184 – Goo Goos, Moon Pies and a Guitar Box with Shelia Horvath of HeavenlyTreats4U
Shelia is the founder and owner of Heavenly Treats 4 U, a custom gift basket company based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Shelia’s entrepreneurial spirit, hard work and long hours provide the leverage to go places she never thought could be possible.
What was born out of the hospitality industry and a passion to design, has blossomed into something quite amazing; touching so many people with a little basket of cheer.
Shelia is proud to have earned the coveted Gift Designer Certification. She has been featured on the cover of the gift basket industry magazine Trends & Tips and was a keynote speaker at the 2017 National Gift Basket Convention.
This year Shelia added author to her list of accomplishments in the collaborated book, “Simply Inspired.”
Shelia and Dan have been married for 35 years. They have two boys and an adorable grandson, Gabriel.
Business Building Insights
- When you move a business to a new town, you’re basically starting over.
- Make something that can be reproduced and market to the masses.
- Make your products unique and include a Signature Product.
- You’ll grow by making yourself stand out and have people talking about you.
- Branch out. When it comes to your initial niche, don’t feel you have to stay solely in that lane.
- A good product and good packaging go hand in hand.
- Realize the value of being able to duplicate.
- Don’t lose sight of your core product and vision.
- There’s always something new to learn.
Contact Links
Gift Biz Resources
Join our FREE Gift Biz Breeze Facebook Community
If you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe and leave a review in Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. That helps us spread the word to more makers just like you.
Thanks! Sue
Transcript
You're listening to gift biz on rapt episode 184 called my
Speaker:husband and I said,
Speaker:Hey, we need to come up with a business At Tintin,
Speaker:gifters, bakers,
Speaker:crafters and makers.
Speaker:Pursuing your dream can be fun whether you have an established
Speaker:business or looking to start one now you are in the
Speaker:right place.
Speaker:This is give to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources and the support you need to grow your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host gift biz gal Sue moon Heights.
Speaker:Hi there Sue and thank you so much for spending a
Speaker:little bit of your time with me today.
Speaker:I have a special announcement for any of you in or
Speaker:around the Atlanta area on November 8th through 11th I'm going
Speaker:to be at the ultimate sugar show.
Speaker:What fun to be around bakers of all sorts,
Speaker:professionals and those who are just starting their business in baking.
Speaker:If you're in the area,
Speaker:I do hope you join me there.
Speaker:We are going to be exhibiting as the ribbon print company
Speaker:and I'm also going to be conducting a class.
Speaker:It's called don't be vanilla stand out in your market.
Speaker:You can get all the information about the show,
Speaker:register and apply for classes at www,
Speaker:ultimate sugar show.com
Speaker:I hope to see you there.
Speaker:I also want to make sure that you're familiar with my
Speaker:free Facebook group called gift biz breeze.
Speaker:It's a place where we all gather and our community to
Speaker:support each other.
Speaker:I've got a really fun post in there.
Speaker:That's my favorite of the week.
Speaker:I have to say where I invite all of you to
Speaker:share what you're doing,
Speaker:to show pictures of your product,
Speaker:to show what you're working on for the week,
Speaker:to get reaction from other people and just for fun because
Speaker:we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody in
Speaker:the community is making.
Speaker:My favorite post every single week without doubt,
Speaker:wait, what aren't you part of the group already?
Speaker:If not,
Speaker:make sure to jump over to Facebook and search for the
Speaker:group gift biz breeze.
Speaker:Don't delay.
Speaker:Come join us in gift biz breeze today.
Speaker:The announcements are all over.
Speaker:Let's dive into the show Today To introduce you to Sheila
Speaker:Horvath, who's the founder and owner of heavenly treats for you.
Speaker:Heavenly treats for you is a custom gift basket company based
Speaker:in Nashville,
Speaker:Tennessee. Sheila's entrepreneurial spirit,
Speaker:hard work and long hours have provided the leverage to go
Speaker:places she never thought her business could go.
Speaker:What was born out of the hospitality industry and a passion
Speaker:to has blossomed into something quite amazing,
Speaker:touching so many people with a little basket of cheer.
Speaker:Sheila is proud to have earned the coveted gift designer certification.
Speaker:She's been featured on the cover of the gift basket,
Speaker:industry magazine trends and tips and was keynote speaker at the
Speaker:2017 national gift basket convention this year.
Speaker:Sheila added author to her list of accomplishments in the collaborated
Speaker:book. Simply inspired.
Speaker:Sheila and Dan have been married for 35 years and they
Speaker:have two boys and an adorable grandson.
Speaker:Gabriel. Sheila,
Speaker:welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:Thanks Sue for having me today.
Speaker:I'm so excited about this.
Speaker:Me too.
Speaker:So Sheila,
Speaker:I'm going to have you describe yourself in a little bit
Speaker:of a different way and that is through a motivational candle.
Speaker:So if you were to help us picture what your candle
Speaker:would look like,
Speaker:what color would it be and what would be the motivational
Speaker:quote on your candle?
Speaker:Thank you so much for having me think that way.
Speaker:I've never thought about a candle in those thoughts,
Speaker:but I love it.
Speaker:I like catch everybody with this first question.
Speaker:Yes. So I love the fall time.
Speaker:So I think I would choose a candle that has more
Speaker:of the warm oranges and yellow colors to really kind of
Speaker:get you in the mood of the fall and the season
Speaker:that's coming up.
Speaker:I like citrus because I feel like that is a kind
Speaker:of awakening,
Speaker:fresh feeling.
Speaker:But then I would also add a touch,
Speaker:a cinnamon to it,
Speaker:just to give us that warm feeling of fall.
Speaker:First I have to ask you,
Speaker:so you're totally into the fall mode right here.
Speaker:And it's September,
Speaker:so it's clearly fall.
Speaker:Yes. So when you're talking about the colors right here,
Speaker:I'm thinking of all the leaves changing color.
Speaker:Do they do that in Nashville?
Speaker:They do.
Speaker:Okay. I wasn't sure.
Speaker:That is one of the things that we love about Nashville
Speaker:is there's four seasons,
Speaker:and so my husband,
Speaker:I were just talking about it should be getting that time
Speaker:when the leaves start to change and the fall colors in
Speaker:some years are better than others and I'm sure that's how
Speaker:you have it up there,
Speaker:but the yellows and the beautiful oranges in the vibrant reds
Speaker:that come out in the fall,
Speaker:it is absolutely probably my favorite time of year.
Speaker:Just the colors that just,
Speaker:I love the spring and that citrus,
Speaker:knowing that you know,
Speaker:it's the summer and the fresh feeling of the citrus smell,
Speaker:but then you have to add in that cinnamon to make
Speaker:it the fall warm,
Speaker:fuzzy feeling that you get when you have a cup of
Speaker:tea with some cinnamon in it.
Speaker:So you've got a little bit of both those seasons in
Speaker:there. Love it on that candle.
Speaker:Then what would be a quote or some type of words
Speaker:that you live by?
Speaker:I'm going to refer to a quote that I actually put
Speaker:in my book,
Speaker:the chapter that I help collaborate with some peers in our
Speaker:industry. And it is,
Speaker:people will forget what you said.
Speaker:People will forget what you did,
Speaker:but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Speaker:And that was Maya Angelou,
Speaker:I think is how you say her name.
Speaker:Right. And when I read that the first time,
Speaker:that really spoke volumes to me because that's exactly how I
Speaker:feel about my business.
Speaker:Our first thought when we created our business was we wanted
Speaker:to wow people and what better way to make them feel
Speaker:loved. Thought of just that feeling of being able to open
Speaker:up a gift and have that wow feeling that someone really
Speaker:did care enough to send me this.
Speaker:So I just thought that that quote speaks volumes for our
Speaker:company. Totally aligns with your company overall.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:Let me take you back now,
Speaker:Sheila too.
Speaker:When you were thinking about a company,
Speaker:so before heavenly treats for you even started,
Speaker:how did you narrow in on this as being your business?
