WWL (Women We Love): Cassie Abel of Wild Rye

Here we are again with another amazing female entrepreneur to introduce! Super excited to introduce Cassie Abel of Wild Rye. She’s the ultimate #girlboss and just an all-around AWESOME person. Let's jump right in and get to know Cassie!

Entrepreneur: Cassie Abel of Wild Rye

How I met them: Well, I happened to be in Sun Valley on a trip with my mom. Some of the events we had planned didn’t pan out as expected, so one night after 2 glasses of wine (at High Altitude!!), I Instagrammed that we were doing a trunk show at our hotel lobby the next night. No, I did not ask our hotel for permission, I just said I had some friends coming over for drinks! Cassie happened to follow us on Instagram, and she helped spread the word about our event! We’ve stayed in touch ever since :)

My bio on them: Cassie is a total connector. She is passionate about fostering growth amongst female entrepreneurs and is never shy to reach out and come up with a fun collab idea. She is also quite the entrepreneur and self-starter herself - just look at her Instagram bio: “co-founder & CEO @wild_rye_, owner @whitecloudcommunication, launcher @womenledwednesday, and board @visitsunvalley ” so she is just kinda busy. This year, she combined her skill set of brand owner and PR maven to create Women Led Wednesday, which launched to shed light on supporting women run businesses over the holidays. It’s really cool to see women helping women!!

Okay, now onto Cassie’s answers!!

What is one piece of advice you give to aspiring female entrepreneurs?

JUST START!  It may not be perfect, it might be terrifying or it might not seem “big” enough, but at some point you just have to trust that you’ve done the best you can with the resources at hand. If you don’t just start, you’re never going to move forward.

What is one not-so-sexy (sh*ttiest) part of working for yourself that people don't typically see on social media?

In addition to all the business strategy, product design and marketing, I’m the one on my hands and knees counting and organizing inventory – and when you’re working with apparel, women’s apparel in particular, that’s a LOT of sizes/SKUS – labeling when our factories don’t get it right (which is often) and printing shipping labels and driving every package to the post office.  At 35, with years of big business experience and an economics degree, I never imagined I’d be doing any of the above, but in starting a business you quickly learn that you can’t be “above” any aspect of the business. Also, running a second business (White Cloud Communication) full-time to fuel Wild Rye and afford my mortgage – I love the business – but feeling stretched thin, that’s pretty damn shitty (and exhausting).    

If there are things that are "shitty" about starting your own thing, what keeps you going? What's one of the best parts of your "job"?

Hearing from our Wild Rye customers – women – that they finally found a {short, shirt, base layer} that fits their bodies and works for them in a way that no other bike short or base layer has before. The simple idea that I can play a small part in making women more comfortable in their own skin (and clothes) in the outdoors, inspiring them to get out there, longer, gives me all the feels.

Be sure to check out Cassie on Instagram @cassieabel and visit Wild Rye online!

XO,

Christina