0:00

Gift biz unwrapped episode 291.

0:03

I don't want to always talk business and shop.

0:06

I want to know about you. I like to learn about people.

0:08

I want to hear the story Attention.

0:12

Gifters bakers, crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.

0:17

Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.

0:20

Now you are in the right place.

0:23

This is gift to biz unwrapped,

0:26

helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

0:30

Join us for an episode, packed full of invaluable guidance,

0:34

resources, and the support you need to grow.

0:36

Your gift biz. Here is your host gift biz gal,

0:40

Sue moon Heights. Hi, dear.

0:45

And I am so thrilled that you're here with me today.

0:48

As we continue this month of thankfulness and gratitude,

0:51

I want to tell you how much you mean to me.

0:55

I appreciate each note, email and review.

0:58

I get telling me how the show has helped you either

1:00

start or grow your business. So thank you.

1:04

Thank you for that in a way you're taking care of

1:07

me by doing this action, encouraging me to keep going with the show to find energy

1:13

on those days when I'm just not as much into it.

1:17

Are you surprised that I even say that look,

1:20

I'm human. Like you, there are emotional ups and downs,

1:24

and we just need to accept that that's part of being

1:27

a business owner. It's just part of what we signed up for,

1:31

but knowing that they happen and then dealing with them are

1:35

two separate things. I've heard from a lot of you.

1:39

About the episode we did on managing stress.

1:42

That was about three shows back episode number 288 with KK.

1:48

Given that feedback, I decided to build on the topic.

1:51

So stay tuned. We have more on health,

1:54

wellness and mind work coming up the best way.

1:58

Not to miss it as to subscribe to the show on

2:01

your favorite podcast app. What that does is then it automatically downloads the episodes for

2:07

you. So they're ready and waiting.

2:10

One more announcement. Before we move on to the show for the past three

2:14

years during holiday season,

2:16

I put up posts in the Facebook group called gift biz

2:20

breeze, given you an opportunity to show your products and to

2:23

get sales from fellow Breezers for your holiday gifting needs this

2:29

year, I've decided to enhance this.

2:31

I've seen that you're already buying from others and reaching out

2:35

to find collaborators for online and in-person sales shows.

2:40

So I'm starting a free resource.

2:42

I'm calling the buzz book, get it,

2:44

gift biz breeze buzz, where you can reach out to fellow makers for all sorts

2:50

of activities. So that could be buying products for your own personal needs

2:56

or for gifts, creating local meetups and finding compatible product owners to run your

3:03

own multiproduct live shows.

3:07

As I said, it's totally free. And the only requirements are that you run a business and

3:12

are a member of the breeze. You'll hear more about the group in the outro of the

3:17

podcast, or just jump over to Facebook and search for gift

3:21

biz, breeze to join and all the details.

3:24

Are there ready and waiting for you moving onto the podcast

3:28

this week, I have been trying to get Joyce on the show for

3:31

what feels like for ever,

3:34

however, it's been worth the wait,

3:37

you'll hear how Joyce had no intention of starting her own

3:41

business, but how she followed some advice from others.

3:44

And then she was bold and rode the wave.

3:48

If you will. She's turned into a dynamo as a woman business owner and

3:53

she shares step-by-step how she's built her business.

3:58

She also talks about the time when she almost wrapped it

4:02

up. It wasn't because she didn't have sales coming in,

4:05

which usually is the demise of most businesses,

4:09

but she was at the point where her quality of life

4:12

as a small business owner was leaving her unfulfilled.

4:16

It just wasn't worth it. You'll find out what made her feel that way,

4:21

what she did about it and how she fell in love

4:24

all over again with her business,

4:27

bold moves, brilliant thinking and a bright future.

4:31

That can be yours too. Today. I am so excited to bring you Joyce Arrietta.

4:42

Joyce is the owner of Joyce's baskets of full service,

4:45

corporate and personal gifting company that specializes in welcome to Florida

4:50

gifts for conferences, conventions, and corporate functions or events.

4:55

The mission at Joyce's baskets is perfectly captured in their slogan.

4:59

We make you look good. They have been designing gifts and gift baskets for almost 20

5:04

years and are located in bright and sunny.

5:07

Miami, Florida. Joyce is an award winning designer and a certified gift designer

5:13

who has been featured in many A-list publications.

5:17

Most recently voyage Mia magazine in Southern Florida,

5:22

putting the needs of their customers. First is Joyce's top priority.

5:26

As they seek to build meaningful relationships that will last forever.

5:30

Joyce, welcome to the gift biz on wrapped podcast.

5:33

Thank you. So I'm happy to be here. I'm just gonna say,

5:37

we've been trying to get together and record this for maybe

5:41

a year. Absolutely. And finally,

5:45

so this is a magical day. Yes, it is.

5:47

All right, before we get started,

5:49

you know what we do here? I have a motivational candle that has your name on it,

5:54

and I need you to describe it for us. What your motivational Candle look like.

5:59

That really resonates with you. That gives us a little inside peek of who you are.

6:03

Joyce. My candle would live.

6:06

First of all, the color is purple because I think that's vibrant.

6:10

I love purple purple gives me power.

6:14

Ooh. Purple gives you power. Yeah, that's my mantra.

6:17

Purple is my power. Ooh, Ooh.

6:20

I like it. Purple is associated with royalty and I don't know what else,

6:25

but I like the power better. I like the double P purple is power and you are

6:30

powerful. That is for sure. I know you are.

6:33

I mean, I know you we've known each other for how long years

6:36

and years and years. Years, years,

6:39

and years. Absolutely. Yeah. And you radiate confidence and power and control and action.

6:46

I mean, you're totally a woman on a mission,

6:49

but let's go back. Were you always that way?

6:52

You know, I think from the beginning,

6:54

I was always a leader. Even when I was smaller,

6:58

I would dominate my sisters and brothers because I was the

7:01

youngest one. So I had to be forceful and make them hear me.

7:05

So I think that started from the beginning of being a

7:08

leader, But that had to have been in you innately because

7:12

I think lots of times a younger child or the youngest

7:15

of all takes a back seat to everybody else.

7:17

They also get pampered. So there's good in that part too.

7:21

Absolutely. But you naturally just took control.

7:24

You want you spoke up because you wanted to be heard Absolutely. In anything that I did,

7:28

even with my parents and my siblings,

7:31

we used to get into a lot of trouble and then I would go there.

7:34

A lot of times my father would have like a court case and they would says,

7:37

okay, didn't bring the person up for trial here.

7:40

And they would have me to speak on their behalf. A lot of times I made them lose.

7:44

If I feel good, they won. That's funny.

7:50

Oh gosh. All right. So share with us a little bit about your journey into

7:54

Joyce's baskets. How did that all come about?

7:57

Well, it came all about what really it came like I

8:01

would say I was in between looking for jobs.

8:04

I was in banking for many,

8:06

many years. And after the banking started having interstate banking and banks were

8:10

coming in, buying up each other, my job was lost to a casualty.

8:15

I call it a bankers casualty loss,

8:17

and I never ever thought of doing anything else except working

8:20

in banking. My goal was to work 30 years,

8:23

get a party and a watch, nothing else that I wanted to go.

8:28

And what a man's gold pocket watch.

8:30

That was my boob. Not the lady's watch on the wrist that,

8:34

but a pocket watch. So that didn't happen.

8:37

But so was your job just eliminated? Is that what you're saying?

8:40

Everybody's job was eliminated back then.

8:42

Mergers were not good at all.

8:45

Right. It was like devastating was like an earthquake and I

8:48

can tell you it wasn't good. So I understand the parts of murders that go on.

