Gift biz on wrapped episode 282.
So it's like,
do you know what,
what if you just said,
what if you just did it and then 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 on wrapped,
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.
So yeah,
happy to be here with you for another amazing show.
You know,
I come to you each week with guests to help you
gather ideas and motivate you to start a grow your business.
If you want to hang out apart from the podcast,
make sure to join my gift biz breeze,
Facebook group.
We have thousands of awesome makers who are already there,
and I just adore the support and interaction that's happening in
this group.
You'll hear more about it at the end of the show,
but consider this your personal invitation to join us.
Okay. This episode,
honestly, I entered our talk thinking I would go down a
certain path with my questions,
but right from the start we went down another road entirely.
It was so good.
I just decided to keep going.
It truly felt like Theresa and I were out for coffee.
Okay. She'd say tea,
like two girlfriends chatting about business.
We talk about how to deal with negativity and the huge
advantage we have as a small business owner over those scary,
intimidating big guys.
We don't use this advantage nearly enough.
We also speculate on the handmade product industry and are in
agreement that this is the right place and the right time
to be going all in with your handmade products.
So pull up a chair and join the conversation today.
It is my pleasure to introduce you to Teresa Heath wearing
Teresa is an award-winning international speaker,
TEDx speaker,
trainer, and podcaster.
She's recognized alongside some of the world's social media and digital
marketing thought leaders.
It is widely regarded as one of the United kingdom's leading
marketing influencers.
Having spent the last 16 years in marketing,
working with international brands,
such as land Rover Jaguar and lead pages.
Theresa helps businesses,
entrepreneurs, and marketers to enhance their digital marketing and social media
efforts. Theresa hosts,
a popular weekly podcast called marketing that converts and has interviewed
likes of Amy Porterfield,
Pat Flynn,
Michael Hyatt,
Jasmine star,
and James Wedmore to name just a few.
And for those of you who are not regularly hanging out
in the social media and marketing world,
these are some of the big name leaders of the industry,
Theresa, welcome to the gift biz on wrapped podcast.
Ah, thank you so much.
So it,
my absolute pleasure to be here.
I am so excited to hear all the goodies and everything
that you'll have to share with us today.
But before we get started,
I have a traditional question for you here that all our
listeners are waiting for,
and that is a motivational candle.
So it's a little bit of a creative way to get
underneath the intro that I just read and know a little
bit more about you.
So if you were to share yourself through a motivational candle,
what would it look like by color and quote?
So color would have to be on brand.
So it would be a kind of pinky Goldie's sparkly,
something. I am very girly and I like girly colors.
So it has to be those colors.
And then from a quote point of view,
I think is what I posted really recently actually.
But it seems to be resonating a lot,
it's say yes,
and you'll figure it out afterwards.
I love that because I think so many times when we
get approached with an opportunity,
it seems too big.
And so we'll reluctantly,
like we'll put it off or put it to the side,
but once you say yes,
you've kind of committed to doing it.
I think Absolutely.
I mean,
you've just got to go for it.
And I think when I look back at my business and
the other business owners that I work with,
the fear is the thing that's holding them back all the
time. So it's like,
do you know what,
what if you just said yes,
what if you just did it and then work that hate
to do it?
So I think for me,
that's a great one for business.
I love that it kind of correlates.
Are you familiar with Mel Robbins and her five,
four, three,
two, one.
Yes. It's a similar type concept.
It's like,
don't hesitate.
Don't let yourself think too much.
Just take that action in your case saying yes.
Then things happen.
The world opens up for you with opportunities.
And the other one I think about alongside that is I
always ask myself,
what's the worst that can happen.
Like seriously,
what's the worst.
Is anybody going to die?
Are you going to lose your house?
Are you going to not be able to see your family
anymore? No,
of course not.
That's ridiculous concepts.
So seriously how awful could doing that thing be.
So if it's putting yourself out there or doing a Facebook
live, that's normally all that scares people.
Most, if it's speaking on stage,
if it's doing posts with your face on it,
seriously, what is the worst that's going to happen?
Someone might say something,
well, the chances are really slim,
but even if they did so well,
what if you help people?
What if it makes a difference to your business?
What if it moves you forward?
So, yeah,
I think being brave is a really good thing to try
and practice in our businesses.
Yeah. I completely agree.
And we're so worried about that one person who doesn't like
our design or has one little about a product,
but we forget about all the other thousands of people who
think it's awesome and buy from us all the time.
Why do we do that?
We gravitate down to that one person.
It's ridiculous that we do that,
but we do.
And we had to had a conversation with one of my
students this morning and we were talking about,
she was having real imposter syndrome,
real dicing herself,
really thinking,
God, I'm not very good.
I can't do it.
And this,
that and the other.
So my task for her,
which I'm going to chase up in a day or two
is that I want you to write down every small,
massive bit thing that you're proud of or thing that went
well or thing that was good.
And then also the other thing I encourage my members to
do is to have a love folder.
So every time you get an Instagram story shared,
or every time someone tweets you or put something on Facebook
or every testimonial,
you have a review,
you have screenshot it,
save the image in the love folder,
and then have these moments of dates.
There's moments of one person saying,
well, why did you pick that color?
Or I hate that pattern or that's not for them.
Then go and look at that love folder,
go and see and go.
Actually, like you said,
that was one person and this is loads of others.
So absolutely with having that on your computer,
when you need it or even better print it off,
That's such a good idea.
I think we should all do that.
Okay. So that's our first assignment coming from you.
Who's making a love folder and keep adding to it.
I think you were mentioning that you've interviewed Pat Flynn.
