Shownotes
Business Building Insights
- The great thing about having your own business is you are the one who gets to pick and choose what you want to do.
- Ways to get customers: Word of mouth referrals, social media marketing, through your website, joining a networking organization such as the Chamber of Commerce.
- Your website represents the level of professionalism of your business. It’s your online face to the public so you want to make sure it’s done right.
- You do yourself an injustice by pricing low. Charge what your product is worth.
- Demonstrations showing what your product can do catches people’s attention and curiosity. It increases the potential of a sale.
- You should seek out trade shows where there is an educational element like classes and stage demonstrations. It adds additional value to the attendees and increases participation and interest in your product too.
- Legally protect your product before you put it out into the public.
Contact Links
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Thanks! Sue
Transcripts
Gift biz unwrapped episode 197 there's no stopping the flexi egg
Speaker:Attention gifters,
Speaker:bakers, crafters and makers pursuing your dream can be fun whether
Speaker:you have an established business or looking to start one.
Speaker:Now you are in the right place.
Speaker:This is give to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources and the support you need to grow your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host gift biz gal Sue moon Heights.
Speaker:Hi there Sue and thank you so much for joining me
Speaker:today on the podcast.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:often I'll get the question of I want to start a
Speaker:business but I have no idea what it should be.
Speaker:And one of the things I tell people is,
Speaker:well look and see what is challenging for you as you
Speaker:go. Oh,
Speaker:around your regular day to day life.
Speaker:Something that's missing,
Speaker:something that you wish you had,
Speaker:something that if it was created could make your life easier.
Speaker:Or in the case of our guests today,
Speaker:more creative.
Speaker:Who would have ever thought about edible clothing?
Speaker:Crazy isn't it?
Speaker:But creative ideas for products come up every day.
Speaker:The thing is are they acted upon?
Speaker:I can't wait for you to listen to Marilyn and Joe's
Speaker:story about how the product was identified and then how they
Speaker:actually brought it to reality.
Speaker:Is there an idea that you have that's just brewing in
Speaker:the back of your mind?
Speaker:This may be the trigger to make you get started and
Speaker:create a new product that all of us want.
Speaker:Today my guests are Marilyn and Joe Bay wall,
Speaker:a natural born artist.
Speaker:Marilyn thrives on combining her well honed sculpture and painting skills
Speaker:with her talent and passion for baking and edible creations.
Speaker:As the owner and creative director of unique cakes,
Speaker:she specializes in nontraditional wedding cakes,
Speaker:three-dimensional sculpted cakes and blown and pulled sugar amenities.
Speaker:Her constant experimentation with different products and processes eventually led to
Speaker:her discovery of a unique edible fabric like compound called flex
Speaker:seek. This has been received with international acclaim for its unique
Speaker:variety of uses.
Speaker:As co owner of her second business,
Speaker:unique flex seek Maryland has pioneered new techniques in cake decorating
Speaker:and is the authority on all applications of the flexi line
Speaker:of products.
Speaker:Joe has been instrumental in running the operations of Maryland's cake
Speaker:business and understands the cake community.
Speaker:He is also the co owner of unique flex seek which
Speaker:produces the revolutionary flex seek product line.
Speaker:Welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast,
Speaker:Marilyn and Joe.
Speaker:Hi, how are you doing?
Speaker:Hey, I'm doing great and I am so excited to share
Speaker:what flex seek is all about with our audience.
Speaker:We're glad to be able to be part of it.
Speaker:So I know you guys are allowed to fund too because
Speaker:I met you at the ultimate sugar show and we were
Speaker:right across our booths were right across from each other.
Speaker:It was a fun gig.
Speaker:It sure was.
Speaker:So for our audience to get to know you a little
Speaker:bit better,
Speaker:I'd like to have you describe yourself and I guess you're
Speaker:going to do it as a combo.
Speaker:I'm not sure,
Speaker:but by way of a motivational candle.
Speaker:So if you were to help us visualize a color and
Speaker:a quote that would perfectly describe what you're all about,
Speaker:what would your motivational candle look like?
Speaker:We talked about that a little bit and I think Maryland's
Speaker:got the great idea on the answer to that question.
Speaker:Take it away.
Speaker:Wow. It changes often,
Speaker:but right now my favorite color is purple.
Speaker:Maybe a drippy purple,
Speaker:but purple.
Speaker:Is it a Royal deep purple or a lilac purple?
Speaker:Deep purple.
Speaker:Because what it means to me is to give,
Speaker:is to get,
Speaker:the more I give,
Speaker:the more I get back and I want to share everything
Speaker:that I do.
Speaker:It just makes me crazy.
Speaker:I can't get it out there fast enough.
Speaker:It's so true.
Speaker:When you give and give and give,
Speaker:it also comes back to you almost effortlessly.
Speaker:I feel I have to kind of add to that because
Speaker:I find that Maryland is one of those people that doesn't
Speaker:like to keep a secret.
Speaker:When she finds out something like a use for the product,
Speaker:she'll broadcast that to everybody.
Speaker:Anybody that asks,
Speaker:she'll give them recipes,
Speaker:she'll give them techniques and anybody that attends her classes finds
Speaker:that gives them more than just the syllabus.
Speaker:Anything that's on her mind,
Speaker:any questions that people ask you answer them.
Speaker:Yeah, and sometimes we do two or three different things in
Speaker:the class rather than not rather than,
Speaker:but beyond what we were supposed to be learning.
Speaker:Okay, so you're going to be so sad that you just
Speaker:told me that because now I'm like opening up new ideas
Speaker:to things that we're going to talk about.
Speaker:So we may be in for some secrets being revealed here.
Speaker:Who knows?
Speaker:Another reason why I think she chose purple is because the
Speaker:label color on our flex seek instant lace happens to be
Speaker:a light purple.
Speaker:I like color.
Speaker:So that kind of fits in with a theme,
Speaker:doesn't it?
Speaker:Oh it does.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:so let's get into this and I want to start with
Speaker:unique cakes and how that all came about and then we're
Speaker:going to get into the whole flex seek portion as well.
Speaker:So unique cakes.
Speaker:Okay. So I am an artist at heart.
Speaker:I've always been an artist and I was a hairdresser.
Speaker:I did stain glass,
Speaker:I did oil painting,
Speaker:all kinds of crafts,
Speaker:anything I can get my hands on and I'm a foodie
Speaker:and so anytime anybody had a birthday or a wedding or
Speaker:whatever, my gift to them would be a cake.
Speaker:Now, at the time,
Speaker:I did not know Virginia was one of the States where
Speaker:you could have a cottage industry and actually have a business
Speaker:in your own home and there are several,
Speaker:I know of Virginia and Florida,
Speaker:but it started out as a hobby kind of thing and
Speaker:my neighbor said,
Speaker:your kicks are so beautiful.
Speaker:Why don't you make a business out of it?
Speaker:And that is how it started.
Speaker:Actually. Of course I use,
Speaker:Joe is my techie.
Speaker:I don't do anything on computers.
Speaker:If you are talking to me on the computer,
Speaker:you're not talking to me,
Speaker:you're talking to Joe.
Speaker:I do all the hand work and he does all the
Speaker:business side.
Speaker:It was the learning experience for us.
Speaker:Let me tell you,
Speaker:it seems ominous when you look at starting a business.
Speaker:So wow,
Speaker:that's a lot of work.
Speaker:I can't do that.
