How She Built a 100+ Client Business Using Only Facebook

Somebody on the fence who's thinking about starting a business, what would be your best piece of advice for them?

You've got to get over the pride. Give it a shot, because what if it like turns into something awesome? Announcing you're starting something is honestly embarrassing because you don't know if it's gonna succeed or fail, and you just have to throw it out there. And like, no one is going to be sitting there thinking about, remember when she tried?

What's the worst that can happen? You fail, go do another thing, or go get a— go get a normal job. If you're gonna

If you want to do it, go for it. Go all in. You got to work hard. That's the thing. You have to go for it. You can't just tinker with the idea. Go all in and then see if it works out. And if it doesn't, find a different need. Why not?

In today's episode, we have Ali Reed with Reed Resale here in Abilene, Texas. She went from a teacher to an online boutique to completely doing online resale through Facebook alone. I think her Facebook page has grown over to 5,000+ followers in a very, very short amount of time. This is a great episode if you're trying to figure out— maybe you're a stay-at-home mom, maybe you're a college student trying to figure out how to make some extra income on the side without having to go get a full-time job. Ali Reed has figured it out. She has built teams, she has systems on what exactly she's doing. She's filled the gap, which is where there was a big need. So I hope you enjoyed today's episode as much as I did. Let's get into it. Today's episode is sponsored by Empire Management Group. Whether you're a business owner looking to improve employee benefits, strengthen your insurance coverage, grow your sales, develop your leadership team, or build long-term wealth, Empire Management Group provides practical solutions all under one roof. That's right. Their team helps businesses attract and retain top talent, improve operations, and create sustainable growth. Plus, through premier partnerships like AFLAC, they offer career opportunities for individuals looking to make an impact in their community. Learn more at empire-management-group.com. Let's get to the episode. Yeah, I've been trying to buy sandbags for like 3 years now, and I can never just pull the trigger

because

I'm like, now I gotta go buy sand, now I gotta go to Home Depot. I

don't know. Anyways, your mind.

Yeah, so So tell me, we were just talking off camera a little bit, but you are moving kind of in a new direction, maybe in a new location.

Yes.

Um, tell us about that.

Okay.

And anything that you want to spill the tea on that.

Okay, so I don't know if you've noticed, it's pretty hot outside. I have noticed. I originally thought, oh, I could do this in my guest bedroom. Quickly found out people drop off, usually when they clean out their closets, it's tubs and tubs. It's not like a little dainty bag. So people would drop off several a day. It was closing in on me. So I was like, oh, I'll use the garage. You know, did this in April. Weather's great. Garage door open. Then August hits and it's like, oh my gosh, we need space.

It's getting 50 degrees.

We're so stinking hot. But it worked great and it was free and it was at my house all summer. The boys were home. I was able to pop in and out. They can come out there, play basketball. I'm able to fill orders, all that kind of stuff. Well, thank goodness it's grown. And right now we're having on average about 3 people drop off a day. So, you know, some people are bringing 4 or 5, 6 tubs.

Yeah.

So that we've really kind of outgrown the garage too on top of the air conditioning. So one day it dawned on me. I was like, you know what? We have a lot of people, like probably 90% of our customers are picking up at my house, which is also, I have someone, we literally went and bought blinds because I'm making eye contact with someone on my porch at all times.

I'm like, hi. So we feel the same way.

Okay. Do you?

Yes. Katie sells all kinds of stuff as you, I'm sure, have seen on Facebook.

I love her Facebook.

All of her antiques and clothes and painting stuff. Yeah, our house is—

So there's someone on the porch and it's great.

Our Ring doorbell is going crazy. It's like, person walking up on your porch.

Yep, yep, yep. So, uh, because our kitchen window literally looks straight up into our, um, porch, so like honestly it's awkward for them to like come pick up the package.

You could just like do the dishes.

It's one of those, do you like make eye contact or do you both pretend to not see each other? So we're moving out of the garage. So one day it dawned on me. I was like, wait, I have 40, 50 people coming to my house every day. What if there's a business out there that has extra space, which is what I need, but they need people noticing like where their business is or seeing all their cool products? And I was like, I know that there is a match out there somewhere. Someone needs people coming in. They need the foot traffic and I need the foot traffic. traffic away from my house and I need space. So I was like, there's gotta be a match out there. So I posted on Small Businesses of Abilene and someone reached out to me and they were like, you're more than welcome to come look at our space. And it's in a really cool spot in downtown. And I was just like, what? There's no way this is real life. Like, this was an idea I had in April and now like I might get to move downtown. So we're in the works of figuring that out and it might be happening really, really soon. That's awesome. Which is gonna be fabulous because honestly I feel bad for my staff. I'm like, you want to come to my garage in the heat and fill orders with me? And for some reason they want to. So

yeah,

this will be fun.

Do y'all have any like AC out there, or is it just like fans? Or

we have a swamp cooler. I don't know what the correct term for that is. And then we have, um, a little homeschool room that is now my office, and it has a split unit. So we kind of all hide in there for a little bit, cool off, and then we'll go back to the garage. So

that's awesome.

I'm just excited.

For somebody who has never heard of you or what you do, kind of explain that.

