Shownotes
Motivational Quote
Business Inspiration
How the idea of the Bowdabra was born [4:36]
An original way of describing the Bowdabra [7:09]
Candle Flickering Moments
The Michaels Crafts and KMart offers [9:44]Business Building Insight
Getting visibility for her product at trade shows in a unique way [7:51] A major breakthrough when she went international [11:04] All about her QVC experience [14:46] Increasing your opportunities through product extensions [18:36] Patent discussion and some interesting advice “Knock yourself off!” [20:04]Success Trait
Persistence has served Sandy well. She says she will make things happen by going with her gut but then doing research to back up her decision before taking action.Productivity/Lifestyle Tool
Sandy goes on long walks with her dog, Vivee to catch up on podcasts and audiobooks. She believes you should never stop learning.Valuable Book
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Crafters4Kids
Crafter’s 4 Kid’s helps families and other non-profit organizations with craft projects through simple instructions delivered digitally. Parents who feel creatively challenged, the craft projects provided here will help you and provide a fun inexpensive way to spend time with your child.Contact Links
Website Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn Pinterest YouTubeIf you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe and leave a review in Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. That helps us spread the word to more makers just like you. Thanks! Sue
Transcripts
Gift biz unwrapped episode 59.
Speaker:We are now in a licensing agreement with Paula.
Speaker:Hi, this is John Lee,
Speaker:Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,
Speaker:and you're listening to the gift of biz unwrapped.
Speaker:And now it's time to light it up.
Speaker:Welcome to gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop
Speaker:and grow your business.
Speaker:And now here's your host,
Speaker:Sue Monheit.
Speaker:Hi there.
Speaker:It's Sue and welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:Whether you own a brick and mortar shop sell online or
Speaker:are just getting started,
Speaker:you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your
Speaker:business. And today I am thrilled to introduce all of you
Speaker:to Sandy Sandler.
Speaker:Sandy is a marketing expert and a creator of the worldwide
Speaker:best selling product.
Speaker:The boat DABRA the boat DABRA is a crafting tool that
Speaker:helps people make professional hand tide bows for products and supplies
Speaker:are designed to transform the creatively challenged into creative bros in
Speaker:Sandy's own words.
Speaker:The best way to be successful in business is to remain
Speaker:persistent, be unique,
Speaker:explore new markets,
Speaker:expand your network.
Speaker:And perhaps most importantly,
Speaker:never give up.
Speaker:If you're willing to do what others are not,
Speaker:you're that much closer to achieving your goal.
Speaker:I love that Sandy,
Speaker:welcome to the show.
Speaker:Thank you,
Speaker:Sue. I am so excited to be here.
Speaker:I like to start off our conversation by our listeners getting
Speaker:a little bit of an indirect view into what you're all
Speaker:about Sandy.
Speaker:And I do that by having you describe your motivational candle,
Speaker:the light shines on you while you share your stories,
Speaker:your experiences,
Speaker:and we all can not wait to hear more about the
Speaker:creation of the boat.
Speaker:DABRA so are you ready to light it up?
Speaker:Absolutely wonderful.
Speaker:Okay. This motivational candle of yours,
Speaker:what color is it?
Speaker:And what would be the quote on that candle?
Speaker:Well, it's actually marbled it's blue and white.
Speaker:And the reason that I say blue and white is because
Speaker:to me,
Speaker:blue is limitless.
Speaker:It's the ocean and the sky,
Speaker:and it just has no boundaries.
Speaker:And white is pure and honest,
Speaker:and it's important to always have integrity in everything that we
Speaker:do. So I love the combination of both.
Speaker:And my quote is from Napoleon Hill,
Speaker:which is our only limitations are those we set up in
Speaker:our own minds.
Speaker:And I can probably guess why you love that quote,
Speaker:my guess is that you don't have many limitations,
Speaker:legal ones.
Speaker:Exactly. Definitely need that caveat.
Speaker:You think and refer back to that quote often being an
Speaker:entrepreneur. Yes,
Speaker:definitely. Especially when you have a day go,
Speaker:cause we all have them.
Speaker:We kind of have to sit back and go,
Speaker:okay, but it's going to get better and you sort of
Speaker:pick yourself up and just keep going forward.
Speaker:You ever have those days where I know I do.
Speaker:It's like,
Speaker:I'll be at night after a rough day.
Speaker:And it's like,
Speaker:why did I ever get started doing this?
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:And then you go to sleep and then in the morning
Speaker:you get up and you're all excited and just ready to
Speaker:go again.
Speaker:That's why mornings are great.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:you kind of sleep on it,
Speaker:you wake up and it's wow.
Speaker:Why wasn't even upset about that.
Speaker:You're right.
Speaker:And I think we all need the encouragement and mostly the
Speaker:knowledge that all of us go through that from time to
Speaker:time. So when you're in that zone,
Speaker:just know that's part of the gig we all signed up
Speaker:for, right?
Speaker:Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker:Friend of mine said something years ago to me,
Speaker:he said,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:if you take all of your problems and you throw them
Speaker:in a hat with everybody,
Speaker:else's, you're going to reach right in and take your own
Speaker:out again.
Speaker:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker:I think you're right.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I am not going to leave people in suspense any longer.
Speaker:I am so excited to hear the whole story about Bo
Speaker:DABRA. Any of you who don't know what it is.
Speaker:If you're near a computer or later,
Speaker:you've got to jump over onto the website and see what
Speaker:this product is all about.
Speaker:It is phenomenal.
