291 – The Step by Step to Building a Business You Love with Joyce Arrieta

Gift biz unwrapped episode 291.

I don't want to always talk business and shop.

I want to know about you.

I like to learn about people.

I want to hear the story Attention.

Gifters bakers,

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Your gift biz.

Here is your host gift biz gal,

Sue moon Heights.

Hi, dear.

And I am so thrilled that you're here with me today.

As we continue this month of thankfulness and gratitude,

I want to tell you how much you mean to me.

I appreciate each note,

email and review.

I get telling me how the show has helped you either

start or grow your business.

So thank you.

Thank you for that in a way you're taking care of

me by doing this action,

encouraging me to keep going with the show to find energy

on those days when I'm just not as much into it.

Are you surprised that I even say that look,

I'm human.

Like you,

there are emotional ups and downs,

and we just need to accept that that's part of being

a business owner.

It's just part of what we signed up for,

but knowing that they happen and then dealing with them are

two separate things.

I've heard from a lot of you.

About the episode we did on managing stress.

That was about three shows back episode number 288 with KK.

Given that feedback,

I decided to build on the topic.

So stay tuned.

We have more on health,

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One more announcement.

Before we move on to the show for the past three

years during holiday season,

I put up posts in the Facebook group called gift biz

breeze, given you an opportunity to show your products and to

get sales from fellow Breezers for your holiday gifting needs this

year, I've decided to enhance this.

I've seen that you're already buying from others and reaching out

to find collaborators for online and in-person sales shows.

So I'm starting a free resource.

I'm calling the buzz book,

get it,

gift biz breeze buzz,

where you can reach out to fellow makers for all sorts

of activities.

So that could be buying products for your own personal needs

or for gifts,

creating local meetups and finding compatible product owners to run your

own multiproduct live shows.

As I said,

it's totally free.

And the only requirements are that you run a business and

are a member of the breeze.

You'll hear more about the group in the outro of the

podcast, or just jump over to Facebook and search for gift

biz, breeze to join and all the details.

Are there ready and waiting for you moving onto the podcast

this week,

I have been trying to get Joyce on the show for

what feels like for ever,

however, it's been worth the wait,

you'll hear how Joyce had no intention of starting her own

business, but how she followed some advice from others.

And then she was bold and rode the wave.

If you will.

She's turned into a dynamo as a woman business owner and

she shares step-by-step how she's built her business.

She also talks about the time when she almost wrapped it

up. It wasn't because she didn't have sales coming in,

which usually is the demise of most businesses,

but she was at the point where her quality of life

as a small business owner was leaving her unfulfilled.

It just wasn't worth it.

You'll find out what made her feel that way,

what she did about it and how she fell in love

all over again with her business,

bold moves,

brilliant thinking and a bright future.

That can be yours too.

Today. I am so excited to bring you Joyce Arrietta.

Joyce is the owner of Joyce's baskets of full service,

corporate and personal gifting company that specializes in welcome to Florida

gifts for conferences,

conventions, and corporate functions or events.

The mission at Joyce's baskets is perfectly captured in their slogan.

We make you look good.

They have been designing gifts and gift baskets for almost 20

years and are located in bright and sunny.

Miami, Florida.

Joyce is an award winning designer and a certified gift designer

who has been featured in many A-list publications.

Most recently voyage Mia magazine in Southern Florida,

putting the needs of their customers.

First is Joyce's top priority.

As they seek to build meaningful relationships that will last forever.

Joyce, welcome to the gift biz on wrapped podcast.

Thank you.

So I'm happy to be here.

I'm just gonna say,

we've been trying to get together and record this for maybe

a year.

Absolutely. And finally,

so this is a magical day.

Yes, it is.

All right,

before we get started,

you know what we do here?

I have a motivational candle that has your name on it,

and I need you to describe it for us.

What your motivational Candle look like.

That really resonates with you.

That gives us a little inside peek of who you are.

Joyce. My candle would live.

First of all,

the color is purple because I think that's vibrant.

I love purple purple gives me power.

Ooh. Purple gives you power.

Yeah, that's my mantra.

Purple is my power.

Ooh, Ooh.

I like it.

Purple is associated with royalty and I don't know what else,

but I like the power better.

I like the double P purple is power and you are

powerful. That is for sure.

I know you are.

I mean,

I know you we've known each other for how long years

and years and years.

Years, years,

and years.

Absolutely. Yeah.

And you radiate confidence and power and control and action.

I mean,

you're totally a woman on a mission,

but let's go back.

Were you always that way?

You know,

I think from the beginning,

I was always a leader.

Even when I was smaller,

I would dominate my sisters and brothers because I was the

youngest one.

So I had to be forceful and make them hear me.

So I think that started from the beginning of being a

leader, But that had to have been in you innately because

I think lots of times a younger child or the youngest

of all takes a back seat to everybody else.

They also get pampered.

So there's good in that part too.

Absolutely. But you naturally just took control.

You want you spoke up because you wanted to be heard

Absolutely. In anything that I did,

even with my parents and my siblings,

we used to get into a lot of trouble and then

I would go there.

A lot of times my father would have like a court

case and they would says,

okay, didn't bring the person up for trial here.

And they would have me to speak on their behalf.

A lot of times I made them lose.

If I feel good,

they won.

That's funny.

Oh gosh.

All right.

So share with us a little bit about your journey into

Joyce's baskets.

How did that all come about?

Well, it came all about what really it came like I

would say I was in between looking for jobs.

I was in banking for many,

many years.

And after the banking started having interstate banking and banks were

coming in,

buying up each other,

my job was lost to a casualty.

I call it a bankers casualty loss,

and I never ever thought of doing anything else except working

in banking.

My goal was to work 30 years,

get a party and a watch,

nothing else that I wanted to go.

And what a man's gold pocket watch.

That was my boob.

Not the lady's watch on the wrist that,

but a pocket watch.

So that didn't happen.

But so was your job just eliminated?

Is that what you're saying?

Everybody's job was eliminated back then.

Mergers were not good at all.

Right. It was like devastating was like an earthquake and I

can tell you it wasn't good.

So I understand the parts of murders that go on.

