635. Why Selling Isn't Enough: The Missing Pieces in Your Product Business

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. Welcome back to another episode of the Product Boss podcast. Now I've got a little bit of tough love for you today because I think it's something we all need to hear. And I know it's going to feel like a lot, but I think a lot of you right now in this season might actually deeply resonate with this. And the thing I think that we all need to hear is that selling isn't enough. Yep, you heard me right. Right. So what I've realized is that simply being on multiple sales channels isn't going to magically make your business successful. And so I know I teach this right, More eyes on more platforms and it works for so many people. It works for so many people. But I've been coaching, I'm like over a hundred one on one coaching sessions this year. And what I've seen time and time again is I can give you the strategy of how to get more eyes on your business by selling on more sales channels, but it's actually not the thing that's magically going to make your business successful right off the bat. Now don't get me wrong, tons of my students have been so, so successful. In fact, we've had, you know, our program multi Stream machine since 2019. There's well over 5,000 students in there. I get messages every day from people who are like, oh my God, this happened or this happened. I just got one the other day that a woman's like, I joined two years ago. I would have never believed it. But we're going to be selling in Walmart like 120 something stores. I got another message from another student who was like, I'm going to be in Bloomingdale's next year, right? So we've got really big stories like that. I have two students that were on Shark Tank. There's so many amazing things, but it's not necessarily the magic bullet. It is the thing that later on, like in your business journey, it is incredible. And it is how I built my business into the success that it was in the way of multiple sales channels, getting more eyes and things feeling hard. But what I'm realizing, especially in a year like this year and moving forward, is that the industry is changing, things are changing. And not only that, when I've been able to dive deep behind the scenes into so many product based businesses this year, I've realized that it's not just about more eyes on more platforms. It's about building a business that can support all of that. It's about building a business that is sellable, right? That you, you've created products, you've created a brand, you've created, you're very clear on what you're selling so that you can sell it. You're very clear on why you're selling it and who your customer is and how you're building this brand around it, how you're going to market it, you're gonna sell it. Because while we can get it up on a sales channel, it doesn't mean it's going to sell, right? So I think what I've realized is that, yes, I'm so good at making money, teaching people how to make money, coming up with ideas and trying to make money with them. But what I've also realized is that there's so much more to that. So today I'm going to tell you why focusing only on selling is actually one of the biggest mistakes you can make. And I know you're like, who am I listening to right now, right? But here's the other deal and what you really need to have in place before you can actually have a sellable product, right? And a product based business that grows that scales, trust me, I learned this the hard way. So I know it's super tempting to think, oh, no, no, no, no, no. That's like, that's for someone else. I don't need that. I don't need that. I don't need that. Like just, you know, tell me where to sell, help me get more visibility and I'm good to go. But I've got to tell you that while I've been able to coach so many People and my program has been so successful and I've gotten these amazing success stories and proof it can be done. There's also this. I'm like, oh, this could be done so much better, so much easier, so much faster. And so whether you're selling on Etsy or Amazon or your own e commerce website or in person markets, no matter what, no matter where I tell you how to sell or how to get set up on there, you're not necessarily going to see more sales right away because you're missing what actually aligns with the customer. You're missing the why they need your product over somebody else's, why they're going to spend more with your small business over someone else's. I just coached a couple people today because again, like I said, I've been coaching so many people. And this one woman I met with, she is a crafter and she makes beautiful products like faux floral wreaths and faux floral centerpieces and all these amazing things. And you know, she's a student of mine and she jumps on the call with me and she's like, you know, okay, going through the program and I'm going to build my email list. I'm going to start to send emails all in the next 30 days before black Friday, Cyber Monday. And then I'm going to sell to them. And then I was like, okay, okay, great, great. But let's back thing all the way up because I needed to discuss, well, why are you creating this product? Are you making this product just because you like to make things? Are you making this product because you see a need in the market? There's a gap in the market that we are going to fill with your product. Because honestly, there does have to be a spin to why you create another what? Right? That's where the success comes, is like, why did you create this? What's the differentiator about it? And the differentiator doesn't have to be anything magical. It does not have to be a shark tank idea. It doesn't have to be any of that. It just has to have a brand identity to it. And I say brand identity, it's not just your logo. It's like the why, why the customer shops from you, why