Speaker 1: 0:03

Well, hello. This is Kimberly Brock, and for over 20 years I've been running my own businesses that have not only been profitable but personally fulfilling to me. So now I'm on a mission to help other new business owners, just like you, make money doing what you love to. Now we're going to have some fun, so let's get started Now we're going to have some fun, so let's get started.

Speaker 3: 0:30

Well, hello friends, it's episode 295, and I am so thankful that you are here today because you are about to learn some awesome business lessons. You can learn from my mistakes, mishaps, things that have gone wrong in my business, and you can learn from them. Today. It's just like we tell our children and maybe if you don't have children here today, maybe it's nieces, nephews or people that are younger than you you share with them things that have happened to you and you're like Don't do this, watch out for this. Right Today, you get to listen from someone who has gone before you. Oh yes, 25 years running my own businesses, I've learned a lot, but today I'm touching on 3 big lessons that I've learned, in hopes that you can glean insights from them and not make the same mistakes. If you are new here, welcome. I'm so glad that you found this podcast. I have no doubt it's going to help you along your business journey.

Speaker 3: 1:14

Whether you're in the idea stage, starting or growing, whether you're starting a podcast, this is for you. Maybe you're starting a new coaching business, service business or online business selling products, physical products, digital products, whatever it is. I'm so happy that you're here and I'm so glad that you're pursuing your dream. You can scroll down right now in the show notes. So if you're an Apple podcast, for example, you can scroll down there in the notes. I have links to freebies for you. Oh yes, I have free goodies that I know are going to help you. I've got a 16-step checklist that goes through everything you need to do to start your business effectively. My clients love it because they literally keep it out on their desk and they work through it, and if you're in the idea stage, I even have a free guide for you. If you're starting a podcast, there's a free workshop for you. So just check it all out and see what stage you're in and what can help you today, what stage you're in and what could help you today. Snag it, print it, do whatever it is so that you can get moving. That's the goal here to get everyone moving forward, and I'm so thankful that you are here and also if you've been listening a while.

Speaker 3: 2:14

Thank you so much to all my loyal listeners. Thank you for the reviews, the DMs, the emails, the messages. It means so much to me. I show up every week for you to help you. I want you to be able to enjoy a career doing what you love as an entrepreneur, and you can do it. If I can do it, you can do it, and I'm just so thankful for you, for being grateful for this podcast and for listening each week.

Speaker 3: 2:36

It means so much to me, and if you've been listening a while and you have never rated this podcast, would you do that super quick. All you have to do is hit the five-star rating if you're in Spotify, if you are in Apple Podcasts, and just leave a five-star rating, and if you have 30 seconds to write a written review. It means so much to me. It really does. I read all of them and I can't help but think that it tells Apple and all the players out there that this is a valuable podcast and to show it to more people like you who just want to pursue their dream, and it just means so much to me. So, if you have time to do that, thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Okay, that's it. On to the episode.

Speaker 1: 3:22

Well, hello friends, how are you? What is going?

Speaker 3: 3:26

on right now in your life, in your business. I need to know the scoop, I need to know, I need to know what's happening. I need updates, I need the updates on your business. If you're not in the Facebook group already, make sure you get in that Women Starting Businesses and Podcasts Doing what we Love Facebook group. The link is down below. I'd love to have you in there. We have fun posts each week and you can keep me updated on what's going on and share about your business. I just love it y'all. I get so excited when I get on client calls and just to see the joy on your faces when you're making progress, when you're getting past those roadblocks, it just is awesome. And when you're making your first sales and you start making your best months ever, your best years ever. I've got many clients that have been with me for several years in various versions of my programs whether it was a group program, a course, one-on-one coaching and I've seen many of you recently saying I have just had my biggest profit year yet, my biggest profit month. You keep updating me and it's just so exciting, so congratulations. I'm so, so happy for you.

