662. "My sales are inconsistent and I need more customers - help!" | Coaching Session

I mean, like, I've just tried all these things. I just want it to be like something to everyone. And I am finally realizing, like, I'm not working.

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, or I'm here to give you the permission to chase your dreams no matter how big or small. All you need is the right mindset, a little courage, strategy and support, and you too can be the next million dollar product Boss. Let's do this. Hey. Hey, Product Boss. Welcome back to another episode of the Product Boss podcast and one of our coaching sessions. Now, if you're interested in getting coached by me, I'm going to drop a link down in the show notes because I get messages all the time on Instagram like, hey, do you offer one on ones? Can I get coached? I just want to. I'm going to drop that into the show notes for you in case you want more information. Okay, so as we dive into this, today, I'm chatting with Gretchen. And Gretchen is the owner of Three Blondes. One bright idea. I know such a good name. And they create custom painted furniture and sell home decor and gifts. Now, what originally started as a hobby of refurbishing furniture and doing a yard sale with her friends once a year turned into a full blown business in 2019 when she opened her brick and mortar store. Now, since opening, Gretchen has seen success, but she struggles with inconsistent sales, traffic and limited customers, especially while living in a small town. Now, she originally wanted to discuss her inventory issues, but as you'll see, we're able to figure out that inventory issue that it actually comes from her inconsistency with sales and customers. So that's why today we're going to develop a strategy for Gretchen to implement so that she can increase her sales and get consistent customers. So if that sounds good to you, let's dive in. So from your words, just kind of tell me about what you make and where you sell it.

So I custom paint furniture and I sell it. Well, I paint furniture and sell it in my store. And then I also do custom orders. So people bring their furniture to me and then I will paint it and release it back to them. But then I have a storefront. So I have like home decor gifts. Just kind of cut all kinds of spaghetti. All kinds of those things I throw at the wall.

Okay.

They're gonna stick.

Okay, so you have a. You have a brick and mortar store. Tell me about that store.

So if we go. I mean, if one. If you want to go back to kind of the beginning of how we started, we just. My two friends and I refinished furniture and did a sale in my yard like once a year. And that was kind of how it was always going to be. And everyone always told me, oh, you need to open a store. You show up in the store. Why would I want to do it? Yeah, have overhead and all the things. And then in 2018, I just kind of felt led, like that was the right thing to do. So In September of 19, I opened a brick and mortar and by this time the other two were already lifing. You know, they were just doing their own thing and. But I kept the name because of the social media and. And that's just how I was known. So we rented a space for the first year and then we ended up buying the warehouse right behind it. So that's my brick and mortar now. It's a beautiful space. Space and I love it. But there are complications, like there's no storefront parking and I don't live in a big city, so everyone is very small town minded and to have to walk, you know, or to not build a park right in front of where you're going, even though the Walmart across the way, you know, they have to park a long way away. And I try to tell people that it's, you know, it's just perspective. You just. You're parking around the corner, but I'm not visible from. I mean like Main Street. I'm literally two blocks off of Main Street. So that's been kind of a challenge for me. Small town life is a challenge. You know, I've lived here my whole life and I. There are so many people that I know that have never even come in. Sometimes that support just doesn't. It just doesn't feel like there's a lot of that sometimes.

You know, unfortunately, humans are selfish by nature and customers are selfish by nature, meaning customers always want to be like, and, well, we have to think of customers in this way where they're coming in and thinking, what are you going to do for me? Versus, we had this small, very small window in 2020 where customers were thinking, we want to keep our favorite small businesses and in business. So it was almost like it wasn't charity, but it was very top of mind of keeping a small business alive because we couldn't control anything else that was happening around us. And then conversation, recession happened and inflation and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then humans by nature again got selfish and they're like, we're looking for the biggest deal and the best deals and the lowest prices versus that mentality of I'll pay more to keep this small business open. So it's more traditionally the latter because people have their bottom line. So again, this isn't for anyone to think or for you to think that you have to lower your prices to stay competitive. But there's more to it when you are a brand of, like, the experience that they have, the. The thinking of you top of mind, which is in your marketing of like, oh, I need X, I'm going to go to this store for that. So I get what you're saying about your brick and mortar not being ideal in terms of creating obstacles for the customer. And an obstacle is parking, which I joked about the other day with my husband. We were going to a restaurant and I was like, I swear, at this parking lot, like, I won't even come here for the parking lot. And then I was like, oh, we've hit the age now where we're like, not going to go places because the parking lot is so silly, you know, And I'm like, for those people now. So I get it in that way. And I think a lot of people do as well. So I know your questions for sort of where you were from, the form you gave, like you turned in of the stuff that you needed help with. I'll just refresh those for you. You said ways to better manage my inventory. I feel like I spent a ton of money hoping will come in and buy, only then rack up debt that never gets paid down, and then how to get myself seen in my community, on socials, in the world, wherever. So I think that these are very strategic questions, but I don't think that they really encompass probably like the overall struggle, I would say, because they're kind of like, probably from you thinking, oh, if I could just solve for this, this would happen. But my question to you is, what's the one thing that you want to create in your business right now, I.

