Create Impact In Your Retail & Creative Business

On this episode, you guys, I'm super excited to have Miss Janie Mix. She is a retail consultant and strategist with over 20 years, you guys, of experience in the retail space. Like, in every role you can think of, she has done it, or she has worked with different clients that way. And what I love about this conversation, that her— a lot of her experience comes from brick and mortar. She has worked with entrepreneurs in general, and this conversation talks about so many things about how we can make impact in our businesses, how we need to be running more profitable businesses, the habits we need to have in place for that, the things we need to do, self-care, all the things, tools, um, mindset shifts, everything you can think of, all stemming from the experience of her, like, amazing experience in the retail world. So if you are a creative entrepreneur or you have a retail shop online or a brick and mortar, this show is for you. You will find some amazing gems here and we have a lot of fun. Stay tuned.

Welcome to She's Crafted to Thrive. I'm your host Nikita Williams and this show is for all the ladies who are making and creating things that they love. You will hear conversations about the real everyday struggles of juggling life and business while trying to maintain passion and harmony. As women, we have the skill of getting things done, but sometimes we get in our own way. It's here where you'll see that you're not alone. You'll discover that success does not does not mean perfection. Fear and negative thoughts and challenges are all a part of the journey. And on this podcast, you'll find the inspiration and tools you need to have a life and business that thrives. You guys, I'm so excited to have— oh my gosh, I'm gonna say it wrong, and I know I just talked to her for a minute. Janine Mix with The Complete Boutique, and I am super excited to have her on the show. There's so many, um, things that I've been following and watching her. She like so many things going on. I just can't wait for you guys to meet her. So thank you so much for being on the show.

Thank you so much for having me. This is awesome.

Yes. Yes. I think what I love about what you do is that you really connect with the small business, small businesses, people who are making wonderful livings and doing what they love in a small business. So tell us a little bit more about what you actually do.

Yeah. I feel like I am a shop small advocate, like literally, like I don't do anything that's That's not local shopping for sure. But I am a retail consultant and business strategist and I'm the CEO of The Complete Boutique and we are an online educational platform for retailers to grow their brick and mortar as well as a community of global retailers from all over. So I help retailers, people who are in clothing, gift, home goods, you name it. If you have a store and you have a physical product or if you're selling a physical product online, we are the community for you.

That is awesome. I think anyone who's listening, there's a lot of us that are, who are listening that are definitely those people. And what brought you to this path? Like, how did you come to this part of your life? Like, what brought you here?

Yeah. Okay. So I've been in retail for over 23 years. I started when I was 10 years old in my mom's store. My mom and my dad owned a local store. And they sold pottery and gemstones and Native American jewelry and art. All the things that are super trendy right now, like my parents were doing 20 years ago, which was really incredible. Wow. And I joke about it that like when I was 10 and my friends were playing video games, I was learning QuickBooks. And I was going to markets with my mom and understanding the buying process and markup process of products and understanding customer service. I wasn't good at it. I was 10. I had no idea what I was doing when I was helping customers. But that's kind of where it all started. And I used retail to get me through college. I went to a private university in California and I needed to pay for that. So I used my experience in retail all throughout my life. And I think there are points in time that you're like, hmm, retail's not a real career, right? Like I should probably get a real job. But I think what really brought me back to retail was how much I loved it and how, how much that we can impact. And I saw that through my mom and dad's store. I saw that that little store in this little corner of this like outdoor strip made such an impact in the community, both in donating and the people you could connect with and, and people that were going through tough times. And I don't know, you get to, you literally get to impact your customers every single day. It's, it's not necessarily about the product you sell. Yes, we love it and everything, but it's really about the impact you can make. And so I saw that at a very young age. And, um, I just stayed in retail and there were so many, um, things that pointed back to it. Like I would try a different thing, right? I'm an entrepreneur and how many things have we actually gone out and like tried to do? A lot. And so I'd go out there and try to do some things and I think I had to come back to what am I really good at? And that was retail and it was, um, you know, not just in sales and what I brought for companies, but in, in selling the product, the psychology of literally picking out an item and selling that to a customer and what they do with that. If it's a gift, who it's for, you know, like I just love all of that. So that's kind of how I got started. And about 3 years ago I decided to go full-time consulting for local retailers. So that's kind of what started the journey. And this year we launched The Complete Boutique. And the idea behind The Complete Boutique is we're a global community. It's not just about me and my educational products that I offer,. But the experts that we're going to be bringing on into this platform and the connections we're going to be making for retailers is going to be huge. So that's why I launched the Complete Boutique this year.

That is so awesome. I love that story. I love that, that, that's, you know, not too many of us have that kind of experience where they've been doing that one thing since they were like that young. Like you said, most of us, most of us like jump all over the place, right?

And we're doing all the things, but like, oh, and I have, don't get me wrong. I have, I have done all of the things. But I think it really comes back to asking yourself, and I think as a female entrepreneur, right, we have to ask ourselves, what are we really good at? And I had to ask some friends and people around me, like, what am I really good at? And what I know to be true, people are like, why don't you have your own retail store? What I know to be true is I'm really good at motivating other people to see their potential. And that's why I don't have my own store because I know I can help people who are already, already there and building their retail stores. I know that I can help them reach greater potential than they ever thought that they could. So that's why I chose the consulting path.

