With Hart

Ep. 4 | Readiness is not a feeling, it’s a decision

• Karlee Hart • Season 1 • Episode 4

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Episode 4 of With Hart highlights a huge turning point in Karlee’s journey, opening two storefronts in her second year of business. In 2023, she launched a pop-up in Downtown Charleston and opened the first BeachKrew flagship in Ocean City, NJ, only months apart.

This episode dives into the mindset it took to get there, showing up before feeling ready, navigating visibility and responsibility, and leading with faith and grit. Karlee shares how she built confidence through repetition, protected her energy with boundaries, and chose purpose over pressure.

She unpacks what it really means to be “ready,” how she stopped waiting for perfect conditions, and why success has nothing to do with metrics and everything to do with alignment, self-trust, and bold decisions.

Karlee Hart

Beachkrew Website

With Hart – Real Talk on Entrepreneurship, Brand Building & Business Ownership

Hosted by Karlee Hart, founder of Beachkrew. With Hart dives into the highs, lows, and lessons of building a brand from the ground up. Whether you're a dreamer, doer, or in the thick of scaling your business, this podcast is your go-to for unfiltered insights, mindset shifts, and actionable advice.

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All right guys, welcome back. I am so excited for this episode. I feel like all the ones before this were really just leading into kind of a Beachkrew has become. And why it is like it is today. And, you know, kind of getting into why we have our store fronts and all the operations and the ups and downs that just went into those early stages of the business. And I'm really excited to get these episodes out there and start getting your feedback and hear more, hopefully about what you do want to hear about all the things that go into running and scaling and growing, operating a business. I know there's been a lot of questions that I've gotten, and it'll be fun to maybe even do like a Q&A. And again, just really make this what you guys want to hear. But I'm so excited to get into this episode, because now we're at the point where we've talked about the starting stages. You've talked about me ironing on patches, on a trucker hats with my mom's old iron, and, and I probably could have just bought a hat press and like, all the things that maybe took me, you know, a really long journey. But just because they did doesn't mean that it was the wrong path. It just was a little bit more scrappy, I guess. And, I love it for that. But now I feel like, you know, again, going through dropping out of college and being in the smoothie shop and whatnot, we really can go into the why and how. I was able to open up my first storefront, which was kind of two at a time. So we'll talk about all that and why we have ours today and how all that's grown. And I know there's probably people who might be listening to this who want to open up a storefront or want to start, you know, maybe a boutique or clothing brand specifically. So I'm going to try to keep this pretty, maybe niche to that person. But again, all of this really just goes back to if you have a dream, I want you to be here for anyone who's a go getter or just a high achiever and and and doesn't want to feel like they're wrong or different because of that and just wants to really own it and plug into it. I'm so excited to hopefully be connecting with you as well. I. Jumping back in, so I think I left you guys off with the last episode of basically all the operations in the smoothie shop, and again, probably leaving a million things out, but really just running, you know, the business out of my garage, down the street and in the smoothie shop and how all those operations worked. So I don't think I mentioned this part yet. The memory kind of came to me this morning, but I when I first started and I was kind of creating the concept, building the website, just doing all these little things to start a Beachkrew, I vividly remember, you'll hear me say a lot. I was sitting in the basement, which was like a makeshift office warehouse at that point, and I was sitting down there. I'll never forget it was, you know, that spring of 2021 when I was shop or, just I kind of finished my junior year of college online. Due to Covid. And I remember my dad came down checking in on me, and I looked at him and I was like, I really need a storefront. And like, I need to get my product in front of people. It's just hard online to really understand how to reach people. And so a problem, you know, and something that I wonder and deal with all the time. But I was like, I need to get in front of people. How can I do it? So I think that's when I started messaging a lot of boutiques, in the short town saying like, hey, my name is Karlee and I have all these hats that I love to wholesale to you. And again, just like totally learning what wholesale even matter how much to offer the hats for how I could even manage making maybe as many as they wanted by myself. But I looked at them and I'm like, I really need a storefront. So I think that's just what's so funny is like for some reason I just like knew from the get go what I wanted with also having, I think, no idea how to do it or what I really thought it ever could become. But there was always that drive to just, I think, create that community aspect and to just be in front of people and connecting with people, getting that feedback in person is so awesome, which I'll go into more. But yeah, I think just building that in-person community from right away, I could kind of tell it was something that I really want to dive more into. So that's what was really funny. When fast forward, I was at the end of that first summer of just growing the business online and doing everything out of my basement, and I had messaged the smoothie shop owner, who I then connected with that I think is in episode two and was able to launch my first ever, like, in-store storefront. You know, getting the brand in front of people in her smoothie shop and really growing from there. So I think a lot of the lessons early on with being in-person versus online is your mistakes are clearly shown in front of everybody. There's no way of