Shownotes
BUSINESS BUILDING INSIGHTS
- Always charge for your product - even when starting out. We're not working for free!
- Use social media to increase your visibility. Hashtags are like little search engines. You want your business to come up when people search for certain words.
- It's important to quantify your time. The time you spend making your products comes with a price to your customer.
- Be a people person and find business opportunities through your network and personal contacts.
- It’s important to have a beautiful and visual website or social media account because people buy with their eyes.
- Connect with your followers or potential customers through Stories in Instagram.
- Focus on perfecting a few things first before adding new products in your store.
- Teaching your craft may be a revenue generator for your business. Don't be afraid to share forward what you know.
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Gift biz unwrapped episode 255 So I was on Facebook and
Speaker:I saw these beautiful desserts and I'm like,
Speaker:Oh, they look pretty cute.
Speaker:I think I can maybe do something like that.
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 to 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,
Speaker:Sue moon Heights.
Speaker:Hi there,
Speaker:it's Sue And I'm so happy to have you here with
Speaker:me today.
Speaker:I'm going to start off with a quick announcement if you're
Speaker:in or around the Chicago and Wisconsin area.
Speaker:I want to make sure that you're aware of the Lakeside
Speaker:women's conference happening in Lake Geneva the second week of March.
Speaker:If you want to take in solid business building information while
Speaker:meeting other women who get you and understand your struggles and
Speaker:drive, you'll love this event.
Speaker:Actually you don't even have to be driving distance at all.
Speaker:Last year we had women flying in from all over,
Speaker:including the speakers in addition to myself,
Speaker:Nikki Rousch,
Speaker:Abby Herman,
Speaker:Bobby Baney,
Speaker:who are all past podcast guests here.
Speaker:We'll be there and you can meet and learn from us
Speaker:in person.
Speaker:Robyn puts on the most amazing event.
Speaker:It's in a beautiful lodge,
Speaker:but most important,
Speaker:the group of women she attracts provides for a safe,
Speaker:open and supportive environment and Lake Geneva is an adorable tourist
Speaker:area, too.
Speaker:Full of cute shops and the best restaurants for all the
Speaker:details. Go to women's business workshop and look under events.
Speaker:You can use the code Sue 100 to get a hundred
Speaker:dollars off your ticket.
Speaker:Let me know if I'm going to see you there.
Speaker:And now speaking of girl power and energy,
Speaker:that is what my guest this week is all about.
Speaker:I tell the story of how we met in the interview
Speaker:so I won't go into it here,
Speaker:but this lady I'd hang out with any day.
Speaker:What I want you to listen to throughout our talk is
Speaker:specifically how the business got started and then evolved.
Speaker:It didn't begin as it is now.
Speaker:There were learnings,
Speaker:adjustments and revisions to make things work and fit into Dee's
Speaker:life. She took it step by step,
Speaker:saw what was working for her,
Speaker:made adjustments and is now added a brand new stream of
Speaker:income as her skills and industry knowledge grows.
Speaker:This show is full of all types of goodness.
Speaker:Let's get right to it,
Speaker:shall we today I am so excited to introduce you to
Speaker:Dierdre Drakes of eight to three treats Dierdre known to her
Speaker:friends as D is a true Southern girl born and raised
Speaker:in the small town of Enfield,
Speaker:North Carolina.
Speaker:In 2005 she settled in Charlotte and has since made it
Speaker:her home.
Speaker:She's a self-taught chocolate based treat maker,
Speaker:proud army wife and mom of two.
Speaker:These custom design edible creations have a long record of precise
Speaker:execution for large companies and customers alike.
Speaker:Her who's who list includes NBA players,
Speaker:NFL players,
Speaker:government officials and celebrities.
Speaker:Her highly sought after domestic and international classes where she graciously
Speaker:teaches her techniques,
Speaker:sell out at the 350 and up price point,
Speaker:making her not only a gifted treat maker,
Speaker:but a respected teacher.
Speaker:Her work has been featured in VH1,
Speaker:Bravo, Fox 46 and has been published in a national magazine.
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:Dee, welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:Oh, thank you so much.
Speaker:I'm so excited to speak with you.
Speaker:Me too.
Speaker:I met you at the ultimate sugar show and I saw
Speaker:you in a room.
Speaker:He had that fun little competitions,
Speaker:one of those first nights and you were so bubbly and
Speaker:so energetic.
Speaker:And I am like,
Speaker:who is that girl I need to know is crazy girl
Speaker:in the corner.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:You just attract people like a magnet just because of your
Speaker:passion. There's no question about that.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:So over and above our intro,
Speaker:I like to have you share who you are in a
Speaker:little bit of a creative way and that is through a
Speaker:motivational candle.
Speaker:So if you were to tell everybody and describe a candle
Speaker:that really resonates with you,
Speaker:D, what would the color be and what would be a
Speaker:quote or a motto that would be on your motivational candle?
Speaker:Ooh, I like this question.
Speaker:I would really have to say that if I had to
Speaker:choose the color,
Speaker:the color would definitely be white.
Speaker:I just think it goes with Amy aesthetic and a white
Speaker:candle just brings purity to the room and also if there's
Speaker:any blemishes it shows and I'm okay with that.
Speaker:Like I'm an open book.
Speaker:My motivational quote would definitely have to be my favorite Bible
Speaker:verse, which is Proverbs three five and six.
Speaker:Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not
Speaker:land on your own understanding in all your ways.
Speaker:Acknowledge him and he will make your path straight and that's
Speaker:just because I'm blindly doing all of this through the faith
Speaker:and will of God.
Speaker:I couldn't do it without him.
Speaker:I love that you are going to have to go back
Speaker:and listen.
Speaker:If you haven't already to one of my podcast,
Speaker:which is just a couple weeks back with good measures because
Speaker:he had an experience there that I think you'll really be
Speaker:interested. It totally blends in with what you're talking about with
Speaker:your Bible verses.
Speaker:So you'll have to do that.
Speaker:You might've heard it already.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Definitely. We'll make sure I relisten if I have already.
Speaker:Okay. And you know,
Speaker:I really like your explanation of the white candle.
Speaker:At first I thought you were going to say,
Speaker:cause that's like a nice clean palette on which I can
Speaker:design all whatever.
Speaker:I'm going to design my beautiful cakes.
Speaker:But what I really liked is where you said,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:if there's blemishes that's okay.
Speaker:And that to me,
Speaker:not knowing you a whole lot,
Speaker:right? Because I'm going to find all about out about you
Speaker:right now.
Speaker:But that's why you can just be so free and fun
Speaker:because you're just going to be who you are.
Speaker:You're not worried about what other people are thinking.
Speaker:Exactly. So take us back.
Speaker:Have you been baking and enjoying making cakes all your life?
Speaker:Or where did that start?
Speaker:No, actually I just stumbled into this industry and I have
Speaker:loved it.
Speaker:I started out as an event planner.
Speaker:I did weddings and parties.
Speaker:My last event was I was seven and a half months
Speaker:pregnant in heels,
Speaker:moving tables and she,
Speaker:because I do not know how to sit still,
Speaker:that I have seen,
Speaker:as you have seen,
Speaker:I can not sit still.
Speaker:So after this wedding,
Speaker:my husband and I just had a conversation about how taxing
Speaker:that industry is with me going into becoming a first time
Speaker:mom and I decided to just step back.
