Episode 51: How to Get Your Products Ready for the Holidays with Jacqueline and Minna
The holidays are here!
It's the frenzied time of the year for your business, and what does this mean for your products this holiday season?
There's a tight competition to be featured on gift guides. Everyone's trying to capture the market's attention, and some have even prepared as early as the start of the year.
So, what do you do?
Make a new offer? Level up your advertisement? Or update your product's sales copy?
While these are all genuine efforts for your products to be holiday-ready, the best way to make your products ready for the holidays does not actually rest on all these external activities.
To get your products ready for the holidays means that you—the business founder—must be ready, too!
Now, what exactly does that mean?
Beyond the external preparations for the holiday season, there is a call for business owners like you to have the right mindset, acknowledge that you have to be the face of your products, and tell the story behind them.
This will set you apart from all other business founders, and help you get your products ready for the holiday season.
Because, after all, you are the best person to sell your best sellers.
All these and more insights are exactly what our special guests, Jacqueline and Minna, who are experts in products-based business, will share in this episode to help you get ahead of the competition.
"If you want to go very quickly, you need to show your face and you need to be the one that represents your brand. Because there's nobody that knows it as deeply as you, that's as passionate as you and that can sell as well as you. It will never be someone who can compare even if you hire a fantastic salesperson."
-Minna Khounlo-Sithep
Jacqueline Snyder and Minna Khounlo-Sithep are the combined force behind The Product Boss Podcast. They have grown a community of high-achieving product-based small business owners and have helped them scale their physical product businesses through masterminds, group coaching and digital courses. Together their goal is to change the landscape of product entrepreneurship by connecting women around the world through a blend of real-life business tactics, creative strategy, and modern leadership.
If you are looking for ways to ready your products for this holiday season, this episode is meant to help you and your products be more ready than ever. So, take out your PR holiday pen and checklist because you are in for one big holiday treat in this special episode.
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
Small business realities before the holidays
Using your best sellers to get through the holiday seasons
Why you should be the face of your product
Marketing Psychology 101: How people really buy products
The room to find the sweet and unique spot of your holiday products
How multiple streams of marketing and sales help your small businessg
If you want to land your first feature for free without any connections, I want to invite you to watch my PR Secrets Masterclass where I reveal the exact methods thousands of bootstrapping small businesses use to hack their own PR and go from unknown to being a credible and sought-after industry expert. Register now at www.gloriachou.com/masterclass.
Resources Mentioned:
Gloria Chou's Masterclass: PR Masterclass
Join The Product Boss' free workshop series: The Product Boss Free Workshop
Learn more about The Product Boss: The Product Boss Website
Listen to The Product Boss Podcast: The Product Boss Podcast
Enroll in The Multi-$tream Machine Course: The Multi-$tream Machine
Additional Resources:
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Here’s a glance at this episode…
[3:37] The thing about the small business is that you really are wearing a lot of hats oftentimes. If you can get ahead and have a plan, and focus on the things that are making you money, and focus on a particular product or the lineup that you have, it helps you to stay profitable and sustainable through a really busy time.
[14:03] People buy from people. That's what it's always been, what it always will be. If you want to go very quickly, you need to show your face and you need to be the one that represents your brand. Because there's nobody that knows it as deeply as you, that's as passionate as you and that can sell as well as you. It will never be someone who can compare even if you hire a fantastic salesperson.
[18:58] Humans will always be attracted to human faces. Whether you're an introvert or an extrovert, whether you're outspoken, I want to be on camera or not, you're going to have to figure out a way to personalize the brand.
[19:33] But we always say there's room at the top for all of us because there is no person that will do it exactly the way that you do it. There is no person that has the exact same story as you.
[24:21] So when you share that, and you share about your fears, or the deep downside side, it sticks with people. Those are those stories that stick even in a marketing sense.
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Minna Khounlo-Sithep 00:00
People buy from people. That's what it's always been, what it always will be. If you want to go very quickly, you need to show your face and you need to be the one that represents your brand. Because there's nobody that knows it as deeply as you, that's as passionate as you and that can sell as well as you. It will never be someone who can compare even if you hire a fantastic salesperson.
