Hello? Hello? Hey. Hello, hello, hello. Let's see who else is waiting. Oops. Gary! Gary!
Sean!
How's everyone doing?
Good.
Does anyone have questions right off the bat?
Love it.
Go for it.
What did we want to ask now?
The KDP part.
Oh, yeah. Okay. So we were wondering about like the KDP part.
Okay.
Is that something still totally separate or since now we're like all in everything. Is there like an inclusive part or
training
or anything like that or is that still extra?
I need more context. What?
Since we just went through like inner circle and we have the membership and like all of the things.
Is that something that's included as part of your membership or is that still something that's a separate?
KDP is not usually included if I'm remembering correctly. Is that something you guys are wanting?
Well, yeah. Now that we're, you know, concentrating more on the lead magnets in the funnel,
Carrie came up with some good ideas for some digital things, you know, to use to hook people.
Okay. I love that. Yeah. Let me ask about it. I'll get back to you guys.
Okay. And then I just did my testimonial. Can I just email it to you?
Because we've gone through like the form twice now and I don't want Megan to keep seeing like the same thing from.
Yeah. Feel free to email me. I'll get it. I'll get it to the right place. You're fine.
Hey, Lisa, I see you're walking.
I'm walking. How's it going?
Good. Good.
I am having a meltdown, not a meltdown, but my next bulk order is ready for inspection.
And my gut tells me just do the full inspection. But my wallet is like, maybe do 45.
They already, you know, I've switched manufacturers. I already did a test order with them and they did a lot better.
She sent me videos of the drop test. They've improved the packaging for free. Like it does feel like I, I don't know.
It's like it's 600 bucks worth my peace of mind to know that it's good.
But like right now, 600 bucks is 600 bucks.
Yeah. Does anybody want to chime in?
What do you think Carrie?
Lisa, girlfriend. You've been here, done this. What is 600 bucks if you get two to three?
I just got another bad review yesterday from someone who got a broken one again.
Okay. So, right. What is 600 bucks compared to all that?
That's what my husband's going to say too. He's at work.
Okay. You already know the answer, girl.
Yeah.
I can chime in too, because I just backed off my, my re-inspection that was going to be a thousand dollars to bump it down to only so many percent of the bibs.
And now I'm second guessing myself because the bit, they still found defects in some of the beds and the manufacturer said they went through everything.
They replaced everything by did they really, because they re-inspected them and found although small, very small defects.
These are the things that are going to cause people to write a bad review or not, or send it back.
So I'm in limbo right now too.
I wish I did do a bigger inspection because now I'm nervous and I'm, I'm, yeah, I'm nervous because this is a big bulk order for me.
And I'm the only review that I got that was, well, I got one bad one, but it was because it's too heavy and it's supposed to be heavy, but the only bad review I got was based on the bib.
It wasn't even a bad review, but it said the only reason they were.
giving it a four star instead of five
was because of the crease in the bib.
They can't get it out.
So I don't know.
I've, I just had to cancel my shipment today
because the shipments are all now out of the timeframe.
It's just been a little bit of a mess for me.
Dottie, can you remind me,
so the last time we talked on office hours,
I know we talked about this a little bit.
So what were, what was your like decision
after the last time we talked about this?
Like what was it you were going to do from there?
I decided to not have the inspection company
pull all of the bibs for each box of my product,
which is 10 bibs in each.
There were going to be 1,020 boxes,
which would have been,
it would have stretched over days and cost me,
I think it was close to $1,000 for them
to come in and inspect all of them.
So I changed and did.
The factory said they were going to re-inspect everything
and BD inspection was going to do 20%.
So they did go in, they pulled 20% of the bibs.
I got the report and there was still the same issue.
It had, it has little marks in the bib.
So it's front and center.
That's what people are hanging pictures in
or they're, for my metal hanger,
they're a race bib.
So you'll be able to see that.
And the manufacturer is insisting it's not a big deal.
It's very small, but they also said the reason
that they were marked in the first place
was because they were transported in too heavy a box.
I don't know.
It doesn't really make sense to me,
but they said they corrected all that,
but it's still showing marks.
So I don't know.
It's just a lot of money to spend on a shipment
that I potentially will get bad reviews on.
So I don't know really what to do.
What are your options?
I don't know what my options are.
Continue to-
There you go.
Keep going.
Continue to go back and forth with the manufacturer
who says that they've replaced everything
and trust they have.
Or cancel everything.
I don't even know what.
I've already paid for half.
I put a 50% deposit down.
I don't know what my trade assurance option
is at this point,
but they're saying it's not a major defect.
Even BD inspection is saying it's not a major defect.
It's a minor defect that the manufacturer
says they've replaced.
So I don't know what option I have.
Before it gets shipped,
my manufacturer did say that
if I get a return from a product
that says the bib was defective,
they would ship the person,
the bib right from China.
A new pack of bibs.
Okay.
I don't even know how that all works.
Like I don't need one more thing
to worry about how to do.
I get very overwhelmed
with all the technology around this.
Like, I don't know how I would even do that.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't know that that's a great solution,
but I appreciate their effort to try, right?
That's kind of what I take away from that
is that they're trying.
