You're never too old to pivot and start over and and reach all of your dreams. Everything is attainable. You just have to be willing to learn and take action.
Welcome to thrive by design, the podcast for ambitious independent jewelry brands, looking to profit from their products, get ready to make more and sell more doing what you love, without spending every single waking minute doing it. Hey, and if you're a creative fashion or product based business, I want to welcome you to the show. I'll be dropping big tips on launching, growing and scaling your business. So you could spend more of your precious time using your creativity to make money. You ready? All right, let's do this. Welcome to the thrive by design podcast episode 401. Hey there, it's Tracy Matthews, chief visionary officer over here at Flourish & Thrive Academy. And we just had an amazing student panel. And I'm so excited to bring it to you here on the podcast. The designers on this panel were so gracious to give us their time and share a little bit more about their experience in our train your customers to buy from you online program. So they shared some of the things that are working for them online right now. And we're gonna get into that in just a moment. So if you're interested and curious how some people are growing their business, then you'll love this episode. It's fun. I love bringing these Q and A's and panel discussions to the public podcast. So this was originally recorded in our challenge series that happened last week, we ended up on March 31. And it's in conjunction with our enrollment in our train your customers to buy from you online program. As I mentioned a few minutes ago. Real quick, if you are interested in growing your online sales, and you want to add another five to $15,000 a month to your top line revenue selling online. In addition to your other revenue streams, this might be a great program for you whether you have a retail store, whether you're someone who is growing a successful business, in person, like doing in person shows, and you're trying to make sales after the show online. It's also great for people who are selling wholesale, who want to have a direct to consumer contingent, and also those who are already selling online and who want to scale. So if you're someone who would like a little support, accountability, and actionable training that is going to move you into action and help you make sales. Well, here is your invitation to apply to this program, head on over to flourish & thrive academy.com forward slash T yc. You can see all the deliverables, the timeline, everything that we're working out. And the way this works is it's very different than a course. It is a 12 week intensive Sales Accelerator. And basically what that means is we are going to be helping you move into action and get stuff done. This is the difference. Like you take a course you say you're going to do it later. Oftentimes people don't. We are here to hold your feet to the fire to make sure that you do the work. So if that sounds good to you and you like that type of accountability, then this program might be the perfect fit, head on over to flourish thrive academy.com forward slash T yc. Okay, so I have a great panel discussion to chat a little bit about. I have Joelle Ingleton Kim Devine, Morgan McGough, Oka, Wilson, and Carrie Whoo. And then on top of that, we have Ana Maria on truckin, who has been on the podcast several times before, who is one of our coaches over here in the T yc. Train your customers to buy from you online program. She's also a graduate of several of our programs over here at flourish and thrive. So let's dive into this panel discussion. Because this is a long episode. So this is a great thing to listen to while you work, which is super fun. How's everyone doing? We are so excited to be here with this amazing panel of designers who are just so thoughtful to come in, spend their time and share a little bit more about their business and their experience. I'm just beyond thrilled because I love hearing from other people who have done things really well in their business. So I want to thank Joelle and I always am going to pass the current your last name you will. You got Henri advken, who's one of our coaches, Carrie whoo Morgan Goff and she's on the podcast this week, you guys you're gonna love hearing Morgan story. It's amazing. I've all got here who was on the podcast last week. Oh, Kyle Wilson. And then we have a couple more guests who are coming in shortly that we are beyond thrilled with. So first and foremost, ladies, thank you for being here. Yesterday, we opened up enrollment for our train your customers to buy from you on line program. And the people on the stage here right now are either trainers or graduates in that program. And we're just going to be here to talk a little bit more about our experience. If you have questions for anyone on the panel. Feel free to drop them In the chat, and we can have some fun with a little q&a. So first, my first question for everyone is, I would love for you guys all to just do a quick introduction of yourself and share your name and your business. And one of the ways just like quick like, hot tip of that you've been using to grow your business online for however long and I'm going to start with honor because I already know what she's gonna say
my name is Ana Maria Andrew Kane, I am from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and my business is Jewel of Havana. And I started my business backstage on Broadway, I had a 25 year career on Broadway and jewelry making was my backstage hobby. i My husband had a job opportunity in my hometown, all my siblings had moved back. So I took my backstage passion and turned it into a full time business. Is that enough? Tracy?
That's great. Yeah, because you're a mentor and a trainer in the program. I want to talk just briefly share, like how you've really grown your online sales through your business?
Oh, my gosh, I mean, it's a loaded question. Because it comes it came in many stages. So as an because I was trained as an actor, we are natural resource researchers, because we have to play many, many parks. And so you have to research as if you are that person's business, that person's life, everything. So all of those skills I did not know would translate so well into business. So I am always learning always studying. I'm turning 55. This this Saturday, and I'm still learning new things all the time. So I didn't know this. But because I'm a natural researcher, natural learner, and I enjoy these things. I'm constantly testing new things, new strategies, thinking up, how could this be better? How could it be bigger all the things, so I test things out, and then I share them with all of you. So you don't have to go through all the experiment card. So I'm super excited to be teaching some of the how to take your in person shows and turn them into online business all year long with all of the strategies that I use. And yeah, how to get how to get all the Intel you need at the show so that you can get them buying from you on all you know, all year long. I just came back yesterday from big festival in Houston. And I'm testing two new things. But all of my tried and true and the new things. Today has been a huge sale day on my website, the day after I got home, I'm super excited to bring those steps to you guys inside of T yc. We've already shared some of them with you. So I've seen that a lot of you've had wins with those strategies already. So I'm excited to share a bunch with you coming up.
