590. "I'm taking my business international but I can't do it alone." | Coaching Session

So maybe doing everything myself isn't always the best way.

I think that that might be the theme of this thing. So we could talk strategy all day. Yes, you can say all the things to do and then you're like, okay, but how? Because I'm just a one woman show. Hi, I'm Jacqueline Snyder and this is is the Product Boss podcast. I've helped launch and grow thousands of product based businesses, even one of my own. And over the last 20 years, I've seen behind the scenes of businesses just like yours. Whether they are makers, manufacturers, artists, or food and beverage businesses. I have spent so many hours studying it all. I've discovered what makes them successful, what are mistakes they could avoid, how did they turn an idea into successful business? And what are strategies they have used to make more sales and be discovered by more customers. This is what this show is all about. Whether you're just starting out or you're looking to become a million dollar product boss, I'm here to give you the permission to chase your dreams no matter how big or small. All you need is the right mindset, a little courage, strategy and support and you too can be the next million dollar product boss. Let's do this. Hey, hey Product Boss. Okay, we are back with another coaching session and this time with Amber of Heymad and Company. Now, hey, Mad and Co is a lifestyle apparel brand focused on inclusivity and mental health awareness. She has a physical or retail location in her hometown in Canada, but her wholesale is picking up in the US and she's looking to take her business international. What or who is going to take her to that next level? Let's find out. Hey, hey Product Boss. Okay, so are you struggling with elevating your branding and taking your video content to that next level? If so, I have just the software for you and it's called Riverside fm. Wouldn't it be a game changer if you could have crystal clear audio and video for your product launches, interviews and even virtual events? With Riverside fm, it's not just a recording platform, but your backstage pass to professional quality content creation. No more worrying about tech issues because we all know sometimes the tech gods just aren't on our side. Riverside FM allows you to connect with influencers, collaborate with partners, and engage your audience like never before. Plus, you can easily turn your recordings into shareable content for various platforms. It's exactly what we do here at the product class. I'm actually recording on Riverside FM right now and when you see the clips of me that look amazing and crystal clear on social Media. It has been all recorded and created on Riverside fm. So it's time to grow your brand with beautiful visuals and captivating storytelling all in one place. So, product boss, if you're ready to stand out in a crowded market and elevate your brand, head to Riverside FM and enter the code, the product boss, all one word to receive a 15% discount. Amber, so excited to work with you one on one in this coaching session. Now, I've had the honor and privilege to work with you over the past few months inside of the inner circle mastermind. And you're amazing, and your company is amazing. And the way that you're supportive of your fellow masterminders is also incredible. So for those people that are listening, could you tell us about what you do, what you sell, and all the things?

Of course. Happy to be here. So, hey, Mad and Co is a lifestyle apparel brand along with some accessories. And we kind of pride ourselves on our apparel with a purpose. So we promote mental health awareness. We donate a portion of our proceeds to mental health organizations, fostering stronger communities that way. So primarily our focus is sweatshirts, hoodies, T shirts, so lifestyle wear, casual wear, and then some of our accessories are tote bags, zipper pouches, that kind of thing.

And you're Canadian based?

Yes, we are based out of Canada. Yep.

But you sell US and Canada.

That's right.

Amazing. And then you have a physical store as well?

That's right. So we have our own branded store. So alongside our branded products, we do carry products from other local businesses in the area as well.

Amazing. Okay, so some of the things you wanted to talk about today, we were asking sort of what would make the strategy session a success to you is implementing a plan to increase our wholesale reach and our customer base across Canada and the U.S. so the first thing you want to talk about is increasing your reach across Canada in the U.S. wholesale. Because right now your wholesale 90% is coming from fair and they're in the U.S. so you have like a huge wholesale realm happening in the US Even though you're a Canadian company. But right now also you're saying that the US is only reaching 5% of your customers online, right? Direct to consumer.

That's right.

So what do you want to focus on first then? Do you want to talk about expanding direct to consumer in the US or wholesale?

If we could jump into wholesale, that'd be great.

Okay, so let's dig in. So what questions do you have about it?

My roadblock is reaching out organically. Like, aside from fair, I want to be able to reach out organically to boutiques and clothing stores and just how to find those ones. And what's the best way to approach that?

They give you all the steps on multi stream machine and you just got done watching it. So my question is, is what is the roadblock that's coming up for you? Is it a mindset thing from the way I taught it in there to then wanting to be coached on it?

A hundred percent.

Okay, so let's dig into the mindset.

Part and like, you know, we do in person direct to consumer shows and I have no problem again selling to customers. It's when it comes to selling a wholesale amount to a buyer, that's where my struggle is.

But what's the struggle? Is it getting on the phone and like opening yourself up to that? Like what's the part that is.

Yes, it's that initial connection, like making the phone call or the initial email. Maybe I'm going to scare them away or work Canadian company. That's kind of my hang up.