Okay, so I've been in the boutique world for 12 years now, so that's been really fun. I love that world, and I've always done online. So recently we kind of pivoted And I started selling a lot of stuff on Facebook Marketplace. And I like the thrill of that, you know, because—

There's a dopamine hit somewhere along the way.

Yeah, so fun, especially if you get like several in a day and like people are fighting over your stuff. And it's like, oh my gosh, this is really fun. And it works. Like you can sell stuff on Facebook Marketplace pretty quickly, or normally. So I ran out of things to sell and I was like, okay, I know how to like build all the Facebook groups and sell online. And I've sold clothes for like 12 years and all this stuff. Well, I ran out of my own stuff. And so my mom was like, do you wanna sell some stuff for me? So then that snowballed. Mm-hmm. And I thought, wait, I could basically start a hybrid of a consignment store and a boutique online and try to make it more of a vibey community where we post daily drops and it might be a vacation drop or it might be a, you know, all sorts of ideas. So I kind of did a hybrid of that. I named it Reed Resell. My last name's Reed. And it's just a lot of people want to clean out their closets. And it's been really fun. It's really special that it's able to help local women get money back into their pockets. That's been really fun.

Well, think of the alternatives like If they clean out their closet, I mean, most of the time we just like took it to Goodwill.

Exactly. Which there's nothing wrong with that either. But I mean, I've been able to get people, you know, some people $500, $600, $700, $800 back where they're like, wait, what? I've been taking all this to Goodwill. Which is, I mean, the world's expensive right now. So if you can basically share your clothes with someone else, like Before back-to-school shopping and stuff. It's like, that was fabulous to get to.

So how does the business model work? Is it like a percentage? Like—

Yes. So they bring me their clothes. I do all of the sorting, pictures, posting, selling, all of that kind of stuff. And then I split the profit 50/50. So once I've gotten everyone's Venmos and payments, I shoot them over the 50%. And then we give them the option if they wanna pick up anything that didn't sell, absolutely. Absolutely. I'll tub it back up. They come grab it or I'll donate. And I've kind of been trying to rotate who I donate to. The Wiley Schools, AISD. There's some local charities off of South 14th. You know, I'm trying to spread the love around to everyone because

that's awesome.

A lot of people are really generous on wanting to donate.

How many— how do you— I guess, how do you measure the amount of clothes? Do you measure it in like pounds or like items? No.

It's just kind of like on our signup sheet, we'll say like, estimate how many clothes you have. So people will be like, I have 2 large tubs or I've got 6 trash bags or something like that. At the moment, we don't have a limit. We'll see if that changes one day.

Yeah. I mean, why would you have a limit though?

I think our main thing is we want items that are going to get you money back. Like, We don't necessarily want your huge trash bags of Goodwill, you know, like your Goodwill items, just because in my group, I want there to be this trust that I'm posting really good stuff, you know? Yeah. So when you're shopping, that you're like, okay, Ali's gonna find the cutest things that are high quality. There's not stains and holes and all the things. So if they will go ahead and help us sort that out, that saves so much time. so much time for us, and then we can get you way more money, you know?

Yeah.

So it's— people have been— some people, they drop it off in the most pristine condition. I'm like, I really need your Type A in my life bad. It's wonderful when they do that.

So that's awesome. I've— I'm a huge fan of taking your business and leveraging social media and online world With your business. So this is all online, correct?

Yes.

And you've been running kind of this type of model, or not model, but being online selling things for 12 years?

Yes. I'm not a sit behind, like, I love freedom. Like freedom's my main goal in life. And so doing stuff online, I'm gonna always be a mom first. I'm never gonna miss a game. I'm never gonna miss Any of the things. So with that being said, when it's online, I can wake up at 4 one day, knock it all out if I know I've got something that's important to my boys. Does that make sense?

Yeah, 100%.

So that's huge to me.

Which I think that's a perfect spot to be in. Yes. And that's kind of where we're at, is like, how can we bring in income to the home while still being available for everything going on and not being—

And it's a hard balance.

Very hard.

So that's another reason I'm excited to get out of my garage is because we were kind of talking, there's this line when it's in your home, it's hard for me to not want to just pop out there and work all the time. So I'm excited for our downtown spot to possibly think this is home, this is work, and like really have that visual representation of like, I close that door, And now I'm home.

Yes.

And it's left there.

That was one of the biggest things. Honestly, there's a lot of great perks about having a location.

Yes,

there's, there's a couple cons about having a location, but one of the biggest perks to me is exactly that. Because whenever I first started, I started this like in 2022 at this point.

Were you doing that from home?

Yeah, so I was in my apartment at, um, in At college. And so I started out of there, and I just had a couple of things, like nothing too crazy. And then I got married and moved in with Katie, and that's whenever I started to realize, like, okay, this may not be healthy.

The lines can get blurred very easily when—

Because especially when you're starting something brand new. So like, I was like a year into it, and I would— I mean, I would wake up, immediately start working. And then like at 7:30 AM, I would probably start work all day, sometimes till midnight. Yeah, because if I have a laptop, I can work on anything. Like, there's always something to be done. And so there was a moment where it was like almost midnight and I was in bed on my laptop.

