198 – How to Use Email as a Product Biz with Megan Auman of Artists and Profit Makers

Megan Auman of Artists and Profit Makers

Megan Auman is a jewelry designer, metalsmith and educator with over a decade of experience in selling art through a variety of channels.

She designs for women who want to be effortlessly bold. She says, “You need jewelry that makes a statement but is easy enough to wear every day.

You need pieces that make you feel fantastic every time you put them on. Something that reflects your confidence and strength. A kind of armor that helps you tackle your day, every day.”

Currently, Megan is running her eponymous jewelry line and the online community Artists & Profit Makers for fellow creatives who sell high-end products.

Megan has seen talented makers walk away from creating because they are given one-size-fits-all marketing advice that just doesn’t translate to the world of selling art.

A best-selling CreativeLive instructor, her designs have been featured in Elle Decor, Better Homes & Gardens, Cooking Light and on top-rated blogs like Design*Sponge.

Business Building Insights

  • The beauty of wholesale accounts is that once you’ve established contacts you can reach out to them over and over again.
  • Wholesale trade shows are an excellent place to start as you begin to develop relationships.
  • There’s no one right way to run a business. You have to figure out what works best for you.
  • Your product does not need to solve a problem in order for it to sell.
  • Show off your product through experienced based marketing: what it tastes like, what it looks like, how it feels and the experience of using it.
  • Add a human element to your photography. We are trained to read emotions through other humans; whether it’s the expression or a movement like reaching for something.
  • Email is a powerful way to connect with customers.
  • Put a call to action on your sites and social media to collect emails for your list.

Contact Links

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Gift Biz Resources

Join our FREE Gift Biz Breeze Facebook Community

If you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe and leave a review in Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. That helps us spread the word to more makers just like you.
Thanks! Sue
Transcript
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Gift biz unwrapped episode 198 ball FOMO thing.

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I mean,

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you know there's a reason people do it.

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It works.

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Attention gifters,

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bakers, crafters and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.

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Whether you have an established business or looking to start one

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now you are in the right place.

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This is gift to biz on rapt helping you turn your

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skill into a flourishing business.

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Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,

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resources and the support you need to grow your gift biz.

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Here is your host gift biz gal,

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Sue moon Heights.

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Well hello gifts Peeps.

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Thank you so much for joining into the podcast today.

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I think for some of you the topic might feel a

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little bit old school so often now when we're looking at

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making sure there's visibility for our business,

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we're going to all these social media platforms.

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Well, the true story is email still should hold a really

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valuable place in your overall marketing strategy and a lot of

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the things you hear right now about email are really for

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online service businesses,

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not necessarily product based businesses.

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I'm thrilled that Megan shares what's working for her business right

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now and the differences between online service based businesses and product

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based businesses when it comes to email and what role this

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can play for you as you continue to find new ways

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to grow.

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Before we get into that,

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I want to ask you a favor and that is if

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you're brand new to the show,

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if this is one of the first times that you're listening

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and you find you're getting value from the content that we're

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talking about here,

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it would mean the world to me.

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If you were jump over to iTunes,

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subscribe to the podcast because that way you'll always get the

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latest episode automatically downloaded to your phone and then also if

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you would do a rating and review.

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As you probably know,

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taking that action really helps get the podcast shown to more

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people so that they too can get value,

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that they need tips,

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tools, and strategies that can help them advance their businesses too.

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Thank you to those of you who have already done a

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rating and review.

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Those of you who are going to head on over there

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right after this episode.

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I really appreciate your doing that as well and now it's

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time to get into the show.

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Today my guest is Megan almond.

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Megan is a jewelry designer,

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metal Smith and educator with over a decade of experience in

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selling art through a variety of channels.

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She designs for women who want to be effortlessly bold.

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She says you need jewelry that makes a statement but is

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easy enough to wear every day.

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You need pieces that make you feel fantastic every time you

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put them on something that reflects your confidence and strength,

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a kind of armor that helps you tackle day every day.

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Currently, Megan is running her eponymous jewelry line and the online

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community artists and profit makers for fellow creatives who sell high

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end products.

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Megan has seen talented makers walk away from creating because they

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are given one size fits all marketing advice that just doesn't

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translate to the world of selling art.

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Today we're going to talk about selling advice that is specific

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to creatives.

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Megan is a bestselling,

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creative live instructor.

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Her designs have been featured in Elle decor,

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better homes and gardens,

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cooking light and on top rated blogs like design sponge.

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Welcome to the gift biz on podcast.

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Megan, Thank you for having me.

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I'm so excited to be here.

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I am thrilled and your topic could not be more apropos.

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I am really,

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really interested in hearing what you have to say.

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So we're going to dive right in.

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But before we do,

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I want to have our listeners get to know you in

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a way that's become a tradition on this show.

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That's by having you describe yourself through a motivational candle.

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So if you were to share with us a color and

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a quote that would create a candle that speaks you,

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what would your candle look like?

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Yeah, so my candle,

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first of all,

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it's definitely gray because anyone who knows me knows that gray

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is my favorite color.

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It's either gray,

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black, or white,

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but gray is usually the winner.

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Oh, I am so with you.

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Yeah, so it's usually great.

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And you know,

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it's funny cause I was trying to think about what my

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favorite motivational quote is and I decided that right now there

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wouldn't be a quote.

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It would just be like an awesome handmade textured candle because

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that is what I'm so into right now and it actually

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kind of doves into my teaching philosophy of working with artists

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and makers and that for so long we've been taught that

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marketing is very verbal,

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but right now we live in this wonderful world of opportunity

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for visual marketing on the web,

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which just plays so well to what we're doing.

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So I'm leaving a quote off my candle and we're going

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all tactile,

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texturey, handmade and celebrating all of that other stuff that we

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do. Beautiful.

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No one has ever answered this way.

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I love all the created different ways people take this and

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just make it their own,

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which is exactly what I wanted and I love it.

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Absolutely fabulous.

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So let's ground ourselves a little bit in understanding you and

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how you got into what you're doing today more right now

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from your jewelry line.

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And then we're absolutely going to get into all the advice

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that you have for us.

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But tell us how you got started.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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So I'm really fortunate that I grew up as a creative

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kid. I was in like drawing classes by the time I

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was six years old,

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my mom was a painter.

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I was just always really encouraged to do that.

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And so growing up I kind of thought I wanted to

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have a different kinds of jobs.

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And by the time I was in high school I thought,

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okay, I'm going to go to college for painting.

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And luckily my parents were super supportive of that.

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And then my senior year of high school,

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I took a workshop where we did lost wax cast rings

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and I was like,

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Oh my gosh,

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you can go to college for this,

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sign me up.

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And so I immediately started looking for colleges that had metal

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smithing or jewelry programs.

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And I ended up going and getting my BFA in metal

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smithing. And then because I had no idea what to do

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with the BFA and metal smithing,

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I went and got my MFA in jewelry and metals because

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I was like,

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well, I don't know what to do,

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so let's just go keep getting all the degrees until I

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can figure it out.

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You'll find it along the way.

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Right, right.

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And so that was a really smart call because I ended

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up going to an MFA program that was really actively supporting,

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thinking about making money,

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which I know sounds weird,

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but in art school it's so,

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so common to go into programs where making money is not

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just, you're not taught how to do it.

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Like it's actively discouraged because selling is selling out and that

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kind of thing.

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And I was really fortunate that I was in a grad

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program where it was encouraged.

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We had a jewelry student co-op,

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we would do sales every semester on campus.

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I helped run that.

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And so while I was in grad school and I was

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making all this kind of sculpture,

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art type stuff,

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I was also developing my jewelry production line.

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And so when I came out of school,

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I was really lucky in that I had a one year

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sabbatical replacement position where I was a university professor and I

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always liked to joke that what I learned in that year

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is that I didn't want to be a university professor.

