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Thrive By Design: Business and Marketing Strategy for Fashion, Jewelry and Creative Brands

I’m your host, Tracy Matthews, Chief Visionary Officer of Flourish & Thrive Academy. After 20+ years in the jewelry industry, I believe you deserve to make money doing what you love, without spending every waking minute doing it. I’ve built two jewelry businesses: one that totally flopped after years of stress and burnout, and then one that I built around MY desired lifestyle, which is still thriving to this day. Both were fueled by equal passion and dedication. The only difference is that I realized your business should be built around your lifestyle, not the other way around. I founded Flourish & Thrive Academy because it’s my mission to help independent jewelry designers and handmade product makers like you build a business that THRIVES in today’s market and aligns with what YOU want. Every week, I’m dedicated to demystifying the secrets of the jewelry industry and teaching you tips and strategies that are working now, so you don’t have to learn the hard way, like I did. My Desired Brand Effect Methodology has helped thousands of jewelry designers and makers build and scale businesses that create financial freedom in their lives. Building a business is a marathon, not a sprint, and you don’t have to do it alone. I’m so happy to be on this journey with you. You can subscribe to the show here and watch every episode on YouTube here. Follow us on Instagram @flourish_thrive or slide into my DMs @tracymatthewsny. Visit flourishthriveacademy.com to learn more about our mission and our high-level coaching programs for dedicated business owners, Laying The Foundation and Momentum. And if you want to learn more about The Desired Brand Effect, I wrote a whole book about it! Read the first chapter for free here. Welcome to the #ThriveTribe, m’dear. I’m always dropping new resources, masterclasses, and opportunities for independent makers, so stay tuned!
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Thrive By Design: Business and Marketing Strategy for Fashion, Jewelry and Creative Brands
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Now displaying: May, 2019
May 28, 2019

This week is Robin’s birthday!

I’m so excited to be chatting with her about the rapidly changing world of wholesale…

Robin is our go-to girl in this department… She’s our wholesale and sales expert. And in the 7 years since we started Flourish & Thrive Academy, this part of our industry has been changing nonstop…

But lucky for us, Robin is up on all of these changes…

So whether you’re about to dive into wholesale for the first time or you’re navigating the ins and outs of consignment or sell and return – we’ve got you!

These days, it can feel like the financial pressure is 100% on designers. Especially in wholesale.

It may have you wondering… Is wholesale even worth it anymore? Can you really survive and make a good living with this model?

The fact is, it's totally possible! But only if you’re staying on top of what’s working TODAY.

In this week’s podcast episode, we’re covering everything you need to know to stay relevant in wholesale.

In order to succeed in wholesale, you have to build great relationships with your buyers…

Relationations are truly at the core of any working wholesale model. You want to make things easy for the people you work with…

This can mean providing them high-quality images that make promoting your work simple.

It can mean checking in regularly or scheduling annual visits to each of your buyers.

It can even start as early as simply following and engaging with your dream stores on Instagram.

The more you build relationships and connections, the more success you’ll have with wholesale.

May 21, 2019

The amazing thing about designers is we’re each so unique…
It's so cool how you don’t have to be a certain way to succeed in this industry.


As I’ve really gotten to know my own gifts and talents, I’ve realized something…

I’m pretty much TERRIBLE at 90% of the things you need to do in business. But the other 10% I’m totally brilliant at!

And that’s okay… because I can get support in the areas where I need it. And when I stay in my zone of brilliance, I’m going to do more than anyone else could in those areas.

The same goes for you.

You’re going to have even more success when you figure out your particular brand of brilliance… and stop trying to be good at everything.

I’m talking finding that special sparkle only YOU have.
Once you figure out what that is – you can leverage it. And when you leverage it, suddenly business is going to totally change for you.

Things will get easier. Decisions will come more naturally. You’ll feel more turned on in and by your work.

But what if you don’t know what it is?!?!?!

Well, I have some good news for you. If you head over to FlourishThriveAcademy.com/brilliance you can take our Jewelry Brand Brilliance Factor Quiz. It takes literally less than a minute.

Do it now before you keep reading or before you listen to this week’s episode!