Speaker:And anyone who's already in the gift basket business or gifting
Speaker:making bows of any sort is probably well aware of the
Speaker:product already.
Speaker:Let's talk Sandy.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it never used to exist.
Speaker:And now it does take us back to the beginning and
Speaker:let's talk through what,
Speaker:Well, pretty much I had a corporate gift business and I
Speaker:was successful and I couldn't make bows.
Speaker:And I had to this wonderful gay couple and they were
Speaker:amazing and really creative.
Speaker:And they would make all my bows for me.
Speaker:And I also lectured at the gift shows and talk to
Speaker:people about how to grow their gift business into a corporate
Speaker:gift business.
Speaker:And one of the things I noticed was all of the,
Speaker:how to make a boat seminars were always standing room only,
Speaker:and nobody could make a boat when they walked out.
Speaker:So I started buying all the tools to make a bow
Speaker:and none of them worked.
Speaker:And I don't know if you knew all sorts of packaging,
Speaker:penny or Rosemary.
Speaker:And I spoke with them and we said,
Speaker:well, gosh,
Speaker:what if we made a Beaumont Kerr that actually worked?
Speaker:And so I went and hired a design engineer and I
Speaker:showed him how to make a bow.
Speaker:And we got videos.
Speaker:And basically we put together the bow Deborah and was amazing
Speaker:because I worked with some incredibly creative people.
Speaker:And over the years,
Speaker:they've shown me ways to use bow DABRA that I never
Speaker:even would have dreamed up,
Speaker:but that was how it started.
Speaker:Wait, let's get back to this design engineer.
Speaker:How did you know that?
Speaker:That was what you should do?
Speaker:So you were it didn't all of a sudden,
Speaker:imagine this product you had observed and recognized the need.
Speaker:Exactly. I didn't even know.
Speaker:There was such thing as a design engineer.
Speaker:How did you get to that point?
Speaker:And then how did you research and find something?
Speaker:I did a lot of research.
Speaker:I spoke to people,
Speaker:I went to companies,
Speaker:basically it was through word of mouth.
Speaker:I went to a lot of different people.
Speaker:I went through the Thomas register.
Speaker:Cause back then you didn't really have the internet like you
Speaker:do today.
Speaker:Now you can kind of go Google it.
Speaker:But at the time I just had to do a lot
Speaker:of research and I found someone and spoke to him.
Speaker:And a lot of it was just luck.
Speaker:Let's frame it in time.
Speaker:How long has the Bo DABRA been available?
Speaker:This was back in about,
Speaker:I started working on it.
Speaker:It was probably back in 98.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So, Oh,
Speaker:going on 20 years almost.
Speaker:Almost. Yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So you created the product super cool and no surprise.
Speaker:And I will relate back to not just a regular blue
Speaker:or white candle,
Speaker:but a marbled candle.
Speaker:Same thing with the bow DABRA for you.
Speaker:Right? I mean,
Speaker:it was customers who are so creative because that's the field
Speaker:that we're in finding all of these new and exciting ways
Speaker:to use.
Speaker:What really is a very simple product,
Speaker:but so helpful and so useful.
Speaker:Yeah. And that was one of the things that I found
Speaker:about the Bo DABRA and I've always said this to retailers
Speaker:is the bow DABRA is your razor and everything else in
Speaker:your store?
Speaker:Well, not everything,
Speaker:but your ribbon and your pics and all of that are
Speaker:your razorblades.
Speaker:So you only have to buy one bow DABRA unfortunately they
Speaker:last forever.
Speaker:So, you know,
Speaker:once you buy one,
Speaker:you pretty much have it for life,
Speaker:but you're going to go through,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:if they're in a gift store,
Speaker:you sell ribbon,
Speaker:you're going to go through a lot of ribbon and a
Speaker:lot of picks,
Speaker:especially if you show your customers how to use it.
Speaker:Plus as your business grows,
Speaker:you'll have more employees.
Speaker:They're all going to be needing one,
Speaker:if they're all doing bows.
Speaker:So exactly we'll sales on that,
Speaker:but okay,
Speaker:let's back it up again.
Speaker:One more time.
Speaker:You've made the product now,
Speaker:how did you go about showing it to the world?
Speaker:There were a couple of ways.
Speaker:One is what I found is like the obvious customer is
Speaker:a person that's using ribbit.
Speaker:So what I did is I went to ribbon companies and
Speaker:I partnered with ribbon companies at trade shows.
Speaker:Cause I said to them,
Speaker:if I'm in your booth,
Speaker:I'm going to attract attention to your booth and just let
Speaker:me use your ribbon because if I'm using your ribbon,
Speaker:I'm going to sell your ribbon.
Speaker:And then that's going to show my bow DABRA.
Speaker:So I'm basically working for you for free and your booth,
Speaker:but you're giving me space.
Speaker:And so that was how I started to introduce it because
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I didn't have the money to go to all of the
Speaker:gift shows.
Speaker:Right. So you would go into the booth kind of as
Speaker:an employee of their company showing yours.
Speaker:And then did you give them like a spinoff of the
Speaker:sales from the show or something to reimburse them?
Speaker:Well, I would sell their ribbon,
Speaker:right? Because by using their ribbon in the boat DABRA and
Speaker:one of the things that I would ask them is I
Speaker:would say,
Speaker:okay, what ribbon do you want me to sell?
Speaker:And I would use that ribbon in my demos because I
Speaker:know that,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:this from your years in business is if you're using a
Speaker:product, then the people see you use it.
