you
hey Heather hey how are you I'm good how are you yeah you get ready for
Thanksgiving not really not yet but that's okay perfectly normal normally
I'm not either but I've decided to go really crazy with baking this year so
I've been prepping I started prepping yesterday my pie crust and then maybe
I'll do a little bit today we'll see but I might just wait till tomorrow when I
can really check out mentally yeah yeah hey Christie
hey good
see if anybody else
are you guys traveling for Thanksgiving
no nope how about you yes I'm just leaving in a few hours to drive down to
Florida where my family lives yeah it's gonna be like eight hours probably when
it's all said and done but yeah leave after my husband's last phone call I
used to be us I grew up in Tennessee so we didn't have we were didn't have any
extended family bias so we would always drive for everything like our spring
break summer trip holidays so we'd either be going to Tampa where we have
a lot of family or up to Chicago or like the other contingent of the family was
but now we live out here and we don't do that anymore just stay here that would
be a really long drive yeah we're in Tennessee did you have Chattanooga we
went to Chattanooga over the weekend just for one night to hang out and it's
probably a lot different now than when you were growing up there it's it's a
beautiful place every time we go we stay in a slightly different spot and so it's
like totally unique experience every single time yeah beautiful I love
Chattanooga like just as far as like geographically like it's beautiful I do
miss it for that reason and it has like blown up so much since I lived there
like 14-15 years ago so yeah I do miss all of the green all the water all the
things no worries Heather
I feel a sneeze coming Heather how did your product launch go for the kids
version we're still it hasn't gone yet still working on listing images and copy
and all of that so but if all of the products are at the warehouse though so
that's okay I mean they're all at my 3 p.m.
when you're what fanning to actually do the launch launch I'm not sure I'm
I'm working with a marketing team so I'm kind of waiting on them
How are you feeling just about all of your stuff? You've had like, lots of mental shifts,
I feel like with your business recently. I'm just wondering how you're feeling about everything.
Um, it's like, I feel like I have control and like power over the decision making. But
it feels like a little bit like, iterative and experimental. So I guess I just feel a
little bit more empowered, like, I'm doing it correctly, like, that's the way it's supposed
to be that I don't necessarily know what the outcome is going to be before I start. And,
and so yeah, I don't know, I just placed another bulk order for my lunch boxes. And I was like,
keep telling myself, oh, it has a high return rate, but it also has a high rate of people
keeping it. It was like, so I'm trying to like, iterate with chat GPT. Like, why are
people keeping it? Who are the people who are keeping it? Like, tell me about that
audience so that I can figure out how to get more of those people. And like, you know,
change the listing and optimize things that way. And so I feel kind of like I'm, I'm shifting
into that kind of like, positive mindset, or it's like, this is working, like, how can
I make this work more? So that's good. Have you been Have you found anything out? Has
it? Um, I think the thing that it noticed that maybe I didn't was the places that people
are purchasing the lunchbox from tend to be on the coast. And so that they're like the
high rate of non returns are from like, California and Florida. And the high rate of returns
are from people who are not near the coast. And so I don't know why I'm like, I just found
that out yesterday, like talking with chat GPT, and like uploading all these like reports.
You know, I was like, ask chat, what do you need for me to download from my seller central
to analyze like, who's keeping this stuff? And I just like uploaded those reports. And
that's what it told me. And I haven't told the marketing team that yet. But I'm going
to Florida, I'm going to take my kids down to the beach, I'm going to take some pictures
of my box on the beach. You know, I'm like, pack them like a snack lunch on Wednesday
and take some photos of them down there on the beach and see if that does anything at
all. Um, and then what else did it say? Oh, so you remember when you looked at my PPC,
and you're like, the stainless steel is not necessarily resonating so much. And so what
chat was saying was maybe that what's resonating better is eco friendly, and durable. And then
I should use more of that language instead of like concentrating on metal bento box or
stainless steel bento box, like, concentrate more on, you know, what the problem is they're
trying to solve, essentially, is like an eco conscious decision in eliminating plastics.
And so I was like, Okay, that's interesting. Because even though I have all those keywords
in my listing, and in my a plus content, I would definitely say that none of those are
words that people search, those aren't like terms that come up. But I am starting some
um, what is that stuff called? It's on Facebook meta ads, they call it? Yeah, meta ads. And
I think that I could probably put that into the meta ads. More than probably like the
PPC. Yeah. I mean, and even in your infographics, you know, can really beef up the eco friendly
vibe, you know, with even colors, losing lots of green and stuff like that. That's so fascinating. I
love that you did that I would love okay, it's like, okay, what is it about coast people? Like,
and it's like both coasts, which is they're very different cultures and like vibes being in East
Coast versus West Coast, like I've spent a lot of time in both. And so that's really fascinating.
Tell me about the mindset of these coast people.
and like, what is shared?
That's pretty cool though.
And you know, like, like both cultures, right?