Gloria Chou 00:22
Hey friends, I'm Gloria Chou, small business PR expert, award-winning pitch writer and your unofficial hype woman. Nothing makes me happier than seeing people get the recognition they deserve. And that starts with feeling more confident to go bigger with your message. So on this podcast, I will share with you the untraditional, yet proven strategies for PR marketing and creating more opportunity in your business. If you are ready to take control of your narrative and be your most unapologetic and confident self, you're in the right place. This is the Small Business PR podcast.
Gloria Chou 00:53
What's up everyone? I am so excited for this episode. We're going to hear all about how to get your product ready for the holidays. This is a huge opportunity for anyone that has a product, so you're not going to want to miss this one. Today we have the one and only Jacqueline + Mina. They are product experts. They're the hosts of the leading podcast for products called, The Product BOSS podcast. You might have heard of them. I definitely have. And they've helped over 50,000 product product bosses around the world scale their business. So welcome to the show.
Jacqueline Snyder 01:22
Thank you for having me here.
Minna Khounlo-Sithep 01:24
Thank you.
Gloria Chou 01:25
So you're kind of the leading experts in this. You've helped 50,000 different product bosses around the world. That is incredible! Can you talk a little bit about why it's so important to focus about getting ready for the holidays and what that timeline looks like?
Jacqueline Snyder 01:39
Great question. So I'm Jacqueline, by the way. If you hear both of our voices, this is Jacqueline's voice. And the importance about getting ready for the holiday season is if we've heard this stat, and you may have heard it too is that all the combined revenue between Q1, Q2, and Q3 can get doubled in Q4 for a product-based business, meaning that's the time that consumers are spending. they're buying. And this is the busiest time of year for product- based businesses typically. Now listen, if you sell pool supplies, or Minna's company, which is Lil' Labels. She's really known for like back-to-school time and camp time. Maybe the holiday season is not your busiest season, but typically it's gift-giving people are buying. They're decorating their homes. They're spending there. And so it's really important to get prepared and to get prepared early. Because we don't want you to be reactive in your busy time. We want you to be able to, we like to say, sip your pumpkin spice latte, eat your apple pie, enjoy the holiday season, and be making a ton of money in terms of sales. And if you're reactive in that time, it's not going to be as great as if you start to plan early, and you're super prepared for the holiday season.
Minna Khounlo-Sithep 02:47
And you're proactive. Oh, sorry about that. Well, I mean, we are already holiday getting ready right now in towards third quarter going into fourth quarter. So it's really about getting prepared. The big guys, the big box retailers, they start getting ready, June, July really, really early, to be honest, really early, even now more so it's getting more and more even earlier than that. But as small businesses, we should really take into account that there's lots of things like we have to order goods, we have to set up our shipping, we have to hire people, perhaps. We have to, with Jacqueline, I help people, like Gloria said, we help over 50,000 students, and they're all small businesses. So the thing about the small business is that you really are wearing a lot of hats oftentimes. So if you can get ahead and have a plan, and focus on the things that are making you money, and focus on a particular product or the lineup that you have, it helps you to stay profitable and sustainable through a really, really busy time. And so our holiday season is where we have the most fun to be honest, where we really jump into our community. We're boots on the ground with them a lot of times. How can we support you? How can you get ahead? How can you get your ducks in a row and be successful and set up the goals and meet them? And that's what really really help in our courses and our education around this time.
Gloria Chou 04:22
I love that so much. Now in terms of press and getting ready, it's all about being strategic. Because obviously you might have a product line that's diverse. You might have many different products. So I always say pick the one that is reflective of your point of view of what you want to share. Do you have any tips on how to strategize if let's say I have multiple products? How do I know how to get my ducks in a row?