Speaker:That's going to be what they bought.
Speaker:And I would mix and match ribbons.
Speaker:I learned in Europe how to mix and match different patterns
Speaker:of ribbon that I would have never thought to do before.
Speaker:Interesting give biz listeners,
Speaker:I want to point something out here.
Speaker:A couple of episodes ago on gift biz unwrapped,
Speaker:we talked about power partners that was with Julie
It's actually titled power clusters.
Speaker:That is exactly what Sandy did here because she partnered with
Speaker:ribbon companies.
Speaker:So it's a similar audience,
Speaker:right? And so she partnered with them,
Speaker:put herself in their space at shows.
Speaker:They weren't competitors.
Speaker:They were complimentary.
Speaker:So there were power partners.
Speaker:And that's how she got the boat.
Speaker:DABRA name out to the world.
Speaker:Exactly. That was how I started.
Speaker:Okay. And so then from there,
Speaker:well, from there,
Speaker:it's just kind of a funny story.
Speaker:Two things happened.
Speaker:I was at the hobby and craft show with one of
Speaker:the ribbon companies and the buyer from Michael's came to our
Speaker:booth and she said that this was the best product she
Speaker:saw at the whole show.
Speaker:I was beyond ecstatic.
Speaker:I'm thinking,
Speaker:Oh my God,
Speaker:this is great.
Speaker:We're going to get into Michael's.
Speaker:Well, a couple of weeks later,
Speaker:the rep went and saw Michaels and I'm like,
Speaker:well, why didn't they buy it?
Speaker:And he said,
Speaker:well, they already have a bowmaker I'm like,
Speaker:but it doesn't work.
Speaker:He said,
Speaker:yeah, but it sells.
Speaker:And I'm pulling my hair out and like,
Speaker:I cannot believe this.
Speaker:And then at the same time,
Speaker:the rep came to me and said,
Speaker:okay, Kmart's interested.
Speaker:But they want you to take the video out of the
Speaker:box. And if anybody's seen the Madame,
Speaker:bruh, it looks like a bale cover or a bookend.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:there is no way you can know how to use this
Speaker:product. If you don't see the video.
Speaker:And especially at that time,
Speaker:The internet wasn't really viable yet.
Speaker:It wasn't viable at all.
Speaker:Now we have a ton of videos on YouTube at Bo
Speaker:DABRA today and also on our blog,
Speaker:but Deborah blog.
Speaker:But before that,
Speaker:we didn't have it.
Speaker:So if you didn't have a video,
Speaker:you wouldn't know how the product worked.
Speaker:So I said,
Speaker:no, we,
Speaker:as much as I would love to have Kmart carry our
Speaker:product, I'm not going to sell it because everything's going to
Speaker:be returned.
Speaker:Right. So I turned down that order and I said,
Speaker:and my background is international business.
Speaker:So I said,
Speaker:okay, forget the United States in Europe,
Speaker:a woman would rather have a little EDBD perfect diamond than
Speaker:a three carat with a flaw.
Speaker:They care about whether things work.
Speaker:So I said,
Speaker:all right,
Speaker:I'm marching off to Europe and I'm going to find a
Speaker:company there.
Speaker:So I flew over to Christmas world,
Speaker:which is a huge trade show in Frankfurt.
Speaker:And I went and met with like,
Speaker:I went to every ribbon company and like found your ribbon
Speaker:company there.
Speaker:And I convinced them to let me come and be in
Speaker:their booth at the craft show,
Speaker:which was in Holland or the Netherlands a couple of months
Speaker:later. And the deal was that I would demo and that
Speaker:I would demo every other hour and that their person would
Speaker:demo regular boats every other hour.
Speaker:Any sales I got,
Speaker:they would allow me to take,
Speaker:because I was going to bring traffic into their booth.
Speaker:Well, once we started showing Bo we had a corner booth,
Speaker:so we had two tables set up with three seats in
Speaker:each table.
Speaker:Once the traffic started coming back,
Speaker:we never made boats by hand.
Speaker:We only just do the bow DABRA and it was nonstop
Speaker:from nine to six every single day.
Speaker:And at the end of the first day,
Speaker:they pulled me inside and said,
Speaker:can we please talk to you about distributing Cadabra?
Speaker:We don't want you to give it to anybody else.
Speaker:Oh, wow.
Speaker:And so I set up my distribution with them.
Speaker:And so I sold a couple of containers to them before
Speaker:I even sold in the United States.
Speaker:Did you give them an exclusive over there in Europe for
Speaker:some time?
Speaker:Yes I did.
Speaker:Is that still in place?
Speaker:No, it's not because things changed over the years,
Speaker:but at that point,
Speaker:yes. That's a great story.
Speaker:And a couple of things I want to underline here.
Speaker:The first thing is I really like how you talked about
Speaker:the fact that here's this big,
Speaker:huge vendor.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:Kmart of all people,
Speaker:short of Walmart Kmart,
Speaker:right? And,
Speaker:and At that time they were big,
Speaker:Huge and successful at that time,
Speaker:they were really successful.
Speaker:I'm not saying that they're not now,
Speaker:that's not my point,
Speaker:but I mean,
Speaker:someone that would stop you in your tracks and be like,
Speaker:Oh my product in there.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:But you weren't going to take it on those terms because
Speaker:you knew your product best.
Speaker:And you knew not to set yourself up for a questionable
Speaker:outcome. And that had to be hard that had to take
Speaker:some guts because you don't know if those offers are going
Speaker:to come by again.