We're not scared of Canadians over here in the US I'll just tell you, like, they're so nice.

Yep.

And lovely. So you're saying that there might be objections that come up because you're Canadian? Let's say that they might have objections in the way of like, oh, we don't import or blah, blah, blah. Right.

That's right.

Randomized things in your brain that you're believing that they're going to say, but you just told me that 90% of your wholesale orders are coming from the U.S. so what proof do you have that it's not going to work?

There's zero proof. It's again, it's, it's that limiting belief.

Yeah. Okay. Okay, so we nailed that. Check. When you're faced with limiting beliefs, one of the first things to do is to start looking for evidence both for and against it. I can't tell you how many times someone says they're worried about something, but when we spend just a few minutes looking at their history, the story it tells is just the opposite. Limiting beliefs aren't logical because our brains get hung up on one negative experience, even if we have hundreds of positive ones to counter it. So do the work to dig up positive evidence on purpose. All right, second part is maybe it's the confidence of like what you're gonna say or present. Is there anyone on your team or anyone that you work with that could be a better like lead up, like the person who sets it for you? Maybe they're not the closer but they're the person that does the front end part.

So I'm basically a one woman show over here. So I do all the things.

Okay, so how is fair working for you? Like, do you like that part of your business? Is there a reason you want to reach out yourself versus fair?

I think it's that commission that they take that is the one hang up there for sure. But fair is consistent for us. So I don't want to knock that at all. But just having, I guess, more consistency with organic ones to cut out that commission.

If you were to hire your own sales rep, if you were to be a part of a showroom, which is the way that I did wholesale, they're all going to charge commission. Okay. So even if you eventually hired someone in house to run your sales department, they're either going to get a salary with a smaller commission or a lower salary with a bigger commission. Right. So salespeople are so driven. It's like they love the game, they love the gamification. I actually love sales. I'm not trained as a sales rep, like with all the psychological stuff that happens with that. But I love the game of it and I get that there's some people who don't love the game of it. It almost feels like winning to me. It's like, ah, we did it. Like, I was able to get the conversion. So being a one person show is fine. You can choose to do it in a few different ways. So how I teach it inside of multistream machine is I teach you to like empower yourself. Because when I created this in msm, fair was there, but it wasn't the dominant place platform. And we kind of touch on fair. But I teach you how to do it without it fair now. Which is hilarious because I think I even said this to your mastermind group. I was like, you know, fair is not the only way to sell wholesale. And everyone's like, what? Because it's become really dominant. Because they solved a problem where they made it easier to connect the manufacturer, the person who makes the product to the store. But it's also become this like kind of flooded market. Either people are waiting to join or they do join and maybe they're not standing out on there and they're waiting to be discovered. And so if you want to grow your wholesale, let's start to just figure out numbers that we can work backwards from and then I can help you overcome mindset stuff and maybe help you feel more confident in the approach. So knowing your business, your goal this year for your Business is getting up to $650,000. Business, which is awesome. Okay. And he's like, is that Canadian or American? It doesn't matter. It's $650,000. I always love to be like, what currency? I was like, money is money. It doesn't matter what it is. I know you're gonna, you know, make more money on. On that money. Okay, so with that 650, how much of it do you want to be wholesale? If we're going to divide up your revenue streams, I would love for it.

To be 50% wholesale.

Okay. And right now, with your current revenue, which you don't have to necessarily share, but, like, what is the percentage of wholesale now to your current revenue, I.

Would probably say we're probably at about 20%.

Okay. So we need to kick up an extra 30% revenue. Okay, so you're about 20%. So let's just estimate then. For every hundred thousand dollars you make, 20,000 is coming from wholesale, because it's easy math. So then what we're looking to do then is how do we add an extra 30k in wholesale to get you 50k whole? Well, actually, no, I don't want to replace it because you're already making. Let's say for every $100,000 you make, you're making $80,000 direct to consumer. So now we're looking to add an extra 30,000 on, because we know 20% is already covered by wholesale. So can we add. So we're just, like, stacking your revenue. So 30k extra in wholesale. What does that look like? So, because you're doing really well on fair, what is the average order value that stores are buying from you? And, you know, if they're doing reorders.

I would say about half of them are doing reorders.

Great.

And I would say the average would be between 300 and $500 orders.

And do you have a minimum for them?

Actually, our minimum order is 150. We were just doing that to get more orders and get in front of new faces, but it's rare that it is a minimum order.

So if I were to multiply one of these numbers, would you say I should think about 300, 400, 500? What number should I anchor us onto?

I would do about 400.

