698: Coaching Call with Shanae Kidd of Girl Hi Boutique

It didn't take long to figure out this is what I love. This is what lights me up. So making women feel good and confident is everything to me.

Welcome to the Earn your happy podcast. I'm Lori Harder, founder of Light Pink, best selling author, three time fitness world champion, and I'm a crazy, multi passionate entrepreneur. My journey has taken me everywhere from being a broke waitress, barista, retails associate and personal trainer with massive anxiety and no belief in myself, to later becoming a multimillionaire in love with my life. In 2007, my husband and I lost everything. We found ourselves hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt at rock bottom. We had no ideas and I had no education to fall back on. This is when I found personal development and learned everything I could about business. Not by choice, but because I realized no one was coming to save me. The Conversations podcast are going to let you know that you're not alone and that we all feel like we don't know what we're doing. We're going to give you the tools to help you face your fears, take action, start your business, and grow those massive dreams that are keeping you up at night. It's time to create a life that you can't hide from and put so much on the line that your higher self is forced to come out. You're going to stop waiting for someone to approve of you and you're going to anoint yourself. Because I'm obsessed about building businesses that give women a platform, I want to feature you. So if you text the word podcast to 310-496-8363, you can get your questions answered on our Q and A segment along with a shout out. And if you rate, review and subscribe to this podcast, we're choosing someone every month to get coached and featured on our show. It just might be you. So let's get started.

Welcome back to the show. I am so excited about today's show.

Because it is the first episode that.

Is all about you, the listener, you guys. I have wanted to create a platform for women who have started businesses, up and coming women, people who are just doing epic things in my community. And I know that it's so, so important to highlight these stories and not just that. I was listening to a podcast a while back and the woman was featuring all of these different people in her community and it was so incredibly relatable that it became some of my favorite episodes on the show where she was talking to the people in real time who were growing their businesses and giving them advice. And I thought, oh my God, I want to do this for my community. And you guys, if you want an opportunity to be on my show, I'm going to do this once a week.

We're going to test it out.

You can test text the word podcast to 310-496-8363. That's 310-496-8363. And all you have to do is text the word podcast to this number. And what I'm going to be doing is choosing different people. I will let you know when we are going to be picking people for the show once a week and we'll text that out to you to tell us about your business. So you just have to wait for the cues from us. And we are going to be choosing somebody once a week to be featured, to be coached, to be sharing all about their business so that everyone who's listening can grow with you and apply whatever advice you are getting as well. So I'm so incredibly excited about you guys. And today we have an epic guest. I was so thrilled to be able.

To talk to her.

I had such a blast. And I think that you're going to be able to find yourself in this story and be able to apply some of the advice that maybe she gave or she got. So Shanae Kidd is a combination of a corporate woman by day with a passion of running her online dress boutique for women. Girl High Boutique is a one stop dress shop. Shawna's goal is to create confidence via clothing. Her brand slogan for Girl High Boutique is dressing confident girls for every occasion. You guys, it's so cool because she does something special with her boutique and something special about it is that each and every dress that she offers is inspired and named after a woman in her life who she admires. So you guys can go check out the website atgirl high boutique.com and let's get into the show.

Shauna, I'm so excited to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you. I'm, I'm beyond excited, you guys.

Okay, so this is, this is the first. We are like, we're both like, this is, this is both a first for us, Shani. So I am, you guys, I put out kind of a, like a, a contest essentially of tell me about your business. I really want to start using my podcast as a platform for these freaking epic women who are doing huge things out in the world. Want to start interviewing them and promoting their business and what they're doing and getting growing, helping grow their communities. And Shauna, you were one of the people that we chose as one of our first interviews to come on here to really just, you know, I think the most important part of like why I wanted to do this so bad is because I know what, you know, being able to see like my audience, being able to see someone who is in their exact place of like, here's where my business is. I have this, I had this dream and I've launched it and here's what I'm doing and the more stories that we can hear and see and find ourselves in, the more it becomes real and tangible. So I'm so excited that you're here because I know you're about to inspire so many people with what you're doing and just with this little mini kind of interview slash coaching session that we're about to do. So thank you so much for coming on and I would love for you to share a bit about what your business is and how you got started.

Yes. So my business is Girl High Boutique. So. So we are a one stop dress shop. So we offer exclusively dresses for really every occasion. Did you know when you find yourself saying, you know, I have a hot date coming up, I want to dress for that or I networking event, I need a dope outfit, I'm attending a wedding, I need a dress for that. So I found myself saying that a lot. So I wanted to create a shop for all things dresses.

