Shownotes
Motivational Quote
Business Inspiration
How Maya got the idea for Shape+Store [5:31]Candle Flickering Moments
What she did when the numbers wouldn’t work out with her manufacturer [11:50] The story behind the challenges with the first sales [20:52]Product Development Insights
Identifying manufacturers [7:21] The financial aspect of creating Shape+Store products [13:01] All about Kickstarter Campaigns [14:16] Inventory Decisions [17:27] Maya’s take on independent versus chain store sales [23:54]Sales and Marketing
The key to selling on Facebook [29:42] A surprise Facebook learning [30:48] The invaluable in-store video program [32:21]Success Trait
Her motivation to always push the envelope and ask … “Why not?” [35:17]Productivity/Lifestyle Tool
Facebook – A social networking website that makes it easy for you to connect and share with your family, friends, and customers online.Valuable Book
The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It . . . Every Time by Maria Konnikova
Contact Links
Website Facebook Instagram YouTubeIf 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 on wrapped episode 51,
Speaker:But it wasn't until I was inspired to create my own
Speaker:product and go all in that I've found true success.
Speaker:Hi, this is John Lee,
Speaker: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 biz unramped podcast.
Speaker:Whether you own a brick and mortar shop sell online or
Speaker:are just getting started,
Speaker:you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your
Speaker:business. And today I have joining us Maya Lieberman.
Speaker:Maya is the inventor of shape and store freezer containers,
Speaker:and she is on a mission to make homemade meals more
Speaker:convenient than fast food.
Speaker:Starting with a love of baking.
Speaker:She first invented a container that would portion and freeze homemade
Speaker:cookie dough.
Speaker:From there.
Speaker:The product line grew as she realized that her freezer containers
Speaker:can make everyday meal preparation quick and easy.
Speaker:Maya lives in Ontario,
Speaker:Canada with her husband,
Speaker:two girls and a pet Bonnie.
Speaker:Welcome to the show.
Speaker:Maya, Thank you,
Speaker:Sue. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker:I Am thrilled to have you here and I can't wait
Speaker:to dive into your product because it's just so original.
Speaker:But before we start that I like to align the conversation
Speaker:around the life of a motivational candle.
Speaker:This light shines on you while you share all your stories,
Speaker:your experiences,
Speaker:and your expertise.
Speaker:Are you ready to light it Up?
Speaker:I am ready.
Speaker:Awesome. Let's envision your candle.
Speaker:What color is it?
Speaker:And what's the motivational quote on the camera For me,
Speaker:my candle would have to be red because it reminds me
Speaker:to always be bold and to be confident.
Speaker:So that is the color I am picking.
Speaker:And right now,
Speaker:along with my business,
Speaker:I teach business courses and I share one of these quotes
Speaker:with my students all the time.
Speaker:The quote is there are no secrets to success.
Speaker:It is the result of preparation,
Speaker:hard work and learning from failure.
Speaker:So that's a quote from Colin Powell of all people.
Speaker:Ooh, I love Colin Powell.
Speaker:And I also love that quote because it really positions and
Speaker:lays the groundwork that success is available and open to anybody.
Speaker:For Sure.
Speaker:I agree.
Speaker:Okay. I want to dive right into this product because I
Speaker:think it is super interesting.
Speaker:Now gift biz listeners.
Speaker:You're probably going to have to jump over to the website
Speaker:to take a look at her product.
Speaker:And my I'm sure it's front and center somewhere on your
Speaker:website, right?
Speaker:Yeah. We have a video right there,
Speaker:front and center show the,
Speaker:how the product works.
Speaker:Perfect. But before we do that,
Speaker:since most people are listening to the podcast and they're either
Speaker:driving to work or they're in their shop or they're walking
Speaker:their dog doing laundry,
Speaker:whatever. Describe a little bit of what the product is so
Speaker:we can kind of ground everybody before we get started.
Speaker:Yes. So my Product are called shapen store freezer containers,
Speaker:which are containers that are designed to be used to shape
Speaker:individual portions of foods.
Speaker:So think if you're making a soup or a chili or
Speaker:a stew or rice or any kind of food,
Speaker:really that you're preparing,
Speaker:if you just make some extra,
Speaker:you have leftovers.
Speaker:Instead of using those plastic baggies,
Speaker:you can put them in my containers and they will make
Speaker:individual portions for you.
Speaker:So you just pour it in.
Speaker:And then when you freeze it,
Speaker:you can just pop out however many portions you want and
Speaker:put it in the microwave.
Speaker:So everything's ready to go organizes your freezer.
Speaker:You don't have little brochures everywhere,
Speaker:all over the freezer.
Speaker:They're all in very thin,
Speaker:wide containers that are easily to remove.
Speaker:And It's super interesting.
Speaker:And it sounds like something that maybe had been around,
Speaker:like if,
Speaker:if you haven't pictured it before,
Speaker:it might be something that you're thinking you might've seen before,
Speaker:but I guarantee you,
Speaker:you haven't seen these before.
Speaker:They're so cool.
Speaker:Cause they are stackable in your freezer.
Speaker:So they're great for freezer space and they're just all around.
Speaker:Totally creative.
Speaker:So I was so impressed.
Speaker:I met Maya at the New York now show and I
Speaker:saw this product and I'm like,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:what an idea?
Speaker:I need to know the story.
Speaker:So that's what we are all going to learn right now.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So let's go back to the beginning.
Speaker:Maya, where in the world did this thought come from?
Speaker:I know you were already a Baker.
Speaker:You were talking about that,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:as we were doing the intro,
Speaker:but how in the world did you think of this product?
Speaker:Well, just to start with,
Speaker:I had always been an entrepreneurial spirit.
Speaker:My parents were entrepreneurs.
Speaker:I had always wanted to have my own business,
Speaker:but you know,
Speaker:I'd had like different kinds of businesses where I was had
Speaker:a confectionary business.
Speaker:I had a jewelry business,
Speaker:but it wasn't until I was inspired to create my own
Speaker:product and go all in that I found true success.
Speaker:So as you mentioned,
Speaker:so I'm a Baker,
Speaker:right? And at the time when I came up with the
Speaker:idea, I was taking time off to stay home with my
Speaker:kids who were about three and five years old at the
Speaker:time. So I had stopped working for let's say about a
Speaker:year. And I was really into those inventors shows,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:like shark tank and in Canada we have dragons den,
Speaker:which is the version of shark tank here.
Speaker:And I was so motivated.
Speaker:Cause I would see all these people who would come on
Speaker:and they like,
Speaker:Oh, I had an idea.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:I ran with it and now I have my own successful
Speaker:business. And I thought from my experience,
Speaker:I had marketing experience.
Speaker:I have a business degree.
