206 – [On Air Coaching] How to Take Your Business to the Next Level with Samatha Spencer of Bird Box Gifts

This is gift biz unwrapped episode 206 if you take your

family to Walt Disney world,

you're not going to remember standing in line for two hours.

You're going to remember the look on their face as they

come off the ride and they're like,

mom, that was the best thing ever.

At gifters,

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

Whether you have an established business or looking to start one

now you are in the right place.

This is gift to biz unwrapped,

helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,

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

Here is your host gift biz gal,

Sue moon Heights.

Hi there,

it's Sue Ann.

So glad you're joining me today because guess what?

We're doing another on air coaching call and I've gotten so

much great feedback from the first one that we did just

a few weeks back and honestly,

I'm really enjoying these calls as well,

so expect more to come in the future.

You're going to get to know our guest Samath in a

minute, but let me tell you a little bit about what

we uncovered in this call.

We identified a way for her to uniquely position her business

so that it attracts attention and then we went on to

talk about what everybody is always concerned about and that is

how do you find more customers.

We talk about a number of ways specifically with her in

her unique situation because let's face it,

we all have unique circumstances to find more business and not

just that.

Then once you've identified avenues where you can look for new

business, how do you do it in a way that feels

comfortable and not salesy?

Speaking of not salesy,

I do want to direct you back to an episode that

we did just recently with Brit colo who talks about how

do identify for your own unique personality,

the best approach to making sales.

That was episode 202 and I highly suggest you listen to

that one if you haven't already,

but back to Sam mutha,

we talk about what approach will work for her and I

was thrilled to hear that she was really feeling excited and

comfortable about the ideas.

We also got into one overall topic that I don't think

is discussed enough and that is how much product does Sam

mutha really need to sell to reach her goals and is

that doable?

When we broke it all down,

it really wasn't that much for her to be able to

return targets and I think that's really important for us to

remember. Attracting sales can seem like this almost unachievable task,

but when you break it down,

maybe you only need four large corporate accounts or X number

of products sold a month to actually achieve your goals.

And that's the point.

Now, if you want more gift biz motivation,

I'd like to invite you to join our private Facebook group

called gift biz breeze.

Pursuing your dream should be fun,

exciting and rewarding,

not stressful and scary when you joined the breeze.

It's like sitting in the park with friends who bring you

all the support and the answers that you need.

You'll have access to a group of amazing creators along with

tools and resources that can catapult your business growth.

To join the group,

just go over to gift biz breeze.com

I look forward to seeing you over there,

but for now,

let's get onto the show Today.

I am so excited to introduce you to Samath Spencer of

bird box gifts.

Sangeetha welcome to the show.

Hi. Thanks for having me.

I am so excited to dive in.

I've taken a look at your website and your product is

beautiful, so I can't wait to talk more about it,

but before we do,

it's tradition here on the show to have you describe yourself

by way of a motivational candle.

So if you were to choose a color and then a

quote or a motto or a saying that really resonates with

you, what would your motivational candle look like?

Well, my candle would be white and just to clear glass

with a white wax,

something very clean and sophisticated that could go pretty much with

any decor.

The sense would be something clean and fresh,

like a linen or a soft P and scent,

and the phrase would be the tide lifts all boats because

I kind of get into that mindset of,

Oh well this other person succeeding,

so therefore there's no space for me and I've really worked

hard in my life to see know that we all can

exceed, this is not a zero sum game.

We can all benefit and just because someone else's succeeding that's

not taking away from you.

That's encouraging.

You. Agreed.

It's kind of a hard concept to wrap your mind around

really. Yeah,

Because you feel like,

well, if someone is buying from somebody else or giving someone

else attention,

then there's less there for you and it's really not true.

Especially, I think as you talk about,

you know,

if you look at trade shows or craft shows or brick

and mortar shops on main street for that matter,

the more interesting shops there are,

the more it attracts a crowd,

which then ultimately brings more visibility.

Yes. So I love it.

The tide lifts all boats.

There we go.

So to ground all of our listeners here as well,

because you and I have had a little bit of a

conversation before this already,

but let's talk about bird box gifts and how that came

about. My husband and I recently had purchased a embroidery shop

and wanted to start incorporating gifts and one of the things

that I would do is go in and help people who

seem very unsure about what gifts to present.

And I would go through,

especially on mother's day or Valentine's or things like that,

I would put together a little collection so people could very

easily see,

you don't have to buy,

just say candle,

you can buy the candle and then you can buy your

matches to go with the candle and then maybe gift Bama.

So you're giving an experience and if someone you love is

a journalist or something like that,

who wants to write and things,

how can we put gifts together?

And it grew from there to where I just started putting

them online and offering them to more and more people as

I was being encouraged to do it.

