Staying True to Your Brand Values & Showing Up With Intention
Staying True to Your Brand Values & Showing Up With Intention
Listen
watch
show notes
In this week's discussion, Emily chats with Amanda Dare, founder and owner of Louisville-based, Woman-Owned Wallet and WOW Factor Collective. Amanda is on a mission to put money into the wallets of women. She joins Emily to discuss the challenges faced by women in business and the impact of supporting women-owned businesses in the local economy. They also touch on staying true to yourself, the power of curiosity, intentional marketing, building connections, and creating a supportive community!
TUNE IN FOR TOPICS LIKE:
00:41 Amanda’s journey to entrepreneurship and starting Woman-Owned Wallet
3:08 Putting down roots in Louisville
4:07 Exploring the concept of feminization of tourism
10:50 Building Woman Owned Wallet & and creating community
14:10 Crafting marketing initiatives with intention
16:04 The value of your personal brand when building a local brick & mortar
21:16 Responding to critics or unsolicited advice
27:29 Tactics to level up awareness for your local brand
32:44 Letting your voice lead the way in your overall marketing strategy
37:20 Where you can find Woman Owned Wallet
Listen to this week’s Local Marketing School conversation!
Other episodes you'll enjoy if you enjoyed Amanda’s episode:
#6: Aligning Values & Leveraging Creativity in Partnerships | Catherine Baxter, Nettie
#8: Sourcing, Supply Chains, and Scaling from Scratch | Lucy Dana, One Trick Pony
Don't hesitate to reach out! We'd love to hear from you on Instagram and find out which episodes you're enjoying the most. Your feedback is so important to us! Please take a moment to rate the show and leave a review - it supports our ongoing Local Marketing School journey and helps us develop more content that addresses what you’re hoping to learn more about!
CONNECT
Follow Woman Owned Wallet: Website | Instagram | TikTok
Follow the Woman Owned Wallet Podcast
Connect with Host Emily: LinkedIn | Instagram
Follow Local Marketing School on Social: Instagram | TikTok | YouTube
Follow Hummingbirds on Social: Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook
Ready to work with local influencers? Download our free guide!
Curious what type of influencer you should be working with? Take our quiz!
Stay ahead in the influencer marketing world - Tap into our webinars and resources!
This podcast is produced by Hummingbirds. Learn more about Hummingbirds at hummingbirds.com
read
Emily Steele (00:02)
Hi everybody, welcome to another episode of Local Marketing School. My name's Emily Steele, I'm your host. I'm the CEO, co -founder of Hummingbirds, and we created this podcast to bring you incredible people and topics and ideas that are really moving the needle when it comes to local marketing. Today's guest is Amanda Dare I'm so excited for you to meet her and what she's doing with woman -owned wallet and the impact she's making in Louisville and beyond. So, Amanda, welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Amanda Dare (00:41)
Thanks for having me Emily. I'm very excited as well and I appreciate y 'all reaching out to help me tell this story. So I've actually been an entrepreneur since I was 20 years old about 15 years ago and I've owned six different businesses. My most recent business and my most financially successful and personally impact successful is called Woman-Owned Wallet.
And it is a feminist gift shop, but really the idea of the entire company, because it goes far beyond our 400 square foot shop, is to put money into the wallets of women. And so when you shop at Woman Owned Wallet, you put money in the wallet of a woman. And just going through the entrepreneurial journey, there was so many roadblocks that come up for that, for women in so many different ways, not just entrepreneurial, but like how to navigate those things was really difficult. And I always found that I was just wanting that sisterhood and surrounding myself with that. So Woman Owned Wallet was the best way to promote my financial feminism goals of making sure that when women have money, they have choices, options, they have a future that they get to create. And so often that's not our path. So we have Woman Owned Wallet, like I said, the, the gift shop, we have a great website, womanownedwallet.com. So we ship out every day faster than Amazon. we have been told that we're like this, the sassiness of Spencer's, if you remember Spencer's gift and like the mall and then the quickness of Amazon, the marketplace style, and then also the, design aesthetic of Target. So we're a fun mixture of all those things and we'll get into I'm sure all the facets of the business but the whole goal is to make sure that women are highlighted and celebrated and not just tolerated especially in business.
