<p>Joey Thurman:<br />Dreams do come true. Shannon had an idea to start a business from the comfort of her own home. That's when Wykwood House was born. Now, she has multiple locations and she's expanding in Aurora to a space twice the size. Let's check out Wykwood House, and I hear it smells like home.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />Shannon, it smells amazing in here. What is that?<br /><br />Shannon Gutierrez:<br />Aw, thank you.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />It's just the natural smell of all the products that you've curated yourself or what is it?<br /><br />Shannon Gutierrez:<br />That's actually our signature scent that you smell.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />Of course.<br /><br />Shannon Gutierrez:<br />We have our candle burning up front.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />They have a signature scent. Of course you have a signature scent.<br /><br />Shannon Gutierrez:<br />Yes. Yes. A little back story. We started out of my house so when we opened our brick and mortar, I wanted it to smell like home, very inviting, warm. And so, people would notice that when they came to my house so I came up with a signature scent so that it would smell that consistently when people come and shop with us.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />Wow. How long ago was that?<br /><br />Shannon Gutierrez:<br />We started in my house four years ago. We did our first pop-up downtown Aurora during the Winter Lights Festival, so that was a special night for us, four years ago right here in this location, actually, when it was a co-working space. And so, we've been open here for three and a half years.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />What about Wykwood makes it different and stand out from any other store that you're going to go to?<br /><br />Shannon Gutierrez:<br />I mean, what I like to say is just the local feel that you get in here. I started with friends of mine that made things and it just expanded. There were eight of us in my house when we had our first market. And then, when we did our pop-up here, I think we had 18, and now we're up to more than 40 different local makers and designers that we work with. People love that because it's our own community that's bringing all this fabulous stuff to people and we get to do custom things. If you want something really cool on a shirt or a mug, we can make that happen because it's a local person that's making it.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />I do want something cool like don't ruin my vibe, you made me mute the music for this Talking City segment.<br /><br />Shannon Gutierrez:<br />Yes.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />Good. We got it?<br /><br />Shannon Gutierrez:<br />That's exactly right.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />Nice. You've got a lot of really unique pieces. Is this because these are local individuals doing it or do you get anything from outside or is this only strictly Fox Valley, Aurora area?<br /><br />Shannon Gutierrez:<br />That's a good question. We do source things outside of the area as well. Just kind of fill in where we need some different pieces so that's all curated by me. If it's not made locally, it's curated locally.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />Anybody that wants to open up a shop or business of their own in Aurora, what advice can you give them?<br /><br />Shannon Gutierrez:<br />Oh my gosh. I would say just show up in the community and it's magic what happens. You get to know people and just come to events and, the next thing you know, that's what happened to me. Marissa Amoni who runs Aurora Downtown and makes the amazing events happen down here, she came to my house when I hosted the market there and she was like, "Hey, you should do this in downtown Aurora." I kind of laughed at her. And then, next thing you know, I'm popping up down here and the landlord came in and he was like, "Hey, this is really cool what you have going on. I'd love to have you in my building." Things like that happen when you follow your dream. That would be my advice. Show up, be a part of the community, and go after your dream because it can happen.</p>