Think for me, just a consistent flow of. Of customers. I have such a unique business model. I mean, it's unique to me. Anyway, I know that the first thing people are going to say is, well.

Then be open more, because she's only.

Open two weekends a month. But I don't really know how to do that. I've tried it and it didn't work. And I tried it even during my busiest times.

Like, I did it last year, all.

Of October through December, and I literally just paid out so much money to have someone be there because there's. I just cannot be there that much. I. I have the custom orders that I have to do and want to do, and then the furniture. Whenever I sell furniture in the store that needs to be redone. And then I also. I'm very blessed. I get to watch my grandbabies three days a week. But that. That is something that it takes a lot of time.

So there are circumstances or like. Like if we want to think across markets and. Cause what I'm hearing you say is that, yes, you've got a question of how much inventory to hold, but truthfully, that the issue is that you don't have the traffic. So it's inconsistent foot traffic, it's inconsistent sales, which ultimately the core problem here is that you have inconsistent sales and you're not making enough in terms of sales. So my. My recap to you was it sounds to me like you need more customers right now. It's foot traffic to the location and more customers. Like, while we can talk about all the other strategy, would you say that's like, the crux of your problem?

I would think so. I mean, and I. Maybe I'm just being dramatic. And, you know, there's some days where it's really good, and then the next day I'm lucky if I sell, you know, $20. I might have only had a couple people in. And then, you know, whenever we do, like, community events, like shop hop things, those are really advantageous. We get lots of people coming in.

I just.

I don't know if I have just kind of created this little monster because I am not open, you know, Monday through Saturday, but.

Well, I want to challenge you on that because what I was thinking about was there are other. Well, yes, you don't have the ability that someone can stop in at any time, like, they know for retail. But if we were to reposition your company in a different way. So I'm just thinking about other markets or let's say models that we could almost model this alternative way of you having a brick and mortar. So here in la and you might have the same thing. But every, I think it's the second Sunday of every month or something like that is the Rose bowl flea market. So it takes over the entire Rose bowl, which is like where football games are played and the entire parking lot. And there's new product there, there's vintage and people go and they, they literally think about this, you know, a Sunday that that's what they're going to do. There's another market that's at a high school here on Melrose and it's every Sunday. And so if we think about people being excited about the discovery of a market or if we think about farmers markets and things like that, then it, the, it's okay to have the scarcity of time availability of being open because I think what the thing that they're excited about is the discovery of new product or the discovery walking around and enjoying an experience. So my question back to you is, is there a way if you start to think about the shop in a different way because you have this inventory but more of an experience that people are like waiting for the doors to open for the limited amount of time that you are open and that they get to discover and it's. And we shift the way that they think about it versus it being o. It's a shop that's only open these days and I have to think about it versus like you're making an event for the town and then even surrounding towns that could come visit.

Yes. And I have, I have viewed it that way and I have sold it that way.

And okay.

I do also try to really like right now I am starting my Christmas revamp. So today, until next Thursday at probably 4 o'clock in the afternoon, I am going to be using every spearmint in my time to take that store from what it is to like a magical Christmas experience. And I try to do that at least every three months, completely redo the store and make it look, you know, fun with unique, fun displays to bring people in. And I, I do get a lot of compliments and comments on that. Oh, we always want to come in and see what you've done, you know. So yes, I'm totally open to emphasizing the market style a little bit more or in a different.

What do you think has been getting in the way of that being communicated to the people of the town, to your customers or potential customers?

