If you want to grow your business or like whatever it might be, if what you're currently doing isn't working, something's got to change, right, so the only path to growth is change. 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 341. It has been a wild ride, rolling into 2022 like nobody's business. It's Tracy Matthews here, the host of the show today and author of the Desired Brand Effect, and the Chief Visionary Officer of Flourish and Thrive Academy. And today's episode is a fun one because I am recapping our Jewelry Brand Makeover Boot camp, which we wrapped up, I think it was February 3. So I'm coming in a couple weeks later to kind of share with you how it went and some key takeaways that might be helpful for you in your business as you're trying to grow and scale, a six or multiple six figure jewelry company. So if that sounds interesting, buckle up, and stay tuned. Now we just opened up enrollment for our Laying The Foundation program and closed that next cohort down the first week in February. And we were I got a bunch of people reaching out to me saying like, I wasn't sure if Laying The Foundation was for me. Or if I should be in your Momentum program. I know I need help, but I'm just not sure where to go. So I had so many of those that I was just getting them on calls with our Enrollment Expert, Natasha who talks to people on the phone all day, basically, Her job is to talk to people like you on the phone all day to see how we can help you if that's something that you desire. So why don't you open this up? Again, I haven't talked about this in a minute. But we have something over here called a Free Strategy Audit. That is perfect for people who would like help with their business right now. They're not sure, really like where they need the most help meaning, you know, you know that your business is kind of stuck in a way you're not growing with what you're doing. So you know that something needs to change, but you're not sure what. And so, we would love to get on the phone with you and see what's happening in your business, take a look at your three year vision for your business and how that's going we'll take a look at what you're currently doing to market and grow your business. And then we'll take a look at any roadblocks that are standing in the way of you reaching some of those bigger goals that you're setting in your three year vision. And then after that, we'll take a look at how one of our programs can support you the best. So if you are someone who is ambitious and motivated, and you're ready to, you know, go from startup to six figures, or you're someone who wants to maybe scale your company seven figures and beyond, and you're not sure how to do it and what the next step is, then here's your official invite to apply for a Free Strategy Audit. With my team, you can head on over to Flourish Thrive Academy.com forward slash strategy and fill out a quick application it takes about anywhere from seven to 15 minutes depending on how much information you give us. And from there, we'll tell you if you qualified and if you do, we'll ask you to book in a time with Natasha. And this is perfect for people who are ready to get help now and really want to make 2022 your best year ever. So we just to kind of celebrate some of our students, we on a periodic level, want to know kind of what's happening in the people who are working with business. And one of our Momentum students are brand duo Tiffany and Amanda Reese mentioned that just with the structure we helped them create in their business, they crossed the million dollar marker this year. As makers, they have a low end product, so they're not Fine Jewelers. And I'm just so excited for them. Because just the structure that they created in the last quarter, they ended up having one of the best holiday seasons they've ever had, and crushed it. So I'm telling you our methodology works. If you apply it and you do the work, you will see amazing success and results. And we're here to support you along the way. So if you want to check it out, head on over to Flourish Thrive Academy.com forward slash strategy. And I know a lot of people in our community maybe aren't sure like what the Desired Brand Effect is about and if you want to get a taste about what I teach over here in our program like Laying The Foundation and Momentum, then check out my book, all you have to do is head on over to DesiredBrandEffect.com. And you will see what the book is all about, you can buy it right there and upload your Amazon receipt to get some amazing bonuses. This book has gotten, I think 55 star reviews or something along those lines 49 or 50. From the time that I'm recording this episode, and it's crushing it, people are loving the book. And I'm so thrilled, it makes me so happy about that. Because to me, this book was really a labor of love. And it was really more coming from a place of service to help you guys out, I will definitely tell you this, it is not a big moneymaker. So if you have 20 bucks to spend, or even $10 to spend on the Kindle, this book will change your life. And that's what people are telling me, especially if you sell jewelry or another product. So I hope you enjoy. Okay, so today's episode is all about the Jewelry Brand Makeover Boot camp. And I want to share with you some of the key takeaways that people had, I'm going to give you an overview of the boot camp. And just kind of highlight what people were saying after this. You know, I think the big thing is, a lot of times I've been doing this, this isn't my first rodeo. I've been mentoring makers for a very long time, I think it's been about 12
