600. “Sales are down and I don’t know what to do.” | Coaching Session

That scarcity mindset, that's me. I am very afraid of sinking money into a losing proposition. I can't be scared, but I also can't be willy nilly where we're investing.

Hi, I'm Jacqueline Snyder and this 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 mistakes they could have avoided, how did they turn their ideas into successful business, and what are the strategies that they have used to make more sales and be discovered by more customers. And 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 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, friend. Okay, so today I'm diving deep with Gina and she first started her product based business as a side hustle. It was called Fan Sparkle where she is selling collegiate jewelry. But she recently purchased a second business. In fact, this business is the company that was supply her so much of the jewelry that she was selling in Fans Sparkle. So really cool, really kismet that she was able to do it. And now this business, Seasons Jewelry, has been in business for 39 years. So while Seasons Jewelry is already a well established brand, sales have been slow and Gina's been struggling to figure out what to do next, where to focus and how to really grow this business past the plateau that she feels that it's in as she dives headfirst into owning this new company. And congratulations, Gina. But she has left her full time job. Okay, so congrats on becoming a full time product boss. She's trying to figure out what to do next. And so what we discuss in this coaching call is how maybe even though it's a 39 year old business, it's time to go back to the foundations. It's time to go back to the basics. We need to identify what's not working and where she could be focusing so that she can grow this business. As I like to say, whenever you reach a new stage of business, you need to continue to look at the foundations and think where's what's broken. Where do I need to level up? Right, because you cannot build on a cracked foundation. This is a really good episode, so let's dive in. 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 productboss, all one word to receive a 15% discount. Okay. Gina, I am so excited to work with you in this coaching session today. I mean, I feel like I've known you and worked with you in some capacity for years now. Um, you're a multi stream machine student. You've kind of done all the things you're in the mastermind. You're coming to the expansion retreat. It's just going to be amazing. Um, but, but kind of give me an update on what you sell, where you sell and all the things.

So I purchased Seasons Jewelry in July of last. The business is 39 years old, so I'm calling it a. A 39 year old startup. It's had three owners, I'm the third owner and it really has been on cruise control for the last six years. So I'm like reviving it. That's where the startup part comes in. It's a little easier because I have an established customer base that I'm able to work with. There's just so much that I want to do. But I've resigned my job and I will be without my corporate job on Friday the 15th.

So I don't think I knew that you Left your full time job.

Yeah. So I. Congratulations.

This is huge.

Yeah. This is real. This is real.

I have goosebumps. Oh, my God.

So I'm going all in. I've never been more excited to do such a scary thing, but I am excited and I just want to make sure that I am not like that. That meme that you posted with the friends and Phoebe running around between all the wedding dresses.

My most viral real.

And I'm leading into my busiest time of the year. I feel like I've momentum on my side. I don't want to squander that. So I need you.

Okay, well, let's start with how amazing you are and what I want you to realize because. Were you on the podcast for Fansparkle? Yeah. Okay, so if. If Gina's voice sounds familiar, she's been on the show before with Fansparkle, which was your original company that was fan based. You did a lot of stickers, um, and you were actually buying from the company that you just recently took over and purchased. So that's huge. Like for anyone you know, out there listening, thinking like, oh, I sourced from these companies or, you know, you weren't. It wasn't like Fans Sparkle was doing so amazingly that you're like, I'm going to expand. But you just saw this opportunity to acquire a company and you had the skills from figuring out, you know, how to print stickers, come up with the art, sell it. You were doing game day jewelry and you were sourcing. And so I just want you and the type of job you had in corporate and all of your skill set, you were more than capable. But I totally get it's scary because with a transition, it's always scary. Right? We don't know what we don't know. We don't know how we're walking through it. But you've already been doing it. So I want to tell you that I have full confidence in you for this and watching your progression over time of like Fan Sparkle and going all in on that. And then should I buy this company too? I bought this company too. I'm running this company too. I've left my full time job, so I can't wait for like the next update some months from now. Okay. So I believe in you. We believe in you. So. And you're. You will grow that self trust. But I totally understand how scared is. I've been through a massive transition lately. All the things. So thinking about your business and you were saying that your biggest struggle right now, you're feeling like it's hard to increase your sales or what do you feel like is your biggest struggle?

Yeah, it's, it's. Sales were down from. So 2023. Sales numbers were down from 2022. Not by much, but they were down. And right now sales year to date in 2024 are down from 2023. So that makes me feel sad. So sales are down 15% in 2020. Sorry. As of the end of May, sales are down 15% this year from the same period last year.

