Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooklyn Calloway.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I’ve come a long way from where I started.
After graduating from Texas A&M Commerce with my Masters in Secondary and Higher Education, I begin teaching in Garland, Tx. After one year I moved to C-FBISD and then ultimately to Frisco ISD as a Gifted and Talented Facilitator and Middle School English Teacher. I spent 11 years in public education total and walked away with several amazing memories. My second year in Frisco I was awarded the Dallas Mavericks Teacher of the year for North Texas, won a complete classroom makeover by the Love Sac company, and conducted the largest collegiate legacy campaign ever done.
Approximately 50 of my students wrote weekly letters to over 300 colleges for 4 months straight asking for stadium banners to decorate our school. We ended up wrapping the entire cafeteria and all the hallways with over 700 banners sent to my kiddos for free. My students walked into my CLASSroom to become CLASSier versions of themselves, and to this day, I get Facebook messages from my them reminiscing about our days together at Staley Middle School. Knowing you made a difference. Knowing you are remembered as one of the greatest feelings on Earth.
Teaching is definitely in my blood, but English was just a vehicle to drive my passion for guiding, inspiring and coaching others. I always felt like the four walls of the classroom were holding me back from what I was really meant to do, and in 2013 my #ladyboss spirit took over. I had always had an entrepreneurial mindset and sometimes my goals as a teacher didn’t always match up with the standardized “ho-hum” curriculum I was made to follow, so it was inevitable that my heart would overcome my practical side and allow me to rip the band-aid off to chase down my [real] dreams.
In 2013 I began Brookielynn’s Bungalow, a creative company and new vehicle for my passion to teach others. I began by teaching simple furniture refinishing workshops. I had learned how to upcycle furniture from blogs, YouTube, books, magazines, and workshops. I was consumed during my final years of teaching with learning all that I could.
After about 6 months of teaching women to refinish cabinets and furniture, I realized I needed to tweak my classes so that I could re-market to the same audience each month. I realized that if the goal of the class was just to learn then once they learned, they never needed to return. I guess it was like taking college Algebra twice. Why would anyone need to do that? So, I studied the ‘Painting with a Twist” workshop model and quickly decided that I needed a “canvas” on which to teach that kept clients coming back over and over again.
I did what any normal American girl would do. I took to Pinterest for inspiration, and it didn’t take long until it came to me. Pin after pin contained banners. Some were the subject of the pin, some were in the background, but I knew that I had to recreate this popular bunting banner with wood and make it a canvas (project kit) for my workshops. I could see the way forward, but I had no clue how big it would become.
I partnered with a woodworker, drew a rough sketch of what I wanted and had the first kit cut. My first workshop filled up and then another and another. I posted all my workshops on my social channels and soon other chalk paint retailers started reaching out to ask me where I was getting my workshop kits! The light bulb when off, and that’s how I have scaled my business. After one year in business, I found my niche`. I found a need in the marketplace and filled it.
Turns out we [all chalk-style paint retailers] needed a canvas in order to really grow our monthly workshops. So now, Brookielynn’s Bungalow, designs, cuts, and curates custom wooden workshop kits for paint retailers all over the country. I still teach my own workshops, of course. It’s like that principal that hasn’t been in the classroom in 20 years that goes on and on telling the teachers how to teach today’s kids. It’s not credible. I have to retain my relevancy in the marketplace in order for my retailers to believe in my product, my guidance, and my know-how.
I teach workshop using all the best. My kits contain only the best, and my retailers return time and time again because now their customers expect the best. Brooklynn’s Bungalow’s workshops are not only fun, but I like to say that everyone leaves with something they will be proud to hang in their homes. Build a Bunting™, the flagship project kit morphed into many other “Build a ….” projects. I make plank signs, pallet signs and door hangers, too.
My husband and three children are my rock. They are my backbone. My husband, Matt Calloway, is on the downtown advisory board for Frisco and is a commercial and residential real estate agent. I always say it feels like, between his work with the city, my FISD teaching career and then 5 years teaching local paint parties, there’s not a person in Frisco we don’t know.
He resigned as commercial airline pilot the same year I quit public education, and neither of us have ever looked back. We dream big or we go home. There’s no other way. Our favorite inspirational quote is, “You have to want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe.” (Chris Gardner) Matt specializes in the downtown Frisco and has been the leading force behind the last five years of revitalization.
Jayden our son is a senior on varsity baseball, our daughter Lila is in first grade and loves dancing and our youngest, Lincoln, is just starting down the path of his big brother on his first coach pitch team. He is 5 years old.
In 2016 I broke the Guinness World Record for the largest furniture refinishing workshop (single venue). I had 322 people register and attend. It brought me back to the days of teaching because I taught my kids that they could do anything they put their minds to if they wanted it bad enough. I just barely remember the day I broke the record because I had stayed up for three days pushing, promoting and finalizing the plans for that big day. I’ll never get tired of feeling the way it feels when you accomplish something that so many didn’t believe could be done.