8:52

I happened to see it firsthand and it wasn't good at

8:55

all for anybody at all in the beginning, when they say merger,

8:58

you want to tremble because it's not a good thing.

9:00

And so my job was duty of care to remember two.

9:04

So I worked around a little bit.

9:06

I worked also in the retail industry,

9:09

I worked at a major, major upscale clothing store,

9:12

Saks fifth Avenue and bill Harper. And I worked there for about 10 years.

9:17

And so one day I was at a really baffled mum,

9:21

nail tech at that time really started me on my journey

9:25

because we were discussing different things.

9:27

I was unhappy and I want to do something else.

9:29

And she started throwing out ideals of different types of businesses

9:34

that maybe would fit me. And so every one that she threw out,

9:37

I says, Nope, I don't want to do that. Nope, Nope,

9:39

Nope. And so finally she said,

9:41

what about gift baskets? And so I said,

9:44

what about him? I says, I don't know anything about gift baskets.

9:47

I don't know how to design a gift basket. Mobile goes all in them.

9:51

And she says, you know what? Put some stuff in a basket and sell it.

9:54

I'm like, is it that easy to say? Yeah. So what I did,

9:58

she took me, we'd have a challenge.

10:00

He says, I want you to create some flyers for Easter.

10:04

And she says, bring them to the shop. I says, okay, I'll say accept the challenge.

10:08

I'll bring you 25 flyers. I will do maybe 10 Easter baskets.

10:13

And I'll see afterwards. Well, did the flyers created the Easter baskets?

10:19

Cause it was all candy had nothing in place,

10:21

no business savvy at all. I wind up selling at the end of that Easter weekend,

10:28

101 Easter baskets,

10:31

no way. And to this day,

10:34

I have no idea whether I made any money or not.

10:37

I just had fun running back and forth to the store,

10:40

buying candy and creating them because what I would go out

10:44

and take the deliveries to the people that had ordered.

10:47

And I had other deliveries in the car, people would come to my car and take them out and

10:51

just hand me the money, whatever I said, the cost letter was that I was only signing up for

10:54

$10. So that made me take that money,

10:57

go back to the store and make what baskets for the

11:00

people that had placed the order with me. So that went on that whole weekend.

11:04

Stop right here, because I didn't know this story for all the time that

11:08

I've known you. I really haven't known the advancement of the business.

11:11

Cause we always talk about all the goodness that you're doing

11:13

right now. But what you did here,

11:15

Joyce is what I really, really try to talk to all people who are starting about,

11:21

and that is validate that there's a market for your product.

11:25

So look at you almost no investment because 25 flyers,

11:29

right? You probably weren't selling them at the best price.

11:32

I would say that, but you were showing that there was a market and an

11:37

interest in it. Now, granted it was Easter and Easter is associated with baskets.

11:42

So that made it a little bit easier. But without putting a lot of effort in,

11:47

you started to get a feel for the business.

11:49

And I love that mostly because you didn't a lot of

11:53

time effort get a website off delay action.

11:57

You just did it. Yes I did.

12:00

So it's a great example. Okay. Continue with the story.

12:03

I just had to jump in with that because I just

12:06

had to, Okay. So the following Monday,

12:10

I had a friend of mine called me up because we

12:13

both go to the same nail tech. And so she told me,

12:16

she says, I heard that you were selling bootleg gift baskets without a

12:22

license. I'm like, what are you talking about?

12:25

She just told me to put some stuff in a basket

12:27

and Senate. So she says, I'm just kidding with you.

12:30

She says, but I need to know from you,

12:33

is this something that you think could work in your advantage

12:36

and that you can build a business on? And so,

12:40

as the conversation progressed, I told her,

12:42

I says, you know what? I enjoy doing it.

12:44

I says, I like the hustle and bustle of putting stuff together,

12:48

putting it in a bag and rushing off. I said gave me a real adrenaline rush.

12:53

And so she says, okay then, so what are you saying is yes or no?

12:57

And so I says, I'm going to say yes.

13:00

She says, okay, then right now let's figure out a company's name for

13:05

you. Let's get you all legal set up with your state

13:08

so that you don't go around selling bootleg baskets.

13:11

And I have to get off of my plane flight cause

13:14

she was a seven 47 pilot. I think one of the first ones or people in the

13:18

first group of the seven 47, many years ago.

13:21

And so she set me up with all the credentials that

13:24

I needed. We came down with the name and my corporate name,

13:28

the corporate filing name of that's in my baskets is Joyce

13:32

is something special. I really did not want to put my name in front

13:36

of. I wanted to name something special.

13:38

So it was like a conversation with peace. But when we check that Maine was taken at that time.

13:44

And so I just put my name in front of sort of cane.

13:46

Joyce is something special at that time.

13:48

And now I'm doing a DBA of Joyce's basket.

13:51

So it all ties into it. But I had no special training.

13:56

No. Now I can, after we did that,

13:59

I came in at a time where I was fortunate enough

14:02

that conventions were starting up.

14:04

And so I went to my first convention within six months

14:08

of having started my business.

14:11

So I had to learn everything because I had absolutely no

14:15

skills at all, no designing skills,

14:18

no skills about operating a business or the education.

14:22

And so that's where I started at the beginning of going

14:25

to the different conventions and the different seminars that they were

14:29

having. And the industry at that time,

14:31

there were two prominent people that were having a gift basket

14:34

conventions. And I went to them both and I took every

14:37

class they had and learned everything like a learner,

14:39

because we were like on the job training was that no

14:42

training ahead of time, you get a certificate and you go out there into the

14:45

world. It was on the job training.

14:48

What year was that? That was in 2002.

14:51

Okay. I want you right now to get up,

14:54

step up onto a soap box.

14:56

Okay. And speak for the gift basket industry.

15:00

Because I think a lot of people,

15:02

and we've talked about this. I used to have a gift basket business as well as

15:06

you know, and I think a lot of people are like,

15:08

well, what's the big deal with gift baskets.

15:10

You just get a bunch of stuff and you put it in a basket and you put some wrapping around it and

15:15

you sell it. Talk to us,

15:18

get on your soap box and talk to us about the

15:20

gift basket and being a designer and how it's different and

15:24

all the goodness that you're going to talk about. It's not just putting stuff in a basket.

15:29

It's more than that is. Design is technique is the quality of the products.

15:35

It's the placement of the products. You have to have everything,

15:39

a certain, we have me uniform so that it is appealing when a

15:42

customer looks at your gift baskets or whatever you're offering on

15:46

your website, or even in person, when you do trade shows with it has to be appealing

15:51

to draw them to you. So I had to learn colors,

15:54

design, what goes with what does not go with that?

15:58

What is colorful and what is not colorful?

16:01

And it's all about what the client perceived your customer policies.

16:05

Is that a beautiful basket or is it a nice box

16:10

or is it just crap? I had to learn a different things.

16:13

I had to learn how to really execute an exam on

16:16

what I'm doing. And it took me a while and actually strobe to do

16:20

these baskets. But for some strange reason,

16:23

people still want them. But I was struggling because I was new in the industry.

16:28

I didn't know how to do certain things. So I had to be a fast learner every quick learner,

16:34

because people were coming in, buying from me.

16:38

Were you saying that you were struggling because you weren't getting

16:40

the baskets to look the way you wanted to,

16:42

because as you were just saying it, first impression is so important and there's value in the visuals,

16:48

which then allows you to get a good price for your

16:51

baskets too. Absolutely. But I had to learn the visualization of this industry

16:58

and it's still an ongoing continuous education because things change right?