Minna Khounlo-Sithep 04:42
So good. We really lean into best sellers. So if you know us, we talk about what your best seller is, we like to talk about going deep and not wide. So many times in our product- based businesses out there but also service space if you're listening. We think if we make more things, we will capture more customers. Yes, I can make all these different products, like I could make candles and real infusers and sprays and body butters and bath bombs and all the things, or you really focus in on your best seller. So, when we're thinking about press PR, pitching yourself, we talked about this when they're selling and trying to get on other sales channels and sales platforms, trying to get into retailers. You lead with your best sellers. You lead with the tried and true because you know that people want it. They buy it. You have testimonials on it. You most likely have the best margins on that product. And you can sell it all day, every day. It's what you're known for, and we want you to become known for it. I like to bring up Juicy Couture tracksuits. They are sort of making a comeback. And Gloria you're from Southern California, which is where I'm from, so you know. And so Juicy Couture tracksuits. Now listen, back in the day in 2000. No, no, it was 1997. I went to a really trendy store in LA and I bought a pair of Juicy Couture denim in 1997. This is pre-tracksuit, then 98-99. They came out with their tracksuits, if you remember, it's the valore tracksuits that everybody wore. And that's what put them on the map. That's what blew them up. And do you think that the two women that founded that company, eventually, 10 years later, were like, I don't want to see another tracksuit in my life? I'm sure that they did feel that way. But instead, they made variations. They made short versions. They made puff sleeve versions. They made capris. They made different colorways. They kept leaning into what their best seller was. It put them on the map, which eventually led to them selling off their company for hundreds of millions of dollars. It's what they're known for. When it expanded into handbags and jewelry and all and perfumes and makeup, one of it was actually bought out by a bigger company. So I think as you're pitching yourself, and you're trying to lean into press and PR, how can you make your best sellers relevant to the season that we're in and double down on that because it sells and then come up with your variations or your different pitches around it?
Minna Khounlo-Sithep 06:55
It 's really about connecting the dots. That's something we actually have to push our students in a lot of, it's about connecting with your customer and for them making the leap. It's how you talk about PR to a query of why does it matter? Why does it matter? Why do they need to buy right now? For you, it's why do I need to write a story about you or why are you relevant? It's because you have to be the one that says, 'Here is why you need to buy it right now. Here is the want, the need, the desire, the hook, or whatever it is connecting the dots for your customer and connecting the dots for why you would be featured in a gift guide or in a PR publication of making that bridge as you have mentioned many times.
Gloria Chou 07:40
Yeah, I really love it. It's about not the product, but what is the season the emotions, the trends, and what does that say about our deeper psyche? So for example, I wrote a pitch for someone who makes tie dye sweatshirts. And it really was around how the pandemic has made us want to yearn for simpler times whether it's childhood. So what is that bigger picture? Can you tell me a little bit more about because obviously, product-based businesses, you might think, well, it's all about leading with the product, leading with why it's great, what have you found to be the best ways to message and storytell around a product?
Jacqueline Snyder 08:15
I think that making it relevant to the customer, but in a very psychological way. We talk about logical versus psychological. So logical is your product features. It is the ounce of the candle. It's the weight of it, the amber jar, the the scent the smell, but really a consumer when they're buying, they're actually buying for the illogical reasons, the psychological reasons. There was even a study a long time ago that there was a part of your brain that helps you make decisions. And that even comes to purchasing, the decisions you make on what you buy. And the people that couldn't make the decisions, in this part of the brain were the ones that control the emotions, like elicited emotions. And so thinking about how much of your decision making is based off of emotions, and psychological reasons versus logical reasons, they don't care about the ounces. They don't even care about the burn time. They care about this, the memory that they have, when that candle is burning in their house, or they care about what it makes them feel when they see that jar and it is a Lux brand that they want to see in this beautiful house of theirs, that when people walk through it, they're like, 'Ooh, that person has a very fancy candle. It's kind of like why hotels have certain smells when you walk in because psychologically and we, our bodies, desire certain things that we can't control. And we make decisions based on them far more than if we see a product and we're looking at the logical features. So really thinking about the story of that. What's the story behind why they would buy the candle? Why would they want it? Why would they need it? Why would they desire it versus coming up with the features and you need it because it has this many hours of burn time? They really are looking for the story that's around why they internally want that candle in their house, what it reminds them of, what it portrays to them, what they aspire to be a lot of times.