they're going to spend their hard cash with you, how you're going to stay in contact with them, which is marketing, right? How you're going to sell to them. But more than be on these sales channels, it's legitimately thinking through your customer's journey and how are we going to sell to that person along the way. And so when I dug into this coaching call with her, you know, it took us a while to get back to the concepts of the multi stream machine and more sales channels, more eyeballs to do her own visibility with emails, which I love that she was doing all. But in fact, we kind of took a turn, we made a change because what we did is we went back to how she ideated the product. I know she knows how to make it, but when she makes it, I needed to understand her production capabilities, right? Like how many she was going to make. And she was very much saying, I only want to make one of each because she loves the creation process and that's okay. But we have to then think about how we're going to sell one of a kind products because she loves to just make and sell it and then make something else and then sell it. So when you hear that episode, you will kind of see how it unfolds. So we're going to release that episode the same week that you're hearing this episode so that you can hear how I coach her and you can actually come at it from where we are today to listening to it and thinking about it more from like a coaching perspective. And I'm so grateful that she's letting me air it with all of you. But the thing I want to show you is that there's so much excavating that I do as a coach. And I know people oftentimes are looking for the straight sure shot answer, like do this, this, this and this and that is going to be your answer. But we know that's not true. We know that each of us do something slightly different to have the success. But what I do know is foundationally, as we're growing our business, as we've started our business and we're scaling our business and everything in between. Especially for my friends that are just starting out or they have an idea but they haven't started anything yet. People who have tried to sell or they're newish and maybe they sold very, very, very little. Because I've coached people that have been in business for three years. I mean, a couple hundred dollars a year, right? So they've been in business a long time, but they're not necessarily selling a lot. And then there's people who have started selling a couple thousand dollars a month, maybe $5,000 a month, but they still throwing spaghetti at the wall in so many ways as the boss of their business, right? They're like, all right, this works okay, this works. In fact, I just also touched base with another student of mine. She's been on the podcast. I'm not gonna name her here, but she was telling me that she had such success after a launch that she had this summer, and then things actually slowed down. Now there's things in the economy that are happening and I'm like, God, I wish I could just talk to her about this more often. I wish that I could have a place that we could talk about real things that are happening in real time and then be able to support as things shift and the industry is moving and moving very rapidly. And since, like, if we could all be in a place together where we could keep talking about this stuff, then it would feel more supportive. But then as I dug deeper into why her sales stopped, her strategy worked and then it didn't. So how does she keep getting more support? How does she keep excavating and thinking, okay, what am I missing? What do I need to go back to? Or what's like a next level strategy that I can try, right? Just kind of having this vault of information throughout the journey, right? This, this, this place to carry on throughout the journey as entrepreneurs. So I learned it the hard way, and I'm seeing it in so many ways that my students are also finding these gaps and needing more support. So I know that it's really tempting to think that we could come up with an idea for a product, we could make it and we could just start selling it, and that's what's going to be the business that our dream lives are built on. But it's hard because even if you follow all the steps I teach, doesn't mean you make more sales, because there are things that are missing in your business, right? There are things that I was missing in my business. And if you listen to last Monday's episode I tell you about kind of like the untold story of me starting my company and realizing that I was really just on shaky ground. I was just kind of figuring it out as I went. There was nothing set up. I didn't have a money making engine in my business like a sales engine. I didn't have a marketing engine. I didn't have systems and processes that I followed. And I sure as all things didn't know who I was selling to and why they wanted to buy it. I knew I wanted it, but I didn't actually know it because if I knew it, I could market it better. So that's the thing, is that there's this thing missing of wanting to sell something, but it not Converting for so many other reasons. And I made that mistake and I made that mistake a really long time ago. And the further and longer I've been coaching and consulting and helping people and I built my business, I built the product boss with a bit business partner where the two of us very much decided when we started I was a startup expert and she wanted to coach people that were not startups because it just aligned better with the two of us as coaches. So we created multi stream machine as almost like a middle of the journey option. And so many people come to me and they're like, well, I'm just starting out. I don't know the idea that I have, I don't know what I'm going to make. I don't know how to build this thing. Like I'm making like the student that I coached with the wreaths, she's going to retail shops and