Shownotes
Motivational Quote
Business Inspiration
The path towards Fancifull [6:30] The bridal fair experience creates an idea [9:25]Business Development
Terry’s strategy in choosing a business name [8:50] Zeroing in on the core business [10:10] First gift basket done for Hollywood [12:43]A Candle Flickering Moment
Learning the difference between sales and cost [15:00] The 2008 Crash [16:14]Business Insights
Defining the business – how she niched down for success [19:58] Sending gifts to the current and past Presidents and the White House [24:12] What from Terry’s childhood helped to form Fancifull [26:02] A heartwarming story about Terry’s intuition – hear what happens! [26:38]
Contact Links
Website Facebook Twitter InstagramIf you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe and leave a review in Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. That helps us spread the word to more makers just like you. Thanks! Sue
Transcripts
Gift biz unwrapped episode 17.
Speaker:This is John Lee Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,
Speaker:and you're listening to the gift of biz unwrapped.
Speaker:And now it's time to light it up.
Speaker:Welcome to gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop
Speaker:and grow your business.
Speaker:And now here's your host,
Speaker:Sue Monheit.
Speaker:Hi there.
Speaker:I'm Sue and welcome to the gift is unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:Whether you own a brick and mortar store sell online or
Speaker:just getting started,
Speaker:you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your
Speaker:business. After you listened to the show,
Speaker:if you like what you're hearing,
Speaker:make sure to jump over and subscribe to the show on
Speaker:iTunes. That way you'll automatically get the newest episodes when they
Speaker:go live.
Speaker:And thank you to those who have already left a rating
Speaker:and review by subscribing rating and reviewing you help to increase
Speaker:the visibility of gift biz unwrapped.
Speaker:It's a great way to pay it forward.
Speaker:To help others with their entrepreneurial journey as well.
Speaker:Today, we are joined by Terry Aug of fanciful find food
Speaker:and baskets.
Speaker:Terry started fanciful back in 1987 from her dining room table.
Speaker:Today, her business has grown into a famous find food and
Speaker:gift shop on Melrose avenue in Hollywood,
Speaker:just a five minute walk from paramount studios.
Speaker:A look into the fanciful shop reveals an array of fresh
Speaker:gourmet foods and wine to suit any taste.
Speaker:What sets them apart is the elite clientele they serve while
Speaker:still offering a comfortable and personable environment.
Speaker:I've just got to do some name dropping here.
Speaker:So you truly understand Terry's business.
Speaker:They maintain a gift site and send gift daily for Sony
Speaker:pictures. Conan O'Brien has been a client for years,
Speaker:as well as my all time.
Speaker:Favorite Michael Jackson,
Speaker:they send gift baskets for many celebrities,
Speaker:such as Jennifer Lopez and Charlise Theron.
Speaker:One of their most recent jobs is a large gift basket
Speaker:for Lily Tomlin who was nominated for an Emmy.
Speaker:I think you get the feel here.
Speaker:All this sounds really exciting to me,
Speaker:but she says it's just part of working in Hollywood.
Speaker:Let's jump over to teary now and see what else we
Speaker:can find out about her fascinating company.
Speaker:Hi Terry,
Speaker:welcome to the show.
Speaker:Hey Sue.
Speaker:Thanks so much.
Speaker:Glad to be here.
Speaker:Is there Anything you'd like to add to your introduction before
Speaker:we get started?
Speaker:No. You summed it up pretty darn.
Speaker:Well, I mean,
Speaker:we've been around for 28 years and yes we do celebrities,
Speaker:but you know,
Speaker:what makes me happy sometimes is when we do gifts for
Speaker:that 93 year old grandmother who loves bud light,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and you just go,
Speaker:oh, okay.
Speaker:Yeah, I'll put that in a basket for her.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:we like to say we're of the people for the people.
Speaker:We just like making people happy and setting out these little
Speaker:baskets of love.
Speaker:Okay. So to get started,
Speaker:we like to align the conversation around the life of a
Speaker:candle. The light shines on you while you share your stories
Speaker:and experiences.
Speaker:So shall we light it up?
Speaker:Talk to us about what your candle looks like,
Speaker:what color is the candle?
Speaker:Well, Mike candle is actually the color of my office that
Speaker:I'm sitting in right now.
Speaker:It's sort of this grade plum.
Speaker:It's sort of an odd color,
Speaker:but it's beautiful.
Speaker:Some people it's actually puce,
Speaker:which is like a grade plum with a little bit of
Speaker:kind of edges of brown.
Speaker:And I just seem to gravitate the colors that require more
Speaker:than one word to describe them.
Speaker:I really like things that look different.
Speaker:Like some people would look at it and say it's purple.
