Gift biz unwrapped episode 255 So I was on Facebook and I saw these beautiful desserts and I'm like, Oh, they look pretty cute. I think I can maybe do something like that. 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. Hi there, it's Sue And I'm so happy to have you here with me today. I'm going to start off with a quick announcement if you're in or around the Chicago and Wisconsin area. I want to make sure that you're aware of the Lakeside women's conference happening in Lake Geneva the second week of March.
If you want to take in solid business building information while meeting other women who get you and understand your struggles and drive, you'll love this event. Actually you don't even have to be driving distance at all. Last year we had women flying in from all over, including the speakers in addition to myself, Nikki Rousch, Abby Herman, Bobby Baney, who are all past podcast guests here. We'll be there and you can meet and learn from us in person. Robyn puts on the most amazing event.
It's in a beautiful lodge, but most important, the group of women she attracts provides for a safe, open and supportive environment and Lake Geneva is an adorable tourist area, too. Full of cute shops and the best restaurants for all the details. Go to women's business workshop and look under events. You can use the code Sue 100 to get a hundred dollars off your ticket. Let me know if I'm going to see you there.
And now speaking of girl power and energy, that is what my guest this week is all about. I tell the story of how we met in the interview so I won't go into it here, but this lady I'd hang out with any day. What I want you to listen to throughout our talk is specifically how the business got started and then evolved. It didn't begin as it is now. There were learnings, adjustments and revisions to make things work and fit into Dee's
life. She took it step by step, saw what was working for her, made adjustments and is now added a brand new stream of income as her skills and industry knowledge grows. This show is full of all types of goodness. Let's get right to it, shall we today I am so excited to introduce you to Dierdre Drakes of eight to three treats Dierdre known to her friends as D is a true Southern girl born and raised in the small town of Enfield, North Carolina.
In 2005 she settled in Charlotte and has since made it her home. She's a self-taught chocolate based treat maker, proud army wife and mom of two. These custom design edible creations have a long record of precise execution for large companies and customers alike. Her who's who list includes NBA players, NFL players, government officials and celebrities.
Her highly sought after domestic and international classes where she graciously teaches her techniques, sell out at the 350 and up price point, making her not only a gifted treat maker, but a respected teacher. Her work has been featured in VH1, Bravo, Fox 46 and has been published in a national magazine. Oh my gosh, Dee, welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast. Oh, thank you so much. I'm so excited to speak with you. Me too. I met you at the ultimate sugar show and I saw you in a room.
He had that fun little competitions, one of those first nights and you were so bubbly and so energetic. And I am like, who is that girl I need to know is crazy girl in the corner. I love it. I love it. You just attract people like a magnet just because of your passion. There's no question about that. Thank you. Thank you. So over and above our intro, I like to have you share who you are in a little bit of a creative way and that is through a motivational candle.
So if you were to tell everybody and describe a candle that really resonates with you, D, what would the color be and what would be a quote or a motto that would be on your motivational candle? Ooh, I like this question. I would really have to say that if I had to choose the color, the color would definitely be white. I just think it goes with Amy aesthetic and a white candle just brings purity to the room and also if there's any blemishes it shows and I'm okay with that. Like I'm an open book.
My motivational quote would definitely have to be my favorite Bible verse, which is Proverbs three five and six. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not land on your own understanding in all your ways. Acknowledge him and he will make your path straight and that's just because I'm blindly doing all of this through the faith and will of God. I couldn't do it without him. I love that you are going to have to go back and listen.
If you haven't already to one of my podcast, which is just a couple weeks back with good measures because he had an experience there that I think you'll really be interested. It totally blends in with what you're talking about with your Bible verses. So you'll have to do that. You might've heard it already. I don't know. Definitely. We'll make sure I relisten if I have already. Okay. And you know, I really like your explanation of the white candle.
At first I thought you were going to say, cause that's like a nice clean palette on which I can design all whatever. I'm going to design my beautiful cakes. But what I really liked is where you said, you know, if there's blemishes that's okay. And that to me, not knowing you a whole lot, right? Because I'm going to find all about out about you right now. But that's why you can just be so free and fun because you're just going to be who you are.
You're not worried about what other people are thinking. Exactly. So take us back. Have you been baking and enjoying making cakes all your life? Or where did that start? No, actually I just stumbled into this industry and I have loved it. I started out as an event planner. I did weddings and parties. My last event was I was seven and a half months pregnant in heels, moving tables and she, because I do not know how to sit still, that I have seen, as you have seen, I can not sit still.
