EP396: How Live Selling Transformed Her Online Jewelry Sales

7:15AM Mar 15, 2023

Speakers:

Tracy Matthews

Keywords:

jewelry

people

business

selling

online

grow

clients

website

lives

makers

yc

program

sales

emailing

started

lita

joined

thinking

feel

showing

You are highly creative, you are very driven at the same time. And you understand that if you want to build a business, you have to lean in, do the work, get motivated, be ambitious and like iterate, iterate, iterate to keep ongoing. 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 could spend more of your precious time using your creativity to make money. You ready? All right, let's do this. Welcome to the thrive by design podcast episode 396. Hey there, it's Tracy Matthews, chief visionary officer of Flourish & Thrive Academy and the host of the show. And I'm excited to be here to be talking to you a big badass today. And if you've ever been thinking about how you can incrementally grow your jewelry business, using Omni channel streams and incorporating live selling into your business model. Well, you're in the right place because Karla Garrow of Lita seaglass is going to be sharing a little bit more about how she's incorporated live selling into her business and how it's like basically crushing for her and helping her grow her audience and really create community around her brand, which we all want to do. And if you're someone who hasn't tried it yet, and you haven't even been thinking about it, I think you'll be inspired by different ways that you can grow your jewelry business and keep things going and really train your customers to buy from you online and engage with you online because that's the whole thing. Speaking of we have a brand new free challenge happening, it's called Supercharge your online jewelry sales. And we are going to help you over the course of five days, plus a bonus masterclass. We're going to help you harness the power of online selling to help you 3x Your high quality website traffic, get more regular daily sales on your website and build a unforgettable brand experience. And we're really excited about it. So if you're someone who is really frustrated with your online sales, or you're someone who has a great business selling in person, and you haven't really figured out how to translate that success that you're having in person online, or you just want to scale your online sales and get better at it, you are in the right place. So I would love to invite you to join us for this amazing challenge. You're gonna love it. All you need to do is head on over to flourish, thrive academy.com forward slash supercharge and save your seat right there. And I'm looking forward to seeing you. So let's dive into today's episode with Karla Garrow. She's the founder of Lita seaglass. And we've been working with her business on and off over the years. And she's been in several of our programs, including train your customers to buy from you online and our momentum program. And I just love this girl. She's such a go getter and an action taker. And she's really one of those people that I think you'll be inspired from because she truly takes ownership for her outcome. And, you know, I've been, I've been just lucky to be able to work with her for so long to see her growth. So I think you'll be inspired. So let's dive into today's episode with Carla. I'm so excited to be here on the show with Karla Guerrero of Lita seaglass. Carla, welcome.

Hi, Tracy, thank you so much for having me.

I'm so excited to have you here. We've been working together for a long time now. And we were chatting in one of our consulting sessions that we're doing together. And you mentioned just some amazing things about how live selling has really impacted your business over the last couple of years. So I thought I'd have you on the show to talk a little bit more about that. And we're excited to hear how you're using it to grow your online sales. So should we dive right in? Absolutely. Okay, awesome. So tell us a little bit about Lita seaglass. And how you got started in the jewelry industry.

I've pretty much been making jewelry for my entire life. It's the only interest that I've ever had. I started my company when I was 17. So I started really early on, and at that time, you know, Silpada we've got to really date myself here. But so part of jewelry like home parties were really popular. So I sort of jumped on the home party bandwagon and started doing home parties back early 2000s. And then when I was 19, I opened up a woman's accessories boutique in Rhode Island, where I sold that was sort of where I started making my own jewelry that I was selling nothing like I am today. It was very different. more, you know, like beaded necklaces, necklaces with shells and things like that. I also sold other designers, jewelry, handbags, watches, women's accessories, basically. And then over the years, that was really where I started making the seaglass jewelry was in my store at that time. And I did have a website, but everything was really going in the direction of online sales. So in 2009, I decided to just go for it and jump right in, I closed my store in my best year that I ever had. And just went on a whim and decided to go full time online, and I opened up Lita seaglass, jewelry.com in January of 2009. And from that point forward, I loved being online. Because I think for myself, I never really resonated with having a storefront full time, I really liked sort of the behind the scenes, creating the jewelry, and maybe less of the organization of you know, having a physical location. So in 2012, when I had my daughter, I'm a full time single parent, I really noticed and that time, I was like, Okay, I have something great here that I've created. And I really decided to just go full in on it, and make sure that my company was structured in a way that I could always rely on myself and be able to support my daughter. So that was really changed my mindset. And that year. So yeah,