Speaker:Well, as we all know,
Speaker:being a new mom is an amazing experience on its own.
Speaker:But as a creative,
Speaker:being a new mom and that first month it was extremely
Speaker:boring. I like,
Speaker:I love my baby,
Speaker:don't get me wrong.
Speaker:He's the best thing ever.
Speaker:He's the cutest thing.
Speaker:But it was periods where he was just doing nothing but
Speaker:sleeping. And I as a creative was going crazy.
Speaker:So I was on Facebook and I saw these beautiful desserts
Speaker:and I'm like,
Speaker:Oh, they look pretty cute.
Speaker:I think I can maybe do something like that.
Speaker:And I just blindly went out and got some supplies and
Speaker:I made a candy Apple and it was delicious and I
Speaker:was like,
Speaker:okay, this is not going to be good for me because
Speaker:I am a sweet tooth person.
Speaker:But I did it.
Speaker:It was great and my friends loved it.
Speaker:However, the medium of like heart candy was not really suitable
Speaker:for me as a new mom because I don't know if
Speaker:you have,
Speaker:but I know maybe some of your listeners have known that
Speaker:once the candy reaches the breaking point,
Speaker:there is no coming back from that.
Speaker:And I found myself wasting a lot of product because my
Speaker:newborn son of course took priority over me looking at the
Speaker:thermometer, making sure my candy is at the right temperature.
Speaker:So I stopped taking candy apples and I came across the
Speaker:medium of chocolate and I fell in love because it was
Speaker:so forgiven.
Speaker:If I had to step away and attend to my child
Speaker:or do anything and the chocolate came back into a heart
Speaker:state, I could simply remelt it.
Speaker:So I asked one of my friends if I could make
Speaker:some chocolate covered Oreos for this event that they had coming
Speaker:up and Sue.
Speaker:I had never made one ever.
Speaker:I just was like,
Speaker:I think I can do it.
Speaker:Okay, I'm going to try it,
Speaker:and I'm so glad it worked out because I would have
Speaker:hated to not come through for this event for her,
Speaker:but as soon as I did it,
Speaker:I fell in love and it has just wit above what
Speaker:I thought coming into this,
Speaker:it would do Well.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I love how your explanation was with the candy first and
Speaker:how it morphed into something that fits your lifestyle because if
Speaker:you were to decided candy,
Speaker:you probably would have stopped by now because it just wasn't
Speaker:a mix for you at that point.
Speaker:Exactly, exactly.
Speaker:Yeah. All right,
Speaker:so you just blindly stepped out and said,
Speaker:okay, I'm going to do these chocolate covered Oreos.
Speaker:You ended up seeing success and isn't it great when people
Speaker:come back and say,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:they're so good.
Speaker:You did such a good job that just fuels you to
Speaker:keep going.
Speaker:It made me feel so good.
Speaker:I felt like I had won a trophy.
So what happened after that?
Speaker:So you had that one event and it went really well.
Speaker:Then what happened After that?
Speaker:And I saw that,
Speaker:Hey, this is something that I can do.
Speaker:I just started buying supplies like we always do.
Speaker:I had to cut myself off at some point,
Speaker:but I just started like thinking of ideas and practicing more.
Speaker:I honestly did.
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:okay, if I did it great without practice,
Speaker:let me try to invest some time in really figuring this
Speaker:thing out.
Speaker:And I just fell in love and it kept motivating me
Speaker:because I loved what I was doing.
Speaker:So were you considering it still a hobby at that point?
Speaker:I was.
Speaker:It was just something because I was planning on returning back
Speaker:to the corporate world a little after having my son and
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:okay, well this will just get me through to keep my
Speaker:creative side because you know,
Speaker:we can never lose that.
Speaker:And I wound up becoming a stay at home mom and
Speaker:I continued to get more requests and it became a legitimate
Speaker:business for me.
Speaker:So you started buying supplies because let's face it,
Speaker:if we have a passion as a hobby,
Speaker:we're still going to buy all the things,
Speaker:all of them.
Speaker:Yeah, maybe not in the big sizes that you need,
Speaker:you know if you're baking or designing in mass,
Speaker:right. But you got to have all the fancy tools and
Speaker:start perfecting your skills and you know all of that.
Speaker:At what point was it that you consciously said,
Speaker:all right,
Speaker:officially this is going to turn into a business.
Speaker:I think it was when I was getting requests more frequently
Speaker:and I had to kind of plan out my day and
Speaker:my time and my week that I was like,
Speaker:okay, this can really work out for me and bring in
Speaker:additional income for my family,
Speaker:can replace my event planning business.
Speaker:So once I've got the customers coming in,
Speaker:well even the requests,
Speaker:because let's face it,
Speaker:every person that requests doesn't become a customer.
Speaker:But I was just so intrigued and so motivated by the
Speaker:request that it made me focus on,
Speaker:let me make this into a passion turn business.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:Okay. Two questions for you.
Speaker:What do you mean?
Speaker:Every request doesn't turn into a customer?
Speaker:What does that mean?
Speaker:Well, every person that contacts you,
Speaker:they will not always buy.
Speaker:Oh, gotcha.
Speaker:So they're calling and inquiring and they may order.
Speaker:They may not.
Speaker:Yes. But I'm still very appreciative of the consideration because that
Speaker:lets me know that people are thinking about my product.
Speaker:Yeah. And they might the next time,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it might not be a fit for what they need.
Speaker:Right. At that point.
Speaker:Yes, exactly.
Speaker:And then at what point did you start charging?
Speaker:I started charging.
Speaker:Honestly, after that first ordered I did for my friend,
Speaker:it wasn't necessarily the amount that probably was a profit,
Speaker:but because I came from a business and I transitioned into
Speaker:another one,
Speaker:I knew the benefit of me not doing it for free
Speaker:at that point.
Speaker:But let's talk about my event planning business now.
Speaker:That was a lot of stuff done for free,
Speaker:but with this one I just came in after my first
Speaker:one. I kind of said,
Speaker:okay well I'm going to charge this amount and it was
Speaker:totally pennies.
Speaker:I think I was probably paying and then the order from
Speaker:me, but at least they had an idea of value on
Speaker:my business and this.
Speaker:Right, and then you just increased your prices as you went.
Speaker:Yes. You know,
Speaker:I always am teaching people that right from the get go
Speaker:you want to be charging a price where you're going to
Speaker:make at least some type of a profit cause you're not
Speaker:in the charity business.
Speaker:Right, exactly.
Speaker:Let's face it,
Speaker:a lot of people don't know,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:if they've not been in business before,
Speaker:they don't know.
Speaker:I'm like thrilled.
Speaker:Just to know that someone's even charging and then they can
Speaker:learn what the right price is down the road.
Speaker:Yes. But as you started raising your prices to what you
Speaker:felt was,
Speaker:let's just start with the proper price because now I am
Speaker:quite sure you're much higher price because of your skill level
Speaker:and your reputation and all of that,
Speaker:but did you see any trouble in increasing your prices to
Speaker:customers who had purchased from you before Thing?
Speaker:Whenever you make an increase in price on my site,
Speaker:there's like sort of a guilt in the beginning.
Speaker:Oh, guilt.
