230 – How Deborah Gets in Front of Corporate Decision Makers with Deborah Wasylko of Baskets Galore

Gift biz unwrapped episode 230 you want to give your clients

something that they can't get anywhere else,

but from you At Tinton,

gifters, bakers,

crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.

Whether you have an established business or looking to start one,

now you are in the right place.

This is gift to biz unwrapped,

helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,

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

Here is your host gift biz gal,

Sue moon Heights.

Hi there,

it's Sue And thank you so much for joining me here

today. I know I say this each episode,

but I truly appreciate the fact that you're here and that

you're learning from the shows.

I know this because of your emails and the reviews and

if you haven't left a review already,

I'd really love for you to do so.

That helps spread the word and together we can help each

other grow our businesses.

Along those lines,

I'm delighted to tell you about my upcoming masterclass.

It's totally free and specifically for those of you who are

in the beginning stages of your business development or if you're

just now considering starting a business from your handmade products.

When you attend this master class,

you'll learn the single biggest thing that people are missing when

they start a business.

Four critical elements to include when you're pricing your product,

how to attract customers and the secret to making them loyal

customers who will buy from you again and again.

The exciting news is the category of handmade small business is

steadily growing,

right as the big box stores are seeing declines.

We get into this too,

all in the masterclass.

To join us,

go to gift biz,

unwrapped.com forward slash masterclass and select a day and time that

works for you.

Again, that's gift biz on wrapped.com

forward slash masterclass switching gears today,

I have a topic coming your way that answers a question

many of you established business owners have.

How do you get in front of corporate decision makers?

I'm not talking about getting your products into wholesale.

That's a different episode.

We're talking here about selling into regional businesses that could purchase

your product for client and employee gifts and perfect timing.

Yes, the holidays are right around the corner and it's go

time to make those connections and sales.

Let's talk about how to do this right now.

Today it is my pleasure to introduce you to Deborah was

Silco of baskets galore.

Debra is an entrepreneur engineer show host and author,

noted for her work in corporate sales and award winning gift

design. Her personal credo is to create a life that she

doesn't want to take a vacation from.

Oh my gosh.

Doesn't that sound great?

corporate gift company of the year award three years in a

row from Cleveland business connects magazine.

Her clients include fortune 500 companies such as Sherwin-Williams,

Mowen, Parker Hannifin,

the Cleveland Indians,

the Cleveland Cavaliers,

and national public radio.

Debra lives by the ideal that kindness has never forgotten and

coaches or team to execute to the highest standards giving first

while helping others succeed.

Debra, welcome to the gift ms on wrapped podcast.

Thank you so much Sue.

I am thrilled to be talking with you today.

Absolutely thrilled Me too.

And we have actually been trying to get a podcast going

together for probably six months or so.

Finally. Yay.

Yes, you are everywhere.

And I just love listening to you and learning about all

the makers and just how you're giving so much exposure to

so many people.

What fun.

Well it is super fun and thank you for that and

I am just so happy that you found the time to

be with us today.

Of course.

But we're starting off in a creative way.

And you already know about this because we have so many

listeners who are creators and makers.

I like to have you describe yourself by way of a

motivational candle.

So if you were to create a candle that spoke all

about you,

Deborah, what would be the color and what would be the

quote on your candle?

So my candle is on Bray,

so think of it as different,

like intensities of color and I'm a big color person so

it was really hard for me to pick one.

Just one.

I did pick the color orange this year.

Orange is energy to me and I believe that energy is

really important because we attract the same kind of energy to

us and abundance to us based on our vibration and orange

just vibrates high for me.

My quote is something great is going to happen,

something Great's about to happen,

something great is going to happen and I just love that

quote because there's gifts that are given to us all the

time through people,

through opportunities,

through calls,

through angels,

through just people in your life,

clients calling you,

people walking in the door,

people you meet at the grocery store and there's so much

opportunity and things out there and I just believe what you

focus on expands.

So I focus on great things happening every day.

I really like that.

When you talk about your color being orange and energy,

I mean I think the energy that we give out in

terms of optimism and all of that is also what comes

back to us.

And that's the field that you're Layering into your quote,

optimism that something great is going to happen.

Yeah, I think so.

And I think what we look for,

we find what we focus on expands.

And I can tell if I'm having a crappy day and

I'm vibrating low,

things aren't going so well.

I mean,

I'm attracting junk.

It's kind of like if something bad happened,

like someone cuts you off or something on the way to

work, and if you focus on that,

then it pretty much sets you up to have a bad

day the whole way through.

