September 30, 2019 • 39 mins
FYI!!! Carla Marie is no longer the host of a morning show in Seattle but she is still supporting small businesses in every way possible. She’s even started her own small business with her radio cohost and best friend, Anthony. All of the links below will help you stay up to date!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a side Hustlers and I am your host,
Carla Marie. Thanks for hanging out, Thanks for being here.
I know you have a billion podcasts you can listen to,
so I appreciate you checking out Side Hustlers. Every week
I talked to someone who is either currently following a
passion outside of their day job or someone who has
taken that side hustle and has now turned it into
(00:21):
a full time job. And that is the case with
my guest this week. Amy Amy created her own jewelry
company years ago. And if you're a guy and you're
listening and you're like, what do I care about a
female jewelry company, Amy story is pretty incredible and how
she started it and how it all came about. And
(00:42):
I think it's going to inspire a lot of you
to look into the things that you're really passionate about
in your life or things you've loved at any point
in your life. So let's hear Amy story for a
lot of people. You know, why are you? What? Do
you know? What you want to do? And this is
something you want to do about do it? I'm a hustle.
Hut do it. I'm a hut do it. I'm a
(01:05):
hustle hul come on ask about me, yo yo. It's
the side hustless podcast we call the Root. So joining
me today from Columbus, Georgia, I've got Amy Lee Price,
Amy High. Hey, thank you so much for having me.
Of course, and I don't normally say people's full name,
(01:26):
but the name of your company is part of your name,
and it's wired by ALP your initials, which took me
a little bit to realize that after emailing back and
forth and I was like, oh, you're not the only one.
It was a moment I was like, oh, okay, this
makes sense. But your company originated as you were making
wired rings, and now it's so much bigger, and I
(01:47):
want to tell the whole story of how it all
started and and how big it is now and all
the things you're doing. But take me back to when
you were still side hustling, because I know you're not
anymore so six years ago when you decided, you know what,
I'm gonna make a wired ring? What like? What was
that moment like and what were you doing? So I
(02:08):
was just bored in my apartment one day and I
already had a supplies like from my childhood. With all
my beat supplies. I had an old friendship ring. My
my best friend and I had bought these rings in
South Carolina Charleston Market and they were just like a
little simple pearl wired wrapp ring, but it was it
was all tarnished and it was just bent up in yucky.
So I decided to try to redo it myself since
(02:30):
I had some wire and I had some beads so
and I also had like a little ring Mandel. It's
like how you sized rings. So I've tried it myself
the first time and it didn't look that great. So
then I YouTube how to make a wire and lailah,
there's a video for everything on YouTube. So I just
you know, started making rings. It was my Saturday night
and I posted some pictures on Instagram. Was like, hey,
(02:51):
hashtag my Saturday night when I made and all my
friends were like, make me one. Oh my gosh, make
me one. And so I was like, sure, I'll make
you one, but I charge you because you know, I
paid for this stuff a smart business owner. Absolutely, So
then they would take the pictures and post them to
their instagrams and I got some orders that way. And
(03:12):
then one of my good friends asked me to make
an initial ring like spelling out her children's letters you
have the first name and yes with wire, And I
had never done anything like that, but I was like, sure,
I'll try, I'll try to make something. I played around
with it and it ended up looking like my handwriting
because I was trying to how to like make the letters,
(03:34):
and it's cursive, so you have to like figure out
how to connect them properly, and it was it just
turned out really cute. And she posted pictures of that
to her Instagram and it just like literally blew up.
I had a bridesmaid's order right off the bat for
ten initial rings, but I had a ton of just
just everybody wanted rings here in the South, Like everybody
kind of follows the same trend or they want the
(03:56):
same thing that everybody has. And if you know somebody
in Lumbus, they know somebody in Columbus, and everybody knows everybody.
So in the moment when you picked up your your
box on that Saturday night to start making rings to
that bridesmaid order, how long was that apart? Oh, probably
just a few days. Oh my god. Yes, Um, the
(04:17):
first month that I was making rings, I would come
home from work and work on jewelry for literally till
midnight every single night. I made like three thousand dollars
the first month in sales and how much are you
charging for each charging ten dollars a ring? That is wild?
So it blew up. And I mean not every single
month after that was like that, but right off the bat,
(04:38):
it gave me a present in Columbus and I started
an Instagram page. I came up with Wired buy Out
because I couldn't think of anything else that wasn't already
taken for a business name. Wired obviously is the jewelry
technique for a lot of the jelry that I make.
We we use wire, wire wrapping or whatever. And an
alpha is my initials, and I don't know. Here you
(04:59):
are six years later with a full blown company. You
can get your pieces online and in stores. And I
do want people to check out what we're talking about
right now, So it's Wired by Alp a LP alp
dot com or wired by Alp on Instagram so they
can kind of follow along and see what the heck
we're talking about. What was your full time job at
the time, because for two years you were working and
(05:21):
then coming home and making jewelry. So what was your
day job? So I worked as an office manager for
a construction company for seven years and I started out
as like an office receptionist and moved my way up
to be like a full blown office manager where I
pretty much ran that company. Other than the construction part
of it, there's all the paperwork side. I learned so
(05:41):
much at that job. It taught me a lot about
business management, just on the paperwork side. There's a lot
you have to do behind the scenes to run a business.
It isn't just making the products and you know, all
the other stuff. And prior to any of this, I
had no plans to start a business first at all,
so I didn't know what I was doing. But having
that job as an office manager for at least the
(06:02):
three or four years or whatever it was before I
started this, it gave me like the confidence boost that
I would be able to run a business. And then
with all the sales that happened the first month of
me putting it out there, like I was like, Hey,
this is two positives, why not even give it a go?
You know, this was right when all these businesses were
popping up on Instagram just little side hustles that people
(06:24):
were doing, and I would see him and be like, oh,
that's cute, but I could do that better, or I'm
pretty sure I could do this, or that doesn't look
that hard, you know, because I'm creative and well, the
big thing is that you tried, like you actually tried.
You know, we all see things like I could do
that better, but if you don't actually try, like saying
it doesn't make a difference. And you did, and now
(06:46):
you have a company that you love. But it's funny
you say you were a construction You were a manager
at a construction company, and I clearly very different than
what you're doing now. But I feel like there are
things that you learned in that role that you still
do when you work on fired. So talk a little
bit about how that has carried over into your side
hustle now full time job. Prior to that job, I
(07:08):
had no knowledge of accounting or any kind of bookkeeping,
any of the financial parts of a business. You know,
crunching numbers is a big deal, and I learned that
from that company, for sure, just time management skills. I
worked by myself in an office while everybody was on
the job site and so it was up to me
to manage my time and get all of my work done,
(07:29):
and I was responsible for a lot. I had to
do anything human resources with the employees, hiring all their
paperwork for their files, getting them verified, and all this
other stuff. It's funny to me that you said you
worked in an office by yourself, and now you're working
from home. I feel like you have the ultimate job
of never having to work with other people. And that's
really crazy because before that, I worked in the restaurant
(07:52):
industry for nine years, and it's you're surrounded by people
all the time, and I think, I'm oh, I am
now pretty introverted it. I used to be of social butterfly,
and in the restaurant industry, I did everything from hostage
to bartending, and I would have to talk to people
all the time. And going from that to a sit
down desk job, literally being by myself in an office
(08:13):
for eight hours in a day was a crazy adjustment
for me. I just wanted a stable job, consistent paycheck,
where I didn't have to worry about, oh, it's a
holiday weekend, or you know, we live near a military
base and so if it's a holiday, A lot of
them go home, and so sometimes it's not busy when
you think it was going to be busy, but so
(08:34):
you literally work from home. So where I'm seeing you
right now, you have Dory hanging behind you. You've got
it looks like it's such a cute little setup. So
you don't just make rings anymore. You do much more.
So when did you go from rings to whatever the
next item was? For the first three years, it was
pretty much a hobby, just part time. It was a
(08:54):
legitimate business, you know, licensing wise, but since I had
my other job and I wasn't exactly made being enough
money to to switch, you know, yeah, I had to wait.
