#323 Shows Are Back! It’s How You Leverage Them That Matters with Ana Maria Andricain

1:20PM Oct 28, 2021

Speakers:

Tracy Matthews

Ana Maria Andricain

Keywords:

business

people

shows

booth

sales

website

email

jewelry

ana maria

students

podcast

book

today

creating

customers

ana

person

buy

talk

build

You know, I have a friend who had like 10,000 followers and Instagram just shut it down for no reason, like zero she thought she still hasn't gotten it back. And she was verified. But she verified now and I might be speaking about that I'm not sure if she was verified. But, um, but there were some imposter. Things using her name, and they just took them all down and she went with it. And she's never been able to get it back. She's having to build it back. So we don't have control of what happens on on any on Etsy on Instagram, on Facebook on any of these platforms, we don't own them. So you have to you to prove your business and get a list. You own that list. It's yours. It's your it is my business, that list is my business.

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 323. Well, I got some good news for you shows our back, it just matters what to do with it. And as we roll into the holiday season, you want to make sure that you are leveraging the full capability and capacity of your in person shows to make sure that you're building a repeat customer base. And that you are collecting email addresses and being of service and building the sale long after the show is over. And today I have a very special guest on the show today. Her name is Ana Maria Andricain. She is a coach in our momentum program and a graduate of all the Flourish and Thrive programs. She's awesome. And she's going to share with us how she has been literally crushing it over the past couple of years leveraging in person shows and turning those into online customers. And how she basically survived last year by doing virtual events, in replace of her in person shows.

So we're going to get into that in just a minute. You're going to love what Ana Maria has to say to you. So if you do anything where you're front facing with a customer at any given time, then you should 100% lean in to this episode today. Now, if you haven't done so yet, I am super excited. Because next week, my book, the Desired Brand Effect goes live. And I am beyond pumped. Because this book has been two and a half years in the making. And for those of you don't know, I am an author. Now. It's official. And it's exciting because you know, one of the reasons why I wanted to turn the methodology that I teach at flourish and thrive Academy into a book is because we get people all the time coming into our community wondering like is what the what they teach legit, you know, their programs are an investment. And, you know, I'm not sure if it's for me, or maybe I'm at a place in my business where I can't invest in a course or coaching program.

And that's totally cool. And a lot of people they're wondering like, Is this really going to work? Is this right for me. So I developed a book to give you a taste of what it is like to create desire and demand for your jewelry brand and teach you how to stand out in a saturated market with your brand. And this is the core concepts of everything I teach in our programs. And we call it the desire brand effect. And it's designed to help you attract the perfect customers to get more sales and repeat customers over time and to scale your business with the right systems and support and everything that you need to grow a six figure company, a seven figure company or somewhere in between whatever it is that you're trying to create.

Now, you might be wondering how this will help you based on where you are in business. So if you're a startup brand, this is an amazing methodology that it's going to teach you the basics of what it takes to grow a business. And in a way it kind of acts like a step by step roadmap. Now, if you are someone who's been in business for a while, what the desired product is going to do. It's going to help you solve problems that you might be facing. Like if you're a sales slowdown, and they're kind of getting inconsistent. We have a solution for that. If you're hitting a growth plateau and you're working harder than ever and you're feeling overwhelmed all the time. We have a solution for that. If your business has grown for a while and you start to notice that your sales are declining and I don't know for some reason people aren't buying anymore that used to buy then we have a solution for that.

And if you already have a fairly established Business like, let's say you're doing multiple six figures or something like that in your jewelry or other product company, then we are going to help you set up the systems and create the support that you need to actually scale your business. Without a lot of extra work, obviously, you're going to have to bring in more infrastructure and team more like most likely as your business grows. But what I want to do is to help you create the systems that will have longevity so that as you grow, you're not like creating this like really stressful environment for yourself, what you're doing is you're creating a lot more ease and flow. So it's perfect for all levels in business, you're going to get something so different depending on where you are. And I hope that you read this many times and potentially end up working with us in our programs. So if you want to check that out, the book is available on pre order right now, the Kindle version is just $2.99 everyone can afford it to less than a cup of Starbucks coffee, all you have to do is head on over to desiredbrandeffect.com we'll have a link right there of where you can purchase it, you can buy the Kindle version on Amazon, they because we're doing self publishing here, they don't release the print version until the actual day of release, which is November 9.

