Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alyssa Russo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alyssa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

The mission of Wyllo is to highlight small batch women owned brands. To understand the story behind my mission, it’s important to know a little bit about my history and how I became a shop owner. After college, I found myself working a myriad of different jobs in the fine jewelry industry, from customer service to retail to account management and more. One of the companies I was working at offered to cover classes from GIA (The Gemological Institute of America). I took a couple courses and realized that I loved the design process. As a result I started designing jewelry as a hobby. In previous years, I dabbled in jewelry making and metal smith workshops so this wasn’t something out of the ordinary. I came to a fork in the road with my career. My position in account management was going to be eliminated and I had to decide whether or not I wanted to search for another job at a similar company or take some time off to work on my designs. I chose the latter and started selling my pieces at local outdoor markets on the weekends. I found a lot of success with this and it eventually morphed into my full time job. I was working at 4-5 markets a week and creating new pieces on my off days. It was definitely a hustle!

During that time, I found a sense of community in the other vendors that I was seeing each weekend, especially the other women owned brands. We began to support each other and lifted each up which is especially important when you are an entrepreneur who is typically working independently. When I opened my shop four years later, it was a no brainer to source my goods from other independent designers and small batch brands. Knowing the challenges that women face in the workforce and in society, I felt compelled to create a platform that highlighted small batch women owned brands. I find joy and purpose in being able to share their stories with my customers. Later on, I began holding workshops at the shop in the evenings which allowed these local artists to teach and share their craft with my customers, eventually building an amazing community that I’m excited to continue to support and grow.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I leased my shop in February of 2020, right before the pandemic shut down began in March. Creating my own shop was something I had been dreaming of for years and I was very reluctant to give up so easily. I was in love with the space I’d found and decided to stay optimistic. I planned to move into the space in April with a soft opening.

A couple days after I had moved all of the furniture and fixtures into the shop, my landlord called me and told me that there was a water main break, resulting in a massive flood, covering my shop in more than 4 feet of water. I felt very defeated but I didn’t want to give up. I truly felt that opening this shop was my purpose at this time and that these were challenges I had to learn how to face. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely had my moment of tears while helplessly watching the flood video footage on a local news station. But my mind was focused on “what’s next? How do I fix this?”.

This became a crash course in learning how commercial insurance worked. As well as a crash course in patience. It was weeks of meetings and phone calls before I found out if my insurance would cover anything and after speaking to my landlord I discovered that it would be five months before I could move back into my space due to a myriad of electrical and construction’s issues from the flood. I used this time to research brands and create content for the eventual opening of my shop. At the time, it might have looked like a huge setback but in terms of building resilience and confidence, skills I’d learn are incredibly important while building and running a business, it was a time of tremendous growth.

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

Working in sales, I was constantly told that being introverted was a bad thing. I thought you had to be loud and outgoing to make connections with people and I truly believed that being extroverted was a required skill in entrepreneurship. I think this is why I never really gave entrepreneurship a chance until I was in my late 20s.

Now I know that being introverted has so many positive attributes. I can spend hours alone, which is incredibly helpful when I’m unpacking shipments and need to power through inventory. I’m a great listener and observer which in turn makes me a great curator. Instead of focusing on “selling” or “convincing” customers to buy the products in my store, I use my observation skills to discover what my customers really want. Learning how they react to certain designs or price points is incredibly helpful and I use that data to guide me when I’m researching new artists to carry in the shop.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shopwyllo.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/shopwyllo
• Facebook: facebook.com/shopwyllo

Image Credits
Will Chapman Photography Emily O’brien Photography