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So luckily that gave me the time to transition into being

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able to launch my jewelry business then.

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And so I started,

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and this was actually in the fairly early days of Etsy,

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was when I was coming out of grad school.

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So I opened up an Etsy shop and I literally sold

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nothing for like six months.

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But luckily at the same time I was doing craft shows

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and then I discovered wholesale.

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And so I did my first wholesale show,

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which actually was the New York gift show.

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Now it's called New York now,

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but I just dove right off the deep end of the

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swimming pool.

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Like I had no idea what I was doing,

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but I just did it.

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And so really kind of focused,

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ended up growing my business through wholesale first.

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That was my primary goal there.

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And that was 12 years ago,

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11 years ago,

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12 years ago that I started doing craft shows.

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I think 11 years ago I did my first trade show,

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so still around,

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which I feel like is a good sign.

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Are you still doing trade shows today?

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So I do less than I used to.

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So there was a time where I was doing three a

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year. I'd stopped counting,

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but I've done somewhere well above 25 trade shows in the

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11 years that I've been doing them.

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And I've transitioned now to focusing more on just maintaining my

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existing wholesale relationships.

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And so I do usually one or two smaller trade shows

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a year.

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Something like the American craft counsel's wholesale show.

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Yeah. I don't do New York now anymore because I felt

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like I didn't need to.

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Now that I've established those contacts,

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that's the beauty of wholesale is that once you have contacts

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you can reach out to them for orders over and over

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again. And then I do occasional things like I show with

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a small group in New York city during New York.

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Now we do a little popup at a hotel.

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So that way buyers can come and meet with us and

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it's much more low key than doing the actual show.

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But I will say for anyone thinking about it,

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I would not have the business that I have if I

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hadn't done New York now and a couple other key trade

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shows when I was starting,

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so even though I'm doing less of them now,

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it's by far the foundation that I built my business on.

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Yeah. Well,

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New York now is such a huge show and I've heard

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you're not the only one I've heard who does a little

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bit of something on the side.

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Do you have a little showroom in your hotel?

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Yeah. That's becoming so much more common now,

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but I think at the same time,

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if you don't have the context when you're just starting out,

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it's helpful to do the show.

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You can't beat the foot traffic of the show.

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Well, yeah,

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in a big show like that for sure.

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Exactly. And craft shows pretty quickly fell by the wayside.

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Once you decided you were really going to focus on wholesale.

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Yeah. I had a string of shows one summer where every

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weekend it rained all summer long.

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And I just thought really quickly I was like,

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I do not want to spend my weekends standing in a

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tent in the rain.

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This is not the life that I want.

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And in the first year that I did wholesale,

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I think I brought in four times more revenue doing wholesale

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than doing retail craft shows.

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And I was like,

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Oh this is way easier.

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I'm just going to do that instead.

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So yeah,

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I pretty much dropped the craft show thing.

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It's actually funny because this year I did three bigger indoor

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craft shows cause I thought,

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okay, like it's been a while.

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Let's just check this,

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see if I'm missing anything.

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And after this year I was like,

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Nope. Okay,

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we're good.

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I can focus on the other things then that for you,

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not for me.

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Although I have some people in give biz listeners,

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you've heard them speak on the show,

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people thrive with it.

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They love those smaller community based shows and are making a

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great living off of that too.

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So it's really whatever fits you.

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Exactly. And would you say Megan,

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your product too?

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Absolutely. So it's really a blend of what you like and

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also your product and you know,

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that's kind of one of the things is that my price

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point is a little bit more expensive.

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And so when I do a lot of those,

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like smaller local shows,

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I get a lot of pushback.

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Whereas in wholesale selling to stores,

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my price point actually feels really reasonable to stores.

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And so it just,

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the work sells better that way.

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Okay. So you have established your business and give us the

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look behind the scenes.

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In terms of production,

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were you working offsite in like a production studio or were

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you working out of your house or how was that working

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again back in the early years?

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Yeah, so when I first started I was working out of

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my house and so I started in our garage and we

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have a detached garage because we have an older home.

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And so I was working in the garage and it was

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very, very cold.

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And so I kind of strategically shifted to the basement of

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our house,

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which was great except that I do a lot of things

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with a torch.

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And so the torch still deliver in the garage and I

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was walking back and forth.

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But I did that for probably the first,

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I don't know,

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six, seven,

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eight years of my business.

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It was awhile that I worked like that and I'm very

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fortunate now that I live near the house that I grew

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up in and I was actually able to create the house

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that I grew up in as a farmhouse.

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And I was able to create a really beautiful studio space

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now with like skylights and a lot of room and it's

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amazing. But for a long time I worked out of our

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basement. It did everything I needed it to do.

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It just didn't have any sun.

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Right? I mean,

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and that's something that you have to do as you develop,

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you know,

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you use what you have and you make things work and

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then you adjust as you're perfecting and also testing what's going

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to work for you.

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Just like you were talking about,

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you made the choice of going wholesale versus more local craft

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shows you saw that you didn't want to teach and you

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can't learn any of that unless you put your foot in

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and kind of get a feel for it.

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Exactly, And for someone else,

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it might've been absolutely the opposite choices than what you made.

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I totally agree with him.

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That's one of the things that I believe so much is

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that there's no one right way to run a business and

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so you're right,

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you have to try everything and figure out what works best

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for you.

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Let's dive right now into the meat of all of this

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and what I'm so excited to talk about because although there's

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all different ways to present your product,

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there's one thing that is consistent across everything and that is

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you have to have customers who are interested in purchasing what

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you're making or you really don't have a business and certainly

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not a business that could sustain you in your life.

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And so that equals selling.

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Although I'm really getting to the point where I wanted to

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like just rename that entire word cause it comes with such

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a negative connotation.

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When I was reading some of the information that you sent

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over before we started talking,

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Megan, I'm a little bit older than you and I come

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from an a corporate environment where we had to seed the

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problem with the customer.

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You know,

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that whole thing.

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So you know,

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in the hard core,

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although it was very against my personality,

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that was what I was trained to do.

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So I so get when you talk about that,

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so let's start there.

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Yeah. So a couple of,

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I guess probably a couple of months ago now,

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maybe more,

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I wrote a couple of ranty blog posts about that your

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product doesn't need to solve a problem in order for you

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to sell it.

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And I think this is one of the biggest sticking points

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for makers and crafters and artists because this is the advice

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that comes from the marketing community,

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especially infomarketers people who are selling a service or a digital

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product or a course or something that the conventional wisdom is

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that you identify a problem and if there isn't a problem,

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you basically manufacture a problem and then you tell the customer

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why your product solves that problem.

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And of course there are 100% products that do this,

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right? People design products all the time because they see a

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problem in their life and they want to fix it and

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they create a problem.

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And so if that's you,

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that's awesome,

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but more what I find in the maker community is that

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we get excited about process or technique or an object.

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And so you make it an a doesn't solve a problem.

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And so trying to market your work by like forcing a

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problem on it feels really disingenuous.

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And this is why so many artists and makers and crafters

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hate selling because it really feels false and wrong because you're

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essentially, it seems like you're trying to trick your customer into

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something. But what I also think is that in doing that,

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we're selling our products short because if you are an artist,

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and when I say artists,

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I think of makers.

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I think of crafters,

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I think of people making food.

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I think of all of these things that your listeners are,

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because honestly,

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there's art in all of this.

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And when we reduce it to solving a problem,

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we're actually selling our work short because people don't buy things

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because it solves a problem.

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You don't buy a cupcake because it solves a problem,

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right? You buy a cupcake because it looks pretty and it's

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going to taste really damn good.

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And so by trying to create these problems,

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we're really selling our work short.

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And so what I want to do is I want to

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encourage artists and makers and crafters to really think about how

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to show off their work from the more experienced based marketing.