So after this wedding, my husband and I just had a conversation about how taxing that industry is with me going into becoming a first time mom and I decided to just step back. Well, as we all know, being a new mom is an amazing experience on its own. But as a creative, being a new mom and that first month it was extremely boring. I like, I love my baby, don't get me wrong. He's the best thing ever. He's the cutest thing. But it was periods where he was just doing nothing but
sleeping. And I as a creative was going crazy. So I was on Facebook and I saw these beautiful desserts and I'm like, Oh, they look pretty cute. I think I can maybe do something like that. And I just blindly went out and got some supplies and I made a candy Apple and it was delicious and I was like, okay, this is not going to be good for me because I am a sweet tooth person. But I did it. It was great and my friends loved it.
However, the medium of like heart candy was not really suitable for me as a new mom because I don't know if you have, but I know maybe some of your listeners have known that once the candy reaches the breaking point, there is no coming back from that. And I found myself wasting a lot of product because my newborn son of course took priority over me looking at the thermometer, making sure my candy is at the right temperature.
So I stopped taking candy apples and I came across the medium of chocolate and I fell in love because it was so forgiven. If I had to step away and attend to my child or do anything and the chocolate came back into a heart state, I could simply remelt it. So I asked one of my friends if I could make some chocolate covered Oreos for this event that they had coming up and Sue. I had never made one ever. I just was like, I think I can do it.
Okay, I'm going to try it, and I'm so glad it worked out because I would have hated to not come through for this event for her, but as soon as I did it, I fell in love and it has just wit above what I thought coming into this, it would do Well. You know, I love how your explanation was with the candy first and how it morphed into something that fits your lifestyle because if you were to decided candy, you probably would have stopped by now because it just wasn't a mix for you at that point.
Exactly, exactly. Yeah. All right, so you just blindly stepped out and said, okay, I'm going to do these chocolate covered Oreos. You ended up seeing success and isn't it great when people come back and say, Oh my gosh, they're so good. You did such a good job that just fuels you to keep going. It made me feel so good. I felt like I had won a trophy. So what happened after that? So you had that one event and it went really well. Then what happened After that?
And I saw that, Hey, this is something that I can do. I just started buying supplies like we always do. I had to cut myself off at some point, but I just started like thinking of ideas and practicing more. I honestly did. I was like, okay, if I did it great without practice, let me try to invest some time in really figuring this thing out. And I just fell in love and it kept motivating me because I loved what I was doing. So were you considering it still a hobby at that point? I was.
It was just something because I was planning on returning back to the corporate world a little after having my son and I was like, okay, well this will just get me through to keep my creative side because you know, we can never lose that. And I wound up becoming a stay at home mom and I continued to get more requests and it became a legitimate business for me.
So you started buying supplies because let's face it, if we have a passion as a hobby, we're still going to buy all the things, all of them. Yeah, maybe not in the big sizes that you need, you know if you're baking or designing in mass, right. But you got to have all the fancy tools and start perfecting your skills and you know all of that. At what point was it that you consciously said, all right, officially this is going to turn into a business.
I think it was when I was getting requests more frequently and I had to kind of plan out my day and my time and my week that I was like, okay, this can really work out for me and bring in additional income for my family, can replace my event planning business. So once I've got the customers coming in, well even the requests, because let's face it, every person that requests doesn't become a customer.
But I was just so intrigued and so motivated by the request that it made me focus on, let me make this into a passion turn business. Got it. Okay. Two questions for you. What do you mean? Every request doesn't turn into a customer? What does that mean? Well, every person that contacts you, they will not always buy. Oh, gotcha. So they're calling and inquiring and they may order.
They may not. Yes. But I'm still very appreciative of the consideration because that lets me know that people are thinking about my product. Yeah. And they might the next time, you know, it might not be a fit for what they need. Right. At that point. Yes, exactly. And then at what point did you start charging? I started charging.
Honestly, after that first ordered I did for my friend, it wasn't necessarily the amount that probably was a profit, but because I came from a business and I transitioned into another one, I knew the benefit of me not doing it for free at that point. But let's talk about my event planning business now. That was a lot of stuff done for free, but with this one I just came in after my first one. I kind of said, okay well I'm going to charge this amount and it was totally pennies.
I think I was probably paying and then the order from me, but at least they had an idea of value on my business and this. Right, and then you just increased your prices as you went. Yes. You know, I always am teaching people that right from the get go you want to be charging a price where you're going to make at least some type of a profit cause you're not in the charity business. Right, exactly.
Let's face it, a lot of people don't know, you know, if they've not been in business before, they don't know. I'm like thrilled. Just to know that someone's even charging and then they can learn what the right price is down the road.
Yes. But as you started raising your prices to what you felt was, let's just start with the proper price because now I am quite sure you're much higher price because of your skill level and your reputation and all of that, but did you see any trouble in increasing your prices to customers who had purchased from you before Thing? Whenever you make an increase in price on my site, there's like sort of a guilt in the beginning. Oh, guilt.
