Elisabeth Rose

Transcript:

Full transcription provided by our sponsor for this episode, Mark Scarrow – Mortgages Made Simple (NMLS# 178678). Connect with Mark: https://www.newrez.com/find-loan-officer/mark-scarrow/

Intro:

Welcome to The Best of LKN, a podcast featuring the best small businesses and the most influential professionals around Lake Norman, North Carolina. Each week we spotlight those businesses and individuals that are making a positive impact here in the Lake Norman area. Thanks for joining us. Enjoy the show.

Jeff:

Friends, welcome back to The Best of LKN podcast. What we feature on this podcast are not so much interviews as they are insightful conversations with highly successful and thoughtful entrepreneurs around the Lake Norman area. My goal has always been to simply share the journeys of these creative and talented individuals and their teams in our Lake Norman small business community. I want to thank them and I want to thank you dear listener for joining The Best of LKN podcast.

Jeff:

In this episode, I’m extremely honored to feature a conversation with one of the most thoughtful, talented and adored small business owners in the Lake Norman community Elisabeth Connolly, the owner of the boutique luxury brand Elisabeth Rose in Davidson has been recognized by several of my guests on this podcast. The small company she is formed from her creative vision is truly amazing and the love she has for her craft and her community is really inspiring. If this is the first one of our podcast episodes that you’ve listened to well my friend I’ll just say that you’ve chosen a really good one to start with. Here’s my conversation with Elisabeth Connolly, the owner of Elisabeth Rose in Davidson, enjoy.

Jeff:

For this episode, we are featuring Elisabeth Rose, the luxury lifestyle brand, creating products to elevate your everyday moments based in Davidson, North Carolina. The founder, owner, and creative genius behind the company Elisabeth Connolly is joining us. Elisabeth, welcome to the podcast.

Elisabeth:

Thank you. Thanks so much for having me.

Jeff:

Elisabeth Rose has been recognized in several episodes of the podcast. Carrie Uehlein, one of the chief veterinarians at the Veterinary Hospital of Davidson mentioned you in her conversation. And of course your good friend, Katy Kindred also spoke oh so highly of Elisabeth Rose. And recently in my Charlotte podcast, I’ve even connected with another company that also recognized you in their conversation, which was just amazing, so I’ve been really looking forward to this conversation.

Elisabeth:

Same, we have a killer community. I’m grateful for all of those. My husband actually worked for Carrie as an assistant way back in the day when he was in high school.

Jeff:

Wow, really?

Elisabeth:

We’ve known her for years and years. Yeah, she’s amazing. Absolutely amazing, best in the game.

Jeff:

Yep. Yep. She’s awesome, for sure. Well, before we get into all the wonderful things with Elisabeth Rose and also kind of dive into an announcement you’ve made recently for the company, give the listeners just a bit of a bio on you Elisabeth, a little bit of your background.

Elisabeth:

Yeah, sure. I’m from North Carolina raised in Charlotte and was homeschooled actually. My mom homeschooled all of us and then ended up going to UNC Charlotte and studied fine art. My concentration was in photography, which I adored and continue to adore. I have not had much time to shoot, but I studied film photography and really fell in love with working with my hands and loading, processing the film, printing it all. It’s a much different world than digital photography, but then upon graduating, you know you graduate with an art degree and it’s time to get a job and whatever job you possibly can get. I actua;ly got a job as a medical photographer, which was not artistic in any way, shape or form. Thankfully they downsized their department and I was let go, which was really… I think the best thing that could have happened for my career, because I think I would’ve continued on that track just because it was a job with benefits, and security, and so on.

Elisabeth:

Ended up photographing for this incredible artist who’s based out of Charlotte, his name’s Richard Israel and he’s from England, and just absolutely amazing guy who let me tag along for a few years, working for him. From there he kind of pushed me out to do my own thing and I started shooting on my own and what I realized was just… We had transitioned into this digital world where brides and grooms, I was photographing weddings didn’t even want prints of their images, they didn’t want hard copy prints. They wanted everything on a jump drive or a disc at the time, we’d burn them to a disk. Now most computers don’t even have the slot to put a disk into, but that was what we were doing. And they just wanted them to be able to load on Facebook and so on. And I just so missed working with my hands and creating that I ended up searching high and low.