So like most of Florida is actually poor.
They don't actually buy premium products.
Whereas most of California, like they,
they're like a bipolar distribution,
bimodal distribution.
Like there's like the people who are like ultra wealthy
and they're only gonna buy like name brand awesome stuff.
And then the people who are maybe like not on that side
of the spectrum or whatever.
And so, yeah, I found it pretty interesting.
Maybe it's something with the nature, I don't know.
Being like a nature tie-in, maybe not, but cool.
That's exciting though.
It's good to have like something to like move forward
with like some information to test at least.
Good work.
Is it only the East Coast and the West Coast
or are there other coastal communities
that you're selling to, do you think?
I'm just wondering if it's like.
It called out like the Pacific Northwest.
I had multiple sales in Hawaii
and I can't think of anything,
maybe Massachusetts, it said, Massachusetts.
I know being on a coast, I live near the coast
and we see a lot of trash washout
and that might be something that, you know,
you just sit, you seal, whatever.
Yeah, I mean, in terms of eco-friendly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Not sure.
Yeah, I know in Florida, there's like people,
like people would have a lot of kids
and I don't know, like the lid on it is pretty like
for little kids, you know, it's not really
like an adult friendly, like graphic design or anything.
And so I'm working on something for future products for that
but yeah, we'll see, we'll see what happens.
When I just placed my second bulk order
for that product line, I got two other colors
and that was something that they really talked a lot
about in the Intelli-V polls
was they didn't like the green color.
And so I got other colors like a pinkish coral color
and like a purplish blue color
to see how impactful that might be.
And then I think that I'm gonna try
to do a different product line in January,
hoping to try to make my big order
before the Chinese new year
and have it in the checking into Amazon, like in April
so I can hit like 30 reviews
before the back to school season starts.
And so I've been telling Hassan and like the marketing team
that's like, I want three to five products,
like three to five ASINs on with 30 reviews plus
before July, because I don't know which ones might be
like the biggest winners,
but I think I probably told all of you this.
It's like crazy to me that other sellers
that had been on the market for five months
that had 30 reviews, they made $200,000 revenue in July,
$200,000 revenue in August.
Like meanwhile, Bento made $1.4 million revenue,
one ASIN, just one ASIN, what?
That's crazy talk.
I was like, I don't need $200,000 in revenue.
I could get like $20,000 in revenue,
like just 0.1% of Bento, like that'd be totally fine
with me.
So Hassan and I think Asher, let me call him Asher.
They're like, okay, well, let us know.
And they've been like trying to like give me feedback
on what they see the competitors doing well.
And so, yeah, I'm hoping that I can, yeah,
have a really, really good next summer.
That's amazing.
It's amazing how much like, I think I looked it up
as like a $30 billion annual market for lunchboxes.
Wow, well, it sounds like you're doing everything right.
Yeah, I'm trying to be strategic now that I kind of know some of the mechanics of the
process.
I'm trying to be more strategic and offloading things to other people like Hassan so that
I can focus on what needs to be done and getting the timelines right to hit the right market.
I looked a little bit into some dropshipping stuff and Aasha was like, no, you don't want
to do that because it's going to dilute your brand and you're just going to look like a
Chinese seller.
And I was like, okay, so like, you know, focusing on the branding a lot more, yeah, good stuff.
I'd love, I mean, we're kind of covering this, but I do want to share like personal best
business best, just see what's going on with you guys, partially because I also want to
share my personal best because you guys weren't on my office hours yesterday and I was like,
I would just want to share it with everybody.
Mine is just baking.
I was telling Heather very briefly when we first got on, like I would say for the past
several Thanksgiving, I've just been like, you know, doing the bare minimum to contribute
to our family dinner and like, just tired, you know, just like showing up, whatever.
But this year, like last week or something like that, I found, I started following this
new Instagram gal.
She's a baker at an inn and I'm obsessed with her, I'm obsessed with her content.
She just bakes all day and I'm like, man, what a job, what a dream job.
And so it's just got me like, I obsessed, I'd watch like all of her content in one day.
And I'm just like, you know what, I'm just going to bake.
And I just, I just have this desire to like ignore the world, put aside stress, put aside,
you know, the worries with all the things.
And I love to bake.
I don't do it very much, though, because I can't eat everything that I want to bake and
my kids can't eat everything I want to bake.
So I don't bake a lot anymore, but I do truly love it and I'm good at it.
So I just decided that I'm going to go super hard for baking for Thanksgiving this year.
I told everyone, don't buy any dessert.
I'm making tons of dessert.
So I planned out what I was making over the weekend.
My husband went grocery shopping for what I needed.
I started my, I made my pie dough, pie crust yesterday and it's chilling in the fridge.
So I'm just excited.
That's like my personal best.
Like I'm like truly I'm my body is like so in vacation mode this week, like yesterday.
