#63: Behind the Seams

Path to Progress with Paul Heintzman and John Ackerman

Alli Truttman, President & CEO of Wicked Sheets, joins us to discuss how she has gone from sewing sheets in her apartment to selling them on qvc.

Some questions answered in this episode:

• How did personal experience form the company?
• How long did you work as a side-hustle before working at Wicked Sheets full-time?
• What did you do to cover your weaknesses operating the company?
• How did you meet your initial investors and make connections to grow your business?
• How do you turn an idea into a product and get it manufactured?
• How long did you sew the sheets yourself?
• How do you get an investor?
• How did having an advisory board help you staff your weaknesses?
• What is the hardest thing you dealt with while starting your business?
• When were you ready to hire an employee?
• Which tasks do you delegate and which do you still perform yourself?
• How do you effectively delegate?
• What has the company been like since it got investors?
• How did you grow Wicked Sheets?
• Why did you decide to switch manufacturers and how did you find a new one?
• How do you amicably part ways with early investors when you need additional investors?
• How do you choose potential investors?
• What are Wicked Sheets and what makes them better than the competition?
• Who would benefit from using Wicked Sheets?
• Did you ever imagine the company/product when you started would look like the company/product today?
• Do you sleep on Wicked Sheets?
• Do you feel like the company has made it?
• What is the difference between your day-to-day now versus when you started?
• What does it mean for the company to be successful and how do you judge success?
• How does taking a break from the company and focusing on other tasks help you see the company from a different angle?
• Is it tough to give up part of your company?
• What is the biggest thing you've learned in the last 10 years running Wicked Sheets?
• What are the best and worst decisions you've made since the company started?
• Why do you need to be able to have a strategy and be able to execute?
• How did you get on QVC and what was the process like?
• Why did you choose to start and run Wicked Sheets in Louisville?
• What is the future of Wicked Sheets?
• Why is feedback from your customers so important for small businesses?

Last call:

• What advice would your 60 year old self give you today?
  • Plan better, faster.
• What advice would you give to an entrepreneur just starting out?
  • Take a lot of risks.
  • Make sure you can pay for health insurance.
  • Stress is normal, you are not alone.
  • Pitfalls will happen.

• What's the best thing you've spent money on in the last six months?
  • One way mirrors on all the doors and windows at Wicked Sheets.
• What is a book/documentary/podcast you would recommend?
  • How I Built This podcast.
  • Sapiens.
  • Shoe Dog.
• What's your favorite thing to drink?
  • Prosecco.

Shoutouts:

• Weller Special Reserve
• Technicolor Pilsner from Bearded Iris
• Upwork
• Bellarmine University
• Costco

Enjoyed this episode? Feel free to contact Alli at [e-mail] and make sure to purchase Wicked Sheets at wickedsheets.com, Amazon, or QVC. Have any topics you want to be covered or amazing people you’d like us to interview? Let us know! You can email us at [e-mail]. You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin. Please be sure to subscribe to our weekly mailing list at drunkenmoney.com/subscribe.