622. "I’m overwhelmed and don’t know how to get out of my own way." | Coaching Session

Right now it's just me and I'm overwhelmed with how do I hire and how do I get everything out of my head so that I actually have systems for people to follow and they know what I expect of them or want from them right now. It's always been my mom's and my baby and I've never gotten out of my own head and out of my own way. So.

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 a 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 small. All you need is the right mindset, a little courage, strategy and support and you too can be the next million dollar product boss. Let's do this. Hey, hey, Product bosses. All right, well, welcome back to another awesome coaching session. I am just so glad that you're loving these. I just got done with one of our five day challenges to really prep a lot of you for the holiday season and one of the biggest pieces of feedback that I got was that you all really like these episodes and that it is clarifying and you can hear yourself in them and that, you know, I think we were giving away some because people were winning them when they were joining us inside of multi streaming machine. So it was really cool and I'm so excited to record these new episodes for you so that you can really hear some behind the scenes coaching and then see how you can apply it to you. Now, I do open up a few spots every month now to open them up to my community. If you want to book a one on one call, we'll drop that in the show notes just in case you're like, hey, you know, maybe, maybe this is the month that I think you'd love to get my eyes on your business. I open up a few spots and I'd love to work with you if that's a calling for you. Okay. All right. So today I'm chatting with Holly of Shake, Rattle and Sew. And Holly started her back in 2006 with her mom, initially selling baby items, but now she's kind of moved into selling to adults. Right. So she's selling luxury Minky handmade blankets for adults and honoring her mom's legacy. Now Holly has been doing some amazing things and is on track to reach her first six figures this year, which is awesome. Congrats, Holly. But like most product bosses, she's feeling overwhelmed because she wants to take her business from being her hobby to a full time job and she's unsure how to accomplish that or where to start. This is exactly what we're going to help her figure out today. So. So let's dive in. So Holly, I'm excited to work with you today in this coaching session. Tell me a little bit more about what you make and what you sell your company, Shake, Rattle and Sew. So let's get into it. What do you make and what do you sell?

I make luxury Minky blankets. My mom and I started it back in 2006 and when we started we were making mostly baby items. So that's where the Shake, Rattle and so comes from. I've moved more into adult blankets and we still make baby but we also our adult blankets are our biggest sellers. So that's one thing that I want to talk about today too.

So good. And where are you selling? Like where are your main sales channels?

In person are our biggest sales. That's what I've always done. I am working on my website and working on trying to get more into social media. I've always had a Facebook page. I've just never been consistent and trying to get onto Instagram and looking at Pinterest.

Okay, so you're selling mainly in person. So tell me about the markets or what your in person looks like. Where are you going? Are they local? Are they, are you traveling to other states? Like what's happening?

I've always done local up until this year. And in the spring I decided to go big and started going. I'm in South Dakota, so in the spring I went to Nebraska and Minnesota to bigger markets. But I am actually going to Las Vegas in December. So that's the one that I'm most nervous about. And I literally start this weekend with in person shows and go until we have one every single weekend until Christmas except for Thanksgiving weekend is the only weekend we don't have one.

Okay, and so let's say the Vegas show that you're going to, what kind of show is that?

Nfr.

Okay. And so are you mainly selling, you know, direct to consumer, or are you also doing some business to business?

Right now it's direct to consumer. Okay. Haven't done any wholesale or anything. Thinking about it. Need advice.

Okay, so what if I were to ask you what your dream business would look like? Say it's a year from now, we're heading into the holiday season of 2020, 2025, and you've worked this last 12 months on your business and you want to be, you know, it's September 3, 2025. What would you like your business to look like? What would you like your life to look like? Where would you like to be selling? Like, let's get a little dreamy with it.

So my business, I would like to have more wholesale so that I'm not always going in person. I'd like to be able to employ some, some people and help other people make their dreams come true. Also.

What would those employees be doing for you?

Pinning, sewing, maybe helping me with some social media, things like that. Maybe helping at shows too. Just doing in person shows for me so I don't have to do every single one of them. Right now it's just me and I'm overwhelmed with how do I hire and how do I get everything out of my head so that I actually have systems for people to follow and they know what I expect of them or want from them right now. It's always been my mom's and my baby and I've never gotten out of my own head and out of my own way. So she passed away two years ago. So this is like my connection to mom now. And that's also why it's kind of like I want to grow and it's just my connection to her.

