The Secret for Getting People Obsessed With Your Product (JOHNNY CUPCAKES)

Oh, my goodness. So much. So fantastic. So clever. Come on and have a seat. Did you learn a few things?

Yeah.

You're going to look at your business in a new way. Definitely thinking outside of the cupcake box. So thank you. I was back there just listening, taking notes, coming up with all kinds of ideas. So much fun. So much fun. And I love that that you bring the fun into your business.

It's important. This is where you spend so much time on and if you and your colleagues aren't having fun, this is where you spend most of your life doing. It's very important to have fun.

Which leads me into. So you've been in business 17 years.

Yes.

And you know, we look at things differently as we gain wisdom. So how do you feel that you handle challenges now differently than you did in those early days?

I look at. I just really start to value my time. I think after all these gray hairs started popping up on my chest and beard, I'm like, all right, you know, I'm going to just try to treat myself more often. And you know, I was reading somewhere that Harvard University, great school, but they don't really, they didn't decide to franchise and they're happy with what they have and they would rather focus on one big thing and pack a punch. And I think there's so many companies that are just worried about beating the numbers from last year and beating those and beating those. It's so much, it's so much pressure. It's like, how much do you need? I'm very thankful and I could open more stores. I could sell the brand. I could. Who knows, maybe, maybe when I'm fortunate enough to have kids, I might change my mind on a lot of things. But I don't really need more stores. I'm just very happy. I would rather have a small thing that packs a punch that I can manage then trying to freak out and have everybody, you know, stressing out every year. We still want to grow and do cool things and that's great, but we don't want to grow beyond our means. And when you could feel comfortable, it's a good thing. It's a very good thing, really.

Getting clear on having. Because we talk about this all the time. In creating a business that is designed so that you have a good quality of life. Yes, that is really crucial. And so what do you feel now? You work with your family?

I do.

How many of you have a family owned business?

Oh, yeah.

Quite a few. Okay, so how is it that you. Are there any secrets to that? So that you avoid the dramas that can be in family.

I don't think you can avoid it. You can sort of. Everyone's family is different. My family is great. I think the one thing that we try to practice is not talking about business outside of work hours, because you stop talking about other important things and everything becomes about work. But we love work, and that's why we do it. So it's a very tricky thing, but I think that helps. Making sure your family isn't spread too thin. I had to. Man. One of the people that I had to let go was my cousin and that I was crying. It was a very difficult time. And I was advised three years ago to let go half of my staff because I didn't need them. And I didn't listen. I just kept saying, you know what? Maybe the next release, the next project will make enough money. And the other thing that I failed at is I kept rewarding people. I love giving out bonuses. I love everything about Christmas, and. But when you reward people and it's not based off of performance, people stop thanking you, and they start expecting a bonus all the time. And it's tough. So our business was great. It wasn't really changing. But my cost kept going up, and I wasn't doing anything about it. So once I started, and I'm sure all of you have done this, when you start taking money from the money you're saving or the money that's your personal money, you start to be like, all right, now is the time. And unfortunately, sometimes it takes that to make those decisions. But I had to let go my own cousin out of those people. And it was the toughest thing, but he was doing the same job for years, and I kept paying him more money just to ship shirts out. And I know he's a great photographer and he could do more than what he's doing at my company, but he doesn't see that, and he still hasn't talked to me. And it's been a couple years. It's tough. It's really tough.

You have to make some tough decisions, too. And it is tough because you care about people. It is some of the hardest things when you have to let people go. But I find that it's. You know, you can't rescue somebody and.

You can't keep putting it off because it gets worse and it gets worse, and you just have to rip that band aid off or work with someone or hire someone or go to this event to get that encouragement from your new peers.

Yeah, absolutely. Now, one of the things I heard in one of your interviews that you and friends or maybe your co workers go into a restaurant or other places and you kind of play a game on what you might change in the establishment or what you notice. Because my husband and I do that all the time. We sit there and we're like, oh, you know, the lighting or the way the menus are. You guys do this. I think it's like an entrepreneurial thing. And what do you think? What do you notice are some common themes generally that business or mistakes that business owners make when they're trying to make an impression.