And I'm just like, guys, on these calls, if I seem like I'm on another planet, it's because
my brain is on it.
I'm just like in like my brain is like fake and just ignore everybody.
I just want to bake and read my books.
That's where I'm at.
Um, business best, I don't really have any business best right now.
I think that as far as Rainmaker business side of things, I think I've hit a good groove
with like having all the calls and like, um, that's kind of smoothed out, I think in terms
of just like getting a routine going, um, everyone's kind of used to the transition
now.
That's a good one.
Maybe you guys.
Um, I don't, I can't think of a business best.
Well, you know, I've been, um, putting, I put together a notion, like in my database,
a weekly, you know, where I can track my weeks and have goals and things.
And yesterday I was looking at my template and I was like, you know what, I'm going to
add to my template because at the end of the week I have, I write notes, um, gratitude
bullets.
Like, what am I grateful for this week?
Don't, instead of just putting like, this is what I accomplished and this is what I
didn't, and this is why I think blah, blah, blah.
I'm like, oh, you know what?
I'm going to write what, what I'm grateful for too.
At least three things that happen.
Like I had a great meeting with Hassan and Ashir and I'm, I'm really grateful to have
met them.
You know, I just, I, I just think they're, they're, they're such extraordinary people.
They're really caring, nice, talented young men.
So I'm like, I'm really grateful for that.
And, um, I had some skin cancer removed from my face over the weekend.
My eyes were like swollen shut, but, but, um, I was in such good hands for it last, it
was the end of last week.
Um, I was really grateful that I could have it done on the island where I live.
I didn't have to travel and I just felt.
so completely comfortable with the care that was in the skill.
So yeah, and grateful for community, really great.
I re-watched last week's office call that I missed,
and I was like, oh, well, they're my people.
I'm so sorry I missed it.
Though, wish I could have given people.
I just kept wanting to talk to the replay.
Like, oh.
So anyway.
Yeah, so yeah, so that's all.
Not really business, but just perspective, yeah.
You should have taken notes, and then typed out your notes
in, I don't know, in the group or something,
and be like, this is my response to this.
That's something that I need.
I need my, I got to put my input in there.
That's so funny.
For some reason, that reminded me.
One of my best friends from growing up
recently reached out to me.
We haven't talked in a really long time.
We used to, before I had a busy kid household,
we used to talk a lot more frequently.
She reached out to me recently on Instagram.
I was like, hey, just like, what's
your updated email or whatever?
And she's like, OK, I sent it.
I was like, OK, this is weird.
And at first, I was like, this seems kind of spammy.
I was like, prove it's you.
And then she goes, of course, she
has information that no one would have, right?
And so she was reading some book.
I already forgot the name of it, but she
was reading a book where the main character in this book
keeps connection with her lifelong friends,
like childhood best friends, through letters.
They don't talk all the time.
They don't see all the time, but they occasionally
might exchange letters.
And so for her, she was inspired of like, OK, we can do email.
She's like, you might sit down and just type some sentences
here and there, and then at some point,
maybe send it or whatever.
So she sent me this decently lengthy email,
but I knew she was holding back.
I was like, this would be like a book if she really
put everything in there.
So that, for some reason, that reminded me of that.
So maybe if anyone needs encouragement
to get in touch with some lost friends that you've had.
So I have her email.
I need to respond to you.
I'm planning to do that this week, too.
Because I'm like, when I responded,
I was like, it's going to be a book.
I was just like, a lot of stuff.
So I need time to sit and type it out.
But I don't know why that sparked that thought,
but I'm thankful for that.
Yeah, when I was at the hospital after my operation,
I ran into the electrician who helped me build my house.
And he's like, oh, hey, how are you doing?
How are things going?
And I just, it's like those pitches
that we are supposed to practice about our brand.
Do you know what I mean?
Because I just caught myself completely,
I just didn't know what to say.
Because life is so deep, and there's so many levels.
And to just come and say, oh, I'm fine, it just sounds,
I wish there was a way to communicate the breath.
What's the word?
Breath of, how can we communicate
the breath of our lives and everything
that we've done in the last year or whatever,
and new businesses, and our kids have so many challenges,
but triumphs as well, and everything.
And to distill that into a sentence
when somebody in a corridor says, oh, hey,
haven't seen you in a couple of years.
How are you doing?
What do you say?
Is there something?
I will just tell people, I hardly ever just keep it
to one sentence.
It's like a whole paragraph.
We'll send these gigantic text messages whenever
I get pinged by people, like once a month or something.
I'll message somebody, oh, how are you doing?
And then they'll write me back a text, and it's this long.
And then I respond, and it's a text that long.
It goes back and forth, and then inevitably, you're busy.
And so yeah, I would just encourage
you to go ahead and tell them exactly, because you never
know what's going to happen.
Maybe you will see them more frequently than every two years
after that.
Yeah, yeah.
I just, it's hard for me to distill it, or even
to come up with the words.
