#307 From Seasonal In Person Events to Daily Sales All Year Round with Erin Heydenreich Show notes

1:49PM Jun 19, 2021

Speakers:

Tracy Matthews

Erin

Alex Camacho

Meghan Boehm

Keywords:

business

sales

momentum

people

jewelry

year

program

started

feel

brand

online

person

website

figures

called

grow

wix

shows

selling

erin

Makes me feel like so much better and it doesn't put so much pressure on me to to squeeze every last drop out of those 10 weeks of summer, I can relax, I can actually enjoy my summer. And in fact this last summer, I was able to take a week off in August, which I've never been able to do before.

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 307. Hey there, it's Tracy Matthews, Chief Visionary Officer of Flourish and Thrive Academy and the host of Thrive by Design. Today I have a very special guest. She is a graduate of our Momentum program, Erin Heydenreich of Betina Roza and she's going to talk about how she went from seasonal sales to having daily Sales year round online and I know for all of you out there who have built a business on in person shows or trunk shows or events or jewelry parties or whatever it might be. COVID was rough, because I know a lot of people just lost pretty much all their sales during COVID. In fact, one of our students in our Momentum program, Karina Harris lost 57 shows and she just spoke at our Expand Your Audience Grow Your Sales event, where she spoke about a little bit more about how she basically recouped all of that lost income and that's exactly what we help designers do in our Momentum program like Erin, who's on the show today.

Before I introduce you to Erin, if you are someone who would like to reach more of your customers directly online, maybe you're tired of doing all the shows all the time. Or maybe you just want a more leveraged business model where you can do the shows and be have that human connection and be around people, right, and learn how to transition those people that you actually meet at the shows into online customers, and then expand that audience to actually grow your sales. Well, I'd love to invite you to think about joining us for our momentum program.

Momentum is designed to help you grow your sales to multiple six, or even seven figures and beyond, with ease and grace, without having you be the doer of all things in your business. This is a really important piece of it. Because the number one biggest struggle that we hear from people who come to us for help, who join us for a Momentum program is that they've already built a relatively successful business, maybe they've you know, been doing everything on their own, they've gotten to high five figures or low six figures. But they're kind of at a standstill, because they're only one person, there's only so much that they can do and they can't seem to figure out like how to stop spinning their wheels, and just marketing to the same people and so that's where Momentum comes in, because we teach people how to systematize and automate how to get the right support, and how to really take what you're doing well, and reach more of the people like that, right and so Momentum is really structured around individualized coaching, 90 days strategic planning, and online strategies that have helped over 223 brands over the past three years, scale their results online and off.

Our goal is really to take the frustration and overwhelm out of growing your business by being that sounding board that you need to overcome the obstacles that you're facing, because all business owners face obstacles over time. And it's really hard when we're faced with the same situation. You know, have you heard that quote, like, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result?

Well, a lot of times, like, you know, we have like limited scope of how to solve problems in our business or to overcome difficulties, right? and so our goal in this program is to really be like, not only your cheerleader, but that sounding board for you to help you get unstuck when you're feeling stuck, or to help you kind of fast track through those things that maybe seem hard or difficult as you're growing your business, or even the things that you you know, you might not be sure if it's a good idea to move forward with. So this is this program is perfect for established business owners who are ready to take action now, who are who really want to build a solid direct to consumer revenue stream, while they're leveraging the other revenue streams that they have. So it's totally cool if you're already selling wholesale and you want to continue doing that. Or if you're selling in person at other types of events or retail pop ups, or even if you have a brick and mortar store.

This program is really focused on leveraging all those sales channels and then using that to create fuel behind your online sales machine so that you're reaching more of your customers directly. Because and the reason why this is important, I know if if the pandemic and COVID and things that are happening in the world have taught us anything, that now more than ever, we must be reaching our customers online and that is how we continue to grow a sustainable business that grows every single year.

