Juniper Studio create bespoke keepsakes, gifts and decor. With a passion for treasuring the small things in life, they pride themselves on sustainability, crafting keepsakes for families to look back on and treasure for generations to come.

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Georgina Robinson is the founder of Juniper Studio, who create bespoke keepsakes, gifts and decor. She has a passion for treasuring small things in life, and she prides herself on sustainability and crafting keepsakes for families to look back on and treasure for generations to come. 

Georgina and I speak a lot about her products, her inspiration, and how she is making her business more sustainable and reducing its environmental impact, including using a Shopify app which means a tree is planted every time Georgina receives an order. 

Listen in to hear Georgina share:

• An introduction to herself and her business (00:55)
• How she started her business (02:03)
• Working with Not On The High Street (02:57)
• Using content creators to help with social media marketing (06:18)
• Managing her time (08:13)
• Creating her products (09:53)
• Making her business more sustainable (14:42)
• How small businesses are leading the way with sustainability (29:51)
• Her number one piece of advice for other authors (31:43)

USEFUL RESOURCES:

Juniper Studio Website

Juniper Studio Instagram

Juniper Studio on Not On The High Street

Greencast

Tree Nation Shopify App

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Welcome to the, Bring Your Product Ideas To Life podcast, practical advice,

and inspiration to help you create and sell your own physical products.

Here's your host Vicki Weinberg.

Today, I'm talking to Georgina Robinson from Juniper Studios, Georgina creates

bespoke keepsakes gifts and decor.

She has a passion for treasuring small things in life, and she prides

herself on sustainability and crafting keepsakes for families to look back on

and treasure for generations to come.

Georgina and I speak a lot about her products, her inspiration,

and as always, this is a really useful and interesting episode.

So I'd love now to introduce you to Georgina.

Say hi, Georgina.

Thank you so much for being here.

Hi, thanks for having me.

Oh, you're so welcome.

Can we start by you please by you giving an introduction to yourself, your

business and what you create and sell.

Yeah, sure.

So, um, I am Georgina.

I am a mom of one.

My business kind of started really, um, all of my product business kind of

started after having our little girl, um, but I'm a graphic designer by trade.

Um, I used to do, um, freelance graphic design essentially, and then now

have moved into a product business.

So, um, Juniper Studios, um, I started out by doing, uh, illustrations,

um, but now have branched out into kind of personalized keepsakes,

um, gifts, birth announcements, um, things like that really.

Oh, that's amazing.

And I haven't, I haven't honed my elevator pitch yet.

Can you tell?

You don't need to, you can take, you know, what it takes time

and it would change as well.

So it change and evolve, but that's great.

And I had to look at your website and I absolutely love the drawings

you do from people's photographs.

I think they're, I don't know if drawings is the right word.

Apologies if I use the wrong terms now and again, but, um, yes.

Yeah, that's, that's what I started with really.

So, um, after having a little girl sort of six months, she was about six months

old and I just thought, oh, I need, I need something to kind of get my mind

back ticking back into kind of design.

And I was always just planning to go back to doing freelance design.

Really.

Um, I started doing these illustrations.

They were picked up by Not On The High Street um, and it kind

of just went from there really.

Um, and then I just got to the point where I realized that I'm not able to

scale really that business because it relies on me and my time, um, completely.

So, um, Then chose to kind of make the leap and make an investment in some

machinery to be able to create more personalized rather than bespoke stuff.

Um, so yeah, and then that's where, that's where I am now really.

But yeah, the illustrations was the start of everything.

So, um, portraits, house portraits, pet portraits, anything.

And how did you get picked up by Not On The High Street?

How did that come about?

Um, so it was a friend of mine who used to work for them, um, and she said, oh, you

should just, you should just go for it.

And, um, I kind of dropped a message and they were like, yeah, apply.

And then I went through the application process and first time got accepted and

I was like, this was like in my five-year plan was get on, Not On The High Street.

So, and I did it within about three months.

So I was freaking out a little bit.

And yeah, it's, it's gone from there really with being

in a few of their campaigns.

