EP328: An Inside Look a a 7 Figure Jewelry Company

8:51PM Dec 5, 2021

Speakers:

Tracy Matthews

Keywords:

people

business

book

jewelry

important

big

podcast

grow

figure

mindset

mindset shift

program

moving

company

team

creativity

flourish

create

coach

thrive

And a lot of growth starts with how you show up. And I know that seems weird, but honestly, it is the most important thing. More important than anything that you do in your business, because I've seen over and over again, people who hit it big and have good luck, and end up making a ton of money. And then they're back where they started just a few years later, because they didn't work on what's happening in between those two years, and they never really get things situated inside their business. And a lot of that really stems from how you think about yourself and your belief system, because I think this is really really important to grasp at any stage.

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 can spend more of your precious time using your creativity to make money. You ready? Alright, let's do this. Welcome to the Thrive by Design Podcast, Episode 328. Hey there, it's Tracy Matthews, Chief Visionary Officer of Flourish and Thrive Academy, and the host of the show today, and also the author of the Desired Brand Effect book available on Amazon.com. Right now, I am pumped because I found out as I'm recording this, today, I'm recording this, we hit our goal for book sales. And I'm super thrilled that the response has been so amazing to the Desired Brand Effect. So amazing that we're getting so many reviews that Amazon is actually rejecting the reviews of the book, because I think they think there's something sketchy going on. So I guess it's a high class problem to have. But so far, the initial reviews are in all five stars. And I'm beyond thrilled that people are getting such a great experience. My favorite part about this is that so many people are reading the book who are not in the jewelry industry, because they're friends and they want to support me, right? Or entrepreneurs who just are curious about what I do. And they're like, oh, my gosh, this book is so good. And I got so many key takeaways. So anyway, you should buy the book for yourself as a gift for the holidays. It's a great book for anyone with a jewelry or product based business. And if you have another kind of business and you're just curious about you know what it takes to really grow a seven figure company or even a six figure company, then I think you'll really enjoy some of the insights from this book and what the Desired Brand Effect is all about. And hopefully I'm gonna bring this book mainstream someday I'm talking with some people in the publishing world who have encouraged me to revise the book for a mainstream audience, in addition to our jewelry audience. So it's exciting. I am thrilled to be here. And thank you, thank you, thank you, for anyone who picked up the Desired Brand Effect. I'm so grateful. I'm also very thrilled because I got a brand new podcast mic, which you might hear. So my partner Jason, my boyfriend, he's like, "Babe, guess what? The podcast mic that Joe Rogan uses on Black Friday sale, we got to get it", blah, blah, blah. So I was like, alright, you know, since I moved I, one of my mics broke. And then I was using sort of like my travel mic that I bring when I'm going places and I need a mic along the way. And so this is a huge upgrade. And I feel like you know, and I moved into this apartment to work out of, I got a new desk, that's a standing desk that has a glass top. And there's because I don't have a lot of furniture in this round. There have been a lot of echo. And so I can tell just by listening to this recording that the Echo has been reduced significantly, so it makes me feel good. And I'm curious if it sounds good. So if it does, hit me up on Instagram @TracyMatthewsNY or @flourish_thrive and tell me what you think. I'm curious. Alright, so I'm here today to talk a little bit more about what it really takes to become a seven figure business owner. And I know this might be controversial, you know, because people here actually got a message from a guy who has been listening to the podcast for a while and he's like, I just want to thank you like I launched a jewelry company. And within a year we were a seven figure company just by listening to the podcast, so that's good. So I do feel like there's an audience here or people who really do want to scale or have highly successful businesses in the million dollar range.