Speaker:That's a really interesting question because as a stay at home
Speaker:mom, because at the time I had two boys and they
Speaker:were 10 years apart,
Speaker:so we were in different kind of mentality.
Speaker:That had to be challenging because you're raising them two different
Speaker:age groups at the same time.
Speaker:Yes. It was interesting throughout both of their childhoods.
Speaker:I had been a volunteer at the school,
Speaker:I was on the PTA board and it seemed like I
Speaker:always got the positions where I had to provide gifts for
Speaker:the teachers and so the last position that I held there
Speaker:was the president and we had to do all these gifts
Speaker:for all the staff and so I joked with my husband
Speaker:now that you know all those times that we put those
Speaker:hundreds of bags together with little goodies and ribbon on them.
Speaker:That was just setting me up for this business.
Speaker:The way the business actually came about was I did a
Speaker:ministry at our church where I helped with gifting for visiting
Speaker:ministers and guests that would come through our church for services
Speaker:and things.
Speaker:And so I took a basket to a hotel and it
Speaker:was just filled with lots of little goodies and snacks and
Speaker:fruit and waters and things that I thought I was at
Speaker:a hotel I would want to get.
Speaker:And the general manager happened to be at the front desk
Speaker:and said,
Speaker:who does y'alls baskets?
Speaker:Because these are absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker:And it was actually the church secretary that took it.
Speaker:And she said,
Speaker:well, it's a lady in our church and you know,
Speaker:I'll let you know her name.
Speaker:And she said,
Speaker:well, does she have a business card?
Speaker:And so immediately the girl calls me and says,
Speaker:Hey, we need a business card from you.
Speaker:And I'm thinking,
Speaker:what? You're like,
Speaker:what? Yeah,
Speaker:I did it.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:you're kidding me,
Speaker:right? And she's like,
Speaker:no, you need to come up with a business.
Speaker:So I called my husband and I said,
Speaker:Hey, we need to come up with a business.
Speaker:Aye always had that entrepreneurial spirit.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I remember one time I was making baby clothes,
Speaker:little bibs and things that had the fruit and veggies on
Speaker:it and came up with this whole little clever thing but
Speaker:just never took off.
Speaker:It was never really what I wanted to do.
Speaker:And so we kind of talked that evening and he said,
Speaker:well, what about something with being heavenly because it's church related.
Speaker:So we came up with a heavily treats for you,
Speaker:the number four in the letter U.
Speaker:We wanted to play on something different.
Speaker:And so that's really how it began.
Speaker:It was one night we talked about it and the next
Speaker:day I started investigating how to go about starting a business.
Speaker:I had no clue because again,
Speaker:I was a stay at home mom that just loved doing
Speaker:things like this and didn't have a clue on how to
Speaker:make money.
Speaker:Just knew that I needed to do this.
Speaker:And that was my first account was that hotel because they
Speaker:wanted me to do,
Speaker:they're a little amenity baskets.
Speaker:They didn't want anything big.
Speaker:They just wanted me to come in with some cute little
Speaker:things that they could give were when they had a problem
Speaker:with a room or if a VIP walked in,
Speaker:they wanted to be able to give them something.
Speaker:And so that's how heavily treats for you came about.
Speaker:So that was the trigger.
Speaker:That was the trigger.
Speaker:The hotel was the trigger and you never really thought about
Speaker:it. I find it amazing that in one night you decided
Speaker:on your name already,
Speaker:right? Yeah.
Speaker:And you had experienced,
Speaker:because you had done these bags before for the school and
Speaker:all that,
Speaker:so that was really good.
Speaker:But you also talk about the fact that you had dabbled
Speaker:in a couple of other things too.
Speaker:How did you have the confidence,
Speaker:or maybe I should say,
Speaker:did you have the confidence,
Speaker:because we all know that doing something on the side and
Speaker:for a craft and a hobby and doing it for one
Speaker:moment in time is a lot different than actually running a
Speaker:company where you're going to be surrounded by this all the
Speaker:time. I would say that far as the confidence level,
Speaker:I probably never really had what a true confidence in what
Speaker:I could do until probably last three years.
Speaker:How long have you been in business?
Speaker:We celebrate our 10th year now.
Speaker:We took a couple of years off cause we had some
Speaker:moves and we can talk about that cause it's an interesting
Speaker:story of how we ended up in Nashville.
Speaker:But I would say that first I just was doing it
Speaker:for fun.
Speaker:I just thought this was the coolest thing that Hey I've
Speaker:got a business that you know,
Speaker:a viable business here and I would talk to these hotels
Speaker:and I'd get orders and I really,
Speaker:that was not even the biggest income for me at the
Speaker:moment. It was all of the families at the church found
Speaker:out that Oh wow she does these great little baskets for
Speaker:baby showers.
Speaker:That was the biggie cause everybody seemed to be having babies.
Speaker:And so I would come in with three or four designs
Speaker:and I would make them all unique.
Speaker:And the problem with that was everybody knew they were from
Speaker:me, but they really wasn't for me because I had been
Speaker:hired to do that.
Speaker:So I stopped going to the baby showers.
Speaker:I would come in,
Speaker:I would deliver my gift,
Speaker:I would deliver all the gifts that I got hired to
Speaker:do, and then I would leave because I did not want
Speaker:them to be going,
Speaker:Oh, Sheila,
Speaker:we're so excited.
Speaker:Thank you,
Speaker:thank you.
Speaker:Because it really was not from me.
Speaker:It was from the person,
Speaker:and I would say,
Speaker:Oh no,
Speaker:that's from such and such.
Speaker:So it was funny,
Speaker:but they knew my look and I had no idea that
Speaker:I was actually creating that brand.
Speaker:Really not even realizing that that's what I was doing.
Speaker:Really important to you are creating a brand.
Speaker:It's not just a gift basket,
Speaker:but it's a style of you created Your gifts,
Speaker:right. That developed over time.
Speaker:That was really unique then to heavenly treats for you.
Speaker:Yes. So I call this as an example,
Speaker:and you've heard this before,
Speaker:she'll, I'm sure is this is one of your unique special
Speaker:powers because what your design looks like looks different from everybody
Speaker:else's. Right?
Speaker:And as a young entrepreneur,
Speaker:I had no idea that's what was happening.
Speaker:I heard about branding when we came up with that name.
Speaker:I knew immediately what look I wanted for my business cards
Speaker:and things like that.
Speaker:I knew I wanted it to be black,
Speaker:I wanted it to be gold.
Speaker:I wanted it to look very classy.
Speaker:I wanted it to be something that I always thought about.
Speaker:If Oprah found me,
Speaker:this would be one of her favorite things.
Speaker:So I wanted it to be a unique looking,
Speaker:classy product.
Speaker:And so when I contacted my niece,
Speaker:who I thought she was fabulous in marketing,
Speaker:she doesn't do that,
Speaker:but she did it on the side.
Speaker:And so I asked her,
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:Hey, do you think you can come up with a logo?
Speaker:And so I kind of told her what I was looking
Speaker:black and gold.
Speaker:She created the stars that went along with it to kind
Speaker:of play on that heavenly.
Speaker:And then we didn't really want to put gift baskets in
Speaker:there because I thought,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:someday I may not be making gift baskets.
Speaker:I don't know where this is going.
Speaker:So we did it as the heavenly treats for you just
Speaker:to be different.
Speaker:And so that's really where it was born in that thought
Speaker:that I already knew what I wanted to do,
Speaker:but I had no idea where it was actually going.
Speaker:Really smart on the name choice too.
Speaker:As you describe it,
Speaker:you're not limiting yourself,
Speaker:right? Yeah.
Speaker:So take us back still to that first part of developing
Speaker:the company.
Speaker:So you didn't really didn't know for sure what to do,
Speaker:but you were going to get started and how lucky for
Speaker:you, you already had business,
Speaker:right? You figured out what to do in terms of establishing
Speaker:the company.
Speaker:Okay. So how did you start establishing pricing?
