615 Unplugged

Corrado (00:00)
Welcome to 615 Unplugged, where we explore the people, businesses, and stories that make Middle Tennessee what it is today and what it will be tomorrow.

On this episode, we meet Julie Cohen, owner of Wildfire Merch, a screen printing shop offering custom t-shirts, hoodies, and other items out of Mount Juliet. On today's show, Julie shares her journey of starting the screen printing business in 2019, navigating the challenges of COVID in 2020, the importance of building relationships with clients, and the lessons learned in hiring and business growth. But best of all, I think you'll enjoy the conversation around the significance of community support.

and maintaining a small town vibe in the face of rapid growth in middle Tennessee. So without further ado, sit back, relax, and enjoy this conversation with Julie Cohen.

Corrado (00:49)
Julie, welcome to the show.

Julie C (00:51)
Hi, how are you?

Corrado (00:53)
I am doing great. Happy to have you on board. I know we kind of connected a little bit online and everything and I'm excited to have you guys on and talk about all the things that you guys are doing. But before we get started, I want to give you a little bit of a chance to introduce yourself to the listeners, a little bit about what you do, who you are, everything.

Julie C (00:59)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh gosh, I'm Julie. I own Wildfire Merch in Mellon, Ivy. It's a full production screen printing shop here in Mount Juliet on the Old Hickory line. We've been in business since 2019. So we've been in this area for a while. We work with a ton of small businesses, big bands, brands, kind of all of that. And then this year I opened a plant shop, Wilson County's only like house plant shop.

where we have like printographic shirts next door, like a full wall, like over 30 designs and house plants, house plant care, all the things. ⁓ Kind of just give me something to do fun, because sometimes this isn't fun, honestly. Like it's just two week turnaround times, cranking 24 seven. So to be able to like go over to like a slice of heaven is definitely needed. But yeah, I love what we do. I mean, my husband and I started this together. ⁓

and we've just been hustling since 2019. Yeah, right before COVID. Yeah, it was crazy. were ⁓ number four in the US for mask sales, so we printed like masks for all like the Starbucks. And then we were the first place you could get a mask. And when COVID first like really became a concern in Middle Tennessee, like I had people pulling up and all kinds of crazy stuff to get masks from us. One of our shirt manufacturers literally

Corrado (02:15)
and you said it was from 2019?

Julie C (02:42)
was flying to LA to one of the sewing warehouses and they were taking shirt material and layering them, putting metal wiring in it so you could wash them and reuse them. But yeah, we ended up shipping all over the US to different places that didn't have masks and it was crazy. And then restaurants got on board and yeah, that was crazy. ⁓

Corrado (03:04)
That was

gonna be my question. That was gonna be my next question. Like how, you know, starting in 2019, how did COVID affect you? But it sounds like it might have been kind of like a boom for you guys in terms of those sales or?

Julie C (03:16)
Well, we

did a lot of masks. We did a lot of donated masks. And then really we started kind of the wave for the online fundraisers for local businesses. And then I think I saw a lot of other shops doing that as well all over the U.S. Just where we did like an online store. So people that were at home, maybe it was like a brewery or something, their shirts would be online. We would pick and ship them. ⁓

and then give them a check at the end. like places that had to shut their doors down, we like literally did it all on our end. So they were still getting, you know, some sales for merch. And it was at no cost to them. It was literally just like share it to your followers. If people buy it, then at the end of the like little campaign, we'll just write you a check for what's sold. And that helped a lot. I mean, it helped two businesses in one helped us and then the people that we were.

doing it for and we did a lot of that. But it was just my husband and I in 2019 too, so it wasn't too scary. We didn't have a full team. If we had our team that we have now, we have seven people, it would have been really scary, honestly. But we got lucky. We've always gotten lucky, I think.

Corrado (04:15)
That's awesome.

Yeah, I can imagine.

That's good. And so

⁓ how did you guys get into this line of business? Like, is this something that you guys like start from way back when or how was that story?

Julie C (04:39)
It was a thing.

This guy walking around back there with the mop bucket, like, God, now I was telling people seven years ago, it like a decade ago, but now it's been close to 20 years ago. My husband bought like a single station, like screen printing press, like to do like knockoff band shirts at home. Just a fun little hobby. He, he fixates on things and then he learns how to do it really well. That's what he's always done.

Corrado (05:02)
Okay.

Julie C (05:10)
But he did that. I think he printed one shirt or something like that and just was always in the back of his head. And so where he worked high up in a company for 17 years, he kind of just, you you get that burnout of working for somebody else. And so we literally got married in 2018 or no, we got married in 2019 and then literally in January and then in March we started our business. So it was like married business moved.