that is so great. Well, so I find it interesting that you had your best year ever, ever in 2009. Because that time was like a really hard time for a lot of people 2008 And nine, what do you attribute that success to?

I think, because I was in a really small, like downtown area. I'm just I'm really lucky the way that it happened. There was a lot of people visited, it was a great location. It's, you know, close to Newport, we definitely had some like cruise ships and things like that coming in. And I'm dedicated. I mean, when I say I was open, like, I was there every day showing up doing the work. And as you'll probably know, by the end of this podcast, I love to talk and talk and make connections with everybody as they came in. So I really grew a loyal following. Yeah, so I was just sort of a good setup of the town and the people and, and all of that. So yeah,

so I've always found it fascinating. seaglass is such a unique jewelry niche, like why did you pick it? Was it just, it was popular at the time or? Because like your business is crazy busy. You're okay,

thank you. So I didn't really choose seaglass it definitely was not popular back when I first started. I always sort of feel like seaglass chose me. I love jewelry, like I mentioned and always have been, always wanted to be a jewelry designer. But one of the things I got really hung up on always was sort of the array of options that are out there in the world, from the metals to the gemstones. If if I didn't end up working with seaglass jewelry, I think I would have been so overwhelmed by the colors and the designs. I don't think I really could have like honed myself into one thing. So I had a client actually that came into my store, about maybe 2005 2006. And she shopped with me regularly, really sweet lady. She had recently lost her grandmother at the time. And she said, Listen, I have family coming in from all over. My grandmother had a little cottage on Martha's Vineyard. And she collected all this seaglass she said, What can you make for me out of it so that I can go to her services? I want to give something to my family because they had spent summers, you know, on her grandmother's cottage on the beach collecting sea last together, it was a memory. So I'm looking at this jar of glass and I'm thinking oh my gosh, how am I supposed to make jewelry out of glass, like, it's so fragile that I didn't want to break anything because I knew you know how special everything was to her. But I decided to give it a go and made her some gifts to give to her family. Couple weeks later, she came back in and she had a little collection of seaglass. And she said, Listen, take this and make jewelry for your store. Everybody loved the gifts, it was a hit. She said, You know, people were crying and they're all talking about these beautiful memories. She said you have to do something with this. So I took her word on it, made some jewelry and put it out in my shop. And it just started to become the thing that everybody was coming to me for in the store. So that was really how it started.

That's such a cool, like, that's such a cool story. And I love that transition because it's really like, you know, there's a couple of things that you've said already that I think are really big takeaways that I want to kind of call out. Number one. You didn't really say this but like you were in it like to do the work to actually make your business successful. And I think this is a misunderstanding that a lot of people have when they're makers and creative and they have a craft because you're highly creative. You are very driven at the same time and Do you understand that if you want to build a business, you have to lean in, do the work, get motivated, be ambitious, and like iterate, iterate, iterate to keep on going, right? 100% Yeah, so that is cool. And then also, I think you found like a really particular niche that people love. I mean, it's so crazy. We're gonna get more into this seaglass and like, like how your business is growing later in this episode? I hope we'll see. So you mentioned that you transition in 2009 to online sales? Was there any other motivation besides just like wanting more freedom and flexibility? From where you worked?

