Monica Froese [00:00:01]:
Welcome to the Empowered Business Podcast, where strategy meets action. I’m Monica Froze and I’m here to help you create, sell and scale digital products the smart way, using AI and proven strategies to build a sustainable, profitable business. If you’re ready to turn your expertise into digital products that sell and eventually grow into a thriving digital shop, you’re in the right place. Each week, I break down real world tactics, unfiltered insights, and bold business moves. Because building a digital product business should be sustainable, scalable, and designed for long term success. Let’s ditch the fluff. Leverage AI to work smarter and turn your expertise into a thriving digital empire on your terms. Let’s get started.
Monica Froese [00:00:47]:
Today, I’m joined by Andee Hart, an entrepreneur, sales strategist, mentor, and host of the she Sells Differently podcast. While climbing the corporate ladder as a sales executive for a Fortune 500 company, Andee followed a spark of creativity into candle making at her kitchen table. That small side hustle went from a handful of local boutiques to a thriving wholesale business and storefront. What made Andee’s journey so powerful is not just her tenacity and business savvy, but her countercultural approach to sales and social media. She’s on a mission to help women ditch the sales anxiety, sell with integrity, and build businesses that thrive in even the most competitive and saturated markets. So in this episode, we dive into how Andee’s unconventional strategies have fueled her growth, what it really takes to stand out in sales today, and how you can apply these lessons in your business. So let’s dive in to today’s episode and learn from Andee. Andee, welcome to the Empowered Business Podcast.
Monica Froese [00:01:48]:
I’m super excited to talk to you today.
Andee Hart [00:01:51]:
Thanks so much for having me, Monica. It’s a blessing to be here.
Monica Froese [00:01:53]:
Yeah. So this is going to be an interesting conversation because you do physical products where I do digital products. So I feel like I was telling you before we started recording, I feel like there’s a lot of synergy there and I think that people get a lot of value out of the conversation. And before we kick off, I always like to ask everyone to share a little bit about themselves and particularly your entrepreneurial journey and how you got to what you’re doing today.
Andee Hart [00:02:17]:
Yes, thanks for asking. And I think it’s so interesting because I focus on selling and sales strategy, and I got my start as an entrepreneur with selling physical products. I started a candle company in my kitchen during the pandemic because we’re all, you know, quarantining at home and I just needed something to keep me busy. After I got done with work, I jokingly called it my after work therapy. So started giving my candles away to friends and family. And of course my sales mind started churning and I was like, I should start selling these. And so I did. And then, you know, one thing leads to another.
Andee Hart [00:02:56]:
We never, us entrepreneurs, we never dream small. Right. And so I thought, you know, I’m gonna start wholesaling these to boutiques. And I had a dream, I think this was 2021, to have my candles in four retail boutiques by the end of the year. This was June of that year, and by August I was in 120. And I think a lot of people are like, that’s amazing. How cool is that? Yes. But also it was overwhelming.
Andee Hart [00:03:29]:
And I do not recommend that kind of growth to anyone, especially when you still have a corporate job. So I learned a lot of lessons through failure in the midst of all of that. But fast forward a year later, I was actually quitting my corporate job. I had been in executive sales and leadership for two huge Fortune 500 companies throughout my career. And I left it all to pursue my candle company. And now I coach product makers as well, how to do the same thing that I did in growing my company.
Monica Froese [00:04:02]:
So, so you got into 120 boutiques while still working a full time corporate job.
Andee Hart [00:04:08]:
Yes, yes. That is the power of consistency, I will tell you.
Monica Froese [00:04:14]:
That is. Wow. Okay, so you, did you ever have a dream to leave corporate or was this just like an accident? Like if the pandemic had never happened, would you still be in corporate?
Andee Hart [00:04:27]:
You know, that’s tough. I, I do believe that I’ve always had that entrepreneurial dream in my, like, just deep down, you know, But I mean, everyone in my family is an entrepreneur. And I actually, in college, I graduated with the dream to start a dance studio, of all things. I had a business plan, everything. I just fell into a sale, a technology sales job. And that was, you know, that just, I started down that track and ended up loving sales. So that dream never left me. But that being said, I ended up loving what I was doing.
Andee Hart [00:05:04]:
I genuinely loved, you know, being in sales. I love my customers. I had worked my way up the corporate ladder, but I was also just tired of corporate, you know, the politics.
Monica Froese [00:05:18]:
Yeah.
Andee Hart [00:05:19]:
And so I, I don’t think that I set out, you know, when I started making those candles, I did not set out with a dream of, I’m going to grow this to something that I will leave corporate with. It was not until, you know, I started really getting into all of Those candle or the retailers. Right. And started realizing I’m hiring other people to work in my business and I’m going back to my corporate job every day. What would this look like and how much more could I scale it if I was devoting my 40 plus hours a week to my product business?
Monica Froese [00:05:58]:
What was the scariest thing for you about leaving corporate?
Andee Hart [00:06:01]:
Definitely just the steady paycheck, I would say. Having that.
