Why Your Luxury Closet Needs Professional Hangers with Donna Zalter

Kathi: I'm here with Donna. Hey, Donna, thanks for coming on to the show.

Donna: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Kathi: Absolutely. I love your story, and I know that you're a multi-talented type of girl. So let's talk about the backstory of how you got into the hanger business from your realtor business. What's the transition here?

Donna: Okay, that was actually an interesting transition. I walked through hundreds of high-end closets because I do a lot of high-end real estate. And I noticed that most of the closets, not all, but most of the closets did not have quality hangers, matching hangers. A lot of them were using those cheap velvet ones or those tubular plastic ones. And my father is a hanger manufacturer. He doesn't sell; he's the manufacturer, but his customers are major, major retailers, so they ship in containers. And I said to my dad, at the time I was about 55, so I felt I could use a little nepotism, I said, "Dad, I think there's a market here to go direct to consumer." And he agreed. So I designed a line of six different hanger styles. We have about 55 different SKUs. I have a few bestsellers, and they really are designed with high-end closets in mind, but also for people who desire high-end closets but maybe don't have the space for them. Just to give your closet a little shine.

Kathi: Yeah, I agree. I've been in so many gorgeous, gorgeous closets, and they're sitting there with dry cleaning hangers, the wire ones, or really bad, shabby hangers that are falling apart. It's just interesting to me. If you have this gorgeous closet, why would you not have really good hangers? And way back early in my career, I remember when the skinny hangers came out, I remember actually doing a little informal survey, trying to fit everything on a rack with the regular hangers and trying to fit everything on a rack with the other hangers. And I know it saves about 33% of the space by going with the thinner hangers. So I think you're right. There's definitely a niche and a need for better hangers in the world. We'll go into the hangers in a little bit, but how do you juggle between doing your real estate business and working with your hangers and getting those direct to consumers? I know it's really hard as an entrepreneur. We all have multiple aspects of our business. What's the balance there? How do you handle it?

Donna: Fortunately for me, I live in South Florida, and we have a very high seasonality to our real estate. So I would say the months of December through April, I'm jamming with the real estate. I'm really, really busy. I try and maintain the hanger business then by just fulfilling the orders, working with the little bit of staff that I have. I'm really just hoping the orders come in and fulfilling them. So that's that chunk. But once my season dies down, which is April, I've been really, really working hard on the hangers, expanding my reach, trying to get my product into more people's hands and trying to educate the world about the importance of a good, sturdy hanger, and about the cost savings that it'll actually create, because our hangers don't break. They're just a really good product that no one else is doing, or there's none other on the marketplace that I'm aware of that are similar.

Kathi: Yeah, I think they're fantastic. That's why I wanted to have you on the show. And I think a lot of us have ebbs and flows in our business. I love the fact that you can take advantage of the slower time and do the hanger business, and when you're jammed, it's fulfilling orders. As entrepreneurs, we all experience that. But you have a real hard stop, soft start, which is good for you. Being in Southern Florida helps you a lot with that balance, I think.

Donna: Yeah. I mean, it's just lucky. And some summers I am busy. But lately our seasons have been really compressed. I'm starting to get listings that are going live this fall. And I also have a partner now with real estate. We've been partnered for about four or five years, but now we're going full-fledged partnership where we're just splitting everything, and she's covering me when I can't be available.

Kathi: I love that. And that's the thing about delegating and partnering, for sure. There's something to be said about having someone else by your side to help you. I say this all the time: do the things you can't do, do the things you don't want to do, have someone else who has that other skill set handle all that kind of thing. So let's talk about your hangers. Boy, I have seen so many hangers. Give me an example. What's your best-selling hanger? Let's talk about that one.

Donna: Since we're talking today about thin hangers, I have with me my thin hangers, because I really want to show them.

Kathi: Yeah, look at that.

Donna: Okay, so they're just as thin as those velvet hangers, but they're basically indestructible. These were designed for a retailer who actually went out of business a while ago, so they're patent pending. And because I'm a woman, because I wear dresses and slippery shirts, I made sure that we embedded rubber shoulders so nothing would fall off. Of course we have the notches for those thin spaghetti straps.

Kathi: Love that.

Donna: All my clips are movable, so you can adjust them, and they're also rubberized. They really pinch hard, but they don't wrinkle the clothes. My boys love these hangers, because anyone who has boys knows that they're lazy. They just yank their clothes right off these hangers, and they're indestructible. They hardly bend. But the real key thing is, I want everyone to understand that they're just as thin as those velvet hangers. They look all the same, but they'll last, and they won't end up in our landfill. As a former Canadian, I was always very mindful of the environment, and I'm glad that all of North America's caught up, but that was always very important to me, making sure that we limit what goes into the waste.