It's just so much.
Yeah.
Hi, Michelle and Kayla.
Hi, guys.
Sorry, I'm late.
I was on the call with Brandon.
Mikayla already heard my dessert spiel yesterday, so.
So we're all waiting for photos in the, you know, app of all the desserts that you make.
You got to share what your table looks like.
It could be a lot.
Mikayla, you have any personal business best you'd like to share?
Best?
I revamped my whole listing this week to try to more targeted like towards gifting, I guess.
And made some changes to some keywords and stuff.
My PPC guy said that my buyer intent was really good when people search for a large butter
crock.
So I tried to do better about putting, pushing that because that really is one of the only,
it's one of the main things that differentiates me as far as like a design is concerned because
most of them hold about a stick and a half of butter and mine can hold up to three sticks.
So it's much larger, you know, if you have a big family and things like that.
So I tried to put that more in my listing and my pictures and my title, all that stuff.
So I literally planned out like an hour and a half of my time on one day to do that.
And I think I spent two whole days doing it.
But I did, I, you know, touched on my infographics.
I touched on my main image.
I did A plus content, bullet, the whole nine, I hadn't like really went back in, in a while.
So I redid all that.
So that's what I've done this week.
It is not look every time I'm like, I give myself an hour or two because I'm like, Gabby
said, I need to write like, we talked about this.
I'm going to write.
And every day I'm like, I didn't write.
But this is where my income stream is coming from.
So this has to be, this has to be good first.
Then I can move on with a clear mind to do the other things.
But yeah, maybe this week, maybe this week.
Yes, for sure.
Yes.
What is the writing project?
Well, I have a devotional that I'm writing.
It's a 30 day devotional, but also I'm writing a book.
And I don't know if I'll ever publish it or do anything with it, to be honest.
I talked to Janine about it for a while.
And she was like, I feel like you need to write this book because it's been on your
heart to do it.
And you need to get the words on paper.
Even if no one ever reads them, they need to get on paper.
So that is what I've been doing.
And I don't know.
I feel like I've really been trying to listen to the callings that God places on my heart.
Like I'm really trying to follow wherever, wherever he leads me.
And I feel like even though I might have ignored it forever, like words are really like the
gift that he gave me, right?
Like they're really my ability.
And so I'm trying to lean into that gift and see where it takes me.
I have no idea.
I literally like, as far as the, I mean, the devotional, it's got structure, like it's
a plan.
But my book is like, it's, I'm not taking it anywhere.
Like it's just going where it's going.
And when it finishes, I'll see where it's at and go from there.
And I might not let anyone read it.
I might bury it with myself.
It's a one personal item.
Locks, it's got a lock on it.
Like your middle school diary.
Oh, that's so funny.
I have had a similar urging.
I wouldn't say that words are my gift, but there's been times where phases of life or
depth of emotion.
Really, I have a craving to write where it's like, that's the only way I can get it out
or express it.
But I mean, I understand it's like sometimes overwhelming.
Like I haven't put anything to paper yet.
And it's very, like there's big gaps of time in between those like urgings for me.
Like there's years, but then, so then I can ignore it for a long time.
But then I'm like, I know there's just going to come a day where I can't ignore it anymore.
And if it, even if it's for nobody, it's just for me, it's just something about putting
your story sometime out there.
But yeah, I understand that.
Yeah, for sure.
It's cathartic for sure.
Yeah.
Mikayla, what are your plans for Thanksgiving?
I don't know if you shared yesterday.
I can't remember.
I didn't.
Our family lives about 25 minutes from each other.
So we are blessed and cursed.
that we get to see everyone.
It is a blessing.
I love both of our families,
but it's just the holidays are very hectic.
You know, like it's, I'm very thankful.
You know, I have six siblings, there's seven of us.
And typically like we're never all together
because they go to see their in-laws for Thanksgiving
and then they come here for Christmas.
And it's, so we're not normally all together.
And I'm very thankful that I've never had to
make that decision that we get to do both.
But the holidays, Thanksgiving's not as bad.
Like Thanksgiving, you know, it's one day
we have lunch with my family
and dinner with my husband's family.
Christmas is a whole different beast.
Like every year, there have literally been years
that I have sat and cried on Christmas
because I'm just like, this is not fun.
But there are no parts of it.
Like every year I'm like, what could we cut out?
But then you have like grandparents
that have been doing the same traditions
forever and ever, and they're in their eighties.
And I'm like, I mean, they might have 10 more years
like I'm doing, like, I can't be the one.
So we just, we wing it and we relax after the holidays
and make it happen.
So, and I'm making a pumpkin pound cake.
It has like a maple glaze on it.
They literally asked me to make it every year
and it's really delicious.
So I make it, I make one for each.
And then at Christmas I make like a real like pound cake.
Yeah, I do love to bake, but since I have kids,
I don't bake.