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So what it tastes like,

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what it looks like,

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what it feels like,

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the experience of using it.

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Just getting people excited about those real visceral things is a

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completely different way of marketing from what we're taught by traditional

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marketing standards.

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I love that.

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And you're right in line with where it feels like everyone's

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starting talk.

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Yeah. Not As much materialism necessarily,

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but what does it bring you and what does it add

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to your life?

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Even if it's just something that adds to your life within

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a single moment.

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Like eating a cupcake.

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Yeah. Or you're eating a cupcake and you're getting to be

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with your girlfriends,

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you know you're all together and you're enjoying that.

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Like what else?

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What's the extended linkage with that cupcake?

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Exactly. And our community can learn a lot,

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I think from the craft beer community because craft beer legally,

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like they can't tell you that their beer solves a problem.

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Right? Like that's totally against the law and the way that

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you're allowed to market beer.

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And I know some of this because my brother actually works

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in marketing for a craft beer company.

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So we talk about these kinds of things.

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So what they have to do is they have to play

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up the experience of it and that's why people buy craft

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beer. And it's the same reason that they might buy a

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piece of jewelry,

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not because they need something to wear tomorrow night.

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Because quite frankly,

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if you need something to wear tomorrow night,

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you're probably running to like target and buying something really quick

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or whatever.

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Like you're not taking the time to shop.

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But instead if you're thinking about,

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okay, like I love this work and I love the maker

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and like I really want to just own this piece because

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it's beautiful.

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That's how we should be selling our work more.

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Absolutely agree with you.

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How does that transition into attracting customers?

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How do we do it then?

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Yeah, so I think part of it is first of all

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to stop worrying about what you're saying about your work.

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So I see so many people who are like,

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Oh my God,

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I don't know how to describe my work.

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And I'm like,

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who cares at this point?

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Because we live in such a visual culture.

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So if you look at kind of,

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I think the common denominator between like the marketing paths that

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work, it's that people get to experience the work either firsthand

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or through photography,

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and that really makes it easier to connect with people.

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So if you're doing a retail craft show or a trade

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show, right?

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People are there and they're interacting with the work and they're

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touching the work.

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One of the things when I teach people how to sell

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in person,

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I'm always like,

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pick up your work and put it in somebody's hand because

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they're probably not going to do it themselves,

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but it's really important for the process.

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And so that kind of thing.

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And if you're not doing that,

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then I think the next best way to connect with customers

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is through whatever social media channels make sense for you.

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I'm not advocating that everyone use all of them because it's

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insane. But what the best ones have in common is that

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they let you visually communicate the experience and the tactile or

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the visceral qualities of your product.

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You can do that through your photography.

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That's why the people that you see succeed,

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whether it's on Etsy or Instagram or Pinterest,

Speaker:

they're creating beautiful photography and that's what customers are responding to

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first On the photography.

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And how do you feel or do you have a preference

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with the two different types of photos?

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I think I'll describe that are out there.

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One is it's just the product sitting there by itself.

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Maybe it has some,

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a little bit of created background,

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like a staged background,

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like a flat layer or something.

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Then with a necklace laying over it or whatever it is,

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versus more of a lifestyle shot where someone is in an

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environment and then wearing the piece.

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So I actually think that both are important and I spend

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time doing both with my product.

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So with my jewelry,

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I definitely am doing the kind of photography.

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Like for me it's a lot of white background just because

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that's my aesthetic enough.

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It makes my work pop.

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So I'll do a lot of that white background,

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very kind of simple photography.

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But then I do a ton of model photography,

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which actually now all of my model photography is on me

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because I'm the most convenient model that I have.

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So the point where I even developed a class called market

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yourself to teach other people how to take pictures of themselves.

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And so I think that's really important because when you are

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trying to sell online,

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people want to see the product,

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but they need to see it in context.

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And one of the things that I've realized from being online

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for a long time and talking to people is that nobody

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reads, you can write dimensions in your product descriptions all day

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long, but no one is going to read them.

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And even if they read them,

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they probably can't visualize dimensions.

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If you're not a maker or an artist,

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you cannot visualize dimensions.

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It's so sad,

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but so true.

Speaker:

And so the best way to communicate really,

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really simple information like size is to stick a human element

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in your photography.

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Whether that is the body,

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if it's jewelry,

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if it's being worn,

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but even if it's not,

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if you have a hand holding a cupcake or a hand

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reaching in or like it's someone's holding something and you can

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see it in relation to their torso,

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whatever that is,

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that immediately gives people information about size and scale that is

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so much more quickly and better communicated than if you wrote

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it in your product description And they also say photos.

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The mind just can accept and interpret photos so much faster

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too. Exactly.

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And photos give the feel that emotion.

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Exactly, and that's actually one of the reasons too that I'm

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such a strong proponent of adding a human element to your

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photography. Whether or not you make a wearable product because we

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are trained as humans to read emotion from other humans,

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even if it's just a hand.

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We read body language and you're right,

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it's such an important way to communicate emotion that even an

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amazing copywriter cannot hit that in the same way that a

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great photograph can.

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That's going to give me some thought because I always feel

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like, well if I don't know the person in the photo,

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unless they're a big brand,

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you know who have all the models,

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what does it matter?

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But my thinking head's a little bit changed and I'll go

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into this in a minute,

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but you're saying any person,

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so even if they don't relate,

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if they don't know cause it's not you,

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the maker you know,

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or the designer of the piece.

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But any person is more advantageous to a customer understanding and

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feeling good about a product than just the piece lane by

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itself? I think so.

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Again, I think more often than not it definitely helps.

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And again,

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it's sometimes as simple as like sticking a hand in,

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which is so easy to do for just about anyone but

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it is there something about like we as humans relate to

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other humans and there's also a scientific concept called mirror neurons,

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which is this idea that like if you see someone doing

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something, your brain mimics as if you are doing it too.

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So if you see a hand reaching for a handmade ceramic

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mug, it makes you want to reach out and touch that

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handmade ceramic mug too.

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And so adding that human element literally tells our brain that

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we want to be mimicking that behavior,

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which of course is going to then make you want the

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thing more.

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That is so interesting to summarize where we are at this

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point. We've been diving into the whole experience based marketing and

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Megan's broken it down into two things,

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really photography and everything that we just talked about now in

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terms of what should be included in the photos.

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And that's mostly relating then to social media online,

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your website,

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et cetera,

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and then also in person.

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So if you're at a trade show or you're at a

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craft show or I'm always suggesting that you guys are out

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and making sure that you're interacting with your community in networking

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events or you know,

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local farmer's markets,

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whatever it is.

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And Megan,

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as we were talking about that in person experience,

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your saying let there be things that people can handle and

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try on maybe those types of things.

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Right? Yeah,

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absolutely. You know the best thing that you can do is

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encourage people to touch your product.

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Or those of you who are candle bath food smell is

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amazing too.

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Like anything you can get someone to smell something that is

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perfect. I do not make a product that smells,

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so I have to be all about the touch.

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But it's really important to kind of engage all of the

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senses because here's the other thing that I think we don't

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talk about enough with marketing and if we go back to

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that problem solving marketing issue,

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I'll call it.

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It makes us think that people make purchasing decisions only based

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on like rational things.

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Like I have this problem and I must solve it so

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I will buy this thing.

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But that's not how people buy.

Speaker:

Yes, certain things it is,

Speaker:

but we also buy things because we fall in love with

Speaker:

the object or we just get really excited about it.

Speaker:

We buy based on emotion and so the more emotion you

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can create,

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especially through sensory experience,

Speaker:

the better you're going to be as a sales person.

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Totally agree and you hear it all the time.

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Even if it's a logical solution to a problem,

Speaker:

people will buy a specific version or from a specific company

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through emotion for sure.

