Building Meaningful Relationships with Your Customers with Ashley McPherson, CEO of Macoma...

Hey, we're back. It is time for episode number 301 with my friend Ashley McPherson, the founder of Macomba Boutique. Let's talk about your business strategy and the juicy details of what actually works, from mainstream fashion to fashion on Main street and the entire ecosystem behind it. How do we scale your company and do it with the balance and the happiness that we all seek? Let's hear from those insiders, experts and strategists that actually make it happen. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub and I can't wait to chat.

This week.

I'm so excited for you guys to meet my friend, Ashley McPherson, the founder of Makoma Boutique. You know, as I think about season three and the guest that I'm so excited to bring on this show, we're talking a lot about how did you not just survive but fail thrive in the last crazy year of business that we've had? Ashley has always been someone who is a shining light inside of the boutique hub. She is such a giving spirit that is willing to share her ups and her downs, you know, every in and out of what's been working and what's not been working in her business honestly and fearlessly. And so today on the episode, she's really going to deep dive into what her business has looked like from start to finish. But how did she attain such a awesome growth inside of the last year? If you're someone who is a busy wife and mom with a growing business, if you do live sales and you want to know how to master that customer engagement interaction through live sales, Ashley is definitely your gal. Can't wait for you guys to listen to this episode. Hey, guys. Welcome back to this week's show. I'm so excited because there, there's always people inside of the boutique hub. I feel like who I see their posts on a regular basis and they're always lifting other people up and that is definitely today's guest. So I'm so excited to introduce you to Ashley McPherson from Acomba Boutique. Gosh, Ashley, you've been a hub member for an awfully long time and it's been pretty awesome to watch your journey. So I can't wait to share your story today.

Hi. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much for asking me. I was like, I'm just so honored. Like, I just. I freaked out when you asked me to be on here. So excited to be here.

Oh, thank you. Well, you've definitely been a light, that is for sure. And I love being Able to share those stories for a number of different reasons. But I want to start here. I think we've got a lot to cover today for everyone who's listening. But I want to start, kind of lay the groundwork for me of where your boutique is at, what type of boutique you have, what are your main sales channels. Kind of give me the picture of like who your boutique is today.

Okay. So we are pretty much all online. I've been in the boutique world for about two years now and I was with another company before I started this and transitioned two years ago on my own. I started doing this out of my house and it moved about a year ago to a 1500 square foot warehouse. This year we grew out of the that warehouse. So we actually just moved about a month ago to a 6,000 square foot warehouse. And I have, I have about, I have four full time employees, about three more part time ones. And we are pretty much right now doing everything with comments. Sold. So we do live sales. Our app is a really, really big thing for us. We sell a lot through our live sales and through our app and obviously we have our Facebook group, our Facebook page and that's kind of, that's kind of what we're doing. We're live most days of the week. And it's just turned into my. The live selling is kind of the backbone of our business. We love it. I love, I just enjoy it so much. I, I have like my customers like you. I just have my customers that get on there and it's fun because I feel when I go live, it's kind of turned into laughing and fun and you know, it's a community on there. And I just look so like my live nights, I really, really look forward to them. And it's just funny because it's turned into so much more than just going live and selling clothes. Like I look forward to hanging out with these women at night after my kids are in bed.

You've definitely built some relationships with your customers. Like it's a community around your brand, wouldn't you say? More than just a boutique?

Absolutely, absolutely. We're actually talking about. My customers have brought it up and we're actually talking about hopefully next year maybe planning some kind of like retreat where everybody can come here. And it's, it's just literally like sometimes it brings tears to my eyes to like see like the other day two girls that have been just boutique, like members of the boutique, like just customers forever. They actually realized on a post that they live near each other and they Went to lunch and went out shopping at Home Goods and like, they're like, friends now and hang out together, like in their town together, and met through my online boutique, which is just like the coolest thing ever to me.

Isn't that so cool? I feel that same way about the hub when I see boutique owners who get to be best friends and they, like, travel to market together and, you know, have never met each other in person per se, but all of a sudden they're besties.

Yeah, it's really cool. That's actually like, my boutique bestie is like, that's, you know, I met her, I. I knew of her in Lularoe, but, like, we bec friends when we, like, left. And then I was actually making a trip to LA and was like, hey. She, you know, she said, hey, I would love to come, like, next time that you go to la. And I'm like, I'm going on Wednesday. Do you want to come? This was Sunday night, and she actually booked the flight and came with me. And now we travel to all the markets together.