Speaker:And some people might look at it and say it's gray.
Speaker:And some people might look at it and say,
Speaker:ah, it's got brown tones,
Speaker:but it's one of my favorite colors.
Speaker:It's very deep and soft and just kind of pretty,
Speaker:it's kind of where I live.
Speaker:So does that mean you're kind of undefinable?
Speaker:Yeah. Or complicated if you want to beat,
Speaker:if you want to beat truthful too.
Speaker:I like layers.
Speaker:I'm a lawyer.
Speaker:I'm a layered person that works,
Speaker:which is really,
Speaker:I think is what makes my business successful because I can
Speaker:do something high-end I can do something for $15 for hotels.
Speaker:I can be whatever anybody needs me to be.
Speaker:That doesn't sound terrible.
Speaker:Well, So how about zeroing in on a quote that goes
Speaker:on that candle?
Speaker:Okay. Well this is a very large candle.
Speaker:So I'm actually going to break the rule and give you
Speaker:two quotes because I couldn't decide between these two and they're
Speaker:very short,
Speaker:but they're both by Kurt Vonnegut,
Speaker:who is one of my favorite authors and the first one
Speaker:from player piano.
Speaker:And it says,
Speaker:I want to stand as close to the edge as I
Speaker:can, without going over out on the edge,
Speaker:you see all kinds of things you can't see from the
Speaker:center. And then the other one I just had to include
Speaker:because it just sums up.
Speaker:My view was a purpose of human life is to love.
Speaker:Whoever is around to be loved.
Speaker:And I don't know that just kind of gets me.
Speaker:I like them both because my view is that I like
Speaker:viewpoints and I love getting out and looking,
Speaker:we travel.
Speaker:I'm always talking to people.
Speaker:I go to conventions because I love other people.
Speaker:And the universe is they live in and I love going
Speaker:to France and meeting people who make wine and how they
Speaker:do it.
Speaker:But I also love what we do because what we really
Speaker:do is we send out,
Speaker:love somebody sitting at their desk and they're getting something that's
Speaker:saying, I know you're alive.
Speaker:And I I'm glad of it.
Speaker:And that I think in this world,
Speaker:I think we can look at negativity,
Speaker:but there's just so much love.
Speaker:And I think if you always operate from that place,
Speaker:like even if I have to fire somebody or I have
Speaker:to make a tough business decision,
Speaker:it can always be done with love.
Speaker:And I think everybody needs more love,
Speaker:not less.
Speaker:You use both those quotes because they kind of sum up
Speaker:who I am.
Speaker:That is so well said.
Speaker:I have nothing To add to it because it is,
Speaker:thank you for indulging me.
Speaker:I can do two sides.
Speaker:Of Course you can do anything you want.
Speaker:Exactly. So Let's go back.
Speaker:We talked a little bit that you started on your dining
Speaker:room table back in 1987.
Speaker:Yes. How,
Speaker:from your Vast background up to that point,
Speaker:where did you get the idea that you were going to
Speaker:open some type of business and was this what you had
Speaker:in mind?
Speaker:Or just give us the story?
Speaker:Oh my God.
Speaker:So that's a great question.
Speaker:I have to blame my friend,
Speaker:Lloyd Whitman,
Speaker:who really pushed me to this.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:it was one of those things where I think I always
Speaker:knew I was going to maybe work for myself.
Speaker:I not a real conventional person.
Speaker:And I've always been sort of artistic.
Speaker:My husband is a musician.
Speaker:I actually met him when I ran sound and lights for
Speaker:him, traveled around the country,
Speaker:being a roadie.
Speaker:I quit UCLA to go on the road with a band,
Speaker:which my father loved my military.
Speaker:Italian father was thrilled when I wrote him a letter from
Speaker:Missoula, Montana and saying,
Speaker:I'm on the road with six guys.
Speaker:The, I bet he did.
Speaker:Oh yeah,
Speaker:yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Luckily I got a husband,
Speaker:a great husband out of it.
Speaker:So he was okay.
Speaker:So anyway,
Speaker:my background is really there to kind of make a long
Speaker:story, sort of shortish.
Speaker:My background was designed.
Speaker:I was studying interior design and I did that.
Speaker:I worked with an architect who did very high-end homes.
Speaker:I pulled in clients for him.
Speaker:I did a lot of like doctor's offices and stuff,
Speaker:and I really loved design.
Speaker:And I think it really contributes to who I am right
Speaker:now because it taught me how to look.
Speaker:And that's what design does.
Speaker:It teaches you how to look and always be aware of
Speaker:what's in your environment.
Speaker:So I did that,
Speaker:but then I had my kids and it just wasn't working
Speaker:out for me to have kids and be with the architect.
