Shownotes
Discover This Alternative To Etsy
- The healthy way to grow your business.
- What is actually the true power of a marketplace?
- The thing you must know about your customers.
- How to differentiate yourself from other brands.
- The secrets to supporting and marketing your product.
- What you need to have in mind when you look at places where to sell.
- Why it's so important to have your own URL.
- And tons more!
You need to listen to this full conversation and hear all about this intriguing alternative to Etsy PLUS get tips and insights for selling online!
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Gift is Unwrapped Guest,
Speaker:episode number 412.
Speaker:What if we can build a more affordable private website with
Speaker:custom domains for you,
Speaker:while also helping you be part of a new philanthropic marketplace
Speaker:and grow it?
Speaker:Attention gifters,
Speaker:bakers, 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 Biz Unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources and the support you need to grow your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host Gift Biz gal Sue Moon Height.
Speaker:Hi there,
Speaker:it's Sue and thanks for joining me today.
Speaker:If you've been looking for your first or a new home
Speaker:for your e-commerce website,
Speaker:grab a pen and paper because today's show is just for
Speaker:you. But before we get into that,
Speaker:I wanna share something with you.
Speaker:We've covered so many facets of a handmade product business over
Speaker:the course of the years and today is no exception.
Speaker:We've talked about how to start and grow your business stories
Speaker:from many of you who have done just that.
Speaker:How to choose and use social media sites,
Speaker:build your website.
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:there is just so much information here for you,
Speaker:but not necessarily at your fingertips.
Speaker:So I've made a tool for you that categorizes by topic
Speaker:the episodes of this podcast,
Speaker:but only the ones that stay relevant over time.
Speaker:Because yes,
Speaker:let's face it,
Speaker:there are past shows that just don't work anymore for us
Speaker:today. The world is changing so fast,
Speaker:right? You can use this tool to zero in on whatever
Speaker:topic you need at the moment.
Speaker:Do you wanna hear from others in your specific industry?
Speaker:How about details on Pinterest or setting up an email strategy?
Speaker:You can now easily find the right episodes and create your
Speaker:priority listening roster.
Speaker:Consider this your Gift Biz Resource center at a glance.
Speaker:It's a Google Sheet best viewable on your computer versus your
Speaker:phone. Make sure to look on the bottom where there are
Speaker:five separate sections for easy topic reference,
Speaker:kind of like chapters of a book.
Speaker:It makes finding the shows to help you with what you're
Speaker:working on right now.
Speaker:So much easier.
Speaker:To access this free resource,
Speaker:go to gift biz unwrapped.com/topics.
Speaker:Today we're talking about a new e-commerce platform only for handmade
Speaker:creators that offers options not available anywhere else.
Speaker:I say they're new,
Speaker:but they have solid experience under their belt from the last
Speaker:two years of startup and growth.
Speaker:What should peak your interest first?
Speaker:John is serious about keeping this marketplace only for true handmade
Speaker:creators. Nobody slips in who's producing from a factory or justifies
Speaker:handmade when in truth it isn't.
Speaker:The go imagine marketplace is affordable,
Speaker:provides you direct access and ownership to your customer's contact information,
Speaker:which oh my gosh,
Speaker:is so big and has a philanthropic overlay that doesn't cost
Speaker:you anything to align with almost too good to be true.
Speaker:Right? Well,
Speaker:I've got one up even better than what I said here.
Speaker:How many of you know you should have a website of
Speaker:your own too,
Speaker:perhaps in addition to another outside owned e-commerce site like Etsy
Speaker:or Amazon One with your own domain name,
Speaker:smooth setup and control and reliable functionality,
Speaker:go imagine has the solution for this two all in one
Speaker:place. I bet I'm confusing you because you just can't believe
Speaker:that all this is possible.
Speaker:Let's dive into the details so you can hear it for
Speaker:yourself Today.
Speaker:I'd like to introduce you to John Lincoln,
Speaker:the founder of Go Imagine the handmade marketplace that donates a
Speaker:hundred percent profits to help children in need.
Speaker:This new marketplace concept is following in the footsteps of other
Speaker:great companies such as Newman's Own and Patagonia,
Speaker:by building philanthropy into the fabric of the business.
Speaker:Since launching in 2020 Go Imagine has attracted thousands of makers
Speaker:and artists throughout the US supporting their mission to create a
Speaker:more caring economy through Handmade.
Speaker:This year,
Speaker:go Imagine is adopting a shared ownership model where the vendors
Speaker:on the marketplace are given ownership in the company,
Speaker:including voting rights and board representation.
Speaker:It's with the support of the maker community that go imagine
Speaker:continues to grow and they feel it's only right that makers
Speaker:are given a seat at the table when decisions are being
Speaker:made. John,
Speaker:I'm so excited to hear more about Go Imagine.
Speaker:Welcome to the Gift Biz Unrepped podcast.
Speaker:I appreciate you having me,
Speaker:Sue. Thank you.
Speaker:Before We get into everything,
Speaker:we have to take care of another little task and that
Speaker:is to have you describe yourself by way of a motivational
Speaker:candle. This is a way for our listeners to get to
Speaker:know you in kind of an undercover way,
Speaker:if you will.
Speaker:So motivational candle for you by color in quote,
Speaker:what would it look like?
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Remember you emailed me to ask that and I've been thinking
Speaker:about it.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:color I think for me would be pretty straightforward.
Speaker:It would be teal because that is the color of go
Speaker:imagine. Although when I thought when you first said candle,
Speaker:it wasn't just the color,
Speaker:but I would tell you that I think my candle would
Speaker:also have one of those wicks,
Speaker:you can't blow out Going and going and going.
Speaker:I'm a serial entrepreneur and I've done a number of businesses
Speaker:and yeah,
Speaker:it's like it's,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:in life you can't hold someone down.
Speaker:And so yeah,
Speaker:it's, I feel like I,
Speaker:I'd have a,
Speaker:an endless wick so to speak,
Speaker:from a motivational quote.
Speaker:I mean there's so many of 'em,
Speaker:but in business,
Speaker:one of the quotes that I've always liked on the business
Speaker:side of things is from Henry Ford,
Speaker:which is if two partners always agree on the same thing,
Speaker:one of them isn't necessary.
Speaker:And in the whole concept of that quote is the fact
Speaker:that when you're building a business and you have partners,
Speaker:or in the case of our marketplace,
Speaker:I consider all of our makers and artists,
Speaker:our partners,
Speaker:is that you're not always gonna agree on the same thing.
Speaker:What really matters is you're getting the right decision through discourse
Speaker:in that process of having differing opinions.
Speaker:That's a healthy way to grow a business is by having
Speaker:different opinions and finding the right answer collectively instead of having
Speaker:a bunch of yes men who are just,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:agreeing with you on everything cuz you're not gonna get the
Speaker:right answers if you're not having some disagreement.
Speaker:Yeah. Or you're only going to have a resulting product that
Speaker:is appreciated or welcomed by a certain portion of the community.
Speaker:Right? Because we're all different.
Speaker:Absolutely. I do truly believe this,
Speaker:that the makers and artists on the platform are partners in
Speaker:the company.
Speaker:And one example would be,
Speaker:and we don't have to talk too much about this,
Speaker:but the definition of what handmade is,
Speaker:right? Everybody has a different idea of what is handmade and
Speaker:that's one of the things that we're working with our community
Speaker:on our handmade guidelines as we continue to grow on defining
Speaker:handmade. At the end of the day that quote really comes
Speaker:to the fact that just cuz two people might have differing
Speaker:opinions, they're both valuable opinions and they help find that right
Speaker:common ground.
Speaker:Absolutely. And I like too,
Speaker:as the conversations evolve and good points come up,
Speaker:I like to slip in these extra points that aren't necessarily
Speaker:in alignment with the conversation.
Speaker:But one of the things that you said,
Speaker:John, while you were talking about your quote,
Speaker:I learned way back in my corporate world when I was
Speaker:learning management,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:that was when you took courses,
Speaker:they were prepping you to be a manager or something like
Speaker:that. One of the things they always said is,
Speaker:you don't wanna hire people who looked us like you.
Speaker:You wanna hire people who have different skillsets,
Speaker:different opinions,
Speaker:all of that.
Speaker:So very similar and parallel to what you're talking about,
Speaker:but in a little bit of a different environment.