So if you join us in the presale for the Kindle version, you're going to get some amazing bonuses, you will get access to my vision of success training, which is one of my favorite trainings that I do for our momentum students. It's all about aligning your business with what success looks like for you, you're going to get access to a desired brand effect training. And this is going to really explain what The Desired Brand Effect model is all about. So that you have at your fingertips, simple tools that you can just plug and play and solve problems in your business. And you're also going to get a special training that I'm doing in December. And yes, it will be recorded, called the inside look of a seven figure jewelry company. Even if you don't want to grow a jewelry company to seven figures, what I want to do is be able to show you what it's like whether you want to have like a six figure lifestyle business and just $200,000 a year or so. And you know, bring some money in for your family or you're someone who really wants to go big or go home, you're going to see what it actually takes to grow a company to that scale, which is super fun. It's fun to look at anyway know we're all curious human beings by nature, right?So head on over to desiredbrandeffect.com preorder the book now and get those amazing bonuses, there's instructions there on how to submit your order and how to get access to the bonuses right away. And then after the book goes live, if you are enjoying it, I would love for you to give the book a review. More on that later. But that's all I have to say about this right now.

So I want to dive in to today's episode with Ana Maria. As I mentioned before, she is one of our coaches in our momentum program. Her specialty is really delivering great experiences for your customers and leaning into turning a first time buyer into a repeat customer over time. So she has some really great tips on how to leverage your shows. Because we don't know what's going to happen in the world. You know, we think things are open now. And hopefully they stay open. But you just never know like things are happening these days that I would have never expected to see in my lifetime. So she's going to share with you some of the best that she has. We talked a little bit about her experience. And we're also going to link some of the previous episodes that she's been on because she talks about direct mail and virtual trunk shows and a lot of other things on the show that I think you're on this show before I've interviewed her several times that I think you'll really enjoy it. So let's dive in.

I am so pumped because I'm here with Ana Maria Andricain. Today, she is one of the coaches in our momentum program. She's been a longtime student of Flourish and Thrive Academy and a badass at in person shows. And I'm so excited to have you here, Ana.

Thanks for having me, Tracy. It's so good to see you.

Well, you coach in our momentum program. And you texted me maybe two weeks ago and you're like, shows are back we have to do an episode about this. So we are doing an episode about this. It's going to be landing early November. Tell us Okay, before we kind of dive into what we're going to talk about today. Why don't you just tell us like brief history of your background and like why shows are so important, etc. Well,

I for those of you who haven't heard me on the podcast before I was a Broadway actress in New York for 25 years so doing in person shows just was a great fit because of what I did for a living before I came to the jewelry business. And I built my whole business off of in person shows at the top I had a website. But as probably a lot of people know when you build a website, it doesn't just you don't don't turn it on and all of a sudden everybody's buying there's a lot of work that goes into it a lot of things I needed to learn to have it convert. So that's how I built my original business from the beginning was in person shows. I've had a lot of things in my life happened that have made I have to pivot my business many times over. But in those events, what I've learned is that every time you pivot, or something happens that you think is bad for your business, it's actually a great opportunity to learn something new, try new things, pivot. And in the end, it always leads to a better, stronger business.

So every time things hit, I don't for those of you who don't know me, I'm a breast cancer survivor. That was a huge pivot in my business I had built on live shows. That is when I pivoted to almost 100% online because you can't be lifting show displays after you have surgery or while you're in treatment, or all those things that go on under treatment of cancer. And so that led to the website I have today that is strong, it converts. It is what I dreamed of when I started my business. Then, of course, with COVID, we had another big pivot. And I had to depend on my website alone, because obviously we couldn't do in person shows. So we had a big pivot at that point. And now here we are, all of these pivots have led to a healthy, healthy website. And now shows are back and they're back. Huge, like they're converting amazing. So this combination, I don't love to share numbers, because I feel like everyone's where they are. And when one person's great numbers might be somebody terrible, and vice versa.

