Shownotes
Business Building Insights
- When you move a business to a new town, you’re basically starting over.
- Make something that can be reproduced and market to the masses.
- Make your products unique and include a Signature Product.
- You’ll grow by making yourself stand out and have people talking about you.
- Branch out. When it comes to your initial niche, don’t feel you have to stay solely in that lane.
- A good product and good packaging go hand in hand.
- Realize the value of being able to duplicate.
- Don’t lose sight of your core product and vision.
- There’s always something new to learn.
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Thanks! Sue
Transcripts
You're listening to gift biz on rapt episode 184 called my
Speaker:husband and I said,
Speaker:Hey, we need to come up with a business At Tintin,
Speaker:gifters, bakers,
Speaker:crafters and makers.
Speaker:Pursuing your dream can be fun whether you have an established
Speaker:business or looking to start one now you are in the
Speaker: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 spending a
Speaker:little bit of your time with me today.
Speaker:I have a special announcement for any of you in or
Speaker:around the Atlanta area on November 8th through 11th I'm going
Speaker:to be at the ultimate sugar show.
Speaker:What fun to be around bakers of all sorts,
Speaker:professionals and those who are just starting their business in baking.
Speaker:If you're in the area,
Speaker:I do hope you join me there.
Speaker:We are going to be exhibiting as the ribbon print company
Speaker:and I'm also going to be conducting a class.
Speaker:It's called don't be vanilla stand out in your market.
Speaker:You can get all the information about the show,
Speaker:register and apply for classes at www,
Speaker:ultimate sugar show.com
Speaker:I hope to see you there.
Speaker:I also want to make sure that you're familiar with my
Speaker:free Facebook group called gift biz breeze.
Speaker:It's a place where we all gather and our community to
Speaker:support each other.
Speaker:I've got a really fun post in there.
Speaker:That's my favorite of the week.
Speaker:I have to say where I invite all of you to
Speaker:share what you're doing,
Speaker:to show pictures of your product,
Speaker:to show what you're working on for the week,
Speaker:to get reaction from other people and just for fun because
Speaker:we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody in
Speaker:the community is making.
Speaker:My favorite post every single week without doubt,
Speaker:wait, what aren't you part of the group already?
Speaker:If not,
Speaker:make sure to jump over to Facebook and search for the
Speaker:group gift biz breeze.
Speaker:Don't delay.
Speaker:Come join us in gift biz breeze today.
Speaker:The announcements are all over.
Speaker:Let's dive into the show Today To introduce you to Sheila
Speaker:Horvath, who's the founder and owner of heavenly treats for you.
Speaker:Heavenly treats for you is a custom gift basket company based
Speaker:in Nashville,
Speaker:Tennessee. Sheila's entrepreneurial spirit,
Speaker:hard work and long hours have provided the leverage to go
Speaker:places she never thought her business could go.
Speaker:What was born out of the hospitality industry and a passion
Speaker:to has blossomed into something quite amazing,
Speaker:touching so many people with a little basket of cheer.
Speaker:Sheila is proud to have earned the coveted gift designer certification.
Speaker:She's been featured on the cover of the gift basket,
Speaker:industry magazine trends and tips and was keynote speaker at the
Speaker:2017 national gift basket convention this year.
Speaker:Sheila added author to her list of accomplishments in the collaborated
Speaker:book. Simply inspired.
Speaker:Sheila and Dan have been married for 35 years and they
Speaker:have two boys and an adorable grandson.
Speaker:Gabriel. Sheila,
Speaker:welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:Thanks Sue for having me today.
Speaker:I'm so excited about this.
Speaker:Me too.
Speaker:So Sheila,
Speaker:I'm going to have you describe yourself in a little bit
Speaker:of a different way and that is through a motivational candle.
Speaker:So if you were to help us picture what your candle
Speaker:would look like,
Speaker:what color would it be and what would be the motivational
Speaker:quote on your candle?
Speaker:Thank you so much for having me think that way.
Speaker:I've never thought about a candle in those thoughts,
Speaker:but I love it.
Speaker:I like catch everybody with this first question.
Speaker:Yes. So I love the fall time.
Speaker:So I think I would choose a candle that has more
Speaker:of the warm oranges and yellow colors to really kind of
Speaker:get you in the mood of the fall and the season
Speaker:that's coming up.
Speaker:I like citrus because I feel like that is a kind
Speaker:of awakening,
Speaker:fresh feeling.
Speaker:But then I would also add a touch,
Speaker:a cinnamon to it,
Speaker:just to give us that warm feeling of fall.
Speaker:First I have to ask you,
Speaker:so you're totally into the fall mode right here.
Speaker:And it's September,
Speaker:so it's clearly fall.
Speaker:Yes. So when you're talking about the colors right here,
Speaker:I'm thinking of all the leaves changing color.
Speaker:Do they do that in Nashville?
Speaker:They do.
Speaker:Okay. I wasn't sure.
Speaker:That is one of the things that we love about Nashville
Speaker:is there's four seasons,
Speaker:and so my husband,
Speaker:I were just talking about it should be getting that time
Speaker:when the leaves start to change and the fall colors in
Speaker:some years are better than others and I'm sure that's how
Speaker:you have it up there,
Speaker:but the yellows and the beautiful oranges in the vibrant reds
Speaker:that come out in the fall,
Speaker:it is absolutely probably my favorite time of year.
Speaker:Just the colors that just,
Speaker:I love the spring and that citrus,
Speaker:knowing that you know,
Speaker:it's the summer and the fresh feeling of the citrus smell,
Speaker:but then you have to add in that cinnamon to make
Speaker:it the fall warm,
Speaker:fuzzy feeling that you get when you have a cup of
Speaker:tea with some cinnamon in it.
Speaker:So you've got a little bit of both those seasons in
Speaker:there. Love it on that candle.
Speaker:Then what would be a quote or some type of words
Speaker:that you live by?
Speaker:I'm going to refer to a quote that I actually put
Speaker:in my book,
Speaker:the chapter that I help collaborate with some peers in our
Speaker:industry. And it is,
Speaker:people will forget what you said.
Speaker:People will forget what you did,
Speaker:but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Speaker:And that was Maya Angelou,
Speaker:I think is how you say her name.
Speaker:Right. And when I read that the first time,
Speaker:that really spoke volumes to me because that's exactly how I
Speaker:feel about my business.
Speaker:Our first thought when we created our business was we wanted
Speaker:to wow people and what better way to make them feel
Speaker:loved. Thought of just that feeling of being able to open
Speaker:up a gift and have that wow feeling that someone really
Speaker:did care enough to send me this.
Speaker:So I just thought that that quote speaks volumes for our
Speaker:company. Totally aligns with your company overall.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:Let me take you back now,
Speaker:Sheila too.
Speaker:When you were thinking about a company,
Speaker:so before heavenly treats for you even started,
Speaker:how did you narrow in on this as being your business?
Speaker:That's a really interesting question because as a stay at home
Speaker:mom, because at the time I had two boys and they
Speaker:were 10 years apart,
Speaker:so we were in different kind of mentality.
Speaker:That had to be challenging because you're raising them two different
Speaker:age groups at the same time.
Speaker:Yes. It was interesting throughout both of their childhoods.
Speaker:I had been a volunteer at the school,
Speaker:I was on the PTA board and it seemed like I
Speaker:always got the positions where I had to provide gifts for
Speaker:the teachers and so the last position that I held there
Speaker:was the president and we had to do all these gifts
Speaker:for all the staff and so I joked with my husband
Speaker:now that you know all those times that we put those
Speaker:hundreds of bags together with little goodies and ribbon on them.
Speaker:That was just setting me up for this business.
Speaker:The way the business actually came about was I did a
Speaker:ministry at our church where I helped with gifting for visiting
Speaker:ministers and guests that would come through our church for services
Speaker:and things.
