w/ Mia Ray, Glam-Aholic Lifestyle
Detroit's Mia Ray took her passion for fashion from a blog to a $50M Glam-aholic empire
Watch: https://youtu.be/OqGQTRpjuJQ
From her roots in Detroit, Mia dishes on turning a passion for fashion into a flourishing lifestyle empire, all while keeping it real and relatable.
We dive into the highs and lows of building a brand, the game-changing role of social media, and how staying true to yourself can be your biggest asset in business.
Expect unfiltered insights and raw stories from the frontline of building a business against all odds.
Kurt Elster (00:00):
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(01:23):
Oh, today on the unofficial Shopify podcast, I have a wonderful guest, a inspirational guest, a guest who has achieved so much, who's got a store that's doing product launches in the Two Comma Club, is known as the Queen of Marketing and something like a quarter million social followers and did it all herself, bootstrapped it, did all of it. Just an incredible journey and I am lucky I got to be a part of it. We built them a custom Shopify theme over the last six months and it's really cool. I'm proud of that. But today we are talking to Mia Ray from Glam Aholic Lifestyle. Mia, thanks for joining me.
Mia Ray (02:05):
Thank you for having me, Kurt.
Kurt Elster (02:07):
Oh, my pleasure. Alright, so I gave a brief, brief intro there, but can you introduce yourself and tell us about your brand, about Aholic Lifestyle?
Mia Ray (02:16):
Absolutely. My name is Mia Ray. I was born and raised and still living in Detroit, Michigan. I started GL Aholic Lifestyle 14 years ago, which was birthed from my fashion and lifestyle blog, confessions of Aholic, which I had started the prior year. So this is my 15th year on this entrepreneurial journey that has been every bit of a roller coaster. I started the blog and then from there it went on into what Glen Aholic lifestyle has become now today, handbag, luggage, lifestyle accessory brand that everyone just seems to love.
Kurt Elster (03:02):
There were like 15 years ago, you're blogging online. That was redundant. You were blogging about fashion around that time. I guess, would you have gotten on Instagram? When does social media start to get in here?
Mia Ray (03:15):
So Instagram was not even a thought when I started blogging. So in 2009, Instagram was not around. I remember the day I joined Instagram, I think I joined Instagram, maybe the tail end of 2010, maybe 2011. So back then it was strictly Facebook and I always tell people like I'm a dinosaur. I did all of this with just Facebook. And what I would do was I started my blog and I would write my posts and I would pour my little heart out about some shoes that Kim Kardashian had on the night before and how we could find them for so much cheaper. Because my blog was strictly about the look for less, how to make the best out of what you had, how to remix your clothes, because I'm the everyday around the way, girl, I don't come for money, didn't have it, never do, how to manage it, anything. So I was basically just blogging about how to make the best out of what you had. And then from there I would take my post and post them on Facebook. So back then only Facebook friends I had was my actual real family and friends, not just random strangers that would just come and follow you. But from there I really did build it from sharing on Facebook and then just getting more and more people to come over and read my blog.
Kurt Elster (04:42):
And so you've got this blog blog's about fashion and I like that theme. It get the look for less people are attracted to it. You're grown audience. Did you have a fashion background? How'd you get into that?
Mia Ray (04:54):
Absolutely. Actually no, I graduated from high school and I was just always known as I call myself like the black Funky Brewster. I literally, I wear whatever I wanted to wear. I would wear my hair however I wanted to wear it and people would just start coming to me for advice. Hey Mia, can you go shopping with me? I'm looking for an outfit to wear to a wedding. Mia, can you tell me what shoes would look best for this Mia? How should I style my hair for this event? So it was just, people just naturally gravitated to me because that's just who I was. I was just that girl that just lived out loud and I loved fashion. I feel like I studied it well, I'll be 40 this year, so I call myself a little old lady sometimes. Back in the day, we used to just read magazines. We weren't scrolling on a phone, we weren't. I
Kurt Elster (05:49):
Miss magazines,
Mia Ray (05:51):
Me too. But back then I would study the stylist, whoever did the shoot in the magazines, you can read and see who did the shoot, where did they have it, what were they wearing? And I just connected to that. So I don't have a formal background in fashion. All I have is high school education. I'm a college dropout. I gave birth to my first son when I was 17 years old. So everything that I have formed as what people would look at as this fashion or lifestyle influencer, it was just strictly from learning and reading and being so in tune with what was going on with the streets. What are people wearing? What are people, what's the trend that's going on right now? And even today, people are like, Mia, you are always on trend with the big designers. And I'm like, yeah, I know. I keep my ears to the streets. I like to say I know what people, I know what people want. But no formal background in fashion at all.