shopping and buying the flowers and then trying to sell them direct to consumer. And she probably has a very small margin. So it's like we gotta work on sourcing, gotta figure out where to source from. Like how do we source, how do we pay closer to cost than retail prices or slight discounts because the money is how it's a business. Making that money and making that profit, it's how it's a business. So you know, I, I know it's tempting to think that you can skip the steps that it takes to scale a business, to start a business, to grow a business, but there's just so much more to it and there's so much more to selling. And you know this because if you've ever worked at a market where you're there, you've got your sunblock on, you've got your visor on, you know, you've got your, like, you've got your product all, you've hauled that all in, you've set up your booth, you're sitting there, you're like, I am ready to sell. But actually you've realized that it's more than selling. There are other reasons why your beautiful, amazing products aren't flying off the shelves. There's so many reasons why. And that's what I've seen time and time and time again, right? It's, it's that the business hasn't started or been established in, I dare say it the right way, in the way that you would learn if you went to entrepreneurial school, right? Or something where, God, I wish, in my fashion design program they gave us more than a quarter of entrepreneurship at the very end, in our senior year. Right. But it was like, hey, so when you're designing, you're thinking about the ideal customer for this brand and what their needs are. Right. And then you're also understanding trends that are happening in the market. So trends can be, whether it's a fashion trend or a scent trend or we've seen these trends go through where like certain shoes are the trend or certain scents or flavor profiles, like, like the pumpkin spice latte was a trend that other people jumped on. Are colors. There's just so many types of trends. Or like if somebody's tennis skirts are all the rage right now. Right. Because there's been a pickleball uptake for the last few years. And so that's another thing where it's like, let's pay attention to what's happening and meet the market where it's at. So that's the stuff that I think so many of us as creatives are shaking on. And so we can sit there at a market ready to sell and following all the things I've taught and it's still not going to sell and why. Or you can build a website and try and sell and it's not going to sell or you can try sell a wholesale and try and sell, but it's not going to sell. And what I've realized over and over and over is that there's foundationally missing things. And I don't want you to get confused by the word foundation. Foundation is not just startup foundation. Foundation is the bedrock, the thing that it is all built upon. And I use the analogy of like building a house. And none of us are going to build, build a house on a cracked foundation. You know, you're not going to build it on an edge of a cliff that's falling off from landslides. We're not going to build the place that we're going to live and thrive in and flourish and you know, feel safe in something that's super, super not right. Like not thought through. We want contractors that are qualified to build our house. Right. We want that stable foundation. If we were going to pay somebody to come in and build our house, right. We potentially would hire an architect or get an expert or get some sort of download. We would potentially, unless you have the skill already, be hiring people that are experts at it to tell us what to do every step of the way, if you could. Right. Or if you've done any. I've redone my own bathrooms and made all sorts of mistakes when I've redone a bathroom or we haven't done kitchens yet, thank goodness, but bathrooms we've done a lot of. And so the thing is, is like I either had to learn the hard way or I worked with someone who knew something more. Like, my husband did construction while he was like a teenager in college. So he was able to kind of say, hey, this is how you do this. I wouldn't have been able to do it on my own. So it's like either doing it with someone who knows what they're doing or following steps or hiring people to do through the steps. So what's happened here in so many of the businesses, and it happened for me as well, it's the mistake I made was that there are all these different steps throughout it, or I'd say pillars that our businesses have to have built with systems, operations, with refinement, with really understanding the process that it takes from coming up with the idea of your product to scaling your business and everything in between. So it's like the idea how you're going to make it. You also need to know how you're building a brand around it. You need to have a marketing strategy. How are we going to be discovered by customers? How are we going to find customers? How are we going to interact with them? You need to have a sales strategy. More than it's multiple ways, it's knowing how you're going to sell, you know, and that's why I do so many times, like, I'll offer ways to teach you, like how to create offers, how to create bundles, right? We need to create offers that sell. We can't just put a cup up on the website or go to a market or go on Etsy and be like, here's my custom cup. I'm looking at a tumbler that someone gave me that was like custom. It says the product boss on it. I love it so much. But how are we going to sell that thing if a gazillion other people are selling it? So there's so many other they can still sell it. Do not get me wrong, but it's the how to sell it. It's the why it's not selling. It's the figuring out why it's not selling. Happy holidays. Okay, don't think. Jacqueline, what are you talking about? It's still warm outside. I know, but guess what? It 