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

Hi Chris, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Pretty Fly Designs is a business that started with a simple request for feather earrings from a friend. As a professional fly fishing guide, I have tied flies for just shy of 30 years, which includes selling them for the past fifteen or so. I’ve long thought feather earrings might be a cool thing for women to wear and over the years had messed around with a few fly pattern earrings. They just never seemed to come out right. In 2018, a female friend asked if I could make a pair of feather earrings that looked like something she had seen before. They were simple, so I went to my tying bench and tied a similar pair. She really liked them, as did her mother, who subsequently requested a pair as well. To my surprise, both insisted on paying me for them! I agreed, but the price I gave was apparently far less than what they expected to pay for jewelry. That’s when the proverbial light bulb went off that feather earrings could be profitable.

I already had the skills to make them, and merely needed a bit more hardware to complete the earrings, which was easy to come by. Part of the allure of my passion for fly tying is the creativity involved in tying a fly to imitate something a fish would eat. Translating that creativity to feather earrings and figuring out what looked good fashionably was a challenging twist but fun. I tied more pairs and showed them to female friends, with great feedback. My confidence growing, I created many more pairs and began giving them away as a sort of viral marketing. The recipients were very excited and told me it was a product they would buy, so I started an Instagram account to expose my earrings to folks outside of my circle. My following steadily, but surely grew.

Shortly thereafter, I after built a website to see if it would generate sales with traffic from social media. It worked, and Pretty Fly Designs feather earrings started gaining small but legitimate financial traction.

From there, it was simply experimenting with feathers and creating my own unique style, that was different than other artists making feather earrings. Tying feather earrings quickly replaced my time tying flies and I began spending an inordinate amount of time at the vise, designing new styles. I really loved hearing how excited the customers were about my handmade product and it gave me a deep sense of pride. I knew nothing about fashion but matching colors together or thinking about how certain feathers would look with different hair or outfits was fun! Feathers have become a pretty big obsession and I love mixing and matching them. The creativity really drives me, even five years later and after thousands of pairs tied.

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 graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in journalism, but by my mid twenties, I found the standard “real world” jobs to be unfulfilling. I knew I had to be an entrepreneur. I started my own fly fishing guiding company, which I have been doing for the past thirteen years. I really love tying flies, which specifically translates well into making feather earrings. The fly fishing business has since taken a back seat to what I call my feather fashion business, which is now my full time job. The Pretty Fly Designs feather catalogue includes feather earrings in a variety of lengths and styles, bundles for cowboy hats, boutonnieres and lapel pins, and feather hair clips, all of which I sell on my website, my social media accounts and in retail stores across the country.

I hand make, or tie, each and every one of my products using various feathers sourced from a variety of bird species. I use the highest quality feathers, procured legally, and tie them with the utmost care. Overseeing every step of the process ensures the quality meets my high standards.

All of my feather products will last several years with proper care and storage. Each of them is also truly unique. There are numerous designs, but with variances in the colors, shapes and textures of feathers, no two are truly exact matches, which I think is pretty cool. Another thing customers tell me they love is how lightweight my feather earrings are.

Pretty Fly Designs is one of the top accomplishments in my life, having built every square inch of it myself. No part of this business has had any outside influence and is truly my own, which is rare in today’s business world. I really enjoy sharing my obsession with feathers with the rest of the world via the small pieces of fashion that I can provide. I love hearing feedback about how happy and confident people are when wearing a pair of my earrings. They have been worn at work, parties, national news broadcasts and at concerts on the stage and in the audience. A dozen brides have even worn them on their wedding day! I’m genuinely proud to be able to spread happiness through my art and business.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

My social media presence is primarily through Instagram, which is how I drive over two thirds of the traffic to my website. I also have Facebook and TikTok pages that drive some traffic to my site as well.

The Pretty Fly Designs page was launched early in my business to show off the earring styles. All of the initial growth to 5,000 plus followers was organic. To do this, I post one photo or reel a day. I often post to the “stories” part of the app, and actually make a lot of sales there. The key is consistently posting.

I also occasionally pay for sponsored posts. This was suggested to me by a marketing expert while in the third year of my business. It ended up working well and the monetary return on sponsored posts has been five fold. This helped grow followers, and in turn drives traffic to the website. Sponsored posts are very easy to set up and the cost and duration can be easily adjusted. It allows the ability to experiment and find the best option for the business. They do not always work but the right sponsored post can really jump start a following of your page and your sales. Most often, I share lots of Stories and will time a product sale with a sponsored post, so I’m getting the maximum exposure to those stories and that sale.

Customers also want to know about you, the business owner or artist, and your story. Every week I do an Instagram live, where I chat with my followers while making feather earrings. They can watch me create them and I explain the processes and also answer questions. It’s a lot of fun, really builds a strong online presence and lets them know who is making their earrings or hat bundle. It also leads to a lot of sales. I highly recommend going “Live” on social media platforms.

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

Customer service is extremely important to me, and I feel that it has led to a lot of my success. In today’s world, with so many companies, getting quality customer service is rare, in my opinion. I hate it and don’t find that acceptable. I’m a one-man band, but my biggest focus is customer interaction, providing a great buying experience and letting them know that they are talking to the person who is making the product they are purchasing.

There is no doubt that spending the time and energy to communicate with my clients has led to repeat customers. I respond to every direct message, comment, email or question within 24 hours at the latest. So often I hear how great it is to get a quick response from the owner of the company. It feels awesome to hear that. I do my best to accommodate my customers wants and needs. Sometimes that’s not possible, but it’s the effort that counts and fosters the relationships. My repeat customers are extremely high. I have several customers with twenty or more pairs of earrings they purchased from me and dozens more that bought ten or more. Many of my customers have more than one pair. Communication with a customer base is the most important thing a small business owner can do.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.prettyfly-designs.com
• Instagram: @prettyflydesigns_
• Facebook: Pretty Fly Designs
• TikTok: @prettyflydesigns_