I just had a gut feeling I just felt, you know, sometimes, like, there's those moments in your life where you just take a leap of faith. That was just that time for me. Everything was pulling me in that direction. And I just thought, in my mind, how cool could it be to not that I didn't love, you know, you know, having my store in a way, but it was so new, like, the online world was so new at the time, and I thought, how cool like, I can basically have a boutique, but have it be online and not have to physically be here from this time to this time every day. So I just really went for it at that time.

How'd you get started? Like where were you selling on Etsy? Or what?

Nope, I opened right out the gate with my own website, because I did have my shop before. And I had a website for my store. So I rebranded got a new domain name, which is the name of my company now and built the website, or Dreamweaver, which is,

oh, my gosh, three way

back in the day. I don't even know if it's around anymore. But yeah, I built my website. And then I was doing at that time, because there was no Facebook, there was no Instagram, there was nothing like that. I think Facebook was just starting to be something maybe around 2000. And now yeah, that's like around when I joined. Yep, I did everything through Google. Because I knew that for people to find me that weren't my clients that were already shopping with me. I really needed to make sure that when somebody Googled seaglass jewelry, they were gonna see my name. So I got started my own website, and then with

Google. Oh, that's awesome. Okay, cool. So you obviously got started online, you're selling online, you had sales, because I know you were you came to us a couple of years ago for some help with online sales and joined a program that we have called train your customers to buy from you online. Tell me a little bit about what was going on. At that time, when you decided to join that program? Like, what were the challenges you were facing with online sales.

So the challenges for me at the time, were my company was growing organically. And because I've really only ever worked for myself that you know, you don't know what you don't know. And there was a lot of things I didn't know. So I really joined because I was so excited to find a program that was specifically tailored to jewelry, and and makers. And I wanted to make sure that I was implementing the proper, like structure and sort of behind the scenes setup. Because I was moving at the time that I started working with you, which was maybe 2018 2019, I had already started investing and having a team. So it wasn't just myself anymore. And I wanted to make sure that as we grew like once you start growing, you know, it's like a snowball going downhill. You're just picking up that pace, I definitely couldn't slow it down. Nor did I want to. But I needed to make sure that I had the proper structure in place, so that it would be able to grow smoothly and not have all of these bumps and challenges along the way. So that was when I joined.

I love it. Okay, cool. I love that so much. Now, you learn some things in the program. But also I feel like you were already selling online. So what were some of like the key takeaways and like things that you implemented from that program to help your business grow, because you now you sell wholesale, and you do some other things. And I'll let you talk about that if it comes up, but like, what were the things that you implemented that really worked for you?

To answer the second part of your question first, I guess we sell wholesale, I kind of started out selling wholesale before anything really. So we have wholesale, we have retail, through our website. And also we do sell on Etsy. Now we started on Etsy, maybe hri 2010 or so but didn't really do a lot with it until the past couple of years. But mainly it's our business website that we have. So those are a different avenues and then with our live selling. And then when I joined the program, one of the things I loved about USC is it was perfect for somebody like me, because I wanted the information. But then I really wanted like to do it on my own, but then be able to get that feedback on it. So it's great for anybody that's really dedicated and motivated to doing the work. And it was interesting, because, you know, as makers, we always have a lot going on here in the studio, and you're always busy. You're always got your hand in something But I really learned that I wasn't properly showing my community or the rest of the world what I was doing, I was lacking on my email advertising. And I wasn't showing up as regularly as I should be with doing the emails, and even just putting fun content out there to show what's going on. I'm so used to it. I kind of always think like, who wants to see this? You know, but turns out, it's very interesting, and a lot of people do. So that was an eye opener for sure.

That's awesome. So let's talk about live selling. Yeah, we were chatting about a month or two ago, and you're like, Tracy, I just want to tell you like the live selling stuff that I learned in the T yc. Like completely changed my business. So tell me a little bit about that. Like, when did you start live selling, and I really want to dig into some of the things that you're doing now, because it's so cool. Like, I love it on Wednesday, we had to schedule this interview early enough on a Wednesday, so you could do your what's up what's new Wednesdays. So tell me a little bit about that.

