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Gift biz unwrapped episode 311.
Speaker:I got such a positive and amazing feedback from people that
Speaker:I realized,
Speaker:yeah, this is what I want to do.
Speaker:Attention. 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 give 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 here is your host gift biz gal,
Speaker:Sue moon Heights.
Speaker:There it's Sue.
Speaker:And I'm so happy that you're here with me today.
Speaker:I'm starting off with an important reminder.
Speaker:As you know,
Speaker:I sponsor the at-home craft and gift show a virtual shopping
Speaker:show that gives you the opportunity to sell to a national
Speaker:consumer audience.
Speaker:Just think no travel,
Speaker:no setup,
Speaker:no guesstimating,
Speaker:how much product to make.
Speaker:It's all so easy and convenient for both the artist that's
Speaker:you and the attendees.
Speaker:The April show happens the 14th through the 30th,
Speaker:and there's still time to book your booth to hear more
Speaker:about it.
Speaker:Go back to episode 304 in that show.
Speaker:Robert who's one of the owners of at-home events.
Speaker:And I talk about virtual shows in general,
Speaker:and then also the at-home craft and gift show.
Speaker:Specifically, since we go into detail there,
Speaker:I'm not going to repeat it all here,
Speaker:other than saying,
Speaker:you want to consider this show and you don't need to
Speaker:worry about being prepared,
Speaker:even if this is your first show,
Speaker:that's one of the beauties of at-home events.
Speaker:We walk you through it all,
Speaker:go over to gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped.com forward slash at home booth to register and make sure
Speaker:to enter in the code gift biz 10,
Speaker:to get 10% off as a first time exhibitor I'd mentioned
Speaker:at the end of last week,
Speaker:show how excited I am for our guests today.
Speaker:I met her just over a year ago and I've seen
Speaker:such a beautiful transformation unfold.
Speaker:She joined makers MBA at that time and was already a
Speaker:determined artist with a vision and had been taking action towards
Speaker:monetizing her products.
Speaker:By joining the program,
Speaker:she was able to perfect what she was already doing.
Speaker:Add in the missing elements to strengthen her business and well
Speaker:let's have her tell the story in her own words Today.
Speaker:It is my honor to introduce you to Hamina Bera VGO
Speaker:Hamina is the hands and heart behind the hand-woven creations of
Speaker:entre Linus designs.
Speaker:Her love of yarn and textiles began in her early teens.
Speaker:When she first started knitting,
Speaker:this led to crocheting needle felting.
Speaker:And when she started weaving on a rigid head,
Speaker:a loom that became her passion coming from Uruguay,
Speaker:where wool and wool products are part of the country identity.
Speaker:She found that creating hand-woven garments using Uruguayan pure wool was
Speaker:a way to stay connected with her roots today.
Speaker:Khomeini shares that part of who she is through onto Lana's
Speaker:designs. Hamina welcome to the gift is unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:Thank You,
Speaker:Sue. I'm very happy to be here.
Speaker:I am So excited.
Speaker:You're here too.
Speaker:And we have taken a little bit of a journey this
Speaker:year together.
Speaker:Yes. I'm excited to talk about some of the things that
Speaker:I know and some of the things that I don't know
Speaker:about the evolution of your business,
Speaker:but before we do that,
Speaker:I want to do our traditional candle and I know,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:already all about it.
Speaker:So if you were to give us a little bit more
Speaker:behind the scenes of your personality,
Speaker:describe what a motivational candle would look like for you with
Speaker:color and quote.
Speaker:Okay. My Kindle would be red.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I consider myself a very passionate person and red is the
Speaker:color of passion,
Speaker:but I would not do it completely red,
Speaker:maybe start with right at the bottom.
Speaker:And then at the top would be more like orange towards
Speaker:yellow. I just,
Speaker:because I like that.
Speaker:And my quote comes from a song that was very important
Speaker:for me in difficult times of my life.
Speaker:And then every time I hear that song,
Speaker:I test it.
Speaker:Doesn't take me back to the bad moments.
Speaker:Actually take me back to the feeling that Amy at that
Speaker:moment. So if you allow me,
Speaker:because singing is another part of my life too,
Speaker:I would like to sing the quote and then I will
Speaker:say it in English because the song is in Spanish.
Speaker:Is that okay?
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:I'm so excited.
Speaker:Yes. What a treat please do.
Speaker:Okay. Let's see what my voice allows me today.
Speaker:So this song is called color Esperanza,
Speaker:which means in English,
Speaker:the color of hope.
Speaker:And it was written by Diego Taurus,
Speaker:which is an artist from Argentina.
Speaker:And the refrain of the songs has this
it says like this in English.
Speaker:I am like paraphrasing.
Speaker:It's not exactly the translation,
Speaker:but it tastes like this.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:it's possible.
Speaker:You want it to be possible.
Speaker:So get rid of your fears,
Speaker:throw them away,
Speaker:paint your face with the color of hope and temp the
Speaker:future with your heart.
Speaker:That is beautiful.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:The words and your voice and Maina thank you so much
Speaker:singing. It just brings it to a whole nother level.
Speaker:Yeah. Thank you.
Speaker:I'm singing is very important for me too.
Speaker:No, I love that you have a gorgeous voice too.
Speaker:So I didn't know that about you.
Speaker:You're already revealing secrets.
Speaker:This is going to be good.
Speaker:Yes. All right.
Speaker:Well, let's talk a little bit about,
Speaker:I want to almost get directly into your business because there's
Speaker:so much that we can cover here,
Speaker:but I love in the intro.
Speaker:How you talk about it evolved from your passion of creating
Speaker:mostly with yarns and textiles,
Speaker:which no surprise that your color was a graduated color.
Speaker:Cause that's how a lot of your designs are.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:you graduate from one color to another,
Speaker:to another.
Speaker:So you tested out different techniques.
Speaker:If you will,
Speaker:different tools,
Speaker:different styles,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:And the rigid had all loom was really what got you
Speaker:passionate. But my question to you,
Speaker:this is a long-winded step to my question is what made
Speaker:you start thinking that you wanted to monetize this or turn
Speaker:this into a business?
Speaker:Where was that transition?
Speaker:Oh, that's a very good question.
Speaker:When I started doing the rigid head loom,
Speaker:which for people who are listening to this,
Speaker:it's a small loom.
Speaker:It can be the biggest one is like,
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:like 80 inches,
Speaker:something like that.
Speaker:Maybe, maybe less,
Speaker:maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker:So it's,
Speaker:they're small looms and they are very portable.
Speaker:So you can have it anywhere.
Speaker:And they don't require a big space.
Speaker:And when I started doing that and I realized that I
Speaker:could create pieces pretty quickly,
Speaker:even though I love all the other techniques,
Speaker:I was never a fascinator or a fast crocheted person.
Speaker:I'm very slow.
Speaker:It takes a lot of patience and time to create something,
Speaker:a final piece.
Speaker:And with weaving,
Speaker:I started like producing really fast and I spend my whole
Speaker:first year,
Speaker:I learned how to weave at the end of 2018.
Speaker:And I spent the whole 2019 creating things and giving them
Speaker:away to my friends,
Speaker:my family,
Speaker:anyone like,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:secret Santa.
Speaker:And I kind of started looking at the reactions of the
Speaker:people really like,
Speaker:wow, this is beautiful.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Oh my God,
Speaker:whatever. So then I just started,
Speaker:like, this question started popping up in my mind,
Speaker:like, why don't I do this,
Speaker:something more serious with this?
Speaker:But the first thing that actually made me really,
Speaker:really believe in that was that at the end of 2019,
Speaker:I participated in my first show fair.
Speaker:And I got such a positive and amazing from people that
Speaker:I realized,
Speaker:yeah, this is what I wanted to do.
Speaker:I feel so happy when I do it.
Speaker:It's just,
Speaker:it feels for me that it was the perfect,
Speaker:I wouldn't say end because I keep on learning things,
Speaker:but it was the perfect road that took me to weaving
Speaker:through knitting,
Speaker:crocheting, needle,
Speaker:felting, all this stuff.
