The Hardship that Fueled My Fire and Future of The Hub with Ashley Alderson

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 guys, I hope you have loved the last couple of weeks episodes all about 10 year anniversaries both here at the Hub, but so many boutique owners who are also celebrating and spending their 10 year anniversary sharing some wins and lessons and opportunities with each of you. It's been pretty awesome to see so many of these journeys unfold at the same time. Ours really has. Back 10 years ago when we first started the Boutique Hub. Getting to know so many boutique owners along the way. I think one of the biggest blessings that I've been able to see to face is watching these other boutique owners journey unfold right before my eyes. I remember so many of these stores when they were brand new, when they were just getting started and watching some of their highs and recognizing some of their lows. But to see them all celebrate 10 years and to see where they are today is pretty incredible. So thanks for celebrating these last several weeks along with us as we've dug into this 10 year anniversary series today. To wrap up our 10 year anniversary series, I wanted to both take you down just a quick walk down memory lane and some of the things that have happened here at the Hub, but also paint the picture and cast a big vision for where we're going in the next 10 years because I am on board and I'm certainly very excited for this because I hope it makes a huge impact on you and your business, but most importantly you and your personal life and your family and all the dreams that you've had for your business from the get go. That's exactly why we exist. So let's start with a little walk down memory lane, shall we? Many of you, I don't know, maybe some of you have heard the entire origin story of the Hub. I feel like I ask every single guest this story on the podcast, but I don't always share mine. So let me paint a bit of a picture for you. Humble me by listening to this wild story. But I grew up in North Dakota, if any of you know that. Grew up in a small town, 1600 people, no stoplights, no McDonald's, no Walmart, no nothing. It was about 90 miles to a town that had either of those, a McDonald's or a Walmart, and about three and a half hours to a town where we did our back to school shopping. So while it was the middle of nowhere, it also was a commerce center for their surrounding areas. Because rural north and South Dakota and Montana, there's just really not a lot out there in some places. So these small ranching communities all came to my small town. So retail in my small town when I grew up was actually really, really strong. And after college, I went to college for marketing and public relations. After college, I had an opportunity to do two things. First, in 2007, oh, my gosh, I'm dating myself. I had a chance to really travel the world and trav. Especially the United States, I'll say, as Miss Rodeo America. So think Miss America, but no swimsuit. I rode horses instead, but same type of process, right? Speaking, interviewing, modeling, all the things plus horsemanship. So during this time, I had just got done going to college. I actually had just gone through chemo and cancer treatments and just became cancer free. It was a whole lot of things happening in my life back then. Beating cancer, winning Miss Rodeo America, and then having this opportunity to travel. And when I started to travel during that time, I loved finding unique boutiques all over the country. Whether it was a big city, you know, I was downtown Atlanta or Dallas and those type of stores, or I. I was in Kearney, Nebraska, you know, a real small town that had cute little shops. Diamond, Oklahoma, or if I was at a big rodeo, if I was at Reno, Nevada, or Las Vegas or. Or Pendleton or some big rodeo, and these vendor events would pop up wherever I was. I thought, man, if I could just go home to North Dakota, to my small town, I would love to find these unique sorts of things. And again, small business was actually really strong in my hometown at that time. So this idea really began to form for me of how do I find these cute stores, these cute shops that I love in a place where everyone like me could really find them? Because, truth be told, in the Midwest, I felt like fashion especially was very New York, and it was very la and it just wasn't me. I felt like I was an outsider. And then I began to feel like, man, everyone else around me must feel the same. What about the rest of us in the Midwest or the south or in Texas or wherever? Like, we're not New York, we're not la. We're. We're our own people. And to me, boutiques really began to fit the mold of their fashion on main streets. For anyone and everyone, it's home decor, it's gift. It's that unique experience that you get no matter where you are that makes you feel so, so unique and independent and special. So I really just found this deep passion and appreciation for boutiques. Well, as fate would have it, after I finished my reign as Miss Rodeo America, I met my husband Eric. Many of you had a chance to meet him or hear from him here on the podcast or at the Summit. And he actually, although he's from Wisconsin, got a job as a banker in my hometown. Ironic, right? And my dad was a big rancher in the community. And Eric somehow became my dad's banker. Banker. And we had some mutual friends that introduced us and we began to date and one thing led to the next and we're engaged. And he wanted me to move back to my small hometown with him while he was a banker. And I thought, you know what, if I ever move back to my hometown, there's only one job that I would go home for. Like, there's just, there's one. That's it. And it was to be the executive director of the Economic Development Corporation. I felt like that was right up my alley. So one day, I think I was in Texas at the time. Eric calls me and he's like, hey, guess what? Get your resume ready. And I'm like, why? And he said, because the economic development director actually was just fired. And so they're going to be hiring and you need to put your resume in. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is just fate. This is happening way faster than I could ever imagine. And I did. I got my resume together and began this process of understanding, like, well, what is economic development? How does this work? You know, how do I put business plans together for people? What does it look like in the oil field to work on housing developments? Like all these crazy things that in rural North Dakota are really important. So I started to study my butt off, you guys. And I went home, interviewed for this position. And I'm going to tell you what, I'm going to be a little vulnerable. I was a 25 year old blonde girl fresh out of college, and I was living in the world of 70 year old white men who some of them definitely did not believe I should be there. I'll just put it to you that way. Especially working in politics in a rural community. But we had this really awesome mayor who was a woman who was a small business owner. She owned a cute boutique coffee shop Flower shop. And she totally took me under her wing, became one of my very best friends. Her and her family are still a part of the Hub, and I will forever be so grateful to her for her mentorship, because I was offered that job. And for almost eight years, I worked in that job. And there were people that took bets on how long I'd be there, how fast I'd fail. There was a man who had an underground newspaper that was dedicated to how much he hated the Economic Development Corporation, myself included. How I was only hired for my tight jeans and my blonde hair, and how all my board members should be fired. I mean, it was like, the most horrific things you could imagine. I can't even believe I'm telling you guys this, but I did save some of those newspapers because I think sometime I'm going to resurrect those little suckers just to say, you know what? Anytime someone tells you it can't be done, they better watch out, because it's only going to light your fire even more. During that time, although there were doubters, and I truly believe every single one of us has doubters in life and in business. They just challenge us to get better, and they challenge us to learn more and to just really light a fire under what is our passion and our mission. And I was incredibly passionate about my small town and what it meant to welcome a new, young generation of families like mine. Now, my husband and I had two kids in that small town during our eight years there together, I was so passionate about bringing small families back to that community and helping small business owners get started in that community. I wrote a million business plans, helped so many small business owners expand their dreams or work on grants or loans or special funding or lobby the government. Like, whatever it was during that time, I was so thankful to have a hand in. Now, also at that time, my family, you know, obviously came from that community. We ranched there. My dad actually was diagnosed with brain tumor while we were there, and he was really my anchor and my rock. Well, my dad passed away back in 2013, and my husband, being from Wisconsin, he and I had always talked about how we wanted to be in North Dakota. I love my job. He loved his job in the oil field. We wanted to be near my family. But once my dad passed away, we thought, well, you know, if there's ever a time to take an adventure and move somewhere else, let's do it. Now is the time. So his company offered him a job to come to Wisconsin, and we broke the news to my family shortly after My dad passed away that we were going to be leaving and I had to quit this job that I loved in economic development and leave my, my friend, the mayor, who was my mentor at the time and pack up everything and move to Wisconsin. So while we did that, the question really arose like, well, what are you going to do, Ashley? What are you going to do when you get there? And of course I had some part time gigs helping out local chambers of commerce and putting on events, things that I'd done for because our economic development corporation also encompassed the chamber of commerce, small business development centers and some regional planning centers as well. So I got to work just to get by on some part time things. But I knew this was the time to follow this big dream I had going back to this love I had of boutiques. And I thought, how can I build this place? How can I take the little bit of savings that we brought with us and hire a random web developer and build this place online where people like me could find these cute boutiques that I'd recognize from all over the country in one place and shop like an online shopping mall of boutiques. So I started to build this and found that random web developer actually still happens to be with us today. Ironically, I hired him as a contract person at that time. And we built the very first version of the boutiquehub.com, which today we've transitioned the whole brand to shopthebestboutiques.com it's still a place where anyone can go and find boutiques around the country on an interactive map. Definitely going through some changes on that platform right now, but the whole purpose is to help consumers like me find these great boutiques all over the country. Well, when I started to grow that platform and really get into the boutique hub, what