018 – Sales Secrets Hidden in Customer Surveys with Terry August of Fanciful
Terry started Fancifull back in 1987 from her dining room table. Today her business has grown into a famous fine food and gift shop on Melrose Avenue – just a 5 minute walk from Paramount Studios.
A look into the Fancifull shop reveals an array of fresh gourmet foods and wine to suit any taste. What sets them apart is the elite clientele they serve while still offering a comfortable and personable style. They maintain a gift site and send gifts daily for Sony Pictures. Conan O’Brien has been a client for years … as was Michael Jackson. They send gift baskets from other celebrities such as Jenifer Lopez, Charleze Theron and Director Tim Burton. During the recent Emmy’s, they did a large basket for Lily Tomelin. This gives you a pretty good picture of her clientele.
All this sounds really exciting but she says “It’s just part of working in Hollywood.”
This is Part 2 of a 2 episode talk with Terry. Listen to Gift Biz Unwrapped Episode 017 for the beginning of the interview where she shares how Fanciful uses customer surveys to increase sales and many more actions they take to keep their business solid.
Motivational Quote
Business Insights
The value of customer surveys [4:23]
Terry’s secret weapon [8:15]
How to handle mistakes [11:30]
Passing up business [15:38]
Success Trait
Terry is gutsy and persistent [13:12]
Productivity/Lifestyle Tools
Good planning process [19:25]
Balancing different areas of life [21:35]
Valuable Book
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell
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 18.
Speaker:Hi, this is John Lee Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,
Speaker:and you're listening to gifted biz unwrapped,
Speaker:and now it's time to light it up.
Speaker:Welcome to gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop
Speaker:and grow your business.
Speaker:And now here's your host,
Speaker:Sue Monheit.
Speaker:Hi there.
Speaker:I'm Sue and welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast,
Speaker:Whether you own a brick and mortar store online,
Speaker:or just getting started,
Speaker:you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your
Speaker:business. After you listened to the show,
Speaker:if you like what you're hearing,
Speaker:make sure to jump over and subscribe to the show on
Speaker:iTunes. That way you'll automatically get the newest episodes when they
Speaker:go live.
Speaker:And thank you to those who have already left a rating
Speaker:and review by subscribing rating and reviewing you help to increase
Speaker:the visibility of gift biz unwrapped.
Speaker:It's a great way to pay it forward.
Speaker:To help others with their entrepreneurial journey as well.
Speaker:Today, we are joined by teary Aug of fanciful find food
Speaker:and baskets.
Speaker:Terry started fanciful back in 1987 from her dining room table.
Speaker:Today, her business has grown into a famous find food and
Speaker:gift shop on Melrose avenue in Hollywood,
Speaker:just a five minute walk from paramount studios.
Speaker:Look into the fanciful.
Speaker:Shop reveals an array of fresh gourmet foods and wine to
Speaker:suit any taste.
Speaker:What sets them apart is the elite clientele they serve while
Speaker:still offering a comfortable and personable environment.
Speaker:I've just got to do some name dropping here.
Speaker:So you truly understand Terry's business.
Speaker:They maintain a gift site and send gift daily for Sony
Speaker:pictures. Conan O'Brien has been a client for years,
Speaker:as well as my all time.
Speaker:Favorite Michael Jackson,
Speaker:they send gift baskets for many celebrities,
Speaker:such as Jennifer Lopez and Charlise Theron.
Speaker:One of their most recent jobs is a large gift basket
Speaker:for Lily Tomlin who was nominated for an Emmy.
Speaker:I think you get the feel here.
Speaker:All this sounds really exciting to me,
Speaker:but she says it's just part of working in Hollywood.
Speaker:Let's jump over to Terry now and see what else we
Speaker:can find out about her fascinating company.
Speaker:Hi Terry,
Speaker:welcome to the show.
Speaker:Hey Sue.
Speaker:Thanks so much.
Speaker:Glad to be here.
Speaker:Is there anything you'd like to add to your introduction before
Speaker:we get started?
Speaker:No. You summed it up pretty darn.
Speaker:Well, I mean,
Speaker:we've been around for 28 years and yes we do celebrities,
Speaker:but you know,
Speaker:what makes me happy sometimes is when we do gifts for
Speaker:that 93 year old grandmother who loves bud light,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and you just go,
Speaker:oh, okay.
Speaker:Yeah, I'll put that in a basket for her.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:we like to say we're of the people for the people.
Speaker:We just like making people happy and setting out these little
Speaker:baskets of love.
Speaker:This is actually part two of our interview with Terry.
Speaker:She had so many things to share that I decided to
Speaker:split it into two different episodes.
Speaker:If you've missed part one,
Speaker:just jump over to gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped episode 17,
Speaker:where she shares in detail,
Speaker:how she started the business,
Speaker:her experiences in getting her very first Hollywood basket and challenges
Speaker:she's overcome along the way.
Speaker:There's also a very heartwarming story that came about from listening
Speaker:to her intuition.
Speaker:It's really a not to be missed discussion.
Speaker:And now we'll jump into part two of our chat with
Speaker:Terry Aug from fanciful.