So they selected me to be in a mother's Valentine's campaign

last year, Christmas campaign.

Um, and that's when it goes really nuts, but yeah.

Oh, that's amazing.

And was that with your bespoke illustrations or with the

more personalized products?

Yeah, so that was where I was just doing the illustration.

Um, and then I'm putting more and more, I've kind of, sort of left,

not on the high street, really ticking along with the illustrations.

Um, just from a commission perspective, there's a lot less

margin in the personalized, um, items.

So it's quite, it can be quite tricky, um, to, with the, with the amount of

commission that they do take on sales.

Um, so I've got a few things on there that do quite well on the personalized

side of stuff, but I have left.

A lot with the, with the illustrations, to be honest, I'm not in the high street.

Yeah.

I've never sold or not in the high street myself, but I've had that.

The commission is quite high.

Yeah.

I don't know if I'm allowed to say so.

I don't know.

I don't know why if but I'm not, I'm purposely not asking you.

Cause I don't know if you're allowed to say, and I would rather not ask,

not put you in that position, but I've heard it's quite high, I guess

it makes sense that if, I mean, it's also a margins as such, because you're

creating a product yourself, but I guess with maybe things that take a little

while and don't have a very high price.

It possibly isn't worth not want to say isn't worth it.

You know what I mean?

I guess it might not work as well for you as selling that same product

on your website or an Instagram.

Exactly.

I mean, so take into account like the cost of wood and then rising

cost of electricity with the machinery and then cost of postage

and packaging once you do all that.

And then I would have to put the personalized stuff on,

Not On The High Street at different price point, basically.

Um, so it's just weighing up whether, whether to do that or not, and making

those decisions or taking a bit of a hit on margin, but with the cost of everything

at the moment, going a bit crazy.

It just, I just need to review everything constantly and it's,

it's just a bit exhausting to have them on so many different platforms.

So I've just, so my, the bulk of my sales come from my Shopify site

and I drive them from Instagram.

Um, and a little bit of Pinterest when I get the time and PR when I get

the time, um, But, yeah, so I've just gone on to Etsy as well, actually,

basically just to use their IOSS number, to ship abroad, um, to take

a little bit of the admin out of it.

Um, so.

Having to update listings and pricing and all these things on all different

platforms when it's the business is still just me at the moment.

So it's just, yeah.

Part of it's an admin time issue, but yeah.

Part of it's margins issue.

Yeah.

I guess that makes sense.

When you talk about the time and managing listings, because obviously the products

that you produce take your time as well.

Yeah.

So it's, it's a weigh up between actually setting time aside, like to

say, actually this is an admin day, or this is a marketing day, like creating

content, doing product photography.

Um, I do, I still do most of all of that myself.

I occasionally outsource photography or I'm very lucky to have some

lovely relationships with some fantastic content creators.

Um, On Instagram, who, who I either pay to create content or they create content

in return for gifts, for their children.

Um, so that, that can take some time off of my plate, but yeah, it's it.

And then.

The orders come in and then the more marketing you do

and the more orders come in.

And then it's a, it's a, it's a perpetuating cycle, but a

nice one to have, obviously.

Yeah, definitely.

And I'm guessing that the very bespoke orders, so the illustrations

probably take a fair bit of time.

I'm not asking you to tell me how long they take, but I mean, I'm

assuming they did take more time than say a personalized product.

So I guess, am I right in thinking that for your personalized products, the

basis of the product is there and then you're adding the personalization to it.

Yeah, absolutely.

So the bespoke illustrations definitely take longer.

Um, and the, the time, I guess, in the personalized stuff is

in the initial design process.

Um, although it still does take time.

So some.

Some businesses that produce similar items to myself, um, will not sand

them for example, afterwards, because they prefer the look of, of, of a burn

or they just decide that actually, this is how our product's going to be.

I hand sand every single item just because that's how I want mine to look.

And that's how I want to present mine.

I hand pack everything.

Everything's checked everything.

Yeah.

So it's still quite time consuming the personalised stuff, but yeah, definitely

less than the bespoke illustrations.