Speaker:It was a really I'm sure.
Speaker:But like I said,
Speaker:you knew what was going to make your product work the
Speaker:best. And you took a pass,
Speaker:which kudos for you.
Speaker:I know it was years ago,
Speaker:but I bring it up because I want all of our
Speaker:listeners to think about that.
Speaker:If they're ever in a situation,
Speaker:you want to make sure that you're thinking of all of
Speaker:the different things that could break your plan and make sure
Speaker:when you accept things,
Speaker:even though they sound great,
Speaker:you cover everything and make sure you're setting yourself up for
Speaker:the best possible outcome that you can.
Speaker:The other thing that I really like about what you've just
Speaker:been talking about,
Speaker:Sandy is you looked at other creative options going to Europe.
Speaker:Not many of us would think that especially 20 years ago,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:now people are flying all over 20 years ago,
Speaker:people were starting to travel more for business on a regular
Speaker:basis, but it took a lot of courage from you to
Speaker:go up and do it that way and look at the
Speaker:success. Oh yeah.
Speaker:It was.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:for me,
Speaker:I should add,
Speaker:I used frequent flyer miles.
Speaker:It doesn't matter how you did it.
Speaker:You got yourself over there.
Speaker:Right? Right.
Speaker:Yeah. No,
Speaker:it was important because I just knew that it was an
Speaker:option I had to take if I wanted to move forward.
Speaker:Sure. So let's round out the story.
Speaker:So every,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we're not all left hanging what then happened so that you
Speaker:were able to entrench into the yeah.
Speaker:Yes. Well then it came back and I was really fortunate
Speaker:to have an opportunity to sell QVC.
Speaker:And that was like,
Speaker:it was the most exciting and scariest thing ever.
Speaker:They ask you to give them at the time they wanted
Speaker:5,000 units and they were giving me 10 minutes at like
Speaker:eight in the morning.
Speaker:And I thought,
Speaker:Oh my goodness,
Speaker:I am going to literally end up buying a booth at
Speaker:a flea market.
Speaker:And this is it.
Speaker:They're selling these because there's no way I'm going to sell
Speaker:5,000 units in 10 minutes.
Speaker:Their deal with juicy is if they don't sell,
Speaker:they're going to send them back.
Speaker:But fortunately we sold out.
Speaker:So it was awesome.
Speaker:And then I was on QVC for years.
Speaker:So again,
Speaker:you put yourself out there,
Speaker:you take the chance you take the risk,
Speaker:say yes.
Speaker:And you just go all in and make the most of
Speaker:it. You possibly can.
Speaker:And I had a plan if it didn't work.
Speaker:Yeah. Contingency planning.
Speaker:One of my favorite things exactly Just reduces the stress.
Speaker:If you have another idea of what will happen next in
Speaker:case you don't reach your goals,
Speaker:one time you do something different.
Speaker:This is all great,
Speaker:great success.
Speaker:We know Bo DABRA is a spectacular product.
Speaker:Give us one of those times.
Speaker:Tell us a story about that night when you were at
Speaker:home, like we were talking about in the beginning and you
Speaker:were Like,
Speaker:why in the world,
Speaker:did I even start this?
Speaker:Give us a problem that you encountered?
Speaker:Probably the biggest problem was okay.
Speaker:I had my design engineer and he was amazing in helping
Speaker:to come up with a design for the product,
Speaker:for the Bo DABRA.
Speaker:But I also trusted him in developing the mold.
Speaker:And I allowed him to make me think that I didn't
Speaker:know what I was doing.
Speaker:And so,
Speaker:which I didn't refer,
Speaker:I knew nothing about engineering,
Speaker:building a mold,
Speaker:anything like that,
Speaker:but right.
Speaker:And that's why you Hired him because he was going to
Speaker:be the professional.
Speaker:Exactly. One who knew exactly.
Speaker:And we built them here.
Speaker:We had this guy in Phoenix who could build a mold
Speaker:and it was $23,000,
Speaker:which was huge.
Speaker:And he convinced me not to go to the orient and
Speaker:manufacture it there,
Speaker:which was my first mistake.
Speaker:I should have gone straight to the orient because it would
Speaker:have been much cheaper to make the mold.
Speaker:Even if I had to buy 10,000
Speaker:units, the risk reward in the opportunity cost would have been
Speaker:much better for me to have gone directly to the orient.
Speaker:Having said that we made them old,
Speaker:it was a faulty mold.
Speaker:And I ended up with two tons of trash that costs
Speaker:$23,000. Were the pieces not fitting together.
Speaker:What was,
Speaker:it was just made wrong and it didn't work.
Speaker:The mold itself did not work in the machines correctly.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:And so what did you do about it?
Speaker:I made some calls.
Speaker:I found a manufacturer in Taiwan that I could work with.
Speaker:And I built the mold in Taiwan and ordered my 11,000
Speaker:units that I had to order.
Speaker:And it actually ended up costing me more,
Speaker:but in the long run,
Speaker:less. Right.
Speaker:Because then you were able to sell the product was made
Speaker:off of that.
Speaker:And then you had the mold for the future and a
Speaker:good connection.
Speaker:All I did,
Speaker:but one lesson that I will tell people is once you
Speaker:work with a company in China and then you want to
Speaker:change manufacturers,
Speaker:whether it's Taiwan,
Speaker:whether it's China,
Speaker:you might as well just count your mold is gone.
Speaker:Yeah. You've got to start over.