Yeah, and I take that especially from a repeat customer because I feel they are used to a certain price and when they come back with a new price, me being the kindhearted person I am is kind of like, Oh my goodness, I put myself in a personal aspect instead of a business aspect. So I don't relay that to my customer, but I do, you know, we all like, Ooh, are people going to perceive this price? Are they still going to buy? But it's a necessity. We have to do that.
Because like you said, we're not working for free. I have bills, I have kids, this is my livelihood. Well, and you only have so much time unless you're going to hire on other people. You only have so much time to make whatever it is they've ordered, so you can't get five orders and do them all in the same amount of time. You only can do however the production goes.
You know what I can get in at, but you have to be able to command a price that's going to make you money or you're just going go out of business. Yeah, that's exactly right. Or I'm going to not pay a bill and that's not going to happen. That's not happening. No. No. Okay. As we're just starting to talk and still in the intro time now, you'd like of the introduction of your business being created, how did you land upon your name? I love explaining my name. Oh, good. Good question.
Yay. Yes. So my name originally was August, 2030 events in trees and I created the handle eight to three treats just because I'm like, no one's going to want to type out the full thing. August 23rd is my wedding day. That is the day I married my husband. Yeah. And when I was first thinking about business names, that was the first thing that came to mind because it was such an important day in my life. My husband and I have been together since I was 14 so he's like my life partner.
I love him dearly and I don't want to cry. I really love that guy. And now all the world has heard. Isn't that fun? All the world knows my love for him. Um, so that has just been my business name. It's shortened to eight to three treats. And I always tell my husband like, you can never leave me because I'm never changing my name and my business name. You go, well he sounds like he's a huge supporter of what you're doing. He does. He does support me very well.
I mean sometimes to tell me to move my stuff out of his way. But other than that, he's very well. Well that's okay. I mean you can't be too perfect. Right? How did the business progress in terms of orders and size? And you've gotten to a point where you have some pretty prestigious customers.
And one of the things that I always find Dee, that people are asking all the time is how do I get more business and how do I get the customers that I need the right customers who will pay the price that I'm requiring because of my skill level? So I'm curious how you started to build your customer base. Well, it did help me that I came from an event fields. So in my industry I kind of knew what the buyer was expecting from an event treat.
Also I utilize social media for what is worth for business. I mean I've put hashtags, I've found out how many hashtags can I put on a post and I maximize that. And I started just trying out different things with those hashtags because hashtags are little search engines and when people search for word, I want my business to come up. So those are some of the things I did.
Just knowing like researching the industry that I'm in, staying true to who I am because sometimes people find a value in you being true to who you are as in, Hey, this is my price. I really appreciate you respect in that. If I'm not currently in your budget, that's fine. I will love to buy a $5 million house right now, but that's not in my budget and we're with that. So Those are some of the things that I did too. Do you stay true to that? Right? I mean your prices or your prices?
That is correct. My prices on my prices, especially in this industry, any creative industry, you have to quantify your time because we spend a lot of hours on these crafts or cakes and things of that nature and that's valuable For sure. So many people don't account for their time and then you're still almost doing it for free because your time, let's face it, you also need time just for yourself.
So anytime you're producing or you're working on your business in any way is time being taken away from something else you could be doing. So it should be paid for, you know, and the way it's going to be paid for is in the price of your product that you're selling. That is correct. And I have a son who's four and a daughter. She's one, but her name is Corey, like my husband. So it's okay. Unisex names That works.
The other thing I want to point out, and this is really for you guys give biz listeners is Dee was just talking to a minute ago that per other industry had been event planning and she had context and knowledge from that industry. You right now might be working at a bank, you might be working in a corporate office in the marketing department, you know, whatever your nine to five job is.
If you have one right now and you're building your business on the side, think about whether there are opportunities there with context that you have through a totally different way. Your full time job right now that could help you advance your business. This is not the first time I've heard people having their first customers be people who came out of connections from a full time job, so huge opportunity.
I'd also say school events while your kids are too young yet I guess D but school age children when there are events and charities and all the things you get into sports organizations, dance clubs, all of that are opportunities. Yeah. A lot of people ask me sometimes like how do you make the connections?
How do you network and network is so fluid for me because I am a people person, but if I wasn't just putting yourself in a position where people, we come in contact with people every day and just speaking and my business always comes up when I'm speaking to someone honestly and not the first time. The second time is it has to, was it like that from the beginning? For business and personal.
Yes, Sue, I'm sorry to say this, but in school, in grade school I used to have those little notes that says detox too much in class. She does excellent work, but she talks too much. I believe that. But it's working in your favor now. No, I asked that and bring it up because I also know a lot of people here and it's the fear of failure, right? And putting yourself out there want to start a business, but they don't want to tell people who are close to them until it's successful.
And the fallacy in that is the people who are closest to you are probably your best first Customers and forgiving, you know, if something goes wrong, like if your shopping cart on your website goes down or the product isn't totally up to par yet. They're great testers and working through all the systems. But a lot of people won't do that because the business is just starting. And what if it doesn't work? Then they have to go back with their tail between their legs. Yeah, it happens to us all.
