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

Danielle , appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

My dream started with my daughter about 10 years ago. It was some of the first years that she was old enough to come craft shopping with me and my good friend, Shari. She loved helping pick out things while we were shopping. She often charmed her way into letting the ladies who owned the store. Soon she’d be helping bag customer purchases, help them pick out things and other jobs while we shopped. She would always say to me that we should open our own store. It took me taking the leap about 4 years ago in purchasing another business and becoming my own full time boss 2 years ago to really get me thinking. I left corporate America to fully work my business. Fast forward to November 2022 at a The Juicy Good Life Conference where the dream was realized and started. I knew I had a lot of planning to get a boutique off the ground. January 2023 I attended my first wholesale show with Danica, my daughter, and my best friend, Mary. I needed to get ideas about what it would look like to purchase items, vendors available and what I wanted my home decor boutique to look and feel like. I have had a business coach for the last two years of my business. Riding the waves of having my current business, planning a new business and having someone talk you off the ledge of yes/no on a weekly, sometimes daily basis, is so needed, I then went into hibernation about the idea, I really didn’t move on anything for many months. I was really deciding do I find a brick and mortar spot, do strictly online, do I want to do a huge vendor show. These were all big scary decisions. By May I had decided I was going to do all online sales and was impatiently waiting to hear back from the vendor for that platform for my online sales, I waited MONTHS to hear nothing. In June I attended market again and made my first fall and Christmas orders, that was so overwhelming. It took me 3 hours in the first store. My best friends again came to support me through this process. We took about 8 hours to place 3 different orders and I was on overload; I couldn’t even decide what to get for supper. Once I had the orders placed I needed to decide if I was doing the vendor event and get things moving for that. I took the plunge, sent them the money and then started planning and purchasing everything from a tent, tables, finding housing for 5 days etc. I also had to call in my best friend favors again to have them come with me. The summer was spent planning for this event in September and planning out how things would/could look being online only. My orders started showing up in August and I quickly realized they were going to take over my entire basement, not the small room I had planned on when I was cleaning out a spot. Mid-August there was someone in our local women’s networking group looking for someone to rent part of her space with her. I immediately jumped to meet with her and see what she had, it couldn’t hurt. Her rent was super affordable, I only had to commit through December 2023. My brain then jumped into overdrive for planning for both a festival and a retail space. I bought a bit more inventory to make sure I had enough for both spaces. My plan was to open the retail space in mid September and then do the festival, I quickly realized it was too much to try to get done in a short amount of time. My focus was to launch at the festival and then focus on an open house in my new space the following weekend. Lots things had to be researched and completed like: POS, bags, tissue, inventory uploads, pricing etc. We got it all done, with a lot of time, checklists and energy put in. My advice is start a list and check things off.

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.

Hello and welcome to Heart and Soul Decor! I am Danielle and along with my daughter Danica, we could not be happier you have found us! You may also know me from my other business in the area, Board and Brush-Eau Claire. The DIY wood sign workshop where you create your own fun and unique wood decor products!

I have personally been a craft sales shopper since college. When Danica was about 4 or 5 years old she started going with me and the next thing I knew, she was helping the cashiers wrap, bag and present the crafts like she had secretly been hired. This is something we have been enjoying together ever since and we both immediately knew this was the beginning of something special!

When you walk into our home decor boutique, we want you to feel the same way you would feel when you were little and found your presents on Christmas morning! Combine my absolute love and passion for decorating with Danica’s contagious personality and you will find the secret to our success.

Our mission is to help you remove the stress out of decorating your favorite spaces and to not only enjoy those spaces one season at a time, but to create a legacy of joy in doing so.

We promise that you will have an exceptional shopping experience from start to finish. That you will feel immediately immersed not only in decor knowledge, but in high quality, unique and valuable products as well. We will help you create fun and exciting displays that represent you and your favorite holidays and seasons. Or even better, help you take an item you would like to repurpose and bring new life to!

If you have a passion for decorating, if you get excited about creating comfy cozy spaces in your home, if you find joy in honoring yourself through the art of displaying what you love artistically, or if you just need guidance on how to do any or all of those things, Heart and Soul Decor is for you and will have something for everybody!

We promise our prices, quality, expertise, and unique product selection will set us apart as the premier home decor boutique in the Eau Claire area. We cannot wait to help you create the perfect space for your homes and hearts!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My entire journey has been a test of resilience. We have another business, which we attempted to sell prior to starting this new adventure. When it didn’t sell we decided to do both. There will always be small issues from shipments not coming in on time, delays in vendor response or pivoting last minute to decide on a retail space. Any process or decision that needs to be made in this entire process is a test of your resilience and willingness to truly pursue your dream, it is all a test.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I think 2020, the year of COVID, forced many businesses to pivot and pivot quickly, while my current business was still in the someday phase, I’ll share how my other business pivoted. We were 4 months in as new business owners and I was forced to furlough from my full time job 4 weeks off, 2 weeks on. Our business was not essential so our doors had to be closed. Since we are a part of a franchise so we had to wait for them to also pivot. Once we were allowed to pivot we got creative, we offered curbside pickup for many things: Easter boxes, @ Home Kits, Cornhole boards, Yard games and teacher appreciation boxes. It paid our rent, we were able to reopen many months later. We then had to pivot of where people could sit, etc etc etc.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.heartandsoulhomedecor.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094173384271