17:04

The old go out, the new go out, they bring back the old,

17:06

where they bring the old Beckham with a twist. So it's all different sorts of continuing education,

17:12

regardless of what industry that you're in.

17:14

Don't think that after a certain amount of time that you

17:17

have made it and there's nothing else to learn because there's

17:20

always something to learn and whatever industry that you're in and

17:24

you want to keep relevant and you want to make sure

17:27

that you're up on top of your game against any of

17:30

your competitors and just was in yourself,

17:32

knowing that you're doing the best you can.

17:35

And you're putting out the best products that your company has

17:38

to offer. That's right. And then also with the conferences,

17:41

everything that you're learning, and this is similar for any industry really is how do

17:46

you price things so that you're actually making,

17:49

right? Right. So you're taking different things that you're purchasing,

17:54

merging them in adding creativity and building it up.

17:57

So the cost structure for gift baskets is different than lots

18:00

of different other industries would be absolutely.

18:03

Right. So you learn all of that. Also. It's not just all just the creative building Part with

18:10

me is that it came to me later.

18:13

I was still struggling for a couple of years to get

18:16

a basket. The last thought was nice. Like I say, all the best of souls that I was sending out,

18:20

but I wanted to see how the ACA take my level

18:24

of knowledge and expertise and really train myself to make the

18:28

best gift baskets so that everyone that goes out,

18:31

I'm proud of each and every one and that they look

18:34

beautiful enough to ask the price that I'm asking.

18:38

But again, that all comes in learning also,

18:42

it's not only just making a beautiful basket.

18:44

You have to know the business aspects of you have to

18:47

know your daily business operating expenses that goes with having a

18:52

business. It's not just making a basket and selling it.

18:56

It's more than that. You got vendors,

18:58

you got suppliers, you got marketing materials,

19:02

you got networking events that you're going to that's all apart

19:06

of building your brand and building a business.

19:09

It's not just making a gift basket and says, take it out that to the world.

19:13

But you had affirmations early on that this was working.

19:17

And I love the fact that you were taking action and

19:19

continuing to perfect along the way.

19:21

Right? Cause you could have said, Oh, I'm not ready yet to do the business.

19:24

I have to practice the baskets. I have to make sure they're perfect.

19:27

And then you're not making any money. So you got better by actually doing versus practicing.

19:33

Absolutely. Like I say, I was thrown into it because people are buying it.

19:36

And then also I had to up my game because what

19:40

I had to offer on my websites was pricing.

19:44

People saw that I could do the work.

19:48

And so now they want from a $50 basket.

19:51

Can I do a custom $200 basket?

19:54

So I'm learning how to make the small ones,

19:56

the medium to big ones. And now the customers.

19:59

So it was always, I felt like I was on roller skates and things were

20:03

changing every minute, every minute.

20:05

And I have to thank my customers,

20:08

also in the skill building for me that they were boosting

20:12

me up to go higher and higher, higher and make better and better baskets.

20:17

So you never said no. If someone asked you for something,

20:19

you said yes. And then you figured out how to do it.

20:22

I figured out how to do it. It was scary when I said yes and had to come

20:25

back and figure it out. But one thing in business,

20:27

I definitely have to stress this hit after people say,

20:32

Oh, I want a big business. I want a big order.

20:35

I want this, I want that. But if you don't have the proper training and tools in

20:41

place, that's going to fail.

20:44

You have got to have that in place.

20:46

And that's thing that I was worried about because I really

20:49

didn't understand if a big order came in,

20:52

how can I finance it? I had to learn that I don't finance the business that's

20:57

coming in. The customers are giving you either a down payment or the

21:01

opinion in full on big orders so that you're not stressing

21:05

with having to spend money in your pocket and then wait

21:09

for payment to come in. So I had to learn that aspect of if a big

21:13

order came in, what did I have to do?

21:16

This is a really good point that we have never talked

21:19

about on the show before. So I just want to stop right here for a second.

21:23

It's partially specific to gift baskets,

21:26

I guess I'd say. Cause what you're really saying is in the other way of

21:30

doing it, you're not going to get paid until the baskets are delivered,

21:33

but you have to buy all the product. You have to buy the baskets.

21:36

If it's a really big order, pay people to come in and help you.

21:39

You have to do all of that upfront before you might

21:41

get paid by the client, but it's become more typical within the gift basket industry for

21:46

sure is you get the down payment that you're talking about,

21:50

which for the most part, at least covers your cost.

21:54

And that's really important. So it's something to think about for others now,

21:58

wholesale, it's a little bit harder to do that.

22:00

I'm thinking here, Joyce of other people who might be listening,

22:03

who like get a huge order for candles and they have

22:08

to make all those candles and then place them. And sometimes you don't get paid for wholesale orders until a

22:12

little bit later, but it's something to start thinking about and projecting how you

22:17

will make plans for that earlier in the process versus later,

22:21

because when those opportunities come by, you want to use them.

22:24

Absolutely. Or you want to take advantage of it.

22:26

It's kind of like I would go back to the gift

22:29

basket. So I'll ask you, this is if you got an order for like a thousand

22:33

pieces, it was due in two weeks,

22:37

let's say you probably have to bring in some people to

22:39

help you. Absolutely. You have to break because you can't do it by

22:42

yourself. You have to bring in people. Do you have people,

22:45

no waitlist. If you will, or kind of flex hours that you can pull in,

22:49

if you need to, I have the best employees in the world.

22:52

I tell people because all my employees are retired so they

22:56

can come on a whim, a wham. So that's the good part about my business that I can

23:02

call them and let them know I need them.

23:04

And they're trained already. They're already trained.

23:07

A lot of them have been with me a long,

23:09

long time. And they're senior citizens,

23:12

which I love to have. There's no drama.

23:15

They know how to come in and work and they don't

23:17

have to come in and work on time. Oh, there's a concept.

23:21

That's a plus factor for me. In fact, when I was looking for employees in the beginning,

23:25

after my biggest to begin to really take off,

23:28

I was told I was at a networking and the lady

23:32

told me, she says, why don't you go to the ARP office and see if

23:36

they have people that have retired,

23:38

that don't want a full-time job that don't want to work

23:41

everyday. Just want to work enough to where I think $600

23:44

at minimum, after that they would have to be on a 10 99.

23:47

You'd have to put them on payroll. So that started working out for me,

23:50

perfectly as them being senior citizens.

23:53

I'm thinking to myself, I don't want to give them multitask.

23:56

I don't want them to multitask anything. I want to find out who's good at what?

24:00

And so for me, I found two ladies that are very good with doing my

24:05

ribbon, making my ribbons. It says it helps them with the arthritis in their hand.

24:09

So that's all they do to the Christmas season. For me is make bowls,

24:12

hundreds and hundreds of bowls. And do they have to make them in your office or

24:16

can they make them at home? They can make them anywhere.

24:18

They want to just as long as they made There you

24:20

go and made on time when you need them.

24:24

I may not have time. So that has been good for me to have people that's

24:27

flexible and don't have a job that don't have small kids

24:31

and things like that because sometime the hours here during holiday

24:34

season, sometime they can go wait until the midnight hours in

24:39

the wee, wee hours in the morning to get a project done and

24:42

finished to go out for delivery and the truck the next

24:44

day or the next couple of days. Okay. I want to keep asking you some questions about your

24:49

business growth. Okay. At what point did you put up a website?

24:54

How many years in? I think I really put up a website like really within

25:00

the first year and websites back at that time,

25:04

it was easily hit a mist. But people at that time during the networking,

25:08

as they were asking for NASA, which is a website,

25:10

they will actually, at that time was popular. Have an email address.