Speaker:I felt like that was the road I had to take
Speaker:to get to the place where I was really feeling uncomfortable
Speaker:and very creative and you know,
Speaker:inspired and passionate about.
Speaker:And you also have all this knowledge of all these other
Speaker:techniques now.
Speaker:Yeah. So you're experienced in the whole textile realm,
Speaker:if you will.
Speaker:Yeah. And I consider myself a very,
Speaker:it's funny.
Speaker:I learned things much better when I see them.
Speaker:And when I see other people doing them than from reading
Speaker:from books or studying or whatever,
Speaker:I'm more like in the moment creation,
Speaker:But the thing that's so great about your story up to
Speaker:this point is you got affirmation from your audience that this
Speaker:was the right way to go.
Speaker:Yeah. Which is different than some people mean.
Speaker:Some people make a product decide they want to sell it,
Speaker:but really haven't tested out the market.
Speaker:I don't know that you were really testing out the market
Speaker:so much because you had affirmation that things were good and
Speaker:that your product was desired.
Speaker:If you will,
Speaker:then you went to that show and saw it even more
Speaker:sought with people who had never known you before.
Speaker:Yeah. It's different when you hear it from people that you
Speaker:don't know that when you hear it from your friends Yeah.
Speaker:Taking yourself back to that first show,
Speaker:were you in established business yet?
Speaker:Or how did you decide that you were going to do
Speaker:the show and pick the show and share with us a
Speaker:little bit about that?
Speaker:Yes. So what I did during the year,
Speaker:before I got to the show and kind of take it
Speaker:back a little more sure.
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:So that's summer for us 2019.
Speaker:I went to visit my family in Ottawa and I was
Speaker:there and I took some shells to give to my sister
Speaker:and my,
Speaker:one of my sisters and my mom,
Speaker:they had all been seeing my picture.
Speaker:So they were,
Speaker:Oh my God,
Speaker:this show beautiful.
Speaker:And I was there and I don't know why,
Speaker:but I started saying,
Speaker:let me find something.
Speaker:Maybe I can find a show that I can do.
Speaker:I never did a show before.
Speaker:So it was my first ever.
Speaker:And I found this and I submitted my request,
Speaker:like my interest.
Speaker:And they responded right away.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:what? I remember the day I wasn't still there with my
Speaker:sisters and my mom.
Speaker:And there was just so happy.
Speaker:I couldn't believe that by then,
Speaker:the only thing I had was an Etsy shop.
Speaker:So I started with that.
Speaker:So you had your business established already?
Speaker:Yes. I had established in the sense that I decided to
Speaker:be out through Etsy,
Speaker:which was the simplest way to do it for me,
Speaker:it was free.
Speaker:And I could just put things out there and see what
Speaker:happened, but it hadn't had any sale yet.
Speaker:And I don't know how much visibility I had at that
Speaker:moment. I didn't have a Facebook page or anything yet.
Speaker:So it was just that for this show,
Speaker:I had to have seller's permit.
Speaker:So I kind of like started trying to get a little
Speaker:more serious about it.
Speaker:I got the permit and then I did my business cards
Speaker:and I came up with a better logo.
Speaker:The one I had for Etsy and I had created it
Speaker:and it wasn't very good.
Speaker:So I happened to have a family with a lot of
Speaker:artists and graphic designers.
Speaker:So I asked one of my brothers to design me a
Speaker:logo and that's my life.
Speaker:It's perfect for you.
Speaker:And of course,
Speaker:gift biz listeners.
Speaker:You can go over to the show notes page and see
Speaker:everything that we start referencing as we go on.
Speaker:If you wanted to take a peak at that while you're
Speaker:listening, you certainly could.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So the show,
Speaker:was it a local show?
Speaker:Yeah. Yes.
Speaker:It's called Marine arts and crafts show.
Speaker:So I live in Marine County in Northern California and this
Speaker:took place in what we call the civic center,
Speaker:which is very big,
Speaker:beautiful building.
Speaker:The show was huge.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:for me it was huge.
Speaker:It was like more than 150 artists.
Speaker:And I was there and I was the only one doing
Speaker:that kind of thing.
Speaker:So the only person doing weaving and the only artist that
Speaker:was present there,
Speaker:who was also the person who made the piece.
Speaker:Oh, no kidding.
Speaker:Yeah. You were the only one who was the artist of
Speaker:the products that were being sold.
Speaker:No. What I mean to say is that there was another
Speaker:person who was selling also like woven things to people,
Speaker:but they didn't make them right.
Speaker:Got them from other people.
Speaker:So that was really cool because when the people would come
Speaker:and say,
Speaker:Oh, who made this?
Speaker:I did.
Speaker:Oh, really?
Speaker:Like, there's a very big change when they ask you that.
Speaker:Yeah. You know,
Speaker:that's really interesting to talk about too,
Speaker:because as you know,
Speaker:when we talk about,
Speaker:especially if you are the maker of your products,
Speaker:there's a new relationship that gets established between you and your
Speaker:customers. And I think a loyalty to you and a fondness
Speaker:at a deeper level when they know who you are.
Speaker:Yeah. And it's kind of like,
Speaker:they feel like they have the inner path because they know
Speaker:the artist.
Speaker:Right? Yeah.
Speaker:Totally. And so it sounds like from what you were just
Speaker:describing, you saw that change in people and the way you
Speaker:could communicate with them because it was a different,
Speaker:deeper level.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Customer to creator.
Speaker:Yes. And I have to say that now that I know
Speaker:more about how to deal with customers and how to relate
Speaker:to them,
Speaker:I wish I had,
Speaker:at that time,
Speaker:a little clipboard to ask for them for their information,
Speaker:because I did it at the time.
Speaker:I had no idea.
Speaker:I have to say that there were moments in that show
Speaker:that I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of people at
Speaker:the same time,
Speaker:in my booth,
Speaker:it was like,
Speaker:it was incredible.
Speaker:And so I didn't know what to pay attention to,
Speaker:but Yeah.
Speaker:Good and bad.
Speaker:Right? You don't want your booth to be silent at the
Speaker:same time.
Speaker:It gets overwhelming.
Speaker:If there are too many people.
Speaker:Yeah. A little tip just for everybody.
Speaker:Who's listening here.
Speaker:One way to manage that.
Speaker:If that happens for you is just to acknowledge that other
Speaker:people are there and then go back to the person that
Speaker:you're talking to.
Speaker:So that people feel like they've been seen that way.
Speaker:They're more likely to stick around and you can even say
Speaker:so glad you're here,
Speaker:take a look around and I'll be with you in a
Speaker:minute. Something like that.
Speaker:And then they're more likely to stay versus if you don't
Speaker:acknowledge them,
Speaker:they'll probably just leave.
Speaker:Yeah. I did that.
Speaker:And that was the exhausting part of it Because you kept
Speaker:going back and forth probably.
Speaker:Exactly. And you kept going and I felt like bad that
Speaker:it was interrupting someone who's talking to me.
Speaker:He was like,
Speaker:he'll Yeah.
Speaker:It is kind of a juggling act.
Speaker:Have you now started bringing other people with you when you
Speaker:do other shows?
Speaker:How have you managed through that problem?
Speaker:Well, my husband always comes with me.
Speaker:He's a really good sales salesperson.
Speaker:He really sales good for me.
Speaker:He's my CFO.
Speaker:As I call him.
Speaker:And sometimes my daughters,
Speaker:if they are in town,
Speaker:they might come for a little time.
Speaker:But most of the time,
Speaker:it's me.
Speaker:Other thing that you can do,
Speaker:I'm just wanted to make mention of this is if,
Speaker:as you continue progressing and you're doing these shows,
Speaker:people will start coming up to your booth who have purchased
Speaker:from you before and you get to know them.
Speaker:So what I've done in my shows,
Speaker:if the booth gets overwhelming is if I see a customer,
Speaker:I'll say to them,
Speaker:Oh, let me introduce you.
Speaker:Like, if there's another person looking,
Speaker:I'll introduce them to a current customer and say,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:she's already got one of our shawls.
Speaker:So Intel is considering between different colors.
Speaker:I thought I'd introduce you to,
Speaker:and I'll be with you in a second.
