Intro (00:00):

You are listening to Her Time to Retire, a podcast dedicated to helping women gain the knowledge, confidence, and support they need to achieve financial success and emotional fulfillment when planning for retirement. If you are ready to finally take charge of your financial life, then keep listening. Your hosts are Glenn Price and Jonathan Scott, founders of Keystone Financial Resources in Brentwood, Tennessee. Both men specialize in crafting individualized retirement plans for women and have a passion for helping women discover and achieve their retirement goals. Glenn is a husband and father of four who was taught early in life, through his relationship with his grandmother, how a woman can not only take charge of her own destiny, but also positively influence the lives of her family and friends that surround her. Jonathan, husband and father of three, attributes his own success to the strong women in his life, including his wife, Brooke, and his mother, Susanne. Both men, together, want to help more women live out their dreams in retirement. As always, if you have retirement questions, their phone lines are open at (615) 661-9554. Or you can visit their website to browse information, view upcoming events, or subscribe to the Her Time to Retire weekly newsletter, just visit www.keystonefinancialresources.com. Now, relax and enjoy the conversation.

Jonathan Scott (01:24):

Welcome to Her time to retire. This is a podcast for women navigating through their financial journey. I'm Jonathan Scott I'm co-owner of Keystone financial resources. And it's my goal to speak with women at the top of their industry and create a place where they can share their ideas and advice with you, our listeners. So before we begin as a gift to our listeners, I just want to tell you that we rolled out a two minute online quiz to help you identify your number one retirement mistake. You can check it out at keystonequiz.com again, that's Keystone quiz.com. Well, today we're privileged. I've got Elizabeth Allen here. She's the owner of e.Allen boutique. It's an upscale wardrobe building boutique. Heck I don't have to tell you about it. You already know. It's one of the best boutiques around, so we're privileged to have her here today. She specializes in styling and assisting clientele and selecting original pieces and trying to fit that around their original style. So Elizabeth is the CEO and owner and she herself has a deep sense of style and notoriety on the fashion circuit, her ability to identify wardrobe pieces and sprinkling in just the right amount of trendsetting touches keeps her on point and oh, so chic. So Elizabeth's vision and desires for growing e.Allen has been ever evolving. I've gotten the privilege of knowing her as a friend over the years, our kids have gone to school together. It's been fun to watch that business go and grow and spread out and move. So it's just a lot of fun to now. She has typically filled the wardrobe with pieces that mix and maximize the investment for our clients. The customers select clothing that helps them create their own unique style. And that's been something that's really led to a successful business for her. So I'm going to let her talk about that for just a minute or two. And I really wanted our listeners to hear Elizabeth, you know, what made you decide to start the boutique in the first place? So tell me your story.

Elizabeth Allen (03:29):

Yes. So thank you for having me today. I had my youngest child, I had just had her, she was two months old. So I'd already had my stepdaughter, my son, and then the youngest. And I just really felt like there was a hole in the fashion community where we lived. Yes. And I really felt that I was missing out on myself really. I noticed when I would get ready in the morning, I would hold my head higher. My day would run smoother. And at this point I was a stay at home mom with them and I just really felt led to do something about it. There was a boutique, a small boutique in our community on the square that she approached me and I had an outstanding gift card there. And she just said, you have an outstanding gift card I'm done unless I can find somebody who'd like to buy it. And we kind of connected and my wheels started turning and I said, you know, this is something I'd really love to do. And before you knew it, there was just a few weeks into it actually. And kind of went from there.

Jonathan Scott (04:38):

You pushed that to a whole nother level, for sure. So one of the things that I used to notice is in her boutique it's, it's been special to me. I've used it personally for years, but Elizabeth keeps all the sizes and things of the ladies. So for us gentlemen, it makes it really easy. I could walk in there and say, Hey, what's Brook like, and she's got the sizes. It does what to do. And then for the ladies, it's really nice because it's custom packaged as well. And there's a lot of branding that goes into the packaging and it's really nice how that works, but whenever we see the different business owners on this podcast, you know, we run into the same thing over and over. We're all business owners together and you ladies have unique sets of challenges inside of it. But tell us a little bit about the challenges that you run into on a day to day and how you handle those.