25:13

Do you have an email address? Do you have an email address?

25:16

So popular back then was having an email address,

25:19

but I wanted to, because I am a gift designer and I do do gift

25:25

baskets. I needed a website presence so that people can see

25:29

what I have to offer and see my work and my

25:31

style and my class of things of how I do.

25:35

So website to me was right away.

25:37

And so that's what I did. I had a website up there that didn't have a shopping

25:42

cart per se. In the beginning, it was just a showcase of my baskets,

25:46

more information of what I can do. Here's my email address.

25:49

Here's a phone number that you can call to place an

25:52

order, but as is beginning to grow,

25:54

and this is beginning to evolve, then I says,

25:57

you know what, I'm turning over. So now I have to have a website with a shopping

26:01

cart, a working shopping cart. And so each stage of my business as my business began

26:06

to grow at, began to change and adapt to what was needed for the

26:11

business to continue to grow. And then when did social media start to play a role

26:17

in your business? I want to say maybe 2009,

26:24

10, somewhere in there, maybe 11.

26:27

So not so much as the social media aspect of it

26:30

per se. I had my first Facebook account I think was,

26:33

had created that in 2009,

26:36

but just to be able to have social groups and it's

26:40

different because Facebook hadn't really have a Facebook group.

26:42

You have this bank, then you have private rooms that people that was in your

26:47

industry was only in that room. It was an application that you had to go through and

26:51

a process and all that castle is kind of neat because

26:54

they knew the administrator knew beforehand your intentions of coming into

26:59

the group. So in the beginning you used social media more for peer

27:03

to peer support and continued learning versus getting visibility on your

27:08

business. So you had the website for visibility,

27:11

for the business and people to buy and the groups for

27:14

peer-to-peer support. Absolutely. And things that come up that you don't have the

27:18

answer to. You're not quite sure, but you could always post it to your group.

27:23

Right? Okay. So we're going to leave that there for a minute because

27:27

I'm coming back to that in a little bit.

27:29

You'll know exactly what I'm talking about when we do that.

27:33

But how did you continue to take yourself again,

27:36

still back when you were in the beginning?

27:39

So you continued getting that positive feedback that the baskets were

27:44

being able to be sold. You were learning more,

27:46

you're designing, got better. Your pricing probably got better and sourcing product at some point,

27:52

I'm sure you stopped going to the local store and started

27:54

purchasing wholesale. So all of that was evolving.

27:58

But talk to me about how you continued to attract customers

28:02

and got visibility to your business. Yes. Isn't this conversation so great with Joyce taking us step-by-step

28:11

through how she built her business.

28:14

We'll jump right back to her story, right after a quick word from our sponsor.

28:19

Yes. It's possible. Increase your sales without adding a single customer.

28:24

How you ask by offering personalization with your products,

28:27

wrap a cake box with a ribbon saying happy 30th birthday,

28:31

Annie, or at a special message and date to wedding or

28:34

party favors for an extra meaningful touch.

28:37

Where else can you get customization with a creatively spelled name

28:40

or find packaging? That includes a saying whose meaning is known to a select

28:43

to not only are customers willing to pay for these special

28:46

touches. They'll tell their friends and word will spread about your

28:49

company and products. You can create personalized ribbons and labels in seconds,

28:54

make just one or thousands without waiting weeks or having to

28:57

spend money to order yards and yards print words in any

29:01

language or font, add logos, images, even photos,

29:05

perfect for branding. We're adding ingredient and flavor labels to for more information,

29:09

go to the ribbon print company.com.

29:12

Okay. I decided to join my local chamber so that I

29:17

can go out and introduce myself and my business and what

29:20

I had to offer. So networking played a very,

29:24

very big part in the beginning and still now to this

29:29

day of me going out and introducing people to my business.

29:33

And so I joined several local chambers and network with everyone

29:37

that was in there. I played a part in doing different things.

29:40

Volunteering, being on a different bull was getting myself in other

29:45

words, getting put in the spotlight by myself and then my

29:48

business partner. If you see a person each time at the same place

29:51

at the same juncture you did for me with what they

29:54

do, Oh, you were joining multiple places,

29:57

but then you were also very active. So that meant joining committees.

30:01

And then also showing up at the meeting. Absolutely do any committees showing up at the meeting,

30:06

coming early to events, seeing if I could help out and different things like that.

30:11

So it all played a part and that comes into your

30:14

part of being you're coming there for business.

30:17

But also you want to help that chamber,

30:19

who of the organization, you want to be a part of it.

30:22

You want to be a part of its success. And I wanted to be a part of the success aspect.

30:27

If I was a part of a bigger picture, then I automatically knew that my business was going to be

30:32

bigger and make a bigger success within me.

30:35

Yeah. Because people would know you, then they trust you.

30:37

They like you. And it's also convenient because if you're in a committee and

30:41

someone needs a gift and you're sitting right there,

30:44

they could say to you, Hey Joyce, can you put something together for me,

30:46

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right? Absolutely. And that's why I believe you have to really go

30:51

and you have to meet people,

30:53

not trying to meet a bunch of people all in one

30:56

day and grab a bunch of business cards.

30:59

I believe in doing, one-on-one taking my time to know that person.

31:02

So if I reached out to them, there's something in the conversation that they said that either I

31:07

could put in the email and talk about it,

31:09

or I can either discuss it over the phone, maybe something funny they say,

31:13

or maybe something that they were looking for.

31:15

And I always want to be a vessel that people come

31:18

to me now only for gift basket, but they may want something else.

31:23

What does that mean? Something else. In other words,

31:25

I had a lady call me when she was my client

31:28

for a long, long time. She gift best. She called me one day.

31:30

She says, I need to know if you know of a funeral home

31:35

that would do pre-arrangement plots. Now, how does that figure gift baskets,

31:40

prearranged funeral plans. And so I told her,

31:42

I says, I don't know if you went off the top of my

31:45

head, give me 24 hours.

31:47

I says, I know I've met somebody that somebody in my chamber that

31:51

I've met, that I can give you that information too.

31:53

Is it all right if I pass your information on to

31:55

them? And so she said, yes. And I had met a young lady that worked at

31:59

a funeral service. She had been there for many, many years.

32:01

We had had quite a few lunches together. We see each other out in the public and I called

32:05

her and I told her, I says, this lady is interested in pre-arranged funeral practices.

32:09

So she said the same thing that I'm thinking,

32:11

how you get a gift basket from a gift basket to

32:14

a prearranged funeral plan. We seriously.

32:17

Yeah. But the shorter, the story is yes.

32:20

She called her. Yes. She bought two products for one for her and for

32:24

another husband. So you end up being the conduit,

32:27

if you will, between her need and then someone else's business.

32:31

So you were able to pass on additional business,

32:34

which is what networking really should be all about.

32:36

And you get kind of positioned as person who knows everybody.

32:40

Yeah. Go to Joyce for the resource because she knows she'll

32:44

have the answer. And I enjoy that because people do still call me from

32:48

time to time. Even when people call me here and I can't help them,

32:52

I'm not going to say no. I don't know.

32:55

I have no idea. I hate when people say to me,

32:57

we would train never to say, I have no idea.

33:00

That's why you're sticking a knife in me.

33:02

What do you do instead? And says,

33:04

I don't have the answer, but let me get back with you on that.

33:09

I'm going to see what I can find out. I'd Rather say that.

33:12

And I tried to find out, cause I, I say people have called me.