And the thing that I love about ANA is like she's not kidding. She really is always she texts me all the time. She's like, Tracy, guess what I just did, oh my god, I sold $11,000 In three days on my website. And it's just like, and I didn't even rewrite the emails, it's the same as last year. It's just like,
that's my big tip. You guys, one of my big tips is work smart. Like you can repurpose everything, you do the work one time, and you can use it for like 10 years. So so that's a big tip, like go into your old content, your old emails, your old stuff, as long as they converted each time I revisit it. I take the things I've learned and kind of tweak it if I need to some of them right exactly how they are. So when people ask me, How do you do it? You're like a solopreneur? How do you have all this marketing out there and all this stuff. I reuse the same stuff every year. And then I tweak it and add to it as I learn new techniques or move the button because I noticed that everybody's clicking in this certain area of emails, or it's just so much fun. It's like being a detective, studying your stats. And then like making it better every year only it only takes me like five or 10 minutes because I've already got the template. And I'm just tweaking and moving things around and adding new photos or just up leveling. So for everyone who we shouted out today in the Facebook group, write down what you did that made you have those results, and use that to start your systems and then study where are people clicking? What did you do? How could it be better dropped the things that didn't work? So those are my tips for today.
This is kind of like one of the best things too because when we were talking in the masterclass yesterday about measuring the numbers and looking at numbers, but this is basically the same thing. Like she's just analyzing information. It's not really about getting like all consumed in numbers. It's just analyzing information to like Improve what is already working, which is great. She was one of our fillers, first flourish and thrive students. And after that first year of taking our Laying The Foundation program, she found out that she had breast cancer. And that was the start of her trying to sell online because she had to cancel all of her shows, and figure out a different way. And so what I will tell you that no matter what life throws at you, and I'm so glad that you're healthy, and you're doing amazing, that no matter what life throws at you, if you have an investigated growth, investigative growth mindset, and you're always looking at how can I make this better? Or what can I learn from this, even if something doesn't go right, you will always be growing as a business owner. So write that down and put it on the wall.
And here's the thing you guys like, of course, we're human, and we're gonna have to, like, think about when I look back on my life and all the things like I never meant to leave Broadway, life threw some curveballs, my way, I came into this business that I love, and I, you know, like, it's like, it's, of course, I'm more into my career, leaving my career at the height of it. But it brought so many wonderful things, then I got cancer, I was devastated. But I laid in bed and thought of a new way to do business, when I was able to go back, like my business has doubled the next year after I healed because of everything I put in place. So even in the worst tragedies, there are so many gifts that come from if you allow yourself to grieve for a little bit, and then get like think outside the box, then COVID hits, we had to think of other ways to do business. Every single time I've had a major thing in my life. And all of you can do this too. Of course, feel what you have to feel but don't but just go, Hey, this might be a gift it there are opportunities in this to learn something new and uplevel in a different way so that you can pivot and navigate around these things. So although I never wish any of those things on anyone, all of them if I look back had gifts for me in many, many ways, including up leveling my business who would have thought that things that could have derailed me completely, because I was open to learning open to thinking of new ways, opening to open to studying and getting new information. I was able to pivot my business and learn new things. So
I love that. Well, thanks for sharing that. Ana, you're always so inspiring. We love hearing from you. And we'd love having you as an educator because like you really, first of all, she gets so pumped when she's like about to teach and it's like, she really is like in it to help you guys so it's amazing. Joelle, I would love to pull you up next. I just love chatting with you. I've loved watching your business grow over the years, which is amazing. So why don't you do a quick intro of yourself and your business and let's talk about what's working for you.
Hi, everybody, I'm Joelle and Wilson and my business is Darshan sacred jewelry. I found flourish and thrive like in COVID, like three years ago. And for the last three years solid I was like in Laying The Foundation and then the DI Plus program I did a couple of momentum retreats. And I was just recently in T yc. And my whole business my whole life everything has completely transformed because of this amazing program and all the amazing coaches. Well right now I've been really focusing on nurturing there's been like so many layers right over the years, like these last three years with different areas that I'm looking to grow in, but right now it's been my emails, I've been like upping that, and really like digging in and rinsing and repeating. Thank you Ana. Yeah, you know, and it's it's working and and what I see the growth is what I what I wrote last year, I'm rinsing and repeating but I'm like oh my god, I put that out. Like I don't know it's like teeny refinement is where I'm at you know up leveling up and refining everything my messaging my branding, I mean, everything about the programs that you have Tracy have been like phenomenal and life changing game changing. I'm always testing I'm always learning I'm always trying something new. I still jump on like these boot camps and lives and because I'm always scooping you know, I want to I want to scoop the cream. I want to just kind of hear what resonates and then implement it just give it a go and implement it. And I mean that's kind of where I'm at. My emails have been have been definitely improving and I'm getting much more can persistency with my opening rate, my click rate, purchasing, you know, purchases from those emails and stuff. It's been a major goal. That's always just which is a goal. Exactly. And this quarter, as of yesterday, I just I'm up 30% From L y.
That's awesome. Yeah, you're up. 30% over last q1 last year. Yeah. Okay. Not over the entire last year. Okay, awesome. Just yeah. q1, q1. 30. That's amazing. That's huge. Yeah, yeah. We're in a recession.
And so what I've learned from, you know, from from T YC, and all the programs is that is, is planning, you know, structuring, what I got from, from all of the programs and T yc. Is just it an amazing arsenal of tools, you know, yeah, that I can use to pivot and implement and continue to grow my business and layer upon layer, and staying consistent with with things and always trying new things. Anyhow, it's been amazing. So right now, I'm just planning for this for the third and fourth quarter.