I started on making rings, and then you know, this
was also around the time when handmade jewelry was getting
really popular. Bourbon and Botize was like a really big
company that did wire app bangles and stuff, and I
(09:17):
don't know, there were some other brands that were just
huge trending with handmaid jelry, and they were so expensive
and I personally didn't want to pay that much for
that stuff that I knew the cost of the materials,
and and then I knew that I could make myself,
so I would start making some similar things and start
branching into more bracelets, and it led me to Jimstone
(09:39):
beaded bracelets, which are like prettily known most for about
years two or three, I can't remember. One of my
friends that owns a local booteachcareer asked me to put
my jewlry in her store because she wanted to do
the whole support small business thing and have some handmade
jewys since it was really popular. And she really gave
me a big opportunity to get into wholesaling because I
(10:01):
had never read it before that, and she really just
got me going. And Kilembus already knew about me and
had a presence here with like my brand in the name,
so they would go in her store, which is pretty
popular boutique, and they'd be like, oh, it's wired by
out and I just from there just kept building and
building and being in the wholesale. You have to, especially
(10:22):
in boutiques, you have to keep up with the trends.
So it's an ever evolving thing. And now you have
necklaces to an ear rings. I see you wearing them.
It's it's cool that you've been able to evolve and
grow and and go with the industry or where trends
are going. You are in other stores though, so it's
full sales something that you are like, you're making all
of this by yourself, Like this is what I'm not understanding,
(10:43):
How are you doing all of this? So it's pretty
much been me doing everything by myself the whole time.
But I have had help part time here and there. Um,
I currently do have one girl that works for me
part time five days a week. But we beat so
fast we don't have to work that, you know, not
every day is of making jewelry days. Sometimes it's I
need my own day to do paperwork and behind the
(11:06):
scenes accounting and stuff. But for the longest time it
was just me. And then I met my husband four
years ago, and I was getting very busy with wholesale orders,
to the point where all of my evening time was
taken up. Like I had two full time jobs and
you know, a boyfriend, and like no time for my boyfriend.
(11:26):
A serious question I don't like, I don't know how
how I can't do it, But I don't know how.
Half the people who are on this podcast do have
a personal life. I mean some of them are already
married and started after they got married. But seriously, though,
how did you do that? How did you meet him?
First of all? And then how did you even make
time for him if you were literally working day and night. Well,
(11:46):
we he's in the military. We met here locally, just
at a restaurant. I was out with one of my
girlfriends and just having a normal dinner and he bought
a strength but we didn't know about it. So we're
sitting there sipping on our one glass of wine and
he comes over like thirty minutes after he told them
to give us another drink. He's like, so, if you
are you ever going to finish those glasses because I
(12:07):
bought you another round and I'm about to go if not,
I don't want to pay for And we just started laughing,
and like he sat down and started talking to us,
and we had a lot in common and we just
started talking and he put all kinds of info in
my phone and was like, I'm going to contact you
and you're going to talk to me, and he just
really pursued me like you've been like the old fashioned way,
(12:28):
which is crazy, so unexpected. And he has been such
a big supporter for me in my business, like especially
on the days where I feel like I'm failing where
I'm not good enough, or i want to quit just
because I'm overwhelmed. He'll be like, go take a nap
or take the day off. You're a boss, you can
do that. Or you know, he's like, think about how
(12:50):
many people would kill to be where you are today.
You're way farther than you give yourself credit for. You've
worked so hard to get here. Don't give up. So
I got to the point where I was like, if
you want to spend time with me, you got to
help me bust out this order. And you know, it
was just stringing beads to make bracelets, which is pretty simple,
and so I taught him how to do that and
tie the knots properly, and it was the way he
(13:12):
had to spend time with me, and you know, we
would get it done faster than I could do it
by myself, so we could also have our time. And
he was just such a big supporter of just how
hard I was working, knowing I was like also having
a full time job and everything. We started talking about
getting married, and we did get engaged not too long
after that, and we had already been talking about me
(13:35):
quitting my day job and taking the leap because this
was like your uh four and I was I have
at least ten wholesale accounts plus all of the other
sales that I do here locally. We were there where
it could have happened, like it could happen. We got married.
He's in the military, so I no longer had to
pay health insurance and some other financial things. Just worked
(13:57):
itself out with his support, and I just took leap
and amazing. And it's also funny to me picturing like
this big tough guy in the military making beated bracelets
like for He hates to admit it, but I call
him out every time we're at market and someone's like,
how do you do all this? I'm like, oh, I
have my husband helping and my assistant here. He's loved, like,
(14:19):
oh my god. That's so cute though, And it's cool
that you were able to leave your day job, But
what was that first day where you didn't have to
go into an office and work for someone else, when
you got to just sit home and focus on your
passion wired by out like that very first day? What
was that like? Definitely a relief to not have to
go to work, but also extremely anxious written just how
(14:43):
am I going to do this? Okay, what do I
have to do? I have to start working or I'm
not going to make any money. You know, it all
just spiral into how am I going to earn money?
But I knew that having the extra eight hours in
the day that I was spending at work, putting it
like my best hours of the day and the morning,
putting it towards what I'm actually passionate about, I would
(15:03):
work hard at it. And I knew that. And that's
also part of why how I took the leap, was
just knowing myself and how I can think by myself
and manage my time. I enjoy what I do, and
I want to do it, so I just kind of
just went for it. Well, when you and I were
emailing back and forth, you said something like, when you
started making the rings, you found your passion and joy.
(15:27):
And I think a lot of people have these jobs
where they're miserable and they are looking for that thing.
But you just pulling out your beatbox from your childhood
helped you find something that you would have never in
your life. If you sat down and made a list
of things you could do right you probably would have
never ever wrote that down. It's crazy how we find
(15:47):
these things. I mean, I've got a string box under
my bed of friendship bracelests. Now I'm like, should I
pull it out? What can I do? And a huge
profit margin? And but it's true. I mean, it's inspiring
to hear that you were able to kind of pull
something from your childhood and turn it into a full
blown business. It's incredible. And I was never the kid
(16:09):
that would you know, you take these placement tests in
high school and stuff to try to figure out what
you want to go to college for. All of my
results were always so all over the place, like it
would be like you could be an art teacher, or
you could be a librarian, or you know, you're really organized,
so you could do this, you know. But I didn't
see myself doing those things, and so I never knew
(16:30):
what I wanted to do for school. I went to
school right after high school with an undeclared major. It
was a private college and just because I knew someone there,
my mom sent me there and I wasn't focused on school.
Wasted time, wasted my parents money. So I decided let's
take a break until I know what I want to do,
because you know, you're forcing me to go to college
right now, and I don't know what I want to do.
(16:51):
So I took a break, started working, and then um
my mom passed away and I was twenty and it
was just abrupting my life. It was unexpected. But the
jewelry making thing with my mom when I was little,
it was like our hobby and so when she passed away,
I definitely couldn't touch my beads. It was just too
(17:12):
much of a reminder. So I just focused on work.
And then like a year or two after she passed,
I decided it was time to go back to school.
And I thought graphic design would be good for me
because I'm creative, I like technology, and it's a solid
career path with the way the world is going and
with technology. So I joined the community college here and
(17:35):
started school. Did it for about a year and a
half and realized that graphic design wasn't what I wanted
to do because it's a long hours sitting behind a computer.
Have you used anything you learned from that class? Every day?
Every day I learned all kinds of like the Adobe
Suite in design and photoshop, and um, illustrator like I
do all my own logos and anything, all my social media.
(17:57):
It was definitely beneficial. You've been able to take like
parts of your life and piece them together and create
something that is so completely you, Like, no one can
replicate what you have done. I mean you, it's your company,
it's got your name in it, and every little piece
that you've put into it is just it's all you.
And it's incredible that you've been able to do something
(18:19):
like that that no one can truly replicate. Right. The
initial rings are definitely like my thing. There are some
other wire ringmakers on Etsy and stuff, but they look
nothing like my rings, and it's my handwriting and I
can't teach somebody else to do that, so I will
always forever be making those myself. You better get insurance
on your hands, right, so you can do like tell
(18:41):
her tell her swept has insurance on her legs. You
need insurance on your Yeah, you need on your fingers.
Make that in the new year. Get that done. After
you did the graphic design things, what was next? What
else did you do that you were able to piece
into this? Okay, so all throughout my life I've been
(19:02):
working since I was fifteen and I started in the
restaurant industry. Like, my parents were both hard workers. My
dad owned a business. My mom just worked really hard.
She was like an office person at my school. They
just set really good examples for what a hard work
ethic looks like. And when I turned fifteen was like
when I could legally go to work, I was like,
I'm going to go to work and I'm going to
(19:23):
earn money. Because my mom had this funny way of
like when I would ask for something, she'd be like, well,
do you want that or do you need that? And
that's be like, well, of course I want it. Yeah,
I want it, And she'd be like, well you don't
need it. So I was like, I'm going to work.
