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Live Check-in - Finale

Hello, everyone. I want to welcome you guys and congratulate you on making it to the very last day of how to make a living selling what you make. Can you believe that we have finally, I made it here, so I just want to give you guys a little bit of heads up about how today is going to work. So today is the final live check in for the boot camp that started all the way back on monday, july thirteenth. I know that feels like forever ago when it kind of wass because we covered a ton of ground in the last five weeks. I just want to remind you guys one more time about our private facebook group that we've got going now. The way that you access the private facebook group is you go ahead and rs for the class. You could go to the course page to do that when you are cb, you also get that for you workbook after this weekend after the final live broadcast, the workbook. And the access to the facebook group are no longer going to be free you'll have to have had purchased the class, so you want to g...

et in there and our vp before this weekend is over so you can join our facebook group I am in there, ah lot answering questions, I will continue to be in there after the class ends, so for those of you who are still working through content, you can get your questions answered there, and not only that, but we have a huge community in there and there are some amazing people are happy to jump in, answer questions, get feedback, it is an incredible resource. You want to make sure that you are a c p and then when you are c p, it'll give you the link to the facebook group and you can go ahead and join there. And so what I actually want to do now is bring on two guests. So as I mentioned, we have this really, really fantastic facebook group, and so I wanted to bring in two guests who have just been following along, like you guys at home, participating, working through the class, joining in the facebook group, and they've had some great successes in their business, and so I want to hear from them what they've learned and how they've experienced a great winds during the class so we're joined today by ali and sandra and so I want to just have you guys start out by telling us who you are, what you do and where we can find you so allie go ahead and jump in so our hi everyone my name is sally jeffries I have a handmade jewelry studio that focuses now on bridal couture jewelry it's called should adorn designs and you can find me at my website joran designs dot com awesome sandra hi, I'm sandra clark are sandra glower clark and you confined be at sandra glover clark dot com and thanks to making course I've narrowed down teo what I actually want to do and it is making design half to make that for for adults and children awesome perfect so I want to actually start by having you guys talk a little bit about some of the frustrations you were having in your business before this class started because I know ah lot of people came into the class with huge frustrations maybe you weren't making the money that you wanted to make sure you were just stalled eso ali what were some frustrations or it was the biggest frustration that you had before this class I think that for me the biggest frustration and think I was struggling with was just having a singular focus and direction to go with when I started my business I was mostly doing handcrafted fashion jewelry with some bridal custom orders on the side as friends and family were getting married. And three and a half years later, it kind of seemed like the two roads were diverging in the woods. As they say, I just felt like I had to choose which one to go with on. Obviously, I chose to go the bridal direction, and that was due in large part, teo toe, having that facebook group and getting some feedback, really hearing you say, megan, go the direction that's making you the most money, not the most likes, not the most, you know, occasional sales, really where's the money coming from and poured everything into that so fantastic about you. What was a frustration that you were having before the class started? Are you on to me now? Sorry I had to pick up on my computer. The big frustration that I have very much like alan was I was kind of all over the place. I was making jewelry. I wass crow, shane, I was writing push a patterns. I jumped on the adult coloring book bandwagon and made a couple of those on. I was just all over the place, and I really have to stop that and focus on I think I've got that cd that we talked about this I had to stop and focus and look at the the long term picture which I don't think I did support you know, like my husband that I think of a single lamp you know I don't know stop and so okay, what do you like to do? What makes the most money and what is going to sustain you until you retire a boar boar before? Yeah, you know, I think that's so interesting that that was really both of your challenges because I think that's something that so many creative people have is that you want to do it all and you want to do everything and I am also proof of that, you know, I do a lot of things, but for me, I've also found that every time I sit down and focus that's when I business grows, so I love that that's something that you both got out of this eso again, we kind of touched on it, but what was really the big ah ha moment that you guys had or one of the big aha moments that you've had during this course so far. So allie yeah, like I said, it was just that moment I think it was during the last live check in you took one of my questions and it was really which one do I focus on in your answer was do what's making you money and run with that andi I think the second part of that that was really big for me was the concept of having your ideal customer so it's it's kind of informed the meetings that I've had since that point teo be ableto evaluating pivot and think okay is this really my ideal customer awesome sandra how about you I have a couple of ah ha moments of the big one for me and it was so simple and right there is I was marketing my huh I appreciate hat on dh I think people still have that misconception of nana's croquet and so I basically took out rochet and put a hat on full on on my website it sold for one hundred dollars in less than fifteen hours during this course and so yeah it was also just a simple thing like looking at my description looking at just by worthing just I took a crow shea and I make yeah that's another big thing wass the pinterest board but like I used interests but I've never really used it to in a vision board way and I did that a couple