Kurt Elster (07:00):
So it was a passion. It was something you wanted to pursue. You were viewed it like, this is you, this is being true to yourself. And then people recognized that and reinforced it by being like, Hey, can you help me too? In the early days of that blog before you're making your own products, I'm sure there were a couple of key moments where you went like, this has got potential. I should chase this, I should keep going with this. Because writing a blog, it's a lot of work, doing a lot of writing.
Mia Ray (07:29):
It is, and you know what? It's so much work. And I didn't even have a clue what a blog was before I started the blog. I would be on Facebook posting pictures of Beyonce and Kim Kardashian and all the fashion girls and talking about what they wore. And my good friend, he asked me out to a Starbucks date one day. He said, I need to talk to you. And he said, you need to start a blog. And Kurt, I looked at him and I said, what is a blog? I had no clue. Keep in mind, this is 2009, people were blogging but not how it is now today. And he sat and he explained to me, and I went home and I googled it and I started my blog the very next day. So to sit, and I don't consider myself a writer. I don't consider myself someone who, once again, I didn't have a clue what it was, but I sat at my computer every day and I talked to myself as if I was talking to my homegirls. And I think that's where the connection of my readers and now my followers and customers started because I was just being myself. So back then, not knowing what a blog was, I was like, this is a lot of work, but I enjoyed it. So then when I would go out in public and go to the mall when women would start walking up to me and saying, Hey Mia, I read your blog. And I went and bought those shoes
Mia Ray (08:59):
And I'm like, you read my blog.
Mia Ray (09:04):
I could not believe that people were actually reading it. So from there, then here comes Twitter. So I was on Twitter before I was on Instagram. So when I started to see that people would respond, retweet, all these things, I'm like, oh, I have to keep going because if I stop, what if somebody comes to my blog to read it and I haven't blogged in three weeks? So from there I was like, oh, I have to be consistent. I can't start something and then stop it when I now know that I have an audience. So that was kind of like my blogging aha moment, like, okay, I have to keep this party going. People are watching, people are reading, people are taking my advice. Oh, I can't stop. So that's really where my consistency came from. And then Kurt, I'm not going to lie, maybe about nine months after starting to blow out, I was like, okay, I'm not making any money.
Mia Ray (10:07):
I, I'm not
Mia Ray (10:09):
Making any money from this. So I have to figure something out. And from me not making money from my blog and being an affiliate, what influencers used to be called affiliates, we would have affiliate lengths and you're talking about I'm making $10 a month from Sharon, Steve Madden shoes or something.
Mia Ray (10:32):
I was like, yeah,
Mia Ray (10:33):
I got to make some money from there. That is where Glamor, holic lifestyle was birth.
Kurt Elster (10:39):
But that's such a, alright, so you get the blog, the blog gets you comfortable. I'm online, I'm creating content. Before we had the terms really went like blogger, influencer, now they say Creator, I'm still stuck on influencer, but you're blogging and you figured out that consistency is critical and you've got this audience growing. You're like, alright, how do we monetize this? It's some point, once you realize you have to publish consistently to see results, it's like going to the gym. But at that point it starts to become a job. You're like, all right, I got a see something out of this. Put in a lot of time here for your people. So you've got that audience now. Okay, great. But jumping from like, Hey, I'm blogging to, Hey, I'm launching a product, I'm making products. That's huge. That's a big jump. How does that happen?