Speaker:Yeah, and I take that especially from a repeat customer because
Speaker:I feel they are used to a certain price and when
Speaker:they come back with a new price,
Speaker:me being the kindhearted person I am is kind of like,
Speaker:Oh my goodness,
Speaker:I put myself in a personal aspect instead of a business
Speaker:aspect. So I don't relay that to my customer,
Speaker:but I do,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we all like,
Speaker:Ooh, are people going to perceive this price?
Speaker:Are they still going to buy?
Speaker:But it's a necessity.
Speaker:We have to do that.
Speaker:Because like you said,
Speaker:we're not working for free.
Speaker:I have bills,
Speaker:I have kids,
Speaker:this is my livelihood.
Speaker:Well, and you only have so much time unless you're going
Speaker:to hire on other people.
Speaker:You only have so much time to make whatever it is
Speaker:they've ordered,
Speaker:so you can't get five orders and do them all in
Speaker:the same amount of time.
Speaker:You only can do however the production goes.
Speaker:You know what I can get in at,
Speaker:but you have to be able to command a price that's
Speaker:going to make you money or you're just going go out
Speaker:of business.
Speaker:Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker:Or I'm going to not pay a bill and that's not
Speaker:going to happen.
Speaker:That's not happening.
Speaker:No. No.
Speaker:Okay. As we're just starting to talk and still in the
Speaker:intro time now,
Speaker:you'd like of the introduction of your business being created,
Speaker:how did you land upon your name?
Speaker:I love explaining my name.
Speaker:Oh, good.
Speaker:Good question.
Speaker:Yay. Yes.
Speaker:So my name originally was August,
Speaker:2030 events in trees and I created the handle eight to
Speaker:three treats just because I'm like,
Speaker:no one's going to want to type out the full thing.
Speaker:August 23rd is my wedding day.
Speaker:That is the day I married my husband.
Speaker:Yeah. And when I was first thinking about business names,
Speaker:that was the first thing that came to mind because it
Speaker:was such an important day in my life.
Speaker:My husband and I have been together since I was 14
Speaker:so he's like my life partner.
Speaker:I love him dearly and I don't want to cry.
Speaker:I really love that guy.
Speaker:And now all the world has heard.
Speaker:Isn't that fun?
Speaker:All the world knows my love for him.
Speaker:Um, so that has just been my business name.
Speaker:It's shortened to eight to three treats.
Speaker:And I always tell my husband like,
Speaker:you can never leave me because I'm never changing my name
Speaker:and my business name.
Speaker:You go,
Speaker:well he sounds like he's a huge supporter of what you're
Speaker:doing. He does.
Speaker:He does support me very well.
Speaker:I mean sometimes to tell me to move my stuff out
Speaker:of his way.
Speaker:But other than that,
Speaker:he's very well.
Speaker:Well that's okay.
Speaker:I mean you can't be too perfect.
Speaker:Right? How did the business progress in terms of orders and
Speaker:size? And you've gotten to a point where you have some
Speaker:pretty prestigious customers.
Speaker:And one of the things that I always find Dee,
Speaker:that people are asking all the time is how do I
Speaker:get more business and how do I get the customers that
Speaker:I need the right customers who will pay the price that
Speaker:I'm requiring because of my skill level?
Speaker:So I'm curious how you started to build your customer base.
Speaker:Well, it did help me that I came from an event
Speaker:fields. So in my industry I kind of knew what the
Speaker:buyer was expecting from an event treat.
Speaker:Also I utilize social media for what is worth for business.
Speaker:I mean I've put hashtags,
Speaker:I've found out how many hashtags can I put on a
Speaker:post and I maximize that.
Speaker:And I started just trying out different things with those hashtags
Speaker:because hashtags are little search engines and when people search for
Speaker:word, I want my business to come up.
Speaker:So those are some of the things I did.
Speaker:Just knowing like researching the industry that I'm in,
Speaker:staying true to who I am because sometimes people find a
Speaker:value in you being true to who you are as in,
Speaker:Hey, this is my price.
Speaker:I really appreciate you respect in that.
Speaker:If I'm not currently in your budget,
Speaker:that's fine.
Speaker:I will love to buy a $5 million house right now,
Speaker:but that's not in my budget and we're with that.
Speaker:So Those are some of the things that I did too.
Speaker:Do you stay true to that?
Speaker:Right? I mean your prices or your prices?
Speaker:That is correct.
Speaker:My prices on my prices,
Speaker:especially in this industry,
Speaker:any creative industry,
Speaker:you have to quantify your time because we spend a lot
Speaker:of hours on these crafts or cakes and things of that
Speaker:nature and that's valuable For sure.
Speaker:So many people don't account for their time and then you're
Speaker:still almost doing it for free because your time,
Speaker:let's face it,
Speaker:you also need time just for yourself.
Speaker:So anytime you're producing or you're working on your business in
Speaker:any way is time being taken away from something else you
Speaker:could be doing.
Speaker:So it should be paid for,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and the way it's going to be paid for is in
Speaker:the price of your product that you're selling.
Speaker:That is correct.
Speaker:And I have a son who's four and a daughter.
Speaker:She's one,
Speaker:but her name is Corey,
Speaker:like my husband.
Speaker:So it's okay.
Speaker:Unisex names That works.
Speaker:The other thing I want to point out,
Speaker:and this is really for you guys give biz listeners is
Speaker:Dee was just talking to a minute ago that per other
Speaker:industry had been event planning and she had context and knowledge
Speaker:from that industry.
Speaker:You right now might be working at a bank,
Speaker:you might be working in a corporate office in the marketing
Speaker:department, you know,
Speaker:whatever your nine to five job is.
Speaker:If you have one right now and you're building your business
Speaker:on the side,
Speaker:think about whether there are opportunities there with context that you
Speaker:have through a totally different way.
Speaker:Your full time job right now that could help you advance
Speaker:your business.
Speaker:This is not the first time I've heard people having their
Speaker:first customers be people who came out of connections from a
Speaker:full time job,
Speaker:so huge opportunity.
Speaker:I'd also say school events while your kids are too young
Speaker:yet I guess D but school age children when there are
Speaker:events and charities and all the things you get into sports
Speaker:organizations, dance clubs,
Speaker:all of that are opportunities.
Speaker:Yeah. A lot of people ask me sometimes like how do
Speaker:you make the connections?
Speaker:How do you network and network is so fluid for me
Speaker:because I am a people person,
Speaker:but if I wasn't just putting yourself in a position where
Speaker:people, we come in contact with people every day and just
Speaker:speaking and my business always comes up when I'm speaking to
Speaker:someone honestly and not the first time.
Speaker:The second time is it has to,
Speaker:was it like that from the beginning?
Speaker:For business and personal.
Speaker:Yes, Sue,
Speaker:I'm sorry to say this,
Speaker:but in school,
Speaker:in grade school I used to have those little notes that
Speaker:says detox too much in class.
Speaker:She does excellent work,
Speaker:but she talks too much.
Speaker:I believe that.
Speaker:But it's working in your favor now.
Speaker:No, I asked that and bring it up because I also
Speaker:know a lot of people here and it's the fear of
Speaker:failure, right?
Speaker:And putting yourself out there want to start a business,
Speaker:but they don't want to tell people who are close to
Speaker:them until it's successful.
