Shownotes
Growth Insights From Pivoting In Business
- Pay attention to what the market needs and adjust your product line as needed.
- Focus on your strategy and the product.
- Show up in different places or portals to test where your product will sell more.
- Don't waste time or money on a trademark until you KNOW there’s a market for your product.
- Sometimes less is more - reducing the number of flavors helped us sell more.
- Your brand should reflect the quality of your product.
- Be open to change, especially with rebranding.
- Consider different packaging options (make sure it reflects your brand colors)
- Who do you WANT your customers to be? Do what will attract those people.
- Your logo should fit your future vision for your business.
- If you decide to join a wholesale portal (such as Faire), understand the specifications for photos and information so you get the best results.
- Adjust pricing if you list on an online wholesale portal so you don't take a loss. <-- IMPORTANT TIP - tune in to get all the details!
- Consider offering seasonal product lines and offer pre-ordering to accommodate customers.
Resources Mentioned
Amy's Contact Links
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Gift biz unwrapped episode 364.
Speaker:We knew that the production schedule had to be built around
Speaker:wholesale orders,
Speaker:Attentive gifters bakers,
Speaker:crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.
Speaker:Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.
Speaker:Now you are in the right place.
Speaker:This is gift to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode,
Speaker:packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources, and the support you need to grow.
Speaker:Your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host gift biz gal Sue moon Heights.
Speaker:Hi there.
Speaker:It's Sue and thanks for joining me today.
Speaker:I am so excited to finally announce that I've started something
Speaker:new just for you.
Speaker:You may have already heard it from the podcast last week.
Speaker:It's called a gift biz bash.
Speaker:It's an opportunity for you to get a short session of
Speaker:free live training,
Speaker:and then a chance to shout out your company and any
Speaker:promotions you currently have going on.
Speaker:Or if you're interested in a collaboration,
Speaker:you can give us the details all about that and perhaps
Speaker:find your next gift.
Speaker:Biz bestie.
Speaker:These 45 minute bashes are happening over zoom twice a month
Speaker:at all different times.
Speaker:So if you can't make one,
Speaker:you'll definitely find another that will fit your schedule.
Speaker:The very first bash is happening April 4th.
Speaker:Yes, it's this Monday to see the schedule and sign up,
Speaker:go to gift biz on rapt.com
Speaker:forward slash bash.
Speaker:It's 100% free for you to pick up a growth tip
Speaker:and get eyeballs on your new products to gift biz unwrapped.com
Speaker:forward slash bash.
Speaker:Come join us Monday for the very first one today,
Speaker:I'm bringing back a guest we've had on the show before,
Speaker:but it's been a long time and her business has taken
Speaker:its share of twists and turns as any business naturally does.
Speaker:That's something to remember as you're starting out,
Speaker:you won't land it right out of the gate.
Speaker:It takes experimentation and adjustments based on what your market shows
Speaker:you to get it right for Amy,
Speaker:it was narrowing in on the ideal customer adjusting products to
Speaker:fit their needs and rebranding.
Speaker:So it all aligns.
Speaker:You'll hear the details on this and more including some resources
Speaker:you may not know about.
Speaker:I didn't Today.
Speaker:It is my pleasure to bring back on Amy trout Hughes
Speaker:of marshmallow MBA Amy's career to the confectionary industry is as
Speaker:non-traditional as the handcrafted marshmallows coming out of the marshmallow MBA
Speaker:kitchens after a more than 20 year career as a government
Speaker:consultant, Amy founded marshmallow MBA in 2016,
Speaker:and you can hear all about that way back in episode
Speaker:80, marshmallow MBA is a woman owned small business handcrafting gourmet
Speaker:marshmallows in more than a hundred flavors for retail and wholesale
Speaker:customers. Their products are available in 28 states across the U
Speaker:S and Canada,
Speaker:through more than 150 independent retailers and its e-commerce shop.
Speaker:Amy continually seeks to push the boundaries of candy beyond its
Speaker:identity as a food snack in July of 2021,
Speaker:the beak hind marshmallow collection,
Speaker:a lifestyle confection based on locally sourced,
Speaker:honey and natural herbs earned marshmallow MBA.
Speaker:The best innovation award from retail confectioners international.
Speaker:Wow. Is that exciting,
Speaker:Amy? Welcome to the gift biz on wrapped podcast.
Speaker:Thanks. So happy to be here.
Speaker:Well, I should say welcome back.
Speaker:I guess It's always a pleasure to be with you.
Speaker:I know,
Speaker:I can't believe that we haven't gotten an update before now
Speaker:because you and I have been at several shows together and
Speaker:we're friends now.
Speaker:Like I didn't really know you when I interviewed you way
Speaker:back when,
Speaker:and now we're great friends.
Speaker:I think that's where the friendship started.
Speaker:I think so.
Speaker:And so I know a lot about what's been going on
Speaker:with your development,
Speaker:but we haven't filled in everybody.
Speaker:Who's been listening here.
Speaker:So I'm excited to get into your story.
Speaker:And I want to use it as an example of how
Speaker:a business evolves and grows and encounters new opportunities and maybe
Speaker:shifts paths a little bit,
Speaker:all of that,
Speaker:to really settle into what your audience needs and what the
Speaker:market needs Settling in.
Speaker:Wouldn't that be a nice plan?
Speaker:Well, I go back to that statement that I refer to
Speaker:a lot,
Speaker:man plans.
Speaker:God laughs.
Speaker:And I think God's been laughing a lot,
Speaker:certainly the last two years.
Speaker:Yeah, But he is a willing player in you.
Speaker:A very willing partner.
Speaker:Yes. Yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So the last we were sharing what you were doing,
Speaker:unless people are running into us at shows together and already
Speaker:know you had started marshmallow MBA,
Speaker:unbelievably fun creation story,
Speaker:mind you.
Speaker:So anyone who's listening,
Speaker:I would love you to go back and listen to episode
Speaker:80. Remember back then we were talking about your marshmallows and
Speaker:people getting them who were like at Comicon and places like
Speaker:that. Mostly retail shows.
Speaker:Yep. That was like the first dipping a toe out into
Speaker:the real world.
Speaker:The e-commerce store has been there from the beginning and that's
Speaker:just@marshmallowmba.com. But with the shows,
Speaker:we were sure that we didn't want a candy store.
Speaker:Both my business partner,
Speaker:Sondra and I had worked in retail.
Speaker:We knew we did not want to be full-time retail.
Speaker:We were gap girls in the eighties.
Speaker:I'll leave it at.
Speaker:Yeah, you've had your share of it and then close the
Speaker:door on that situation.
Speaker:We had both bartended.
Speaker:So we had had that customer facing experience.
Speaker:So knowing that we didn't want to be full-time retail was
Speaker:really, you know,
Speaker:one of the legs of the business.