Speaker:Well actually you can.
Speaker:If you do a little bit of research in your state,
Speaker:there are all kinds of guides that walk you through how
Speaker:to establish a business,
Speaker:what forms you need to have in place,
Speaker:what inspections,
Speaker:what this,
Speaker:what that.
Speaker:And then there's also your local SBA or small business administration.
Speaker:That's very helpful in getting the business started.
Speaker:So that's what we did.
Speaker:I love that you started with this portion,
Speaker:Maryland, where you were talking about how you were an artist
Speaker:of a lot of different things.
Speaker:So here's a question for you in that.
Speaker:If it wasn't cakes,
Speaker:if someone would have come and said,
Speaker:your stain glass is so beautiful,
Speaker:you should think about selling that.
Speaker:Would you have gone the stain glass route instead of the
Speaker:bakery route?
Speaker:Now you know,
Speaker:I have to keep doing something different all the time.
Speaker:I did sell my stained glass and I love doing it.
Speaker:I still do it off and on.
Speaker:As a matter of fact,
Speaker:one of the classes I do with my flex sake is
Speaker:stain glass.
Speaker:Oh, so you're incorporating some of the other crafting into the
Speaker:base of the cake design then,
Speaker:right? Well,
Speaker:every artist does that.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:if you have it in you,
Speaker:it's in your fingers and you just want to keep doing
Speaker:and doing and just everything kind of rolls together.
Speaker:So how confident are you that you'll stay with this if
Speaker:you'd like to keep changing things?
Speaker:Well, I had my cake business for a long time before
Speaker:we started flexi.
Speaker:Now flexi is very time consuming for us,
Speaker:going to a lot of shows and making classes and that
Speaker:type of thing.
Speaker:And so as we're getting to be senior citizens,
Speaker:it's getting to be a little much for everything.
Speaker:But I'm still,
Speaker:I may tone down on cakes a little bit.
Speaker:That's the good thing about having your own business that I
Speaker:can pick and choose what I want to do when I
Speaker:want to do it.
Speaker:Right. If we're going to a show,
Speaker:then I will not take a cake that weekend.
Speaker:But I think there's no stopping the flexi seek,
Speaker:that's for sure.
Speaker:And the deal with like seek is that there are so
Speaker:many different,
Speaker:and we're going to get into this later,
Speaker:I'm sure,
Speaker:but there are so many different things that you can do
Speaker:with the product line that I think the possibilities are endless
Speaker:and she can continue to do things and get her artistic
Speaker:release without having to go into a different business.
Speaker:Let's stay back in the beginning Of unique cakes.
Speaker:So yes,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:when you are doing a consumable product,
Speaker:do you have all the issues of can you do a
Speaker:cottage industry or other people,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:are you going to be able to get your kitchen approved?
Speaker:Do you need to go to a commercial kitchen?
Speaker:All of that type of thing.
Speaker:But once that was all figured out,
Speaker:and I love Joe that you said,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it's really just research.
Speaker:The information is available.
Speaker:You just have to go and look forward to it.
Speaker:It's really not that hard to find it.
Speaker:So it's,
Speaker:this isn't a barrier that should stop you for sure.
Speaker:Right. But then once you've gotten going,
Speaker:how do you get customers?
Speaker:Well, there are several ways.
Speaker:First of all,
Speaker:word of mouth.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:yeah, word of mouth,
Speaker:but then there are cake bridal shows.
Speaker:You go to the different,
Speaker:the chamber of commerce.
Speaker:So local in your area you mean?
Speaker:Right. Yeah.
Speaker:Okay. I joined the chamber of commerce group like Joe was
Speaker:talking about,
Speaker:and you get contacts that way.
Speaker:That group recommends you,
Speaker:you recommend each other to all your clients.
Speaker:Yeah. Once it gets going,
Speaker:if you really have your heart into it,
Speaker:it spreads like wildfire.
Speaker:You really don't have to do that much.
Speaker:Right. And of course getting a good website and Facebook page,
Speaker:Oh, that's true.
Speaker:Social media marketing is involved nowadays.
Speaker:Pick up yourself,
Speaker:a good techie like I did It.
Speaker:Does he happen to be sitting right next to you?
Speaker:Maryland? Yeah.
Speaker:Okay. I think it is important and a lot of people
Speaker:who are listening are selling to the community that's local and
Speaker:some people will think,
Speaker:Oh well I don't need to have a website or I
Speaker:don't need to have a social media presence because they're doing
Speaker:exactly what you were saying,
Speaker:Maryland. They're starting to spread the word by maybe family and
Speaker:friends first having a cake and then it spreads and then
Speaker:they go to a chamber and then there's other people that
Speaker:get cakes and we're just spreads and spreads.
Speaker:I would suggest,
Speaker:and I want to know what your thoughts are on this
Speaker:is I think still people go online to confirm that you're
Speaker:an established business,
Speaker:that you're someone that they really want to do business with.
Speaker:So you need to have a website,
Speaker:you need to have some social presence.
Speaker:Even if you're not selling through social media,
Speaker:it's a credibility play,
Speaker:I guess I would say.
Speaker:What do you think?
Speaker:That's absolutely right.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:Maryland pointed at me so,
Speaker:Oh yes,
Speaker:I like that.
Speaker:You tell us the visual since we can't see,
Speaker:so that works.
Speaker:That's just fun.
Speaker:I have to totally agree.
Speaker:A website is a representation of the professionalism of the business.
Speaker:So the first point I'd like to make is if you're
Speaker:going to do a website,
Speaker:do it right,
Speaker:don't do a primitive kind of thing that's available through some
Speaker:of the other.
Speaker:You could start out that way.
Speaker:Invest a little bit of money and getting a nice professional
Speaker:website together because that's your face to the public.
Speaker:What platform are you using for your website?
Speaker:We actually have a developer that specializes in web development out
Speaker:of Florida.
Speaker:So is it a WordPress site?
Speaker:Do you know?
Speaker:Not WordPress,
Speaker:no, it's,
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:So you really did custom.
Speaker:Yeah, we did custom.
Speaker:That's actually for both businesses.
Speaker:We had our son that actually helped us with that.
Speaker:But the other thing that we found is that once you
Speaker:have a social media presence,
Speaker:you have to realize that your reach has now gone international.
Speaker:And so if you have a contact form and have somebody
Speaker:creating a need for a product,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:you may expect some requests from overseas people who don't realize
Speaker:that you're located in Virginia.
Speaker:Wherever you're at.
Speaker:I do have to say I did get a cake order
Speaker:from Dublin,
Speaker:Ireland. Oh no.
Speaker:First birthday party cake.
Speaker:Several. I haven't gotten several from overseas that people don't realize,
Speaker:but yeah,
Speaker:I mean jealous,
Speaker:right? The website is really important.
Speaker:As a matter of fact,
Speaker:when people asked a friend,
Speaker:us now with somebody,
Speaker:the viruses out there that we go to their website,
Speaker:check them out.
Speaker:Yeah. People will do the same thing to you,
Speaker:so you need to make sure that your presence online is
Speaker:professional, like you were saying,
Speaker:which means putting it together properly.
Speaker:Right. Just not throwing it up.
Speaker:And then also,
Speaker:so your imagery looks similar,
Speaker:like your imagery looks similar on a website versus your Facebook
Speaker:page versus Instagram or wherever you are.
Speaker:Logos and colors and all that.
Speaker:Think of it as your first impression.