Speaker 3: 4:37

Today we're talking about hard lessons that I've learned over the past 25 years. I could share a lot more than this, but today I just thought I would give you three. I think that's good enough for you to chew on today and to take with you and to remember Now. I know a lot of times, especially when we were teenagers, we didn't want to listen to people that had gone before us. We're like, no, I can do this. You know, we even acted like toddlers when we were teenagers. Like I do it by myself, I do it by myself, I can do this right. We all think that we can do this by ourselves, and you know what the fact is. We shouldn't. We never should. You could do it by yourself, you could, but you're missing out on all the lessons and wisdom from those who've gone before you. I'm not saying I'm the most wise or anything like that, so don't get me wrong. I'm just a normal person like you, making mistakes, trying to find my way, trying to pursue something greater for my life and make more impact with the gifts that God has given me. I'm just like you and I make mistakes, but today I want to share with you some lessons that I know can help you and protect you and help you build an even more meaningful and fulfilling business. So let's start out with these. Let's get into it and you're going to be different after hearing these. You're going to realize some truths and move forward more effectively with your business. So the first one is this If you've been listening to me since the beginning, you've probably heard this story.

Speaker 3: 6:06

I think I've shared it on this podcast. I'm almost positive. I've shared it in GrowGetters and my other programs.

Speaker 3: 6:10

Y'all know this that inventory, if you're a product-based business and I know some of you are service-based business or coaching, and you're like this doesn't apply to me. It actually does. I'm going to share it with you in just a minute. But inventory can cause you much headache. My friend Is that a Chinese proverb Watch out for inventory. Inventory can come back and bite you. I just made up a Chinese proverb. It should be in a fortune cookie, it should be in something on your desk. Watch out for inventory, my friend. Inventory can end up being the bane of your existence. I'm not even kidding.

Speaker 3: 6:50

So, y'all, I started my first business online in 2003. It had the business before with a friend. For a few years we had been doing pop-up shows in Austin, texas, with home accessories and gifts. I took it online in 2003 and started selling online when no one was selling online and I started building up inventory. I had to start, you know, having products physically in my house to be able to ship out to people. Now businesses wholesale businesses were not dropshipping yet. Do y'all know what dropshipping is? Dropshipping is when you're a business owner, you don't actually inventory the product. You notify the manufacturer, the wholesaler, that you got an order and they ship it for you, and so you never see it, but it actually gets shipped to the client. I loved dropshipping. To me, that was the most efficient way. However, most of the wholesalers and manufacturers that I work with again, because I didn't make anything myself, I was reselling everything Most of the wholesalers and manufacturers that I worked with did not dropship, so I had to stock it. So, luckily, we had an extra storage room upstairs in our house at the time and I started having shelves put in there and stocking all the blankets and home accessories and everything and shipping every day from my home.

Speaker 3: 8:09

Well, as things were selling, I was buying more inventory and as I was going to market and buying products, I would be like that's cute. Oh wait, this is cute too. We need blue, we need pink, we need white, we need green, we need all the colors. We need all the flavors. I need all of it and I would get inventory and I would build up inventory, which would be great because I would have stuff in stock when people ordered. The problem was not every flavor, color, style would sell and I would end up with inventory. Okay, it would end up with extra inventory that then I would have to manage and try to market more because I needed to get rid of this old inventory and then I would need to put it on sale and I would keep running it on sale and the items would stay on my sales page because they wouldn't sell out like some products and I ended up with a lot of extra inventory. Okay, so over the years you can imagine from 2003 to 2019, when I closed my online businesses you can imagine that I had added a little extra inventory.

Speaker 3: 9:24

Think about your closet in your house. Over the years, have you added a little extra inventory in your closet? Personal inventory, your clothes, your shoes, your bags, anything have you been adding to it over the years? You get rid of some, but you always seem to bring in more than you get rid of, right Anyone? Am I the only one who's had extra clothing inventory in my home added over the years? So you can only imagine with a business Y'all what can happen. You absolutely have to watch out for your inventory because what's happening is it's taking up space not only physically in your home or in a storage unit, or even if you have a store or some kind of booth or something. You are storing this. That is extra space. Okay, it's physical space, but it's also taking up mental space, because you have it on your mind that you've got extra inventory and you're figuring out how do I get rid of this?

