Gift biz unwrapped episode 165. Let's not try and worry about making a bigger slice of the pie. Let's just make the pie bigger. And then everybody gets more Attention. Gifters bakers, crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun. Whether you have an established business or looking to start one. Now you are in the right place. This is gift to biz unwrapped, helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Join us for an episode, packed full of invaluable guidance, resources, and the support you need to grow. Your gift biz here is your host gift biz gal Sue moon Heights. Today, I am thrilled to Introduce you to Gwen Bordner. When is a speaker trainer and consultant focused on the craft enthusiast niche, her passion is working with small business owners, helping them reach their individual success goals. She calls it the light bulb moment.
That moment, when everything clicks into place, that moment, when an obstacle is overcome that moment, when a goal is met or a long sought after answer is realized, Gwen has taught craft and business classes throughout the country for over 15 years. She is the author of entree to entre lock and instructor for Craftsy and the past interim executive director of the national needle arts association, being a passionate believer in abundance.
Gwen knows that when we work together to improve our industry, our individual businesses improve as well. I know we are going to get so much out of this conversation Quinn. Thank you. I really appreciate your being here today. I am so pleased to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me to be on the show. I really appreciate it. Well, you are the perfect person to be talking about some of this because you're combining business with the craft enthusiast. So like I said, I'm super excited.
I think we're going to get so, so much out of it, but before we start, I like to do something a little bit less traditional. And have you describe yourself in the way of a motivational candle? So if you were to create a candle that would describe you perfectly, what color and what would be a quote that would be on your candle? I have to confess the color I had a problem with. I was thinking about it and I thought, Oh, what color, what color? Because my two favorite colors are purple and green.
And so maybe it would be purple and green swirled, but it may just be purple because I do think of purple as kind of a deep, passionate kind of color. And on it, it would say a high tide raises all boats because that is a real basic foundation of my philosophy. I'm a big, big believer in do what will help other people become strong and it will help your business and your own personal world becomes strong as well.
My general business philosophy is a philosophy of abundance and it's not a of competition. Let's not try and worry about making a bigger slice of the pie. Let's just make the pie bigger. And then everybody gets more Right. And naturally, when you have that kind of a mindset, you end up growing almost as a sideline because you're helping others. And so you're attracting more people because you're making them successful and it just continues to build upon itself.
Exactly. And it's so much easier quite honestly, for everyone to work together, to bake the pie bigger than to try and steal someone else's part of their pie really. And in the end, it's just so much more beneficial for everyone involved, Agreed, and the feeling and the Carmen, all of that is way better Too. Very much. So, hi. Well, Tell us a little bit about your backstory. How did you get to where you are today?
Well, my way, Way, way back story was while I was in college, I reconnected with knitting and I had learned in it when I was very little, but I really hadn't done it very much. And I reconnected in college. And for a short period of time, worked at a yarn shop and deepen the back of my mind. I thought, Hmm, someday I maybe should do some yarn business, but I was in college to get a degree in computer
science. And I knew that my dad would lose his poor mind if I stopped doing computer science after paying for an expensive degree. Right. And did knitting of all things. So I went ahead and went through what I would call kind of a traditional career. I did some programming, which led to computer business consulting. I worked for Ernst and young, which is one of the biggest accounting firms in the world, in their small business department doing consulting for them. I became a project manager.
Ultimately I ran the it department for a phone company and during the.com downturn, which was back in early 2000, our IPO was supposed to happen two days after the crash. Oh, no. Right, exactly. So that totally changed what was happening with the business and for lots and lots of reasons that were some good, some not so good, but for lots of reasons, it made sense for me to lay myself off as we had to lay off a whole lot of our workforce because of the funding issue that went along with that.
And so I had a year of severance as part of that. And that gave me time to kind of think about what I wanted to do. And I told my husband, I said, okay, I am going to go to all of the knitting shows that I want to go to during this time. And he's like, great, have a great time. See ya. The money's still coming in. So it's all right. Exactly. Yeah. He was totally supportive. And part way through that time, I realized, I think this is the time I want to start my knitting business.
And so in late 2000, I started what at the time was called knit ability. I've since gone through a couple other business names, but the business wasn't an ability. And I had a business plan that didn't actually come to fruition. It went through several transitions. And I think that's an important thing to note is people get worried about finding the perfect business to start in and we can be when we're entrepreneurs.
