1008 Jennifer Ann Johnson:

Wings of Inspired Business Podcast EP1008: Host Melinda Wittstock Interviews Jennifer Ann Johnson 

Melinda Wittstock: 

Coming up on Wings of Inspired Business:

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

We started this 16 years ago with 1,800 square feet and $70,000. And there’s a bigger story there. I had a business partner and that business partner wanted out within two months of owning the business with me. And I had the knowledge on how to do it and she had the money. And we bought her out. We cashed out my husband’s 401k of $70,000, and we bought her out. And she proceeded to open up a store in the same plaza as myself, doing the same exact thing, took all my employees, and all those horrible things. But it made us who we are today. And I think if it were not for that happening, we would not be where we’re at today. I think it gave me a fire in my belly and a pep in my step and a reason to push harder and harder. 

Melinda Wittstock: 

There is always something unexpected that happens in business. We can try to see around corners, but all too soon every entrepreneur comes to learn its prudent to expect the unexpected. Jennifer Ann Johnson started True Fashionistas 16 years ago and today it is the largest lifestyle resale store in Florida, a $50 million-plus business with a second location and customers shipping in their clothes from every state. Today Jennifer shares where the grit came from, a Minnesota dairy farm, the one piece of advice that built the business, how to modernize antiquated industries, plus how to find the power of your voice without telling people what you ate for lunch.

Melinda Wittstock: 

Hi, I’m Melinda Wittstock and welcome to Wings of Inspired Business, where we share the inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, epiphanies, and practical advice from successful female founders … so you have everything you need at your fingertips to build the business and life of your dreams. I believe in paying it forward, so as a five-time serial entrepreneur, I started this podcast almost 10 years ago to catalyze an ecosystem where women entrepreneurs mentor, promote, buy from, and invest in each other. Because together we’re stronger, and we all soar higher when we fly together and lift as we climb. Please take a moment, hit subscribe so you never miss an episode, tell your friends and colleagues, and we appreciate it when you help this wisdom get discovered with a 5-star rating and review.

Melinda Wittstock: 

Today we meet an entrepreneur who credits all of it to growing up on a dairy farm. Jennifer Ann Johnson grew up in Minnesota with no money, with a father who fixed the tractor with parts from the junkyard, a mother who patched the jeans, and cows that had to be milked no matter what. She became Miss Minnesota, modeled and acted on Shop NBC and for Target and Best Buy, owned a bridal shop and wedding planning business for 12 years, and then moved to Florida and opened the store she had always wanted. True Fashionistas carries furniture, home decor, clothing and accessories, puts every item online, and lets anyone in the country ship their pieces in for free. Jennifer also coaches entrepreneurs on speaking through her seven-week Power of Your Voice program, hosts The Confident Entrepreneur podcast, now entering its fifth season, and is the author of the Amazon bestseller Grace and Grit.

Melinda Wittstock: 

We talk about why farm kids make resilient entrepreneurs and good hires, and why resilience is the critical skill, because you will be told no far more often than yes. We get into how Jennifer took an industry that meant dingy, stinky consignment stores and made it light, bright and organized, and why she put everything on the website when other resale owners thought she was crazy. And we get into voice: why an elevator pitch is only the ground floor, why businesses actually grow at chamber events and on stages, and how to be authentic without oversharing. Show your messy, show your middle. Or, as Jennifer puts it, “Pobody’s Nerfict”.

Melinda Wittstock: 

Let’s put on our wings with the inspiring Jennifer Ann Johnson.

[INTERVIEW]

Melinda Wittstock:

Jennifer, welcome to Wings. I know you got a lot of stuff going on with True Fashionistas, your second location. So tell me what’s going on.

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

Yes, well, we recently expanded to our second location about 45 minutes away from our initial flagship store. And our hope is that every year we’ll add at least one or two stores. And keep growing. We’ve been in business for 16 years.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s amazing. So what was the spark that made you launch it? This whole idea of resale is so smart, given all the fast fashion, given all the increasing concerns about just the pollution of fashion, actually, right? And people like something for six months and then they don’t. It makes so much sense, but you were early on the trend. 

