614. “I want to hit $100k in revenue, but I’m on the brink of burn out- what should I do?” | Coaching Session

I do want my brand to be noticed, but right now I'm doing just literally everything that no one's going to really know Fit Stitch as a brand. They just know, oh, they make patches. I'll ask them to make something for me.

Hi, I'm Jacqueline Snyder and this is.

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Hey, hey, Product boss. Welcome back, friend, to another amazing coaching session. And today I'm chatting with Anna of Stitch Gear, who sells weightlifting wristbands and embroidered patches. Now, Anna is mom, fitness lover who participates in powerlifting meets and a one woman show when it comes to running her business. Now, I'm sure a lot of you.

Can relate to her and her story in some way or another.

Now, Anna is currently experiencing a growth spurt, selling several different things, but is on the brink of burnout from having to do it all on her own. And while she wants to reach that, you know, hundred thousand dollar mark in revenue this year, she's not entirely sure what's her next step.

Right.

What does she need to do next in order to reach that revenue mark? And how she can avoid burnout while still prioritizing her children, her health and her fitness. This is exactly what we're gonna figure out. So let's dive in.

Anna, I'm so excited to work with you today and dig into your business and really kind of find ways through and new poss and clarity for you. So before we kick off, tell me a little bit more about your company in your own words. What do you sell, where do you sell? And. And where are you at right now?

My business name is Fit Stitch Gear. We started off, I sew wrist wraps, weightlifting wrist wraps. And then we kind of Dove into embroidered patches. Then we started some apparel the last probably two years. So it's been growing. Embroidered patches is probably my, my biggest thing that we sell now. And yeah, I'm in, I'm in Middle Tennessee. So, yeah, that's where we're at right now.

So when you say that your bestsellers are patches, but you kind of started out as Fit Stitch, which is the, the wristbands for weightlifting, how does, how does that work? Like, are they the same customer or are you just kind of finding a pathway through that you didn't expect to follow?

So part of like, I would say the niche or niche or however you say that it started with CrossFit, that brand, a lot of weightlifters, powerlifters, anything like that. That's, that's kind of my, the business of everything that it's with. I started sewing them. I learned how to sew while I was coaching up in Wisconsin for a little bit. And then I started Etsy. That was in 2016. And then from Etsy, I probably stuck with that for like two years. And then I found you guys. And so I was like, okay, I need to start a website. I need to figure out how to do other things.

I guess my question though is when I look at your patches, because I know you're doing really well in business right now, but when I look at your patches, they're not necessarily for Weightlifters or CrossFit. So that's where I'm just trying to get clarity on the action of embroidery. And a product to embroider is obviously like the business that you started. But when you're selling these patches or the almost $70,000 that you've made so far this year, which is incredible, by the way, are people buying cowgirl patches and state patches? Are they buying stuff that has to do with the gym?

It's a mix. And that's where this year it's kind of really changed. I was mainly doing like fitness related patches, I guess, kind of like, you know, funny one, just like a rubber duck and just things that kind of people picked based on their personality. They like showing on like bags and stuff or weight vests. But then this year I'm, I'm sure you've seen it like trucker hats have like blown up and people can like put, you know, whatever patches they want on them. And so I had people starting to reach out to me like through Etsy or through my Instagram, like, hey, can you make these? And I'm like, I can.

So.

Because I have all the Machines going with them. So it's just. It's just kind of evolved into making patches.

So which patches would you say are your best sellers? Or like what's the bulk of what you're selling? What's. Is there a theme or a type of patch?

I mean, I guess it just depends on like what's popular. My most popular patch is probably my skeleton coffee patch. I mean, I don't even know. I've probably sold a few thousand of those. And then outside of that, anything that's mom related, like mama, Strong Mama, I have one that's like got floral and it says Mama. Just one that I've created through Canva and turned into a patch. And so it's hard to choose like which patches are my best sellers. That's what's hard about like, because I sell so many patches, there's so many different ones I have to make. And then it just evolves from there. Especially since I do custom as well. I'll get requests and then make more.

So I'm looking at your skeleton patches. So we've got the strong mama. There's mama with flowers. I'm in my feral mama era. The reason I'm asking all these questions is I'm trying to really sort of like hone in on a theme or your ideal customer. Because right now you're selling a lot of things to a lot of people. But if we're going to grow this as a brand, which I know your goal is a hundred thousand dollars, and then beyond that, I want to think about who your ideal customer is. Who are we attracting? So that as you're building this product and you're coming up with new ideas, it's not just any idea makes it to be sold. It's that we've got a theme or an ideal customer or like a brand that you're building. So from your words, what would you say this year?

I think because of the trucker hat thing, I kind of just like leaned into it and was like, I'm just gonna make patches until this trucker hat thing disappears. Because like, yeah, the country western theme was super popular. And so I was like, I'm just gonna make it. And then I thought, I thought maybe by the end of the summer it's gonna die out. But it's still been. Still been pretty crazy.

Is this mainly coming from Etsy?

This is actually coming from Fair. I started posting on Faire and that's where it's really like, I probably. I might get 10 orders every two days. Like it's and some of it, you know, it just varies on what they order. But yeah, it's in a lot of western or even just Tennessee themed because of the boutiques in this area, I guess are buying a bunch of them.

Are you selling to your area mainly on fair?