Elizabeth Allen (05:31):

Well, I think for sure, day-to-day overall, I think staffing is always a challenge. I have been so unbelievably fortunate to have the staff that I have and a lot of my girls have been with me for a long time, but with growth, adding on staff and kind of maneuvering that and training purposes is a big struggle. Branding, and just figuring out your niche to your brand is ever changing. And it's evolving. I think that that's been something that we've been really successful in e.Allan is, you know, where we started. Like I said, we purchased something and it turned it in really something completely different over a matter of time. But you know, I was telling somebody just the other day, for instance, a niche market of mine for a while just was trending, was, you know, a denim bar denim. It was crazy was bread and butter of our store for so long, you know, eight years ago. But then now it's something totally different. So the challenge of also of just finding what your niche is, what's working and constantly tracking what's working, what your customers want. If they're relating to the brand and to you as a person, you know, to bring them in with that, I think that that's a challenge. And just finding what women need in general and men. I mean, that's something else that's a struggle for us. You know, sometimes there's just even how men need to shop for their wives that, so that's, I think branding and just staying true to the brand as well and let it evolve is tricky. There's a lot of work that goes behind that.

Jonathan Scott (07:12):

A ton, a ton. And just the retail, just in observing it over time, you know, Elizabeth has got some challenges in that, you know, she's serving a group anywhere from twenties all the way to fifties and inside Seventies, and she's got a boutique in a college town and then in Nashville, she's close to Vanderbilt, Belmont, all those universities, the Cool Springs location as well. Yeah.

Elizabeth Allen (07:37):

So tracking, yeah. Tracking tracking is definitely, yeah,

Jonathan Scott (07:40):

It's a ton to keep up with on these different things, but something that I noticed that's really unique. I want you to tell me what, you know, kind of the decisions that went into it was on the retail side. Used to, there was a lot of table spaces and things like that as things are set out and it's moved more towards shelving things towards you know, groupings and things along those lines. Tell me a little bit about how those decisions came about.

Elizabeth Allen (08:07):

Well, for one, there's many reasons why I do that for one, for me, it is color stories. I like the way just the merchandising side of that. It keeps things kind of nice tucked in and, you know, color story throughout just so it's visually aesthetically pleasing on the eye. Also hanging though, it's, you can really get more in your store inventory overhead wise. You obviously have to have enough inventory to meet your needs as far as your, you know, your payroll, your rent, your insurance, everything else with that. So that's definitely, it is a space that help her with that and then tables. Sometimes they can just get messy really, you know, I mean, merchandising wise, you always have your tables and your key places to kind of build the aesthetic of that. But for sure, I like the hanging better and it's just a more fluid situation. And I feel like for the flow to us, you know, cause when you come in two of my stores, the Murfreesboro and Franklin store, I mean, they are your true boutique experience. You're going to come in. There's a lot of, most of the time one-on-one experience, you may have more people in here and there, but you know, you're talking or walking, you're kind of going from piece to piece.

Jonathan Scott (09:19):

And so, As far as, you know, challenges inside the store, tell me about some challenges you've faced on the marketing side.

Elizabeth Allen (09:27):

Yeah. Marketing is a lot. It is a whole nother ball game. I'm a huge, huge believer in marketing. I know some people choose not to do it and opt out. I really, really believe in it. I really think you have to spend money to make money and it can be scary, but I really, I really think you have to. But it's kind of an extra headache if you will, because you have to track it. You know, advertising is very expensive. I mean, for ads, you know, you look at a magazine. I mean, sometimes you're spending a couple thousand dollars on this magazine or this publication to have your brand in front of them. So you really have to do your homework of who is your demographic, who's your target audience? You know, is your reader going to read this? Is your reader going to look at that or your customer not reader, or are they going to look at this? Is this gonna go? Is this aligned with you as a brand and who you are?

Jonathan Scott (10:24):

Now, it's social media. I noticed that you carry a lot of advertising on social media and that's really the number one marketing tool that we've got in retail anymore. And during these times, tell us a little bit about how you develop that your gosh, Facebook and then there's LinkedIn and then some other tools that you use Instagram.

Elizabeth Allen (10:48):

Yeah, Instagram, Pinterest. That too has been ever evolving. I mean, when we just started, when I first started, e.Allen It really social media not taken off. So that was something we definitely had to catch up to when it did come out. And it is a very resourceful tool for us. We have a full-time social media coordinator that handles stuff her and I meet every week. We meet several times a week, but every week we talk about just some content and content builders that we're going to be having within there. But just the aesthetic of all of it, just making sure that it's very streamlined, that it's very fitting to the brand that it's on point with the reports that we need to fill in that as well.

Jonathan Scott (11:33):

But it helps us guys too.