And this is unique unto itself because your ability to merge

different products together actually creates a new product that's unique then

to you for bird box gifts.

Yeah. So it initially came about by being in the shop

with your husband and then putting everything together.

Now how are you selling your collaboration of gifts?

I don't know how to say it,

but what you've merged into now,

these beautiful boxes.

So now I'm still working my day job,

my desk job downtown.

And so I will come into the shop and I will

still put together collections for him.

And then I also will list them online.

And so if you have a one off occasion of a

birthday or anniversary and you can send something like that.

And I'm starting to try to work with local business owners

who are other small business women entrepreneurs who are maybe like

a one or two person shop.

So that way we can start working on them giving a

gift funnel to their clients.

So if a photographer comes to me and wants to do

a gift funnel for a client,

then when someone signs on to hire her for their wedding,

she can send out a small gift and say,

I'm so excited to work for you.

This is going to be wonderful.

And then a week or two before the wedding,

we can send another gift and say,

here's kind of the larger gift and we're going to meet

up in a week.

I'm so excited to work with you,

you and your husband to be,

you're so adorable.

Here's, you know,

a champagne flute or a pinch provisions or a candle or

some chocolates or something that she has said she likes.

Got it.

Okay. Yeah.

And then after the event,

then a week or two after we could say your prints

Prince already.

I know.

So happy to work with you.

Please let me know if you have any other life occasions.

Your wedding was gorgeous and here's a little thank you.

It was so fun and I'm so proud I got to

be part of your special day.

And so that way we hit those three highlight points because

if you take your family to Walt Disney world,

you're not going to remember standing in line for two hours.

You're going to remember the look on their face as they

come off the ride and they're like,

mom, that was the best thing ever.

Those are the little highlight moments that are really gonna stand

out. And so as a business owner,

when you start doing these little gift funnels,

it helps your customers.

Oh well yeah,

we went for months and months without talking during the wedding

planning part,

but she sent me the most adorable little picture frame for

my wedding photos or a special little trinket type of thing.

And so it kind of just helps you stand out those

little high points in life to say,

Oh, I highly recommend her because I felt so connected and

personal to her.

I think this is brilliant.

In terms of the term gift funnels.

I've not heard it before and I actually circled it on

the paperwork,

the questions I had before we were going to get on

and talk today.

I liken it to email.

We talk about that a lot,

like when you're onboarding a new client or you're staying in

touch or nurturing people who have already used your product before,

but this idea of gift funnels that you just described where

you then have your client coming back to you for a

gift as you just showed a three-time purchase.

But these gift funnels is brilliant.

Do you know of anybody else doing this?

I've heard of some people doing it before.

I am not the one who kind of created the gift

funnel, but it's not as popular as curated gift boxes that

I've seen Because that's usually a one off type thing.

Yes, and I know that there are a couple of companies

out there also that are,

they do big huge,

like the Cubs or Pepsi or something.

They will do like client gifts in order to get and

maintain and attract clients and things like that.

So I have heard of them but I haven't heard of

too many around here doing just the small,

like you're a one person business and your business is very

personal to you because it's just you and a camera or

you and whatever you're doing,

you and your copyright or whatever and doing it more specialized

to local small business people.

Right. Oh I think that's brilliant.

And do you have certain people already who are using you

in this manner for the gift funnels?

Not quite yet.

So I've spoken to a couple people and some seemed really

interested and I haven't.

Part of my problem and part of my issue is that

it's difficult for me to go back to them and say,

Hey, I really think this could help your business.

I feel really pushy and salesy doing it.

And we've done some one offs.

I've done some corporate gift,

like I need like a Christmas gift for my 40 employees.

I've done things like that,

or I have a girls group or I need graduation gifts,

but I haven't quite broken into the,

let's set up a evergreen funnel for business,

but we have it in the works.

It's just hasn't happened quite yet.

Okay. And you're hesitating also because of the way you would

be presenting it to them?

Yeah. It's just not aligning or feeling comfortable to you yet.

Yes, because it is,

yeah, the website's kind of easy to put up there and

it's just a name that orders and that's wonderful and great,

but when it's a person that I know or that lives

in town with you that you see off and on,

I have a hard time saying,

Hey, don't forget because I don't want to seem pushy or

salesy or anything like that.

And so I just kind of choke up and get shy

about it and don't share.

Alright. I have some ideas for you already there,

but before we go with that,

would you share with us what else do you do?

What's your day job?

How does this fit into your whole life?

So I still worked downtown.

At a desk.

I worked in land and I help make agreements and documents

and correspondence and send that out and it's just the 40

hours a week.

We do kind of a compressed schedule.

So on Monday through Thursday I'm working nine hours a day

and then Friday I get a half day.