And I know that there are a lot of people who have six figure companies who are wondering what it takes to actually grow to multiple six figures or even seven figures. In fact, I did a podcast episode last week about what it really takes to grow from 100,000 to 500,000. And then a lot of the information in that is really good. So if you haven't listened to Episode 327, make sure that you definitely check it out. And as I mentioned, I'm hosting a training called "An Inside Look at a Seven Figure, or Seven Plus Figure Multiple Seven Figure, Jewelry Company. And I wanted to do this for the ambitious people out there that people who really want to scale and grow their company. We have programs over here, we're working with multi million dollar companies. For consulting standpoint, we work with people in the low six figure range to help them scale their sales and our Momentum program, and who are trying to scale to multiple six figures or even seven figures. So we are working with a lot of ambitious and high achieving business owners. But I know a lot of people are like, Oh, no, I don't really want to have a big company. Or maybe they do. But they're they're not really sure what it takes. And so I'm hosting a brand new masterclass, that's going to be available this month, you can check it out over at flourishthriveacademy.com/seven figures written out S-E-V-N-F-I-G-R-S. And you can select a time and watch that class at your leisure. We'll be covering a lot of topics, but I really want to talk about who this is for. It's a great masterclass. If you want to really get in control of all aspects of your business. Even if you're, you know, you're like I'm not even close to seven figures, it's really important to start thinking much bigger than where you are. Now, if you want to get out of your current situation, I think that's really important. It's for people who want to focus more on their creativity, rather than the things that they hate doing in business. It's for people who want to regain clarity and confidence in yourself. It's for people who want to reclaim their time with their family and friends. It's also great for people who want to make their business work for or if you are someone who wants to make your business work for you, not the other way around, meaning that you're working your ass off for the business, which I know happens sometimes. And it's also for people who want to get out of maker and manage your mindset. And I'm going to explain what I mean by that momentarily. So I'll cover those topics in depth. And then we talk we're going to talk about the organizational structure, key systems that you need in place, and all these things. So if you do have key ambitions of growing a big company, or even a fine jewelry company, that seven figures, because that's not actually that much volume, if you're selling fine jewelry, then I highly encourage you to check it out, it's going to be fascinating. And I think you'll get a lot of value, regardless of where you are in business. So head on over to flourishthriveacademy.com/sevenfigures. And check that out. Now, today, we're talking all about mindset. And I thought it would be ideal to kind of talk about the mindset shifts that need to happen, as you kind of step into, you know, being a jewelry business or a product business boss, you know, at the end of the day. And a lot of growth starts with how you show up. And I know that seems weird. But honestly, it is the most important thing. More important than anything that you do in your business, because I've seen over and over again, people who hit it big and have good luck and end up making a ton of money. And then they're back where they started just a few years later, because they didn't work on what's happening in between those two years. And they never really get things situated inside their business. And a lot of that really stems from how you think about yourself and your belief system, because I think this is really really important to

grasp at any stage. So I heard, I got some input on my book, from a jewelry influencer, who has a really big community. And we'll just leave it at that. Who really struggled getting past the first chapter of the book, because in that chapter, I talked about the difference between Maker Mindset and showing up like this Chief Visionary Officer of your business. This is something that I've been talking about for 12 years are actually not 12 years, nine years in Flourish and Thrive since 2012, excuse me, nine and a half years. And this concept originally came out of art. The second course we launched called Multiply Your Profits. And we retired that course a while ago, we've kind of wound a lot of the information in that program into our Laying the Foundation program and made that more of a holistic business program and then the more advanced conversations are in our Momentum program. So anything that's more about Leadership and Advanced Hiring tactics and stuff like that is really in our Top tier coaching program. And when we first released, multiply your profits because everyone was fascinated by, you know, I want to multiply my profits and make more money. They they had such pushback on how I told them to multiply their profits, which the whole first module was how you show up in your business is everything. And so I went through this exercise of identifying the difference between maker mindset and acting like a CVO, I'm not going to go into that here. I went into it a little bit more in depth last week on the on the show. And the reason why I think this is very important is because people misconstrue what I say in that chapter sometimes about, you know, I'm a maker, you know, I come to this community because I, I make jewelry and I love making jewelry. And this is my passion. And I cannot, I cannot possibly give it up. And it was funny because I was on a call right before I'm recording this for hot seat as a bonus for our launch team. And one of the designers on that launch team call, was talking about how she's completely overwhelmed, and she's doing all this stuff, and her hands hurt. And she's she's limiting herself basically for growth. And we were visited the same topic. And she's like, Oh, my gosh, yes. Because here's the thing, if you don't shift the way you think about yourself, and your role in your company, and you're always in the doing, it's going to be really hard for you to ever grow and get out of anything. And it doesn't mean that you have to stop making jewelry. I've never ever told anyone to do that. It's about the repetitive work. It's about the being in the weeds, doing the day to day, sort of repetitive tasks that aren't necessary for you to do. And sometimes making production of your jewelry is one of those things. And so I always would recommend like as you start to grow and scale, you're limited by your own two hands. And it might be time to think about other ways that you can optimize your production and manufacturing capabilities. Because if it's just you or you in a small team, and you're doing most of the work, you will always be limited by that. And that goes into basically every part of your business. So if you're everything, you know, there's this trend on Instagram right now with a reel, it's like," hey, hey, hey. And it's like, you know, they have all these solo business owners who are doing like, all the pieces of their work. And they're like, I'm the photographer. I'm the CEO, I'm the bookkeeper. I'm this I'm not." And it's a cute meme. But like, there's going to be limits to how far those people can grow, if they keep showing up that way. And I love watching those because I'm like, Ah, what can we do for this, and I wanted to do one where it was like everyone on our team was like, Hey, I'm the social media person, and hey, I'm the visionary. And hey, I'm the, you know all the things so you can meet my team, maybe we still still will do it. But it is a big mindset shift. Because if you're the doer of all things, it will be hard for you to grow. And so the one of the key mindset shifts of a seven figure business owner is that they step out of doing and step into a leading. And what I mean by this is that they outsource their weaknesses. And they lean into their strengths.