Speaker:Talk to us a little bit about a promotion or some
Speaker:event that you've done,
Speaker:that our listeners could also draw knowledge from that brought in
Speaker:more customers or somehow move the needle.
Speaker:In some way I can think of two.
Speaker:I think one,
Speaker:it's not like a specific event,
Speaker:but what we were smart about at the beginning is we
Speaker:did this.
Speaker:When we were first in business,
Speaker:we did a big business mixer and it was like a
Speaker:business to business expo that was put onto the Los Angeles
Speaker:chamber. I was smart enough at the time to get this
Speaker:woman to write three survey questions and do surveys.
Speaker:And one of them was which woman who,
Speaker:who I had a woman that I know that I said,
Speaker:Hey, will you come down to our booth?
Speaker:And will you just ask people these questions and write down
Speaker:the answer?
Speaker:What do you want from a corporate gifting company?
Speaker:And what was interesting about it?
Speaker:And we probably talked to hundreds of people when you do
Speaker:a survey,
Speaker:the beauty of it is you get their words.
Speaker:So you know what to put in your promo pieces.
Speaker:And a lot of people,
Speaker:I was surprised,
Speaker:said, we want one-stop shopping.
Speaker:I want it easy.
Speaker:I want to bill one person for like flowers and gifts.
Speaker:I want to make it easy.
Speaker:I need really good customer service.
Speaker:So I took all these surveys and honed them down.
Speaker:And when I saw that one-stop shopping and convenience were big.
Speaker:Well, I have a,
Speaker:I had worked for a floral shop,
Speaker:so I knew how to do flowers.
Speaker:So I went back,
Speaker:but I did some more classes.
Speaker:I had my staff do classes and we began to offer
Speaker:flowers in addition to our baskets.
Speaker:And I tell you,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it's a really pretty big part of our business now.
Speaker:And like Sony,
Speaker:one reason we're on,
Speaker:we have a special website for Sony is they weren't happy
Speaker:with their florist.
Speaker:So they came to us because we could do flowers and
Speaker:we could do baskets.
Speaker:And that's an account that's worth about 70,000
Speaker:a year and has been for 15 years.
Speaker:I think it's so important to ask your clients questions because
Speaker:you might think,
Speaker:you know the answer,
Speaker:but very often you don't or you,
Speaker:or you don't know how they would say it because when
Speaker:you're communicating to them,
Speaker:you want to say it in a way that indicates to
Speaker:them. Another example was years ago,
Speaker:this was before the whole food thing with takeoff.
Speaker:I was going to do all this whole line of organics.
Speaker:And I decided to send an email to my clients and
Speaker:say, okay,
Speaker:would you be more likely to buy a basket that was
Speaker:organic, less likely?
Speaker:Or does it matter?
Speaker:I was shocked at the number of people said less likely.
Speaker:I was told,
Speaker:ready to just,
Speaker:oh, everybody's just going to love my baskets.
Speaker:Because people had this concept that organic didn't translate into tasteful.
Speaker:And so then I knew that I had to,
Speaker:okay, if I'm going to do this,
Speaker:cause I love organics.
Speaker:How do I?
Speaker:And people would say things like,
Speaker:yeah, cookies tastes like tree bark.
Speaker:And they said all this weird stuff.
Speaker:And I went,
Speaker:wow. I had no idea that that would get that reaction.
Speaker:So even now,
Speaker:like we did beacon baskets and it's a big seller,
Speaker:but I sell it by going,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:none of us are vegans,
Speaker:but we all have the food in this.
Speaker:Like I always tell him,
Speaker:I said it has to be good to people who aren't
Speaker:vegan. So they go,
Speaker:oh, that's great.
Speaker:And they'll sell it.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I sell a lot of vegan stuff that way.
Speaker:So I think talking and asking the right questions,
Speaker:don't assume that,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:the other thing we did,
Speaker:especially when it was really slow,
Speaker:we promoted a cheese tasting class at our shop and sold
Speaker:well over 300,
Speaker:we made enough that more than covered our costs.
Speaker:And we got people in our shop and they bought a
Speaker:lot of stuff.
Speaker:So that moves with the two things that I would say
Speaker:when you say promotional is like,
Speaker:always, always,
Speaker:always ask your client because you might think,
Speaker:you know what they're saying?
Speaker:They're thinking,
Speaker:but you probably don't.
Speaker:And then I would say the only other,
Speaker:like one thing we did the event was like doing a
Speaker:coupon that got people into our store.
Speaker:We didn't try and do baskets through it cause I couldn't
Speaker:make money on it.
Speaker:But by doing a cheese class,
Speaker:I got to promote number one,
Speaker:that we had great cheese.
Speaker:I got to promote our great food and I would get
Speaker:30 people at a time at a cheese class and they
Speaker:would buy they'd they'd spend an average of 20 to $30
Speaker:when they'd come in.
Speaker:What Jumps out to me about both of these things is
Speaker:it's not the traditional,
Speaker:oh, I did an event where I was selling product or
Speaker:I did some type of a discount.