And how do you manage to have all of the various jobs you have to

do in terms of keeping on top of listings and marketing and creating

and producing products and packing.

Do you have some sort of schedule for that or is it fitting it in, when you can,

I should, I should have a schedule I think.

And I did, I actually did some, um, some, I had, I did some sessions

with a coach, um, last year.

And, um, we did speak about sort of setting time aside for

things and, and stuff like that.

But, um, no, I've kind of fallen back into bad habits with that.

Basically my, my daughter, our daughter is in nursery three days a week.

Um, I can't do the making and packing orders with her

around she's two and a half.

It's just not possible.

Um, so I tend to in nursery days, I'll have meetings like this

one or with, with clients cause I still do design work as well.

Um, and do all the things that I can't do when she's around.

And then I tend to do the more admin stuff in the evenings, to be honest, it's, it's

definitely not a nine to five gig this

It is a lot to juggle isn't it.

Yeah

A lot of parts to think about.

Um, if you don't mind going backwards a little bit, I'd love

to talk about sort of how you got started creating the illustrations.

You mentioned you started illustrating after your daughter was born

on, I know that your background obviously was in graphic design.

So just be really good to talk about how and why you started with the illustrations

and how it's grew into a business.

Yeah.

So, um, it was just fun.

Really.

Um, my husband bought me an iPad pro and the apple pencil for my birthday.

Um, and I just started playing around, um, drawing things for family, for

friends, for ourselves, um, and just sort of showing people and

drawing friends families or whatever.

And they'd like, you should probably sell these, like give it a go.

So being from a design and web design background, I thought I'll stick a

website up and take some photos and put them on Instagram and see what happens.

Like the investment wasn't huge for me because I could do it all myself

and I was on maternity anyway.

So it sort of was a bit of an activity to just kind of keep my brain ticking

over that I was really loving.

Um, so I stuck them out there and yeah, they just kind of started to sell people,

started to follow me on Instagram and say that they liked them and shared

them with friends and yeah and it just kind of organically went from there.

Really.

And then, like I said, Not On The High Street, um, came about and, um, the,

I think it was Valentine's day, last year that it really went a bit crazy.

And because I was in the campaign and that was the point at which I was

like, I need to change this business because I can't physically draw any

more than I have done this month.

And that peak income is not gonna be enough long term.

Um, so that was when I kind of made the decision to move into more personalised.

I was about to ask about that decision.

So thank you for explaining that.

And, um, yeah, and I think that definitely makes sense, because as

you say, when you're doing things that rely on your time, I guess there's

only so many hours you've got you can't double the hours you have in a day.

Yeah, especially with, um, limits of child care as well.

Um, that's, that's definitely a big player in the decision.

Um, but also the fact that with the Perth, with the personalized products, as a

designer, I can still design those but long term longer term, probably hopefully

by the end of this year, I can have, I could have people working for me that can

change the name and create the product to my specifications of how I've been doing

it with me still doing the initial design.

Um, so it doesn't rely completely every single product on me

designing, making, drawing.

Um, so yeah, much more scalable.

Yeah.

That does make sense.

Cause you're right.

I think there definitely would be parts of the process.

You could start to outsource further long, um, so can you explain your personalized

products a bit for people who obviously I've, I've had a look at a website and

I'm hoping everyone listening was going to go just until it's going to go and look at

your website for anyone who hasn't done.

So yet, can you just explain a bit about your personalized

products and what they consist of?

Yeah, so, um, most of them, um, are, uh, engraved plywood,

um, with different designs.

Um, so a lot are around new babies.

Um, pregnancy announcements, gender announcements, birth announcements,

then a lot of seasonal stuff as well.

So, um, at Christmas, um, personalized Santa stop here signs.

So it again, engraved onto wood or, um, cut out of acrylic and stuck onto

wood or, but just very minimal design.

Um, And what else?

Things like, um, Santa's magic key with the name of the hat of

the child and name the house.

And then this Easter I've got personalized Easter baskets.

Um, yeah, I don't know.

I need to refine this.

No that was good thank you and I just think is even a really

clear what you're talking about.