Speaker:So I,
Speaker:then I began to do catering cause I'm kind of my
Speaker:loves in life or like food.
Speaker:I, Julia,
Speaker:child's an idol of mine.
Speaker:My mother was French.
Speaker:My dad was Italian.
Speaker:We were always around the table eating.
Speaker:So it's always been about food and I always had people
Speaker:over and I'd always be making these big meals and they
Speaker:were all like,
Speaker:you should cater.
Speaker:So then I began to cater and I liked that too,
Speaker:but it was fairly tiring.
Speaker:And then one day I saw a woman at a craft
Speaker:fair who was doing a basket and it was beautiful.
Speaker:And I went,
Speaker:that's so interesting.
Speaker:It's got food,
Speaker:it's got pretty colors.
Speaker:That might be an interesting thing to do.
Speaker:And then my friend Lloyd,
Speaker:who was back east in Jersey,
Speaker:read this article and family circle of all things,
Speaker:about a woman who was doing gift baskets out of her
Speaker:home in Colorado.
Speaker:And they shoot in these very pretty things.
Speaker:So we kind of sat around my kitchen table.
Speaker:I have a booth in my kitchen.
Speaker:We would sit around there and plan our futures.
Speaker:And my daughter was about three and my son was five
Speaker:at the time.
Speaker:And my husband was teaching music out of our home.
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:let's try this.
Speaker:So we sort of picked the word fanciful because I didn't
Speaker:know which direction I wanted to go.
Speaker:And I liked fans focus.
Speaker:It was this great umbrella word.
Speaker:It's full of fancy it's of imagination.
Speaker:It's like not it's of another world.
Speaker:So I went,
Speaker:okay, well we could be fanciful designs.
Speaker:We could be fanciful food.
Speaker:I had done some floral design.
Speaker:I'd worked for a floor so I could de fanciful flowers.
Speaker:So I kind of was undecided,
Speaker:but I thought we would put some things together.
Speaker:So we actually did it in my house and we did
Speaker:it at her house and her dining room table.
Speaker:And I still have her table in my shop and I
Speaker:still use it to this day,
Speaker:the table it was born on.
Speaker:So what happened is some friends of mine who were in
Speaker:a band were going to be at a bridal fair.
Speaker:And they said,
Speaker:Hey, do you want to share the booth with us?
Speaker:And I went great.
Speaker:I can promote my catering.
Speaker:And I can maybe bring a few bridesmaids baskets that I
Speaker:really had this idea that I was going to do these
Speaker:pretty baskets.
Speaker:I remember this was 1987.
Speaker:It was Victoria magazine.
Speaker:It was pretty little houses,
Speaker:pastel colors.
Speaker:So I did it,
Speaker:but I had enough business acumen that I knew I needed
Speaker:a mailing list.
Speaker:And I knew I needed to promote because I promoted my
Speaker:husband's band.
Speaker:And so I knew some stuff.
Speaker:Well, what surprised me when we did this,
Speaker:as people love the food I had there.
Speaker:But so many people said,
Speaker:well, you know,
Speaker:my husband owns a construction company and he sends baskets for
Speaker:the holidays.
Speaker:So I went,
Speaker:oh, well,
Speaker:that's interesting.
Speaker:I hadn't thought about that.
Speaker:So, you know,
Speaker:I did craft fairs.
Speaker:I did these things that were not where I needed to
Speaker:be. I had,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:things in my home,
Speaker:but then what happened is we did a little mailer and
Speaker:I had a good friend who was an artist.
Speaker:You do this beautiful basket with toppled on its side,
Speaker:with gifts and food coming out.
Speaker:And we wrote up my friend and I don't know if
Speaker:we even had that many baskets designed,
Speaker:but we wrote up descriptions of baskets and we had this
Speaker:great line that said,
Speaker:what makes fanciful so special?
Speaker:And it was a great question.
Speaker:And then we went on to say,
Speaker:why? And I mailed it,
Speaker:I got a little business directory and I mailed it to
Speaker:like 200 businesses.
Speaker:And within a week I got an order for like 200
Speaker:baskets. I hadn't even been in business a month at this
Speaker:point. And that's probably when the light bulb went off for
Speaker:me on gift baskets.
Speaker:And I went,
Speaker:oh my goodness,
Speaker:I wouldn't surveyed the field.
Speaker:I didn't know.
Speaker:I had no corporate background,
Speaker:which would have aided me.
Speaker:I just went,
Speaker:wow, this is awesome.
Speaker:People do this.
Speaker:People sit in baskets.
Speaker:And so that kind of changed.
Speaker:So we managed to do it out of our home.