I think he has a bulletin board in his office where
he puts up like,
thank you notes and things like that.
Yeah. I went to Pat's office.
I met Pat when I was over in San Diego and
we had coffee and then he took me to his studio
and he does so basically any card or letter or anything
that's physically sent to him,
gets put up on this amazing bulletin board.
And he had one of his members do an amazing graffiti
of gratefulness or something.
I think it says.
And it's lovely because of course he's walking into that office
every day and seeing that and reminding himself that he's helped
all those people.
And there's always going to be someone.
I think that's the other thing,
right? There is not one person in this world that goes
by without someone saying something they did not want.
And the bigger the people where you would think,
Oh, they don't care.
They probably get it worse.
I was doing something with a Tony Robbins event the other
week and online thing and people who had paid to be
at this online event with Tony Robbins was still being negative
about him.
And I thought that just kind of summed up the ridiculousness
of it all you've paid.
And yet you're still being,
you're saying something.
So even everyone at some stage has to deal with this,
but we just have to remember,
we can't please,
everybody. We're not going to make everybody happy all the time.
And therefore,
if we're making some people happy,
we've got to focus on that.
And just for me,
the way I look at it is me as a person.
I don't feel the need to go onto the internet and
tell someone I don't like them,
or I don't like the way they dress or I don't
like the amount of weight they have because my life is
pretty nice and good.
And I'm a fairly kind person.
So for me,
I didn't feel the need to do that.
So when someone does that to us,
or if you experienced that,
the way I deal with is I think,
well, that's a real shame because their life must be pretty
awful or they must be pretty unhappy if they have to
do that.
And then I delete it and I go on with my
day. So I think that would be my advice.
If people are sat there thinking I'm too scared to do
that, I totally agree.
And some people say you really haven't made it til you
get that first negative review.
And you're right.
Can I tell you just a really quick,
funny story?
Of course.
So I had gone to this one event and I'd spoken
at this event and it was fairly early on.
I would say in like where I am compared to now,
this woman was in the audience.
I could tell she didn't like me.
She was in marketing and you could have said she was
a combat stuff.
And she had a real chip on their shoulder,
but I didn't think much of it did my talk.
And the talk was a nightmare.
The power went out.
We had to move rooms.
I couldn't use a screen.
So I went over and yeah,
it wasn't great.
But the talk itself was great.
And people really like the content.
Anyway, a few weeks later,
I'm about to do a talk somewhere else and they tweeted
out if anybody's got any questions for our speakers,
you can tweet them.
And obviously they're tagged me in and this woman had put
all these,
like, does she agree that joins are basically like,
throw me off my guard.
And anyway,
I started looking at this woman's website,
as you do.
And she had written a blog post about me,
a thousand word blog post about me and motel and how
awful it was and how she supposedly she wrote in this
blog post is a member of the chartered Institute of marketers.
She supposedly has a degree and it's like,
I don't supposedly I do like,
what are you talking about?
And then she was like a couple lead.
She didn't mention strategy,
not once.
And it was like,
well, that,
wasn't what the talk was about.
So in my head,
I sat there looking at this blog,
I'm in bed and I'm looking at this log.
I meant to be speaking at another huge event the next
day, which I know she's the same audience four.
So she's likely to be there.
And I was panicking,
right. I was sat there to my husband.
Oh my God,
look what she wrote.
She never mentioned me by name,
but it was obviously me and my dog.
So my stepdaughter who would have been,
I did have an 18 at the time,
walked in and I was like,
Oh my God,
you'll never guess what?
This woman's wrote this thing.
It's like literally a thousand words.
And she literally looked at me my stepdaughter and went,
you know what that means?
T cause my step kids going to,
you said you made it and just walked out the room.
And I was like,
okay, cool.
I've made it.
And then that was it.
Just let it ride.
And I have ever since,
cause I've got better things and bigger things to think about
and worry about.
Absolutely. And I have to just make two comments off of
that. We're not talking about anything we're supposed to be talking
about here,
but this is so great because I really think it's going
to resonate with a lot of people who are here with
us listening.
And the first thing is,
isn't it great though,
when your audience starts stacking,
you being like,
no, I don't think that that's true or like all of
that happening.
So once you have a following,
even if it's a few people,
they can help you out with that.
You don't have to deal with it.
And I think the best thing and just because this came
up, this is just a sideline business tip.
I think I heard this from Jay bear first.
How do you deal with those haters on social media or
wherever else?
It is like,
you might respond them once,
but at some point or always you just let it be.
You don't engage.
You don't go further with it.
You just let it be and move on and it will
go away.
Yeah, because they've got no fight.
There's no argument to be had if you literally just ignore
it, then they've got nowhere to go with it.
And I think I am on social media,
huge amount.
And I watched things and see things.
And inevitably,
when you respond and try and defend or argue or put
your side across,
all you're doing is adding fuel to the fire because then
they get the chance to respond again.
And if anybody knows anything about social media,
you'll know that the algorithm throws out your posts,
the more interaction it gets.
So if you put a post out and someone said something
mean, and instead of just deleting it,
because what's the point in keeping it and you respond and
then they respond and you respond and other people jump on
it. What's going to happen about posters.
It's just going to keep getting shown to more and more
and more people,
which that's not why necessarily you want people to see your
stuff. I don't want people to see my stuff and there's
a full on argument going on it.
So literally,
and I have to say as well,
being really realistic.
I barely rarely get anybody saying anything.
I don't know what I'm very lucky or I just have
a great audience,
but I don't often get negative stuff.
And I put myself out there a huge amount and people
don't tend to say mean things.