I happened to see it firsthand and it wasn't good at

all for anybody at all in the beginning,

when they say merger,

you want to tremble because it's not a good thing.

And so my job was duty of care to remember two.

So I worked around a little bit.

I worked also in the retail industry,

I worked at a major,

major upscale clothing store,

Saks fifth Avenue and bill Harper.

And I worked there for about 10 years.

And so one day I was at a really baffled mum,

nail tech at that time really started me on my journey

because we were discussing different things.

I was unhappy and I want to do something else.

And she started throwing out ideals of different types of businesses

that maybe would fit me.

And so every one that she threw out,

I says,

Nope, I don't want to do that.

Nope, Nope,

Nope. And so finally she said,

what about gift baskets?

And so I said,

what about him?

I says,

I don't know anything about gift baskets.

I don't know how to design a gift basket.

Mobile goes all in them.

And she says,

you know what?

Put some stuff in a basket and sell it.

I'm like,

is it that easy to say?

Yeah. So what I did,

she took me,

we'd have a challenge.

He says,

I want you to create some flyers for Easter.

And she says,

bring them to the shop.

I says,

okay, I'll say accept the challenge.

I'll bring you 25 flyers.

I will do maybe 10 Easter baskets.

And I'll see afterwards.

Well, did the flyers created the Easter baskets?

Cause it was all candy had nothing in place,

no business savvy at all.

I wind up selling at the end of that Easter weekend,

101 Easter baskets,

no way.

And to this day,

I have no idea whether I made any money or not.

I just had fun running back and forth to the store,

buying candy and creating them because what I would go out

and take the deliveries to the people that had ordered.

And I had other deliveries in the car,

people would come to my car and take them out and

just hand me the money,

whatever I said,

the cost letter was that I was only signing up for

$10. So that made me take that money,

go back to the store and make what baskets for the

people that had placed the order with me.

So that went on that whole weekend.

Stop right here,

because I didn't know this story for all the time that

I've known you.

I really haven't known the advancement of the business.

Cause we always talk about all the goodness that you're doing

right now.

But what you did here,

Joyce is what I really,

really try to talk to all people who are starting about,

and that is validate that there's a market for your product.

So look at you almost no investment because 25 flyers,

right? You probably weren't selling them at the best price.

I would say that,

but you were showing that there was a market and an

interest in it.

Now, granted it was Easter and Easter is associated with baskets.

So that made it a little bit easier.

But without putting a lot of effort in,

you started to get a feel for the business.

And I love that mostly because you didn't a lot of

time effort get a website off delay action.

You just did it.

Yes I did.

So it's a great example.

Okay. Continue with the story.

I just had to jump in with that because I just

had to,

Okay. So the following Monday,

I had a friend of mine called me up because we

both go to the same nail tech.

And so she told me,

she says,

I heard that you were selling bootleg gift baskets without a

license. I'm like,

what are you talking about?

She just told me to put some stuff in a basket

and Senate.

So she says,

I'm just kidding with you.

She says,

but I need to know from you,

is this something that you think could work in your advantage

and that you can build a business on?

And so,

as the conversation progressed,

I told her,

I says,

you know what?

I enjoy doing it.

I says,

I like the hustle and bustle of putting stuff together,

putting it in a bag and rushing off.

I said gave me a real adrenaline rush.

And so she says,

okay then,

so what are you saying is yes or no?

And so I says,

I'm going to say yes.

She says,

okay, then right now let's figure out a company's name for

you. Let's get you all legal set up with your state

so that you don't go around selling bootleg baskets.

And I have to get off of my plane flight cause

she was a seven 47 pilot.

I think one of the first ones or people in the

first group of the seven 47,

many years ago.

And so she set me up with all the credentials that

I needed.

We came down with the name and my corporate name,

the corporate filing name of that's in my baskets is Joyce

is something special.

I really did not want to put my name in front

of. I wanted to name something special.

So it was like a conversation with peace.

But when we check that Maine was taken at that time.

And so I just put my name in front of sort

of cane.

Joyce is something special at that time.

And now I'm doing a DBA of Joyce's basket.

So it all ties into it.

But I had no special training.

No. Now I can,

after we did that,

I came in at a time where I was fortunate enough

that conventions were starting up.

And so I went to my first convention within six months

of having started my business.

So I had to learn everything because I had absolutely no

skills at all,

no designing skills,

no skills about operating a business or the education.

And so that's where I started at the beginning of going

to the different conventions and the different seminars that they were

having. And the industry at that time,

there were two prominent people that were having a gift basket

conventions. And I went to them both and I took every

class they had and learned everything like a learner,

because we were like on the job training was that no

training ahead of time,

you get a certificate and you go out there into the

world. It was on the job training.

What year was that?

Okay. I want you right now to get up,

step up onto a soap box.

Okay. And speak for the gift basket industry.

Because I think a lot of people,

and we've talked about this.

I used to have a gift basket business as well as

you know,

and I think a lot of people are like,

well, what's the big deal with gift baskets.

You just get a bunch of stuff and you put it

in a basket and you put some wrapping around it and

you sell it.

Talk to us,

get on your soap box and talk to us about the

gift basket and being a designer and how it's different and

all the goodness that you're going to talk about.

It's not just putting stuff in a basket.

It's more than that is.

Design is technique is the quality of the products.

It's the placement of the products.

You have to have everything,

a certain,

we have me uniform so that it is appealing when a

customer looks at your gift baskets or whatever you're offering on

your website,

or even in person,

when you do trade shows with it has to be appealing

to draw them to you.

So I had to learn colors,

design, what goes with what does not go with that?

What is colorful and what is not colorful?

And it's all about what the client perceived your customer policies.

Is that a beautiful basket or is it a nice box

or is it just crap?

I had to learn a different things.

I had to learn how to really execute an exam on

what I'm doing.

And it took me a while and actually strobe to do

these baskets.

But for some strange reason,

people still want them.

But I was struggling because I was new in the industry.

I didn't know how to do certain things.

So I had to be a fast learner every quick learner,

because people were coming in,

buying from me.

Were you saying that you were struggling because you weren't getting

the baskets to look the way you wanted to,

because as you were just saying it,

first impression is so important and there's value in the visuals,

which then allows you to get a good price for your

baskets too.