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

Yes. Well, I grew up on a farm in Minnesota. And I say that because we didn’t have any money. And it’s important to say I grew up in a farm because a lot of times farm families back in the day didn’t have a lot of money. And we were no exception. We had no money, so we never got new clothes. And I have fond memories of going garage selling with my grandmother. And as I grew older, it was like everything that I kept. Doing was going the opposite way. I was never, I didn’t open that clothing store that I had dreamed of opening. Instead, I opened a bridal shop and a wedding and event planning business. So I kept doing other things. And then I kind of had a fresh start because we moved to Florida. And once we moved to Florida and sold the bridal business, I went, you know what? I want to do this now. And it was just time. And it just happened. And it happened organically. It happened in the timing, I guess it was supposed to happen. And here we are looking back 16 years later. I never would have imagined it never started out with me thinking that, oh my gosh, I want to be a multi-store owner and I want this to be something huge. It didn’t start out that way, but nothing that I do ever does. And then it just mushrooms.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. So, I mean, you’ve been an entrepreneur for some 25 years. So, this is not your first business. I always like to ask people what was the spark that made them become an entrepreneur? And tell me about that first business and how that evolved.

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

Correct. Sure. Well, going back to the spark, the easy answer to that without hesitation is my father. Growing up on that dairy farm is what really entrenched in me my ethics, my work ethics. And everything that I do today is literally because of how I grew up on that farm. As much as I did not want to be. on a farm as a young kid, it really framed and shaped my entire life. And the reason why I originally got into being an entrepreneur all those years ago was I got married and I went, this whole wedding planning thing is pretty awesome. I’m pretty sure I can do this. I think I’m going to be good at it. And I took a couple of classes, became certified, which I mean, you really don’t have to do, but I decided to do that. And almost immediately, I started getting clients and I was working out of my home. And I don’t even remember how long had passed. And my husband’s like, okay, you need to find somewhere else to do this business because you’ve literally taken over my garage. And, you know, people are coming to the house all the time because I was also doing chair cover rentals and ceiling draping and rentals for weddings. And from then, when he said that, I mean, you don’t tell me something like. That you don’t say you need to find a place because I’ll find a place. And sure enough, I did. We ended up buying a building and we moved the wedding and event planning business and rental business into that. And sure enough, within not even a year’s time, it was even less than that. I’m thinking, I went, well, we’re doing this. We might as well have a bridal shop and do bridal gowns and bridesmaids and tuxes and the whole thing. And what do you think we did? That’s exactly what we did. And I. Owned and operated that for 12 years until we finally sold it after we moved.

Melinda Wittstock:

Amazing. So I can see the connection now for how you get into resale, but also I want to go deeper into the farm because there’s something about being on a farm that I don’t know, there’s a resilience, there’s sort of a grit. I think a lot of the character. Traits that you need to be an entrepreneur are developed on a farm. So break that down for me more specifically for all the sort of city people who don’t have the experience. What really is that? Tell me, you know, about your actual experiences.

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

They are. They are. So you think about growing up on a farm and you have to make do with what you have most of the time. You don’t have deep pockets typically. I mean, we were a small family farm. We were not a corporate farm. Like, you know, there are corporate farms out there. That was not us. My dad was born and raised on a farm, and that’s how he raised us. And you know, I saw him if a piece of machinery broke down, he went to the junkyard to get parts to fix that piece of machinery or the car or the truck or whatever it was. He went and fixed it. It was not a throwaway society when I grew up. It was how can we fix this? He got a hole in his jeans. My mom put a patch on it. We ripped something or we grew out of something. Try to take the hem down to see if we can get it to last a little bit longer. So we made do with what we had. We had little money, and you just figure out how to fix stuff and how to stretch it a little bit further. And that certainly carries over to being an entrepreneur and bootstrapping a business from absolutely nothing. And it carries through every single thing, every thread of being an entrepreneur, whether you see it or not.

Melinda Wittstock:

You know, I’ve talked to a lot of entrepreneurs who like to hire people who have a background growing up on a farm because they tend to be better employees too. Right?

