We recently connected with Megan Pelsor and have shared our conversation below.

Megan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Lauren, my sister, and I first realized we wanted to work together when we were making some DIY shirts to attend the Sasha Velour and Shea Coulee show in town. We are huge fans and wanted to coordinate with the group we were going with, but wanted to create our own design that combined both of the queens’ logos. We got so many compliments on them at the show! Later we had a booth at a local market to see if there was a demand for our idea of LGBTQIA+/Midwest themed merchandise. We made some midwestern themed ‘Ope’ tie dye shirts along with some rainbow ice cream stickers and they sold out fast! After that we decided to sell our products on Etsy because Lauren resides in Chicago and I’m in Indianapolis, so it made the most sense. Lauren runs our social media and comes up with new ideas for products, and I manage the Etsy store and make Lauren’s design ideas come to life. We are proud Midwesterners and members/allies of the Queer community. We know that to some people those things don’t go together. But there are plenty of people like us out there that are both, and we want to create unique products to celebrate that!

Megan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

We have other full time jobs, but The Ope Lyfe is a creative outlet for both of us. Lauren and I got into selling midwest and queer merchandise because it’s what we know and who we are. It’s fun to get together and brainstorm new design ideas and what would be the best product for it. (stickers vs shirts vs koozies etc) We want to make things that are niche but still recognizable to the larger population. Like our LGBTQ Ice Cream shirt for example, to some it’s just a cute shirt full of ice cream cones, but all of the scoops of ice cream are the different pride flags. Sort of the ‘if you know, you know’ type of designing. Our line of ‘Ope’ shirts are the same way. If you’re not familiar ‘Ope’ is a classic midwestern thing people from the region say in place of things like, “excuse me”, “sorry, my bad”, “oops”. Most midwestern people say it and and don’t even realize it. Our ‘Ope’ shirts have the word on them but within it is a city flag to represent where you’re from. For instance, the Milwaukee peoples flag fits perfectly inside the word Ope since it has a sun shape to it. To people unfamiliar with the word Ope it just looks like the Milwaukee flag, but if you know Ope it adds an extra layer of cheekiness that makes us smile.

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

We don’t have a business that typically keeps in touch with clients but we have had a few instances where our customers have followed up with us about their purchase. We had a customer buy a dozen or so Chicago Ope shirts for her team as a gift. She mentioned that they were celebrating and having a picnic lunch together when she was giving them their gifts. We wrote her back saying how excited we were and if she was comfortable doing so, to send us a picture of everyone. She sent us a group picture and it was very surreal to see our product on so many people in one place! We thanked her profusely and she said everyone loved the shirts, so much so that a couple bought them for their friends afterwards too. We had a mother-daughter keep in touch with us too and it warmed our hearts. The mom bought our adult Price Ice Cream Cone shirt and a matching one for her toddler daughter. They wore them to their pride parade and sent us pictures, it meant the world to us! I attribute these and similar things to our communication. We strive to be quick at responding to questions or comments. We want to let our customers know they’re important to us, we see them and value their opinions. This is also why we write thank you notes with our sticker orders as well. We want them to know that there are humans behind their purchases who greatly value their business.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The biggest pivot we made was switching from screen printing our shirts at home to utilizing a company to print the shirts for us. In the beginning it was great being able to make the shirts from home. But once we started adding more designs it became clear that we didn’t have the time or space to being doing it ourselves. We found a company that uses direct to garment printing and has a good turnaround time, which is very important to us, and that has been huge in helping us maintain our business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://theopelyfe.etsy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theopelyfe/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theopelyfe
• Other: theopelyfe@gmail.com