of weeks ago and it just totally focused and it made it made my whole brandon vision much is fantastic and I yeah and I love I love that piece about taking out the word cochet that was actually one of the reasons that I wanted to bring you on because I think it's so counterintuitive to what so many people do because we think were makers and were so driven by the love of our process but our customer isn't driven by the love of that process they're driven by what the object is going to do for them and so for you it's really about making these fun funky, interesting, bright, colorful, unique hats you've got him all up behind you I know you're not wearing one because it's probably really thought that yeah but you gotta go behind you and so for you you realised and thats what that's a huge shift by just taking out one word in the title of of your products and I noticed too that you also went in and and gave your hats some really kind of fun funky names toc you stepped away from the descriptive and really started to kind of give them some concrete names which is also awesome all right, so you guys started to touch on it but I really want to ask you now about some of the winds or the successes that you've had during this class and in particular because one of our big focuses has been revenue generation what have you done throughout this class that's helped you generate new leads or gets a new revenue for your business I'm so aly let's start with you sure well I think that just picking the direction and going with it with the bridal collection has kind of shifted my focus on the bread or the fashion inventory that I have in my studio, so I thought to myself if if I'm not going that direction anymore and I have this inventory sitting in my studio like you said that's money sitting in your studio so I actually was able to start selling that at a bit of a reduced price teo kind of generate some cash quickly and I'm going to be putting that into developing my website and creating a better presentation to appeal to my customer on guy obviously like having the press, the pricing structure that actually will take profit and a living wage into account has really helped me as I have been selling custom and bridle orders on the side of that, I just feel like it's given me a lot of really good momentum to run with awesome and you've got some I think meeting lined up right with boutique owners bridal salon so you've got some stuff in the pipeline that's really I just had that meeting yesterday on dh it went really well it kind of gave me a sense of confidence going in knowing exactly what I'm looking for I was able to very clearly articulate that and be confident that my prices were reasonable so that was a really good test market about for me fantastic I love that alright, sandra, how about you I actually during this course I started my own store on my website I've had my website up for quite a long time but it is just basically a gallery and I sold on essie but I didn't what I sold on etsy was a lot of cochet pattern like the original appreciate patterns no five dollars right where I want to go is one hundred dollar hat's the three hundred dollar hat on guy want anthropology to see them you know and so I started my own store on my website on dh get sold right away so things right away so now I'm actually going really was listed for a long time I don't know why and of course really helped move away from it you know I can leave you know so they can go toe but for work a you know ah trendy fashion hat they're going to go to my website it's goingto have the could have my brand on it not not my brain and s o that that's where I really feel that I'm gonna have some momentum there fantastic yeah and there you know when you have your own site you're not competing it's everybody else on etsy its you're bringing them to your site and you're controlling the brand and you've really gotten very clear on what your brand is and how it should look which is awesome and I think that's really shows through in your website as well so if um your what you guys have been talking about in your experiences on art enough to sway people why would you recommend this class you know I'm going I'm going to make his sales pitch just a little bit which I know is something I've gotten feedback on from a lot of people that they become much more comfortable with selling since this class start it's that's a big thing but why is it that you would recommend this class to other creative business owners? Ali I really wouldn't recommend it because in my personal experience it has just really helped me to narrow in on what I want to do and run after it happened the confidence to do that and it also I think having the community element because running your own business and bringing your own creative business a lot of us are doing it out of a home studio it could be kind of lonely and it takes the accountability out of the equation so I would say absolutely the facebook group has been a huge catalyst for me just getting feedback from other creators and business owners on and just I feel like it really has given me the foundation that I need to create the sustainable business to know with confidence what I'm doing why I'm doing it and be able to articulate that to the people who I want to say that too fantastic sandra how about you well, I love the community of the facebook for two and but really resonated with these but your style and the way that the boot camp was broken up it was so much easier for me to toe learn and I would I would take every day do a lesson on dh if there's some accountability there and I need that and this isn't something that ok just watch it once and I get it that's not gonna happen you know, like I need to watch it do it and then revisit again on ben look at you know, six months down to three months down the line so okay, you know, I was on the right track now I'm not on the right track I can go back to the boot camp and I can they'll pay their you know, their working I tweak things and go to specific specific dates and specific episodes that actually poke it and focus on what I want to improve and it's such a better use of my time you don't get to fail yet I could I could watch this for a half an hour for a knauer you know this week and get motivated and get back on track and that's what what you've done in the last few weeks is just so much more for me than I've done for myself in the last two and a half years so back why would recommend it well, that is awesome and I have to say, you know, I get the information out there but you guys have been doing the work and that and that really shows and