hiding them and kind of being behind the scenes. If you run out of inventory, there's people who are coming in and asking for a specific product, and you're just like having to stand there and be like, I'm so sorry we don't have it. And for me, specifically as the owner, I think something that has been challenging is I always kind of take it as, oh, gosh, like it felt like a failure to me when I wasn't ordering or planning, you know, appropriately. And I'd always think that, oh my gosh. And I just know that I should order more of this color or oh my gosh, I can't get things in fast enough. And then I feel bad because I'm like, you know, texting and calling all of my printers and my manufacturers, whoever, and being like, hey, I need more inventory faster. So I always just kind of felt a little bit chaotic from a planning and inventory standpoint. And I'll be honest, I don't think that really ever goes away. And it has been reassuring for me to listen to some CEOs and business owners, or even just connect with local businesses and understand that they're facing the exact same problems. It's nice when I, you know, know these brands and I think so highly of them. And then I meet people maybe who worked in them and they're like, don't worry, inventory is a beast. And just all, you know, the ins and outs of retail and what goes into it is definitely challenging. So I would say that first summer, again operating out of the garage and the storefront in a place that wasn't my own, I really just realized how much goes into everything. And I think that was kind of from an operational standpoint where I was just even more like, we really need our own space. And if things don't work out, if not that many people come in and we're paying, you know, more in rent now or whatever it is. I always told myself the one thing of this expense can be rationalized as maybe it's our office or the warehouse. This is where we need to store inventory. So it's not in my parents garage or basement and kind of getting, you know, the business out of the family house. But on a more brands standpoint, it was always about getting in front of more and more people, connecting with more people, and the reactions and the feedback that we did get in this movie shop at the pop up events, like, I don't know, I shared a story of when I was at a pop up in New York and feeling like a failure, feeling like my tenant wasn't doing as well on my product, you know, as so like new and fresh. And maybe I was like, it's not good enough. And the 1 or 2 girls came from, you know, places nearby and we're like, oh my gosh, I saw you online. I had to come get it in the smoothie shop. A couple of TikToks went viral, I'll call it, and so many people came in being like, oh my gosh, saw you on TikTok. Had to come in. I remember me and my intern at the time, Leah, who's now been with me full time ever since after she graduated. We always would joke and be like, oh, sorry, I guess that's kind of creepy. Almost like we're you're seeing us online and we're targeting you, I guess, in a way. But it's always just such a cool moment of knowing that hard work of getting that content, posting those videos, you know, doing the right hashtags or the right audio, really understanding what videos people want to watch and not just throwing content out there like just at the wall. Like, yeah, you sometimes have to and see what sticks. But at the same time, like I always tell myself this, and I have told it to girls who I've onboarded, I've told it to friends who want to start businesses. And when you're creating videos, you always want to ask yourself, what? I watch this and even as you're scrolling through TikToks or Instagrams and you do stop and watch a video, ask yourself almost now, as a business owner and somebody who's also content creating, why did I stop and watch that and kind of be able to catch yourself and say, okay, I stopped because of this reason, and then see if you can turn that into a video for your audience, because that's nice for me as I am, you know, someone who is very similar to what we could say, our target client is. So at the end of the day, I'm making sure that it's all things that are esthetically pleasing to me and and things that I approve of or would want to see as a consumer as well. So that's what's been kind of cool, was seeing all of that hard work pay off in that first year and really getting people in the store. And then I also am the lead, you know, designer and creative director of Beachkrew as well. And I would have all these ideas and I would try to do them myself on Canva or try to, you know, figure out Adobe and then contact my screen printer who had really good Adobe skills and be like, hey, can you, you know, make more beach days and swirl the words like this into three lines. And he was, send me back. And I'm like, yeah, that's perfect. You know, let's get it out there. So the more I talk about everything, the more I'll see that there's things I could probably have entire episodes on. But I kind of want this on again to be about the retail aspect and the storefronts and, and why I've done what I've done. So basically, I was in the smoothie shop and I decided, you know, I'm going to start looking for my own retail space. I just think that, again, I, I know I touched on this, but there are so many great aspects of that sip and shop. And I actually when I came down to Charleston, I did think about pursuing that opportunity here as well. And, connected with some smoothie shop owners and kind of, you know, sought out some locations, or maybe they had some blank walls that I figured we could, you know, come in and start to sell Beachkrew and create that vibe in their store. But it was just kind of in that moment where I was like, nobody might fully understand what I'm building and what I'm trying to grow, but I know that I want people to be able to come into a space that's ours, that we're able to fully capitalize on that dream and that vision of the community hub aspect and bringing people in for events, letting people stay for an hour if they want, and talking to, you know, me or my staff about their favorite beach memories or connecting over the college that they both went to, like, if you're in my store, is that something that's really, really, really cool