Speaker 1This is The Road to One Million. I'm Ryan Daniel Moran. But there inevitably is a sticking point. Whenever somebody follows my work and gets four products selling consistently, they hit a wall. Because the skill set to get past the million dollars is different than getting to the million dollars. I know that if I can get somebody off the sidelines and into the game, get them to launch a few products, to build a little audience, it's just super straightforward to take that business to at least a few hundred thousand dollars a year. Usually up to about a million dollars. And that's where they get stuck. They hit this plateau. They've got all this stuff going on. They've got multiple products. And they're going, what do I do now? And how do I handle all of this chaos? And what's my next product going to be? And how do I increase my lifetime customer value? And I don't know what to do next. If that sounds familiar at all, then this episode is going to really help you out. I'm going to be chatting with Tanya, one of our members, who has made a lot of progress on her road to a million, but now she's stuck. And in this episode, we're going to dive into some of the things that she's been doing. We're going to dive into her best opportunities, what she needs to start doing and stop doing, and we give her a clear plan to get to mid-seven figures. Hope you enjoy. Tanya, you're knocking on the door of the million. You did 925 last year. And I know, on your call inside of the incubator, you've been saying, this is my year. I feel like this is going to be the year. What do you. You're knocking on the door. What do you need? Tell me a little bit about where you're feeling stuck and tell me a little bit about the business. And I'm pretty confident we're going to get you over the hump of the million way before the end of this year.
Speaker 2Okay. So there's a couple of things. I listen to Brooke Castillo because I have the crazy thoughts. So I have to go back and listen to her to get my thoughts right. I wake up in the morning and the thoughts are like, you will fail. Everything is going to go to shit. And then I'm like, I have to work out of it. I have to work out of it. So I still have some fear stuff. I have business debt, but I think I will be cleared in about 18 months. But that messes with me because I'm like, I got to service this debt. I got to make sure. I'm counting the pennies. I got to make sure that I have money. And then when I get like that, I don't necessarily make. I know I don't make the best decisions inventory wise. And so I go, maybe I shouldn't buy it because what if it doesn't sell? And then it ends up selling and I stock out, but then I still have all my overhead. Everything else. And I just, I'm like, well, what if another competitor comes in and they undercut this product? And so then all of the thoughts, and then I just tread water. And I'm like, I'm tired of treading water.
Speaker 1I just want to. Yeah. Well, you're in good company, Tanya. I think most entrepreneurs have days, months, even years like this. And I'll even tell you, Brooke Castillo said to me personally, once when you were sitting at dinner, she said, Ryan, most businesses have debt. Like any public company has debt. You know, most private companies have debt. Like debt is just a tool. So here's. So like thought wise, what's going on with you is you are mixing your personal financial situation with the business financial situation. Because objectively, what you're saying is that the business situation is actually fine. You're profitable. People buy your stuff. You have customers who like and come back. When you buy inventory, you sell through it. And then personally, you're like. Okay. And so like the first thing mentally is that I would encourage you to practicing the business as separate from Tanya, right? Tanya is always going to have thoughts and junk. And Tanya is always going to be growing. And Tanya is always going to have challenges. And Tanya may go through ebbs and flows in her financial situation. But if Tanya is removed from the situation, the business is actually very healthy. Would you agree with that? Or am I missing
Speaker 2something? No, it's healthy. When I look at my profit margins, and I've listened to almost the entire Road to a Million podcast this weekend. And I'm like, okay, I have cash flow issues at times, but I'm a profitable business. And I'm not racing to the bottom in Amazon. People buy our stuff. The margins are there. I just get caught up with, oh, I need more money. Or I'm not going to spend here. Or this month is really low. And then the bills go up. Or I'm still servicing this debt. And then I have a complete freakout. But if I pull it all the way back, and I go, if I take away my debt, and I look at just my margin, it's good.
Speaker 1Good. Good. So you're doing your job, which is thinking about protecting the business. So the next time those thoughts come in, you can just practice the thought, this is my job. My job is to protect this business, this business. And if you can see yourself as the CEO of this company, whose job it is to protect this business, you're doing a good job. And you as a person, of course, want to make more money. You want to have a certain life for your family. You want to be free of work. You want to be able to do a lot of things. And you want to be able to do a lot of things. And you want to be able to be able to do a lot of things. job to protect and grow that company. His own personal financial situation is separate from his job of protecting and growing the company. You track it with me? 100%. Now, what do you think happens to Disney if Bob Iger brings his family or financial situation into the company? What do you think happens?
Speaker 2He loses focus and he doesn't make the right decisions.