Speaker 3: 10:24

I have talked to so many product sellers that this happens where you're like what do I do? I keep putting this on sale, I keep posting it on social media, I keep trying to share it with people and I'm I'm putting it on sale all the time and I'm always promoting this and people are sick of it and they're not buying it, and what happens is it's also taking resources away from your marketing, because you could be marketing the stuff that's more applicable to the people who, I'm sorry, more applicable to what people actually want to buy right now, because when something gets old or outdated or it's constantly on sale, people get sick of seeing it and they don't want it. And I know y'all are shaking your head. If you've had a product business, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You have the cutest blankets or cutest shirts or cutest jewelry and no one is buying it. You don't understand why. Okay, it's just become irrelevant somehow. And you don't understand it because you love it and you think it's the cutest thing. Right, that was me. I had pride in every single thing I bought for my business and it shocked me over the years when stuff that I thought was cute wouldn't sell.

Speaker 3: 11:27

Here's my lesson for you Inventory can crush you Literally Physical space and mental space and marketing space. I won't go into all the details, but you'll know what I'm talking about. It can crush you. Make sure you are being very smart about what you reorder and order for your business, that it's actually based on data. Okay, I think that's what I didn't do. I let it be based on my emotion because I got excited. I mean, we love to shop, shopping is fun. We love that thrill of buying, and the same will go for you as a business owner. You will love the thrill of buying for your business. It's a blast. Okay, I'm not even going to lie, it's a rush, it's a blast. And you think you're the hero and everyone's going to buy all of it. And they're not. So be very smart about your inventory. Buy low inventory. You would rather sell out, sell out immediately and have a waitlist and create scarcity than to have too much that ends up bogging you down over time. You have to keep marketing that keeps taking up space and eventually you have to market down solo or do what I did when I closed my businesses.

Speaker 3: 12:31

I could not get rid of it. I ended up donating nap mats, backpacks and backpacks and pillows and blankets that were boutique bougie, super cute to a women's shelter at my church. Okay, my church helped out at a women's shelter and they took my inventory. I had to bring carloads of it. I'm not even kidding. I know y'all are like aghast and you're like what it went to? A great cause. I'm very grateful. There were some items that were not fit for the places I was donating. I did donate backpacks and stuff to organizations that were giving kids backpacks that needed them, some stuff in the very end that was maybe broken or not in perfect condition. I had to give to Goodwill Okay, inventory is not good. And then my grow-getters know this because I know I've told this. I can't remember if I've told y'all on this podcast.

Speaker 3: 13:23

When I closed my businesses I had the inventory at another location. It wasn't here at my home so I didn't physically see it, I only saw it on a spreadsheet. But it had to get shipped here because I was closing my business. I was stopping business with the warehouse companies that were shipping it for me the fulfillment centers and I had it here in my garage and it got shipped in. It was so much. It was boxes piled up, three, four boxes high, taking up a whole section. You could have fit a car where I had this inventory. And I was literally dumbfounded. I was like what in the world? Because this had not been in my line of sight, it had just been on a spreadsheet. It was numbers and, yes, I should have been evaluating it better. I failed at that. Now I profited in my business and did well, so y'all don't get me wrong. But at the end, when I was closing, I realized how I had mismanaged my inventory like totally mismanaged, that it was not done from a strategic level. It was done from more emotional, what I thought it was cute and I kept reordering, and then certain things I let linger and linger and linger and linger.

Speaker 3: 14:35

So watch out, people, for inventory. It can be the bane of your existence. It can cost you time, money, energy, all of it Wasted marketing resources because you're trying to get rid of stuff that's irrelevant. I don't want this happening to you. Please be smart about the inventory that you're buying. That's lesson number one from my screw-up book. Okay, number two. This one's not fun. I hate to break it to you. Oh, oh, oh, let me go back. Number one. Y'all I said for service providers. I think that let me clarify this really quick Inventory can be too much and you can also have inventory of digital products. I just wanna say this for those of you that are coaches, that are service providers and you create courses, workshops, anything that you create, y'all you can create too much In the beginning of your business. Please do not waste your time and resources creating so many offerings.