That is awesome. I think that, um, what you just said just 2 seconds ago, that you have to know what your strengths are, it's so important. I think it's women, it's kind of hard for us to like identify what that is. Um, and for some of us, if we're trying to like monetize what we want to do, it's like, am I really good at that? Is that like a real thing? Like I can almost imagine being in the retail space, like who would've thought being a consultant for retail would be a thing? Like, first of all, like seriously, when, when And I found that out when I was looking at you. I'm like, man, we have come so far in like the world of entrepreneurship that you can turn your expertise into a business that no one else is really doing like that. Or if they are, they're so high above in the corporate world that you can't reach them to really get that value. And I think that's a beautiful thing to own what you know and like just go out there and share it.

Yes. Yeah. I think that's the biggest thing, right? A lot of people, a lot, most of who I work with are women, but not all. But they're like really passionate about a product they want to sell and they want to open their store and everything and they want to do it better. They want to connect with customers, right? Like I just think that you have to trust yourself and women don't do that enough. We don't trust ourselves and what we're good at. I think men kind of take the leap before knowing all the pieces and women are like, but this, this, and the, and we, you know, we had that voice in our head that's like just battling us on what we want to do. And I think that that stops our progression just as women and moving forward. And I think that, you know, a lot of what you talk about on your podcast and stuff too is like, how do you conquer fear? I think the way that you conquer fear is that you have to accept that it's part of the journey. And once you accept it, it becomes a lot less scary. It's not this like scary beast because fear can be a tool to fuel you or it can cripple you. You get to decide that, right? And so you have to push through those fears. You have to push through these battles that you have in your head of, can I do this? Is this possible? Like, you will never know until you try. And there are not a lot of people in this space that I'm in. And I feel like sometimes that's really frustrating, can have its challenges because I'm blazing my own trail. Right. And staking the first claim. And that's very, very difficult. Yeah. But I believe I have something to offer. Right. And that belief pushes me every single day to be like, no, I can literally change people's lives. Through helping them build their businesses, make more money. I believe that most women in retail, they started with their product, they're really passionate about it, but ultimately they want to make an impact. And I think a way to do that is by creating a profitable business. And the more profit that we can make, the more impact we can make. Money is such an incredible tool that we can use. And so that's my biggest, like, that's my why is like, how can I make this more fulfilling and profitable for retail owners? Because it needs to be fun. You know, business is not always fun. It needs to be fun. It needs to be fun. We need to like enjoy going to work every day, whatever that looks like. If that's selling your stuff online, if that's in your brick and mortar, if that's being a consultant, being a coach, whatever it is that you do, it should be fun. Um, but it should also be profitable. And I think that's the biggest thing that most men don't start or do or continue something for years and years and years without it being profitable. And I see a lot of women doing that and I don't know why we accept that. We just accept like, oh, we just don't make profits for the next 3 years. And until, you know, one day we do. I think that men are very focused on the money and money and numbers aren't always fun and cool. Right. But I think it's really important. And that's, that's kind of what I bring to the table is like, let's look at the numbers. Let's look at your opportunity that you have to hire more people, to donate more to your community, whatever that looks like, whatever that goal is for you, or to go on more vacations with your family. Right.

So yeah, no, all of that, all of that that you just said is so true. It's so funny that you say that, like, men are so like, they don't have it. Like, my husband and I have this conversation. We've had this conversation for years where he will watch something and then the next day he is an expert. He is an expert. And I'm like, and as women, like, there's something, for example, like, for a while, like, even for myself personally, I would I was hired to go network for people, like literally go out and create connections and talk with people. I was paid to do that. But then when it came to starting my own business and I was like, I don't know how to, you know, I don't think anybody would ever pay me to teach that. And then, you know, my husband's like, well, I can do it for you. And I'm looking at him like, you weren't paid. And then, you know, the concept came back to me. It's like, okay, well, if he's confident, he's never done in his life, I sure, sure enough should be just as confident. Confident in that, right? I should be able to own that. And I think as women, we hold ourselves back all the time. And that's kind of like how the beginning of this episode, you know, my intro is like, we are the ones who hold ourselves back through fear, through just not knowing. And sometimes we need that push, we need that nudge to, to go for it. But then sometimes you need that person, like someone like you, who's like, hey, let me show you the way, you know, let me show you some some tips and that's where community is such a beautiful thing when you're doing this. Like when you're doing any type of creative business, any business in general, but specifically in a creative business because it's such a solo kind of place you can be. And so you need to surround yourself with people who know things that you don't know. Like you have to.

And this can be a very lonely journey. Absolutely. This entrepreneurship journey can. And I think even more so with women, we, we isolate ourselves more, whether that's on purpose or unintentional. I think there's a lot of things that we do there, but we need to surround ourselves with people who fan our flames, right? Not put them out. People that motivate you, people that believe in you. And that's, that's huge. Who you surround yourself— if you have people around your life right now that are like, Oh, she's got this nice little pipe dream. That's so cute. Right? And you're like, they need to go. You need to be very, very selective of who you surround yourself with because I think that makes all the difference. Like you said, with that community, with women, it makes all the difference.