is I'm almost like tired once I leave because I've had all these incredible conversations and get so many new ideas and even places that we should go or explore or whatever. So it's just like this awesome adrenaline rush when I'm in there, for sure. But yeah, so I started contacting realtors and, you know, just figuring out how any of that works. And the space in Ocean City became available. But what I will say is it didn't happen overnight. I think I started to pursue my own location in Ocean City kind of towards the end of the summer. Once we were really taking off in a way, and I really realized that I had something and I just wanted to continue to make, you know, better product, pick better designs or colors or, you know, the combinations thereof. Just contact whoever I could. I was contacting other realtors in other beach towns locally to to just see what the best spot to land and kind of, you know, put our flag in the ground and really just grow as a company and as a brand and build that community. So what's funny is I had obviously dropped out of college. We've gone over that. But Covid also hit during my sophomore year of college. So I went to Delaware. I was only an hour away, and I truly kind of felt like I never left home. My siblings and my dad went to these really big schools, and I just heard so much about their college experience, and I think I really wanted that for myself to be able to just meet new people and kind of grow and put myself in these uncomfortable situations after college was really not what I expected it to be. So I had some family friends down in South Carolina, and I actually went to a wedding or, you know, tagged along with my dad. My mom was sick at the time and couldn't go to a wedding with him. So I was like, I'll be your plus one for the adventure. So he went to the wedding and I actually had my first ever, like, sorry. So the wedding was in Folly Beach, South Carolina, so right in Charleston. So I was like, let me go with you. It you know, I love it down there. It's really pretty. And I had been visiting some family and friends years prior, so I started understanding the city a little bit better. So, he went to the wedding for the whole day and Folly Beach and I took my first ever matching set, which I remember was a white one that said, meet Me at the shore. And we did like puff ink on the back of that. And a really cool, like, monochrome. I still love that. And, probably will have to remake it with just our new, you know, core quality and core fabric now that I've worked hard on. But, yeah, I went to the beach and really just started, you know, setting up my tripod as I would and taking all these pictures. And I think living in the North, you definitely know that it gets pretty gray, gets pretty cold, and the beaches are just not what they are in the summer, which makes the summer so much more special. But for a business owner and somebody who's running a beach lifestyle brand, it's definitely challenging to be, you know, in new Jersey specifically year round when I wanted all this content that would really bring people in and capture them. So after going to that trip with him to the wedding and just really experiencing them think that was in April. So it's just the most beautiful weather down in South Carolina. And having visited South Carolina some other times a couple years prior as well, I was like, you know what? I just like feeling it in my soul and my gut that I'm going to go to Charleston for a couple months. And I knew like a handful of people, but no one like super close to me. And, I ended up, coming down to South Carolina in that fall. So a year prior to coming down to South Carolina, I was making the decision to drop out of college. I was making the decision to, start a or connect to a smoothie shop owner and launch my product in a smoothie shop in person. And now, you know, a year later, my product was still selling in there. That fall. She was open only certain days a week, so it was easier for her to kind of manage and and do the sales. And then we would, you know, kind of restock as needed. But things were a lot slower then. So I was like, I'm just going to do this. So I always feel like I need to like add pictures into these videos. But I'll never forget, I laid all my inventory out on my living room, couches and in the basement. And some of it. Like I said, I was still at the smoothie shop and I just started like dividing products. Maybe I would have like 50 of something or 100 of something, or maybe ten of something like sweatshirts and sizes. And I'd be like, okay. And I was making these spreadsheets of like, I'll bring three of these down, you know, three smalls, three medium, three larges, two xls, whatever it was, and just kind of multiply that with all the products that I had, which was only a handful, really. And, I'll bring that much down to South Carolina. I had locked in a two bedroom Airbnb that I was going to be at for three months, and I was like, I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing, which is packing and shipping orders, creating and designing apparel, making custom trucker hats. I did finally get a hat price at that time. Working with my screen printer and my suppliers and everyone on what colors I'm bringing in and, and what, you know, fabric reusing or whatever. And so my parents being as amazing as they are and probably, you know, down for a good excuse to travel down south, they filled up their car of basically my personal belongings, and I filled up my car with all of the Beachkrew belongings and inventory, and we set sail down I-95 for 12 hours and landed in South Carolina and are awesome. So when we got to the Airbnb, thankfully it was in smack dab downtown. It would have never worked for what I needed it to. It kind of wasn't advertised in the way it should have been, so I ended up being able to get out of it. Long story was not the right fit and we just went to the beach. I was like, you know what? This Airbnb that I thought was supposed to work actually is not going to work. So am I going to go back home to new Jersey, 12 hours away the next day that I got there? Or am I going to just figure out where else to live? So we went to Sullivan's Island, my parents and I, and again, hopefully everyone's following. But this