Speaker:You've got to then create a mold within the next company.
Speaker:Right? Exactly.
Speaker:Cause they'll tell you,
Speaker:you can take your mobile with you,
Speaker:but you can't and it's okay.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I've moved several times,
Speaker:my manufacturing for various reasons,
Speaker:but it is something to keep in the back of your
Speaker:mind that going to the orient is not a bad thing.
Speaker:G to just weigh your opportunity costs and know who you're
Speaker:working with.
Speaker:Now let's jump over to today,
Speaker:Sandy. And you've now made a couple of versions of the
Speaker:boat. DABRA talk to us about how the product has progressed
Speaker:to where it is.
Speaker:Like you mentioned,
Speaker:we have the regular Bo DABRA and then we have the
Speaker:mini bow Debra.
Speaker:And initially with the regular bow,
Speaker:DABRA making the little 80 bitty bows,
Speaker:like with eighth inch ribbon and making them so you have
Speaker:quarter inch loops.
Speaker:It's very difficult.
Speaker:And in the larger boat ever,
Speaker:you could do it,
Speaker:but you're kind of fumbled.
Speaker:So we were trying to figure out how do we make
Speaker:a stand,
Speaker:all different kinds of ways to do it.
Speaker:And we did that for several years and I changed manufacturers.
Speaker:And with my new manufacturer,
Speaker:I kind of brought up to him.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:this is one of the problems we're having.
Speaker:Do you have any ideas?
Speaker:And he still wanted me to just make a mini podagra.
Speaker:And I'm like,
Speaker:Oh my God.
Speaker:Yeah. Well,
Speaker:let's think about it.
Speaker:The lesson there is,
Speaker:it's always good to have a fresh set of eyes to
Speaker:look at an issue that you might not think is solvable.
Speaker:But if you have someone that comes from a totally different
Speaker:background that looks at it,
Speaker:it can open your eyes to an opportunity.
Speaker:Sure. I can absolutely understand having used the Bo DABRA in
Speaker:a past business,
Speaker:how that would not,
Speaker:you possibly,
Speaker:you couldn't possibly use it for that really small narrow ribbon
Speaker:at all.
Speaker:So, and it is,
Speaker:it does sound like an obvious solution,
Speaker:but your mind is going in a different direction.
Speaker:So you don't think of it Exactly.
Speaker:With the mini.
Speaker:You can literally make the littlest bow that you've ever seen.
Speaker:So you've got it covered on both ends there.
Speaker:Exactly. At what point in the whole process,
Speaker:did you trademark or patent or what,
Speaker:like any of the legal registrations around the product?
Speaker:At what point did that come in the process Right away?
Speaker:As soon as we had all of the designs,
Speaker:we got a utility patent and a design patent and then
Speaker:looked at all the international patents.
Speaker:But now that you bring that up,
Speaker:one thing that I get a lot of people that come
Speaker:to me that have ideas and want advice on how to
Speaker:get started,
Speaker:but they're afraid to share their ideas because they think somebody's
Speaker:going to knock off their idea.
Speaker:There's a real fine line there,
Speaker:because if somebody wants to knock you off,
Speaker:they're going to knock you off because unless you're a mega
Speaker:millionaire, you're not going to be able to fight it.
Speaker:But there's a couple of reasons that things get knocked off.
Speaker:Number one is that you can't supply demand or your product's
Speaker:too expensive,
Speaker:meaning that somebody else can make it for a lot less
Speaker:than you can.
Speaker:And those are why things get knocked off.
Speaker:But if you have a really good idea and you don't
Speaker:have a lot of money,
Speaker:you can do something like a provisional patent,
Speaker:which will protect you for a year.
Speaker:And you can do that through a company like legal zoom,
Speaker:or you can hire a patent attorney,
Speaker:but it lets you feel more comfortable about going out and
Speaker:talking about your idea.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:And then I would suggest that you're right.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I've heard this before.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:at the last craft and hobby show,
Speaker:I was with somebody who goes and looks at products and
Speaker:sees what products they can go to China and make,
Speaker:which didn't sit totally well with me.
Speaker:Right? Add,
Speaker:but adding the layer,
Speaker:you were referencing a little bit earlier in our talk about
Speaker:having YouTube videos and you being at the shows and all
Speaker:of that personal overlay that there is to the business.
Speaker:Other people who are going for the cheap play,
Speaker:aren't going to do it that way.
Speaker:They're going to build something in subpar materials.
Speaker:It's just not going to fit together.
Speaker:Right. It's not going to be proper.
Speaker:So if you have passion for your product and you build
Speaker:it correctly with the patenting and all of that,
Speaker:that Sandy's talking about and you do the other stuff,
Speaker:because you're so passionate about it,
Speaker:you're anted in that personal layer,
Speaker:you're much more protected.
Speaker:Would you agree with that?
Speaker:I would.
Speaker:And then another thing that I advise people is to try
Speaker:to knock yourself off.
Speaker:Oh, that's interesting.
Speaker:Because if You can go and see what somebody can actually
Speaker:knock you off for,
Speaker:then you've got at least,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you're, you're again,
Speaker:that's me,
Speaker:I'm a planner then at least,
Speaker:you know what could happen?
Speaker:You, you know,
Speaker:your alternatives And maybe in the end,
Speaker:you're creating another version of like a more basic version of
Speaker:your product or something.
Speaker:Exactly. Exactly.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Question for you now.
Speaker:So both DABRA is available online.
Speaker:Can you buy it in Amazon?