So if people are genuinely worried about it,
like I said,
as you said,
people see that negative stuff as you've made it because at
least people are seeing it and you're reaching new audiences and
new people.
And so,
yeah, but it doesn't happen very often,
but I totally agree with that.
I just delete it.
I don't know how,
how you to win out of it,
you know?
Yeah. Just let it go.
And honestly,
I don't like that kind of karma around my business.
No, not at all.
It does Good,
whatever they want to say.
Most people see through it also,
because if they're doing that to you,
they're probably doing it to others also,
or they're competing with you.
So they're feeling like they have to prove that you're less
than them or it's just not worth it.
But anyway,
so let's get off of that topic.
No, I think it was a great one to chat about.
Like I said,
I think it's going to be helpful and remind people of
the position to take if that happens to them,
but share with me how you got interested in marketing and
what led to the career that you have today.
Oh, okay.
So I have been in marketing about 16 years.
I did a degree in it back when,
when literally social media didn't exist and be the digital thing.
And I had actually gone to university a little bit later
than normal.
I, I used to be a nationalist,
like talk about career change.
And I started doing a business degree,
really enjoyed the marketing specialized in that.
And then basically went off to have this marketing career worked
in loads of different businesses,
loads of different massive companies like Landrover heading up their corporate
marketing to teeny tiny businesses where I literally did everything myself
and I loved it.
And I got the experience of almost every type of marketing
you can imagine.
And one of my last jobs where I was employed,
I worked for a marketing agency.
And again,
I got to be head of marketing.
I got to work with clients.
I got to do everything,
which is wonderful and lots and lots of experience.
And then I joke,
I had a bit of an early midlife crisis because I
had just gone through a separation with my husband.
My daughter was about three,
four at the time.
And I started getting to the point where I thought for
my happiness and my wellbeing,
I needed to change jobs.
Like I loved where I work.
I'd always had such a good time that,
but it just,
it run its course.
It was time to move on.
So I kind of really arrogantly put my notes in thinking
I'm going to give matrix status.
I'll find another job.
I was good at what I did.
I've done marketing for a long time and it was my
world. And I thought,
yeah, I'll get another job.
And then forgot that where I live in structure in the
UK, the money is not that great.
And also the jobs are not that sort of,
there's not that many.
So I got about three weeks into my notice and thought,
Oh my goodness,
like nothing has coming forward.
And I started toying with the idea of what if I
started my own business at which point my boss at the
time decided that she had got wind and herded the fact
that I might be doing this and asked me to leave.
So then I was basically,
I had about one month salary.
I have no husbands,
so no other income coming into the house.
I had no savings.
My parents are not wealthy.
So I had no rich parents to lean back on at
a haste that I have to pay the mortgage on a
car. But I had to run a daughter that I had
to feed and I was on my own.
I had to do it all.
And basically we decided pretty much overnight.
I'm going to set up my own consultancy slash agency and
I'm going to offer social media and marketing to other businesses
and basically for the first year or so.
Absolutely like when you talk about hustle,
I hustled because I had to earn about 1700 times a
month to keep the roof over my daughter's had food on
the table and run the car,
like and pay the bills.
I have no choice.
I had to earn that money.
And I think I never intended on having my own business,
never in a million years,
I was a great employee.
I liked being an employee because I was so risk averse.
And there's nothing like a driver.
Like you're going to lose the house that you have for
you and your daughter,
if you don't earn this money.
And I did.
And it's really hard to explain to people now what I
did or how we did it,
but I just put myself out there.
I just basically went to every meeting,
did all the network and put all the proposals together.
And then after like a couple of years,
when you think great,
I'm going to leave my boss.
I know with myself and I'll be my own boss.
And then you have clients and you realize,
actually I'm not my own boss.
I have now 18 of them.
And that's really hard.
And also at that time,
I was being picked up to speak and to go places
and to train and to do things around the world and
then trying to manage the agency.
Even though by that point,
I got a team.
It was really hard.
And I learned all the new type of marketing stuff because
obviously I know I've done marketing for a long time,
but this industry moves.
So I'd been learning online.
I'd been learning from the Marie Smith's of the world,
the Pat Flynn's,
the Amy,
Porterfield's all these people who have online businesses.
And I looked at that and thought,
that's what I need.
I need an online business.
I want genuinely a business that will get to a point
where it's a one to many model.
So I'm not trading my time for money,
that I can help more businesses and more businesses that couldn't
necessarily afford to have us do the stuff for them.
And I've seen all this advice out there.
I'd seen all this,
all these different people and it was made so big and
complicated and overwhelming.
And I just wanted to do it in a way that
I could go,
this is what it is.
And it's not that difficult.
You just need to know what to do.
And let's have some realism about this as a business owner,
running a business,
I know you can't do it all and you can't the
big campaigns or you don't have the budgets.
And I wanted to bring it to a level that really
helped. So my business today looks like an online membership.
So I have an Academy where I have lots of business,
people from all over the world who come in and they
learn social media and they learn how to sell things online,
how to do Facebook ads.
They get on coaching calls with me,
where they can ask me questions and I can help them
with their businesses.
And then also I have a 90 day program that basically
goes much more in depth and you have a lot more
interaction, more calls.
You have some one-to-one calls and we move you quick.
So you get on a call with me and you tell
me what you want to do.
And I help you do that fast.
So that's what I do date and I speak.
And like we were talking before we got on the call
that normally we speak on stages or as the moment we're
speaking to digitally,
which is great.
But obviously I am looking forward to the day I get
to speak on stages.
I agree,
but I will say also I'm seeing this a lot with
my community too,
is that people are now more comfortable also going into zoom
meeting rooms or all the virtual.