So if you'd like to learn more about the program, or consider applying head on over to https://www.flourishthriveacademy.com/momentum/ it is 100% free to apply to the program. There's no obligation once you apply, we're just here to help and once you get on that call, we're just going to talk a little bit more about your vision for your business, we're going to take a look at what's happening right now, and uncover any roadblocks that might be standing in your way. So once again, head on over to https://www.flourishthriveacademy.com/momentum/ and as I mentioned before, Erin Heydenreich is also a graduate of the Momentum program, she's going to share with you how she kind of transitioned from having these seasonal shows, to leveraging an audience online and how that kind of saved her business.

She had some really great results, which she's going to share with you, as she's kind of sharing some of these strategies and tactics and here's a little bit about her brand. She designs bright beachy jewelry. For the rare brave soul. Her jewelry is sold during the summer months outside of her studio in San Juan Island and the rest of the time, she's reaching our customers online while she's hanging out in Mexico half the year, which is pretty cool. Alright, let's dive in to this episode with Erin.

I'm so excited to be here with Erin Heydenreich. Erin, welcome.

Thank you. So good to be here.

Erin, I wanted to chat with you a little bit about your business you've been or you joined our Momentum program. And you were in the program about two years you actually joined it when it was called SOS. So I just wanted really wanted to talk to you a little bit more about your story and kind of hear what's happened over the time that you've been in the program and to hear how your business has grown. So it's awesome to chat. My first question for you just so that you can share this with your readers is I'd love to know your name and your business and then also just a little bit about your jewelry business journey.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So my name is Erin, and my, my business is Betina Roza and most of my jewelry life has been in person sales and markets kind of how most people get started. I had just barely started my own website, before I found SOS and I know it's now called Momentum. But SOS did appeal to me at the time, because I was like, really felt like I was drowning and needed help and I've, I've done lots of Flourish and Thrive things over the years. But I was feeling the same sort of overwhelm, and exhaustion that most people feel when they're doing mostly in person sales and events and so I was looking to move part of my business online, like the goal was to do is to do half of my sales online and the other half in person, because I still love in person stuff. But it's just not sustainable for the rest of my life, to be popping up tables and tents and things like that.

Awesome. So tell me a little bit about what your business was like before you join the Momentum program?

Yeah. So my business before I joined the program was, and still is, in many ways. I have a seasonal pop up shop, I call it it's on San Juan Island in a resort Marina called Roche Harbor and they have a little village where all the local artists set up. They have a little booth looks like a little cabin and I've had that for I think six years now and so that's been my main place for selling jewelry is to tourists and I do a good business there. But it's a very intense, it's like 10 weeks of really intense sales and then and then I would kind of just drop off the face of the planet for the rest of the year and then, you know, do it all over again. So it was really quite exhausting. You know, I was doing Christmas shows and all the big, applying to all the shows and trying to max out as many live events as possible farmers market like I would sign up for anything. I was just like, trying to do it all and yeah, I just kind of hit a wall with how much I could physically do in a year after a 10 week intense summer and then having a few weeks to rest and then having to go into the holidays again. It was a lot. Yeah. So I was really looking for some help on how to transition to more to online to more sustainable, something that can be done because I live I live part time in Mexico. So having an online business makes so much sense for me. And it was something that I just couldn't quite wrap my brain around how to get started with it. I had a website, but it had hardly any hardly any sales.

So how many how much were you doing? percentage wise of your business in website sales when you start up Momentum,

So I started in 2019, I started Momentum in 2019. And in 2018, my my website sales represented 5% of my business, and this last year in 2020, they represented 20% of my business and so it's a huge jump. My numbers wise, you know, in the first year of Momentum, my website sales were up 160% and then this last year 2020, they were up 120 730% from the previous year. So it's now I now can consider my website part of my business. Whereas when I first started, it was just like, this thing that was happening on the side that just didn't really do anything didn't get any attention.

So how do you use your in person shows to leverage website sales?

