Tips From a Successful Boutique Owner

All right.

Hey, guys, welcome back to the podcast this week or if you're catching us on video this week. I'm so excited because I feel like you're my long lost boutique bestie that I've been looking for forever. Alison, it has been such a pleasure to get to know you both through the hub and on social media. I know we've connected a lot this year, but you have such an inspiring story and are such a business mentor to so many people in the hub that I'm excited to share your story on the podcast. So, Allison Grooms from Jules and James Boutique, welcome.

Thank you so much. I am literally so honored and excited to be here and to be asked. I was at the first. I don't know if you even know this Ashley, but I was at the first Boutique hub summit in Dallas. Yeah, very first in Dallas. The very first one. I was there and. Oh, my gosh, you guys have glown up. So who did you come with?

Did you come with family or.

I brought. Okay. So I think that I might have even roomed with Glamour. The Glamour farm girls.

Yeah.

Known them, been friends with them for a long time. And then I think that I brought my manager from my store and I don't even know, like, that was. I mean, that was like when Comet sold was brand new. So I hung out with Brandon Cruz a lot that trip. Yeah. So I was there. Girl, that's so crazy. I've been a fan girl for a long time. Oh, my gosh. No, that is so cool.

Comments. Brand new because Brandon, like, literally I met him the week before that and he was like, oh, yeah, you know, I knew about Discount Divas. I knew about Amanda, but he's like, yeah, now we're going to start opening it up to others. So you must have been one of the very first users of comments sold. There wasn't very many. Yeah. That's amazing. Okay, well, I'm excited. We've got a lot to talk about with your story and a lot of personal things that I want to talk about with you today. So let's start here. I always want to give everyone the backstory about. Tell us a little bit about your boutique, where you live, and how you got started in this journey.

Okay. So my store, my whole business is Jules and James. Jules and James Boutique. And I named it after my children. A lot of people even shop on me and don't realize that it's named after my kids. I have a daughter named Juliet. She is six. And then I have a son named Jameson and he is four. So Jules and James is named after them. We live in Carrollton, Georgia, the cutest, best little town ever. I have been here for about eight years now and my business is a little more than five years old. And honestly, I did not ever really plan on having a boutique in this business. I started out my early adulthood as an elementary education teacher. Yeah, so I was a teacher, which I think a lot of it seems like a lot of the boutique owners come from the education world. So I don't know. Really, I don't know. I'm sure there's some like, psychology behind why that happens. Like bubbly, kind people maybe, I don't know. But yeah, I was a teacher and then I had my daughter Juliet, and I knew that I probably would never be back in the classroom. I knew I really wanted to stay home with her. And, and honestly, teaching was something that I loved, but I never felt like it was like my lifelong calling. I just never had that feeling. And so I really, you know, I feel like I spent a lot of my like early adulthood feeling like I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life and what would really bring me fulfillment. But I come from a long line of entrepreneurs and it's funny even that, That it just was a fact of my life, but I didn't really give it much thought. But really like grandparents, my parents have, I mean, they've done so many business ventures, it's unbelievable. And had a lot of successes and a lot of failures at the same time. So I think that's in me. And you know, after having my daughter, she was probably. She wasn't even a year old yet. She was probably like nine or 10 months. And I remember just feeling like I've got to do something else. Like I thought that I wanted to stay home and I do want to stay home, but like I have to have something else. And so I talked my husband into letting me get a embroidery machine. It was $1,000 machine and literally $1,000 back then to me seemed like what 10 or $15,000 seemed like to a lot of normal people these days. Like, it just seemed like that is a lot of money. It was a big risk. And so I got that thousand dollar machine and I worked up a business plan of how I was going to pay it off because we put it on a credit card, which is also something that I really don't love is debt ever. But anyways, I had a plan on how I was going to get it paid off. And so girl, I was monogramming and embroidering everything. Had a little Etsy business, and really that just turned into buying stuff wholesale. I started a Facebook group and just added all my friends and was like, y', all, I can get a sweater like this and sell it to you real cheap, and I have to buy a pack of six of it. Who wants them? You know? And so, honestly, even then, like, I didn't have a lot of business sense in a way. Like, I didn't know anything about marking up or, like, true business sense. Now, like, stuff that seems very basic, I just was figuring it out, you know? And so really, it just started growing and growing and growing. And then at some point, I kind of was like, okay, I'm having literally the most fun in my whole life that I've ever had with this, but I've got to legitimize this business, pay taxes, get a business license, do all the things you got to do to, like, make it legitimate. And really, probably after just playing with it for, like, a year, is when I got serious about it. And that's when Jules and James, the brand was born.