And when did you acquire the company?

July of last year.

Okay, so they were running it that this time last year. What do you think is different than when they had it? What's happening that you could identify as. We stopped doing this, we did that. Like what do you think's happening?

I don't think from a, from a product or selling standpoint, I don't think there's anything different. If nothing else, I've been doing more because they were just sustaining. They weren't leaning into trying to grow. I've been doing, you know, more aggressive email marketing, leaning really hard into fare. Our fare sales are up from the same period last year quite a bit actually. So I really don't know if it's the market. I know that my showroom in Atlanta, in January, sales were down. They were down in January, they were down in July. So I really don't know how much of this is the economic landscape, how much of this might be. We don't think it's distributed to them per se because they were just maintaining things.

Okay, so we do know. I mean, and I think the beautiful thing about being community with other product based business owners is that we can all ask, like, how are sales? Like, do you see things are up or down in the states? It's a election year and also you took over the company. So we have to think like transitionally wise, right? Like there's the operations, there's the back end of your company that needed to be held tweaked. You're so good at that, right? You're really good at the spreadsheets and data and admin and operations and stuff like that. And then there's the front facing part of the company, which is the, the sales and marketing. And it sounds like you're doing both from a profitability standpoint. How are you doing in profit?

Profitability is actually better because I raised prices and I raised prices for the first time in six years. So I want to be very strategic about that because I don't want to. There's a very established customer base and the employees that are with the company have been with the company for a long time. And so I think they feel a little nervous too of this is what we've always charged, even though costs have gone up, especially with imports and shipping.

So if you're telling me that your profitability is up and I've coached other people on this before where they've thought, oh, I want to have these quantum leap years, right? Quantum leap years can't happen every year because we don't have this. We can't sustain that kind of like huge momentous growth year over year over year without needing to structurally like support the foundations. So one of the things you're doing right now, one you had to keep this team on, which I know they've been with the business for a long time. And so it's like that shift anyways for them then the fact that you've raised the prices and more or less maintain like you might have lost customers because prices are raised, but you're more profitable. So in the long run you could actually sell less product and make the same amount of money, if not more. So when I've coached other people and they've been like, I'm flat this year, I'm like, well let's look at your profitability. And they're like, actually no, I'm more profitable. And so it doesn't matter like if you want to bring this company to a million dollars or a $10 million company, the question is going to still come back to how much profitability do you have in your business and how much do you want to take home? Because the bigger we grow the company, the more expensive the company gets. And I don't think it's a problem. I mean for me at the product boss, like I want to leap it, but I was asked by a mentor of mine, like, you know, so you want to get, build this to an eight figure business, let's say do you want eight figure problems, right? And so because team is bigger, operations are bigger, there's different leadership positions, there's all these things that need to happen. And so the question was, was how much do you want to take home personally? And then how could you build that into the profitability of the company so that there's enough to pay the bills, there's enough to keep in the bank for saving, there's enough to pay for taxes, there's enough for the operations and for investing and then for you. So you know, even thinking about you and your salary, leaving your full time job we almost can reverse engineer this and think, what's the overhead cost for the whole company to pay the people to reinvest that you're not having to pull any of your own personal money out. And then how much does Gina and her family want to take out of this company as an employee of it and as your draw? Right. And if we could really reverse engineer the profitability of it, it doesn't necessarily mean all your sales, you don't have to keep. Like, I know you want to grow it, but it would be so much better if there was just more cash left over even if the company maintained. How do you feel about that?

I, I love that. And I. When you talk about having like that scarcity mindset, that's definitely me. And I am very afraid of sinking money into a losing proposition. I'm afraid to take money out of the business. I don't know if you follow. Dude wipes at all. But the head, the CEO, he has this phrase and it's scared money don't make no money. And that really likes me because I can't be scared. But I also can't be willy nilly about where we're investing.