And when you talk about perhaps, you know, it's something down the line that

somebody else could put the name on, for example, you know, you've done all

the prep work and then somebody else can actually put the names on for you or

whatever it was if we could get helps, give people an idea of, yeah, sure.

We have a laser, we have a laser engraving machine, um, and essentially.

It's essentially printing onto wood, but using laser instead of ink.

Um, so it burns into the words, um, or it can cut acrylic.

It can engrave acrylic.

Um, but to be honest, I try and keep it with word just because it's more.

It's a more sustainable, renewable, um, renewable material.

Although when I do use acrylic, I use a company called Green Cast, um, and

that acrylic has made completely of a hundred percent recycled materials.

So, um, this.

Better, but yeah.

Thank you.

And since we've just touched on sustainability, I'd love, if you

could also talk to us a bit about your sustainability policy, because when I,

um, read through it, it seems to me that you've put so much thought into that.

So I think it'd be really nice if you could just share how you came up with

it and what it means for your business.

Yeah.

I think policy is a bit too much of a grown up word for whatever, anything in

my business at the moment, to be honest.

Um, but yeah, for sure.

It's just, I think the essence of it is just thoughtfulness, um, and intention.

So making sure at the base at the basic level, it's trying to source,

uh, raw materials sustainably.

Um, so all the wood we use is FSC certified and sustainably sourced.

Um, all packaging is plastic free, um, and recyclable and hopefully

made from where possible made from recycled materials as well.

Um, um, It's it's hard sometimes with suppliers where you have to buy something

from them because it's specialist and it will come in plastic or it will contain

plastic, or it will contain something that's not recyclable or compostable.

Um, and that's why I took the decision to actually plant a tree for every

item in every order, um, to hopefully offset some of that, uh, Yeah.

Some of that, uh, environmental impacts that my business inevitably has.

So even just down to shipping, like it's fuel it's yeah.

There's a, there's an environmental impact of that.

Um, and the other side of it is just.

Being intentional with my design.

So not putting years on things.

So things can be reused in years to come.

I'm not making something so on trend that it will be obsolete in

three months or a year or two years.

It's something that a family can keep and cherish.

And if not, if it comes to the point where um, the kid doesn't believe

in Santa anymore or something.

Um, and they don't need it.

They pop it in a memory box or they can recycle it.

So it's not going to leave a lasting impact on the planet.

Um, so yeah, it's just about intention and thoughtfulness is

the crux of it, to be honest,

I think that's great.

And I think you're right as well that there were things

you obviously can control.

And then there were the things you can't control.

And I was really intrigued.

You planting a tree for every order.

Cause I guess that kind of offsets some of what you can't control.

How are you?

I mean, I'm assuming you're not physically planting trees yourself.

Are you actually managing that?

No.

See my, um, yeah, no, my garden is not full of trees.

Um, so there are a number of platforms actually you can use, if

you have a Shopify site, I don't know about others, but if you have

a Shopify site, you can integrate with a number of different platforms.

I use Tree Nation Ecology, or another one, um, where actually your order is

fed through and a tree is automatically planted and you can go through and see

where it's been planted there's pictures of where it's been planted you can comment

on it, you can, and it keeps basically your forest, but it's obviously not one

forest, but, um, and you can, as a, as a customer, they can go and comment on it.

And yeah, it's, it's, it's a nice thing for the customer to see, but

that's not the point of it for me.

It's not, uh, it's not a sales spiel.

Um, I don't actually, I don't think I even advertise the fact that I do it that much.

Um, it's just it's for me, to be honest.

Yeah.

And I think that that makes it, I think, even more authentic and you, right.

I mean, I only found it because I found it somewhere on your website

that obviously I was trawling and, you know, um, but you're right.

It was definitely it wasn't front and center.

It wasn't on the homepage.

I didn't, it wasn't.

C come across it, you know, I was having a good look I think that's amazing.

Um, um, yeah, I had no idea that was a Shopify integration.

I'm actually, like I re I'm a big fan of Shopify.