Yeah, no, totally. I say that I've, I've talked about that. I preached about that. I have literally said if they are not in your corner, like real, like for real, it's okay.

Bye Felicia.

Exactly. You don't have to be a part of this journey. I'm okay with that.

And yeah, And we make such like emotional decisions. Like we're like, oh, but that's so mean. And I don't want to come off this way. No, you have to make decisions that protect yourself and you can still be a loving and kind person and know that those people aren't supposed to be in your inner circle. So, you know, I think that if we can take a lot more emotion out of the business, I think women are incredible, by the way. I think we are the best entrepreneurs because we're smart. We are connected. We can do a lot with the gifts that we have. But I think if we can learn anything from men, It would be, um, yeah, take the emotion out a little bit more, you know, um, be able to make some decisions that you don't have to question your personal being and your soul and your morals. Like, right? Like you just get to make a business decision and that's okay. And sometimes they're hard. Sometimes they're difficult. Sometimes they're not the ones that you want to make, whether you have to let someone go or you have to, you know, whatever that looks like. We just have to make the best decision for ourselves. I think men are so built in with that ability. They just make those decisions. And like you said, they're confident, they're confident and they raise their hand without knowing the answer because they'll figure it out. And we're still in our head thinking and working on all the pieces, thinking like, I don't want to say the wrong thing because I don't want to be embarrassed. And will that person— and I don't want to raise my hand because that person is first and raised their hand first.

Right.

Like, no, raise your hand and be bold enough to like tell it how it is and answer the question. And even if you're wrong, like at least be bold, be bold and raise your hand, you know?

Yeah. I love that. Yeah. All— yes. Love it. So I have to ask this because I ask everyone, you know, we're talking about fear, we're talking about being confident and working through all that. And, you know, you kind of mentioned just, you know, earlier about blazing your own trail with this particular type of business. So I can imagine there have been some challenges and some fears for you even to be doing what you're doing today.

Yes, there's fear every day. If there wasn't fear every day, I'm not doing something big enough.? And I think you need to ask yourself that. There's this, this moment for me that, that changed everything. And it was, are you in your comfort zone or are you in your war zone? And I really loved this concept because comfort zones are boring. Comfort zones don't create change and war zones are where change happens. And I think that that's, that's living on the edge of fear. There has to be fear in the day to day when you're doing big things. And I think a challenge for me has been You know, there's so much in society right now. If you're a retailer and you're listening to this right now, how many of us have heard retail is dying? Oh my God, I literally hate that. I've had family members tell me that and I've cried like in argument, like, no, of course retail isn't dying. Look at Amazon. They are exploding in their retail. Their online retail doesn't mean that brick and mortar is dying. Look at what they're doing to create brick and mortars. So I'm like, Nah, no, it's evolving and it's— retail's always been changing. It's always changed. That's literally the nature of retail. There's different seasons, different trends, different, you know, products out there. But I think we're going through a revolution and how you adapt to that revolution is huge. So every day I'm like, am I creating a business on something that is dying?

Right?

This is like a fear that I have. And I wonder, I wonder how many of your listeners are brick and mortar owners that listen to this, right? Are like feeling the same, the same way. And they see their neighbors closing and they question and they see their neighbors, like they see everybody discounting their product and like, how am I ever supposed to make this a profitable business? And I think that all of those fears are just a part of this process, but it's how you face them. Are you going to let someone else's idea or opinion define your direction? Are you going to let it refine you? And I think we have to pivot and we have to change and we have to adapt. And I think we have to understand our market in order to be successful. But yeah, some of the biggest challenges I think that I have to get my clients through is that, but also I have to realize for myself, I'm like, it's not like all of a sudden there's going to be no shops ever to buy from.

Right?

That's just like never going to happen. And so working through those fears and then also working through financially, like how much do you invest into your own business, into advertising? And I I think that this, how I get a lot of my clients is online. I definitely do a lot of online advertising and that can be a whole scary unknown world too. And every day I'm like, I've got ads out there that we're spending money on. And I think for me, like, I don't know what people's spiritual beliefs are, but for me I feel like I have to really lean on God in those moments. And what I do is I pray over those ads and I say, hey, all right God, only you can control. There is an algorithm for sure, but you can control exactly who sees that ad exactly when. And it's been really crazy. The people who have seen my ad and join me for my free class and purchase my product, they're like, I literally prayed the night before. I hear that all the time. I'm like, well, that's crazy because I prayed too. And I just think that there's a lot of hope and faith that you have to have in your business that gets you through the fear and you have to push through it. On the other end of fear is everything you ever wanted. You are right there, right? You were right there. And so many people will turn, will turn around and walk back down that mountain. But you were right there. You're almost at the summit. And when it gets really, really, really scary, I think you just have to push through. And I know that's easier said than done, but I can say, I can tell you that at one point I was running ads when I first launched this business. And I mean, I was spending like $30,000 a month. That's a huge—

wow.

