How She Built Wildlike & Ylang 23

Speaker 1: [Music] people want to be with a leader that values them it comes down to being heard and seen and felt do you listen are you curious do your people feel heard hi I'm Melanie bar welcome to the sheb builted experience with Melanie join me as I talk to women who have successfully built it a career and business that they love we dive into the topic of how they built it and talk about everything from Having the courage to make career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech Innovation magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so let's dive in thank you for joining us Alisa you are the founder of wild likee tell us about your business and what led you to launch it wild likee is the business that I started in 2021 I've reimagine the piercing experience to combine two very different things one is designer jewelry which I had many years of experience in my family's business elong 23 I rejoined their business in 2016 I had been living in New York one of the things that I brought to our business was piercing events and it was pretty crazy people would come to our store and wait in line for 2 hours to get pierced by someone who lived in Deep Ellum which is a neighborhood that's 20 minutes down the street from where our store is and I started to feel like there's a need for a different experience that doesn't really exist in the way that I would want it to exist and the way my friends would want it to exist so that's how Wild light came about I love that you saw that there was a need for a different kind of experience yeah it's interesting because the people to receive it with open arms have been my C customer base and I think that was really like my spidey sense of okay this experience just doesn't exist in the way that many people want it to which is a really high-end experience that still pays homage to the way that piercers do piercing techniques you believe in feeling empowered and letting self-expression be the anthem for all which I love tell us why you are so passionate about this a lot of it comes from my background in designer jewelry I've seen so many people mostly self- purchasing women lift themselves up by purchasing something that makes them feel amazing and over the past year or two I've done a lot of purpose work on myself and I've realized that one of my big reasons for being is creating conditions for people to feel joyful and using that as a way to make the world better self-expression leads to Joy it's really a chain reaction ction my business I started it during Co every time I'm on a screen like this and not in person sometimes I have these weird flashbacks to co but that was something that people really missed I'm out and about and I'm feeling expressive and I'm feeling joyful self-expression really does lead to Joy and when people feel that Joy they can go out and be the best versions of themselves absolutely because how not good do we feel when we're not being our true selves and we're not expressing oursel in the way that we want to for sure you are also the owner of elong 23 in the Preston Center tell us about your business and your experience in the jewelry business yeah so I'm one of the owners of elong 23 it's the business that my parents started in 1985 in 2016 I was living in New York I moved back to Dallas and I joined them in a more managerial role running their business development and my parents like to joke that I came back and I was an earthquake because I shook everything up I oversee the day-to-day operations of the business alongside my parents which includes everything from Staffing and culture to buying to operations anything that has to do with owning business and running a store falls under my leadership and my parents and sometimes you need that earthquake because think about how quickly business and life is changing oh for sure how do you want people to feel when they purchase and wear your jewelry it's supposed to make you feel all the things you know what elong it's more about the jewelry at Wild like it's more about the experience you're supposed to feel this eff vesence and this Joy it is supposed to be this like very deep emotive feeling you're supposed to buy it because it makes you feel a certain way for some people it's relevance for some people it's confidence of I saw this and I liked it and I bought it and now I'm wearing it and I didn't need someone to purchase it for me I didn't need my husband or my boyfriend or my partner I loved it and it made me happy I love that and jewelry can make us feel dressed up or it can make us feel edgy or it can make us feel fun if we're going out for a fun dinner with friends or out to a party and it's interesting how jewelry has those waves of making you feel differently depending on your mood totally another thing that I really love about the jewelry that we sell is I think that it can really have the ability to help you recall a moment in time I remember when I was working in my very first job after college I had a really shitty day and after work I went to my parents store I was not in the business at that time and I bought a ring and it made made me feel better and I was like oh my God this item has the power to make you feel better it has the power to make you feel a certain way and every time I wore that ring I thought about that day and I thought about how that day started one way and ended another way and it became my turnaround ring and I just I don't know I love that yeah it's so fun what do you think is the most important element of leadership when scaling a business empathy people want feel heard and so I try to be as good of a listener as I can you can be super generous and give people great jobs but you can't scale a business or grow a business without your people and people want to be with a leader that values them it comes down to being heard and seen and felt there are so many things that I think have to do with it I think having like generous benefits and having a nice work environment those are all reasons for me it's do you listen are you curious do your people feel heard it's so true because when we feel like we're contributing we feel valuable for sure people want to feel like there's a path for them when a company is small like before it's skilled sometimes the path isn't as laid out you can forge a path with your team by hearing what people's skills are and what they enjoy doing and listening to what they feel like the needs of the business are CU sometimes they see things that we don't for sure 100% what is next for your company and what would you like to see in the future going from one to two stores is I've heard the hardest leap in retail my business is so experiential that I will definitely start to work on location three and understand that it might take patience and a little bit of time but I'm really excited congratulations and good for you for understanding that it might take sometime but you're going to do it anyway it's really exciting I believe in this concept so much it's so needed and I think it's been so well received that I definitely think location three will happen it's just a matter of when and where magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy what is one way that you make sure to find and live your joy living your truth and for me a big part of living my joy is giving back to the community when you're an entrepreneur you have this platform that you can use to amplify great causes that you believe in and support incredible organizations doing important work so I have a few here locally that I am personally really into and that brings me great pride and joy other smaller things like I think being active I love traveling I'm a very spontaneous traveler if you were like I want to go on this trip next week I'm buying a ticket right now that's the kind of friend that I am and making sure that no matter how busy or hard it gets you're always leaning into those things and never losing sight of them and also girlfriends and family oh my God yeah so important thank you for being such an advocate for self-expression and thank you for joining us today everyone should go check out elong 23 in Wild likee please tell us how and where we can find you you can follow my business is on Instagram atth wild like and elong 23 my personal Instagram is Alisa a lyss aore elong 23 thank you for joining us today I'd love to hear from you reach out to me at hello Sheil it.com on our shetit website or at Sheed on social thank you to my editor Rich draino who always makes us sound good until next time let nothing stop you from experiencing the life and business that you crave