So that's like, cool.
Thank you for trying.
That's not really going to be super viable launch.
Like, you know, it'll be,
that'll create more work, honestly.
But it'll be, that's helpful
that they're at least trying.
Does anybody want to chime in?
You guys know I like to hear from everybody
before I give my opinion.
Don't all speak at once.
It's okay if not.
My thought is, oops, someone's in the waiting room.
My thought is,
cause I know you're nervous.
You said multiple times, you're nervous.
Yeah.
I'm nervous about losing a lot of money
if this gets stuck in Amazon
and people start getting products
that have defective bibs in them
and they start writing bad reviews
and then I'm not selling anything.
Oh, okay.
There was the train of thought.
Did anyone hear that train of thought was,
here's what you're worried about.
You start getting bad reviews
and then you're not going to sell anything.
Your mind automatically went to that worst case scenario.
I'm not going to sell anything.
Is that actually, do you think,
like in logically speaking,
is that actually going to happen?
Well, I do think that my sales,
my sales went from two to three a day
to nothing for three days after I got my two-star review.
So I've been working with my PPC company.
to figure out if that was truly the reason or if it was because of prime week and because my
pricing was a little bit higher or what but it seemed to to correct itself again when I got
another five star review to bring it up a little bit so I don't know I I do I I mean I do think
that has a little bit to do with it if people are writing um you know if my review rate drops
I don't know I look at the consumer I look at that when I look to purchase something on Amazon
I look at the reviews not so much the price but the reviews so for me that is a big big deal
daddy did you offer the refund what did you offer to refund the unit
no I didn't because they said it wasn't a big deal and they still the one the one review
the two-star review person no it was a vine oh it was vine oh yeah yeah I know so I haven't gotten
any bad reviews from people that have purchased that and said in fact the the good thing about
the reviews is saying how sturdy and heavy it is so that it folds a bunch of metals the vine
review that was the two star said that you know it was too heavy and it fell off her wall well
obviously she probably didn't hang it right but that's the whole point of this being a premium
product is because it's not one millimeter metal it's two millimeters thickness to hold
several heavy metals that was the point um so what was the NBD's inspection what was the
percentage of the defect rate do you remember the first time it was 20 percent and this time
it I believe it was the same I have to go back and okay look but yeah I think it was the same
okay and just so I'm remembering correctly after the second time your manufacturer said they went
in and replaced the defective ones that they that BD found yes okay so here's kind of how I'm viewing
it um I kind of like looking at this factually and in terms of the data so let's say all this
defect rate um and let's say 100 people buy for easy math okay 100 people buy not all of them are
going to leave a review but let's just say after people leave a review so you mean that means
you'll have 80 let's say four to five star reviews that are like good they're like content whatever
and then 20 that are let's say three stars or below they have maybe some sort of complaint
how do you feel about that scenario um I mean I don't think a three star is too bad but a two star
definitely bring you know bring some question into what it is I think if it was something
different like the pen didn't work to draw with the there was a mark on the actual stand itself
but again the the bib part of it is one of the selling points of my product because not all
metal hangers have a bib display so it being priced that way is because of that selling point
so in its front and center it's like if you buy a picture to hang in a frame and the picture is
defective you're not going to put it on your wall it's it's kind of like that I'm looking at that
part of it as that needs to be something that is good not I guess I guess my question I guess
my question is for this inventory order do you think you can accept that 80 of your reviews
will be good and 20 of them will be bad and that you will survive that and be on the other side of
it and learn to deal with that part and how to like strategically deal with it too because we
all have to deal with this yeah I don't know I mean I've never done this before so I don't I
don't know if that's something that's acceptable that's why I'm here asking because I don't know
if that's acceptable is that acceptable to have 20 bad reviews to get you into a below four stars
I don't know I mean everything I've learned so far in Raymakers has pushed the staying at 4.3
or above to be able to stay on that first page and
But again, I'm new to this so I don't know if that's acceptable. That's well, there's there's really not
Acceptable or not acceptable. There's just what your journey is and
and
being able to
Troubleshoot or just like be not even being able being willing to try to troubleshoot and
Overcome those things I can tell you like right now my ratings not 4.3. My rating is like 4.2
It was a 4.1. It was a 4.0
I've told many people I've had
After the revine reviews had a 1.8 that she had to like figure out how to get that up
so the reality of like is it gonna get lower than corporate dream, maybe not but it might and
There's and but what happens still is people still buy
Okay, people still buy so my question to you is is
if you can
kind of talk yourself through
letting go some of the nervousness and the apprehension around it and kind of take that leap of faith of
It may not be perfect, but I'm gonna get on the other side of it one way or another dadgummit
That's the mindset I think to have and that is what will take you to the next level
Ultimately, does that make sense?