I realized through these conversations with boutique owners and as I was encouraging them to join the boutique hub was they really didn't need the platform. They really didn't need another place to market themselves. They were trying to figure that out on their own through social media, which was wide open at the time. But they just needed business expertise. They had questions about accounting and bookkeeping and inventory and hiring a team and social media marketing and Facebook ads that were brand new at the time. And so I thought, well, you know what, I can help you with those questions. Like these are things I know and I already know through economic development. If I don't know the answer to something, I can find 10 people who do. Like, I'm really good at bringing people together. So I started to do that. And little by Little, from 2013 when we moved to Wisconsin and when we launched the Boutique Hub, for the first year, it was all organic. Just trying to build this community and this website. And fast forward a year later, it was actually the day that we brought our daughter Jade home from the hospital. July 9 and 2014 is the day that we launched our first version of the platform@the boutiquehub.com as we were putting everything together. And we ran that platform for a couple of years until 2016 when we completely rebranded and built the membership at the boutiquehub.com, which was only business facing education, really the core of what we do Today, launched in 2016 after we first started with that online shopping mall of boutiques. Now, there's so many other stories, you guys, I would love to tell you, but there's one big one. And I think it's important to note this because I think sometimes every good business idea starts by accident. And sometimes I think even in school, our teachers tell us, like, build this business plan, mark it out on paper, and this is how it's going to go. But then you get into it and you're like, oh, dang it, this isn't working. I need to pivot, I need to shift. Like, my plan is not working the way I thought it would. And that's what happened for me with the first version of the boutiquehub.com it did not work the way I thought it would. I couldn't get enough boutiques to join the online shopping mall to get enough shoppers to come and shop it. I didn't have enough shoppers to drive more boutiques. It was really a chicken and an egg program or problem. So what happened during that time is I had a massive bout of imposter syndrome. I thought, man, again. Here I am, this girl from North Dakota. I just moved to Wisconsin. I don't know anyone. I've put my life savings into this website and it's freaking not working right. Like, I'm getting some traction, but I'm really not getting traction enough to pay my bills. I don't know what to do. So here's how it goes. I met a man on Twitter. It's a terrible idea. Hindsight's 20 20, but I found somebody who I thought, you know, what if I don't know the answers to his questions? I bet this guy does because it sounds like he wants to build something just like I do. I want to build the Boutique Hub, the central connection point for the entire industry. This man Began to tell me all the right things, and we began to work together for almost, I would say, probably eight months. And we had slack channels and all these things we were working on together, building out these reports and featuring these boutiques. And I told him I wanted to build a conference for boutique owners, all this stuff. And this man promised, like, oh, let's merge our companies. We're working on a shared goal. We're working on a shared vision. I'll take 50, and we're going to change the name to my company name. And what the hell was I thinking? I went along with it because I, again, like, such imposter syndrome. Like, who am I? I've never started a business like this before. Surely someone else must know more than me. What was I thinking? But I was trapped in that. And I thought, okay, yeah, I'll go for it. Yeah, Yeah, I, you know, I'll merge our ideas, and two will be better than one, and it'll all pay off in the end. Well, kept telling me, you know, the paperwork's coming. My attorney's getting it. Paperwork's coming. Let's just go ahead and change our names anyway. Like, let's not lose any time. Just grant me, you know, access to your email list. Just add me to these Facebook groups. Just, oh, let's share this PayPal account. Yeah. Oh, yeah, Paperwork's in the mail. It's coming. It's coming. Well, never came. And it wasn't until finally, Christmas of that year that Eric and I sat down and we're like, all right, this is it. We're getting scammed. Like, this can't go on anymore. This person has completely overtaken our company. It's my company. Hundred percent. There's nothing in writing. There's no paperwork signed that says we're giving away half of it. Like, nothing. So we call them up and we're like, listen, this. Like, you're a catfish. This is not working. This is fake. You're scamming us, and this person freaks out. And me being Midwest, nice. I don't know what I was thinking, why I didn't put any prevention measures in place. I didn't. This person ends up draining our bank account. Our PayPal account blocks me from my Facebook groups and takes the email lists. So basically everything that we'd worked for since 2013 was gone in an hour. And holy crap, you guys, I thought, who would do that to somebody? Like, you wouldn't do that to somebody, right? But they did. And I can remember at that time, like, my only vision at that time, I remember where I was when it all happened. Sitting in my kitchen. And then for like, three days, kind of a blur, I pretty much laid on the couch and cried the whole time. And I remember