Today we’d like to introduce you to Allie Falcon.
Hi Allie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My entrepreneurial journey began when I married a Cowboy that always set up camp at jobs in the middle of nowhere. I was working in a corporate marketing job, straight out of college at Texas Tech for a few years. As my husband’s job forced us further from town, I was getting tired of driving fifty miles to work. I wanted to work, but at that point, I was basically working just to pay for gas 😂. Can you imagine that cost now?
We knew we would be moving in a year to a new ranch, so I started saving up those corporate checks and buying equipment like a nice camera, computer, design software, and a tablet for digital drawing. I knew I wanted to focus on small business design for cute shops and artisans. When we would go to rodeos or shop at boutiques I would network with the owners and offer graphic design/photography services. Luckily for me, at that time, designers were hard to come by in the tight-knit western community, so I booked multiple branding/ photo gigs that kept me busy after I got off work from my corporate job.
By the time we moved, I was able to quit my day job and go full-time freelancing. I spent 2 years in freelance land, but in my spare time I took up tooling leather. One night I posted some bracelets I made on the wonderful world of Instagram and sold 40 of them in 15 minutes! Immediately I was like whoa, maybe this is my calling! The leather gig turned into my side hustle. One day I was daydreaming about how I could get my leather work into magazines like Cowboys & Indians or Cowgirl, but HOOWWWWW? So, I wrote up a few practice blogs, took some flat lay shots of cute outfits and emailed both publications, and said, “Hey, you guys need me! I’d like to write for you, here’s a few reasons why I’m your girl, and here are some writing samples and flat-lay shots.” I’ll be damned if Cowgirl Mag didn’t swoop me up the next week.
If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably like, “My God woman! Pick a lane!” I get it. I don’t know how to have a hobby without monetizing it. Ha! At this point in the game, I was freelancing, leather working, and blogging. I utilized my time with Cowgirl Magazine to write about small businesses instead of the big-name brands. That choice helped me build relationships with a ton of brands that would help me along my journey in the future. As I blogged about fashion/artisans, I also self-promoted my leather business quite a bit and I think that was a huge part of my success in the leather business. Those businesses I blogged about were good to me when it came to sharing my leather and design work with their followers and before I knew it, I was too busy with leather work to blog or take on custom design.
I focused all my energy on leatherwork until 2019 when I had my baby girl. While I was 9 months pregnant, rolling around on the ground cutting out purses in my dining room, I was like how in the actual hell am I going to do this with a baby? We were making it alright financially, but I wanted more for myself and my baby. As if by some miracle, a high-end home decor company reached out and wanted to hire me to collaborate and design an entire home line for them based around my leather designs. Before they reached out, I had been toying with the idea of opening a Society6 shop since I had a lot of graphic design experience. I was hoping to diversify my sources of income a bit by starting an S6 shop. Since this opportunity helped me dip my toe into the home decor lane, I said YES to that company!
Everything was going great, right? Well, while I was designing the line, I started uploading some of my older designs to Society6 just as a way to kind of make some mailbox money. The first day promoting my Society6 on Instagram, I got a lengthy HATE email from the home decor company telling me if I was going to sell trash on Society6 then maybe we just weren’t right for each other. They ended the contract, paid me my measly design fee and POOF, they were gone! I immediately took the Society6 post down, closed my S6 shop, and cried. My baby was due at the end of that month, and I felt like such a freaking joke. I felt like a failure. I completely understood why they ended the contract and I had just robbed my family of the biggest opportunity I had to date. I was lost and unsure of where my career was headed.
After she was born, I got my creative groove back. I said, “Screw it. I guess I’m trash if I like Society6. Ha! (News flash, Society6 is amazing and there are a ton of great products and opportunities to be had for artists on their platform.) I drew up a few things and uploaded them to Society6 and it blew up! It turned out to be exactly what I needed, because when I designed a new piece, that art could be made into shirts, bandanas, whatever inventory I wanted to sell on my personal website, alliefalcon.com, all while generating income on Society6 for the foreseeable future, without any inventory risk. Unlike leather, where I’d design something, and unless I was physically building a hundred more of them, that design was done. I was so tired of making the same 15 designs over and over, even if the demand was there. I’m a design and move-on type. Which brings me to today, I have my website alliefalcon.com where I sell things like women’s and children’s clothing, accessories, and gift items with my graphics and patterns on them. Now I source products from makers and manufacturers all over the world and have my art on a little bit of everything! Society6 continues to live on, and I’ve been lucky enough to develop amazing business relationships though their platform. For example, I’ve designed art for Disney, Pixar, Homegoods, and Urban Outfitters. That ain’t too shabby, considering the way that ritzy $400 pillow-selling home decor company made me feel when I opened shop. 😂
Now I get to design from my studio we just built on our family ranch and watch my little girl grow up, while I chase my dreams. I’ve learned a lot of lessons the hard way and I’m sure there are plenty more to learn. I’m thankful to have gotten this far, but I’m still a long way from where I want to be!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
In addition to my many career pivots and missteps that I shared earlier; I find it hard to differentiate myself from other online shops. In a sense, I’m an online boutique, but I’m also a designer/artist.
It’s hard to walk up to someone and say, “I designed every single thing in this shop and that’s why my stuff is special.” I’m a firm believer that no one’s going to cheer for you if you don’t cheer for yourself, but I seriously feel like the biggest braggadocios idiot when I cheer.
Another obstacle has been letting go of people stealing my designs and learning how to handle it like a businessperson. I used to lose sleep over this. I was bitter and angry and sounded like a total snob. At least a few times a month, someone sends me a picture of another business blatantly ripping off my designs, sometimes they don’t even bother to remove my signature. Even though I had dealt with this during my time in leather work, I guess since my crippled hands aren’t covered in leather stain and paint just to make a couple hundred bucks, I’m less consumed by it.
I have my work copyrighted and I’m in the process of having my name trademarked. Now if anyone tries me, I handle it in court. While it still happens, I feel like the people that steal from you aren’t forward thinkers, so they’ll always be behind and they won’t last, so you can’t let them steal your joy.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My art is heavily inspired by the beauty of the American Southwest. The textiles, the scenery, and the people. I often include women in my drawings because, is there anything more fierce than a female who can do anything a man can do, but still look fire doing it? I love me a powerful female!
I’m most proud of my clothing line on alliefalcon.com, because I literally curated everything from start to finish. I drew the prints on my sketchbook, then computer, then had them printed on fabrics, then had them sewn into beautiful silhouettes that took long hours of studying measurements to perfect, then they became a finished product that I was able to photograph and sell. Like that is nuts, y’all! I had no idea I was capable of something like that.
What sets me apart is that everything I sell, I design in-house. It might be an insane assortment of products, but it was designed by me. If I’m passionate about something, I’m going to make an Allie Falcon version. Ha! For example, I’ve been a candle hoarder my whole life. Once I found a company I wanted to work with, we put together a few scents I adored and added my art to the labels. Fun fact, they are actually poured in Richardson, Texas.
We love surprises, fun facts, and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I play guitar and sing. I’m not going to win any awards, mind you, but I enjoy having a few beers with my buddies, busting out the guitar, and everyone singing at the top of their lungs!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alliefalcon.com
- Instagram: @alliefalcon
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AllieFalconDesign
Image Credits
Malone