Emily Steele (02:36)
Whoo, that's that's the end of the show everyone. Are we inspired? Let's go like let's go shopping. No, I'm kidding. Like that's all I need to like definitely like dig in and look at everything you provide. You're in Louisville, Kentucky though. So tell us a little bit about your roots. Is this where you've been starting and growing businesses or like what is what's been the last like what do you say 15 or so years like?
Amanda Dare (02:50)
15 years I went to University of Louisville, moved here for college and never left. I am obsessed with this town. We're a small town. Everybody does kind of know each other, but we have a very big city mentality. We just got our first professional sports team, which is the only one in Kentucky. Racing Louisville is something that we actually work with a lot at the soccer team. So very Ted Lasso vibes over here for me, like learning all the soccer vibies. But we've got a lot of great concerts. Jack Harlow is from here. Diane Sawyer is from here. Jay Law is from here. We have the Kentucky Derby. So a lot of people think of Kentucky and they really should think of Louisville. Louisville is just the most fun place to be, very driven by bourbonism. The whole concept of having prohibition down here was crazy because we used to have like a hundred and 127 distilleries on just Main Street, like alone, and they're revitalizing that. We just had the 150th Kentucky Derby, so it's a really cool city and I'm obsessed with it. And I'm really focused on feminizing tourism in Louisville as well, because a lot of those things are very masculine. And we want to make sure that the heels on the ground feel as important as the boots on the ground around here.
Emily Steele (04:14)
Dang, you just dropped like the best little nuggets. Like, okay, feminizing tourism. I've never heard anyone say that. What does that mean?
Amanda Dare (04:40)
So like I said, there's a lot of, I guess I should go back a little bit. So I, feminism is seems like a dirty word sometimes to a lot of people. There's a lot of connotations, a lot of angry feminists. And of course there's a lot of, you know, passion behind wanting to have equal rights for yourself socially, politically, economically. And it doesn't seem like that crazy of a concept to me, but I know that a lot of people walk in, especially because like I said, you know, Kentucky, if you, if you think of that, there's a lot of small towns. So they come to this big city, quote unquote, and they come in here and they're like, okay, well, I'm kind of hearing these things for the first time or learning about these things for the first time. And if you look around the city, there's a lot of industrial style, that bourbonism, like I said, you know, is typically the the barrels that they're in are all wood, it's all rustic. And for me, the aesthetic is one thing, but then also kind of the masculinity behind like the go, go, go, the hustle, the intensity of a lot of sporting events or different things. And when I say that in Louisville, women are like, yeah, it's super masculine around here.
Amanda Dare (06:02)
So for me, knowing that growing up, I was surrounded by beautiful masculine relationships. I had so much positivity with masculine traits and like my relationships with men were the best. And I always struggled as a very feminine person, a woman and a girl to like really kind of show that feminism is just as important as masculine. And really combining those two is how we're gonna move forward in the world feeling a little more harmonious or balanced in that way. And that it should be welcomed in business situations and in tourism and in every part of our lives just the way that masculine energy is welcomed. So for me, like I said, kind of had those masculine relationships all good, people say feminism, you must hate men. I'm like, I love men. What are you talking about? So for me, just seeing that perspective on how to speak with men and then having these difficult relationships with women, I really explored that a lot. And as I was exploring that, I just noticed how many areas I was in, how many spaces I was in that didn't compliment the femininity of my life, the softness, the nurturing part, the literal nourishment of our people, like all of that. And so I wanted to make sure that any space I was in, especially as someone who promotes women-owned businesses, even for the last 15 years, every business I owned had feminism as kind of an underlying principle. Now it's our screaming it from the rooftop top principle, but you know, I've been exploring this concept for such a long time that when I was in those spaces and I didn't feel comfortable, I couldn't imagine other women from other places having that, like maybe aren't exploring that quite yet, but not feeling comfortable in those situations as well. So lighting, security, amenities in our city, there's a lot that is important to me that I work with like the Downtown Partnership on to make sure that there's art in our, even art in the sidewalks, like, or sorry, the crosswalks actually decreases the amount of like traffic accidents. Like there's a lot of information that if we add in, like I said, kind of that softness, that creativity, and we are referencing, you know, women walking across the street a little bit slower. I got these short little legs, like I can't get across this fast. I don't want to be in a traffic accident. And so, you know, I do a lot of froggering across the street.