Speaker:Yeah, you can,
Speaker:But in Amazon you can buy it on from our store.
Speaker:You can buy it at Walmart.
Speaker:Michael's Joann's hobby lobby.
Speaker:Is there anything specific that you could share with our listeners
Speaker:of ways that you've seen that the product moves the best?
Speaker:Yeah. It's really important that people see how the product works.
Speaker:One of the hardest things that I faced initially was people
Speaker:had bought other bowmakers and they're like,
Speaker:Oh, well I already bought one.
Speaker:It doesn't work.
Speaker:They're putting all bowmakers in the same category.
Speaker:Exactly. So the social media,
Speaker:it's such an important aspect of what we do.
Speaker:And I'm so grateful that it's there and that we can
Speaker:use it the way that we can today.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:years ago,
Speaker:it wasn't,
Speaker:for instance,
Speaker:our product is in the craft section,
Speaker:in Walmart,
Speaker:on the bottom shelf,
Speaker:underneath the rivet.
Speaker:If someone takes a bow DABRA and you don't see all
Speaker:the other boat address,
Speaker:but yet Walmart sells a lot about Alvarez.
Speaker:And I know that the reason they're selling a lot of
Speaker:Bo dabbers is because people are seeing us online.
Speaker:It's not because people are digging underneath all the ribbon and
Speaker:looking for the Beau DABRA boxes.
Speaker:Well it's because they are because they know that they can
Speaker:buy it.
Speaker:Exactly. So you're doing YouTube videos.
Speaker:And then are you doing Facebook ads to the videos or
Speaker:how are you set up in that manner?
Speaker:We actually haven't done any Facebook ads at all.
Speaker:We'll probably start doing that.
Speaker:What I do is we have on our Facebook page all
Speaker:the time,
Speaker:we have new Bo dabber projects on our YouTube.
Speaker:We have lots of videos.
Speaker:Every Wednesday.
Speaker:We come out with a new video on Monday and Tuesday,
Speaker:we have projects on our blog and then on Wednesdays we
Speaker:have videos.
Speaker:And it's great because we show all different kinds of projects
Speaker:you can make using the book app.
Speaker:That's even better,
Speaker:really any ads,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:demoing how to use it and what you can do and
Speaker:the variations and all of that.
Speaker:Perfect. And now let's talk a little bit about working with
Speaker:chain stores,
Speaker:like a Michael's.
Speaker:Is there any insight that you can give people who have
Speaker:a product in terms of the nuances of working that way
Speaker:versus directly with a customer who's purchasing one-on-one When you're dealing
Speaker:with the retailer,
Speaker:there are a lot of demands that are set upon you,
Speaker:but you have to deal with,
Speaker:if there are returns,
Speaker:you have to deal with buybacks.
Speaker:You have to deal with advertising.
Speaker:If you want demos,
Speaker:you have to pay for those.
Speaker:I have a distributor in the United States that I work
Speaker:with. It's phenomenal because I let them handle the chains.
Speaker:Cause I'm just one person.
Speaker:And I've learned in my years of business,
Speaker:that outsourcing is amazing.
Speaker:Sort of seeing different portions of the business.
Speaker:You're still keeping control over everything,
Speaker:but you're outsourcing the functionality,
Speaker:meaning the distributors can then deal with all of the chains.
Speaker:Well, exactly.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:my distributor,
Speaker:Reese, who is one of the largest craft distributors and they're
Speaker:actually, they were just purchased by Michaels.
Speaker:They have 50,
Speaker:I think 55,000
Speaker:or more products.
Speaker:So they're selling to Walmart hobby lobby,
Speaker:they're selling to everybody.
Speaker:So they have all of everything already set up.
Speaker:Right. So I don't have to deal with all of the
Speaker:changes in all the stores and cause it's a nightmare.
Speaker:I did it and I didn't like doing it.
Speaker:So, you know,
Speaker:I, I know what I'm good at and that's not it.
Speaker:And I have a very good relationship with them.
Speaker:They're an amazing company.
Speaker:And they basically import my product and then they sell it
Speaker:to the stores and they sell exclusively in the United States.
Speaker:Except actually,
Speaker:this is a really exciting thing.
Speaker:I'm going to announce it for the first time here.
Speaker:Ooh, drum roll.
Speaker:Well, I know we are now in a licensing agreement with
Speaker:Paula Dean.
Speaker:No way.
Speaker:Yes. And we're going to be introducing our apology lighter products.
Speaker:Wait a minute.
Speaker:So you're going to be rebutting,
Speaker:lasagna noodles.
Speaker:Well, Paula Dean,
Speaker:what people don't know is she's an amazing crafter.
Speaker:When I was in her house a couple months ago,
Speaker:I walked in and there was this bus that was,
Speaker:had shells all over.
Speaker:It was like shell art.
Speaker:And I thought,
Speaker:Oh my God,
Speaker:that's like a $10,000
Speaker:piece of art that she bought somewhere.
Speaker:She made it no way,
Speaker:I guess.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:she is an amazingly creative woman,
Speaker:incredible. And the nicest person you'll ever meet.
Speaker:Wow. Wow.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:You got gift biz listeners.
Speaker:We are lucky.
Speaker:We are in the,
Speaker:yeah, that is so exciting.
Speaker:So we're going to all keep our eyes peeled to see
Speaker:what happens with this.
Speaker:And you guys met Sandy here.
Speaker:I'm just telling you that.
Speaker:Super cool.