almost officially 10 years with Flourish and Thrive. But about 12 years before that, actually maybe a little longer, because I think when I had my first jewelry company, I was mentoring people as well, just not officially. And I know one thing, creatives are an interesting bunch. And you might see this within yourself. They're creative, which makes them amazing at business if they apply themselves in the right way. And I kind of break them out into three camps. There are the people who could just listen to a podcast like this and literally derive all the information and grow a multimillion dollar empire. It's fascinating. And it's awesome. And you know, high five to all of you out there who really can apply yourself and you're amazing at just figuring things out. I would say that's very rare. Most people aren't capable of that, that don't have business training or business acumen behind them. And what I mean by that is I think creatives are amazing at business. But a lot of times things need to be learned because they don't necessarily come naturally. And you know, that's huge. I had someone reach out to me a couple of weeks ago, actually, probably a couple months ago now and said, Tracy, I've been listening to your podcast for years, I just want to tell you, I launched my company last year, and we grew to seven figures in the first year. And I was like, Wow, that's incredible. That's amazing. It's that is not easy to do. So I can't remember your name right now. But high five to you, if you're listening to this, because that's incredible. Then there's people in another camp, they know that they need help. And they join all the free stuff. They join all of my free master classes, they join all my free boot camps, they're probably joining other people's free master classes and boot camps. And they have a belief around investing in themselves that holds them back from taking the next step, or they don't really
don't have the confidence to bet on themselves. And I guess that's the best way to put it. These are the DIYers out there who consistently will Google things or try to figure it out on their own, or instead of taking the leap and the courage and doing the work that it takes to do that. And there's there's no shame in this. I'm not like cutting anyone down who does this. But they have this internal hurdle that prevents them from ever progressing. So they do all the free things. And then it's a year from now, and they are in exactly the same place. And they don't grow, they end up eventually probably throwing in the towel saying this is hard. And can anyone really grow a successful business as a maker. And then there's the third camp, which are usually the people that we tend to help. They're the ones who are freaking scared as heck, to make that investment in themselves. But they are scare xited in a way. And what I mean by that is that they're afraid, but they're also excited about the opportunities that are presented in them. And when they're presented an opportunity to save time, by making an investment in themselves, which you know, typically involves, like, you know, investing in coaching or investing in a program or something like that. And they lean in and they do the work. And they get fantastic results that allow them to grow really quickly. And I mentioned this because it's always fascinating to me, you know, we had 6000 People in this boot camp only, I think only about 2500 really played full out a bunch of people were just like they opted in, but that didn't do anything. So that's you know, obviously you can see that that's the one camp that I was talking about. Then there's some people who have been following for a while and they're they're actually doing great and they become mentors in the group. That's a very small number, but they're supporting others in the group in the Jewelry Brand Makeover Boot camp. And then we also see a bunch of people who are ready to take that next step. And so it was really fun to watch and I'm Talking about this, it's just because it's fascinating observation. And the reason why I'm bringing this up is because if you want change in your life, and this is for goes for anything, anything that you're doing or coming up against, if you want a relationship, want to be a better parent, if you want to be, you know, show up as a role model or a mentor, if you want to grow your business, or like whatever it might be, if what you're currently doing isn't working, something's got to change, right? So the only path to growth is change. And I know that's interesting. But I used to talk about this all the time. In my yoga class, I taught yoga for many years, I think about Gosh, when did I start? When I was 30, I think I stopped when I was about maybe 45 42, or three, something like that. It's tougher, like maybe 12 years, let's just put a round number on it. And in the yoga classes, you know, I would practice yoga. And so I would practice with these teachers. And I remember when I was starting out, I was like, There's no way in hell, I could do a handstand, there is no freaking way that I'm going to be able to balance on my hands and pick my legs off the ground, and do these crazy things, I will never be able to put my foot behind my head like that was the those were the beliefs that I had about myself and my body. And it was funny, you know, one of my teachers said, would coach me, and she'd just be like, lean your heart forward, lift your leg up, squeeze your butt cheek a little bit more. And all of a sudden, things started to shift, because I started to change how I was showing up for those moments. And I remember teaching students and I would say to them in the class, you know, one of the fastest ways to grow is to fake it to make it and when I say that, I'm not saying just like pretend like you can do, you know, a crow pose or, you know, crane pose, or some of those advanced like handstand poses or something like that, or scorpion pose, without actually building up the strength and the flexibility to do those pose, you definitely need that. But it starts in your mind, right, it's like, if I have a belief that I can do it first, if I can fake it till I make it, then eventually, my body and my strength start to follow. So the same happens with a jewelry brand, right, or a business, any sort of business. You know, the more that you believe in what you desire to be true, the more capable and probable that situation will be. So if you want to build a six figure company and you want to take home $50,000 a year, then you need to start believing that it's possible first, in order to get there, if you want to build a multi six figure company and bring home $100,000 A year as a salary. Or if you want to build a million dollar company and bring home you know, $200,000 a year or whatever it might be, you know, everyone's different because company margins are different. And that's This is why I always talk to our makers about building a business around their goals, because a lot of times people aren't really clear on what they want. And I use the example a few years ago, I recorded a