Speaker:But for our makers here who are thinking of starting a
Speaker:team or adding to a team,
Speaker:that's something to always keep in mind is add people who
Speaker:are different from you in some way because it makes your
Speaker:whole group richer And it makes you grow,
Speaker:right? Because you start to see things maybe differently than you
Speaker:did before because you're exposed to that.
Speaker:Yeah, I could not agree with you more.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:so now we're gonna dive into you Don.
Speaker:Okay, fair enough.
Speaker:Tell me,
Speaker:and you can start wherever it makes sense to start,
Speaker:but what led you over to handmade?
Speaker:What were you doing before?
Speaker:Give us the entrance like the curtain is opening,
Speaker:John, what do we see?
Speaker:I think like most people,
Speaker:your life is windy and where you end up is not
Speaker:really where you started.
Speaker:I mentioned a moment ago,
Speaker:I've been kind of a serial entrepreneur.
Speaker:So if we go back,
Speaker:20 years was when I started my first company actually in
Speaker:standup comedy.
Speaker:I was a comedian for many years.
Speaker:I opened up a couple comedy clubs,
Speaker:a production agency,
Speaker:and for 10 years I made my living running my comedy
Speaker:business. Lucky enough we won Boston's best comedy club,
Speaker:gone on the Today Show,
Speaker:did some fun things there.
Speaker:And when I was probably about 30,
Speaker:so that's 10 years later,
Speaker:life hit me in the face and I was getting married,
Speaker:having my first kid and it was time to grow up
Speaker:and get a real job.
Speaker:That led me to getting into software,
Speaker:right? And I got into actually the insurance industry,
Speaker:not merely as exciting as handmade,
Speaker:but I got into software development working for a company that
Speaker:led me to start my own software agency management system on
Speaker:a product called Salesforce.
Speaker:This is now going back 2015,
Speaker:I'm guessing.
Speaker:Had a great experience growing that company.
Speaker:Through those years growing the company,
Speaker:I raised over $7 million and then Capital grew it to
Speaker:over 40 employees.
Speaker:And about three and a half years ago,
Speaker:I had an opportunity to exit the company.
Speaker:I was a CEO for many years and with okay belabored
Speaker:points, the money I had raised diluted me down to,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:a minority owner in this company.
Speaker:And I was trying to think about the next thing I
Speaker:wanted to do in life,
Speaker:right? And so I was able to exit that company at
Speaker:luckily it was a 44 million valuation.
Speaker:That's not what I made.
Speaker:That's what the company was valued at when we sold it,
Speaker:sold the shares.
Speaker:But I was thinking about the next chapter in life for
Speaker:me and what I wanted to do.
Speaker:And for the years I grew,
Speaker:the last company,
Speaker:it was called Veruna,
Speaker:you can check 'em out,
Speaker:they're still growing veruna.com.
Speaker:And I was quickly becoming dis enamored with the fact that
Speaker:the endless days and nights I was working,
Speaker:the outcome of all the work was to make our investors
Speaker:more money.
Speaker:That wasn't why the company started,
Speaker:the company started because I was excited to help agencies run
Speaker:their business.
Speaker:But it got to the point where when you have investors,
Speaker:it's only about them,
Speaker:right? And it wasn't very fulfilling to me to work so
Speaker:hard to make rich people more rich,
Speaker:right? And so that's when I started thinking about,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:doing more of a philanthropic venture.
Speaker:And by the way,
Speaker:this all does lead to handmade,
Speaker:I promise.
Speaker:And so I was thinking through tech cause I had been
Speaker:in software for about 10 years and then I,
Speaker:it led me to marketplaces in general and how marketplaces operate.
Speaker:And the true power of a marketplace is the buyers and
Speaker:sellers has very little to do with the actual tech.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:yeah, you know,
Speaker:you can invent new fun things like 3D video or something.
Speaker:At the end of the day,
Speaker:it's the community that makes a marketplace successful.
Speaker:And these marketplaces are all on Wall Street now.
Speaker:They're all venture capitalized.
Speaker:They're all making billions of dollars through transaction fees between the
Speaker:buyer and the seller.
Speaker:And I thought to myself,
Speaker:what if we could harness that power of those network effects
Speaker:to do good in the world,
Speaker:to build a marketplace environment where the fees being generated are
Speaker:to help children need instead of simply go to the shareholders
Speaker:and then the stockholders and investors.
Speaker:So at that time,
Speaker:we're going back probably three and a half years.
Speaker:I started considering different marketplaces and where there was a hole
Speaker:in the market,
Speaker:Connor, where,
Speaker:where do we want to go?
Speaker:Cause I by trade don't have a handmade,
Speaker:I, I'd like to think I have an entertainment background but
Speaker:not an art background.
Speaker:So I started considering different marketplaces,
Speaker:but one of my really good friends who has helped me
Speaker:through all my other businesses,
Speaker:she's a graphic designer,
Speaker:her name is Stephanie Mke is an artist,
Speaker:she's been selling on Etsy for years.
Speaker:She's done countless craft fairs,
Speaker:she's within the handmade community and,
Speaker:and I was talking with her through business and I said,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:tell me about Etsy was my question to her.
Speaker:This was three and a half years ago cuz I'd been
Speaker:looking at the different models,
Speaker:Airbnb, Upwork,
Speaker:Uber. And I was like,
Speaker:tell me about Etsy.
Speaker:She says,
Speaker:what do you wanna know?
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:well do the makers like Etsy.
Speaker:That question alone opened Pandora's box when I asked Steph,
Speaker:what do makers think of Etsy?
Speaker:Depending on what year?
Speaker:Yeah, Yeah.
Speaker:This is 2018,
Speaker:19. So anyway,
Speaker:it opened Pandora's box and you know exactly where the conversation
Speaker:went led,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:the fact that more manufactured items are going on this site,
Speaker:the fact the fees are going up,
Speaker:they're forcing free shipping at that time.
Speaker:All these other things start coming out.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:okay, well what I saw talking with Steph was this,
Speaker:I'll call it dissatisfaction within the handmade world because Etsy grew
Speaker:on the back of handmade,
Speaker:but now is leaving it.
Speaker:And by the way,
Speaker:I have a YouTube video,
Speaker:you should watch that.
Speaker:I talk about why Etsy left hand made because it makes
Speaker:perfect sense from an investor economic standpoint.
Speaker:So what I saw working with Steph was what I would
Speaker:think is a whole opening for a new handmade marketplace.
Speaker:Okay, you've got this really behemoth that grew on the back
Speaker:of handmade but it's slowly going away from it,
Speaker:which is going to open up an opportunity for the next
Speaker:handmade marketplace that's truly handmade.
Speaker:This led to me talking to Steph and actually partnering with
Speaker:her. Steph is now a partner in the company with me.
Speaker:She's a co-owner.
Speaker:I brought in some other software people I know very well
Speaker:into the business and that's where it kind of all started.
Speaker:Where on my end I am really more of the software
Speaker:tech entrepreneur side.
Speaker:But Steph has always been the real handmade artist side of
Speaker:things. And the first thing we did before we wrote a
Speaker:lick code was start a Facebook group.
Speaker:It invited makers into the community and started talking to them.
Speaker:So if you go to our Facebook group,
Speaker:which we have 7,000
Speaker:number of,
Speaker:if you go back to 2000 and in 19 early 20
Speaker:you'll see the first conversation there of just learning from the
Speaker:community on what is possible if we work together.
Speaker:So when I look at starting a any marketplace,
Speaker:you really need two types of people.
Speaker:You need the software people because marketplace is our software and
Speaker:you need the,
Speaker:what I would call domain knowledge,
Speaker:the real handmade people.
Speaker:And from my perspective,
Speaker:I bring the software and the community and Steph as a
Speaker:partner bring the handmade.
Speaker:And so far it's been a good recipe.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I think a lot of people who have been with me
Speaker:for a while can really relate to this because as we
Speaker:start talking about starting a business,
Speaker:so it's not a marketplace but it's your,
Speaker:your brand,
Speaker:right? Is to start rallying and supporters even before you're launching
Speaker:your product.
Speaker:Yeah. To start building a community and having an audience for
Speaker:support. Yes.
Speaker:But also so that when you're starting,
Speaker:you're not opening the door to nobody coming in.
Speaker:Well It's market research to a degree,
Speaker:right? And it's market research for sure.
Speaker:Yes. Parting what their needs are and if you listen to
Speaker:people and you get their input and you involve 'em at
Speaker:the beginning,
Speaker:they wanna be involved later cuz they've actually had a hand
Speaker:in helping building,
Speaker:right? Right.
