345 – A Pro Speaks Up about Networking, Mentorship and Publicity for Gift Business Growth with Lisa Paden of The Personal Gift Basket Co.

Gift biz on rapt episode 345.

I was very scared,

but you know,

at that time I was hungry.

So I really wanted my business to work more than anything.

Attention gifters bakers,

crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.

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

Now you are in the right place.

This is gift to biz unwrapped,

helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

Join us for an episode,

packed full of invaluable guidance,

resources, and the support you need to grow.

Your gift biz.

Here is your host gift biz gal,

Sue moon Heights.

Hi, it's Sue and welcome to this week's show.

As we inch closer and closer to the holiday selling season,

I hope you've been putting your plan together for how to

capture your fair share of sales.

As we've talked about many times only posting your products available

for purchase online,

isn't going to do it just because you have a website

or a social shop set up doing that alone.

Doesn't bring in customers.

What it is,

is an avenue to conduct the final sale,

not the attraction and connection necessary to get people to buy

and posting on social over and over again about your holiday

products available as gifting options.

Well, we all know the low percentage of our followers who

actually see these messages as a handmade product creator.

The fourth quarter holidays are the perfect time to get in

front of buyers.

Through holiday craft shows and church bizarres entry costs vary,

but there are options to fit every budget and holiday shoppers

need you as a handmade small business,

even more this year with all the supply chain issues we're

experiencing. I encourage you to sign up for your local shows

and get in front of your soon to be customers because

we need you this year more than ever.

I talked about this in my recent tips and talk episode,

number 34,

go back and take a listen to hear how you can

both help your business and customers get gifts for the holiday

shopping season.

We are going to need to depend on you this year.

So the time to act is now,

today we have the great fortune of talking with a proven

professional in business development.

You're going to hear her story about starting the business as

a side gig while working her nine to five job and

attending to three little babies.

So for anyone out there who says this,

can't be done.

Let's rethink that Lisa shares what her life was like,

then how she grew and eventually left her corporate job and

how she continues to expand on her rock solid business.

I can't wait to introduce to her Today.

I have Lisa Peyton coming your way.

Lisa is the founder and CEO of the personal gift basket

company, an artisan gifting business based in the St.

Charles Missouri area.

Her company is recognized and praised for creating beautifully designed gifts

for clients all over the world.

Lisa has been on several local television stations,

displaying her gift creations and speaking about the power and the

benefit of gifting,

her creative gift designs have also been featured in many locally

printed publications because of her passion and the desire to see

others in the gifting industry.

Succeed. Lisa created the gifting coat that officially launched in the

She lives in one's film,

Missouri with her amazing supportive husband.

She's the proud mama to four beautiful grown children and one

granddaughter. And of course her lovable chocolate labradoodle,

Milo Lisa,

welcome to the gift biz on podcast.

Hi Sue.

Thanks for having me.

I'm so excited to be here.

We Should have done this a long time ago.

I'm A big fan of the show.

Ah, thanks.

Well, before we get into how we know each other and

all of that great stuff.

Tell us about your motivational candle.

If you were to share with us a little bit more

about you on a creative level,

what color would your candle be and what would be a

quote on that candle?

So I think,

I think my candle would be a marble candle of a

beautiful pale yellow and a beautiful pale blue.

And the reason I choose those is because yellow signifies confidence

and self-esteem and blue signifies perseverance.

And I would put those two together and make a beautiful

candle. And the quote that I use is a quote of

my own.

And it says that you hold attributes and amazing talents that

make you valuable to those you do business with.

And once you activate that everything you need to build and

unforgettable brand is in you,

You have already what you need and you just have to

activate it.

Right? What a message.

Well, first off that is so professional.

I love it.

I hope you have it written and framed somewhere at Lisa.

I do matter of fact,

and I look at it every day.

I think so often we give our power away and what

could be,

we're waiting for others to tell us that it's okay when

really we just need to act upon what we believe is

right, what we feel like we're driven to do and go

from there.

Talk to me a little bit about your origin story in

your professional career.

How did you get started while you're doing something before the

personal gift basket?

Just give us a little background here.

So my background is in the financial industry.

I came from a large financial firm and I worked in

the social media and marketing department there for 19 years and

loved my job,

loved what I did.

