"I Hired A French Chocolatier!" The Sweet Success of Building A Food Brand

What do you do when you’ve just given birth to your first baby, it’s the middle of Covid lockdowns and you’re struggling with mastitis and can’t feed your baby?   Well, if you’re my guest today, you invent a new product that takes the market by storm!   Today on the show, I’m joined by Elysia, founder of Meke Baby, an incredibly innovative portable breastmilk warmer.   Elysia essentially created an entirely new product category in the market. In our conversation today, she described everything from the moment of inspiration, through the design, prototyping and testing phase, her launch to market and how she’s scaled her business.   In just 18 months, she’s grown rapidly, now with a substantial team, launching new products and expanding internationally!   I know you’ll enjoy this story, so without further ado, let’s welcome Elysia to the show.   Episode’s Show Notes: https://www.catherinelangman.com/episode-246/   Links mentioned in this episode: If you’d like help to achieve your goals in 2024 I invite you to have a chat to find out how we can make that happen together.   https://productpreneurmarketing.com/lets-talk  https://mekebaby.com/ https://www.instagram.com/mekebaby.au/?hl=en https://www.facebook.com/mekebaby.au/     Other Ways To Enjoy This Episode: Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/scale-my-ecommerce-store/id1496911739 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3NLRaZh2ReX0Iy7met8HK6 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@scalemyecomstore

Recently I was chatting with one of my past Mastery clients who I now count as a good friend and she was telling me about one of her stockists, an ecommerce retail store in a very specific niche.   This online store had been given some bad advice about scaling her business, particularly about Facebook ads.    It was such damaging advice and nearly sent the poor woman bankrupt!    The conversation got me to thinking a lot about two things:   1. What are we all optimising for in our business? Growth? Profitability? Time? These are opposing forces and you can't maximise them all at the same time. And 2. A lot of business owners just don’t figure out a way to pay themselves. Sometimes this is a lack of knowledge around managing cash flow and generating profit. Sometimes it’s a conscious decision to delay the payday to some potential future date when a big vision is realised and, perhaps, the business sold, and to keep reinvesting every possible dollar in the business towards that end goal.    Building a business with predictable, profitable growth can feel obvious in theory... but is often overwhelming in execution.   Getting caught up in that ‘growth at all costs’ mentality often results in an entrepreneur constantly chasing shiny objects. Jumping from one expert or program making big promises to another, without actually taking the time to learn the fundamentals of business.   Or without realising that the fastest way to growing a successful business is a lot like getting fit – it takes dedicated practice and repetition with constant improvements over time.     What is actually required in business is a simple daily framework for planning and executing profitable growth, that you practise every day.     Episode’s Show Notes: https://www.catherinelangman.com/episode-245/   Links mentioned in this episode: If you’d like help to achieve your goals in 2024 I invite you to have a chat to find out how we can make that happen together.   https://www.catherinelangman.com/getmoresales https://productpreneurmarketing.com/lets-talk      Other Ways To Enjoy This Episode:   Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Youtube  

When you first launch a business, everything feels new and shiny and exciting. But also slightly terrifying and overwhelming because you don’t know anything about growing a business yet.    But when you learn the right skills to drive growth, and you start to see the results of your efforts and feel more in control of the outcome, that’s when confidence comes.   I love sharing these stories of growth and transformation, and today I have an impressive one to share with you!    Shayna Stalker is the founder of The Waste-Free Home, a New Zealand based eCommerce store selling really beautiful, high quality, eco-friendly products for the home.   In the last 6 months, Shayna has grown her business by more than double, plus she’s been able to work on designing and producing an exciting new range of her own products.   On top of that rapid growth, Shayna has also mastered a bunch of new skills and has a new, much deeper understanding of what drives her business growth, which is incredibly empowering.    Tune in to hear Shayna’s story >>   Episode’s Show Notes: https://www.catherinelangman.com/episode-244/   Links mentioned in this episode: If you’d like help to achieve your goals in 2024 I invite you to have a chat to find out how we can make that happen together.   Free Growth Strategy: https://productpreneurmarketing.com/lets-talk https://thewastefreehome.co.nz/ https://www.instagram.com/thewastefreehome/ https://www.facebook.com/thewastefreehome/   Subscribe & Review in iTunes Are you subscribed to my podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to do that today. I don’t want you to miss an episode. I’m adding a bunch of bonus episodes to the mix and if you’re not subscribed there’s a good chance you’ll miss out on those. Click here to subscribe in iTunes!   Now if you’re feeling extra loving, I would be really grateful if you left me a review over on iTunes, too. Those reviews help other people find my podcast and they’re also fun for me to go in and read. Just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and let me know what your favourite part of the podcast is. Thank you!   Other Ways To Enjoy This Episode: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Youtube  