So just meet in the middle. Okay. All right, now we're gonna do the math time, which, you know, I'm good at. So $30,000. So that's 75 stores at a $400 order value to drive an additional $30,000 a month. But we just discussed, because you have a brand new retail store, if you did nothing else in order to hit your goal, we'd get to like at least half a million dollars. So now actually let's take then the difference. So 150,000, because that feels a little bit easier. Let's do 150,000. So you need to make 375 if you want to make 150 grand. 375 orders on average of $400 each. It feels like a lot. But it can change because one, you can keep fare going. Two, you can potentially raise your minimum or get them to do the reorders. So let's say half of those people, you said already 50% come back and order again. So half those people are coming in and ordering again. Then it's not 375, it's divided by two, 188 stores. And then let's divide that by nine more months of the year. So it's 20 stores a month.

And that's doable? Yeah, yeah, that seems doable to me.

And that's a mix between fair and you doing your own personal outreach.

So then with the personal outreach, because I know I've looked at similar brands that I could compare our company to and seeing kind of maybe where they have some wholesale or they have some retailers, I do struggle with that a little bit. So then it's just reaching out to those stores directly. I guess not being in the United States, it's is that store a fit for us type of thing. I can't physically go into all of these stores.

Totally. So let me ask you a quick question. Just going back to this. So you said apparel with a purpose, supporting mental health awareness. But when I look at some of your shirts, like one of them is living my leak life. It's not actually mental health quotes on your product. No, necessarily. They're just products that then give back.

Yes, specifically our Be Kind and our Kindness club collections. Those are the ones we donate a portion of our proceeds to. And actually our Lake Life collection, we're in the process of that pre sale. That model seems to work really well for us if we do a pre sale. So my plan was to reach out to like resorts in lake areas here in the province to kind of reach out to them too. Because each, you know, like Clear Lake, West Hawk Lake, they're very popular here. They all have boutiques and stuff. So my plan was to reach out that way as well.

And then when people are buying wholesale from you right now, what are they tending to Buy from you?

It's our Be Kind collection. The hoodies, the sweatshirts. We sell way more fleece than we do T shirts.

And is that all you have on Fair right now, or do you have everything listed on Fair?

We pretty much have everything listed on Fair.

So they're still buying the Be Kind?

Yes.

Have you done any research to know the kind of stores that are buying from you, what they look like, when I say look like, what they sell, other brands that they sell?

Yeah. So a lot of them are big brands, you know, that would be in big showrooms or at shows, big trade shows, but then they also have small local businesses like ours.

Okay, so I'd love to know more as you're trying to think, like, how do I find the ideal store? I'd love to know. What you can do then is look to the bigger brands that they carry and then look to who they sell to. So it may not be that you are finding another T shirt company or sweatshirt company that's exactly what you sell. It might be knowing who they are already buying from and then where those bigger brands are being sold. Because there's a psychology thing where, like, a friend of a friend is a friend. Right. And like, an enemy of a friend is an enemy, technically. So a friend of a friend as a friend is the idea of. Okay, like, they have the same kind of customer base. Retailers are buying this product. They most likely will also like your product.

Okay.

I would follow the clues that are being left for me. These stores are buying from me. They're spending way above my minimum. Let me go see what's happening with them, who they're buying, and then finding other brands that maybe have a similar customer base, and then backtracking and saying, like, who do they sell to? And that will give you data on stores you can reach out to.

Okay. So getting away from that a small local business mindset is probably going to help me as well.

Oh, yeah. I mean, sure, you're local, but you're telling me you're selling 90% to the US so you can still be a small local business, but your reach is much bigger than that.

Okay.

In the connected world we live in, even small businesses don't have to be local. This goes back to that limiting mindset. Again, if you believe you're just small, you're just a small local business. You're holding yourself back from so much potential. And just like our earlier example, when we look at the evidence, it's already clear that's not the case for Amber. With wholesale, the Whole world could be her customer base. And then the living my lake life. Yeah, I mean, that's great to like, approach retail shops that are by big lakes. You know, Lake Tahoe, the Great lakes in the U.S. banff, Canada, like, you know, wherever the lakes are. And then you go and look that up and then you can go on to Yelp or Google Maps or whatever, and you can look to find boutiques in that area. And then you find their information, and then again, you're backtracking. Okay, that's kind of how I would do the research. So the research part is a big part of creating a very big kind of list for you to then outreach to. Let's say you're reaching out to lake retailers, lead with your lake product. You can keep the Be kind and all that towards the back, but just know your customer and who you're selling to. So lead with Lake life to them versus general boutique. Lead with Be kind because, you know, it's a bestseller and like, that will attract people. Okay, and then the question is the bom bom, bom. And we're getting on a phone call.

Yeah, exactly. So is phone call best email best.

A lot of it can be done via email. If you send them the line sheet, a quick blurb, and be like, your customers would love this. And even if you call out, like, again, if it's lake one, you show like the images of the. The lake life one, and it's like an image dropped into the email and then like, click on this and then it opens up the line sheet.