So I think in a way it's going to help us
as we move forward,
because I think there'll still be that element.
And I'm sure when you're interacting with your community,
you're still doing a lot virtually,
even though you also get to see them in person.
Absolutely. So I'm feeling like longterm.
This is going to kind of help us with that.
But one thing in terms of your background and totally makes
sense. I mean,
I've heard that from a lot of people,
people who go from corporate to more one on one coaching,
but then the freedom that they thought they were getting with
their business,
isn't really freedom at all.
And then how do you adjust it and how do you
switch it and do it different?
So give biz listeners,
I'm thinking for you,
a couple of things that you can twist to relate to
you is if you're currently still in a nine to five
job, what's the industry.
What context are you making?
What big names are you working with?
Because how impressed are all of us Theresa about the names
of the people that you worked with?
Like big names,
right? So you can use that credibility as you go off
on your own.
So I'm thinking,
let's say you want to be a candle maker.
Cause you all know that's my very favorite thing in the
world. And you work right now at a hospital.
Like you're one of our essential workers,
but you're building your candle business on the side,
you know,
so much about the health industry.
What does having peace of mind of a candle burning in
your living room,
give to you and enhance your life?
Like there's a way you can take what you're currently doing
right now and add it as a beneficial layer on top
of the products that you're making.
And that's what you did because your first clients,
I'm quite sure people came to you because you had the
credibility land Rover,
Jaguar, like the big names.
You've got to know what you're doing.
Like you have to Yeah,
exactly. They wouldn't employ someone that didn't know what they were
talking about.
And like you said,
I love that.
I love the fact of taking something that you're doing currently
and you're passionate and like,
okay, this might not be the thing you want to do
going forward.
So if you're a nurse or you're in that kind of
industry, then granted you might rather want to do candle making,
but you've got these two areas and how can they come
together? And I think that's so powerful when I was talking,
I was interviewing someone the other day and she had gone
from corporate marketing to holistic and she was doing holistic therapies
and doing energy healing and all this sort of thing.
And then she bought it together to basically create a business
where she helps holistic people market their businesses.
And it's like,
brilliant. It was like your two superpowers you've bought together and
you've created a niche thing for you to do.
So I think that's such a good idea.
Cause initially I'd imagine if you're listening to this and you
are in,
let's say you're a nurse or whatever,
and you'll start thinking,
well, I don't know how to get connected,
but actually is there something that you can take from that
into the new business?
I think that's such a good idea.
So yeah.
And then it also positions you differently than anybody else.
Who's candle making to continue with our example.
Absolutely. But really gives you a unique feel to your brand,
et cetera,
but, okay.
So just wanted to bring that up in your path has
been so interesting.
And so now that leads to a couple other questions for
you. You've seen both sides now you've seen corporate and now
you're working with some smaller entrepreneurs at all levels,
small, medium,
et cetera.
What differences do you see between the two big corporate giants
and their marketing and what we're trying to do as entrepreneurs
stay tuned?
Because we're going to be talking about the value and the
opportunities you have as a small business owner versus the big
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So this is a great question because actually there are positives
and negatives to both.
So for me,
one of the most beautiful things about being a small entrepreneur
solo preneur,
small team,
just starting out is that you are completely and utterly flexible
and can move fast.
You can learn something and implement it really quickly.
So actually there are things that I do in my business
that I know big companies are not doing and should be.
And having been on the other end of it,
of being in a big company,
trying to implement anything new and trying to suggest a new
system. So for instance,
there are a million marketing systems like you want to schedule
it. I can suggest 20 off the top of my head.
There's hundreds.
You want some things to send your emails and to tag
people and do funnels.
Great. You want something to create your sales pages or your
landing pages.
Brilliant. Again,
there are all these systems,
but in a corporate world,
if you want to introduce and change anything,
it takes not just months but years to do this,
right, because it's so big and you've got so many people
to consider.
And there's a whole process when it comes to bringing on
a new system or working with a new supplier and that
sort of thing.
So for me,
one of the beauties about small business is the fact that
we get to tweak,
change, shift,
move. And I think this has been no more obvious than
since going through COVID since I remember one of the reasons
I left land Rover in the end,
which actually is very sad.
This one I was trying for baby,
and just the thought where I lived and where head office
was, was miles and miles.
And I just thought this wouldn't be manageable.
And the other reason was because I wanted to work from
home and there was no reason why I couldn't like literally
I did a job where I worked at agencies where I
worked with the salespeople where area sales peoples,
they weren't based in the office.
So the only person based in the office was my boss.
And it was like,
I don't need to be cited to do my job.
He said,
no, there was no way I could work from home.
And then look at what's happened.
Everyone's hands went from home and you're going to get loads
of people go in to work.
It's like people are more productive.
So that for me is one of the real positives of
having your own small business.
The downside,
I would say in the positive for the corporate is that
I have a team of agencies and a team of experts
and people who worked in other businesses that could bring me
their thoughts that we could get around the table,
have a conversation,
throw ideas together.
And sometimes even as a marketer in my own business,
that's really hard for me to do people think because I
do this other people that I must have all the ideas.
It's not,
I have been used to sitting around a table,
chatting to other marketers,
other people in the business and getting their advice and doing
it as a team.
I have a team,
but they're all virtual.
And obviously it's not quite the same as being sat in
an office and having a regular meeting.
And I don't know about,
you said you've done corporate work,
you have meetings or meeting sakes.
So you end up coming a lot of meetings.
And obviously we don't do that in this world because we're
efficient. We do the work that we need to do and
then we move on and do something else.