Monica Froese [00:06:07]:
And how about benefits? I. I don’t know if you’ll get that. Like when I was married, it was great.
Andee Hart [00:06:13]:
Yes.
Monica Froese [00:06:13]:
Having. Because I, I always felt like the perfect mix was I was a high achieving entrepreneur and then my ex was a high achieving corporate. He was, he’s also still in tech. So the benefits. I had the best of both worlds. It was like we had un limited earning potential on my side and the great corporate benefits on his side. I miss my corporate benefits a lot.
Andee Hart [00:06:32]:
Oh yeah, the benefits for sure. Because now it’s, you know, it’s all on me. Health care, I mean everything 401k. I think for me like initially though, like if I’m just talking about like that initial fear, it was like okay, everything, you know, that steady paycheck. I think the benefits for in my mind came like next. Then I was like oh, and that too, you know. But it’s, it’s all fallen into place. You know, I think when you, when you trade the time value of money that you start putting into your own business, you’re like, wow, you know, I was hustling after someone else’s dream.
Monica Froese [00:07:16]:
Yeah.
Andee Hart [00:07:16]:
And now I’m able to put my skills to work in my own dream.
Monica Froese [00:07:19]:
Do you. Are you an escorp?
Andee Hart [00:07:21]:
Yes.
Monica Froese [00:07:22]:
So you pay yourself on payroll like I do and take distributions as it, as it allows. So what did you end? Let me ask you this. Do you have employees or do you just have contractors?
Andee Hart [00:07:33]:
I just have contractors.
Monica Froese [00:07:34]:
Okay. So these are things I, these topics I actually don’t talk about a lot on the show, but I think a lot of people are curious about it and stay solo like in like the solar Solo proprietorships. I don’t even know what they. I think that’s what it’s called.
Andee Hart [00:07:48]:
Sole proprietorships.
Monica Froese [00:07:48]:
Yeah, sole proprietor. And then don’t even move into like an LLC structure and S Corp because it intimidates them. But I always like, it’s actually not that difficult. Essentially an LLC is important because it is. You have to keep separate accounting. You know, don’t mix your personal finances. But it’s like a protection mechanism. But then after you’re making a certain amount of money, you can elect to be taxed like an S Corp.
Monica Froese [00:08:10]:
And essentially what that means is a portion of your income goes through payroll and you pay payroll taxes on it. And then the benefit of that is you don’t pay the other side of, of payroll taxes when you take your distributions. It’s actually just a great way to maximize your tax savings is what I tell people. And it’s not that complicated, but I have found, even retirement I found not to be that complicated. I have. When you don’t have employees, you can have a SEP IRA and you can put 25% of your paycheck into retirement, up to which is actually a really great benefit for an entrepreneur. So like if I pay myself 80 grand on payroll, I can put 25% of that into my SEP IRA. So that actually wasn’t too complicated.
Monica Froese [00:08:50]:
Health insurance I found to be the most complicated. I don’t know. I get asked this a lot because before people would ask me, I’d be like, I don’t know, I’m on my husband’s, you know, plan. I didn’t have to look into it. I went through the marketplace because I only have contractors now too. I used to have employees and now I just have contractors. So I, I just go through the marketplace. It wasn’t the easiest thing to figure out at first, but now I feel like I’ve gotten my groove with it and I got the, I read through, I finally figured out how to read through it.
Monica Froese [00:09:20]:
What did you do for your health insurance?
Andee Hart [00:09:23]:
So I, I thankfully my financial planner, him and his wife, they have been entrepreneurs for a long time. And he gave me guidance on how to, and gave me someone to go talk to from, you know, with health insurance. And so this was more of like a boutique when I say boutique, someone that can go search the marketplace for you and then bring you different options so they’re not just aligned to one particular, you know, insurance company. And so he guided me through all of the options. I ended up going with like a share plan, which was great for me in the sense that I’ve been blessed to not have, you know, a lot of health expenses. And so that has been a great, you know, way for me to jump from having the corporate healthcare to a lower cost healthcare saving. I still have my healthcare savings from my corporate, so that’s nice too. That rolled over, but just to have that, that share plan and it’s just, it’s been lower cost.
Andee Hart [00:10:32]:
I love it. And so that’s the way that I went.
Monica Froese [00:10:36]:
A lot of entrepreneurs I know go that way. So basically I’m telling everyone there’s two options. You can go to the. You can do the share plans or you could go to the marketplace. And even if it seems intimidating once you just give it a. I gave it a day, I sat down, I read through the plans, I got a grasp on what it was and I went with it. I actually, I do have a lot of different moving parts medically, so I didn’t go with the share plan. I needed like a traditional insurance.
Monica Froese [00:10:58]:
But luckily it’s not that complicated. And I mean, at first it can seem intimidating, but I feel like that’s a good, it’s just a good thing to put out there because you’re so new to this and yet you figured you’re two years out and you figured it all out. So for people, I have a lot of people who are still in corporate that listen to this and I know these are the things that hold them back. So I think it’s very good when we could put it out there and say, hey, like it seems scary at first, but it’s actually not that bad. It’s.
