Podcasts about freshly picked

Calling (and Streaming) from England this morning, Felder joins to discuss the things germinating in your garden. We also talk about the new podcast from the Department of Agriculture in conjunction with Mississippi Public Broadcasting titled Freshly Picked! This new show is available wherever you get your podcasts, including the MPB Public Media App and the MPB Think Radio website. Let's get dirty!Email Felder anytime at FelderRushing.Blog and listen Friday mornings at 9 and Saturday mornings at 10 to The Gestalt Gardener on MPB Think Radio. In the meantime, in Felder's words, "get out and get dirty."If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, please consider contributing to MPB: https://donate.mpbfoundation.org/mspb/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

www.patreon.com/banjopodcast   This is a "Freshly Picked" episode, featuring the new album "Labor of Lust" by Kyle Tuttle. Kyle is best known for being featured on Episode #18, as well as his performances and recordings with the Jeff Austin Band, the Lil Smokies, and now the Grammy Award-winning Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway! This album shows Kyle stretching his legs as not only a banjo player, but also a songwriter and producer. Check it out! Sponsored by Elderly Instruments, Peghead Nation, and Sullivan Banjos   Kyle on the web: https://www.kyletuttle.com/   Contact the show: pickyfingersbanjopodcast@gmail.com

www.patreon.com/banjopodcast   It's a Freshly Picked episode, featuring the debut EP "Off the Edges" from Michigan-based bluegrass adjacent band Wilson Thicket! Keith sits down with all four members of Wilson Thicket to discuss this landmark dazzling, groundbreaking work of art, including the banjoist who happens to be... Keith himself! Wilson Thicket also features Aaron Markovitz (guitar, mandolin, vocals), Jason Dennie (mandolin, guitar, vocals), and Scott Kendall (upright bass). Sponsored by Peghead Nation, Elderly Instruments, and Sullivan Banjos   Wilson Thicket on the web: www.wilsonthicket.bandcamp.com www.wilsonthicket.com   Contact the show: pickyfingersbanjopodcast@gmail.com

www.patreon.com/banjopodcast   A "Freshly Picked" episode about the new album from banjo legend Alan Munde! Alan and Keith go through several tracks on the album and discuss Alan's approach to the compositions and arrangements.  Sponsored by Elderly Instruments, Peghead Nation, and Sullivan Banjos   Alan on the web: https://almundesbanjocollege.com/   Get the new Wilson Thicket EP "Off the Edges!" www.wilsonthicket.bandcamp.com   Contact the show: pickyfingersbanjopodcast@gmail.com    

Dubbed “The Godfather” by Vanessa, Susan Peterson is a well known name in the entrepreneur world. Known for her super successful baby moccasin and bag brand, Freshly Picked. Susan started Freshly Picked at home with her sewing machine making every pair of leather shoes by hand. She started to grow and decided to go on Shark Tank. Since her appearance on the show years ago, she has built an incredible brand and is working on three more.   In this first ever live episode of the MomForce Podcast, Vanessa and Susan answer questions from a studio audience comprised of female founders and entrepreneurs. They touch on everything from handling the mental load at home to knowing when you need funding. Not only that but Susan emphasizes the value of mentorship, the reality of facing failures, and the importance of mental health in your journey. Listen in and be inspired!  Time codes:  02:54 The First Q4 Experience & Marketing with Kourtney Kardashian 5:32 Gifting Dad a Christmas Book Mishap 7:58 Making Genuine Connections 9:42 Finding Purpose in Business 12:25 The Fear of Failure 14:54 Advice for Moms Stepping into Entrepreneurship 19:15 Supporting Other Women's Businesses 20:46 The Hardest Part of Susan's Entreprenuer Life 23:20 Funding and Accountability in Business Growth 27:59 Starting a Business After 13 Years Home with 4 Kids 32:55 What Susan is Doing Next  Use code: MOMFORCE for 20% off your first Chatbooks order!  Follow Vanessa Follow Susan   Follow Chatbooks The MomForce Podcast on TikTok  Listen to more of The MomForce Podcast  

A Reno farm is providing produce at two corner stores to increase healthy food options for nearby residents.

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www.patreon.com/banjopodcast   Welcome to a Freshly Picked episode featuring a discussion with the incredible bluegrass/jazz/avant garde banjoist Ryan Cavanaugh about his new EP titled "Screams Electric" - and he does just that! The album features Ryan's typically amazing banjo prowess, as well as Doug Belote (drums), Kevin Scott (bass), Billy Cardine (electric Dobro), and Roger Tipping (electric piano).   Sponsored by Sullivan Banjos, Elderly Instruments, and Peghead Nation.   Ryan on the web: www.ryancavanaughbanjo.com   Link to Alan Epstein's bluegrass ensemble class in Saratoga Springs, NY: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/school-of-music-bluegrass-ensemble-class-with-alan-epstein-tickets-621948674227   Contact the show: pickyfingersbanjopodcast@gmail.com

We have the founder of Freshly Picked, SUSAN PETERSEN! We dumpster deep dive into who she is and how she got started.We take out Personal Trash, Pop Culture Trash and TRASHTOPICAN! 3 TRASHTOPICANS " fav trip?", " funniest sex story" & " fav animal" Sponsor- Babeorginal code weeklytrash15 for 15% off 

In this episode, Mark and Trevor interview Susan Peterson, the founder of Freshly Picked, a popular baby and toddler shoe brand. Susan shared her inspiring entrepreneurial journey, including how she got scrappy in the early days of her business. She opened up about the challenges she faced and the creative strategies she used to overcome them, from sewing her first product in her living room to building a community of brand ambassadors. Tune in to hear Susan's valuable insights on scrappiness, resilience, and building a successful business from the ground up.Please connect with Trevor on social media. You can find him anywhere @thetrevorcrump

www.patreon.com/banjopodcast   Welcome to a "Freshly Picked" episode, featuring a discussion with podcast veteran and banjo phenom B.B. Bowness! She will be taking us on a banjo-centric tour of the new Mile Twelve album titled "Close Enough to Hear," which was just released on February 3, 2023. There are some great songs and sounds on the album and, needless to say, some incredible banjo playing!   Sponsored by Peghead Nation and Elderly Instruments   Mile Twelve on the web: www.miletwelveband.com   Contact the show: pickyfingersbanjopodcast@gmail.com  

In this episode I am joined by none other than Susan Petersen, of Freshly Picked. We talk about having a big vision and the powerful and fast growth that comes when you are clear on what you want and what your mission and values are. This is a powerful episode that you don't want to miss.   BEFORE YOU GO:  I'd love to hear what you thought about this episode, you can come chat with me on Instagram OR leave a review.  To find out more about my GROUP COACHING or to sign up go here Tune into Susan's new podcast Started From The Bottom  To connect with and find out more about Susan:https://www.instagram.com/susan.m.petersen/  

“Influencers built Freshly Picked,” says Susan Petersen, of her company she founded that offers baby shoes, diaper bags and other items for infants and new mothers that are as stylish as they are functional. In 2009, after making a few pairs of moccasins for her son Gus, and featuring them on her then-struggling blog, she immediately got attention from potential customers and began building a following. Five years later, an appearance on NBC's “Shark Tank” would prove pivotal to getting major attention not only from a whole new audience, including Ellen, who helped push Freshly Picked into stores like Nordstrom. Throughout this episode Susan shares some key takeaways: • Attention is momentum, and when you get too much too soon, it can be difficult to know how to best utilize it for your business. • Everyone's going after the same customer, so finding a way to work together with like minded businesses is what is most meaningful. • When you host events for influencers that are relevant to your space, and make it fun and let it speak to the foundation of your brand, people will share it and post about it. When first starting your business, it is hard to gain momentum quickly. But the best way to grow and scale any company is to prioritize relationships first. Today, Susan shares what she's learned from her experiences, and how she's become a better boss, business owner, and overall human being. Quotes • “Good marketing is all about reciprocity. At the end of the day we're all going after the same customer, so if there's a way that your business and our business can work together, to me that's most meaningful.” (16:09-16:25 | Susan) • “I believe in relationships before contracts.” (16:25-16:28 | Susan) • “Gaining a following, and being out there for public consumption, is very lonely. When you start becoming successful at anything, you lose meaningful conversations with people you love. There are a lot of conversations I can't have with my sister. I'm not talking to her about my P&L.” (22:20-22:53 | Susan) • “Balance is just straight up bullshit, and the world will try to get you to buy into that. Don't buy into it.” (42:18-42:24 | Susan) Connect with Susan Petersen: Instagram | http://www.instagram.com/susan.m.petersen Website | http://www.freshlypicked.com Please don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe to Dear FoundHer on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts! You can now work with Lindsay 1:1 to build and monetize your community through the same method she used to grow and scale her business. Fill out the form here and set up a FREE 30-minute consultation. Make sure you sign up for Lindsay's newsletter and have all of the takeaways from every podcast episode sent straight to your inbox. PLUS, you'll get a tip every week to help you grow and scale your own business. Don't forget to follow Lindsay on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lindsaypinchuk Use code FoundHer for 50% off your first month with both HiveCast and Fireside Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Susan Petersen is the founder and Chairwoman of Freshly Picked. In 2009, she designed and sewed the first baby moccasins and put them on her blog and Etsy shop. From there, the company took off, and it's now a leading baby lifestyle company with incredible revenue growth over the past three years. In 2015, Freshly Picked became the first woman-owned company to be named the fastest-growing company in Utah Valley. Susan has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur,  Bloomberg Business, and more. Leading in social engagement and community, Freshly Picked's million social media followers love celebrating the shared experiences of parenthood with the brand. Freshly Picked aims to be there from the first step. In our third installment, we get real with Susan on her entrepreneurial journey that included a mental breakdown--which led to the fully realized wisdom she imparts to us and our listeners. She's a natural leader (her mastermind group boasts several incredible women founders) and a natural beauty (she doesn't have pores... yes, we made sure to ask about her skincare routine). If you're a business owner yourself or hustling for the bag, then this convo is for you. Take a seat, pop in those headphones, and hang out with us. CurrentlyUnwell.com@currentlyunwell on IG

This week you'll hear about why split testing is a poor man's message testing, and how you can use message testing to build passionate fans of your brand, like it has for Owlet, Freshly Picked, and more. This info is coming straight from our Chief Strategist at Harmon Brothers Consulting. You can find links to reach the Harmon Brothers below. Get in touch with us if you want more tips on turning your ad spend around. If Harmon Brothers grabbed your interest, make sure to check out our website at harmonbrothers.comDon't forget to like, subscribe, and share. Episodes published every Tuesday at 6 am EST. We'll see you on the next one.Harmon Brothers: https://harmonbrothers.com/home (Website)https://www.instagram.com/harmon.brothers/?hl=en (Instagram) https://www.tiktok.com/tag/harmonbrothers?lang=en (Tik Tok)

Susan Petersen is the founder, CEO, and Chairwoman of Freshly Picked! On top of that she's a mom and best friend! Check out Freshly Picked https://freshlypicked.com/ Join my Sales Mastermind Group for business owners and sales consultants - https://empatheticselling.com/ Music made by Qü ThaMusic - https://www.quthemusic.net/ The rest of my links to subscribe, support, and access more content - https://linktr.ee/daltonkjensen For the best health insurance talk to Norm - https://thehappyhealthinsuranceguy.com/ For all your digital marketing needs check out Monarch Social - https://monarchsocialbrand.com/

www.patreon.com/banjopodcast   A Freshly-Picked episode featuring an interview with Brittany Haas about her new album "Impromptu Sessions No.1" The album features Brittany on banjo (she is typically the outstanding fiddler with Hawktail and others) and also features two bassists: Paul Kowert (of the Punch Borthers and Hawktail) and Mike Gaisbacher!   Sponsored by Peghead Nation, GHS Strings, and Elderly Instruments   Brittany on the web: www.brittanyhaas.com www.hawktailmusic.com https://brittanyhaas.bandcamp.com/   Contact the show: pickyfingersbanjopodcast@gmail.com

Today we celebrate International Women's Day with some of the most inspiring women we know: Jess Toolson of Mixhers, and Susan Petersen of Freshly Picked. They've returned to The Nitty Gritty Show to discuss their recent success as well as their mentality that sets them apart from the crowd.

www.patreon.com/banjopodcast   In this Freshly Picked episode, Keith Billik welcomes back Chris Pandolfi, the banjoist from the Infamous Stringdusters, to discuss their upcoming release titled "Toward the Fray" - available February 18, 2022 on Americana Vibes! Sponsored by Peghead Nation, GHS Strings, and Elderly Instruments   Chris Pandolfi & Stringdusters on the web: www.chrispandolfi.com www.thestringdusters.com   Contact the show: pickyfingersbanjopodcast@gmail.com

THE COMIC RELIEF ALL VEGANS NEED.Ever felt frustrated when somebody makes a dumb vegan comment? Do you feel you always have to respond calmly even when you'd really like to tell them where to go?If this sounds familiar, don't panic! Some catharsis is coming your way. Hilarious, witty and not afraid of taking the low road; Zac Bird is a vegan chef, cookbook author and comedian. Best known for his cookbooks that defy the stereotypical 'healthy plant based' representation of veganism, Zac isn't afraid to be himself and stand up for what he believes in, even if that means pissing a few people off along the way.On this episode, Zac and I talk about his vegan journey, writing a cookbook, his advice for newbies and how he handles haters online.Zac's first book is Vegan Junk Food and his latest book is The Vegan Butcher, showing us how to make meaty foods free from animals.Zac is also known for his hilarious videos on Tiktok and Instagram @zaccharybird.Connect with Zac:https://twitter.com/zaccharybirdhttps://www.instagram.com/zaccharybird/https://www.tiktok.com/@zaccharybirdhttps://www.youtube.com/c/zaccharybirdhttps://www.zaccharybird.com/Mentions on this episode:Nourish not punish (Evelyn, former blogger)Yong Green FoodRenee @melbveganguideUnreal co (mock meats)Freshly Picked with Simon Toohey (TV show)World Vegan Day

Actor/comedian Skyler Stone joins me and my comedian hubby Steven Randolph for a special pregnancy/parenting episode! Hear Skyler's wild journey throughout his wife's pregnancy - from restraining orders to rehab, to multiple surgeries due to a high risk pregnancy. Skyler wraps it up with his best parenting advice for Steven and I. This episode is sponsored by Baby Bjorn, Parasol, Miku, KIP pajamas and Freshly Picked. 