Speaker:One of the things that we stood on,
Speaker:Which is a good point because in the beginning you already
Speaker:know what is off the table,
Speaker:just because of your life,
Speaker:what you like and what you enjoy retail shop off the
Speaker:table. And I think that's something that you're only going to
Speaker:know. It's like you learn more from a bad manager or
Speaker:a bad employer,
Speaker:at least me than you ever did from a good one
Speaker:because it sort of,
Speaker:then you're like,
Speaker:oh, this isn't going to happen and that's not going to
Speaker:happen, but I can do X,
Speaker:Y, and Z.
Speaker:If a,
Speaker:B and C are not things that fill me with passion.
Speaker:Yeah. And there are so many opportunities now than in years,
Speaker:past, so much potential for doing things your way,
Speaker:adjusting to different things,
Speaker:selling in different platforms or different environments,
Speaker:all of that.
Speaker:But let's go just to ground ourselves and start from somewhere.
Speaker:Let's go back from that first show that I met you
Speaker:at, maybe the second show after that,
Speaker:cause then we were friends.
Speaker:Then I was coming,
Speaker:hanging around your booth,
Speaker:ground us in what your product offering was then and who
Speaker:your customer was then,
Speaker:and then we'll start the journey of what's happened since.
Speaker:Sure. So that second show,
Speaker:I guess,
Speaker:where you and I met then that was when we met
Speaker:in person because we had only met virtually prior to that.
Speaker:Right. Because I had met Sandra first,
Speaker:Correct. Actually I didn't even meet her Barb who was working,
Speaker:our booth,
Speaker:met her and then she said to me,
Speaker:oh my gosh,
Speaker:what a cool product you need to interview them for the
Speaker:podcast. And the podcast was yet still new to episode 80,
Speaker:Right? Yeah.
Speaker:I think everything was new.
Speaker:We were all new and fresh.
Speaker:Yes. And we had no idea what a wonderful relationship and
Speaker:friendship we'd have.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So let's go back.
Speaker:What's the product and who was your ideal customer?
Speaker:I'm just going to call it.
Speaker:Sure. So we've always been in marshmallows.
Speaker:We're not doing other candies,
Speaker:so let's ground us there.
Speaker:So we're very niche.
Speaker:And then we're niche because we're doing gourmet marshmallows.
Speaker:So we're doing flavors and we're not dipping in flavor.
Speaker:We're actually putting the flavor in the marshmallow.
Speaker:Our first two years was primarily retail direct to consumer online,
Speaker:a lot of word of mouth marketing through our personal networks,
Speaker:professional networks.
Speaker:And then we kind of expanded out.
Speaker:We did pop-up shows,
Speaker:but again,
Speaker:retail events.
Speaker:So we moved into,
Speaker:oh, I dunno,
Speaker:wine shows wine and spirits.
Speaker:Some the Comicons that you referred to before.
Speaker:But then it was probably year two that we made the
Speaker:jump into wholesale,
Speaker:which is where we would have met you and changed our
Speaker:customer target.
Speaker:That was the first time we changed the customer target and
Speaker:actually did a trade show where we were writing orders,
Speaker:large orders.
Speaker:But we were writing them for retailers who were going to
Speaker:sell our products in their shops.
Speaker:Yeah. I remember that time Amy,
Speaker:because you and I had a conversation.
Speaker:I don't know if you remember it,
Speaker:but I was at your booth and I can even envision
Speaker:right now,
Speaker:still like the booth location,
Speaker:all of it.
Speaker:But you came up to me on the side and you're
Speaker:like, this is blowing me away.
Speaker:We've got all of these beautiful finished creations and you know
Speaker:what selling,
Speaker:I don't know if you call them the flat sheets or
Speaker:whatever of the cut marshmallows.
Speaker:Yep. Bulk for Chocolate shops to use for dipping.
Speaker:Like you were just selling,
Speaker:like, I'm going to just call it like the insides.
Speaker:Exactly. And I remembered you.
Speaker:You're like,
Speaker:I can't even believe this is what's so popular right now.
Speaker:So it was so exciting to watch that like enlightenment come
Speaker:out. So that would have been the first Philly candy show
Speaker:that we did,
Speaker:where we were selling all of that bulk product.
Speaker:And then we still do,
Speaker:in fact,
Speaker:we're selling a lot of it this year because one of
Speaker:our competitors is not doing some marshmallow products and people are
Speaker:scrambling to replace it for Easter.
Speaker:Interesting. And probably very challenging for you.
Speaker:Production-wise Production.
Speaker:Yes. Super challenging for production.
Speaker:Yeah. So let's get back to the products.
Speaker:Okay. So we may swing back to that production,
Speaker:but there's so much I want to talk with you about,
Speaker:and I don't want to make this be four hours long
Speaker:because I don't know if everyone Elisabet long,
Speaker:but anyway,
Speaker:so let's talk about the product evolution then.
Speaker:So you went from direct to consumer with obviously finished products.
Speaker:And then you found at the Philly show that these bulk
Speaker:orders were really,
Speaker:really popular.
Speaker:What did you do with that realization?
Speaker:So, because our wholesale orders are larger,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:even two years in,
Speaker:we knew that the calendar had to be built around wholesale
Speaker:customers. The production schedule had to be built around wholesale orders.
Speaker:If that meant,
Speaker:we reduced the number of retail products that were available online,
Speaker:we would do that.
Speaker:If that meant that we needed to change shipping timelines,
Speaker:we would have to do that.
Speaker:And so that's what we did.
Speaker:We lay out the calendar six months at a time.
Speaker:Most of our wholesale customers order three months out,
Speaker:not all of them,
Speaker:The ones you love because you can plan.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I have a couple that I love,
Speaker:but notoriously,
Speaker:I have to call them three weeks out and say,
Speaker:chef, I know you're going to want fun.
Speaker:It's now or never commit now,
Speaker:or it's not happening.
Speaker:Exactly. And there's only two or three that are like that,
Speaker:but we do love them.
Speaker:So they have become friends as well.
Speaker:Question for you here.
Speaker:Did you have to change the number of flavors then that
Speaker:you were offering?
Speaker:Because I'm thinking that on the wholesale side,
Speaker:they would really target into more of a finite number of
Speaker:flavors. So because we're preparing to order,
Speaker:we're adjusting time inventory control system.
Speaker:Think of it like Dell computers,
Speaker:we get the order and then we prepared a manufacturer.
Speaker:It's not like we're keeping a hundred flavors on the shelf
Speaker:at all times.
Speaker:I have five,
Speaker:maybe eight flavors that we always have going.
Speaker:But other than that,
Speaker:it didn't change too much.
Speaker:One thing I realized is it's hard for people to make
Speaker:decisions if they have a hundred flavors in front of them.
Speaker:So we have changed on our wholesale listings,
Speaker:the catalog listings have changed.
Speaker:And so we'll list seasonal flavors.
Speaker:We'll list it in flavor groupings rather than just a list.
Speaker:So now we're grouping the flavors.
Speaker:So if you're looking for spring flavors,
Speaker:here's the seasonal five that we do.
