363 – Messages From Her – A Product Creation Story with Rachael McKee

Gift biz unwrapped episode 363,

And made me feel really proud and way more empowered to

be a woman learning about the lives of the women in

the project.

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 there.

It's Sue and thanks for joining me here today.

I am so excited to finally announce that I've started something

new just for you.

It's called a gift biz bash,

and it's an opportunity for you to get a short session

of free live training,

and then also a chance to shout out your company and

any promotions you currently have going on.

Or if you're interested in a collaboration,

you can give us the details on that and perhaps find

your next gift.

Biz bestie.

These 45 minute bashes are happening over zoom twice a month

at all different times.

So if you can't make one,

you'll definitely find another that will fit your schedule.

The very first batch is happening on April 4th,

right around the corner to see the schedule and sign up,

go to gift biz,

unwrapped.com forward slash bash.

It's a hundred percent free for you to pick up a

growth tip and get eyeballs on your products to gift biz

unwrapped.com forward slash bash.

Come join me for the very first one today.

We're rounding out international women's month with the perfect guest.

We know how much strength and power women possess.

We see it all around us yet often diminish that trait

when it comes to ourselves,

Rachel is on a mission to change that it's happening through

creation of a product that reinforces for each of us,

that we too have these traits and can do great things

within our world.

We've talked about the value that you already share through your

products in our handmade heals the world month each,

January, but here's a way to reinforce it for yourself all

year round messages from her.

You're going to hear what it is and the full product

creation story from initial idea through development and promotion to the

upcoming event of being able to see it in real life

Today, I am so excited to introduce to Rachel McKee.

Rachel is a Colorado based writer,

designer, and entrepreneur.

She holds degrees in communication design and ethical business,

which she's used to help solo entrepreneurs and fortune 500 companies

to develop ethical business strategies,

improve design and presentation and increase clarity market placement and profits.

She's currently launching her first book and an accompanying card deck

titled messages from her.

Rachel, welcome to the gift biz on repped podcast.

Thanks so much for having me.

This is such a fun project,

I guess.

I don't know what to call it.

It's feels way more than a project.

Yeah. I am excited to hear the whole story.

I like to not know too much before I talk with

you, because then it's very authentic and original and I'm not

hearing something we've already talked about.

So I am dying to get into the conversation,

but before we do,

I want to do something with you.

That's become a tradition with my guests and that is to

have our listeners get to know you in a different way

through a motivational candle.

So if you were to close your eyes and envision what

a candle would look like,

that would resonate,

everything you Rachel,

what would the candle look like?

Hm. You know,

that probably changes at different times in my life,

but I think right now it would be like a really

big giant candle.

And it would be some sort of golden yellow like the

sun. So you would feel warm just looking at it.

And I think it would probably be a quote by Madonna

actually that says I am my own experiment in my own

work of art.

I think at least in this era of my life,

giving myself permission to let everything be kind of a fun,

curious experiment is really a good guiding principle for me.

And it's wintery and cold and I'm really done with winter

and cold.

So the candle itself,

like when I think of it,

I think of the feeling of like the sun being on

your body.

Beautiful. I love that.

And yellow is my favorite color.

I smiled when you said that.

And as you know,

because we've been talking for a couple of weeks before,

we've actually done this interview,

but I got back from Colorado recently and oh my gosh,

you guys,

one day it's sunshiny and bright.

And the next day it's snowing,

like crazy one or the other.

Yeah. Especially this time of the year.

That's what it is today.

It's snowing today.

And then yesterday it was nice.

But the day before it was snowing,

it's like spring comes and it's not gradual.

It's like on and off.

Yeah. Teases you a little bit.

Well, I'm also a snow lover,

so I can take both,

just wake up,

let me know what's happening and I'll deal with it.

As you mentioned,

your quote,

I'm my own experiment and my own work of art.

That leads me to a question,

which is,

was there ever a time when that didn't feel like that

could work for you or the fear or hesitancy of doing

something that maybe you've never done Before?

Shit all the time.

I mean,

I think that's a part of the journey of being a

maker and a creator.

I mean,

at least I know it is,

for me,

it seems like every few years I'll kind of try my

hand at something new and every time I do something new,

there's just a part of it that I've never done before.

And I don't know about other people,

but it's my human nature at least to be kind of

nervous about doing things that I haven't done before and nervous

about if I'm going to do them well.

And if people are going to like it,

I mean,

there's so many doubts that you can have in that creative

process. And I think for me,

like surrendering to the creativity that wants to move through me

and just trusting that and really sticking with that and not

getting caught in my mind and outer world suggestions and questions

and, you know,

just really staying true to that core creativity helps me get

around some of those doubts,

but I have them all the time.

I'm glad you said that.

And I thought you would because we all have those doubts.

Right. I mean,

and it's the extent to which we can decide.

We're going to put that aside.

We know it's there,

but we're going to still do it any way.

I think that can resonate with a lot of people who

are listening here.

Yeah. I'm intrigued with your history in terms of your degree

with ethical business,

how did you make that selection?

Sometime around when I was graduating high school,

I wanted to go into fashion design.

And when I looked into the industry,

I just couldn't find too many redeeming qualities.

The production is pretty poor for the most part.

A lot of production has moved out of the United States,

environmentally. It's one of the most damaging segments of the market.