For a while, I used my kids as like,
here, you eat the dessert.
And I don't care how much it is.
But then I was like, this is backfiring.
We need to have some boundaries in place.
But yeah.
It's snacks for me.
I could eat snacks.
I could skip every meal and just eat snacks.
Like hand me some Cheez-Its or some whales.
Like I got you.
I have a few snacks that are like that.
Not very many.
I have like my set, my set routine.
Yeah.
All right, guys.
What else is happening in your businesses?
My brain is struggling.
I already said this.
My brain is really, my brain is in vacation mode.
Just like full disclosure.
Mine has tried to go into vacation mode this whole month,
but Danielle called me out on November 1st and.
I have been looking at that AI certification thing
that Steven's doing and playing around
with some of the stuff that he is showing us.
And I've been kind of having fun with it.
Like as like a low pressure, you know,
only takes a few minutes of your time.
Like what could I invent and what could I create?
And so that's been pretty fun.
And I think that I, so Gabby said on our last
like coaching calls,
like you should try to invent something new.
And I feel like the AI is like,
kind of like the scratching the surface of everything,
like kind of a newer field of everything.
And I have my social media channel
that I really developed before I knew what products
I was gonna sell for working parent help.
And so I've been playing around with these like AI things
to see how I can create some custom GPTs
and things like that for that market.
And so I feel like I'm really on the cusp
of finding something that would be actually useful
for people and maybe like creating some sort of
like the eight fig AI like environment
where you can just go in and like do the custom GPTs
for different topics that help.
I am just like, I feel like my brain is just like this close
to figuring out how to get Jim and I
to read all of the school emails
and auto populate my calendar
with all of those special days
and like when to order the yearbook
and like all the things that the,
I have three different schools for my three kids
because they're at different ages.
And I just, when I'm like,
if I can get Jim and I to unlock that,
then that, that would be like, mwah.
Yeah, you've arrived.
I used to take my middle one to YMCA gymnastics
and there was another mom there
that had blocked off that hour of gymnastics
to catch up on all the school emails for the week.
Like that's.
she would do while her kid was at gymnastics instead of like going and working out or reading
a book or whatever. I'm like this is nuts. That'd be pretty cool. It'd be so cool. You
can figure that out. Yeah. I'm going to figure out to read my mind.
I mean, I think meta is pretty close to it. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe serious to know what you're
thinking before you're thinking it. The skimming process of school things caught me twice last
week because my son got a paper sent home and it was like, I don't know, they had some,
they were calling it like the reading week or something. Don't you read every week you're
in preschool? Like, I don't understand. But each day had this little blurb, right? And I read,
I don't know, like Mondays and Tuesdays, maybe. I don't know. I read a couple of them and it was
like nothing like, hey, we're going to read about this. Like, that's cool. I don't care.
Like once again, he's four, like teach him, read him whatever you want. And my daughter's friend
was like, is Luke wearing his pajamas tomorrow? And I'm like, I don't think so. And she's like,
I'm pretty sure he's supposed to wear his pajamas tomorrow. And I was like, you're in second grade.
What do you know about what Luke's supposed to do? So I came home and looked and sure enough,
he was supposed to wear pajamas. And so we go about our week or whatever. And then on Friday,
I was just like, let me glance at this thing one more time. We were getting ready to leave. And
I realized that Friday was dressed like your favorite character day. We were dressed and
getting ready to go out the door. And I'm like, oh, he went as a police officer. It was great.
But yeah, I was like, I should. Yeah, that would be useful if it could.
If it would just tell you like the night before tomorrow, your youngest kid needs to wear a
yellow shirt or orange shirt, which WTF, like that's not a common color shirt. Like why not
white or black? We have the same thing. Wednesdays is the whole for like this whole
rest of the year. Wednesdays is where yellow. You need to give my kid a yellow shirt then.
Like, is that something that you want? Like, let's make that happen. And then it's like,
so the youngest has to wear a yellow or an orange shirt for fall. And then like the middle one is
supposed to make something like for that they're thankful for. But it's not on the homework sheet
they print out, not on the, you know, normal weekly email. It's in a separate email. Why?
Why put that in a separate email? Make it in the same email. I already trained to read that email.
Don't give me a separate thing now. That's not fair. But luckily, yeah, the middle one is old
enough that she knows what she's supposed to do. So she's in fourth grade. She's on top of it.
Yeah, we had a polka dot day one day, and I completely forgot about it. And so I was like,
my son, I mean, my when my daughter had polka dot day was easy, you know, she's she had polka dots,
but my son didn't have polka dots. So I literally like the morning of I pulled out like a blank
t shirt and took a permanent marker and like did polka dots on. Yep. I did it in the shape of his
cool. It looks like I put a lot of thought and effort into it. You did honestly did just because
it was on the same day doesn't mean you didn't put an effort. I don't even know if it was dry
when you put it on. All right, I got into chat. Give me some questions. Struggling so much. Okay,
gave me a lot actually a lot of really good ones, but I've picked out a couple
that are more like strategy. Okay, so what part of your business feels the most
unclear or complicated to you today?