Eric at one point coming over and just standing next to me as I was laying on the couch. And he's like, you know, you have every right to be so pissed off. You have every right to be mad. You have every right to be hurt. I get it. But he said, now you got to decide what you're going to do next. And he said, whatever you decide, I'm. I'm with you. I've got you. And I'm like, okay. It was kind of like fight or flight. I'd been flighting, I'd fall in the coop. But now I realize, well, shoot, you know, if I'm going to maintain this dream and this vision, I've got to get up off this couch and do something. And I can just do what I can do. I can put one foot in front of the other. I don't have all the answers. I'm not an expert in startups and fancy, you know, like, big companies. Like, I'm a small business girl, right? But I can just figure this out. So I went back to really all I knew I could do, and that was just serve people. And in the Facebook group, I resurrected an old Facebook group that I'd originally started just on my own that this person didn't have access to. And I opened it back up, and there was only like a couple hundred people, maybe like 300 people in there at the time, long time ago. And I just began to serve. Like, if they had a question, if they had a struggle, I just served. I answered. I dug deep, I found resources, I googled, I shared everything I knew about Facebook ads and Shopify and email marketing and all the things that were really still so new at the time. And just moment by moment, serve people like servant leadership. Well, as luck would have it, this person's fate, like, they met their fate. They promised some big promises to people, backed out, took their money. Lots of boutique owners kind of figured out and saw the writing on the wall of what was going on. And I didn't ever have to tell my story to anyone. I actually haven't started sharing this story until about a year and a half ago because I was scared to share this story. And now I'm at such peace sharing this story because I know that in hindsight, the cream will always rise to the top. Like when someone has wronged you, if You've been through a situation like you don't have to stoop to anyone else's level. You don't have to get mad, you don't have to get even. You just have to do what you were put on this earth to do, to be the good person you were meant to be, to serve people and to live out your mission. And the rest will fall into place. And I, like, there's so many times where I wanted to just scream and tell the world what I was going through, and I didn't. I was like, well, I'm just gonna keep serving people like, it will all work itself out. And it truly has. It truly has. So I know for you too, those of you who have gone through this, it always works itself out, right? And let those haters, the people that doubt you, the people that pull you back, man, let them be the fuel to your fire, but don't let them dampen your fire, right? It's a choice that you have to make. And that choice sucks so bad. It sucks, but it's worth it. And the other thing is, when you feel like you've come to a point where you don't know where to go next, you feel like maybe you are battling imposter syndrome. It's okay, we all do. Everybody does. You don't have to have all the answers, you just have to have the next one right? It doesn't all have to be clear, but if you can put your next foot in front of the other, then you have a direction to go. You just got to keep putting one foot in front of the other. And if you don't know the answer to something, man, somebody does. Just ask. And I think that's the biggest, most valuable part of the boutique hub is as a retailer, no matter what you sell, someone is out there who's gone through the situation before you and they're in the Hub and you can ask them about it. It eliminates so much stress and worry and anxiety because you know somebody's gone through it. And you can bypass a lot of hurt and anguish by just getting in contact with the right people. So at the end of the day, if the Hub can be that for you or for somebody, man, that is all that it takes. And that's, that's our, our mission definitely coming true. It's back and I am so excited for you to see it. Our 2024 boutique boss planner is better than ever because with your input, we combined two of our best selling products, the Boutique Boss Planner, which is your go to day Planner Checklist Inventory Tracking Social Media Tracking Planner Married with Our Content Creator so every single week, as you sit down to plan out what's happening in your business and track all of the numbers, you also have a spot to plan all of your content. Map out by day, by channel what's going to work for you and your business on social media. Right now. Check out our brand new Boutique boss planner@boutiquebossplanner.com for information on this amazing planner plus content creator and all the extras that can come along with it. One more quick history lesson that was back in 2016 after this fall apart with this individual happened and we fully launched our our current version of the boutiquehub.com and our membership, which so many of you, thousands of you are a part of. We're so blessed that you shared the word with other people. Before we ever ran Facebook ads about the Boutique Hub, word of mouth made it blow up so fast. Through 2016 through 2017, our very first boutique summit and membership. Through 2018, launching Retail Bootcamp 2019, our team grew by like 10 people. We launched Pink Friday and then 2020. Of course the world fell apart, but really the world fell together. I feel like for the boutique industry it was like the best opportunity that our industry has ever faced in 2020 and 2021. I know it was hard for those of you who are brick and mortar who really had to struggle and make tough calls during that time, but for those of you who had transitioned to go online, it was years of massive growth, huge opportunities. In 2022, we launched hubventory.com we launched our new app, we launched our masterminds, and then fast forward all the way to 10 years. 