006 – Running Your Biz while Working Full Time with Deb Condo of Gift Basket Junction

Gift Biz Unwrapped,

episode number six.

Hi, this is John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur On Fire,

and you're listening to Gift Biz Unwrapped.

And now it's time to light it up.

Welcome to Gift Biz Unwrapped,

your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop and

grow your business.

And now here's your host,

Sue Monheit.

Hi, I'm Sue Monheit and welcome to the Gift Biz Unwrapped

Podcast. Whether you own a brick and mortar store,

sell online,

or are just getting started,

you'll discover new insight to gain traction and grow your business.

And today I have with us Deb Condo.

Deb is the owner and gift guru of Gift Basket Junction.

Her designs have won a number of national awards and have

been featured in many magazines over the years.

Deb was one of the first to qualify for the Gift

Basket Association as a certified gift educator and certified gift designer.

She's on the faculty of the National Gift Basket Convention and

teaches locally in her community in Phoenix.

Deb is a contributing author for the Gift Basket industry book

called Fundamentals,

A book of basic Concepts for your Gift Basket business.

And this month meaning out right now,

is her new book called Foundations,

the Gift Basket Design Book.

Now her bio includes a lot about gift baskets,

but I can tell you there's even more going on in

her life than that and I'm sure we'll get into it

as we go along.

Deb, how are you doing this morning?

Doing well,

Sue. How are you?

I'm good.

Is there anything else you'd like to add to what I've

already shared with our audience about you?

No, that's quite a lot Actually.

Well, I know we're gonna be talking about some other things

that will get our audience to know more about you as

we go along.

I'd like to start the conversation and revolve it around the

life of a candle.

The light shines on you while we share your stories and

experiences. Are you ready to light it up?

I am,

I am.

Wonderful. Help us to envision what your candle looks like.

What color is it?

It's a light blue.

And why light blue?

Light blue reminds me of breathing and grounding.

It's a nurturing color.

Most specifically,

it reminds me of the ocean.

And so the ocean has this breath,

it leaves in and it breathes out and it helps us,

you know,

stay connected.

That light of the blue,

that light of the ocean,

sometimes it can be even be the light of the sky.

So for me it's nurturing.

And what quote then would be on your light blue candle?

Well, I would have to say breathe,

because we take that for granted a lot.

You know,

people don't realize that sometimes they have to take a step

back and just,

you know,

breathe. Absolutely.

I think especially as owners of businesses,

you get so caught up in the day-to-day doings of the

business, everything you wanna get done,

all of your goals.

And sometimes it just gets so overwhelming.

This idea of just stepping back and breathing makes a whole

lot of sense.

Yeah. If you don't take care of yourself,

where are you gonna live?

Exactly. You know,

what it brings,

it brings to mind.

My daughter is a basketball player or,

or was playing.

And when she would,

when she would be going for some serious shots or there'd

be a really intense game,

she wrote the word breathe on her wrist to remind her

to just chill out.

Because you can do your best when you're the most natural.

Yes. All right,

so let's talk a little bit,

you know,

you've had quite an experience with your gift basket business.

Let's go back and start with how you got into this

in the very beginning.

What gave you that inner spark that all of a sudden

said, this is the business I'm going to create.

I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur ever since I was

a kid.

And when I got into my early twenties,

I realized that,

you know,

maybe I could start something right after college.

So I started making hair accessories and selling 'em in my

local community.

And then I got into designing wedding bridal headpieces.

And the original desire that I had was to actually,

I started a wedding planning business.

So I started writing a business plan for that,

but it wasn't the right time.

And I just graduated from college.

I didn't have a whole lot of money,

my relationships weren't the best.

And so it just,

the timing was off.

to be my own boss.

And just one night deep sleep,

I woke up and it was like an aha moment out

of my slumber that ran into the office and just started

writing a business plan.

And my husband came in there and at the time we

had talked about it,

he and I,

about starting a business but didn't know what it was gonna

be. And he came in and he said,

what are you doing?

And I said,

I have an idea and I have to write it down

right now.

And that's when Gift Basket Junction was born.

We started the process about two days later with an attorney.

And so you woke up in the middle of the night

and with all of a sudden thinking my business is going

to be gift baskets.

I Did,

yes. Divine intervention perhaps Of maybe Of some sort one or

the other.

Well, I had a girlfriend when I was in college who

used to send me gifts and baskets that had a theme.

And sometimes she sent them from a as far away as

Greece, cuz she was married and her husband was in the

Air Force.

And you know,

she was thinking of me.