Speaker:If you're looking for fruit flavors,
Speaker:here's like 10 that we do letting folks know we can
Speaker:always do custom flavors.
Speaker:It's one of the things about being a small batch operation.
Speaker:We can produce a custom flavor for you,
Speaker:whereas a larger manufacturer might not be able to do that.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:And did you see that the ease in ordering and making
Speaker:selections happened because of the groupings that you then offered?
Speaker:I didn't quite frankly.
Speaker:And this is just one of those things that it all
Speaker:depends on your customer.
Speaker:One thing that we started doing because a real shift happened
Speaker:in 2020 at our very last trade show.
Speaker:So 2020,
Speaker:we were all set to expand into wholesale.
Speaker:We had had exponential growth to 2019,
Speaker:over 2018.
Speaker:Again, primarily with wholesale we're wholesale makes up 85% of our
Speaker:sales at this point.
Speaker:So back then you were looking at just really enhancing and
Speaker:focusing specifically on wholesale.
Speaker:Yeah. So with not even so much a total switch,
Speaker:but chasing a different customer segment that we had not focused
Speaker:on had not targeted prior.
Speaker:And you saw potential in,
Speaker:obviously, Right?
Speaker:Okay. So we are at the New York restaurant show.
Speaker:It's the New York international restaurant show and the target customer
Speaker:there, and the folks walking the floor,
Speaker:there are restaurant chefs,
Speaker:hospitality folks.
Speaker:So whether they're private chefs,
Speaker:whether they're bartenders,
Speaker:caterers, also schools and industrial kitchens,
Speaker:even before cloud kitchens.
Speaker:So maybe it's a university kitchen,
Speaker:that type of thing.
Speaker:So totally restaurant and bar focused hospitality industry focused shows at
Speaker:the Javits center are not cheap.
Speaker:I don't have to tell anyone who's done a trade show.
Speaker:What shows at the Javits center cost it's in Midtown Manhattan?
Speaker:What do you want?
Speaker:Normally, 35,000
Speaker:people walk this show.
Speaker:The show was scheduled for March 8th,
Speaker:through 10th of 2020.
Speaker:Oh gosh.
Speaker:Right at the start.
Speaker:If 12,000
Speaker:people walk that floor over three days,
Speaker:I would be shocked.
Speaker:I have photos from times square.
Speaker:The night before the show ended,
Speaker:there were 11 people in times square,
Speaker:six of them were vendors.
Speaker:Wow. Because we were just completely just probably the lowest,
Speaker:one of the lowest points I've ever had.
Speaker:So Amy,
Speaker:I'm trying to think of the rollout of all the information.
Speaker:Were you in a situation where you had to decide whether
Speaker:you were going to go to the show or not,
Speaker:or was the information just now coming out to everybody,
Speaker:where did all that come about in relation to this show?
Speaker:We had already shipped all of our samples and all of
Speaker:the booth materials the week prior.
Speaker:And so everything is happening in tandem.
Speaker:There was never a question that we weren't going to do
Speaker:the show.
Speaker:It was a $10,000.
Speaker:Yeah. I know I've done Javits before.
Speaker:I'm not going to give you my opinion of the place.
Speaker:You've got it.
Speaker:But I'm in agreement with you.
Speaker:Convenience wise.
Speaker:Wonderful. But let's just go with that.
Speaker:But, And we were on the lower level of the convention
Speaker:center. There was another expo on the top floor,
Speaker:Which could be great.
Speaker:Cause that would be more traffic.
Speaker:Well, it was a beauty expo.
Speaker:So lots of cosmetologists,
Speaker:lots of hairdressers.
Speaker:My hair looked fantastic the day before the show,
Speaker:but they canceled that expo 12 hours before it was starting.
Speaker:Oh wow.
Speaker:They couldn't get their seminar and workshop instructors in from Europe,
Speaker:the show.
Speaker:But folks were already set up.
Speaker:The floor was totally set up.
Speaker:People had already been there three or four days.
Speaker:Yeah. But gosh,
Speaker:but you got to think of the people who were at
Speaker:your show,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:in the restaurant industry,
Speaker:what are they hearing?
Speaker:You're going to have to close your doors,
Speaker:which we thought at that time,
Speaker:maybe two weeks a month,
Speaker:Maybe it's two weeks a month.
Speaker:Yeah. And I think it spoke to why we didn't.
Speaker:A lot of things spoke to why there wasn't traffic on
Speaker:the floor.
Speaker:But certainly that was one of them.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So without diving,
Speaker:going down this path too far,
Speaker:you were focused on the restaurant industry.
Speaker:Clearly that was not going to be a play given what
Speaker:was going on.
Speaker:So how did you adjust from there?
Speaker:Bad show,
Speaker:terrible. Maybe some tears.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Oh, a lot.
Speaker:Cause that big,
Speaker:huge investment,
Speaker:probably very little return at all.
Speaker:Then what happens?
Speaker:What do you do?
Speaker:Five days of grieving,
Speaker:quite frankly.
Speaker:And then,
Speaker:well, what can we do?
Speaker:We dealt with like everyone,
Speaker:like every small business out there and not even small businesses,
Speaker:large businesses as well,
Speaker:mixed messaging in terms of rules,
Speaker:mixed messaging in terms of how you could move forward,
Speaker:what you could do,
Speaker:what you couldn't do.
Speaker:We're based in Pennsylvania,
Speaker:the candy industry is part of the manufacturing sector.
Speaker:We're not grouped in with retail.
Speaker:We could continue operating.
Speaker:We could continue production.
Speaker:I was on a call with a group of confectioners and
Speaker:everyone's like,
Speaker:well, I'm going to bring groceries in and I'm going to
Speaker:bring this in and I'm going to bring dairy in.
Speaker:And then there's this pause.
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:you guys are making candy.
Speaker:You're considered manufacturers read the governor's order.
Speaker:And then it became,
Speaker:I can't sell online.
Speaker:It's called Shopify.
Speaker:There's so many plugins that you can use.
Speaker:We were really lucky in that situation.
Speaker:Cause we were already set up to sell retail.
Speaker:Easter of 2020 was huge for us retail,
Speaker:not wholesale,
Speaker:but retail was fantastic for us.
Speaker:And I'm so grateful to our customers,
Speaker:our longterm customers who remembered us and came back to find
Speaker:us, No.
Speaker:What did you do to get the word out?
Speaker:Then you knew you could stay in business because you were
Speaker:manufacturing production and you had started in a different direction,
Speaker:going wholesale and specifically looking at the category of restaurants.
Speaker:And now 2020 happens.
Speaker:You have to pivot.
Speaker:How do you go back and communicate with the people who
Speaker:had been purchasing from you,
Speaker:which you knew could be at least the start of saving
Speaker:the year.
Speaker:Social media,
Speaker:Social. Okay.
Speaker:Not my favorite social was the way we went.
Speaker:I started doing a Facebook live every week.
Speaker:That was marshmallow Monday.
Speaker:Oh, that's how that started.