So I'm sorry for that loss, but a beautiful legacy to keep carrying on.

Yeah, that's. That's what I want. Like I want to be able to give back to through this is like my goal is to be able to have a nonprofit that I'm always giving back to in honor of a mom. Right now I'm not to that point, but that's a very big goal of mine.

I love that. And I think the first way for you to honor her and I have goosebumps as it's like coming but is to make some good money for yourself. It's to grow this business. It's for you to probably. I'm sure she wants you to live your life in this like fuller way versus probably being at markets every weekend and hustle and blankets. Now you're making really good money cause you're gonna hit six figures this year in hustling blankets for the first time ever.

But it's because I went big and just threw everything in.

How does that feel, going big?

I'm very nervous. It's very scary when you pay five figures to have a booth somewhere for two weeks. Yeah, it's very nerve wracking and wondering if I'm going to have enough product to last me the whole time. That's very nerve wracking. But that was always our thing. We always made everything and that's what we love to do together. So I'm nervous and looking into manufacturing and having somebody overseas make it because that's just not in my heart, I guess. So I'd much rather pay like stay at home moms to help me sew or grandma's looking for something to do or you know, those types of things. But then how do you pay them if they're sewing per. If they're sewing a blanket? Like do you pay per blanket? Do you pay per hour? Those are all really hard for me to figure out how to do.

Okay, so let's get into, we're going to get into the nitty gritty, the numbers and so I can help start to like unfold some of that for you so you can kind of see your path forward. So it sounds to me because I, if I open up your website right now, there's your home images. If I go to shop all there's like animals driving, tractors, baby farmer. Those are the first two images that I see. But then we get into Bessie the cow blanket, Birch black and white Mamba. There's a lot of kind of like adult blankets. So what are your best sellers? Do you know your best selling prints, sizes?

Lynx on Truffle is my best seller overall. Velvet Medallion is one of my very best sellers. And then in kids it's Farm animals is my best seller. I'm in South Dakota so those have been my go tos. As I grow I would like to have more. But those are my definite best sellers. Five by six and five by eight is my. And 30 by 40. They're all kind of right in the same within 10 to 15. Five by eight, five by six and the 30 by 40 is 30 by.

40 kid size baby.

Yeah, it's very little.

Okay, so we've got 30 by 40 kids and then five by six and five by eight would be your other two. What is the typical size of the, of a throw blanket?

Typical like in the store 50 by 60. So about five foot by. It's just a little thinner than five foot and a little longer than five foot. So about five by five. But that was everybody's complaint was always, I can't cover my toes. They're not big enough. I can't find one tall enough for me. So that's why I started making them bigger. And they're by far my best sellers.

So my question first is, do you know who your. Who would be competitors in the market for blankets? So it could be just luxury blankets, throw blankets. It can be Minky. It can be not Minky, but do you know bigger brands that exist that would be your competitors? Not people on Etsy, not people that go to these markets with you.

Oh, Lola and Minky Couture and somebody making handmade. So sweet Minky. They're mostly on Facebook and they're handmade.

I'll look up Lola because the other brand that I was looking at was. That's a huge, huge brand is they're not Minky, but it's Barefoot Dreams. Have you heard of them? Okay, so why. Why I want to first look at this is when I want to look at price points and I want to look at sizing. So right now you have too many sizes.

Okay.

We already know what people are buying. And so if I look at Lola, they have large, medium and baby save. Three sizes. Their large is. Let's see how much their largest. Their largest. $299. And the size is 60 by 72.

And I think it's a very. So 5 foot by 6 foot.

A 5 by 6. Okay, so that one is basically 300 bucks. Yeah. 299. Then their medium is 50 by 60, which is $249. And then their baby is $109. And it's 30 by 36. Somewhat of your size. Yours is 30 by 40.

And their price is what on that?

109. Okay, so if I look at your 30 by 40 and get it for.

50 bucks, that's the only size that I do have priced different based on the material. All the rest of the way I priced them was there's like eight different fabric mixes and matches that I can do.

But before we, before we get into that part, I just want us to look at what the market will bear. So your five by six is 155. Theirs is 299. They are. Let's see if it says where they're made.