Yeah. And I'm like, okay, I gotta have a lot of faith. I'm like on my knees. Like, how is this going to work out? And once we got through that push and that fear and knowing like, I just got to trust that this is, you know, we hired a really good company, but we had to trust that this is going to work. And then it did, you know, and I question like, what would I have done if I would have turned back? Would The Complete Boutique exist? Like, would I still be doing what I'm doing now? Like, and I think the answer is no. You know, if I didn't push through that fear, I would not be where I am today. I would not be able to impact the people I am today. I would not be connected with the retailers that I am today. And those women inspire me every single day.

So yeah. Yeah, I think it's one of those things that when you are— I don't know who said it, or if my mom said it or my grandma or somebody I know said it, like basically when you're going through the thick of something, you should never make major life-changing decisions. And I think as women, because of the emotional piece of things, if we feel like things aren't going the right way or maybe they're not happening as fast as we would like it to happen, we tend to just stop because we're fearful of, well, if I just keep going in this way, that means that it obviously is not working.

Yeah.

But it takes time. Like, you know, time is a thing. Like, it's really something you have to wait and see. And, you know, if you're doing the work, if you're doing the research and you're putting in the time and the work to go and like actually research, you're not just throwing $30,000, you're being strategic. You know, you have some, you have something for for your work to make fruition, right? Like, you're not just putting it out there and hoping with no rhyme or reason to what you're looking to happen. You have a plan and you're working with that plan. But if you stop that plan before it's complete, you don't really— you can't say you gave it at all. You can't say you did the work because you stopped. Yeah.

You have to trust in the timing of everything and the timing of your life and the timing of when you develop your products, all of it. Trust in that. And I think, like you said, having that, that plan. But I think the thing is we tend to doubt that plan or we compare our plan to someone else's.

Right.

And I think the biggest thing I've learned in this journey is no one has it figured out. We think there's this magic formula. We see whatever we see on social media and we're like, they've got their whole life figured out and that just happened overnight and they're so successful. And we compare everything that they do, our perception of what they do and what they're doing. And we let that actually dictate our life and our trail and our journey. And that's crazy because all of that is made up. All of that is made up. And so what are you doing right now in your business that might be impacted because you think it needs to be this way, or you think you have to buy this and do this and do this step and do this. No one has it figured out. You have to do it. You have to do the doing.

Yeah.

Learn the lessons and you have to learn what works, what doesn't work. No one can tell you that. You know, like it's crazy to me how much we dictate, um, and how much we literally compare someone's, uh, you know, beginning or middle to our beginning or whatever. Right? Like you can't do that. It's, it usually takes most successful entrepreneurs a minimum of 10 years to get where they were.

Yeah.

Or where they are now.

Yeah. And a lot of people don't think about that statistic. They just think, well, in the first 3 to 5 years businesses fail. Nobody talks about after the 5 years, right? Everyone is always talking about the failure part within the first 5 years. And you're just like, well, actually there are people, and it's a very small amount of people because they kept going, they kept working, they kept chugging along, trying different things. Um, and, and then they moved forward. You know, there was something you were saying just a second ago about, you know, you, the community that you build with your business, if you surround yourself with the right people, you can get to 10, right? Because if you, if you aren't, that fear and you're not understanding the plan and all these other things can get in the way. And I think, you know, for me with the show She's Crafted to Thrive, that's part of my, that's part of my mission with it is, you know, you can have a community. I've had so many wonderful women reach out to me and it's created a network of women that I never would have had in any place. And that has helped me in my business, has helped other people in their business just to know that, look, it takes time, but I'm here to help you. And I think that's a great part of what, again, of what you're doing. I want to shift gears just a second because I think what stops some of us from going forward could be our what's happening in life. So you were saying like everybody on the Instagram and everything on the thing is fake. It's not really real.

Like, you know, it's really highlight reels.

Exactly. Like, it's not really all the things, right? So case in point, I used to have a firm belief and I get consistency. I'm very consistent in my business. But I used to have a firm belief that if I didn't post on Saturday and Sunday, my business would just crash. Like, like, like nobody would post, nothing would happen. Like, I just thought, this is the worst thing. And so I don't know where I came up with that belief in myself. Maybe it's because I was seeing everybody else. They are always posting on Saturday and Sunday and all these things for their business. But then I started to think about my health, which is so weird because my health has taught me a lot of things in life. Just dealing with chronic illness has taught me a lot of things. And so I, you know, I meet all these women who dealing with fibro, endometriosis, scoliosis, like all of these things. And even though we might all be having the same label of a chronic illness or a same situation, maybe it's, you know, a single mom or maybe it's a, you know, a family who's working like two full-time jobs and they have kids, or maybe it's a married couple who's just experiencing, you know, health challenges and how to deal with that. It's always different, right? Like, my body is not your body, and that's okay. What works for you is not going to work for me. And so that understanding for me made me think, why am I thinking for my Instagram page, because so-and-so says it works for them, it's actually going to work for me?