I don't know because I feel Like, I am very consistent when I'm posting on social media. I'm always kind of, you know, sharing my open dates, when I'll be open, how you get to my spot. So one of the things I've learned from some of the programs you've put out that I've been listening to is the importance of emails. So I have started collecting emails, and that is a goal of mine. But I also heard in one of those that, you know, maybe your busiest time of year is not the time to be trying all these new things. So I have not implemented that yet. But I am collecting them and I try to ask all my customers, you know, hey, sign up for my email list. I'll be, you know, I'll be starting that soon.

And so.

Because my only way to get my information out there is Facebook and Instagram.

Mm.

Also, like, again, just kind of reiterating, I don't really have, like, foot traffic. I am in a historic part of town, and I love that. But I'm like, right before an overpass, and there's not a lot of foot traffic there. But even if there were, my windows are all. They're beautiful, but they're gridded windows. So I don't feel like even being able to do window displays would draw people, you know, because they're not seeing them.

Okay, so what I want to challenge you in is we can talk about the obstacles or the reasons why you think that it's not working, or you can think or find other. Like I was saying before about flea markets or things that people are waiting for. That doesn't happen all the time. And you're going to really want to probably have to start to switch your mindset around your marketing to a different way that a normal brick and mortar would do. So a brick and mortar that's open nor normal business hours, you know, five to seven days a week, that kind of thing. I'm going to share this company with you. They're on Instagram. They're called Olive atlea. They have 593,000 followers. They are in downtown Los Angeles, where I used to work downtown. My school is downtown, which is not. There's not a lot of. There's residential, but it's not. It's. It's downtown. It's a dust. It's industrial. And they allow you to shop in person Wednesday through Saturday, 10 to 4. It's all in their bio. They call it objects with old souls. And what they do is they basically import from Europe, like, cool old vases and things that People can make fountains of and did it at. And I found them through might have been an interior designer that I was following that was like, I'm going to go shop this. Or maybe it was an influencer. So they have a lot of. They basically are a destination. The same way that if we want to think of another example of somebody who created this, obviously they had a TV show, but Chip and Joanna Gaines, they remade Waco, Texas into a destination versus a lot of us remember, like how Waco. How we all put Waco on the map originally. But if we think about Magnolia or when they started it, and if you've ever been to Waco and you visited their original shop, which is now their like, outlet store, at least when I was there, it could change. So their original shop was just on a street with a tiny parking lot. But people knew why they were going there. And so they basically created this destination Waco for like cute, amazing home furnishings, things like that. So Olive at Lie is a very good example of a company that's very similar. Similar and different, but similar to yours in the way that they're found objects. There's a lot of one of a kind. There's also product that they have a lot of. Now they're different in the way that you're buying and you're curating the store and gifts and things like that. But there's still a destination and almost like a trendsetter. And trust me when I say they don't have the foot traffic. They might not even have the parking. Because if you go downtown, typically none of those buildings have parking. And you have to pay for parking somewhere. You have to park and walk. So it. While it feels like an obstacle, we haven't driven the. We haven't created the need of the destination of the. Oh my gosh, I can't wait to go in and. And look and see what they have in real life as maybe you could be. So this is a. This is one that I want you to look at because also when people shop it, they post. Like people know to tag it and mention it and stuff like that. And so then they go. They're really good about reposting people who are tagging them. So they are somewhat of an Instagrammable thing. Because also people go home and they use product in their houses. They're tagging them and then they re tag them. So I, I really want you to follow this company because it's a similar model and the timing can be whatever timing you want. Okay. They do have a website that you can shop from. So they do have this beautiful website with a shop now. And so it's like this. It's this back and forth with. Once they establish themselves as a destination, which, by the way, I live in LA and like, have not gotten here because I haven't been able to remember it on the days that they're open. So I will tell you that part of the reason I've never gone is because I'm like, ah, I want to go on a. Whatever day. And then I'm like, oh, they're not. I have to check and see if they're open. But that's okay. So you can see, kind of see it's a warehouse. It's just in the middle of nothingness. So if you look at this, you can also see how they're then allowing people to buy online. So they are showing product online. And it's expensive. I mean, it's not cheap. You can buy an old wood planner for $2,100. But they've created this demand according to trend that's happening. So if someone sees it and they're not in la, they can buy it online. And if they're in LA or they. I know interior designers that will fly here to go to it and that kind of thing. So I say all that because if we look at your Instagram, so the pictures of you, right, versus like, they're known for their European pottery. So right now your bio is you. I think you get a lot more clear on like, open. I don't know if you can do open second and fourth weekend of every month instead of like you having to change the date. So if there's some sort of rhythm, that's easier for them to understand. If not, it might be like, check our Instagram to know when we're open on weekends or whatever. And then if you think about what you're posting, what you're posting is not necessarily engaging enough because what we have to think of is this is always going to be like your billboard or your commercial. It's keeping. Your Instagram and your Facebook are going to keep you top of mind to your customers and it's going to have these reveals, like these things of. And I know you did it with these hats, but it's. There could be a lot more of it. Like, you're way more aligned with the kind of content that people might want to see in this way than posting the picture of the hats. Hats. Okay, so if you get really clear in why somebody would come to three blondes, one bright Idea, right? It might not be for the hats, it might be for home decor. And we want you to be this destination of discovery, which, by the way, if you shop at Home Goods, you know, they have all this stuff behind the scenes that they don't bring out until like they sell like a piece of like their bigger furniture stuff. Like if they're going to sell a couch, they have other stuff back behind the scenes and then they sell the one couch and then they replace it or they get a new shipment in. And I always hear people going up to the store, people out of Home Goods, and being like, well, what else do you have back there? You know, and it's like you don't get to know until we bring it out. So it's kind of the same idea for you. You can do these drops or vignettes or merchandise places, kind of merchandise areas like this. Like you said, it's going to be this beautiful winter wonderland. So what we really need it to be is that people think of you almost more like a flea market, that they're waiting for the second and fourth, you know, weekend of every month to go see the newness. And then you make that promise back to your customers where, let's say you're refurbishing furniture, you found some really cool stuff, you bring new stuff out on the weekends. So like, meaning like weekend one of November, whatever you're doing, there is one vignette, right? Not one vignette, but like certain stuff is curated. But hold stuff back, don't put it all out. And then think through rotating. You would rotate the whole store so it kind of looked different the next time you were open. Even if it's the same product, you might merchandise it different. So it's shown in a different way because we see things differently at different times, right? Like this cute little. In this picture, you have this chicken wire board, but you've got pillows in front of it. So what if the pillows ended up on a couch or a bench and then the chicken wire board was used in a different way? Maybe it's holding holiday cards up on it. And so then you're, you're re merchandising and marketing in a different way. So that if I was a fan of your store and I was like, oh my God, every weekend I'm going to go that she's open and go discover more. Just repositioning how the store looks to them will show them more stuff. And I find that there's a lot of stores, there's a lot more of this Happening now. What do you think of this idea?