Versus if you're just like,

Oh, that was a bummer,

you know,

whatever happened.

But then you let it go.

So true.

You just stay focused on more positive.

Well, that's why you and I are friends because we're both

that way.

We're both more positive.

It's not worth it.

Honestly. No.

Right. We've got a choice,

right? We definitely do.

Well, you do have a choice every day of how we're

going to make our day.

Fabulous. Absolutely.

Yeah. Okay.

So let's talk about how you got to baskets galore because

even though I've known you for what,

maybe even 10 years or so,

I'm not exactly sure how long,

but I don't know that I know the story of how

you've advanced into your super successful business.

Well, thank you.

I think we met at the national gift basket convention bright

Years ago.

I don't even remember when.

Years ago.

Probably at the first one.

I don't know if you were in San Jose eight years

ago. I can't even believe it's been eight years I've been

there. We must have met when I did have my gift

basket business.

Oh wow.

Cool. Super cool.

Yeah, so that was way long whenever.

Okay. So anyway,

yeah, so we met forever long ago.

Yeah, I mean the short part of it is I wasn't

industry. I worked for a medical device company and I'm a

quality process engineer.

That does not sound anything creative,

Deborah. It doesn't,

but you know what?

People say that to me,

but really engineering is problem solving.

And so when people say,

I'm going to engineer this or I'm going to reengineer this

problem solving is creative,

and people always said,

what are you doing?

But I think I test right in the middle.

SU, I can go left or right.

I can go technical or I can go creative.

I think I'm a little stronger with my creativity and so

it's easy.

I go back and forth and problem solving is creative.

That's what I did for 20 years working in industry and

having a team of people.

It was the company that I worked with was bear diagnostics.

You know the aspirin company?

Oh yeah.

They had a division that was medical devices and so I

worked with hundreds of engineers.

This was during the time where there weren't many women in

the industry in the eighties and I finally went through all

But anyway,

I did that and then they wanted to relocate us.

That's when I just had kids.

My mother was going to need assistance,

was elderly and my husband loved his job and they wanted

to relocate me to Tarrytown,

New York to lead a hundred engineers in configuration management.

And I just didn't want to leave.

So that was a pivotal point then Was a pivotal point.

There was a lot of moving parts in my life.

And that's when I said,

okay, what are you going to do?

Are you going to go back?

Are you gonna consult in this area?

Are you going to stay in the area?

Are you going to reengineer?

And at that time I thought,

you know what,

I, you know,

something life changing also happened during that time where I was

carrying twins and my son,

I have Hannah and Michael.

Michael passed away.

Oh my.

And so it was at that time that I just kind

of said,

what else?

It was horrible.

Thank goodness I'm a Christian and I have the Lord.

Well, as perspectives changing your job is nothing compared to losing

a son.

Right? And so it was just very pivotal in a number

of ways.

And that's when I said,

you know,

Hey, life is too short.

That's when I still wanted to kind of raise my kids

while I was launching a new business.

So I did research and I came up with corporate gifting

and gift baskets cause it was really,

we were in the middle of it at the time and

I thought,

I love design and I love business and I wanted to

be an entrepreneur and I wanted to raise my kids too.

And so I just threw it all in a bag and

shook it up.

And this is what came out is my business.

I love you saying that you didn't use a basket,

you used a bag.

I did,

yeah. It was a beautiful,

like a travel bag that was just a gorgeous nubby bag

that you would use in a hotel.

It was just so cool.

So you chose gift baskets,

corporate baskets,

which that was my same story,

right? Coming out of corporate,

making a change,

wanting to be with the kids.

So very interesting how we kind of walk the same path

there. So for people who are either in a situation like

that where they are being forced out,

deciding by their own will,

they are looking at leaving and just want to change however

it is.

What were the first few things that you started doing to

actually form your business?

So the first few things were I went to the library

with my kids and I was researching everything I could read

about gift basket businesses in a home business and starting a

business. I just went to the local library.

I remember it so well putting the kids by the trains,

that one train that has a face on it and I

can't even remember now.

Thomas the tank engine.

Yeah, yeah,

yeah. I mean I think he's still cool.

I know Arthur is still out there.

I love Arthur.

So I put the kids there and I would go to

research and actually the woman that would help me with the

research, she became like the whole director of all of our

libraries all in Medina County.

And so she watched me from when I brought my kids

in that were like two and four.

Hannah was two and five or whatever and she watched me

just go through this whole metamorphosis of I read things and

then I started playing with design simultaneously.