Yeah, yeah, okay any other responses to that from anybody
I'm actually really glad that you're talking about this today. Dottie
I'm going through a really similar situation
so I was just getting my first fine reviews in and I got three one-star reviews all
citing damage and
I did an in-person sales event on Saturday. And so Friday night. I'm opening some of my units I had in my possession
And the first two I open damage
and so I opened all the boxes I had in my possession and assessed the rate in which that damage had affected, you know,
potentially the whole bulk order and
that night I made the decision to remove everything from Amazon so I can fix the problem because I
know that if I
Especially at this stage in my journey if I sell these units that are broken that the fix is cheap and easy
It's just time-consuming
I'm gonna put myself in a better position rather than
Continuing to get you know, like probably about a 20%
Chance of 20% of the products like probably will have a bad review because of a small thing that's
Easily fixed but you know, I mean so that was where my risk tolerance was
I wasn't willing to to roll the dice on Amazon and hope that
That didn't affect my overall listing
I figured you know what I have the opportunity now
I've barely sold any units so I can fix it and and it's gonna take more time
And of course, it's affecting q4 and all these other things, but I'm putting myself in a better position
It's just gonna delay things a little bit
Yeah, that's where I think I mean, I don't think I'm I
Think I'm more proactive. I guess and I want to be proactive and head off problems and just
Assume I'll fix it when when they come in if I already know that it's potentially a problem
So that's where I guess if I need to change my mindset, I need to change it
But that's how I run my other business like I like to anticipate. Okay, this is starting to become a problem
Let's head it off before it does become a problem. Exactly. Okay
Let's just wait and see and then take care of it when it happens. Like that's not where my comfort level is. So
Something that you could do kind of a similar thing to what I'm doing and get ahead of it
and like you said be proactive and and find those missing or broken units or units that are affected by this damage and
Correct it or at least
Pull them so that they're not being sold
It would involve me having the whole shipment sent to my house and then
Opening every box having extra bib sent to me replacing everything
I just don't have the ability to do that right now. I still can't lift anything because of my shoulder
I'm still on four more weeks of restriction with that. So I
Don't think that's possible. I don't know. What about using a third party, you know, you could probably have
you know, I just know that there's like companies right that will like
Receive multiple parts of your product and box it all together
I'm sure that those same companies would be willing to accept your products and open every single one of them
You know and do whatever needs to happen to fix it if you can't personally do it
of course, I would incur more cost but I'm just trying to think like is there a solution here and
If there isn't if there truly isn't then like what Gabby was saying? You just have to kind of go
Okay, I'm gonna anticipate
percent of my reviews being bad and know that I can fix this moving forward and get past
that.
Yeah, I think that I think I think that's probably going to be what my solution is,
to be honest.
Yeah, I think in my head, I'm like, people will more likely write a review if they don't
like something than if they do.
So in my head, I was like, even if only 10% of the units are affected, I in my mind, I'm
like, those are the people that are going to speak up on my listing and not the ones
that got a great product that isn't broken.
So right now, I appreciate that.
Thank you.
Thank you, everybody.
Yeah.
I appreciate it.
Take up the whole call again.
Okay.
Daddy, I was gonna say, because you're we're talking a little bit about risk tolerance.
So for you, it might be because you're talking about you want to be proactive, which is not
a bad thing.
So for you, you might want to think to yourself when these situations or opportunities come
up.
It's like, okay, I'm gonna this is my level of proactiveness that I'm going to implement
these things.
And then at this point, I kind of cut it off.
And I commit to, you know, whatever the process is, that might be helpful for you personally,
if you give yourself kind of that limit, that boundary, that way, you're only, you know,
you just have a limit on how proactive to be, I don't know how if that makes sense.
It's because you can do that for forever and ever, basically.
And then you're frozen, because you're not moving forward, you know?
Okay, thank you.
And I'm so sorry, you have to do that, but you just need to be the courage to go and
Amazon just found like 45 units from God knows where I don't even know if they're my product,
they hit me this month with $1,000 in inventory reimbursements.
And like, I've incident they create, luckily, they created a totally separate listing for
the found units.
And apparently, this is something that happens like pre Q4, they like audit the warehouses
and find a bunch of stuff.
But um, yeah, I was like hemming and hawing over, like, should I liquidate that inventory?
Because guaranteed, like, these stands are from the broken batch.
So thank you.
I'm so sorry that happened to you.
But thank you, because I just literally hit the removal button.
As you were talking.
I was like,
you're the first person I thought of when this happened, I was like, Okay, this happened
to Lisa, I know I can get through this, I definitely thought of your story and your
journey.
And you know, all of the work that you put into each individual product.
And I was like, Hey, is this where I want to be?
No.
But I can do it.
I can open every box, I can fix every unit, I can send it back to Amazon.
And I thought I closed that listing too.
And I came out, I just looked on today, and they just sold four more from that listing.
Somehow it got reopened.
So now I'm like, bye bye, Bertie, like, yeah, I left like, I think it's 19 units, right,
just to keep my listing live, and I'm trying to switch it over to FBM.
But I was like, Hey, there, there are going to be more broken units, there are still I'm
still waiting on it's gonna be this is something, you know, and like, I, in hindsight now, because
I've been dealing with this for so long, it was like, should I have closed my ear, liquidated
everything and done it?
Either way, it was going to be expensive, because like, for me, the, the, like, especially
when I got the frequently returned badge, that was like, so expensive, because I had
to slash my price up the PPC to just try to like, burn through units.