Actor/comedian Skyler Stone joins me and my comedian hubby Steven Randolph for a special pregnancy/parenting episode! Hear Skyler's wild journey throughout his wife's pregnancy - from restraining orders to rehab, to multiple surgeries due to a high risk pregnancy. Skyler wraps it up with his best parenting advice for Steven and I. This episode is sponsored by Baby Bjorn, Parasol, Miku, KIP pajamas and Freshly Picked. 

Nadia Fragnito has always had a strong connection to Italian food and culture, with her father being born in southern Italy. Nadia reminisces of the times her mother and Nonna created hearty homecooked Italian meals and holds dear food memories with her family. This deep connection has influenced Nadia's love for southern Italian cooking, with her passion projects including cooking, recipe creation and cookbook development. Nadia enjoys the creativity and experimentation of 'veganising' classic Italian meals, with her ravioli and Tiramisu being a crowd favourite!Nadia went vegetarian after leaving home, but just before her 21st birthday, she came across information on factory farming and realised being vegetarian was not enough. Nadia went vegan in 2001 and set her family the challenge of having a vegan 21st birthday party.Nadia holds cooking classes, demonstrations, retreats, has featured on a SBS cooking show and is a regular guest cook on Channel 10's Freshly Picked with Simon Toohey. Later this year, Nadia will be releasing her second cookbook titled "A vegan summer in southern Italy". In this episode, Nadia discusses the importance of finding your vegan tribe, bringing your passion projects to life and vegan travel. https://www.instagram.com/theveganitaliankitchen/https://www.facebook.com/theveganitaliankitchen.com.auhttps://www.theveganitaliankitchen.com

This is an encore presentation of Ep. 042. Everything is open for discussion in this conversation with entrepreneur Susan Petersen, founder of Freshly Picked. We talk with Susan about how she started her business, where it is now, and the highs and lows in between. Listen in and glean some helpful and interesting nuggets of wisdom about being an entrepreneur and realizing your goals. Find us on instagram: @freshlypicked // @susan.m.petersen // @beckyhigginsllc (brand) // @realbeckyhiggins (personal) // @beckyproudfit

On Sept. 16-17, the first Shift Summit will take place in Salt Lake. Shift Summit will be a business conference for professionals who are ready to take the next business step. The founding director, Sara Urquhart, is striving to create “the most diverse conference in Utah” and wants this conference to provide opportunities for attendees to create support groups with one another. Visit shiftgathering.com to sign up for this event and hear from speakers like Susan Peterson of Freshly Picked.

On Sept. 16-17, the first Shift Summit will take place in Salt Lake. Shift Summit will be a business conference for professionals who are ready to take the next business step. The founding director, Sara Urquhart, is striving to create “the most diverse conference in Utah” and wants this conference to provide opportunities for attendees to create support groups with one another. Visit shiftgathering.com to sign up for this event and hear from speakers like Susan Peterson of Freshly Picked.

Simon Toohey is one of Masterchef's most recognisable figures – going through two seasons with a goal to embrace and champion vegetables throughout his cooking. In this candid discussion we talk about the realities of the show, his background in cocktail bars, how he fell in love with veggies, his channel 10 show Freshly Picked […] The post The Veggie Masterchef w/ Simon Toohey appeared first on Quicksand Food.

How do you turn a $500 marketing budget into $5 million in sales? If you listen to Business Unusual, you’ve probably heard me brag about Klaviyo. But today I’m sharing success stories straight from the horses mouth as I interview Pamela Booker of Koils by Nature and Susan Peterson of Freshly Picked who both use Klaviyo to fuel their e-commerce marketing. Listen in to hear how they use Klaviyo’s flows to segment, target and convert their audiences to grow their wildly successful e-commerce business. Got a question? I’m here to help! Call me at 888-Barbara and I might just answer it on a future episode. Subscribe to Business Unusual with Barbara Corcoran on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. This episode is presented by Klaviyo. Visit klaviyo.com/barbara for a free trial.

Watch the full episode on TheBeehive.com! Intro (0:00-6:42) Today In The Beehive (6:42) A 12-year-old boy in Springville mows lawns out of the kindness of his heart. And a few fellas in St. George act out in very bad ways. No Baller (22:28) Chris would like a sports channel dedicated only to gambling lines, numbers, and statistics. This Is The Place (33:42) Clint interviews comedian, Daniel Spencer. Why Tho? (54:57) Thanks to Planters peanuts, you can travel around in a NUTmobile. Why tho? Silicon Slopes (1:12:04) Clint interviews founder of Freshly Picked, Susan Petersen Dear Utah (1:39:18) A listener is excited The Beehive Live has returned and uses some vile language on a voicemail. You can participate in this segment by sending an email to dearutah@thebeehive.com, leave us a voicemail at 385-344-8011, text us at 1-720-704-4863, or contact us on any of our social media accounts @TheBeehiveHQ using the hashtag #dearutah.

www.patreon.com/banjopodcast   A Freshly Picked episode with longtime friend of the podcast Greg Cahill! He joins host Keith Billik to discuss the recent Special Consensus album "Chicago Barn Dance," which just won IBMA's Song of the Year award for its title track.   Band website: www.specialc.com Sponsored by Elderly Instruments, Peghead Nation, and the Soundbrite Banjo Workshop Enroll for Soundbrite: http://www.americanamusicacademy.com/banjo-workshop   SAVE 20% on Picky Fingers merch at the www.banjopodcast.com shop - Enter coupon code "BYE2020" at checkout. Contact the show at pickyfingersbanjopodcast@gmail.com  

John thinks Blue Raspberries are real, Troy is scared of quicksand and is appalled what honey is.

www.patreon.com/banjopodcast A "Freshly Picked" episode, exploring the recent album by banjo visionary Ben Krakauer! Ben is an extraordinarily creative force on the instrument, and this recording has his variety of musical influences on full display. Post-Recording Correction from Ben:  I mentioned playing my tunes with Nick, Duncan, and Paul Kowert in 2016, and then Dan taking over bass in 2017, 2018, and 2019. What I forgot to include was that Roy Wooten was the percussionist from 2017-2019, not Nick. And I wanted to give thanks and acknowledgement for all of Roy's contributions and feedback in working up those tunes for those camp concerts! Sponsored by Elderly Instruments and Peghead Nation   Ben Krakauer on the web: https://www.benkrakauer.com/   Contact the show: pickyfingersbanjopodcast@gmail.com

In this episode, Angela shares her experiences with the Dorm Room Fund, Summit Partners and Norwest Ventures and gives some actionable, helpful words of advice for aspiring women investors.Angela is a managing partner at the Boston chapter of Dorm Room Fund, a national, student-run venture fund, backed by First Round. She spent this past summer working as an investor at Summit Partners and in operations at Productiv. She’s currently pursuing an MBA / MPP at Harvard. Prior to Harvard, Angela had years of experience in marketing at Freshly Picked and consulting at Bain & Co.

Susan Petersen is back! After taking a year off the day-to-day grind at Freshly Picked, she is once again at the helm of her company as CEO. She brings invaluable tips on focus, rest and recovery, and much more. If you you're unfamiliar with her amazing story, check out episode 5.

A sweet mix of Summer singles Freshly picked today to paint a sparkling backdrop to your positive day. Jacqueline Jax hosts this inspiring list of new creators you should know. TRACk LIST: www.avaliveradio.info/featured/sunday-chill-new-indie-music-summer-playlist --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

www.patreon.com/banjopodcast   In the first "Freshly Picked" episode, Keith chats with the fantastic 2-finger banjo player Nick Hornbuckle about his recent album "13 or So" on Ruby's Slipper Records. Nick is best known as a member of John Reischman and the Jaybirds, but also happens to write some great original banjo compositions.   Nick on the web: www.nickhornbuckle.com www.johnreischman.com   Sponsored by Elderly Instruments and Deering Banjos   Contact the show: pickyfingersbanjopodcast@gmail.com  

