Today we’d like to introduce you to Molly Brink.
Molly, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Gifting has just always been a part of who I am. There’s something about figuring out the perfect “thing” for someone – it’s incredibly satisfying for me. I’ve spent the last decade guiding customers toward their perfect bottles and gifts in my Los Angeles wine and gift shops. My adventure began long ago in New York, where I worked as an actress and Wilhelmina model. A move to L.A. resulted in furthering my commercial and TV career (if you’re a sci-fi geek who’s into antenna and blue dye #6 you might recognize me as Lt. Talas from Star Trek Enterprise) and instigating a dilemma: thanking casting directors and agents after booking gigs was a given, but finding the right gift just wasn’t. Scouring the city and piecing together items from multiple stores into a beautiful presentation was the only way I felt truly represented by a gift. Naturally, I had to open my own store, which soon became three. As one of the owners of Venokado (West Hollywood and Santa Monica,) and COOK by Venokado, I was able to nurture lasting relationships with winemakers, artists, designers, and of course, our wonderful customers and corporate clients. During my time there, I created the Clutch Gift®, an easy-to-give yet personable collection of artisan goods packed neatly into our signature box. My wife and business partner, Tracy, and I have closed our brick-and-mortars in order to focus in on Clutch Gifts, which is now operating in the internet and IG realm.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Heck no – the road has not always been smooth! Opening and operating a store, on-line or not, is rocky business, but the excitement and growth from each endeavor just make everything and everyone stronger. An easy example of some struggles is this COVID thing. When it first hit, we wondered if gifting would be back-burnered because of contact issues and everyone’s monetary fluidity. We also realized that people would still want their wine, and with our Clutch Wine Club developing so successfully, we quickly dove into being a broader wine delivery service. Within a week or so of our first stay at home orders, we put out the word to our customers and our wine vendors that we were going to be expanding our wine inventory and would do free delivery within L.A. for deliveries of wine, products, and gifts of $50 or more. We followed every protocol, wearing masks, gloves, and disinfecting everything that came through our studio. The orders started flowing in immediately, sometimes a few bottles of wine, sometimes a case + necessities (wink) like chocolate, coffee and a bandana or a game. We’ve been able to make lemonade when we’ve been in a pickle (no, we don’t carry either of those things).
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Clutch Gifts – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Clutch Gifts offers the ultimate gifting experience designed to surprise and delight. We hand select artisan goods and small production wines to ensure that each neatly presented box is uniquely personal. Our modern approach to traditional gifting strives to enrich relationships and simplify life.
We also offer our Clutch Wine Club ($50/month), which features two small production, thoughtfully selected bottles along with wine notes and food pairings, shipped or delivered right to your door. We post fun, casual yet educational tasting videos of these wines on our @clutchgifts IGTV.
We are proud of our attention to detail, our determination to discover new fun things, and that we have become a trusted go-to source for so many wonderful people and businesses.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We have been steadily growing and plan on capitalizing on that growth with new products, fresh marketing, and a new App. We also plan on moving into a bigger warehouse space which will also house our anchor retail vision of Clutch Gifts.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.clutchgifts.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @clutchgifts
- Facebook: @clutchgifts
Image Credit:
Molly Headshot – Joanna DeGeneres, Clutch Gift photos – Clutch Gifts, Living Room shot – Leanna Creel
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