And they understand where they're most value that they can bring to their company is here, because the thing is like when you started, you had the skill you had to grow as you started to grow. Like if your business is growing to six, or multiple, six figures, you kind of step into this role of being a manager, which I think for most creatives is like the worst part. And that's what they think of when they grow is that they're gonna have to manage a bunch of people. But that if you if it's done right only happens for a short period of time. But when you start to scale and get to that seven figure, it's really more about leading than managing, it's empowering your team, and the people who support you, whether they're contractors or official employees, to help you reach your goals. And I think if it's done, right, you don't need a ton of people. Or you can build a team based on what you're trying to do in a wide variety of areas, because not everyone necessarily needs to be in house. You know, we've been doing a lot of hiring over here at Flourish and Thrive. We've hired a bunch of people from other countries, because it's been extremely hard to find help, I just gonna say, in the roles that we need here in the United States. And so I broke down. And I worked with a hiring recruiter to find some rock stars in the Philippines and in South Africa and some other countries so that we can build a bigger team and move a lot faster. And you know, we're experiencing a little growing pains with that. But part of the reasoning for that is that the more specialized we have these roles and the more that I'm stepping into this position of leading them, the easier it is for me going to be for me to really do what I'm best at and that strategy that's creating things like creativity. That's doing the fun part like leading the retreats, coaching people and inspiring. And those parts are really, really, really important to growing a seven figure company, you know, I guarantee you that most seven figure business owners, I'm not gonna say none, because I'm sure there are some, you know, maybe there's someone who I actually I do, I can probably tell you that if you're fine jewelry, selling $50,000 rings, you might be a seven figure, business owner without a big team, and you might be doing a lot of this stuff. So that would be the exception to the rule. Because you don't need to sell that many pieces. Like if you sold two rings a month, you're at a million dollars if you're selling $50,000 pieces. So anyway, what this really means is about getting the busy work off your plate, any of the highest leverage tasks go to you, everything else, someone else, and you outsource your weaknesses and lean into your strengths. And so this is really important. So I will have a little action step for you, I would love for you to just take a notepad, if you're driving or something like that, don't do that. Put down your torch before you do this, and start making a running list of the things that you're doing every single day. And then I would love for you to make a list of all the things that you would only only the things that you would like to be spending your time doing. I want you to start seeing which are the things that someone else could do that you don't need to do anymore? And how can you train those people to take those or someone if you don't have someone yet to take those things off your plate? You know, a lot of times when people are in that sort of precipice of like, do I hire someone or not? can I really afford this, it's all about just getting clear on what you want them to do. And you can hire people as needed, or very part time to do the kind of work that you don't want to do anymore. And this, this is the start of it, it's about starting here to get to where you're going. Now, the second mindset shift is a really important one. And that is really about investing in yourself. And investing in yourself. When I think of this, it's really about giving yourself an opportunity to surround yourself with people who have done what you want to do, or who are smarter are better than you. Or finding someone who can curate a group of amazing beings that are all on the path to do something similar, but within their own way. And so that might mean joining a mastermind group, joining a coaching program, hiring a mentor or a coach or being lucky and being able to like connect and network with like minded people who are badass says who are who you guys inspire each other. And a lot of those connections actually are made in a paid situation. So most of my like really badass friends in the entrepreneur space are people that I actually met, through going to events, and being at retreats, or finding those connections online or being mastermind groups. And so I really encourage you to find a group that resonates with you. And if Flourish and Thrive inspires you, we have plenty of options for that, you know, this isn't necessarily a plug for that. But I just wanted to mention that because I think that's really important. We are in an intake right now. It's kind of like a mini intake because we're starting a new cohort for a Momentum program. So if you want to learn a little bit more about Momentum, you can head on over to flourishthriveacademy.com/momentum. And check out what it's all about and fill out an application to apply for the program and see if it's a good fit for you. And that program is perfect for people who are like I spoke about earlier, they want to get in control of all aspects of their business focus on their creativity, rather than doing the things they hate, regain clarity and confidence. They want to reclaim their time and they want to make their business work for them, not the other way around. And I think that's really important. Because at the end of the day, this vehicle is the biggest this vehicle for business is the biggest personal development program there is and so you always want to be growing. But with that being said, I think it's really important to make sure that you are getting other opinions getting get surrounding yourself with people who are going to inspire you to be better, and to step up and do all the things that you have been wanting to do. And I think that's really, really important. Now, the next mindset shift is that seven figure business owners actually dream big. They have big plans for themselves. They create a vision of where they're going. They are super clear on what that vision looks like. And they back that vision up with action. This is such a powerful Exercise. Now, you've heard about this before, you probably have created a vision board before. But a lot of times when people create vision boards, they aren't clear on like, why they want to do it. So I want to just kind of get you into this process of getting clear, like, why is it that you want to grow your business? to seven figures? Or even multiple, six figures? Or whatever it is? Why is it that you want to reach that goal, whatever the goal is? And then what is it going to take for you to get out of your own way to get there. And what I mean by that is, a lot of times, you know, we have these own internal constructs, we create our own internal hurdles, we have mindset, or belief systems that aren't supporting where we want to go, we have family or partners, or whatever may be barking in our ears, like, what are the obstacles? What are the roadblocks standing in your way? Is it that you don't have enough support, and you need the support, you need to get things off your plate and so that you can be kind of in your creative zone of genius, whatever it is, like, these are important things to think about. Because at the end of the day, what we're trying to do is to get you to a place where you are really dreaming big, you're super clear on what you're trying to create. And then you develop a plan of action on how to get there. So it starts with the dreaming big, it starts with painting that crystal clear vision of what it looks like of where you're going, and then taking those steps. But it requires getting super clear, like what is why is it that I want this? How will this change my life, feeling into that state of what it will feel like to be there and then going for it? Right? Sometimes it's hard to do alone. In fact, you know, I'm always checking in with myself. When it comes to this. We've been really busy training new people. And I've gotten away from doing my visualization practice and my visioning practice. And this is a reminder to me that I need to get back to that too. Because I have big goals. For next year, I'm launching my first creativity camp, which is happening here in Arizona in early March. And I'm super excited about that, if anyone wants to hear about that hit me up on Instagram, because it's invite only so I'll tell you if you're a good fit. And I've wanted to run luxury retreats for a long time. So it's an all inclusive luxury retreat, where we're going to help entrepreneurs get their mojo back when they feel like they've kind of lost it. And it's a huge passion of mine. And I'm so excited about it. I've had this dream of developing something where it's like, a beautiful experience where there's delicious food and wine and creativity and we're doing art and yoga and there's a lot of space for masterminding, it's not just all content coming at you. And a lot of times when you go to events, there's a lot of content and you're like overwhelmed by the end your head spinning, and time to really think through, like what is it that I'm trying to create in my life and

