Bonnie Kirby Founder and CEO of Well Dressed Nashville explores Friendship, Entrepreneurship, and Mental Health

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Bonnie Kirby is the founder of Well Dressed Nashville, an online elevated closet sale featuring the closets of Nashville’s most stylish and influential women and celebrities. In the past two years, Well Dressed Nashville has worked with women like Caroline Bryant, Brittany Kelly, Hillary Scott, Hunter Premo, Shawn Johnson East (yes, the Olympian) and many more. Before all of that she was a pediatric oncology nurse, and before that she was my best friend!

How is it possible to stay friends with someone who you got along with in preschool? Bonnie noted that when the other person changes or makes a pivot that we may not understand, that’s when it’s most important to champion them and love them through all their seasons. I can attest that she has walked that walk for the last 30 years as we’ve both strived to welcome the new versions of each other with open arms. 

One of those big pivots for Bonnie was her journey from pediatric oncology nurse to full blown entrepreneur with the launch of her successful business, Well Dressed Nashville. I asked her how she knew it was the right time to start a business and she replied with classic Bonnie candor, “I DON’T think it was a good time!” Let me set the scene for you: we’re on the eve of a global pandemic, Bonnie has a “not even one year old” at home, and she decides to dabble in an event-based closet sale thinking it might be a fun bi-annual “thing.” Proof of Bonnie’s entrepreneurial brilliance is that she was able to pivot the whole thing online just in time. “I thought, either this dies here or I figure out a way to make it work.”

We also explored how our greatest strengths can sometimes be the cracks in our armor. I’d say Bonnie’s “unfair advantage,” if you will, is the purity of her extroversion. “When I say that I really love people, I legitimately love people. The networking part of this is my most favorite thing. If I could be at a point in my business where I could only do that, that would be my dream.”  This is something I don’t hear a lot, but I can attest that it’s so very true of her. And it’s likely the reason her business has exploded. She’s gotten some major “Yes”es (like Olympian-sized) even though her business is only two years old because she’s not afraid to talk to anyone and can instantly connect. Bonnie was even gracious enough to share with us the downside of rapidly growing a people-based business. It’s been a huge success and an even bigger joy, but it came at a cost. As is common with FOMO-ridden, visionary-types, extroverted entrepreneurs (like Bonnie and myself) burnout hit her hard and took a toll on Bonnie’s mental and physical health. She shared how she’s overcome and what processes she’s putting in place so that she can bounce back full-force in a sustainable way. 

Links of note in this episode:

Well Dressed Nashville
Traction
Basecamp

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