Speaker 3: 15:35

I tell my one-on-one clients this we want to keep it as simple as possible, maybe one or two things that you are promoting. Once you start diluting your offers. You have so many that people sometimes don't know what to pick. Even at times, in my business now I feel like I have too many, and I actually don't think I do, because they hit a certain niche in your idea stage. Right, planning your business, starting your business, growing your business, starting a podcast those are the five things I have. They actually fit a specific niche. That's it. I'm maxed out. I'm not doing any more than that in terms of things that I'm trying to target for people. Right, I may be coming out with something else very soon, but it's not a course and it's not a workshop. It's something else which I'm really excited about. I'm teasing it. Hopefully this does come to fruition here very soon. I'm putting all the pieces together, but it will be kind of a conglomeration of all of those things. But we'll talk about that later.

Speaker 3: 16:31

But my point is if you have too many workshops, courses, mini courses, big courses, coaching programs, consulting offers, all this stuff, y'all, it gets too much. It's too much to manage. Again, it's diluting your marketing resources and your time. Okay. So this can go for you too, if you have a service business or a coaching business, consulting business, etc. Okay. So, number one we said too much inventory, too many things that you're offering. Number two here's a tough one. Here's a tough one for everybody that and I hate to even say this, I don't even like the word hate, but I just said it there are criminals, there are criminals. I've had people rip me off and it stinks really bad. I'll give you an example and another example that happened to my son recently.

Speaker 3: 17:23

So I sold kids products nap mats, sleeping bags, other kids' stuff, right, and I got an order one day that was a rush order and it was actually to Hawaii. It wasn't even to here and, by the way, y'all just shipped to the United States. I would be very careful about Alaska and Hawaii, not because they are criminals by any means, I'm just saying because you're shipping overseas or you're shipping farther right, and that means higher costs for everything, for your shipping, your products, and just a little less control. I would just watch out. And even to Puerto Rico I know that that's controversial, but I would just be careful. I would stick to the contiguous United States. That's me. You can do whatever you want, but it becomes complicated when you go outside of the contiguous United States.

Speaker 3: 18:15

So I had an order that was white and they were like we need a rush order, we've got the kids that need sleeping bags and blankets and we sold $100 sleeping bags bougie, super cute plush and we had nap mats and they were probably $80 for the nap mats and they said it was like I'm going to make this up now, but it was like four sleeping bags and five nap mats and so it was a big order. I think it was like $1,000. They needed it like overnighted second day air and I was emailing back and forth because I'm already cautious. I'm very cautious about these. I'd been doing it a long time and this was towards the end of my businesses, sort of. Anyway, so I had had experience and I knew and I was like, okay, I'm putting insurance on these and I believe I had signature confirmation. I cannot remember exactly. I wish I remembered if I had signature confirmation. I would always do signature confirmation. If you have a large order, okay, I'll do this because there's criminals. Okay, so I think I did. But if I'm remembering correctly, this is what happened. So I had my sleeping bags and nap mats shipped directly from my manufacturer. So that was drop shipped. I did not have them here. My manufacturer shipped to them.

Speaker 3: 19:34

She shipped all the nap mats and backpacks, did it overnighted. I, you know, got the person's credit card, charged the credit card, did the whole thing. Everything was good. It got and she said we need them. She kept messaging me we need them, we need them tomorrow or whatever it is, in two days I can't remember it was either tomorrow or two days. So it showed they were delivered, all was good.

Speaker 3: 19:54

Then the next week, and that was like a Thursday or Friday Then the next week she calls, she goes we never got them for the trip. We needed them for the trip this week. And I'm like it shows they were delivered, you got them. She goes well, actually we got part of them. We got two sleeping bags and three nap mats. We didn't get all of them and I was like what? And so she had called her credit card company and put a complaint in and so they immediately withdrew my funds back. Okay, so it's like a thousand dollars, took it all back and the customer said she only got like two of the sleeping bags or three of the nap mats.