That's so awesome. That's so awesome.

I.

And if it's who I think you're talking about, you guys just got together for her grand opening too, right?

That's actually another friend. I have a lot of friends. I'm a big. I'm super into community over competition. Like, I am friends with everybody, and I think that it's really cool. I think our customers love seeing it too. I think they love seeing other business owners support each other.

Yeah, I think that says a lot about who you are, and I feel like that's a hard lesson for people who are maybe newer to this industry or newer to that mindset to wrap their head around. Right. Because society tells us you have to compete with someone who is next door, but boy, it sure opens doors for you when you are in the mindset of sharing and there's abundance in the world around you.

So, I mean, community over competition. Like, my theory about that is that there is enough success for anybody in this world that's willing to work for it. And what a better place and what a better country for we would have if everybody would just support each other and not just compete against each other. Like, there's, you know, you have to think about it, like, as a whole, like, it's just to. Just to create a positive, you know, a positive environment between you and other boutique owners. And people see that and that. That feeling of positivity and community, it just. It just spreads like wildfire. I Feel. And I just think that everybody can benefit from a little bit more positivity and, and, you know, just joining together. I have to tell you that one of my favorite things is, like, when somebody calls me and asks me for advice and I always, I talk to everybody. My, my husband, I'll come. I literally, I'll get home from work every day. He's like, who are you on the phone with now? I'm like, oh, just a friend. She lives in. Blah, blah, blah. And he's like another boutique owner. I'm like, yeah, I just, I just love, like, I love swapping ideas and I love helping people. And I love so much when people come to me and they're like, it meant so much that you talked to me and what you told me really helped. Like, I get so much gratification out of that and it just really makes me happy. So I think that if everybody focuses on like, those good things and like the good that you're bringing to other people, it's just gonna, it's just gonna come back to you. Like, it's just gonna bring good things back to you. So, um, I think that that's my, that's my big theory on community over competition.

I love that. It's kind of like what you give, you will receive or give what you want to receive, right? Exactly. Yeah. So I want to hear more about this and kind of how this has changed your business. Let me back up a step though. So when we are recording this, I know you guys are going to be listening to this and we've recorded it previously. We're just wrapping up the Black Friday season. Talk to me about, like, the growth that you've had in the last year and kind of what that Black Friday season looked like for you. Because I want to come back to kind of how our businesses evolve and some of the ups and downs that we face.

So it was actually right before Black Friday last year. I think it was October, and we had just moved out of my house finally and I had bought a space and we moved into it and my business kind of took a nosedive sales wise, and I had hired people and now I have this, this mortgage to pay and all these other expenses. You think about the mortgage a lot of times when you first move in, but you don't realize, like, you're not sure what the electric bill is going to cost and all that, you know, payroll now. And it just was getting to be a lot. And I hit a point where I was said to my husband, like, I don't I don't know if I can do this anymore. Like, honestly, I had thought about quitting and seeing if maybe another boutique in the area would hire me and I wouldn't have to have all these pressures and this stress. And it just wasn't. It wasn't fun for me anymore. And that was when my husband kind of said, you need to pick this back up. You need to figure this out, and you need to give yourself a little bit more time of actually giving this a hundred percent like you used to, and then decide if this is really what you want to leave, like, get through this holiday season and then make that decision if you really do want to leave. And so I decided, you know, we were going to make our Black Friday, like, huge. Um, we were going to do, you know, it was going to be really big. And we did last year, we actually brought it back and we ended up having, like, between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we ended up having, I think, like, a $10,000 weekend, which was huge for us. Like, we were, you know, we did, like, you know, probably a quarter or, you know, of our sales that weekend between those three days. So it was huge for us. And I was, like, just so grateful at that point that he had really kind of encouraged me to stick this out. And I told him that, like, I'm so glad. I feel like I'm really bringing this back. So fast forward. We. I kept going with it. And after that weekend, I felt like I had this and I could do this again. And we had a great December going into January, and the next year we. We kept growing every month. And then from March to April, the business more than doubled in one month. And I just went with it. I just kept going with it. I kept just doing, you know, doing more live sales, bringing in more clothing, like, just going with what I was doing and focusing, always trying to stay focused on the good. Like, staying focused on what I was doing here, the good things. And I decided over the summer, like, you know, Black Friday, I am going to. I'm going to do another huge Black Friday. So I started going out to LA in June to start talking with vendors. Every time I was there, I would say, what, you know, we want to start thinking about Black Friday. What's going to happen? Black Friday, Black Friday. And I. I've been planning out Black Friday since June. And this weekend, we're actually still finishing shipping from this weekend, but this weekend we just finished it. And we ended up doing $70,000 between Friday and Monday. And it was just incredible. Like, I just. I couldn't even believe it. It's, like, crazy to me.