Emily Steele (08:19)
Wow. Yes!
Amanda Dare (08:40)
I'm trying to get back and forth between my shop and my event space. And I'm just like, well, if there's even these moments of art in the streets that we haven't done that exploration of yet, that can bring down traffic accidents. We're actually helping women more than we realize. So for me, feminizing tourism is about making sure that women feel safe, secure, and celebrated, not just tolerated, like I said at the beginning in every space that they're in. And for me, I mean, I love Louisville and I want this to be a place that is a haven for women and women -owned businesses.
Emily Steele (09:17)
That is so cool. Thanks for describing even that specific element of like art and the crosswalks. I definitely like, I stop and pause to public art, like in any space, it does just like force a slow down. And that does create more safety.
Amanda Dare (09:30)
Yeah, the slow down is, mm -hmm, the slower, you know, careful and slow, that safe kind of environment and creating that, it will be affected. Women will be positively affected by it through many different ways and lots of little ways every day.
Emily Steele (09:47)
Yeah. Yeah. And I love that we're doing this recording. This is video too. So if someone's tuning in on like Apple Podcasts or Spotify, be sure to catch a little bit of the video or we can link to obviously to what you are sharing. But I would love for you to talk about like what you've created for your area for women's specific businesses and like that also ties into tourism, but also like creating behavior with local residents to know where and why they're shopping.
Amanda Dare (10:18)
It's my favorite thing to talk about. Thank you. Yeah, so I actually opened Woman Owned Wallet, the gift shop in August of 2020. I rented it in April of 2020 thinking it was like, you know, two weeks only of the pandemic. Luckily, my two landlords in my neighborhood are both women as well. So we're putting money into their wallets every time which is just an exciting thing, but they both let me beat out other concepts because they wanted a community space that was impactful for women too. So I just really appreciate them and should give that little shout out to them. But basically during that time, I was moving out of a mall with another storefront that I had with a previous business, moving into the NULU neighborhood.
Emily Steele (10:45)
Yeah.
Amanda Dare (11:08)
And again, recognizing that there just wasn't a lot of highlighting the amounts, the sheer amount of women -owned businesses in this neighborhood within a four to six block radius is 40 women -owned businesses that you can walk into their doors. There's even more than that that are like office spaces and stuff like that. But to actually have that understanding that when you come to Louisville, you can walk around this neighborhood and it's it is this haven of women-owned businesses. So if you're watching our video, I'll show you kind of what it looks like. This is I had many iterations of it over the years, but woman-owned walking tour of Nulu. Nulu is kind of the area that I'm in. And then if you open it up, it feels like Barbie land a little bit and.
Emily Steele (11:41)
Absolutely.
Amanda Dare (12:02)
wear that little pink dot right in the middle so you can kind of see we're surrounded by these little pockets of woman -owned businesses. And then they're all categorized based on whatever you want to do. If you want to shop, eat, go to different experiences, stay with a woman -owned business. And then for this one on the back, this is one of our older ones, actually tells you all of the reasons why shopping woman-owned is a benefit to the economy.
Emily Steele (12:05)
Mmm.
Amanda Dare (12:28)
A lot of people, like I said, have that negative connotation of feminism just from past experiences. And so much more of the money a woman receives goes back into the local economy. It's actually about 90 % going into investments for their families, their communities, education, health care. And that's compared to about 40 % for men. Now that's mostly socially, I know, right? It's mostly like socially driven though, like.