Absolutely. But I had to learn the visualization of this industry

and it's still an ongoing continuous education because things change right?

The old go out,

the new go out,

they bring back the old,

where they bring the old Beckham with a twist.

So it's all different sorts of continuing education,

regardless of what industry that you're in.

Don't think that after a certain amount of time that you

have made it and there's nothing else to learn because there's

always something to learn and whatever industry that you're in and

you want to keep relevant and you want to make sure

that you're up on top of your game against any of

your competitors and just was in yourself,

knowing that you're doing the best you can.

And you're putting out the best products that your company has

to offer.

That's right.

And then also with the conferences,

everything that you're learning,

and this is similar for any industry really is how do

you price things so that you're actually making,

right? Right.

So you're taking different things that you're purchasing,

merging them in adding creativity and building it up.

So the cost structure for gift baskets is different than lots

of different other industries would be absolutely.

Right. So you learn all of that.

Also. It's not just all just the creative building Part with

me is that it came to me later.

I was still struggling for a couple of years to get

a basket.

The last thought was nice.

Like I say,

all the best of souls that I was sending out,

but I wanted to see how the ACA take my level

of knowledge and expertise and really train myself to make the

best gift baskets so that everyone that goes out,

I'm proud of each and every one and that they look

beautiful enough to ask the price that I'm asking.

But again,

that all comes in learning also,

it's not only just making a beautiful basket.

You have to know the business aspects of you have to

know your daily business operating expenses that goes with having a

business. It's not just making a basket and selling it.

It's more than that.

You got vendors,

you got suppliers,

you got marketing materials,

you got networking events that you're going to that's all apart

of building your brand and building a business.

It's not just making a gift basket and says,

take it out that to the world.

But you had affirmations early on that this was working.

And I love the fact that you were taking action and

continuing to perfect along the way.

Right? Cause you could have said,

Oh, I'm not ready yet to do the business.

I have to practice the baskets.

I have to make sure they're perfect.

And then you're not making any money.

So you got better by actually doing versus practicing.

Absolutely. Like I say,

I was thrown into it because people are buying it.

And then also I had to up my game because what

I had to offer on my websites was pricing.

People saw that I could do the work.

And so now they want from a $50 basket.

Can I do a custom $200 basket?

So I'm learning how to make the small ones,

the medium to big ones.

And now the customers.

So it was always,

I felt like I was on roller skates and things were

changing every minute,

every minute.

And I have to thank my customers,

also in the skill building for me that they were boosting

me up to go higher and higher,

higher and make better and better baskets.

So you never said no.

If someone asked you for something,

you said yes.

And then you figured out how to do it.

I figured out how to do it.

It was scary when I said yes and had to come

back and figure it out.

But one thing in business,

I definitely have to stress this hit after people say,

Oh, I want a big business.

I want a big order.

I want this,

I want that.

But if you don't have the proper training and tools in

place, that's going to fail.

You have got to have that in place.

And that's thing that I was worried about because I really

didn't understand if a big order came in,

how can I finance it?

I had to learn that I don't finance the business that's

coming in.

The customers are giving you either a down payment or the

opinion in full on big orders so that you're not stressing

with having to spend money in your pocket and then wait

for payment to come in.

So I had to learn that aspect of if a big

order came in,

what did I have to do?

This is a really good point that we have never talked

about on the show before.

So I just want to stop right here for a second.

It's partially specific to gift baskets,

I guess I'd say.

Cause what you're really saying is in the other way of

doing it,

you're not going to get paid until the baskets are delivered,

but you have to buy all the product.

You have to buy the baskets.

If it's a really big order,

pay people to come in and help you.

You have to do all of that upfront before you might

get paid by the client,

but it's become more typical within the gift basket industry for

sure is you get the down payment that you're talking about,

which for the most part,

at least covers your cost.

And that's really important.

So it's something to think about for others now,

wholesale, it's a little bit harder to do that.

I'm thinking here,

Joyce of other people who might be listening,

who like get a huge order for candles and they have

to make all those candles and then place them.

And sometimes you don't get paid for wholesale orders until a

little bit later,

but it's something to start thinking about and projecting how you

will make plans for that earlier in the process versus later,

because when those opportunities come by,

you want to use them.

Absolutely. Or you want to take advantage of it.

It's kind of like I would go back to the gift

basket. So I'll ask you,

this is if you got an order for like a thousand

pieces, it was due in two weeks,

let's say you probably have to bring in some people to

help you.

Absolutely. You have to break because you can't do it by

yourself. You have to bring in people.

Do you have people,

no waitlist.

If you will,

or kind of flex hours that you can pull in,

if you need to,

I have the best employees in the world.

I tell people because all my employees are retired so they

can come on a whim,

a wham.

So that's the good part about my business that I can

call them and let them know I need them.

And they're trained already.

They're already trained.

A lot of them have been with me a long,

long time.

And they're senior citizens,

which I love to have.

There's no drama.

They know how to come in and work and they don't

have to come in and work on time.

Oh, there's a concept.

That's a plus factor for me.

In fact,

when I was looking for employees in the beginning,

after my biggest to begin to really take off,

I was told I was at a networking and the lady

told me,

she says,

why don't you go to the ARP office and see if

they have people that have retired,

that don't want a full-time job that don't want to work

everyday. Just want to work enough to where I think $600

at minimum,

after that they would have to be on a 10 99.

You'd have to put them on payroll.

So that started working out for me,

perfectly as them being senior citizens.

I'm thinking to myself,

I don't want to give them multitask.

I don't want them to multitask anything.

I want to find out who's good at what?

And so for me,

I found two ladies that are very good with doing my

ribbon, making my ribbons.

It says it helps them with the arthritis in their hand.

So that's all they do to the Christmas season.

For me is make bowls,

hundreds and hundreds of bowls.

And do they have to make them in your office or

can they make them at home?

They can make them anywhere.

They want to just as long as they made There you

go and made on time when you need them.

I may not have time.

So that has been good for me to have people that's

flexible and don't have a job that don't have small kids

and things like that because sometime the hours here during holiday

season, sometime they can go wait until the midnight hours in

the wee,

wee hours in the morning to get a project done and

finished to go out for delivery and the truck the next

day or the next couple of days.