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Yeah, man. So as I think about that, I just think about how easy it is. Like, we all have these ebbs and flows in business, right? These ups and downs, but we don't see that in other people. I feel like all we see is the highlight reel of other people, right? Or we see people in their winning season because no one wants to talk about their not winning season.

Right?

And I feel like that adds to the burnout or adds to the frustration. What would you say to someone who maybe is in that season right now.

To just stay focused on the good? Because it is whatever, you know, it's like, it's like the theory, like you. Whatever you put out into this world is what you're gonna get back. If you put out that negative energy, if you focus on those negative things, if you focus on the. The. You know that my live sale wasn't great last night. My customers aren't engaging. Try to change your thought process. Like I just said, you know, maybe engagement's a little bit low. And I was just actually talking to my social media girl about that this morning, and I said, what can we do different? What can I do to change this? How can I make this Better. And as you're making those changes and focusing on those, stay focused on those things that are good. Duplicate. Do those again. Add on to those things. When you focus, it's that saying, when you focus on the good, the good gets better. And that's what you have to do here. It's, you know, don't, don't give into the negativity. Don't, you know, I know it's, it's super easy to say that, but like, I'm always. I try to be the one that's like, it's hard today. It's. It's hard. We all have hard days. There's days that are hard, but when you focus on the good and surround yourself with people that are positive, it's just going to multiply, man.

They. There's a saying, misery loves company.

Oh, my gosh. Yes.

And you know just what you're saying. There's times where I see those posts in the Hub and I don't want to downgrade them because I think we all, we all need to vent from time to time. Right? But I think the more we focus on the frustration, we. We get more of that. Right? You focus on what you want to multiply.

Exactly.

And I think that's such a good statement, what you're making of. We need to really focus on what we want more of. And it's got to be the good. There's good in every bad situation if we choose to look for it. And I've always said that even from like being a cancer survivor, right? Cancer sucks. And we could like, woo woo about that all day long. I lost my dad to cancer.

I hate it.

But I choose to focus on there's something good that came from that situation too. And it's like a muscle we have to work in our brain, isn't it? Like, you've got to exercise that muscle to build that habit in your life on a daily basis. How do you do that for yourself?

It's hard. It is hard sometimes, I think, surrounding yourself with the right people and knowing, like, you know, just knowing who to surround yourself with. But that's like, I mean, I'm a very, I'm, I'm Christian. I'm very spiritual. And that is, you know, going to church, like, getting up in the morning and like, thinking about the good things. Like what? You know, like I, you know, our live sale two nights ago was, you know, it's maybe not that great, but like, it's better than if I didn't go live and I still had fun so it's. It's. It's a conscious effort, and you do have to make that conscious effort to focus, you know, especially when you're in a bad place and you're upset and things are not going the way you want them to, you have to turn it around and say, you know, and it's a conscious effort. But after a while, I do feel like it becomes routine, like it becomes your thought process. When you start, it's. I mean, it's like any other habit. I feel like. Like, if you want to stop biting your nails, like, stop doing it. If you want to give up sugar, like, stop. You know, they say 21 days. 21 days. I'm doing a habit. I feel like being positive is a habit, too. You have to focus on it, and then eventually, I think it does become part of your life.

Mm. I love that. How, you know, as I think about surrounding yourself with the right people and being positive, the other thing that you talked about was it's like a series of small things that you do. And I think there's this misconception out there that growing your business, say, scaling from 10,000 in a weekend to 70,000 in a weekend a year later, people may ask you this question. What's the secret? What's the one thing you did? Ashley, tell me, what is the secret? And I laugh at that question. And I get that in retail bootcamp sometimes, too. Like, what's the one thing you did? There's never one thing.

No, it's everything.

Yeah, it's everything.

It's different. Everybody's different. The way that they're going to grow their business and the things that work for their business as opposed to the things that work for somebody else's business.