Elisabeth:

And another thing I fell in love with in school was printmaking, so I got a letter press machine that was from… It was made in 1881, it’s an American made press. It was in Annapolis, Maryland in someone’s basement. And it was being sold on Craig’s list. And my husband and one of our best friends were nice enough to drive me out there through a snow storm with a trailer to haul this 600 and something pounds cast iron machine-

Jeff:

Wow.

Elisabeth:

Out of the basement in Annapolis and brought it home. And one thing led to the next and just started… I started designing stationery and printing on it really just to fill that need of… I wanted to create a tangible product and something that I could get messy creating and feel like I had really made a piece of art. Yeah. One thing led to the next and here we are, and it has morphed over the years, but I’m still very much rooted in a desire to make things that make life more beautiful and make your space more beautiful, and yeah.

Jeff:

Yeah, I’ve done some browsing on the website and the products, and gifts, and those sort of things that you guys create are super cool.

Elisabeth:

Thank you.

Jeff:

Really just beautiful, beautiful work that you’re doing there. You opened the doors for the boutique, the shop, the storefront in Davidson, right on Main Street back in October of 2017. And I guess it’s a good time, we probably don’t want to talk a lot about the storefront since you’ve made an announcement recently, but describe a little bit about the process of what made you decide. I mean, opening a storefront is a leap of faith for sure.

Elisabeth:

Sure.

Jeff:

And it’s a commitment and a huge expense. Let’s just face it. Describe the process of what led you to decide to open the storefront and how did things go initially that first year?

Elisabeth:

Yeah, so the decision to open the storefront was one that I had been building towards for a number of years. I started printing stationary back in 2010, 2011 on the letter press machine. And I knew that in order to really kind of get the street cred, that was needed to grow a business within the medium that I was using, that having a storefront was a must. Brides and grooms, which is mainly what I was doing. I had kind of branched into this world of very high-end wedding stationary, and my clients wanted a space that they could come in and see, and feel, and touch the paper. If someone was hiring me to do their stationary, they were the type of person that cared what the paper weight was, and so on. We got so many people that… Some people just don’t care and I completely get that, but the people that do, really want to have a store that they can come into and they can look at the ink colors, and the foil colors, and paper, and so on.

Elisabeth:

And instead of just opening an office, which we could have done, just a studio space. I really wanted a space that would get local involvement and use that word of mouth to advertise the bigger business that we do. What we ended up doing was… The storefront portion of it also doubled as a place for me to be testing out products of my own that we would do in small batches, print and sell, just to kind of see what in the long run was going to sell the best. My goal has always been to have a product line that I can take wholesale to other stores. The storefront really, I will say was a strategic move for both getting our name out there, as soon as you put your name on the side of a building, people start paying attention a bit more.

Elisabeth:

The storefront was an awesome place to be able to support artists, local makers, and also a lot of female entrepreneurs and their businesses from all over the U.S. to be able to sell their goods in the store, test out my own line of products and just have a space where people would come in and they may be just coming in to buy a birthday card for somebody, and then they learned that, Oh, we could do these fully custom invitations, which really then was morphing more into these full on event experiences where we would brand the event from top to bottom, starting with invitations all the way through day of, so it was a strategic move. I always wanted to kind of try out having a brick and mortar and see what that was about. But yeah, it is a ton of work and it is an expense and I approached it kind of with considering it to be our advertising budget in a sense.

Jeff:

Right.

Elisabeth:

Just to get our name out there and it worked.

Jeff:

Yeah, well, it makes sense. The location’s really cool. Obviously Davidson is just an amazing small town and has such a… just a beautiful downtown area.

Elisabeth:

It’s incredible.

Jeff:

I’ve been lucky enough to feature quite a few downtown Davidson based businesses on the podcast and always love getting over there. I was just over there the other day to check out your mom’s bizarre who-

Elisabeth:

Yes.