But that's a good point. I can count how many times that I've had a family member order and maybe something went wrong, but it was such a great learning lesson and I'm glad I could learn it with someone who knew me and I would say the era of some sort and it was a good learning moment for me from someone who I knew wasn't going to like blast me and put me in a bad light to the public.
Right. So definitely the idea right from the start of letting people know and you were just bringing it up in casual conversations then, right? Yes. You know what's going on? Oh, you know, I've started doing a business. Here's how it happened. Chocolate covered Oreos or whatever. It was just conversation. It's not really promoting your business. It's just letting people know exactly.
Just so seamless that it was just normal conversation and as you said, casual and you started getting business from that. I did. I was so amazed at how many people, as soon as they saw a picture, and that's I think, I don't know if we're going to get into that, but that's why it's so important to have like either a website or social media presence because with crapping things people buy with their eyes. So they saw a picture and it was like, Oh yes I am interested in this because it looks nice.
So do you have it on your phone where you can pull it up, right? If you're in a conversation with someone? Yes. My Instagram page is by far the first app on my phone and I click it and just show a couple. You don't want to be too aggressive and making sure they go like, Hey here's a couple. You know what? If you have social media, look me up or if you have your phone out, go to my website real quick. So it just gives them that part in their mind to do. Right.
And so let's get into that then because this is another big topic all the time. Social media and let's just talk Instagram cause I have a lot more I want to get into with you. So we've talked about hashtags a little bit, like there are many search engines, right? Yes. And when you started posting on Instagram and adding hashtags, keeping in mind who your preferred customer would be, right? So that you're attracting the right people in.
Did you start seeing sales off of that that you equate directly back to Instagram or did it take awhile to build or what was your experience there? When I started using the hashtags, I was doing it because I knew what it was for and I wasn't paying attention to in the beginning.
But once I really started focusing on the hashtags that I was using and looking at different things and I started asking people how they found me, I could really see that they were working for me because I had a lot of people say, well I found you through Instagram. I was searching the hashtag X, Y and Z. And I was like, Oh, okay. Oh interesting. This really works. Yeah. That's how actually I got my first celebrity client was through. They found me on Instagram by searching one of my
hashtags. Oh that's crazy. And they came across my profile and they liked my work and they reached out to me. Yes. Wow, that's cool. It was so amazing. And so I'm like, they work. I bet after that did they call you then to talk about an order? They did and it went through. It was like the craziest thing. One of those ones where you have to mute the phone and like, okay, is this really happening? And then go back into the professional voice like okay I'm
back. That's why I was asking cause I'm thinking when you got off the phone and hung up you were probably like major happy dance. Like Oh my goodness. Screaming, calling my mom. That was the first question you have to call someone. I knew the button mom, you will not believe this. And it was crazy. That's so awesome. So now today, how often are you posting on Instagram? Well I try to post once a day, at least something once a day.
If not on my profile, I really try to post the my stories and I have learned the value of using your Instagram stories to connect with your followers, your potential customers, or just people as your peers, so at least once a day. I'm trying to post in somewhere, somewhere, some way, somewhere, some way. Okay, got you. We're going to hear more about D's posting plan, right after a quick word from our sponsor. Yes, it's possible. Increase your sales without adding a single customer.
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I am a big advocate for the app sheet, auto posting app or any auto posting app so I can schedule posts, especially the posts that are going on my profile because my profile is basically just my business. My stories is where you get to see the craziness of me. D so I'm using auto-post app nine times out of 10 is it called auto-post? It is called app. She in S a P. P. H. I. It does have a free mode as well, which I love and I utilize the most in the beginning.
And then they do have some subscription plans that you know as you need to post more because the free plan I think only allows you to post like 10 or 12 posts a month. So as you need to post more, you can go into a plan that would probably benefit your business. And will it automatically post over to Instagram? I'm using another scheduler and it still has to go to my phone and then I still have to actually put it onto Instagram.
No, it auto posts, like I have most of my posts scheduled for seven o'clock in the morning and I'm not a morning person and thankfully my kids are not either. I'm still asleep at seven I wake up to like a ton of notifications because the app has posted and I honestly forget sometimes and it has benefited me when I'm on vacation too. I can still go through business and I literally do not have to touch my phone or go into the app. It does it automatically for me.
Oh, I didn't know such a thing existed yet. Oh, Sue is the best thing ever. All right, I'm going to be checking that out. And what's your handle while we're talking about this? So everyone can go luck. My handle for Instagram is eight to three treats and that's T R E a T S eight two three trees. Okay, so let's keep talking about the evolution of your business. So we're talking about you providing all types of treats, right? But more bakery talk. Glut specific. Yes. What's your specialty?