I love it. So this is something that I do and I go by myself because I love doing this so much. And sometimes I'll leave like a note with some ideas, but I try not to because I know how it is when everyone's like, you should make a T shirt with like a cupcake and a pot leaf on it. I'm like, okay. Like, people give me a lot of ideas every day. And so I try to, you know, be reserved. But I love going into establishments, other companies. And, you know, if I'm at a restaurant, I immediately see all of the electrical outlets. Those should always be hidden. I look at the typography on the menu. If you looked at the typography, the font on my slides, I spent the money to get my own Johnny Cupcakes font made. I had two of them made. A cursive one and a chunky one that looks like a sign painter. And I was so obsessed with the font that if you type O multiple times, it changes it so it always looks like it was hand painted. That is also your brand identity. So when I see someone using, like a papyrus font or, you know, maybe, I don't know, someone's got some medicine lying around in the. In the bathroom, and you see that font on a menu and you start to associate it with, like, some pills and you're like, ah, this is kind of weird, but when I go to a restaurant or a cafe that has the menu written out in chalk, it makes me feel like if they're taking their time, handwriting things, that they're gonna. They have quality ingredients. It's weird. If I'm going to, like, a natural food place, if they're printing stuff on craft paper, I think that's great. I think many people fail sharing their story and fun little nuggets about their personality. Like, nobody wants to go to a website and see this stern, serious person. You could still have a serious business and have a personality. I think a lot of People fail with that. But I could talk about it forever. I'm like getting winded. I get so excited about it. And like you, you know when you start to realize like cool, like once in a while someone might bring you on and hire you to do this bizarre hobby and obsession and kind of pick apart their business and it's a cool thing.

It is bizarre what I do. No, just kidding.

Bizarre in the best of ways.

Yes.

Because you never would have thought something you love can be your job.

And I learned so much and it's so rewarding to see the business owners grow and evolve and I mean there's just so many things that I love about what you do. And so just to kind of sum it up with some lessons that I, that you know, thought about, number one is, you know, whatever you've been doing, even though you've been doing it a while and people give a good response, change it up. Okay. Like, okay, you give calendars every year. Come on. People like try doing new limited edition things and I think that's so smart. When people know that it's only for a short period of time, they panic.

Like when we like restaurants have a special food menu, you have to try the special. Or when we do a pop up shop and we're only going to be selling T shirts for one night only in one city, people end up buying everything and it doesn't matter the price and they treasure it. So it's good.

And the personalization, just the extra personal touch. Creating, like you said, a lifetime client because you took an extra five minutes.

Your team could send out 20,000 emails with a click of a button with some great sales software. Or your team could send out 10 handwritten notes and I promise you you will have a better chance with leads from the 10 personal notes. Or again, going to an event like this and meeting people in person or having your own event and having people come by your office for whatever bingo night or chef's night or whatever you decide to do.

Right. Nothing beats the face to face and that in person connection. I, you know, we're in a world we live in where people hide behind their computers.

They do. And everyone's abusing the sales software so it's screwing it up for the people who are really selling something good. It is, it's, it's a really, it's a tragedy.

I know. Messing it up for me. Darn it all. Anyway. Well, this has just been fantastic.

Thank you. Thank you.

And you have some surprises. So why don't you. I'm going to let you explain.

Sure. So there's two things we're gonna give you if you don't have these. Now, we're actually. I think we're coming around to the. We're gonna go around your tables right now. And they're just my top tips. Some of them might be a little premature, or some of them might be great for you, but they're just like my top tips as an entrepreneur. And then the other item that you're gonna have, is this gonna be when people are leaving or on the team?

Yeah. They'll be as you. As you're leaving at the end of this session, as you exit, you're going.

To get this little drug dealer bag, and inside of it, there's going to be a Johnny Cupcakes candy. I can't tell you if there's ora gel on it or not. There's going to be a pin, a sticker, and a vintage trading card. You might have Ninja Turtles, New Kids on the Block, Ghostbusters, but it encourages you to network with one another and trade the little random gift that you are given. And I hope it inspires you to also come up with these clever ideas for your customers.

All right, let's give Johnny a hand.

Thank you, guys.

All right. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.