Small Town Dreams to Big Time Success: Building a Business with Heart

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Business can be a lonely game. But it doesn't have to be. Welcome to Boutique Chat, where we explore community over competition and how to scale your company with the balance and the happiness that we all seek. We'll hear from product based businesses of all types, retailers, e commerce and wholesale brands, along with industry experts shaping the future of our industry. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub and and I can't wait to chat. Hey guys. Welcome back to the podcast. I am excited about this. You're going to have an opportunity to really take some notes today because I know this conversation is going to be a really valuable one. Carrie, I'm so glad you're here. It's always good to see you. Last time I saw you, we were both randomly walking in a mall in Las Vegas.

Yes. That was so weird. I saw your pink coat. I'm like, that's Ashley.

So random. We both were there for the NFR and I think Hadley was with me at that time when we were shopping. Right?

Yep.

Yeah. So good. Well, it's been a pleasure to just get to see your journey unfold and to get to learn about your business a little bit deeper through the Hub over the last couple years. So I'm excited to share some of your experience with others today. Let's get started here. Tell me about where you're from and about your business and how you got started.

Okay. I am from a small town in northeast Nebraska. Our business is in Wayne. They like to. We like to say Wayne America instead of Wayne Nebraska, so it's Wayne America. I got started in 2017 is when we opened our brick and mortar. And it's kind of a funny story. I went to school for fashion merchandising and marketing at the university in Lincoln. I've always loved fashion, helping people, anything, clothes. I worked at boutiques in college was where I kind of fell in love with it. And then I knew I wanted to move back home, so I went to hair school. So I did hair for three years and the ladies at the hair salon always knew I loved boutiques. And one day I was shopping with my dad at a boutique and we were talking to the owner about owning a boutique and what that looks like and how she started. And we left and I get a phone call from my salon owner saying that the space next door had opened up and she thought I should open a boutique and the rest is history. I kind of just ran with it. About a couple months later. We were doing renovations. So we started in 2017. Haven't looked back. We started with a brick and mortar. I did hair three days a week, worked in the store the other days. I was pregnant with our first son. It was a grind, but I loved every second of it. So, yeah, about a year later, my sister and I, we were doing Facebook a lot. That was when I would do Facebook selfies and we started a Facebook group when Facebook was not so crazy with the algorithm and people were asking, hey, can you ship this to me? And we would walk packages down to the post office every day. And so then my sister helped me. We moved from square to Shopify and we set up an online store about a year after we launched or we opened our brick and mortar.

Amazing.

When our online business started was in 2018. So yeah. And it's grown ever since.

So let's, let's dissect that a little bit. I love that you had the brick and mortar first and then you went online and squared a Shopify. You hear that frequently that that move is made in that journey. You've done a really great job as I've watched your growth, really knowing and nailing your customers. You know exactly who they are. You have very unique style. And I think in the, I was telling you this earlier, but I think even for me growing up in the Midwest, you always hear like, oh, in the Midwest, we're like a step behind everybody else's fashion. Right. I don't think that's the case for you. I think you prove that wrong. So I'm curious, how early on in your journey did you recognize that was going to be your strong suit or what was it like for you to recognize that and really start to build and develop your own brand and your very unique look that was very specific to your customer.

Yeah. Honestly, probably right away. I grew up, I have three sisters, obviously my mom too. And I've always helped them get dressed. I love them all. They all have such a unique style. They all have such unique jobs and different personalities. And so honestly, when I kind of started, I thought of them as my like, they're like my target market. That middle aged kind of woman on the go. They need something fun to wear, but comfy casual, kind of work to weekend. And so I just kind of always went off of that. How would I dress people I love and care about and how did they, how does it make them feel? And so, yeah, just kind of going with that ever since the beginning. Sticking true to my style too, and helping people feel confident that they can think outside the box but still be comfortable and confident while doing so.

Yeah. Today, when you look at your business, how much of your business is online versus in store?

It's about 50, 50, honestly, with the online store, depending on the month, doing a little bit more. We have a great community here in Wayne. Our customers are so awesome. They travel from all over to come visit us, and I'm really proud of that. I. One of my joy spots is merchandising, and so we work really hard on our storefront weekly. Our team does a great job and so it's really fun that we get to use that a lot.

