United Monograms

E-Commerce Conference

April 14, 2019

This past week Sean and I attended an E-Commerce Conference called Modern Commerce here in Charleston held by eHouse Studio and Shopify Plus. I had the opportunity to listen to people speak from brands like Magnolia, Southern Tide, Draper James, Gerber and Kopari to name a few. These are brands I look up to so I was super excited to listen to them speak and try to pick up some wisdom! It was a great networking event for United Monograms and got us thinking about a lot of things we can improve on, as well as made us realize things we are doing a great job at.

After listening to these speakers, a few things stuck with me and have me thinking more about them today. 1. Content is KEY and we need to be doing more of it. 2. People want RELATABILITY and 3. FAILURE is not always a bad thing and EVERYONE is failing in some way even when everything looks perfect via social.

The one speaker who really resonated with me was Helen Nightingale, the Director of E-Commerce for Draper James. Maybe seeing Reese Witherspoon’s face all over the slideshow drew me in, but her presentation was awesome and so thought provoking. The title of her presentation was ‘Dress for Success: How One Dress Changed Our Business.’ Helen talked about their best selling dress and why it sold so well. They literally cannot keep stock of it since they released it in Fall 2018. Here is the dress that they cannot keep stock of for months and months. They have had to re-order it many times. Can you guess WHY this dress or more specifically, this photo of this dress, did so well?

‘Celebrities, they’re just like us!’ right? Everyone loves when celebrities feel RELATABLE. In this photo, Reese is in the kitchen, hair looks a little messier (even though it still looks perfect!), looking comfy and casual. All women feel like they can relate to this photo. This makes them feel like they can look and feel great in that dress too! Draper James uses a ton of photos with Reese in them, but this one just really spoke to the people! Most of their photos range from 3,000-6,000 likes, this one almost reaching 19,000. This reiterated the fact to me that people want to see the relatable stuff. Yes, a pretty picture is a pretty picture – but at the end of the day people want to feel a connection. For United Monograms, I know we can show more of the behind the scenes, day to day, not so pretty things. Also, in the photos we’re posting – people want to see the item being worn at normal everyday life events and activities not always just pretty people posing. On the business and analytics side – if something works well, you have to break it down piece and piece and figure out why it worked so well and try that strategy again in the future! They took this photo, broke it down, and used this in their marketing strategy moving forward. It is crazy how one image can change your whole business, but that is the beauty of Instagram and social media!

Another great presentation was done by the CMO and Director of Guest Services at Magnolia. Hearing about how great it is having Chip and Joanna as your boss was fun, but the main thing I learned from these guys was that even the big/super successful companies make the same dumb, silly, idiotic-feeling, money looseing mistakes we do on a daily basis. The name of their presentation was ‘Fail Smarter’ which is something everyone can learn to do. They started off by reading us the ‘Magnolia Manifesto’ that is such an awesome mantra.

I think everyone can relate to this and only have positive thoughts when they read it. My favorite line from this manifesto is: “We believe that failure needn’t be a negative thing; rather, we learn from our mistakes and fail smarter next time” We have already had a lot of practice with this. Going through some ups and downs over the years has been tiresome, but we always get smarter. We know not to give up when those rough patches hit. It was nice to hear it reinforced over & over that ALL companies make mistakes. Making mistakes is OKAY, as long as you learn from them.

The last presenter, the CEO of The Goulet Pen Company, talked all about CONTENT and why it is so important to be creating it constantly. This guy and his wife have been making content about FOUNTAIN PENS for years and years… and people actually care about it! In fact, 130,000+ people subscribe to their YouTube Channel. Very impressive. They found a niche and now have a large following of fellow pen lovers. This shows that people will start to care if you keep putting it out. Consistency is key. They have over 1,500 videos on YouTube. They went back and showed us their first video from years ago. It is safe to say they just went for it when they first started, and didn’t wait for ‘the perfect time to start’. You can see their set up, camera, audio was not the best – and that’s okay! They decided they wanted to make some content, and just started recording. Very authentic and cool to see!

Overall, the conference was a great event for us to attend. It struck up a lot of conversations and we have a bunch of things we’ll be working on moving forward! It’s all about execution, daily effort & consistency over long periods of time. We will take some of the lessons from the conference and continue to grow United Monograms – We know one day we will have a great success story that other young business can study & learn from!

XOXO, Shelby

How We Started United Monograms

April 2, 2019

The path to this company didn’t start with Monograms. It’s safe to say that Monograms found us in a way.

