We recently connected with Erin Sparrow and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Erin, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re very focused on here – improving our ability to make decisions. Everyday, we’re faced with decisions that can impact the future of our careers, businesses, relationships and more and so one of the most impactful areas for personal development, in our view, is decision-making. Can you talk to us about how you developed or improved your decision-making skills?
Running a one-person small business developed my decision-making skills faster than anything I have experienced before. From the very first step, every day involved decisions, and at first it is intimidating and exhausting. The self-doubt, decision-fatigue, and fear of failure started to take over. In the beginning, every single choice seemed like a future-altering, life-changing, huge deal.
But the good news is, as time went on and more decisions were made, I started to gain a self-trust that (in my opinion) can only be accomplished through time and experience. And this self-trust didn’t just come from making correct decisions, but more from making bad choices. Once you make a few wrong decisions, learn from them, and pivot to continue your growth, you realize that failing is part of the process. And once your brain starts seeing failure as necessary and not a negative, the overwhelming fear falls away and the self-trust builds.
One of my favorite mantras is “limit the amount of time between idea and execution.” Limit the analyzing and overthinking, and start to trust yourself. As my self-trust got stronger over time, I started to make decisions much more quickly, which led to learning what works and what doesn’t more quickly, which led to being able to pivot more quickly, and so on. This is when the real growth started happening for me, because I stopped being scared of failure and started seeing it as a necessary part of growth.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My name is Erin Sparrow and I am the owner of Sparrow and Wilde, a shop selling licensed bookish merchandise including apparel, accessories, and temporary tattoos.
I started my shop in June 2022 designing and selling apparel, and at that time I was focusing on several different niches (mental health, music, occupations, etc.). I became interested in the idea of selling clothing when I learned about the print-on-demand business plan, which is a platform used to sell items without holding inventory (so there is little upfront cost and low risk). With no design or sales experience, I dove into learning everything I could about this industry. I hired an Esty coach and watched hours of YouTube videos on design. As I got more experience, I began to gain traction on Etsy at the end of 2022.
In early 2023, I reached out to the author Sarah J. Maas to apply for licensing to design and sell apparel based on her book series A Court of Thorns and Roses. Once approved, I got to work and now have hundreds of designs based on this book series, along with Sarah J. Maas’ other series (Throne of Glass and Crescent City). I have since become licensed with several other authors, including Rebecca Yarros (Fourth Wing), H.D. Carlton (Haunting Adeline), Carissa Broadbent (Crowns of Nyaxia), Rachel Gillig (One Dark Window), Penn Cole (The Kindred’s Curse Saga), and Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti (Zodiac Academy).
My goal with merch is to create emotionally connective designs that are unlike anything readers have seen before. I accomplish this by focusing a lot on side characters (i.e. the characters who we love that play an important role in the story, but who don’t get as much merch love because they are not one of the mains). I also accomplish unique designs by creating “if you know you know” merch. For example, I will create a shirt that looks like a band tee you’d get at a concert, but the references within the shirt are from the book series. So no one would know it relates to books unless they are within the bookish world. It makes for fun encounters at the grocery store, where if someone recognizes your tee, you know you have made an immediate book friend.
Although I began with selling mainly apparel, my product offerings have grown based on diving further into the bookish world, and learning more about my customers’ preferences. I now sell eReader cases, blankets, office accessories, stickers, and more. My most popular product is temporary tattoos based on the characters in these book series. I believe this product sets me apart from most other licensed bookish sellers. I have not seen many, if any, other sellers creating tattoos (likely because of the amount of supplier/product testing involved).
The idea to sell tattoos came to me during a book club meeting, where I had brought some general temporary tattoos for us to put on for fun (flowers, mountains, etc,). When we were applying the tattoos and discussing our favorite books, I thought to myself, “what we need is tattoos based on this book series.” I immediately went onto Amazon and was surprised there were zero options. And thus, Sparrow and Wilde temporary tattoos were born. The process to reach out to suppliers, test products, and finalize packaging took months. It is surprising how many low quality temporary tattoo products are out there. After months of testing, I finally found a quality tattoo partner, and dove in headfirst to designing different tattoo sheets. I now offer eight different 11″ x 7″ temporary tattoo sheet options (each with 20+ tattoos), which last 2-5 days depending on placement.
Shortly after finalizing this new product, I reached out to several event companies to see if I could be a tattoo vendor at fantasy book events. I have applied tattoos to guests at several events, including The Fantastique Collection’s Starfall Ball event. The tattoos have been a hit for people attending these kinds of events, and my customers are amazing at tagging me in ball photos or reaching out to me to tell me how everything worked out.
My company has also recently grown to include wholesale options, design services for independent authors, and podcast collaborations. I am hopeful that my unique designs and product offerings set me apart in the book merch world, and that my customers appreciate being able to show off their love of these series through subtle apparel designs and tattoos. I am very proud of the bookish shop I have created, and the community I have gotten to know throughout my shop’s growth on Instagram. The community I have found on Bookstagram has been the most fun part of this process – everyone is so supportive and helpful. It’s like a huge book club where we all support each other’s passions, small businesses, and general life events. I am so grateful to have found this niche, and am excited to see what other adventures my shop takes me on!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The single most important quality that has impacted my journey is the ability to pivot. Recognizing when an idea needs to be changed or abandoned, and taking quick action to do so, creates a company that is constantly building upon its best ideas and learning from its worst ideas.
Another quality that has been crucial is not limiting the potential I envision for my business. Especially at the beginning – when I would tell people I have an Etsy shop, sometimes I would get a reply to the tune of, “that’s so cute.” What those people didn’t realize was the massive plans and vision I had for my business. What started off as a small shop selling t-shirts has turned into a brand that offers event vending, wholesale, collaborations, and will soon offer a course to teach others how I built it. Not to sound cliche, but you have to have a “the sky’s the limit” mentality, because if you don’t believe in yourself, who else will?
Dedication (or a better way to put it may be obsession) has also been extremely valuable. This journey been hard work and long hours, but most of the time it doesn’t feel like work because I am so passionate about growing my business. I find myself having to set alarms to remind myself to stop working because it brings me so much joy, but I also need to eat and sleep!
My advice for people starting is to give yourself grace. Starting a business is hard enough without shaming yourself every time something goes wrong. Be flexible and realize nothing is that serious!
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I recently launched a collaboration offering to partner with independent authors. In this collab, I will design a custom temporary tattoo that indie authors can include in their PR boxes, event swag, etc. I work with the authors to design a tattoo that aligns with the themes of their book. Each package includes individually packaged tattoos and a Sparrow & Wilde bookmark, as well as a joint Instagram post & featured section on the Sparrow & Wilde website so their book can reach more readers. It has been so fun to get to know the independent authors who make up the bookish community, and to use my platform to uplift their work!
If any authors are interested, there is a section on my website for Featured Indie Authors where they can reach out to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sparrowandwilde.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sparrow.and.wilde/
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