But let's just say I hit my best year ever total sales. For any year I've ever been in business, I hit them in June. So we are now in like, you know, like just I call it icing, but I'm going to get cavities as they keep going. So it's just been a great, great year. And I think it's that combination of great sales on the website. Thanks to COVID. If you can think of anything positive from COVID, that would be one of them for me. And, and then having shows come back. And people are hungry to shop and connect with artists. And there are less artists at the shows. So there's more money to go around. I don't know, there's just I'm so excited. I will say that had you had we had we talked last week, I would say every single show is like almost double the sales of what we normally do. But this weekend, we tried a new show. And I would say it was just average for us. So um, so yeah, I don't know if that's just because it was a new show. I didn't have as big a list in that area. But overall, all of the shows have been really strong. And I'm super excited as we get into holiday to see what happens.

I love this. So thanks for sharing all that backstory. And for those of you who haven't totally listened to all of Ana's episodes, she's been on the podcast several times. Last year, she spoke about direct mail campaigns. I think Did you also talk about your the art shows that the virtual shows?

The virtual shows?

Yes,

I may have I don't really remember.

Havana happy hours. If not, she's doing these amazing Havana happy hours as well, where she was doing virtual art shows during COVID. And all these things have contributed to on a success over the last year. And she's also teaching them to our students in the program. So you mentioned like the shows are going great with the exception of this one that was a new show that you're like that was average. But you know, you're just kind of figuring it out. What do you think you will need to know about shows right now like what are the things that people should be thinking about as they're approaching shows?

So the first thing is to identify where your dream client is hanging out, right? You wanna you want to go, I tend to only do juried art festivals, because I know the quality of the artists are going to draw my dream client. So whatever your dream client is, where are they going to be hanging out where you know, where are they shopping, and identify those shows, and make sure that you're not missing the deadlines to apply to them. So that would be number one is to identify the right shows to have a booth that reflects your website and a website that reflects your booth so that you can draw those cut in person customers to your online store after the show. As I always say to our students, if you if you set up a live show and you sell to them and they walk away, you've got one sale, but if you can capture their information, if you can develop a relationship, really connect with them and Take notes, get their phone number, all the things, you can turn that person that one sale into sales all year long on your website.

And what happens is when you go back to that show the next year, not only does that person come back to you, because they know like, trust you, but they bring all their friends with them. And it just keeps multiplying and multiplying and multiplying. So it's it's just really gone are the days where you can just show up at a show setup and depend on the show promoter to bring you all the traffic, you have to advertise yourself, you have to drive your own traffic not only to your website, but also to your in person shows and build those relationships. So I don't want to see people sitting across the street from their across the sidewalk from their booth. If you're a creative business, a lot of the TOG refers and 2d artists love to do that for some reason.

But if you look at what we repeat that again?

They like to set up their beautiful booths and then put their chair across the sidewalk from the booth.

Oh, no.

Right? So they're all lined up with their chairs across the sidewalk and nobody's in their booth. And they think they're gonna like get up and go over there when somebody comes in. But what they don't realize is that first of all people aren't they don't think anybody's in there. Like would you walk into somebody's house if you didn't think anybody was home? Like this a little creepy, right? Like you don't know is anybody I think I'm doing something. But if you're in your house and you open the door and you go Welcome, come check it out. Like you know, me Casa su casa, like check it out. And then step back and let them look, you have a higher probability of connecting human to human and beginning that know like and trust factor. So with jewelers, I you know, I what I see with jewelers is a lot of them are sitting in the back of their booth, like behind their display, like not front and center so that they can connect with people.

I want to start

everything and..

right there because that's a really important point about being welcoming. I love that you bring in your cute Cuban roots, because for those of you don't know if you're listening to this on a Maria's Cuban descent, and her parents immigrated here from Cuba. That's another story. It's a very interesting story, like all their jewelry sewn inside their clothing and stuff like that, so that they could get here. And I love that you're like me, Casa su casa. But I think it's really important because the more you can be like up front and center, like welcoming people into your home, the more willing they're going to be to take a look at what you have. Right?