Yep.

And Katie just looked at me, she's like,

what are you doing, dude?

Yeah, she's like, are you still working? I was like

I know.

God, that hurt the heart. And so from that moment forward, I tried to set boundaries at the house. And so like 5 o'clock would roll around, I'd be like, okay, I'm done. Like,

but it's hard.

Didn't have self-control sometimes.

Well, we live in a world that we're always accessible. So I mean, I was floating the river last weekend and I saw a message come through like, hey, I can't find my package. You know, like you're just— you can be in the middle of a river on a tube And someone can still get a hold of you, and that's great. There's a lot of pros in that. Like, once again, we can work wherever we're at. I got to still make some income while I was in New Braunfels floating the river. But there's some boundaries that have to be set, mostly with myself, not necessarily with my customers. I don't care if they message me. I need to have the boundaries of like, I'm gonna check this later.

And I think that's— yeah, that's great priorities in my opinion. But With that being said, as soon as we got— we moved into our first studio in 2024.

Okay.

And so we were there for 2 years, and that was amazing because, like you said, as soon as you shut the laptop, as soon as you lock the door— I intentionally leave my computer here now because I will be tempted to go. Oh, absolutely.

Especially if someone brings something up and you're like, oh wait, let me fix that real quick.

Exactly, exactly. So Very good move on your end.

Yeah, I'm excited. I think, and resale just isn't a beautiful business. You know, it's tubs, it's trash bags, it's this and that. And as much as I've tried to make it look good in the garage, I just have to accept the fact that it's just not a gorgeous operation.

It's a garage.

It's a garage. It's tubs. It's people's folded clothes and all that kind of stuff. So I'm excited to not drive up my driveway and that's what I see every time I open the garage. So.

I love it.

But at the same time, I'm very thankful for it all. It's been really great.

Yeah, so there's a lot of business owners who watch this podcast and with your experience of 12 years of utilizing social media online, for somebody who has never really, 'cause I get this a lot, people come to me and they're like, why do I even need social media? Ooh. What would you say to the business owner who is like maybe thinking about pivoting and going online? And it doesn't really matter the industry, Yeah. What would you say to that person on the fence?

Okay, so I do think that in certain businesses online is super helpful. Like with mine, it's a constant need. Like it's not me having to create like what trend is going on right now to get my name out there. You know, mine, it really, I'm like utilizing something and it's super helpful to get sales. But I would say that it's just, great. Like, I feel like, you know, Vagabond does such a great job of like posting their delicious pizza, and I'm like, we're going there tonight. You know, it just gets you in front of people's eyes and it makes them remember you, and it works. It works. Um, but one thing I'm so passionate about is one time my dad told me, you can't grow if you're personally maxed out. You have to delegate some stuff. So I think it's really important that when you delegate, you figure out why is our— what am I doing that's making the business successful? And then what can I pass off that someone else could do and they could probably do it in a way better way, you know? So I think if social media, if it's something you feel like you need to do, but it's not really your passion or where you're comfortable or anything, there's so many people out there that would be fabulous at it. And that's something that you could delegate while you get to focus on the things you're good at.

Yeah.

In your business.

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Oh, it's second nature. They were raised on social media. 100%.

And that's one reason that I kind of got into this industry is because I grew up with it and I didn't know any other way. To do things. Like, whenever I decided to start a business, my first thing that I was going to do was start posting videos. Yeah, it— I don't— I didn't know of any other way to do it. And

it just makes sense. It just makes sense. It's like, wait, well, that's how we advertise.

And I knew how to make a video. I knew how to use my camera. I knew how to edit basic stuff. So like most— I call them— I don't even know what gen— generation they are anymore, but Gen Z And below, like, they are freaks on a lot of these platforms. I

mean, you'll see a 2-year-old that's like,

yeah,

yeah, I know how to work everything.

iPhones. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy what little kids can learn.

Yeah. So like, my dad owns an insurance company right down the road, and I don't know if I would suggest for him to open his own Instagram and start promoting, you know, like, that's just not something. But I think he could have a lot of success if he you know, brought you in and you interviewed him and you got his name out there and all that kind of stuff. So I think if it's super daunting to someone, look around. There's a lot of people that are really good at it and they're like, you want to pay me to post on Instagram? This is great. This is a wonderful job, you know? So, um, I have— I'm very Type B. I'm a hustler. I've got ideas. I'm very entrepreneurial. But when it comes to the nitty-gritty, that's what I've learned. That's not my favorite thing and it's not what I'm really good at. So

which is like what in your—

Okay, so when I first started, people would message me, can I drop off clothes? Sure, drop them off. So then I have 8— all of a sudden I have 8 people dropping off on my front porch. You know, this is when I first started. And then I have a crash out because I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't get to all that. I can't do this. So Lacey has been my, oh my gosh, my saving grace. She's my type A. She's created Google Docs. She has spreadsheets. She has email blasts going out to people. She has a cute little graphic of who drops off each day. It's been wonderful. Yeah. It is fabulous. And I'm like, I love, love, love That I get to team up with someone that that's their— that's what she enjoys. Yeah. That's what she's good at. And it's like when you get some people together, like different qualities, magic happens. I'm telling you.