Speaker:So when we first started the business,
Speaker:we were in Texas,
Speaker:and this will kind of explain this because my husband got
Speaker:transferred to the Memphis area.
Speaker:And so we had lived in Texas for 20 something years
Speaker:and that was where all my friends were.
Speaker:And when I first started pricing,
Speaker:I knew I needed to double whatever my cost was.
Speaker:Yeah. I talked to different people and they were,
Speaker:Oh you gotta double it,
Speaker:you gotta double it.
Speaker:So I would always do that.
Speaker:But the problem with when I first started,
Speaker:I made everything so customized that I didn't really think it
Speaker:through. And I kept having people say,
Speaker:you need to make this where you can make multiples of
Speaker:something. But in the infancy of this business was that it
Speaker:really was more custom.
Speaker:I was wanting to wow everybody.
Speaker:I wanted them to feel so special that they got something
Speaker:from me that I didn't want it to be duplicated.
Speaker:So at first that's really where the direction was going,
Speaker:was just going to all be custom.
Speaker:But then I quickly learned that the time it took me
Speaker:to go shopping for each individual gift,
Speaker:that I really was not making anything by just doubling the
Speaker:price and spending all my time shopping.
Speaker:So when we moved to Memphis,
Speaker:I didn't have that network of friends that was supporting me.
Speaker:It was like starting the business over again.
Speaker:And so then I thought,
Speaker:okay, so now what do I do with this business?
Speaker:It's going,
Speaker:I'm still getting calls from people from Texas but was not
Speaker:going to carry me.
Speaker:I had to get out and network and so I joined
Speaker:all the chambers that were local and started trying to make
Speaker:it where I could somewhat repeat something,
Speaker:but I never really caught on with that.
Speaker:Does that make sense?
Speaker:Because I really was still in that custom wanting to do
Speaker:everything special for that one order.
Speaker:Right. And so really I never got into the corporate,
Speaker:even though I did the hotels,
Speaker:we were actually in South Haven,
Speaker:Mississippi, which is outside of Memphis.
Speaker:So I immediately started marketing to the hotels and picked up
Speaker:some hotels and was doing the same thing that I did
Speaker:in Texas.
Speaker:But I never really broke into that corporate arena until we
Speaker:were moved to Nashville.
Speaker:And that's when,
Speaker:I don't know if it just clicked or if I got
Speaker:tired of not making it very much money on this business
Speaker:and thinking this is needs to be a viable business.
Speaker:And I can backtrack a little bit too about that because
Speaker:there was some circumstances that happen in our lives that changed
Speaker:what was happening dynamically in our family.
Speaker:And so I took a couple of years off because of
Speaker:my husband went through some illness and at the time I
Speaker:thought maybe I don't want to restart this business.
Speaker:Cause really when you move a business you basically are restarting
Speaker:it. It may say the same name,
Speaker:but you have to go through the whole process of got
Speaker:to get your new license wherever you're at.
Speaker:So I feel like when I decided to go ahead and
Speaker:do this business the third time,
Speaker:that's what I always tell people.
Speaker:When I decided to do the business the third time I
Speaker:really rethought things and I thought,
Speaker:okay, I'm not doing it the way I do it the
Speaker:first two times because I made mistakes.
Speaker:Like I would go out and buy things that I thought
Speaker:just looked amazing together.
Speaker:But if you don't have a storefront,
Speaker:who's going to buy him?
Speaker:Do you have them on your shelves?
Speaker:But you are not marketing named body.
Speaker:I didn't have a website.
Speaker:I had a web page that just said,
Speaker:Hey contact me if you want something custom.
Speaker:But it didn't have anything that allowed them to order and
Speaker:that was when things were really starting to get online and
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:And so as we fast forward 10 years later now I
Speaker:know that where the money is is you make something that
Speaker:can be reproduced and you market to the masses versus the
Speaker:one, but you can still customize that.
Speaker:Every gift that goes out is still customized.
Speaker:So you have like a base design that then you can
Speaker:add to or adjust based on what the order looks like.
Speaker:A lot of times,
Speaker:yes. So now that we're in Nashville,
Speaker:we decide to go with a website where we can place
Speaker:orders. So we came up some designs and Nashville has been
Speaker:a really unique place to live because we tried,
Speaker:when we first moved here,
Speaker:we saw how they're such,
Speaker:everybody loves local.
Speaker:Everything's a local scene or there's a culture here.
Speaker:And I think it's because of the country music,
Speaker:it's hospitality hospitality's big here.
Speaker:So we really tried to focus on what makes Nashville unique.
Speaker:And so we pulled in some of the local products.
Speaker:They're big into Jack Daniel's,
Speaker:cause you know,
Speaker:Jack Daniel's is made here.
Speaker:They're big into the gurus and the moon pies and the
Speaker:things that we're,
Speaker:they're proud of their products,
Speaker:I guess is what I'm starting to say.
Speaker:And so we pulled those into our designs and we came
Speaker:up with things that really spoke about Nashville.
Speaker:And then we started marketing to people that are having guests
Speaker:come to Nashville.
Speaker:So therefore we're marketing to that tourism.
Speaker:And there's still a huge market that I haven't even tapped
Speaker:into for that.
Speaker:But we tried to figure out something that would make us
Speaker:stand out.
Speaker:And then we came up with our signature gift.
Speaker:I want to get into the signature gift for sure,
Speaker:but first I want to point out to give biz listeners.
Speaker:There are a couple of things that maybe you're not in
Speaker:the gift basket industry,
Speaker:but you're a maker.
Speaker:Couple of things with Sheila's story that it can apply to
Speaker:all of us.
Speaker:Sheila, I really liked when you were talking in the very
Speaker:beginning about your pricing,
Speaker:you had doubled it,
Speaker:but you really hadn't necessarily seen,
Speaker:well all of the time that's going into acquiring the product,
Speaker:producing the product.
Speaker:Maybe it needs to be more than that.
Speaker:So a good thing gift biz listeners to look at is
Speaker:what are the standards in your industry already?
Speaker:How do different products get priced?
Speaker:For example,
Speaker:like candles might be priced different than gift baskets because there's
Speaker:different type of labor involved.
Speaker:Back to candles.
Speaker:I always gravitate back to those candles.
Speaker:She was sorry,
Speaker:but you know,
Speaker:if you're making your candles,
Speaker:that's going to be different than if you're buying candles to
Speaker:put in your gift shop.
Speaker:Right? Right.
Speaker:But if you're making candles,
Speaker:you might also want a price because you might be wholesaling
Speaker:to a gift shop owner.
Speaker:So it extends from there.
Speaker:But so it's really good when you're in the early stages
Speaker:and you're just getting your product to market.
Speaker:Think about where you're trying to go with it so that
Speaker:then you can get your price as close to accurate as
Speaker:possible. And of course they're going to be adjustment.
Speaker:Sheila talked about that,
Speaker:how she saw as she evolved her business,
Speaker:I'm going to say businesses cause you hit the three of
Speaker:them, same name but three places.
Speaker:But it's something good to think about in terms of what's
Speaker:going to be scalable and allow you to make money.
Speaker:Because if you're not going to be profitable long term,
Speaker:you're not going to stay in business.
Speaker:That's just the whole thing there.
Speaker:So secondly,
Speaker:and I really love this also is how you're talking about
Speaker:in Nashville ways to make your product unique.
Speaker:Again, I go back to this unique special power that I
Speaker:talk a lot about.
Speaker:And in your,
Speaker:it was Nashville and the foods and the music and the
Speaker:whole vibe of the town and it's so perfect Sheila,
Speaker:because people then can talk about you in relation to that.
Speaker:Oh she's the one who has the gifts that relate to
Speaker:Nashville. You can get products from Nashville,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:So it can be in food like Sheila's doing.
Speaker:It can be in the colors that your product has.
Speaker:It can be in your style all different ways and when
Speaker:you define that for your business,
Speaker:you're giving another way.
Speaker:People can talk about you,
Speaker:which extends your visibility.