Speaker 3: 20:27

So I contact my manufacturer. I'm like did you ship? She's saying she only got two sleeping bags and three nap mats. She goes well, that can't be, because we put all of the sleeping bags in one box, we put all of the nap mats in the other. We had to get a certain size box to fit it. Based on the weight, we weigh everything, each box, and we create the shipping label. So I'm like you're telling me that she actually got both boxes but she's claiming that she didn't and my manufacturer's like yes, that's correct, no-transcript.

Speaker 3: 21:31

And I will tell you that the credit card companies, 99% of the time, will err on the side of the buyer. They will not err on your side. You will lose, and I knew it, we lost. They took our money and she took the plush. Knew it, we lost. They took our money and she took the plush nap mats. No telling, she probably. I don't know what she did with them. I'm not even going to speculate. I have no idea who this person was, but it was a criminal. They knew what they were doing. Y'all, there are criminals.

Speaker 3: 21:58

This happened to my son recently on eBay. He was selling two Apple Awesome monitors Very expensive. Two Apple awesome monitors very expensive. I don't know how expensive they might've been $2,000 monitors they'd originally purchased. And I told him I said Grayson, these are the most highly. What's the word Criminalized? What's the word Like? These are? Why can't I think of the word? Oh my gosh, I'm gonna go crazy Like scammers will get you on these. And I said so you have to watch out. I said do signature confirmation. You better insure them and do signature confirmation because these are high fraud items that's kind of what I was trying to say. High fraudulent, like buyers and sellers. And I go you're on eBay, so you're just get ready. So he gets buyers and I'm like, oh awesome, he ships them. And he goes to the UPS store to try to ship and he realizes he doesn't have good enough box and padding. He has to go over to some other place locally, find boxes, take them, buy those boxes, take them back over to the UPS store because UPS store didn't have boxes these big for these huge monitors. He paid for them, them to pack them. He many paid for all the shipping, paid for insurance, ships them.

Speaker 3: 23:10

Well, I didn't hear anything about it from my son for a while and he didn't want to tell me, but one of them was fine. The other one, the person said I got it late and it was broken. My doorman disposed of it and put in a claim to eBay and I said, okay, so do you have signature confirmation? He goes, for some reason I didn't do signature confirmation and I was like what I told you to do signature confirmation. It's the only way you can protect yourself, because if these companies show the signature confirmation that they got boxes, now again my situation my nap mats is different, because I think I did signature and she is acknowledging that she got two boxes, but she's claiming that what I said was in there wasn't in there. Okay, so Grayson's was. We don't have signature confirmation that a doorman actually signed for it or anything where it was signed for. We have nothing.

Speaker 3: 24:09

The show was delivered and I was in Puerto Rico. He shipped it to Puerto Rico. I don't know if I told my son for sure, don't ship to Puerto Rico, but he did anyways. I think I usually say just do it in the United States. And my son had sold the monitor for $1,000. And the guy said, no, it was broken. My doorman got it and disposed of it. I was out of town and he disposed of it. I'm like that's the biggest bunch of credit I've ever heard in my entire life. My son tried to go through the credit card, tried to go through shipping it the whole, trying to get nothing. Ebay said no, you didn't do signature confirmation and didn't give him his money. So that's a criminal who just did that to my son not long ago, but like two or three weeks ago.

Speaker 3: 24:55

So y'all, there are criminals, people. If you have a physical store, if you have a mobile booth, people will try to steal from you. They will try to do something. And if they fight with a credit card I'm just letting you know you will lose. So that's going to be part of it and that's a hard lesson. It makes you so mad. I cannot tell you how mad I was about this lady just blatantly stealing from me, from a small business, cute nap mats and sleeping bags. Who does that? I mean really, who does that? And it's baffling to me that there's people like this in the world that will prey on small businesses and other people. But there are criminals. They exist. Don't be shocked when it happens to you. Don't be shocked, but do everything to protect yourself. So that's my lesson for you.

Speaker 3: 25:39

If you're shipping something, do you know, signature confirmation, insurance, whatever you need to do, and do the United States If you are a service provider. I've heard this hasn't happened to me but people buying their horses and then going and publishing them on some kind of sites that are underground like people can. Then they distribute them for free or maybe for a price to other people, not realizing that these are shady websites that resell people's courses. So I've heard of that Y'all. This stuff exists. This stuff exists and be ready, it's going to be part of it. You're going to have to write it off as an expense and it's what happens, and I'm sorry. I'm sorry now for the day that you get, you know, bamboozled by somebody, for lack of a better term.