That's what it looks like. A lot of people in Tennessee are buying them because they are Tennessee themed. And I do have people reach out asking if I can make like Alabama patches or Georgia patches. And I'm like, I just tell them, I say right now I don't have the time, I just don't have time to start making all brand, brand new ones. And then I, you know, I can take requests all day but just the time that it takes to, you know, move forward and send them proofs and then also make, you know, they usually request like a hundred patches at a time. It's just a lot.

So then let's think about moving away from or my question is, is actually do you feel like you're moving away from the Fit gear?

I do. Like right now I do. It feels like it's wholesale, has kind of taken over everything.

Okay.

Which is great. But I love my Fit Stitch gear brand and like I'm about to have my biggest in person shows come up. I have one every month, the next three months and those are like the ones that can, I can ride out for like the rest of the year.

Okay. So it sounds to me like you, you've said in your pre call like interview that one, your biggest struggle right now is one person trying to do it all and that you feel super behind. You barely do marketing, you don't do emails, you're just surviving at this point. So is that what you want to dig into in this call or what would you like to dig into?

Oh, I don't know. I think I put on there, like tell me how it is, like what it looks like for you. Because I mean like you said you've seen all these different brands and kind of see what looks like I'm heading. I mean I'm sure it looks like burnout because yeah, I do everything all day. Like my kids go to sleep, I go to work every day. Like I don't. I would love to just be able to let them go to sleep and watch a movie and not feel guilty that I'm not working.

So when you're getting these orders on fair, are they pre made and you're sold, you're selling from pre made inventory or are you reacting and then if they sell, if you sell 50 of something you're now making 50 and shipping it.

I guess it varies because. So I started making so many Tennessee patches that I decided to contact a manufacturer that makes them and order like thousands and then sell at that. And then like one of those patches already sold out. So I've already had to contact them again to make more. So I ordered double just for the fact of. I do have like say this someone person on fair orders, like four different patches. Three of them might be pre made, but one of them is one that I've got to make. Now, depending on what it is the.

Manufacturer that you're working with, are they domestic? Are you getting good prices? Is it keeping your margins where they should be?

I'm ordering from overseas, so it's definitely, it's definitely a good, good price. I don't like the thought of ordering from overseas, but that's just where we went.

Why don't you like that thought?

Just the just like ordering like in usa, USA made type thing. And sometimes that's why people, some people order for me, I feel like you.

Feel like that, but you don't know that, right? You feel like that, but you don't know that. I think every small business that's listening to this, that is a domestic business, a small business, someone who's making something at home knows exactly what you're saying, which is people don't really care. You might think that they care, but they really are looking for the best price, the best quality, the best brand. And that's the unfortunate part because most of us do shop at Target and Walmart and H and M and Zara and all these fast fashion places where things are being made in other places and people would rather buy cheap, cheap trendy stuff then really I think when there's like a pinch to the pocket, they are going to abandon small business and made in America or made wherever. We saw that happen after the pandemic. So it's something that we can strive for. But you're an American run business, you're a woman, you're doing amazing things. And the things that you do with the money that you make can go back to the things that you really care about. But I want you to release the thought that people are expecting it to be American made because I guarantee the majority of the stuff that they buy is not made in America. And they're buying that in masses, you know, everything, everything they buy, especially if they're looking for stuff that's cheap. So let's let go of that. So I want you to Let go of the thought that it has to be made in America. We're not coming from the fashion industry. And 5% of the world's garments were made in Los Angeles. And I am all for raising minimum wage and paying people so that they can have, like, living wages. But we can't sew patches in LA anymore, Right? Like, the minimum wage is too high for manufacturing certain products. And it's just a business thing. It's not a. It's like, yeah, I could do them here, but then they're going to be $27 patches, you know, so you're in business. You're. How do I say this? Like, you have a concern for like your, your own national economy and doing that, and you're gonna keep doing that, but you're gonna do that in your way so that you can. Right? Like, we're gonna make $100,000, maybe we're gonna make a million dollars in patches. And you're go. And you're going to do. You're going to employ people and all the other stuff's going to happen. So we'll release where it's made as long as, like, you're making it the way that you ethically want to make it. Okay. Which leads me into. When you're like, real talk, what. What do I see that you're doing wrong? And you do a little, haha, you have too many things. And that's kind of where I was trying to get to in the very beginning to have you really? Tell me clearly, what do you sell? Who's your ideal customer? What are you known for? And right now you're a patch company in the way that I'm a store. I can go on fair. I'm looking for a patch, I run across yours, and I'm like, ooh, I'd like to take these. Now. Can you be a company that has a whole bunch of different types of stuff, like dog patches, mom patches, coffee patches, skeleton state patches, all the things? Absolutely. Because you can be a company like a sticker company or something like that that has a wide range of stuff. But we want to know who we're attracting. We want to know, are you a funny brand? Right? Are you? To me, there's like a part of it that's like a very tough brand. Like, it's feminine. Feminine and masculine at the same time. Maybe you have more people that are like in the military. Maybe you do attract more people from the south or the Midwest, right? Like there, there is a. There is a part of your brand that I think you haven't identified yet that you probably could so that you know the overall theme of the brand. Does that make sense?

Yeah, because so my in person events are probably even say 50% of like my income and everything that comes in. But it's a big part like getting my name out there. And people come and they love my stuff since I hand tie dye items, put things on them. That's just fun for me to do. But most of my stuff is geared towards women that work out and do all that because my mind does not think about what guys like. I think about what I like and then I make it. And that's kind of what I see at in person events. I have people, some be like, do you have any guy stuff? I'm like, I might have two things, but other than the patches. The patches kind of are universal.