Oh, I like it. So many people, I think, feel like. I hear they get started kind of like you feel like they don't really know what's going on. And. And one thing that sets so many people back almost immediately is this idea of comparison. You know, I just started this business. How come I'm not growing as fast as Jules and James is? You know, there's just this comparison trap that happens immediately. How did you start to really, like, flip the switch from the Etsy shop and monogramming, which does every boutique owner in the south get started with bows and Etsy shops and monogramming?

It's a good possibility. Anything with tool and little. Yeah, all that stuff from, like, so fancy 2000s or whatever. It was, you know, one thing that. And I tell people this a lot, like, whenever I do advise other, you know, new boutique owners, this is something that I say. I feel very blessed because of when I got started. I feel like the boutique industry has taken off, and there are thousands of boutiques and boutique owners. But that's not to say that there's not room for another one. I'm not saying that whatsoever. But one thing that I feel blessed about is it was kind of before the surge. And honestly, I was not in a comparison trap. I really wasn't, because I didn't know. I was not comparing myself to anyone because of how I was doing it. I was selling on a Facebook group, and after I Was doing it for a few months is when I learned about Flaunt boutique in Texas, which I love those girls, they're amazing. They were selling on a Facebook group before I was, and then Discount Divas was. And then I know there's another one and I can't think of her name right now. But anyways, those were the only two that I found out about after the fact. And really, even then, like they were only two. So at that point I was like, okay, well, wow, they're doing amazing. And so, you know, that's when you get inspiration of how to do things better. Because obviously they were doing it for a little bit longer, so their stuff looked way better. And I'm like, okay, I can actually step up my game a little bit and make this look better. But that's one thing that I'm really thankful for is I did not have, I didn't see all these boutiques that I just constantly compared myself to. And that's, that's a blessing and a curse of nowadays because it's like, you know, in our Facebook group, like the boutique hub where we all share stuff, you see people, literally you see people, you see girls doing $3 million a month, which I'm not even there. You see girls that are like, I got five sales this week. So literally it is like across the spectrum of what everyone's doing. And honestly, someone's five sales in a week, that's just as huge to somebody as a million a month to someone else. So we all obviously have different places we start out at and hit our goals at different times. So.

But yeah, and everyone's goals are different too. I think that's absolutely. I talked to a lot of people even about this podcast and you know, like the size and range of boutiques that we have on here. Not everyone's goal is to be a multi million dollar store. You know, it may be just to have some freedom, some flexibility, to serve your greatest why and purpose in life and give back to others and to create sustainable for your family. So I love that you called that out, that everyone's journey is different. So talk to me about kind of what happened next. I love to hear like the moments that things started to click for you. So you realize there was these other stores that were doing well, you were selling in a Facebook group. I'm assuming that's when comment selling started to catch on for you or what made that flip to this new style of selling.