And so my business transformed several times over probably the first three to four, maybe five years. And ultimately what I landed on that made me really happy was being a knitting instructor. And so for the last, probably 10 years, when people would say, what do you do? I would say I'm a professional knitting instructor, which either gets very strange looks or lots of interesting conversations, sometimes both. I'm sure.
Let me stop you here because I think this would be interesting for our listeners to hear too, the transitions that you were making were based on What they were based on finding what was working for me, the aspects that I really enjoyed and just experimenting a little bit, trying something out and saying, huh, that doesn't seem to be working. Or, Oh, I like that. My real transition was I had started out selling product. I was designing patterns and selling kits for those patterns.
So I was primarily selling product, but over time as a vendor at a couple of these big events that also have lots of classes, the event organizer said, well, we hear you teach classes. And it's like, Oh yeah, I teach classes. And they said, well, why haven't you applied? And it's like, because nobody knows my name. I'm a, nobody I'm not famous. And they said that doesn't necessarily matter. Why don't you apply? And so I did.
What I really discovered later was the reason I was asked to apply was I was easy to work with. And they knew if I was easy to work with as a vendor, I'd be easy to work with as an instructor. And once I was, I'll say, quote, unquote, allowed to instruct and really was invited to instruct, I really realized that that's what I loved doing. It made me so happy and the other was okay, but it just felt more like a slog. So it was situational in some ways.
And then also when you started doing it, you saw that, that was really what lit you up the teaching end. Exactly. Okay. And so in part of it was being open, being open to other possibilities, such a good point and saying, Hey, we'll give this a try because it might not have worked. It totally could have not worked for me. And that would have been okay too.
Right. That's still a learning experience, but this whole point, I love that you brought it up in terms of, you're not necessarily going to land the best thing for you right out of the gate. It might've been a situation where you weren't seeing a lot of response to your products, but you were seeing, or your creations, I should say because you're knitting, but there was so much going on on the teaching side could be either or, or it could be a combination of what the market response is to you.
And then also what you like to do for your Exactly. And what really happened for me is I realized when I focused on instruction, I was so much more engaged that it actually reflected everything into my business accordingly. And so my business became more successful almost immediately because I was so much more engaged. I hadn't realized it until it happened, but there was a very direct correlation, but I wouldn't have seen it if I hadn't taken the chance. Right.
That's a really interesting point as well. Okay. So I didn't mean to sideswipe your story. No, that's okay. I just wanted to get a little bit more detail there. So carry on. So I've been a professional netting instructor and was just sharing that I've just come back from teaching at an knitting event. I still do that, but about three years ago, I started getting a little restless for lack of a better word and realized I wanted to do different things than what I had.
And so I decided I would combine my historical experience in the professional business world with my current experience in the crafting industry. And so that was when I actually started dot com as a consulting business for the craft enthusiast niche.
And so I still do teach, but my primary focus during the non-teaching events kind of time is consulting with businesses that are in any of the crafting niches, because what I've realized over time and working with a lot of folks is that quite honestly, we're more the same than we are different. The fundamental business issues that a paper crafter has as compared to a yarn person, as opposed to a fabric person are really the same.
The fine details are a little bit different, but the broader ideas and concepts and issues that we're dealing with are really all the same. Would you say that in the crafting making industry overall, the challenges are different though from other types of industries? Yes. And that's one of the reasons that I pick this industry is because I've spent so much time in it. I really understand where it's the same and where it's different.
And one of the biggest places that it's different is that people believe that it's significantly different and it's not significantly different. It's only somewhat different that being able to talk in the language to the CEO or to the owner of the crafting business, in a language that they really understand and know that I've been there makes a huge difference in their ability to accept the advice and actually process the advice and make it
happen. Sure. Because you can relate because you've had a business in the industry already, too. Exactly. Yeah. So it brings your credibility way up. Exactly. I love the fact that you combined your corporate expertise then with your crafting.
And I would suggest to all of our listeners here too, to think through, maybe you're currently in a nine to five job, but what skills do you have there that you might be able to take elsewhere as you progress or as you start building something on the side that might turn into a full-time business around your hobby or your craft, this is a perfect example that Gwen's talking about and it makes her different,
right? Because she has those two pieces of now that she can merge together to support the industry. So something to think about for everybody, what other types of challenges do you encounter often within our
industry? The biggest challenge that I see is, and this is going to sound kind of negative and I don't mean it to be, but the biggest challenge is most people get into their crafting industry in the craft enthusiast niche, because they're really passionate about the craft, but they don't always bring good business experience.