2023, we launched a whole new membership platform, moved everything to Kajabi, launched Boutique Hub Black, and are launching even more things that I'm going to tell you about in just a little bit. But over 10 years, man, you guys, there's been a lot of hurt behind the scenes that you probably didn't know about, but boy, has there been a lot to celebrate together as an industry and together as a team here at the Hub, but as our community as well. Watching you guys grow and succeed and face some demons that you've also slayed during that time is just such a huge blessing. So today when I look back at 10 years and when I tell people about the Boutique Hub, I don't like, oh gosh, I feel so awkward even talking about the Boutique Hub and like the boutique of being successful, I have a huge like humility factor that it makes me like weirded out to talk about this. But let me just say the Boutique Hub has had a lot of Success and Inc. Magazine had ranked us at 163 in the Inc. 5000 list. And we've been on there every year Since I think 2018, maybe we were top 10 fastest growing company in the Midwest by Inc. We've just had some like great accomplishments. And to be a company that's grown and build revenue and build team the way that we have is just such an incredible blessing. But I say all that to say it's only because I believe we serve people with such intention first. And we know that as a team, like it's not just about building this company, but it's also how can this company then serve others? So through philanthropy, through our, through so many different charity charities that we like to work with. I just know that what has been created here at the Hub isn't just about the Hub, but it's about how many lives can we touch even outside of the Hub, that most of the time our members don't even know about. But there's just blessing upon blessing that I am so thankful to be able to share. But just to say thank you for making possible you guys, without you listening to the podcast and without so many of you as members of the Hub, or if you've taken a course or if you've read a blog or you've got, you've got a download or something from the Hub, thank you for being a part of this process because you are helping make this possible. And I hope that the Hub is there to bless your life in return. Our mission is to change lives, to change communities, and to change the future of retail. And we do that through trusted education tools, quality wholesale in a trusted community. So thank you for making that possible, you guys. Going forward, man, there is still so much left to do and I'm excited just to take a minute to share with you not just where we've been, but also where we're headed in the future. Thanks to those of you who are OG members, who are industry service providers and experts in wholesale brands who again have helped get us there. But we want to continue to serve and give back to you as well into the future. So where's the Hub going next? Let's talk about it. All right? First, big focus as we enter the next 10 years together at the Boutique Hub is on data. So I've often felt like in our industry, if you look at statistics, right, there's statistics on big retail and there's a few, like small business retail statistics, but not a lot on the boutique industry proper. So I am really excited to put a huge emphasis on data as a whole inside of the community at the Hub as we move forward. So if you're a member of the Hub, you'll notice that this year when we relaunched our dashboard, we had a my Metrics section, which is a place for you to go in and drop in your website address and we can start to analyze things like your SEO quality and your backlinks and your traffic sources. And just how can you improve your website as it is today by doing an audit. Well, we also this year launched Boutique Hub Black. And Boutique Hub Black is your very own centralized metrics dashboard that pulls in all of your website data, all of your Google Analytics data, all of your Shopify data, sales numbers, inventory, all that Klaviyo, all of your email marketing, email performance, Facebook and Instagram, all of your social organic performance, and then all of your ads. So Google Ads, Facebook ads, Instagram ads, all of this data funnels into your own personalized dashboard. It graphs your performance over time and it emails you a weekly updated dashboard so you can see how your business is performing at a glance. Now, for us at the Hub, that is almost a full time employee pulling and gathering that information for reporting every single week. And now we can do it with like three clicks of a button and creating this custom dashboard. So this opportunity for data for you guys to have access to your own data like that, but then also for us at the Hub to see the data that's coming through going, oh my gosh, our members are struggling with this. Like, here you go, here's how you, here's how you create more backlinks, here's why your ROAS sucks, here's the type of ads that are performing well. Try this. Like, if we can better understand our industry so we can better serve you, that's going to make your business so much better in the long run and it's going to save you a ton of time trying to gather all of that and trying to understand all of that on your own. Now it's a done for you solution. So data, this is just the beginning of where