you
hey guys sorry I was quickly running to grab a snack because I'm starving I've
been like super yeah I've been like super hungry this week I don't know
about you guys so like period talk real quick I've figured out that now in my
old age but the week after my period is when I'm starving like starving like
pregnancy starving um it used to be different like I used to be the week
before so it's just kind of funny how it changes but anyways how's everybody
doing that's I feel like it's been a morning already
one of those yeah just like I don't know things up my nine-to-five or just
really frustrating right now and I've been putting a lot of energy and time
into that which sucks because I don't want to be and then I'm not getting any
kind of reciprocation from them or even appreciation so like what's the point
yeah that paycheck I need that I don't know then this morning I got a message
from the guy who helps me with my Amazon account and I basically have like
a two-hour what's it have like argument with this person I was trying to like
just be calm and succinct and like explain the situation and I felt like
his responses were just like clueless and I mean I was like ready to the at
the point to just like restrict access like cut ties immediately like but I'm
like okay stay calm like I need I don't need anything from them like but they
have assets that I own that I've paid for that I want to make sure I have full
access to everything before I do that but it was just like I feel like he's
not hearing me and then when he pushed my I told him I was like I don't feel
like you're hearing me he's like we do everything for you and we've got all the
stuff for you free that we usually charge people for and I'm like first of
all you've never even brought that up and some of the work that you're doing
isn't even work that I've asked you to do like so anyway thank you for letting
me rant but that's how my morning spell it's just like yeah well okay how can we
encourage you or how can we help shift your state today I don't know I feel
like I just need to kind of like
shake it off and like just focus on me and like what my energy is telling me
that I need and just like not worry about all the other bullshit and like I
don't have a meeting in two hours with my CEO and I'm just like that he
postponed for the last two days and I'm just like I have to take this meeting
but other than that I really just need to like not think about any of that
stuff and just take a pause I think okay so how can you okay I'm eating and I
need to have my food here but how can you take a moment before you meet with
your CEO to give yourself something that you need I don't know I mean part of
that for me was coming to this call I think okay okay like let me be around
some people who get it and are also you know struggling with some of the same
things that I am and eating I'm having breakfast and having my coffee like some
things I would typically sometimes skip to feel like oh I have to get this done
I have to work on this and you know when I feel behind I definitely don't care
for myself in the same way so yeah well I'd love to hear maybe some ideas from
everybody on maybe what they do for themselves like if you were having a
morning like Lauren is and feeling a lot of the lack of appreciation a lot of the
busyness a lot of the pressure you're gonna go into a meeting with your CEO
how would you take a minute if it were you to just for yourself give yourself
something you need and feed your emotional state your mental state I'm
gonna chime in here cuz I am I feel like we're on the same boat Lauren I Gabby
knows this like I'm I feel very similarly my nine-to-five is not
appreciative of the work that I do hence the need for something elsewhere to get
out of it and so what I tend to do is I know sometimes depending on where you
are in your business but like for me really stepping into my business is
actually what brings me more clear like that sense of like okay my nine-to-five
does not get all of me right it I this is what I'm really passionate about and
so this is what it this is what brings me joy even if it's in like a sticky
part like I was struggling last week of like just getting my domain I'm like I
just need my domain somebody answer my email and I was feeling frustrated by
that and when I didn't get a response in the time that I wanted I was like okay I
have to pivot and figure out what is the next best step that I can take and so
that usually helps me like what is the next best step I can take I can take you
know I want to create this and I have space to do that so I'm gonna take some
time to step away from nine-to-five not feel bad about literally leaving it in
another room and going and doing this for myself for my business and and just
dedicating all of my energy there rather than having to split and you know
give something where it's not gonna be received or validated or even seen as
worthy so they don't get that I get to work over here yeah thank you for saying
that because that definitely is helpful you know I feel you I feel the same way
in the sense of like when I do get frustrated with even personal life I'm
like Gabby knows this too like I'm like frustrated with my husband and I lack
communication there or lack of support there like I kind of feel like my little
like rebel moment is like I'm just gonna go work on my business and I block out
everything else and just focus on that because at least I feel like that's my
exit strategy that's my gateway out of the all the stuff I'm dealing with in
the moment right yep yeah I love that thank you for sharing Ariel
Jenna I know you said your cameras not working but you can always unmute or post
or like chat chat it up I can't talk post it in the chat um Christy I don't
know I know you chimed in kind of late do you have anything to add as well I
have thoughts too but I want everyone else to go first if they have thoughts
like I missed the beginning so I don't want to just say something that's way
off in left field all right we're just encouraging Lauren because she's just
had one of those mornings where it's just like kind of kind of not going our
way good not going smoothly there's a lot of like
like butting heads I feel like happening too.
Yeah.
Like butting heads and then you're also dealing
with a new position at your full-time job
that is more money but a lot of lacking
of appreciation and value.
Your duties and responsibilities have increased.
You're, you know, communicating like what you need
from people and it's not being met.