And so,
yes, I think there is definitely negatives and positives of both.
I think for me,
I love the world in,
especially now things move so fast,
new ideas come up all the time.
And I think we should be very grateful that we are
flexible to do these changes and things.
And if we've got a bit of help with that,
a VA or someone on our team then brilliant.
But I think that's a really positive thing.
Yeah. I agree with the nimbleness of a small business.
Do you remember when social media was just coming out,
which actually you transitioned almost right at the perfect time.
Yeah, I did.
Do you remember,
like corporations were so afraid to let their employees talk about
the company?
Do you remember that?
Honestly, and small businesses that had really gotten it were all
over it and they were attracting audiences like crazy.
And would you say,
I think it was like two or three years before any
large business started recognizing the value of doing that.
It took a long,
long time,
Absolutely. A huge amount of time.
And also what was interesting is suddenly these teeny tiny businesses
blew up overnight.
Like, because they thought,
well, what's the worst that can happen.
And actually that's a really positive thing.
And the fact that they hadn't got investors and 500 staff
and headquarters,
so actually being nimble.
That's a great word.
Actually, I'm going to,
I'm going to steal that one soon in terms of a
way to describe it,
take it and nimble and being able to go,
do you know what I'm going to try it?
If it doesn't work,
it doesn't work actually was a huge success for some people.
And then it took these giants a long time to catch
up and then it wasn't natural and it wasn't easy.
And then so it's taken,
I think.
And I think some of them still don't have it right
at all,
but it's taken them a long time to kind of,
for us to identify with them from a social point of
view. Whereas when it's you and your business,
I know I've got someone in my membership who she makes
memory gifts.
So she basically takes baby clothes of like,
when your baby's growing out of them and for their first
birthday, she might take all of the baby clothes.
She will then create them into this,
a beautiful elephant or this amazing kind of sloppy or whatever
the character is that they choose.
And it's patchwork of all these beautiful things and quality is
amazing skills.
Amazing. One thing that's really good is that she gets to
show her.
So not only did we get to see her product and
what she's selling,
but we get to know her and we get to see
that she's got kids and that she's juggling a family and
what she's been doing through dine and sort of the connection
that we make with her is so much stronger because of
that, because not only do we want to get her to
do the product or want to buy that thing from her,
but actually we like it and we understand her and she
understands and you start getting that personal connection that you can
only get through the personal aspect of it.
And that's where the bigger company struggled because trying to get
them to kind of show that personality one they're terrified.
And two it's really hard with a big corporate.
So again,
I think that's a real advantage in the world of authenticity
and vulnerability that small business owners can do where the corporates
really struggle.
I agree with you.
I mean,
they're still trying to keep control,
stick on brand,
stay with the message,
all of that type of thing.
But I think one of the points,
and I agree with you.
I also did my stint in corporate and loved it.
I wasn't one of those who,
I mean,
I was ready for the neck.
Actually. I wanted to stay home with the kids for a
few years.
So that's what I did when I could.
And there's nothing wrong with corporate.
Like my experience with corporate,
I think has set me up for my future,
but big corporate meetings that because they're scheduled for an hour,
we're going to sit in there an hour when really productive
talk was 15 minutes,
things like that.
But I think some of that has changed too.
We've all heard about people having standup meetings instead of sit
down meetings,
all that kind of thing.
But to your point about being able to sit down with
experts, I'm feeling like that where networking and masterminds,
even at a local level,
with people who aren't in the same type of businesses,
you can really help fill the void there where you can
banter back and forth strategies and ideas and thoughts and coaching
groups too.
Same thing.
So we're,
it was a weakness.
I think there's a way for us to fill it in
as something that's even more beneficial for us.
I totally agree.
And I think one of the interesting things actually,
and you just mentioned it then was having a group that
isn't necessarily all your industry.
So one thing that we do all the time is we'll
have a coaching call a couple of times a month,
where everyone is able to get on screen.
They get on screen with me and it's one of the
most enjoyable things I do because I don't have to plan
anything. I don't create anything.
I literally just turn up.
Everybody comes on,
we have a bit of a chat and then anybody,
who's got a question,
I answer it.
And what's great is because I know who's in the membership
and I know what they do.
And, and I have an idea is if I am talking
to one of them and they're saying,
should I do this on my website?
Or should I do this on social media?
Or should I create a lead magnet about this or whatever,
then I'm able to go answer that question,
but then turn to someone else and go,
actually, you know,
so, and so that would also work really well for you.
But so,
and so I wouldn't do that if I was you.
And again,
it's like having different industries opens you up to ideas that
you would never have thought of,
or no one's ever tried in your industry.
And actually why wouldn't it work and being the first could
be amazing.
So for me,
I love that.
I love the,
and I paid and I'm part of mastermind groups and coaching
groups in order to do that as well in order to
just listen to what people say and what they do and
go, okay,
cool. I actually,
why wouldn't that work?
Or why couldn't I take a version of that?
And so,
yeah, I totally agree.
That has gotta be our version of having Those people around
us. Yeah.
I'm a huge advocate of that.
Actually. I always recommend both.
So if you are into,
let's say promotional products and you do sublimation or something,
then you want to be in a group that is consistent
with peers of yours at the product that you have.
But then also being kind of like my group gift biz
breeze, we have all people,
we have bakers in there,
we have candlemakers powders jewelry.
And so they all just like you were saying,
get to chat with each other about a handmade business,
but it's true because you can get so siphoned into the
terminology of your industry,
the approaches of your industry,
but by having still some commonality,
but a little bit of a different focus,
it really can become valuable.