Speaker:And the fallacy in that is the people who are closest
Speaker:to you are probably your best first Customers and forgiving,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:if something goes wrong,
Speaker:like if your shopping cart on your website goes down or
Speaker:the product isn't totally up to par yet.
Speaker:They're great testers and working through all the systems.
Speaker:But a lot of people won't do that because the business
Speaker:is just starting.
Speaker:And what if it doesn't work?
Speaker:Then they have to go back with their tail between their
Speaker:legs. Yeah,
Speaker:it happens to us all.
Speaker:But that's a good point.
Speaker:I can count how many times that I've had a family
Speaker:member order and maybe something went wrong,
Speaker:but it was such a great learning lesson and I'm glad
Speaker:I could learn it with someone who knew me and I
Speaker:would say the era of some sort and it was a
Speaker:good learning moment for me from someone who I knew wasn't
Speaker:going to like blast me and put me in a bad
Speaker:light to the public.
Speaker:Right. So definitely the idea right from the start of letting
Speaker:people know and you were just bringing it up in casual
Speaker:conversations then,
Speaker:right? Yes.
Speaker:You know what's going on?
Speaker:Oh, you know,
Speaker:I've started doing a business.
Speaker:Here's how it happened.
Speaker:Chocolate covered Oreos or whatever.
Speaker:It was just conversation.
Speaker:It's not really promoting your business.
Speaker:It's just letting people know exactly.
Speaker:Just so seamless that it was just normal conversation and as
Speaker:you said,
Speaker:casual and you started getting business from that.
Speaker:I did.
Speaker:I was so amazed at how many people,
Speaker:as soon as they saw a picture,
Speaker:and that's I think,
Speaker:I don't know if we're going to get into that,
Speaker:but that's why it's so important to have like either a
Speaker:website or social media presence because with crapping things people buy
Speaker:with their eyes.
Speaker:So they saw a picture and it was like,
Speaker:Oh yes I am interested in this because it looks nice.
Speaker:So do you have it on your phone where you can
Speaker:pull it up,
Speaker:right? If you're in a conversation with someone?
Speaker:Yes. My Instagram page is by far the first app on
Speaker:my phone and I click it and just show a couple.
Speaker:You don't want to be too aggressive and making sure they
Speaker:go like,
Speaker:Hey here's a couple.
Speaker:You know what?
Speaker:If you have social media,
Speaker:look me up or if you have your phone out,
Speaker:go to my website real quick.
Speaker:So it just gives them that part in their mind to
Speaker:do. Right.
Speaker:And so let's get into that then because this is another
Speaker:big topic all the time.
Speaker:Social media and let's just talk Instagram cause I have a
Speaker:lot more I want to get into with you.
Speaker:So we've talked about hashtags a little bit,
Speaker:like there are many search engines,
Speaker:right? Yes.
Speaker:And when you started posting on Instagram and adding hashtags,
Speaker:keeping in mind who your preferred customer would be,
Speaker:right? So that you're attracting the right people in.
Speaker:Did you start seeing sales off of that that you equate
Speaker:directly back to Instagram or did it take awhile to build
Speaker:or what was your experience there?
Speaker:When I started using the hashtags,
Speaker:I was doing it because I knew what it was for
Speaker:and I wasn't paying attention to in the beginning.
Speaker:But once I really started focusing on the hashtags that I
Speaker:was using and looking at different things and I started asking
Speaker:people how they found me,
Speaker:I could really see that they were working for me because
Speaker:I had a lot of people say,
Speaker:well I found you through Instagram.
Speaker:I was searching the hashtag X,
Speaker:Y and Z.
Speaker:And I was like,
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:Oh interesting.
Speaker:This really works.
Speaker:Yeah. That's how actually I got my first celebrity client was
Speaker:through. They found me on Instagram by searching one of my
Speaker:hashtags. Oh that's crazy.
Speaker:And they came across my profile and they liked my work
Speaker:and they reached out to me.
Speaker:Yes. Wow,
Speaker:that's cool.
Speaker:It was so amazing.
Speaker:And so I'm like,
Speaker:they work.
Speaker:I bet after that did they call you then to talk
Speaker:about an order?
Speaker:They did and it went through.
Speaker:It was like the craziest thing.
Speaker:One of those ones where you have to mute the phone
Speaker:and like,
Speaker:okay, is this really happening?
Speaker:And then go back into the professional voice like okay I'm
Speaker:back. That's why I was asking cause I'm thinking when you
Speaker:got off the phone and hung up you were probably like
Speaker:major happy dance.
Speaker:Like Oh my goodness.
Speaker:Screaming, calling my mom.
Speaker:That was the first question you have to call someone.
Speaker:I knew the button mom,
Speaker:you will not believe this.
Speaker:And it was crazy.
Speaker:That's so awesome.
Speaker:So now today,
Speaker:how often are you posting on Instagram?
Speaker:Well I try to post once a day,
Speaker:at least something once a day.
Speaker:If not on my profile,
Speaker:I really try to post the my stories and I have
Speaker:learned the value of using your Instagram stories to connect with
Speaker:your followers,
Speaker:your potential customers,
Speaker:or just people as your peers,
Speaker:so at least once a day.
Speaker:I'm trying to post in somewhere,
Speaker:somewhere, some way,
Speaker:somewhere, some way.
Speaker:Okay, got you.
Speaker:We're going to hear more about D's posting plan,
Speaker:right after a quick word from our sponsor.
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Speaker:print company.com
Speaker:What types of things,
Speaker:do you have any plan or a structured system to make
Speaker:sure that you do that or is it just always top
Speaker:of mind?
Speaker:This is one thing I have to get done today.
Speaker:No, my followers know this.
Speaker:I am a big advocate for the app sheet,
Speaker:auto posting app or any auto posting app so I can
Speaker:schedule posts,
Speaker:especially the posts that are going on my profile because my
Speaker:profile is basically just my business.
Speaker:My stories is where you get to see the craziness of
Speaker:me. D so I'm using auto-post app nine times out of
Speaker:10 is it called auto-post?
Speaker:It is called app.
Speaker:She in S a P.
Speaker:P. H.
Speaker:I. It does have a free mode as well,
Speaker:which I love and I utilize the most in the beginning.
Speaker:And then they do have some subscription plans that you know
Speaker:as you need to post more because the free plan I
Speaker:think only allows you to post like 10 or 12 posts
Speaker:a month.
Speaker:So as you need to post more,
Speaker:you can go into a plan that would probably benefit your
Speaker:business. And will it automatically post over to Instagram?
Speaker:I'm using another scheduler and it still has to go to
Speaker:my phone and then I still have to actually put it
Speaker:onto Instagram.
Speaker:No, it auto posts,
Speaker:like I have most of my posts scheduled for seven o'clock
Speaker:in the morning and I'm not a morning person and thankfully
Speaker:my kids are not either.
Speaker:I'm still asleep at seven I wake up to like a
Speaker:ton of notifications because the app has posted and I honestly
Speaker:forget sometimes and it has benefited me when I'm on vacation
Speaker:too. I can still go through business and I literally do
Speaker:not have to touch my phone or go into the app.
Speaker:It does it automatically for me.
Speaker:Oh, I didn't know such a thing existed yet.
