Shownotes
ding exclusively.
Today, the business encompasses a year-round product cycle, a twice weekly podcast, and big dreams of opening a wedding venue space in the coming years.
Kara lives with her husband John, and their son & daughter in San Diego, CA. The family enjoys daily adventures to Sea World, the beach, the zoo, and beyond.
Business Inspiration
Kara’s story on leaving the corporate world [5:16] The first steps in turning her hobby into a biz [9:59]Candle Flickering Moments
The seasonality of the wedding industry and Etsy drama! [22:15]Product Specifics
Kara describes her product. [12:25] Product expansion to light up holiday sales. [25:38]Business Building Insights
The value of niche products. [14:27] A tip for managing work time with young children [18:45] Increasing competition on Etsy and what Kara did about it. [27:44] The reasons for adding a Shopify website. [29:01] Pinterst success! [29:54]Success Trait
Kara owns confidence. She says if you don’t have it, she agrees that you should fake it ’til you make it. She also explains why she believes this. [33:49]Productivity/Lifestyle Tool
I LOVE this answer. Kara says her most important tool is her Mental Tool – Turn It Off! A really valuable point for all of us. [35:31]Valuable Book
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
Contact Links
Website Facebook Instagram TwitterIf you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe and leave a review in Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. That helps us spread the word to more makers just like you. Thanks! Sue
Transcripts
Gift biz unwrapped episode 74.
Speaker:How on earth could you have a business around making a
Speaker:place card holder out of a wine cork?
Speaker:That's insane.
Speaker:Hi, this is John Lee Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,
Speaker:and you're listening to gift to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:and now it's time to light it.
Speaker:Welcome to gift bears on wrapped your source for industry specific
Speaker:insights and advice to develop and grow your business.
Speaker:And now here's your host,
Speaker:Sue Mona height.
Speaker:Hi there.
Speaker:I'm Sue and welcome to the gift biz unwrapped 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 Kara lamb.
Speaker:Merado Carlos started her business called Karas vineyard wedding in 2011
Speaker:as a hobby,
Speaker:she was selling handmade wedding decor fashioned from wine corks.
Speaker:In the early days,
Speaker:profits from sales were used as extra fund money to finance,
Speaker:pedicures, champagne,
Speaker:brunches, and eventually trips to Europe with her husband,
Speaker:John, who was after the birth of their daughter in 2012,
Speaker:that Cara got serious about her entrepreneurial dreams.
Speaker:She quit a lucrative nine to five corporate career to focus
Speaker:on paras vineyard wedding exclusively today,
Speaker:the business encompasses a year round product cycle,
Speaker:a twice weekly podcast and big dreams of opening a wedding
Speaker:venue space in the coming years,
Speaker:Kara lives with her husband,
Speaker:John and their son and daughter in San Diego,
Speaker:California. The family enjoys daily adventures to see world the beach,
Speaker:the zoo and beyond boy.
Speaker:Does that sound like a pretty awesome life?
Speaker:Welcome to the show.
Speaker:Carra Thank you so much for having me Sue.
Speaker:It's awesome to be here.
Speaker:Well, our listeners know,
Speaker:I like to start off by getting to know you,
Speaker:in addition to that intro in a little bit of a
Speaker:different way,
Speaker:and that is by having you describe your ideal motivational candle.
Speaker:If you were to give us a vision of that candle,
Speaker:what color would it be and what would be the quote
Speaker:on the candle?
Speaker:I actually have,
Speaker:I went one step further.
Speaker:My candle is yellow,
Speaker:and I'm going to tell you exactly what it smells like.
Speaker:It smells like pineapple,
Speaker:which to me is just such a summery,
Speaker:beachy vacation scent.
Speaker:And on my candle is a song lyric from Dave Matthews
Speaker:band. And the quote is this little game where nothing is
Speaker:sure. Why would you play by the rules?
Speaker:Oh, and what does that mean to you?
Speaker:So this is a song that I listened to on my
Speaker:runs and when I was gearing up to leave my corporate
Speaker:job back in 2013,
Speaker:this song was on my run playlist and it was way
Speaker:of psyching myself up to walk away from that corporate career.
Speaker:So why would you play by the rules when you don't
Speaker:know what's coming next?
Speaker:You don't know if you're going to have tomorrow.
Speaker:You don't know what's around the corner.
Speaker:So, you know what,
Speaker:take a leap and take a chance.
Speaker:And you've really got to grab life and just go with
Speaker:it. It's really interesting to talk about now because 20 years
Speaker:ago or so,
Speaker:and I'm a little older than you are.
Speaker:So I'm a little bit different perspective,
Speaker:but it used to be,
Speaker:that was the safety place.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:if you had a job,
Speaker:you were with a large,
Speaker:solid stable corporation,
Speaker:everything was fine and it is not anywhere near that case
Speaker:anymore. So although as you're talking about,
Speaker:is it safe to play by the rules,
Speaker:not safe to play by the rules?
Speaker:Nowhere is it safe really to play by the rules,
Speaker:but when you do your own thing,
Speaker:you are in control of your destiny.
Speaker:You're not waiting to see what's going to happen on Friday.
Speaker:Whether coal department stays intact,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:but it's So true.
Speaker:And I don't mean play by the rules.
Speaker:Like don't pay your taxes.
Speaker:Yeah, I can do crazy stuff.
Speaker:But to me,
Speaker:the rules at that point in my life,
Speaker:I had a daughter who was going to be one years
Speaker:old. So I took a five month maternity leave,
Speaker:went back to work for just about seven months or so.
Speaker:But the day I went back,
Speaker:I knew I did not want to be there permanently.
Speaker:And so playing by the rules at that point would have
Speaker:been to continue that corporate job continue bringing home a really
Speaker:nice salary,
Speaker:put my daughter in daycare.
Speaker:And that was the script that was being put before me.
Speaker:And I didn't want it.
Speaker:It was not appealing to me at all.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:I took the leap and here we are today,
Speaker:But a very,
Speaker:a very challenging time in your life to do that too,
Speaker:with all of the pressures and the uncertainties of a newborn,
Speaker:because being a new mom has its challenges unto itself.