Yes! And connect and even for shy people. I like to tell people I'm an I'm an extroverted introvert. So I'm one of those people that would much rather be hiding somewhere, you know, alone in my studio, but I know that's not going to serve me. So I've got to put on my my, I say you're either like a Tigger or an Eeyore, yeah. So my Eeyore is the one that's in the studio and doesn't want to go to big parties. And I'm just like, that's my jam, like, like, I just would much rather be in small groups alone. But I know that when I'm at a live show, I have to put on my Tigger, Tigger is that has energy. Tigger is excited to share what they got like they are like bouncy, bouncy, right? And energy reflects energy. So if my energy is positive, even if I'm not feeling it, I am going to put that energy forward. Because it makes people vibe high, and they're much more likely to purchase when they feel good. So I need regardless of how it's going, if I'm hot. If it's not, you know, we've all had those shows where it's just not going the way we want. I still need to put out the right energy so that people vibe high in my booth, they're happy they feel good. All those things makes them want to buy more faster builds that that energy. Same thing when meeting new friends. It's the same principles as being at a party. Are you a Tigger? Are you an Eeyore are you attracting people? Are you repelling people?

I love this analogy is so good. Yeah.

I don't know how I started using Tigger and Eeyore but I guess because they're both lovable. You know, they're both lovable, but one's gonna sell more jewelry. One is going to sell more products, and it's not Eeyore

Yep. So we got standing in the front of the booth, making sure that your booth mirrors your website. We're going to talk a little bit more about some specific cific strategies to leverage what's happening after the show. And what else would what other are some of your other recommendations

for the show. So the biggest thing is to have some kind of clipboard, with signup sheets having signup sheets that we're going to where you're not only there to sell, obviously we all want to sell, but we need to collect their information. So you need to have some way for people to sign up for your for your email list. And I train our students all the time. If you want to get someone's email, do not use the kryptonite words, which are email or newsletter, never asked for an email or a new there tell them they're getting a newsletter? It's like kryptonite, they will say no, you got to call your list something else. Is it a club? Are you an insider, something they would be excited to hear more about? So you're not getting a no you're getting either Sure. Or you're getting? What is that? And then we tell them what they get for being on and they don't care about news, your news, your behind the scenes? I mean, what do they get? Is it free shipping? Is it you know chances to win a monthly draw is that what do they get for being on it something that they care about, that they that they personally care about. And so that gives you reasons to get people to sign up. I don't tend to do giveaways, because I want people that are on it, because they want to be on it. And I think giveaways are like a bribe for the moment. And not necessarily building your dream clients that are on there. But I always tell people test to see what works for you and go for it.

So you know what has worked really well for me like when I've been at like sample sales and stuff like that in New York is when they're like, do you want I'd love to send you a gift card. I and you can even say like almost like, I mean, obviously don't lie like I ran out of them at the booth or something like that. But I'd love to send you a gift card, can I get your contact information, you can use the gift card to shop online, after the show or after the event or whatever. So think of strategic ways that you can do this, or hey, I'd love to send you a free polishing cloth or something like that. I mean, maybe the free stuff isn't as good. But I really like the idea of giving them a reason to sign up. And I am 100% with you. No one wants more email. No one wants your newsletter, quite frankly, they don't really care that much about your behind the scenes. They want to know what's in it for them. If they like your jewelry, and they're buying from it, and they get an incentive for shopping online, or being part of your VIP, or getting inside access to the twice a year sample sale that you have, or whatever it might be, then that's a reason. Right?

Yeah. So and then the other little tip that I'll drop is because your front and center and your booth and you're listening to what they're saying you can get so much feedback, like people who are hiding are across the across the aisle, if you have no chance to sort of convert those sales are kind of slide in there to start those conversations. And then also I have that clipboard with me because I'm going to get every single person's email that walks in or out of my booth, that we train all our students to do this using the Law of Reciprocity. And every time somebody asks for a card and all the things. But the other thing I love to do is if they purchase from me or not purchase any anybody whose information I got a jot down little notes. And those allow me to follow up with people after the show, whether they bought or didn't buy, because I have little notes about comments. They made their daughter's birthday, their husbands this like whatever, whatever they were looking at, like say they bought like a lapis bracelet, and they didn't get the earrings. I might jot that down. When I get back to my studio, I'll make wait a week. And then I'll reach out to them and say, Hey, I'm working on these new lapis earrings. And I just thought of I just thought of you, I hope you're enjoying that bracelet. If it's via text, I'm gonna stop there and see what they say, you know, if it's via email, I might say a little more and drop a link or whatever. But I'm going to use that moment to say I'm making these earrings. Let me know if you're interested before I put them on the website, you know, are