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Exactly. And the other thing that I want to add here,

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because I think this is so key,

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is that actually customers who buy based on emotion,

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who buy based on gut reaction are actually happier customers.

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And this is not just me saying this,

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there's actually research that tells us this,

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right? They're actually happier customers than people who need to analyze

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and do all the research and like make the decision based

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on the rational things.

Speaker:

So those are the customers who are actually more likely to

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be unhappy with their product.

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Whereas people who buy with their gut feel way less buyer's

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remorse. So I would much rather encourage my customers to buy

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with their gut because they're going to be happier customers.

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Yeah, they probably also then aren't second guessing.

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People who are analyzing before the sale are probably going to

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be analyzing after the sale as well.

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Oh my gosh.

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All right.

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So in the social media realm,

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one of the things that's really popular and everyone is stressing

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right now is live streaming.

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I'm going to be interested in your opinion here that you

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being part of the brand and letting people see who you

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are as the artist is also really key.

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And many times people will fall in love with you and

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buy your products just because it's you.

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Yes. So I completely 100% agree with that,

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but I will also say that I don't think that live

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streaming is the only way to do it.

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I think that it's one way to do it and obviously

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if you're talking to people in your Instagram stories or you're

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doing Facebook live or whatever it is,

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that's one way.

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But again,

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I think just even bringing yourself into your photography,

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talking to your customers on social media,

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in your writing as if you're talking to a human.

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So I'm not the kind of person who I don't like

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to do live video,

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which is ironic because I taught a million classes on creative

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live, which were all live video personally in my day to

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day, I'm not a big fan of live video,

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but what I do like to do is photograph myself a

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lot, post those on social media and then whether or not

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I'm in the image.

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When I write captions on social media,

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I write like I'm talking to a human as opposed to

Speaker:

writing marketing copy and so I totally agree with you.

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I think people buy because they love the maker,

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they want to feel connected to the maker,

Speaker:

but there are so many ways to do that,

Speaker:

especially if you're like a little video shy.

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There's totally other ways to do that.

Speaker:

You have no idea how many people are smiling.

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You just said that for sure.

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I have guests,

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I have a guest.

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How many people are here?

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I think a lot of people.

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Yeah, pretty high percentage there and you bring up a good

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point too,

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which is engagement.

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When someone is responding to a photo or commenting to be

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there and be available and to talk back,

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not talk back,

Speaker:

but you know what I mean.

Speaker:

Communicate back with them and start developing a relationship.

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Yeah, exactly.

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And I think that it's so funny because I always tell

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people I have like a love,

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hate, love relationship with Instagram.

Speaker:

Most of the hate comes into things like the algorithm,

Speaker:

but what I love about it is that if you're using

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it properly,

Speaker:

you can have these meaningful conversations,

Speaker:

whether it's in the comments,

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whether it's in your DMS.

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When I go on Instagram,

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I feel like I'm connecting to other humans and I love

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that. And so that's a great way to build that relationship

Speaker:

with your customers without feeling like you have to be the

Speaker:

talking head on video all the time.

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So how do you build that time into your day or

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week to do that?

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So I am very much a person where I like to

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push my marketing activities to either end of my day so

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that I can spend as much time as possible in the

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studio. Actually focusing on my studio work and focusing on making,

Speaker:

because at the moment I'm a one woman show,

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so every product that comes out of my studio is made

Speaker:

by my hands.

Speaker:

And so what I do is I use a strategy that

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I call marketing mornings.

Speaker:

So in the mornings I like to get up and do

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any of my major marketing stuff,

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blog posts,

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email, just checking into Instagram,

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that sort of thing.

Speaker:

I used to do a lot more of that in the

Speaker:

morning. I'm shifting a little bit more towards the end of

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my day now,

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so after my orders are shipped,

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you maybe after dinner I'm booking a little bit of time

Speaker:

to do some of that now just because evenings tend to

Speaker:

get better engagement because more people are again doing exactly what

Speaker:

I'm doing.

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Right. They're on,

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they finished dinner,

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they're on their phone,

Speaker:

they're hanging out while they're watching TV,

Speaker:

browsing, Instagram or Pinterest or whatever.

Speaker:

Some shifting a little bit more to that,

Speaker:

but I really like to push those so that when I'm

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in the studio,

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I'm not messing around with that other stuff.

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I'm working the studio and in my marketing activities go to

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either end of my day.

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Okay. But the point is you have a plan because I

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know it took me a long time.

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I kept saying,

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I know I need to do this,

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I know I need to do this and I'm not as

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good yet as I could be.

Speaker:

But you're specifically intentionally taking time in your day once or

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twice then morning and night or,

Speaker:

or one or the other to make sure you're going back

Speaker:

and engaging with people.

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Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker:

And sometimes I'll check in a little bit at lunchtime.

Speaker:

It's just kind of one of those easy things to do.

Speaker:

Or like if I'll pop into Instagram and see what's going

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on, it's probably cause I'm an Instagram addict.

Speaker:

Wait, you just said you had a love hate relationship.

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It's love.

Speaker:

Hate, love.

Speaker:

Okay. So yeah,

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it's a nice,

Speaker:

I hate it,

Speaker:

but like I can't quit it.

Speaker:

I told you I'm an addict but so I will check

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in a little bit.

Speaker:

But it is something where I try to make sure I'm

Speaker:

going into the platforms that I'm using and I'm checking it

Speaker:

on a regular basis.

Speaker:

I'm not a huge fan of super scheduling out my time,

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but I am a big fan of loosely scheduling out my

Speaker:

time. So I really like to have this flow in my

Speaker:

day where it's like morning start with computer and social media

Speaker:

and then it moves into studio time and then my orders

Speaker:

get packed up in the late or mid to late afternoon

Speaker:

because that's when my ups and my post office has to

Speaker:

go. And then I might work a little more in the

Speaker:

studio or I might wrap up and go work out and

Speaker:

eat dinner.

Speaker:

And then like I said,

Speaker:

it's back to a little bit of computer at the end

Speaker:

of the day,

Speaker:

quite frankly,

Speaker:

because I'm really bad at relaxing.

Speaker:

And so I would rather,

Speaker:

rather than just sitting around doing nothing,

Speaker:

I would rather sit on my computer and edit photos or

Speaker:

write a blog post or something like that.

Speaker:

Cause that's just actually kind of highlight to spend my time.

Speaker:

I'm such a nerd,

Speaker:

but that's kind of what loosely almost all of my days

Speaker:

look like.

Speaker:

And I have found that that sort of matches the rhythm

Speaker:

of my day the best.

Speaker:

And so any day that I have to deviate from that,

Speaker:

I get a little bit grumpy.

Speaker:

But it's helpful to know like,

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okay, these are the things that are going to happen every

Speaker:

day in the business and I'm with you on that.

Speaker:

You know,

Speaker:

sometimes I say,

Speaker:

well, why don't I just read like a fiction book or

Speaker:

something that's not business or like actually watch the television show

Speaker:

instead of having my phone also there and I just can't

Speaker:

do it.

Speaker:

I finally given up.

Speaker:

I'm like,

Speaker:

this is what I like to do.

Speaker:

I'm just going with it.

Speaker:

It's okay.

Speaker:

Yeah. I think it's totally fine as long as you're kind

Speaker:

of acknowledging that you're doing it because you want to be

Speaker:

in, not because you have to have to be.

Speaker:

Exactly. You know,

Speaker:

I grew up,

Speaker:

my dad owns his own business and I grew up in

Speaker:

a house where like that was very common and I remember

Speaker:

one time my dad said to me when I was young,

Speaker:

he was like,

Speaker:

I'm really lucky in that my hobby is also my job.

Speaker:

Like he's like,

Speaker:

I love what I do.

Speaker:

And I think that that's just who I am.

Speaker:

And I think that's who a lot of,

Speaker:

you know,

Speaker:

makers and creatives are.