Jacqueline Snyder 10:21
And I can add a story. So we had a student of ours and she came up with gold bangles, so anniversary bangles, solid gold. It was this idea that her grandfather gave a bangle to her grandmother every year that they were married as an anniversary present. And so when she conceived this company, she taught herself how to be a jeweler. She might have gotten started on Etsy. She started making these bangles. But as many product-based business owners do, as I said, from best seller, they start to get distracted. They're like, Oh, I'm a jewelry company. I didn't make the bangles. But I'm also going to make earrings and necklaces and rings and toe rings and anklets and all the things. And so when we started working with her, she had a successful business. It was really high in revenue also because we were selling solid gold jewelry. So already a higher price point. But what we were able to whittle down for her was the story. The story was why she conceived it, why she started it, was it was this anniversary bangle given to her grandma, and she wanted to recreate that yearly thing that like a husband might do or a spouse might do. How many times tradition, that's the word, how many times it comes to your next anniversary and your spouse is like, I don't know what to get you. It said cotton. I'm gonna buy you something with cotton, then you're like, 'Oh, your cotton cotton sheets.' That's not very romantic. So the idea here is that she was getting distracted. And so we helped her focus back in on the story. Going back to the why really leaning into her bestseller which were the bangles and to come out with variations on the bangles because there's only so many of the basic bangles. And people as they started to add, maybe they want to add diamonds birthstones when they have children, not just I'm wearing them right now, just different things that were tradition, and creating that tradition and then expanding their mind that this tradition doesn't have to be between, but it can be for other types of anniversaries, traditions, that kind of thing. So Mina, and I actually, as we bought, we bought for our third year in business, and when we hit a million downloads, that was sort of like, the different bangles, we bought ourselves. And it was to remember these occurrences that happen. So you can see, and then someone tried to knock her off, and there was a war of worlds over on Instagram between the fans of hers, and then the fans of this other person. And being like, this is why, they could hav hammered it out on on the product. Our students, it's solid gold all the way through. The competitor, it was not solid gold, they were hollow. We could have said gold is gold, and this is the price point. And these are the looks. But instead it was the story and the values built around it, and the competitor could not compete with the core story of grandpa giving the grandma tradition being carried through the other traditions she started creating with her community. And so it didn't matter. She still quote unquote, won in that sort of thing, because the story was there and it was more than just the product.
Gloria Chou 13:21
Oh, that is so powerful. I love that so much. I also think that the world we live in, there's so much uncertainty. There's so much fakeness that people can suss out really your why and people want to buy because I don't care if it's a paper clip or if it's a gold jewelry. It's what is the person behind? Why did they make that? So I think a lot of times when I think of products, we don't think about the founder. I think a lot of people think they can hide behind their products and not be on camera, on microfilm person, do you think is still possible? Do you think the face, like you need to have a face to the product?
Minna Khounlo-Sithep 13:59
It's possible. It just takes longer. And it's a different type of business. People buy from people. That's what it's always been, what it always will be. If you want to go very quickly, you need to show your face and you need to be the one that represents your brand. Because there's nobody that knows it as deeply as you, that's as passionate as you and that can sell as well as you. It will never be someone who can compare even if you hire a fantastic salesperson. The other part of that though, is that if you don't want to be the part of that human behind your brand, you actually need to humanize your brand. It takes far longer and it's harder connection. People can, like you said, they can know if somebody's being authentic. They can see their mannerisms. They understand like the connection between the two versus humans taking the time to humanize your brand. And they can determine whether or not they like it or not. And so I think that it can be. It's just not as powerful. It's not as powerful as a bond It's not as quick either. So if you do want to grow your business, the quickest, easiest way to do it, not easy, the quickest way to do that is to show your face and you are the one that boots the ground, represents your brand. And honestly, clarity comes from it. So a lot of times people are like, 'but I want it to be a certain logo or I want it to be a certain message.' But your message and your logo and the feel of your business as it grows, it will evolve. And as you grow and mature as a business, it actually will become more solidified. You will have more clarity in your voice, in the customer you attract, and then in what values you have to. So as you start to grow, you start to see, oh, this is actually a really important value that I have internally and externally. So the people who I hire, as well as the people that I serve in the world. So I think that you can eventually, but I would highly recommend putting a face to the brand. Because as a small business, it might have been, you might have been, you might be able to do it. And that's how bigger businesses do it. But as a small business that needs to stand out to sustain. You probably do have to show your face now more than ever because customers are just more savvy. They're just more savvy. They have different reasons to spend. A lot of times it has to do with the founder, has to do with the values that are represented, a lot and what they see of themselves or in the world that they hold value to is represented in the owner or in the product, in their brand. So I think that as a small business, it's a way for you to stand out of showing your face and being the representative for your brand.