I love that. I mean, I thought I was trying to create kind of a destination, but maybe I'm. Yeah, just I need different tools in my bag on how to market that. So I like these ideas.

So what you need is more like, okay, so you might look up, quote, unquote, influencers in your town, so you might know that there are people. And when I say influencers, it could be an interior designer that's local to the town or somewhere around the town. Maybe there is like the local person who always talks about the coffee shops. Or there's someone in Idaho or somewhere close and it's a big state, so it's not like someone in Idaho. But you find people who are of influence in your town. Tastemakers. You can invite them to your shop for like a holiday preview and get content and tag them and ask them to tag themselves. So there might be a night that you do like a, like a VIP holiday preview for invited guests and you make an event about it. And this might be something that you do once a quarter, like turning into like your busy seasons. So we want other people talking about you and we want other people posting and sharing. And when you start to share them, posting and sharing, other people are going to follow, they're going to visit, and then they're going to want to post and share because they want you to post them. People want to be seen. So if we go back to before, everybody wanted to be famous and we think about the origin of Facebook, it was to stay close to the people you already knew, to stay in contact with them. And we were influenced by our friends, high school friends, college friends, you know, aunts or grandmas got to follow you and your kids growing up, whatever it is. And they would see us post things and just be like, oh, hey, I saw your new skirt, or where'd you get those shoes? We would just ask our friends about stuff. That's what you need to go back to is that sort of concept of word of mouth. And even within on social, it's. It's still word of mouth, but you're just going to encourage the people that come and visit you to still speak about it in terms of word of mouth. Because I think from a lot of your photos and a lot of the stuff that you have, I think it makes a lot of sense. I think where you might be going sideways are T shirts and hats and everything, versus being a home store and being the cutest home store for miles and miles and miles. So the people actually want to come visit you versus like the that where you're spending money on inventory that doesn't need to be. There are, you know, Stanley mugs like tumblers, T shirts, hats. Like they don't, you don't need to waste your money on that. They don't need it. You don't need teddy bears. You probably don't need gift cards like I think where you're probably. And you can tell me if this is accurate. I feel like you're stronger at home decor than the gift shop side. But what are your thoughts?