I've worked from home for maybe a little bit under half

of the time that I worked there.

So it was a very flexible,

convenient job,

but there was no passion at the end.

And I really wanted a way to come out of corporate

America. And when my husband and I got pregnant with our

last baby,

who's now 19,

I just decided that it would probably be time.

And during that time of transition,

my husband also started his own heating and cooling company.

So it was a fear of having two entrepreneurs under one

roof. And how would that look for us?

So there was a lot of fear and holding back on

doing things because I wanted,

what I felt was stability in a company.

And one day we were kind of up,

I was breastfeeding.

We were up watching TV and probably three in the morning,

I'm sure.

And I turned to him and I said,

you know,

what, how would it look for both of us to leave?

And sure enough,

we're looking at TB.

There's these two very successful women who had quit both of

their jobs and started a gifting company local to me and

were doing very well.

And my husband was like,

I really think that you can do that.

You make things so beautiful for our family.

When you give gifts,

when we entertain,

it's just natural for you.

Why don't you look into that?

And that was the fire that lit the path of starting

my own business.

Well, you were Lucky to have his immediate support.

Some people would be like,

whoa, wait,

what? But to have that support that had to be just

the most fabulous feeling In the world.

It was.

And he's always been that support for me.

It was me who was standing in my own way because

he gave me that okay.

To do what I wanted to do,

but it took me years to finally leave.

be exact.

So it took me a long time because every time I

was ready to do it,

something would happen.

And I would always do that if I didn't have this

job, how would this look?

So I always made these excuses for leaving.

And once the gray hair start coming into and I was

done, I didn't care.

It's like now or never that's right.

I didn't care if we ate beans and rice.

And that's exactly what I told him is if we got

to a point where both of our dreams began to dwindle

down and we had to eat beans and rice,

what would we do?

And he turned to me and he said,

we would eat beans and rice.

We will be fine.

And I think that was it.

I went to my boss and I told her,

I've scheduled a meeting with her.

And as she walked in the room,

she looked at my face and she immediately started crying.

She, that was done for me to go,

oh no,

it was an emotional moment For sure.

And I can only imagine how many hundreds of people who

are listening right now are in that spot.

They're doing nine to five thinking.

They would rather be doing something else instead.

And there is such a thing as doing it on the

side too.

Like you don't have to go two feet in cold Turkey

with a hard cut between a corporate job either where you

starting something,

as you were building up to take the leap or no.

So my company was already started.

I was working both my company and working for the financial

firm for all those years.

And I would work from seven 30 to four.

I would get off at four.

I would make dinner.

And then I would make any gifts that I needed to

make that needed to be picked up.

And I would then make any type of events that were

after hours.

I would try to do networking.

I would take sick time and leave to do retreats and

things like this.

I mean,

I just made a way over all those years.

I did that.

And plus I went back to school to get a degree.

So I was working full time getting a degree and running

a business.

It was tough With young children,

by the way,

With four young babies.

Absolutely. Oh my gosh.

So when did you actually start the personal gift basket In

2002? Like that's what fit into your life for that time?

Albeit you sound like you were one busy lady and doing

all of those things.

So this is what I guess my point that I'm trying

to get at,

for people who are sitting here at our little coffee table,

sharing in this chat with us,

Lisa, is that,

you know,

if you have a corporate job and you have something that

you make and you're wanting to start a business,

it's not one or the other,

it's not being a nine to five,

working for someone else or having your business.

You can do both of these,

albeit it's not as if you're full-time in your business because

you have your other job,

you balance it out based on what your life is presenting

you and what you're capable of doing at a time.

And then it can change over the years.

Just like you're showing us here.

Absolutely 100% agree with what you just Said too.

Do you have any advice for someone who is thinking of

going that route?

Anything you wish you would have known or something like that,

that standard question,

right? Absolutely.

So, I mean,

I feel that I talk to people all the time who

are struggling through being a full-time employee for someone else while

their dream is kind of on hold,

because they're struggling to do both.

But what I say is the struggle is so worth it

learn to do both.

I mean,

it can definitely be done and I know it's hard,

but when you look back,

it really all comes down to that drive of what is

important. If your business is just as important as that paycheck,

which is what I was dealing with was how important is

that every two week paycheck or once a month paycheck happening

for me,

how does that look?