No, you don't, you don't even understand that is me a million percent. Like I especially the world is, is starting back up again. And you know when it was really going and when I was going to events every week, I was like, oh my God, I just wish I had this one place that could just. I knew it would be comfortable, I knew my sizes, like it was reliable. So I love, love, love this because we do need, we do need dresses for all of those different occasions and we want to feel good. Right. And we also want something that we can kind of treat ourselves to. Like I know that sometimes I'll just buy a dress that I love because I know that I'm like, okay, I'm going to make an occasion to of that too, which can be like a really cool goal. So okay, tell me where you're at. How did it all start? How did you actually start the business? What did that look like when you decided to do it?

Yeah, so when I started, honestly I was at a place, I was in my early 30s and it was one of those moments where I'm like, what the hell do I want to do with my life. I was at a really bad, out of a really bad relationship. Left me with like really low self esteem, low confidence, and I kind of wanted to find myself. So I'm like, what can I do here? And I decided to go the route of furthering my education. So I got my mba. I was super proud of myself for doing that.

Awesome.

Even after that, I was like, I'm still not feeling fulfilled here. And what makes me feel good about myself and kind of how I drug drug myself, I drug myself with dresses.

I do too. Don't worry.

Exactly. Is really just finding my self love journey and what made me feel good. And I always had a love for clothing. And I never underestimate what putting on a dope outfit can do for my mood ever. It's transformational. So I was like, you know, I want to create, let's start this boutique online. Even though I had my 9 to 5 that I'm still doing, I was determined to create this business on the side. And it didn't take long to figure out this is what I love, this is what lights me up. So making women feel good and confident is, is everything to me.

I love that. So you guys are probably already wanting to like go to the site and you've got like, you've got really good prices. What, like what, what made you kind of decide on your price point as well?

For me, it was I. Even to this day, my first diamond I've ever owned is my wedding ring. Now I've never had anything designer, but at the same time I just got really scrappy and figuring out, hey, maybe I don't have money to afford all of these great things. This is not the kind of background I came from. You still can find those stores out there that have amazing pieces where you don't have to spend a lot of money. So it was important to me to keep a good price point that's affordable for everybody.

So was it like what, what was scary and what is scary right now? Like, how are you feeling? What do you worry about? What are you excited about? But first of go into just so people really get it. Like, none of this is easy. It is fun. It is super freaking fun and oh my God, it's so exciting. But none of it is easy. So what are some of the things that keep you up at night?

Yes, I. It's. It's so hard. And a lot of people think, you know, seeing from outside, oh, it's this fun, cute hobby. It's like, no, this is a lot of work, especially when you're working a 9 to 5, you know, on top of it, it's a lot of work. I would say especially being a new business. I'm a one woman show. So it's just kind of determining where to focus all of my time and energy. So I know I'm building Girl High boutique to the best of its abilities. So I would say my biggest struggle is determining where to put my money, where to put my energy. I definitely believe that mentorship and self development is huge. I did Lindsey Sorch's mentorship program which was amazing. And so being a product based business, really all your funds, a big part of your funds go to inventory. And so after that I focus on, okay, self development, mindset type of coaching. And then after that I'm like, okay, well where do I place all of my energy to focus on to really grow this passion of mine? So I think that's my biggest struggle.

Okay, so tell me if you know what's the exact question around that because we can kind of dig into that first, second and number one, I also want to point out you guys real quick, she is still at her 9 to 5, which you know, I love, especially if you are getting scrappy and you're bootstrapping because, you know, I had to stay at a 9 to 5 essentially I owned a gym which was more like a noon to 9, but I had to stay at that until I had enough money to leave. And I couldn't do that until I really got a clear plan around what my exit strategy was and how much money I wanted to be making. So we might touch on that later. We'll see where the conversation goes. So Shanee, what is the, what's, what's your first like main question? Let's see if we can, we can dive in there.

Sure. I would say what is the most underrated but powerful strategy for building a brand for free?