Speaker:Stop you here for a second.
Speaker:Cause the point I want to focus on and make here
Speaker:is you kind of tested the waters,
Speaker:not even knowing it,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:because when you talk about this,
Speaker:you're very playful in how,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we just sent out this little mailer,
Speaker:it was all kind of fun.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:you had all of your experience from the past because of
Speaker:designing and catering and food and you know,
Speaker:your ability to coordinate color and all of that.
Speaker:But it was still sounds like it was pretty playful.
Speaker:And then all of a sudden you mail out this mailer
Speaker:again, very fun and light,
Speaker:not knowing what direction and without knowing it,
Speaker:you tested the market and confirmed that there was a lot
Speaker:of opportunity out there.
Speaker:That's a really great point.
Speaker:So you're right,
Speaker:because we were the antithesis and we still are of the
Speaker:liquor store basket.
Speaker:This was before baskets were in every box store before they
Speaker:were in every grocery store.
Speaker:You'd go to liquor store things with red cellophane,
Speaker:a pull bow,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:really kind of tacky bow.
Speaker:And so we were kind of like going to be the
Speaker:custom company,
Speaker:which we are,
Speaker:but we've evolved certainly,
Speaker:you know?
Speaker:And so yes,
Speaker:you're exactly right.
Speaker:Like then we went,
Speaker:okay, this is something I can do from home.
Speaker:I don't have to cook a meal,
Speaker:put it in my car,
Speaker:take it across town,
Speaker:unload it.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I liked catering,
Speaker:but it was a lot of work.
Speaker:But then you always do your friend's weddings.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:you're always like at the party,
Speaker:but you're always in the kitchen.
Speaker:So this kind of seemed like something I could do for
Speaker:my home.
Speaker:I could still travel.
Speaker:I kept it pretty low key the first year.
Speaker:But after the first year I knew we couldn't do it
Speaker:out of our home again.
Speaker:And so we went to a space nearby and we had
Speaker:that space for a year.
Speaker:And then probably the year after.
Speaker:So 88,
Speaker:89 was when my husband came on full-time as my partner.
Speaker:And then we began to really grow.
Speaker:We began to get known in Hollywood.
Speaker:I remember like one of the first baskets we did for
Speaker:Hollywood. Now this is a long time ago.
Speaker:So this was,
Speaker:this was a star Trek movie.
Speaker:And they sent me a script.
Speaker:They used to send me scripts and I would come up
Speaker:with designs out of the script.
Speaker:And it was really a fun time in Hollywood.
Speaker:And it's not quite like that now,
Speaker:but, and I remember they were camping in Yosemite.
Speaker:It was with William Shatner was the old crew Leonard Nimoy.
Speaker:And we did this whole camping basket for them.
Speaker:That was the bow was made out of rope and it
Speaker:was it.
Speaker:So it did use,
Speaker:I still use all my design stuff and people still call
Speaker:me with,
Speaker:Hey, I need to do this project that make this effect,
Speaker:what can you do?
Speaker:And then we did something for the godfather three,
Speaker:we got violin cases and we put people's every actors and
Speaker:producers name on the outside and packed it with like Italian
Speaker:food and sent it back to Italy,
Speaker:which was really funny.
Speaker:So yes,
Speaker:all of a sudden these opportunities came about while we were
Speaker:still young and it sort of helped me formulate what direction
Speaker:to take fanciful and we've just grown like,
Speaker:and so now I would say from doing a lot of
Speaker:specialty baskets,
Speaker:we still do,
Speaker:but we have grown into being more about food and good
Speaker:food. And that kind of thing is a way to kind
Speaker:of make ourselves stand out against the huge conglomerates that are
Speaker:out there doing,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:$29 baskets.
Speaker:Right? So You're telling us of all these really cool designs
Speaker:and that you,
Speaker:the creations you've made off of scripts and also how your
Speaker:company's grown in terms of being from the dining room table
Speaker:to then a shop to now the location you have currently
Speaker:possibly some steps in between,
Speaker:but you know,
Speaker:nothing is always easy.
Speaker:It's not a smooth road.
Speaker:Oh sure.
Speaker:It is.
Speaker:This is all simple About some of those road bumps that
Speaker:you've encountered along the way,
Speaker:tell us a story or two about some challenges that you've
Speaker:had. And then also a most interesting for our listeners is
Speaker:what did you do to overcome those challenges?
Speaker:Cool. Yeah,
Speaker:of course there were lots of challenges.
Speaker:Like I said,
Speaker:my husband,
Speaker:neither, my husband or I had a great corporate background.
Speaker:We knew enough to look at statistics.