Speaker:These were both things that you did that were interactions with
Speaker:the customer.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:And anytime I can talk to a client and get inside
Speaker:their head,
Speaker:the better I can service them.
Speaker:And that's what we are.
Speaker:We are a service company.
Speaker:Yes. I make baskets and I make product.
Speaker:But gift baskets and flowers are really more an intangible.
Speaker:It's more service business and they want something done.
Speaker:They have a problem and you need to solve,
Speaker:Well, let's talk about that on the customer service end.
Speaker:What do you do?
Speaker:How do you interact?
Speaker:Or what do you offer?
Speaker:What do you do specially for your very prestigious clientele to
Speaker:make them feel special,
Speaker:valued? Because I'm sure with your elite clientele,
Speaker:they get that all the time in terms of being special
Speaker:and important and attention given to them and all of that.
Speaker:But what do you do?
Speaker:That's special?
Speaker:Well, number one,
Speaker:I have my husband Wally August on the sales line.
Speaker:And if you go to our Yelp reviews,
Speaker:if you see the number of people who say,
Speaker:Wally is the best,
Speaker:Wally just got what I wanted.
Speaker:He is,
Speaker:he is a master.
Speaker:So he's kind of my secret weapon.
Speaker:And luckily I live with him.
Speaker:So I don't have to worry about him going somewhere else.
Speaker:But what does he do?
Speaker:What, yeah,
Speaker:I guess not he's,
Speaker:he's an employee for life.
Speaker:He's an employee I've heard chained together.
Speaker:No, what we do is we understand that these people are
Speaker:busy and we want life as easy as possible.
Speaker:So we are just competent.
Speaker:We are discreet.
Speaker:Our job from the beginning was we want to get all
Speaker:the data at the beginning,
Speaker:so we never have to call them back my flaws.
Speaker:Well, the other thing I have is while he designed this
Speaker:amazing computer program that we're going to sell,
Speaker:that is an amazing customer service program.
Speaker:So we have complete customer histories back to when ever the
Speaker:internet started.
Speaker:So people can call me and say,
Speaker:what did I send last year to my mom?
Speaker:Oh, you sent this.
Speaker:Oh great.
Speaker:Can you do something a little bit different,
Speaker:same price range.
Speaker:You got our address.
Speaker:Great. And they're off the phone in two minutes,
Speaker:everything we've done with our business,
Speaker:everything we've organized.
Speaker:Like the computer program we designed was all designed to make
Speaker:our customer experience better.
Speaker:We want to make their life as easy as possible.
Speaker:I have customers call us going.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I can't find this address for this client.
Speaker:Do you have it?
Speaker:I know I sent them something and we do.
Speaker:I don't want to be the rut that they can't get
Speaker:out of.
Speaker:I want to make their life so easy.
Speaker:I don't want to give them my problems.
Speaker:I don't care if they're calling at four o'clock in the
Speaker:afternoon and need something way across town,
Speaker:I will never say.
Speaker:And we school,
Speaker:or if you don't say,
Speaker:oh my God,
Speaker:it's later.
Speaker:You kidding?
Speaker:We go,
Speaker:well sure we can do that.
Speaker:Our drivers out,
Speaker:but we're happy to call a courier unless you have a
Speaker:courier you'd like to call.
Speaker:And sometimes a courier is too much for them.
Speaker:So they do it then.
Speaker:But if you can get it there tomorrow,
Speaker:it'll, you know,
Speaker:we can do that.
Speaker:I don't want to give them my problems.
Speaker:I want to handle their problem.
Speaker:And they can make that choice of,
Speaker:yeah. It's worth paying $40 to get it across town.
Speaker:No, I'll wait and do it tomorrow for 15.
Speaker:So our job is just to kind of handle our clients.
Speaker:We have big tastings in our shop for our clients.
Speaker:We send them little gifts all the time.
Speaker:New clients all get a welcome.
Speaker:The fanciful gifts.
Speaker:Every week we have a list.
Speaker:Our computer prints out a list of new clients and we
Speaker:send them a letter with a $10 off coupon for an
Speaker:order of $50 or more.
Speaker:We do a lot.
Speaker:At Christmas time,
Speaker:we send our stellar clients,
Speaker:their list from last year with a gift basket so they
Speaker:can like eat.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:we just kind of pamper them.
Speaker:And my husband is great.
Speaker:What I love is when he has to call somebody like
Speaker:on a sales call,
Speaker:I listened to him and he'll say things like,
Speaker:is this a good time to talk?
Speaker:He's just very polite.
Speaker:And they,
Speaker:and they say,
Speaker:yes, he always makes sure he gets your agreement.
Speaker:That it's okay.
Speaker:He's very respectful.
Speaker:And I got to say that sometimes I listened to him
Speaker:with a client,
Speaker:my golf,
Speaker:if I was a client,
Speaker:I would never go to anyone else.
Speaker:I said you are.
Speaker:So he's just he's.
Speaker:And my I and my other guys are all this way
Speaker:too. They're very friendly.
Speaker:We make friends for life.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:we we've watched people's children's grow.
Speaker:I have this one big client.
Speaker:Who's a caterer to all the celebrities.
