Morning. How's it going?
How are you doing?
Good.
Just got the house cleaned, which is like such a good feeling.
Yeah.
It's definitely been hard to stay on top of it recently.
So I'm just like super thankful.
That's awesome.
Okay.
Hello.
Hi.
Does everybody say she looks like you?
Um, she looks a lot like my mother-in-law.
And my mom like mixed.
Okay.
I can definitely see you and her together.
Well, that's good.
The first kid of mine that actually looks like me.
I'll look like my husband.
Yeah.
Everybody looks like their dad, everybody.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, no, ma'am.
What'd you do?
Oh, man.
We can still hear you.
I thought she exited it out because I don't know where my thing is.
I'm just doing a post. Give me one second.
So much crap on my computer.
No.
Right. How's everybody doing?
Okay.
Let's do like a scale of one to 10.
Like drop your number in the chat.
Just like how you're doing.
In general and life.
In all the things.
I can't find you guys.
So I'm trying to meet.
I can't find my thing anymore.
I don't know what you did with it.
Do you want me to meet you?
Now you're muted.
I did meet you. Sorry.
Sorry.
She might've moved you to a different desk.
So I can see if you're on the same desktop.
You know, you can have multiple desktop windows.
Chrissy.
You said busy. What is that?
What's the number?
A number.
Between one and one.
One and 10.
One in 10.
Where one is.
Bad.
Good in 10 is amazing.
Yeah.
Okay.
Seven.
Oh, this house cleaning is really putting me up.
Like I'm like a nine.
Awesome.
And they did a good job. I've had, we don't normally regular.
Do regular house cleaning.
We might start.
I've had a handful of different cleaners come.
And no one ever lives up to my expectations.
Because I grew up in a house with very strict, extremely strict.
Like cleaning rules were in, like, just very, very extreme.
And that definitely trickled down to me.
So we don't keep our house like that because I also recognize that for
mental health, that doesn't need to like be the top priority, but.
I don't know.
But it does bother me when it's not clean.
So every time someone comes, I'm just kind of like,
Oh, I paid them this much money and it's not as good as I would do.
So this time, I think.
Finally found somebody.
And it's hilarious.
As there.
It's a veteran owned company, female veteran.
Veteran owned.
And some of the cleaners are all veterans.
And I'm like, make sense because they're like,
Oh, I'm a veteran.
And they claim the like military.
Like attention to detail, which.
My husband was in the military. My dad was in the military.
Not all military members have attention to detail or are clean,
but there is like.
Some sort of stereotype that is true in this case.
I'm really happy.
That's good. They, they, you know, we're able to meet your standards.
Awesome.
None of the cleaners meet my mother-in-law's standards,
but it's all their fault and not mine. So it's a win.
I'm like, you can come back all the time and then she'll just blame you.
And not me. I love it.
For sure.
Michaela, I assume you're just listening today, but I see you are on.
I'm driving right now, so I can talk, but I can't, I can't write.
home from physical therapy for money. So oh yeah, how'd that go
today? It was tough. I mean, good stuff. Like I every time I
go like I've left and I'm like, this is what life has come to
like I was a CrossFitter like I mean, I lifted, you know, dead
lifted 300 pounds. So I go into physical therapy and it's very
humbling. And so today I got to do deadlifts and I was pretty
hyped about it. Yeah, so we are trying to retrain my body to be
in alignment. So
absolutely. Yeah, I had a similar last year I went to
physical therapy for my diastasis recti. And I don't
think I really had that badly. I just was like curious, but I
would say after my third one, like my core definitely got the
weakest. I mean, it's also like my oldest of having a kid. I
definitely felt a huge difference. And when I went, it
was like, wow, this is such a workout. Yes, crazy thing. And
I was like, I feel so bad.
Yeah, yeah, I did the Nancy Anderson. So with my first I
went and went to like pelvic floor physical therapy for it.
And with my second, I did like the Nancy Anderson's online
bootcamp or whatever for diastasis recti. Everyone
should do that. If you've never had kids, you should do her
it is insane. Like it was so good. Yeah, of course. I'll need
to strong. Wait, what's her name? Nancy Anderson. I need to
do that. My diastasis recti is like, Nancy, Nancy Anderson. So
she was like a famous
trainer for like celebrities and stuff. And then she had kids and
she had like terrible diastasis recti. So she like, made that
her mission. And so she like hired pelvic floor physical
therapists and stuff. And it's amazing. Like it's, it was
really good. Like I got, I think my core got stronger after my
second kid than it ever had been before kids like it was wild.
That's awesome.
We love that high ROI around here.
All right, guys. So what is everyone working on? I want to
hear a little bit from everybody just like, what you're working
on? How are things going?