I think Sue,

the difference is I didn't work in the industry like for

someone else,

like many people that are florists or they worked for a

gift company,

they decide then they have like the domain expertise and then

they're like,

I'm going to break out on my own and do it

myself. I had nothing.

I mean it was just a hunch that said,

Hm, I really enjoy giving gifts and I love design and

I like putting together baskets,

but I want to make it really more artistic.

I want to make it a little different.

I want to make it not like huge.

See, I like whimsy but not like cutesy,

but I want it to be something more artistic.

I wanted a different flair on the baskets.

So was your research how to start a business or was

your research,

what is a gift basket or a corporate gift business all

about what's already out there.

How can I be different?

Like trying to narrow in on your design or what was

the goal of all the research that you were doing?

Yeah, I think it was to figure out what the needs

were in corporate and I was doing this simultaneously,

so part of it was going to be the business and

then creative part was going to be where I benchmarked and

looked at other businesses and I actually would go onto the

internet and study and compare in,

get ideas in to see how this could be a viable

business that made money.

Not just a hobby,

but something that I'm like,

darn it.

I love the process engineering part.

I like it.

It made a lot of money,

but I want to do something now that I enjoy and

that I can make a living from.

I think I switched the paradigm,

switched from liking what I did to something that I love

that just was something I was going to be passionate about.

Okay. So you went into it right away with a very

professional mindset in that I'm going to start this business,

I'm going to focus on corporate and it's going to make

me money.

So we have that.

How long I want to make sure that we leave enough

time so that we can really talk about what you know

in terms of corporate and getting into corporate.

Because I think that's going to be really,

really relevant to our listeners.

But I do want to finish up this development part too.

How long were you in the research mode?

You know,

I'm gonna say very short.

I started maybe six months cause I was doing things with

my kids.

I was taking them to preschool,

I was starting to take care of an elderly mom.

So I only had part time,

time to work on the business.

I'm going to say six months.

I started letting people know,

Hey, I'm starting this,

I'm going in,

I'm looking into this.

And I knew I was going to have to start networking.

So I'm going to say six months.

Okay. So you were researching and I'm sure you got more

and more clarity as time went on.

And so then did you put a set date on the

calendar that this is when I'm opening for business or how

did you make the transition from research to actually having a

business? I want to be totally transparent about this.

I did it kind of in a relaxed way because I

felt like this is going to happen.

I kind of gave myself,

I'm going to say a year to start selling and being

able to sell baskets and that I would be producing and

making some kind of money.

The stream would start coming in.

I think if I had to do it again,

I would have been more deliberate about setting a date because

I know the power of setting goals and how they're realized

and how God in the universe and you make it happen

when you set goals.

Like I write them now on my board in front of

me, so I see them every day.

I felt at that time like,

you know what?

I know I want to start a business,

but I know I'm doing a lot.

At the same time I'm learning about a small business.

I'm learning about the needs of gift baskets and I'm raising

kids and I knew that I just gave myself like a

year you're going to make this happen and start making money.

I actually liked that you are able to say that you

started that way because I think a lot of people who

are listening are also juggling a lot of things and that

what you're showing is there isn't just one right way to

do it.

And yes,

everybody talks about set the date,

action plans make the goals and I also believe in that.

But that doesn't mean if you don't start that way that

you're not going to be successful.

Look at you now.

Right. So I mean everybody does it their own way.

I guess I would say just because you're not doing it

exactly like somebody else does doesn't mean that it's right or

wrong, but your way of doing things.

Okay, so you started basket school,

or if you were to look back and say there's one

thing that I would recommend to other people who are starting

that I would have done differently,

what would that be?

I think the one thing that I did is I stayed

in networking groups that were in serving me.

Ooh, that's interesting.

Talk more about that.

Like it wasn't a BNI and those have different personalities,

but I wasn't a couple local women's groups that were small

businesses and I was trying to show them how gifts were

relevant to what they,

to help them,

but I really didn't hone deck,

like they really didn't need me as much as corporations did.

So was it the comradery and kind of feeling like you

were working without really seeing the results?

Yeah. Okay.

But I think that's a really important point because you and

I am such an advocate of networking,

and I'm not sure if we're going to be talking about

that a little bit more or not.

I talk about it all the time on the podcast.

Yeah, yeah,

yeah. But action has to produce results and going to networking

meetings. Either you're not approaching the networking meetings properly or to

your point it's not the right networking meeting.

It's really easy for us to miss guide ourselves by thinking

we're doing that's constructive for the business cause we're taking an

action but it might not be the right action that's going

to produce business.

Right. I think I did a for socialization,

So there was a need there for awhile,

right? I mean you could say that.