So I started in, maybe like 2018, using Instagram before they had the live feature. So I would use it more as like a little a small video post, and then show a grouping of items up for sale. And so now as everything has changed, it's become a lot easier to do live selling. But that was how it started. In 2019, I decided that we used to do two in person shows per year that were tailored towards seaglass. And I decided not to do them any longer. Because mainly I was having to leave my daughter, it just you know, anybody that does shows, it's a lot of setup. It's a lot of travel, being away from your family and your kids. And once I got to the show, I felt like it wasn't fair sometimes. Because there's some people, you're only catering to that small audience that's in that area of your show, and you miss everybody else. So I had the idea. I was thinking, how fun would it be to show up in some sort of a platform, I've now chose Instagram, and at the time was considering a few different avenues, and be able to really show people what we're doing to kind of give them that boutique feel I wanted people to feel like they were coming into a storefront and really getting a one on one experience. But have it open to everybody. So that was around the time that we started. And then of course, none of us would have known how things changed. You know, in 2020, everything in person was shut down anyways. And so we really set it up just as a fun way to connect with everybody to show them the jewelry, answer questions. And now we do it weekly. So okay, so

tell us about your weekly lives. What's the purpose of them? How are you showing up? Like, how do they perform? Like, I want to hear all about this.

So we do we just started this the end of 2022. And beginning of this year, doing weekly on Wednesdays, what's new Wednesday. So the idea of it is to be able to just have a time to show up and be present with our clients. I feel like when doing things online. Over the years, I've really been trying to implement a way to have that more, like I said, boutique experience, and that client connection. So we do always have a very small handful of jewelry items that we show to our clients. Today we're showing C last marbles. And I like to use that time to really highlight very different things that we do. So of course, with seaglass, everything is one of a kind. No two pieces are alike, which makes it really fun and unique. But with these shorter lives on Wednesday, we do them for about an hour, I wanted to like hone it in and show very, very specific special pieces that are even different even for seaglass. So that's the idea behind it. And then of course, sometimes even if we don't have a lot of items that we've made new that week, I'll still pop on and say hi to everybody answer questions. So we definitely use it as a time to connect and give clients an opportunity to get to us if they have questions. Not only about the jewelry, but about, you know, customer service or about shipping anything really we just like to show up for them.

How many people usually show up to one of your lives.

So if it's an afternoon live, I think we usually hover around like 40 people that kind of will stay on if it's a nighttime Live, which we do bi monthly. We've gotten up to around like 350 people or so. Wow.

That's huge. And you're selling on those lives, right?

Oh, absolutely. How does that work?

Because somebody told me I think you told me a couple of weeks ago like you sold you sell out of every piece that you show.

Yeah. For the most part, if it doesn't happen within that live event, then definitely when we save and repost the live, you know, people can still sort of shop at their convenience and items will sell out afterwards. So originally when we first started selling online, I'm not gonna lie, it was definitely a labor of love. I mean, when we started doing these lives, because you know, you're trying to keep track of everybody, everybody's comments, and then make sure that you verbally out loud let everybody know like you've got this piece and Got that feast and then create the invoice to send to them. Since then we've been using an online software that automatically tracks their comments and sends them automated invoices, which has been anonymous. All right? Yes, yes. We've been using the comments. I didn't know if I can mention that. So yeah, I

know a lot of people use common soap, it's super helpful tool. Yeah,

yes, it's awesome. I've been really enjoying that. So it basically works like a website, you want to load all your products and ahead of time, that way you can put everything together and what you're going to be showcasing. So it's a little bit more, you know, planning involved to make sure you have everything ready ahead of time. But I do think it's also easier for the client, they're not waiting on us to receive an invoice, they get it automatically, and they're able to pay and ask questions right through there. So yeah, who sets that up and organize it for you. So I have a team member Stata, who works in the field,

you want to come up, come up over here and say hi, because she's behind the scenes already

know, here she goes. So yes, see, her face is red. Now she likes to stay behind the scenes. But she's wonderful. She will pop on sometimes with the clients. And now that she gets to know them a little bit better throughout the years, but she's able to set up all of that for us, which is wonderful. And get all the products uploaded. So

yeah, she's like, you're, you're number two, which is awesome, are number one. Number two, my right hand parts are the number one your right hand person. So I highly recommend all of you who are beginning to grow and you start getting your business to like maybe multiple six figure is to get a number two, because it will be so helpful as you grow. And it's really helped you grow in your business to having that extra support. Right?