Elizabeth Allen (11:36):

I'm going to tell you a lot of women. I mean, I'm always so surprised to talk because I do love fashion and all that, and it's a lot of women just come in or they'll screenshot or send us a message. Like I just want that whole outfit, whatever that is, just put that, you know, and it really helps. It's another way, you know, to shop

Jonathan Scott (11:56):

For, for us guys. You know, I get the call occasionally I saw this blouse on there that she had on LinkedIn and it looked like this and it looked like that on Instagram and I'll get on real quick but she's She uses that a lot with me. So that's a good tool.

Elizabeth Allen (12:14):

That's a good screenshot for sure.

Jonathan Scott (12:17):

I get those screenshots for sure. Sure. And so, you know, whenever I'm doing these podcasts and I'm talking with our business ladies and they're sharing, you know, one of the neat things that I find a common thread with is that everybody shares some challenges at home. I know I do as well, you know, there's gives and takes with owning the business. Tell me kind of some challenges that you have to overcome as far as managing your personal life and managing the business life. And you've got kids at home and a husband and all these things to juggle.

Elizabeth Allen (12:49):

Yeah. So I've been at this for almost 13 years and I still don't have the secret recipe again. I feel like I'll have it. And then I don't, but balance is so important just for self-care and for self-awareness of things. I mean, going back to the very beginning, I remember, you know, I had this bright idea that Addie and Baylor would be Hannah was already in kindergarten. So I had this great idea that they would basically be at the store with me all the time. And cause it was me. I mean, I was the only full-time person, you know, at that point in time. And that didn't work. And so just shifting and doing that. So I very quickly got myself upside down on my time. I was spread way too thin, you know, I had young children and then I had this business that I was just Uber excited about and very passionate about and wanted to make it work and wanted to have the best of both worlds. So that was very, very tough at the beginning. I mean, there were times I would be at work and my heart was at home or I'd be at home and I needed to be focusing on the store. I was very torn, but now I think I'm a lot better about it. I know that, you know, when I'm home, I try to put my phone down and I'm the world's worst at text messaging and emailing and all that. And complete has I really try to be more present wherever I am, whether if I'm at work, then I focus on work and when I'm at home, my kids of course can get ahold of me or my husband. But if I'm at home, then I'm at home and I'm doing that. But I mean, that is a huge challenge. I recently, recently took a sabbatical. I had not ever taken it, so I really didn't put a time on it. I knew that just going through COVID and everything, you know, just being out on all that, it was just so exhausting to me and I really wanted to step back and kind of see my, my store as a consumer would and just kind of see just, you know, cause I I'm so on top of everything and just had my hands in too many pits, really at the store. And I was saying that I really felt letting people do what I hired them to do because I was kind of doing it, you know, with them or for them with stuff. And which is, you know, that's not a great way to be anyways and you know, delegating a high too. But so I did it and I mean, December in very end of December and I went back, I mean I was off for several months.

Jonathan Scott (15:21):

What does the sabbatical look like for you?

Elizabeth Allen (15:23):

You know, I, it was not at all what I thought that it would be, it was really hard, really, really hard, but I was very intentional with what this looked like for me. I did not, I really didn't give myself a lot of limits other than I was not going to go in and be there, you know, if I could get on meetings or zoom into meetings, you know, cause that's something we all became very comfortable with through our time off. I would do that or if I would think of, you know, certain things, I would keep my hand in a little bit, but it was really, it was really good. It was eye opening. I mean, it was just great. It was great for me to step back and just see things for what they were and know that everything's really great. And it gave me time to think about what I wanted to change.

Jonathan Scott (16:09):

I think so many of us experienced that through COVID you know, when it first happened and having to go remote and all these different things and you know, I think our office went through three different quarantine shut downs where we weren't deemed essential. And it was so funny because the people in this office couldn't stand being away. So I remember, you know, how awkward it was to start trying to work out of the home.

Elizabeth Allen (16:36):

Okay. It's exhausting. It's exhausting.

Jonathan Scott (16:41):

Brook would Say, this is so funny. She said, you go into your office with a cup of coffee and I don't see you until the end of the day, you know, it's it's but you're at home. And it was, you know, one meeting after another and trying to weed through how to do that. And some of the goods, the positives that came out of it was it, you know, it pushed our business technologically forward. And so, you know, we made everything to where, you know, everything was digital, everything could work remotely if we had to, we didn't want to miss any steps whatsoever. So, you know, we're continuing to carry that forward. Now of course, everything in the office is open now and, and working very well, but when somebody needs a remote meeting, boy, are we equipped to do it.