Speaker:Yeah. So we could let people know,
Speaker:Hey, we're still alive.
Speaker:We're still here.
Speaker:You're not going to be able to get those horrible marshal
Speaker:things that you usually get at the grocery store,
Speaker:but you can get stuff from us.
Speaker:So we did a lot of that.
Speaker:We used Instagram to show people what the products look like.
Speaker:It was the first time though,
Speaker:too, that we realized we could sell product without sampling it
Speaker:because sampling people want to try it before they buy it.
Speaker:Yeah, not right now.
Speaker:Well still,
Speaker:but what we realized was our customers who knew the product,
Speaker:we're also spreading the word.
Speaker:And so they could say,
Speaker:oh yeah,
Speaker:I've tried it.
Speaker:My kids love it or oh yeah,
Speaker:I've tried it.
Speaker:My office loves it.
Speaker:That helped a lot.
Speaker:Just that word of mouth marketing.
Speaker:Were you doing any emailing at that point?
Speaker:A little,
Speaker:our emails tend to really get lost.
Speaker:I still struggle with that.
Speaker:I'm doing a little better,
Speaker:but certainly in 2020 we struggled with that partially because we
Speaker:weren't managing our mailing lists that well that's changed.
Speaker:Okay. So you saw an opportunity with your past existing customers
Speaker:and they were spreading the word.
Speaker:And I remember back at that time too,
Speaker:like we couldn't get together for birthday parties or any type
Speaker:of celebration.
Speaker:And certainly for Easter,
Speaker:we couldn't be with a family.
Speaker:So your product solved such a big need for people of,
Speaker:yeah, we can't be together,
Speaker:but here's something that's going to be really special.
Speaker:So it's not just Easter egg thing that you can can
Speaker:or cannot get at your local store.
Speaker:You didn't know.
Speaker:I don't know that we were out of everything yet,
Speaker:but things weren't being produced.
Speaker:The stores were closed in our area.
Speaker:The stores were closed.
Speaker:Okay. So that created a challenge.
Speaker:It felt for me very much three steps forward,
Speaker:two steps back.
Speaker:But what I really needed to focus on and you and
Speaker:I have talked about this in other conversations,
Speaker:making sure that you celebrate the small wins,
Speaker:which I'm not good at.
Speaker:And I certainly wasn't good at it at the height of
Speaker:the pandemic.
Speaker:It wasn't until I took a step back probably a year,
Speaker:maybe 15 months in and could see,
Speaker:I didn't think we were going to survive going on his
Speaker:life. Well,
Speaker:everything was so unknown.
Speaker:Just the numbers were scary business.
Speaker:You were so restricted.
Speaker:It was like kind of being in a straight jacket,
Speaker:no matter what type of business And I couldn't travel state
Speaker:to state.
Speaker:So remembering that I don't live in Pennsylvania,
Speaker:even though we manufacture in Pennsylvania and then I had to
Speaker:get this letter just in case I was stopped by the
Speaker:police. And anyway,
Speaker:I remember being on a couple of your lives when you
Speaker:were saying yes tomorrow,
Speaker:I'm going,
Speaker:let's see if I can get there.
Speaker:And if I can get back Very like smokey and the
Speaker:bandit. Yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So I want to get out of the pandemic issue really,
Speaker:but it's important because it impacted the growth of how you
Speaker:would move your product and where you would transition your product
Speaker:and all of that.
Speaker:So let's keep going,
Speaker:understanding that there were serious challenges with what you were going
Speaker:to be able to do for a little bit of time.
Speaker:You resorted back and direct to consumer your past customers,
Speaker:where your saviors and really important point And then Easter,
Speaker:and then mother's day hit.
Speaker:And everything falls off the cliff after mother's day because apparently
Speaker:dads don't like sweets.
Speaker:So what we realized based on our own supply needs,
Speaker:how many wholesale portals had popped up.
Speaker:And so we knew there weren't going to be any trade
Speaker:shows. So we started investigating wholesale portals.
Speaker:And the best way I can explain it is think of
Speaker:it like Amazon for wholesalers.
Speaker:If you're not familiar with what a wholesale portal is,
Speaker:it's basically an online 24 by seven trade show.
Speaker:Okay? Like a virtual show,
Speaker:A virtual show,
Speaker:but they're up 365 days a year.
Speaker:We had two companies reach out to us about our products
Speaker:and adding the product to the portal.
Speaker:When you say portal,
Speaker:we do call fear a portal,
Speaker:Fair Mabel,
Speaker:indie me.
Speaker:Those are our top three.
Speaker:Okay. There are a couple that I have pulled our products
Speaker:off of just because of how they were managed.
Speaker:But we didn't know that.
Speaker:Then it's like,
Speaker:we're going to put it out everywhere and see what happens
Speaker:when you say we're going to list our products on a
Speaker:wholesale portal.
Speaker:You don't.
Speaker:I had no idea what was going to happen.
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:well, if people can't try the products,
Speaker:they're not going to buy anything.
Speaker:So then it's a matter of how are we selling these
Speaker:products? I knew we had text descriptions.
Speaker:I can write content all day long.
Speaker:What we didn't have were good photos.
Speaker:And so we had to clean up the photos.
Speaker:That's an ongoing challenge,
Speaker:not so much the photo itself,
Speaker:but before you put yourself on more than one wholesale portal,
Speaker:if you're thinking of going that route,
Speaker:make sure you see what the,
Speaker:the image sizing and image quality and all of that is
Speaker:every single one of them is different here.
Speaker:I'm thinking,
Speaker:well, I got photos.
Speaker:Here you go.
Speaker:Yeah, wrong,
Speaker:Wrong. Oh.
Speaker:And we need to be on a black background.
Speaker:We needed to be on a white background.
Speaker:This one can't have a logo on it.
Speaker:This one has to have a logo that was some backend
Speaker:work. Certainly.
Speaker:We also had to adjust pricing because now 80% of the
Speaker:portals take a commission.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:they gotta make money.
Speaker:Right. So adjusting pricing.
Speaker:So it was not out of line,
Speaker:but still making allowances for that loss of that percentage loss.
Speaker:Right. Really big point here.
Speaker:Yeah. And I don't love accounting.
Speaker:You and I have talked about that before I went to
Speaker:business school and learned,
Speaker:I shouldn't be an accountant.
Speaker:I learned I should outsource my accounting,
Speaker:but pricing is different.
Speaker:Another decision point that I had to make was should we
Speaker:hire someone to do sales?
Speaker:Should we partner with a distributor or are these online portals
Speaker:the right way to go and doing the numbers six ways
Speaker:to Sunday,
Speaker:it worked out.
Speaker:It was a better situation for us to go with the
Speaker:online portals than it was to hire someone specifically for sales.
Speaker:And what about any adjustments to your product line when you
Speaker:went on these portals?
Speaker:We'll hear what Amy has to say about that right after
Speaker:a quick break to hear from our sponsor.
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Speaker:So we do not your point about the flavors and how
Speaker:many flavors we have on the portals.