Jacqueline Snyder 16:50
And if I can add to that. Now, if we think about major brands that have come up and grown and I've just read recent articles on Dagne Dover, and FIGS Scrubs. both are their co-founders are two women, both companies. I didn't know this. So I became a fan of DagnE Dover, but I didn't know about the founders. It's actually three. I think three women for Dagne Dover. For FIGS, I actually also didn't know that it was two co-owners, two women. Well, when I read their stories, so much of it started with them as the front facing. Now, it didn't mean that they were showing up on Instagram and selling live and doing that sort of thing. But the connections that they were making. So FIGS, for example, would drive to Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, and sell basically scrubs out of their trunk of their car. During shift changes to medical professionals, medical workers, they were the face. So product-based business owners what they don't realize, that a lot of you out there do in person shows, whether you do trade shows markets, art fairs, craft fairs, you are the face of your brand. When you're standing in that booth, you are the one that's selling it really well. Now, when it comes to social, are we telling you that you need to be the next like QVC type seller? Not necessarily, but that's why I think we saw such a huge move towards content creators and influencers and how those "content creators and influencers" sell for brands now. It's because that is the humanization. They have now like trust factor. It shows people using it in use. There's like a testimonial there. And so they're like, oh, a real life human is using this. And I trust this real life human and I can do it too. So I think the important thing is that you realize we just go back to the idea of people buy from people. There should be some personality to it. I think about Glossier, I don't know the founders. But Glossier, remember, had really great marketing promotions with different women and men and people's faces, and you felt connected to the face of the brand, and that made you trust it. So think about babies. Babies recognize faces, and they see faces first. They see the outlines of faces. Humans will always be attracted to human faces. And so the idea there is, how do you think? How do you figure out how to integrate this into your business? Whether you're an introvert or an extrovert, whether you're outspoken, I want to be on camera or not, you're going to have to figure out a way to personalize the brand.
Minna Khounlo-Sithep 19:15
When you think about it Gloria, you have no idea how many soap brands we work with, how many candle brands, how many jewelry brands. I mean, we're talking a lot, okay, just think 50,000 students, and how many of those are candle brands. It's a lot. That's why we use it as an example because you can wrap your mind around it really, really easily. But we always say there's room at the top for all of us because there is no person that will do it exactly the way that you do it. There is no person that has the exact same story as you. So if you want to stand out and if you want to grow, it's going to take you leaning into how you're different than the competition. And it's not even competition. It's just other people in the market. Why your candle versus somebody else's candle? Well, it has to do with you and how you present it to the world.
Gloria Chou 20:05
Yeah, I think that's so good. It's like your 'why.' Now, obviously, your words are music to my ears because I'm all about doing the high ROI activities, mastering your pitch, getting control of your narrative. So, obviously, you have a lot of students who have successfully done PR really well, that's obviously helped them grow their business. Can you give me a couple of examples of how you've been able to apply the PR methods? Or how your students have been able to make PR work for them around the holidays and also get ROI for the rest of the year?
Jacqueline Snyder 20:35
Yeah, great question. I think we saw a lot of this during the pandemic, because press was they cared about the small business back then. So, they were really wanting to pitch it and they wanted those stories. They wanted those like hero stories. Mom of four, homeschooling. Women were laid off of jobs at that point. I mean, still, but at that point a lot. And it was sort of like how they transitioned, how they supported their family, what their income was. So we had one of our students who Made for Mamas is the mug company. It's Mindy, and she ended up, I don't know, if it's a Today Show, or Good Morning, America! She always corrects us, but she ended up being on there. She ended up generating sales, and she ended up getting that SEO from it as well. So that was long form content. It lived longer. It also gave her credibility, so she has some really big potential collaborations right now with some really big companies where they want to order 20,000 units of certain products. And she had the backup that I was on the show. I have proof that people like what I have, and there's a story to it. We're buying more than just a mug. It's not like we're rolling up to TJ Maxx or HomeGoods and getting a mug off the shelf because it says something cute. But there's more to this. It's Made for Mamas by a mama. I'll tell you, even for Minna and I, as we've, so many times we get really focused on where well we can, we can talk about product-based businesses, and we can pitch a product-based business. That's what we're known for as experts, and on how to grow a business, how to market your business, how to do things organically. But what we realized as we started to find this spin was how two women can function as partners and mothers of two young children. There's not a lot of stories about women in partnership. I'm a real housewives lover. I'm not gonna lie, but all it does is pitch women fighting each other. They're friends, but they hate each other. And we're a good example of showing two women in a healthy relationship, working through business and being supportive of each other no matter what. I think there's also the integrity component. We've also talked about, Minna and I separately have talked about different parts about our backgrounds and cultures, and how that is being entrepreneurs in this world. So I think the idea here is it's what you teach is how do you stay relevant in the moment? And yes, we're known for something you talk about as the top layer of the onion. Yes, we are the product- based business experts. We have a top podcast, but that can only go so far on interest, and how do we keep making ourselves relevant in the moment? And what do we know that we can contribute for?
