EPISODE NOTES

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This week’s guest is Charlotte Philips of RugsyLugsy. Charlotte and her husband Neil handcraft home and giftware from reclaimed wood, which they sell online and in person at farmers and craft markets.

I loved talking to Charlotte, she’s got so much energy and positivity, and is so passionate about what she does. We talked about the differences between selling online and in person, how they source and use reclaimed wood, and ways you can minimise your product’s impact on the environment.

Listen in to hear Charlotte share:

• An introduction to herself and her business (01:15)
• How and why she set up her business, including 2 career changes (01:33)
• Their first products (04:04)
• How they make and manage their product range both online and for markets (07:43)
• A regular working week, and the importance of taking time for you (10:17)
• Putting systems in place and delegating things that will take you too long (11:46)
• Selling in markets during the pandemic(16:25)
• The benefits of selling your product face to face (18:32)
• How they source reclaimed wood to use (21:12)
• Minimising the environmental impact of their products (26:07)
• Her number one piece of advice for other product creators (33:41)

USEFUL RESOURCES:

RugsyLugsy Website

RugsyLugsy Instagram

RugsyLugsy Facebook

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Welcome to the Bring Your Product Ideas To Life Podcast, practical advice,

and inspiration to help you create and sell your own physical products.

Here's your host Vicki Weinberg.

Hi.

So today I am talking to Charlotte Phillips from RugsyLugsy.

So at RugsyLugsy Charlotte and her husband hand-craft home and giftware

from reclaimed wood, I really, really enjoyed this conversation with Charlotte.

You're going to hear from the chat that she's got so much energy and positivity.

She's so passionate about what she does.

Um, I learned so much about reclaimed wood, um, wood in general, actually, I'm

always now going to be on the lookout for, wood that Charlotte can make things

out of, um, we spoke about selling face-to-face versus selling online, um,

and about how Charlotte's business doesn't quite look as she thought it would at

outset and why that's not a bad thing.

So hopefully that's peaked your interest.

Um, a bit and now I would absolutely love to introduce you to Charlotte.

And it's always, I really hope you enjoyed this episode.

Say hi Charlotte.

Thanks for being here.

Hello.

So can we start, if you give an introduction to yourself, your

products and what you sell?

Uh, so my name is Charlotte and my husband and I have a small business

called RugsyLugsy, and we make and sell home and giftware from reclaimed wood.

Amazing.

Thank you.

Um, let's start with how and why you got started with, woodworking and I'm, uh, I

apologize in advance if woodworking isn't the right way of wording it correctly

Woodworking is the perfect terminology actually.

So I think.

I personally have actually had two distinct careers before I came to this.

So when I first left school, I trained to be a florist is to

do floristry and event dressing.

And then for the last 20 years, I was actually an early years teacher.

Um, got sucked in when my son was in nursery, you start out washing

the washing up the paint pots and end up running a department.

And then in January, 2020, I knew I'd had enough.

I was done.

I needed to just get out too much paperwork, too much politics.

And I was looking for something different the November before.

Um, I had created the Santa's grotto for the school Christmas fair, and I

decided to do a Scandinavian theme.

So we made my husband and I made loads, loads of little wooden things.

We had hearts, I made little sledges out of lolly steaks, we got a chainsaw

cut down, a couple of silver Birch trees, made them into reindeer.

And I mean, it was beautiful.

Um, but kind of what got me thinking was one of the parents said, what

are you gonna do with all this stuff?

You're going to sell it.

And a little light bulb went on above my head.

And that was the very start of RugsyLugsy.

So although Neil and I had always been very comfortable around using wood

it's, it's kind of our go-to material.

So when we sort of been given, um, a couple of church pews, we

turned them into our bed, um, our kitchen we handbuilt out of wood.

So we had this tremendous collection of odds and odds and sods of, of, of wood so

it, for us, it was such a natural place to go when I wanted to set up a business, but

it didn't even require a thought process.

It was just like, well, that's what we're going to do.

Amazing.

So did you literally start by selling off the things that you made for the activity?