What I'm hearing from you though, and I'm going to keep kind of pushing into this, you're telling me a lot of different information. Like when I do in person, it's 50% of my sales and it's workout like you're, you're making except for women who work out. And then you're telling me that a huge part of your business and your success this year has been patches.

Do you see what's happening here? I'm really trying to move Anna towards identifying who her ideal customer is and what niche of products she's selling. Right now she's making all the things for all the people, which is time consuming, stressful, and a really difficult way to grow your business. So when it comes to successfully growing your business, you need to nail your core foundations. Which is exactly why I created my program Standout Society. Because I've seen this over and over and over and over. And so many of my students and people in our community, right, they have gone straight from coming up with an idea to making the product, to jumping to selling it. And they've never really nailed those foundational pieces of their business. Right. They're missing steps one through four. And so that first foundation step one is really digging into and nailing your niche and your audience and really understanding who your customer is and what products they want to buy from from you. But that's the thing. It's really hard to do that on your own. It's really hard to see the forest through the trees. And that's kind of what I'm trying to get Anna to do. So as the saying goes, if you're known for everything, you're known for nothing. Which is why you need to know what you're known for, right? What your hero products or core products can be or your best sellers. And you might be wondering, how do you figure that out? Well, you do that by diving into your numbers, of course, which is exactly where we're heading. So let's see Anna's numbers and see if we're able to tell anything about where she is and what she should focus on.

So my question is, is, do you actually know your numbers? Like, have you really done the research into knowing your best sellers or your top sellers?

Probably not to the extent that you would like, I, like, I can look and see how many items, like on Etsy, how many items I've sold of this according to that, that listing or even like fair gives you that information. Like, tells you what I sell. Like, like you're, like, you. You're probably saying my apparel, I don't. I think I probably have 10% of my apparel I sell in person on my site and on Etsy, because I just haven't had the time to even put it up.

But I'm saying, should you be making apparel? So what I'd like you to do your homework after this call will be to look at all the sales channels that you're selling on. And I want you to look at that and I want you to say one out of the whole pie, like a hundred percent, what percentages are coming from Etsy in person and fair. So you might see like 65% is fair. Let's say it's $100,000. I say 65,000 is coming from fair, 30,000, 30,000 coming from Etsy, and 5,000 is coming from in person, if that math is right. So I want you to first look at your total pie and the chunks that are coming out of it. Then I want you to look at the products that are sold from each and look at your top five. I'd say top five to ten products from each sales channel. Then start to say what is the same? So you might say patches are the same across all of them. Right? Like people are buying patches. So now we know a product category is patches, which I think innately you already know. And then you can also look at apparel and say, okay, I made $5,000 from in person shows and I made thousand bucks from apparel. But you're looking at the whole a hundred thousand and what's a thousand dollars to a hundred thousand not worth your time. Even 5,000 is not worth your time. Even 10,000 is not worth your time. Like when you could really Scale up parts of your business that are really working and really making you stand up from the competition versus doing all the things. Because you started your business doing all the things. But it doesn't mean this next iteration of your business, you have to keep doing all the things. This is where you start to niche down and focus. So be my first step. Then as you get that data and you're like, okay, patches are doing really, really well. Then you look at those patches and say consistently, what is it that people are buying? Or are they very, very different? So it could. Then I want you to ask yourself, okay, I sell a lot of mama patches with flowers on Etsy. But then I want you to go look at your Etsy listing and say, oh, it's because I have like, my background is the flower patches and I have the most products that are showing the flower patches. Right? Like, you might realize it's what you're putting out in front of your customer, which is why they're buying it, versus like you telling your customer what to buy. Does that make sense? Because you're really doing it on both ends. It's like they're going to buy what you tell them to buy. So whatever you're showing is usually what they're going to buy.

I don't know because my brain goes to like in person for me is to me feels like my most successful even though most of that stuff isn't on my site. So like, I guess for example, June I had posted like on our Facebook page for the MSM and everything. That was my most successful month of like ever so far. And that month I made 20,000 and 13,000 of that was the in person event that I did. I had never done that event before and it was one of my bigger events I've ever done. But my patches is what drew people in.

What was the event that you did?

It was a, it was a big CrossFit event, a big weightlifting or big competition in Florida. And so we travel for those. We kind of use it as a vacation and going to, to sell.

So you did a CrossFit event and what are the patches that they bought?

I. One of my most popular ones were my coach patches where it was just the back, the backing was black and I had like, you could either get a pink one or white one or blue one. Just kind of whatever matches their bag or vest. And some of like the goofy ones, a lot of people like ones that are kind of like, but did you die? Embrace the suck. Work hard. Ducks. Ducks are really popular. Like I Chose violence with a duck. You know, just ones that are off brand. Oh, I have a sushi one where a thing of sushi is lifting a barbell. People love it. So just ones that are kind of out there. Not like, I guess the most generic ones you can think of.

But how much is Etsy bringing in for you right now?

That's actually probably. No, I'd say Amazon's probably my lowest. That's only because I have like two patches listed on there. Etsy's probably my second lowest. But I also turn it off often because that's like. Because I know I can get away with turning it off and catching up on things. I'll do that because Etsy just charges so many fees. It's sometimes to me, I'm like, so out of this year. My revenue on there was, it said, almost 16,000.

Okay, and what are they buying from you on Etsy?