Yeah. So I want to dig into that because I think again, going back to what you just talked about with nailing your customer and knowing your demographic paired with your merchandising, and the merchandising isn't just in your store, but your photographs as well. You're very specific about that look and that feel. Um, how did you put those two things together to really build that solid brand? That I'm assuming is what helped you really build the online store to match the inline or the in store sales?

Yeah, I just kind of. In the beginning, you find people or websites that you really like, and then we made it our own. So we're pretty. I guess I am. And it trickles down to our team. They're just awesome pretty. Like, I want to say, you know, a little bit about what things have to look like before they hit the floor or before they go on the website. So it matches who we are as a brand. The styling, the merchandising on the floor, putting outfits together. It all is kind of cohesive and goes together so it looks like us and something we want our customers to look great into.

Let's dissect that process a little bit. Do you have. I'm assuming, like, again, you're anal about the process. What does it look like for your inventory flow? From receiving inventory to getting it into a photo shoot, to launching it in the store, to launching it in line or online. What does the process look like for you?

I have to kind of attribute this one to you, actually. I used to hold onto my inventory a little bit longer and have smaller drops. And I don't even remember what year it was, but I've been a follower of the boutique hub for years. I think I started in 2018, maybe. I listened to a podcast that you said your inventory is like brown bananas. I don't know if you remember this, but when you have it sit too long. And so I remember listening to that and coming to work the Next day and telling the girls, we've got brown bananas here and we gotta get it out. And so we started making our collections bigger. We've always had, I love to kind of service all types of styles and personalities. So we have a wide rain, wide range of inventory for different things. And I've always bought like that. And so we. Our drops became bigger, they became. That helped us become more curated more, have more like fun, bigger drops every week. And so I have to give that one to you. My brown bananas turned into really cycling through inventory fast. And it has worked amazing for us. We get inventory in, they'll process it, and we'll try to have it out within that next month, week. Sometimes if we want to hold something for another collection, because we drop collections every Wednesday and Sundays, we'll hold it for maybe a couple weeks at the most, but we try to fit it in as fast as we can. And so, yeah, that's kind of how it works. We get it in. The girls are great at doing all the weighing, measuring, tagging. We put it on a special rack. We photo one to two days a week consistently, and the pictures get edited and it gets out the door.

That's perfect. And do you launch it? Let me first say this. Brown bananas. I have to give credit where credit's due, Paul, with Management one is where I first heard that analogy. And it's brilliant. So I'm going to repeat the crap out of it. So hopefully everyone takes that home. Your inventory is. It's not green anymore. It's brown. It's brown bananas. You can't make banana bread forever. So thank you, Paul, but back to your point, let's keep digging into that process a little bit. So they receive it, they put it in Shopify, you match it up with your po, you do quality control, you put it on a rack, you do photos two days a week. And then do you launch it online first or in store first or are you doing separate inventories in Shopify or what does that piece of the process look like?

Right now we do same inventory. So we're pretty lucky in the sense that our warehouse is our store. So the back half of our store is where we process inventory. I have my office. We have like a modeling, social media marketing room. And then all the inventory and shipping is here as well. And then the front half is our store. And so for us, it's easy to have the inventory shared. And in the past, we have release it online first, but recently we've kind of just been having fun with the merchandising and so we'll bring it out on the floor early, kind of make some fun displays out of it for the weekend shoppers. But yeah, so our inventory is shared. We will launch it online on Wednesday nights, usually like a smaller drop, like Athleisure Comfy most of the time. It's kind of worked out. And then Sundays are big, like collection for whatever is kind of going on. And so lately we've been taking the inventory out front and making merchandising displays beforehand. In the past, we left it in the back to pull from online orders, but I think it's kind of fun for the locals to see it kind of before it's launched.

You know, I think that's one of the beauties of merchandising is people are always looking for what's new and fresh and when they know what to expect. Like, there's always going to be something new during this time. Like, it builds curiosity and FOMO and makes people feel like they have to be a part of that. I think that's so good.

Yeah. We get comments probably daily or weekly about how people love coming in because it always looks different. We're always changing things up.

You know, what's unique about that, too, from an inventory perspective, is it doesn't always have to be new. It might be that you're remerchandizing things and making the old look new again. Is that right?

Yes, we have definitely done that in the past, for sure. Or even any drop. If we think something looks great with it, even if we launched it a week or two ago, we'll reshoot it with other things and kind of make it look new with a new outfit. But yes, we do that often and we pull things from past collections to make outfits and new collections.