So when I started thinking about the businesses I wanna be

in, apparently it was something under my pillow telling me I

needed to do this.

And so I thought of her and it was just one

of those things that happened.

And I really,

you know,

Susan was my inspiration.

You know,

when people think about businesses,

you know,

they go in search and are so assertive in terms of

what's the business gonna be?

I'm gonna find the answer right away.

And you're qualifying that,

you know,

sometimes you just have to let the concept sit that you

wanna open a business and then eventually what it really should

be will be revealed to you at some point.

Yes. Because That's kind of what happened to you.

Yes. All right.

So you started the business.

Give us a little feel for how that worked.

You said you met with an attorney and put the whole

structure together within a few days.

Yeah, and you know,

back back then the internet was still fairly new.

I did some research trying to find basket businesses in the

area and it seemed like there were a few,

but their websites weren't all that grand.

But again,

the technology wasn't all that grand either.

And so I did put together a website and I'd reached

out to a networking event and my Chamber of Commerce and

got involved with them.

And that's essentially how it all started,

had to be after work because I was working full-time.

But I started slowly getting my name out there.

Really important point you bring up because you didn't just decide

you were gonna start the business and then just go into

it. You put together a business plan,

you researched your competition,

look to see what their presence looked like in the market,

you know,

how they were positioned,

I'm sure.

And then figured out what you should do for your business.

So to strategically position yourself within the market,

really important for everyone to remember if you're out there starting

a business is,

you know,

just because Deb liked the idea of gift baskets,

she also looked at how that business could could succeed based

on who was already in the market.

So you were working,

the business was then part-time at nights,

weekends, et cetera.

And it's been that way for the whole time.

It was like that for nine and a half years.

Nine and yeah,

nine and a half years.

And then we moved to Phoenix last August,

2014, and right after the gift basket convention,

I had to restart my business closing down the licensing out

of Denver and Colorado and Ree establishing myself in Phoenix.

So you absolutely have to love the business if you pick

up and leave and then go to another market.

Yeah, and what I learned the first time,

I was able to easily integrate the second time because I

knew what to expect and I knew what avenues to follow

through. So if I were to start a different business,

completely didn't have to be gift baskets,

I would know where to go.

Now using my small business experience with the gift baskets has

helped me realize the technology that's out there and the people

that are willing to help you.

And so if it's a federal thing or a state thing,

you can find the websites through your local community.

You can give them a call and ask them,

you know,

what, what you need for licensing and how to go about

the whole tax structure.

There's a lot more to it than just making a basket.

Small business is what drives America and you wanna do it.

Right. Let's talk a little bit about when things weren't so

great, when was a time,

and give us a specific example of when that inner flame

of the business,

the passion that you had,

wasn't so bright,

you know,

a rough time that you went through and how did you

overcome it?

I've always,

I have had the passion,

but always be aware of the negativity of others.

I will say that whether it's a family,

a friend,

or just other businesses or even in the community,

my biggest struggle was,

like I said,

getting my name out there.

I was working in corporate America full time when I started

my business.

And so the only times I could go out and network

were really early in the morning and right after work.

Now some of my bosses were really fine with the fact

that I had some outside interests.

Others weren't so thrilled they had me walking on eggshells.

And that's not a comfortable feeling to have when you're working

in a corporate environment.

So I had to be really conscious about what I said

and what I did and how I talked about my interests

outside of work.

And that's not really fair because if your folks at work

like you as a person and they want to see you

grow, you would think that they would want to see you

grow in all aspects of your life,

not just under one roof of a corporate environment.

To let all of our listeners understand you were not working

in a competitive industry.

So it's not like you were putting,

taking something up on the side that was going to compete

with or steal business from your full-time job.

Totally unrelated businesses,

Totally unrelated.

And I was a transportation and logistics manager for a very

long time for this organization.

In fact,

I've been in transportation and logistics for well over 20 years.

So no,

they had nothing to do with one another at all.

Yeah. So there was really no risk other than you were

putting in time elsewhere,

but it was on your personal time.

That's correct.

What did you do besides just be real careful about who

you spoke with about your business?

Or did you just totally keep it out of your workday

entirely? Well,

I used my cell phone a lot.

You know,

I would go out into the hallway when I did get

a call for an order or something.

So that was my 10 minutes of a break time,

you know,

go take a basket order.

And then I lived close enough from my work to my

home that I could go home at lunch and create a

basket and actually get it delivered and before lunch was over

and come back.

Wow. Yeah,

That's dedication and one big juggling act.

I know.