Okay. No, that's super helpful. And just doing the research. Like, if I can time block to just research a bunch of places and start there's. Yeah, I think that'd be less overwhelming.

And then just block out for yourself the amount of time you want to spend on it. So I'm going to. It's a volume play. So this is why people pay sales reps, commissions, and all the things, because they either have a list they're already contacting, they have their own buyers that they. They're like, oh, I know the buyer, blah, blah, blah, Your stuff would be perfect for them. So you're kind of having to take on that role. And then what you can say is, like, for every 10 people you call, if you close one store, you're either gonna get better at it or, you know, okay, for every 10 that I call, I get one. So if I call a hundred, I'll get 10. And then you start to make it a math problem. Okay, but fair is still working for you and you can do the same solution. So with fair, make it a yes thing and create a bundle that is a higher average order value. Say yes to this.

Yeah.

Bundle for them. Knowing what people buy.

Yeah. Okay, that's really helpful.

Okay, good.

Yeah, it's just breaking down the steps for me. Not just a big ballpark image, but being able to break it down step by step is super helpful.

Awesome. All right, so you feel a little bit more confident with wholesale.

Yes.

It doesn't feel so overwhelming but we can just break that into tasks.

Yes.

So giving you the numbers, the number might feel like a lot as we were talking about the math but you're going to keep growing your business. So you've got the retail store. So that's going to grow. You got fair, that's going to grow. You've got direct to consumer, that's going to grow. So already know that things are going to grow. And then if the lever you're going to pull this year is that you're. Well you've added on a retail store.

Yes.

So you've added on brick and mortar. And if you want to double down on wholesale where you're not just waiting for people to find you on fair, but that you're going to go out and get them, those would be the two levers I would focus on for the rest of the year.

Okay.

And then here's another thing. I know you're a one woman show. You may have friends that are stay at home moms or people who have part time jobs that are looking for something that like this kind of thing that you could just pay them a certain amount per hour and ask them to do the research and the outreach for you that they come together and they put the list together for you. Like are there people that you trust that you can train that you're like okay, I'm gonna spend a hundred dollars over like for five hours of them doing something for me. That hundred dollars is super worth it to you.

Yeah.

And then they're doing the kind of like grunt work that's not as enjoyable and then but they're providing you so they're like fast forwarding steps. So because you've got a multi six figure business you can't afford this extra help. So I want you to think how can I resource others that I can instruct them on what to do. I can have them go watch the module in multi stream machine. They can come back and ask you, you have access to me through the mastermind and then maybe there's someone who like, if you think about like restaurant rest, remember the Zagat guide and it was like $1 sign for a cheap restaurant and $4 signs. Who can do the $1 sign stuff for you so you can be more in the three and four dollar sign tasks?

I do have a couple people in mind, so that is a fantastic idea.

Perfect. We don't need to bring them on. But let's start to outsource the $1 tasks to people that can just shortcut stuff for you so that you can focus on the higher level strategy. Most of the product bosses I work with start their businesses out by bootstrapping, right? That's, that's it. And they're doing everything themselves to prove the business can work. That's totally normal. But for most businesses, it's not sustainable in the long term. You can't be a one person show forever. And as your business grows, you get to start hiring. That means focusing on your zones of genius and what you like and what you're good at and what gets the biggest returns. Those are the three or four dollar sign tasks. Everything else, those one dollar signs, those can be done by someone else. That's the sustainable path to business growth. That unlocks your next level. And that is a thing that we work on inside of the inner circle. Mastermind. Hey friends. Are you unsure of what to say on social media or what to even send in your weekly emails? Well, what if creating content could be easy? Would you be looking for a shortcut to creating consistent content? Yes, consistent content. Because you know, consistency is key. Well, let me tell you, you are not alone when you feel like you're struggling on what to post or what to write in emails. And we know that you have that product part of your business down. But as you're listening to this podcast, you probably already know that to get more people to your products, to buy your products, you need to create great content. Oh, I know, I see. I keep saying content and that's the dreaded C word. And we can't tell you how many product bosses tell us that they want to create great content for their audience and their customers, but they don't know what to say. Or they are so busy they can't find the time, or they really, really, really don't want to be the face of their brand. Well, no worries, because that's exactly why we created a year of content. It is your shortcut to creating consistent content that resonates with your audience and brings more loyal customers who can't wait to buy Your products. If you want to see how easy this is and how easy it is to create content for your audience and your customers, head to www.ayearofcontent.com. so the second part of your question was what you're already doing, but doing more of it is selling more consistently. Is that what you want to talk about or what would you like to talk about?

Maybe our U.S. customer base, like direct customer base, driving more traffic towards our website.

Okay, so what are you doing right now? Because you said you feel like your sales have plateaued. So when you say they've plateaued, is that Canadian sales? U.S. sales, all sales?