I think I have to say like whenever I heard that, that term, you know, throwing stuff at the wall just to see what sticks, I like it. Let it breeze past me a few times and it was literally just this last time I was watching something and it actually resonated with me, like, oh, wait a minute, that is me. Like that's me. I literally, I've done my mother in law and I made collars for dogs and we packaged treats for dogs and I mean like I've just tried all these things. I just wanted to be like something to everyone. And I am finally realizing like I'm not working. I will say and I love your feedback on this too. So like the tumblers, the T shirts, some. A lot of the items that are in my store are consignors. So I'm not actually paying anything up front for them. I just take a commission when they're sold. But it is, it is taking up space and a lot of them don't move very well. I just pulled a bunch of like macrame items that I'm like, I have not sold any of these for months, maybe even the whole year. So maybe it's time to send those out the door.

Just because you have a space doesn't mean you can and should sell everything. Right? Like, I think that's what you're seeing. It's like, sure, yeah, great. It's not going to cost me anything. But it's costing you a clear idea of what you stand for, why somebody is going to shop from you, why people are going to refer you out, right? Because they're going to walk in and be like, what is this hodgepodge versus that feeling we want them to have when they walk in and like, oh my God, I'm so excited. Like I'm going there to look at stuff because for my, for my house, for example, so smaller goods would be things that are candles and tea towels and things like that. But unless it's like a beautiful mug that they could imagine in their home. I wouldn't do it if that makes sense, because it doesn't go with the vibe. So you really need to protect the esthetic of your store. And even if they. Your curation has to be so high that just because they can doesn't mean that you should, because you're. The esthetic is what's going to drive people to come in, what they expect. And the no, like, trust factor of like, your vision for what they imagine their home to look for. So it's like, they can come in, they can be like, hey, I really love this. I have this old piece of furniture. Could you help me figure it out? And you might be like, yeah, this. But then I love these bowls and I love these tea towels. And then you could sell other stuff in your shop because you're selling the vision to them. So from all of this that I've shared with you, what is something that you could do, let's say in the next. Next 30 days, that could start to shift the way you're doing business to start to attract in customers so that they do fill your store and they are busy when you're open?

Well, I think for sure, what you were saying about pairing in, like, honing into what I want my aesthetic to be and cutting out a lot of that little stuff. And now is the most perfect time to do it because I'm literally removing every item from my floor so that I can revamp. And I. And I may have to start small because I don't have. Have a lot of extra inventory. I mean, I have my Christmas stuff, but I've. I did it the way I've always done it. So now I'm going to have to start kind of rethinking things and just trying to bring in inventory that is, like you said, very aesthetically pleasing. It's all kind of cohesive. I mean, I will say I don't. I never get anyone come in and, and they, they never say or. Or make me feel like they think it's a jumble. You know, people are. Are very complimentary and they love their. The space, but. But I do love the idea of having it look more like a showroom.

Yeah.

So I need to figure out kind of where. Where I want to go. Like, what kind of items do I want to really focus on having in the, in the shop?