Yeah, so I started. Started doing this. I probably did this for about nine months before I had Comet sold because comment sold was not out there yet. Yeah. So I still have my notebook, Ashley. I need to find it and take pictures and like post it somewhere because I still have a notebook and it is hundreds of pages of literally me handwriting the order. It would be like a style number at the top, how many sizes that I was ordering of it. All the people that I was going to either ship it to or they were going to come pick it up and I have hundreds of pages of that. So yeah, it was crazy. But you know what, I will tell you. And I shared this story with my staff the other day and they were like, that is the most beautiful story. And I am going to tell you a story of like a turning point for me and I hope that he gets to hear this. But honestly, I feel like a huge turning point for me was actually a vendor relationship. And I feel like I know you have vendors that listen to you and so I think this could even inspire them. But so when I first started really like being serious about my business, I was ordering a ton on Fashion Go. And there was this brand that I found and honestly I found his top in a boutique probably like an hour away from my store. I was shopping one day and I got this top and I was in love with it and I saw the label and it was Andre by unit. And so have you met Leo in person?

Yes.

He is literally like such a sweet human. Well, anyways, I found their stuff and so I started ordering their stuff like crazy on Fashion Go. And it was odd because like at the time I was doing a lot of pre orders on stuff and so like I would order one or two packs of something and then I might order like eight or nine packs of like another talk. And so I remember one day my phone rang and literally no vendor had ever called me. Like I know that sometimes even call for credit cards. I don't even think they even called me for that. Like I had never had a vendor call me. And so anyways, I get a phone call and he's like, hey Ali. Because my email is Ali Grims. They all still call me Ali. It's so funny. He's like, hey Ali, I noticed like I'm just kind of confused about like your buying habits and blah blah, blah. And he's like, hey, are you going to be at the Atlanta show in a couple weeks? And I'm like, yeah, I'll be there. And he's like, listen, I really want to meet you, okay? And I'm like, okay, I'll I'll be there, and I'll meet you. And this is when Andre by unit. Like, I don't even know if they've been in the business for, like, a year. I have no idea. I remember I brought. Yeah, I brought one of my best friends, Megan, with me. And I remember we walked in the booth, and I'd only been at the Atlanta Mart maybe one other time. I still was like, so, so new. And I remember, like, I walked into his booth, and he was like, okay. He told his staff in front of me. He was like, whatever she wants, I want you to get it for her. If she wants Starbucks, I want you to get it for her. And he pulled up a chair, and, like, he was like, I just want to talk to you about your business and your goals and, like, what you're doing and, like, how you're selling. He's like, I'm super intrigued by you. And he's like, I can just tell. He's like, I can tell you're going to be huge one day. And he's like, and I really want to work with you. I know. And so listen to what he did. This is what, like, meant the absolute world to me. And honestly, I don't know. I don't know if anyone would ever do this for anyone. This is a little risky, what he did. So I walked into his booth, and he's like, okay. He's like, how much can you spend today? And I was like, honestly? I mean, I don't know. Maybe like, $2,000 maybe. And he was like, okay, Ali. He's like, I really believe in you. He's like, we're going to do something. He's like, I'm going to send you stuff. He's like, we're going to create an order, and you just pay me when you can pay me. And he's like, and if something doesn't sell, I will pay to ship it back. And I was like, are you kidding me? So I walked in with a $2,000 budget. He shipped me $8,000. It might have even been 12,000. $12,000 worth of product. And I remember, like, getting all these boxes at my house and being like, oh, my gosh, like, what am I going to do with all this merchandise? And so now, like, I'll probably go see Leo the first week of December. He wanted me to come this week, and I didn't want to go. It's election week, by the way, when we're recording. I didn't want to go this week, but I'll probably Go the first week of December. And it's rare that I ever leave his place or his booth. And I don't spend anywhere from like, 80 to over 100 grand every time I see him. I normally spend over a million dollars in a year with Andre by unit now. So he really took a chance on me. And, you know, it was probably like, six to nine months before I could even get caught up on, like, paying him, like, when he shipped stuff. But even like a year, a year and a half after that, like, he would call me sometimes and he'd be like, hey, your order today that I'm shipping is 20,000. I know you probably can't swipe all that on your card today, but if you can just pay me five, we'll get the rest later. And so he is just. He grew. He helped me grow so much. And he would tell you. I know he would tell everybody else, too, that we grew together, but it just really meant a lot to me to have someone, like, believe in me and want to work with me when I didn't have anything to offer him at first, you know? So just. He's just. He's. Honestly, I tell people he's one of my best friends. And I don't say in the industry. I just mean period. One of my best friends. Such a good person.