On my half day I go to my husband's shop or

he does embroidery and we've built up the gift shop around

that and I help him,

I do his displays,

I talk about new product,

what's coming in,

make sure that our vendors are getting everything to us timely

and that nothing's broken and make sure the shop looks nice.

In general.

I have two little boys that are three and six.

I do all of their stuff and take care of them.

And then my husband and I also volunteer a lot at

our local community theater.

And so I sit on a production board for that.

And every time we open a show,

which we do probably six or seven a year,

then I'll spend time making sure that they have enough people

to help in the dressers area.

And then I also sometimes hop on stage.

And so right now I'm doing that where we're going to

play competition for the national act best.

The thing that I like about what you just talked about,

there are a lot of touch points in what you normally

do throughout your whole day already where you could have access

to people who could use your services.

Yes. Okay.

Yes. You say hesitantly.

Yes. Well,

so some of the people that I've come,

like some of the ladies that have asked for a graduation

gift where they can bring in a graduation announcement.

I've gotten through my husband's shop,

they'll come and talk to him and say,

I don't know what to do.

I need help.

And he'll say,

well, my wife has this business that she's also doing.

That's our sister company is what we call it.

And um,

she'll be happy to help you out with that.

And so then I can reach out to them.

So I do have access to people through that and him

encouraging and talking about it.

Okay. In your husband's shop,

is there a section that has some of your boxed items,

the whole display of what they look like?

Is there a presence there?

There is a small presence there.

We have a boy bookshelf that we put them on and

displayed and people ask about it.

I don't have very good signage up yet.

I need to get it out there,

but he talks about it.

Okay. They could have a better presence,

but it's there.

He put my logo up on the top of it and

everything. Okay,

and so if you were to think at the point where

bird box gifts is where you envision it to be,

so your destination,

and I'm going to start with saying we're never at our

destination once we get there,

we always keep going forward,

but what are you envisioning this would look like if it

was the best vision that you had possible?

Right now I would like it to have a very strong

presence on that shop.

A display with the cards.

I would like to have,

I'd say a handful,

maybe 15 relationships of ongoing gifting either with some of the

ladies in town who just gift throughout the year of graduation

and things like that.

That's just in their nature to give a lot.

And also the smaller companies are solopreneurs who are doing their

gift funnels and helping them where it's very personalized.

It's very specific to them,

but plenty I guess for me to do.

Okay. Do you have a feel for how many boxes you

would need to be selling to get to whatever your financial

goal would be?

I'm not asking you to share here necessarily,

but have you thought like in your mind's eye,

okay, the average box sale equals this for me in either

overall revenue and also you'd want to get to margin at

some point.

So I need to sell to reach my goal at least

30 boxes a month I have,

I've kind of mapped it out and if I were to

hit my good,

better, best goal,

my best skull would be about 10 to 15 boxes a

week. Okay.

So 10 to 15 a week,

let's call it.

I don't know.

50 a month maybe.

Something like that.

Yeah, so that's good that you've thought that through.

And how are you doing right now towards that based on

what you've already got going?

Very little because I have hit some people it's kind of

feast or famine.

One month it's like Oh this is really good and this

could work and then I'll go a month of not really

having anything happening.

Which is all the more reason to start looking at like

you were just saying corporate accounts or people who would purchase

on a more regular basis because it's part of their plan,

whatever the plan is.

Yes. And I'm asking you all these questions first cause I

have a number of ideas but I just want to get

everything out on the table here.

You talk about networking and one of the things that you

wanted to chat about was focusing on how to network.

Have you done any networking yet?

I have made plans,

so there is a brand new networking,

my coffee connection in town that I have made arrangements to

go to and they do it once a month and last

month when I had said,

this is where I'm going and this is what I'm going

to do and I really want to start making these connections,

a family issue come up and it just was better that

I not go.

And so I have reached out to them.

I've talked to some people,

I've said,

Hey, I'm so excited to join you guys.

I'm sorry I missed you.

I'm planning on coming and I've started to work my way

into getting familiar with them so that when I am able

to show up this February,

it's at the end of the month,

then I can go in already knowing a couple people and

I've started to talk to,

there's a few people I know that come into my husband's

shop that work with him because he does the promotional items

that I've started to mention to them and a lot of

them said,

well let's get into the new year,

let things settle down from holiday and all that,

and then we'll start working things out.

And so a lot of them are on the back burner,

so I'm doing it through the shop and through a local

connection group and I really,

with theater,

they're pretty prominent in town.

I kind of want to start maybe talking to them also.

Yes, absolutely.

Let's get back to networking in a second.

I think that in answer to the question about visibility and

just increasing,

so you're getting the sales coming in,

you're looking at two different things.

One is you're looking at just a direct to consumer buy

and those are the people who would go into your husband's

shop and see the shelf and see what's available.