Speaker:And so I took a basket to a hotel and it
Speaker:was just filled with lots of little goodies and snacks and
Speaker:fruit and waters and things that I thought I was at
Speaker:a hotel I would want to get.
Speaker:And the general manager happened to be at the front desk
Speaker:and said,
Speaker:who does y'alls baskets?
Speaker:Because these are absolutely gorgeous.
Speaker:And it was actually the church secretary that took it.
Speaker:And she said,
Speaker:well, it's a lady in our church and you know,
Speaker:I'll let you know her name.
Speaker:And she said,
Speaker:well, does she have a business card?
Speaker:And so immediately the girl calls me and says,
Speaker:Hey, we need a business card from you.
Speaker:And I'm thinking,
Speaker:what? You're like,
Speaker:what? Yeah,
Speaker:I did it.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:you're kidding me,
Speaker:right? And she's like,
Speaker:no, you need to come up with a business.
Speaker:So I called my husband and I said,
Speaker:Hey, we need to come up with a business.
Speaker:Aye always had that entrepreneurial spirit.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I remember one time I was making baby clothes,
Speaker:little bibs and things that had the fruit and veggies on
Speaker:it and came up with this whole little clever thing but
Speaker:just never took off.
Speaker:It was never really what I wanted to do.
Speaker:And so we kind of talked that evening and he said,
Speaker:well, what about something with being heavenly because it's church related.
Speaker:So we came up with a heavily treats for you,
Speaker:the number four in the letter U.
Speaker:We wanted to play on something different.
Speaker:And so that's really how it began.
Speaker:It was one night we talked about it and the next
Speaker:day I started investigating how to go about starting a business.
Speaker:I had no clue because again,
Speaker:I was a stay at home mom that just loved doing
Speaker:things like this and didn't have a clue on how to
Speaker:make money.
Speaker:Just knew that I needed to do this.
Speaker:And that was my first account was that hotel because they
Speaker:wanted me to do,
Speaker:they're a little amenity baskets.
Speaker:They didn't want anything big.
Speaker:They just wanted me to come in with some cute little
Speaker:things that they could give were when they had a problem
Speaker:with a room or if a VIP walked in,
Speaker:they wanted to be able to give them something.
Speaker:And so that's how heavily treats for you came about.
Speaker:So that was the trigger.
Speaker:That was the trigger.
Speaker:The hotel was the trigger and you never really thought about
Speaker:it. I find it amazing that in one night you decided
Speaker:on your name already,
Speaker:right? Yeah.
Speaker:And you had experienced,
Speaker:because you had done these bags before for the school and
Speaker:all that,
Speaker:so that was really good.
Speaker:But you also talk about the fact that you had dabbled
Speaker:in a couple of other things too.
Speaker:How did you have the confidence,
Speaker:or maybe I should say,
Speaker:did you have the confidence,
Speaker:because we all know that doing something on the side and
Speaker:for a craft and a hobby and doing it for one
Speaker:moment in time is a lot different than actually running a
Speaker:company where you're going to be surrounded by this all the
Speaker:time. I would say that far as the confidence level,
Speaker:I probably never really had what a true confidence in what
Speaker:I could do until probably last three years.
Speaker:How long have you been in business?
Speaker:We celebrate our 10th year now.
Speaker:We took a couple of years off cause we had some
Speaker:moves and we can talk about that cause it's an interesting
Speaker:story of how we ended up in Nashville.
Speaker:But I would say that first I just was doing it
Speaker:for fun.
Speaker:I just thought this was the coolest thing that Hey I've
Speaker:got a business that you know,
Speaker:a viable business here and I would talk to these hotels
Speaker:and I'd get orders and I really,
Speaker:that was not even the biggest income for me at the
Speaker:moment. It was all of the families at the church found
Speaker:out that Oh wow she does these great little baskets for
Speaker:baby showers.
Speaker:That was the biggie cause everybody seemed to be having babies.
Speaker:And so I would come in with three or four designs
Speaker:and I would make them all unique.
Speaker:And the problem with that was everybody knew they were from
Speaker:me, but they really wasn't for me because I had been
Speaker:hired to do that.
Speaker:So I stopped going to the baby showers.
Speaker:I would come in,
Speaker:I would deliver my gift,
Speaker:I would deliver all the gifts that I got hired to
Speaker:do, and then I would leave because I did not want
Speaker:them to be going,
Speaker:Oh, Sheila,
Speaker:we're so excited.
Speaker:Thank you,
Speaker:thank you.
Speaker:Because it really was not from me.
Speaker:It was from the person,
Speaker:and I would say,
Speaker:Oh no,
Speaker:that's from such and such.
Speaker:So it was funny,
Speaker:but they knew my look and I had no idea that
Speaker:I was actually creating that brand.
Speaker:Really not even realizing that that's what I was doing.
Speaker:Really important to you are creating a brand.
Speaker:It's not just a gift basket,
Speaker:but it's a style of you created Your gifts,
Speaker:right. That developed over time.
Speaker:That was really unique then to heavenly treats for you.
Speaker:Yes. So I call this as an example,
Speaker:and you've heard this before,
Speaker:she'll, I'm sure is this is one of your unique special
Speaker:powers because what your design looks like looks different from everybody
Speaker:else's. Right?
Speaker:And as a young entrepreneur,
Speaker:I had no idea that's what was happening.
Speaker:I heard about branding when we came up with that name.
Speaker:I knew immediately what look I wanted for my business cards
Speaker:and things like that.
Speaker:I knew I wanted it to be black,
Speaker:I wanted it to be gold.
Speaker:I wanted it to look very classy.
Speaker:I wanted it to be something that I always thought about.
Speaker:If Oprah found me,
Speaker:this would be one of her favorite things.
Speaker:So I wanted it to be a unique looking,
Speaker:classy product.
Speaker:And so when I contacted my niece,
Speaker:who I thought she was fabulous in marketing,
Speaker:she doesn't do that,
Speaker:but she did it on the side.
Speaker:And so I asked her,
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:Hey, do you think you can come up with a logo?
Speaker:And so I kind of told her what I was looking
Speaker:black and gold.
Speaker:She created the stars that went along with it to kind
Speaker:of play on that heavenly.
Speaker:And then we didn't really want to put gift baskets in
Speaker:there because I thought,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:someday I may not be making gift baskets.
Speaker:I don't know where this is going.
Speaker:So we did it as the heavenly treats for you just
Speaker:to be different.
Speaker:And so that's really where it was born in that thought
Speaker:that I already knew what I wanted to do,
Speaker:but I had no idea where it was actually going.
Speaker:Really smart on the name choice too.
Speaker:As you describe it,
Speaker:you're not limiting yourself,
Speaker:right? Yeah.
Speaker:So take us back still to that first part of developing
Speaker:the company.
Speaker:So you didn't really didn't know for sure what to do,
Speaker:but you were going to get started and how lucky for
Speaker:you, you already had business,
Speaker:right? You figured out what to do in terms of establishing
Speaker:the company.
Speaker:Okay. So how did you start establishing pricing?
Speaker:So when we first started the business,
Speaker:we were in Texas,
Speaker:and this will kind of explain this because my husband got
Speaker:transferred to the Memphis area.
Speaker:And so we had lived in Texas for 20 something years
Speaker:and that was where all my friends were.
Speaker:And when I first started pricing,
Speaker:I knew I needed to double whatever my cost was.
Speaker:Yeah. I talked to different people and they were,
Speaker:Oh you gotta double it,
Speaker:you gotta double it.
Speaker:So I would always do that.
Speaker:But the problem with when I first started,
Speaker:I made everything so customized that I didn't really think it
Speaker:through. And I kept having people say,
Speaker:you need to make this where you can make multiples of
Speaker:something. But in the infancy of this business was that it
Speaker:really was more custom.