Well, that was something that I was honestly really terrible about. Before I started this program. I don't even I know I had an email list. But it was, it was like, my friends and family were on it and I never, I probably send an email out maybe twice a year. So I've learned a lot about getting people on my list, especially since I have this kind of captive audience all summer. So now I'm collecting emails, every chance I can get I've doubled or tripled my email list, I think, since I started. So you know, at my booth, I have ways of collecting emails, I'm trying to collect emails from people at the point of sale and I have multiple, multiple ways and before I wasn't doing that at all, I would have been terrified to ask somebody for their email before I started this. So that's been a great big growth point for me is just even being able to ask for that.

That's amazing. So I'm sure that contributed to the growth of the online sales as well.

Yes, definitely. Yes. Because I had all these regular customers, you know, from the summers, like the same people are coming to visit me every summer, but I wasn't capturing them. You know, I was like, what are they say I was leaving all the money on the table. Because, you know, they would probably be buying for me other times of year and I was just, I wasn't communicating with them at all. So now I have these year round, you know, the same people are buying from me online that are buying from me in person and yeah, it's, I mean, it seems like a no brainer, but it was just like a personal hurdle that I couldn't really get over. It felt weird for me to ask that. So, yes, that's been a huge difference for me.

That's amazing. I love that so much. So I'm curious to know, like, what was it specifically about Momentum that kind of helped you grow your business and your online sales, because I know that you were talking a little bit before about how your, your online sales are down 20% of your total business, they they more than quadrupled. Over the two years that you were in the program, you have an email list now your overall sales? more than doubled, right?

Yes.

So I'd love to know, like kind of how, what what did you do to kind of implement to increase your sales in that way?

What did I do? So I feel like I've done so much actually made a list.

Great.

Many of the things that I did it well, in Momentum, I mean, I will say the one thing was I just I really felt like a deer in the headlights. You know, I knew somewhat what I needed to do. I knew I needed to get attention on my website and pay attention personally to my website to get it to grow. But I just really didn't know at all how to begin that and I, I didn't even have like when I started Momentum. I didn't have anything. I mean, I had a website but it it was I didn't have a brand. I didn't have any brand colors. I didn't have any. I didn't have a dream client. I didn't have a brand story I didn't have there was no shape to my business. It was just me making jewelry and selling it and then that's it. I didn't have any, any of the other things. So I think I started Momentum a little bit behind where a lot of people started but having somebody just guide me, you know, was really like one of the most amazing things because, as you know, you know when you're a solopreneur you don't know what to do. You don't know what to do next. There's nobody to confer with so just having the one on one coaching and you know, the 90 day planning calls was so helpful for me just to focus in on what to do next, because I knew there was all this stuff for me to do, but I couldn't even I had no idea where to start. So, yeah, do you want to hear my list of things, some of the things, my big accomplishments?

I would love to hear your list. Let's do it.

I start so I started a new website, I moved from Wix to Shopify, which was a huge thing for me, because I used Wix in my previous job, and had built several websites on Wix and I felt really comfortable with it. But Shopify is just treating me so much better. So that was a huge move to move over. I also, you know, I've rebranded my whole, my whole brand, I got a new logo, new colors, new fonts, new everything, I have, like the complete brand package now. So that's a big, big deal. I'm now considering consistent emails twice a week to decision versus consistent blogs two times a month, at least one or two. I hired an accountant, which was huge. I started getting some of my parts made and cast for me, which was another big deal because one of my other mental hurdles coming into Momentum was like, how do you even get people to help you make jewelry like, I couldn't even imagine how that worked. So that was a big step. I also hired some part time production help, I now have an email, welcome sequence, I have a post purchase sequence that's, you know, all fancy and divided, depending on how many times people have purchased. I have all custom packaging, I didn't have that before, I was just like, scrapping it together. So I have some beautiful, branded custom packaging. And I am, I have like five or six live Facebook sales under my belt now, which now they seem super easy. I launched my first real collection, which I had not done before. That was this last year, I now have a content plan, which was also something I would didn't even know existed before and let's see. And yes, I'm getting consistent wheels on sales on my website, consistent sales every month, which is something I never had before. Before I started.