Speaker:I worked in product development for a retailer here.
Speaker:So I had all the building blocks to start my own
Speaker:business. So I thought,
Speaker:well, why don't I try something like this now?
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:it's a good break in my career to do something like
Speaker:this. So as you said,
Speaker:I'm loved to bake and you know,
Speaker:they always say do a business with something that you love.
Speaker:So I love cookie dough and I love cookies.
Speaker:And I thought,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I was baking with my children because I love to bake
Speaker:and I want them to learn to love,
Speaker:to bake.
Speaker:And although it's very fun as I'm sure you can imagine
Speaker:when you're baking with little girls like that,
Speaker:they're not so adept at putting all the ingredients in the
Speaker:mixing bowl the first time.
Speaker:So we would get a lot of mess.
Speaker:So I thought,
Speaker:well, what if we had a product that you could have
Speaker:the fresh homemade cookie dough?
Speaker:Because that's really what I want is to have freshly baked
Speaker:cookies for my family,
Speaker:but without having to make the mess every time.
Speaker:And the other problem was that when I would bake with
Speaker:my kids,
Speaker:they would have one cookie,
Speaker:two cookies,
Speaker:and then I would have a whole batch of cookies staring
Speaker:at me,
Speaker:which I would promptly eat.
Speaker:They taste better when they're fresh,
Speaker:right. So I see Nothing wrong with this Maya,
Speaker:But you know what,
Speaker:if you're doing it every week,
Speaker:it's not,
Speaker:it's not the best,
Speaker:best thing.
Speaker:So I thought,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it'd be great if you could have it ready to go
Speaker:for you in the freezer proportion,
Speaker:ready to go so that when you do want a fresh
Speaker:baked cookie on the fly,
Speaker:my kids come home from school or we come back from
Speaker:an activity,
Speaker:you can just pop out a couple of pieces,
Speaker:put them in the toaster oven,
Speaker:they're ready to go.
Speaker:You don't have to set out and make the batch yourself.
Speaker:And I also don't have the leftover cookies that are staring
Speaker:me in the face at like 11:00 PM at night.
Speaker:So that's what I decided to do.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I did my research and I found out there was nothing
Speaker:like that on the market.
Speaker:Up until that point.
Speaker:I'm sure a lot of your listeners are familiar with the
Speaker:standard way to freeze cookie dough,
Speaker:which is to ball it up and then put it in
Speaker:the freezer and then put it in a plastic baggie,
Speaker:which takes a lot of time.
Speaker:My idea was you would just spread it in close the
Speaker:container. It'll make the portions for you.
Speaker:And then they're ready to go on every Lake.
Speaker:So that was my inspiration.
Speaker:That's how again,
Speaker:So you had this idea,
Speaker:what do you then do with it?
Speaker:What's the next step?
Speaker:Well, because I had had experience in product development.
Speaker:I knew that I could source local manufacturers.
Speaker:I had the confidence to know that as long as I
Speaker:went out and I researched and I tried to find different
Speaker:people who could help me in my process that I could
Speaker:get it done locally,
Speaker:rather than having to say,
Speaker:hire affirmed,
Speaker:that would help me do the product development.
Speaker:I had the confidence to do it myself.
Speaker:So what I did was I came up with an idea
Speaker:of how it should look,
Speaker:how the product would look,
Speaker:how it would cut the cookie dough,
Speaker:what shape it should be in.
Speaker:And then I went around to look for manufacturers.
Speaker:So I had my design and then I had to go
Speaker:and find manufacturers who could actually make a tool for me.
Speaker:The hardest part was figuring out the design of the product.
Speaker:So what it would look like because I wanted something that
Speaker:was going to be very efficient,
Speaker:easy to use.
Speaker:And wouldn't take up a lot of space.
Speaker:That was like my main concern.
Speaker:So once I had that done,
Speaker:then I had to find a manufacturer who could do it
Speaker:for me,
Speaker:who would make a tool and then manufacture the product.
Speaker:So you knew some sources from your prior experience,
Speaker:you had some contacts or knew where you could go to
Speaker:look for a manufacturer.
Speaker:I didn't really have contacts,
Speaker:but I knew that they existed.
Speaker:Yeah. So I knew that it was possible to do it
Speaker:locally. So that I think was the biggest learning that I
Speaker:had going in that enabled me to have the confidence to
Speaker:make it myself.
Speaker:Okay. So did you,
Speaker:You go into them with just like a hand drawing or
Speaker:a computer drawing Or a computer drawing?
Speaker:Exactly. Yes.
Speaker:So you were to some level of professionalism when you came
Speaker:in and it just wasn't like an image on a napkin
Speaker:or something.
Speaker:Right, right,
Speaker:right. Exactly.
Speaker:Yeah. No,
Speaker:I definitely had it.
Speaker:Yes. An idea of what it was going to be.
Speaker:And I had the drawing and then yeah,
Speaker:I had to get quotes on how much it would be
Speaker:and you know,
Speaker:what would be made of and things like that.
Speaker:But I had to learn all of that about manufacturing,
Speaker:like what you make a tool out of and why it
Speaker:needs to be made out of a certain material and what
Speaker:size limitations there are.
Speaker:So all of that and all of that I learned through
Speaker:just asking questions and going to different sources,
Speaker:not just relying on one person that's big learning right there
Speaker:is that you have to get many inputs to make sure
Speaker:that well,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:what you're hearing from one person actually is consistent.
Speaker:It's not just one person's idea.
Speaker:Like from a,
Speaker:if you're going to a doctor,
Speaker:right. You're going to want to get more than one opinion
Speaker:on something.
Speaker:So what types of resources are you talking then specifically the
Speaker:manufacturers or online people or,
Speaker:Yeah. No,
Speaker:exactly. But I'm still just talking about the manufacturing phase,
Speaker:so yeah,
Speaker:for sure.
Speaker:So just talking to them about,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and costs really when you're going in to a business,
Speaker:trying to create something on your own,
Speaker:there's a tendency for some businesses to try and take advantage.
Speaker:If they feel like you might not have the experience and
Speaker:the background to know a lot of the things like the
Speaker:pricing and things like that.
Speaker:So that's why I wanted to go to several different sources
Speaker:so that I could get a clear picture of what I
Speaker:can expect.
Speaker:Very good point and give biz listeners.
Speaker:I want to point out that she already knew what she
Speaker:wanted. She came in.
Speaker:And then I think the biggest thing right here is how
Speaker:resourceful you were.
Speaker:You already knew what you were going to make,
Speaker:but you resourced.
Speaker:Manufacturer's talked to a number of them just to make sure
Speaker:that you were getting consistent information.
Speaker:So you knew you were on the right path.