And you're gonna go into the meeting
with your CEO today, right?
In a little bit?
In a little bit.
And like just this like watching your fist like this,
I'm like this is how I feel with my brand management team.
This is how I feel with my CEO.
Like there's a lot of butting heads right now
and I don't wanna bring this energy into that call
because I'm already mad.
I'm already like pissed off at him and disappointed.
So I'm just like, okay, how do I go into this meeting
without that energy?
And I'm just going without my day
without letting it bother me.
Like, I'm trying to just let it go.
Well, one thing I would say.
Yeah, one thing I would say is just like allow yourself
to process that.
You know, some people process by writing it out
and like ripping up the page and throwing it away.
Some people process it by screaming
like my daughter into a pillow.
I just scream in the car, in the garage.
So I like, you know, just like processing it
however your body needs to process the rage.
And then taking a minute to reflect
on what type of communicator your CEO is.
My CEO is like a very emotional communicator.
So if I like go to her with like graphs and tables of data
she's like just listening for my tone of voice
to see if she should agree or disagree.
And I have a pretty neutral tone of voice most of the time.
So she leaves confused and like doesn't decide
what I need her to decide.
And so I have to like force myself to be like
and this is really great.
So they should be like, oh yeah, do it.
So like, I just like take a minute to reflect
on your conversations with the CEO to see like
are they data driven?
Are they emotionally driven?
Whatever is gonna get you the best result.
Like for the conversation that you need to have
it looks like you're looking for more resources
to adequately do your job.
And so I would just kind of present it in a way
that you need to present it
so that you get the favorable response
after you scream it out in your car.
Yeah.
Oh man.
Yeah. Okay.
That's helpful too because yeah,
he is definitely data driven, like no emotion.
And I was even saying to my husband,
I feel like he has this sense of entitlement
and this air about him that makes him a really poor leader
because he has no empathy or understanding
of what really goes on in the business.
And he makes a lot of really poor decisions
that affect the business negatively
and the employees and the morale of the team negatively
and is just clueless about it.
So that's kind of.
Sometimes like just throw it into chat GPT,
like give me a Gantt chart back
and I can present to him or you can put it in gamma,
like put it into a Gantt chart and be like,
your decision today is gonna impact my timeline here
and it's gonna cost the company this amount of money
because I need you to decide right now
and give me X number of dollars right now
for Q3 to like go the way you want it to go.
Like those kinds of languages I find work out really well
when there's graphics attached for the data driven people
because then they start focusing on how they can like
optimize the graph and make it work for them
instead of like, how can we make everybody happy
or how can we get along at the end of this conversation?
Which, you know, other people would optimize around.
Okay.
Yeah, chat GPT does it so fast too.
Yeah.
Even if it's wrong, he'll just tell you how it's wrong
and then you'd be like, oh, you're so smart.
Yeah, let's do this in two months instead of five.
That's all he wants to hear anyway.
You're so smart.
I know, it's so true.
You know nothing about how our business operates,
but yeah, thanks for your input.
Is that helpful Lauren?
Yeah, it is, it is.
Thank you.
I appreciate that because like I said,
I just like, even coming into this call,
I was just like, I did have that rage
and I didn't even recognize it as rage,
but I was like, I'm so pissed right now.
I feel even just like laughing about it
and being like, okay, this is the reality of the situation
and I feel better already, so.
Yeah, awesome.
Love it.
Well, how's everyone doing?
I wanna hear, so everyone in the room
is either currently in the accelerator,
or has been in the accelerator before
and is in membership.
I wanna hear just what's what,
like we're still in this very much like
it's the new year vibe, at least I feel like it is.
I don't know.
Because my brain's like, whoa, it's February.
What's happening?
So I kind of want to hear like, and I've been feeling this even
on calls, like people are like, all right, kind of holidays are
over that craziness. That's all of like, school starting
holidays, like, I feel like it's just a whole four or five months
of busyness. And so now it's like, new routines are just like
setting up the routine established. Like, I want to
hear what people are doing. What are you working on, whether
it's personal or business? What are the intentions? What's like
a what is where's your mind at this week? What's important to
you?