And often they can get fairly successful to a point just on that passion, just on that drive for whatever aspect they have within the craft industry, but to be successful long-term you really have to treat it like a business.
Yeah. I was just going to say, I totally agree with you on that because the thing is with makers and crafters and all they know everything about production of their product, the equipment that you need to use and the techniques, and they've invested in classes, Gwen, to learn how to do everything. So they are professionals and experts at creating their product, the exact yarns to use, to create a certain result, et cetera.
Exactly. But they don't need to kick themselves or beat themselves up for not knowing business they've never needed to before.
It's just, when you make that flip from it being a hobby into monetizing into a business that this whole thing about having some business skills comes up Well, and the part that's even more surprising for most people is you can run your business with minimal business skills for often a year or two, because most of what you're focusing on is marketing and marketing is often a lot about the passion and the excitement of what your product is that you're selling.
Whether the product you're selling is you or the product you're selling is your ideas, or you're actually selling a physical product. But once you want to try and scale that grow, that make that into an income. That's a really respectable, ongoing, steady income. That's when you really need business skills.
And many times, like we said, people don't come in with business skills, but that's where someone like me can come in and help and help you figure out where are the places that you can learn, where the places that you hire others, what makes sense for you to still do versus what makes sense for you to outsource all of those pieces and parts of the equation. So when you, You start looking at a business, what do you do? What are your first steps? When you come in, let's say, I hired you.
I'm a jewelry maker. Okay. And I've started my business. I've built it up to a certain point. It's just, it's not making me enough money where I could quit my full-time job. And I really would like it to, because I want to be home with the kids. So I want to work out of my house. There's whatever it is, whatever the scenario is, how would you work with somebody like this? So one of the first things that I talk about is what really are your goals and objectives?
And people say, Oh, I want to make a lot of money. Okay. That's not actually a goal we need to down to specifics. And so the first thing I spend some time on is really looking at what are the specifics and are they realistic or are they not realistic? Well, I want to make a hundred thousand dollars. Well, how much have you made so far? I've made $10,000 last year. Okay. Growing 10 times in a year is probably not realistic. Let's look at that. Let's see what we can achieve.
So I'm kind of a Debbie downer for a lot of people in people really respect that because I don't just try to make it all fun. And it's going to be wonderful because that's really frustrating when it's not, but by the same token, then I'll look and say, okay, where are we have we had success? Where do we leverage that success? Where do we struggle? Where do we not struggle? So it ends up being an ongoing conversation, looking at where are your strengths? How do we leverage those?
Where are your weaknesses? What do we need to do to supplement those or build up around those? And where are we trying to get to? Because not everybody wants a million dollar business. I mean, you kind of say you do, but there's a lot of sacrifices that also come with a million dollar business. No one necessarily wants to live that life. If they really understand what that means. Exactly. It looks great from the outside. Everybody would love a million dollars just coming in.
But all the things that go around having a million dollar business is different. So true. I kind of equate that also to people who want to have a shop on main street, because it sounds so nice, like at a dinner party. Oh yeah. My shop's on central Avenue, whatever it is. But the reality is someone's got to be in that shop, call it 10 to six, six days a week. And then you have to have employees. If it's not going to be you there all the time, what happens if someone gets sick?
Like the reality is so different than just the image that people have in their head about something such as a brick and mortar. Exactly. One of my favorites is when someone's comes up to me and says, I'd love to own a yarn shop. I mean, I get to knit all the time and it's like, if you want to never knit again, own a yarn shop. Yeah. Because you don't actually have time to do that.
That completely changes your relationship with your hobby, which I think is a really important thing for people to realize you may still love what was your hobby, but it is no longer your hobby. You will have a different relationship with it. It doesn't mean you'll hate it, but it doesn't mean that it's going to be the same. It's going to have a different relationship. I love that quote, it's turned into a quote.
Did you know that Gwen changes your relationship with your hobby and it couldn't be more true? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you've gone through it as well, right? Oh yeah. All right. So you go in and you define what the goals and objectives are, true goals and objectives for your customer. And then you figure out where they've been successful, where they've kind of not met what their expectations are, where their wishes are, all of that, then what happens.