China, probably.

And so they're making a Sweet deal on. They're getting made for way less than you, and they're making a bigger margin and they're selling. So I say all this because I want to pluck out of your mind if there's any doubt for yourself that you could raise your prices, because they don't have that many followers. They have 66,000 followers on Instagram. Not only they're a gigantic, gigantic brand, but they have great photos. They are creating a image. Like when you buy this brand, you kind of associate it with a certain look, which is different than your look. So that's. That's okay. But just to tell you so people are wanting to. People don't buy your product. They buy how it's going to make them feel. So everyone can sell a minky blanket, but it's how you position your minky blanket. It's the images that you create. The, like, if I see that thrown on my bed or on my couch or on my whatever, I'm like, oh, it tells me something about you and it makes me feel a certain way. So it's the same way with Barefoot Dreams, where with that brand specifically, if people recognize they've. This company has been around for, I think, almost 30 years. Only in the last few years have people known about it. And partially it was because it ended up at Nordstrom's, then it ended up a Nordstrom's rack, and it started to become really, really popular and trendy over the last few years. And then they started doing all these collaborations. But it. But it is a. Like, the woman who founded this company actually passed away years ago, so it's not even fully with her. She created it, but it's evolved and now it's a. Oh, is that a Barefoot Dreams? And then people have a idea or you have an idea about you because you can afford a Barefoot Dreams blanket, if that makes sense. Okay.

So I did just do a huge photo shoot to get all new photos and there. We just did it last week. So.

Okay, awesome. So when you're thinking, can I ever charge what Lola charges? Or Barefoot Dreams, their blankets are close to 200, 250. It depends on, like, the size. 180, 250. This one, that's like a collab kind of product. So it's definitely more of an investment into a blanket. Now, I'm not saying that you have to go here, but these brands are a little bit more of that, like Nordstrom's customer. So what we want to do for you is right now, because you're selling in person, it's what the in person is going to bear. But if you want to grow off of the in person and you want to start selling to stores or direct to consumer through social media when you what we want to do is we want to attract the ideal customer to you and that's by really positioning the brand. And a big part of it is, is the photos which is what we teach a multi stream machine and your pricing because pricing for some people it's going to be like is that cheap and made in China? So, so good example is Lola's made in China for example. I don't know this for sure but I think you said it. So let's say they're made in China but I don't have issues with the quality because they're still asking, we're still paying more for this product. Our iPhones are made in China but they're creating a value around it where it's not this like cheap China made whatever but they have value with like the photos and with the qual the product and the price reflects that. It's something that people aspire for and so that's what I'd love for you with your company. It's something that people will aspire to have. So what questions can I help answer from so far or what did you hear me say for clarity?

Like I said, I did just do a photo shoot because that was one thing that I was working on in the multi stream machine. So we did that and pricing, I did just actually raise pricing after going through the pricing module. It's still not right where it needs to be but I didn't feel like I could make that big of a jump overnight.

So just keep creeping it up. I have another student, Sarah, who she was exactly like you. I just kind of told her story this morning where she made caramels and sweets and she jumped into msm, she went into the pricing module and she's like, oh my gosh. She was really scared to see the real numbers that she should be pricing at and then afraid to go to market with it because she had a lot riding on this like four day market. Very similar to your story. And so she raised it a little bit, kind of like what you did. And then the first day she sold out. So that night as she's like up in the middle of the night making more, she's like fine, I'm just going to raise the price again because if I'm going to you know, sell out and have to be up all night, let's make it worth it. So she did it again. She sold out again. She raised her price to the right price and over four days she made $15,000 on caramels and sweets. So you're in North Dakota, it's a totally different market, but there is money, right. These ranchers have it like if it really attracts them, if they're familiar with it. And what you might end up seeing is there might be this difference between when you're sell local and who the customers are versus if you were to find trade shows in places where it made sense or it's like higher end or the customers. So like there's. I'll just throw it like unique. The unique markets or renegade craft show. Those ones people are coming to you because they're looking to spend money on special products. So again, I tell the story a lot of Paloma Danger and she came out with reusable dish sponges and when she was trying to sell them in the Northwest. So people didn't want to spend the money on it. But as soon as she started going to like la, San Francisco, New York, where people were spending more money on things, she was selling out of them at the price point that they were making her the right profit margins at.