Mia Ray (11:34):
It was such a big jump, but if I could tell you Kurt, I feel like they were waiting for it. People were reading and they were really in tune with what I was sharing and my advice and my tips that I felt like they wanted that connection to glamor holic. So when I launched the bag, it was literally like, okay, Mia, here goes nothing. I always tell people when I do give advice, especially in this day and age, I feel like sometimes people do it backwards. They create the product and then they're scrambling trying to figure out who to sell it to. And I did the opposite. I built my community, I built my readers, and then I offered them a product for them to purchase that made them have that connection to both me the blog and now the new brand. So it was a big thing, but it worked out so well that, and Kurt, when I tell you I had $0, I had $0, I put that tote bag, my first tote bag on my blog, and I said Pre-order now. And I only needed, I said, I'm only going to order a hundred bags. I think I sold 50 of them in my first maybe two weeks maybe. And that's all I needed to cover my entire shipment. So the fact that I didn't let me not having any money stop me, I didn't let me not knowing anything about being an entrepreneur stopped me. I was just like, I'm going to just jump out the window and see what happens.
Kurt Elster (13:14):
So the first product is a tote bag. You got a minimum order quantity is a hundred. How'd you find somebody to make it for you? How'd you get it made? How'd you accept payment for it? What was that process like?
Mia Ray (13:26):
I started the blog and I thought I was doing something and I said, oh, I need some business cards. And this guy came to design my business cards and somehow we just grew into having this business friendship. And we would go to Starbucks and I would be working on my blog and he would be working on his thing, which he was manufacturing school uniforms for bands and different activities at different schools. And I would always carry my notebooks and my computer and all these things. And one day I asked him, I said, can you create me a bag that I can toss all my things into when we go to Starbucks? And he looked at me and he was like, why won't you create it? And I was like, I dunno. I dunno nothing about making no bags. And I went home that night and I googled it.
(14:25):
He told me to think about all the details that you would want in a bag. What is it that you would want? And I went home and I screenshot pictures and I put my logo here and I, my first bag, which was a crazy huge mistake. I had satin lining, which made no sense because if I'm putting heavy books and computers in it, of course the satin lining is going to rip. But I thought it was genius. So I sent him back over the design. He sent it to his manufacturer, they created the sample, he sent it back over to me. We took a picture of it on my iPhone and said, pre-order now and put it on the blog.
(15:07):
So I didn't go through what most people would go through with, I have to find a manufacturer, I have to do this. It was purely that connection and that relationship that I had with someone. And even though he's moved on and done other things, I still have that same manufacturer from 14 years ago. He is literally like my brother. He is my family. I've never even met him. I did take a trip over to China, but he was too far out for me to go visit him. But to this day, I still have the same. So we've grown so much in the past 14 years and we understand each other so much. So my story is sometimes not relatable because I didn't have to do what other people had to do in that perspective of finding a manufacturer
Kurt Elster (16:01):
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(17:33):
You built the audience. That's the hard part. I think really it is the hard part for a lot of people. It was because you followed your passion and you got lucky and someone said, Hey, start a blog. Okay, why not? And then someone else said, Hey, why don't you make your own bag and had the connection for you? Alright, so for sure there's some luck here. But also you went and said, alright, I'll pursue that. It's not without risk. You put the product out there and because people are familiar with you and like you and trust you, and clearly you had knife for it, they like the bag. You get the pre-orders so you're able to deliver those. And then how do you go from blog that sold a hundred bag pre-orders to the business today that, well, I know the numbers, you're one of our most successful clients.
Mia Ray (18:18):
I know people will look at me, Ray and glamor holic and think that this was a overnight thing. I tell people this all the time. I may have slowed down life, pregnancy, heartbreak, whatever. I may have slowed down, but I never stopped. So from the tote bag, the initial 100 tote bags that I ordered and sold, I then tried my hand at t-shirts, t-shirts, mega success. It was just out of the park. They loved the T-shirts. Then I went into makeup pouches to match the tote bag. So then you could have on the matching tote bag, the T-shirt, and you could drop your makeup pouch inside of it. Then I had a hat. So it was kind of like I was trying to do this whole collection, but one at a time I would roll out these things, many, many moons apart. I sold the same exact bag just in different colors for about eight years.
