Liberty screen printer brings Hustle + Heart in the face of early-stage failure

Liberty-based apparel company Hustle + Heart wouldn’t have found success without failure, said Serena Kotalik.

“[You should] never give up whether you’re starting a business like mine or any other,” said Kotalik, founder of the primarily wholesale, online company, which sells many of its wares through a VIP Facebook group. “With each [failure] I have learned [from it] and gotten past it.”

Hustle + Heart took on many forms before landing on the correct one, she explained, with the store evolving from an Etsy-based brand selling phone cases, to screen-printed graphic tees, to finally, its wholesale and Facebook sales structure.

Click here to request to join the VIP Facebook group.

“I’ve taught myself everything that I could possibly figure out how to do,” Kotalik said. “I read books, I watched webinars, and I read blogs about this entire process until I knew exactly what it was and what equipment I needed.”

The switch to wholesale came in response to competitors copying the store’s original designs as well as a dizzying influx of custom orders, she added.

“Now I can have the boutique owners join my Facebook group and then they can comment [on posts] or order or message me to say what they want and that way they can all have an area where [specific people] can see all my designs,” she said.

Click here to learn more or shop Hustle + Heart.

“My brain is not like the normal person,” laughed Kotalik. “I love the fact that I get to be creative every single day. I constantly think about work and I’m so excited to wake up the next morning because I am just so pumped. That’s what drives me. My days just fly by so fast because I love what I do.”

While running a standard online boutique of her own remains a dream, the wholesale aspect of the business already consumes so much time, said Kotalik.

“I can’t add another business to my life right now,” she said.