Speaker:Right? Absolutely does.
Speaker:For those of our listeners who are maybe in a situation
Speaker:like yours,
Speaker:can you share with us a little bit of how you
Speaker:did that?
Speaker:How did you approach John and say,
Speaker:I'm thinking of doing this,
Speaker:or did you just tell him or walk us through a
Speaker:little bit of that?
Speaker:Sure. Well,
Speaker:there's a Little bit of background on my maternity leave and
Speaker:my approach back to work,
Speaker:I was kind of thinking based on conversations I had before
Speaker:the birth of my daughter,
Speaker:that my schedule was going to be able to be a
Speaker:little bit more flexible,
Speaker:that there was going to be some flexibility in my return.
Speaker:And so that's mentally how I had prepared myself to go
Speaker:back to work.
Speaker:And when I did go back to work,
Speaker:that was not the case.
Speaker:And it was presented to me pretty bluntly that there would
Speaker:be no schedule flexibility.
Speaker:It would be same old Monday through Friday,
Speaker:eight 30 to five,
Speaker:no working from home,
Speaker:no calling in no part-time options.
Speaker:So I mean mentioned before,
Speaker:that was a frightening time in my life to take a
Speaker:leap like this,
Speaker:but actually,
Speaker:what was more frightening to me was the thought of missing
Speaker:out on those moments with my daughter,
Speaker:because I was sitting at a desk at a job somewhere.
Speaker:Yeah. And you can't get those back five minutes later.
Speaker:Absolutely not.
Speaker:And actually I think that her being five months old when
Speaker:I went back to work and having five months of that,
Speaker:it was so special and it really gave me a wonderful
Speaker:opportunity to see that and savor it and know what I
Speaker:would be losing if I wasn't able to spend that time
Speaker:with her.
Speaker:So to me,
Speaker:it was just really important to have those moments with her.
Speaker:And I was obviously very emotional during a lot of these
Speaker:conversations. And when I approached John,
Speaker:we were totally on the same page about it.
Speaker:And I had started my business a couple of years prior
Speaker:as a hobby,
Speaker:like you mentioned in the intro.
Speaker:So this was something that I had kind of up and
Speaker:running. It just took about six months of prep and mental
Speaker:prep and product prep.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:a lot of background work to go ahead and say,
Speaker:we're confident enough that this can supplement our income so that
Speaker:I can leave that job.
Speaker:So that was definitely,
Speaker:I don't want to make it sound like I just,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:up and Oh,
Speaker:cool, it's quit my job.
Speaker:It's easy.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:whatever. My husband is a school teacher and we live in
Speaker:a place where the cost of living is extremely high.
Speaker:So by no means was this just,
Speaker:Oh, I'll walk away from my job.
Speaker:And my husband will pick up all the Slack.
Speaker:Like there was a lot of responsibility that I shouldered financially
Speaker:by taking that leap.
Speaker:And so just by way of clarification.
Speaker:So you went back and realized that this was not what
Speaker:you were going to want to do.
Speaker:And those six months were six months of planning.
Speaker:So you stayed there for a short time and then let
Speaker:go. Exactly.
Speaker:I did go back to work because at that point,
Speaker:at the end of my maternity leave,
Speaker:I was expecting to go back with this flexible schedule and
Speaker:maybe some part-time worked in there and that was total blindside
Speaker:to me.
Speaker:So I was not prepared at that time to walk away.
Speaker:There was a lot of work that I needed to do
Speaker:on the backend to get this business up and running to
Speaker:a point where we could be confident that it was going
Speaker:to pay us the money we needed and go from there.
Speaker:Right. I am really glad you brought this up because so
Speaker:many times you'll hear this story about people just quitting their
Speaker:jobs. And supposedly within 30 days,
Speaker:they have a business up and running.
Speaker:That's making money.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:it doesn't work that way.
Speaker:And you actually did something very similar to what I did.
Speaker:I left my corporate life.
Speaker:Again, we're in a little bit of different life stages here.
Speaker:But when I was looking at starting my business,
Speaker:I did a lot of research and a lot of planning
Speaker:and I didn't just open my doors the next day.
Speaker:So this is really important gift biz listeners,
Speaker:as you're reflecting on what you want to do,
Speaker:maybe you're setting some goals for the next six months or
Speaker:so, maybe you're really looking and are interested in leaving your
Speaker:nine to five,
Speaker:listen to what Cara did.
Speaker:She decided that she needed to,
Speaker:she had her goal,
Speaker:but she was going to stay in place and then be
Speaker:planning on the side before that release,
Speaker:because starting a business,
Speaker:you've got to be careful.
Speaker:The money's not going to come in right away,
Speaker:especially if you're dependent on that to retain your lifestyle Hindsight.
Speaker:I didn't know it at the time,
Speaker:but when I left my job,
Speaker:I was pregnant with my son.
Speaker:He was born the next year after I had left.
Speaker:So a lot happened,
Speaker:I'd say a couple of years.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So let's talk about the business.
Speaker:What types of things did you do in that six months
Speaker:as you were starting to plan for the release from your
Speaker:nine to five?
Speaker:So that was,
Speaker:seems like a really long time ago.
Speaker:It wasn't,
Speaker:but so much has happened since then.
Speaker:It does seem that way.
Speaker:So the first thing I really needed to get ahold of
Speaker:is my branding.
Speaker:That was something that was a little bit lacking.
Speaker:When I started it as a hobby,
Speaker:there was no pressure to make any money.
Speaker:So making a sale was just this excitement of little rush
Speaker:of, you know,
Speaker:fun, but I didn't have any overall product branding across different
Speaker:products. Did they look the same?
Speaker:Was there a cohesive theme?
Speaker:Was my packaging branded,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:I spent a lot of time on,
Speaker:and I also spent a lot of time focusing on the
Speaker:marketing aspect.
Speaker:And this is very hands-on.
Speaker:This is just me.
Speaker:So actually today,
Speaker:three years later,
Speaker:I still am the only person running my company.
