Dolly Created Dolly — Weekly Retail Tidbits #264
Dolly Created Dolly
“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.”
— Dolly Parton
Through some tears and lots of reflection on Dolly Parton’s well-lived life of eighty years that ended Tuesday, it’s been a lot tougher than I imagined to write this week.
Her life started in a one room cabin in Sevier County TN not that far from my home in Knox County. She was the fourth of twelve children. Her mother’s family was musical. Her father could not read or write. She loved to chase butterflies, thought the lady the town called “trash” was absolutely beautiful, and she wanted to be rich.
Dolly created Dolly. She figured out that her outside curves helped get attention. Her song-writing and singing kept it. Her goal of having money when she was old helped shape her smartest business decisions right from the start.
She was never confused about which part was which. “I’m almost like three people,” she told 60 Minutes in 2009 — there was Dolly the person, Dolly the star, and Dolly the manager. She called her image a cartoon character that she created. The manager is the one who worked.
Here is what the manager did at twenty-eight. Elvis wanted to record “I Will Always Love You,” and she had said yes. He had worked up his own arrangement. The session was booked. Then Colonel Tom Parker called the night before. Elvis did not record anything unless his side got half the publishing. She told him no. “This is the most important copyright in my whole publishing company,” she said. She cried all night over it, and she still said no, because those songs were like her children and she expected them to take care of her when she got old. Eighteen years later Whitney Houston recorded it, and Dolly said she made enough money to buy Graceland.
And the butterflies she chased as a little girl in those woods — she claimed them as her own symbol and used them for the rest of her life. “Love Is Like a Butterfly” in 1974. The W in the Dollywood sign is a pair of wings. She described them this way: “Butterflies don’t sting, they don’t bite, and they are so beautiful.”
That is not a bad description of a store, either.
Her Imagination Library started in her own Sevier County in 1995 as a tribute to her daddy, who never learned to read. “He was the smartest man I have ever known,” she said, “but I know in my heart his inability to read probably kept him from fulfilling all of his dreams.” It mails a book a month to well over three million children now, in five countries — more than 300 million so far. He lived long enough to hear the kids call her the Book Lady. “Before he passed away, my Daddy told me the Imagination Library was probably the most important thing I had ever done.”
Her smart business decisions and her ability to use what she had gave her the power to help herself, her family, her community and countless others.
She knew who she was — both what she created on the inside and out — and she stayed true to it, letting it all accumulate the compounding interest over the years. Pun intended.
So what can you say about your store that is like what Dolly did with Dolly?
She knew her niche and never drifted from it. She used what she had to make people look. What makes people look at your store?
Then she kept them, and not with the rhinestones. She kept them with the songs and with plain kindness. “I don’t condemn or criticize,” she said. “I just accept and love.” She had opinions and she kept most of them to herself on purpose, because she wanted every kind of person to feel welcome coming to her. A lifetime of that, and her people wanted to stay.
So ask it about your store. Does everybody who walks through your door get the same chance at the best experience you can give them?
Then the smart business part. Dolly wanted money when she was old, and she ran her business that way from the day she started. Your rent, your payroll, all those day to day expenses — do they add up to the life you want, and to something left over for the people who depend on you?
Pick the one you cannot answer today. That is where you start.
Every single morning of a working life that ran six decades, she put on the hair and the makeup and the rhinestones and went out and played the part she had built. She made it look easy because she was that good at it. It was not easy.
Rhinestones are heavy, especially on a body as small as hers. (Her small stature was the thing I noticed first when I saw her at Dollywood with my three sons several years ago.) She wore them on the mornings she felt like it and on the mornings she did not. That is the part nobody sees, in her business or in yours.
When her nephew Bryan Seaver announced her passing this week, he said she had called him and told him she wanted to rest in “a beautiful bed of plush cotton” — after a lifetime in heavy rhinestones, she had earned some comfort. He said her daddy farmed the soil, and she farmed songs and happiness.
R.I.P. Dolly 💕🦋
xoxo,
❤️ AmyFay
Technology Tip
She Worked from 3 to 7. So Do I.
“I’m always, almost always up for good around 3 a.m. I do some of my best spiritual work, some of my best writing, and some of my business work between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m.”
— Dolly Parton
When I read that this week I felt a special connection, because I am the same way.
Sometimes I go ahead and email you at that hour. I know it is not going to wake you, and I don’t mind your knowing that I am up that early.
Other times I think it would be better if it just showed up at a normal hour. So I schedule it.
That is my tip this week. You can schedule an email to be sent any time you want. In Gmail, don’t click Send — click the little arrow right beside it and pick Schedule send. Outlook has it, and so does your phone.
You can even schedule one for yourself to receive on a day you will need reminding about something:
- a birthday
- a due date for a bill
- a reorder for a company you always seem to forget
3 Tango Tidbits
Butterflies and Dolly
Lenny + Eva — the Storytellers Necklace, Butterfly
The charm on this Storytellers necklace is a tiny book page, and the symbol on it is a butterfly. The card in the gift box reads, “She took a leap of faith and grew her wings on the way down.” The chain slides to any length up to 20 inches, and the gold is tarnish-resistant. Made in the USA, based in Baxter, Tennessee.
True South — Legendary Women of Country Music
Famous Faces: Legendary Women of Country Music, illustrated by Lucie Rice. Dolly is in the bottom row, between Lee Ann Womack and Crystal Gayle. Susan (TS owner) built the 500-piece cut on purpose so a grandmother and a grandchild can work the same table. Made in the USA, based in Nashville. 18 by 24 inches.
Compendium — Love Muchly, One of a Kind
A birthday card from Love Muchly, which is the heartfelt end of Compendium’s card program. Every time I see this card I think of Dolly, and now especially, since I understand better what butterflies meant to her.
Featured on Instagram
Remind a beloved family member, friend, or coworker how wonderful they are with this booklet of 20 tear-out cards that feature vibrant designs and encouraging messages.
Just So You Know… shareable cards offer 20 chances to brighten someone’s day, sprinkle compliments like confetti, and celebrate the light you see in others.
“We are rich in kindness and love and understanding.”
— Avie Lee Parton, Dolly’s mother, as Dolly told it
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Cheers to knowing your own riches. xoxo, |
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June Market Fun
With our star eyes on, because Tango is exploding with great stuff! 🌟
| Shop Tango here → |
The Tango Showroom is open 10 to 4, Monday through Friday, at AmericasMart in Atlanta, Georgia. Come see us! 🌟
AmyFay Chandler
She reads all of this so you don’t have to. Based in Knoxville, TN, AmyFay is a wholesale sales rep for the brands she represents across Tennessee and Kentucky, and she oversees the D2C side for Sweet Tree Jewelry and Caroline B Cook — two of those brands — making sure brick-and-mortar retailers always come first. She writes Weekly Retail Tidbits (now in its 264th issue) because she’s living the same questions her retail customers are living, and figures things out alongside them. Her whole project: helping independent retailers stay human while the rest of the industry tries to automate them away.
Also from AmyFay
Two of the brands I represent run their D2C side through me, with brick-and-mortar partners prioritized at every step:
- Sweet Tree Jewelry — school-spirit polymer-clay earrings
- Caroline B Cook — children’s books (the Virtue Series, Church Kitty)
Wholesale questions? [email protected]
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