We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jessica Gardner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jessica below.

Jessica, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I co-founded Dreamer & Co in 2018 after virtually meeting my co-founder in 2014. We were working for the same non-profit but from different cities in the U.S.

Through this non-profit, I traveled to the Horn of Africa in 2014 to assist them with their marketing and reporting needs, while my co-founder traveled there in 2015 to complete her Master’s thesis on water provision for refugees. During these trips, we met a group of women artisans and were inspired by their work. They made beads out of paper, but they were lacking a local market to sell their goods.

We dreamed up a way to help them expand their product into the US as well as teaching them business skills, how to create a market in their country, and advising them on jewelry styles that would sell in modern stores around the world.

In 2016, me and my husband (and one baby on the way) moved to the Horn of Africa to work with the artisans full-time, while my co-founder began laying down operations in the Washington D.C. area.

We knew with a partnership between the women we could solve the problem of getting them access to a global market that would help them earn money to lift their families out of poverty. In the last five years since officially launching we have had women who have built a toilet for their home, built a roof for part of their home that was open, build a separate room so the men and women could sleep in separate quarters, had several women send their younger sisters to school, and so much more!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I began my journey as a photographer. This led me to work with non-profits and travel all over the world. The more I traveled, the more I saw the need to partner with others. There are so many talented people all over the world, and many of them never see their products on shelves or they get taken advantage of by big businesses and severely underpaid for their work. We wanted to create a business that would pay fair wages and invest in the future of each artisan we partnered with. I had a degree in business and a passion for entrepreneurship, but I knew I couldn’t do by myself, so when my co-founder approached me about starting a business, it just felt right.

Since launching in 2018 we have had the opportunity to be featured in stores across 48 states and in three countries. One of the most rewarding things is when we get to tell the artisans that a store wants to purchase a large number of items. They get so excited and love seeing people wear their beads.

It truly is a passion project for both us and the artisans.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2020 we used the word pivot more than we can count. We had several in-person markets and even our first boutique space rented out where we planned to launch a line of home decor with a new group of artisans. Of course, all that was canceled including our scheduled photoshoot for our Fall line. We were so worried the lack of in-person events and our store space would make us close our business. But instead, we had one of our most successful years at that time because we learned to pivot and pivot fast.

When the artisans would not be allowed to leave their houses due to their country’s rules, we made sure they had plenty of paper and items to take home with them so they could stay busy. We knew we wouldn’t be able to ship anything but it meant the women could still be working for when things opened up again.

When my family and I had to leave the country unexpectedly we learned to pivot by appointing a leader within the artisan group and teaching her how to ship products and take orders.

When our events were canceled we began reaching out to our customers asking them to host online virtual trunk shows. Through these trunk shows, we were able to continue our business and pay for our expenses.

One of the keys to our pivoting was doing it early. We didn’t wait to see what would happen, we forecasted and discerned based on events and began planning “just in case.” This was huge in getting ahead of the curve and other businesses, and for those that choose not to pivot at all, we, unfortunately, saw them shut down not soon after.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

We have always been looking for a quick way to grow. When we get into comparison mode we tend to scroll on social media and assume everyone who looks successful is successful because of social media or some lucky thing that brought them lots of followers. Instead, we don’t see the hard work behind the scenes or even the struggles. We put in a lot of work to grow our online presence, from giveaways to partnerships to ambassadors, and those have all been really amazing for our business, they take lots of work. Now we focus on tasks that bring in sales first instead of what may look flashy online. This may look like setting up an Etsy shop to focus on SEO vs jumping on the latest Tik Tok trend to try and get a viral video. We know we can succeed at SEO, but getting a viral video can be a shot in the dark.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dreamerandco.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dreamerandco_/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hello.dreamerandco
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dreamer-co/

Image Credits
Jessica Gardner