Chocolate. Chocolate and more chocolate. That's my specialty. Chocolate dip things. So I really started my business off the chocolate Cub Oreos and they are still like my main product that I produce. I have grown to love my chocolate dip pretzels. They're like my favorite treat to me. And now this new wave of cake, Sickles. And I'm not sure, someone may call it a cake pop still, but it's in the form of a little Popsicle. And those things are just so cute and I love making
them. Yeah, they are so cute. You're right. And it's just enough. It's not a big piece of cake. It's just enough. You don't feel totally cheating on whatever diet you're on. If you have just one, if you have just one, if you have just one, cause I can never like Pringles, I can never eat just one. So this is a really big point. You've stayed very narrow with chocolate. Like everything is chocolate. There's different things under the category, but it's always chocolate.
Exactly. Because that works for me and I've tried to add other things to my menu and I've done some reevaluation of it and either it's not selling or I honestly don't enjoy making it. And if you're in a creative space and you don't making something, it doesn't make you happy. So I just stick to what I like to do that I will always be happy or when I'm working really late at night, the end game of this, I'm like excited about it because I get to see it.
Right. No, I think that that's really smart because I think a lot of people would say, okay, well I've got chocolate down now, but I'm going to be able to attract more business if I add in something else. And that's not always the case because now you with target, you're known as the chocolate specialist then right? Like this is your thing, your product, you know everything about it.
You know, all the designing, all the styling, all the flavoring, all of that versus if you also did marshmallow candy apples, like all the other things. Right, Exactly. It works for some, it does work for some, but like I said, you have to figure out what works for you. Alright, so tell me how this extension of teaching came about. I honestly love sharing this as well. Sue. So from my candle, I have a really great relationship with Christ and it was the weirdest thing ever.
Sue, I was laying in bed and I was told I need to teach a class and I'm just looking around like who may like me? Who are you talking about? Just like came into you. Yeah, it just spoke. I was faithful to that and I have seen crazy growth from my classes. Okay. But that's too big a jump. I need to know more. Okay. Okay. So my first question is, did anything cross your mind like, well, wait a minute.
I don't want to teach people my techniques because then they're going to copy me and then my business is going to go down. Honestly, if I'm speaking, I have not came across that. However, I have had peers come to me who wants to start teaching and they say, well, I want to teach, but I'm scared that in my community that I'm going to lose business. And for me, I feel like you can't get into teaching something if you are not prepared for someone to do what you're doing to make income.
That's the whole purpose of teaching something, right? We do have students that take it that just want to have a fun night out or learn something new. And I'm also a big advocate that if it's not, your gift is not going to flourish. So you can teach anybody to do anything, but you're still you. Right. I'm totally of the same opinion. And I also think to your point about if it's not your gift, you're probably not going to keep up with it.
I think what often happens is people think I could make this just as well. You're buying the talk, let's let's say chocolate covered Oreos. Let's just keep with that theme. Oh, I could do that just as well. Well you know what, maybe or maybe not, but then they see all that goes into it too. It's not just a onetime one afternoon, let's make chocolate Oreos. It's a business.
Right? And so they might do it initially and then at the end say, you know what, I really love the A's but I don't have time, nor do I want to be making them. And I love D. So then they end up buying from you again. Anyway, It has happened. It has exactly happened. All right, so you buy into this feeling cause you know where it's coming from and you decide you're going to teach. How did you pursue actually making that as an extension of your business? Like where was the first place you taught?
Let's go with that. The first one, I was here in my city, Charlotte, it was on May 25th and I sold out my class. Keep in mind Sue, I'm like, who's gonna take my class? I feel like I'm like nobody sort of say and my class sold out within 48 hours and I was just like, Oh my goodness. And I added an additional class like two weeks later and my city Charlotte and that sold out I would say within three days. Was it a chocolate treat making class or was it a business class?
It was learning how I make five of my trees. So you're just learning the intro of making those from my perspective. And was it connected with any organization or did you just rent out some space cause you've got that event planner expertise? It wasn't connected with a venue. Actually I wanted to host it in my home, but I have kids and you know, let's keep it honest. I didn't know who was coming in so I didn't want people like knowing where I live.
I had a house that I rented out to do the class for. Oh, very cool. So you knew a house that was vacant at the time, or someone who was willing to let you use their house or however that went down actually use Airbnb. Oh, what a good idea. Yeah, it was so cool. I was like, eh, I'll use that. And the biggest thing with that was just contacting the host and being upfront about what I was doing there so they could approve it or not. And all of my posts have been like, yeah, I want to take a class.