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

Absolutely. We know how to work. I mean, we didn’t, you couldn’t make excuses. If you made an excuse that, well, I can’t go milk the cows this morning or I can’t go feed the cows or bed them. Well, what’s going to happen? You’re responsible for an animal. It’s almost like saying, I can’t feed my pet today. You know, you’re responsible for, or your baby. It’s like, You’re responsible for something living and you can’t make excuses. You don’t have time to make excuses. It’s just not in your vocabulary. So I get really incensed when I hear people making excuses for things or passing things off. I’m just like, just do it. It’s not going to go away. Just do it and it will be done. And you will, you’ll have a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment by doing that. Now, I know that that’s not for everyone and not everyone thinks that way. And sometimes it’s hard. It’s very hard.

Melinda Wittstock:

And it’s necessary, though. It’s a necessary thing to become an entrepreneur. So, like a lot of entrepreneurs on this podcast now, more than a thousand episodes, most of the women who really succeed and build big businesses such as you have either that background where they have had to get by with very little, or they’ve had some massive challenge in their life. It could have been a health challenge, it could have been coming from like poverty, it could, it could have been, I don’t know, there’s a whole bunch, right? But almost everyone has that resilience by overcoming, you know.

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

It is. Yeah, I mean, yeah.

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

I feel like resilience is a critical skill to being an entrepreneur. I really, really do. And because you are going to get knocked down. You hear, for example, I’m going to put this in terms of like celebrities or movie stars or musicians. They get told no so many more times than they are told yes in their careers. The same thing goes for us as entrepreneurs. We have the same thing. We are knocked down so many times and we still have to get up every single time. And that is the definition of resilience.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. Being with them a hundred percent. So, tell me more about True Fashionistas. You’ve got your second location, this is like a 50 million dollar resale empire, that’s huge. So, how did it get so big? 

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

I think it’s our dedication to the business and to the people. is really what it’s about because we started this 16 years ago with 1800 square feet and $70,000. And there’s a bigger story there. I had a business partner. I had a business partner and that business partner wanted out within two months of owning the business with me. And I had the knowledge on how to do it and she had the money. And we bought her out. We cashed out my husband’s 401k. Of $70,000, and we bought her out. And she proceeded to open up a store in the same plaza as myself, doing the same exact thing, took all my employees, and all those horrible things. But it made us who we are today. And I think if it were not for that happening, we would not be where we’re at today. I think it gave me a fire in my belly and a pep in my step and a reason to push harder and harder. Not that I was looking at her and with Things that she was or was not doing. But it just, it lit a fire under my butt. And it just, it made me go harder and it made me go stronger. And I think it’s, it’s part passion, it’s part hustle, it’s part resilience. It’s all of those things combined together and the people that we’ve surrounded ourselves with. That’s what’s taken us where we are today.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s amazing. So tell me how it works. Just talk me through the business.

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

Sure. So we are the largest lifestyle resale store in the state of Florida. This means that we carry furniture and home decor, and we also carry clothing and accessories for men and women. You bring your items into us or you ship them to us from anywhere in the country free of charge. So you could live, we’re in Southwest Florida, but you could live in New York, California, really anywhere in the U.S. And you can ship your items to us for free. We process them and they go onto our website and then they also go into one of our retail locations. And when they sell, you get a portion of the sales and you can spend it in the store, you can get a check, however that were, whatever it is you choose. And so you are not only getting rid of the clothing that you don’t like, you don’t wear, that don’t fit, whatever it is, you can also turn around and You know, spend that in the store buying other pieces that suit you or that fit you. And it’s a really great model because we do aim to keep as much as we can out of the landfills.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, that’s fantastic. You know, there was a Netflix documentary a couple years back on this, like just the waste of fashion. It showed this huge pile of clothes in Chile, like in a Atacama desert. And because clothes, because fabric has plastic in it, it’s like a forever chemical or something, right?