Okay, so are you catching what I'm putting down with Gretchen right here? So Gretchen told me that she's basically throwing spaghetti at the wall with her products because she's offering all of the things in her brick and mortar. Now, while her business is a little different in that she offers furniture that she's refurbishing, she can still position her brick and order in a way that is welcoming and esthetically pleasing to her customers. And it will make it all feel up leveled. Now the best way for her to do this is to make the whole space feel like a showroom where she could highlight the pieces she's really excited about. You could feel very merchandised and having that look and even incorporating maybe a once in a month event will allow for her to create this curated experience for her customers and really start to push some of that FOMO with her products. Plus, when our customers enter her store, they're going to know exactly what type of products they can expect and maybe even feel a sense of excitement instead of not knowing what to expect and wondering what they just walked into. And there's a hodgepodge of assortments of all sorts of things. Right? So similarly, if you own a brick and mortar store or perhaps you're even doing something in person, I want you to think about and focus on creating a cohesive aesthetic space for your brand. This is really what merchandising is, as I discussed with Gretchen, because the more cohesive and aesthetically pleasing it is to your customer, the more it makes sense to them in their brains, the more likely you are going to make sales. Okay, now let's see what we can do about her socials to attract more customers to her store. And I don't think that when I look at your images, your stuff isn't a jumble. But if I look at your Instagram and I see this, these cool vignettes of furniture and antiques and things like that, and then I see a bunch of guys, hats, that doesn't make sense. So we think about scrolling Instagram and we don't look at the grid. Now it's just like if you posted that and whoever was engaging like, like that image would come across my screen as I'm scrolling and I would not relate it to your brand versus if all of that L. A posted and I'm swiping, I would relate it to the brand cuz something in it, the aesthetic would be like, oh, that's probably that company. Same way that you could see with the product boss, we've, oh, in the last year we've over doubled our Instagram following. Like we've done a very specific strategy that I teach my students inside of my program. So it's this idea of figuring out like what you're posting and then recognizable. So if you think about Instagram for the product boss, if you're scrolling it and you see something funny and ridiculous about what it's like to be a business owner, you're going to most likely associate and probably think like, oh yeah, that's probably the product boss without actually seeing it. Or if you see my static posts or rewrite the quotes on the grid or something like that, in the way that the type of content we're posting is very purposeful and recognizable. So that that's how we've grown and that's how we, we've really upped our engagement. So you just really have to think of your company in a more curated way so that when people cross a single piece of content on any channel that they're crossing, it's visually a reminder of what your whole brand stands for. And I think that's where you're wibble wobbling is that you had the idea for the store, it got a little bit diluted in terms of the idea of what product goes in there. You've figured out how to make things and you figured out how to source things. But for right now, it's like the brand of like reestablishing the brand, but for you, because the aesthetic and all that, I'm sure a lot of people already do it. But for your. Once you can really identify your branding, which is what we've talked about here, it makes your marketing easier and then it makes it make more sense of why am I posting this? What's the intention behind it? If I'm sending out an email, what's the intention behind it? Because the brand is like the experience that they have and how they think of you and. Or your business. Not you, but of your business, but you too. If you are going to be the creative person that they're coming to ask questions and the marketing is reminding them that you exist and then both of those things together you have to do so that then the sales come.

Okay.

Do you think I sh.

It.

So one thing I, I'm thinking immediately is I need to go through and start cleaning up the Instagram.

Yep.

And like, I do know there's a local business and I can tell her photo from the filter. You know, like I, I see the filter and I know it's her without even looking at the content of the photo.

Yeah.

So that is something that I have, you know, kind of been mulling around, like maybe I need to fine tune my.

So I've given you really solid examples of companies that exist. Sort of like yours in the way of it's when it's there, it's there. When it's gone, it's gone. It's somewhat seasonal, it's special. The reason why places like TJ Maxx and Home Goods and all those places blew up and, and even their marketing messaging is the idea of discovery. That is the, the biggest trend that has happened, I think in retail in a very long time is that the idea of discovery. Like, what are you going to find? Second thing I think you is make it more of an event. So if there is a local coffee shop or. Okay, I'll give you another example. I was at this, a pickleball club in Calabasas, which is one of the places I grew up and they have a golf club. But then obviously pickleball is the trend. So somebody took over the equestrian center and turned it into the Calabasas Pickleball Club. I went there for a birthday party I know on a Friday, which again, very like, like I'm playing pickleball at a party on a Friday. This is nuts. So either way though, I walk in. The retail shop is so cute. It's not a typical like golf club, you know, type store where it's like all the basic stuff and it kind of feels stingy and old and like it hasn't been updated since the 80s. It's got really cute stuff. It's got cute branded hats. It just has the vibe of the younger person that's coming there to play in her aloe outfit and buy a cute trucker hat and all this stuff. Then there's this little coffee shop that's in the area that has two locations and got a cute little coffee shop vibe. And they actually have a coffee cart there that has, it says lingerie, which is the, the name of the thing. So you're like, oh, even though the woman who rings up, rings you up to check you in, the woman who would sell you the stuff, she also goes and makes the coffee. So it's not like they have a full time barista, but it already like elevated this place because it's like, oh, I don't want Starbucks coffee, I don't want a Keurig. So it kind of associates with the coffee. They're making lattes and coffees and they brew the same beans and whatever. So I was so impressed that like one person in that whole store could sign someone up for pickleball, check them in, give them a racket, can make them a Coffee and sell them really cute stuff. And I was like, everything that I want as a person, as a millennial, let's say, is here at the store. So you could think about collabs with a local coffee shop that comes and brings a coffee cart or does some sort of experience during your holiday shopping events. If there's a local bakery that comes, like, make it something where. That's why Starbucks isn't all the target. We bring our kids there, buy them a cake, pop, walk around with a coffee and spend more money than we ever wanted to spend. So I want you to keep thinking about how to make this an experience so people look forward to the experience.