Speaker:I do not have any virtual assistants.
Speaker:I do not have any marketing help,
Speaker:any computer help,
Speaker:any tech help.
Speaker:It's just me.
Speaker:So I really spent that six months at my day job
Speaker:or my,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:my corporate job getting like very hands-on and learning how to
Speaker:do marketing.
Speaker:How do I code a WordPress site?
Speaker:How do I do all these things?
Speaker:And to be honest,
Speaker:I cheated a little bit,
Speaker:and I was fortunate because I did have a desk job.
Speaker:I did have a lot of time in front of a
Speaker:computer where I could flip over a screen and read a
Speaker:blog post and spend 20 minutes on that.
Speaker:And then flip back to my job.
Speaker:So I had a little help there,
Speaker:but I'd say that the branding and then the marketing were
Speaker:the two things that I was really focused on beefing up
Speaker:before I went ahead and took that leap.
Speaker:And do you have any background in those fields at all?
Speaker:Or were you learning just from the ground up?
Speaker:No, I was literally learning by like doing Google searches,
Speaker:but that's,
Speaker:I love that you say that Because Google is accessible to
Speaker:everybody. So when you're not knowing something that isn't a reason
Speaker:not to do it,
Speaker:you go figure it out,
Speaker:whether it's online,
Speaker:whether it's through people that,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:however you need to do it.
Speaker:So let's back up just a second and clarify what it
Speaker:is you were actually making,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you started with the handmade wedding decor from the wine corks
Speaker:and I'm a wine lover.
Speaker:So I'm all over that.
Speaker:But help us envision what that initial product was that you
Speaker:were branding.
Speaker:So using wine corks was important to the product because they
Speaker:are very lightweight.
Speaker:They're very easy to ship.
Speaker:And so I had made these place card holders out of
Speaker:wine corks for John and I's wedding.
Speaker:And it's just to give you a visual,
Speaker:it's three wine corks bound together with a little slit cut
Speaker:across the top so that your guest name card just sits
Speaker:there. And that's what you see when you walk into a
Speaker:wedding and it tells you what table you're to sit at,
Speaker:or, you know,
Speaker:which chair is actually yours to sit in for the dinner
Speaker:reception portion.
Speaker:So it started very,
Speaker:very, very niche,
Speaker:like a wine cork place card holder.
Speaker:That's all I sold.
Speaker:You kind of might think like how on earth could you
Speaker:have a business around making a place card holder out of
Speaker:a wine cork?
Speaker:That's insane.
Speaker:But I mean,
Speaker:that's what the internet allows us to do.
Speaker:It allows me to reach a worldwide audience of people getting
Speaker:married and then it branched out from there could use these
Speaker:for a wedding.
Speaker:You could use these for a good old dinner party.
Speaker:You could use them on your Thanksgiving table.
Speaker:So over time,
Speaker:I guess the way I visualize the product being used,
Speaker:evolved a little bit,
Speaker:because I did start with just weddings in mind.
Speaker:So that was the initial product today.
Speaker:I sell about a hundred,
Speaker:120 different variations of a wine cork place card holder.
Speaker:Oh, wow.
Speaker:Yeah. So if you visit my online store,
Speaker:you'll see different colors,
Speaker:different styles.
Speaker:Some are three quirks,
Speaker:some are two quirks,
Speaker:some are one cork,
Speaker:lots of variations on that.
Speaker:And then I do have a couple of other products that
Speaker:I've added over the past three years that I didn't start
Speaker:selling, but as things evolved and I tried out different mediums
Speaker:and things grew a little bit,
Speaker:I've expanded that This is a perfect example of something.
Speaker:Just one thing like you're saying,
Speaker:and then building an entire business around it,
Speaker:you must have seen some initial,
Speaker:really strong success with that.
Speaker:Then I did.
Speaker:And I think that was because it was so dialed in
Speaker:and it was so focused.
Speaker:And so if you're a wine lover and you're getting married
Speaker:and you're searching for wine cork place,
Speaker:card holder,
Speaker:my goal,
Speaker:and what I knew needed to happen is that I needed
Speaker:to be the one that you saw again,
Speaker:that sounds like how could you ever reach enough people,
Speaker:but you'd be by just cornering that little niche thing,
Speaker:like a wine lover,
Speaker:who's getting married and just running that show every time someone
Speaker:searches for that I'm coming up.
Speaker:And so that was how it started.
Speaker:Did you agree,
Speaker:expand From there in terms of,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I would see opportunity with vineyards and event planners and all
Speaker:of that.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:how, how did you build it out?
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:It's really interesting because even today that is something that I
Speaker:had always thought of doing.
Speaker:And I did it on a very small scale.
Speaker:So just literally searching on again,
Speaker:Google or Facebook and compiling a manual list of vineyards.
Speaker:I could reach out to event planners I could reach out
Speaker:to. And what I found happened over time,
Speaker:first of all,
Speaker:I stay home with our two children.
Speaker:So I don't enlist daycare.
Speaker:My daughter does go to part-time preschool.
Speaker:Now that she's four years old,
Speaker:but I'm with my son all day long.
Speaker:So I have a very limited amount of time to work
Speaker:with. And over the years,
Speaker:orders roll in at a pace that I'm literally filling,
Speaker:making, filling orders.
Speaker:I'm communicating,
Speaker:I'm just keeping my business running.
Speaker:And so I have not up until today.
Speaker:I haven't had a ton of extra time to be outbound
Speaker:doing marketing and sales to actual vineyards,
Speaker:actual event planners.
Speaker:The internet has done that for me.
Speaker:And I don't have any leftover time right now to be
Speaker:out pounding the pavement and doing that portion of the business,
Speaker:although as time goes on and my children are in school,
Speaker:full-time, that's the kind of thing that I'm really looking forward
Speaker:to being able to do more of as I have some
Speaker:more time free up in my life,
Speaker:Right? And that can be in the future.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:success of a business doesn't necessarily equate to a ton of
Speaker:money. You need to make an income.