And luckily, it's only it's a 30 day rolling.
So it didn't take as long as I thought, but it was very hard to get information on like,
what I needed to do to get through that.
But like, I look at what I've spent on PPC and Sophie society and everything in the last
year.
So yeah, I don't know.
I think maybe I don't know, my path is my path.
I think it would be more expensive to come back from it than it is going to be to get
in front of it is how I was looking at like, I think I was already in too deep at that
point.
But you're like, still at the beginning stages and like, better, like, yeah, exactly get
ahead of it.
Like, I was just like, in the thick and like, how bad could it be?
And it was like, yesterday, another frickin, two star review, I was man, I know, I feel
really lucky that so far.
It's not the wooden box that's broken.
I thought there's been one wooden box that was broken.
But it's like a little plastic hinge that I just need to like, first of all, never gonna
use plastic again.
This is me metal from here on out.
But, you know, I was like, I'd rather not have to read like, I knew that you were sending
a replacement.
And I was like, if I send a replacement, every time this little plastic tab is broken.
That's the cost of that is going to be way higher than me placing that plastic piece,
you know, because if it would be different if it was the whole box, right?
Well, if they're actually even talking to me, I'm offering two.
Like, I'm like, keep when you have, and then here's,
let me give you two just to say I'm sorry,
and blah, blah, blah.
And it's like, it's so pretty.
It's like, I want them to talk to me,
but the last girl didn't go and change her reviewer.
At least.
Oh, I was going to mention too, sorry, Dottie.
I am actually been in contact with seller support
and actually they escalated it to the Vine support team
because I'm trying to get replacements sent
to the Vine reviewers who received a damaged product.
I've yet to be able to get that to happen.
I've been working on it for 11 days now,
but when I get that to happen, I will let you know.
And then that way you can kind of have
at least a little insight on how you can get
a replacement unit sent to the Vine,
that two-star Vine review.
Because potentially if you can get them a unit
that isn't damaged, they would change their review, right?
Well, that's the whole thing.
The review, it wasn't damaged.
It was just too-
It was too heavy.
So, but whatever.
It's all right.
I'm going to change my mindset.
So I am-
I think you've got this, Dottie.
You're already doing a lot.
Trust what you're doing.
Trust yourself.
Cause you're already doing,
look at what you've done already
to try to protect this order
and go back and make things right.
So you're already, you know,
look where you've come already.
So kind of trust where you are.
Kind of trust, like make a list maybe.
What are your options at this point?
I mean, is that a tolerable?
What's tolerable to you and what's not tolerable?
Write it down so you can see it in front of you.
Instead of trying to,
sometimes it's hard, at least for me,
to like scramble too much in my mind.
I start making things up and it starts,
then it starts being not true.
So write down your trues on the piece of paper.
That's a good idea, Vicki.
Thank you.
And write and figure out which is your tolerable.
And look, you're already trying to make things work.
So trust where you've been
and you're going to make the right decision
and you can't make it perfect.
So what is your next near perfect that you can do next?
Good idea.
Okay.
This is why I love everybody.
Thank you.
You got it.
You got this.
You're already doing amazing.
Thanks.
Daisy, I know you're on.
Did you have any questions
or are you just listening to everybody?
No, today I'm just listening.
Yes.
No questions at the moment.
I would love to hear everybody's,
what we call, some of you are already familiar,
this is your business best.
So just kind of like, I don't know,
what in the last week or couple of weeks has been a win
or something you're proud of
that you accomplished in your business
or I don't know, something positive.
I'd love to hear from everyone, ideally.
I learned how to make a pop-up on my Shopify
so people put their email in when they went to the site
and I already got four emails
and I could have had that going on the last year and a half.
But I was proud.
I sat down and did it, finally.
That's a big win.
I did my first meta ad.
All by myself.
My cost per click wasn't the best.
I spent $90 and got like two leads.
But I figured that's better than zero
and I know more now than I did before.
Definitely.
That's awesome.
Well, I did my first in-person sales event,
which was great to finally get real feedback
from real people in real time.
And like I said, I wouldn't have discovered necessarily
the damage to my product had I not done that.
I obviously knew through those Vine reviews,
but seeing it in person and seeing how easy it was to fix,
I think I'm reframing this as a win.
This early discovery of this now
and making that bold decision
to just immediately remove the product from Amazon,
like I feel really good about making that choice.
And the fact that it's so early on in the journey,
I'm just super thankful for.
So I'm gonna say that's a win.
It's not like this damaged product issue
is gonna be resolved.
So I'm gonna reframe it that way.
I love it.
How did the event itself go, Lauren,
with just like people responding and stuff?
It went really good.
It went really well, yeah.
So a lot of positive response.
I did sell a few units
and it wasn't really like a sales focused event.
So that was cool.
I made somebody cry.
So I felt like, I mean, in a good way, right?
The emotional tears.
And so seeing that really vulnerable reaction from them
was like, okay, I've done something right.
here. Yeah, my husband was watching. He was there. He
actually came. He was watching the whole thing. And he, he saw
them open their purse, and he thought they were gonna buy a
product. He was like, man, I thought they were gonna buy one.