Well, um, the, those things, actually the money went to the school because

it was, um, you know, a PTA type event.

Um, and then.

I think we started just messing around.

So I think by the February half term, my notice that gone in, um, COVID was

just starting to, to become a thing.

It wasn't just some obscure illness in China anymore.

It was, it was starting to, to be more prevalent in Europe.

So we knew things were going to change.

And they're going to change quite quickly.

So we started developing a bit of a product base and a lot of hearts.

So I love heart shapes.

So that was one of the first things we made.

We had some Victorian floorboards from, from a house where Neil had

replaced all the boards for them.

And we cut hearts and sanded them down and started messing around with pain and

ribbon and buttons and things like that.

And then I think the second thing we made was the key houses and they are huge.

Now they are possibly one of our biggest biggest products.

Uh, but we initially just made a key house to give a housewarming, present to a

friend, and then you sort of looking at it and going, well, yeah, I could sell that.

I can make that and I can sell that.

So, yeah, that was, that was kind of how that went.

Uh, by the April.

I was furloughed.

Um, which gave us time.

And, um, so yeah, by September, I think we were selling

That's amazing and that's only 18 months ago.

Isn't it really?

So you've done loads in that time, so I'm thinking where to go next I'll

tell you what be might be good is if you can just talk us through some of

the products actually, cause I'm just thinking Charlotte, obviously I've had a

really good look around your website and I'm really familiar with what you sell.

But given obviously that this is audio, and people may not have

come across you or your website.

Can you just talk us through just a few of your products just so

people can get a really good visual?

Well, I think the first thing to explain is that all the words that we

use to make our products has reclaimed.

So, so, um, all our products have to have a signature distress look because the wood

has been used for something else before.

So quite often it has nail holes and things like that in that.

So I've mentioned the hearts and the key houses.

Um, another major thing that we make is wooden bunting.

So that's just, if you run through the pages on our website,

bunting is one of the big ones.

Um, the reason why we started making that was to get away from plastic untamed, not

really very environmentally responsible.

Uh, we also are very, very seasonal.

So we have bunting for Halloween, for example, on Easter.

So at the moment, our websites, is absolutely chock full, of little Easter

uh, gifts and Easter decorations.

Um, we also make some practical things as well.

So we have, we've invented a box that sits in the middle of

a table with jam jars at it.

We call it centerpiece box.

The idea being, as I mentioned, I used to be a florist.

Lots of people are a bit nervous about how to put flowers in the

middle of a table bascially it just takes all the mystery out of it.

Just cut all your flowers to the same length, put them in 4 jam jars job done.

Um, but you can also take jars out.

You can put fir cones in at Christmas, you can put foil wrapped eggs in for Easter.

So lots of scope at that, for sure.

Trying to think of what else we have on the website.

We probably carry any one time, about 3000 pounds worth of product.

Wow.

It's just you that, whether you're making to order or wherever you are

Making and then selling, how does, how does that work actually, because I

mean, you have a massive product range, so this is everything on your website

physically made already, or were you making things as people ask for them.

Yeah.

So from a purely practical point of view, um, if you take a new product,

so the idea will come to me, I'll design it I'll make a prototype.

If the prototype works brilliant, it goes into production.

If it doesn't you tweak it, you go again.

I usually start out with making five of everything.

Um, mainly because I've been caught out, um, to take the Ho Ho Ho bunting.

So it's a line of Santa hats with a little pom pom on the bottom of each one.

And the middle three have wooden letters that say Ho Ho Ho, um,

I made one, I fronted up to a Christmas market with one set.

I sold it by half past 10 in the morning and he kind of then going, oh,

well that's annoying if I've made two.

Um, it would have still been on my stool looking very decorative.

So never again, everything now gets made in lots of five.

The next thing we did was we linked the website to the Zettle,

which is our payment device.

So we track, uh, stock numbers so the minute something goes below a that number

in stock, I get an alert, um, and that actually informs me in my making list

so on a Monday morning, I sit down my to-do list, looks a little different to

other people's, um, and it's making list.

And so I know exactly what I need to make before going to another market.