They're just as thin as those velvet hangers, but they'll last, and they won't end up in our landfill.

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Kathi: Absolutely. There's so many that go in, and I don't think they destruct anyhow, the ones that go into the recycle. I love the fact that it swivels. A lot of the cheaper ones don't swivel properly, and then they break, and then they end up in the landfill. So I think that's great. And it's a nice color, too.

Donna: Thank you. This is my navy. I brought all my colors of the thin plastic.

Kathi: Oh, sweet.

Donna: So this is my black. Obviously this is a big seller. Everyone loves black, but that's boring. So I went with hot pink.

Kathi: There you go. Pink. I love pink.

Donna: And I did this one with a rose gold. I just felt that was more fun.

Kathi: Wow, that's gorgeous.

Donna: Thank you. And all of these also come with clips. I didn't bring all of them. I didn't want to get too bogged down.

Kathi: Oh, I like the clear.

Donna: Yeah, I'm all about clear. A Housewife of New Jersey, Dolores Catania, she has her closet filled with these. She bought them. And then just a basic clean white.

Kathi: Nice. Yeah, you can get the clear that has the pull underneath it as well.

Donna: They all come in all different ways. If I were buying them, I would do a ratio of about 70-30: 70 top and 30 bottom. But again, if you have a smaller closet, you can hang tops and bottoms on these, obviously.

Kathi: Absolutely. And you can fit at least 33% more clothes in your closet. If you're bursting at the seams, go for the skinny, for sure.

Donna: Yeah. And they're not that much more. I think my clips, if you buy a hundred of them, are $3.50 a hanger. So it's really comparable to the less expensive, dare I say cheap, velvet hangers. But they are an investment that will just last. And I also think they're great gifts if you're really out of gift ideas.

Kathi: Yeah, that sounds great for the woman who has everything. Give us some nice hangers. I like to walk into my closet and see everything that matches, everything lined up. It's just a thing that we do as women, I do believe, a lot of it anyhow. So your father's been in the business for a long time. Did you consider that you were going to go direct to consumer way back in the day, or was it something where you just had this flash?

Donna: I had an aha moment as I was walking through these closets. And also, business has changed in the last 10 years, dare I say the last 20, but I wasn't up to doing it that long ago. Business has changed. You can go direct to consumer now. It's just a different way of doing business. I watched my daughter's buying behavior. Oh my gosh, anyone who has a daughter knows, there's a package arriving at the door basically every day.

Kathi: Right. So if people want to find your hangers, where can they find them?

Donna: We are on Amazon, but if you want to be signed up for different discounts or different promotions, I would suggest going to allhunguphangers.com.

Kathi: Awesome. And I'll put that in the show notes, too. I'm sure you'll have better pricing and some discounts and some fun promotions coming out, for sure. And you might as well get to know Donna anyhow, since you're buying her hangers. So what do you feel has been the sticky, tricky part of going direct to consumer? What's been a big challenge for you? Because I know it's not everybody's game, and it's tough.

Donna: It's super tough. It's way tougher than I thought. Without criticizing the various platforms, it takes a lot of budget to run the ads. There's a behavior that the consumer has now that they can return anything for any reason. Basically, it's hard to get through the noise. And once you get through the noise, though, if you have a great product, you do just take off. So there's two sides to the coin. It's a matter of finding that tipping point, and then you're good.

It's hard to get through the noise. And once you get through the noise, if you have a great product, you do just take off.

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Kathi: But you have a good product. You really do. So people won't return it and won't have any reason to.

Donna: Right.

Kathi: So what's the most memorable part of launching? What's the most memorable sale, or what happened to you as you jumped into this business?

Donna: I don't have a specific memorable one. Well, there's been a couple of celebrities. And I know because I'm still a small business, so I see the labels going out. That's kind of fun, when you see someone famous, you're like, whoa. And I'm like, can you just tell your friends? But what's amazing is I have a product, and I didn't count on this, I didn't even think about this, it's the kind of product that people reorder all the time. So I see people that reorder three, four, five, six times. In fact, this week I got an order from someone I haven't shipped to in about two years. So that's fun. And I know as I grow, this is a sustainable business. As long as I get through all the noise online, it's sustainable.