Then literally, so in March we started, in July we were in a storefront, and then we've been in a storefront, each sleeping and breathing work together for over seven years. The whole time we've been married it's been.

Corrado (05:49)
And you guys are originally,

are you originally from here or from somewhere else?

Julie C (05:54)
My husband's from Gordonsville, you know where like Carthage, Smith County area. It's like 30 minutes away from ⁓ like Mount Juliet, Lebanon. And that's where my stepson still goes to school. And then my husband and I have a two year old. ⁓ He goes to school right here in Mount Juliet at the Regio.

another really good swamp business that was needed in this area. And then I'm from Gallatin. I was born in Gallatin, but I grew up in Florida, so I came back when I was like 17.

Corrado (06:27)
That's Florida, right? Or no? Yeah, ⁓ nice. That's awesome.

Julie C (06:29)
Florida. I grew up in Florida and Ocala,

it's like an hour north of Orlando. It'd be like us to Nashville kind of. ⁓ cool. Yeah. That's... I live in Miami like twice. It's its own thing down there.

Corrado (06:35)
Yeah, yeah.

I'm originally from Florida too, but all the way down south, Miami. that's awesome.

Yeah, exactly. it's yeah, I always I often say that it's I don't consider it part of the US it's its own kind of

Julie C (06:57)
Mm-mm. Yeah, it feels like you're on

vacation when you're down there for sure.

Corrado (07:02)
Its own unique culture for sure and so What what are some of the things you know right now? Obviously you're dealing with a lot of different businesses all of that stuff What are some of the things that you you you know? Take us through like a typical day in the life of what you guys are doing there at wildfire

Julie C (07:22)
What I do, just my daily life, gosh, I mean, I wake up, ⁓ get my child ready for school, we bring him to school, and then I come here, I get next door going, I get this, ⁓ I like three or four people that come in at nine.

You know, we already have like screens burnt for the jobs the next day. ⁓ We always have the shirts stacked, stuff like that. So they all kind of just get it going on their own now, thankfully. ⁓ But there's always like last minute rush orders that we say yes to. Like I do a lot of 24 hour turnaround times, like, or there's just like 911s. Like someone didn't say they wanted it by today. And so we're like pushing that to the top of the line so we don't miss their.

what they wanted. But yeah, I mean, it's pretty much that. mean, we just have a calendar that we work on, but we get some people that come in, they check out our showroom or we have like all of our shirts and stuff like that, or at least a good selection of what we can get. We can get pretty much anything. Look at swatches, stuff like that. Normally the embroidery machine's going, it's super loud. But yeah, everybody just...

Corrado (08:37)
Well, I'm glad

it's not going today because I can actually hear you instead of seeing... Although I do... I secretly do want to wonder how it would look if that machine was going behind you. Like that would be super...

Julie C (08:41)
Yeah, it's like

Yeah,

I'll text my husband to go behind me and rotate it, but I just saw him walk down.

Corrado (08:59)
No, it's all good, it's all good. So obviously, Middle Tennessee is growing really, really fast. How have you seen that kind of reflect in your business?

Julie C (09:05)
Yeah.

I mean, we get a lot of businesses coming for merch, and I'm always happy to catch them ⁓ before they go and have terrible experiences. really, we find our people, and they just stick with us. A lot of the small businesses that came to us in 2019 are still our clients. ⁓

Like we really truly just care about the people. Like at the end of the day it's shirts, you know, but it's like the connections, like I don't want to be miserable printing things that I don't want to print, you know, like we find our niche, we find our people and really it's just been really good quality has been our thing. Like most of the clients that we've held onto, they just know that our quality is like so good that they just, you know, they're cool with waiting three weeks, they're cool with, you know.

or if I get it to them in a week, like they know I'll take care of them. If they had a strong in hands that they needed it, we're gonna hit it whether it was 24 hours from when they reached out or three weeks from when they reached out. And so that's just like what we do. So we've found a few really good brands that we print for that keep us super busy. And then...

you know, just the daily orders that come in. We do ship all over the US, so I get like random orders that we're shipping to New York or shipping to California or if we have like a big touring artist that we're split shipping like half of the order to Chicago or wherever. So it's just a good mix and we've really started finding our people, especially with our rebrand. We rebranded in November of last year, so almost a year ago. ⁓

Corrado (10:51)
Okay.

Julie C (10:53)
And it's definitely helped just finding more of the cool businesses. Our name was so long. We were Cedar City House of Print. We wanted to be in Lebanon. And then that didn't happen. We ended up on Lebanon Road in Mount Juliet. And so we tried to rock that name for a while. But at the end of the day, was so many words. I'm just excited for our new name. It feels more like us. We're more into, you know.