I think it's brilliant for e-commerce and it sounds like some

of the integrations, it just gets.

Better and better really, because I guess that's something that a few years ago, had

you wanted to plant a tree for every order let's say that's something that actually

could have been quite a lot more admin for you and potentially, cause it sounds

like you've got loads on your plate.

It could have been sort of a reason not to do it because yeah, quite

a lot of work, but it sounds like they make it so easy, which is.

Yeah.

Um, I'm really impressed actually by that.

Yeah.

And I think there's a lot more platforms than the two I've mentioned.

Um, and they just are an app or an integration or

something, um, with Shopify.

So you should just be able to yeah.

Pull your order straight through into them and it automatically does it.

So.

Um, yeah.

There's no excuse not to.

see.

I, I know I'm easy.

I think I am easily impressed, but you, that is one of the interesting

things I've heard this whole week.

I think, I think that's really, really good.

And it's all right.

There's still time it's only Thursday.

I just love that because I love anything that makes things simple.

Yeah.

I'm I'm really, yeah.

I'm really impressed by that.

You probably saw, um, I'll try and find a link for that actually that I can

put into the show notes, if there's anyone else selling on Shopify that

thinks, so I'd quite like to do that.

Then people go look into it and I'm assuming, and this is an assumption

because I don't know, only just found that it's existed, but I'm assuming they would

probably other integration if people.

I don't know, wants to take plastic out of the ocean rather than

plants trees that kind of thing.

I'm imagining there were other integrations that

I'm sure there are.

Yeah, I haven't looked in others, but there's, I mean, with Shopify,

there's an app for everything.

Yes.

There's definitely.

Yeah, there definitely is.

So I think anyone who's interested, I've definitely encouraged to go and

look at what the options are out there because I'm, I'm sure there will be.

There will be lots.

Cause I mean, lots of more businesses are thinking about ways of becoming

more sustainable and giving back.

So I think it's

On that topic, I think.

I think the main thing for me is there's a lot more that you need to do before

you just go and install an app, um, to plant a tree or to do whatever.

Like, um, if you're putting it in your Instagram bio, um, you probably need

to take more steps before you do that.

Like it's not a sales tool.

It should just be something that you're doing that's authentic to

your business and your values.

Likestop non-plastic packaging.

Doesn't cost exponentially more than plastic packaging.

And so many businesses still use plastic and things like there's, there's

just, there's a lot more steps than just sticking it up on and letting

people know that you plant a tree.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Oh, absolutely.

I guess I was almost coming at it from the other way, which is, I was

thinking that you don't even have to necessarily tell people you're doing it.

If it's something you want to see.

So when I was selling products, I'm not anymore.

I used to use recyclable packaging.

So my own boxes where recycled were from recycled paper.

And they were recycleable, obviously, because they were cardboard.

Yeah.

And then the package and I sent things out to people in looks like plastic, but

wasn't, I think it was cane or something.

Yeah.

There's lots of different options aren't there,

but I never actually spoke about that.

I realize in hindsight it was just something I did, but it wasn't kind

of, it was something I did because I believed in it, but I also didn't feel

it was something that was a core part of my business that I was talking about.

Yeah.

That makes sense.

So I think you're right.

I think that, um, And he, cause, I mean, I think there are lots of us who do things

like this in our, who do you help out in this way in our personal life or for

our business, or I think, I guess it's up to people to think about what they

want to do and how they want to do it.

And if they want to talk about it and if so, how they want to talk about

absolutely.

Yeah.

Um, yeah, I agree because I obviously have, uh, I obviously

have it on my site that it's sustainable and things like that.

That's.

Essentially it, if it, if it helps sell things wonderful, but

that's not the reason behind it.

Um, and is actually, hopefully to make my customers think about themselves as well.

Yeah.

And actually.

Um, I'm actually starting to feel like it.

Then we may come to a point where doing a bit, our bit for the planet as business

owners, isn't necessarily a marketing or a sales tool because it'll just be expected.

It would just be what everyone I'd like to think that we get to the point where

actually it's kind of a given that you wouldn't use unnecessary plastic

or you would give back in some way.