Yeah. Direct to consumer would be for sure. It's plateaued. Like we don't really get any US based orders on our website.

Were you getting them before?

No.

Okay, so that hasn't plateaued. It just hasn't happened.

That's right, yeah.

Canadian sales online, how are those doing?

They're consistent. So again, I would like to boost that a bit as well, but definitely try to reach out into the US for customer orders on our website.

Okay, so before we do that though, because you said you're consistent with your Canadian orders online, so what are you doing right now to like create brand awareness, to like awareness of the product and attracting them and then conversion, like what does that look like to get the Canadians involved?

So I feel we're pretty consistent on Instagram is our platform of choice, you know, automatic feed to Facebook. And we've started boosting our ads, paid ads, to kind of bring a bit more awareness to that. And I think it's working. We have had an increase in followers, but again, I would like to convert that into sales.

Okay, so when you say ads are working, are ads working for sales or they're just working for follower count?

Follower account, I believe.

Okay. And are you doing any ads for sales?

I'm just starting out, so I'm not sure if it's quite working yet.

Okay, so what I would do is I would test in the market that you're in. So I would test in Canada. Are you working with an ads team or are you doing it?

I do it all.

Okay, so all the therapies, you're like, I told you.

Yeah.

I don't always believe that people should run their own ads because who are we to say that we're good at it or is it working? Because if you can get something working in Canada that you understand this kind of ad works in Canada, it drives people to my site and the conversion is happening, then there's no reason you can't then take that same ad and duplicate it for a US audience and drive a US audience to buy on your website. Or you hire an ads agency or you run the ads for us and then you are doing that. But what's happening is, however, the algorithm is currently working for social media for you. It shows it to people who are like the people following. So if you started with a lot of Canadians, then it's going to show it to more Canadian people because it's a Canadian business. So there has to be this way that you break through into the US market. So either you start to run ads to the US market and then more of those people follow you. So then Instagram starts to think, okay, let me show this to more Americans as a market, or you work on more awareness. So you work with influencers or collaborators or people like that or that are in the States so you can get in front of their audience.

Which is something I just started with Social Cat, which was recommended in the Mastermind.

That's right.

So I have three micro influencers that were a great match. So I'm just in the process of shipping them their gifted items. So I have someone doing a reel, someone's doing a few story slides, and then another one is doing a feed post and all American.

So what you'll see is if this works. So you're kind of in this, like test and try time where I totally get why you want to expand to the US Market. Because you're like, all my retailers are coming from the US market. And the awareness, the brand awareness, the more retailers you sell to, people are aware of the brand and they either find you on social media and follow you. You could put it on your hang tags and your packaging, like follow us on social. And then you're creating content that the ideal customer likes. But I'd like for you to nail and increase your Canadian traffic because you already have that working. So how do we kind of uplevel the lever on like, what's already working? Can we double down on what's working versus a big lift of trying to get into the US market. But you're testing some other things with the US market. So you'll see, like, does it start to shift the algorithm? Does it attract people? Can you grow your email list all the things? And then when I go to your website based in America, does it differentiate? Like, if I place an order, does it say it looks like you're in the US or if I pay you $30, is it Canadian? Like, how does all that work, I.

Believe it shows you in the Canadian prices.

Okay. So that just might be another thing that you're gonna have to shift. We've seen this, like, looks like you're in the US Or Ikea does it like you pick which country, but it's like, looks like you're in the US and then it, they say yes, and then it shifts the site to the US Site.

Yes. Okay.

Because what's gonna happen that trips me up as a customer in the US Am I gonna be paying for shipping from Canada? Like, is the price going to be different when I put it in to my credit card? You know what I'm saying? So you just kind of want to.

Clean it up, simplify it so they actually see what they're going to be paying.

Yeah, because right now I would not know that you're a Canadian company, so I would just think I'm buying in the U.S. okay, but what are the things? Like if I add a cart and then I go and check out, does it get confusing to me, you know?

Yeah, no, that's fair. I would definitely like to start doubling down on boosting posts, paid ads, that kind of thing. So maybe doing everything myself isn't always the best way.

I think that that might be the theme of this thing. So we could talk strategy all day.

Yes.

We can say all the things to do and you're like, okay, but how? Because I'm just a one woman. Joe, I really want to drive this point home for everyone out there. You can have the best plan, you can have all the goals and ambition and strategy in the world, but you're just one person. And there will always be a limit to how much you can do on your own. Running a business as a solopreneur is always a choice, but you have to understand what that choice is costing you. We've talked about a lot of different things. You can do what feels like the thing that is going to move the needle the most in your company that you'd like to focus on. And then how can we build support around you to make it happen?

Definitely need support ad wise.

Ads. Okay.