There are a tonne of things you can do to help grow your customer base in your eCommerce business.    Strategies that increase credibility and trust, like social proof, media coverage, awards or being stocked in well-known retail stores. Or risk-reversal strategies like money back guarantees, free shipping and the like.   But, what about running a giveaway or a competition?    This strategy actually fulfils a couple of purposes: it helps you to grow your audiences of potential customers, AND it can help increase the number of customers who try your product and ultimately buy from you.   So in this episode, I’m going to share a few different ways to approach this strategy so that you can maximise the positive impact on selling more product and growing your business.   Episode’s Show Notes: https://www.catherinelangman.com/episode-243/   Links mentioned in this episode: If you’d like help to achieve your goals in 2024 I invite you to have a chat to find out how we can make that happen together.   Free Growth Strategy: https://productpreneurmarketing.com/lets-talk   https://www.catherinelangman.com/launch/

What if I told you that you’re just one email away from boosting your revenue by thousands! The moment you shift your focus towards growing and nurturing your email list instead of chasing social media followers, or that fleeting dopamine hit you get when a piece of social media content gets a flurry of likes, is the moment when your business will truly take off.   I know, I know – I sound like a broken record, but your email list is really THAT important! You might feel like it takes too long, you've tried everything, or you would rather focus on your social media. Well if that rings true to you, I'm here today to challenge that mindset and help you recognize the incredible value of email marketing.   In this episode, I share all the reasons why your email list should take centre stage over your social media followers. While social media is great for organic marketing, having a large following doesn't always translate into revenue. Whereas, your email list is your direct line to your audience of buyers where you get to make a bigger impact on the market all while scaling your unstoppable eCommerce business! Honestly – what more could you ask for?!   Episode’s Show Notes: https://www.catherinelangman.com/episode-242/   Links mentioned in this episode: If you’d like help to achieve your goals in 2024 I invite you to have a chat to find out how we can make that happen together. Free Growth Strategy: https://productpreneurmarketing.com/lets-talk   Other Ways To Enjoy This Episode: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Youtube  

I’m sure we can all agree that building a business is hard work. As my Gran used to say, if it was easy, everyone would do it.    But, when things get hard, or when we try things that don’t work out how we want them to, it IS hard to persist towards achieving your big goals and vision.    My guest on the show today is Lisa Munro, founder of Happy Tummies. Lisa’s business started with the goal of making life easy for families with kids that have allergies. In that endeavour, she’s tried many different strategies to grow so that she can help more and more kids with allergies, but a lot of the time things don’t work out or are just a plain hard slog with little reward.   But Lisa remains the most persistent, determined and motivated entrepreneur I know. And testament to her approach is the success she has achieved.   Now, Lisa owns a warehouse with a commercial kitchen, has a team working for her – including a French chocolatier, has developed her own brand range of allergy-free foods that now make up 25% of her turnover, and she keeps growing at a fast clip year on year!    Tune in to hear Lisa’s story! Episode’s Show Notes: https://www.catherinelangman.com/episode-241/   Links mentioned in this episode: If you’d like help to achieve your goals in 2024 I invite you to have a chat to find out how we can make that happen together.   Free Growth Strategy: https://productpreneurmarketing.com/lets-talk Website: https://happytummies.com.au/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happytummiesptyltd/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/happytummiesptyltd/ Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@happytummiesptyltd     Other Ways To Enjoy This Episode: Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Youtube    