That's why I'm taking the leap and doing the Vegas one, like exploring and seeing.

So yeah, and whenever you do shows, you can always do. We talk about this in msm, so jump into the in person module. I think that'll help you especially before you go into these bigger events that you have have larger investments at. But sometimes these shows don't necessarily yield the sales that we want, but we get good connections from them or we grow our email list or we get data back. And so this is why so many times I tell people in the beginning stages of their businesses, even if they've been in business for years, they haven't seen what they want when they start to make these tweaks. Right. So you're going to kind of hone into what you're going to be known for. We're going to hone into your bestsellers or what people are already buying from you. Do you see what I'm kind of working through and doing here with Holly? I always say it comes back to numbers, but that's especially true when we discuss the pricing and narrowing down of your products. In Holly's case, she makes many different options of very luxurious handmade blankets. So we're really focusing on honing in on what exactly her bestsellers are and ensuring that she's actually priced correctly. One of the easiest ways to do this is through looking at your competitors. Because when you look at your competitors, they're proof of what the market can bear. There are so many people making and selling things and it is never going to be go look at what other people are doing on Etsy. I want you to look at bigger companies, right? Competition that is perhaps more established, that has more infrastructure, more that it's not like all of us or we're, you know, smaller businesses. And so that's what I want you to look at because they are proof that it can be done. And if you aren't charging similarly to your competition, then like I told Holly, you're not positioning your products correctly because anyone can sell the kind of product that you sell. But customers aren't actually buying your product. I know you're like, wait, no, wait, I'm selling them this blanket. They're buying my product? No, no, they're buying how your product makes them feel. That's why it's so important to understand what your competition is doing. And if they are showing you proof of a different price point, then don't be afraid to raise your prices, don't be afraid to meet that match. Remember, a lot of businesses are going to think, what's on going wrong with this product if we see such a low price. Now let's dig in a little deeper into merchandising to see what we can work on in there. We're going to get better with the pricing and you're going to go to these markets you're really testing and trying, and I want you to listen to the feedback that you're getting because what you hear people say or what they ask you are either going to be holes in what you're sharing. So what size is this? Will this fit an adult? Will this fit a baby? How do you wash it? Like, there's going to be things that you're going to hear repeatedly, and when you do, I want you to write notes to yourself on what that is so that, that way you figure out, do I add it into my pitch? Is it on signage? Is it on a hang tag? Is it on my website? Like, what do people keep asking for that I can, I can replicate in a way that, like, their questions get answered.

I think it's partially just because of where I am too. But the biggest question I always get at in person markets is what size bed does this fit? They're not bed blanks, but they think because the, the pricing that they should fit a Bed.

So exactly what you just said it could be. I mean, you've already made $75,000 this year, so. And we're not in the cold weather months, so you're doing something right. And you're doing. You're doing 75,000 things, right? Okay? So confidence wise, I want you to look at this as. Not like it's, how can I keep testing, trying, tweaking, changing levers to make this grow easier. But you're growing. So when one of your things is, like, to have that faith in yourself, I want you to have faith in yourself. Because I'll bet you so many people that are listening to this episode, they're gonna think, oh, my God, I wish I had a $75,000 side hustle. Right? So the places I wanna kind of steer you towards right now, and this is gonna be some of your work. So in the next 30 days. Okay. So we're gonna kind of think about what can. What are we gonna do first, second, and third. I know you've done your photo shoot already, and I'm not sure what you shot because you did it prior to this call, which totally fine. But I want you to think about your blankets. And I don't think that you should do any more of the kid blankets, the rainbows, the farm, the state schools, like, team blankets, especially, because that stuff can end up being like copyright stuff. So what I think what your aesthetic is, it's got that sort of like Wyoming, the Dakotas. Like, it's not farmhouse per se, but it is farmhouse, but it's got that sort of like wild farmhouse to it. Or this is a farmhouse with actual animals that live here. Right? Not just like farmhouse look in la, but we live. We might have skins, we cut our own wood. We live off the land. Or we love the idea of it because it seems like your textures that do really well, the links and things like that look like animal skins, but they're not. Not so also, and you've stated this in the way of what you have always done, but we're going to start to do something different is even though you can do lots of different backs to them, I can do the cappuccino farm with a brown back or a black back. Or I could do it like this, or I could do it like that. It's easier for you to sell one version of each print. So if you're gonna do. And you might already be doing this, but I'm just gonna say it. So if you're doing the black and white mamba, the Black and white mamba look is on. The fabric is on one side, and let's say the black crush is on the other side. And that's the only version it comes in. You do the brown and white cow hide. You know, if it's just brown on one side or just white, like, you pick your color and that's it. And so they only ever have to pick between the prints. And that print comes with this on the backside. Does that make sense?