Oh, my gosh. So there's so many things I want to unpack about that because I love that story, and I hope he does get to hear this. Number one is the value of relationships and going to market and making those relationships. And I know so many of you guys listening. You do go to market or you do go to la. Like, I can't stress that enough that you have to build a relationship with vendors, right? And I'm sure there's many more. There's many more you've built relationships with now, too. But number two, he saw something in you that I think really sets your business apart as I still see it today. And you and I have talked about this, and that's just how real and authentic you are. And I feel like those are maybe buzzwords in our industry today. Like, we're telling everyone to be authentic. What does that really mean, like, to you? What does it really mean to show up and be authentic to your customer?

So for me, I would say one thing that I had to learn early on is you look at other people that are successful, and like I said, there weren't a ton of people that I could really compare myself to, but there were other people. I mean, there were Other. There were a lot of website companies that I could look at, like, Philly Flair. She was one that I loved so, so much that I used to look at her stuff all the time. And I remember thinking, like, I wanted. I would try to, like, want to be like someone else because I would see that they were successful. But then, like, what you realize is, like, that's not you, you know, And I know it's kind of. I don't know, it's. We've. We hear this all the time. But, like, you have to be you because everyone else is taken. But it's true. Like, if you do something, especially if your mom and your sister notice that you're not being yourself, you're really not being yourself because they know you better than anyone else. But people. People obvious also, just very much recognize fake and phony. And when you're not being yourself. But also, I think, like, one thing that my. I don't like to call them followers. My customers, my friends, my people, my community. I think, like, what they. One thing that I think they would love me for is that I'm not perfect. And I don't try to be perfect to them. Like, I tell them when I'm struggling or. And there's a. There's a line, you know, you don't want to cross a line with telling them too much. But, like, I'll tell them when I'm trying on clothes, like, y', all, I've gained 10 pounds since corona, so, you know, this is going to fit me different today, you know, and you're just real because they are there. They face those challenges, too, you know, I mean, I've gone live and done fit videos, and, like, my kids are in the background half dressed, or they come in and I don't even delete it and start over, because y', all, that's real life, and they want to see that you're real. Even my room right now looks really clean. But, like, if I was live, I would show them, y'. All. I got, like, a whole. I got probably three loads of laundry over here that's not folded like dirty underwear on the floor, you know? Like, they want to know that, like, you are a human and that you don't have this, like, perfectly curated life. And I think that's also, like, kind of a blessing and a curse of how, like, Instagram used to be. It seems like for a while, like, Instagram was so curated, and then I think people got tired of it. Yeah, I got tired of it. I don't know that's just me, though, I guess.

I heard insta stories so much.

Yes, I do, too. It's like, no, I want to see that you have a messy kitchen like I do, and that your kid is kind of crying in the background. Not that I'm delighting in your misery, but sometimes I am. I just want to know that you're normal.

Exactly.

Oh, man.

So other thing I'm thinking about going back to Leo's story is customer service and customer data. And that's something I think about. As you've grown, how have you, like, really used your data to go into customer service, to treat your customers like you were treated in that story?