Corrado (10:56)
Also.

Yeah.

Julie C (11:22)
cool brands and simplicity really so.

Corrado (11:22)
Nice.

What are some of those, you know, as you look back, what are some of those like little small decisions that maybe didn't seem big at the moment, but kind of like looking back, you can, you can see, wow, that made a big difference of where we are today or something like that.

Julie C (11:41)
Gosh,

so we started in our house, and then in a few months we were in a storefront because I was just getting so many orders. My husband was still working, and then he would come home, we would print all night, and then I would handle all the stuff during the day while he was working.

Again, would come home that next night and we'd work till three in the morning. So he was like killing himself. So literally in a few months, we were like, we can just do it. You know, we jumped head first. That's one thing that I've always told any, I just had another guy come in the shop the other day thinking about like starting a small business here in town. And like, he was just asking me the same kind of questions. Like, what did you see that like, or like, what kind of advice could you share? And I was like, dude, you just have to go for it. Like you have to just jump in head first, like especially.

And the small, like if you're working for yourself, you either have it or you don't. Like if you want to hustle, if you have hustle in your heart, then you are going to succeed. But if you don't just like, you know, give it your all, if you try to do it half-assed, it's just not gonna work. ⁓ And I think that's one big thing that I try to stress to people is like, you just have to, you just have to go all in. And that's what we did. And we just believed in ourselves and it worked. But a few things that I've seen like,

I wish I would have hired sooner. You try to do it all. I still try to do it all. I still try to micromanage. But you just have to let go a little bit. We're still so involved in it. My husband and I are here in the shop every single day. We have to be. It's just in our DNA. All we want is just good quality stuff to go out. And if you're not in it, you're not in it. So we don't have one of those.

Corrado (13:06)
Ha

Julie C (13:24)
types of businesses that you can just like step away from, you know, if you truly, truly care. But yeah, hiring sooner. We started small. So I was doing small orders ⁓ and we used to have a type of printing method where I could do just one or two shirts. But I was finding that like I was spending the same amount of time on those orders as I was in the same amount of communication time for orders that were, you know,

144 plus pieces. And really what was happening is we were doing like a lower quality print method for the single shirt people. They were bringing that example to their bosses and I was getting those bigger orders from like their friends' businesses or whatever from it, but I really just, we were so like keyed in on like the quality of what we were printing with like screen printing that we didn't like that people could see the DTG versus and not getting

Corrado (13:56)
All

Julie C (14:22)
like true screen printing. we sold our DTG machine right as like now if you post on Facebook, direct to garment. So we had a big like, it was like a $15,000 printer. It was not like a low. It was like one of the best ones you could get. And it could print like a white under base. It looked great, but at the end of the day, it wasn't screen printing. And that's really like where we wanted to be.

Corrado (14:29)
DTG is direct direct to garment right or something like that. Yeah

Julie C (14:49)
And we had all the same equipment for it. just, didn't want to print one shirt, screen print it, because you're burning screens. You're, you know, doing ink and squeegees and all of the manual stuff that goes into it. When the DTG, you're just spraying the shirt and then loading it, it prints it. It's not any like setup really. So it was easy, but it was the communication that was like just, I was spending hours with people. Cause most of the time it was like for a birthday or I'm creating something from scratch or something like that.

So definitely finding, we still have low minimums.

Corrado (15:22)
And so then

that caused you guys to kind of like, if I'm hearing you correctly, then you kind of switched into more of like just doing a high number.

Julie C (15:30)
We put a 24-piece

minimum and literally sold our machine. And the next year, think we doubled our sales by like 150 % because my time was spent from like really going back and forth with people for one to two shirts to, you know, handling that same communication on people that were at least doing a 24-piece order. And so it helped the sales a lot. We would still, you know,

Corrado (15:55)
Right.

Julie C (15:59)
indiscretion, you know, like, if someone needed 10 shirts, you know, like we would say yes. I still say yes. Sometimes I have to, you know, it's just one of those things. Some of the people that have been with us since 2019, am I printing 10 shirts on press? Yes. But sometimes, you know, it's just easier to say no. And I recommend other shops nearby that do cater to that. If I would have had a person back in 2019 that just handled the communication for small stuff,

it probably would have worked, but really we just got, we blew up on this, so, and that's what we wanted, because that's, screen printing is king. Like, I think all of the different types of processes are going to die, and screen printing is gonna outlive it, like it has, you know, now. I mean, all of the different heat pressed ones are just, at the end of the day, they don't hold up to screen printing, so, I'm glad that we're still doing what we wanted to do, so.

