Proof To Product

This week, we have Arianne Foulks from Aeolidia back on the podcast. Arianne was on episode 114 talking about abandoned cart email sequences, and she also came on for episode 288 where we talked about SMS and email marketing strategies.  Today, Arianne and I are talking about 2025 trends for e-commerce marketing. Arianne is a founder, speaker, and Shopify Partner who has focused her career on building impactful retail businesses. At Aeolidia, her design and development agency, she and her team create super-effective online shops for artists and designers. On today's episode, Arianne is sharing her thoughts on creating a great customer experience, how to best communicate with our customers, the importance of data utilization, and the rise of personalized shopping experiences. We also delve into practical tips on segmenting communication, managing marketing workload, and the benefits of live shopping events. Today’s episode is sponsored by our Unlock Buyer Secrets Interview series. To make a strong first impre

Happy New Year, friend. I hope that you were able to take a break over the holidays. I know the last month of the year is always pretty busy for all of us, whether it's personal stuff or we're getting our shops and businesses ready for the end of the year. I hope that you have plenty of time for some rest and relaxation.  We're back on the podcast with a new episode, and this week's episode is a real treat. I have Ashley Sutton from Hustle and Hope. Ashley is a Paper Camp alumni, and she's been featured in a few of our compilation episodes in the past. She was on episode 285 where we talked in person at NY NOW while she was exhibiting, and she was on episode 358 where she shared how much her business has grown since taking Paper Camp. But a stand-alone interview with her has been long overdue, and so I'm excited to share today's episode with you.  Ashley is a corporate gal turned entrepreneur. Her career began with marketing and developing the perfect shade of lipstick for Avon to creating buzzworthy toys at

The Proof to Product podcast team and I are practicing what we preach and the podcast is taking a winter break! We will be back with a new podcast episode on Tuesday, January 7, and we have some incredible things lined up for you! While we're gone, be sure to dip back into the archives. We have over 370+ incredible episodes to help you strengthen your business. Have a great two weeks and I will see you on January 7th!

If you're considering exhibiting at trade shows this upcoming sales season, you are going to love today's episode. My guest is Amy Loewenberg, who is the Director of Buyer Relations for NY NOW. Amy is a seasoned veteran in the gift, home, and lifestyle industry, and she's an advocate for independent buyers and sellers.  Amy leverages her unique experience on both sides of the aisles to drive growth, connect communities, and shape the future of retail. Amy is a partner to key industry associations. She's also an active Gift For Life board member. She brings a wealth of knowledge to every role that she undertakes because she has a deep understanding of market trends, purchasing dynamics, and she is focused on helping to guide mission-driven organizations. In today's episode, we discuss Amy's current role in buyer relations. We talk about how NY NOW is innovating the trade show experience. We discuss everything from adapting trade shows to post-pandemic buying trends to the importance of sustainability, and the

Hey, friend. I'm back with part two of my interview with Victoria Venturi from Paper Epiphanies. If you have yet to listen to part one, that was episode 371. In part one, Victoria shared about her business growth, including what it was like shifting from a business model that was 90% wholesale to a business driven by 90% retail today. Now, she's finding a middle ground between the two.  Today, we're continuing our conversation, and Victoria is sharing about the process of opening her store in the Portland International Airport.  Today's episode is brought to you by our Is Wholesale Right for You private podcast! This free 12-part audio series will help you decide whether wholesale is a good next step for your specific business. After listening to this audio series (in less than an hour), two things will be true. You'll know whether you want to pursue wholesale for your product business, and you'll have the confidence and action steps to get started with wholesale. Sign up for the private podcast today! SIGN

Today's guest is Victoria Venturi, the founder and CEO of Paper Epiphanies, the coolest card store in the world. In less than a decade, Victoria has grown Paper Epiphanies from an idea into a global brand.  Paper Epiphanies, also affectionately called PiPH, opened its flagship concept store in 2021, and they are expanding into the aviation space. They opened their 1st airport boutique in the Portland International Airport earlier this year.  Prior to launching PiPH, Victoria was a marketing and publicity executive for over 10 years where she wrote and launched successful campaigns for agencies and television networks, and big brands, including Disney, Nickelodeon, Warner Brothers, American Idol, Glee, Hilton Hotels, and more.  Victoria attended Paper Camp way back in 2014, and she was a guest on the Proof of Product podcast for episode 19 which aired in 2017. In 2017, we caught up with what she was doing in the early days of her business, but it's been a minute. She's had a lot going on, and we had a lot to

Today on the podcast, I have the pleasure of talking about sales reps with Kelly Bristol from Just Got 2 Have It. I can't believe it's taken me this long to have Kelly on the show because we have known each other for a very long time, and she has a wide range of knowledge that I'm excited for you to hear.  She is the Vice President of Business Development at Just Got 2 Have It, a B2B sales rep agency with 5 divisions serving 36 states. Kelly is an accomplished senior leader with nearly 25 years of experience in the gift and home industry. She has experience working at the National Stationery Show, Dallas Market Center, Brandwise, and Market Time, as well as Purchasing Power Plus, a hospital gift-buying group.  She's a board member for Gift for Life, the gift and home industry's longest-running volunteer-led national charitable organization. She is a founding partner of the new industry movement called Reps Are Local Too.  During this episode, we talk about the ever-evolving retail landscape, the importance of

