Brooke Summer 0:00 Hello amazing business owners welcome back to another episode of Bold with Brooke the podcast and place to be to learn the marketing and business skills you need to kick ass in business. And try to think of different ways to say that that's my favorite so far.

Today we are going to talk all about one of my favorite things. I can't put it in the title because I'll be flagged as not a shocking. We're going to talk all about fuck around and find out especially in marketing. I have three examples for you of products that didn't work very well the first time around. And guess what the companies tried something new and voila, worked so well. Some of the examples might make you mad, but I'm okay with that because Facts are facts. So let's dive in and talk all about failure. fuck around and find out and figure out what works when it comes to your marketing in business.

Hello there gorgeous business owners Welcome to bold with broke the podcast for creative business owners to learn the marketing and business skills they need to get more clients and design their lives on their terms. So we can actually make a living doing what we love, am I right? I am your host Brooke summer, and an entrepreneur, educator and champion of women reminding them to embrace and step into their power. I'm bringing almost 20 years of business and marketing experience straight to you to help you get more clients and run a sustainable and successful business without burnout or overwhelmed. Let's jump into today's topic.

Hello Gorgeous business owners welcome back to another episode of bold with Brooke the podcast and place to be to learn the marketing and business skills you need to create the business, revenue, and life that you love. Total transparency, it started hailing outside, it is very loud, my dogs are very scared. So you might hear them come in, you might hear them make noises, we're just gonna move forward. Anyway, I also am recording this right after I recorded episode 100. So you can see that there is glitter, and sequins and all sorts of things in my hair. It's kind of fun. They're actually little stars. Like I don't know if I can hold this up to show you. But they're little stars and I love them. But they are everywhere. And now that my dogs are in here, they're going to track them everywhere. So that's fun. But before we jump in, I'm gonna take a little dose of my own medicine when I tell my students to ask for the reviews and testimonials that they need and want for their business. I spend so many hours on this podcast. And I love bringing you the free education and I would absolutely love it if you would leave a review. Those reviews are kind of like currency like a little thank you will merge a little Hey, we see you and we appreciate them so much, you can leave a review. And of course, at boldwithbrooke.com/itunes. Final note before we move into the contents, I noticed that so many of you have started watching on YouTube as well. I don't know if it's because of the glitter or if you just wanted to see my cool earrings, or what. But if you are listening in audio, the format is available for you. I am an audio girl too. But if you want video, you can go to boldwithbrooke.com/youtube. And it will take you directly to the YouTube channel with all of the podcast episodes, my shorts, all the little things too.

Today, we are going to talk about one of my favorite thing called fuck around and find out in marketing. I can't call it that in the title because then we'll get flagged but I have a secret for you when it comes to marketing, here's the secret. You ready? No one knows all of the secrets. We are all just trying something, finding out what works. And in the case of educators, we just share what's worked for us. And that's exactly what we're going to talk about today. The heart of marketing, and really business and life in general is just fuck around and find out. I will say that when I was writing out this podcast, I left out one of my examples because I didn't want the airfryer crowd to come after me with pitchforks. So I'll share these three examples. And we'll talk about air fryers on another day. I promise because they're coming prepare yourself.

The first example is going to piss some people off and I'm here for it because we're just going to talk facts right? Imagine you are an executive at a meat company wondering how can we get adults to eat chicken nuggets like the kids do? First up boneless wings, boneless buffalo wings now yes, technically a boneless wing is a whole piece of meat instead of ground meat. And most of you really say that you notice a big difference. Like let's just call boneless wings what they really are chicken nuggets covered in sauce. taste of home even called it the biggest marketing scam that we're all falling for. And while I don't agree that it's really a scam I mean it's breaded chicken with sauce. It is what it is. It is absolutely just dressed up chicken nuggets Buffalo Wild Wings was even sued over boneless wings, they cost less. They're more profitable for restaurants and so they offer them more often in promotions and special deals. So why call them wings instead of nuggets? If they're the same thing, right? There's a lot to be said for the implications and the cultural quote, norms when it comes to occasions where wings are plentiful, like football games, tailgating football parties, Super Bowl stuff. Can you imagine inviting your buddies over to watch the game? For nuggets in beer instead of wings in there and be like, Yo, you want to come over for some chicken nuggets and sauce, like no one is gonna say that to their adult friends. Okay, one sounds like a kid's birthday party. One sounds like an adult gathering chicken nuggets up and dressed up to look more adult. And it's working extremely well. The company's tried it, it worked. And they're running with it. And here's what's amazing. They didn't even create a new product. It's the same product dressed up differently. And people love it. So the companies are running with it. They are making so much money off of this, which is hilarious to me because again, they're just chicken nuggets with sauce.