Speaker:The first thing people see about you.
Speaker:If your website is sloppy and just childlike,
Speaker:they're going to think your business,
Speaker:your work is the same,
Speaker:right? Especially as an artist,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:cake artist.
Speaker:How do you handle photography for your website?
Speaker:Not only is my husband a techie,
Speaker:he's a photographer.
Speaker:Oh, now that's just not fair.
Speaker:He's good at everything.
Speaker:A lot of her friends are jealous when she starts telling
Speaker:her things like this,
Speaker:but I do,
Speaker:I've done photography for a long time.
Speaker:I've developed my own pictures,
Speaker:black and white and color,
Speaker:and I set up a box in our dining room that
Speaker:we use in relationship to any kind of photography that we
Speaker:do for both businesses and I have the lights and everything
Speaker:and we're actually going into videography with the green screen backgrounds
Speaker:that we're going to be producing a lot of tutorials on
Speaker:our flexing product line.
Speaker:Oh, I love that.
Speaker:And give his listeners,
Speaker:you know that with every podcast there's a show notes page
Speaker:which will give you all the links so you'll be able
Speaker:to go and see what all of this is about.
Speaker:I usually say this at the end of the show,
Speaker:but I might as well say it now since we're on
Speaker:the topic.
Speaker:So any other things that you think would be interesting to
Speaker:talk about specifically in relation to unique cakes?
Speaker:Before we move on,
Speaker:let me go with this question.
Speaker:Any surprise that you had as you were developing the business
Speaker:that you could warn or advise our listeners about with regard
Speaker:to unique cakes?
Speaker:I've done several competitions with the cakes,
Speaker:pastry live and things like that.
Speaker:A lot of shows because I do sculpting.
Speaker:That's my forte,
Speaker:but there's one thing that I've learned with my friends.
Speaker:Some of them use Cape mixes,
Speaker:but some of them do it from scratch and if you're
Speaker:doing any kind of competition or anything,
Speaker:don't even think of using the cake mix.
Speaker:However, some clients prefer a cake mix over a dry scratch
Speaker:cake. There's another aspect to any business and that's called pricing.
Speaker:Okay. All right.
Speaker:Go with this.
Speaker:I can't wait to hear what you say.
Speaker:One of the things that we found in the cake world,
Speaker:and I'm sort of speaking out of turn because I'm not
Speaker:in there,
Speaker:but I've watched Marilyn and been learning a lot about the
Speaker:cake business.
Speaker:From a business perspective,
Speaker:it seems like there's a dichotomy between the cake artists that
Speaker:own their own brick and mortar shop and the ones that
Speaker:work out of their homes,
Speaker:the ones that work out of their homes tend to price
Speaker:lower, much lower.
Speaker:They're not taking advantage of getting reimbursed for all of their
Speaker:time and their ingredients and their energy use and their mortgage
Speaker:payment, whatever.
Speaker:And so they're doing themselves an injustice by pricing low,
Speaker:but they're also doing the brick and mortar people and injustice
Speaker:because it's detracting from their clientele.
Speaker:So if you're going to price,
Speaker:make sure you look at what the going rate is on
Speaker:whatever product in your area and try to get there,
Speaker:don't really,
Speaker:really undercut cause you're not doing anybody a service.
Speaker:Well no.
Speaker:And then if you want to grow,
Speaker:how are you going to increase your prices that much to
Speaker:exist in customers?
Speaker:So I'm thinking someone who's able to work out of their
Speaker:house or a commercial kitchen is even still less than a
Speaker:brick and mortar.
Speaker:Right. But take that extra margin,
Speaker:use that margin,
Speaker:save it for future growth of your business.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Well, and I just talked to him a caker recently about
Speaker:this. She was charging about half the price I was,
Speaker:she was doing twice as much work,
Speaker:maybe three times as much work.
Speaker:She thought she was getting a lot of business,
Speaker:but she was driving herself ragged and trying to meet all
Speaker:the demand and she wasn't even getting compensated for it.
Speaker:Right. Was she charging almost just cost Even less,
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:I don't know that because she was doing so much business
Speaker:that she was doing well and that's not the case.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:if you want to do it for a hobby and lose
Speaker:money, that's one thing.
Speaker:But you really have to,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it's hard in your mind to think,
Speaker:okay, I'm doing less cakes,
Speaker:but I'm making more money as to Oh and busy all
Speaker:the time and I'm doing 20 cakes on the weekend.
Speaker:Isn't that great?
Speaker:But then you're not making any money.
Speaker:They're making the same amount of money as someone who's doing
Speaker:two or three cakes,
Speaker:but they're doing twice as many.
Speaker:You're exactly right.
Speaker:Yeah. And you know,
Speaker:I think in this community,
Speaker:the maker community overall,
Speaker:we also so undervalue our time and our skill when it
Speaker:comes to pricing.
Speaker:People take so many classes,
Speaker:invest a lot of time in learning how to do things
Speaker:properly professionally,
Speaker:and then a lot of time in terms of putting together
Speaker:and perfecting their individual skill,
Speaker:if you will.
Speaker:And then they apply it to actually making the product and
Speaker:they don't account for them the time of production.
Speaker:And as I already said,
Speaker:the time of acquiring that expertise in that skill.
Speaker:So I hope you set her straight Maryland.
Speaker:Yeah, I did.
Speaker:Yeah. There's some times when I can't do a cake and
Speaker:I have to recommend them to somebody and I trust her
Speaker:skills, but if I recommend one of my clients to her,
Speaker:she's charging half as much as I do.
Speaker:That's shooting myself in the foot too.
Speaker:Yeah, it sure is.
Speaker:So then I would never recommend somebody.
Speaker:The other thing that a lot of folks may not realize
Speaker:when they look at charging three times as much as what
Speaker:their cost is and they say,
Speaker:Oh wow,
Speaker:that's overcharging.
Speaker:Well, that's really not true when you think about it and
Speaker:you research it.
Speaker:We watched shark tank every once in a while and we
Speaker:find that a lot of entrepreneurs usually tap on at least
Speaker:300% on top of their costs for their retail.
Speaker:No, we don't do that yet,
Speaker:but that's sort of the norm,
Speaker:so you shouldn't feel embarrassed or timid about charging what the
Speaker:current market value is,
Speaker:But I find myself doing the same thing.
Speaker:I'm guilty of that.
Speaker:Also, as you said earlier,
Speaker:when I come up with a new idea,
Speaker:I am so excited to share it with everybody.
Speaker:When somebody will be saying,
Speaker:well, why didn't you do a class on that?
Speaker:And you can be making money doing a class on that
Speaker:type of thing.
Speaker:By the time I find somewhere to do a class and
Speaker:whatever, it's late.
Speaker:Yeah. But my guess is also that even if people heard
Speaker:about it,
Speaker:they would also love to take the class to really perfect
Speaker:it and you know,
Speaker:see how to do it properly too.
Speaker:Right. The other thing is there are a lot of hidden
Speaker:costs that people forget about.
Speaker:Like what about the delivery costs of getting any materials that
Speaker:you're using.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:any of your ingredients to you or if you're going out
Speaker:and getting them locally,
Speaker:you're still having to drive.
Speaker:So there's that cost.
Speaker:There's all the administrative costs.
Speaker:There's the cost of developing the website Joe,
Speaker:like we were talking about earlier.
Speaker:So they're not directly related to the making of your product,
Speaker:but they are directly related to the development and growth of
Speaker:your business.