The fear of not knowing how my life is going to

look when I leave.

So what I did was while I worked,

I worked my business just as hard as I worked when

I was working for someone else.

So I would come home.

I would do the things that I needed to do,

or I would log off from home,

do the things that I needed to do for my family.

And then I would work just as hard.

I pushed myself just as hard,

because if I did not do that,

then I became more reliable of relying on the paycheck that

I knew I was going to get every two weeks.

So I had to almost put fear in myself that,

that wasn't certain my businesses.

Certainly I had almost switched how I thought things.

I had to make sure that I understood that this is

going to be what I retire with.

This is not that,

but this will be.

And when I did that,

it helped push me to do things a little different to

get out and network,

even if it was only in the evenings,

on my lunch break,

at work,

to sit out in my car and make phone calls,

those types of things.

Like those were the things that pushed me to keep going

was to know that this is going to be the end.

Not that this will be,

And we've all learned,

unfortunately, either by our own demonstration or others that having a

corporate nine to five and working for someone else,

isn't a certain thing you can't count on it.

Like you could years past,

you know,

the world is different.

I think the other thing is,

and tell me if you felt the same way,

Lisa, is that if you're in a job that you might

have liked and you've outgrown,

or let's say you're not as interested in it,

what you're doing on the side and growing on the side

with the goals that you just mentioned gives you renewed excitement

and energy for your life overall,

because you are building something that's really exciting and energizing for

you. And your job then is kind of the stepping stone

to allow you to go full time then into the other.

Absolutely. I totally agree with that.

But as far as us,

in our personal situation,

it came a time as we knew that I was going

to leave,

I wanted to see how that would look.

If I didn't make any money in my business,

if my husband just took care of our home and I

didn't make any money.

So what we did was we took my whole paycheck and

we would just put it away.

I wouldn't touch it.

Like I wouldn't even spend it because I wanted to see

how hard things would look for us.

And they looked hard for a little bit because my husband

was growing his company.

I wasn't using our money,

but that was the good part.

Like I was able to see,

even if he got down to this,

we could still live.

We could still make mean tap and I could still buy

inventory if I had to those types of things.

Cause we bootstrapped everything.

We don't have loans or any of those things.

So we bootstrapped.

So I wanted to see how that would look for us.

And man,

that was probably one of the best decisions that I ever

did. Yeah.

I did the same thing with my businesses.

And by the,

by not only might it have been feeling tight for a

little while,

but you saw that you could do it.

You could work through it and live through that.

But you're also building a security blanket there,

if there were emergencies or whatever.

So excellent example,

I would absolutely tell people to do exactly what you did.

So wonderful example,

we're only going to stay here for a minute because you

have so many good things to offer us besides what we're

talking about now,

but right in the beginning,

how were you getting your first clients Networking?

So like I stated earlier was I only could network for

any events that were after hours.

So anytime there was an after hour event for the chamber

or things like that,

I would be there.

I would show up,

I had my business cards.

I would always take a gift with me when I went

to thank whoever was speaking or whoever was the sponsor of

the event.

And I would just be present and I would walk into

rooms that I'd wouldn't know anyone because I wasn't in the

know at that point I was only coming to one or

two events a month.

And that's how I started getting people.

I would just give gifts sometime I would put a coupon

in there telling them they could get a percentage off if

they ordered a gift for me after they received that gift.

But also people that I knew,

like my dear friend,

she's a speaker.

So she started using me to give gifts to the people

who invited her to speak at their events.

And it kind of went from there.

Like someone would get a gift and they would say,

oh, I received this gift for,

from so-and-so.

Is there any way you could do something for me?

And it kind of went this way.

So website and all that,

it was great to have one,

but I never really even used my website because my business

started through word of mouth.

It's So crazy to think that when you started your business,

there wasn't even social media yet.

Isn't that insane?

That is true.

I didn't even think about that Because you know,

like now we always gravitate to,

oh, you want to tell people who you are through Facebook

and Instagram and like all of that,

not remembering that there was a time before that.

And you were saying you were getting all of your business

from networking.

So now you're still running a successful business.