Speaker 3: 26:33

We're going to keep this PG or rated G right. When someone does this to you, this is going to sting for you and it makes you sad about people in this world, but I just want you to let you know. Otherwise, 99% of the people are amazing and clients are awesome and customers are appreciative and lovely and wonderful, like you are with me, and it's all good. It's part of it, and so prepare yourself okay and protect yourself. So that's my lesson for number two.

Speaker 3: 27:04

So number one was inventory. Number two was protecting yourself and knowing that there's criminals. Here's number three you cannot please everybody. You cannot please everybody and I don't want you to try to. I think that's what we try to do as business owners we want to please everybody. Now, of course, I don't like conflict. I'm sure you don't either, and I want to make people happy. I'm going to be there. If they're super unhappy something's wrong. Make sure that you are communicating with people properly. I think that's the lesson.

Speaker 3: 27:42

People are usually unhappy because, when it comes down to it, it's not that your product stinks or that you stink, it's that maybe what was offered was not communicated properly. You know I've made mistakes where I shipped somebody. I've told this story. People tell me they laughed all the time that were from Michigan, because when I had my kids or fans too it's like collegiate gifts, baby gifts and I sent like it was either a Michigan order of baby gifts to a Michigan state I mean I misshipped. So somebody ordered Michigan baby items and I shipped Michigan state, or they ordered Michigan state and I shipped Michigan. I can't remember. But the recipient called us and was berating me and telling me is this a joke? I can't believe you would ship us this other school. They were so highly offended Because we all know if we're football fans and you know football fans in your life they're very offended by the opposing team, right, they're offended. And so they were extremely offended and was screaming and had talked to someone who worked for me first and was making her cry and then talked to me and it was just a big mess. So this happens People will be unhappy.

Speaker 3: 28:59

If you're a coach or a service provider, people may not like what you offer, and that's okay. You can't be all things to all people. You are not going to be able to please everyone. Have a return policy, have a grace period, be kind, but make sure, first of all, the onus is on you to communicate everything properly. Okay, like my son was doing some work for someone a few weeks back too and for his business, and the lady was unhappy and she wanted her money back. And my husband I mean my husband, my son said you know, I just went and refunded her like 75% of it. I put it on her front porch and I told her I'm so sorry, that was my fault for not communicating correctly what was expected of this job, and so that's what you have to do. If you know that you haven't communicated it fully, then okay. So, whatever it is. If you have a website, communicate fully about the shipping times, about the delays, about the times it takes to personalize, about the refund policy. If it's a course or a workshop, whatever it is, just communicate everything so that the people know. That would be my lesson on that Communicate clearly everything, because otherwise you're going to have more upset people.

Speaker 3: 30:10

I know one time I had a coaching client and I didn't do the like first clarity calls or have them contact me via email just so I could make sure that I could help them and that we were a good fit, that it was a mutual good fit. I didn't do that. I do that now. I usually have a clarity call or I do, obviously, communication over email just to make sure. And she booked coaching calls with me, got on and was wanting me to help her structure her whole store the inside, like the shelves and where she was going to put stuff and I was like I've never had a store. How did this happen? Did I not communicate this correctly? So I gave her a refund because I was like, oh my gosh, this I am not qualified for this right. I could tell you, I've been into a lot of boutiques. I love them. I could tell you, probably, how to set it up, but would it be the best? No, because I have never had my own physical store and so you know I had to give a refund.

Speaker 3: 31:09

So we can't please everybody, we can't make everyone happy, and you have to just make sure you're communicating everything clearly. So these are lessons. These are lessons I've learned through my clients as well that they try to please everyone and they end up doing work out of their scope. Right that they that had one of my clients. She was a consultant and people would come to her and say can you do this? Ok, can we add this? I know you said you didn't do this, can you do this? And she would say yes. And she came to the meetings and with me and she's like why am I saying yes to these people? I'm like, because you're trying to people, please, like you have to stop. Like you have to say no, I can't offer that, it's out of my scope. So do not be afraid to do that.