Andee Hart [00:11:25]:
Yeah.
Monica Froese [00:11:25]:
Many people before us have done it and we can figure it out.
Andee Hart [00:11:28]:
And I will say the two, the two people that really helped me even before I made the leap and I sat down with them and, you know, worked through all of my finances and got feedback from them, should I do this? You know, and they had worked with me for years too. And so they knew, you know, who I was. And one of them, my financial planner, I even went to church with. And so it was my financial planner and then my cpa. So having people like that on your team, even when you’re still in corporate, you should have those people that work with you. They gave me guidance long before I made that leap. And so when I was ready, even though I had those fears, they were able to give me, this is worst case scenario, reassurance.
Monica Froese [00:12:19]:
Yeah. I tell people all the time, if you’re going to be an entrepreneur, you absolutely need a cpa. My cpa, and I am very well versed. Like I read IRS code like I’m that kind of well versed. And yet I don’t. I would have been a lot more messy had I not had my cpa. And I always tell people to find a CPA that’s local because there’s so many moving parts in your own county, your own state. Don’t like.
Monica Froese [00:12:41]:
I personally, I’m a big believer in doing local. So that you don’t miss any of those tax savings that you can save. You know, if I did someone who was virtual, they wouldn’t necessarily know my local laws. Like, there’s a. There’s a. A nice state law that passed a couple years ago that saved me a lot of money in federal taxes. And who would have known, you know? So I. Okay, I love.
Monica Froese [00:13:03]:
I love that. Now let’s talk about what you actually do in your business. So the first question I have is, why candles? Was it just accidentally, like, why. Why candles?
Andee Hart [00:13:15]:
Man, that’s such a good question. I’m not even really sure. I think it just, like, came to me one night. I was like, I’ve always loved creating. Always loved creating. I love to paint, love to just create fun, you know, arts, crafts. And one night I was like, I think I’ll just start making candles, literally. And so I ordered supplies and started testing.
Andee Hart [00:13:36]:
It’s interesting because I’ve never been very scientific and learning the process. There’s so much chemistry that goes into. People think, oh, you just melt wax and pour it. Like, no, there’s so much that goes into it. But I had so much fun learning and, you know, just creating something beautiful that brought people joy, made your home cozy, especially at a time when we’re all staying home. So.
Monica Froese [00:14:01]:
So you.
Andee Hart [00:14:01]:
Yeah, that’s just been so fun.
Monica Froese [00:14:04]:
So you started giving them to your family and friends, and then where was the first place you monetize them? You were still creating them yourself, but then where were you putting them to monetize them?
Andee Hart [00:14:14]:
Yep. So I started a. Actually before I even started a website, I believe I had them at a general store, which was like a consignment shop down the street from where I live. So I lived in North Carolina when I first started. I now live in Arkansas. But I had a. Had them at a general store, and it was, you know, Had a booth there. So.
Andee Hart [00:14:36]:
So I had a mix of, like, some art that I had done and just different things. And so my candles just started selling really well, and that really set me into. Okay, consignment’s fine, but I really want the wholesale model where I’m selling them to the retailer first and then, you know, getting my return immediately, not just sitting them on the shelf somewhere.
Monica Froese [00:15:03]:
Okay. I have a lot of questions about the wholesale model, because it is very new to me.
Andee Hart [00:15:07]:
Yeah.
Monica Froese [00:15:08]:
But what keeps. In the back of my head, I’m thinking, so do you not have any digital presence for selling these?
Andee Hart [00:15:14]:
I do. I do. I started a website, so I have a Shopify site now. Okay. Yes. So I started a website after that. Then when I started wholesaling, I got on Fair. So if you have any retailers or product makers that are listening and they have, they know or have done any kind of wholesale buying, they will be familiar with Fair.
Andee Hart [00:15:37]:
And so during the pandemic, when your big trade shows like Atlanta and Dallas, no one could go to those in person, FAIR really became popular because it’s where all of your retailers are doing their sourcing and they’re buying for their shops.
Monica Froese [00:15:53]:
Okay. Like, my brain is just trying.
Andee Hart [00:15:58]:
I know, right? I know.
Monica Froese [00:15:59]:
These candles in your kitchen. Who makes them now?
Andee Hart [00:16:03]:
So I ended up moving it out of my kitchen into its own candle studio. And I hired, you know, when I talked about, you know, going to 120 boutiques, very short time, I ended up hiring an operations manager. So she did all of that and all of the fulfillment. She made all the candles, all of the fulfillment. I have since moved, so I’ve kind of brought it back in house. And my sweet retired parents now are my product makers.
Monica Froese [00:16:33]:
So I, I, I had this vision, I guess, that I thought you had outsourced the making of the product.
Andee Hart [00:16:41]:
Still. I still do all that in, in house. Yeah. I don’t want to outsource the making.
Monica Froese [00:16:46]:
Okay, so talk to me about, like, the quantities we’re doing at this point.