So finding teammates that complement—

Yes. Your thing.

If you're good at one thing, find somebody who's good at something else.

Yes.

I think that's important.

It's so important. And it's— I mean, it's kind of wonderful to be like, wait, you're down to do all that for me? Because that's the stuff I don't want to do at all. I don't I don't want to do that at all. I want to like sell this stuff, you know? That's fun to me.

That's the cool part I feel like about having your own business is you can control that stuff.

For sure.

You can control who you work with. You can control, to an extent obviously, who works with you.

Yes.

And what you're doing on a daily basis.

And kind of get to control the environment a little bit. Like, let's come to work, let's be happy, let's have fun, let's listen to some music. Like 100%. Work's not all bad, you know? No. It can be fun.

Work can be very fun. Sometimes it's funny because I feel like my work is not work.

Yeah.

And whenever I have— sometimes even like my grandparents are like, what do you do?

Yeah.

I'm like, hmm, I make YouTube videos. I make YouTube videos for businesses. Which in turn make money. And they're like, they're like, you know, YouTube's a thing.

Yeah, I know, that's funny.

Um, yeah,

it's a whole new concept and it's like second nature, like we said.

Yeah, 100%. Um, so what have been some of your biggest like roadblocks with this whole online store thing?

Um, I think At first I was trying to do it all myself. And truly it's something you could, we call like the garage, like the black hole because you could get sucked into it and like there is endless things to do. So I think that whole delegating to like, hey, I need someone to do all the computer work. Like I do.

Yeah.

And I need someone. So what's really, really, really been so fun is that I've been able to hire some girls that need more flexible hours. They're first moms or they're college students or they're this or that. And it's been really fun to get to team up with people. I have some teachers, I have some moms, I have college students that they're willing to take some of the clothes home, take photos at their house during nap time and post during bedtime and all this kind of stuff. And they've gotten to get some extra money and some income and some purpose and friendship and community and all that. And I've gotten to not burn myself out completely. So that was a roadblock of like, how do I do all this on my own? And so I had to find a solution. And that has been the sweetest little community and friendship. That's awesome. Like, that's something that I feel really thankful that God's like, brought people into my life. And like I said, some don't need money necessarily, but they want to wake up. I don't know if Katie ever had this feeling, but when you're in the like depths of little kids, sometimes you want to think about something else, you know? Oh,

100%. She all— yes, yes.

It's beautiful. Like being a mom's beautiful. But every once in a while you're like, it gets to be Groundhog Day.

Yeah.

Where you want some of that excitement of like selling something or like, ooh, I need to go do a photo shoot or I need, you know, just a A little something else to think about. So—

Especially if you have like an entrepreneurial mindset.

Oh yeah.

Which both me and Katie have. And so the transition to her, 'cause she worked at a school before we had Olivia, which she's 1, and she— we decided, okay, uh, the Lord was telling her to stay at home to be a mother. So, okay, it didn't make sense. But we've made it this far, 15 months, I think, 15 months. And she got into the position of being like, okay, I need something,

just a little something

else. And so she started picking up painting again, which took off. And then she started doing painting parties, which took off. And now sometimes we have to be like, okay, Katie, like,

chill.

This,

yeah,

works because you get to And not have to spend that many hours doing it and still get to spend time with Libby and not have to hire a nanny or take him to daycare, whatever. And so—

And it's really cool how it works for— however it works for your family is fine. Like, some people, their whole— they get so much, like, joy from getting to just stay home all day with their kids. And I think that's Awesome. I wish I had more of that in me. And then there's some people that get so much joy from being at work and that works for them. And then there's some of us that are just kind of this in-between, like, how do I work 4 or 5 hours? But also, yeah. So

yeah, which is exactly where Katie's at. No, that's awesome. So how did you go about, because you went from boutiques, only boutiques. Did you have a physical location or just online?

No, we've never. So when we owned our Oliver and Otis, the t-shirt company, we had a warehouse out at my parents' house. But we were always online, so we would do a few pop-ups a year, but we've always, um, all 3 of us kind of always had that passion for a free schedule.

Yeah. So would you ever have— do you regret not having a local, uh, a location with the previous boutique?

I don't think so.

Because that's still running, right?

Yes. Okay. Um, we've— we're kind of in a breaking pause point just to see what kind of what we're all craving in this little section of life. But I don't know, I think online just really works for us because my sister has young children, I've got children, my mom's got grandkids, you know, and it's, it's, there's something really sweet about the online.

So do you primarily do the resale now?

Yes. Yeah.

Okay.

That's where I'm putting all my eggs at this exact moment.

So how do you do it? Do you post like photos of everything on Facebook or do you go live?

So I started off going live and it turned into this like catfight. Not really, but people were like claiming stuff so fast and it was, which I'm so thankful for, But it was really hard to organize who claimed what and who did it first. You know, like the comments could, and we just quickly learned, like talk about a roadblock. Um, quickly learned that that is a very successful way, but not the way we were doing it on the Facebook platform. Like on Whatnot or whatever. Like I haven't ventured down that road yet, but I think if there was a platform.

It's a dangerous road.