Well, I think that we have to be building the businesses that we want to build. Yeah. What that looks like is what we should want it to look like. Not what someone's telling us, not what we see, not what we compare to, but what is the life that we want to build? And if you want to build a life where you're working 7 days a week and you're exhausted and you have, you feel like you have to show up every day on social, you have to do all the things, you need to be mom, you need to do this and wear all the labels that you, whatever want to put on yourself or the world wants to put on you, then do it. If you want to live a high quality life, you need to build the business around the life you want to live. And I think that's the biggest thing too that I see a A lot of women not doing that, you know, how do I create this business around the life I want to live? There's a lot of online retailers, um, local people wanting to do online stores because they don't want to commit to a location. Totally. I get it. So how do you build your business around that? You know, having an online store would be great. There's a lot of people who are, want to be a staple in their community, right? So that would look very, very differently. You wouldn't necessarily have to worry about your online store, right? So build the business around the life you want to live. And I think there is a lot of that pressure, especially when it comes to social media and definitely consistency is key in your business, but I would challenge you, like, what are the tasks that are your money-making tasks? Are you prioritizing your high leveraging task? Does that mean like, do you reach out to a client or do you make a social media post that day? Or do you listen to your body because you're having a flare-up and you need the day off? Because no one can give anything from a half empty cup. You need to give from an overflowing cup. And the only way you do that is by self-care, right? Take care of yourself. I deal with chronic shoulder pain and And I think it took— so I've been dealing with it for 9 years and I think it took this last flare-up that I was experiencing about 3 weeks ago, took this last flare-up to really pinpoint it to stress. I'm like, oh, why did this, you know, physical activity? And that's what caused the pain. And now I'm in this flare-up and now I'm just all like in pain again. No, I was like, where was I mentally and physically and emotionally 3 weeks ago or 4 weeks ago when it really like flared up? I was like not in a good place, definitely not making myself a priority, definitely not strengthening my shoulders, which is something I need to do and work out and all those things. So I had to really take a step back and be like, whoa, am I building a business that's causing me this pain? Am I letting this business, you know, and whatever it is that I put this pressure on myself dictate my happiness and my life? And when I'm in that chronic pain and, you know, I'm sure a lot of your listeners can relate, like you feel like you can't do anything. And then we're not able to make impact. Then we're not able to move those mountains we were built and created for. And so, um, yeah, I would just say, what are the actual high leveraging tasks? And one of the things should be, are you putting yourself first? Are you putting you in your calendar first? Everything else will follow. No one's going to care that you didn't post today. It's not going to like burn down. You're going to be fine. No one's going to care. Like at the end of the day, if you needed to take weeks off of your business and you would you would like literally have to close your business in 2 weeks, you're not building a sustainable business. You're building a very time-consuming, expensive hobby. So think about those tasks. Think about the core things in your business you need to set up to get it working for you without you. I think that that's really, really important because we're not trying to just build ourselves exhausting jobs. I mean, it would be easier to go get a job, get paid 9 to 5 and come home and enjoy our life, right?

Like that's all we want.

What we want is our freedom and control. So why do we forget those things when we build our own businesses? Why do we let those sit on the back burner when we're doing this? And I think we do that because we feel like we have to be all the things.

Yeah, exactly.

We don't.

Exactly. So what are some things that have helped you in your business or even some of your clients to create that kind of system for themselves so that they have that balance, they have that life where they're you know, having chronic flare-ups because of stress, you know, because we, we've all been there.

We've all—

whether it's whether you have a chronic illness or anything or pain in general, stress will bring you down like it will knock you out. You'll be sick. You have the flu that— and it's the middle of the summer. All these things can happen because you haven't figured out that way to find that balance.

We have to let go of control. We have to let go of control. And I'm— this is coming from the mouth of a control freak. So we have to let go of control and we have to learn to delegate. There are so many things we shouldn't be doing in our own business. I actually held a workshop. It was a Time and Money workshop and I made everybody like write down all the tasks in their calendars where they spend their time. And every— everybody always says, I don't have enough time. Well, we all have the same amount of time, but how we use that is very, very different. And when you actually start laying out your calendar like that, like literally I I want, like, this is something you can do right now. Print out a calendar from like 6:00 AM to like 10:00 PM, whenever you go to bed, and write down everything that you do for a week. Everything you do, whether that's scrolling for an hour, taking the kids to soccer practice, whatever, and start to see where you're actually spending your time and where you should be spending your time. But even if you jam-pack that calendar, you're still, most people have like an additional 20 hours left over in their day. And you're like, that's a part-time job. So if you don't have time, It's because you're making excuses or you're prioritizing the wrong things. And so you have to learn to delegate and there's just so many things you shouldn't be doing in your life and in your business that we could be outsourcing. And then that's, that's why I had a time and money event, right? Because the next question is, well, I don't have the money. I don't have the money to outsource. There are so many incredible technologies these days. You can get, you can literally get help on Fiverr for $5. You can get a logo built. You can like all the things you do not need to be doing with your time. No one ever regretted, and this is in retail too, no one ever regretted hiring an employee unless they were an awful employee, but no one ever regretted hiring someone to help. And so I would just say like delegate and let go of control. We have to do that. We have to get so much better at that. I think we have to be very, very selective with our time because we are, we are doing, women are multifaceted. We are doing a lot of things in our lives. We're not just entrepreneur, we're, we're mom, we're this, we're that, we're sister, we're wife, we're the, you know, there's just so many other things that we do and we're multifaceted and that's what brings us joy in life is to be those things. But you have to know when to say no and when, when you can't be all things to all people. And I think that would be my other thing is look, get really, really freaking good at saying no.

Yeah.