You know, I mean, I agree. Scared money don't make no money is, is funny. I used to wear this bracelet. It was funny when I was in high school that said, what would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? And I think there is these elements of pushing ourselves to our growth edges. Right? Like this is something that I've been working on and I, and I didn't realize how often I do push myself because I go into exactly what you're saying. I go into panic and scarcity and like, oh my God, like I don't know what to do. But when we, when we expand to this, right now, you've expanded to owning a company that is like you said, 27 years old. So it has history, it's a really good company. Right. It generates a lot of money. So you're at this, this edge of like, okay, being the CEO of this company and thinking through like exactly what you're saying. And then, and then by needing to hold this much responsibility, it's going to push you into expansion of what's possible, what's next, what do I want to do? But I agree with you in the way of like, what are we going to spend the money on for the roi? So I always want you to think like, what's the return on this investment? Investment, Is it worth it? Is there a more effective way that we can execute it? Does it need ad money? You know, do we need to be putting money into it? Do we need to be investing in shows? Do we need to, can we grow it organically? Like what do we need to do? As a product based business owner, one of the biggest things holding you back from being able to reach your business dreams and your goals could be a scarcity mindset. That's right. You may be the thing holding yourself back because you're approaching business with this mindset that has, it's so attached to negative emotions, to fear, to worry, to anxiety. But I don't want you to worry because one, you're not alone. And I know that you can hear this coming up for Gina as well. And I want to tell you because it's the same for me. It's not your fault. In fact, I see business owners continually holding themselves, themselves back because they're creating their own glass ceiling with their mindset. They cannot see past that. They cannot think or dream bigger yet. So the question is, is how do you break that glass ceiling? How do you move past this mindset block? Well, one of the ways is that we start trying to approach the situation with fresh perspectives and find something that's not working. Instead of being afraid that you're doing everything wrong, see if there is a way to fix it. You can try and figure it out with curiosity before you decide to burn it all down. So thinking of that then what can I help you with first in this expansion phase or this? You're scared. What are you thinking about investing in or what do you want to do next that I can help along with?

So I, you know, there's two levers that I can pull on to increase profitability and that's increase sales and reduce expenses. Right. And so one of the biggest expenses that I have is rent expense. I have a showroom and I have a warehouse. The warehouse is non negotiable. I need the warehouse. I'm moving the warehouse from Tennessee to closer to me in the Atlanta area. And rent is more expensive here. So that is something that's going to happen next year. I'm already trying to do projections around that, but my showroom is expensive as well. We can move product, but I don't look at it as a huge revenue opportunity. But the question that is nagged at me is how much would I lose sales if I were to not have that showroom and try to drive sales direct to our website? Or when I move the warehouse here, having a small showroom at the front of my warehouse having like a flex space where it's finished in the front and then just the warehouse in the back. I'm. I'm scared. We have a very traditional population of customers that I do think comes to those shows, but as a whole, foot traffic is down. I don't know again if it's just short term economics or if just the market, the wholesale buying market is being disrupted by companies like fair, you know. So I'm up for renewal this year and I need to sign like decide do I renew or not renew?

Okay. One, I would go to them and I. So I don't necessarily think you shut it down yet until you've proved some sort of other method that you can lean on. While yes, we can say markets have been down, it is more expensive to get a booth at these markets than it probably. And also the rent that you're at, I don't know what the rents are. If you're kind of grandfathered into a lower rent. Do you know about that? If I were to come in today and say, hey, I want a booth, I want a rental, have a rent, like rent here, I wonder what that market price would be versus the price you're in at. You could try and sublet part of it to make up the money. So instead of holding, can. Can you have other brands in there?

I think that is allowed. I know seasons at one point sublet from a very large showroom.

So my opinion is that you don't change anything too drastically yet until you've proven that you can make up that same amount of money without the markets. I think that there's smart ways that you can get creative and think, how do I make money on this space? One could be that, you know people. I mean, you're in the product boss community. I'm sure there's people who want to come to Atlanta that might even just tell you, like, I'd like to rent space at the market. They might just say that. Or you can rent permanent space to that person and they can come in and they can, they can use it or show it and think about it in that way versus shedding it down. Because if. Because if you were telling me you weren't making a return on it, but you are right, it is. Yeah, it is paying for itself technically. Because if we cut it out, then we'd have to figure out a way to make up that revenue. And that's a harder thing.

Yeah, for sure. And that, that kind of then leads me into my next train of thought is with me Being able to devote full time to the company. You know, we have the largest portion of our sales is wholesale. So that's good because I've just in hearing the chatter with the rest of the, you know, mostly like the next level students, it's getting into wholesale. And my problem is actually opposite, is trying to gain more visibility direct to consumer. But I think that's secondary to really trying to further grow the wholesale base. So I have signed up for the show in Dallas this month, so I'll be going there in June. Company hasn't done the Dallas show in seven years, maybe eight years. So I'm not expecting that to be this magical event where we just are flooded with orders. It's kind of like just timing, like just getting exposure again and showing up in the right places. And it's going to take time to build. But then I start getting into that circular conversation of, well, am I wasting the money to sweat traffic down and I'm not putting it in the right place.