What happened? Instead, they pulled out some Kleenex. And I
was like, well, they'll buy one next time. I was like, they were
emotional over it. So he was like, when they opened their
purse, I thought they were gonna buy one. What happened?
I love to make people cry.
I will share that I ended up on my shipping plan this morning
with Amazon support. And I was able after five days to finally
figure out how to cancel my shipping plan and now make
another one which is huge for me because the technology side of
everything has been my most challenging. So I did that
myself today. I'm very proud of the fact I got that that whole
shipping plan deleted and I don't have to worry about that.
And I can just make a new one when I decide exactly how I'm
going to do this. So I feel I feel I do feel good and I feel
much better after talking to everybody and realizing that
sometimes the perfectionists in me that I have to be for my
other business. I can't carry that over to this business
because this isn't the same. And I have I think that's going to
be a challenge for me, but you guys really helped me through
it. So thank you.
Good job.
We got our first sample in of my cake mix. So for those of you
who don't know, I'm taking my recipe, I make fresh cakes for
dogs. So we are taking my recipe and making it into like a Betty
Crocker mix that you can bake at home. So the samples came
Saturday when I got home from work from my shop. It was
sitting on my doorstep. So now I have to bake it and make sure
it's going to bake up right for everybody at home. But that's
exciting. So it's weird seeing like your fresh ingredients all
dehydrated into a powder. And I'm like, how is this going to
work? But that's, that's exciting.
I think and I'm going to go with my big win. Listening to
everybody's problems with negative reviews. I'm so glad
dogs can't type.
That's true. That is such a good point. Wow, I didn't even think
about that.
But it's still quality, because Carrie won't let us put out
anything else. But yeah, dogs don't get pissed off. They just
get hungry.
Yeah, they're gonna eat it no matter what. This tastes great.
What a treat.
Daisy, what about you? Anything you're feeling any accomplishment
in your business or anything you're feeling proud of?
Well, I'm more at the beginning. But yeah, I have more clarity on
the product. I want to explore more. So that's something good.
Yeah, it is.
Yeah. So but for Yeah, it was a little slow week still. But also
a lot of other appointments I had to attend. So a little
quiet, but I did get more clarity.
Good. Will you share with everybody like what you're doing
like what you're working on?
And so I was with a product research accelerator. So I was
waiting for a product mostly. But last Thursday, I got my
options. So I had to see what it was and see, compare them a
little and also trying to figure out if I maybe want to buy two
IDs and see how that could fit in my budget. But probably not
gonna do it. But I have till Thursday.
I love that you got good options.
Yeah, yeah, there are good options and it also in my in my
niche. So that also helps. So yeah.
Daisy says she's in the beginning, which is somewhat
true. But she picked up product research like super easily and
found like a bunch of products all on her own. And then but
gave herself a time limit for picking something and moving
forward with something. And then that time when it came, she was
like, product research accelerator it is so
Yeah, so I want to start up a little quicker and then see
after a while after this one, I now know for sure.
Well, not for sure, of course, but more for sure that it's a good product and see how I'm going to evolve the product.
But yeah, I thought then that the one is running and then I can go back to the products I chose myself, which is a little less profit probably, or there was an electric component in it.
So I had to do more research.
So, yeah, ended up this way to make sure I was on time and in my own.
Yeah, I'm kind of strict on myself.
OK, yeah, a lot of us are here because we're high achievers.
Yeah, just like to go and do things and be great at things.
I say this all the time.
I just love being the best at everything.
Every time I start doing something, I just want to be better than everybody else.
And it's not that I don't want other people to be great.
I do. I just like being even better.
So it's just the thing.
I just can't help it.
It's like that inner competitive streak.
I can cheer for other people and I'm not a sore loser, but I do love to win.
Yeah, same.
So I'll share a story.
So when I was looking at trying to find a co-manufacturer for my cake mix,
I reached out to someone and they told me I can't do it.
And so that put a fire under my butt and they're on Amazon.
And so I'm like, you know what, I'm going to do it.
I'm going to do it better.
I'm going to do it cleaner and I'm going to kick your butt.
So, yeah, when somebody tells me no, I'm like, uh-uh.
Yeah, there's nothing more like
just invigorating than someone saying you can't.
Like, OK, go watch me.
Yeah, and I just want to say one thing to to Dottie.
When when we came back from the castle retreat or was it after
we were on a call with some of the people that were there
and it was one of the gals.
She's a perfectionist and she's like she said she was
she kind of expressed that she's been a recovering perfectionist.
So I think this whole process kind of breaks us a little bit
into realizing that we can only be who we can be. Right.
So, Dottie, you're OK.
Like, we all want to be perfect, but we're all trying to break
the perfectionism we have in us because we realize we can't be perfect at this.
We can be. That's what it is.
I can't be perfect at this.
I have to be perfect at when I'm injecting people's faces.
I know, but it's possible to break this.
Yeah, this I don't have to be perfect at.
Yeah. And you know what?
That's what the beauty of this call today has done for me,
because it really like that is such a simple concept.
But for me, it I never even I'm thinking
I have to have every single bib perfect.
And you know what?
Oh, I know. I don't.