Good at saying no. And that's hard because, you know, your friend Sally's going to say, hey, come over for this wine night and bunco night. And you're like, oh, I really needed to like take care of myself or work out today, but instead I'm going to go do that and then I'm going to get drained. And right. And then you're still putting yourself on the back burner. So we have to get really good at saying no and balancing that work and life balance. As far as the money thing is, it goes, is like, you owe it. The resources are always there. The resources are always there. We just are more hesitant with them. We're more afraid to take risks with them. Um, and I think that if we could learn to trust a little bit more and learn to know when, if there's any tasks that you're doing that's worth, like, just think about this in your business. If you could hire someone for less than what you know you could make or if you booked a client or sold an item or whatever, then it's worth it. Then it's worth it. Hire that person. No one, no one ever regretted that. No one ever regretted their freedom. What I see in retail a lot is because of overhead or excuses or whatever, they aren't hiring help. And so they're, they're drained. They're working 7 days a week in their business. Like that's not the business that they imagined, right? They're like, and they feel like I have to do all things. I recently helped a store open and I remember her telling me the first month I'm going to be my only employee because I need to learn how it all works and then I can hire people. I was like, that's going to last a week, literally last a week. You need to hire someone before you open, you know, like you need to have that balance. You need to have times that you can work on your business, not in it. So if you're just so sucked into these day-to-day tasks that should not take up your energy, you know, then we're not growing and we're not building and we're not breaking those ceilings that, you know, we feel in the world are holding us down. Honestly, like you said earlier, we are our worst person who gets in our way.

Yeah.

So stop doing that.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. All of those things. Yes. And to the no part of self-care, I tell people all the time, no, getting really good at saying no is self-care because that allows you the space to take care of you. And sometimes you have to say no to you saying no. Like, if you have to say it, like, you have to get in a really good space to be okay with saying, you know what, no, I'm not going to force myself to do this thing even though I probably should do it. But my body's telling me, girl, you need to go to bed. You need to get really good with that with yourself. And I think once people get to that point, they can do that even more so outside of themselves. But no, it's self-care. It's such a big part of it. And no means you can say yes to something else that will fulfill you to do more later. Like, that's what it is. It's a beautiful thing. It's— we think of no so negatively, but it really is a wonderful word in the vocabulary.

Yeah, we only think no is negative because we're worried what everybody else will think. Stop caring what other people think. Honestly, like, this is gonna sound just like really blunt, but no one cares. No one cares about you. No one cares about your life. No one cares that you decided to do this or that. And so why do we put so much weight around what other people thing. No one literally cares. So say no so you can say yes. Like, it's your life.

Yeah, exactly. So what are some tools, like some business tools that you use or that your clients are using in their business, especially— and I want to kind of speak to more like if someone's running a business online, like they're doing a shop online, they're creating their own things online. What are some tools that would help them better, you know, use that time and money management kind of thing going on for them?

So I think some tools that, obviously the Complete Boutique is a tool for people and we'll have more courses coming on, on how to use your omnichannel in order to really leverage and create value for your customers. There's too many things that I see people posting like, look at this, this is so great, this is so cute, this is new. No one cares about any of those things. How do you create value and position yourself as an authority in your market is really important. And so your messaging your branding, all of that has to be like on point. And so, um, in the Complete Boutique I have a membership and I think the membership is probably the best and easiest way for someone to, you know, learn more about running their online, um, or brick and mortar retail business. And, um, so that would be one tool that I would use. Um, as far as like maybe life tools, I think it's really important that you create a morning routine. Um, I think discipline is everything. And so if you can create a morning routine, um, you start your day with a full cup so you're checking your phone, you're not checking your emails the moment you wake up, you're not, um, you know, checking that order that just came in. None of that. Like you need to focus on yourself first. You need to have a morning routine. I always say pick 3 things, 3 things you're going to do for yourself in the morning. Maybe that's drink water, great, drink a glass of water. Maybe that's work out, awesome. Maybe that's, you know, take some time to, uh, meditate or journal or, you know, do a devotional, whatever it is. Like take time to set your energy right. And then I would also say, I think the biggest thing, if we're going to talk about online retailers, right? What are some tools and things they can use? I think the hardest thing that I see is we think that we can just post and make a sale. And so I would say that you need to build your customer list. You need to build your customer list and your customer data so that you can customize the experience because you're not going to compete with Amazon. You're not, because they can ship for free in 2 days and it can get cheaper and more convenient for a customer. That's not what you're about. You're about, you know, maybe you're curating local products, maybe you're curating your own product that you decided to make, whatever that is. So how do you tell your story? Tell your story and your why. How do you get people connected to what you're doing? And how do you collect the data on your customers? So how are you— if you're posting on social media and hoping that it, you know, turns into a sale. Good luck. Like, I think you— that's a lot harder than we think it is. But I think, how are you capturing their data from that social media? So I'd say, how are you using that really powerful URL that you get in your social media, you know, on say Instagram? How are you utilizing that? Is that a quiz or something, a downloadable where you can actually capture their data and market to them later? Because I think the biggest thing that retailers aren't using is an email email list. And you know what online competitors are using every day? Email. So I think that that's really, really important. So how you utilize different things like that, different calls to action so that you can collect data. And then I think most, most things, even in my business, even in my advertisements that are out there for my free class and stuff, most money is made on the backend, not the frontend. So you're spending advertising money. Don't boost your posts, you guys. Boosting posts is a total waste of money.