Speaker:And so that eats up a little bit of those percentages
Speaker:too. So all things to consider with pricing.
Speaker:A great topic to talk about.
Speaker:We could probably go on the whole rest of the show
Speaker:talking about pricing for sure.
Speaker:But I want to get into flex seek.
Speaker:So right now we've been talking unique cakes.
Speaker:How in the world did you identify this idea of flex
Speaker:seek? I can't wait to hear it.
Speaker:So it started out with my cake business.
Speaker:I had a bride who wanted a Birch tree cake and
Speaker:she did not want fondant.
Speaker:She did not want buttercream.
Speaker:She didn't want the usual,
Speaker:she wanted it to look like a real Birch tree.
Speaker:So here I am,
Speaker:racking my brain trying to figure out how I'm going to
Speaker:do this.
Speaker:Instead of saying,
Speaker:sorry, I can't do this for you.
Speaker:Picked up American cake decorating magazine and there happened to be
Speaker:a Birch chewed cake that was just absolutely gorgeous and I
Speaker:could tell it was not made from the usual stuff and
Speaker:usually they have tutorials on all these things.
Speaker:So I'm looking through trying to find the tutorial and all.
Speaker:There was was this little paragraph that said,
Speaker:this is a beautiful cake that I made.
Speaker:The Birch tree part was a 13 step process that I
Speaker:use that I use gelatin as the base and that was
Speaker:it. I said,
Speaker:Oh man,
Speaker:No, you left me in suspense.
Speaker:You want to know what I said?
Speaker:I called her on,
Speaker:not very nice name,
Speaker:but as I'm very creative and we got going in the
Speaker:kitchen, I've got gelatin and a base.
Speaker:I added chocolate,
Speaker:I saw looked like wafer paper,
Speaker:I added wafer paper and we did about six months of
Speaker:work on this and the kitchen back and forth.
Speaker:And it actually came up with something else.
Speaker:First actually came up with the lexicon wafer paper before we
Speaker:came up with Lexi and it turned out beautiful.
Speaker:But I tell this story,
Speaker:I did call her,
Speaker:not a very nice name,
Speaker:but I tell the story and when every time people ask
Speaker:me that and one time in New York I'm telling this
Speaker:story and I said,
Speaker:that B lady,
Speaker:she plucked this cake at picture of the cake in the
Speaker:magazine, but she didn't tell me how to do it.
Speaker:Such a tease And yes,
Speaker:and then the lady turned to me and said,
Speaker:that would be me.
Speaker:No, what did you do?
Speaker:Oh, I gave her a great big hug and she gets
Speaker:product free from that.
Speaker:Okay, well that's,
Speaker:that's good.
Speaker:Her name is Madison Lee.
Speaker:She's on TV all the time.
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:that's so funny.
Speaker:She is actually very creative.
Speaker:But it was just that thought,
Speaker:cause I actually called said the word and I said,
Speaker:Oh I called her up and then When she's like hello,
Speaker:it's me.
Speaker:She's the sweetest thing.
Speaker:But she was my inspiration.
Speaker:Yeah. Well okay so but Maryland maybe people are saying that
Speaker:about you now because they want to know what's in flexing
Speaker:so they can make it themselves.
Speaker:So it's a secret.
Speaker:You can't say That's right.
Speaker:Right, right,
Speaker:right. We have patents on itself As well.
Speaker:You should.
Speaker:So you saw that you've now made this material and I
Speaker:think we might be leaving our listeners a little bit in
Speaker:the dark.
Speaker:Explain specifically what flexi does.
Speaker:That's Joe's deal.
Speaker:He does good with that.
Speaker:Okay. We're going to get to learn all about flexi.
Speaker:Right after a quick word from our side Sponsor.
Speaker:This podcast is made possible thanks to the support of the
Speaker:ribbon print company.
Speaker:Create custom ribbons right in your store or craft studio in
Speaker:seconds. Visit the ribbon.com
Speaker:For more information.
Speaker:So in as simple terms as I can state,
Speaker:we have three veins,
Speaker:three different products.
Speaker:The first one,
Speaker:which Maryland first developed was flex seek.
Speaker:It's what creates edible fabric.
Speaker:You can cover away for paper to give it flexibility and
Speaker:durability. Okay.
Speaker:Yes. Gift biz listeners.
Speaker:Edible fabric.
Speaker:Yes. Okay,
Speaker:keep going.
Speaker:You can cover and protect printed images,
Speaker:so if you do printed images for your cakes,
Speaker:you can cover them with flexion so that they don't smear
Speaker:when you touch them with wet hands or buttercream hands and
Speaker:then it gives it flexibility so you can put it on
Speaker:your cake and the wafer will crack.
Speaker:It'll flow onto your cake.
Speaker:That's flex seek.
Speaker:There are other things you can do with it.
Speaker:What else?
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:well also when you put the flexi Conway for paper,
Speaker:if you let it cure overnight,
Speaker:you can use the Martha Stewart cutters to cut outs with
Speaker:it. And I have done that with snowflakes on a frozen
Speaker:cake. I flavor them peppermint because you can flavor FlexDek anyway,
Speaker:you want to color it or flavor it.
Speaker:Flavor, peppermint and put it on a frozen cake and the
Speaker:kids went nuts eating those off again,
Speaker:so it was perfect for cupcakes.
Speaker:You can cut any ships as long as you buy them
Speaker:and you know they have not have been used for anything
Speaker:else and you just dedicate them to cake decorating or to
Speaker:whatever you're doing.
Speaker:You can use the cutouts And that really is great for
Speaker:cookies. Cut little shapes out,
Speaker:put them on your cookies,
Speaker:very lightweight they had here and they're tasty.
Speaker:Then after flexi,
Speaker:then norm Davis came to me and said,
Speaker:well, there is no one in the United States making lace.
Speaker:Why don't you try to use lace?
Speaker:Can we use flexi?
Speaker:Can the lace mold?
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:well, I have tried that.
Speaker:It doesn't work in a lace mold.
Speaker:It doesn't give you all those nice little cutouts that you
Speaker:need. All the detail of a lace.
Speaker:Yeah, we went back to work and we created a lace.
Speaker:It's made here in the United States and it's instant and
Speaker:ready to use.
Speaker:That's what Joe was saying earlier and it doesn't melt in
Speaker:the fridge.
Speaker:It doesn't,
Speaker:it doesn't.
Speaker:What doesn't get hard,
Speaker:it doesn't,
Speaker:yeah, it doesn't get super hard to stay flexible and it
Speaker:actually sets up very quickly and sets up even quicker if
Speaker:you put it in the fridge.
Speaker:So that's a very nice product.
Speaker:Instant ready to use.
Speaker:That's the second one.
Speaker:The third one is a flexi glue.
Speaker:What we found is once flex seek cures,
Speaker:there's nothing that will stick it to itself.
Speaker:So if you're making ruffles pleats or if you're making roses
Speaker:or making a dress or bows,
Speaker:you need something that will attach,
Speaker:seek to itself at certain points.
Speaker:And that's what the glue does.
Speaker:It almost instructs it to make it bond to itself.
Speaker:Right. So I just have to say this was crazy.
Speaker:And Marilyn,
Speaker:you were talking earlier about when you make a cake for
Speaker:a show and the difference between ready-made mix versus mix from
Speaker:scratch Show event products are always a little bit different.