There's a lot of us.
They're just recovering perfectionists.
So it's OK, Dottie, you'll get there.
Thanks, Vicki.
Yeah, for sure.
None is better than the perfect.
You'll hear that so much here.
Done is better than perfect.
It's a little annoying, but it's so true.
Done is better than perfect.
It's like blah.
I have one more question.
Sorry, and then I'll be quiet.
Go for it, Dottie.
So my and this is off topic for this,
but my mastermind program was through the first week of November.
I know everything in Rainmakers has kind of undergone a transformation.
Am I still included in these calls now moving forward,
or is there some new program I have to sign up for or do something different?
Do you know, Gabby?
Yeah. So when you come to the end of your first year in mastermind
or the interview, you need to renew your mastermind membership
to stay active in the community part.
I know that is changing a little bit.
So I'll direct you to watch the live that Megan and Steven did last Monday evening.
There's a replay on that.
They kind of went over
how that is going to look differently than what it has in the past.
So basically, when you renew from here on out, it'll be for six months
at a time if you're in mastermind membership.
Which I think might have a different name.
I can't remember if we kept the name the same.
But so to continue going forward,
you'll need to renew your mastermind membership and you'll still be
if you do that, you'll still be in the community.
You'll have the coaching calls like the weekly coaching calls, things like that.
To be able to be on my office hours, you do need to re up
with some sort of coaching package.
which we have to, I can definitely send you more details on that, but in order to be on office hours,
you do have to be in an active coaching
like
period.
You're meaning for this call? Yeah. Okay.
Okay. Thank you.
Yeah, do you want, and I'll just send you an email later with some, like a quick quick overview of like what those options are.
Okay, I appreciate it. Thank you. And then did you get my link here in the chat for? I did.
I don't see a call. I know we had a call, but I, and I thought we did some recurring calls.
I did too, but the email I got that changed my recurring call every Tuesday said your call with Janine
changed. The time changed. So I was thinking, uh-oh, what happened? Like what? I don't, okay.
I don't know. Zoom might have been weird. I had also the other week,
Zoom was letting appointments schedule on top of each other. So I don't know if there was just like a
weird glitch or something with whatever's going on,
but yeah, just go ahead and schedule. I know this week, I think the only availability you'll see on there potentially is Thursday,
but if you need to schedule for like Thursday or for after your mastermind date passes, that's okay.
Like I want to make sure we get your call.
Don't stress about it. Yeah, because I didn't have a call at,
I didn't have a call last week, I don't think, or I, maybe I did. I don't know. I'll have to look. Okay. Thank you.
Yeah, for sure.
What else, guys?
And Lauren, I just want to say you're, you're very inspiring.
Everybody, everybody's been just so helpful for me.
I had a bad week last week with all this stuff going on with my manufacturer, and I really thought about
just kind of quitting this whole process, but I feel much better today. I'm just gonna keep going.
Keep moving forward. Thank you, Vicki. Thanks, everybody. Thanks for all that.
Yeah, it's okay to have those weeks. I do. I have weeks, I
don't know, maybe longer periods. I'm just gonna blow everything up. I'm gonna blow it up and walk away,
and I use, you know, those little GIFs that's like,
like when you type in a GIF, it starts to like blow up, and it's just like someone blowing up a building, and they're just
like walking away. That's my mood sometimes, and
sometimes we just gotta acknowledge that that's the emotional part of us, okay?
We can have those emotions, but we don't have to make decisions out of those emotions.
Otherwise, I probably, I don't know, I'd be in prison or something, guys.
Sean, I see, or Carrie, I see your hand up. What you guys got?
So,
Vicki, you probably want to put earmuffs on, because you're tired of me with this. I would just, I wanted to get other people's
opinions of,
and we have our rainflow
talk
Wednesday, but I'm still getting hung up on
the benefits, other than the tax benefit, Vicki, of
Shopify
doing our website or doing our website on
Rainflow. Like, I feel like, or both, you know, do you make a landing page on
Rainflow that'll send you to the Shopify, which, you know, Vicki already explained the tax
part of, you know, Shopify does that.
Just looking for opinions on
Rainflow website slash Shopify website. Can I chime in? Okay, so, I
have all my funnels and landing pages built out in Rainflow, but I have a Shopify website for
product sales.
I like it that way, because Shopify does have all those, you know,
reporting, analytics, tax reporting. It's all built in, you know.
I think there's a reason that Shopify is, like, the number one e-commerce platform in the world. It is
dialed, and it's really easy to use.
I haven't dug too much into payment processing on Rainflow, but I'm kind of using Rainflow just for,
like,
notifications, email collecting, workflows, funnels, kind of the marketing pieces of it, and those, like,
automations. I use it for QR codes and that kind of thing, but I do like to have a standalone site for the reasons
that, you know, like Vicki was saying, with, like, tax reporting,
analytics,
and then, of course, my Shopify site integrates with Meta Shop and TikTok Shop, and so all of those orders are gonna be
going there as well, so
it's kind of my two cents. Thank you.