Jeff:

Courtney Buckley was on the podcast recently as well. And finally got to check out that space and look forward to going back and doing some more shopping, but yeah, would definitely love to have more time to spend in Davidson. I’m trying to free up some weekend time, so we’ll see how that goes.

Elisabeth:

Yeah. It’s a special place isn’t it. It was Davidson or nowhere when I decided to open a store and it took a long time to get a storefront space. And my landlord who also own The Pickled Peach, which is the place to be in town for… Everything that they make is incredible. And they took a chance on me and they let me have one of the spaces and I am forever grateful to both of them, Jen and Travis Jentz.

Jeff:

And that’s a great way of putting it Davidson is a special place. Yeah. Very, very well said. Well, let’s get on to… Let’s talk about the announcement you made recently. Speaking of the storefront, you shared an announcement with your neighbors in Davidson, your customers and clients. Tell us about that.

Elisabeth:

Yeah. We made the announcement that we’re not going to be reopening the storefront. We closed back on Friday, March 13th. Should have known it was very Friday the 13th vibes, but we closed then and found ourselves suddenly along with everyone else thrown into the COVID pandemic world, everything shut down and it gave me… You know what we’re in the events industry, and so for months it has been canceling, postponing, rescheduling events, sending out save the date, and save the new date, and the new, new date sort of cards for our clients and so on. And the downtime gave me the space to really assess what the business is best at, kind of what we’re known for.

Elisabeth:

And I have absolutely adored having the storefront, but what I realized through this time is just, it’s so important right now for small businesses, more than ever to really buckle down and go, okay, what are adjustments that we can make that if something like this happens again, we’ll be fine all the way through it. I’ve seen so many restaurants and other businesses that I love pivot in similar ways and just kind of scale back and do what we do best. I spent the whole time really looking at that and thinking through how we do that. And like I said earlier, it is a lot of work to have a brick and mortar and have a storefront and the amount of staffing and kind of brain power that goes into that.

Elisabeth:

I realized it was taking away from me being able to really focus on growing Elisabeth Rose and expanding into having retail products available nationwide we’ll have a storefront in the future I believe, but for right now, it’s just really important that we kind of pivot to this new found E-commerce. We did not launch E-commerce until the pandemic hit and it has taken all of our time and more. I mean, we’re expanding staff to accommodate it and realize what we really needed was a space, a big production facility, and warehouse space to be able to get everything done that we need to, so we’re going to be right up the road about seven minutes away, Davidson will always be our spot.

Jeff:

Yeah. Well, a lot of other business owners and entrepreneurs that I’ve had on the podcast have shared those same feelings of one of the highs of 2020 was having the ability to slow down, organize, and develop other lines of businesses that may have been on their radar for a long time. And just was on the list of things to do and just kept pushing it off. But the silver lining I guess, of the slowdown during 2020 allowed a lot of these small businesses to take the time to develop those lines of businesses. And yeah, it’s so important for a small business to stay lean.

Elisabeth:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Jeff:

And being able to utilize technology and the digital space to grow your business makes total sense. And that would definitely-

Elisabeth:

For sure.

Jeff:

Yeah. I’m excited for you. I think it’s a huge opportunity for Elisabeth Rose and I think it’s really awesome. I think it’s good news and-

Elisabeth:

It’s good.

Jeff:

Yeah.

Elisabeth:

It’s bittersweet for sure. We’ll miss it, yeah. I cried tears writing that letter just because I… The people in Davidson really, and our shoppers that would come up from Charlotte as well. I mean, we adored having everyone in the store and I think we all know that retail has slightly shifted for right this minute too.

Jeff:

Yeah.

Elisabeth:

We’re taking a hiatus, we’ll call it a hiatus. I think we’ll be back with one in the future.

Jeff:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Absolutely. And I’m sure it’s a really difficult decision because the storefront is so close to your heart and the face of the business, so but-

Elisabeth:

Yeah. It definitely was, it was a tough one, but it also… I really, really believe in going with your gut on everything in life, every aspect of life, but especially in business. And it was one of those that anytime I feel like it’s bittersweet and I’m a little sad about it, but I still feel that urge that this is the right thing to do.

Jeff:

Yeah.