Speaker:It's not just,
Speaker:Oh this person has a jewelry shop or a pottery store.
Speaker:It's that,
Speaker:Oh they have a pottery store and they make these special
Speaker:shapes. All the pottery is shaped in some way like a
Speaker:leaf or whatever it is.
Speaker:So it gives a story to extend your visibility forward.
Speaker:Hopefully that makes sense.
Speaker:But that's exactly what you're doing Sheila,
Speaker:is you're talking about Nashville here and now I'm so excited
Speaker:cause I want to get on.
Speaker:Let's talk about this signature product you have.
Speaker:And that is true.
Speaker:If you can make yourself stand out and have people word
Speaker:of mouth talking about you,
Speaker:that's how you'll grow and that's really what happened to us
Speaker:was organically we have grown.
Speaker:I've done very little advertising towards that other than just on
Speaker:social media and just really talking about the products that we
Speaker:come up with.
Speaker:I'm keeping you in suspense about this signature product.
Speaker:Just for a second so we can hear a word from
Speaker:our sponsor.
Speaker:This podcast is made possible thanks to the support of the
Speaker:ribbon print company.
Speaker:Create custom ribbons right in your store.
Speaker:Craft studio in seconds.
Speaker:Visit the ribbon,
Speaker:print company.com
Speaker:for more information.
Speaker:Our signature gift is a guitar case.
Speaker:It's a gift box that's made in the shape of a
Speaker:guitar, so it's not a whole big true to life guitar.
Speaker:It's not known.
Speaker:Just checking.
Speaker:Yes, because I've had people say,
Speaker:you're kidding me.
Speaker:You do it in a guitar case and I joke with
Speaker:him, well yeah,
Speaker:if you want to give me a big guitar case,
Speaker:I will fill that to be a giant gift basket.
Speaker:Their eyes just kind of pop out.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:they're like,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:really? So it's a small little gift box that's in the
Speaker:shape of a guitar case.
Speaker:And I've had people say,
Speaker:Oh well that's really something else.
Speaker:And I'm like,
Speaker:well, but it's just showing the musical thing.
Speaker:It says guitar case.
Speaker:Okay. And what we do is we fill it in with
Speaker:local products and then we personalize that.
Speaker:And a lot of times too,
Speaker:if someone is really tells me,
Speaker:my friend really likes sweet and savory and,
Speaker:but they really are chocolate lover,
Speaker:then I'll put in maybe some extra goos or I'll put
Speaker:in some more moon pies or I'll put in,
Speaker:we have a chocolate shaped solid chocolate guitar that goes in
Speaker:there and we've had it specially made for us with some
Speaker:gold on it that's on the outside of the chocolate.
Speaker:And so it's just beautiful.
Speaker:It looks wonderful in there.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:playing on that theme of the country music and those things.
Speaker:And so we add all these lovely local products in there
Speaker:and then we enclose it.
Speaker:Of course,
Speaker:if it's being shipped,
Speaker:we shrink rapid obviously to make it protected.
Speaker:But we do,
Speaker:we ship these all over the 48 States and then deliver
Speaker:them here to the hotels with Cielo and a big bow
Speaker:on it and 99% of the time that they go out
Speaker:and I will say nine nine because there is occasional when
Speaker:somebody will say no,
Speaker:I don't want any personalized ribbon on there,
Speaker:but we're a big ribbon printing company and love it.
Speaker:We'd stand by it.
Speaker:I mean I would,
Speaker:I don't know how to do without my ribbon print machine,
Speaker:but actually I have to and so I would put welcome
Speaker:to Nashville or congratulations on your wedding.
Speaker:We've used them for weddings,
Speaker:we've used them for welcome gifts,
Speaker:we've used them for sympathy,
Speaker:gifts, birthdays,
Speaker:you name it.
Speaker:The guitar case has gone out with something in it from
Speaker:Nashville and it became our signature gift and that's why we
Speaker:were actually featured on the magazine,
Speaker:our industry magazine because I took an item that made sense
Speaker:in our city and took it and made it to be
Speaker:a signature gift that speaks about us.
Speaker:I would say again,
Speaker:90% of the time if we give out a door prize
Speaker:to someone,
Speaker:it's usually in our guitar case because that's what they're expecting.
Speaker:They want to have something that talks about us.
Speaker:That's our signature gift.
Speaker:So your business overall being a hundred percent what percentage of
Speaker:gifts are guitar cases?
Speaker:Guitar case boxes?
Speaker:Sue, that is a great question.
Speaker:I would love to say that it was 50% but we've
Speaker:actually, I'm going to say probably what is surpassing my guitar
Speaker:case and I would love to do the guitar cases all
Speaker:day long because they're fun to put together.
Speaker:Probably our best seller is our Gable boxes.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:we took Nashville with the thought of Nashville.
Speaker:We took a craft Gable box and I don't know if
Speaker:everybody knows what a Gable box is.
Speaker:No, let's describe it.
Speaker:So a Gable box is a box.
Speaker:It's like a six by four and about six inches tall,
Speaker:has little handles,
Speaker:little flaps that kind of fold in and the handles they
Speaker:all connect and close up.
Speaker:So then it becomes a handled like a lunchbox that you
Speaker:could maybe envision with the handle on top.
Speaker:And so what we do is we pack this little Gable
Speaker:box and it works wonderful for hotels.
Speaker:It works for clients coming in from out of town.
Speaker:And really it's just a small little taste of Nashville.
Speaker:We've got snack pack of Nashville,
Speaker:we've got taste of Nashville,
Speaker:we named them all different kinds of names and basically we
Speaker:just put in some sweet and savory and some moon pies
Speaker:and some googoos.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:usually our chocolate guitar gets in there somewhere or another,
Speaker:and we have a postcard of the city.
Speaker:So I wanted it to be where people that are traveling,
Speaker:maybe they don't want the guitar case because there,
Speaker:and I do get this,
Speaker:a lot of times they'll say,
Speaker:well, they're flying.
Speaker:Maybe they don't want to do the guitars.
Speaker:But I will tell you have checked in with the hotels
Speaker:to see if they're getting left.
Speaker:And I have yet to have someone say,
Speaker:Oh yeah,
Speaker:the guitar case was left.
Speaker:If you do a gift basket and you take a physical
Speaker:basket, they're going to get left.
Speaker:They're not going to try to pack those things and try
Speaker:to fly with them.
Speaker:But somehow or another,
Speaker:that guitar case usually gets home with them.
Speaker:That's funny.
Speaker:But the Gable box,
Speaker:it's more of a,
Speaker:you could throw it away but you can take the postcard
Speaker:off. So there's a little souvenir and then all these little
Speaker:goodies that come in there.
Speaker:And then of course we personalize it with their logo or
Speaker:their welcome to Nashville,
Speaker:Jane DOE or whatever the name is.
Speaker:I did do kind of a rough estimate last year and
Speaker:it was the Gable box that actually surpassed our guitar cases.
Speaker:But this year it may be kind of running neck,
Speaker:neck. But I still think the Gables is probably past it
Speaker:cause we've gotten quite a few orders of those lately.
Speaker:But you've demonstrated the example that I was hoping would happen
Speaker:and that is that your signature gift doesn't necessarily,
Speaker:it for sure doesn't mean that that's all you do,
Speaker:but it also doesn't need to be the most that you
Speaker:do either.
Speaker:What it is,
Speaker:is it something that represents,
Speaker:falls in line with the brand and he provides something to
Speaker:talk about in relation to your business.
Speaker:That's the whole point Tests and I think it draws them
Speaker:in because once I get to talking to people,
Speaker:I may suggest the guitar case or I may suggest the
Speaker:Gable, but sometimes they'll say,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:that's not quite what I want.
Speaker:Well, that,
Speaker:I love that too because I have some really unique containers
Speaker:because we've made ourselves known to not have your typical baskets.
Speaker:So we've come up with some unique repurpose containers that are
Speaker:trays that are made of wood.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:when I go to market,
Speaker:I'm looking for things that to me speaks of Nashville.
