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Hi there.

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It's Sue.

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And thanks for joining me for tips and talk day.

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These are bite-sized topics that I pull from community questions and

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things that I'm observing in the world of handmade small business.

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If you'd like to submit a topic,

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DME over on Instagram at gift biz,

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unwrapped failing at failure.

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Yes. I want you to fail because too often,

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what I see is our fear of failing prevents us from

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getting anything done.

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If you're a first time product creator and you're wanting to

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monetize your product,

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or you're doing something new that you haven't ever done before

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this concern about failing often paralyzes you where you're to the

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point where you do absolutely nothing.

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Another thing that I often see happen is that people think

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that there's only one way to do something.

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And if you don't do things at that exact way,

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then you're wrong.

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And that's just not the case.

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There are so many different ways of accomplishing whatever your goals

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are, whatever you're trying to do.

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But this thinking that I'm going to fail.

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If I don't do it,

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the exact perfect right way is actually false thinking.

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The third thing that I'll see the mindset is that if

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I make a mistake,

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if I do something and it doesn't work,

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then the whole project is off the table.

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You know,

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like if you wanted to start a business around whatever your

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handmade product is,

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and you go to one craft show and you make a

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zero sales,

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which those of us who have been in the industry for

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a while,

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know that this can happen.

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This doesn't mean that you can't start your business,

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making a mistake around.

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One thing does not mean you're a failure.

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So yes,

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I want you to fail at failure.

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It's going to keep you from being paralyzed and not taking

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action. It's going to release you from this idea that there

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is only one way,

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one way,

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and one way only,

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and that if you make a mistake or you don't see

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the results that you're looking for,

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that there's still a path forward.

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This is not where you close the book and be done.

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And all of your dreams just drift away.

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That is not the case.

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The real true story is that success comes from multiple failures.

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One of the best ways to look at this is to

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reframe the word.

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And so,

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instead of saying that you're a failure or that you failed

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at something,

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why don't we say we're doing experiments.

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We're testing something out and seeing if it works again,

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I'll use idea that if you're starting your business,

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you're going to test the product out,

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to see if there's a market.

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And if you go to your first craft show and you

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don't sell a thing,

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the biggest fear for anybody at their first show,

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of course you,

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aren't a failure.

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Maybe you just need to tweak your product a little bit.

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It should be a different,

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it should be a different color.

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Maybe your signage didn't explain exactly what the product was.

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So there's a little bit of confusion with people who are

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coming up to your both.

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It's not a failure.

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It's been an experiment.

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You tweak things,

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and then you move forward.

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Now, same thing.

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So if you're just starting out and you're testing your products

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for the first time,

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or if you're introducing a product into your repertoire,

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you know,

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the whole catalog of products that you offer,

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I want you to fail at failure.

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I don't want you to think about this as a failure.

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I want you to think about these things that you do

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in your business as tests,

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experiments, so that you can gather information kind of like your

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old science class,

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high school experiments,

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right? So the results of that experiment then lead you into

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what your next action will be.

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Your next test will be right.

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That's how I want you to think of things that you

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try out for your business.

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And when you think of it this way,

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when you allow yourself to fail at failure,

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all the fear goes away because you're experimenting.

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You're trying things out.

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You don't take it.

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Then as personally,

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I also want you to feel like you can fail often,

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because the more you learn about your audience,

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what they like,

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what they don't like,

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what sizes of your product,

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they like best what price point your audience seems to gravitate

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to all of these things,

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just make you a better business owner and the decisions and

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the offerings you put out are more aligned with your audience.

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At first,

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you guess you have no choice.

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You have to guess at what it is.

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You put it out there,

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you observe what happens.

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You analyze the results you tweak,

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and then you put it out there.

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Again. I don't call any of that process of failure.

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I would call it an experiment and then you learn move

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forward. And the other thing about thinking of it this way

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is you can laugh at mistakes.

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If you something out that you thought was going to be

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a winning best seller product,

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and you sell two of them only after giving a test

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enough time,

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you can laugh at it and say,

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oh my gosh,

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like silly me.

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I thought that was going to be so great.

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And nobody wants it.

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And you can laugh at it because it has nothing to

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do with you personally.

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It has to do with testing tweaking,

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moving forward by being a failure at failure.

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It's those actual steps where you come to be a success.

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Michelle says no,

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or low expectations,

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less anxiety.

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Yeah, you're exactly right.

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I'll tell you what I did way back in the day.

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Some of you who follow me,

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might've heard this story before,

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but I used to have a company called basket time.

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And I was focused on corporate accounts,

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not one-off,

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you know,

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individual accustom,

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but more of the larger corporate accounts.

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As I was building up my designs,

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my very first designs,

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there was one basket that I loved so much.

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So this is a perfect example of putting things into what

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you like versus what your customer wants.

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So I made this basket that was this beautiful Willow basket

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shaped as a coffee cup.

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Okay. This was going to be my breakfast basket.

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And I thought it would be good for people who were

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coming in,

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who were speaking at events or when a client wanted to

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give a gift to a customer and have it delivered to

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their house.

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Like it's a nice Saturday morning,

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Sunday morning basket.

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And it had pancake mix syrup,

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a Scotty mix coffee.

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You can imagine what it was made up with was gorgeous.

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I loved it so much.

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It was beautiful.

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Didn't sell.

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I think I reordered the pancake mix three times because I'm

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just like,

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oh, people haven't really seen it yet on the website.

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Maybe they just didn't look at it or they didn't need

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it yet.

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I would put it in my brochures.

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I would talk about it.

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Nobody wanted it.

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And it took me probably three rotations of buying cases of

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pancake mix to finally figure out that this experiment didn't work.

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Do you notice how I said I am not a failure?

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My basket business is not a failure.

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It's that?

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Okay. So learn this take feedback that that design was not

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something your customers wanted and move on and know better for

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next time.

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That's what I mean about failing at failure.

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Allow yourself to fail.

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Don't feel like you're a failure.

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If things don't work out because this is the way you

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walk the path on multiple failure stones,

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to get yourself to that big success zone.

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Share with me some failures.

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Everyone's had them.

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And honestly,

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if you don't have the failures,

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you'll never get to that point of success.

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It's just not going to happen.

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That's a wrap.

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I'm a get to the point kind of girl.

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And this is what you can expect from these quick midweek

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sessions. Now it's your turn.

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Go out and fulfill that dream of yours.

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Share your handmade products with us.

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We want them,

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and they bring us both so much happiness.<inaudible>.