I can go first if you want me to. My mind is on inventory this
week as the Chinese New Year's starting up the factory that I
use closing on Friday. And I missed the cutoff to ship some
like prototype demo, small unit number orders, like inventory
orders that I was going to use for like some pilot testing in
March and April. And so now I'm kind of reconfiguring my pilot
testing and like the timeline to get some reviews before my my
crutch point. And then I'm gonna I'm planning to use this Chinese
New Year to look for business financing. So my product is a
back to school product, which I know, you know, Gabby, but for
the people who don't know, is back to school product. Key
sales are in June, July and August. Last year, the
competitors who came on the market at the same time as I did,
they had $200,000 revenue months for those three months each
$200,000. I had $2,000 mark year $2,000 revenue months for each
of those months. And so like, as I'm thinking, like, I'm
totally going to have this $200,000 revenue month, I'm like
my cost of goods is 30%. So I need to come up with like, I
don't know, $75,000 to buy inventory in April. So it's
available in June, July and August. And that's like a big
how can I push that I'm having over this next month, I'm
looking at 0% APR credit card offers, we're not like Shopify
financing and Amazon financing and all the financing, got this
letter in the mail yesterday for $200,000, which seems like a
scam. But maybe it's not, I'm going to call them and see. And
so like, I'm just looking at timing and order placements. And
you know, just kind of structuring the order so I can
afford it and have enough units in stock when it needs to be in
stock. Because I went out of stock in January, my sales
velocity was like two units a day in December. And then all
of a sudden in January, my sales velocity was like 3.5 units per
day. And so instead of going out of stock in mid February, as I
predicted, I went out of stock the third week of January,
which I think you all know, really killed my sales velocity
and I like bumped back a page on all of my keywords. And so like
we're working on getting that back up now. And I'm working on
not going out of stock ever again. I want a new different
problem of like what to do with all my excess inventory now. I
don't want that out of stock problem. That is all.
I can't wait to hear when you get on the other side of the how
can I with the financing?
Oh, you don't have all the money for me, please.
I don't. I'm so sorry. I can't hand that to you.
Dang, I thought we were gonna finish that in this next 20-30
minutes.
It'll be so fully here.
Chachi PT says I have to leverage my social media channel
that has like 130,000 Facebook followers. And it's given me
a plan to use the stuff we learned in San Diego to get like
the $9 offer that I'm going to leverage for like the $37 offer
to scale up money that way. And then I mean, so that's the plan
I'm working right now. Like all my credit card and other
financing opportunities that I'm looking into. I don't qualify
for a bank financing at this time. And I don't qualify for
the SBA financing at this time.
Okay. Well, I like the plan, which is good.
Hey, Christie, do you get any suggestions from like Amazon,
they send you like financing opportunities from Amazon itself
sometimes that you can partner with?
I did get one.
and I did not execute on it.
It didn't look like a great opportunity,
but it's better than no opportunity.
So I'm kind of looking for something better.
Okay.
Yeah, because they are also sending out those,
I mean, something that you can look into too, yeah.
But yeah, what about that Amex opportunity?
Remember Amex sent you something
which was like 40,000 or something?
Was that like real?
Did you follow up on that?
Yeah, they deposited $45,000
in my checking account like two days later.
And I put all of the,
like some credit card stuff over there
and some like a lot of like the PPC stuff,
just what I bought into for Rainmakers
with the business accelerator, all of that stuff.
And so I have a little bit of that money left over,
but I had to use some of it for my real estate business
because I had two properties vacant.
And so it went to pay mortgages for those properties,
but it looks like I'm gonna have tenant
in one of them in February.
So I'm working on that too.
It's like an additional side hustle.
That's awesome, I love it.
What else?
Who else are you guys focusing on this week?
I don't, I can go next,
but to piggyback off of what Kristy,
just a little nugget,
something that's always in the back of my head
is to look for grant opportunities
because grants are free money.
And so you may be able to,
in this how can I,
maybe a grant could be something that you,
I know there's a lot out there
for like women owned businesses.
So maybe something to rabbit trail down one day.
All right, yeah, I'll look into it for sure.
Thanks.
For me, what's going on in my world,
I, so for those that I haven't really talked to on the call,
I'm in the business accelerator week three.
So really figuring out what my offer is gonna be.
And so that has been really fun to just like
throw ideas out there and just like figure out
what exactly it is that I want my brand to be.
I feel like I have a good vision of my brand,
but it's like just really nailing down
what exactly it is that I'm gonna offer to my customer.
And so that has been really fun to like work through
this week and start to put it together
and like have an actual product that I can sell,
which is really cool.
But I do kind of have like this mental block of like
the goal is to leave the nine to five.
And there's this still this like uncertainty around like,
okay, if that's the goal, can I actually do that?
Like I'm trying to set myself up in my nine to five
to be able to do that by the end of the year.
And then I had a conversation with my husband last night
where just that like little hesitancy in his voice
is like, no, I'm with you.
I'm right there.
And I'm like, no, you're not.
I can hear it in the tone that you're using
that you don't think I'm gonna do this because of X, Y, Z.
And so then I got frustrated
because I'm like, you don't think I'm gonna do this.
And then I'm like, well, then I'm gonna prove you wrong
and I'm gonna go do this.
So that's kind of been my week
and just overcoming those mental blocks,
but also putting one step in front of the other
of like getting work done
and just keeping momentum towards that, so.
Yeah.
I mean, I think probably all of us, or at least most of us
can relate to that dynamic with a spouse.
It's like they are supportive,
but sometimes everyone has their own moments of doubt
for whatever reason.
And so that's why it is good to come to these calls
and stay where you have people
who are always speaking belief over you, no matter what.
