267 – Dealing with the Wildfires in Your Business with Anne Pazier of Santa Barbara Gift Baskets
Anne Pazier is the owner of Santa Barbara Gift Baskets, located in Santa Barbara California. Operating out of a 3,000 square foot refurbished welding garage, Anne and her team curate and produce gifts featuring locally sourced, gourmet foods, spa products and handmade goods. Her retail establishment also serves as a wine bar and craft beer tasting room.
Anne began her business fifteen years ago after stepping down from a corporate sales position to start her family. She used that experience to immediately begin focusing her gifting services on corporate clientele.
Today her portfolio also includes a great deal of hospitality and event business, along with a large following of loyal individual clients.
Outside of her business, Anne is active in her community and serves on several boards, including her local chamber, Cottage Hospital and the Santa Barbara Chapter of the National Association of Woman Business Owners.
Anne and her husband, Todd, a veteran firefighter, are proudly raising their two children, Aiden 16 and Cadie 10.
BUSINESS BUILDING INSIGHTS
- Build your online presence. Have a variety of ways that people can reach you.
- Be in tune with the trends of the market. It’s in this way you can best serve your customers.
- Link your Facebook business page to your personal page.
- For business accounts, if you make somebody look good within their organization, you’ll likely get their business.
- To compete with the big box guys, see what your strengths are and what you can offer that they can’t.
- Gain your customer’s trust. Education them and provide value.
- Strengthen your business so you are prepared. This isn’t the last time unwanted circumstances will arise.
- Create a business model that serves different clients.
CONTACT LINKS
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Thank so much! Sue
Transcript
Gift biz unwrapped episode 267 we're no stranger to the impact
Speaker:that something like this can have on a business and how
Speaker:very quickly you have to switch gears.
Speaker:Attention gifters,
Speaker:bakers, crafters and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.
Speaker:Whether you have an established business or looking to start one
Speaker:now you are in the right place.
Speaker:This is gift to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources and the support you need to grow your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host gift biz gal Sue moon Heights.
Speaker:Hi there And if you're new here,
Speaker:welcome to the show.
Speaker:I'm so happy to have all of you joining me here
Speaker:today. This is the third episode in our four part series
Speaker:highlighting business owners who have faced these new times and gotten
Speaker:creative and become stronger for it.
Speaker:I'm so inspired by the ownership and control of your destiny
Speaker:that so many of you are exhibiting and the solutions that
Speaker:are being devised are genius.
Speaker:It's also exciting to know that some of these new concepts
Speaker:are working so well that there'll be incorporated into your planning
Speaker:long term.
Speaker:My goal for these four episodes is to spark ideas for
Speaker:you. If you're just starting out in your business,
Speaker:there are ways to attract customers or creative services to offer
Speaker:that you may not have considered yet.
Speaker:And if you're an established business,
Speaker:these examples may trigger another idea.
Speaker:Do you use now or in the future?
Speaker:Speaking of established businesses,
Speaker:I've heard from a number of you that are asking how
Speaker:to join maker's MBA.
Speaker:Now, this program was originally created to take a brand new
Speaker:business dreamer from concept to profitable business in a proven step
Speaker:by step manner.
Speaker:But I'm listening to you because the truth is even when
Speaker:you have a business up and running,
Speaker:things can get messy and important elements like websites and email
Speaker:marketing can be forgotten or never set up in the first
Speaker:place because you're busy.
Speaker:And interestingly,
Speaker:we have many people who have gone through maker's MBA and
Speaker:were already in business but wanted you to join for just
Speaker:this reason.
Speaker:So I've created a new option for you,
Speaker:my established business listeners who've had your business up and running
Speaker:for two years or more.
Speaker:If that's you and you want to know more,
Speaker:please head over to gift biz unwrapped.com
Speaker:forward slash makers MBA there you'll see a link for established
Speaker:businesses and you can go from there.
Speaker:Let's get into what's up today.
Speaker:I can't wait for you to this interview.
Speaker:I'm talking with Ann pacier who lives in California with her
Speaker:children and a firefighter husband,
Speaker:no matter where you live,
Speaker:I'm certain that you've heard all about the fires in that
Speaker:area. My son even sent me a photo last season of
Speaker:the fires shutting down the highways.
Speaker:There's a reason behind the scenes spreading like wildfire.
Speaker:All of that is to say and is no stranger to
Speaker:serious disruption in our normal business flow.
Speaker:I want you to listen closely as we talk,
Speaker:not just the details of the programs she's going to share
Speaker:with us,
Speaker:but how her brain starts to think as she plans her
Speaker:responses to these crisises because within her strategic thinking is where
Speaker:the magic of her creative thoughts and actions form.
Speaker:Today it is my pleasure to reintroduce you to Ann pacier
Speaker:and is the owner of Santa Barbara gift baskets located in
Speaker:guest where Santa Barbara,
Speaker:California operating out of a 3000 square foot refurbished welding garage
Speaker:and in her team curate and produce gifts featuring locally sourced
Speaker:gourmet foods,
Speaker:spa products,
Speaker:and handmade goods.
Speaker:Her retail establishment also serves as a wine bar and craft
Speaker:beer tasting room and began her business 15 years ago after
Speaker:stepping down from a corporate sales position to start her family.
Speaker:She used that experience to immediately begin focusing her gifting services
Speaker:on corporate clientele today.
Speaker:Her portfolio also includes a great deal of hospitality and event
Speaker:business along with a large following of loyal individual clients outside
Speaker:of her business and is active in her community and serves
Speaker:on several boards including her local chamber cottage hospital.
Speaker:And the Santa Barbara chapter of the national association of women
Speaker:business owners,
Speaker:also known as Nabo.
Speaker:Of course Ann and her husband Todd,
Speaker:a firefighter are proudly raising their two children.
Speaker:Aiden who I understand just turned 16 and Katie who is
Speaker:10 and welcome back to the gift biz on wrapped podcast.
Speaker:Thanks so much for having me back and I have become
Speaker:such a fan of yours cause I feel like the first
Speaker:time we recorded this it was among the first dozen or
Speaker:so that you had done and now I'm a loyal avid
Speaker:listener and subscriber.
Speaker:Oh you're so sweet for saying that and yes,
Speaker:I wanted to blow your mind with how long ago that
Speaker:was. You were episode number eight care to think about what
Speaker:year that was.
Speaker:It was five years ago,
Speaker:wasn't it?
Speaker:Or no,
Speaker:four years ago.
Speaker:2015 Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Our shop was brand new to us at that point.
Speaker:I remember it was brand new and so gift biz listeners
Speaker:you can go back and I would actually love for you
Speaker:to do so here and whole story of how she started
Speaker:the business because that's not what we're going to focus on
Speaker:now. You can already listen to that episode of how she
Speaker:started the business,
Speaker:how it was growing and evolving and yeah,
Speaker:you had just moved into this location and now look at
Speaker:where you've gone from here.
Speaker:I know and this funky location that I was so doubtful
Speaker:at first cause it's completely nontraditional off the kind of beaten
Speaker:path, old welding garage and now as we talk I can
Speaker:share with you a little bit later in some of the
Speaker:things we've used,
Speaker:this funky aspect of our space to really benefit us in
Speaker:these crazy times.
Speaker:Seriously, for sure.
Speaker:That is absolutely true.