And are they,

they're just taking what's on the shelf and then getting checked

out with it,

et cetera.

Yes, we've had will they'll just pick up the box and

just take it to the counter and say they want that.

Right, because it's already a gift shop.

So they're coming in with the frame of mind already that

they need a gift.

So that works out perfectly.

And then we don't have to spend a lot of time

on this because you're experienced at the retail level.

So on that bookshelf you're putting signage or giving ideas of

how these gifts can be used.

Hostess gifts like teacher thank you's,

graduation, like depending on the time of the year,

what people could use them for.

Yes. This signage is so lacking because that's something that I've,

well it gets put on my plate to do the sign

and since I'm there very few hours in the week actually

in the shop,

my haven't got a good sign but I communicate he has

two people that work different counters to help them out and

so I communicate regularly with them of what it is or

what we can talk about or how to promote it and

so there is a lot of talking but the signs still

need to be,

they could be better.

That's something that you could figure out once and then have

them do for you there if you took a whole calendar

and not just the obvious things like we're talking right now

on Valentine's day when people are listening to this,

it won't be Valentine's day,

but some of those are like more obvious gifting times.

But you might also think of some of the creative times

that aren't so obvious like October,

which is a month after kids have gone away to college

and they might be feeling a little lonely like a pick

me up gift there or may is typically wedding month.

How about the mothers of the bride and groom and giving

a gift like events and holidays but not for the obvious

person. You know what I mean?

Yes. Because that might spark some different ideas for people.

And if you made a whole list,

even two of them for a month or one of them

for a month,

whatever, and then gave that list to the people who are

in the shop who you've already given the information and the

ideas to and then have them responsible for the signing.

Cause you're not there all the time and you have a

full time job,

right? Yes.

But you do want it to be represented as you would

wish it to be.

So if you did that just one time and were able

to hand it over to them to just take care of,

then that could change every single month.

You just have to have then the boxes they're created and

put on the shelves.

Okay. So that's just one idea.

So we're still talking over on the consumer end.

The other thing that I think you can start doing right

away is,

you know how you were just saying,

well with theater and production and all of that,

I should start talking to them.

Talk to them now.

Okay. Just make sure everybody knows what you're doing.

And you're so lucky to have school age children,

three and six.

My gosh,

you've got a lot of years where you can play with

that. Right.

Our tendency often is not to let people know what we

do and then it's a whole group of people who have

no clue who could be buying from you.

Yeah. It's not like you're going to go in on the

sidelines of a soccer game and be saying,

here, come to the gift shop,

but let's say when the end of the year,

thank you to the coach.

Do you guys want to go in on a thank you

gift as a group?

We have a gift shop.

I could do a really nice box,

you know,

like whatever it is or that kind of a thing.

So you can weave it into the conversation just so people

know what you do.

You might already be doing a lot of that,

but I think just getting the word out when it comes

up in subtle conversation,

just don't shy away from it.

Cause most of us do Do shy away from a lot,

which it's easy for me to say,

Oh Ben has that in the gift shop.

Or Ben can do that in talk about him and his

business and things like that.

But it is much harder for me to say,

but I can do it where if your mom lives out

of town I can send her a gift.

I just say,

Oh well Ben has cute stuff for your mom and I

haven't figured out quite well why I do that Because we

all do because it's just what we do.

Well, I'm glad to know I'm not alone.

Yeah, but,

and the way you need to think about it is do

you, have you ever been in a situation where you need

a gift and you of course would go to the shop

that you own,

but let's say none of that was really appropriate for what

you needed for the certain time.

And then you have to search and figure out how to

do it,

and then you've got to go buy it and then you've

got to wrap it and then you've got to send it,

right? Yeah.

You have the ability to help someone with that problem because

you have great product,

it looks beautiful,

and you can take care of the whole thing for them.

So instead of thinking that you're selling,

think about you in that situation and that you can provide

them and help them out.

Because if they could say to you,

let's just stick on the sidelines of soccer.

Oh my gosh,

my mother's birthday is next week.

Do you have something?

And you can say,

Oh, well we got this that has a candle and blah,

blah, let's do it.

And all of a sudden they're walking away being like,

Oh my gosh,

I'm so lucky now I'm all done with that present.

Right? So do you think of it that way,

the advantage to that person versus you selling?

I think that would help you out in your communicating.

Okay. Okay.

And of your gifts,

I mean tons of things that you could be doing.

So just get the word out.

That's all more on the consumer basis.

Okay. Okay.

So now let's move over to what is bigger potential and

more probable to get you to that 50 Mark you want

every month.

And that is your gift funnels.