Well, the thing is, is you have a very established company and so the people that have been buying free from you and that might be something that from the data points of who, who are your buyers and which ones are newer customers and which ones have been around for a long time and how long have they been around? Because they're already expecting a certain way of doing business like they might. The harder part for people that have a product they're launching into wholesale, nobody knows they exist. So one of the things that I did when I had my own, I'd go to markets. My markets would cost me like five plus travel, all the things. And I had to pray that the people walked by and they stopped and they talked to me. So I had my own ways of like saying like, hey, have you heard about cuffs couture? Like and I'd like all of a sudden flash them my wrist wallet, you know, that was like my, my ways of getting people to come talk to me. But when you're a more established brand and anyone that's listening, that's a buyer even you've worked with buyers and they know that they are constantly buying from you. Because what happens is eventually when you're an established brand in somebody's store, they need to keep reordering because their customers have an expectation that you're going to continue to carry that and then they need to come to you so they know that they're building in, going to see Seasons jewelry at market. That's when they go do it. It's part of their plan. And then they'll kind of like take some time to walk around the other booths or people just kind of have pop ups and they'll be like, let's stop or let's not stop. But they, they go as if like, you've got a list. You're going to a grocery store and you've got a list because you have a meal that you have to make and you're like, I need to go get eggs, I need to get flour, right? Like you have this very specific recipe. So, so I think that that's built into Atlanta for you, for, for Dallas. You signed up. We're not looking back, but let's look forward to thinking how do we make it the most effective event for you for conversion. So one thing I would do is I would look at your email list of your buyers and I would say, hey, I'm going to be at Dallas market. Set an appointment with me, right? Come check us out. Here's our booth. We're gonna be there this day, to this day. Reply back and let's set an appointment. Because a lot of again, more established brands with relationships with buyers, they actually set appointments because again, they know I have to go buy more seasons. And that might be really helpful, especially based on the kind of company you have being in Texas. Your buyers will be there and we need to just let them know come because why? One, maybe they've fallen off, but they're like, oh, I'll check you out in Texas. Two, maybe we get them to place a reorder that they haven't been thinking about. Maybe there's a new collection you want to put in front of them. Right? There's, there's so many things that you can do. So I think you start with marketing to your warm audience. We talk about this whether it's direct to consumer or anything. It's way easier to sell to somebody who's already bought from you than try and acquire a new customer. So that's where I would go. I would double down on your established customers and I would start to the same way from direct to consumer, you've raised prices, retention and then I would start to try and raise their average order value with you. How do we get them to buy more at this higher price point that already is going to start to lift your revenue and your profitability without you having to go buying new customers, which is an expense because it's a marketing expense to be able to acquire a new customer versus selling to an established customer.

How effective do you think those jewelry displays that I've been working on. One of my strategies was to use those as a trigger to remind buyers, like, oh my seasons display is running low, I need to restock. Instead of them just being on a tray on a table and then they can't remember what product was there on the table.

Well, Jared Mayer talked about this inside of Multi Stream Machine. We actually have like he was on the podcast. He's the, I think it was like the VP of sales for Pura Vita, which are jewelry, which is jewelry. And then we had him come in and teach a masterclass to our Multi Stream Machine students. And it's inside of the program and I'd find his podcast on the podcast and go listen. But what they established with originally they did two things. One at market they gave away bracelets. The bracelets are cheap. They just gave them away for people to be aware of them. Secondary part that they did was they created this tree. Their point of display. They called it their tree. How they originally started, it was a wood tree that hung the product. And when they would sell to a new customer, they would say, here's your starter. Like here's the spinny tree. You know, a lot of people discovered them at surf shops, trendy boutiques. They were even like in tanning salons. And so it was easy, right? Like the person didn't have to think, where do I put this product? It was like, oh, when I make my initial order with this person, I have my opening order and I buy the thing that fills the tree. Now when the tree starts to be missing a peg and things are sold out, they want to refill it. So I love that for you and you may want to, to market it in their minds of introduce, you might. This is a whole marketing moment introducing, you know, the season's jewelry displays. And when you, when you purchase our starter kit or our bestsellers or you purchase over X amount of dollars, we will include the display in it, right? Otherwise they pay for it. And so what we want is they're like, great, I want that display. I already saw your stuff. How do I fill it? And then you're going to want the same sort of follow through where you're like every x maybe every 30 days, every 45 days, you're messaging your retailers and you're checking in, especially the ones with the tree. And you're checking in, you're like, he Jacqueline, how's it going? Do we need to fill anything up on the display? Let me know. And also, in case you didn't see it, here's Our brand new necklace or here's our brand new bracelet. Like, our customers are loving it. I'm sure your customers will love it too. Let me know if you want me to, like, get it out to you. Right. So we have to just think about our marketing. But with, with retailers, it's really more of a partnership. It's more of an established relationship that you have with them. That's really like a. Let me help you. Versus the way maybe when we're dealing with e commerce and direct to customer and like, as marketers, the retailers really are our partners in a lot of it.