Speaker:And then they start talking and then your customer starts to
Speaker:sell your product for you.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:So lots of different little techniques there at this point,
Speaker:I think it would be good for our listeners to understand
Speaker:also how underline his designs fits into your whole life because
Speaker:you have other things going on in your life as well.
Speaker:Yes. You're not doing this full-time I wish maybe someday.
Speaker:So share with us the full picture and then we'll go
Speaker:on and talk about the business similar.
Speaker:Yes. So I am a teacher,
Speaker:so I work full-time at a school.
Speaker:And even though we are with a pandemic and everything in
Speaker:my school,
Speaker:we are in person.
Speaker:I actually go every day to school and I work there
Speaker:from seven 45 to four.
Speaker:And then I come back and I do my stuff for
Speaker:interland hours in the afternoon and on the weekends.
Speaker:So more or less,
Speaker:that's how I organize myself.
Speaker:When I was at home teaching virtually,
Speaker:it was actually great for me because I had way more
Speaker:time to dedicate to the business.
Speaker:And yeah,
Speaker:every single moment I have,
Speaker:I use it to do something related to this.
Speaker:However, there are certain moments when I am pretty,
Speaker:like I had that,
Speaker:like at the beginning of this year,
Speaker:like I was,
Speaker:I don't know if it was for the intensity of the
Speaker:end of the year or what,
Speaker:but I was just like,
Speaker:there was nothing coming.
Speaker:Like I don't know what to do was completely frozen.
Speaker:So in those days,
Speaker:instead of like forcing myself to sit down and do something
Speaker:that I don't feel like doing,
Speaker:I go on a hike or I just start cooking or
Speaker:doing something that will bring my creativity back.
Speaker:It's not that I lost it.
Speaker:It's just that there are certain moments when I can't find
Speaker:it. It wasn't that sales were frozen or that,
Speaker:but that your ability to be creative to make new designs.
Speaker:Well, I think It was a mix of everything.
Speaker:So last year at the end of the year,
Speaker:you know how it is,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:the holidays,
Speaker:I had a lot of sales on,
Speaker:it had some commission that I had to really do quickly
Speaker:and then came December.
Speaker:And my plan had been to go and visit my family.
Speaker:Like I normally do for the holidays.
Speaker:And I had to cancel the trip.
Speaker:I was kind of processing that first of all.
Speaker:And the other thing was like,
Speaker:I felt with everything going around in the country,
Speaker:in the world and everything.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it was a moment for me to pause.
Speaker:The good thing was that I gave myself that moment and
Speaker:I didn't because normally you would see me this way.
Speaker:I come back from work.
Speaker:I changed into comfortable clothes.
Speaker:I talked with my husband.
Speaker:If my kids are home,
Speaker:I chat with them.
Speaker:And then maybe I prepare myself something.
Speaker:And then I go and sit in front of one of
Speaker:the looms and I started working and it's nothing forced.
Speaker:I love doing that.
Speaker:It's like,
Speaker:I'm looking forward to that moment.
Speaker:And this day is when I was feeling like that,
Speaker:I was just walk up past my looms and look at
Speaker:them and said,
Speaker:what am I going to do now on come to my
Speaker:room where I have all my yarn and look at all
Speaker:the different,
Speaker:nothing, nothing pop up for me to do something.
Speaker:I just let myself go through that process.
Speaker:And there was a moment when it clicked again and it
Speaker:started producing a kitten.
Speaker:So I'm happy Because you reach those ebbs and flows in
Speaker:business. You know,
Speaker:sometimes you love it.
Speaker:And especially when there is a creative edge to it,
Speaker:because I think the best creativity is when it flows naturally.
Speaker:And I'm thinking everyone is a little bit different.
Speaker:You had the option because you didn't have to make something
Speaker:like there wasn't an order waiting.
Speaker:It sounds like you were just ready to start creating a
Speaker:new that had you forced yourself to sit down at one
Speaker:of those looms,
Speaker:you might've started going into resenting having to do it versus
Speaker:still loving what you were doing.
Speaker:Yeah, because that's more or less my goal with this,
Speaker:who is that?
Speaker:This is not my main income.
Speaker:No whatsoever.
Speaker:No. So it's like,
Speaker:not at this moment.
Speaker:So I'm just giving myself that permission to do things because
Speaker:I love them doing a lot because I have to do
Speaker:them. It is different.
Speaker:So even though my goal is one day to transform this
Speaker:into my income at this moment,
Speaker:I don't have.
Speaker:And I think you don't know.
Speaker:I think maybe at a different age in my life,
Speaker:I would have gone through the whole thing,
Speaker:even if I wasn't inspired to do it.
Speaker:But at this time it's just great.
Speaker:It's fine.
Speaker:Full example of integrating your business into your life,
Speaker:with everything else that it encompasses versus starting a business and
Speaker:having that be your life like taking over everything.
Speaker:And I like that you bracket it and keep it in
Speaker:its place.
Speaker:That's a good learning for all of us to remember to
Speaker:bracket it.
Speaker:I consider myself very intuitive Weaver in the sense of when
Speaker:I sit on the loom and I have an idea for
Speaker:a piece,
Speaker:I do have a main idea.
Speaker:So I know what colors I'm going to use.
Speaker:And I know more or less what style I want.
Speaker:But many times I don't have a real pattern in my
Speaker:head. I just,
Speaker:I go with it.
Speaker:And I many times,
Speaker:many times I change it halfway or it is,
Speaker:Oh, I like this.
Speaker:And I like doing it that way.
Speaker:I feel like,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:there are other amazing weavers who follow a pattern and they
Speaker:do this things very counter rows and count how many things
Speaker:here and how many they are.
Speaker:And I did that.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:I did a lot of that in my first year,
Speaker:the year that I was not going public yet.
Speaker:And I liked it,
Speaker:but then I discovered this other way of doing it more
Speaker:like it's a piece of art.
Speaker:I consider it a piece of art,
Speaker:like a painting and a painter never does the same thing
Speaker:choice. Right.
Speaker:I do that.
Speaker:And I really feel when I do it that way,
Speaker:I feel replenished.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:Like I feel like,
Speaker:Well, I mean,
Speaker:it's kind of magical because you have to start with some
Speaker:type of an idea.
Speaker:Right? Of course.
Speaker:But then what actually comes through the process,
Speaker:changes and transitions and you don't even know what it's going
Speaker:to be at the end.
Speaker:No, I don't know.
Speaker:That's fascinating because everything gets roll in the beam in front
Speaker:of me.
Speaker:And sometimes I say,
Speaker:okay, I hope it looks what I wanted to hope it
Speaker:is. Wow.
Speaker:That's fun.
Speaker:Okay. So let's go back to The time,
Speaker:right after that first show.
Speaker:So you were really excited.
Speaker:You were getting a lot of affirmation from people.
Speaker:You didn't know that your product was fabulous.
Speaker:You're starting to get sales.
Speaker:So that's exciting.
Speaker:And so what happened then in terms of the growth of
Speaker:your business?
Speaker:Well, that was in November the show.
Speaker:So then came December.
Speaker:I had another small show that I did have good sales,
Speaker:but not as good as before,
Speaker:as in the other one.
Speaker:And then came January and February and all that stuff.
Speaker:And that was,
Speaker:I didn't have anything there,
Speaker:but that was the time I think it was in January.
Speaker:I think it didn't.
Speaker:We started with a maker's MBA at that time.
Speaker:Was it January Started in March,
Speaker:March. Okay.
Speaker:But I think that was the time that I signed up
Speaker:for it.
Speaker:Yeah. That would be about right.
Speaker:Yeah. I Was like,
Speaker:I had a goal and I knew I wanted to,
Speaker:and at that time I realized Etsy was not going to
Speaker:be my thing.
Speaker:So I started thinking of,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I try with Etsy again,
Speaker:like I try to do promotions,
Speaker:I try to do things and it didn't work.
Speaker:I didn't attract sales.
Speaker:It didn't inspire me to attract sales.
Speaker:So then I started thinking of,
Speaker:okay, maybe I need to have my own website.
Speaker:Yeah. I started working on the idea and I continue weaving.