get back to what really matters. So I'm excited about that. And this is this is one of the exercises that I think is super powerful that we'll be moving through there. Now, the next piece, or the next mindset shift, is that this might seem obvious, they're always working on their mindset. You know, I've been in business for a long time. And I will tell you, meditation, coaching, self awareness, all of these things, like having someone who will call you out on your BS, all of these things are really powerful tools to help you grow. And when we are, when we are born, we're born into a family. And we have childhood experiences, most of us have experienced some sort of trauma, some of us less traumatic than others. And we have belief systems that are imposed upon us by our parents or situations. And we are just you know, by the time we're like 10, we have a whole world of bias that we don't even realize because, you know, we're just moving through life with what we what we know and what we've been taught. And we don't really understand sometimes how that shapes us in adulthood. And without taking care of that, you know, on a consistent basis. It can really be a block, you know, and the same excuse my language, but the same shit comes up over and over again, often. So you need to always be working on your mindset, and finding the tools, reading the books, listening to the podcasts, whatever it is doing the work, meditating, getting a coach, getting out of your own way, going to events, all those things are super important. The more you surround yourself with like minded people, the more that you're getting into a space of dealing with all these things that get in the way of being successful, the better you will be this is really, really important. And then you you always and then I think part of this too, is that when you're always working on your mindset when things get tough, you just know that it's another hurdle that you have to get through. And it's not about giving up. It's about taking a look back and being introspective, about like, what is my part in this? How am I? How can I be better? What do I need to shift or change? In order to change my situation? How am I showing up for myself? How am I showing up for my business? How am I showing up for my team, whatever it might be, you need to always be looking inside, because the second you start blaming your situation or someone else, even though things happen, you know, bad things happen to good people all the time. You will, it will be game changing for you forever. And so I really want to encourage you to get to a place where you're always being introspective and looking at yourself. And then finally, this is the final mindset shift, they understand that what got them there is not going to get them to the next level. And that requires change. There is a I used to say this quote all the time in my yoga class. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. It's one of the all time best quotes that has ever been created in the world. And that is attributed to Albert Einstein. It's also attributed to other people, but I think he is the originator. We're not totally sure. But anyway, it's a great quote. And so we see this often people are like, I don't know why my thing is not working. I'm doing all the things and you know, so you ask, like, what are you doing what's different, and they keep doing the same thing expecting a different result. And before I recorded this podcast, I just got off a hot seat with a bunch of students who were on my launch team for the book. And I came through and had to kind of coach a few of them