This week Graham Stewart spoke to our US editor Oliver Wiseman who reports back from a Prepper camp in West Virginia, and the Director of the European Research Group Christopher Howarth explains how MPs are carrying on in a half-empty parliament. Oliver's dispatch from Fortitude Ranch can be found in the upcoming issue of The Critic Magazine https://thecritic.co.uk/were-all-preppers-now/ Right now we're offering 3 months for just £5. Go to thecritic.imbmsubscriptions.com/ for details. --- "Modern Jazz Samba" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This week Graham Stewart spoke to our US editor Oliver Wiseman who reports back from a Prepper camp in West Virginia, and the Director of the European Research Group Christopher Howarth explains how MPs are carrying on in a half-empty parliament. Oliver's dispatch from Fortitude Ranch can be found in the upcoming issue of The Critic Magazine. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey there hey! And welcome to another episode of the Simplify Your Sales podcast! Last episode--- episode 9-- we talked about the importance of taking CONTROL of your marketing instead of just hoping that Etsy will handle it for you because it’s NOT Etsy’s job to send you sales-- it’s yours! And once you understand that and get to work creating a marketing system for your shop, I guarantee you you will feel RELIEVED and IN CONTROL of your shop’s success and that is an INCREDIBLE feeling that is going to make running your Etsy shop a million times more enjoyable.    Now I am SUPER excited about today’s episode because we’re going to go DEEP into possibly one of THE most important factors to consider BEFORE you set up your shop’s marketing system--your unique selling proposition or USP. Once you’ve got this figured out, everything you do-- including all aspects of setting up your profitable marketing system-- are going to be SO so so much easier and you’re going to be blown away at just how seemingly effortlessly the sales seem to roll in once this is established in tandem with your marketing system.    A few months ago I created a poll in my free Simplify Your Sales Facebook group, which, if you’re not already a member-- definitely pop on over and join us because there is a TON of goodness going on in there-- resources, free video trainings, motivational quotes which I add my own thoughts to and pretend to sound really inspirational-- but seriously-- there are over 13,000 sellers in there and SO much goodness coming out of that group on a daily basis, so if you’re NOT already a member, head on over to the link I’ll post here in the show notes (which will be morgannield.com/blog/episode10) and join us. We’d genuinely love to support you on your Etsy journey!   Anyways, now that I’m done shamelessly begging for your company in our group, like I was saying, a few months ago I created a poll in our free Facebook group and asked Etsy sellers what the #1 marketing struggle they ran into was.    The results-- I’ve gotta be honest-- actually surprised me in a BIG way.    Some of the biggest struggles included: Not knowing which marketing platform to focus on Wondering how much to spend on promoted listings Lack of time; and Overwhelmed by all the differing pieces of marketing advice out there So why did they surprise me? Well, I’ve gotta be honest-- and this is a good business life lesson for you, too, so listen up!-- I’ve been selling online for a while and I feel like at this point in my business I’m not entirely a newbie-- although I’m definitely learning new things everyday!-- but for the most part, I understand my audience and the challenges that they face on a regular basis.    So when I created this poll, I ASSUMED that I would know the answer. In fact, I created this poll with the sole idea of validating what I already thought to be true-- and getting people to fess up to the problems that I felt I already KNEW they were struggling with.   Whelp. I was wrong.    And I’m humbled enough now at this point to admit that.    What I THOUGHT my audience was struggling with the most and what they actually TOLD me they were struggling with the most were two VERY different things.    Overwhelmingly, they were struggling with standing out in a saturated marketplace.    Now, when I started selling on Etsy in my first shop in 2011, Etsy didn’t feel terribly saturated. In fact, it felt relatively easy to stand out and get noticed because there just weren’t so many shops constantly competing for potential buyer’s attention. And if you were smart with your SEO-- a strategy you could almost entirely bank on back then (although I did have my ups and downs with it), you could stand out almost effortlessly without much additional marketing.    Now in 2020, it’s a completely different ball game.    And having a great product and great SEO-- or even FANTASTIC SEO-- isn’t enough to get you found on the marketplace.    Now, there are a million different ideas and strategies we could talk about in this post about standing out, but I want to talk to you about one that goes a bit further.    One that makes the competition COMPLETELY irrelevant.    And that all begins with your Unique Selling Proposition.    What is a Unique Selling Proposition? Your unique selling proposition, or USP, as I’ll be calling it in this podcast so I can avoid getting too tounge-tied-- is  essentially the niche YOUR shop fills in the online marketplace, and the driving force behind everything that you do.   But in more straight forward terms-- it’s what simply what makes your shop STAND OUT as unique.   And this is a very, VERY big deal when you’re competing in a marketplace that is loaded with saturation.    Trust me-- anything you can do to stand out from the competition and become what New York times bestselling author Seth Godin calls “a purple cow” (or basically something that’s extremely different from everyone else around it), will ultimately guarantee that EVERYTHING (and I mean EVERYTHING) about marketing and running an online shop becomes easier. Like 1 bajillion times easier. And don’t worry-- I double-checked that statistic before I referenced it in the podcast and it’s true. So feel free to quote me on that.    From a customer’s perspective, your USP essentially answers the question they may be asking themselves “So why should I buy from YOU?”   And if they can’t figure that out relatively quickly, that’s when they tend to hit the “back” button on their iPhone and keep browsing. Just like that, you’ve lost their attention.    What a USP is NOT We’re going to dive into some awesome ways that you can create a killer USP, but first I want to talk about what it is not. Because there is a LOT of misconception going around about what a USP is, and sometimes what we think is setting us apart actually isn’t helping at all. So lets clear up some of those misconceptions really quick!   Thing #1 - Okay, a USP is NOT about having a high quality product.  I’m going to assume-- and correct me if I’m wrong-- but I’m going to assume with what little I know about your current shop situation (which I would TOTALLY know more if you would join our FREE FB group and introduce yourself, hint hint)-- but I’m going to assume that you sell a pretty high quality product.    One of the things I love about so many sellers on Etsy-- is that they take great pride in their work and pay a ridiculously amazing bit of attention to detail. A few months ago-- and this is just going to prove how nerdy I am, so hopefully you can accept that-- but a few months ago I purchased a set of dirigible plum earrings off of Etsy.    What are dirigible plum earrings you might ask? I’m shocked that you don’t know-- kidding. It’s totally a really weird thing, so by all accounts, you probably shouldn’t know.    Anyways, they are the earrings that Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter series wears. They basically look like small radishes, which is a strange thing to wear on your ears-- or anywhere really-- but Luna Lovegood is strange, so it suits her. And ever since I took the Pottermore house quiz and was declared a diehard Ravenclaw through and through-- which matches my personality pretty dang well, I’ll be honest-- I took a liking to this comic relief character of books 5-7. I mean, those books get heavy-- not just literally-- and she’s quirky enough to bring some of that much-needed lightheartedness.    All of that is to say that when I searched on Etsy for these earrings, I was AMAZED at the level of detail and craftsmanship out there. Now, I’m not going to get into whether there should even be dirigible plum earrings for sale on Etsy or not-- but what I am going to say is that there were some really nice options out there. And the set I ended up purchasing-- when they arrived at my house-- I literally squealed in delight. They were the perfect addition to my Luna Lovegood Halloween costume and I’m super happy that I ordered them.    So what does this Luna Lovegood “go ravenclaw” tangent have to do with anything? What I’m saying here is that the craftsmanship of items on Etsy is IMPECCABLE.    So saying that you have a high quality product for sale and trying to pass that off as your USP isn’t going to be enough. Because there are THOUSANDS of other shop’s in your niche with that same quality.    Thing #2 - it is NOT yelling louder   Okay, I totally wanted to yell when I said that but then I felt really bad for my podcast editor and for all of you who are listening to this podcast during your commute and probably would have accidently steered into oncoming traffic at such a sudden outburst, so I refrained. You’re welcome.    Okay, but let’s talk about this: your unique selling proposition is also NOT just about yelling louder.    Having MORE sales. Offering BIGGER discounts. Spamming your shop link in MORE places.    None of those things make up a USP.    Sure, they may get the occasional attention of passersby-- I mean, have you seen those kiosk things at Walmart that start talking the minute you walk by? They scare the CRAP out of me and drive me crazy, and yes, they get my attention initially because it’s hard NOT to ignore a box on a wall that suddenly started talking to you at a relatively quiet store at 6 am in the morning-- but just because they initially CAUGHT my attention doesn’t mean it was enough to move me to action. I can say with 100% confidence that I have acted on those kiosks a grand total of 0% of the time because there’s nothing there that draws me in-- they don’t have a unique selling proposition. They’re just loud and that’s about it.    And while I am ALL for being vocal about your shop and marketing, at the end of the day, if that’s the ONLY thing that sets your shop apart, you’re going to just become another noisy distraction to your audience that they’ll learn (really quickly) to tune out.    Promotion-- that yelling louder--is just a SMALL part of the bigger picture. I tell my Mastermind Your Marketing students this all the time-- no amount of marketing can make up for a crappy product. And I’ll go as far as to say in this podcast episode, no amount of marketing can make up for a generic product line.   Your USP needs to be more than just the volume that you speak to your customers.    And Thing #3 that a USP is NOT- It is NOT about competing in absolutely EVERY SINGLE AREA.    Have you ever stalked your competition to make sure your shop was competitive enough and instantly got MAJOR overwhelm by all the areas you suddenly found yourself not measuring up to?   Suddenly it was like you had to have 100 different scent options and 1 day free shipping and    ...and all of that is just so that you’re at the SAME level as your competition. It does nothing to set you apart.    And so often this is where I see MAJOR problems come into play, the most common being when a shop will undercut their competition and try to offer the lowest price on the market. Just so we’re clear, this is a major NO-NO for long term business because it’s not a USP and it’s just not sustainable. Someone will ALWAYS be trying to undercut you, just as you undercut them. It’s a vicious cycle and the only winners are the shoppers. The shop owners lose so that’s not a game I want you to even attempt playing.    The trick here is that you shouldn’t be trying to play the game like everyone else-- you should be creating all new rules instead.    So instead of saying “hey, look at my shop. We’ve got just as good of stuff as everyone else!”   You should be saying something like “Here at my shop, we do things differently and here’s how.”   Just like you can’t compete on a job or college application where all the applicants come into the process with the same exact qualifications…   ...you’ve got to change the rules and do something that NO ONE ELSE IS DOING to stand out.    And that’s where your USP comes into play.    What a USP actually is Okay, so we’ve covered all the things a USP is not (and just for the record, I know I didn’t mention it specifically in example, but trying to run with the USP of being “handmade” isn’t going to fly either).    Let’s talk about what your USP is.    We’ve already determined that Etsy is saturated-- yay, right?!   And while I firmly believe that competition is a GOOD thing-- in fact, I talked about it over in Episode 6 of the podcast which I’ll link to in the show notes in case you want to check it out-- it’s still that: COMPETITION.    And you’ve got to do something to make yourself stand out from it so that when someone comes on Etsy to buy your product, they have a reason to buy from YOU and not the thousands of other shops selling the (basically) exact same thing.    Now, I love sharing examples and making an example of my business experiences as well. I’ll be honest-- most of the examples I share about my business are bad ones I want you to avoid. I’ve made a lot of mistakes and I tend to share those so you don’t have to make those same mistakes.    Today though, I want to share an example of MY USP for LittleHighbury which is, surprisingly, something that I actually did pretty well right out of the gate because I had read that Purple Cow book by Seth Godin in college so I knew just how important it was.      Let’s preface this by saying that there are thousands (literally) of baby accessory shops on Etsy. Seriously— type in “baby headband’ on Etsy and you’ll get over 300,000 results. That’s insane! By all accounts, one shop selling headbands should not be able to make over 600 sales a month with that kind of saturation, which is what I averaged in my shop.    But enter a Purple Cow and viola! I was one shop among THOUSANDS and I was still making a HUGE dent in the baby headband circuit.   So what made MY baby headbands a “purple cow” in the marketplace? Well, let's just get this out of the way-- it certainly wasn’t my seamstress skills. I’m mediocre AT BEST. And while I’ll say the craftsman ship wasn’t horrible by any means, it also wasn’t anything super special.    What I did for my USP No, there were a couple of other things I did to set my shop and product apart:   1 | First off, I designed my own fabrics.  When I first set up shop, I noticed that everyone in the baby headband category was getting their fabrics/supplies from the same sources (like Joanns, Fabric.com, etc.) and I would see the same designs pop up again and again and again. I get it— it’s much cheaper and easier to go with something that is readily available.    But I chose to make mine purposefully different because I wanted to attract a different crowd— not the type that would just spend $2 on a generic headband— I wanted the people that would spend at least $10 (and hopefully $28!) on unique one-of-a-kind designs.   100% unique fabrics gave my item INSTANT USP because you--literally- could not buy my designs anywhere else because I had designed them.    2 | I packaged + marketed them ready-to-gift.  That might seem like a waste of money when you can just spend $.10 on a plastic ziplock bag and be done with it, but by putting in the extra time and $ (which, to be fair, was REALLY minimal) to package it in a gift box + ribbon, I IMMEDIATELY appealed to the baby shower crowd in a much bigger way.    I would guess that I get around 5-6 orders PER DAY that are shipped as gifts directly to the momma-to-be because my headbands can be sent already packaged as a gift.   This was EXTREMELY different from the majority of shops that were just packaging headbands on a cardboard insert or no special packaging at all.    What does this tell us? Two things.    1- I didn’t compete in EVERY area. Like I said, my sewing was average on a good day. Nothing crazy special. So I wasn’t trying to make my USP about my sewing as well-- that would have been overkill at this point.    2- You only need 1-2 things that make your product UNIQUE to have an instant USP.    Now you may be saying, “Well, that’s all fine and good for you Morgan, but I don’t sell baby headbands, so how am I supposed to create a USP and be that purple cow in my niche if I don’t sell a product with things like fabric options?    I hear ya on that and luckily you don’t have to sell baby headbands to create a USP for your shop-- you just need to do a little outside the box thinking. Remember-- you’ve got to be better than your excuses! As Marie Forleo says, “everything is figureoutable.”    But let me help you get the wheels turning with a couple of ideas on how you can start to brainstorm YOUR USP.  DIMENSIONS - Is there a gap in the market for a certain size of product? Bridge that gap! Offer your artwork in custom sizes to appeal to buyers filling odd spaces, or make your jewelry into larger statement pieces that really stand out. STYLE - Are the products in your category all photographed a certain way? There are A MILLION absolutely horrible, grainy product photos on Etsy, but yours doesn’t have to be one of them! Take a look at what the first 3 pages under a specific search term are showing, and then do something completely different. Give your company a specific branding vibe that goes against the grain and stick with it. Make it so YOUR listings stick out like a sore thumb--you’ll get noticed if you do! FORMAT - You know those thousands of printables you see for sale on Etsy? Well guess what? Not everyone wants to print them at home-- I certainly don’t! Take a look at what formats your competitors are offering, and then go a completely different route. Offer your artwork on luxury canvas or a giclee art print. See a million crocheted scarves? Sell an easy DIY scarf kit or a scarf out of a completely different material. AUDIENCE - Premium vs. economy. If you search for any specific item on Etsy, the first page that pops up will have a wide variety of price points-- even for the same object. But guess what? Different price points sell to different target markets. Case in point: If you’ve ever heard of the baby mocc company, Freshly Picked, then you’ll know they sell their baby shoes for $60/pair. Search “baby moccs” on Etsy and you’ll come up with thousands of moccs that look exactly the same but are sold at a much, much lower price point. Do both of these companies sell baby moccasins? Yes. But are they hitting up the same customers? Not even close! Decide now if you want to sell premium or economy and stick with it. Timeframe. Everyone else taking 2-4 weeks for custom orders? Speed up that turnaround time! One of the BEST examples I’ve seen on this is actually for a service, not a product, but it is SO applicable. I have a graphic designer that I work with on a fairly regular basis and she’s fantastic, but I used to have to book her 2-3 months in advance of the project that I needed done and then it would take about 2-3 weeks to complete the project. And while I *try* to put on this show of being really organized in my business, between you and me, most days I feel like a hot mess of chaos with all the different things I’m working on on any given day. Throw a crying baby into the mix and all heck breaks loose.    Which basically means that I am NOT good at planning out my promos 2-3 months in advance. In fact, I’m usually just trying to plan out the next couple of days at a time. Not something I’m particularly proud of, but there it is.    So with that in mind, it was always a pain in the butt to hire her even though I LOVED her work-- because I wouldn’t know exactly what I needed from her before it was time. And it was a lot of hassle and back and forth communication trying to nail down the exact project which is totally not her fault-- it just wasn’t a great strength of mine.    Last year she introduced these “design in a day” things that were completely new in the design industry. Basically, you could book her design team for 1 day in the next week or two and they would spend that entire day completing as many design projects as they could for you. You paid a flat day rate and they handed you finished design files within 8 hours.    It BLEW MY MIND.    I had never had a designer offer a service like this and the ease of it all was INSANE. Like, I could have professionally designed graphics in my hand that quickly? It’s just not something that’s done in the industry! And because it was new and streamlined and AWESOME, it made her company and services stand out in such a killer way.   So use that as a bit of inspiration. Maybe there’s something about the customization process that you could tweak to be more straightforward or streamlined. Maybe you could offer a completely different way of customizing entirely that shaved 1 week off your turnaround time. Just get brainstorming and feel free to go purple cow wild.    Your marketing is only going to get a heckuva lot easier when you do!   And if you’re still stuck about what YOU can have as YOUR USP, at the end of the day, the best thing you can do is to take a look at what everyone else in your industry is doing…   ...and just commit to doing it DIFFERENTLY.    And finally-- one final word before we part-- I need you to remember as you are trying to create your USP: You are NOT trying to appeal to everyone.    I know it’s tempting-- and I know logically it makes sense. More people = more sales, right?    And to do anything with your marketing or shop that might potentially alienate customers seems like a major red flag of a terrible idea.    But take it from someone with a $2,000 flopped product line centered around generic designs and colors-- when you try to appeal to everyone…   ...you end up appealing to NO ONE.    So use your USP to appeal to the RIGHT kinds of people-- the people who are actually a good fit for purchasing your product-- and with a marketing system in place,  get ready to watch your sales become EFFORTLESS.   // Take action Pick 1-2 ways you can “purple cow” your business and put a plan into motion. Consider using these “purple cows” as unique branding points that you can hit home again and again when talking about your product. Remember, the point isn’t to sell just another xyz product-- it’s to sell an improved product experience. What can YOU sell that provides a different type of solution to customers already shopping for that product on Etsy?   And then feel free to post your USP in our Facebook group under the prompt-- and I’ll see you next week!

Susan Petersen started Freshly Picked by selling aluminum window frames as scraps in order to fund her initial orders. From those humble beginnings Susan has grown Freshly Picked to millions of dollars in revenue, and has appeared on Shark Tank, as well as partnering with Disney, Star Wars, Nordstrom, among others. In this episode she shares why the biggest sales day in Freshly Picked history almost caused her to call it quits, as well as some extremely useful tips on how to start a product-based company. Resources Subscribe and Review: Click Here BetterLegal LLC Legal Formation: Click Here Freshly Picked website: Click Here

“The Mom Squad is the secret to our success.”When Susan decided she’d do moccasins exclusively (5:14)Secret #1 Keep trying different things until one sticks (7:17)Secret #2 Turn broken systems into a positive inflection point (10:31)Secret #3 Enable your customer to mark meaningful moments (11:41)Secret #4 Alleviate customer burdens (17:45)Secret #5 In order to build a legacy, don't sacrifice the brand (19:08)Secret #6 Give your customers white glove treatment (20:00)Secret #7 Do everything you can to hire for culture fit (21:80)Secret #8 Make everyone feel like a valued customer (23:02)Secret #9 Hire team members who relate to your customers (25:50)How the Mom Squad works (26:00)Secret #10 Be resilient — Don't give up (27:24)Secret #11 Create a memorable 360 degree customer experience (28:30)Secret #12 You can achieve anything (30:00)Secret #13 Listen to your customers & incorporate their feedback (35:00)Links we mention in this episodeBlue PoblanoFollow SusanLinkedIn InstagramFreshly PickedFollow the Search for the Perfect TacoInstagramYouTubeLinkedInWebsiteFollow Scott PorterLinkedInAbout TacoincidenceThis is Tacoincidence — where we learn secrets of breakthrough brand experience from the most brilliant leaders while we’re on the search for the perfect taco. I'm your host, Scott Porter, entrepreneur, brand experience strategist and the taco-obsessed founder of Search for the Perfect Taco.In my lifelong search, I’ve learned the taco experience is even more than crazy good tacos — it’s about real human connection. And Tacoincidence is about discovering how visionary leaders build successful organizations with human experience at the core of their brand’s DNA. Whether it’s with granola bars, electric bikes, software or socks. I wanted to learn why these leaders believe in the power of relationship-based brand experience, what they do to create it and how it’s helped them thrive. All…over tacos.Join the journey on our website — you’re not going to want to miss out on our national taco tour we’re planning! Follow us on social media, subscribe to the podcast and YouTube channel, and tune in every Taco Tuesday for new episodes of Tacoincidence, where we’ll continue to explore the secrets to level-up your brand experience AND your taco game.