Speaker:I did not have sales for many months,
Speaker:but it continued creating.
Speaker:And I created a very big inventory of in my opinion.
Speaker:And then I started finding other ways of going out because
Speaker:well then COVID-19 cane and things.
Speaker:I had to plan work,
Speaker:cancel the,
Speaker:I discovered this market open market,
Speaker:open air market,
Speaker:outdoor, that organized guy here from the area.
Speaker:And I really like this style and the way that he
Speaker:was organizing things.
Speaker:So I started signing up for that and I got accepted.
Speaker:So I started going out in open market.
Speaker:It was a tender,
Speaker:but yeah,
Speaker:around August or September.
Speaker:And that was a wake up call.
Speaker:It was interesting because I do remember when you came into
Speaker:maker's MBA and it took me what,
Speaker:like three or four weeks to learn how to pronounce your
Speaker:name properly.
Speaker:I tried really,
Speaker:really hard.
Speaker:I finally got it.
Speaker:And now it's like,
Speaker:I know it it's so easy.
Speaker:Why didn't I know before,
Speaker:but part of what we do in maker's MBA as you
Speaker:well know,
Speaker:I just want to brief everybody.
Speaker:Who's listening is we take it from the top and talk
Speaker:about like,
Speaker:what are you trying to build?
Speaker:What's the product,
Speaker:what's the message.
Speaker:How is it different?
Speaker:Like a lot of analysis,
Speaker:which then leads the pathway as you're moving forward.
Speaker:And I remember a conversation that we had as we're looking
Speaker:at the product.
Speaker:Cause part of what you want to talk about is your
Speaker:pricing, obviously,
Speaker:right? You need to know how much your product costs to
Speaker:make, and then you need to have margin to grow your
Speaker:business. And then you also want to pay yourself,
Speaker:all those things,
Speaker:right? Your product is moderate to high priced product when you
Speaker:say, Oh yeah.
Speaker:Yeah. So describe to everybody the products that you offer and
Speaker:the pricing and a little bit of that mindset,
Speaker:because we had the conversation.
Speaker:Do you do some lower priced products or do you do
Speaker:all higher priced?
Speaker:You have your own line because you also make yarn.
Speaker:So talk through a little bit about how you settled into
Speaker:your strategies.
Speaker:Yes. It must be one of the hardest things to do
Speaker:to put the price,
Speaker:your work.
Speaker:And I think it goes for me,
Speaker:the two big pieces and also for the ones who do
Speaker:small pieces,
Speaker:like more piece of jewelry,
Speaker:everything must be hard at the beginning.
Speaker:And this goes back to my first.
Speaker:So I,
Speaker:when I went to that show,
Speaker:I kind of put prices just because I thought that was
Speaker:the price things should have.
Speaker:And then I started having,
Speaker:like I had three or four people who came to me,
Speaker:started talking to me and told me,
Speaker:Oh yeah,
Speaker:I am textile artists too.
Speaker:Or whatever.
Speaker:Someone who knew who was in the business,
Speaker:they told me your prices are too low.
Speaker:You need to raise your prices.
Speaker:And I was really,
Speaker:are you sure?
Speaker:I say,
Speaker:yeah, you have to do it.
Speaker:Your quality deserves more than what you are asking for While
Speaker:they buy five shawls before you raise your price.
Speaker:Well, it's funny from the three people,
Speaker:only one person bought one thing,
Speaker:but it doesn't matter.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:for me,
Speaker:I really trust them.
Speaker:They came,
Speaker:honestly, they didn't come to tell me that to make me
Speaker:not be able to sell anything.
Speaker:I kind of tested the water in that show.
Speaker:So the last day I actually changed the prices put prices.
Speaker:Okay. I maybe I think I sold everything.
Speaker:I almost sold out in that show.
Speaker:Wow. You know,
Speaker:this also shows though that the price also equate to the
Speaker:quality, right?
Speaker:Yeah. So when you make your prices higher,
Speaker:there's the automatic perception and in your case,
Speaker:it's true,
Speaker:obviously of the quality of what you're buying and some people
Speaker:are going after that.
Speaker:Right. They want to buy the quality.
Speaker:They're not looking to buy a $20 scarf.
Speaker:Yeah. So what I do,
Speaker:and when you asked me about my materials on my process,
Speaker:so when I started doing this and you mentioned that in
Speaker:my introduction that I get my yarn from Y,
Speaker:which is where I come from,
Speaker:or for those who it's better to say it in American
Speaker:way, which is photographs.
Speaker:Otherwise, people ask me,
Speaker:are you from Hawaii?
Speaker:So I get the yarn there.
Speaker:We have really excellent yarn.
Speaker:And every time I go,
Speaker:I go to this specifically store and then I buy yarn
Speaker:there. But I buy the yarn that is already dyed and
Speaker:spun and everything.
Speaker:And I do pieces with that.
Speaker:And then like a year ago,
Speaker:I kind of fell in the rabbit hole of spinning and
Speaker:dying your own yarn.
Speaker:And even though I said,
Speaker:I am not going to do this.
Speaker:I am not going to do is so much work.
Speaker:I am doing it right now.
Speaker:You're doing it.
Speaker:So I kind of decided to go to,
Speaker:as you very well said,
Speaker:to create a line in my products that is all done
Speaker:by myself and it's called trace manners three hands because it
Speaker:is hand-woven hand spun and hung died.
Speaker:And so that line of products,
Speaker:I do absolutely unique.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:because nobody does the same kind of yarn I do.
Speaker:And those are the highest price in my collection because I
Speaker:really, I started from scratch.
Speaker:I started from a ball of wool,
Speaker:but I turned into a piece When you show it on
Speaker:social media,
Speaker:when you have your different colors going,
Speaker:yes, just very fun.
Speaker:I Love doing the dying too.
Speaker:And I like sharing those things too.
Speaker:And then there's any other ones that I do with on
Speaker:that is really very good yarn,
Speaker:which funny enough,
Speaker:it's also made in small batches and it's made in a
Speaker:natural way.
Speaker:And so it's very good too.
Speaker:I just designed the product and created.
Speaker:So that's a different line of products that I do.
Speaker:This is one thing that I love about your business.
Speaker:Humana is your not just weaving or creating wool products that
Speaker:are like any other wool products that are out there.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:your yarns are very specific.
Speaker:The one you make yourself,
Speaker:no one can get that,
Speaker:but from you because you make it and this all elevates
Speaker:and makes you stand out from anybody else.
Speaker:And these are talking points for you too,
Speaker:that also allow you to command a higher price.
Speaker:Yeah. And I had the example like last week,
Speaker:if I may share that in my last show I had,
Speaker:which was a very good show in sales.
Speaker:I had really good sales and there was this woman who
Speaker:comes and she loved one of my shelves that I made
Speaker:in cotton because that was another thing I did this year.
Speaker:It's just experimenting with different fibers to see what happens in
Speaker:the summer,
Speaker:which is a very different story.
Speaker:And she had this other,
Speaker:she bought this yarn and that's shawl and loved it and
Speaker:said, I would love for you to make one for me
Speaker:and say,
Speaker:yeah, I would love that.
Speaker:So I started showing her some pictures of my dine or
Speaker:whatever. I have been dying lately.
Speaker:And so I want something with that.
Speaker:And the thing is too,
Speaker:that she actually connected with me again a week later,
Speaker:say, so whenever you have the lunches,
Speaker:let me know.
Speaker:And her enthusiasm continue,
Speaker:continue, continue.
Speaker:And last Saturday I delivered her shawl that I made from
Speaker:scratch died,
Speaker:all the war,
Speaker:Wolf it for her.
Speaker:And she absolutely loved it.
Speaker:And that was like really the piece that started from zero
Speaker:to final garment around her shoulders.
Speaker:And it was great.
Speaker:And I know she's going to be a very good ambassador.
Speaker:Well, you know,
Speaker:you created a whole experience for her,
Speaker:right? She met you at the show.
Speaker:You showed her,
Speaker:you didn't have it right there,
Speaker:obviously, which is proof that these are personally made to order.
Speaker:In this case,
Speaker:you showed her some options.