Speaker:And I think resourcefulness,
Speaker:as we talk about entrepreneurial ship is so important.
Speaker:No, one's going to figure it out for you,
Speaker:but all the information these days is out there in some
Speaker:way, shape or form for us,
Speaker:no matter what we're trying to do,
Speaker:you just have to go find it yourself.
Speaker:Yeah. That's a great point.
Speaker:Sue. I think like we're at the time when anything is
Speaker:possible with all the information that's available,
Speaker:there's so much that you can do yourself now and you
Speaker:can learn from others.
Speaker:I also reached out to other people that I know who
Speaker:had started their own business.
Speaker:As I said,
Speaker:I was watching Dragon's den here and reaching out to the
Speaker:people who were on the show to learn from them as
Speaker:well and their experiences.
Speaker:And if they had any advice for me.
Speaker:Oh, very good.
Speaker:That's a really good resource.
Speaker:I wouldn't have thought of.
Speaker:So I appreciate your sharing that too.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So you're with the manufacturers.
Speaker:How did you know,
Speaker:and this might've been part of your research already,
Speaker:but would they recommend to you the materials that they thought
Speaker:this product should be made of?
Speaker:Or did you already know that?
Speaker:Wow, no,
Speaker:that's a good question.
Speaker:I did not know the materials that were available.
Speaker:So what we did do was I did take the recommendation
Speaker:of the manufacturer that I selected and we did some testing
Speaker:and we figured out which was the best material to go
Speaker:with based on this test that we ran.
Speaker:But in the end I actually had to switch over from
Speaker:manufacturer to a different manufacturer because of the pricing.
Speaker:I couldn't make the pricing work with him.
Speaker:Well, that's a bummer.
Speaker:You did all the R and D with him.
Speaker:And then you,
Speaker:then you had to switch over.
Speaker:Yeah. But I mean,
Speaker:the reason I switched over was because he wasn't willing to
Speaker:work with me on the costing.
Speaker:So then I had to go to a different manufacturer who
Speaker:understood that I was starting out.
Speaker:I was small,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I had very limited budget and he was willing to work
Speaker:with me on a different way.
Speaker:So basically what was going on was he was going to
Speaker:charge me just for my per piece cost and I would
Speaker:supply the material.
Speaker:Whereas the other manufacturer had everything all bundled together and he
Speaker:was upcharging me on certain things.
Speaker:And, you know,
Speaker:I couldn't really hit my price point.
Speaker:I think some of our listeners would be curious and I'm
Speaker:not asking you for specifics,
Speaker:just kind of to get a feel like financially,
Speaker:how do you possibly enter into something like this?
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:did you,
Speaker:did you take a loan?
Speaker:Did you self-fund it,
Speaker:is it expensive?
Speaker:Like what,
Speaker:to the extent that you're willing to share kind of an
Speaker:investment, if you're looking at creating a product and going along
Speaker:the path that you went on,
Speaker:what does that look like?
Speaker:It's an excellent question.
Speaker:I think a lot of times that people think that,
Speaker:and this is the part of this is asking the questions
Speaker:and researching and trying to figure out you have a set
Speaker:budget and figuring out a way to hit that set budget,
Speaker:because it is very tempting to go in and get a
Speaker:big loan and just throw it all at your manufacturing and
Speaker:your inventory.
Speaker:But what I did actually was I had a small budget
Speaker:and I also was involved in a government program that supports
Speaker:entrepreneurs to start new businesses.
Speaker:So I did that,
Speaker:which gave me some seed money to begin with.
Speaker:So that was actually money given to me by the government,
Speaker:Great resource for us to consider,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:some of us are in Canada,
Speaker:some of us aren't,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we're all listeners are all over the world here,
Speaker:but what types of grants or support is there for new
Speaker:Startups? Yeah.
Speaker:And I think there are in every region,
Speaker:there would be something like that available some sort of program.
Speaker:It's just again,
Speaker:doing your research and taking the time to apply.
Speaker:So I was fortunate that I did receive this money.
Speaker:Another thing that helped with funding for my product development was
Speaker:after we launched the smart cookie,
Speaker:we wanted to do new product called the burger master.
Speaker:And we did a Kickstarter campaign for that.
Speaker:Oh, talk to us a little bit about how that works
Speaker:For Kickstarter.
Speaker:It's a crowdfunding platform where you can list a product or
Speaker:I'm sorry,
Speaker:a business idea doesn't have to be a product.
Speaker:And there's a bunch of users who constantly are on there
Speaker:to see if there's any businesses that they would like to
Speaker:support. And it was really amazing because we had the idea
Speaker:we had the prototype already made,
Speaker:and we just wanted to get a sense of,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:what, like,
Speaker:is this going to be good?
Speaker:Are people going to be interested in this product and also
Speaker:to get some seed money to start production?
Speaker:And so we did actually a short campaign.
Speaker:Most campaigns lasts between 30 to 60 days and we did
Speaker:just a 20 campaign and we had a goal of $5,000
Speaker:and we hit our goal of $5,000
Speaker:before the campaign ended,
Speaker:I think like halfway through.
Speaker:So by the time it ended,
Speaker:we had exceeded our goal of 5,000
Speaker:pounds. Oh,
Speaker:that's fabulous.
Speaker:Now that you've done that and had that experience,
Speaker:is there any advice for someone who wants to do a
Speaker:Kickstarter campaign?
Speaker:Yeah. My advice for the Kickstarter is to make sure you
Speaker:have your media plan in place before you start the campaign.
Speaker:So it's not enough to just throw your product or business
Speaker:idea on there.
Speaker:You project on there,
Speaker:you have to know where your sources are going to come
Speaker:from. So you need to set up ahead of time,
Speaker:social media channels to say,
Speaker:this is coming,
Speaker:your project is coming,
Speaker:get people excited about it and be able to drive them
Speaker:to the project page before you begin,
Speaker:that was a big learning for us.
Speaker:You might say,
Speaker:if you're just scrolling through the website,
Speaker:you might say,
Speaker:wow, this is incredible.
Speaker:How are these people?
Speaker:It, people are just out there wanting to throw money at
Speaker:you. Well,
Speaker:there's actually a lot of activities that go on on the
Speaker:backend that you need to prepare for and start before you
Speaker:launch your part.
Speaker:Perfect. Thank you for that advice and congratulations on such a
Speaker:successful Kickstarter campaign.
Speaker:Yes. Thank you.
Speaker:It was,
Speaker:it was very interesting to be a part of that.
Speaker:So we took a little detour here,
Speaker:but let's get back to the conversation about finding that first
Speaker:initial manufacturer Again,
Speaker:it's, you know,
Speaker:asking the questions.