Speaker:I was wanting to wow everybody.
Speaker:I wanted them to feel so special that they got something
Speaker:from me that I didn't want it to be duplicated.
Speaker:So at first that's really where the direction was going,
Speaker:was just going to all be custom.
Speaker:But then I quickly learned that the time it took me
Speaker:to go shopping for each individual gift,
Speaker:that I really was not making anything by just doubling the
Speaker:price and spending all my time shopping.
Speaker:So when we moved to Memphis,
Speaker:I didn't have that network of friends that was supporting me.
Speaker:It was like starting the business over again.
Speaker:And so then I thought,
Speaker:okay, so now what do I do with this business?
Speaker:It's going,
Speaker:I'm still getting calls from people from Texas but was not
Speaker:going to carry me.
Speaker:I had to get out and network and so I joined
Speaker:all the chambers that were local and started trying to make
Speaker:it where I could somewhat repeat something,
Speaker:but I never really caught on with that.
Speaker:Does that make sense?
Speaker:Because I really was still in that custom wanting to do
Speaker:everything special for that one order.
Speaker:Right. And so really I never got into the corporate,
Speaker:even though I did the hotels,
Speaker:we were actually in South Haven,
Speaker:Mississippi, which is outside of Memphis.
Speaker:So I immediately started marketing to the hotels and picked up
Speaker:some hotels and was doing the same thing that I did
Speaker:in Texas.
Speaker:But I never really broke into that corporate arena until we
Speaker:were moved to Nashville.
Speaker:And that's when,
Speaker:I don't know if it just clicked or if I got
Speaker:tired of not making it very much money on this business
Speaker:and thinking this is needs to be a viable business.
Speaker:And I can backtrack a little bit too about that because
Speaker:there was some circumstances that happen in our lives that changed
Speaker:what was happening dynamically in our family.
Speaker:And so I took a couple of years off because of
Speaker:my husband went through some illness and at the time I
Speaker:thought maybe I don't want to restart this business.
Speaker:Cause really when you move a business you basically are restarting
Speaker:it. It may say the same name,
Speaker:but you have to go through the whole process of got
Speaker:to get your new license wherever you're at.
Speaker:So I feel like when I decided to go ahead and
Speaker:do this business the third time,
Speaker:that's what I always tell people.
Speaker:When I decided to do the business the third time I
Speaker:really rethought things and I thought,
Speaker:okay, I'm not doing it the way I do it the
Speaker:first two times because I made mistakes.
Speaker:Like I would go out and buy things that I thought
Speaker:just looked amazing together.
Speaker:But if you don't have a storefront,
Speaker:who's going to buy him?
Speaker:Do you have them on your shelves?
Speaker:But you are not marketing named body.
Speaker:I didn't have a website.
Speaker:I had a web page that just said,
Speaker:Hey contact me if you want something custom.
Speaker:But it didn't have anything that allowed them to order and
Speaker:that was when things were really starting to get online and
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:And so as we fast forward 10 years later now I
Speaker:know that where the money is is you make something that
Speaker:can be reproduced and you market to the masses versus the
Speaker:one, but you can still customize that.
Speaker:Every gift that goes out is still customized.
Speaker:So you have like a base design that then you can
Speaker:add to or adjust based on what the order looks like.
Speaker:A lot of times,
Speaker:yes. So now that we're in Nashville,
Speaker:we decide to go with a website where we can place
Speaker:orders. So we came up some designs and Nashville has been
Speaker:a really unique place to live because we tried,
Speaker:when we first moved here,
Speaker:we saw how they're such,
Speaker:everybody loves local.
Speaker:Everything's a local scene or there's a culture here.
Speaker:And I think it's because of the country music,
Speaker:it's hospitality hospitality's big here.
Speaker:So we really tried to focus on what makes Nashville unique.
Speaker:And so we pulled in some of the local products.
Speaker:They're big into Jack Daniel's,
Speaker:cause you know,
Speaker:Jack Daniel's is made here.
Speaker:They're big into the gurus and the moon pies and the
Speaker:things that we're,
Speaker:they're proud of their products,
Speaker:I guess is what I'm starting to say.
Speaker:And so we pulled those into our designs and we came
Speaker:up with things that really spoke about Nashville.
Speaker:And then we started marketing to people that are having guests
Speaker:come to Nashville.
Speaker:So therefore we're marketing to that tourism.
Speaker:And there's still a huge market that I haven't even tapped
Speaker:into for that.
Speaker:But we tried to figure out something that would make us
Speaker:stand out.
Speaker:And then we came up with our signature gift.
Speaker:I want to get into the signature gift for sure,
Speaker:but first I want to point out to give biz listeners.
Speaker:There are a couple of things that maybe you're not in
Speaker:the gift basket industry,
Speaker:but you're a maker.
Speaker:Couple of things with Sheila's story that it can apply to
Speaker:all of us.
Speaker:Sheila, I really liked when you were talking in the very
Speaker:beginning about your pricing,
Speaker:you had doubled it,
Speaker:but you really hadn't necessarily seen,
Speaker:well all of the time that's going into acquiring the product,
Speaker:producing the product.
Speaker:Maybe it needs to be more than that.
Speaker:So a good thing gift biz listeners to look at is
Speaker:what are the standards in your industry already?
Speaker:How do different products get priced?
Speaker:For example,
Speaker:like candles might be priced different than gift baskets because there's
Speaker:different type of labor involved.
Speaker:Back to candles.
Speaker:I always gravitate back to those candles.
Speaker:She was sorry,
Speaker:but you know,
Speaker:if you're making your candles,
Speaker:that's going to be different than if you're buying candles to
Speaker:put in your gift shop.
Speaker:Right? Right.
Speaker:But if you're making candles,
Speaker:you might also want a price because you might be wholesaling
Speaker:to a gift shop owner.
Speaker:So it extends from there.
Speaker:But so it's really good when you're in the early stages
Speaker:and you're just getting your product to market.
Speaker:Think about where you're trying to go with it so that
Speaker:then you can get your price as close to accurate as
Speaker:possible. And of course they're going to be adjustment.
Speaker:Sheila talked about that,
Speaker:how she saw as she evolved her business,
Speaker:I'm going to say businesses cause you hit the three of
Speaker:them, same name but three places.
Speaker:But it's something good to think about in terms of what's
Speaker:going to be scalable and allow you to make money.
Speaker:Because if you're not going to be profitable long term,
Speaker:you're not going to stay in business.
Speaker:That's just the whole thing there.
Speaker:So secondly,
Speaker:and I really love this also is how you're talking about
Speaker:in Nashville ways to make your product unique.
Speaker:Again, I go back to this unique special power that I
Speaker:talk a lot about.
Speaker:And in your,
Speaker:it was Nashville and the foods and the music and the
Speaker:whole vibe of the town and it's so perfect Sheila,
Speaker:because people then can talk about you in relation to that.
Speaker:Oh she's the one who has the gifts that relate to
Speaker:Nashville. You can get products from Nashville,
Speaker:et cetera,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:So it can be in food like Sheila's doing.
Speaker:It can be in the colors that your product has.
Speaker:It can be in your style all different ways and when
Speaker:you define that for your business,
Speaker:you're giving another way.
Speaker:People can talk about you,
Speaker:which extends your visibility.
Speaker:It's not just,
Speaker:Oh this person has a jewelry shop or a pottery store.
Speaker:It's that,
Speaker:Oh they have a pottery store and they make these special
Speaker:shapes. All the pottery is shaped in some way like a
Speaker:leaf or whatever it is.
Speaker:So it gives a story to extend your visibility forward.
Speaker:Hopefully that makes sense.
Speaker:But that's exactly what you're doing Sheila,
Speaker:is you're talking about Nashville here and now I'm so excited
Speaker:cause I want to get on.
Speaker:Let's talk about this signature product you have.