Where to begin?! I graduated college in 2011 with an Elementary Education degree. I was never really passionate about teaching - it was just something I thought I would enjoy and be good at. I knew deep down teaching was not going to be what I did for the rest of my life. During my first years as a kindergarten teacher in Philadelphia, I started helping Sean with his early business endeavors. He was having some early success selling tees & tanks to different audiences he was building through social media. Twitter was HUGE at the time and he had a few growing accounts of 20-50k followers where he would sell. (Back when your followers actually saw what you posted and advertising was FREE!) He had enough success to start working on the business full time. It was really cool to see how social media had such a large impact on a small business, and that was only the beginning of the social media craze. Our first main business was called United Tees.

I started helping in many different ways - most of all bringing a girl’s perspective & adding ladies designs and shirts to the websites. We spent most of our nights and weekends learning how to use Photoshop, Shopify (our selling platform), and the ins and outs of starting a business (& still learning every day!) One of our audiences was American Pride themed, and welcomed a very country/southern audience. This is where monograms come into play! Many of the female customers would ask us “Can I get a monogram on this?” To be honest, I really didn’t know what a monogram was. Being from the north, they weren’t really a thing. I remember seeing an engraved jewelry dish my friend had from her sister's wedding and I was always confused why the initials were in the wrong order! It is funny to think about being monograms are my whole life now. Through some research, we discovered that monograms were worth a try. I convinced Sean to get me a $500 at home embroidery machine. Through lots of patience, and many youtube videos, I learned how to work the embroidery machine.

I was so pumped when I made my first successful embroidered monogram sweatshirt! It was a grey quarter zip sweatshirt with neon pink thread (STILL one of our best selling products!) I soon wanted to monogram anything and everything. We started to notice how popular monograms were (especially in the south & east coast). It was like a whole world existed we never knew about. There weren’t too many monogram companies focusing on their direct selling through e-commerce, only smaller mom & pop shops. First we created a ‘Monogram’ section on United Tees and a store on Etsy.

After a few months and a lot of success, I wanted the monogrammed items to have its own site and own identity. I didn’t want to sell on a “boyish” site that had navy and red as their colors and had ‘merica f* yeah’ shirts (haha) on it. I wanted to build a brand that was feminine, pink, and pretty! That’s when United Monograms started and the beginning of an amazing ride.

The workload soon consumed my nights after teaching, and weekends. I would even call off work to get the orders out (whoops!) I really fell in love with building this business, and brand. It was time to make a decision about my future and my career. Sean had so much confidence and faith in me, us, and our little business. With the early success we had and the drive I saw in Sean to grow the business - it was an easy choice to quit teaching and work on this thing full time. Most of our friends and family were super supportive, but there were definitely a few people that thought I was crazy! It is a little scary not having that security and certainty of the future - but if you are passionate about something you need to take that leap of faith and go for it!

After committing to working on this business full time - we started to plan our life together. Being an online business, with not much equipment or employees at the time, we noticed that we had a rare opportunity where we could run this business from anywhere! Feeling confident & adventurous, we decided to move to Charleston, South Carolina- a beautiful Southern city and a place where monograms are EVERYWHERE! You know they say ‘Great things happen outside of your comfort zone’ and I believe it took us leaving our family, friends, and everything we’ve been comfortable around to truly get this business going. We have been here since Fall 2014 and love it.

The past 5 years of growing this business have been pretty crazy with many many ups and downs. One of Sean's favorite quotes is “never get too high, never get too low” which we’ve certainly had to practice. From shipping packages out of the second bedroom of our first apartment, to renting out a trailer and hiring our first employee, to now having a second office space and 11 employees - I can confidently say that I am excited for our future as a company - I think we are destined for great things! United Monograms has taught me so many things and I am happy to continue sharing this journey with y’all!

XOXO, Shelby

United Monograms Monogrammed Boutique Style Tops

March 19, 2019

United Monograms has released a brand new collection called the ‘Boutique Style’ Collection that we are so excited about. We always try to incorporate the classic and timeless monogram into current trends and styles and these pieces do just that! Our site has hundreds of comfortable athleisure style items. From hoodies, crewneck sweatshirts, t-shirts, and long sleeves – we’ve nailed it in the comfortable and casual categories. We wanted to add a new and fun collection that can be worn on days where you want to feel a little more dressed up! These tops are perfect for a casual lunch with friends or a day-time activity!

I wanted to share two of my favorites from our first round of items from this new collection. One of my favorite pieces from our Boutique Collection is this Monogrammed Striped Button Down Top. The fabric this is made out of is SO soft, truly feels like butter! The colors in the stripes are so fun and bright – perfect for spring and summer. I love how it can be worn tied or tucked in. The small monogram above the stripes just adds the perfect personalized touch!

Next up is this amazing Blue Monogrammed Off The Shoulder Blouse. If you know me, you know I LOVE off the shoulder shirts. They are my favorite! This one is especially cute with the ruffle detail and tie feature near the cuff. This top will be perfect for a lunch date with girlfriends!

If you haven’t already, make sure to check out United Monograms and all of our fun new stuff!

XOXO, Shelby