No matter what the past does look like,
what the present looks like,
it's like speaking the belief
so that you can not let those seeds of doubt creep in
and grow.
But one thing I, okay.
So in membership, we're doing a book club
and we're listening to the science of scaling.
And so one thing I thought about for you,
because in the first couple of chapters,
he basically talks about the importance of, in his mind,
the importance of setting an impossible goal
and how that is where we actually have to change
our thinking and our ways of doing stuff to accomplish it.
Like an impossible goal being like,
I have no idea actually how I would do it.
Like when you're setting it.
no idea what the path is there, but you set it,
and then that forces your brain to be more creative.
And the other thing is it's like hyper-focused on it.
So for you, you're like, okay,
I'm gonna leave my nine-to-five by the end of the year.
Maybe that impossible goal would be like,
I wanna leave my nine-to-five in six months.
I wanna leave whatever that might be,
or I might wanna leave it by June, or whatever.
So usually, the impossible goal
is shortening the timeline very often.
And then you basically are like,
okay, now that I set my goal,
what would have to happen to actually do it?
And usually, for you, it has a financial implication.
So then you're like, okay,
now I've got a financial implication.
Now, how do I execute on that?
How do I, what are my action steps?
What are phases, phase one, phase two, phase three,
basically, to get there?
So that's just an encouragement.
Really create an impossible goal,
and allow yourself to laser-focus on how to actually do it.
How would you handle that instant fear of,
I feel my brain stepping into something
that's very uncomfortable.
Like, yes, I know it's an impossible goal,
but then my brain is like, so it's impossible.
And like, period.
So how do you get past that?
I think this is where I would love
to hear what everybody else has.
But yeah, Jenna's writing,
processing the fear is great.
Also learning to do action anyways,
even when you're afraid.
Having that discipline of taking action
even when everything is screaming at you, don't.
That's a muscle, at least for me.
It's a muscle that has had to build over time.
And exercise it.
Yeah, so.
Yeah, I tend to, when I get in those,
I go into like a freeze of like,
I'm like paralyzed, I can't do anything for,
like, can't do anything.
So that's helpful.
Like, just keep the momentum.
Just take, do something that's gonna make an impact, so.
Does anybody have,
I would love to hear some feedback on that.
Like, how do you do things even when your brain's like,
we're terrified of this, we don't wanna do this.
How do you take action?
So for me, what I do is I try to break the goal
into small pieces or chunks.
What can I do today which can make me,
because if it's a big thing, it's scary.
It's like scary.
Then I try to kind of trick myself,
that I don't have to get it done today.
I mean, it's not something I,
there's a timeline or I just,
I'm like, let's just do one thing,
like one small little thing.
And then I feel so happy when I get that tiny thing done
that, okay, I did something
which is making me move towards that goal.
And then I'm purposely like, I'm not looking there.
I mean, it's there, but somehow,
that denial, but you are doing something towards it,
but you are not looking at the big, scary,
whatever it is.
So I try to do that and it helps me,
and everybody is different.
That's what works for me, but yeah,
but that's my two cents.
Thanks, Karima.
I also break it down into small pieces,
but I like to like do it,
like rip it off the Band-Aid approach
where I just say, step one, this,
I'm gonna do it and I do it.
And then sometimes I have to like panic
and freak out that I actually did it.
So I have to walk away from my computer
and like go exercise or something,
but I just like rip the Band-Aid off,
send the email, whatever it is.
And then, yeah, do the next thing
in the same way though also.
Yeah, just to kind of add on to that as well.
I have been listening to the first couple of sections
of that audio book and thinking about the impossible goal.
And it does, definitely has kind of shifted
my way of thinking because I've been looking
at my business as all of these kind of components
and having to move everything forward
and taking it in small chunks,
like a lot of people are saying,
and that's definitely makes it seem less overwhelming
when you can look at just the small pieces
to get you to the next step.
But I think one of the things that helped me
even before listening to that audio book
and even before joining this community
is this idea of like, eat the frog,
do the hardest, biggest thing you've been avoiding first.
And once you get that out of the way,
everything else kind of feels less.
It's stressful, less hard to do.
And I have been avoiding doing wholesale outreach.
Cause I have been struggling to sell my product on Amazon.
I've been struggling with my social media
and gaining an audience there.
And so all of these things that I've been putting
a lot of energy into in time and money
haven't been coming to fruition.
And so I kind of feel like,
oh, is this my last chance to like actually move units?
Like, and if this doesn't work out, then what do I do?
And finally on Sunday, I sent out 40 cold emails
to different people just in one space
where I felt like my product could benefit in a wholesale,
you know, in a wholesale way were these retailers.
And I've gotten three responses back out of 40.
So, I mean, not a ton, but some, two were no's.
So again, like felt a little disheartening
but I got one positive response.
And so now on Friday, I'm actually going out
to meet with this person.
They're super excited about my product.
They think the price point is great
where in all these other places, specifically Amazon,
I keep being told the price point's too high.