I'm working on so Steven and I had our meeting for coaching
thing, which was awesome. And like, my husband was like blown
away. I mean, I've heard Steven before. And so I knew something
good was gonna come but my husband was like really blown
away. And my husband's in marketing too. So he's like,
this guy knows what he's doing, like, and so it was really fun
to watch him like, nerd out with. So, um, so we're working
on like all the homework and stuff that he's prescribed for
us to do and I'm pretty much setting up a school to I'm like
very much going out of my comfort zone. And, and then the
way that Steven talked about it made it seem so doable and so
like, manageable and not scary, but it is very scary when I'm
not in front of him. So I'm going to do my own school
community. For we we came up with the name is called sensory.
What is it called? Sensory thrive tribe. So we're starting
a school community. And so it's gonna be like, I think 17 bucks
a month or something like that. And we're just gonna join like
have moms join who have sensory kids. Um, and yeah, so we're
we're working on that. And then I'm working on like the video
part and editing the script. Um, and then yeah, and then my
husband actually had an interview today for the first
time in like four months. And it's a contract. So it would be
like amazing, amazing. It's just 10 days. But it's still like we
really, really need it right now. So it would just be so
that's
that's exciting. How are you feeling? Like just how are you
feeling with worth with meeting with Steven? Like, how are you
feeling about your business now versus before?
I feel really excited. Like before I talked to Kayla, I was
like, I'm quitting. Like I'm done. Like this is so hard. This
is just I am being so stretched. And so this is just so hard.
Especially in the season that we're in. Like, it's just why
did God cover that? It's really
so it's like, why? Why is this happening? And after meeting
with Steven, I was like, Oh, I get it. I get it. Like, I get
that you want to give me this platform that you want to like,
I don't know why me I don't know. But um, yeah, I just feel
like more confident and more like, okay, now I
see kind of the light at the end of the tunnel here I see the purpose of this and I see that
there is hope and like we're I'm freaking out my husband's not freaking out but I'm
starting to freak out and I had been like totally fine until now with all the credit card debt that
I have with this business and because my credit is like maxed out even not just my business cards
with my personal cards for the business um my credit is just garbage and it's always been like
perfect and so my credit's garbage so I've I've just like been applying for different
kinds of loans and lines of credit and stuff and I'm just rejected rejected rejected
and I'm like all right so I guess we're gonna be paying lots of interest on these cards and
um so yeah so I've just been feeling really really down about this and like kind of hopeless
and despairing um but after meeting with Stephen I feel like okay I get I get this I get that there
is hope that there is I feel like there's a path because before I was just like so scattered
and now I'm seeing an actual real path to victory here which is really encouraging so
yeah it can be hard in those times to like see a path to like pivot to like you hear it a lot
but it's like I can't see anyway like my just clouded you know and so it's good to have and
that's why it's like community and mentorship is so important because that person or that group of
people are not in your specific situation so they can see the way and yeah I mean and sometimes
it's hard like I mean Jessica I was in your position not even that long ago like earlier
this year it was just like credit was maxed couldn't afford couldn't I couldn't afford to
send more inventory over it was like stuck in China because like I just couldn't ship it
and it was just like this bottleneck because we had lost um so some momentum during our launch
last year and it was just like and our income's always been um pretty low um so it was just like
finally the way forward was I needed to get a job and like God provided big time because now I have
this job and I'm you know with a community of people that I love and I'm a part of also and
you know so it's just it can be hard sometimes to see the way forward and sometimes the way forward
is hard like getting this job has been such a hard transition and giving up my freedom was
definitely not what I wanted to do yeah yep yep there's been blessing there's been a ton of
blessing in it yeah it's always and it's like it was time it was a season that I need like it's a
stretch like God like his decision was that is a time for stretch so I was even like telling my
husband like I was working in a trauma hospital I felt so smart you know my dad worked at this
hospital so I was like known there and like it just it felt like home you know and then once we
moved out of Miami I stayed at home for a year and now going back to work like I tried the going
working with adults and it just it was too far away the pay is too low it's it's my heart it's
my passion I love like the medical aspects of it but now I'm working with kids and yeah I'm doing
OT but it feels like I'm just playing with play-doh and like crayons and it's like I went
from amputations and multivisceral transplants and like strokes traumatic brain injury gunshot
wounds whatever to like playing with crayons on the floor with these like kids that misbehave you
know and I already have kids that misbehave at home I don't want to go to work with kids
so and now it's like God's calling me to make a business out of this you know I don't even enjoy
it like I I love what I do but it's like maybe in a different season I love the OT part of it but
it's like man driving 30 minutes to hang out with these twins for two hours while mom is upstairs
doing her laundry when I should be doing my laundry and it's like hanging out with them and
and they need it they need OT but I'm just like hanging out with them like making x's and doing
crayons and sitting on a monoball and whatever like I just and I'm just like Lord what are you
doing you know so yeah anyway I know that this is the season and God God's breaking you so I just
wonder if um are you doing it in the same like business entity as your current stuff or is this
two separate entities for you now so I have I had my own um um company in like my just my own LLC
where I would see patients privately outside of the hospital um but I just kind of like let that
subside and close um that was down in Florida and now I work for an agency it's called Milestone
Therapy and then they find kids um it's crazy how many more kids like need therapy it's just crazy
um I just wonder if like because you know that you could raise your own money that's why I was
asking if the the two businesses like your Amazon business and then this new
business you talked about with Steven are together, where you could raise money to refinance
that debt and give yourself a runway for launching this. But it sounds like you would want to
raise money potentially just for this new entity as a salary. And then for your salary,
you could back pay some of that debt. But because you have that network of healthcare
professionals that very likely recognize this is a problem. I also come from the healthcare
background and I know that they have money sitting, wishing that was making interest
off of it. And I wonder if you could put together a raise package and just like put some feelers
out to see if you could raise the money. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great idea. I like the idea
also of working with this agency because since I'm so new to working with kids, like my experience
is 100% with adults and in a hospital. Like I'm not, I don't know, I don't remember my,
like I learned this stuff for school, you know? Um, so like to, I don't remember the
milestones and the things, so I need people to bounce off ideas, like ideas off of and
like ask around and say like, Hey, I'm going to see a five year olds and six year old set
of brothers tomorrow. Like, what should I be looking for? What scissor skills do they
need to have? And like, should they be able to write their name? Like, I don't remember
my kids are 13 and 12, the big ones. And so, um, anyway, so it's like good to work in this
agency until I kind of can get my feet under me and like.