Yeah, because I did just this year. Well, in the last 30 days since multi Stream machine, I. I said that I was gonna narrow it down to two colors per fabric, per front, per se. So some blankets we do in five different colors on the back. And I said, no, we're gonna do two max, but I can do one. It would absolutely help on ordering fabric and getting.

I think, yes, because what happens is customers get confused and they're like, I don't know, do I want the this with this back or this or this back? It's like, it's too many. It's kind of like if you went to buy a car and you were custom making that car and you got to choose what interior you want. Do you want fabric? Do you want leather? Do you want suede? Do you. What color do you want? What color do you want the steering wheel to be? Like, what color do you want the dash to be? It's almost too many questions. The customer just wants to be like, okay, I want the green one. Oh, it comes with a tan interior. Great. Or like, they're like, oh, there's two black ones. One has a tan interior, one has a black interior. I get to choose. Obviously, cars are much bigger investment and there's lots more variables, but when you give someone too many options, they actually can't decide, so they're going to leave. And so the beautiful thing about you doing things in person is when you have inventory and you have your two tone gray and white, and you have. You brought five of them, you sell your two tone gray and white, and you're out of there. There's no custom, there's no owing people. There's no like, well, I don't know which back. I'm sure you see that in person, where people are, like, just trying to figure out which color combo they want. Do you see that happening?

Sometimes it's the texture, sometimes it's the color, but that's usually the two biggest things.

Okay. I think for you to even find one particular texture, it looks like you've got ones that are like, they look like they're stripes. There's ones that are chevron, like looks like chevron ish tile y kind of shapes. There's like the crinkle look. There's so many different versions and the same thing I know like when you're buying these minkies, it would be better if like all of your black was just one version of black. And so for this season you did this basic version of black on the backside of like cow and on the backside of Lynx and let the print or pattern side be the texture choice. And probably I would keep the other side simpler and I would look to a bigger brand that's doing really, really well in the market. So your job, and I know you've got your photos and some photos will be used and some won't, but your job will be narrowing this down because we're getting, going into your big season merchandising your collection. So what you're going to be known for.

The thing I hear a lot and it's probably why I keep doing this is yours are so different than anything we've ever seen. There's so many more options. So it's probably why I keep having more options. And not very many people have two different colors. It's usually just the double sided, same style.