And so then we start making a plan and we look at what is the most critical next step. And because I've worked with so many businesses across so many industries, I'm able to look and say, you may think it's this, but quite honestly, it's that. And we're going to work on this particular aspect first and it varies for every business.
So there's not necessarily an absolute answer that we're always going to do this one thing first, other than having the conversation of where are you, where are you today getting that kind of data and where do you want to go? Those are the only things that I can guarantee I do the first time. Once we've got that information, then making the decision together with my person that I'm working with with my entrepreneur. It looks very different with each different company that I work
with. I have several people that technically from the outside look exactly the same, but what I'm doing with each of them is very, very different because of their personality, their strengths, the details within their business, all of those things Have clients throughout the whole country. I do. Would you say, I'm not setting you up. I'm just very curious, similar industry in different parts of the country because they live in a different place.
Their audience might be different that their business needs to look different. In some cases like I work with people throughout the entire supply chain. So I actually work with manufacturers and distributors and wholesalers and retailers and designers and teachers. So all of those have different requirements.
But for example, thinking of the retailer business, because that's a business, most of us can kind of imagine, even if it hasn't been our business, depending on where your shop is, like your example of being on main street, main street could be a great shop, but do you have enough traffic on main street? And is your traffic mostly local traffic or is your traffic mostly tourist traffic, right? Depending on what your main street happens to be.
And so that changes the approach based on what kind of traffic you're having as just one example. And so even though they may be very, very similar businesses, just knowing who their customer is, whether they're mostly local or they're mostly transient because they're tourists completely changes the answer, too many questions. Got it.
I think so often that people will see another person in their niche being successful, maybe because they've interacted with them in a Facebook group, or they've just been scoping out competitors, websites online and learning about people. And then they try to mimic exactly what that other person is doing and then are disappointed if they don't get the results that, that other person's getting. Absolutely. And the challenge with any of this.
And we've gotten so deep into what I call compare itis, because it's so easy to compare ourselves because now we have Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and all of those things. First, the things that are going on social media, people have any inkling at all is just their very best. It's not, what's really happening. It's not a hundred percent of the story, but the other side is you don't know where they are in their story.
Are they actually a fairly new business or are they in fact, the business that's been around for 10 or 12 or 15 years. And even if they've only are a fairly new business, is this their first business, their second business, their fifth business, all of those play into the factor. And so many times we're comparing our first or second chapter in our business story to someone else's chapter 20. And that's not a really good comparison.
And so we really need to focus on our own journey because our journey is going to be different. And if it's about us, we're going to be really much more successful than if we're trying to match someone else's journey, because there's no telling all of the backstory that goes with their journey,
Right? Because I think as a listener who might be somewhere along the way, they're thinking, Oh, I just don't have what it takes then, because I'm not able to be doing what someone else is doing without the understanding that there's a lot more experience that that other person has, or the situation is totally different.
So we get into these mind games with ourselves and then that's when people derail and just decide, they're not doing it anymore, which is so sad because dreams get crushed that way. Exactly. And the thing that you have, that's unique, maybe the thing that the industry needs and no one's going to match you. And that's the part that's really powerful. Right? And we miss that sometimes. And I'll use myself as an example.
There's not very many people actually doing consulting in this niche, but that doesn't mean it doesn't need it. It doesn't mean that that's not going to work. And so that's one of those kinds of examples, but I have a special combination. And if I didn't use it well, that would be a loss. Completely agree with you there. I was scoping out your website in preparation for our conversation, just looking at some other things. And one of the things that you mentioned there is accountability.
Yes. What are you seeing about accountability within our industry? So accountability is a huge thing because if you have not worked for yourself before you don't realize how accountable you are to other people, when you work for yourself, no one is making sure that you arrived at work on time. No one is making sure that you get certain things done. No one is checking up on you.
And very few people are actually as self-driven and motivated as they think they are, because they've done well in other environments and other businesses and people say, Oh, you're so driven and you get so much done and you do all of these things. And it's because there is some other outside influence that's helping push you along. Now, that's not to say that you aren't self-driven and you aren't motivated. And you aren't all those things, but for even myself.
So we're going to do a little true confession right now, even for myself. I know that it's a challenge. I need to have my own because although the world sees me as someone who's very motivated and very driven. I know that if I don't actually have to justify my week to somebody that it often isn't as productive as it could have been.