I'm going to work for myself. I worked in the
restaurant industry for nine years and off and on throughout
(19:45):
all that time in college and stuff, I also did
serve part time. The restaurant industry taught me so much
as well. I got just firsthand customer service experience, and
it's so important to have good customer service in any business,
not just the restaurant industry. Um that's kind of a
make or break thing. And I know personally, I will
not shop with somebody who doesn't have good customer service.
(20:06):
So that's really the highest priority in my company is
to have excellent customer service and make it personal and welcoming.
Like I have a two tent tables at market and
I kind of have it set up as like a
store kind of where you can come shop with me
in person. And it's every Saturday. But so wait, every
Saturday you go to this market? Yes, every Saturday. In Columbus, Georgia,
(20:28):
there's a maker's market. We have a great group of
artists here in Columbus, just a wide variety. So we
have several markets, but this one is the biggest one, um,
and it's every Saturday. I've been doing it for about
three years now. That's like a quite the commitment, and
I missed some Saturdays and it gets rained out, but
it's fun though. It's a good way to start your
Saturday morning. And because there's there's everything from food to
(20:51):
art to music, and there's always stuff going on downtown
and it's just a good way to start your day.
But as soon as people walk into my space, you know,
I stay hello. Immediately, I smile and say hey, we'll
free to touch of trying anything on. You know, we're
here if you have any questions about it, basically, and
I want people to be comfortable because it's if you're
walking around the market, you walk up to somebody's table
(21:13):
and they don't acknowledge you, or they're just sitting down,
you know, yeah, you don't want to You're like, oh
my gosh, okay, fine, I'll go somewhere else. Like so
I definitely don't want people to feel that. And it's
the same thing like in boutiques or stores in general,
like you walk in, you can feel the energy immediately
and whether or not you're welcome, Like I want people
(21:34):
to feel comfortable shopping with me, And that's a huge
part of my customer service. I definitely learned that from
the restaurant industry, just how to like interpret, like how
to read people. Basically you can see if they want
to be talked to, um, you can tell if they
have no interest in talking to you, and that's when
you're just like, hey, we're here, if you have any questions,
if you don't bother you. If you can work in
(21:55):
the restaurant industry, you can basically work anywhere. And I
absolutely it's not the easiest thing, especially as a server.
Have you ever thought about having your own like brick
and mortar store or you just like good at what
you have? I have, So it's definitely a goal of mine.
But with my husband being in the military, I don't
want to commit right now to a location with a lease.
(22:17):
That's why I work from home still. That's kind of
why I'm still a little smaller. But he is getting
out of the military next October, and so who knows.
But I've always had like since I've started doing this
and named myself wired by Out, it's not my favorite
name for my business. I want to change it, but
I like the buy out part, and I've kind of
(22:38):
created this vision of being a brand buy out and
just kind of you know, wired by Out being the
jewelry brand, and like I do all kinds of other things,
like I paint and other stuff in my spare time,
and you know, it could be like a gift shop
where it has my taste of things, or I've you
want to be like a name brand one day, and
(22:58):
if I did do a brick and store, I would
change the name to something like that. And so it's
in my future goals that's incredible. That it's really cool
how you can obviously you have goals and you see
the business growing. I mean, just because you're successful now
doesn't mean you can't have goals of bigger things. And
it's great that you have these ideas, and a lot
of people I talked to you on the podcast, I believe,
(23:20):
except for I feel like the last two or three
are kind of just just not just starting. But you're
six years in. I know last week Kim was nine
or ten years in. And it's great hearing from you, guys,
like you learned from your failures, you've succeeded, and now
you've got like these bigger ideas. And I love this
part for people to see that they can see kind
of both sides of it at the beginning stages of
(23:41):
some people's stories. And you know this part, like if
I would have talked to you two years in, it
would have been a completely different conversation, right. And I
want to just point out that this just happens like
on a whim, and I didn't prepare for a business,
so I had no money invested in this other than
my already purchased Joy supplies, and then obviously any money
I would make, I would turn over and go buy
(24:03):
more materials and just repeat the cycle. And for the
first two years, it really wasn't that profitable because I
was still figuring out where to buy from to get
the best prices, and still figuring out how to run
a business. And I just I taught myself everything, just
any my my boss at the construction company helped me
realize this. And it's probably gonna sound really stupid, but
(24:24):
there's literally everything on the internet. And and I don't
mean just like type in one word for a start.
You can type in your literal question and it will
pop up. So I just, you know, got to googling
anytime I had a question, and I would read. I
read all the time. Um, I listened to podcasts I
(24:44):
interest all the time. You know, I'm always just looking
for inspiration or you know, ways to learn how to
do something better. Yeah, very early on in this podcast,
I would ask people like, well, how did you figure
out how to start a business or how did you
know to get a life sin or whatever it is,
And everyone was like, oh, I googled it. So I
stopped asking that question because everyone was, oh, I googled it,
(25:06):
and I was like, oh, well, I guess we're all
in the same boat. You'd be really surprised how many
messages I get of people saying how did you do this?
And I'm just like think to myself, do they not
know about Google? There's actually a website called um let
me and you get to let me google that for you.
If you google, let me google that for you, it'll
come up. And what you can do is it's like
(25:29):
my sister will text me and be like, Hey, what
time is the baseball game on Saturday? So I will
literally go to this website and you type it in
and it basically shows and then you send them what
you just did, and it sends them a video of
how to Google that, and it's so funny. So you
need to say that it'll burn some but it is.
It's incredible trying to be nice and just you know,
(25:49):
help people. But you know, there's a point where they
asked me too many questions and I'm like, look, I
worked really hard and you did it on your rema,
and I can tell you how I did this, and
I'd be happy to incur at you and help you
along the way, but I'm not going to give you
my suppliers names. I'm not going to give you, you know,
any details about how I do things currently because it's
not fair. I've put in a lot of time to
(26:11):
earn these things. Advice is one thing, but like straight
up information, it's a whole another thing. Like I'm not
gonna sit here and ask you who your suppliers are.
It doesn't it doesn't make sense like figure things out
on your own right. But obviously with guidance and advice,
you know, there's there's definitely a big difference. Um. You
mentioned that your dad was a business owner himself. What
(26:32):
was his business? He owned a local printing company and
this was before we had like digitized printers. He was
an old printing press type like legit, you'll never see
a certificate like that again. Unfortunately because of digital growth.
He was a printer and he worked all the time.
(26:52):
And I remember when I first started doing this wider
biolop stuff, like I was really excited just to have
people like my stuff. I mean, I was just like
blown away that people wanted It's cool the jewelry that
I was making. And if you look at what I
started making compared to what I make today, it was
just not good jewelry. I don't even know why people
pocket and honest, but he was like, don't go into business.
(27:16):
You'll work, You'll work seven you'll work every day of
your life. It will ruin your relationship. Don't do it.
And I was like, but daddy, this is like something
I enjoy. Like it's not just me going into business.
This is something that brings me peace and happiness. And
I feel good about myself because people like what I do.
And he was like, no, you should go to trade
(27:38):
school or something. Get a job that is secured. I
was like, you want me to be like an electrician,
you know so, But it was funny. I was like,
I'm going to do it anyways, but thank you, and
you did, and I mean, he's he wasn't wrong, and
you're gonna work every day and you're gonna and then
it is true and I've had to especially this year.
It is hard to work your own business and be
(28:02):
married or whatever. It does take a toll on your
relationship because you're always thinking about stuff. And like, even
though I only set aside maybe four to five hours
a day to commit to being in my office and
doing making jewelry or doing computer work I'm outside of
the office after that on my phone googling or looking
on Instagram or you know, just doing research outside of that.
(28:25):
So that's still work, and you know, and like you're
always on your phone, especially, I mean, obviously your husband
supports and understand, but he works a job where he
doesn't need to be on Instagram and he doesn't need
to be searching. From what I understand, if I don't
know that he's googling things about the military all day,
So yes, he understands, but he doesn't completely not that
(28:46):
he doesn't understand. It's such a weird way to say.
He doesn't have to do it too, you know, different.