Speaker:If it's a business,
Speaker:clearly when given your situation,
Speaker:you wanted the income,
Speaker:but right.
Speaker:Success to you sounds like right now,
Speaker:running the business,
Speaker:keeping it stable,
Speaker:let's say maybe small growth enough for you to keep up
Speaker:with, but that's perfect for you right now because your priority
Speaker:is to be with the family Exactly yet.
Speaker:And if my business can maintain our lifestyle,
Speaker:we're very comfortable.
Speaker:We do a lot of fun things.
Speaker:We have everything we need,
Speaker:and we have a lot of the things that we want.
Speaker:And if I can be here with my children,
Speaker:full-time and I can work on my own terms and I
Speaker:can be my own boss.
Speaker:I could not paint a picture of better success for me
Speaker:and for our family.
Speaker:So that's what is really truly important to me.
Speaker:Absolutely. Give biz listeners rewind 30 seconds and listen to that
Speaker:again, because it's so telling everyone's talking about money,
Speaker:I'm making this money,
Speaker:I'm making this money.
Speaker:And if people can make a ton of money and not
Speaker:be happy again,
Speaker:I just want to reinforce that success can be a whole
Speaker:lot of different definitions here.
Speaker:Absolutely. So talk a little bit about keeping up with those
Speaker:orders. Are you always able to do it?
Speaker:Are there any struggles,
Speaker:is there any advice for some of our handmade creators I've
Speaker:found it works really well for me,
Speaker:if I can visualize my day and visualize any little pockets
Speaker:of time where I can be doing anything.
Speaker:And so it doesn't need to be necessarily,
Speaker:I have an enormous order.
Speaker:That's going to take four hours from start to finish.
Speaker:And unless I have four hours of time,
Speaker:there's no point in working on it.
Speaker:So I train myself to look at the entire process in
Speaker:like little bits and pieces of things that need to be
Speaker:done. So for example,
Speaker:if I have five minutes,
Speaker:I can sit and count out the corks and put them
Speaker:in a box and put the shipping label in there and
Speaker:just start and just do one little piece of it.
Speaker:I mentioned earlier,
Speaker:my husband is a school teacher.
Speaker:He teaches high school.
Speaker:So we are lucky that his hours are pretty early.
Speaker:He gets home about three 30 in the afternoon.
Speaker:And then at that point he takes the kids until bedtime.
Speaker:So that's really my work time,
Speaker:but I've become a lot better at managing my time at
Speaker:identifying when I'm going to have again,
Speaker:a little pocket of time and really taking advantage of that,
Speaker:having my materials set up so that they're accessible to me
Speaker:so that I can just reach over and be doing something
Speaker:anytime I have a spare moment.
Speaker:So not to feel again helpless,
Speaker:if you don't have eight hours in a day to be
Speaker:working, which I think sometimes we visualize like I need an
Speaker:eight hour Workday or else nothing's going to get done.
Speaker:Try to train yourself to use any little pocket of time.
Speaker:You can and just really take advantage of that Because I
Speaker:would imagine those little packets really add up to quite a
Speaker:bit of time.
Speaker:They definitely do.
Speaker:I also wake up really early in the mornings.
Speaker:I try to keep my computer timely,
Speaker:my emails,
Speaker:my blog posts,
Speaker:prepping, you know,
Speaker:order, receipts,
Speaker:answering questions,
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:I try to wake up before the family gets up so
Speaker:that that's over and done with,
Speaker:I'm not messing around with my computer during the day.
Speaker:That's turned off for the rest of the day more or
Speaker:less. So it sounds like you really have a structure.
Speaker:Can you figure that out In the morning,
Speaker:you get that all done.
Speaker:Then you've got your time with the kids throughout the day.
Speaker:And then when your husband comes home,
Speaker:then you can go and work on any orders,
Speaker:any product,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:But then throughout the day,
Speaker:if you see little bits of time,
Speaker:you've already thought of what you could do,
Speaker:or you're not going to say,
Speaker:Oh, I have 10 minutes now,
Speaker:what am I going to do?
Speaker:You already know what you want.
Speaker:Exactly. And that has been key.
Speaker:And that took me a really long time to figure out
Speaker:trust me.
Speaker:And so The routine similar day after day,
Speaker:yeah, It is more or less.
Speaker:My daughter goes to preschool three days a week and that's
Speaker:changed from last year.
Speaker:She was only going a half day last year,
Speaker:this coming year,
Speaker:she's going to be going a full day.
Speaker:So that's going to be a little bit different,
Speaker:but yeah,
Speaker:more or less the wake up,
Speaker:we get ready for the day we go out and do
Speaker:something really fun.
Speaker:And then we come home midday and that's when they'll play
Speaker:with their toys in the room.
Speaker:They'll maybe watch a show for a little while.
Speaker:And that's when I ramp up getting ready to work.
Speaker:And then my husband comes home and then that's when like
Speaker:the glue gun gets plugged in.
Speaker:And I think that's serious.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:I really start working.
Speaker:Well, it totally sounds like you have it together.
Speaker:And it's nice to hear this just by example,
Speaker:for other people who are in a similar situation,
Speaker:you got the plan,
Speaker:but it sounds so easy when you describe it,
Speaker:but just free flows throughout your day.
Speaker:I'm sure there are times when it's not like that.
Speaker:And we're going to get into that in a second,
Speaker:but just to have that kind of structure,
Speaker:I think the key is having those blocks of time figured
Speaker:out and specifically what you're going to do about it.
Speaker:So you don't just walk into it saying,
Speaker:okay, now I've got a little bit of time,
Speaker:but you have no idea what you're going to do.
Speaker:Just really having a solid purpose for each of those blocks
Speaker:of time.
Speaker:Absolutely. And it,
Speaker:it is not always easy,
Speaker:like you said,
Speaker:of course it's not,
Speaker:it, there are struggles when you have a two-year-old and a
Speaker:four-year-old and you have your listeners with little kids at home
Speaker:can definitely relate to that.
Speaker:So I don't mean to make it sound like it's easy
Speaker:peasy done.
Speaker:Yeah. Well,
Speaker:let's go there.