Yeah, there was a need there.

You could say that that was the right thing to do

for some time,

but you think you held onto that too long.

I held onto it too long and I was with people

that didn't have the ambition and didn't want to produce as

much as I did too.

Like it was almost enabling.

I don't know how to say it like it was.

Well it served your need for a time.

I think you're saying you would have cut it off a

little bit sooner,

but I think that's also a good warning and you tell

me if you agree with me.

I know there are a lot of people,

you know,

it's fun to say you have your own business or you're

an entrepreneur or you know all of that.

But I do see a lot of people who play having

their own business and aren't as serious and dedicated and committed

as other people are.

Right. And that's okay.

They can be that way.

You know,

everyone can do their own thing.

Right? Right.

But if our interest in our goal is to make money

from our business,

possibly replace a nine to five,

you have to be more serious than that.

You can't be just playing.

And Sue,

the other thing I wanted to mention,

which was a really big deal is I was good at

like setting up the business,

the operations.

But I was afraid of sales because I'm an engineer and

I was told somewhere in my life or I had this

barrier that you're good at the money,

you're good at handling the money and setting up operations and

your product and your service.

But my messaging wasn't clear when I did network.

I wasn't clear about how I can help others with gifting.

When I first started,

I was focused on this you can give to your clients

for their birthdays or,

but I wasn't focused on specifics of how gifting is strategically

high touch and that how we could help you with lead

conversion and retention and that connectivity and referral.

Thank you.

I wasn't focused on my messaging in clear about how gifting

really is.

There's a need and it's a big deal and unexpected surprise

trumps everything in business.

The good kind and I really wasn't clear very early on

about conveying the message of how gifting can be used strategically

in business.

Very interesting.

First off,

that shocks me because knowing how good you are today,

it's really interesting to hear you saying that that was something

that you really hadn't had totally dialed in right from the

beginning. I sucked.

I saw it was so funny.

I sought and I hired someone to help me with sales

and that was a disaster,

but anyway.

Okay, well let's not go there yet because I want to

make an underline this point that you just talked about for

all of our listeners too,

and this is a question for you guys to ask yourself,

is your messaging aligned with what your business offers your customer?

Because I think what Debra's saying,

and correct me if I'm wrong,

but I think I'm right,

is you had a very clear vision that you were going

after corporate accounts right from the beginning,

but your messaging wasn't speaking the same thing.

It wasn't strong and it wasn't clear and it wasn't sharp

and it wasn't sweet.

Okay then.

Alright, so give us some of your goodness.

Because you are all these awards.

You get top corporate gift company of the year,

three years in a row.

Give us some advice,

some thoughts,

some direction on all of that.

How do you get there?

Well, I learned there was this big company,

very powerful in Cleveland called CBC,

Cleveland business connects and they would run contest every year for

events. It would be,

you can be nominated in venues and entertainment and gift design

and awards and you would have to be nominated and then

people would have to vote for you every day.

And it was a big deal here.

It was the best of the best in Cleveland would go

and try to be nominated and get this gorgeous award and

they don't do it anymore.

They stopped doing it two years ago.

And so I found out about it by accident when I

just had moved my business out of the home and to

a brick and mortar and I'm like,

we're going to go for this.

I wasn't expecting anything.

I just said,

let's just go for it.

And I followed the rules and encouraged people to vote,

you know,

like how they have those in your community.

But this one was like a more of a bougie one.

Like I saw the local ones from the newspaper,

blah, blah blah.

But this one like was a bougie one.

It was like a big one.

We weren't expecting to win at all and we didn't even

know what we were doing.

We just,

I made my husband go,

I took a couple of my staff members,

we went to this dinner,

no one knew who was gonna win and then they presented

you with these gorgeous like square pieces of artwork.

That was the award.

Oh my gosh.

Okay. So what is it that you've done for your business

that positions you to be the gift company of the year?

I think it was really servicing the client and how we

made our client's life easier is how we aligned with their

goals, how we started doing these touch gifts instead of the

gift basket.

And I started off in gift baskets,

but then as I talked with clients and learned what their

needs were,

SU, I learned that the gift baskets not going to be

for everyone.

They don't want to start at $50 or whatever.

They need something smaller to get the job done,

do what's required in business.

And so we had like change in turn on a dime

and think,

okay, wait a minute here we got to do like little

touch. I call them touch gifts.

People come Popeye's mini gifts,

whatever. But I called them touch gifts because touch is a

word that people use in sales,

high touch,

low touch.

So I just picked touch gifts and my salespeople got it

right away what we were talking about.