Speaker:And I also just have to say just for fun as
Speaker:we're getting started here,
Speaker:do you remember what happened during our first recording?
Speaker:I do.
Speaker:I do because I think because it is this sort of
Speaker:tin roof and it was a functioning store that was open
Speaker:to the public.
Speaker:I had to go out to my car,
Speaker:I think to do the interview and then everything heated up
Speaker:to the point where my phone just died and we completed
Speaker:the rest of it inside after it cooled down in my
Speaker:wine room and I think I sat on a couple of
Speaker:cases of wine staring at all of our chocolate and wine
Speaker:stash while we did the rest of it.
Speaker:I love that story.
Speaker:That is so hysterical to me.
Speaker:That's how we did it,
Speaker:but it all worked out.
Speaker:You take the situation at hand and you make it work,
Speaker:You roll with it and how you reach people can be
Speaker:different and nontraditional and again,
Speaker:that is in alignment with what I think we're going to
Speaker:talk a little bit about today.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:And you are going to be,
Speaker:I believe the third in my series here about how people
Speaker:are coping with a whole pandemic and what's been going on
Speaker:and how people have shifted.
Speaker:I've decided I was going to do this at the last
Speaker:minute because at first I was like,
Speaker:not everyone's going to be wanting to focus on this.
Speaker:Like there's so much emotion around it that I wanted a
Speaker:safer place not to talk about it,
Speaker:but as things evolved and as we've gone on,
Speaker:there's no choice.
Speaker:Like you have to be looking at it and I actually
Speaker:think it's a really good lesson of how we need to
Speaker:be able to flex our businesses in different ways and be
Speaker:creative, et cetera,
Speaker:so that we can make it through unknowns that are going
Speaker:to occur.
Speaker:Absolutely. Hopefully they won't all be as dramatic as what we're
Speaker:doing. Right.
Speaker:Oh, right.
Speaker:I could use with the not so much drama for a
Speaker:little bit.
Speaker:Yeah. Let's just have this be the only one that that
Speaker:happens, but when I heard,
Speaker:because of course we chat periodically and when I heard what
Speaker:you did and how you've worked through this,
Speaker:I definitely knew that you were one of the people that
Speaker:I wanted to have come on to share your story.
Speaker:So that's what completely a hundred percent I want to focus
Speaker:on today is just how you worked through all of this.
Speaker:I'll have some questions along the way and hopefully will also
Speaker:spark some ideas for other people so that they could use
Speaker:something similar for their business as they go forward.
Speaker:So, but let's start with everything looked like it was changing
Speaker:and business as you had normally done it is now going
Speaker:to have to take a pivot.
Speaker:So take us there and what were you thinking back then
Speaker:and walk us through that.
Speaker:Well, I want to start by just saying that lots of
Speaker:parts of the country have experienced various regional crises and Santa
Speaker:Barbara is definitely one of them.
Speaker:I think you're aware that in the last couple of years
Speaker:we had this fire that started really far away from us
Speaker:in another town and at the time I would have never
Speaker:imagined that it would have the impact that it did.
Speaker:But over a month's time,
Speaker:I mean it's really funny how this kind of mirrors a
Speaker:lot of what's going on with us.
Speaker:Over a month's time.
Speaker:The fire got closer,
Speaker:conditions got worse,
Speaker:they started closing the freeways down.
Speaker:Our little town that relies so heavily on hospitality was really
Speaker:kind of cut off from the major artery to the rest
Speaker:of California.
Speaker:And then we had the just horrific deadly mudflow incident in
Speaker:Montecito. So we're no stranger to the impact that something like
Speaker:this can have on a business and how very quickly you
Speaker:have to switch gears.
Speaker:And I remember when all of that was going on that
Speaker:the businesses that were downtown,
Speaker:especially the retail businesses that only had a storefront really suffered,
Speaker:the ones that did survive that period of time survived because
Speaker:they very quickly ramped up and started having an online presence.
Speaker:And I think that's probably serving them now once again because
Speaker:all of the doors are shut again from any of those
Speaker:businesses. So it sounds like there were quite a few brick
Speaker:and mortar shops that were caught not ready for this obviously
Speaker:because they didn't have an online presence.
Speaker:And so there was that kind of like as you're talking
Speaker:in your chambers and other networking meetings,
Speaker:was that really recognized as this is a necessity for people
Speaker:to have to work through A hundred percent yeah.
Speaker:And I'm sure that your listeners who,
Speaker:and most of them will not,
Speaker:most of them,
Speaker:some of them have a brick and mortar business.
Speaker:That whole business model has changed.
Speaker:And I didn't know enough to talk about it when you
Speaker:and I spoke the first time cause that was my sort
Speaker:of first experience of having retail.
Speaker:I had always been online and I had always relied on
Speaker:corporate clients and so forth.
Speaker:So I learned over the last few years how to have
Speaker:a retail storefront.
Speaker:And that was new to me.
Speaker:But the fact that I can go back to my original
Speaker:model, which was really online sales has been helpful.
Speaker:Amazon just the face of downtowns are downtown in Santa Barbara.
Speaker:We have a homelessness crisis down there.
Speaker:We have high rents.
Speaker:There's a lot of things happening in our downtown that are
Speaker:changing the way that retail operates in general.
Speaker:So this just sort of sped everything up I think quite
Speaker:a bit.
Speaker:Sure. So anyone who's listening who is in a physical location,
Speaker:this would be then a heads up,
Speaker:kind of like a little poke to say if you don't
Speaker:have an online presence right now,
Speaker:it makes sense to start developing one and by online presence.
Speaker:And what are you encompassing in that?
Speaker:We just have a very robust website that has all of
Speaker:our products.
Speaker:It has,
Speaker:I go in regularly and look at metrics and look at
Speaker:things to tell me what are people searching for,
Speaker:what new products do we need to add?
Speaker:Which ones should we take down because they're not getting as
Speaker:much interest.
Speaker:Again, we're unique and I should just remind people who don't
Speaker:know that we really heavily focus on items that are sourced
Speaker:locally here in Santa Barbara or other parts of California.
Speaker:So our business is unique in that sense that people look
Speaker:for us for just gifts in general.
Speaker:But certainly if they're looking for a regional gift,
Speaker:we would come up pretty quickly for them.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:Okay. So your website keywords and all of that optimize for
Speaker:search and all of that is also local.
Speaker:Where does a Facebook page fit into this?
Speaker:And the reason I say that is,
Speaker:you know a lot of people think online presence and they
Speaker:say, okay,
Speaker:well I've got a Facebook page so I'm good.
Speaker:So the Facebook page is key for,
Speaker:again, this is kind of just like everything that's going on
Speaker:right now,
Speaker:right? You have to have so many different channels that people
Speaker:can reach you because you have some people that Instagram resonates
Speaker:with them.
Speaker:Or maybe Facebook is the way that they do shopping and
Speaker:everything else.
Speaker:And then others stumble even with an online order.
Speaker:And that's why having the retail option or at least a
Speaker:phone that they can call and do it over the phone
Speaker:with is important as well.
Speaker:We actually use our Facebook page,
Speaker:we use the shop now option on Facebook a lot.
Speaker:Are you familiar with that?
Speaker:Share that with us.
Speaker:And I'm just going to use this as an example because
Speaker:literally as we get off the phone and I'm behind in
Speaker:it, but I'm launching Amy nominate an extraordinary mom for mother's
Speaker:day, and we're going to give away five mother's day gift
Speaker:baskets to different winners.