podcast about what it really took to make $50,000 as a jewelry maker, take home pay. And this all was based on a conversation that I had with a student who wanted to replace her full time income of $50,000. What she didn't realize was, she's like, I don't really want a big business, I don't want $100,000 business because they're in some people's mind. $100,000 company is a big company. In my mind, it's not really that big. Because I know what the financials of a company like that are, you know, especially if you have a very lean business model with high profit margins, just selling direct to consumer, probably fine jewelry, and you don't need a lot of inventory and you don't have a lot of overhead. You could probably take home maximum $75,000 If you sold $100,000 in jewelry maximum and that would be like a business model, like buy custom jewelry business where I keep literally zero inventory in stock. But most makers like handmade maker businesses, they need to keep inventory, they need to keep supplies, they need a place to actually make the jewelry, they might have a workbench, there are hard costs involved. And if they're selling wholesale, the margins reduced. So we figured out that it would take about $100,000 in sales to take home $50,000 in salary for a handmade jewelry business owner if they were you know selling direct to consumer with some inventory on hand which that is a really reasonable thing and doing it all themselves with probably no help with the exception of like a virtual assistant who's working minimal hours or a shipping assistant or something like that. And when I mentioned that during our top five traits of a Six Figure Jewelry Brand Masterclass that was incorporated in the Jewelry Brand Makeover boot camp. People were blown away. They're like what and a bunch of people are saying like, Oh, I don't want to have a big business. I want a lifestyle business and that's cool. But I still consider a lifestyle business to be like up, be like a six figure company, something that's making between 100 to 150,000. Because it means that you probably have some help, but it's not a lot of help, you know, in order to pay yourself a good salary. So I just mentioned that because that was a key takeaway from this boot camp, before I kind of go into the takeaways, what I really wanted to do is just do an overview of what we talked about. So I think it might be helpful for you, maybe for the next time, we run one of these in a year, and maybe you'll want to join. So every year when I do this, you know, I've done different boot camps. And I brought the Jewelry Brand Makeover Boot camp back specifically, because there's some key components in that, that I think are really resonate, and are helpful to people at all stages in business. And so one of the things that we really dive into is, who you're selling to, and key motivators for your dream clients, and why they buy from you, in the fastest way to actually really dial in what matters to your dream clients. And also, what matters to you and your brand, is by identifying core crossover values. And those core crossover values are the things that matter to you, as a business owner and as a brand, and to your dream customers. And so, the first exercise is all about diving into those core crossover values. What are the things that matter? Why is this important to your dream customers, and diving into some of the things that matter to them, which is really powerful, because we know that one of the top five traits of a six figure jewelry business owner is they understand what motivates their dream customers to buy from them. And this is the start of that. Then on the second day of the bootcamp, we talked about captions for social media and how to use these core crossover values to write captivating social media captions that get engagement that inspire people to make the next step. So if you are someone who is on social media, and you struggle to get people to buy from your social media posts, you struggle to get people to comment on your social media posts, you struggle to get likes and saves and shares and direct messages from your social media posts. Well, this would have really helped you, because we did a huge overview of how to number one write an engaging caption of how to focus people on what you actually want them to do without selling all the time, because the thing that I see is people are always like, Oh, look at my new piece, or check this out, or here are the statistics. And this is what's happening. All those things about just the product, they focus too much on the product, instead of creating an affinity with their customers that makes them want to take the next step. And when you don't do that, then you end up posting on social and you get crickets. And you're wondering like how to turn a compliment into a sale and you don't know the next step. So there's a couple of core components to creating great social media content, you want to filter the content through the know like trust, buy, and loyalty filter, or buy or sell loyalty filter. And that's just really about introducing yourself to people and what your brand stands for getting people to like you, and engage with your brand and then building trust with them. So they take the next step and want to buy from you. And then turn those buyers into loyal fans who want to share what you're doing. And so we filter content through that filter. And then we create, we use the trending things that are on the platform. So we'll use Instagram as a sample or an example, I should say a lot because Reels is trending like crazy on the platform. And the people who are leaning into reels are actually growing their audience faster. So by using trending sounds, and using reels and video content, or even using photos in reels they are growing their audience and then creating a strong CTA, which inspires people to do what you want them to do next. So that might be comments on the post, save the post. Share this with your friends. Tell us which is your favorite, shoot me a DM and I'll share the price with you shop the LinkedIn profile, join my email list. These are all single focused calls to action that will change your life if you start incorporating them on a regular basis. On the third day of the bootcamp, which is one of my favorites, we talked about getting your head in the game with