And so that's one of the powers of accountability is it allows you to make sure that you are accountable to somebody outside of yourself, because we are really good at making excuses for ourselves. No matter who you are. I know you're saying, Oh no, I would never. Yeah, no, we often do. And often we don't even see that we're doing it. And so just saying, these are the things that I'm going to get done this
week. And then having to say to somebody, gosh, I only got three of these four really critical things done helps you be aware of, Oh, maybe I wasn't doing quite all that I could do. Maybe I got too distracted or it might be, yeah, I really had some true emergencies come up that I needed to deal with. My accountability partner just emailed me before you.
And I got on this call and said, I'm going to have to go out of town for the week because we're going to have to put my grandmother in long-term care, probably an Alzheimer's facility. We need to look at this. It's becoming a big thing. Okay. That's a real emergency, but that's changing everything that's happening with her business because she is too and entrepreneur, but we often will let little things like, well, I really need to get the laundry done right now during your Workday.
Did she really? Right? And you know, when most of those things come up is when you're going to start doing something that you're uncomfortable with, or you don't like doing, and that's exactly what you need to do to move forward. Exactly. It is very easy for us to come up with valuable procrastination is, Oh my gosh, I do that. You know what? I've started doing. One of the things that I, it's just not my favorite thing to do. I do weekly emails to our listeners about the podcast.
And it comes at like the very end of all the other things. I mean, there's so many different steps for the podcast and I've now looked at the show so many times I've reviewed the final edit of the show, Instagram posts, like all this stuff. It's just that last little thing. And I'm so tired by the end. Wording is hard for me. It doesn't take long if I just sit down and do it, but that's a point almost every single time.
I'm like, I think I need some popcorn or maybe go to the bathroom or I got to go see how my assistants do it, whatever it is. But I know that that's a weak point for myself. So I stopped myself and I'm like, Sue, you can do that. After this email is written exactly the emails only like the template email four or five sentences. It's just a reminder to just a trigger for people to understand and to decide if they need to watch this episode exactly right then.
But it's just, I want fun words and good words and people to be interested in. It's always a challenge to me. Perfect example, because people often think that that's only when it's big things. It doesn't have to be a big thing. It can be a tiny thing. Like you said, this email is not this big giant three hour project. It's 10 minute project, but we can still do that. And if we do it enough, we realize that we've missed some things that we really should
do. And for many of us being accountable to ourselves is not enough. So long as we're accountable to somebody else, we get it done. And it's probably one of the reasons you get your email done is you're accountable to your listeners. There you go. Well, yeah, cause I know it has to go out exactly. They're going to, to see it's missing. If it's not because people respond to me, et cetera, et cetera.
Exactly. Gwen has such a wealth of information and we are going to hear more from her right after a word from our sponsor. This podcast is made possible. Thanks to the support at the ribbon print company, create custom ribbons right in your store or craft studio in seconds, visit the ribbon print company.com for more information. So where do we find accountability partners? How do you do that? So accountable, The partners are both easy and challenging at the same time.
And accountability partner can easily be someone else in the industry that you've met, that you've made a relationship with. And to say, I want to be your accountability partner. This is something that I want to do. And that we're going to check in. And part of it is that you actually set a time every week to check in and to go over the list of things that you wanted to do the previous week. How did you do, what are the things you're going to do this upcoming week?
And for the things that didn't go well to do some debriefing, to figure out what happened, what didn't go well. So you're also business growth, accountability, people too. Exactly. Now some folks don't necessarily do that, but I really feel like if you're going to invest the time, you might as well find someone that will do that with you. And so people say, Oh, so you have to find someone that has more experience. No, because you're going to do the same thing for them.
And so finding someone that's at similar levels back to compare itis, right? We talked about that earlier. If you've got someone who's way more experienced than you, you always feel like you're inadequate and that's not healthy. Okay. So look for someone who's at a similar level, they don't have to be at the exact same level, but a similar level. And it doesn't necessarily have to be in your exact same
business. My accountability partner does business consulting, but she does it for female online businesses who offer online courses and membership sites. So she has a different demographic than I have. And so that's okay. And she's doing a little bit different type of work than what I'm doing. That's okay too. But we're at a similar level of business experience and business
understanding. And so sometimes I help her and sometimes she helps me and sometimes we just give the list and we call it good. It goes back and forth. But this is also the challenge because not everybody that you think is going to be a good accountability partner is going to be a good accountability partner because, Oh, I'm sorry I had something come up. Oh, I can't do it this time. That's not good.