Yeah, that makes sense. That's good. I'm. I'm relieved that you said that because I do question sometimes if I'm going down a path of, you know, low payoff channel.

When you have a brand that's been selling for years, and In Gina's case, 39 years, it was may seem like the answer is that it's time to find and get new customers, or in Gina's case, potentially retailers. But the fact of the matter is, no matter what you're doing, it's actually like nine times easier to sell to people who've already bought from you and sell more to them than trying to acquire and get new customers. Now, you may be thinking, how do you do this? Well, a lot of times it's by creating a plan, and you want to have a really good marketing plan, and you want to make sure that you're nailing your foundations and you're updating your plan to the time that we're in today. Perhaps what worked last year, 10 years ago, 39 years ago has changed. So when it comes to your current customer base, we want to go back and think, how do we get them to come back and buy again? Hey, hey, product boss. Okay, I've got a really exciting announcement now. I'm doing something I have never done before, and I am hosting one of our most popular challenges this summer. Yep. We are going to do it in the summer, in July. Okay. So before I tell you all the details, I just want to talk to you a little bit about something that has really been coming up a lot in our community. You know, people have been thinking about brands and how they become household names, like how did Yeti become Yeti? Or how did the Ugg boot become the Ugg boot? Or Nespresso coffee machines. Right. And if you think about these brands, we also know that they're known for something. Right? We know core products that they're known for. They are not throwing spaghetti at the walls and trying to make all the different things. Because the truth is to be successful, to keep more money in your pocket and to make good money, you need to niche down. We have to really focus on what works, what we can actually sell to our customers. So if you don't know how to define this yet, and you're kind of still trying to think like, how do I make this work for my business and, and make the kind of money that I want to make by selling more products and becoming a money making machine. That's exactly why I am actually bringing back one of our most popular challenges, which is the best seller Secrets Challenge and brand new. You're hearing it here first. We're going to do it over three days. It's typically a five day challenge, but I know you all have things to do. The sun's out, we want to go to the beaches and all the things. But we also know that this is such a good time to work on our business and really prep for the holiday season that's coming up soon. Okay. So if you want to be here with me. Okay. Okay. We can have our sunnies on, we can sit outside for it. But I'd love for you to join me in the Bestseller Secrets challenge in July. We kick off Monday, July 15. And so all you have to do is head to the productboss.combest and get signed up. That's the productboss.combest. or head on over to Instagram and just DM me the word best and I will take care of you. We will make sure you are all in. All right. I can't wait to see you inside. So I'm going through a similar thing as you in terms of I bought the product boss last year, you know, and so in the way of the conversation of I have all these ideas, what do I want to do with it? What should I do? What shouldn't I do? Like, you know, there's, and I think everyone, you know, as creatives, we're visionaries and we have lots of ideas. And so I've had to slow my role a little bit in my everything. So, you know, so for example, with launches or things that we knew were revenue drivers that were established revenue drivers, we didn't want to mess with it because we knew it worked. And the first thing we had to make sure of is like, can we, can I solo continue the company and make the revenue that needs to be made to keep my team on and to pay all the people and to keep the business going? So what I did was. And you probably saw this last year and is like, I switched the marketing part in a way where I switched the art, the podcast art, like the visuals, because it was switching over to solo, solo person. Second thing I did was I shifted some of the, the marketing in the way of I do these coaching calls, which was truly aligned with what I do. I love. I've been coaching since 2006, 2007, so that was a big shift and we had to make sure it worked and we were doing it as a test and then once it worked, we integrated it in and now it's a once a week situation where we're doing a coaching call once a week. Now. I didn't change the sales part of it. The sales part of it and the things I knew that were going to keep the business going. But at the same time, if I messed up the podcast, that was our, that was our top. That's how people discover us. So if I mess that up and all of a sudden that tank, then I'm tanking it in another way as well. Knock on wood. But I haven't done that. Podcast has grown. Like people are loving it. They're leaving reviews. Like all this response that I'm like, thank God, because my brother freaked me out when it first happened. He's like, you know, he was like, Regis and Kelly, they always had to replace the co host. And I was like, okay, don't freak me out right now. So people are always going to give you their opinion and you're going to follow your gut. So for me, I was like, I'm going to coach. I like coaching. I know I can do it. I know I can do it really well. And it is a marketing effort because the podcast is free, but it is something that people hear and then it brings people in. But I didn't mess with my sales part then. The other part that I needed to kind of play with and mess with was my team, which I'm still playing and messing with in the way of like, there's been turnover. There's reestablishing the structure based on how it was to where it is now. So what I want you to not do is because we, I think we both kind of acquired the company, some similar timing. There's so many changes you have, but we have to think through. If we, if we change too many things, we don't know if we've broken something, we don't know the result of that. And so there's the things that I'd like you to keep like status quo and test and try at different times and then make sure okay, it works or it doesn't work and then let's do this other thing. So for example, raising the prices was huge. And so that is a big change for people who have established and they've been buying and you'll see a drop off probably in a way or you won't because people are gonna be like, yeah, everybody else has raised their prices for the last four years. Like we get it. But maybe you did lose some people because they're out of the game in a way. The marketing changeover, the catalog's not a big deal. Like the catalog is very clear visually. Changing over the packaging. You're gonna test it, right? And I want you to give these like small amounts, these timelines to try each one versus too many things at once. Cuz that's the part that's gonna, that might be where your overwhelm's coming from and the fe. Because like you're overhauling a lot of things at once. So I think just overhaul in sections. So I'll say the same thing with one of our programs which is a product. So one of our products I plan on overhauling and I was gonna do it sooner and then I was like, you know what? I need more time to do it right. So I'm giving it till next year to overhaul that product. Because I bought, I purchased, I paid for the company as is. Right. Like I paid for it because it had a value to it that was already established. This is what we acquired it for. So it's the same with you. Right? So. So I think these slower shifts of paying attention to. Yes, there's so many things I want to change, but we don't want to break anything. And when it comes to customer front facing that part, we kind of have to have a slower roll with when I like, like slow your roll, not like you know, that kind of language. Does that make sense?