Yeah, I know, I've heard. But I think if there was a platform that made for like, if someone commented, it went, To them and I wasn't playing the game of who did it first. 'Cause I never wanna cheat anyone or upset anyone or anything like that. So I started off going live, quickly found that it frustrated people. And then it also was just, it was tough organization-wise.

Yeah.

So now I will post a big thread. So say Katie brought in her clothes, I would make a graphic and I would post all of her clothes.

Like in the comment section or something?

In the comment section. And then so say there's a cute jean jacket, right, size extra large Gap jean jacket, $23. If you want it, you just hit sold. Yeah. Or you just write me or sold or whatever. And then we pull all of our orders, message you. And then like I said, 90% of people probably do porch pickup, which is really, I mean, in one way it's so cool because my neighbor's one of my shoppers. So she'll just like walk across the street, get her order. And I'm like, there's nowhere else you can just like, I mean, I guess there is. that you can see a cute dress you want to wear tomorrow and just pick it up off the porch and be like, done, sold.

Yeah. So do you ship out the other 10% you would say?

Yes, I've started. That's been a fun learning curve also. We've tried several different ways. And I think last week we shipped like 47 orders. So what we're doing right now is we're holding it. So your orders Monday through Friday, Friday's my ship day. So you pay a flat rate, $8. I'll hold all your orders in a box and then Friday, whatever is in there, I ship out.

Got it.

So that they're not having to pay $8 every single time they order because, I mean, it really doesn't cost much more to send one shirt versus 4 items.

It would drive me nuts if I had to ship out stuff like that. Katie has started the whole Vinted. She's selling on Vinted.

Yeah.

And she, I mean, she has to make like almost daily trips to go ship things off.

Well, if you'll go to usps.com, they'll pick up from your house.

Oh,

you just set up a scheduled pickup.

Okay, Katie, you better watch this episode.

And it's $0 if you do, um, during your normal pickup time. Like, it's like when the mailman's already coming, you just set it on your front porch and they'll take it with them. Okay, it's fabulous.

That's good.

She doesn't want to have to get out with a baby.

Yeah, well, yeah, typically she'll wait for me to come home and

then she's like,

bye. And then she's like, okay, I'll be right, I'll be all right. And then she goes to, you know, TJ Maxx.

And I know, I was like, maybe a little Sonic drink in there. So she might need that time, honestly. Yeah, she might need that excuse to get out of the house. So let her do that if she— if that's something she just needs. It's a good— that's good, Aaron Duran.

Yeah, I love it. Real quick, today's episode is sponsored by your boy Darren. I want to ask you a question. If feel like there should be more business coming your way, then you're probably right. And it's probably not because your product or service isn't good enough, because not enough people know who you are, which is exactly why I created a 3-day live coaching experience called the Profitable Personal Brand Challenge. In this challenge, I'm going to show you exactly what you need to know in order to turn your expertise into a profitable personal brand through content. My goal with content and business is not to actually make millions of dollars, but it's actually to build a life around what it is that I want to achieve. And for me, it means more time with my family, more, more traveling, less stressing about work and working my life away so that I can go do things that I am called to do and serve others, and ultimately more freedom. So if you are ready to become known, build a personal brand on your terms, and grow your business all at the same time, scan the QR code on the screen or click the link in the description I'll see you in the Profitable Personal Brand Challenge. Let's get back to the episode. Okay, so on this podcast, we like to talk about AI.

Okay.

Do you use AI within your business?

Um, so I found out the other day when you use Canva and you like erase backgrounds, that is AI now. So I hear that people are like trying to get away from that. So I guess I use AI in those ways.

Yeah.

But typically I don't really need it. You know, I don't know if I have this huge, like, I'm absolutely 100% against it. I think we need to be careful with it. And I think that the businesses that are so, so, so obviously using it, maybe people are kind of noticing that and turning away from it. So like from a business standpoint, I don't think I would be like, Make sure all your graphics look the exact, you know what I'm saying?

Oh yeah, yeah, 100%.

So how do you feel about it?

I always like to get people's takes because I think there are ways to use it like operationally, like internally, that can completely change everything.

Um, I mean, time saving.

Depending on the industry, obviously. Um, it helps us a lot because we do a lot of digital work, like with photos and videos and stuff. Now, the, the obvious things like creating a flyer with ChatGPT, um, I don't— I think people can, people can recognize it from a mile away now.

Yes.

And

I feel like at the beginning it was kind of like, whoa, this is like magical.

But then everything starts looking the same, and it's because people don't know how to use it really properly. Um, but I, I think that now that we've been using AI for a few years, we're kind of split down the middle, like pro-AI and anti-AI. And so

probably extra sensitive being in Abilene, living in Abilene. If I lived next door to the AI center and my commute in changed,

yeah,

a lot, you might have stronger opinions about it, you know? Like,

yeah, especially here. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You gotta be careful. Or your rent went up to $4,000, you know, like there's some Maybe it's a little extra sensitive here.

It is extra sensitive. Yeah. And so like, I talk about it some, I don't blast it out. Um, but like I was for a while full force, like we're gonna do everything AI.

Yeah.

But the more I talked to people about it and the more I tried to implement things, people were getting more frustrated.

Okay.