Speaker:We list the best sellers within the products,
Speaker:the s'mores on forks.
Speaker:Those we list the full product list because those tend to,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:people do those in collections,
Speaker:but we're doing individually wrapped marshmallows.
Speaker:Well, those are 10 flavors.
Speaker:If you want to do them in another flavor,
Speaker:then it's a custom order kind of thing,
Speaker:small boxes.
Speaker:I think we list those and all the flavors too,
Speaker:because we had already edited those down to what was selling.
Speaker:The wands are already the best sellers.
Speaker:The two that weren't working,
Speaker:we actually do.
Speaker:It's not that they weren't working.
Speaker:It's just,
Speaker:they don't sell year round.
Speaker:So we now have them available seasonally.
Speaker:Our customers can.
Speaker:Pre-order that's one thing that we really liked with the online
Speaker:portals. There are some people who are ordering their Memorial day
Speaker:products in February.
Speaker:I love them.
Speaker:So that was something it made it better than the order
Speaker:writing shows for us because oftentimes with the order writing shows,
Speaker:for example,
Speaker:one that we had done is in September.
Speaker:And if everyone's ordering for Thanksgiving and Christmas,
Speaker:that's can be harder to set the timing up,
Speaker:but you also have people that want stuff for Halloween.
Speaker:And so for whatever reason,
Speaker:it doesn't sound like it should make a difference,
Speaker:but it does.
Speaker:Yeah. All right.
Speaker:But it's a good thing to talk about because the way
Speaker:the orders were coming in and the timing changed when you
Speaker:went on these portals.
Speaker:So you needed to make a little adjustment about how you
Speaker:would manage through all of that.
Speaker:Right. And it actually makes it easier.
Speaker:Quite frankly,
Speaker:we set up a window.
Speaker:When we,
Speaker:for example,
Speaker:for fare our order window on there,
Speaker:the turnaround is 11 to 14 days.
Speaker:That's the soonest you're going to get product is 11 days.
Speaker:We probably do most of them in 10,
Speaker:but you have to allow for shipping and that sort of
Speaker:thing. But we can also adjust that.
Speaker:For example,
Speaker:November of last year,
Speaker:orders came in late for the holidays.
Speaker:They really started hitting in October and then people still wanted
Speaker:product right up against the holiday,
Speaker:which was something new for us.
Speaker:Normally we ship our last wholesale orders,
Speaker:the 15th that's the absolute last day they go,
Speaker:but people were willing to come pick up right up until,
Speaker:so we did have to shift the timeline out a bit
Speaker:and we can do that.
Speaker:It does allow you some flexibility.
Speaker:So rather than me having to call someone and saying,
Speaker:Hey, your order is going to be delayed.
Speaker:By 10 days,
Speaker:we just shifted our shipping window and made it 14 to
Speaker:20 days with the caveat that normally we get things out
Speaker:earlier, but understand because of demand.
Speaker:Yeah. And let's face it.
Speaker:It's the holidays.
Speaker:Everyone understands things take longer.
Speaker:Plus we have the overlay of the delivery issues,
Speaker:the delay in delivery holiday always,
Speaker:and then supply chain issues and people actually being running the
Speaker:trucks and all that.
Speaker:Like we had everything,
Speaker:everything you wanted was thrown at us in December.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:So you would think that on a personal level,
Speaker:people hear that on a personal level,
Speaker:people understand that on a small business level,
Speaker:I would say a good 5% of our customers did not.
Speaker:I Believe that 5% is 50%.
Speaker:Okay. I just wanted to make reference to everybody.
Speaker:So you heard a little bit ago that Amy was referencing
Speaker:small works.
Speaker:This is a signature product of marshmallow MBA.
Speaker:And I think we talked about it back in episode 80,
Speaker:but you can also go right onto their website,
Speaker:marshmallow mba.com
Speaker:and see what they are signature product.
Speaker:If you are in any type of consumable business,
Speaker:definitely consider a signature product.
Speaker:That's all I'm going to say about that,
Speaker:because guess what,
Speaker:Amy, the two things that I really,
Speaker:really wanted to talk to you about,
Speaker:we haven't even started yet.
Speaker:So we're going to just jump right into those right now.
Speaker:You should know that smokes are now trademark pending.
Speaker:Oh, cool.
Speaker:Cool, cool.
Speaker:So that's just a matter of time until it's happens.
Speaker:Correct. The paperwork's in Very exciting and I'm glad you're doing
Speaker:that. Covering your bases.
Speaker:When you know,
Speaker:you have a hit,
Speaker:like that's the thing.
Speaker:And I guess we will talk about this for just a
Speaker:half a second,
Speaker:just because you make a product doesn't mean you should trademark
Speaker:it right away.
Speaker:You need to make sure that people are going to buy
Speaker:it because why are you going to spend all that money,
Speaker:protecting something that no one is even interested in.
Speaker:And when Hershey's walks past your booth at a trade show
Speaker:and starts picking up the product,
Speaker:start the paperwork.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Yes. I bet that left.
Speaker:You sleepless for a few nights.
Speaker:We had known we wanted to do the trademark.
Speaker:It was more,
Speaker:how fast can I get it registered?
Speaker:Right. Yeah.
Speaker:And some of that is timing too.
Speaker:Correct? You have to be in the market for a while
Speaker:before you can get that little beautiful our symbol.
Speaker:Yes. This has been really interesting in terms of marshmallow MBA,
Speaker:growth progress,
Speaker:things that you encountered,
Speaker:hopefully many people who start now won't encounter some of these
Speaker:crazy world things that you have.
Speaker:Oh, let's hope.
Speaker:Yeah. So now I want to talk about the fact that
Speaker:you decided you needed to do some rebranding,
Speaker:Correct? Let's start with why,
Speaker:like when did you decide that that was something you needed
Speaker:to do and why?
Speaker:So four years in and will be six years old in
Speaker:March? I don't know if we talked about that.
Speaker:So about four years in when the original logo concept was
Speaker:Sandra's and it filled a niche that we needed to fill
Speaker:because we didn't have a logo And Hey,
Speaker:many people will start that way to just get some identity
Speaker:up and they'll create it themselves.
Speaker:That's very standard for people to do.
Speaker:And she was very,
Speaker:very wedded to the idea of having marshmallows in the logo
Speaker:design. And to be brutally honest,
Speaker:I was and continue to be so focused on the strategy
Speaker:and the product I'm like,
Speaker:yeah, whatever,
Speaker:go ahead.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:sometimes you have to just give it up to God and
Speaker:let go.
Speaker:Part of being in a partnership too,
Speaker:I'll say,
Speaker:Right. It was not something I had any having come up
Speaker:with the name,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:with Keith and I haven't come up with a name I'm
Speaker:like, yeah,
Speaker:whatever go have at it.
Speaker:So we had the little marshmallow mob of guys,
Speaker:which was perfectly fine,
Speaker:but as our customer demographic was changing,
Speaker:we didn't move into a premium product.