Speaker:Let's go there.
Speaker:Give us a challenging time.
Speaker:Let's do it.
Speaker:So the first winter after I left my job,
Speaker:so I guess this would be winter of 2013.
Speaker:I do wedding,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it's focused on weddings.
Speaker:And so wedding season sales wise runs from about January until
Speaker:August. And then after August things really slow down September,
Speaker:October, November,
Speaker:and December are pretty lean months in the wedding sales business
Speaker:period. So that first winter I had really,
Speaker:really prepared for that.
Speaker:I was really ready for that.
Speaker:I was actually over prepared because my husband and I are
Speaker:kind of worriers.
Speaker:Like we tend to overdo it a little bit when we're
Speaker:socking away,
Speaker:things, money and things.
Speaker:So for that first year,
Speaker:it was like,
Speaker:I'm going to assume that I'm going to make no money
Speaker:for four months.
Speaker:And we were ready for that.
Speaker:So the second year winter comes along and I had not
Speaker:prepared so well.
Speaker:And the sales tapered off and in November ish,
Speaker:I was selling solely on Etsy at the time at sea
Speaker:was my only sales platform.
Speaker:And they did some changes with their algorithm and the search
Speaker:terms. And some backend changes that really impacted the way my
Speaker:product was being shown to potential buyers.
Speaker:So not only was it a slow month,
Speaker:just because it was a slow month,
Speaker:it was like crickets,
Speaker:nothing. And that was terrifying.
Speaker:I had conversations with John that I'm really scared that my
Speaker:worst fear is coming true right now.
Speaker:And I'm afraid that if things don't turn right away in
Speaker:January, I'm going to have to start looking for work because
Speaker:I was convinced in my head that that was it.
Speaker:Like your luck's run out.
Speaker:It's over.
Speaker:They'll never,
Speaker:they'll never be another sale again.
Speaker:Exactly. And it's funny because one of your guests,
Speaker:I think her name was Angela from 68 episode 68.
Speaker:I just listened to it.
Speaker:And she was talking about this mental cycle that we go
Speaker:through where it's like,
Speaker:okay, my luck's run dry.
Speaker:I'm never going to sell anything ever again.
Speaker:It's over coming.
Speaker:That mentality is really hard.
Speaker:So anyway,
Speaker:things di spoiler alert,
Speaker:things did pick up in January.
Speaker:Things were fine.
Speaker:However, I bottled up that fear and I knew that I
Speaker:had to implement something so that those fall and winter months
Speaker:were not so dry of sales.
Speaker:So I was proactive starting in January.
Speaker:At the beginning of the year,
Speaker:I started conceptualizing a holiday ornament that I would design make
Speaker:and sell the next that coming up winter.
Speaker:So this is now 2015 last year was the first year
Speaker:I sold holiday ornaments and that in effect,
Speaker:rounded out my sales cycle so that every single month of
Speaker:the year I was bringing in consistent,
Speaker:reliable income.
Speaker:So that helped a lot.
Speaker:And the challenge being,
Speaker:again, those wedding sales months were so slim,
Speaker:okay. Then make a holiday product and round it out.
Speaker:And that's what I did.
Speaker:And it worked really,
Speaker:really well.
Speaker:That's fabulous.
Speaker:And so the holiday ornament,
Speaker:is that here,
Speaker:you're along the branding the same way,
Speaker:or is it wine corks and somehow related to weddings like
Speaker:first holiday together or anything or yes,
Speaker:Exactly. So what I did is I took the concept of
Speaker:marketing to brides and people getting married and made your first
Speaker:married Christmas,
Speaker:or your first Christmas as a married couple.
Speaker:And this ornament celebrates that it is wedding themed.
Speaker:It does not have anything to do with wine corks.
Speaker:So I,
Speaker:I went away from those,
Speaker:for this product.
Speaker:It's a Palm under ball.
Speaker:So like,
Speaker:you'll see flower girls often carrying a ball of flowers on
Speaker:a string shirt.
Speaker:So this is that in miniature.
Speaker:And then I hand stamp a customized brass tag that then
Speaker:gets attached to it with your initials and your wedding date
Speaker:and a heart,
Speaker:and that kind of personalizes it.
Speaker:And the fact that you stayed on brand,
Speaker:but varied it a little bit,
Speaker:just a little bit makes you still so unique.
Speaker:I don't think I've ever seen anything like that actually for
Speaker:weddings. So you're staying totally with your theme totally with your
Speaker:brand and then figuring out how to fill in very low
Speaker:promotional and sales time,
Speaker:which is spectacular and give his listeners also,
Speaker:depending on what your industry is that you're in,
Speaker:there are going to be peak times and slow times and
Speaker:a car you're a little bit different because usually it's the
Speaker:holidays when it's such a big time for most people,
Speaker:right? So you're actually opposite that.
Speaker:But for all of us recognizing that there are going to
Speaker:be ebbs and flows in the business.
Speaker:So you're not totally freaked out when that happens.
Speaker:But then on the other side,
Speaker:use that time for other types of things like analyzing your
Speaker:business, strategizing for the future,
Speaker:developing a new product to fill in those lower times,
Speaker:all of that.
Speaker:So the slower times don't necessarily need to be bad times
Speaker:as long as you plan for it financially,
Speaker:and then use your time.
Speaker:Well to continue to grow your business.
Speaker:I totally agree.
Speaker:That's really,
Speaker:really good advice.
Speaker:Let's talk a little bit more about bringing in customers.
Speaker:So you had an Etsy site.
Speaker:Did you see,
Speaker:by the way,
Speaker:just kind of a side note as Etsy becomes more and
Speaker:more popular,
Speaker:did you start seeing decline other than just the algorithms and
Speaker:the search on the site,
Speaker:but were you starting to see more competition over there?