Yeah, this was, you know, I think there's a couple of ways to answer this and I think there's a, I think there's a couple like most powerful ways. It just is, is going to depend on what feels best for you and what you have time for. I believe the most powerful way for building a brand is always building an organic audience around that thing that you're doing. And I know you've heard that a million times but I think it's getting clear on what your value add is to that audience. Like why are they going to come? And so we know that, you know, for me I have, you know, A can of alcohol. You have clothes. There's a lot of cans of alcohol out there and there's a lot of clothes. And there's companies, clothing companies, and there's alcohol companies that, that don't add value from their social media standpoint, which is how you're. The organic strategy of how you're reaching them. Is that correct?

Yep.

Okay. Do you have an email list as well?

I do.

Okay, great. But your email list comes from your social strategy.

It does.

Okay, so really what we're talking about is our kind of like our organic value add to our audience around social. Right. So I think that there could be some more R and D here to really learn. I know that you said, because I got to know you a little bit before this, that your customer, her avatar is Bianca. You're pretty clear on who she is, I think digging even deeper to what, like, what is she consuming every day and why? Like, where does she go for inspirational content? What is she, what sites is she looking at for fashion inspiration as well? And what, what can you do on your social page that can become the inspirational content page that she's looking for? So maybe you, you do a multiple value add. So maybe you're not like any other clothing brand. Maybe you add motivational quotes, maybe you add motivational calls. Maybe you, you know, you create another concept of value around your brand right now while you're trying to organically build it for that girl. Like when you go to your page, would it be something that if someone landed on it that they follow because they know every single day there's going to be another one of your outfits styled in a different way or with something that is like, you know, maybe there's some badass quotes that she wants to share. Because if you're making, you know, just kind of in story brand, like making her the hero, she now shares your quote, which makes her look good because it's a quote about being a boss ass bitch and she feels good about not having to create that content for the day and getting to reshare it. So I think it's like, how can you make her the hero on your page by either giving her content that's easy and shareable or you've created a strategy around like, okay, well, I think Bianca's coming here because, you know, maybe she has, maybe she has bought one of my basic black dresses and I'm going to show her how to style it different with things she has in her closet every single day. Like, I'm going to do one of those I'm going to do a reels with three ways to style the Bianca dress. Something like that where she's. It's just like a fun thing to watch. And it's like, oh, I love this because it just shows me how to repurpose this dress that's already on this page. So I think that figuring out what that value add is and actually create like creating a daily, your daily strategy, like your 30 days at a time for, for what that is. And it's going to take a little bit of work, you know, around that flow because you are doing a 9 to 5. But I think it would be just massive because you've already got a really good page going. But I was, I literally was like, okay, if I'm, if I'm the client, what am I coming for this page for? And I saw just a couple, Just a little bit of room for what? Your page freaking rocks, you guys. But a little bit of room for like I want to keep coming back. Why would I want to keep coming back?

Okay. That is, that's so good. Thank you.

Yes. I hope that getting my mind moving.

With things I can implement that is. You put it in such a great way.

Oh, well, you already. Thanks for the great base of helping me. You already have such good stuff in place. Okay.

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So what, what came out of that? Like when you say the, the wheels are turning because I want people to hear like this is an ideation conversation. Like this is why it's really important to go and chat with someone is because, see I, I literally just gave you some ideas. But what that does is it opens up your, your ideas because you're the person who knows the brand the most. Not me. You're the person who knows the client. Like you are the heart and soul of this. You know, you're, you're literally the engine of this whole thing. So what, what came up for you around that?

Yeah, so it just got me thinking, okay, putting myself in those shoes. What accounts do I go to on a daily basis? Like what what is it about them that brings me back? And usually, okay, someone has great style, I want to see what she's wearing or I know when I go to this page, I can feel really good because there's going to be quotes that are just like, I'm going to say them and you know, repost them. So it just sparked within me how I can implement those same values within the Girl High page. What sort of value, I guess is the biggest word that came up. What sort of value can I present aside from just saying, here's a pretty dress, you know, it looks great. But aside from that, what other value can I bring to keep people interested? To keep, like you said, people coming back to the page, resharing. So, yeah, those type of things are rolling through my head that I could really implement.