Andee Hart [00:16:50]:
Yeah. Um, so I probably at this point, could have scaled well past where I am, but when I left corporate America, there’s one thing I really knew that I wanted to do. I did not just want to focus on selling candles. I wanted to use my sales skills to help other product makers. And so my time is probably, you know, 60, 70% focused on coaching other product makers. And then the rest of my time is on the candle business. And so I really have other people that are helping me, you know, create, make the candles, fulfill the candles. But then I’m spending a lot of my time coaching other.
Andee Hart [00:17:40]:
A lot of them are candle makers, obviously, but I have other product makers, jewelry makers, our artists, you know, different product makers that are saying, I want to scale my business, but I don’t even know where to start. They might have a Shopify site, they might be on Etsy, but they’re, they’re saying, I want to scale, but I’m, I don’t even know how to get into wholesale. That’s where I come in.
Monica Froese [00:18:04]:
Okay. So it’s the equivalent of. So I, My first brand was Redefining mom. And we have a lot of products I sell under there But I am a natural born teacher. I’m good at breaking down concepts and so I do a lot of coaching and courses and workshops and stuff. And so it’s very similar. And I, and the big part of keeping, and I’m, I’m wondering if you relate to this. Do you keep the I, I, I gather you like the creative side, but you also, it keeps you relevant.
Monica Froese [00:18:34]:
Right. Because if you’re still doing it, then you’re up on what’s happening. And so many times coaches, and that was a big thing for me too. I still like, I teach digital product sales funnels, for example. I have dozens of those that run on both sides of the business. Because if I’m not doing it myself, these coaches that go into coaching and then they’re not doing it anymore, I find that they get, especially in this fast paced world with AI coming out, you get disconnected real quick from your, what you’re actually teaching.
Andee Hart [00:19:01]:
Right. And I want to be inside the wholesale world where I am in my own fair shop, you know, and understanding what fair is coming out with, what the product trends are for this holiday season, all of those things so that I can be, to your point, more relevant for my clients and my students and they see my business flourishing. So yeah, it gives you credibility. Yeah.
Monica Froese [00:19:28]:
Okay. Absolutely. So before moving I want to talk about what you coach on and some of the like the sales strategies that you use and that you coach on. But I want to kind of wrap up a little bit on the whole what you do with the candles. I have a few more questions there. So at this point, how, like what do I want to say distribution wise, I guess how much is coming from your Shopify store versus you being in boutiques? And how many boutiques are you in now?
Andee Hart [00:19:57]:
Oh, I would say close to 400 boutiques now. Now I will tell you the amount that those orders, some of them reorder every 30 to 60 days and then some may order once a year. They just order the holiday candles. So you know, they are kind of all over the place as far as how much they order. And so quite a few boutiques, I would say 80. And this has changed in the last year since I moved. I had a, you know, retail storefront, um, and candle studio where all of my manufacturing was done. I moved to Arkansas to be closer to family.
Andee Hart [00:20:37]:
So I kind of brought all that back in house. And I have a pretty large garage so I insulated that made it climate controlled. And that’s my candle studio now. And I would say 80% of my business is wholesale. So I do have the shopify store site out there and have a lot of people that will purchase direct to consumer. But when I started wholesaling, I stopped really focusing on growing the direct to consumer side because I didn’t have the capacity.
Monica Froese [00:21:10]:
Okay, but, yeah, but explain like the difference. What is the difference in how you run the business if you’re doing direct to consumer versus wholesaling. And if I’m understanding you correctly, one of the benefits of wholesale is they’re paying you up front, up bulk order up front. It’s not if they sell it or not, it’s on them. Once they get the inventory, you’re off the hook. You’ve already made your money. So like, what are the, I guess what are the pros and cons versus direct consumer and, and wholesaler?
Andee Hart [00:21:38]:
This is a great question. So. And it’s something that a lot of product makers or like a lot of people don’t understand because they think, okay, well, when I start wholesaling, my margins get cut significantly. Because general rule of thumb, when you wholesale a candle to a retailer, you are selling it for 50% and then your retailer marks it up to MSRP or manufactured suggested retail price. And so they are able to then make a profit margin off of selling that. And so when you are selling wholesale instead of selling it direct to consumer, you’re making about 50% less profit margin. But when you wholesale, what you have is the benefit of economies of scale. Meaning that when someone signs up to purchase, a retailer signs up to purchase wholesale with me.
Andee Hart [00:22:35]:
Not only are they tax exempt, because purchasing wholesale, I require them to file a tax exempt certificate with me, so I don’t charge them sales tax. They also have a minimum order quantity, so they can’t just purchase one candle. They have to purchase at least $150 worth of candles. They also have to purchase in case packs. So if they want to purchase one of my Carolina Christmas candles, they can’t do that. They have to purchase a case pack of four. So that’s the economies of scale. So you’re moving a lot more product, but your margins are lower.
Andee Hart [00:23:18]:
But you can also source your supplies in bulk. So I buy all of my cost of goods and my supplies to make my candles in bulk and that drives my cost down as well.
Monica Froese [00:23:30]:
And you can do that because you can forecast out essentially what you’re expecting.