Yeah, I don't have anything to add to that, mostly because I don't have a
technical understanding of all of rainflow, like Megan is our
rainflow queen. So definitely, I think more clarity will come
after your onboarding call on Wednesday with her. And you can
ask her that too. I like what Lauren said to you, like I my
mind works similarly, where, you know, I would probably have it
set up the same if it were me. But it depends.
The other thing to think about is where you want your contacts
to be, you know, wherever you have your like your signup forms
and those type of things is where your contacts are going to
be saved. So if you want to do like your email marketing, or
you know, SMS, or, you know, that type of marketing, you're
going to want to do that in probably where I assume where
your contacts are are. So it kind of depends on you can do
both, right, you can do rainflow and Shopify, like some
of us are doing, I'm doing that as well, as well, like Lauren's
doing it. If you do all Shopify, you can do that. Now everything
is going to be there. But Shopify, I think has some
limitations. For you have to get like extra apps and stuff, I
think to do like email marketing, maybe Lisa, Lisa, I
think has got a lot of hers in Shopify. But I think you I think
you have to add like apps and stuff to do some of the thing
like that's already inherently in rainflow, like you already
have, you know, your email marketing, your email templates,
your email, your contact management, your kind of you can
put tags on your contacts, you kind of have that whole
management thing, like, in one or the other. But shop in
rainflow, you're going to have the ability to use that more
inside that system. You can do it in Shopify. But I think
you're going to have to get more like take on more apps, like
adding apps to Shopify, to do this extra functionality, like
email marketing, for example, I think they there's a system like
Clavio or something like that.
Clavio is going for integration with Shopify. But you do like
you're right, you do need another app for tagging and
things like that. It's all added cost. Yeah, some of it's
free. But then, of course, yeah, I love that you're bringing this
up. And I'm sorry to kind of interrupt. No, no, no. But the
biggest downfall of doing what I'm doing is that there is no
integration between go high level slash rainflow with
Shopify at this point. So any customer contact information I
get from Shopify does not there's not an app or something
that would send it to to rainflow. But it's not
possible to I mean, it's just going to be manual. So what I'm
planning on doing is whatever cadence makes sense based on
sales volume based on collecting, you know, customer
contacts through Shopify, I'm just going to export those
contacts on a recurring basis, and then upload them into my
rainflow contacts. So then all of my marketing newsletter, all
that correspondence happens through rainflow. And then in
that upload, I'm going to tag them in rainflow as Shopify
customers. So I know where they came from. But yeah, that's the
one piece that's not dynamic. There's no way to sync them yet.
But a lot of people use go high level, a lot of people use
Shopify. And so I'm assuming that it won't be too long before
there's some kind of app or integration that will connect
the two, even the brand development team that I work
with, to support me with Amazon, Shopify and social media, they're
actually working on this right now to create something that
integrates go high level with Shopify.
So when you collect email and contact info through rainflow or
Shopify, do you then are they your customers? Or no, Shopify
keeps that information?
No, they're my customers. Yeah, Shopify, you have full insight
into all the customer data, you can see their lifetime value,
you can see all their contact information. You know, they can
opt in or out of, you know, SMS or emails, you know, so as
subscribers, but you own all their information.
Okay. But I have mine though, Lauren, I was just
having a Shopify.
Well, I, I have integrated, I made my I have an integration
with Shopify in rainflow, which I'm sure you do too, right?
So like my forms on my Shopify storefront are rainflow forms.
So if someone signs up for the newsletter, let's say, on my
website, it goes into to my rainflow account. But I'm
talking about just regular customers. So if someone goes
into place as an order, and that's how I collect their email
address, but they didn't opt into my pop up or my discount or
my newsletter, if they didn't opt in in some way.
to give me their email address.
Oh, yeah.
Then it just gets connected to Shopify.
So this is just for customer.
Oh, yeah.
They have to opt in to the mobile.
Yeah, but all the forms in Shopify are Rainflow forms.
Yeah, so if they take my discount code,
if they sign up for my newsletter,
any of those things, those are collected in Rainflow.
Yeah, you get that.
Like, I have the contacts that purchased
through Shopify in Rainflow.
And if they opted in to say, if they provided me
their email and SMS, I have it in Rainflow.
If they don't opt in or accept giving you that information,
then it's not going to be there.
But it wouldn't be there in Shopify either.
So I have that information going back and forth.
So I don't know.
Because you have the Rainflow forms embedded in your Shopify,
right?
What do you mean?
Like, where they're typing in their phone number,
their email address.
No, when they're checking out with Shopify.
Oh, when they're checking out.
Oh, because that's the piece that I can't figure out.
And what I've done, I was kind of told and figured out
through just doing some research that if someone checks out
on my Shopify storefront, and that's
how I collect their email, that that's not going to.
As long as it's, well, the integration brings them over.
I need to figure out what app you're using
or what you're using.
What I did with my integration, I don't know if it matters,
but I have a buy button inside Rainflow
that connects to Shopify.
Oh, so your sales are going through Rainflow.
Your payment processor is going through Rainflow?
No.
Because I want my, I did it this way
because I wanted the payment processing
to go through Shopify.
Because I wanted Shopify to calculate sales tax.
Because if you keep it in Rainflow,
Rainflow doesn't calculate sales tax.