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

Right. Right. And you know, the sad part, Melinda, is this, is people, people look at other countries and they go, oh, well, what can we do? We’re going to send them clothes. We’re going to send them clothes. Most of these countries don’t need more clothes. That’s not what they need. I mean, there’s, I think I. If I’m remembering correctly, and this was the documentary, and if not, it was another one where they showed piles of clothing washing ashore on these beaches because they were just dumped because they were not wanted in the country that they were brought to. And I’m like, if you can, if you can resell them, wouldn’t that be better?

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh, 100%. It’s interesting that you were onto this so much earlier than this trend because there’s not a day that goes by where I don’t get an invite in any of the cities that I’ve lived in, like, come and swap your clothes. And it’s just some sort of like informal gathering of like 10 to 20 women or whatever. Just like. clothes because we get bored of clothes we like you know fashions change and and such right or you know um and so it it this is sort of a grassroots movement almost that you’ve capitalized on

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

Right. Absolutely. You know, back in the day when we started 16 years ago, consignment stores were what? People thought of as like, oh, they’re old and they’re dingy and they’re stinky. And I would never buy anything in a consignment store. That’s what we were up against 16 years ago when we started. And we went into it with a mindset of: let’s take something antiquated, something that is not up to, you know, modern standards and modernize it. Let’s turn it on its head. Let’s change it. 

[PROMO CREDIT]

Wings of Inspired Business is brought to you by the podcast, Zero Limits Business Growth Secrets where Steve Little – serial entrepreneur, investor and mergers & acquisitions maestro – shares the little-known 24 value drivers that spell the difference between a $5m, a $50m and a  $500 mm business. Bottom line: It always pays to understand what’s driving the underlying enterprise value of your business. So, check out Zero Limits Business Growth Secrets at zerolimitsradio.com – that’s zerolimitsradio.com and available wherever you get your podcasts. More information about valuation growth, exit planning, and M&A at Zero Limits Ventures.com

Melinda Wittstock: 

And we’re back with Jennifer Ann Johnson, founder of True Fashionistas, host of The Confident Entrepreneur podcast and author of Grace and Grit.

[INTERVIEW CONTINUES]

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

So, we built out our store to be light and bright and cheery and airy and. Very, very organized and not smelly. We modernized what we were doing. And we also did something that a lot of resale store owners looked at us and thought we were crazy. And that was putting everything on our website. Everything had, we were selling e-commerce before e-commerce was a thing in our industry. And is it easy? No. Does it take a lot of manpower? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes. We have such a larger reach because we can do that. And we just looked at something that, you know, someone had told me a long time ago, if you want to make some serious money, look at look at industries that are antiquated and modernize them. Best advice ever.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. That makes so much sense. So I can see now how this is so big. So even though you’re like a Florida location, it’s not limited by that because you got onto this trend. And I love how people can send stuff to you from wherever they are. 

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

I mean, you were a model and an actress. And so, where did all that come into your story?

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

That came into my story very early in my career. I was actually a former Miss Minnesota. And through that, that’s how I started modeling and acting. I ended up on ShopNBC , which was a home shopping channel. It was the third largest shopping channel in its time. And I ended up on there and just started doing stuff for places such as, because I was from Minnesota, places such as Target, Best Buy, because those all had their corporate locations in Minnesota. Minnetonka Moccasins, you name it. I’ve done so many, whether it was commercials or it was print. I did so many of those things because they were Minnesota connections. And I did a lot of that. Eventually, kind of sunsetted that a little bit as I moved to Florida and continued on to onto what I do now. But I also do now, I do a lot of professional speaking across the country. I have my podcast, which is entering its fifth season. And I also do coaching for people on speaking as well. And not just speaking on stages, but speaking in general about their business or giving workshops, that kind of thing.

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh, fantastic. It’s so good when women really support other women and really give back and really help other women succeed in business. Because I think we all, the whole point of this podcast is we also hire when we fly together, right? So tell me a little bit about the Confident Entrepreneur podcast and what made you start that. And tell me about the show.