Speaker:And that is true.
Speaker:If you can make yourself stand out and have people word
Speaker:of mouth talking about you,
Speaker:that's how you'll grow and that's really what happened to us
Speaker:was organically we have grown.
Speaker:I've done very little advertising towards that other than just on
Speaker:social media and just really talking about the products that we
Speaker:come up with.
Speaker:I'm keeping you in suspense about this signature product.
Speaker:Just for a second so we can hear a word from
Speaker:our 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.
Speaker:Craft studio in seconds.
Speaker:Visit the ribbon,
Speaker:print company.com
Speaker:for more information.
Speaker:Our signature gift is a guitar case.
Speaker:It's a gift box that's made in the shape of a
Speaker:guitar, so it's not a whole big true to life guitar.
Speaker:It's not known.
Speaker:Just checking.
Speaker:Yes, because I've had people say,
Speaker:you're kidding me.
Speaker:You do it in a guitar case and I joke with
Speaker:him, well yeah,
Speaker:if you want to give me a big guitar case,
Speaker:I will fill that to be a giant gift basket.
Speaker:Their eyes just kind of pop out.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:they're like,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:really? So it's a small little gift box that's in the
Speaker:shape of a guitar case.
Speaker:And I've had people say,
Speaker:Oh well that's really something else.
Speaker:And I'm like,
Speaker:well, but it's just showing the musical thing.
Speaker:It says guitar case.
Speaker:Okay. And what we do is we fill it in with
Speaker:local products and then we personalize that.
Speaker:And a lot of times too,
Speaker:if someone is really tells me,
Speaker:my friend really likes sweet and savory and,
Speaker:but they really are chocolate lover,
Speaker:then I'll put in maybe some extra goos or I'll put
Speaker:in some more moon pies or I'll put in,
Speaker:we have a chocolate shaped solid chocolate guitar that goes in
Speaker:there and we've had it specially made for us with some
Speaker:gold on it that's on the outside of the chocolate.
Speaker:And so it's just beautiful.
Speaker:It looks wonderful in there.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:playing on that theme of the country music and those things.
Speaker:And so we add all these lovely local products in there
Speaker:and then we enclose it.
Speaker:Of course,
Speaker:if it's being shipped,
Speaker:we shrink rapid obviously to make it protected.
Speaker:But we do,
Speaker:we ship these all over the 48 States and then deliver
Speaker:them here to the hotels with Cielo and a big bow
Speaker:on it and 99% of the time that they go out
Speaker:and I will say nine nine because there is occasional when
Speaker:somebody will say no,
Speaker:I don't want any personalized ribbon on there,
Speaker:but we're a big ribbon printing company and love it.
Speaker:We'd stand by it.
Speaker:I mean I would,
Speaker:I don't know how to do without my ribbon print machine,
Speaker:but actually I have to and so I would put welcome
Speaker:to Nashville or congratulations on your wedding.
Speaker:We've used them for weddings,
Speaker:we've used them for welcome gifts,
Speaker:we've used them for sympathy,
Speaker:gifts, birthdays,
Speaker:you name it.
Speaker:The guitar case has gone out with something in it from
Speaker:Nashville and it became our signature gift and that's why we
Speaker:were actually featured on the magazine,
Speaker:our industry magazine because I took an item that made sense
Speaker:in our city and took it and made it to be
Speaker:a signature gift that speaks about us.
Speaker:I would say again,
Speaker:90% of the time if we give out a door prize
Speaker:to someone,
Speaker:it's usually in our guitar case because that's what they're expecting.
Speaker:They want to have something that talks about us.
Speaker:That's our signature gift.
Speaker:So your business overall being a hundred percent what percentage of
Speaker:gifts are guitar cases?
Speaker:Guitar case boxes?
Speaker:Sue, that is a great question.
Speaker:I would love to say that it was 50% but we've
Speaker:actually, I'm going to say probably what is surpassing my guitar
Speaker:case and I would love to do the guitar cases all
Speaker:day long because they're fun to put together.
Speaker:Probably our best seller is our Gable boxes.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:we took Nashville with the thought of Nashville.
Speaker:We took a craft Gable box and I don't know if
Speaker:everybody knows what a Gable box is.
Speaker:No, let's describe it.
Speaker:So a Gable box is a box.
Speaker:It's like a six by four and about six inches tall,
Speaker:has little handles,
Speaker:little flaps that kind of fold in and the handles they
Speaker:all connect and close up.
Speaker:So then it becomes a handled like a lunchbox that you
Speaker:could maybe envision with the handle on top.
Speaker:And so what we do is we pack this little Gable
Speaker:box and it works wonderful for hotels.
Speaker:It works for clients coming in from out of town.
Speaker:And really it's just a small little taste of Nashville.
Speaker:We've got snack pack of Nashville,
Speaker:we've got taste of Nashville,
Speaker:we named them all different kinds of names and basically we
Speaker:just put in some sweet and savory and some moon pies
Speaker:and some googoos.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:usually our chocolate guitar gets in there somewhere or another,
Speaker:and we have a postcard of the city.
Speaker:So I wanted it to be where people that are traveling,
Speaker:maybe they don't want the guitar case because there,
Speaker:and I do get this,
Speaker:a lot of times they'll say,
Speaker:well, they're flying.
Speaker:Maybe they don't want to do the guitars.
Speaker:But I will tell you have checked in with the hotels
Speaker:to see if they're getting left.
Speaker:And I have yet to have someone say,
Speaker:Oh yeah,
Speaker:the guitar case was left.
Speaker:If you do a gift basket and you take a physical
Speaker:basket, they're going to get left.
Speaker:They're not going to try to pack those things and try
Speaker:to fly with them.
Speaker:But somehow or another,
Speaker:that guitar case usually gets home with them.
Speaker:That's funny.
Speaker:But the Gable box,
Speaker:it's more of a,
Speaker:you could throw it away but you can take the postcard
Speaker:off. So there's a little souvenir and then all these little
Speaker:goodies that come in there.
Speaker:And then of course we personalize it with their logo or
Speaker:their welcome to Nashville,
Speaker:Jane DOE or whatever the name is.
Speaker:I did do kind of a rough estimate last year and
Speaker:it was the Gable box that actually surpassed our guitar cases.
Speaker:But this year it may be kind of running neck,
Speaker:neck. But I still think the Gables is probably past it
Speaker:cause we've gotten quite a few orders of those lately.
Speaker:But you've demonstrated the example that I was hoping would happen
Speaker:and that is that your signature gift doesn't necessarily,
Speaker:it for sure doesn't mean that that's all you do,
Speaker:but it also doesn't need to be the most that you
Speaker:do either.
Speaker:What it is,
Speaker:is it something that represents,
Speaker:falls in line with the brand and he provides something to
Speaker:talk about in relation to your business.
Speaker:That's the whole point Tests and I think it draws them
Speaker:in because once I get to talking to people,
Speaker:I may suggest the guitar case or I may suggest the
Speaker:Gable, but sometimes they'll say,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:that's not quite what I want.
Speaker:Well, that,
Speaker:I love that too because I have some really unique containers
Speaker:because we've made ourselves known to not have your typical baskets.
Speaker:So we've come up with some unique repurpose containers that are
Speaker:trays that are made of wood.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:when I go to market,
Speaker:I'm looking for things that to me speaks of Nashville.
Speaker:Now I don't necessarily do all my business in Nashville because
Speaker:I'm shipping to all kinds of States,
Speaker:the 48 States,
Speaker:but I want when somebody sends something,
Speaker:they're sending it from Nashville.
Speaker:So chances are that gifs going to have some Nashville products
Speaker:in it.
Speaker:So I tend to lean towards what,
Speaker:what do I think describes Nashville when I pick containers and
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:I would also imagine that over time you've gotten to know
Speaker:your customer better.