You have more than enough time. Yeah, I know, it feels like you don’t have any time. But today we’re going to talk about why you believe that and how you can change it. Today we’re going right into tough love territory I know it feels like there's never enough time. With kids and work and starting your business, it can all be super-overwhelming. Since becoming a parent, I have learned that it can be shockingly hard to even find time to take a shower. I get that. You believe you don’t have time because it FEELS like you don’t... You don’t have time to work on your business. You don’t have time to invest in learning how to make your business profitable. You don’t have time for marketing. You believe you don’t have time because: You haven't already made time for it. You have never done anything like building a business before - so how could you possibly have time for it? You may not know anyone who is doing it. In fact, everyone around you is probably saying they don't have time to do anything. But are you them? Do you spend your time in EXACTLY the same way? Surely you know people who tell you they don’t have time to cook, but maybe you always do find time. Or you have friends who don’t have time to read, but you do find time. You are not them and that is why you can find the time, even if they can’t. You’re right, you want to be realistic and honest with yourself. But let’s also be honest with yourself about the reality: You KNOW you don't have more time than anyone else. You KNOW don't have time to waste. Your belief that you don’t have enough time is distracting you from seeing the time you do have, and using it effectively. Is it true that no one, in your exact situation, has never found the time to build their business?  No, of course not. We both can think of dozens of examples of women who have. And hey, kids aren't the only thing that make you busy. When I started my business, I worked 40+ hours per week at two jobs, I managed a paint-your-own-pottery studio and worked at the local yarn shop. When I built my business, I worked as a barista 40 hours a week AND as an office temp 40 hours a week. And when my business grew to the point I quit my job, I was working 40 hours a week AND taking MBA classes during the evenings. But, I can hear you, Tara, you didn’t have children back then! Are you a mom with toddlers? So was Susan of Freshly Picked when she started her baby shoe empire. Are you a homeschooling mom? So is Katie of Yarn Love and she’s built a six figure yarn business while homeschooling her five kids. Yes, if you give time to this, to learning and growing, you will be balancing a lot. But balancing a growing business and your life (whether it's a dayjob or kids or whatever) isn't too hard. Having your entire money situation tied to one single employer is to hard. Wasting the time you spend on your business doing the WRONG things in your business is hard and painful. But here’s the thing: YOU are in the BEST position to find the time for this. Yes, YOU. Why? Because you are a creative. That means you’re a great problem solver, you can hold lots of stuff in your head at once. You are willing and open to learn (you’re listening to this podcast right now). YOU want more for your business and your life. That is the PERFECT person who will FIND the time to grow their business. That is the person who will find the time to learn and build healthy foundations. And hey, maybe you don’t feel like that person. Maybe you don’t feel like you’ve lived up to that potential, and that’s why you are SURE you don’t have enough time to work a program dedicated to growing your business. But there’s another way to look at it: You don't need more time, you need more focus. You need more follow-through. You didn’t do it before, not because you didn’t have the time, but because you didn’t have the follow-through. But what if you committed to following through? What if you found resources that helped you follow-through, that took into account your personality and provided the accountability and support you needed? Could you do it then? What if you knew that you could learn a few new tools and it would shift how time worked for you and how capable you are of following through? Here’s a way to shift time: List all the steps in any project on paper (don’t keep it in your head) Break it down. Then break it down even more than that. PICK ONE PRIORITY.  Each week, each day, each hour. JUST ONE. If you did this, how would impact your year? Your family over the next five years? What would you be teaching the people around you about what was possible for them? About how they could approach time? If you don’t change this belief that you don’t have enough time for learning and being effective, how will that impact those around you? How will you see that play out in the next year or five years or decades? What’s going to happen if you don’t change? Things are going to stay the same. You will hear your kids and your friends adopt this belief. They will think they don’t have time to invest in themselves, to follow their dreams, to put in the effort to improve and get better - whether it’s related to business, to practicing the violin, to putting in effort to learn a new art form or medicine or whatever they’re into. Do you want to keep operating like this, or are you ready to make the time for growing your business, for learning and improving? If you’re ready to let go of the belief then come tell me over on Instagram and then join me to learn more about the foundations of your business at TaraSwiger.com/foundations   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast284

I was first introduced to Susan Peterson when I bought a pair of baby moccasins from her Etsy shop years ago – but then, just a few weeks ago, I was watching reruns of Shark Tank with my son when I saw Susan come on the screen to pitch Freshly Picked! I was amazed to see that the mom I bought those shoes from had grown her Etsy shop into a multi-million dollar brand, helping people all over the world style their babies in a cuter way, and I just had to bring her on the show and talk about that journey!  You Will Hear About: [2:30] Creating the first pair of baby moccasins [4:40] Wisdom from Susan’s grandma and childhood [8:35] Every business has its growing pains [10:20] Susan’s Shark Tank experience [16:15] Why Freshly Picked had to raise money [21:30] “Do what you do best and hire out the rest” [25:30] Becoming an effective leader and creating an amazing company culture [27:30] The pressure of being a boss babe [30:00] Betting on yourself [32:00] Social media: you have to use it, don’t let it use you [40:10] Where Susan sees herself in five years [43:25] Amicably ending business relationships Resources: Learn more at (https://freshlypicked.com/) The Fringe: freshlypicked.com/pages/join-the-fringe Instagram: instagram.com/susan.m.petersen Are you enjoying the show? I want to know! (http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1370982175) . Mommy Millionaire is produced by Podcast Masters

Everything is open for discussion in this conversation with entrepreneur Susan Petersen, founder of Freshly Picked. We talk with Susan about how she started her business, where it is now, and the highs and lows in between. Listen in and glean some helpful and interesting nuggets of wisdom about being an entrepreneur and realizing your goals. Show notes can be found on the blog at BeckyHiggins.com. DIRECT LINK. Follow us on instagram — @BeckyHigginsLLC and @BeckyProudfit. Love the podcast? Please share with your friends and leave a review on iTunes!

Everything is open for discussion in this conversation with entrepreneur Susan Petersen, founder of Freshly Picked. We talk with Susan about how she started her business, where it is now, and the highs and lows in between. Listen in and glean some helpful and interesting nuggets of wisdom about being an entrepreneur and realizing your goals. Show notes can be found on the blog at BeckyHiggins.com. DIRECT LINK. Follow us on instagram — @BeckyHigginsLLC and @BeckyProudfit. Love the podcast? Please share with your friends and leave a review on iTunes!

In this episode we sit down with the founder of Freshly Picked, Susan Petersen. She shares the details of her new subscription program, The Fringe, as well as her harrowing and critical moments on Shark Tank.

Episode Notes It's time for a new Zelda game. I ran a poll to decide between the Seasons games and Minish Cap, and Minish Cap just won out, so I guess I'll... RAINBOW SPARKLE MAGIC CHIMES NO IT'S TIME FOR TINGLE IT'S TINGLE TIME! Follow the show on twitter at @TPPTPPTPwTP or follow Troytle directly at @TroytlePower! This podcast is a production of the We Can Make This Work (Probably) Network. Follow us below to keep up with this show and discover our many other podcasts! The place for those with questionable taste! Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: @ProbablyWork Email: ProbablyWorkPod@gmail.com

Guest Bio:Susan Petersen is the founder and CEO of Freshly Picked. After becoming frustrated by the lack of well-designed baby shoes, Susan designed baby moccasins and put them on her blog in 2009. From there the company took off, with the rich and famous (or at least their kids) wearing the moccasins and Susan and her moccasins being featured on ABC's Shark Tank. Susan lives and plays at the base of the Utah mountains, with her drone-pilot husband and her two adorable children. Freshly Picked is a leading baby lifestyle company, with over 6,000 percent revenue growth over the past three years. In 2015, Freshly Picked became the first woman-owned company to be named the number one fastest growing company in Utah Valley. The company was also recognized as having the highest revenue growth percentage to date for the honor. Leading in social engagement and community, Freshly Picked's million social media followers love celebrating the shared experiences of parenthood with the brand. From the first the step, to the next step, Freshly Picked is there for every step in babies' lives. Show Links Forbes - Susan PetersenBYU Marriott School of BusinessFreshly PickedEntrepreneur - From Pennies To MillionsShark Tank Show Notes Introduction (1:53)What Mark Cuban said about Susan Petersen's story (2:28)How she started her first blog and shop (3:05)Not being able to afford her first product and how she made it work (6:02)Susan's first thought of the business on growth versus reality (8:10)Going on Shark Tank and the experiences (9:36)Why the Shark Tank deal fell through (13:10)How she used Instagram as her main social media profile (22:01)Keeping her business over 70% online vs retail (29:19)What it was like selling to these major retailers (30:43)The boost that the business saw from celebrities organically posting (30:55)Having mentors to help build the business (32:15)

On Today's show we bring you a conversation with Freshly Picked CEO Susan Peterson. When Susan couldn’t find baby shoes that would stay on her son’s chubby feet, she decided to make her own. With scrap leather, a sewing machine, and a lot of heart, she made the first pair of Freshly Picked moccasins in 2009 right at her kitchen table. An appearance on Shark Tank in 2013 skyrocketed the company to a household name synonymous with quality, style, and creativity.

On Today's show we bring you a conversation with Freshly Picked CEO Susan Peterson. When Susan couldn't find baby shoes that would stay on her son's chubby feet, she decided to make her own. With scrap leather, a sewing machine, and a lot of heart, she made the first pair of Freshly Picked moccasins in 2009 right at her kitchen table. An appearance on Shark Tank in 2013 skyrocketed the company to a household name synonymous with quality, style, and creativity.

