Gift Biz Unwrapped | Women Entrepreneurs | Bakers, Crafters, Makers | Startup

Patti Muhlenfeld is the owner of Enchanted Events but her background is actually as an Emergency Department Registered Nurse where she loved taking care of her patients. At Advocate Sherman Hospital she was often called upon to design for corporate events such as award celebrations, leadership conferences and holiday galas. Patti and her husband have seven children and, as you can imagine, with all the kids came plenty of opportunities to plan and design festivities. She always created celebrations that were known as “the best to go to for a fun time.” Patti’s love of flowers and unique designs were enhanced as a protégé of Preston Bailey in New York, and under the apprenticeship of Akeshi at Kesh Designs in Chicago. Business Building Insights Pay attention to what you’re passionate about. You’re pulled in that direction for a reason. Invest in becoming skilled in your craft. Take classes, find a mentor or join a community of people in your same niche. Communicate your mission statement to the peopl

Heidi Thompson is the best-selling author of “Clone Your Best Clients” and the founder of Evolve Your Wedding Business where she specializes in business and marketing strategy for the wedding industry. She helps wedding professionals grow their businesses and reach their goals without going crazy in the process. Her business and marketing expertise has been featured on several wedding and business outlets including The Huffington Post, Wedding Business Magazine and Honeybook, and she’s an advisory board member for the UK Academy of Wedding and Event Planning. Business Building Insights When you’re open to opportunities they’re more likely to show up because you’re looking for them. Marketing is the way you bring people to you. Be intentional through creating a marketing plan. You don’t have to do all the things. You just have to do the key things that drive results. Be clear who you’re marketing to. Analyze your competition not to compare yourself to them but to differentiate yourself from them.

Traci believes that entrepreneurs and businesses can change the world, and her mission is to support them along the way. Today we’ll be focusing on what’s probably missing in your Facebook strategy. Have I got your attention? As founder and CEO of Divine Social, Traci helps business owners build and grow their brands so they can focus on providing value to their customers and positively impacting the world. Along with 25 years of experience in sales and marketing, Traci is blessed with an uncanny ability to take another company’s mission, vision, and message, and get it in front of the right people at the right time through authentic marketing. Traci’s superpower is her ability to visualize each client’s ideal strategy and then map it out for them in a clean, simple way. Traci is certified in all things related to Instagram and Facebook Ads (managing nearly $4 million in ad spend), and is a contributing author for the bestseller The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising (3rd edition). Business Building I

 It’s time to address your state of mind as a business boss. So often we talk about the tactical things, like how to run FB ads and how to compose an intriguing subject line to increase your email open rates or how to get the perfect photo for your website from your iphone. But rarely do we address the other business boss stuff such as the emotional challenges involved in running your own business, or how not to let these things hold you back. I start out by saying, “You already have what it takes.” You have the skills, knowledge and resourcefulness to achieve what you’ve set out to do – what you’re been thinking about for a long time and what’s in your heart. The only thing standing in your way is … you! Yep – I get it because it’s me too – we each get in our own way ALL THE TIME. Acknowledging this is the first step to dealing with and overcoming the obstacles we put in our way. Listen to the show for more. Business Building Insights You need to know both your business purpose and your product purpose

Sue is an insightful, energetic, and in-demand online marketing educator, influencer speaker, and a no-BS business coach. Whether she’s taking the stage at an industry conference, like Social Media Marketing World, or working one-on-one with her clients, Sue is driven to help business owners leverage the power of Instagram to meet (and exceed) their business goals. As a lifelong entrepreneur, Sue has over 30 years of business experience. And, with her extensive knowledge and implementation of social media, it’s her mission to teach, mentor, and empower others. Sue is one of the most popular CreativeLive Instructors and has been named by Huffington Post as one of the “Top 50 Must-Follow Women Entrepreneurs” Small Business. Business Building Insights You are under no obligation to be the same person that you were a year, a month or even 15 minutes ago. You have the right to evolve. Instagram is constantly changing the interface and the user experience to make it better and more intuitive. You want to