So come on in Such a good idea. Oh, I might steal that idea. D take it. Yeah, it's free of charge because it's also an intimate atmosphere too, right? It's almost like being in a home kitchen, which is where everyone would be cooking anyway. If you had things to talk about before you actually started getting into the techniques, you could be sitting in the living room, family room, whatever. Oh, excellent idea. Really good. I love the space. It really does feel good and we feel like a little
family. While we're there. So I like it. Yeah, for sure. And so how did this progress? Well, once the classes in Charlotte did so well, I had so many inquiries from people to come to other cities and I found some connections there. Like I went to LA, but I have a great friend. When I met her through the business, it was so crazy.
She was a vendor of mys and we found out that we had kids literally a week after each other and we just became more and more friends and she was like, well, you can come out to LA and I can host your class. So just making connections and I've Went to LA, my international class was in Barbados and that right there was so crazy because Sue, my husband is from Barbados and I would have never thought that I would be going there to teach without his knowledge, without any connections from him.
I'm like, dude, I'm going to your country to teach what I do. Isn't that crazy? So yeah, it's just been a while. Right. I'm going to say there was some divine intervention in there for that one. Yeah. Whores. Of course. I'm like, we were meant to be, you see all of this coming back full circle. We were meant to be for short. So does he still have family there? Yes he does.
So I was able to see some of his family and like I said, what was so crazy going back to the Island without him, but I was very comfortable there and I'm like, I know where I'm going. No one can kidnap me. So yeah, he still has family there and we visit maybe every other year or so. I love it there. We had our honeymoon in Barbados. Oh look, it's many years ago now.
But we also over my other business, the ribbon print company also, we have customers in Barbados as well who have these ribbon printing machines that we sell. Yeah. Anytime we get an international customer like, well would you like to pay for hand delivery? I know, right. It's only another $2,000 no biggie. No biggie. No problem. So how are you balancing the two teaching versus selling products? How does that look in your overall life? That is a good question.
It took me a while to figure out a good balance, especially with me also balancing my home life. But now I actually can focus more on my teaching because I like to give knowledge. I like to be around people. I am like the definition of an extrovert. Like I love people. So I do kind of focus more on the teaching and I take orders to where it fits into the teaching schedule. This that makes, yeah. Yeah. So teaching is the primary right now.
And then you'll take orders as you can based on schedules and how complex the order is and quantity and you know all of that. Yes. Got it. Okay. And as we talked about in the beginning, I met you at the ultimate sugar show. Were you teaching there? I did. I taught two classes at the ultimate sugar show. I taught two demo classes, one how to do live face with fondant, and the other one how to do a little cake topper.
Perfect. And so people in your classes where people who are also in business or they just also wanted to know the skill for personal use. Do you know A lot of them were in business. It was so crazy. In my first demo of the lace with one of my students that I had in Charlotte, she's from Ohio, she was in that class in Atlanta and she was like, I didn't think you were going to remember me. I'm like, I don't remember everyone.
So it was a lot of people that were already in the tree industry, but it was so strange that the majority of them did not follow me. So that was pretty interesting to me. They didn't follow me on social media, they just wanted to learn that technique. But then I got them in the fall. Yep. Well of course they follow you now, that's for sure. So is that another strategy for, I guess it's just exposure, right? Cause they're taking classes from you there.
And this is a show where each of the classes will also cost money. So this isn't a show where when you go into the show, and I'm talking to our listeners now where you go into the show and then you have availability to go into any of the classes. These classes all cost money. I teach, it shows that do both. And most of my classes are business development classes, starting out, learning how to start a business properly, you know all that, the businessy type things.
And I do both, you know, at the ultimate sugar show. And then here in a couple of weeks, this will be passed by the time this airs. But the Philly candy show we do at different, anybody who has a ticket to the show can go to any of the classes that they want. And I'm not sure which is better, but I kind of feel like when someone has to pay for a class, they're more vested in the information. What do you think? I really think that once you pay for something, you're invested.
Who wants to just throw their money away so when they are paying for a class, I feel like they're gonna really pay attention. Really try to go back and apply this knowledge to their business or craft. I agree with you there.
Okay. So as you think about your business or you think about people who have been in your classes or your own experience, have you found any common mistakes that people make or maybe warnings for our listeners if they're looking at following a similar track as you, maybe not chocolate, some type of a handmade product, but do you have any advice for those people? I would definitely say we talked about this, the charging, you want to make sure that you are putting in a price on your work.
That's the main mistake that I see a lot of us entrepreneurs or crafters or treaters coming into the industry with. Also trying to do multiple things at one time. Really focus on a few things and get those down Pat before you move on to something else. And it's not saying you shouldn't add additional things, but really trying to focus on perfecting a few things first before you put like 50 things on your menu or in your store. Good advice for sure.