But you could also take on, you know, board members that are sharing ownership in your
business and advising about those similar things. And in that way they feel ownership
in the business. And of course, you know, you have to pay them and there's going to
be a profit split at the end, but if they could like give you your salary so you don't
have to drive those 30 minutes and you could get there faster and maybe worth it until
you can buy them out or, or keep them on as your board.
Yes. I love that idea. I also like the idea of like inviting, um, these other therapists
to like come talk on this school community that I'll have eventually. And, um, just like
a lot of them are just friends of mine or I'd be like, Hey, I'll give you 50 bucks if
you talk for an hour, you know, come to my house, I'll give you dinner. So yeah, that's
a good point.
And it's also a potential revenue stream because like in the future they will pay you and say,
Hey, you can access these a hundred thousand parents on my platform. Oh yeah. Service,
you know, you know, you're paying them $50 now to give you a referral in the future for
like what, how it benefited their company.
That's a good point. That's a very good practice. That's a good point.
Rebecca, Corinne, do either of you want to share about your number? Why did you pick
a five and a seven or you type it?
I'm just having a frustrating week.
Okay. I'm getting a big shipment in from Pakistan and always before the Chinese freight forwarders
just took care of everything. And my manufacturer keeps asking me questions. I don't know the
answer to, so it's stressing me out. So I'm hoping it actually gets to where it's supposed
to. And I've made an app and I'm struggling with the workflow because of course I'm making
it more complicated than I need to. So I'm fighting with go with rain flow right now
a little bit, trying to get it completed. My inventory, my other inventory didn't get
here as soon as it was supposed to. So I haven't been able to start selling it yet. My quarter
four was supposed to be monstrous and I haven't, I don't have the new inventory yet and it's
like driving me crazy. So it's just really disappointing. And I feel like I had my hopes
up for this quarter for really being the start of something better. And I don't know.
So, I'm feeling frustrated right now and like if December is not a huge month, then I am
thinking about selling my business or selling my inventory in the beginning of the year
because that's just how I'm feeling in the moment.
Yeah.
Thanks for sharing.
You said something-
We've all been there.
Yeah.
You said something-
I'm there.
Well, you know, you had like quarter four was supposed to be, you know, you had expectations
for quarter four.
And is it that letdown of like maybe it's not going to meet those expectations as well,
like really bringing you down?
Yeah, it just seems like one thing after another and I was supposed to have all the inventory
in October and it's supposed to be arriving in New York City today.
So it's just, it's just taken forever.
You know, so Black Friday's on Friday or next Friday and my sales are down from last year.
So I, I don't know.
It's just, it's just been a day.
Yeah.
Does anybody want to speak some, you know, just like truth, more factual truth into Rebecca,
like she's got lots of emotions, like we've all got lots of emotions or making, it's hard
to like be stuck in that and sometimes we just need to hear like clear truth or facts
from somebody's outside perspective.
I can chime in here.
I was in that exact same position last year.
My inventory was supposed to be, actually, originally my inventory was supposed to be
here last, this was last July, probably I would have said, and it didn't, it got delayed.
First it was like rain in China or something and then it was, after the rain cleared, it
was supposed to be August and then like the week they were supposed to ship, they came
back and said, well, because I have a ceramic product, so because the drying process was
altered because of the rain, my dish shrank more than it was supposed to.
So the top part wouldn't fit into the bottom part.
So they were going to have to remake my entire order and they did.
And so I was the same as you, mine around last November is where it like actually started
to like get into the United States.
And I checked in, I literally checked in like the week before Christmas is when it actually
checked in.
For me, I was like so angry, same.
And honestly, I just wanted to say that the fact that you gave it a five is like some
CEO energy because last year I would have given it a solid two, maybe a negative four.
So a five is great, but for me, the week after they told me that my whole inventory was going
to have to be remade, my mom got diagnosed with breast cancer.