Speaker 1Yeah. And he starts making movies about financial hardship. And it just wouldn't make any sense. He'd start extracting money out of the company. So you've got to see these as two different things. Your job, your current job, and for the last several years has been to grow your business. Your financial situation is separate from that. And the better that you can do your job, the better your financial situation is going to become. And that just gives you just a crack in the door of space to think at this differently, rather than this being this whole mess of, I have debt, I have this. You picking up what I'm laying down?
Speaker 2Yeah, but every year, no, every year, I have a massive freakout in December, because December, unlike most retailers, it's our worst month. And this past December was so bad. I actually, I was polishing up that resume. I just contacted some like code boot camps. I'm like, maybe I'll just go into software engineering. I'd already told my kids I might be taking on a second job. I had a complete and utter freaking meltdown.
Speaker 1Yeah. And then January came. I have about two of those a year. Yeah. I have two of those every year.
Speaker 3Okay, that's good.
Speaker 1So you're not special. This is the weird thing about money, right? When it is just a jumbled mess, it can make us feel more stressed than before we ever even started a business. We like to think that the business is going to set us free and it can, but most entrepreneurs are trying to extract money out of the business so that they can have the life that they want, rather than seeing the money in the business as, the fuel that's going to create more cash flow. And that cash flow is what is going to set us free. That's why I'm encouraging Tanya to separate how she views her personal finances and the businesses finances. The business needs that cash more than she does. So I encourage her to address her personal finances in other ways. One of the worst mistakes that early entrepreneurs make is trying to take too much money out of the business too early. Your best investment is your business. You want to keep as much in there as possible so that you can continue to grow that thing that is going to set you free for life. So be willing to address your own personal financial situation in other ways. I don't care if it's driving for Uber or keeping your job or having clients. There's lots of ways to do that, but keep your money in the business until it's spitting off enough cash flow to justify you going full-time. Otherwise, you're going to be full-time in a business, extracting money out of it, and doing things that don't move the needle. I know because I've seen it happen lots and lots of times. Your money and your business business's money are different and you need to treat it as such. And that's why I encourage Tanya to separate, I think I use the word divorce, those two entities in her mind so that they can be served independently of one another. And, you know, I was chatting with somebody a couple of weeks ago. Something that we have discovered in the capitalism fund is that the worst thing a founder can do that hinders the growth of their business is take money out of the business too early. And I'm not saying this is your situation. I'm just going somewhere with this. What we discovered is that if we work with a founder who's really dependent on that business in the early stages, they will sabotage that business. Because they're so afraid to lose money that they're siphoning money out of it rather than breathing life into it. So we would rather our early founders stay in their job, drive for Uber, take on clients, I don't care, but solve their financial challenges separately from the business. And what happens is they bring an element of lightness, an element of enthusiasm, an element of service into the business that is not trying to take every dollar out of the business to solve a problem that's addressed in other ways. And now they don't have as much time, but they also don't have as much time to think and sabotage the business that needs the life at the beginning. And that is a much healthier, way to grow the business. Yeah. Without a
Speaker 2gun to your head. Sometimes I feel like there's a gun right here.
Speaker 1Yeah. So I'm telling you all this because if you were to go get a job, that's not failure. A lot of entrepreneurs think, well, if I work for somebody else, I have failed at my business. You haven't failed. You're in a business that does $900,000 in top line. Okay. If you went through a period in which there were cashflow issues and you were working for somebody else, awesome. Now you can make the business whatever you want, which is actually going to make you more energized about it, which means given six to 18 months, it's probably going to be bigger and more profitable than it ever was. So the more you can depressurize this, I love that we haven't even talked about your business yet. Like we're just right in the mindset stuff. So the more you can depressurize the business, the less you'll wake up with that in the morning that makes you just afraid of the day. I only know from my own experience of this.
Speaker 2Yes. And it gets better when the sunlight comes out. When it's in the dark, it's the monsters are there. As soon as the sun comes out, I'm like, oh, okay, we'll be okay. But for the first two hours, complete and total freak out.
Speaker 1Yeah. I can relate with that. I mean, ever since, did you have COVID by chance?
Speaker 2I have been lucky to never, ever get COVID.
Speaker 1Okay. Ever since I had COVID, I've had much worse anxiety than before. And there's actually a lot of data behind that.
Speaker 2Yes or no, because I read everything that you write and say. So yes, I'm aware.
Speaker 1Okay. Well, thank you. So Tanya, let's actually go into the business side of this, because sometimes having a really clear plan of what to do can be exactly what you need to pull you out of that funk. So tell me what you're selling, how much is selling, where your customers are coming from, and then let's carve out a path for you to sail past the million this year.