Speaker:I remember I used to help him get gifts for his
Speaker:kids when they were like four and six.
Speaker:And now his daughter is like through med school.
Speaker:That's how long people stay with us because we just kind
Speaker:of treat them like they're part of the family.
Speaker:And our job is to make their life easy.
Speaker:And I think they really know that.
Speaker:And if we do make a mistake,
Speaker:I fix it so thoroughly,
Speaker:they tell everybody how amazing we are,
Speaker:because I know if they're mad at you,
Speaker:they're going to tell everybody in their office.
Speaker:But if you fix it and send them a little something,
Speaker:it doesn't cost anything.
Speaker:It costs nothing to keep that client.
Speaker:And then they get a package or a,
Speaker:Hey, we're really sorry.
Speaker:And they get some chocolates.
Speaker:Everybody in the office knows how great fans full is.
Speaker:So it's like,
Speaker:you be penny-wise and pound-foolish sometimes customers want their money back.
Speaker:You go,
Speaker:okay. That really costs me $20.
Speaker:If I keep this client for 20 bucks,
Speaker:that's worth it.
Speaker:So it's always being aware of that,
Speaker:that the client is really important.
Speaker:Exactly. And I have to ask you how big is your
Speaker:customer list?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:It's it's a few thousand,
Speaker:several thousand.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Yeah. I mean,
Speaker:some people just use this at Christmas and no matter what
Speaker:we do to try and get them to order through the
Speaker:year they just corporations like,
Speaker:yeah, they just ordered Christmas and they've ordered every Christmas forever,
Speaker:you know?
Speaker:And then we get people who use this do the year.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:we have like a camera company uses us every week.
Speaker:We have weekly clients,
Speaker:we have yearly clients and we're always going to do 50%
Speaker:of our business at the end of the year.
Speaker:It doesn't matter how busy we are through the year.
Speaker:We'll just have more business at the end of the year.
Speaker:It's just the way it is.
Speaker:It's the way this business is structured As are most gifting
Speaker:companies, just by nature of gifting.
Speaker:The majority of your business is going to come in during
Speaker:holidays last quarter.
Speaker:Yeah. No matter what.
Speaker:Yeah. Terry,
Speaker:we're going to move now into the reflection section.
Speaker:This is a look at you and what's helped you with
Speaker:your success along the way.
Speaker:We've talked a little bit about some of this before,
Speaker:but I'm going to have you answer the question anyway.
Speaker:What is one natural trait that you have that helped you
Speaker:to succeed?
Speaker:I would say I'm gutsy.
Speaker:I'm very gutsy.
Speaker:It's not that I'm not fearful certain amount of courage that
Speaker:I'll do it anyway,
Speaker:going back to the Vonnegut quote,
Speaker:like I go to the edge so I can see,
Speaker:and I'm just willing.
Speaker:I think it's because my dad was 25 years in the
Speaker:military and I was born on a military base.
Speaker:I think I have that kind of drill Sergeant like,
Speaker:okay, troops are going to get it done.
Speaker:And I think that's really it.
Speaker:I think it's just,
Speaker:I have this persistence.
Speaker:I have a never say die quality to me that it
Speaker:will all work out somehow.
Speaker:And how do you apply that to the business?
Speaker:Every day I go in and,
Speaker:and there's always challenges.
Speaker:There's always things,
Speaker:businesses, good businesses,
Speaker:bad clients ask for impossible things,
Speaker:but I'm pretty fast on my feet.
Speaker:And so when somebody needs something,
Speaker:I'm the one I think that's why we've grown because I
Speaker:think what I get a lot from my clients is like,
Speaker:I'll call and say,
Speaker:when can I get this?
Speaker:Am I going?
Speaker:We can do this the same day.
Speaker:And they go,
Speaker:really? I can make the impossible happen.
Speaker:If somebody needs something,
Speaker:I'll find it.
Speaker:I'll get them a sample within days.
Speaker:I think we're very lucky to be in LA too.
Speaker:Cause I have a lot of resources,
Speaker:but I think it's helped because like,
Speaker:I don't think I would've survived some of the crashes in
Speaker:the economy.
Speaker:If my husband and I together,
Speaker:weren't just persistent and gutsy and said,
Speaker:okay, how do we figure this out?
Speaker:How do we make this happen?
Speaker:Yeah, we're going to take the chance or we're not going
Speaker:to, I would never say die.
Speaker:Let's just figure it out.
Speaker:And I also think I'm a really logical person.
Speaker:I get to see it in front of me.
Speaker:And I'm really,
Speaker:I'm the kind of person you want around in an emergency.
Speaker:Cause I'm really,
Speaker:really, I do think this is all like the military training.
Speaker:Like my dad had,
Speaker:cause I am him sometimes and I can go,
Speaker:this is important.
Speaker:This is important.
Speaker:This important,
Speaker:this is an important,
Speaker:let's get this done.
Speaker:Clients need to be taken care of.
Speaker:They bring money in,
Speaker:take care of the clients,
Speaker:get the samples done first.
Speaker:And I will stay till midnight.