Yeah, you know, what post do I use? Do I create a whole separate ad? Do I boost a post? How much do I put towards it? Like, those are all unknowns for me that I'm kind of testing out, but I feel like I'm kind of just realizing I need help with that and it'll cut down the trial and error time frame, I believe.

I don't run my own ads and we run a lot of money in ads a year. And I've chosen that I never want to learn how to run ads because I always think that for me, like ads is such a strong component in the revenue drivers for our company and I am not going to become an expert at that. So I pay someone who is an expert at that. And she's also behind the scenes of all these other ad campaigns. So she has data of like what's working and what's not working. Right. So there's also this added benefit when you're able to afford to work with an agency or some sort. The one thing that I've seen there's two ways that people who run ads for e commerce work. One way is that people will pitch you on a fee per month plus your ad spend, plus they want to take a percentage of your sales. I don't love that way when they are like, you know, if I sell a million dollars for you and I want 10% of the million dollars they sell, they also don't love it. Then if you were like, I'm going to sell on Amazon. Because what happens with e commerce ads is like, here's hey mad. Here's hey mad. And people are discovering you on Instagram, but then they might go to Amazon and search are you available on that? And then you're paying for like the meta ad and then you're paying the Amazon percentage. And then the person who's your ad company, if they were getting a percentage, they get pissed cause now they're cut out. So they'll actually like tell you don't sell on Amazon because it's for their own benefit, it's not for yours. I've also seen other people who have run meta ads who sell on Amazon. They just need to cut out the ad person who wants a percentage of sales because they're not acting in your best interest or acting in theirs. So when I look for or tell you to find ad agencies to work with, I would rather you work with someone who's a flat fee per month they do their job and you pay them the amount per month for that what they're going to do. And then they work with you on your ad spend. Which means for like every dollar you put in for ads, not their fee, but every dollar you put in for ads, maybe you're getting $4 back. So when that happens, like at least $2 back for every dollar you get at least $2. And the goal really is like, can we get 3x or a 4x return on your ad? Spend, which is a ROAS. So if that's the case, then you can scale all day, every day. For every dollar you put in, you get four times back. So it means like, you put a million dollars into ads, you make $4 million back. Like now it's just a math equation of like, how much you want to put in to get out. So when you're looking, if you're looking for an ads team, I would tell you one, meet with three people, get three different quotes for anything you're looking for. I'd always, like, meet with three different people and get three different quotes. See who you vibe with, see if they get what you're selling. If, like, they have proof. Like, oh, yeah, we've worked with a company like this and we made this happen. And then you want to give people at least like 90 days to get it going because they're going to like, start working on, like, who your customer base is, your audience. And they're going to test and try and they're going to see what works. So when you do run ads, you have to have the money to play with and be willing to play with it. Okay, So I would ask your group, your mastermind group, because that's why you're all in it, right? To like, shortcut it. I'll make an introduction to my ads person who's worked with several masterminders, and then you can make the decision. And if anything, if you're like, you know what, I'm still gonna run it myself. When you take these meetings with these agencies, they're gonna bring to light, like, things that you might be like, oh, yeah, I should try that. Or they might even say to you, you know what, we're gonna run the ads, but we need to also work on your website. Cause your website isn't gonna convert no matter how many people we send to it. For example. Okay, so either you could say, I'm going to start to run ads in the US but before you do that, you should have a site that's US based, just so that even for you. And like the currency exchange and. Or can they run ads Canada and US and can you start with Canada and then add on us later?

Okay, and that's something I didn't think of either the whole website checkout part when it comes. And even just showing in US Prices would make it easier too. Right? Because then it's just one other thing they're not thinking about.

See, the thing is, is that I actually didn't know you were Canadian. If I just show up on your site. The only way I would know that is it's like visit the store. And I'm not sure where the store is. Yeah, because it just says visit our retail store at Kildenant Place Mall. So anyone anywhere in the world might not know what that is, but it's fine. But I don't know it's a Canadian company, so. Meaning, like I actually don't know that when I do buy from you that it's Canadian. So I'm just wondering if my credit card charge ends up lower. Right. Like maybe it's 14.75 instead of 15 Canadian or whatever the conversion is. Or if there's something that happens in checkout where it starts to say like shipping is more expensive because it's coming to the US So I would look to other sites that sell to both that we can select. Looks like you're in Canada or US and then it also will help you on the back end with like your transactions and knowing where you're shipping to and stuff like that.

Okay, that makes sense.

So I'm just going through a checkout process. So what's my email address? And then do you have it something like where I put in my email address if I were to abandon cart that you know that I abandoned cart?

Yes.

Okay, good. So you have that put in your email address. Because if I abandon cart right now, I should get a. Hey, looks like you left something in your cart.

Yeah. Okay, I should have that enabled. I know I disabled it while I was revamping a few things, so thank you for that.