Speaker:Well, congratulations on that.
Speaker:And many,
Speaker:many wishes for success with that project.
Speaker:No, I'm really excited about it as well.
Speaker:You should be.
Speaker:Let's roll over now into our reflection section.
Speaker:This is a look at you and we talk a little
Speaker:bit about how you were working and get a feel for
Speaker:what's made you successful as you've gone on.
Speaker:We've talked a lot about some of the challenges and how
Speaker:you've overcome things,
Speaker:but what trait would you say you draw on most?
Speaker:That's helped you to be as successful as you are.
Speaker:Don't give up.
Speaker:If the mold isn't made properly here,
Speaker:you're just going to find somewhere else.
Speaker:So, and if they don't want videos in the boxes,
Speaker:you'll just talk with someone else again.
Speaker:Exactly. And research.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I go with my gut and then I do a lot
Speaker:of research to back it up.
Speaker:Oh, there you go.
Speaker:That makes sense.
Speaker:So your knowing that you're going to drive forward and find
Speaker:a solution and then you have a gut feel for what
Speaker:it is,
Speaker:but then you also confirm that yes,
Speaker:this makes sense.
Speaker:This is where I'm going next.
Speaker:Exactly. All right.
Speaker:And what tool do you use regularly to help you keep
Speaker:productive or to create some type of balance in your life
Speaker:balance? What's that?
Speaker:Yeah know we can all wish,
Speaker:right? No,
Speaker:actually it's my walks.
Speaker:I love walking and that's my escape time.
Speaker:I listen to podcasts or I listen to audible books.
Speaker:You can never stop learning.
Speaker:That's probably my biggest thing to education.
Speaker:And we're so fortunate now because there's a million different podcasts
Speaker:out there.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:there's so much free information that you can get.
Speaker:You sound very much like me,
Speaker:that there's so much information you want to just soak all
Speaker:of it up and always be listening and always learning and
Speaker:all of that.
Speaker:And I will caution everybody.
Speaker:There's a point where,
Speaker:because some people can get into this fear of missing out
Speaker:the whole FOMO thing and you capture so much information that
Speaker:you never take action.
Speaker:You have to create a real balance between how much you're
Speaker:listening and learning versus doing in your business too.
Speaker:Well. Yes.
Speaker:I couldn't agree with you more.
Speaker:I sometimes find myself.
Speaker:I want to,
Speaker:I find myself challenged with that.
Speaker:What I do find myself challenged with is going to sleep
Speaker:and turning it off because I keep wanting to hear more
Speaker:and more.
Speaker:I agree.
Speaker:No, it's your,
Speaker:I, yes.
Speaker:You can just keep going on extra long walks,
Speaker:Right? Yeah.
Speaker:Devi loves it when I'm listening to a really good book
Speaker:or something.
Speaker:Cause our walks are longer.
Speaker:There you go and share with everyone who Vivi is,
Speaker:Is my Husky.
Speaker:And she's amazing.
Speaker:She's actually a service dog.
Speaker:I have her for a medical service stock.
Speaker:So she's incredible.
Speaker:And she's beautiful.
Speaker:I'm looking at her right now in the Skype picture as
Speaker:we're recording as are you Sandy?
Speaker:You both,
Speaker:I should say,
Speaker:but we don't have to Photoshop.
Speaker:Very funny.
Speaker:There wasn't much Photoshop in there either,
Speaker:but we shall move on.
Speaker:What book have you read lately that you think our listeners
Speaker:could find value in or listened to?
Speaker:I listened to it on audible.
Speaker:And it's funny because I'm shocked that I never read it
Speaker:before is Napoleon Hill's think and grow rich.
Speaker:It is the most amazing book.
Speaker:It's like the grandfather of all motivational and success books.
Speaker:I wish someone had given it to me when I was
Speaker:a kid.
Speaker:Did you just happen upon it recently?
Speaker:Yes. I mean,
Speaker:I heard about it for years,
Speaker:but I just never read it.
Speaker:And I was like going through my little audible thing and
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:yeah, maybe I'll listen to this.
Speaker:Sometimes we forget that some of the older books are so
Speaker:grounded and they're still available and popular because they're so good.
Speaker:I really believe that this is the basis of every motivational
Speaker:speaker and every success book that you buy today.
Speaker:So gift biz listeners,
Speaker:just as you're listening to the podcast today,
Speaker:you can also grab,
Speaker:think and grow rich right from audible.
Speaker:And guess what?
Speaker:I've teamed up with audible.
Speaker:If you haven't already,
Speaker:you can get a free book,
Speaker:right? From there on me.
Speaker:All you need to do is go to gift biz,
Speaker:book.com and make a selection.
Speaker:Okay, Sandy,
Speaker:I'm now going to invite you to dare to dream.
Speaker:I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.
Speaker: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 wish to obtain.
Speaker:Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
Speaker:What is inside your box?
Speaker:Wow. Okay.
Speaker:One of the reasons that I started Bo DABRA was because
Speaker:I always felt very creatively challenged and kind of craft phobic.
Speaker:If I may,
Speaker:over the years,
Speaker:I don't feel that way anymore because I've been around these
Speaker:amazingly creative people.
Speaker:And I've learned that I'm actually creative.
Speaker:And what I've noticed is kids today don't get arts and
Speaker:crafts. The schools have stopped offering shop and arts and crafts
Speaker:and home-ec and all of those kinds of courses,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:with the computers and being plugged in all the time,
Speaker:families don't sit down and do arts and crafts,
Speaker:unless somebody is lucky enough to have a mother or an
Speaker:aunt or a dad or an uncle who is into crafting.