You want to be able to really commit to one another on an ongoing basis and rarely miss, because it really does make a difference to be consistent. Right? You have to prioritize that your accountability partner call is top of the list for whenever it's scheduled with random reasons. Why, of course it might not happen. Most cases looking to reschedule when those kinds of things happen. And so that becomes a big deal, but sometimes you can't find that. And if you can't, you can pay for that.
That's the type of a service that people will pay for where they actually work with a business consultant and part of what they do is hold them accountable. So do you do that? Is that how you work as well? That's part of what I offer when I'm working with any of my clients, I actually send out a weekly accountability email. That's one of my pieces is they get an email that comes from me that says it usually has a little bit of another blurb in it.
That basically it says, what did you do last week? What are you going to do this week? And that's it, that's all it's really designed for because I check it. I look at it. I don't respond to every single solitary time, but I do follow up. And if people have done well, I try to congratulate them. If they're struggling and I see them struggling consistently, then that becomes a topic that we discuss and it guides our conversation going forward. Yeah. I think accountability is a big deal.
I'm pretty good at holding myself accountable and following through. But I have found having other people to be accountable to at this point, for me, it's a high level. Mastermind makes me do those things. I might've gotten to it, but I might not get to it as fast as I really should be. I think the other thing for our listeners is if you're working at home, it can be kind of lonely.
So being able to have somebody in the same spot where you can talk, you don't just feel like you're on this deserted Island all by yourself, trying to build your business Exactly. With my accountability partner, the accountability piece of it doesn't take very long, but we usually end up chatting for often about an hour total because either we're dealing with issues or it's just kind of talking about business in general, because sometimes you just need to vent and get it out.
Right. And that allows that to happen as well. And as you said, it can be very, very lonely and it helps get you remembering that there is a bigger world out there.
So I'm thinking accountability partners, other ideas would be if you're in Facebook groups and have relationships with certain people, talk with them on the side about possibly being accountability partners, perhaps in your local networking events, whether it's a chamber or BNI or some other group, you might be able to find somebody there. And as Gwen is saying, you might not it on the first one. And if it's not working, that's all right. Try somebody else.
Exactly. And don't be afraid to kind of do multiple things. I have a mastermind group, but we only meet once a month and that's not quite accountable enough for me. So they do hold me accountable, but it's not quite what I was looking for in the big scheme of things. I had another group of friends and there was actually a group like five or six of us that kind of do accountability together in a round Robin. So sort of mastermind, but more accountability.
But my discovery was my business level was higher than their business level. And I felt like I was always giving really great advice, but I wasn't ever getting any back. And so that was okay. It doesn't mean that I'm not friends with them that I don't like them because I absolutely do. But it wasn't where a good investment of my time. My current accountability partner, I actually found as someone who took the same training that I was taking. And so we were fellow students together.
That's how we found one another and we found the bond and it was great. So, and events like where you and I met Sue at creative nation trade show events, there's all sorts of places that you might find an accountability partner. So don't limit yourself too much into any one area because you never know where they might be So true.
And I think just being open and just thinking through the idea and the option of having an accountability partner, because you know how you meet people and you just really click right away. Exactly. That's the type of relationship you want to be having even to start talking about getting into some type of an accountability situation. Exactly. And that's what happened with my accountability partner. We actually, haven't known each other very long, but it's made a huge difference.
And it was that kind of a thing. I wasn't sure. I felt a little strange. I reached out to her in an email and she's like, Oh my gosh, I'm so excited that you reached out. So that's the other thing I would say is make the first move because a lot of times people are afraid to make the first move, but when I did it totally paid off, but I'm not sure she would have made the first move. What I love about this Gwen, everybody can do this.
Absolutely. Every single person who's listening can find themselves an accountability partner. And I would say 95% of the time, your business is going to be impacted positively by doing so. So love, love this part of the conversation. I want to touch on another thing that is an area of expertise for you, and that is productivity. Any top line thoughts, ideas on how to be productive.
Maybe you'd have some tools you want to share with us, or what do you seen are things that could help our listeners move on in productivity? There are so many tools out there. And one of the things that I focus on is don't keep taking more and more and more training to increase your productivity and not actually get productive. Because a lot of times the least productive thing we do is try to learn more.