You know, that's great. So you're planning that far ahead, which is amazing. I love that.
And I did, and I paid in full for my T yz. So I did get like a website audit. And it was amazing. It was amazing. And a total game changer. And I implemented quickly what I could and then as time has gone on, I've slowly implemented different things and refining. And it's been amazing. I don't know I'm getting I'm getting a ton more traffic now on my website than I ever have. Are you measuring
like the percentage growth? Or how many more leads? And you're getting? Or?
Yeah, I don't I do track those. I track everything every month. I don't have any of those numbers off, like off the top of my head right now. But I definitely am.
Okay, awesome. Awesome. So she's paying attention to mistake number five in the master class yesterday, she is looking at the numbers on a regular basis, which congratulations to all, I cannot wait to just keep watching you grow. Because I remember interviewing you about a year and a half ago for Laying The Foundation. You had COVID During the interview, and you were so gracious to actually still come on when you could barely talk. And you were talking about how your business had changed. And I was so excited when you joined the TYT to because I'm like this is it. She's gonna just like take off after here. Yeah, someday, you know, mastermind will be in that, you know, like, which is so fantastic. Congratulations. Super exciting.
Thank you. You guys are hesitating. Definitely don't I mean, it's like the best money you'll ever spend, invest in yourself and just go for it because you learn so much. And then you can always go back and like rewatch the videos and like, you know, just learn something new. Because you're at a different stage in you're a different point in your growth and your evolution of your business. It's like I always hear something new.
I love that. That's so good. All right, so I'm gonna pull Carrie up. Now, Carrie, you've been in our community for a long time, too. I think that you're a graduate of Laying The Foundation. Am I right? With that? Yes, yeah. Or am I making that up. And you're, and you're also in our last cohort of the GYC. So tell us a little bit about your business, and why you decided to join TYT and what's working for you. Thanks for having
me. And it's so nice to see all the familiar faces. So my business is called Draw the Line jewelry, it's draw the line jewelry.com. And I've been in business, I'm celebrating 20 years in business this year, which is unbelievable. But you know what, I found myself that I was a person. I'm kinda like the example you shared in the master class, or one of the classes in the last week about the person who was like resistant to marketing. My major income came from show was in person shows for many years. In fact, at one point, I stopped collecting emails because I was depending on social media so much, which I realize now is with a mistake, but anyhow, I still have a fairly decent email list, but I was really stuck. And so you know, I've been doing a lot of the free offerings through flourish and thrive for years and like I was on the fence for a really long time. And then I just got to a point where it's like, I have to change something. And one of the things that was happening was I was changing from I was on Weebly, which turned to square platform for my online store. And I switched to Shopify last year. So I was in Laying The Foundation at the time was really helped me with my copy for my website, which I feel like need to refresh right now. But that was amazing. And then the TYT came up because I've been waiting for it. I think you'd set it you'd shut it down for a while. One day we were gonna bring it back. Yeah. And I was like, oh, and it was a little crunchy because I think we started in August and it was like really close to holiday season but I just I I jumped into it because I was feeling we had finished LTF the Laying The Foundation, and I was feeling like I needed a little more hands on, I really loved the interaction with people. And you know, as it is now, there's a few of us who are still in touch and still doing kind of supporting each other in our businesses, even though we're not, I'm not in a program right now. Yeah. And what I got out of the T YC, mostly, was the email building. You know, most of my sales right now are coming from my emails every week. And I noticed because I had to put out a bunch of fires. Last week, we had sickness in the house. So I missed an email last week. And I really noticed the change in my online sales, because I'm not in front of my people, right? Like this last week, so but they gave me a chance to catch up with some planning. To be shy, like I was one of those people who like, I don't want to bug everybody, I don't want to be in front of them every week. And now I'm really stressed out if I'm not sending an email, because I noticed how much difference it makes. And like, what Joelle was saying, in terms of language, and things are the gifts, I learned a lot about how to nurture the people, and then what I'm bringing them the services that I'm offering. So that's been great. I've wrote a list here, because I knew I was gonna forget stuff. Yeah. And then just, you know, changing my focus from Instagram or social media to email, I still do social media, because I, through my numbers, I realized that I get a lot of referrals to my website through the social media, like there's not it's hard to track the direct sales. But I feel like my language around that, and my focus on how I'm presenting my brand has changed because of the program, you know, not because I was deep into my business and so overwhelmed when I started all this, like, I don't know that I've made as fast as a progress as some people because I just am in the middle of like, I'm like trying to do a u turn in some ways with my business. But I changed last year, I think I increased my online sales by about, I haven't done a deep dive in the numbers, but it's like 30 or 30%, I would say safely for sure I increase my online sales. Because I'm trying to transition into mostly online, I'm still doing shows because I need to but I'd like to not do as many. But I implemented a time and stop. So Anna, thank you very much like the I've got the $10 gift card. Oh, look, they're right here. And you know a bunch of it's up, I grew my email list by 100 people in the fall through my shows, like just capturing people's emails while I was out. So all of that stuff is doing huge, making a huge difference. And I also signed up early last year, I got the audits, the online audits with Lauren for the website. Tracy, we did one for my brand. And there's a ton I have to implement still. So I looking forward to seeing what kind of difference that makes.
Yeah, well, 30% is huge. That's a big jump from strictly
online. I mean, I haven't done the deep dive of numbers, because in my old website, my custom payments came through that web like that same page. Oh, yeah, it's a different type. Yeah, so I but I can safely say it was probably an increase of at least 30% of online sales.