I hear that.

Yeah.

Very well.

I do try to do that a lot. And I. But how I always kind of market it is, you know, like supporting community. But November 7th is my warehouse Christmas in the warehouse launch. And so I have a local winery that's coming in and they're pouring wine and then I have a local charcuterie cafe that's going to set up. So I do try to incorporate those things and I do usually have a good turnout when I do an event. It's just, I think you're hitting my brain in all the right spots because I think I do need to make every opening an event, basically, like you were saying, because that's when the people come, is when.

Yeah. And they're marketing for you. That's the same concept in multi stream machine, let's say, of like getting in front of other people's customers. So they're also telling the people who follow them or their list like, hey, come visit us, us here this weekend. We're doing X. So you're probably not. You're doing, like you said, all the right things, but I don't think you're following. So success leaves clues. But I don't think you're picking up the clues right now. You're kind of. You're still sort of like, I should do more. I should do more. Instead of following the thing that's working and doing more of that versus thinking you have to do all the other things.

Yeah.

I challenge you to audit your own business in the way of making a list for yourself and saying what has worked. When I do a new drop, when I have people here, and then you can really think through these weekends that you are putting a lot of effort into from a merchandising perspective, from product perspective, from being there, make them events. What I would like to see the things that I think would be easier for customers to Remember, I think the things that you're missing are creating scarcity and urgency. So you want to treat the shop like a limited time experience, Limited time of when it's open, limited time of the product that's there. Right. So it could really, it would motivate your customers to come during those hours and make purchases. Right. Cause it's because the inconsistent foot traffic is. There's nothing driving them there in a way of marketing, marketing messaging and how you're putting it out there. I also think the idea with the customers of setting a regular schedule. So if you can think of it being first weekend of every month, first and second weekend of every month, they're like having something a little bit more consistent. Sure. They can go. They can. Or that you train, you have to train your customers to come to your Instagram or your Facebook to look up the deal date. Or you get them on the email list and you're like, hey, we'll drop like our next, you know, next month's dates here for you. And then, and then you send it a whole email that's like, plus, this winery is going to be there and this winery. Or like during Christmas time, maybe there's a Santa Claus that's coming. So bring the kids. Right? So different ways that you can pull people in and you have to think through, like, what's the regularity? Or what's the way I can remind them on the regular of when I'm open.

So I, I do have it as second and fourth Fridays and Saturdays. Have you found or do you have an idea? Is there generally like a, a weekend or weekends that it can be any.

Day that you want it to be. You just have to, you have to complete. You have to always be repeating it.

Okay.

It needs to be. Even when you think, oh, no, they know. They don't know. They haven't been thinking about it. They're not thinking about your business as much as you do. So it's like a constant reminder of open second, second and fourth Fridays and Saturdays of every month. And then like, hey, visit us on the second and fourth Friday the second weekend is coming. You know, like, it's always saying second and fourth, second and fourth. And then gearing it up and being like, you know, in week one of the month, you're like, it's coming. The second weekend is coming, it's coming. And then, oh, if you missed it, we're open again on the fourth weekend. Like, it's coming, it's coming. So just constantly be saying it over and over and over.

Okay.

And so that's what you're going to do. So you're going to set the regular schedule and then you're going to use the time in between that schedule to create anticipation through your social media marketing and through your email campaign. So it's like you might do little drips of like, this is coming or I'm so excited for you to see this, or the holiday collection is going to be here. Oh my gosh, I can't wait to share this with you. And then you can do sort of what I showed you in that video where somebody walked you through the store and was like, we're opening on, you know, this weekend we're opening. Here's a sneak peek. So it's anticipation. So people are like, oh my God, I want that. I better get in early.

Okay.

Really creating this scarcity of time to them and a product. And then each time you open, you want to focus on creating that unique curated selection for each opening. So like I said, even if it's merchandising, it could be the same stuff out, but you've merchandised it in a different way. So people see it different the next time.

Okay.