(19:17):
So that same tote bag, I offered it in black and pink, then I offered it in tan and pink, then I offered it in black and black, then I offered it in gray, same tote pack. And my followers and customers and readers would buy every single last one of them. Nobody ever complained, Mia, why are you selling us the stain bag? Over and over? I was just trying to get my footing. I was just trying to build my foundation. I was just trying to figure it out. And at that time, that was the only thing that I could provide. Fast forward to 2019, maybe 2017, 18 because I had a little break where I wasn't making enough money to afford to live. So I took a break and I started doing network marketing. I did that for about two years. I grew that business that way.
(20:13):
I could start making money, enough money to now fuel glamor holic lifestyle. So from that money I can now make passport covers. I can now make travel wallets. Anytime I made any money, I put it right back into my brand Still I'm making, I'm not even hitting the 5,000 a month mark when it came to GL lifestyle 2018, I'm on my knuckles Curt. I'm trying to figure this out. I'm like, Hey, I'm going to just go to real estate school. I know how to sell stuff. I'm going to go sell some houses. Maybe this is not working out for me. But it was something that told me, don't stop. Once again, I never stopped. I only slowed down. I said, okay, I'm going to go to real estate school. I remember being at home and I was waiting on this delivery of black glam totes to come to arrive from China.
(21:08):
And my assistant came in and she said, Mia, did you know that the totes were at the garage? UPS must not have rung the doorbell. I hopped up, I said, okay, we got to figure out how we're going to sell these bags today. From the moment they arrived at my garage at about eight 30, I hopped on Instagram. Now I'm on Instagram and I'm already marketing on Instagram for the past eight, nine years, right? I hopped on Instagram and I said, everybody meet me on my live at noon. I'm going to do something that I've never done before. That was when Instagram live first happened, and that's where people think this happened overnight, because that day I did a sale on the glam totes, and this is how wording is trickery when it comes to marketing. I said, everybody, you guys can buy these bags. One for $50 or two, 400. Oh, the crowd went, wow. They said
Mia Ray (22:05):
Two 400.
Kurt Elster (22:08):
Tell you what, I'll give you a four for 200.
Mia Ray (22:12):
Let's keep it going. I made $13,000 in an hour.
Kurt Elster (22:17):
Did you sell all the whole inventory one go just going on live? Didn't even
Mia Ray (22:20):
Sell all of it. I had only put a certain amount because I want to save a certain amount just in case. I'm always like, let me just sit a little bit to the side. I took that 13,000, sent it right back to China and bought more inventory. So that is where the glamor aholic shopping experience came about, which I've always had a dream of being on the home shopping network, QVC. I knew they wasn't coming to the ghetto to find me, right? So I just created my own. And from there, that's where the glamor aholic shopping experience happened. 13,000 an hour, 30,000 in an hour. And then I did 182,000 in like three minutes. And that's where I was like,
Mia Ray (23:06):
Whoa.
Mia Ray (23:09):
And that's when people saw the glamor holic explosion. And from that day, I have not stopped from that day when I didn't have any money and those boxes were on the side of the garage and I was trying to figure it out. I had already been in business for 10 years from that day up until this day. Glenn Holly has done $50 million.
Kurt Elster (23:35):
Yeah, nothing to sneeze at. Give me the typical cost of, or typical what you sell one of these bags for. Usually just put it in perspective for folks.
Mia Ray (23:45):
Well, my thing with glamor aholic is I wanted to create affordable luxury. I was the mom who couldn't afford the Gucci, the Louis Vuitton, the Chanel, and all the designer bags. But I also didn't want a Target or Walmart bag either. And no disrespect because I love Target, but I wanted something. I wanted something that people could afford and wear it as if they were wearing a Gucci or Chanel or anything. You could walk with pride and knowing that you have on a very detailed on trend affordable bag. So my most expensive bag, we have one genuine leather bag that's $250, but everything else ranges from $28 for a passport cover up to about $120 for the new Pebble. I think it might be 1 40, 1 20 or one 40 for the new Pebble tote bag. So there is nothing on my website that is over 250 bucks,
Kurt Elster (24:48):
But you are the one designing and manufacturing it. We're not doing resale. And so I imagine we've, you get good margins on it and then you're able to not overprice it. You're in a wonderful but potentially difficult space. You are in the middle. You're not Walmart, you're not the cheapest thing. You're not Louis Vuitton. So we're not at the highest end. You're in the middle. Is that ever that's a good or a bad thing or it is what it is?