Speaker:So I was going around,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I came up with a tool quotes,
Speaker:like as high as $50,000
Speaker:and then down to like $14,000,
Speaker:that was the range of difference.
Speaker:Meaning to make the initial product,
Speaker:the initial mold or whatever Exactly.
Speaker:Yeah. To make the mold for the product.
Speaker:And then again,
Speaker:ask you the questions like,
Speaker:well, why is there such a price disparity,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and then understanding if I could go with the cheaper version.
Speaker:So, you know,
Speaker:I went with the cheaper version and then I would just
Speaker:do small batches.
Speaker:I wasn't doing large batches.
Speaker:So a lot of times I know that a and we've
Speaker:had an investor say this to us like,
Speaker:Oh, make a hundred thousand units.
Speaker:And then your per piece cost is going to go down.
Speaker:So that'll be great for you.
Speaker:And I'm like,
Speaker:well, I'm actually,
Speaker:that doesn't make sense for me because I'm not going to
Speaker:invest that much money to have inventory sitting on the shelves
Speaker:in my warehouse.
Speaker:Right. Right.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:that's true over time,
Speaker:but you also still need to test the market and see
Speaker:that people are actually going to buy it.
Speaker:So we're going to get into some of the marketing stuff
Speaker:in a minute,
Speaker:but unless,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:for sure that there's a demand there,
Speaker:if you're in a situation like this,
Speaker:yeah. Cost per piece is lower,
Speaker:but that's something you can,
Speaker:you can grow into.
Speaker:Don't have to do it right from the start and then
Speaker:just wrap up all your money into inventory.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:But I think that that's what a lot of people do.
Speaker:They are advised to do that,
Speaker:to buy,
Speaker:especially if you go overseas,
Speaker:right. You have to get larger volume.
Speaker:So that was one of the other reasons I wanted to
Speaker:make my product locally so that I could grow organically and
Speaker:take my time and also keep an eye on the production
Speaker:and manufacturing and make sure that each piece was molded properly.
Speaker:And that there were no issues,
Speaker:my product.
Speaker:So it was a lot of baby steps at the beginning,
Speaker:like just starting small.
Speaker:And if you start small,
Speaker:it's very easy to manage the funds if you're starting like
Speaker:that. Right.
Speaker:So you make a small batch,
Speaker:you sell your first batch and then you can take that
Speaker:money and then reinvest it in another one.
Speaker:Yeah, Exactly.
Speaker:One quick question here,
Speaker:before we move on,
Speaker:from the time that you had your concept and you had
Speaker:it now as a computer design that you were ready to
Speaker:go and talk with manufacturers to the time you had a
Speaker:product ready for sale,
Speaker:how long was that span?
Speaker:I would say from when I first thought of the idea
Speaker:to when I first had my first molded prototype about 18
Speaker:months. Okay.
Speaker:So year and a half-ish and then when was it ready
Speaker:for sale?
Speaker:Once I had the first moldable,
Speaker:the prototype a couple of months after that,
Speaker:You would say a reasonable timeframe because you really shopped around,
Speaker:you did a lot of research in all of that is
Speaker:about two years.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:you could probably rush it and go faster,
Speaker:but your experience for this product was about two years.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Yeah. For my product,
Speaker:for sure.
Speaker:It was two years because it did take the time to
Speaker:figure out how it would look and do the design and
Speaker:then figure out where to have it made.
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:And I wasn't doing it full time either when I first
Speaker:thought of it,
Speaker:I was kicking it around in my head and then trying
Speaker:to figure out,
Speaker:do I want to go ahead and do it?
Speaker:How would I do it?
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:And so now you've got your product and I'm sure simultaneously
Speaker:you're thinking of your sales and marketing plan.
Speaker:Yes. Talk us a little bit,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you've got this great product now.
Speaker:How is everyone going to know about it?
Speaker:How are you going to actually make sales?
Speaker:Yeah. So that is the next big challenge.
Speaker:What did you do there?
Speaker:Well, I actually had in my head,
Speaker:I thought,
Speaker:well, you know,
Speaker:this is such an awesome product because when you talk to
Speaker:people about it,
Speaker:right, they're excited.
Speaker:They're enthusiastic.
Speaker:I had a lot of encouragement.
Speaker:So You did some focus group type things.
Speaker:Oh, I talked to everybody.
Speaker:Okay. Yeah.
Speaker:I talked to everybody.
Speaker:I could think of to ask them the question.
Speaker:What do you think,
Speaker:would you use this?
Speaker:Is this something you've seen before?
Speaker:And What point in the process did you start doing that?
Speaker:Oh, I think right away.
Speaker:I was hoping that's what you'd say.
Speaker:Okay. Yeah,
Speaker:Yeah. Right away.
Speaker:And then I thought,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:here, there's a few places that I,
Speaker:cause I worked in the retail environment and I know that
Speaker:I, my job was to meet with a lot of businesses
Speaker:to bring in new products to the store.
Speaker:And so I thought that,
Speaker:Oh, you know,
Speaker:it's not going to be problem because I know it's a
Speaker:unique item and there's a big market out there.
Speaker:And I had done the numbers of how many households would
Speaker:potentially buy this product and have super enthusiastic.
Speaker:And the first couple of places that I thought were going
Speaker:to, it would be a slam dunk.
Speaker:It was not,
Speaker:let's say a slam dunk,
Speaker:not even close.
Speaker:Okay. So let me back it,
Speaker:back it up.
Speaker:So your strategy then was not directly to consumer.
Speaker:You wanted to go through stores.
Speaker:I did want to go through stores.
Speaker:Yes. So I thought I needed the numbers.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:she had it into the store versus to consumers directly.
Speaker:Sure. Okay.
Speaker:I just wanted to clarify that before we continued.
Speaker:Okay. So the first two people saw this awesome product and
Speaker:they took a pass.
Speaker:So Let me give you an example.
Speaker:So we have a major hardware chain here in Canada and
Speaker:it's a Canadian chain and they are,
Speaker:and when I would tell people about this product,
Speaker:they were like,
Speaker:Oh, you should go to this store because they have very
Speaker:cool things.
Speaker:And they're always doing commercials for these unique gifty kitchen,
Speaker:gadgety ideas.
Speaker:This would be perfect for that.
Speaker:So I thought,
Speaker:sure, that's a great idea.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:and I thought it's a Canadian product made in Canada.
Speaker:It's perfect for them.
Speaker:It's unique.
Speaker:It solves a problem.
Speaker:It's demonstrable,
Speaker:so they could do a commercial for it.
Speaker:So I went into meet with the buyer.
Speaker:I was really excited.
Speaker:She was really nice.
Speaker:And I even agreed to give her the price.
Speaker:It was lower than I wanted.