Speaker:So there was probably a point where you went off and
Speaker:you were buying things that didn't necessarily work and now every
Speaker:year probably you know more and more about your customer and
Speaker:my guess is that the customer also changes over time.
Speaker:They do.
Speaker:And this year is going to be a really interesting year
Speaker:because we've been in business,
Speaker:we're going into our fourth year and I've had some repeat
Speaker:customers in the holidays and I noticed it last year that
Speaker:when they called me up for their order for the holidays
Speaker:they asked me do you have any new products?
Speaker:What's new in the gifts?
Speaker:So I'm on the hunt every day.
Speaker:I'm on the hunt for something new in Nashville cause I
Speaker:love to buy local,
Speaker:I love to support these small businesses that are coming up
Speaker:and as long as they provide me with a product quality
Speaker:package Jean and meet all the criteria of a well established
Speaker:business, if that makes sense.
Speaker:Cause we don't want something that is made not by the
Speaker:standards that for the health department or anything like that.
Speaker:So we have to be very choosy.
Speaker:And you need shelf life.
Speaker:Yes. And shelf life.
Speaker:You can't be just something that's going to be good for
Speaker:a week.
Speaker:So we're always looking for things.
Speaker:But this year we really have branched out a little bit
Speaker:and I'm going to try it this season,
Speaker:see how it goes.
Speaker:But we found some wonderful products.
Speaker:We went to the market twice this year,
Speaker:Atlanta market and we've been to the national gift basket convention
Speaker:and so we found some unique products that we just fell
Speaker:in love with as a business.
Speaker:Love the taste,
Speaker:love the quality,
Speaker:love the packaging.
Speaker:It fits in a new look that we want to do
Speaker:and so we're going to introduce those products this fall in
Speaker:our holiday lines just to see if people are receptive to
Speaker:it. Again,
Speaker:we still have our basic wonderful Nashville made products,
Speaker:Tennessee products,
Speaker:but we're just going to tweak things a little bit because
Speaker:we do have those repeat clients that maybe don't want to
Speaker:give the same products every year,
Speaker:but they want something new and so this year we're really
Speaker:stepping up our game and the way I'm going to approach
Speaker:it to share with my clientele and on the social media
Speaker:is we're going to feed you these products and we're going
Speaker:to talk about how we fell in love with him at
Speaker:market because obviously all the businesses go to market and we're
Speaker:going to talk about,
Speaker:there's some things that just become our favorites.
Speaker:Oprah has her favorites and you have your highlighted gifts.
Speaker:Every fall are a holiday gifts that people identify the holidays
Speaker:with and so we kind of want to come up with
Speaker:a way to say that these are the heavenly treats that
Speaker:we discovered this year and so we're going to introduce those.
Speaker:I think what we're going to try to do is maybe
Speaker:weekly come up with a way in the next few weeks
Speaker:of just introducing a new product each week,
Speaker:talk about how we're going to use it in a gift
Speaker:or several gifts.
Speaker:We're using some of them already,
Speaker:and I had an order go out this week that has
Speaker:some of the new cookies that we're going to use and
Speaker:the reason we bought them was they came in such different
Speaker:color schemes of the packaging and I'm so glad I discovered
Speaker:it because in this order that's what the person was looking
Speaker:for was something that would bring out her logo color,
Speaker:her company color.
Speaker:It was perfect and I'm glad that I had decided to
Speaker:branch out and not just sometimes we kind of as finding
Speaker:our niche,
Speaker:don't feel like you have to stay totally in that lane
Speaker:because sometimes that can pigeonhole you and then you're stuck there
Speaker:and you can't go out of that.
Speaker:Does that make sense?
Speaker:Absolutely. Yeah,
Speaker:so you tend to have little things that you can bring
Speaker:in. Obviously,
Speaker:I'm not going to put any of those products in something
Speaker:that says Nashville,
Speaker:Tennessee or the good,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:something like that.
Speaker:Unless I ask the customer,
Speaker:Hey, would you like to have other products that we have
Speaker:some favorites?
Speaker:Do you mind if we put those in those?
Speaker:But I would never pass it off as,
Speaker:Hey, this is made in Tennessee.
Speaker:Does that make sense?
Speaker:It makes total sense.
Speaker:And another thing that you brought up,
Speaker:and I just got to say that's one of the things
Speaker:that I love about doing this podcast is something that you're
Speaker:saying Sheila applies if you tweak it in just a little
Speaker:bit of a different way to every single listener here.
Speaker:So I want to just point out an underline this opportunity
Speaker:for people.
Speaker:If you're making a product locally that maybe goes for a
Speaker:gift basket or not even really look to see what other
Speaker:businesses in your area are focusing on locally made products,
Speaker:because that could be a place where either your product can
Speaker:be in their store,
Speaker:you can be in someone's gift box or gift basket stand
Speaker:that way too.
Speaker:Because it's true and I see a trend,
Speaker:Sheila, I don't think it's just gift baskets,
Speaker:but people are looking for locally made products because the carbon
Speaker:footprint is even smaller than just American made.
Speaker:Right. People are liking supporting small businesses in their areas and
Speaker:let's face it,
Speaker:you get to a point where you get limited because there's
Speaker:not as much selection locally as there is a nationwide.
Speaker:Right. So huge opportunity if you make anything that's in your
Speaker:area that could be in a gift basket,
Speaker:in a gift shop,
Speaker:in an art store,
Speaker:all of that reach out to those people because you're local.
Speaker:There's a huge opportunity there and as Sheila was saying,
Speaker:she's searching for that and if you are just so fortunate
Speaker:to be in Nashville and you make anything,
Speaker:especially if it's consumable,
Speaker:you've got to talk to Sheila.
Speaker:Yes, Because she may need you.
Speaker:I would.
Speaker:I would love to talk to them and I just was
Speaker:talking to somebody that wanted to start a toffee business and
Speaker:I explained to her up front,
Speaker:I said you could make toffee and you could put it
Speaker:in a little bag and get by with the minimum amount
Speaker:of costs in your packaging,
Speaker:but I said,
Speaker:if you will upfront,
Speaker:you know you have a good product,
Speaker:then go ahead and spend the extra money to developed the
Speaker:product in some kind of real eye catching packaging.
Speaker:Yeah, land your packaging.
Speaker:Because if you do that and you have a great product,
Speaker:those two go hand in hand because that's what I'm looking
Speaker:for and there's lots of products out there that is just
Speaker:delicious. I go to farmer's markets but the packaging is not
Speaker:there and so I don't want to have to take the
Speaker:time to repackage something because obviously I don't want to handle
Speaker:any kind of food or the expense of me having to
Speaker:buy another box to hide it in there.
Speaker:I have some people that talk about that.
Speaker:Oh well we'll just put it in another box that's cost
Speaker:right there.
Speaker:And that's time of me having to take that and put
Speaker:it in another box.
Speaker:So to me,
Speaker:I would rather search out good products with good packaging and
Speaker:great taste and I'll promote you if you're new and you're
Speaker:doing this and national let me know because I'm looking for
Speaker:new things.
Speaker:I love seeing new businesses start and if they do have
Speaker:that vision of really making that package,
Speaker:then you bet you I'm going to offer them in my
Speaker:basket because again,
Speaker:that's helping someone start their business just like I was starting
Speaker:my business 10 years ago.
Speaker:Well and it helps you as well because you're looking for
Speaker:new products all the time.
Speaker:Yes. Because you always want to be able to offer something
Speaker:new. Cause anytime you have a new product you have a
Speaker:new story to tell your customers.
Speaker:Exactly. Especially those corporate clients.
Speaker:Do you want to get back into,
Speaker:it's another way to get back in.
Speaker:You've got a new product you want them to know about.
Speaker:Right. Okay.
Speaker:Sheila talk to us about a challenging time.
Speaker:I know it's not been all beautiful.