Mia Ray (25:11):
I think it's a great thing, and I'll tell you why I think it's a great thing. It's more everyday women like me who can afford a Glenna holic bag. Then there is people who can afford the expensive bags. And I'm only saying that because people don't have to break the bank. They don't have to do anything, do something strange for a piece of change to buy one of my bags. They can literally say, Hey, I'm going to budget or include black aholic in my everyday budget. I feel like it's a great thing. It's a great space for me because I'm a amongst Steve Madden, which I'm sure is probably a billion dollar situation coach who is Top Dog. And I've looked at their price point and we're counting the same vicinity I am amongst the greats who deliver to the everyday people. So I think it's really good.
(26:16):
I'm in a great space. I do not desire to ever make a bag over 300 bucks. That's not even on my radar. I plan and I know I'm going to stay true to why I started and I started it for everyday women like myself who never knew what it was like to have a dust bag or their purse, who never knew what it was like to get a grand packaging and open up a cardboard box with a logo on it and have all these different accessories. I created my toiletry bag collection strictly because when I traveled and I packed my suitcase, I would put my clothes in a Ziploc bag. That was how I packed my suitcase. So I wanted to create the things that the women who are like me and from where I'm from and had the income that I had could feel that Neville of luxury, but I could afford it.
Kurt Elster (27:22):
And that's core to the brand. The tagline is affordable luxury, right?
Mia Ray (27:27):
Yes. Yes, absolutely.
Kurt Elster (27:31):
And is that part of the brand story? How do you phrase that to people? Or do they just pick up on it?
Mia Ray (27:38):
Well, I do phrase it in a way that I just always say anytime I'm on a podcast or on stage, I wanted to create what I wish existed. I always say Oprah told me I have mental mentors and Oprah is one of them. So I'll say things like, well, Oprah told me I needed to create what I wish existed, and that's exactly what I did. So when people see the price tag of something and they're like, this is only 70, this looks so nice. What? And I'm like, yeah, I think that's where it clicks. And then when they see my customers and my customers are walking billboards, they will tell you about the bag. Then they're going to tell you about me, then they're going to tell you about my story. So all of that comes together with the line of affordable luxury, and I think people just see like, Hey, this is different. And it's also different because to be honest, Kurt, I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. I'm not. I am offering the everyday basic essentials and on trend accessories and all the things that people, or well, women, men and women, because men wear my bags to men and women would like to have, but also not break the bank.
Kurt Elster (29:01):
A part of it's the presentation too. I have that same reaction going to your site, the stuff photographs really well. Your photos are really good. The brand has a really nice look to it. It's like it's high contrast black on white paired with this hot pink. I love it. And there's a positive vibe to it too. Product description of a bag opens with be glam B Fab, be you with a glam aholic lifestyle tote, and then goes on to describe the bag and it's like, why do you'd love this? There is something positive and upbeat about you, and that comes through in the brand and even comes through in the product. They're clean, they're good looking, they're bright. A lot of the stuff is hot pink, which is great. And then I'll look at it and be like, this bag's only 80 bucks. This bag's only 90 bucks. I am consistently surprised by the pricing as well. I'm not the target market here, but I have the same reaction. Are you still doing the live selling today?
Mia Ray (30:10):
So what I do now is we've grown so accustomed to when that happened, I just kept it going. So now I do drops. So whoa started as me going live to sell these bags. I now have plant drops. So I let them know the day, the time, the products, the price, and all the great things that's going to happen on that particular day. When that day comes, I then go live and I discuss everything with my customers. This is what can fit in it. This is how you can wear it. This is how much it costs. This is the detail of the zipper. So I do still go live and I do my Q-V-C-H-S NS esque delivery of showing the customer the product. I do that an hour before the drop. So I'm talking, I'm talking, I'm showing all these things, and then at three o'clock, boom, the website opens. So I still do it and they love it. Anytime I miss a drop or if I'm on vacation maybe or whatever it might be, and I don't go live, they are like, Mia, where are you? Hello. It's time to go live. But yes, I still do it. I really enjoy it. I would love to build upon that and make that a full extension of the brand. But yes, my customer loves when I go live to showcase the products before I drive.