Amanda Dare (12:56)
We've considered men the breadwinners. So a lot of that goes into a home or something like that, like previously. And of course, a lot of that's changing. But for us, if you want to make an impact in your community, it benefits everyone to put money into the wallet of a woman. The fastest way to make that impact is to put it into a woman-owned business, because she has the most control over those finances and where they go. And so that's why it's important for people to view it. And like I said, because I understand that masculine side of maybe the economy and wanting to drive all this economic change, well, we can't leave women out of that conversation because they're our greatest asset. And so I feel like by presenting it in that way, that you benefit when women have money. Hey guys, like you benefit, don't forget. It makes it less scary and more approachable for them as well.
Emily Steele (13:29)
Yes, yes. Yeah, and like studies continue to show us that like women make the majority of purchasing decisions. So it's just fascinating like the discrepancies and like just challenges we still face even though it's like, well, there's dollars in the hands of women and we know the impact we can make, so why aren't we getting there faster? So I love that even something as simple as a brochure can really help people get in that mindset of, it's not like I'm not just doing activities and shopping just to shop. It's like, I can do this with intention, and you make it easy by laying it all out right for them.
Amanda Dare (14:30)
I think, you know, keep it simple, keep it straightforward. And when I saw this opportunity, I mean, it was a marketing option for myself at the time. I wasn't like a booming business like I am right now. So it took my little 400 square feet and made me four or five blocks big. You know, it really blew up that concept of what the impact of the store can really be. And since then we've moved on. We also have our own podcast, Woman-Owned Wallet, the podcast where we speak with women about fostering a positive relationship with your wallet. We tell the money stories of women. So we're trying to break down the taboo that way. The shop does sell all woman -owned products. And then we also have large events where we gather women together and like want them to be their most extra self. And the fashion at these is so fun. But it's all about supporting those womab-owned businesses and having these sisterhood moments that again, it's just something that hasn't been fostered to a level. And I mean, I'm extra as f*ck. So I'm just like, well, if I'm missing it and I can create it and it comes from a place of truly a trauma response for me. So I'm very motivated to do that. And I just want sisterhoods like all around me all the time now. So why not? Why not make sure that it's ready to go and that we can keep driving this forward with this beautiful fostering of a community and sisterhood in that way.
Emily Steele (16:04)
Yeah, you sound like an entrepreneur. I'm like, okay, and a community builder, like such a combo. So I'd love to hear, okay, you get this like Woman Owned Wallet off the ground, like have this, the shop, the physical presence, you've been building businesses before then. So my assumption is that people know of you and like your presence in the community. Do you think that was like a critical part and getting Woman Owned Wallet off the ground? Like, I'd love to kind of Yeah, just double click on that a little bit to see how important kind of a personal presence or personal brand matters in building kind of a local brick and mortar.
Amanda Dare (16:42)
a lot of sense because and I like how you said double click I've never heard it like that. I'm always like I like those little moments. It makes a it does make a lot of sense that this is my most successful business to date. I mean obviously it's my worst recent the thing that you're in now should always be better than the thing you had previously and it's taken me about four years to make what I made in eight years in my last business so we're we're speeding up pretty well but I think that part of that is what you're saying. Like it had already been a decade or 11 years, I guess, that I had gone to networking event after networking event. I show up and I'm not sitting around and I know it's important to have like your elevator pitch and your, and you know, all of that's important, but that is also driven by patriarchal standards of what it should look like to connect with someone else over business. I am there as a human being connecting with other human beings. And I think that makes me more memorable in a way that it didn't always, it wasn't intentional, but I'm serious. Like, let's be friends. Let's connect. Let me know like what's going on behind the scenes. Like we were saying before, I'm not really into small talk. I'm like, who hurt you? You know, what's up? Like, let's dive deep. And that's not for everyone, of course. And I can adjust depending on where I am. But since I was going to so many networking events over the previous 10 years, like, I mean, I was 20, 21, all through, you know, 31 at the time. And I was kind and generous with my knowledge, my information. I was, I was kind with that, but I was kinder to say like, how are you? Are you okay? How are you feeling versus just here's my pitch and I'm immediately trying to sell you. so I think the authenticity and genuine brands, and people knowing my story of like trying to find that, feminine energy in myself and surround myself with it. was this part of my story for such a long time that everyone seemed to jump on board as soon as we got going and got started. but there's also some negative parts to that. You know, if I, there's been people that If I don't support one thing or on my ass, you know, like, where is it for this? Where is it for that? And I'm just like, y 'all, I'm also a human, you know, I'm also a person. I also have struggles I'm going through and I'm just, I'm just out here doing my very best every single day. And if it can't make an impact and can't follow through people will be like, you let me down. We didn't do this partnership. I'm like, actually I've been thinking about you and trying to find the right space to make this happen. Like A true collaboration has to be beneficial for both parts. And a lot of times it'll come across like, they want to utilize my community or utilize my skill set to further themselves. And I'm like, I understand that, but that's not how I built this. And that's not how I'm going to interact building it further. It has to come from that genuine place of where it actually makes sense to work together. So I do think that the personal brand and the personality that I have and also the desire to connect was not always understood as one of my skill sets and benefits to the brand, but it truly is.