Speaker:And most of the time they're not an order that you're
Speaker:filling for a customer.
Speaker:It's probably not what you normally sell because it's a competition,
Speaker:it's for a show,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:At the ultimate sugar show,
Speaker:you guys,
Speaker:they had a stage and people were coming out in clothes
Speaker:that were all edible hats,
Speaker:that were edible dresses that were edible and a lot of
Speaker:that was your flex seek being used to give the effects
Speaker:of ruffles on skirts and all of that.
Speaker:Right. It was,
Speaker:we were sponsors for the sugar show and everybody got to
Speaker:use as much as they wanted or as little as they
Speaker:wanted for the products and we still have these hats here
Speaker:on our mannequins.
Speaker:They're adorable.
Speaker:The detail of these clothes was crazy and I could not
Speaker:even imagine that they were edible.
Speaker:I mean they looked like real fabric clothes.
Speaker:It was crazy,
Speaker:But they actually have a video.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:we've got it on our site,
Speaker:on our flexi YouTube page,
Speaker:the videos of some of the fashion shows that were actually
Speaker:conducted at the cake fair a year or so ago where
Speaker:they, and again flexi sponsored that also people used flex seek
Speaker:products to create entire outfits and then these models wore them
Speaker:and came out on stage to music.
Speaker:That really,
Speaker:really interesting.
Speaker:Wow. That is so crazy and I do want to share
Speaker:with all of our listeners,
Speaker:those of you who are customers and have a ribbon printing
Speaker:system, we are shortly going to share with you how you
Speaker:can use this product incorporated with custom printed ribbon.
Speaker:So stay tuned for that.
Speaker:It's coming down the pike.
Speaker:Let's get back into flex seek and its creation and development.
Speaker:So you're in the kitchen,
Speaker:you've made your product.
Speaker:Where do you go next in terms of getting it to
Speaker:be a real product that's trademarked that you can sell.
Speaker:Can you share with us a little bit of the development
Speaker:steps that you take?
Speaker:Well there are two things that we did almost immediately.
Speaker:One is we hired a lawyer to help us submit an
Speaker:application for patent.
Speaker:In some cases that might be important.
Speaker:In other cases it may not be important.
Speaker:It depends upon how concerned you are about somebody taking what
Speaker:you're doing and duplicating it,
Speaker:copying it.
Speaker:The second thing we did was our son was in marketing
Speaker:advertising, so he and his wife who's a graphic artist helped
Speaker:us create the logo,
Speaker:the flexi logo,
Speaker:and we then went and got that trademarked,
Speaker:so we have now a registered trademark for flex seek.
Speaker:We're patent.
Speaker:That was the first step.
Speaker:The second step then was to create all of your social
Speaker:media sites,
Speaker:your website,
Speaker:your Facebook,
Speaker:your Twitter,
Speaker:your Instagram,
Speaker:your Pinterest,
Speaker:your YouTube page and all that to start getting the word
Speaker:out, and then we started to register for the various shows
Speaker:to go and create a booth and demonstrate them to people.
Speaker:In the meantime,
Speaker:we also hired a professional videographer to come in to video
Speaker:Maryland teaching the various aspects of our products and we had
Speaker:published those on our flexi website as tutorials for people to
Speaker:view. That's sort of the process.
Speaker:Go ahead.
Speaker:A flexi is a really great innovative product,
Speaker:but it is very new in the way that if you
Speaker:don't have hands on,
Speaker:sometimes people get scared about using it or they just don't
Speaker:know what to do with it.
Speaker:Right? Yeah.
Speaker:Those videos are really important.
Speaker:Yeah. So that was important.
Speaker:But then we had to go out and find someone to
Speaker:produce it for us.
Speaker:The product,
Speaker:yes. Produce the product.
Speaker:Okay. And how in the world do you do that?
Speaker:You weren't going to spend all your life in the kitchen.
Speaker:That wasn't the plan producing the seek.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:well and then actually people said to me,
Speaker:well no one buys stuff that you produce in your kitchen.
Speaker:Well and there's no way to scale it.
Speaker:So you're absolutely right.
Speaker:You want to find someone to be banking it for you.
Speaker:So how does that work?
Speaker:That was a difficult process.
Speaker:We actually went to several of our friends who were in
Speaker:business in big businesses and asked for references to potential sources
Speaker:and found one that actually was producing a related cake product
Speaker:in their manufacturing facility.
Speaker:They were willing to take us on because it's not a
Speaker:very large production line that's required to matter of fact,
Speaker:you're our product.
Speaker:They agreed to take that on and produce it out of
Speaker:their facility.
Speaker:And uh,
Speaker:that was a perfect match.
Speaker:And is it local?
Speaker:Pretty local to you anyway.
Speaker:No, it's actually in your area,
Speaker:Illinois. Oh,
Speaker:well when are you going to come visit?
Speaker:Perfect. Alright,
Speaker:so good point though in that when you're needing something to
Speaker:reach out to your local network,
Speaker:friends, family,
Speaker:anybody that you know because they may know somebody who has
Speaker:the solution to what you're looking for or has the next
Speaker:step as you're doing your research to achieve whatever it is
Speaker:you're doing.
Speaker:In this case it was manufacturing the product and then how
Speaker:did you go about what the container was going to look
Speaker:like and the sizing and all of my goodness,
Speaker:that was called also?
Speaker:Well, we knew that we wanted something that a screw top
Speaker:and we looked at the amounts that we would need to
Speaker:prepare for to be a quantity of one.
Speaker:And then we started to go to the various container manufacturers
Speaker:to look what their inventory was and what their selections were
Speaker:and found a couple of containers and asked for samples.
Speaker:And then once we found one that we liked,
Speaker:we then approached the silk screening process with them.
Speaker:Again, enlisted my son and his wife to help us design
Speaker:the labels for each of those products and had them silk
Speaker:screened at the factory on the jars before they were sent
Speaker:to us.
Speaker:Yeah, and the size of the jars also had to do
Speaker:with how much you would use at a time.
Speaker:Our glue then is a smaller jar because you don't use
Speaker:as much of it.
Speaker:Oh, good point.
Speaker:So you were really considering your end customer's application process and
Speaker:figuring out the quantities appropriately for that.
Speaker:Right, because why should they buy a quart of glue if
Speaker:they're only going to use half a cup?
Speaker:So we were thinking about that too,
Speaker:because I was in the business.
Speaker:It's easy for me to say,
Speaker:Oh well I wouldn't use that much of it,
Speaker:or I need more of this and that type of thing.
Speaker:It was when we were being trying to be considerate.
Speaker:So a question comes to me here in that you're starting
Speaker:from nothing.
Speaker:So you really don't know how much you're going to sell
Speaker:off the bat.
Speaker:We do know that the more you produce,
Speaker:the lower your individual unit costs are,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I'm not asking you to give me quantities or anything like
Speaker:that, but how did your mind go in terms of what
Speaker:was going to be that initial offering that you were going
Speaker:to produce?
Speaker:Not knowing if it was going to sell out right away
Speaker:or if you're going to be sitting on inventory for awhile.
Speaker:We actually started with a very small quantity of product and
Speaker:accessories, jars,
Speaker:labels, et cetera.
Speaker:Just as a test case,
Speaker:because when we launched,
Speaker:we launched actually at the cake fair during that fashion show
Speaker:that I've told you about.
Speaker:So that was just last year,
Speaker:right? Or two years ago.