Speaker:We were recognized as a premium product,
Speaker:a luxury product,
Speaker:if you will,
Speaker:because it's gourmet marshmallows,
Speaker:a luxury price point.
Speaker:So we needed the brand to reflect that.
Speaker:So really we were probably three and a half,
Speaker:four years in and Sandra and I had talked about it
Speaker:back and forth.
Speaker:What did we want in the new brand?
Speaker:We did not hire someone to do the branding.
Speaker:We did not bring in a consultant for $12,000.
Speaker:It was brainstorming.
Speaker:And then it was a weekend,
Speaker:totally out of the kitchen where we worked through multiple designs
Speaker:and then crowdsourced them.
Speaker:We took it to people.
Speaker:We trusted,
Speaker:including you to vet the designs,
Speaker:to vet the options.
Speaker:After we had narrowed down and could not make a decision
Speaker:ourselves, it was too much back and forth.
Speaker:And then it was going to be me just throwing something
Speaker:at the wall and hoping it stuck.
Speaker:So we wanted to get other opinions on it.
Speaker:So we did.
Speaker:And so in July of 21 launched the new branding,
Speaker:which is what you see on the website,
Speaker:which is what you see on the labels.
Speaker:Now we stuck with corporate colors rather than a graphic image,
Speaker:which does go against trend.
Speaker:I'm not going to lie.
Speaker:We had folks who were like,
Speaker:no, there needs to be a picture.
Speaker:There needs to be a graphical representation,
Speaker:a graphic representation of the marshmallow.
Speaker:And we just didn't want to do that again.
Speaker:And so sticking with just a text based logo worked well
Speaker:for us for right now,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:will it change again?
Speaker:Sure. Of course.
Speaker:Things all about,
Speaker:yeah. I expect that it might,
Speaker:especially with the way the company's evolving.
Speaker:Well, I have to say the colors you selected.
Speaker:I absolutely love,
Speaker:Oh, thank you.
Speaker:The black background,
Speaker:I'll be honest.
Speaker:I wasn't wedded to that,
Speaker:but it really pops against the product and that signature blue.
Speaker:I love,
Speaker:we've also changed out some of our packaging to pick up
Speaker:colors in the logo.
Speaker:Now we have a plan to use different color background,
Speaker:flipping the color of the text and the background on some
Speaker:limited edition products.
Speaker:That'll be how we use that.
Speaker:So it gives us flexibility.
Speaker:We didn't have with the previous logo and it really is
Speaker:being well-received,
Speaker:it's definitely upscaled the packaging and how people perceive the products.
Speaker:So we're happy with it.
Speaker:We're very happy with it.
Speaker:Wonderful. And just to summarize what you had said,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:the real reason you felt you wanted to change was your
Speaker:customer changed.
Speaker:You were no longer direct to consumer,
Speaker:which your other logo worked wonderfully.
Speaker:It was very playful and fun,
Speaker:but it was definitely more retail,
Speaker:consumer oriented,
Speaker:I guess I would say.
Speaker:And family-friendly focused.
Speaker:Yeah. Well we do still have family friendly products.
Speaker:A lot of our growth has been in some of the
Speaker:premium, happy hour flavors.
Speaker:It is more of an adult product than it is a
Speaker:kid product.
Speaker:You did it for all the right reasons,
Speaker:obviously. Well,
Speaker:I love that you included other opinions for everyone else.
Speaker:If you're looking at changing a logo or you're just starting
Speaker:run it by some people.
Speaker:And see,
Speaker:I actually did that with my podcast logo.
Speaker:When I changed it this past summer,
Speaker:I went into gift biz breeze and asked everyone for their
Speaker:opinion. I had like three or four different ones knowing I
Speaker:would like any of the ones they chose,
Speaker:because how terrible would that be?
Speaker:If someone like everyone was one and you're like,
Speaker:yeah, I don't like that one.
Speaker:I'm not going to do it.
Speaker:Well then why ask my opinion?
Speaker:We don't like any of them.
Speaker:Yeah. Oh,
Speaker:well that would even be worse,
Speaker:but it is good because you're getting other eyes sometimes you're
Speaker:just too close to things.
Speaker:And that's exactly what happened after six hours of staring at
Speaker:the same thing and just a tweak to the font or
Speaker:just a tweak.
Speaker:It became untenable.
Speaker:So, okay.
Speaker:We have colleagues that we trust And we did a focus
Speaker:group. We got on a zoom call and you presented,
Speaker:I think you actually had a slide deck to,
Speaker:you talked about the reasoning and what was happening.
Speaker:I Was a consultant for how long?
Speaker:Of course I had a slide deck.
Speaker:Of Course you did.
Speaker:Alright. So interesting on the branding,
Speaker:I'm kind of squeezing in these last two topics because we
Speaker:talked so much about business development.
Speaker:Anything else that you think we all need to know about
Speaker:your experience with rebranding before we move on?
Speaker:It's a challenge,
Speaker:but you know,
Speaker:it's an opportunity to use a different side of your brain.
Speaker:So even if you think you don't want to be creative
Speaker:that way,
Speaker:and then you don't have the time to do it,
Speaker:it actually allowed us to look at more than just the
Speaker:branding. It allowed us to consider packaging options.
Speaker:It allowed us to consider our customers and going forward,
Speaker:who we want our customers to be.
Speaker:All of these things influence the branding.
Speaker:So your whole strategy behind where you were taking the business,
Speaker:you were forward-thinking with that because you wanted the new logo
Speaker:to fit in with what your future vision is.
Speaker:Correct. All right.
Speaker:Wonderful. And the idea of the fact that you could open
Speaker:your mind to new packaging and all that is great as
Speaker:well. So new branding to me is kind of like when
Speaker:you move into a new house,
Speaker:you get to decide where everything is going to sit and
Speaker:fit and what cupboards and all of that.
Speaker:It's kind of like that when you're rebranding to what products
Speaker:still fit with the brand,
Speaker:where are we going in the future?
Speaker:Who is our customer?
Speaker:Like who do we invite over to our house?
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:that kind of thing just gives you an open platform to
Speaker:re-look at everything.
Speaker:I think if everybody's on the same page,
Speaker:there's an opportunity for that.
Speaker:I think I'll leave it there.
Speaker:Okay. Well,
Speaker:I think the more people you have in the business who
Speaker:have the ability to speak and guide the vision,
Speaker:it's always more challenging when it's not just you.
Speaker:Yes. And so you have to just figure and work through
Speaker:that. And it takes more time when you have multiple opinions,
Speaker:it's always more challenging pros and cons to partnerships other eyes.
Speaker:And as you get bigger,
Speaker:bigger departments in your business,
Speaker:More to come on that front.
Speaker:Yeah. Your job kind of changes too,
Speaker:but let's not go there.
Speaker:The other thing I really want to talk with you about
Speaker:Amy, that I don't know anything about.
Speaker:So I am going to be learning this with everybody else
Speaker:is the Amazon smiles program.