So in terms of attracting business, social media, yes. Communicating with people in conversations. Yes. Those are your two primary ways of getting business. Those are my two because honestly I have a website I've been paying for my domain for over five years. I just told my followers this and I have not launched it and this year that is my goal. But it hasn't been a thorn for me. Not having an actual website cause social media is very important
nowadays. But in case social media goes bit, you want to have your own website. So that's why in 2020 I'm focused on launching my website fully. I am so glad you said that. I was getting a little nervous when you were saying the line on Facebook. What was it, March, I forget the date now, but March of this past year in 2019 do you remember when Facebook and Instagram went down and like the whole world was freaking out?
Yes. And if that isn't a wake up call to all of us who aren't keeping contact information of our followers in some other way, I don't know what is right, Exactly. That's what scared me. I'm like, you know what, it's time to get off of this. Because anything could happen. They could honestly wake up and say the application is just closed. Right. And then like all those followers you had are gone. You didn't obtain any information. Also use MailChimp. A data collecting application. Good, good,
good. So I like that. Yep. Okay. So you're using MailChimp. So you're collecting emails from followers in some way. Is it just your customers? No, these are from followers. For my classes though, I haven't did it for my customers. I need to do it. But these, I'm getting emails if they want to be notified of like where I'm at and things of that nature. So I've got a really good subscriber list for that.
And in MailChimp you can also divide who are people who are coming to your classes versus who have purchased product, you know, so you can talk to them differently. So really good initiative for this year. Yes. So guess what day we're all going to hold you accountable to this because when you have your website up, I want you to let me know so we can add it to the show notes page. So we're going to can go back and look at it. Okay. I will. I definitely will also. Okay, you've just told us all.
Okay, I'm nervous now. This is accountability baby. Yes. Bring us to a point that wasn't so great. And the reason I asked this question is I think a lot of our listeners will feel like if everything isn't successful right out of the gate, they think I'm a failure. I'm not cut out for this. I see other people who are doing so great and obviously I can't because something has gone wrong for them.
Right? So share with us something that went wrong for you just by demonstration that it's not all roses. You don't land it every single time. How many examples do you want me to give Because I want you to get the biggest one. The jaw dropping one. Well, I think this, and I was very established. I felt in my career, I had had a customer, this was a repeat customer actually, so this was a kind of a tricky one. It was very emotional for me.
I had a new baby, my daughter at the time, and I did this order and I mean Sue, I put so much time into this order. I did not go to sleep because I had a new baby, so I was up without sleep working off of caffeine, and I looked at my final product and I was extremely happy because again, I've been established for some time and I went and made the delivery one. The delivery was late, all my fault, and that was the first part that really kind of set the tone.
I think I could not make my delivery on time and I'm usually very punctual with my deliveries. Two, I met the customer and I gave it to them and they were in a rush. They had to get to where they were going, which is understandable. Well, about an hour after that transaction, I get a call and the customer was completely disappointed with my order.
They said that I didn't interpret the vision properly and they honestly said that they could have did this, order their self talk about a knife in the heart. Those are exactly the words I was thinking, Oh, I was in Chick-fil-A's drive through line and I cried. And Chick-fil-A being the amazing people, they gave me free food. You know, that was a completely cool, but because the lady was like, why are you crying?
And I was uncontrollably crying because I dedicated so much time to that and I was really happy with the order. But again, it's not always about us. It's about how our customers perceive us. And the customer wasn't happy. Like I said, when they said they could have made it there, so I just lost it. You know? That's not true. You know, that was their emotion talking. I really think so because I was looking at that and we want to stay in our head.
Of course we say all this stuff, I, you try it, why don't you try it? But you know, I couldn't take away that. That's how she felt. Right. But it also just was like, Oh my goodness, I thought everyone likes all of my work.
But it was so humbling one and it just really made me kind of think about going forward, how am I getting the information from the customer to make sure that I am kind of meeting the Mark with their expectations and also letting customers know that I have creative freedom as well and interpreting the design. So those are some things that I learned from that. Right. Well I love that you kind of adjusted your systems to try and prevent that in the future.
Plus I'm thinking this is another place where your Instagram account comes into play cause they see your type of style demonstrated there. So different types of things that you've done. They have to buy into your style and then new to your point about creative flexibility because they don't want their treats probably to look like everyone else's anyway. No, they want custom and that's what customer is different. So yeah. Oh my gosh.
So if that were ever to happen to you again, how would you handle it differently? Or what would you say to yourself differently than crying? Oh, or would you cry again? I don't know. I don't know. I think I will probably cry. I really don't know. It just depends. I was kind of hormonal too at that point with the kids and just working off of no sleep and now having some mom mode, so it was just a lot of stressors.
I really think in this part of my business, if that was to happen again, I would definitely have a conversation with the customer. If a customer was to tell me that I missed the Mark on their order, I would kind of say, ask the question, what were you expecting? Kind of putting it in their court and saying, what about my work? Did you see like trying to direct them back to my page? Like did you see any of this in the work that I already provided because this is my tone or my style. I don't know.