The other day, I read the report a business buddy received from their ad agency. It said “this traffic ad isn’t converting but the traffic is good because it’s feeding your retargeting campaign.” Only, there was no retargeting campaign!! And frustratingly, my friend just had no idea, because she hadn’t taken it upon herself to learn anything about how those ads should work. This scenario happens all too often, and is precisely why I am such a huge advocate for education.  Even more frustrating, is the fact that what’s working with ads now is not what worked even 6 months ago, and keeps changing rapidly.  So today on the show, I’m going to share ONE Meta ad strategy that ALL eCom businesses should be utilising right now, no matter if they are a start-up or a 20-year-old multi-million-dollar brand.   Links mentioned in this episode: If you’d like help to achieve your goals in 2024 I invite you to have a chat to find out how we can make that happen together. Workshop: https://www.catherinelangman.com/workshop Free Growth Strategy: https://productpreneurmarketing.com/lets-talk

There’s an old saying that necessity is the mother of all invention, and in my experience, some of the coolest, most innovative products have been invented to solve specific problems and needs.    I love the process of innovation, where you try and create a new solution that doesn’t exist yet. The creative thinking, problem solving, and brainstorming different solutions is super fun.    But it’s a whole next level when it comes to making that thing a commercially viable product that you can profitably launch to market.    Being able to manufacture something at a price point that customers will pay. The logistics of being able to ship your products and fulfil orders. What standards, if any, do you need to test for and comply with.    My guest today is Regan Merka, inventor and founder of Burleigh Wagon, which is honestly one of the coolest products ever. The Burleigh Wagon is a wagon, it's a stroller, it's an esky cooler and it’s making family outings better than ever!    Regan joins me on the show to share her journey of innovation and growth, from the seed of an idea to a brand that won a deal on Shark Tank and is now available both here in Australia and in the US! It’s a wild ride – you’re gonna love it.         Links mentioned in this episode: If you’d like help to achieve your goals in 2024 I invite you to have a chat to find out how we can make that happen together. Links mentioned in this episode: If you’d like help to achieve your goals in 2024 I invite you to have a chat to find out how we can make that happen together.   Episode’s Show Notes: https://www.catherinelangman.com/episode-239/       Free Growth Strategy: https://productpreneurmarketing.com/lets-talk https://burleighwagon.com.au/products/wagon https://www.instagram.com/burleighwagon/ https://www.facebook.com/BurleighWagon/ https://www.tiktok.com/@burleighwagon  

Many eCommerce brands make almost as much money in the 4th quarter of the year – October to December – than they do the rest of the year. And by results, I mean – this is the time of year that many brands make most of their profits for the year. Why?  Two reasons: These brands have excelled at their marketing all year around, so they’ve built brand awareness, built the size of their warm audiences, and acquired new customers all year around. Consumers are preparing to spend more during Q4. So, given the market demand is there at that time of year, you need to make sure your marketing is spot on so that you can be the go-to brand for your customers to spend with! To really maximise your results in Q4, though, you need to do more than just throw up a Black Friday sale.  The fact is, you need to be marketing consistently to attract and warm up your audiences, so they’re absolutely champing at the bit to get their hands on your stuff when it goes on sale, and then monetising as many peak buying times as possible. Today on the show, we’re going to dive specifically into the Black Friday promo strategy, because this is where you stand to generate the biggest boost to your revenue and profit.     Episode’s Show Notes: https://www.catherinelangman.com/episode-238/     Links mentioned in this episode: If you’d like help to achieve your goals in 2024 I invite you to have a chat to find out how we can make that happen together.   Free Growth Strategy: https://productpreneurmarketing.com/lets-talk Email Template: catherinelangman.com/email-template  

Many of you would know and love the baby and kids brand Snuggle Hunny. It’s such a beautiful brand, aesthetically, in the quality of the products, as well as the brand’s values, which are very much about sustainability and community.   Well, today I have a real treat for you as I’m joined on the show by Julie Mathers, CEO of Snuggle Hunny!   Some of you may remember Julie as the founder of Flora and Fauna, an online retailer of all things eco. Since selling that business 2.5 years ago and then acquiring Snuggle Hunny, Julie has accomplished a LOT, from a brand and website refresh, new product development, becoming GOTs certified, expanding overseas, and so much more!   Nothing is ever smooth sailing – it’s been a wild ride for Julie over the last few years as an entrepreneur – but she very generously shares the details about all those ups and downs and what’s working to help grow the brand.   I know you’re going to love this conversation! So without further ado, let’s welcome Julie to the show.     Episode’s Show Notes: https://www.catherinelangman.com/episode-237/