Elisabeth:

It’s what being an entrepreneur is, being able to look ahead and go, this is the right move, so we’re doing it and we’ll miss it, but it’s good. It’s all good stuff.

Jeff:

And always the opportunity to reopen another storefront in the future. Well, speaking of 2020 in the highs and lows. Originally when I first started this podcast, I would ask small business owners to kind of recognize a few of their favorite businesses in the area, but I’ve kind of changed that question into more of what businesses in the area would you like to recognize that have been really helpful to you in 2020? Because it has been such a pivotal year for small businesses, and for the country, and the world, and for families, and individuals.

Elisabeth:

Sure.

Jeff:

Do you have a few in mind that you’d like to recognize-

Elisabeth:

Yeah.

Jeff:

That have been helpful in 2020?

Elisabeth:

Yeah, absolutely. Honestly, number one is Ken at PostNet in Davidson and everyone that works there, we would not have been able to launch E-commerce, launch this new line of business we started a tangent, but we launched a line of candles and started selling those on E-commerce. And that’s really, what’s blown up our E-commerce and PostNet has made it possible for us to get all of these packages out. We were considered essential because we were getting all of the notices out for the delayed events and so on, and obviously PostNet was as well with keeping the packages rolling, and they have been absolutely amazing. They just cheer us on when we would be there dropping off dozens, and dozens, and dozens of shipments. Overloading their countertops, and they would just cheer us on. They’re absolutely amazing.

Elisabeth:

Their attitude through all of this has been awesome. They’ve kept us running. And then honestly the local takeout has really powered us. I mentioned The Pickled Peach earlier, Jen is one of my dearest friends, but she is also just an insane chef and the food at The Pickled Peach, the take take-home meals, the way that they pivoted and started selling groceries and so on. I mean, we could get everything we needed there and they’re right next door to us, which was ideal. And then also Osito which is a taco and tortillas place in Cornelius opens during the pandemic. And honestly, their pimento cheese queso gave us the will to continue on some days. We would count down until we could go pick it up. And all of us would be in there like exhausted and tired with keeping up with E-commerce and just go today is an Osito day, let’s go get queso. We’re going to be all right. Clearly I care a lot about food, so PostNet and food.

Jeff:

Well, both really good choices.

Elisabeth:

Yeah.

Jeff:

Yeah. PostNet in Davidson, so my two small businesses I partner with PostNet in Cornelius. They’re a little closer to my office and the service I’ve received there is phenomenal. And I have no doubt that what Ken’s doing in Davidson at PostNet is really similar. And that’s so cool.

Elisabeth:

Yeah.

Jeff:

That they’re just supportive and helpful and it doesn’t matter that you walk in with just-

Elisabeth:

Way too much stuff.

Jeff:

Way too much stuff. Yeah.

Elisabeth:

They were awesome they would hold the UPS truck for us. They were great, still are. Everyday we love them, love every one of them there.

Jeff:

That’s super cool. Pickled Peach has been recommended and recognized on the podcast as well in the past. And yeah, I need to reach out to them sometime, see if I can get them to come on for 30 minutes to talk about-

Elisabeth:

For sure.

Jeff:

The Pickled Peach.

Elisabeth:

I’ll help push them along.

Jeff:

I appreciate that.

Elisabeth:

You have got to talk to Jen. She is brilliant.

Jeff:

Yeah. I’ll take you up on that. I rely heavily on my guests to help introduce me to other businesses-

Elisabeth:

I’ll do it.

Jeff:

In the areas. And Osito’s has also been recognized on the podcast as well. And you know what I think I’m going to go get some takeout there for lunch today because I haven’t been there yet. And everyone speaks so highly of Osito’s they just-

Elisabeth:

It’s-

Jeff:

Yeah. I guess it’s just amazing.

Elisabeth:

It’s insane, I could eat there at least once, if not twice a week, the Osito taco, just get it. It’s a chicken tender with this Osito sauce, we know the whole menu. It’s phenomenal. And they opened during the pandemic and I’m very impressed by them.

Jeff:

We talk on this podcast a lot about food, my guests and I, we always talk a lot about food and I always get hungry during these conversations.

Elisabeth:

Yeah, right.

