking going on out there in the world and you just have to really be aware of it. It can happen to you. I would have never in a million years thought what happened to me. But the day that my employee called me and she was crying, I heard it in her voice and I just knew something was bad. It was really, really bad. And we. I mean, it could have put us out of business. You know, we had hate mail. We had people calling us, telling us, how dare you show my daughter this. My daughter's 13 years old and she's following you. I mean, and all I could do was cry, you know, because I'm hurting people whenever. All I want to do is help people. People. Yeah. So just try not to be a victim, man.

What was the rebound like from that? I mean, just customer service campaigns. People came back and understood anymore. It's getting so common. You would think people would see that more often these days.

Well, what we experienced was people trying to tell us what we needed to do. Just shut down your page or you need to go in, into this setting and you need to do this, you need to. That we couldn't even post on our page. We couldn't even post anything. We'd have to go in as ourselves and send them messages. So for months, I mean, we had people having to go through, like emails and stuff because we were really bombarded. We probably had thousands and thousands of messages from people and we wanted to. We didn't want to not respond to them because that was a potential customer that we could get back on our follow to follow us again. But it really scared a lot of people because then they thought that they would be compromised or that they didn't want to order from us anymore because we were hacked on Facebook. It didn't have anything to do with our website, think, thankfully, you know, or our terminal, you know, our payment terminals or anything like that, which we have high security on. But Facebook, Facebook obviously doesn't have high security. So, you know, they, I mean, we did. We lost a lot of customers. Yeah. For that. So, I mean, people don't understand it. People just don't really quite understand it yet. And it's happening. You hear it on the news and things like that. But I don't think people really understand what it can do to you.

Let's shift gears a little bit and talk about your role in the business. When you're driving this big ship, you just looking at you and your business and if you could give advice to someone else who's listening, running their own boutique business business. Where is your time most valuable today in your business and what reports and metrics and tasks do you think are the biggest rocks for you to move each and every day?

For me, I feel like where I flourish in the company is buying, designing, manufacturing and the marketing side of it. I'm more of an ideas person. If I could recommend if anyone was going to start a company or if they're in a business and they have the same kind of, you know, personality type as me, they need to find someone that is like their right hand, that is an organized, you know, organized type person that is.