Yeah, yeah. How are you planning your inventory? Buying. So when you. Because you do collection drops every week or like two of them, like you said, what does that look like for you to manage the inventory and then go to market with a good plan of what you need going forward?

I have a great plan now. I will say I was really good at keeping it all in my head for the past five, six years, but we have. I've worked with my friend Amy. I love you, Amy. She helped me and get really organized and so it's really fun to just have it all. We have different spreadsheets and we'll put everything in spreadsheets to kind of let us know what's coming. So we plan ahead. Pictures of everything in Google Photos. So we're really organized with that. So it really helps the ladies in the back know what to expect that week for inventory, and it helps us plan for future collections. So, yeah, spreadsheets are my best friend right now. I've tried faves, and I also really love that I'm a desktop lover and they're an app. So for right now, what works for us is we have spreadsheets that we all share, and then we can all kind of see what's happening.

Yeah, that's so helpful. So shout out to Amy. Amy was a part of the Mastermind group with you. She's incredible when it comes to numbers. She also is a successful boutique owner herself. And shout out to faves if you guys don't know what that is. Incredible buying app. They're just launching a desktop version, which is interesting.

That would be super helpful. I love desktop, and so I'm not one to look at my phone a lot for that stuff.

Yeah.

But, yeah. And I know Amy's doing coaching now, too, so if you need help with your spreadsheets. Right.

She's a freak in the sheets, and we need that investment. All right. One other thing. I know you do great when it comes to inventory is, like, this whole color matching craze, which I've not ever had mine done, by the way. I don't know a whole lot about it, but I know you have a lot of customers that are really into that, and you've done a good job of merchandising to people who understand the color wheel. And can you talk more about, like, from your vantage point, how you've played into that trend a little bit?

Yeah. So I got my colors done probably, let's see, about five years ago now, it kind of became a lady in Nebraska. Her name is Karen from House of Color. She kind of brought it here, honestly. And people started following and getting it done, and I got mine done, and I'm a winter. And so people kind of knew that. As we've talked, we talked about it on our lives, and it became kind of a thing thing. And then some employees got it done, and we would talk about it. And then it just. More people in Nebraska kept getting it done. And so our customers would ask us, hey, what do you think this season is? And so we're not affiliated with House of Color in any way, shape, or form. We just have the fans, and we do our best to. At this point, when you look at colors for five years, it gets to be easier. But, yeah, that's become a really fun part of our business. That we, we can put together your season. And so if people, it just helps them feel like more confident. And if you're not, I always say this, if you're not a confident shopper, like I'll use someone like my mom. I love my mom, but she's not a confident shopper. So it helped her kind of narrow down what would look best on her. And so yeah, we can sort it by if you're an autumn, spring, winter or summer and it kind of goes by your undertones and your skin and it's cool, warm, muted, all that stuff bright. And so yeah, that's been a really fun addition to our business in the past couple years figuring out how to do that on the website, which I'll have to give my employees a huge shout out. It was a lot of work tailoring our website to do this color because you had to add a bunch of filters and tags and it's a lot of backend work. But it's something that our customers love and it helps them feel confident knowing that they're picking what's they're going to look great in.

Have you decided to attend the Boutique Summit yet, you guys? This is our industry's biggest business conference and in person gathering for you to learn from all of the top industry experts, top retailers in home and gift, top retailers in E commerce stores in apparel, and all kinds of industry experts. I hope you join us June 9th and 10th in Dallas, Texas for the Boutique Summit, please. Plus you guys, John Acoff, he is our keynote speaker this year and he's one of my all time favorite authors and he's going to be doing deep dives on leadership just for you. You guys, I want to get you something special. So here is a $50 off per ticket at checkout coupon that you can use just for listening to the podcast. Use summitcast at checkout when you're purchasing a ticket to the Boutique summit and get $50 off per ticket. I've got those links linked up to you in the show notes, so let me know if you've got any questions. But I can't wait to see you at this year's boutique summit June 9th and 10th in Dallas, Texas. Yeah, that's a huge. Not at all. That's a really important answer because I think sometimes we overcomplicate this boutique owner stuff. Right? Our job really is one thing and it's to solve people's problems. And, and the vast majority of people don't know how to dress. They just, it's overwhelming to them or you know, if you sell home decor, they like me. I don't know how to decorate my house. I'm not very good at that. Like, I would want somebody else to help me with that. I just want to take a bite out of your office. I want you to come and actually decorate my house in my office. Look at that background. So the color wheel really goes along with that is you're just solving someone's problem and making them feel really good about themselves in the process. And I love that you mentioned that you do that online too, because when I look at your business and I hear you say it's 5050 and you started with a storefront first, I hope you know that's a huge deal. There's a lot of people who start with a storefront first and then they just think the online is automatically going to build itself and it doesn't. It takes someone like you coming in every day and making that effort. Tell me more about how you feel like the online piece of your business has grown to match and sometimes even outweigh your storefron. What other efforts are you making on a daily basis to continually drive the online traffic just as much as you're driving the in store traffic?