Jeff:

I usually go somewhere cool for lunch after these conversations. But yeah, I’ll check them out very soon. What about reading? Are you a reader?

Elisabeth:

You know, I’ll be honest I’m super not, very ADD. And I space out while reading. I would love to say that I’m a reader, but I listen to audio books-

Jeff:

Yeah.

Elisabeth:

And I love podcasts. Really I’ve found, I used to kind of pretend or hope that I would be able to pull off being a reader and it just hasn’t happened. My husband and daughter do enough reading for me as well.

Jeff:

Yeah.

Elisabeth:

But I listen to audio books and then I absolutely adore podcasts and that, it’s something I can do while working on my art and creating and still learning.

Jeff:

Yeah, yeah. That found time, right. Driving and-

Elisabeth:

Yep.

Jeff:

Working or cleaning or whatever we do in the time where we really only have our ears available, right.

Elisabeth:

Exactly.

Jeff:

I have the same problem with reading. I’ve been a finger quote “reader” all my life.

Elisabeth:

Yeah.

Jeff:

But also super ADD, so I tend to space a lot.

Elisabeth:

I read the same page over, and over, and over again.

Jeff:

Yeah.

Elisabeth:

Yeah.

Jeff:

I’ll get halfway through it about four times-

Elisabeth:

Yes.

Jeff:

And then I’ll be like concentrate.

Elisabeth:

I know.

Jeff:

But I do a lot of-

Elisabeth:

Same.

Jeff:

Go ahead. I’m sorry.

Elisabeth:

I truly used to pretend like, Oh no, I’m totally a reader. Now I’m just full. I’ve embraced it. Like, no, if you want me to… You can read it out loud to me. In fact, one of my… Summer who runs our marketing brought a book to work, to read me a section of it out loud because she knew I would never read it, so she just sat at my desk and read it to me. That’s the way to get me to read a book.

Jeff:

I consume a lot of audio books, so that’s how I get all my books now is through audio. And I’ve also started this habit of… I know journaling can be super helpful. I don’t journal per se, but I do write my own Cliffs Notes when I listen to an audio book, I’ll usually listen to it beginning to end, and then I’ll go back into it and I’ll have a spiral notebook just for that book. And I’ll create my own Cliffs Notes. I usually go through, if it’s a good book, if it’s worth doing I’ll go through it several times. And it just helps me retain some of the content that I get in that book. Everything I read is personal development, small business marketing, that type of stuff.

Elisabeth:

Same.

Jeff:

It’s all non-fiction.

Elisabeth:

That’s Awesome.

Jeff:

Do you have any titles that come to mind that you would recommend?

Elisabeth:

Yeah. Well, podcast wise and then he just released a book through quarantine as well. I love Guy Raz, How I Built This. I mean, that’s my go-to. I listen to it over and over and over again. She no longer does it, but there is an incredible entrepreneur, Sophia Amoruso who had Girlboss Radio. And I’ve listened to her for years. She started multiple companies, but she started the company, Nasty Gal, Girlboss and now she’s doing this amazing kind of masters in business course with all of her knowledge, from everything she’s done. And I’ve found just myself… I’m unbelievably grateful for it, but I reached out to her through quarantine and she started mentoring me through a lot of these business moves, so past episodes of Girlboss Radio with different founders are incredible. I mean, honestly, if it’s not about business and so on, I usually space out.

Jeff:

Yeah.

Elisabeth:

I absolutely loved Michelle Obama’s book that she wrote. I believe it’s called Becoming, it’s terrible but I can’t remember the title of it, but it’s Michelle Obama’s book. She was amazing. Yeah. I’m reading one that another mentor told me to the One Minute Manager. Yeah, so I’m a podcast girl. I wake up, listen to my episode of NPR and get the day running.

Jeff:

Yeah, same. That’s what inspired me originally to create my own podcasts, all the podcasts that I’ve been tuning into over the last four or five years. And was basically the inspiration for starting my own along with other factors as well, 2020 being one of them, just hashtag 2020. But Guy Raz, How I Built This. Super cool podcast.

Elisabeth:

Yeah, so good.