And now you're also coaching other people in the gifting industry.

What role does networking play today?

Now that we also have social media,

You know,

I still say,

and I still stand on the fact of keeping your face

in the place.

That's the little term that I use when you are out

and people recognize you and they see you on a regular

basis. It is the best thing ever.

I think it,

social media,

I think we've allowed ourselves to get so behind social media

that we're comfortable with not showing our face.

And when it's time to speak,

when it's time to talk about your business in front of

people, we have now kind of shied away from doing that

because we've allowed social media to speak for us.

And I think always being able to,

you know,

the elevator speech type of thing,

having something to say,

when someone asks,

what do you do should always be at the root of

your mouth?

How can you take their pain point and make it better?

I think that is always done better when you're face-to-face with

someone. So I,

Trump going and networking in your community more than anything.

Yeah. So That would be your very first go-to,

especially if like someone who's starting off getting business networking,

or maybe I would say depending on your product being out

face-to-face at craft shows and both.

Yeah. Anytime you can get in front of someone,

it's always better.

I think we're just so comfortable and we see the good

and the bad of those social media,

you know,

you see how it can,

it feels like it's bringing us together,

but it really isn't,

it's kind of making it so comfortable for us to be

a part.

And I think especially in business and that's even in personal,

when we think about,

I think someone always says,

you know,

it's one of those things where you feel like it's pulling

you, but it's not.

And I think we can use that same thing in business.

It's doing the same thing.

It's making you so uncomfortable to be around people and to

share your story.

The story is the most important part.

I Think it's another,

what is it arrow in your quiver,

In your quiver yet Versus say net,

it replaces all the things we used to do.

You know,

social media doesn't have to replace networking or craft shows or

email for that matter because that's a one-on-one extension also.

It's just another way.

It's another avenue and they can all work together.

They can.

And you know,

it's funny that you said about no social media.

When I started,

I remember getting the phone books,

like I was happy when the new phone book would come

out because I would take the phone book and I would

just find people that I wanted to send letter to.

It may be a little thing of cookies and I would

do it that way.

It was like,

those were so fun,

you know,

at that point to do and to grow your business,

sometimes people would call you back sometime people wouldn't.

Yeah. So now your target was more corporate clients.

Yes. Not individual consumer.

So we need to make that statement there too.

Like you have to look at who you're trying to reach

as a customer and then figure out where they are.

And where does LinkedIn play a role for you?

I love LinkedIn.

I use it as much as possible.

I try to post out there several times a week.

I've gotten so much business from LinkedIn.

I've learned to connect with people that I want to get

into their businesses.

And it's worked very effectively Just knowing how professional you are.

It's no surprise that LinkedIn is a great platform for you.

So let's move over a little bit into the gifting coach.

What was it that you were seeing that people were struggling

with, that you felt you could come in and help them

achieve? Where were the struggle?

The gifting coach was birthed from my own experience.

When I started my company,

I started at a time when the gift basket industry was

at its height.

I mean,

we had several company,

brick and mortar companies here in Missouri that were thriving and

doing well.

And I wanted to be that,

but I didn't have a storefront.

So I'm like,

how would that look for me being at home?

And in doing that,

and back then,

you really couldn't share with people that you were a home-based

business because it was taboo.

Companies didn't want to work with you if you were home-based.

So I wanted to kind of change that philosophy.

And so I wanted to create a place.

Really my market is for those who are either coming out

of corporate America and want to start their business or still

working their business and working their full-time job as well.

So I want it to be a sounding board for them

to encourage them and motivate them to know that they can

do it.

And they're not alone.

When I started my company,

I asked a woman who I admire immensely,

and we are still friends today.

If she could coach me.

And at the time she couldn't because she was going through

something personal in her life and she was not able to

do it,

but she always left the door open for me to call

her, to email her.

And I was able to do that.

And I want to be able to now give that to

someone because I was given that.

And I think without that,

I probably wouldn't have been able to do it.

Okay. So this is a good point that we haven't really

ever talked about here.

You reaching out to someone who was ahead of you in

your industry already.

And were you at all uncomfortable thinking,

well, they're not going to want to share what they're doing.

Cause I would then be a competitor.

Yes. I was very scared.

But you know,

at that time I was hungry.