And I think this is a spectacular idea,

especially the way you described it,

because it's walking your customer's client through an experience,

through a journey that continues to build upon itself and get

better. I would like you to entertain the idea of using

that as part of how you talk about your business.

I'm the owner of bird box gifts and I specialize in

gifting funnels for your clients.

Okay. And people are going to be like,

what does that mean?

And then you get to have the conversation and my thinking

with that you've talked about and you're on the production board

of the theater.

Yes. And then when you start networking,

you're going to be able to start interacting with lots of

people who have lots of different types of businesses.

And I think the way to approach this,

well, let me start with where would be your hesitancy.

Let's use your prior example about a photographer.

How do you feel about going in and having a conversation

about gift funnels with them?

I would feel nervous since I don't have many under my

belt. I mean I don't have any actual funnel funnels set

up yet under my belt.

For one,

I'm kind of nervous that I am not going to have

all the answers.

They're going to want something that's going to,

you know,

I'm going to say,

Oh, I hadn't thought it out.

I don't know is one thing because I can't say,

Oh, I've been doing this for years.

It's not a problem.

We have everything figured out and I'm still working up the

courage, I guess I could say to actually reach back out

to them and say,

I know that we talked about this.

Can we set up a meeting?

Can I come by your office?

Or can we go have coffee and chat about this to

see if I can help you?

Or anything like that.

Like I still feel like it's kind of a weird thing

for me to,

I'm just an awkward person.

You know what?

Honestly, Sam of the,

everything you're saying is what other people also feel.

So donut all being people feel like doing that is like

sleazy and asking for business is like yucky and you know

all of that.

But if you really believe in your product and what your

product can provide for somebody else and you flip your mindset

in that way,

it becomes a whole different thing.

You're more consulting and talking and helping people who may or

may not need or want what you're giving,

but you're providing an opportunity for them.

You're not selling to them anymore.

Okay. I think what I'm going to say next is going

to really make you feel good,

okay? You should not ever have all the answers ever.

And I'll tell you why.

If someone were to come in to you with your business

and tell you that they know all about what you do

and your business and start telling you what you should do,

how would you respond?

I would very actively control my face.

I love that.

That's good.

That's good.

Like how dare someone be so presumptuous to think after you

have put your heart and sweat and tears into developing something

that someone comes in and tells you how to handle your

business. Like that's an almost insulting,

right? Yeah.

So that would never be the approach you would want to

take. If you like this idea of gift funnels.

You're the professional with gift funnels,

but they're all based on what your client needs.

It's an overlay on top of a photographer.

Let's stick with this and use this example of the whole

time because it's a great way to layer it on.

So every photographer even is different.

Some photographers in headshot and school class photos,

some specialize in weddings,

like all different types of,

some are product photographers,

right? So even in photography,

people have a specialty.

So one way that you can approach this that I think

would be much more comfortable,

we're going to talk about how you could approach it once

you're established and go on and then we'll talk about how

to start.

Okay. Okay.

But once you're established,

what I would envision you doing is talking to a photographer

and saying,

could we set up a time?

I'd love to come in and just share with you what

I do with gift funnels.

Tell you about them a little bit and then hear more

about your company and see if any of this makes sense

to you.

Okay, so that's he's that you're sharing with them and then

they're sharing with you and what they're sharing with you.

You'd come in and you ask questions about their business,

what type of a photographer are you?

Are you looking to get business in different areas?

How are you looking at growing?

Now, none of that has to do with what you're putting

in the boxes and the product of your boxes,

but it has to do with their goals to advance their

business. And if they can start seeing that you're more like

a marketing partner with them,

not just providing gifts.

The price of the gifts also takes on a different reasoning.

It's not,

Oh, I'm going to have to spend $50 a shot and

I'm giving a gift,

but I already have them as a customer.

It's, I've been really trying to get the baby pictures after

somebody has a wedding or like the extension so that they

get repetitive business from existing customers.

So that's then the reason that they're implementing a gift funnels

program. I love what you said about being the marketing,

thinking of it as a marketing partner because yeah,

that's exactly what it is.

It's exactly what it is and you don't know what they

need until you actually go in and talk with them.

Okay. And you don't even know if they get the concept.

Yeah, because if they don't get the concept,

then maybe that's not someone certainly not as easy to have

to start working with,

but it might be you want to go on to somebody

else, but so then what you would do is build whatever

that gifting funnel is based on what they're trying to accomplish

with their business,

how they already work.

You might even be able to start suggesting other events that

they could use along the way,

if you will.

Okay. Yeah,

And then you develop,

when you're doing the gifting funnels,

and I know you say you haven't really started it,

but in your thinking are you thinking you'd sell them as

bundles? So my thought when I was thinking of it was

either it would be if it was a small quantity,

it would be just kind of a case by case and

here's your invoice or your payment options for this week or

this month,

something like that where it would be small.