And at one point I did have a shop and it

was between my house and my office.

So I was able to even be another mile closer to

my, you know,

my office to go there,

make the baskets,

maybe even meet somebody for a pickup and then,

you know,

swing by,

grab something to eat and then go back to the office.

Definitely a juggling act.

Can you share with us a promotion or an event that

you did that made a real difference?

Maybe it,

you know,

brought in new customers or it increased sales or moved a

particular product,

something like that.

I would have to say it was more of a life

event, although it was a promotion for my husband in one

sense, he accepted a new role and actually a new job

in Arizona.

So we had to move from Colorado to Phoenix in August

And I had belonged to a networking group in Colorado,

like I mentioned before.

And I had re searched several groups out in the Phoenix

area when I got here.

And I decided to stick with the one I had belonged

with in Colorado.

And I visited a few and I found one that fit

my personality the best.

And I was really grateful for this because the move was

exactly what I needed to grow my business.

And it wasn't just the networking group,

it was how they saw me.

I found that the demographics played a huge role in growing

my business,

where the small business owners in Colorado,

you know,

they didn't give a lot of thank you gifts.

The opposite was true here in Arizona where they're all for

it. I'm a yoga teacher and when my students find out

that I create custom gifts,

they go to my Facebook page,

I show 'em pictures on my phone and they just started

ordering where that wasn't the case.

You know,

in Colorado,

I, I could show them pictures until my face was blue

and they say,

oh yeah,

those are really pretty.

But then their mindset went somewhere else.

But in Phoenix I find that they are more excited and

I just,

I have more orders with small businesses and individuals alike.

The designs and ideas sell themselves out here a lot more

than they did in Colorado.

And nothing changed in the way the delivery was.

Or your designs.

Or the designs seriously believe it's the demographics in the two

areas. You make a really good point here because as you

look at your business,

you can't necessarily compare your business to someone in the same

industry in a different market.

You can't compare results,

you can't necessarily compare designs because every market is so different.

You also can't compare pricing.

What Deb might be able to charge in Arizona might be

different than someone who's in Alabama,

who's in Chicago,

who's in New York.

So although you can take guidelines,

you really have to look at your specific markets and your

product within the market and make decisions based on your unique

situation. And Deb,

I bet you never even considered this fact that it was

gonna look so different when you got to Arizona.

I had no idea.

You know,

I moved right before the holidays,

so I was kind of worried about keeping those clients in

the Denver market and figuring out how to make it work

with the shipping back and forth.

But they didn't mind,

you know,

the cost of delivery was pretty much about the same as

the cost of shipping.

So they still got what they wanted,

you know,

which was a basket to their client and on their budget.

Well, kudos to you because they stuck by you in a

big move.

So that says a lot for the product and the service

that you provide.

One of the things I wanna clarify that we've been talking

about, just in case our listeners don't know this,

there are several national organizations out there,

LA Tip being one of them,

B Nni being another that are very structured,

organized groups and most likely they're sitting right in your community

or a neighboring community if you just Googled them.

And many of them have openings for different types of industries.

They usually are industry exclusive.

Like if Deb was there as a gift basket person,

you probably wouldn't have enough person within the same industry in

the group.

And everyone shares leads and learnings and sometimes they'll be presenters.

So it's a great resource for you to check out if

you're in a situation where you're building or growing your business

and you'd like the support and help of other people that

you initially don't know in your area.

Deb, I wanna get back to this whole concept of customer

service, cuz obviously you're rocking it.

Given that you've kept so many of your customers as you've

transitioned across states on the customer service end,

what specifically do you do to make your customers feel valued

and appreciated?

I ask a lot of questions.

Well, my recipient is sick,

or you know,

I find they find out that they're gonna have a baby,

something like that.

The buyer wants something specific and they may not think that

they want something spec specific until I start asking them.

Almost everything I do is custom.

If you look on my website,

much of that stuff is drop shipped and I,

I can get feedback from the buyer on,

well, I like this,

but I wanna change this.

And so I will take their budget and I'll work backwards

from there.

And then when the basket is complete and I think I

figured it out,

what the recipient's gonna love,

I'll take a picture of it and I'll either send it

by a text message or I'll send it to them via

email. It just depends on how they like to receive their

technology and their communication.

And then if,

if I'm delivering it myself,

I'll do the same thing.

I'll send them an email or a text to tell 'em

that it delivered.

And then depending on where it's going and if they require

shipping, tracking,

whatever, I will give that to them.

But usually I can get the tracking information comes to my

phone and it gives me an update that it delivered.