Okay. I want to keep asking you some questions about your

business growth.

Okay. At what point did you put up a website?

How many years in?

I think I really put up a website like really within

the first year and websites back at that time,

it was easily hit a mist.

But people at that time during the networking,

as they were asking for NASA,

which is a website,

they will actually,

at that time was popular.

Have an email address.

Do you have an email address?

Do you have an email address?

So popular back then was having an email address,

but I wanted to,

because I am a gift designer and I do do gift

baskets. I needed a website presence so that people can see

what I have to offer and see my work and my

style and my class of things of how I do.

So website to me was right away.

And so that's what I did.

I had a website up there that didn't have a shopping

cart per se.

In the beginning,

it was just a showcase of my baskets,

more information of what I can do.

Here's my email address.

Here's a phone number that you can call to place an

order, but as is beginning to grow,

and this is beginning to evolve,

then I says,

you know what,

I'm turning over.

So now I have to have a website with a shopping

cart, a working shopping cart.

And so each stage of my business as my business began

to grow at,

began to change and adapt to what was needed for the

business to continue to grow.

And then when did social media start to play a role

in your business?

10, somewhere in there,

maybe 11.

So not so much as the social media aspect of it

per se.

I had my first Facebook account I think was,

but just to be able to have social groups and it's

different because Facebook hadn't really have a Facebook group.

You have this bank,

then you have private rooms that people that was in your

industry was only in that room.

It was an application that you had to go through and

a process and all that castle is kind of neat because

they knew the administrator knew beforehand your intentions of coming into

the group.

So in the beginning you used social media more for peer

to peer support and continued learning versus getting visibility on your

business. So you had the website for visibility,

for the business and people to buy and the groups for

peer-to-peer support.

Absolutely. And things that come up that you don't have the

answer to.

You're not quite sure,

but you could always post it to your group.

Right? Okay.

So we're going to leave that there for a minute because

I'm coming back to that in a little bit.

You'll know exactly what I'm talking about when we do that.

But how did you continue to take yourself again,

still back when you were in the beginning?

So you continued getting that positive feedback that the baskets were

being able to be sold.

You were learning more,

you're designing,

got better.

Your pricing probably got better and sourcing product at some point,

I'm sure you stopped going to the local store and started

purchasing wholesale.

So all of that was evolving.

But talk to me about how you continued to attract customers

and got visibility to your business.

Yes. Isn't this conversation so great with Joyce taking us step-by-step

through how she built her business.

We'll jump right back to her story,

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Okay. I decided to join my local chamber so that I

can go out and introduce myself and my business and what

I had to offer.

So networking played a very,

very big part in the beginning and still now to this

day of me going out and introducing people to my business.

And so I joined several local chambers and network with everyone

that was in there.

I played a part in doing different things.

Volunteering, being on a different bull was getting myself in other

words, getting put in the spotlight by myself and then my

business partner.

If you see a person each time at the same place

at the same juncture you did for me with what they

do, Oh,

you were joining multiple places,

but then you were also very active.

So that meant joining committees.

And then also showing up at the meeting.

Absolutely do any committees showing up at the meeting,

coming early to events,

seeing if I could help out and different things like that.

So it all played a part and that comes into your

part of being you're coming there for business.

But also you want to help that chamber,

who of the organization,

you want to be a part of it.

You want to be a part of its success.

And I wanted to be a part of the success aspect.

If I was a part of a bigger picture,

then I automatically knew that my business was going to be

bigger and make a bigger success within me.

Yeah. Because people would know you,

then they trust you.

They like you.

And it's also convenient because if you're in a committee and

someone needs a gift and you're sitting right there,

they could say to you,

Hey Joyce,

can you put something together for me,

blah, blah,

blah, blah,

blah. Right?

Absolutely. And that's why I believe you have to really go

and you have to meet people,

not trying to meet a bunch of people all in one

day and grab a bunch of business cards.

I believe in doing,

one-on-one taking my time to know that person.

So if I reached out to them,

there's something in the conversation that they said that either I

could put in the email and talk about it,

or I can either discuss it over the phone,

maybe something funny they say,

or maybe something that they were looking for.

And I always want to be a vessel that people come

to me now only for gift basket,

but they may want something else.

What does that mean?

Something else.

In other words,

I had a lady call me when she was my client

for a long,

long time.

She gift best.

She called me one day.

She says,

I need to know if you know of a funeral home

that would do pre-arrangement plots.

Now, how does that figure gift baskets,

prearranged funeral plans.

And so I told her,

I says,

I don't know if you went off the top of my

head, give me 24 hours.

I says,

I know I've met somebody that somebody in my chamber that

I've met,

that I can give you that information too.

Is it all right if I pass your information on to

them? And so she said,

yes. And I had met a young lady that worked at

a funeral service.

She had been there for many,

many years.

We had had quite a few lunches together.

We see each other out in the public and I called

her and I told her,

I says,

this lady is interested in pre-arranged funeral practices.

So she said the same thing that I'm thinking,

how you get a gift basket from a gift basket to

a prearranged funeral plan.

We seriously.

Yeah. But the shorter,

the story is yes.

She called her.

Yes. She bought two products for one for her and for

another husband.

So you end up being the conduit,

if you will,

between her need and then someone else's business.

So you were able to pass on additional business,

which is what networking really should be all about.

And you get kind of positioned as person who knows everybody.

Yeah. Go to Joyce for the resource because she knows she'll

have the answer.

And I enjoy that because people do still call me from

time to time.

Even when people call me here and I can't help them,

I'm not going to say no.

I don't know.

I have no idea.

I hate when people say to me,

we would train never to say,

I have no idea.

That's why you're sticking a knife in me.

What do you do instead?

And says,

I don't have the answer,

but let me get back with you on that.

I'm going to see what I can find out.

I'd Rather say that.

And I tried to find out,

cause I,

I say people have called me.

They have maybe.

So my website,

one a basket.

If you want a hand,

maybe local handled everything.

It was outside of my area.

And when I asked them last,

found out where I was going to,

can I tell them,

I says,

go back and Google,

but put in the city name.