Speaker:If I have to,
Speaker:to make sure my clients get their samples and their orders
Speaker:on time,
Speaker:you know?
Speaker:So I'm pretty good at that.
Speaker:And just having the energy to that,
Speaker:no matter how tired everybody has to go,
Speaker:okay guys,
Speaker:paramount once needed,
Speaker:oh, it was a hundred thousand dollar order.
Speaker:First week of December,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:they needed,
Speaker:I can't remember how many baskets,
Speaker:three different baskets,
Speaker:thousands. And they needed to approve the samples and get them
Speaker:all made and delivered in two weeks.
Speaker:And we did it because I just do it.
Speaker:I went okay,
Speaker:who's local.
Speaker:How do I do it?
Speaker:Here's your samples.
Speaker:I have to have this approved.
Speaker:We'll get it done.
Speaker:I hired a crew of four people.
Speaker:Put them up in a spare warehouse.
Speaker:We happened to have,
Speaker:we got it done in less than two weeks.
Speaker:So you're giving me the impression that you never say no
Speaker:to a client less.
Speaker:I really think it's not our client.
Speaker:There are people who aren't your clients.
Speaker:And you have to realize that I don't do a lot
Speaker:of wholesale.
Speaker:I've done it,
Speaker:but that's not where we shine.
Speaker:There's times when people want things that you go,
Speaker:it's not totally.
Speaker:I don't think we can serve you there's times when you
Speaker:just go.
Speaker:I don't think we can serve you,
Speaker:but I will often refer them to somebody who can,
Speaker:because then when they do need me that they'll come back
Speaker:and that happens a lot too.
Speaker:People will call me and go,
Speaker:okay, everyone said,
Speaker:you know everything in LA,
Speaker:you might,
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I'm I'm my head.
Speaker:That's why I don't sleep at night.
Speaker:I have so many vendors.
Speaker:I know people everywhere,
Speaker:but I'm like a Swiss army knife.
Speaker:I have a lot of functions,
Speaker:but I do.
Speaker:I know a lot of vendors I've been doing it 28
Speaker:years. So I know where my distributors are.
Speaker:I can drive down and pick up supplies.
Speaker:If I have to,
Speaker:if I say yes to a target,
Speaker:I'm not going to not make that target.
Speaker:I just,
Speaker:I'm not sloppy.
Speaker:So You'll say yes to gutsy challenges,
Speaker:but you also analyze the challenges to make sure they're ones
Speaker:you want to Exactly air and you go what?
Speaker:You're in the middle of a really terrible ordering.
Speaker:Great. What the heck?
Speaker:But I'm also a policymaker.
Speaker:I had a friend once who used to lecture all over
Speaker:Europe on executive and running companies.
Speaker:And he'd say you are a natural born executive because anytime
Speaker:anything happens,
Speaker:even if we just like miss a movie or something,
Speaker:I'll always go,
Speaker:okay, policy for next time,
Speaker:we call the theater first and make sure their tickets.
Speaker:He goes,
Speaker:you always do that.
Speaker:And it's funny because I do always do that.
Speaker:Like if I'm into some,
Speaker:okay, let's write a policy on this.
Speaker:This is something we have to watch for.
Speaker:So I'm always kind of like writing these,
Speaker:like I'm always learning from every experience and then formulating a
Speaker:future from that.
Speaker:Like, we did a huge thing for Bristol farms,
Speaker:which is a local high-end grocery store and we did wholesale
Speaker:for them and it was great and it was a lot
Speaker:of money.
Speaker:But when I looked at the profit on it,
Speaker:I went,
Speaker:you know what,
Speaker:not exactly where we belong and it was great for the
Speaker:prestige, but it was like,
Speaker:that was a lot more work.
Speaker:I can make more money doing this,
Speaker:but it was great to do it and I'll experience anything.
Speaker:Right. I'm willing to experience anything.
Speaker:And then from that formulate the next phase.
Speaker:Well, And you live and learn,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I'm sure there's some jobs you've taken that you,
Speaker:like you said,
Speaker:you wish you would have never done,
Speaker:but now,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:Yeah. You're going to go cry.
Speaker:No, you're just going to move on and create your future.
Speaker:The other thing that I really want to emphasize was when
Speaker:you were saying that,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:no, you don't take every single job,
Speaker:but if there's a job that you're going to take a
Speaker:pass on,
Speaker:you provide them with a solution.
Speaker:You tell them who else in the area will be able
Speaker:to do it for them or give them other ideas possibly
Speaker:of things that you would be able to do to provide
Speaker:the solution that they're looking For.
Speaker:Yeah. Like somebody recently wanted to bring a bunch of balloons.
Speaker:We have a helium tank and one of those to blow
Speaker:up a hundred balloons.
Speaker:And I don't know,
Speaker:I didn't want to blow up a hundred balloons.
Speaker:So I said,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:right down the street is vine American party store.
Speaker:I'm sure they're happy to do that for you.
Speaker:And I made it nice.
Speaker:I never want to be snotty.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:you always have to treat people really well.
Speaker:It's that love thing.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:it's always outflow at taken from a viewpoint of like,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I want to help you.
