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How to Deal With Inflation and Uncertainty (and Still Have a Thriving Jewelry Business): Otter Voice Meeting Notes

How to Deal With Inflation and Uncertainty (and Still Have a Thriving Jewelry Business)

Tracy Matthews8min

Tracy Matthews

00:00

If you're in a space where you're wondering how to deal with inflation and all this uncertainty, while still having a thriving jewelry business, well, you're in luck. Today, I just did an entire podcast episode about this. And so if you want a longer version, and make sure that you listen to that podcast episode, but I just wanted to record this short video to talk a little bit more about some of the things that you can do to control what happens. For those of you don't know me, I'm Tracy Matthews, I'm the chief visionary officer of flourish and thrive Academy. And I wrote a book called The desire brand effect stand out in a saturated market with a timeless jewelry brand. And I also mentor jewelry designers and makers and other product business owners and help them grow successful six, multiple six and seven figure empires using my methodology called the desire brand effect. In fact, I am so passionate about this topic about dealing with uncertainty and navigating times like this. Because in 2008, when the world fell apart, and we experienced a great financial crisis, my first business was taken out. So I know a thing or two, about recovering from crappy times, let's just put it that way. And so I wanted to give you a couple of tactical things that you can think about to really deal with uncertainty and still kind of get into that space where you're thriving. Because what I do know is that my business really suffered in an economic downturn. But I think that there were multiple reasons for that. Sure, I was in a place where like, I couldn't really control what's happening in the market. And a lot of my the stores that I was selling to, were highly leveraged, they filed for bankruptcy, which had a ripple effect, and kind of put me out of business. But there were things that I could have controlled, including how I reacted to those things that could have potentially put me on a different path. And I'm saying this because I know so many people who actually had some of their best years ever, during that year of 2008, and nine as a jewelry designer and maker, which seemed unheard of, for me, I was just kind of like, how is that even possible? And I know right now, there are many, many brands who are actually doing really well, because they're learning to navigate these in different times. And I'm saying different, because the times are different right now. And they're really using that to their advantage. So I want to talk about that shortly. I'm gonna try and keep this brief because I know videos on social media, people don't always watch the whole thing. And it kind of started with this part of the reason why I wanted to record this video was for this reason, in particular, last weekend, a friend of mine said to me,

Tracy Matthews

02:35

what if you were to show up like this and become a beacon of what it is that you're trying to attract or create? And I'm taking this out of context of the conversation, but I was really thinking through, how can this be relevant to the jewelry designers that that I'm mentoring. There have been a couple of people have reached out to me recently who were really stressed because their shows didn't go as well as they'd hoped. And one person in particular had just quit her full time job to go full time in her business. And she's very excited about it. But the sale like she was doing great last year with the sales for her haven't been quite the same. I think it's also different because there's like, there was a lot of pressure on her. And she was feeling that pressure with the uncertainty. And so when she had a couple of shows that didn't go great, she got really stressed and worried like, how am I going to actually make it through. And I can understand that a lot of people might be in that same place and feeling a little bit panicked, because things haven't gone according to plan or as they had expected that they'd hoped they would be. I had another designer reach out to me saying like, I was just starting a business. And I didn't realize how expensive it was going to be to start a business and another person reached out like, hey, the strategy that I used last year crushed it, and I was making tons of sales. And my business grew to like 400,000 last year. But now since I've done X, Y and Z, or this year may be trying to do the same thing. It's not working. So here's what I'm going to tell you. Number one, you begin for what it is that you're trying to create, and be a beacon for who you're trying to attract. We know that consumer buying habits have changed, and brand loyalty is down. So the more that you can deliver and create a great experience for your customers, the more brand loyal those people are going to be. And you're going to stand out in a saturated market with your brand. Step number two, focus on what you can control, make sure that you're digging into your pricing and your products are priced properly for profit. Make sure that you're really leaning into strategy that's working now, like I said, things have changed. Algorithms are different. The content strategy is different, how things look are different. What is actually driving traffic to websites. Advertising is totally different from last year, the iOS updates that happened about a year ago, completely through advertising and email, open rates and all that stuff out the door. So you need to be leaning into the strategies that are working now and you need to educate yourself on an ongoing Based on what those strategies are by being ahead of the curve. Now, the

Tracy Matthews

05:04

next thing is that I heard a while back, that when you're afraid, the best antidote to fear is to move in to action. So the more that you can move into action and focus on, like I said before, the things you can control, and spend your time on the revenue generating activities that are going to actually grow your business, or the business development activities, or the highest leverage activities, depending on where you are, because some of you might be doing it all yourself. And others of you might have a team. So or in some of you might just have a virtual assistant or someone who's helping you kind of on the side. So regardless of where you are, think, what is it that I can delegate or push down? Am I spending my time on the most leverage activities, and are these things growing my business, move into action, and focus on those things. And then my next tip is to work on your mindset. So the fastest way to spiral out and get like way off over here, instead of focusing on what you need to do is to let that fear take control of you. And the fastest way to bring it back is to work on your mindset. So there's a lot of things that you can do, we have tons of mindset tools in our programs that we teach in our community. Also, in our coaching programs, we do mindset training and calls for our students. But really, the fastest way to DIY the mindset and work on that on a daily basis is to lean into a self care practice. So that might look like meditation. Are you sitting still in quieting your mind? Are you asking your guides for help? Or whatever? Or God or whatever you believe? I don't know, you can decipher that for whatever works for you, right? Are you asking for help? Are you putting out there? Are you journaling on a regular basis to get things out of your mind? Do you have someone who's neutral to talk to you and what I mean by neutral, not your husband, not your best friend, not people who are gonna give you advice or think that you're stupid for doing this or get irritated because you keep saying the same thing over and over again, do you have a neutral party like a mentor or a coach or someone that you can speak to obviously, we do that over here at flourish and thrive. But this neutral party is super important for you to have a sounding board because if you don't have that, the people in your life are gonna get irritated and annoyed and they're gonna get frustrated with you have that neutral sounding board. One of my other favorite things you can do is to get on Spotify and get a sound healing, find a sound healing playlist, and sit in shavasana on your yoga mat, like closing your eyes and laying back and just let the sound do the work. And you can sit there for 10 minutes, 20 minutes an hour. It's an amazing practice. And you might be crying and breaking down and all of that. But that's okay, we need to release the energy out of the body so that you can be productive in your body and use your body for what it's meant to do to like, build your life and move you through life and all these things instead of holding it in there. Right. So work on your mindset and focus on all those things that you can control by moving into action, and focusing on the activities that are actually going to serve you the most. So I'm going to wrap this up by reminding you to just be a beacon for whatever it is that you're trying to create for whoever it is that you're trying to attract. And stay in alignment with those things. This is very important. Now this is Tracy Matthews signing off. But before I go, I want to ask you to comment below and give me your one takeaway or one action step that you're going to work on now to get your head in the right place so that you're moving in the right direction. And I also want to end this by saying that economic cycles change that we are going to get out of this that things are going to change and you're not going to be stuck here forever. So I promise that if you're feeling like this is the end or that I don't know that things are not going to be the same or as you'd hoped that things will certainly change. So remember that and stay the course Modere Ciao for now.

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