Minna Khounlo-Sithep 23:04
It's basically when you think about the top layer of the onion, think of that onion as a person. So the top layer is like you meeting someone. You barely know them. They're your acquaintance. Maybe you get to know the facts. She's in Iowa. She's Asian-American. She comes from.
Jacqueline Snyder 23:22
We're talking about Minna and I. Parents are refugees.
Minna Khounlo-Sithep 23:24
Yeah, so I'm obviously describing myself. Those are just demographics. Let's just say, and then if you get to the core of the onion, that is really what people want. That's what they connect to. That's what they bond to. So if I tell the story about raising two little girls, or jumping generational wealth, or my values, like the deep down onion of me, my onion heart, then that is really what they connect with. And what the audiences want when they are reading something, but also what sticks with them. So we'll tell our stories, and we'll be in their earbuds, and people will tell us where they are when they hear our voices. We connect with them in a much, in a way where it's like, "Oh, I remember you telling the story. I remember you talking about your fear of kidnapping." That's one of my funny things that it's like the bottom layer of the onion for me. So my fears. So when you share that, and you share about your fears, or the deep downside side, it sticks with people. Those are those stories that stick even in a marketing sense. So when they're thinking, "oh, this is when they're out in the wild." They can refer back to "Oh, I remember Jacqueline likes this. I remember Minna likes this or I remember this." It's the story that sells and not the the the top layer of things. That's not the "Oh, she's an Iowa sort of layer. " It's much more than that sticks with people even in the long term of them remembering your business and going to buy a gift or something you you pop into their brain at that time.
Gloria Chou 25:03
Yeah. So you've given us such great gems that the successful product founders, they understand their story and how to connect through story, not just their product. You've told us to lean in on your best sellers, don't have shiny object syndrome, do more of what's working. Before we sign off, do you have any other tips from overseeing 50,000 product owners? What are the the tips or things that are working really working to move the needle right now?
Jacqueline Snyder 25:29
I think, and especially with the idea of a down economy and all that, and this is something that we support insideof our signature course and program, which is Multi-$tream Machine is diversification. So at a time right now, when things feel uneasy and scary, whether you have a full time job, and you're a product-based business or service businesses or side hustle, or you've been selling full on your products, and you're doing great on Etsy, or you're doing great selling wholesale or something like that, we want you to diversify in a time like this. We do not want all our eggs in one basket. So it goes with product, but it also goes with income and revenue. So we want you to have diversified ways of having more income, so as your product business is a way to have diversification of income in case something stable gets knocked out from under you. The second part is diversifying the sales channels and platforms, diversifying the way you market and create visibility for your business, which PR is a perfect example. We've talked about social media, and all of a sudden, the algorithm doesn't work anymore, and you feel like you're stuck, or you were selling on Etsy, but Etsy has made a decision that they no longer want you to rank higher, come up for the searchability keywords, and now you're stuck. So I think something that we teach, we're really leaning into it this holiday season is diversification, having a backup plan to your income and a backup plan to your revenue streams. And that would be through multiple sales channels, and also multiple ways of marketing visibility and getting new eyes your business. So I think in combination with what you teach, and what we teach, we really, really focus on organic growth, non-paid opportunities, and also ways to grow on more platforms to reach new eyes. So different sales channels like selling wholesale, direct to consumer, through Amazon, if that's right for you. Just different ways in selling. And then that's the diversification. So no matter how hard the world feels or gets, you know that you've got eggs in different baskets, and if something gets knocked over, you have something that will get you through.
Minna Khounlo-Sithep 27:27
Not on diversification on product, though. So I want to make sure everybody understands diversification. So really, listen to what Jacqueline is saying about diversification. It's sales channels and not more product. Because people when they hear diversification, they will automatically go to more products, diversifying my product lineup, but we teach it differently. It's taking your best sellers, putting it out into more sales channels, and diversifying where you get your revenue from. So you just want to make sure that was clear because it was lots of diversification up in there.
