210 – [On Air Coaching] Retire Into Your Business with Sandy Monroe of Dai Cor Baskets

You're listening to gift biz unwrapped episode 210 I know that

I can be successful,

but you know how you had this little chatter.

You have two chatters,

you have a good chatter and you have a bad chatter

At Tinton,

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Here is your host gift biz gal,

Sue moon Heights.

Hi there,

it's Sue and thank you.

Thank you so much for joining me again on another episode

of the gift biz unwrapped podcast.

I want to start off with a customer review.

Her handle is,

it's Christina,

a XO XO.

Isn't that fun?

And she writes,

Sue is amazing.

I just listened to episode 198 with my client,

Megan almond,

and loved the energy that Sue brought to the conversation.

I liked how Sue drew Megan out.

She's an entertaining and engaging host.

Thank you so much Christina.

I really appreciate that feedback.

And you're right,

I mean I don't have scripted questions.

I just go with the flow.

We kind of start with a little bit of an outline

so we have some type of format of what we're going

to talk about,

but I just let the conversation go where it may and

I'm always thinking of you gift business owners,

I'm thinking of,

okay, what are the questions that are coming from whatever my

guest is saying and that's where I go.

So it's very interesting.

I never truly know what's going to happen on any given

show. So once again,

Christina, thank you for this review and thank you gift biz

listeners, those of you who have already done a rating or

review, if you haven't and feel like you want to give

back to the show,

this is an excellent way to do so.

What happens in iTunes when there are consistent regular rating and

reviews, it brings the visibility up.

The show goes up in the rankings so that other gifters,

bakers, crafters and makers can find the show and listen to

all the goodness that our guests spring.

So that's why you often hear podcast hosts reminding people that

it's always nice to do rating and reviews.

Plus another thing that's in it for you is you might

get your name mentioned,

so your company highlighted and your review read right here on

the show.

All right,

moving on to what I have in store for you today.

Another on air coaching call.

I'm really excited about this one because it brings a little

bit of a different spin to a topic that we've talked

about regularly,

but not in this way.

So I've known Sandy,

I don't know,

somewhere around 10 years and she's been running her business on

the side,

you know,

ramping it up a little bit,

slowing it down a little bit over the course of all

of that time.

But now she's at a point where she's really ready to

some significant changes towards the revisioning of her business.

If you will,

you see,

she's looking at her business now,

not as a side hustle,

but as something that she can retire into now.

She's not retiring next year.

She's got a little bit of a runway.

So very smart of her to be thinking right now about

what she wants to do and how she wants to prep

her business so that when she does retire she can smoothly

make the transition in.

And she's already got a lot of activity and income coming

from the business.

So she's preparing the way and interested in getting new contacts

and new clients.

So this strategy that I was just referring to is all

about networking.

And I know a lot of you are like,

okay, I'm ready to start and go to another podcast now,

or you're thinking networking,

just not for me.

I'm not going to do it.

I want you to stay tuned and listen to what we

talk about because we're talking about a little bit of a

different spin on networking than you've heard before.

And you know,

lots of times we talk about joining different networking groups,

so chambers or BNI groups or lots of new small business

type networking groups are popping up all over,

which are great because they have a different flavor and a

different feel to them.

But how do you get the most out of a networking

group because you are definitely investing your time and many of

them have membership fees as well,

right? So how can you,

for the several hundred dollars that most of these networking groups

cost, how can you make the most out of that initial

investment? I talked through with Sandy a few things that may

have never been considered before.

When you're looking at networking events,

it's not just going to those morning coffees or those after

hours. There's a whole lot more you can do with the

membership. Heavy piqued your interest.

Without any further ado,

let's jump in to my honor coaching call with Sandy Today.

I am so excited to have on the show Sandy Monroe

of decor baskets.

Welcome to the show,

Sandy the morning too.

How are you?

I'm good.

How are you this morning?

I'm doing pretty good.

Wonderful. Well,

I know you listen to the show,

so you are already anticipating.

The first question I'm going to ask you,

I like to have our listeners find out about you in

a different way,

not the general intro like we normally do,

and that is through a motivational candle.

So if you were to what color a candle would be

and what a quote or some type of sane would be

that speaks you,

Sandy, what would your motivational candle look like?

Well, my color will be pink,

and the quote that I would use is nothing is impossible.

The word itself,

I'm passable by algae.

Heartburn. Love that.

And what does that mean to you?

Right in this very day,

In this very day,

it means to me that things that I think that's impossible

is not impossible because I'm possible.

Perfect. And that's true.

And that's going to be the theme I think through all

that we talk about here.

Correct. Okay.

So tell us about decor baskets,

how it started,

why it's named as it is.

Just give us a feel and a grounding for the business.

was young then.