Jeff:

A great production by NPR. And I just actually just… we talked about that podcast in a recent episode with Alan Springate, he’s one of the owners of eeZ Fusion in Birkdale.

Elisabeth:

Yes. Oh my gosh, yes.

Jeff:

He brought that podcast up and I really enjoy that podcast. His stories are super cool to just learn about the journeys that these entrepreneurs have taken, it’s really inspiring is a great way of putting it.

Elisabeth:

Yeah, for sure.

Jeff:

Girlboss Radio Sophia. What’s her last name? Amoruso.

Elisabeth:

Amoruso, yup.

Jeff:

My wife also read Michelle Obama’s book and just loved it. Loved it.

Elisabeth:

Yup.

Jeff:

It was a gift actually from her mom to my wife, so she-

Elisabeth:

It was amazing.

Jeff:

Yeah, she loved it. One Minute Manager I’m familiar with, I have never read it, probably need to. That seems to be a staple in a lot of small business owners libraries and entrepreneurs libraries.

Elisabeth:

Yeah. I’ve had it recommended at time. I also loved Chip Gaines book Capital Gaines, I think was the name of it, that was an awesome one. All of the… I’m trying to think through my Audible history, but yeah. I love hearing stories. As someone who’s waking up every day, figuring out what the rest of the week is going to look like and how to strategically keep everything rolling and growing. It’s just awesome to hear about other people who have done the same exact thing. People that spent months and years up all night, figuring out, and working two jobs to be able to make their dreams come true. And I think it feels good to have… To hear those stories and go, okay, I’m not the only one. I’m not the only one putting my blood, sweat, and tears into this. And no, I’m not crazy. This is the right thing to be doing.

Jeff:

Yeah.

Elisabeth:

I’m just tired. And I need to take a day off and I need to sleep. That’s called exhaustion. It’s not called insanity.

Jeff:

Totally. And yeah, you’re right. The podcasts, the books we find are inspiring. And entrepreneurship and small business ownership is a lonely place-

Elisabeth:

It is.

Jeff:

Because not many people can really appreciate the struggle, the time, the effort, the stress involved of creating your own business, and running it, and being successful at it.

Elisabeth:

Yes.

Jeff:

And yeah, that’s what I love most about the podcasts, like How I Built This and listening to the struggles of these other entrepreneurs and what they had to go through to become successful.

Elisabeth:

Yeah.

Jeff:

And we’ll look at so many of these famous entrepreneurs as overnight successes and really it took 25 years-

Elisabeth:

Yeah.

Jeff:

For a lot of them to get there.

Elisabeth:

Exactly.

Jeff:

Yeah.

Elisabeth:

Yup.

Jeff:

Yeah.

Elisabeth:

That’s so true. Yeah. I agree. It really can be a lonely place. I’m grateful that in recent years I have come across… Just made some incredible new friends who are… One comes to mind, Amanda McLamb, she and Philip Resident Culture the brewery in Charlotte. And it’s so nice to have somebody that you can talk to face-to-face and go, Hey, are you also exhausted? And then juggling like motherhood on top of it. It’s not what I grew up with. I didn’t have any friends growing up that kind of entered the same world. And then even out of college and so on, the artsy crowd doesn’t necessarily usually turn into running a business.

Jeff:

Yeah.

Elisabeth:

I’m grateful for friends. My dad always had his own business that he was running ever since I can remember, so I love being able to talk to him and go, I’m so tired and how am I supposed to get our whole family on the beach vacation tomorrow? And he’s like, I remember it well, so it’s good.

Jeff:

Yeah. My newest business. I started this year in 2020 and my other business, I started in 2013 and have run that one by myself and really pushed it up hill for eight years. And I have been super lucky in 2020 to form a… To kind of partner with a close friend, who’s an expert in his area with the business that we formed in 2020. And it’s been such a relief to have a partnership in this new business and to have someone-

Elisabeth:

Yeah.

Jeff:

Who I can share ideas with who can keep me on track and accountable, and also who knows the stress and understands the difficulties of trying to grow a business.

Elisabeth:

Yeah.

Jeff:

And also take care of the things that pay the bills at the same time, you know?