Because the content and tips we have for you today are going to be 10 times more powerful when you know your brilliance factor.

Today we’re going to be talking about how you can use that special gift to your advantage. So you can stop fighting your natural tendencies in business and learn to use them… and then get the right support built up around you!

There's this myth about the “starving artist syndrome,”… And I don't believe artists should be starving! They just need to tweak the way they think about their creativity and lean into that to build better businesses.

Creativity is the number one most important thing you have to help make you money in your business! We are so gifted as creative thinkers…

As I’ve been investigating and learning through helping others grow their businesses, I’ve discovered that there are basically 6 types of creative zones of brilliance.

The really cool thing is that this goes beyond just jewelry design…
Even if you’re a fashion or accessories designer… heck, even if you’re making dog treats – this is going to apply to you!

So be sure to hop on over to FlourishThriveAcademy.com/brilliance to take the quiz, and then listen to this week’s podcast so you can learn the best tools to take full advantage of your gifts.

May 14, 2019

When you’re running a jewelry business, sometimes you might forget why you started what you do…
Running a business takes work. Persistence. Consistency. Strategy.

But at the end of the day – most of us are actually artists! We get into this work to CREATE.

And while it's important to get those systems down that help you thrive… there’s also nothing wrong with a craving for VARIETY!

I’m so excited to be interviewing Alex Camacho of Acid Queen Jewelry because she’s got this balance down…

Alex has truly mastered the launch & release strategy. So much so that she’s releasing a one of a kind collection MONTHLY… And selling them out!

This is so cool because it means she gets to constantly be creating.

Each month she’s making one of a kind pieces. And she’s created a strong following around it!

Sure, she has her ready-to-wear line that’s always for sale. She’s got something consistent and easy when she’s in a pinch. But she’s also managed to systematize variety and creativity.

So if you worry that success in your brand means you have to sell the same boring line, you’re wrong.

In today’s episode, Alex is going to share with us how to create and sell out one time collections.

Alex has truly trained her customers to buy from her in the way she wants them to…
Granted, Alex says she works really fast. Not every designer is going to need (or want) to put out a collection monthly.

But even if this is 2 or 4 times a year, her model is really working for getting these collections to sell FAST.

Listen to the episode to get the full scoop on how Alex runs her unique business model.

 

 

May 7, 2019

Wow! I seriously can’t believe this week was episode #200 of the Thrive by Design Podcast!
I started this show because I wanted to serve the jewelry community in a bigger way.

This work means the world to me…

Back in the 90’s when I was starting out, there wasn’t anything like this!

We didn’t have free content.

Heck, I don’t even think I had an email address yet!

That’s why I’m so passionate about this work…

I love serving this community. Helping YOU reach big numbers. Helping you grow your business.

And how cool that we now have this platform to share information through!

Although I’ve watched the industry change at a crazy pace, I’ve also realized…

Many of the issues we were having back then (pre-internet), are the same ones we have now!

They come down to the fact that we’re visionaries. We’re creatives. We’re literally artists. So even when the market changes, a lot of those struggles stay the same.

So this week on the podcast we’re going back through all of the favorite episodes from the last few years. I’m going to recap some of the ones YOU, our listeners loved the most.

And I’m going to share my personal favorites as well.

So we can bring together the best of all this amazing content we have right at our fingertips.

The bottom line is – we’re in this business because we love it!
It's not all about money. It's about having a business we truly love…

But in order to be happy with our business, we also need to earn! We’re going for that consistent income. For living a truly abundant life.

And in order to get there, it takes work!

It takes systems…

We have to improve our hiring processes to really attract A-players…

We have to learn to outsource and delegate so we can focus on our art…

We have to think through our scalability…

We need CONSISTENT high-earning months…

And this applies at every level of the game.

I loved talking to Melissa Spencer of Spencer Fine Jewelry about this. She’s in our SOS program and she told me, she used to think it was just for beginners!

She already had a super successful business but SOS has helped her get those systems down. And it's helped her grow to the next level.

So this really applies to all of us – beginner or seasoned vet.

Now let’s talk about a few of those favorite episodes that are packed full of this valuable content.

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