Speaker:So I have linked on my Facebook page under the shop
Speaker:now category,
Speaker:I've uploaded links to the four different mother's day products that
Speaker:are on my website,
Speaker:and I put the description there and it links right to
Speaker:my page.
Speaker:It's got photos that they can see.
Speaker:I posted it as posts within my page,
Speaker:but the nice thing is that also when I go over
Speaker:to Instagram,
Speaker:which is truly my more main platform,
Speaker:I actually do a lot more selling and storytelling and connecting
Speaker:with my clientele through Instagram.
Speaker:But because those two are,
Speaker:does Facebook own Instagram or is it the other way around?
Speaker:Yeah, Facebook owns Instagram.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:So I've like,
Speaker:I've gone into Canva and I've designed all my graphics to
Speaker:be prepared to put these stories out,
Speaker:the Instagram posts,
Speaker:and there's a link that you can put to the products
Speaker:if you've already put them up over on your Facebook page.
Speaker:So it's such a helpful tool to get people to my
Speaker:website pretty easily through that channel.
Speaker:I don't know if I've made that clear enough.
Speaker:That's perfect.
Speaker:You've got your website though as the base and then Facebook
Speaker:and then by the connection Instagram,
Speaker:when they're looking at those posts and they're interested in what
Speaker:they click through to is the link to your website to
Speaker:those products.
Speaker:Yes. And you know,
Speaker:you do so many programs with Sue B Zimmerman,
Speaker:and I've learned so much by listening into both of you.
Speaker:And I just remember learning how critical those stories are and
Speaker:how linking people,
Speaker:and also how you don't own your Instagram or your Facebook
Speaker:at any point that's just rented space that those organizations can
Speaker:take away from you if they had any reason to.
Speaker:But getting them to your website and getting them to become
Speaker:a user where you're capturing their email address is just so,
Speaker:so critical.
Speaker:And that was just one of the valuable tools I've picked
Speaker:up from you and some of the podcasts you've had with
Speaker:her. Wonderful.
Speaker:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker:And I could not have said it any better,
Speaker:so that was perfect.
Speaker:I learned,
Speaker:I Learned.
Speaker:Well that's why you're so successful.
Speaker:Like you are like you listen to what people have to
Speaker:say. You take it,
Speaker:you analyze it and then you implement the things that make
Speaker:sense for you.
Speaker:I've seen it this whole time.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:And you're not feeling like you have to figure it out
Speaker:yourself all the time,
Speaker:which is really smart.
Speaker:Well in the introduction you were kind enough to share.
Speaker:I do sit on the board of my chamber,
Speaker:my cottage hospital here in town,
Speaker:our big hospital organization and then Nabo and it's hard to
Speaker:juggle from a time standpoint under normal circumstances being part of
Speaker:all these organizations.
Speaker:But those are where I truly make my connections and where
Speaker:I kind of am able to keep my finger on the
Speaker:pulse of what's going on.
Speaker:So I know we're getting to it,
Speaker:but I was going to share with you one of the
Speaker:very first things I did when it became clear that businesses
Speaker:were going to start sending their workforce home.
Speaker:This was before in California.
Speaker:We had any kind of mandate to do so.
Speaker:I noticed that my top three corporate clients were shutting down
Speaker:their offices and moving everybody to virtual home offices.
Speaker:So very quickly we took designs that we kind of already
Speaker:had product that we already had and put together what we
Speaker:labeled a virtual workforce gifting suite is what I called it.
Speaker:And I had a whole tab on my website.
Speaker:And if you have your ducks in a row,
Speaker:you can pretty quickly pull things together once you recognize the
Speaker:behavior change in your bigger clients.
Speaker:So that was one of the things we did based on
Speaker:that. But you're right,
Speaker:always watching and being open to what people are doing next
Speaker:and what their behavior is is key.
Speaker:Yeah. And I want to underline the fact that you talk
Speaker:about your local networking and the groups that you're part of
Speaker:keep you really in tune with what's going on.
Speaker:And I think that's critical.
Speaker:It's not anything that I think we often talk about as
Speaker:an added value to networking.
Speaker:But here it clearly served you well.
Speaker:So with,
Speaker:what did you call these again?
Speaker:The virtual,
Speaker:We called them,
Speaker:I struggled with it cause this is the,
Speaker:we're all inventing language now.
Speaker:That just wasn't what we used to say before.
Speaker:Right? So I think I called it virtual workforce gifting.
Speaker:So we have a happy hour box that has a craft
Speaker:beer from a local brewery.
Speaker:We have a little champagne version of it.
Speaker:And then we have a virtual break room box.
Speaker:And the whole idea behind that is your staff no longer
Speaker:has that great benefit of going into the break room and
Speaker:sharing snacks together.
Speaker:But you can be on a zoom meeting and send the
Speaker:box ahead to everybody and then they all can be sort
Speaker:of experiencing the same water cooler environment if you will,
Speaker:that they had watercooler is so old fashioned because now they
Speaker:have like kombucha on draft and seriously crazy work break rooms.
Speaker:It's true.
Speaker:It's true.
Speaker:How did you get the word out about the virtual workforce?
Speaker:Gifting. So you created the product,
Speaker:you decided,
Speaker:okay, I see there's a change.
Speaker:There is a need on behalf of these businesses because you
Speaker:want to still keep that team,
Speaker:that feeling of team together.
Speaker:Now they're going to be working virtually where they never may
Speaker:have before.
Speaker:Yes. So you identified that you figured out and I really
Speaker:like and that you used product you already had,
Speaker:so you didn't go adding to your cost because we have
Speaker:no idea at that point what was going to be happening.
Speaker:And then how did you communicate out about the product?
Speaker:So I did my typical social media releases of information and
Speaker:so forth,
Speaker:but I also,
Speaker:this time I really took the time to personally call on
Speaker:the phone,
Speaker:which I know we talked to the other day,
Speaker:has that crazy people would actually call and speak with each
Speaker:other, but I called them and said,
Speaker:Hey, I understand that you guys are,
Speaker:I even sent a couple samples to some of the people
Speaker:that were my contacts and advance and just said,
Speaker:Hey, this box is arriving.
Speaker:I want to explain what it's all about.
Speaker:If this is something that is going to fit a need
Speaker:for you and your team,
Speaker:or if you have communication that you'd like to send to
Speaker:us or drop off at our door,
Speaker:we can incorporate a meeting agenda or whatever collateral might be
Speaker:important, or maybe everybody needs to get hand sanitizer or some
Speaker:element of something that's left at the office that we can
Speaker:ship to them,
Speaker:that type of thing.
Speaker:So phone calls to them directly and then I promoted it
Speaker:on my personal pages.
Speaker:Like there is so much value with your own personal page.
Speaker:I am always shocked by people who don't under their about
Speaker:us on their personal page link that to their business.
Speaker:Like everybody needs to know that you own such and such
Speaker:business and how to get there and how to become a
Speaker:fan of it cause they all want to support you.
Speaker:So out of my personal page,
Speaker:I just promoted it to my friend saying,
Speaker:Hey, who all has had to be moved to a home
Speaker:office? Raise your hand or let me know if you have,
Speaker:I have a great opportunity for you to share with your
Speaker:management. Were you with your team?
Speaker:And I had more takers that way than anywhere else.