So I really wanted my business to work more than anything.

And for someone to tell me,

no, would have just been fine.

You know,

I just would have went on to the next thing.

I wasn't afraid of someone telling me no.

And the same in my business,

you know,

I made those calls through that phone book and people would

hang up and tell me no all the time.

And I'm like,

well, they can't see me.

I just kind of built this idea in my head that

it's no love loss.

Let's move on to the next.

And that's the same way I did it for this was

she definitely could have told me,

no, she definitely could have not given me the time of

day. And she helped me more than she probably ever knows

that she did just by allowing me to have a window

into what she did.

Of course,

she shared this with multiple people now over the years.

But back then it was a totally different world than what

we live in.

Now. We didn't have a lot of gifting communities and things

like this.

We were kind of all on our own doing our own

thing. So now you have all these wonderful entrepreneurs out here

who are making things happen.

And sometimes you can still get isolated and feel like I'm

dealing with something and no one else is dealing with.

And I want them to know that that's not the case.

Right? Well,

this is a great example.

I mean,

I'm just thinking of all the different types of people we

have in gift biz breeze,

which is my Facebook group.

Are you part of That,

Lisa? I believe I am.

Okay. So,

you know,

if you are making jewelry or pottery or whatever it is,

and you have seen somebody,

especially even in that group,

because we're all together to help each other consider reaching out

the worst someone is going to say is no.

And I try to get this mentality,

Lisa, that think of like,

if you love bracelets,

you're not only going to buy bracelets from just one maker.

Exclusively, probably you might have a favorite,

but you like lots of different bracelets.

So there's no reason for us to think that,

oh my gosh,

if someone buys a bracelet from one person they'll never buy

from me,

that's So true.

And so I encourage anybody.

Who's listening to us,

listen to what Lisa did.

She reached out to someone who,

you know,

watching her from afar and asked for some help.

I mean,

if nothing else,

that's just an honor,

oh, you have reached out and asked it whether they say

yes or not.

And even she wasn't really able to mentor me and I'm

using the air quotes,

but she wasn't able to do that because it was some

personal things going on in her life at the time.

But what she did was allowed me to have access to

her when I needed it.

So it wasn't like she was contacting me and keeping me

accountable. But when I had questions,

she was there for me when I felt like I was

a failure and I was,

you know,

needed someone to kind of outlive me.

She was there for me.

So even if you don't get the mentor type of relationships,

have people who,

you know,

have been where you are and that you're able to ask

questions and do those things.

And I think most of the people that I know that

are in our community are more than willing to do that,

you know,

and help.

I love our community.

I think it's a wonderful community,

A hundred percent agree with you there.

So as you think of some of the people that you've

been working with,

what are some of the common struggles that they're facing today?

Where are they getting hung up?

I wanted to pause this discussion for a second to let

you know that I recognize you may be feeling overwhelmed right

now. I mean,

I bring on great guests who are specialists in their fields

and we get into fabulous conversations that,

you know,

can help grow your business.

So after the show,

you have all the full intention of grabbing a download,

making an adjustment to your website or any other number of

ideas that arise as a result of the podcast.

But what happens,

you get back to all your other activities and the momentum

you had gets lost.

What you plan to do is forgotten.

Then you feel bad because your business is going on as

usual without implementing anything that you know,

would help grow your business.

You're just too busy doing all the things like a robot,

moving from one thing to another without thinking,

because you have to,

I get it.

I've been there,

but guess what?

There is another way since I recognized this exact behavior in

my own business,

I set out to do something about it.

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Okay. Let's get back to the show.

Well, networking,

I must say is probably in the top five,

the fear of networking,

the fear of going into a room and not knowing anyone

and having to work the room is one of the questions

that I get.

The other question is pricing.

How do I price my products to make a profit?

That's one of the probably number between one and two,

I would definitely say is pricing and making a profit to

where you can over time.

If you want to leave your full-time job.

I hear a lot of people saying that they're going and

buying things local and putting them in gifts.

And unfortunately we can't make a profit that way.

When we consistently do that,

you mean Going out and buying retail?

Yes. Buying retail.

Absolutely. And we definitely want to make a profit.

That's the whole purpose that we're in business.

And I think people shy away from the fear of success.