Yes, yes, that makes a lot of sense. It's like having your like your test your console group. Like you need your control group so you know which has affected the change and which one hasn't. But if you're doing everything at once, you have no idea which was the driver.

Right. And if something broke it and it's as simple as like even for us with online sales and sales pages and things like that, it's sometimes it's like we're going to change a button color and language on the button color and that's all we change. So like right now I'm doing something with a sales page that's not really converting very well. And. And we're like, do we change the product? Do we change? What do we change? And so the very first thing we did is we just changed the design a little bit so that it made more sense visually. And we saw an uptick in sales, but not enough. So then we looked at it and we said, okay, let's try one more design tweak. And if that doesn't change it. Oh, and then we were like, let's lower the price a little bit. And if that doesn't change it, then we might be like, okay, we actually have the wrong offer, or like, it's the wrong product in front of the wrong customer. So if we changed it all, if. If we had done all the things, like we lowered the price, we changed the design, and da, da, da, da, like, all at once. What if I didn't have to lower the price? What if it was just the tweak of, like, the page converting better? So I do think it's this kind of, like, one thing at a time, and patience is key. And it's hard because, like, I want to fix it all, but one thing at a time. And see, does this work? And you're going to go all in. So, like, if you have Dallas coming up, how do you make it? Like, I don't know what your investment is, but, like, how do you say, I want to 3x 4x my investment on this? What does that never have to be? And then work backwards and think, great, I need to. I need to get 30 orders from stores at a thousand dollars each. I'm just making it up. But, like, I need a thousand dollars each, 30 stores. I want to get. I want to get X amount of current customers to come in and back and buy, and I want to open up X amount of new doors. And then you think, how do I do it? And then that is a project. Because if you open 30 new stores at market, same thing like now, you've added new retail partners on, you've gotten other ones to come back and buy again faster. Right? Sales are happening. All the things you're telling me you want to happen will happen, but we want to get focused in our action for that.