My top one right now are my mix of Tennessee patches because of all the trucker hat people buying patches. And then my Staying Alive coffee patch, the Mama floral patch, and then like my Good Vibes skeleton patch, Mom Inspired patches.

It's interesting. The flower one to me is the most standout, different than the skeleton because a lot of your other stuff is kind of got, like I said, it's got that, like, hard edge. You're not a motorcycle. Like, I don't think you rides motorcycles, do you? No. So there's like the Harley Davidson. I've done it, like when I present different presentations to my masterminders and stuff like that. We'll talk about Harley Davidson as a brand. And actually, I think I talked about this in standout society as well. So just as a brand, who they attract, and not everyone that loves Harley Davidson owns one. They may love the lifestyle, so they may buy a hat, they might buy a jacket, they might buy a keychain. There's going to be the people who like it for, like, the lifestyle and what the lifestyle represents. And then there's going to be like the true. I own a Harley. I have everything. I drive with a motorcycle crew. I live my life. So the thing that I think for you to pin down is the same idea as Harley Davidson, what is the lifestyle that they want to attain by wearing your products? And then there's going to be like the real Die Hard. So there's going to be the people who actually do CrossFit and lift weights and they're like, they're living all of that. Or there's the people who kind of like have a similar ESSENCE or lifestyle to that. But they're not full on like going to competitions or their whole lives. Aren't that now? Does it mean that everything has to be CrossFit? No, but because that's so much a part of who you are and the lifestyle that you live, then I don't think right now we take out anything to do with the working out and the CrossFit and you keep doing this competitions because it's just like not competitions, the. The events. And it's almost like a subcategory to your brand. But the other part that I see right now writing for you, because trucker hats aren't always going to be in. Right. Patches aren't always going to be in. But if you can really start to nail down what your brand and your brand essence is, then long term you can add other types of products. So you would become a lifestyle brand, meaning maybe eventually you do bring shirts back in. Maybe eventually you're making stickers. I know it's counter to me talking about bestsellers, but we're talking about where we start and then what you'll eventually expand into. Because if you're too nailed into a trend and the trend disappears, then the business dries up. So it'll be like knowing what we sell, knowing who we're selling to, and then expanding from there.

Yeah, I could totally see that. Like, I do want my brand to be noticed, but right now I'm doing just literally everything that no one's going to really know Fit Stitch as a brand. They just know, oh, they make patches. I'll ask them to make something for me.

The reason I'm trying to nail you down on this is because I can't give you the next step of advice on how to manufacture so you don't make it all without us knowing what we're making and who we're selling to. Because you're gonna have to start forecasting, designing ahead and getting things ordered. And so I don't want you to just be reactive and I don't want you to just come up with an idea today and like start making it tomorrow. We kind of need to know who we're serving so that we can. The same way, like me being in fashion, I can't come up with a shirt today and then sell it to all my stores tomorrow. Like in fashion, we work a year out from design and then we work like nine months out from development, and then six months out we're selling and then we're in that six months. We're also doing our Product and then we're shipping. So I need to start to extend your timeline so that you can get out of doing everything. That's why I keep nailing or trying to figure out what product we're doing. I guess I can skip forward and start to tell you how to get out of your own way. And then if you can kneel down to your customer and all that stuff, it might not happen on this call. But then at least you know, okay, I need to do this step so that I can do this step.

Because I'm basically running like two separate businesses right now, kind of.

You're not running two separate ones. You're just like, you're seeing that you could make those patches overseas and get them for a good price and sell out of them. When I'm sure the first time you ordered them was like super scary. Like, what am I going to do with a thousand patches? Or however many you ordered and then you sold out of them and now you're looking to buy more, you know. So one thing I see that could potentially happen is you could potentially expand into making state patches for places where you think the trucker hats are being worn. So you may not do a California, you may not do a New York. Maybe you do because we've got Northern California. But you could expand your states a bit if you wanted and manufacture those overseas. Because while I know it's scary to order that many, you know how much it costs you to make those patches and what the return can be. And it's amazing.

It's a lot better than. It's just a lot of time. Because like, say I make them, I can make eight at a time, but that might take two hours on the machine to make eight versus ordering a thousand. That just I don't have to worry about like. But the only time is just waiting.