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 content ideas.com and then beyond that, right? Then there's this idea of like, how do we delegate or how do we operate our business? How do we get people to help us? Or how do we employ help? Is there stuff that we can automate? Is there systems? Are there software? Like, what do we need to do? Because I know there's also that idea that I had, well, what if this thing does work and it blows up and it does really well? Can I even keep up with that? And so our minds thinking, like, spirit of actually growing will kind of stop us from growing. So it's, it's knowing, okay, well if I do grow or if this does go the way I want it to go, how can I make it go that way? How can I feel supported in that? And then finally, I think there's the idea of like, once you've figured this stuff out, then it is growing that business. It is growing it. Because now not only do you know what you're known for, you've started to get the data at bestsellers. Then you get your stuff on these sales channels, on more than one sales channel even. And things do sell because if it works in one place, it's gonna work in other places. And I guess it's hard to say, but a lot of times if it doesn't work, it's probably not gonna work in a lot of places either, right? Unless you're really in the wrong place. You know, like, unless you're selling. Someone said they were selling like $90 candles at a farmer's market that was not in a town where people were buying $90 candles. So yeah, that $90 candle could probably work really well at a show in LA where people are spending $25 on. She was selling it. It didn't make sense. So it could still work at a market. But we gotta identify all this stuff. And that's the hard part. This is kind of a scary episode for me to share with you. Cause it almost like unravels or undoes so much of what you've heard me say over the years. And with my business Partner. But like I said, it's been a year since I took over the product boss, since I invested my life savings and family savings into taking over this incredible, beautiful business and shifting it in a way. And I really wanted to make it this thing that really met the needs to empower and educate business owners, entrepreneurs that are selling physical products all over the world. And so it does feel like a shift. And in fact, I was going to talk about this stuff about a year ago, and it felt too scary and too early. So it took me an entire year to keep doing things the way I was doing them, but then also doing things differently. So working one on one, doing these coaching calls, shifting the podcast, even what you've seen in the growth on our social media and stuff like that, because I needed to get to the bottom of it. I needed to figure out what was actually also getting in the way. And so the idea here is that while we have helped thousands and thousands and thousands, and I still stand behind everything we ever did with Multi Stream Machine. There is this whole section before msm. And when I say whole section, it's like the whole part of starting it all the way to growing it. And MSM is a tool. It teaches you how to get onto different sales channels and how to make those sales channels work. But if we don't have a sellable product, an established brand, the systems in place to do it, the why, the customer, there's so much more, more to the business, then it's still not gonna sell. And that's what I realized that I did when I first started out. That's what I did when I made the mistake. And even though I sold on these sales channels, the sales weren't gonna roll in until I fixed the things that needed to be fixed. So I'm curious if this sounds familiar or that you're feeling like, aligned with this conversation, because I was hitting that wall. And in all of my coaching calls this year, I'm seeing this repeatedly, that a lot of my students are also hitting the same wall. You're listening to the episodes, hearing the struggles, and I want you to hear this too. You're not alone in your struggles. It feels lonely. We, a lot of people in the world feel very, very, very lonely right now. And that's just normal. But the loneliness of coming into the entrepreneur side of it, the entrepreneurship side, where you're like, it's just me. I'm on this island by myself. It's only not working for me and everybody else in the world. It's working for it's just not true. And also, different things are working for us at different times. So I don't want you to feel alone. I don't want you to feel like you're hitting this wall time and time again. And the problem wasn't where I was selling, right? The problem wasn't where I was selling it or knowing that it took multiple sales channels to get eyes. It was actually how I was running my business, how I was building my business, how I actually built my business. That was the problem. I had not built a business with this foundation of thinking through all of the parts of it. How could I possibly know? How could I have known all of the parts of it it? When I worked as a designer for other people, I just worked in the creative space. I worked in the ideate, I worked in the how, what are we going to make? How do I design this? I didn't even have to worry about how things were made. I had to worry about how they were fit, but I did not have to worry. Actually, I didn't even. That wasn't. I did do it, but then there were other people on the team that helped. I really had to come up with product that could sell. There was a marketing team, there was a PR team, there was finance team. There were all these different teams at this company that I only had to do a small part of it. But guess what? As product based business owners, we have to wear all of the hats. We actually have to be slightly dangerous in all of these topics. In all of the departments that a bigger company would have, we have to know just enough. You do