Speaker:

We love what we do.

Speaker:

And so if you love it,

Speaker:

you shouldn't feel guilty for working on it a lot because

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you love it.

Speaker:

And that's totally fine.

Speaker:

I'm right with you.

Speaker:

Totally agree.

Speaker:

Wasn't this a great behind the scenes look at how Megan

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works. Her day manages and engages in social media,

Speaker:

but it's very intentional with her schedule.

Speaker:

We're going to stop for a quick word from our sponsor

Speaker:

and then get back to Megan as she starts to cover.

Speaker:

What email looks in her business.

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ribbon print company.

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for more information.

Speaker:

So we've talked a lot about social media,

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but I know you're a real fan of emails.

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I am.

Speaker:

So I just think if you're going to do one thing

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for your business,

Speaker:

it should absolutely be setting up an email list right from

Speaker:

the beginning because it is still the best way to connect

Speaker:

with your customers.

Speaker:

As we've learned over the last couple of years with Instagram,

Speaker:

social media is very fickle.

Speaker:

I like to joke that it's because engineers get bored.

Speaker:

I used to work a lot with the Etsy seller education

Speaker:

team and I remember someone telling me one time like they

Speaker:

would come in and there would be changes to the Etsy

Speaker:

system. And it was because like the engineers,

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there wasn't anything broken that day.

Speaker:

So they were boards.

Speaker:

They were like,

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let's try this instead.

Speaker:

And so that's what I always picture.

Speaker:

Anytime there's an algorithm change on any platform,

Speaker:

I'm like,

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Oh, the engineers were bored today.

Speaker:

But it's really stressful to build your business on the whims

Speaker:

of board engineers.

Speaker:

And so that's where I think email is still really important

Speaker:

because it's such a powerful way to connect with your customers

Speaker:

that while we're starting to get algorithmic inboxes,

Speaker:

it's still a little bit safer in terms of actually being

Speaker:

able to get to the customers you want to get to.

Speaker:

And it's also the people that you know are most committed

Speaker:

to your business,

Speaker:

right? It's really easy to follow someone on social media,

Speaker:

but if you're giving them your email address,

Speaker:

you know that it's valuable and you know that they actually

Speaker:

want to hear from you.

Speaker:

And so it's really important to a collect email addresses and

Speaker:

then B to actually send emails.

Speaker:

So I always try to go no more than two weeks

Speaker:

without emailing my list because otherwise they forget about you.

Speaker:

And so that's the other really key point that I think

Speaker:

people miss is they're like,

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Oh, well my email doesn't really do anything.

Speaker:

And when I ask them,

Speaker:

they're like,

Speaker:

Oh, every couple of months I sent an email.

Speaker:

Well that's not near frequently.

Speaker:

They will totally forget about you in the interim.

Speaker:

So, so important to actually email that list once you've built

Speaker:

it. Okay.

Speaker:

So let's break this down a little bit.

Speaker:

It starts with list building.

Speaker:

So how do you see are the best ways to attract

Speaker:

people to want to give you their email?

Speaker:

Yeah, so first of all,

Speaker:

I'm not a huge fan of any kind of,

Speaker:

this goes back to the info marketer thing.

Speaker:

I'm not a huge fan of like a PDF freebie or

Speaker:

something because people who are signing up to get a PDF

Speaker:

freebie, they want information.

Speaker:

They don't care about your product.

Speaker:

So you might get a lot of people on your list

Speaker:

that way,

Speaker:

but they're probably not going to be great customers.

Speaker:

So don't worry about that.

Speaker:

You can let go of the stupid lead magnet advice that

Speaker:

you've heard.

Speaker:

Literally put a call to action everywhere you can on your

Speaker:

site, on your social media.

Speaker:

That's something to the effect of be the first to know

Speaker:

about new products or special releases or occasional sales or whatever

Speaker:

it is.

Speaker:

That's the call to action that I really recommend because it

Speaker:

means that the people who are signing up are your biggest

Speaker:

fans. They're the ones who want to be the first to

Speaker:

know, which makes them so much more valuable than someone who

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was like,

Speaker:

Oh, I wanted this free thing on your list.

Speaker:

So that's the first thing and then it's also important that

Speaker:

you then promote the list.

Speaker:

I found that I think a lot of people find this

Speaker:

that especially on Instagram,

Speaker:

it's so hard to sell directly from social media.

Speaker:

So a lot of my calls to action on Instagram are

Speaker:

not like,

Speaker:

Hey go buy this thing.

Speaker:

It's Hey,

Speaker:

I'm getting ready to do a release and my list hears

Speaker:

about it first.

Speaker:

So go sign up for my email list.

Speaker:

So I spent a lot of time on social media,

Speaker:

actually pushing people to my email list instead of trying to

Speaker:

sell them directly.

Speaker:

And then the email list is where I make the hard

Speaker:

sale. Okay.

Speaker:

This is really interesting to me because we all know that

Speaker:

there's so much,

Speaker:

you know,

Speaker:

our inboxes are crazy fall and so there has to be

Speaker:

something valuable in an email from somebody,

Speaker:

you know who the sender is and for that people to

Speaker:

actually open.

Speaker:

So you're saying that what you do is you're providing additional

Speaker:

value to your email list by kind of seeding the fact

Speaker:

that there's going to be some goodies there.

Speaker:

You're going to want to be the first to know.

Speaker:

Do you also ever give specials exclusively and only to your

Speaker:

email list?

Speaker:

So what I do is if I'm running a sale,

Speaker:

which I don't run a lot of sales,

Speaker:

but every so often I do a sample sale,

Speaker:

which is like I have a lot of excess merchandise but

Speaker:

it's all kind of one offs or two offs.

Speaker:

Um, or even when I do it snows will be like

Speaker:

a birthday sale.

Speaker:

What I do is my email list always gets the sale

Speaker:

first, usually about an hour to two hours before I release

Speaker:

it onto social media.

Speaker:

And that is really key because like in my sample sale,

Speaker:

when I do that,

Speaker:

I'll sell through about 50% of it in the first hour.

Speaker:

So if you're not on the email list,

Speaker:

you're missing out on all of the good stuff.

Speaker:

So that's really kind of where the value is to my

Speaker:

email list.

Speaker:

It's saying like,

Speaker:

Hey, you guys get first dibs and sometimes stuff sells out.

Speaker:

So it's really important,

Speaker:

like if you really want the thing you want to be

Speaker:

on the email list because that's the first dibs always.

Speaker:

Well and network's beautiful for you because you are the designer,

Speaker:

you're the sole designer.

Speaker:

So understanding that there's scarcity.

Speaker:

Yep. Because you may have one or two of something and

Speaker:

the story all falls in line because yes,

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because you're the one making it so it's very limited.

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That wouldn't work for somebody.

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And I'm just mentioning this to you,

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you have to have a different angle if you're mass producing

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something because the idea of it not being available doesn't kind

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of go with what your brand is.

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If that's the case,

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then you have to think about other ways to communicate.

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And I think the most important thing is literally to show

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people how a product fits into their life.

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So if you're like mass producing scarves for instance,

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then your emails should be things like,

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here's a different way to tie this scarf or here's how

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to layer it with this outfit or something like that.

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So that you're still giving people a reason to open email.

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But I do think that any time you can create a

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little bit of scarcity,

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it definitely helps.

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Right? Perfect example with the scarves cause it has to be

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something that they're going to be interested in and that when

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they see it,

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I mean,

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I don't know if you're like this,

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but I know when I go through my emails,

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there are certain people that the second I see an email

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from them,

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I'm opening it immediately.

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I almost don't even look at the subject line and it's

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because I know that what they've got in that email is

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something that I can always use.

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Exactly. And I think that's so Important.