I say,

I know my company's name would pop up again,

but there should be someone in that city that can help

you. And a lot of times I've given out the name

and the phone number of the gift,

best that company in that area that can help them.

Beautiful. Okay.

So in the beginning,

let's say on a scale of one to 10,

I've never done this in a show before either,

but so this'll be interesting.

How important was networking to you growing your business?

10. Oh,

okay. All right.

Interesting. And what role does it play today?

10 plus 10 plus again.

Okay. And networking,

networking, networking,

and networking.

And people cost lab networking.

I don't have anything to show for it.

Okay. How did you,

what did you go out and give a person your card

and says,

call me,

let's buy something.

Or did you say,

you know what?

Let's sit down and talk to see how we can help

each other's business grow Well and you don't do it.

Just do it at the meetings either.

You will suggest that you meet again for coffee.

Just one-on-one Absolutely.

Before the Corona virus hit so heavily here,

I was scheduling what I call a coffee chat and I

had Starbucks is my different offices that I will go and

meet the people and we have coffee and we sit down

and we talk.

And I really didn't say much about my business.

I want to know more about how can I help them

That would in turn,

come back to you.

Absolutely. Then they will say,

well, tell me what killed.

I know you do give best,

but tell me,

how will your gift basket benefit my company using them?

And that's when I go to talk and what we can

help you do.

But without company gifts to grow your business,

I was very successful before the coronavirus.

I was very successful in doing that because it's a pleasant

time. It's not all about business.

It's not a salesy thing.

We're not selling anything.

And sometimes we find out that and talking because I don't

want to always talk business and shop.

I want to know about you.

I like to learn about people.

I want to hear the story.

And it's a difference.

So before coronavirus,

how many networking events would you be doing?

A and how many coffee chats would you be doing a

week? Give us a feel for what that would look like.

In normal times,

Normal times I would do like maybe three coffee chests a

week scheduled coffee chats.

And I would do maybe two networking events every single week,

every single week.

That was always something to go.

How many chambers are you with right now?

I'm with two chambers.

And so I try to participate and the different things that

they have.

I try to do that basically in the beginning because my

industry is hard for me to do that during the fourth

quarter. Right.

For sure.

But then that's also,

when you can get a lot of business,

do you ever have anyone going to a chamber meeting on

your behalf?

I do.

In fact,

but not going on my behalf.

A lot of times,

if there's a,

like, we have a multifunction chamber network where they got five

or six chambers and I want to meet a lot of

people. I would take another fear.

The friend of mine has been friends with me for years.

For me,

it's called the beginning of my business and will come into

the building as she'll go to the left side and the

a right side and we'll work the room.

Got it.

Well, she knows what I'm looking for.

She knows specific people that I'm looking for because I don't

know. I just read.

Everybody's not your customer.

Okay? Expand on that.

Some people are not your customer.

They don't want what you have to sell.

They don't want me to have the offer.

In other words,

they don't want,

they don't buy gift baskets.

They don't buy gifts.

They don't do anything like that.

So why would you try to approach that person?

They've told you?

No, we don't buy any gifts and you sell a bit

and when you sell,

but you can feel the energy from the recess.

No, that's a stop saying says,

no one stop.

You have to be able to see that stop sign that

says stop and says,

you know what?

Wonderful meeting you here.

Hope to see you at the next event.

And you move on,

Right? You don't keep trying to sell.

If you're getting the signals that they're not interested.

But I also would think you correct me if I'm wrong

here, you don't then just brush them off as if they're

a nobody,

because then that's like,

Oh, well you can't give me business.

You're no longer important to me.

You can't do that at all.

That to me is just unprofessional.

Well, because they may know somebody,

they may not need gift baskets,

but somebody else might that they know.

Yeah. And like a lot of people,

data buy gift baskets from me when I want to buy

gift pressing at all.

But a lot of times I see that.

And I'm the same person as I was before I tried

to sell you.

I'm going to always be that way pleasant.

Because like you said,

you never know that person may,

they may not buy any gifts at all,

but they may know someone that does.

Right. Okay.

So let me expand on this a little bit.

So how is networking working for you right now while we're

still in the pandemic time?

Well, I'm having to pivot it with the networking events because

now everything is virtual.

So I'm having to make time to sit in front of

a computer to do a virtual networking event.

I had an event last month for my chamber.

I missed the one from before.

So I says,

let me see,

how does this work?

And I got to tell you doing the virtual networking event.

Everybody was there.

It was kind of nice.

It was different.

And it was kind of nice.

It also gave me some ideals and bringing me out of

my comfort zone is that I can now send an email,

create an appointment,

to have my clients,

to do a virtual zoom meeting,

to see what I have to offer for this holiday season

that I'm going to be doing for them before they actually

see it.

And they can give me some information or give me some

tips on how they want,

did they want this product or they want another product or

just be instrumental.

I'm thinking to myself,

that's a win-win situation for me because now they're interacting with

the gifts and actually seeing what's going in the boxes and

in the baskets that they can choose from.

Right. And it's really easy.

There's no drive time.

You don't have to schedule a meeting and go and bring

options and let's face it.

Everyone's comfortable with zoom now.

So that's wonderful.

So you're saying like,

if there's somebody who is interested,

they're a client.

Now you just pop on a zoom call and you can

talk through the options and come to agreement.

So I'm thinking that speeds up the sale.

It truly does because I can give them an ideal right

here, right now of how this design is going to look

for your clients.

I can also have them rip it.

If they want printer river,

I can also have that out as well.

I can make a boat with an entails and how they

want to have that.

And they have several options to look as this.

Okay. I want this in there.

Or I want the other in there.

And then also they can give us,

and I tell them all the time,

if you have any type of information that you want to

go into your baskets,

feel free to send them to me.

And they will be also incorporated into the design.

Oh, love it.

And you feel that that has helped you close more sales.

Absolutely. When you make your customer a part of your designing

team, they love that,

that they had an actual hand in.

I selected that popcorn over this popcorn,

which I hate popcorn.

That's another different story,

but I like this cookies over that cookies.

And I like that color.

But in the other color,

it will now give them choices and it will help me

to better understand them going forward,

whether it's a new customer,

whether it's an old customer that I need to change,

how I've been doing my gifting designs for them,

right. For me again,

that's an education and learning.