Speaker 3: 31:49

I tell people that I have clients that are starting a podcast or YouTube channel and they want me to help them with your YouTube channel and I say, no, I cannot help you with a YouTube channel. I have just started one myself. Not that long ago, I guess not just started, but last year. I have just started one myself. Not that long ago, I guess not just started, but last year I did just so. I understood what YouTube was about, so I could understand fully what it took to build a YouTube channel versus a podcast, a successful podcast and I my my zone of genius is podcasting. I can tell you how to start a YouTube channel, I can get you started, I can get you moving, I can give you the tips, I can do all that, but I am not your expert in a YouTube channel. I'm just not, so I'm not going to act like I am. I can tell you how to get started and I can give you the basics 100%, but am I your expert in that? No, and so I think if you tell people that they appreciate the honesty, they still say Well, I think you can help me get started. It's obviously very similar to podcasting, but we've got the video element. But just like the structure of it, how we are, you know, positioning ourselves, how we're showing up, how to show up confidently, like, of course and they will still want my help, but they know straight up. I'm not the expert on a YouTube channel, and so I think you have to do that.

Speaker 3: 33:04

You have to set expectations, you have to be very clear, you have to communicate ahead of time before they buy, before they buy everything, return policy, all of that. I think a lot of us, as consumers, are better at that now. We try to make sure we understand what we're buying. But sometimes people get excited and they buy your stuff and they don't realize it's not exactly what they needed. Okay, so do that for yourself, because if you don't communicate clearly, you're gonna have to end up giving refunds, you're gonna feel bad and it's just causing everyone extra. You know, wasted time and energy when they could have been on working with the right person, getting the right product, all that good stuff.

Speaker 3: 33:43

Okay, so what are these three lessons that I've learned that you can now keep in mind for your business? Number one watch out for inventory. It can bite you in the booty If you have too many and too much too many offerings. All that. Don't do it. Be smart, be strategic about what you're buying, what you're creating for your business. Number two there are criminals, so protect yourself. Protect yourself, do what you can but know that there's just going to be a certain percentage of your business that a criminal may get a hold of, and it's sad, but it's only going to be like 0.1%. So it's okay, you can deal with it You're an adult but it's hard Nonetheless. It's emotionally hard and draining and I and I feel for you when it happens because it made me very upset, but it's hard Nonetheless. It's emotionally hard and draining and I feel for you when it happens because it made me very upset, but it happens. It's the reality of this world, right? There's good and evil. Number three you can't please everybody. So communicate very well before people buy. Communicate, communicate, communicate. Share everything on your website, on the label, whatever it is, share it. So that's it. I hope these helped you. You know y'all that I'm here If you need help with your business, whether you're starting your business right now, whether you're you've just launched and you're like okay, wait, I have pieces.

Speaker 3: 34:53

But now I'm kind of stuck on certain things. I need to get moving. What do I do? How do I start growing? How do I start showing up? How do I funnel people in from strangers to buyers? How do I start my podcast, like, how do I make sure I do this right? All those questions I can help you with in one-on-one coaching.

Speaker 3: 35:08

Did y'all know this? I offer one-on-one coaching. We can work together. It's so much fun. If you want to know for a fit, then contact me. You can fill out a quick form. Tell me what's going on with your business real quick. I'll reply back. Maybe we can jump on a call and just see if I can give you some insight into how I could help you move forward. Also, too, I've got independent study workshops and courses. That just means you can do them on your own, on your own time, and I have those. If you're that type of person that likes to work on your own time, I've got that for you too. Again, no matter what stage you're in, and if you're starting a podcast, I've got all that down below. Make sure you check it out. I would be honored to work with you. So that's it. Y'all have a great day Until next time. Bye now.

Speaker 2: 35:51

Now this episode may be over, but our relationship does not have to end here. Head on over to KimberlyBrockcom and, yes, you can get more valuable information for your journey and you know what. You don't need to go through this alone. I would love to help you. Thank you so much and have a great day. Bye.