Speaker:So this was an experience interacting with you,
Speaker:right? Or relationship with you,
Speaker:then the interest grew.
Speaker:Then you made her piece and delivered it to her.
Speaker:This could be a blog article.
Speaker:Hamina honestly the customer journey or one of the things I
Speaker:love the most about the business in terms of interacting and
Speaker:having, because now you have a relationship with her,
Speaker:a friendship,
Speaker:if you will.
Speaker:Yeah. She's been awesome.
Speaker:Was like,
Speaker:Oh my God,
Speaker:honey. It was funny because she said to me,
Speaker:I need something nice for my zoom meetings so they can
Speaker:see me.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:No, I bet you,
Speaker:she told everybody who was watching those first zoom.
Speaker:The story about the shawl.
Speaker:Yeah. She told me that.
Speaker:Yeah. I've been promoting your so that's great.
Speaker:Yeah. I love it.
Speaker:Yeah. And it's coming from the story because it's also coming
Speaker:from how clear you got in the value of your product
Speaker:and defining your pricing as it is,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it's just a beautiful story.
Speaker:Yeah. Say something more about the pricing part.
Speaker:Of course,
Speaker:even though this one,
Speaker:everything went well and no problem.
Speaker:I still continue to struggle with that.
Speaker:And I feel it's something that we all creators even more.
Speaker:If we are women,
Speaker:I'm sorry to say this,
Speaker:but we tend to not give ourselves all the credit that
Speaker:we deserve for the things we do.
Speaker:We have a hard time doing that.
Speaker:Let's put it that way.
Speaker:And it has been a learning process.
Speaker:And definitely you have been an amazing helper with that because
Speaker:you've been through the maker's MBA and everything I chatted with
Speaker:you, you kind of reinforced that.
Speaker:And my husband has always also been my children.
Speaker:So I have all this kind of support group around me
Speaker:that makes me just be bold and say,
Speaker:okay, I'm going out.
Speaker:If it doesn't work,
Speaker:it doesn't work.
Speaker:But I'm sure there was going to be someone who will
Speaker:be willing to pay the price with no problem.
Speaker:And it's like that.
Speaker:And you're seeing it,
Speaker:I'm seeing it.
Speaker:And because my Prague are high price,
Speaker:as we talked,
Speaker:one time I remember with you is I don't need to
Speaker:have a lot of sales to make a decent amount of
Speaker:money. Right.
Speaker:And that's exactly what I was thinking.
Speaker:I was going to mention if you didn't bring that up,
Speaker:because especially with the pieces that you do,
Speaker:where you are making the yarn yourself,
Speaker:think of all the time that goes into it.
Speaker:Right? And so that comes at a cost.
Speaker:So the people who get your pieces should feel very fortunate
Speaker:and lucky.
Speaker:And Oh my gosh,
Speaker:Amina. I mean,
Speaker:my shawl that I have with all the time that we've
Speaker:been working together,
Speaker:I've known about your products and all of that.
Speaker:The lusciousness of the feel of the shawl is incredible,
Speaker:which I was gonna re talk about the issue with the
Speaker:production as part of your price.
Speaker:Because so often we'll say,
Speaker:well, there's no real cost because it's my time.
Speaker:But that is a huge,
Speaker:real cost for your products because of the time that you
Speaker:put in.
Speaker:But then the other thing that I'm thinking and where my
Speaker:mind started going with this is,
Speaker:I'm not surprised that you're seeing a lot of success with
Speaker:live shows because people can touch,
Speaker:feel, try on your pieces in person.
Speaker:And so all told for you,
Speaker:probably live shows are always going to be better for that
Speaker:reason alone.
Speaker:Yeah. That's what my husband always says.
Speaker:People need to touch your pieces.
Speaker:They need to see them because they're not going to get
Speaker:it from a photos.
Speaker:Even if your photos are excellent use,
Speaker:like they really need to.
Speaker:And it's true.
Speaker:It's true.
Speaker:People come to the booth and they touch say,
Speaker:wow, Their expression changes.
Speaker:It was like,
Speaker:yeah, that's exactly.
Speaker:Yeah. You know what?
Speaker:You need to get some video of people experiencing that.
Speaker:I'm not even kidding because that's the way online people will
Speaker:understand that.
Speaker:And that may be why Etsy wasn't performing as well for
Speaker:you. Because even though I know that at that point way
Speaker:back when you started your Etsy shop,
Speaker:you still probably were higher than just factory made knitted shawls.
Speaker:Right? So people probably were like,
Speaker:well, why would I buy that?
Speaker:If I can buy this?
Speaker:And it's like a third of the price or whatever.
Speaker:So at T might not longterm ever be the best place
Speaker:for you to be live shows might always be.
Speaker:And the website of course,
Speaker:and your images,
Speaker:Oh my gosh are so beautiful.
Speaker:I can barely even stand it because I was with you
Speaker:along the path,
Speaker:as you were developing your website and Oh my gosh,
Speaker:everybody has got to go and see the images on the
Speaker:site. They are absolutely spectacular.
Speaker:So that does help with the quality Hamina because your images
Speaker:are so high class and show the intricacy of the patterns
Speaker:and all of that.
Speaker:So that also helps it all ties together with your higher
Speaker:price. Now I know you'll have to do an average because
Speaker:different shows have different prices to attend,
Speaker:but how many,
Speaker:and let's just go with one product.
Speaker:Let's just say a shawl since that's what we've been talking
Speaker:about throughout this whole time.
Speaker:If approximately how many shells would you have to sell at
Speaker:a show for it to be a successful show for you?
Speaker:Well, if successful,
Speaker:you're considered too Paying back the cost of admission and more.
Speaker:Oh, well like would you say bare minimum?
Speaker:I'll say a show is a success.
Speaker:If I sell X number of shots,
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Speaker:Normally with the shows I've gone to The cost of the
Speaker:show, less Than the cost of one of my shots.
Speaker:Not for much,
Speaker:but it is,
Speaker:or it would be the cost of the cheapest side of
Speaker:my shots.
Speaker:Like one,
Speaker:I have different prices for of my shelves too.
Speaker:So I would say that if I have to cover that
Speaker:and you know,
Speaker:transportation to there,
Speaker:I would say that if I sell four pieces,
Speaker:five pieces,
Speaker:I'm fine.
Speaker:I'm happy.
Speaker:Okay. All right.
Speaker:And that's what you're seeing now.
Speaker:Right? And more,
Speaker:yes, There are shows that I sell more than that.
Speaker:Or they're also shows when I sell pieces that are more
Speaker:expensive, Right?
Speaker:Yeah. I was just kind of thinking on average on this
Speaker:is if you,
Speaker:as a listener,
Speaker:if your product is a higher price,
Speaker:you've got to think that mindset,
Speaker:you don't have to sell as much to make some of
Speaker:the shows or whatever else you're doing pay off for you.
Speaker:But what you should do is stay in your pricing lane.
Speaker:Yeah. Like Romania,
Speaker:you would never go and start selling low priced items.
Speaker:Then your whole image gets blurred over.
Speaker:Yeah. The only thing I did this year was that I
Speaker:started doing some beanies because I liked doing,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I started doing what I was watching TV,
Speaker:doing crochet beanies or whatever.
Speaker:And I liked them and said,
Speaker:I'm going to put them out there and see if people
Speaker:buy them.
Speaker:And they were pretty cheap,
Speaker:but I did it like an experiment.
Speaker:And I did sell,
Speaker:I did sell a bunch of them because people would come
Speaker:on. Yeah.
Speaker:Well, I don't want to spend that money,
Speaker:but I like it to be any worse.
Speaker:Let's get one of those.
Speaker:And the beanies,
Speaker:were they from special yarns too?
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:there were mostly like,
Speaker:I use like leftover yarn that I have from projects that
Speaker:are used.
Speaker:And then they are not all of them.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:they are really nice yarn obviously,
Speaker:but they are not made with No,
Speaker:not the yarn you make,
Speaker:but still the Uruguay WOL.
Speaker:Yes. So you still stayed in line with your image.
Speaker:Yeah. You just made some smaller high-quality pieces that were lower
Speaker:price points,
Speaker:but still upscale for what they are.