I agree with you.
Totally. I see the same thing over on my side.
Do you not think as well,
sometimes that I see all the time in,
well, I used to,
I don't do so much of this work man,
but when I worked with businesses as in businesses that had
a team and a marketing department,
they just did the same things all the time because they
got themselves into a row and they're like,
this is now what we do.
And that was it.
So they didn't bring in any new ideas.
They didn't think about new things.
So for me having those other people and new ideas is
a really,
really good thing.
Yeah. Yeah.
I agree with you.
The other thing I think that would happen is the bosses,
the higher ups,
depending on how the company structure was,
were requiring certain reports.
So you had to work for the information that needed to
go on a piece of paper that needed to go to
a report and didn't move the needle at all for anything
you were trying to accomplish.
But by golly,
if you didn't have that paper done,
like where's the report.
Right? Right.
Honestly, it is like you said,
meeting some meeting sake reports for Jose and just not being
able to go with your gut sometimes just because you know
that actually I think that is really going to work.
Can we try it?
Yeah. Don't we all feel lighter now as the owners of
our own businesses,
I've loved this conversation so far and you know what else
I'm seeing,
and I'm not sure if you're seeing it in the UK,
I'm thinking you probably are,
but here in America,
I'm getting this real strong feeling of,
and part of it is probably because of COVID,
but it was happening already before then is support of small
businesses. I mean,
even favoring small businesses over now face it,
there's always going to be room for Amazon and target.
And like some of the big box stores where you can
get a lot of products cheaply,
but the quality and supporting a handmade business or a small
business of any sort,
right. Seems to becoming more and more favorable these days.
Do you see that?
Yeah, I absolutely do see that.
I think it comes down to,
because of something like social media,
because of how open and authentic our marketing is now is
that we decide that we want to work with people.
We like,
we want to buy from people.
We like.
So I want to support the companies that I enjoy interacting
with. So there's,
I joke that.
And if you check out my about page on my website,
I say that I drink tea because I'm British and by
tea. I mean,
Jen and I loved you.
We gotta get together when you come to San Diego next.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
And we do gin while in the UK,
we've got a lot of gin over here,
but there's this amazing shop,
probably like 30 minutes from where I live that sells all
these amazing,
different gens that you wouldn't necessarily see in a supermarket or
shop. And what's amazing about going to them,
even though it's out of my way,
even though it's not delivering to my door and I could
probably get it,
maybe a paint or two cheaper by ordering it online is
that when I walk into that shop and I say to
the owner,
I'm thinking about this one,
what do you think she knows me so well,
now that she'll go,
that's not for you to raise it.
I don't think you're going to like that.
Or she can give me a sample of it.
And that is why I will go to her all the
time as compared to buying it from Amazon or from an
online store,
because she knows the same as the love that goes into
the products that Nick my member creates.
I would rather go to her.
So by having some cushions done,
I've recently done my garden.
I got the most interaction of stuff I've ever done if
I'm on it.
But you know,
people love that stuff.
And I was having some cushions made.
And of course my first place was,
Oh, I love Nick.
Nick does great stuff.
I wonder if she wants to do this.
I wonder if this is what she would do.
And I went to her and said,
you know,
do you make cushions?
She's like,
yeah, great.
I'm like,
I gave her the business because we want to work with
people we like,
and that we resonate with.
And I think that is one of the reasons why we
are wanting to support smaller businesses and buy from those businesses.
Because like you said,
there is always going to be stuff that I order from
Amazon without dates like the kids go through charger,
wires on phones.
Like you wouldn't really,
I don't know why they obviously eat the most of thing,
but so I'm going to buy that from Amazon.
But like for other things where the skill has gone into
it, and especially in the handmade industry,
it's not the same,
it's the skill of what you do.
And what you're making is your superpower.
That's your USP.
And you'll do it slightly different to someone else and your
market in a way that's slightly different.
Or you'll talk about why you love it in a different
way. And that will inspire me to buy from you.
Absolutely. And I think people are also getting tired of having
let's use your cushion covers.
Okay. You don't want to go to one of your friend's
houses and see that they have the same cushion covers.
You want to be unique.
And I think that's why some of we're going away from
some of the more quote unquote chain type stores,
because our friends are going to have something similar.
Or if I'm in Houston,
I could buy the same thing that I could buy here
in Chicago.
And that starting now to get boring and more unique is
starting to become more popular.
But here's the thing Theresa,
and I know you're going to have some really good information
to say on top of this is the only way you
get that connection.
Like you went to your gin person,
right? Like you walked in.
And so you started building a relationship that way.
And the way we have to do it online too,
is showing up,
being there,
like you were just talking about how we want to buy
from people that we like,
who kind of know us,
where we've established a relationship.
The only way we I'm speaking gift biz listeners,
you and I are going to have our audience know us
is by showing up and being online and being our personal
selves, not hiding behind posts all the time,
but showing ourselves,
Honestly, this for me is one of the biggest things for
any business.
That's a smaller business.
And especially in this industry,
so showing up and showing who you are and having that
conversation is important anyhow,
like regardless of whether it's online or whatever,
and if it was a networking situation.
So let's say previous to COVID,
let's say you were going out and you were networking.
And actually that was bringing you in a bit of business.
And that was great.
You're basically walking into a room full of other business owners,
whether it's a mum thing,
whether it's a,
whatever the thing is,
and you're going up and having conversations with people and I
like an online to this,
right? So imagine the scenario you are in a networking situation,
you walk into the room and you walk up to someone
and introduce yourself because that's what you do.
You don't know anybody and you go,
hi, Sarah,
my name's Teresa,
how are you doing?