So I definitely realized that, yes, I was kind of
obsessing over it, and it's okay to take five or
four hours out of your evening and stop working, like
turn it off, because honestly, the stress and the pressure
of trying to keep up with the Joneses and everybody
(29:07):
on Instagram, it's it's crazy and there's always something new,
especially with the algorithms and all that stuff. So you know,
I just I realized that in this year, I dedicated
my evenings to my life. I love that you said that,
and I think that is a huge thing for anyone
to hear. They're probably listening to this podcast driving home
(29:28):
from work right now, super late, or about to get
home and do something else. It's like, when you get home,
and especially if you're with someone, make sure you're paying
attention to them. You know, it's great to have a
passion and something you care about, but if you only
have that and know people in your life at the
end of it, it's not necessarily a win, exactly. And honestly,
like my stress level was super high before when I
(29:48):
was just always working, I feel so much more at
peace and i'm i'm I know that it can wait
till tomorrow. It makes you a better business owner to
when you're not frazzled all day. Yeah, exactly for sure.
Um And you did mention that there are days where
like you get overwhelmed and you may want to quit.
Has there been a disaster moment? Did something go epically
(30:08):
wrong in any of this? Yes, epically, but yes, I
had had a big mess up last fall. So last fall,
um I had teamed up with another local business owner.
Um I make these essential oil diffuser bracelets. The other
company made essential oils, so we teamed up to try
(30:29):
to go in together to help each other sell more products.
He got a sign a contract with a sales representative
from the Atlantamart and it was probably like July when
we started talking about it. But we didn't get this
contract signed and all that until about September, and you know,
the big lead up and build up to this the opportunity.
Like I was also in school full time and I
(30:49):
went back to school for business. I didn't tell you that,
but I had a lot on my plate and with
the holiday season in general getting busier and picking up,
I had to make a decision to eat their go
full head speed with this contract. And you know, who
knows how many stores she's going to get me in.
So am I going to be able to juggle this
and my schoolwork or you know whatever? So I ended
(31:11):
up quitting school. I did a hardship withdrawal because I
had this sales contract that was signed and you know,
agreed upon. This lady had over forty stores that she
was responsible for, and she promised us that she'd put
our stuff, you know, in front of them for the
holiday season. And little did we know, there was a
clause in the in the contract that said she could
(31:32):
cancel at any time, and all this talk for months
about this happening. We both the other company and I
stocked up got ready because we we anticipated bombardment on
top of our already local business. And she canceled a
contract and so we got stuck with all this inventory.
(31:52):
But it still worked out. Okay, Like I did a
huge like grab bag special last holiday season. It was great,
Like people loved doing it again this year. Okay, so
everyone go to wired by elp dot com to go
buy him. So you dropped, not drop, you quit school.
It was probably the big mistake here. I jumped on
(32:13):
it too soon without knowing for sure what I was
going to do, because it was actually an easy process
to drop out of school, just doing a hardship withdraw
just paperwork. But I didn't know that, and I was
just trying to be prepared. I'm a very like I
try to do things to keep me saying. But I
(32:33):
think I made a huge mistake. Just that. I did
make a huge mistake jumping into that not knowing what
I was going to get into. You thought about going
back to school, I have um, but honestly, right now
I don't feel like I need to. I have a business,
I'm making money. Um, I have tons of work experience
behind my belt with anything that I could get a
(32:56):
job anywhere. Um. I feel confident in all of the
things and skill that I know and possess, and you know,
I can probably do a job better than somebody that
has a college degree. What I have experienced in college,
I haven't really learned that much that I didn't already know.
Everyone though, it's not exactly like I don't had a
good education growing up and college is there's a lot
(33:18):
of wasted time and money in that. Like I've got
student lens for what I did do in school, and
I'm like time out. Is this something I really need
to do right now? Or am I just accumulating more debt?
Like should I just stop until maybe the one day
where I need to go back to You can google
anything we learned that. But that's true, Like I would
(33:40):
say that, you know, I like to think that anybody
could own their own business. It's kind of like the
American dream to you know, work hard and earn money
and be successful. But you know, I tell people that
all the time. I'm like, oh, you could do it.
You know, this is all you have to do just
just one do one day at a time. Just start
working on it. You know you're going to mess up,
will do it better the next day, Like it doesn't
(34:02):
matter if you fail, you can do it again the
next day. And nobody starts off perfect. All you have
to do is be passionate about something. And even though
I didn't know what I wanted to do, like I
had to sit down at some point and make a
list like you were talking about, I did like a
what am I naturally gifted at? And like the things
that just come naturally to me? And then what do
(34:24):
I actually enjoy? And I just like cross reference that list.
It really opened my mind to what I could do
and things that I didn't think about before. And then
by doing that, you're guaranteed to be good at what
you're doing and enjoy what you're doing. And I think
that is like the ultimate American dream, to be able
(34:46):
to do what you want and earn money and enjoying
what you're doing. It that this doesn't feel like work
to me, like I do put a lot of work
into it, but making jewelries therapeutic. The good feedback I
get from people is good. It just makes me feel
good and I don't feel like this is a job
that I dread going to every day. This is something
it's like, it's like my baby. I enjoy taking care
(35:07):
of it. If I'm ever in your area and coming
over and we're going to make Doria come on, I
would love to do that. Um. So I got to
talk about how we were connected, because that is a
cool thing I love doing in this podcast. Networking is huge,
how we all meet one another is huge. And I
got an email from your friend Becky telling me that
she recently found my podcast and she had a friend
(35:29):
that she wanted me to check out, which was you,
but not to tell you because she you didn't know
that she was reaching out to me, and we had
gone back and forth for a little bit, and I
was like, can you just connect us? And then she
did and then from there, but did you know she
was reaching out? Did she tell you after the fact?
She she asked me before I committed to if I
would be interested. Then at first I was like, oh
(35:50):
my god, I'm so nervous, like I don't know, because
you know, this is the kind of stuff that really
could make you blow up. She contacted me and was
like Hey do you you are you interested in doing this?
I think it would be a cool opportunity. You know,
she's huge, she's on our Heart Radio. Would be awesome.
You just talk about your story. You have a great story.
She's just really building me up. And I just got
nervous at first, but then I was like, you know what, Yes,
(36:12):
I do. And I love that you said yes, because
you do have a great story. It is it's different
than many other stories, and you've worked your butt off
and you deserve to tell your story. And I forget
that sometimes, but it's true. I know a lot of
people think like, oh, all these people they're sad hustlers,
their business owners, like they've got their stuff together. And
I'm not saying you don't. But it's like, it's okay
(36:34):
sometimes to be nervous, to be you know, to forget
you you have a story to tell, but going forward,
don't forget it. Yes, I appreciate you taking the time today.
I know it's not easy. I know you don't have
a lot of time. I know I had to push
back the time. So thank you very much. I want
everyone to go support you and check out everything you do.
(36:55):
It's wired by alp dot com. It's wired by alp
on Instagram. And if you're ever in Columbus, Georgia, go
to the into the market on Saturday's. Yes, okay, it's
market days on Broadway Market Days on broad Up. Well,
I want to come now, I'm gonna come and hang
out one week. It's a cool say I want one
of the main things that was like an AHA moment
(37:18):
for me in the beginning of all of this, you know,
a pinterest a lot, and I would look at quotes
and things to try to motivate me or find whatever
for myself. And I came across one that was like
build your own dreams or someone else will hire you
to build theirs, and like, as soon as I read it,
I was like, that's so true. I'm sitting here helping
(37:39):
my boss get millions of dollars and look at me,
I'm only earning like little money. So I was like,
I'm going to pursue my dreams. And so every day
after work I would go home and just really put
in effort and time into it. You don't have to
work all night long, you know, want to right away?
You can just do an hour a day towards something
that you're passionate about and eventually you're going to get there.
(38:02):
And I didn't start off as like a business plan
or anything like that. It happened and I went for
it and I self funded it. And you know, all
this time, I have no debt in the business. It's
been my own money, not loans, and it's just been
every time I make money, I turn it back over
and it's just grown. Bill dam dreams or someone else
will hire you to build theirs. That's like that. A
(38:24):
lot of people right now, we're just like in your face. Yeah,
that just hit a lot of people hard. But it's
so true. And actually, thank you for sharing that. I
think that is actually the perfect way to end this. Actually, Amy,
thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you
so much for listening to Side Hustlers. Thank you for
supporting Amy. I know you'll follow her. It's wired by
(38:45):
Out on Instagram. Reach out to me at the Carla
Murray If you ever have any questions about anything, or
like Amy's friend Becky did, reach out to me. It's
on Instagram, the Carla Murie email, It's Side Hustler's podcast
at gmail. Anything at all, feel free to reach out
and like Amy said that quote. It hits home for
a lot of people. So see if I can actually
(39:08):
get it right. Build your dreams or someone will hire
you to build theirs. Bam, got it. Until next Monday,
keep hustling just in case you need one more round
The Last Called podcast with Carlo Marine Anthony One last
(39:31):
Little Taste to hold you over till tomorrow, Available worldwide
on the r Heart Radio app.