24 hours after breaking the world record, Matt and I closed on our dream home. We now live in one of the oldest and most historic houses in Frisco. I drove by it every single day as a teacher going to Staley Middle School. I dreamed of living there. I wondered who lived there and what it was like inside. I wished someday that I could have something like that. I knew, though, my teaching salary and Matt’s pilot paycheck weren’t ever going to get us where our hearts wanted to be. As I finish this paragraph, I can hear the tardy bell at Staley ringing.
Every day that bell reminds of just how far I’ve come. That bell whispers to me and prompts me to appreciate what I have by recalling where I’ve been. I’m only five blocks away, but it feels like it’s a distant world.
Matt and I are living the American dream. Every opportunity that we have had since quitting our day jobs has been created by us because of this amazing life we are blessed to live in America. We thank the brave that have fought for our freedom to live our dreams and we never forget their sacrifice. Hard work, a principle-driven life, and taking risks have landed us squarely in the bullseye of our wildest dreams, and I encourage others with all my heart not to wait. Don’t put off what you can start today.
Don’t compare yourself, and where you are to someone else’s “middle”. You don’t know where they started or how long it took them to get to where they are today. Start today. Take one step. Take one bite. Do it. Your dreams depend on it. We were all created fully equipped with the goods to make the desires of our hearts come true. Trust in that. You ARE enough.
I now focus a good portion of my efforts on guiding and growing small businesses. I help others reach their goals through an online group called Bungalow U™ and I bring all kinds of experts into the group to teach, present, coach and guide. I’m currently renovating a 1956 Chevrolet 6700 school bus into the ultimate she shed in my backyard. You would die. It’s awesome–well the inside isn’t awesome quite yet, but it will be. Just wait.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It hasn’t been a totally smooth road. The biggest struggle I’ve experienced is having to develop a sense of “holding my cards close”. I’m very open about my business and freely offer to help others. The most difficult part of the past five years has been the ugly side I’ve seen come out in copycats and people that aren’t really my friends or are not out for my best interest at heart. Some of them have been a total shock.
My dad told me once, “You can’t be so trusting. You have to treat everyone like a potential enemy or client. There are no friends in the business, the sooner you learn that, the better.”
That has been a hard pill to swallow.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Brookielynn’s Bungalow, LLC – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Best recap of what I do and what I specialize in can be found here: http://brookielynnsbungalow.com/home/workshopkits/
In the past year, I’ve added wooden wall words to my product line. I make wall words, names, phrases and shapes up to 8 ft across. For an album of examples of my work in the wild, please visit bit.ly/clientexamples
To order and read more about my wall words, please visit, http://brookielynnsbungalow.com/home/wood-cut-outs/.
I’m known for my relationships with my clients, my personal attention to each everyone, and for treating others like they matter and are very important to me. The difference I’m making in communities all around the country is what makes me the proudest. When I see one of my retailers post pictures after a workshop during which they used my creations, I melt. The smiles on everyone’s faces, the creativity I see in what they made and the success that my retailer (and friend) is having makes me beam with pride. They are experiencing success from something I helped them do and there’s not a better feeling than that.
No one else in the chalk-style paint and milk paint industry is specifically catering to chalk paint retailers. No one is making curated, custom designed workshops kits. It’s a completely new category of business. I love being the only one and knowing that little idea I had 5 years ago has become this new thing. It’s something that wasn’t there before and that’s exactly what creativity is…
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Two big changes coming this year. One, I’m not at liberty to say just yet, but it’s big. The other I’ve been working towards for a long time. I’m currently filming, editing and uploading a subscription-based box called “The Bungalow Craft Crate”
Each month, subscribers will receive a Brookielynn’s Bungalow curated craft kit along with a link to a virtual, pre-recorded paint party. It’s inevitable that before every workshop, followers reach out and say that they wished they lived closer so that they could attend, and every time, I have no way to fix that for my far away clients. Now I do! The Bungalow Craft Crate will launch the 10th of February.
This coming fall, I’ll be launching bi-annual Bungalow Craft Retreats. People will stay in my carriage house (we call it the bunkhouse) and spend the weekend learning all the top industry trends and techniques on completely custom and highly curated craft kits that are thematically tied to the three major fall/winter holidays. Retreaters will leave with home decor for all three upcoming holidays and much, much more.
Pricing:
- Paint parties are $55 per person and can be found on BrookielynnsBungalow.com
- Wooden workshop kits range from $25 to $35 each and are bundled in packs of 6 or more. Request more info on BrookielynnsBungalow.com
- Purchase a $5 raffle ticket in my Etsy store for a chance to be the first guest to stay in my 1956 school bus in historic downtown Frisco, Texas
Contact Info:
- Address: 7546 Oak Street
- Website: BrookielynnsBungalow.com
- Phone: 972-689-5453
- Email: hello@brookielynnsbungalow.com
Image Credit:
Vanessa Bordasch Photography
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