For example, the phone number on the website. Like, I trained an AI agent and everything, and it could answer the same exact way I would answer, but they didn't like the fact that it wasn't a real human. So like things like that. So we're not gonna do that.

I see that side. And I think, yeah, which I agree both sides. I see you like, yeah, I'm one man and I'm trying to delegate.

Yes.

And all the things. But I also see their side. Sometimes I'm like, can I talk to a person?

Exactly. And it's funny too, because like, I feel the same way. If I call a landscaping company, and sometimes the AI chat secretary things are good, like really helpful, 9 times out of 10, they're not helpful at all. So then you're like, okay, can I just talk to a human? And so like that happened to me one time. I was trying to get some trees trimmed and it just made me frustrated and I just used a different company because I was like, I'm not gonna—

So they lost a sale due to that.

Yeah.

Yeah. I think the biggest key in life is you just learn from stuff, you know, like you evolve and you change. You tried it out. You listen to your customers. Didn't work. Switch it up. You know, that's entrepreneurship right there is like, man, it's just putting out fires.

Every single day.

Pivoting.

Yep.

So there was a week that Facebook wouldn't show any comments. No, wouldn't show pictures and comments. Well, that's my whole—

What do you mean? Like they put out updates where you can't do that anymore?

There was a glitch in the update. So we would write Gap jean jacket, $23. Everyone's like, I can't see a photo, can't see a photo. So none of the photos would show in the comments. Well, talk about a pivot week, 'cause I'm like, What do I do? That's literally my whole platform of how I sell stuff. So you have to start going through all the— like, those are the times that it's like, oh, do I want to be my own boss, or would this be great if this was someone else's problem instead of it being mine?

Yeah.

So I would get up each day, I would film all these little short films, 3-minute short films showing each piece instead

of doing the comments. Oh wow.

So That was great because I could film. So I would, I would say, this is drop A, A1 if you want this, A2. And then I would do drop B and I could schedule them out. So that was great in one way.

Yeah,

but not everyone has 3 minutes to sit there and watch a video of me.

Yeah.

Shitting, chatting. So that just reminds me of just like it's constantly pivoting.

Yeah.

And then sometimes those pivots, you're like, whoa, this is way better.

I don't like, or it's either I hate this pivot or like,

wait, that

works so much better.

Why don't I do that all the time?

And my life is so much better. That happened to us with, um, hiring editors. For the longest time, I didn't want to hire editors. So I would do it either myself or one of the people here would do it. And then I realized like, okay, it may cost a little bit of money, but they do it way faster and better than us. And as soon as I was able to relinquish that—

Oh, were you like, that's the best money I've ever spent in my life?

I wish I would have done it 4 years ago, basically.

Absolutely.

Yeah. So tell us about like the future. Like where do you see this thing going?

So obviously new location, that's gonna be great. With more space, I think we'll be able to take on more clients. I'll be able to have more people help me. But the beauty in Read Resell is we really have started like this little— it feels like a group of friends, you know, the nostalgia of like— you probably don't have this as much as girls do, but like sharing your closet with your sister and like—

Yeah, I do not have this. Yeah, no.

Or everyone talks about they miss college, like, oh, we all live together and we could like get ready together. And so It almost feels like we've built that community, like we're all sharing our clothes in a way. It's like, hey, I have this awesome Farm Rio dress that cost me $190. I've already worn it twice, got the photos, posted them on Instagram. Let me let someone else wear it. Yeah. You know, so that's been really fun. So what I don't want to take away with greed and growth is I want to keep it small and I want to keep it personal with that community feel, like with them knowing who I am, you know, like, oh, that's Allie who sells clothes and she started in her garage and now she, you know, like you always want to keep it personal. I don't think my goal has ever been to like become super wealthy. You know, I want to have freedom and I want to live flexibly.

Your freedom is your wealth.

Yeah. I'm telling you. So, but I pray that God will make this be more than just clothes. And so I've gotten to have some like really cool encounters with people. Yeah. Some people are going through some tough stuff right now and to be able to get some money back to them and just their appreciation. And I'm like, oh my gosh, this is so cool that I get to do this. And then I had someone post on my group the other day, like, like stopped me in my tracks because she said she felt it on her heart that God wanted her to give the certain amount. And she was like, I shouldn't be giving any money away right now. Like, where it was just like not in the budget, gave it away. And she was like, 10 minutes later, you Venmo'd me my money and it was the exact same amount. And I'm like, hold up, is God using me like through selling people's clothes? Like, I thought that so cool. So like, really more than like me being like, I want to grow, grow, grow, make this be huge, all the things. I think I want it to feel like a community. Yeah. I think I want it to become more than clothes, maybe even be in downtown. Like, people stop by, say hi. Um, I don't think I have it in me to want to turn it into a consignment shop where people shop. I think we already have some of those here. I think they're Awesome. And

so it's just gonna be like a warehouse type of thing?

Yes. Okay, currently, right, as of right

now,

as of right now. Um, the owner of the building that I'm moving into, he's had some really cool ideas of like doing some like dock sales or some pop-ups or some collabs. So I think that would be fun, maybe once a month to do like some sort of like shopping experience. But I don't think we're set up for it to become A shopping place. I don't know, just because online has been fun.