Well, here's some more education and learning.

If you have any expired popcorn,

send it my way,

because if you're not going to eat it,

I will.

I just have a thing with popcorn.

That's favorable here.

I have a thing with popcorn too,

and it's opposite of yours.

So, okay.

I want to circle back now to social media.

I kind of put it on pause because I wanted to

follow the flow networking.

Now let's go back and pretend we can network.

Like we used to be able to do that.

We are all hopeful.

We'll come back again very shortly.

One of the biggest reasons last year,

I was so on your case,

Joyce, about coming on the podcast is you are such a

pro at Facebook live events.

Like when you're at a networking event,

you just pop on your phone and you roll with it.

And it is a beautiful thing.

So I want to talk with you and have you share

the story of why you decided to start getting onto Facebook

live and then take us through.

It's not been that long ago.

So I know you can remember how you approach an event.

Like not,

you press this button,

you press this button,

but what you do with your lives.

Okay. So let's start with,

when did you decide that you were going to start doing

Facebook live videos?

It was really,

I would say I had thought about it for quite a

while. I wasn't sure if I want to do it.

And I wasn't sure if it was going to be receptive

because I didn't want to make a mistake and I wanted

the camera angle to be perfect.

I wanted everything to be perfect.

Perfect. Perfect.

And then after that,

I had a thought to myself.

I said,

these are Facebook lives.

And I remember hearing you say this,

whatever happens,

happens, you have to go with the flow.

And so then I took it from a networking aspect to

a fun aspect with me doing a live.

And I thought it was,

so this was really more about me.

I'm at a networking.

I want all my friends and coworkers and family members and

customers to see what I'm doing,

that I'm out here.

And the first of all,

I'm out here in the community and that I'm showing them

the different events that's around town.

And that I'm a part of.

And then when I come out wanting to do something that

was cookie and fun,

definitely fun.

So as I began to do the wildlife,

I began to get more,

better and better and better with it.

And so people began to know that I started doing the

labs that I saw.

It was nice to pull them in to say a few

words. So that made me so happy that even down to

the chamber president,

in fact,

she told me the other day,

she says,

we missed the Redland networking.

You miss.

We miss you with the last,

because that would give them a way to showcase the chamber

and what we do,

the different functions that will make someone in our area want

to join.

Absolutely. Yes,

Because just saying that you're having a chamber event and someone

said, Oh,

it was a nice event.

But to actually see the event lab and in person as

it going on,

going to table to table and table showing the full session,

if there's a band,

showing people,

dancing, showing people,

talking at different booths and then going up,

talking with them for me,

I thought I was a camera man.

Well, you're the host with the camera too.

Yeah, you had to do both.

So you're,

multi-functioning right there.

Handle both of them.

As I began to do the more I began to enjoy

them more.

And really I would tag a few people once I put

it up,

you know,

on my Facebook business page.

And I would tag a few people that were in my

friendship page on Facebook,

and then they would put themselves,

they would tag it because sometimes a lot of time they

will be in the picture.

And so their customers will see them out in the community,

networking, mingling,

seeing what's going on in the community with the chamber and

how we can help.

So that was a win for me.

And that's really what I missed.

And you are a pro at that.

So give his listeners,

here's what she'd do.

She'd be at a chamber event or the other ones I

liked Joyce were when let's say,

because of your corporate clients,

maybe you were at an event at a hotel and the

hotel was your client.

So you're giving the hotel visibility and saying,

we're here at such and such place because there's an event

going on.

I thought I just walk around and show you a behind

the scenes of what's happening here.

And so then she'd walk around,

she'd go in or wherever she's going,

she'd show everything.

She just said like the food and the band,

if it's going the flowers.

And if it was connected with someone she knew,

she could say,

so-and-so business.

Does these gorgeous flower arrangements.

So who doesn't love that,

that they're getting promoted.

And then what you do,

Joyce, which was so fun is call people over.

Oh, there she is right now,

maybe she'll come on,

live and chat with us for a minute.

So you were then putting other people in the spotlight too.

And it was so natural,

so comfortable,

so entertaining.

You have a gift for doing that.

I wish we could send people to be able to look

at them now,

but we can't do them right now in the future.

Hopefully that will come back In the future.

And then also that led me to be outside of my

comfort zone because I'm thinking of doing a lab in my

shop here for the Christmas holidays,

showing what I have to offer.

So it's going to be kind of scary because this time

I'm going to be in front of the camera.

Normally I'm behind the camera,

but this time we're going to be in front of the

camera. So my first test is going to be next month

with the chamber that having a virtual business straight show that

I have signed up with.

And so that's going to be interesting for me to have

my table set up.

I'm going to do it in the holiday spirit.

I'm going to have different designs on the table.

And so that's got to be something different.

I've never done that before.

And I'm kind of excited to see the outcome of it,

the end result You're going to do so great,

because think about it.

You've been doing Facebook lives before,

and you have been in your Facebook lives in front of

the camera,

right? You've had the camera facing on you and then you

flip it around.

Plus I think all of us,

and I want to apply this back to our listeners too.

We're all on zoom nowadays.

Like we're so used to now seeing our faces in the

camera and talking to a camera and you're really just talking

to other people,

if you think of it that way,

and it's just natural and I'm so excited.

We've been talking about this in our private calls,

Joyce, about your event coming up.

I'm so excited for it.

I can not wait.

I think you are going to just absolutely nail it.

I'm hoping to be the talk of the town.

That's what I'm hoping You already are.

The talk of the town girlfriend.

Okay. So all of this sounds great.

You definitely,

I know everyone is understanding that you are a powerhouse business

woman, but tell us some time when things weren't working well,

because I think it's important to round everything out that everything

isn't all glorious and it doesn't always work out the way

you want.

Can you share with us a story of when that happened

to you?

Absolutely. I can share that story and any business,

regardless of what you're going to have ups and downs.

And one instance,

I have a client that was really,

really difficult.

That was just outright nasty Verbally mean or yeah,

Verbally mean when she called up and it was a hard

decision and a hard pill for me to swallow because it

was a lot of money that she was spending with me.