I love it. And here's what I want everyone to hear. And Shauna, here's where we get, here's where we get stuck, right? We're like, oh God, these big ideas. And now this takes even more time. And do I need more professional shoots or things that look professional. And if we really see the content that's hitting. It's an influencer who has decided to dedicate time to styling herself in her mirror or setting up a tripod camera, you know, in a. Now listen, this is just as important. You have to clean out a part of your house to find a good looking part of your home that's inspirational. So a bright white wall. Please don't do this with like down lighting and yellowish lighting. Like you want like bright lights. Maybe a nice poppy or light, you know, bright white wall. You know, maybe a room that just. You've cleaned out a tiny part of the corner that just looks good. Like, like you guys, that, that is so important to make it look like an aesthetically pleasing background. But here's the thing, like, you know, for you, Shaunae, to like do a reels where you're just, you know, holding up the T shirt, throwing it on your body and showing the different ways or the, or the dress, because you're a dress shop, obviously, but doing those things that are just at home, that are quick content things that it's like three ways to style this dress. Okay, so you write down in your notebook, here's what I would like to see over the next like 30 days. Here's what I could do. And just writing every idea. And then once you have those ideas, it's like, okay, how can I just do this at home? How could I, like, maybe what I'm doing is repurposing someone else's content. So here's another thing. So let's say you just start doing maybe a couple reels or you start even doing some selfie shoots in a mirror that look really good and you brighten up of like, here's how I'm wearing this today. Like, great. Doesn't have to be an outside. Like, doesn't have to be photographed a certain way. I would say, like, find your filters that you want to use and just kind of keep it all just to be able to pop the inside photos. So maybe find that filter that works aesthetically to kind of keep your whole page looking that way. For clothes, I feel is kind of important to keep that. That look. But for the other content, you've probably heard this before, but if not, it's the most freeing thing ever. It's what we're going to do. More on light pink. Go to the pages that you love for the quote, like inspirational quotes. Find the ones that hit screenshot them. Don't even make a new tile. And usually the ones that hit are aesthetically pleasing and they usually will go great with your, with your aesthetic. Screenshot them immediately, give them credit in the first sentence, and then have them tag whoever below is their, you know, either maybe it's their style aspirational person, or maybe it's their, you know, boss bestie or whatever that is. But it's been one of the best things for helping grow. My audience is just like, take the actual post that hit you guys. Don't just take a post that you're like, yeah, I think this could work. Go find one on someone's page with 500,000 followers, 3 million followers. Look at the top hitting post posts, screenshot them, put them on your page, give them credit because they want to be tagged, right? And they want this stuff shared. And then watch how many comments start coming on your page. I just did this with a quote from boss babes and sure enough, it's like 1200 comments. I'm like, damn, okay. Like, I don't get that many comments on any of my stuff. But I went to their top performing stuff, shared it because I loved it, tagged them, they got followers, I got the comments. It was great, right? So it's like one of the biggest secrets because we want to. You want shareable content. Wouldn't you love if someone screenshot one of your things, put your name at the top, tagged you in it, gave you all the credit, and then also got to have all the comments?

Yes.

Yeah, it's Just it's, we, we overthink like all the content that we're creating and share. Sometimes that shared content or finding the ones that hit and then making it your own and tweaking it until you. It's different, right? You're saying it different, but it's in the same vein. So finding what Bianca shares, like find your girl, what is she sharing? Why does she love it? What's the value add that you can add to her life to keep her coming back to your page and making this truly like, you know, an obsession worthy brand that she feels like she wants that black everything dress, you know, that that goes with whatever and this is how you can style it and it makes you feel and this is like the woman who's wearing it because the brand will then, you know, you can create that, that voice around it.

It, this is so helpful. And like you said, it just made me think. It takes that pressure, that pressure off me of constantly having to find something new to produce. It's like, it doesn't have to be that complicated like you said. So this is, this is so helpful.

Yeah, like in the beginning we just don't have the team. Right. Like, it's, it's great to want that. It's great to think you can do that. But at the end of the day you get tired. I'm like, you should see all of the ideas and visions that I have that just are dying because I, I don't have the time to implement them. So it's kind of like, okay, what can we do right now that could be the most impactful thing and least amount of energy? Because when you're a one woman show, it's not what you want to do. It's what can you do to make impact with the least amount of energy or with the energy that you have left for the day. Right. So it's remembering, like that's what we're working with right now.

We're not.

So what happens is we get our expectations set on what we want to be or we're looking at someone's business five years from now who has a team of five or 10. And you know, we're just kind of stopping because we're like, oh, but that's, I'm not able to do it. Or why is it not working? Because you can't. Because they have five people or 10 and you have one. Okay, so what's, what's your next question?