Speaker:So several years ago I started a nonprofit called crafters for
Speaker:kids. And the idea was to get really quick,
Speaker:like five minute crafts that cost nothing so that a parent
Speaker:could sit down just for five minutes and do an arts
Speaker:and craft project with their kids.
Speaker:Because I believe that that fosters family,
Speaker:it fosters creativity because there's no right or wrong way to
Speaker:do a craft.
Speaker:Doesn't matter if you color in the lines or out of
Speaker:the lines.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:Picasso definitely never colored in the lines.
Speaker:Seriously, Just giving kids an outlet with their hands and with
Speaker:things that they find,
Speaker:even if they go outside and grab a stone and paint
Speaker:it, it's so fun.
Speaker:And it lets them feel like they've accomplished something.
Speaker:I know it sounds so funny,
Speaker:but I would make things on QVC because I was so
Speaker:insecure. I actually would hire somebody to help me figure out
Speaker:what I would make because I was so insecure.
Speaker:And then they would,
Speaker:And I'd be so proud of myself.
Speaker:I think that there's a reason why children who are in
Speaker:some type of counseling will be asked to draw because something
Speaker:comes out something,
Speaker:none verbal based on what they're feeling inside versus what they
Speaker:can put on paper.
Speaker:There has to be a reason why that happens.
Speaker:And there,
Speaker:there has to also be a reason why there's a healing
Speaker:and there's passion and all the things that you're saying.
Speaker:When you get this sense of satisfaction that you have made
Speaker:something with your very own hands,
Speaker:all by yourself,
Speaker:there's something kind of surreal about it.
Speaker:I would say Exactly.
Speaker:And so my dream is to be able to really focus
Speaker:on that and bringing arts and crafts into people's lives.
Speaker:Tell us more about how we can learn more about crafters
Speaker:for kids.
Speaker:Well, we have a website it's older.
Speaker:Haven't done anything with it for a couple of years,
Speaker:but it's,
Speaker:if you go to Kraft or C R a F T
Speaker:E R S the number four,
Speaker:K I D s.com.
Speaker:There's a whole bunch of free stuff there.
Speaker:And I'm going to start getting back to working on that
Speaker:again. I love that as your gift,
Speaker:I'll give that to you every day.
Speaker:And I'm going to also put this.
Speaker:You didn't include it with all the rest of your information
Speaker:for the show notes page.
Speaker:Can I put that on there as well?
Speaker:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker:Okay. Super.
Speaker:I'm going to put a special section just in case you
Speaker:guys are listening.
Speaker:You're going on.
Speaker:One of those long walks that we were just talking about,
Speaker:you can jump over to the show notes page,
Speaker:if by chance you forget the crafters for kids name.
Speaker:Additionally, on the show notes page,
Speaker:I have all the information on the boat.
Speaker:DABRA and honestly,
Speaker:you guys,
Speaker:anybody who is in any type of a crafting where you're
Speaker:needing bows,
Speaker:if you don't know about this product,
Speaker:you really need to.
Speaker:So we've got an Instagram,
Speaker:Facebook, YouTube,
Speaker:all different types of things where you can go and absolutely
Speaker:check it out and totally reasonable in terms of price point
Speaker:to Sandy.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:It's really cheap.
Speaker:It's all that ribbon that you start stocking up on that
Speaker:that's where the price adds up.
Speaker:Oh my God.
Speaker:And I'm addicted.
Speaker:I need to go into ribbon rehab.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So pretty much everything.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:it's on the show notes page,
Speaker:but pretty much everything has a bow.
Speaker:DABRA connected with it in terms of,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:in the links.
Speaker:But Sandy,
Speaker:if someone wanted to talk to you directly,
Speaker:is that possible?
Speaker:And if so,
Speaker:where would they go?
Speaker:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker:They can just email me@bodabraatme.com.
Speaker:I answer all the customer service stuff on Bo DABRA personally,
Speaker:because I like to know what's going on.
Speaker:Sure. Keep your hands in the business.
Speaker:Know how people are feeling.
Speaker:Yeah. Very smart.
Speaker:Another huge tip that we're throwing in near the very end
Speaker:here. All right,
Speaker:Sandy. Thank you so much.
Speaker:It has been so incredibly interesting to hear the history of
Speaker:both DABRA having used the product for ever seems like ever,
Speaker:almost ever since it got started and then hearing the story
Speaker:and some of the challenges and how you've overcome them.
Speaker:And just a lot of really good information for all of
Speaker:us as entrepreneurs,
Speaker:to be able to relate to thank you so much.
Speaker:I appreciate your getting together today and sharing all of this
Speaker:information. And may your campaign Learn How to work smarter while
Speaker:developing and growing your business?
Speaker:Download our guide called 25 free tools to enhance your business
Speaker:in life.
Speaker:It's our gift to you and available@giftbizonrev.com
Speaker:slash tools.
Speaker:Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the
Speaker:next step Today's show is sponsored by the ribbon print company.
Speaker:Looking for a new income source for your gift business.
Speaker:Customization is more popular now than ever brand your products of
Speaker:your logo or print a happy birthday,
Speaker:Jessica ribbon to add to a gift,
Speaker:right? A checkout it's all done right in your shop or
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Speaker:Check out the rigid print company.com
Speaker:for more information.
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Speaker:know someone who can provide valuable insight from their experiences?
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