a good point. Because Okay, so I was messaging with a student earlier. She was having a meltdown in one of our groups. So I privately messaged her and I'm like, How can I help you? In our diamond insiders group and she's stressed because she's not getting the sales that she wants. And I was like, What are you doing to be proactive about it? And when someone says I'm emailing my list once a week and I'm you know, having a Black Friday sale. That's good. That's a start and that's going to help, right but if you really need Sailes the fastest way to do it is to do a one on one individualized approach. And none of us are beneath that. This is how I build my business. This is how I grew up. This is how I actually make sales in my custom jewelry business. This is what Ana Maria does, she doesn't have like a super high price point either. Like, she's not selling 1000s of dollar $1,000 pieces necessarily, or multiple 1000s of dollar pieces. Her average cart value is about $300. Right?

Yep

Did it remember that correctly? And she's just being of service to our customers so that they remember her. So who wouldn't want a message sent to them saying like, Hey, I just want to check in, how are you enjoying that bracelet? You could even stop there and wait for them to respond. And then say, Hey, I was thinking about you because I designed these lapis earrings. And I was about to put them on the website, but I wanted to offer them to you first. If not, no worries, you know, and you're not attached to the outcome. And you'll be surprised at how many people will start shopping from you.

It's amazing. I had you know, I've got several customers like this that I go to with pieces. And I had this ring and I thought she's gonna buy this and we're gonna use her name. But, um, let's let's call her Stephanie. So, so let's say, Hey, Stephanie, I've got these new, you know, Opal stones, and I'm thinking of you be amazing ring for you. And she's like, send me a picture. So I snapped a picture of the stone, I send it to her. Now normally, that's all it takes, and she will buy it. But she passed on these, she didn't buy it. So then I send out an email to the whole list. And I saw that she opened it, but she still didn't buy it. And then I just sent another email a couple of weeks ago where I featured him at the bottom where I said in case you missed it, and she bought, she bought the ring. So it took three times for her to see it to see it finished. So the first time when I did she just saw the stone without the rain before I made it. And so yeah, sometimes it might take a few times, and then they'll and then they'll purchase. Most of the times with this particular customer. All I have to do is send her pictures of stones. And she'll say I'll take it, you know,

And this is the key, the most important thing. And you know, this is really about shows and what to do, because, but also, it's about what happens after the show that's almost more important than what happens at the show. Would you agree?

100%. I don't know if I said this already. But I'll say it one more time. If you sell it an in person show you've sold one time, you get your information, and you learn how to follow up. And you do all of the 100 million tactics that we talked about and Flourish and Thrive. You can sell to them all year long, over and over and over again. And you're building those relationships, and they will bring their friends back with them. So now you're getting referrals, and everything just exponentially grows, your website sells your in person sales, you're maximizing. And even at those shows, where maybe things aren't going the way you wanted. You are there to market you're there to get information and build relationships. So it gives your brain and your energy, something else to focus on in addition to sales that help you feel successful because hey, I came home with 40 emails today. Um, you know, maybe I didn't hit my sales goal, but I hit my email goal, or I hit my contact goal.

And I tell students all the time, yes, you want a monetary goal, because that goal at an in person show makes you try things that you may not have tried if you were already at the goal, right? Yeah, this this weekend, my I put a sales goal based on other shows in that area. And that part of the of the of the US, and we were way low on the first day. So instead of just going oh, well, there's nothing I can do. I went home and I reset to non openers, everybody that was in an hour of the show that night and started texting people who I knew were within sort of an hour's drive. And and so the next day, my VIPs showed up in a big way and I was selling all our high end pieces. So it turned the show around for us. And it still was an average show based off what is happening right now with all the other shows leading up to it, but because I had set a goal, maybe I would have just gone oh well. There's nothing I can do gone to bed done nothing. But I knew we weren't on track to hit my goal. So I did extra things to turn that around and ended up with an average show. So it could have been a bad show, you know, and it wasn't because we had goals. We turned it around and and I got a ton of email contacts. So I really was up I was making sure I asked everyone I was making sure I was active with people, if they asked for a card, I use that law of reciprocity. And I said, Would you like to be on our VIP list and got their got their email before they left? So I'm, I'm rambling, tell me what I should say.