And so I kind of turned away from that desire for

many years and I transitioned more into art and I was

thinking about being an art teacher and I couldn't really settle

on something that felt right,

but I was still taking classes and going through college and

just trying to learn whatever I could.

And at some point I stumbled upon some ethical clothing manufacturers.

And this was probably about like 10 years after I had

this desire in high school.

So the market had changed a lot in 10 years and

I wasn't sure about going into like continuing on the design

path. So I kind of blended some of the art that

I was studying and some communication design,

which is kind of like graphic design.

And then I blended ethical business into the program.

So I went to college here in Denver at a city

college and they actually let you make your own program.

So I just wanted to bring more good to the fashion

industry And that's right in line with care of today too.

So it's perfect.

It all blends together.

So that's wonderful.

And so let's just dive into the guts of this here.

How did the idea of the book come together?

Well, first share with us what the concept is and how

it all came together.

Sure. Yeah.

So it's called messages from her and it's a 44 card

deck and it's like an inspirational card deck that features 44

modern world changing women.

And then there's a correlating hardcover book that each of the

women in the deck has two pages dedicated to her in

the book.

And then the cards inside of a little cloth bag and

the whole set comes inside of a box,

kind of like a magnetic closing box,

like a collector set.

So the idea is that you can just keep the cards

wherever you want to keep them in your house or take

them with you,

whatever, that's not the important part,

but you just pull a card whenever you're like,

maybe you have a question or maybe you just want some

inspiration for the day.

So you pull a card and you see that woman and

you see the quality that she represents.

And then you can go and open the book and you

can read a quote by that woman.

You can read an inspirational passage.

And then I have one full page of like a history

passage about that woman,

which is not a giant in-depth history,

cause it's one page and these women have lived really amazing

lives, but it certainly gives you a real sense of like

where they came from,

what they have done,

the challenges they've overcome.

And it's just been really inspirational for me and made me

feel really proud and way more empowered to be a woman

learning about the lives of women in the project.

And how in the world did you come up with this

idea of all things you could do,

Rachel. Right.

And I caught up with a lot of ideas.

So this was one that I decided to follow through on

It rose to the top.

Somehow I don't know It did exactly,

you know,

maybe five or six years ago.

I had someone ask me how I felt about being a

woman and what being a woman meant to me.

And I realized,

I hadn't really thought about it.

And from there it just kind of opened me up to

paying attention to the women in my life to paying attention

to how I felt when I learned about like really impactful

women. I think that that just kind of opened up my

awareness. And then a few years ago I started seeing taro

decks everywhere and Oracle decks.

And like,

they were just suddenly,

you know,

like when maybe you're going to have an idea about something

and suddenly that thing is just like everywhere kind of tapping

on your shoulder.

I would go to a friend's house.

I would go to a coffee shop.

I would go to a yoga class,

whatever it was.

I'd just be like,

there was another deck,

another one of these decks.

And so I don't remember exactly which one I was kind

of like handling one day,

but I just was in the process of pulling a card

from one.

And I had this thought like,

gosh, how much more impactful would this be for me?

If this was full of like real relatable women that have

just done some of the most amazing things in the history

of humanity.

And I love the way that people have brought to life,

all different kinds of topics through Oracle decks and taro ducks,

like elements of nature.

But for me,

I mean,

I think role models are really powerful and looking to people

that we admire and learning from them is so healthy.

So it just was like a kind of momentary flash Love

it. Yeah.

I mean,

sometimes that's what happens.

That's how you create products of all sorts.

We talk about that here on the show,

like, how do you identify what your business is going to

be? Cause lots of times a maker can make a million

different things.

Definitely. So they're thinking of all the things we're already making.

And then all of a sudden,

one day they'll walk through the kitchen or there'll be in

their closet.

They encounter a problem and it's like,

oh my gosh,

we all need something like this.

And then all of a sudden the product is born.

Exactly. I think it's just kind of the universe coming down

and blessing us touching on the side and the shoulder and

say, you,

you are going to do it.

Yeah. I agree.

I sometimes feel like,

oh, I can give you the logical explanation for where this

idea came from.

But also like there's a whole invisible explanation that something dropped

some idea,

some muse dropped some idea down into my head.

And then I try and sit with an idea when I

get one for awhile and I do some research and I

look around and just really start to pay attention to how

that idea would work in the world.

And that process kind of leads me to decide whether or

not I want to really bring it to life.

I like the idea of letting it sit for a minute

too. You said you come up with ideas all the time.

Yeah. Do you ever have the time thing where you come

up with an idea and then a week later you're like,

what was I thinking?

You know,

you need to give it a little bit of time to

confirm that it's the right idea to move forward with.

Let's go through and talk a little bit about the creation

of all of this.

So this turned into a business that you've registered at this

point, or how does this connect in because you're going to

be obviously making money from the sale of the books.

Yeah. It's interesting.

Right. Blending,

the, like you spend so much time in the creation of

something and then thinking about it and then you bring it

into the world and it's like,

oh yeah,

right. And I still got to like make the website and

calculate the margin and who's my target audience.

And so it's like the creation part is a little more

to me,

glamorous and spacious.

And then,

you know,

you've got to use some other like qualities and discipline to

really create the container to bring that creative project into the

world. So is that what you did first is created the

deck and wrote the book first?

Definitely. Yeah.

My very first question is how did you select which women

would be so honored as to have a card?

Yeah. So at the beginning,

I don't know.

