My Conversation with Small Business Rockstar Lindsay Shaver of Dead Rockers in Long Beach

Long Beach is full of badass female entrepreneurs, and Lindsay Shaver is killing it in the punk rock scene on 4th Street. Check out more of her story here.

It was a sunny Tuesday afternoon when I made my way over to Lindsay Shaver’s store, Dead Rockers on 4th Street near Downtown Long Beach. I spotted the signature skull on the storefront that I had found during my internet research for this interview and walked into the shop to a welcoming smile and greeting from Lindsay. She was kind enough to let me, this newbie interviewer and blogger, ask her some questions about her background, her shop, her use of digital media, and plans for the future.

A little about Lindsay’s background.

Lindsay was raised by her mom in Redondo Beach, California. She has four siblings but they are much older than her so it was pretty much her and her mom growing up. In classic single mother fashion, her mom was a very hard worker to provide for her family – and this is probably where Lindsay learned that hard work pays off. Her mom not only worked full time but did a bunch of other stuff on the side too. She was a notary, she had her real estate license – this sense of hustle showed young Lindsay what you can achieve by working hard.

High school wasn’t really Lindsay’s “thing.” She even graduated a year early to get out of there. Lindsay’s mom encouraged her to go to college but didn’t force her. After a brief stint at El Camino College, Lindsay decided she would rather be spending her time making money, so she dropped out.

Being a fan of punk rock, her and her friends would have to drive up to Los Angeles to get the kind of clothes and other items that they wanted. There wasn’t a punk rock store anywhere in the South Bay, and online shopping hadn’t really taken off yet. Lindsay saw this need, and thus her business was born. She would start selling punk and rockabilly items to the people she knew were looking for them.

On finding inventory for her shop.

At first, she would source merchandise directly from the bands or other small brands that were making the kinds of punk rock and rockabilly clothing she was looking to sell. This was during the dial-up internet days so there was only minimal sourcing online. Lindsay would often head up to Hollywood and see what the shops up there were selling and find similar stuff. She would also sell handmade items like leather belts and accessories.

The transition from MySpace to brick and mortar.

I love the fact that Lindsay knew the importance of having an online presence in her business early – and the proof is that she started selling on MySpace before she even had a website. Once MySpace wasn’t quite cutting it her friend – a student at ITT tech – helped her make her very first website. “It was archaic, but it worked,” Lindsay said.

The online business was going well so she decided to just see what it would be like to sell her items in a shop setting. She ended up at the indoor swap meet in Wilmington. It had cheap rent and a great location across the street from the high school. Her business was going well, but the swap meet ended up closing, so her shop went back online for the next year before opening in Long Beach, sharing space with a skate shop. Over the course of six years, the two businesses outgrew their space so they moved next door to a bigger space, and then outgrew that all together so each has their own store. This great 4th St. location is where you will find Dead Rocker today.

Lindsay says that she has noticed that in her industry people trust you more when you have a brick and mortar store along with an online shop. “People want to touch things, try them on.” While her market is very niche, there is diversity within that group that she does a great job catering to. She’ll have a 12-year-old customer coming in to buy their first punk album, and then a 60-year-old customer coming in to buy a concert poster for a show that they went to when they were in their 20s.

More about the current website.

When I was looking for people to interview for this series, Lindsay caught my eye because I really like her website and her Instagram. Check it out. The user experience, design, and social media integrations are all really nice.

The site launched in 2014 through Shopify, and Lindsay has nothing but really great things to say about her experience with that company. They host her site, do the credit card processing, and give her analytics to monitor traffic. She likes the fact that you don’t have to know coding to make a really nice looking and behaving site, and their customer service is top-notch. She told me about how you can use the online chat feature, call, the queue tells you how long you will be waiting, and they send a follow-up email after to make sure you’re satisfied. As someone who works in a tech-related field, having this kind of rave review for a service that she’s not even affiliated with makes me happy. There are good companies out there who are in the business of helping people, ya’ll.

Dead Rocker’s social media platform of choice.

Hands-down it’s Instagram for Dead Rockers, and she’s also getting a good amount of traffic for her second company L’esquelet, a Macabre Boutique, on Pinterest. Lindsay made the smart decision to only focus on the social media platforms that work best for her businesses.

(I think a lot of times when business owners start using social media, they try to do all the platforms and get burnt out. Take a note from Lindsay, here. See what’s actually working and don’t waste your time on the other stuff.)

Another shout-out to Shopify here is that it’s fully integrated with Pinterest. It can create a board with “buy now” items, and Lindsay also goes in to manually pin items because she noticed that they get more shares that way. Facebook is not a priority, but she does have her IG posts get pushed onto her FB too. I think this is a nice option for owners to at least keep their Facebook page active.

Lindsay 100% controls her social media. Yes, she runs paid Instagram ads, but she brings up a good point with those. Sure you’re paying for the ad, but that just means that it might show up in the right person’s feed. It’s up to them to click and look at the Dead Rocker profile, and if they like what they see, maybe buy a thing or two. It’s still organic. She doesn’t pay for likes or influencers either. Her profile and her stories are all 100% authentic – and it shows! She’ll do IG sales and fun IG stories. I’m totally a fan now and I look forward to seeing her logo with the little rainbow ring around it at the top of my IG homepage.

What’s next for Dead Rockers?

These next couple years sound like they are going to be very exciting for Lindsay and her biz! She’s in the process of designing her own clothing line right now and just got back from the Magic Tradeshow in Las Vegas. At the show, she made some great connections that will help her figure out the next steps she’ll have to take to accomplish her goal.

The other exciting thing coming up is a tour! They are taking Dead Rockers on the road to set up pop-up shops in cities who don’t have punk rock shops. Lindsay is very excited about this tour because she’ll get to visit so many other cities and meet fans and customers across the country, with her husband and puppy along for the ride too. They have been using social media to figure out where to go, and have a west coast and southern route planned.

As if those two endeavors weren’t enough, the entrepreneur’s mind doesn’t think small, so of course, Lindsay would like to expand her store to be even bigger. As she said, she’s a Gemini, so she loves being busy.

What advice do you have for other female entrepreneurs?

“Don’t give up your day job. I’m all for diving into something, but not without a backup plan,” was the first piece of sage advice she shared with me. Lindsay told me how she has seen too many people go all in, and then after two years, their business fails.

She also wanted to do it all herself which meant endless hours researching online, about literally every single aspect of the business. “You should know at least something about every part of your business.” “I also went online and looked at other successful businesses, not even all in my industry, and took bits and pieces of what was working for them and applied that to my business.”

Lindsay advises others to stick with their gut. New business owners won’t have a lot of money, but giving into partners or investors might not always be the best option. This might also mean paying someone else to help out so that you can keep working your day job until a healthy amount of income is coming your way.

“Keep learning,” is a major takeaway I learned from Lindsay. She recommended the Shopify blog as a great source for new and innovative ideas for e-commerce. Take advantage of all the free resources out there. Constant Contact had a free seminar that Lindsay went to about sending mass emails. As she said, she “looked like an outcast,” (her words – I’d say badass), but she learned a lot, and now sees a solid amount of money coming into her business thanks to those emails, and having that skill.  

A real business savvy rock star.

I had a really nice time talking with Lindsay, and I left our little meeting feeling very inspired. I can’t wait to keep following her journey of having her own line and taking her shop on the road. If you’re in the neighborhood (1023 E. 4th St. Long Beach, CA), stop in and grab a vintage concert poster or punk rock vinyl! Or just go ahead and shop her online store – you’ll love her website and you can even get 10% off just by entering your email address.