I had someone tell me not too long ago that they're

afraid to succeed and I'm using those words.

Her words were a little different,

but that's what it boiled down to was that she was

afraid that if she gets the business,

she will grow and she's not ready.

So she was afraid of this process of moving forward.

So I think those are probably my top three things that

I talk to people and encourage people on No,

this whole fear of success for a long time.

I just didn't understand it because it was like,

well, why would someone be afraid of that?

And then I started getting it.

And especially when you're the one creating the products,

because the orders come in now,

you've just created more work for yourself because you've got the

orders, but this is a gun circling back and kind of

merging some things we've talked about together is this is then

where you can reach out to people.

Who've done it before.

Like, this is a great question.

How do you manage when you get to the next level?

And it can't be just you,

you know,

or I mean,

pretty much everything that we encounter,

someone else has encountered before us.

And we can learn so much from that.

Absolutely. There's a quote that I love from a guy named

John Allen.

And it says that the fear of success can be just

as crippling as the fear of failure.

You can cripple yourself,

you can stunt the growth of your success because you're afraid

to succeed.

And I think people don't realize that it's just as bad.

If I get a call that says,

I need a hundred of something,

I'm afraid that I can't give that.

And what I try to teach us that you have control

of everything that you do.

You know,

it's kinda like parenting our children.

Sometimes we kind of lose.

Who's in control.

We're still in control.

We're still the parent.

And then our businesses,

we're still the owners of those companies.

We still have control.

If someone calls and says,

I need a hundred of something,

as long as they're not saying they need it in a

day, then you have control to tell them when you're able

to deliver that,

you may lose it.

You may not,

but you still have that control.

And I think people want to over-deliver,

which is great.

But we want to make sure that we're doing things in

order and doing them in a way that's going to help

our and not hinder it.

Yes, I agree.

And you know,

I feel like that's why you test in the beginning with

family and friends,

you test that orders are going through your website,

properly sustain the industry.

You're talking about Lisa,

that you can put five baskets together and get them delivered

where they need to go.

So you get like the ground work,

like all your systems in place,

and then you start building from there.

But let's say you had just five baskets.

Like I was just saying.

And then all of a sudden you get a hundred,

if you've thought through,

all right,

I'm going to get an order for a hundred.

Who do I know that can put shred or filler in

a basket?

You know,

who do I know that can fill out paperwork?

Like in an emergency situation,

if you were in that expansive eye mask growth mode,

who would be your people that you would call and beg

them help you?

Right? I mean,

at that point,

it's all hands on deck And then you would know what

your plan would be.

And so then you're more confident if you're speaking at a

networking event and you say,

Hey, to like mid-sized regional offices,

whatever it is,

you know,

let's do your employee gifts this year because you're not afraid,

oh my gosh,

what if I get a hundred?

You already know what your plan is going to be.

So you're going to speak with more confidence too.

Absolutely. The plan is always important And to think about it

before you even,

I need it.

That is true.

When I started my business,

I always share this too,

is that I was literally paying people to take my gifts

because I wanted them to be so beautiful and so nice.

And then what would happen is a couple of months later,

that person that ordered a $50 gift that I spent $75

to make it nice for them.

They come back and they say,

Hey, I want to do that again.

I want a $50 gift,

but this time,

well, I might just want to do it normally.

And then,

so we end up with this problem that happens because now

I'm trying to correct something that I did wrong.

So we don't want to do those things.

We want to make sure that we're pricing correctly.

Everything is priced correctly.

And you're giving people a great product that they will come

back and want again.

But when we do it wrong in the beginning,

like I did,

then it's kind of hard to self-correct that because people are

now saying,

wait a minute,

you know,

I had a throw in there and a candle and all

these high end things.

And now this is what I get.

But it's like,

well, my fault.

And you have to kind of go back.

And sometimes people don't understand that you don't want to start

out that way.

Cause it looks so nice.

And it looks so inviting to do things that way.

And that was my issue that I just wanted to wow

people, but I was literally wowing people and paying them to

take my gifts.

And it hurt me.

It was the pricing.

What you were charging for the gifts was maybe even less

than what you had to pay to make the gift,

but then the next time they want to order and you

get your pricing,

it's so much more expensive.