Kurt Elster (31:41):
Knowing that now and being the one who helped build this website, we totally should have worked like product video of you explaining the product into the product pages.
Mia Ray (31:52):
Kurt, that is so genius.
Kurt Elster (31:54):
Yeah, you're making the video anyway. You're good at it. We know that's what sells it. You put that onto the product and in Shopify now, you could just, I wouldn't even have to do anything. If you could export the video, you could just drag it and drop it as a photo. It'll just pop up. It'll work.
Mia Ray (32:12):
Thank you, Kurt. Do that.
Kurt Elster (32:15):
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Kurt Elster (33:01):
Finale. Inventory isn't just another tool. It's your pathway to seamless inventory management. Get started with their free two week trial and experience the ease. Visit finale inventory.com and remember the code unofficial 2024 for your exclusive offer. That's it for now. Keep tuning in. Social selling is a big part of this. Like you as the brand advocate is a big part of this. And I think being a creator led brand, and early on that idea, many ways you're a trendsetter here, but now you've moved into doing product drops, which I like that model a lot. The strange part about it is, is it frustrating for customers? A majority of your products are out of stock, and that is the nature of this style of business.
Mia Ray (33:52):
It's very frustrating to my customer. But one thing, Kurt, if something sells out, I am bringing it back. Unless it's strictly limited, this is so special. If it's not, I'm bringing it back because a lot of times, Kurt, it started as me trying to test the waters. So a lot of times entrepreneurs will order a ton of something and then they're trying to figure out how to get rid of it. Well, I'm kind of the opposite. I'm going to start with a smaller inventory, see how everyone likes it, and then when I restock, I restocked a ton because I know now that this is what my customer wants. It's been times where I did a smaller inventory drop and they didn't respond to it as well as I thought that they would. Okay, great. I'm not losing out on any money. I'm not stressing about how am I going to get these things. So my little formula that I do for myself is I start small, see how they react to it, then I go bid. And ever since I've started doing that, I don't sit on much inventory. I do still have a fully stocked website. It might not be the particular product that you want, but I have plenty of other
Kurt Elster (35:17):
Things. Yeah, I want my hot pink tote bag out of stock.
Mia Ray (35:25):
But one thing, Kurt, because, and this has a lot to do with scaling, I really didn't know how to scale. It came so quick and so fast that a lot of things did sell out, but I realized that I was missing out on money. When things are sold out, that means I'm missing money. So a lot of times I already have in my head that this is my little routine and this is how it goes. I don't like being sold out of products. I don't. That was never on purpose. It was never on purpose. It was strictly because the demand was higher than my supply. But it still worked in my favor because I never invested too much inventory. And then I was trying to figure out, oh my God, what to do with all of this. Well, I did do that. I did that once. I don't know if this will come up later in our questions, but I did do that one time and it worked to my advantage big time.
Kurt Elster (36:25):
Were you overbought on inventory? Alright, there's a trade off here. If I buy too much inventory, I got bags of cash sitting on my shelves at a warehouse. That doesn't do me any good and I'm paying to store that stuff hoping something doesn't happen to it versus if I sell out of everything, I don't have that problem. But also to your point, no one's buying because there's no product to buy. So what do I do? So you've been too successful here. Tell me about a time you messed things up.
Mia Ray (36:57):
Okay, here we go. I'm so headstrong in what I want out of my brand. I don't let too many people tell me what to do, or you should do this or you should try that. I don't do that often. I usually stick to my guns and I'm like, no, this is my baby. I know exactly what my baby wants and how my baby works. And this time somebody, people suggested that I order this large amount of inventory because we had plans on doing this huge campaign that didn't work out. So now here I am stuck with all of this inventory in which I was banking on this campaign with the celebrity to sell these bags, right? Well, that fell through. And here I am with all of this inventory and Kurt, I'm talking about thousands upon thousands and thousands of bags, right? So I'm sitting here and now I have to lease an additional warehouse just to house these bag.