That is so exciting. And how is that really complemented your in person business because I know that you mentioned that you still enjoy the in person sales. So that's like a huge part of your business and you just wanted to have the online to help add to what you're doing.

Yeah, the reason the wait couple months, my my in person businesses I don't, I didn't want to feel like all my eggs were in one basket and this last year was a perfect, like, real life example of that I had no idea if I'd be able to open my booth last summer and I didn't actually know that I would be able to open it till the last minute. So I felt like having put all this work into my online sales in 2019 really helped me to recover some of the income I might have lost. I mean, it turns out that I was able to open but that's the thing is you just never know. And I'm, I'm in a Marina, I'm renting a spot, I don't have any control over what they decide, you know, they could decide to close the little artists village and I would be without a spot. So just for, for like business sustainability, it just makes so much more sense and makes me feel like so much better and it doesn't put so much pressure on me to to squeeze every last drop out of those 10 weeks of summer, I can relax, I can actually enjoy my summer. And in fact this last summer, I was able to take a week off in August, which I've never been able to do before. And so that was amazing.

That's huge. Actually, I feel like being able to step away from your business during the busy season is huge. I remember one time, just by setting my business up the right way. I left in December, which is unheard of back in that time because December was the month that we were preparing for all the big trade shows in January and even though because I had a wholesale business, even though most of my sales shipped in November, like the December was hectic because you're doing all your trunk shows and everything in person stuff, but then also preparing for this big trade show that's literally like the week after the new year and I remember I was able to do that once and it was like the most amazing feeling now I can do it whenever but it was the most amazing feeling to leave for the entire month of november and be able to get stuff done. So I feel you there and I totally know that feeling of being able to take a week off during the busy season which is so cool.

It was amazing. It was amazing. I felt like such a boss just leaving, leaving my person that I've hired to help me with my booth and just me like, you got this, I got this, we got this, you know, sales are up, I'll see you in a week, it was fantastic. I've never been able to do that.

Okay, so what were your favorite parts about the Momentum program?

my favorite parts, for one, the retreats, the once a year, twice a year of retreats, I love those like, I love like spending two days just like super hyper focused on business stuff, I go back to my notes from the retreats all the time, like I'm constantly pulling ideas from, I love all of the like super shares that people do for the retreats and you know, now you're doing them all the time, which is great, like, just getting ideas from other people is so helpful and the camaraderie and I don't know, it's just like that bubbly, like energy of everybody getting together and kind of talking about the same things. I love that. And then the one on one coaching has been really amazing for me, like I, I had never done any coaching before at all. So that kind of focused attention and just being able to talk to somebody who totally knew what I was talking about, you know, they knew exactly the problems, you know, I've, I've maybe had some conversations with other business owners over the years and having people that are specifically knowledgeable about jewelry is just, it made a lot of difference for me, because, for one, it gave me the direction that I didn't have and to you know, it made me feel less alone in my business like here are these other people, they've gone through what I've gone through, you know, there's all the other people in the program that are going through the same thing. So that that sense of knowledge, and then the camaraderie that went with it, I would say,

Love it. So what were some of the specific results that you got as as a result of joining Momentum?

Yeah, so my sales, overall sales have almost doubled, not quite, but they're almost double what they were, when I started the program, they were up yeah, they're, they're almost double I mean, which is amazing to me, because I haven't, I haven't made more jewelry, like the amount of jewelry that I have is the same. But I'm doing all these different things selling, selling more, selling smarter. So I don't feel like I'm working double, if that makes sense. But I'm making double. So that's amazing. To me, that's huge. In addition to that my website sales have gone up, like 400%, since I started, they were a very small part of my business when I first started, and now they represent an actual, you know, there when my website sales in 2020 represented 20% of my business. And that was with a brand new website, you know, that was in a pandemic, like I'm still figuring out Shopify, you know, I'm still working on all the things I can do there.