That's fantastic. That's awesome. Congratulations, Carrie, how did you push through the fear of like, feeling like you're bugging people with the emails,
it was really uncomfortable. It was there's no line about that it was so uncomfortable at first, and I just, I just kept doing it. And I've also saw what people were responding to. And so you know, the connection piece, especially because it was still post COVID When I was doing Tmic. So just the communication piece and offering people you know, things that they, you know, wanted to hear about, I mean, I'm not necessarily going to say they needed, but maybe they did need it like the jewelry cleaning tips, or, you know, I did a catalog. I also got onto Pinterest last year, too. I was already on it. But I implemented a bunch of stuff after Andrea's Andrea's tutorial, and you know, put some gift guides up there and like some styling things for people. And I had great response to that I actually made some like I because you can track that through Shopify. I did some direct sales through my Pinterest painting. I mean, just a couple little ones. But still, it was pretty fast. turnaround. Oh, really? Like just right after you implemented it? Yeah. Just I could see how much increase I was getting in terms of people seeing my pins. But yeah, I just I just kept doing it. And I still have lots of room to improve. But like I said, now I'm kind of stressed out if I don't send an email every week, which is interesting to
look back on. Yeah, for sure. That's awesome. Thank you, Carrie for that. All right. Okay, well, why don't you come up next, and your podcast was on the show last week. So we did a deep dive together. Why don't you just for anyone who hasn't listened to that just share your name and your business and share a little bit about how what's working now for you for online sales or to make you know, connections with your customers for your for your business model since it is a unique model.
So yeah, we have a lot of fun on our podcast, so if you haven't listened to it, you might you might do that. We had some fun I'm with each other. I'm Olga from Oak rocks. And I have been in business about five years, I started my business part time as I was working for a large corporation. And we talked about this a little bit in the podcast, but I kind of did. As long as I was there 31 years, you know, I did pretty much everything except marketing. So I worked in strategy and planning and finance, accounting, supply chain, vendor management, and everything you need to kind of work to run a business, but I worked, you know, 6070 hours a week. And so the jewelry business was kind of my outlet for my creative side. And I do love shopping. So I enabled me to do something I love. So when I retired last year, I wanted to do my business full time. And I started using actually using my business skills. And when I analyzed my business, I wasn't making any money, I was spending a lot more than, you know, I was being able to sell, creating a lot more than I was able to sell. So my husband and I talked and it said, you know, we kind of decided, well, maybe I need to make this a profitable business to keep it going and retirement versus kind of a side hobby, that's, you know, just doing something I love doing. So I realized I needed some help. And that's really why I started looking for some help. And somehow the, you know, internet, listened to me or something and, and the flourish and thrive ads started coming up in my feed and Instagram, and looked pretty interesting. And I took a master class. And from that I decided, Okay, I think this, this can help me join the T yc. Program. This was last August or so, which was perfect timing, because I retired in May. So it just came like right at the right time. And I have a very long list of all the things I still need to do from that class. But each class I decided to just try a couple things. And it's set up really well to where, you know, we kind of learn to things and then get to practice. And you know, come back the next week and talk about what we did. So you kind of learn the concepts each time. But there's always like a really long list of all the things that you need to be doing. But some of the things that really helped me were the just the social media kind of training and the encouragement to just get out there and put more content do videos, I think that really helped me grow my customer base. And on I really thank you for your truck show training, because I was doing trenches, and not really doing any follow up. So I now have an email list at the trunk shows. And really, I don't worry about even how well the trunk show goes. Because usually there's, you know, that handful of customers after the fact that then keep coming back and, you know, give you the business versus just the trunk show itself. So thank you for giving us that tip. But anyways, for me, it's all about relationships. So social media is really big, because I do a lot of custom work. So that social interaction means a lot to me. So
yeah, that's awesome. And Olga had a really good outturn for her she was sick in Tucson, and she ended up like doubling what she did the previous year at that same show, even though she was like at half capacity. Even really, like doing the whole thing, which is amazing.
Yeah, that was that was a lot of fun. I got I set these targets and then I got sick and my trip got cut short. But through those videos, and you know, the kind of growth I'm getting on Instagram, it really helped. I get the Megan Michaels so that was fun. So amazing. So awesome. Yes. Yay. Thanks. Okay,
So Kim, why don't you tell us your name and your business and what is working for you and online sales right now?
Yeah, my name is Kim Devine and I own a lovable jewelry, the website shop lovable.com and I have been making and selling jewelry for a little over 10 years now. But it's kind of morphed over the years as I it was a bit of a side hustle while I was also a performing singer songwriter. And over the years, it started to grow and in 2020 I think just the change of everything happening I decided I wanted to rebrand from Kim Devine jewelry to lovable and really kind of create something that wasn't just a side hustle. And so ever since then, I've really just been working hard and making this like a full time gig. So I've probably done a handful of other courses before T yc. And some things were great and some things were not so great. You know, you've got to spend money to make money and invest and I got a lot of help for courses. But when the T yc. stuff came up, I was like a bit. I was very intrigued but also hesitant because I'm like, am I spending money? And is it going to help me grow. And I'm so so happy I did the course the amount of stuff in the course is ridiculous that can help you. And like everybody said, I'm still have a long list of things that I'm implementing. But some of the big highlights I would say, last year, I almost as I've done all my numbers, almost doubled my sales last year now is here, in the majority of those sales were all from third quarter, you know, after implementing all of this stuff, and what I noticed I actually really increased a lot of my on site sales, I wanted to increase my online sales more, which I did, but because the course is full of lots of stuff, like everybody's pointed out on, I've been doing pop ups for years, but just learning some new tricks how to feel comfortable in my pricing, raising my prices, not feeling like you have to discount there was a big market I did at renegade in Los Angeles last fall, and I over doubled my sales from the previous year. Wow. Which was exciting. You know, I didn't expect it. So I've definitely seen an increase in kind of all the areas where I sell, and definitely from implementing different things like doing the direct mailer, and the promo cards, just finding new ways to reach out to people. Because we all know that we have lulls throughout the year where our sales aren't as strong. And it's like, how can we really plan out these different ways to bring those customers back, give the VIPs good offers, you know, while trying to bring in new customers, but I do remember even just doing some website improvements that I think really have helped me convert a lot more now. And so I'm really just continuing to work smarter, I think is like my biggest goal this year is how can I be more efficient, hone in on my products, and not be working so hard, because I think everybody knows when you own your own business, I mean, you'll never work harder than you do for yourself. So it's been exciting. And yeah, I'm definitely very happy with the growth.