And this guy's like, this is so affordable.
I'm like, I should be charging more.
So anyway, so it was like one of those things,
like just finally doing it felt good.
And then now I have, I've kind of let go of that fear
about doing wholesale outreach.
And now I'm more motivated to do more of it
because I did it and then saw results.
So I think that's part of it is like,
once you start to get that little like, you know,
hormone hit of those positive feelings,
you're like, ah, okay, I can do this.
Yes, get the chemicals flowing.
I love that.
Get a little dopamine hit.
That's awesome.
I love that word, congratulations.
You know, the no's are just as important as the yes's,
honestly, because the no's, you have to,
you actually know what their answer is.
You're not just stuck there wondering.
And also the learning to be neutral about the no's
is so good for your brain and so good for business,
honestly, because you're going to get that.
You're exactly right about the no's being a good thing too,
because both no's were from companies that are contracted,
that they only purchase this type of product
from a contracted vendor,
which again, as per this like impossible goal,
my brain went, well,
I got to get in touch with those vendors
and who are those people that are selling to them?
Because I want to sell to those people.
So I'm in their catalog selling to all of the individual
locations opposed to reaching out
to the individual locations.
So it kind of opened up my mind to like a whole other avenue
that I could be pursuing that wasn't even on my radar.
Love it, so beautiful.
Okay, we're going to keep going with the focus,
like what you guys are like focusing on
what's important to you this week,
and then we're going to get to Brittany's question.
So Grima, why don't you go next?
So for me, this week, big thing is I'm going to work
on my meta setup for my funnel.
So I'm getting things moving there.
So my funnel is ready.
I just started posting on Instagram about it.
I don't have a ton of followers, but then I have traffic.
They come and go, they don't join my Instagram.
That's okay, but there are some eyes that look at it.
But then now my next big thing for this week
would be just to figure out how to set up the meta ad.
And I was waiting to talk to,
today's call was, it did not happen, right?
So I was-
No, I think Yuke forgot that he was traveling
back to Brazil today from the live.
Okay, okay.
So I think he forgot to communicate that that was happening.
So I do apologize for that, yeah.
Yeah, so I'm going to catch hold of him next week.
And then if I'm stuck, I'm going to get those things
ironed out, get my ad going.
I'm excited for Masala Mom.
So yeah, that's something I'm looking forward to, yeah.
Love it, love it, Garima.
All right, Jenna, you're going next.
Yes, and Garima, I know that in the Accelerator we did,
if you go back, it will show you all the steps
to set up your meta ad.
So if you feel like going back to those videos,
you know, it's helpful.
Sorry, guys, none of my camera doesn't want to turn on.
It's blank here.
But my focus is get me and my family healthy.
We've been kind of struggling the last three weeks,
like just getting everything under the sun.
So here we are.
I don't know, all sorts of things.
It's going around the schools and all that.
But, and then I just, all my products are flowing
into Amazon finally.
So that's a big deal.
So I've been on Amazon.
Thanks, guys.
I've been on Amazon these last few days.
I've been like fidgeting around,
had some random things pop up.
Like it's been deactivated already
and I've already got that fixed.
And now I've had products stranded
because obviously it was.
deactivated so I've got that fixed so I'm just putting out fires I feel like
for these first few days but just making sure everything's good and then I'll
look at doing setting up a campaign so I can get that going on Amazon too. I got
the vine reviews put in so hopefully those will start rolling in. I already
got two purchases that thing is just family but hey I'll take it and then I'm
meeting with Steven later because I need to figure out my ad on Facebook
isn't really tracking the way it should I'm not really it's not getting to my
people so that's a big focus point for me now is like okay I need to get some
more clients there and I need to make sure my ad is finding the right people
out there so I'm gonna be diving into that today. Love it. Movement. Yeah. All
right Kate you're up and then Brittany you're after that. Hey y'all happy to see
your faces. So for me this week I am just continuing to try to reduce inventory in
Amazon. We hit some changes and some pivots that we're needing to make for
our family so but you can celebrate with me. I've been some of you guys know I've
been around for a little while since 2024 hit a lot of tangles and stuff that
we've had to navigate and especially health-wise so just needing to take a
little bit of a breather and shifting like the priorities of how I had things
with business building. So Gabby had encouraged me just to catch my breath a
little so I'm trying to work on reducing my inventory so we're not getting hit
with so much storage fees. So but I do want to say that several months ago
Steven had I all of a sudden forgot the name they talked about that debt
consolidation kingdom resources kingdom. Kingdom wealth. Something like that. Yeah so I had
been working with them the past couple months because we got hit hard with
leveraging credit cards and all the delays and medical things that came up
in our lives. We were getting hit like drowning but I logged on yesterday and
saw that we just paid off our first card. So that felt really huge to me because
we were literally like that we're gonna die here. Like it's not that we didn't
see motion and stuff it was just the mountain has been really big. So that's
what we're working on is getting ready to make some shifts and going after our
our who and our why at a different level than anticipated. I realized that I'd
been guarding like the pain part of my why really well and so yeah it's just
kind of shifting the focus and I think everything will flow better you know
once I'm just being honest with myself and getting some healing here so that I
can then help others experience that as well. So specifically like specifics is
just I have a lot of stuff on Amazon we just low lowered our price to like crazy
low because I just need inventory to move faster so I'm not paying ridiculous
storage fees at Amazon and then we're gonna switch to FBM once we can get some
of that inventory sent home but we didn't even have the money to pay for
that so I'm like okay sell as low as we can so that we have the money to ship
home take the breather FBM and then the pivot will start happening with that so
it's coming and it's not a defeat by any means it's a refocus and I think things
will flow once we get get the heart you know in the right spot so there's my my
week. That's good that's a lot of clarity like a lot of steps that you just laid
out and that I bet that feels good. Yeah and I actually am starting to take some
good steps without a brace, without a boot, without my crutches so that is huge
for me as well so that's I mean health is my biggest focus right now and
anything I can do in addition to that is really a bonus right now so. All right
Brittany you up. I love your hair like that by the way. You're muted still. You
gotta unmute. There we go. Okay whoever sent me the unmute signal thank you. Okay
so what am I focusing on this week? I think what I'm focusing on this week and
I know I haven't been on a lot of these here lately because
I feel like just kind of like the rest of your life has been pretty wild.