I don't even know if this is a good answer. Did you ever talk to that customer again? To be honest too, I have. They tried to order from me three times and thankfully I have been busy each time because in my mind I'm kind of scared to actually go back to do that. I don't feel like I can meet your expectations. And at one point I did tell her, I said, I would really like to take this order. Unfortunately I'm busy this weekend and I really want to make sure your expectations are met.
Oh that's good. Like your analogy in the past and you're going to do your best. Cause you know what I'm wondering, maybe it wasn't what she envisioned, but when she actually laid it out for the event because it was the design work, it wasn't the taste or the flavor or anything. Right. It was the style. It was the creativity. And so maybe it didn't align with what she was thinking, but she might've gotten great feedback from her guests. She did.
I actually saw it on my feedback on my social media was like through the roof on that order. So it was really just a personal thing. And with any crafting or creative thing, it is personal interpretation from you and from the customer. So I have grown from that and I've learned not to take it with a grain of salt, but purposefully with a grain of salt that you won't be able to meet everyone's expectations or interpretations from the time. Yeah. You do your best doing your best.
Yeah. You also have to know, I think that, I guess it's not in all cases, but I'd say in this case because it's not like you provided a bad product at all. Right. It would be different if the chocolate was all melted, like there were was an issue with the product. We all have to remember this, that when clients are like that, you know, it might not really even be about the product. You know, they might've had to just a fight with their husband. There might be other issues going on.
They may be hormonal, you know, and I was late. There was so many other things. It's just you're the one while you were late and you own it. Right. You own that Owned it. So I could have added to that frustration and it just, I look back at the pictures and I don't know if this will make the podcast, but I actually looked back at the pictures and my trees went exactly with the party. It was crazy. They went exactly what the party.
So it was just some additional factors that I'm not going to hold her accountable for. So yeah. Good attitude for sure. So where do you think you're going in the future with eight to three traits In the future for this business? I honestly see me teaching more because I came into this industry, I would say by happenstance it was purposeful, but by happenstance it wasn't my ultimate Passion.
So I love pouring back into people that really want to grow and maybe open up a shop or do things of that nature. So I really see me just teaching more people learning the skills and learning the basics to grow their business. Okay. Love that. Love that. So we're going to have to keep an eye out for you. Maybe there are some other aspiring treat makers who should be taking some of your classes.
Come on, come to the sweet side, Come to this sweet side and we're, I think I already know what you're going to say, but if you were to direct someone online where to come find you, where would that be right now? Right now it will be Instagram. Where else is it going to be in the future? Your website? Yes. It's going to be where you can go to www dot dot com Okay. We're going to be watching for that.
And one final thing I want you to talk about just really quickly, you mentioned it in our pre chat once we're done with this interview, you're hopping in your car and where are you off to? I am Off to Atlanta to attend the bee collective awards. I have been so humbled and so honored to be nominated for the 2020 best dessert artists and I've been going down there to celebrate and just being nominated and celebrating all of the amazing people that's there.
So that's why I'm going right after this interview. I'm so That is so exciting and I've seen a few of your designs and they're so awesome. I'm not surprised at all and I just, I congratulate you on the fact that you're being acknowledged for your beautiful work as well, so can't wait to hear the outcome of that, but I love your attitude. Just being nominated and getting to be part of that whole thing has to be be awesome and just feel fabulous. It is. Thank you so much for that.
So I really do appreciate that. You're welcome and thank you so much. All this information has been great. I have loved learning your story. I can't wait to see you again. I know. I'll see you at the ultimate sugar show. Don't know if we'll cross paths before that, just not sure, but thank you again for all your information being very open and giving us a peek behind the scenes in your business. I know it's going to help a lot of people out. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Enjoy this whole experience and I can't wait to connect with some of your listeners. Yay. Wonderful. I'm sure they'll connecting with you on Instagram for sure. Have a great day. You did a same Sue, so now are you as in love with D as I am, I can't wait to watch the progression of eight to three traits and as it applies to your business development, if something popped out to you, please make yourself a note.
I love that you're listening and hopefully subscribe to this podcast, but I also want you acting upon what you learn. It's the action that brings results, but what if you're nervous about starting or worried that you don't know what your first step or next step should be in working with many of you? I know fear is a huge concern. Fear of not knowing, fear of being judged, fear of failure, confronting and moving through. Fear is the topic we're tackling next week.
I look forward to all of us being together again then. Bye for now. I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook group called gift is breeze. It's a place where we all gather and our community to support each other. Got a really fun post in there. That's my favorite of the week.
I have to say where I invite all of you to share what you're doing, to show pictures of your product, to show what you're working on for the week, to get reaction from other people and just for fun because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody in the community is making. My favorite post every single week without doubt, wait, what aren't you part of the group already? If not, make sure to jump over to Facebook and search for the group gift biz breeze. Don't delay.
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