A fine artist turned foodie with Sonya’s Sweet and Spicy! Sonya is known for her vivid popular pop art paintings and retail products. But in the last couple of years she’s been working on a flavorful new adventure that has caught everyone (including herself) by surprise! After moving out of the hustle and bustle of the San Jose area, she now lives in the central valley of California where agriculture is abundant and the flavors are wild! Sonya started canning and preserving foods and has now created a recipe that transforms a super spicy jalapeño into something calmer … something sweet and spicy. She’d take these candied sweet jalapeños to potlucks and family gatherings and watch it be devoured within seconds! Seeing that response, she worked with a food scientist and now sells Sonya’s Sweet and Spicy direct to individuals, specialty shops and grocery stores to bring her sweet and spicy candy pickle jalapeños to the masses. Life is always better when you can have a little sweet and spice in your life! B

Katie Salmon is a self-proclaimed marketing geek and spends her days dreaming about how to help business owners sell more stuff. Since 2016, she’s been serving clients through her boutique marketing agency Katie Does Marketing, where she has helped shop owners turn email marketing into a lucrative sales channel. Katie knows that not all business owners can afford to outsource their marketing. So this year, in additional to Katie Does Marketing, she co-founded Shop Pop, a one-stop resource center with marketing templates and education. Through Shop Pop, she hopes to help shop owners get the skills and confidence they need to do better marketing in less time. Business Building Insights Forward is forward. Little by little progress does add up. Consistent efforts over time will yield fruitful results. Email marketing is where you can build relationships and win sales. No one can even be on your email list unless they know you exist. People are three times more likely to see your emails than your posts

Lindsey is the owner of Verity & Co, helping small business owners grow and scale their brands through cohesive design and effective messaging. She is passionate about branding, copy and web design coming together to represent a business that will make an impact and leave a legacy. Creating a marketing message that connects with your audience and supporting it with a beautiful design is how her two passions of conversational writing and minimal design collide to serve product and service entrepreneurs in a unique way. In addition to Verity & Co, Lindsey is a wife and mother. She homeschools their three kids and loves to hang out on the beach of Lake Superior near their home in rural Wisconsin. Business Building Insights Your entire marketing message makes the business cohesive. Present yourself in a way that makes it easy for your audience to say yes to what you’re doing. Start with considering how do you want people to think about your business. Come from an audience focused view to create

Jennifer is a wife, mother, dynamic business coach, and host of The Jennifer Allwood Show podcast. She has an infectious enthusiasm for helping like-minded creative women build their social media followers and turn their talents and hobbies into lucrative online businesses. Jennifer has built an incredible social media community, with an online following of half a million people. She has a gift for creating relationships and showing up for each one of them. She coaches over 2000 women monthly on how to find their tribe and grow their business online. Business Building Insights Your fear does not release you from what you’re supposed to be doing in your business. Nobody can do it exactly like you. When it’s your business there’s always a different level of attention to details. Have a platform where you can tell people about what you’re good at. Marketing is believing that what you have to offer the world is good and being willing to tell people that. Build your social media following. Be excepti

Juliet is all too familiar with the love hate relationship many sugar artists have with caking. She began a new career in cake decorating 10 years ago. At the same time she was starting a family. She found herself alone, frustrated and unhappy doing the thing she loved most: expressing her love through sugar art. Juliet’s love for sugar art swelled after competing and winning three consecutive metals. The toll of working from home alone and doing it all herself was depleting the creative, loving and social being she truly is. After meeting so many cakers just like her, she wanted everyone to know that they are not alone and has committed to helping those in the sweet community believe in themselves and their dreams. Juliet’s weekly Wednesday YouTube Show and Podcast Caker’s Chat are filled with Wisdom Sprinkles to help sugar professionals with everything from mindset, marketing and the encouragement needed to compete and stand out in the industry. Business Building Insights The best life is one lived w