Speaker:Now I don't necessarily do all my business in Nashville because
Speaker:I'm shipping to all kinds of States,
Speaker:the 48 States,
Speaker:but I want when somebody sends something,
Speaker:they're sending it from Nashville.
Speaker:So chances are that gifs going to have some Nashville products
Speaker:in it.
Speaker:So I tend to lean towards what,
Speaker:what do I think describes Nashville when I pick containers and
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:I would also imagine that over time you've gotten to know
Speaker:your customer better.
Speaker:So there was probably a point where you went off and
Speaker:you were buying things that didn't necessarily work and now every
Speaker:year probably you know more and more about your customer and
Speaker:my guess is that the customer also changes over time.
Speaker:They do.
Speaker:And this year is going to be a really interesting year
Speaker:because we've been in business,
Speaker:we're going into our fourth year and I've had some repeat
Speaker:customers in the holidays and I noticed it last year that
Speaker:when they called me up for their order for the holidays
Speaker:they asked me do you have any new products?
Speaker:What's new in the gifts?
Speaker:So I'm on the hunt every day.
Speaker:I'm on the hunt for something new in Nashville cause I
Speaker:love to buy local,
Speaker:I love to support these small businesses that are coming up
Speaker:and as long as they provide me with a product quality
Speaker:package Jean and meet all the criteria of a well established
Speaker:business, if that makes sense.
Speaker:Cause we don't want something that is made not by the
Speaker:standards that for the health department or anything like that.
Speaker:So we have to be very choosy.
Speaker:And you need shelf life.
Speaker:Yes. And shelf life.
Speaker:You can't be just something that's going to be good for
Speaker:a week.
Speaker:So we're always looking for things.
Speaker:But this year we really have branched out a little bit
Speaker:and I'm going to try it this season,
Speaker:see how it goes.
Speaker:But we found some wonderful products.
Speaker:We went to the market twice this year,
Speaker:Atlanta market and we've been to the national gift basket convention
Speaker:and so we found some unique products that we just fell
Speaker:in love with as a business.
Speaker:Love the taste,
Speaker:love the quality,
Speaker:love the packaging.
Speaker:It fits in a new look that we want to do
Speaker:and so we're going to introduce those products this fall in
Speaker:our holiday lines just to see if people are receptive to
Speaker:it. Again,
Speaker:we still have our basic wonderful Nashville made products,
Speaker:Tennessee products,
Speaker:but we're just going to tweak things a little bit because
Speaker:we do have those repeat clients that maybe don't want to
Speaker:give the same products every year,
Speaker:but they want something new and so this year we're really
Speaker:stepping up our game and the way I'm going to approach
Speaker:it to share with my clientele and on the social media
Speaker:is we're going to feed you these products and we're going
Speaker:to talk about how we fell in love with him at
Speaker:market because obviously all the businesses go to market and we're
Speaker:going to talk about,
Speaker:there's some things that just become our favorites.
Speaker:Oprah has her favorites and you have your highlighted gifts.
Speaker:Every fall are a holiday gifts that people identify the holidays
Speaker:with and so we kind of want to come up with
Speaker:a way to say that these are the heavenly treats that
Speaker:we discovered this year and so we're going to introduce those.
Speaker:I think what we're going to try to do is maybe
Speaker:weekly come up with a way in the next few weeks
Speaker:of just introducing a new product each week,
Speaker:talk about how we're going to use it in a gift
Speaker:or several gifts.
Speaker:We're using some of them already,
Speaker:and I had an order go out this week that has
Speaker:some of the new cookies that we're going to use and
Speaker:the reason we bought them was they came in such different
Speaker:color schemes of the packaging and I'm so glad I discovered
Speaker:it because in this order that's what the person was looking
Speaker:for was something that would bring out her logo color,
Speaker:her company color.
Speaker:It was perfect and I'm glad that I had decided to
Speaker:branch out and not just sometimes we kind of as finding
Speaker:our niche,
Speaker:don't feel like you have to stay totally in that lane
Speaker:because sometimes that can pigeonhole you and then you're stuck there
Speaker:and you can't go out of that.
Speaker:Does that make sense?
Speaker:Absolutely. Yeah,
Speaker:so you tend to have little things that you can bring
Speaker:in. Obviously,
Speaker:I'm not going to put any of those products in something
Speaker:that says Nashville,
Speaker:Tennessee or the good,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:something like that.
Speaker:Unless I ask the customer,
Speaker:Hey, would you like to have other products that we have
Speaker:some favorites?
Speaker:Do you mind if we put those in those?
Speaker:But I would never pass it off as,
Speaker:Hey, this is made in Tennessee.
Speaker:Does that make sense?
Speaker:It makes total sense.
Speaker:And another thing that you brought up,
Speaker:and I just got to say that's one of the things
Speaker:that I love about doing this podcast is something that you're
Speaker:saying Sheila applies if you tweak it in just a little
Speaker:bit of a different way to every single listener here.
Speaker:So I want to just point out an underline this opportunity
Speaker:for people.
Speaker:If you're making a product locally that maybe goes for a
Speaker:gift basket or not even really look to see what other
Speaker:businesses in your area are focusing on locally made products,
Speaker:because that could be a place where either your product can
Speaker:be in their store,
Speaker:you can be in someone's gift box or gift basket stand
Speaker:that way too.
Speaker:Because it's true and I see a trend,
Speaker:Sheila, I don't think it's just gift baskets,
Speaker:but people are looking for locally made products because the carbon
Speaker:footprint is even smaller than just American made.
Speaker:Right. People are liking supporting small businesses in their areas and
Speaker:let's face it,
Speaker:you get to a point where you get limited because there's
Speaker:not as much selection locally as there is a nationwide.
Speaker:Right. So huge opportunity if you make anything that's in your
Speaker:area that could be in a gift basket,
Speaker:in a gift shop,
Speaker:in an art store,
Speaker:all of that reach out to those people because you're local.
Speaker:There's a huge opportunity there and as Sheila was saying,
Speaker:she's searching for that and if you are just so fortunate
Speaker:to be in Nashville and you make anything,
Speaker:especially if it's consumable,
Speaker:you've got to talk to Sheila.
Speaker:Yes, Because she may need you.
Speaker:I would.
Speaker:I would love to talk to them and I just was
Speaker:talking to somebody that wanted to start a toffee business and
Speaker:I explained to her up front,
Speaker:I said you could make toffee and you could put it
Speaker:in a little bag and get by with the minimum amount
Speaker:of costs in your packaging,
Speaker:but I said,
Speaker:if you will upfront,
Speaker:you know you have a good product,
Speaker:then go ahead and spend the extra money to developed the
Speaker:product in some kind of real eye catching packaging.
Speaker:Yeah, land your packaging.
Speaker:Because if you do that and you have a great product,
Speaker:those two go hand in hand because that's what I'm looking
Speaker:for and there's lots of products out there that is just
Speaker:delicious. I go to farmer's markets but the packaging is not
Speaker:there and so I don't want to have to take the
Speaker:time to repackage something because obviously I don't want to handle
Speaker:any kind of food or the expense of me having to
Speaker:buy another box to hide it in there.
Speaker:I have some people that talk about that.
Speaker:Oh well we'll just put it in another box that's cost
Speaker:right there.
Speaker:And that's time of me having to take that and put
Speaker:it in another box.
Speaker:So to me,
Speaker:I would rather search out good products with good packaging and
Speaker:great taste and I'll promote you if you're new and you're
Speaker:doing this and national let me know because I'm looking for
Speaker:new things.
Speaker:I love seeing new businesses start and if they do have
Speaker:that vision of really making that package,
Speaker:then you bet you I'm going to offer them in my
Speaker:basket because again,
Speaker:that's helping someone start their business just like I was starting
Speaker:my business 10 years ago.
Speaker:Well and it helps you as well because you're looking for
Speaker:new products all the time.