This is a side Hustlers and I am your host,
Carla Marie. Thanks for hanging out, Thanks for being here.
I know you have a billion podcasts you can listen to,
so I appreciate you checking out Side Hustlers. Every week
I talked to someone who is either currently following a
passion outside of their day job or someone who has
taken that side hustle and has now turned it into
(00:21):
a full time job. And that is the case with
my guest this week. Amy Amy created her own jewelry
company years ago. And if you're a guy and you're
listening and you're like, what do I care about a
female jewelry company, Amy story is pretty incredible and how
she started it and how it all came about. And
(00:42):
I think it's going to inspire a lot of you
to look into the things that you're really passionate about
in your life or things you've loved at any point
in your life. So let's hear Amy story for a
lot of people. You know, why are you? What? Do
you know? What you want to do? And this is
something you want to do about do it? I'm a hustle.
Hut do it. I'm a hut do it. I'm a
(01:05):
hustle hul come on ask about me, yo yo. It's
the side hustless podcast we call the Root. So joining
me today from Columbus, Georgia, I've got Amy Lee Price,
Amy High. Hey, thank you so much for having me.
Of course, and I don't normally say people's full name,
(01:26):
but the name of your company is part of your name,
and it's wired by ALP your initials, which took me
a little bit to realize that after emailing back and
forth and I was like, oh, you're not the only one.
It was a moment I was like, oh, okay, this
makes sense. But your company originated as you were making
wired rings, and now it's so much bigger, and I
(01:47):
want to tell the whole story of how it all
started and and how big it is now and all
the things you're doing. But take me back to when
you were still side hustling, because I know you're not
anymore so six years ago when you decided, you know what,
I'm gonna make a wired ring? What like? What was
that moment like and what were you doing? So I
(02:08):
was just bored in my apartment one day and I
already had a supplies like from my childhood. With all
my beat supplies. I had an old friendship ring. My
my best friend and I had bought these rings in
South Carolina Charleston Market and they were just like a
little simple pearl wired wrapp ring, but it was it
was all tarnished and it was just bent up in yucky.
So I decided to try to redo it myself since
(02:30):
I had some wire and I had some beads so
and I also had like a little ring Mandel. It's
like how you sized rings. So I've tried it myself
the first time and it didn't look that great. So
then I YouTube how to make a wire and lailah,
there's a video for everything on YouTube. So I just
you know, started making rings. It was my Saturday night
and I posted some pictures on Instagram. Was like, hey,
(02:51):
hashtag my Saturday night when I made and all my
friends were like, make me one. Oh my gosh, make
me one. And so I was like, sure, I'll make
you one, but I charge you because you know, I
paid for this stuff a smart business owner. Absolutely, So
then they would take the pictures and post them to
their instagrams and I got some orders that way. And
(03:12):
then one of my good friends asked me to make
an initial ring like spelling out her children's letters you
have the first name and yes with wire, And I
had never done anything like that, but I was like, sure,
I'll try, I'll try to make something. I played around
with it and it ended up looking like my handwriting
because I was trying to how to like make the letters,
(03:34):
and it's cursive, so you have to like figure out
how to connect them properly, and it was it just
turned out really cute. And she posted pictures of that
to her Instagram and it just like literally blew up.
I had a bridesmaid's order right off the bat for
ten initial rings, but I had a ton of just
just everybody wanted rings here in the South, Like everybody
kind of follows the same trend or they want the
(03:56):
same thing that everybody has. And if you know somebody
in Lumbus, they know somebody in Columbus, and everybody knows everybody.
So in the moment when you picked up your your
box on that Saturday night to start making rings to
that bridesmaid order, how long was that apart? Oh, probably
just a few days. Oh my god. Yes, Um, the
(04:17):
first month that I was making rings, I would come
home from work and work on jewelry for literally till
midnight every single night. I made like three thousand dollars
the first month in sales and how much are you
charging for each charging ten dollars a ring? That is wild?
So it blew up. And I mean not every single
month after that was like that, but right off the bat,
(04:38):
it gave me a present in Columbus and I started
an Instagram page. I came up with Wired buy Out
because I couldn't think of anything else that wasn't already
taken for a business name. Wired obviously is the jewelry
technique for a lot of the jelry that I make.
We we use wire, wire wrapping or whatever. And an
alpha is my initials, and I don't know. Here you
(04:59):
are six years later with a full blown company. You
can get your pieces online and in stores. And I
do want people to check out what we're talking about
right now, So it's Wired by Alp a LP alp
dot com or wired by Alp on Instagram so they
can kind of follow along and see what the heck
we're talking about. What was your full time job at
the time, because for two years you were working and
(05:21):
then coming home and making jewelry. So what was your
day job? So I worked as an office manager for
a construction company for seven years and I started out
as like an office receptionist and moved my way up
to be like a full blown office manager where I
pretty much ran that company. Other than the construction part
of it, there's all the paperwork side. I learned so
(05:41):
much at that job. It taught me a lot about
business management, just on the paperwork side. There's a lot
you have to do behind the scenes to run a business.
It isn't just making the products and you know, all
the other stuff. And prior to any of this, I
had no plans to start a business first at all,
so I didn't know what I was doing. But having
that job as an office manager for at least the
(06:02):
three or four years or whatever it was before I
started this, it gave me like the confidence boost that
I would be able to run a business. And then
with all the sales that happened the first month of
me putting it out there, like I was like, Hey,
this is two positives, why not even give it a go?
You know, this was right when all these businesses were
popping up on Instagram just little side hustles that people
(06:24):
were doing, and I would see him and be like, oh,
that's cute, but I could do that better, or I'm
pretty sure I could do this, or that doesn't look
that hard, you know, because I'm creative and well, the
big thing is that you tried, like you actually tried.
You know, we all see things like I could do
that better, but if you don't actually try, like saying
it doesn't make a difference. And you did, and now
(06:46):
you have a company that you love. But it's funny
you say you were a construction You were a manager
at a construction company, and I clearly very different than
what you're doing now. But I feel like there are
things that you learned in that role that you still
do when you work on fired. So talk a little
bit about how that has carried over into your side
hustle now full time job. Prior to that job, I
(07:08):
had no knowledge of accounting or any kind of bookkeeping,
any of the financial parts of a business. You know,
crunching numbers is a big deal, and I learned that
from that company, for sure, just time management skills. I
worked by myself in an office while everybody was on
the job site and so it was up to me
to manage my time and get all of my work done,
(07:29):
and I was responsible for a lot. I had to
do anything human resources with the employees, hiring all their
paperwork for their files, getting them verified, and all this
other stuff. It's funny to me that you said you
worked in an office by yourself, and now you're working
from home. I feel like you have the ultimate job
of never having to work with other people. And that's
really crazy because before that, I worked in the restaurant
(07:52):
industry for nine years, and it's you're surrounded by people
all the time, and I think, I'm oh, I am
now pretty introverted it. I used to be of social butterfly,
and in the restaurant industry, I did everything from hostage
to bartending, and I would have to talk to people
all the time. And going from that to a sit
down desk job, literally being by myself in an office
(08:13):
for eight hours in a day was a crazy adjustment
for me. I just wanted a stable job, consistent paycheck,
where I didn't have to worry about, oh, it's a
holiday weekend, or you know, we live near a military
base and so if it's a holiday, A lot of
them go home, and so sometimes it's not busy when
you think it was going to be busy, but so
(08:34):
you literally work from home. So where I'm seeing you
right now, you have Dory hanging behind you. You've got
it looks like it's such a cute little setup. So
you don't just make rings anymore. You do much more.
So when did you go from rings to whatever the
next item was? For the first three years, it was
pretty much a hobby, just part time. It was a
(08:54):
legitimate business, you know, licensing wise, but since I had
my other job and I wasn't exactly made being enough
money to to switch, you know, yeah, I had to wait.
I started on making rings, and then you know, this
was also around the time when handmade jewelry was getting
really popular. Bourbon and Botize was like a really big
company that did wire app bangles and stuff, and I
(09:17):
don't know, there were some other brands that were just
huge trending with handmaid jelry, and they were so expensive
and I personally didn't want to pay that much for
that stuff that I knew the cost of the materials,
and and then I knew that I could make myself,
so I would start making some similar things and start
branching into more bracelets, and it led me to Jimstone
(09:39):
beaded bracelets, which are like prettily known most for about
years two or three, I can't remember. One of my
friends that owns a local booteachcareer asked me to put
my jewlry in her store because she wanted to do
the whole support small business thing and have some handmade
jewys since it was really popular. And she really gave
me a big opportunity to get into wholesaling because I
(10:01):
had never read it before that, and she really just
got me going. And Kilembus already knew about me and
had a presence here with like my brand in the name,
so they would go in her store, which is pretty
popular boutique, and they'd be like, oh, it's wired by
out and I just from there just kept building and
building and being in the wholesale. You have to, especially
(10:22):
in boutiques, you have to keep up with the trends.
