We recently connected with Jennifer Lund and have shared our conversation below.

Jennifer, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?

With entrepreneurship comes so much uncertainty. You have sales goals, you often don’t reach, social media posts that don’t take off, or ideas you are so sure are going to be a hit, and just aren’t. Entrepreneurship is a constant pivot. You have to try everything, and then try it again. I have never had much viral success on any social media. I was trying my hand at TikTok a little over a year ago, just randomly posting videos, nothing fancy whatsoever because I didn’t (and still don’t) know how. Most of my videos got a few views here and there, but nothing more. One evening I post a video, again, got a few views, go to sleep. I wake up the next morning, notice I have a few notifications, think, ok maybe i’ll get like 50 likes, continues going about my day. I get to the grocery store, and I can’t keep up with notifications, it’s going crazy! The views just keep jumping, 20k, 50k, 250k, by the end of the day, I have 1 million views, and more sales than I had gotten the entire time I had been in business. I couldn’t believe it! I could not stop crying!! I thought THIS IS IT!! I also didn’t know, being new to TikTok, that someone with a blue check mark by their name is something special. So, it took me about a week or two to notice that someone had commented on my video was a popular young rapper! I thought, this is so cool! Ever since then I have been trying to replicate the success of that video, but again, entrepreneurship is a constant pivot, so i’ll just keep re-thinking and keep trying!

Jennifer, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

For as long as I can remember, I have had an obsession with nature and being outdoors. I was born on Earth day, I feel most myself when I’m outside. My family would often travel and camp up the east coast and it certainly instilled in me a sense of awe of all the amazing places around me that people didn’t have a hand in molding. I knew I wanted to do something in my life that could inspire a little exploration in us all, while also being mindful. I went to school, got a bachelor of Science in Environmental Management and couldn’t find a job in my field. I started to think about starting my own eco-conscious brand to inspire others to get outside, but I didnt know where to start, so I just put it all on the back burner. I got married, had a son and was for the most part staying home with him. I had all these ideas from years of dreaming and just didn’t know how to move forward. I started doing some research, at this point I had my brand name all dreamed up, as well as several design ideas. I talked to my husband about it and he was so encouraging and said to just go for it, he has been my biggest supporter! I began searching social media for how to start your own business, build your own website, copywriting, legalities, and graphic designers for logos and designs. Everything started to fall into place! Since my launch, i’m most proud of consistently trying to push myself to find cleaner/greener ways to continue to make my brand more eco-conscious, and unique. There are lots of outdoor brands out there, I try to think of things people haven’t done yet, and the graphic artists I have been so lucky to work with seem to know just how to bring my vision to life! I started the brand with a couple t-shirts, and now have added over 25 t-shirts, some sweatshirts, beanies, hats, and most recently art prints made of hemp! The skies the limit! Whenever i’m feeling down, I remember what inspired this idea in the first place, and try to get back outside and see what I can think of next.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new clients in the past years has 100% been TikTok. I had no idea how useful TikTok was going to be for a business. I loved Instagram, I thought that Instagram was going to be my most successful business building tool, but over the past two years, Instagram’s algorithm started to change, and so did my brands visibility. This is why being able to pivot is so important, I post on TikTok ALOT, and alot of it is the same stuff, and sometimes I lose followers from posting the same stuff, but EVERYTIME I post, I get new eyes, and the opportunity for a post to go viral, and so I keep on posting. You can’t go viral on something you never posted, so I say go for it!

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

Initially I did try to sell my products on Etsy, but after much thought and not a lot of success, I decided my brand needed it’s own website and identity, so for me, I decided the best choice was building its own website. For me, I don’t see myself trying to sell on other platforms like Amazon, I like having my brand only accessible from the place where it all began, that’s special to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.woodlineapparel.com
• Instagram: @woodline_apparel
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@woodline_apparel