Speaker:Yes. Because you always want to be able to offer something
Speaker:new. Cause anytime you have a new product you have a
Speaker:new story to tell your customers.
Speaker:Exactly. Especially those corporate clients.
Speaker:Do you want to get back into,
Speaker:it's another way to get back in.
Speaker:You've got a new product you want them to know about.
Speaker:Right. Okay.
Speaker:Sheila talk to us about a challenging time.
Speaker:I know it's not been all beautiful.
Speaker:Nashville guitars,
Speaker:you know there's been something that's been a problem or frustrating
Speaker:along the way.
Speaker:Yes. Can you bring us to one of those points in
Speaker:time and talk us through that?
Speaker:I'll talk about one major thing that happened in our lives.
Speaker:Aid definitely changed the dynamics of the way we did our
Speaker:business was in 2013 well in 2012 we knew we were
Speaker:moving to Nashville.
Speaker:2013 my husband became ill and so that's why we took
Speaker:the two years off to see what was going to happen
Speaker:with that and since 2013 my husband has gone through cancer
Speaker:and just recently had last year another secondary cancer that came
Speaker:about and if I can say anything,
Speaker:if you can go through what we have gone through far
Speaker:as dealing with all of that and still running our business.
Speaker:We did more business last year than we did the two
Speaker:years before.
Speaker:It was just the phenomenal year and the whole year we
Speaker:were dealing with my husband's cancer because in the beginning of
Speaker:last year he had to have a second STEM cell transplant.
Speaker:And then by the end of October,
Speaker:first to November he started getting sick again and we didn't
Speaker:know what was going on.
Speaker:And by like two weeks before Christmas,
Speaker:we knew he had a secondary cancer.
Speaker:And so this whole time I had my biggest fourth quarter
Speaker:I'd ever had.
Speaker:I actually sold more in my fourth quarter than I did
Speaker:the previous year to look back.
Speaker:Now it's kind of mind boggling that we were able to
Speaker:do this.
Speaker:So how did you,
Speaker:it was really interesting because I would work the business,
Speaker:I'd get all these orders in and we were going back
Speaker:and forth to the hospital and then after Thanksgiving he actually
Speaker:was in the hospital 19 days.
Speaker:And so I would stay at home and I would check
Speaker:all the orders in and I had a couple of girls
Speaker:that would come in and help occasionally I wouldn't have made
Speaker:it without them.
Speaker:And so I would take,
Speaker:if I had a large order,
Speaker:I would take spools of ribbon with me in a bag
Speaker:and I was very particular about it,
Speaker:touching anything.
Speaker:It only touched me.
Speaker:Okay, so let's get that straight.
Speaker:I didn't have ribbon on the floors or you know the
Speaker:hospital cause I am actually a germ freak now.
Speaker:My kids tell me that.
Speaker:But going through all the things that we do with my
Speaker:husband, you just become that you're constantly washing hands and stuff.
Speaker:But anyway,
Speaker:I would take rolls of ribbon and I would,
Speaker:and I would make my bows and put them in.
Speaker:I'd have a different bag and I had all these bows
Speaker:and it was quite interesting to the doctors.
Speaker:When they would come in to talk to us,
Speaker:they would be like,
Speaker:what are you doing with all these beds?
Speaker:And then I would tell them,
Speaker:well I have a gift basket business.
Speaker:I just got this huge order and I've got to go
Speaker:home and do this.
Speaker:Their eyes would almost like pop out because they're like,
Speaker:and you're running this business.
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:yeah. And I'd bring my laptop and I would converse with
Speaker:clients and then I'd go home and try to put these
Speaker:things together And of course Dan was supportive of that all
Speaker:the way.
Speaker:He was very supportive.
Speaker:He just has been amazing.
Speaker:He actually through it all,
Speaker:he has been probably my best cheerleader always telling me you
Speaker:can do great things because we've just always been that way.
Speaker:35 years of marriage,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you come to know each other very well,
Speaker:but yeah,
Speaker:I really would say no matter what your circumstances yet,
Speaker:you can make it work.
Speaker:It may not be the easiest.
Speaker:You also have a choice cause from your story.
Speaker:I'm hearing two different ways of approaching this.
Speaker:The first time you took two years off because you felt
Speaker:you needed to.
Speaker:Yes. Which when you have your own business you can do
Speaker:that, right?
Speaker:You take a step back in your business a little bit.
Speaker:Andy Malone talks about that in her episode.
Speaker:I'll have to connect that up in the show notes,
Speaker:but she's talked about that a little bit too.
Speaker:Life situations,
Speaker:let's face it,
Speaker:we all have it.
Speaker:Sometimes you do need to disconnect.
Speaker:It's just the right thing for you.
Speaker:But so Sheila you've done both because you did it one
Speaker:way and then most recently you kept going through it and
Speaker:look at the results that you're talking about.
Speaker:Right. And I will say the two years we took off
Speaker:was Actually the transitional time anyway because my husband was already
Speaker:working in Nashville and I was in Memphis area trying to
Speaker:get the house sold.
Speaker:So I was working the business but it was never that
Speaker:period of the time you are going to be closing down
Speaker:there anyway,
Speaker:we were closing it down.
Speaker:It was never a successful area.
Speaker:It was just,
Speaker:I don't know why it never connected,
Speaker:but we never really felt like we were very successful and
Speaker:we were there three and a half years and so I
Speaker:was able to,
Speaker:he got sick in February and this is how crazy it
Speaker:was because I kinda knew we were going to be moving.
Speaker:I thought we had moved,
Speaker:was going to move in October cause we just thought we'd
Speaker:sell our house really quick and just get relocated.
Speaker:But God always has a plan.
Speaker:And that's what I always talk about is his plan was
Speaker:not our plan at that time.
Speaker:And so we were able to just back up the dates
Speaker:and close the business as of the end of that year
Speaker:because I never got an order the first of the year,
Speaker:which I thought was really crazy cause it was around Valentine's
Speaker:day and I really hadn't told a whole lot of people
Speaker:that I was going to be leaving.
Speaker:But it just was one of those things that it was
Speaker:all orchestrated I think.
Speaker:And so when Dan got sick,
Speaker:then my focus was,
Speaker:cause this was very life shattering news.
Speaker:We got,
Speaker:we had no idea that he had cancer and no idea
Speaker:that he was going to have to learn to walk cause
Speaker:he had from a spinal tumor on his spine.
Speaker:And so it was a great time to just say,
Speaker:okay, I'm done.
Speaker:I'm taking a break,
Speaker:we're closing the business.
Speaker:So fast forward six months,
Speaker:we moved to Nashville into an apartment.
Speaker:Well obviously I'm not going to be able to run a
Speaker:business in a apartment.
Speaker:So I kept,
Speaker:everything is storage.
Speaker:I actually had thought about just selling it all.
Speaker:Just close that chapter.
Speaker:It's not going to happen.
Speaker:My husband on the other end,
Speaker:it was like,
Speaker:no, just keep a few things cause you may go back
Speaker:into business.
Speaker:It took me a year and a half living here to
Speaker:when I started getting calls from the clients before from Texas
Speaker:in Memphis.
Speaker:Hey, are you back in business?
Speaker:And then again being involved in a church where they said,
Speaker:Hey, we know you used to do this,
Speaker:would you mind doing some gifts for us for the visiting
Speaker:minister? So then I started doing that again.
Speaker:And then a neighbor was a realtor and she's like,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I wish I had a closing gift.
Speaker:So it was like the stars aligned again and it was
Speaker:time and I actually wasn't ready to take the plunge.
Speaker:But I went away on a girl's weekend to meet a
Speaker:friend from Texas and my husband,
Speaker:I came back and he said,
Speaker:Oh by the way,
Speaker:I've got your LLC signed up.
Speaker:You are back in business.
Speaker:You need to go downtown Nashville and get your business license,
Speaker:it's time to go back into business.
Speaker:So he was the one that really pushed me to start
Speaker:it, but we had been hearing lots of things.
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:you need to do a business here in Nashville.
Speaker:It is the place to be.