Speaker:I think the biggest mistakes we probably made was number one,
Speaker:my husband quitting his job over this,
Speaker:having to support us,
Speaker:but it has,
Speaker:it has supported the both of us and other people.
Speaker:I think one of the biggest mistakes we made early on
Speaker:was we looked at our sales all the time and our
Speaker:sales were robust,
Speaker:but I don't think I looked at what it costs to
Speaker:make those sales.
Speaker:And I would say that's a really cautionary tale for people
Speaker:because we were just doing great.
Speaker:We're doing over a million business,
Speaker:but then I wasn't really looking at our profit loss or
Speaker:cashflow enough and going,
Speaker:wow, but it costs me this much to do it.
Speaker:So we survived and we did fine,
Speaker:but I think we would have survived better.
Speaker:Things would have been maybe a little easier if I had
Speaker:looked at that earlier,
Speaker:luckily I just finished this really big business program to Goldman
Speaker:Sachs and it was nothing but numbers and it really put
Speaker:it into alignment.
Speaker:So I would,
Speaker:that would be my cautionary tale for anybody starting a business
Speaker:is it's great to have terrific sales,
Speaker:but you really need to know what it's costing.
Speaker:You it's the unglamorous side.
Speaker:But when you get into it,
Speaker:it's actually very sexy.
Speaker:It really is.
Speaker:It's like,
Speaker:I love numbers because they give me truth.
Speaker:They give me data and I'm a data person and I
Speaker:go, oh my goodness,
Speaker:last year we spent this much more on labor,
Speaker:but our sales stayed the same.
Speaker:What the heck?
Speaker:And it gives you a way to steer your boat.
Speaker:Like don't you want to,
Speaker:before your car goes off,
Speaker:the cliff,
Speaker:be able to turn it,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:so you stay on the road.
Speaker:And so it's really important to know that.
Speaker:And I think that set us up.
Speaker:And then of course,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:there was the crash of 2008 and that was devastating.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:there were a lot of gift basket businesses in LA.
Speaker:I was just talking to a sales rep that sells to
Speaker:me and she says,
Speaker:you're the only one left.
Speaker:I used to get all my business from gift basket companies.
Speaker:And that was tough because we had a client in Alaska
Speaker:dealership that would a hundred baskets a week.
Speaker:And that dropped to like 20,
Speaker:we had mortgage companies,
Speaker:it did Christmas baskets.
Speaker:We had banks,
Speaker:it was disaster.
Speaker:So what Did you do?
Speaker:So how did you survive when everyone else kind of went
Speaker:by the wayside?
Speaker:One thing we did After the crash is we realized we
Speaker:had too much space.
Speaker:We had almost 4,000
Speaker:square feet and we wanted to sort of edit and make
Speaker:it smaller and groovier.
Speaker:And our landlord was sort of funny cause we'd had half
Speaker:the space and then we took the other half.
Speaker:So we had like 18,
Speaker:1900 square feet and there was an identical space next door
Speaker:and we've knocked walls out.
Speaker:So we began to just go to one side and we're
Speaker:going to put the walls back up.
Speaker:And I looked at the space in the back and it
Speaker:had its own door out to the back.
Speaker:It had its own bathroom.
Speaker:And I looked at my husband.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I bet we could sublet this.
Speaker:Sure enough.
Speaker:We sublet it to the sky who runs a club.
Speaker:He was okay with my landlord.
Speaker:It's, it's no alcohol.
Speaker:It's all for like high school kids.
Speaker:His daughter is actually going to be on the voice,
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:And, and they come in in January.
Speaker:This is so sweet.
Speaker:They leave in early November and they pay a third of
Speaker:our rent.
Speaker:And so we were able to get our rents up.
Speaker:So it was just it's at the same thinking outside the
Speaker:box, don't be stopped.
Speaker:I didn't really want to move.
Speaker:We can walk to work.
Speaker:I knew the rent was good for where we were.
Speaker:Our location is amazing for our deliveries.
Speaker:We do.
Speaker:And for like,
Speaker:if somebody meets something odd,
Speaker:like a wine,
Speaker:we don't carry,
Speaker:we have a place up the street.
Speaker:We go,
Speaker:it was just easy.
Speaker:So that,
Speaker:and the guy he's going to renew next year,
Speaker:he loves it.
Speaker:He loves being in there.
Speaker:He's still there.
Speaker:He's there.
Speaker:They're actually over there today as an aside.
Speaker:Cause his daughter is getting on the voice.
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:And Carson daily is coming to do something at their club.
Speaker:It's a little club called amplify,
Speaker:but it's getting really well known and it's just,
Speaker:they enter through the back.
Speaker:They have their own door.