For them, which is why we have to work ahead. So that's what I'm trying to say. Like, so I'll give you an example of a student. She's a multi street machine student. She was in the Mastermind and I remember she was hand embroidering or she was using her own machine and she was embroidering these like cat patches and it was taking her forever. And then she was having someone embroider them for her. So they were costing her $8 each and she couldn't sell her product for that much. So it was costing her a lot of money. And so really we're like, can you manufacture these overseas? She ended up getting. It was like a Thousand of them for $80. Something insane. And so she's like, I can't believe I just saved my $8 a patch that she had to do. And now she spent 80 bucks and she's got a thousand patches and she doesn't have to worry about any of that anymore. And she can use it and make a really good margin on the product that she knows she can sell. So for you, if you can nail down the themes that you're doing, okay, so this is what you have to do. You have to work backwards. So I'm gon manufacture a lot of the stuff overseas, let's just say like the, the bulk stuff. Maybe you have a market coming up for CrossFit, you know the styles you want to bring. You get them manufactured by overseas, you bring them in and that's what you're selling. So now your cost per product is cheaper. You can sell them and you could make a way better margin when you're selling them at an event like your $13,000. Maybe you did the $13,000, but your margin was 20%. But imagine if you're selling them made from overseas and all of a sudden maybe you're making a 50% margin. Like, let's take more money home and keep pocket. Then if you want to think about fair and selling wholesale, you start to think through collections. What is my spring collection going to be? What is my summer collection going to be? What's the theme of it? And then there's going to be your core collection. So let's say your Tennessee or your like state patches, you're just constantly like refilling those. Or maybe there's a new color variation. But you start to really think through what kind of products do I want to have? And then how long will it take me to make these overseas and when do I need them so that I can start selling them for that season? And that's really the forecasting and the design that's going to get you out of feeling like you're stuck and needing to do all the things. If you can really elevate more into creative director, more into boss of your business, boss of the way that you do things and really start to forecast design and think about it and then know, okay, I've got this market coming up in six months. I need to start manufacturing now. I want to release estates collection. So I'm going to release that states collection starting in January. I'm going to start my design development now. So it may not be that we get you out of the craziest craziest immediately, because there's a longer form, a longer term time to do stuff overseas. But if we could start to plan for that now, you can in six months. There might be a light at the end of the tunnel where like now you're just ordering patches, getting them shipped in, and then your job is to do the marketing and selling, not all of the making and the reactive part of it all. The other thing with customers, there's the Etsy mentality of, you place an order with me, I tell you I can ship it out in two weeks, four weeks, six weeks, whatever. I'll make all the custom things that you need. But the way that your business is starting to grow, you also have the ability to say to people, I'll do a custom order for you. This is my minimum. And this is how long it's going to take. Where long term. Whether you're embroidering the patches or you place the order for a thousand pieces in wherever overseas of that and however long that timeline is. And then you charge the people for that and you're like, yeah, it'll be ready in six weeks. Either they buy a thousand from you or they buy 30 from you, and you hold back the rest, but you're still making enough money on it the way that you're charging them.

When it comes to the core foundations, the second and third are nailing your brand messaging and nailing your offer and pricing. And let's talk about selling your products. Your brand messaging needs to reflect the want, wants and the needs of your potential customers, which is why that first foundation of knowing exactly who you're selling to is so important. And from there, you can truly nail down your messaging to speak to your ideal customer and then also figure out your offer, right? What are you selling, people? For Anna to nail down her offer, she needs to figure out themes, right? Those themes of her products that she's going to do. And then she needs to work backwards. It's really looking at the categories that people are buying. And the same goes for you, friend. If you're struggling to figure out what your winning offer should be, I want you to start with the end result in mind and work backwards to see how you can make that happen. Does that make sense? All right, now let's see if we.

Can figure out how Anna can achieve.

The life she wants by prioritizing her children and her fitness and have her business grow.

Right?

You can do it all.

So let's see how it happens. Happy Holidays. Okay, don't think.

Jacqueline, what are you talking about it's still warm outside. I know, but guess what? We want to get you uber prepared for this holiday season because what we want is that you can get consistent sales, right? Have steady growth and keep growing your business beyond always having to offer a discount during the holiday season to drive sales. So if you want to get prepared while it's still warm outside, you can jump in and grab 101 content ideas beyond the Holiday Discount. And it is a bundle of content prompts, tools, hashtags and templates. And it includes a three month calendar with things to say every single day from October to December. It is so helpful. So go out, enjoy the sunshine and feel uber prepared for the holiday season when you grab yours. Now just head to holiday contentideas.com.

So there's lots of ways to slice this. And you get. I want, what I want you to do is I want you to take back the authority and autonomy in it that you're like, this is how I want my life to look. And that might be where you actually have to start over is like, I don't want to be putting the kids to bed and up all night and embroidering. So how do I start to solve to get myself out of this?

Yeah, because it's like, ideally I would want to hire someone just to help me be a second person to, you know, be like, hey, this email came through there, they need this quote or something like, or just, yeah, just a second person just reminding me that I need to eat lunch or something. Because my mom, I convinced her to retire. She was like a year away from retiring. So I, she's going to be retiring in October and she's going to start helping me. But part of that is also her watching kids more because the kids are here, you know, half and half, just so I can get work done.

Okay, so let's, let's talk about this. And like, do you live in a rural country? Like rural area?

I wouldn't say it's rural. It's a, like there's three main cities.

I just want to say, like, sometimes people can get this analogy if they, like they've ever run a farm. So I'll just, I'll just say it from that. Like, so let's say we've run a farm. There's either the. I've told my husband, like, my dream life is that we eventually like own a ranch and we have horses and chickens. And then they're like, who's going to take care of the animals? And I was like, I'll just hire someone. So there's a difference between I'm going to own a farm or a ranch and I'm going to get up, which I know there's plenty of people listening to this that actually do this. They're going to get up, they do the feeding in the morning, they're up at the crack of dawn, they're running the farm. And then as people, either they have money or let's say they've turned it into a business, then they start to have people running the farm for them. There's someone who's in charge of turning the horses out and exercising the horses and grooming the horses. Maybe you do have someone like that's a hand, like a ranch hand, and they're feeding the animals and that the person who owns the ranch or the farm are. They're not necessarily the one that has to do all the things to keep it going. So what I want you to think of is for your ownership of your life, your business, your home life. The top priorities to me for you, which I see is probably one, self care, you're active, you're an athlete. There's that. And then you have young children because there's one napping right now. Right. And so there's probably the time of being with your kids. And then is there anything else that like takes your top spots of like where you would rather be?