Thanks for sharing him. Well, again, so excited to have you back again, really excited to share your interview, we're gonna go into that for about 30 minutes on Thursday on the podcast. So why don't you introduce yourself and your business and talk a little bit about what has helped you in the program.
So I'm Morgan McAuliffe. I'm based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and my business is skinnydip jewelry. And what I can say that I gotten the most out of T YC was my mindset, my mind shift, a whole that that was the best thing that could have happened, for me was seeing just through everyone in the course, being around all these encouraging people, and realizing that you're on your own path. And you can take your time through this course, I think that a lot of people get really overwhelmed by all of the information that's in this course. And believe me, I got very overwhelmed. But there's some really great encouragement that happens in the class. And you just realize that you can do it at your own pace. And I'm still going back through things. And I would say out of the class, I interacted a lot. My engagement in the class was a lot, I got a lot out of it, because I asked a lot of questions. And so I have a crazy thing of notes that I like to go through every once in a while. But I would say that like I didn't do as much as a lot of other people. And my sales still increased by 25%. And it was all because of the class was actionable. I need a lot of accountability, to be able to do things. And I got that up out of this course there's accountability groups that you get into if you'd like, and I highly suggest you do. Yeah, I would say the biggest thing for me was I got out of burnout through this course. I learned so much. I have all this information to go back on I met some amazing people. My mind shift changes change so much in my business that I'm able to flow through it more logically than emotionally. I don't procrastinate as much when I need to like just doing something as hard. And this class really helps you do it because there's so much time in class to do it gives you that space and that time and that encouragement. So if you're someone that likes that if you like studio experience, I went to art school so I love that Studio elements being around all of these people working on similar things or exchanging thoughts and processes. I got that out of this. And that was really wonderful. And I still have some people, Kim, actually, she and I talk quite a bit. And we're trying to get a little group together.
I raised my hand too, because I thought of a couple other things that I wanted to say. Because yeah, what would you like to say, reminded me of things that were very important. But one of the most exciting parts of the course was the weekly zooms, and the Slack channel. And again, it really, truly helps with the accountability. I've always been a bit of a nerd student, and if you give me a task, like I'm going to do it, and this was hard, like, I just want to say this was hard work, but completely worth it. If you can stay on track with some of the tasks that they give you each week, you can really then get the feedback you want from it. And I think those accountability groups were amazing. Lauren was amazing. I mean, I just, I got so much from it, that I instantly was like, Okay, this was completely already worth it. And I had never been in a course before when I could actually speak with people in real time, get feedback, get my questions answered. And I was surrounded by a lot of people actually doing what I was doing in the jewelry business. Every other course I had done was, you know, product base, small businesses. Yeah, that aspect of it. Tracy is really such a wonderful part. So I just wanted to say that.
Thank you. Thanks for sharing that. I appreciate that. And I have some more questions for you guys. And and thank you for the segue into that camp. Because my next question for everyone was going to be like, what was the favorite, your favorite part about the program like the way it was delivered? Or about your experience? So Kim, since you started and shared, we'll just do like a little round robin on that. So Carrie, what what are your thoughts on that?
I think I will echo Morgan and Kim in that the the accountability groups were huge. And I didn't mean to mention that to you. I think most of us probably work in isolation. I mean, maybe we have people that we're working with, but in terms of like being the owner operator, like chief visionary officer acpf calls herself and you know, that's shifted my mindset as well. It was so great, like, just like the weird things that we have to spend our time thinking about, and probably keep us all up at night. You know, I actually have people I talk to this camera that or that, you know, Ana knows about that, I'm going to send her a Slack message. So it was so great that way, and you know, nice to see people here because it really is a community of people. And I loved the delivery that that you gave Tracy. But you know, this is about collaborating, not competing with each other. Because I think in any industry, it can be like that. And so it's been really awesome to just really feel that and feel like I have some jewelry friends that I can like lean on about, you know, the nitty gritty of business and being in business. So yeah, that was probably a huge highlight that I didn't mention. Yeah.