Speaker:So they come in through our parking lot that we don't
Speaker:see them.
Speaker:They don't bother us or they're mainly at night.
Speaker:So it's this ideal thing,
Speaker:but they pay over a third of our room.
Speaker:Really good idea.
Speaker:In terms of thinking outside the box,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:in a challenging economic time,
Speaker:what else could you do?
Speaker:That's a little bit different than what you would normally traditionally
Speaker:be thinking and here what a great solution that you're even
Speaker:using Today.
Speaker:I never say die.
Speaker:Sue. I never say Diane.
Speaker:It's cool because if we have a class or we have
Speaker:an event,
Speaker:we need the space.
Speaker:The guy's very cool.
Speaker:If they're not having anything there,
Speaker:we could open it up and we can use it.
Speaker:Oh perfect.
Speaker:Cause you're probably during the day anyway and there at night.
Speaker:Yeah. And so it's,
Speaker:it's fine.
Speaker:Or if they're not doing something one night and we want
Speaker:to have,
Speaker:we had a reading over there,
Speaker:we, we we've had acting classes,
Speaker:come in and use it during the day and they're fine
Speaker:with it.
Speaker:We give them some of the money in an acting class.
Speaker:We'll rent it for like a thousand a week and because
Speaker:they have a stage and everything.
Speaker:And so it's just,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:being open to possibilities,
Speaker:I guess,
Speaker:Open to possibilities And being willing to play a game,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it's like,
Speaker:okay, what are we going to do?
Speaker:We're not going to go under.
Speaker:So, you know,
Speaker:it's just,
Speaker:you have to decide you're going to persist and you're gonna
Speaker:persist well.
Speaker:And how's that going to happen?
Speaker:What else did you do to survive the downturn?
Speaker:Well, no,
Speaker:I'm really tough.
Speaker:My dad was 25 years in the military and I think
Speaker:I am my father's daughter and I just never say die.
Speaker:We had luckily how we'd had a Paris apartment,
Speaker:a small one that I'm still sad that we sold,
Speaker:but we had sold it before we knew the crash.
Speaker:Cause it was kind of hard to maintain.
Speaker:So we had some cash to keep while you need liquid.
Speaker:And I still paid all my employees.
Speaker:I cut back,
Speaker:really cut back on staff.
Speaker:But what I really did and it was like a watershed
Speaker:moment for us is yeah,
Speaker:here we are at Christmas when we've had a pretty mediocre
Speaker:Christmas, but we survived.
Speaker:And we,
Speaker:we pulled some of it out,
Speaker:but people were so afraid.
Speaker:People were so afraid to spend,
Speaker:nobody knew what was going to happen.
Speaker:So what we did is we're sitting there and we'd get
Speaker:this email from one of the big,
Speaker:big, big people.
Speaker:And they were selling like a 29 99 basket with free
Speaker:shipping. And we went,
Speaker:holy crap,
Speaker:we can't do that.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I can't sell a 30,
Speaker:$40 basket with free shipping.
Speaker:My margins won't support that.
Speaker:Well, do we give up?
Speaker:And I went,
Speaker:no, because you know what?
Speaker:We don't want to do that.
Speaker:That's not who we are.
Speaker:And maybe we,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:so what it made us do was look at what we
Speaker:loved and what we really love and what our specialty was,
Speaker:was number one,
Speaker:customer service.
Speaker:Those big box stores cannot come close to the customer service
Speaker:that we give.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:we are amazing.
Speaker:Like we take care of our clients,
Speaker:we deliver,
Speaker:we ship,
Speaker:we do all sorts of stuff for them.
Speaker:We customize.
Speaker:But then I also know our food was better and it
Speaker:allowed me to really get into great food.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:my grandfather was a farmer and my cousins raised cattle.
Speaker:So I'm very into knowing where my food comes from.
Speaker:I'm really into organic.
Speaker:So I'm really into sustainable.
Speaker:And so I really got into offering a better product,
Speaker:traveling, more meeting people,
Speaker:focusing on local,
Speaker:focusing on everything that they couldn't do.
Speaker:And I,
Speaker:my job was to drive this wedge between us and them.
Speaker:So nobody would even expect to get a 29 99 basket.
Speaker:I have $30 gifts that are terrific.
Speaker:And so we just pushed quality and it really worked 2009
Speaker:was scary.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it was scary,
Speaker:but I talked to a good accountant and he said,
Speaker:look, it,
Speaker:you get through 2009,
Speaker:you'll get through 2010.
Speaker:And if you get to 2010,
Speaker:it's just going to get better.
Speaker:And it has.
Speaker:And I think what we came away with is I feel
Speaker:like I know who we are more and we're doing more
Speaker:fun things.