You never know who you're going to get into a Lyft with at a conference. Lucky for me, it was Gabrielle Blair from the blog, Design Mom, and founder of the Alt Summit Conference. Listening to her, I learned so much about how to be a super successful creative entrepreneur. Gabby was one of the first design-focused bloggers, and she paired that with being a mother to six kids. In our conversation, we talk about how she started her blog and grew it, how she and her family started the Alt Summit Conference for other creative entrepreneurs. We even go deep and talk about Gabby's battle with depression, how so much of what we both do as bloggers isn't exactly "real," and how we both deal with comparing ourselves to others. Gabby is such a down-to-earth, honest, kind person, you will love our wide-ranging conversation! Resources: Design Mom Alt Summit Darlybird Dooce Apartment Therapy Design Sponge Oh Happy Day Say Yes Freshly Picked Solly Baby Tubby Todd Emily Henderson Kinfolk Books MiloTree Transcript: How to Be a Super Successful Creative Entrepreneur with Gabrielle Blair Host: [00:00:03] Welcome to The Blogger Genius Podcast brought to you by MiloTree. Here's your host, Jillian Leslie. Jillian: [00:00:10] Hey everyone. Welcome back to the show today. I am excited to bring on my friend, Gabrielle Blair. Now Gabrielle and I really we just met in a Lyft on the way back from the airport to the Mom 2.0 Conference Jillian: [00:00:30] But I have known you from afar. You are the brains and the creativity behind both Design Mom, which is a blog that you've had since you started in 2006. Gabrielle: [00:00:44] Yes. Jillian: [00:00:44] And you're also the founder of a conference that I've been dying to go to called Alt Summit, which is a conference for creative entrepreneurs and influencers and you have such a beautiful blog. So Gabrielle, welcome to the show. Gabrielle: [00:01:00] I am so glad to be here. Thank you for the invitation. Jillian: [00:01:03] And it was so serendipitous that we were waiting in line and you said screw this, we're taking a Lyft, and we got in the Lyft with a random group of people and you paid for the Lyft, which was so generous. And I said to you, would you be on my podcast? Gabrielle: [00:01:18] And I said yes. Jillian: [00:01:19] And you said yes. So will you, because I don't know your story. I've known you. But I don't know your story so you tell me from the beginning, how you started this and one other thing we have to talk about in this is that you have six children. Gabrielle: [00:01:34] This is true. I have six kids, but they're not all toddlers anymore. So whatever you're picturing, it's probably not what you're thinking. Gabrielle: [00:01:44] I'm happy to share my story. You bet. So Design Mom was started in 2006. This is 12 years ago this month, July and I had just had Baby Number Five two months before, and I worked and lived in New York. Gabrielle: [00:02:02] I worked in the city as an art director at an advertising agency. And I loved my job, but after babies, once we were getting so many kids at home, I knew I needed a break where I could do sort of like an extended maternity leave, where I can maybe work at home, do some freelance that kind of thing. Gabrielle: [00:02:19] And I also knew by this time having had lots of babies that I go crazy if I don't have something creative to do after the baby's born. It's just sort of classic postpartum depression, you know you get overwhelmed. And if I had something to engage my brain that was creative and exciting, I could avoid some of that. Dealing with depression as a blogger Gabrielle: [00:02:37] Which is great. And I'm very open about having dealt with depression and dealing with depression daily, so you can read about that on Design Mom if you ever want to. But we won't talk about that right now. Gabrielle: [00:02:52] So blogs were around, but were still pretty new and most of the blogs I read were essay blogs and I really loved them. But I attempted to write an essay on a blog post once, and just went, Oh yeah I'm not good at this. Gabrielle: [00:03:06] This is not, you know, I had barely done any writing at that point in my life, and was really just a designer. That was where my focus was, on graphic design and art direction. Early design blogs Gabrielle: [00:03:15] But then I found Design Sponge and Oh Joy. And they were both design blogs that are still around, but they were very new. And you'll remember this is before any kind of social media, it was just blogs. And so a blog post might be what would be like a pin now, where it would be cute shoes. I love the cat pattern or you know what I mean. Like just something so simple. And that would be a blog post on a design blog. [00:03:41] Like a product image and a statement or it could be so short and you might do this multiple times a day. Because again it's like an Instagram or a pin or or a status update. Gabrielle: [00:03:54] So I saw that and went, Oh well that I can probably handle, it's very visual, very minimal writing and I can fit that in if I'm in the middle of a night nursing the baby or whatever. I just have a few minutes it doesn't have to be like an intensive eight hour block of work time. So I called it Design Mom. Gabrielle: [00:04:17] And at the time again I'm in New York, and I was 31, and here I just had my fifth baby. But most of my peers were just getting married or having their first baby. Jillian: [00:04:29] Wow. How old were you when you had your first baby? Gabrielle: [00:04:32] I was 23. Jillian: [00:04:33] Wow. Being an early pro at motherhood Gabrielle: [00:04:34] So for my peers in New York, as they're just having their first one like I am a total pro. Right? You know, they're having their first and I just had number five so they're asking me for advice as a mom, but also you know, it's New York you want to be a cool mom. So they're asking me like where did you find cute cute toddler shoes? And do you throw a first birthday party? Who's invited? The kid doesn't really have friends yet. Gabrielle: [00:05:00] Anyway that just stuff like that. I'm getting asked advice or do you use a sling or do you you know, use a carrier pack and which brand and what was the best looking option. What about diaper bags and just everything you know maternity clothes all of it. Gabrielle: [00:05:13] So I was getting asked questions by friends, my neighbors, my co-workers, naturally and I thought well I could cover that on a blog and talk about parenting but kind of through this design lens. Design Mom and the tagline from the beginning was the intersection of design and motherhood. Gabrielle: [00:05:31] And this is what I'm going to cover and that's what I did. That's what I've covered it was just ideas I had, or again I'd find some great deal on something or a new product that was cool or whatever it might be, and talk about it. And I would post three times a day and that was the average sometimes more and it took off. So this was even before Google Analytics this is I mean 2006 was a whole different world. Jillian: [00:05:57] And this was the time where, tell me if this is how you did it, but you would have your favorite blogs and you check them every day. Gabrielle: [00:06:04] Oh yeah. Because again, no social media. This was amazing. So I didn't have Google Analytics but there was a product called Track-See, a little software that you could put on your blog and it would count how many followers or who was coming. Gabrielle: [00:06:21] It was revelatory for me because my blog post might get five or six comments. Usually people I knew in real life, neighbors or co-workers or family members. But I put Track See on and I could see,oh there are a hundred and fifty people that came to my blog today and I don't know any of them, you know you would just have their IP address. And maybe their city and I would go, whoa what in the world. I was just amazing. Gabrielle: [00:06:49] So so it was trying to figure out, well how can I get them to speak out more and you know like how could I get them to sort of acknowledge their presence. How do I do that you know? Because I think it's amazing that these many people are reading. It just blew my mind. Of course now I have much bigger traffic. But at the time that was a big deal to see that there were over 100 people reading. The first blog giveaway started with Design Mom Gabrielle: [00:07:12] So I said, well what if I did giveaway and I've been credited for inventing the first blog giveaway. I don't know if you can even track that down. But I thought I need to give them an excuse to comment. So what if there's a prize and you can say anything you want and you just have a comment to win? Gabrielle: [00:07:31] So my one of my husband's friends from high school, I knew she had started a cool little shop called Darlybird. And I reached out to her and said, Hey would you be up for offering a prize and it will be comment to win and it's just this idea I have, and then you know you'll ship the prize to the winner and we'll just randomly pick someone you know pick a number kind of thing and let's just try it. Gabrielle: [00:07:57] And she's like, sure. How about a pair of earrings and a bracelet, or you know she came up with a prize. So I did it and I had the instructions that said OK we're going to try something new. Comment. You can say anything you want, I even gave sample comments so you know to help them out. Jillian: [00:08:15] Wow. Gabrielle: [00:08:16] Like, Wow this is cute. Or you can say, Neato! or I want to win! You know you're basically just really simple because I knew there was a few barriers for that. You know, people weren't used to commenting that wasn't a thing. And then there was a little captcha. And that the first time you see it you're like What is this?  You know that feels like an extra hurdle. Gabrielle: [00:08:35] And then of course it's intimidating to know you your words are just out there and your name might be associated with them, so I let them know. Oh you can. You can leave anonymous comment. You just need to have a real email address so I could contact you. But no one can see your email address. Gabrielle: [00:08:48] I'm kind of training them right. Teaching them how honesty works. And it was amazing so not all 100 plus readers commented but like 70 did. Jillian: [00:08:59] Wow. Gabrielle: [00:09:00] And I'm getting calls from all these people in real life that read my blog, you know neighbors are going. Who are these people? Where do they come from? Because of course they hadn't seen the stats from that. Jillian: [00:09:14] So they said this was just like a personal blog. Jillian: [00:09:17] Right. So they just thought OK so they're reading and the couple you know the few people commenting or reading, my sister's friends from church, friends in the neighborhood, you know things like that. Gabrielle: [00:09:28] And so they could not have been more shocked and I wasn't shocked because I knew I had seen the stats, but I still was shocked in that I didn't think 70 would, I thought I would maybe get 20 or something like that. Gabrielle: [00:09:40] So it was very exciting and immediately like the same day I got emails from must have been 10 or 15 different bloggers saying hey can I copy this? Can I copy and paste instructions? Can I do this because it was so effective. It's great way to sort of train people how to comment on a blog. Gabrielle: [00:09:59] And then of course it took off, and now it's just ubiquitous and of course are sort of obnoxious at this point. But it was a big deal at the time and I remember also having to explain to people. Every time there's a giveaway does that mean I get the prize. It goes directly to you, I usually don't even see it in person. Gabrielle: [00:10:20] Because they are already troubled with the idea that like I'm getting spoiled somehow by these I don't know. Anyway it was interesting. It's so intimate so personal, they don't like the idea that someone's making money from blogging at the time. Jillian: [00:10:38] Then how did you start monetizing online? Design Mom starting to monetize her blog Gabrielle: [00:10:41] OK so once I could see that there was traffic, once this giveaway thing took off. I was like, oh there's something here. No one was really monetizing their blog outside of display ads. I remember Heather Armstrong, Dooce had display ads and that was really kind of how you did it that, was it. Gabrielle: [00:11:01] And so but I felt like there was something there and I didn't have like an ad network to do to do display ads although within the next couple of years I got one but at first I just didn't even know how that worked or or how to how to go about that. Gabrielle: [00:11:15] So I started doing sponsorships right away just for trades. So one of the earliest ones I did is we were moving from New York, and we're moving to Colorado. And I approached I pitched moving companies. Moving moving across country is a big thing. Gabrielle: [00:11:35] And I approached moving companies and said I'm going to take these pictures on this blog post, you know gave them examples, showed them that some of that sample giveaways and just other stats I had at the time and said do you want to do a trade? Gabrielle: [00:11:50] I'll write about you, showcase the whole thing will do X number of blog posts. You know when we arrived, the unpacking all of this stuff make sure we're showing your trucks and let's trade. And Mayflowers said yes. So which was great because it is very very visual trucks so it worked really well. The green and yellow and they're really distinctive and for photography and stuff it was wonderful. Gabrielle: [00:12:18] This is pre-social media too. So blog content is really what the sponsor's getting. Then once I had that once I had built some of those trades I could actually start asking for money instead of trade. Gabrielle: [00:14:45] Trades are great, especially if you need it, but they don't buy groceries unless you're writing for grocery stores. I still I mean, I'm 12 years in, I'm established, I do this full time. I have plenty of paid sponsorships but I will still approach companies for a trade. If it's something that I need and I can get a great value out of that I'm totally fine with that. Jillian: [00:15:08] So give me an example of a trade that you recently did. How to approach brands about a trade as a blogger Gabrielle: [00:15:14] Sure, so I'm working on one right now for my boys' bedroom. My oldest son is getting home from two years abroad in Colombia. We haven't seen him for two years. He's been on a mission and he's getting home. Gabrielle: [00:15:27] We're redoing the boys' bedroom because while he's been gone it's been sort of half guestroom. It's just been in transition. So we're going OK he's getting home, he's older now. He probably won't even live in this room very long, but I want him to have a space when he gets home that feels like his own. You know just feel like he's got a spot. Gabrielle: [00:15:45] So I approached Room and Board, who I've worked with before and said, "Hey how about how about the social media package and blog package?" And I basically will price out OK I'm going to give you X number of post and X number of Facebook and X number of Instagram and I value that X number of dollars and then they'll trade for that amount of credit. Gabrielle: [00:16:08] And then I can use that to buy furniture and if I still have credit left over I could use it to buy additional product although usually I max it out. You know for the room, and it really gets decked out and have a good time. Jillian: [00:16:19] Got it. Gabrielle: [00:16:21] So that works great for me. I know I'm going to need to spend that money. It's great content. I know I can't buy groceries with it but that's fine. I can do other sponsorships for grocery money. Jillian: [00:16:32] So how often are you doing sponsored posts now? Gabrielle: [00:16:37] Oh it all depends. I feel like I aim for two to three a month right now seems to be a good amount. Jillian: [00:16:44] OK. And do you use a team of people to help you? Or are you the one taking the photographs? Hiring people to help with sponsored blog posts Gabrielle: [00:16:55] Yes and no. So I have had big teams in the past. I've had big teams of contributors and now I'm pretty barebones right now because I've shifted a lot of energy to Alt Summit. Gabrielle: [00:17:08] But basically what I have is I hire photographers, like I have a shoot for Room and Board tomorrow in store and I'll hire a photographer for that. Gabrielle: [00:17:16] So I have several local photographers here in the Bay Area that I know I can reach out to for basically a half day shoot, you know, come for two or three hours maybe up to four to shoot something at my house, or somewhere else other things I'd totally shoot myself. Gabrielle: [00:17:30] Often I'll shoot a shot recently for Stonyfield, my own kids. I'll shoot books myself. I shoot lots myself because I do things so last minute and that's just a function of a full life. I'm not trying to be a jerk about it, but it's just a function of how full my life is right now. Gabrielle: [00:17:51] It's hard to hire out somethings like there are definitely posts where I think, Oh I definitely should have hired someone to do this and I didn't do it in time and now I've got to do it. You know what I mean. I didn't. Because where I can do something the day of or the night before, I can't really ask that of someone I'm hiring. Gabrielle: [00:18:09] So I do have a great food contributor Lindsay Rose Johnson. She's been with me for years and years and years. If I do have a food post and I give her enough time she's amazing it's not like she needs months, but I don't want to ask her the day of. So she's amazing. Gabrielle: [00:18:25] If I have a craft project Amy Christie is a longtime contributor for me, and she's great at shooting. If I have an idea for a DIY but I don't have time to execute it myself, she's fantastic. Gabrielle: [00:18:36] What I'm trying to do I put out a call for an editor. I got amazing applications and then haven't actually had time to hire someone. Gabrielle: [00:18:47] My hope is that I will hire someone that can really help maintain daily content where I can check in with like when I have like a longer form post that I really want to discuss. Gabrielle: [00:19:03] Because Design Mom has transformed. Now it's almost all long form, it's one post a day. You know that kind of thing. But there are some things where it would be no problem to get a contributor. Gabrielle: [00:19:13] Like if I'm doing a shopping post or it might be a roundup of things I've found online that other articles that kind of thing where I really could get help. And then when it's something where it needs to be my voice like we're discussing a social issue or a parenting issue that I can really get in and write that. Gabrielle: [00:19:32] So I'm hoping to build my team up again in a way that I can keep Design Mom vibrant but also concentrate a lot of time on Alt Summit. Jillian: [00:19:41] So I have to stop you. You do one long form blog post a day? Gabrielle: [00:19:51] That's a little bit of an exaggeration. So, long form compared to when I used to do three posts a day? Yes. Because my three posts a day were you know two or three paragraphs and a photo. Or it might even be one paragraph and a photo. Gabrielle: [00:20:07] And now, a longer form might be it's 1,000 words or 3000 words and tons of photos or only one photo and a long essay. They are definitely longer form. If I can do one of those a week that's terrific. Gabrielle: [00:20:21] A Home Tour I usually do on Tuesdays and I do have a man named Josh Bingham. He's been editor of those for a while and it's been great. So he can help with that. And really what he does is you know compile it and put it online so then I can edit it from there you know. Jillian: [00:20:40] Wow. Yeah I mean I was on your blog today looking at your content and I didn't realize that you were posting every day! Getting comfortable writing as a blogger Gabrielle: [00:20:48] Yeah. And then I don't know if we count a shopping post, like I get pretty verbose at this point I'm like where I went from not being able to write an essay when I started in 2006. I mean I have a bestselling book now. I write a ton. Gabrielle: [00:21:02] So writing, I'm not very fast in it but I am comfortable writing now. I did one on a recent blog post is on four picture books. It's pretty minimal writing. So I just took more time to do the photos and the writing. Gabrielle: [00:21:20] And then my Friday links. I don't know that we call that long form, they do take a ton of research it's basically me collecting links throughout the week that I think are compelling that I want to share with readers and I'll do some introductory. Jillian: [00:21:35] We have to discuss this. What does your work schedule look like? Especially how many kids do you have at home? Because I know a couple of them are grown, too. Gabrielle: [00:21:45] Well this summer I have five at home. So yes my oldest is on this mission in Columbia as I mentioned. My second just spent her freshman year at Berkeley, which is just across town so she was in the dorms but not too far and she's been home for the summer. Gabrielle: [00:22:01] She's working full time so I don't see a ton of her right now but she is around. So really it's just the four, a high schooler two middle schoolers and a third grader. Jillian: [00:22:14] OK. So could you explain what your life looks like. What life looks like as a blogger with six kids Gabrielle: [00:22:19] Sure. I mean it's pretty crazy but I want to start with, my husband and I both came from big families where both of us are one of eight. Jillian: [00:22:30] OK. Gabrielle: [00:22:31] Number 5 in line and number 7 in line in his in his family, so we were used to an element of chaos. It just was normal to us and we knew we wanted a big family. Gabrielle: [00:22:40] So for sure our days would be too chaotic for a lot of people, which I totally understand and I'm not advocating that anyone else needs to do this but but it's also kind of normal for us. Gabrielle: [00:22:51] So a day that might stress someone else out, might seem like pretty normal at our house. Gabrielle: [00:22:58] So in the summer it's going to be different than the school year obviously. Last week was pretty crazy. Three of the girls were doing this skateboarding camp and then they went directly to swim team and then they had play rehearsal. Gabrielle: [00:23:14] But the play ended this week is going to be much more casual we have it's a much easier week but the kids are all old enough now they really can take care of themselves. They need rides but they don't need babysitters. Gabrielle: [00:23:28] So they can get up. They can work on an activity. They might climb our trees, we have these pretty epic trees where you have to put on climbing gear. Gabrielle: [00:23:39] They might bake, they really love baking. They might put on a play or make a movie someday if they're in the mood to be creative, or they might try and sneak in as much screen time as they can and just watch YouTube videos. Gabrielle: [00:23:52] You know typical summer day stuff they I don't really have to like take time to feed them lunch you know. Dinner yes, we'll all gather for dinner. But they can kind of take care of themselves. Jillian: [00:24:03] But are you working? Are you working between carpool? Or are you saying guys, I am working. Gabrielle: [00:24:09] Well my husband and I both work at home. Jillian: [00:24:13] OK. Is he your partner? Does he do Alt Summit stuff? Gabrielle: [00:24:16] He is not. He is part of a startup called Teacher.co and he is super busy in that and they're about to do an ICO. And he has a jam packed schedule. Gabrielle: [00:24:29] Over the years he has, you know, like we had a series of videos called All Of Us. That we did for scripts. We did like 40 episodes and he was a producer for those so he has worked with me before but really he has his own things. Which is awesome. He's does amazing stuff. Jillian: [00:24:45] Ok but do you like kick your kids out and go guys go to work? Gabrielle: [00:24:48] Yeah, totally so the kids know, I'm sitting with my laptop I've got to get worked on and they know that. But my workday gets interrupted a lot to drive. They're going to get picked up. Oh we got to do these errands. Gabrielle: [00:25:01] So my workday never really looks like I start working at 9:00 I end up 5 with a lunch break. That's not a thing. It's going to be I'm going to work from 8 to 10. But then I know we have to go run these two errands and then from 11 I have a phone call and then you know at 1:00 o'clock I'll get two more hours on the computer. Gabrielle: [00:25:20] But then after that, I've got something with the kids or something and then you know at 7:00, I can work again for a few more hours. Yeah I mean it might look like that. Jillian: [00:25:28] Wow. Gabrielle: [00:25:29] So I have my list of things I need to get done. I usually make that you know I'll update that in the morning. I'll find out my priorities at the top, the things that have to get done that day right. Gabrielle: [00:25:44] Those go at the top and then I tackle as much as I can. But I have to build a lot of flexibility in my days because it's real life going on, so yes you work hours but you also got to get the kids to the ortho appointment. Jillian: [00:25:56] Totally! And then there's food poisoning that takes the whole house. Gabrielle: [00:26:03] Right and then we're just out of groceries and we just have to go to the store. And there are tools I know out there, we just had a package from Amazon Prime Pantry. Have you ever tried that? Jillian: [00:26:17] Yes. Gabrielle: [00:26:17] You know that was delivered yesterday so there are some things I can do to try to use these services and I'm sure I could be better at that especially here in the Bay Area where all these startups began. So you can kind of access them before they even expand it to the rest of the country. Gabrielle: [00:26:32] But really, I feel like we do a lot of this just we don't use tools that we just go, OK we just go to the grocery store. What is the Alt Summit Conference? Jillian: [00:26:41] So can we talk about Alt Summit? Which is a conference that I have always wanted to go to. It seems like it is just so beautiful and cool. Gabrielle: [00:26:53] It is. Jillian: [00:26:54] And so you started this. So you said to yourself I'm going to start a conference? Gabrielle: [00:27:00] Well pretty much. So basically what happened was again, it's early blogging we were in 2009. So I've been blogging for a few years. My sister is a blogger. Her name is Jordan Ferney. Her blog is Oh Happy Day. Jillian: [00:27:14] Oh I love her. Gabrielle: [00:27:15] Yes, she's amazing. And my sister-in-law, married to my brother Jared, is also a blogger from Say Yes, Liz Stanley. So we had this blogger family and we were all on a family trip, and we were again since 2009. I guess it actually would have been 2008 because the first conference happened in January of 2009. Gabrielle: [00:27:36] So in 2008 we were talking and talking about conferences, and I started to go to a couple I've been to BlogHer and then helped start Mom 2.0 that first year, although I'm not an organizer now but just helped out that first year. Gabrielle: [00:27:53] Laura Maiz who is one of the key organizers, she also owns a part of Alt Summit, she is a longtime business partner of mine. So anyway that's the connection there. Gabrielle: [00:28:02] But I'm talking with my siblings we're all talking about these conferences, and I said well I've been to these conferences. It's awesome but they're really focused on writers or maybe kind of moms. Gabrielle: [00:28:14] A lot of the design blogs I was reading like Apartment Therapy or as I mentioned Design Sponge, Oh Joy. All these blogs I was reading in 2006 you know they're not at these conferences. The design blogs are not there and they're not really geared to design blogs. Gabrielle: [00:28:30] And so and like Jordan, who didn't have kids at the time, and Liz, who didn't have kids at the time, why would they have gone to Mom 2.0 Summit. And even BlogHer, they didn't really know any of those bloggers. It wasn't quite the right fit for them. Gabrielle: [00:28:44] So we were saying well, what if we did a conference for the blogs we read. You know these design blogs because I overlap both worlds with the name Design Mom I get to be a mom blogger and design blogger. Gabrielle: [00:28:56] But they were just strictly in the design blogging thing and this is before we were really even saying lifestyle blogs. So my sister Sarah who is not a blogger, but is awesome at organizing things said, yeah let's do a conference. I can be the event or the event planner or the organizer. And you guys can handle the speakers and content. Gabrielle: [00:29:19] Liz and Jordan didn't necessarily want to be involved in that, but I totally did. So Sarah and I really started this conference where I handled all the content, the speakers the programming. And she did the planning and it was and great. It was awesome. Jillian: [00:29:36] The thing about the conference is it's so true. They sell out immediately. Gabrielle: [00:29:41] They really do. It's like a two hour thing. Although I have to tell you this year we expanded for the first time in a big way. We've always kept these very small and it's kind of been obnoxious. Gabrielle: [00:29:54] I mean it's awesome to sell out, but then we get just these you know sob stories that people they really want to get there, and they didn't happen to be available in that two hour mark. They were in a meeting or whatever the tickets are gone. Gabrielle: [00:30:04] And we knew it was a problem and we'd try and open more. You know it was it was just a struggle. So we're really excited because I think I've solved that. I mean we'll see. We'll see how this year goes. Gabrielle: [00:30:17] But I had this flash of insight at some point as we were looking at locations and saying are we going to stay in Palm Springs, is time to move? Gabrielle: [00:30:27] And all the really cool hotels in Palm Springs the ones that I really love, The Park at Palm Springs and the Ace Hotel and Saguaro, they're amazing and they're memorable and you just love being there. Jillian: [00:30:38] Yes. Gabrielle: [00:30:39] They're not really big enough for a conference Jillian: [00:30:42] No. Gabrielle: [00:30:42] In fact Alt Summit was at the Saguaro the last two years. And we knew we were too big, and as we do surveys basically people would say, you guys this was awesome but this hotel is not big enough. Gabrielle: [00:30:52] I mean like we know but if we move to another hotel. It's just they become so generic so fast. Jillian: [00:30:58] Yeah. Gabrielle: [00:30:59] So you're at a Ritz Carlton or a fancy Hilton or whatever, it's just a big hotel with you know regular ballroom spaces they are split into classrooms. And then you compare those to these special properties in Palm Springs. Jillian: [00:31:13] And by the way we just have to say for people who don't know. Palm Springs is like a mid century fantasy like it is a designer's dream place. I mean my husband and I just drive around and look at the architecture. Yes. So I understand why you do it in Palm Springs. Gabrielle: [00:31:33] And we've all you know we did it had a big fancy hotel in Salt Lake for many years. We loved it. It was gorgeous. You know a five star hotel. Amazing. It's not like we're opposed to that, but we know having done it at these more distinctive spaces that it makes a big difference. Gabrielle: [00:31:47] And our social shares when we move to the Saguaro which is this Rainbow Hotel, our social shares went up by 30 percent. Well because it's basically the most Instagramable spot on the planet right now. Gabrielle: [00:32:00] And anyway so I was trying to figure out what to do because if we wanted to get a hotel, as I said it's really hard to find a hotel