Hey, if it works, don't don't fix it.

We'll see though. We'll see if I watch this in a year and think, girl, you had no idea what you were talking about.

That's most of the time what I do. Like I look back at all my stuff. I'm

like, oh,

maybe I should take that off of YouTube so people don't follow what I'm saying. So how? How has faith played a role within your business journey and building the brand that you have today?

Um, I think that where I've seen God work the most is through who I've gotten to work with. Um, like I was kind of saying earlier, like, people have literally just shown up in my DMs, on my porch, in my mind, and I text them. And I think I just really have this passion for maybe helping out some people that need more flexible hours while they're also being a mom or a college kid. And just the way God has one by one provided people and how I can visually, how I can just see this person doesn't need money, it's so obvious, but they need a role or they want community or they want, and like that I get the honor of of possibly providing some of those wants and needs while they're helping me build something that just like popped up in my mind one day. Yeah. Like, I just think that's a really— that's been really cool and how faithful God has been on providing those people. And then just the new spot opening up and it just being like a really good combo, uh, you know, like I— that song, um, Seek First the Kingdom and All His Treasures Will Be Added, that was just like my mantra all summer. Just like, it's gonna all work out, it always does. And like, why do we forget that? Why do we forget? Like, every single day has worked out. And it's like, so it's just been cool to get to trust God that we'll see where it all leads, but so far he's—

Yeah.

taken me on a really fun journey that I'm just like so thankful for. I think it's really good.

I think it's so funny how— I mean, it's, it's, it's not funny, I guess, but like, at least for me, whenever I see something that doesn't necessarily go the way I thought it was gonna go, or I'm like doubting, like, what am I doing? Is this gonna work? I forget every other time that the Lord provided.

Oh, absolutely.

Exactly what I needed for that time. And there's been some times where I'm like, this is— there's no way. Like, we are shutting our doors tomorrow. Like, and somehow we made it. Never missed payroll, never missed rent. Like, we're fine.

Yep,

we're good. And so remembering those times,

it makes you lean into your faith,

you know?

It makes you—

Yeah. So now, like, doing this for 4 or 5 years, You, you see something like that coming and you're like, okay, it's gonna be fine.

Yeah.

Just relax.

You get to trust that, hey, it worked out the last 5 times, like surely it's going to again, right?

What are the odds?

And then if a door closes, it's really cool to see how like different glimpses of my life prepared me for like the next chapter.

Yeah.

It's like I was a teacher before I did Oliver and Otis, and now I get to do a hybrid school where I get to teach my kids on Mondays and Fridays. And it's like, wait, maybe that's why I got an education degree where— that I'm not using, you know, little things like that. And then Oliver and Otis, that's been so fun to get to do with my mom and sister and build that up and like truly learn social media and like that the sky's the limit. I mean, that's the crazy part about social media is like the sky is the limit and it's actually wild.

Do y'all primarily just do around Abilene or have y'all ventured out? Or Reed Resell? Yeah.

So that is why I'm doing shipping is because if you stick to only pickup, I can only get as big as Abilene.

Yeah.

Or the people that are down to drive in from— I've had people that live in Cisco drop off, you know, Baird, all that for me to sell their clothes, San Angelo. But I, in my mind, the only way to grow bigger than Abilene is to offer shipping. And I just have to sit there and figure out the best way. Yeah.

So like where people can ship you their clothes or?

Not necessarily that. Because right now, I mean, we have, we were able to close out 101 clients in August and that's people dropping stuff off. And so one of those things of like, we got to run out of people, right? At some point, people got to be done cleaning out their closets. And then we did the fall signup list and we have 100 more people sign up. So I think people are always down to purge. But I need the shoppers.

Yeah.

So if I open up an online platform to— I'll ship to anywhere in the US, you know?

Yeah,

it can grow that way.

Do you have a lot of repeat customers or, or like people bringing clothes to you?

Yes. And I'm like, where are y'all getting these? No, I'm just kidding.

How do you have this much?

It's been great because they'll drop off their summer purge. Now they're doing their fall purge. And then they'll get their winter purge and then they'll be back to like, I don't really want this for this summer. So the seasons are very helpful when it comes to cleaning out. And I think we just live in an overconsumption world. I just think we all have probably too much. Yeah. And so it's, I don't know, it's been fun because thrifting's like really trendy right now. Uh-huh. It's so— I think the younger generation is so cool that they like, like to thrift and wear older, you know, like I just think that's really cool that they kind of started that trend and that I get to be a part of it because I'm like, this is working great for me.

Yeah.

If everyone— like, if resale's the cool thing right now, let's get it.

And it is like anytime we go over to like DFW or there's— we go to Denton quite a bit. Um, just because we have family over there. But there's resale shops, like, yeah, and thrift shops everywhere, and they call it vintage. Vintage. And it's just like old clothes. Yeah, they mark it up like crazy over there.

Yes.

Um, and sometimes we buy it.

I

know, I'm like, this has a hole in it.

But well, it's— I think it's that pride of like someone asks you, where'd you get that? And you're like, thrifting. You can't find it. No one can find this because I thrifted it.

One of a kind.