And if we aren't actually applying what we're learning, then it isn't actually valuable for us. It's just a waste of time. My own personal mentor. That's one of his things is learning in and of itself has zero value. Applying, learning has value. So true. And we get stuck in that. And we kind of tease ourselves because you're taking a class or you're doing something that's really important for your business, right? And then you take all your notes or you come home from that conference.
And then if you don't implement anything, even one or two things, you're still at the same spot you were before you left. And now you've invested all this time. Exactly. I feel so strongly about it. It's actually my newsletter format. What I call the weekly course of action. And the weekly course of action is one little productivity tip each week. And for some folks they'll pick one and they'll say this was fabulous. And the next one. Yeah, not so much, but that's okay.
And I totally understand that and expect that not every productivity tip is going to work for every person and being aware that you don't have to make everything work for you is really the key. Anytime that you can improve your productivity. Even by just a few minutes, a day, that adds up over time, a few minutes, a day, added up over a week. All of a sudden becomes an hour and an hour over week. All of a sudden becomes many days.
And so each of these things start adding up as we add them together, one after the other, we often think, Oh, it's not that big of a deal. Well, yeah, those five or 10 minutes really start making a difference. So the little things that we can do to be productive, my own personal favorite one is most people are spending way too much time in their email. Oh yes. And often it's because they don't manage their email.
Well, it's an area that we think intuitively we know how to deal with, but there is no training for it. And we get so much more email than we ever did. Physical mail because of costs. And so many reasons why that's the case. And so most people don't actually handle their email well and because they're not handling it well, they're wasting a lot of time. If you have more than a screen, full of emails in your inbox, you're not handling your email. Well, So what to tip, how do we handle our email?
So know that there's only three things to do with email thing. One is read it and delete it. And delete is not a folder. It's not a place that you're holding stuff. Oh boy. Okay. You're one of those, huh? Yes. Delete is not a folder for holding things. It means I'm done with it. And sometimes stuff that comes in, we just need to see it and we're done with it. Get rid of it. The second thing that we can do with email is we can respond to it. Now. Sometimes the response is going to take awhile.
And in that case, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the quick response, you know, right off the top, your head, you can type it up and send it off and now it's done. Okay. So those are the two fast things. The third thing which takes a little bit longer is file it, which means set up a set of folders underneath your inbox. That allows you to be able to find things quickly. Now, how do you file? It will vary greatly depending on who you are and what you're trying to do.
There's quite a few factors in it, but the upper-level important piece is keep it alphabetical. Don't try to do anything super fancy with it. Alphabetical is a thing that all of us know, because we learned that. I don't even know when we learn that we learn that what first grade kindergarten. I mean, we learned that from way back when. And so it's a way that we think logically. And so if we want to keep it, file it because these days we almost have unlimited amount of
storage. So don't feel like you have to delete it, but maybe I should keep it. No, just keep it, keep it, file it, file it in a place that you're going to find it. And if you've got something that's going to take longer, either set up a separate folder that says detailed response, for example, so that you actually put it in there and say, I need to respond to this, but it's detailed response. So it's going to take longer.
Or that's part of your goal at the end of each day is to go through all of your detailed responses and get those done as well. And so if you're doing that, you can actually keep your inbox down really, really small. Like right now I have more than a full page of inbox because I was traveling for the last four days and I barely try to manage my email.
I have an out of office email, but when we get off our call, that'll be one of the first things that I'm working on is I will get my email back down to less than a full score. There you go. Well, I get a reprieve here because that third point is exactly what I do. So I'm good. I'm good. And I think I right now only have like 35 emails sitting on my screen. And part of that is a testing of an email programs. Yay. I feel much better now about that.
That's not bad, but there's so many people I talk to. If I say, how many emails do you have in your inbox? And it's in the thousands, it's crazy. You don't know what's in there and you're spending ridiculous amount of time trying to find things when you do you think, Oh no, I can find it in just a few minutes. I can find something in less than 30 seconds and it's stressful. Oh yeah, I have it. And all that up there.
When you look at, for your email in your email box and seeing more being added on top and top by the hour is crazy. How often do you go into your email box during the day? I am one actually keeps it up and I will pop in many times during the day, but I also am pretty good at managing my email inbox. So it doesn't become overwhelming. I am an advocate of go in once in the morning, maybe once in the middle of the day.
And once at the end of the day, like I said, it's not what I do, but it also has to do with my business because a lot of times my clients are trying to contact me to make adjustments, to appointments and things. And I don't want to miss that.