You're still young,

Sandy. I was mushy younger than,

I'm still young,

but I was much younger than at the time I was

pregnant. So I wanted to stay home with my first case.

I didn't believe in putting kids in daycare.

So my husband at the time said I have to stay

at home.

And my dad is the one that got me started into

gift baskets cause he knew that my first passion was designing,

but my designing was clothing.

Oh no kidding.

Yeah, I wanted to be a fashion designer.

Aw, I didn't know that.

Yeah, that's one of those little hidden secrets that I just

don't tell everybody.

But I wanted to do ball gowns.

I wanted to have my gowns on the woman that was

going to the Oscars,

the Grammys,

daytime Emmys.

So when that didn't pan out,

my dad said,

Hey, I found something else that you can use with your

hands. And so he bought me a book and it was

Shirley Frasier's book.

So I read her book and was interested.

Sounded like fun.

So I started researching more and then when I made my

first basket,

and so my first basket I was like,

Oh, this might be something.

So at the time I named it after my first son,

the business after my first son,

but it didn't have a ring to it before.

Years later I had my second son.

And so I was sitting up late one night and I

was trying to put the names together to come up with

a name to make it sound pretty elegant,

classy. So my oldest son's name is day Shawn and my

youngest son is core Zelle.

So I did was took the first three letters of their

name and combine them together.

And that's how we ended up with decor.

They quit baskets and more.

Got it.

Well, and you know,

I'm sure people have said this to you before,

but when I first met you,

now we've known each other for,

I don't know,

quite a few years.

Yeah, quite a few.

And, but I really haven't known the backstory about your business

or any of that really.

But when I first heard of decor baskets,

without knowing it was named after your sons,

I was thinking decor was kind of a play off of

duck whore,

like for event planning and all that,

which gift baskets fit into too.

So that's what I was thinking and a lot of people

think, But then when I explained to him,

no, this business is named after my children.

Yeah. It's kind of a play.

It's nice for both.

Right. Cause it's still easy to remember because of that because

you can relate it to decor.

Right? Exactly.

So how were you getting business back then?

By word of mouth.

Okay. And then at that time I said,

well I'm tired of staying at home with the kids.

I need to go get the job.

So when I went and got a job,

I would just,

you know,

at work,

do my normal thing of chitchatting.

And I w they were like,

well what else should you do?

And I was like,

Oh I do get baskets on the side.

And I was like,

Oh well let me see some pictures.

And then I would get orders that way from my coworkers.

And then I still had a lot to learn about the

networking and about how to do the marketing and promotions and

all of that.

All of those different things.

You know you did that was really smart,

Sandy is you told people about what you do on the

side. So many people won't do that.

They'll split.

Specially if you have a nine to five,

you kind of keep everything else a secret and here was

a great opportunity for you to share.

And just to your point that you get a lot of

business through referrals because you're telling people you can't get business

through referrals if you're not telling people what you do.

Right, exactly.

And right.

Even now I have it to the point where I'll send

my product to the job and I'll open it right there

at the job.

Cause my coworkers,

they're nosy so they want to know what I'm doing.

So they want to see what,

what I got.

Oh there you go.

And half the time I am.

So half the stuff out the box,

it didn't came in.

I had to reorder.

Oh, that's funny.

So you're just selling off at some of the product versus

actually putting it into the basket into a basket.

Right. Oh,

that's funny.

And you're selling it for more than cost,

right? Yes.

Okay. All right.

Just pad to ask that question first.

Oh no,

I love my employees,

but they have to pay too.

There you go.

Very good.

And so what do you do?

What's your nine to five?

Well, my nine to five I am a dispatcher for a

local restaurant chain.

So I actually worked for Luby's and Fuddruckers.

Oh, okay.

And so what do you do in your job during the

day? I basically keep the stores running so when things break,

they'll call it in.

I'll send a vendor out to take care of AC issues,

plumbing, tile work,

the basic,

it's like keeping up a house.

So I keep up the restaurants just like we keep up

a house.

Okay. You know,

that's important to know.

And the reason I was asking not to be snooping,

but it shows what other skills you already have that you

could apply then to your other business.

Right? So with organizing and communication and all of that,

those are skills that you're using as a dispatcher.

So that's good thing to know too.

All right,

so as you look at your business,

Sandy, how are you looking at decor baskets in relation to

your nine to five?

Share with me a little bit about your goals in terms

of where decor fits in your life.

Well, decor is the job that I actually want to retire

to. Okay.

I know that might sound strange,

but I want to actually leave my eight to five and

go into decor baskets and do it full time.

And the reason why I want to do that,

because that job actually makes me happy.

For me,

it's different.

It actually relieves the stress.

So like when I'm stressed,

I'll go in and create a basket.