Speaker:That was almost three years now.
Speaker:The very first one.
Speaker:Okay. And the product started to catch fire and the demand
Speaker:accelerated so rapidly that we went out and then ordered as
Speaker:much quantity as we could afford to buy for product and
Speaker:for jars and went from there and priced it from there.
Speaker:Yeah. Every manufacturer,
Speaker:as you know,
Speaker:has quantity,
Speaker:price breaks.
Speaker:Right. And the thing that we did do that some people
Speaker:may not think about is when you talk to the representative,
Speaker:you could negotiate a lower price based on higher quantities that
Speaker:you would prospectively order in the future.
Speaker:So you don't actually have to order them all now,
Speaker:but say,
Speaker:Hey, this is coming.
Speaker:Educate them about your business and how it's growing and say,
Speaker:Hey, I've got this potential that's gonna get me 10,000
Speaker:of those jars by the end of the year.
Speaker:And they may negotiate a lower price point for you at
Speaker:the smaller quantity that you buy now Based on the potential
Speaker:leading into the future.
Speaker:Right? Yeah,
Speaker:and we know that your product is very popular because your
Speaker:booth was always packed.
Speaker:I saw it because I was right across the way.
Speaker:Any tips on what to do with trade shows and interacting
Speaker:with customers and showing the product and all of that?
Speaker:It helps to have a personality like my husband,
Speaker:I'm kind of on the shy side,
Speaker:but I ended up,
Speaker:you keep saying that,
Speaker:but you and when I got get to know somebody I'm
Speaker:fine. But in the beginning I get a little timid.
Speaker:I do believe in my product,
Speaker:but I'm much more comfortable judging and teaching and that type
Speaker:of thing.
Speaker:And Joan loves to show off the product.
Speaker:Very important what you are selling to demonstrate and demonstrate it
Speaker:constantly in a booth and not just stand there and wait
Speaker:for people to come around.
Speaker:When people see you working on something and doing something,
Speaker:especially if it's new to them,
Speaker:they are right there trying to see what's going on.
Speaker:It's like having a free class.
Speaker:Yeah. And that's what you guys were doing cause you were
Speaker:sitting down demonstrating and working and creating and then Joe,
Speaker:you were more talking with everybody as I recall.
Speaker:Right. So you have your two roles.
Speaker:But the other thing with,
Speaker:to answer your question about what to do at kick shows
Speaker:or trade shows is every one of the trade shows usually
Speaker:has an educational aspect to it.
Speaker:Either classes or stage demonstrations.
Speaker:Sometimes you get paid to do the demonstration,
Speaker:sometimes you have to do them for free.
Speaker:Yeah. But the benefit to you as a business owner is
Speaker:so dramatic when you get on a stage and you're talking
Speaker:about your product and demonstrating what you can do with it
Speaker:that gets people's attention and curiosity and that the need to
Speaker:buy is much greater than they'll come look for your booth
Speaker:and purchase out of your booth based on what they saw
Speaker:either in the class or the demonstration.
Speaker:Yeah. Like John said,
Speaker:even if you don't get paid for the demo,
Speaker:we have seen in the past that right after a demo
Speaker:is done,
Speaker:people come flocking to the booth.
Speaker:Right? Yeah.
Speaker:That's perfect evidence of what you're saying for sure.
Speaker:Yes, so anybody who has a product is get into as
Speaker:many demos as you can or online and all that,
Speaker:so much that you can get out there with at the
Speaker:booth. Also Joe,
Speaker:you and I talked a little bit because I purchased one
Speaker:of your products so that we could test it and do
Speaker:what we want to do on our end as we merged
Speaker:together and suggest this to our customers and that's where I
Speaker:found out that you are kind of like a chat bot
Speaker:pro. So let's talk about that a little bit.
Speaker:Share with us how you feel about chat chatbox.
Speaker:Well, here's the thing.
Speaker:We all know that Facebook used to be a good venue
Speaker:for marketing and advertising for products.
Speaker:It's not anymore because of the restrictions that Facebook has placed
Speaker:on who sees what you post.
Speaker:They want you to pay for Facebook ads and even those
Speaker:don't reach the amount of people that you want right now.
Speaker:Facebook allows you to create messenger bots that reach out to
Speaker:people through various means.
Speaker:You can do it through a Facebook live presentation with comments.
Speaker:You can do it off your website,
Speaker:you can do it off email blasts.
Speaker:You can do it in very many different ways.
Speaker:Have people subscribe to your messenger page and then you're allowed
Speaker:to reach out to them periodically and Facebook does not limit
Speaker:that reach out.
Speaker:So if you wind up gathering four thousand five thousand six
Speaker:thousand subscribers in messenger,
Speaker:whatever you post,
Speaker:a messenger is going to go out to all 6,000
Speaker:of those subscribers.
Speaker:The reach is there.
Speaker:Facebook hasn't figured that out yet.
Speaker:So before they clamped down on that,
Speaker:that's a perfect medium for getting the word out to your
Speaker:customers. And what application are you using for your bots?
Speaker:I've found that many bot as an easy,
Speaker:very easy application.
Speaker:There are several of them out there,
Speaker:but this one has a lot of features that make it
Speaker:very user friendly and easy to create.
Speaker:Yeah. Is it many bot or many chat?
Speaker:Oh, I'm sorry.
Speaker:Mini chat.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:ManyChat okay.
Speaker:Yeah, I haven't used it yet.
Speaker:I'm kind of going back and forth as to whether my
Speaker:audience would be happy with it or not.
Speaker:Did you have that concern when you started with it?
Speaker:I didn't because one of the things that they recommend you
Speaker:do right up front is say,
Speaker:okay, you're subscribing to our messenger,
Speaker:we're going to give you information periodically,
Speaker:and you always have the option to type stop when you
Speaker:type stop,
Speaker:you're unsubscribed and you don't have to worry about it anymore.
Speaker:So the way we looked at it is if somebody didn't
Speaker:want to get bothered,
Speaker:even if it's after they've already subscribed,
Speaker:they just typed in stop and they're done and they're out,
Speaker:Right then you're not inundated with things that you don't want
Speaker:to hear.
Speaker:Right. And isn't there some thing where you have to have
Speaker:engaged within a 24 hour period or something for them to
Speaker:receive a message from you?
Speaker:No, not a message.
Speaker:Solicitation marketing.
Speaker:You can send out broadcast informational broadcast to them all the
Speaker:time, but what you need to do is in your informational
Speaker:broadcast, if you're going to want to do a product solicitation
Speaker:of any kind,
Speaker:you need to reengage them.
Speaker:So you give them a question that they answer or you
Speaker:pose a scenario survey or something to require them to answer.
Speaker:And as soon as they answer,
Speaker:they're resubscribed again for 24 hours.
Speaker:You can then send them any promotional messages.
Speaker:Okay, got it.
Speaker:We haven't talked a lot about messenger bots yet here,
Speaker:but I know they're becoming bigger and bigger.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:when I was at social media marketing world last March,
Speaker:they had a representative from Facebook on stage talking about their
Speaker:anticipated future.
Speaker:So you are right on the cusp,
Speaker:right in the thick of things in terms of the newest
Speaker:and latest and greatest.
Speaker:And I know your bot is very smooth because I've used
Speaker:it when I was making that purchase and all of that.
Speaker:And the other thing I think just to,
Speaker:I think for our listeners,
Speaker:this may be just an introduction to what these bats can
Speaker:do from a business owner's perspective.