Okay, I love that. I love that. And you've answered another question because, you know, when you talked before about what's your blue ocean like, that just really hits home for me. And I think ours is doing licensed jewelry really well. And so we did a custom piece for a sorority and it was. It turned out beautiful. And so, of course, then I start going, well, let's do sorority jewelry. And now hearing you, it's like, no, pump the brakes. Let's focus on the license that we have. Because I'm scared about the cash flow that that path would chew up and the length of time it would take to grow that. So instead maybe focusing on the line that we have growing. We got two additional collegiate licenses two weeks ago. And so now then that gets me to the team structure. And visibility is key, especially within the collegiate space. People in Texas are not going to buy the new license that we just bought if they don't know we sell it, you know, and it's not enough just to put it on website.

Okay, I want to back us all the way up. What do you think realistically, each license could generate in terms of. If you were to go. Let's say. I was going to say, okay, go all in on three of them. What would each of the three be able to generate in terms of revenue for you?

Really small. So like Air Force, for instance, we only have Air Force because the Air Force Academy buys from us. So they make it worth it to have that license. But that sells nothing like the University of Georgia.

Okay, so let's go with University of Georgia. So let's say we had three tiers of licenses that you had. You had your top. It's like sports. I'm not like a PAC 10. Right. Like, I'm not. We didn't have a sports team in art school. Um, so, you know, like, you had your. Your tier one, your tier two, and your tier three. So Air Force, thank you for your service. But tier three, in terms of revenue generated, so if you could take the 32, and I want you to split them into three tiers of, like, biggest, middle, smallest. And if we think about levers to pull, I would tell you to look at your biggest first and think, what is the reach and capacity? Just because it's a University of Georgia doesn't mean they only have to sell in Georgia. I don't know. Right. Well, if we're just going to think Georgia, University of Georgia, what is the capacity? How many stores do you think that you could acquire? Like, what's an average amount of stores? And then what is the amount that they will spend with you for an order? Or also the year. The year. Right. Like, okay, if I. I think I can get 50 stores in Georgia, or maybe it's 20 stores, and I'm go with the easy number. Thousand dollars. I can get them to spend a thousand dollars a year. So then we know, okay, Georgia is going to drive, at least from a wholesale perspective, $20,000 worth of revenue. Or you're like, it could be 50,000 or I could make a hundred thousand. Or maybe because you have a license in jewelry, could you be making a million dollars off maybe? Like, I want you to expand that edge of what how big could you grow a license with your product? Because then it becomes a math equation. So if you're like, okay, my top, out of the 32 I have the top, I'm gonna say 10. There's 10 of them in here. And I think like, let's just say you're like, I could actually generate $250,000, you know, easy on these top 10. Now you have a $2.5 million company just from those 10. And we still have 22 others to, to sell from. I think from an execut higher level strategy, let's see what we can push it to and then see where we need to focus. Because Air Force might just be like a. Not a sudden forget, but like a. They're gonna come back and buy. They buy. We're not gonna invest in a ton of new styles and jewelry because they're a tier three in terms of product offerings. So you, you keep it as is, but the ones that are like expansive and have like this like huge capacity to it. So that's what I want you to think about because that's a growth lever that you can do by then saying who's on your team or where. Again, it goes back. Where can the efforts be spent on expanding certain licenses as to like, as big as you can get them, letting the other things coast. And then you're like, okay, now I'm going to go to these five and how big can I get those? I'm going to go to these five and how big can I get those? Instead of constantly acquiring new licenses, which means new design, new product, that's the expense I want you to think more of. Like, how can we maximize the sales and profitability for the things that we've already acquired and spent on. You didn't have to buy most of these licenses, but you acquired them with the expense of buying the company and then you added on these two. And so that's where I would first push to.

Okay, now that makes it. That makes a ton of sense. Yeah, you go deep.