Yeah, it's a grind. We do not run any Facebook ads. We dabble in them here and there. But you just have to be consistent and show up daily, which I am blessed with. Again, a great team that helps me with this. We just have to show up daily. Whether it's our faces behind the camera showing new things people love to see behind the scenes. We try our best to show kind of what we're up to and just build that community with our customers and really get to know them and let them get to know who they're buying from. And so I say it's a grind, but it's one of the fun parts of the journey too, is to really show up and be a part of that community. Because that's so fun. We know a lot of our customers now and I love that. So, yeah, that's how we drive. Our traffic is just being ourselves and showing up. Yeah, almost daily. But it's nice to have a team behind you, because I can step out when I need to and they can step in and vice versa. So it's great to have a team behind you that can help.

Yeah. Talk to me about your team and their marketing efforts as well. And. And just anything that you've automated. So texts and emails. I know that's a huge piece. It's incredible. By the way that you've done all this without Facebook ads. Let me just ment like, that's a big deal that you're doing this organically. But tell me about texting and emailing, because that's a big piece of driving that traffic on a daily basis.

Yeah, we send out probably depending on the week. Another big part of our driving factor is our events. The girls always laugh at me because I always. I have an idea that's like my weekly thing. We do events at least twice a month to try to drive people in or come up with different incentives to come in and shop with us. And that's probably why some of our storefront does really well is I love doing events to bring that community. And so we use those and that will factor. Some of our texts will go to our events or something, but probably two or three a week. We always send them out with our collection drops and then we'll add one if we have, like a certain fun thing going on. We worked with Jane from GLOW Group to set that up with Klaviyo, which has been amazing. It's a really awesome platform that we did our emails through too. So we have our marketing team. Does all our emails and our texts come from them? We have a meeting every Monday and we sit down, we're like, this is what we want to do this week. And they make it happen. And so, yeah, we send out texts weekly, which are one of the biggest traffic drivers to our website. And then we also have an app, which we added a few years ago, another great traffic driver that we send out push notifications on days we're not really sending text because texts get expensive when you send too many of them. So we send out push notifications on certain days when we still want to connect with our customers. So, yeah, we kind of use a little bit of everything to drive traffic and to work together for all the marketing.

So good. The text piece, I think, is just so if anyone hasn't implemented that yet, what a huge opportunity it is for everybody today. What is the stat? I'm sorry, go ahead.

Oh, no. I tell people all the time that's one of our biggest traffic or sources of revenue is our texting program. And you can watch people. I think I follow Pink Lily on Instagram and I remember her saying a story one day. Watch your website when you send out a text. And I was very curious. And so that's when I implemented our texting plan. And it has been a game changer. So if you don't have texts, you need Them.

Yeah. Agreed, agreed. You know what I keep thinking when I am sitting here listening to you speak and I'm still laughing about Wayne America. I just love that you guys call yourselves Wayne America. The thing I keep thinking and just in some other conversations I've had with boutique owners today that are also from small towns like you're from. I hear your business and I hear what you're doing to grow your business, and you're growing your business nationwide and worldwide and all these things. You know what I wish people would stop saying about small towns? I'm just from a small town. Like, it just hit me like a ton of bricks while you were speaking like, I'm just from blah. I don't know if we are like discounting the fact that we think in order to be successful you have to be from a big place, but it couldn't be further from the truth. I'm just really in awe of what you're doing and what you're building and what so many like you are also building in small towns. No more just in any of the words. Right?

Yes. I need to be more aware of that. I. I remember doing the mastermind. I think I said that right away. And I'm like, wow, this room is full of people from small towns. Like, we're all pretty cool. And so I agree. No more just.

