Overcoming Burnout: The Rebirth of Aly B Goods and What’s Next in 2024

“Aly, where the heck have you been?”

I’ve been here and there, but mostly I’ve been at my house dreading this question.

When I started Aly B Goods not long ago--2023--I had no clue what I was doing. Not just in attempting to run a business, but in life in general. I was a new mom, stepping out into a city I barely knew. I really had nothing other than my design skills propelling me forward.

In July/August of this year, I hit burnout. Not burnout from a couple months of overwork. Not burnout of a busy year. I hit a wall of burnout that stretched years. It highlighted how much good the past almost 5 years have brought me. But unfortunately, I also realized I was tired with a capital T.

The Quick(ish) Recap:

To understand where I ended up, you need to know what came before.

• In 2020, my husband and I got engaged then we relocated from where I had lived for the past 20 years of my life. I started my first big corporate job here in St. Louis, in the midst of a quarantined world.

• In 2021, we bought our first home, found out we were expecting baby number 1, and got married. The end of 2021 concluded with a medical nightmare for me while pregnant (more on that in the future).

• In 2022, our first daughter was born, we found out we were expecting baby number 2, and I was unexpectedly laid off from my job 2 weeks after returning from maternity leave. I spent time in an outpatient program for postpartum depression, a feeling which only matched in scariness to the botched surgery I had experienced just half a year prior. I spent the remainder of 2022 both grateful to be home with my daughter and feeling a bit lost on what would come next.

By the beginning of 2023 the concept of Aly B Goods was forming. I spent a LOT of time learning and reading and planning. After my second daughter was born and the postpartum haze lifted, I began to adjust to my new life. By day (and night), I was a stay at home mom of a newborn and a one year old. In the moments in between, I getting Aly B Goods up and running.

The rest of 2023 brought gratitude for seeing success in something I was working so hard at. I was doing multiple events a week, shipping out orders and taking care of my girls. I was really doing it.

2024 continued similar to 2023. I graduated to the planning of events and land spots at some local shops while building a network. But behind the scenes the burnout had slowly crept in. After years of big life events and hard work, it was starting to take its toll. Orders became slow to ship. Patience with my now one year old and two year old was thin. Things were falling apart and so was my confidence in my ability to do things. After some cancelled events, some stumbling and increasingly poor mental health, I came to grinding halt. With that so did Aly B Goods.

I was hopeful a small reset would get me back on my feet. But I couldn’t seem to find myself. Orders were getting missed. Inventory was a mess. Toddlers are hard. I felt like I failed. I didn’t know how to put things back together. I closed the door to my office like a crypt I never wanted to open again. The connections I worked so hard to form through ABG were disappearing as quickly as they came about.

It took until mid October for me to start feeling hopeful again. Not just about the business. The end of summer brought on a couple personal losses both in friendship and family that hit me hard. In October, I began reestablishing my sense of place in my own life. I finally acknowledged the postpartum depression I was convinced I kicked might not have been done with me yet. I started creating a new game plan. I accepted that I can’t snap my fingers and make it all better. But realized I can work at it.

With Aly B Goods, I realized something had to give. I’m grateful to be a creator. My designs are my own. They are hours of ideating and drawing and researching markets trends. They are experiments that don’t always succeed but when they do, make me feel my purpose. I realized I can’t be the creator I want to be while taking on every aspect of this business.

After some additional researching, I was able to restructure ABG with the assistance of a 3rd party manufacturer. I had to choose between pressing the apparel myself or designing the apparel myself.  And without a doubt, I prefer being the designer.

Moving forward, these changes I am implementing will allow me to create a more efficient and reliable business. I will offer high quality produced apparel that will continue allow me to be an artist first. Orders will go out faster. New designs will drop more frequently. Things can grow in a manageable way.

I will touch more on the future of Aly B Goods on social media soon. But you can expect a space that continues to create content is relatable with the addition of more authenticity. I want to create less of a strain for me to fit in. I feel surrounded by content creators that while I admire, I struggle feeling less than.

Today through Sunday, you can find me at Tim’s Chrome Bar for The Das Bevo/Tim’s Holiday Market. It will be my first event since the beginning of August. I’m looking forward to it and grateful to be in a space that I truly enjoy so much. If you stop by, say hi! Check out the new setup and give me some feedback on what you think. I’m excited to get back at it and out of my house. Part of the transparency here (which yikes this is scary) is to show myself that I can do this. But to also remind other people reading this that they can to. Its not over--even when it feels like it is.

Thanks for being here, pausing in your scrolling, and holding space for me to share in this longer format. Check out the graphics below with what to expect with these exciting changes!