Speaker:Absolutely. There is a lot of competition on Etsy and I
Speaker:mean, that marketplace has become just flooded with people who are
Speaker:selling their handmade goods and that's an amazing thing,
Speaker:but it is important to recognize that and to really,
Speaker:really put a lot of effort into differentiating yourself,
Speaker:making sure that your product photos are spot on and just
Speaker:really making sure that you're standing out from that crowd that
Speaker:has collectively come along in the past few years,
Speaker:the algorithm thing was like a very temporary,
Speaker:like a very little blip on the radar.
Speaker:So it happened to be at a really stressful time for
Speaker:me and my business.
Speaker:So at that time to me,
Speaker:it was like,
Speaker:again, I was thinking just my world is over.
Speaker:Like this algorithm change has screwed up everything for me,
Speaker:and I'm never going to sell anything again,
Speaker:I don't have any gripes with any algorithms or anything like
Speaker:that. I can't really let myself focus on that because it's
Speaker:out of my control.
Speaker:So I kind of tend to focus more on the things
Speaker:that I can control,
Speaker:and that is my product and how I present it and
Speaker:how I put it out to the world and how I
Speaker:market it across different social medias,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:So are you marketing you're obviously on Etsy and then what
Speaker:else are you doing to bring in the sales?
Speaker:I am on Etsy back in 2014,
Speaker:I also started selling on a platform called Shopify and Shopify
Speaker:really allows you to run your own show.
Speaker:So you are creating your own website.
Speaker:It is totally independent of a larger company's policies and rules
Speaker:and regulations on Etsy.
Speaker:You're kind of abiding by Etsy's rules on Shopify.
Speaker:You make your own store,
Speaker:you make your own policies.
Speaker:You are totally in control of everything that happens to that
Speaker:website, which is really a blessing in many ways.
Speaker:It gives you just a lot more autonomy over your business.
Speaker:The challenge with that is the marketing.
Speaker:So my Shopify sales versus my Etsy sales today,
Speaker:it's about one quarter Shopify,
Speaker:three quarters at sea,
Speaker:and I'm just talking sales revenue to get that independent website
Speaker:out, to get my brand out.
Speaker:I've found Pinterest to be invaluable just for the wedding industry.
Speaker:It's served me really,
Speaker:really well.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:I do try to keep my product photos really top notch.
Speaker:And so that translates really well to a platform like Pinterest.
Speaker:Essentially, once a pin gets repositioned and gets picked up by
Speaker:hundreds, thousands of people it's out there living in the internet
Speaker:forever. So people stumble across pins that I have put up
Speaker:four or five years ago and they're still generating traffic for
Speaker:me. So that's been a really powerful tool for my standalone
Speaker:website and my standalone brand in helping me get that out.
Speaker:And Pinterest does allow advertising for businesses as many social platforms
Speaker:do. However,
Speaker:the most successful pins I have on Pinterest have just been
Speaker:completely organic,
Speaker:not paid.
Speaker:It's a totally free platform.
Speaker:So I would really recommend anyone out there looking for some
Speaker:free advertising.
Speaker:That's a really,
Speaker:really smart place to focus in on.
Speaker:And I know about Pinterest and I'm not sure if the
Speaker:number is the same today,
Speaker:but most people repin other people's pins versus putting something up
Speaker:themselves. So for you,
Speaker:and then any other gift is listeners.
Speaker:If you are actually adding material versus just repinning other people,
Speaker:you have such an advantage.
Speaker:Absolutely. At one point I heard it was like 93% of
Speaker:everything is pins versus original content.
Speaker:I don't really know differently at this point,
Speaker:but no,
Speaker:That sounds,
Speaker:that sounds about right,
Speaker:because the consumers,
Speaker:the people who we are marketing to,
Speaker:they're not uploading the pins.
Speaker:They are repenting what we are giving them.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:it does put you in a very powerful position as the
Speaker:content creator,
Speaker:putting something out there and then having the masses just kind
Speaker:of have access to run with it.
Speaker:It's a really powerful marketing tool.
Speaker:You haven't talked a lot about Pinterest on this podcast,
Speaker:so I'm really,
Speaker:really glad you brought that up Quickly too,
Speaker:with Pinterest and the Shopify platform that I sell on Shopify
Speaker:and Pinterest have actually teamed up to offer,
Speaker:buy they're called buyable pins.
Speaker:So if you're on Pinterest from an iOS and Apple device,
Speaker:you'll see oftentimes a blue by it button.
Speaker:So you can actually buy product from Pinterest from that platform
Speaker:and that's Shopify integrating itself into Pinterest.
Speaker:So that is a really good benefit of again,
Speaker:using the Shopify platform.
Speaker:You can have your products actually available for sale on Pinterest.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:it's totally free,
Speaker:just a free feature of using that Shopify platform.
Speaker:Wonderful. And for listeners who aren't familiar with Shopify,
Speaker:this is not a hundred percent custom,
Speaker:really expensive option.
Speaker:You are.
Speaker:Would you just call it more template driven?
Speaker:Yes, Exactly.
Speaker:It's a template.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:you can get as fancy as you'd like,
Speaker:you could certainly have a professional developer build you your really
Speaker:custom site.
Speaker:But what I did is I went in again with my
Speaker:limited self-taught knowledge of web coding and things like that.
Speaker:They do make it very easy for someone who's just getting
Speaker:started up to drag and drop and use almost complete templates.
Speaker:You can Connect a shopping cart up.
Speaker:One of my sites is also on Shopify and I actually
Speaker:saw there's great search on Shopify as well.
Speaker:So I think the combination of the two sound spectacular and
Speaker:clearly it's working for you.
Speaker:Yeah, I would,
Speaker:I would recommend it.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:We're Going to roll now into our reflection section.
Speaker:This is a look at you and other things that we
Speaker:might not have talked about yet that help keep everything moving
Speaker:forward for you.
Speaker:Is there one trait that you have that you've always had,
Speaker:like even from when you were little that you see that
Speaker:you call upon to make your business successful?
Speaker:My tray,
Speaker:I'm going to have to say it's confidence.
Speaker:And if the confidence is not there,
Speaker:then I fake it growing up.
Speaker:I I'm very tall.
Speaker:I'm six feet tall.
Speaker:And so growing up when I was young,
Speaker:I was always the tallest person.