How do you think people should find what. What those small things are?

I think something, and I've heard this a million times, and I know that.

It is.

You know, it's always a thing. Stop. Stop comparing yourself. Stop looking at what other people are doing and be authentic to you. Last year was. I was in my. I was in my. My group, and I was a member of a lot of other boutique groups a lot. And I was constantly. I felt like focusing on what other people were doing, and I wasn't being authentic to myself. I wasn't. I was trying to recreate, you know, what this person was doing or act like this person, and I just had to be myself. And the people that want to be a part of your boutique and want to be a part of your community are going to find you. I'M not. Like, I'm goofy on my live sales. I dance, I have fun. I actually have a girl that goes live with me pretty much every night now. And my customers have just taken to her so well, they love her. And her and I have a blast. Like, we are laughing, we're giggling, she's telling jokes, she gets stuck in the clothes sometimes. And, like, that's our. That's us. That's our community. Like, that's our customer base and they love us. And I think that that is so important when you're growing is you have to figure out what's going to work for you and you have to be ready and willing to implement it and work at it every single day. Single day. Like, I don't. There's. Especially when in the growth phase, like, yes, I take days off, but I love what I do. And I'm constantly thinking about it. Constantly. Like, you know, I have to shut it off sometimes. But, you know, that's. I think that's part of it is just being ready to find your niche, find what your customers love about you, go with it, and then work at, you know, always keeping them surprised and finding different things to keep them interested and just always making sure that you're authentic to yourself.

Yeah, man, that's so good. Do you think there's things in this journey of discovering how to be authentic to your customers? Do you ever remember points where you were like, oh, should I really share this or should I really do that? Like, do you remember questioning yourself about things you were going to share on social media that really led to you being more authentic, but you were scared to share them in the first place?

Yeah, yeah. I, like, my husband tends to, like, he doesn't share as much on social media, but I am, I'm. I am an open book on social media. And I think that's what. But that is something for sure. Like, oh, what are people going to think of me when I say this? Like, on social media? And I actually, like, when I was going through that really hard phase last year, I did actually end up, like, sharing it with my group. Like, I just wanna let you guys know, like, I'm gonna. I'm not in a good place right now. Like, this is, you know, this has been hard for me. This has been a hard month. But I want you guys to know that, like, I, I need you just as much as you need me. And I think that's, you know, being kind of vulnerable with them and letting them know, because then when you do that, you become Their friend, like, to my customers, Like, I will have customers that will. They'll just message me about, like. Like, literally, like, nothing. Like, just, hey, like, I have one that's, like, getting married next year, and she's like, oh, my God, you're gonna be in. You're coming to my wedding. Can. I would love for you to come and help me pick out the bridesmaid dresses. Like, and I've never met this woman, but, like, we're friends. Like, and I'm totally. I would love to help her do that. So I think that when you open up to your customers and obviously be authentic to you and don't, you know, if you don't want to share things that you're not comfortable with. But I'm very, very open with my customers, and we talk a lot, and I really think that that's a lot of the reason that they've grown to feel so part of a community here, because now they share things and I share things. And, you know, we talk about different things. Like, besides just, like. Besides just going, you know, and selling clothes. Like, I'll have nights where I will just go live and just like, hey, guys, I'm just live tonight. Like, no makeup. We're just gonna talk. Like, let's just hang out and what's going on? How's everybody doing? And I let them ask me any question that they want, and it's fun. Like, it's been. It really makes it feel more of a community there. But I definitely. In the beginning, some of the things I, you know, talked about was like, I don't know if I should share this, but they. They love it. They love to get to know you better.

And it's kind of like ripping a band aid off, right? What? It's kind of like ripping a band aid off.

Yes. Yes, it is, for sure.

Do you think, you know, looking back at when the pandemic hit, a lot of the boutiques that I feel like, really took off during that time were going through the evolution that you went through of. They may not have been selling anything, but they went live, and they did a cooking show or they did a workout show, or they cried and, you know, just, like, lived in the suck with everybody else for a while, and it really seemed to make a difference. But from my vantage point, I feel like two things happened. And I kind of see this in your business, too. Yes, you became more authentic, and that built more engagement, it built more traffic, it built more longevity and eyeballs. Right. Which lead to sales. But that only works if you also have good products that really fit your customers needs. So do you feel like the more authentic you became with your customers and the more you built a community, did your buying habits change and what you carried in the store, did that begin to change as well?