Andee Hart [00:23:34]:
Absolutely.
Monica Froese [00:23:34]:
In your wholesale order. So in essence, what is when you sell direct to consumer, are you selling at your msrp like what you tell.
Andee Hart [00:23:42]:
Your wholesalers and Yes, I sell the same msrp. And that’s just good standard ethical practice. Unless you’re running a sale, which is fine, but that’s just standard ethical practice. Any wholesaler, wholesale brand should do that.
Monica Froese [00:23:56]:
Roughly what is your profit margin on a direct to consumer candle versus a candle that you’re selling to a wholesaler?
Andee Hart [00:24:04]:
Yeah, so I’ll actually show you one of my, I don’t have the lid on this one, but this is, I sell two different sizes of candles. So this is like a four ounce travel candle. It costs me about 1.82 to make this candle. I wholesale it for 7.50. Now keep in mind they have to buy a pack of four.
Monica Froese [00:24:23]:
Okay, so that’s, so that’s 750 times four.
Andee Hart [00:24:26]:
Yep. And then they will, my retailers will sell this for 15.
Monica Froese [00:24:32]:
Okay.
Andee Hart [00:24:32]:
And I will sell it on my, I sell it on my website for 15.
Monica Froese [00:24:37]:
So it’s more one off. Right?
Andee Hart [00:24:39]:
It’s one off usually.
Monica Froese [00:24:41]:
Okay. So.
Andee Hart [00:24:42]:
And then the same principles from a sales perspective that you would use to sell digital products also apply on the physical products, on increasing your average order value. You know, I, I will do things, you know, to help increase average order.
Monica Froese [00:24:59]:
Value on order bumps, upsells, product suggestions, add ons. Okay, so the marketing for direct to consumer is going to cost you more than wholesaling. Right. And that’s, I feel like that’s my, my analytical brain is going, okay, so I understand the economies of scale and why you’d want to sell in bulk and why it makes sense when you’re selling in bulk that you can, you know, sell at 50% off. But then I’m like, you’re, it’s kind of like you’re not responsible for the foot traffic. Then you have made money, the candles are off. It’s up to that boutique now to actually get the foot traffic to sell it. When you’re selling on your Shopify store direct to consumer, you, you have to get people to go to the Shopify store.
Monica Froese [00:25:42]:
Exactly. Okay, so for, since you do have the Shopify store, what kind of marketing efforts do you put in to get people there?
Andee Hart [00:25:50]:
Yeah, so that’s where as I was talking about earlier, I have not put a lot of, personally, I have not put a lot of marketing efforts. I could have grown the direct to consumer a lot more than I have. I, you know, I do a lot, some SEO on there just to drive organic traffic. But paid ads would be an easy, you know, low lip. Now that obviously is, you know, has a upfront cost to it but paid ads you can also do obviously during the holiday season, because that’s candle season as well. I will do my. Probably my biggest thing that I do organically is my email list. Right.
Andee Hart [00:26:30]:
And so I don’t even do a whole lot on social media with my candle company anymore. I, I just really drive my email list and that drives a lot of traffic. And I think a lot of that is because I have buil built up a brand following. And so at first, you know, it was a lot of social media and it was, you know, Instagram and Facebook. Now they make it easy where you can just tag your product and someone can shop right there. And so that is something easy that you can do to drive people direct to consumer traffic to, to shop and easy low lift strategies.
Monica Froese [00:27:13]:
Do you find that having the direct to consumer store gives you the credibility to the wholesalers? Is that part of the strategy?
Andee Hart [00:27:20]:
You actually have to have that to sell wholesale on fair you have to have a, a website. And also I have my Shopify site set up where retailers can create a wholesale portal and buy wholesale directly from me on my Shopify site.
Monica Froese [00:27:44]:
Oh, so it’s all done your back end then. It’s very streamlined whether it’s a direct to consumer order or it’s a wholesale order. Exactly. So it streamlines your operations.
Andee Hart [00:27:53]:
Exactly.
Monica Froese [00:27:54]:
Oh, that’s so smart. I didn’t even know Shopify could do that.
Andee Hart [00:27:58]:
And Shopify has an app for everything, right?
Monica Froese [00:28:00]:
They really do. They really do. Uh, okay. On the Shopify side of things, do you have any? Just because I do talk about Shopify quite a bit for digital product sellers, do you have any favorite apps, especially when it comes to like increasing average order value that you use?
Andee Hart [00:28:16]:
Yeah, so. Well, I love the, for the wholesale, I use the B2B wholesale hub. So that’s a big one. Um, and then I’ve just created a. This is just an automation flow. I, from an app perspective, I use like some SEO apps and things like that. And now I’m cannot, I cannot remember the name of the app that I use for reviews, but there’s a good app that I use there. But I’ve created a whole backend automation for myself that I share with my students that when someone hits my website, my Shopify website, and they sign up to be a retailer that they will have, I’ve created a database that I will give my students and they will submit a form to be a retailer and then they have to submit their tax id, their, you know, tax form.