So I would say it's really kind of ties in with it and you really helped me Get a vision of how the type of content I can create on my platform. But how about ways of reaching the Bianca's on her own platforms? Do you suggest, like, how do you, how do you do that? So I'm just trying to think through an example. So say I know, you know, Bianca loves the boss baby page because their quotes are just the best. So, you know, seeing that she goes to that page, you know, and maybe likes their quotes, do I then go to her page and like her things are just kind of ways to reach Bianca outside of my own posts that I'm posting.

Yeah, I, you know, I think that that is, you have, you have a real advantage of being the face of the brand as well. Like you are her. So, and you are doing. So you're doing a couple things. You're not just, you're not just an, an aspirational brand. Right. But you also can be the spokesperson right now. So you can put yourself out there on a podcast tour. You know, you can talk about, hey, I have this, I have this female brand. I want these clothes to be easy and accessible and affordable for the boss babe who is building her company. And here's why I started it. Here's, you know, what it's about. Here's the value that I want to add. And I think talking about it from that standpoint and getting the brand out there and what that is like, like if you kind of look at, you know, what Rebecca Minkoff did, she wanted, she wanted that. I can't remember what the, the name of her first bag was. It was like the, the morning after bag or something like that. I think that was her first bag and it was, it was very much like the everyday bag that looks luxury, but she didn't have the money to spend on that bag. But she wanted every woman to feel like she could have an affordable luxury bag. And she was, she rocked the story. Like, I don't know what, so I don't know what went first, like the bag or her story, but she just ran with that story of like, hey, if you can't afford a high end bag, I was there, I always wanted them. I lived in New York, but I, you know, I couldn't afford them. So this is for you. Like, this is, she just was loud and proud and preached it everywhere. And I think that you have such a story with that that it's not necessarily, here's the thing, like, like it's not going to be necessarily light pink. That just makes everybody go crazy, right? Which light pink is my alcohol brand. And I'm comparing it because I'm like, right in the same exact spot as you is. Is like that phase of what is going to make the person really want what this is, because there's plenty of clothing out there, right? There's plenty of drinks out there. But it is going to be the story. It's going to be. Does that story show up on your page and are you putting it out there? Sometimes we're like, why isn't it showing up like. Like just through me promoting on Instagram? Well, are you going on interviews?

Are you.

Are you asking to write articles? Are you getting some. Are you working really hard to try to meet someone who writes for Forbes and write about your clothing brand and what it is? Are you becoming the face? Are you, you know, spending once a day to try to figure out how you can get it out there a little bit more? Because otherwise we're just not different, right? You and I, we just don't. We're not separating ourselves from the pack. Our story is going to be the thing that separates us from the pack. Because you have. I name this after aspirational women. And I do think that there could be something really fun there. I was kind of playing with it today on my run with. I believe you Tell me about. You name a piece after sometimes an aspirational woman. Can you tell me about that?

Yes, actually, every single dress has a story behind it in that every single dress is inspired by a woman in my life who I love. So that ranges from a best friend, my sister, sisters. Lindsay Schwartz has a dress. So mentors. That is just like, what makes me so excited about it is when I go to select dresses to provide to my audience, you know, there's a woman in my mind who I envision that's inspiring that piece. And so, yeah, that's like the story behind each dress as well is that I just wanted to bring in inspiration from these powerful women in my life. Love and adore. And yeah, it's actually something as part of my vision that I want to expand on that more.

There are so many challenges to business that I don't want starting to be.

One of them for you.

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Okay, so let's talk about, let's talk about marketing. All right, so sometimes when people think about marketing, they, they think about it as like, okay, I'm going to spend money in this ad, or I'm going to like, what are the assets that we can work with right now? And I know that, you know, you don't, you don't. I don't think you Have a huge budget from what it sounds like, because from your questions. Okay, so what are some of the resources that we can work with? What if we were able to just kind of like break even? Would you be open to that for marketing?

Absolutely.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay. So here's what people don't think about marketing is money spent that if you, most people spend money in it, there's a budget for it.

Right.