Thank you. Thank you.

Totally wasted money. Literally, if you want to like throw away money, that's what you do. So get someone, if you don't know and understand advertising, like how to create an ad on social media, then hire a company. That's when you got to delegate and leverage someone that can do that. I, me personally, I have no interest in trying to figure out the algorithm and what ad copy works. So I hire a company. But you know, most people are, advertising something and getting the information or getting someone to sign up or getting someone to enter a giveaway. And the money's made on the backend. The money's made on how do you cultivate that relationship through email, relationship, not your product first, relationship with the person who just gave you their email. And then you kind of lead into your product, but your money's going to be made on the backend, not, not the frontend, not on a post. Post. I think that as you build your audience up, as you build yourself as an authority, as you create exciting and engaging content, um, not just like, this is new. Hey, this is new. I love this. This is cute. Those are not the things that we should be using to sell. There's a psychology behind selling, you know, but as we build up our audience and create that authority, then it becomes a lot easier. Then you see these stores that you're like, oh my gosh, they're sold out in like 10 minutes after they just posted an Instagram story, right? Um, because they are creating value. So honestly, Go look at some of your competitors. I love looking at competitors, looking at competitors and see what they're doing really, really well. You don't have to duplicate them. I think we can be unique and different, but we don't have to reinvent a wheel. So see what's working and see why it's working and ask yourself and take yourself out of like, my customers need this, this is amazing. And what kind of language are your customers using? What's going to attract them to want to purchase from you? And that's your why, that's your culture, that's your branding. That's, that's all of that. We make a lot of purchases based off of emotion, emotion, not just because something's new and pretty.

Yes. So all of that is so good. Like, I cannot wait to like write the show notes for this because all of those tips are so good and they're practical tips. They're not tips that you have to go and buy an app for. They're not anything. It's literally, it's more of a mindset. Like you need to change the way you're thinking about selling a perp, a, something, whether you're selling a service, whether you're selling a product or whatever the case may be, you're definitely selling yourself first, right? You have to sell who you are, why you're doing what you're doing. And I think as creative entrepreneurs, we kind of get out of that space. We think, I just, I don't want to be— A lot of them are very introverted. They don't want to be the front of things. Like, please don't put me in any place.

Yeah. Well, I think that people don't want to sell. I think a lot of women get into business because they love the product, but they aren't necessarily comfortable with selling. And I think that you have to really accept you're in a selling business. Do you need to be a sleazy car salesman?

No.

But how do you sell anything? How do you sell ice to an Eskimo? Trust, value, right? Like, and the only way you can do that is, is by cultivating these relationships. I think the other thing too I want to mention is your pricing. Regardless of what you're selling, make sure you're making a good margin and make sure you're selling it for what you're actually profiting. I recently talked to a retailer who is going to start an online store and she's like, "I was going to do every— make it look like everything's marked down even though I'm still making a margin." I said, "Okay, what would it look like if you went into a brick and mortar store and everything was on sale? Literally everything was redlined." She goes, "I think they were going out of business." I said, "Exactly. So why are you doing that?" Price things competitively, but make sure you have a margin to make money. You're not in this to just have a fun hobby, you guys. And if you are, there's probably cheaper ways to do it. Retail's not a way to just randomly throw that out there and, you know, just have a hobby. It's going to cost you money. So you need to make money. You need to look at your margins and you need to make sure your pricing is competitive. Do I think you need to compete with Amazon? No. Amazon is doing its thing. You will Don't compete with them. Be different, be unique. You can't just be like, oh, this online boutique, I want to do the same thing and I could sell this and I get like, really understand what is the differentiator in what you're creating? What is the thing that people are going to buy into? And people do buy into your culture, your values, your why, the awesomeness of your product for sure. The price, like whatever that looks like. I think we have to really think about those things, especially before we open up a brick and mortar or have an online store.

Yeah. Yeah. The one thing that's most unique is you, like your story, your life, how you portray it, how you create that like, know, and trust factor. That's you. Like, it's you. It's not what you sell. It's not what you make or whatever. It's you. And so once you create that link, because it's a link, it's literally like a chain, it becomes that piece that it doesn't matter. Like, it doesn't matter. They become like really loyal and they become cheerleaders and you have a sales force already out there because you've created that link, you know? So I love that you said all those things. I think those are really great points for anyone who's starting a creative business or business in general. So keep that in mind is that no matter what you're doing, it really is about making that connection with your people and it comes from you.