Speaker:We're having cheese classes in our shop.
Speaker:We have better food than we've ever had.
Speaker:So it's very exciting.
Speaker:And I think we've gotten closer to the ideal for fanciful
Speaker:as a result.
Speaker:I love what you said here,
Speaker:because a big takeaway for me is that you're not going
Speaker:to be everything for everybody.
Speaker:And you recognized right away.
Speaker:Look, I am not going to compete with the box stores.
Speaker:I am not going to compromise my quality or your integrity
Speaker:in terms of customer service and offer something just to match
Speaker:what the competition's doing.
Speaker:I'm going to position myself in a different way.
Speaker:Something that fits me,
Speaker:meaning of course,
Speaker:and that you're passionate about and that your employees are passionate
Speaker:about. And you really,
Speaker:even though you might say fine foods and gift baskets are
Speaker:kind of a broad industry.
Speaker:You niched it way Down,
Speaker:fresh foods,
Speaker:Quality products,
Speaker:upscale and customer service.
Speaker:Exactly. That's exactly right.
Speaker:And it's,
Speaker:and the focus is the thing.
Speaker:Cause I think you,
Speaker:you nailed it when you said,
Speaker:I think we were trying to be everything to everybody and
Speaker:you sort of have to in business,
Speaker:you have to pay rent take.
Speaker:And sometimes those jobs that you think are going to be
Speaker:lousy jobs,
Speaker:end up being great jobs because they're easy and they're fun.
Speaker:And you just do them.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:we did 3000 pieces for UCLA recently and it was fun.
Speaker:It was easy.
Speaker:There were $10,
Speaker:but they were great.
Speaker:They kept my staff busy,
Speaker:but you're right.
Speaker:It's I think it's easy to get just all over the
Speaker:place, especially in a business like ours,
Speaker:that isn't that focused.
Speaker:You can go in a million directions.
Speaker:So bringing it down,
Speaker:it made it very easy to decide,
Speaker:like where do we promote?
Speaker:What do we do?
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:what's our message.
Speaker:And it made it actually easier to figure out some of
Speaker:those things rather than trying to be everything to everybody.
Speaker:Exactly. Right.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:that doesn't mean you don't take jobs that are out of
Speaker:your main scope,
Speaker:but you consciously are doing it.
Speaker:Exactly. And you still promote to exactly what your core is,
Speaker:your, your core concept and your core product.
Speaker:Exactly. Be like I always,
Speaker:when I started,
Speaker:I remember this,
Speaker:so clearly I said to somebody,
Speaker:I want to be the kind of place where someone can
Speaker:come in after work and pick up a 10 to $15
Speaker:gift for their spouse.
Speaker:But I love the fact that people can get a great
Speaker:15, $20 gift from us.
Speaker:We can wrap up some food,
Speaker:we can do something,
Speaker:but you want some extravagant,
Speaker:like, you know,
Speaker:we do baskets for the presidents.
Speaker:There's some guy I won't get into it.
Speaker:Some dignitary that sends $4,000
Speaker:baskets to president Clinton and president Bush and president Obama every
Speaker:year. You know,
Speaker:what Is in a $4,000
Speaker:basket, really expensive stuff At the white house.
Speaker:Cause you can't send food.
Speaker:Oh, so you're doing electronics and brand names,
Speaker:soft goods and that kind of thing.
Speaker:Yeah. And as we do think,
Speaker:like for Obama,
Speaker:we do things for the kids.
Speaker:Sometimes a container is really nice.
Speaker:We stood a big game table,
Speaker:one time,
Speaker:silver, antique,
Speaker:silver. Sometimes it's one,
Speaker:sometimes it's very antique and high-end because this guy has his
Speaker:kind of English and stuff.
Speaker:So we,
Speaker:we try and think sometimes I do a lot of like,
Speaker:like, especially through the crash and all that we've been doing
Speaker:this for about 15 years,
Speaker:did various presidents or 10 years,
Speaker:at least sometimes I'll do like all made in America.
Speaker:I'll do like great shaker boxes from back east and I'll
Speaker:try and get things from all sorts of different vendors and
Speaker:play up like for Obama,
Speaker:I got these beautiful bowls from Hawaii and that kind of
Speaker:thing. Like I try and I always,
Speaker:I'm a really good gifter in that I sort of get
Speaker:the sixth sense about people.
Speaker:So I try and look into people's kind of spaces.
Speaker:And I think it's the designer in me cause you're always
Speaker:looking around and looking for inspiration.
Speaker:So I think it allows me to sort of get a
Speaker:sense of people and then create from that.