Oh my God. I just kind of like got chills when you said that because, yes, like 100%. I felt like also when I started to be more authentic about things that like, and really let my customers kind of like see me, I felt like I did. I felt like I got to know them better and really paid attention, like what do they like? And I mean I still, you know, I really, I try to pay attention to that, like what, what's going on? And I also like, I felt like before some of my goals too were, you know, from, you know, my background, where I came from, it was like you have to sell out of everything. Like right when you're live, you want to sell out of everything and then get new stuff. But now it was like I wanted to make sure that everybody got what they wanted. So that was, um, that was more of it too. Was like, you know, I felt like I was able to kind of tune in more with like what they wanted and I felt like I was a little bit more authentic to things that I loved and my style. When I was able to kind of build that connection better with my customers and they were able to see more of me.

Yeah, man, that goes so hand in hand. And that's a hard thing for people to grasp. Like you really kind of have to experience it. So I, I hope whoever is listening to this, like, you take that piece of advice home because it's a two way street to be authentic in who you are and your engagement, but also what you buy makes such a big difference. I want to go back to your background with Lularoe because it feels like there's a lot of boutique owners today who came from an MLM background.

Yeah.

What do you wish you would have known from the beginning when you made the switch to go independent?

Oh my God.

So much along.

But, but the thing is too is I don't regret not knowing it either. Like they're so, but it's just so much of a learning experience, like how many packs to buy, sizing. Like it's just, it's just so, I mean just, there's just so much like, just of, you know, scaling your business and like, ways to scale your business more and inventory on hand and just, I mean there's just so much like vendors that I like But I don't, I don't think I regret any of it, because every experience that I have is. Has come from things that I've learned. You know, that this vendor came along and I didn't love this vendor. I, maybe I probably spent too much money, and if somebody would have told me that, I would have not done that. But I'm not that. I'm the type of person, like, I like to figure things out, and that's how I, I've always done this. Is. I'm. I, yes, I'll pick people's brain, but I'm not, I'm not the person that's going to call and ask a million questions, because I'm going to go out there and do it. And every experience that I've had has been. Has led me to where I am right now. So I just, I think the whole learning experience has been really cool for me. I look back and I'm like, oh, if I would have done this in the beginning, I would have gone so much faster. But like I said, it's just, it's all learning experience. And you have to learn these things and you have to make these mistakes to grow because you can hear them from other people. But if you have it in your head that it's something you want to do, you're just going to do it anyways.

Yeah. That's so good. Everything happens for a reason, right? There's opportunity in every single lesson.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I've learned, I've learned a lot of them, but I think all of us have.

Yeah. So your Lularoe days helped you with, like, live selling right from the beginning. And today you've got this great Facebook group and you're live selling. You also have an app, correct?

Yes.

Talk to me about where you think retail's going. Like, what do you think 2021 is going to feel like? And are you concerned at all with, like, how much the algorithm has changed? Changed and like, feeling like you're losing a grip on being able to reach your community? Because, like, let me back up. Here's my philosophy on apps or emails or texts. They're great to send a notification, but they aren't great for building relationships. It's like one way street of communication.

Right.

Where Instagram Stories is like a two way street. You can communicate to your customers, they can communicate directly back to you. But a group is multidirectional where they. Like you were talking about people who have made friends with each other outside of you. Right. It's an all Multidirectional community. Do you worry about that going away in the future or how do you think retail will shape in the next year.

At this point? I don't, I, you know, I've been doing this now, like with the social selling now for five years and I mean it happens, Literally I've seen it happen every couple of months. Like I lived through the, the Facebook jail last year when I went in Facebook jail, you know, ten times a month. I continue to see this growing. I continue, I see people enjoy this as a way of shopping. I, I can, I, I mean that's, that's my hope and I'm always, I'm, I try to always stay positive. So my hope and my outlook is that this is going to continue to grow, that people are going to continue to want to support small businesses, especially, especially us, you know, female owned small businesses. I also have realized the importance now as, you know, as I'm growing to be able to also have a great website and that is like, you know, one thing that is a big goal of mine within the next year is to also have a great website because I think you need to be that full, like well rounded business. I'm hopeful. Like I said, I love the Facebook, but I think that over the next year, you know, it's important to continue these interactions with our customers and to just continue being authentic. And I am really excited to see where it goes in the next year and I do see it continuing to grow as long as we're continuing to stay active on social media and engaging our customers.