not need to be an expert at any of it, but you do need to know what the departments would be if your company was bigger. If you went and worked at a bigger company in the same category of what you sell, so that you do have strategy, so that you do have the right brand messaging, so that you do have marketing and sales plans, you do have production plans, production calendars, product development calendars. You know how to look for trends in the market, right? Like all of these things that I wasn't responsible for all of them when I worked for a company, but I was when I had my own and I needed real systems in place. I couldn't spend an entire day on QuickBooks doing my accounting and then an entire day updating my website and entire days would go missing because of these large things that I had to do. And was I even doing the right thing if someone told me how to do it or had something more to step by? Step. But instead of figuring it out with YouTube searches, I could put these real systems in place to support my growth, to support all of it, and to feel easier. So I realized that no matter how many sales channels I opened up and I sold on, it didn't fully matter until I had the key pieces figured out. Until I figured out these departments that were necessary in the foundational aspect of starting, growing and scaling a product based business. I was just spinning my wheels, right? Didn't have the key pieces and I was spinning my wheels. And I know, I know so many of you are feeling that exact same frustration right now. So maybe you're feeling the same way. No matter where you're selling, no matter how you're selling it, no matter how it's priced, your sales are still feeling like they're at a standstill or they're inconsistent. You still still don't feel like you have this money making machine as a business, right? You're like, I'm doing the things I got up on Amazon, I'm posting on social media, I'm trying to build my email list. I'm selling wholesaler, I'm trying to sell wholesale. But why is it not actually converting? Why is it not selling? Why is nothing sticking? So, my friends, I see you. You're hustling, right? You're hustling. And I know you are day in, day out, but deep down you might be feeling the way that I felt, which is that you're still missing something. I get it. It's exhausting. It's exhausting. You're running this business business. You're wearing all of the hats, you're trying to figure out how to get more eyes on your products. But the more you do, it still feels like you're adding kind of more chaos to your life or more information. And it's just like all the things. And you're like, am I missing that other sales platform? That's what Jacqueline's been talking about. That's what we've been talking about. But actually it's deeper than that. We're excavating. It's more foundational. It's more like all of the parts to build the house, right? Because if you're in real estate and you want to sell the house, house, we still need a house that has a stable foundation, that has running water, that's beautiful and a certain aesthetic for the buyer that we want to sell the house to. I love using this house analogy because I actually used it back in the day with my first business when I was Doing the consulting. But if you think about it, there is a customer for different style houses, right? So if you're going to put in money and buy a plot of land or tear down a house and rebuild something to the inside of selling it, you need to make sure it's all being done correctly, from plumbing and the electricity, to the aesthetics, to knowing who you want to sell it to, to thinking through what rooms are in the house. Are they going to have kids? Are they going to work from home? They want a home office, a gym, a movie theater. Like, what are you putting in this house, thinking about the end customer, and then you get to selling it. So what I've realized is that we have been supporting people at the point of the house is built. You just need to get buyers in and then try and sell to them, right? You put out the product. You're like, here it is. Look at this beautiful Mediterranean house. House. Five bedrooms and five bathrooms. Come buy it. But what if the Mediterranean house is like a really, really, really old house? It's not really Mediterranean or looks part Mediterranean, part farmhouse that needs all the plumbing fixed and there's, you know, cracks in the foundation, and it needs a full paint job, and the rooms are weird sizes, and it's not going to make sense for people with kids. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right? I just want you to think in analogies or in. I do really well with, like, visuals, but I want you to think of it in that way. Because when you think of it in that way, that's ultimately, sometime, sometimes the problem with our businesses, like all that other stuff, is kind of like duct tape and chewing gum together. It's been put together, but it hasn't been put together in the way that you're gonna be able to sell it at the top market price very quickly with multiple offers and da, da, da, da, da. Okay, so the reason we burn out, the reason we feel overwhelmed, the reason we're not able to grow is because we're like spinning around in circles, not actually focusing on the things that need to be fixed or changed or established or thought of when we're starting or fixed when we've started. So you may be thinking, okay, great, Jacqueline, this all makes sense. Sense. So what do I actually need? Right? Because I'm feeling a little bit confused here. So if you've had success in the ways that I've taught, I'm gonna say good job. Because it means that innately or something that you've learned or other coaches you have or programs or whatever you've done whatever life experience you have that's gotten you to the point of having a great product that's sellable, that has an established