Speaker:And so I will tell you that first six months was
Speaker:incredible. I probably made more in the first six months than
Speaker:I ever did in the beginning of my business.
Speaker:And I really realized what the value of being able to
Speaker:duplicate something and to market the clientele of the corporate world.
Speaker:That was the game changer.
Speaker:Using local products,
Speaker:using something that can be multiplied and really going after the
Speaker:corporate world.
Speaker:That is what totally changed our business.
Speaker:That is the golden nugget for a gift basket business.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:So Sheila,
Speaker:as I'm listening to the story,
Speaker:do you realize that you might've been trying to get away
Speaker:from the business,
Speaker:but the business keeps finding you again and again and again?
Speaker:Right. I had someone tell me,
Speaker:they said,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you're so resilient,
Speaker:and I thought,
Speaker:I've never used that word.
Speaker:I've never even thought of myself at that,
Speaker:but you know when somebody else is looking in and seeing
Speaker:what all we've done with the business,
Speaker:I can see where now I've kind of taken a step
Speaker:back and I am just amazed at where this business has
Speaker:gone in the three years that we've been here.
Speaker:To me,
Speaker:it's very mind boggling.
Speaker:My husband just had this conversation and we're like,
Speaker:wow, but when you are planted,
Speaker:and this is,
Speaker:this really goes back to it when you are planted in
Speaker:the right place,
Speaker:because I really feel like God had us planted where we're
Speaker:planted in the community.
Speaker:Even with his,
Speaker:where he works.
Speaker:I mean there's a whole story I should write a book
Speaker:about because it's just amazing the journey that we've taken in
Speaker:the five years that we've been here.
Speaker:But if you really can find that niche,
Speaker:that lane,
Speaker:and just stay focused on that lane of where you're going
Speaker:and have that prize at the end,
Speaker:it's amazing.
Speaker:There's going to be distractions.
Speaker:There's always distractions.
Speaker:There's days that I don't even feel like I even got
Speaker:anything accomplished,
Speaker:but you know what?
Speaker:You just keep plugging each day by day.
Speaker:You're going to get there.
Speaker:Absolutely. Okay.
Speaker:Sheila, I have a brand new question.
Speaker:I might make this a regular question,
Speaker:but I just came to me and you're the first one
Speaker:who gets to answer it.
Speaker:Are you ready?
Speaker:Oh yes.
Speaker:Are you worried?
Speaker:I am.
Speaker:You know.
Speaker:Hey, let's go for it.
Speaker:Maybe you should be,
Speaker:I'm not sure.
Speaker:Let's try this out.
Speaker:Okay. Gift baskets aside,
Speaker:so forget about your product.
Speaker:What is it that you love about being in business?
Speaker:Good question.
Speaker:I think it's actually finding that I can be successful in
Speaker:something and the reason I say that is as a stay
Speaker:at home mom,
Speaker:I didn't finish college because I decided,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I wanted to raise a family.
Speaker:I never pursued a career and we've looked back over that.
Speaker:Especially with going through my husband's illness.
Speaker:We were like,
Speaker:Oh man,
Speaker:maybe we should have taken the time for me to establish
Speaker:a career because what if something happens to you?
Speaker:Are we going to be taken care of?
Speaker:Does that make sense?
Speaker:Yep. So because of the journey we've gone on,
Speaker:it's made me question what I've done for the last 35
Speaker:years. But with what's happened in the last three years,
Speaker:and seeing that I can take this business from me just
Speaker:making a gift basket or whatever it would be,
Speaker:and turning it around and marketing it and networking and meeting
Speaker:people. Because every day I meet someone new,
Speaker:or at least every week I'm meet someone new and I
Speaker:look back and I think,
Speaker:gosh, I can't believe I met that person.
Speaker:Or how in the world did I meet that person?
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:There's just some things that just come about and you just
Speaker:shake your head like,
Speaker:wow, it's just amazement,
Speaker:right? Like you can't even imagine that it's happening.
Speaker:Right. And then the last year and a half,
Speaker:all the things that's happened is started.
Speaker:I guess last spring when I found out I was on
Speaker:the cover of that magazine.
Speaker:That blew me away because I'm not one to ever post
Speaker:about what I'm doing.
Speaker:I'm just not,
Speaker:that's not my personality.
Speaker:But you get to here,
Speaker:that's kind of the police and that's hard for me.
Speaker:But I am saying it is amazing because don't lose sight
Speaker:of what you really want to do.
Speaker:And to me it was,
Speaker:I wanted to be successful in whatever I did because I
Speaker:had started little businesses where I never made any money and
Speaker:I didn't know what I really want to do.
Speaker:And it was just a way to bring in some income
Speaker:to play,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:have play money is what I call it.
Speaker:My fun money that I would go out with my friends
Speaker:to have lunch with or whatever and being a stay at
Speaker:home mom,
Speaker:there is lots of people out there and I never want
Speaker:to change that again.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I don't regret not going to college.
Speaker:Sometimes I do because I think,
Speaker:Oh, I should have a degree behind my name,
Speaker:but I don't regret that time I spent with my kids
Speaker:because I feel like that was my calling.
Speaker:That's what I wanted to do.
Speaker:And so now that I'm in this different phase of life,
Speaker:this is a perfect opportunity for me to take this business
Speaker:wherever it's supposed to go.
Speaker:Absolutely. And the other thing that I see with you is
Speaker:not only that,
Speaker:but so now you're in a position where you're successful,
Speaker:but you're still investing in your further development.
Speaker:Look, you go to the conferences,
Speaker:right? You're part of my maker's MBA program,
Speaker:so all things to continue to build and grow as a
Speaker:person. Right.
Speaker:What's your thinking on all of that?
Speaker:Why are you doing that when you're successful right now?
Speaker:I feel like there's always something new to learn and I'll
Speaker:go back to one thing that happened to me that I
Speaker:think was a game changer.
Speaker:When I decided to do that third time jump in again.
Speaker:Of course my husband pushed me for that.
Speaker:Within a month of that when we decided there was the
Speaker:convention for the national gift basket and I was not going
Speaker:to go because I thought I don't have the money to
Speaker:do that.
Speaker:It was like I just started this business backup,
Speaker:but my husband was like,
Speaker:you know what,
Speaker:go. So I thought,
Speaker:okay, I'm going to have the opportunity to go talk to
Speaker:all these successful people.
Speaker:And of course everybody was excited to see me back because
Speaker:I had made some really lifelong friends there and I thought,
Speaker:okay, when I talk to these successful people and Sue,
Speaker:you were one of them,
Speaker:and I don't know if you remember this,
Speaker:but I remember walking into the hotel and it was like,
Speaker:it was almost like I felt like I was coming home.
Speaker:I do remember there was people in the lobby sitting and
Speaker:they jumped up.
Speaker:They're like,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:Sheila. And then there was Terry and there was you and
Speaker:I'm trying to remember who else.
Speaker:Claudia and we all went over and had lunch.
Speaker:Yes, you were over there was before the conference.
Speaker:Yeah, it was before the conference.
Speaker:And I remember you guys just kind of rap.
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:I was being wrapped in love from you guys and it
Speaker:would have been,
Speaker:it had been such a,
Speaker:uh, I guess that was in 2015 when we started it.
Speaker:I think that's right.
Speaker:But it was such a period of time where I was
Speaker:tired. I mean,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we'd gone through this craziness with my husband and I don't
Speaker:know, I,
Speaker:it's hard to describe,
Speaker:but it was just this like you're coming home like a
Speaker:reunion. But one thing I'll never get is I decided,
Speaker:and I don't remember if it was something that I thought
Speaker:about on the flight over,
Speaker:cause it's,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it's a long flight over to Las Vegas I think is
Speaker:where it was.
Speaker:And so,
Speaker:but I thought,
Speaker:I'm just going to ask everybody,
Speaker:if they had an opportunity to start their business a third
Speaker:time, like I'm doing,
Speaker:what would you do different?