success mindset. Now, it's interesting, what inevitably happens in a boot camp like this, you know, whenever we do a boot camp or we host a masterclass or something, you know, most people are savvy enough to know that we give a lot of value upfront, but there is a small percentage of people who are going to want support in growing their business after so I always make them an offer and say hey, here's how I can support you if you'd like help implementing what you've learned here. And so it's funny because this bootcamp is really catered towards people who are struggling with their sales and when people are struggling with their sales I always ask them to take a look at what happens when they're being sold to, like, how do you feel? What's going on with you? Are you offended when people try to sell to you? Do you get annoyed when people try to sell to you, if that is the case, you need to change that right away, because it is going to be very challenging for you to sell to other people, if you have a weird belief around sales as them being cheesy or sleazy, or you have, like, you know, beliefs like weird issues around people selling to you. And I use the example I'm like, inevitably on the masterclass that we're going to have tomorrow, we're going to be sharing our program Laying The Foundation, and some of you are going to get upset and say something like, Oh, I thought this was free. And, you know, you're going to have this like adverse response. So I really encourage people that when they were listening to that, to see what was coming up for that, because if they did start having like a reaction to being sold to, to identify like what that was about, because there's a deeper thing there. And if you can't get over a fear of selling or issues around selling, it will always be challenging to grow a company and might, frankly, be impossible.
And you wouldn't believe how many people have residual money issues or beliefs about themselves, that prevent them from progressing in their business. And it's universal. And at any stage in business, when you hit a glass ceiling or what Gay Hendricks calls an upper limit. When you stop and you have like a meltdown or something happens and you kind of self sabotage, you need to take a look at this because there is a limiting belief that's underlying or story that is literally hijacking your brain or your subconscious and moving you in the wrong direction. This is a really important thing to note that I think everyone needs to be aware of. So I wanted to mention that because that mindset training and working on the stories that you have, and flipping your beliefs is one of the most powerful exercises ongoing for any entrepreneur, business owner, any person in general who wants big things for their life. Because if you aren't getting what you want, you need to look at what's happening inside first. And want to repeat that if you aren't getting what you want, you need to look on what's happening in side first, because there's more than likely something internally going on that is preventing you from getting what you want. Now, we wrap this up with an amazing masterclass called the Top Five Traits of a Six Figure Jewelry Brand. And on that masterclass, I talked about how six figure brands adopt different behaviors and habits. Those behaviors include things like a deep understanding of what motivates your dream clients to buy from you. I use an amazing case study in there of Alison Hayes, who I interviewed on the podcast, I'm not going to go into the story. I will link the podcast though, for you in the show notes. So make sure that you check that out, because that episode is mind blowing about what happened to Allison, when she got over herself and started understanding how her strategy was actually preventing her from making sales. And it's really, really powerful, because she didn't understand what was motivating people to buy from her. And you're going to love this transformation. But the short of the long is that when she overcame this internal belief that she had, and aligned with what mattered most to her dream customers, she started selling out of our product at our shows, and it was incredible. The next piece of this is really about getting super clear on your brand. And understanding how your branding, your messaging, your website, and all those things tie together to build a successful business. And so in the boot camp, we kind of pulled it full circle with those core values. And everything is connected. You know, you've heard that phrase before. Literally, like struggle to get sales and all those other things. Because in this day and age, with so many jewelry designers out there, you can practically throw a rock and hit another maker. You need to differentiate yourself. And the only way to do that is through how you're messaging and how you're branding yourself and how you're communicating with the outside world and that ties into everything that you do. Now, the other part of this is that six figure brands understand the power and importance of planning and goal setting and they set targets for themselves so that they have something to move towards so that they basically have an aim, like something to go after and they create stretch goals and action plans that are strategic To help them reach those goals. And that is a consistent thing over and over again that we've seen with the brands that we support. And one of the things that we help support them with is that that goal setting will change their life and help them continue to grow. Now, the next piece of this is really about, they understand that their success in their business relies on their ability to create brand loyalty that generates natural referrals from their previous customers. That is the core pillar in the Desired Brand Effect called Sharing Desire. It's all about creating a cycle of repeat sales and customers. And especially if you are someone who is doing it all yourself, and you're a one man or woman show, you need to do whatever you can, to get the most out of the least the most impact with the less least effort. And repeat sales is the way to do that. It's 10 times more expensive to keep finding new customers, as opposed to getting repeat sales from existing customers. And so I really want to support you in that. And with that being said, we're talking about maximizing time.