And instead of spending the fall launching, I spent it like by her side.
And I don't say that to say like something bad is going to happen.
All I say that is that like sometimes like God's timing is right.
Like sometimes there's a reason that our timing and what we have in our mind doesn't work
out.
And I don't know what that might be, you know, but for me, like that ended up being such
a blessing because I did not have the mental capacity last fall to handle it.
And I instead really just filed into for me, I focus all my energy on my social media,
which is what took me from 100 followers to 60,000 followers.
So now I'm utilizing that to make income that I wouldn't have taken the time to deal with
at all.
Had I not have had all these inventory issues, it gave me somewhere else to focus my energy.
And so whatever that might be mean for you, I just I wouldn't say it's like the end, you
know, and that's I had the I don't think that me saying this to myself last year would have
taken me farther up the totem pole, but, you know, it is it is something and, you know,
sometimes it makes more sense after the fact is all I mean.
Yeah.
Thank you.
But I'm still proud that you're a five at that point, because that's a lot of stuff.
But if you'd said a one, I'd have definitely understood.
I'll speak into it.
I think this is just part of the journey.
Like, I feel like every single one of us
at some point has said, like, I'm done.
Like, I'm literally done.
I was just there.
I mean, Chad GPT and I had, like, a ugly cry moment of,
like, I don't know.
It was just, it was really, really hard.
And so one of my products now was supposed to get in.
I was supposed to launch it.
Actually, two of them.
I was supposed to launch them, one of which
was supposed to arrive in early October.
And when I look, I'm like, why the heck is it not even
selling yet?
Like, what's going on?
Like, what is happening?
And when I go and I look, it's not even checked in yet.
And it's, like, it's been sitting there
for forever at the Amazon warehouse,
but it's not getting checked in.
And when I ask, it's like, oh, we
need a BOL document from your manufacturer.
I'm like, what?
This has never happened before.
Like, what the heck even is that?
Like, what?
So I asked my manufacturer, and I'm
supposed to be, like, having a crate Q4, right?
And I asked my manufacturer.
She took a week to get back to me.
And then finally, when she gets back to me,
she's like, I don't know what that is.
And I was like, great.
It's a bill of lading.
They should have given you a bill of lading
when your shipment took off.
They didn't give me anything.
They gave me a shipping label.
That's it.
I gave them the shipping label, and that's it.
Yeah, a lot of the time, it's required in the box
for the courier to even, like, pick it up and move it.
Yeah, I've never had to deal with this before,
because it's something that the manufacturer deals with.
The courier might have lost it, though.
It's usually in the box, though, isn't it?
Like, inside?
Well, it depends on what you're shipping,
because sometimes they can be, like,
an envelope on the outside that the courier can take some out
and leave another copy.
And then sometimes there's, like, one copy inside-inside
and another copy, like, on an exterior part.
It just depends on what it is.
Yeah, that's what it's called.
So anyway, so I was supposed to launch, and I'm not launching.
And it's, like, Black Friday, like you said.
And I'm just, like, whatever.
And I'm at the point where I'm just, like,
one more problem, one more problem.
Just this is part of the thing, and I guess this is it.
Like, what are we gonna do?
Just keep going forward.
I mean, this has been full of problems since day one.
And it's like, but here I am,
and I'm still pushing forward, and I'm still whatever.
And I can't, a lot of my products,
like, I need more inventory.
And, like, Gabby was saying, like, I can't afford to buy.
It's just sitting there in China,
and I can't afford to pay for it.
So I'm like, can I pay for a fourth of it?
And then you guys ship a fourth?
And, like, now I don't know how I'm gonna pay for shipping.
I don't know, I mean, my credit cards are literally maxed out.
And I'm gonna have to take out, out of my, like, investment.
My financial advisor already yelled at me
for doing this thing with Steven.
Like, so, like, I'm stuck, you know?
And that's just, my Q4 is garbage now.
But anyway, yeah, it's just another problem.
Just keep pushing forward.
And I think all of these problems
just make us stronger and stronger.
And I feel like had I gone through this last year,
I'd have been like, oh my gosh, this is so hard.
But because I've already been through so many of them,
it's just like, okay, one more, shake it off.
Like, next, you know?
It's just one more.
They're gonna keep happening.
This isn't gonna be the last one either.
It's gonna keep happening.
And it's not to discourage you,
but it's like, it's part of the process.
It's not what we, like, none of this is what we planned.
None of this is at all what we planned.
And none of it moving forward
is going to be what we planned.
And so, but for whatever reason,
like, we're pushing forward and pushing forward,
and that's what being a CEO is, you know?
Just keep pushing.
Well, also, like you said, Rebecca,
it used to be that your manufacturer in China
took care of it.
And now it's like an opportunity
to work with your manufacturer in Pakistan.
Like, don't you have this person on staff?
How can we have this person
to take care of the shipping things for me?
And if your new manufacturer in Pakistan cannot,
maybe it's like an opportunity for you
to get a store manager or some person
to do those types of activities for you
and have it on their radar.