Yeah. So one thing, we have not always done the very best job at this, but one thing that we really, really, really started to look at this year is our top customers. And so, I mean, it seems like that's something that we should have been doing long before this year. But I even told my team, I'm like, I want to know their faces. Like, if I see someone that spends. If I see someone that spent $10,000 with me this year, like, I need to know their face if I see them at Kroger or wherever, you know? So one thing we do is. And I have a team that helps me with this, but they. We write notes to them, we send gifts. We literally. I mean, there's even. I can't. I wish that I could think of her name so I could shout her out, but, like, I found her on the hub, and maybe you know who she is, but she has, like, earrings. And so I think I bought, like, 500 pair of earrings for $500. And they were assorted. And, like, I've just been mailing those to customers all year, you know, and, you know, after I ship it, it cost me three or four dollars, but that customer got a gift from me with a handwritten note with my name on it. And I think it just means a lot to them. And so we really. I mean, I. I can't tell you how many customers I have sent flowers to this year. One of my good customers had a cancer battle this year. One of my good customers got accepted into hair school. And so we just send flowers, we send cookies. We just do a lot to love on our people. And it's honestly such a small gesture when people show up for you as much as they do for us. I mean, it sounds. It's so small in comparison for what they do for us. So I just think showing that gratitude and just really looking at your data of who is shopping with you and who you really need to be paying attention to.

Yeah, I love that. We just did this huge pay it forward thread in the hub. I don't know if you saw that, but I'm a big fan of like $5 Starbucks gift cards. So I just like, write someone a note, throw in a gift card, throw in a boutique of sticker, whatever. But that little thing, as much as it is for the other person, it does something for you too. Like, I feel like gratitude. Yes, it pays forward, but it also pays you tenfold too. Like, when you're out there, that's the best thing you could do for yourself too.

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

All right, let's talk live sales for a minute because I know that's how you built your business. You're 100% comment sold, right? So talk to me about, like, some strategy. If someone's listening and they're like, how do I grow my life sales? How do I get more viewers? What are some things that have worked for you?

So I will say live sales are something we definitely have done, but we have not done them. I would say we've definitely not done them to the full capacity that some of the other comments sold sellers have. But I'll tell you what we've learned. So I think that there are some people that they have gone live so much that they feel like in a way that they're slave to a live sale. And I think that it's important not to get to that point to where you feel like you can never take a vacation or that you have to be in every live or if you don't go live at all, that you make zero money. And so one thing that I think that we've done a good job of is diversifying our selling channels. So we do wall drops, we do obviously app notifications, we have a great email marketing campaign, we run Facebook ads. And then of course, we do live sales. I will say, like, we really stepped up our game with a live sales, especially when, like the quarantine happened and we were forced to shut down because I had no models for photo shoots. And so it was literally me, my husband, my sister in law and her husband working at our warehouse packaging all the orders. And it just made me sick because it was like everyone was at home shopping and like, we couldn't even keep up with what all they were wanting to buy. Literally they would buy, want to buy everything. And I'm like, y', all, there's just four of us packaging orders. So I can't Sell you anything else tonight. Bye. You know, but really, I learned, especially during that time, how much our customers. And I don't think it's just our customers. I think it's so many humans. I think that a lot of people are lonely, and they crave, like, human interaction. And I love and adore our customer base. And I think that we do have a lot of customers that are super busy and they don't have time for a live sale. I mean, honestly, if I were not in this business, I don't think that I would be that kind of a consumer. In a way. I really don't think that would be me. It's not my favorite thing to watch. I'll watch them, other people sometimes just for, like, inspiration or see what they're doing. But I'm even not a huge fan to watch them. But I think that there's a ton of people out there that are lonely and they crave, like, just say my name. You know, like, even have sometimes annoying customers that keep saying the same thing over and over again. And they literally want you to say their name first and last name and just address them. You know, like, it might be the only time that someone said their name that day. I don't know. But one thing that we learned, especially, like I said through the whole coronavirus is, or the quarantine is people do long for that interaction. And so we've really. I mean, we've sold a ton this year through live sales. And one thing that I would say has been huge for us is consistency. And consistency for us means we go live the same times at the same nights of the week. So Tuesdays and Thursdays, you can pretty much count on us being live. We might throw in some extra ones or surprise ones, but Tuesday and Thursday nights, we're always going to be live. And then also, I was going to say same people, but sometimes we do change it up. But anyways, just being consistent with your times and just, they know, like, no matter what, Tuesday, Thursday, even this past Tuesday with the election, we were still alive. And honestly, we had so many viewers. I was really surprised at how many people, I guess, wanted to turn the news off and just take a break.