I wasn't quite sure if I was going to follow through

with it or not.

I just kind of was doing brainstorming.

I started this giant spreadsheet,

so I'd hear a song or I'd hear a quote or

a story of someone would just kind of pass by my

day in some form.

And so I'd write down their name.

And then I started calling for like,

what few,

top qualities they were presented to me.

And then I'd have another column for a quote by them

and another column for a quote.

And so I just started gathering information and then I think

it was right around the beginning of the pandemic.

I had a little more time on my hands.

Like a lot of people did and I was like,

I should really use this time to do something that I've

been thinking about for a long time.

So from there,

I don't know.

I just sat down with that spreadsheet so many times and

started filtering out the women that I felt like had the

biggest impact on me.

And then I also wanted to choose some women that were

really well known.

So that way,

if someone wasn't so into like women's history or women's empowerment,

they might be like,

oh, I love Dolly Parton.

I don't know what this is about.

I'm going to get it.

And then it kind of is like that one person,

that one really well known person is kind of like a

gateway into learning about all of these other women.

And everyone would have a different gateway based on their interests

potentially. Hopefully.

Yeah, exactly.

And then I filtered the women down based on what qualities

I felt like they represented to have a really solid foundation

of a lot of primary qualities that we all might be

in need of.

So like one person's quality,

like Beyonce has power and Helen Keller,

his feelings and Georgia O'Keeffe is slow down.

So like I have way more than 44 women that I'd

love to keep reading about.

And I'd love to do future volumes.

But this first volume is really kind of like creating a

solid foundation of just like aspirational all these that we might

want to look to blended with some really well-known women and

some lesser known women,

some women that have done some really phenomenal things in the

world. Love it.

I'm going to ask you for certain categories in a couple

of minutes,

but I want to stick with this whole creation idea.

You were gathering all the information,

making your selection on the women and then doing the card

and the book simultaneously.

Great COVID project,

mind you to get your mind off of everything else that

was going on and be productive and all of that.

I think that's fabulous.

I can just see you behind the scenes doing all this.

Yeah. It was really,

really an amazing COVID project also because the stories of these

women's lives are so inspiring and we're not getting consistently fed

inspiring information unless you're really seeking it these days.

So it was really helpful.

That's a very good way to say that,

Rachel. Yeah,

for sure.

Okay. So all the information now is done,

then what happens?

Well, I also,

at the same time that I was writing the book was

working with an illustrator in Australia.

So probably from March,

2020 for about a year,

her and I went back and forth picking like I would

pick the woman and I would send some photos over to

her and she would do kind of a starter illustration.

And we would go back and forth about that if you

don't really took patients to just let it evolve in a

natural way.

So it really came through visually the way that I wanted

it to.

And I didn't want to like force this project for some

reason, it felt like it was the kind of thing that

I wanted to let of all of like with some sort

of organic and enjoyable and peaceful feeling to it.

So I was writing,

we were going back and forth on illustrations and then it

came time to finding a factory that can produce everything that

I've designed,

which includes the cards,

the bag,

the box and the book You led right into one of

my questions.

How did you source the people that you use?

Like the factory,

like you were just talking about,

like who was going to actually produce it,

but even your graphic artist.

Yeah. Well,

the artists let's see,

it took me awhile to find her maybe a few months.

And I tried out a few artists illustrators on Upwork.

I don't know if you've ever used Upwork.

I love Upwork,

But you know what,

explain it to people here who might not.

Yes. Upwork is just like a giant online platform where you

can find people with all kinds of skills all around the

world. You can find marketers,

you can find illustrators,

you can find graphic designers,

you can find copywriters like any kind of work that people

can do remotely.

You can find it on Upwork.

And I've just had some really lovely connections over the years,

hiring people through Upwork.

Would you say it's a higher level than something like Fiverr?

I think so.

A more advanced skill tier,

if you will,

or projects that you would search for?

I think so.

And I really liked the way that you can look at

their portfolio and see what they've done before.

And like just feels like there's some good transparency around what

their skills are.

Okay. So that's where you got your graphic artist after testing

out a couple?

Well, actually,

so I tested out a few on Upwork and didn't find

the right match.

And then I probably messaged maybe like 20 people that I

found through Instagram.

And when I found my illustrator,

her illustration artist's name is Harley and J I saw a

little bit of the artwork she was doing.

And I was like,

oh, this has to be my woman.

I was so excited.

So I sent her over a couple of tests projects,

which I can't recommend test projects and not just by sending

her a few photos of the women and just seeing what

she came back with.

And they were just so spot on,

you know,

their illustrations,

but they somehow evoke the feeling of each of the women.

And I'm just so happy with how they turned out.

So that's how I found my illustrator.

Well, you know what,

that's a Testament also to not satellite.

Yeah. Continuing to go until you find the right one.

And some of it is just intuitive,

the way you work together.

And then obviously what they bring back for you.

I mean,

it's always an interesting process,

hiring people,

period, but hiring people from afar,

I think you can look at power.

They communicating with you.

How quickly are they responding to you?

I'm always feeling people out in just the communication process while

I'm getting work from them.

Because that's really important to me.

Like is someone going to respond and communicate clearly?

Do they seem excited about the work?

Are they responding within a reasonable amount of time?

I don't like holding people to this idea that like,

you have to reply instantly.

I'd like to kind of break some of those ideas in

our society.