And just, if you don't like that task,
offload it and delegate it to somebody else.
And then sometimes, like in the past,
I've had opportunities where it's like,
okay, if I'm going to justify having to talk
to a whole nother person about this one task,
what other tasks can I make that person do
that I don't want to do?
And you might find maybe some of your time gets freed up
by giving that person ownership of those things.
You get to focus on, like, your new app
that you're developing.
developing and that kind of activity that's growing your business instead of just operations.
Yeah, I'm hoping that everything is...
I'm hoping that we can get this figured out so that I know what to do next time.
Because if I know what to do, it's not so scary, but it's like
you don't want to mess custom stuff up.
Yeah, anyway, I don't want them to lose it.
Yeah, I think I just like a good challenge for yourself. This might not be something you do
in the moment, but that's good for everyone. I think is we need to be able to reflect on the
past like and look instead of seeing all the problems because those are always so glaringly
obvious. We need to choose to slow down and sift through to find where was the good? Was it in how
you grew? Was it in how you've transformed? Was it in something in the process? Was it a
blessing that came out of something? Was it a byproduct? Was it just like new vision?
We need to also grow that skill as I think human beings, but especially as business owners to
look back and choose to see where things have gone right in whatever capacity, whatever the
wind was. Because of times like this, because we all have these phases of just like, holy shit,
like there's just like too many problems, too much money, this, too, and like I can't see past it.
And it's like that we have to build that small voice in the back of our head that's like, but
we grew and remember when this happened and that blessing kind of came out of it and we didn't
expect it. So it might just be something that you guys do periodically. Again, I'm all for sometimes
you just need to be in the frustration and the anger and like, trust me, I do that. But have
the discernment and have the self-awareness to know when it's time to shift into, all right,
I've got to stop just looking at the problems. I've got to look at something else. I've got to
look at something good. And if you have a hard time doing that, having a gratitude practice is a
great way to start just starting to name things that you're thankful for. And it forces your brain
chemistry to shift. So and it could be stupid. Like I've done this where I'm like, I look outside
and I'm like, thank you for that one cloud I see in this Arizona desert where we never see clouds.
I'm like, thank you for that one cloud or thing. Like I'm not even joking. Sometimes it's really
dumb and it just like, but it moves up the scale where it's like, okay, now I can say thank you for
oh, last week, like the kids were like getting along. And even though I was cranky all week,
I didn't think to remember that they were getting along and not killing each other.
Like just stuff like that. So I think while there's a place for
the despairing and just like the frustration, discouragement, there also needs to be a place
for moving in the other direction. So that's my challenge to everyone today.
Because we've all been around the block here in this group specifically been around the block.
When we've been around the block, I have the tough love talk come out.
When we haven't been around the block, then I'm a little nicer. But yeah.
Knowing where the line is, where
I mean, because I don't. Yes, it's been a frustrating day, but I'm not,
I don't feel like I'm stuck in negativity, but at the same time, like
I don't know where the line in the sand is where you like wave the white flag.
I think that's a very personal choice. And I think it can come down to sometimes your bandwidth.
You're like there are you might hit a season in life where and I don't know,
I'm open to hearing like your guys's point of view on this, but I'm reflecting on my life.
Um, it's like, okay, I know that realistically, there's a way out. There's another I could go
this direction, I could pivot this direction. But it's just like, sometimes it's like, I am
my bandwidth to function and even make decisions in the business or other aspects of life are like,
it is low. And I know I need to go into a season of recovery. Again, I think this takes practice.
I think this is a practice. It's a skill to grow this type of self-awareness and this
and it's just like something we're always involving evolving in throughout our life.
That is how I feel. Where it's like, maybe looking at all this business.
all this stuff and just be like, I don't know if I have the bandwidth to continue on. But what I
love that actually Megan brought to my attention after one of these conversations earlier this year
was just like, just because you put something down now doesn't mean that eternally it's just done.
You can choose later on to pick it back up or you can choose to do it differently down the road.
You know, it doesn't have to be a black and white, I'm done forever. Either I keep going
forever or I'm done forever. There is a whole lot of in between. So I don't know,
do I don't know, does anybody else want to like share maybe their perspective on that?
I think the fact that you're, the what stuck with me was that you said,
if I don't have a good December or Q4, I can't remember exactly how you worded it,
then I think I might be done. And for me, what stood out, because I've always said,
whenever I have hard days, I always tell myself, if it was easy, everyone would do this. If it was
easy, there would be no one not doing this. And I feel like the fact that you said, if December,
if Q4 is not good, then I'm thinking I might be like looking to sell my business. And I feel like
that, like maybe it might not have stood out to you thinking about it. But for me, when you said
that, I heard strength because there's any number of people that have tried to walk the road that
we've walked and they didn't think about it. When they hit that moment where like got hard,
they didn't think I might, if this doesn't work out, I might think about selling the business.
They didn't think that far ahead. They just walked away. They walked away with the debt.
They walked away as if it had been a failure. And in my mind, until I stop trying, I can't fail.