She's like,
yeah, I'm good.
And you tell them what you do.
And you ask what she does.
And you have a bit of a conversation.
You say,
have you been here before?
Knows my first time.
Okay. Do you know anybody?
And you make small talk and then it comes like 60
seconds or whatever it is.
And you give your elevator pitch about what you do and
then that's it.
And you go home and then you go again the following
week and Sarah is there again.
And of course it's a familiar face and like,
Oh, hi,
Sarah, how you doing?
How was your weekend?
And then you start having a conversation about Sarah has got
kids. Oh,
great. How would your children mind at this age?
And you start to find similarities.
And then you kind of go,
did you do that?
Have you tried this?
And then you find that a bit more about that business.
And over the weeks coming,
and she keeps listening to 60 seconds and you keep listening
to hers and then eventually Sarah will get,
you know,
well, I have a need for this.
And I'm thinking that you might be able to help.
And then eventually you have that kind of,
okay, let me show you what I do or let me
give you some information that might help.
And if you get stuck,
then come and have a chat and we can work together.
And then you get into that conversation.
Okay. So then let's take that networking meeting online.
So effectively what's happening in online is you are walking into
that networking room and you're going,
hi, Sarah,
my name's Teresa and I have an online business membership.
It does this,
it's this much money would you like to buy it?
And then they look at you like you have three heads
because it would be the weirdest scenario in the world.
If you were to do that in person.
But what happens is you do it online and no one
buys and you don't know why that is.
You look at that and go,
well, this is rubbish.
It doesn't work like Facebook ads,
terrible don't work.
But what you've done is you've missed out all of that
preamble. You've missed out.
This is who I am.
This is what I do on a weekend.
This is why I do what I do.
These are some of the products I settled.
This is what I love about what I do.
This is me on a Sunday night preparing for my week.
This is me sat in a messy office,
trying to tidy up.
I've just had loads of samples of materials in.
This is me and my kids helping me make this thing.
This is me doing the process.
And then there's the other side of that of you showing
up is you interacting again?
Social media is a online networking.
This isn't a billboard for businesses to go buy my staff,
look at my stuff.
So again,
it's about you responding to their comments.
It's you knowing who you're trying to sell to and going
to like their stuff and commenting on their stuff.
So let's say if I take my example of my member
next, she sells these products that are normally mums or Nan's
or whatever that buy them.
The children are fairly young still,
cause they're normally using like a one year old and once
they've grown out and that sort of thing.
So Nick needs to be going to places where those types
of people are going to hang out.
She needs to be commenting on their picture.
She needs to be having conversations with them.
She needs to be replying to their stories because this is
the two way conversation.
This is the two week thing.
And this is the thing that people miss out.
They see it as a billboard.
They say,
buy my stuff and no one buys and they go,
either social media is rubbish.
It doesn't work.
Or I'm rubbish.
I've got a terrible product.
No one wants to buy it.
And it's not the case.
It's the case of,
I had a great example where there's a lady who just
joined my membership about a week or two ago.
And she joined my membership after an entire year of following
me. So she saw me speak at an event over a
year ago.
She then saw me speak at another event.
Probably six months later,
she's followed all my stuff.
She likes all my posts.
She listens to my podcast.
She does all the things,
but it took her 12 months to make the decision to
join the membership.
Now, what if I had said to her in day one,
John, to buy my stuff and she had said no,
and I'd gotten one that was a waste of time.
It takes time.
And it takes that commitment to show up and go.
This is who I am and be really vulnerable about it.
And talk about your process and talk about how you're managing
or how you're transitioning through from part time to full time
in the business or the new machine you've just got or
a new way that you create a particular thing that you
do. So we want to see that stuff.
And again,
just really quickly,
I have a friend who is a jewelry maker and she,
I didn't realize,
cause I've obviously had it yet.
She would come in and I'd see her and she'd make
these beautiful rings.
Or she would say,
this is one of my rings and dada stunning.
And it's gorgeous.
And it was really high end.
And it occurred to me after several,
several months of being friends,
I went,
do you actually meet them?
Well? And I said,
do you actually meet that?
And she's like,
yeah. I said,
I didn't realize it.
You actually made them.
I assumed that she designed them and then maybe she sent
them off somewhere or because these were absolutely amazing.
And these are big diamonds and,
and I was blown away and they said,
but you know what?
I've been friends all this time.
Obviously I'd never asked the question,
but I follow you on social media.
And I don't know that.
And that's not good.
I need to see you do that.
I need to see that you've got that skill because the
credibility of my opinion of you will go up tenfold.
Yeah. This is such a good point because I think we're
so close to the products that we made and what we
do, we're too close.
And so it's kind of like if you were going across
a Grambling Creek and the stones were like super far apart,
so you had to jump to each stone.
Right. But instead of the stones were closer together,
you could just walk across them easily.
I think that's what we do because that's so interesting that
you didn't know.
And she's a close friend,
but she didn't tell you.
And so if you didn't know,
as a friend,
what do you think about social media viewers?
There's no way we have to like walk or take people's
hand and walk them through.
And it seems so obvious to us,
but this is such a great story.
I'm so glad you said that it's so true.
And that helps us with content then,
right? Because we already have more content than we think of
as makers,
because we can talk about the systems,
give sneak,
peeks of behind the scenes.
How do you create things?
Show finished product,
just show lifestyle things,
how you incorporate all of this stuff.
But we have to be showing that and putting it out
there. I think of the things that you think are obvious,
right? I don't know that you saw another friend of mine.
My daughter and her daughter are best friends and she makes
clothes for children.