Oh, that's amazing.

What a good system as well.

Yeah, it really is.

We do bespoke pieces.

So, uh, for example, if you wanted some bunting with Vicki on

it and your favorite flowers or something like that, we'll do that.

Uh, so that has to factor into that, to do list as well.

Um, but yeah, it's it's as a system, as systems go, it's, it's really good.

It just makes sure that you don't have that situation where you're

stood at markets with someone about to buy something and then

it gets sold off your website.

So, yeah, which is a lot of makers worst nightmare.

Yeah, because like I said, two completely different sales channels, aren't they?

So you sort of need to have track of what, what actual stock you have at

any time and are you making everyday Charlotte or do you try and have a day

just for making, how does that work?

Okay.

So it will be really, really easy for us to make everyday because Neil

and I have a studio each at home.

Um, so.

If you do have to be disciplined, you have to take time out.

Um, because otherwise you're going to get bored and you've

got to get resentful, especially, you know, when times are tough.

Um, actually that's not completely fair because sometimes actually

they can be your salvation.

So that second lockdown, for example, the really long one this time,

last year, We came out of that.

I must have had 40 or 50 different kinds of bunting because it was a way

of getting through but you do need time to actually just, just go live as well.

So we took Tuesday off this week.

It was Neil's birthday.

We went down to Hastings.

We walked on the beach, we went out for lunch we went to

look at a couple of galleries.

You do need that time.

It's it's really, really important.

You do.

I think you definitely need time for yourself.

And then also, I guess there's also the time that's needed for

the things that isn't the making.

So the sending things, you know, sending out orders and updating social media and

accounts and all those other things, um,

Well, I've become the queen of putting systems in place.

So number one, we of course have Jenny Cooper Timesaver who does

Jenny does all of our social media.

Um, but you do have to supply her with content, um, as brilliant as she

is, she can't actually magic pictures out of the air and we use QuickBooks.

So it's very, very beneficial, I think, to make sure that actually you're either

making or you're spending time on you.

Um, if there's a system that you can use that actually stops you having

to spend hours pouring over books or finding hashtags or whatever else,

I'm a great believer in using it.

Yeah, I make sense.

Um, I'm with you in terms of freeing up time and also in sort of

having systemizing things as well.

So you would have known when you booked this podcast, for example, there's

only two days a week though, actually record podcast interviews, because

as much as I absolutely love it, it's one of my favorite things practically.

It just doesn't make sense to do it five days a week, because then

you're not doing the other things.

And I find having set days of okay.

On Wednesdays.

I do this on Tuesdays.

I do that.

I think just really helps me anyway, that obviously that isn't

going to be for everyone, but yeah.

I like systems and processes and yeah.

And anything that makes it saves time and makes your life easier and frees up time.

As you've said, it's just ideal.

Um, from a selling point of view, it's astounding.

How many of these things actually linked?

As well.

So, you know, if you, you can link, like I say, our shop our website is powered

by Shopify Shopify and Zettle actually will link at the touch of a button.

Um, so it's, it just saves you so much time, so much angst.

Definitely.

And I don't know whether you experienced the same, but I found initially when I was

setting up my first Shopify website, for example, Setting up all their automation.

So I use PayPal.

So setting up sort of the PayPal automations in all of

this was a bit of a headache.

I'm not going to lie, but as soon as it's done, you can just breathe.

And I sigh of relief because it's all everything then work seamlessly.

So I think it's.

So for anyone who's thinking, oh gosh, that sounds like a nightmare.

Even if you have to get help, I think it's definitely where getting any

automations and systems in place.

Even if you need to find someone to help you do that, because it would just make

your life so much easier going through.

I mean, I, um, I must admit this is where we did employ Jenny, um, to set up the

website and put all of those processes in place, because if you're a maker.

You have to value your time.

So I have a price per hour that to me, my time is worth.

If I am then spending countless hours trying to work something

out that isn't my forte.

I mean, I'm good at a lot of things.

Technology is not one of them.

So all that time that I've spent in that, I'm not actually doing things

that am good at that I do enjoy, and that do ultimately make me money.