So as you've scaled that, I love that it's diversified. First of all, like, I want to really emphasize that for everyone who's listening. And I know the app is a huge piece of what you do, too. But to manage all of that, you've had to grow a lot of teams. And so I think about this whole idea of Being a CEO versus an entrepreneur. And I talk about that a lot in the Hub because I think being a CEO starts when it's just you by yourself. Like you don't even have to have employees yet to have this mindset of I need to hire to scale my business in some capacity. I need to ask for help. So talk to me about lessons you've learned in growing your team and how you've started to ask for more help.

Yeah, so I am really, really, really blessed with the team that I have. I hear some horror stories. I mean, I know you do too. We hear the same story sometimes, but so I feel like I have just been really blessed with the people that have come alongside me and I really can't even take that much credit for it, honestly. One thing that I think that I do well is I don't micromanage and I let them lead their teams. And so my sister in law, I call her my right hand chick, she basically was my first hire and we could not be any more different. Like literally we are night and day different in every single way that you could possibly think of. She doesn't even really love fashion and clothes that much is what's hilarious. But I'm telling you, I could not. I'm not going to say I couldn't do this without her, but like, Jules and James would not be what it is today if it wasn't for her because she is like my operations. I'm right brain. She's left brain. So yeah. And so we always say like, I can sell anything and Leah's gonna make sure it gets there. And she keeps our warehouse so organized. I mean, if I had to organize a warehouse, I would just. There would be no organization. It would just be like he like runs. She basically has like two or three teams under her that have to do with like our inventory receiving or shipping. And then she just does so many things that I can't even name all the things she does. And then I have another girl that I hired a year ago to be on my creative team and she's basically, she runs our creative team, she runs photo shoots, all of our sales campaigns and she is super organized. So she's a type three on the Enneagram and I'm a top seven. And so literally. Are you a three? Yeah. I could so see you being a three. So I'm the kind of person, I'm embarrassed to tell you this, Ashley, but I have that adorable, amazing boutique hub planner and I don't think I've even hardly written Anything in it. Nicole has that same planner, and, like, she has a notebook. Like, I don't talk to her that she's not writing down everything, making lists, she checking it twice, crossing it off. And I'm like. I'm like, it's all up here. I got it, but I don't got it, you know? So the Sevens need the threes. We need our boutique planners, which are amazing. There's so many resources. You just need to use it. But anyways, that's just me. I'm just a hot mess. Totally a hot mess. But I definitely let them lead their teams, and I don't micromanage. I definitely check in and I know what's going on, but, you know, just let them do their thing. So I'm really blessed with that. And then I have an amazing store manager, and she runs my store, and I literally could never go in my store again and know that everything was going to be perfectly fine. So she does an amazing job with that.

I love that. Okay, so a couple questions, because I'm thinking about there's people that both are brand new to hiring, so I'm going to ask you the what would you do different question in a minute. But before that, there's people that are listening that have teams, and they want to scale to the place where you are, where, you know, you've been able to kind of step back out of your business a little bit and give yourself more freedom and more family life. So can you explain to me how many teams do you have and captains? And then how do you structure that in terms of, like, leadership meetings, ongoing training? Like, what does the structure of your team look like?