You're not rambling. And I'm not going to tell you what to say, because you're saying things. So why don't I just really highlight this law of reciprocity thing, because and then I want to talk about like, just the potential of what could happen, because I don't, you know, we want to stay positive, obviously, but we want to make sure people are prepared. So the law of reciprocity that Ana's talking about is something that we that Robin and I have taught for years. And it's really about like, someone takes something from you, like a card or post a postcard or a business card. And in exchange for that, you they, they give you their contact details. So this this idea, I know that Ana's learned this in many different ways, and she's doing it in her own way. But one of the ways they're the logistics or the logistics, that's the wrong word. The logic behind this comes from Wholesale, because we used to get a lot of people walking the shows and asking for catalogs.

But if you don't know who the person is, or what their store is, and you just blindly give someone a line sheet without having a way to follow up with them about your line sheet, it could be just a random other designer walking the show and trying to, you know, get inspiration for their next collection, it could be just someone soliciting, who wants to solicit you later, for services that they offer. There's a whole it could be press or whatever. But all the reasons that you want to grab their information. So number one, you know who's taking your information. Number two, you're not giving it to the people you stopped giving it to. And number three, you can follow up with them after because at wholesale markets or trade shows, which are just like the industry version of what happens in a an art show, like you're talking about on it. Sometimes people are really busy up in that moment. And they're not, they don't have time to stop and place an order, or they want to consider you for another season. So this is your opportunity to develop a relationship on the front end. And so same similarly here, you exchange information, and have an opportunity to communicate with them later. Because they are interested enough to take a postcard or whatever it might be.

Right. And it's also a psychological thing. If someone asks you for something, in other words, they say can I do you have a business card? They've just asked me for something. And I'm granting it psychologically, they are primed to give you something back, because now they need to say thank you. So that is the moment to say great, would you like to be on our VIP list. And I have that clipboard in my hand and I put the card on it and turn that clipboard around with the pen on it and everything. So I'm almost on top of it. Not giving their brain a chance to even think you're like oh, yeah, they're in Yes. Right. I just gave them the card. They're gonna sign it, then. Yeah. Yep. Keeping them in Yes. In your booth. But yeah, so So let, I guess we should talk about like, what happens like Why have I had to pivot so many times in life, right? And well, everybody knows what just happened with Facebook and Instagram that went down. And you know, right so people who are and these are wonderful tools I used it as a huge pivot in my business. I'm doing our virtual live stream COVID So I am not knocking any of these social media platforms but we don't own them and they could go down at any minute. You know, I had like 10,000 followers and Instagram just shut it down for no reason, like zero

Yeah. Oh my God!

she still hasn't gotten it back and she was verified what she verified now I might be Miss speaking about that. I'm not sure if she was verified but um, but there were some imposter things using her name and they just took them all down and she went with it and she's never been able to get it back. She's having to build it back. So we don't have control of what happens on on any on Etsy on Instagram On Facebook on any of these platforms. We don't own them. So off to future proof your business and get a list you own that list.

Yes,

It's yours. It's your it is my business that list is my business.

You know it's interesting. This has been happening a lot. I was getting a I did an interview with Aaron Alexander of product powerhouse yesterday for the desire brand effect book which is coming out which came out last week when this is going live. And it's it's interesting because she was sharing about how one of her clients for her web design company just got their Etsy shut down their business went away. And Jules Kim, really famous designer had her on the podcast to talk about her but Jules incubator for BIPOC community, she just got her BI tools account, literally taken down. She's like and had like 20 30,000 followers, she's like, why? Like, what did I do? And there's no reason they can shut you down at any moment for violating their terms of service. And as as we know, they're just shutting people down, left and right. I mean, I'm not going to get political here. But it's like, unfair unfairly, a lot of people are being shut down for no reason. And so you really need to as honest as future proof your business. And the same goes for shows. I mean, we're seeing all these crazy things happening in the world, depending on where you live. And you want to make sure that your business is protected from more shutdowns or lockdowns, or mandates and all these things, so that you have a way to communicate with people outside of venues like this.