Kathi: Yeah. And I can see how people would say, okay, I'm going to start out with this, and then, okay, I love this so much, I'm going to go into my whole closet. Or, oh yeah, my boys just killed my hangers. I think I should get those other hangers that are indestructible.

Donna: Yeah. And there's a video on my website showing the indestructibility of the hangers.

Kathi: Love it. That's great. So talk to me a little bit about your business as a real estate agent in Florida. What do you find is one of the most challenging aspects of that? I know your seasonality has got to be tough.

Donna: Right. Real estate is probably the most competitive business around in terms of there's such a low barrier to entry. Anyone thinks they can get on, they get their license and be like, what is it, Million Dollar Listing or whatever it's called. I don't even watch it because I live it. I've been doing it for 20 years, and I love it. It's sort of like wearing an old pair of jeans. I don't have anything that's super challenging. I've put in my time. I'm a hard worker. I do get a lot of inbound calls asking for my help. I mean, it's a challenging business. There's a lot of problems. But I guess what you're asking is the way I handle my stress, or keep my stress down. There's two things that I learned early in my career. One is I'm just the agent. I can't control people, and it's a people business. I can't control the buyer. I can't control the seller. I'm a vessel. Once I got my head around that, I was like, okay, there goes that stress, because I can't control it.

Kathi: Right.

Donna: And the second thing I learned from my work experience is that if I set the table at the beginning, and I say, these are the expectations, this is how I work, this is what you can expect, and even though I've told you every possible glitch that could happen, something else is going to happen.

Kathi: Yeah, it's true.

Donna: And I say I learn something from every deal. That's it. And once you open up the communication, and just the expertise, I guess, people are a lot more relaxed. I mean, you still get the odd whack job, if I'm allowed to say that, but for the most part, once you set the table, people are like, okay, and they really feel like they're in good hands.

I'm just the agent. I can't control the buyer. I can't control the seller. I'm a vessel. Once I got my head around that, there goes that stress.

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Kathi: Yeah, I love that. Let's set the table and set expectations, for sure. That is great advice for anybody out there dealing with two ends of the coin. You can't control them. You can only control the way that you react or the way that you act yourself.

Donna: Yeah. And segueing that to the hangers, when I get feedback through my recommendations, they say my customer service is outstanding. And I just don't know how to be any other way, because I'm used to real estate.

Kathi: Yeah, you pretty much have to be. Well, the fact that you're still there 20 years later, working with high-end properties on the east coast of Florida, that's saying that you know what you're doing, for sure. How do you celebrate your successes when you land a good deal or you ship out a big package?

Donna: You know what? I go back to the grind. I don't really take a moment off. I just keep going. I'll go, woohoo, and then…

Kathi: This is why I asked this question, Donna, because I find that many of us are just steamrollers, and we don't pause to stop to celebrate. And it's an important thing. So I ask this on my podcast because it's a reminder to myself that I need to also stop and smell the roses, so to speak. Go, yeah, I did this. This is a great mountain.

Donna: It is. But on the other hand, we wouldn't be who we are if we didn't continue steamrolling.

Kathi: That's true.

Donna: I do try. I'd be lying if I say I don't. I do take time off work, but it's all scheduled. It's not like, oh, I did so well this week, I'm going to take off Thursday, Friday. It's scheduled time off. It's like, I'm going on a vacation at the end of the month or whatever. I personally believe in vacations.

Kathi: Absolutely. So that's how you celebrate. You say, oh, I'm going to be going there at the end of the month. Now, speaking of schedule, how do you handle your calendar and your schedule? How do you keep track of where you have to be when? What's your favorite calendaring hack?

Donna: You know what? I tried all this digital stuff. I need to write down things. I just have to be able to flip through my week and see what I have. I'm old-fashioned. I'm still old-fashioned.

Kathi: Well, a lot of real estate agents are. I have very many who are my clients. And the calendar, actually physically writing it, I think it's because of the skill set that you have to have to be a good real estate agent. The tactile seems to be something that really helps a lot.

Donna: Good to know. I agree.

Kathi: There's no one way to do anything, right? So the question is, if you lose your book, what will happen to your life? That's always the big one.

Donna: If I lose my book? Nothing, because I get a new book. It stays up here anyways. That's how I am. But writing it down relieves my anxiety. If I lost my book, I'd be very upset, of course, but I'd have to get a new one. That's all.