And the next time. And then constantly be driving like a VIP list or early access for loyal customers. Like I said, you can do, the big holiday event is coming. You could do an invite to Vipers that they get distributed, shop. Maybe you're open on a Thursday night or the weekend before on a whatever. Like you invite them. Right. You can do special events because the goal is, is that the special event invites tastemakers or people you prompt them to post. Like you're constantly saying like, you know, post this, we want to repost it. Like you're asking for them to post and then they're creating content that you can then use content. So it just feels like everybody's talking about you, especially if it's local.

Okay, that's really good.

So that's sort of how to get yourself seen is collaborating with local influencers, which are business to business and that you could set up a cadence with them. You know, maybe you switch off like this coffee company's coming and then a wine company is coming. And you know, and, and they value that just as much to be able to participate. Interior designers, people who stage houses. Like in those are people I want you to think of alternative customers that then influence customer and make them Vipers. Right. So you just wanna think through that. So one of your questions was how to get yourself seen. Those are the places I would start. Don't worry about the world yet the world will find you if your content, like people wanna follow you for the content. So I may never get to the Nashville place right, but I follow cause it's inspirational from a interior design perspective, if that's something I care about. And then managing your inventory, going back to that, if you can get better at curating, like you said, you're throwing spaghetti at the wall. You're like, oh, it is me. When you curate in a certain way, you're going to sell the vibe or the mood. So if they can't buy the entire vignette, you've created of like a cool display table with really cool books on it and blah, blah, blah, blah. But then you have the candle set up where it's like a stack of four candles on the one candle out. They may not be able to buy that whole thing, but maybe they buy the candle because the scent and the look of the candle is going to make them feel a little bit closer to having their home look and feel as cute as it is in your shoes shop. And, and so as you can start to pull the data and be like, okay, this is what they're buying, this is what they're into, then it allows you to say no to certain people because it's just going to dilute the brand and allows you, if you are going to buy, to buy with a very specific reason behind it because you are the curator of this home store and those would be the two places I think you could fix. Did you pick up what I was putting down about attracting more customers? I know it's, it's not by advertising to everyone, but instead it's by leaning into what's working on her social media already and collaborating with local influencers to her town. Gretchen's been trying to do all the things on her social media, hoping that something is going to stick instead of determining and focusing on what's already working for her, which is what she needs to be doing more of. And I say it all the time, but I'm going to say it again. Success leaves clues. So for Gretchen, her social media is leaving her clues, but she hasn't sat down and audited to see what those clues are, which is exactly what she needs to do. So from there, she can start thinking about leaning into collaborations with local influencers. Because if she's able to start getting traffic locally through her social media content, then not only is she going to be targeting her foot traffic audience, but the chance for her content to be seen and go viral outside of her local area significantly increases. If you're throwing spaghetti at the wall on your social media, hoping that something sticks, then stop, take a deep breath, and I want you to audit so that you know what's actually working. And once you know that answer, then just do more of that. Makes it so easy. All right, now let's wrap this up. Okay.

I'm excited about that.

I am too. I can't wait to see you like message me on Instagram when your, your Instagram's cleaned up. I'm excited to see how you like curate it in the holiday store. Okay, so I so if we want to visit you locally or follow you on Instagram or Facebook, let me know how we can make that happen.

Okay, so on Instagram you can find me at Three Blondes, one Bright Idea. And I'm also on Facebook and it's also Three Blondes, One Bright Idea. And it's all spelled out. No shortcuts there. It's all words. And then locally, I'm in downtown Payette, Idaho. Our physical address is 6 North 7th street and I like to share with people that we have off site parking.

So you would park on Center Avenue.

And then just take a short walk west to North 7th and we're right around the corner.

Amazing. Thank you. I'm so excited to see where you go with this.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

I really enjoyed coaching Gretchen and I can't wait to see what she does with her space and how it grows her business. Now the main theme here is that if she wants to get more customers locally and have more consistent sales, she's going to want to lean into creating a cohesive aesthetic in her space. Right. Be really attractive that people want to come and experience it. She's going to want to figure out and focus on what's working on social and lean into collaborations with those local influencers so that she can have them help her generate more foot traffic. If she's able to implement what we talked about, I know she's going to start seeing that consistency she's looking for in no time. Now, I want you to remember, if you want to get more sales and consistent customers, just figure out and focus on what's working in your business because success will always leave clues. And remember, I am taking just a few one on one coaching sessions and if that's something that you're interested in exploring with me and you'd love to be featured on the podcast, click the link and the show notes to get more information and hopefully you can be one of my guests. Pretty soon. Thank you.