Sure. Okay. So I have a warehouse, and I have this store. So I think of them as two totally different things. So in my store, I have my store manager, and I have, I think, maybe four or five employees. And Kaylee has been with me from the very beginning, and she basically just kind of evolved into her position. She's amazing. And so I don't. I wish that I did more with my store girls I'm trying to get better about. I might go to lunch with them individually. Like, I've just started even asking them to go to lunch, you know, just trying to get that. So where I actually see them, because a lot of them I don't ever see. And I have a great girls that work in my store that have been like, our turnover is low, surprisingly, for our store. So anyways, she meets with them once a week. They do a little team meeting every morning before Their shift starts, they do a little devotion. They talk about their sales goals, and then they have goals for the month also in incentives. And so that's my store. Then our warehouse. So my sister in law and Nicole, I would say are over the warehouse. Leah, definitely. So we have two parts of the warehouse. We have like our whole warehouse, which is all like the clothes part. And then we have our office space in the front of that, which is a good size office with offices and a conference room and all that. So we have one person in hr and really Leah, our HR would actually report to Leah. And then we have a inventory team. Inventory receiving. So Wendy is my inventory manager and she has a team, but then she reports to Leah because Leah is like, set up the warehouse, all of that.

Let me back up. I feel like I'm not getting all. I'm confusing names. So you've got your HR person. Mm, house man, your inventory manager that you just managed.

Yes.

What is your sister in law's name again?

Her name is Leah.

Okay, do you have two Leah's?

No, just one. So Leah's basically over the whole warehouse.

Okay, gotcha.

I have hr, which is its own thing. And I have Wendy. She's over all of inventory.

Okay.

And she has a team. Gotcha. And then I have Kelly, and Kelly is over all of my packages, like all the shipping, all the things that go out. And so Kelly is over that. And then she's also over customer service. Okay, so returns, all that. Yes, returns. Customer service. Yes. Returns is a huge thing. So I have two people that do returns, and then I have Nicole, and Nicole has maybe four or five people underneath her, which Nicole is our creative director. And so she has under her our photographers. She manages all the photo shoots. All of our models report to her, and we contract out all of our models and she's. She just oversees basically everything. Creative marketing, all of that that we do.

They do social media to her team.

Oh, yes, everything. And I always say, if you ever see anything written by Jules and M, even if it comes from my account on Facebook, those girls wrote it. They wrote the picture or they made the pictures, they created the graphic, they created the email, they wrote the words. That's her entire team. So email marketing, everything is.

I love that structure. I think that paints such a good picture. Okay, so put yourself back in, like making your very first hire.

Okay.

Like, oh my gosh, I'm growing and I need help. What do you wish you would have known then that you know now?

Hmm. Well, I will say this, and I Know, I wrote this in my little thing to you, but somebody told me this a couple years ago, and it was after I'd been in business a couple years ago or a couple years. But one of my very favorite business advice, if anyone ever says, like, what's your best piece of advice? This is it. Be slow to hire and quick to fire. And I don't know who the. I need to look up who the original author is of that quote and give them credit every time I share it. But anyways, a mentor slash friend of mine told me that, and I think if I would have done that from the beginning, it would have saved me a lot of headache, a little bit of heartache. But more of a headache than a heartache because, Ashley, you know how it is. If you have someone working for you that is just like, they're just not the best and not a good fit. It's a headache. And then you're just. It's just constantly a struggle until you finally let them go. And I always tell people, I've never fired someone or let someone go. That I was like, man, I just really hate that I let them go. I wish I could get them back, you know? Like, that is never happened. Yes. And then once you do it, it's like a breakup with a boyfriend, you know, it's like you dread it, you're sad over it, you're kind of sick to your stomach. But then literally, after you do it, you're like, like, why did I wait so long to do that? Yeah. And so now, like, this is kind of savage of us, but I cannot tell you how many people we've hired for, like, a trial. And, like, after the first day, we're like, hey, you're really great, but it's just not going to work out here, you know? And I tell people all the time, like, one thing that I'm really, really proud of with Jules and James, like, I'm so proud of this. We are literally no drama. Like, my leadership team, they are zero drama. Like, we do not talk bad about each other. We are not catty. We don't wonder if others are mad. And honestly, that we used to have a couple guys that worked for us and we lost them after the quarantine, but we're like, 100% women right now. And, like, there's just no drama. And not to say that there hasn't ever been, but we're just no nonsense, no drama. And that's one thing. If you have a lot of that going on in your business, you know, I'm talking to whoever is watching that.