Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey y'all, welcome back to Made It Out.
Chapter 2: What inspired Bernenda Marc to start Preparedness Collective?
Today I'm here with Bernanda Mark, the owner and founder of Preparedness Collective. Yes. Thank you for being here.
I'm happy to be here.
As you all know, Made It Out launched a product this year. That is my first time that I've ever been in e-commerce. So it was a little bit daunting, a little bit scary as new things are. It's kind of one of those games you play like, what if nobody wants to buy it? What if I don't understand the logistics of e-commerce? But let me tell you, Shopify has made it so simple.
I'm usually one of those people who kind of shies away from logistics, numbers, dashboards, freak me out. But Shopify makes it so easy. We get on the boards every meeting and we kind of just use that to really dive into our business. It has... quelled a lot of my fear and made launching a product so easy. They have 24-7 customer service lines.
They have full marketing campaigns for emails, socials, so it makes it feel like you have a robust team behind you. And they're very easy to trust because they work with huge businesses globally and 10% of the e-commerce businesses in the US. Go get your $1 trial at shopify.com slash made. Go to shopify.com slash made. That's shopify.com slash made.
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I've been really excited about this conversation.
I feel like this conversation is definitely needed to be heard. So it's awesome. I'm excited too.
And I just want to tell the backstory of how we found each other. I had said that an initiative of mine this year was to talk to more listeners and people who like weren't exactly, like weren't super online, like super, you know, or musicians or what have you. And your lovely fiance who's in the studio with us today reached out and was like, you have to hear this story. And I'm so glad you did.
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Chapter 3: How did Bernenda's upbringing shape her identity?
Did you ever think, did you bury these experiences? Where were you at with your sexuality then? Like, how did you figure it out before you knew it was wrong?
Well, I was actually in relationship with men. Okay. Throughout, like from seven all the way up to I joined the military at age 20. Okay. So I'm a late out, like I came out late, but I was in a relationship with a man. My last relationship was for four years. I thought I was going to marry this man.
And even though it didn't feel 100% me, like I felt like I was a shell of myself, that I wasn't necessarily fulfilling my, what I needed to fulfill. But I'm like thinking in the back of my head, my parents would love this. I'm married to a man. I'm about to have kids, you know, build a family. That's the American dream in my parents' eyes. But really, I was just self-sabotaging and self-harm.
But it was not until I almost died straight. And that's when I realized I am not living my true life. I'm not living my true self. And that's not the way to live. And life is too short.
As you all know, this year I took on a different challenge and I broke into e-commerce. We put U-Haul or U-Ghost into a game. And starting something new can be really daunting. What if it fails? What if nobody wants to buy it? What if I don't understand the logistics of e-commerce? But let me tell you, Shopify has made that so much easier.
I'm usually the person that kind of hides from the numbers, gets scared to talk about logistics. When I see the dashboards that they have and how easy they make it to understand your business, it has made it so much better and the game has been so much more successful.
Shopify is very easy to trust because they're the e-commerce platform that's behind millions of businesses globally and 10% of e-commerce businesses in the US. And they're great for really, really large businesses or if you're just getting started. Another thing that's really great is my team is very small. There's three of us for now.
I didn't realize that you kind of need a full marketing campaign and team behind you when you want to break into product, which should have been obvious. But with Shopify, it's no big deal because they make it really easy to do social media campaigns, email campaigns. It's literally like you have a whole team behind you. The other thing that has been really, really great is the customer service.
I am not tech savvy, also just not always the most patient with these kinds of things. So their 24-7 customer service line has been absolutely wonderful. Me and Emma are just picking up that phone, asking another question, making sure we're doing it right. It's time to turn those what ifs into today. Go to shopify.com slash made to get your $1 per month trial. That's shopify.com slash made.
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