I'm coming to you on the heels of having a cold, and I'm here to remind you to take care of yourself. A lot is going on in the United States this week.  Plus, this time of year is hectic for all of my product-based business owners. I know you are working so hard and are likely wearing yourself out. I thought now would be a good time to share simple ways to practice self-care before and during a busy season. Today’s episode is brought to you by our Proof to Product LABS coaching program. This is a coaching program specifically built for product-based business owners, with members from across industries and across the globe. We have member-only events inside of LABS, so request your invitation to join below!  REQUEST YOUR INVITATION You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/369  Quick Links: Free Wholesale Audio Series Free Resources Library Free Email Marketing for Product Makers PTP LABS Paper Camp  

Earlier this year, we conducted a state of the product industry survey. We had 925 people respond. We found that 15% of respondents are not utilizing email marketing to reach their audiences. My jaw fell to the floor! I've talked about why email marketing is so important in previous episodes. The number surprised me because email marketing has the highest ROI of all marketing channels. For every dollar that you put into email marketing, you can expect an average rate of return of $42, which is bananas.  You won't get that with social media or even sometimes paid ads. Email marketing is also one of the best ways to build trust with your customers so that they come back time and time again to order with you.  I have been shouting the importance of email marketing for years, but, today, I wanted to let our friends at Flodesk explain why email marketing is so important, what data you should be paying attention to, and overlooked opportunities when it comes to email marketing.  My guest today is Dawn Richardson. S

I feel like today's guest needs no introduction, but it would be a complete disservice to not share all of his accolades.  Today, I'm talking with Seth Godin. He's an author, entrepreneur, and most of all, a teacher.  In addition to launching one of the most popular blogs in the world, he has written 22 best-selling books, including The Dip, Linchpin, Purple Cow, Tribes, and This is Marketing, which was an instant bestseller in countries around the world.  His newest book, This is Strategy: Make Better Plans releases this week and offers readers a practical framework for what an effective strategy looks like and feels like in today's fast-moving chaotic, and diverse world. This strategy allows readers to zoom out and see the bigger picture and understand the systems that are shaping their lives at work, in business, and day-to-day challenges.  Seth contends that by recognizing and mastering these systems and prioritizing long-term thinking over instant gratification, we can make smart, purposeful choices toda

Is it harder to start a business or scale a business? This was a question that someone posed over on Threads recently, and it got my wheels turning.  In 2024, scaling is harder. It is easy to start a business these days. However, most don't have the grit to keep going long-term and scale the business.  During this episode, I dive into why it’s easier to start a business in 2024 but harder to scale a business. I touch on how different marketing is these days, the differences between finding manufacturing partners now vs in the past, changes in technology, decision fatigue, and more. Today’s episode is brought to you by our Proof to Product LABS coaching program. This is a coaching program specifically built for product-based business owners, with members from across industries and across the globe. We have member-only events inside of LABS, so request your invitation to join below!  REQUEST YOUR INVITATION You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/366  Quick Links: Free Wholesale Audio

Have you ever sold out of your inventory in a few days? Today's guest did that when they were launching their embroidery kits to the wholesale market through Faire.  Riki Inge of Rikrack had stocked up inventory. She'd prepped her Faire shop. She went live, and everything completely sold out in just a few days. While most people would see this as a good problem, it highlighted a lot of issues with Riki's packaging, her product details, and even her fulfillment workflow. And she's here today to share her story with us, how she navigated that situation and came out ahead.    Rikrack Embroidery creates kits that are not only beautiful and unique, but also fun and simple to stitch, as well as embroidery-inspired gifts that she's recently expanded into. Riki created embroidery art in college but stopped stitching while working as an in-house artist for more than 18 years. Rikrack combines the love of art making with the fun of embroidery to design kits that allow anyone to create their own special piece of art.  O

I am excited to share today's episode with you because we have a fun guest. It's Brock Johnson.  If you're not familiar with Brock, he is an Instagram expert who has coached thousands of entrepreneurs and creators on how to grow on Instagram, and he's been doing it since 2018. In 2021, his personal following blew up, thanks to his strategy of using Reels, and he has grown at a rate of approximately 1,000 followers per day since then. He now has over 700,000 followers. He consults with Meta and Instagram staff and is an international keynote speaker on all things Instagram. During the interview, we discussed the emerging platform of Threads and how he's using it for business. Fun fact: Threads is actually how Brock and I got connected. (You can follow Brock here on Threads and Proof to Product here on Threads!) He shares how to optimize your Instagram profile, how to create share-worthy content, and how to balance content creation with all of the other tasks that you have to do in your business. We also chat a