It was someone else's treasure and I got it. So, you know, And there's nothing against Target, but

yeah,

everyone can get it.

Yeah.

So

I think people are reverting back to older things a lot, and including us. Like,

I think the quality, the quality is better.

And it's just like the amount of decisions you have to make because of all the things that you have. Decision fatigue. It doesn't wear guys out as much, I think. But females, I think it wears it out. Whereas the first thing in the morning they wake up and they're like, I have 150 pieces of clothing I have to choose from.

Or fold or put back up.

Yeah. And so it's— we've been going through a process of like, on kind of like minimalism almost.

Yeah.

Um, and so now I like—

I want to be a minimalist very badly.

How can I— I don't care, I'll wear the same thing every single day. It doesn't bother me. Um, so we're trying to figure out like, okay, how can we get a capsule wardrobe for the summer? Oh

yeah, that's the whole thing.

Capsule ward— it's It has been a whole thing.

That is a whole thing.

And then alongside that, like, we want to go back to buying vinyl records over just going to Spotify.

Yeah,

because Spotify is just like lame. There's no like—

I think it's going back to that nostalgic feeling, that cassette plate, your cassette players

are

like— totally.

I find myself going back all the time.

Yeah,

I'm buying, I'm buying a New to me truck right now. I have a 2011 vehicle right now.

Okay.

This car is this truck is 2006. I'm like, I want to get. I even looked.

Oh, you're going.

I'm going backwards.

I'm like, hey, give me that for a CD player. Like what? Yeah,

I'm looking for an FM radio.

There we go.

I don't know why or what it is about it. It's

just that just sounds nice to you.

Less complicated. Like, the new cars are really nice, but like, Katie has a 2016 Acura and we had to replace the key fob recently. It is not cheap to replace the key fob. I'm like, what, what happened to $15 at O'Reilly's? Like,

yeah,

simplify things. Especially whenever I work in this environment every day, I'm like—

You're like, no.

I'm using softwares and AI and—

Get me to the simpler times. There is something really intriguing about it. I agree. 100%. I totally agree.

Somebody on the fence who's thinking about starting a business, kind of similar to yours, maybe they're a stay-at-home mom, maybe they're in college wanting to start something. What would be your best piece of advice for them?

I think if you see a need and you feel like you're capable of it, try it. I mean, this could have, like, you have to get over the pride part. Like, announcing you're starting something is honestly embarrassing because you don't know if it's going to succeed or fail, and you just have to throw it out there. And like, you've got to get over the pride, give it a shot.

Yeah,

because what if it like turns into something awesome?

Yeah.

And then if it fizzles out, no one really is paying that much attention.

Exactly. You know what I'm saying? They're too worried about their own lives to be thinking about—

So if I would have thrown out this idea, hey y'all, I'm I'm gonna start selling other people's things and it didn't work out, I really think no one is gonna be sitting there thinking about, do you remember when she tried? You know? So I say get over the pride and if you're gonna do it, go for it.

Yeah.

Go all in. You gotta work hard. That's the thing. You have to go for it. You can't just, Tinker with the idea.

Just kind of halfway in. No. Yeah, it doesn't work.

You got to go get out in your garage in 115 degrees and go for it and then see if it works out. And if it doesn't, find a different need.

Yeah.

Why not?

What's the worst that can happen,

right?

You fail, go do another thing.

Yeah, it's really that simple.

Or go get a— go get a normal job, I guess.

I know.

That's— I wouldn't want to.

I mean, don't go into debt for me. Don't quit your job, but maybe test something out. Yeah, see if it works, then, then jump board.

Great advice. Okay, great stories. Thanks for coming on the podcast.

Thank you so much for having me. This is wonderful.

Where can people find you online?

So we are on Facebook, Read Resell Drop Shop. Maybe you can tag that.

Resell Drop Shop.

Yep.

Okay.

And we post 2 or 3 4 or 5 times a day. So if you're one of those people that don't like Facebook notifications, it won't hurt my feelings. But if you like shopping, cheap prices, really good stuff— like someone dropped off 2 bags of all Lululemon today.

Uh-oh.

So

are they live already?

Not yet.

When do they go live?

I gotta get photos tonight and then in the next few days, so I mean, it's just wild when people drop stuff off. I'm like, wait, what did you keep? Because this would be the very, very, very best stuff in my closet. So it's fun. It's so fun to look at everyone's clothes.

Awesome. And no website, right? Just Facebook. Okay,

no website, only Facebook. One of these days I'm gonna get a young gun to get me a Whatnot maybe.

Oh yeah.

And to get me Maybe an Instagram account going.

Yeah,

but I know my limits.

I mean, if you don't need it right now, like if what you're doing is working.

Yeah, I know my limits. I know I need to get it automated more before my brain can take on anything else. So once I get it to that point, I'm like, so if anyone's really good at Whatnot or wants to jump down that rabbit hole, sounds fun.

Love it.

But you can't teach an old dog new tricks, so I'm out. No,

I love it. Well, make sure to go give them a follow on Facebook. If you haven't checked out the the other episodes already, go check them out. Make sure to subscribe. We'll see you in the next one. Peace. Bye.

Thank you.