We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Robyn Olschewsky a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Robyn, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?

My tall specialty t-shirt shop, Tall Reali-tees, opened its online doors near the end of November 2020. My first couple of sales were the result of word-of-mouth marketing through friends and family. Those sales were special, of course, but my very first sale that was made outside of friends and family was memorable and super exciting! It happened only a couple of weeks after I opened up shop. A woman I had never met before bought a t-shirt! Not only that, but I live in Plano and this customer was over a thousand miles away in California! I couldn’t believe it! I have the ability to see how customers come across my online store, and this first customer found me through a post I had made on a tall women’s Facebook group page. That’s all it took to get my first sale, a post in a niche Facebook group. At the time, I remember thinking, “Wow, people actually WANT my products! Now, I just need to get them in front of more eyeballs.” It was an amazing feeling and is still an amazing memory!

Robyn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

At Tall Reali-tees, my mission is to celebrate the uniqueness of being tall with one-of-a-kind graphic t-shirt designs that are relatable, inspiring, and at times, even hilarious. My designs are printed onto American-made tees that are super soft and comfortable. The shirts have extra length in the body, which is a necessity for any tall person and something that is a rare find at most other shops.

The tall niche is a tight community. We band together to help each other find clothes that fit and bond over height struggles and “tall girl problems”. I want my products to have a positive impact within this community and I want fellow tall women to wear my designs with pride in their height. That is the heart behind everything I put up on my shop. I am so proud to see my products being worn by tall women all over the world!

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

Since the beginning, I’ve sold my products on my own website, www.tallrealitees.com. I considered Etsy, but for several reasons, I decided to take the website route. I like having control of the way my site looks. I can customize it however I want with different fonts, menus, categories, and images and personalize it based on what is attractive to my target audience. With my own site, I also don’t have to play by other platforms’ rules or pay their listing fees. I liked that bit of freedom. The downside of creating my own website versus selling on a platform such as Etsy or Amazon is that I have had to build my audience from the ground up. Because Etsy and Amazon are popular marketplaces with millions of shoppers searching for products, the discoverability of my brand would have probably been faster. However, through social media and SEO, I have been able to grow my audience in a more personal way, making visitors more likely to buy when seeing my products compared to being seen on Etsy or Amazon.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I built my reputation within the tall niche by being active within the online community, answering questions and participating in discussions in Facebook groups and on individual Instagram accounts. I use my own Tall Reali-tees business pages to do this so that my brand gets seen as one that is knowledgeable and trustworthy. To further build my reputation, I also make sure to provide great customer service. It definitely goes a long way. Providing great customer service may not always be convenient or fair to me, but my brand grows when customers mention to others that they have had a wonderful experience buying from my shop.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tallrealitees.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tallrealitees/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tallrealitees/
• Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/tallrealitees/