we're going with data and I'm super pumped to continue to grow Boutique Black and also what's available to members at the Hub. All right, second big push for us as we enter the next 10 years together is our wholesale community. So We've served over 60,000 retailers here at the Hub, but we have Over a thousand wholesale brands that we also serve. And we are often getting questions from wholesale brands who are taking retail bootcamp or they're using our retail dashboard, our training library and they're saying, hey, how does this work if I sell wholesale? So going forward, we have already begun building a ton of education for our members at the Hub and also some higher level courses and retreats and masterminds just for wholesale, just for wholesale businesses. So things like wholesale marketing and how to go to trade shows successfully, how to manufacture and import your products, or just how can I get in touch with other high level wholesale brands like mine to strategize and be in the know? So that is going to be a huge focus as we go into 2024 and beyond. The third huge focus for us. And you guys have been on this journey with us for the last year because we're going to be celebrating its one year anniversary here shortly, is building out Hubventory. So our goal with Hubventory, as it's the very first of its kind, the only grassroots built by the industry for the industry wholesale platform, is to continue to make it the number one most trusted wholesale platform for the boutique retail industry. We grow by about 200 new buyers every single week on Hubventory and we have over 600 brands currently stocking fresh products. These are all vetted trusted wholesale brands that boutiques love and they have to prove that when they join Hubventory. So a couple of cool things we're really excited about that are happening there. Number one, our Shopify app obviously has been live for a long time for wholesale brands, but we're just about ready to launch our Shopify app for retailers. So when you buy your goods on Hubventory, you can automatically make them draft products in your Shopify account, saving you a ton of time. You can also mesh this merge with the budget so that you've created. You can create an open to buy budget in Hubventory and it will track that for you. We also have an ROI calculator built into Hubventory. So when you're thinking about testing out a new brand or testing out a new product, you can actually enter your IMU and look at, okay, this is what I would sell this for. This is how much I would need to sell in order to make a profit. Should I test out this product or not? The ROI calculator will help you answer that question. We're also working on net terms on Hubventory because I know that's so important, important to so many of you and we're continuing to build out our boards process. The boards are something I love so much at Hubventory because it really meshes the idea of pinning products on Pinterest to shopping wholesale. So when you build out boards, you can plan out your new arrivals, launches, your collection launches. You can see all the things that would really make sense with your trend assortments before just putting it all in your cart and sorting it out later. You can make boards by seasons or by product type or by brand type and plan out your buy more effectively so you feel like you are really working smarter and not harder as you're shopping wholesale. So in order to continue to grow hub and tour, you guys, I am asking for your help. I'm asking for your help to go shop on hubventory.com if you're also a member of the boutique hub, you have access to member discounts on hubventory.com but anyone can shop the platform as long as you are a verified retailer. But shop the platform, give feedback to the brands who are on there. Thank them for being on hub. And Tori, continue to give us your feedback. You guys being grassroots, we want to know all the time how we can continue to make Hubventory even better. All right, next focus for the hub going into the next 10 years is more and more home and gift. So when I started in this industry, you guys, inherently I did not realize there was such a divide between home and gift and apparel. So when I thought about a boutique, I thought a boutique is like an independent retailer, right? But in home and gift, they think, well, that's home and gift shop, and boutique is more apparel shop. Well, I think our industry has changed so much, especially post pandemic, that the two are now one. Apparel can sell in home and gift and home and gift can sell in apparel. How can we help all of these stores be even more successful? So you're going to see some very specific tools coming out just for home and gift retailers to help them sell more e commerce or to understand some of the current trends in marketing and opportunities, even in selling apparel going forward. All right, finally, our next, our fifth and last big focus going into the next 10 years is so many stores have grown up with the hub, right? And if I had a dollar for every time someone said, man, I wish the hub was around when I got started. These are my older store friends. They've grown up through the hub. And so some of the things are like, oh, yeah, actually I've heard you talk about this for 10 years now, but let's Talk about even higher level things. So we have a huge focus not just on beginner stores, but on even higher level, more expert level knowledge and data and opportunity for those stores. So whether that's through some of our private retreats, or our mastermind, or just attention in our million dollar and 30k a month groups, there's more and more coming. For those of you who are expert level stores, even more so than there was before. And