brand to it. Whatever you're doing, it's working. Good job. And then there's some of us, and I'm still gonna say good job because you're all entrepreneurs, but good job. But also those of us that are like, okay, it's working for them, but it's not working for me. And why? It's because instead of the student I coached today where she's like, just tell me how to market and sell, market and sell. It's like that. I can't get you there until we fix what you're selling, who you're selling it to, why someone's gonna buy it, how we're gonna market it, how you're gonna run your business, what systems are you gonna get into place? When I say systems, it's way more operational. What does your production sch. Where are we sourcing from? There's just so much more in it. Like, have you created a plan? What's your North Star? And how are we working backwards from it? Because here's the thing, what I've realized and where I want to help and what I realize that I need is that I need to help you have a sellable product, right? We want you to have a sellable product with strong profit margins, right? A brand that connects with your customers and business systems that support that growth, that get you from, if it's just an idea or you've already started to your first a hundred thousand dollars a year or getting into multiple six figures figures and beyond that, right? That's where I want to get you to. So without those pieces, adding more sales channels is just like adding more weight to a weak foundation. At some point it's going to collapse and in fact you're probably going to be the one that collapses because you're going to be so exhausted, feeling like you're hitting your head against the wall and being like, why is this not working? And I know this is like tough love conversation, but a lot of times it's because you don't have a product that's completely sellable yet and it's not connecting with your customers. And, and there are all these other foundational systems and operations and things that go through it. Like again, those different departments at a bigger company that are missing. And that's why it's really, really, really hard to grow. But here's the good news, here's the awesome news, here's the thing that I did and that I've been coaching on, and you've been hearing snippets of it throughout in this podcast, is that when you do build this solid foundation, when you really are establishing what you're selling, how you're running your business, who your customer is, how does it connect with your customer, all the things and the right systems, everything is going right because suddenly those sales channels that were barely working before will start producing real results. And you, my friend, are going to stop feeling like you're constantly hustling and instead you're scaling and growing your business with ease. It just gets easier because sellable products are sellable products. And so that's what we have to figure out. And I promise you that all of you have a sellable product. I've launched over 2,000 fashion brands, friends, you have no idea. The customers that came to me, the things that people brought to me. I remember the company Meundies, which is a subscription underwear company, came to me when they were first starting. And I remember thinking, does anyone want to subscribe to Underwear Cut to a couple years ago or a couple years later. There's billboards all over LA for this subscription company. I'm like, oh my goodness. Right? I've always said I'm not to judge what product's going to do well. It's just making sure you have a sellable product. There was this other guy that came to me who somehow hated washing his girlfriend's Labrador, like giving it baths. So he wanted me to design and develop a dog suit. I don't know if I could verbally say what this is, but imagine your dog stepping into like a full body suit that some has like Velcro along the top, that I had to create a thing that could work for all different lengths of tails for a dog and a way that you could somehow put a hose or something of water into the suit. Somehow you have applied the shampoo to the dog. And then somehow when the dog moves, this suit gently massages the fur, gets the fur to be clean and then the water you put in. Because why his. Why was he hated that the dog would shake on him when the dog was wet. And so his idea, which I don't think ever came to fruition, but someone hired me to design it, so I did. And I had so many reasons why I was like, this doesn't make any sense. And this guy's obviously not a dog owner. But I digress. I got to work with clients like that because I've learned from every single client I've ever worked with. And so even that product, while the concept is really interesting, the product wasn't there, wasn't proof enough that this was a sellable product. It was definitely a shark tank idea, but we had to get it to this point of it being a usable product, a product that functioned, a product that met the needs that a customer like me who actually had dogs wouldn't be like, I don't understand this thing. We have to make it make sense to the ideal customer. Okay, so I know that story is kind of funny, but that's sort of what I had to do, right? I was in this exact same situation where these clients of mine had these ideas for products and they had the places to sell them, or maybe they didn't and they couldn't get on the places to sell them because they didn't have the sellable product yet and they weren't building the business in a clear way where they had production processes and how they were going to make the product from product development through pre production, through production, through post production, quality, quality control, all the stuff, right? All that front end stuff. Then they didn't have clear brands. They didn't know who they were selling to, why that customer would buy, what problem you were solving for