Speaker:Oh, Sue is the best thing ever.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:I'm going to be checking that out.
Speaker:And what's your handle while we're talking about this?
Speaker:So everyone can go luck.
Speaker:My handle for Instagram is eight to three treats and that's
Speaker:T R E a T S eight two three trees.
Speaker:Okay, so let's keep talking about the evolution of your business.
Speaker:So we're talking about you providing all types of treats,
Speaker:right? But more bakery talk.
Speaker:Glut specific.
Speaker:Yes. What's your specialty?
Speaker:Chocolate. Chocolate and more chocolate.
Speaker:That's my specialty.
Speaker:Chocolate dip things.
Speaker:So I really started my business off the chocolate Cub Oreos
Speaker:and they are still like my main product that I produce.
Speaker:I have grown to love my chocolate dip pretzels.
Speaker:They're like my favorite treat to me.
Speaker:And now this new wave of cake,
Speaker:Sickles. And I'm not sure,
Speaker:someone may call it a cake pop still,
Speaker:but it's in the form of a little Popsicle.
Speaker:And those things are just so cute and I love making
Speaker:them. Yeah,
Speaker:they are so cute.
Speaker:You're right.
Speaker:And it's just enough.
Speaker:It's not a big piece of cake.
Speaker:It's just enough.
Speaker:You don't feel totally cheating on whatever diet you're on.
Speaker:If you have just one,
Speaker:if you have just one,
Speaker:if you have just one,
Speaker:cause I can never like Pringles,
Speaker:I can never eat just one.
Speaker:So this is a really big point.
Speaker:You've stayed very narrow with chocolate.
Speaker:Like everything is chocolate.
Speaker:There's different things under the category,
Speaker:but it's always chocolate.
Speaker:Exactly. Because that works for me and I've tried to add
Speaker:other things to my menu and I've done some reevaluation of
Speaker:it and either it's not selling or I honestly don't enjoy
Speaker:making it.
Speaker:And if you're in a creative space and you don't making
Speaker:something, it doesn't make you happy.
Speaker:So I just stick to what I like to do that
Speaker:I will always be happy or when I'm working really late
Speaker:at night,
Speaker:the end game of this,
Speaker:I'm like excited about it because I get to see it.
Speaker:Right. No,
Speaker:I think that that's really smart because I think a lot
Speaker:of people would say,
Speaker:okay, well I've got chocolate down now,
Speaker:but I'm going to be able to attract more business if
Speaker:I add in something else.
Speaker:And that's not always the case because now you with target,
Speaker:you're known as the chocolate specialist then right?
Speaker:Like this is your thing,
Speaker:your product,
Speaker:you know everything about it.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:all the designing,
Speaker:all the styling,
Speaker:all the flavoring,
Speaker:all of that versus if you also did marshmallow candy apples,
Speaker:like all the other things.
Speaker:Right, Exactly.
Speaker:It works for some,
Speaker:it does work for some,
Speaker:but like I said,
Speaker:you have to figure out what works for you.
Speaker:Alright, so tell me how this extension of teaching came about.
Speaker:I honestly love sharing this as well.
Speaker:Sue. So from my candle,
Speaker:I have a really great relationship with Christ and it was
Speaker:the weirdest thing ever.
Speaker:Sue, I was laying in bed and I was told I
Speaker:need to teach a class and I'm just looking around like
Speaker:who may like me?
Speaker:Who are you talking about?
Speaker:Just like came into you.
Speaker:Yeah, it just spoke.
Speaker:I was faithful to that and I have seen crazy growth
Speaker:from my classes.
Speaker:Okay. But that's too big a jump.
Speaker:I need to know more.
Speaker:Okay. Okay.
Speaker:So my first question is,
Speaker:did anything cross your mind like,
Speaker:well, wait a minute.
Speaker:I don't want to teach people my techniques because then they're
Speaker:going to copy me and then my business is going to
Speaker:go down.
Speaker:Honestly, if I'm speaking,
Speaker:I have not came across that.
Speaker:However, I have had peers come to me who wants to
Speaker:start teaching and they say,
Speaker:well, I want to teach,
Speaker:but I'm scared that in my community that I'm going to
Speaker:lose business.
Speaker:And for me,
Speaker:I feel like you can't get into teaching something if you
Speaker:are not prepared for someone to do what you're doing to
Speaker:make income.
Speaker:That's the whole purpose of teaching something,
Speaker:right? We do have students that take it that just want
Speaker:to have a fun night out or learn something new.
Speaker:And I'm also a big advocate that if it's not,
Speaker:your gift is not going to flourish.
Speaker:So you can teach anybody to do anything,
Speaker:but you're still you.
Speaker:Right. I'm totally of the same opinion.
Speaker:And I also think to your point about if it's not
Speaker:your gift,
Speaker:you're probably not going to keep up with it.
Speaker:I think what often happens is people think I could make
Speaker:this just as well.
Speaker:You're buying the talk,
Speaker:let's let's say chocolate covered Oreos.
Speaker:Let's just keep with that theme.
Speaker:Oh, I could do that just as well.
Speaker:Well you know what,
Speaker:maybe or maybe not,
Speaker:but then they see all that goes into it too.
Speaker:It's not just a onetime one afternoon,
Speaker:let's make chocolate Oreos.
Speaker:It's a business.
Speaker:Right? And so they might do it initially and then at
Speaker:the end say,
Speaker:you know what,
Speaker:I really love the A's but I don't have time,
Speaker:nor do I want to be making them.
Speaker:And I love D.
Speaker:So then they end up buying from you again.
Speaker:Anyway, It has happened.
Speaker:It has exactly happened.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:so you buy into this feeling cause you know where it's
Speaker:coming from and you decide you're going to teach.
Speaker:How did you pursue actually making that as an extension of
Speaker:your business?
Speaker:Like where was the first place you taught?
Speaker:Let's go with that.
Speaker:The first one,
Speaker:I was here in my city,
Speaker:Charlotte, it was on May 25th and I sold out my
Speaker:class. Keep in mind Sue,
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:who's gonna take my class?
Speaker:I feel like I'm like nobody sort of say and my
Speaker:class sold out within 48 hours and I was just like,
Speaker:Oh my goodness.
Speaker:And I added an additional class like two weeks later and
Speaker:my city Charlotte and that sold out I would say within
Speaker:three days.
Speaker:Was it a chocolate treat making class or was it a
Speaker:business class?
Speaker:It was learning how I make five of my trees.
Speaker:So you're just learning the intro of making those from my
Speaker:perspective. And was it connected with any organization or did you
Speaker:just rent out some space cause you've got that event planner
Speaker:expertise? It wasn't connected with a venue.
Speaker:Actually I wanted to host it in my home,
Speaker:but I have kids and you know,
Speaker:let's keep it honest.
Speaker:I didn't know who was coming in so I didn't want
Speaker:people like knowing where I live.
Speaker:I had a house that I rented out to do the
Speaker:class for.
Speaker:Oh, very cool.
Speaker:So you knew a house that was vacant at the time,
Speaker:or someone who was willing to let you use their house
Speaker:or however that went down actually use Airbnb.
Speaker:Oh, what a good idea.
Speaker:Yeah, it was so cool.
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:eh, I'll use that.
Speaker:And the biggest thing with that was just contacting the host
Speaker:and being upfront about what I was doing there so they
Speaker:could approve it or not.