33:15

They have maybe. So my website, one a basket.

33:18

If you want a hand, maybe local handled everything.

33:20

It was outside of my area. And when I asked them last,

33:23

found out where I was going to, can I tell them,

33:25

I says, go back and Google, but put in the city name.

33:29

I say, I know my company's name would pop up again,

33:31

but there should be someone in that city that can help

33:34

you. And a lot of times I've given out the name

33:37

and the phone number of the gift, best that company in that area that can help them.

33:42

Beautiful. Okay. So in the beginning,

33:45

let's say on a scale of one to 10, I've never done this in a show before either,

33:48

but so this'll be interesting. How important was networking to you growing your business?

33:55

10. Oh, okay. All right.

33:57

Interesting. And what role does it play today?

34:00

10 plus 10 plus again. Okay. And networking,

34:04

networking, networking, and networking.

34:06

And people cost lab networking. I don't have anything to show for it.

34:10

Okay. How did you, what did you go out and give a person your card

34:14

and says, call me, let's buy something. Or did you say,

34:17

you know what? Let's sit down and talk to see how we can help

34:20

each other's business grow Well and you don't do it.

34:24

Just do it at the meetings either. You will suggest that you meet again for coffee.

34:29

Just one-on-one Absolutely.

34:31

Before the Corona virus hit so heavily here,

34:34

I was scheduling what I call a coffee chat and I

34:38

had Starbucks is my different offices that I will go and

34:41

meet the people and we have coffee and we sit down

34:44

and we talk. And I really didn't say much about my business.

34:47

I want to know more about how can I help them

34:51

That would in turn, come back to you. Absolutely. Then they will say,

34:54

well, tell me what killed. I know you do give best, but tell me,

34:57

how will your gift basket benefit my company using them?

35:01

And that's when I go to talk and what we can

35:03

help you do. But without company gifts to grow your business,

35:08

I was very successful before the coronavirus.

35:11

I was very successful in doing that because it's a pleasant

35:14

time. It's not all about business. It's not a salesy thing.

35:17

We're not selling anything. And sometimes we find out that and talking because I don't

35:22

want to always talk business and shop. I want to know about you.

35:25

I like to learn about people. I want to hear the story.

35:29

And it's a difference. So before coronavirus,

35:33

how many networking events would you be doing?

35:36

A and how many coffee chats would you be doing a

35:40

week? Give us a feel for what that would look like.

35:42

In normal times, Normal times I would do like maybe three coffee chests a

35:48

week scheduled coffee chats. And I would do maybe two networking events every single week,

35:55

every single week. That was always something to go.

35:57

How many chambers are you with right now?

36:00

I'm with two chambers. And so I try to participate and the different things that

36:05

they have. I try to do that basically in the beginning because my

36:09

industry is hard for me to do that during the fourth

36:12

quarter. Right. For sure.

36:14

But then that's also, when you can get a lot of business,

36:17

do you ever have anyone going to a chamber meeting on

36:19

your behalf? I do. In fact,

36:22

but not going on my behalf. A lot of times,

36:24

if there's a, like, we have a multifunction chamber network where they got five

36:29

or six chambers and I want to meet a lot of

36:31

people. I would take another fear.

36:33

The friend of mine has been friends with me for years. For me,

36:35

it's called the beginning of my business and will come into

36:38

the building as she'll go to the left side and the

36:41

a right side and we'll work the room. Got it.

36:43

Well, she knows what I'm looking for. She knows specific people that I'm looking for because I don't

36:48

know. I just read. Everybody's not your customer.

36:51

Okay? Expand on that. Some people are not your customer.

36:55

They don't want what you have to sell.

36:57

They don't want me to have the offer. In other words, they don't want,

36:59

they don't buy gift baskets. They don't buy gifts.

37:02

They don't do anything like that. So why would you try to approach that person?

37:06

They've told you? No, we don't buy any gifts and you sell a bit

37:09

and when you sell, but you can feel the energy from the recess.

37:12

No, that's a stop saying says, no one stop.

37:15

You have to be able to see that stop sign that says stop and says,

37:18

you know what? Wonderful meeting you here.

37:20

Hope to see you at the next event. And you move on,

37:24

Right? You don't keep trying to sell. If you're getting the signals that they're not interested.

37:28

But I also would think you correct me if I'm wrong

37:32

here, you don't then just brush them off as if they're

37:35

a nobody, because then that's like, Oh, well you can't give me business.

37:37

You're no longer important to me. You can't do that at all.

37:40

That to me is just unprofessional. Well, because they may know somebody,

37:45

they may not need gift baskets, but somebody else might that they know.

37:49

Yeah. And like a lot of people, data buy gift baskets from me when I want to buy

37:53

gift pressing at all. But a lot of times I see that.

37:56

And I'm the same person as I was before I tried

37:59

to sell you. I'm going to always be that way pleasant.

38:03

Because like you said, you never know that person may,

38:06

they may not buy any gifts at all, but they may know someone that does.

38:10

Right. Okay. So let me expand on this a little bit.

38:14

So how is networking working for you right now while we're

38:18

still in the pandemic time?

38:20

Well, I'm having to pivot it with the networking events because

38:24

now everything is virtual.

38:26

So I'm having to make time to sit in front of

38:30

a computer to do a virtual networking event.

38:34

I had an event last month for my chamber.

38:37

I missed the one from before. So I says, let me see,

38:39

how does this work? And I got to tell you doing the virtual networking event.

38:44

Everybody was there. It was kind of nice.

38:47

It was different. And it was kind of nice. It also gave me some ideals and bringing me out of

38:52

my comfort zone is that I can now send an email,

38:57

create an appointment, to have my clients,

39:00

to do a virtual zoom meeting,

39:02

to see what I have to offer for this holiday season

39:06

that I'm going to be doing for them before they actually

39:08

see it. And they can give me some information or give me some

39:12

tips on how they want, did they want this product or they want another product or

39:15

just be instrumental. I'm thinking to myself,

39:18

that's a win-win situation for me because now they're interacting with

39:22

the gifts and actually seeing what's going in the boxes and

39:25

in the baskets that they can choose from.

39:28

Right. And it's really easy. There's no drive time.

39:31

You don't have to schedule a meeting and go and bring

39:33

options and let's face it. Everyone's comfortable with zoom now.

39:36

So that's wonderful. So you're saying like, if there's somebody who is interested,

39:40

they're a client. Now you just pop on a zoom call and you can

39:44

talk through the options and come to agreement.

39:47

So I'm thinking that speeds up the sale.

39:49

It truly does because I can give them an ideal right

39:52

here, right now of how this design is going to look

39:56

for your clients. I can also have them rip it.

39:59

If they want printer river, I can also have that out as well.

40:02

I can make a boat with an entails and how they want to have that.

40:05

And they have several options to look as this.

40:07

Okay. I want this in there. Or I want the other in there.

40:10

And then also they can give us, and I tell them all the time,

40:13

if you have any type of information that you want to

40:16

go into your baskets, feel free to send them to me.

40:19

And they will be also incorporated into the design.

40:22

Oh, love it. And you feel that that has helped you close more sales.

40:27

Absolutely. When you make your customer a part of your designing

40:33

team, they love that,

40:36

that they had an actual hand in. I selected that popcorn over this popcorn,

40:41

which I hate popcorn. That's another different story,

40:44

but I like this cookies over that cookies.

40:47

And I like that color. But in the other color,

40:49

it will now give them choices and it will help me

40:54

to better understand them going forward,

40:56

whether it's a new customer, whether it's an old customer that I need to change,

41:00

how I've been doing my gifting designs for them,

41:03

right. For me again, that's an education and learning.