Speaker:I want to help you solve your problem,
Speaker:but I'm not the one that's going to solve it.
Speaker:But maybe talk to these guys,
Speaker:cause this is what they do.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:for me,
Speaker:balloons is kind of a side thing and I don't want
Speaker:to sit in,
Speaker:but I mean,
Speaker:I've done big balloon bouquets,
Speaker:but not someone bring it in.
Speaker:And I,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:no, let's just let it go.
Speaker:Right. I mean,
Speaker:back to the point about customer service and love,
Speaker:even if they're not going to be your customer,
Speaker:you want them to walk away feeling like the interaction with
Speaker:you was positive.
Speaker:Exactly. It's all PR and it's all about creating a nice
Speaker:world. So to do that,
Speaker:you have good manners.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:it's all it takes is having really good manners,
Speaker:which is just sort of like letting people know that they're
Speaker:important that even though they want something or their price point,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you can't do what they want.
Speaker:You don't have to be rude about it and you can
Speaker:still be respectful of them and who they are.
Speaker:Very good point.
Speaker:What tool do you use regularly to help keep productive or
Speaker:to create balance in your life?
Speaker:Tell us what's balanced in my life.
Speaker:No, I would say good planning and targeting is really important.
Speaker:I think the one to work and I can stay busy
Speaker:for eight hours easily do that.
Speaker:I advance my business.
Speaker:Did I get done important things?
Speaker:No, I could sit and rearrange shelves.
Speaker:Like we have a lot of projects.
Speaker:We're updating our website.
Speaker:We are creating a new website for the store so people
Speaker:can buy things online.
Speaker:We're updating our customer service program.
Speaker:We have so many things going right now that if I
Speaker:don't have it laid out with targets,
Speaker:like, okay,
Speaker:we're going to get to meet with the web designer today
Speaker:and we're going to get this done and we're going to
Speaker:get, if I don't have that done,
Speaker:I could just be a heap of confusion.
Speaker:So planning and with good,
Speaker:like here's a project.
Speaker:Here are the plans.
Speaker:Here are the targets.
Speaker:We want to get them done.
Speaker:It allows me also to delegate and say,
Speaker:okay, Peter,
Speaker:who was one of my front office people,
Speaker:I need you to get this done.
Speaker:I need answers by Friday.
Speaker:It allows me to outflow and not trying to do it
Speaker:all because it's all in your head,
Speaker:then you're responsible for it.
Speaker:And so that is probably one of the it's,
Speaker:it's something that is so important that sometimes I fall back
Speaker:on it and I'm actually gonna do another little planning class,
Speaker:just so I get it renewed.
Speaker:And then I'm putting it up.
Speaker:I just installed a big bulletin board so we can put
Speaker:some of these projects up on the board so we can
Speaker:see them.
Speaker:So when we kind of have a minute,
Speaker:we'd go cause that's what will tell me what my battle
Speaker:plan every day is.
Speaker:Cause we have targeting sheets for our employees might go to
Speaker:Peter, okay,
Speaker:today let's finish up this,
Speaker:but Hey,
Speaker:we haven't worked on this cycle.
Speaker:Let's get that done.
Speaker:So I think,
Speaker:and then really scheduling,
Speaker:like travel time.
Speaker:I love to travel and I think that's the other thing
Speaker:that creates balance.
Speaker:If I don't decide to just go while you and I
Speaker:like in September,
Speaker:Willie and I are supposed to go to new Orleans for
Speaker:a week and I'm just doing it because I need to
Speaker:get away and we need to think and absorb and learn.
Speaker:And even like when my kids were younger,
Speaker:luckily I get a lot of air miles.
Speaker:We would take them for a month and we'd go to
Speaker:France and we'd go to England.
Speaker:And we,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we just do things so that we could spend time as
Speaker:a family.
Speaker:And it was heartening for me recently goes at dinner with
Speaker:my daughter and her boyfriend and listen to her,
Speaker:talk about some of our adventures in Italy and places.
Speaker:We stayed in funky places.
Speaker:We stayed and laugh and her boyfriend was just cracking up.
Speaker:And I went,
Speaker:oh my God,
Speaker:I haven't given them a rich life.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:kind of being aware that there's all these areas of life
Speaker:we operate in.
Speaker:I operate as a wifi operator.
Speaker:As a business owner.
Speaker:I operate as a mother.
Speaker:I operate in my groups,
Speaker:in my church groups,
Speaker:in different groups.
Speaker:I operate as a member of mankind.
Speaker:I operate on all these different levels and know that all
Speaker:those are part of my life.
Speaker:Sometimes some of them have to suffer like during the Christmas
Speaker:season, everyone knows that I have to focus just on the
Speaker:business, but I really consciously work on then working on other
Speaker:areas of life when I'm out of work and making sure
Speaker:I'm putting attention and helping groups that I really want to
Speaker:help. I'm helping a group called brute down that helps some
Speaker:of the kids in the inner city learn about food,
Speaker:learn how to cook plant gardens and that kind of thing.
Speaker:That's really important.
Speaker:So I try and also schedule those things.