sometimes I think that's really the difference is itjust armed with that little bit of information once you know the direction and once you can put that work and then you really start to grow and expand from there so I want to ask you as one final question because one of the big teams for this week has been this idea of being the chief visionary officer for your business so I wanna ask you because I think you know you've had so much success in five weeks so we want to know what where are you headed? Allison? I see myself heading into some of the higher end bridal boutiques in my area and up and down the east coast and hopefully eventually other places where I'm trying teo really push for is having those wholesale level sales my meeting with the bridal boutique yesterday went well, they don't think they were quite my ideal customer but open the door for me to do a pop up shop there and I'm going to treat that it's another test market event and I'm going to be taking meetings with some other bridal boutiques in my area fantastic yeah awesome sandor how about you where what's the big vision where you headed anthropology e I looked at the what the wholesale market and that I think were not what I mean because I can't make it what I do is trying to so if it's laborious I love doing it but it takes a lot of so so that's where the price point of my items have to be you know where they are and so they're going to be mean this martin neiman marcus prices were going to be anthropology prices but you are getting what you pay for so in the meantime so that's where I'm going tio go but in the meantime what I'm going to dio is it's a lot of it's going to be myself too probably the retail client themselves I'll try some from high end beauty you know and I do have some of my things in some kind of teeth in the cottage country area in ontario but I'm going to expand that and you're a lot more I want to do a lot more instagramming and a lot more of it really quality is what I want to put out there is thies air going to last a long time and you are getting you know of a very valued product fantastic fantastic I love that andi I am sure that you are both going to continue to be active in the facebook group and I'm sure that we will see nothing but amazing things from both of you so thanks to allie in sandra for joining us on dh now, I want to go ahead and take some questions from you guys who are watching at home, so let me just pull up here what we've got. So here is the question. So do you really think this is feasible for one of a kind pieces? How would that work with selling to boutique? If they can't see what work you'll be doing next or in the future? I think this is from carlos, and she says, please help! And so one of the things you know, I love this question because I think one of us kind questions come up all of the time, and one of the things that I always want to remind people of is if you're doing one of a kind, you need to price them like they're one of a kind and not like their production pieces, so I see so many people who are trying to sell they're one of a kind, a much lower price point, and that really doesn't work. So the first thing that you want to do is make sure that the prices are up to justify the extra work of one of the kinds, whether it's selling retail or wholesale. You know, one of a kind piece and retail means that you're having to photograph each piece and list each piece and, you know, put each piece of their online and for wholesale there's his own set of complications, you want to make sure the prices are high enough, and you also want to figure out if it's really, truly one of a kind or if it's something that you can communicate to your buyers sort of in serious. So I'll give you guys a perfect example from my own collection. So some of you guys have seen me where wearing these pieces throughout the entire boot camp, and this is part of my new contra collection, and each piece is its own stone, so I every single one is different, the stones are all different, I cannot get the exact same stone because they're made in nature, it doesn't work like that, but what I can do, and what I have done is I group them into certain stiles, so stores know that they're not going to get this exact stone, but they're going to get this particular over oval style, or they're going to get whatever particular kind of size chain combination that they've picked so that's, one way to do it is think about how you khun group pieces together so that stores might not know exactly what they're getting, but there have they have a good idea on the other thing that you khun dio is work with source that's been civically do one of a kind, so if you're selling it that hire one of a kind kind of art jewelry price point, then you wanna work more with galleries and they're used to getting one of a kind pieces that are all going to be different. You can also experiment with sending stores things like pick boxes, so a pick boxes when you send a store ah, larger selection of work and this is again, typically with one of a kind you send them a larger selection of work, they pull out what they want and they pay for it and they send you back the cheque and whatever work they're not keeping so it's less risk than consignment, but store's still feel like they're getting exactly what they want, so you can certainly use thes same processes of one of a kind it's just really all about making sure that you're communicating with your stores and with your buyer. So they're very clear and you know that your pricing at that one of a kind price point so another question that came up is any suggestions for how to script emails for responding to people seeking custom pieces specifically, what do they need to know first so this is a great question and it's not one that's super easy for me to answer at the top of my head only because it's not a business model, that I'm a gn, but what I would say is think about the really key questions that they might be asking, so if you're selling a one of a kind painting, they probably want to know, you know, what photo they need to cement what the price point is, but really, I think the best thing to dio without knowing your specific industry is just start by responding to the inquiry with a question or two of your own. So what is it that you're looking for? What questions can I answer for you? And the more that you do that the more you'll start to see the same questions coming over in and again and again and again and that's how you know what questions should be in that script? So it sounds like, you know, that you're putting too much information's that emails to