We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Erica Vinyl. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Erica below.
Erica, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you share a story with us from back when you were an intern or apprentice? Maybe it’s a story that illustrates an important lesson you learned or maybe it’s a just a story that makes you laugh (or cry)? Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style.
Once my teacher had retired from my old middle school, I, unfortunately, lost contact with him. The town we live in isn’t necessarily big, but I wasn’t able to track him down no matter many times I reached out to anyone who might know. It devastated me because I wanted to show him how much he and his love for music have impacted my life. I wanted to show him that I was managing a shop, and it was all because of him.
It had to have been in December of that year. Christmas being the busiest season, I was getting phone calls left and right and dealing with customers non-stop since we’d opened. I answered the phone to a gentleman. “Erica? As in Ms” and proceeded to say my full name and asked if I recognized the voice. To be completely honest, the phone was a garbage little flip phone that was hard to clearly make out voices with. I guessed that it was one of my regulars, Steve. He told me to think back further, back to middle school. Immediately I knew exactly who I was talking to. I hadn’t spoken to him in maybe 5 years and I had given up hope of ever getting back in contact with him.
An hour later, he showed up at the store and we both cried. He had been a teacher for over 30 years, and somehow I was one of his only students that had genuinely cared about his music history and took something from it. He had no idea that I was working at the shop and it just happened to be luck that he called while I was working. He was just simply inquiring about gift certificates. Little did I know, his son was one of my regulars as well. We stood in the now-dead store, and I got to show him where I was and thank him for all that he’d done for me. Now, I’ve become friends with his son and have been able to keep in contact with him since!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Erica! I was deemed “Erica Vinyl” after being on a friend’s podcast, which honestly is pretty fitting.
I started collecting vinyl when I was 11 years old, and from there, my taste in music expanded. I attribute it all to a teacher I had in middle school (Go Mr. Howell!). A few days a week, he would come into my English class and give us mini-lessons on musicians from way back; the first one he taught us was about the Buddy Holly plane crash. He also covered topics like Motown, The British Invasion, and Ricky Nelson; trust me, I could go on and on. Due to our English class taking up two class blocks, it worked out perfectly. During his planning period, he’d join the first half of our English class and start us off with some history. He was friends with my English teacher and she enjoyed having him come in and put all the music memorabilia all over the room! I actually ended up doing my first music history podcast episode ON the Buddy Holly plane crash, as a nod to Mr. Howell. And as you can probably tell, vinyl records have become my whole life! In the past 16 years of collecting, my collection has really become a time capsule for music’s history!
I remember when I was younger and I saw some movie(s) where a main character worked behind the desk of a records/music store. Even before knowing what vinyl records were, the idea alone sounded absolutely wicked! I fantasized about it even more so once I became so invested in collecting. In late 2019 I was hired at the local record store in my town. When I tell you that was MY place, I mean it! Everyone came to know me; I also had regulars who only came in on the days I was working. In early 2022, well long story short is that the shop went sideways. I don’t want to get into the details. But it broke my heart. I knew that’s where I belonged. So now, I’m working towards just that!
At the end of the day, having my own physical shop is the complete goal. I want to provide people with all kinds of music in a space where they feel safe and welcome in. I want to offer music from all genres, all decades, and every edge of the globe; where people can gather together to enjoy a universal language. Somewhere events can be hosted to celebrate everything music. But every business has to start small, and this is that small start. And I know I will get there someday!
Have you ever had to pivot?
It wasn’t necessarily a “pivot”, but more of a “coming to Jesus” kind of moment. It’s been a year since I haven’t worked in a shop. It happened suddenly one night, probably two and a half months ago; It was like 2:30 am, I think? I was browsing Facebook Marketplace at different listings of record collections people had up in the Central Florida area. To be honest, I’d spent a lot of time doing so since leaving the shop. I’ve fantasized about opening up my own store for pretty much as long as I’ve been collecting (16th year now by the way). It dawned on me; if I didn’t take that leap to start even an online record store, I probably never would. So I started sending messages to sellers and in enough time, picking up collections slowly. Some have been more of a success than others, but that’s how it goes in the beginning. I started slowly going through each collection; picking out which ones would be main sellers, and stashing the rest for later on in my storage. It’s honestly crazy to me how I’ve never been organized in my life, and now I have a whole Google Sheets document listing every album, artist, grading, price, etc. Granted, I am still going to school for a degree in radio through a communications program; I’m also still working as a server and trying to manage research for my podcast. It’s a lot for one’s plate, I know. But I made the conscious decision that I am going to live my life doing what I love and I’ll stop at nothing to get there. That night was my ultimate “now or never” moment.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
Luckily, I’ve made a name for myself within the vinyl community through social media. One thing I love about the vinyl community is how supportive everyone is (for the most part). There is always going to be that select few that believe only they are entitled to be “real collectors” for whatever reason; you know how there are THOSE Star Wars fans? We have variations of them too. Despite the few, the community is absolutely amazing! Fellow collectors and followers have shared my links and name within the community and it’s really helped me and given me hope for growth!
Having become more known within the community really has helped with the starting exposure of the shop! The reach I’ve already developed has offered me a head start with getting the business name out in the open. My two main accounts that draw attention have been my Instagram and my Tik Tok; both are filled with nothing but vinyl content. It gives me a good boost in getting the word into the market I’m aiming at! What better way to grow clientele than to be one of them yourself?
Without already being known in the vinyl community, I honestly don’t believe I would’ve already made it this far. This isn’t what I ever intended when I randomly made an Instagram account for my collection five years ago; now it’s become my biggest asset. And until the official website is launched, it is my main source of promoting the shop through my Discogs store.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.discogs.com/user/ericas.vinyl
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericas.vinyl/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ericas.vinyl/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@erica.vinyl Follow the Facebook for updates on the official website!
Image Credits
Catalina Urhan