There are some companies that can spend money on marketing and end up breaking even because they view some of the campaigns that they're doing that most people would want to make money on as the actual marketing. So for example, I'll just give an example so you understand because I'm going to spin something for you. So for me, a lot of people avoid Amazon, which I may or may not, but here's what's going on in my brain. A lot of people avoid selling on Amazon and I'm not suggesting this for you, I'm just using as as as an example. For me, if I sold my non alcoholic light pink on Amazon because they don't sell actual alcohol on there. So if I sell the non alcoholic version, it won't. I don't necessarily make money on it because they take so much money that most people avoid it altogether. Now for me, I'm thinking of it from a place of, okay, so if first I launch the non alcoholic online and I get all of those people who naturally come when the sales start slowing down, if they do at all, that would be a good time for me to know that there's just not more, you know, a certain amount of sales coming in with this non alcoholic through my own efforts. So what if I took that money and broke even on marketing to get this now because Amazon has such huge reach to actually get cans and hands, you know, out into the world that I could never access. So there's a couple things is that I'm like, I would absolutely spend money that was break even money to get cans and hands to experience the brand, the flavor and get in front of people I would never have ever reached in my life. Now the only way that this is smart is if I can drive them back to my own website to make money eventually. And if I'm offering flavors that are not offered on Amazon. So those are some things you have to think about. So that's what I'm thinking is like, yeah, some people avoid this because they're like, no way, you know, I'm not spending all that money to not make money. Okay? But it's a business so you have to spend money to know that there is something bigger in action that you may not. I may not tangibly ever get to see the exact numbers driven from Amazon. Right. Like, I may not ever know that, but maybe I'll see a massive spike in sales that I'm like, okay, direct correlation here. So for you, something that I was thinking is like, okay, so let's say that you had a great dress and you found an influencer who you really loved and resonated with. And I'm thinking a, you know, a bigger influencer who maybe has done something like this before and has proven sales on something around a product or around a clothing item. You partnered with them and said, I'm literally going to give you all of the profit from this dress, all of it. But it has to be traffic driven back to my site. Like we can. It's your name. It's essentially like your particular dress. It's through my brand and you get all of the profit. Like, so number one, what's happening there? She's actually excited to share it. Not that they're not. We're all excited to share a woman's brand and all of those things, but how many times are we going to share it if we're not getting paid? Right? We just don't have time for it or the space on our social media. So you kind of have to look at it as marketing that may feel like, oh, wow, this is a lot. Like, I'm not really sure. Like, of course you get to cover your costs and maybe you don't feel like you get as much credit for it, but does it get brand awareness out? Do they get the experience? Do they. Do you put something in the box that's an insert of like, hey, 50% off your next dress and they go to your site and check things out or whatever that looks like. So just starting to get really scrappy around when and you don't have those big funds or all of those things. And you know, I think once your brand gets out there, there's even other things you could look at. Like, I know ifund women does, you know, crowdfunding campaigns that if you needed a shot in the rear end of like, hey, I need some capital to get more funding for, you know, a certain type of dress. I also think there's a couple things around maybe sizing down your collection in the beginning to just like maybe five staple dresses that you're known for or three staple dresses that you are just known for so that you don't to have have to spend a lot on inventory. Might be something to think about there. So what's coming up for you around that?

Yes, it is so much the biggest one is I'm glad that you, when you talked about, you know, perhaps working with influencers, that's exactly where I want to go next, is the collaboration aspect. What really sparked it too is when I hear you talk about Light Page. You say, like you, when you were building this, you know, a business, what you wanted to fill and you wanted, you bring a lot of fun. You say you want to have fun a lot. You want to have that collaboration connection, fun in what you're doing and building. And I'm like, yes, like, let's have more fun. Let's have more fun with these things. And what's fun to me is collaborating with other women. So, you know, hey, I see you. I think you. Let's create a dress for you. You can share it with your audience, I'll share it with mine. And it's kind of like, it could be like an affiliate situation, but even it's more special than just an affiliate because it's them. So it's just kind of merging the two together, highlighting them. And so, yeah, it excites me that you were thinking that too, because that is exactly where I want to head is, you know, and moving forward is doing more collaborations in that aspect, because that is. Yeah, it's just going to build awareness by being on their platform. So I think that that's just so exciting. And so that brought up a lot for me too. And just thinking about just creative ways, like you said, to even. Just break even, which is I'm more than willing to do at this phase of my business. And, yeah, so it's just gold.

Oh, I'm so glad. And you know, and it doesn't have to be that way forever. Here's what people think they're like, okay, well, what do I just keep creating these things for people for free? Maybe if it's working, if it's. If it's. If it's. Here's the thing, it's trial and error. It's really in the beginning. How many things are you throwing at the wall and what's working? So let's say you do one of those collaborations and you saw a bit of a lift, but not much, then maybe it's not worth it for you to do that again with someone. Or maybe it was the wrong person that you tried it with. So there's a lot of factors that it's like, it's just going back to the drawing board and being like, what was it? Does she not have an audience that converts? Was she not super passionate about it? Was it just maybe not the right fit? Did we not display it right? And a couple of things around the influencer thing. You could eventually be like, okay, maybe you're getting half the proceeds or 25% or whatever that looks like, you know, if these go really well. And then. Because they have to be incentivized. Right. And influencers needs to make money. That's a job. So with that said, I'm trying to. There was one other thing with the influencer. Oh, giving them, giving them really clear direction. So it's not just like, here's the dress, I want you to promote it when you are going to them with the package of the partnership, because that's what it is. You're essentially creating something for them and their audience for them to get paid on. But it comes with these terms. So it would be. This would be what the post would look like. I'll provide you with some of the copy and then you kind of can do an organic thing or you can even give like an organic statement around it so that they don't have to do any work for the most part. You know. So I think understanding that this is a program, like, if you're going to partner up with me, it's an actual program that we go through this test run and it's a, you know, it's a one month partnership and we see what we can make on this dress.

Yes. You're. You're speaking to my heart. This is, this is exciting me.

Yeah, I'm just like, excited for you. Because if you go in with that kind of like excitement around how they can make money and how you're going to support them around it and how this is a true collaboration. They get an opportunity to have a piece essentially that's just for them. I think that's like super, super exciting. So. And then if people love following them for their style or their clothing or whatever that looks like, like, look at all these influencers who just get paid from, you know, Revolve or these other companies. They. They don't get paid that hugely to do that. Like, you could absolutely get them paid way more than that if it's a percentage of those sales, because there is no cap on that. It's not like a blank dollar amount per post. It's like, great. You sell more dresses, you get more money.

Yep. And it's them. It's like unique to them, not anyone has the same type of clothes, you know, from any other boutique, but something specialized for them, and then they get incentivized to it as well. Yeah, this is. This is awesome.

I love, love, love. I'm like, okay, great. This is so fun. Let's see it. Okay, so, yeah, any last things that you kind of want to share or say or, you know, what would you say to that woman who's in your shoes right now? Who's listening?

I would just say that it's worth it to face. It's worth it to just follow your dreams. And it sounds cheesy, but you have to be your number one cheerleader. You have to be, you know, your biggest fan. You have to be your own biggest fan and just don't give up. And I didn't mention this earlier, but when I very first started the boutique, my very first launch, I completely failed. I sold to my mom, and that was it. And I was like, I'm giving up. Like, there's the competition's too fierce. Like, I. Let's just call it a day. But I didn't, you know, so with my second launch and niching down and trying again, it's just been. It gives me confidence to keep going. You know, it didn't work out so great the first time, but just keep going. So really, just be your biggest fan and don't give up.

Well, you are going to do all the things that you want to do. I literally can tell, and I feel it, and I'm so excited for you. And you guys definitely go check out her brand. Can you give us all the places to find and follow you and tell us what's exciting about it right now? Like, what's. What's maybe a dress that you're loving? What have you, like, seen that people migrate towards?

Yes. My favorite place to hang out is Instagram, so you can find me on Instagram or Facebook. It's all Girl High Boutique, and I am about to release two new pieces, and they're all vacation vibes. With the world semi opening, back up the summer happening, it's time to, like, slay your vacation, because we all need one. And so I'm just super excited for the vacation pieces to come out. And.

Yeah, so cool. All right, so girl high boutique.com and then Instagram. Okay, amazing. You guys definitely go check it out. She's got some great pieces, and I can't wait to see all of the great content that's going to come from your page as well. For all of us. Bianca's, out here waiting. So you guys, so grateful, and I'm so grateful for you, Shanae. And if you got a big takeaway from this podcast, the best thing you can do is tag her on Instagram and let her know what your takeaway was, what you appreciated, what you loved about her. Go give her a follow. So give me your Instagram handle one more time.

Yes. It's all at Girl High Boutique. Or my personal Instagram is at Shauna. Kiss it.

So that's Girl H I Boutique. Yes. Okay, so we're spelling it out so you guys can all go tag right now. Okay. Go tag now. All right. It's so great talking to you. And until next time, everyone earn your happy.

Bye.

Bye.

Sam.