41:08

Well, here's some more education and learning.

41:10

If you have any expired popcorn, send it my way,

41:16

because if you're not going to eat it, I will. I just have a thing with popcorn.

41:21

That's favorable here. I have a thing with popcorn too,

41:24

and it's opposite of yours. So, okay.

41:27

I want to circle back now to social media.

41:29

I kind of put it on pause because I wanted to

41:32

follow the flow networking.

41:34

Now let's go back and pretend we can network.

41:37

Like we used to be able to do that. We are all hopeful.

41:40

We'll come back again very shortly.

41:42

One of the biggest reasons last year,

41:44

I was so on your case, Joyce, about coming on the podcast is you are such a

41:51

pro at Facebook live events.

41:54

Like when you're at a networking event, you just pop on your phone and you roll with it.

41:59

And it is a beautiful thing. So I want to talk with you and have you share

42:04

the story of why you decided to start getting onto Facebook

42:07

live and then take us through.

42:10

It's not been that long ago. So I know you can remember how you approach an event.

42:15

Like not, you press this button, you press this button,

42:18

but what you do with your lives. Okay. So let's start with,

42:21

when did you decide that you were going to start doing

42:24

Facebook live videos? It was really,

42:27

I would say I had thought about it for quite a

42:30

while. I wasn't sure if I want to do it.

42:33

And I wasn't sure if it was going to be receptive because I didn't want to make a mistake and I wanted

42:38

the camera angle to be perfect. I wanted everything to be perfect.

42:41

Perfect. Perfect. And then after that, I had a thought to myself.

42:44

I said, these are Facebook lives. And I remember hearing you say this,

42:48

whatever happens, happens, you have to go with the flow.

42:50

And so then I took it from a networking aspect to

42:55

a fun aspect with me doing a live.

42:58

And I thought it was, so this was really more about me. I'm at a networking.

43:01

I want all my friends and coworkers and family members and

43:05

customers to see what I'm doing, that I'm out here.

43:07

And the first of all, I'm out here in the community and that I'm showing them

43:12

the different events that's around town.

43:15

And that I'm a part of. And then when I come out wanting to do something that

43:18

was cookie and fun, definitely fun.

43:21

So as I began to do the wildlife, I began to get more,

43:24

better and better and better with it. And so people began to know that I started doing the

43:29

labs that I saw. It was nice to pull them in to say a few

43:33

words. So that made me so happy that even down to

43:37

the chamber president, in fact, she told me the other day,

43:39

she says, we missed the Redland networking.

43:42

You miss. We miss you with the last, because that would give them a way to showcase the chamber

43:48

and what we do, the different functions that will make someone in our area want

43:53

to join. Absolutely. Yes,

43:57

Because just saying that you're having a chamber event and someone

44:00

said, Oh, it was a nice event. But to actually see the event lab and in person as

44:05

it going on, going to table to table and table showing the full session,

44:09

if there's a band, showing people, dancing, showing people,

44:12

talking at different booths and then going up,

44:14

talking with them for me, I thought I was a camera man.

44:19

Well, you're the host with the camera too.

44:21

Yeah, you had to do both. So you're, multi-functioning right there.

44:24

Handle both of them. As I began to do the more I began to enjoy

44:29

them more. And really I would tag a few people once I put

44:33

it up, you know, on my Facebook business page.

44:36

And I would tag a few people that were in my

44:38

friendship page on Facebook, and then they would put themselves,

44:42

they would tag it because sometimes a lot of time they will be in the picture.

44:45

And so their customers will see them out in the community,

44:49

networking, mingling, seeing what's going on in the community with the chamber and

44:54

how we can help. So that was a win for me.

44:56

And that's really what I missed. And you are a pro at that.

45:00

So give his listeners, here's what she'd do. She'd be at a chamber event or the other ones I

45:05

liked Joyce were when let's say, because of your corporate clients,

45:08

maybe you were at an event at a hotel and the

45:11

hotel was your client. So you're giving the hotel visibility and saying,

45:16

we're here at such and such place because there's an event

45:19

going on. I thought I just walk around and show you a behind

45:22

the scenes of what's happening here.

45:25

And so then she'd walk around, she'd go in or wherever she's going,

45:28

she'd show everything. She just said like the food and the band,

45:32

if it's going the flowers.

45:34

And if it was connected with someone she knew,

45:37

she could say, so-and-so business.

45:39

Does these gorgeous flower arrangements.

45:41

So who doesn't love that, that they're getting promoted.

45:45

And then what you do, Joyce, which was so fun is call people over.

45:49

Oh, there she is right now, maybe she'll come on,

45:51

live and chat with us for a minute. So you were then putting other people in the spotlight too.

45:56

And it was so natural,

45:58

so comfortable, so entertaining.

46:01

You have a gift for doing that. I wish we could send people to be able to look

46:04

at them now, but we can't do them right now in the future.

46:07

Hopefully that will come back In the future.

46:10

And then also that led me to be outside of my

46:13

comfort zone because I'm thinking of doing a lab in my

46:18

shop here for the Christmas holidays, showing what I have to offer.

46:21

So it's going to be kind of scary because this time

46:24

I'm going to be in front of the camera. Normally I'm behind the camera,

46:27

but this time we're going to be in front of the camera. So my first test is going to be next month

46:33

with the chamber that having a virtual business straight show that

46:36

I have signed up with. And so that's going to be interesting for me to have

46:41

my table set up. I'm going to do it in the holiday spirit.

46:44

I'm going to have different designs on the table.

46:47

And so that's got to be something different.

46:49

I've never done that before. And I'm kind of excited to see the outcome of it,

46:55

the end result You're going to do so great,

46:59

because think about it. You've been doing Facebook lives before,

47:02

and you have been in your Facebook lives in front of

47:04

the camera, right? You've had the camera facing on you and then you

47:07

flip it around. Plus I think all of us,

47:10

and I want to apply this back to our listeners too.

47:13

We're all on zoom nowadays. Like we're so used to now seeing our faces in the

47:18

camera and talking to a camera and you're really just talking

47:22

to other people, if you think of it that way,

47:25

and it's just natural and I'm so excited.

47:28

We've been talking about this in our private calls,

47:30

Joyce, about your event coming up. I'm so excited for it.

47:33

I can not wait. I think you are going to just absolutely nail it.

47:38

I'm hoping to be the talk of the town. That's what I'm hoping You already are.

47:42

The talk of the town girlfriend. Okay. So all of this sounds great.

47:47

You definitely, I know everyone is understanding that you are a powerhouse business

47:53

woman, but tell us some time when things weren't working well,

47:57

because I think it's important to round everything out that everything

48:01

isn't all glorious and it doesn't always work out the way

48:04

you want. Can you share with us a story of when that happened

48:07

to you? Absolutely. I can share that story and any business,

48:12

regardless of what you're going to have ups and downs.

48:14

And one instance, I have a client that was really,

48:19

really difficult. That was just outright nasty Verbally mean or yeah,

48:25

Verbally mean when she called up and it was a hard

48:29

decision and a hard pill for me to swallow because it

48:33

was a lot of money that she was spending with me.

48:36

And I understand that you have to kind of deal with

48:38

difficult customers at times, but after wow,

48:41

you have to kind of say, is this really worth all the stress that I'm going through?

48:47

And it really had me not feeling good with my company

48:51

and kind of second guessing what I needed to do in

48:54

order to continue to make her happy.

48:57

Were you not feeling good? Because she was just mean,

49:01

or was she critical of what you were doing?