And so I feel like for me, when you said that, I was thinking, I don't know if you even recognize
that. But to me, that spoke strength. That spoke somebody that has resilience. Like she said,
they've been around the block. You know these challenges arise. And that's not to say that
you don't hit that point where it actually is time to walk away from it. But the fact of the
matter is the CEO energy that you're giving is, I might be done, but I ain't done yet.
You know, like I always think about like, if you ever see like
the Mary Kay girls or like Plexus or whatever, all the different things they're selling,
like they they're like posting and they're like, I only have $750,000 left to sell before
June 1st so I can win this free. They like, those girls never give up. They're like,
I didn't hit it the last 10 times, but I might hit it this time. I'm trying to find that energy.
I'm a Mary Kay consultant and I can tell you that's very true.
I only need 75 orders by midnight and I get to go to the deal line.
And then they go and do it. That's what's crazy.
Yeah, so I mean, that's what I'm thinking like, you're the Mary Kay consultant on May 31st
trying to get those $75,000 worth of orders by midnight. Like, but that shit happens. Like,
I don't know. Like they just have, their mind says it happens and it happens.
Our new alter egos.
And I agree. It's like, it's okay to be frustrated today.
It's okay to be frustrated again tomorrow. It's even okay to be like a little like disappointed
until your stuff gets checked in at the Amazon center. But you get to define what success looks
like for you. And like Michaela said, it's like, you're still giving out a lot of positive energy.
Like you're hopeful for December. Like it didn't work out this month, but next month it could.
And you get to decide like what a successful December might look like and strategize
how, how can I make my December look like that? How can I get to a point where January
is going to be a totally different month for me where you're going to go to the other side
of the pendulum? Yeah. I think I can, you know, add a couple of little extra thoughts here too,
if you will indulge me. It took a, the stretch of time from September to December
is a gauntlet because of all of the factors that change with capacity limits, with shipping times,
with prioritizing what's getting checked in and what's not getting checked in. It took me two
years to figure out how to strategize that season
with bringing inventory in.
And I put my Christmas inventory order in now
on May 1st every year.
And the problem with the way that that goes
is that you've got the holidays
and then things get backlogged,
your capacity limits dropped.
So now, even if you could get the inventory there,
they won't check it in
because now your capacity limits have been decreased.
So now I've got inventory.
So I figured out, it took two years.
I figured out that if I didn't wanna sell it out in January,
I had to front load my inventory
knowing that I would be over my capacity limits.
But once it's checked in, it gets to stay there.
And so I would max out my capacity in August and September
and make sure that inventory was there
knowing I was gonna eat it a little bit on the overages,
but that I wasn't gonna sell out in January
because the problem is then you don't have enough inventory
to get you to the other side of Chinese New Year,
which is the other factor that you bump into
right away after the holidays.
And so you gotta thread a needle in the spaces
where you can do it.
And it takes a second to realize all of that stuff.
It's just part of the learning process.
And then, okay, forget about the fact
that then you need to have the capital
to make that big order and ship a big order,
which it's tricky.
And so, and everybody's sales patterns
and everybody's trends are gonna shift,
especially in those first couple of years.
So it's really hard to guess.
And you don't wanna overspend
and you don't wanna over front load
and you don't wanna end up paying long-term storage fees.
And I've made all of those mistakes.
And, you know, it took time
to really kind of figure out the rhythm of it all.
And so, you know, it's intensely frustrating,
especially when you're leaving sales on the table,
knowing there's sales there for you
that you're not gonna be able to convert
because it just is the nature of the beast
at this time of year.
And, you know, it was very frustrating.
But there's a solution.
And, you know, it just, it's something that needs time.
So I just offer that as sort of a reflection on,
you know, that this takes a second sometime
to figure out where the spaces are
because it does feel at this time of year
like Amazon is setting you up to fail.
And I definitely relate to that feeling.
But you'll learn, it's all good information.
I knew that, I mean,
my stuff was supposed to be there in October
and I knew that this was all gonna be a mess.
I have it all set up to do FBM for my 3PL.
So that wasn't gonna necessarily be the issue.
But this time of year, yeah.
It's just like, it just intensifies the need
to have everything in place every day
because you're losing all these sales
and you can't think about it that way
because you drive yourself crazy.
Yeah.
And the other thing I'll say just as an observation too
is it's okay to reflect on
as you expand your business model,
as you expand what you're doing
and the direction you're going with your business,
it's okay to reflect on whether the Amazon part of that
is where you're going, you know?
And that's okay.
Maybe that's not what you're gonna do yet.
Maybe your time and energy is better spent
developing your other services and your other verticals
that you're integrating into the business.
And so reflecting on,
a good CEO also cuts their losses early.
There's that side of it too.
And so being able to really reflect on the why,
the bigger why of where you're bought,
what you're developing for your business
and where your time, energy and resources are best spent.
It's okay also to reflect on,
do I wanna keep going this direction with the Amazon stuff?
Because it is a whole other animal.
Like it is a literally its own jungle
that you tend on this side
that really doesn't connect too much to the other stuff.