is in the fall of 2022, which again, is like a year kind of into my whole business venture. And after things had really, you know, going well at the smoothie shop in Ocean City. So we went to Sullivan's Island, which is about a 15 minute drive from downtown Charleston, where our store now is today. So we'll get into that. And we sat at the Long Board restaurant, and we just started talking to the waitresses and being like, hey, you know, I thought I was gonna be downtown. Where should I be? I'm. And they were like, you still live in Mount Pleasant? It's this beautiful suburb area right here. So I was like, okay, so what's funny to me is what was supposed to be a two month excursion to go down south and be in Charleston and just experience a whole vibe and hopefully grow a Beachkrew with really no plan other to just connect and network with people turned into me. Then signing a six month lease. So I was there from. I can't do the math, but I think it was like November through May. Technically my lease was and as soon as my parents left me like the next day and I'll never forget, I woke up in my apartment and all of my inventory was in there, and obviously me and myself. And, you know, I just was like, I'll never forget that feeling of waking up. And they were gone. And I was just like, wow, like, here I am. I don't know what the heck I'm doing. I'm making all these crazy big decisions and I'm just totally running with my gut. But I also have no idea where it's bringing me or who I'm supposed to meet and connect with here. So I'm trying to remember how all the details came together, but I remember I kind of referenced her in my first podcast. So there was this girl who had lived in new Jersey, and I kind of knew her through a couple of people. Well, she is the name that is at the top of my order book, so I have a handwritten order book that I use in 2021 and 2022, where people would order online through Instagram messages. And her name is Hannah. So Hannah and I connected. She was my first ever order from not a family or friends. That was stranger at the time, and as we connected, she actually was living in Charleston. So she's from new Jersey, living in Charleston, working for a company, and she's like, hey, there's these sweets that are really small underneath of our HQ, and we're selling them out or renting them. And I think maybe you'd be really interested in opening up a small pop up here because she had known, I guess, that I was like, connecting with some smoothie shops in Charleston and trying to figure out where, you know, I would take Beachkrew and kind of how I would land it or grow it in Charleston. So I think pretty quickly, I think it was only after a month of living here, I saw this like 250 square foot space in downtown Charleston, and it was right near the harbor. So it was really stunning. But it was not in a great, like, foot traffic location. I was like, you know what? I think this is just my way. And let me dive onto this. Looking back, I think that might have been one of the quote unquote craziest decisions I've probably made to have only live somewhere so far away from home for a month, and then deciding to sign a lease for a, like, retail pop up. And I call it a pop up because it was just so small and it was really knowing that it was for hopefully growth in a different location. But yeah, it was from January 1st through the end of the year. And I'm like, you know what? I can make this work. And I'll never forget. I set up a whole presentation that I kind of was convincing myself that I could make this work and convincing. I presented it to my parents and they're I think we're just getting a kick out of it. But they were like, all right, car like, if you think you know all these points that you're listing out, you can make them work. Let's do it. But to me, I think this just explains kind of how I've attacked things with this business is I know at the end of the day of I need to be somewhere if I need to get something done, I'm going to get it done. And the other part of me knew that it's all about those connections and networking and just asking people for help and putting yourself out there. So a couple of girls who I had met in Ocean City, and even girls who like, modeled for me and were some of my first ever customers, what do you know? They happen to go to College of Charleston. So one of my first ever college employees, Riley, she was connected with me through a girl that I just happened to meet in Ocean City. So I think so many little example, so many things like that have happened where I just start to, you know, kind of put myself out there, try to connect with people in a very authentic way of just being curious. I take that with me today, and I always will, of being authentically curious and conversations or just anything you do is so important because you can assume you know things. You can assume this will work out or it won't. Or you can assume this person thinks this way, but not until you ask those questions. We actually find what you're looking for. So I always say curiosity over judgment or curiosity over assumption is so important. So yeah, I got my college student working for me. Shout out Riley. She's such a special person to me. So today and she's actually been starting her own businesses, which is really cool for me to watch and support her and now and and all that. But I think I had a couple other college girls who then came on through just connections. And, I then had a woman who worked in the suite across from me. She then connected me with a girl who kind of became my manager. And what I will say is all that had to happen really fast, because basically it was January 1st, so I had moved to Charleston in November, sign the lease in December for the retail space, and renovated it in January. And what I'm leaving out is I was driving my car 12 hours back and forth. I probably could have hopped on a plane, but I was a little bit scared of planes at the time and probably just wanting to save money. I was like, I'll drive. So I was going home for Thanksgiving, going home for Christmas, doing things in the smoothie, shower, moving inventory around. And then you might be wondering, but when I divvied up all my inventory before I left for Charleston, I still had about half of it in