Okay, so double check that and I'll abandon cart so that we can see if it happens. Second thing is, you have shipping or store pickup. The store pickup is a bit confusing, probably even to Canada because it doesn't even say the province.

Okay, so I should put that in there too.

Well, where is it?

So we're in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

So if someone in BC is on here ordering, like they're never going to do store pickup. How many people do you select? Store pickup?

A lot.

A lot.

A good chunk of our local orders are pickup.

And so they'll come on your website, they'll place the order and then come.

To the store to pick it up, even though we have everything in store.

Okay, so maybe this is only for Canada. And then it puts the. The province just so they know where it is. Cause you're seeing a lot do do it.

Yeah.

Okay. Enter your full address and then credit card. Okay, so here's the big kicker. So I put in my Old New Jersey address. So don't send anything to the people who bought that house. But anyways, for the pre sale of the $45 hoodie, there's zero tax because it's shipping overseas. But shipping to the zip code is 16.95. That 16.95 is going to make me abandoned cartoon.

Okay.

Because it's half of pretty much the cost of the sweatshirt.

What is the sweatshirt cost? Showing you 45. Okay. So it. Is that the youth one?

Yeah. How much is it supposed to be?

Oh, yeah, no, that's correct. I just didn't know if you were selecting the adult one and it was converting it into US dollars.

No, yeah, it's youth for 45.

Okay.

So one of the things I'm realizing here is there might need to be more to your thing that says, oh, you're only $20 away from free shipping, for example. So, you know, Maybe it's a 50 or $65 for free shipping. Like, I'd almost have that at the top of your website versus the visitor retail store. Or you can, like, it could be like, hey, if you're in Canada or if you're in Winnipeg, come visit us. But what I think is more important is that you have free shipping, like a free shipping threshold. So when you spend X, you get free shipping. That way it's on your customer and not you for them paying for shipping. Well, if they just add another sweatshirt, they won't have to pay for it. And I want you to look at your abandoned cart metrics. Like, how many people are abandoning cart? Because that could show you, like a space where they get there. And like, I'm not paying 17 for shipping for a sweatshirt.

Yeah, it sucks because our shipping is so expensive here.

I know.

Ridiculous expensive. Yeah.

Well, it's cheaper for you to ship to the US Isn't it, than Canada.

Yep. It's insane. Yeah.

So we have a free shipping calculator inside of the programs that you're in that you can look into it and be like, either the product needs to be a little bit more expensive. Like you add retail price to compensate a little bit for shipping. And knowing that if I get Everybody to spend 65, $75, I might be eating shipping on it, but I'm selling more. So it's actually costing me less per unit to pay for shipping. Do you know what your average order value is online?

Yeah, it's about $67.

Okay. All right, then I do free shipping on orders. 75 or more. And watch that your orders are going to go up to 75. And then are you setting your conversion of your website like people who are landing on it and their checkout and all that?

Yeah, I've been diving a bit more into that lately now that a lot of things have settled. The last six months have been insane. I'm definitely diving in time blocking. Better to look more into our analytics of all the things because what you.

Can do is you could put a heat map type software onto this like Lucky Orange or Hotjar.

Okay.

Do you know what those are?

No.

So what it is, it's a heat map. So people like that are more advanced like you, that are driving traffic, that are making sales, it might be something you want to try. So it's how visitors behave on your site. So it'll actually show you where they're clicking. Imagine this is your homepage. It'll show you like red means they all see the top of your homepage but maybe barely anyone scrolls to the bottom. So you don't want to have anything important at the bottom of your homepage because they're not getting there. Does that make sense? And then it'll also show you clickable links or like where people click. Because what I need and want for you, especially at your level is that you start to get data that's going to give you more information to make decisions on. That's where you're at now at like this multi six approaching million dollar business is that you have an awareness of the way people are working. So here on your site, right, we would see, oh they go to best sellers right away. Like this is the reddest, hottest part and that's where they're clicking or they go to shop all the things or you see them go here but maybe they don't click on any of these and they scroll down and they click through here. So it'll just show you the behavior of your customers. To know how do I make this online user experience better? Then in this I'd move all of your social medias to the bottom because what happens if someone leaves and goes to social media? They're never coming back to our website.

They're not coming back.

We end up in. Yeah, we don't want to give them any distractions. We want them to stand here and stay here. Then the other part now you do convert on your site but the way that your site is built right now doesn't allow for me to have like a clickable link. Like it doesn't have like a clear hero image with like a shop now of whatever. So if you were selling Lake Life, I'd be like introducing the Lake Life collection and I'd put it here and I'd like get pre order Lake Life now with a call to action button. If you were pre selling Lake Life and that's what you want to sell right now, that should be shop now. New arrival, even new arrivals. Because maybe your customers aren't lake people because Lake Life is very different than the other. Be kind. They're very different customers. So you may not then they are now featuring new arrivals here, which means I don't have to go dig into all of this. You're kind of telling me what to buy. So that's the kind of thing that I think for your website right now. It's like what would you put in your store window? Put that on your homepage because people want you to tell them what to buy.