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

Sure. So the Confident Entrepreneur is really aimed for business owners. And I bring in guests from all over the country. And we talk about how people can make their businesses better. Talk about, I just had a founder on who he actually is a family-owned business. And I think their business is almost 100 years old. And we talked about carrying on the family name, the legacy. Things that people don’t always talk about or hear about, you know, what’s an exit plan for you? How can you harness AI in a small business? Just lots of different topics that are really relevant to my listeners. And it’s all really aiming at small, domain sized businesses. And it’s very important because if somebody, I don’t have a roadmap for everyone, not everyone understands their roadmap, but if somebody can. Can help guide them in some way. That’s what it’s about. I wish I had a guide and I didn’t have a guide. So now I created myself kind of as a guide through my podcast.

Melinda Wittstock:

And so, you have something else called Power of Your Voice coaching. So let’s talk about that a little bit because it takes entrepreneurs sometimes a little while to find their voice. You have to be an evangelist for your business, right? And women in particular, we can get so focused on the doing. That we forget that we also need to be out there. We need to really claim our voice. So, talk me through that coaching.

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

So, it’s a seven-week program that the participants participate in. And at the end of the seven weeks, they’ll walk away with a specific elevator pitch and notes on How they talk to people about their business, and that is just the ground floor. That is just the first seven weeks. We take that further with one-on-one coaching because a lot of business owners really have no idea how they need to speak about their business. And an elevator pitch is only the beginning because you could be invited to chamber events, you could be invited to many different clubs in your community to talk about your business. And that is how you organically grow your business: being out there in the public. talking about your business and i help them craft their speech their presentation i help them present it i you know train with them i work with them on the the delivery there’s the physical delivery and then there’s the um the body signals that they’re giving people that they don’t even know they’re doing and so it’s an all-immersive program even after the first seven weeks

Melinda Wittstock:

So, with a voice, one of the things that’s tricky is standing out in your authenticity. And sometimes people confuse authenticity with like sort of radical transparency. Like, people don’t know what you want to eat, you know, people don’t want to know what you ate for breakfast or like all the important details of your life, right? So, how do you feel? Find that authenticity, especially in an attention economy where it’s so hard to stand out in all the noise, the cacophony, right?

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

Okay. Mm-hmm. Right. I just think you have to be you. You just have to be you. You can’t pretend. Nobody wants to see the white. Picket fence. I’m sorry. Nobody wants to see it. Show your messy, show your middle. We don’t just want to see the end. We want to see all of it. And there is a high level of transparency that comes in it. You don’t have to share what you ate for lunch or dinner or when you went to the bathroom, but we want to see that you’ve fumbled and you made a mistake and how you recover from it. And you know what? I have a saying. It’s called Pobody’s Nerfict. And Pobody is Nerfict. And People want to see that. So just be unabashedly you. And you can’t go wrong with that. And you will see if you do that, you will have people who go, wow, she was the real deal. And they’re going to see through it if you were faking it.

Melinda Wittstock:

100%. This is so important. I know you’re very busy because you got your second location going. You got all the kind of, you know, kind of fun, disruptive chaos going on there. So what’s the best way for people to find you? I mean, what’s the best way for people if you got clothes sitting around your closet and you got to do a kind of clean out, but also your podcast and everything? What are the best ways?

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

Sure. The best way is you could reach out to me at jennifer@jenniferannjohnson.com. That is my personal brand. That is my speaking. And if you are interested in the True Fashionistas, you can email me at jennifer@truefashionistas.com. And both websites are truefashionistas.com or JenniferAnnJohnson.com.

Melinda Wittstock:

Fantastic. Well, thank you, Jennifer. We’ll make sure we have all that in the show notes and all the details about your podcast as well. Thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us today.

Jennifer Ann Johnson:

Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me, Melinda.

[INTERVIEW ENDS]

Melinda Wittstock: 

Jennifer Ann Johnson is the founder of True Fashionistas, the largest lifestyle resale store in Florida, a small business and speaking coach through her Power of Your Voice program, host of The Confident Entrepreneur podcast, and author of the Amazon bestseller Grace and Grit: Becoming a Confident Entrepreneur.

Melinda Wittstock: 

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