Emily Steele (20:02)
Mm -hmm. I feel like we might be a very similar person in so many ways. I just to like further that since we're into the deep conversations, right? Like I have been pitching or I've been hosting an event in Des Moines called Flourish and it gives women and gender non-conforming individuals the opportunity to pitch their business idea to a live audience and everyone pays like $25. You know, the more people who attend all the money goes to a winner that the community votes for at the end. It's a super feel good thing. But over the years, you get these people who are very critical about the way the website is or isn't, or the forms, or who's on your review committee of who's reviewing these applications. And I'm like, do you want to host the event? This is hard work. And this is something I do on the side as a passion, because I care about this group of humans, and no one else serves them in this way. And so it I think we probably could relate to the fact, it's just so fascinating to be like, we pour out of a very full cup and like so honored and excited to do this work. And it can just be like, how do you really, this is where we're gonna go with this. Okay, well, you know, it's just fascinating to receive those types of messages where it's like, it's still not enough. Okay, how do you handle that? Are you just like, thank you for your feedback, I appreciate it. Like, or do you try to like explain? depends probably on the person, I'm sure.
Amanda Dare (21:52)
but I would say that I have nothing to defend and no one to impress. I am working every day to be proud of myself when I get into bed and put my head on the pillow. I know that that could seem even harsh. It's like, I have no one to impress. Of course there's people I want to like, you know, make sure we get to work together and things like I just had a very important meeting before this with, Racing Louisville, which is our women's soccer team. And it's like, I said, that professional, soccer team. But I'm not going to enter a meeting even with the VP of marketing for a professional sports team and say, and like not be who I am because that is exactly what they're looking for. They've, they had worked with us previously and they wanted to work with us more and communicated that. And if they didn't it's totally fine. You know, there's, luckily there's so many people to interact with even in technically kind of a smaller town. I mean, we're not small town, but you know what I'm saying? Like entrepreneurial town, there's a little small group of us, especially women. I'm like, there's even less. Yeah. So oftentimes I address it. you know, I'll thank them and let them know that.
Emily Steele (22:48)
Yeah, yeah, yep. Right, yep.
Amanda Dare (23:12)
Well, it does depend on their tone and everything. but sometimes I just say, okay. Okay. Okay. If I'm like not interested in pursuing it further, I'll say expand on that for me. And I let them do the work, because they're the one with the idea. And I'll say, if I know what they have going on in their business or something, I'll be like, I actually think that you could apply that to your own business. And I'm, I'm, I'm excited that we had this brainstorming session and I move on.