Or even, you know, in my past, I'm knocking on wood as I say this, but I've had two websites hacked and taken down completely in the past, and I didn't have a list, how do you let them know where you are? What's going on? Or, hey, we'll be back up, you know, just hang tight, we're working on it or whatever, so that when you launch that new website, they're all there with you to continue forward? Um, you know, so those are things that I mean, I hate talking about this stuff, because it's but it happens,

Those negative. It's real life. And I think it's really important that we're talking about it, because there are a lot of people out there who are like, Oh, well, building my website is getting traffic to my websites too hard. Well, what happens if your the other channels go away? I mean, yeah, that's really the truth. I can go over case study and story and story and story, people being shut down on Amazon shut down on Etsy, shut down on social media, God forbid, hopefully, it never happens to any of us. But at the same time, this is why we've been so adamant about creating a contact list, and also being proactive with your sales techniques. Because I think that is, that's the key to building a successful business with repeat customers that continue to scale over time. It's systematizing, the process that you have, which you've clearly done, right, creating a way that's authentically you, where you can feel comfortable reaching out to people not being pushy, but being of service, right, which is what you're doing, and protecting yourself from things that could actually put your business out of business. Right?

Yep.

All the things,

All the things,

All the things. So Ana, is there anything that we're missing that you wanted to cover on this episode?

Oh, my gosh, I just think that it's a right now, right now is a great opportunity to get into those shows that you maybe haven't been able to in the past, all of the big art festivals are extending their deadlines, because they're not getting, for whatever reason, like maybe some people are still afraid of COVID or certain areas. So they're not getting the applications that they normally gets, you might be able to get in. Um, I just think, making sure you prepare yourself so that when you're at the show, you're maximizing your time there. It's not just about the sales at the show, it's what you gather at the show to take them over to your website. And what else Oh, I can't do two things, there needs to be three.

Just be prepared. And this I feel like the third one, that's my third takeaway from this is really about systematizing, like creating a system for the collection of those email addresses and the follow up after the show and what you're going to do.

Yep, oh, I guess and my third thing would be like, do not depend on the show to bring you customers that would be like my button, like, you know, that yes, at the beginning of our businesses, you know, years and years ago, you could just show up at the show, there would be like 100,000 people walking through. And that's just not happening at most of the shows anymore. So you've got to and it's been a while this is before COVID I've been noticing the traffic and a lot of the shows has been down and if I didn't have a list if I didn't mark it to my list, I would not have been as successful as we have been. So it's all the reasons I feel like this turned into like get a list show but

Well, I think that's important to tell you because you're sending out emails and saying like, I'm going to be at this show. If you're in this area. Do you segment like the people...

I do so when I'm when I'm sending to shows individually like right now this month has been a lot of segmentation. You know, like I'm only sending to the shows and then once a month I try to hit the whole list as a whole. If I'm Super Show heavy, maybe I'll have like a where to find us section on the email so that they can kind of see on the website like all the cities we're traveling to, but But yes, absolutely I don't want to send somebody in Houston when I'm in you know Miami Florida. They don't care Houston care I'm In Miami so I want to segment out and send to the area so right now I'm indicator we have a Decatur, Alabama we have a show this weekend here. So I'm sending to Huntsville, Birmingham. Decatur like they're all within an hour of here. So all of those people are getting the email that's going out today. So yeah.

Awesome. On if people want to come say hi to you, or should they find you outside of our program?

Outside momentum? Oh, yes. I would love to work with all of you. So they'll come to momentum and we can chat and go deeper on all this stuff. But you can find me at jewelofhavana.com. I'm @JewelofHavana on Instagram. I'm at Jewel of Havana on Facebook. It's jewel of Havana everywhere. Yeah.

Thank you so much for being with us today on.

It's been a pleasure. Good to see you.

Thank you so much for listening to the podcast today. This is Tracy Matthews signing off. Until next time, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And once again, if you haven't picked it up yet, please, please, please order The Desired Brand Effect my brand new book. In pre orders right now. It's just $2.99. During this preview window, you can head on over to desiredbrandeffect.com. On November 9, the price is going up. So you definitely want to get this while we're doing an amazing special for you in pre orders. Plus, you're going to get all those amazing bonuses that I spoke about in the beginning that inside look at a seven figure business, The Desired Brand Effective Training and The My Vision of Success Training, where I show you how to align what matters most to you and build a business that supports that. All right, let's do this.

Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. It's my mission to help thousands 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.