Andee Hart [00:29:12]:
And this airtable database saves all that information. But then Shopify automatically creates a wholesale backend account with for them in the B2B wholesale hub and sends and it connects to my email list, my email CRM and sends them a welcome email nurture sequence. So little things like that I have found that have been even more valuable that integrate everything together so that I’m not having to stop what I’m doing, go create an account, you know, things.
Monica Froese [00:29:47]:
Do you keep separate email lists for the direct to consumer and the wholesalers?
Andee Hart [00:29:52]:
You do 100%.
Monica Froese [00:29:53]:
Okay, what, what CRM do you use for that?
Andee Hart [00:29:56]:
I actually use flodesk. There are better ones for e commerce.
Monica Froese [00:30:00]:
Do you use flodesk for both wholesalers and your direct consumer?
Andee Hart [00:30:05]:
Yes.
Monica Froese [00:30:05]:
How. Okay, so you did mention like that part of getting sales direct to consumer is really based at this point on your email list. But how do you grow your email list?
Andee Hart [00:30:15]:
Yeah, so one of the big ways that I did that when I had a storefront, I would get hundreds of emails just by having, you know, a, a list at my checkout. My point of sale before that I did a lot of social media. I did optimize my Google business page, things like that. I would put out some freebies, I would run a con. I ran a contest easy, different sales and marketing strategies that get people same concepts that you would do in the digital. Selling digital products that you can relate to selling physical products that will be like lead generation where people have to give their contact information to grow your email list. And so those are some easy, easy, low lift ways. I found a contest was a great way people get excited about winning candles.
Andee Hart [00:31:12]:
I sent some products to some influencers and they did a giveaway. And so that was a fun way. And so just getting creative, thinking outside the box on getting your brand out there.
Monica Froese [00:31:24]:
Are you in any big box retailers that like everyone would know or.
Andee Hart [00:31:28]:
It’s just the boutique I chose, I intentionally chose not to go the big box route. I stay in indie stores or independent stores because big box stores will set your terms and conditions for you. I like to set my terms and conditions. So there’s a lot of challenge good things, but a lot of challenges that come with being in your big box stores like anthropology or you know, fill in the blank. And so I love working with the independent boutiques and enabling them to sell my products, you know, partnering with them. That is so fun to me. So I will probably always stay, stay in that space.
Monica Froese [00:32:13]:
I love this. This is nothing I knew before. I mean like I could have made some, I could have Figured it out, I would assume, if I thought about it. But like, this all makes sense. Like why you’ve chosen to stay with Indie, why you have the direct to consumer, the pricing. What is your value? Like your, your unique value proposition for your candles. Like, why would someone want to buy your candles to sell in their boutiques?
Andee Hart [00:32:39]:
Monica, I love this question because I am like, if I had a dollar every time someone in the candle making world was like this, I’m just gonna give up because this market is so saturated. I would be rich because it is crazy. But this is the thing. Every single one of my clients that I talk to, they all have their own individual niches within the candle making space. And here’s the reality. The candle industry is growing like crazy. I love candles and candles. A consumable product.
Andee Hart [00:33:10]:
You’re gonna probably go buy more candles this year.
Monica Froese [00:33:14]:
Right.
Andee Hart [00:33:14]:
Because you burn them and consume them. So you might look at it and say, yes, every boutique has candles. Or you can change that perspective and that mindset and say, yes, every boutique has candles. And guess what? Every boutique has multiple brands of candles. Why not mine? So what I did when I first started selling my candles and pitching my candles to boutiques, I started looking at and I would ask boutiques if they told me no, I would ask them why in a very polite way. But I got the like gold feedback from that. And what I found is that for me, what the boutiques that I was pitching to, they wanted giftable products. Products that their customers could just come in and grab off the shelf.
Andee Hart [00:34:04]:
And those were the type of stores that I was pitching to. Now that doesn’t mean that’s the same for the next candle maker or whatnot. But what I realized is that my candles. So I sell these, these tins and then I sell a reusable bread bowl candle. And it didn’t look very giftable. And so what I did is I just upgraded it and did a brightly colored ribbon with a gift tag on it. So it probably cost me an extra 30, 40 cents, but I was able to charge more. And my candles started selling like crazy because they were beautiful and they were giftable.
Monica Froese [00:34:45]:
I think I have here. I use it for decoration.
Andee Hart [00:34:50]:
Yes.
Monica Froese [00:34:51]:
In my office, I was like, I think I have. Yeah.
Andee Hart [00:34:55]:
And who doesn’t love receiving that?
Monica Froese [00:34:57]:
I actually gifted my, my right hand girl in the business. And it came with the ribbon and the tag.
Andee Hart [00:35:05]:
Yeah.
Monica Froese [00:35:06]:
Could have even been yours, you know, so that’s. That makes. Okay, so it’s. So when you coach, I’m guessing a big Part of your coaching is teaching people how to differentiate a commodity. Essentially.
Andee Hart [00:35:19]:
Yes. Your unique selling proposition, or your USP.