my basement. And shout out to again, my parents. They're so incredible. And, I really just can't thank them enough for all the support they've always given me. But my mom, I taught her how to pack orders, and then my dad also like kind of knew how to pack orders too. So I'd be like, hey, mom, like three orders just came in and Shopify is telling me that you have the inventory for it and fully, you know, Shopify set up at that time. And, again, that's a whole other. So we could go into about Shopify and actual management of inventory. But, so she would help me pack the orders too. So, so it's going back and forth. And meanwhile, again, I was still talking to realtors and figuring out like I wanted my flagship, first ever legitimate storefront to be at the Jersey shore. Definitely being where it started and where I'm from. And just overall really, you know, trusted that I built a community there that I still wanted to tap into. So and just again, grow and connect with more people. So I'm back and forth from Charleston to New Jersey, you know, inventory all over the place, packing and shipping orders out of my apartment and, you know, creating presentations and blueprints all call it of how I'm going to open up my own little storefront in Charleston on board and girls and meanwhile, getting calls from realtors about like, hey, this space is open or it's not. So I think it might have been before. I think I signed for Ocean City's flagship store in the middle of January, when I still was setting up my Charleston space. So a lot of people ask me, where was your first storefront? And you can kind of see, well, it's a tough answer. I always want to say it's Ocean City because that's where the pop up smoothie shop was, and that's where our real flagship was. But technically, the downtown pop up in Charleston opened on February 24th, I believe it was in 2022. And then. Or was that 2023? Can you remember? And then, this would be 2023 now and then my Ocean City storefront opened. I guess that would be less than three months later or four of May 17th. I think it was, my gosh, I can't remember anything. I think May 13th, and that same year. So just to summarize all that again, it's back and forth. I knew in my heart I wanted to store in Ocean City and then also had this pop up blooming in Charleston. From there, I feel like, you know, I'll keep this episode to kind of when and how we went from one place to another, one storefront to another, for the most part and, and kind of some of the ins and outs of what it actually takes to even just open up a storefront. There's definitely other episodes I could get into more of kind of that day to day grind and the journey of actually figuring all this stuff out, which is what I'm really passionate and excited to talk about, because I know a lot of conversations could leave that information out. But yeah, so the reason that Charleston was so special to me and why I did want to come here was so when I had visited previously, I was actually at one point on King Street by myself, and I just felt like I was literally seeing my customers just. And girls in my community, my target customer, just passing me in every street, on every block, at every coffee shop and smoothie place. And I was just like, wow, this just seems like such a perfect community to be able to grow Beachkrew of girls who, you know, want to find community, I'm sure, who are in college or post-grad, or maybe have kids and are moms now, you know, and eventually males also buying a lot of our hats and stuff, which has been really cool. And, and finally kind of tapping into the brand as well, which we want it to be super unisex, which has been fun. But yeah, I just like, fell in love with the I was seeing a lot of people that just remind me of me and connecting with a lot of people who felt very homey and very familiar, which was cool. And then also, again, just that Charleston to Folly Beach to, you know, Keo, and Hilton Head. And then on this side, you got IUP and Sullivan's, and it was just such a laid back, just sunshine filled community with obviously all the beach towns and the people who just want to live those active lifestyles. And I was just so, you know, wanting to take that in and grow the brand off of that culture. So I knew that it was a perfect place for Beachkrew to be in, which was really exciting. And then again, obviously knowing that new Jersey has that same exact energy, it's more of a summer, you know, mindset. So kind of being able to tie the brand's mentality of like an endless summer up north to you're almost living out this like endless summer down here in Charleston. So I was like, I want to be a part of that. And, you know, again, kind of as a small business owner, I was like, I'm taking all my own content. I'm the one setting up a tripod and trying to stand in front of it and make the sweatshirt, you know, look cool. And just like the back of my head at that point in this, you know, big saying on the back of our Beachkrew sweatshirts. And I was finally launching. I eventually took, you know, Riley, the college student who was my first employee. I'd be like, all right, can you meet me? Like, can we go to Folly Beach or Sullivan's and get this content? So it almost was like a content, you know, driven purpose and a community building and just those overall connections. I just saw so many small businesses that I was really excited to connect with down here and what I'll call the off season. So it's funny to me that people down here don't really fully understand what the off season is because again, it's kind of like so nice year round here, which I loved. But then I think the North really has that special moment. And the nostalgia, a feeling of summer is three months, you know, maybe out of the year and just embracing it and, and kind of being able to understand, like, why do we live our best lives at the beach? Why are these communities and, you know, people who want to be outside and want to be, you know, connecting with others and exploring new areas and just a beach town lifestyle and the vacation aspect of it of you're kind of unplugged, you're easygoing and like, can we tap into that on a day to day aspect as a brand? And obviously we're selling apparel, but I think that these stores, which I'll get into, have