So we've talked a lot about the front side of your business, right? The art side, the engagement, social media, all of that. And you and I both know in order to be successful you kind of have to have both the retail art and the retail science, which is the numbers and the back end and the team and the operations, all the unpretty things that people don't talk about on social media. Do you feel like there's been good habits that you've built for yourself on the back end of your business that's helped you be successful?

Absolutely. So I, I think first and foremost as you grow, hiring out for things that you know you need. I can't do it all. I cannot do it all. And I could 100% not do this without my incredible team. They really, really manage the day to day things around here. And I have, you know, it takes some time to find like the right crew, but I feel like right now I have just found this incredible group of Women that just love being a part of this as much as I do, and they love to see it grow and you know, making sure it's. I think it's important to, to like make sure that they feel appreciated as well. Keeping the environment in, you know, the, it's a big thing. Having the environment in your workplace is a really, really big thing. And keeping it positive and, and recognizing if it's, if it, if there's somebody that's not contributing to it being positive anymore, that it, it ruins the whole energy in here. And I think that's a really big thing that people don't realize is like, it affects you, it affects how you sell. It affects you're distracted, you're worried about everybody else. And that's just me. I tend to like, I'm a worrier. And so that's a, that is a really big thing, being able to take some of those pressures off of me for some of that day to day stuff. But also one thing that I, I will do is like, I'll jump in with them and help with shipping if we're way behind. Like, I am not beneath anybody else here, so I will do anything that they do. And I think that keeping the back end, you have to keep the back end very healthy and a very positive environment here to also keep the front end, you know, the selling and that, all of that stuff that, you know, the back end, if the back end's not working, the front end's not going to work either. And the, just the, you know, being excited like that is like something like I, those are habits. Like when I come in here every day, like it does not matter what happened at home, if I had an argument, if my kids kept me up all night, like I leave it at the door when I come in here. I'm happy, I'm positive. Like what you see on the front end is like, that's what you get with me. I'm, you know, I, yes, we all have our bad days, but coming in here and keeping everything positive and upbeat and just like when new shipments come in, like, I am excited. Like I can't wait to bust into those new boxes every single day. And it's like, it's crazy because it's like every day is, you know, we do that every day here. But I'm like, I'm here with them every day. I am working with them. I'm positive with them and I'm excited. And it really, I feel like changes the whole energy. And you have to have that good energy in Here.

Yeah, that's so important. It's the culture that you build. Right. Your culture rubs off on everything that you do.

Absolutely.

So for anyone who's listening, who maybe doesn't have a team yet, I think we talk a lot about being an entrepreneur versus a CEO. What's your advice to people who feel overwhelmed and they know they need to hire, but they don't know where to start? How did you start asking for help?

So I started asking just for like shipping or I think somebody. This was back in my Lularoe days when I first hired somebody and it was just to take pictures and help with packaging up orders. And that's a great, it's a great place to start because I just, you know, you can, I mean, I used to have just. And actually my, my top girl here that works for me now, she's my, I call her my operations manager. She actually started working for me in like the, it was in the spare bedroom of my house and she was literally, she would come over and stay with me till 1 o' clock in the morning. She's one of my best friends. And she would write down the live sale claims, like just write down my life sale claims. And I would give her free clothes because I couldn't afford to pay her at that point. And then when I was able to start affording to pay her, you know, I would give her a little bit of money. But you have to realize, like, what you're doing is so cool. Like, this is a cool business to be a part of. And I don't, a lot of people, I don't think they realize that. There's a lot of people that would really, really love to help you and love to be a part of what you're doing. So if you have a good friend that maybe you could just give them some free clothes to come over, like, hey, I'll give you a pair of these jeans that just came in if you can just come help me like package up these orders and just teach them to start packaging up orders. Because you always have to remember that employees, and they're, they're an investment, they're not an expense. When you find the right employees and you find good people, they're an investment in your business because you're going to be able to do more and scale your business further when you don't have to be doing the shipping, the inventory, the processing, you know, the intake, when you don't have to be doing all of that stuff. So I think that's a really important thing. And Sometimes it's hard because you get to that point where you're like, okay, I'm kind of there, but I'm not really 100% sure if I'm there. But maybe try something like that where you ask somebody, hey, I can give you some free clothes to come over and start. Because, like, my number, my, you know, top employee, she's my right hand. I talk to her 25 times a day. She started writing down live sale claims with me for free clothes. So never know where it can go. And they're definitely, when you find those great employees, they're an investment in your business.