Um, I think that what I need to focus on is just getting like my, my tax stuff and
getting kind of like the financials of my business really solid this week.
So like, I kind of peaked my little head up after Christmas and thought that my
sales were going to die in January and they did not.
And so I launched in like mid November and I have almost
completely sold out of my products.
And yeah, it's like a super exciting problem to have, but you're also like
getting the cold hot sweats because you're like, wow, I have 150 at Amazon
and I have girls, please stop.
I have like 75 in my storage unit here.
And with Chinese new year, I just don't know that anything's going to be here
until like early to mid April.
So I really need to slow my sales velocity.
And so that was really my question was like, how do I do that?
I backed off my spend on my ads significantly.
I had a Facebook listing.
I pulled that down, but y'all like, and, and again, it's like a, such a blessing
and like a, Oh, poopsies.
I got my first fair order today, which is, which is great.
Like if you guys are doing, trying to do wholesale with like boutiques
and stuff, get on fair, it's cheap.
But I got my first fair order today and I'm like, Oh, well, darn it.
Cause I was like, well, I have these 15 mats in my laundry room that I
could package up and send to Amazon.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Those are going to continue.
So, so that's my, that's kind of where I'm at.
And that's where my, um, where my question is, is like, how
do I just really slow things down?
Hey girls, she's a lot littler than y'all.
So if she wants to come in here and play, y'all are going
to have to back way off.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you.
Um, yeah, so drastically decreased PPC, do that over time is one and
then drastically raising your price.
Like keep bumping it up.
If you have to keep going, it's like people, like people are still
buying and it's amazing and you're going to keep bumping up.
Otherwise you're going to learn about going out of stock and coming back into
stock and it's honestly, I know it's kind of annoying, like it is kind of
annoying guys, but it's not as big, it's not the end of the world.
It's not like it's your organic rank.
All that rank can recover.
Once you get back in stock, um, you have to figure it out.
It's just, you're new, you're figuring out what it looks like for your
products, this whole first year.
Honestly, the first couple of years, you know, you don't
know what your rhythms are.
You don't, like it's, and you know, so it's okay.
Um, once you get back into stock, you know, you can, you know, get PPC
backup going and, you know, put your price to whatever you want.
Um, but you're probably just going to be out of stock, even if you're raising,
cause I know your sales walk, so you've been really good.
So even with raising your price, you're probably going to keep selling.
Um, unless you really just want to go crazy, crazy high, but.
Well, so my, I, I don't know.
So how high are you talking?
Because I'm already like one of the highest in my niche.
Yeah.
So like, should I raise it?
Cause like right now I have a coupon on and I need to go home and take
that off because that's dumb.
But again, I thought everything was just going to dry up in
January and it just didn't.
Yeah.
Um, and so I, okay.
So I'll take my coupon off and then maybe go up like 10 bucks.
Probably like 15 or 20.
Cause your price point's already a bit higher.
So like your product, the category in itself already has like a
higher price point for Amazon.
So I would maybe go up even higher than that.
Okay.
All right.
And then just once I have stuff back in stock, just go back down.
Maybe unless people start at that price.
Yeah.
Like an amazing problem to have not here to complain.
Also feel like my butt cheeks are in a permanent sweat.
Like just, you know what I'm saying?
Like, okay.
It's going to be okay.
If yes, your, your rank and stuff takes a hit when you're out of stock, but if
you've already been like pretty well established, like on the first page and
stuff, you'll bounce back pretty easily, but pretty easily, like you'll bounce back.
Okay.
What?
Okay.