just created that whole environment in a, you know, square thousand, maybe square foot space of a beach cruise store. So we were in our pop up downtown Charleston, and I think I wanted to start hosting like sunrise walks and whatnot, but it was really just getting so tied up and traveling and having so much on my plate that I don't think we did maybe as many events as I would have liked to there. And what's hard, as well as the space, was 250ft². There wasn't a lot to do in there, but it was just such that same thing over and over again of just trying to post so much about the store, the location, the city, the area, and really hoping to attract the right people who just love that. And and I love that they were probably visiting Charleston and could not only take, you know, their sweatshirt back with them to remind them of, of everything that they felt or their memories from that vacation or that trip, or even just that weekend with a special friend, but to also take those memories with them too. So for us to be able to give that to people, I was seeing it on their faces and through conversations that they would come in and be in this small little pop up space, but still understand the exact lifestyle and the exact pitch and brand I of the brand that I was trying to emulate through our clothing. So that was really cool. I just constantly was getting feedback from customers and the community that they were understanding what we were getting after and wanting to be a part of it, and we just wanted to do more and more of it. So that's how kind of, you know, I was really confident to from both of my pop ups, almost at the smoothie shop and in Charleston to really dive all in and sign my official first lease for a 1400 square foot space, to be in. So I know I mentioned this before, but some of the downsides of the smaller spaces were not feeling like we could truly have those like community hubs come in. People may be feeling like they had to get in and out quickly, and that was always hard. I want it to be a very like stay a while laid back aspect in our stores. And, you know, we we turned into a lot of that psychological ness of, of a retail experience and how to make it super enjoyable. So that was a little challenging. And the other thing that was hard, too, is we didn't have room for dressing rooms or just for, you know, maybe a really big mirror for people to throw on their sweatshirt or their hat and see what they looked like. So I knew once I had my own space in Ocean City, I really needed to craft a, layout that was able to, you know, just be like any other retail space. So I had thought of all these ideas of, like to the counters being in the middle of the store, and we can kind of really be in the center of conversations with people and really helping them. Or all of those decisions were kind of just made what you know, felt like overnight or on spot. I'm a very visual person, so I like to get in my retail spaces, really sense the vibe and then kind of understand where I want to put things, which is why, you know, sometimes you come back in the store and will like change everything. That's always hard too. And it's like, oh my gosh, where do we put everything? But yeah, so that was a cool experience to walk into a blank slate and Ocean City. I remember I flew home on April 1st and I got my lease, officially was able to walk in the store and call it my own and, and get those keys and, walked in and was just able to see what I wanted to do. It was a bike shop before. So it's very different from the vibe that I was going to go to, but I can't even remember Foley. I was like, let's just put a wall right here in the middle of the store. Let's have, you know, room for two dressing rooms, and maybe I would have made them a little bit bigger. Looking back at it in that space. But let's get our wallpaper up that I have in my other store on there. And, and really, just again, like every little decision that I made for any other pop up or opportunity, looking, researching a lot into how to other retail stores, look what some things that I like when I walk into a retail store, I'll definitely say, if you're somebody who's going to open up a retail space, I totally think that, you know, take a day and go and audit a lot of other stores nearby, whether you're in a city or a local town, like kind of mentally take notes. What do you like about, you know, the table displays? What do you like about where the tables even are or what? Don't you like? What's kind of, you know, overwhelming. How did you feel about the girl working at the counter and, you know, did you want her to talk to you more or did not talk to you enough? Or was she just awesome and kind of really taking those notes and understanding what you do and don't like and being able to apply that to your own space is really important? For us, specifically a Beachkrew from day one, my energy with the girls has always been we want to have that laid back feel. We don't want the customer to feel like we're there just to sell, like we truly are there, because it's so much fun to just like connecting with people. I think that's what's been exciting for me is I know when I hire girls and they're coming to a retail job, which sometimes I guess doesn't sound super exciting, they're always like, oh my gosh, this person came in and told me about this whole experience, or I was caught up talking to this woman about, you know, her career and, and maybe making connections there for, for whatever their next step is or connecting with the girls who even work on our team and being able to have new friends to go to the beach with in the summer. Like that's all the stuff that I've definitely tried to preach. And then there's also a whole other mindset that I definitely want to get into this episode as well, of just truly running and operating a retail store, a business, coaching a team, leading a team, all of it. I've heard this recently and it just has like summarized everything that I feel like I've been trying to get across. But it's really that mindset of what takes no talent is what gets you to where you want to go. You've heard a million times, I'm sure like the five second rule or making your bed first thing in the morning and you're like, okay, how could that actually benefit me? But