Southern Soule Designs
The storefront of Southern Soule Designs at 101 Dilworth Plaza in Poth Texas
Welcome back! It’s another week and time for another spectacular local boutique that you can support in person or on their website, Southern Soule Designs. I love the entire vibe of Southern Soule, and I am always trying to help with drinks and treats at events they’re hosting for customers, so I am super pumped to tell you their story… let’s jump in!
The Harris Family - Wade and Lyndra Harris (patriarch and matriarch), Shae (daughter) and Ben Diaz (son-in-law), Brynn Harris (daughter), and Cole Harris (son)
In August of 2016, Southern Soule Designs opened up for business as a furniture and decor store in the small town of Poth, Texas. Owner and matriarch, Lyndra Harris, opened up the store after having experience in the storefront/boutique business and knowing that she wanted to now open up a business with her family. Southern Soule is owned and operated by the Harris family. The store originally opened up in only a small portion of the building that it now sprawls through and was meant to only be furniture and decor. Shae, Lyndra’s daughter, began selling clothes online while she was getting her Bachelor’s Degree from Texas A&M University. She was literally receiving, packing, and shipping orders out of her bedroom in college (holy moly!) and it went so well, that after a year of Southern Soule being open for business, they extended into more of their building and added in a clothing section.
The Harris girls during the grand opening of their expansion in 2021 - Shae Diaz, Shae’s daughter Logan Diaz, Lyndra Harris, and Brynn Harris
The Harris family loves working together, and it truly is a family affaire! At any given time at the store you might see one of the 5 of them walking through working on a display, doing content creation, helping a customer, or working on one of their many expansions or remodels that seem to be an ongoing activity. I’m pretty sure I saw at least 3 of them just in the hour I was there for this interview! They love their community, and they love being able to build relationships with their customers and recognizing the reoccurring ones. One of their goals is to grow their business locally and get more in-store customers. If you haven’t gone in to shop at the store, you should! Not only is it amazing, but they have an amazing team working there that are always so kind and genuine with you.
Cole Harris in the store while working on some content creation - follow him at Creatives by Cole on Instagram
When asked about where she sees the business going in the future, Shae said “I would like to see more online growth!” They have shipped out of country before, but growing a larger online following and presence is important to them. Shae’s brother, Cole, is their lead creative in all things social media. He does shoots for their clothing with stellar edits to make all their content cohesive and branded, but they also do YouTube videos that are directed, edited, and even sometimes hosted by Cole as well. Give them a follow on their Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to keep up! Here you will not only get to see new items, some behind the scenes, and the latest deals, but you will also get to hear more in depth stories, see fun videos, and get to know the personalities of the people pouring themselves into their dreams and our community.
Jaden, a model for Southern Soule, modeling a new outfit for their social media
Southern Soule has grown tremendously since opening its doors in 2016. They have had multiple renovations, additions, add-ons, and more. Heck, they are in the middle of some renovations right now to expand their clothing room! I love watching our local businesses grow and thrive, and it is all thanks to people like you who support our local business owners. With all that they have going on, Shae says that what you see on the “pretty outside” as a customer barely scratches the surface on what is happening behind the scenes. She says that running a boutique is a hard business, and it’s a lot more than the fun videos and ordering cute clothes! From the owner side of things, they’re always having to manage accounts, take inventory, oversee employee aspects, and more; but the hard days and hard work are all worth it to the Harris family. This family LOVES what they do, and they want their customers to know that. Seeing people’s faces in the shop every day, enjoying their time shopping with friends and family, is such a great feeling for them. They want to create a space where women can come in and feel comfortable no matter what and where men will want to come in and get help finding an outfit as well. Everyone in their family has an amazing heart that you can see and feel through their work.
Shae Diaz and Ashton Johnson, who they call their “store mom”, modeling new graphic tees for the shop
If you haven’t yet, check them out online or in store! Now through June 2nd you can use the code HOMEGROWN15 for 15% off your purchase. Remember to tag them on your social media when you are wearing or using anything from their shop to help spread the love for our amazing, local, dream chasers!
As always, thank you for being here and helping me support local business.
XX, H