Gloria Chou 28:06
Wow, I love that! That's where PR comes in. And especially with the holidays. I mean, this is your chance to test and try new things.
Jacqueline Snyder 28:12
Yeah. So we have something just for your audience. if you are a product-based business, and you want to get ready for the holiday season, we are running a series of free workshops. totally free. It's the Product Classes Guide to Getting Holiday-ready. And this is where we are going to help you focus on time because we talked about like lack of time when it gets to the holiday season. Scaling. So how do you scale your business without becoming the bottleneck of your business? Like how do you imagine this growth? And then also focus. So what do we focus on to grow it? And I think all of those will really help as you're leaning into growing your product business, also working on press and PR and really kind of trying to get out there. Because if you get the press, if you get the good press, our hopes are that you blow up. Our hope's that you get more sales. But if you're not prepared for that, how do you have that return on the investment if you can't go anywhere with it? I worked for a celebrity once and we were on the Tyra Banks Show. And we had no production made. And we don't even think our website was like fully up. We weren't selling e-commerce at that point. And we were getting phone calls to the office, how do I get that dress? How do I get that dress? We had zero way to sell anything to them. But we have the press opportunity. So we want to make sure that you engage.
Minna Khounlo-Sithep 29:22
That was decades before The Product Boss. Just so they know this was not The Product Boss.
Jacqueline Snyder 29:27
You're making me old. This was like six and a half years ago. Now, this was way back in the beginning of me being a fashion designer, and and we want you to be able to optimize these opportunities. So I think Gloria, you're helping so much with the growth and the opportunities and the reaching of other people. And then we want you to be able to fulfill on those opportunities and generate the revenue and have that return on your investment. So that's sort of our way and our give back during the busiest time of year to product-based businesses to really support them with these free workshops about getting holiday ready and then we do help them create their holiday promotions and a challenge that we have. So, come on over. We're here to help you. We're here to help Gloria and your audience. We just are so fulfilled by helping businesses grow, especially homegrown bootstrap businesses.
Gloria Chou 30:16
That's awesome. So how can people find you, know more about this multistream machine, the holiday challenge. So why don't, by the way, anyone who's listening, get a pen and paper out and take notes because there's literally such valuable stuff for here. So how can people find you? what's What's an easy step that they can take to kind of connect with you?
Jacqueline Snyder 30:31
And we have nearly 400 episodes so everything is great for listening and then up leveling your business and yourself. So we'll meet you over there.
Jacqueline Snyder 30:31
Yeah, I thank you for saying that. So you will have your own link in the show notes from Gloria but it's theproductboss.com/holiday or click on the link in the show notes to join that free workshop series. Multi-$tream Machine, which is our signature programming course. We'll be opening the doors in September. So make sure to come into our our community to know when things are happening. And one of the best ways to connect with us and continue to get support is to listen to The Product Boss Podcast. We have an awesome episode that might be really helpful. And it's Episode 270, which is "What Matters Most in Publicity for Product Businesses." So we're going to still talk about publicity, but we're going to dig deeper into the product part of it all. And that might just be a really great way to kind of continue the conversation over at The Product Boss Podcast as well.
Gloria Chou 31:29
It's awesome. Thank you so much, ladies, let's make this holiday season the best one yet, shall we?
Jacqueline Snyder 31:34
Yeah, I'm so excited for it.
Gloria Chou 31:36
Hey, small business hero. Did you know that you can get featured for free on outlets like Forbes, The New York Times, Marie Claire Pop Sugar and so many more, even if you're not yet launched? Or if you don't have any connection? That's right. That's why I invite you to watch my PR Secrets masterclass, where I reveal the exact methods thousands of bootstrapping small businesses used to have their own PR and go from unknown to being a credible and sought after industry expert. Now if you want to land your first press feature, get on a podcast, secure a VIP speaking gig or just reach out to that very intimidating editor. This class we'll show you exactly how to do it. Register now at Gloria Chou pr.com/masterclass. That's Gloria Chou c-h-o-u pr.com/masterclass. So you can get featured in 30 days without spending a penny on ads or agencies. Best of all, this is completely free. So get in there and let's get you featured.