Elisabeth:

Exactly.

Jeff:

That’s been a huge relief.

Elisabeth:

Yeah. It’s awesome to have people that’ll celebrate those wins with you too.

Jeff:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Elisabeth:

Because they get how big the wins are when you hit them.

Jeff:

Yeah. Yeah. Really well said. Totally agree with that. I didn’t ask you this before we started recording, so this question may catch you off guard a little bit, but I have asked in recent episodes, if there’s a message that the owners would like to share with their community, with their customers, and their clients. Anything you’d like to share before we bring this to a close.

Elisabeth:

Yeah. I think, honestly just with the announcement of the shop closing, I’m just so grateful for all of the people who have invested in us. Even before I opened the storefront, I had so many wedding planners, and venues, and people in the community that recommended us. It was all word of mouth up until we opened the store and that crew grew my business to one level. And I look at the hard work that myself, my staff puts into the business and yeah, we work our buns off to get to the next level, but without the people that support us, and that cheer us on, and that shop with us, and so on, it just wouldn’t happen. That crew kind of got me to the place where I was able to open the store front.

Elisabeth:

And then we had the storefront and we had such a… and still have such an incredible local following that just spread the word about what we had in store and what we did as far as the event design and stationary design and so on. And then from there with this new business and launching into E-commerce, we see the names of all of the people we used to see in person rolling through our E-commerce. And that kind of support, and I said this in my note, their support of us is truly making my dreams and our dreams come true. And it might seem simple to someone to recommend a business or to say, Hey, use so-and-so, but it makes all the difference. Without the support of everyone that has shopped with us and hired me over the years, we wouldn’t be growing during a pandemic.

Elisabeth:

And yeah, I’m just infinitely grateful. I know that hard work and ideas go into it, but without the support of people and people really believing in you and loving the products that you sell, you won’t go anywhere. I’m not naive to the fact that this community, the Charlotte community, the Charlotte wedding community, the Davidson local shoppers, people who have bought E-commerce, people from out of town that tell… They come visit the college and then tell their friends back home about it and they shop online. They’ve grown our business, you know? Yeah, I’m grateful.

Jeff:

Grateful, well said. We are so grateful for our customers, and clients, and our community, really well said. Elisabeth, I’ll have links for Elisabeth Rose in the show notes, of course, we’ll share this on social media as well. And the company is Elisabeth Rose and owner Elisabeth Connelly. Elisabeth, thank you so much for joining the podcast.

Elisabeth:

You are so welcome. Thanks for having me. This is my first podcast ever, so I’m excited.

Jeff:

So much to be thankful for these days. I found Elisabeth’s message of gratitude to be very inspiring. And I’m so thankful to her for taking time out of her busy week to join the podcast. Listeners you can learn more about Elisabeth Rose at www.elisabeth-rose.com. See the show notes for links to their website and social media accounts. The show notes are located at the home for The Best of LKN podcast, www.thebestoflkn.com. I’ll also share links to all of the local businesses we mentioned in this episode, as well as the books and podcasts that Elisabeth recommended. Also, available in the show notes is a full transcript of this episode. Many thanks to Charlotte mortgage banker, Mark Scarrow for sponsoring this episode and covering the cost of having it professionally transcribed. Mark’s contact information is in the show notes as well. If you have mortgage questions, I highly recommend reaching out to him.

Jeff:

A conversation with Mark is also featured back in episode 36 of the podcast. If you haven’t already done so, I would be so honored if you would subscribe to our weekly email newsletter. You can find the form toward the bottom of the homepage at thebestoflkn.com. Just enter your first name and email address, and you’ll be the first to know each week of upcoming episodes and other happenings here at The Best of LKN. Listeners thanks again for following along with The Best of LKN podcast, get out there and love on the Lake Norman small business community as much as you can this holiday season. I’ll be back next week with another episode. Bye for now.

Speaker 1:

We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of The Best of LKN. For more information about this podcast, show notes, video episodes, and links to our featured businesses please visit www.thebestoflkn.com. We publish episodes weekly, so be sure to subscribe and stay up to date. Until next time cheers Lake Norman.