Corrado (16:30)
Hmm.

Right.

Julie C (16:58)
instead of taking a step back, you know?

Corrado (16:58)
That's awesome.

And so what's something that, ⁓ know, looking back, obviously success is never really linear, right? We've talked a little bit of like the ups and downs during COVID or something like that, ⁓ but success is never linear. maybe talk to me about some of your favorite failures. ⁓ And by that, mean things that maybe didn't work out in the moment, things that you kind of in the moment were failures, but later on you realized, man, thank God.

Julie C (17:08)
Thank you.

Yeah.

Corrado (17:29)
that actually happened because it set us up for X, Y, or Z and I'm really thankful for that today.

Julie C (17:31)
Yeah.

Gosh, I mean we've always had like, you you print the wrong thing on the-

the wrong thing, you know, or print the wrong color and you get someone that's upset about it. Luckily, I haven't been like some shops that I see that will print like $5,000 worth of garments incorrectly or, you know, we haven't had anything that bad, but we've definitely had, you know, like runs of a hundred that we've had to like just reorder the shirts. And so there's always those kinds of things, you know, shit happens every day, every day in the shop. It's, and we're dealing with presses that you're using adhesive so things can live.

there's all like we always tell people you have to order extra and then it's always those people that you tell that something happens and they didn't order extra so it's like yeah it's it's just it's always something especially like when you're a small business owner it is always freaking something we we have to replace our pressure washer like every I don't know it feels like every four months like it it just goes out it

Corrado (18:19)
that something happens.

Julie C (18:34)
The AC goes down, just something all the time. It's something all the time. Like it almost feels like you can never catch a break as a small business owner. And I'm sure a lot of people relate to that. Like it is not perfect all the time. We have damages every day. Like we all, sometimes the vibe will be down. But then most of the time we're printing stuff that we like doing or we're printing something for someone that we enjoy talking to when they come in the shop or appreciate what we do. ⁓

And that makes a big, big difference. But I'm trying to think. Like I said, my husband and I have always been extremely lucky, like just in the way that it always works out. It seems like, oh my gosh, we lost this person that's not doing this event this year. Or we had this client doing 10,000 pieces and they moved it to China.

We had a client literally last year that was with us since like 2020. They got dropped by a big shop in Nashville that was, you know, it was right before COVID. They were doing all of the tour industry, like musicians and stuff. And then when COVID hit and all of those places died, they like dropped, you know, a lot of their production time. I don't know, but somehow it ended up in our lap and we...

We were doing 10 to 15,000 pieces every month. I mean, that's my payroll. That's my bills. that one client was paying for my business, you know? And then we could really, we became super profitable and we grew with them. ⁓

And then they just literally this year switched everything to Pakistan or China or something to save costs. So we didn't raise our prices on them in five years. Everything else in the world has went up, but really at the end of the day. So like that's something, you know, that we lost that client that was doing that revenue.

like, you know, and that's a big hit, so that's something. But really it's been a blessing in disguise because we used to have to take five to six days of our, like, press time, and now we're doing orders and tripling that, you know? So it's like, that really hurt for a minute, and then it became a blessing in disguise because now we're, you know, getting more consistent, like, touring artists and stuff like that.

Corrado (20:51)
Bye.

Julie C (20:56)
But I guess that would be a good example of like, nothing's permanent.

Corrado (20:58)
Yeah, no,

and probably also, you know, when you step out and you look at it from like a business standpoint, also slightly a tough lesson, but slightly better at the end in terms of not having so many of your eggs in one basket, right? Like if you're like, you have a little bit less risk dividing up your revenue across different ⁓ clients than having such a big bulk be concentrated in one, no?

Julie C (21:16)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah,

that's one big thing that's like opened my eyes. Like we do have a few like big, big strong clients and like if they were to leave, it would be like an ⁓ shit, you know, like, but again, it's like if you can use that time to really, you know, focus on getting new customers. That's been my biggest thing. I haven't done interviews. haven't been out.

at social events, I haven't been posting. I go ghost when I'm so busy. Like I don't post on social media. don't have time to get more business and that hurts. And then of course I went through a major burnout. Like the past year I had a baby. So that was another thing I had. I have a two year old he just turned two. I think I'm insane for opening a second business with a very busy business and then a two year old.

Corrado (22:16)
I was gonna say, it sounds like I was gonna touch on that in

a second and was gonna be like, well you must be some sort of masochist, like you have a two year old wife.