Speaker 2Okay. So our niche is birthday outfits. They're on Amazon. And I started off, I have five kids. So I started off selling twin outfits because I have twins. And then quickly realized that that's not as big as the market. And my customers are asking for a lot of birthday stuff. So I just pivoted to birthdays. And that's when sales took off. And I stopped working out of my house and I got a commercial shop. So we're doing on a great month, I might do 2,500 units around Halloween. It's season. My price point is about $26. So a great month is
Speaker 1about 100,000 in sales.
Speaker 2Which I hit in Halloween. Right now for January, we're at 77,000 in sales.
Speaker 3Okay, great. That's great. Keep going. Guide me.
Speaker 2What else should I tell you about?
Speaker 1So where do you want to go with this business, Tanya?
Speaker 2Okay, man. So this is the other thing. I have a bajillion different ideas. So birthdays, that's why we're talking.
Speaker 1We're going to align it behind a few.
Speaker 2So birthdays are cool because people are going to spend them on birthdays. They just are. And so I was talking to my ad team at Quartile and they said, December was brutal for everybody. So when I had my major freakout, she goes, but your account went even better. You went from like 40% ACOS to 11% in January. And it's because I think people are going to spend on birthdays, no matter what. You might not buy this, you might not buy that, but you will buy your kids a beautiful birthday outfit. So I love that business. And I really love connecting with the moms because it's such an exciting time. And I just got a call before this, a woman called me on my phone. Hey, could you please make a special outfit and have it shipped to me by Friday?
Speaker 3And I love that.
Speaker 2So I think to myself, all right, there's decor. A lot of designs that I come up with are based on decor. I look at what's selling on Amazon. I go, oh, I can make an outfit that measures that whole table setting. And then it sells. I think, oh man, what if we hit moms during pregnancy? We could make cute pregnancy tees. We feel like there's so much. I feel like there's a lot of different ways that I can go. I only do years one through three. We can go up to years one through seven. I just put so much on the table, but there's one of me, my VA in India, and then my assistant who comes in.
Speaker 1So you want to expand the clothing line to sell more. Is that fair summary? Yes. Okay, great. Now, what is selling the most right now? When you look at a great month of 80 to 100,000 in sales, where is most of it coming from?
Speaker 2I'm so glad you asked because I don't have a hero SKU that sells like 80%. I actually did an analysis. My top SKU sells 11 to 12%. I just have a bunch of products that sell consistently and reliably all year long. I don't have one thing that knocks everything out the box.
Speaker 1Okay. And is it mostly the birthday stuff?
Speaker 2It's all birthday. It's all birthday.
Speaker 1So I took a look at your store and it's cute tops for one and two-year-olds with really adorable phrases on them. Is that the bread and butter?
Speaker 2That's the bread and butter.
Speaker 1Okay. Do you know if a customer buys once from you or do they come back and buy from you again and again? They come back.
Speaker 2It's a little hard to track on Amazon, but I know they come back because they'll say like, I bought the same outfit from you for the past four years. And then I'll get messages in my social, hey, are you doing something for Valentine's Day? Are you doing something for Christmas? Do you have something going for Easter? So I know they want more.
Speaker 1Okay. In this part of the conversation, I asked Tanya about repeat customers because this is a big sticking point when you're at the business level that she is. You need to know that a customer that you acquire is going to come back again and again, rather than just finding you on Amazon, clicking a button, buying from you and then disappearing. This is a big sticking point for a lot of entrepreneurs. They're selling stuff on Amazon, but they don't really know how their product fits into the life cycle of that customer. So there are ways to change the way that you show up for your customers and for your leads that will increase the amount of money that they spend with you. Short-term, Tanya wants to drive up her revenue and profit. Long-term, we want to increase the brand value and the customer life cycle. That is what's going to help her build a long-term brand that she can scale or sell. So listen to this next part where we talk about how she can continue to drive up her Amazon sales, but change her approach. So she's building long-term equity, long-term profit, and ultimately her brand's valuation. And are you able to communicate with your customers in some way, or are you just selling on Amazon?
Speaker 2I'm just selling on Amazon and they find me, they contact me through my product answer.
Speaker 1Okay. Tell me, tell me. So tell me about that because if you're just selling on Amazon, you have such a hot and specific niche, right? It's moms who are loving on their newborns. It's such a hot, specific space. And if you target them well, they will buy over and over and over and they'll buy multiple products from you. And where I see a gap for you is you do not have a way to communicate with them because they're buying only from you. So tell me about the product insert and how you're getting any contact information for them and staying top of mind to these customers.