Speaker:Now the list of the people who are interacting,
Speaker:your bot is still owned by Facebook.
Speaker:It's not owned by you.
Speaker:That's correct.
Speaker:Right. As far as I know,
Speaker:yes, it's owned by them.
Speaker:So you want to try and then if you want to
Speaker:have ownership of that list somehow you want to in some
Speaker:way get their email.
Speaker:Now if someone buys a product then you get their email
Speaker:already. Right,
Speaker:and those are some of the things that you can do
Speaker:in your broadcast streams.
Speaker:Ask for information,
Speaker:ask for opinions,
Speaker:ask for preferences.
Speaker:I ask for parts of the country that you live in,
Speaker:any of those things you can ask them cause it's just
Speaker:informational exchange.
Speaker:The other thing that may be beneficial for your audience is
Speaker:if they do go to trade shows,
Speaker:they can create a messenger code that people at the booth
Speaker:can actually scan with their phones and that you can then
Speaker:offer a discount for any purchases that they make in the
Speaker:booth when they scan the code and when they scan the
Speaker:code, they're automatically subscribed to you as a messenger subscriber.
Speaker:That worked very well for us.
Speaker:That worked very well for us at this last,
Speaker:at the ultimate sugar show.
Speaker:Oh, I love that idea.
Speaker:Yeah. I think bots are in my future for next year.
Speaker:Okay. As we start to wind down here,
Speaker:what would you say to somebody who was back in the
Speaker:beginning where you were in Maryland where you were making cakes
Speaker:or jewelry or candles or whatever the craft is,
Speaker:they're just kind of starting to tiptoe into this idea of
Speaker:maybe monetizing their craft.
Speaker:What would you say to that person?
Speaker:Something that I'm going to say to somebody who approached me
Speaker:just a little while ago.
Speaker:Don't be afraid if you think it's a good product.
Speaker:If you think you're doing a great job,
Speaker:then don't be afraid to go on and sell it or
Speaker:share it,
Speaker:that type of thing.
Speaker:And then don't be afraid to fail because you can just
Speaker:turn around and pick it up and do it over again
Speaker:or whatever.
Speaker:Many people come up to me and say,
Speaker:well, how did you do that?
Speaker:I could never do that,
Speaker:but I have this great idea and I'm going to be
Speaker:talking to someone soon about it in a couple of days.
Speaker:She says,
Speaker:I have this great idea.
Speaker:I can't wait to talk to you and have you help
Speaker:me decide if it's good enough or should I do anything
Speaker:with it.
Speaker:Don't be afraid to talk to people.
Speaker:Use your change of commerce and all that,
Speaker:your friends,
Speaker:and just not give them the idea.
Speaker:Because once you're at ideas out there,
Speaker:you can't do a patent on it.
Speaker:Right? You can't put something out there that when we found
Speaker:out and then three or four months and then go back
Speaker:and try to put a patent on it.
Speaker:Oh, you protect it first.
Speaker:Yes, you have to protect it before you put it out
Speaker:there. But you can in general talk to people about it
Speaker:and think if it's a great idea where somebody can use
Speaker:or somebody needs,
Speaker:there's always a need for innovation.
Speaker:Well, in think of how many ideas never actually come to
Speaker:reality because people are afraid.
Speaker:Oh wait,
Speaker:I gotta tell you a great story.
Speaker:Okay. Oh good.
Speaker:I'm excited.
Speaker:Drum roll.
Speaker:We lived in Hawaii and I was really into,
Speaker:we all were into health and running and walking and all
Speaker:that kind of stuff to keep healthy.
Speaker:And I would walk four miles a day with my friends.
Speaker:But even though I don't sweat much in Hawaii,
Speaker:I did and I just thought me,
Speaker:I don't want to sweat.
Speaker:So I had young kids at the time.
Speaker:Then I had baby wipes and I use the baby wipes
Speaker:on my underarms as we were walking to make me feel
Speaker:fresher. So I called dove and I said,
Speaker:you know what?
Speaker:I have this great idea for someone who in an office
Speaker:or whatever to make deodorant in a clock that you can
Speaker:use on your underarm.
Speaker:Just something to freshen up quickly during the day or at
Speaker:the gym so that you're not incredibly awful smelling right until
Speaker:you can get to a shower.
Speaker:And they said,
Speaker:Oh, don't ever use a product that was meant to be
Speaker:used for something else.
Speaker:You shouldn't be doing that.
Speaker:And it freaked me out so much that they thought it
Speaker:was a horrible idea.
Speaker:And then two years later,
Speaker:what do you think they have all over the shelf?
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:Josh, same thing with my dad.
Speaker:He went up to Canada to go fishing all the time.
Speaker:He said,
Speaker:the water up there is so good,
Speaker:I should bottle it.
Speaker:A couple of years later,
Speaker:bottled waters all over the place.
Speaker:See, I mean happy followed his thought and followed his gut.
Speaker:He would have been a millionaire.
Speaker:Right. And it's those little fleeting thoughts that we need to
Speaker:pay attention to.
Speaker:Right. Because you never know if that turns into the next
Speaker:best idea And you gotta realize that it's really not that
Speaker:expensive to start where the expense winds up is in the
Speaker:legal side of the house.
Speaker:So if you want to go patent and trademark that stuff
Speaker:gets to be a little expensive.
Speaker:But getting a business started at the beginning,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:in the test mode or test phase is not expensive at
Speaker:all. It's just takes a little bit of research and work.
Speaker:Yeah. For so good.
Speaker:It's so exciting to see people,
Speaker:even some,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:they're using it on the cake shows and all that.
Speaker:Now they're not allowed to call it flexi,
Speaker:but they use it on the kick show to see these
Speaker:people, Karen portfolio.
Speaker:And all these cake decorators that are well known,
Speaker:they're using the product and they love it.
Speaker:That has to be so rewarding for you.
Speaker:Oh, it is.
Speaker:It is.
Speaker:I just wish I was one of them.
Speaker:But you know,
Speaker:you're one of yourself.
Speaker:You are the owner of flex seek you guys.
Speaker:Yeah. I think someone come up to me and said,
Speaker:you know what?
Speaker:I used to know you when you weren't famous and I
Speaker:don't feel famous,
Speaker:but people do know our name because of flex seek and
Speaker:all that.
Speaker:But you can't be afraid.
Speaker:Don't be afraid to put yourself out there.
Speaker:Uh, it's a little intimidating,
Speaker:but you know,
Speaker:it's worth it in the end.
Speaker:Okay, so there's one more thing that I wanted to mention.
Speaker:The public like Maryland had mentioned before is a little hesitant
Speaker:about getting started with flex seek because they're a little timid.
Speaker:What we're going to start doing is on our flex seek
Speaker:YouTube channel,
Speaker:we're going to start what we call flex seek Fridays.
Speaker:So every Friday we're going to broadcast a snippet of information
Speaker:about an aspect of flex seek use.
Speaker:It'll get you started a little bit at a time.
Speaker:So if you subscribe to flex,
Speaker:seek YouTube now,
Speaker:you'll get notified when we start.
Speaker:Those should be in the beginning of 2019 That's so smart
Speaker:because I think that's where the disconnect could be.
Speaker:People understand the product,
Speaker:but all the creative uses maybe in question.
Speaker:So providing them with that information,
Speaker:I think,
Speaker:I can't wait to see what that does for your sales.