So I.

Would strongly recommend go out there and find good people to do these

things for you because they're doing it all the time, the much faster

than, than you are at doing it.

They'll tell you up front also how much they'll charge you so

you can make an informed decision.

Um, it's a small army of people out there to support small business.

And I really recommend utilizing.

Absolutely.

I really agree.

And even if you feel you can't afford to pay someone on an ongoing basis,

even if it is just a small job, like, you know, I can't like work

out how to connect Shopify to Zettle.

There'll be someone that you can pay and probably not much money either, because

for them, it's probably a minute job.

There'll be someone you can pay a small amount of money

who would just do that for you.

Yeah.

Yeah, I agree that as you were talking about earlier, we all have different

expertise and, um, sometimes it can seem, I mean, I, I definitely, when I

started my business, I definitely had the mindset at the beginning that I

couldn't afford to pay for anything.

I had to do it all myself.

But then when you start looking at what your time's worth and you realize

that you've just spent three hours on something, when you could've been

doing something that actually made you money, that's when you start the thing

called, I could have paid 15 pounds and.

got that sorted rather than spending three hours of my time, which is

presumably worth more than that.

So, yeah, I think it's definitely a mindset thing

Very much so

So Charlotte, you were mentioning, um, markets earlier and I'd love

to come back to that if it's okay.

So can you talk a little bit about the part that's of going to market

to sell your product has changed your business, um, wheter that changed

at all during the pandemic and how you see things going forward.

Yeah, show us.

So when, um, so I, I said, you know, RugsyLugsy kind of

arrived as a fully formed idea.

And initially Neil and I are, we're a bit older our children have left home.

We don't have that sort of level of dependency from anyone now.

So we had this great idea.

We were going to go around the country, maybe convert Horsebox or something, you

know, typically sort of, um, The I was going to say like the George Clark Amazing

Spaces kind of things that you see.

Um, and we were going to move from craft fair to craft fair, and

then of course the pandemic hit.

So suddenly that idea had to be replaced with something more local.

And I phoned around, literally started emailing and phoning.

Uh, we were really lucky.

We, um, met, uh, someone who recommended the Pantiles market.

So we're based in Tunbridge Wells.

The Pantiles is the historic part of Tunbridge Wells.

They have this market going on.

I spoke to the market manager and he really liked the idea of what we would do.

And, uh, and gave us a slot actually with 48 hours notice.

Wow.

Yeah.

So that's good I did not have time to overthink it.

Um, so the markets became a lifeline, um, because it was our method of selling.

So by that point I had left my job and brought, had to give my notice.

So it became my source of income.

Um, The Pantiles has, has just been brilliant for us.

We've added others as we do a couple of smaller farmers markets as well.

What works really well for us is our product is quite unique.

There are not a lot of people out there making things with wood and then

painting it in the way that we do.

We have two very different sides to our product lines.

So Neil makes beautiful key houses for hand painted backdrops.

Uh, so he's got sort of real beautiful clouds and skies and

cliffs and things like that.

I'm more cute and whimsical.

So trying to explain that is incredibly difficult.

When someone's actually stood there in front of you and looking at it, it

becomes much, much easier from that.

We also grew our social media presence.

So having the QR code on the market stall and saying to people, you know, if

you'd like what you're seeing in front of you, can you follow us on Instagram?

And that's also meant that our Instagram following and our Facebook

following have been more relevant.

Um, so it's sort of what a good having like a billion followers, but they're

not actually going to shop from you.

It's it's, it's not really that helpful.

So we know that all our followers are people that have seen our products

and are following us because they really liked what we do and that they

will buy from us if that makes sense.

That does.

And that is such a great idea.

I never thought about that.

I don't even know how to get a QR code, but that's amazing.

And like, I think as well as a lot to be said, isn't there for meeting your

customers in person and being able to talk to them, have them being able to tell you

what they like or what they might like to see different do you know what I mean?

And for us also to explain the, the nature of, of the raw material as well.

So, you know, we greet any new person exactly the same way.

Have you been to our stall before?