Speaker:So I don't feel like everything is always about fanciful,
Speaker:Right? If you don't schedule it,
Speaker:it's not going to get done.
Speaker:Exactly. No,
Speaker:it's not.
Speaker:That's all part of planning.
Speaker:Like you have to plan your personal life and your time
Speaker:off, which sounds silly,
Speaker:but it's like,
Speaker:okay, well we're not doing anything this weekend while he was
Speaker:sick this weekend.
Speaker:And he is not a couch potato,
Speaker:but I said,
Speaker:you've got to learn how to binge watch on Netflix because
Speaker:that's what you need to do right now is you have
Speaker:to lay on the couch.
Speaker:He goes,
Speaker:what's this?
Speaker:I go like,
Speaker:put on 30 rock and you watch about four episodes in
Speaker:a row.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:that's what you need to do.
Speaker:So you don't get up and work and you can get
Speaker:over your strep throat and he loved it.
Speaker:But I go,
Speaker:no, this is what you do.
Speaker:This is what you're doing.
Speaker:You don't feel good.
Speaker:You better watch out.
Speaker:He might start loving it too much.
Speaker:No, I doubt it.
Speaker:He's worse than I am,
Speaker:man. He's always got something going.
Speaker:I also want to point out what Terry's talking about in
Speaker:terms of her daughter reminiscing on trips that they did in
Speaker:the past.
Speaker:Terry's been in business for so long that if she didn't
Speaker:do that type of thing,
Speaker:just get herself away and let herself have a break from
Speaker:the business.
Speaker:There's no way you could have longevity in a business such
Speaker:as she has right now.
Speaker:You've got to be able to find time to get yourself
Speaker:away. Whether it's daily taking a walk trips going on vacation,
Speaker:clearly you have to be there during the peak times of
Speaker:your business,
Speaker:but you do also have to get away or you're not
Speaker:going to make it.
Speaker:It's critically important for everybody starting a business to do That
Speaker:totally true,
Speaker:because that's one reason I started a business because I wanted
Speaker:to be able to go away.
Speaker:I want him to be able to travel and still be
Speaker:making money.
Speaker:So I've always set my business up from the beginning to
Speaker:operate without me.
Speaker:And that's why the policies and how to do things in
Speaker:a good computer system.
Speaker:So Wally and I don't need to be there.
Speaker:If there's a special customer,
Speaker:anybody can look up that customer history and know what they
Speaker:did in the past.
Speaker:And we have notes on the special customers.
Speaker:I still am the head designer.
Speaker:So if there's something I remember once sitting in Sicily and
Speaker:having to help somebody with a really special order,
Speaker:a really good client,
Speaker:but that was fun.
Speaker:I was sitting on a beach and Sicily.
Speaker:I'm not feeling too sorry for you,
Speaker:Terri. Oh,
Speaker:it was lovely.
Speaker:I was eating lamb chops,
Speaker:looking at the Mediterranean.
Speaker:It was great.
Speaker:What Book have you read lately that you think our listeners
Speaker:could find value In?
Speaker:I read one that I really enjoyed.
Speaker:It's a business book.
Speaker:It's called David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell.
Speaker:And it's like David and Goliath,
Speaker:underdogs misfits,
Speaker:and the art of battling giants.
Speaker:And it's a really easy read,
Speaker:but it's really good.
Speaker:I think for small businesses,
Speaker:because he really gets into how by being smaller.
Speaker:Sometimes there's a,
Speaker:he never won.
Speaker:He tells a great story of David and Goliath and how
Speaker:it was mismatched in that in many ways,
Speaker:David with his Slingshot was better positioned than this big giant
Speaker:with all this armor.
Speaker:And he uses that as kind of a metaphor for how
Speaker:as a business.
Speaker:And I think that's why we survived the big crash as
Speaker:we were small.
Speaker:I could let go when I didn't have thousands of employees
Speaker:to get rid of,
Speaker:I didn't have tons of product,
Speaker:but how has a small business,
Speaker:you can use that to your advantage.
Speaker:And it gives you story after story and interesting stories of
Speaker:people who've done just that with one good idea,
Speaker:or being able to be a little winery and being able
Speaker:to change like you're like in this little,
Speaker:you're not on the big Titanic,
Speaker:you're in the little boat and go around that iceberg.
Speaker:It's a really easy and interesting read.
Speaker:He's quite a good writer.
Speaker:You know what?
Speaker:You're the second person who's recommended that book lately.
Speaker:And so I'm just now going to have to get it.
Speaker:That's all there is to it.
Speaker:Yeah, it was,
Speaker:it was fun.
Speaker:He's a great writer.
Speaker:He's written some other ones.
Speaker:So was he the one who did blink and some other
Speaker:stuff? And he's a good non-fiction writer gift Biz listeners,
Speaker:just as you're listening to the podcast today,
Speaker:you can also listen to audio books with ease.
Speaker:I've teamed up with audible for you to be able to
Speaker:get an audio book just like Terry is talking about for
Speaker:free. All you need to do is go to gift biz,
Speaker:book.com and make a selection that's gift biz book.com.