Speaker:That's a big,
Speaker:that's a big part of it.
Speaker:Marketplace is even more so.
Speaker:But I think you're right with any business it's important.
Speaker:So let's dive into,
Speaker:I think the interest of people who are listening here,
Speaker:which is as a handmade maker,
Speaker:what does go imagine have for me?
Speaker:How does it work?
Speaker:Like give us all the goodness there.
Speaker:I would love to,
Speaker:well, so start like starting any business in terms of your
Speaker:question, you're differentiators,
Speaker:what are you bringing to the table that isn't already there?
Speaker:Or what would you bring to me?
Speaker:So we've been working on this for years and obviously the
Speaker:first thing is we're a marketplace,
Speaker:right? As we grow,
Speaker:we are building a buyer base and traffic is increasing.
Speaker:Now I'll be upfront and say that is traffic like Etsy?
Speaker:Heck no.
Speaker:It's like some makers come to a new marketplace and expect
Speaker:an Etsy type volume right off the gate.
Speaker:But even Etsy wasn't Etsy at the beginning,
Speaker:right? So what we've done is we've really focused a lot
Speaker:on where else can we support our makers outside of just
Speaker:driving buyers to the marketplace.
Speaker:And that's led us to a number of different things.
Speaker:Obviously the community aspect is a really big part of that
Speaker:where we've built our community.
Speaker:The other big part is we launched something about a year
Speaker:ago called our Mosaic platform.
Speaker:And what Mosaic is,
Speaker:is the ability to have your own privately branded website on
Speaker:go imagine that is also connected to the marketplace,
Speaker:right? And we built that because what we found through our
Speaker:own research talked to Makers is that a lot of them
Speaker:have been trying to find how do I differentiate myself from
Speaker:being just on Etsy?
Speaker:And that has led to a lot of them saying,
Speaker:I'll start my own website.
Speaker:Well that's great,
Speaker:you can go to Shopify,
Speaker:WooCommerce Wick on any of those,
Speaker:but at the end of the day they're,
Speaker:they can be pricey.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:Shopify just raised their rates.
Speaker:I mean they're $40 a month before you buy anything on
Speaker:top of that.
Speaker:And so we thought,
Speaker:well what if we can build a more affordable private website
Speaker:with custom domains for you while also helping you be part
Speaker:of a new philanthropic marketplace and grow it.
Speaker:And so for 10 bucks a month you get your own
Speaker:website, right?
Speaker:So not only are we reducing your cost to have your
Speaker:own website,
Speaker:I always like to tell people that if you build Wicks
Speaker:or your site on Wicks or on Shopify,
Speaker:they're guaranteed to draw you zero traffic because they're not meant
Speaker:to draw you draw your own traffic.
Speaker:But on this platform for us,
Speaker:you're gonna have your own website to market your own brand
Speaker:while also being connected to a growing marketplace that will eventually
Speaker:draw you traffic.
Speaker:Whether it's one sale a month or one sale a quarter.
Speaker:It's more than the sales you're getting having your own website
Speaker:on Wix or Shopify.
Speaker:Okay. Alright,
Speaker:perfect. So John,
Speaker:I have to tell you that always what I advise is
Speaker:your own website is Golden territory.
Speaker:It's like your business headquarters online,
Speaker:not an Etsy site.
Speaker:Because we all know Etsy has restrictions and structure that you
Speaker:can't get out of and it's not your own domain.
Speaker:So what I'm hearing from you,
Speaker:it's kind of a go-between,
Speaker:it's a different animal if you will.
Speaker:But the thing I'm really liking about what you're saying is
Speaker:you create your own domain name.
Speaker:So it's not your shop connected with an Etsy site,
Speaker:it's your shop.com
Speaker:or whatever your URL is,
Speaker:right? Absolutely.
Speaker:Yeah. And you owning your own url,
Speaker:to your point,
Speaker:Sue is hugely valuable because even if you own your own
Speaker:URL today and you point it to your Etsy shop,
Speaker:well you can print all your business cards with your url,
Speaker:print your brochures,
Speaker:your Facebook,
Speaker:and then the day you decide to move your URL to
Speaker:go imagine or Shopify,
Speaker:you can repoint it,
Speaker:Right? And then all of that past stuff works.
Speaker:But if you're advertising your etsy.com/my
Speaker:shop name,
Speaker:when you then move to a url,
Speaker:all your past marketing is now poof because you've changed the
Speaker:url. So to your point,
Speaker:I think every maker should own url.
Speaker:That should be like the first thing cuz A they're super
Speaker:cheap. I mean like 10 bucks a year,
Speaker:20 bucks a year and you now have a brand.
Speaker:The second step is where are you connecting that url?
Speaker:Where is that Now it can always move,
Speaker:right? And to your point,
Speaker:maybe on go imagine our platform gives you that stepping stone
Speaker:to have your own branded website,
Speaker:but we don't have every feature that Shopify has yet.
Speaker:We're still new.
Speaker:Maybe you'll graduate eventually and say,
Speaker:you know what,
Speaker:we're now a bigger company,
Speaker:we've grown and now we wanna move to Shopify that has
Speaker:more bells and whistles.
Speaker:Okay? So agree with you a hundred percent.
Speaker:And the other thing,
Speaker:I have a couple of questions here.
Speaker:First off,
Speaker:let me ask just one more tech question and then I
Speaker:wanna get out of tech for a little while.
Speaker:Sure. Go Imagine site.
Speaker:You guys are doing the hosting also,
Speaker:so there's none of that to be worried about.
Speaker:Okay. Kind of like Shopify does hosting too,
Speaker:Etsy, but everything but WordPress kind of.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Yeah. So we do all the hosting.
Speaker:Alright, okay,
Speaker:so perfect with that.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:here's the thing with e-commerce also,
Speaker:I feel that whether it's a site on Etsy,
Speaker:go imagine Shopify,
Speaker:every single one of those attracts a different audience and works
Speaker:in a different way.
Speaker:Although if you have too many,
Speaker:you know there's nuances to every site.
Speaker:So if you have too many,
Speaker:you'll never get to be an expert at one specifically.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I think maybe one or two sites,
Speaker:your own platform perhaps.
Speaker:And then maybe it's Etsy,
Speaker:maybe it's Amazon for certain people here.
Speaker:So you can think of it that way too.
Speaker:Especially if you're not one who's going out and doing a
Speaker:lot of in-person shows anymore for whatever reason,
Speaker:having multiple locations is not duplicating your efforts online.
Speaker:So just a comment,
Speaker:and I don't know if you wanna react to that or
Speaker:not, John,
Speaker:Around the fact that having more than one location online is
Speaker:more work or less work.
Speaker:What about you?
Speaker:It's attracting different audiences.
Speaker:So just because you are online now with whatever your you
Speaker:are L is doesn't mean a second one won't be presenting
Speaker:you up to new people,
Speaker:right? Absolutely.
Speaker:And I think that's where as a maker,
Speaker:so a lot of makers who are an artist who get
Speaker:into business,
Speaker:they do it cuz of their love of the art and
Speaker:the making and they're forced to do business cuz that's how
Speaker:you make money,
Speaker:right? So it's almost like they have to learn the business
Speaker:on the fly.
Speaker:They might've spent years making,
Speaker:they might've gone to school,
Speaker:art school and they've learned all that and then all of
Speaker:a sudden it's like,
Speaker:well you also now have to think about branding,
Speaker:you've gotta think about revenue,
Speaker:you've gotta think about sales,
Speaker:you all this other stuff you have to learn.
Speaker:And that's why they come to people like you sue to
Speaker:learn from.
Speaker:And I think when you look at so many places to
Speaker:sell today,
Speaker:the first thought often is,
Speaker:which I would ask is like,
Speaker:well who are you as a brand and where can you
Speaker:find the audiences that resonate with what you're selling?
Speaker:Right? And you mentioned Amazon Handmade might work wonderfully for some
Speaker:people and not work at all for others.
Speaker:Same with Etsy,
Speaker:same with go imagine even same with your own website,
Speaker:but starting off on different platforms from a testing peer,
Speaker:you never call it,
Speaker:you start to learn where you fit more.
Speaker:A little a little,
Speaker:right? Because just cuz you didn't sell well on Amazon doesn't
Speaker:mean you won't sell on Etsy.
Speaker:Does that make sense?
Speaker:It makes total sense.
