We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Coryanne Ettiene a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Coryanne, appreciate you joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
I’ve always followed the mantra that fortune favors the bold so I’ve tried to work past the fear and use that energy to fuel my direction. Sometimes I fail, but every time I learn, and the more I learn the better I get at taking risks. When Covid hit I went against the grain and used that chaotic time to scale my business rather than shrink away from it, with our doors closed we had time to review, forecast and untimely redefine our 5 year plan to move away from traditional retail and towards an omni channel retail structure. It meant learning on the job, spending our emergency money to bet on the future, tossing our organization structure in the air and landing with a new set of team members and most notably, looking over our shoulder to see what chaos we were leaving in our wake. We started the year with 4 stores, we ended the year with 2 stores, a thriving event business and a wholesale division. As if one risk were not enough, I used our change period to recognize that we needed to diversify to succeed; so I purchased Whodini Sisters Bloody Mary Potion knowing nothing about distribution and manufacturing, but everything about marketing a good product. Standing a few steps into 2022, I’m just catching my breath from a year of risky maneuvers with Ettiene Market scaling faster than we anticipated, and Whodini Sisters set for a rebranding and product launch in the spring. Fortune favors the bold, but only if you understand that the favor may only be a good solid lesson on how to do it better next time; I’m lucky in that I have a fist full of lessons from the bruising I took during the chaos, but luckily I’m able to see a fortune grow from my efforts as well.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Raised in Southern Arizona, I spent my 20s backpacking across the globe, eating my way through Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and South America on daily budget of $3. In my 30s, I earned my Master of Philosophy from Kings College London, and reluctantly entered domesticity with a decade of experience climbing the corporate ladder as a management consultant, and a long history of preferring London night clubs over time spent in the kitchen. However, always curious, and with a growing family to feed, I cut my teeth one cooking disaster at a time, until a tiny trickle of kitchen victories grew into a culinary passion that lead me to become a nationally recognized Food and Lifestyle Expert who spent nearly a decade entertaining TV audiences across the US, and writing for Better Homes and Gardens, More Magazine, Traditional Home, The Daily Meal, Huffington Post and Dallas Morning News. In my quest to slow life down, and focus on real life moments, I put my book on hold and opened Ettiene Market in 2015 with the aim of creating a destination shop curated with my favorite kitchen inspired objects. Energized by her Best of Dallas Wins and cover stories, and national magazine features, I pivoted in 2020 to expand Ettiene Market into a mercantile filled with goods that inspire a slower pace of life, launched the Joie Line of Ettiene Market Products, and purchased Whodini Sisters Bloody Mary Potion. I am passionate about busy kitchen tables, strong cocktails, heirloom dishes, knowing glances, gregarious laughter and the stories that remind us of what it means to share life with the ones you love; my joie de vivre is recognizable and ever present in everything I do. When I’m not restoring our 1919 craftsman bungalow, I’m outside, with a pair of ratty leather gloves digging in the dirt dreaming of my next big venture Lady Terlinga.

How did you build your audience on social media?
I never set out to have a store that just sold things, creating a community was always at the core of Ettiene Market; perhaps it is my nature to seek out company and my love of a good time, but building the revenue of the store was just as important as building the audience for the store — not because they are inherently linked but because I want everyone who shops here to feel like this is ‘their’ store and they have a story to tell. It is that idea that drives our social media presence, to build the community first; selling is just secondary. With that in mind, we ask with each post, “Will this inspire someone? Make them feel good?” and if the answer is no, then we don’t post it. From there we look at the image, is it real, is it honest, is it positive and relatable? And finally we look at the words, do they tickle a memory, spark a feeling, nudge you to comment? Social media for us is an extension of the store, we may be virtual, but we want you to feel like you are in Ettiene Market, even it is only a square on your phone.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
A year into Ettiene Market a customer came in and asked if we sold anything with our name on it. I was shocked and delighted by the request but did not have the confidence to carry it out for several months. Eventually I set aside a small amount to invest in producing 2 products which flew off the shelves. This success lead me to become too confident and consequently launch 30 products which proved to be a logistical and marketing nightmare. 3 years in we have over 40 products with more being added once we secure a new manufacturing and warehouse facility. Manufacturing is challenging because there is so much to learn from what goes on a label, to how to keep a product shelf stable, to where to find the packaging, to how to store the product so that it is not damaged before it hits the floor and to how to manage your cash flow; we produce an equal amount in-house and external goods — both come with their own set of headaches that you can really only learn as you go but all come down to skill, time, space and money. No one has them all so you will need to know what you are willing to do without until you master the 4 arenas of manufacturing.

Contact Info:

• Website: ettienemarket.com
• Instagram: EttieneMarket
• Facebook: EttieneMarket
• Youtube: EttieneMarket
• Other: pinterest. EttieneMarket