We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ashley Behrle, Elisha Gegg and Krissy Muellera few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Ashley, Elisha and Krissy thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
As far as One Eleven Olive Boutique- We are 3 best friends(2 are sisters by chance, one is by choice 😉) and we are 3 mamas who were tired of putting ourselves on the back burner. We were 3 individually successful business owner who had this crazy dream YEARS ago to open a women’s clothing boutique together. But life. Babies, miscarriages, infertility-LIFE happened, and we put it on the back burner. Fast forward and we were feeling so incredibly drained and lacking luster in our lives with our current professions. We were ready for a shake up and it came by way of a women’s conference in June 2021. We prayed for God to stir and breathe life into the dried bones of our dreams. That He could make a way to bring excitement, fulfillment and joy back to our every day. Fast forward a couple of weeks to Ash’s birthday. She was trying to cancel her birthday brunch because we had dinner plans the next day and didn’t want to be “extra”. Krissy and Elisha said no way! You’re meeting us for breakfast! It was then, at that birthday brunch, that massive vision and action were birthed. Within a day we had a name. Within a day and a half we had a logo. For months leading up to this brunch, Ash was seeing 111’s everywhere. 1:11, 11:11, morning, noon and even in the middle of the night she was awoken at 1:11am. We come to find out these are signs from above and beyond. 111 represents alignment, God’s hand, abundance and creating a dream and making it a reality. We knew without a doubt that had to be in the name. Then Olive comes from the symbolization of friendship, which is what we are, first and foremost. We had a name, a logo, now it was time to get to work on learning the ins and outs of the boutique world. We created a business plan, made things legal and official and GOT TO WORK! We haven’t stopped. We knew we had something special- this bond we share is undeniable and special. We each 3 have unique skill sets and things we brought to the table that made this partnership work like a well oiled machine. And..we have FUN. It’s constant laugh until your cry moments around here that really help us through the tough moments. We created a community of women and have a massive mission to help other moms like us not feel so lonely. We want women to hop on our site and think, “man, I could totally rock that! I want that outfit to help with MY confidence! I want to be a part of THAT!” And we are just getting started.
Within a year into business, we saw the need for full branding experiences with our customers. Ashley is a seasoned photographer for 15 years, Krissy is a licensed hairstylist for 12 years, and Elisha is a make up artist and esthetician for the last 14 years. We each brought skill sets to the table to create an entire experience. So, 111 Branding was born! We aren’t your mamas headshots, no ma’am. They’re fun, completely curated and one of a kind to you and your brand. Hair, make up, wardrobe, lunch, bubbles, music and sore cheeks from laughing are all provided within our packages. We are a one stop shop providing women owned businesses the special spark they need to elevate their brands.
Overall, what we are most excited for is what’s to come. We are just scratching the surface on this empire and dream. We are currently renovating our dream warehouse location and have crazy awesome plans in the works for our next project. God is so dang good.
Ashley, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
The 3 of us come from a network marketing background so we have spent the better part of 10 years doing self and leadership development. There were so many moments of “what am I doing with my life!” and “I really hope all this work pays off”. Little did we know, alllllll of those moments and hard work was for this. It literally shaped who we are and how we run our business. It’s crazy actually, if you really think about it. Now we have insight into how to run our boutique and how to market our branding. We have a work ethic like none other but we also know how to work smarter not harder with integrate systems. Krissy is really great about coming up with technological “helpers” and is a genius with marketing/design. Elisha is incredible at numbers, data and keeping us in line-we would be lost! Ashley is the artist, the pusher of comfort zones and sees the glass as half full, always.
We are most proud of the community we are building. As moms it’s so easy to isolate and forget about ourselves and ONLY concentrate on everyone else. While that is important, it’s not everything. You matter! Your confidence matters! Your beautiful dreams and ideas matter! And we want to show you that anything is possible.
How’d you meet your business partner?
Man this is one of those crazy God moments. And if you believe in fate, then this will really solidify that there are powers working here that are truly beyond us. Krissy and Elisha are sisters. As was stated before, we were all in network marketing for 10-12 years. Prior to that, Ashley was a full time family and lifestyle photographer, Krissy was a hair stylist and Elisha was an esthetician. Ashley had just hit publish on a new website 11 years ago when only one week later, Elisha, emailed her needing her photography services. What are the odds? They met and immediately hit it off. Fast forward, and Ashley was really feeling a pull and gut feeling to join Elisha in her network marketing endeavors. She was in a really tough part of her life and needed a boost..and a friend. Fast forward one year, Krissy and Ashley were on the same flight going down to a conference for their business. They never crossed paths in their business, so Elisha instructed Krissy to welcome Ashley with open arms stating: “You’ll know her right away, she has the biggest smile and she will be your best friend by the end of the flight.’ Ashley likes to tell people it was love at first sight and Krissy hasn’t been able to shake herself from Ash since that day, but in reality, the night ended in a trip to the ER and an emotional roller coaster of a situation that really set the tone for the friendship between the 3: no matter what, we are all three there for each other. Fast forward all these years later and so much life has happened between the 3 of us. We have been through literally everything together but our friendship together will always remain number one! We truly are just beginning a beautiful business within this friendship that we hope can only inspire other mamas other there to pursue their dreams.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Since we were already in the marketing field- we went from marketing ourselves, to marketing our boutique/services, which felt really normal for us. We each had massive followings going in and the excitement and support from friends, family and followers was an absolute blessing. But what I think helped build this reputation amongst our customers who didn’t know us personally was adding in pieces of ourselves in every aspect of our brand. WE are the faces of the company. WE are the models AND the voice. I also think we do an amazing job at being 100% real and transparent as well as show casing the realness of owning a boutique. Being ok showing people the behind the scenes, but also being ok with letting down the uber professional facades and letting them see our personalities. We laugh A LOT! And in the end, we are the brand that other mamas want to support and buy from because we are REAL people doing the dang thing!
Contact Info:
- Website: oneelevenolive.com and 111branding.com
- Instagram: @shoponeelevenolive and @oneelevenbranding
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shoponeelevenolive and https://www.facebook.com/oneelevenbranding
Image Credits
One Eleven Branding, One Eleven Olive Boutique