(38:04):
Well, I said, I'm not going into 2024 with all of these bags. I have to figure something out. They have to go. My money is tied up in this inventory. I'm leasing an entirely new warehouse just to keep them secure. And I said, this was a week before my birthday. My birthday is November 23rd, which this year, well last year it was on Thanksgiving. Sometimes it's on Black Friday. I said, I'm going to do a birthday Black Friday sale, and I'm get rid of these bags. Perfectly good bags. Everybody loves them. I love mine. It was just that I had so many, I had too many per. And I said, on my birthday, I'm going to do 50% off of all of these bags. They have to go. I want people to carry them. I want people to enjoy these bags. They don't need to just sit in this warehouse and collect any more dust hurt. I put those bags on sale on Thanksgiving and from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday I got over 20,000 orders.
Kurt Elster (39:14):
So this was your big Black Friday deal. So you bought all this inventory. You had a celebrity influencer who was on the line, was going to help promote it, and they dropped out.
Mia Ray (39:25):
Yes. Yes.
Kurt Elster (39:27):
Well, guess you're the celebrity influencer now.
Mia Ray (39:29):
Okay. I said, oh, all I need is me.
Kurt Elster (39:34):
See, that became the Black Friday deal. I guess that worked.
Mia Ray (39:37):
It blew my mind. I had never even, we had got maybe about 10,000 orders before during a big drop over a course of a few days, 20 over 20,000. I didn't see it coming. I did not see it coming, but it worked out. So even when I thought that this thing was somewhat of a bad thing, it still turned out to be an amazing thing. I had never done anything like that before, ever.
Kurt Elster (40:07):
What blows me away knowing the success of the business, but also knowing how many untapped opportunities there are in here. There's just a lot of things other people might be doing. Are you doing anything? I would imagine you're not doing anything with really performance burning with Facebook ads, Google ads, because you can't keep the inventory in stock.
Mia Ray (40:30):
Well, I've never ran a Facebook ad before.
Kurt Elster (40:35):
There's so many people who are in their car screaming right now at that comment.
Mia Ray (40:39):
I don't even know how, I don't know now. This year I'd hire a complete marketing team and they're going to do that. But for me, starting in 2010 to sitting here talking with you today, Kurt, I don't know anything about Facebook ads. I've never ran one.
Kurt Elster (40:58):
Yeah, I consider yourself lucky. It's been 15 years and your journey incredible. From where you started to where you got to early on, I bet you had a vision of what success looked like Today. You've achieved that. Has your idea, your vision of success evolved or changed or surprised you in some way?
Mia Ray (41:27):
Oh, deeply. It has deeply evolved. When you're broke, your goal is like, oh, if I ever have a million dollars, oh wow. And now here I am today, and I'm like, oh, yes, that is a great part of it. But it's also, I'm still a student. I'm still learning. Success to me is I can't get comfortable here and not in a way about the amount of money, but just in, I'm such a sponge because I want to do more and by more, I mean even helping people more. It's not too many people that are from where I'm from that can still reach back and tell people, Hey, do X, Y, Z now. That is what success looks like to me. When I can tell my girl who's like, Hey, I'm going to start pajama line and all these different things, and I'm like, oh, do it like this, and you should make sure you do X, Y, and Z.
(42:33):
So if I have that piece of advice that now propels that person into that, that's what success looks like to me. Because at the end of the day, it's like, yeah, I had a dream of being able to be successful and make the money and all those things. All of that is great, but success to me now is having a peace of mind. I am now at the CEO level where I don't have to always be in the trenches or be at the warehouse and know what's going on. That's success to me. I can literally get up and do whatever I want to do and check a few emails and go on about my day. To me, that's success.
Kurt Elster (43:17):
That's beautiful. I love that. What's your day-to-Day? Like? What's a typical day in the life of me, Ray?