But you know,

I also don't want someone to take more than a couple

of business days to get back to me.

Well, or give you an expectation of when you can expect

a response.

Sure. I want to sit on this.

Think about it.

Let it settle in.

I'll be back to you by Wednesday at the latest or

something like that.

Yeah. I love that.

I love them to follow through when someone says they're going

to get back to you when they actually do.

And so you found her,

you were working with her,

but one other question here,

was there any documentation that you had her sign before you

shared any of the information with her?

No, actually,

no, there wasn't any,

I think about that for a minute.

You didn't do a nondisclosure or anything like that,

or did she have an agreement that she gave to you?

No. I mean,

in my other aspects of business,

I definitely tend to do things like that.

Like, I actually have a business where I do consulting with

ethically made clothing companies,

but every now and then it's like,

I feel someone out and it doesn't feel like something that

we need to do.

And I didn't have any concern that she was going to

like take this project and try and do it herself.

Like she's an illustrator,

she's not a writer I'm bringing the right to it.

It felt very like the synergistic kind of skills,

not like any sort of close or competitive kind of thing.

And all she was doing was the images.

So she didn't have the total package anyway.

Yeah. I mean,

she could see what I was writing because I wanted her

to feel like she was learning about the women as she

was making the illustrations to like really get the feel for

them. Okay.

All right.

Wonderful. And so let's carry on with how you did the

book. And I think this is just interesting for people to

just hear the background of all of this.

So you were looking for one place to do the book

and the deck at the same time,

right? Yeah.

And the box And the box,

Which proved to be a more difficult thing to find someone

that could do a really good job with the box and

I am a packaging nuts.

So that was a really important aspect to me.

This whole thing has emotion wrapped around the entire product.

So the experience of opening it when they receive it is

really important too.

I would imagine.

Oh, for sure.

I think it's a really big deal and I'm packaging up

these amazing women that have just done such great work for

our world.

Like I want the box and the bag and the book

to feel special.

Like they are.

So how in the world did you start from zero to

researching? What did you do?

So there are always companies you can work with as an

intermediary, if you want to do any sort of printing.

So I started out thinking that that's what I was going

to do,

but then I just didn't feel that great about not having

a direct line of communication with the people that were going

to make the products.

I tend to be pretty hands-on with what I do.

And I mean,

I guess I could also have a little bit of a

control freak when it comes to something that I create.

So I started out and was thinking about that.

And when I shifted from that,

I started researching factories,

some factories in the U S and then some factories in

Southeast Asia and some factories in China.

And I felt pretty intimidated actually at first about going like

communicating directly without overseas factory,

which I decided to do an overseas factory because of the

way that they can print gold foil on the cars and

on the bag and on the box.

So it's just that,

like, I felt like gold foil initially.

It was my number one design aspect when I visualize the

whole project.

So yeah,

at first I was intimidated and then I realized,

you know,

I had worked with all of these companies for the last

decade that work produced products all over the world with all

kinds of different factories.

And so I felt like even though it might be a

little more work for me to do it myself,

and to go directly with someone abroad that ultimately I was

capable of doing it and people have done it before and

I could figure it out and that it was worth doing

it that way,

just so I could really be the person that's going to

be saying yes or no to every little way to the

product is made.

And so was this then identifying factories,

getting samples of their work,

that whole type of thing back and forth.

Yeah. So I went through a couple of factories,

like one factory made the cards really well,

but they just could not get it together with the book.

Like I'd open the book and the pages would just start

with like falling out.

If you opened it too far,

they weren't like properly glued and bound.

And then I found another place,

but they weren't really like communicating consistently and they didn't have

the ability to do the box.

And it's interesting how,

you know,

I was in contact with them and they'd be like,

oh, you don't want to do it that way.

Do it this way.

It's easier.

Of course,

because they're going to tell you what to do with what

they can provide.

Right. Yeah.

And like what's quicker for them and they don't have the

same vision.

Right. But basically if anyone kind of gives me that message,

I'm usually like,

oh, this is not my place.

I wanted to really feel like I had people that were

getting the amazing service,

like amazing customer service,

excited to make the product with me.

If I told them I wanted something done a different way,

that they would try and pretty quickly figure out how to

make that happen.

So I think it was maybe my third or fourth factory.

I have this like lovely team of three women and there's

the designer and like the factory manager and the customer service

person. And I just really,

like, sometimes they're on me to be like,

Hey, you owe this,

this style.

And I love that so much.

And so how long did it take that whole process from

when you were ready to start looking for a factory to

when you actually found and was able to start really working

it Maybe eight months.

Okay. All right.

Well, that's not terrible.

It's not,

it's not terrible.

I mean,

I think for people that are in the industry and in

the practice of making things and finding factories,

that will make the thing that they designed.

It's not that long.

I mean,

I probably spent two and a half years from the point

that I decided to like,

go for it when I got the actual final prototype in

my hands.

So I think if you're not used to making things,

it's like,

oh my gosh,

that seems like forever,

but I felt okay about the timeline.

But I'm thinking that you might have been overlapping the writing

and graphic creation portion with the cards with also the investigating

the factories.

I mean,

at some point that probably kicked in and overlapped at the

end. Yeah.

Wasn't just the writing stopped then the factory discovery and experimentation

and all of that and then commitment,

et cetera.