what I've seen time and time again is putting in the extra effort, just showing up with a smile, showing up with good energy, being on time. You know, not just like giving yourself those little things that just totally reshape your mindset and literally take no talent to do. Those are the things that are going to grow your business. They're going to grow your life. They're probably help your relationships, the way you approach things, it's just so, so, so important. And I think people also as customers, like they see that from us when they walk in a store. And that's something I've been really, really, really proud of, of my girls. And we do make sure that we hire girls who have that mindset in their lives, and they're super self-aware and really authentic, just about their connections with others. Those are the girls we look for and who we want to hire. So we're definitely super, you know, we want to make that experience the right fit for both parties. But yeah, it's just like people understand when they walk in a store, because I'm sure we all can think about retail stores that we've walked in where you don't have a good experience. And we talk to our girls that we're training about, that of, hey, what's a really good and what's a really bad experience you've had in a store? And and how did that, you know, affect you make sure you're thinking about these things when you're talking to people. So if you're not, you know, taking the extra second to clean off the counter or if you're not making sure the hats look, you know, perfectly organize, you're not restocking sizes, you're just kind of sitting there on your phone. Those are all the things that a customer is going to notice. Obviously it's things we do not allow in our standards are really high for a reason, but it's like those are the things that won't take you where you want to go. The things that will take you where you want to go again are like showing up on time, having a good energy community, communicating properly, restocking without being, just smiling, even on a slow day, looking to have those authentic connections with your customers. I always tell my girls that I'm like being curious and being authentic and you know, your connections. That is not just going to make you, you know, excel at this job. It's going to take you so much further in life, whether you're in college and you, you know, now have the confidence to talk to your professor a little bit longer after class and maybe get a better grade and, and be able to understand the topic better. Or maybe, you know, you're in a corporate job right now and you need to just go have that conversation with your manager. Or maybe you need to start showing up early and putting in the little reps, or getting an assignment done before you leave at night, like it's in those micro decisions every single day. It's those boring little things that actually will take you where you need to go. And I know that we've done that as a company, and I will continue to make sure that our standards are there, because I do want to say, I know that that's what has allowed us to continue to open up stores. And I just encourage you, if you're a retail store owner, today is really hard when you know, you walk into your store sometimes and as the owner, you just are almost naturally seeing all the little things that almost feel like they're going wrong. And if you don't, that's amazing. But sometimes, you know it is hard when the way the girls are acting, the way the clothes are folded, the way that inventory looks in the back like that is maybe not on you personally or physically of you were the one that was doing it, but it is from the standards that you set, and that just takes a simple communication. And sometimes it's fine to really regroup and be like, hey, we didn't have the resources that we did a year ago that we do now, but we have them and we are looking to advance in this area or hey, you know, maybe inventory has been a little sloppy. How can we actually make it better now that we have, you know, this other person coming in or whatever it is? Nothing can always be perfect. And it is really hard as a business owner, maybe even a perfectionist like you just want to fix everything. But again, it just kind of that takes no talent mindset, really understanding that it's the little things that are going to actually build upon each other and to not get too worked up about the things you can't control, too. It's it's a really hard balance for sure. But yeah, it's definitely allowed us to walk away from situations or even just lock the door at the end of the day and be like, we did a really great job today because we were able to do these little things and they'll build, you know, into bigger ones. And then obviously looking at the things that don't go well and and being able to, you know, fix them as well. So as we were opening up Ocean City, what I will say is it was really cool that, you know, I fully built a community there. So that summer and that whole year was really just incredible. We had a great opening weekend on Mother's Day weekend that year. And, you know, I did the best I could to pick the right tables and pick the carpets and, you know, hang things up on the walls as I wanted. And again, like every time I walked into that store, I felt like it'd be like, I want to change this. I want to fix this. There. Oh, my gosh, the bathroom's not clean enough. The back room needs to be organized better. But it was also cool just to be able to walk in and just be like, oh my gosh, I cannot believe I have a store front. I cannot believe I have, you know, this amazing girl and standing at the counter and greeting me and everyone else when they come in. I can't believe people actually like the clothes that I've designed, and it always makes me emotional just thinking truly how it's been so many baby steps. And that's why this podcast is challenging of just so many years and so much time. And I definitely don't want to go all over the place with you guys. But, so many things just come back to mind for sure. So I think it'd be cool to kind of have a whole episode maybe about that summer and, and all the ins and outs of inventory management and whatnot. But yeah, we just fully did the thing. It was kind of the same steps that I had