Speaker 2All right. So we just, in December, January, I added a little business card to my product, to my packaging, where you scan a QR code, takes you to a lead page, you sign up for a free gift. The gift is a personalized shirt, which the cost is covered by with shipping. And so that's how I'm building up the email list. And how's that going? Pretty good. I think like in a week we got it to 50 and I've had. It's hard to track it. It's so new. And so I have inventory going from China to Amazon. So I don't it hasn't hit the shelves yet. So I can't accurately track the opt in. But just what I feel here, what I see in my in my flow code website and my Klaviyo, people are signing up and they're ordering every single week. We're getting five to 10 personalized shirt orders. So I know that moms are responding and they're taking it. OK, so I see that as a great way to grow that. Yes. And then continue to offer them. I was listening to your interview with Jason and directing them back to Amazon because it converts and I can build up more listings, reviews. Yes. And more and more real estate on Amazon.
Speaker 1So does that cost you anything? They're just they're just paying for fulfillment. But does it cost you anything to be made? OK, beautiful. There is a huge opportunity there, Tanya. So you're going to really like where I'm going to go with this. But first, are you creative? Are you creating any content? Are you building an audience in any way or is it just the story?
Speaker 2So my assistant here is taking on our social media right now. But ironically, she took a course in social media management and she found me on my Instagram and said, I want to work for you. And so after my call with Stan, I thought, you know what, let me just put you to work at what you're good at. And so she's taking. She's taking on doing our tick tock on our Instagram to grow that. And Stan's advice was get some money on it, get to 10,000 followers and then start doing weekly lives and offering giveaways because your moms are living on Instagram. So between the social and my email list, I want to grow that community.
Speaker 1OK, so. What is happening right now to
Speaker 3be able to grow those eyeballs? Yeah. I have my assistant posting
Speaker 2one video daily on tick tock and on Instagram, and I have yet to sit down and really go through my email flows. I got a basic flow set up for that funnel, but I haven't sat down and mapped out what I'm going to do for the next quarter.
Speaker 1Tanya, do you notice how your energy went from a 10 to a two when you started talking about this?
Speaker 2Oh, about what I'm going to do about about social?
Speaker 1Social media, your energy went from 10, like super fired up to like, well, my assistant is doing a video a day.
Speaker 2I hate social media.
Speaker 1So, no, you don't. You hate how you think you have to do social media. Yes. You think you have to do a certain thing to get a result and you have to do it to grow your business. Yeah. So you're all balled up in your thoughts about what it's supposed to look like and how hard it's going to be to get there. But you have to do it in order to grow the business. And if you don't grow the business, you're going to fail and wake up miserable every day. And so you have all this energy balled up in this idea that you have to do social media a certain way. But guess what? It's been eight years and you haven't done it and it's fine.
Speaker 2But that that's I don't have the traffic triangle.
Speaker 1Right. OK, but we don't have you do words into everything that I say.
Speaker 2I've got to have the crock pot and the hopper.
Speaker 1So, Tanya, the good news here is that you can grow your business in a way that is fun and meaningful to you and still utilize tools out there without it feeling this gunk about it. Right. You have this story about what it's supposed to be. But the evidence that I see. Is that when you just follow what's exciting to you of doing these designs and serving these women, sales happen. Business grows. We're going to pass a million this year. So. Tell me what you think you have to do in order to grow on social media, and then I'm going to make this a lot easier for you.
Speaker 2Well, what I think I have to do is grow to my 10,000. Followers grow. Yeah, I've got to grow. I've got to have a community. I have an audience. I have people that want to come back and buy so that when I have inevitably have the competitors, which they crop up, I've got to come and they rip my designs off and I do see my sales drop. But if I've got my audience of loyal followers who like and love me and trust me and I'm guiding them on their journey, I'm not in a race to the bottom and they will continue to buy from me for eons to come.
Speaker 1OK, so do you realize that all of. Your expectations around building an audience are about staving off a problem. Yeah, I like you're basically saying I need to build a defense against competitors who are trying to. So the entire time that you are trying to build an audience, you're actually doing it in resistance to the competitors coming in and undercutting you. There's no service in that. There's no playfulness in that. There's no giving to that. You're you're. Staving off against an inevitable problem that you believe you will face. So what type of content are you posting to to build this audience?
Speaker 2We do. We do some fun stuff like meet the maker, like watch my boss to sleep on the couch or like what we're designing today or new stuff. It's it's fun and playful. It's it's a lot of like a day in the life, some mom boss, girl boss stuff. And, you know, hey, by the way, we're making some new designs here.