And these were little things that like cost two or $3,

but they looked like little gifts and so people were responding

to this.

That's one of the things that got us the award.

We had to write like a whole paper on this award.

Oh that's right.

We also had to submit how we helped clients and what

the outcomes were and what we did to change their lives

in the year.

So how your business had an impact on your clients?

Yeah, I forgot about that.

We had to write like a whole paper and it was,

Oh and this was judged too.

So this was just not a popularity contest award by any

means. Okay.

So let's get to this cause I want to stay with

things that you are,

nuggets that our listeners will be able to take and use

themselves. So I will want to circle back at some point

and ask you what your technique is for getting an audience

with corporate clients to start with,

but because we've already been talking about this,

you could have been,

so looking in at what the goals and the missions are

of your gift basket business and trying to continually resell gift

baskets and re-explain why gift baskets were the solution and just

try to change the client.

But instead you were open enough and really listened to the

fact that okay,

gift baskets as we're currently doing them aren't necessarily right for

in whatever client you were in front of.

And then did you see that continuing to happen with multiple

clients, which is then you're like,

okay, there's something else I should be doing here.

Yes, That's exactly it.

The more we talked to HR people like different personas,

different industries,

realtors, admins is another big audience of ours.

Healthcare. As we were talking to sales people,

event people,

hotel people,

decision makers,

we were getting feedback.

When we would mention gift basket,

we would scare them away and they would say,

we don't need that.

What was it you were seeing that leads you to believe

you were scaring them away?

We weren't being invited in to talk about ideas.

Okay. And how we can make their lives easier and connect

and build those relationships.

Okay, so they weren't seeing a solution in what you had

to offer?

Correct. Okay.

So then now you're going to go back and rethink all

of this?

I guess.

So take us there.

What happens then?

So then it was like,

we can do little gift baskets,

but that's going to be like $25 And that's labor And

that's labor and it's cost just as much like you said.

Yeah, it's labor,

it's labor intensive.

Or we can come up with these little touches that either

we make or client or people already sell like sweet you

believe. For example,

in Pennsylvania they make these little like double pretzels that have

a bow on them and they're done and you buy them

and you just sell them.

You just double the price and you sell them and they're

flying out of here like crazy.

Or you can add their printed ribbon.

So it was really asking questions.

Okay, if the gift basket is not the answer,

what is the answer and how can we retool this?

Again, problem solving.

I think that's like a big deal.

Okay, so this is such a great example,

but you identify the problem,

you go back and you think and then you come up

with ideas and then did you run them by some of

your corporate clients?

Yeah, we tested it.

We said,

what would this better meet your needs?

And people just started to respond to them.

Ah, so you saw it right away.

We saw it right away.

Like when we would present and we would give a tasteful

break, we would,

instead of,

we would give people a tasteful break.

When we were able to go in and present a corporation's,

when it was like a larger group,

we wouldn't just give them a snack box or something.

We would actually lay out food.

Okay. You've got to go back and tell people really quickly

what a tasteful break is.

A tasteful break sounds right up my alley.

We'll hear all about it.

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So a tasteful break is how I presented to our first

corporate client,

which was Parker Hannifin and they're big and Cleveland and they're

like in California and other places.

They're worldwide company,

but they make parts and big engineering company and the admins

brought us in and I remember everybody's showing up and I

was like,

wow, like this was my first one and so I was

scared. I didn't know what I was doing.

I brought too much Showing up to the meeting.

Yeah, everyone was there.

All the admins,

HR came in,

they were like,

Oh wow.

Oh I like the baby.

We. So we did still the baby stuff and all their

needs like cause they have to do wedding,

get well condolence gifts on boarding.

But we fed them,

we fed them at a pretty display.

We laid out just like you're going to have people over

for cocktails or appetizers.

We laid that out.

We talked about our snacks so that they can see the

quality of what's going in them.

And then we also showed those little touch gifts and they

responded to this,

Oh, wouldn't that be nice for visitor gifts?

Or when somebody comes in for an interview or for takeaways

at an employee picnic or the salespeople were,

Oh, wouldn't this be nice to thank them for the appointment?

Or just stay top of mind during the year.

Oh my gosh,

isn't it great when your client is thinking of other solutions

for your product,

Right? Yeah,

yeah, yeah.

So yeah,

I mean that you've won then.

Right? So there we're seeing how it can be used in

other situations and you can tell when people are engaging with

you. The other good thing about having a group of people

together is they play off of each other.

So you don't have to talk about how fabulous it is

they're doing it.