Comes from you. I would say too, one of your biggest competitive advantages, what I think one of the biggest competitive advantages of a brick and mortar over online is face-to-face. And I think there's, in the world of digital age, there's going to come a realization that people are going to need the face-to-face again. People are going to want that interaction. So my other tip, if you have an online store or you're thinking about having an online store, have pop-up shops. Talk about ways to actually like connect with your people, right? And build more loyalty. Have pop-up shops. There's a lot of power in face-to-face. Face interaction and selling and make sure those pop-up shops are bomb, right? And people want to take pictures and share with their friends. But I think that there's a really integral part of physical connection, not just with people, but with the product too, that people really love. I think the reason why I have an ad that's blowing up right now with negativity from customers, just like, I hate when people bombard me and ask me questions right when I walk in the store. And all of that is true because they don't want to be bombarded. There is a psychology of how you, you connect and help someone. So just make sure that, you know, you're not there to like, hey, I'm here to sell to you. You will and you can, but you're there to make a connection and build trust first, and that's going to be able to, you know, open the door for selling. So just really connect and think about those physical components. Can you do pop-up shops? Can you do little parties? Like whatever it is with your products, because honestly, that's the most fun too. We talked about at the beginning of this is a lonely journey. So if you're literally behind your screen uploading product, that's only fun for a little bit of time. You're going to miss the people.

Yeah, exactly. You need people. We need, we're literally created to be around people. So like we were never meant to be alone. So you can only do that road for so long until you're not going to keep going. So thank you so much for all of those gems. Those were so good. What are some things that you're excited about in your business that are coming up that you think other people would like super want to know about?

Yes. Well, every day I offer a free retail sales masterclass and you can go to thecompleteboutique.com and sign up for that. Every day I offer this, whether you have an online store or a brick and mortar or you're national, international, it does not matter. You will take some gems from this free class. I had someone take this free class and they made a $24,000 $2,400 sale. They had to stop halfway through because a customer walked in and they made a $2,400 sale off of half of the class, right? So it's a very powerful class on how you can really dramatically increase your sales in retail. Now the catch is without an online store, more foot traffic, but I do think whether you're online or brick-and-mortar, there's a lot of very valuable information in there. So you can join me for that. I also have a membership of global retailers and that starts It starts at like $37 a month, you guys, and you get a strategy every month to focus on. I think we go back to like, we try to do too many things all at once. We try to be all things. So in my membership, both my memberships, I have a step-by-step and an insider membership. Step-by-step is $37 and the insider membership is $97 a month. And we focus on one thing, one thing, because I know if you do one thing every single month, where's your business going to be in a year? So we focus on one core strategy, whether that's a marketing strategy and what that looks like, whether that's right now, Now we've got how do you, how and when do you have a sale? You know, I think that those are big things, whether you're online or brick and mortar, those things are true. When do you have a sale? How often do you have a sale? Because you don't want to train your customers to buy discounted. You want them to buy full price. That's how you're going to stay in business. So I have lots of resources within that. You can go to thecompleteboutique.com right now and download tons of free resources. So I mean, that's the place that I would send people. And then of course you can follow the accounts and follow our journey, but we're just really excited to be offering people education. Education on it because I don't think there's enough out there and I don't think there's, there's a lot of competition in the retail industry too. Right. And I don't think there's enough collaboration. There is enough money for every single one of us to be rich 10 times over in the world. I mean, it's, you know, and so once we get past that idea of like this scarcity and competition and we realize that there's a community of people that like want to see you grow and benefit, right. We talked about that already. And my, my community is literally sharing techniques in our Facebook group that are working right now. This isn't outdated information that was working 50 years ago. This is working right now, strategies that are actually working for retailers all over the world right now. So just come and check us out and download some of those free resources and just connect with me.

Thank you. Wow, that was awesome. I'm— you're like talking and I'm like, I need to go sign up right now. And I don't have a shop, you guys. I am thinking about doing a curated box, but I'm like, all of this just sounds really good. Plus, I have a couple of clients that have online shops and just to shoot them the resource would be great because I love shopping at stores. I don't think— I'm with you. It's kind of like how I feel about books. People are like, oh, nobody reads a book. I'm like, I read a book. I like to feel the paper, and I don't think that will ever change. Yes, there are some things that I consume digitally, but there will always be a place for books in my heart, in my life. And so it's the same thing with retail. There will always be stores, I believe. We need people. We are people, people.

What are we going to just lock ourselves in our house, have Uber Eats come and deliver food, have Amazon and never see anybody ever again? What about when we travel and we want to get souvenirs and other things? Like, no, it's not going away. But I do think we have to pivot and we have to do things differently. I see a lot of retailers, right, doing things the same way. Uh, hence, uh, Toys R Us. That's why they closed. Like, people are like, all these stores are closing, guys. They're adapting into an environment. And if they didn't adapt, they're closing because they failed. So if you aren't adapting, the potential of you failing is much higher. So adapt and pivot and change and be unique.

Yes, I love it. So thank you so much for being on the show. Um, again, where can we find you? You said on Instagram?

Yeah, so you can follow me @JanineMix or @TheCompleteBoutique. Um, you can go to thecompleteboutique.com, janinemix.com. Um, yep, follow me, connect, come say hi. If you've listened to this, come and, um, tell me a little bit more about what you do. I love connecting with other entrepreneurs, um, that have hearts and passions to impact.

All right ladies, that's a wrap for this episode of She's Crafted to Thrive. Thank you so much for joining me. Please share with your friends and be sure to like and subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes. In the meantime, check us out at sheescrafted.com to check out the show notes for all the goodies and things that we talked about, and there'll be links there for you guys. So in the meantime, just remember, you are crafted to thrive.