In 2015, Ali Reff walked away from eight years in agency PR, including her dream client, her dream agency, and the position she had spent years working toward, and launched an online boutique from her bedroom in Chicago with 13 products. Today, Alice & Wonder is a full Chicago lifestyle brand with multiple storefronts, a children's boutique called Mini Wonder, original apparel lines, a warehouse operation, pop-ups, and collaborations with the Cubs, White Sox, and Blackhawks.
But before we even get into all of that, we have to tell you something. Katherine and I actually met because of Alice & Wonder. Katherine found Polished Prints through products Ali carried, reached out to Leah, and the rest is history. So Ali, without ever knowing it, is partially responsible for this podcast existing. Which felt like exactly the right way to start this conversation.
In this episode we talk about what it actually took to build something that looks this polished from the outside. The season when growth outpaced the systems behind it. What the pandemic broke and what it built. What nobody tells you about working with your spouse. How motherhood changed her ambition. What goes into landing a major sports team collaboration. And so many other tangible takeaways.
We also ask her the question we ask everyone: what is the current messy middle? Because even at this level, there still is one.
This one is for every woman who has ever wondered if walking away from something that looks good on paper to build something that feels right is worth the risk. Ali's answer is a resounding yes. And she shows you exactly what it costs.
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