Julie C (22:23)
Dude,

I don't know, I think I'm literally insane. I probably am. I probably am. ⁓

Corrado (22:30)
So

how does all of that come about? How do you go from merchandise and t-shirts and printing and all of that to plant shops?

Julie C (22:41)
So we have two units in this strip and then we told our same landlord from our old location that we were at for five years when we moved here, we wanted first dibs on either side that came available because we needed more room. We only doubled our size when we moved and we really needed like three times, but there was only two. This place had three-phase power. And so it was the same landlord. He got us in quick. It was easy. Well, in February.

we found out that the vape shop next door was becoming open. So we were like, of course, yes. We said yes immediately, took a weekend, talked ourselves out of it. It sat available for like another week and then the landlord said something else. then I obviously being a small business owner, my brain is churning. Like, what can I do? Really? Like my husband and I are just like, if we just have more room, it's not paying more. Like we're not making more from it. We're just spending more on lease space. So we would need to add something.

You know, like maybe maybe laser engraving or something that would generate income to cover that side and a person that would be over there do you know what I mean? Or we could knock out the wall all the things that cost money. But then I was like, what if we got back into retail because we used to sell like holiday theme graphic tees at our old location. We had a little bit of retail. So I was like, what if we just do our retail and have it separate? So there's no distractions in here.

Corrado (23:51)
Yeah.

Got it.

Julie C (24:09)
for retail traffic and so we were like, yes. And then I was like, we could also do plants. Because if you saw my shop, like our old one, like six years ago, I went through my crazy plant person era and had like, it looked like a plant shop, really it did. And so I would water my stuff outside. People would pull up and like, is this for sale? I'd be like, no, these are my children. Don't touch them. ⁓ So that's like kind of how it came to be. And it turned into like,

what I was telling people like maybe 30 % plants to like 80 % plants and then the rest are shirts and crystals. And then my husband and I pour our own candles. That gives us something to do together because we both like, we were just like head in the game for like seven years, know, hustling through everything, growing our business that we like barely saw each other. Even though we're here all day together, we don't see each other. It's like.

a big thing and I feel like a lot of small businesses are gonna watch this and relate to those things that I am saying. It's always something, you don't see your partner, even if you're doing it together, it's just like you don't make time for yourself and we still don't. It's crazy and then we add it.

Corrado (25:20)
Yeah, that's

a thing because you can be next to each other for so long, working on something, yet not be with each other. that can also, you know, and that unfortunately that can sometimes show up many, many, many years down the line and you realize that, man, we lost a lot of time, you know, so.

Julie C (25:29)
Yeah.

Yeah, we did.

Yeah. I mean, it's been seven years of like, we wake up, get ready, come to the shop, work all day. It's like, and then now we have a two year old. So we used to like go home. We would watch TV, you know, do whatever, get dinner. But now it's like, give a baby a bath, do this, get them to sleep. Like we don't, we haven't watched a movie together and I don't know how long it's been months, you know, like we don't have a support system either.

Like we don't have a big family. My husband has his grandmother, but she is 87, so she can't keep up with a two-year-old all the time. So it's just, we rely on his school to get us through the day. And then we spend every other chance we can with him. He's here today with us because he is talking now and he's like, I want to work with Dada. So my husband is dealing with a two-year-old as well. Oh yeah, he's been in here like,

Corrado (26:29)
Showing him the ropes. Showing him the ropes.

Julie C (26:33)
The first year I was like wearing him, know, catching shirts and all of that. But it's been cool. Like several of my people have been here since he was born. So like he literally has like three family members in our shop. So when he is here, everybody's like playing with him and he's very smart for his age. Yeah. yeah. He's going to be out printing these guys eventually. Yeah.

Corrado (26:51)
He's like your little mascot. He's a little wildfire mascot.

Love it. So you kind

of mentioned earlier, you mentioned of the advice that you sometimes end up giving a lot of people as they're coming through, maybe they're, you know, a new startup or something like that. thinking, what's, what's some, what are a couple of pieces of advice that you got early on that, that you would say, man, thank God I got this piece of advice because it really, it really shaped the direction that we're going in.

Julie C (27:11)
Yeah.

Gosh, that's a tricky one. Like I said, I don't go to other events. I don't talk to anybody. ⁓ I don't know. think really one piece of advice that I kept hearing that I didn't take serious in my industry is automating your equipment. We did everything by hand for so long. Which one? It was kind of...