I want you to keep going deep. Like, I want you to be like, what am I doing? Let's go deeper and like excavate and keep thinking, how can I do that? Okay, how can. Because I think right now your expansion is going outside of what you're doing versus internally. And like deep diving, like excavating the company, excavating the assets that are already there. The expense is coming with expansion outside of it. When we could kind of go deeper in. When things aren't working in your product business, it's easy to want to change everything at once and do a total overhaul, especially if you're not sure which. Which piece of your business isn't working. But my advice is, and my advice to Gina is if you change everything at once, your business is going to start to shift and change and you will not know what move you made that made the difference. That's why it's really important to focus on changing one thing at a time, making the change, testing and trying and making tweaks afterwards. As I like to say, go deep and out wide. And this is especially true when it comes to making those changes in your business. So team wise, then I would assign them licenses and give them sales goals and say, hey, so and so you're doing. I want you to. Here's your metric, here's your mark. Like, here's what I want. I want to see a hundred thousand dollars from these five schools over the next six months. I don't know, I'm just throwing a number out there. There's your sales goal. Go. And when you hit and you give them to your salespeople like tears. If you hit this, I'm gonna give you a bonus on top of that. Right. So it could be. I know you mentioned fair, but I think fair is a tool, not a plan. Wholesale is the plan. Fair is just one of the streams that you can do by being on there. You have a presence, but it's, you know, there's a lot of people on there. It's kind of turning back into like the idea of Etsy. I've actually, I had a whole call with Fair. I told them all my things. It's like I was like on with like someone that made decisions. It's like, can I just get into this with. So they're a tool. They, you know, they have reach. If people are searching for what you're looking for, the quality of the customer is not vetted. So it's kind of like a nice to have. You're there. But the way that I teach wholesale, which I teach in msm, which you're in, right? Like, that is the way. And you have sales reps and you're doing shows. So you're doing this way that I. If I were starting my business today, this is how I would be pursuing wholesale. Exactly like how you're doing it. I wouldn't change what you're doing. Markets, I would make sure they were profitable. But I don't think I would close down my showroom either, because it's like a sales channel.

Okay.

So I think to recap team wise, if you can get, I think for you actually in general, for everything we talked about, it's like really setting these like higher level metrics and, and going deep and focus on the things that are working, not changing too many things and, and thinking through, okay, how do I make Dallas market really good? Think about what you want to happen and then think about who you need to help you make that happen.

Love it. Yes, I love it. Thank you so much, Jacqueline. This has been great.

So, Gina, you, are you working? Like, if another product boss hears us and they're like, we want to buy jewelry from you, like, can people contact you as wholesale buyers or like, just as a quick kind of thing for people that they're like, she makes. Because you used to buy from Seasons as a product boss, so how could they work with you?

So I have a website. It's seasons jewelry.com. and we're also on social at seasons jewelry. TikTok. Is seasons jewelry any of those channels? Yeah.

And so if someone wants to come by wholesale from you, they're looking for game day jewelry they can buy?

Yes, yes, they can buy. You know, I have a showroom in Atlanta, so I'll do virtual appointments. I can open. I'm opening up the showroom for a customer in August, so we. But we'll do it all.

And then can they buy direct to consumer if someone's like, oh, my God, I'm a University of Georgia fan and I want to buy a necklace from you. If they were. Can they do that yet?

Yes, they can do that too. Yeah. Right now it's a separate website atseasons jewelry retail.com. but I am in the process of collapsing those down into one site. So either site will get there. We have redirects for both.

Amazing. So go check out all the game day plus you have fashion jewelry, but like we said, you're really known for the game day stuff and you could be a supplier to people. People can just come buy gifts and presents and all the things. Really, really, really proud of you. You're doing amazing things. I can't wait to continue on this journey with you as your coach and watch you grow and hopefully in, you know, the next, I don't know, maybe early next year we'll have you back on and you can report back on all the amazingness that you've done.

Yeah, you're, you're a godsend. Jaclyn, thank you so much. I really, I don't think I could have done it without you. The confidence that I've got from you and your program has just been the, the game changer.

Well, I am just so thrilled, excited and proud of Gina. I have known her for years. She started off as a multi stream machine student and she moved into being a masterminder and I've gotten to work with her for a while now and I've just seen how far she has come in her journey as an entrepreneur. And I can see this for all of us at the Product boss that we're so excited to see her become a full time product boss. Now, if you took anything away from today, I want you to think about how we are always going to try and work through moving out of that scarcity mindset, how it's important to develop and create a marketing plan that will actually go back and get your existing customers to buy and perhaps how to attract new customers. And my friends, you've heard me say this time and time again to remember, go deep and not wide when it comes to working versus what's not working. Right. I want you to think what's working in my business, Success leaves clues. Let's go with it. Don't forget, my friend, you are capable of creating the business of your dreams. Gina's doing it and you can too. If you loved this episode, let me know. Send me a DM over on Instagram. I'd love to hear from you. Let me know your biggest takeaways. And if you haven't done so already, I would be so, so, so grateful if, if you could jump over to wherever you're listening to this podcast, make sure you are following the show and if you haven't left a review yet, would you mind leaving a review? I read every single one of them and it really helps me make sure that I am creating the kind of content that is resonating with you and that we're getting out in front of more product based business owners around the world so we can continue to help them grow beautiful businesses. Right, my friends, I'll talk to you next time. Thank you for being here and 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 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. You 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.