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And I think the other thing is if you're not sure

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where to start with this,

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just think about the customer objections is what you would call

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them. But literally like what are the things that people say

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about your product?

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And this is why I'm actually a huge advocate.

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Even if you don't do it forever,

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I'm a huge advocate of doing like retail craft shows or

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in person events at least for a little bit of time

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because people will say the stupidest stuff to you,

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but in stupid stuff is like nuggets of information that you

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can use.

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So like I remember someone saying about one of my necklaces

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one time,

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well I would wear that every day if I was famous.

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I was like,

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what? That's a weird comment.

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But then I was like,

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okay, like people like the big necklace,

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but they don't really understand how that fits into their everyday

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life. So my job is to show them how this big

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statement necklace actually works in their everyday life.

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So when you start to hear those things,

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I keep a notebook with me.

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It shows and I'll write down email ideas and blog posts

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ideas based on things that people say,

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so that now you've got like,

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okay, I don't know what to send for an email.

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Oh yeah,

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this woman told me that she really likes scarves,

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but she can never figure out how to wear them.

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Okay. It's time to do an email series on actually how

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to wear these scarves.

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And so you're say that at the very least every other

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week, so people don't forget you,

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right? Yep.

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Are every single one of those emails something that's promotional In

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my business?

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It is,

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yes. So I find that literally if you are busy,

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it's really hard to sit down and write those really content

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rich emails and it's okay if the email is something like,

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you know what?

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I really love these earrings for spring.

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Here's a picture,

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here's a paragraph,

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boom, here's like the where to buy it.

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And then you send the email.

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And I actually have people tell me that they like opening

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my emails because they know they're always going to see a

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pretty picture and they're not going to have to read a

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lot. And so they know it's like a really quick thing

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and so you can develop those expectations with your customers.

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That's just,

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Hey, I want to show you something this week.

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Because if you think about it,

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if you were to walk into a store,

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a store employee isn't going to be like,

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Hey, let me tell you a million things.

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They're gonna be like,

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Oh my gosh,

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we have this thing that I think you'll really like.

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Let me show it to you.

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You had a regular walk into the store.

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You can do the same thing with your email list.

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Like what is one thing that you really want to show

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the regular customers this week?

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And that can be the whole email.

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Got it.

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That's a great explanation in terms of what your customer is

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anticipating seen from you.

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And then I'm thinking consistency then.

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Absolutely. So that they feel comfortable.

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So to revert this back then to our listeners,

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I think what you want to do is define your strategy,

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create a strategy,

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and run with it for a while and check your open

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rates, see who's actually reading and what results you're getting from

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your emails.

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And if it's not working,

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then maybe you tweak it and do something different,

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but have something consistent for a while.

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And I haven't heard many people talk about it this way,

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Megan. So I think this is a great example and something

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that a lot of us should try.

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Yeah, and I also think start with the simplest solution and

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build up.

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So don't feel like you have to start with the,

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Oh my gosh,

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every week I'm going to show you a different way to

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tie a scarf,

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because that's a lot of content that you have to produce.

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So maybe it's every week or every other week,

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you're just highlighting one really beautiful.

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Do that for a while and see what the results are.

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And if they're working,

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great, keep doing it.

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If it's not working,

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then you can say,

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okay, well maybe I need to make a content tweaker or

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ramp this up a little or give a little more useful

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information, but literally start with,

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this is an image I have.

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This is a product I want to promote.

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I'm going to send the email,

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do that for a while,

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and if it's working for you,

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then you don't have to make it any more complicated than

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that. Perfect.

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Okay. I think people have forgotten a little bit about emails

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and how valuable and how important they are and we've talked

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through the fact that social media and those platforms and followers

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that you have there could disappear if someone decides to change

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what that platform looks like.

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So it's the emails that you have on your own email

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list that are the gold for your business.

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Those are your customers that you can continue to communicate with.

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However, when we do emails,

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lots of times they don't get opened.

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They get thrown into the spam folder or the promotions folder

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in case of Gmail.

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And it's hard to know which emails actually even got a

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chance to be opened because they weren't ever seen in the

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first place.

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How do you overcome this?

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Yeah, so you know it's tricky because unfortunately like you can't

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control exactly where those emails are ending up with Gmail for

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sure. But one of the strategies that I like to use

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is that if I'm sending out a really an email that

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I really think is going to land well and I'm not

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happy with the open rates,

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especially like I use MailChimp,

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MailChimp gives you the option to actually replicate the email and

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send it to everyone who didn't open it.

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And so what I'll do is I'll replicate the email,

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but I'll change the subject line.

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So I'll be like,

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okay, maybe that subject line didn't land and I'll send it

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again to everyone who didn't open it.

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And that is a really good way to see if like

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it just needed a little bit of tweak if that kind

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of thing works.

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So that's one strategy.

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The other thing is it's also really important just to go

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through your list from time to time and remove people who

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aren't opening it because the more people who are opening your

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emails, the better chance that people are going to see it.

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So sometimes he is have to go in and get rid

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of that dead weight.

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Yeah, less cleaning.

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Yeah. So it's one of those really annoying tasks that you

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sometimes just have to suck it up and do like every

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six months.

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Make it like your spring and fall cleaning and just suck

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it up and do it.

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So have you seen that when you clean your list and

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so a higher percentage of people are opening and that's just

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a numbers play,

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right? But then you also seen other people,

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like that level is retained for awhile with even new people

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who are coming on the list.

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Yeah. It generally just tends to help kind of boost the

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overall engagement of the list for sure.

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I haven't looked at those stats in a while.

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It's actually been a little while since I've cleaned my list.

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As I'm saying this,

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I'm like,

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Oh, I have to go practice what I preach and actually

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cleaned my list.

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That's probably going to be one of those like right after

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the holiday marketing activities for sure,

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but it definitely seems to make a difference when you drop

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some of that dead weight.

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Perfect. Okay.

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Any other comments under the subject of emails?

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Just do it.

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Email your list.

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Even if there are only 10 people on it.

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One of the things that I hear people say is,

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Oh well I've been collecting emails.

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I only have 10 or 50 or 200 and so I'm

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waiting for my list to get bigger before I start emailing

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them. No,

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those 10 or 50 or 200 people are your most valuable

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people because they've put themselves on your list.

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So even if there are just 10 of them,

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talk to them and in fact,

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if there are only 10 send some individual emails.

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Ask them to reply to your email so that you can

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start a conversation.

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Get to know the people on your list.

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Just because your list is small doesn't mean it isn't valuable

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and you wanted to develop the habit early instead of waiting

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for some mythical big number in your list.

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I was just thinking of this as you were finishing that

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up. Any other creative ideas or ways to get people from

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social over to your email list?

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I think just the more you can talk about it,

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the better.

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But definitely things like having a sale that's going to happen

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in a specific time or having a launch that's going to

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happen in a specific time for sure.

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Seems to be the two best strategies for moving people over

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because it gives them a real reason to go there.

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Yeah. And they don't want to miss out.

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That whole FOMO thing.

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Exactly. The whole FOMO thing,

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I mean,

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you know there's a reason people do it.

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It works.

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There you go.

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Okay. Let's talk about your customers now.

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What do you do to have them keep coming back over

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and over again to make them loyal?

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Where almost the only jewelry they're ever wearing.

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His jewelry of yours.

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Yeah. So one of the things that I do is I

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try to give them as much love on social media as

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humanly possible because I think that we all like a little

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bit of love and attention on social media,

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whether we are promoting a business or not.

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I think it's so important.

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So when customers tag me that they're wearing things,

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like I always share them in my Instagram stories,

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I have a story highlight that's literally all the people who

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are wearing it.

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I'll comment on things.

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Yeah. And I also very much happily have conversations with my

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customers in my DMS of Instagram.

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So if they are commenting on something,

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I'm responding back really having a lot of conversations there and

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it makes them feel really,

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really special because they're like,

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Whoa, like she's taking this time to have this conversation with

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me on social media.