No. Yeah. Like the, the two main things is just hanging out with the kids and not worrying about work and getting my workout in just because I. I do competitions as well. Like I'm. Right now, I'm training for powerlifting meet. And so I have to kind of dedicate an hour, hour and a half to just that. And sometimes bring my kids with me because they like to go to the gym too. But just being able to have quality time with my kids and not have to worry about going upstairs and keeping my embroidery machine running.

Right. So in growing a business, it's hard and there will be times where you're going to have to do both. But because you're starting to realize that you can resource people and your business is starting to make money, we're going to talk about the ways that either your business can pay for help or you can resource. So you're resourcing your parents right now. They're helping you with your kids. And it sounds like your mom, while your mom can help you with work, maybe your mom is more on the kid realm, helping you shop for groceries. Meal prep people eventually call that like a house manager. People will get house managers because you can write off a house manager versus you can't write off a housekeeper or nannies kind of thing. So they will end up getting house managers. But like there's people who. People will hire people to meal prep and make sure that they are eating and, and help take care of their kids. And having a family member do that or not like is your decision. You can also easily hire someone to run the embroidery machines. So that is a low priced employee or contractor. It could be another mom that comes and does stuff while kids are at school. It can be a teenager. My husband used to work at a spring screen printing company when he was in high school. He did that in canning. So you can hire people that you just have to train where maybe you're still doing the designs, but then when the orders come in, there's a process that you create that that I'm just going to say you get a teenager, an 18 year old or whatever and they get it and they know how to set up the machine because you've trained them and now they're the ones watching the machines. It's a very easy fix for what you're telling me is you don't want to be having to worry about the machines or doing it at night, so let's let somebody do it during day hours while you're doing other things. And the company doesn't have to operate all night because there's someone able to do it during the day.

And I get it.

I still pull all nighters even now because same thing, I did this when my kids were getting out of school and it was all the end of school stuff and just so many other things needed me that I didn't have time to work in normal hours. And that's going to happen. But I want you to think through your biggest bottlenecks right now and how you can outsource or resource for it so that you can stay in the top dollar sign stuff. The marketing, the ideation, the sales, creative director, all the stuff that you're a genius at. And the other things don't need to be the things that you do. And also one thing I started doing, I was like, I was like, I need a chef and an assistant. And I was like, all right, I'm gonna solve for that. I'm gonna use DoorDash and Uber Eats because that's now my assistant that's getting food cooked by a chef at a restaurant, right? Cause that was the only way I was eating lunches was like I needed to just order it and get it delivered in terms spending $17 on a salad. But it's that or not eating.

Yeah, yeah, we've started to. There's a nutrition shop here locally that sell a bunch of supplements. But they finally started selling like meal prep and so we started buying those just to have when like we have those moments. I need to eat something, but I just need to be able to heat it up.

Correct. And so I want you to get really creative with solving for these things. And it sounds like you're already doing it, but you're not necessarily giving yourself the pat on the back that you deserve that you are coming to this on your own. I think you're asking me to tell you what you're doing wrong. You're not doing anything wrong. You're growing so fast, you're doing so many things right and now it's because you're having this like massive growth spurt. It's just starting to do things differently because you actually, this is why making money is amazing. Because you can actually allow it to help, like, help you, give you more opportunities, more options. Maybe before you couldn't afford to get lunches delivered from a meal prep place, now you can. And you're going to do that until you have to solve for it on another level. Right. But right now I want you to think about who can you resource outsource or pay to get you out of the bottleneck stuff so that you can work out, so that you can spend time with your kids and not feel pulled to have to go do something for work. Even if it's just giving you an hour, hour and a half, two hours of time, like dinner to do to bedtime. But I want you to your nervous system to feel more relaxed in that as well.

Me too. So what are your thoughts? So we have, there's another local kind of CrossFit apparel company and they, they help me with a lot of stuff. They suggest, you know, events to do. They help me with like just like certain items because like they grew just like I did. They were really small and they're in like a town probably, probably 40 minutes away. And he, he still, I just, I talked to him weekly about the growth of their business and he helps me with mine. They hired a social media manager for their stuff and like that, that was something I debated. But I feel like putting the money towards that would just like be throwing money away because if I don't have time to even like get stuff made, do I have time to have someone and post for social media which would Bring more orders in, which then I would feel like I'm just like running in a circle.

A lot of people think that they need to hire social. Like when I talk to people and they're like, oh, if I could just hire a social media manager, I'm like, all my problems would be solved. And a lot of times that's because people think it'll get them more sales and they'll do that. Not necessarily. And the thing is, is right now it's already like that. People say, like, make it rain. It's already raining. You have not enough buckets to catch the rain. So why would we continue to make more rainfall when you don't have enough focus? So first I need you to stabilize. Did you catch that? All right.

I'm all about turning the leaky faucet of sales into a full blown waterfall. But when you're already seeing the sales pour in, the last thing you want to do is hire someone. Like what everyone kind of tells me that they want is a social media manager, right? Like, we don't need them right now to bring in more sales and get more eyes. Because the thing here is that while I know that, like a foundational part and the fourth thing that I teach.

In standout society is nailing your marketing.

For Anna, she actually really needs to focus on stabilizing her business and these core foundations, those other three foundations first. So if you really want to hire someone because you're on the brink of burnout or you're feeling fully burnt out and what you do instead, consider hiring someone who can help you. You outsource the daily tasks that are like, really weighing you down, that you don't have time for, like laundry or meal prepping even. It could even be something personal. Now that's the first thing, right? Let's get those personal things off your plate. Because you have the ability, and I.

Want you to have the ability to.