I love that. I love it that you said that someone messaged me from the community a couple of days ago. And she was like an OG student like she was, did something like back when in one of our first rounds, her name is Latoya. And she's like, you know, at the time I took Laying The Foundation, it was a really hard time for me because I was a single mom. And like, I felt like I was in over my head. But the thing that's really cool right now in her business is like doing well, we pulled in some of her pieces for a lot of the photos that you see on social or on the slides that we use, because we do shoot our students stuff. And we try to not use actual stock photos, we use your guys's stuff on that. And she told me that she had met her best friend in our programs. So to me, that's so fun, because that's not the first time that I've heard about people making friends by joining a program like this, and it's just exciting. And I know Morgan and camera like besties, even though they didn't really say that, but like, all the time and talking all the time. And or at least that's what we say behind the scenes with ours. Like they're like they're so like they talk all the time. They're like good friends, which is fun. So thanks for sharing that Carrie because I think the community aspect is so powerful, like when you met meet people in a virtual world to understand like what you're going through, and you guys are going through things at the same time. And you can get support from each other. And maybe someone's overcome a challenge that you've already been dealt with or you have experience that you can support them with. It's just incredible. And the one thing that I want to talk about ANA is that she is like, on top of everyone, like all the time like in there like answering the questions like if you experienced the group like she's that's what she's like in our Slack community in the T yc. She's just like, supporting people like making sure that they have what they need, and along with our coaches too, but ANA has a special gift of just being able to, like offer incredible insight. So what they were talking about too, is that we have a Slack community, we've we've moved this community off of Facebook, on purpose, because we want to keep this the conversation streamlined. And I know Facebook can be very distracting. But the beauty of slack is that you can post a question and then we can follow different threads and use it and save it for later and, and see all the things so also hosted accountability groups, and you can call people in it, which is awesome. So, Joelle, I want to ask you, what was your favorite part of how the program rolled out,
I thought it was amazing. I loved all of the teachings, all of the different topics. I mean, I just I love learning and Ana Maria's classes were always like, super energizing, super informative, super fun, she has a solution for like, everything, you know, I love that, you know, it's fast. And there's a lot to take in, you know, but you just you do what you can, and you have weekly check ins which I've loved. Lauren was my group leader, it was great. It was it was fabulous. And I don't know, I just I can't say enough about it, I'm really, really, really grateful to flourish and thrive. And this TYT program, it was really amazing, because like everybody else, I still have like a list, I'm always gonna have a list, if I'm, if I'm a business owner, it's just not ever gonna go away, and just to really lean into things, and just cherry pick, you know, for quarter, you know, one or two or three big things that I really want to work on and accomplish. And then do it, I have established through the various programs, I mean, a small like a, like a forum of like five or six women that have all done Laying The Foundation and the different programs and we meet up every month and go over our figures and, you know, pump each other up, we're in a private Facebook group, you know, like our chat, and then we just, you know, we help each other out. It's amazing. Like, I'm so grateful. I haven't done any festivals or anything like that in three years. And so I'm going back and I'm looking up all my Annamaria notes for to get myself prepped and ready, you know, and I feel like because since since starting with flourish and thrive, I've definitely have leveled up and refined my brand and my messaging and my products. And so you know, I'm exploring different ways on how am I going to create this atmosphere at these at these festivals for them doing, give it give them a little experience of what Darshan sacred jewelry is all about. And so I'm really excited because I've learned so much, and it's, it just never ends. And I love it.
Love it. I'm definitely going to be checking in with you many times this year. But like, I want to see how things end end this year. Like all the things that you've done, which is great. Yeah, I love tracking students over time because like, here's the thing, like, you've heard a couple of times, like the program is intense, it's fast, we move you into action. But that's the purpose of it. Because if we drag it out, and like we have like all this time in between, you won't do anything because we know this, that time constraints force you into action. And so that's why we we deliver it in an accelerated style, because I don't want you joining and then doing the first two weeks and then not participating the rest of the time, I want you to show up. Even if you take one thing out of each of the trainings and you implement just one part of it, you will see growth. And yeah, honestly, nothing makes me more productive than last minute. Who here likes to wait till the last minute to get things done? I am such a last minute person. It's not great. I do really well under pressure. And I'm also a generator on human design. So like I have a lot of energy. I always
tell people like if you like I will announce things before they're even done to my VIP List because it makes me have a natural like deadline. And then I get so much done. Because there's no backing already announced it it's coming out on this date. So that makes me like hustle. You will like whatever your deadline is you're going to use every you're going to stretch it out if you have all this time so just announce it. You'll get it done.
Get the deadline even if it's not perfect progress over perfection always better, which is good. Oh God finally to you. What did you enjoy? About the programmer, what did you like that rolled out?
I think a big thing for me was the quality of the instructors and coaches, because they not only had a passion for what they were teaching, but they also had a lot of experience. So they could really bring that I think that's much more effective to just mix it up and make it more interesting. And then maybe having like the same person teach all the material. So I definitely liked that the community part, I was actually a little scared before the class on like, how much are we going to share with each other, and how's that going to work? Then that became my favorite part in terms of sharing just each thing from each class, and we throw stuff out there. I like Morgan, tried to be as active as I could and ask a lot of questions. And everybody, you know, would chime in not just the instructors or coaches. But you know, all of us kind of chimed in, and we kind of borrowed some things from each other, you know, and what a good email look like, or, you know, gift card or something like that. So, community was huge. And the format I thought was really good. And it did put that time pressure on because you learned it, and then you just had a few days to like, work it. And then you're, you know, back in front of everybody, you know, showing what you practice, I think the format was really good. And then of course, the results were good. So I like
that. Yeah, I mean, the whole thing is that I want you guys to make money during the 12 weeks. And then I want that momentum to keep building after the 12 weeks is over, because you've learned the skill set that you can keep leaning into for a long period of time. And so when we originally thought of this program, it was me and Jess, who used to work here, and we're like, maybe we do this online and Sales Accelerator, we mapped it out in a couple of days. We rolled it out. We released it, I think we had like maybe 30 People in the first or 35 people in the first program. It was awesome. And we're like, gosh, it's it's a lot to come on for even for our team to come teach every week. But we're like we're seeing people just like rose so quickly, because the accountability and being held their feet like kind of held to the fire to get the stuff done. And the cool part about it is that every single time we've run it, we retired it for a minute, and then we brought it back last summer, in August. Every time we brought it back, we just keep refining it and making it better. So the trainings get better. The coaching gets better. Like we find the tweaks of like how we can create a better community like all those things. And so yeah, I love that about this program. It's like one of our favorite as the team to run. So it's super, super fun. And all of our programs are great for a different reason. They're just different. My final question to everyone before we head off is like, for anyone who's on the fence and thinking about joining the T yc. Yeah,
before we move on, I just wanted to piggyback on because yeah, I don't think anybody has mentioned, like, the investments into getting this board. And I know that like any of you are like me, you're that's something that's holding you back, I made my investment back within the first two weeks. And it did give me that momentum. I think just about every person that I talked to, if they didn't make it all the way back they just about did. And by the end of the program they of course did. So if that's what's holding you back, just know that like risks, do sometimes really equal rewards. And this is one of those cases.