Speaker:It's just this weird little ability I have that I always
Speaker:have since I was a kid,
Speaker:I've always been a really good gift giver,
Speaker:always. It's always what I'd love to do to my first
Speaker:job. I was excited about getting my first job in high
Speaker:school because I could buy people better gifts.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I actually thought that when I was like 15 and a
Speaker:half, but that was the main purpose for my job and
Speaker:pay for my first trip to Europe.
Speaker:I love that you bring this up because anybody who's thinking
Speaker:about, you know,
Speaker:I want to go into business,
Speaker:but I don't know what it's going to be.
Speaker:What you're talking about right here.
Speaker:Just reflect back.
Speaker:What, when you were younger,
Speaker:really got you going really got you,
Speaker:excited and happy because more than likely,
Speaker:that's a very innate passion that you have and who would
Speaker:have thought as a child with gifts and that type of
Speaker:thing that that would end up being not only your profession,
Speaker:but such a successful business as it is today.
Speaker:And you're still using those talents,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:putting together all this creativity and to,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:to your point B,
Speaker:having an intuitive gut feel of what that recipient should receive.
Speaker:Exactly. I won't get into it,
Speaker:but there are stories where I've just known.
Speaker:Something was right.
Speaker:If I gotta tell you this one real quick,
Speaker:because this is so interesting,
Speaker:we're doing something for a child,
Speaker:a hot kid in a hospital,
Speaker:who's getting a lung transplant.
Speaker:The thing about this job is you really do get into
Speaker:people's lives and you find out things that are fascinating.
Speaker:So it's perfect for me.
Speaker:But this son,
Speaker:I think the mom was giving her son a lung,
Speaker:which just chokes me up right there.
Speaker:And they wanted things that the kid could do in the
Speaker:hospital. And I had this harmonica kit,
Speaker:this harmonica thing,
Speaker:and I went,
Speaker:why don't we give them this?
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:and I was like,
Speaker:no, you shouldn't put he's in a hospital.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:yeah, I know everyone's going to probably hate him.
Speaker:But I don't know.
Speaker:I think this will be a really good thing.
Speaker:I don't know why it indicates I got a call from
Speaker:the woman who sent it and this is almost going to
Speaker:choke me up.
Speaker:She said,
Speaker:do you know,
Speaker:you put that harmonica in the doctor said that was the
Speaker:perfect exercise for him,
Speaker:for learning to use this new lung.
Speaker:And he was going to incorporate that into treating other patients.
Speaker:Wow. That's amazing.
Speaker:Crazy. It's crazy.
Speaker:But somehow I just went,
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:He may disturb other people with it,
Speaker:but this will be fun.
Speaker:It had,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:how to play and I had a book with it.
Speaker:And so that's the kind of thing that sometimes happens.
Speaker:Miracles do happen.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:Oh, thank you for sharing that story.
Speaker:That is Well,
Speaker:give biz listeners.
Speaker:I made a decision.
Speaker:Teary is sharing such valuable content with us that I really
Speaker:didn't want to stop her as she was going through all
Speaker:of her stories,
Speaker:but we are getting kind of long.
Speaker:I like to keep these episodes about 30 minutes.
Speaker:So they're very digestible for you.
Speaker:What I'm going to do is cut this into two parts.
Speaker:So right now we're going to stop.
Speaker:This is the end of part one and it's fabulous because
Speaker:we've ended on that very uplifting story and stay tuned.
Speaker:Now next week for part two,
Speaker:where Terry's going to go through what her natural traits are,
Speaker:tools that keep her productive books,
Speaker:lots of different types of information,
Speaker:along with more incredible stories and not to be missed.
Speaker:Terry's answer to her dare to dream question.
Speaker:We'll get back with Terry next week on gift biz unwrapped,
Speaker:Learn how to work smarter while developing and growing your business.
Speaker:Download our guide called 25 free tools to enhance your business
Speaker:and life.
Speaker:It's our gift to you and available@giftbizonrap.com
Speaker:slash tools.
Speaker:Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the
Speaker:next episode.
Speaker:Would you like to be on the show or do you
Speaker:know someone who can provide valuable insight from their experiences?
Speaker:If so,
Speaker:we'd love to hear from you.
Speaker:All you need to do is submit a form for consideration.
Speaker:You can access the forum@giftbizonwrapped.com
Speaker:forward slash yes,
Speaker:that's gift biz on.com
Speaker:forward slash G U E S T today's show is sponsored
Speaker:by the ribbon print company,
Speaker:looking for a new income source for your gift business.
Speaker:Customization is more popular now than ever grant your products of
Speaker:your logo or print a happy birthday,
Speaker:Jessica, to add to a gift right at checkout,
Speaker:it's all done right in your shop for cross studio in
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