We were lucky to catch up with Erika Ellsworth recently and have shared our conversation below.

Erika, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I have been in and out of the vendor business for almost 20 years. I started my very first event in 2006 participating in a local farmers market. I hung up my hat in vending and went to a different career aspect for a while. But when Covid came around, my aunt wanted to do a Market and asked me to go with her because she was nervous. So I joined her at a market in Imperial Beach. I realized how much I missed it and I was at that market for almost a year and a half every week.
While I was at the market, I made friends with the other vendors. One day they were all talking about how they wished for a Sunday market and looked at me and said Erika go make one. I laughed and said yeah OK let me figure out how to do this haha. But I wasn’t serious about it and didn’t know where to start. However, the idea was stuck in my head…and it would not leave. Fast-forward to a couple months later and I had opening date and a location for my market. I thank those vendor friends (whom I am still friends with) for helping me get started with the idea. Without them telling me to do it as a joke, I never would have started what I have now.

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

I am born and raised here in San Diego. I have done a few different careers, but nothing felt quite right. I was good at my jobs but wasn’t loving them. I got started selling jewelry in 2006/2007. I use to work for Countrywide Home Loans and the stress of the mortgage industry during that time was very high. When I would come home from work stressed I needed something to do. So,I started making jewelry as a way to relieve my stress and was selling my creations in my mom’s salon. I decided to give a farmers market a try and fell in love with the vendor aspect of everything. I now create funny, recognizable, creative, cute, earrings that I sell at my markets. It keeps me in the vendor side of the business while I’m still running and organizing my Market.
I started my Market in 2022 at Friendship Park in Chula Vista with just a few of us. Since we were in the park, I decided to go with the name of Friendship Pop Up Shop. We grew out of our space in the park and moved to a dance hall a block away. After being there for half a year, we grew out of that space and needed to find a new home to accommodate more vendors and customers. We just relocated on October 27 to Mission Valley Mall by the Nordstrom‘s Rack Courtyard. With the relocation out of Chula Vista, I decided to rename the market as Erika’s Pop Up Shops.
We have an amazing group of vendors that have become family/friends. You can find us at Mission Valley now twice a month on Sundays from 11 AM to 7 PM. If any vendors would like to join us, you can find us on social media under Erika‘s Pop Up Shops.

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

With the mortgage crisis of 2007, I had to think of a different career path. I was an executive assistant at Countrywide Home Loans and extremely stressed out. Countrywide was the first company out in the news about mortgage loans that were falling through because of the way they were written. You were able to apply for a loan at a 1% interest rate for the first three months and after that, it went to a 6.5% interest rate. It was called a low interest rate loan. All the banks were doing this loan, however we were the first company to hit the news about it. The program was written incorrectly in the systems in my opinion. So once the news broke about the company, I sat there and was getting a bunch of calls about people losing their homes, angry customers, all while watching my own personal 401(k) in company stock drop dramatically. My doctors put me on all different kinds of medication’s to relieve my stress and get me to sleep at night. I knew this was not a healthy way to go for much longer. So I decided to leave my high ranking position that I had and try something different. That’s when my mom suggested I try the local farmers market. I fell in love with being a vendor. Talking to people, making friends with the vendors next to you, it was so relaxing and so much fun. I was sold!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When we first started our market in the park, we started in October. Being that we were outside, it was still warm that time of the year. Fast-forward to January, where it was raining almost every weekend. We kept having to cancel our market over and over again. Because of this, the vendor number was dwindling down to single digits. I was feeling defeated after a great holiday season. I stuck it through and learned that January is not the time of year to have an outdoor market. We were successful and busy after the sun came back around. From here on out, I will not have markets in January when it is cold and rainy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/erikaspopupshops
• Instagram: https://Www.instagram.com/erikaspopupshops
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086594383790&mibextid=LQQJ4d