Again, we got lucky. didn't finance any equipment. When we first started our business, we did not finance a single thing. My husband had worked for the same company for 17 years. We had the savings. We sold some land that he had. And we invested, I think it was $80,000, fully into our business and to the best equipment. We didn't start off with some Amazon presses. We bought the best that you could get, the biggest, best.

for manual printing and that's like what we did. Didn't finance anything. The second time when we were ready to automate, that's one piece of advice that I would give to somebody is if you don't really necessarily need to finance, I wouldn't because I'm still paying on this dryer and I'm paying like two times what it's worth. It's kind of like a car. As soon as you drive it off the lot, like this...

We could buy this in cash today, but I'm still paying payments on it because if I paid off early, you know, you get the penalized. It's just like, you know, you live and you learn. So definitely one piece of advice. When we automated, our business tripled in sales because we were spending all the time doing things by hand that we were then able to do in hours. It took a lot off of my husband physically. ⁓

I mean, you're still there loading shirts and unloading shirts, but that's one piece of advice. Another advice is hiring. Like, we try to like, you know, adding another person, that's a whole salary that you're taking care of. It's like scary. Like, it's scary when things aren't coming in, you're not getting enough emails, you're like, my God. Like, some people wait until it's too late to like, you know, and that's why you see a lot of shops like close instantly because they've run out of money.

I want to be able to see five months from now. If I see that, we kind of go into panic, tighten it up. Luckily, we like, but that's one piece of advice is hiring. You can't do it all as much as you want to. You can't. So when we first hired our shirt catcher, it relieved me to be able to post content, get content.

Corrado (29:48)
Right.

Julie C (30:09)
and that kind of stuff. So that's one piece of advice that I guess we finally did. We took too long to really take it. So that's one thing I tell people that have been in business for at least a year. If you're finding that you're doing something 90 % of your day, find someone that's even part-time to help you do half of it. They might not be as good as you or as fast as you, but they can get there if it's the right person. have to find, we found a few unicorns, so I've been lucky.

Corrado (30:29)
especially

Right.

And

Julie C (30:38)
and that way too.

Corrado (30:41)
Yeah. And especially if the things that, you know, that you're doing are keeping you from doing the business development side of things of like getting new clients or anything, then that, that can lead to the, you know, and this is very common in, in small businesses that you, you know, you, or especially like solopreneurs, right? Like they get busy, busy, busy, busy, and then they don't have time to develop new business. So then they go through the, like the peaks and valleys of like, well, they were so busy.

Julie C (31:05)
Yeah, and I think that's where I

am right now. Honestly, I'm kind of, I took my foot off the gas over here. I'm putting it over there. That business is overperforming this business right now because all of my, my time and my heart and my soul is over there. And so now I've just been

Corrado (31:16)
Yeah.

Right. And so then you

go through the peaks and valleys of like, well, you're so busy, you're not business developing. So then when that goes away, then now you're back. Now you have the time. you start drumming up business and then now you get busy and then it's, but I feel like you have to figure out a way of keeping at least minimum payments on making minimum payments on business development side of things. And that might be through the way of ⁓ freeing up some time.

Julie C (31:36)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Corrado (31:50)
on your day calendar, out what are the things that are, yeah, you're better off having somebody who's maybe not gonna do it at 100 % the level that you're gonna do it, but maybe 80%, 90%, that's good enough because it's gonna free you up to do this thing that nobody else can do, which is the business development side of things or something like that. yeah.

Julie C (32:02)
Yeah, for sure.

For sure. Yeah, for sure.

So that's definitely one big thing that people don't listen to is like, don't try to do it all yourself, especially if you have the funds or have someone part time that can really help you drum up more business. That's the most important thing. So, and don't get into bad financing. I mean, we didn't get like a bad financing.

Corrado (32:27)
So as you know, yes, going in debt

is just, you know, not a good thing all around. So the more you can do cash, the better. ⁓ So as you're seeing Middle Tennessee growing, obviously the show is 615, unplugged. So it's all about Tennessee, Middle Tennessee. As you're seeing the area grow, evolve everything, how are you?

Julie C (32:36)
Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Corrado (32:55)
seeing that evolve? are you excited about the growth? Are there things that worry you? What's your perspective on how Middle Tennessee is growing?

Julie C (33:05)
I mean, I don't mind if someone's moving here from California. I don't understand the whole we're full, it makes no sense. At the end of the day, people are gonna widen roads. People like, do I hate seeing deer everywhere? Yes, it makes me so sad that I see deer crossing like streets that, you know, we're taking up a lot. There's a lot of things like, should they widen ⁓ Division Street? Probably, I don't think they should.

Corrado (33:20)
Yeah.

Julie C (33:32)
because it's not really affecting anything. It takes people an extra five minutes to get to work, so be it. Get up five minutes early. But building more houses and stuff like that, it's just gonna happen no matter what. It doesn't bother me. It excites me that like...