I feel like it's moving more in that direction, more and more

businesses that I look at are doing their bit in different ways.

And some are talking about it very openly.

And some you don't find out until you look into them.

That I do wonder if it is going to get to the point where actually

it's, it's just what businesses,

it's just what happens.

Yeah.

And that's, that's what it should be.

So like actually an example is I was, I saw, um, somewhere I worked with

previously a photographer posts, some pictures of, um, some products from a

brand that she'd been sent to photograph and each of them was in a plastic wallet.

And I was just thinking like, there's just no need for it.

Like you could probably even actually save yourself money by not having each

products packaged in plastic as well.

So it's not even a fact of, um, oh, it's just not, I can't afford to do it or it's.

Yeah.

And I think, I hope that people are being more conscious of that.

So they might see that and think actually, I'm not going to buy that because I could

buy it from here when it's not in plastic and especially with items for my, for,

for my daughter and for your kids, like you want to choose for that item to be

here when they're an adult, they don't, you don't want it to forced upon you.

Like, yeah.

I don't know if I'm not explaining that very well, but considering

the environmental impact of things we buy for our children is

considering our children's future.

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean when, um, I liked when you were talking about

your products and about how you were saying they're not too timely or trendy.

Um, cause I think that is a big thing nowadays.

So when I was selling my own brands of baby products, my

products were deliberately designed to last and to not be too.

To not have that.

They weren't, they were just a little bit of branding, but sorts of, so

say for example, one product I sold were bamboo bowls and the, there was

like a logo on the bottom of the bowl and the, the whole rest of it just

looked like a beautiful bowl because I mean, I still use them in my home.

Now my kids are grown up, but we as adults use them because they're bit,

you can eat your cereal out of them.

They just feel nice.

They look nice.

I like, I like bamboo.

And that was kind of the idea to not create a range of.

Plastic children's plates and bowls because I mean, we had all of that.

Um, but my children now have grown out of those and we weren't given them and we

did have, you know, have these Ikea ones.

And now it's just like, well, what do I do with these?

Because you know, my kids, my kids have outgrown them, but

they're actually not usable.

And of course you can pass them on.

But, um, I much prefer the products that have a bit of longevity.

Yeah.

I mean, obviously children are going to outgrow some things, but I think there

are definitely certain items, like gift items or home items that you kind of want

to be able to have for years and yeah.

They send out,

even if it is something that they grow out of something, it's something

that you would want to keep.

And just say, actually, I'm going to put this aside because when you're

30, you're going to want to look at.

And all.

So for example, milestone plaques or things like that,

obviously they have a finite time.

So if you use it, when a baby is three months to take a photo, But

also you pop them in a memory box and maybe they might want to use it

with their kids or you pass it to a family member to use with their baby.

Then you've got pictures of all your babies with the same thing, and you can

compare sizes and look back on photos and pick out thing and that's actually

a tangible thing that your mum that might not, might no longer be with.

Gave to you.

And it's just the essence of that kind of thing is my mom was big into memory

boxes is, or is big into memory boxes and we've got boxes of stuff that I

love leafing through and thinking, oh, look at that like newsletter I wrote

when I was in school and I just loved the idea of someone keeping something

and passing it down and reusing it.

And yeah,

that is lovely.

And I agree.

I think that's, I'm really big into memory boxes as well.

And.

My kids probably now just think, why is she hoarding all these birthday cards?

Or like, yeah, I have the little , like I am one plaque and things.

They probably think I'm nuts and my husband, certainly isn't taking

up all the space, but one day they will love looking through those.

I'm convinced of it.

There'll be so pleased.

I kept all of it because I don't have that much.

That my mum kept when I was young and I have bits and pieces, but you know, there

are certain things you look back with fondness and you think, well, it would

be really lovely to have that because you know, your own children would like it

or to use in your own family around her.

But I think it's, I think it's lovely.

And I think as you say, the gifts you're creating, cause I'm assuming

most of them probably gifted items.

They just, yeah, they are nice keepsake.

Yeah.