Well, I think mine is always the same. It's knowing where to focus. Right? Like I have I mean,
you know this about me. I have all these ideas. And it's so difficult to know. Because I feel
like there's just been like, in the process, there's periods of time where, you know, before
I launched, I already had a product in, you know, production. So I focused on my social media. And
then, you know, after I launched, the product was going, well, then it's like, gosh, I'm trying to
make time for my social media. And then it's well, what's next? And so now I'm kind of at this boat.
where I've got like all these little pieces
that I've started along this two year journey.
And so it's figuring out where to focus that energy at.
You know, I've kind of turned my social media
over to my VA.
And I mean, it is not going down,
but I don't know that it's necessarily improving
the way that I would want it to.
I think, you know, as far as the amount I'm paying her,
to me, she's doing what I need to be done.
She's keeping it moving while I'm too busy to touch it.
But it does need my attention, you know,
it does need me to pour into my customers a little bit more.
You know, obviously my Amazon listing needed to be updated.
My sales, you know, haven't been what I wanted them to be.
And so I was trying to like cram in that this week
to boost those sales up and everything.
And then the whole, you know, writing
and it's just the different directions
is that is what feels the most unclear for me.
I think when you're, I think there's two things there.
Like one, I think my gut says like,
you have to learn to trust yourself
in terms of like what, like with the writing.
It's like, trust that like intuition
and just kind of follow that
as opposed to following what the world kind of says,
like you need to focus on.
It's like, okay, what's giving you income?
Which is not unimportant.
But when you have like kind of a handful
of different things that need your attention,
this question I wasn't gonna ask,
but this could be helpful for you to think about.
If you could wave a magic wand
and fix only one thing in your business immediately,
what would it be?
And depending on what that is,
that might be the thing that takes up your attention
right now until that gets taken care of.
And then it's like, okay, what's the next thing
that would be the only one thing I could choose at a time?
And that might help you like kind of rank almost
like what's most important.
Yeah.
Yeah, I feel like I do good at that sometimes
and sometimes I'm Gabby making 17 pies.
It's like, you know, I get a good grip
on where my priorities lie.
And then, for example, like I created Sammy,
do you know Sammy that, okay.
So Sammy had come to us and was telling us
she had kind of figured out how to win,
I guess, with the like Amazon affiliate
influencer type thing.
And so Sammy and me have a very similar mentality on things.
And so we conversated about it and she's like,
this is what I started doing and this is what,
and pretty quickly she went from not making anything
to making like $1,000 a month.
So of course then I had to say,
well, let me see if I can do that.
And I feel like the biggest hoop to jump through for that
is getting approved, right?
Is getting approved for the influencer program
and then also getting approved for the onsite commissions.
And I did both of those things.
Like I got approved for the influence program,
I submitted my videos.
I am approved for onsite commissions.
And now I'm just like, well, I did that.
So I feel like I should give it some attention,
but at the same time, like we talked about,
it's not, it's not it.
The shoulds, the shoulds, the shoulds, the shoulds.
It's not it.
Yeah, you gotta follow what's for you.
Some things are for other people,
some things are just for you.
I would like $900 a month though.
Sure, sure, sure.
I was like trying to figure out how to monetize
my working parent help, like social media thing.
And so I applied for some affiliate programs
that I actually like,
these are companies I wanna represent.
Like if I was gonna talk about anything,
like these are the companies that I wanna represent.
And one of them, like it's not even on the platform
for affiliate marketing anymore.
Like maybe they don't even have affiliate marketers anymore.
Like they just sent me an email that said,
no, this doesn't exist anymore.
And then the other one, the application,
like two weeks later, it's still pending.
It's like pending.