I might not sell it,

but I'll create it just to relieve the stress from the

daytime. And I know when you go into business full time,

you're still going to be stressed.

But it's a different type of stress for me because after

I create something or I deliver something to someone and that

person receive it and I see that they're happy,

that takes the stress of all of maybe what went on

at decor baskets that day.

So if something didn't come in correctly,

if I had an irate customer because they didn't get something

or something wasn't delivered on time,

but when I see the recipient that receives the gift that

I created,

it makes me feel better.

So it relieves that stress.

But your goal eventually is that decor baskets grows to a

point where it doesn't need to replace the income that you're

making from your eight to five?

Yes. I wanted to actually double the income from nine to

five. Okay.

So one thing to think of,

and we can't tackle everything on this call,

but one thing to start thinking about with that is you

obviously know what your income is.

I'm not going to ask you here.

So you also know what double would be.

Right. The other thing to consider is any extra costs you

have currently with your job right now.

So commuting,

if you have to take a bus or a train somewhere,

if you have to drive far,

if you have parking on the other side,

those would be things that if you're doing decor baskets,

whether it's out of your house or somewhere,

I don't know how far you commute,

but any extra costs that you have,

you can pull those out of what your income is because

you're not going to incur those costs anymore.

Okay. Just as you start thinking,

I've noticed if I stopped working cause it takes me an

hour, I commute about an hour to and from work so,

and actually I do decor baskets from my home,

which is great because I have all this extra space that

I can actually use once my kids move out.

So that means that I won't really have to get a

storefront. I can just work from home and everything can be

done from home.

It cut my daytime income and have so I won't be

using All of the extra money like gas lunch.

Okay. That is something that you'll want to know.

So whatever.

I mean,

just to have yourself grounded in this is the income.

Eventually I need decor to make,

we're just gonna call it decor.

I know it's decor baskets and more,

but we're just gonna call it decor here.

This is how much it needs to be making.

So it's whatever your salary is,

minus whatever your costs are and then double that.

Right. Okay.

So the first thing to do,

if you haven't already,

it sounds like you have kind of a feel for it,

but I would really tighten up that number and then say,

okay, I know that this company needs to make X.

Okay. Okay.

Now part of your challenge is going to be that as

you're building it,

you can't do it full time because you're working your job.

Correct. Okay.

Now does your job comes with benefits as well?

It comes with benefits,

but I don't use the benefits.

Okay. So you don't have to worry with this new number

that you need to try and reach with decor.

You don't need to worry about added benefits on top of

that. No.

No ma'am.

Okay, perfect.

Okay, so get a feel.

That's a very first thing I would do is get a

feel for what that number would look like,

what you would need.

Okay. Okay.

Alright. So in my little questionnaire that I gave you in

the beginning,

I give some ideas of different types of things that we

can talk about.

And you highlighted all of them.

So what do you think would be the best way for

us to go with this conversation?

To get the most bang out of our time together?

What's your biggest struggle right now with your business?

Right now it's just balancing.

Okay, so balancing between your eight to five and working with

decor. Right?

It's like I'm trying to figure out how to,

I know that I'm supposed to network,

but then here in Houston with networking,

I don't really want to network at a bar because everyone

is drinking.

So will they remember me in the morning because I'm not

the one that drinks.

Not anymore.

I mean,

I do,

but I don't.

But if I'm trying to network,

I don't want to be tipsy trying to get someone's business.

So do I do that or do I go to the

events that are in the morning?

So does that mean I have to schedule around going to

a networker in the morning and then just going to work

late? Can you do that?

I can a little bit,

but since we change department heads,

I kind of have to be a little careful.

At first I could do it,

but then we had other coworkers at my job to decide

to come in when they wanted to.

So the days that I wanted to go and do what

I needed to do,

I couldn't do it because we always had to have two

dispatchers. So that's where I'm trying to work around.

Now this year I have four weeks of vacation.

I really don't take vacation and only time I take vacation

is when we see each other in August.

And that's my,

and we're got to do a conference together.

So that's my vacation.

That's what I call vacation.

But everybody,

they call it work.

But to me it's my vacation cause I get away from

my daytime job.

Right. But you're learning and working on growing decor too.

Right. So now I take these other days that I have,

let me figure out how to work those into going to

something in the morning.

So that's been kind of hard because I've been doing this

particular thing for the last 10 years and I'm trying to

figure out how to switch it and it's kind of hard

because I don't know how to switch it.

Okay. So when you talk about networking,

what are you trying to get out of networking?

Just actually meeting people,

letting them know what I do.

Also learning a little different things on what other people do

besides what I do for the whole goal of getting in

business. Right.

Because what you're really driving at is trying to get to

that number that you're going to figure out so that you

can make some changes in your life.

Exactly. Okay.

I have two questions for you.

Okay. How are you getting your current business?

Is it still all referrals,

referrals and I post on my,

cause the social media platforms that I use is Instagram,

LinkedIn and Facebook.

So I do a lot of posting on those,

but I'm not really seeing upstanding the interaction,

but I'm just not seeing the likes turn into clients.

So I'm trying to figure out how to turn the lights

into clients or how do I actually turn those people that

are following me into clients.

Okay, perfect.

Okay, so both of those between networking and social media,

you're looking at getting sales,

that's your goal.

Exactly. How close are you and I'm guessing the is going

to be small because you have a full time job,

but like as a percentage,

if let's say your number,

we're going to keep this just for simple math.

Let's say you needed to do $50,000

a year.

Okay. How close are you to that?

Are you at like 5% of that?

Me, I'd probably say well 3% 3% okay.

So you've really,

it sounds to me like been taking business when it can

come in,

but not really aggressively pursuing business yet.

Is that a fair statement?

Yes. And apart from the fact that you have some time

challenges, what else is keeping you from pursuing that business?

To be honest,

a little bit of fear.

Okay. What about fear?

Fear from me,

because I was asked this question the night before and I

think it's the fear of success.

Ooh, okay.

Talk some more.

I know that I can be successful,

but you know how you had this little chatter,

you have two chatters,

you have a good chatter and you have a bad chatter.

Well sometimes my bad chatter outweighs my good chatter.

And is your bad chatter Saying to Sandy,

You can't do this,

this is not for you.

Why are you trying so hard,

not going to be successful?

And it's like the other chapters and Oh no,

you can do this.

You've been doing this for so long,

why can't you do this?

So you've got both of those competing voices,

which we all have.

By the way,

Sandy. And the hard part is they're never going to go

away. Like even when you get to that,

we're just going to call it 50 because that's just an

easy number.

And I alluded to it earlier,

maybe it's more,

maybe it's less,

I don't know.

But even when you get to that 50 you're still gonna

have that chatter and then you're going to get to 70

and you're still gonna have that chatter.

Everyone has the cheddar.

So the skill is to make it shut up or ignore

it, right?

It's going to come back just not to listen to it.

It's like kind of how you turn your back on the

bully or something.

Right. And that's something that I've been working with this year

so we're going to focus on,

you can do this.

There's no such thing as you can't.

So I've been listening to more of the good chatter and

this more of the,

I'm changing my mindset.

Perfect. So in that way to work on the fear part.

And is the fear just this other voice or is there

more fear than that?

No, it's just the fear of being successful because I know

I can be successful because I've seen it once before.

Cause when I first initially did the business and I made

that first $500 I never thought I would make the first

$500 but I did so I knew then I could do

it right.

But then as things,

and you know,

life happens,

so fears that Hey,

I know where I can get in and get to her.

So it got in and got to me.

So like now I'm like,

no, I can't deal with fear anymore because fear is not

my friend.

Fear is not your friend,

but it sounds like you have the right mindset in that

you recognize the fact that you just need to ignore it.

You can be rude to that voice and you can just

ignore it.

Exactly. Make it go sit in a corner or something,

you know?

And hopefully never come up again.

But it's like that bad child.

It gets up from the chair and comes and finds you.

Right. But just knowing that fact and it sounds like even

though you recognize it,

you pretty much know what to do with it now.

Right. That's good.

Because if you have things that are obstacles and you don't

do anything different than you've done before,

nothing changes.

Right, right.

So for the mindset portion with fear,

it sounds like you've got some of that covered.

You know it's there,

you accept the fact,

but you're not always listening to it.

Right. Okay.

But here's a big question,

Sandy, is it preventing you from doing things or do you

feel like you're going to be able to work through that

fear? Well at first it was preventing me from doing things,

but now no,

I'm going to do those things.

Perfect. Okay.

And one of the best ways to discourage that whole fear

thing and make it stay in the corner is by taking

action. Exactly.

You know,

is like is not listening to it and doing physically doing

whatever it is.

Right. So for sake of this conversation,

can we say that you recognize that fear is out there,

the fear of success,

but that you've kind of got that covered right now?

Yes. All right,

so now let's get back to the whole concept of challenge

and it's challenge in how do I handle everything that I

have going on in my life,

but also wanting to get decor going on some type of

projectory to increase sales.

Exactly. Okay.

Have you done any networking meetings?

I know you don't like the bar scenario.

Have you done any of them and give me your experience

with those?

I've done maybe one or two so far.

Well not this year,

but last year I did maybe one or two and they

want, even I went to,

I sat at a table and we all networked and stuff

like that,

but when I would do my follow up,

I would never hear back from them.

How would you be doing followup?

Well, I will send an email and let them know.

I enjoy meeting him at the event and if we could

get together and sit down and have a cup of coffee

or tea and chat a little bit more,

but it would never respond to the email.

Okay. So let's talk through a couple of things here.

I want to separate in person networking,

we're just call it all networking versus social media.

Okay. So we'll talk about social media second,

but I think your biggest opportunity first is networking.

Okay. Hands down.

It's the best way to get business when you're a local

business for sure.

Yes, of course.

Social media has a play in it and I have some

comments for you on social media later,

but I think we should really dive into networking.

Okay. And if you're serious about your business,

Sandy, which I think you are,

I think it's an excellent idea if you can work it

out with your employer to be able to take specific,

it doesn't even have to be all morning,

like structured time.

And I think you can even say,

this is what I'm using it for.

I'm not just hanging out playing around or sleeping in late,

this is what I'm doing.

They already know and clearly accept that you have the business

if you're able to get product there and people buy product

from you and all of that.

So if there were a way that you could work that

in now we'll talk through about what that should actually be.

Okay. But if you have that opportunity,

I see this as your biggest potential for getting in more

business so that this time,

six months from now you are already seeing things rising.

Okay. Okay.

You noticed I didn't say 30 days from now because it

does take some time.

Right. And I'll tell you how you do it too.

I'll tell you the right way to make it start working

for you.

First thing with networking,

just in terms of structure is I would identify what organizations

exist in Houston that would be good for you in terms

of their makeup.

And I actually have a couple to tell you about after

we get off the recording because I just don't have them

accessible. Okay.

But I have a couple that I think you might be

interested in.

Have you looked into any of the chamber of commerce is

in your area?

Yes, I have.

I definitely have.

And I have one that's close by me where I live

cause I live out in the suburbs so I'm going to

try. The one is out here,

it's not actually mine because I'm in Fort bend and they

have their chamber.

But then there's another one is on the outskirts.

So I'm going to try them first because it's a smaller

one. But they do a lot of stuff.

Okay, good.

Perfect. So I want to start with the smaller ones first

before, cause there are some larger ones that are in the

city that I want to join.

But I think I need to start with the smaller one

first where I can feel a little bit more comfortable before

I tackle the big ones.

Well. Yeah.

And the other thing is every chamber has a different feel

to it and that applies to BNI groups or any of

these larger where they're under an umbrella.

Every chapter has its own feel.

Right? Right.

And I would not say that you can get more business

out of a larger chamber versus a smaller chamber.

It really depends on what the makeup is,

what the culture of the chamber is.

And a couple of other things we're going to talk about

in a minute.

Okay. And I also don't think you do this broad approach

where you join 7,000

million chambers.

I think what you should do,

and it sounds like you're already thinking this direction,

which is perfect,

is go as a guest.

Most times chambers will let you go for one or two

times as a guest before you have to become a member

of the chamber.

But go to maybe a couple and get a feel for

how they are.

And the reason I say,

and let me just put a stake in the ground and

say three.

Okay. Because then you get a feel for how they conduct

meetings. And then you have a comparison.

If you only go to one and you like it,

you don't know if there's another one that's better because you

only have been to the one.

That's why I'm saying like go to three and make a

choice of one.

Okay. Only one.

And the reason I'm saying one is because you don't have

the time right now.

Okay, so let's follow through with this concept.

So let's say you're going to do the one,

this is you found your winner because it's also a financial

investment. Then you join with whatever the costs are.

Now here's the trick for chamber networking.

You have to be there regularly.

One of the good things about a chamber is they meet

once a month,

right? Right.

So you want to make sure you're at their meetings once

a month,

which ends up being easy because you already know when they

are. So you can fit that in with whatever your vacations

time would be.

Correct. And then you start getting to know people who are

there. That's the first thing.

Obviously people who were in the room and what ends up

happening always is the same people come to the meetings,

let's say it's a coffee meeting.

Okay. And I would suggest if you have chambers that are

only meeting at night,

I would go for morning meetings cause I think they're more

business focused at least initially.

Now a lot of chambers also will have after hours or

nighttime parties,

which is also good.

I'll talk about those in a second.

But what you're going to want to do,

Sandy, is go to those meetings on a regular basis and

not try to scan the room and meet everybody all at

once. Zero in on a couple of people each meeting to

get to know.

Right. If they have boards,

try and get active on boards if they have other events,

like become very visible within a chamber.

Okay. Right.

Now the other thing with the chamber is there are other

people who are part of the chamber who probably don't come

to the networking meetings.

They've joined the chamber because they want to be on the

directory or the chambers reached out because it's a larger organization.

Like I know in our area we have banks,

the hospital,

the art center,

lots of other organizations that are part of our chamber.

But those people don't come to meetings.

So this is now step two.

Step one is getting to know people in that room,

wherever the networking is.

What I would say to you about that is make a

phone call to them versus emailing them after you've met and

maybe just one or two people and just say,

Hey, I'd love to get together.

And so many people are getting together because they want to

sell you their stuff,

which is not what you want to do.

You want to get to know all the things that they

do, that the magic and chambers or a networking overall is

to get to know other people in the room and see

how you can help them.

Because in turn it circles back to help you.

Okay. So when you're talking with people who you've met there

and you follow up and say,

Hey, I'd love to have coffee.

I am so interested in what your business does.

I would love to know more.

Do you have a half an hour for coffee Saturday morning?

Or try and get that on the weekend if you can

because of your scheduling.

But the point is not,

so you can tell them all about decor baskets.

That's going to come up anyway in the conversation,

but you want to know more about their business.

That's the point.

Okay. Right,

right, right,

right, right.

And that's the conversation when you're in those networking meetings to

tell me about your business,

what do you do?

Oh, that's so cool.

Who were most of your clients?

Like, yeah,

whatever the conversation is.

But you're wanting to know more about them to see if

you personally or anybody else,

you know,

could use their services.

It was their services.

Correct. So that's 0.1.

Then step two with these networking groups is who else is

part of the organization?

Like the chamber,

but never goes to these meetings?

These could be your golden corporate accounts.

Okay. Okay,

so for our listeners here,

within the gift basket business,

you can do customized gift baskets and individual onesies and twosies

all day long.

Unless you're Harry and David or someone where people automatically know

the name.

Unless you get some type of regular corporate business,

Sandy will never get to where she wants to go without

getting some type of regular account.

Okay. Whether it's an industry like real tours or something like

that, or realtors,

financial services,

that type of thing.

Or some corporations,

that's going to be your golden ticket to your 50,000

okay. Okay.

What I'm trying to show you is one networking organization has

a number of different angles you can go to for business.

So that investment of,

I don't know,

$300 let's say for a chamber.

I don't know what your chamber would be,

but we'll just throw it out there.

Doesn't have to be just for the opportunity you're getting from

a morning coffee once a month event.

There's way more play you can do off of that.

Okay? Okay.

So number one,

who's in the room?

Number two corporate accounts or larger companies who don't show up

at the functions at the meetings,

but they're members of the group.

So you want to look at the member list,

see who else is there,

and pull out a couple of people who you want to

meet and they all have their contact information there,

et cetera.

Now, some of these folks might not go in the morning

and retailers by nature I find often don't go to morning

networking events because they have to get open in their shop,

you know?

And if a shop opens at 10 they still need to

be there by eight 30 or nine depending on their business.

So many times they'll be the people who show up at

night. So when you talk about not going to things that

are at a bar after hours or something like that,

if it's in conjunction with a chamber that also has the

morning coffee,

you'll see a different audience show up.

You'll also see that the behavior is different now it's after

work, even if it's a Tuesday night,

you know?

And yeah,

if people are drinking that's fine.

It's just a different type of an atmosphere.

So I would go to some of those events when you

can because you'll see different people.

Okay. And then the other thing I would do again with,

if it's a chamber or whoever it is,

if they have some boards you can sit on,

sometimes they'll be rallying their members because of a certain time

limited activity.

They're doing like a 4th of July parade or it's the

hundredth anniversary or something like,

so they'll look for subcommittees.

That isn't something where you're committing your time for the whole

year. But for a portion,

you know like three months or something.

And the value of that is the other people who are

on that committee.

Number one.

Cause that's another easy way to get to know people.

But then also you become more credible and visible within your

community. Okay,

gotcha. So that helps.

Especially when you're a home based business that helps show your

level of professionalism.

Okay, okay.

Because she's part of this group and doing this and no,

she's on the committee for this.

And yeah,

I saw her at the chamber meeting last month.

Things like that there.

I just gave you four different ways that you can use

one networking membership,

whatever it is,

and all those extensions.

Now the other thing you can do cause all we're really

talking about here is how do you find avenues to new

business, right?

The other thing that you can do is in your,

I would start with your hometown just for delivery purposes,

but then extend the radius a little bit.

What businesses are out there that you'd love to be doing

business with?

Maybe it's a hospital,

maybe it's,

I don't know who would be there,

but bigger businesses,

they may not be part of the chamber,

so you don't have the linkage that way,

but if you targeted,

let's say two or three of those larger companies,

then when you're in the networking meetings and you stand up

and you talk about your business,

you can also then say,

Hey, I'm looking for a connection within XYZ company.

If anybody knows anybody within that business,

will you let me know?

And it doesn't have to be the person who would be

buying gift baskets or corporate gifts because they could help find

that person.

This is kind of like a face to face LinkedIn.

Oh okay.

Okay. So you reach out cause someone might be,

Oh my next door neighbor is in charge of accounting there.

Oh no kidding.

Do you think I could chat with him?

I'm looking for the person who's in the marketing department.

See how that extension goes like that.

Right. Okay.

So that's another way cause I think what you're going to

want to start doing is driving towards continual business,

the more corporate type business as you can.

But by stepping it up you can do it in all

these ways that we just mentioned.

Okay. Got it.

Do you have any questions about any of that?

No. You actually answered all of the questions that I needed.

Okay. So that's that.

I do have a little bit more for you here and

of course you're going to get the recording and when the

show goes live it'll be there too.

So you can listen to this over and over again.

You'll have the information.

How comfortable are you when you get up and do your

little elevator speech in front of people?

Are you good with that?

Oh Lord,

no mail.

All right,

Sandy, here is your template.

Are you ready?

Yes. You're going to say,

hi, I'm Sandy Monroe,

owner of decor baskets and more.

Okay, we help.

And then you fill in who your customer is.

Okay? Okay.

And we're not gonna have a lot of time to go

through that here on the phone today,

but don't think about just the next part of this is

not we sell gift baskets for all your gifting needs.

Okay? That means nothing to anybody.

Okay? So you want to decide who your customer is specifically,

I would suggest businesses in corporate with,

and then what it is that is the result of these

gift baskets.

So it could be client retention,

referrals, employee retention,

whatever it is,

okay. Okay.

Through wonderful experiences with food and gifts or something like that.

Okay? So it's who you are,

what your business is,

who your customer is,

how you end up helping them,

what the result is,

and then your product.

Now once you've got that down,

it's okay to have it written on a piece of paper.

And if you get nervous,

just pull out that piece of paper.

When you stand up and talk,

nobody cares.

And the goal of this message,

by the way,

I keep calling it an introduction message versus an elevator speech

cause this is what it is.

It's just you're introducing people to you.

You don't have to tell them where you do work,

you don't have to give them,

we do baskets for all occasions,

birthdays, Andover,

like you don't have to throw in everything about your business.

All you're doing is just a very surface level thing and

just be who you are.

You are so cute in person already.

So just be yourself and just be like,

I'm Sandy Monroe.

This is what I do.

Thank you for letting me come today.

I'm looking for a chamber to join.

You guys are so much fun this morning.

Thank you for having me.

Like that's your final part is just personality ish and then

you sit down and you're done.

Okay. So that's the way you do that.

Okay. And the trick is going to be once you find

the chamber that you like,

I keep saying chamber but it doesn't have to be chamber.

Keep going and then entrenched yourself into the organization and it

does take some time for people to start gravitating to you

and remembering you for business but you at the same time

when people are getting to know you and getting a feel

for you and getting more comfortable with you at the same

time you can be doing all these other things we just

talked about asking for connections with corporate locations,

looking at the member list and initiating meetings with other people.

You can still be doing that and getting business through those

means while you're building up a credibility thing where people will

automatically come to you.

So it's a little bit of both.

So that's that.

Now here's the other thing I want to say to you

about all of that and the issue with balance like we

were talking about in the beginning is you have limited time

to work.

So you want to make sure that when you're working,

I love the idea that you like putting together the baskets

and it makes you feel good,

but make sure you're doing things that are going to bring

you the business.

So make that basket if you want to,

but don't like redesign the bow five times.

I'd rather you be looking at the chamber list and seeing

what other members you want to be contacting.

You know what I mean?

Like be really,

really conscious of what you're doing and say,

is this going to help me get new business?

Making a basket on the side isn't necessarily going to make,

it's like a secondary.

Right, right.

Because it's so easy to not do the things that are

harder. Exactly.

And then you don't make progress.

Right. Okay.

Does that make sense?

Yes. Perfect.

And then social media,

I don't think we're going to have a lot of time

for right now,

but I will make a comment to you that your social

media presence from what I've seen is gorgeous.

I don't know who's doing your imagery and I haven't really

looked at the messaging,

but it's very consistent in terms of your style to me.

Okay. And I love what you put out there.

Thank you.

You're also super cute.

I would love to see you going live sometimes.

Have you been,

I haven't seen it,

but have you been or no ma'am.

Okay, I'll put that down.

Go live.

Well, you'll want to go live with intention,

so we're not going to be able to get to a

lot of that right now,

but we've talked about it before.

Yes, I've done some presentations on live.

I don't know if you guys still have access to it

or not,

but you'd want it to be a purpose and an intent,

but I would definitely think about doing that because again,

you're so cute.

You're so personable and you're very professional,

you know?

Not everyone,

even though they're dressed right and all of that,

not everyone gives off that presence of professionalism as you do.

Oh, well thank you.

I'm being serious so you can play off of that.