Speaker:Nashville guitars,
Speaker:you know there's been something that's been a problem or frustrating
Speaker:along the way.
Speaker:Yes. Can you bring us to one of those points in
Speaker:time and talk us through that?
Speaker:I'll talk about one major thing that happened in our lives.
Speaker:Aid definitely changed the dynamics of the way we did our
Speaker:business was in 2013 well in 2012 we knew we were
Speaker:moving to Nashville.
Speaker:2013 my husband became ill and so that's why we took
Speaker:the two years off to see what was going to happen
Speaker:with that and since 2013 my husband has gone through cancer
Speaker:and just recently had last year another secondary cancer that came
Speaker:about and if I can say anything,
Speaker:if you can go through what we have gone through far
Speaker:as dealing with all of that and still running our business.
Speaker:We did more business last year than we did the two
Speaker:years before.
Speaker:It was just the phenomenal year and the whole year we
Speaker:were dealing with my husband's cancer because in the beginning of
Speaker:last year he had to have a second STEM cell transplant.
Speaker:And then by the end of October,
Speaker:first to November he started getting sick again and we didn't
Speaker:know what was going on.
Speaker:And by like two weeks before Christmas,
Speaker:we knew he had a secondary cancer.
Speaker:And so this whole time I had my biggest fourth quarter
Speaker:I'd ever had.
Speaker:I actually sold more in my fourth quarter than I did
Speaker:the previous year to look back.
Speaker:Now it's kind of mind boggling that we were able to
Speaker:do this.
Speaker:So how did you,
Speaker:it was really interesting because I would work the business,
Speaker:I'd get all these orders in and we were going back
Speaker:and forth to the hospital and then after Thanksgiving he actually
Speaker:was in the hospital 19 days.
Speaker:And so I would stay at home and I would check
Speaker:all the orders in and I had a couple of girls
Speaker:that would come in and help occasionally I wouldn't have made
Speaker:it without them.
Speaker:And so I would take,
Speaker:if I had a large order,
Speaker:I would take spools of ribbon with me in a bag
Speaker:and I was very particular about it,
Speaker:touching anything.
Speaker:It only touched me.
Speaker:Okay, so let's get that straight.
Speaker:I didn't have ribbon on the floors or you know the
Speaker:hospital cause I am actually a germ freak now.
Speaker:My kids tell me that.
Speaker:But going through all the things that we do with my
Speaker:husband, you just become that you're constantly washing hands and stuff.
Speaker:But anyway,
Speaker:I would take rolls of ribbon and I would,
Speaker:and I would make my bows and put them in.
Speaker:I'd have a different bag and I had all these bows
Speaker:and it was quite interesting to the doctors.
Speaker:When they would come in to talk to us,
Speaker:they would be like,
Speaker:what are you doing with all these beds?
Speaker:And then I would tell them,
Speaker:well I have a gift basket business.
Speaker:I just got this huge order and I've got to go
Speaker:home and do this.
Speaker:Their eyes would almost like pop out because they're like,
Speaker:and you're running this business.
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:yeah. And I'd bring my laptop and I would converse with
Speaker:clients and then I'd go home and try to put these
Speaker:things together And of course Dan was supportive of that all
Speaker:the way.
Speaker:He was very supportive.
Speaker:He just has been amazing.
Speaker:He actually through it all,
Speaker:he has been probably my best cheerleader always telling me you
Speaker:can do great things because we've just always been that way.
Speaker:35 years of marriage,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you come to know each other very well,
Speaker:but yeah,
Speaker:I really would say no matter what your circumstances yet,
Speaker:you can make it work.
Speaker:It may not be the easiest.
Speaker:You also have a choice cause from your story.
Speaker:I'm hearing two different ways of approaching this.
Speaker:The first time you took two years off because you felt
Speaker:you needed to.
Speaker:Yes. Which when you have your own business you can do
Speaker:that, right?
Speaker:You take a step back in your business a little bit.
Speaker:Andy Malone talks about that in her episode.
Speaker:I'll have to connect that up in the show notes,
Speaker:but she's talked about that a little bit too.
Speaker:Life situations,
Speaker:let's face it,
Speaker:we all have it.
Speaker:Sometimes you do need to disconnect.
Speaker:It's just the right thing for you.
Speaker:But so Sheila you've done both because you did it one
Speaker:way and then most recently you kept going through it and
Speaker:look at the results that you're talking about.
Speaker:Right. And I will say the two years we took off
Speaker:was Actually the transitional time anyway because my husband was already
Speaker:working in Nashville and I was in Memphis area trying to
Speaker:get the house sold.
Speaker:So I was working the business but it was never that
Speaker:period of the time you are going to be closing down
Speaker:there anyway,
Speaker:we were closing it down.
Speaker:It was never a successful area.
Speaker:It was just,
Speaker:I don't know why it never connected,
Speaker:but we never really felt like we were very successful and
Speaker:we were there three and a half years and so I
Speaker:was able to,
Speaker:he got sick in February and this is how crazy it
Speaker:was because I kinda knew we were going to be moving.
Speaker:I thought we had moved,
Speaker:was going to move in October cause we just thought we'd
Speaker:sell our house really quick and just get relocated.
Speaker:But God always has a plan.
Speaker:And that's what I always talk about is his plan was
Speaker:not our plan at that time.
Speaker:And so we were able to just back up the dates
Speaker:and close the business as of the end of that year
Speaker:because I never got an order the first of the year,
Speaker:which I thought was really crazy cause it was around Valentine's
Speaker:day and I really hadn't told a whole lot of people
Speaker:that I was going to be leaving.
Speaker:But it just was one of those things that it was
Speaker:all orchestrated I think.
Speaker:And so when Dan got sick,
Speaker:then my focus was,
Speaker:cause this was very life shattering news.
Speaker:We got,
Speaker:we had no idea that he had cancer and no idea
Speaker:that he was going to have to learn to walk cause
Speaker:he had from a spinal tumor on his spine.
Speaker:And so it was a great time to just say,
Speaker:okay, I'm done.
Speaker:I'm taking a break,
Speaker:we're closing the business.
Speaker:So fast forward six months,
Speaker:we moved to Nashville into an apartment.
Speaker:Well obviously I'm not going to be able to run a
Speaker:business in a apartment.
Speaker:So I kept,
Speaker:everything is storage.
Speaker:I actually had thought about just selling it all.
Speaker:Just close that chapter.
Speaker:It's not going to happen.
Speaker:My husband on the other end,
Speaker:it was like,
Speaker:no, just keep a few things cause you may go back
Speaker:into business.
Speaker:It took me a year and a half living here to
Speaker:when I started getting calls from the clients before from Texas
Speaker:in Memphis.
Speaker:Hey, are you back in business?
Speaker:And then again being involved in a church where they said,
Speaker:Hey, we know you used to do this,
Speaker:would you mind doing some gifts for us for the visiting
Speaker:minister? So then I started doing that again.
Speaker:And then a neighbor was a realtor and she's like,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I wish I had a closing gift.
Speaker:So it was like the stars aligned again and it was
Speaker:time and I actually wasn't ready to take the plunge.
Speaker:But I went away on a girl's weekend to meet a
Speaker:friend from Texas and my husband,
Speaker:I came back and he said,
Speaker:Oh by the way,
Speaker:I've got your LLC signed up.
Speaker:You are back in business.
Speaker:You need to go downtown Nashville and get your business license,
Speaker:it's time to go back into business.
Speaker:So he was the one that really pushed me to start
Speaker:it, but we had been hearing lots of things.
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:you need to do a business here in Nashville.
Speaker:It is the place to be.
Speaker:And so I will tell you that first six months was
Speaker:incredible. I probably made more in the first six months than
Speaker:I ever did in the beginning of my business.
Speaker:And I really realized what the value of being able to
Speaker:duplicate something and to market the clientele of the corporate world.