Mia Ray (43:22):
So now I get to wake up. So my oldest is 22 now, and then I have a younger 10-year-old. I get to make his breakfast, drop him off at school, come home, check my emails, and I still have a full to-do list. I'm not sitting back somewhere with my feet kicked up. I can now look at a to-do list, and then I can now delegate, okay, this needs to be done. I now have a whole team of people that I can delegate to make sure these things happen. Then sometimes I'll go take a nap. Sometimes I'll get up and do whatever it is that I need to do. But Kurt, I would be lying to you if I told you I still work every day. It just looks a little different, but I still work every day.
Kurt Elster (44:13):
I just keep thinking. It's like it's the freedom, it's the peace of mind. That's the real thing you're getting.
Mia Ray (44:20):
Absolutely.
Kurt Elster (44:21):
For someone who's listening, maybe like a young woman is listening and thinking, I want to start my own fashion brand and my own lifestyle brand, what would you tell them?
Mia Ray (44:30):
This is my advice because I want people to really know that you can start right where you are with what you have. It's never going to be a perfect time. It's never going to be the perfect day. You're never going to have enough money. Even when you think you have enough money, you still don't. It's never going to be all of those things that you think that it has to be. When you think that, think of me a ray, because she did this with zero money, zero background, zero education, but she did it. I was so confident in these bags. I was so confident in this brand Curt that I made everybody else fall in love with it too. I've been in love with it day one. But then for me to stand up, I had to go against people calling me fake. Louis Vuitton laughing at me.
(45:25):
That ain't, that G ain't Gucci, I don't care. I know it's not as glamor aholic. So you have to be so confident in what it is that you are putting out into the world that you become unshakeable. They could not laugh me out of this brand. They could not dog or call it cheap. They couldn't do, I'm unshakeable when it comes to this brand because I believe in it so much and I'm not for everybody. I'm okay with that. I'm not for everybody, but I'm for who I'm for. And it clearly shows that the people who are for me, they want these products. So start and right where you are with what you have could literally propel you into your wildest dreams,
Kurt Elster (46:16):
And that is great advice. And I guarantee the people who are in the comments criticizing you never made a thing in their life. They never, never created anything. That's why they're ripping on you.
Mia Ray (46:28):
Yep, that's right.
Kurt Elster (46:31):
Alright, so where can we find out more about you and about GL Holic Lifestyle?
Mia Ray (46:37):
Well, my website for Glamor Hawk lifestyle is gl maholic lifestyle.com. Of course, on Instagram, I am Mia Ray, so just M-I-A-R-A-Y. I'm not really big on Facebook anymore. I'm going to let the marketing team handle that. I started my Snapchat life all over again and recently, so I'm back on Snapchat at MM M-I-A-R-A-Y. That stands for Moneymaking Me Array. That's where I go to do me, not solely about the brand or anything, but where I could just let my personality shine because after building a brand for 15 years, that is literally all people want me to talk about is work. And sometimes I'm like, I want to play a little bit. But the brand's Instagram is aholic as well.
Kurt Elster (47:31):
Alright, final question, because you got your ear to the streets, I hear. Make a prediction for me, what's coming down the pipe? What might surprise us about the fashion world? Anything?
Mia Ray (47:42):
Oh, good question, Kurt. Well, definitely I feel like many bags have had their moment, but I feel like big bags, big slouchy bags are coming back. If we noticed the bag he is in now, Drake, little baby, all the wrappers are now starting to go oversized. When remember just a few years ago, everybody was wearing skinnys. So I feel like oversize is coming back in fashion and definitely not just in clothing, but in bags as well. So I might have some larger bags coming down the pipeline, so
Kurt Elster (48:18):
I'm not going to hold you to it, but I I'm sure you're right. And you certainly know more than I ever would. You're right. This has been fabulous. Thank you so much for doing this with me and for sharing your journey. And for listeners, absolutely check out Glam Holic lifestyle, check out what they're doing on Instagram. Follow me array. Ton of fun.
Mia Ray (48:38):
Thank you. Thank you, Kurt. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate this.
Kurt Elster (48:44):
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