Eric DeLary is the General Manager and managing partner at Pasta Mama’s, a small pasta manufacturer in Richland, WA. The path to where he is today took may turns, from working with Burton Snowboards in Vermont to DC Shoes in California. Eric’s passion has been with iconic brands in niche industries working on projects with Red Bull and Monster Energy. So when the opportunity arose to take control of a local brand with a lot of room to grow, he took it. Pasta Mama’s was originally founded in 1986 by the Santillie family. Through some not-so-typical ups and downs the brand has survived over the years. It’s once again thriving thanks to a refreshed image, revitalized energy and a broader company vision that focuses on their founding principles which are to provide the highest quality gourmet foods possible utilizing only the finest all-natural ingredients. Business Building Insights Context brings everything into alignment. As long as you continue making connections, amazing things will happen. The tr

Veronica is the Founder of Vintage Meet Modern. She has over 20 years of experience in the personal styling and shopping industry, specializing in jewelry and accessories. Her company focuses on helping women look and feel their best by dressing details. The secret sauce is her hand curated collection of designer vintage jewelry that has been sourced from all over the world. Veronica believes that dressing details set you apart from the rest, to help you look and feel your best every day. No dressing room required. Plus it’s fun, empowering, chic, and sustainable, too. Vintage Meet Modern is a unique business in that it is part collection, part collaboration, and part consulting. Business Building Insights Be your own magic. We all have the power to do something special. You can be successful by doing something truly unique to you. Something small can set you apart from the rest. Define your own personal style. It’s the little things that can make a difference. When you look good, you feel good.

Elaine Kuckertz is a trained visual artist who makes paintings as well as smaller craft works. Currently, she’s seeing success selling painted laser cut puzzles. These are smaller, more tactile versions of her paintings. Elaine loves working with bright colors and making cheerful pieces that bring people joy. She’s excited about the possibility of spending more time doing what she’s passionate about so is focusing on making her business profitable. Business Building Insights All craft fairs are not created equal. Figure out which ones attract your customer by interest and price point. Smaller scale items sell best on Etsy and at craft fairs. Prioritization is the key to time management and progressing with your business. Letting people interact with your products leads them to the sale. Dream big. Don’t limit yourself to what you can see today. Make it easy for people to purchase both in person and online. Promote and let people know what you do. Believe in what you’re making. Only then wil

Coming back from Social Media Marketing World, I have good news! Although the landscape continues to change – seemingly daily – there is a lot to be optimistic about particularly for small handmade businesses. To be able to take advantage of the opportunities, however, you need to know about them in the first place. That’s what this show is all about. To back up a bit, Social Media Marketing World (#SMMW19) is the premier social media conference of it’s kind, held annually in San Diego. Featuring 120 speakers and over 6,000 attendees, we discuss everything from details on the various platforms to strategy and implementation. We also find out what the latest research shows and recommended changes to our marketing plans. This year certainly didn’t disappoint in terms of social media marketing changes! I return home energized and invigorated by the opportunities available to small businesses. Product businesses in particular have been hearing a lot of gloom and doom over recent years. Brick and mortar is dead.

Abby Herman is the owner of Write Solutions, a content marketing agency for business owners who want to gain visibility for their businesses with personalized content strategies and implementation. She specializes in idea generation and content strategy and delivery so her clients can keep on doing what they love in their businesses. She also creates courses to help newer business owners DIY their content marketing, because she knows from experience that there’s nothing more frustrating than not knowing where to start. Abby lives in Phoenix with her 16-year-old daughter and three fur-babies. Business Building Insights Content includes everything you do to market your business. Consistency with your content is important. That includes graphic images, and the written adn spoken word. They should be cohesive in style of messaging and vibe of the brand. An email address is your direct connection to building a relationship with customers. Talking about the story behind your product makes it personal. I