And usually I can just tell them right away,

Hey, this delivered.

And they really appreciate that.

I bet the pictures too,

I mean,

that's a really nice touch because so many times,

you know,

e even like if you order flowers,

if you order gift baskets,

you just have to assume that what you're sending them is

going to look how you imagine it in terms of what

you ordered.

And especially if you're doing custom,

taking a picture of that specific basket and sending it on

is really unique.

I love that idea.

Well, They,

the buyer,

you know,

will look at it and go,

oh my god,

that's way more than I expected.

Which is A really,

that's what you want.

Yeah. Yeah.

Fabulous. Okay,

we're gonna move now,

Deb, into our reflection section.

This is where we take a look at you and see

what's helped you along the way with your success.

What is one trait for you that just comes naturally that

you say has helped you to succeed?

Determination. You know,

you have to stay positive in the face of adversity.

My dad always told me when I was a kid that

you get up when you fall down.

And now I have,

I've been in sports since I was a kid,

and the last five years have been really trying,

you know,

I could tell you horror stories,

but it's always been about the determination.

Deb, I want,

I want you to tell us one horror story,

will you?

Sure. Go for it.

All right.

I'm an Iron Man athlete and I've done five in the

last four years.

And yeah,

the last couple actually,

it seems like every one of 'em have some kind of

horror story in them,

but it's the body and I tell you,

you know,

take care of it where you're gonna live.

When the body starts to give you feedback and you're in

a situation like finishing 140.6

mile race,

it comes down to the determination and it comes down to

the breath to just breathe,

determined to get through it,

you know,

through the aches and pains,

whether the,

the knees hurt or the feet hurt or the back hurts,

the brain doesn't hurt.

It's that ego that probably hurts more than anything else.

And you just push through The brain doesn't hurt,

The body hurts a lot,

but you're determined to get past that.

You know,

again, staying positive in the face of adversity.

Yeah. So your example is really more from the physical end.

I couldn't even do a quarter of what you do physically,

that's for sure.

But then you just apply that same determination to your business

too, it sounds like.

Yes. What tool do you use regularly to keep productive or

to help create balance in your life?

Well, that's easy.

Yoga, you know,

I, as I mentioned earlier,

I'm a teacher,

have been for the last two years,

been practicing yoga for probably five.

I always tell my students at the end of our session

that to find peace in the world,

you must first understand your body because we have to understand

where we are as beings in space.

And I don't mean aliens,

you know where we are and how we take up space.

And when we breathe and actually focus on the breath,

we calm the mind and we calm all the chaos.

You know,

the postures are secondary breathing is a just a simple task

that people take for granted,

just like we talked about with the candle and the quote,

if you take care of yourself,

everything falls into place.

But if you don't take care of yourself,

think about this.

Where would you live?

You know,

I remind my students to let go what doesn't serve them.

So whether it's an negative energy,

a thought,

a conversation,

maybe it's a friend or who you thought was a friend

or acquaintance,

and you know,

social media can sometimes play a big role in who you

thought your friends were,

but you wanna move to your passion and moving in that

passion you have to breathe.

I heard this quote once,

I read it somewhere many,

many times,

and I don't know who it's by,

but it says,

yoga's not about touching your toes,

it's what you learn on the way down.

And so in your business,

it's not about making a whole bunch of money,

it could be,

but it's who you learn to be while you get there.

So you take those experiences and,

and you know,

you learn who you are.

Really powerful.

You're right,

it's the journey.

It's not the,

it's not the destination,

it's the journey.

I love what you've been talking about,

Deb, because throughout this whole conversation,

it, you know,

there's just one general theme,

and that is breathing and determination and staying calm through chaos.

And, you know,

the yoga and all of that kind of spiritual,

but physical,

you know,

body physical things to help you be as strong as you

can because everybody knows,

you know,

when you're starting a business and you're,

and you're having a business for the long haul as you

have, it is taxing.

And the way you've approached it is always calm,

take a step back,

breathe, figure it out and carry on.

Yeah, you have to take care of yourself when you're,

you know,

in a business,

because if you don't,

the business is gonna fall apart,

Right? If you're,

if you're stressed,

that conveys out into your business.

And you know,

customers don't wanna work with a stressed individual.

They want their experience,

their buying experience to be easy and simple.

And if you are calm and relaxed and you make it

simple for them,

they'll keep coming back.

Really Good insight.

Deb, let's talk about your book.