Speaker:And actually at this time,
Speaker:I should mentioned that I had my idea for my next
Speaker:product, which was called the burger master,
Speaker:which is a freezer container that shapes and stores eight quarter
Speaker:pounders at once,
Speaker:which I thought would be maybe more applicable to them because
Speaker:it is a hardware store and they sell barbecues and things
Speaker:like that in the meeting,
Speaker:she was excited about it.
Speaker:And then when I followed up,
Speaker:she decided to do a pass.
Speaker:She's like,
Speaker:actually yeah,
Speaker:no, I decided I'm not going to go ahead.
Speaker:I'm not going to buy this product.
Speaker:What did you do when you hung up the phone?
Speaker:Well, I was,
Speaker:as you can imagine,
Speaker:I was devastated because I thought this is perfect.
Speaker:How can she not see that this is perfect,
Speaker:but you know what?
Speaker:That was just the first,
Speaker:in many,
Speaker:many struggles that I've had in the business and it's fine
Speaker:now. Like I'm okay with it.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I thought,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:at the time I couldn't believe it,
Speaker:but you know,
Speaker:why? Like it just made me stronger and made me realize,
Speaker:okay, you know what,
Speaker:let's take a step back.
Speaker:And I changed my strategy.
Speaker:And what I did was instead was I went to independent
Speaker:kitchen stores,
Speaker:local stores,
Speaker:and I presented the smart cookie.
Speaker:So I had it already ready to go and my package
Speaker:and I asked them if they would take my product on
Speaker:consignment because a lot of them were hesitant to like,
Speaker:Oh, I don't know,
Speaker:you're an independent because they're used to dealing with distributors.
Speaker:And they said,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you're an independent,
Speaker:I don't know if we want to bring in an independent
Speaker:product. What if it doesn't sell?
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:you know what?
Speaker:I'm so confident it's going to sell,
Speaker:I'll give it to you on consignment.
Speaker:And so that's how I started.
Speaker:So then I started to build my stores locally around my
Speaker:city. In two months,
Speaker:I got into about 13 stores.
Speaker:Oh wow.
Speaker:I was getting reorders and developing relationships with the store owners.
Speaker:So it was really great.
Speaker:It was a great learning for me.
Speaker:And I really learned a lot from the store owners to
Speaker:what they're looking for and what their hesitations are and how
Speaker:I can overcome those hesitations,
Speaker:which really prepared me more for when I met with the
Speaker:bigger buyers.
Speaker:Sure. The thing I like about your story is that you
Speaker:were seeing some resistance from the bigger buyers.
Speaker:And so you didn't just keep doing the same thing you
Speaker:analyzed, what was going on.
Speaker:You thought about what you needed to tweak in terms of
Speaker:going to a different option for now,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:the meaning more of the local stores and then also doing
Speaker:the consignment.
Speaker:It's kind of like,
Speaker:why would you not right?
Speaker:Why would they buy a new product?
Speaker:That's so unique and different like this,
Speaker:if they're selling similar types of things,
Speaker:because the customer they were attracting was clearly the customer who
Speaker:would buy your product.
Speaker:I also tell you Sue.
Speaker:So after a couple of years now selling my products,
Speaker:I have were in some larger chains.
Speaker:And we're also in small independent stores.
Speaker:I find that the independent stores are really a much better
Speaker:fit for my products,
Speaker:just because the staff are so enthusiastic about them because they
Speaker:have a little video player that they get with it as
Speaker:well. And they're so enthusiastic.
Speaker:And when they meet me,
Speaker:we have such a great relationship and they want to help
Speaker:me succeed that they draw the customers to the products.
Speaker:Like they bring them there.
Speaker:It's not just sitting on the shelf,
Speaker:right. So their customers come in and they say,
Speaker:what's new.
Speaker:What you have that I can buy for my friend,
Speaker:who's having a baby or what can I buy friends getting
Speaker:married? What should I get them?
Speaker:And they dry,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:take them right to my products and say,
Speaker:this is awesome.
Speaker:And then the enthusiasm translates.
Speaker:So I don't know if a lot of companies would say
Speaker:the same,
Speaker:but I prefer to be with the smaller independence.
Speaker:And so you were mentioning now that you are also in
Speaker:some larger chains,
Speaker:how did that affect the inventory before we were talking about
Speaker:manufacturing and producing smaller lots,
Speaker:initially what happened as you started building the business to your
Speaker:inventory? Yes.
Speaker:So, because we had been selling in the smaller stores,
Speaker:we were making money,
Speaker:so I could take that money to build more inventory.
Speaker:So it was growing organically.
Speaker:So I could manage the demand because I was selling smaller
Speaker:amounts. And then once I would get a larger order,
Speaker:I had the money to fund that because I had been
Speaker:selling. Wonderful.
Speaker:Yeah. And then,
Speaker:And so then I did actually get into the bigger chains
Speaker:by going with a distributor.
Speaker:Okay. Which is something I had learned from the smaller stores.
Speaker:So like,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you're probably gonna want to go with a distributor if you
Speaker:want to get into the chains.
Speaker:So, and that's What I did talk a little bit about
Speaker:how that works.
Speaker:Well, actually,
Speaker:so one of the sales reps for distributors saw me in
Speaker:one of the first stores that I had gotten into the
Speaker:independence and he came to me and he said,
Speaker:Oh, it's a great product.
Speaker:Do you have a distributor that you're working with?
Speaker:So that's how I came to work with them.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:And the numbers probably look a little bit differently for the
Speaker:products that are going through to distributor versus the products that
Speaker:you're selling directly to the smaller boutiques.
Speaker:Definitely. Yeah.
Speaker:Okay. All right.
Speaker:But it's The,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:the volume,
Speaker:right. So sure,
Speaker:sure. It's a balancing act.
Speaker:Yeah. And I really like what you're talking about in terms
Speaker:of the smaller store sales,
Speaker:then providing you a stable financial platform for the point where
Speaker:you get into the larger ones really worth going.
Speaker:I won't say slow and steady,
Speaker:but medium and steady being able to fund it as you
Speaker:go makes you sleep better at night issue.
Speaker:It sure does.
Speaker:But it also has a proof of concept,
Speaker:right? Because you can say,
Speaker:well, you know,
Speaker:I am selling right now and I'm getting reorders and I'm
Speaker:getting positive customer feedback.
Speaker:So it gives you proof of concept to go to the
Speaker:larger buyers and say,
Speaker:it's not coming up cold off the street.
Speaker:Like I have support for this product.
Speaker:So after a year of selling my products in stores,
Speaker:my husband actually quit his full-time job and joined the business
Speaker:with me.
Speaker:So now we work together on growing the business.
Speaker:That is awesome.
