intro to me: PLS + thank you.

i'm amanda. i recently deleted all of my social media apps from my phone do to major PLS (perfect life syndrome) flooding my feed + making me want to vom...but, here i am discovering yet another form of social media because of mine + my husbands (@soeysauce) shared interest in cryptocurrency. i'm hoping that this one can be used as a more creative outlet for myself, unlike what the other platforms have turned in to.

i have a love/hate relationship with social media. six years ago, i joined a start-up apparel company as the "business manager". it was just myself, one of my best friends from college (shout out to all the fidm alum) who was the "creative creative director/designer" + "mr. money bags" who funded the company + in spite of being in the apparel business for 25+ years, making "knock-offs" of high end brands for the largest big box retailers in the nation, had no idea how to create a brand. on my first day, i learned that mr. mb had purchased a half million dollars worth of inventory + that when our website went live, i was just to answer the phones, take orders from customers and life would be grand. well, i knew, we knew...most of us know that you can't simply put up a website + expect inventory to start flying off the shelves. needless to say, when our site went live + we heard nothing but crickets for a week, mr. mb started to freak out. he turned to us to "figure it out".

my college bff, who we will call 'nancy' were the exact demographic that our newborn brand was to cater to. we suggested a slew of ideas...all of them were "not going to work". that's when we realized that mr. mb had invested all of the money for the company in to inventory + didn't leave even one cent to go towards advertising, marketing, outside sales reps, seo or branding.

::::rewind:::: now, prior to this start up, i had lead another online start up----i was the first employee + by the time i left for my apparel start up, i had six employees working underneath me----i'm a closet computer nerd, love operations + standard of procedure, love to have a fun/comfortable working environment, but also get shit done.

:::: fast forward :::: with no money for advertising (we literally had to fight tooth + nail to get a $50 banner printed with our logo to hang on the front of our table when we did various trunk shows -- at that time, it was the local jcc), we started cold calling our target market. when we called, we'd get the receptionist who didn't give a flying fuck about who we were or l we had to say + then get hung up on. that definitely gets old after a while.

so, we turned to something we knew really well...facebook. we would find the facebook pages of the targeted businesses/customers, send them a message + low + behold....who would respond? the owner of the business, because they were running their own social media pages. we started an incredible wholesale program to get the word out about our apparel...we were now selling nationally from the comfort of our southern california based "office" aka a shared plastic folding table that I shared with nancy, in a hallway, 4 feet from the bathroom. within 6 months of selling via contact on facebook, we caught the eye of the vice president of the largest off-price retailer in the country. our fabric was amazing, the price point was amazing, the aesthetic was amazing + they wanted it all. the biggest problem was that they were in the close-out market + even though their purchase orders created cash flow for the business, we were mostly selling under our landed cost. with the promise of purchase orders for thousands of units, we eventually created a second label (to not depreciate the value of our "in-line brand") + the orders never stopped----to this day, they buy hundreds of thousands of units of the "off brand" per year.over the course of the next few years, nancy and i opened a store in a major high end mall in a 2 week time span (fully decorated, ready to make sales + staffed), ran the store all while we worked local trunk shows, tended to phones, customer service, emails, continued our guerilla markting through facebook, while nancy started designing new apparel + i planned for when the inventory would come in, what quantities we'd purchase, what the percentage ratio would be across all sizes + styles, developed all of the wholesale/retail pricing , helped with fitting the garments when samples came in + finally talked mr. mb to fork out money to attend trade shows, but nothing was ever enough.

we were constantly being threatened + undermined by mr. mb. we were always being asked to come up with new ideas to grow our customer base or come up with a product that no one else had. a majority of our ideas were slam dunked in to the trash can, especially the idea of this then new-ish social media platform called instagram.

as nancy + i continued pouring our hearts + souls in to the day to day of the company, we started posting on + using other techniques on instagram in our "spare time", which was mostly at night, as each of us were at home + settling in to to go to sleep. we started gaining traction!!!! soon enough, we had some of the most adored instagram influencers in our industry contacting us about sponsoring their accounts with our apparel. PERFECTION.

ok, maybe not-----mr. mb was not enthused about sending out our precious inventory to random women who posted photos. we explained the concept until we were blue in the face. finally, mr. mb agreed that nancy + i could send apparel to these women, as long as we were able to track the return on investment. we devised a plan, he agreed + we started our instagram sponsorship program. in october of 2013, we had about 250 followers. by december 2013, we had 10k. online sales were flying in!!!! in july 2013, we sponsored a month long challenge with three of the biggest names in our instagram community. by the time the challenge ended, we had more than 30k followers. nancy + i had created a voice for our brand via instagram. the voice was our voices--everything we posted, we believed + knew our followers would love whether it was an inspirational quote, a product shot, a joke, collaborations or food recipes. instagram not only created our brands voice + brought in online sales, but it also gave us incredible lifestyle shots our our clothing to share on real women, that we also adored----this was HUGE because, remember, we had a $0 budget...for anything.

more, more, more, more, more was requested by mr. mb. as our competitors that were backed by big money caught on to what we were doing, we were pushed out of our pioneered movements because of lack of funds + our beloved influencers required more, as their following grew. i have to admit, it was incredibly disheartening. but, we pushed forward----finding new, upcoming women that were happy to receive what we had to offer.

a little over 4 years after i walked in the door, built the foundation, including a full functioning warehouse complete with bin locations that were tied in to a wms/crm system + grand reputation for the company + it's products...i became hopelessly frustrated with nothing ever being enough for mr. mb + i resigned from my position. it was one of the most difficult decisions of my life. no amount of money could have been worth more than a simple "thank you".

through those years, even with the passing of my father, my social media displayed nothing but PLS.

now, while assisting yet another online start up...i am finally rekindling my romance with my reality + have a really hard time with the major social media platforms, because beyond the PLS, all i see is self promotion by individuals + paid for ads that thoroughly invade your life + actually crave PLS.

today, i thoroughly appreciate/enjoy hearing two simple words as i leave the office each day..."thank you".

i hope you enjoyed my fuckery of rambles, rants + some successes...

THANK YOU.