I think I always like, like you said, I always used to look at my

mum and like, why are you putting my 25 meter swimming badge in a box?

Like, but now as a 30 year old, I'm like, oh, actually, That's actually really nice.

So yeah.

It's yeah.

Keepsakes is, is my vibe and a hundred percent.

I'm passionate about that and keeping and passing on.

And I mean, as a parent, you inevitably end up with your

house full of plastic stuff.

Um, because either people give it to you or you buy it because you hope

it might give you five minutes peace.

Um, That doesn't have to be the end of it.

Like there's loads of, um, Facebook sites around here that you can put stuff

on and pass down to, to people with younger babies or kids in the area.

And, uh, uh, I think there's loads of different, new ways always coming up

of, of ways to reuse things that aren't necessarily staying in your family either.

Yeah, absolutely.

I'm a big fan of that as well.

nothing in this house really goes in the bin, you know?

Cause I think there'll always be someone who will need that very

thing that you don't need anymore.

Um, and yeah, cause I'm, I, sometimes I look at the amount of plastic toys

and things and just think, oh gosh, but you know that they're eventually

when my children finished with them, I know someone else's children will

enjoy them whether that in a home or when of nursery or wherever, you know?

Yeah, exactly.

It's very different to very very different to basically just wrapping something and

plastic to be thrown away, like two very different types of plastic, which, um,

hopefully one day will be gone and we'll all play with wooden toys, but I don't

think that's achievable at anytime soon.

So I don't although I do hope we get to the point where not all

toys come wrapped in plastic.

with lots of plastic ties that say, yeah, you know, all this unnecessary,

you know, or it's unnecessarily wrapping something up in plastic ties to a piece

of cardboard and you can't recycle it.

It's covered.

in tape.

And I'm hoping that we start moving.

I don't think plastic toys are going away.

And I do know, we're getting little bit off topic, but I D I do hope the big,

the bigger company sorts of also start looking at being a bit more sustainable

in how they package their products, because I do think like it's small

businesses that are leading the way when I shop on Etsy, which I do a lot because

I want to support small businesses.

I would say 99% of things come in, recyclable packaging and

very minimal packaging as well.

Um, which is amazing.

But that yet you sometimes buy from a larger website and it almost inevitably

come with plastic bag, for example.

Yeah.

And there's no need for it, especially on bigger businesses.

If small businesses can do it, big businesses.

Yeah, this is one of my, um, one of my bug bears at the moment is a, oh

wait, actually I want to name the retailer, but there's a retailer if you

buy clothes from, they come on a coat hanger wrapped in see through, plastic.

I don't know what you call that inside of a plastic bag.

I like that coat hanger.

I mean, , you know, there's only so many coat hangers you need, um, The

plastics of wrapping it up to then put it in another plastic thing.

Yeah.

I find this really frustrating, but yeah.

And most of the time these companies are companies that say they've

got a plan of action to, um, yeah.

Reduce their environmental impact, but it's still not.

No.

And it does seem mostly to be small businesses leading the way, which I think.

It's a good thing.

Yeah, exactly.

So I have one final question for you, if that's okay.

Georgina, which is what would your number one piece of advice

be for other product creators?

Um, that's a really tough one and I should have thought about it

more before for coming on this.

Um, I think it would just be to make sure you're still having fun with it.

Um, make sure you're enjoying it because I think that really does

come across in, especially as a small business, when it tends to be one

person or a few people doing everything.

If you're not passionate about it and enjoying it and doing it for

the right reasons, your content and marketing and, and re reason isn't

going to resonate with the customer.

Um, But also, it's got to be about your quality of life as well.

Like there's very few people that will choose to work, um, if they didn't

need to, but actually, I don't know.

It's not, I'm not making sense.

Am I making sense?

You are making sense.

I think you're right, because I think you need to enjoy it because, um, otherwise

it's a job and I guess that a lot of us, if we didn't want to be doing what

we've been doing would go and get a job.

Um, so you have that.

I agree.

You have to, you have to want to do it because running a business isn't

easy and you know, you have to put in hours, maybe, you know, work more hours.