Speaker:Was that an initial goal of yours at some point for
Speaker:both of you to be working the business?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Did you just say,
Speaker:we're looking at the bank account and I'm looking at things
Speaker:that need to get done and we need more help got
Speaker:free free labor row.
Speaker:And if the,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:he was always Supportive,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:the funny thing is,
Speaker:is he doesn't even like cookies,
Speaker:but when I came to him with the idea about the
Speaker:smart cookies,
Speaker:like I think that's fantastic.
Speaker:I think,
Speaker:yeah, You should do it.
Speaker:Let's do it.
Speaker:Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker:He was so supportive and I,
Speaker:yeah, I couldn't have done it without his support obviously.
Speaker:Right. I bet he likes cookies now.
Speaker:Well, he loves burgers.
Speaker:So after the smart cookies,
Speaker:like let's make a product that I would use.
Speaker:So We said,
Speaker:okay, let's do a burger version.
Speaker:And that's the one that yeah.
Speaker:Is near and dear to his heart.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:But you know,
Speaker:working together,
Speaker:it's really,
Speaker:It's just been phenomenal.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:we've grown the business exponentially since he started.
Speaker:Cause we started with our online activities at that point.
Speaker:So we started getting really into Facebook,
Speaker:which has been huge for us.
Speaker:I know you've talked about the importance of social media businesses.
Speaker:Absolutely. Talk a little bit about what you're doing on social
Speaker:media. That's that's a good place to go next.
Speaker:Okay. So on Facebook,
Speaker:our product seems to be a perfect fit for Facebook because
Speaker:we do constantly upload videos on how to use the products
Speaker:and the recipes to use with the products and how it'll
Speaker:make your life easier.
Speaker:Because that is my mission.
Speaker:My mission is to help busy households,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:not just people with kids,
Speaker:but people,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:who work 12 hours a day,
Speaker:you come home,
Speaker:you want to have something that you can heat at home.
Speaker:You don't want to have to stop off at the grocery
Speaker:store. You don't want to have to stop off at a
Speaker:fast food restaurant.
Speaker:This is faster than any of those things.
Speaker:So you just go to your freezer,
Speaker:pull it out and heat it in the microwave or on
Speaker:the stove top.
Speaker:And you have a comforting warm meal for you ready to
Speaker:go. So that is my mission to help people make food
Speaker:at home and healthy are to so much healthier.
Speaker:Yeah. And also I have picky eaters.
Speaker:I don't know if anyone out there has picky eaters,
Speaker:but my kids and my husband are all picky eaters.
Speaker:So now everyone has their own favorite meal ready to go
Speaker:in a container.
Speaker:Right? So one person can have plain rice,
Speaker:one person can have fried rice.
Speaker:Another person can have stew good point.
Speaker:And we all sit down and eat together.
Speaker:We eat the same food.
Speaker:Yeah. And it's great for families with allergies.
Speaker:If you're worried about the cross-contamination right.
Speaker:You can have one container for the person who has a
Speaker:specific food restrictions and it's ready to go.
Speaker:You don't have to make two separate meals.
Speaker:Right. Okay.
Speaker:So you're doing on Facebook,
Speaker:you're doing video demos.
Speaker:Are you doing any selling directly from Facebook?
Speaker:We do.
Speaker:We do sell directly from Facebook.
Speaker:We started that out of the buy here button a couple
Speaker:of months ago.
Speaker:How's that going?
Speaker:It's amazing.
Speaker:We're drawing people to our website actually just last week.
Speaker:So it's great that we have this podcast today because just
Speaker:last week we had a huge spike in our sales because
Speaker:one of our videos went viral.
Speaker:I guess it's because spring,
Speaker:I don't know what it was.
Speaker:It was just a video that we had been running for
Speaker:a while about how to use the burgermaster and it just
Speaker:went viral and people were sharing it and sharing it.
Speaker:And we had over 7 million views on that one video.
Speaker:Wow. Yeah,
Speaker:it was amazing.
Speaker:And just the comments people were leaving and we doubled our
Speaker:Facebook following.
Speaker:So we had about 35,000.
Speaker:Now we have 70,000
Speaker:Facebook followers just within a few days.
Speaker:That's crazy.
Speaker:Congratulations on that.
Speaker:That's super Was amazing.
Speaker:It was so exciting,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:just to see the power of social media.
Speaker:Absolutely incredible.
Speaker:Yeah. Were you running targeted ads or who was your audience
Speaker:with these videos?
Speaker:We're running several ads related to the different products,
Speaker:but we found actually that it's more effective to have a
Speaker:wider target target audience set up for your ads.
Speaker:So because before we were narrowing it more to a smaller
Speaker:age range with different interests,
Speaker:and then once we opened it up,
Speaker:we found it was more of an uptake on people viewing
Speaker:the videos.
Speaker:Very interesting because normally people will say niche it down,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:go through power editor,
Speaker:niche it down,
Speaker:really identify your audience.
Speaker:Now it's also because of your product,
Speaker:because your product was spans a wide range of people.
Speaker:Yeah. I think that's the key cause you really,
Speaker:you don't know unless you try,
Speaker:right. You might have a view of,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:who your target audience is.
Speaker:And then something like,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we've even had people come to us and say,
Speaker:well, this would be great for pet food.
Speaker:A lot of people are making their own pet food now.
Speaker:So like,
Speaker:Oh, I would love to use this to make my dog
Speaker:food and you know,
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:And I'm like,
Speaker:I never would have,
Speaker:I don't have a dog,
Speaker:so I never would have thought of that.
Speaker:Right. But it's because if you widen the audience and you
Speaker:listen to your customers and you look at the feedback and
Speaker:you look at the comments,
Speaker:you can learn so much from your audience base through social
Speaker:media, You can learn so much from your audience.
Speaker:So true.
Speaker:So true.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I want to back up for one second.
Speaker:Cause you had mentioned something when we were talking in store
Speaker:that I just want to capture before we move on.
Speaker:And that was,
Speaker:I heard you really quickly talk about in store.
Speaker:You also have video playing on how to use the product.
Speaker:Yes, yes.
Speaker:That is correct.
Speaker:Okay. So where in the process did you decide that that
Speaker:was what you were going to do and talk us through
Speaker:how that all was created?
Speaker:We decided to do a video in the store because it
Speaker:was such a new concept.
Speaker:Like there was nothing around that actually did this function,
Speaker:right? Like no one,
Speaker:even when you try to explain it to people and on
Speaker:our product,
Speaker:we had illustrations on the friend to show people how it,
Speaker:and it was just such a new concept that people really
Speaker:had a hard time grasping.
Speaker:Like how does this actually work?
Speaker:Like how would I actually use this product?