Yeah. Once I felt like I have really confidently had my

right designer and we had designed like half of the cards,

then I started kind of tiptoeing into factories.

So yeah.

I wanted to make sure that I was like really committed

before I started spending money for prototypes and just opening up

a whole new component of the project.

Sure. And how were you communicating with people overseas?

Were you doing zoom calls or how did that all work?

Yeah, so we started out with email and then we transitioned

over to Skype actually.

And so they'll message me through Skype.

I do a lot of video feedback,

so like,

I'll get a sample and I'll record unboxing it and looking

at everything and pointing things out and send that back to

them. And then they send it back to me and that's

been a really great way of communicating.

Yeah. And then every now and then we'll go into email.

I think we've done two Skype video calls,

but for the most part,

I've been really impressed how much we've been able to do

and work well together through emails and messaging.

Well, and I'd say good factories have a lot of experience

with overseas coordination of projects too.

So this isn't something new to them.

They figured out how to do it and make you feel

comfortable and then give you what you need.

Yeah, you're right.

Absolutely. I mean,

I'm more new to it than they are.

Right. But you've got to get the right factory that you're

really going to feel comfortable with.

And obviously,

I mean,

I work with the factory over seas.

I make a brand of ribbon my own brand over ribbon,

but I went and visited the factory just because I wanted

to make sure that I liked the conditions I met the

owner, all of that type of thing.

But I did that years ago.

Certainly not in the recent years when no one was traveling,

let's face it.

So, and that's the way most people do it.

Most people aren't going and actually seeing the factories.

Yeah, totally.

And I think that is something that I have had so

much like the brands that I do consulting with in my

kind of regular longer-term day job,

I've worked so much with that about like the right certifications

for their factories and the right questions to ask.

So, I mean,

I found this factory since COVID started,

so I definitely have not been there,

but they use a ton of sustainable materials.

They pay living wages,

their factories are really clean and well lit or they're in,

Shenzen in China.

So like Shenzen is one of the most creative and clean

and like sustainably producing factories,

cities in China.

So I really love them.

And they've been so pleasant to work with.

And it's just been interesting,

kind of like learning about how they communicate and learning a

little bit more about their culture.

And it's been a sweet process.

I've had the same thing,

cause my factory is in China as well.

And I've became friends with my major contact there.

He just had a baby girl,

like, you know,

the family and it's really nice,

but I think that this would be an interesting conversation for

people who are listening,

if they were ever to consider doing a project overseas.

Do you have any advice for them now that you've run

through the experience for the first time and you have experience

from your other job,

any direction for people who are thinking that they can not

continue, hand-making their product they need to do.

And maybe it's even just a portion of it overseas.

We're taking a quick break right here to hear from our

sponsor. Yes.

It's possible increase your sales without adding a single customer.

How you ask by offering personalization with your products,

wrap a cake box with a ribbon saying happy 30th birthday,

Annie, or at a special message and date to wedding or

party favors for an extra meaningful touch.

Where else can you get customization with a creatively spelled name

or find packaging?

That includes a saying whose meaning is known to a select

to not only our customers willing to pay for these special

touches. They'll tell their friends and word will spread about your

company and products.

You can create personalized ribbons and labels in seconds,

make just one or thousands without waiting weeks or having to

spend money to order yards and yards print words in any

language or font,

add logos,

images, even photos,

perfect for branding or adding ingredient and flavor labels to for

more information,

go to the ribbon print company.com.

Yeah. I mean,

I think the one paying attention to how the communication is

going. Like I was talking about like consistency,

consistent communication,

follow through.

Like, I want my factory to be like asking me for

the deliverables that I've told them that I'm getting them,

not just a one-way street.

So just finding a factory that feels like they're actually partnering

with you on moving your project forward goes so far.

Obviously like a lot of factories will send you a ton

of samples of their work.

And so get as many as you can just know that,

like again,

you can go through intermediaries any time they're going to take

a chunk of your profits.

They might not communicate about your project in the way that

you really want them to,

because they might not love it the way that you do.

Right. It's just the nature of making something of your own.

And it might take a little bit of time to like

nail the communication and find the right factory.

But I think it's totally doable.

Like I would just tell people,

don't let that part intimidate you.

It's workable once you just kind of get steady through the

process a little bit.

So yeah.

I mean just like samples,

samples, samples,

consistency of communication.

And again,

like I mentioned,

finding a factory that really wants to work with you on

making little tweaks and adjustments.

I definitely had the experience where I'd be like,

oh, this looks good,

but we need to change this.

And a factory would like kind of ghost me for a

little while.

So just finding groups that are really collaborative is super important

to me.

Yeah. And I'll tell you if they're doing that right in

the beginning,

when they're trying to get your business,

it's only going to get worse from there.

Yeah. You have to be careful and vetted out for sure.

But it's doable,

like you said,

and I agree with you.

I don't have an intermediary either and I love doing it

that way.

I just feel like their heart with my business and my

heart is supporting them in their production to two-way street here.

All right.

So as you're developing messages from her,

what were you thinking?

How were you going to handle the investment that had to

go into the project?

Yeah, so there's been two primary investments so far,

which was investing in pain,

the illustrator,

and then investing in getting the prototypes.

And so I kind of budgeted out for myself what I

was willing to pay for.

So I paid for all of that.

And then I just launched a Kickstarter yesterday to fund the

first print run of the project.

