401 | Going From 20 to 120 Wholesale Accounts with Carley Hussain, Parcel Island

Jul 15, 2025

Carley Hussain, founder of Parcel Island and creator of colorful, pun-driven cards and gifts, grew her wholesale presence from about 20 to 120+ stores while working full-time. She talks about using Faire, automated email outreach, clear brand voice, project management with Asana, inventory and launch planning, and building strong local retail relationships.

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ADVICE

Automate Outreach To Scale Accounts

Automate your wholesale outreach and nurture flows to scale efficiently.
Use platform tools like Faire plus email plugins to maintain consistent, targeted touchpoints.

INSIGHT

Brand Voice Multiplies Template Power

Define and use your brand voice to speed up marketing and make pitches memorable.
Personalizing templates with your tone prevents sounding like every other vendor.

ADVICE

Track Opens And Segment Retailers

Use email-tracking and segmentation to prioritize follow-up and tailor messaging.
Funnel unresponsive or specific-store types into different nurture sequences for higher conversion.

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Hey friend. You know how much I love sharing success stories here on the podcast and this week is no exception.

I had the pleasure of connecting with Carley Hussain of Parcel Island, which is a gift and stationery business based out of Philadelphia. Carley is one of our talented Paper Camp alumni who started with 20 wholesale accounts and she is now in over 120 stores. Yes, she has grown by more than 100 accounts while also working at a full-time job.

During our conversation, we talk about the key strategies that fueled her business growth, including marketing automations she set up, finding her unique brand voice, and leveraging platforms like Faire. Carley also leveraged the resources available to her in Paper Camp, such as our wholesale pitch process, email templates, and postcard templates, adding her own unique voice and brand positioning to the outreach.

You'll hear what project management tools Carley uses to keep her business organized and her tasks on track. We discuss the challenges of inventory and product launches. Plus, we talk about how she's building strong local relationships that have helped her brand flourish.

Today's episode is brought to you by our Paper Camp program. Paper Camp is our wholesale coaching program where we teach you everything you need to know to build strong wholesale foundations. Over the course of 4 weeks, we tackle your product line, sales tools, and marketing plan, and we even talk about how to exhibit at trade shows if that's what you want to do. We start with your product line and go into everything from how often you should be releasing new products to ensuring that your numbers are sustainable for the wholesale market and their price for profit.

Then we move into sales tools you must have for selling wholesale so you make a strong first impression with buyers like catalogs and your terms and conditions. Then, we cover marketing strategies and ways to reach various store owners.

Each week's teachings build on the previous week, and we host weekly live engaging coaching calls to answer all of your questions. We will open enrollment for our next round of Paper Camp soon, and we sell this program out every time we run it. Join the waitlist and you'll get early access to enroll.

You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/401

Quick Links:

Free Wholesale Audio Series

Free Resources Library

Free Email Marketing for Product Makers

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