Speaker:And then I also think you need to dive deeper as
Speaker:you've been talking about,
Speaker:well as you experienced with your prior business too,
Speaker:how businesses evolve and what might have met your needs when
Speaker:you initially started might not be anymore.
Speaker:Oh Yeah.
Speaker:You know Etsy,
Speaker:I'm not gonna dis Etsy because I think they're a good
Speaker:platform. They have their limitations for sure.
Speaker:But people have told me over and over again how they
Speaker:aren't getting the results they once had on Etsy for various
Speaker:reasons. And I think it's the company might have other objectives
Speaker:now prices are going up like all different types of reasons.
Speaker:So you've gotta look at what platform works for you.
Speaker:And I wanna get back to go imagine,
Speaker:cuz I still want to understand more about Go imagine.
Speaker:Okay, so I'm a maker,
Speaker:let's pretend I'm a maker.
Speaker:I'm curious about the platform.
Speaker:I love the idea of either starting my first website or
Speaker:finding another home online.
Speaker:It's not wholesale,
Speaker:it's direct to consumer.
Speaker:No, this is not like fair.
Speaker:This is like more like Etsy.
Speaker:Yeah. All right,
Speaker:perfect. And so if I was interested in working with you,
Speaker:how does that start?
Speaker:Yeah, so the big thing for us is that we are
Speaker:a handmade only marketplace,
Speaker:right? And so we work really hard on trying to make
Speaker:sure every seller on the marketplace is truly selling handmade.
Speaker:So there is a short application process.
Speaker:So if you just go to the website,
Speaker:you click go to the bottom and click on become a
Speaker:member, there's some questions where you apply and that goes to
Speaker:our team to verify through your answers that okay you qualify.
Speaker:And if you're curious,
Speaker:we do at the bottom of our site have what's called
Speaker:handmade guidelines where you can first make sure that you qualify.
Speaker:For instance,
Speaker:one of the hot topics right now in our community is
Speaker:drop shipping.
Speaker:And right now we do not allow drop shipping.
Speaker:That's something that the whole idea of production partners that Etsy
Speaker:came out with,
Speaker:which we don't necessarily allow production partners.
Speaker:That gets back to the whole defining handmade kind of conversation.
Speaker:Well and a niche within handmade too,
Speaker:right? And I love this because this is the majority of
Speaker:the people who are listening who are my handmade creators,
Speaker:are not producing their product elsewhere and are not having someone
Speaker:drop ship for them.
Speaker:They're doing that.
Speaker:Yeah. So imagine we do not allow drop shipping or production.
Speaker:So you go through the application process,
Speaker:it's not a scary process.
Speaker:Basically we're just verifying that what you're saying is true,
Speaker:that you are handmade right?
Speaker:After that we have our help center to help you get
Speaker:your shop set up.
Speaker:But we also very much encourage everyone to join our community
Speaker:to meet other go imagine makers who are,
Speaker:one thing we love is that our makers help each other
Speaker:with setup and help each other with questions.
Speaker:So not only do we have our Facebook group,
Speaker:but we have our own social app called Maker Circle that
Speaker:you can download on Android or iPhone to join the community
Speaker:in our own private app as well.
Speaker:Okay. Two questions.
Speaker:I hope you don't mind if I interject.
Speaker:I always try to put myself in the mind of someone
Speaker:who's listening and try and create the questions as we go.
Speaker:Okay. So what if someone has their own website but they
Speaker:like the idea of having another online shop?
Speaker:Yes. Would they then get a new domain that would attach
Speaker:to their Go Imagine account?
Speaker:Oh, maybe a spinoff or something?
Speaker:Yes and no.
Speaker:The way to think about it is this is we have
Speaker:different levels of plan.
Speaker:The lowest plan is $2 and 50.
Speaker:So it's you know,
Speaker:very inexpensive and we take 5% per transaction.
Speaker:So our fees are generally less than Etsy.
Speaker:When you're selling that plan doesn't come with your private website,
Speaker:that's just a marketplace site,
Speaker:which would be go imagine.com/shop
Speaker:name, just like etsy.com.
Speaker:So everybody in the marketplace has a marketplace shop,
Speaker:which is go imagine.com/xyz.
Speaker:If you want your own private website,
Speaker:that's $10 a month.
Speaker:That's where you'd also get your own custom domain with a
Speaker:branded website that doesn't have all the go imagine makers in
Speaker:it. So essentially for $2 and 50 cents a month is
Speaker:the lowest plan.
Speaker:You have a marketplace shop and for 10 bucks a month
Speaker:you get the marketplace shop and your private website.
Speaker:So we've had a lot of sellers that have decided to
Speaker:say, you know what,
Speaker:I'm gonna,
Speaker:I've already got my private website set up,
Speaker:it's going well,
Speaker:I'll get the lower plan and go imagine start selling there.
Speaker:We've had makers who have canceled their Shopify and then just
Speaker:started using our site instead.
Speaker:And some of that just don't have websites at all.
Speaker:And use the lower plans.
Speaker:It depends on what fits your needs the best,
Speaker:if that makes sense.
Speaker:Yeah. So you can be coming from both directions.
Speaker:You could be someone who's never had a website before and
Speaker:come on to the platform at $2 and 50 cents a
Speaker:month. These days it's less than a cup of coffee,
Speaker:like less than not equal to,
Speaker:less than,
Speaker:right? Or if you already have your own own website,
Speaker:this is another audience that you could approach again for a
Speaker:very, very unbelievably economic fee.
Speaker:So, so you could come from both ways,
Speaker:people who are just starting or people who are already established
Speaker:looking for additional eyes to capture.
Speaker:So let me ask you this,
Speaker:how, and you don't have to get into all the nitty
Speaker:gritty, but how does the functionality work in terms of setting
Speaker:up the site?
Speaker:Are there like templates that you fit into or how does
Speaker:that look?
Speaker:So the short story is you have a seller dashboard we
Speaker:call it,
Speaker:which is the backend for you to manage your shop.
Speaker:If you're talking about using our custom website and the marketplace,
Speaker:it's all one seller dashboard.
Speaker:So we always like to say you're managing two sites from
Speaker:one dashboard.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:you're mar,
Speaker:you're going back to marketplace shop and your custom website,
Speaker:our help center is filled with videos and articles on meeting
Speaker:you through how to set up a product or how to
Speaker:set up your shop.
Speaker:I will tell you that we've partnered with Stripe as our
Speaker:payment processor.
Speaker:I'm sure you're familiar with Stripe.
Speaker:So you do have to have a Stripe account to use.
Speaker:Go imagine that takes all two seconds to set up.
Speaker:And for those who don't know Stripe,
Speaker:it's just like Square or PayPal,
Speaker:although I think better.
Speaker:But anyway,
Speaker:we can talk about payment processes another time.
Speaker:Yeah. So it all runs to one dashboard.
Speaker:In terms of templates,
Speaker:yeah, we have for instance our marketplace category.
Speaker:So every product can have its own,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:pick the category it belongs in.
Speaker:But you can create your custom shop categories,
Speaker:which is separate from the marketplace categories.
Speaker:You create the categories that resonate for you on your own
Speaker:website, right?
Speaker:You on your own website for us,
Speaker:you create your own custom banners,
Speaker:your own custom color scheme and all that.
Speaker:But obviously in the marketplace site it'd be go imagines color
Speaker:scheme, right?
Speaker:Because now you're in the marketplace.
Speaker:So when a visitor visits the site,
Speaker:if they're going to your shop.com,
Speaker:it's all your branding.
Speaker:But obviously the Go imagine.com/your
Speaker:shop is all go imagine.
Speaker:But the beauty is,
Speaker:at least from what we're building is that as a sneaker,
Speaker:you're managing it all from one backend.
Speaker:So to your point,
Speaker:this actually kind of wraps up nicely from what you said
Speaker:earlier. You're getting two destinations in one spot.
Speaker:So you're getting your own website and you're on a new
Speaker:marketplace. So a lot of our sellers who do this program,
Speaker:and I'm not trying to get too salesy here,
Speaker:so I apologize,
Speaker:but the,
Speaker:the concept is if you're on Etsy and go imagine with
Speaker:the custom website,
Speaker:you've chosen two platforms,
Speaker:but you have three destinations,
Speaker:right? Because your custom website can be wrapped into it versus
Speaker:having to manage a third.
Speaker:So that's kinda the concept that we're going through with the
Speaker:custom website aspect.