Speaker:What it's about what you saw as the benefit to integrating
Speaker:it in for marshmallow MBA.
Speaker:So take it away.
Speaker:Tell us about that.
Speaker:Sure. So the background on it is corporate social responsibility has
Speaker:been part of our business from day one.
Speaker:That was what I hung my hat on in business school
Speaker:when I got my MBA.
Speaker:And I think it is so,
Speaker:so critical.
Speaker:And that means to me being a good partner in your
Speaker:community locally,
Speaker:regionally, nationally,
Speaker:our business reflects who we are,
Speaker:small businesses reflect their owners.
Speaker:And so it was important to me to be a good
Speaker:steward of resources and be giving back to the community.
Speaker:However we can,
Speaker:we do it in a few ways.
Speaker:One of those ways is the Amazon smile program,
Speaker:which allows you.
Speaker:When you make a purchase on Amazon,
Speaker:you use,
Speaker:instead of just going to amazon.com,
Speaker:you go to smile.amazon.com
Speaker:and the smile program donates a percentage.
Speaker:Now to be fair,
Speaker:it is less than 1% for some of the donations,
Speaker:but it donates a percentage of your spending back to a
Speaker:nonprofit that you choose.
Speaker:We try and source locally as much as we can,
Speaker:but you know,
Speaker:I'm not to lie.
Speaker:Sometimes Amazon's the way to go.
Speaker:If I know I can get it in a day and
Speaker:I've been a member of Amazon prime for 20 years.
Speaker:So it's not like this is something new.
Speaker:The smile program is at least 10 years old and it
Speaker:covers thousands of non-profits.
Speaker:Whether you're talking about a local church,
Speaker:whether you are looking at planned parenthood,
Speaker:you can donate either to nationally or you can donate to
Speaker:your local facility.
Speaker:You can donate to animal rescue organizations,
Speaker:child welfare organizations.
Speaker:If you go to smile.amazon.com
Speaker:there's information on there,
Speaker:how you register for that,
Speaker:and really you register one time and that's it.
Speaker:You're done.
Speaker:You make your purchases the same as you'd normally make them
Speaker:Amazon takes care of the donation.
Speaker:Okay. So if I were just to go to amazon.com
Speaker:and search for marshmallows,
Speaker:would marshmallow MBA come up or only if I go to
Speaker:the smiles program?
Speaker:So neither one.
Speaker:So this has nothing to do with our brand.
Speaker:This has to do with our purchasing on Amazon,
Speaker:with what we purchase for business or personal use to full
Speaker:transparency. We are not selling on Amazon.
Speaker:Okay. I thought this was a portion of the proceeds of
Speaker:a sale,
Speaker:but this is where you're going and purchasing inventory product.
Speaker:Maybe it's equipment that you're using in your production facility,
Speaker:shoot paper,
Speaker:towels, Any of that.
Speaker:So given that we all should be purchasing things like that
Speaker:from Amazon,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:if it can go back to a charity,
Speaker:If it can go back to a charity,
Speaker:if you're going to go to another retailer and buy it,
Speaker:if you're going to go to a big box store and
Speaker:buy it,
Speaker:you might look at Amazon first.
Speaker:Yeah. I'm not saying take away from small business purchase it.
Speaker:No. And neither yet neither would.
Speaker:This is an easy way.
Speaker:When I stopped having a weekly paycheck,
Speaker:I stopped having automatic withdrawals.
Speaker:When I was a consultant.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:my paycheck comes in.
Speaker:I was donating to the combined federal campaign.
Speaker:I was donating to nonprofits directly.
Speaker:My paycheck came in and there was an automatic withdrawal that
Speaker:would go to a nonprofit,
Speaker:depending on who it was at the time I was donating
Speaker:to probably seven to 10 different charities annually.
Speaker:I've cut back on that a little.
Speaker:I'm not going to lie,
Speaker:but we make in kind donations of product to different nonprofits.
Speaker:We probably get six or eight requests a month for product.
Speaker:And we help where we can.
Speaker:We make at least one a month.
Speaker:We try to do up to four a quarter.
Speaker:So we're doing up to 16 in any given year of
Speaker:in kind donations.
Speaker:And they can be silent auction donations,
Speaker:that type of thing.
Speaker:But with Amazon,
Speaker:when we're making purchases of products that we need and gift
Speaker:bags, a pop-up event,
Speaker:or we have something we're going to make a bunch of
Speaker:sales calls.
Speaker:And I happened to not keep track of inventory and I
Speaker:need 25 bags.
Speaker:I'm going to do it on Amazon.
Speaker:Yeah. Because you've already set up how that's going to work.
Speaker:So it's connected with your account.
Speaker:And so anything that you're purchasing then,
Speaker:and you still go to smile.amazon.com
Speaker:right. To make the purchase.
Speaker:Right. Correct.
Speaker:And it'll ask you,
Speaker:so say you are on Google and there's something on there.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:We'll stick with paper towels and it's paper towels on Amazon.
Speaker:When, if you would just click on that main link on
Speaker:your search page.
Speaker:When you go to Amazon,
Speaker:if you are registered with the smile program,
Speaker:it will prompt you.
Speaker:Do you want to go to this product on the smile.amazon.com
Speaker:page? Okay.
Speaker:And is the product then more expensive when you buy it?
Speaker:It is the same price.
Speaker:So the money is not coming off of you.
Speaker:It's coming off of something.
Speaker:Well, margin,
Speaker:like, I don't know what I think it is coming off
Speaker:of. Amazon's proceeds.
Speaker:So even though the donation is made in your name,
Speaker:cause at the end of the year,
Speaker:you get a little statement,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:your purchases have resulted in X,
Speaker:hundreds, thousands of millions of dollars back to the charity of
Speaker:your choice.
Speaker:Okay. So I'm going to say this.
Speaker:I'm thinking this all through.
Speaker:Okay. So no,
Speaker:we do not want to take business from other small businesses
Speaker:and purchase on Amazon.
Speaker:What we can purchase from a neighboring business who needs our
Speaker:orders to keep running.
Speaker:So that's not the point.
Speaker:I want to say that right from the start.
Speaker:But if there are things that you have to buy,
Speaker:like bags Amy are talking about,
Speaker:or like I'm thinking like skewer sticks,
Speaker:Which are actually more expensive on Amazon than they are from
Speaker:my local retailer.
Speaker:Okay. All right.
Speaker:Well Labels So bad,
Speaker:Like bags,
Speaker:tape, even things that you just need for shipping.
Speaker:But let me follow through with all of this too.
Speaker:And this is one of the things I talk about with
Speaker:people when we're talking about costing your product and what the
Speaker:cost of goods are,
Speaker:cost of goods also includes the cost of shipping the product
Speaker:to you or you jumping in the car having to drive.
Speaker:So that's a little bit of gas and that's clearly time.
Speaker:And the time value of money needs to be factored into
Speaker:your price,
Speaker:Right? So if you are an Amazon prime customer,
Speaker:you get free shipping and you go to the smile program
Speaker:and byproducts again,
Speaker:not taking away from smaller businesses,
Speaker:but these bigger bulk products that you need.