But if it is by a,

if they say,

yes, I want to do this and we're going,

I plan on sending out even 10 a month where I

can say,

well this is a bundle,

I'm going to make sure Always have this in stock and

be able to do something pretty custom for them to have

the quantity always ready for them.

Okay. Yeah,

I think you could probably do it both ways.

The reason I'm liking the idea of bundles is then you

get them to agree to at once and then it just

automatically happens.

Okay. And bundle like the first,

second and third gifts.

Say here's a package.

I'll help address it at the same like even if,

let's go with this concept.

I know I'm getting off of photography for a second,

but I have to based on the example,

let's say you were working with a realtor and they close

on a house and so they send a thank you.

Thank you for having me as your realtor or you know,

like whatever it is.

That's one.

The second could be a smaller thing a month later that

is now that you're settled into your house,

hope you're enjoying it.

Just wanted you to know how much I appreciated your business

and how fun it was to work together.

And then maybe even at a year anniversary of,

it's been one year in your house,

hope you're loving it,

et cetera,

et cetera.

And the reason that would be valuable for a realtor is

Realty is all referrals.

And so if all of a sudden that realtor has done

those three touchpoints,

but it all gets set up,

when they place their first order,

you then take care of all the rest.

So they don't even have to think about it again.

Yes, you have it in your system.

Okay. Yes,

I see what you're saying with bundles now.

Absolutely. Yeah.

So that then makes you,

first of all the professional specializing in gift funnels.

Right. And that doesn't mean that what you sell for that

realtor is the same gift packages as another realtor who might

come to you.

Right. They could still be unique in that way.

And now I'll stick with Realty for a second.

But if you have bundles like that,

then as you sell more,

you're still getting in sales from the prior orders.

Yeah. Cause that year will come up and then you're building

upon your sales.

Okay. So something to think about for that.

Yeah. And maybe the way to do this is to select

two or three industries at first.

Okay. And it might be based on who you have linkage

with, what their businesses already are.

So maybe you start to learn about photographers,

you start to learn about realtors.

If that's one,

I'm not sure who another one would be,

but I don't know who else.

Trying to think of who else might might be like a

chiropractor or somebody chiropractor.

It'd be good if someone whose health services of some sort,

I don't know what they would be,

but I think if you honed yourself down just to three

industries to start,

you'll start to understand those industries more and more when you

have conversations with them and you'll become even more valuable because

you're understanding what types of obstacles they're facing in their businesses.

Okay. Not that you would share confidential information from one meeting

to somebody else,

but you're learning.

Right. But yeah,

I kind of know what to ask and what to suggest.

Okay. So how has all this feeling to you?

Good. Yeah,

I really like it reframing.

And so I really like the reframing it that instead of

me saying,

I'm going to try to go sell to someone to say

I want to be a marketing partner and really change the

focus on the end to say I'm going to fit this

into your business and this is just going to be a

plugin that I do for you so your business can thrive

and turn that focus away from,

well, let me tell you what I do too.

Tell me about you and see if I can help you

build your stuff.

I really liked that And what you said there is perfect

if I can.

So it's really,

you know,

it's not in your face.

I already know I have your solution.

It's let's talk about this and see if what I'm offering

and what I do with these funnels could help and compliment

what your goals are and help get you to the goals

that you have for your business.

And they may never have even thought that way before because

a lot of the people that you're talking to are small

business owners also.

Yeah. The thing of saying I want to do something personal,

but since it's just me,

I'm busy,

I don't have time to really follow through with that like

I intend to.

And that's one of your advantages is I'll take it over

for you.

Once we've got this system in place,

I've got it covered for you.

In fact,

let's go back to your photographer.

I don't know how many weddings a photographer does in a

month. Let's pretend during heavy season,

it's every weekend,

but you have those bundles put together.

All they'll have to do then is tell you who it

is and say,

let's do the bundle package with them and then you're done.

And you know that,

okay, right after the wedding,

this goes out.

Then whatever your system is,

it's done.

So all he has to do is communicate the first time

and you can assure him that the whole program will go.

He doesn't have to touch it again.

So time,

big, big thing for everybody is time.

So when you get to the point of talking about it,

make sure to put that in as one of the benefits.

Okay. And the whole thinking behind all of this is you're

not just selling them gorgeous gift boxes that have fabulous product.

You're doing it for a business purpose that comes back to

them to help their business grow.

Yeah. Okay.

Okay. So that's,

so how do you get started with all this,

right? How does this happen?

One of the first things I would do is,

I'm sure you have in your mind maybe two or three

people who you could approach because their friends,

you know them,

something like that.

What I do,

since you've never really done this concept yet before,

is do it with one or two people who agree upfront

that they'll give you testimonials after they see what happens.