Huge. Oh my gosh, it's been huge. You know, it's funny, a lot of times when I'm talking with people that own businesses, they always say they want to duplicate themselves. But I think sometimes it's just the opposite. I mean, of course, everything would go, you know, smoother, you could have one of us at home and one of us working but to have somebody that's like thanks opposite you like my strengths and stay on strengths very much complement each other. So it's really nice to have somebody within your company that you can rely on that can not only enjoys different parts of the business than you do, but really excels at them. Because it's hard when you're creative to try to implement that structure. For myself. I know my mind just doesn't work like that. And that's really where, you know, Sam excels.

So that's the thing is like some people's, there are a lot of people who Zona genius is like your total weakness, like in jeopardy, right? I mean, I feel that so hard right now, we were talking before because like we're recording this on like a full moon, like day. And the energy of this Full Moon is all about organization. And it's highlighting everywhere. You're not organized in your business. Struggle. You need like the human organizer, which is amazing. So how do you get organized before one of your because you're doing this on like, you're doing this every single week, you're showing up on what's new Wednesday, every single week. And you're selling products they often sell through or almost sell through, and then they sell through by the end of the week, typically. And then you're doing nighttime lives as well, twice every other month or twice a month, I always forget what by the.

So it's every other month. Usually there are a couple of months that we'll do them back to back just depending on what we have going on. Because we do also do bi monthly. Well, we do four collections a year, which I can't remember, I also took your momentum program. And I can't remember if it was in momentum or Tmic. It might be both that they that you guys talk about that. But we do collections four times a year by monthly so every other month, nighttime lives and then we try to stay weekly with our what's new Wednesdays once in a while. We'll skip a Wednesday, but there's just a lot of organization we have mapped out not only what we're you know, making, but when we're selling and the products we want to offer. We have it mapped out for an entire year. So from now they're next February.

So you already know what you're gonna sell next week on. Wow, yes, they're planning your planning skills are like crazy. That's amazing. They've evolved. It's incredible. So congratulations to you on that. That's just like incredible. Thank you. There's a follow up thing that I wanted to ask about that. But if it's meant to be happen, it will come out. So one of the things like you joined GYC a couple of years ago, one of the things that I think in a program like that you make an investment now, that ends up having like a long term effect on your growth. Can you tell me a little bit about how your business has grown in the last couple of years since taking to yc?

Yes, so I think definitely taking the program changed my mindset. I am a doer. So I'm used to doing things myself, which was fine when it was just me inside of the business. But I really had to start looking at how to become a better leader, and how to shift my mindset to looking at I mean, I am a big picture thinker, but pulling myself out of the business and working on it, which is something that you talk about a lot in all of your programs. And it takes a really, really big mindset shift in my opinion, because, for me, it sort of goes organically against the grain of what I naturally do. So that's been my biggest challenge. But it's definitely something that every single step of everything inside TYT, and also in momentum, which anybody that's thinking about doing GYC, if you like it, I would strongly suggest that you follow up with doing momentum afterwards, I feel like it's a good next step. And that was sort of, you know, how I took things. And it made me focus on okay, this is what's going to be helpful, not only for me, but for my clients like what they're going to need out of the business, and then where my time is best spent. Because really, as things grow, I can't do everything, and you just start burning yourself out. Yeah. So I like

that you learned how to delegate, which I think is a huge, huge, huge thing for people because your business was has been growing so quickly. So coming back to to YC, what are some of the specific results you had after taking the program.