So just some small tweaks there could make a big difference for sure.

Yeah. Another trap I see growing product bosses fall into time and time again is feeling like they need to make big sweeping changes in order to scale their business. Trust me, you do not have to reinvent the wheel. Often the best thing you can do as your business evolves is double down on what's working and make small tweaks so that they work a little bit better. Any other questions I can help answer before we wrap?

I think that's a really good start for me. I think that was really beneficial. Not too much, there's lots but. But like you said, even just I have a couple friends in mind to kind of do that research would be super helpful.

So let's bring it into projects so you don't feel overwhelmed. So one thing you want to do is you want to navigate wholesale in more of a active way versus a passive way. Because we've got fair working but we're looking for an active way of doing it. But with your capacity, it's a lot to ask one woman show to do. So you're going to outreach and ask people if they're willing to do it. You're going to teach them and train them on how to get the information you're looking for. And then you can decide whether you do the calls or you train them into doing it. And it's just going to be test and try and don't go for the big, big, big companies to start. Start with like small local, learn from that and then that you're going to do line sheets to go with it. You're also going to work on. I just say yes Package. And you might even want to bring that over to Fair. And then anyone that has bought from you, from Fair, can you contact them and tell them like, hey, I created this new bundle, this new package. Like, make sure you're marketing the people that have already bought from you.

Okay.

Okay. So step one. And then what would be the second thing you want to work on?

Changing up my landing page.

Okay.

For sure. And then trying to find someone to help me with ads.

Okay. Because if you're going to make it rain, you want the buckets to catch it. Right. So if we're going to run ads, we want the website to convert. I think those are good things to work on. And then it's a project that maybe you do for the next 60 to 90 days. You're going to get overwhelmed if you do too many big projects at once. So just think about to your $650,000 goal. What are the needle movers like, what's the thing that you can already just keep going because it's working? And then what are the little tweaks you can make that will have the biggest impact?

And.

And then maybe there's just one new big project you take on.

Yeah. And I think too, I find someone to kind of do that research. While that research is being done. That's when I can work on tweaking the homepage landing page. That won't take too long. And then digging into the ads. And then I can circle back to the wholesale.

Yep. And then maybe it'll feel so good to have somebody helping you that you can add an assistant on.

I know like I have store staff, but that's like a whole separate thing. Right. I just, I think it's a trust thing for me. Cause it's been my baby for so long. It's letting somebody else in on that too, I think is my struggle.

And also know that by not hiring, you're stopping your growth. Because there's only so much that you can do in a day and have the capacity to do and not get overwhelmed. So at some point, by wanting to grow this the same way that you can't be in the store every day operating it on a day to day, it might be the same of like, okay, I'm gonna get someone that I know like and trust to assist me, that I can just like say, hey, can you help me with this? Can you help me with this? And you just start that way.

Yeah.

And then long term, you could create roles for them.

That's perfect. Sometimes I just need that outside perspective. Right.

I know. That's why we're working together. I'm proud of you.

I'm excited. Yeah.

Amazing. Okay, so for us to support you and buy from you and all the things, where can we follow you and where can we buy from you?

Eymad and Co is our socials and heymad.com is our website.

Amazing. We'll drop it all into the show notes. All right. Thank you. This was so good. Thank you for sharing your coaching session with everyone.

Yes, I'm excited.

That was another great coaching session with Amber of Heymad and Co. I absolutely love coaching our students, especially my inner circle masterminders. Now, there are a couple of things I want you to take away from this episode. One, you don't have to do this alone. In fact, you shouldn't. Two, the biggest way to grow your business is by making small tweaks. And three, your mindset and limiting beliefs are the biggest thing holding you back from success that you dream of. And that's what we're here for, to help you push past those boundaries, to get to your growth edges and to build the business that you Dessert. Thank you for being here and listening all the way through the Product Boss podcast. If you love our show and it has helped you in any way in your business, would you mind doing two things for us? Subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode and leave us a review. Reviews help other product entrepreneurs know that this is the place to be to grow their businesses and realize that they're not alone. And we know that you are. You all know that a five star and honest review helps you sell more products to more people. So you know that your reviews help us reach more listeners around the world. Remember, what we give is what we receive and we are all about helping each other in the Product Boss community. We are all in this together. We would be so appreciative of you if you could take the time right now to subscribe, leave a review, and even share this episode on social or someone you know so we can impact more lives. And remember, subscribing means that you will get notified each time we release a new episode, so you never miss a thing. You have helped us grow and climb into the top 10 of all marketing podcasts and together we can keep climbing. Thank you friends. And remember, there is room at the top for all of us. It.