Okay. So yesterday we are interviewing March 9th.

So that was March 8th And this be air in a

couple of weeks from now.

All right.

And so how has Kickstarter go?

Like that's a whole nother thing,

right? Oh my gosh.

We could talk,

do an entire episode just about Kickstarter.

Okay. Let's do an outline summary form or something.

Yeah. Kickstarter is like launching a business kind of on steroids.

I am finding out,

I like to tell people that when you're going to go

get a puppy and you're like,

wow, this puppy is going to be a lot of work.

And we know it's going to be a lot of work

and you get that puppy home.

And you're like,

wow, this is five times more work than I even thought.

That's how Kickstarter has felt for me.

It's just been like such a fast paced world.

I mean,

it's a month long campaign.

So normally you might launch and then you just kind of

like, you can launch organically or you can keep refining your

marketing and you have no kind of start and finish line.

It creates a totally different feeling and dynamic,

But you had a finish line.

It sounds like I have a finish line.

That's going to be on April 7th,

but you also set a goals.

So let me back up and just,

you know,

Kickstarter for those that aren't familiar is a crowdfunding platform.

So the idea is that you've made something that you love

and you show a bunch of other people,

and if they want to see it in the world,

they contribute to your campaign and exchange.

They usually get your product for that contribution.

And their money goes towards bringing the first production run of

your product to life.

So it can be really sweet,

can get a lot of good feedback.

You can get friends and family involved and you can kind

of empower people in the process of bringing your project to

life. It's also just like a massive platform where you can

reach a ton of people that you might not have access

to, but there's so much that goes into it,

that you got to really nail your design and your execution

of the campaign.

So people really take you seriously and think that,

you know,

if they back you,

you're going to really follow through with making the product.

Like I have spent the last gosh,

maybe month and a half every day working to do outreach

and emails and marketing.

And to just try and like front load,

a lot of support into the campaign on day one.

And there's a lot of different ways you can do a

Kickstarter, which every time I do a little more,

I learn a little more about it.

So like some people spend a few months before they launch

getting people signed up in advance.

So then they like knock it out of the park on

day one.

And some people do pay marketing through the whole thing.

And some people do a really community oriented project,

like a community garden,

where then they get everyone in the community to donate through

Kickstarter. So it's really vast,

there's a huge range of products on there.

It's an interesting platform.

I would recommend that if anyone is thinking of doing a

Kickstarter, just give yourself like a good few months to get

your whole campaign and your like pre-launch outreach done.

Like make it spacious.

I think because there's a start date and finished date,

it can feel just a bit intense.

And does Kickstarter give you direction and tutorials or anything to

help you along the way themselves specifically?

I'm sure you can go on YouTube and learn all about

Kickstarters. Yes and no.

They definitely have articles and some like checklists.

And if you follow those,

you're going to be in good shape.

But I think what I did is I looked at a

number of campaigns that I thought really did a good job,

both in their execution and in meeting and exceeding their financial

goals. So I,

as I was building out,

my campaign always had like three tabs open for my top

three, like inspirational Kickstarters.

So I could look at,

oh, how did they communicate this?

And how did they build this?

And how does this work?

And then I started talking to a few friends that had

done Kickstarters a little late in the process,

but definitely like do your research about well crowdfunded campaigns and

see what they did see how long their videos are,

see the way they design their page,

the way they design their rewards.

So you can search for the kind of media coverage they

got in advance,

how their social media looks like it's worth doing the research

and giving yourself the time to do it well,

because if you do it well,

then you've just got a really invested community.

That's there for your success for the launch of the Kickstarter,

but also through anything else that you make.

I think people just feel so included in the process through

doing crowdfunding,

I with you.

And if you've never been on Kickstarter,

it's so fun and interesting just to go and look at

all of the different projects that are in development.

It's crazy.

What's out there.

It's very fun.

Give us some more detail about your Kickstarter,

what the offer is,

what it's looking like.

Okay. Yeah.

So there are a few different reward tiers that you can

do, but all of them,

you get something back for,

of course you can also just go on and crowdfund and

just donate money to people's campaigns because you love them and

you just want to see them bring their product to the

world. So just a flat out donation is what you're saying.

Yeah, exactly.

So for mine,

I have one small reward,

which is a sticker.

That's three of the cards.

I just wanted to give people like a $5 option to

get something inexpensive and feel included.

But then all of the other tiers are different versions,

different like deliveries or like a two-pack of the deck.

So there's one that's early bird discounted copy for the first

100 backers.

So that's $37.

And then there's a regularly priced set,

which is $40.

And then I have a hundred copies that are going to

get aired in early.

Those will be arriving in may.

So that's a hundred dollars to get one of the Airdyne

copies. And then my favorite tier is the most expensive tier,

but it's $350 for 10 copies that get donated to a

girls charity outside of LA called step up and step up

works with teen and adolescent girls that are kind of like

at risk youth.

And they partner them with adult women mentors,

and they give them social training and emotional training and financial

training. And they'd give them job placement training and they help

cultivate their interests and hobbies.

And so the ideas,

this project is all about role models and looking to other

women and other people that have done amazing things.

So anyone that donates at that higher tier is sending 10

copies so they can actually distribute a copy to girls in

the program.

I absolutely love that.

Add on It's my favorite.

Yes. For sure.

Obviously you can buy multiples,

like you could do the three 50 and then you could

also get a couple for yourself and whatever you want to

do, right?