Speaker:That's interesting.
Speaker:And I really liked that because Facebook sees that you're advertising
Speaker:you can have a problem,
Speaker:right? Cause you're not supposed to advertise on your personal page.
Speaker:But the way you did it was more just a post
Speaker:communication with your friends.
Speaker:So the wording and then did you have a picture of
Speaker:it? Oh I had a picture of it and I had
Speaker:a link to it.
Speaker:Okay. I have to be careful because Facebook does not like
Speaker:that. I sell alcohol at all,
Speaker:so like I can only show the break room option in
Speaker:my shop now on Facebook,
Speaker:but I can certainly talk about it and I can do
Speaker:a link over to my website to that category on the
Speaker:page. Is this on your personal page or on your business
Speaker:pages? The sensitivity to alcohol on any image?
Speaker:No, it's just if you're doing like a shop now or
Speaker:an advertisement,
Speaker:they screen it All right.
Speaker:Yeah, they've gotten very picky.
Speaker:Even for had approvals.
Speaker:I've gotten a couple of things rejected and it's like why?
Speaker:But then when my ad team calls up and explains it,
Speaker:then they're like,
Speaker:okay, approved.
Speaker:Right. They're watching and I think that's fine.
Speaker:Look, you know,
Speaker:we've got all this issue going on with the virus.
Speaker:We've got an election year.
Speaker:We're now in the middle of,
Speaker:apart from just the whole security things that could go on.
Speaker:Right. It is what it is.
Speaker:It's okay and we can work around it for sure.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:so I love this.
Speaker:I'm calling this category kind of revising and re implementing your
Speaker:product to fit the times is really what you did.
Speaker:And I've learned over time that you can the same product
Speaker:and if you just change the name and make something in
Speaker:the title,
Speaker:speak to certain people.
Speaker:If you're not misrepresenting what it is,
Speaker:it's, it is what it is.
Speaker:But if you call it the welcome to your new home
Speaker:gift and it's the same design that is the stay at
Speaker:home break room or you know,
Speaker:whatever it is,
Speaker:you can just call it something different.
Speaker:So that's great for SEO purposes,
Speaker:but it also is great.
Speaker:Just from a descriptive standpoint.
Speaker:I don't know if you've ever done a podcast on how
Speaker:to write really good descriptions,
Speaker:but I could use that a tuneup on descriptions cause I
Speaker:know it is so important when I shop online I get
Speaker:drawn in by whatever story or element of how they describe
Speaker:products to me.
Speaker:Okay. I'm making a note because that is really good.
Speaker:No, you're right.
Speaker:It is good.
Speaker:So, and I think the other thing just with descriptions and
Speaker:what you're talking about in terms of renaming is we need
Speaker:to show our potential customers all different types of uses for
Speaker:our product.
Speaker:Like we think it's so obvious,
Speaker:but not necessarily like you're saying virtual gift rooms get well
Speaker:birthday, like whatever it is,
Speaker:it's hard for people to make that extension sometimes of what
Speaker:your product could be used for.
Speaker:It is obvious to us and I'm always surprised when people
Speaker:say, well that's so creative because I feel like it should
Speaker:be obvious.
Speaker:Right. Here's another example,
Speaker:I'm sorry I'm probably jumping ahead.
Speaker:But hospitality is huge for us.
Speaker:So when I look at where we've been impacted most by
Speaker:the current situation,
Speaker:it's definitely this time of year especially is when we have
Speaker:big conferences and big sales meetings and things here in Santa
Speaker:Barbara where people are buying out a resort.
Speaker:They have a hundred or 500 people coming and we are
Speaker:providing the welcome amenity.
Speaker:And so we've had two events that were 500 people each,
Speaker:which were really big orders for us that have been canceled.
Speaker:And so when I started to see the writing on the
Speaker:wall with that,
Speaker:when they were not answering me back,
Speaker:when I could tell that they were like,
Speaker:well, we haven't made a decision.
Speaker:I knew that they weren't deciding on my gift.
Speaker:They were deciding are we going to go to Santa Barbara
Speaker:or not?
Speaker:And so right away I jumped in and I said,
Speaker:Hey, and I didn't want to say,
Speaker:I didn't want to suggest that they not come.
Speaker:So I worded it very carefully,
Speaker:but I said,
Speaker:as you continue the planning process,
Speaker:be aware that we can absolutely do a box to care
Speaker:package version of the welcome amenity and get it out to
Speaker:your guests to convey whatever messaging you might want to have,
Speaker:whether it's to get excited about the upcoming event,
Speaker:change something in the schedule of it,
Speaker:what have you,
Speaker:and people were like,
Speaker:that's so great.
Speaker:We didn't even think about that.
Speaker:And that's really how I'm teaching people to use gifting as
Speaker:a strategy for what they're doing.
Speaker:And they will have a budget for marketing and strategizing around
Speaker:something that's way bigger than just the gift budget that they've
Speaker:put as a line item.
Speaker:Right. Because you're not positioning it as a gift.
Speaker:You're positioning it as part of the plan overall.
Speaker:Yes. For a business purpose,
Speaker:a result.
Speaker:The thing I'm really recognizing and all these things that you're
Speaker:talking about,
Speaker:Anne, is how proactive you are.
Speaker:You're just not waiting,
Speaker:you're rearranging and then going out and showing it to everybody
Speaker:and then you're getting the orders in,
Speaker:in kind.
Speaker:Yes. And also learned that if you can make somebody look
Speaker:good, you're going to get their business.
Speaker:So by sending a sample to my contacts with those companies
Speaker:that had changed to a workforce at home solution,
Speaker:they had it tangibly in front of them.
Speaker:They were able to get on the next meeting that they
Speaker:had a strategy meeting with their team and lift up the
Speaker:box and show it to them and it made them look
Speaker:like they were thinking way ahead.
Speaker:So people want to do business with people that they know,
Speaker:like and trust,
Speaker:but also that are going to make them look good and
Speaker:that they know they can rely on for great ideas.
Speaker:Right? And you made them look good and it was so
Speaker:easy for them.
Speaker:You gave them the idea,
Speaker:you gave them the product and you're ready to go.
Speaker:So let's talk now about what you did about Easter.
Speaker:I think this is brilliant.
Speaker:Okay, hold tight you guys,
Speaker:I know you just heard me ask about an Easter program
Speaker:and I know it's past Easter at this point,
Speaker:but what she put in place can be used not just
Speaker:for the Easter holidays but for events in the future.
Speaker:I can't wait for you to hear all about it and
Speaker:we'll do it right after a quick break for our sponsor.
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Speaker:Yeah, this was so interesting and I want to just preface
Speaker:by saying,
Speaker:if I sound like I'm really confident about all this,
Speaker:I am not all the time.
Speaker:I just like anybody else.
Speaker:On any given hour of the day,
Speaker:I can feel completely like what do I do next?
Speaker:And then on top of it,
Speaker:like I got this,
Speaker:we can handle it and it's just a roller coaster.
Speaker:Right? I know that you have shared that because I've been
Speaker:in on some of your lives,
Speaker:which have been so critical.
Speaker:These like little meetups that you're doing are so great right
Speaker:now. Oh,
Speaker:thank you.
Speaker:Well let me give a little shout out about them then
Speaker:real quick.
Speaker:So what we're doing,
Speaker:anybody who doesn't know over in my group give to biz
Speaker:breeze Monday,
Speaker:Wednesdays, Fridays,
Speaker:11:00 AM central.