Let me explain everything on it.

We've made ourselves and it's all made from reclaimed word and you watch their

level of interest go from sort of oh yeah.

Okay.

Pretty things too.

Oh, okay.

Now that's interesting.

Yeah.

Okay.

Tell me more.

And then we can expand on where you might've have found the wood.

So we've got these little chunky boats that we make the masts on them

are actually the little things that you twist to open, Venetian blinds.

So we were given an entire set of Oak Venetian blinds.

What do you do with the little things that are on the end, well

you turn them into boat masts.

So it's, um, being able to explain that in person, um, is, is really important.

Yeah, that is very nice.

And I guess, because all of your products will be made that all of

your policy unique aren't they?

Because even if you're selling lots of hearts, for example, some might

become from an old, I dunno, a bench and some might be from something else.

In fact, um, yeah, talk me through a bit.

Cause I would, I'm genuinely would love to know Charlotte,

where do you get reclaimed words?

So how did you find out and what kind of things do you use?

So, first of all, we were really lucky Neil is a chronic hoarder.

Um, so we actually had a lot of bits of wood that were too useful to throw out.

So, um, for example, you know, my, my mom was a church warden.

Uh, Neil went and help fixed the roof on a church.

Uh, they couldn't actually pay him, but they were getting rid of the church pews.

Uh, they decided to go for more comfortable seating.

So we didn't even get the church pews.

What we were given was the two things that stand at the very,

very front that are basically just there for you to put your hymn book

on and your glasses and whatever.

So we would given those, yeah, I kid you not.

I have an entire set of Victorian floorboards where Neil had

actually gone into someone's house and replaced them all.

And they were all sitting on my lap.

Um, just too useful to throw away could come in handy for something.

And so when I started saying about wanting to make things that was our first,

um, supply of material, raw material nowadays, I have a few key people look

out for its and pieces pieces for me.

So I have couple of roofers and builders, roofers are particularly useful.

So like I get all the Victorian roofing slate that can't be reused.

And we actually used those roofs for houses in our key houses.

So if you've got, um, one of our key houses, it's got a slate roof, that's

actually a Victorian roofing slate.

If you've got one of our lighthouses is that's the thing that actually makes the

lighthouses and offcuts of when you get a lead roof, you know, it's got rolls in it.

That's enough cut the things that they actually formed the

lead over to make those olls.

It hasn't actually ever been used in that case because no one wants something

that's been contaminated with lead.

Um, I have a couple of landscape gardeners who look out for interesting,

nice weathered olf, fences for me.

Um, gosh.

Yeah, it just, and.

People when they hear about what we're going, what we're doing come

forward and go, well, I've got this.

Would you be interested in this?

We use a lot of Freecylce.

Um, and I skip dive uh, with permission.

So skip diving is amazing.

Um, one of my favorites was if you're a local Tunbridge Wells,

you might know the Baptist church at the very top of Grosvenor road.

And during the last couple of years, they've taken down the tiny

steeple that was on top of it.

Apparently it'd always leaked.

We were walking past and stopped and chatted to the builders because

they chucked it all in the skip.

And it was beautiful.

Um, but it had been hand crafted into this beautiful Spire, uh, but where

it had leaked, the wood was damaged.

Um, so we said, oh can we have that.

And this guy looked at us, so went, yeah.

But.

Yeah, it's not good.

You know, I, no, no.

That's going to be absolutely perfect for us.

And it may cliffs in our, um, we did harbour scenes for our key houses.

It made the most beautiful cliffs, then turned it round and found on the back

someone had actually written March, 1938.

You've got all that history.

It's just amazing.

Sorry.

I'm off on a tangent now

I'm loving hearing all this and do you know.

Um, as we're talking, I'm thinking, oh gosh, I don't live that far from you.

You know, I'm going to be contacting, you know, Charlotte and I've seen some wood

I'm so inspired by what you're saying.

I just think it's amazing that you're taking things that people

don't want and need anymore and making something beautiful out of it.

That's like, not yet when

you've got to think as far, I mean, that person that built that Spire in March,

1938, you've got to kind of think, well, what happened to that person?