So after I did the T YC program, I was like laser focused on knowing that I needed to be emailing more, which specifically got us, you know, a much better turnout for our Instagram lives, we started using our email marketing, which is something that you were teaching a lot of inside the TYT program, to not only fill our clients in and make them feel like they're inside of the studio with us and giving them behind the scenes of what we're working on. But also to inform them of where they could find us. So a lot of our clients out there, they're so cute, like many people weren't really comfortable with Instagram hadn't been on there. So we were able to convert people and show them, you know how to join how to create an account so that they could watch our, our live events. So we were able to specifically use that to drive you know, people to our events. And that way we can talk with them, we can connect with them. Because really that one on one connection was our main focus for the past couple of years is really being able to engage with our clients and get to know them better. So

I love that that's so great. How's your business and life changed since taking at YC.

So, I mean, I think everybody's life has been different these last couple of years, we've definitely expanded a lot, not only within the company, but I think anytime that you're you have like a personal company, it's almost like so much personal growth at the same time. So we've expanded into a 2200 square foot, huge open studio downtown. So it's beautiful. I feel so grateful to have the space, I love being here, we've expanded our team, which was very nerve wracking to me in the beginning, because I didn't really know at the time, I was just so used to it being just me. And so I've definitely gotten over that we we have a team of people in the studio. And we also have some virtual assistants that work with us as well, which has been really nice. And I have for sure been able to set up healthier boundaries, which I think is so important for entrepreneurs and makers to have the healthy boundary which believe me, it's not all figured out, it is still a work in progress for sure. But much better than when I started of setting up like that work time versus home time and making sure to put the computer down and things like that. And it's really taught me sort of just how to hone my mindset and to be more strategic with my time and make sure I'm focusing on what needs to be done and not getting lost in that day to day. So. So my my life, and just my surroundings have changed a lot since taking the program.

I love that that's so great. Would you recommend it to others? And if so, why?

Absolutely. I think especially I don't even think you necessarily have to be a jewelry designer, I think pretty much if you're a maker, you have an online business in general, a lot of people can get really great value out of the program. It's just like I said before, it just kind of helps you become laser focused as to this is what you need to do. This is what you need to work on. I would suggest to go in very open minded because even if it's something you've heard before, it's like you might know, you know, conceptually like, oh, I should be doing this, but it's are you doing that? And if you are, are you doing it to the extent that you should be because I think we're all guilty of this in some capacity. And we all have very, you know, hopes and expectations. But it's you have to get past that comfort level. It's like you need to be emailing more than you should be. And you need to be making sure you know certain things on the back end with like your numbers and how much jewelry you're producing and inventory and all of that lines up. So I think it just helps you get laser focused. So if you're somebody that wants to either out Have more structure into your company, or make sure that you're learning sort of the ins and the outs of where you should be spending your time. Thank you know, it's a great program for all makers to jump in on.

I love that. You said emailing more than you should be. I think you met emailing more than you are comfortable with comfortable with. Yeah, yeah, that's such a great. I love that. That's one thing. I feel like a lot of people get out of the T yc. They're like when I started emailing more, my sales grew significantly, which absolutely, yeah. Thank you so much for being here. Where can people find you and where can they watch your live selling events?

So we are at Lita seaglass jewelry, so our website and Lita seaglass jewelry on Instagram. So Instagram is definitely our preferred platform. That's where we do all of our lives. And thank you so much for having me here today. This is awesome. I appreciate it.

Oh, thank you so much, girl. I'm so grateful for you. I just want to thank you so much for listening to the show today. If you'd like some help with your online sales, or transitioning those in person sales to online customers, head on over to flourish, thrive academy.com forward slash supercharge and let's get you started right away. And if you haven't done so yet, just pick up your phone right now and give this podcast a rating and review. Wherever you're listening to the podcast. It really helps us get in front of more listeners just like you. Thanks so much for listening to the show today. This is Tracy Matthews, signing off. Until next time,