that has big meeting spaces but that is still really special and that doesn't feel sort of run of the mill. Gabrielle: [00:32:13] And we could transfer to something like, oh let's have like more of a warehouse feel on a pier or something. Jillian: [00:32:19] Right. Gabrielle: [00:32:19] But then it's not a one day conference, it's a month at a conference and people want to congregate at a hotel where they can hang out. So we know this and we were really stuck on where to have this. Gabrielle: [00:32:33] And then I thought well what if it was at all the coolest hotels in Palm Springs. None of them have a big enough room for you for everybody. But what if there was enough classes going on simultaneously at different locations where there's enough room for more people. But we still have this small feel, small classes and these really cool spaces. [00:32:57] So I'm really excited. We've expanded. We're going to have three times as many people, we're going to have 2,000 people there. We'll have four locations. And then because of these multiple locations, we looked to South by Southwest. And I've been to South by Southwest multiple times. And I look to see kind of learn what I could from them. Gabrielle: [00:33:19] Part of what they do is they actually do a nine day program. Ours will only be six. But the point is that you have more time to move around these locations and to fill your schedule instead of just like pack into classes and kind of get overwhelmed and and not feel like you got to do everything you want to do. Gabrielle: [00:33:36] We could spread this out and give people more time. Because that's some of the feedback we've gotten. They love the content but they want to see every class and they can't because they're you know several going on at the same time and even when we've repeated and we have tried things like that they just want more. Gabrielle: [00:33:55] And so we're hoping this provides that we know six days is a long time, and we know that some people will only come for part of it which of course is no problem. And they'll it'll be worth their while however long they can come. But we're really excited about this. Gabrielle: [00:34:09] And we did contract with one very big space where we can do like massive keynotes or things like that but otherwise everyone will get to go to whatever class they want to at whatever location, and we'll have shuttles going. We're hoping to do some kind of like electric scooters and let people get to know the city as they drive around and get access to all the cool spots in town. Jillian: [00:34:40] What month is it? Is it in February? When do you do it Gabrielle: [00:34:43] Well it's actually March. So it's been in January for now eight years. Jillian: [00:34:51] OK. Gabrielle: [00:34:52] Well sorry, seven years than two years in February, and this year we're moving to March simply for logistics. It was the week that all of the properties we wanted were available the same time. What type of blogger is Alt Summit best for? Jillian: [00:35:03] Got it. And by the way there'll be a link in the show notes if you want to check it out. And if you were to say who the perfect person or different types of people who would get the most out of the summit, who are these people? Gabrielle: [00:35:18] So these are typically women it tends to be about ninety five percent women. So it's women. And these are people that are drawn to creative careers. Gabrielle: [00:35:28] Originally it was aimed at bloggers. But again as social media has changed, it really expanded. So all of a sudden Etsy shop owners wanted to come and and they were welcome, we did content for them and then people who are making their careers on Instagram or Pinterest, you know they were there in fact Pinterest. The the Web site launched at Alt Summit. Jillian: [00:35:48] I knew that! Yes. Ben Silbermann talked. Pinterest was launched at Alt Summit Gabrielle: [00:35:51] Yes. Well and I can tell you a segue just a brief thing about Ben. First he came just as an attendee. Jillian: [00:35:59] Yes. Gabrielle: [00:35:59] One of our early years and he was just kind of, you know, he's not like a crazy loud guy, he's just really nice. You know seems kind of like an introvert you know and he would just be approaching people quietly and say hey, I have this thing. Check it out. And it was very visual obviously it's Pinterest and so Alt Summit was all these visual bloggers. Jillian: [00:36:22] Right. Gabrielle: [00:36:23] And and so they would try it out and loved it because it is such a useful tool if you're a visual person and you know the idea of being able to have a pinboard, with all the things you love is so right up any visual person's alley. And so people loved it. Gabrielle: [00:36:37] And the next year he came back he was on a panel, and then the next year he was the keynote because Pinterest had exploded. Jillian: [00:36:46] OK so if you are in design or if you are an influencer or if you are an Etsy shop owner. Gabrielle: [00:36:55] Right. So I want to say creative entrepreneurs. So if you are trying to run a business and you tend to the visual or creative. So like some really beautiful baby product companies have come. Gabrielle: [00:37:10] I'm thinking of like Freshly Picked, they do moccasins and diaper bags and things like that. You know she came to Alt Summit many many years, learned her social media here learned a lot of her business skills there and has built a massive company. And I certainly can't credit all them for that. but that the type of person that comes. Gabrielle: [00:37:27] Solly Baby who does wraps as well as Tubby Todd. All these women come to Alt Summit. Those are baby products but I'm just saying they all require lots of visuals, they're all required a lot of creativity. They're going for like beautiful lifestyle kind of things. That's a great fit. Gabrielle: [00:37:43] Jessica Alba came when she was just launching Honest Company. It was such a great fit. And any of the cleaning companies that are really cool and visual if you think of Method or Mrs. Meyers they love to come to Alt Summit. You know it's this very design appreciative crowd. Alt Summit is for creative entrepreneurs Gabrielle: [00:38:01] So you might not be a designer yourself, but if you're like, yeah, but I love reading Emily Henderson's blog or I love reading Apartment Therapy, or whatever it might be, You're going to love this. Gabrielle: [00:38:13] It's people building their businesses but they're trying to build a creative business. So that means we're talking about how do you do photography and we have modeling classes. A lot of these people have to be in photos right you know. So it's and then you know how do you present yourself so there might be fashion. How do you do your makeup. Gabrielle: [00:38:30] All of this stuff ends up overlapping with creative entrepreneurs especially these days where you have to be everything right. You are the marketing team, you are the model. Jillian: [00:38:40] Yes. You are the editor, you are the voice. Gabrielle: [00:38:45] So we're teaching classes on how to do all this content creation how to photograph, how to write, how to do all that but also specific marketing things, like here's how to start an email list and here's what you should be accomplishing with your newsletter and that kind of thing. Gabrielle: [00:39:02] And then it might be OK. Well what about Instagram Facebook. You know maybe it's on Facebook content but then another one on Facebook ads and how to run those. Gabrielle: [00:39:12] And then of course a lot of these people have written books and they've gotten their book contracts by coming to Alt Summit. We often have publishers there, pretty much every year and they're often taking pitches. Gabrielle: [00:39:28] So like the Kinfolk Magazine, I brought my publisher there, Artisan Books, to Alt Summit and they met the Kinfolk team and ended up publishing Kinfolk recipe books. I want to say the big you know coffee table huge volumes. Gabrielle: [00:39:49] And I can give a million examples of those so if you're someone is thinking a book and it might be a novel but it's more likely like a coffee table book or you know that kind of thing. Gabrielle: [00:40:01] Darcy Miller who is the editor of Martha Stewart Weddings for you know the entire run basically of the magazine comes because she's launching her new creative career as a crafter and you know everyone comes. It's amazing. Gabrielle: [00:40:14] So we'll have fashion people there, and we'll have YouTubers there and we'll have Etsy shop owners, tons of crafters, often Joanne's comes in as as a sponsor and we'll just even have classes where you can just craft your heart out. The balance between Design Mom and Alt Summit Jillian: [00:40:28] That's amazing. Now, how much of your life is spent doing Design Mom and how much is spent doing Alt Summit? Gabrielle: [00:40:37] Well Alt Summit is such a seasonal thing that it's it's probably ends up being 50/50 but it doesn't it doesn't feel like that because the Alt Summit stuff ramps up as I get closer. Gabrielle: [00:40:46] So like for right after Alt Summit, I'll have a few months where I'm barely doing Alt Summit. The conference is over there's sort of that dead period where we're doing it a little bit of marketing and some follow up and that kind of thing. But mostly I can semi-ignore my inbox there. Gabrielle: [00:41:03] But then the closer we get, the more I have to do Alt Summit until I'm at a point where I'm barely functioning on Design Mom, I'm sure the readers are furious. Gabrielle: [00:41:17] Or I've hired friends to give me content for the week. You know like guest post, things like that because I just have to disappear. Gabrielle: [00:41:25] The issue is this year with this expansion of Alt Summit, which again I'm so excited about, I think about it all the time it's going to be amazing. I have even less time for Design Mom and it is a really tricky thing. Gabrielle: [00:41:41] Design Mom's comment sections are amazing the community there is so good, so vibrant, so interesting and I don't want to give it up, it's like personally super fulfilling for me. And also I think it's important. It's one of the only place on the Internet where you can discuss some of these hard things and not have fights break out in the middle of the comments you know. It's a really special place. Gabrielle: [00:42:04] So it's my biggest challenge this year is going to be figuring out how do I maintain Alt Summit in a way that feels authentic and that readers are happy with, but be able to devote a lot of time to it. Gabrielle: [00:42:15] And I think the biggest issue I have and it's always been true is to do sort of that background infrastructure stuff. How do you fit that in? It's almost like you have to shut down the blog for a couple of weeks to do some of the background stuff you know like to say to do your hiring and to get people trained, how do I fit that in with my normal daily schedule of posting working on Alt Summit taking calls with clients, things like that, I don't know. Gabrielle: [00:42:41] I've never been able to figure that out. Do you know what I mean? Jillian: [00:42:46] I do. And I guess one thing that I would love just to speak to you briefly is, you are visual and you are a designer and you make beautiful things and we kind of touched on this previously. Jillian: [00:42:59] Before we we started recording we were talking about podcasting because you're starting a podcast, and we just were talking about it and we were talking about this idea of my philosophy with podcasting is to press record and just let it happen. Jillian: [00:43:15] And if you know, kids come in or dogs bark or whatever, I'm going to leave it in because this is life and life is messy. How do you reconcile the fact that you've got six kids and as you're describing your day, no day seems like it's like the next day, and yet there's something beautiful to what you do. How to balance the mess and the beauty as a blogger Jillian: [00:43:34] And I would say my days are messy but it doesn't look that beautiful. And when I think of Alt Summit, I think it's so beautiful it's almost intimidatingly beautiful. How do you balance the mess and the beauty? Jillian: [00:43:48] Because I think a lot of influencers struggle with the fact that they go onto Instagram and everybody's life looks more beautiful than the next. And we all say well underneath it, it's probably not like that, but how would you speak to that? Gabrielle: [00:44:04] Yeah, I mean I've spoken to that quite a bit over the years and I don't know that I have a great answer, but I'll tell you give you some thoughts. Gabrielle: [00:44:14] You know, we do as just as consumers of content because yes, I Instagram but I also read Instagram right. I follow people and as consumers of content, we do love vulnerability and honesty and authenticity. But I feel like only to a certain degree. Gabrielle: [00:44:37] I think people think, no I want the real thing, the unvarnished and I don't believe that's true because I've tried it over the years. Again I'm in this 12 years, I've tried this kind of thing and I've seen other people try it and people want the vulnerability but they want a little bit controlled. Jillian: [00:44:57] Or packaged with a pretty bow. Gabrielle: [00:45:00] You don't mind seeing the laundry but you don't want to actually see the dirty underwear. Like it's like, I don't mind seeing there's a cute little basket that has laundry in it that needs to be done or a big pile on the couch but there's pretty filtered light or whatever. Gabrielle: [00:45:14] But I don't actually need a close up of your dirty laundry like no one wants that. And of course not, that's disgusting but that's true. Like I mentioned earlier, I write about depression, and I do and it's a real and very real it's part of my life but I rarely write about it or even mention it when I'm in the depths of despair. Writing about depression as a blogger Jillian: [00:45:36] Yep I get that. Gabrielle: [00:45:37] I'll write about it after, it when I feel like I've gotten things under control and been able to resolve it and think about it and can reflect on it carefully, and then I'll write about it and talk about this is what helped and this is what didn't help, and you know and be able to be helpful about it. Gabrielle: [00:45:52] If I just told you every time I was super depressed, it's just too depressing for everyone else. You know it's just awful. Gabrielle: [00:46:02] So I can write about it and they appreciate it and I can give them helpful things and I can acknowledge that this is real, and they don't need to be afraid of it, and they can fight it. And all these things and I don't need to have shame around it but they really only want to hear that when I'm through it. Jillian: [00:46:17] And you're on the other side with a little bit of a bow on you. Gabrielle: [00:46:20] A little bit. And now now that's not always totally true. It depends on the platform and you know that kind of thing because if this is just my friends on Facebook on my personal Facebook page and I was you know in the depths of despair and just said Hey guys I need a little love. Help me out. Well you know like that's no problem. And I can really be in the depths of despair but I don't feel like I could do that on Design Mom. I mean maybe a tiny bit but not really. Gabrielle: [00:46:49] So it is real and messy behind the scenes and I don't think people really want to see it as much as they claim that they do. And so yes you can be vulnerable and honest and authentic in all these things. But I mean I get on Instagram I have different needs on different platforms right. Gabrielle: [00:47:07] Like on Twitter, I'm mostly just looking for news stories. I feel like I get the headlines fastest there versus even going to news apps you know. So I like news headlines and I like just funny, like people are funny responses and it's makes me laugh. Gabrielle: [00:47:25] On Facebook I use it more as a personal thing, so it's going to be like someone's birthday or it's you know someone had a baby or that kind of thing. Gabrielle: [00:47:38] And then on Instagram, I'm looking for pretty pictures and inspiration. Jillian: [00:47:42] Right. Gabrielle: [00:47:43] So content I make. Of course I try to use pretty pictures, but the things that get the best response is when I'm discussing sometimes heavy things like again social issues or politics or that kind of thing. Gabrielle: [00:47:55] But me as a consumer, I'm just looking for pretty pictures and other people are too, and I know if they don't follow me, I totally get it because they might just be like, No I'm just looking for pictures of parties or pictures of vacations or whatever that might be right. And that's totally fine, you can get whatever you want out of those things. But if I'm if I'm on Instagram, I just want pretty and someone is showing me their dirty laundry. I'm going to be like, no. Dealing with jealousy as a blogger? Jillian: [00:48:22] OK. Do you ever have that thing where you see somebody who does beautiful things and do you ever get that pang of jealousy or I wish I had done that. Gabrielle: [00:48:37] 100 percent. I don't know how to do that beyond human nature right. This is just how it is. Jillian: [00:48:44] But again I just have to say you are Design Mom, you created Alt Summit. I want to hear you too feel that way? Gabrielle: [00:48:51] For sure. So for me it's so I'll see something and I'll go. It might be business related right. I'll see. Like even the podcast. I'm working on this podcast but I've been trying to, I knew I needed to do this a year ago. I'd already gotten feedback about this and then had it confirmed again earlier this year. Gabrielle: [00:49:11] But again I've known this for a long time and so I'll see someone announce a podcast, or do something and think, I'm so behind, you know like that kind of stuff will kill me. Gabrielle: [00:49:20] Or if I see someone just doing something really smart on Instagram and I'm just a slacker on Instagram, and I'll feel like business guilt, like I know I could have a bigger following, and that would be better for me but also for sponsors and it's better for the business in general. Gabrielle: [00:49:35] But I'm not doing it and I'll feel that sort of business owner guilt, you know which I think if you a business owner you know what that is because there's always your list is never done. There's always something. Gabrielle: [00:49:44] Oh I should be optimized for SEO in these ten steps that I'm not doing, I'm only doing three of the steps, you know or whatever it might be, or I was doing a newsletter every month and then I had to take a break. Gabrielle: [00:49:56] And I'm feeling guilty because I see someone else's cute newsletter come out and I think I know I could get help with this and hire it out and get this done and why have I done that? So I definitely feel that kind of thing from a business perspective. Jillian: [00:50:08] And how about like somebody is launching a line of party supplies for Target? Gabrielle: [00:50:14] Why can't I have that? Why haven't I worked with Target before. Am I not good enough? And you start questioning yourself, should I be pitching is that where I should be spending my time? Gabrielle: [00:50:22] And then again business questions on like, is that how to make money, or is it better to sponsor posts or should I be doing some subscription service somewhere? You know where they get a box? Or you know trying to figure out those questions because you are trying to build a business and provide for your family. Gabrielle: [00:50:38] Yeah those kind of things can drive me crazy. And then you have the personal stuff, like you see someone, maybe I've had a day where like I've just really been glued to the computer. I had a bunch of deadlines had to get stuff done and I get on Instagram and someone's made cookies with their kids, and I'm like, I'm like the worst mom. My kids have been have been on YouTube all day. Gabrielle: [00:51:04] I haven't even talked to them, you know, I don't even remember even saying words to them this morning. I got right on my computer. And you just feel like a jerk you know. Gabrielle: [00:51:13] I mean that's just I don't know what to say. But I think everyone's going to fill that and I definitely take social media breaks and I'm not supposed to as a business owner. Jillian: [00:51:27] As an influencer, I know I do the same. By the way, I do the same. Take a break from social media as a blogger Gabrielle: [00:51:29] But I have to I think it's just kind of kills me sometimes so I'll take breaks, the easiest one for me to not take breaks from is Twitter because I don't follow anyone like that where it like. It's not really visual and I'm not following any of my business peers or really influencers. Gabrielle: [00:51:48] It's like again, I'm there for news or different things so I'm fine to get on Twitter and never throws me off like that. But Instagram can kill me. Oh my gosh or I'll see someone on vacation. Jillian: [00:52:00] Well for me on Facebook seeing people on vacation and I don't know why, because I go on vacation. But something about here's our family in Rome kills me. Gabrielle: [00:52:11] Yes. Or if I see a couple and I think when's the last time I took a vacation just with me and Ben Blair you know, where we got to get away. And I'm sure we should do that and keep our marriage healthy you know. I don't know how to avoid that. Gabrielle: [00:52:27] I know Facebook is a trigger for some people definitely Instagram is mine. Jillian: [00:52:30] Facebook is mine. Gabrielle: [00:52:32] Yeah. Jillian: [00:52:36] Well I have to say, I so appreciate your honesty about this because I have to tell you that I've been a writer forever, I was a writer in Hollywood for a lot of years so the written word is very comfortable to me. Jillian: [00:52:52] But visually, really I've always felt inadequate. And so to hear you say that you too have these feelings is so comforting and you are the brains behind Alt Summit, which I have always wanted to go to, but also feel like I don't know, I'd feel like a poser. Gabrielle: [00:53:12] No you would love it! Why we fake things as a blogger Jillian: [00:53:14] I say this to my daughter all the time. We'll be doing a sponsored post, and I'll be shooting something for Instagram and it will be a lava cake. There was this lava cake I had to make. Guess what? It got stuck, ultimately it didn't flow out so you know what. I faked it. Jillian: [00:53:35] I had some floaty stuff and I put the cake on top of it and I said to my daughter come in here, I want to show you this. This is fake and I want you to know that it's going to look good and it's going to look as if this stuff oozed out beautifully and that it totally worked. And this is fake. And I wanted to be a teaching moment. Why. Gabrielle: [00:53:58] Did she get it? Jillian: [00:53:59] She totally got it. And by the way, that post is up on Catch My Party and it doesn't say that I faked this. Gabrielle: [00:54:05] Well I don't blame you. I mean look, that's anyone who shot a photo ever of anything must understand that right outside the frame is chaos and mess. That's just the reality. Gabrielle: [00:54:18] And that was true long before blogs. I worked in New York I was in art direction. We do shoots for magazines, we do shoots for, you know all editorial and all kinds of stuff, and it's just a chaotic mess outside the frame period. It has nothing to do with being an influencer. That's just the nature of creation and photography. Gabrielle: [00:54:38] It's art. Think you have a beautiful piece of art on the wall at a museum. But to create that the mess that the artist made in their studio, was going to be nuts is going to be insane. And so that's that's how it is. Gabrielle: [00:54:51] So if you're if you're going to be someone who creates content and as a business person or an artist or just a creative, there's going to be a mess. Gabrielle: [00:55:01] And if you are a reader or consumer of social media or blogs or whatever it might be and you don't understand that this is pretend, it's every bit as pretend as the magazines you used to read. And that was the thing. Then you're there you're not being fair, you're not coming to this as a fair participant because no one has ever said this is my life all the time. Jillian: [00:55:33] So yes and I would say that for my daughter who is impressionable at 11. These are important teaching moments. Gabrielle: [00:55:42] For sure and for sure my kids know all of that because they're part of the shoots often. And so they know. All right everyone pretend we like each other. Jillian: [00:55:50] Exactly the number of times I've told my daughter to smile with gritted teeth, look like you like the pudding. Gabrielle: [00:56:03] And you know my kids just finished a play. They were in a play this week and they were three performances. It's the same thing. I had nothing to do with the play, had nothing to do with me. It was a big production. It was you know lots of adults they were kind of this children's chorus. Gabrielle: [00:56:17] And and you were at these rehearsals and it's a mess, and it's everything is behind schedule and blah blah blah. Like this is creativity. This is what it looks like. And they have to get on stage and pretend to be in a good mood even though the rehearsal went two hours too long and they're tired. And you know what I mean, like and they should have been in bed. Gabrielle: [00:56:38] This is not just blogging it's not just Instagram. This has always been the thing and it always will be as far as I can tell. I don't know how else to do it. It's the same with any creative endeavor, if you're a writer. You have these horrible messy drafts. Red ink everywhere and then you end up with this beautiful book. Jillian: [00:56:58] Totally I would say this. This thing which is I was a screenwriter, and I would finish a project. And it would be done and it would be and it would be great. Jillian: [00:57:09] And then I would start a new project and it would suck at the beginning and I would think to myself every single time, I lost it. I don't know I don't do this anymore because I was at the beginning. Gabrielle: [00:57:23] Yeah. Jillian: [00:57:24] And I'd forgotten. Gabrielle: [00:57:26] You are someone that's going to consume any content anywhere that was created as a creative endeavor, and whether again it's a fashion show or writing or a movie or whatever it was an enormous mess caused you know in order to create this thing. Jillian: [00:57:44] Right. And I bet you sucked at the beginning. Gabrielle: [00:57:45] And I'm sure the beginning, the first drop was awful and the first you know try the first photo was awful, and you know what. This is how it is if you're going to consume this stuff and pretend that's not true. Gabrielle: [00:57:56] That somehow, this book came into being perfectly. Or this movie came into being on the first take or whatever it is, I can't do anything to help you. You're living in a different world than I am if that's the case. Gabrielle: [00:58:13] But that said, and I understand that the feelings of jealousy or inadequacy are totally real. And they were real before Instagram. Gabrielle: [00:58:33] You know that or at work because it's the same reasons you didn't get the promotion or you didn't get picked for this project or whatever it might be. The feelings of inadequacy, the comparison, the all of that. That's not a new thing that has been with us forever. And I assume will be with us forever. Gabrielle: [00:58:51] And if you need to take a break from social media, take a break. It will be there when you get back you know it'll be waiting for you. Jillian: [00:58:59] I agree. All right. So Gabrielle this is terrific. How can people reach out to you see what you're doing, all of that? Gabrielle: [00:59:07] You bet. So the blog is still my favorite spot because I own it. And the algorithms can't change it. So yeah you can always go to DesignMom.com to see the latest, I post there very frequently and I'm pretty decent at responding to comments so feel free to check in with me there. Gabrielle: [00:59:23] I'm also on Facebook at Design Mom Blog, is my page on Instagram I'm Design Mom on Pinterest. I'm Design Mom I'm active on all of them. But if you want to see it first it's usually on the blog. Buying a ticket to Alt Summit Jillian: [00:59:34] OK and if they want to learn about Alt Sumit, are tickets on sale now? Gabrielle: [00:59:40] They are on sale now and prices are going to go up and up. So if you want them, now is the time to get them. The handles are all Alt Summit on all social. Gabrielle: [00:59:52] But the web address is actually altitudesummit.com which was the original name so it was originally Altitude Design Summit and then we're going to start calling it Alt Summit which is much easier to say. Gabrielle: [01:00:02] But yes, so tickets are on sale if you've ever been before. There is an alumni discount available because we know this was kind of a leap in price if you weren't used to it. Gabrielle: [01:00:13] But even for everywhere else this is the best price you're going to get, whether you've been there or not. Right now the best prices the best price you're going to get. It's going to start going up per month. Gabrielle: [01:00:23] Again modeling that on South by Southwest, seeing how other longer conferences do that. So this is definitely a learning year for us. But I just was on the call this morning about some content programming and it's really going to be epic. Gabrielle: [01:00:39] With Alt Summit, the goal has been to amplify women's voices and kind of what they're doing, the projects they're working on, and bringing attention to what they're doing which is still my goal. Gabrielle: [01:00:50] And this is going to allow us to not just focus on cool things entrepreneurs are doing, and cool things brands are doing, but you know what are cool films women are making, and what are cool bands and cool music women are making, and you know if you're if you're a woman and you're doing something really interesting, maybe it's a nonprofit maybe you're a writer. I want you there I want you there telling your story. Gabrielle: [01:01:14] Getting to know people and you can build your business or also just again amplify your message, amplify whatever it is you've created. So I'm really excited. It's going to be epic. Jillian: [01:01:25] Oh Gabrielle, thank you so much for being on the show. Gabrielle: [01:01:29] Thank you so much for having me. What a treat to talk to you. Please share The Blogger Genius Podcast with your friends Jillian: [01:01:32] If you are liking The Blogger Genius Podcast, then please subscribe. You can subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, really anywhere you get your podcasts, and please share it with your friends. Jillian: [01:01:45] If you have a blogger friend or an entrepreneur friend that you think would like it. Please get the word out, and if there are guests you'd like be to have just email me at Jillian@MiloTree.com. I would love to hear from you. So thanks for supporting the show. How to grow your authentic Instagram followers fast and free with MiloTree Jillian: [00:36:00] Are you trying to grow your social media followers and email subscribers? Well if you've got two minutes I've got a product for you. It's MiloTree. Jillian: [00:36:09] MiloTree is a smart pop up slider that you install on your site and it pops up and asks visitors to follow you on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube Pinterest, or subscribe to your list. Jillian: [00:36:24] It takes two minutes to install. We offer a WordPress plugin or a simple line of code and it's Google friendly on mobile and desktop. Jillian: [00:36:34] So we know where your traffic is coming from. We show Google-friendly pop-up on desktop and a smaller Google-friendly pop up on mobile. Check it out. Sign up for MiloTree now and get your first 30 DAYS FREE!