Sandy is the founder of Dai Cor Baskets, a company named after her two sons and created with people in mind. It’s a family business that specializes in creating beautiful and unique gift baskets for special occasions. Sandy takes pride in her ability to customize designs by placing the needs of her customers first. Nothing makes her happier than when the person receiving the gift lights up with joy and excitement because it relates so perfectly to them. 2019 has been declared the year for Sandy to up her business game. She’s working full time but wants to start laying the groundwork to set up Dai Cor Baskets as the place she will “retire into.” For her that means focusing on building her customer base so it grows into a full time venture. Business Building Insights A successful business can be a side hustle for years while you have a full time job elsewhere. Networking is the best place for a local business to build awareness. Referrals come by telling people what you do. You must be visible and voca

Jeremy started his first business at 6 years old. His corporate career spanned 16 years as the Global VP of Marketing & Communications for a $17B/year US/Chinese conglomerate. In 2014, Jeremy rang the opening bell at NASDAQ and helped build one of the fastest growing stocks in Illinois. He has executed and integrated 4 mergers and acquisitions in tech and manufacturing and sold 2 of his own ventures in tech and healthcare. Today Jeremy is the founder of Payment Brokers a fintech company, irevu an online reputation management company and OriginalClick a digital advertising, application development and consulting agency. Business Building Insights One of the things you can’t “game” is what people say about you online. It’s important to be active and manage your online reputation. Be in tune with what your customers are saying online and truly listen. We lost the art of asking. It’s okay to ask for people’s help to write a review. Strong social proof is valuable. Shift your focus towards attract

Mariana Ruiz is a Certified Business Coach + Consultant and international bestselling author. She uses her background in brain science, hospital administration, and 12 years of marketing, sales and business experience to help market in a way that attracts your ideal clients and converts followers to clients through service-based selling. She has been featured in various podcasts and blogs including the Huffington Post, Today.com, and The Millionaire Insider Extravaganza. Through working with hundreds of businesses, she has empowered them to increase their profit and serve more people all over the world. Business Building Insights Don’t focus on selling. Instead, remind yourself that what you offer helps a lot of people. There are 5 levels of impact 1. How your business impacts your life. 2. How your product impacts your customers. 3. The value your business brings to your team. 4. The opportunities available to give back. 5. And the invisible impact. Good things happen when you decide to s

Christine is the owner of a thriving print and graphics shop that has been in business for 47 years. A woman-owned business, Christine is proud to be employing 5 people and 1 intern. Although her custom printing boutique is located in Baltimore, MD they serve clients around the country and worldwide. Christine is also the founder of Bmore Cake & Whiskey, a women’s networking group in Baltimore, that has experienced tremendous growth hosting social hobnobs for 250 women per quarter. Christine is a stepmother to four and mother to 2 all ranging from 20 to 32 years old. Business Building Insights You don’t have to know everything. Hire people who have the skills or knowledge you need. Make it personal and let clients know you’re there for them. Business relationships can start with friendship. Find partners where your work compliments their work and vice versa. Getting women or minority owned business certification isn’t hard but it is time consuming. Being certified is valuable because it qualif

Samatha is the owner of Bird Box Gifts. She specializes in gift sets and curated gift boxes and is ready to take it to the next level. The idea for Bird Box Gifts came about as she began putting gifts together for customers in her husband’s gift shop. Men would come in looking for Mother’s Day gifts and look a bit lost. She would come to their rescue and create custom gift combinations that thrilled the moms and made the husbands look like stars. That led to providing a similar service for graduations and all sorts of life events. Bird Box Gifts was born! It’s time now to build upon what has already been created. Samatha also has a full time job so it’s important to work efficiently and make all activities really count. She’s decided to focus on gift funnels as the strategy to grow her business and attract corporate accounts. What are gift funnels? You’ll hear all about them in the show. I think her plan is right on! Business Building Insights When you see someone else making progress and they are in