Speaker:And all of my posts have been like,
Speaker:yeah, I want to take a class.
Speaker:So come on in Such a good idea.
Speaker:Oh, I might steal that idea.
Speaker:D take it.
Speaker:Yeah, it's free of charge because it's also an intimate atmosphere
Speaker:too, right?
Speaker:It's almost like being in a home kitchen,
Speaker:which is where everyone would be cooking anyway.
Speaker:If you had things to talk about before you actually started
Speaker:getting into the techniques,
Speaker:you could be sitting in the living room,
Speaker:family room,
Speaker:whatever. Oh,
Speaker:excellent idea.
Speaker:Really good.
Speaker:I love the space.
Speaker:It really does feel good and we feel like a little
Speaker:family. While we're there.
Speaker:So I like it.
Speaker:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker:And so how did this progress?
Speaker:Well, once the classes in Charlotte did so well,
Speaker:I had so many inquiries from people to come to other
Speaker:cities and I found some connections there.
Speaker:Like I went to LA,
Speaker:but I have a great friend.
Speaker:When I met her through the business,
Speaker:it was so crazy.
Speaker:She was a vendor of mys and we found out that
Speaker:we had kids literally a week after each other and we
Speaker:just became more and more friends and she was like,
Speaker:well, you can come out to LA and I can host
Speaker:your class.
Speaker:So just making connections and I've Went to LA,
Speaker:my international class was in Barbados and that right there was
Speaker:so crazy because Sue,
Speaker:my husband is from Barbados and I would have never thought
Speaker:that I would be going there to teach without his knowledge,
Speaker:without any connections from him.
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:dude, I'm going to your country to teach what I do.
Speaker:Isn't that crazy?
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:it's just been a while.
Speaker:Right. I'm going to say there was some divine intervention in
Speaker:there for that one.
Speaker:Yeah. Whores.
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:we were meant to be,
Speaker:you see all of this coming back full circle.
Speaker:We were meant to be for short.
Speaker:So does he still have family there?
Speaker:Yes he does.
Speaker:So I was able to see some of his family and
Speaker:like I said,
Speaker:what was so crazy going back to the Island without him,
Speaker:but I was very comfortable there and I'm like,
Speaker:I know where I'm going.
Speaker:No one can kidnap me.
Speaker:So yeah,
Speaker:he still has family there and we visit maybe every other
Speaker:year or so.
Speaker:I love it there.
Speaker:We had our honeymoon in Barbados.
Speaker:Oh look,
Speaker:it's many years ago now.
Speaker:But we also over my other business,
Speaker:the ribbon print company also,
Speaker:we have customers in Barbados as well who have these ribbon
Speaker:printing machines that we sell.
Speaker:Yeah. Anytime we get an international customer like,
Speaker:well would you like to pay for hand delivery?
Speaker:I know,
Speaker:right. It's only another $2,000
Speaker:no biggie.
Speaker:No biggie.
Speaker:No problem.
Speaker:So how are you balancing the two teaching versus selling products?
Speaker:How does that look in your overall life?
Speaker:That is a good question.
Speaker:It took me a while to figure out a good balance,
Speaker:especially with me also balancing my home life.
Speaker:But now I actually can focus more on my teaching because
Speaker:I like to give knowledge.
Speaker:I like to be around people.
Speaker:I am like the definition of an extrovert.
Speaker:Like I love people.
Speaker:So I do kind of focus more on the teaching and
Speaker:I take orders to where it fits into the teaching schedule.
Speaker:This that makes,
Speaker:yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:So teaching is the primary right now.
Speaker:And then you'll take orders as you can based on schedules
Speaker:and how complex the order is and quantity and you know
Speaker:all of that.
Speaker:Yes. Got it.
Speaker:Okay. And as we talked about in the beginning,
Speaker:I met you at the ultimate sugar show.
Speaker:Were you teaching there?
Speaker:I did.
Speaker:I taught two classes at the ultimate sugar show.
Speaker:I taught two demo classes,
Speaker:one how to do live face with fondant,
Speaker:and the other one how to do a little cake topper.
Speaker:Perfect. And so people in your classes where people who are
Speaker:also in business or they just also wanted to know the
Speaker:skill for personal use.
Speaker:Do you know A lot of them were in business.
Speaker:It was so crazy.
Speaker:In my first demo of the lace with one of my
Speaker:students that I had in Charlotte,
Speaker:she's from Ohio,
Speaker:she was in that class in Atlanta and she was like,
Speaker:I didn't think you were going to remember me.
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:I don't remember everyone.
Speaker:So it was a lot of people that were already in
Speaker:the tree industry,
Speaker:but it was so strange that the majority of them did
Speaker:not follow me.
Speaker:So that was pretty interesting to me.
Speaker:They didn't follow me on social media,
Speaker:they just wanted to learn that technique.
Speaker:But then I got them in the fall.
Speaker:Yep. Well of course they follow you now,
Speaker:that's for sure.
Speaker:So is that another strategy for,
Speaker:I guess it's just exposure,
Speaker:right? Cause they're taking classes from you there.
Speaker:And this is a show where each of the classes will
Speaker:also cost money.
Speaker:So this isn't a show where when you go into the
Speaker:show, and I'm talking to our listeners now where you go
Speaker:into the show and then you have availability to go into
Speaker:any of the classes.
Speaker:These classes all cost money.
Speaker:I teach,
Speaker:it shows that do both.
Speaker:And most of my classes are business development classes,
Speaker:starting out,
Speaker:learning how to start a business properly,
Speaker:you know all that,
Speaker:the businessy type things.
Speaker:And I do both,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:at the ultimate sugar show.
Speaker:And then here in a couple of weeks,
Speaker:this will be passed by the time this airs.
Speaker:But the Philly candy show we do at different,
Speaker:anybody who has a ticket to the show can go to
Speaker:any of the classes that they want.
Speaker:And I'm not sure which is better,
Speaker:but I kind of feel like when someone has to pay
Speaker:for a class,
Speaker:they're more vested in the information.
Speaker:What do you think?
Speaker:I really think that once you pay for something,
Speaker:you're invested.
Speaker:Who wants to just throw their money away so when they
Speaker:are paying for a class,
Speaker:I feel like they're gonna really pay attention.
Speaker:Really try to go back and apply this knowledge to their
Speaker:business or craft.
Speaker:I agree with you there.
Speaker:Okay. So as you think about your business or you think
Speaker:about people who have been in your classes or your own
Speaker:experience, have you found any common mistakes that people make or
Speaker:maybe warnings for our listeners if they're looking at following a
Speaker:similar track as you,
Speaker:maybe not chocolate,
Speaker:some type of a handmade product,
Speaker:but do you have any advice for those people?
Speaker:I would definitely say we talked about this,
Speaker:the charging,
Speaker:you want to make sure that you are putting in a
Speaker:price on your work.
Speaker:That's the main mistake that I see a lot of us
Speaker:entrepreneurs or crafters or treaters coming into the industry with.
Speaker:Also trying to do multiple things at one time.
Speaker:Really focus on a few things and get those down Pat
Speaker:before you move on to something else.
Speaker:And it's not saying you shouldn't add additional things,
Speaker:but really trying to focus on perfecting a few things first
Speaker:before you put like 50 things on your menu or in
Speaker:your store.