But I think, Lauren, you should go back to a support
and ask them why that.
I think originally maybe I had that.
I know what happened.
I know what it is.
You have to have Shopify Plus.
I have Shopify Plus.
But I didn't when I set this up.
I upgraded recently so I could have
multiple users on my account.
See now if your customers, well, they should all still
sync over anyway.
You should go to your, I had to upgrade to Shopify Plus
to get the contacts to sync over because of some privacy policy
type of thing that you had to accept that you could do
with Shopify Plus.
So I had to upgrade, which is kind of a bummer.
But anyway, Sean, I don't know if we're getting off.
I can help you or I've got to find a change.
All the insight, though.
You're getting all the pros and cons of the scenario.
Yes.
Did that help you, Sean?
This is great.
OK.
I hope so.
I didn't confuse you.
I just literally got my Rainflow account today
so I can start playing around with it because now my stuff
got set up before Rainflow.
So I had a friend use Shopify.
And then I'm using OmniSend, which has been,
I just had to upgrade it because I
needed to send more than 500 emails or something.
So that was a good problem.
And it wasn't that expensive.
It was like $36 for the year or something.
So yeah, there's other options.
But yeah, I am going to start playing around with Rainflow.
And see, now that I have all these people, I should email.
Gabby, I have a question.
I don't know if Rainmakers allows this
or if there's a way we can do it even just within your team.
We had been talking in Janine's group
about doing a holiday gift guide where people could post
their products so that we could support each other,
like Rainmakers support Rainmaker, like small business.
So I didn't know if that's something you would allow
or Rainmakers allows or where people can post their products
to support everybody for the holidays.
I know we have like a no.
We kind of can't allow that in the mastermind group.
So we have like a no, like promoting your own thing.
But I'm happy to allow it in my coaching group.
So with everybody that's in the group,
there's quite a few people in my group right now.
There's like 120, 130 people in there.
So if I'm not going to head it up, I will say that.
So if you guys want to take that on yourself,
and if you just want to post, that's fine.
Like, I don't care.
So like if you guys just want to post yourselves
or if you want to kind of create maybe a post
that people can drop in the comments,
then maybe there are things kind of like...
one thread that might be good or if you want to make it more fancy that's fine. I'm good
with it in my group. I say go for it. I love that. I love it. It would be cool if Rainmakers
just made it like its own group you know like if you wanted to go shopping and support other
Rainmakers like everybody's I don't know. That's not a bad idea. Like our own catalog
or something. Yes. That's a good idea. I'll take that idea to the team Lisa. I'll take
that. That would be cool because I think in the threads it gets a little lost. Yeah it
does. It does. Yeah. Or its own tab. You know we've got those different tabs. Resources
community. Adding a tab just for that. A tab or a group just so it's like in its own place.
It could be a group. Either one. Yeah. That's good stuff guys. I'll make a note. And maybe
just call it a gift guide because everybody's product isn't necessarily just holiday. It's
any time. Well I was thinking too. I know you had mentioned that Carrie but the other
thing is just to be able to collaborate. Like if we know we have like like products liked
people you know like Lauren and I are collaborating because our brands are so similar. But knowing
what everybody's doing sometimes we kind of we hear it but we kind of even forget about
it or like oh man who told me they were doing that type of thing. And being able to collaborate
with each other just on like minded products and helping each other sell and kind of promote
each other. So I'm making a note. I'll bring it up on my meeting tomorrow.
Yeah because especially with the holiday gift giving guide like if I'm looking up on Amazon
anyway I would rather if a rainmaker sold the product I'm looking for or even if I'm not I
can do my shopping from our our groups. That that makes sense. I think that's a great thing.
So I'd rather do that. I'd rather support everyone in rainmakers than just some random person
excuse me selling on Amazon. So I have a confession. I am not a huge Amazon shopper.
I would rather buy it. I'll search on Amazon and then I will find a way to buy direct from
the company and cut Amazon out. That is but I'm a small business owner and being in this and
learning how much they take away if I can cut them out in order directly. So I am all about in during
the holidays I do try to promote like locally businesses I buy from to grab attention that I
post on like my social media pages. So I am happy if anybody makes a holiday themed thing or whatever
and you want to send it to me or tag me I'm happy to put it in my story or my feed and promote you
to all of my people as well. I mean Lauren when you do your posts about like the using your box
for pets like you are such an amazing storyteller. You're like I could get emotional like over like
what your dog's name was Sarah or Rachel right. I'm just like you know what I mean like that just
hits home. So I mean I'm happy to do all of that but I do I don't shop I try not to shop Amazon.
I really do like once you are in this you realize how important it is to like support small and keep
the money in the community. Yeah I do the same thing that you do Carrie. Like if I find something
I often will try to find their website to buy direct first and foremost. Yeah you get better
customer service you know it's just you're supporting that business in a better way and
yeah I totally do the same thing. Yeah 100% I agree. All right guys I'm gonna have to end it
because I got to get to a call and I got to go finish making my coffee which is the most important
thing. So I will see you all on our next call or next office hours okay. Thanks Gabby. Thanks everyone.