Speaker:Right. Correct.
Speaker:That is where you're getting the value because it's getting shipped
Speaker:to you.
Speaker:You're not having to take the time.
Speaker:And you're also giving to a cause of your own choice.
Speaker:We have found that some of our suppliers,
Speaker:I wouldn't put them in the small business category.
Speaker:I would definitely put them in the medium sized business category,
Speaker:but we have found that they are selling on Amazon and
Speaker:we're normally I would pay for shipping on their website.
Speaker:I can get it through Amazon free shipping and get it
Speaker:in a day because where we are,
Speaker:most of our orders are there the next day.
Speaker:And price is,
Speaker:if it is usually we use a buck 50 to two
Speaker:50 as the benchmark for us,
Speaker:maybe we say,
Speaker:so say three to 5% kind of thing.
Speaker:But when you factor in your gas and your time,
Speaker:and it's been the time factor,
Speaker:that's been the more critical thing,
Speaker:honestly, for us,
Speaker:if we were going to drive for something or if it
Speaker:was going to take five days to get to us,
Speaker:you're going to sometimes that one to $5 and knowing that
Speaker:I'm giving back,
Speaker:that makes a huge difference For sure.
Speaker:Are they promoting this program very much?
Speaker:It doesn't sound like it.
Speaker:So they were for a while and now I will occasionally
Speaker:get a teaser email about it,
Speaker:but I haven't seen one in a long time.
Speaker:Usually it's the nonprofits themselves that are promoting it.
Speaker:Okay. Makes sense.
Speaker:Well, this is interesting.
Speaker:I didn't know about the program at all.
Speaker:And Mike,
Speaker:everybody, I used to not be an Amazon shopper very much.
Speaker:And now,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:again, when it's bulk things,
Speaker:I'm using it all the time.
Speaker:Look, you know what our you line,
Speaker:where we buy all of our boxes for the ribbon print
Speaker:company, right?
Speaker:Like now you can't even pick up anymore.
Speaker:And shipping literally hundreds and hundreds of boxes is a disaster.
Speaker:If you go to my Instagram account,
Speaker:which is marshmallow MBA,
Speaker:cause I'm so creative,
Speaker:there are videos of us throwing our you line catalog off
Speaker:the back porch of the offices.
Speaker:I can't tell you the number of times I have called,
Speaker:I have emailed.
Speaker:I have texted.
Speaker:I have messaged do not include a catalog in our shipment,
Speaker:but really do not send me a separate catalog because I
Speaker:don't need five catalogs.
Speaker:Not every person who works for the company needs their own
Speaker:copy of the catalog every two months.
Speaker:Right? And I don't need to be paying $65 in shipping
Speaker:when five pounds of it is that catalog,
Speaker:Right? That was my tangent.
Speaker:Well, I agree with You.
Speaker:We're trying to start a viral movement.
Speaker:We'd love to start a viral movement of people flinging their
Speaker:Ulan, catalogs out their front door,
Speaker:off the mailbox.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:as much as I have loved you line.
Speaker:And I think the quality of their products is best.
Speaker:The catalogs have to go.
Speaker:They could save so much money on those catalogs,
Speaker:not only printing but shipping And those are expensive,
Speaker:that glossy full color,
Speaker:heavy paper Point taken.
Speaker:Well, this has been so interesting and we did get all
Speaker:of our topics covered.
Speaker:I wanted to talk about the progress of the business,
Speaker:which I'm more proud of you than I can even say,
Speaker:like having seen you in the beginning and where you come
Speaker:being part of some of the conversations that include struggles.
Speaker:Cause that's part of growing a business.
Speaker:We all know.
Speaker:And then your rebranding and understanding about the Amazon smile program,
Speaker:all of that.
Speaker:It's exactly what I wanted to talk about today.
Speaker:So Amy,
Speaker:thank you so,
Speaker:so much for coming on,
Speaker:being honest,
Speaker:giving us your little sideline commentary that really gives us a
Speaker:peek into what's going on and all of the wisdom.
Speaker:I appreciate it.
Speaker:And I appreciate you being a champion for as long as
Speaker:you have been.
Speaker:I love having our friendship.
Speaker:So that's also one of the good things that's come out
Speaker:of marshmallow MBA,
Speaker:more to come,
Speaker:certainly this year,
Speaker:lots of things happening,
Speaker:and I'll be excited to share those with you going forward.
Speaker:Oh, I can't wait.
Speaker:Well, wonderful Amy,
Speaker:thank you again so much.
Speaker:I continue to be inspired and impressed by Amy's strategic savvy,
Speaker:the changes she's made to marshmallow MBA,
Speaker:position it for even more explosive growth in the years ahead.
Speaker:How does this apply to you?
Speaker:Use her as an example,
Speaker:observe the responses you're getting online and it shows and think
Speaker:through as emotionless as possible,
Speaker:what it means and what you should do next to get
Speaker:the results you're after.
Speaker:Sometimes it's just a tweaker too.
Speaker:That can change everything before you move on to your next
Speaker:activity today.
Speaker:Make sure to get your name on the list for this.
Speaker:Monday is a gift biz bash.
Speaker:You can also see all the dates for April and may
Speaker:and get signed up@giftbizonwrapped.com
Speaker:forward slash bash up next Saturday.
Speaker:It's all about Pinterest.
Speaker:Again, call this Pinterest 2.0
Speaker:where we go past account set up and pinning and into
Speaker:some of the really cool things that you can do here.
Speaker:I become more and more impressed with Pinterest.
Speaker:The more I learn if you're enjoying this show and would
Speaker:like to show support,
Speaker:you can visit my merch shop for a wide variety of
Speaker:inspirational items.
Speaker:There are mugs t-shirts water bottles and more featuring logos images
Speaker:and quotes to inspire you throughout your day makes a great
Speaker:gift to,
Speaker:and we've just added some brand new products to the shop.
Speaker:I've found turnaround to be quick.
Speaker:And the product is top-notch take a look at all the
Speaker:options over at gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped.com forward slash shop all proceeds.
Speaker:When you purchase any of these items,
Speaker:booze to help offset the cost of me producing this show
Speaker:and now be safe and well.
Speaker:And I'll see you again.
Speaker:Next time for the gift biz unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook
Speaker:group called gift is breeze.
Speaker:It's a place where we all gather and our community to
Speaker:support each other.
Speaker:Got a really fun post in there.
Speaker:That's my favorite of the week.
Speaker:I have to say where I invite all of you to
Speaker:share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,
Speaker:to show what you're working on for the week to get
Speaker:reaction from other people and just for fun,
Speaker:because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody
Speaker:in the community is making my favorite post every single week,
Speaker:without doubt.
Speaker:Wait, what aren't you part of the group already,
Speaker:if not make sure to jump over to Facebook and search
Speaker:for the group gift biz breeze don't delay.