Yeah. I don't know, it just really struck me funny today for you. So I'm glad that we got to have that conversation. So. Good. All right, couple lightning round questions. Carrie, you ready?

Yes, I think.

Okay, first thing, if I give you two hours back in your day tomorrow and you're going to work on the biggest income generating activity for your business, what are you going to work on?

I think just showing up sometimes. I think as boutique owners, we get a little overwhelmed with the big picture and I think the small things really matter the most. Just showing up kind of and taking more time out of my day to make even a real or just talk to customers like on a live or something really quick. That would be what I would do. The small things.

Awesome.

What has been the hardest class for ads?

Okay. Actionable item. Yes. We're learning. Ads. What's been the hardest lesson you've had to learn?

The hardest lesson, Gosh, probably that you can't do it all. And I've tried and it's been a blessing to find the people that I have to work with me. But yeah, I think I burnt myself out a little bit in the last couple years, but I've kind of Learned a lot from that. And leaning more on team and focusing what you're really good at and just working with that rather than letting it overwhelm you.

So true. Lots of truth to that. What's been the best advice someone's given you that sticks with you daily?

Best advice. I usually get that a lot from my dad. He's an entrepreneur, and I look up to him so much. Just, like, he always believes in me. Do what you just run your store, how you know how to run your store, like you know what you're doing. Believe in yourself. And that's probably always what I think about when I think about the store, if I'm ever a little frustrated. Just like. No, do what you know how to do and do it well.

Oh, that's. That is simple, but it's profound, right?

Yeah.

And it goes like, we say this all the time. Do what you do best and hire the rest of the. Yeah, there's no space for that.

Yeah.

It's mashing up both of your pieces of advice and making them one. Next question. How have you set boundaries for yourself that have allowed you to either, like, protect your space or take better care of yourself?

I have been better about when I get home. I have two little boys, and it's kind of their time. I used to not have that boundary, and I would get out my laptop or something and work all the time. And in the first couple years, that might have been necessary, but probably not. So I'm just kind of protecting my piece outside of work a little bit more, Being more aware of where my mind's going when I'm not here.

Yeah. So important. So very important. Okay, last ones. Carrie. First is, what is one metric that you're obsessed with that fuels your business? And then what's one metric that you wish you had a better handle on?

One fuels my business, probably just after we launch collections. Just kind of looking at how well things sold through and, like, kind of what pieces people love. So, like, the sell through factor after collections drops. And I think that will give you a good sense of, like, what your customers are really loving and kind of what to maybe stray away from in the future.

That's so good. All right, what's one. What's one metric you wish you had a better handle on that you're not as familiar with?

Just kind of any. Like, we do a lot on Instagram, but I'll be honest, I don't really look at the metrics behind it a lot. We just kind of do, like, whatever you think, like, whatever you're loving at the time and I probably need you better about, like, look at what's working and what's not. And we kind of do that every once in a while. But like, we're pretty. Like whatever we're feeling that day, let's do it.

Perfect.

I'll be honest, I don't look at that a whole lot.

That's all right. All right. This has been so good, man. Carrie, thanks for all the knowledge drops today. Hopefully there's lots of inspiration and some new ideas for everybody who's listening. I've got one last question for you and that's. It's the ultimate question, right? Like we, we know we're in this business for a bigger purpose than just selling clothes and selling gifts, right? So you've got these little boys and it's fast forward 20, 30 years down the road and you're sitting on the front porch with your family and you're looking back at this life that you've lived, the journey you've been on, the business you've built. What's the thing that you want your friends and family to remember the most about you and about the way that you live throughout this journey?

Just so that I guess I had fun with it and just have a lot of faith. Like I feel like I've been sharing a lot my journey with my faith through this whole thing and that God can do big things in your life, but you just have to like, believe in yourself and follow through in it and so that like just believing in myself, having the courage to think outside the box and really go for it.

So good, so important. I love that. Carrie, thanks so much for being with us today and just for being a part of the Hub and being a light and all that you do. It's been such a pleasure to get to know you and to get to watch your journey unfold and I can't wait to share this with everybody.

Awesome. Thank you so much, Ashley.

I had fun. Thanks for listening, guys. I hope you took away all kinds of nuggets and new ideas from this week's episode. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a rating and review. We love to hear your feedback and give you a chance to be featured on the show each and every week. For more information on our spirit of community over competition and to access guest downloads and bonuses and all the resources we talked about on the show, head on over to the boutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week.