Focus on what really matters. And then for product people, which is very different than what other coaches say, if they're coaches that are service based, we actually recommend if you're really in the spot to either get somebody and hire someone to help you with production or fulfillment and shipping. Okay, so those are my first, first.

Tips for you all there. All right, so let's see.

Going back to Anna, right, I really want to get certain tasks off her plate so that she can lean into what matters, right?

And I want her to nail these.

Foundations in her business. That's where she's really going to see the change. This is the stuff that's not the sexy stuff.

This is the stuff that people look.

At and they're like, man, I, you know, I'm fine. I could skip over that. But I'm telling you, if you feel stuck, stuck right now, if any of this sort of resonates with you, if you cannot nail these foundations, if I, if. If I asked you on a coaching call, tell me to think for a sec. I was on a coaching call with Jacqueline, and she asked me this, would.

I feel solid, secure, and confident in it?

And if not, these might be places that you really, really, really want to dig back into.

You are relevant. I think it's that fear of, like, it's going to go away, but that's why I'm asking you to do the foundational work. This is why I stand out. This is why I came out with standout society. Are you in that program yet or not yet? I have seasons where I'm like, I cannot listen because my team is going to get so annoyed because I'm going to give them a new idea and they're going to be like, what about the last one? Get it. What I'm seeing is that you're growing in a lot of places. So grass with wildflowers, and wildflowers are sprouting up everywhere, and we don't even know which wildflower is sprouting up. But it's. It's beautiful. But there is just kind of happening at random. If you can go back to the foundational stuff of really identifying your ideal customer avatar, really knowing the niche, the brand, like, what you're going to be known for, that's going to give you a lot more stability and, like, a stronger foundation to build off of versus feeling at random. I'm going to just throw out random patches because people are buying patches right now, and what patch is going to capture them? A lot of people do this. You're doing another version of what people do with T shirts or anything that you can do, like print on demand for. It is very much an Etsy mindset of throwing everything out there, and there's enough people that something's going to catch, but it's not sustainable for you. Not necessarily. This is why I was talking to you about the lifestyle brand of Harley Davidson, because if you can hone into the CrossFit type woman. So explain to me who you think she would be. Like, tell me a little bit about an idea, like a CrossFit person, more than her working out, what does her life look like?

I guess. I mean, it's CrossFit across the whole, like, people want to be healthier. So someone that's just trying to, you know, focusing their life on getting that workout in daily, their community is like the biggest thing. People that have kids, you know, I would say it ranges from anywhere from 16 to like 65 with CrossFit. People that are just wanting to make their lives better, they want to work out with people. They basically, we're all suffering together. As much as people hear about CrossFit, you know, I would say it's a very type A person. They're driven, they might have been competitive, like, you know, college or even pro in the past. Past. It is a military base. CrossFit started as a military base program. So it's a lot of those people, like, suck it up, do the work, that kind of thing. And like, it probably does geared more towards women. I try to get ideas from my husband because he's, he's like a. I wouldn't, I wouldn't say bodybuilder, but he just goes to the gym. He doesn't do CrossFit because he wants AC. He wants it to be, you know, temper, I guess, not just like a Gold's Gym. That's his style. But CrossFit's kind of. We don't have AC. We work. We work hard. We want to sweat as hard as we can. I like doing hard stuff. Like, it makes me feel accomplished.

So the things you said to me is like, it's. They go hard. There is some sort of military background to it, whether they're in the military or whether they just like that, like the regimen and the go hard and people yelling at you and being like.

You can do this.

And like, they like the adrenaline behind that, everything that comes with it. So this is starting to niche down on who. Because we can't change you as creative director. I'm not going to have you do like funny cat quotes, right? That's not you. So if someone said to you like.

I would like some funny cat quote.

Patches, you're like, not our brand. So when you can say this is our brand and this is not our brand. So skulls. The reason I brought up like Harley Davidson, for example, like, because they have that like flaming skull helmet hat thing. Again, I'm not their customer. It's like, go hard. Right? Like, there's this edginess to them. So if you start to really identify this, like the edginess, the go hard, the discipline, like, we like discomfort. It might be someone who wears a trucker hat. It might be Someone who wears a weighted vest to work out it might be the. They lift, they do. They do CrossFit, they do all this other stuff. But there's a variation to who she is. She might not be like, the I'm going to go backpack through the Andes Mountains and da, da. And I need a patch for my backpack. It's like, what does she do? Is she, like, doing extreme sports? Is she water skiing? Like, is she, like, what does she do outside of what we're talking about here? And then you can start to give her patches that make sense. And then when you start to hone in on this, this is where you're going to see your brand expand. So I'm not saying don't do the state. State patches. I think you may eventually want to expand outside of Tennessee, but find where your ideal customer would be or the places that are asking for it and then have someone else manufacture those for you. And then keep with the CrossFit. But then you're in between CrossFit and State, which is kind of benign and neutral. But still we're going for states that would wear the products that we're talking about. Everything in between might be like, the skulls and coffee. Go hard, like, whatever. Like Mama in a version that's like strong Mama versus like, you know, loving Mama, you know, whatever. So when you start to identify, then you know your designs that can happen within these two bookends. And then when you know that you can build off of that, you can forecast, you can design, you can have other people manufacture for you. So I'm not saying stop what you're doing. I just want you to hone in and know what you stand for and what you offer so that when people come to you, you can say yes or no. And then you can also say, yeah, I can do custom patches for you. It's this much to set them up. It's going to cost you this much, and it's going to take this long to get them to you. And then you aren't necessarily making them. You might be able to get them made overseas and then sell them.