Speaker:So we had to develop a video.
Speaker:So we noticed when we were doing shows,
Speaker:we were at like a craft show or a trade show.
Speaker:We would have a video there and people would just sit
Speaker:and watch the video.
Speaker:They wouldn't come and talk to us.
Speaker:They would just kind of stand a few feet away and
Speaker:just stand and watch the video.
Speaker:And then we would see them nodding their heads like,
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:Yeah. So we wanted to take that experience and put it
Speaker:into the stores beside the product so that the onus wasn't
Speaker:all on the sales person to try and paint a picture
Speaker:for them.
Speaker:We really needed to be able to show quickly in 30
Speaker:seconds, how easily it works and what you would use it
Speaker:for. So do you provide what a rotating loop video to
Speaker:any store that purchases your product?
Speaker:Or is it a requirement?
Speaker:It's not a requirement,
Speaker:but we highly encourage the stores to get the video player.
Speaker:So depending on the order size,
Speaker:we'll give you the video player for free,
Speaker:or you can purchase the video player because,
Speaker:and even when you purchase it,
Speaker:we've subsidized the cost of the video player.
Speaker:So it's like,
Speaker:you'd go buy on yourself.
Speaker:It's at a better cost because we found that stores have
Speaker:told us that when you have the player,
Speaker:it just sells itself.
Speaker:People can see it,
Speaker:they like it.
Speaker:They want it it's easy.
Speaker:Right. And so all they need is a power source,
Speaker:Use a power source plug and play.
Speaker:But also we find a lot of stores now have their
Speaker:own monitor in the store.
Speaker:So they just say,
Speaker:Oh, just send me where your website is or your YouTube
Speaker:channel. And I'll just play it from there.
Speaker:I don't even need my own video player.
Speaker:Yeah. Well,
Speaker:and anything you can do to assist them to move product
Speaker:is a win-win for both of you.
Speaker:Definitely. Yeah.
Speaker:So that's why you need to keep a handle on the
Speaker:relationship with the store owners to see what they need,
Speaker:because not everybody wants to have a video player and if
Speaker:they don't need a video player,
Speaker:then we'll give the marketing material to support which specific product
Speaker:they have to show the different uses.
Speaker:So we're very open to working individually with the stores.
Speaker:It sounds like though,
Speaker:you've done a comparison and people who are doing the player
Speaker:are moving more product.
Speaker:Yes. Yeah.
Speaker:Or they're playing the video themselves.
Speaker:Right. They have,
Speaker:they have a way to find type of a demo.
Speaker:Yes, definitely.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:Maya, we're going to move on now to the reflection section.
Speaker:This is where we look at you and your activities and
Speaker:what you're doing that makes you so successful.
Speaker:I want you to think back when you were little baking
Speaker:those cookies,
Speaker:you've already talked about the fact that,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you've kind of had that entrepreneurial spirit the whole time,
Speaker:but what specific trait is it that you call on each
Speaker:and every time?
Speaker:So that you're successful?
Speaker:I would say the most beneficial trait I have is the
Speaker:ability to push the envelope and to ask questions.
Speaker:So I know that people's tendencies is to stay within their
Speaker:comfort zone,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and to just use experiences that they had.
Speaker:I try to push people to think differently just because you've
Speaker:done one way.
Speaker:Doesn't mean you can't try another way.
Speaker:When I started a lot of the people I was talking
Speaker:to, they're like,
Speaker:well, you can't make this here.
Speaker:You can't make a locally.
Speaker:You're going to have to go to China.
Speaker:Like there's no way you can't make the costs work.
Speaker:You're not going to be able to find the expertise here
Speaker:that you need.
Speaker:I just stuck to my guns.
Speaker:And I kept asking questions and looking for the right people
Speaker:who were there,
Speaker:who were going to support me and work with me and
Speaker:go forward with new challenges with me.
Speaker:So I think that was the most important thing in building
Speaker:my business was just asking the question,
Speaker:like, why not?
Speaker:When people would say,
Speaker:Oh, you can't do that.
Speaker:And I would say,
Speaker:why not?
Speaker:Usually when you ask people that question,
Speaker:they don't have a good answer.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:they're usually they,
Speaker:their first instinct,
Speaker:not maliciously,
Speaker:but just their first instinct is to say,
Speaker:no, no,
Speaker:no, we don't do it that way.
Speaker:And then just to say,
Speaker:why not really opens it up and gets people thinking?
Speaker:And that's really what I try to do.
Speaker:Cause I have a goal and I have a end point
Speaker:in mind and I want to get there.
Speaker:Yeah. You know what?
Speaker:That's really big Maya,
Speaker:because most people would just accept that and stop give biz
Speaker:listeners. I want you to think about this because what Maya
Speaker:is saying is why not prove it,
Speaker:prove that I can't do it.
Speaker:And she went out to prove that she could.
Speaker:And it's those people who challenge the standard thought process.
Speaker:If you will,
Speaker:who are able to create products like Maya's doing.
Speaker:So if you have an idea,
Speaker:you have a concept.
Speaker:Someone has said to you,
Speaker:it's not going to work or has,
Speaker:have given you any type of resistance.
Speaker:Listen to what Maya's saying here and consider to yourself,
Speaker:ask and why not.
Speaker:Okay. Really good point.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:You said that what tool in your normal course of a
Speaker:day, do you use regularly to keep productive at the office
Speaker:or to keep yourself balanced with your work life versus your
Speaker:family? I would say the biggest tool for our business is
Speaker:Facebook. Just because you have that immediate connection with your audience
Speaker:right away,
Speaker:you get a sense of whether something is successful or you
Speaker:need to tweak it a little bit more.
Speaker:You get that immediate response.
Speaker:And if you take the time to put out content and
Speaker:then review how the content is performing,
Speaker:I think a lot of businesses might just throw things up
Speaker:and not really track what's working.
Speaker:What's not working.
Speaker:And they just keep trying to add content,
Speaker:add content,
Speaker:but we really like to review it,
Speaker:get the customer feedback and change course,
Speaker:if necessary,
Speaker:if we're finding that something is not resonating or not applicable
Speaker:to our audience,
Speaker:You're using Facebook as really a communication tool.
Speaker:And it sounds like you're getting quite a bit of engaged.
Speaker:Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker:I love it personally.
Speaker:I was not a big fan of Facebook,
Speaker:but for business it's invaluable.
Speaker:Cool. And do you have any tips for people of how
Speaker:you balance being an entrepreneur in your life and also raising
Speaker:a young family with a pet bunny?
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I think Being with my husband makes it easier because we
Speaker:are both working together and then we can trade off with
Speaker:the children.
Speaker:We're both with each other all the time.