Yeah, well, that's the hard part, right? When you start to change because you're doing in persons, when you start to change what you do for the different markets instead of being a brand that knows where you stand in the market. And then obviously you can merchandise what you bring depending on who the customer is. But they would kind of always identify as, oh, that's a shake, rattle and so blanket. So that's one bit of work for you to think through. And so that's what I'd like for you to do is you're kind of gearing up towards this holiday season, thinking about the photos you have, really reducing the versions or variations you have of things and thinking, you know, each print, what's the backside? And if that print is a popular print and it's, I don't know, let's say you want to do two cowhides or two of the links. Like you've got a blue Lynx and you've got a pink links and you have a black links, right. They're different enough colors that you can still have a couple colorways to it. So you're like, oh, this is the pink cowhide for like the girl who loves pink. Right. Or we have the neutral for the person who wants like the Neutral, you're at least thinking they're not going to compete because they're actually calling in different customers. Right. And so I want you to do a little bit of research between, like looking at barefoot dreams and how. And you can see like this is the best. This has different prints to it. So even though they have all these different colors, they're actually all different. And that looks like it's a listing for a reason. But if they're going to show you this checkered one, this is the colorway it's in. But this one, you could see that they're different enough. So it's like you're either going full blue or this moonbeam. So it's like more gender neutral. I think that only some of your blankets, if you're going to do kids, should come in kids size if you're going to do it. Or you can drop it and just make it be adult blankets. It seems like your competition or bigger companies do have the small, but does it have to be every style? Not necessarily. You could, but so you could. I would tell you to do like kind of similar, a baby. And you call it baby because you're telling me 40 by 60 or 30 by 40. I don't know what that means. So if you, if you put it in the language that I understand, baby, medium or large. And then when they ask you, well, what's medium? Oh, medium's like a typical throw blanket. It's great to have on a couch. One person large, that's the size of a queen bed, let's just say, right. Oh, could fit two people, easy. So if you can reference really easy points for somebody's brain, that's what they're like. Well, what size is this for a bed? They just want to. They need a visual imagination of how big is it and what will it cover. So I want you to simplify your offering because as soon as you simplify your offering, it actually gets easier for someone to buy from you. And then going back to your original question of how do I grow this? How do I get people to make it? You've got less versions and variations. So. So it's easier for you to go into production, it's easier for you to forecast when you know what you're selling, the sizes, there are no additional variations. It's like, this is my fall collection, this is my winter collection, and this is what I have to offer. Your 30 day goal from this portion of it is to look at the competition. Decide on your final sizing. I would rename the Names of them to easy to understand reference points. And then looking at your pricing, if those were the ones you were going to go into, and if you were to kind of reduce your colorway variations, you actually can get better deals or, you know, you can buy more fabric. And then the more you're able to buy in, because you're using such large quantities, you know, potentially you can lower your per yard amount eventually if you can go, you can buy more bolts of it and things like that. So next 30 days, you're basically merchandising. You're coming up with what your collection's going to look like, pricing, naming, and you're going to really kind of ground into that. Did you see what I did there? Did you catch that? All right, so simplifying your offer actually makes it easier for your customers to buy from you. Why? Because less options means less decision fatigue and it makes it an easy yes for potential customers. In Holly's case, she offers a ton of variations in prints, but she also offers several different sizes of each blanket as well. There's a lot of decision making here for the customer to do, especially if all they know is in the beginning that they just want a nice, beautiful, warm blanket. That is the exact reason why in the next 30 days, I'm telling Holly to work on merchandising so that she can determine final sizing, pricing and naming and that she'll feel more confident. Right. I want her to feel more confident in that offer so that she can really lean into selling this collection at our upcoming in person markets. Blankets in the fall and winter. We know it is the season, so we absolutely want to crush it. Remember, friend, simplicity sells and scales. So let's talk about Holly's website now and see how we can improve the online experience for her customers. Hey, product boss. Okay, so you know that I am on a mission to empower women all over the world to build product based businesses that give them the security and freedom to build their dream business, which will also lead to the life of their dreams. So I know that I can help you do this by teaching you how to nail the core four foundational pillars of a standout business. And it's going to turn your business into something that feels like it's kind of struggling along or limping along to standing out in a crowded market and getting more customers. So I am so excited to invite you to join my free masterclass, your four step playbook to stand out in a crowded market and get more customers so that you can grow your business business. No matter where you sell. In just 90 minutes, I'm going to teach you the core four foundational pieces your business might be missing. How to stop wasting time and money on things that don't work and what to focus on instead. I mean, these are proven ways to build an audience that buys from you and that tells their friends about you. So what I want to do is I want to unlock what can be blocking you from growing a profitable business and how you can turn it around pretty instantly. All you have to do is come join me inside of this totally free Masterclass, head to TheProductBoss.com standout to get access again. That's TheProductBoss.com standout. Now back to the show. Then once you do that, I want you to update your website, which we do talk about inside of multi stream machine, but same idea. I want you to look to competition and say how do they position? Like how does a customer use it? So if we just go back to Lola for example, shop all and it gives me either blankets, fall weighted blankets or bundles. Then they've done some collabs, you can shop by collabs and then this other thing, pretty simple. And then they go into like a Y Lola. Now if we look at barefoot dreams, that one's a little more confusing. But like if it was just home, right, they've got new arrivals, shop all and then they have five blankets and throws, bedding, pillows, that kind of thing. So you might just want to look to the way that websites that are selling your product, that are more established companies, we don't want to look at other small businesses that are also still figuring it out. It's like blind leading the blind on that one. So I want you to look at places that are more established and you can be like, oh, what's the customer experience? So I can see what they're trying to sell, I can see what's on their homepage, I can see their call to action buttons. I can see like where they're trying to send me. And then I would probably have like what you want them to buy. I'd have it kind of lined up on the page. People want you to tell them what to buy. So always make sure your homepage is updated to what they should be buying. So that would be like the second part of your steps is updating your website by all this research that you're doing, looking at other sites and going into the MSM module about websites and like how to get your website to sell for you. And just those Few tweaks, plus, like the photos, which you've done, and the pricing, I think can start to really shift how you show up online and how the brand starts to show up. Any questions around that?