Monica Froese [00:35:23]:
Is what we call it because that’s. It’s very similar. So one of the things I get all the time is. So my very first Digital product in 2016 was a family budget spreadsheet. Still sell today. It’s made hundreds of thousands of dollars, and yet you can Google budget template budget spreadsheet and download hundreds of them for free. So people would always come to me with the objection, like, why would someone buy mine if I can download it for free? I was like, because you’re not buying. When you go download a random budget template on from a website, you have no idea if it works.
Monica Froese [00:35:52]:
You have no idea how to use it. I have a story that went with mine. We. I use mine to quit corporate to get our budget in order to pay off $65,000 in credit card debt. All this stuff. I have a unique proposition of how this budget spreadsheet transformed my life. And through that story, then people are like, that’s what I need the budget spreadsheet for. That is the problem I’m trying to solve.
Monica Froese [00:36:15]:
So I’m going to. And I have a walkthrough video like you downloaded off of. You know, if you’re not savvy with spreadsheets, you download a random one off the Internet, you’re like, great, I don’t know how to use this. And then. And it’s wild to me that so many people fear starting because they’re like, well, someone else has done it. No, someone else has done it their way. You’re going to do it your way. Like, we all have a unique perspective to add to what we’re doing.
Andee Hart [00:36:39]:
Something else you just said that I think is so important from a sales perspective. You said, I have a unique story and a reason why. And the difference was. And this is what I tell my product makers all the time. And it goes, it’s the same thing whether you’re selling digital assets or whatever you’re selling. But you did not say, I have a family budget spreadsheet. And it has. These are the features.
Andee Hart [00:37:03]:
It has, you know, a place that you can put your income, and it has a place for how much you’re spending on groceries and how much and it’s going to have these outputs on it. No, what you did in selling that is you told how it transformed your life.
Monica Froese [00:37:19]:
Yep.
Andee Hart [00:37:19]:
And people are able to connect with the emotions of that. And that’s the important part of selling. Whether you’re Selling a digital spreadsheet, whether you’re selling a candle. I had someone that, you know, we were talking about their product description, and he was saying, it’s soy wax, you know, no toxic chemicals, cotton wick, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, no, no, no, no, no. Why did you create this? And we get down to writing a story about. He created this specific scent, the specific candle, because it was his mother’s favorite flower and it reminds him of his mother. And we wrote that into the product description, and it changed everything.
Monica Froese [00:38:08]:
One of the types of candles that. So I’m huge on burning candles. They’re all over my house, and my kids love them, although I have to be a little cautious because they don’t know how to blow them out. But one of the things that my. My oldest daughter got on a kick for was a candle company that makes Disney sense. So we’re a big Disney family. We’ve stayed at all the different resorts, and her favorite one is the Polynesian. So we.
Monica Froese [00:38:31]:
I order. I could. I want to order these candles in bulk. My house smells in the summer like the Polynesian does at Disney World. And I’m like. And that is so. I mean, if they had just marketed it as, like, they could have named it. The fact that they marketed it as the scent at the Polynesian Resort in Disney, it completely changed it.
Monica Froese [00:38:52]:
And they could have named it anything. They could have named it any sort of scent. But connecting it to that. That core. A lot of us have core memories for Disney World. Like, I do. My kids do. I’m not.
Monica Froese [00:39:02]:
We know how many Disney groups are out there, so they connected their product to those core memories for us. And I. It. We. We. We could probably keep them in business with how many we buy.
Andee Hart [00:39:12]:
It’s a nostalgia. It’s nostalgia. I have another client that she makes just candles that are, like, military branded because her husband’s in the military. And so they’re all geared, you know, and targeted for military branded, you know, it’s beautiful.
Monica Froese [00:39:29]:
Yeah. Like, I’m a big Buffalo Bills fan. Everyone in my audience knows this, and I will buy anything. You could slap, like, our. One of our slogans on a candle, and I won’t even care what the scent is. It’s all. I will put it in my living room because it goes with my Buffalo Bills decor, you know, so, like, that’s. I.
Monica Froese [00:39:49]:
I do that stuff all the time. Same. It’s kind. I can kind of relate it to, like, ornaments, too. Ornaments are big with, like. With that. Okay. So one of the things I want to cover.
Monica Froese [00:39:58]:
Because we’re almost out of time here, and I really want to cover this specific thing. What do you mean by. When you say countercultural sales strategies? What does that mean?
Andee Hart [00:40:07]:
Yeah, so I. I find this so interesting coming from a sales world. And one of the reasons why I love teaching sales is because I went through so many corporate sales trainings, and there was always just this. I. I kind of jokingly call it like the BRO sales strategies or the BRO marketing tactics, you know, and so I always talk about, you know, countercultural sales strategies, meaning that not every. As we were just kind of talking about branding, right? Not every customer is your customer. And in typical cultural sales trainings that we have in modern day, like, they’ll talk about. Overcome every objection.