If you're developing services or your funnels
and all of those kinds of things,
it's a wonderful little add on to all of that stuff.
But like, even with the success that I've had on Amazon,
I have paused and went,
is this even relevant to what this other thing I'm doing?
And that's an important thing as a CEO to reflect on.
You can spread yourself too thin
and then not put the energy and the time
into the thing that you really are.
passionate about developing. So I just want to offer that as, as,
you know, an option as as an observation. And, you know, we're
all sort of pivoting into these sort of different ideas now
after Colorado, and I think that it's okay to ask the question.
Yeah, I like them to build off what Christie said, you're,
you're kind of saying like, you get to decide like what
successes. And to me, it's like, when you're thinking about
that, you know, when you look forward to this next, maybe six
weeks, or if you want to look further into q1, like, what
would you need to do? Or what would need to happen for you to
feel proud and like secure and confident in you like in who you
are, period. Okay, there's like that layer like that top layer.
Like, okay, like, if my for me, if it like, I don't know, just
an easy one, it would be like, if it's perseverance, like if I
need to feel like I have a sense of like, okay, a good one for me
would be like finishing like when I start like, not, you
know, maybe like, not allowing my emotions or whatever to make
me jump around a lot, you know, that's like, okay, that's my
priority. So like, what does that look like at the business
level, in the next six weeks, or, you know, into q1? And then
also with what Corinne is saying, make and then that, that
forces you to evaluate what you're also doing the business,
like, are you spread yourself too thin? Or do I pivot this
way? Is it time to put this down? Is it you know, like, it
all feeds into one another. So I think that's like a great, I
think everyone's feedback was fantastic. I definitely took
something from everybody. Thank you, everyone for sharing. We
chatted like almost the whole time.
Goes by so fast when we have these kinds of conversations.
Corinne, I didn't get to ask you, you put seven. Why did you
put seven?
I mean, mostly because I'm not in Tahiti anymore.
How can I be 10? I can't. It's not possible.
Um, how was it? Here? Oh, I mean, it was like, I got I'm
moving there now.
But it was it was fantastic. It's so pretty there. I didn't
even rained a couple days. I don't care. It was still
pretty. No, I had a really good time. It was good. And I did
get some work done too. And, you know, it was it was good. Much
needed, for sure. But no, I mean, seven's good to me. I
not to bore everyone with the day to day of mine, but like,
I'm just dealing with some stuff in the business. That's like not
the fun part for me. I'm not getting to sit in my 20% a ton
right now, because I'm dealing with some stuff. And, you know,
I had somebody that was collaborating on content with
me. And, you know, I spent, you know, the time the last six
weeks, building out an offer for her, and she declined it. And so
now we're, we're parting ways on that, which is fine. It's not
the end of the world. But it's been, you know, just a process a
thing to process. So and then, you know, moving forward, so
there's lots of good stuff happening too. And mostly, it's
just there's too much to do in a day. And so I'm just trying to
get all this like, housekeeping, legal, you know, stuff sorted,
and then my business partner who will be coming on board with me
officially as of January 1, she is transitioning out of her
other job now. So that's exciting. Also can't go into
detail, the circumstances of her exit from the job were not fun
for her. And it was really actually a sad exit for her
wasn't she didn't choose it. And so I've been trying to give
her space and support her with that transition while trying not
to be too excited for myself. And so but she's wonderful. And
I expect you guys are going to start to see her popping up
because she's going to be right here side by side with me in in
my development and stuff. And she'll be coming down to Santa
Fe or to San Diego to do my build day with Steven and she's
coming in hot. So I'm very excited for this little window
of time for her to transition and then for us to be able to
start fresh really, really hit the ground running January 1.
So you know
So there's just some like mixed sort of feelings about everything, which would have been easier
in Tahiti. So, you know,
me and Karina called all the steps, she's working on her poo poo stuff,
the poo poo stuff. That's not fun. Not fun. Gotta do it. Yeah. Our official name.
Yeah. But, but honey bears are going really well. And I had a fun week because of the Starbucks
effect. So that was, that was crazy. The Starbucks effect. Wait, what's the Starbucks effect?
Well, the star, I sell a honey bear straw cup and Starbucks just came out with that
bear straw cup. So all my traffic went bananas. Yeah. You should share a little bit about that.
Share some of the highlights. Well, so it was a very excellent case study of relevant traffic
on your keywords. I had all my campaigns set up, you know, my keywords, honey bear straw cup,
honey, we're struck up for babies. And, you know, people go on Amazon and they search and they find
the product and it's got very high buyer intent, those keywords, right? If you go on Amazon and
search honey bear straw cup, what are you there to buy? You're there to buy a honey bear straw cup.
You're not there to buy a straw sippy cup. You're not there to buy a baby cup. You're not there to
buy a bot. You're there to buy a honey bear straw cup. High, high, high buyer intent, right? So
then Starbucks comes out with a bear straw cup. So what do people start doing?