Emily Steele (23:27)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Amanda Dare (23:41)
I always sit back and say like, okay, I received this feedback. Is it something that does make sense for me to interact with? But it's not my job to have that interaction with them in person. It's I appreciate challenges and criticism and will self-reflect, but that doesn't have to be an immediateof placating their emotions in that moment or what I should do. Should is like, okay, well you should, you know, like you're saying, like do you want to host it? And of course those thoughts can run through your mind, but from a place of like genuine curiosity and like that whole kind of mindset around, you know, I'm curious about what you said, why don't you explore that further? Like tell me what you're thinking, I just keep asking questions. And then if it does seem like something that they're really willing to collaborate on or move forward with, or it is a great idea, I'll thank them. And if it is something that I'm, you know, I have this, I have explored that before. I appreciate you bringing that to my attention. It's something I've explored and here's how I'm going to, here's how I'm moving through it. If it makes sense to say that, but at the end of the day, they're not in my bank account, you know, and I know that people say a lot, like they're not feeding me, f*king me or financing me then like Sorry dude, like the amount of men that come into the store and are like, you should have a men's support men shirt. And I say, that sounds like a great idea for you to make. You know, like you can have your own brand. Feminism even looks very different to everyone. This is my white woman and I'm a cis woman. I'm heterosexual. Like it's, and that is okay. Like to pretend that that's not enough. And when I just became enough for myself would ruin me. I spent years hating myself and years not doing things that that made sense for me at my own detriment and that was just harm. I'm not going to harm myself anymore or make myself smaller or larger for someone else. It just has to be and trust me you talked to me last week I'd be like I don't know you know like it changes a lot but I try to hold this this energy that I am enough for me and I'm enough for me, I'm the one who spends all the time with me. And I wasn't enough for a long time. So if I'm finally at that place where there's peace, in order to take away that peace from me, you'd have to do a lot of work. And that's a lot of mindset and a lot of, utilizing that 15 years to my advantage. because I haven't, I've let people walk all over me a thousand times over and.
Emily Steele (26:03)
Totally. Yeah.
Amanda Dare (26:30)
I've done things that I didn't realize would be seen as manipulative to someone else. I just didn't have that understanding. So now questions are definitely the best way I move forward when someone offers me unsolicited advice. Super fun, yay. And honestly, I don't get criticism from women that are in the arena. I just don't. They will ask me if I'm open to something and I will respond if I am at that moment or not. And it's the people that I want to be surrounded with are not coming down on me in a harsh way where they actually aren't interested in the answer. They are listening to understand and not listening to respond. And that's how I enter the conversation as well.
Emily Steele (27:00)
Mm -hmm curiosity so important. I love it Okay, so as you grow and move all like are there any other things that say someone's listening and considering starting their own retail boutique or something like this like real physical presence in their own city Is there anything else you have done or did that felt like? this really helped us level up our presence or awareness or sales that someone could take and run with or experiment?
Amanda Dare (27:24)
Don't be scared to go to new areas of your town to show up at a, you know, we have like a NULU business association. We have ones in every, you know, part of our town. Going by yourself to something also seems kind of scary, but it is the only way to know that for me, it's actually less scary because no one's watching me. No one's waiting for me to just like, Well, are you going to go talk to them? You know, or something like that. Like to me, if I can just show up and again, it doesn't have to be as scary if it's, it's in your own town and you know, people of course are going to talk a lot and everything, but I think it's really important to know that again, you're enough, you're going in there and really get what you came for. If you came to make one connection, make one, make one and let that be enough.
Emily Steele (28:26)
Yeah.Mm -hmm.
Amanda Dare (28:52)
You know, if you came to speak in front of a room, do that, you know, and standing in your own way is not going to get you to the business that you want to be in. And I think even doing that and trust me walking through it, I'm definitely standing in a place of a lot of authority right now, but it's not, it's not that I haven't struggled through these things. It's that time that I took and that intention that I had throughout this entire 15 years and honestly, my whole life I've always been creative and always been a leader. And especially if you are a creative person, remember that the value of your creativity is so precious. Creativity is simply problem solving. So being a creative is one of the most beautiful things that you can give to the world. So show up in those spaces, get what you came for, and don't overestimate or like think negatively of If you didn't get it, try again, just like every other part of your business. Make those connections and try to make sure that you're not having a crutch of someone else going with you. Welcome people into your conversation. Maybe make your own name tag. That's really fun. You can show off your business.