You know,

they're willing to do that for you and discount the program

for them.

Okay. Not under cost.

You know,

it'd be nice to make something right.

But give them some type of a cut because they're helping

you out as well.

Okay. And maybe they'll be willing to tell whatever their story

is. This is why we ended up doing it.

And then there's a testimonial at the end.

This is so great to be working with Samath about with

this because now I don't have to think about it.

It's in play already.

I know my clients are being taken care of and I'm

wowing them because they're not expecting these extra gifts.

Like I think a lot of realtors,

we keep going back between Realty and photography,

but a lot of realtors are people who buy a house.

No, that realtors will give them a gift thanking them,

but they don't necessarily expect it the month later or a

year later.

So then you're wowing them and then someone's talking about you

because it's like this new couple who have now been in

their house a year might be having their baby or you

know who knows what,

but they're telling all their friends then,

Oh, you're not going to believe what I got yesterday.

Right. My realtor remembered us from a year ago,

or whatever it is.

And so then the word gets out about the realtor.

So those are the types of stories you're trying to get

in those referrals or recommendations.

Okay. You just start out that way with people and that's

pretty easy.

You already have an established box company to these people.

Who would be your testing initial people is I'm trying out

a new program.

Would you be willing to help me out with it,

getting it launched and here's what we do and then you

just start talking about it.

Okay. So that could be a way to get started with

that. The other,

and I guess fine all cause I'm starting to look at

the time here,

but I will ask you if you have any other questions

also, but when you go out to networking events,

you can start positioning yourself in this way that you're the

expert with gifting funnels,

which help wow customers and bring them coming back to you

for repeat business.

Okay. And people are going to be like,

what does that mean?

Just say I do gift boxes.

I can say say that.

Okay. Right.

It becomes more than just thanking your client.

It becomes an opportunity for you to get repeat business from

them and to get them talking about you,

meaning the client.

Okay. How do you feel about networking where you get up

and you do your introduction message?

I. E.

Elevator speech.

I've gone to a couple of BNI meetings and it was

pretty intimidating at first.

I wasn't quite sure what to say.

I still get nervous in front of people even though I'm

part of theater,

I still get that social anxiety type stuff,

but I'm trying to get,

I mean I'm actively working on being more comfortable and figuring

out how to say it,

where it's a very natural,

like this is what I do and what I like to

do and what I enjoy rather than just be very like,

this is my,

I do curated gift boxes,

they have the blah,

blah, blah,

blah. You know,

just really trying to get more comfortable with it being more

conversational. Yeah.

But I'm working And that's fine.

I mean a lot of people shy away from even going

to the meetings because of that.

Again, everything that you're talking about are challenges that other people

have, but what I'm seeing with you is you're still taking

action on them even though it makes you a little nervous.

So that's great.

So here's the thing with networking,

just really quickly is you want to go into a networking

meeting with the mentality that you're just not on display for

you and your business,

but you're really also looking to understand who else is in

the room and how you can help them with their business.

Who else do you know who could maybe use the services

of their business if you start thinking more in that way

versus getting up and having to,

now I'll talk about the introduction message in a minute,

but versus getting up and having to talk about yourself.

But you go in thinking,

I'm going to make some new connections today.

I wonder what they're going to all be about.

And then when you're talking with people,

you want to learn more about them.

Not that you need a realtor,

right? But you may know somebody who does.

Yeah. Or you know,

whatever industry that they're in.

You may be able to help funnel business to them,

but you need to know them first before you would ever

funnel business to them.

And then that's reciprocal.

Just like how you were talking about in the beginning about

high tide raises all ships.

The more you do for other people,

that common starts to come back to you because they get

to know you better too.

Okay. So that's that when you get up and do your

elevator speech that I am totally not calling anymore.

I call it the introduction message.

Here's a little template for you and you would want to

spin the gift funnel concept into this.

But so here's a just a basic template and give biz

listeners, this is something for you that you can use to,

so it's very basic level.

Here's all you have to say.

I, so you say who you are.

I, Sam at the Spencer,

I'm the owner of bird box gifts.

I help and then who your customer is and then buy

and then what your product or your services.

Okay, so you could say,

hi there,

I'm Sam mutha with bird box gifts and I help photographers,

realtors and so on.

And so you know,

you focus on those three industries first,

enhance and get repeat business through gifting funnels that wow their

clients. And make them talk about them and come back for

more or something like that.

Beautiful. Okay.

There you go.

And you're getting this recording so you'll have it.

I mean you want to tweak it a little bit,

but so it's who you are,

your business,

who you serve and how it's those four things.

And even if like once you script it out,

it doesn't necessarily roll off your tongue right away.

Write down.