Speaker:Good advice for sure.
Speaker:So in terms of attracting business,
Speaker:social media,
Speaker:yes. Communicating with people in conversations.
Speaker:Yes. Those are your two primary ways of getting business.
Speaker:Those are my two because honestly I have a website I've
Speaker:been paying for my domain for over five years.
Speaker:I just told my followers this and I have not launched
Speaker:it and this year that is my goal.
Speaker:But it hasn't been a thorn for me.
Speaker:Not having an actual website cause social media is very important
Speaker:nowadays. But in case social media goes bit,
Speaker:you want to have your own website.
Speaker:So that's why in 2020 I'm focused on launching my website
Speaker:fully. I am so glad you said that.
Speaker:I was getting a little nervous when you were saying the
Speaker:line on Facebook.
Speaker:What was it,
Speaker:March, I forget the date now,
Speaker:but March of this past year in 2019 do you remember
Speaker:when Facebook and Instagram went down and like the whole world
Speaker:was freaking out?
Speaker:Yes. And if that isn't a wake up call to all
Speaker:of us who aren't keeping contact information of our followers in
Speaker:some other way,
Speaker:I don't know what is right,
Speaker:Exactly. That's what scared me.
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:you know what,
Speaker:it's time to get off of this.
Speaker:Because anything could happen.
Speaker:They could honestly wake up and say the application is just
Speaker:closed. Right.
Speaker:And then like all those followers you had are gone.
Speaker:You didn't obtain any information.
Speaker:Also use MailChimp.
Speaker:A data collecting application.
Speaker:Good, good,
Speaker:good. So I like that.
Speaker:Yep. Okay.
Speaker:So you're using MailChimp.
Speaker:So you're collecting emails from followers in some way.
Speaker:Is it just your customers?
Speaker:No, these are from followers.
Speaker:For my classes though,
Speaker:I haven't did it for my customers.
Speaker:I need to do it.
Speaker:But these,
Speaker:I'm getting emails if they want to be notified of like
Speaker:where I'm at and things of that nature.
Speaker:So I've got a really good subscriber list for that.
Speaker:And in MailChimp you can also divide who are people who
Speaker:are coming to your classes versus who have purchased product,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:so you can talk to them differently.
Speaker:So really good initiative for this year.
Speaker:Yes. So guess what day we're all going to hold you
Speaker:accountable to this because when you have your website up,
Speaker:I want you to let me know so we can add
Speaker:it to the show notes page.
Speaker:So we're going to can go back and look at it.
Speaker:Okay. I will.
Speaker:I definitely will also.
Speaker:Okay, you've just told us all.
Speaker:Okay, I'm nervous now.
Speaker:This is accountability baby.
Speaker:Yes. Bring us to a point that wasn't so great.
Speaker:And the reason I asked this question is I think a
Speaker:lot of our listeners will feel like if everything isn't successful
Speaker:right out of the gate,
Speaker:they think I'm a failure.
Speaker:I'm not cut out for this.
Speaker:I see other people who are doing so great and obviously
Speaker:I can't because something has gone wrong for them.
Speaker:Right? So share with us something that went wrong for you
Speaker:just by demonstration that it's not all roses.
Speaker:You don't land it every single time.
Speaker:How many examples do you want me to give Because I
Speaker:want you to get the biggest one.
Speaker:The jaw dropping one.
Speaker:Well, I think this,
Speaker:and I was very established.
Speaker:I felt in my career,
Speaker:I had had a customer,
Speaker:this was a repeat customer actually,
Speaker:so this was a kind of a tricky one.
Speaker:It was very emotional for me.
Speaker:I had a new baby,
Speaker:my daughter at the time,
Speaker:and I did this order and I mean Sue,
Speaker:I put so much time into this order.
Speaker:I did not go to sleep because I had a new
Speaker:baby, so I was up without sleep working off of caffeine,
Speaker:and I looked at my final product and I was extremely
Speaker:happy because again,
Speaker:I've been established for some time and I went and made
Speaker:the delivery one.
Speaker:The delivery was late,
Speaker:all my fault,
Speaker:and that was the first part that really kind of set
Speaker:the tone.
Speaker:I think I could not make my delivery on time and
Speaker:I'm usually very punctual with my deliveries.
Speaker:Two, I met the customer and I gave it to them
Speaker:and they were in a rush.
Speaker:They had to get to where they were going,
Speaker:which is understandable.
Speaker:Well, about an hour after that transaction,
Speaker:I get a call and the customer was completely disappointed with
Speaker:my order.
Speaker:They said that I didn't interpret the vision properly and they
Speaker:honestly said that they could have did this,
Speaker:order their self talk about a knife in the heart.
Speaker:Those are exactly the words I was thinking,
Speaker:Oh, I was in Chick-fil-A's drive through line and I cried.
Speaker:And Chick-fil-A being the amazing people,
Speaker:they gave me free food.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:that was a completely cool,
Speaker:but because the lady was like,
Speaker:why are you crying?
Speaker:And I was uncontrollably crying because I dedicated so much time
Speaker:to that and I was really happy with the order.
Speaker:But again,
Speaker:it's not always about us.
Speaker:It's about how our customers perceive us.
Speaker:And the customer wasn't happy.
Speaker:Like I said,
Speaker:when they said they could have made it there,
Speaker:so I just lost it.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:That's not true.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:that was their emotion talking.
Speaker:I really think so because I was looking at that and
Speaker:we want to stay in our head.
Speaker:Of course we say all this stuff,
Speaker:I, you try it,
Speaker:why don't you try it?
Speaker:But you know,
Speaker:I couldn't take away that.
Speaker:That's how she felt.
Speaker:Right. But it also just was like,
Speaker:Oh my goodness,
Speaker:I thought everyone likes all of my work.
Speaker:But it was so humbling one and it just really made
Speaker:me kind of think about going forward,
Speaker:how am I getting the information from the customer to make
Speaker:sure that I am kind of meeting the Mark with their
Speaker:expectations and also letting customers know that I have creative freedom
Speaker:as well and interpreting the design.
Speaker:So those are some things that I learned from that.
Speaker:Right. Well I love that you kind of adjusted your systems
Speaker:to try and prevent that in the future.
Speaker:Plus I'm thinking this is another place where your Instagram account
Speaker:comes into play cause they see your type of style demonstrated
Speaker:there. So different types of things that you've done.
Speaker:They have to buy into your style and then new to
Speaker:your point about creative flexibility because they don't want their treats
Speaker:probably to look like everyone else's anyway.
Speaker:No, they want custom and that's what customer is different.
Speaker:So yeah.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:So if that were ever to happen to you again,
Speaker:how would you handle it differently?
Speaker:Or what would you say to yourself differently than crying?
Speaker:Oh, or would you cry again?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I think I will probably cry.
Speaker:I really don't know.
Speaker:It just depends.
Speaker:I was kind of hormonal too at that point with the
Speaker:kids and just working off of no sleep and now having
Speaker:some mom mode,
Speaker:so it was just a lot of stressors.
Speaker:I really think in this part of my business,
Speaker:if that was to happen again,
Speaker:I would definitely have a conversation with the customer.