That is so True.

So important to get your pricing right up front,

regardless of what your product is.

All right,

I'm turning the page here.

Lisa, I got a whole new topic for you and you

speak to this a lot.

When we are at conferences together,

I'm listening to you about how your working your publicity and

how you're getting on your television stations there locally.

Can you share with us a little bit about what you

do to make that happen?

Sure. So I hired a PR firm to help me with

that. And it's probably been the best investment that I've made

in my business was to have someone out there doing it

for me.

Now, is this someone local in your market?

It is,

it's a PR firm.

She's local to our area,

but she has clients all over.

So it's not just Missouri,

but that's what I did.

I hired a PR firm and she sends out press releases

and information for me to local television and radio shows.

That would probably benefit from me being on there.

So I've done that now for many years and it's worked

very effectively other than COVID.

I was able to be on maybe three to four times

a year on television and maybe about two to three times

a year on radio.

Okay. So you had someone actually help you get the placements,

which we've talked before in the past about how you can

work in,

try and do this yourself as well.

But then let's talk about when you actually get on the

show, how do you prepare for show?

So most television or,

well, I'll just start with television television.

They will send you a little kind of sheet that kind

of talks about what we're going to be talking about.

You have about three minutes when you're on there.

So it takes you longer to set up your table than

it does to actually be interviewed.

So that's always fun.

So it's very quick.

Normally we go in with an idea ourselves.

So we pitched the idea to the television station.

So like for instance,

fall time before,

Oh, you've even gotten the slot.

You go in with the idea of what you'd like to

talk about.

That's right.

So we pitched this idea to them about fall.

So we may say back to school and I'll give an

example. So let's talk about gifting that looks great for college

care packages,

kids going back to school teachers,

you know,

introducing new teachers.

So we would then create gifts.

I would take a couple of pictures.

We would add that to the press release,

maybe a video of a interview that I've done in the

past. And then we send that to the producer of the

television station.

And most of the time they'll say,

yeah, you know,

I think that's a great idea,

or we don't have a slot this time,

but maybe holiday.

We really need some stuff for holiday.

So that's kind of how it goes throughout the year.

Once we get that,

they send us a sheet that asks for our information.

As far as what name you want to go by,

Lisa with the personal gift basket company,

my phone number,

how people can get in contact with me.

And we send this to them a couple of days before

we go on,

normally it's live.

I've only done one that wasn't live.

So when you get there,

it's a lot of waiting.

You're waiting for the interviewer to come in.

And once you get in there,

it's about three minutes and you meet the person maybe about

two minutes before the session starts.

And it's a countdown from their lights,

come on and you're ready to go.

And it's very quick painless.

And I tell people,

you don't even have time to be nervous because it's an

ongoing conversation.

So it's fun and quick.

It's so true.

And it never goes the way you scripted it,

right? Like it's always different from what the plan was.

But you just go with the flow.

You do go with the flow and never go in there.

Empty handed,

always take something for them to leave with them.

Especially people who have a product always share your product with

them. They love it.

Yes. I have visuals,

visuals help so much and they want that for TV.

They just don't need two talking heads.

Have you seen business as a direct result of the shows?

Yes. One of our biggest clients came from me being on

one of our local television stations.

She calls a couple of days after and she says,

I've been having you on my mind.

She was,

I was up getting ready to come into work.

And I turned on the TV and I saw you talking

about corporate gifting.

She says,

and we were just in a meeting talking about how this

is going to look for us gifting and how it's going

to look for us.

She said,

so I'm in the office today,

sharing what?

The episode,

the actual newscast with her team and ended up being one

of our biggest accounts.

So yeah,

it works.

When I come back,

and individuals,

people who need a gift for,

I had a lady who saw me on TV and her

best friend's dog had passed away.

And she was like,

I just thought about you.

And I want to do a gift for her and make

her feel special.

So it depends.

It just,

you know,

large and small gifts come out of those types of things.

And then What do you do post show?

So you went in,

it was a live show that most of the time they

have then a link,

you know,

an online link.

Do you do anything on your own for promotion of that

spot after you've been live?

Oh yeah,

I do.

I will put them out either on my YouTube or on

Instagram or Facebook.

Some of them are linked to our website.