I love that. An investment versus an expense. That says a lot.

Yeah.

All right, couple quick questions. Lightning round since we're kind of wrapping up our time together, which this has been awesome, by the way. Ashley, thank you so much for this. All right, favorite trend at the moment.

Oh, favorite trend.

Gosh.

The, the. I just got a new pair in the. The. The golden Goose. Like the, the duplicates, the dirty sneakers, the pre dirtied sneakers.

Yes.

I am obsessed. I have so many pairs of them now. I wear them every day. I love them, love them. Okay, favorite podcast, obviously, the Boutique Hub podcast. I look to it. It's so fun to hear other people's stories and kind of what is working for them. And it's always fun. I actually not to spiral off of this, but the first time I ever listened to this podcast, it was Tori Gerbig, the owner of Pink Lily. So when like I told my husband, I said, honey, you don't understand. The first time I listened to this podcast, it was the owner of Pink Lily. And now I, I'm going to be on it. So it was just, it was really cool. And it's just cool. All the advice that everything that's on there, the legal advice, the wholesale advice, I mean, it's just incredible the amount of different resources on there. So personally, for me, I love listening to the Boutique Hub podcast.

I love that. I appreciate that so much. How about, what is your favorite? Do you have like a YouTube channel or favorite place to go get inspired? Favorite mentor or inspiration?

I have to give her a shout out. Allison Grooms. I know she was just on here. I just love her. Like, I just seriously love her. She, I. Before I even knew her, she just gave me so much inspiration. I love the way she runs her business and she's so down to earth too. So it's not even like, you know, a super famous person, but it's just somebody that I found right away when I started, started this and now we're friends. Like, I'll go to dinner with her. We went to dinner at the last market and she's just the coolest, down to earth person. I just love her. So. Yeah, that's definitely my. I don't think she even knows how much she's like affected my business, but she definitely is just an awesome person and I love to look to her for inspiration.

She's so. She is as real deal as they come. Her and I become friends in the last year too and feel like we're on the same page with so many things in life and in business. But that's a good one for everyone to follow if you haven't heard that episode yet.

Yeah, it was great.

All right, let's do this. What is one biggest piece of advice you would share with any boutique owner who's listening today? What's most important?

Focus on the good. Focus. Like, if you have trouble staying focused on the good, go back to what happened the day before. Try and pick out three things that happened the day before that were good. Write them down. If you have to do it every single day, like, just write them down. Because when you train your mind to start focusing on those things, it's just, it's just going to get better. It really is. And you know, remember that we all make mistakes. We all buy things that don't sell. Sometimes we all have ordered a whole bunch of something and it was a complete flip flop. And remember that everybody is going through these same things on a daily basis. But keeping yourself focused on the positive and remembering why you started and why you love this business is so important every day. Don't get caught up in all the nonsense of things going on in the world and in the boutique world. Just stay, stay focused on you. Stay focused on the positive and it's just going to come back to you ten times bigger.

So good. So true. So true. All right, Ashley, last question. I love this question because it speaks to what you just said about it's easy to get lost and sidetracked on what your big why is and how we need to be focused on that every single day. So as you think about your business, say 30 years down the road from now, and you are on your front porch with grandkids and family and you're thinking about the life that you lived and the business you created and all the things you accomplished, Right. What is the thing that you want them to know and to remember about you the most?

That I was me that like they, you know, I don't want them to. Oh, I. Oh, I got these really cute like I want people to remember me for me, for the authentic person that I am, that they felt like I had a big heart and they felt like they enjoyed coming on the sales and laughing with me and having fun. And that's what I really feel like I would want people to remember about me, that I was a good person, that I stood up for what was right and that I had a big heart and I take care of people so good.

Well, Ashley, thanks so much for hanging out with me today. All of your info will be linked up in the comments. So thanks for sharing your story with us today.

Thank you so much for inviting me. I have loved it.

Hey guys, thank you so much for listening to this episode. We hope that you loved it. Don't forget to hit subscribe and leave a rating and review down below for a chance to be one of our featured listeners each and every week. For more information on our spirit of community over competition and how to access complete show notes and bonus downloads from our guests, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community.

We'll see you next week.

Sam.