Your baby likely has owned a pair of Freshly Picked moccasins, and they are oh so cute! Meet the mama who started the uber successful line... from her kitchen! Susan Petersen is so refreshingly honest about her journey through entrepreneurship; the ups, the downs, and the family dynamic at home. We love this mama who flew all the way in from Utah to be with us live in studio!

Joseph May. He’s the founder of the Breton Company. He launched his company in 2016 by running a Kickstarter campaign for a modern day briefcase. Prior to Breton, he worked as an attorney at a couple of different law firms and was director of operations and in-house counsel at a company called Freshly Picked. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Shoe Dog What CEO do you follow? – Steve Jobs Favorite online tool? — Grum How many hours of sleep do you get?— 5-6 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Keep going”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:22 – Nathan introduces to the show 01:19 – Joseph left the legal company because there was no fun 01:23 – When Joseph was at Freshly Picked, he found out that he really liked to create products and be part of the design process 01:33 – Joseph had the idea of Breton when he was in Italy 01:59 – Joseph was 33 when he left Freshly Picked where he was getting $70-80K 02:28 – Joseph had kids when he started Breton 03:28 – Joseph is showing Nathan an example of the briefcase 03:45 – On Kickstarter, Joseph did $240K and $280K for Indiegogo 03:54 – Kickstarter is the biggest website to start and Indiegogo has Indiegogo on demand 04:29 – The total for both campaigns was 1200 units 05:00 – At Freshly Picked, Joseph learned a lot about Instagram marketing 05:38 – Zach from Episode 178 had his hand on the Kickstarter campaign and has a network which has done over $60M in funding campaigns 06:00 – Zach worked with Joseph 06:38 – Joseph had a lot of manufacturing contacts from Freshly Picked 06:44 – Joseph got a quote from overseas and moved their manufacturing to Asia, switched up their whole campaign and changed the price point 07:14 – Breton is totally bootstrapped 07:47 – Total sales as of today is $400K in revenue and 1900 units 08:06 – Goal for 2017 is to launch more Kickstarter campaigns 08:37 – The bestseller is the modern day briefcase which is $199 08:54 – It takes around $65 to produce a bag 09:04 – The leather is from Italy 09:16 – Jeremy really wants to have a high-quality bag 09:26 – $20-30 dollars is spent on marketing per bag 09:58 – Average profit per bag 10:28 – Jeremy had dark traffic on ly 10:42 – There’s no exact influencer who has driven the most sales to Instagram 10:51 – Mollyblogger has sold 17 units within an hour 11:07 – Mollyblogger is Joseph’s friend 11:25 – For every $500 per post, Jeremy expects to get 5 sales 11:33 – Breton now has 40K followers 11:50 – It’s difficult to calculate the return because it takes time before a customer purchases 12:21 – Joseph had a campaign in Fall where he had help, but now he’s doing it on his own 12:40 – One of Joseph’s growth strategy is to get people on their email list 12:44 – The main focus now is to make people aware of Breton and aggregate the information 13:40 – The bags are made with wax cotton which is water-resistant 14:03 – Customers often look for the look 14:30 – The bags are made to last 14:38 – Team size is 2.5 14:51 – Joseph won’t give up a part of the company 15:49 – “I don’t know exactly what we’re doing” 16:48 – Chubbies Shorts is effectively using Instagram 16:55 – Breton’s Instagram 17:24 – There’s a big percentage of women buying the Breton bags, too 18:58 – The Famous Five   3 Key Points: Choose a job where you can earn and have fun at the same time. Nurture your connections and network. Don’t give up a part of your company if you’re not confident doing so.   Resources Mentioned: The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Is having fun THAT important? Yes, yes it is! That's why Susan Petersen of Freshly Picked and Alison share some of their most fun memories, and give tips for reclaiming your sense of fun, even if you can't remember what that is. Eric's closing song: "It's the Alison" by the Alison Show

