 Welcome to another episode of Adventures in Commercialization. This week we're gonna look through a little bit of a different lens. I have a couple of them just right here. One of my girls, I've been trying to get her on the show for a little while, and this is Della Ray. She has, I love, E-Y-E-L-U-V, dot U-S. And she is an entrepreneur, a woman, a mother, and just rocking it out here, having her own glasses, industry, pop-up shop, and getting herself out there. So welcome, Della Ray Howard. Hi. Hi, girl, how are you today? I'm very well, thank you, how are you? So I knew we had to bring you on this show when we have people from Hawaii. You know, everybody needs some really nice glasses. These ones were custom made by Della for me. So if you want someone as cool as these, you have to ask her for them. But she has an array of different types of styles, different colors, even some customs, if you want some little feathers or some fun, the jazzles on them. She does pop-up shops. I've actually personally helped her out with some of her little pop-ups. And so we just want to talk to her a little bit about, you know, how she maneuvered this type of industry through COVID. Our theme has been over the past couple of weeks of people who have turned their passions into careers. And so I'd like to ask you first of like, how did you come up with this idea, Della? It's kind of a funny story. I was waiting tables at a restaurant here in Portland. And in the summertime, when we have the patio open, we can wear our sunglasses on the patio. So, excuse me, when I was waiting tables, people would just comment on my sunglasses and I started selling them right off my face to our guests. And I would go home in the evening and my partner would ask me, what happened to your sunglasses? And I said, I sold them again right off my face. And he says, why aren't you doing this for business? And four years later, here I am. And so your current model is pop-up shop, which is literally like a easy up tent with, as you can see right behind her, just like a nice little display. How do you get into this type of, you know, industry? Are you at like local markets or like what kind of marketing do you do for yourself? Well, first I just started out as my friends that throw events and shows, like house music shows around town. And I would just, they asked me if I wanted to come in and sell sunglasses during these events, like at nightclubs. And I was really surprised at how successful it was because, you know, you're in a nightclub, but it's like people love wearing sunglasses at night. So it worked out really well. And then it just kind of snowballed from there. Just people started seeing me out and I would get invited to different events. And I do source a lot of them just through Facebook event pages. I'll just go and kind of scroll through and see what's going on around town. And I'll reach out to the producer, the organizer, and say, hey, this is who I am. This is what I have to offer. Would you like to, are you interested in having me as a vendor? So as everybody just saw, that is Della's Facebook page. So are the only ways you're marketing yourself is via Facebook and Instagram, or do you have a website or is it just really social media and word of mouth? I'm just doing social media and word of mouth right now. We're still working on the website. It's been a bit of an arduous process, but we're getting there. So eventually there will be a website where people can order glasses through there, but right now it's all just event-based. You're doing so great though. I mean, just the word of mouth and really just taking things right off of your face and building a whole career out of it, that's absolutely phenomenal. We're self-owned, self-run, single mother as I hear also as well. How do you manage your work time? Do you like in these events and when did you realize this was gonna be your full-time job? When did you stop going to like waiting tables? When I got so busy that I just, I didn't have time to wait tables anymore. I was just, you know, this is by far more lucrative than anything I've ever done in my entire life. And I was just really happy to be able to quit serving. And it was the best. I was really scared at first. But all of my friends and everyone around me was very supportive. Like though you can do this, just quit that job and throw yourself into this. And that's what I did. And I haven't had to wait a table in four and a half years now. And so COVID hit during this four and a half years. And so it's a little bit difficult to think of like when you're thinking of a pop-up shop, it's something that's very in-person industry. How did you try to like survive through that or pivot through that? It was kind of, it was pretty difficult at first. It was, I was scheduled to do a lot of festivals that was supposed to, the summer that COVID hit that first summer, I was, that was supposed to be my first circuit, like festival circuit. And all of that got canceled, obviously. So I was with not having a website or any other way to sell. I got kind of nervous. And luckily I have a lot of support around me, but I would just start setting up shop in my backyard. And people would ask me like, hey, I really need some sunglasses. I'm like, okay, well, let me curate some looks for you. What sizes do you like, shapes, whatever. And I would pull those and I would set up shop in my backyard. And I would either, if they were comfortable with it, I would stay in the backyard, six feet or whatever. Or I would just stay in the house and let them shop. I'm not gonna lie, I am one of those people. So anybody who's in Hawaii just know, even if you live out of state from where Della is in Portland, you can definitely subscribe and get some awesome glasses. She hooked me up. I definitely needed a little bit of extra eyewear during the whole COVID. She would send me pictures of different styles and the color that I was requesting, photographs of them, and then send me, you know, array of different styles. And then I could just pick what I wanted and then she would send them to me. I think I got them in like two or three days. It was absolutely phenomenal. How do you pick your pricing structure? What is your pricing structure? Well, I just do one for 20 or three for 45. And it seems to go over really well. Sometimes people are like, $20, oh, that's too much. But other people, they don't got an eye at it. So it's a good structure. And some things are a little bit more than others, just depending on size and style and if I've added anything to them. Yeah, so she does do customs as well, which are super fun. If you saw it from the beginning of the show, we have feathers and a lot of other things. It's just a great model. I think it's a lot, it's really different. You see some other people out there that have some pretty general styles. These are quite different as you can see because like pull them up, you got a feather on them, all different styles, shapes, colors, she's very intuitive to picking them yourself. How do you pick your glasses? There's a couple of different places that I source from and I just go through and I scroll and I scroll and I scroll until I find like really cool stuff. I kind of started buying stuff that I like and then once I started doing this, I realized, oh, there are different shapes and other things that I don't normally wear that I need to have for other people. Right, yeah, she does do some crazy ones out there that say like no on them, but then you come around and you take a picture of yourself, they say on. Those are really fun. She has a totally different style. I think that we went to a pop-up shop one time and there was another sunglasses face, but she has a completely different style than anybody else. So it wasn't a threat or anything strange on them. They could definitely come and it's different. Sunglasses is a very, very wide market as people in Hawaii may know already. If you guys need glasses coming out there in comparison to Portland or she's here for you. So let's talk a little bit about the pop-up shop mentality. So why did, although we hit COVID and we're doing Facebook and Instagram, why did you pick pop-up shop? I mean, I heard a lot about your networking and your support from the community and people asking you to do that, but why did you pick a pop-up shop rather than some other model of working? I know you got to fit everything in your car, you have a lot of inventory with glasses. Like, how does that work? It's just the best platform, I think, especially because you're putting something on your face and it's like you wanna put it on and see yourself and it's the experience of being able to do that that I think really draws people in and it was just the best way to do it. Yeah, it is a lot of work. I do pack in and pack out and sometimes some of these events I do are in a park and I have to climb a really big hill to get there, but it's worth it and it's so much fun and people, they just love it. That's like, you get the whole experience that way. And so you're self-run, self-owned and self-marketed. If anybody just saw Instagram right now, we'll show that again in a minute, but you are like a one-man show. How have you thought about bringing in other people or is this just like all you and everything you do? Yeah, I have a few friends that help me. They'll help me set up and, you know, because a lot of times I'm a human, I need to have a bathroom break and they'll put me hanging out with me and they'll watch the table and sometimes I'll be able to take off for like, you know, 30 minutes and high rounds at the event and I'll come back and they'll be like, hey, I sold like three pairs of glasses. That's awesome, great. So I have a lot of people that want to be involved in it. And you do full product process as well, so. You are a walking billboard for yourself. I know that people are, like you said, buying them directly off your face, which is so fun. You have a style and a facade that totally draws people in. I know that I worked table with Della before and I feel like, like you said, I was there just to set up and take down. You are the shell. Yeah, I've actually, I was gonna have my partner Rob, he was gonna run the booth for me one time. I was out at the festival and they really wanted me there and I said, well, hey, I have, you know, Rob can come and he can run it and set it up and it'll be great, but they responded with, well, we really want the Della experience. It's just not the same without you. So that's, it gets pretty wild back there. But people, it's a party. It's something to do at an event where you don't have to leave to go do do it. It's like, it's my table, my booth is, it's a party within itself. It's almost like a little escape from what you're doing and where you're at into something else. And it keeps people, it keeps people there and people come to these events a lot of the time not planning on coming out, but because they know that I'm there and they know that that's where they have to go in order to get these glasses. And that as a producer of an event or an organizer, they love that because I'm bringing people in and then they stay and they spend money at the bar and they pay for, if there's a cover to get in. And so it works out really well for everyone. And you do need to try things on. So I recently, I mean, I work from home now. I started staring at a screen and it's different from sunglasses, but you, I started to think, okay, I need some glasses to put on my face so that I can look at the blue screen. And then they have this Zilu and Zenny's and all these places where they have this, like try it on, take a picture of my face and put them on my face. But I don't know if they're gonna look good. Like are they really gonna look that good when I put them on my face? So I appreciate the experience of being full, in the realm, putting them on, trying them on. I mean, you have