done at the smoothie shop. It was the same steps that I had done at the Charleston pop up, and just kind of repeating them and multiplying them to be able to scale into a bigger, you know, and really better space for our company. So it was, again, making sure the girls were trained properly. And we're still getting better at that every day of really laying out what that looks like for them. And now I have girls who are able to be, you know, rolling out that training a little bit better. So I'm just so excited for my team to feel as equipped as they can because that's important. Just again, being able to kind of scale everything really, I would say a lot of those struggles were inventory based and just not ordering enough or ordering too much of the wrong thing, things selling out fast and not being able to restock. And again, I think what's hard about that in person experience for an owner is you're watching customers get super defeated when you don't have something they want, or, hey, do you have this in, you know, size, small or no, sorry, we don't have that. And then they kind of get bummed that something that maybe an online business doesn't see as much that we see a lot firsthand in stores. So it's always I tell the girls like, you know, try to tell them what we do have and try to make it a good thing for everyone. But yeah, the main reason why I know I did so much in that first year and so many here and there, especially with Charleston and New Jersey. But the thing that really kept me going through all my personal struggles was the conversations that were being had in store, the vibes that people were giving us besides us just giving them. Hopefully to them, it was just something that I can't even explain. And it's definitely held true still today, where it's just people want community, people want to feel connected to something. And so many girls that I talk to on a regular basis from whether they're in college or they're maybe even, you know, in their adult life and especially my age, being post-grad and being in new cities, it's like people really want to understand where they fit in, how and what that kind of looks like for them. Because I think what's hard, especially in big cities, is you can feel like such a small fish in a big pond. And I think what's really nice about Beachkrew is, again, it's just like, if you love the beach, if you love connecting with others, if you, you know, want to be a part of something bigger than yourself and maybe you love fashion and you're coming in for our tank top in our shorts that really match really cute. Or maybe, you know, you come in with your boyfriend and you're shopping for yourself, and all of a sudden he likes things. And now he's out on, let's say, the boat and like, talking to people about Beachkrew. That's been what's been really cool is I get text all the time. Oh my gosh, my friend saw this person and Beachkrew and they started talking. And now, you know, there's they share that connection that they wouldn't have had otherwise. So again, besides the fact that we're just selling clothes and we're selling apparel and maybe, you know, your souvenir of that summer, I think we really are. I selling isn't the best word, but we're really captivating and allowing just this feeling of connection and authenticity of, like, that beach life that is so natural and so engaging and inviting to come alive for you in your day to day. A big mission for me with Beachkrew is that you are kind of using our pieces of apparel. It could be a memory of your vacation that you had, but maybe it's a memory of, again, those, like, little things like, hey, you know, maybe it's the middle of winter and I can't go see a sunrise on the beach because I'm an hour away, or I'm not going to take that bike ride that I love to take in the morning. Well, maybe it's the friend that you're able to reach out to and go to the coffee shop locally with that so gives you that same feeling. Or maybe it's the podcast that you're going to listen to, even if you're on the treadmill, you know, or listen to a great new song that reminds you of those feelings. Like, that's my mission deep down is to again create that community, create that culture, allow people to feel plugged in and bought into something that's local to them, or be a traveler and come experience, you know, something that is different for a beach town and just that fun community vibe. But it's also that mentality, again of like, takes no talent. It's that same way in your daily life of making your bed, you know, folding your clothes instead of just throwing them or texting, you know, someone and and setting up the coffee date. It really is all those little things that allow you to grow and expand as a human being. And and the opposite of that is, again, just the whole opposite effect. Like if you're not doing all these little things, if you're ignoring all those, you know, important steps in your day to day, then I think you, you know, you won't see the results that you want to see. So yeah, I definitely think that again, I'm just kind of let each episode take it where it goes. But I think, you know, from this episode you really can see I threw myself all into these big, big, big, you know, decisions and risks. But I always told myself at the end of the day, it can be a warehouse, it can be an office, it can be an experience, it can be a failure. I think that's the thing, too, that I'll get in a whole episode about failure. Allowing yourself to just say it can not work. It can also work in a different way. Let me just try to jump in and see what happens. And I truly believe it's those decisions that are big, plus all these little day to day decisions that are small that will allow you to get where you want to go. So I hope this episode was a little taste into my decisions with opening stores and why they're so important to me, and kind of the reason that brought me to Charleston and to new Jersey and why it's so, you know, fun to have stores at the shore and here in South Carolina as well, and just the different cultures and, and the vibe that that brings to life in our different stores is really fun. So the next episode, we'll, you know, keep diving into more. And again, I'm so excited to hear you guys feedback. So thanks so much for tuning in I.