Speaker:So Terry,
Speaker:our time is starting to wind down here,
Speaker:but we have arrived at the dare to dream question.
Speaker:I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.
Speaker:It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
Speaker:This is your dream or goal of almost unreachable Heights that
Speaker:you would wish to obtain.
Speaker:Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
Speaker:What is inside?
Speaker:Well, it's a very nice future.
Speaker:Whenever want.
Speaker:I would be spending at least a month in Paris every
Speaker:year and speaking really good French,
Speaker:but I also see the future of Phantom fantastical as being
Speaker:a community center.
Speaker:It would be a place where people would come and they
Speaker:could have a cup of tea.
Speaker:There'd be some food,
Speaker:but also be like,
Speaker:there become like a permanent farmer's market,
Speaker:different vendors.
Speaker:There'd also be maybe a space for a gallery.
Speaker:So we could have different shows.
Speaker:Maybe even some music I'd have a teaching kitchen and it
Speaker:would be a place where people could come and they could
Speaker:learn about food or they could be like author readings,
Speaker:or they find the latest,
Speaker:greatest vendor.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:artisan in the community,
Speaker:who's making some,
Speaker:there might be potters,
Speaker:they're doing demonstrations,
Speaker:but it would be this great center in the middle of
Speaker:like Hollywood.
Speaker:I think that would just be full of create.
Speaker:Barnegat says doing artistic things or paraphrasing makes your soul grow.
Speaker:And I think that would be what I would really envision,
Speaker:but it'd be so well-run that I wouldn't have to be
Speaker:there all the time and I would still be traveling,
Speaker:but it would be this huge center where people would just
Speaker:want to come because there'd always be something happening That sounds
Speaker:so cool.
Speaker:And it merges back in what Wally's done with his music
Speaker:and what you've done with all of your interests,
Speaker:your whole life.
Speaker:Can I be the very first one to enter?
Speaker:Yeah. Come in,
Speaker:Sue. You're welcome.
Speaker:I'll make you a cup of tea or coffee.
Speaker:Whichever you like wine.
Speaker:I will open you a lovely wine depending on what kind
Speaker:you want.
Speaker:White red.
Speaker:We've got all sorts.
Speaker:Nice glass of wine,
Speaker:a beautiful cheese plate.
Speaker:I think I know you like blue.
Speaker:I've got a great blue cheese for ya and you're set
Speaker:up apple a little bit of local made jam.
Speaker:Oh, I'm there.
Speaker:I'm there already before this even exists.
Speaker:Yeah. It's part of my dream.
Speaker:So if that was it,
Speaker:that was me.
Speaker:What I would do.
Speaker:Something tells me that that's very achievable for you since you
Speaker:are so gutsy,
Speaker:logical, systematized,
Speaker:and a dreamer.
Speaker:How about That?
Speaker:So that's that kind of sums it up.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:So Terry,
Speaker:how can our listeners get in touch with you?
Speaker:Well, we have a website which is www fanciful with two
Speaker:L's dot com.
Speaker:My email,
Speaker:if anybody wants to get hold of me,
Speaker:it's Terry T E R R Y at<inaudible> dot com and
Speaker:follow us on Instagram.
Speaker:I love Instagram,
Speaker:that's fanciful baskets,
Speaker:and we also have a Facebook page under fans,
Speaker:full gift baskets and Twitter,
Speaker:but I love Instagram and Facebook the best.
Speaker:So I'd love to get more followers on Instagram.
Speaker:We put up tons of great photos.
Speaker:It's really one of my favorite toys right now.
Speaker:Wonderful And gift buzzers.
Speaker:As you know,
Speaker:if you jump over to gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped.com, you'll find Terry's show notes page,
Speaker:and that will have all the links to all of our
Speaker:contact information.
Speaker:Also a lot of information based on what we've been talking
Speaker:about through our time together today.
Speaker:Thank you so much,
Speaker:Terry, for all of this valuable information you had said to
Speaker:me during our pre-chat that you had had pop whole pot
Speaker:of coffee.
Speaker:I totally,
Speaker:I totally get that now.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it was all espresso too.
Speaker:I did a fresco pot.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:oh my God,
Speaker:I hope I don't talk too fast because I did the
Speaker:whole pot.
Speaker:Cause while he's been sick and didn't share it with me.
Speaker:So I drank it all.
Speaker:Well, You have been absolutely fabulous.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:thank you so much for sharing your journey and all of
Speaker:your insights and may your candle always burn.
Speaker:Thanks. Same To you.
Speaker:Thanks so much for doing this.
Speaker:Learn how to work smarter while developing and growing your business.
Speaker:Download our guide called 25 free tools to enhance your business
Speaker:and life.
Speaker:It's our gift to you and available at gift biz,
Speaker:unwrap.com/tools. Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for
Speaker:the next episode.
Speaker:Would you like to be on the show or do you
Speaker:know someone who can provide valuable insight from their experiences?
Speaker:If so,
Speaker:we'd love to hear from you.
Speaker:All you need to do is submit a form for consideration.
Speaker:You can access the form@giftunwrapped.com
Speaker:forward slash yes,
Speaker:that's gift biz on rap.com
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