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That's amazing.

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And it keeps you top of mind.

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So for me it's really all about interacting with them and

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loving them as much as possible on social media because they

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feel special and when they feel special they want to buy

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more of my work.

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Right. Absolutely.

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So keeping in touch with your current customers or people who

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are on the list.

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Right. And do you have your list tagged with who are

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customers and who aren't?

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Yeah, so the beauty of MailChimp,

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so I use MailChimp and Shopify and so the beauty of

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that is at any moment I can go in and create

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a segment of my list that is just customers.

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And this is people far under utilized MailChimp,

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it's magic.

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I can go in and create a list that's just customers.

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I can create a segment that is customers who have bought

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in the last couple of months.

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I could do customers that haven't bought in a long time.

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You can create so many segments and it's beautiful because if

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you're like,

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Oh, you know what,

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I just want to reach out to the people who purchased

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this year and say thank you.

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You can totally do that without having to have pre set

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up a segment.

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You can just do it when you're building your email.

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Wonderful. And I'll tell you my experience has been that a

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lot people,

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even though you can say dear and whoever the name is

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and those autofill still,

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a lot of people don't know that you're doing this through

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kind of more of a mass procedure to a list.

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A lot of people still think it's your emailing,

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just them and that's beautiful.

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They really do.

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And the other thing that I often encourage customers to do

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is, especially like through MailChimp,

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if they reply to the email,

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the reply comes to me.

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So I'll say at the bottom of an email,

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if you have any questions,

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please reply to this email.

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Or sometimes I'll even be more specific so that if people

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reply, then again we can start the conversation because then it's

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much more likely that I'm gonna be able to help them

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out and make them something custom or just a lay their

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concerns. If they're like,

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Oh, I like this necklace but I'm not sure it's going

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to be right for me.

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I'm always trying to get them to have conversations because at

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the end of the day,

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the reason I actually just had a customer tell me this,

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like the reason that they,

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people want to buy from independent makers and artists and crafters

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is because they feel like they get this personal customer service.

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It's what customers want.

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Otherwise they're going to go buy big box and it's going

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to be cheap and whatever.

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But if you can give them that level of interaction and

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service, it just makes them feel really special.

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And that's why they buy from us.

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Absolutely. And they're willing to pay a higher price too.

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Exactly. Yeah.

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So what would you say,

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Megan, to someone who's listening to you talking today and saying,

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Oh, you know,

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I am a jewelry designer and I'm really,

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I love doing it as a hobby.

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People tell me how pretty it is.

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I'm making a number of different gifts for friends for Christmas

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this year.

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Should I think about turning this into a business?

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You know,

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so that's such a good question because I think there's so

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much pressure to do that.

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And the answer really is,

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do you want to actually work that hard and have your

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self esteem tied to your income?

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Right. I think that's one of the things that people don't

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think a lot about.

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But honestly,

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when you start selling your product and it becomes the way

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that you make your living,

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then you really have to think about,

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Oh my gosh,

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if I get negative feedback or sales are low,

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it ties into your self esteem.

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And so it actually takes a lot to overcome that.

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And so if you love what you do,

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that doesn't mean that you have to sell it.

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And I think we live in this kind of weird world

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where since at sea started,

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there's so much pressure.

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Right. I was talking about,

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my mom was a painter.

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She painted my entire life and she never sold her work.

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It was just the thing that she did and it's how

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we define her as my mom was a painter but she

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wasn't selling.

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But now I can only imagine if she was still alive.

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It would be like,

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Oh, do you sell your paintings on Etsy?

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Right. Cause that's what people ask now.

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And so just because we live in a culture where you

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can sell,

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doesn't mean that you have to sell.

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But that said,

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if you do want to sell,

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definitely go for it.

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But try to get some of your ducks in a row

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first, right?

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Get your pricing right,

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because making something for a gift and then trying to turn

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around and sell it are two very different things.

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So make sure that you've got a handle on your pricing

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and make sure that you're actually willing to give it a

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try for a little bit.

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And I would say give yourself some time to build it.

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Like people tell me,

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Oh, I was on Etsy for a month and I haven't

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sold anything yet.

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I was on Etsy for six months before I sold a

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darn thing on there.

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So just because you didn't sell something the first weekend you

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tried, doesn't mean you're never going to sell things well.

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And just because you're on Etsy doesn't mean people are seeing

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you. Exactly.

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You have to direct people to your Etsy site as well.

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So I think some people think that even Shopify,

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because it's a big platform,

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Oh, even Shopify for sure.

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People will just,

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you know,

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it's that build it and they will come.

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Yup. It does not work like that.

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We all know it doesn't work,

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but then when we do it for our own businesses,

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we think they should.

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I don't know why.

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Right, exactly.

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I was actually just having this conversation with my online group

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that I run artists and profit makers and we were talking

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about how no one talks about actually how hard it is

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to build an online business.

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It's so easy to set up a website but to actually

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get traffic there,

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build your customer base,

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make sales.

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That's actually really hard and I think it's important that we

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acknowledge that because you can't just slap up a website and

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hope that sales will come.

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You have to work.

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You have to figure out what your traffic strategy is,

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whether it's social media or Pinterest or SEO or press or

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whatever it is.

Speaker:

You have to have some kind of strategy and you have

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to give that strategy time to develop.

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If you put up a Shopify store and you post twice

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on Facebook and then you're like,

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this didn't work well of course it didn't work.

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And so I think that's the other thing.

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If you are thinking about turning your hobby into a business,

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know that it's going to take some work.

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No, that you probably have to be the person who either

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a loves taking their product to shows every weekend or loves

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talking to wholesale buyers or loves spending their nights on the

Speaker:

computer, editing photos and blogging and posting to social media or

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has a lot of money to hire people to do all

Speaker:

of those things or is interested in seeing if they like

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it. Maybe they just don't know.

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Exactly. And if you don't know,

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try it all.

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Like I really thought when I started my business that I

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was going to be that person who did craft shows forever.

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That's where I saw all like my peers and my heroes

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doing. And I was like,

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Oh, I'm totally gonna do that.

Speaker:

And a couple of months.

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And I was like,

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Nope. Not for me.

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But I would have never known that had I not given

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it a try.

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Wonderful answer.

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I love that direction.

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Let's talk a little bit about artists and profit makers.

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What's that all about?

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Yeah, so this is an online community that I started.

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It's a community,

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but it's also more of like a mentorship program where I

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work very closely with the people in the group and I

Speaker:

started it because what I was seeing over and over and

Speaker:

over again was that artists and makers were getting really bad

Speaker:

marketing advice because it was aimed at infopreneurs and service providers

Speaker:

and so they were being told to do all these things

Speaker:

like you need to create PDF things for your email,

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or you need to write these epically long blog posts or

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you need to start a podcast or whatever.

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All of that advice was,

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or even just things like that,

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your emails need to be full of text when in reality,

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one great image and a little bit of text is going

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to sell your product so much better.

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And so I was so tired of seeing artists and makers

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get discouraged because they were following this bad online marketing device.

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And it's not bad.

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It just works for different kind of business.

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I know I have that other kind of business and it

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works beautifully if you're selling information,

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it does not work if you're selling product.

Speaker:

And so I just wanted to create a space where I

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could really answer those questions that are very specific to artists

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make our product businesses,

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especially ones who are selling higher end products.

Speaker:

Because the other thing is the things that work to get

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someone to buy a 10 15 $20 product online don't translate

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when you're trying to sell a 200 or 300 or 400

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or a $2,000

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product, right?

Speaker:

There's a nurturing of the client relationship that has to happen

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when you don't have an impulse buy product.

Speaker:

And so that's also a lot of who I work with

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in that community is people who need to really kind of

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plant the seed and build the relationship because their price points

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are higher.