So I easily feel like I could double that again in this next year and I didn't look at my numbers specifically for 2021 yet, but I'm already well on my way to to doubling those numbers again. So those, you know, just numbers wise, those are huge. But the other thing is, I wanted to say when I started Momentum, I I told Natasha when I first talked to her that really what was important to me, obviously, the numbers are important to me. But what's really important to me is how I feel like how I feel in my business and I felt when I started that I was like running behind it trying to catch up like it was this wild thing just going in its own direction and, and I was like running to catch up with it all the time and how I wanted to feel was the reverse of that. Like, I wanted to feel like I was in the driver's seat that I was actually thinking about where I wanted to go and making decisions about what I wanted to do, and that I was in control and I can say with 100% certainty that I feel that way now. So for me, that was the biggest thing that I wanted out of the program was to feel differently in my business to feel like I was the boss and not like, this thing just has control of my life. So, so the numbers are great, but that's the part I'm most happy about is how I feel now. As a business owner, I feel I feel like I got it together. I know what I'm doing. So that's amazing for me.

That's awesome. So would you recommend Momentum for someone else in the jewelry industry or who's selling a creative product? And if so, why?

I would 100% recommend Momentum. I don't I don't think there's anything else out there like it. I can't imagine anything that does comprehensive and I think like again, like I said the biggest part most jewelry businesses are one person, businesses and it's you just can't do it all on your own and it's, you know, for me, I wasn't making a lot of money when I started this program and so it felt like it an investment for me. But it's been more than worth it more than worth it, I would never have accomplished all of the things that I have done in the past two years. Without it, and I feel like I have years worth of information to keep me going further. Plus, I have, you know, I feel like I have this community that I can always fall back on, when I need help, which, just for the fact of being, you know, a solopreneur that's worth everything. Yeah, I don't know where else you can get that. So yes, I highly recommend it for anybody selling products, I can imagine that this program would be perfect.

That was so awesome. Thank you so much for being here today.

Thank you so much for listening to the show today. I hope you enjoyed that interview with Erin. Now if you're wanting to get some amazing results, and you really want to scale your online sales to multiple six figures and beyond, here is your official invite to join us for our Momentum program. It is an application only program, all you have to do to fill out the application it's 100% free is head on over to https://www.flourishthriveacademy.com/momentum/ and fill out your application right there.

Before I go though, I wanted to share with you some of the success stories from our previous and active students

I was able to really harness my community. My name is Alex Camacho. I am the owner and designer of acid clean jewelry. Before I started momentum, I was really in a place where I knew I could grow my business. But I didn't really know how to grow my business I don't really like to do in person events, they're very difficult for me energy wise, that takes a lot of my my energy away from me and I didn't really want to do wholesale because it's like why make less money? I was at around 65 is what I did the previous year and with the coaching that I've received that year, we've been able to increase my sales to around $105k and so actually we hit $330,000 last year, so it was over double and we're on the track to be able to beat that again. And we just keep setting goals and keep working towards them and I couldn't have done this without the guidance that I got within the Momentum program.

My name is Meghan and I am the owner and founder of Meghan Bo Designs, I have been in part of momentum for about six months or seven months and I had been working the seven months really on my email marketing, I was at a point in my business where I needed the professional help of how to grow my business, it was growing so fast that I really couldn't figure it out all on my own. My direct to consumer sales went up almost 200%. So 197% from the year prior to Momentum to the year that I was in the momentum program. So obviously it jumped my salary or, you know, my income went from two figures to six in that year and so I saw a huge, huge change, obviously, like a very good return on investment that year from joining the program. So, you know, in the end, I actually think it was probably less expensive to join Momentum rather than like, you know, hiring coaches and, and in doing that on the side.

Isn't that great. I hope that you are inspired by these brands and if you want to get results like theirs, head on over to https://www.flourishthriveacademy.com/momentum/ and apply to the program today. This is Tracy Matthews, signing off. Until 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.