Speaker:I'm jumping on and we're talking a little bit of business.
Speaker:There's a lot of interaction.
Speaker:So I'm taking the Facebook comments and we're talking things through.
Speaker:You can ask a question if you have any questions,
Speaker:so please feel free.
Speaker:I'd love for any of you to jump in.
Speaker:You just have to join the Facebook group first gift to
Speaker:biz breeze and then we welcome you Into these lives.
Speaker:Okay. Carry on,
Speaker:Anne. Thank you.
Speaker:No, I love that.
Speaker:And I have found some really great new products by some
Speaker:of the makers in your group too.
Speaker:So it's a good collaboration all around love hearing that.
Speaker:So you know,
Speaker:we closed our doors on March 12th and right away I
Speaker:needed to make sure that my staff was safe.
Speaker:They felt comfortable in the environment they were in and I
Speaker:did have to let most of them go and have brought
Speaker:them back at various degrees of needs and so forth.
Speaker:But their safety,
Speaker:that was my number one priority.
Speaker:We closed the doors and the whole front of the shop
Speaker:just sat there with the displays out and it was so
Speaker:depressing to just only be in the backroom in the production
Speaker:area. And slowly we started realizing this is going to go
Speaker:on for awhile.
Speaker:And I looked at all this Easter inventory that I had
Speaker:purchased. Easter is my favorite time of year and we do
Speaker:big, like we do our wine and design classes.
Speaker:Those are some of those things that have had to fall
Speaker:by the wayside,
Speaker:kind of where people come and gather and we teach them
Speaker:how to make baskets and drink wine and socialize.
Speaker:It's just really fun.
Speaker:So we had all that planned,
Speaker:all this inventory and I'm like,
Speaker:nobody's coming.
Speaker:Nobody can come.
Speaker:What do we do?
Speaker:So we have this welding garage with a funky driveway and
Speaker:then garage doors and the side of the driveway.
Speaker:And one morning I pulled up and I looked and I
Speaker:thought, this is like a shop right here.
Speaker:Like curbside pickup is great,
Speaker:but if you're in a position to actually have a popup
Speaker:that you can just close the door on each night and
Speaker:then lift it up and people never have to get out
Speaker:of their car and they can just point to what they
Speaker:want. That is the ultimate in contactless.
Speaker:Because then it was like,
Speaker:if people could imagine,
Speaker:it's like your big garage door is if it just lifted
Speaker:open and you had a two car garage there.
Speaker:Yes. It's exactly like that.
Speaker:Yeah. So there's bays like there's different bays,
Speaker:so it was covered<inaudible> for sure.
Speaker:I mean it's essentially a garage sale,
Speaker:right? So it's like a glorified garage sale and we've just
Speaker:made it spectacular and not rinky-dink.
Speaker:But also I was realizing like if you were to go
Speaker:to CVS to a pharmacy and get Easter bunnies to put
Speaker:in your kids' Easter basket,
Speaker:that to me just seemed so yucky and uncertain.
Speaker:People have been touching stuff.
Speaker:It's just out in this environment that's not controlled.
Speaker:However, our stuff had yet to even be touched by anybody
Speaker:because it was brand new inventory.
Speaker:So that was the selling point for us.
Speaker:She sometimes I have learned that to compete with the big
Speaker:box guys,
Speaker:you just have to look to what your strengths are and
Speaker:what you have to offer that they can't and then you
Speaker:totally highlight that.
Speaker:So not having to get out of the car,
Speaker:being able to support local businesses.
Speaker:People really,
Speaker:really at this time are wanting to continue to support their
Speaker:local businesses.
Speaker:So we're like a one stop shop for that.
Speaker:You're supporting us,
Speaker:but you're supporting dozens of other small makers here in this
Speaker:town. So we created this fun drive up and the way
Speaker:to promote that was I went online because I had already
Speaker:done a event page for the wine and design class weeks
Speaker:before I went in and I said,
Speaker:Hey, everybody was going to come to this wine and design
Speaker:class. I'm going to jump on and do a virtual wine
Speaker:and design class.
Speaker:So here's the day we're going to do it.
Speaker:And this is the other thing.
Speaker:I didn't make it real salesy.
Speaker:Like of course you can come and pull up and buy
Speaker:stuff from us here,
Speaker:but I'm not encouraging you all to leave your homes,
Speaker:order online,
Speaker:order at the pull-up or just make this Easter something special.
Speaker:And so I taught them how to make a basket out
Speaker:of things they might have laying around the house.
Speaker:And I think that this is a time when it's almost
Speaker:like we're politicians that are running for office.
Speaker:You don't see politicians hopefully in the middle of a crisis
Speaker:campaigning. No,
Speaker:they're like rolling their sleeves up.
Speaker:They're showing you what they're like in a crisis and they're
Speaker:gaining your trust that way.
Speaker:And then later they're going to ask you for your vote.
Speaker:And in retail the vote is in dollars in purchases.
Speaker:So I knew that this was just an opportunity to gain
Speaker:their trust,
Speaker:give them some education and some value and then hopefully at
Speaker:some point they'll come back and purchase later.
Speaker:So. Okay,
Speaker:so you did the wine in design online but very low
Speaker:key in terms of sales focus.
Speaker:Yes, more just about really the teaching and encouraging them to
Speaker:work with what they have and not stress out that this
Speaker:has to be the same kind of Easter that they always
Speaker:have. I mean,
Speaker:that's my message to everybody.
Speaker:Even my children that I'm homeschooling,
Speaker:like we're going to rise to the occasion.
Speaker:We're going to work hard at this,
Speaker:but we're not going to let,
Speaker:this is not the biggest priority.
Speaker:Our health and our sanity and our sense of peace is
Speaker:the priority right now.
Speaker:So we'll,
Speaker:we'll adjust around it.
Speaker:And we had an excellent Easter.
Speaker:We might've had the best Easter that we've ever had.
Speaker:It's so interesting because people's options were limited.
Speaker:They did not want to go out.
Speaker:They also weren't doing Easter brunch with their family like they
Speaker:normally would.
Speaker:So we were doing big family Easter baskets with things like
Speaker:soup and cupcakes sets and things that were becoming activities and
Speaker:cooking things that they could do at home.
Speaker:So the type of gifting has really shifted as well.
Speaker:Did you add any inventory to create more of the baking
Speaker:type things that they could actually make at home or were
Speaker:you really going off of all the inventory you had?
Speaker:I was really going off of all the inventory I had
Speaker:because even now I just don't know what's coming next like
Speaker:it's been,
Speaker:thankfully I do work with a lot of local small makers.
Speaker:So if you're listening and you're a local,
Speaker:small maker of something,
Speaker:this is where you have the advantage over other people is
Speaker:that you can distribute to the people in your area quickly,
Speaker:easily, and on small amounts on a regular basis so that
Speaker:it's constantly the best,
Speaker:freshest inventory of whatever it is.
Speaker:Perfect. That's a good point.
Speaker:Yeah, so for instance,
Speaker:this cupcake mix,
Speaker:Alison Reed,
Speaker:who's fabulous,
Speaker:she'd be great on your show.
Speaker:She won food networks,
Speaker:cupcake Wars,
Speaker:and she has a whole line of boozy baking mixes.
Speaker:So it's like orange Chardonnay,
Speaker:pink champagne.