Give our listeners just a little bit of an outline in,

in terms of what your book is like so that they

understand. Well,

I believe that anybody can make a gift basket,

but to be a gift basket to designer,

you have to have the personal touches and give the wow

factor. I mean,

anybody can make put stuff in a basket and call a

basket. There's no denying that.

But what I do is I help the reader understand how

to bring up the wow factor,

how to make things appear more valuable than maybe what's inside.

So turning,

you know,

a bag of pretzels into something really cool.

And I know that that sounds funny,

but it's what we're trying to convey as you know,

sellers, as retailers,

that we want you to buy this and we have to

give them a reason to want to buy it.

So would this be a good resource if someone has a

chocolate shop or some other type of gourmet product or crafting

product that they would wanna package into gift baskets and present

them? Would this be a good guideline in terms of how

to build it and make it a professional presentation?

Yes. So I start from the,

the basics and then we build from the ground up.

That's why I called it foundations.

In order to build,

you have to have a solid foundation.

So if it's a house,

you have to have,

you know,

the concrete,

if you have a basket,

you have to have a gift basket,

you have to have the basket and the correct foundation so

that your stuff doesn't fall over.

When you build a house,

you don't want the walls to fall over.

So when you build a basket,

you don't want your design to fall over.

And I talk about building it from the ground up and

then finishing off with wrapping in a bow.

Well, if this is something that you're interested in,

again, Deb's book is called Foundations the Gift Basket Design book,

and I'll have a link to it over in the show

notesPage@giftbizunwrapped.com. Do you have another book that you think our listeners

would find value in?

I just recently read Wild by Cheryl Stray,

and I had no idea it was gonna turn into a

movie, but you know,

she, Sheryl Stray was one determined young lady,

and she learned a lot about herself and the goal that

she had for herself.

She, you know,

she had to concentrate on her body and her thoughts and

her goal was huge.

You know,

the Pack Northwest know that trail from California all the way

north, and it took a lot of courage for her to

get into that hike and that goal.

And you know,

too often we give up on things when they get difficult,

but if you stay on the path,

you know,

we can learn what we're capable of.

And just like,

you know,

that quote from earlier about not being able to touch her

toes. It's that journey.

She learned a lot in that journey of who she would

become today.

Love it.

Gift Biz listeners,

just as you're listening to the podcast today,

you can listen to an audio book like Deb's talking about

with ease.

Get an audio book like this for free.

All you need to do is go to gift biz book.com

and make a selection.

That's gift biz book.com.

Okay, we're circling around Deb,

to the Dare to Dream section.

I would like to present you with a virtual gift.

It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.

This is your dream or goal of almost unreachable heights that

you would wish to obtain.

Please accept this gift,

open it in our presence,

and tell us what's inside.

Wow, that's really tough.

I don't need or want much,

you know,

I prefer to create and teach and give.

It's just who I,

I am.

And as long as I can do those things,

I have peace.

So not to sound like a Miss America Compa contestant here,

but I would say peace.

Peace within and peace for others,

you know,

so that we can all find balance in our passions,

in our lives for what we really desire.

Maybe that's a spiritual thing,

but for me it's a being thing.

Thank you for asking that question.

That is a really tough one.

Well, it makes you think,

doesn't it?

If you could have anything that's,

that's why it's my favorite question of the whole interview.

So gift biz listeners,

if you did not catch any of the things that we've

talked about,

remember you can just jump over to the show notes.

I'll have links and a lot of information over there for

you, and you can reference all of that@giftbizunwrapped.com.

Deb, if anyone wanted to get in touch with you,

what would be the best way for them to do so?

Deb, at gift basket junction.com.

Wonderful. And that's where they can see all of your gift

baskets as well,

I presume?

Yes, at gift basket junction.com.

Yeah. Unless they're doing a super custom one,

at which point they probably will need to call you.

Yeah, They'll have to go to Facebook and look and,

but, but yeah,

I can be reached just about anywhere if you just look

it up.

Okay. And we'll have all those contact links on the show

notes page.

Thank you so much,

Deb. This has been really valuable.

You've shared a ton of really good in information and really

good concepts just for us to keep in mind as we're

growing and building our businesses,

and Deb,

may your candle always Learn how to work smarter while developing

and growing your business.

Download our guide called 25 Free Tools to Enhance your business

and Life.

It's our gift to you and available@giftbizunwrap.com

slash tools.

Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the

next episode.

Would you like to be on the show or do you

know someone who can provide valuable insight from their experiences?

If so,

we'd love to hear from you.

All you need to do is submit a form for consideration.

You can access the form@giftbizunwrapped.com

slash guest.

That's gift biz unwrap.com/g

U e sst.

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