So you just turn the floor over to them.

Right. And so what does it look like today?

Is this the same area of interest today in what you

mostly provide?

So we do the touch gifts quite a bit many gifting

and we actually set a programs for it.

So like realtors could send out 10 or 12 or 20

or 50 boxes,

little touch gifts and glamour envelopes or pretty boxes,

these colored boxes a month or a quarter.

And we set up a whole program for it.

So it's turnkey for busy people to stay top of mind

with their influencers and what their referral base.

So we just automated it and made it bigger and we

still do the tasteful breaks and we wrote a book about

it so that others can learn how to have a captive

audience and how to not just make it special so that

they want to bring you in for tasteful Bray.

Right, okay.

If we have people who are listening who are in the

consumable industry,

because I guess that's what you need for a tasteful break,

where could they go to get this book So they can

contact me at wow.

At basket skull or gifts.com

and we will send them a form or they can go

to Facebook baskets galore and just DM me,

direct message me and ask me and we'll send them a

form and that's how they can just ask for it and

we send them a form to complete and we send them

the whole kit.

It's a whole kit.

Oh, it's a whole kit.

Okay. So gift biz listeners,

if you are interested,

I will put all the information on the show notes page.

So just access the show notes page and you'll have all

the information if you're interested in knowing more about the tasteful

break and getting the kit.

So let's leave it with that for now.

Okay. So what would you say percentage wise are tasteful break

or touch point products versus your overall mix of products?

So the touch products are still a small,

I mean I'm going to say 25% of our business.

So would you say they're an entrance point into corporate accounts?

Would that be fair?

It's great.

Yeah. Or I would say it's an entrance point for to

starting to work with certain personas.

Yeah, like sales people respond to that and health,

healthcare, anybody in sales,

they like that.

Like touch pop by and then it is one category of

gifting that you can offer and I'm recommending you offer it

because you can say,

let us help you stretch your budget,

let us help you touch people throughout the year,

but it doesn't have to be launch.

You can spin that on a way to stay connected and

do something special without breaking the bank.

Okay. All right,

let's move on.

I know that a lot of people,

just the idea of corporate is scary.

People get the fact that there's money to be had in

corporate. Corporate accounts are great because it's higher volume.

They're usually budget and if you're really thinking you can contract

that business for lower prices,

you can negotiate things,

but none of it gets started because it's scary.

Like how do you get into a corporate account?

Right. Can you share with us a little bit of how

you're able to do that?

Sure. So it all starts by you start where you're at,

who do I know that works in a corporation or through

networking at your groups and just meeting people and networking at

corporate events.

Who can you just start talking to but you want it

to be people that are willing to champion you and host

you to start working with them.

So you start with your friends and your people that love

you, know you trust you and they will either bring you

into their company or they would be a decision maker to

start that process,

But they don't necessarily need to be the one who makes

the decision.

They might just be working at the company,

but they have internal access to the place where you need

to be the person you need to be talking to.

Exactly. Okay,

got it.

And just like you do a warm referral or an introduction,

you kind of get your system in place and make sure

that you're setting yourself up to be credible.

It just takes one.

The reason I got into Parker Hannifin was because of a

haircut. Oh,

tell that story.

That's interesting.

My sister is a hairdresser and she cuts one of the

officer's hair and she was all,

my sister has this gift company and then once like she

had something displayed at her company or was giving a big

gift and he just saw the quality of the work and

said we got to get her into talk to the admins

and then he said,

have her call Sue,

blah blah,

blah and set up.

And so he was my champion because of my sister,

their connection.

And he didn't really know me,

he just knew my sister and was going to help me

out. And he saw the quality of work because people aren't

going to take that risk necessarily unless they know something about

you too.

So that's why it's good to be visible or have something

there to show something.

Yeah. And then he said,

call my assistant and she's going to set up,

have her come in and present or meet with Sue.

And that's when I says,

well how about if we,

do you think the other admins,

it's all asking questions without being pushy.

What if we bring in snacks for everybody?

We can do it during their break,

we can do it.

It's easy,

it's convenient,

it's turnkey for them.

I'll send you an invitation.

You can send it out to your people,

get them to sign up,

and then what are their interests so I can make their

needs when I bring in and present.

And then you handle the rest.

You make it super easy for them.

So that's all they're doing is sending out an invite or

scheduling it on people's calendar.

They have internal things.

And it was because of that haircut that I got into

Parker Hannifin and that was my first presentation.

You know that is crazy because I have to share with

you now also how I got into my first big corporate

account. When I had my gift basket business.

