For most designers and makers, our relationships with retailers can make a major difference in our businesses. And unfortunately, the programs we use to sell to retailers don't always have our best interests in mind. In the case of Faire, one of my favorite wholesale marketplaces, their default settings can actually limit your reach and prevent retailers from reordering the products they love.
In this episode, I’m talking to designer, illustrator, and store owner Genesis Duncan about her experience being both a retailer and a wholesaler. She’s sharing the mindset shift that happened when she got to see the industry from the other side. Plus, she’s explaining how zip code protection in Faire might actually be limiting your business.
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Imposter syndrome is very common in the entrepreneur space. That feeling that we haven’t truly earned the success we’ve had. Imposter syndrome can mean feeling like a fraud or phony — like we’re not truly talented or good at what we do.
In this episode, I’m sharing a sneak peek into one of my monthly coaching calls inside the Proof to Product LABS program. During these calls, I answer pre-submitted member questions about how to run - and grow - a product based business. In this call, I shared four strategies for combating imposter syndrome, avoiding burnout, and building your confidence as a business owner.
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Feeling confident with your organic digital marketing and ready to scale even further? Why not dip your toe into the world of paid advertising? Paid digital marketing might sound intimidating, but with a solid strategy and clear goals, it can truly help you increase exposure and leads for your e-commerce business.
In this episode, I’m talking to Alex Rossman, founder of Rossman Media, an award-winning social media agency, about the ways small e-commerce brands can leverage paid advertising in their businesses. He’s sharing his tips for getting started with paid ads, which platforms are the most beneficial right now, and how much money you need to invest in your ads to see results.
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We all know that Search Engine Optimization is vital to ranking on Google and attracting website traffic. But if you’ve never worked on your site’s SEO, where do you start? How do you find the right keywords? And once you find those keywords, where do you put them?
In this episode, I’m talking to SEO expert Jessica Freeman of Jess Creatives about how you can use SEO to attract new customers to your website. She’s sharing her workflow for finding and implementing the right keywords, and she’s also explaining how you can use SEO in your product development process.
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Your business has a lot of moving parts. It’s easy to let opportunities to make a little extra money (or eliminate sneaky expenses) slip right past your radar. So how can you optimize your revenue and minimize those “leaky pipe” expenses? The answer is right on your website!
In this episode, I’m talking to e-commerce conversion expert Reese Spykerman about all the hidden places you can find extra money in your business. She’ll share her tips for crafting a beautiful and functional e-commerce website, and we’ll chat about a few of the trends we’re seeing in the online business world right now.
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You want to develop a new product, but how do you know how much to spend on supplies? It can be tricky forecasting for upcoming product drops, especially for products you’ve never sold before. But with the right data, you can make educated estimates about your upcoming products to order supplies and budget with confidence.
In this episode, I’m sharing a sneak peek into one of our monthly coaching calls inside the Proof to Product LABS program. During these calls, I answer pre-submitted member questions about how to run - and grow - a product-based business. In this call, I helped members forecast their spending for project development and budget for upcoming launches - even years in advance.
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Do you feel like social media is a chore? Many people I talk with find Instagram to be draining but know it’s an important part of their sales and marketing so they keep posting and creating content. But what if using Instagram could be a way for you to begin meaningful conversations with your audience?
In this episode, I’m joined by Natasha Samuel, host of The Shine Online Podcast and an Instagram Strategist that helps small businesses shine online. Natasha shares Instagram trends you should pay attention to, how to use video to showcase your products, strategies specifically for product based businesses and why even introverts can create videos with confidence.
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If you’ve been itching to grow your business then you’ll love today’s inspiring episode with Megan Fowler of Brown Parcel Press. In 2020, Megan’s business exploded and she saw over 300% growth. Even more impressive, just one SKU accounts for over 50% of her business’ annual profits.
In this episode, Megan shares how she leaned into her passion and ultimately started her now thriving business. She talks about her strategies for loving on her customers and how she’s leveraged both our Paper Camp and LABS communities (along with a lot of hard work and determination) to build the business she has today.
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Storytelling is such a powerful way to connect with your customers. Our current and prospective customers want to know the people behind the brand, why you make the products you do and what your brand stands for.
In this week's all new episode of Proof to Product, I chat withMichelle Knight of Brandmerry. She takes us on the path to discovering how to create a more authentic connection with our customers through storytelling; and how this type of marketing will provide you with more income and impact.
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One big lesson I learned over the past year: the importance of routines! I crave a routine and to be honest, before now, I don’t know if I ever realized how deeply I needed routines. When we were thrown into the pandemic and our school, work and household routines were constantly in flux, I saw the influence that routines had.