So it's an ever evolving thing. And now you have
necklaces to an ear rings. I see you wearing them.
It's it's cool that you've been able to evolve and
grow and and go with the industry or where trends
are going. You are in other stores though, so it's
full sales something that you are like, you're making all
of this by yourself, Like this is what I'm not understanding,
(10:43):
How are you doing all of this? So it's pretty
much been me doing everything by myself the whole time.
But I have had help part time here and there. Um,
I currently do have one girl that works for me
part time five days a week. But we beat so
fast we don't have to work that, you know, not
every day is of making jewelry days. Sometimes it's I
need my own day to do paperwork and behind the
(11:06):
scenes accounting and stuff. But for the longest time it
was just me. And then I met my husband four
years ago, and I was getting very busy with wholesale orders,
to the point where all of my evening time was
taken up. Like I had two full time jobs and
you know, a boyfriend, and like no time for my boyfriend.
(11:26):
A serious question I don't like, I don't know how
how I can't do it, But I don't know how.
Half the people who are on this podcast do have
a personal life. I mean some of them are already
married and started after they got married. But seriously, though,
how did you do that? How did you meet him?
First of all? And then how did you even make
time for him if you were literally working day and night. Well,
(11:46):
we he's in the military. We met here locally, just
at a restaurant. I was out with one of my
girlfriends and just having a normal dinner and he bought
a strength but we didn't know about it. So we're
sitting there sipping on our one glass of wine and
he comes over like thirty minutes after he told them
to give us another drink. He's like, so, if you
are you ever going to finish those glasses because I
(12:07):
bought you another round and I'm about to go if not,
I don't want to pay for And we just started laughing,
and like he sat down and started talking to us,
and we had a lot in common and we just
started talking and he put all kinds of info in
my phone and was like, I'm going to contact you
and you're going to talk to me, and he just
really pursued me like you've been like the old fashioned way,
(12:28):
which is crazy, so unexpected. And he has been such
a big supporter for me in my business, like especially
on the days where I feel like I'm failing where
I'm not good enough, or i want to quit just
because I'm overwhelmed. He'll be like, go take a nap
or take the day off. You're a boss, you can
do that. Or you know, he's like, think about how
(12:50):
many people would kill to be where you are today.
You're way farther than you give yourself credit for. You've
worked so hard to get here. Don't give up. So
I got to the point where I was like, if
you want to spend time with me, you got to
help me bust out this order. And you know, it
was just stringing beads to make bracelets, which is pretty simple,
and so I taught him how to do that and
tie the knots properly, and it was the way he
(13:12):
had to spend time with me, and you know, we
would get it done faster than I could do it
by myself, so we could also have our time. And
he was just such a big supporter of just how
hard I was working, knowing I was like also having
a full time job and everything. We started talking about
getting married, and we did get engaged not too long
after that, and we had already been talking about me
(13:35):
quitting my day job and taking the leap because this
was like your uh four and I was I have
at least ten wholesale accounts plus all of the other
sales that I do here locally. We were there where
it could have happened, like it could happen. We got married.
He's in the military, so I no longer had to
pay health insurance and some other financial things. Just worked
(13:57):
itself out with his support, and I just took leap
and amazing. And it's also funny to me picturing like
this big tough guy in the military making beated bracelets
like for He hates to admit it, but I call
him out every time we're at market and someone's like,
how do you do all this? I'm like, oh, I
have my husband helping and my assistant here. He's loved, like,
(14:19):
oh my god. That's so cute though, And it's cool
that you were able to leave your day job, But
what was that first day where you didn't have to
go into an office and work for someone else, when
you got to just sit home and focus on your
passion wired by out like that very first day? What
was that like? Definitely a relief to not have to
go to work, but also extremely anxious written just how
(14:43):
am I going to do this? Okay, what do I
have to do? I have to start working or I'm
not going to make any money. You know, it all
just spiral into how am I going to earn money?
But I knew that having the extra eight hours in
the day that I was spending at work, putting it
like my best hours of the day and the morning,
putting it towards what I'm actually passionate about, I would
(15:03):
work hard at it. And I knew that. And that's
also part of why how I took the leap, was
just knowing myself and how I can think by myself
and manage my time. I enjoy what I do, and
I want to do it, so I just kind of
just went for it. Well, when you and I were
emailing back and forth, you said something like, when you
started making the rings, you found your passion and joy.
(15:27):
And I think a lot of people have these jobs
where they're miserable and they are looking for that thing.
But you just pulling out your beatbox from your childhood
helped you find something that you would have never in
your life. If you sat down and made a list
of things you could do right you probably would have
never ever wrote that down. It's crazy how we find
(15:47):
these things. I mean, I've got a string box under
my bed of friendship bracelests. Now I'm like, should I
pull it out? What can I do? And a huge
profit margin? And but it's true. I mean, it's inspiring
to hear that you were able to kind of pull
something from your childhood and turn it into a full
blown business. It's incredible. And I was never the kid
(16:09):
that would you know, you take these placement tests in
high school and stuff to try to figure out what
you want to go to college for. All of my
results were always so all over the place, like it
would be like you could be an art teacher, or
you could be a librarian, or you know, you're really organized,
so you could do this, you know. But I didn't
see myself doing those things, and so I never knew
(16:30):
what I wanted to do for school. I went to
school right after high school with an undeclared major. It
was a private college and just because I knew someone there,
my mom sent me there and I wasn't focused on school.
Wasted time, wasted my parents money. So I decided let's
take a break until I know what I want to do,
because you know, you're forcing me to go to college
right now, and I don't know what I want to do.
(16:51):
So I took a break, started working, and then um
my mom passed away and I was twenty and it
was just abrupting my life. It was unexpected. But the
jewelry making thing with my mom when I was little,
it was like our hobby and so when she passed away,
I definitely couldn't touch my beads. It was just too
(17:12):
much of a reminder. So I just focused on work.
And then like a year or two after she passed,
I decided it was time to go back to school.
And I thought graphic design would be good for me
because I'm creative, I like technology, and it's a solid
career path with the way the world is going and
with technology. So I joined the community college here and
(17:35):
started school. Did it for about a year and a
half and realized that graphic design wasn't what I wanted
to do because it's a long hours sitting behind a computer.
Have you used anything you learned from that class? Every day?
Every day I learned all kinds of like the Adobe
Suite in design and photoshop, and um, illustrator like I
do all my own logos and anything, all my social media.
(17:57):
It was definitely beneficial. You've been able to take like
parts of your life and piece them together and create
something that is so completely you, Like, no one can
replicate what you have done. I mean you, it's your company,
it's got your name in it, and every little piece
that you've put into it is just it's all you.
And it's incredible that you've been able to do something
(18:19):
like that that no one can truly replicate. Right. The
initial rings are definitely like my thing. There are some
other wire ringmakers on Etsy and stuff, but they look
nothing like my rings, and it's my handwriting and I
can't teach somebody else to do that, so I will
always forever be making those myself. You better get insurance
on your hands, right, so you can do like tell
(18:41):
her tell her swept has insurance on her legs. You
need insurance on your Yeah, you need on your fingers.
Make that in the new year. Get that done. After
you did the graphic design things, what was next? What
else did you do that you were able to piece
into this? Okay, so all throughout my life I've been
(19:02):
working since I was fifteen and I started in the
restaurant industry. Like, my parents were both hard workers. My
dad owned a business. My mom just worked really hard.
She was like an office person at my school. They
just set really good examples for what a hard work
ethic looks like. And when I turned fifteen was like
when I could legally go to work, I was like,
I'm going to go to work and I'm going to
(19:23):
earn money. Because my mom had this funny way of
like when I would ask for something, she'd be like, well,
do you want that or do you need that? And
that's be like, well, of course I want it. Yeah,
I want it, And she'd be like, well you don't
need it. So I was like, I'm going to work.