all of these invites to market other products and so I went down this rabbit hole of like
would I want to market those other products and like finally I'm just kind of like wait
no like I don't want to be a marketing person like I would do those other brands because
like I actually like that stuff but these random ones asking me to do it I don't really feel
with but I think it's called commission junction or something like that like CJ affiliates and
then the other one I think is partner stack I don't know if you looked at either of those
but maybe the thing to do is just to think in your brain what would naturally be something
that you want to affiliate market that you could authentically say like this is awesome
and then go after that as something that's kind of like energizing like hey I would love to
be your representative as opposed to you know
maybe products that you don't feel like so inclined to be authentic about
yeah I kind of um I talked to you when we were at the castle and he had talked to me because I
you know I explained to him like hey listen like you taught me how to get the people in the room
so I have the people in the room now but like how do I like now how do I make money
with that right and um he was telling me like basically what he did was he sent
um he figured out that if he sent out a hundred brand messages he would get one
deal so for like two weeks in a row I sent out a hundred brand messages and these were
saying like you were saying like I just walked around my house and found brands that I already
use that I already love that already you know align with you know who I am and things like that
and um I don't some a lot of you know some of them said they would give back to me and stuff
I haven't heard anything yet but also then I got to thinking about it and I was because some of
them said like they had used up their um budget for that and I was thinking to myself probably
November December not the time to make the connections so I kind of put that to the side
until next you know first of the year because I feel like I feel like that's probably a common
thing is that they have a certain allotted amount of money that they're planning to spend for the
year and hitting them up at the end of the year trying to make that initial connection probably
not the best thing and then I feel like if I ask them now and and I get that then it feels weird to
then approach them again so I like kind of put a hold on that because I was like yeah I'm
getting that same response repeatedly so okay yeah yeah
what else yeah I mean just called to get everything set up and ready to go now
so that in January you can go faster
mm-hmm yeah
what else for you Christy Heather what feels the most unclear complicated to you today
I think that's like the most complicated is I mean it's kind of um something I mean
haven't conquered yet is the concept of MVP and you know when is it going to be good enough
to just let it go and something that's kind of holding me back on my full-time job
and also in my e-commerce business and just it's not like a perfectionist thing
but it's more just like this concept of it's like not what I want it to be like what I think
would be valuable and so I want it to get to a spot where it is actually valuable which is the
thing that I'm like the most excited about all these AI tools that are available because I can
literally just like put the words out of my brain into AI and then it just like helps so much
to like just see it come back in real life like you know so close to being done
that yeah I think that that's the thing that's most complicated is just like letting things go
and knowing when to like get it to a certain point and then delegating it
and when to get it to a certain point and then just seeing how the market responds
very good there was another question in here but I feel like that there was a good
a good follow-up to that I'm gonna have to try to find oh what assumptions are you operating from
that you need to validate with data so you're talking about you want it to be valuable and
what you think would be valuable got to assess like are you assuming that something's valuable
or not valuable
or is that from a place of like, okay, data is kind of confirming or something outside
of yourself is confirming that it's not valuable. So, I'm going to think about.
Heather, what about for you while Christy comes back?
Gosh, one thing that I'm, this is, my whole brand is assumptions, so I'm not even going to go there.
But like my, one of my big pictures is like having a media, like a YouTube channel or
animations to go with plopples. And I did start to create animations and then I kind of fizzled
out. And so, I've started to get back in to do an animation introducing the holy plopple,
like an interview, but part of me is like, wow, this is kind of boring.
Like, so, what I'm grappling with is how, like creatively, how to, yeah, how to approach that.
I don't, I want to keep touching on it because it is one of my end goals. So,
I don't want to just drop it. But yeah, there's some creative,
constructive, creative stuff to do to figure out how to do it well. So, that's something I'm
working on. Okay. What is the big goal you want your business to accomplish in the next 90 days?
Next 90 days only.
Well, I would love to have all of my SKUs selling.
Mm-hmm. That'd be good. It's a good start.
So, everything you're doing now, is it moving that goal forward?
Yeah, I think it is. I mean, I'm outsourcing a fair amount, but in a collaborative way. And
I feel like things are moving along. I don't see any dams or obstructions in the flow.
The flow is going to take as long as it needs to take. Some things can't be rushed. But yeah,
I think that everything I'm doing is contributing to the bigger picture.
Okay. What about you, Michaela? Big goal for the next 90 days?
A big goal.
Well, I'm meeting with Stephen in 60 days, right? Is that right?
So, I would say, well, first, my goal for the next 60 days is to pretty much come to the meeting
with some type of structure, right? I want to come into the meeting with him with some type
of structure so that we're not just pulling ideas out of a hat. And we're more so taking
this big picture and then making it into the whole business plan, right? And so that I can
just take it and go. So, my plan from now until then is just to, like I said, to try to get all
those back-end things, all of these little puzzle pieces that I've been working on, to get those
to completion or as close to completion as they can be so that they're developed enough
to see the whole picture. And so then thinking ahead, so 30 days from then,
yeah, I would want to have my whole business plan launched, right? And the physical products
is just a small portion of that. The big portion is kind of what we had talked about,
my brand for helping moms. So, yeah, 90 days, I want that to be launched.
Okay. Love it. She needs it, probably should be writing.
Wasn't going to say it. And not sending messages to brands.
I don't, I'm not going to comment.
Christy, what about you? What's one big goal you want your business or the big goal you want your
accomplish in the next 90 days?
I think I'm going to take Heather's.
I want all of my ASINs to be selling.
I have like a product on the boat right now.
Just placed a bulk order for the three different colors.
So that adds two ASINs to my original lunchbox set.
So like all four of those ASINs to be selling and
I think if I could at least be break even, that would be super awesome.
Yeah, great.
Does this OK, when you think back to in the accelerator,
when like in brand vision week, I think
where you're like mapping out like, OK, this is what I want my business
to be worth, kind of end goal worth.
