We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kristin Stracener a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Kristin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
Strace Place & Company was not the name we started out with when we established this business in 2020. It actually is now our new name after just over two years of being Strace Place Craft Company.
We got the name from the first part of our last name and it’s actually now a running name within the family for our rental properties, Strace Place Rentals. Which also played its part in our name change as well. I wanted to keep the first two words but adjust the back end so that it would be easier to apply to the rest of what we do and to include the brands we carry at Strace Place!
Strace Place & Company holds a handful of brands and items. From your custom t-shirts, business shirts, signs, and the ability to make some business materials for others around while also carrying Scentsy, ZYIA Active & now BELLAME. It only felt more fitting to change from “craft company” to ” & Company” to bring along these other brands that have been added through our three and half, going on four year adventure.
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?
My name is Kristin Stracener and I am the owner of Strace Place & Company. I am also a military veteran who served eight years in the U.S. Army Reserve, a wife, and a mother to a sweet little boy and a doggo who is our best girl! I started this company while I was working as a resident care aide in an assisted living facility during the pandemic. Watching my residents visit with their families through windows holding phones, or from across a table that was more than 6 ft apart was heart breaking. I started painting to find a way to bring them happiness in conversations.
I then made the hard choice to leave that assisted living facility and took a job as an Activities Director in a nursing home which in a small way, helped me use my bachelors degree that I spent the previous 5 years obtaining. I worked there for a month before finding out I was pregnant and after discussing with family and my medical team to leave there as well and I’ve stayed home since then and only served in the Army while I worked from home full time and learned how to become a better wife. A first time mom and a business owner.
Balancing it all and having a work/life balance through the change of seasons and chapters in life has definitely been everything but easy. Each season or chapter in this life comes with its own challenges. Once you get through the first one and get it figured out, life and God throw in something new and give you a brand new challenge. However, without God I wouldn’t have what I have and I give the glory to Him!
I started SP&C in May 2020, added Scentsy in August 2020. Hung out there and took care of those and handled pregnancy and took care of the home until July 2021 we (my husband and I) decided to add in ZYIA Active and now in August of 2023 we have recently added BELLAME.
Scentsy as everyone may know carries wax, warmers, oils and diffusers and so many other ways to carry around fragrance and make any space smell amazing with the help of independent consultants.
ZYIA Active is a premium active wear and athleisure wear line based out of Utah and is sold through independent representatives like myself. We carry men’s, women’s and kids sizes. Starting at a Kid’s 4/5 to adult size 20/XXXXL!
BELLAME is a prestigious beauty and wellness brand who uses the OMNI Marketing Model based out of Fort Worth, TX and sold through Brand Partners, again such as myself. We carry an amazing skincare line, skincare infused cosmetics and also have some amazing and my favorite wellness products! This model and its CEO, Melissa believes in helping entrepreneurs put milk on the table and their amazing products in consumers hands all at the same time!!
I think what sets me apart from others is that I don’t just sell, I serve. I want to help my customers solve their problems even if they don’t immediately realize that they have a problem. And not only do I help non business owners but I have had the opportunity to help others in their business by making them some marketing materials for their business. Word of mouth truly goes a long way whether you live in a town of 700, seventy eight thousand or a million. I can also provide more than one area of expertise and cover different areas of your needs or wants. From your own wardrobe, and your family members to helping make your home smell good in a toxic free way, or skincare infused cosmetics plus health and wellness for the entire family!
Honestly I am the proudest of letting God take control and directing me where he wants me to go in life and in my business. Whether it’s a waiting season or a busy season, we trust God with every step and ask Him to guide us.
Ecclesiastes 7:8 says ” Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” (English Standard Version) Without Him, I wouldn’t be able to do everything that comes with owning a business & keeping it running when I am sick, my little boy is sick or I need to help a friend of family member. Is it easy? Not in the slightest. Do I power through? Absolutely but I also rest when God tells me to rest. But just like any other day, you have your good days and your bad days. How you handle those days determines the rest. If you sit back on Tuesday because Monday was the worst day ever then you won’t have a good Tuesday either. It’s a part of life so of course it will also be a part of owning a business.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I had to unlearn and wipe the belief that your friends and family will be your biggest supporters. But you know what? THAT IS OKAY! And I will scream it from the mountain tops if I have too. The saying “A customer will become a friend before a friend becomes a customer.” is so true.
Sure we all have our favorite business and products. I know I have some, but that doesn’t keep me from trying something new at least once (unless it’s food then you’ll have to give me some grace because I’m terrified of getting food poisoning and always have been.)
I am based out of Jonesboro, AR which is in Northeast Arkansas and my BEST customer lives in New Hampshire and has become a very great friend. She will engage on not just one page but all of them, send me ideas or even ask me questions if I have thought about adding certain things to my business or not. She provides words of encouragement and even a listening ear if I have a question about little boys because she has a teenage boy of her own so she’s been there and down the toddler boy stage. There are people that I went to school with, people I have worked with who were good friends and I even have family members that haven’t provided a single word of encouragement or so much as a share of what I do or said congratulations.
It used to hurt my feelings because I always thought that those people were supposed to support you. After all they’re family and your good friends right? Right. But I have learned that people won’t support you simply because it is you and they would rather buy from that other small business down the street or the next town over or prefer to buy from a big chain because the turn around time is faster with that big chain instead of with you.
But I will tell you what else I have learned while learning to not take everything to heart. I have learned that it’s the customer service that makes the difference. Do you see the key word in that? SERVICE. A personal experience happened in a very small lake town so summer time is the busy season while the winter is more of a waiting season for brick and mortars. I walked into a small boutique and was not greeted, wasn’t asked if I needed help, and the workers were having just a good ole time between themselves at the register. I intentionally asked my husband in a very loud voice if he was ready to go and we still got no interaction from them. Mind you we went into this particular store looking for a very specific item that we know they had and very possibly sold out of. We went a couple of doors down into another small store not looking for anything at all in here, just wanted to see what they had. We had a conversation with the owner the ENTIRE time we were here. He greeted us as we walked in, asked if we were looking for something in particular or any help at all, and continued to just talk about life as if he had known us our entire life. We had seen an item we liked but didn’t necessarily need it. But because of this workers SERVICE and CONNECTION he made, we purchased from him. When you have a lack of connection and service you may lose the sale from someone period or even the next sale from someone you treat just as a sale. Treat them with kindness and like they’re you’re best friend and have been for the last 12 years, not like a sale and you will get referrals and repeat customers!
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
Absolutely! I started in my kitchen and just wanted to paint some decorations for my own home but also for a resident in the assisted living facility I worked at. It was their birthday and they didn’t have any family coming to see them.
Now I have without a doubt outgrown my kitchen and have brought in three different brands while also adding other custom projects such as tshirts, stocking stuffers, wooden coasters, paintings (and I’m not Picasso but this was my number one seller until I started making shirts).
It scaled simply from word of mouth and making a Facebook group. I eventually started doing giveaways periodically for inviting x amount of people to the group and drawing a winner or giving everyone who had an entry a prize. Giveaways don’t have to be monetary or extravagant. They can be something super simple like money off their next order or a coffee gift card.
And I have been home and made this my full time job since September of 2020. At that time I did still serve on the military part time, one weekend a month but that ended in January of 2022 as well so it has been the only income and the only thing that I bring to the table financially.
Key milestones for where I am today are taking leaps of faith and waiting when God tells me to wait and going all in based on faith when He tells me to jump all in. The referrals that have been passed out and going out of my comfort zone to go live within my Facebook groups and even on my personal page and Instagram have also been game changers.
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