Thank you for sharing that. I appreciate that. My final question for everyone here is what would you say to people who are hesitating about joining the program? Like what would you say to them?
The old adage of be scared, but do it anyway. That's what I'm shouting out. Oh, look, I'm scared to try new things. But um, but I already know that if I try something like what's the worst that can happen? It doesn't work. Oh, well, I'll go to the next idea. Like you're not gonna die. And and most of the time trying something new has all these returns. So I'm scared all the time. I'm I know no one's gonna believe this, but I'm an introvert. And I'm what you call an extroverted introvert. My nature is to hide my nature is like my Happy Places to be alone in my studio. But I've learned that that doesn't do me any good in any part of business. I know you know Beyonce. Beyonce is also an introvert but she has created this character just like I have created this extroverted character. You know, she calls her Sasha Fierce. Yeah, and I've learned how to create this character that allows me to overcome my natural state of being shy. I teach you all of the scripts you need. So all of my introverts, I'm going to give you all All of the scripts I use for my extroverted little character, to help you know how to ask for emails, how to get the information you need to convert all year long from those shows, all the things I use to overcome my own fears, and my own shyness, and this character that I'm giving you right now. My letter, yep, I give you everything you need, in in the classes to overcome those things. So whether you're an introvert or an extrovert, we're going to arm you with everything you need to get all the things you need to have like a successful business, I've already made all the mistakes for you, so that you don't have to, and hopefully share and share everything you need to have a successful business. So to all the other coaches, Chelsea has a very successful business different from mine, so you're getting two points of views there. Same thing with all the other coaches, I'm super passionate when I was young, starting off on Broadway, I had some amazing mentors. And part of my sort of core is to reach back and help others who are starting out because without them, I would have never reached my dreams. I mean, I put a lot of work in so I'm gonna give myself some props. But I know that they accelerated my success. And so part of my core value now that I'm old, is to pay those people back by giving the next group of people what what they gave me when I was coming up. And, and look, I was in my mid, what 40s When I pivoted my entire life to another career. So the other message I hope you'll take away is you're never too old to pivot and start over and, and reach all of your dreams. It everything is attainable, you just have to be willing to learn and take action.
This is true. Mike drop.
chime in after that, okay, perfect thing. One of the things that I loved most about this course that I forgot to mention is I felt like I had a jewelry business coach, like a personal coach throughout this whole thing. And I actually had Lisa as my coach. And one of the first things that I did was I signed up early, and I got like the business planning what I call the 90 day strategic planning, yes. And I did not know what to expect, and I filled it out. But when I met with her, I felt myself immediately thinking like, Oh, she's gonna rush through this. And like, I'm not important enough. And like, I don't know why I came to the course thinking like, these people are just like trying to take my money, they're gonna give me information, but I'm not going to get the hands on stuff I wanted. And I just couldn't believe the time she took, I absolutely loved her, she helped me immensely. She helped me with all the different ideas that I had and hone it in and get a plan on how to execute it. And I I am so grateful just even for that one shred of it for the course. So I mean, if you are on the edge of do I do this course? Or do I not? My big thought was, am I going to waste my money, or I'm going to get my money's worth in 100%. I don't know how anybody could not get their money's worth and more from this course, all you have to do is participate. The content is there to help you grow. And there's so many options, you can pick the one you want, that fits your business. It's not just like a one size fits all situation. So I really do. I would say, with everything I've got that you will absolutely, it's overly worth the investment.
Thank you, Kim.
I think you should give your business a chance. You know, I actually because I took a really long time. I mean, I took advantage of a lot of your free offerings for years. And, you know, I was always too busy, or the investment seemed like too much. And then, you know, I had a lot of the little smaller components that you had offered, like the wholesale kit and the email kid and the trunk show kit. But some, the timeframe of this was amazing. And the personal support and in real time, like what Hume had said earlier, because some other courses like LTF was great, but you didn't get that real person to person time and the accountability. And so, you know, I was partway through the course and I thought oh, I should have done this sooner, it would have made a difference in my business sooner. So yeah, you know, and it really it was a huge investment. I mean, obviously, you know, you can't put yourself at risk, but you know, and there was tension in my family because I decided to do this even though wasn't like the popular opinion. But I did
it anyway. Your spouse is like, don't do it. Yeah.
You know, it's like not being able to see the return on it, right. But also that it's like you can be some of the things that we need to implement, they're more of a slow burn to like, it's like, you're not gonna make me some people will make the money back like tomorrow, probably. But, you know, for me, it was a slower burn. But I just have all these tools. And like, I haven't even gone back into any of the course material. Yes, I mean, I've gone back into my notes, but I'm just working from memory right now. And I know when I dive in, that there'll be some real gems in there. So yeah, I don't regret it.