Speaker:And honestly,
Speaker:being a tall,
Speaker:confident adolescent girl was really,
Speaker:really hard.
Speaker:That's a hard time in life,
Speaker:just period,
Speaker:fast forward though,
Speaker:to my adult life,
Speaker:I've seen my confidence.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:my ability,
Speaker:if I don't feel confident and I am a little bit
Speaker:nervous or I'm not sure I'm a hundred percent positive,
Speaker:what I'm doing,
Speaker:just fake it.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:you've got to put on that face and just present yourself
Speaker:to the world in that way.
Speaker:And I found that if I'm not feeling confident,
Speaker:if I just fake it,
Speaker:then eventually you come around to it.
Speaker:So it all kind of works out in the end.
Speaker:But I think it's so easy in our business,
Speaker:in what we do as handmade artists in the online space,
Speaker:on social media,
Speaker:you come across feeling like I'm an imposter.
Speaker:Like, what am I even doing?
Speaker:I do.
Speaker:I even belong here and you got to turn that off.
Speaker:You have to beat it.
Speaker:And my confidence has really,
Speaker:I think taken me far in that respect.
Speaker:I agree with you on confidence also,
Speaker:even if you're not there right now and you fake it,
Speaker:as you're saying that helps to change your mindset as well,
Speaker:that makes you confident.
Speaker:Absolutely. Totally agree.
Speaker:And what tool do you use regularly as you're planning out,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you've got your day all structured,
Speaker:right? What's the most significant tool that you're using in any
Speaker:of your time slots the morning or a night when you
Speaker:go back to work to keep you productive?
Speaker:So this is like an anti tool because I'm not really
Speaker:into like techie tools.
Speaker:I don't have a lot of fancy programs and things like
Speaker:that. A mental tool that I use is really just turn
Speaker:it off,
Speaker:try to make the absolute,
Speaker:most of the time I have to work on my business.
Speaker:And at the end of that,
Speaker:just really force myself to turn it off.
Speaker:There's nothing that sending one more tweet out or creating one
Speaker:more pin or taking one more look at my shop stats.
Speaker:Like that's not going to push me forward anywhere.
Speaker:And in the past I've found that it makes me overwhelmed
Speaker:and it's frustrating at times.
Speaker:So I really try to be very deliberate about pushing the
Speaker:off button and it's over the computer is closed and I'll
Speaker:finish it up tomorrow,
Speaker:just resisting that urge to continually be plugged into it,
Speaker:giving yourself a break.
Speaker:Exactly. And were you not doing that before?
Speaker:And was that causing you more stress?
Speaker:How did you get to the idea of turning it off?
Speaker:Yeah, you know,
Speaker:I would carry around,
Speaker:obviously I had my cell phone with me during the day
Speaker:and these various sales platform send notifications to the phone and
Speaker:I would find myself out with my kids and I'm feeling
Speaker:like there's an urgent question that I have to answer right
Speaker:now. And that was really frustrating and I never wanted to
Speaker:be on my phone and distracted when I was out having
Speaker:fun with them.
Speaker:But on the other hand,
Speaker:I felt this urgency behind getting back to this person.
Speaker:And so that created a lot of frustration in my life
Speaker:and kind of recognizing that it's not the end of the
Speaker:world. Like the world is not going to stop turning.
Speaker:If this person doesn't hear from me until three hours when
Speaker:we get home.
Speaker:And so that kind of thing,
Speaker:just, this is not work time.
Speaker:This is playtime and I want to be available to my
Speaker:customers and I want to be as responsive as possible,
Speaker:but I am not available 24 seven to this business.
Speaker:I don't want to be.
Speaker:And so that was kind of a conscious decision that I
Speaker:made as they matured.
Speaker:And as my business grew and it's been very valuable to
Speaker:me, It sounds like you're a very be in the moment
Speaker:girl, when you're in the business,
Speaker:you're in the business.
Speaker:And then you're when you're with your children.
Speaker:You're with them.
Speaker:Absolutely not.
Speaker:I'll tell you.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I've seen that too.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I've been one,
Speaker:my kids were older when I started my businesses when I
Speaker:was in corporate,
Speaker:that's a whole nother story,
Speaker:but I just felt like I could be 24 seven because
Speaker:no one was telling me I couldn't,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:the kids are off doing their stuff,
Speaker:but it's draining,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you never get a break.
Speaker:And so longevity of being able to continue going,
Speaker:and I know you have big plans for your future,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you need to reserve the energy plus the mindset sometimes when
Speaker:you get the best ideas when you're not even thinking about
Speaker:it. Yes,
Speaker:absolutely. I totally agree.
Speaker:That happens in me.
Speaker:I love that you describe it as a mental tool and
Speaker:turning it off.
Speaker:That's fabulous.
Speaker:I'm so glad you brought it up.
Speaker:And then when you're not,
Speaker:when you decide you're going to read or listen to something,
Speaker:is there a book or a podcast that you reference all
Speaker:the time that you think our listeners should take a look
Speaker:at? Yeah.
Speaker:So a book that I read recently and it came recommended
Speaker:to me by one of your past guests,
Speaker:Kate Erickson,
Speaker:she was back at the beginning.
Speaker:I think your episode,
Speaker:number five,
Speaker:essential ism by Greg McKeon is a great book for a
Speaker:business owner to read.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:if you are staying at home with little children or you're
Speaker:juggling your craft business with another full-time job,
Speaker:this book just really breaks it down to like,
Speaker:you have to focus on what is absolutely essential and everything
Speaker:else needs to get.
Speaker:Like I mentioned before,
Speaker:you need to turn that off and you need to tune
Speaker:it out because it's not going to serve you.
Speaker:If you can identify what is absolutely essential,
Speaker:what must happen to make my business grow,
Speaker:focus on that.
Speaker:And that book was awesome for that.
Speaker:I agree with you.
Speaker:I've had that book on audio and I've,
Speaker:I've actually listened to it a couple of times just because
Speaker:I have to keep bringing myself.
Speaker:It is so good.