I'm going to work for myself. I worked in the
restaurant industry for nine years and off and on throughout
(19:45):
all that time in college and stuff, I also did
serve part time. The restaurant industry taught me so much
as well. I got just firsthand customer service experience, and
it's so important to have good customer service in any business,
not just the restaurant industry. Um that's kind of a
make or break thing. And I know personally, I will
not shop with somebody who doesn't have good customer service.
(20:06):
So that's really the highest priority in my company is
to have excellent customer service and make it personal and welcoming.
Like I have a two tent tables at market and
I kind of have it set up as like a
store kind of where you can come shop with me
in person. And it's every Saturday. But so wait, every
Saturday you go to this market? Yes, every Saturday. In Columbus, Georgia,
(20:28):
there's a maker's market. We have a great group of
artists here in Columbus, just a wide variety. So we
have several markets, but this one is the biggest one, um,
and it's every Saturday. I've been doing it for about
three years now. That's like a quite the commitment, and
I missed some Saturdays and it gets rained out, but
it's fun though. It's a good way to start your
Saturday morning. And because there's there's everything from food to
(20:51):
art to music, and there's always stuff going on downtown
and it's just a good way to start your day.
But as soon as people walk into my space, you know,
I stay hello. Immediately, I smile and say hey, we'll
free to touch of trying anything on. You know, we're
here if you have any questions about it, basically, and
I want people to be comfortable because it's if you're
walking around the market, you walk up to somebody's table
(21:13):
and they don't acknowledge you, or they're just sitting down,
you know, yeah, you don't want to You're like, oh
my gosh, okay, fine, I'll go somewhere else. Like so
I definitely don't want people to feel that. And it's
the same thing like in boutiques or stores in general,
like you walk in, you can feel the energy immediately
and whether or not you're welcome, Like I want people
(21:34):
to feel comfortable shopping with me, And that's a huge
part of my customer service. I definitely learned that from
the restaurant industry, just how to like interpret, like how
to read people. Basically you can see if they want
to be talked to, um, you can tell if they
have no interest in talking to you, and that's when
you're just like, hey, we're here, if you have any questions,
if you don't bother you. If you can work in
(21:55):
the restaurant industry, you can basically work anywhere. And I
absolutely it's not the easiest thing, especially as a server.
Have you ever thought about having your own like brick
and mortar store or you just like good at what
you have? I have, So it's definitely a goal of mine.
But with my husband being in the military, I don't
want to commit right now to a location with a lease.
(22:17):
That's why I work from home still. That's kind of
why I'm still a little smaller. But he is getting
out of the military next October, and so who knows.
But I've always had like since I've started doing this
and named myself wired by Out, it's not my favorite
name for my business. I want to change it, but
I like the buy out part, and I've kind of
(22:38):
created this vision of being a brand buy out and
just kind of you know, wired by Out being the
jewelry brand, and like I do all kinds of other things,
like I paint and other stuff in my spare time,
and you know, it could be like a gift shop
where it has my taste of things, or I've you
want to be like a name brand one day, and
(22:58):
if I did do a brick and store, I would
change the name to something like that. And so it's
in my future goals that's incredible. That it's really cool
how you can obviously you have goals and you see
the business growing. I mean, just because you're successful now
doesn't mean you can't have goals of bigger things. And
it's great that you have these ideas, and a lot
of people I talked to you on the podcast, I believe,
(23:20):
except for I feel like the last two or three
are kind of just just not just starting. But you're
six years in. I know last week Kim was nine
or ten years in. And it's great hearing from you, guys,
like you learned from your failures, you've succeeded, and now
you've got like these bigger ideas. And I love this
part for people to see that they can see kind
of both sides of it at the beginning stages of
(23:41):
some people's stories. And you know this part, like if
I would have talked to you two years in, it
would have been a completely different conversation, right. And I
want to just point out that this just happens like
on a whim, and I didn't prepare for a business,
so I had no money invested in this other than
my already purchased Joy supplies, and then obviously any money
I would make, I would turn over and go buy
(24:03):
more materials and just repeat the cycle. And for the
first two years, it really wasn't that profitable because I
was still figuring out where to buy from to get
the best prices, and still figuring out how to run
a business. And I just I taught myself everything, just
any my my boss at the construction company helped me
realize this. And it's probably gonna sound really stupid, but
(24:24):
there's literally everything on the internet. And and I don't
mean just like type in one word for a start.
You can type in your literal question and it will
pop up. So I just, you know, got to googling
anytime I had a question, and I would read. I
read all the time. Um, I listened to podcasts I
(24:44):
interest all the time. You know, I'm always just looking
for inspiration or you know, ways to learn how to
do something better. Yeah, very early on in this podcast,
I would ask people like, well, how did you figure
out how to start a business or how did you
know to get a life sin or whatever it is,
And everyone was like, oh, I googled it. So I
stopped asking that question because everyone was, oh, I googled it,
(25:06):
and I was like, oh, well, I guess we're all
in the same boat. You'd be really surprised how many
messages I get of people saying how did you do this?
And I'm just like think to myself, do they not
know about Google? There's actually a website called um let
me and you get to let me google that for you.
If you google, let me google that for you, it'll
come up. And what you can do is it's like
(25:29):
my sister will text me and be like, Hey, what
time is the baseball game on Saturday? So I will
literally go to this website and you type it in
and it basically shows and then you send them what
you just did, and it sends them a video of
how to Google that, and it's so funny. So you
need to say that it'll burn some but it is.
It's incredible trying to be nice and just you know,
(25:49):
help people. But you know, there's a point where they
asked me too many questions and I'm like, look, I
worked really hard and you did it on your rema,
and I can tell you how I did this, and
I'd be happy to incur at you and help you
along the way, but I'm not going to give you
my suppliers names. I'm not going to give you, you know,
any details about how I do things currently because it's
not fair. I've put in a lot of time to
(26:11):
earn these things. Advice is one thing, but like straight
up information, it's a whole another thing. Like I'm not
gonna sit here and ask you who your suppliers are.
It doesn't it doesn't make sense like figure things out
on your own right. But obviously with guidance and advice,
you know, there's there's definitely a big difference. Um. You
mentioned that your dad was a business owner himself. What
(26:32):
was his business? He owned a local printing company and
this was before we had like digitized printers. He was
an old printing press type like legit, you'll never see
a certificate like that again. Unfortunately because of digital growth.
He was a printer and he worked all the time.
(26:52):
And I remember when I first started doing this wider
biolop stuff, like I was really excited just to have
people like my stuff. I mean, I was just like
blown away that people wanted It's cool the jewelry that
I was making. And if you look at what I
started making compared to what I make today, it was
just not good jewelry. I don't even know why people
pocket and honest, but he was like, don't go into business.
(27:16):
You'll work, You'll work seven you'll work every day of
your life. It will ruin your relationship. Don't do it.
And I was like, but daddy, this is like something
I enjoy. Like it's not just me going into business.
This is something that brings me peace and happiness. And
I feel good about myself because people like what I do.
And he was like, no, you should go to trade
(27:38):
school or something. Get a job that is secured. I
was like, you want me to be like an electrician,
you know so, But it was funny. I was like,
I'm going to do it anyways, but thank you, and
you did, and I mean, he's he wasn't wrong, and
you're gonna work every day and you're gonna and then
it is true and I've had to especially this year.
It is hard to work your own business and be
(28:02):
married or whatever. It does take a toll on your
relationship because you're always thinking about stuff. And like, even
though I only set aside maybe four to five hours
a day to commit to being in my office and
doing making jewelry or doing computer work I'm outside of
the office after that on my phone googling or looking
on Instagram or you know, just doing research outside of that.
(28:25):
So that's still work, and you know, and like you're
always on your phone, especially, I mean, obviously your husband
supports and understand, but he works a job where he
doesn't need to be on Instagram and he doesn't need
to be searching. From what I understand, if I don't
know that he's googling things about the military all day,
So yes, he understands, but he doesn't completely not that
(28:46):
he doesn't understand. It's such a weird way to say.
He doesn't have to do it too, you know, different.
So I definitely realized that, yes, I was kind of
obsessing over it, and it's okay to take five or
four hours out of your evening and stop working, like
turn it off, because honestly, the stress and the pressure
of trying to keep up with the Joneses and everybody
(29:07):
on Instagram, it's it's crazy and there's always something new,
especially with the algorithms and all that stuff. So you know,
I just I realized that in this year, I dedicated
my evenings to my life. I love that you said that,
and I think that is a huge thing for anyone
to hear. They're probably listening to this podcast driving home
(29:28):
from work right now, super late, or about to get
home and do something else. It's like, when you get home,
and especially if you're with someone, make sure you're paying
attention to them. You know, it's great to have a
passion and something you care about, but if you only
have that and know people in your life at the
end of it, it's not necessarily a win, exactly. And honestly,
like my stress level was super high before when I
(29:48):
was just always working, I feel so much more at
peace and i'm i'm I know that it can wait
till tomorrow. It makes you a better business owner to
when you're not frazzled all day. Yeah, exactly for sure.