Emily Steele (29:54)
Yeah, I like this. Okay, like a magnet wand type of thing. Yeah. Okay.
Amanda Dare (30:12)
Yeah, they got them on Etsy, lots of cute girlies and, and guys making them out there. So definitely show yourself even though it's scary because the benefit and the reward of that is so much better. Like you think you're going to move slower by showing yourself in business. You move so much faster. You're going to attract or repel those people that you want around you faster. So if you're really concerned that you're not moving in a way that you want to in your business, being more yourself in every situation you go into will also bring the people to you that you want to be around. You know, the fact that this professional, I can't even believe I'm saying this. I have a 400 square foot gift shop and the Yum Center, which has all of our concerts comes to us to.
Emily Steele (30:54)
Mm -hmm.
Amanda Dare (31:03)
promote the women artists coming into town. Like Kasey Musgraves is coming and now I get to go see her, who's literally my favorite because the Yum Center reached out to us. You know, like they got us approved with her PR team. Like people are saying our name in rooms we're not in. So always showing up as yourself, always making sure, and yourself is different than your business. Always remember that as well.
Emily Steele (31:08)
Yeah, yeah.
Amanda Dare (31:32)
You know, like let your business always show up as it's true self. And mine is sassy. She's silly. She curses, you know, there's some of our most popular products are, are curse words, right? When you walk in the door and I used to apologize to like parents and they're like, I don't care. And I'm like, okay, cool. Then you're my people. Whereas I was working my store yesterday and like some people literally came in, didn't walk past the first table, laughed and walked out and I'm like, okay, that's cool. I'm glad that from the first table, I didn't waste any more energy on this conversation. They knew, let them filter themselves out. You know, it's okay. Yeah, so I mean, that's a lot of information and I'm always a long-winded girly. So just kind of take it in and take what works for you today and know that it...It's difficult and it's beautiful and it's challenging and overwhelming, but it's worth it. The lifestyle is the one that works for me and I hope it's the one that works for you. And if it's not, there's lots of other lifestyle choices you can make. It's okay. Like it's fun.
Emily Steele (32:35)
Mm -hmm. Mm. Yeah. That is so true. And I think what you said is so funny to me because I think so many people would potentially be looking for you to be like, well, I post on Instagram five times a week and I send an email once a week and these are the things I do. But what you're saying is this is the person I am being and who I am and it's about being an essence and energy over activity. Is that, do you think that's fair?
Amanda Dare (33:10)
I think that's absolutely fair. And I mean, don't get me wrong, I have a team, I didn't always, and we do post a lot on social media. We've gone viral on TikTok multiple times, but it's for the things that kept us truest to who we are and where we are at in that understanding. Kind of like think of Taylor Swift. Like she makes the personal stuff good for the communal. So she can take something so personal or herself and connect with you on it. That's something that I can see what's going on in the world and I'm aware. And by going to every one of these meetings, having these conversations, having women text me randomly that they did something, they wore a dress to work that was pink because they didn't feel comfortable wearing it before, but they saw me at an event and I showed up in my pink jumpsuit with my dolly mug and my heart sunglasses and they finally felt comfortable to wear it. Like that's a win. That person has an emotional connection to me and to the brand. And now they've done something for themselves that brought them joy that I didn't ask them to do. I didn't even ask, I didn't ask them to tell me, you know, it's that communal idea of like when we do stand up for ourselves, we do stand up for all women. When we stand in our, our own vulnerability, our own, that openness, when we stand in that, we welcome other people into it. And that is very attractive because it is scary. It's in for me. I mean, I was criticized my whole life by my mom, my grandma, like the women in my life. You can't hurt me as much as my mom did. Sorry. I'm in therapy for that. Like, don't even worry. But like, I know.
Emily Steele (34:36)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Amanda Dare (35:04)
And I mean, she's still in my life and I still love her, but like we're very different people and this is how I can respond to it. I wanna sit in my joy the way I used to sit in my grief and I want to drink it in and I wanna have that energy about, for me, for my life.