about shifting their perception and how they're thinking about their business. Because everyone's got time limitations, everyone has financial limitations, everyone's got things standing in their way for their growth. But if you're unwilling to do something different, and you aren't getting the result that you want, and you're not getting an outside perspective, then you can just expect to get the same result. So you got to change. And so if you're stuck, if you're feeling stuck, if you're feeling like you're not moving forward. And this is for anyone at any stage, I want you to sit down right now, and write down everything that you're doing to get the result that you want. I want to know what the frequency is. And I want to know if this is the same thing that you've been doing forever? And if it is, what are you doing to shift? What are you doing differently? How can you change your perspective or your approach, so that you can show up in a different way? Try something in a different way, approach it differently. This comes up often people are like, I don't know why my online sales aren't working. And I'm like, Well, how much are you emailing your list or marketing to your your contacts? Are you doing an SMS campaign are like, What are you doing? And a lot of times they're like, Oh, I sent one email a month? I'm like, Well, yeah, that's probably why and they don't have a big audience on Instagram, or, you know, they're not getting a lot of publicity. And all of those things are things that build your audience. And if you aren't consistently leaning into marketing strategies that actually work, probably not your sales probably aren't going to grow. And it's the same thing with leadership, like, I hear all the time, like people coming in, like, ah, you know, the hardest part about running a business is managing people. Okay, so what if you shifted your perspective and started leading, and hired a manager or move someone into a managerial position so that there was a buffer in between you, and this is an exciting thing, cuz I'm going to be talking about the organist organizational structure of a seven figure company. And I think this will be relevant to anyone who's starting to hire a team, whether you have a six or a seven figure company, or multiple six, or whatever it is. And I think one of the key aspects is understanding like, how does that team need to be structured to save my sanity, because if everyone's always pushing up to you, then it's going to be a lot harder for you to hire the team than it is to lead a team. So that's going to be a fun conversation that we're going to talk about. Also, when you come live to the masterclass, you're going to get my seven figure organizational roadmap that you can take, but it's only for live attendees, so you got to show up and grab it there. So I'm going to wrap up this episode today, and I hope you enjoyed it. I hope to see you on our masterclass, it's available this month. And inside look at a seven figure jewelry company you can head on over to Flourishthriveacademy.com/sevenfigures. And a lot of what I'm teaching is the same strategies that we work with in our Momentum program. So if you're busy right now and you really want support in the new year, I would love to encourage you to apply to Momentum. We are doing some amazing upgrades to the program for 2022. In fact The entire program is going to be structured around auditing your business, not necessarily from a financial perspective, although that will happen too. But taking a look at what you have auditing your strategy and helping you make improvements based on what we see. And this is designed to help you implement quickly to have a clear crystal clear roadmap as you're moving forward. And to also create some structure in the beginning when you're not really sure what to ask on a coaching call or whatever. So it this is a group program with a one on one personalized aspect, you get one on one personalized coaching in our elevate. And then we also have the accelerate level, which is all group with a lot of hand holding and awesomeness along the way. So if you're interested in learning more about that, head on over to flourishthriveacademy.com/momentum, we're starting our next cohort in January. And we're looking forward to supporting an amazing group in that program. So thanks so much for listening in today, if you haven't done so, pick up the Desired Brand Effect, you can find it on Amazon, or just head to desiredbrandeffect.com. Also, if you did pick up the book, I want to remind you, there's tons of amazing resources. So if you picked up the book, head to desiredbrandeffect.com, enter your order number and receipt number. And you get access to a bunch of bonuses and are the resources inside the book. There's a QR code that you can scan to grab a bunch of resources as well. It's awesome. Thanks again for listening today. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please share it with a friend. This is Tracy Matthews signing off til next time, Happy Holidays.

Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. It's my mission to help 1000s of creative businesses inside and outside the jewelry space use their creativity to make money. Make sure that you're subscribed to Thrive by Design on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and wherever podcasts are played. And we'd love to hear what you think. Please rate and review the show and if you're inspired, please share this with your friends. Cheers to seeing you flourish and thrive.