Speaker:And everybody talked about was making sure that whatever you create
Speaker:is reproducible and making sure that you're actually making money.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:first of all,
Speaker:make sure you're doing what you're supposed to be doing to
Speaker:make it worthwhile I guess is really it was.
Speaker:And so everybody I talked to,
Speaker:that was what I'd say.
Speaker:Okay, so if you have a chance,
Speaker:could you remit?
Speaker:What would you do differently?
Speaker:And so it was an inspiration,
Speaker:I guess I was trying to figure out how to make
Speaker:this business viable because even at that time we were not
Speaker:sure how long my husband had.
Speaker:I mean he was doing okay at the time,
Speaker:but given that we still don't,
Speaker:we live day by day of what's going to happen in
Speaker:the future.
Speaker:So I think with just trying to learn more ways of
Speaker:making it better when I go to these conferences or when
Speaker:I do your calls that you do,
Speaker:it's always trying to figure out is there something else that
Speaker:I should be doing?
Speaker:Is there another process that would maybe make things a little
Speaker:bit more flowing,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:as a gift basket person.
Speaker:And now that we're getting big orders coming in,
Speaker:what's the processes that we're using?
Speaker:Are they the right ones?
Speaker:Because hiring people now and I need to make sure that's
Speaker:a whole nother,
Speaker:Oh, that could be a whole nother podcast of how hiring
Speaker:people and just making sure that you are actually conveying what's
Speaker:in your head because you're the owner of the business,
Speaker:you're the designer,
Speaker:you're everything and tried to convey that information to somebody that's
Speaker:working for you and to actually release some of this.
Speaker:I had someone here today working in my office a month
Speaker:ago. I would've said,
Speaker:no way.
Speaker:Now they're not touching my space.
Speaker:But when you get to a point where you are growing
Speaker:this business faster than you can really handle as the one
Speaker:person, you began to say,
Speaker:okay, I can release that.
Speaker:I can release that guy.
Speaker:I can have you answer that email for me.
Speaker:So to me that's really what I guess is learning about
Speaker:how to be a boss,
Speaker:how to take this to the next level.
Speaker:Does that answer your question?
Speaker:Yeah, it does.
Speaker:I mean there's always the development,
Speaker:there's always the next step.
Speaker:And I think,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I've been talking a lot lately about what got you to
Speaker:where you are at one point isn't the same skill processes
Speaker:or any of that to get you to the next place.
Speaker:Like doing just more of what you're already doing doesn't scale
Speaker:bigger and bigger and bigger.
Speaker:You have to change what you're doing and why not learn
Speaker:from people who have already been there,
Speaker:you know?
Speaker:And that speaks to you talking about community.
Speaker:And then of course all the value community can bring when
Speaker:you found your home,
Speaker:the support and the love and knowing that you're supposed to
Speaker:be there and everyone has your best interests at heart too.
Speaker:Right? Alright,
Speaker:so I'm going to circle this back and we're going to
Speaker:have to start winding down.
Speaker:Although I could still talk to you for like ever,
Speaker:but we are going to wind it down a little bit.
Speaker:And to do that,
Speaker:I want to offer you a gift because you have given
Speaker:us so much great information today,
Speaker:Sheila, by sharing your story,
Speaker:I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.
Speaker:It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
Speaker:So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable
Speaker:Heights that you would wish to obtain.
Speaker:And maybe I want to say heavenly Heights that you wish
Speaker:to obtain,
Speaker:please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
Speaker:What's inside your box?
Speaker:Wow. Well,
Speaker:first all,
Speaker:let me describe the box.
Speaker:Of course you're going to decide is it a box or
Speaker:is it a basket or is it a guitar?
Speaker:No, it's a box.
Speaker:And I would say that it's probably a very elegant box
Speaker:with a beautiful bow on top because we all love bows.
Speaker:I'm going to say that far as my dream of what
Speaker:this business is going to be would be if we could
Speaker:talk about Nashville and you always have the different go-to,
Speaker:how do I say this?
Speaker:If somebody knows they need to ship a gift to somebody,
Speaker:there's certain businesses,
Speaker:it's been a business for a long time.
Speaker:My goal and my dream would be to be that GoTo
Speaker:basket. So the one that everyone defaults to,
Speaker:everybody knows and it's just an automatic well that's who you're
Speaker:going to go to.
Speaker:Yes. Well it means you're going to need more employees to
Speaker:show up.
Speaker:Exactly, so we're going to have to think about that a
Speaker:little bit.
Speaker:Yes. Again,
Speaker:a lot of people ask me,
Speaker:am I going to ever,
Speaker:ever have a storefront?
Speaker:I don't know that that's the journey that we want to
Speaker:go to because we want to be able to grow the
Speaker:business, but we also want to keep it that personal.
Speaker:It needs to be a business.
Speaker:It's you could still personalize.
Speaker:Every client is still that personal touch that we would still
Speaker:give to every client that comes in or talks to us.
Speaker:We still want that personal touch because that's what I'm finding.
Speaker:I'm hearing that some of the companies are not that way
Speaker:anymore. They've gotten so big,
Speaker:their scalability was they grew too fast.
Speaker:They weren't able to handle each client and still be able
Speaker:to meet with that client.
Speaker:This is one of the things that sets us apart right
Speaker:now is I will meet with that client and I'll bring
Speaker:them a sample basket and we'll talk about the products and
Speaker:we'll figure out what color scheme they want to go to.
Speaker:And I take that time to really develop that relationship with
Speaker:that client.
Speaker:And so as we grow,
Speaker:and if you're giving me that gift,
Speaker:my dream would be to still hold on to that personalization,
Speaker:that personal touch that we can give to our clients,
Speaker:but yet be that GoTo for Nashville or the South,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:whoever. I mean,
Speaker:we'd like to be Oprah's favorite gift.
Speaker:Right? You said that a couple of times,
Speaker:which is no,
Speaker:that's good because that's putting it out there.
Speaker:So that's perfect.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:you've alluded to this whole idea of customization yet,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:not customization,
Speaker:but growing,
Speaker:but staying personal and the very first step to doing that
Speaker:is recognizing that that's what you want,
Speaker:right? You could lose it so quickly if you hadn't already
Speaker:defined that that was something that you guys hold close as
Speaker:a real value for the business.
Speaker:Right. Okay,
Speaker:so Sheila,
Speaker:how can our listeners get in touch with you if they
Speaker:want to know more about you or your business?
Speaker:Well, they can find us by Facebook.
Speaker:We are heavenly treats for you.
Speaker:I believe it's just heavenly trees for you.
Speaker:And then we're on Instagram.
Speaker:Heavenly treats for you.
Speaker:Our website is heavenly treats for you.
Speaker:The number four,
Speaker:the letter U.
Speaker:Dot com.
Speaker:Well, Sheila,
Speaker:thank you so much.
Speaker:I really,
Speaker:your taking the time,
Speaker:Sharing your story,
Speaker:both from the business end and adding in the personal,
Speaker:because let's face it,
Speaker:none of our businesses are just one or the other.
Speaker:They're all part of our life,
Speaker:so it mingles together.
Speaker:Even though sometimes we all think that we can keep it
Speaker:separate. It just doesn't work.
Speaker:But you've shared so many great things,
Speaker:so thank you so much.
Speaker:I really appreciate it and I'm going to just save me
Speaker:that Nashville guitar gifting.
Speaker:Carry on.
Speaker:Yes. Thank you,
Speaker:Sue, for having us.
Speaker:We appreciate it.
Speaker:This episode is all wrapped up,
Speaker:but your gift biz journey continues.
Speaker:It's your time to experience the pride and satisfaction of turning
Speaker:your passion into a profitable business.
Speaker:Join the makers MBA program and access training modules,
Speaker:downloadable worksheets,
Speaker:and weekly live and recorded Q and a sessions addressing your
Speaker:specific challenges.
Speaker:You also have the opportunity to connect with a community of
Speaker:creators just like you.
Speaker:Head over to gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped.com/makers MBA to join today and until next time,