Right. So when I would mimic all that, you've just said, I would mimic all that you just said for Facebook, because that's another place where people can just, when we're talking about the timing going in dedicating a certain amount of time and that's it and get out and get on with your business. Yeah. That's a huge one. Facebook only comes up. I only turn on Facebook once a day. There you go. And that's it. All right.
So what would you say to somebody who we've kind of piqued their interest here? That all right, I get it. My business is different from this other person I was looking at who totally intimidates me because they seem so successful, but maybe they were more like me when they were just getting started. So now I'm curious now maybe I want to get started. What advice would you have for that person?
So the first thing that I always focus on for someone just starting out is what is your goal with the business? I'm very much about what are you actually trying to achieve? Some people are trying to achieve just a little extra income with their business. Other people are trying to replace a significant income with their business. And so the reality of those are very, very different sets of goals. It's not one is right and one is wrong, but knowing what you're actually trying to achieve.
And then from that being very realistic about the two most important elements in any business, which is time and money, how much time can you invest and how much money can you invest? And just because you've got a lot of time, you may be creating a business that needs money. And so that's not going to be a great business. If you're trying to produce a brand new product that's never existed before.
It's probably going to take a lot of money in less time because you've got to get prototypes and all sorts of things that go along with that, the initial run will have a minimum run quantity, which is going to have a dollar value associated with that. So understanding what your resources are in the big categories of time and money, and then make a plan based on that, or make a decision based on that. When I, my initial initial business, I really hadn't thought about that as much as I should
have. I really had time didn't have as much money and my initial business plan, which never even came close to being in fruition required more money than time. And so if I really would've looked at that, I would have said, Oh yeah, that's not ever going to work. It didn't mean that I couldn't do a business, but I'd have to change what the big goal was. And that can be okay. So being clear about what are you trying to achieve and what resources can you bring to it?
To me are the first two things that you want to start with. All right. Perfect. Okay. You have shared with us so much valuable information here that now I want to turn it back to you, Gwen. I'd like to challenge you to dare to dream. So I want to present you with a virtual gift. It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future. So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable Heights that you would wish to obtain. Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
What is inside your box? The thing that I really want to be able to do is make significant impact across multiple, multiple, multiple businesses, hundreds, and thousands of businesses where people who thought they couldn't do it, do it, that they achieved success, whatever their definition of success is. And that in the process, they make their industry stronger back to the candle.
At the beginning of the abundance that they're actually raising the tide and that they're bringing value to their whole industry. And by being able to use my skills to help them create their business as a business and not just a hobby and not just a passion, that would be my gift. Beautiful. All right. And you're well, on your way, I think with what we've been talking about here and what you've got established, you are working your way down that path, for sure.
Thank you, Gwen. How can our listeners get in touch with you? And most specifically, I'm very intrigued about your newsletter with the weekly tips. My website is Gwen bordner.com. So very simple, but if you want to sign up for the weekly course of action, it's Gwen bordner.com/weekly-course, dash of dash action. And there's a signup page to put in your email. And once you do that, they come on Monday mornings and these days we're doing them in multiple formats. I actually have a short video.
The email has a transcribed version of it, and it also has an audio link. So if you don't want to watch the video, but you want to listen, you can, if you just want to read it, you can do that Well. Perfect. So you look for that email and then you listen to the podcast and those could be your first two things that you do on Monday mornings. So how about that?
Exactly wonderful and give busy listeners, the show notes page will have all of the links to all of Gwen's information, social media sites, website. I'll also include for the newsletter Gwen. So that's sitting in there for everybody as well. Perfect. Oh my gosh. I knew that this was going to be full of really, really valuable information. And you met the challenge, Glen. It was. Yay. Perfect. Absolutely. Perfect. Thank you so much for taking the time today and for sharing all your wisdom.
Oh, Sue, thank you so much for having me on the show. I knew when we met at creative nation, that this would be a great podcast to be a part of, and I appreciate you inviting me. Oh, you are so welcome. Have a good day Too. This episode is all wrapped up, but fortunately, your gift biz journey continues. Are you eager to learn more? Our gift biz gal has a free download just for you.
Head over to gift biz on wrapped.com/twelve steps to get your copy of the 12 steps to starting a profitable gift biz don't delay, head over to gift biz, unwrapped.com/twelve steps today. And until next time Happy business crafting.