Speaker 1Yeah. How long have you been doing this?
Speaker 2A solid month.
Speaker 1OK. OK. All right. So we don't have a whole lot of results to go off of here yet. But this this is where I want to go with this. And I think you're going to really like. I want you to start showing the customized stuff that you are sending out to these parents. OK. And that can be videos from the factory videos that you have in your commercial space or videos that are. Submitted to you from people who get them. OK. Because if you can get. A video that shows. Do you know that we do customize shirts for kids every time someone buys from us? How do you get a customized shirt? Any. Yeah, I can see your face. Anytime you buy from us on any platform, we do a customized shirt for our people and you show a reel. Of all of the people who submitted their customized shirt. Do you have any idea? Yes. How raving a fan you're going to get from somebody who buys from that? Tell me why your face is back to a 10. Process out loud, please. This is a podcast, Tanya.
Speaker 2Because I'm like, listen, my moms are so excited. Anyway, when they get. They freaking love it. They text me. They call me. They're really happy. I'm just imagining another person having that great experience. Like, wait, wait, wait, wait. You mean I get like an amazing birthday outfit and a free shirt? What the hell? Like, like, who wouldn't do that? And like, and the thing is, I genuinely like every time I come up with a new design, I'm like, I'm going to look so cute. This baby's going to look fucking adorable in this outfit. I'm like so excited. And when my people message me, I'm like, send me a picture, please. I want to see this baby. Like, I love it. I'm like, I love it. I love it. I love it. And you're going to get an amazing high quality outfit, which your baby deserves for their first birthday. Not some cheap crap. That's going to.
Speaker 1There you are, Tanya. See, there you are. See, that's, that's the energy you stay in when you're creating content. Because all you need to do in order for this brand to blow up is start highlighting your customers as the hero in the story. You're excited to get these adorable photos of kids in these outfits, yes? Yes. How often do you post those publicly?
Speaker 3Boom. Boom. When the spirit strikes.
Speaker 1Yeah. Like, that's all you need to do. All right. This is the part where we start combining audience building and content creation in a way that is going to build a lot of raving fans. Raving fans. Raving fans are the difference between someone talking about your brand as just something that they bought on Amazon versus someone recommending your brand specifically to all the people that are like them. That is what creates that long-term brand value that is going to create the profit and the valuation of the business that you ultimately want to have. But raving fans are built when you go above and beyond the call of duty. At a restaurant, you give big tips to people. But go out of their way to serve you. E-commerce is exactly the same. People will defend and fight for the brands that they feel represent them specifically. Them who they are on a journey and also them as individuals. This is why I'm encouraging Tanya to do something very unique in her business in order to cultivate raving fans. This is hard to justify for a lot of entrepreneurs early in their journey because they don't see an immediate ROI from this behavior. But if you do this over the course of a year, you will build a raving fan base that supports every single product that you launch and they will bring everybody else in the marketplace with you which gives you a lot more predictability for every product that you launch and for the consistent sales that you get each month all you need to do is so how do i say this without sounding too woo-woo all you need to do is amplify the energy that you're already feeling for your customers and putting it out there publicly and and you highlight look look at meet so and so they bought this for their two-year-old isn't she adorable and you do that multiple times a day with all this user-generated content that you're getting and this audience rallies behind you because you're making them the hero you're making their children the hero in the story that's the audience that will give you all the defense that you need for competitors and that's the audience that will buy from you again and again and it's the audience that will tell you what they want to buy in the future you
Speaker 2tracking with me a hundred fifty thousand
Speaker 1percent good that's a lot of percent so there's two things we've identified so far in terms of tactical things that you can do right away one is to make a video or a series of videos highlighting the fact that when they buy from you they also get a personalized shirt that will crush yes number two we start instead of making complicated social media videos we just highlight the images and the videos that we're already getting and building systems to get more of them like get as many of them as possible and share that that will build an actual community a community that's about your people rather than about tanya so those are the first two things i i would do now how do you feel about those two things so far love it good does that feel simpler lighter
Speaker 2easier yes yes social media is like that feels easy and
Speaker 1doable great and it will work it will 100 percent work i don't
Speaker 2only believe this
Speaker 1i know this good good so i would make the link in bio on instagram to be all about what you're doing and how you're going to use social media in a way that's not just for people but for those of you that are on social media and you're not going to be able to use social media because you're not going to be able to use social media you're not going to be able to use social media because you're not going to be able to use social media you're not going to be able to use you'd love to showcase pictures of people using the product or wearing the product on social media so you can gather more of that. Have your VA grab all of that, post it, tag it. The more that you can use social media to amplify the positive feedback that you're getting from your community of screenshotting reviews, screenshotting testimonials you get, sharing videos, sharing images, the more you'll attract people just like that. And that's your raving fan base. Okay. Now, so we've solved the what to do with the audience problem. You came into this social media you're not going to be able to use social media you're not going to be able to use social directions that you want to go and how I'll help you clean this up with a specific plan.