And we have that calculator for like, here's what that could look like
for how many products you might be selling or revenue you're bringing in.
That when you did that, is that like
is that lining up with like what you're doing now or has that shifted?
Does that make sense?
For me, that makes sense, and no, it's definitely shifted
because before the accelerator, I had talked to Megan
after doing the branding course and I'm like, oh, I just totally messed
everything up because I have this thing on the social media
and then these other two brands for my product lines that I'm
and she's like, you could just merge them.
And then I tried to merge them during the accelerator
and then after the castle and I started working with Hassan's group,
they're just kind of like you can't merge these things because it's too
like you're not established enough to sell such different things
on the same platform.
It's too confusing.
And you would have to have too much education to the customer
to get them to the finish line, to try to do all these things in one spot
right now with how well recognized you are.
And so now I'm like in the process of separating everything again
and trying to remap.
How I can be, you know, profiting off of each brand
and each kind of channel thing.
OK. That's good.
It's constant work in progress. Hmm.
Then I have Michaela's problem is just like
I have to figure out what I'm going to work on now
and what I'm going to work on later.
And really, I do feel like I've been like reaching my empowered state
of like really being able to do that with just like
some time blocking and saying like, you know, on this day of the week,
I'm going to work on that.
And this day of the week, I'm going to work on that.
And it usually aligns with when I have, you know, phone calls
with Hassan's group or my social media person
that does my social media channels like, OK, that's what I'm going to focus on.
That's I can be ready for that phone call.
So, yeah, I'm trying to stay organized that way.
Yeah, I think it's good to like when you have moments
where you start like, oh, should I do this?
I should be doing this. I should be doing this.
Is to assess where that is coming from, like
because a lot of the time it's coming from a place of anxiety.
It's coming from a place of fear of like you're going to miss out
on something or if you don't do it in your business,
is it going to be worth this much or make this much money or?
And I just don't know if that's ever going to be a sustainable way
to make decisions about your business.
So, you know, if you have those moments where it's like
you feel like you're getting distracted by.
Different business ideas or things you could be doing,
kind of take a moment to look, OK, why am I feeling like I should do
this thing over here? Why am I feeling like I should do this?
And if it more or less lines up with, OK, this is like
the bigger picture of what I'm trying to build,
then maybe it is for you to work on right now.
But if it's some other influence, then kind of check yourself in.
You know, say, you know, I think I'm just feeling a sense of urgency
and that's kind of sometimes making me.
Feel like I should be doing all the things
and we can't do all the things got to prioritize.
So, yeah, I was just going to say
that was something that well, obviously, it's, you know,
that's a constant struggle for me because I like to put the weight
of the world on my shoulders and handle all the things for everyone
because I can handle them better than other people.
But like that was something that Janine like was really good
at keeping me in check on.
But I remember like the very first time that I met with her,
like she was very much.
She told me to have a CEO meeting with God.
And she was like, you should have one every week.
And that I mean that, you know, if you are not a God person, that's fine, too.
You have a meeting with someone higher power, your brain,
whatever you want to call it.
And, you know, she was like, really sit in the quiet on a weekly basis.
and ask God, like, what vision do you have for my business?
And then, you know, you ask, you know,
Jesus, like, how do we get there?
Like, what steps do we take?
And then you ask the Holy Spirit,
like, help me to do that, basically.
And like, you know, she made me like come back with answers.
So it wasn't, you know, it's easy to say like,
oh yeah, I sat quietly with God.
But like, I had to actually like sit down
and I just wrote the words,
which I think it makes it a lot easier
to when the words come in your mind
and then you actually put them on paper,
similar to like the whole dream thing
that Steven taught us, like, you know,
you have dreams, but if you don't write them down,
like they just float away, right?
And so that was really helpful for me.
And that is something that I'm like still now,
like constantly going back to.
I actually included it in my five day free devotional
that I did, like I included that in there,
not like a CEO meeting,
cause it's not a business thing,
but just like, you know,
kind of like taking that time to have a meeting with God
and say like, hey, what do you have
on my agenda for this week?
And I feel like I do as I say, not as I do,
because that was really helpful when you told me to do that.
And now I'm gonna get off this call
and I'm gonna go do that.
Yeah, now I'm gonna ask.
Actually, I'm gonna pick my kids up and then I'll do that.
So funny, that's good.
Alrighty guys, that's time for today.
So everyone have a great Thanksgiving,
looking forward to seeing you all next week.
Hopefully my brain gets back into work mode.
Just, yeah, let's all just pray for Gabby's brain
cause it's gonna be so easy to check out.
Notice the checking back in, it's hard.
Especially with all those carbs.
Yeah, definitely.
You need comatose, comatose.
The carb coma is so real.
For like three days.
All right guys, I will see you later.
See ya.
Bye, see you guys later.