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Makes a lot of sense.

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And where would we find that community if someone is listening

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and interested?

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Yeah, so you can go to,

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it's just artists and profit makers.com

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and there's lots of information there and you can also always

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just follow me on Instagram.

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I'm at Megan almond and if you have questions about the

Speaker:

community, just DME,

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I answer every DM in my Instagram.

Speaker:

I love having conversations there again that love,

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hate, love,

Speaker:

but Instagram Morning or night though,

Speaker:

I'll catch back up if I don't get you within like

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the first batch,

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I'll catch you up the rest of the day,

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but I'm happy to answer questions about it because it's a

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really great community of women and one man right now who

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are really passionate about growing their businesses and are interested in

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looking at and learning these marketing strategies for higher price point

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products and really passionate about just making their art and figuring

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out ways to sell it.

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Perfect. And give biz listeners,

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you know,

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there'll be a show notes page connected with this episode,

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so any links that you need,

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any additional information,

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we'll all reside there and is accessible for you anytime.

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Okay. As we're winding down,

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Megan, I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.

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It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.

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So it's tactical.

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I'm thinking about the candle and the quote.

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You might explode this box.

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I'm not sure what you're going to do with it,

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but this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable

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Heights that you would wish to obtain.

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So please accept this gift and open it in our presence.

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What is inside your box?

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Yeah, so this one,

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like my brain went in two different directions,

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so I'm just going to share them both because like you

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said, I'm going to explode the box.

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So the first one is that,

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you know,

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for me on a personal level,

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I was talking about that my studio is in a house

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that I grew up with and so I have this dream

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of someday turning that space.

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It's out in the countryside in Pennsylvania.

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I have this dream of creating this space where artists and

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makers can come and take workshops and have retreat and really

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just be this gathering place in the country for people to

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learn about their business or learn new skills or learn things.

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And so eventually,

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hopefully someday that really becomes true.

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But that actually feeds into the bigger goal of what I

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actually see coming out of the box,

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which is that I want to live in a world where

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artists and makers see and understand their value in the world.

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I think it's so easy to think that what we do

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is frivolous or pointless or you should give it up.

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And I completely disagree.

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No, I like to call myself an unapologetic art lover and

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I have that broad definition of art.

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I think beauty and creativity and sensory experience,

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I think all of those things are so important and so

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valuable in the world.

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And so I just want to live in a world where

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artists and makers understand their value and can communicate it to

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people who will support them and see that value as well.

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And so that's really what's going to pop out of the

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box for me because I want to live in this world

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where we value art,

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where we love art and craft and creativity.

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The way that as a culture we value things like sports,

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right? There's no reason that we can't value art the same

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way and that's the magical world that I want to live

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in and it's the world that hopefully I'm helping to build.

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Well, I believe in that tube and I've been thinking about

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this a lot lately because I think that a lot of

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people are now looking at more of the small business boutiques,

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the local artists,

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not just for carbon footprints,

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but people are done with the big box stores,

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but now you can buy everything on Amazon.

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But I think people are really looking at who can they

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support, who they really love,

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who they're able to get to know.

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As an artist,

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which we've talked about a little bit through here before and

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I'm really feeling like the value of handmade,

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whether it's candles or high end jewelry such as yours and

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designing is making its way back to the forefront.

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So I have a lot of faith in what your gift

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would be.

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Thanks. So true.

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And I think it's so important to remember that it starts

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with us as artists and makers too,

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that we can be not just the ones communicating our value,

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but we can be our biggest advocates and really enjoy using

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things to,

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you know,

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when you're talking about people wanting to have candles and things

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like I'm thinking about at a crash,

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I went to a craft show just to shop it.

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I couldn't work it,

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but I was like,

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I'm going to go shop this craft show for my birthday

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and I have this ceramic artist that I love Elizabeth Menotti.

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And she had candles that she had partnered with a candle

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maker and so I bought one of her candles and every

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morning I come to my studio and I light that candle

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and it's like just this beautiful experience.

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And so I think it's so important that we as artists

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and makers and crafters,

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we're not just the makers and the marketers.

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We're also the consumers of this too because then it helps

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us to be able to spread the wealth and talk about

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this value.

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I just want everyone to see how valuable and how enriching

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handmade can be in their lives.

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That is so powerful.

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I'm not even going anywhere else with that.

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This has been perfect.

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Thank you so much for all of your information,

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your perspective.

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It's right on.

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It's given us a few new things to think about,

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which is fabulous and I just really appreciate your being on

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the show today,

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Megan. Thank you.

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Well, thank you so much for having me.

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So I'm usually pretty good at keeping secrets,

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but I'm spilling the beans.

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I can't help it.

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I'm so excited.

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I just want to tell you guys what I've been working

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on over the last few months.

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It's been a little bit of a secret project because I

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wasn't sure exactly what the timing was going to look like

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on it,

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but I can't wait.

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I have to share with you my secret.

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Many of you have been following me for a while.

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Know that I wrote a book that came out last may.

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It's called maker to master,

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but that's not what this is about.

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Although it spins off a similar concept.

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When I was getting serious about writing that book,

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there were actually two books that I had in my mind.

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One was maker to master and that truth be told was

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the harder one to do,

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but I also was really interested in writing a book that

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was an inspirational book kind of inspiration a day.

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I know you've seen those out there where it's 365 inspiring

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thoughts for your year or something like that.

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I think very often we get defeated by our own self-talk

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and we also sway away from core solid business growth values

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because there's a new social media site that's available or other

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things come up that take our mind off of the really

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important things that we need to grow our business.

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As things happen,

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my idea continued to evolve and I came up with the

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idea of instead of doing a 365 inspiring tips type book,

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it would be way more helpful for you if it was

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included in some type of a planner so that every day

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when you're planning out your day,

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you'd also then see a tip.

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If I look at how I work with things,

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I don't know if I would have a book on the

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side of my desk and every day look at one day's

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inspiration and then another day's inspiration.

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Way better to have everything in one place.

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Consequently, I have created a planner.

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It's called inspired a daily planner specifically for you,

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our wonderful community of gifters,

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bakers, crafters and makers.

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I'll be sharing more in the upcoming days,

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but let me give you a few highlights here.

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One of the cool things about this planner is you can

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start any month of the year.

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Have you ever been like me where all of a sudden

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in may you decide I want to start doing things different.

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I want to get myself really organized,

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but then you go to find a planner and they either

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start in September going into the next year or you have

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to buy a year and all the prior months of the

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year are useless for you because you're already in may with

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this planner.

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You can start any time.

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If you're listening to this announcement in January,

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you can start it right away.

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If you're hearing this in may,

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you can use this planner starting in may.

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It has monthly and daily layout,

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so you'll be able to keep yourself really organized and special

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life enhancing sections.

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More on that later.

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It also includes what I've been talking about earlier and the

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reason I changed this from a book to a planner and

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that is daily inspiration.

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Things that you need to be telling yourself,

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affirmations to get in the right mindset as the owner of

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your business.

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Also, business tips and ideas.

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Some of them you're going to read and you're like,

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yep, got it's covered,

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And then others might give you some pause ideas of things

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you might want to implement into your business to further either

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solidified or grow what you all have going.

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That's all I'm going to share with you right now,

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but I will tell you that we are just two weeks

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away from getting this out to you.

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I'm going to do a limited first run and if you

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want to be one of the first ones to know when

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it's available,

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jump over to gift biz,

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unwrapped.com forward slash add me and you'll get an email when

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the planner is ready.

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That link again is gift biz unwrapped.com

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forward slash add me.

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There is no time like the present to take the next

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step on solidifying the dream you have for your business.

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The new inspired planner could be just the ticket to making

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sure that that actually happens for you this year.

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With that,

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I'm calling it a wrap and I'll catch you next week

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