Speaker 2Okay. I really, really want to have outfits for, I would say, every major holiday or event of the year okay so that would be the new year's valentine's easter fourth of july you know there are moms that buy for that and i want to be the person that provides that halloween christmas thanksgiving that's what i want to do that's what i'm good at what
Speaker 1i like why is that important to
Speaker 2you um first of
Speaker 3all i like it
Speaker 2i enjoy it um and it feels for me the whole reason i got into the business is I was making clothes for my twins I was like obsessed with sewing for them I couldn't find boy girl twins anywhere boy girl twin clothing anywhere and I remember the first things that I sewed for them I kept them I still have them and I'm not like a fashionista or a designer my degree is in chemistry so I'm like completely over here on this side but it was just a passion for dressing them and I still have those clothes and they mean something to me like and I know that it if I know it's like that for other moms. You have like their first Valentine's offer, the first pair of shoes and, you know, clothing holds memories for you. It's really nice quality clothing, take pictures in it. And so I really want to provide that. And I, and I like doing it. I love the cutesy stuff. And I love the photo booth to see the mom's first Valentine's day. They got the kids with kisses, 25 cents. I love that. And so that's why I want to do that.
Speaker 1So something I would encourage you to do is have your VA go grab that 90-second clip that you just shared. And there's viral videos that will show like founder stories and they'll have like text come up that'll say a little bit about the story and then there'll be a clip right after and then there'll be text that comes on and a clip that comes after. And I would have your VA go grab that 90 second clip of you talking about, I remember the first Valentine's, Valentine's outfit. I remember how hard it was having boy, girl, twin clothes. And you chop that into a video that is really good stuff. Like that alone, you talking about the, the memory, like every parent can remember the outfit, can remember that thing from when they were a kid, from when their kids were small. You connecting on that level brings a very, very strong customer base to you.
Speaker 3Okay. Where does that go, by the way?
Speaker 1It's an ad, but it's also on your social media. Okay. So we've covered the audience building side for you pretty extensively, but it sounds like where you want to be in the business is in the place of just creating new outfits, creating new offerings for these kids and these parents. What resistance or hesitancy do you have over doing that? Do you feel like you need to be going in a specific direction in order to do that? Or what else is holding you back from just like new thing new
Speaker 2product new outfit um two things i get very bogged down in the in the day-to-day we have a lot of skews and we have a lot of management and this was the first year we used to do everything here last year was the first year that i transitioned to having my stuff made completely manufactured overseas and sent to amazon which i encountered a whole different set of problems than i had doing my own stuff here so that's been a big thing just staying in freaking stock that's i've consumed and obsessed with that for the last year so i get stuck on that you know i mentioned my cash flow issues and it is it costs money to plan something start it try it out test it and then those holidays move so if i don't have something in place you know for valentine's day it doesn't sell i don't want to put a bunch of money in it just to have stock
Speaker 3waiting for next year. I get it. So you're a little bit
Speaker 1bogged down in the details and that prevents you from launching additional SKUs because that costs additional money and additional brain power to be able to manage.
Speaker 2Is that right?
Speaker 1150,000%. Okay. You like that
Speaker 2number. So here
Speaker 1are your options, Tanya. You could take a beat, meaning like you could say, I'm not going to create any new products for a little bit. I'm just going to solidify what I've got. And that means I'm going to spend this year being really good at inventory management, ordering ahead of time, really understanding our customer base, really connecting with them and building that audience. And you'll cross the million because you'll have new customers and more raving fans and a bigger following, and you won't run out of stock, and you'll do great. Or you could bring on help. There are agencies that specialize in inventory management where you could bring in somebody who thinks about that, and you could just put your focus on launching new stuff and documenting it and building the audience that way. And that would take you there too. Either direction will take you to the most profitable year that you've ever had. So which of those feels more
Speaker 3fun for you this year? And what feels fun is
Speaker 2focusing on the new designs, but it doesn't feel doable. Because when I think about handing over inventory management, I'm like, oh, they're going to screw it up. They don't know what I know. And then I think, can I afford it? And if they screw it up and I can't afford it, then I'm worse off.