Speaker:And then we can work with the kids childcare and things
Speaker:like that.
Speaker:We're still trying to figure out how to balance everything because
Speaker:as you can imagine,
Speaker:the internet is so much opportunity,
Speaker:but also provides immediate access and it never shuts off.
Speaker:So we're always answering questions from our customers 24 seven,
Speaker:because we're so enthusiastic.
Speaker:We want to get back to them right away.
Speaker:We don't want to have a big delay in response.
Speaker:Sure. I think balance and things change too.
Speaker:Not only does the internet change,
Speaker:but your family changes as your girls get older,
Speaker:their needs will keep changing.
Speaker:So I think balance is always an issue.
Speaker:That's true.
Speaker:And if any of your listeners have any tips for them,
Speaker:Fun out of balance,
Speaker:keep listening to the podcast because everyone gives another answer.
Speaker:Right? That's true.
Speaker:Have you read them book lately that you think our listeners
Speaker:would find value in?
Speaker:Yeah. I actually just read a book Called the confidence game
Speaker:by Maria Konnikova and she talks about people who are con
Speaker:men, the tactics that they use,
Speaker:which I am not using for my business.
Speaker:I'm not trying to caught anyone,
Speaker:but it was really interesting because the learning in that book
Speaker:was that you need to listen more than you talk.
Speaker:You need to be able to listen to people when they're
Speaker:not just customers,
Speaker:even suppliers or anyone that you're dealing with,
Speaker:what are they looking for?
Speaker:What kind of problems are they trying to solve?
Speaker:What are they hesitant about?
Speaker:So you can't get that information unless you're listening.
Speaker:And I think a lot of times people just want to
Speaker:get their agenda out there and they'd talk and talk and
Speaker:talk and return.
Speaker:They're not really listening.
Speaker:That was really something that made me think,
Speaker:Oh, that's a good point.
Speaker:I really should focus on listening.
Speaker:And it's something you have to really make an effort to
Speaker:do sometimes is to just be still and just listen to
Speaker:the person that you're talking to.
Speaker:So that was a good reminder for me.
Speaker:I'm always so eager to get going and I need to
Speaker:take the time to calm down and then settle and listen,
Speaker:and then prepare my answer.
Speaker:Yeah. Sometimes the answers can be when you're listening based on
Speaker:whatever you're talking about,
Speaker:but the confidence game,
Speaker:I don't know that I'm going to have to check into
Speaker:that book and gift biz listeners,
Speaker:just as you're listening to the podcast today,
Speaker:you can also listen to audio books with ease.
Speaker:I've teamed up with audible for you to be able to
Speaker:get an audio book,
Speaker:just like the confidence game for free.
Speaker:Just jump over to gift biz,
Speaker:book.com and pick a book.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:Maya, I would like you to join me in dare to
Speaker:dream. I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.
Speaker:It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
Speaker:This is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable Heights
Speaker:that you would wish to obtain.
Speaker:Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
Speaker:What is inside your box?
Speaker:I have big dreams and my would be to have one
Speaker:of my containers in every freezer across the globe,
Speaker:because I want everyone to be able to eat healthier,
Speaker:lead, more organized,
Speaker:healthier lives.
Speaker:And so that is what I would like.
Speaker:I would like people to try it out and be able
Speaker:to use it every day because I know it's changed my
Speaker:life and has changed a lot of my customer's lives.
Speaker:And I also want to continue to help to motivate and
Speaker:teach young entrepreneurs as well because that's very important to me
Speaker:is to share my Learnings because I think that everyone Can
Speaker:learn from other's experiences.
Speaker:And I'm very big on sharing that and also learning.
Speaker:I, you know,
Speaker:I find in my classes that I learned from my students
Speaker:as much as they learn from me.
Speaker:So that's something I would like to continue.
Speaker:Well, you never stopped learning true.
Speaker:If you're open to it,
Speaker:you Have to be open to it.
Speaker:And I definitely am Absolutely well,
Speaker:I love this idea and we're going to help you hopefully
Speaker:start filling up those freezers all across America and the world.
Speaker:I guess I should say if there were one or two
Speaker:places that you would direct our listeners to go to have
Speaker:more information about you or the product,
Speaker:what would those be?
Speaker:So my website is shape and store.com.
Speaker:You can send me an email@mayaatshapeandstore.com,
Speaker:M a Y a@shapeandstore.com
Speaker:and visit us on Facebook.
Speaker:And we also have a YouTube channel where we have all
Speaker:our words,
Speaker:Ideas, and as you all know,
Speaker:jump over to our show notes page at gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped.com. And there you will see all of Maya's contact information
Speaker:and everything involving this episode,
Speaker:right there.
Speaker:Ready and waiting for you.
Speaker:I would also like to be,
Speaker:You mentioned that last week after we had our huge sales
Speaker:spike, that we became the number two most wished for item
Speaker:on amazon.com.
Speaker:No way and kitchen and dining.
Speaker:Yeah. Our burger master.
Speaker:Wow. How did you find out?
Speaker:Well, you can Go and you can just look at the
Speaker:rankings on the website on Amazon.
Speaker:We were in the top 10 before,
Speaker:but now we're at number two and we're actually sold out.
Speaker:So it still continues to go.
Speaker:So we're very excited about that.
Speaker:Wow. This is a way that we can help you realize
Speaker:this dream.
Speaker:Maya, we didn't even talk about you being on Amazon at
Speaker:all, but if someone were to go and search on Amazon,
Speaker:is it just under shape and store?
Speaker:You can do shape and store.
Speaker:You can do the burger master the smart cookie,
Speaker:and they're all linked to the other products.
Speaker:So if you click on those two,
Speaker:then you'll see our other parts.
Speaker:Perfect. While I'm so glad you shared that.
Speaker:And man,
Speaker:Maya, you are moving in shaken with this product TRIBE.
Speaker:Yeah, sure.
Speaker:Brian, and thank you for your support.
Speaker:Everyone got so much support.
Speaker:So yes.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:I loved sharing this story.
Speaker:I really appreciate you giving a deep dive into how the
Speaker:product was created.
Speaker:It just helps motivate other people who have ideas of their
Speaker:own. Look what Maya's done with this all the way up
Speaker:to huge,
Speaker:super success,
Speaker:both on Facebook then on Amazon And Maya,
Speaker:we hope that your candle continues to always burn bright.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Sue learn how to work smarter while developing and growing your
Speaker:business. Download our guide called 25 free tools to enhance your
Speaker:business 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:Today's show is sponsored 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 product with
Speaker:your logo for print,
Speaker: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
Speaker:seconds. Check out the ribbon print company.com
Speaker:for more information.
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 form@giftunwrapped.com
Speaker:forward slash guest gift biz,