Speaker:Yeah. Good.
Speaker:Cause I was thinking we needed another coaching call.
Speaker:No, no,
Speaker:honestly, you know,
Speaker:I kind of did them as a test,
Speaker:as I said to see,
Speaker:because one of the things I noticed,
Speaker:and this is something interesting to talk about is that because
Speaker:what I do is made out of wool,
Speaker:I realized this year,
Speaker:it was a very good learning experience to see,
Speaker:okay. In the summer when you are in 102 degrees,
Speaker:nobody wants to buy something made on a wall and not
Speaker:even cotton because I also did cotton pieces.
Speaker:So I decided,
Speaker:okay, I need to do something that will maintain your support
Speaker:me through summers.
Speaker:And yeah.
Speaker:It's also something I'm considering.
Speaker:So you're figuring out what that could look like.
Speaker:That makes sense.
Speaker:And you are seasoned with your current products is clearly fall
Speaker:into holidays.
Speaker:Yep. Through the spring,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:when you're needing shawls and even early summer,
Speaker:when they're still more chili summer nights,
Speaker:I'd say yes About that.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:that's why I created a cotton line that I sold a
Speaker:lot of pieces,
Speaker:but I thought it was going to be like out of
Speaker:my hands,
Speaker:like right away.
Speaker:And it wasn't No,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:this totally makes sense.
Speaker:And this aligns everything that you're saying aligned and is such
Speaker:an obvious synergy with what your product is,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:that you're seeing success in face-to-face shows at T maybe isn't
Speaker:performing as well as it might.
Speaker:I know that you've started looking at making sure that you're
Speaker:getting emails so that when you're exhibiting at shows,
Speaker:you start collecting emails because not everyone's going to buy right.
Speaker:When they see you,
Speaker:but they might want to buy the next time.
Speaker:So they need to know the next show.
Speaker:You're going to be at That.
Speaker:Yeah. That's a work in progress.
Speaker:That's okay.
Speaker:I know you're working on it.
Speaker:And that's also a good point.
Speaker:Like can't do everything right away.
Speaker:No, which is fine.
Speaker:Yeah. I've been trying to put more emphasis on social media
Speaker:and no kind of direct connection with people through social media
Speaker:than with emails.
Speaker:But I will,
Speaker:I will.
Speaker:That's my goal for this year.
Speaker:They're kind of both because different people will be attracted to
Speaker:you in different ways.
Speaker:Yeah. So some of the people who come up to the
Speaker:booth during the physical shows,
Speaker:and let's say you had a giveaway for being a,
Speaker:or be the first to know some of the new designs
Speaker:that I make,
Speaker:because they may not see anything at the booth that like
Speaker:pulls them.
Speaker:They love the quality,
Speaker:but the colors,
Speaker:like maybe you've sold out of colors.
Speaker:They would have wanted for them to be able to be
Speaker:the first to know is a value.
Speaker:That would be a reason I would give you my email.
Speaker:I want to know.
Speaker:Right. But I might not be following you on social right
Speaker:away. So you have different audiences.
Speaker:Some might see you at the shows and you're local.
Speaker:Some might be following you on Instagram or Facebook,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:all different places.
Speaker:So that's why it's good to be doing both.
Speaker:But it doesn't mean that you have both from zero to
Speaker:a hundred in a week,
Speaker:like it takes time to build and develop and get it
Speaker:into a system,
Speaker:right? Yes,
Speaker:yes. Yeah.
Speaker:So let's talk about social a little bit because I'm telling
Speaker:you whenever I see you on social,
Speaker:I just have the biggest smile on my face.
Speaker:And there's a few reasons we were already talking about the
Speaker:images that you make and how high quality they are.
Speaker:But also you've done things that most people,
Speaker:honestly, who may know will never do like go live.
Speaker:Right? Yeah.
Speaker:Talk about that.
Speaker:Talk about your first video that you did.
Speaker:Yeah. I've gone live.
Speaker:And I also have a YouTube channel where I post videos
Speaker:and it's really,
Speaker:it's been more successful than what I thought it would be.
Speaker:So this is funny because I find myself feeling they're comfortable
Speaker:with social media,
Speaker:with the Instagram thing.
Speaker:And I don't know if,
Speaker:because my use it or whatever,
Speaker:but I feel like in my,
Speaker:how do you say In your mind,
Speaker:in your gut,
Speaker:like intuitively I kind of,
Speaker:it's fun.
Speaker:I find it that it's so much fun to do that.
Speaker:And I know that many times maybe I'm too expressive or
Speaker:whatever, but I find that doing lives on Instagram.
Speaker:I haven't done on Facebook only once,
Speaker:but on Instagram,
Speaker:it's another way of showing who I am and showing the,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:the backstage of things.
Speaker:And I expect to make connections with people in that way.
Speaker:This is who I am.
Speaker:This is the hand and the personality behind all these pieces.
Speaker:And it goes with a piece.
Speaker:That's what I want.
Speaker:So when you get a piece from me,
Speaker:you'll know you're getting something from me too.
Speaker:And that's how I like it.
Speaker:Even if someone says,
Speaker:Oh, that's not super professional or whatever,
Speaker:then, well,
Speaker:that's how I am.
Speaker:I'm going to do it this way.
Speaker:Well, I'm looking at your Instagram account right now.
Speaker:And first off one good thing to know is we used
Speaker:to talk like a year ago,
Speaker:maybe two,
Speaker:I'll say a year ago that your Instagram feed.
Speaker:So what everyone sees all the time should be like a
Speaker:well curated magazine.
Speaker:Like it should be like the plushest of plush.
Speaker:Beautiful. All of that things have changed now.
Speaker:Luckily, thank God we can all breathe.
Speaker:A sigh of relief.
Speaker:And people want to know the Instagram account owner,
Speaker:especially when we're smaller brand.
Speaker:Like not the big brands I'm talking about us and you
Speaker:should go live and be yourself.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:that's what we would want.
Speaker:Because if you tried to improv that you were something different,
Speaker:it would come through,
Speaker:it wouldn't work.
Speaker:So being you and just having fun with it is fabulous.
Speaker:But the one thing that I really,
Speaker:really want to point out,
Speaker:and then you're going to tell us how you do this
Speaker:is we've already totally.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:everybody who's been listening thus far understands that your product is
Speaker:high quality,
Speaker:upscale, everything we've talked about,
Speaker:your imagery shows that too.
Speaker:Like, even though you say you're more casual,
Speaker:I'm looking through all of this and I see there's a
Speaker:picture of a house.
Speaker:I'm not sure why that's there and your cat,
Speaker:but it's all still,
Speaker:some of it's showing just the personality of you.
Speaker:But when you get to your products,
Speaker:it is all beautiful photography.
Speaker:So share with us what you do to get these photos,
Speaker:because I think people are going to be surprised.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Do you really want to know?
Speaker:Yes. We want the honest truth.
Speaker:It's called cell phone,
Speaker:but we're in my backyard.
Speaker:I happened to have the space and the surface is I
Speaker:like to use as my background before I started taking pictures.
Speaker:I obviously I browse through Instagram,
Speaker:on other people doing the same things or similar things.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:there's a pattern how photos are taken there.
Speaker:Normally there's either a white background or kind of a stage
Speaker:thing. And I like that is fine,
Speaker:but I never felt connected to that style.
Speaker:And I do like wood a lot.
Speaker:And I like the contrast between war on wood.
Speaker:And I found this piece of fence in my backyard.
Speaker:That was the perfect area to take photos.
Speaker:So that's mostly where I take my photos.
Speaker:I like to use a lot of,
Speaker:as I said,
Speaker:wood, but driftwood too.
Speaker:Like when I have my shows,
Speaker:my setup of my booth,
Speaker:it has a lot of driftwood.
Speaker:Like all my hangers are made with driftwood,
Speaker:all my everything.
Speaker:And I feel like that's as attractive as my pieces for
Speaker:the people who come to the booth.
Speaker:And I like taking pictures in natural light obviously.
Speaker:And not always an even light because I feel that the
Speaker:mix or the blending of the different lights,
Speaker:shade with the wall and the texture of my pieces that
Speaker:is also really attractive.
