We recently connected with Cassandra Huckabay and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Cassandra, thanks for joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

When I started My Fair Ellie, it was out of necessity. I was on bedrest with our second child, I had two weeks left of PTO as a full time NICU nurse. Two weeks of paid time wasn’t going to fill the gap in pay for the next three months and we were reliant on two incomes in our house. My two year old’s swim lesson registration was due and to be honest, I didn’t have $65. So I started making anything I could find on Pinterest that I could create from bed. It started with bows and badge reels, making them for the baby I was carrying, and my friends in the NICU. It came time to pick a name so I took the name of the street we lived on, Fairmount, and the name of our soon to be daughter, Eleanor, and named it My Fair Ellie. It was easy to remember, easy to spell and carried special meaning for me.

Cassandra, 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?

Hi! I’m Cassie, a wife, a mom to three, a former bedside NICU nurse and a business owner. I created My Fair Ellie six years ago when I was on unpaid maternity leave. I started with bows and eventually came to make an interchangeable badge reel. My goal at the time was to provide income for my family from bed, but as the months and years went on I came to realize this business was made for so much more. What started as a one momma show, is now more than fifteen moms, all working together to spread happiness and cheer to those in healthcare and beyond. Our badge reels have become a connection point for patients and their healthcare team, they’re a first impression of the person standing in front of you. We hear everyday from our customers about how picking their badge reel is sometimes the highlight of their day, we hear that they helped connect with a difficult patient and that they’ve made a tough day just a little more fun. It’s truly a gift to spread positivity one badge reel at a time!

How did you build your audience on social media?

I created my social media not long after I opened my shop. I spent so much time in the first year worrying about photos that did or did not “coordinate” and became obsessed with a “pretty feed.” Then when I sat back and looked at what I had created, I realized that it wasn’t real and mommas, like me, crave real. We don’t need to see the perfect feed, we need to see the honest feed. I began sharing real photos of my day to day life, product photos, customer photos and everything that went with running a business while being a wife and mother. My followers have seen my children grow up, they’ve seen ME grow up, they’ve seen us evolve as a shop and my feed is the story of my journey.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

My biggest piece of advice is GRACE. When I took the leap to make this shop my full time job, I knew that I wanted to run things differently than what I had experienced as a bedside nurse. I wanted to create a safe space to work, create and live, I wanted to build a team that uplifted each other. I wanted the moms on my team to know that family comes first and that the “work day” should bend to real life. I have always made it clear to our team that being a wife and mom comes before all else. Where one mom has to step back, another is ready to step forward to support the team. They know I’m always a call away, that my support extends beyond the shop. I think it’s important to know the individual goals of your team members, do they aspire to do more? Do they feel fulfilled working with you? These are all questions you should know the answers to if you expect to create a happy team.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.myfairellie.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/myfairellie
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/myfairellie
• Other: www.facebook.com/groups/myfairellievip

Image Credits
Ashton Ahring Photography