Speaker:Yeah, a short snippet of information that tell you how to
Speaker:do it because people don't like to sit there and watch
Speaker:an hour tutorial just to go through.
Speaker:It's just going to be a couple of minutes,
Speaker:right? Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah. Each one will be a cup,
Speaker:but I think people will binge watch.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:That's my guess.
Speaker:So, Oh,
Speaker:I'm excited.
Speaker:So that's going to start the first of the year,
Speaker:right? Yup.
Speaker:Okay, so gift biz listeners,
Speaker:I think when you are listening to this,
Speaker:they'll already be a few up ready to go.
Speaker:So I suggest you go over and take a look.
Speaker:And is the YouTube channel called flexi heap?
Speaker:Yes. Perfect.
Speaker:F L E X.
Speaker:IQ. Youi everybody go check it out.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Now I would like to present you both with a virtual
Speaker:gift. It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
Speaker:So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable
Speaker:Heights that you would really wish to obtain.
Speaker:Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
Speaker:What is inside your box?
Speaker:Okay, well,
Speaker:we talked about this.
Speaker:Here's the vision we would have.
Speaker:If you open this box and you see a video look
Speaker:into the future where every single person has our products on
Speaker:their shelves that they can use in some way.
Speaker:Yes, because I call lay people,
Speaker:which are not Cakery.
Speaker:Both sides of the coin can use this product.
Speaker:We're actually trying to get on project runway with it.
Speaker:We think that it would be a great non-conventional challenge,
Speaker:and that's one of the things that could be in that
Speaker:box. It sounds like you're going to have to hire the
Speaker:videographer again because you're going to get a lot of demo
Speaker:videos. So if you think about it,
Speaker:we talked about it.
Speaker:Edible clothing,
Speaker:decoration, prosthetics masks,
Speaker:Halloween masks.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Painting on bodies,
Speaker:food protection.
Speaker:Preservation. Yeah.
Speaker:Food safe barrier for non food items.
Speaker:Sorta like that set and ribbon you referred to.
Speaker:Yeah, You can go on and on and on for different
Speaker:things to do with the product line.
Speaker:That's not strictly related to the cake business,
Speaker:but to any secular businesses out there.
Speaker:So our vision is everybody's going to have it as a
Speaker:normal ingredient item In their home on their shelves.
Speaker:Yeah. You might not use it all the time,
Speaker:but it'll be there when you need it.
Speaker:Love it.
Speaker:Well, I seem to think that this is going to happen
Speaker:for you.
Speaker:I'm really excited to see about new applications because some of
Speaker:the things you just mentioned,
Speaker:I never would have even thought of so,
Speaker:and you guys together make a dynamite duo because you clearly
Speaker:know how to start successful businesses here.
Speaker:You have two under your belt and it sounds like flexi
Speaker:has enough going forward.
Speaker:It's going to take you far into the future,
Speaker:so I really,
Speaker:really appreciate your coming in.
Speaker:I think we did pull out a few secrets here today,
Speaker:so I'm really,
Speaker:really happy about that.
Speaker:Thank you so much for being on the show.
Speaker:We had a lot of fun.
Speaker:Thanks for inviting us.
Speaker:So I'm usually pretty good at keeping secrets,
Speaker:but I'm spilling the beans.
Speaker:I can't help it.
Speaker:I'm so excited.
Speaker:I just want to tell you guys what I've been working
Speaker:on over the last few months.
Speaker:It's been a little bit of a secret project because I
Speaker:wasn't sure exactly what the timing was going to look like
Speaker:on it,
Speaker:but I can't wait.
Speaker:I have to share with you my secret.
Speaker:Many of you have been following me for a while.
Speaker:Know that I wrote a book that came out last may.
Speaker:It's called maker to master,
Speaker:but that's not what this is about.
Speaker:Although it spins off a similar concept.
Speaker:When I was getting serious about writing that book,
Speaker:there were actually two books that I had in my mind.
Speaker:One was maker to master and that truth be told was
Speaker:the harder one to do,
Speaker:but I also was really interested in writing a book that
Speaker:was an inspirational book kind of inspiration a day.
Speaker:I know you've seen those out there where it's 365 inspiring
Speaker:thoughts for your year or something like that.
Speaker:I think very often we get defeated by our own self-talk
Speaker:and we also sway away from core solid business growth values
Speaker:because there's a new social media site that's available or other
Speaker:things come up that take our mind off of the really
Speaker:important things that we need to grow our business.
Speaker:As things happen.
Speaker:My idea continued to evolve and I came up with the
Speaker:idea of instead of doing a 365 inspiring tips type book,
Speaker:it would be way more helpful for you if it was
Speaker:included in some type of a planner so that every day
Speaker:when you're planning out your day,
Speaker:you'd also then see a tip.
Speaker:If I look at how I work with things,
Speaker:I don't know if I would have a book on the
Speaker:side of my desk and every day look at one day's
Speaker:inspiration and then another day's inspiration.
Speaker:Way better to have everything in one place.
Speaker:Consequently, I have created a planner.
Speaker:It's called inspired a daily planner,
Speaker:specifically for you,
Speaker:our wonderful community of gifters,
Speaker:bakers, crafters and makers.
Speaker:I'll be sharing more in the upcoming days,
Speaker:but let me give you a few highlights here.
Speaker:One of the cool things about this planner is you can
Speaker:start any month of the year.
Speaker:Have you ever been like me where all of a sudden
Speaker:in may you decide,
Speaker:I want to start doing things different.
Speaker:I want to get myself really organized,
Speaker:but then you go to find a planner and they either
Speaker:start in September going into the next year,
Speaker:or do you have to buy a year and all the
Speaker:prior months of the year are useless for you because you're
Speaker:already in may with this planner.
Speaker:You can start any time.
Speaker:If you're listening to this announcement in January,
Speaker:you can start it right away.
Speaker:If you're hearing this in may,
Speaker:you can use this planner starting in may.
Speaker:It has monthly and daily layout,
Speaker:so you'll be able to keep yourself really organized and special
Speaker:life enhancing sections.
Speaker:More on that later.
Speaker:It also includes what I've been talking about earlier and the
Speaker:reason I changed this from a book to a planner and
Speaker:that is daily inspiration,
Speaker:things that you need to be telling yourself,
Speaker:affirmations to get in the right mindset as the owner of
Speaker:your business.
Speaker:Also business tips and ideas.
Speaker:Some of them you're going to read and you're like,
Speaker:yup, got it,
Speaker:it's covered,
Speaker:and then others might give you some pause ideas of things
Speaker:you might want to implement into your business to further either
Speaker:solidify or grow what you already have going.
Speaker:That's all I'm going to share with you right now,
Speaker:but I will tell you that we are just weeks away
Speaker:from getting this out to you.
Speaker:I'm going to do a limited first run,
Speaker:and if you want to be one of the first ones
Speaker:to know when it's available,
Speaker:jump over to gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped.com forward slash add me and you'll get an email when
Speaker:the planner is ready.
Speaker:That link again is gift biz unwrapped.com
Speaker:forward slash add me.
Speaker:There is no time like the present to take the next
Speaker:step on solidifying the dream you have for your business.
Speaker:The new inspired planner could be just the ticket to making
Speaker:sure that that actually happens for you this year.
Speaker:That's a wrap.
Speaker:Have a great week everybody,
Speaker:and I'll catch you again next Monday on the gift biz