Andee Hart [00:40:49]:
Overcome every objection. You know, listen, not every customer is your customer. And when you know your unique selling proposition, whether you’re selling digital products, whether you’re selling courses or coaching or physical products, then you can really hone in on knowing your customer and knowing if your product is the right fit and letting the wrong customer walk away. And I always say this because when the. You let the wrong customer walk away, what you’re doing is you’re actually saving yourself a lot of time and headache down the road. So much time and headache.
Monica Froese [00:41:29]:
And every time I’ve tried to work with someone who I knew wasn’t a good fit, they created the biggest headaches in my business. And I’m completely on board with that idea that I am not for everyone. I don’t want to be for. If you’re for everyone, you’re for no one. I actually really believe in that statement. And, like, there was a part. There was a time when I was going through a lot of personal stuff where a good friend of mine said, you’ve become very muted in your business. Like, you’re not showing up the way you used to.
Monica Froese [00:42:00]:
Because I am pretty opinionated. I’m blunt. I say it like it is, like. And people love you. Either love it or you hate it, and that’s fine. Like, I’ve. It’s kind of like, been my personality my whole life. You either love me or you hate me.
Monica Froese [00:42:11]:
It’s fine. I’ve gotten used to it the older I got. But when I was not able to show up in, like, my true form, I just became very neutral and muted. And that directly impacted my sales because that’s not why people were showing up to hear what I had to say or buy my stuff. They wanted me to have that edge and that punchiness and it. It really makes a huge difference.
Andee Hart [00:42:35]:
That makes all the difference because you are showing up authentically of who God made you to be.
Monica Froese [00:42:41]:
Right? Yeah.
Andee Hart [00:42:42]:
And there’s absolutely like if you try to show up as. And this was the mistake that I made early on in my sales career. I would see someone else being successful and we would. We would call this in, you know, bro. Sales trainings. Best practice sharing. Right. And.
Andee Hart [00:42:59]:
And so I would try to like mimic what they were doing. But the reality is, is that that didn’t work for my personality. And what made me really good at sales was different than the next person because I knew how to connect in a different way. Because my personality is different. Right.
Monica Froese [00:43:19]:
Yeah. My, my ex, like I said, is still in tech and he’s a super networker in my opinion. I’ve always credited him with. He’s really great at building his network and the way he connects to people is. He’s a huge. His dad was in the NHL, so he’s a huge sports fan. He can. With whether female or male.
Monica Froese [00:43:37]:
He knows how to. In a conversation who. Cause he knows so much about every type of sport and he’s such like a fact factoids. He knows how to build a connection just based on that. Like he finds their favorite team or something about like maybe their kids are in soccer and he latches onto it and that is how he forms connections even in the business world. It has nothing to do with what he’s talking about in the business world. But that is how he gets people to like know like and trust him essentially. Yeah.
Andee Hart [00:44:04]:
Yeah.
Monica Froese [00:44:05]:
And it’s all about connection. Even when you’re selling something like a candle.
Andee Hart [00:44:08]:
Even when you’re doing that on like selling online.
Monica Froese [00:44:11]:
Yeah.
Andee Hart [00:44:11]:
You know, that’s. It’s. It’s the same thing. It’s. It’s harder, but it’s. Yeah, it’s the same.
Monica Froese [00:44:17]:
I love it. Yeah. This has been a super fun conversation. I feel like a lot of people are going to be like, I. I find. I’ve told you, I find the wholesale model very interesting. I just, I always was intimidated by it and now I feel like, okay, this is not nearly as intimidating as I thought it was. So if people are listening to this and they’re like, hey, I kind of.
Monica Froese [00:44:35]:
I’m interested in getting my products in wholesaling and they want to work with you. How can they find you?
Andee Hart [00:44:41]:
Yes. So the best way is my website. It is andyheart.com I blame my parents for giving me kind of a weird name. It’s spelled a N-E-E H a R-T.com and I am going to have for any product makers out there that are looking to get into wholesaling, I’m going to have an upcoming challenge that I’m about to announce shortly called Five Retailers in five Days and that will be a great way just to get your foot in the door on if you want to wholesale and what wholesaling looks like. So that will be a great place and you can find that at my website.
Monica Froese [00:45:21]:
Awesome. And we’ll make sure to link to all this in the show notes, of course. Well, thank you so much for coming on and sharing all your knowledge with us.
Andee Hart [00:45:27]:
Thanks so much for having me. Monica.
Monica Froese [00:45:29]:
This is fun. That’s a wrap on today’s episode, but your next step starts right now. If you’re serious about selling digital products and want the AI powered tools, expert strategy and real human support to make it happen, then you need to check out the Empowered Business Society Inside. You’ll get AI driven trainings to create and sell digital products faster, a private community for expert feedback and real time support, exclusive access to the Monica Memo podcast and if you go pro, you’ll get monthly marketing shortcuts, live Q&As, and 20% off of the empowered shop perpetually. Because smart business owners sell smarter, they don’t work harder. And the best part? You can get started for as little as $9. The best business growth happens when AI and real humans work together. Ready to make your next move? Join us inside of the Empowered Business Society.
Monica Froese [00:46:21]:
You can check us [email protected] co board/society. See you in the next episode.