Speaker:If a customer was to tell me that I missed the
Speaker:Mark on their order,
Speaker:I would kind of say,
Speaker:ask the question,
Speaker:what were you expecting?
Speaker:Kind of putting it in their court and saying,
Speaker:what about my work?
Speaker:Did you see like trying to direct them back to my
Speaker:page? Like did you see any of this in the work
Speaker:that I already provided because this is my tone or my
Speaker:style. I don't know.
Speaker:I don't even know if this is a good answer.
Speaker:Did you ever talk to that customer again?
Speaker:To be honest too,
Speaker:I have.
Speaker:They tried to order from me three times and thankfully I
Speaker:have been busy each time because in my mind I'm kind
Speaker:of scared to actually go back to do that.
Speaker:I don't feel like I can meet your expectations.
Speaker:And at one point I did tell her,
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:I would really like to take this order.
Speaker:Unfortunately I'm busy this weekend and I really want to make
Speaker:sure your expectations are met.
Speaker:Oh that's good.
Speaker:Like your analogy in the past and you're going to do
Speaker:your best.
Speaker:Cause you know what I'm wondering,
Speaker:maybe it wasn't what she envisioned,
Speaker:but when she actually laid it out for the event because
Speaker:it was the design work,
Speaker:it wasn't the taste or the flavor or anything.
Speaker:Right. It was the style.
Speaker:It was the creativity.
Speaker:And so maybe it didn't align with what she was thinking,
Speaker:but she might've gotten great feedback from her guests.
Speaker:She did.
Speaker:I actually saw it on my feedback on my social media
Speaker:was like through the roof on that order.
Speaker:So it was really just a personal thing.
Speaker:And with any crafting or creative thing,
Speaker:it is personal interpretation from you and from the customer.
Speaker:So I have grown from that and I've learned not to
Speaker:take it with a grain of salt,
Speaker:but purposefully with a grain of salt that you won't be
Speaker:able to meet everyone's expectations or interpretations from the time.
Speaker:Yeah. You do your best doing your best.
Speaker:Yeah. You also have to know,
Speaker:I think that,
Speaker:I guess it's not in all cases,
Speaker:but I'd say in this case because it's not like you
Speaker:provided a bad product at all.
Speaker:Right. It would be different if the chocolate was all melted,
Speaker:like there were was an issue with the product.
Speaker:We all have to remember this,
Speaker:that when clients are like that,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it might not really even be about the product.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:they might've had to just a fight with their husband.
Speaker:There might be other issues going on.
Speaker:They may be hormonal,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and I was late.
Speaker:There was so many other things.
Speaker:It's just you're the one while you were late and you
Speaker:own it.
Speaker:Right. You own that Owned it.
Speaker:So I could have added to that frustration and it just,
Speaker:I look back at the pictures and I don't know if
Speaker:this will make the podcast,
Speaker:but I actually looked back at the pictures and my trees
Speaker:went exactly with the party.
Speaker:It was crazy.
Speaker:They went exactly what the party.
Speaker:So it was just some additional factors that I'm not going
Speaker:to hold her accountable for.
Speaker:So yeah.
Speaker:Good attitude for sure.
Speaker:So where do you think you're going in the future with
Speaker:eight to three traits In the future for this business?
Speaker:I honestly see me teaching more because I came into this
Speaker:industry, I would say by happenstance it was purposeful,
Speaker:but by happenstance it wasn't my ultimate Passion.
Speaker:So I love pouring back into people that really want to
Speaker:grow and maybe open up a shop or do things of
Speaker:that nature.
Speaker:So I really see me just teaching more people learning the
Speaker:skills and learning the basics to grow their business.
Speaker:Okay. Love that.
Speaker:Love that.
Speaker:So we're going to have to keep an eye out for
Speaker:you. Maybe there are some other aspiring treat makers who should
Speaker:be taking some of your classes.
Speaker:Come on,
Speaker:come to the sweet side,
Speaker:Come to this sweet side and we're,
Speaker:I think I already know what you're going to say,
Speaker:but if you were to direct someone online where to come
Speaker:find you,
Speaker:where would that be right now?
Speaker:Right now it will be Instagram.
Speaker:Where else is it going to be in the future?
Speaker:Your website?
Speaker:Yes. It's going to be where you can go to www
Speaker:dot
We're going to be watching for that.
Speaker:And one final thing I want you to talk about just
Speaker:really quickly,
Speaker:you mentioned it in our pre chat once we're done with
Speaker:this interview,
Speaker:you're hopping in your car and where are you off to?
Speaker:I am Off to Atlanta to attend the bee collective awards.
Speaker:I have been so humbled and so honored to be nominated
Speaker:for the 2020 best dessert artists and I've been going down
Speaker:there to celebrate and just being nominated and celebrating all of
Speaker:the amazing people that's there.
Speaker:So that's why I'm going right after this interview.
Speaker:I'm so That is so exciting and I've seen a few
Speaker:of your designs and they're so awesome.
Speaker:I'm not surprised at all and I just,
Speaker:I congratulate you on the fact that you're being acknowledged for
Speaker:your beautiful work as well,
Speaker:so can't wait to hear the outcome of that,
Speaker:but I love your attitude.
Speaker:Just being nominated and getting to be part of that whole
Speaker:thing has to be be awesome and just feel fabulous.
Speaker:It is.
Speaker:Thank you so much for that.
Speaker:So I really do appreciate that.
Speaker:You're welcome and thank you so much.
Speaker:All this information has been great.
Speaker:I have loved learning your story.
Speaker:I can't wait to see you again.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:I'll see you at the ultimate sugar show.
Speaker:Don't know if we'll cross paths before that,
Speaker:just not sure,
Speaker:but thank you again for all your information being very open
Speaker:and giving us a peek behind the scenes in your business.
Speaker:I know it's going to help a lot of people out.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:Enjoy this whole experience and I can't wait to connect with
Speaker:some of your listeners.
Speaker:Yay. Wonderful.
Speaker:I'm sure they'll connecting with you on Instagram for sure.
Speaker:Have a great day.
Speaker:You did a same Sue,
Speaker:so now are you as in love with D as I
Speaker:am, I can't wait to watch the progression of eight to
Speaker:three traits and as it applies to your business development,
Speaker:if something popped out to you,
Speaker:please make yourself a note.
Speaker:I love that you're listening and hopefully subscribe to this podcast,
Speaker:but I also want you acting upon what you learn.
Speaker:It's the action that brings results,
Speaker:but what if you're nervous about starting or worried that you
Speaker:don't know what your first step or next step should be
Speaker:in working with many of you?
Speaker:I know fear is a huge concern.
Speaker:Fear of not knowing,
Speaker:fear of being judged,
Speaker:fear of failure,
Speaker:confronting and moving through.
Speaker:Fear is the topic we're tackling next week.
Speaker:I look forward to all of us being together again then.
Speaker:Bye for now.
Speaker:I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook
Speaker:group called gift is breeze.
Speaker:It's a place where we all gather and our community to
Speaker:support each other.
Speaker:Got a really fun post in there.
Speaker:That's my favorite of the week.
Speaker:I have to say where I invite all of you to
Speaker:share what you're doing,
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 and just for fun because
Speaker:we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody in
Speaker:the community is making.
Speaker:My favorite post every single week without doubt,
Speaker:wait, what 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.
