We were lucky to catch up with Cameron Zellner recently and have shared our conversation below.

Cameron, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

Since I was a child, my parents always made sure they instilled a hard work ethic in my brother and I. My dad took over his fathers company, to which my brother eventually took over from him. I remember my mom saying, construction was a feast or famine industry so always be smart and work hard. As I went to college, I realized my love for helping others feel good in their clothes and get ready for events. Despite working in a completely different field from my family, the same core value has always been true, work hard. “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” was also a common saying in my house. It was earlier this year, during the post holiday slow season, I decided to dip my feet into the travel industry. I’ve always loved to travel and one of my customers recommended me to join her company, Fora. I’ve loved learning the ins and outs of the industry and having a second career opportunity to keep me busy!

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?

I started working for Joseph in February 2016 after moving back from Florida and visiting my family for the holidays. Joseph is a women’s high end department store that has a little bit of everything so I can help women find a final touch to an outfit or style you with every detail. I think what sets me apart from a lot of others in my field, is my honesty. Customers know I will tell them if I don’t like something, but they also know I mean it when I love an outfit. During COVID shutdowns, I pivoted to trying on outfits and posting new arrivals on instagram which was a fun way of finding a lot of new customers, some that had never even been to Memphis.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Growing my clientele has mainly been by keeping in constant contact. In todays world, it is so easy to hop online and order anything from anywhere, but these websites are not specifically curated for you. Whenever we get new items in, I text my customers so they know I am thinking of them or have a new item I think they would like. Some clients only want to know when we have a promotion or a sale, and some want to know every new item as soon as it comes. It is cultivating this relationship with my clients that has allowed me to build the clientele I have. It is through my retail career that I’ve met a lot of my clients in my travel advising. My first big trip was for a group of four ladies traveling through Spain and after they returned, it was just word of mouth that had me booking their friends and friends of friends!

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Texting is by far my most common mode of keeping in touch. Instagram gives a broad range of clientele but an individual text or call to a client feels so much more personal and truly builds more of a friendship. It’s not unusual for my clients to reach out to me morning and night for help with an outfit or a last minute fashion emergency.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @cmzellner