I was in line at Starbucks and one of the city

officials who I happened to be friends with our children went

to preschool together,

was sitting with somebody at one of the local banks here.

They've just recently sold,

but they were MB financial.

And she says to me,

Oh my gosh,

Sue, you need to meet so and so.

And he was one of the branch heads.

He wasn't really in corporate.

And he says,

Oh, I'll get you the name of the person.

Like same type of thing.

One thing led to another in an,

I'm going to say quote unquote unprofessional environment.

Like you were getting your hair done.

I was standing in line for coffee.

And the thing that's so cool about that,

well first off,

it's a good point to make that you never disconnect from

your company and think that because you're not in your office

or your studio that you shouldn't be talking about your company

now. Not all the time.

Right. But just those connections.

And then the really cool thing,

and I don't know if this is how this happened to

you, but not that I could talk about the fact that

that was a company I was using,

but it kind of,

once you're into a couple of corporate accounts,

you learn the ropes,

right? And then you can save things like one of our

other corporate accounts.

You don't share the strategy,

right? But you start putting yourself at a different level.

I guess it is.

But for me it was for my cup of coffee.

For you it was in the salon.

Yeah. So you never know where your business is going to

come from.

Exactly. And then yes,

as you do get one then you're establishing credibility and you

can name drop and you're doing it strategically not to be

a jerk.

Like not to be,

Oh these are my clients.

But I mean I don't like doing some of this stuff

cause it's not me to name drop and stuff.

But I had to put MBA after my name when I

would send out emails.

Otherwise they would think I was aunt Martha making baskets in

the basement.

Right. Cause I was a home business for the longest time.

I had established instant credibility.

So you do that by your persona,

how you dress,

how you look,

how your cards look,

all that adds up to your credibility.

It all matters.

It all matters.

And I hate and I took off the MBA after my

name now,

but for the longest time I kept that there,

my credit stations,

because I know it just sounds like I felt like such

a snap.

But if you don't have confidence in yourself,

how are other people gonna have confidence in you?

They will eat you.

They won't pick that up so far.

Absolutely. I agree with you.

Totally. It's so true.

Use what you have.

I mean namedrop yeah,

you know we do gift,

I don't like to do that,

but you got like 10 seconds to establish credibility.

Well, it does add credibility and actually I think you have

to be careful of what the industries are.

I used to work in grocery in my corporate world and

man, those grocers,

one against another pricing of produce and stuff.

I mean the security and the privacy was so intense.

But other types of businesses are a little bit different.

And sometimes I don't know about you,

but I would ask them,

is it okay if I feature some of the gifts that

we used to do?

Not the ones that we're currently doing but that we used

to do and they'd always say yes because it's extra visibility

for them.

Right. You're right,

and I was just going to make another point here,

since we're talking corporate that I'm going to ask you one

more question and then we're going to have to start winding

it down.

But without saying too much in the banking industry,

I ended up having three or four different banks because once

you start getting into an industry,

you start learning and understanding them,

but I would never share what one was doing with another.

Right. I was very clear about that.

They didn't even know I had other banks necessarily,

but the interesting thing here is each one of them used

their gifting in a different way and a pretty significant different

way. So I just bring that up for you guys who

are listening.

If you're thinking that one industry,

okay, you know how they're going to do it for a

specific industry because you already have been working in that.

That doesn't mean that those are the goals,

the needs or the pain points of another company.

That's in the same industry.

Oh my gosh.

That is so true.

Yeah. So when you're going in and you're finding out about

them to the point of discovery or doing the tasteful breaks

and understanding how this could work,

don't go in with assumptions because it could be totally different.

Yeah. You got like open-minded,

nimble. Here's a real quick example.

We do gifts for various companies and manufacturing lots of them.

And then my husband,

out of all things,

did a cold call to RW Beckett in Cleveland,

Ohio, and they're really wildly successful,

but they like to do their Christian company.

And when John just was talking to this gentleman in HR

on the phone,

we don't do cold calls.

I mean,

you don't need to do,

but my husband was bored one day.

He's just,

my husband's quirky,

so he just was like,

I'm just going to drop something off to this company.

And they gave it to HR and then my husband follows

up with HR and the gentleman was like,

yeah, come on in.

And John was like,

John knew how to speak their language.

What are you doing for onboarding?

Do you need any Getwell or,

and then we went in there and we found out they

were Christian company and he wanted to put like a keepsake

or have a prayer gift for their prayer group.

And so in their sympathy and get well in visitor gifts

we put something that's faith based.

Now you don't have another company that does that.

We have a lot of those things cause we have a

lot of spiritual things here.