I love Mount Juliet. think their police department's one of the best response times. It's safe. I feel like they have the speeding situation. They scare people. I feel like everybody goes the speed limit in Mount Juliet because they know they'll get you and they're doing it right.

So I love Mount Juliet. We live in Lebanon, but I'm going to be, I think we're looking at like old Hickory Mount Juliet just because we love the area. The side where we are, I think is exploding because you know, they are bringing stuff instead of Providence. Now it's kind of where they just built Andes and they just, they're building Dutch Bros and they built Chipotle over here. This side is like blowing up.

and it excites me. Like, you know, it excited me that they put a bar and grill in this strip, you know, more businesses staying open past nine o'clock. Like, I love that. I don't ever go downtown to Nashville, but I like having cool businesses. That's really why I wanted to, you know, do the plant store, because it's just like, I feel like there's so many cool people, creative people coming from everywhere here. And I just wanted that, you know, to be open for them.

⁓ But yeah, I.

Corrado (35:00)
What are some things

that if they were 100 % up to you, what's something that you wish as Middle Tennessee keeps on growing that we don't lose? And what's something that you, if it were 100 % up to you, you would want to change?

Julie C (35:17)
my gosh, well, I don't know. What would I want to change?

Corrado (35:26)
One thing that you would want to make sure that we don't lose, that we keep, that doesn't change. And one thing that you wouldn't mind seeing change.

Julie C (35:36)
Gosh, I don't know. I definitely think keeping some of our like, some of our roads that are like, you know, beautiful and don't need to be widened, some houses with some good sized land. I think that's one thing is like keeping houses with some property. I feel like everything doesn't need to be like on half acre lots or what is it? I don't even know, quarter of an acre. Yeah, where you can literally high five your neighbors through the window. I hate that. I think we should be.

Corrado (35:57)
quarter acre, yeah, like developments.

Julie C (36:03)
like keep some of those like bigger houses, I think we should stop selling some of the nicer land lots and then building. That's one thing I would agree on. ⁓ But like keeping, you know.

But I think apartment buildings somewhere are fine. You I think it's needed. People want to live here as long as they're not like devaluing the town and how pretty it actually is and how there still is the small vibe, know, like small town vibes in Mount Juliet and Lebanon. ⁓ You recognize people when you're in the grocery stores, but I think like being ugly to people moving here makes no sense to me at all. ⁓ But yeah, I guess that would be.

something I don't want to lose is like the small town vibe because I do know so many small business owners, I guess. It just, I wouldn't like to see that. I wouldn't like to see some like Margaritavilles or something like that come here, you know, but like everything that I'm seeing, like I just saw that there's some like big indoor franchise like.

Corrado (36:59)
Right. Right.

Julie C (37:08)
What is it? It's going by the Academy. They just broke ground or something. That's cool and needed. It's not an arcade or maybe they did say there's going to be an arcade, but it's like a huge indoor like fun spot if you've been to Orlando. It's like that coming to Mount Juliet in your Walmart. I think that's needed. It's a big franchise, but I think it's needed, you know, but.

Corrado (37:22)
Yeah. OK.

Julie C (37:31)
I think keeping that small town vibe, mean, and that's really like what I'm excited about the plant store, because it's like building like a little community of people, you know. And same way with this business, it's just like I said, I want to find my niche of people and, you know, I don't want to be their printer. just want to, you know, I want to be their printer, but I don't want it to be like just cold, like a cold relationship, like because we do care, like.

Corrado (37:42)
Love it, love it.

Yeah,

you might, and I'm sure this has happened to you, you end up like printing some shirts for a concert or something like that and you end up going to the concert yourself because you're like, this is cool, you know, I'll go check it out. And then, you know, yeah, I love it. All right. So I'm doing something on every episode that is called the 615 rapid fire. So just a couple of quick questions about middle Tennessee living. And then you tell me the first thing that comes to mind. Okay. ⁓ So you get a billboard on I-65 for one full year. What does it say?

Julie C (38:06)
Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Okay.

Okay.

Need better merch with a big question mark and then my logo or my website. That's what it

Corrado (38:31)
Okay. All right.

Describe your idea of a perfect day in Middle Tennessee.

Julie C (38:42)
Gosh, when it's like cool weather, 68 degrees, zoo day, know, go out, eat some lunch at a park or something, I think would be a good day. Not going to Nashville, just the zoo, enjoying the weather, outdoor. If the Wilson County Fair was 68 degrees when they had it, that would be the perfect day, probably.

Corrado (38:59)
Okay.

Okay,

Wilson, okay, got it. ⁓ Favorite food spot and dish?

Julie C (39:17)
Gosh, the rack and tap place that just opened in my strip, that burger that I had was the best burger I've ever had in my life. It's a bunch of young guys that just opened there and I was floored. And then also the Cinco in here has the best chicken and rice. So I would say the Cinco in this strip, I think a lot of people know about Cinco, but the one here in our plaza is the best out of all of them. I've tried them. I've tried every Mexican restaurant.

Corrado (39:40)
Okay. And you said the first one,

what was the name of the first one? Rack and Top?

Julie C (39:45)
Rack and Tap, they just opened. They're still waiting on their liquor license, but they're open late. So like they have pool tables and it's like, they're gonna have live music soon. But they just opened and that food, it's fresh. It's not like, I didn't know what to expect. I just went down there. It was so good. So definitely that place. ⁓ And Cinco, they're just our go-tos. Like they're so good, so good. I can eat their chicken and rice every single day for the rest of my life and I'd be fine.

Literally.

Corrado (40:14)
Love it.

And then finally, any other businesses, people, stories, anything else that you want to show a little bit of love to that you think I should have on the show.

Julie C (40:26)
⁓ Gosh, I know so many good ones because we do get lucky with the people that we work with. Ready Teddys, just, ⁓ a couple that used to be ⁓ a customer of ours, ⁓ like five years ago just purchased Ready Teddys. It's a coffee shop near Dairy Queen on Mount Juliet Road. They just bought that company out.

So they're redoing that whole store. That's a good one there You know, they do have their like locals, but they do need more traction. They they deserve it ⁓ It's a really good brand the people that owned it before we printed for they were great people So I definitely think those guys ⁓ Another small business that I've seen they were my old neighbors. It's the Nito in your play place. They're on Lebanon Road ⁓ They have a really good community. That's a good one

Yeah, NEDO indoor playground. That's a really good one. Needham's nursery has been so supportive of me. They do all outdoor plants. They don't do indoor. So like they've been coming in here and purchasing indoor plants from me and sending people. So I definitely this year, especially in springtime, I'm going to send a lot of people down there. Needham's has been one of like every kind of big event that you see in middle Tennessee, they are sponsoring. They put so much money back into the community. So that's a really good one.

Corrado (41:51)
That's cool.

Julie C (41:52)
⁓ The scales have been in Mount Juliet for, you know, I think, you know, 50 something years or maybe, I don't know. But they've been here a very long time and they are always like the fireworks shows that you see like they're like the ones sponsoring. ⁓ So I would do Needums, Need-O, Ready Teddy's, but there's so many, there's so many good success stories here in Mount Juliet and in Lebanon. ⁓ But yeah, yeah, I'm excited to be on here.

Corrado (42:07)
Right.

⁓ Before we sign off

and you tell people ⁓ how they can get a hold of you, where to follow you, all of that good stuff. Any parting thoughts, anything that we didn't touch on that you want to highlight, anything that you want to leave with the listeners.

Julie C (42:36)
No, I don't know. I've definitely got deep in some points of like there is burnout, there is things like that that happen and it happens in every business, especially like extremely fast growing businesses. ⁓ But at the end of the day, a good rebrand, refresh, adding another thing that like...

you know, sparks that interest again, like our graphic T wall and stuff like that, like has been amazing. I love the people that we're finding with our new name. ⁓ If you want like high quality merge, you know, someone's always going to come through for you. We're your people. My husband and I like are obsessed with what we do. We have a team now that has all been with us for years. They love what they do and we're just like a big family. So if you want good vibes and you want even better merge.

come see us, you can reach out to us at hello at wildfiremerch.com ⁓ or just go to wildfiremerch.com and go on our.

quote page and me or my lovely account manager Myra will help you find the perfect merch. We also have a showroom open Monday through Friday, nine to five, that you can come in, see things getting printed in real life and touch and feel things. If you're having second doubts that were the right fit for you, that will seal the deal. So yeah, I really appreciate you having me on and I'm excited to see what you can do with your podcast. definitely.

Corrado (43:57)
Love it.

Julie C (44:04)
So, so, so excited for you. I think it's needed to showcase the amazing places that are here in Mount Juliet, Lebanon and surrounding counties. yeah.

Corrado (44:14)
100%,

100%. Julie, thank you so much. This was awesome. Thank you so much. You got it.

Julie C (44:18)
Thank you. Awesome.

Corrado (44:23)
Hey there, if you enjoyed this episode don't forget to like, subscribe and share with someone you think would find it interesting. Until next time, thank you for tuning in.