Maybe you'd like to, and you know, the income might not always

be where you want it to be.

So I think you do have to have that reason to keep going.

Um, 'cause it's hard.

And I think if you're not enjoying it, then it's much harder to

keep going when you have hose hard days or weeks or months.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think that's what I'm getting at basically.

And just keep checking in with yourself and make sure that you are, because it's

really stressful and it's really hard work and the hours are actually way longer

than if you're working for someone else.

But obviously there's the huge perks of working for yourself and

running your own business as well.

Um, but yeah, I think my biggest thing is just keep checking in with yourself and

making sure you're still doing it for the right reasons I'm for you and your family.

Um, I guess it's not really a tip on how to get your products out there and

sell it, but, um, ultimately I think it actually is because I think it does

come through in small businesses as a whole, when someone is genuinely

enjoying and loving what they do.

I think so too, because you're, I completely agree with you that if you

are not enjoying it then, so I think, I think this especially comes across

on social media, because if you're finding it a struggle, you know, to

post about what you're doing and what products you've got, because you know,

you're not enjoying it or you're not excited about what you're creating.

For example, I think that's where we differ.

Too, you know, I, I like watching Reels people who like create things, it seems to

be creative people, do, really good reels.

You can see that, you know, they really loving what they're doing

and they're enjoying the process.

And that can really, when that comes across, it gives a

different vibe doesn't it too.

When it feels more like marketing and by the way, I do think I do personally

find marketing a bit of a chore.

It's not one of my favorite things.

So I'm not, I'm not looking at anyone who finds it hard.

Cause I actually, it's probably the thing that I find the hardest is actually

I find it hard too yeah.

I find, I definitely find it hard.

Um, I think, uh, it's not about finding the marketing

specifically easier, fun, but just.

Being being in your business for the right reason, we'll make everything easier

yeah.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is, is I think that if you if, if you

enjoy what you're doing and you enjoy what you're creating and, you know,

You know, you love your products.

It does make that marketing, even if, even if it might not make it easier,

but it will feel slightly easier.

Yeah.

I think that's what I'm trying to get at I'm not articulating anything

very well this morning, but that's what I think I'm trying to get at.

I think, I think it's fair to say that we're probably both

agreed that everything's harder if you are not enjoying it.

And I also would say that just because you're not enjoying it

also doesn't necessarily mean that you shouldn't be doing it.

You need to be thinking about ways to make your life easier.

Um, yeah.

You know, cause I think it's very easy.

One thing I think that's quite common with small businesses is just, just get

burned out because you're doing too much.

And I think that can be a good, just take a step back.

Yeah.

A hundred percent.

Yeah.

So back to the marketing stuff, like when I get tagged in a photo and see

my product, like being held, but like being used to announce a newborn baby

or being put in someone's nursery that they've lovingly created for their child.

I think that just, if something like that gives you the buzz, then it's right.

Yeah, absolutely.

So I think that, yeah, I think it's really exciting seeing someone using

something that you created is just lovely.

Yes.

And I think it's good.

And I can tell you're very, still really excited about what you're doing.

I just feel, I just feel really lucky to be able to do that, to be honest.

Yeah.

Cause I guess as we, we we've, we've been talking a lot about how running your own

business is hard and it is, but there are definitely upsides as well, particularly.

I think if you.

Uh, family.

Well, from my personal experience, um, running my own business

works well with having a family.

That's not to say that I want to be working evenings and things like that.

But on the other side, being able to sort of take your children

to school and pick them up.

And yeah, that's sort of things to me, actually, my daughter's in a show

on Tuesday at 11, I'm going to go to.

And just, just little things like that.

Um, my parents run their own business as we were growing up.

They still do.

And it's just, I think stuff like that is what I always knew that I

needed to get to when I had a family.

But yeah, I used to work in big corporates and that was

not my, uh, not my job at all.

Me neither actually

I'm not a corporate person at all.

Well, thank you so much for everything you've shared today Georgina.

Thanks very much for having me.

It's been really lovely to chat.

Thank you so much for listening all the way to the end of this episode.

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