And even if you have to pull out that piece of

paper when you're in front of everybody,

have it with you and nobody cares if you read off

a piece of paper.

In fact,

I think it would endear them to you.

Everyone's been there.

Everyone's been nervous.

We even in my chamber have people who have been in

the chamber for a long time,

but they're trying out a new way of presenting themselves and

they'll have a piece of paper and read off of it

and no one cares.

So the whole goal with your introduction message is to get

people to have like a baseline understanding of what you do.

And then when they're interested they're going to come find you

later and that's when you can start talking more.

Or you go off and get,

have a coffee date within the week or something like that.

Never do you need to rattle off the address,

you know where you're located or any of those little details

cause nobody remembers that and then you're just wasting time.

You know,

where you could have given better information.

Since we're talking about networking,

I just wanted to throw that in there.

And the other thing with networking always is you need to

go regularly.

Life gets in the way.

Like you might not be able to go every single month

to different events,

but you need to show up regularly for people to start

to know you and you get to know more people and

then you become someone who's known in the community too.

But you have a ton of opportunity through all the linkage

with your children and the theater and your husband's shop,

all of that.

Do you have any questions for me?

I think I've asked them all and got excellent information.

Wonderful. Well,

what after we hang up,

what is the first thing that comes to mind that you

will want to start doing?

The first thing I'm going to want to do besides get

the sign is getting my message down of being able to

tell the next time I see someone out in public or

at the shopper theater river,

just to have that ready that I've rehearsed in my mind

enough to say,

Hey, I really want to talk about how I can help

your business and see if it's a fit or if you

have, do you do gift funnels?

What does that look like for you?

Has it,

you know,

do you have a success?

Have you enjoyed it?

Oh, you don't have one?

Well do you,

do you know about them?

Can I tell them to you?

And just try to a very natural non salesy way.

Just open the conversation and invite curiosity about how we might

be able to do this together to benefit each other.

Yeah, absolutely.

And just by way of conversation,

if you're talking with another room mom or something and the

conversation comes up that that's what you do then offer,

you know,

end of the year gifts for teachers to the whole room

could go in together and you could make one nice master

gift or really very special gift with high quality stuff if

everyone wanted to go in together.

You things like that.

Yeah, So lots of opportunity there.

You could be the resource for all of that,

which would be great.

Plus you could,

this is just another sideline random thing is if the schools

were ever doing fundraisers through your husband's company,

sure you can get some less expensive gifts.

That could be another way to get visibility on you both

through the school connections.

Yeah. Okay.

Yeah, and then test out and then if this is working

for you,

then get that first one or two people to test and

give you a testimonial or a referral.

Something that you can also put on your website.

Here's what people are talking about.

Here are people who are doing these funnels and then have

some results like a nice solid testimonial.

Then you are on your way.

Yay. Yay.

Well, I think 50 a month is completely doable,

but you just have to build up to it.

Okay. And funnels.

I don't know where I've been but I've never heard of

this before and I think it's great because as we were

talking about it can build upon itself and you're an ultimately

some of them might fall away,

but just by nature of how you would be creating that

business model,

there would already be additional sales coming in down the road

just by nature of your model and that'll be great.

Well Samath thank you so much.

I really appreciate your spending time today and letting us have

a peek inside your business.

Thank you so much.

If our listeners are interested in seeing your product,

where would you have them go?

I am on the web@birdboxgifts.com

and I'm off on Facebook and Instagram with the same name.

Perfect. Wonderful.

Well your product is so pretty.

It's so nice and clean.

Well thank you.

Which is one of the things I like about it.

Kind of going back to that white candle I guess.

Yes. I like very clean and open.

Yeah. Well do keep in touch and give me updates as

to how things are going.

I will.

Okay. Take care.

Have a great rest of your day.

Thank you so much.

You too.

Oh my gosh.

Such a great conversation with Sam mutha and do you see

how as we continued talking,

we created things for her to do that overcome a little

bit of her concerns,

but we made them more comfortable and made them align with

things that she truly believes in in relation to her product

and what her product offers.

Not everyone has a husband who has a gift shop,

so she has easier access to an additional line of traffic

and also product.

But each and every one of you has a spin that

you can put on your business and unique opportunities based on

the people that you interact with throughout your life.

So think about that and don't be afraid to tell everybody

what you do.

Friends, family are the first people you can get business from,

and then from there you can outreach further.

Next week we're going to talk to a business owner who's

done just that.

We're going to talk a little bit about her brick and

mortar shop and how she developed her business,

but we're also going to talk about an additional Avenue of

opportunity that she has integrated into our business that each and

every one of you can do for yourself on a small,

medium, or large level.

That's what's coming on the next episode of the podcast and

until we're together again,

have a wonderful week.

Bye for now.

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