Speaker:And yeah,
Speaker:that's how I do it.
Speaker:You just hang my pieces in my hanger on that little
Speaker:corner. And I use my phone,
Speaker:which I made sure that I got a phone that has
Speaker:a good camera.
Speaker:Yeah. Let's put it that way.
Speaker:When I changed my phone last year,
Speaker:I decided to pay attention to that.
Speaker:That was the most important part.
Speaker:So I do that.
Speaker:Like, for example,
Speaker:if you see my post from this morning,
Speaker:I mentioned the three things that I really like,
Speaker:the light,
Speaker:the space and the texture.
Speaker:And that's what I try to put to show in my
Speaker:pictures. Yeah.
Speaker:And this one also,
Speaker:you can see that there's a little bit of shade going
Speaker:on there too.
Speaker:That's beautiful.
Speaker:So, and you also,
Speaker:I'm seeing,
Speaker:you're doing a lot of carousel posts,
Speaker:which is great.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:that's one of the ways that you get more reach because
Speaker:people who are looking as they're scrolling through those pictures stay
Speaker:in Instagram longer.
Speaker:Yes. And also because I learned that and as I learned,
Speaker:my daughter told me this,
Speaker:that my stories that were the ones that were having more
Speaker:than one photo are only seen by my followers.
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:Oh really?
Speaker:Only that,
Speaker:Oh, no,
Speaker:I wanted to.
Speaker:So I'm trying to do that in the posts.
Speaker:So it's a little more open.
Speaker:That's just my stories just on my phone.
Speaker:It's true.
Speaker:That, that is what happens is you go deeper than with
Speaker:your followers in your stories,
Speaker:but I'll also tell you that I've been doing some hashtags
Speaker:in my stories and getting people,
Speaker:watching them.
Speaker:That aren't my followers yet.
Speaker:Yeah. And especially like,
Speaker:when you go to a show,
Speaker:if you're doing stories at a show,
Speaker:do the hashtag of the show and then hashtag of the
Speaker:town, you probably are already doing that.
Speaker:I'm just going to bring it up.
Speaker:But I am directing all of you to go and look
Speaker:at Hermanos account.
Speaker:It's called
The link will be in the show notes.
Speaker:And so I want you to look at some of the
Speaker:quality of the photos,
Speaker:but I also want you to scroll down.
Speaker:Don't be embarrassed to Mina to the one that is her.
Speaker:She's in a,
Speaker:it looks like it's a blue and white Stripe top,
Speaker:but it's a video and she's trying on all her beanie.
Speaker:And it's so fun because,
Speaker:and it sped up.
Speaker:Right. But you're doing so many fun things there because you're
Speaker:showing the different beanie styles you're showing your personality,
Speaker:it's sped up.
Speaker:So I'm like wanting to see,
Speaker:well, what's the next one she's going to bring out.
Speaker:What's the next one she's going to bring out.
Speaker:And it's so great.
Speaker:I absolutely love it.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:this is absolutely perfect.
Speaker:This is so great.
Speaker:One more thing.
Speaker:I think I'd like to cover here for a minute.
Speaker:And then I'm going to ask you a final question.
Speaker:Okay. So you were one of the people who attended the
Speaker:first at-home craft and gift show this year.
Speaker:So we know that your face-to-face shows are working really,
Speaker:really well.
Speaker:Can you share with us a little bit of your experience
Speaker:with a virtual show and for those of you who are
Speaker:brand new to the podcast,
Speaker:or don't know about this,
Speaker:I've linked up with at-home events to put on virtual shows.
Speaker:Now this is not for wholesale.
Speaker:Like, you know,
Speaker:you talk about trade shows and you're looking for wholesale placement.
Speaker:And so this is totally different.
Speaker:This is direct to consumer and Hamina,
Speaker:you were part of that show.
Speaker:So share with me a little bit about your experiences from
Speaker:that show.
Speaker:Well, it's interesting.
Speaker:I prepare for that show in a way that I thought
Speaker:it was enough for me to gain visibility.
Speaker:And I have to say that in the end,
Speaker:I realized I should have done more to get there in
Speaker:the sense of promoted more.
Speaker:I found that it was a cool way.
Speaker:I liked the structure of the show,
Speaker:the idea of being in your booth and people coming in
Speaker:and talking to you and you being able to show,
Speaker:I love that part.
Speaker:I absolutely loved it.
Speaker:I had fun doing it when people would come and knock
Speaker:on my door.
Speaker:I didn't have as many visitors as I thought I would
Speaker:have, but I think that was maybe because of,
Speaker:I didn't put much effort in promoting it.
Speaker:So I think that it was part of my work towards
Speaker:it, but I think the structure of the show it's really
Speaker:cool. It's not the same as a live show obviously,
Speaker:but it does kind of substitute a little bit of that
Speaker:because I was able to show like putting in front of
Speaker:the camera and they could see much better than just in
Speaker:a still photos.
Speaker:And I could model things for them if they were interested.
Speaker:I think that was a cool thing to do.
Speaker:Yeah. And you could even do some demos if you wanted
Speaker:or actually be looming right.
Speaker:Then if you wanted to,
Speaker:for that matter.
Speaker:Yeah. I mean,
Speaker:I'm seeing the future of virtual shows like this and again,
Speaker:to the consumer,
Speaker:not just post-sale as a totally separate option versus live shows.
Speaker:Like it's not just taking a live show and putting it
Speaker:online. It's an experience unto itself.
Speaker:But the opportunity is there then to reach people like on
Speaker:a national basis that you would never be able to reach.
Speaker:I also see like Hamina,
Speaker:and I don't know if you've done this.
Speaker:You can let me know afterwards,
Speaker:but if your email was up to where it could,
Speaker:because I'm not sure where you are in that process right
Speaker:now, people who wouldn't be able to come to a show
Speaker:because of weather or not able to make it for a
Speaker:day, but still want to see more of your pieces in
Speaker:person or communicate with you like that woman that you were
Speaker:just talking about,
Speaker:who you made.
Speaker:They could then come to a virtual show very easily from
Speaker:their home,
Speaker:by being able to add in that layer and email everybody
Speaker:to say,
Speaker:Hey, you've seen me at live shows.
Speaker:Here's another live show online,
Speaker:come visit me.
Speaker:I'll show you what my newest designs are.
Speaker:Things like that.
Speaker:Yeah. I did that.
Speaker:I did that with my group of customers that had,
Speaker:or friends.
Speaker:And I actually had people coming,
Speaker:the people who came were because I send them.
Speaker:Oh, good.
Speaker:So for people who might be considering looking at one of
Speaker:these shows in the future,
Speaker:what types of things,
Speaker:when you say you felt like you were less prepared than
Speaker:maybe you should have been,
Speaker:what would be your recommendations for people?
Speaker:Well, A combination would be to really put time and effort
Speaker:in promoting it in all your different channels,
Speaker:social media email,
Speaker:to talk to people and tell them where you're going to
Speaker:be. Obviously,
Speaker:because people don't know if you people don't know you're going
Speaker:to be there,
Speaker:how are they going to be there?
Speaker:Right. So you don't expect that.
Speaker:And also,
Speaker:I don't know the structure of how people would get into
Speaker:the show and go to your booth.
Speaker:What took them there?
Speaker:What was that?
Speaker:Attract them to go there?
Speaker:You know what I mean?
Speaker:What's the draw for them to come to your booth versus
Speaker:somebody else's both.
Speaker:Yes, exactly.
Speaker:Okay. That's interesting to think about as we move forward,
Speaker:for sure.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So let's move on to the future.
Speaker:What are you working on right now?
Speaker:You've talked a little bit about your kind of noodling in
Speaker:your head,
Speaker:what you might be able to do for more of a
Speaker:warm weather product.
Speaker:So I'm going to be watching for what that's going to
Speaker:look like.
Speaker:That sounds really interesting,
Speaker:but what are you working on right now?
Speaker:And what are your goals in the upcoming?
Speaker:Let's say year,
Speaker:See what I'm working on right now is to kind of
Speaker:replenish my inventory and create new things for the year.