Yeah, Strong Mama was a big thing for a while. I just. I'm trying to, I guess, reinvent a new one. So Mom Bod's my new. My new idea. I'm going with but time.

So what did you hear me say from, like, what's your takeaway from this call?

Basically the. To pour back into my Fit Stitch brand. Like, like, still do. Still do. Like, I'm doing, like, with Bear. Keep those. Those Tennessee maybe. Maybe look into getting, you know, like Alabama, kind of the southeast area states, going just to, you know, because that's something I can do. Just don't do it myself, basically. And to, I guess, like you said, said find. Find that ideal customer and just dive into that more than thinking, hey, like, let's make more guy stuff. Let's do kids item. Let's do. Just trying to. I mean, because what I'm doing, obviously, is working. It's just figuring out, making sure I'm not doing all of it, being okay with reaching out to get someone else to make it for me.

Yeah. So I want you to lean into the foundational part, so before you make more sales, you'll still keep making the sales. We're not going to change that. But I want you to lean into your foundation so that you can stabilize to grow off of it. Okay. So that's like when you're like, should I hire a social media manager? Not yet. Let's have you not at the brink of burnout so that when sales come in, you're in a place that you're like, yes, I can do this, versus, oh, crap, I don't need another order. And so it's stabilizing. You're going to work on getting your clarity. And then once you do that and you stabilize your clarity and then you're able to resource and outsource for people to help you, whether it's manufacturers, whether it's someone running your machine, whether it's your mom, whatever it is, then it will open up room and space for you to then take that next leap up. And so it's really a lot of foundational work and really looking like and digging deep into your business and knowing exactly where things are coming from and what you're doing. It's an unmanaged mind that feels scattered and overwhelmed. It's because we have so many things bomping around in our head. It's like a toddler running around and crashing into everything in our brains. And you're not alone in that. It's just starting to put things away. Right. Like, toys go in this bucket, and you know, this is the pantry. And, like, we put things away. You'll feel a little bit easier about it, and then you'll be like, what am I going to focus on? What am I going to focus on? And stay focused. I think that'll be your hardest thing, is like, staying focused, but clean up something and then move on to the next thing. But I think you're doing a really good job. Actually, what I don't need to take away from this is that I'm saying only do the CrossFit patches. It's not what I'm saying. I'm saying if we understand who the lifestyle is, you're making a lot of money on fair, not selling CrossFit patches. So I don't want you to turn that off because it's working. It's just there's a lot of in between stuff I'm sure that you're doing that aren't necessarily the money makers. So it's like if you can dig in and really know what's making you money and do more of that, that's where you're going to keep growing.

I know you mentioned, like, with the apparel, and so in my mind, I'm thinking I need to probably rein that in. Like, I still want to sell some apparel. It's just, it's fun to do, but I probably offer 20 different types of things and I probably need to rain that down to like, five just for the sake of, like, oh, well, some people might like this version, some people might like this version. And then I sell some at event and in my mind I'm like, oh, they're buying it. So I just need to keep making it so foundational.

You're going to go back to that. You're going to get clarity and then. And I know you said about shirts, but I want you to pay attention to what customers are actually buying and do more of that. Okay. Which is not shirts. All right, so if somebody wants to buy from you, support you, all the things, where can they do that?

Well, I've got my website. It's Fit Stitch Gear, or they can follow me on Instagram, which is also Fit Stitch Gear, all one word.

So awesome. And everyone say hi to Anna and shout her out and let her know how great she did on the show. All right, thank you so much for sharing and letting us coach you for the show. And then I'm excited to see what you do next.

Awesome. I appreciate it.

Okay, so Anna is doing an amazing job with her company. I mean, she's just incredible, right? But she's also experiencing this growth spurt that comes across when things start to work for you.

Right.

Which is amazing. But where it's getting hard for her is that she has all these random products, and by having all these products and working the way that she's working and fulfilling the way she's fulfilling, it's going to push her and she is on that brink of burnout. So the main theme here is that if you want to build this business that can not only grow with you, but can be sustainable and really feel good to you, because this is why you started your own business, you must, must, must go back and focus on nailing your core foundations. That's your niche. What are you selling? What are you known for, your audience and your customer? You didn't nail your brand messaging. You need to know what you're selling and your pricing. So nailing your offer and your pricing and your market, this is exactly what Anna needs to do to prevent that burnout.

Right?

It's really going to stabilize her and it's going to help her get to that 130,000 goal so much faster. Yeah, it's going to take work, but just remember that everything, right, takes work. And to get a strong foundation to build your business from, to be something that's really thriving, that feels really good to you in your body, at home, you know, just. Just feels good. Which is what I want you to do. I want you to feel good in your company, in your business, and that you continue to grow. Right? I need you to build that strong foundation. So if Anna can do it, which she obviously can do some amazing things, my friend, use her as inspiration that you can do it, too. All right, if this episode resonated with you at all, I am loving, loving all the reviews that are coming in for the podcast, and thank you for following the show. So if you haven't done so already, click the follow button. Make sure you're subscribed so you know when we drop two episodes a week. And if you haven't left a review.

Yet, I'd be so grateful to you.

For leaving a review because I really get to see your feedback and help helps us reach more people. I'm just so, so excited for all.

Of you as you grow this business. And I just love that you're loving these episodes. All right, my friends, until next time.