them. They didn't have operations in place. They definitely didn't know how to market or sell. So nothing was going to grow from that point. So even though these clients were doing everything they thought they were doing, it wasn't enough. So that's why even on these coaching calls and you hear me go, I go back to the beginning, I go back to the foundation, I start back at ground up, right? Because it's not always about we're going to start here and then sell more. It's about going back and saying, all right, we got to actually heal this back. We got to excavate a bit, we got to get deeper into this so that we can find a really clear strategy. We could focus on the product strategy, we can focus on the brand and the why and who the customers are. We can focus on building the operations into the business and the systems into the business. Like more than truthfully, honestly, more than what I teach in multi stream machine. Because it's not just, you know, when we created multistream machine, it was like, what are the systems that are getting in the way of people being able to sell on these channels? So we knew pricing, we knew photos, like photos that didn't convert. We knew not having inventory or having inventory too much of it was important and how to ship. But I can't tell you how many times I get asked questions. We all know that there are way more systems that we could be supported in so that we don't feel overwhelmed, so that we do feel like we're building this correctly. So I've been working really hard with these students and seeing that when they build the right foundation, when they have a sellable product, when they've built a brand that connects with their ideal customers, that is when more sales traffic channels work, that is when visibility happens because they have the sellable thing. So after working with so many of you this year and seeing the same thing over and over and over, that's why like, it's been this kind of like huge aha moment and this was such a scary episode to create because it's sort of like, I'm not saying that we made a mistake because we didn't. There's thousands of students and thousands of success stories. There's no mistakes ever made. But there's a gap. So it's the same exact thing for the products that you have right now, right? You've made these things and they're beautiful and they're amazing. And like the students that I've coached, it's like all the stuff that they've made is amazing, but they haven't found the gap to fill. And what I've realized in taking over the business and leading this in this new way, and what's going to happen in 2025 for the product boss is really filling a gap that I'm so excited to do to help you with all the things I'm talking about. Right? No matter where you are in your journey, taking you step by through exactly what you do need to create that sellable product, to create that brand, to have that profitable scalable business, no matter where you are on your journey. So I can't reveal everything just yet, but trust me, you're gonna wanna be a part of this. So if you're tired of hustling without seeing the results you want and you're ready to finally build a business that you've been dreaming of, I do have something really special for you that we will be announcing around Black Friday. Yes. I've never participated in Black Friday at the product boss because we've always been in such support, but we're actually gonna be announcing it right then. So if you wanna be first to know because there's gon amazing parts to this that I'm going to share with you, I invite you to join the Waitlist, all you have to do is head to theproductboss.com waitlist or shoot me over a DM on Instagram. Just say waitlist and we'll get you all signed up. Because this is going to change the way you do business forever. Forever. Forever. Because nobody can take away education. You know, when we go to school, when you've gone to college, like, whatever it is, whatever we've learned, the. That is the foundation to who we became. Right? My kids are in elementary school and middle school. Like, they're learning things that are inspiring, what they're going to become when they grow up. And then when I went to fashion design school and everything I learned in school was, like, the things that changed my life outcome forever. And then I'm telling you, education has been one of the number one priorities of my life ever since I became an entrepreneur and ever since I had more access. And it will change the way my life has been forever and the way I do business forever. So I'm so excited for this for you. So again, thepacboss.com, so thank you so much for tuning in today. I hope that this episode helped you realize that maybe, I know it's like holding a mirror up, but maybe we really have to take a look. We have to step back and take a look at the business we've been building, at the foundation that we have, at the products that we're offering, at the whole foundational part of it. Because you wanted to start this thing or you did start this thing, and you're trying to grow it, but it's not growing the way you wanted to, or you don't feel truly supported, or you feel like you've got gaps in the way that you're growing your business. And so I hope you realize that it's not just more and more and more of all the sales channels to sell on, but it's actually building a business with the idea of when you all tell me you have multiple hats that you're wearing, that you're wearing the hats and the right seats and you know what you should be doing in each and every department. So I can't wait to share more in the coming weeks to keep your ears up and your earbuds in in future episodes and also make sure you get on the wait list because we're going to be sending out an email and it's going to be awesome. Okay, my friends, till next time, keep pushing, keep dreaming, and keep building your product boss empire.