information alongside what's already available for our beginner and growing and scaling or even struggling stores. Right. We have all types of stores in the Hub, but I'm excited about this more high level focus that's going to continue to come down. So guys, all that to say our industry is always changing. I mean, I feel like we've ridden so many waves in the last 10 years. So anytime there is a new app or changes in AI, new tools, changes in company ownership. Right. Changes in what's working and what's not, our goal is to help you guys to see the forest through the trees. You're so busy running your business, you're so busy being a mom or being a dad and trying to be a good community member and do all these things. So a lot of times there's just not enough hours left in the day to see, okay, what's on the cusp of our industry and how can we get ready, how can my business be prepared. And so that's where I want you guys to feel like you can take a weight off your shoulders because the Hub has your back. Whatever's coming, whatever's changing, our team is in it for the long haul. We have a ton of ex retailers on our team at the Hub who have been in your shoes and are going to continue to build the Hub in a way that always has your back so that you and retail are never alone. And we've got so much more left to build you guys. So I want to give a couple more huge shout outs as we wrap up this 10 year anniversary special. The first is to our team, to our team. To Beth who has been here and Jesse who has been here from the very beginning. You guys, I could never have done this without you. Thank you for babysitting my kids. Thank you for believing in this wild idea that I had and this crazy woman you met on Zoom or that your neighbor introduced you to and saying yes to this journey. You have been a wealth of knowledge. You have been my rock. You have seen all the tears, you've seen all the celebrations. I am so grateful for your friendship. You Guys. Sarah. Sarah. Holy smokes. The retail professor wouldn't be possible without you. Over a beer at a campfire, Sarah came to me one time at a rodeo and told Eric and I that she was considering closing her store and selling everything. And the whole way home from that rodeo, Eric and I went back and forth and we were like, okay, we have to hire Sarah. How can we hire Sarah? How can we convince Sarah she needs to come to the Boutique Hub? And I called her the next day and she probably thought I was just. Just batshit crazy. And I offered her this job to come and provide education to other retailers. And for whatever reason, she said yes. And, man, the Hub would not be what it is without you. Sarah, thank you so much for being a part of this amazing journey and for being such a good friend. Oh, Into Ben, our very first web developer who now is our full time CD cto who is built out Hubventory and so many tools here at the Hub, man, thank you for seeing the big vision. It's incredible the journey that we've been on together. Thank you so much. And to everybody on our team, to Samantha and to Maya and to Phoebe, you guys, Charlie and Shannon and everybody here at the Hub. If I name every team member, I will inevitably miss somebody. Every team member here at the Hub and contractors we've had at the Hub, man, past and present team members here at the Hub because some are no longer with us. Thank you for your role on this team and thank you for your belief and your love of this community and for making this all possible. And finally, man, these kiddos and my husband, Jade. Jade, you are the Boutique Hub baby. You came home and the day you were born, you were in one arm and there was a computer in the other. Launching website. You've literally been here for it all. And for every time we go out in public and go to a vendor event and you randomly will spot a Boutique Boss sticker and introduce yourself to a store owner and say, my mom is the boss of the Boutique Hub. As much as it embarrasses me, I'm so proud of you. Thank you for being my Boutique Hub baby. To Easton, man, thank you, buddy, for how much you step up and help take care of our family and get stuff done and have patience with your dad and I so that we can continue to build this business and to try to serve other people. We are so proud of you and the leadership and the young man that you've become. To Hadley. Oh my gosh. I know. I tell you to stop being the Mom. But I really need you to be a mom sometimes. You step up, you ship planners, you clean the office, you clean the warehouse. You come to market. You help cook lunch and dinner for the kids if we're busy. And you are the glue that continues to help hold us together. Thanks for being the awesome young woman that you've become. And Eric, oh gosh, man, thanks for telling me never to give up. There were so many times when family and friends said, hey, why doesn't she just get a real job? And you prayed about it and you were patient about it. And even when buying groceries was tough, there wasn't enough money in the bank to go around and you still believed in it. So thank you for being patient and believing in me and for standing up for me when everyone thought it was nuts. I love you and I'm so grateful for you. And finally you guys on the end of this 10 year celebration, to that CEO who I met at Market a long time ago and I told him my vision for the Boutique hub and he looked at me and he said, well, good luck with your little project. This one's for you. Happy 10 years. You guys, thanks so much for being on this journey with me and thanks for listening to this very special, very personal episode. I appreciate you guys. Cheers to the next 10 years. 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 time week.