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

Dylan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a time you helped a customer really get an amazing result through their work with you.

In 2022 we started offering women’s fly fishing retreats that provide fly fishing lessons, yoga, hot springs, and a guided trip with local guides. Our first retreat was small but meaningful because we had a mother (Sheri) and her two daughters (Genevieve and Madeline) join us from Missouri. It was their first mother/daughter vacation and we were so excited to take this adventure with them! Genevieve and Madeline had never fly fished and Sheri had only gone a few times with her sister who recently passed. Sheri was trying to process the loss of her sister when she came across the She’s Fly site and read my story about how fly fishing helped me handle my grief in a more cathartic way after I lost my husband. Sheri decided this was the trip for her and her daughters. She told us that while she had fished a few times, she wanted to improve her cast because she wasn’t catching many fish. She would be fishing with her husband after she returned from this trip and wanted to catch more fish than he did. Throughout the weekend we worked with them on fly fishing basics and casting techniques, then sent them off on a guided trip with a local women-owned outfitter in the area. They had a great time on the water and returned full of stories to share during dinner. They headed home the next day. About a week later, Sheri sent me a note saying that what she learned during the retreat had definitely improved her casting and she caught more fish than her husband! We were so thrilled! Anytime we can help our guests gain more confidence and enhance their fly fishing journey, we mark that as a success.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am the founder and owner of She’s Fly, an online and mobile fly shop based out of Fort Collins, Colorado. My co-founders (Jaclyn and Emily) and launched the business with me in August of 2020 and it’s been quite a wild ride!

I started fishing in 2010 shortly after losing my husband and first love, Tony. He often fished on the way home from work and always walked in the door with a smile on his face. I decided to carry on his legacy by hitting the water using his gear and soon fell in love with everything about this sport – hanging out where the fish live, finding catharsis in each cast, meditating within nature, healing my heart through action… I never looked back.

Eventually I wanted to upgrade my gear and was shocked at the lack of women’s fly fishing gear in local stores or online. I didn’t know where to find what I needed to do this sport. That’s when “She’s Fly” was born. I shared the idea with Emily and Jaclyn and we enthusiastically began building upon it. We shared our experiences and started brainstorming how this thing could work.

Our fly shop is a little different because it is primarily online so we can minimize the inventory we carry and save money. We offer almost everything a typical fly shop has and while we do have products for everyone, we have a particular focus on products by and for women. We also offer women’s lessons and retreats. We’ve found that other fly shops offer these things as well but they are mostly attended by men which can be intimidating for women.

We are most proud of helping people get out on the water and connect with nature – it’s such a wonderful place to be! We have a realistic approach and aren’t just out to sell gear and make money. We want you to feel comfortable and confident when you get out there. We encourage taking some lessons and going on a guided trip so you can learn whether this is something you really enjoy before you spend money on gear. Then we provide affordable, quality gear for your journey. And if we don’t offer something that would be good for you, we’ll help you find where you can get it. We want to help you Be Your Own Guide®.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

This was a pretty easy decision because most of the suppliers we work with will not deal with retailers selling through Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc. We decided to use Wix for our online store and have found it very effective. I have a background in working with IT people and wanted to have a dynamic site but not spend a bunch of money hiring a web designer and then having to learn how to maintain it myself. So we bought Wix and built the site with their extremely user-friendly front end. The package we have includes some marketing integrations (social media, email, etc.) and SEO, analytics tools, customer communications, and several other features. It also integrates with our gsuite accounts to make access seamless. I love the amazing analytic reports on our sales and traffic. And my two co-founders can easily navigate the portal to add blogs, product updates, or email marketing campaigns. I will say that it’s a little slow sometimes and the app integrations aren’t as robust as Shopify but we are very happy with what we’ve been able to do so far.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

The biggest pivot of my life was when my husband Tony died in 2009. We were only 31 and it was a shocking, tragic, and heartbreaking experience. We met when we were 12 and I never thought I would live a life without him in it. Now I look at my life in three parts: before Tony, during Tony, and after Tony. I remember wanting to figure out how to move forward – to get through the funeral and everything that goes with it and start living my life day to day. After the first week I thought, “Okay, I made it a week and it didn’t kill me.” I said the same thing after the first month, then 6 months, then a year. People say the first year is the hardest and I have to agree – that whole first year I was remembering what we were doing the year before. But I made it through a year and it didn’t kill me.

I knew he would want me to be happy so that became my main goal – I must find a way to be happy. I meditated, fly fished, danced, traveled, and focused on my career and things started to change for me. The grief was (and is) still there but I could breathe again. I went from having panic attacks to finding laughter in my life. My friends and family were amazingly supportive and helped me through those rough first years. I found more success in my career because I wasn’t afraid anymore… the worst thing that could ever happen had already happened. I took more risks and challenges in my professional life because it wasn’t scary anymore. I actually find, even now, that fear is less of a deterrent for me. My biggest fear now is NOT taking chances or risks because life is short. So why not?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.shesfly.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shesflyfishing/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShesFlyFishing/