074 – Cheers to Niche Products with Kara Lamerato of Kara’s Vineyard Wedding
Kara started her business, Kara’s Vineyard Wedding in 2011 as a hobby, selling handmade wedding decor fashioned from wine corks.
In the early days, profits from sales were used as extra fun money, to finance pedicures, champagne brunches, and eventually trips to Europe with her husband, John.
It was after the birth of their daughter in 2012, that Kara g
ot serious about her entrepreneurial dreams. She quit a lucrative 9-5 corporate career to focus on Kara’s Vineyard Wed
ding exclusively.
Today, the business encompasses a year-round product cycle, a twice weekly podcast, and big dreams of opening a wedding venue space in the coming years.
Kara lives with her husband John, and their son & daughter in San Diego, CA. The family enjoys daily adventures to Sea World, the beach, the zoo, and beyond.
Business Inspiration
Kara’s story on leaving the corporate world [5:16]
The first steps in turning her hobby into a biz [9:59]
Candle Flickering Moments
The seasonality of the wedding industry and Etsy drama! [22:15]
Product Specifics
Kara describes her product. [12:25]
Product expansion to light up holiday sales. [25:38]
Business Building Insights
The value of niche products. [14:27]
A tip for managing work time with young children [18:45]
Increasing competition on Etsy and what Kara did about it. [27:44]
The reasons for adding a Shopify website. [29:01]
Pinterst success! [29:54]
Success Trait
Kara owns confidence. She says if you don’t have it, she agrees that you should fake it ’til you make it. She also explains why she believes this. [33:49]
Productivity/Lifestyle Tool
I LOVE this answer. Kara says her most important tool is her Mental Tool – Turn It Off! A really valuable point for all of us. [35:31]
Valuable Book
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
Contact Links
If you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe and leave a review in Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. That helps us spread the word to more makers just like you. Thanks! Sue
Transcript
Gift biz unwrapped episode 74.
Speaker:How on earth could you have a business around making a
Speaker:place card holder out of a wine cork?
Speaker:That's insane.
Speaker:Hi, this is John Lee Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,
Speaker:and you're listening to gift to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:and now it's time to light it.
Speaker:Welcome to gift bears on wrapped your source for industry specific
Speaker:insights and advice to develop and grow your business.
Speaker:And now here's your host,
Speaker:Sue Mona height.
Speaker:Hi there.
Speaker:I'm Sue and welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:Whether you own a brick and mortar shop sell online or
Speaker:are just getting started,
Speaker:you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your
Speaker:business. And today I have joining us Kara lamb.
Speaker:Merado Carlos started her business called Karas vineyard wedding in 2011
Speaker:as a hobby,
Speaker:she was selling handmade wedding decor fashioned from wine corks.
Speaker:In the early days,
Speaker:profits from sales were used as extra fund money to finance,
Speaker:pedicures, champagne,
Speaker:brunches, and eventually trips to Europe with her husband,
Speaker:John, who was after the birth of their daughter in 2012,
Speaker:that Cara got serious about her entrepreneurial dreams.
Speaker:She quit a lucrative nine to five corporate career to focus
Speaker:on paras vineyard wedding exclusively today,
Speaker:the business encompasses a year round product cycle,
Speaker:a twice weekly podcast and big dreams of opening a wedding
Speaker:venue space in the coming years,
Speaker:Kara lives with her husband,
Speaker:John and their son and daughter in San Diego,
Speaker:California. The family enjoys daily adventures to see world the beach,
Speaker:the zoo and beyond boy.
Speaker:Does that sound like a pretty awesome life?
Speaker:Welcome to the show.
Speaker:Carra Thank you so much for having me Sue.
Speaker:It's awesome to be here.
Speaker:Well, our listeners know,
Speaker:I like to start off by getting to know you,
Speaker:in addition to that intro in a little bit of a
Speaker:different way,
Speaker:and that is by having you describe your ideal motivational candle.
Speaker:If you were to give us a vision of that candle,
Speaker:what color would it be and what would be the quote
Speaker:on the candle?
Speaker:I actually have,
Speaker:I went one step further.
Speaker:My candle is yellow,
Speaker:and I'm going to tell you exactly what it smells like.
Speaker:It smells like pineapple,
Speaker:which to me is just such a summery,
Speaker:beachy vacation scent.
Speaker:And on my candle is a song lyric from Dave Matthews
Speaker:band. And the quote is this little game where nothing is
Speaker:sure. Why would you play by the rules?
Speaker:Oh, and what does that mean to you?
Speaker:So this is a song that I listened to on my
Speaker:runs and when I was gearing up to leave my corporate
Speaker:job back in 2013,
Speaker:this song was on my run playlist and it was way
Speaker:of psyching myself up to walk away from that corporate career.
Speaker:So why would you play by the rules when you don't
Speaker:know what's coming next?
Speaker:You don't know if you're going to have tomorrow.
Speaker:You don't know what's around the corner.
Speaker:So, you know what,
Speaker:take a leap and take a chance.
Speaker:And you've really got to grab life and just go with
Speaker:it. It's really interesting to talk about now because 20 years
Speaker:ago or so,
Speaker:and I'm a little older than you are.
Speaker:So I'm a little bit different perspective,
Speaker:but it used to be,
Speaker:that was the safety place.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:if you had a job,
Speaker:you were with a large,
Speaker:solid stable corporation,
Speaker:everything was fine and it is not anywhere near that case
Speaker:anymore. So although as you're talking about,
Speaker:is it safe to play by the rules,
Speaker:not safe to play by the rules?
Speaker:Nowhere is it safe really to play by the rules,
Speaker:but when you do your own thing,
Speaker:you are in control of your destiny.
Speaker:You're not waiting to see what's going to happen on Friday.
Speaker:Whether coal department stays intact,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:but it's So true.
Speaker:And I don't mean play by the rules.
Speaker:Like don't pay your taxes.
Speaker:Yeah, I can do crazy stuff.
Speaker:But to me,
Speaker:the rules at that point in my life,
Speaker:I had a daughter who was going to be one years
Speaker:old. So I took a five month maternity leave,
Speaker:went back to work for just about seven months or so.
Speaker:But the day I went back,
Speaker:I knew I did not want to be there permanently.
Speaker:And so playing by the rules at that point would have
Speaker:been to continue that corporate job continue bringing home a really
Speaker:nice salary,
Speaker:put my daughter in daycare.
Speaker:And that was the script that was being put before me.
Speaker:And I didn't want it.
Speaker:It was not appealing to me at all.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:I took the leap and here we are today,
Speaker:But a very,
Speaker:a very challenging time in your life to do that too,
Speaker:with all of the pressures and the uncertainties of a newborn,
Speaker:because being a new mom has its challenges unto itself.
Speaker:Right? Absolutely does.
Speaker:For those of our listeners who are maybe in a situation
Speaker:like yours,
Speaker:can you share with us a little bit of how you
Speaker:did that?
Speaker:How did you approach John and say,
Speaker:I'm thinking of doing this,
Speaker:or did you just tell him or walk us through a
Speaker:little bit of that?
Speaker:Sure. Well,
Speaker:there's a Little bit of background on my maternity leave and
Speaker:my approach back to work,
Speaker:I was kind of thinking based on conversations I had before
Speaker:the birth of my daughter,
Speaker:that my schedule was going to be able to be a
Speaker:little bit more flexible,
Speaker:that there was going to be some flexibility in my return.
Speaker:And so that's mentally how I had prepared myself to go
Speaker:back to work.
Speaker:And when I did go back to work,
Speaker:that was not the case.
Speaker:And it was presented to me pretty bluntly that there would
Speaker:be no schedule flexibility.
Speaker:It would be same old Monday through Friday,
Speaker:eight 30 to five,
Speaker:no working from home,
Speaker:no calling in no part-time options.
Speaker:So I mean mentioned before,
Speaker:that was a frightening time in my life to take a
Speaker:leap like this,
Speaker:but actually,
Speaker:what was more frightening to me was the thought of missing
Speaker:out on those moments with my daughter,
Speaker:because I was sitting at a desk at a job somewhere.
Speaker:Yeah. And you can't get those back five minutes later.
Speaker:Absolutely not.
Speaker:And actually I think that her being five months old when
Speaker:I went back to work and having five months of that,
Speaker:it was so special and it really gave me a wonderful
Speaker:opportunity to see that and savor it and know what I
Speaker:would be losing if I wasn't able to spend that time
Speaker:with her.
Speaker:So to me,
Speaker:it was just really important to have those moments with her.
Speaker:And I was obviously very emotional during a lot of these
Speaker:conversations. And when I approached John,
Speaker:we were totally on the same page about it.
Speaker:And I had started my business a couple of years prior
Speaker:as a hobby,
Speaker:like you mentioned in the intro.
Speaker:So this was something that I had kind of up and
Speaker:running. It just took about six months of prep and mental
Speaker:prep and product prep.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:a lot of background work to go ahead and say,
Speaker:we're confident enough that this can supplement our income so that
Speaker:I can leave that job.
Speaker:So that was definitely,
Speaker:I don't want to make it sound like I just,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:up and Oh,
Speaker:cool, it's quit my job.
Speaker:It's easy.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:whatever. My husband is a school teacher and we live in
Speaker:a place where the cost of living is extremely high.
Speaker:So by no means was this just,
Speaker:Oh, I'll walk away from my job.
Speaker:And my husband will pick up all the Slack.
Speaker:Like there was a lot of responsibility that I shouldered financially
Speaker:by taking that leap.
Speaker:And so just by way of clarification.
Speaker:So you went back and realized that this was not what
Speaker:you were going to want to do.
Speaker:And those six months were six months of planning.
Speaker:So you stayed there for a short time and then let
Speaker:go. Exactly.
Speaker:I did go back to work because at that point,
Speaker:at the end of my maternity leave,
Speaker:I was expecting to go back with this flexible schedule and
Speaker:maybe some part-time worked in there and that was total blindside
Speaker:to me.
Speaker:So I was not prepared at that time to walk away.
Speaker:There was a lot of work that I needed to do
Speaker:on the backend to get this business up and running to
Speaker:a point where we could be confident that it was going
Speaker:to pay us the money we needed and go from there.
Speaker:Right. I am really glad you brought this up because so
Speaker:many times you'll hear this story about people just quitting their
Speaker:jobs. And supposedly within 30 days,
Speaker:they have a business up and running.
Speaker:That's making money.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:it doesn't work that way.
Speaker:And you actually did something very similar to what I did.
Speaker:I left my corporate life.
Speaker:Again, we're in a little bit of different life stages here.
Speaker:But when I was looking at starting my business,
Speaker:I did a lot of research and a lot of planning
Speaker:and I didn't just open my doors the next day.
Speaker:So this is really important gift biz listeners,
Speaker:as you're reflecting on what you want to do,
Speaker:maybe you're setting some goals for the next six months or
Speaker:so, maybe you're really looking and are interested in leaving your
Speaker:nine to five,
Speaker:listen to what Cara did.
Speaker:She decided that she needed to,
Speaker:she had her goal,
Speaker:but she was going to stay in place and then be
Speaker:planning on the side before that release,
Speaker:because starting a business,
Speaker:you've got to be careful.
Speaker:The money's not going to come in right away,
Speaker:especially if you're dependent on that to retain your lifestyle Hindsight.
Speaker:I didn't know it at the time,
Speaker:but when I left my job,
Speaker:I was pregnant with my son.
Speaker:He was born the next year after I had left.
Speaker:So a lot happened,
Speaker:I'd say a couple of years.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So let's talk about the business.
Speaker:What types of things did you do in that six months
Speaker:as you were starting to plan for the release from your
Speaker:nine to five?
Speaker:So that was,
Speaker:seems like a really long time ago.
Speaker:It wasn't,
Speaker:but so much has happened since then.
Speaker:It does seem that way.
Speaker:So the first thing I really needed to get ahold of
Speaker:is my branding.
Speaker:That was something that was a little bit lacking.
Speaker:When I started it as a hobby,
Speaker:there was no pressure to make any money.
Speaker:So making a sale was just this excitement of little rush
Speaker:of, you know,
Speaker:fun, but I didn't have any overall product branding across different
Speaker:products. Did they look the same?
Speaker:Was there a cohesive theme?
Speaker:Was my packaging branded,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:I spent a lot of time on,
Speaker:and I also spent a lot of time focusing on the
Speaker:marketing aspect.
Speaker:And this is very hands-on.
Speaker:This is just me.
Speaker:So actually today,
Speaker:three years later,
Speaker:I still am the only person running my company.
Speaker:I do not have any virtual assistants.
Speaker:I do not have any marketing help,
Speaker:any computer help,
Speaker:any tech help.
Speaker:It's just me.
Speaker:So I really spent that six months at my day job
Speaker:or my,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:my corporate job getting like very hands-on and learning how to
Speaker:do marketing.
Speaker:How do I code a WordPress site?
Speaker:How do I do all these things?
Speaker:And to be honest,
Speaker:I cheated a little bit,
Speaker:and I was fortunate because I did have a desk job.
Speaker:I did have a lot of time in front of a
Speaker:computer where I could flip over a screen and read a
Speaker:blog post and spend 20 minutes on that.
Speaker:And then flip back to my job.
Speaker:So I had a little help there,
Speaker:but I'd say that the branding and then the marketing were
Speaker:the two things that I was really focused on beefing up
Speaker:before I went ahead and took that leap.
Speaker:And do you have any background in those fields at all?
Speaker:Or were you learning just from the ground up?
Speaker:No, I was literally learning by like doing Google searches,
Speaker:but that's,
Speaker:I love that you say that Because Google is accessible to
Speaker:everybody. So when you're not knowing something that isn't a reason
Speaker:not to do it,
Speaker:you go figure it out,
Speaker:whether it's online,
Speaker:whether it's through people that,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:however you need to do it.
Speaker:So let's back up just a second and clarify what it
Speaker:is you were actually making,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you started with the handmade wedding decor from the wine corks
Speaker:and I'm a wine lover.
Speaker:So I'm all over that.
Speaker:But help us envision what that initial product was that you
Speaker:were branding.
Speaker:So using wine corks was important to the product because they
Speaker:are very lightweight.
Speaker:They're very easy to ship.
Speaker:And so I had made these place card holders out of
Speaker:wine corks for John and I's wedding.
Speaker:And it's just to give you a visual,
Speaker:it's three wine corks bound together with a little slit cut
Speaker:across the top so that your guest name card just sits
Speaker:there. And that's what you see when you walk into a
Speaker:wedding and it tells you what table you're to sit at,
Speaker:or, you know,
Speaker:which chair is actually yours to sit in for the dinner
Speaker:reception portion.
Speaker:So it started very,
Speaker:very, very niche,
Speaker:like a wine cork place card holder.
Speaker:That's all I sold.
Speaker:You kind of might think like how on earth could you
Speaker:have a business around making a place card holder out of
Speaker:a wine cork?
Speaker:That's insane.
Speaker:But I mean,
Speaker:that's what the internet allows us to do.
Speaker:It allows me to reach a worldwide audience of people getting
Speaker:married and then it branched out from there could use these
Speaker:for a wedding.
Speaker:You could use these for a good old dinner party.
Speaker:You could use them on your Thanksgiving table.
Speaker:So over time,
Speaker:I guess the way I visualize the product being used,
Speaker:evolved a little bit,
Speaker:because I did start with just weddings in mind.
Speaker:So that was the initial product today.
Speaker:I sell about a hundred,
Speaker:120 different variations of a wine cork place card holder.
Speaker:Oh, wow.
Speaker:Yeah. So if you visit my online store,
Speaker:you'll see different colors,
Speaker:different styles.
Speaker:Some are three quirks,
Speaker:some are two quirks,
Speaker:some are one cork,
Speaker:lots of variations on that.
Speaker:And then I do have a couple of other products that
Speaker:I've added over the past three years that I didn't start
Speaker:selling, but as things evolved and I tried out different mediums
Speaker:and things grew a little bit,
Speaker:I've expanded that This is a perfect example of something.
Speaker:Just one thing like you're saying,
Speaker:and then building an entire business around it,
Speaker:you must have seen some initial,
Speaker:really strong success with that.
Speaker:Then I did.
Speaker:And I think that was because it was so dialed in
Speaker:and it was so focused.
Speaker:And so if you're a wine lover and you're getting married
Speaker:and you're searching for wine cork place,
Speaker:card holder,
Speaker:my goal,
Speaker:and what I knew needed to happen is that I needed
Speaker:to be the one that you saw again,
Speaker:that sounds like how could you ever reach enough people,
Speaker:but you'd be by just cornering that little niche thing,
Speaker:like a wine lover,
Speaker:who's getting married and just running that show every time someone
Speaker:searches for that I'm coming up.
Speaker:And so that was how it started.
Speaker:Did you agree,
Speaker:expand From there in terms of,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I would see opportunity with vineyards and event planners and all
Speaker:of that.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:how, how did you build it out?
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:It's really interesting because even today that is something that I
Speaker:had always thought of doing.
Speaker:And I did it on a very small scale.
Speaker:So just literally searching on again,
Speaker:Google or Facebook and compiling a manual list of vineyards.
Speaker:I could reach out to event planners I could reach out
Speaker:to. And what I found happened over time,
Speaker:first of all,
Speaker:I stay home with our two children.
Speaker:So I don't enlist daycare.
Speaker:My daughter does go to part-time preschool.
Speaker:Now that she's four years old,
Speaker:but I'm with my son all day long.
Speaker:So I have a very limited amount of time to work
Speaker:with. And over the years,
Speaker:orders roll in at a pace that I'm literally filling,
Speaker:making, filling orders.
Speaker:I'm communicating,
Speaker:I'm just keeping my business running.
Speaker:And so I have not up until today.
Speaker:I haven't had a ton of extra time to be outbound
Speaker:doing marketing and sales to actual vineyards,
Speaker:actual event planners.
Speaker:The internet has done that for me.
Speaker:And I don't have any leftover time right now to be
Speaker:out pounding the pavement and doing that portion of the business,
Speaker:although as time goes on and my children are in school,
Speaker:full-time, that's the kind of thing that I'm really looking forward
Speaker:to being able to do more of as I have some
Speaker:more time free up in my life,
Speaker:Right? And that can be in the future.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:success of a business doesn't necessarily equate to a ton of
Speaker:money. You need to make an income.
Speaker:If it's a business,
Speaker:clearly when given your situation,
Speaker:you wanted the income,
Speaker:but right.
Speaker:Success to you sounds like right now,
Speaker:running the business,
Speaker:keeping it stable,
Speaker:let's say maybe small growth enough for you to keep up
Speaker:with, but that's perfect for you right now because your priority
Speaker:is to be with the family Exactly yet.
Speaker:And if my business can maintain our lifestyle,
Speaker:we're very comfortable.
Speaker:We do a lot of fun things.
Speaker:We have everything we need,
Speaker:and we have a lot of the things that we want.
Speaker:And if I can be here with my children,
Speaker:full-time and I can work on my own terms and I
Speaker:can be my own boss.
Speaker:I could not paint a picture of better success for me
Speaker:and for our family.
Speaker:So that's what is really truly important to me.
Speaker:Absolutely. Give biz listeners rewind 30 seconds and listen to that
Speaker:again, because it's so telling everyone's talking about money,
Speaker:I'm making this money,
Speaker:I'm making this money.
Speaker:And if people can make a ton of money and not
Speaker:be happy again,
Speaker:I just want to reinforce that success can be a whole
Speaker:lot of different definitions here.
Speaker:Absolutely. So talk a little bit about keeping up with those
Speaker:orders. Are you always able to do it?
Speaker:Are there any struggles,
Speaker:is there any advice for some of our handmade creators I've
Speaker:found it works really well for me,
Speaker:if I can visualize my day and visualize any little pockets
Speaker:of time where I can be doing anything.
Speaker:And so it doesn't need to be necessarily,
Speaker:I have an enormous order.
Speaker:That's going to take four hours from start to finish.
Speaker:And unless I have four hours of time,
Speaker:there's no point in working on it.
Speaker:So I train myself to look at the entire process in
Speaker:like little bits and pieces of things that need to be
Speaker:done. So for example,
Speaker:if I have five minutes,
Speaker:I can sit and count out the corks and put them
Speaker:in a box and put the shipping label in there and
Speaker:just start and just do one little piece of it.
Speaker:I mentioned earlier,
Speaker:my husband is a school teacher.
Speaker:He teaches high school.
Speaker:So we are lucky that his hours are pretty early.
Speaker:He gets home about three 30 in the afternoon.
Speaker:And then at that point he takes the kids until bedtime.
Speaker:So that's really my work time,
Speaker:but I've become a lot better at managing my time at
Speaker:identifying when I'm going to have again,
Speaker:a little pocket of time and really taking advantage of that,
Speaker:having my materials set up so that they're accessible to me
Speaker:so that I can just reach over and be doing something
Speaker:anytime I have a spare moment.
Speaker:So not to feel again helpless,
Speaker:if you don't have eight hours in a day to be
Speaker:working, which I think sometimes we visualize like I need an
Speaker:eight hour Workday or else nothing's going to get done.
Speaker:Try to train yourself to use any little pocket of time.
Speaker:You can and just really take advantage of that Because I
Speaker:would imagine those little packets really add up to quite a
Speaker:bit of time.
Speaker:They definitely do.
Speaker:I also wake up really early in the mornings.
Speaker:I try to keep my computer timely,
Speaker:my emails,
Speaker:my blog posts,
Speaker:prepping, you know,
Speaker:order, receipts,
Speaker:answering questions,
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:I try to wake up before the family gets up so
Speaker:that that's over and done with,
Speaker:I'm not messing around with my computer during the day.
Speaker:That's turned off for the rest of the day more or
Speaker:less. So it sounds like you really have a structure.
Speaker:Can you figure that out In the morning,
Speaker:you get that all done.
Speaker:Then you've got your time with the kids throughout the day.
Speaker:And then when your husband comes home,
Speaker:then you can go and work on any orders,
Speaker:any product,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:But then throughout the day,
Speaker:if you see little bits of time,
Speaker:you've already thought of what you could do,
Speaker:or you're not going to say,
Speaker:Oh, I have 10 minutes now,
Speaker:what am I going to do?
Speaker:You already know what you want.
Speaker:Exactly. And that has been key.
Speaker:And that took me a really long time to figure out
Speaker:trust me.
Speaker:And so The routine similar day after day,
Speaker:yeah, It is more or less.
Speaker:My daughter goes to preschool three days a week and that's
Speaker:changed from last year.
Speaker:She was only going a half day last year,
Speaker:this coming year,
Speaker:she's going to be going a full day.
Speaker:So that's going to be a little bit different,
Speaker:but yeah,
Speaker:more or less the wake up,
Speaker:we get ready for the day we go out and do
Speaker:something really fun.
Speaker:And then we come home midday and that's when they'll play
Speaker:with their toys in the room.
Speaker:They'll maybe watch a show for a little while.
Speaker:And that's when I ramp up getting ready to work.
Speaker:And then my husband comes home and then that's when like
Speaker:the glue gun gets plugged in.
Speaker:And I think that's serious.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:I really start working.
Speaker:Well, it totally sounds like you have it together.
Speaker:And it's nice to hear this just by example,
Speaker:for other people who are in a similar situation,
Speaker:you got the plan,
Speaker:but it sounds so easy when you describe it,
Speaker:but just free flows throughout your day.
Speaker:I'm sure there are times when it's not like that.
Speaker:And we're going to get into that in a second,
Speaker:but just to have that kind of structure,
Speaker:I think the key is having those blocks of time figured
Speaker:out and specifically what you're going to do about it.
Speaker:So you don't just walk into it saying,
Speaker:okay, now I've got a little bit of time,
Speaker:but you have no idea what you're going to do.
Speaker:Just really having a solid purpose for each of those blocks
Speaker:of time.
Speaker:Absolutely. And it,
Speaker:it is not always easy,
Speaker:like you said,
Speaker:of course it's not,
Speaker:it, there are struggles when you have a two-year-old and a
Speaker:four-year-old and you have your listeners with little kids at home
Speaker:can definitely relate to that.
Speaker:So I don't mean to make it sound like it's easy
Speaker:peasy done.
Speaker:Yeah. Well,
Speaker:let's go there.
Speaker:Let's go there.
Speaker:Give us a challenging time.
Speaker:Let's do it.
Speaker:So the first winter after I left my job,
Speaker:so I guess this would be winter of 2013.
Speaker:I do wedding,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it's focused on weddings.
Speaker:And so wedding season sales wise runs from about January until
Speaker:August. And then after August things really slow down September,
Speaker:October, November,
Speaker:and December are pretty lean months in the wedding sales business
Speaker:period. So that first winter I had really,
Speaker:really prepared for that.
Speaker:I was really ready for that.
Speaker:I was actually over prepared because my husband and I are
Speaker:kind of worriers.
Speaker:Like we tend to overdo it a little bit when we're
Speaker:socking away,
Speaker:things, money and things.
Speaker:So for that first year,
Speaker:it was like,
Speaker:I'm going to assume that I'm going to make no money
Speaker:for four months.
Speaker:And we were ready for that.
Speaker:So the second year winter comes along and I had not
Speaker:prepared so well.
Speaker:And the sales tapered off and in November ish,
Speaker:I was selling solely on Etsy at the time at sea
Speaker:was my only sales platform.
Speaker:And they did some changes with their algorithm and the search
Speaker:terms. And some backend changes that really impacted the way my
Speaker:product was being shown to potential buyers.
Speaker:So not only was it a slow month,
Speaker:just because it was a slow month,
Speaker:it was like crickets,
Speaker:nothing. And that was terrifying.
Speaker:I had conversations with John that I'm really scared that my
Speaker:worst fear is coming true right now.
Speaker:And I'm afraid that if things don't turn right away in
Speaker:January, I'm going to have to start looking for work because
Speaker:I was convinced in my head that that was it.
Speaker:Like your luck's run out.
Speaker:It's over.
Speaker:They'll never,
Speaker:they'll never be another sale again.
Speaker:Exactly. And it's funny because one of your guests,
Speaker:I think her name was Angela from 68 episode 68.
Speaker:I just listened to it.
Speaker:And she was talking about this mental cycle that we go
Speaker:through where it's like,
Speaker:okay, my luck's run dry.
Speaker:I'm never going to sell anything ever again.
Speaker:It's over coming.
Speaker:That mentality is really hard.
Speaker:So anyway,
Speaker:things di spoiler alert,
Speaker:things did pick up in January.
Speaker:Things were fine.
Speaker:However, I bottled up that fear and I knew that I
Speaker:had to implement something so that those fall and winter months
Speaker:were not so dry of sales.
Speaker:So I was proactive starting in January.
Speaker:At the beginning of the year,
Speaker:I started conceptualizing a holiday ornament that I would design make
Speaker:and sell the next that coming up winter.
Speaker:So this is now 2015 last year was the first year
Speaker:I sold holiday ornaments and that in effect,
Speaker:rounded out my sales cycle so that every single month of
Speaker:the year I was bringing in consistent,
Speaker:reliable income.
Speaker:So that helped a lot.
Speaker:And the challenge being,
Speaker:again, those wedding sales months were so slim,
Speaker:okay. Then make a holiday product and round it out.
Speaker:And that's what I did.
Speaker:And it worked really,
Speaker:really well.
Speaker:That's fabulous.
Speaker:And so the holiday ornament,
Speaker:is that here,
Speaker:you're along the branding the same way,
Speaker:or is it wine corks and somehow related to weddings like
Speaker:first holiday together or anything or yes,
Speaker:Exactly. So what I did is I took the concept of
Speaker:marketing to brides and people getting married and made your first
Speaker:married Christmas,
Speaker:or your first Christmas as a married couple.
Speaker:And this ornament celebrates that it is wedding themed.
Speaker:It does not have anything to do with wine corks.
Speaker:So I,
Speaker:I went away from those,
Speaker:for this product.
Speaker:It's a Palm under ball.
Speaker:So like,
Speaker:you'll see flower girls often carrying a ball of flowers on
Speaker:a string shirt.
Speaker:So this is that in miniature.
Speaker:And then I hand stamp a customized brass tag that then
Speaker:gets attached to it with your initials and your wedding date
Speaker:and a heart,
Speaker:and that kind of personalizes it.
Speaker:And the fact that you stayed on brand,
Speaker:but varied it a little bit,
Speaker:just a little bit makes you still so unique.
Speaker:I don't think I've ever seen anything like that actually for
Speaker:weddings. So you're staying totally with your theme totally with your
Speaker:brand and then figuring out how to fill in very low
Speaker:promotional and sales time,
Speaker:which is spectacular and give his listeners also,
Speaker:depending on what your industry is that you're in,
Speaker:there are going to be peak times and slow times and
Speaker:a car you're a little bit different because usually it's the
Speaker:holidays when it's such a big time for most people,
Speaker:right? So you're actually opposite that.
Speaker:But for all of us recognizing that there are going to
Speaker:be ebbs and flows in the business.
Speaker:So you're not totally freaked out when that happens.
Speaker:But then on the other side,
Speaker:use that time for other types of things like analyzing your
Speaker:business, strategizing for the future,
Speaker:developing a new product to fill in those lower times,
Speaker:all of that.
Speaker:So the slower times don't necessarily need to be bad times
Speaker:as long as you plan for it financially,
Speaker:and then use your time.
Speaker:Well to continue to grow your business.
Speaker:I totally agree.
Speaker:That's really,
Speaker:really good advice.
Speaker:Let's talk a little bit more about bringing in customers.
Speaker:So you had an Etsy site.
Speaker:Did you see,
Speaker:by the way,
Speaker:just kind of a side note as Etsy becomes more and
Speaker:more popular,
Speaker:did you start seeing decline other than just the algorithms and
Speaker:the search on the site,
Speaker:but were you starting to see more competition over there?
Speaker:Absolutely. There is a lot of competition on Etsy and I
Speaker:mean, that marketplace has become just flooded with people who are
Speaker:selling their handmade goods and that's an amazing thing,
Speaker:but it is important to recognize that and to really,
Speaker:really put a lot of effort into differentiating yourself,
Speaker:making sure that your product photos are spot on and just
Speaker:really making sure that you're standing out from that crowd that
Speaker:has collectively come along in the past few years,
Speaker:the algorithm thing was like a very temporary,
Speaker:like a very little blip on the radar.
Speaker:So it happened to be at a really stressful time for
Speaker:me and my business.
Speaker:So at that time to me,
Speaker:it was like,
Speaker:again, I was thinking just my world is over.
Speaker:Like this algorithm change has screwed up everything for me,
Speaker:and I'm never going to sell anything again,
Speaker:I don't have any gripes with any algorithms or anything like
Speaker:that. I can't really let myself focus on that because it's
Speaker:out of my control.
Speaker:So I kind of tend to focus more on the things
Speaker:that I can control,
Speaker:and that is my product and how I present it and
Speaker:how I put it out to the world and how I
Speaker:market it across different social medias,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:So are you marketing you're obviously on Etsy and then what
Speaker:else are you doing to bring in the sales?
Speaker:I am on Etsy back in 2014,
Speaker:I also started selling on a platform called Shopify and Shopify
Speaker:really allows you to run your own show.
Speaker:So you are creating your own website.
Speaker:It is totally independent of a larger company's policies and rules
Speaker:and regulations on Etsy.
Speaker:You're kind of abiding by Etsy's rules on Shopify.
Speaker:You make your own store,
Speaker:you make your own policies.
Speaker:You are totally in control of everything that happens to that
Speaker:website, which is really a blessing in many ways.
Speaker:It gives you just a lot more autonomy over your business.
Speaker:The challenge with that is the marketing.
Speaker:So my Shopify sales versus my Etsy sales today,
Speaker:it's about one quarter Shopify,
Speaker:three quarters at sea,
Speaker:and I'm just talking sales revenue to get that independent website
Speaker:out, to get my brand out.
Speaker:I've found Pinterest to be invaluable just for the wedding industry.
Speaker:It's served me really,
Speaker:really well.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:I do try to keep my product photos really top notch.
Speaker:And so that translates really well to a platform like Pinterest.
Speaker:Essentially, once a pin gets repositioned and gets picked up by
Speaker:hundreds, thousands of people it's out there living in the internet
Speaker:forever. So people stumble across pins that I have put up
Speaker:four or five years ago and they're still generating traffic for
Speaker:me. So that's been a really powerful tool for my standalone
Speaker:website and my standalone brand in helping me get that out.
Speaker:And Pinterest does allow advertising for businesses as many social platforms
Speaker:do. However,
Speaker:the most successful pins I have on Pinterest have just been
Speaker:completely organic,
Speaker:not paid.
Speaker:It's a totally free platform.
Speaker:So I would really recommend anyone out there looking for some
Speaker:free advertising.
Speaker:That's a really,
Speaker:really smart place to focus in on.
Speaker:And I know about Pinterest and I'm not sure if the
Speaker:number is the same today,
Speaker:but most people repin other people's pins versus putting something up
Speaker:themselves. So for you,
Speaker:and then any other gift is listeners.
Speaker:If you are actually adding material versus just repinning other people,
Speaker:you have such an advantage.
Speaker:Absolutely. At one point I heard it was like 93% of
Speaker:everything is pins versus original content.
Speaker:I don't really know differently at this point,
Speaker:but no,
Speaker:That sounds,
Speaker:that sounds about right,
Speaker:because the consumers,
Speaker:the people who we are marketing to,
Speaker:they're not uploading the pins.
Speaker:They are repenting what we are giving them.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:it does put you in a very powerful position as the
Speaker:content creator,
Speaker:putting something out there and then having the masses just kind
Speaker:of have access to run with it.
Speaker:It's a really powerful marketing tool.
Speaker:You haven't talked a lot about Pinterest on this podcast,
Speaker:so I'm really,
Speaker:really glad you brought that up Quickly too,
Speaker:with Pinterest and the Shopify platform that I sell on Shopify
Speaker:and Pinterest have actually teamed up to offer,
Speaker:buy they're called buyable pins.
Speaker:So if you're on Pinterest from an iOS and Apple device,
Speaker:you'll see oftentimes a blue by it button.
Speaker:So you can actually buy product from Pinterest from that platform
Speaker:and that's Shopify integrating itself into Pinterest.
Speaker:So that is a really good benefit of again,
Speaker:using the Shopify platform.
Speaker:You can have your products actually available for sale on Pinterest.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:it's totally free,
Speaker:just a free feature of using that Shopify platform.
Speaker:Wonderful. And for listeners who aren't familiar with Shopify,
Speaker:this is not a hundred percent custom,
Speaker:really expensive option.
Speaker:You are.
Speaker:Would you just call it more template driven?
Speaker:Yes, Exactly.
Speaker:It's a template.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:you can get as fancy as you'd like,
Speaker:you could certainly have a professional developer build you your really
Speaker:custom site.
Speaker:But what I did is I went in again with my
Speaker:limited self-taught knowledge of web coding and things like that.
Speaker:They do make it very easy for someone who's just getting
Speaker:started up to drag and drop and use almost complete templates.
Speaker:You can Connect a shopping cart up.
Speaker:One of my sites is also on Shopify and I actually
Speaker:saw there's great search on Shopify as well.
Speaker:So I think the combination of the two sound spectacular and
Speaker:clearly it's working for you.
Speaker:Yeah, I would,
Speaker:I would recommend it.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:We're Going to roll now into our reflection section.
Speaker:This is a look at you and other things that we
Speaker:might not have talked about yet that help keep everything moving
Speaker:forward for you.
Speaker:Is there one trait that you have that you've always had,
Speaker:like even from when you were little that you see that
Speaker:you call upon to make your business successful?
Speaker:My tray,
Speaker:I'm going to have to say it's confidence.
Speaker:And if the confidence is not there,
Speaker:then I fake it growing up.
Speaker:I I'm very tall.
Speaker:I'm six feet tall.
Speaker:And so growing up when I was young,
Speaker:I was always the tallest person.
Speaker:And honestly,
Speaker:being a tall,
Speaker:confident adolescent girl was really,
Speaker:really hard.
Speaker:That's a hard time in life,
Speaker:just period,
Speaker:fast forward though,
Speaker:to my adult life,
Speaker:I've seen my confidence.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:my ability,
Speaker:if I don't feel confident and I am a little bit
Speaker:nervous or I'm not sure I'm a hundred percent positive,
Speaker:what I'm doing,
Speaker:just fake it.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:you've got to put on that face and just present yourself
Speaker:to the world in that way.
Speaker:And I found that if I'm not feeling confident,
Speaker:if I just fake it,
Speaker:then eventually you come around to it.
Speaker:So it all kind of works out in the end.
Speaker:But I think it's so easy in our business,
Speaker:in what we do as handmade artists in the online space,
Speaker:on social media,
Speaker:you come across feeling like I'm an imposter.
Speaker:Like, what am I even doing?
Speaker:I do.
Speaker:I even belong here and you got to turn that off.
Speaker:You have to beat it.
Speaker:And my confidence has really,
Speaker:I think taken me far in that respect.
Speaker:I agree with you on confidence also,
Speaker:even if you're not there right now and you fake it,
Speaker:as you're saying that helps to change your mindset as well,
Speaker:that makes you confident.
Speaker:Absolutely. Totally agree.
Speaker:And what tool do you use regularly as you're planning out,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you've got your day all structured,
Speaker:right? What's the most significant tool that you're using in any
Speaker:of your time slots the morning or a night when you
Speaker:go back to work to keep you productive?
Speaker:So this is like an anti tool because I'm not really
Speaker:into like techie tools.
Speaker:I don't have a lot of fancy programs and things like
Speaker:that. A mental tool that I use is really just turn
Speaker:it off,
Speaker:try to make the absolute,
Speaker:most of the time I have to work on my business.
Speaker:And at the end of that,
Speaker:just really force myself to turn it off.
Speaker:There's nothing that sending one more tweet out or creating one
Speaker:more pin or taking one more look at my shop stats.
Speaker:Like that's not going to push me forward anywhere.
Speaker:And in the past I've found that it makes me overwhelmed
Speaker:and it's frustrating at times.
Speaker:So I really try to be very deliberate about pushing the
Speaker:off button and it's over the computer is closed and I'll
Speaker:finish it up tomorrow,
Speaker:just resisting that urge to continually be plugged into it,
Speaker:giving yourself a break.
Speaker:Exactly. And were you not doing that before?
Speaker:And was that causing you more stress?
Speaker:How did you get to the idea of turning it off?
Speaker:Yeah, you know,
Speaker:I would carry around,
Speaker:obviously I had my cell phone with me during the day
Speaker:and these various sales platform send notifications to the phone and
Speaker:I would find myself out with my kids and I'm feeling
Speaker:like there's an urgent question that I have to answer right
Speaker:now. And that was really frustrating and I never wanted to
Speaker:be on my phone and distracted when I was out having
Speaker:fun with them.
Speaker:But on the other hand,
Speaker:I felt this urgency behind getting back to this person.
Speaker:And so that created a lot of frustration in my life
Speaker:and kind of recognizing that it's not the end of the
Speaker:world. Like the world is not going to stop turning.
Speaker:If this person doesn't hear from me until three hours when
Speaker:we get home.
Speaker:And so that kind of thing,
Speaker:just, this is not work time.
Speaker:This is playtime and I want to be available to my
Speaker:customers and I want to be as responsive as possible,
Speaker:but I am not available 24 seven to this business.
Speaker:I don't want to be.
Speaker:And so that was kind of a conscious decision that I
Speaker:made as they matured.
Speaker:And as my business grew and it's been very valuable to
Speaker:me, It sounds like you're a very be in the moment
Speaker:girl, when you're in the business,
Speaker:you're in the business.
Speaker:And then you're when you're with your children.
Speaker:You're with them.
Speaker:Absolutely not.
Speaker:I'll tell you.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I've seen that too.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I've been one,
Speaker:my kids were older when I started my businesses when I
Speaker:was in corporate,
Speaker:that's a whole nother story,
Speaker:but I just felt like I could be 24 seven because
Speaker:no one was telling me I couldn't,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:the kids are off doing their stuff,
Speaker:but it's draining,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you never get a break.
Speaker:And so longevity of being able to continue going,
Speaker:and I know you have big plans for your future,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you need to reserve the energy plus the mindset sometimes when
Speaker:you get the best ideas when you're not even thinking about
Speaker:it. Yes,
Speaker:absolutely. I totally agree.
Speaker:That happens in me.
Speaker:I love that you describe it as a mental tool and
Speaker:turning it off.
Speaker:That's fabulous.
Speaker:I'm so glad you brought it up.
Speaker:And then when you're not,
Speaker:when you decide you're going to read or listen to something,
Speaker:is there a book or a podcast that you reference all
Speaker:the time that you think our listeners should take a look
Speaker:at? Yeah.
Speaker:So a book that I read recently and it came recommended
Speaker:to me by one of your past guests,
Speaker:Kate Erickson,
Speaker:she was back at the beginning.
Speaker:I think your episode,
Speaker:number five,
Speaker:essential ism by Greg McKeon is a great book for a
Speaker:business owner to read.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:if you are staying at home with little children or you're
Speaker:juggling your craft business with another full-time job,
Speaker:this book just really breaks it down to like,
Speaker:you have to focus on what is absolutely essential and everything
Speaker:else needs to get.
