We recently connected with Ally Brettnacher and have shared our conversation below.

Ally , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Who is your hero and why? What lessons have you learned from them and how have they influenced your journey?

My parents are my heroes.

They both come Fort Wayne, Indiana, a small city in northern part of the state. My dad’s family had money growing up, but my mom was the first woman to go to college in hers. They met in high school and have been married for over 40 years.

After college, my mom worked in banking and saw a problem she felt she could solve. She taught herself how to write software and started a business. My dad quit his corporate job to help her grow the company and they ran the business together for about 20 years before selling it when I was in high school for quite a bit of money.

Watching them while I was growing up showed me what was possible. They raised three girls all while working to maintain and build a successful business. They still found the time to show up for our activities and take us on vacations to make incredible childhood memories.

Watching the community of people they built as part of their company showed me the type of leaders they are. They are still friends with many of their employees to this day and anyone who worked with them has nothing but great things to say. After joining the working world, I now know how rare this type of leadership is.

My parents had me get my first job at the age of 15. This showed me the importance of working hard and making my own money. While they could have simply handed everything to me, they chose to instill values in me which have helped me throughout my entire adult life. “Nothing is free”

Without having them as my parents, I wouldn’t have had the courage to leave the “traditional” workforce to start my own business. Without their love and support, I would not be where I am today – happy.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

By way of introduction, I’m Ally Brettnacher (pronounced Brett-Knock-Er). I was born and raised in the Midwest and currently reside in Carmel, IN. I’m a runner, business owner, and podcast host, but more importantly I’m a wife and mom of two girls (and a golden-doodle).

Since my parents had a computer software business, I always pictured myself following in their footsteps in technology. So, naturally, that’s where I started my career after I graduated college in 2008. In 2017, I gave birth to our first daughter and nearly lost my life. Going back to work, I never felt the same. The pandemic was the push I needed to leave and focus on doing something I love. Thankfully my husband has been extremely successful in his corporate job and that allowed me to start my own business shortly before our second daughter was born in January of 2021.

Athlete Bouquets was born out of my love of running and this feeling that completing a race is a big deal and needs to be better celebrated. My best friend from college, Megan, got me the cutest margarita bouquet of flowers sent to my office before my second Chicago marathon. I still remember how much it meant to me. After seeing a post on Instagram with a bouquet of live flowers filled with Gu energy gels, I got the idea to put together a “bouquet” of running necessities. Now, three years later I’ve shipped to every state in the U.S. and strive to collaborate with other small businesses to help runners “celebrate finish lines and milestones”.

Speaking of “Finish Lines & Milestones”, this is the name of my podcast that launched in April of 2023 to share stories of everyday, inspiring runners. It has been a great way to promote Athlete Bouquets, but also to build a community of really cool people doing amazing things. It motivates me to be the best version of myself I can be and I hope it does the same for everyone who listens.

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

In fall of 2023, just before the busy holiday season, my Etsy store was shut down by Etsy due to trademark issues. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that you can’t even mention the name of a race in the description of an item. I didn’t put logos or names on any of my products, but did mention races in hopes it would help runners find me. Sadly, about 90% of my business was through Etsy compared to 10% on my website and social media.

At first, I questioned whether or not I should continue doing Athlete Bouquets. It felt like starting over. I decided to share my story and the responses I received helped motivate me to use this huge setback as a silver lining. It seemed like everyone else was confident I could make it through, so why couldn’t I have that same confidence?

While things aren’t back to the way they were yet, I’ve had tremendous support from my community with opportunities I am very grateful for – like being a guest on the I’ll Have Another Podcast With Lindsey Hein. I’m also working to set up an Amazon storefront to replace the marketplace I had when I was on Etsy.

To use a running analogy, it’s a marathon not a sprint.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

My audience on social media isn’t huge (it’s all relative), but I’ve spent a lot of time cultivating a community on Instagram in particular. One piece of advice I’ll give is that you may think you’re being a broken record if you continue to post things over and over again, but in reality not everyone sees everything you post. In order to make sure people see something (and pay attention to it), you have to put it in front of them again and again.

And you have to start somewhere! Consistency seems to be key, but also no one really knows what the algorithm wants, so just make good content and keep sharing it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.athletebouquets.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/athletebouquets/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AthleteBouquets
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allytbrett/
• Other: Finish Lines & Milestones podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/finish-lines-milestones

Image Credits

DSC_2360: Southern Sky Photography
DSC_9524: Southern Sky Photography
DSC_6310: Southern Sky Photography
DSC_6090: Southern Sky Photography
8: Southern Sky Photography