I don't think so. I just have a lot of work to do.

No, I mean, it's just. These are right now, like I told you, like, you've got your questions, but we're going to peel it back. I want to know if you're starting to pick up on a common theme here when you're trying to figure out your next step, including how to increase the conversion on your website. You need to research and see what's working for others. While Holly's product sells really well at in person markets because, you know, think about it, customers there can actually touch her blankets and interact with her product and with her. Sometimes this doesn't translate to online sales, which is why she needs to improve the customer experience on her website. For Holly, that means telling her customers what to buy on her homepage, updating her photos, and like we've already discussed here, increasing her pricing. These are the key components that will allow Holly to really start shifting how she shows up online. And don't forget that your customers want you to tell them what to buy. So the easier you can make their decision, the more sales you'll see. So let's get into the stuff that you asked about, which we can dig into. So I want to start with in person, because that's the. The thing that's coming up the fastest for you, right?

Oh, yeah. Yep. I just don't really. I think it's because I have too many options and I have so much stuff in my booth. People get overwhelmed. So I don't know how to get people in and get them to feel the blanket because once they feel it, they almost always buy it. It's the softest thing ever. And then when they find out they can wash them and dry them and everything, they buy them more. But I don't know how to get people in all the time and. Or how to get emails even. Even if I do a giveaway, I don't hardly get anybody to sign up for a giveaway or get them to stop in general. So trying to get their emails and just trying to get them in, I'm not quite sure what I need to do different.

Okay, so let's talk about just getting people in. So anytime you're ever looking for, how should I display it? I would Google it. I'd go on Instagram. I not Instagram. I'd go on Pinterest. I just googled blankets, merchandising. And so, for example, they've got this image that's showing up from something where it's like the blankets are draped. This is folded back so you can see the print and the other side, and they're kind of out and exposed where somebody feels like they could go up and touch it. So here's the deal. We know this about blankets. People are always going to want to unroll them, Right. And so you want to have ones that are, let's say, rolled or packaged the way that you want them to just pick it up and take it. So it might be in a square with the bands wrapped around them. It might be rolled in like a. Like how you would do a sleeping bag. Right. Like, there's lots. Yeah. So. And you can see how this one is where it's, like, turned back a little bit. So you can see.

Yeah, that's how I've been doing. It is rolling perfect.

So then there's a couple that are out. So you're probably going to want to figure out a way that you have them out for people to just, like, pull them off the shelf and open them up and look at them, or you're just constantly going to be folding them back together. I don't love, like, see this image right here? It looks like it's on, like, a towel holder and they're all kind of hanging next to each other. It's sometimes how, like, somebody would display rugs, I think that cheapens the brand. It's not as interesting versus, like, you can get a ladder that you can hang them on and they can pull them off at.

Except a lot of times at like, a vendor fair, there's no wall behind you. That's the hard part.

Right. So that's where you would have to figure out how to find these props for yourself. Yeah, there's coat racks. There's like, pegs. You know, that's. It is. It is very much a big part of you figuring out merchandising that will be part of it. You could take maybe not in Vegas, but maybe in Vegas. Cause I've done this in Vegas. Like, you can get a chair that you always bring with you and you drape. You drape the chair with one of the blankets. It looks like this comfy chair. Like, you could make it look like you can literally merchandise around it and put like a mini Christmas tree and make it look like.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking for Vegas is something decorated Christmas, of course.