Kathi: That's okay. Writing it down means that you're holding it in your brain a little bit more, for sure. I'm with you on that. So if you could turn back time and tell 18-year-old Donna… When did you move to the US, by the way? How old were you?

Donna: I was 28.

Kathi: Okay, so at 18 you were in Canada still. If you had to give advice to her, what would you tell her?

Donna: That's so multifaceted. I have an MBA. I was always that go-getter. Aggressive is the wrong word, but I was always that go-getter. I guess I would tell her to keep working, because I did take off time when the kids were young, and I loved it, but I think I would have been better off staying working. Figure it out better. I wasn't in the position to be able to do that, because my husband traveled so much and we lived alone with no parents, no support, no grandparents or anything. So it wasn't possible. But I think that's what I would have told her.

Kathi: Yeah. If you could have figured out a way to work it around. A lot of women, I think, face that same challenge. Am I going to go full time with the kids? Can I do a hybrid? But when your spouse is traveling, that makes it difficult.

Donna: So hard.

Kathi: Especially because you had moved down south, far, far away from Canada, without your support system.

Donna: Right. We had no one. I think now it's probably easier with online work and stuff. But when I was young, we had to actually go into an office.

Kathi: What a concept.

Donna: What a concept. And they owned you. They really owned you. My first job in South Florida, if I took off for a doctor's appointment, they docked my pay. It was that crazy.

Kathi: Wow.

Donna: These kids don't get it, but that's what it was like.

Kathi: Yep. And that's a girl with an MBA.

Donna: Oh, yeah. Who's owned, who feels owned.

Kathi: I'm glad things have shifted in that regard for people. Although taking control of your time seems to be something that is challenging for a lot of the newbies coming out.

Donna: Yeah, because there's no boundaries. People call me at eight, nine o'clock at night. I just don't answer, and I don't care, because I'm old. But I know some people are like, I've got to answer the call 24/7. I said, well, you really don't. You're not productive.

Kathi: Yeah. I found early in my career that the biggest sign of professionalism is knowing when to say no. And saying no. No, I can't really do that for you. That's the height of professionalism, not being all things to all people. Because then you just burn out, fry out, and it doesn't work anyhow. It's not sustainable. Well, I love your hanger brand, for sure. I'm so excited about it. I'm going to put the links in the show notes. And I think if people go to your website again, it's All Hung Up Hangers, and they'll get a special 10% off. I guess we can call it Organized and Energized.

Donna: Sure, sure. AllHungUpHangers.com slash organized. We can just call it Organized. Organized10. Let's do that.

Kathi: How's that? Organized10, and you can get a 10% discount. And I'll put that in the show notes below. Now, is there anything that you wanted to talk about that we haven't really bridged in this conversation?

Donna: No. I would say, let's just talk to all our entrepreneurs out there. Just keep hustling. It is hard. It is definitely hard, but it is worth it.

Kathi: Absolutely. What makes you feel good about being an entrepreneur?

Donna: It's the creativity. I mean, you start something from nothing, and then you grow this thing. It's like a plant. You water it, and then there's weeds. But as it blossoms, it's really kind of neat, versus buying into a business that's already established, which is, I think, much easier. But who am I, because I never did that. But creating something that wasn't there before is something to be proud of.

You start something from nothing, and then you grow this thing. It's like a plant. You water it, and then there's weeds. But as it blossoms, it's really kind of neat.

Kathi: You're talking my language. It's all about the creative process. I'm with you on that. I've never bought into anybody else's program. Just the whole thing of creating something from an idea and then seeing it to fruition. And I agree, you have the weeds you've got to pluck out and all that good stuff. But so what? And then you have the fertilizer. You've got to nourish it. And then when you watch it grow up on its own, it's extremely, extremely rewarding. Well, I wish you much success. Everybody, check out the hangers. I'm so excited. Having a good hanger brand that doesn't fall apart is so important, and skinny, that saves a lot of space. As an ex-professional organizer, that's really the important thing for me. Let's save space. Well, thank you, Donna. I really appreciate you being on the show. It's a pleasure to connect with you.

Donna: Thank you so much for having me. It's so, so appreciated.

Kathi: Absolutely. Hey, you guys, this is a wrap of the episode. If something landed for you, or you have some friends that you want to tell about these hangers, or you have friends who are juggling multiple businesses and you took away some words of wisdom, please share it. I am like two people away from having a thousand subscribers on YouTube. Please go to the YouTube channel and subscribe to Organized and Energized. I'd really appreciate your help. Meanwhile, until next week, we will see you then. Thank you.