And normally,

even though,

you know,

I know you say posts,

but even before I'll say,

Hey, we're going on channel two at 9:00 AM.

Come along with me.

And I kind of take my audience along with me.

And then we kind of do that same thing after it's

so bright,

I show me getting ready or I show how we're setting

up the table.

And then afterwards,

of course we kind of walked through the process and then

I'll link the video.

Yeah. So they've really been along.

They get to see the behind the scenes of,

as you're setting up before,

you're going to go online,

then they can see the live.

And then you can talk about it afterwards as well.

Are you doing that in Instagram stories or Facebook live or

Instagram stories?

Yes. And you could definitely do it live most of the

time. It's me by myself.

So I don't have anyone there to do a live for

me. If my PR person isn't with me,

there's no way for me to set anything up like that.

So just doing the Instagram stories has been the best way.

That's what I would've thought you were doing,

but I just,

I didn't want to make any assumptions,

Lisa. I needed to hear it from you.

All right.

So you've been in business quite a long time.

You started at home,

you've built yourself up to be a significant player,

not only in your market,

but also in the industry as a leader.

Where do you see yourself taking it from here?

Well, Man,

my goal SU is to be at a place where I

can probably coach.

I mean,

that is probably my passion is to eventually let my business

run itself and to be able to help other people come

into this wonderful industry that I call the gifting industry.

That's what I see.

I see being able to have a facility where we can

rent it out and have meetings and shop in there.

And there's a place here called Priscilla's that every time I

go there,

I'm so inspired by what they built.

It's a family owned company and we've been going there as

a family for years.

And I always say,

this is whenever they're going to sell it.

I'm going to buy it.

So that's my goal is to just be patient and wait

for them to sell it and I'll buy it.

But yeah,

I mean,

that's my thing is to really kind of let this business

run itself and to be a coach and a mentor to

others that are coming into the industry.

Well, I love that.

And it's a huge gift back to the industry for you

to share and teach people what you know,

and how you've done it and created what you have.

So I think that is absolutely fabulous.

Where online,

could we direct people to go and learn more about you?

Oh, Well we have the website,

the personal gift,

basket.com. I'd love Instagram.

So I'm always on Instagram and that's the personal gift basket.

And our Facebook of course is the personal gift basket as

well. And you can always message me or reach out to

me. I would love to talk to you and be of

any help that I can.

Yeah. Wonderful.

Well, this has been so fun and so fabulous.

You know,

we've known each other for,

I don't know,

at least 10 years,

But I'd never really heard the whole story.

I've gotten the advantage of hearing and getting education from you,

you know,

when you're teaching on,

but we haven't done this whole story thing.

So this has been very,

very fun and no surprise.

You have had some gems of knowledge to share with us.

So thank you so much,

Lisa. I really appreciate you.

Thank you,

Sue. Thanks for having me and I admire you as well.

I love your podcast.

I love all the things that you're doing for our industry.

You have an amazing brand and I love that.

I get to call you my friend.

Likewise, take care,

have a great rest of your day.

You too.

I knew Lisa would bring the goods and Boyd it she

ever. But did you notice we weren't talking a lot about

the popular topics of the day.

I mean social media and email,

of course,

Lisa uses these two and they came up in our chat

briefly, but Lisa success was built on utilizing other business growth

strategies that have proven successful over the years.

Ones that are often overlooked today.

They may not be what's in the limelight,

but they work.

Think about it next week.

We're going to talk about why Rudolph is such a hit

among all the other reindeer brand definition,

baby. How do you make your business a Rudolf where everybody

notices your glowing nose?

Okay? You knew I had to do this didn't you,

but we're coming up to the holidays after all.

And Christmas is everywhere you turn.

Plus that truly is the topic for next week.

Thanks so much for spending time with me today.

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And I'll see you again next week on the gift biz

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

group called gift is free.

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

support each other.

Got a really fun post in there.

That's my favorite of the week.

I have to say where I invite all of you to

share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,

to show what you're working on for the week to get

reaction from other people and just for fun,

because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody

in the community is making my favorite post every single week,

without doubt.

Wait, what aren't you part of the group already,

if not make sure to jump over to Facebook and search

for the group gift biz breeze don't delay.