Speaker:Okay, Big reason we did the custom website,
Speaker:and this is where I don't mind talking about our strategy
Speaker:is a lot of handmade marketplaces before us have come and
Speaker:gone, right?
Speaker:There's a graveyard of 'em and,
Speaker:and why did other ones not succeed in Etsy?
Speaker:Did. And I think part of the thing when building a
Speaker:new marketplace,
Speaker:there's something called the chicken or the egg concept,
Speaker:which I'm sure you can guess what that is,
Speaker:but how do you attract buyers if there's no sellers?
Speaker:How do you attract sellers if there's no buyers,
Speaker:right? How do you get to that inflection point where the
Speaker:network effects start happening so more bell buyers brings more sellers,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:Now a lot of sellers and this,
Speaker:this is not just maker specific,
Speaker:but any marketplace they'll join your job as a marketplace is
Speaker:to bring 'em sales.
Speaker:You're brand new,
Speaker:you don't have a lot of buyers.
Speaker:So they join in three months,
Speaker:they cancel,
Speaker:they add no sales.
Speaker:Next buyer seller joins,
Speaker:they don't get sales,
Speaker:they cancel.
Speaker:How do you grow a critical mass of sellers on a
Speaker:platform so that you can start attracting the buyers and get
Speaker:the flywheel effect?
Speaker:This is why we started offering own custom websites because now
Speaker:it's not just about joining us and being on a marketplace
Speaker:for our sales,
Speaker:but the benefit of having your own website that you otherwise
Speaker:would've paid three,
Speaker:four times the price to a Shopify for,
Speaker:but now you're helping get a new handmade marketplace to generate
Speaker:those network effects and grow,
Speaker:right? And I think it's safe to say that the handmade
Speaker:world is longing for another handmade marketplace,
Speaker:I guess is a good way to put it,
Speaker:at least from everywhere I've been in communication with,
Speaker:that they really would love to see another handmade marketplace be
Speaker:successful. But the only way a handmade marketplace is successful is
Speaker:when the community and the makers rally around it.
Speaker:There's no other way,
Speaker:no one's gonna come out of the woodwork with a billion
Speaker:dollars start pouring into marketing without any sellers.
Speaker:And that's just as true with Etsy.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:Etsy grew based on the support of the makers.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:the past CEO Chad Dickerson,
Speaker:he was quoted saying in a shareholder meeting that the reason
Speaker:Etsy grew so fast was because of makers promoting their own
Speaker:shops. That's why Etsy grew.
Speaker:But we've gone into a point where marketplaces are so ubiquitous
Speaker:that sellers expect to,
Speaker:okay, I'm gonna join Etsy and I'll just do nothing and
Speaker:sales will come or I'll join Amazon,
Speaker:I'll do nothing and sales will come.
Speaker:But a new marketplace needs to gain that support from the
Speaker:community to grow.
Speaker:That doesn't mean the marketplace can do nothing.
Speaker:The marketplace has to add value to the sellers.
Speaker:What are they getting for being there?
Speaker:In our case,
Speaker:it's your own website.
Speaker:And then on top of that we can talk about our
Speaker:philanthropic aspect,
Speaker:our shared ownership model,
Speaker:which also is more things we're doing to show the community
Speaker:that this marketplace is being built for the maker community.
Speaker:This is not another venture capitalized company that wants to grow
Speaker:and sell to Wall Street.
Speaker:This is a company that is growing for the needs of
Speaker:the makers and the needs of,
Speaker:in our case children in need to help them.
Speaker:Okay, we have some other questions for you so that when
Speaker:we get off they have enough information to come and really
Speaker:talk with you about it.
Speaker:And philanthropic is also part of that in a second.
Speaker:But walk me through,
Speaker:let's say I've got my shop up now.
Speaker:I've got products there.
Speaker:All the makers on the site are helping gather their communities
Speaker:over to purchase from that site.
Speaker:I have like three questions at once.
Speaker:I don't know which way to go first.
Speaker:Let's go with a customer,
Speaker:buys a product from me.
Speaker:What do I see as a maker to handle the fulfillment
Speaker:of that product?
Speaker:Cuz we've already talked about it's gotta be me,
Speaker:it's not drop shipping.
Speaker:But so how does that happen?
Speaker:I wanted to pause this discussion for a second to let
Speaker:you know that I recognize you may be feeling overwhelmed right
Speaker:now. I mean I bring on great guests who are specialists
Speaker:in their fields and we get into fabulous conversations that you
Speaker:know can help grow your business.
Speaker:So after the show you have the full intention of grabbing
Speaker:a download,
Speaker:making an adjustment on your website or any number of other
Speaker:ideas that arise as a result of this podcast.
Speaker:But what happens,
Speaker:you get back to your other activities and the momentum you
Speaker:once had gets lost.
Speaker:What you've planned to do is forgotten,
Speaker:then you feel bad because your business is going on as
Speaker:usual without implementing anything that you know would help grow your
Speaker:business. We're just too busy doing all the things like a
Speaker:robot moving from one thing to another without thinking because we
Speaker:have to.
Speaker:I get it,
Speaker:I've been there.
Speaker:But guess what?
Speaker:There is another way.
Speaker:Since I recognized this exact behavior in my own business,
Speaker:I set out to do something about it and now what
Speaker:works for me,
Speaker:I'm sharing with you.
Speaker:I formalized the process and it's called the inspired daily planner.
Speaker:Made specifically for gifters,
Speaker:bakers, crafters and makers.
Speaker:But it's not your ordinary planner.
Speaker:First off,
Speaker:it comes with a video explaining my productivity strategy.
Speaker:Plus it's not dated.
Speaker:So you can start using your planner the second it arrives
Speaker:at your doorstep.
Speaker:And that's not all included for each day is a motivational
Speaker:message or business building tip and plenty of space to capture
Speaker:and book in time for to-dos,
Speaker:schedule appointments and all those other ideas that are now getting
Speaker:lost. Think of it as a book and a planner all
Speaker:in one yet compact enough to carry with you and resource
Speaker:as necessary.
Speaker:It's the perfect solution to truly act and move your business
Speaker:forward. Go to gift biz unwrapped.com/inspired
Speaker:to get your hard copy planner along with my power of
Speaker:purpose video that will set you on the path for true
Speaker:business growth.
Speaker:This makes a great gift too.
Speaker:So if you have a biz bestie,
Speaker:pick up a planner for them too.
Speaker:That link again is gift biz unwrapped.com/inspired.
Speaker:Okay, let's get back to the show.
Speaker:Yeah, so in the seller dashboard,
Speaker:which is your backend to manage your shop,
Speaker:you're gonna get an email that says Congratulations,
Speaker:you got a new order.
Speaker:You log into your shop,
Speaker:you're gonna see the order there.
Speaker:We do have integration with Shipo,
Speaker:which is a shipping label product where any orders that come
Speaker:in if you want to use shipo,
Speaker:will create the order in Shipo.
Speaker:So you can go to shipo to print the label for
Speaker:that commercial rate label and without having a duplicate entry,
Speaker:it's all there to print the label.
Speaker:You'll manage all your sales within our dashboard.
Speaker:You can mark them complete,
Speaker:you can mark them,
Speaker:needs more information.
Speaker:You can communicate to the seller through the dashboard.
Speaker:If you have a question go back and forth on the
Speaker:platform. It's very similar to Etsy,
Speaker:I guess in that sense where you know you're gonna manage
Speaker:the shop and any orders that come through.
Speaker:Is there a specific required turnaround time?
Speaker:No. So one of the big things for us with this
Speaker:marketplace is we want to help makers build their business but
Speaker:not tell makers how to run their business.
Speaker:And marketplaces that have gotten to the size of an Amazon
Speaker:or net zero all that,
Speaker:they've really tried to cookie cutter all makers into one path,
Speaker:right? You've gotta turn around X amount of time.
Speaker:Here's your template of shop policies.
Speaker:We have a section for shop policies that we're,
Speaker:you're encouraged to put all your information in on your own
Speaker:return policy,
Speaker:your own cancellation policy,
Speaker:your own turnaround times.
Speaker:We have a shipping timeframe box that right on the top
Speaker:of the product says the timeframe you can expect to get
Speaker:the product from go imagine standpoint.
Speaker:We don't require any specific turnaround time,
Speaker:although we highly encourage providing that information upfront so that buyers
Speaker:are understanding of what they're getting into.
Speaker:Okay. And is it by product?
Speaker:It is,
Speaker:yeah. Shipping timeframes by pro.