Successful six figure jewelry brands know how to be productive and maximize the time that they have. Because you know, when you're selling around 100 250, and up until you get to about 200,000 to 250, it can be really challenging to be able to afford to hire our team, especially full time team members, because there's just not a ton of money leftover at the end of the day, you're investing in new inventory. And you're doing all this work. So you have to make the most out of what you have. And so I really work with you or showed some frameworks Excuse me. During this Jewerly Brand Makeover Bootcamp on how you can maximize your time a lot better and use the three by three method that we teach in our programs to help you get the most done in the least amount of time. And then finally, the final takeaway here from you know, the content perspective is really about understanding the numbers. And I mentioned this earlier, but the majority of people who are creative, who don't come from a numbers background, and haven't done the work to actually understand the numbers, because there are a lot of us out there who love numbers, and have learned to love them, even though we you know, we're naturally shy of them. Because the numbers give you power. So you need to understand the difference between revenue and the difference between profit, because there are two different things, right? You could have potentially a six figure jewelry brand and spend $125,000. To get there. That's not a profitable business. And so what you need to really be looking at all the time is are you know, what are your margins? How much money are you spending every month? How much are you allocating to pay yourself in a salary? What kind of debt ratio do you have for your business, and how much sales are coming in, right? All those things are really important, plus so much more. They really want to empower you to learn how to read profit and loss statements and a balance sheet and understand how cash flow impacts your business. Because if you don't understand those things from the get go, it becomes really hard to grow. Because at the end of the day, the cash flowing into your business is going to be your best friend. And the thing that gives you buying power, and helps you sustain over the long haul. One of the biggest setbacks as businesses start to scale from six to multiple, six figures and multiple six figures to seven figures is that they, you know, they might have sales, but they don't have the cash to actually pay their bills. Because all the money's tied up in the business somewhere how maybe an inventory, maybe in waiting for accounts, receivables, or other a variety of other things. So these are important things to look at. And they're things that you need to understand right from the get go and continue learning about as you grow. Now, some of the key takeaways, or some of the things that people said that they enjoyed about this boot camp was that it gave them the kick in the pants that they needed. Many people confess that they had so much more confidence to make changes in their business and themselves than they had before the boot camp. And that they realized that changing bad habits or old habits were going to be the thing that was going to make the biggest difference. And so I love all these outcomes and takeaways. I think the biggest aha is for me, were just see people actually having the confidence to put themselves out there when they'd maybe wanted to give up on themselves or their business. So thank you for everyone who participated in this boot camp and joined us for you know, the four days of trainings and the challenges. We had some really fun contests in there we did a collection review for as a drawing for people who did turned in all their homework and did the work. And then we had a participation contest where we gave away some great prizes. And one of the best ones was that we had a social media audit for actually I got this wrong. We had a collection review Contest, which was awesome. Random pop up contests that we just picked a winner from or three winners, I should say. So that was a different contest. The homework contest was a social media audit on Instagram with Shelby, who's our social media coach here. And that was super fun, because we got to see how people could improve their Instagram. And that was an it's fun to see people turning in their homework and doing the work. And so I always love rewarding people who go all in with their business. So I want to thank all of you who joined me for the Jewelry Brand Makeover Boot camp. And if you didn't, I hope to bring it back next January when we do this big intake into Laying The Foundation. And, you know, never fret, you know, I
know a lot of people are still looking for help. Maybe they missed the boot camp, or they're not sure what's next. And I mentioned this at the beginning of the podcast. But if you'd like to see how Flourish and Thrive Academy can help you grow your business to six, multiple six, or even seven figures in sales, and create a profitable jewelry brand that pays you the desired salary that you want, and helps you build the business of your dreams, we'd love to support you, all you have to do is apply for a Free Strategy Audit. And you can do that by heading over to Flourish and Thrive academy.com forward slash strategy, fill out a quick application that will take seven to 15 minutes. And tell us a little bit about your business. We'll let you know if we think you're a good fit for this audit. And if you are you'll book in a time with our girl Natasha, who helps us all day by chatting to people just like you to see how we can support you in your business. And if you're wondering how the Desired Brand Effect can help your business you know, the easiest way to do that is you just pick up my book, head on over to Desired Brand Effect.com. And all the instructions are there you'll see some of the reviews and what people are saying about that amazing book. I am just beyond thrilled. And if you bought the book and you haven't grabbed the bonuses yet, head on over to Desired Brand Effect.com And you can upload your receipt and we'll give you some epic bonuses that will change your life. You're gonna love it. Thank you so much for listening to the show today. It was a pleasure being here. And yeah, Ciao for now. I'll see you next time. 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.
