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Life and Work with Cody Waltz and Maribeth Sublette

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Cody Waltz and Maribeth Sublette.

Cody, Maribeth, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Cody: We actually met at a pop-up shop market at Modern Milk in Scottsdale. Our booth spaces for our small shops were right next to one another and we just hit it off.

Maribeth: I was six months pregnant and Cody stayed after the market to help me pack all of my things up into my car; who does that kind of stuff anymore?! She has such a heart for helping others.

Cody: We exchanged information and Maribeth actually invited me to a happy hour for small business owners. I had started Organic Baby Love about a year before, and was excited to collaborate with a group of like-minded women.

Maribeth: The monthly happy hours were a ton of fun. There was a core group of four of us who were at each one and we call ourselves The OGs now. We talk shop, drink a beer, and pick each other’s brains on how to grow and/or improve our businesses. It was actually at one of these “maker meet-ups” as we call them that the beginning of Made with Love was born.

Cody: We all felt like participating in local markets was the way we found the most success, so we dedicated an entire meet up night to talking about the markets we have done. We shared our experiences from the good ones, the bad ones, and the ones we’d never do again. I made a comment after lamenting about what a few of them could do to improve that we should start our own market.

Maribeth: I said, “I’m in!” figuring she was joking.

Cody: Now that she knows me a little better, she knows that when I make up my mind that I’m going to do
something, I am going to find a way to make it happen. I went home and did some research over the next few days and just so happened to have the topic come up again in conversation with Maribeth shortly after that. It was at that point we decided to create a dream market for vendors to sell, collaborate, and support one another.

Maribeth: We continued to talk more and more about creating a market for the community we loved so dearly and Cody had already done a ton of research on the topic. The girl knows how to research. When she shared her vision, I was in. And I knew that with Cody behind the event, the only option for Made with Love was for it to succeed. Since then, we have poured hundreds of hours into this dream of ours. We have definitely hit some roadblocks, but we have pushed through to figure out a way for this series of markets to be super successful.

Has it been a smooth road?
Maribeth: This has been such a learning experience for both of us. Like Cody mentioned earlier, we both have small shops and make clothes for moms and kids. Running my company LALAthreads is such a different beast than this. I have loved collaborating and being able to constantly bounce ideas off one another. We have supported one another, cheered the other on when we get anxious or frustrated with challenges we are facing with Made with Love, and we’ve definitely created a solid relationship.

Cody: I think any time you go from being your own boss like I am at Organic Baby Love, to creating a whole new business with a partner while still running your own business simultaneously, there are going to be challenges. These challenges have helped me grow so much individually and as a teammate and it’s meant the world to me to be able to find someone who not only has similar ideas, but who balances me out so well. I personally feel so lucky that we are doing this together as a team because my weaknesses are Maribeth’s strengths and when one of us isn’t so great at something, the other one is able to step in and pick up the slack. It’s been amazing having someone to share the challenge of starting a business with instead of being alone in this adventure because there have been so many new things to learn along the way.

Maribeth: We have established a fantastic partnership with the Town of Gilbert and their Parks and Recreation department. One thing that’s been new for us to navigate is learning how to best work with the local governing bodies. There is so much that goes into city planning that we never knew before!

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Made with Love Markets – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Cody: Made with Love Markets is a series of free outdoor markets for the public to come and enjoy located in Downtown Gilbert in the Heritage Marketplace Greenbelt area just west of Gilbert Road. Maribeth and I are essentially event coordinators. We select a curated group of vendors who sell food or handmade items who then set up at the markets. They each bring so much value to this vision because they’re all so unique and all have their own stories for why they have their small shops.

Maribeth: Because we wanted our markets to be something that serves the public, we have free family activities planned for each week. Some weeks we have parent-and-me yoga, STEM activities for older kids, story time, art classes, and a free photo booth area.

Cody: At the core of what we do is the philosophy of “community over competition”. Maribeth and I both sell clothes for moms and kids. We celebrate each other’s successes and offer to help when our fellow small shop owner friends need it. Most of our small shop friends sell similar type items but that doesn’t keep any of us from marketing each other and lifting each other up. The small shop community has given both of us so much support, encouragement, and continued motivation. We are excited to create a space to offer business owners not only the opportunity to share what they create with the public, but also a space to come and feel supported and empowered.

Our dates and times are as follows and we are still accepting vendors who believe in the same vision we do:

September 15th 7:00am – 11:00am
September 29th 7:00am – 11:00am
October 13th 8:00am – 12:00pm
October 27th 8:00am – 12:00pm
November 2nd/3rd (Off the Street Festival with the City of Gilbert)
November 17th 10:30am – 2:30pm (Gilbert Days)
November 24th 8:00am – 12:00pm (Small Business Saturday)
December 8th 8:00am – 12:00pm
December 15th 8:00am – 12:00pm
January 12th 8:00am – 12:00pm
January 26th 8:00am – 12:00pm
February 9th 8:00am – 12:00pm
February 23rd 8:00am – 12:00pm
March 9th 8:00am – 12:00pm
March 23rd 8:00am – 12:00pm
April 13th 8:00am – 12:00pm
April 27th 7:00am – 11:00am

What advice would you give to someone at the start of her career?
Cody: The most important piece of advice I would give to a young woman just starting her career, is to honestly just be brave. It can be so scary taking a giant leap in one direction but after personally going down different paths myself that led me to be really unhappy or to be put in a position of being bullied or to be made to feel like I wasn’t good enough in some way, it took all of the strength in me to just do what I wanted to do and follow the path my heart was telling me to. People will tell you that you aren’t good enough, people will tell you that you don’t have enough experience or that you aren’t smart enough, or that you will never be successful. FORGET ALL OF THAT. You can run any business you want, you can succeed at whatever you put your mind to as cliché as that sounds. Sometimes you just might have to do it in an unconventional or more challenging way but if you believe in yourself and have a close support system, YOU CAN DO IT. I promise you will fail along the way but through that failure, you will learn so much and make so many friends. Dig deep and just take the first step!

Maribeth: My advice would be to trust your gut and go with your first instinct. You feel the way you do and have the ideas you have for a reason. Trust them, it’s as simple as that.

Pricing:

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Image Credit:
Maribeth and Baby Harrison and Layla: Donna Dudley, Wildlings Photo
Cody and Baby Graham: Kayla Lindsey, Kayla B Photo

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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