Because of course the following year, um, we had a war um, and that,

that was the mark that they left.

And no one knows what's happened because there was no name.

So I kind of feel we're honoring them by using it, making it into something

that's bascially well not in a skip.

Um, and also, I mean, Neil and I both grew up around, uh, heavily

wooded and tree areas of Neil actually grew up in the middle of Bedgebury.

Um, so we both have great love of trees.

And for us, the amount of wood that actually ends up in landfill or

gets just gets burnt is horrendous.

I mean, I can give you a whole lot of statistics about the amount of wood in

this country that is not recycled, it's actually quite difficult recycle wood.

Um, so the idea of giving it a second chance making into something new and

the great thing about wood is it has no environmental impact so you're

not making something out of plastic.

For example, that could end up in the ocean, you could drop a

RugsyLugsy product into the ocean.

It won't do any damage to anything.

Um, I wouldn't recommend it, but you could.

So for us, it's having that minimal impact on the environment, around

us using a product that's already in existence, rather than having

to go and find a Virgin material.

So it's just something we are really, really passionate about.

I can tell.

And I think it makes so much sense when you were talking about the trees.

I was thinking that obviously we've had some pretty big

storms here in Kent recently.

And when I go on my dog walks very often.

Now I'm seeing trees that have toppled over maybe trees that have been chopped

up into pieces, you know, maybe the council chopped them up to take them away.

And I'm now I'm listening to you.

I'm thinking what's going to happen to those trees.

Do they end up going in an incinerator or?

Yeah, a couple of things that now, yeah.

A couple of things can happen.

So quite often, if a tree falls and it's.

Safe to do so it will nowadays be left.

Um, and then an entire little colony of insects, um, will move in and do

what nature needs to do, which is the very best thing that can happen.

Um, if it's been cleared away, a lot of councils to be fair, then

we'll find a way of reusing it.

So it gets chipped and put onto flower beds in, in sort of council

parks and things like that.

So there is that Virgin wood.

It's the easiest to actually recycle to do something with what's more

concerning is, um, the humble pallet for example, um, quite often a pallet

can be made out of a wood that's been sourced from where it was needed.

So if we take Indian patio stone, for example, the wood, the quite often is,

is made into the crate or the pallet that will carry it over from India.

Is rain forest.

And at that point, that's devastating specially at the

right that they're coming over.

So we know a stone Mason who was burning 50 crates a week.

Um, and that is horrendous for the environment on so many levels.

So, I suppose and I suppose as well, but also it gets hard is once, once

word has been used for something, wherever it says a bench or was a

bed or with a palette, presumably it then also gets harder to recycle.

So I'm thinking that I'm sure most councils, if they ended up with

a wooden bed frame in the tip, for example, I don't think that

would be recycled with it or with.

It's still fairly Virgin.

So pallet for example.

Yeah, it's really easy to recycle it.

Unfortunately, what it gets recycled into isn't too glorious.

Um, so it's the kind of board that you see when they board up a shop for example, or,

and it does get reused.

It does get reused or MDF.

Um, so everybody's medium density fiber board.

That's used in a lot of furniture that is quite often made out

of a recycled wood product.

So that's quite good.

Sometimes it can be shredded down and used as packaging material.

So all good.

What's harder is unfortunately in this country before 1990, when we painted

things, we can guarantee that paint didn't have lead in it so that's a little bit

sort of difficult to, to process and a lot of wood that's used outside your bench,

for example, or your decking has been tanalised, um, which means it's being

treated to stop it being eaten by insects.

Uh, so it's poisoned.

So again, that's, I mean, I, I will check it out, but they used

to use arsenic to tanalise wood.

Yeah.

I mean.

You could do something with that with that wood could you

I, I try not to, because I don't want to breathe it in.

So that's a good point.

Cause I suppose as soon as you start cutting.

Yeah.

I didn't think, I didn't think about that soon as you start cutting it.

And I suppose that's the same with anything with potentially lead paint on.

Yeah.

Think that we're so lucky.