49:04

She was just mean and nasty. Just say it like that.

49:06

Just me the next. So anytime the phone rang and you saw that it was

49:09

her, you were like, Oh no, She wouldn't do this to me.

49:13

But she would do this to the people that answered the phone, my employees,

49:17

as she would do that to my driver that went out

49:19

and drop things off. And she always wanted something additional.

49:23

She always wanted to have my driver come and do something

49:26

personal for her and that's not, they're supposed to do and getting upset about it.

49:31

Okay. So where did you do After long consideration and talking

49:35

with my financial person,

49:37

I read an article that says sometimes you have to fire

49:41

your best clients. And I read an article over and over and over.

49:45

I must've read it over a hundred times over and over

49:49

again, As a percentage of your overall revenue at that time,

49:53

how big a client was this? I would say 30,

49:57

35%. Oh, so very significant.

50:00

Okay. That's important to know as you continue Very significant.

50:03

So that's why I had me on the fence.

50:07

What do I do? I don't want my staff to say,

50:10

I'm not answering the phone. If I have to deal with her,

50:12

then I quit. Right. And I don't want to have to retrain anybody.

50:16

So I had to make a real hard decision,

50:19

really, really hard to sit here, but I wanted to keep a professional cause her husband was

50:23

a wonderful person. Never had any problems with him.

50:25

And when I came to the that, I can't do this anymore because I've got knots in my

50:30

stomach at night. And I don't want her to think that she could come

50:35

in and tell me the owner of Joyce's baskets,

50:38

how to run my business. That's where I draw the line.

50:42

I will not allow anybody to comment and tell me how

50:46

to run my business. That's never going to happen.

50:49

Okay. So what'd, you do drink a lot of wine.<inaudible>

50:56

I got a friend of mine. That's a professional writer.

50:59

And I said, I need to write a termination letter,

51:03

but a very professional one. But I want to outline in a very nice way and

51:09

bullet points, why I am terminating this relationship.

51:13

And then I thank her for all the wonderful years that

51:16

she had been with me, but it would be best that we resolve this relationship and

51:20

that she find me another gift person to do it.

51:23

Well, I guess for how many years had you been putting

51:25

up with her years?

51:28

Whoa. And I was really way too long.

51:32

So I figured I'm like, okay, let me get ready for a fight.

51:35

Cause I know she's going to have something to say. I said,

51:37

I've let her, I didn't do email. I sent a letter,

51:41

a certified return receipt, but I want to make sure that she got it.

51:45

And so I thought she was going to call and give me a hard time,

51:47

but she never did. Her husband called me and begged me tooth and nail.

51:51

Please take them back. I says, I can't do it.

51:53

I says, I'm so sorry. And so once that letter went out and I got back,

51:59

a city desk signed for it, it looked like a thousand pounds that was on my shoulder

52:05

was off. And I'm like, okay, I've just lost this chunk of change.

52:09

Where in a universal mind going to get that back and

52:13

within, because I put that out,

52:15

I told her universe, send me another client,

52:19

but here's the stipulations, Not just the client.

52:23

That's so funny. Send me the client that is deemed to love Joyce's baskets,

52:33

joyous, areola, her staff, and anything that we do for them.

52:37

And how did the universe do for you? They're Less than 90 days later.

52:43

I got a huge, huge contract that superseded what she was doing for me.

52:51

Wow. And they love everything that we did.

52:55

It really wasn't no fuss and no bother at all because

52:59

it came from a referral of referral,

53:01

our referral. So when whispered in his personal ear and told them about

53:05

my company, That's amazing.

53:08

What a story. I love that you asked the universe and then you put

53:11

stipulations. I just couldn't.

53:16

So again and business,

53:19

you have to, it's hard knocks that you don't want to do.

53:22

You don't want nothing to be hard. You want everything to be easy.

53:26

It is not always easy. And even in your finance,

53:29

you may have where you're on top today,

53:32

financially. And then tomorrow you're like seeing where can you find

53:36

money? You put together a basket or buy supplies for whatever

53:40

your business is. So when the good comes,

53:43

you celebrate it and what the bad come, you hold your head down and you keep moving to find

53:47

a solution to it. You keep going and going. You don't give up,

53:50

you give out, but you don't give up. Right? But so in this situation,

53:55

hindsight now, what would you have done differently?

53:58

This customer that's a problem starts doing business with you.

54:02

What would you have done if this happened now today,

54:06

after all the learning that you have, what would you,

54:09

Oh, now I have experience, I know the telltale signs immediately.

54:12

She would have been gone. How I would just say,

54:16

you know what? I would have a private conversation with her to try to

54:19

come to some sort of agreement and let her know you're

54:22

not going to talk to my staff this way.

54:24

You're not going to even talk to me this week. You're not going to tell us how to design.

54:29

You can give us suggestions, but you can't tell us something that you don't know anything

54:33

about. Be real professional with them and real nice with them

54:38

and polite at times. But like I say, I can be lucky to see.

54:41

I've never ran across a client like that again.

54:44

But you know, this will happen.

54:47

You know that sometimes that you can do everything in your

54:50

power to make that customer a client or whatever,

54:53

happy. And they're still not happy,

54:56

Right? They're never going to be happy. They're never going to be happy.

54:59

You have to realize that they're never going to be happy

55:02

with you or anything that you do.

55:06

And it's such a drain on your business or to drag

55:09

on your morale. You're taking time with that client where you could replace them

55:14

with someone who's going to add joy and you're going to

55:16

like doing business with, but I think often,

55:19

especially when we're starting and if it was a large revenue

55:22

client, it's like, Oh my gosh, but I can't replace them.

55:25

Like, I'm going to put up with it because it's a

55:27

lot of money and we have to get over that.

55:31

Because like you said, you were at the point where you were wondering if you

55:34

wanted to keep doing the business, just because of this one client.

55:38

Absolutely. I'm thinking to myself, how many more clients out there?

55:41

I like her. I'm like, Oh my God, I can't,

55:43

I can't take that. I can't take that.

55:45

But like I said, I'm glad that I learned that lesson,

55:48

that I know the telltale signs to look at it.

55:50

And it goes from experience that I won't put myself in

55:55

a position to have a client that way.

55:58

And I think too, it comes from communicating.

56:01

Maybe back then my communication skills to her was not good.

56:06

And that she thought that she could tell me what to

56:09

do and I'll be okay with them. And maybe she did have some instances and I went along

56:14

with it. And so maybe I opened that door with the Pandora's box,

56:18

which I did know. Well, I think there's truth in that we teach people how

56:22

to treat us that goes with personal relationships and business relationships.

56:28

And my guess is that other people that she buys things

56:31

from see the same way,

56:33

the same behavior, the same way.

56:36

But you don't need that in your wheel house? No, absolutely.

56:39

And I saw her, I saw her about maybe three years ago at a gala

56:44

function. And I walked up to her like we have been

56:46

friends forever. Oh my God. How are you? It's been a long time since I've seen you.

56:50

You're looking well and do it the rest of the evening.

56:53

And that's it. I'm never going to avoid someone that I see in a

56:57

room. I'm not going to avoid. We don't have any business dealings anymore.

57:00

Or we had a disagreement on words or whatever.

57:03

We didn't see eye to eye. I'm going to always be me.

57:05

I'm going to always be a human being. Right. And you can just virtually say,

57:09

this just isn't a fit. That's it. So that nobody has to feel bad that she's stuck trying

57:14

to find someone to do her gorgeous baskets or whatever gifts

57:16

she's going to do. But as a business owner,

57:19

for all of us, we get to decide what we're doing.