We are back with another compilation episode with our Paper Camp coaches. If you missed last week’s episode, you can check it out by going to episode 362.  In this episode, I'm taking a different approach and asking a different set of questions. These questions are directly aimed at our coaches who are wholesale buyers that run retail storefronts. Today's questions focus on tips for pitching products to buyers and building wholesale relationships between stores and brands. Last week we wrapped up the 44th round of Paper Camp, and I am so grateful to these coaches for providing so much personalized feedback to our students. Myself and our coaches were in our community group every day answering questions, sharing solutions, and connecting with our students. So many of our students have already updated their pricing and their terms and conditions. They've created catalogs. They're sending out their first wholesale pitches.  Some have completely revamped their retention strategies and how they're reaching out to

We are in the final week of our signature program, Paper Camp. In Paper Camp, we teach product-based business owners how to get their products on the shelves of their favorite stores, big and small. Paper Camp is an insanely comprehensive coaching program focusing on foundational and growth strategies for selling wholesale.  During Paper Camp, we answer hundreds of business owners' questions about product development, sales, marketing, and more. If it correlates to selling wholesale, we cover it in this program.  This week on the podcast, we thought it would be fun to ask a few of our Paper Camp coaches questions that we could share with all of you here and give you an inside look at what it's like being inside a Paper Camp and asking very personal questions about your brands.  The coaches featured in this episode are Theresa Delaney of Creative Kind, Kiwi Schloffel of Your Gal Kiwi, and Jen Palacio of Tiny Turns Paperie. Questions I asked these Paper Camp coaches: What is something you struggled with when

I love staying connected to our community while they're out exhibiting or attending trade shows throughout the year. One update that caught my eye this summer was from Biff Ulm of Nice Enough Stickers about his experience at the Las Vegas gift show. Now Biff is no stranger to the podcast. He's been sharing tips about leveraging point-of-sale systems back on episode 146, and we did a COVID check-in with him during episode 177 where he shared how things were going for his brick-and-mortar shop at the time. Biff and I had a lot to catch up on in this episode, but one thing that stood out was that his observations at the Las Vegas gift show were about product development strategy. He has much to say about it, and I'm excited for you to listen in.  For background, Biff’s stickers are now in over 300 stores with 8,000 locations, so he knows a thing or two about creating products that people want to buy. Biff also owns a wildly successful retail shop, which provides him with a unique viewpoint as both a wholesale

Is it possible to have a thriving business and not be on social media? In episode 309, Brigida Swanson from Yardia joined me to discuss what it was like for her to leave social media.  We talked a lot about choosing contentment over business growth, and this episode was a listener favorite. We decided to invite Brigida back onto the podcast to check in and see how things are going 1 year later.  Brigida Swanson is a multiracial Chamorro watercolor artist from Seattle and the one-woman show behind her company, YARDIA. She creates watercolor-driven and Pacific Northwest-inspired art, stationery, and home goods that help folks to express their intersectional identities and love the places they live. During this interview, we discussed how her business has thrived without the constant scroll. We talked about the positive impact the shift has made on her personal life and how her focused efforts on email newsletters and direct outreach for wholesale have helped her expand. This episode is brought to you by our Em

We have all heard that we need to showcase our authentic selves for our businesses, but what does that actually mean? What does that look like in our business?  This week's podcast episode features a recent portion of a coffee chat hosted by Kiwi Schloffel held inside of our private LABS program. LABS is our membership for product-based business owners where we talk about how to work smarter, not harder within our businesses, including how we show up as a leader.  In this coffee chat, Kiwi touches on a variety of topics, such as the importance of staying true to your brand's identity, how to use personal interest to inject authenticity into your business, and more.  This week's podcast episode is brought to you by Kodi Collective, who is also a sponsor of our Paper Camp program. Kodi Collective is a leading omnichannel marketing company that supports B2C and B2B brands and publications. They offer a wide range of print, procurement, and creative production solutions, including digital and offset printing, sou

We are gearing up for our next round of Paper Camp and we are so excited!  This is our wholesale intensive program, and I wanted to do something fun for this week's podcast episode to celebrate this milestone and the fact that enrollment for Paper Camp is currently open.  I asked our past Paper Camp students to answer 1 question: How have you and your business grown since participating in Paper Camp?  The responses we received were incredible. In this episode, you're gonna hear from 9 women who represent a small sampling of our community. They sell a wide range of home decor, jewelry, embroidery, stationery, and consumer gift products. They sell their products to stores big and small across the world. Some came through Paper Camp several years ago while a couple just attended our latest round, and yet each of them took advantage of everything that Paper Camp had to offer: the coaching, the community, and the coursework.  They implemented what they learned, and now they are seeing incredible results. Check out

A wholesale catalog’s purpose is to sell your products, tell your story, and build a relationship with a buyer when you can’t be there with them in person. Ultimately, the goal of your wholesale catalog is to sell your products, and it’s important to build your catalog with your retailer in mind. Today I’m going to go through five quick tips for creating an effective wholesale catalog. Today's episode is brought to you by our Paper Camp program. Paper Camp is our wholesale coaching program where we teach you everything you need to know to build strong wholesale foundations. Over the course of 4 weeks, we tackle your product line, sales tools, and marketing plan, and we even talk about how to exhibit at trade shows if that's what you want to do. We start with your product line and go into everything from how often you should be releasing new products to ensuring that your numbers are sustainable for the wholesale market and their price for profit. Then we move into sales tools you must have for selling wholesa