But that's an example of how you got to kind of

be openminded in think what is their culture and maybe make

recommendations based on their culture or really listened to them because

you want to give your clients something that they can't get

anywhere else but from you.

Bingo. So they were using edible fruit but then edible fruits

not going to put in a devotional or a wood shelf

sitter. That's what scripture.

But we do.

And a lot of people wouldn't even be open enough and

listening to identify that this was a question whether they could

do or whether this was a need,

whether they could do it or not.

Yeah. And so you might start off with working with HR

but then if they love you and you establish trust,

they're going to need holiday gifts and they're going to need

visitor gifts cause they have this new showroom and then they

can introduce you to salespeople that have key clients that are

going to need promotion gifts or things when they get a

promotion or,

so you got to look at the bigger picture like suicide.

You got to really be flexible.

Yep. Oh my gosh Debra,

this has been amazing.

You can clearly see why you are rocking in the corporate

world. I really appreciate the whole idea of corporate gifts is

fabulous. Your story in terms of how you started and where

you are now is so inspiring to people who are just

now in the beginning to see where you can go and

I really liked the fact that you didn't start out,

you came from corporate,

like engineering is a little bit scary to me because it

sounds so detailed.

But you approached your basket business in a little bit of,

I'm just going to say softer cause I can't find a

way to say it differently but softer because you were also

balancing your children,

difficult life issue,

et cetera.

And look where you are now.

Super successful being recognized,

having fortune 500 companies,

all of that.

So I think it's very motivating to everybody where you can

go. And again,

the point is I think doing it in your own way.

Yes. I also thank you for the advice on how to

get into corporate because that seems very doable for some of

us who have been hesitant to do it in the past.

So I love that.

And so what I like to do now is an exchange

for all the value you've given us.

We would like to then give something to you and it's

by way of a virtual gift.

So this is a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your

future. It's your dream or your goal of almost unreachable Heights

that you would wish to obtain.

So please accept this gift right here in our presence and

open your box.

Thank you.

Tell us what's inside.

Okay, so I opened my box and an orange candle comes

out. No,

I'm just kidding.

No, it could be in there.

I like that.

So I'm digging in my box.

So in my box,

the gift that you gave me is my second book and

I want to write something more sales-based to help people.

And then also in my box is a list of speaking

engagements because I love to talk about how to connect and

sell. I just love it and we all need it.

That topic never gets stale,

that's for sure.

So that's what's in my box because this year we're finishing

a new website and I did put the outline for the

book on the side cause I had too many things on

my plate and I wasn't doing anything well.

And so the second book,

and I just love speaking and training,

pumping people,

I'm just like them.

That's why I like this is because I'm just like everyone

that's in this field.

Well, I think your gift is a win win because you're

just sharing with us how much you like it And we

all need it,

so let's do it.

Thank you so much Sue.

Let's make sure that this happens for sure.

This was like too much fun so I could talk to

you all day.

Honestly, this was big fun here.

Big fun.

I know.

Likewise. Well thank you so much for being on today.

I really appreciate it.

It is my pleasure and Sue,

thank you so much for having me on this podcast.

I loved every minute of it.

All right.

You just heard how to get in front of corporate decision

makers, but I know what happens.

It all sounds good but then you never act on it.

Tasks get in the way and soon it's completely off the

radar and this holiday opportunity might just pass you by.

Think of it this way,

these marketing and HR managers need to find and purchase customer

and employee gifts.

It very well might be written into their job description,

so you're doing them a favor by presenting your product as

an option for them without them having to seek you out.

Make it easy for them.

Land just one or two of these accounts and you'll be

Oh, so glad you did.

Okay. Promise.

I'm believing in you next week.

I have a dear friend joining us to talk on a

topic we've never covered here before.

I'm going to leave you in suspense until next week on

that because as we end the show,

this is the perfect time to jump over and register for

the masterclass I was talking about in the beginning.

That link again is gift biz unwrapped.com

forward slash masterclass couldn't be simpler.

Go do it now.

Before you forget and I'll see you next week.

Bye for now.

I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook

group called gift is free.

It's a place where we all gather and our community to

support each other.

We've got a really fun post in there.

That's my favorite of the week.

I have to say where I invite all of you to

share what you're doing,

to show pictures of your product,

to show them what you're working on for the week,

to get reaction from other people and just for fun because

we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody in

the community is making.

My favorite post every single week without doubt,

wait, what aren't you part of the group already?

If not,

make sure to jump over to Facebook and search for the

group gift biz breeze.

Don't delay.