Yeah. You can mix and match.

However, it goes.

So Kickstarter,

it's not always the most intuitive platform,

but you pick your main reward tier and then once you

pick your main thing,

you can add on other reward tiers to that.

And then I also have one thing that I really love,

which most people probably will just glaze over because there's this

very cute,

like gift box.

If you want to give it as a gift,

you can also buy a box that has a poem by

Maya Angelou on the cover of the box and the logo.

And so it'll come like packaged as a gift for,

you know,

maybe like a gift for the favorite woman in your life

that inspires you.

It's kind of a thank you.

I added a few extra little design elements that people can

add on and I added an e-gift card.

So if anyone gives it as a gift,

they can notify the person that they're giving it to.

And so it's pretty thorough this point.

Well, we're going to say this again at the end,

but since we're talking about it right now,

where can people go and find all this information?

Yes. So the Kickstarter link is very,

I can't just give that to you in like a word,

but the website is messages from her.com

and there's a banner at the top.

You can click on it,

it'll take you to the Kickstarter.

There's buttons all over.

That will take you to the Kickstarter.

I'm also on Instagram at her underscore messages.

And the link,

if you're on Instagram,

in the bio of that handle will take you right to

the Kickstarter as well.

All right.

That is perfect.

Couple of other questions.

And then my quiz,

then I have a quiz for you,

Rachel. Great.

No pressure.

Where along the process,

did you start working on your Kickstarter Later than I should

have to be totally honest with you.

I really started actively doing it just this January.

I kind of thought that like I was a little naive

about it.

I thought that a lot of the assets and work that

I had done were going to just transfer over a lot

more like,

like for like,

and I underestimated just how much I would have to customize

and change for Kickstarter.

So I just really upped the volume that I had been

working in the last month and a half to finish it

in time.

I also two weeks behind because like many,

many people between Christmas and when we,

if it was right after new years,

my partner and I,

and everyone we know got COVID.

So just kind of like surrender.

So yeah,

like I said,

I was about two weeks later than where I wanted to

be, but I just tried to keep putting in the work

and trusting that the time was going to work out too.

So I wasn't super stressed the whole time.

So would you say a comfortable pace would be like four

to six months out?

Something like that?

Oh yeah.

I think I would have given myself three.

Okay. And I know people again that have done Kickstarter and

like I have a design,

like a graphic design background.

So I think a lot of the things that I did

were a little bit easier for me than someone that doesn't

have all those skills.

Like if I didn't know the design tools that I know

I would have had to hire a couple other people.

My partner is also an entrepreneur.

So like he has a friend that's a videographer that did

came and did the video with us.

So if I didn't have connections and some of the skills

that I had,

I would definitely give myself like five,

six months.

Okay. All right.

Perfect. And how did you feel when you finally saw the

finished product done the prototype of the finished product?

Walk us through that.

I think I cried a little bit,

honestly. That's good because I was just really touched seeing it

finally come to life.

And again,

I'm such a packaging person.

Like packaging is so important to me to convey really what's

inside of the box or whatever your packaging is.

And so just like it actually got delivered while I was

out of town and I had a friend and I was

like, you have to go pick this up for me.

This can not vanish or get misplaced.

And so I had a friend go pick it up and

I got back in town and I got the box,

like a brunch we were at and I didn't want to

open it at brunch.

I like took it home and it just felt so real

when I actually pulled it out of the box.

And seeing something that you make,

come to fruition,

I think is really touching.

And then again,

the second layer for me is that through learning about the

lives of these women,

I just feel so much happier to be a woman.

So it feels like it's emotionally like resonant on a few

different levels.

I'm proud of myself for seeing it through.

I'm touched seeing this thing that I've been envisioning for a

long time.

And then I'm feeling like I've honored the women that I'm

writing about.

I'm making something that I feel really good about the final.

And you should be so proud,

like from idea and conception to what I am envisioning to

be such a beautiful quality project.

Do you have a video of that unboxing anywhere?

My partner did,

he totally did.

I was trying to do it privately and he was like,

oh, I like came in the room and recorded it.

That has to be saved somewhere In some form.

Yeah. Oh gosh.

Alrighty. You ready for my quiz?

Yeah. I mean,

maybe we'll see.

Are you nervous?

Well, I don't even have any idea what it is,

so I'm just winging it and just trust that I can

wait. Yeah,

you can.

I am going to ask you three categories and you're going

to pick a card from my categories who is the most

surprising card.

Gosh, I'm not sure about that.

The first woman that popped into my head is Irene assembler,

which I mean,

what she has done is really heroic,

but she's maybe more of a surprise.

Cause I think a lot of people don't know about her.

And so share just a piece of information.

Yeah. So arena Sandler was a nurse in Poland during world

war II.

During the Holocaust,

the Warsaw ghetto was the largest ghetto in all of Europe

in world war two.

And she went into the ghetto under the pretense of providing

nursing care for people with contagious illnesses that the soldiers didn't

want to go in and get.

So she would go in,

she would find children and she snuck them out of the

ghetto. She recorded their name with a secret language that she

made up and she hid their names and where she placed

them all across Europe with different families.

So they would be saved.

So she made up this language,

she hid their names and all of these jars hid those

jars all over the place around Poland.

And at one point she was even caught for some of

this and sent to be executed.