Listen to Pat & Stu for FREE on TheBlaze Radio Network from 5p-7p ET, Mon. through Fri. www.theblaze.com/radioTwitter: @PatandStuFacebook: PatandStu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

   In today's episode I have the privilege to introduce you to Susan Petersen, the powerhouse CEO and founder of Freshly Picked, a baby lifestyle brand most famous for their stylish soft-soled baby moccasins that actually stay on their feet.  In 2006 Susan decided to learn how to sew and start selling stuff online when […]

#165: I can’t wait for you to meet today’s guest, who’s an incredible success story from the online retail world: Susan Petersen of Freshly Picked. Since starting out as an early Etsy entrepreneur, Susan’s had an amazing journey, including an appearance on Shark Tank, a partnership with Nordstrom, and now, a million-dollar online business selling baby moccasins. Podcast show notes available here: https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/session165

#165: I can’t wait for you to meet today’s guest, who’s an incredible success story from the online retail world: Susan Petersen of Freshly Picked. Since starting out as an early Etsy entrepreneur, Susan’s had an amazing journey, including an appearance on Shark Tank, a partnership with Nordstrom, and now, a million-dollar online business selling baby moccasins. Podcast show notes available here: https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/session165

How do you become a Biz woman who ROCKS? Listen to our Interview with Susan Petersen of Freshly Picked to find out! Susan is a powerhouse! She started her company Freshly Picked after she was desperate to find a moccasins for her son, since they were the only shoe that would actually stay on him! But, when she couldn't find anything, she made her own. Though she admits she was not the best sales person nor designer, her company has skyrocketed as her unique design has found a huge audience of moms who are loving them! In this inspiring interview, Susan shares really intimate details about how she went from having panic attacks because she was doing everything herself to hiring her first employee to building a $5 million business! She was also featured on Shark Tank and her business has boomed! http://BizWomenRock.com/103

SUSAN Petersen is the CEO and founder of Freshly Picked, a moccasin company that she started in 2009. She started making baby moccasins after becoming frustrated by the lack of well-designed baby shoes. Working at her kitchen table, on a shoestring budget, Susan persisted through some disastrous attempts until she had created a pair of moccasins that not only looked adorable on his son’s chubby little feet, but stayed on his feet as well. Her moccasins have now grown to a well-known brand and has been featured on Parenting Magazine, US Weekly, In Touch, Kourtney Kardashian, Kim Kardashian, and many others.

Susan Petersen started making baby moccasins in 2009 after becoming frustrated by the lack of well-designed baby shoes. Using her second child, Gus, as a mocc-tester, and a bag of scrap leather she picked up at a yard sale, she began experimenting with designs. Working at her kitchen table, on a shoestring budget, Susan persisted through some disastrous attempts until she had created a pair of moccasins that not only looked adorable on Gus’ chubby little feet, but stayed on his feet as well.   On Today’s show Susan will share: - How and why she started her business - How she got her moccasins into the hands of Kourtney Kardashian - Her experience on ABC's Shark Tank and her tips for those thinking about going on the show - Greatest business decision that changed everything - Her secrets for growing her instagram following - Top 3 tips for aspiring entrepreneurs - Plus much more...

Everything is open for discussion in this conversation with entrepreneur Susan Petersen, founder of Freshly Picked. We talk with Susan about how she started her business, where it is now, and the highs and lows in between. Listen in and glean some helpful and interesting nuggets of wisdom about being an entrepreneur and realizing your goals. Show notes can be found on the blog at [BeckyHiggins.com](http://beckyhiggins.com/). [DIRECT LINK](https://beckyhiggins.com/podcast-show-notes-episode-042-nuggets-entrepreneurial-wisdom-susan-petersen/). Follow us on instagram — @BeckyHigginsLLC and @BeckyProudfit. Love the podcast? Please share with your friends and leave a review on iTunes!