We were lucky to catch up with Blake Patton recently and have shared our conversation below.
Blake, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
I regularly get asked “what is the one biggest piece of advice you would give to potential business owners” which I very promptly answer – just jump. One of the biggest hurdles I ever experienced within my journey started at the very beginning.
With my first business, I spent about 2 years researching, preparing, and learning. I never felt like I knew enough to actually be successful. Heck – I still have days like this. But I pushed myself off the ledge and jumped into what would become one of the best adventures in my life.
Although my first business only made it 8 months before the pandemic brought an abrupt end, I was resilient and knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. It was the only thing I saw for myself while growing up – down to the multiple lemonade stands and craft sales. I had learned more in 8 months from actually doing than I had in the 2 years of research. So I decided to give it another shot as the company I was working full-time for was slowly dying due to legislation changes. My second attempt is where my story truly begins.
I began by evaluating all the skills I had that were profitable and landed on my creativity and graphic design experience. I realized there was always money and opportunity within the wedding industry and decided to begin making wedding invitations. As this began to grow steadily, I realized I would never be able to make a full time living with the process I currently had. So to supplement my income, I began to think of other options within the same industry to offer. With my previous experience in retail, I decided bridesmaid and bridal gowns were the perfect addition to my store.
Little did I know this would be my best idea yet as this grew more in popularity and overcame my invitations within 3 months. This is where the modern day CV came to life.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a 25-year-old fashion designer and entrepreneur based in Dallas, TX. With a passion for creating unique, wearable pieces, I launched my own label, which has already gained a following among fashion-forward individuals. In addition to my design work, I also a dedicated multi-business owner, committed to building successful and sustainable brands within the fashion and decor industries. My most recent collection, Blair Brooks, is scheduled to launch and showcase in New York Fashion Week in February.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
The most powerful form of marketing is word-of-mouth. Nothing creates excitement, buzz, and loyal customers like a recommendation from someone close to them. I am a firm believer in “experiential” marketing. In my mind, everything in life is an experience and it is categorized in one of 3 ways: extra-ordinary, ordinary, and disaster. Why such extreme words? This is a make or break moment to make a lasting impression.
A customer experiencing an ordinary experience will more than likely not leave a review at all. In fact, your store is more likely to be forgotten about in their day to day life. The customers with this kind of experience are more likely to never return or return once a year. As you can probably tell, this is not the worst nor the best result in a customer interaction.
A customer experiencing a disaster experience will more than likely leave not only extremely upset, but this can result in a ripple effect to other potential customers. This can include everything from a negative review, BBB complaint, social media blast, or even a negative word of mouth. As much as you may believe “it is only one customer” – it can sometimes only take one when starting out.
The obvious most profitable experience – extra-ordinary. This is the experience where your customer cannot stop talking about your business. These customers will bring up your business in casual conversations, make organic social media posts, recommend you any chance they get, and so many other things. These customers are also more likely to return to your store repeatedly over a year (depending on what your product/service is).
This is free marketing at its finest while also building a loyal and returning customer base. This is what has grown our business exponentially. Being in e-commerce – some of the ways we provide extra-ordinary experiences is by providing extra special packaging, thank you gifts, and other things to make the experience of shopping for special occasion gowns online a little more special.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.
I am a firm believer in using third-party marketplaces to get started. This is one of the largest methods we used when expanding our customer base. Personally, we use Etsy as the nature of our business is couture and high end products. Platforms such as Amazon and Walmart are perfectly tailored for everyday purchases or items that a customer would like to purchase repeatedly such as streetwear clothing, skincare and beauty, home decor, and other items like these.
In our experience, there are ups and downs to both of these. When using Amazon or Walmart, you are required to have a UPC (Universal Product Code) for each variation of items you have. For example, if you have a teapot available in 3 colors – you would need to purchase 3 different codes to sell this item. Purchasing UPC codes can be easily done through multiple methods, but can get very expensive very quickly. With our products having up to 120 different combinations of size and color, offering our products on these platforms did not seem logical at this time. Although, if you are using a dropship option, sometimes the manufacturer has already purchased these codes for you and can provide them to you to aid in listing on these marketplaces.
Our most commonly used platform is Etsy. We definitely have a love-hate relationship with the platform. I have owned an Etsy account since 2013 and feel the last 2 years it has become increasingly more competitive and receiving assistance has become very difficult. Etsy also has a very strict policy on the types of items that can be sold on its platform which can also reduce your opportunities.
The biggest benefit of any of these options is exposure. You can add inserts to your orders to help drive traffic to your website directly. We also provide thank you coupon codes to our customers within these packages to aid in bringing back customers to purchase again. Some marketplaces also offer you the option to add external links to their descriptions which can also be a source in driving traffic directly to your website from the beginning.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.creativisionweddings.com
- Instagram: @thecreativision
- Facebook: /thecreativision