And Joelle, what about you? Oh, yeah,
definitely do it. You know, you gotta invest in yourself. If you don't invest in yourself, then no one who's going to invest in you, you know, there's so many takeaways. And the coaches are amazing. And they really, you really do get, like, different different eyes and different ears, not just from the coaches, but just from your peers. Like I learned so much about this whole community and everybody's business and you just hearing about their business and how they do things. Sometimes it just, it strikes a chord within it read something resonates. I'm like, Oh, maybe I can, like, implement that and try that. I mean, it's just, it's really, it's priceless. It's an investment. But, you know, if you want to, if you want to grow, you gotta jump. You know, if you want to fly, you gotta jump. And there's just so much to it. I'm all about just leaning in and taking the risk. I too, in the beginning, like when I first did Laying The Foundation, I thought it was like, Is this really kind of like what you were saying, Kim? how you felt about TYT? That's how I felt about Laying The Foundation? Like, is this a sham? Like, am I really gonna unit but you know, what I have, and I've stuck around for the last, you know, for the last couple of years, and I'm still growing and learning and I love this community. And I've met the most amazing people, other women who own their business coaches, you know, it's just really supportive and, and amazing and, and T yc. It just, I feel like I have, like so many more tools in my toolbox now because of it. And it really helped my mindset to think quicker because it's such a fast paced program, that it's like, wake up, girl, you have you there's like, so many different ways for me to make money this week. And today and this moment, it's like, and, and every week, you just get to like work those muscles, you learn something, and then you get to like, you know, work those muscles, try it out in your business and, and see what your results are. I mean, there were times where I've gone to Ana Maria and I've asked her a question. She's like, Oh, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, but try this. I'm like, okay, you know, and then I do and it's like, bam, magic happens. You know, I start, I close sales. I, you know, whatever the question was, it was just like, I got the results. I've leaned in, I reached out, I got I am, you know, I asked her a question. And I gave it a go, you know, I jumped. And I love it. It's like right now. It's like, I'm not in, like enrolled in any programs right now. But it's like, I feel like okay, for three years, I've been like, add it right. And so now I'm just, I'm kind of, I need a minute to like really implement and massage some of these. And then, you know, we'll see what happens next.
I love it. Thanks, Joelle. Yeah. Finally, Morgan, I think you're the only one I didn't ask this question. What would you say to people who might have be hesitant?
So money is not my motivator? Are is my motivator. Like, I don't see that all the time and the small business world, especially in this world. So it's been such a great way to build my confidence and all aspects of my business. I have always actually been pretty good at business. And I've owned businesses in the past. I've helped other people build businesses. And I think my real negative at the time was I didn't have a direction. I just felt really aimless. I didn't know like, what happened to depict first I also didn't know the avenues names, like I get overwhelmed by a lot of options. And this gave me like a clear cut way. And at the same time, it's not even like clear cut because you can you can pick your own way. But you get so actionable throughout the whole course that you are just falling in line. It's just happening. I feel like that's how I felt. I was like I'm just doing these things. And when I had a goal after every class was like, Okay, I'm gonna do one thing from this class. Yeah, every time I did that, it's just, I don't know, there's just so much to cut out with the scores. Besides just like growing sales, there's a lot to be said about the confidence that you grow within this and the community that you get from this. I learned a lot from just other participants in the class, the chat feed is just going. It's like, it's so fun. And I couldn't tell you how many times I copy and pasted things out of it. And to this day, I'm sad, I didn't save every chat. I saved everything else. So that's also like, this is vestment doesn't just, like take like, okay, it's this class. And then it's done, you get all of the materials from this class. And like I said earlier, a couple of us plans to kind of keep going through the course and picking things out to work on that. Because it's very complex. And I don't know a soul that could do all of it. Which is also to say like, don't be a perfectionist, no one expects you to do all of it. But anyway, I just think that if you're like, open to shifting your mindset as well, and you're really open to this process, many things can happen for you, not just your business, but also for you as a human being.
Amazing. Well, I want to thank all of you for sharing your stories and sharing what's been working and your experience. I wouldn't blame you
for being here. Oh, sorry. I just want to say one thing about the earlybird stuff. I really sad I didn't get in on it. So just take that little hands.
And I didn't you know what, I'm gonna piggyback with Kim, I had my audit with Lisa, my 90 day and that was like, amazing. I was like, wow, she's just so grounded. And so present. And I submitted everything. And then when I came back, and I had my one on one with her, like she was really, I felt like she was really invested. Like she really cared and really, you know, for me, it was she does. She Yeah, she does. She was She's amazing. I'd love her. Anyhow, for me, it was just really validating because I had been I've been in flourish and thrive program. So I kind of know how to set up my goals, my quarterly and yearly goals. And so it was already done, like, I just copied and paste for the T yc. You know, and then she went over it. And she was asking me questions. She's like, Yeah, you're, it was just validating, you know, that. Yeah, I was really like, on track and very clear. She asked me about my numbers. And how did I get to that? And I'm like, Well, based on L y, you know, these are my increases that I want to do. And she just, it was just validating. You know, I say do it. You guys. Just do it. Let's Nike. It's not.
You guys are hilarious. Well, thanks, everyone for being here. We've gone a little bit over time. So I want to just thank you all for showing up on the panel. And I'm excited for everyone who's here. As an attendee, we appreciate you, and we hope to see you all in the tea yc. Bye, everyone. Thank you so much. Ladies, thank you so much for tuning into the show today. I hope you enjoyed this panel discussion. And if you would like to get results like these designers on the panel, I would love to invite you to head on over to flourish & thrive academy.com forward slash T yc. And get your application and today we get started on the week of April 17. Our first orientation training is April 18. And we want to work with you over the coming weeks. So get your application in and let's do this. Thanks so much for listening to the show today. It's Tracy Matthews, signing off. Until next time