Speaker:Yeah. So great for people who offer customization or a product
Speaker:line where different pieces they're made to order and they take
Speaker:different amounts of time.
Speaker:That's also a good point is that we have unlimited options
Speaker:and variations.
Speaker:So you get to create your custom variations so you know,
Speaker:everyone has pick your color,
Speaker:pick your size,
Speaker:pick your necklace,
Speaker:your chain length or whatever else.
Speaker:Our system allows you to create them custom so you can
Speaker:have as many as you need and as custom as you
Speaker:need In terms of those dropdowns,
Speaker:That is huge because I know on Shopify it's challenging for
Speaker:people to be able to put their options with the apps
Speaker:that you add on and you know all of that.
Speaker:Like if there's different color sizes,
Speaker:like all of that gets a little bit challenging.
Speaker:And in some cases,
Speaker:like on Etsy you have to take multiple pictures of a
Speaker:million products if everything's custom to sell.
Speaker:So this sounds like a much more user friendly from someone
Speaker:who offers really one of a kind type products.
Speaker:Am I right here?
Speaker:Am I reading this right?
Speaker:Absolutely. And to that point,
Speaker:this is a lot of the feedback we've gotten from our
Speaker:sellers who are on the platform.
Speaker:They, they love the fact they can create custom dropdowns and
Speaker:feature and variations.
Speaker:Another feature they like about us is we have what are
Speaker:called hidden listings.
Speaker:So if to your point,
Speaker:let's say you're doing a custom work for someone and you
Speaker:wanna send 'em a link to pay for with the pictures
Speaker:of what they bought.
Speaker:It's not listed on the marketplace or your shop,
Speaker:but you have a hidden link that you can share with
Speaker:them. They can pay you and see the pictures of the
Speaker:custom work before you send it Out.
Speaker:Very nice.
Speaker:Yeah. So that's something that a lot of people like.
Speaker:But I think the big thing here is that when you
Speaker:think through what handmade is and what the Shopify's and Wickes
Speaker:of the world built,
Speaker:the Shopify's and Wickes are really built around retail.
Speaker:Shopify's not huge in the handmade space as they are in
Speaker:the retail space.
Speaker:A lot of things are cookie cutter in retail.
Speaker:Handmade is the antithesis of cookie cutter,
Speaker:right? The whole idea of handmade is that it's unique,
Speaker:it's different and especially with custom work.
Speaker:So how we're going about building our platform and we're by
Speaker:no means done,
Speaker:we're always trying to come up with new features based on
Speaker:community input,
Speaker:is that we wanna do things based on the needs of
Speaker:handmade and Shopify and w they're not doing it based that
Speaker:needs handmade cuz handmade is only a small slice of their
Speaker:overall business.
Speaker:So for them it's a lot more cookie cutter.
Speaker:So it's not surprising that,
Speaker:as you mentioned,
Speaker:a lot of times makers need to put a square peg
Speaker:in a round hole when they use an off-the-shelf retail website.
Speaker:Right. Okay.
Speaker:And then what about capturing the purchaser's contact information?
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I'm thinking for ongoing email marketing,
Speaker:that kind of thing.
Speaker:Yeah, that is all flows to you.
Speaker:So we consider,
Speaker:I, we consider the customers that come through our customers meaning
Speaker:both the maker's customers and go imagines customer.
Speaker:So you keep retention of people who are buying off the
Speaker:site so you can market to them and then the individual
Speaker:shop owners also can capture that information for themselves.
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:So you have your customer list and now obviously you also,
Speaker:that comes with your own liability of spam and all that,
Speaker:right? But you keep your own customer list,
Speaker:you can download the customer list,
Speaker:you can take the customers off the list and and market
Speaker:to them.
Speaker:We are gonna be working on a way to more easily
Speaker:maybe have like a mail chip sync or something where you
Speaker:can have your list flow to your choice of email marketing
Speaker:providers. But at this stage,
Speaker:yeah, the customers are in the database for you and you
Speaker:can use them.
Speaker:Beautiful. I was almost a little bit afraid to ask that
Speaker:question. I want up you here.
Speaker:When our invoices go out in our orders,
Speaker:if you go to go imagine right now and you buy
Speaker:something and let's just say you buy something from Sue's res,
Speaker:right? And you buy it and you get a confirmation email,
Speaker:you know who the confirmation email says,
Speaker:Hmm, it's your order from Sue's res,
Speaker:not your order from go Imagine it came for the emails
Speaker:info, go imagine cause we need email,
Speaker:but it's your logo is in the email and in the
Speaker:title is your order from Sues REITs or whatever your shop
Speaker:name is.
Speaker:So that I think that you've got this mentality in,
Speaker:in other marketplaces,
Speaker:where'd you buy that?
Speaker:I got got it off Etsy.
Speaker:Right? Right.
Speaker:And they don't even know who the seller was.
Speaker:Well in our world we really are thinking that from our
Speaker:ethos is it's both of our customers.
Speaker:We want them to know about you and about us,
Speaker:right? So we're not hiding the fact,
Speaker:in fact we're propping up the maker.
Speaker:We think that's actually for us a competitive advantage to really
Speaker:highlight the maker versus what bigger marketplaces Have done.
Speaker:Yeah, well that in combination with the fact that you can
Speaker:have your own domain owned website through you,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and all the other things that you're providing.
Speaker:I agree with you.
Speaker:I mean this is great.
Speaker:Okay, so talk to me more about the philanthropy part because
Speaker:for a maker,
Speaker:we're gonna pay for the services we're gonna pay for product
Speaker:listings. Is it byproduct?
Speaker:Listing byproduct?
Speaker:No. So the way it works is we have a membership
Speaker:fee, a flat membership fee,
Speaker:which includes a number of listings.
Speaker:So for let's say we have a $5 plan for the
Speaker:$5 plan,
Speaker:you can list up to a hundred products.
Speaker:Whoa, that's a lot.
Speaker:Yeah. And for the $10 plan,
Speaker:it's a thousand products.
Speaker:So unlike,
Speaker:well just use Etsy as the example cause everyone knows them.
Speaker:They do a 20 cent listing fee.
Speaker:We have none of that.
Speaker:Ours is just a flat monthly rate that you can plan
Speaker:on. Then we take a small transaction fee like every marketplace.
Speaker:In our case right now it's up to 5%.
Speaker:Our fee is 5% without any other hidden fees other than
Speaker:the Stripe fee.
Speaker:Cause I wanna be transparent,
Speaker:Stripe charges their 2.9%.
Speaker:Well Stripe is coming from Stripe.
Speaker:So everyone understands like that just flows through.
Speaker:You can't do anything about that.
Speaker:And so this is getting to the point that I was
Speaker:trying to understand.
Speaker:So is it 5% or whatever the percentage is 5%,
Speaker:5% to go imagine and then you can call 3% goes
Speaker:to Stripe because,
Speaker:so it's 8% total is what's coming outta your transaction.
Speaker:So 8% And so then a portion of that 5% is
Speaker:what's being donated forward,
Speaker:right? Absolutely,
Speaker:yes. Okay.
Speaker:I was trying to understand where the money came from.
Speaker:That was the charitable portion of the money.
Speaker:So that's important to distinguish.
Speaker:So the whole,
Speaker:as we talked about earlier,
Speaker:the real passion here is to create a philanthropic marketplace,
Speaker:right? We're doing it in handmade,
Speaker:we're doing it with the support of the maker community.
Speaker:But the idea is to continue to grow this.
Speaker:And the bigger we get,
Speaker:the more we get to donate.
Speaker:Now we've been donating from day one,
Speaker:even when we were operating at a loss,
Speaker:right? So we've donated,
Speaker:I wanna say $20,000
Speaker:to four different charities so far,
Speaker:which I mean it's tough when you're a startup,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I'd love to say it was a million dollars,
Speaker:but so far we've donated $20,000.
Speaker:It's gonna get there.
Speaker:It's just not yet.
Speaker:So with the supports,
Speaker:we've donate about $20,000
Speaker:to the four charities that you can see listed on our
Speaker:site. You can go to that site and see the charity
Speaker:partners. We can talk about 'em.
Speaker:Now the goal,
Speaker:our real goal is to,
Speaker:as we grow in the donations grow with it,
Speaker:is that our maker community can help us guide where those
Speaker:donations go so that eventually the vendors will have input.
Speaker:At this point,
Speaker:it hasn't been enough money to wanna like have a big
Speaker:vote or anything on where the money goes.