Really work on crushing your goal this season by thinking just raising prices, narrowing down on the product offering, being known for something, coming up with what you want your holiday offers to be, getting your new photos, updating your website. And then once you've got this insight, I think it's gonna help you a little bit more with whether or not you do need to be a social media brand or not. And if you do, that's like a whole other conversation. But if we can improve these little things, you can grow email, you can grow your email list and you can get them to come and buy from you online. That's going to be the biggest converter. I want you to see how we can get them from meeting you in person to coming back and buying more gifts online. You might say, hey, add in your email address. I've got a new collection coming out. I'd love to send it to you. Right. I've got my gift guide coming out. Jump on the email list so I can get that to you. We don't spam. We just like, I'll let you know when there's new colors and got this great gift guide. Right. And then knowing what your colors are, you could then present it out and be like, gifts for her, gifts for him, gifts for them, you know, gifts for the family. You can always, like, pull your stuff out and just tell people what to buy. But that's what I would make your focus on for the next, for the rest of this year. So right now it's just kind of like you're re grounding in. You're making some, like you said, some big moves that you're seeing pay off and you just want to kind of like shore up the foundation so that when you want to turn this up again, turn up the dial more, you're closer to that. So with the simplifying of the business will be easier for you to then hire than you could outsource. There's all these other things you can do down the road. But right now we want to kind of like establish this foundation so that you can grow off of it.

Okay, that makes sense. A little less overwhelming that way too.

Yeah, that's the goal.

So, yeah.

Okay, so if we want to buy from you, follow you, support you, how can we do that?

Shakerattleandsew.com and then I'm on Facebook as Shake Rattle and so and on Instagram as Shake Rattle and so.

Amazing. They're great gifts. They're gorgeous. I always tell people, make sure to buy them before she raises her prices.

That's right.

Or buying when she raises her prices. Whatever the case, go in. They're great gifts for the holidays. I think they're so cool. I'm excited to see where you grow. You've done, I want you to know this, you've done such a good job. Okay, so now you're just testing, tweaking, growing still like business is never flat. It's never not exciting, it's never not in change. We're just like, it just keeps kind of pulling the dials to keep making it work in different ways. So this next level up for you, you're on this level up of you've been doing it a certain way, you jumped in a multi stream machine, you're starting to do something different, you're starting to see it happen and now you're going to kind of dig deeper in. But I don't want you to scale outward yet and take on all these other channels and all these other things until you foundationally figure out the product better, the pricing, the photos, the brand, and then I think you'll feel way more confident in growing off of there. Sound good?

Yes.

Thanks Holly.

Thank you.

I think that Holly's mom would be so proud of her and all that she's done with this business that they started together. And honestly, Holly's doing an amazing job. I'm really excited that I was able to coach her and see how we could kind of get past that overwhelm and start to find a plan and create a roadmap. And as you can see, by the end of it, she felt less overwhelmed and she walked away with a plan and more clarity. The main theme here is that if you want to take your business from a hobby to a full time job and you're feeling overwhelmed, you might just need to start by going back to the foundations because each stage of your business is going to require something different. This is especially true when you're transitioning your side hobby into your full time job. For Holly to reach her goal, she needs to not only raise her prices, but she also needs to niche down and become known for something while figuring out her holiday offers for her upcoming in person markets. If Holly focuses on these steps, I have no doubt that she'll not only be able to turn this into her full time job, but she'll also do amazing at her markets and see an increase in her sales this holiday season. And my friend, if you are feeling overwhelmed or like maybe you just don't know what to do or how to make your product business your full time job. I just want you to take it step by step. Give yourself grace. Understand that. How are any of us supposed to know how to build a business? We're just figuring it out as we go along. And we're looking for ways to do that faster. By exactly what you're doing here. Seeing to a podcast, right? Researching information, joining programs, getting coaches, getting help to fast track your success. And one thing that I really want all of us to do and think about is look at our foundations. Are we building our businesses on solid foundation? And when you look at, okay, well, what do I need to do next? And just take that next step. All right. This is a good one. I hope you enjoyed it. If you were loving these episodes, would you mind doing me a huge, huge, huge favor? Especially this holiday season, Just throw some goodwill this way at the Product boss. Make sure that you're following the show. If you follow the show, we'll let you know every time we share a new episode, which is twice a week. And if you haven't done so already, I would be so incredibly grateful if you could take just a moment of your time to leave a review for the Product Boss podcast. Wherever you listen to your podcast. It would be amazing, amazing, amazing. I'd be so grateful. All right, my friends, until next time.