Speaker 1Great. Then this is my invitation to you, Tanya. I think you're really going to like this. This year, your business goal on paper is going to be to solidify the fort, to solidify the castle. You've been at this game for eight years. You're finally at a point revenue-wise where you can be really profitable as long as you don't run out of stock, you don't have inventory issues. If you just protect the castle, you've got a healthy, profitable business. Is that right? Okay. So that's your job this year as CEO is to protect the castle. What does that mean? It means ensuring that you're in stock, documenting the process, being really good to your customers, building that audience, and your sales will grow as a result of doing that. On paper, this looks really boring, but you're going to like it at the end. So if you know that your job is just to solidify the fort and focus on the audience, does that give you a clear focus for this year?
Speaker 2Yes. And the gun is removed from my head.
Speaker 1Good. And just so you know, this was my 2022. Like at capitalism.com, I needed to solidify the fort. And like we didn't do Capcom last year. We did not launch any new programs except for the five-day challenge, which was total. Like I put a ton of time and effort into that. We did it three times in 2021. We built the team, solidified the team, built the revenue. I stayed very focused in 2022. And we doubled. You're going to have the same thing. If you solidify the fort based on where you are right now, your sales will grow. And you'll also have the firepower to go really deep with your audience, to really connect with them, to build those raving fan bases, to build the systems to take a sale to a fan. Doing that hard work of solidifying the fort, that's going to be a lot of work. And I think that's going to be a lot of work. You will grow. Now, here's where it gets fun. Since doing that will shore up cash flows, shore up inventory, shore up processes, shore up audience. Now, you can go to your audience and say, hey, everyone, I really feel inspired to do a Easter outfit. Here's the thing. We're a small business. In order for me to do this the old way, I would need to order, 10,000 units of this. Don't have the capacity for this right now. So all I'm going to do is I'm just going to do a pre-sale run. If you want one, go to this website, you can fill it out, and then I will place the order in time for you to have it before Easter. And so you don't put up any cash. I love it. You don't put up any effort except the design, which you love. And you only pre-sell it. And you do that a couple of times throughout the year. And then you have a few that just, let's say your Christmas one crushes. You're like, didn't see that coming. So in 2024, you make sure that you've got it ahead of time because you know you've got a winning skew for the following Christmas. You tracking with me?
Speaker 2Yes. I was about to say 150,000.
Speaker 1So this year, your focus is actually on building and protecting the castle, getting to the million, protecting cash flows, being more conservative on the surface, but you're actually building really deep roots because you're building connection with audience and you're building the Instagram following and the social and the raving fans. And those people are going to buy from you again and again. You're building that raving fan base. But since those roots go really deep, that will increase your profitability and your revenue. But it also gives you the firepower to be able to pre-launch and pre-sell products without you putting up any capital or time or effort. And it actually becomes content because it looks like you're just doing your audience a service. How does that feel?
Speaker 2It feels great. And I've got another question for you. Tell me. How do I get this to $8,000? I'm not going to
Speaker 1answer that question because the way that you get to eight figures is by getting through seven figures. Here's what just happened, Tanya. You said, okay, that seems like I can execute it and I can do it. How do I complicate that process?
Speaker 2All right. Let me ask it a different way. Do you see an eight-figure business here?
Speaker 1Ask me once you have done the work that I just did. I just told you to do. Okay. Because you can get to eight figures doing what I just told you to do. Okay. But you won't get to eight figures saying, yeah, yeah, I'm going to do that. But now I got to. You actually just recreated the cycle that's been going on in your brain where you wake up and you see a gap. You see a gap and you've got to close it. And you're like, I got to hurry up and grow this thing. And we just close that gap. for you by giving you a very clear plan to seven figures, like mid seven figures. And you went, great. What do I layer on top of that to keep my stress levels high?
Speaker 3Well, can I tell you what
Speaker 2I was actually thinking?
Speaker 1I mean, I just told you, but go ahead.
Speaker 2No, I was like, this is so doable. Like this is doable. I get the permission to take the gun off my head and just focus on solidifying the fort. Okay. Like if you see like eight figures over here, I want to come back next year and be like, I did it.
Speaker 1Now what? Great. Great. Get to 3 million first. Okay. Cause you can, you can get to two and a half to 3 million, just solidifying the fort, building really deep inroads with your audience, making several hundred thousand dollars a year in profit after you build up a reserve in the business. And then you can, how do we take this from two and a half to 10? Okay. And I'll, and I'll tell you, but until then worry about protecting the castle because that is what will get you to mid seven figures. Okay. Go really deep with your audience in the process and you'll build a raving fan base that will buy whatever you want to sell
Speaker 3them in the future. Okay. How do you feel? I feel like the
Speaker 2gun is good.