And maybe this is the wrong question to ask because this is, cause we're like
Amazon.
people but like it but so i have this other product so so i have this like storage type
product that i'm not gonna sell on amazon it's gonna sell on my website and i'm building a new
one like at what point should i cook well i mean i don't want to pull it completely off right because
then i go back in and it's just a real pain to get re-ranked right yeah that's a good you are
maja on that or the other one yeah the maja mat i'm not even gonna put the other the storage
tube on there because i'm only buying like 250 of them and i don't i don't want to order and
i think if i put them on amazon i would have to order a lot more of them in order to sell them
because i think the sales velocity on there would be like wild um and i don't know that i necessarily
want to do that just right now so i was like okay i will test this on my website and through like my
social media channels um and see how it sells and then maybe when i launch like my next design
i will also launch storage tubes on amazon okay i would not take your maja on that off
okay i would leave it because yeah if you do take it off then you're
you're really going to be starting over at that point okay so you want to even if it's just
out of stock for like a month and it just says out of stock just leave it on there
yeah you can i mean if you want you can close the listing and that still preserves like your
um your like reviews i think in theory it reserves it preserves your rank i don't
know if that's entirely true for me when i went out of stock i just turned off like when i was
really truly out of stock for like a while i turned off ppcs so that they weren't running
okay girls let her in but i also always have like a few units for fbm so like if something did roll
in just like the random ones we could at least send it that way um but yeah otherwise you can
leave it open you can close it if you want i always just left mine open okay what about okay
is there a vacation setting i don't i've only used that to yeah for my um canada and mexico
listing but i wonder if that might be an option for you right that's a good idea yeah i totally
forgot about that yeah there is a vacation setting okay has anybody sold on through shopify
and and what are y'all's thoughts on shopify
because the gal that's building my website wants to set up a shopify store
and my concern with shopify like i can send her my product and she'll fulfill it for me
through her warehouse but like if i did it at my house then truly i can't go on vacation
for any longer than a couple days right yeah that is true unless you like put that out
uh to your customer like shipments made to be delayed or you know 15 to 20 day fulfillment time
something like that um during this time period but the three pls work out you can do the merchant
um you can do like fulfilled by amazon as well which is just a simple connection through the
shopify store and it can come from your amazon inventory oh okay that's nice yeah yeah that's
what i was going to say to add to christy's points called multi-channel fulfillment and you
can set it up so that your shopify store automatically pulls from your amazon inventory
and it fulfills through amazon in the same exact way that it would if it was ordered on amazon
is it the same fees oh i'm sure the fees are higher yeah okay okay well thank you guys
just to piggyback on that lauren and christy do you see good margins when you do that way
with shopify and integrating it with amazon when you sell using that are you able to get
profitable and good margins with your product sales well i can't speak to the margins of
multi-channel fulfillment versus fba or fbm because i don't know all the different amazon
fees because i'm not using multi-channel but when i sell on my shopify store i do self-fulfillment
so i'm actually like described kind of you know i'm shipping out orders myself uh the margins are
way higher on shopify way so you you just ship it to your house and then you fulfill
fulfill doing that like then you save all the storage fee and all that
kind of stuff, right?
I have units at my house and then I have, you know,
packing and shipping supplies and a thermal printer.
And then I can just drop off units at the local UPS
or FedEx.
It doesn't cost me anything to drop it off.
And the shipping rates are almost identical
to the FBM shipping rates that I purchased,
when I purchased my labels through Shopify
or if I purchased my labels through Amazon FBM.
So you purchased your labels through Shopify,
not through like Pirate Ship or anything like that?
I use it through Shopify.
There's apps that integrate.
ShipStation's a really good app that integrates
through Shopify that has some really competitive rates.
But for my sales velocity right now,
it just doesn't make sense for me to pay the additional fees
to have an app to get those better rates on shipping
as I'm not shipping that many units.
Okay.
I have Shippo, which is free.
And if you pay for the Shippo plan,
then you get a discount per unit shipped.
And I did it mostly because I couldn't figure out
why I couldn't figure out the Shopify labeling system.
It would only allow me to do FedEx or USPS,
and they were both more expensive than UPS
and not convenient to my house.
I have to fill from home.
So I can't talk about the merchant in MSC either.
And I'm actually profitable on Shopify,
even with all my meta ads, unlike Amazon,
which is painful to be breakeven.
Oh, wow.
Okay.
Yeah, because I use PirateShip for like,
like when I was shipping through Amazon
or not through Amazon, through Facebook, I would use.
And I've had some like,
I've had some like returns that I've been able
to like look at and basically offer to like different,
like, honestly, it's a lot of people
that give Mahjong lessons where I can sell them my returns
at like a deep discount.
And then I just use, but I charge them the shipping,
but I've used PirateShip.
I just didn't know if anybody had had like anything better.
I mean, I don't think the shipping rates on there are bad.
Like they show me USPS, FedEx, and UPS.
So, and it's free too.