And I understand that you have to kind of deal with

difficult customers at times,

but after wow,

you have to kind of say,

is this really worth all the stress that I'm going through?

And it really had me not feeling good with my company

and kind of second guessing what I needed to do in

order to continue to make her happy.

Were you not feeling good?

Because she was just mean,

or was she critical of what you were doing?

She was just mean and nasty.

Just say it like that.

Just me the next.

So anytime the phone rang and you saw that it was

her, you were like,

Oh no,

She wouldn't do this to me.

But she would do this to the people that answered the

phone, my employees,

as she would do that to my driver that went out

and drop things off.

And she always wanted something additional.

She always wanted to have my driver come and do something

personal for her and that's not,

they're supposed to do and getting upset about it.

Okay. So where did you do After long consideration and talking

with my financial person,

I read an article that says sometimes you have to fire

your best clients.

And I read an article over and over and over.

I must've read it over a hundred times over and over

again, As a percentage of your overall revenue at that time,

how big a client was this?

I would say 30,

35%. Oh,

so very significant.

Okay. That's important to know as you continue Very significant.

So that's why I had me on the fence.

What do I do?

I don't want my staff to say,

I'm not answering the phone.

If I have to deal with her,

then I quit.

Right. And I don't want to have to retrain anybody.

So I had to make a real hard decision,

really, really hard to sit here,

but I wanted to keep a professional cause her husband was

a wonderful person.

Never had any problems with him.

And when I came to the that,

I can't do this anymore because I've got knots in my

stomach at night.

And I don't want her to think that she could come

in and tell me the owner of Joyce's baskets,

how to run my business.

That's where I draw the line.

I will not allow anybody to comment and tell me how

to run my business.

That's never going to happen.

Okay. So what'd,

you do drink a lot of wine.

I got a friend of mine.

That's a professional writer.

And I said,

I need to write a termination letter,

but a very professional one.

But I want to outline in a very nice way and

bullet points,

why I am terminating this relationship.

And then I thank her for all the wonderful years that

she had been with me,

but it would be best that we resolve this relationship and

that she find me another gift person to do it.

Well, I guess for how many years had you been putting

up with her years?

Whoa. And I was really way too long.

So I figured I'm like,

okay, let me get ready for a fight.

Cause I know she's going to have something to say.

I said,

I've let her,

I didn't do email.

I sent a letter,

a certified return receipt,

but I want to make sure that she got it.

And so I thought she was going to call and give

me a hard time,

but she never did.

Her husband called me and begged me tooth and nail.

Please take them back.

I says,

I can't do it.

I says,

I'm so sorry.

And so once that letter went out and I got back,

a city desk signed for it,

it looked like a thousand pounds that was on my shoulder

was off.

And I'm like,

okay, I've just lost this chunk of change.

Where in a universal mind going to get that back and

within, because I put that out,

I told her universe,

send me another client,

but here's the stipulations,

Not just the client.

That's so funny.

Send me the client that is deemed to love Joyce's baskets,

joyous, areola,

her staff,

and anything that we do for them.

And how did the universe do for you?

They're Less than 90 days later.

I got a huge,

huge contract that superseded what she was doing for me.

Wow. And they love everything that we did.

It really wasn't no fuss and no bother at all because

it came from a referral of referral,

our referral.

So when whispered in his personal ear and told them about

my company,

That's amazing.

What a story.

I love that you asked the universe and then you put

stipulations. I just couldn't.

So again and business,

you have to,

it's hard knocks that you don't want to do.

You don't want nothing to be hard.

You want everything to be easy.

It is not always easy.

And even in your finance,

you may have where you're on top today,

financially. And then tomorrow you're like seeing where can you find

money? You put together a basket or buy supplies for whatever

your business is.

So when the good comes,

you celebrate it and what the bad come,

you hold your head down and you keep moving to find

a solution to it.

You keep going and going.

You don't give up,

you give out,

but you don't give up.

Right? But so in this situation,

hindsight now,

what would you have done differently?

This customer that's a problem starts doing business with you.

What would you have done if this happened now today,

after all the learning that you have,

what would you,

Oh, now I have experience,

I know the telltale signs immediately.

She would have been gone.

How I would just say,

you know what?

I would have a private conversation with her to try to

come to some sort of agreement and let her know you're

not going to talk to my staff this way.

You're not going to even talk to me this week.

You're not going to tell us how to design.

You can give us suggestions,

but you can't tell us something that you don't know anything

about. Be real professional with them and real nice with them

and polite at times.

But like I say,

I can be lucky to see.

I've never ran across a client like that again.

But you know,

this will happen.

You know that sometimes that you can do everything in your

power to make that customer a client or whatever,

happy. And they're still not happy,

Right? They're never going to be happy.

They're never going to be happy.

You have to realize that they're never going to be happy

with you or anything that you do.

And it's such a drain on your business or to drag

on your morale.

You're taking time with that client where you could replace them

with someone who's going to add joy and you're going to

like doing business with,

but I think often,

especially when we're starting and if it was a large revenue

client, it's like,

Oh my gosh,

but I can't replace them.

Like, I'm going to put up with it because it's a

lot of money and we have to get over that.

Because like you said,

you were at the point where you were wondering if you

wanted to keep doing the business,

just because of this one client.

Absolutely. I'm thinking to myself,

how many more clients out there?

I like her.

I'm like,

Oh my God,

I can't,

I can't take that.

I can't take that.

But like I said,

I'm glad that I learned that lesson,

that I know the telltale signs to look at it.

And it goes from experience that I won't put myself in

a position to have a client that way.

And I think too,

it comes from communicating.

Maybe back then my communication skills to her was not good.

And that she thought that she could tell me what to

do and I'll be okay with them.

And maybe she did have some instances and I went along

with it.

And so maybe I opened that door with the Pandora's box,

which I did know.

Well, I think there's truth in that we teach people how

to treat us that goes with personal relationships and business relationships.

And my guess is that other people that she buys things

from see the same way,

the same behavior,

the same way.

But you don't need that in your wheel house?

No, absolutely.

And I saw her,

I saw her about maybe three years ago at a gala

function. And I walked up to her like we have been

friends forever.

Oh my God.

How are you?