Speaker:Give his listeners just as you're listening to the podcast today,
Speaker:you can listen to audio books,
Speaker:just like I was talking about.
Speaker:I've teamed up with audible for you to get a free
Speaker:audio book.
Speaker:If you haven't already,
Speaker:all you need to do is go to gift biz,
Speaker:book.com and make a selection.
Speaker:Okay, Kara,
Speaker:I want to present you with a virtual gift.
Speaker:It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
Speaker:So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable
Speaker:Heights that you would wish to obtain.
Speaker:Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
Speaker:What is inside your box?
Speaker:Thank you so much for this gift.
Speaker:You have just gifted me with an eighth day of the
Speaker:week. All right.
Speaker:Time, time,
Speaker:time, time,
Speaker:Time, unlimited,
Speaker:time to dream and reflect and just kind of download.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:we get so busy and things get so crazy every single
Speaker:day. It's such a luxury to give yourself the time to
Speaker:sit down and again,
Speaker:just reflect,
Speaker:download what happened that day?
Speaker:What were your successes?
Speaker:What were your failures?
Speaker:What can you work on?
Speaker:What can you do better?
Speaker:And that time is so critical to being better business owners,
Speaker:to being better parents,
Speaker:just to being a better person.
Speaker:So again,
Speaker:the gift of time,
Speaker:and I've found,
Speaker:I talked about it a little bit today,
Speaker:but I've found that you can carve out those moments of
Speaker:time and really give yourself that because you totally deserve it.
Speaker:Absolutely. I agree with you.
Speaker:But I will say also as a mother of grown children,
Speaker:there is nothing like the times that you're in right now.
Speaker:And I love the fact that you're building your business around
Speaker:that around family and really making sure you're very clear for
Speaker:yourself on what's important.
Speaker:I just think it makes me very happy that you're doing,
Speaker:Oh, that means a lot to me.
Speaker:Thank you for saying that True.
Speaker:Cause it's so easy to get off course,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:when you've got the business and it's so easy just to
Speaker:say, okay,
Speaker:they can wait for just another 10 minutes.
Speaker:I got to talk to this customer.
Speaker:Really great message to pull forward for everybody listening myself included,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:make sure your priorities are aware years from now.
Speaker:You will have wished that they were,
Speaker:and you're doing exactly that.
Speaker:So I'm,
Speaker:I'm really,
Speaker:really sorry.
Speaker:Oh, thank you,
Speaker:Sue. I hope your listeners found some value in this conversation
Speaker:we had today.
Speaker:There's a lot of value here for sure.
Speaker:Now, if there was one place,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I find sometimes people are listening and they get on with
Speaker:their life really quickly if they're out and about not near
Speaker:a computer,
Speaker:but they wanted to find one place to see what else
Speaker:is going on with you in terms of taking a look
Speaker:at the product or anything like that,
Speaker:where would you direct them?
Speaker:I would send you to my website and it's Caras vineyard,
Speaker:wedding.com. And there you can get in touch with me.
Speaker:You can find out more about my product and also about
Speaker:my podcasts called the wedding planning podcast.
Speaker:Let's talk about that really quickly.
Speaker:I'm glad we didn't forget to bring that up.
Speaker:Talk about that just,
Speaker:just for a bit here.
Speaker:Wedding planning podcast is I should have mentioned it earlier when
Speaker:we were talking about marketing effort.
Speaker:I just launched it this past January.
Speaker:So it's an audio blog,
Speaker:different kind of wedding blog.
Speaker:I try to use very common sense,
Speaker:very down to earth,
Speaker:wedding planning,
Speaker:advice for brides and grooms who are on tight budgets and
Speaker:who don't have a ton of money to go crazy.
Speaker:I just like to give straightforward wedding planning advice and you
Speaker:can catch that on iTunes or Stitcher radio,
Speaker:or again on my website,
Speaker:I do episodes twice per week.
Speaker:So if you are planning a wedding or if friends or
Speaker:family are planning their weddings,
Speaker:please let them know about the podcast.
Speaker:I absolutely love to have new listeners.
Speaker:Perfect. Thank you.
Speaker:I'm so glad we got that in.
Speaker:And all of that of course is also going to be
Speaker:on the show notes.
Speaker:We'll also put your Pinterest page out there and all the
Speaker:different links so that you'll be able to find Kara any
Speaker:way you want.
Speaker:No excuses.
Speaker:Awesome. Thank you so much.
Speaker:So Thank you.
Speaker:I really,
Speaker:really appreciate all the information your time today because we know
Speaker:how important your time is.
Speaker:You've taken a big chunk of it for us today.
Speaker:Really appreciate it.
Speaker:You've brought up some information that we haven't talked about before,
Speaker:specifically Shopify and Pinterest and all of the value in terms
Speaker:of making a really,
Speaker:really solid business,
Speaker:but a business that works with your lifestyle right at this
Speaker:time. And I think that that is so,
Speaker:so important.
Speaker:I wish you continued success and may your candle always burn
Speaker:bright. Thank you Susan,
Speaker:For having me.
Speaker:Where are you in your business building journey,
Speaker:whether you're just starting out or already running a business and
Speaker:you want to know your setup for success.
Speaker:Find out by taking the gift biz quiz,
Speaker:access the quiz from your computer at bit dot L Y
Speaker:slash gift biz quiz or from your phone like texting gift
Speaker:biz quiz to four four,
Speaker:two, two,
Speaker:two. Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for
Speaker:the 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 grantor products,
Speaker:product your logo or print a happy birthday,
Speaker:Jessica bourbon to add to a gift right at checkout,
Speaker:it's all done right in your shop or cross DVO in
Speaker:second checkout for rebid print company.com.
Speaker:For more information after you listened to the show,
Speaker:if you like what you're hearing,
Speaker:make sure to jump over and subscribe to the show on
Speaker:iTunes. That way you'll automatically get the newest episodes when they
Speaker:go by and thank you to those.
Speaker:Who've already left a rating by subscribing rating and reviewing help
Speaker:to increase the visibility on ground.
Speaker:It's a great way to pay it forward,