Elizabeth Allen (17:23):

Yeah. And there were a lot of silver linings in, in the shutdown with stuff. There really was, but, you know, just even for market and everything, I mean, it was really just, and it still is. It's finally not as challenging, but through all that, even the sabbatical just buying, I mean, we buy nine months ahead. I mean just, and not knowing when it was going to shift. So I mean, we are, you know, budgeting to have this and not knowing all your reporting to crap because, you know, I, I make buys based on what I did the previous season to those numbers. And then I attach growth to those, whatever I'm thinking. So that was very tough. Not knowing what point, you know, and if you're going to get the inventory or not. So that it was just, I was just worn out. I was tired. I was exhausted. And so.

Jonathan Scott (18:11):

Tell me the truth, because I know what it is on my side of the table. How did it help your family during that time? The sabbatical period? How was it in the family?

Elizabeth Allen (18:18):

I think I was just much more present in those moments. You know, I can do the whole, I love to cook and bake and everything else. And I do try to cook dinner every night and I do all that, but you know, it's nice to be able to make muffins, you know, from when they come home from school and just that kind of thing, you know, and I think it was great, you know, with it, but my kids are so proud of e.Allen. I mean, if I said, do you wish I didn't do this? Do you wish it didn't? They're like, no, like they're so proud of it. And they want me to do that. So,

Jonathan Scott (18:52):

You know, it's it was really good for us as well, you know? So I found myself spending more time, of course, having to at home. But after that first few weeks I was like, Hmm know, I can do this different. And you know, we started we went out and bought five kayaks. We started doing a lot of stuff outside. Of course

Elizabeth Allen (19:11):

We lived outside, walk in and fishing and

Jonathan Scott (19:15):

I turned a whole area behind the barn into like a, like a park area. Yeah. We ever got a little, a little grill for like a park grill. And and so we just started doing a whole lot more and I actually saw the family flourishing through it. I was like, okay, this has led me to understand, I need some boundaries because it's been real obvious that I haven't had them.

Elizabeth Allen (19:35):

Yeah. And even more recently, I mean, it feels like we're right back at it, you know? Yeah.

Jonathan Scott (19:41):

Yep. So that's a, that's something that we all go through together. Well, this has been great, but I want to give our ladies out there something some meat that they can take away on this podcast. So what is one piece of advice that you could share with the other ladies that are listening about your success? Something that you feel like has been key to the success of your company?

Elizabeth Allen (20:05):

I think I'm not afraid to try things and, you know, to see if they work and either throw them out or tack on a new idea to them. So just trying things, and even that goes into just business alone, just do it, just try and get your feet in and just see what it looks like for you and never stop remembering why you started it never stopped dreaming, never stop. You know, the sky's the limit like it truly, truly is. And I think just, you don't have to conform to this box. You can, it's yours that you're, it's your baby and you can deal with what you want to with.

Jonathan Scott (20:45):

I would agree wholeheartedly. And I would also add to that. That's something that I see in Elizabeth's stores is, it is so consistent. So consistent consistently, well put together so that they're operating at the top of their game and they do it consistently over and over again. So, well, this has been great. And I'm so thankful that you got to join us today. I told Elizabeth that this, this podcast wouldn't be complete without it. She had to be here. So thanks for grabbing time with me today. Really appreciate it. Thank you, Elizabeth, for joining us today. And again, Elizabeth is the owner of e.Allen Boutique, and you can find her at eallen.com or on Instagram at e.Allen Boutique. I am Jonathan Scott, one of the owners of Keystone financial resources. Good to be with you today as usual. You can reach us at keystonefinancialresources.com or call us on the phone. If you have any questions, (615) 661-9554. Thanks for listening today.

Speaker 1 (21:54):

You have been listening to Her Time to Retire with Glenn Price and Jonathan Scott. Glenn and Jonathan would love to talk to you and answer any of your retirement questions. All listeners can take advantage of a free 15 minute consultation with Glenn and Jonathan, whether via phone call, Zoom meeting, or in person, you can schedule your consultation by calling (615) 661-9554 or by visiting our website at www.keystonefinancialresources.com. Thanks for listening. The opinions expressed by Keystone Financial Resources and guests on this podcast are their own and do not reflect the opinions of this station. All statements and opinions expressed are based upon information considered reliable, although it should not be relied upon as such. Any statements or opinions are subject to change without notice. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated are not guaranteed. Past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results. Strategies mentioned may not be suitable for everyone. Information expressed does not take into account your specific situation or objectives. It is not intended as recommendations appropriate for you. Before acting on any information mentioned, please consult with a qualified tax or investment advisor to determine if it is suitable for your specific situation. This program is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to subject covered. Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC, or BCM, a registered investment advisor, BCM and Keystone Financial Resources are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.