Speaker:Like I mentioned before,
Speaker:you need to turn that off and you need to tune
Speaker:it out because it's not going to serve you.
Speaker:If you can identify what is absolutely essential,
Speaker:what must happen to make my business grow,
Speaker:focus on that.
Speaker:And that book was awesome for that.
Speaker:I agree with you.
Speaker:I've had that book on audio and I've,
Speaker:I've actually listened to it a couple of times just because
Speaker:I have to keep bringing myself.
Speaker:It is so good.
Speaker:Give his listeners just as you're listening to the podcast today,
Speaker:you can listen to audio books,
Speaker:just like I was talking about.
Speaker:I've teamed up with audible for you to get a free
Speaker:audio book.
Speaker:If you haven't already,
Speaker:all you need to do is go to gift biz,
Speaker:book.com and make a selection.
Speaker:Okay, Kara,
Speaker:I want to present you with a virtual gift.
Speaker:It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
Speaker:So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable
Speaker:Heights that you would wish to obtain.
Speaker:Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
Speaker:What is inside your box?
Speaker:Thank you so much for this gift.
Speaker:You have just gifted me with an eighth day of the
Speaker:week. All right.
Speaker:Time, time,
Speaker:time, time,
Speaker:Time, unlimited,
Speaker:time to dream and reflect and just kind of download.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:we get so busy and things get so crazy every single
Speaker:day. It's such a luxury to give yourself the time to
Speaker:sit down and again,
Speaker:just reflect,
Speaker:download what happened that day?
Speaker:What were your successes?
Speaker:What were your failures?
Speaker:What can you work on?
Speaker:What can you do better?
Speaker:And that time is so critical to being better business owners,
Speaker:to being better parents,
Speaker:just to being a better person.
Speaker:So again,
Speaker:the gift of time,
Speaker:and I've found,
Speaker:I talked about it a little bit today,
Speaker:but I've found that you can carve out those moments of
Speaker:time and really give yourself that because you totally deserve it.
Speaker:Absolutely. I agree with you.
Speaker:But I will say also as a mother of grown children,
Speaker:there is nothing like the times that you're in right now.
Speaker:And I love the fact that you're building your business around
Speaker:that around family and really making sure you're very clear for
Speaker:yourself on what's important.
Speaker:I just think it makes me very happy that you're doing,
Speaker:Oh, that means a lot to me.
Speaker:Thank you for saying that True.
Speaker:Cause it's so easy to get off course,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:when you've got the business and it's so easy just to
Speaker:say, okay,
Speaker:they can wait for just another 10 minutes.
Speaker:I got to talk to this customer.
Speaker:Really great message to pull forward for everybody listening myself included,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:make sure your priorities are aware years from now.
Speaker:You will have wished that they were,
Speaker:and you're doing exactly that.
Speaker:So I'm,
Speaker:I'm really,
Speaker:really sorry.
Speaker:Oh, thank you,
Speaker:Sue. I hope your listeners found some value in this conversation
Speaker:we had today.
Speaker:There's a lot of value here for sure.
Speaker:Now, if there was one place,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I find sometimes people are listening and they get on with
Speaker:their life really quickly if they're out and about not near
Speaker:a computer,
Speaker:but they wanted to find one place to see what else
Speaker:is going on with you in terms of taking a look
Speaker:at the product or anything like that,
Speaker:where would you direct them?
Speaker:I would send you to my website and it's Caras vineyard,
Speaker:wedding.com. And there you can get in touch with me.
Speaker:You can find out more about my product and also about
Speaker:my podcasts called the wedding planning podcast.
Speaker:Let's talk about that really quickly.
Speaker:I'm glad we didn't forget to bring that up.
Speaker:Talk about that just,
Speaker:just for a bit here.
Speaker:Wedding planning podcast is I should have mentioned it earlier when
Speaker:we were talking about marketing effort.
Speaker:I just launched it this past January.
Speaker:So it's an audio blog,
Speaker:different kind of wedding blog.
Speaker:I try to use very common sense,
Speaker:very down to earth,
Speaker:wedding planning,
Speaker:advice for brides and grooms who are on tight budgets and
Speaker:who don't have a ton of money to go crazy.
Speaker:I just like to give straightforward wedding planning advice and you
Speaker:can catch that on iTunes or Stitcher radio,
Speaker:or again on my website,
Speaker:I do episodes twice per week.
Speaker:So if you are planning a wedding or if friends or
Speaker:family are planning their weddings,
Speaker:please let them know about the podcast.
Speaker:I absolutely love to have new listeners.
Speaker:Perfect. Thank you.
Speaker:I'm so glad we got that in.
Speaker:And all of that of course is also going to be
Speaker:on the show notes.
Speaker:We'll also put your Pinterest page out there and all the
Speaker:different links so that you'll be able to find Kara any
Speaker:way you want.
Speaker:No excuses.
Speaker:Awesome. Thank you so much.
Speaker:So Thank you.
Speaker:I really,
Speaker:really appreciate all the information your time today because we know
Speaker:how important your time is.
Speaker:You've taken a big chunk of it for us today.
Speaker:Really appreciate it.
Speaker:You've brought up some information that we haven't talked about before,
Speaker:specifically Shopify and Pinterest and all of the value in terms
Speaker:of making a really,
Speaker:really solid business,
Speaker:but a business that works with your lifestyle right at this
Speaker:time. And I think that that is so,
Speaker:so important.
Speaker:I wish you continued success and may your candle always burn
Speaker:bright. Thank you Susan,
Speaker:For having me.
Speaker:Where are you in your business building journey,
Speaker:whether you're just starting out or already running a business and
Speaker:you want to know your setup for success.
Speaker:Find out by taking the gift biz quiz,
Speaker:access the quiz from your computer at bit dot L Y
Speaker:slash gift biz quiz or from your phone like texting gift
Speaker:biz quiz to four four,
Speaker:two, two,
Speaker:two. Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for
Speaker:the episode.
Speaker:Today's show is sponsored by the ribbon print company,
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Speaker:Who've already left a rating by subscribing rating and reviewing help
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Speaker:It's a great way to pay it forward,