We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Bri Mangum. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Bri below.
Bri, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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.
Being a stay-at-home mom in the midst of 2020 COVID gives you a lot of time to think…and dream. After having served as an officer on Active Duty in the Air Force, becoming a full time stay-at-home mom was a major change. Add on top of that, a second child in April 2020 and the restrictions that came alongside COVID and I was feeling lost and looking for purpose. Of course, I love my children and they are purpose enough, but I wanted more. I wanted to feel accomplished in some way outside of raising kind humans. I’ve always been crafty and handy, preferring to make it myself than to buy it. I had dabbled in floral arrangements and other crafts before and started dreaming about opening up my own Etsy shop and joining in on the market circuit once they started up again. One day while I was folding laundry I kind of just blurted out to my husband that I wanted something that was ‘for me’ as an outlet and a way to feel accomplished in something. Being the go-getter/problem solver that he is, he started asking more questions and I started unloading how I had been feeling lost and how hard being a stay-at-home mom actually was, and two hours later he had found a commercial property in our town for sale. We concluded that if I was feeling this way, there had to be other mother’s feeling the exact same way too. So this dream I had been silently forming, quickly morphed into, ‘how can we create a space that helps bring purpose to talented moms and support other makers?’ A few days later we toured the property and it really lit the inspiration flame. There was so much potential in this beautiful turn of the century home (that we are now proud to call our boutique). With so many rooms, I immediately started planning out how we could have a playroom in the shop to not only support the makers with children, but our customers too. So often I get overwhelmed in a store when I have my kids with me. I wanted our space to be a place where parents can come and enjoy themselves and not have to worry about their kids touching things or being bored. We renovated the entire building, floor to ceiling in 3 months. Meanwhile, I’m also reaching out to local makers that I knew of, finding others on Instagram and starting to make connections to not only fill our space with their goods, but really grasp what it is this community needed. Our business very quickly became an endeavor to support makers, support moms, and be a way to connect these talented people with our community. Now with over 80 makers in our store, I find my purpose and joy in taking care of them the way I used to be able to take care of my Airmen. Sometimes I get to create things too…ha!
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?
Thirty-two 8 Inspired & Co. is a collective of over 80 local Ohio artists, makers and creators. We are essentially, Etsy in person or a maker’s market under one roof. We carry a large variety of items, from home decor and jewelry, to hot sauce and honey. Our boutique is in a home that was built in 1900. The old kitchen is home to a variety of makers with perfect gifts for the ‘foodie’ in your life. We have an entire room upstairs dedicated to children’s products and gifts. Each of our makers has a unique talent and product that they create. No two makers in our space do the same exact thing, so when you shop with us you’re bound to find something new and different every time you come in. We offer a playroom space for our youngest shoppers, so that they can enjoy themselves, and their parents can shop worry free too. We host classes and offer personal shopping appointments for outside of business hours to anyone who may want to have a night out with their friends, or just simply isn’t able to make it during our normal hours. Our mission is to provide a curated space to connect our community to the talented makers that might just be their neighbor, hence our motto ‘Love Your Neighbor, Shop Local.’ We have been on this journey for nearly a year and a half and I credit our success to the hard work of our makers/artists and our team of employees. We wouldn’t be where we are today had the original 26 makers not taken this leap with me and saw the value in what we were trying to create. It’s been a lot of long nights, will power, prayer, and ‘learn-as-you-go’ kind of moments that got us here.
Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?
The nature of our business makes us heavily reliant on makers wanting to be a part of this with us. We like to say be on the journey with us, because that is really what it has been for the past year and a half as we learn and grow. I’ve had so many moments where imposter syndrome kicks in and I doubt whether or not what I think I am providing and bringing to the table for our makers is as great as I thought it was. In retail, you learn that the “J months” are not so great. No one wants to spend big in January after Christmas, and June and July people are budgeting for their vacations and spending time with their kids out of school. It just so happens to be the case, that not only are customers more scarce during those months, but we also usually have a lot of turn over of makers during those months too. Fewer makers equals less space rental fees helping to pay our rent and overall cost of running a business, and less shopping means a smaller commission to help us pay our employees. The ebb and flow of filling the space with makers can leave me in a spiral, but I try to keep perspective because I know every dip is followed by new maker requests just a few weeks later. Having been through a few of these cycles now, we know how to better budget and be prepared for the next.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Fortunately, I had a lot of experience managing a team in my prior military life. I’ve always followed the philosophy of leading from the back, The goal of any leader, or manager is to get your people to WANT to do what you WANT them to do. I believe the best way to achieve that is to build and foster an environment where your team feels appreciated, and seen. We highlight our makers’ products on our page and love promoting them on social media. Seeing that we appreciate them and their talents I think helps maintain a high morale. Another big part in managing a team is clear communication. Detailed procedures, expectations, and deadlines are a must. If you aren’t clear or are wishy-washy in your expectations or consequences, it’s less likely you have the respect you need to get them to want to do what you want them to do. You as the manager give them the tools to be successful and the confidence to execute tasks. I also will add that it’s important to keep perspective. Some things can be accomplished to your standard (or in the best situations exceed your expectations), but maybe the way they got to that end result was not in the way you would have done it. As long as the end result is desirable, there is always room for constructive feedback if you have built that rapport. For example, we have an employee who helps with our social media. I give her clear expectations on the audience I want to reach, types of products to highlight, a format to follow when posting, but also the creative freedom to come up with ideas that I would not have. Sometimes I have to tweak a word or two, or correct something small, but at the end of the day, the task is being accomplished, usually above and beyond, and I’m sure to show her how much we appreciate her work with positive affirmation and shout outs in our shop emails. Ultimately, you have to strike the right balance of kindness and firmness so that they want to work with you, but also respect you and the directions you give.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thirty-two-8-
inspired-co.square.site/ - Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/328inspired.co/ - Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/328inspired
Image Credits
Everett Jade Photography