Speaker:I have a show already set for the month of February,
Speaker:and I'm trying to see to,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it took a little time for the shows to reappear that
Speaker:way after the holidays,
Speaker:like the one I used to go before the holidays has
Speaker:not set up dates yet,
Speaker:but my goal would be to try to do once a
Speaker:month outdoor market once a month,
Speaker:and to try to experiment more of my own yarn and
Speaker:creations from scratch.
Speaker:Absolutely. And also I'm going to start testing to see what
Speaker:happens with a Homeline,
Speaker:which is more thinking of for the summer,
Speaker:like of pillows and throws and stuff.
Speaker:Just those two are,
Speaker:let's say not that kind of stuff.
Speaker:Just those two,
Speaker:like pillow covers and throws.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:I don't want to expand too much because I can't,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:Oh, I like that.
Speaker:That makes me really curious.
Speaker:I love Because that gives another possibilities,
Speaker:for example,
Speaker:for different materials that I can use.
Speaker:And also people would be more inclined to look at that
Speaker:in the heat than to think of.
Speaker:Oh, I'm going to try a shawl around my shoulders when
Speaker:it's super hot.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So where would you direct people to go to see your
Speaker:products? Learn more about you?
Speaker:Where would be the one place online you would want them
Speaker:to go?
Speaker:Oh, my website for sure.
Speaker:Yes. Please go and visit.
Speaker:My website is
and there,
Speaker:you're going to find so more about me,
Speaker:more about my values and what I stand for and also
Speaker:all my pieces and the ways to obviously to see all
Speaker:of them,
Speaker:appreciate some by them.
Speaker:Yeah. Beautiful.
Speaker:And then I would say on Instagram too,
Speaker:I do have Instagram shop.
Speaker:So you can buy through Instagram and Facebook.
Speaker:And Instagram is the thing that I update the most often.
Speaker:So that also gives you an idea of where I am.
Speaker:So, and there's always the same name in Atlanta season.
Speaker:Wonderful. And we didn't get into this today,
Speaker:but there are a lot of people who are so anxious
Speaker:and nervous about putting up their own website and you have
Speaker:created yourself a gorgeous,
Speaker:gorgeous site.
Speaker:And I watched the evolution of that and it's just fabulous.
Speaker:So it can be done.
Speaker:Absolutely. It can be done.
Speaker:Yeah. And I did it all myself and I made sure
Speaker:that every single thing that is there is absolutely mine.
Speaker:Like all the photos you find there are mine.
Speaker:I took those photos,
Speaker:but it's possible.
Speaker:It's doable.
Speaker:Absolutely. It just,
Speaker:it requires time.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:if you remember the process,
Speaker:there were moments when I was really frustrated because I couldn't
Speaker:get to what I wanted,
Speaker:but you can do it.
Speaker:And you just put it as a goal.
Speaker:Absolutely. But a date when I will be ready by this
Speaker:date and work towards it.
Speaker:Yeah. That's right.
Speaker:So that's just the website,
Speaker:but what would you say to somebody who's listening right now
Speaker:who is thinking of starting their business or was like,
Speaker:you were way back,
Speaker:let's say early 2019 before the first show,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you've given some products to friends,
Speaker:family, you've gotten some good feedback,
Speaker:but you really haven't dove into starting walking down the path
Speaker:of starting a business.
Speaker:What would you say to that one?
Speaker:Well, first of all,
Speaker:what I would say is,
Speaker:is it you're doing what you love doing because I feel
Speaker:like if you really do what you love and you got
Speaker:proof from people around you,
Speaker:that what you do is beautiful and it's worth showing to
Speaker:the rest of the world.
Speaker:Then that is a very good start.
Speaker:And then I would just say,
Speaker:just, you know,
Speaker:go for it.
Speaker:Absolutely go for it.
Speaker:Put all your passion and your time and creativity and let
Speaker:go of expectations.
Speaker:And don't listen to criticism,
Speaker:especially if it is done,
Speaker:listen to negative criticism,
Speaker:Including your own.
Speaker:Yes. And listen to people who love you and who can
Speaker:give you good feedback.
Speaker:I just read something yesterday.
Speaker:It's funny.
Speaker:So you don't listen to the criticism of people that you
Speaker:would not go to us for advice.
Speaker:Oh, that's good.
Speaker:Yeah. If you're not,
Speaker:don't pay attention to that.
Speaker:And I can tell you a little thing that happened to
Speaker:me many months ago,
Speaker:I posted a photo on Instagram and of one of my
Speaker:pieces and it was from the bottom of the loom.
Speaker:And it,
Speaker:you could see the texture of the piece,
Speaker:but you could see through it.
Speaker:And I got this comment from someone I don't know who
Speaker:was kind of a negative comment.
Speaker:Like, you know,
Speaker:something like,
Speaker:Oh, I wouldn't do it that way.
Speaker:Something like that.
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:why would you say that to someone you don't know?
Speaker:Really? It's like,
Speaker:absolutely not that common made me think.
Speaker:I don't care about what you say.
Speaker:Really. You know,
Speaker:you don't know me,
Speaker:you don't understand what I'm doing and I'm not going to
Speaker:pay attention to those kinds of comments.
Speaker:And since then,
Speaker:I think nothing else,
Speaker:no one else said something like that,
Speaker:but it made me think know,
Speaker:wow, that shocked me.
Speaker:That someone would say that and just go on,
Speaker:put it aside,
Speaker:continue going where you're going and don't pay attention to those
Speaker:negative things.
Speaker:Yeah. Excellent advice.
Speaker:Because we're going to get them.
Speaker:There are just people online who are going to be that
Speaker:way. So that was a great story to share.
Speaker:And I'm glad to hear that.
Speaker:You could just brush it off.
Speaker:Just let it go.
Speaker:Not affect you and carry on.
Speaker:Okay. Hamina this has been wonderful.
Speaker:Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story.
Speaker:The business is evolving.
Speaker:We know where you're looking at going sometime in the future.
Speaker:Maybe even full time,
Speaker:which means there'll be more of your gorgeous items out for
Speaker:us all to have Let's hope.
Speaker:Well, thank you so much,
Speaker:Sue. I love being with you.
Speaker:It was really nice to talk and to share all these
Speaker:things with your audience.
Speaker:One of the things I admire the most about Hamina is
Speaker:that she knows the value of her product,
Speaker:and isn't afraid to charge what it's worth as an upscale
Speaker:artist. She doesn't need to sell the value.
Speaker:A more modestly priced product maker does.
Speaker:It's a different business model that works within her life,
Speaker:beautifully one isn't better than another.
Speaker:And there are many factors that play into your pricing position,
Speaker:but Khomeini does a wonderful job of representing and staying true
Speaker:to her quality and her pricing.
Speaker:All that make up her beautiful brand.
Speaker:Hamina could not have done all of this without the right
Speaker:mindset. That's the topic we'll dive into next week,
Speaker:tackling the self-imposed limiting beliefs that come up and here's something
Speaker:to know.
Speaker:This will happen all the way through your business journey.
Speaker:So if you're just starting,
Speaker:it doesn't mean that when you see success like Romania has
Speaker:those doubt magically disappear.
Speaker:It's a matter of facing them head on and learning how
Speaker:to deal with them.
Speaker:That for next Monday,
Speaker:thank you so much for spending time with me today.
Speaker:If you'd like to show support for the podcast,
Speaker:would you give me the gift of leaving a rating and
Speaker:review? That would mean so much to me and it helps
Speaker:the show get seen by more makers.
Speaker:So it's a nice way to pay it forward.
Speaker:It's also best to subscribe.
Speaker:So episodes automatically download to your phone that way you don't
Speaker:miss a single show.
Speaker:How do you subscribe?
Speaker:Just pull up gift biz unwrapped on your podcast,
Speaker:app of choice and tap the subscribe button easy and now
Speaker:be safe and well.
Speaker:And I'll see you again next week on the gift biz
Speaker:on wrapped package.
Speaker:Yes. I want to make sure you're familiar with my free
Speaker:Facebook group called gift biz 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 posts every single week,
Speaker:without doubt.
Speaker:Wait, what,
Speaker: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.