begin with. So go ahead and short near response and let it become that kind of back and forth for a while, because, really, if someone's working with you for a custom piece it's about relationship building, so there's going to be an email back and forth, and over time you'll see what the key questions are. On and figure out how to kind of streamline the process a little bit more all right so let's see what other questions we have coming in so someone asked do you ever worry about bigger companies knocking off your designs on ben also when you were just starting out did you ever it overwhelmed by the competitors out there and freeze up and not get anything done because they're people way out there ahead so these were two separate questions but they're kind of I want to say like two sides of the same coin are opposite sides of the same coin so the first one is stop paying attention to other people on the internet it will always freak you out it will always derail you and it's just not worth your time so I spent very little time paying attention to you what other people that would be considered my competitors are doing now that's not to say that I don't pay attention to the world I'm on pinterest I'm looking at trends I'm looking at the next season's you know runway shows for fashion so you can pay attention teo what's generally going on without getting bogged down by looking at your competitors I also mentioned this I think in a previous lesson where if you follow someone online and you ever get that like vicki jealous healing just unfollowed him I don't care if you were friends at some point just unfollowed him not worth it to bring up those issues now as faras the other piece about worrying about bigger cos I have to say that it at some point I did worry about it. I spent a ton of time researching intellectual property, looking at copyright, looking at trademark, looking at all of those things and ideally, what I determined and kind of let go was that I really think the best defense is a good offense. So instead of constantly worrying and not putting ideas out there and I'm freaking out about those kinds of things, I just said, you know what I'm gonna do my thing, and if I have to deal that I have to deal with it, and what I have seen over and over and over again on the internet is if a big company does knock off a smaller maker, you have immediate community rallying so it's one of those things that I wouldn't let freak you out because it may or may not happen, but that's not a reason not to put yourself out there it's kind of one of those that you have to be a little bit aware of, but really, you just have to let it go, all right? So one final question that someone asks, I think it's a great one is how often should I be launching new collections? Is seasonal, which would be four times a year. Too often. I want to find that sweet spot for excitement without overwhelming people or being for gotten. This is such a great question, and it really depends on you and your working style. You know, for a long time I was really focused on kind of twice a year when you have the big trade show seasons and truthfully, that's probably a pretty good goal, you know, launching what would be kind of tied into the fashion season's, right? So spring, summer, fall winter four times the years probably going to feel like a lot unless you're doing smaller micro launches, and if you're doing smaller micro launches, you could probably get away with one every six to eight to twelve weeks again, depending on what you're making and the size of your audience. So that's kind of a good goal, and it depends on how comfortable you are, how much production you're doing, how much one of a kind, but you want to make sure that you're not a creating launch fatigues that's? What if you're running new product launches? I would probably try not to do it more than, say, every eight to twelve weeks so that your audience doesn't get fatigued without launch cycle that we kind of talked about with the test market event. But that said you can and should be reaching out to your audience in between product launches and that's something we didn't talk a lot about in the class but it's still really essential is that you're always gonna have people who if you run that kind of anticipation launch cycle you're going to have people who are excited and buy on day one but not everybody is and so in between your launch phases, you still want to be communicating with your audience. Share additional pictures on social media you know post things on pinterest send emails highlighting products you don't have to be in a launch sequence to email your list you should be emailing your list at least once a week just to remind people that you're there and all that email has to be is a really simple highlight of a product you know I love following brands who do a great job of email marketing without feeling like they have to send a discount code. Lululemon is one of my favorites for that even if you have no interest in buying you clothes, they're good one to follow just because they do a good job of constantly sending out e mails that highlight products but there's no discount code the reason is, you know here's a little grouping here is ah theme we want to show you guys here's a new product we want to highlight whatever it is, you know they're always finding reasons to reach out to their customers but it's not hey here's a sale hey here's a sale hey here's a sale so make it a point to reach out to your customers regularly because even with that launch cycle not everyone is going to buy right away and you want to keep that momentum going and keep reminding people that you're there and that's really the secret to kind of all of this idea of making a living selling what you make is you know we want to create those events and we want to create those launch cycles, but part of your job is also just constantly reminding people that you're there, whether it's your wholesale buyers or your email subscribers or your social media followers don't be afraid to highlight product and show people that you're there because you never know when someone's going to see that email or see that post on social media or you know store is going to get that catalogue and they're gonna think, oh yeah, now is the time for me s o keep reminding people that you're there again, it doesn't have to be sales your spam e just saying, hey here's a product that I love hey, have you seen this? This is something I'm excited about that's really all it is is constantly reminding people that you're there so that you can keep that momentum going again and again and again.