In this episode, I’m chatting with routine expert, host of the Routine & Things Podcast and founder of Routine & Things, Ashley Brown. Routine & Things is a product based business company that equips women to consistently live their happiest life one routine at a time. She opens up about how she began this business based on her personal struggles as a stay-at-home mom.
Ashley shares her insights into why she decided to hire a graphic designer for her products instead of creating them herself. She talks about her experience with gaining press and her strategy for getting her brand featured in the media. We also talk about the incredible giveback program she did with She Rises for Mother’s Day.
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Dream with me for a moment: what could happen if you committed to posting daily on TikTok for 2 months straight? Could you perhaps significantly grow your visibility, traffic to your website and even sales?
In this episode, I’m talking to Kyle Sommer of Sommer Letter Co. She's someone who did exactly that and her results were pretty incredible. Kyle and I dive deep into her TikTok growth including how she’s grown her website traffic by 30% and increased daily sales by 15%+. Kyle reviewed her stats after we recorded and found her stats to be even better than she shared in the episode with a 40% increase in website traffic and increased daily sales being 25%!
She shares her story of how she got started on TikTok and why she decided to commit to 2 months of daily posting as a test. We also chat about how the platform is different from Instagram, her content strategies (plus what hasn’t worked in her experience) and of course the analytics that she monitors to track audience and financial growth.
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Have you ever taken a look at bigger brands or household products and considered, how can I implement what they’re doing in my own business?
In this episode, I was joined by brand growth strategist and founder of Startward Consulting, Maureen Mwangi. She shares how big brands are humanizing their marketing and what data points we should (and shouldn’t) be paying attention to. Spoiler alert: you can stop worrying about the number of followers you have on Instagram.
Maureen and I also chat about tech tools to use for measuring the ROI on your marketing, how you can leverage data and her tips on optimizing your brand!
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Hey friends! Considering additional revenue streams for your business? Ever thought about licensing? It’s true that most of the seasoned product based businesses have multiple arms of their business: they might sell wholesale, retail, license art, have a brick & mortar shop or offer drop shipping….. there are a lot of ways to build a profitable, sustainable business.
That’s why I brought on Stacie Bloomfield. Stacie has an abundance of experience in licensing and has been creating artwork for brands and products since 2009. Her brand, Gingiber, has products sold in more than 800 stores. In 2020, Stacy began educating the creative community about licensing through her course Leverage Your Art AND she published her first book!
Take a listen to hear how she landed her first licensing deal, tips for negotiating licensing contracts and the importance of resilience when it comes to pitching yourself for licensing deals.
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Hey friends! Are you ready to start getting more results from your Pinterest strategy? Then you’ll love this conversation with guest, Kate Ahl. Kate is the owner and CEO of Simple Pin Media, a Pinterest management and marketing agency.
Kate and her team have worked with over 600 Pinterest accounts and consulted with thousands of people about how to best use Pinterest for their business or brand. In this episode, she talks about some of the upcoming trends she’s seeing for Pinterest and how to rethink your Pinterest strategy to inspire and inform pinners.
Kate and I discuss a lot in this episode about the things you need to know about Pinterest including what analytics are important and how to determine when you should outsource your Pinterest strategy.
If after this episode you find yourself wanting to know even more about doing ads on Pinterest, be sure to check out our LABS community. Kate’s colleague at Simple Pin Media, Erin Harding will lead an upcoming training on Pinterest ads for our community very soon!
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Hey friends! How are you feeling about social media these days? Is it lighting you up? Does it leave you feeling heavy? I personally have been on both sides of the pendulum and thought my guest in this episode would be perfect to help you determine if it’s time to outsource social.
I had Andréa Jones of OnlineDrea to walk us through everything we need to know. She explains the pros and cons of hiring a social media agency versus hiring a VA or freelance social strategist. We chat about what you need to know before you hire and how she tests potential hires with paid projects!
We covered a LOT in this episode so you’ll want a pen and paper handy to jot down some notes and if you’re wanting even more from Andréa, I have great news - she’s doing a private live training inside our Labs community. She’ll be doing this training in April so if you want to get your questions answered directly from Andréa, be sure to check that out!
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Hey friends! I know we can certainly all agree that if 2020 and 2021 have taught us anything it’s that we need to get more creative and consider additional revenue streams.
This has led to more and more membership models and subscriptions popping up in not only the service space but the physical product space too. That conversation was prompted in our Proof to Product LABS community and is the reason behind this episode with Joe Casabona.
Joe’s passion lies in teaching his knowledge about website development, podcasting and course creation with other business owners, entrepreneurs and freelancers. In this episode, we dive into creating paid memberships and communities for your customers.
We chat about how artists and creators can use paid memberships to nurture customers. He shares some simple ways to get started with tech platforms and content ideas so be sure to take notes!
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