57:22

And it took me a while to learn that too, because I kind of felt like,

57:26

well, if they buy something online from me,

57:29

they have to be a client. And I remember over on the ribbon print company,

57:32

we had a similar situation at one point where there was

57:35

someone who would buy product. And it was pretty much at the time and she'd order

57:39

online, we'd fill the order. And then she'd return things because she decided she didn't like

57:45

the color, like all these crazy reasons.

57:47

And we finally had to do something similar to you.

57:50

We just said, look, our colors, our colors,

57:52

the printer prints the way it prints many people like it.

57:55

If this is just not what you're looking for,

57:58

then we're not a good fit. We're no longer going to be taking orders from you that

58:02

are returnable. Like we didn't tell them we wouldn't take orders,

58:05

but that are returnable unless the product's damaged.

58:08

Right. Do you know she's still a customer today now?

58:13

I Don't mean to say we sat her in her place.

58:16

It's just, we weren't going to continue doing that round rabbit with her.

58:19

Like just, we weren't. So figuring out how to work with people under your requirements

58:25

as well, I guess. Right. All right.

58:28

So Joyce, we know one thing that's coming up for you in the

58:31

future, which is your upcoming chamber event.

58:34

So excited about that. And I know you are going to just smash it out

58:38

of the park. What do you see as you continue to grow and going

58:44

into the next coming years?

58:47

I see my company getting much,

58:50

much bigger. I see myself doing things that I didn't have time to

58:54

do in the community that I want to do because I

58:57

was so busy building and building and rebuilding my business until

59:01

I think for me, it's going to be a good aspect for me to get

59:05

out, not as a network, but as a community activist involvement in my community and different

59:11

things that's going on that maybe I can lend a hand

59:14

to or a voice to, Oh, wait,

59:16

I love that on behalf of both yourself as a person.

59:19

And of course it part of you your business too.

59:23

Yes. So I love that.

59:25

And I know just because we work together in other ways,

59:28

give biz listeners. Joyce is part of my makers MBA program,

59:31

but I know that this year you really,

59:34

it was before COVID, but I think you've still followed through with it is you're

59:37

focusing on larger clients now because you have the skills,

59:41

you have the services, you are such a professional that you're focused already on attracting

59:47

the customers that are going to allow you to do what

59:49

you just talked about. Absolutely. And that comes with being in business for awhile and

59:53

learning. So now I figure,

59:57

like I said, I have a plan. And like I said,

59:59

my business model has changed because anybody that's in business,

1:00:02

regardless of whether it's gifting or making your own items after

1:00:07

a while being a business,

1:00:09

you become stagnated. I know I did.

1:00:12

And I'm like, I need to take this business to the next level so

1:00:15

I can fall back in love with it.

1:00:17

What do I have to do that?

1:00:20

Ooh. And so I had to sit down a plan for

1:00:23

me. Okay. I need to maybe rebrand,

1:00:26

refresh, rethink what I used to do,

1:00:30

opposed to what I want to do now, going into the 21st century and this new way of networking

1:00:36

and marketing for customers. Do I want to change my style?

1:00:39

Do I want to do a different style? Do I want to look at different styles and says,

1:00:43

okay, maybe me pick something ABC,

1:00:46

maybe ABCD and E and mesh it all together.

1:00:49

They come my new style, my new brand,

1:00:51

my new way of thinking. So you were refreshing your brand and also what you're offering

1:00:57

and just the whole structure is still the same core product

1:01:00

for the most part. Yeah. Just the structure is different and you have a different,

1:01:03

you have a change of mindset in order to do all these things that you want to do.

1:01:07

Your mindset has to change. You have to take it from the old way of thinking.

1:01:11

I've done this for 40 years and I'm okay with that.

1:01:14

But 40 years has passed. We were in a new era.

1:01:16

Now that doesn't work anymore. What are you going to do?

1:01:19

Are you going to be sitting on the sidelines while other

1:01:22

people are passing you by? Or you got a job in and marshy your own beat.

1:01:27

And so that's what I'm doing now. And I'm learning that this is a new learning for me.

1:01:31

I'm excited. Cause I'm always excited about learning new things.

1:01:34

I like them. So information like a sponge,

1:01:37

I just love it. Learning and growing,

1:01:39

challenging yourself. All of that. Absolutely. So for me,

1:01:44

it's like all of this all into,

1:01:46

once I'm going into the ring, I'm going into unknown charters of life and I'm going to

1:01:51

do it head on. I'm going to face it, head on whatever comes up,

1:01:54

come out. I want to be like a changing person.

1:01:57

Just change all around and be able to adapt to new

1:02:00

situations, new surroundings, new things,

1:02:02

and not to say, well, maybe that won't work for me because I'm used to

1:02:07

doing it this way. Right? For sure.

1:02:10

I don't want to have that old mindset. I want the new mindset.

1:02:12

They click and says, okay, then we're going to do this this way.

1:02:15

And if it don't work, we're going to do it another way. We're going to keep on doing until it works.

1:02:19

Well. I love That. I mean, your journey continues and I love the vision that you have

1:02:23

for the future. It is awesome. And I'm so excited to watch you to continue to grow

1:02:29

and grow and grow. And guess what? Joyce, we did it.

1:02:34

We have done it. We have gotten you recorded on the podcast.

1:02:38

Yay. Now everyone gets to hear yours story.

1:02:43

And boy did you deliver? Thank you so so much,

1:02:47

Joyce, I so appreciate you getting on firing a client.

1:02:58

Is it a radical act or the path of maintaining a

1:03:02

healthy business? Something to think about if you ever encounter friction with a

1:03:06

customer like both Joyce and I described a little behind the

1:03:11

scenes peak here. There were moments in this show as I was running through

1:03:15

the final edit where I literally broke out in laughter.

1:03:20

Laurie thought I was nuts because I had my headphones on.

1:03:23

So she didn't have a clue what I was listening to,

1:03:26

but I couldn't help it. Joyce is so full of energy,

1:03:29

enthusiasm, and you can't help,

1:03:33

but have a smile on your face when you're with her.

1:03:36

If you've been around Joyce, you know what I mean?

1:03:39

And if you haven't, I'm glad I got a chance to share her with you

1:03:42

today. Next week,

1:03:45

we're continuing our conversation about email,

1:03:48

except in a different way. You already know whether you're doing it or not.

1:03:53

That you should have an email marketing plan.

1:03:56

We'll be taking it the next step and buckle up because

1:04:00

it's a long one. And it includes things that I had no idea about.

1:04:07

And I'm guessing you don't either.

1:04:10

Thanks so much for spending time with me today.

1:04:12

If you'd like to show support for the podcast,

1:04:14

please leave a rating and review. That means so much and helps the show to get seen

1:04:20

by more makers. It's a way to pay it forward and now be safe

1:04:25

and well, and I'll see you next week on the gift biz unwrapped

1:04:28

podcast. I want to make sure you're familiar with my free

1:04:32

Facebook group called gift is breeze.

1:04:36

It's a place where we all gather and our community to

1:04:40

support each other. Got a really fun post in there.

1:04:44

That's my favorite of the week. I have to say where I invite all of you to

1:04:48

share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,

1:04:51

to show what you're working on for the week to get

1:04:54

reaction from other people and just for fun,

1:04:57

because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody

1:05:01

in the community is making my favorite post every single week,

1:05:05

without doubt. Wait, what,

1:05:09

aren't you part of the group already, if not make sure to jump over to Facebook and search

1:05:15

for the group gift biz breeze don't delay.