Speaker:She's even has a line of beer one.
Speaker:So it's like chocolate stout.
Speaker:We carry her items and I didn't realize that you cannot
Speaker:get flour.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I mean it's different probably where everybody is,
Speaker:but I cannot find flower in the grocery store anyway.
Speaker:Flour and yeast.
Speaker:I, yeah,
Speaker:everyone's baking bread.
Speaker:Yeah, it's gotta be so these cupcake mixes,
Speaker:which were not,
Speaker:I mean they didn't,
Speaker:they have been popular,
Speaker:but they really have become popular because it's now it's become
Speaker:an activity as well as a gift item.
Speaker:Plus it's great for birthdays because you send them a birthday
Speaker:gift and they've got the wine and the cupcake mix and
Speaker:the candles and everything they need all in one place.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:we're having to make these celebrations be something special at home
Speaker:and you're providing an easy way for them to do it,
Speaker:which I think is fabulous.
Speaker:Yeah. I want to go back to your actual setup of
Speaker:your drive through.
Speaker:So yes,
Speaker:walk through how that actually works.
Speaker:Sure. And you know,
Speaker:I can actually send you some pictures too.
Speaker:If in your show notes you put photos in,
Speaker:I can send a picture to you of what it looks
Speaker:like. Okay.
Speaker:That'd be great.
Speaker:But I essentially just started taking the display from the front
Speaker:elements of the display and putting it in the back and
Speaker:I had to make the pricing really visible from where they
Speaker:were from the car so they could see it.
Speaker:From a display standpoint,
Speaker:it's very much the same kind of thing we would do
Speaker:if we were going to do a popup shop,
Speaker:like we did a Christmas market.
Speaker:It was very similar to that.
Speaker:So were people driving up rolling down their window and say
Speaker:I want one of these,
Speaker:one of these,
Speaker:two of these?
Speaker:Yes. And then what happened from there?
Speaker:So your social distanced already.
Speaker:Yup. Then they'd pop their trunk and we would come out
Speaker:and put it in the back of the car for them.
Speaker:We had contactless credit card payment as well.
Speaker:But the other thing that's did Sue was that we weren't
Speaker:missing out on the upsell opportunities because a lot of people
Speaker:did order online ahead of time,
Speaker:but then when they came to pick it up,
Speaker:they saw what we had and they said,
Speaker:Oh, I want to get that from my mom.
Speaker:Or can you add to those soup kits?
Speaker:I love those,
Speaker:or whatever it is,
Speaker:and that's the advantage that a brick and mortar has that
Speaker:is being missed in all of this.
Speaker:If you don't have something where they can point and see
Speaker:what they want.
Speaker:Excellent ad.
Speaker:So we'll you seen that a lot of these people were
Speaker:new first time customers for you?
Speaker:Well, to be honest with Easter,
Speaker:it was a lot of my friends and people that I
Speaker:knew just because it was being promoted.
Speaker:My friends were talking about,
Speaker:Hey, you've got to go check out my friend Ann's place.
Speaker:So friends and friends of friends,
Speaker:referrals for Easter.
Speaker:It definitely looked like that.
Speaker:Now since Easter,
Speaker:I'm noticing that we're getting a ton of new people that
Speaker:are just discovering us that would have chosen some other form
Speaker:of gifting before they didn't know about us and now they're
Speaker:ordering a few times in the last few weeks I've seen
Speaker:those same people starting to reorder.
Speaker:Interesting. And so,
Speaker:and you've also made a comment to me that you think
Speaker:you're going to continue this?
Speaker:We are.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:I do regular research every day.
Speaker:I try to spend at least an hour in the morning
Speaker:just reading articles and listening to,
Speaker:we're part of,
Speaker:we belong to the specialty food association.
Speaker:Like I get a lot of information across a lot of
Speaker:different platforms.
Speaker:I think it's,
Speaker:I find it very helpful.
Speaker:And so I'm hearing this term,
Speaker:I don't know if you've heard of it.
Speaker:That's floating around called click to brick.
Speaker:And so this whole idea of curbside pickup I really do
Speaker:think is here to stay.
Speaker:I think we're going to see retail with much smaller footprints.
Speaker:Collaboration, like we're doing the drive through,
Speaker:well, we're doing it on a daily basis now,
Speaker:but now it's really feeding towards mother's day and I have
Speaker:some makers who do handbags or jewelry that I don't normally
Speaker:carry in my store,
Speaker:but I know they need an outlet and they need a
Speaker:platform to sell from.
Speaker:And so we're doing some consignment things with them in our
Speaker:shop as well so that we have their products.
Speaker:So I think collaboration,
Speaker:smaller footprints,
Speaker:when people do start going back into stores,
Speaker:a place like ours where they can sit and have a
Speaker:glass of wine and shop and do have some form of
Speaker:entertainment is going to be more attractive than a great big
Speaker:mall. I don't know what's going to happen to our mall
Speaker:that we know how we've always known it.
Speaker:I think that's definitely changing.
Speaker:I agree with you.
Speaker:I think that first of all,
Speaker:support of small business is going to only get better.
Speaker:Yeah, we've had it and I think it's gotten better and
Speaker:it's recognized in the special holidays,
Speaker:but this is just a reemphasis on that and I think
Speaker:we're going to see a lot of it.
Speaker:So people who are in the audience that I serve,
Speaker:including you are going to benefit because people will want to
Speaker:be local.
Speaker:But I still think just as you were talking about with
Speaker:the bunnies from Costco or Walgreens or wherever,
Speaker:we still have to point those things out because it's not
Speaker:just going to be the obvious fact and word spreads.
Speaker:I absolutely think For sure,
Speaker:and before this happened I was recognizing that experiential shopping is
Speaker:truly the way to compete against somebody like an Amazon,
Speaker:right? Because this idea of meeting your girlfriends for a glass
Speaker:of wine around our gathering table that we have in the
Speaker:front of our shop and then being able to like look
Speaker:through and buy different retail things.
Speaker:That's huge.
Speaker:Doing the tasting events during the design classes that we do.
Speaker:And I wanted to share with you really quick if I
Speaker:can, something I did this weekend and I was totally thinking
Speaker:of your makers when this happened because I have a really
Speaker:good friend who's a chef,
Speaker:a personal chef,
Speaker:and she's written a series of cookbooks.
Speaker:She has a line of herbs and jams and things,
Speaker:but chefs in general are being hit so hard during this
Speaker:time. And I wanted to find a way to support her.
Speaker:I wanted an excuse to support her beyond just buying her
Speaker:products for our shop.
Speaker:So, and my dad,
Speaker:who lives in Orlando,
Speaker:he's not seeing any of his grandkids.
Speaker:He's not able to do any of that.
Speaker:So he started,
Speaker:I can tell,
Speaker:I can just see that he's starting to get a little
Speaker:isolated feeling.
Speaker:So I came up with this idea to hire my friend
Speaker:to do a private cooking class with my dad and I.
Speaker:So I had him tune into one of her weekly Instagram
Speaker:daily Instagram cooking segments.
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:what do you think of her knees?
Speaker:She's delightful.
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:great, because she's going to show up in your kitchen next
Speaker:week and I'm getting Instacart and I'm ordering you all the
Speaker:ingredients so you don't even have to leave your house.
Speaker:And he had that to look forward to all week.