And Oh,
this woman's got an eye for fabric.
It is so beautiful.
Like it's so,
so good.
And I went to pick up my daughter from her house
the other week she'd had a play day and she told
me that she is now designing the fabrics and giving them
to fabric maker and basically making her own fabrics and the
designs you cannot get anywhere else because she is designing them.
Right. And that one blew my mind.
Cause I was like,
how incredibly talented is this woman?
But again,
that's what you need to tell me.
And you don't need to tell me once you need to
tell me every week in our social media posts,
you need to frame it in a different way or you
need to show a different picture or you need to,
because we all know,
even if I followed you and loved your stuff and kept
watching it,
I still only see probably less than half.
And if that was,
if I was like a really big fan,
the truth is the organic reach is so low.
The people who open your emails,
if you're lucky,
it's 20,
30%. We think as business owners,
we are bombarding people and I'm telling you,
we are nowhere near.
And if let's say,
for instance,
you're putting all this amazing content out.
You're telling people what you do all the time.
You're doing calls to action.
You're showing how you make it.
You're telling them that your superpowers about what makes you so
brilliant. And let's say for instance,
there is one person looking at thinking,
God, I'm sick of that.
I've seen it five times.
They're not your customer.
So if they want to choose to unfollow,
you absolutely fine.
Cause they're never going to buy your stuff.
Honestly. You think that?
I can't say that again.
Cause everyone knows that they don't.
The lady that had followed me for 12 months,
she actually said to me,
before she joined,
she hadn't even looked at,
was included in the Academy.
Hadn't even been to the sales page.
And I just thought,
I sit here thinking I talk about it all the time.
And I actually evidently I don't because someone who follows me
really avidly had never even clicked to look at the sales
page. So yeah,
you've got to put it out there.
You've got to keep saying,
you've got to keep promoting those things cause we won't see
it. Right.
Or they might just not be in the market for it
right now.
Exactly. And if you don't stay in front of them with
your message,
when they are ready to buy,
you're not going to be there,
but someone else might be.
So you always have to be out there.
Okay. As we start winding down here,
are there any mistakes or cautions you would give us that
you continue seeing people doing with marketing?
Yeah. I think the key thing for me is that interaction
and that engagement because of the fact that people are seeing
as kind of an advert or a kind of way to
shape the world,
that it's gotta be a two way thing.
And also,
especially in this industry,
user generated content is like the best thing.
So you are in an industry where you sell products and
not just like any product,
but handmade,
beautiful love,
poured into crafted,
skilled, amazing stuff.
Okay. So you want to do everything in your power to
get other people,
to talk about how amazing those products are.
So when you send your product or you sell your product
or however you get it to your customer,
you want a card in there that says I'm on social
media. And I would love it.
If you would take a photo and tag me in,
if you would share with your friends,
this thing and then incentivize them.
So tell them,
if you do this once a month,
I pick one winner who has tagged me in a post
and I give you a 20 page voucher or $20 voucher,
or I give you a chance to win X,
Y, Z.
You've got to give them incentive because at the end of
day, people got their own stuff to do and they need
that incentive.
But trying to get as many people to be posting on
social media,
your products,
your staff,
working with people who are maybe brand advocates,
maybe micro-influencers,
but you want people to be showing your staff because you
saying, look how lovely my stuff is,
is great.
However, sharing on Insta story,
we tweeting sharing on Facebook,
someone else going,
Oh my goodness,
I've just got this.
And how amazing is it that works 10 fold as good
as you could do.
So user generated content,
like I said,
look for the opportunities.
Definitely when your sending them stuff and make sure there's a
card in there,
make sure you're asking them maybe in a followup email or
in the email that confirms the item or whatever it is.
Think about all the places and all the ways in which
you can encourage someone to take a photo to tag you
in, to share the joy of the thing that they've just
received. Oh my gosh,
Theresa, that is like the golden nugget of this whole conversation.
Oh, I loved it.
Cause it's kind of like you and I are just sitting
across the table,
chatting about business and all,
and this one actionable tip.
Everybody can take,
every single person can take this and use this to grow
their business.
So that is dynamite.
Uh, We talked a little bit about,
well, quite a bit earlier about what you have going,
where can people go and read more about that?
So if you had to Teresa Heath wearing.com,
if you literally Google Teresa Heath wearing,
you're going to find me pick your favorite platform.
Mine is Instagram.
So you'll see me that more often than not.
And if you go to dot com forward slash Academy,
then you can check out the Academy or go check out
marketing the converts podcast.
That's where you can find me Perfect.
And as always,
there'll be a show notes page.
So if you didn't catch that right off the top,
just go check the show notes page will have all the
links there for you to reset.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate your time today.
It has been an absolute pleasure talking with you.
My pleasure.
Thank you so much for having me see,
See what I mean?
Wasn't it fun to have some girl talk about business and
catch some major business tips at the same time,
seriously use the user generated content idea.
Theresa gave us at the end.
It's golden.
Want to know what's coming up for next week.
We're going to be talking to a product maker.
Who's only been in business for a couple of years,
but in starting her business,
she trusted her gut.
Listen to her growing community and has a lot to tell
us about her journey things you'll be able to take and
use in your business too.
So that's a wrap for this week.
Thank you as always for being here.
If you'd like to show support for the show,
please leave a rating and review.
That means so much and helps the show get seen by
more makers.
It's a great way to pay it forward and now be
safe and well.
And I'll see you again next week on the gift biz
unwrapped podcast.
Bye for now.
I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook
group called gift is free.
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 posts 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.
Come join us in gift biz breeze today.