Aren't we, now that we don't have to think about, you know what I mean?

I think I'm of a generation where I don't think as much

about things like lead paint, for example, because we never used it.

You must forget sometimes that these.

You forget sometimes how things diff different until we, although

recently actually I found lots of, um, I'm trying to think of

asbestos in the back of the garden.

That was fun.

Gosh.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Unfortunately that was the wonder product of the 1960s and seventies.

I think so.

Yeah.

We're slowly eradicating that, but this is what I mean, um,

about trying to make a product.

Impact on the environment.

So the paint that we use, for example, is a, it's called a low

VOC volatile organic compound.

So it gets into your waterway.

It won't cause damage to aquatic life.

So it's, it's having that sense of responsibility that it's not enough

to just want to use a recycled product, but making sure that

what you do to it has low impact.

So it's a, yes, a lot of research.

It is.

And I guess this also goes back to what we were talking about

before we started recording it.

Actually, we have a little chat about, you know, selling online

versus selling face-to-face and I can definitely see, um, that for your

business selling face-to-face as well.

I mean, for lots of us selling face to face has lots of benefits, but the

fact that you could actually say to somebody, this product is made from

this, this product is made from that and that he's got that story behind it.

I think that's a lot harder to convey online that is when you're

having a conversation with somebody.

Yeah.

I mean, we've developed standardized lines and we will explain to

people that everything looks the same, but actually it's different.

Um, because it will depend on.

The use the wood has had before.

So if you.

Take our fish, for example, we do sets of hanging fish that

look great in the bathroom.

When we started out making them, they were actually from Western

Red Cedar from a 1920s, greenhouse, I think it was um, and now, yup.

Now I'm not using wine crates to make those so.

They're going to be slightly different in a way, a different amount.

That's, that's a big one for us.

So we do explain that to a certain extent on the website.

Everything will look slightly different, but yes, you're right.

It's far easier in person to explain exactly what you've made it from.

Yeah.

Is this, your product seems like they have such a story behind them that it's yeah.

That's always easier.

Isn't it to convey in a, in a conversation.

Yeah, definitely.

Well, thank you so much for everything you've shared.

Charlotte.

I have one final question if that's okay.

Before we finish up.

So I would love to know what would your number one piece of advice be to

other product creators and sellers?

What's one thing you'd like people to know,

Be adaptable.

Um, as I've explained to you, we started out with one idea of how

we were going to run the business.

We had to change due to having to pandemic.

Um, now I wouldn't ever wish a pandemic on anybody and hopefully current situation,

um, regardless, um, no one would have to deal with something as big and potentially

damaging as that when they're setting up.

But I think you don't know what the market is going to be like.

Be it online, be it selling through Amazon being it selling actually face-to-face

so it's a really good idea to just be adaptable, be ready to change, to tweak.

Don't go into this with, too set an idea of exactly how it's going to

work, because I think you're going to set yourself up for failure if you do.

So that would be my one piece of advice with.

Be adaptable.

I think that's brilliant advice.

Thank you.

Because you're right.

So much changes there isn't things change all within our control, but also

a lot changes that is about what trying to say out of our control as well.

Well, yeah, I mean yeah who predicted Putin.

Yeah.

Putin the pandemic.

There's so many things on there that we just could never predicted.

Yeah, what's happened.

I think that's excellent advice because I think it can be really easy to

sort of start out with this mission or idea and sort of cling to is,

and no matter what happened, no, I'm doing this, but being able to adapt

your weight is definitely a skill

and you can keep your own ethics.

So for example, as, as, as you probably gathered with very much about

the recycling the making sure that, that we don't have an environmental

impact, that's that's 10 negative.

Keep those, um, your core values.

Just be willing to adapt a little bit on the way that you sell.

That's amazing.

Thank you.

And thank you so much for everything you've shared Charlotte.

So I will put in the links to your website and your social media show notes

so that everyone can find it and yeah.

Thank you again for your time.

Well, thank you.

It's been really fun.

Good I'm really pleased.

Thank you so much for listening all the way to the end of this episode.

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