It's been a long time since I've seen you.

You're looking well and do it the rest of the evening.

And that's it.

I'm never going to avoid someone that I see in a

room. I'm not going to avoid.

We don't have any business dealings anymore.

Or we had a disagreement on words or whatever.

We didn't see eye to eye.

I'm going to always be me.

I'm going to always be a human being.

Right. And you can just virtually say,

this just isn't a fit.

That's it.

So that nobody has to feel bad that she's stuck trying

to find someone to do her gorgeous baskets or whatever gifts

she's going to do.

But as a business owner,

for all of us,

we get to decide what we're doing.

And it took me a while to learn that too,

because I kind of felt like,

well, if they buy something online from me,

they have to be a client.

And I remember over on the ribbon print company,

we had a similar situation at one point where there was

someone who would buy product.

And it was pretty much at the time and she'd order

online, we'd fill the order.

And then she'd return things because she decided she didn't like

the color,

like all these crazy reasons.

And we finally had to do something similar to you.

We just said,

look, our colors,

our colors,

the printer prints the way it prints many people like it.

If this is just not what you're looking for,

then we're not a good fit.

We're no longer going to be taking orders from you that

are returnable.

Like we didn't tell them we wouldn't take orders,

but that are returnable unless the product's damaged.

Right. Do you know she's still a customer today now?

I Don't mean to say we sat her in her place.

It's just,

we weren't going to continue doing that round rabbit with her.

Like just,

we weren't.

So figuring out how to work with people under your requirements

as well,

I guess.

Right. All right.

So Joyce,

we know one thing that's coming up for you in the

future, which is your upcoming chamber event.

So excited about that.

And I know you are going to just smash it out

of the park.

What do you see as you continue to grow and going

into the next coming years?

I see my company getting much,

much bigger.

I see myself doing things that I didn't have time to

do in the community that I want to do because I

was so busy building and building and rebuilding my business until

I think for me,

it's going to be a good aspect for me to get

out, not as a network,

but as a community activist involvement in my community and different

things that's going on that maybe I can lend a hand

to or a voice to,

Oh, wait,

I love that on behalf of both yourself as a person.

And of course it part of you your business too.

Yes. So I love that.

And I know just because we work together in other ways,

give biz listeners.

Joyce is part of my makers MBA program,

but I know that this year you really,

it was before COVID,

but I think you've still followed through with it is you're

focusing on larger clients now because you have the skills,

you have the services,

you are such a professional that you're focused already on attracting

the customers that are going to allow you to do what

you just talked about.

Absolutely. And that comes with being in business for awhile and

learning. So now I figure,

like I said,

I have a plan.

And like I said,

my business model has changed because anybody that's in business,

regardless of whether it's gifting or making your own items after

a while being a business,

you become stagnated.

I know I did.

And I'm like,

I need to take this business to the next level so

I can fall back in love with it.

What do I have to do that?

Ooh. And so I had to sit down a plan for

me. Okay.

I need to maybe rebrand,

refresh, rethink what I used to do,

opposed to what I want to do now,

going into the 21st century and this new way of networking

and marketing for customers.

Do I want to change my style?

Do I want to do a different style?

Do I want to look at different styles and says,

okay, maybe me pick something ABC,

maybe ABCD and E and mesh it all together.

They come my new style,

my new brand,

my new way of thinking.

So you were refreshing your brand and also what you're offering

and just the whole structure is still the same core product

for the most part.

Yeah. Just the structure is different and you have a different,

you have a change of mindset in order to do all

these things that you want to do.

Your mindset has to change.

You have to take it from the old way of thinking.

I've done this for 40 years and I'm okay with that.

But 40 years has passed.

We were in a new era.

Now that doesn't work anymore.

What are you going to do?

Are you going to be sitting on the sidelines while other

people are passing you by?

Or you got a job in and marshy your own beat.

And so that's what I'm doing now.

And I'm learning that this is a new learning for me.

I'm excited.

Cause I'm always excited about learning new things.

I like them.

So information like a sponge,

I just love it.

Learning and growing,

challenging yourself.

All of that.

Absolutely. So for me,

it's like all of this all into,

once I'm going into the ring,

I'm going into unknown charters of life and I'm going to

do it head on.

I'm going to face it,

head on whatever comes up,

come out.

I want to be like a changing person.

Just change all around and be able to adapt to new

situations, new surroundings,

new things,

and not to say,

well, maybe that won't work for me because I'm used to

doing it this way.

Right? For sure.

I don't want to have that old mindset.

I want the new mindset.

They click and says,

okay, then we're going to do this this way.

And if it don't work,

we're going to do it another way.

We're going to keep on doing until it works.

Well. I love That.

I mean,

your journey continues and I love the vision that you have

for the future.

It is awesome.

And I'm so excited to watch you to continue to grow

and grow and grow.

And guess what?

Joyce, we did it.

We have done it.

We have gotten you recorded on the podcast.

Yay. Now everyone gets to hear yours story.

And boy did you deliver?

Thank you so so much,

Joyce, I so appreciate you getting on firing a client.

Is it a radical act or the path of maintaining a

healthy business?

Something to think about if you ever encounter friction with a

customer like both Joyce and I described a little behind the

scenes peak here.

There were moments in this show as I was running through

the final edit where I literally broke out in laughter.

Laurie thought I was nuts because I had my headphones on.

So she didn't have a clue what I was listening to,

but I couldn't help it.

Joyce is so full of energy,

enthusiasm, and you can't help,

but have a smile on your face when you're with her.

If you've been around Joyce,

you know what I mean?

And if you haven't,

I'm glad I got a chance to share her with you

today. Next week,

we're continuing our conversation about email,

except in a different way.

You already know whether you're doing it or not.

That you should have an email marketing plan.

We'll be taking it the next step and buckle up because

it's a long one.

And it includes things that I had no idea about.

And I'm guessing you don't either.

Thanks so much for spending time with me today.

If you'd like to show support for the podcast,

please leave a rating and review.

That means so much and helps the show to get seen

by more makers.

It's a way to pay it forward and now be safe

and well,

and I'll see you next week on the gift biz unwrapped

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

Facebook group called gift is breeze.

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

support each other.

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 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.