Um And you did mention that there are days where
like you get overwhelmed and you may want to quit.
Has there been a disaster moment? Did something go epically
(30:08):
wrong in any of this? Yes, epically, but yes, I
had had a big mess up last fall. So last fall,
um I had teamed up with another local business owner.
Um I make these essential oil diffuser bracelets. The other
company made essential oils, so we teamed up to try
(30:29):
to go in together to help each other sell more products.
He got a sign a contract with a sales representative
from the Atlantamart and it was probably like July when
we started talking about it. But we didn't get this
contract signed and all that until about September, and you know,
the big lead up and build up to this the opportunity.
Like I was also in school full time and I
(30:49):
went back to school for business. I didn't tell you that,
but I had a lot on my plate and with
the holiday season in general getting busier and picking up,
I had to make a decision to eat their go
full head speed with this contract. And you know, who
knows how many stores she's going to get me in.
So am I going to be able to juggle this
and my schoolwork or you know whatever? So I ended
(31:11):
up quitting school. I did a hardship withdrawal because I
had this sales contract that was signed and you know,
agreed upon. This lady had over forty stores that she
was responsible for, and she promised us that she'd put
our stuff, you know, in front of them for the
holiday season. And little did we know, there was a
clause in the in the contract that said she could
(31:32):
cancel at any time, and all this talk for months
about this happening. We both the other company and I
stocked up got ready because we we anticipated bombardment on
top of our already local business. And she canceled a
contract and so we got stuck with all this inventory.
(31:52):
But it still worked out. Okay, Like I did a
huge like grab bag special last holiday season. It was great,
Like people loved doing it again this year. Okay, so
everyone go to wired by elp dot com to go
buy him. So you dropped, not drop, you quit school.
It was probably the big mistake here. I jumped on
(32:13):
it too soon without knowing for sure what I was
going to do, because it was actually an easy process
to drop out of school, just doing a hardship withdraw
just paperwork. But I didn't know that, and I was
just trying to be prepared. I'm a very like I
try to do things to keep me saying. But I
(32:33):
think I made a huge mistake. Just that. I did
make a huge mistake jumping into that not knowing what
I was going to get into. You thought about going
back to school, I have um, but honestly, right now
I don't feel like I need to. I have a business,
I'm making money. Um, I have tons of work experience
behind my belt with anything that I could get a
(32:56):
job anywhere. Um. I feel confident in all of the
things and skill that I know and possess, and you know,
I can probably do a job better than somebody that
has a college degree. What I have experienced in college,
I haven't really learned that much that I didn't already know.
Everyone though, it's not exactly like I don't had a
good education growing up and college is there's a lot
(33:18):
of wasted time and money in that. Like I've got
student lens for what I did do in school, and
I'm like time out. Is this something I really need
to do right now? Or am I just accumulating more debt?
Like should I just stop until maybe the one day
where I need to go back to You can google
anything we learned that. But that's true, Like I would
(33:40):
say that, you know, I like to think that anybody
could own their own business. It's kind of like the
American dream to you know, work hard and earn money
and be successful. But you know, I tell people that
all the time. I'm like, oh, you could do it.
You know, this is all you have to do just
just one do one day at a time. Just start
working on it. You know you're going to mess up,
will do it better the next day, Like it doesn't
(34:02):
matter if you fail, you can do it again the
next day. And nobody starts off perfect. All you have
to do is be passionate about something. And even though
I didn't know what I wanted to do, like I
had to sit down at some point and make a
list like you were talking about, I did like a
what am I naturally gifted at? And like the things
that just come naturally to me? And then what do
(34:24):
I actually enjoy? And I just like cross reference that list.
It really opened my mind to what I could do
and things that I didn't think about before. And then
by doing that, you're guaranteed to be good at what
you're doing and enjoy what you're doing. And I think
that is like the ultimate American dream, to be able
(34:46):
to do what you want and earn money and enjoying
what you're doing. It that this doesn't feel like work
to me, like I do put a lot of work
into it, but making jewelries therapeutic. The good feedback I
get from people is good. It just makes me feel
good and I don't feel like this is a job
that I dread going to every day. This is something
it's like, it's like my baby. I enjoy taking care
(35:07):
of it. If I'm ever in your area and coming
over and we're going to make Doria come on, I
would love to do that. Um. So I got to
talk about how we were connected, because that is a
cool thing I love doing in this podcast. Networking is huge,
how we all meet one another is huge. And I
got an email from your friend Becky telling me that
she recently found my podcast and she had a friend
(35:29):
that she wanted me to check out, which was you,
but not to tell you because she you didn't know
that she was reaching out to me, and we had
gone back and forth for a little bit, and I
was like, can you just connect us? And then she
did and then from there, but did you know she
was reaching out? Did she tell you after the fact?
She she asked me before I committed to if I
would be interested. Then at first I was like, oh
(35:50):
my god, I'm so nervous, like I don't know, because
you know, this is the kind of stuff that really
could make you blow up. She contacted me and was
like Hey do you you are you interested in doing this?
I think it would be a cool opportunity. You know,
she's huge, she's on our Heart Radio. Would be awesome.
You just talk about your story. You have a great story.
She's just really building me up. And I just got
nervous at first, but then I was like, you know what, Yes,
(36:12):
I do. And I love that you said yes, because
you do have a great story. It is it's different
than many other stories, and you've worked your butt off
and you deserve to tell your story. And I forget
that sometimes, but it's true. I know a lot of
people think like, oh, all these people they're sad hustlers,
their business owners, like they've got their stuff together. And
I'm not saying you don't. But it's like, it's okay
(36:34):
sometimes to be nervous, to be you know, to forget
you you have a story to tell, but going forward,
don't forget it. Yes, I appreciate you taking the time today.
I know it's not easy. I know you don't have
a lot of time. I know I had to push
back the time. So thank you very much. I want
everyone to go support you and check out everything you do.
(36:55):
It's wired by alp dot com. It's wired by alp
on Instagram. And if you're ever in Columbus, Georgia, go
to the into the market on Saturday's. Yes, okay, it's
market days on Broadway Market Days on broad Up. Well,
I want to come now, I'm gonna come and hang
out one week. It's a cool say I want one
of the main things that was like an AHA moment
(37:18):
for me in the beginning of all of this, you know,
a pinterest a lot, and I would look at quotes
and things to try to motivate me or find whatever
for myself. And I came across one that was like
build your own dreams or someone else will hire you
to build theirs, and like, as soon as I read it,
I was like, that's so true. I'm sitting here helping
(37:39):
my boss get millions of dollars and look at me,
I'm only earning like little money. So I was like,
I'm going to pursue my dreams. And so every day
after work I would go home and just really put
in effort and time into it. You don't have to
work all night long, you know, want to right away?
You can just do an hour a day towards something
that you're passionate about and eventually you're going to get there.
(38:02):
And I didn't start off as like a business plan
or anything like that. It happened and I went for
it and I self funded it. And you know, all
this time, I have no debt in the business. It's
been my own money, not loans, and it's just been
every time I make money, I turn it back over
and it's just grown. Bill dam dreams or someone else
will hire you to build theirs. That's like that. A
(38:24):
lot of people right now, we're just like in your face. Yeah,
that just hit a lot of people hard. But it's
so true. And actually, thank you for sharing that. I
think that is actually the perfect way to end this. Actually, Amy,
thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you
so much for listening to Side Hustlers. Thank you for
supporting Amy. I know you'll follow her. It's wired by
(38:45):
Out on Instagram. Reach out to me at the Carla
Murray If you ever have any questions about anything, or
like Amy's friend Becky did, reach out to me. It's
on Instagram, the Carla Murie email, It's Side Hustler's podcast
at gmail. Anything at all, feel free to reach out
and like Amy said that quote. It hits home for
a lot of people. So see if I can actually
(39:08):
get it right. Build your dreams or someone will hire
you to build theirs. Bam, got it. Until next Monday,
keep hustling just in case you need one more round
The Last Called podcast with Carlo Marine Anthony One last
(39:31):
Little Taste to hold you over till tomorrow, Available worldwide
on the r Heart Radio app.
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