Speaker:So we just let people know where we're donating it.
Speaker:But I see a path where the makers get a part
Speaker:of the decision and that goes into where we're giving the
Speaker:ownership to the makers to start getting them involved on those
Speaker:decisions. So we run a similar model as Newman's own.
Speaker:I use a lot because a lot of people know Newman's
Speaker:own, they've been around 40 years and they've done the same
Speaker:thing that we're doing but with salad dressing,
Speaker:right? And Patagonia just last year,
Speaker:which is exciting for us,
Speaker:changed their business model into an all profits to charity model
Speaker:as, and that's,
Speaker:you can look up as Patagonia's doing something similar now too.
Speaker:And I truly believe that this is the future of where
Speaker:you can create what we call a caring economy.
Speaker:But you can also use the word conscious capitalism.
Speaker:There's conscious capitalism and then there's predatory capitalism.
Speaker:And capitalism I think is a wonderful thing.
Speaker:I mean it's,
Speaker:it's the re it's the foundation of our country.
Speaker:But runaway capitalism can also do a lot of bad things
Speaker:in the world due to greed,
Speaker:right? And so this model is a model that I believe
Speaker:can support the employees at the company,
Speaker:support the maker selling and do good in the world with
Speaker:the money you're making.
Speaker:Right? And you know,
Speaker:I know it's a a lofty goal but beyond all the
Speaker:other stuff we talked about the marketplace,
Speaker:this is really where I think the handmade community with us
Speaker:has an opportunity to show the world.
Speaker:There's a better way to say there is a better way.
Speaker:Cuz just like I mentioned earlier,
Speaker:marketplaces are nothing more than a community.
Speaker:The buyer goes to Etsy is cuz they know the handmade
Speaker:sellers there.
Speaker:The reason the seller sells on that sea,
Speaker:cuz they know the handmade buyers there.
Speaker:It has nothing to do with Etsy,
Speaker:has nothing to do with Amazon.
Speaker:You don't care what the site was called.
Speaker:Just that you know,
Speaker:they're there.
Speaker:And if the community in the world rallies around a concept
Speaker:like this,
Speaker:there's that vision of it's the same maker,
Speaker:it's the same price,
Speaker:it's the same product,
Speaker:everything's the same.
Speaker:What's different?
Speaker:Children are getting helped.
Speaker:That's the only difference.
Speaker:And who doesn't want that?
Speaker:Yeah. So John,
Speaker:this is now passed,
Speaker:we're a little bit late for this,
Speaker:but I created a nationally recognized day for Makers.
Speaker:It's called National Baker's Crafters Makers Day on January 21st.
Speaker:So it's just passed.
Speaker:But for the episode I have two episodes that were recognizing
Speaker:and honoring makers.
Speaker:And in one of them I put out a questionnaire to
Speaker:Makers about what value they gave their customers and what value
Speaker:their businesses gave them and everything.
Speaker:The, a whole umbrella was giving and caring and spreading joy
Speaker:to the world,
Speaker:right? And we've also done some podcasts and I,
Speaker:this is leading to a point,
Speaker:we've done some podcasts from people who have started their business
Speaker:also with a give back element.
Speaker:And most of the time it's a give back element because
Speaker:it's something that the maker has experienced personally,
Speaker:right? Illness.
Speaker:Yep. Whatever it is.
Speaker:And I know that there are a lot of makers who
Speaker:would like to do that but have no idea,
Speaker:number one,
Speaker:how to set it up from a tax standpoint.
Speaker:Some people will say,
Speaker:oh, a certain percentage of a couple products is gonna go
Speaker:to maybe their local fire station or some type of a
Speaker:project. But I'm seeing this also as an opportunity for makers
Speaker:to join something bigger than just themselves.
Speaker:They don't have to do anything to also help promote the
Speaker:fact that sales from their products through go imagined go to
Speaker:your Groups,
Speaker:right? Absolutely.
Speaker:Yeah. That's the whole idea was the idea is like we're
Speaker:not asking anyone to do something different.
Speaker:Sometimes Makers will contact us or find us and say,
Speaker:wait, so I donate my money?
Speaker:Like no,
Speaker:you're donating nothing.
Speaker:In fact our makers are making more money cause we take
Speaker:less of a transaction fee.
Speaker:It's that we're doing the donating through the business model.
Speaker:And have you ever heard the term arising tide floats all
Speaker:boats? Oh of course.
Speaker:Yes. Right.
Speaker:And that's kind of how I envision every marketplace.
Speaker:And up until now the internet has been a new thing
Speaker:and marketplaces came around,
Speaker:what probably the two thousands was when they really started to
Speaker:blow up and where money greed follows,
Speaker:right? And where greed goes,
Speaker:so does like,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:wall Street and we don't want to get into that.
Speaker:I mean like I have no real negative input other than
Speaker:the fact that we could do good in the world.
Speaker:But the point is,
Speaker:is that we're now in a more mature internet.
Speaker:We're in a mature online environment where now we see how
Speaker:the public world and society is getting built online and naturally
Speaker:corporations were the first to get there cuz there was money
Speaker:and all the other people who weren't trying to rush to
Speaker:the money are kind of seeing the effects later.
Speaker:It's now 10 years later,
Speaker:corporations got there 15 years ago and everyone's going,
Speaker:holy crap everyone,
Speaker:it's all corporations that own the world.
Speaker:And I wrote a blog about this,
Speaker:but if you look at what a marketplace is,
Speaker:and I'm not talking online,
Speaker:I'm talking about a real world marketplace,
Speaker:physical marketplace,
Speaker:maybe in your town square once in a while at your
Speaker:town football field or they put it on in the town
Speaker:common. It was a public space,
Speaker:it was a space for everyone going.
Speaker:If you paid for the booth,
Speaker:it was actually going to the town that owned that land
Speaker:and it was to help build the road,
Speaker:right? Marketplaces,
Speaker:if you look at other huge marketplaces on one I love
Speaker:is in Seattle Pike's Market.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:if you look at the Grand Bazaar in the Middle East,
Speaker:these were built as public goods for everyone to come and
Speaker:sell their wares.
Speaker:But the internet has slowly become owned by private companies and
Speaker:now all these private companies are owning the marketplaces.
Speaker:And sadly a lot of the physical marketplaces are dying because
Speaker:everyone shop online.
Speaker:And I know I'm going on a tangent here,
Speaker:but the whole vision is these marketplaces should be public.
Speaker:Why do you have to pay a private corporation to get
Speaker:seen by the public to sell?
Speaker:And so the whole concept here is let's build a better
Speaker:foundation for marketplaces.
Speaker:And the best way I could think to do it was
Speaker:philanthropically the government's not gonna open an online marketplace right now.
Speaker:Your town would've,
Speaker:your towns,
Speaker:towns do,
Speaker:but towns don't open online companies.
Speaker:So gosh,
Speaker:it's just,
Speaker:in my mind I'm like,
Speaker:it's such a simple concept that can have such profound effects
Speaker:if people come together.
Speaker:And I love what you were just saying about your January
Speaker:21st event about how many makers want to give back,
Speaker:how many,
Speaker:and that's part of the reason I thought handmade was such
Speaker:a great place to go is cuz artists have such a
Speaker:big heart,
Speaker:right? And so as we grow the company,
Speaker:the reason we are actually giving ownership to the makers,
Speaker:and as I mentioned to you in that I think intro
Speaker:I sent you is we're giving them board seats to sit
Speaker:on the board is cause we want the makers to be
Speaker:involved in the decisions,
Speaker:right? And,
Speaker:and who knows where that's gonna go?
Speaker:I don't even know yet.
Speaker:Because you're saying,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:makers want to give to their fire department or their,
Speaker:their local homeless shelter,
Speaker:whatever. And maybe our community decides that we'll work towards a
Speaker:path where instead of go,
Speaker:imagine doing a charity,
Speaker:you get to pick the charity of your choice and a
Speaker:percentage of the sales that we would donate go to that
Speaker:charity you're choosing,
Speaker:right? I dunno there's an option Or a split,
Speaker:like some support the charities that you've already designated,
Speaker:but another could support a local charity.
Speaker:You could do like a combination too.
Speaker:Yes. But this is a decision for the community.
Speaker:And I'm not sure if you,
Speaker:did you see that Amazon Smile is ending?
Speaker:Yeah, I did see that.
Speaker:Yeah. So,
Speaker:but why is that?