Speaker:That was the game changer.
Speaker:Using local products,
Speaker:using something that can be multiplied and really going after the
Speaker:corporate world.
Speaker:That is what totally changed our business.
Speaker:That is the golden nugget for a gift basket business.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:So Sheila,
Speaker:as I'm listening to the story,
Speaker:do you realize that you might've been trying to get away
Speaker:from the business,
Speaker:but the business keeps finding you again and again and again?
Speaker:Right. I had someone tell me,
Speaker:they said,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you're so resilient,
Speaker:and I thought,
Speaker:I've never used that word.
Speaker:I've never even thought of myself at that,
Speaker:but you know when somebody else is looking in and seeing
Speaker:what all we've done with the business,
Speaker:I can see where now I've kind of taken a step
Speaker:back and I am just amazed at where this business has
Speaker:gone in the three years that we've been here.
Speaker:To me,
Speaker:it's very mind boggling.
Speaker:My husband just had this conversation and we're like,
Speaker:wow, but when you are planted,
Speaker:and this is,
Speaker:this really goes back to it when you are planted in
Speaker:the right place,
Speaker:because I really feel like God had us planted where we're
Speaker:planted in the community.
Speaker:Even with his,
Speaker:where he works.
Speaker:I mean there's a whole story I should write a book
Speaker:about because it's just amazing the journey that we've taken in
Speaker:the five years that we've been here.
Speaker:But if you really can find that niche,
Speaker:that lane,
Speaker:and just stay focused on that lane of where you're going
Speaker:and have that prize at the end,
Speaker:it's amazing.
Speaker:There's going to be distractions.
Speaker:There's always distractions.
Speaker:There's days that I don't even feel like I even got
Speaker:anything accomplished,
Speaker:but you know what?
Speaker:You just keep plugging each day by day.
Speaker:You're going to get there.
Speaker:Absolutely. Okay.
Speaker:Sheila, I have a brand new question.
Speaker:I might make this a regular question,
Speaker:but I just came to me and you're the first one
Speaker:who gets to answer it.
Speaker:Are you ready?
Speaker:Oh yes.
Speaker:Are you worried?
Speaker:I am.
Speaker:You know.
Speaker:Hey, let's go for it.
Speaker:Maybe you should be,
Speaker:I'm not sure.
Speaker:Let's try this out.
Speaker:Okay. Gift baskets aside,
Speaker:so forget about your product.
Speaker:What is it that you love about being in business?
Speaker:Good question.
Speaker:I think it's actually finding that I can be successful in
Speaker:something and the reason I say that is as a stay
Speaker:at home mom,
Speaker:I didn't finish college because I decided,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I wanted to raise a family.
Speaker:I never pursued a career and we've looked back over that.
Speaker:Especially with going through my husband's illness.
Speaker:We were like,
Speaker:Oh man,
Speaker:maybe we should have taken the time for me to establish
Speaker:a career because what if something happens to you?
Speaker:Are we going to be taken care of?
Speaker:Does that make sense?
Speaker:Yep. So because of the journey we've gone on,
Speaker:it's made me question what I've done for the last 35
Speaker:years. But with what's happened in the last three years,
Speaker:and seeing that I can take this business from me just
Speaker:making a gift basket or whatever it would be,
Speaker:and turning it around and marketing it and networking and meeting
Speaker:people. Because every day I meet someone new,
Speaker:or at least every week I'm meet someone new and I
Speaker:look back and I think,
Speaker:gosh, I can't believe I met that person.
Speaker:Or how in the world did I meet that person?
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:There's just some things that just come about and you just
Speaker:shake your head like,
Speaker:wow, it's just amazement,
Speaker:right? Like you can't even imagine that it's happening.
Speaker:Right. And then the last year and a half,
Speaker:all the things that's happened is started.
Speaker:I guess last spring when I found out I was on
Speaker:the cover of that magazine.
Speaker:That blew me away because I'm not one to ever post
Speaker:about what I'm doing.
Speaker:I'm just not,
Speaker:that's not my personality.
Speaker:But you get to here,
Speaker:that's kind of the police and that's hard for me.
Speaker:But I am saying it is amazing because don't lose sight
Speaker:of what you really want to do.
Speaker:And to me it was,
Speaker:I wanted to be successful in whatever I did because I
Speaker:had started little businesses where I never made any money and
Speaker:I didn't know what I really want to do.
Speaker:And it was just a way to bring in some income
Speaker:to play,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:have play money is what I call it.
Speaker:My fun money that I would go out with my friends
Speaker:to have lunch with or whatever and being a stay at
Speaker:home mom,
Speaker:there is lots of people out there and I never want
Speaker:to change that again.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I don't regret not going to college.
Speaker:Sometimes I do because I think,
Speaker:Oh, I should have a degree behind my name,
Speaker:but I don't regret that time I spent with my kids
Speaker:because I feel like that was my calling.
Speaker:That's what I wanted to do.
Speaker:And so now that I'm in this different phase of life,
Speaker:this is a perfect opportunity for me to take this business
Speaker:wherever it's supposed to go.
Speaker:Absolutely. And the other thing that I see with you is
Speaker:not only that,
Speaker:but so now you're in a position where you're successful,
Speaker:but you're still investing in your further development.
Speaker:Look, you go to the conferences,
Speaker:right? You're part of my maker's MBA program,
Speaker:so all things to continue to build and grow as a
Speaker:person. Right.
Speaker:What's your thinking on all of that?
Speaker:Why are you doing that when you're successful right now?
Speaker:I feel like there's always something new to learn and I'll
Speaker:go back to one thing that happened to me that I
Speaker:think was a game changer.
Speaker:When I decided to do that third time jump in again.
Speaker:Of course my husband pushed me for that.
Speaker:Within a month of that when we decided there was the
Speaker:convention for the national gift basket and I was not going
Speaker:to go because I thought I don't have the money to
Speaker:do that.
Speaker:It was like I just started this business backup,
Speaker:but my husband was like,
Speaker:you know what,
Speaker:go. So I thought,
Speaker:okay, I'm going to have the opportunity to go talk to
Speaker:all these successful people.
Speaker:And of course everybody was excited to see me back because
Speaker:I had made some really lifelong friends there and I thought,
Speaker:okay, when I talk to these successful people and Sue,
Speaker:you were one of them,
Speaker:and I don't know if you remember this,
Speaker:but I remember walking into the hotel and it was like,
Speaker:it was almost like I felt like I was coming home.
Speaker:I do remember there was people in the lobby sitting and
Speaker:they jumped up.
Speaker:They're like,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:Sheila. And then there was Terry and there was you and
Speaker:I'm trying to remember who else.
Speaker:Claudia and we all went over and had lunch.
Speaker:Yes, you were over there was before the conference.
Speaker:Yeah, it was before the conference.
Speaker:And I remember you guys just kind of rap.
Speaker:I was like,
Speaker:I was being wrapped in love from you guys and it
Speaker:would have been,
Speaker:it had been such a,
Speaker:uh, I guess that was in 2015 when we started it.
Speaker:I think that's right.
Speaker:But it was such a period of time where I was
Speaker:tired. I mean,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we'd gone through this craziness with my husband and I don't
Speaker:know, I,
Speaker:it's hard to describe,
Speaker:but it was just this like you're coming home like a
Speaker:reunion. But one thing I'll never get is I decided,
Speaker:and I don't remember if it was something that I thought
Speaker:about on the flight over,
Speaker:cause it's,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:it's a long flight over to Las Vegas I think is
Speaker:where it was.
Speaker:And so,
Speaker:but I thought,
Speaker:I'm just going to ask everybody,
Speaker:if they had an opportunity to start their business a third
Speaker:time, like I'm doing,
Speaker:what would you do different?
Speaker:And everybody talked about was making sure that whatever you create
Speaker:is reproducible and making sure that you're actually making money.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:first of all,
Speaker:make sure you're doing what you're supposed to be doing to
Speaker:make it worthwhile I guess is really it was.
Speaker:And so everybody I talked to,
Speaker:that was what I'd say.
Speaker:Okay, so if you have a chance,
Speaker:could you remit?
Speaker:What would you do differently?
Speaker:And so it was an inspiration,
Speaker:I guess I was trying to figure out how to make
Speaker:this business viable because even at that time we were not
Speaker:sure how long my husband had.
Speaker:I mean he was doing okay at the time,
Speaker:but given that we still don't,
Speaker:we live day by day of what's going to happen in
Speaker:the future.
Speaker:So I think with just trying to learn more ways of
Speaker:making it better when I go to these conferences or when
Speaker:I do your calls that you do,
Speaker:it's always trying to figure out is there something else that
Speaker:I should be doing?
Speaker:Is there another process that would maybe make things a little
Speaker:bit more flowing,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:as a gift basket person.
Speaker:And now that we're getting big orders coming in,
Speaker:what's the processes that we're using?
Speaker:Are they the right ones?
Speaker:Because hiring people now and I need to make sure that's
Speaker:a whole nother,
Speaker:Oh, that could be a whole nother podcast of how hiring
Speaker:people and just making sure that you are actually conveying what's
Speaker:in your head because you're the owner of the business,
Speaker:you're the designer,
Speaker:you're everything and tried to convey that information to somebody that's
Speaker:working for you and to actually release some of this.
Speaker:I had someone here today working in my office a month
Speaker:ago. I would've said,
Speaker:no way.
Speaker:Now they're not touching my space.
Speaker:But when you get to a point where you are growing
Speaker:this business faster than you can really handle as the one
Speaker:person, you began to say,
Speaker:okay, I can release that.
Speaker:I can release that guy.
Speaker:I can have you answer that email for me.
Speaker:So to me that's really what I guess is learning about
Speaker:how to be a boss,
Speaker:how to take this to the next level.
Speaker:Does that answer your question?
Speaker:Yeah, it does.
Speaker:I mean there's always the development,
Speaker:there's always the next step.
Speaker:And I think,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I've been talking a lot lately about what got you to
Speaker:where you are at one point isn't the same skill processes
Speaker:or any of that to get you to the next place.
Speaker:Like doing just more of what you're already doing doesn't scale
Speaker:bigger and bigger and bigger.
Speaker:You have to change what you're doing and why not learn
Speaker:from people who have already been there,
Speaker:you know?
Speaker:And that speaks to you talking about community.
Speaker:And then of course all the value community can bring when
Speaker:you found your home,
Speaker:the support and the love and knowing that you're supposed to
Speaker:be there and everyone has your best interests at heart too.
Speaker:Right? Alright,
Speaker:so I'm going to circle this back and we're going to
Speaker:have to start winding down.
Speaker:Although I could still talk to you for like ever,
Speaker:but we are going to wind it down a little bit.
Speaker:And to do that,
Speaker:I want to offer you a gift because you have given
Speaker:us so much great information today,
Speaker:Sheila, by sharing your story,
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:And maybe I want to say heavenly Heights that you wish
Speaker:to obtain,
Speaker:please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
Speaker:What's inside your box?
Speaker:Wow. Well,
Speaker:first all,
Speaker:let me describe the box.
Speaker:Of course you're going to decide is it a box or
Speaker:is it a basket or is it a guitar?
Speaker:No, it's a box.
Speaker:And I would say that it's probably a very elegant box
Speaker:with a beautiful bow on top because we all love bows.
Speaker:I'm going to say that far as my dream of what
Speaker:this business is going to be would be if we could
Speaker:talk about Nashville and you always have the different go-to,
Speaker:how do I say this?
Speaker:If somebody knows they need to ship a gift to somebody,
Speaker:there's certain businesses,
Speaker:it's been a business for a long time.
Speaker:My goal and my dream would be to be that GoTo
Speaker:basket. So the one that everyone defaults to,
Speaker:everybody knows and it's just an automatic well that's who you're
Speaker:going to go to.
Speaker:Yes. Well it means you're going to need more employees to
Speaker:show up.
Speaker:Exactly, so we're going to have to think about that a
Speaker:little bit.
Speaker:Yes. Again,
Speaker:a lot of people ask me,
Speaker:am I going to ever,
Speaker:ever have a storefront?
Speaker:I don't know that that's the journey that we want to
Speaker:go to because we want to be able to grow the
Speaker:business, but we also want to keep it that personal.
Speaker:It needs to be a business.
Speaker:It's you could still personalize.
Speaker:Every client is still that personal touch that we would still
Speaker:give to every client that comes in or talks to us.
Speaker:We still want that personal touch because that's what I'm finding.
Speaker:I'm hearing that some of the companies are not that way
Speaker:anymore. They've gotten so big,
Speaker:their scalability was they grew too fast.
Speaker:They weren't able to handle each client and still be able
Speaker:to meet with that client.
Speaker:This is one of the things that sets us apart right
Speaker:now is I will meet with that client and I'll bring
Speaker:them a sample basket and we'll talk about the products and
Speaker:we'll figure out what color scheme they want to go to.
Speaker:And I take that time to really develop that relationship with
Speaker:that client.
Speaker:And so as we grow,
Speaker:and if you're giving me that gift,
Speaker:my dream would be to still hold on to that personalization,
Speaker:that personal touch that we can give to our clients,
Speaker:but yet be that GoTo for Nashville or the South,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:whoever. I mean,
Speaker:we'd like to be Oprah's favorite gift.
Speaker:Right? You said that a couple of times,
Speaker:which is no,
Speaker:that's good because that's putting it out there.
Speaker:So that's perfect.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:you've alluded to this whole idea of customization yet,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:not customization,
Speaker:but growing,
Speaker:but staying personal and the very first step to doing that
Speaker:is recognizing that that's what you want,
Speaker:right? You could lose it so quickly if you hadn't already
Speaker:defined that that was something that you guys hold close as
Speaker:a real value for the business.
Speaker:Right. Okay,
Speaker:so Sheila,
Speaker:how can our listeners get in touch with you if they
Speaker:want to know more about you or your business?
Speaker:Well, they can find us by Facebook.
Speaker:We are heavenly treats for you.
Speaker:I believe it's just heavenly trees for you.
Speaker:And then we're on Instagram.
Speaker:Heavenly treats for you.
Speaker:Our website is heavenly treats for you.
Speaker:The number four,
Speaker:the letter U.
Speaker:Dot com.
Speaker:Well, Sheila,
Speaker:thank you so much.
Speaker:I really,
Speaker:your taking the time,
Speaker:Sharing your story,
Speaker:both from the business end and adding in the personal,
Speaker:because let's face it,
Speaker:none of our businesses are just one or the other.
Speaker:They're all part of our life,
Speaker:so it mingles together.
Speaker:Even though sometimes we all think that we can keep it
Speaker:separate. It just doesn't work.
Speaker:But you've shared so many great things,
Speaker:so thank you so much.
Speaker:I really appreciate it and I'm going to just save me
Speaker:that Nashville guitar gifting.
Speaker:Carry on.
Speaker:Yes. Thank you,
Speaker:Sue, for having us.
Speaker:We appreciate it.
Speaker:This episode is all wrapped up,
Speaker:but your gift biz journey continues.
Speaker:It's your time to experience the pride and satisfaction of turning
Speaker:your passion into a profitable business.
Speaker:Join the makers MBA program and access training modules,
Speaker:downloadable worksheets,
Speaker:and weekly live and recorded Q and a sessions addressing your
Speaker:specific challenges.
Speaker:You also have the opportunity to connect with a community of
Speaker:creators just like you.
Speaker:Head over to gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped.com/makers MBA to join today and until next time,