That's another reason why going to networking events will be so

good for you.

Okay, good.

Got it.

Okay. Do you have any questions for me?

No, actually you've given me everything that I needed to know.

Okay. So what are you going to do next?

What are your first steps now that we've talked?

My first steps will be planning to check out a chamber

goal as I guess I've done my research on this one

particular one.

Sorry. You know what the membership fee is,

but I do want to go first just to check it

out to see if,

if the field is right.

Okay. Think about doing a couple,

but it's your choice.

You are the steer of your own ship.

So if you decide this is the one you want,

just do it.

Yes, I'm gonna do a couple.

So this is closer by my house that I can go

to this one.

So I'll know like,

okay, I can get up in the morning,

go to the chamber in the morning for two hours and

then hang out there for those two hours and then on

my way to work.

Okay. And then the next one I'll try to find one

that's in the city that's closer to my job in that

area and try one of their events in the evening.

So I could do the one here that's by my house

in the morning.

And then I can do oneness in the city in the

evening if they have an evening event.

I know that's one that I need to work on.

I mean to do a lot more networking.

Yeah. And then deep dive into networking when you've picked them.

Just really entrenched yourself.

And then try to get on a board at one of

the networks to see what committees they have and see if

I can join the committee,

which will be fun.

And then after that I'll work on going live.

Okay, perfect.

And then also start thinking about,

and you'll hear this all again,

you know when you hear the recording again,

but think about two or three corporations you would love to

be doing business with.

Okay. And then try and find who contacts are in those

areas where you could start talking to people.

Okay. I mean,

you're obviously not going to do all of this at once.

The first part is going to be getting into networking.

And Sandy also,

remember you do have an eight to five,

so it will take you a little longer to progress with

some of this.

And that's okay because you're balancing.

That's okay.

Right? So be kind to yourself with your progression,

but don't use it as an excuse to go slow,

you know what I mean?

Right. Okay.

Wonderful. Well,

I'm excited for you too.

I really think if you do this,

honestly and truly,

if you do this,

by the time I see you just about six months from

now, actually,

exactly, then you should be in a different position than you

are right now.

You'll be growing.

You will be growing.

I can guarantee you that.

Yes. Wonderful.

I did have a goal.

By the time I turned 45 I'm supposed to be at

a certain,

I had a goal,

but I'm not there yet.

So I think I'm gonna give you five more years.

So by the time I turned 50 where I was supposed

to be at 45 we're going to try to be there

at 50 That's okay.

There's nothing wrong with that.

Right. But the only way to do that is to do

something differently.

Right. Not just to keep doing the same thing,

but to be working something differently.

And Sandy,

I've got to tell you,

I saw it for myself.

One account can do it for you.

The right account.

One account can catapult you from 10,000

to 50,000

Exactly. Yeah.

And I don't know that those are anywhere near what your

numbers are you're looking at and we don't need to go

there, but it doesn't have to be slow either.

But it's,

when do you find that account?

You have to be out there to be able to capture

it. To get it right.

Super. Well,

thank you so much.

I appreciate you being on today and hopefully like you forgot

about the audience and it was just you and me talking

because that's what I wanted it to be.

I want you to feel good.

Like, I want you to get off this phone and be

like, okay,

I'm so excited.

I know exactly what I'm going to do next and I'm

going to do it this coming week.

Do you feel that way?

Yeah, I definitely feel that way.

I think this is exactly what I needed was just that

extra to say,

Hey, you can do this.

And I think that's my whole thing right now is I

can do this and I have to do this.

You can do this.

And the other thing,

are you in the gift biz breeze with us yet?

Yes. I think.

Okay, so you're not joined.

It's free.

Okay. Oh cost.

But a lot of people who listened to the podcast are

also in that group.

So they may have heard this.

Talk to us about how it's going.

Okay. And if you have a challenge,

if something's not like you're stuck with something,

then post it and we'll all talk about it there.

Okay. Most definitely.

This doesn't have to be the end of this whole conversation.

Okay. Okay.

Got it.

All right Sandy.

Well thanks again.

We're doing this on a Saturday morning,

so have a great rest of your weekend.

Most definitely you two things.

Good stuff.

Yes, and Sandy.

Now you have the whole world that your accounting do to

listening and are already in some type of a chamber or

other networking group,

take advantage of these things that we talked about of ways

that Sandy can up her game there because you can do

the exact same thing and I'd like to hold you accountable

too. Up next week we're going to be talking about content

content for your business.

It's a great way to be attracting new people into your

business that you don't even know exist.

I'm talking about people who will find you online,

you know,

through your blog or through social media,

but content,

what does that even mean?

What do you do with it and where do you put

it? That's all up next week on the gift biz unwrapped

podcast and I look forward to being together again then.

Bye for now.

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