Googling bear straw cup? Well, because I'm optimized for that, all of a sudden I have
millions of impressions on my PPC. So my P my impressions went up 4,000% overnight and my
tacos went up from 4% to 56% overnight. And I was like, what is happening? So
the amount of irrelevant traffic that was clicking my ads
on Amazon put my PPC spend off the charts. So I sold $6,000 worth of inventory on November 7th
and I lost money. So I get on the computer and it was over the weekend and I get, I have someone
that handles all my PPC and she usually doesn't work on the weekends. And I just threw a message
into the Slack and I was like, dear God, Nita, please, can you just turn off all the campaigns?
Like just turn it off. Cause it's not, these people are clicking my ads and
nobody's buying. My conversion rate was just horrible overnight. So she turned everything
off, but the traffic didn't subside. So the traffic was still there and I kept converting
that traffic. So on Friday, my tacos was 56%. And on by Tuesday, my tacos was 1%
because I was still converting, but I had turned off all my ad sales. It was insane rollercoaster
of, of a day, but it was very, it was a great lesson in watching that traffic and managing
that in a real time thing. And you know, it, this was an insane outlier. You could never predict
that, but the fact that I was able to pivot that quickly and understood the PPC enough to even
communicate to, to my person to pivot, what happened was because we turned everything off,
but kept converting, I recovered that loss. So it was great and ended up, I ended up being quite
profitable on those tail ends of that days. The whole thing happened. It, it, it crested and
subsided in about six days and it's over now. And now everything's back to regular programming,
except that now on Amazon, if you search Honeybear Straw Cup, there's like all these
secondary listings now of people trying to get on those keywords and sell Starbucks-like cups.
So now it's muddied the waters in terms of where the listings are landing on those keywords.
So I haven't really turned my campaigns back on much yet and I'm still doing okay. So,
but it looks like it's equalized, but it was, it was, it was crazy and it was fun. And it was
like, you know, a really good lesson on, on PPC essentially.
How is your return rate right now?
It's slowed down. That's what I'm watching for now. So, you know, people that have bought it
to make sort of silly Instagram videos and now are just turning around and returning.
But here's what I take away from all of that.
There are now four million new people
that know that my product exists that didn't know before.
So the takeaway from that is something
that I can't measure eventually.
I can't, I could never go ask all of these people,
but there are a heck of a lot more people now aware
that these straw cups exist and, you know,
maybe they'll have babies one day
and come back and buy them.
So anyway, so that was a wild week.
With our last minute,
does anyone, like, do you wanna go around the room?
Mikaela, I had never seen your product before in Colorado
and I've been seeing it on TikTok in the past two weeks.
That's so funny.
Well, that's why,
because everybody started making,
this is my broken down Starbucks bear.
Does anyone like wanna give like a quick little,
like, just takeaway from today's call?
We've got about a minute,
so it's gonna have to be quick.
Maybe everybody, I don't know.
I'm really grateful, Corinne,
you shared today about pivoting
and about like just your experience
because it really teaches me that I can,
that problems are gonna arise
and that there's a solution and that we could pivot
and like with time, with experience, we can learn
and to just keep moving forward.
And I needed to hear that today, so thank you.
You're welcome.
One of my core mantras is just keep going.
Just keep swimming.
Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.
I just, I need to,
I need to really pray and meditate on where things are going
because I'm at this crossroads in my other job too
and trying to figure out where to put my time and energy
and I'm still figuring that out,
which makes these kinds of decisions harder
until I make a decision on that.
That's good clarity though.
Good clarity to have.
Every once in a while,
it's really important to revisit your why.
Update it.
It's a dynamic thing.
It's not always the same all the time
and what motivated you to start might not,
might've changed.
So, it's a good exercise to do on a regular basis, I think.
I've definitely practiced that.
Even if it's just to reinforce
that you're still on the road that you wanna be on.
Here's like, yeah, checking in with myself, about myself.
I think one of my takeaways from today is,
there's like no black and white answer for anything.
There's a lot of decisions that you make along the path
and you can take a break.
You can hammer forward.
You can walk away.
You get to decide and you get to choose.
And that choice today might be different tomorrow
and the next day, the next day,
depending on the energy level that you're bringing.
And I think that it's like,
there's a space for everything to be acceptable.
I don't have to grind every single day.
Not every day has to be like tough.
Some days could just be like,
I'm gonna let that simmer kind of day.
So, yeah.
Mikayla's taking some Mary Kay energy with her.
Ooh, gonna be a new thing, new persona.
Love it.
Let's see, my takeaway, I don't know.
I like hearing from everybody today.
Like hearing everybody's perspective.
I like hearing everyone's little wisdom and nuggets
on knowledge, on just even business related things.
Like I'm learning stuff too, listening to you guys.
I definitely am not an expert on anything really.
So, it's fun to hear from all of you.
And yeah, it was a good call.
Good, good stuff.
I love it.
All right, guys, I've gotta go to my team meeting.
So, I'm gonna have to say goodbye.
But don't forget, every Tuesday,
we are here now for office hours.
Yeah, and I'll see everyone on your call with me for sure.
Bye guys, have a good day.
See you soon.