Speaker:And then we got on on Sunday,
Speaker:my daughter was with me and he was with my stepmom
Speaker:and then Pascal,
Speaker:the chef,
Speaker:and we had the most fun preparing at the same time
Speaker:in the kitchen with all the things that happen in the
Speaker:kitchen, this meal.
Speaker:And then afterwards she got off and he stayed on with
Speaker:us and we sat together and ate the meal that we
Speaker:had all just made.
Speaker:And it felt like such a great connection.
Speaker:And I thought,
Speaker:I wonder if any of your makers that do leather work
Speaker:or painting or something that they could do that would be
Speaker:able to teach what they do in a setting like that
Speaker:and get some income from the experience of it and maybe
Speaker:even whatever kit that was sent out in advance.
Speaker:But that whole experiential thing is just going to become so
Speaker:important. I think as we move forward with this.
Speaker:I love that you shared that and I totally agree.
Speaker:I think people are starting to see different ways of either
Speaker:putting kids together or offering some type of online training and
Speaker:a lot of it jumps over even to educational because mom
Speaker:has to do something with the kids,
Speaker:not just during homeschooling but free time.
Speaker:Like what do you do?
Speaker:You can't go outside down to the local ballpark anymore.
Speaker:So everyone's had to get creative.
Speaker:I think this is great.
Speaker:I love all of this idea actually a lot.
Speaker:Good. And I don't know,
Speaker:you just are able to come up with ideas like crazy.
Speaker:Like you,
Speaker:before we got on,
Speaker:you were telling me what you did for Aiden for his
Speaker:16th birthday.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Well I think my mind works in very strange and different
Speaker:ways and sometimes it's overwhelming the number of ideas that come
Speaker:at my head and I have to remember that not everybody
Speaker:absorbs them the same way.
Speaker:Like my husband,
Speaker:if he has an idea,
Speaker:he researches it and it is going to become a reality
Speaker:for him.
Speaker:And he gets really focused in it.
Speaker:I on the other hand,
Speaker:allow my brain to just have millions of ideas coming at
Speaker:it. And I announced them out loud and we talk about
Speaker:them. And if they don't happen,
Speaker:they don't happen or if a version of them does.
Speaker:And that stresses him out cause he's like,
Speaker:uh, take the idea,
Speaker:make it happen.
Speaker:And I'm like,
Speaker:well, let's just start big and bring it down to what
Speaker:is a reality that can happen and happen soon.
Speaker:Cause some ideas are just so grandiose.
Speaker:Have you ever had an idea where you think it's so
Speaker:good, so good.
Speaker:And then the next day it's like,
Speaker:what was I thinking?
Speaker:It's true.
Speaker:Like even when I throw a party,
Speaker:I might have two or three games or activities at the
Speaker:ready to do,
Speaker:but if the party's flowing and whatever,
Speaker:I let go of it and just go,
Speaker:we don't need to do that.
Speaker:It has to make sense.
Speaker:It has to fit in and make sense.
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:So yesterday for him,
Speaker:for his birthday,
Speaker:everybody's doing these drive by caravans of cars.
Speaker:And I thought,
Speaker:man, I wish so much that I could invite all of
Speaker:them in to have a piece of this red velvet cake
Speaker:that I got from a local Baker.
Speaker:And as I was thinking that,
Speaker:I realized,
Speaker:well they make these little bun teenies that are smaller.
Speaker:It's a smaller version of the big cake we're having.
Speaker:If I order enough of those,
Speaker:I can package them with my gloves and my mask on.
Speaker:And then I made little care packages.
Speaker:So as they drove by with their cars,
Speaker:I was able to hand each car,
Speaker:contact Leslie a box with cupcakes for them to enjoy the
Speaker:same cake when they got home.
Speaker:So, and then we did the water balloons.
Speaker:I forgot that part.
Speaker:I gave them each water balloons to throw at him,
Speaker:which was kind of fun.
Speaker:And you can do that in Santa Barbara.
Speaker:Yeah. You couldn't do that in all the areas of our
Speaker:country right now.
Speaker:Like mine.
Speaker:Well not this month.
Speaker:Yeah. Snowballs.
Speaker:Maybe. There you go.
Speaker:Well, you know,
Speaker:I'd be all over for that too.
Speaker:That would work for me.
Speaker:Are there any ideas that you tried during this time that
Speaker:didn't really go as you had wanted?
Speaker:Well, I'll tell you back to those virtual workforce gift boxes,
Speaker:I was a little disappointed that that didn't take off right
Speaker:away. Now we are really seeing a big influx of people
Speaker:ordering those things.
Speaker:So that's an example of,
Speaker:I had it locked and loaded.
Speaker:It was ready,
Speaker:I promoted it.
Speaker:I reached out and told people directly about it,
Speaker:but they just weren't ready.
Speaker:Can you imagine?
Speaker:I mean I am not in their shoes,
Speaker:but if I had a whole team of people that I
Speaker:had to somehow figure out did they all have enough wifi
Speaker:at home,
Speaker:what do they need from,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:like there's so much planning that was on the fly happening
Speaker:around that and then just financially like what does our budget
Speaker:look like now we have to shift and move.
Speaker:So they weren't ready for it in the beginning.
Speaker:I was ready for them.
Speaker:They weren't ready for me.
Speaker:And at the time I kind of felt like,
Speaker:Oh, I guess this isn't really a big thing.
Speaker:This isn't going to work.
Speaker:But now it is.
Speaker:So sometimes I think your idea is just might not be
Speaker:the right time,
Speaker:but if you just are patient and wait it might come
Speaker:to fruition.
Speaker:That's a really good point.
Speaker:Cause everyone was like,
Speaker:we didn't even have a handle on what it all meant
Speaker:to us.
Speaker:Like if you just walk outside,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:are you going to get it?
Speaker:Like nobody knew yet at that time.
Speaker:So the other thing that occurs to me is that with
Speaker:you, any,
Speaker:especially I guess you,
Speaker:cause you were mentioned in the beginning,
Speaker:in your area you've had other issues,
Speaker:mudslides, the fires,
Speaker:all of that,
Speaker:heaven forbid,
Speaker:whatever comes in the future.
Speaker:You've kind of started to set a precedent that this is
Speaker:something that you do,
Speaker:you create then specialty things for whether it's employees to do
Speaker:a virtual meeting or maybe for the firefighters for if they
Speaker:are going to have to stay somewhere.
Speaker:Like, I don't know all the services that you could provide
Speaker:them, but you're starting to position yourself also as a source
Speaker:for those types of things.
Speaker:Right. I unfortunately think that the pandemic we're in right now,
Speaker:I kind of equate it to like fire season here in
Speaker:California over the last few years.
Speaker:We've had to get used that this is our reality.
Speaker:At any given moment,
Speaker:a wildfire could break out somewhere and it might be small,
Speaker:it might be big.
Speaker:We just have to be prepared for it and it is
Speaker:our new normal and I,
Speaker:I'm so tired actually on that terminology it just feels like
Speaker:almost aggressive.
Speaker:Well you've been dealing with this for years,
Speaker:like a revised normal every year off.
Speaker:Yes, and I think those are the times we're living in.
Speaker:This is not going to go away.
Speaker:It'll ebb and flow.
Speaker:This will recede.