Speaker 1Good. Do you feel like you have a clear plan to mid seven figures? Good. Yeah. No, I feel like I
Speaker 2got, I feel like I got permission. I can just like take the pressure off and just secure the fort, you know, do the things that I, that will make me feel good. Like I want to design, but I'm going to do that after I've secured the fort.
Speaker 1That's right. So this is, this is your next assignment, Tanya. I know you're in the 1% and capping. So I want you to pick one of those groups to do a two week documentation. So you're going to do a write-up about the decisions you made in this 45 minutes with me, what you're going to do with it. And then I want you to come back and update every two weeks on your progress. Oh, wow. That will keep you accountable and it will keep me aware of you marching towards this goal. Okay. And if you feel led, you can also post that stuff publicly as a way to document your process of building the business.
Speaker 3Okay. Got it.
Speaker 1Yes, sir. Congratulations on your momentum, Tanya. I'm really excited for you. Keep me posted.
Speaker 2Okay. Thank you, Ryan.
Speaker 1All right. Great to see you. I'll be in touch. Okay. Bye. This time together, it's inevitable that you will have a multimillion dollar business. There's nothing that would stop her from having a $5 million business or even a $10 million business. It's just dependent on how big she wants to go and how soon she wants to have an exit. And since we cleared the fog and poured gasoline on what's working and what she could optimize in order to grow faster, she'll have no problem getting there as long as she stays focused on that plan. If you're seeing yourself in Tanya, and you'd like to go through the same journey that she went through, Tanya got involved in our Capitalism Incubator, which is where we help brand builders build companies that they can sell. If you want to find out what we do and get on the waiting list, you can find out more at Capitalism.com slash Inc. I-N-C. Hey, I hope you enjoyed today's conversation with Tanya. These are very common pitfalls that entrepreneurs run into. And when you're doing things alone, it can be easy to think that you're the only one struggling with them. So I hope this conversation with Tanya helped you feel less alone on your road to 1 million. Thanks for watching. See you next time. And now a quick word from Dr. Travis Ziegler, one of our members from the Capitalism.com community. I'm Dr.
Speaker 4Travis Ziegler. And along with my wife, Dr. Jenna Ziegler, we started a brand called I Love. We had our exit in June of 2021. So that was a huge milestone for us, both from making us financially free to getting us out of debt, student loan debt that we've had since we became doctors in optometry school. And when we sold, we were doing close to 450,000 a month. I started with Capitalism.com back in 2017, 2016, around that time. And I joined the tribe first, which was the equivalent to the the incubator now, the biggest thing, and I think this is the fear that brings us all back is they're, they're afraid of investing and getting that return on your money. And so my fear of investing in myself, I'd never done anything like that up to that point. And my wife wasn't there. And I joined without consulting her, which was, uh, I don't recommend doing that, but it was probably one of the best decisions we've ever made because it's just amazing what an investment in yourself with capitalism.com has done for us. You know, nothing changes after like an exit or a financially freeing exit or anything like that. But how is our life different from joining capitalism.com? It's, it's our, it's our therapy. It's Ryan is known as the entrepreneur's therapist for a reason. And it's because when you talk to him, he gets you out of your own head. But if you join, this is a proven system. I mean, people have gone through this and they've, they've come out the other side better. If you join this and you don't get results, it's up here. It's not, it has nothing to do with the course. It has nothing to do with the people that are in capitalism.com. It has to do with you. You need to look in the mirror because you can get the exact same course as the person sitting right next to you. And you guys will both have two different results. And it's all because the mentality that you take into the course, if you go into it or joining the networking or the mastermind, if you go into it with a negative attitude that this isn't going to work, it's not going to work for you. So don't join it. But if you go in ready to go, it's going to work. It worked for me. It's going to work for you too. It's just, you got to steer or jump over the mental hurdles because believe me, you will hit roadblocks. Like you wouldn't believe both in your personal life and your business life. And that's what this is here for. It's here to help you get through those.
Speaker 1If you found value in this podcast and you're ready to go deeper, here are three resources where we can help you. One, you can grab my book 12 Months to 1 Million on Audible or Amazon. It has over a thousand reviews and it's the playbook to building a seven-figure business. Second, you can join our community of entrepreneurs who are following a plan to build a 1% net worth by building businesses and investing the profits. You can get plugged in at capitalism.com slash one. And third, if you're looking to go deeper and build a seven-figure business that you can sell, you can work closely with us inside the Capitalism Incubator and you can get on the waiting list and find out what we do over at capitalism.com slash inc. That's capitalism.com slash inc.
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