And then someone broke her out of jail from the Nazis

and she went into hiding.

And at the end of world war II,

she went back to all of the hiding places where she

had kept these records and found all of the children that

she had hit,

which was something like 3,500

children. Whoa.

Yeah. I thought you were going to say 35.

Wow. That is incredible.

Incredible. Yeah.

And just incredible.

I'm going to change my category from surprising to incredible.

Okay. Second one.

There's three here.

Second one who is one of the most unknown women.

So I think a woman named Jane Adams is really not

well known,

but she was one of the most famous women in her

lifetime. She won Nobel prizes when she died.

She was the most famous woman in the world and she

died gosh,

in the early 19 hundreds.

So it's not even that long ago,

she was born into a really wealthy family and she didn't

want to go down the path of like socialite and having

kids and raising a family and having a big house.

And so she took all the money that she inherited and

bought this incredible complex called whole house,

which is actually in Chicago.

She studied this kind of like,

I think it was called the reformation is something,

she went over to Europe and learned like this concept of

bringing different groups of people together for the wellbeing of society.

So like bringing different economic groups and different races and like

immigrants and having them in this giant complex together in varying

styles of housing,

but altogether in the same area and the complex had like

a community gym and after work classes for people to be

able to kind of like get out of a lower paying

job, they had like a movie Paul and like a girls

club and a boys club.

I mean kind of anything you can think of,

oh, there was a clinic and birthing center.

Like it was just this like almost this own little mini

city of services where people lived and based on all of

the studies that she did in that project that created what

we now know is like social services,

which were not a part of our government or society before

she did the work that she did.

Wow. That is incredible.

You're not kidding.

Inspiring. I know like these women crazy.

All right.

You ready?

This is going to be the hardest one.

Maybe, maybe,

maybe not.

Maybe those will be the easiest for you.

I'm not sure,

but which one is your favorite?

Oh yeah.

That is the hardest,

you know,

cause I can't pick one.

'cause they're all your favorites.

I already get that They are and on different days.

Right. And I think that's the nice thing about each of

them representing different qualities.

Like if I'm feeling X way,

one day that I'm really drawn to that person that represents

that for me,

one woman that I continuously come back to over and over

again is share though.

I think shares definitely one of my favorites Is it because

of her hair,

It's about everything.

She's just amazing.

And her card represents imagination and her quote is the,

I don't want to like put to her quote,

but it's essentially like everyone makes up their own life through

their imagination.

Some people just use more imagination than others.

And I think she's just been so creative in her life.

I think a lot of people may be kind of forget

all of the different things that she's done.

Like she's so funny and she's had her own shows and

she has excelled and like all the ways that she's brought

art and creativity to the world for so long.

And it just feels like she's like an inventor of her

own everything,

you know?

So it's just a good,

I mean,

I guess it's similar to the quote that I told you

from Madonna at the beginning,

but just kind of like making your life,

whatever you want it to be and imagining and going after

that thing that you imagine,

and like you're in charge of that.

You can do that.

All right.

So Rachel,

are you reaching out to all the people who are still

living who have a card I've started reaching out to some

of them,

but I haven't reached out to all of them.

Hi, good.

That's exciting.

I want to know how that evolves.

I'll keep you in the loop.

I'll let you know.

I can not wait to go and check this all out.

I was waiting to talk with you about it first,

because like I said,

I didn't want to know too much before I went and

dove into everything.

Any final word for all of our wonderful women who are

listening here and the power that we have and our ability

to make achievements,

what else would you say to them?

You know,

I would just say like one of the big things that

I learned from this project is looking to other women as

like an example of what's possible.

And instead of competition or feeling like they've already taken up

a certain amount of space,

like celebrate the women in your life for what they've done,

because they're also showing you what's really possible.

They don't have something that you don't inherently have those skills

and qualities.

And all of those things that you see outside of you

are inside of YouTube.

Beautiful. Couldn't have said it better myself,

Rachel. So I'm not going to go find out everything about

this right over on the website messages from her or the

Instagram account of the same name,

the link in the bio.

Rachel, this has been absolutely amazing.

Thank you so much for coming on the show,

Man. Thank you,

sir. It's been fun.

Here's to honoring you and all women past current and future.

I can't wait to get my hands on this book and

the cards because I want that value reminder each day,

we are all powerful,

vibrant women and the world needs us to show up that

way. Before you move on to your next activity today,

make sure to get your name on the list for at

least one gift biz bash.

You can see the dates for April and may and get

signed up over@giftbizonraps.com

forward slash bash.

Up next Saturday,

you're going to hear from a woman who completely pivoted in

terms of her ideal customer.

She started thinking she'd be selling to one type of person,

but discovered switching gears to reach out to another made a

whole lot more sense.

And boy has it paid off.

If you're enjoying this podcast,

here's a way to show your support.

You can visit my merch shop for a wide variety of

inspirational items like mugs,

t-shirts water bottles and more featuring logos images and quotes to

inspire you throughout your day makes a great gift to,

and we've just added some new products to the shop.

I found turnaround to be quick,

and the product quality is top-notch take a look@alltheoptionsoveratgiftbizonwrapped.com

forward slash shop.

All the proceeds from purchases of these products goes to help

me offset the costs of producing the podcast and now be

safe and well.

And I'll see you again next time for the gift biz

unwrapped podcast.

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

group called gift is brains.

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.