a million different designs for a million different faces. So I mean, as you can see in the background right there, she has something for everybody. It's a whole, like you said, an experience to come try something on and pick it out and go. You can't, I mean, you can send me some pictures, but who knows what it's gonna actually look on somebody's face. So the model you have is really great. When we look at pop-ups, your pop-up, as I've known you for a couple of years, your pop-up has grown. It is, you have friends who've created signs and logos and the experience. I think you just got like some yellow backgrounds which really like brighten up the light. Right now you have some pink in the background. What kind of things do you choose to really set yourself out from other pop-up shops? Because when we're doing pop-up shop, you have your shop next to somebody else, next to somebody else, next to somebody else, correct? Yeah. Yeah, so what do you do to like really set yourself out from whether there's another glasses shop or just another shop in general to really bring people in? Is it the location you pick at the festival or at the event? Is it the lights and experience? Like what do you do? What is yours then? Well, my business colors are like really bright pink and almost like a turquoise blue. So I just try to go with anything that's eye-catching. Like my easy-up pop-up is bright, bright yellow and it almost, when all the walls are on it, it kind of looks like a circus tent. So it's like, people see it and they're like, oh, what's going on over there? What is that? And then I just bring like really fun stuff along. Like I have a disco ball that I hang from the top of it in the middle. I have all sorts of just like really kooky, funny things that have nothing to do with glasses whatsoever that I just set up and like weird pictures or like I have this plaque that I found at Goodwill. It's a plaque of Jesus and I like put gems or all over it and I put a disco ball on top of his head. And I wrapped it in fairy lights. So it's like, it lights up and people are just like, oh, well, how much for that? And you're like, that's what you want for sale, buy some glasses. Yeah, I'll bring like a really old fake phone and just have that out on the table and people are like, oh, it's for me. And then they end up coming in and buying stuff. So it's just like funny little things that set you apart from just someone who's just sitting there in a chair waiting for you to walk up to them. You know, it draws you in. I love that. I really love that. I think that that just sets you out from the rest. And so when we're doing these pop-up shops, do we have like, is there, do you have like a range that you're willing to pay for to put out to be at these events? Like is there a cost to them? Do you get them at no cost? Like I'm sure there's some networking involved for some of the events where like you mentioned they want you to be there because it's gonna bring in a crowd. What is your kind of like range for output to get the input from these people? A lot of events, it really just depends on the event. A lot of the stuff that my friends put on, they just want me there. So I don't, they're like no vendor fee, don't worry about it. Sometimes it's 10% of my sales. Sometimes it's just a flat $100. Some festivals are a different story though. There's a few that I've turned down for the summer just because it was just the price, the vendor fee was just a little bit too high for me. And I can do that, but I'd have to raise my prices in order to kind of make that money back and have it be worth my while, which I don't really like to do, but that's also why people spend $12 on a hot dog at a festival because that's why. A lot of people don't understand why these things are so expensive, but it's because of the fees that we have to pay in order to do that. Totally understandable. And so would you prefer to pay 10% of your sales or a flat rate for a booth? It's hard to say sometimes because I want to support these venues as well. Like a lot of the venues that I'm going to, they're owned and operated by my close friend. So I always want to support them and support what they're doing and support their business. So sometimes I'm like, hey, well, why don't we see, why don't we wait and I'll either do the $100 or if 10% is more than that, why don't we go with that way? Because they're supporting me and I'm supporting them. Yeah, that's fantastic. I was just wondering of like, how much you feel like you're gonna make, how big is the event? There's a lot that goes into it, especially with pop-ups. And I always ask, I always ask what ticket sales have been, what the capacity is, stuff like that, just so I can get a range on, especially with how much stuff I need to bring, how much inventory. Yeah, I mean, when we went to some of those events, you are bringing like stocks, the boxes of different styles and what style do I need for this event? What kind of target audience am I looking at? What kind of range have you done? I mean, you said a little bit of like techno or house events, festivals, park events, what other things have you done? Is that how you've been arranged? Most of these events are all, just like electronic style based music, but they just opened up a food cart pod, literally in my backyard. And we are over there all the time now and on Sundays they have a market and we just started getting to talking with the guy that runs it and he says, yeah, come on over anytime. You can set up right here, it doesn't even have to be on a Sunday. Every time I go into that food cart pod, someone stops me and asks me about my sunglasses. So I'm gonna be over there, I think this weekend. Yep, I'll be over there this weekend and there are people who are really looking forward to it. He's like, I've been talking you up, everyone's really excited and he only wants $45 per event that I do over there. So that's really inexpensive. And I'm like, yeah, let's