Emily Steele (35:04)
Yeah. Yeah.
Amanda Dare (35:25)
You know, and I think that people, if we get down to business, they're, they're not buying a product. They're buying motivation. They're buying energy. They're buying excitement. And if I can't show up as myself, I'm not going to make a sale. Also, it comes down to that too, but it doesn't feel as like clinical as that could sound, but it feels right when you find, you know, the passion that you have and the trauma response that you want to, that you want to solve and a way to make money doing that while supporting your community and the women that work for me, you know, having healthcare and, and making sure that, that the women leaders that are coming up have opportunities and understand that we're, we're leading other humans is such a beautiful thing that I, I just don't want anybody to say, well, I can't do that for this reason or that reason, or they'll say this or they'll do that. Are you proud of yourself?
Emily Steele (36:00)
Mm -hmm.
Amanda Dare (36:22)
Are you proud? Are you enough for you? I can take a lot, so I'm a lot and I'm, I'm, I maintain her. She's good. She's happy. Mm hmm.
Emily Steele (36:24)
Yeah. Yes. Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Yep. Yep. I'm good enough for me. I love that. What a beautiful conversation. I think this will really open people's perspectives to looking at business through the lens of self -love and care and trusting you're being extra yourself is enough and can be a quote unquote strategy to building connections with the people who want to buy from you. So, okay, how do people buy from you? How do people, I mean, if you are tuning in outside of Louisville, which hopefully we have a handful of people, they can obviously come visit you. Can they shop online? I think you mentioned that. Like, how do people get plugged in?
Amanda Dare (37:10)
So I'll first say that I love talking, obviously. And so Woman Owned Wallet, singular woman, not women, Woman Owned Wallet. The podcast is on Shopify, Spotify, and Apple. It's on our website as well if you're looking for it. But that is the space where if you really want to get to know, if you like this energy that I have, it's it feels good for me to talk with women and have, you know, these little healing moments and help them discover the stories of them and money. And, you know, we get into true crime, we get into smoking, we get into being mamas, we get into being there for everyone else. But it's that, like I said, that interest and that curiosity around...
Emily Steele (37:50)
A little bit of everything.
Amanda Dare (38:04)
their story and really getting to know them. I find people so interesting. So Woman -Owned Wallet, the podcast is, it comes out on Fridays. And so that's a really great spot. Everywhere we are is a Woman Owned Wallet. So womanownedwallet.com. We have a very, I spent a lot of money on this sh*t, y 'all. Go and look at this website. She's fancy. She's so fancy.
Emily Steele (38:10)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Amanda Dare (38:31)
And what's beautiful about it is that even the tour and exploring that it's on the website. We made bios for every one of these businesses. We connected that with videos to go with each one of them as well. So if you have social anxiety, you're like, I want to visit Louisville, but where do I go? Like you can watch these videos and actually see what it looks like, understand what they have. And not only that we have, like I said, so many women in businesses, you can shop by brand, by collection, by value. So if you're looking for black owned business, excuse me, a black owned business, a mama owned business, a veteran business, a queer community, a queer business, anything that you're looking for. You know that when you shop at Woman Owned Wallet, you put money in the wallet of a woman and that benefits the community. So I just really appreciate y 'all checking that out because she was expensive and I love her. So please check it out. And that's where you can connect with us on everything but Instagram, TikTok, all of the goodies.
Amanda Dare (39:28)
The only thing I don't do very well is LinkedIn, so don't look there, because it's old. No. She's my next one to conquer is LinkedIn.
Emily Steele (39:32)
Okay, don't go to LinkedIn. No, everywhere else. She's there. Amazing. Okay. Okay. I'll be I'll be on the lookout. I hang out there a little bit. well, thanks so much for being on the podcast today and sharing your story and what you've built in Louisville and beyond and the impact you're creating is is so inspiring. And it just like, raises like a flag for women in this work and what we get to do. And I just as a woman, I resonate and I'm so grateful for you.