Speaker:And I read a whole article about it.
Speaker:It's because,
Speaker:well, they did it for a while,
Speaker:but you know,
Speaker:times are tough.
Speaker:They're laying off people.
Speaker:The first thing that matters is their bottom line,
Speaker:not the charities.
Speaker:And, and that's the wrong way of thinking.
Speaker:Cuz if anything,
Speaker:the people who need the money more now are the charities.
Speaker:Right, Right.
Speaker:Well, you know,
Speaker:there's another angle here that was coming to my mind as
Speaker:you were talking,
Speaker:and that is one of the pain points of a lot
Speaker:of makers is the price of the product.
Speaker:Because it is,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you're gonna buy a soap between handmade soap,
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:5 50,
Speaker:7 50,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:depending on size and ingredients and all of that.
Speaker:Or you could buy Dove at the grocery store for a
Speaker:dollar 50,
Speaker:like whatever.
Speaker:I have not shopped soap for a long time except for
Speaker:handmade. So I don't know what the grocery store prices of
Speaker:far, but when people are out at craft shows,
Speaker:I know that there is feedback about how high priced handmade
Speaker:is. And then they of course have to go into the
Speaker:value of the product and what you're getting and how it's
Speaker:different, et cetera.
Speaker:Right. But if there's an element of give back,
Speaker:people are way more willing to pay more for a product.
Speaker:They're getting the product,
Speaker:they're doing something good for somebody else just by obtaining that
Speaker:product. So I can see this overlay being significant also and
Speaker:helping makers sell their products at the prices that they deserve.
Speaker:By the way,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:when you're taking into account everything that goes into a price,
Speaker:so it could help prompt sales as well with that overlay.
Speaker:Absolutely. In fact,
Speaker:that's where both on the seller side and the buyer side
Speaker:can go Imagine standpoint is we are a mission-driven business.
Speaker:And some people,
Speaker:mission doesn't matter,
Speaker:but there's a whole heck of a lot of people where
Speaker:Mission does.
Speaker:Yeah. Right?
Speaker:And that's why they buy the Tom's shoes.
Speaker:They buy the Bombas socks or anything else.
Speaker:It's cause of the mission or the Newman's.
Speaker:The Newman's own salad dressing.
Speaker:It's cause they know not,
Speaker:oh, maybe it's 25 cents more.
Speaker:Maybe it's 50 cents more.
Speaker:But they also know they're supporting a company doing good.
Speaker:And as we grow and the community grows,
Speaker:more people get to know about this mission.
Speaker:And mind you,
Speaker:from a tech standpoint,
Speaker:it's just not just just about the community growing,
Speaker:but we're investing more and more in development.
Speaker:So the platform is gonna get better in like as a
Speaker:startup, there's things that if you joined us right now,
Speaker:you'd say,
Speaker:I wish I did this.
Speaker:I wish I did that.
Speaker:Well, trust me,
Speaker:we're working on that.
Speaker:Well stay tuned and we can all relate.
Speaker:Right? Like when all of us started our businesses and we've
Speaker:been in business for a while,
Speaker:it didn't look like it does today on day one.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it's a development.
Speaker:It's a course.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Yeah. So,
Speaker:all right.
Speaker:Well I'm looking at the time here and I think we
Speaker:should start to wrap up You all day though,
Speaker:Sue. I know we could,
Speaker:but then we won't get to all of the rest that
Speaker:everybody's going to need to know.
Speaker:So kind of summarize for someone who's listening,
Speaker:who's we've peaked their interest here.
Speaker:Summarize what the value is of Go Imagine,
Speaker:and then where they should go to learn more,
Speaker:find out more.
Speaker:Or if maybe they're even ready to get started.
Speaker:Where do all those channels lead?
Speaker:Yeah. So first thing I'd say is go imagines a community
Speaker:of makers working together to do good in the world.
Speaker:That's kind of like what we are now,
Speaker:what value we bring to the makers.
Speaker:We mentioned that there's your PRI option to have a private
Speaker:website. We of course,
Speaker:are building a marketplace with more and more buyers who are
Speaker:coming to the marketplace to find your goods.
Speaker:And we also have a growing community for you to get
Speaker:to know other makers that are working the same direction you
Speaker:are. You can find out more about us.
Speaker:Go to Go imagine.com.
Speaker:That's where you have to go.
Speaker:If you scroll to the bottom,
Speaker:you'll see a lot of information under the sale section where
Speaker:you can see how to open a shop,
Speaker:see our handmade guidelines.
Speaker:Everything else I guess I will mention,
Speaker:which I don't have to mention.
Speaker:But yeah,
Speaker:we're all handmade.
Speaker:We're all in on handmade.
Speaker:That's who we are.
Speaker:And the big thing we're doing right now,
Speaker:we just had our first meeting last month with the community,
Speaker:is that we're actually in the process of giving ownership to
Speaker:our handmade community,
Speaker:which is,
Speaker:we talked come with voting rights and board representation because we
Speaker:want the handmade community to have a hand,
Speaker:no pun intended,
Speaker:in building this company.
Speaker:And that comes from a foundational level of having a seat
Speaker:on the board and having voting rights and having involvement in
Speaker:the decisions we make.
Speaker:If you tune in,
Speaker:if you go to our Go Imagine Facebook group,
Speaker:you're gonna get a lot of these announcements.
Speaker:We're going live on that group a lot.
Speaker:Talk about this stuff.
Speaker:So if you wanna just hear what's going on,
Speaker:join our Facebook group or join our email list and stay
Speaker:in touch.
Speaker:I hope you join our Caring Economy.
Speaker:Oh, I love that.
Speaker:And everything is Go Imagine,
Speaker:right? Go imagine.
Speaker:Yeah. We do have an app called Maker Circle,
Speaker:which is our community app,
Speaker:which is a social app you'll see on Go Imagine.
Speaker:But that's member only.
Speaker:So you have to become a member,
Speaker:get into that community.
Speaker:But that's the app.
Speaker:It's called Maker Service.
Speaker:Okay. But in terms of any social or their website,
Speaker:it's all go Imagine.
Speaker:Yes. There are a bunch of Go Imagine Facebook groups now.
Speaker:Cause some,
Speaker:some of our members had it.
Speaker:There's one called the Go Imagine Official Makers Group that's ours.
Speaker:But I think there's like 10 different Goma because it's a
Speaker:hundred Etsy groups out there now too.
Speaker:So you don't see a lot of us.
Speaker:We love people supporting it.
Speaker:So we don't stop people from creating their own custom Go
Speaker:Imagine groups,
Speaker:but look for the Official Makers Group is what it's called
Speaker:it. Well,
Speaker:I'm really excited to watch how this develops.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:there's no question in my mind that it's going to be
Speaker:a success and the fact that you're already taking actions that
Speaker:are proving what you say.
Speaker:It's not like,
Speaker:well, we're gonna do this,
Speaker:we're gonna do this.
Speaker:You're already giving back,
Speaker:you're already attracting people,
Speaker:you're already listening to the community and it's just gonna grow
Speaker:from here.
Speaker:I'm very excited about Go Imagine and everything that it can
Speaker:offer. Well,
Speaker:I'm very excited that you're excited,
Speaker:Sue. I'm,
Speaker:I'm glad that you invited me here.
Speaker:I appreciate It.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Well, thank you so much for coming on today and telling
Speaker:us all about Go Imagine.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:I absolutely love everything Go Imagine offers.
Speaker:And what's fabulous already I know is going to get better
Speaker:and better.
Speaker:When owners offer you voting rights and board representation,
Speaker:that's the sign that they truly want your input to make
Speaker:the company the best that it can be for you.
Speaker:It's got my vote.
Speaker:I wanna make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook group
Speaker:called Gift Miss Breeze.
Speaker:It's a place where we all gather and our community to
Speaker:support each other.
Speaker:I got a really fun post in there that's my favorite
Speaker:of the week,
Speaker:I have to say,
Speaker:where I invite all of you to share what you're doing
Speaker:to show pictures of your product,
Speaker:to show what you're working on for the week,
Speaker:to get reaction from other people.
Speaker:And just for fun,
Speaker:because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody
Speaker:in the community is making.
Speaker:My favorite post every single week.
Speaker:Without doubt.
Speaker:Wait, what?
Speaker:Aren't you part of the group already?
Speaker:If not,
Speaker:make sure to jump over to Facebook and search for the
Speaker:group Gift Biz Breeze.
Speaker:Don't delay.