do it. I can literally walk from my house over there. Wow, oh wow. Kids at home and if I need to come check on them, I can come check on them or they can walk over and get lunch or whatever. And they also, they're a big help too. They help set up. Yeah, if it's walking cars, you'll have them carry the cart, right? Yeah, yeah. They help set up and they take sunglasses out of the little bags and they help me get them all organized. They're pretty cute about it. So as being a single entrepreneur woman, do you have any other advice for other working mothers out there and trying to put their passions into their career? I'd just say, don't be scared. Just get out there and do it. I wasted way too much time waiting tables and being nervous about giving up that part of my income, but it was totally worth it. And I wish that I would have just done it a lot sooner. And that's, Gail, if I can tell you guys, she made it through COVID. With a full in-person pop-up career, she has literally made it and thrived, okay? Because I have known her for several years and I've known her since when this whole thing started to come about. And I was worried for her for a second there in COVID. I was like, what is this girl gonna do? And she popped up and popped off, okay? Like she has literally made an entire career out of this passion project. She runs it solo. She has all the inventory herself. She's a working mother, single mother, entrepreneur woman. And I'm just so excited to see what else you bring to the table because you have events. I just see you on Facebook all the time having different events. And if you look at her Instagram again, it's just her fashioning her own product. And I look at them and I'm like, where are those yellow ones with the white rims you're supposed to send me? I've even gotten on a little subscription plan. She'll tailor to your needs and make sure that you're getting the right style, right equipment for your specific budget. And she'll definitely send them to you within a couple of days. So if you had any advice, I know we talked about women entrepreneurs, but if you had any advice for entrepreneurs as a whole, like just trying to build a business and trying to build a pop-up in general, what are the hardest things that you deal with with a pop-up business? It's just setting the time aside to make sure that you are staying organized and making sure that you are taking track of your inventory, stuff like that. Like you have to, it was difficult for me at first, thinking, well, I'm not, I'm doing this, but I'm not making any money doing this right now, but I have to do that in order to make the money. So just because you're, you know, you're not at an event, you're still doing something for your business that you will, that will help you, you know, make more money in the long run. How many glasses do you think you have on inventory at the moment? Oh, which we do. Well, we just redid inventory a couple of weeks ago and there's over, there's over 300 different styles in my Shopify account, yeah. Oh, goodness. Okay, well, I got to get on my next, my next round. And I just, I put in a new order the other day and I'll have like six new styles coming in probably tomorrow or Friday. Well, it sounds like you're staying so busy and you're staying lucrative and you're supporting your family and you're supporting yourself and you're happy with what you're doing now, no more waiting tables, no more dealing with that type of industry. You are your own boss. You have made it through COVID. So, you know, you're thriving. You are set up for the summer. There's a lot of events that she will be at. But for people in the Hawaii industry, she's out there. I know y'all are gonna need some glasses for the summer. So definitely hit her up. She has E-Y-E-L-U-V.US on Instagram or Facebook. She has great deals. She will send them to you in a couple of days. You have an event to go to. Definitely contact Ella Ray, Howard's over here. She is making things happen. She definitely has a great style. She'll custom make anything for you if you ask her for a couple extra bucks. It's all within a reasonable range for pricing. And I just think that she is a golden star working her bum off. So I really appreciate you coming on here today. I think you're doing great work and I think you have an amazing business model. Top-up shops were definitely not easy to make it through COVID, but you did. I mean, you definitely made that happen. And now you have a full schedule for the summer. I think you're lucked out, aren't you? I mean, you got a lot of things going on this summer. Yeah, I'm booked out for the rest of July. June is filling up. Yeah, I'm actually even double booked on some days doing day 10 beach events. And then I'll have like a couple hours to get back to the house, restock, and then do a nighttime event. I'm doing, yeah, there's a group that I'm involved with called the UV Collective, and they throw parties on the river in Portland. And I'll be doing that during the day. And then I'm booked for a Arnold and Lane Dörderberg show that night. All right, okay, okay. Well, UV, that totally matches your style. I mean, UV is awesome. Like that just sounds like the perfect partnership right there. So guys, I'm just letting you know for audience, everything that I've heard out of this which has been consistent from other shows that we've had is networking. Networking is key. Having that support, having friends that believe in you, not giving up, letting yourself put a little money in to get a lot of money out and never forgetting that you're gonna get somewhere with that. So thank you so much, Stella, for being on this show. I know we're at time now, but if you guys want to learn a little bit more about making some more money, starting your own businesses, turning your passions into careers, and come back and watch adventures in commercialization every other Wednesday at 1 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.