Speaker:We'll have some semblance of going back to,
Speaker:it's free to move about the cabin kind of activity,
Speaker:but then we'll have to put the seatbelt sign back on
Speaker:again. I think we have to start positioning our businesses to
Speaker:know that this isn't the last time it's going to happen,
Speaker:but we can prepare for the next time.
Speaker:It won't be as much of a shock,
Speaker:I guess I'd say or a learning curve.
Speaker:Right. Cause people will are like,
Speaker:they'll know that this already exists the next time they have
Speaker:to send their workforce home.
Speaker:Right. So that's something for us to think through.
Speaker:I mean we're still in the middle it right now.
Speaker:So anything that you can do and has now given us
Speaker:a number of different ideas.
Speaker:So if you haven't incorporated some of these or they feel
Speaker:like they're a good fit,
Speaker:it's still a great time to do this.
Speaker:But I think when I equate this to a bird cage,
Speaker:when the door opens and we get to fly free again
Speaker:for a little while,
Speaker:it's still smart to go back and think,
Speaker:okay, what should I put in place now for the future
Speaker:and have that plan.
Speaker:So there's not so much anxiety.
Speaker:You just flip the switch on your action plan.
Speaker:It's become so obvious that we all are living through this
Speaker:in a very,
Speaker:very different way and our experience and our anxiety level,
Speaker:people that have someone with auto immune disorders at home are
Speaker:having a very different experience than someone who is not even
Speaker:concerned. They have younger,
Speaker:whatever it is,
Speaker:it's all very different.
Speaker:So creating a business model that serves different clients with different
Speaker:desires of how to reach you and purchase from you,
Speaker:I think is what to pay attention to.
Speaker:Absolutely. Tell me what you're feeling for the future apart from
Speaker:not just this and now everything that we've talked about because
Speaker:honestly the ideas that you have,
Speaker:the things that you've put in place that you've already proven
Speaker:can work are priceless and it's such a gift for you
Speaker:to share those with us.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Apart from all of this,
Speaker:what do you seen for your business as you move forward?
Speaker:We were in a position of growth.
Speaker:Finally like that is the irony here is that we had
Speaker:just taken over another unit in our building to make a
Speaker:3000 square feet instead of 2000 we were just looking and
Speaker:researching and investing in some equipment to start doing more custom
Speaker:work because so many of our corporate clients come to us
Speaker:and provide logoed mugs and things like that.
Speaker:I mean your ribbon print machine clearly has been something that
Speaker:has just transformed our business.
Speaker:And so that whole idea of offering custom things on the
Speaker:fly, especially in one or two off or 10 off or
Speaker:without having to have these huge minimums.
Speaker:We were in a position to do that and then this
Speaker:hit and so we were kind of extra exposed cause now
Speaker:our rent was higher,
Speaker:we had added more employees.
Speaker:We were just about to grow.
Speaker:So I hope that we can get just back to there
Speaker:where we can start looking at growth again.
Speaker:It's clear that delivery and shipping is a big method of
Speaker:how people will receive our stuff so that we're focused on
Speaker:that. We need to tighten up how we become a little
Speaker:bit more seamless with how we're packaging and getting things out
Speaker:the door quickly.
Speaker:Well, I'm optimistic for you because you have the client base
Speaker:in line already,
Speaker:right? So it's just adding additional services.
Speaker:So you're really looking at how can we provide more for
Speaker:existing clients we already have and through that you'll be getting
Speaker:new clients.
Speaker:Wow. Absolutely.
Speaker:And to just be ready for it.
Speaker:I think you and I had a conversation at one point
Speaker:about how I've always believed that even if you don't have
Speaker:an international trip plan,
Speaker:you should have your passport updated and ready.
Speaker:If you're not out looking for a job,
Speaker:you should still have your resume updated and ready to hand
Speaker:somebody if the right person comes along and asks for it.
Speaker:And so even if it feels weird right now to dream
Speaker:about where your business can go and think about ways to
Speaker:grow it,
Speaker:still do the research on the equipment that you want to
Speaker:invest in or whatever the strategy is because when the time
Speaker:comes you want to have that ready to go.
Speaker:That's another thing with the whole PPP and all that like
Speaker:having your taxes done and your books in order and all
Speaker:that stuff will allow you to be one of the first
Speaker:in line to apply for something like that cause you're ready.
Speaker:Right? Cause somebody who hasn't kept their books up to date
Speaker:had to go back and do all of that before they
Speaker:could even apply.
Speaker:Well and this has been absolutely fabulous.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:I have total faith in the future that you're going to
Speaker:have. So I want everyone to go over and look at,
Speaker:they should go to your website and your Facebook page.
Speaker:I think to see both or Instagram better yet.
Speaker:Instagram And Instagram for sure.
Speaker:I put a lot of behind the scenes stuff and fun
Speaker:daily stuff up in my stories.
Speaker:You are great with stories.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:And so thank you for the community that you've created because
Speaker:the one big thing I've learned is we're all grappling with
Speaker:various degrees of loneliness.
Speaker:We are home and very close with the people that were
Speaker:in quarantine or in sheltering,
Speaker:in place with.
Speaker:But that doesn't mean that we don't feel lonely for a
Speaker:sense of a larger community.
Speaker:And you have created that and it's invaluable.
Speaker:And for anybody listening that isn't tapped into that,
Speaker:there's many different ways I know to connect with you,
Speaker:whether it's all the way up to a mastermind group,
Speaker:right? Or just the daily check-ins that you're doing over on
Speaker:Facebook. Well thank you.
Speaker:I appreciate you so much for saying that.
Speaker:Wonderful. Well have a great day.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:thanks for your time.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:So take care.
Speaker:Be safe and healthy.
Speaker:So many good ideas here.
Speaker:You may have to bookmark this one and come back and
Speaker:listen again.
Speaker:Having multiple channels to get your message out,
Speaker:shift the message and the purpose of your product to fit
Speaker:the times and catch your customer at the right time when
Speaker:they're ready to buy.
Speaker:All of these things come from knowing your customer well and
Speaker:Ann's been a perfect example of this for us and now
Speaker:next week,
Speaker:Oh, I'm so excited for this one.
Speaker:We are going to be talking with a retail boutique owner
Speaker:who shut her doors weeks ago.
Speaker:Her life has changed,
Speaker:but she's selling and I mean selling a lot every single
Speaker:day, attracting new customers,
Speaker:making money,
Speaker:and having a lot of fun with it at the same
Speaker:time. I don't want you to miss it.
Speaker:Remember first thing Monday morning,
Speaker:subscribe and then you'll have it ready and waiting for you
Speaker:and until then be safe and be well.
Speaker:Bye for now.
Speaker:I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook
Speaker:group called gift is breeze.
Speaker:It's a place where we all gather and our community to
Speaker:support each other.
Speaker:Got a really fun post in there.
Speaker:That's my favorite of the week.
Speaker:I have to say where I invite all of you to
Speaker:share what you're doing,
Speaker:to show pictures of your product,
Speaker:to show what you're working on for the week,
Speaker:to get reaction from other people and just for fun because
Speaker:we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody in
Speaker:the community is making.
Speaker:My favorite post every single week without doubt,
Speaker:wait, what aren't you part of the group already?
Speaker:If not,
Speaker:make sure to jump over to Facebook and search for the
Speaker:group gift biz breeze.
Speaker:Don't delay.
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What an informative and a uplifting interview, she dropped some gems of knowledge. Very honored to have you both in my network.