I'd like to come so.
Okay.
So I have all the children, so I'm probably gonna go,
but thank you guys for your advice
and for letting me share my sweatiness with you.
And thank you, because I always come on here
and hear something that I needed to hear.
So thank you all for that.
Love it.
Gabby, I will.
Thank you.
Gabby, I will see you next week
for our final coaching session,
which I'm very sad about.
I'll see you next week.
It's gonna be okay.
Thank you, Kate.
I appreciate that.
Bye y'all.
If I can figure out how to hang up.
You might have to, Gabby, can you just kick me out?
I can remove you.
Thank you, Gabby.
Okay, bye y'all.
Melody, I see you're on.
I saw your question.
You posted, what did you all do
for building out your brand story, brand presence on Amazon?
Did you do it by yourself or hire out?
I put my answer in the comments,
but what did the rest of you do?
For the A-plus, for the A-plus content?
Brand story.
Yeah, and I have A-plus content on our listing.
I'm specifically realizing like,
we need to focus some effort on brand presence,
especially if we're considering adding more products
or like variations, that that's an important next step.
So I can, I've done a lot of the graphics myself.
I just, it's so much time.
And I do like doing that, but we're busy.
So.
Yeah, I did it.
So for us, it was similar.
We did a very basic, simple, like something.
I have such a hard time doing basic, simple.
You know that.
Yeah, I took our, we got photography done.
So like we had great images and then we put,
I just like, it's literally three slides.
And I was like, I just need something to take up the space.
Like, and it can be a place where it looks nice.
Like the colors are still our brand colors.
So it matches like our A-plus content and our infographics.
But I mean, there are, you can definitely reach out
to some of the resources in the Rainmaker Academy app
or reach out on Fiverr if you want to hire out.
I'm going to do maybe like a really nice job.
But.
I've heard mixed things on that from people.
Like some people that are like, I,
they did not present my brand at all how I wanted them to.
So I'm a little apprehensive about.
doing that. Okay. I think just remember the biggest piece is
that it's a placeholder, right? Well, you know, at this stage,
at least it's, it's taking up space, which is good. And as you
are growing in your products, it does, it's just another area
where you can be bringing awareness to other things you
have. But at this stage, the biggest piece is brand defense.
So just having something there will be good.
Yeah.
Jenna, to your question, our product is doing really well. I
mean, it's, it's not even in season. But we did have to lower
the price since January. So we'll see. I'll also just kind
of like thinking about ramping up for the peak season as we
head into nice weather and all of that.
There was a stretch of some days. Hi, everyone. I'm Melody's
husband. There's a stretch of several days where we're
getting no very little sales at all. And then I happened to
notice that our coupon fell off. And so that prompted us we were
deciding on whether we should go coupon route again, we just did
a an increased slash through discount. And since then, we've
gotten several orders a day. So it's kind of ramped back up as
Melody mentioned. Melody, I don't know if you wanted to ask
about just people's perspective on Sophie society. And
immediately, initially, it was an immediate no for us because
of the cost. You know, they did do a sort of a listing
optimization review with us and then a PPC optimization where
they highlighted the kind of the wasted spend that we're having
and that kind of got me thinking, okay, well, if they
can help us with the wasted spend, it might, it might pay
for itself in that regard. But I don't know if the wasted spend
and not that they're being dishonest. But I mean, I don't
know what the you know, how much credence that has. I don't know
if anyone has any perspective on Sophie society if they've worked
with them or Yeah.
Who here has worked with Sophie society besides me? I don't
think anybody.
I had an initial sorry, I just had a call and a session and I
was about to enroll with them. But then the price point and the
the numbers and they did not, you know, somehow, I couldn't
like, get there that I can spend 1000 bucks and get value out of
it. So I went with Brennan's company then. And he's doing a
great job. And it's more personal, it's more, I would say
aligned. And I, I have all good things to say. And they are very
much like they're like, they, I would say like, Sophie is more
like a supermarket kind of feel to it. And then Brennan is like,
what should I say mom and pop and very like, like you connect
with them, they really care about your brand as a personal
connection. And he has seen my journey, because he was the
coach, I was on the call all the time. So there is a connection
that way. He knows my product, he knows my audience. So I feel
he was, that's a good fit for me personally. Yeah.
Yeah, so I just put the link, we're gonna have to jump off
here saying guys, I just put his link in the comments in fruition
is his business. So yeah, Sophie society is great. Honestly, they
are the best at what they do, but they are the most expensive.
So I typically recommend out your brand company here in
fruition or other people have used other companies that's
working on them. Also, I know Christie's using another team,
you could reach out to her maybe on the app and get some
recommendations. But yeah, it's a lot of costs. So if you can do
another option that works well, it might be good for the phase
of the business.
Okay, thank you.
All right, guys, I'm gonna have to shut down the call. But this
was a fantastic call. I'm obsessed with our conversation
today. And I will see you all on our one on ones and next week.
Thank you.