Example number two. I say this all the time again, I'm sure I'm gonna get some hate for this episode. But here's the reality. Vegan leather. This one is really gonna piss some people off too facts or facts. Here we go. Maybe I'm dating myself here, but remember back in the day, that in cars there were essentially three types of seat materials. There were cloth seats, leather seats, and pleather seats. Okay, leather as an plea T H E R. Pleather isn't really a word that's used anymore, because there's kind of a negative connotation with it. It was cheap. It was fake. It was plastic. All of the above. It's basically synthetic leather. If you had a designer or a fashion event, where someone came out and like what looked like leather pants, and they weren't real leather, people would turn their noses up at it and be like, Oh, that's just pleather. But now it's the same thing. And we call it vegan leather. Now, if you're vegan, that's a perfect fit. It fits in with your lifestyle uses no animal products. Fabulous. But again, let's just call it what it is. Okay, it's pleather. There are even lobbyists working in the European Union, to force people to call it something else to regulate the use of the word leather to avoid consumer confusion. This is just another successful rebranding of an already existing product. vegan leather started showing up in the fashion world in about 2010 When celebrity designers started creating clothing without leather made from animals, it became popular has no animal products in it. And so it was quite vegan leather. While vegan leather doesn't contain any animal products. The environmental benefits are debatable because there's still quite a footprint on it. But that's a podcast episode for another time. A word with negative connotations, leather that was used as something that someone would turn their nose up at you leather now has a new name that is not only embraced but uses a marketing piece to encourage people to purchase it. It's sustainable. It doesn't hurt animals. Hurray. We have found a solution. Same product, different name different marketing. The designer said hey, we want to do this. Let's do a differently colored them in different and it worked. They fucked around and found out and it was successful. Hmm, people are mad I can feel it. I kept on coming to blur like that's not actual pleather. It's it is it really is. And if you love it, that's cool. There is no shade coming at you. Okay, but again, this is just a rebrand, same product, different name.

Final example. And I'm gonna show this off right here. Again, if you're listening to this in your earbuds, what I'm doing right now is holding up my Stanley tumbler. Okay, this Stanley tumbler I have personally blinged out for myself and I've done several for my loved ones. And I absolutely love it and this is another example of fuck around and find out. Now I am a self professed cup snob. I have an entire cabinet of approved cups and only approved cups and I have very specific requirements, which changed even more after my arthritis diagnosis. Because if my hands are hurting, it can become very difficult to hold a cup around the cup, which is why this family handle is so lovely. The Stanley tumbler is absolutely worth the hype. I really do love mine, but they weren't always popular. The Stanley tumblers were released several years ago, and they were originally marketed specifically to their typical custom Are winter outdoors people like outdoors men and women, and campers mostly, the cups did not sell very well, to the point that they even stopped making them and they didn't restock them at all. They changed their marketing to focus on influencer marketing specifically on social media. And they reached out to teachers and nurses and moms and the waitlist for these tumblers shot up to over 150,000 people waiting for these cups. Can you imagine that you guys having 150,000 people on your waitlist for your product or offer?

When they're not blinged out, Okay, they range from 30 to $50, depending on the size, and where you get them. They even go on Poshmark and eBay for over $200 Without bling because some of the colors are really hard to find. And I personally have been looking for these azalea color, unsuccessfully but I'll keep looking, I'm just not willing to spend $200 on a cup. That's a little much for me, but some people do no shade either way. If you look on Etsy for the blinged out versions, like mine, they can range from $200 to $600. Again, depending on the quality and the size of the cup. Also, the handle is another piece of that. They are so popular now that most stores can't keep them in stock, typically around $100 A piece on Amazon because the stock is so low, and the demand is so high. Now I get mine from my local store - well, it's not local, but it's local to me - Dick's Sporting Goods. And I just went to my local store website to check prices at Dick's before creating this episode. And the cups are literally on the front page of the website just in new colors when the price jumped since I bought mine too because supply and demand right. One woman even wrote into Stanley and said that when she dies, she wants her ashes in a Stanley Cup. According to Terence Riley, the global president of Stanley, the product sales increased by 275%. From 2020 to 2021. In just one year, in January of 2022 women that ran an E-commerce blog called the buy guide, recognize the value of this marketing and ask the chief executive of Stanley's parent company to sit down with them and the leadership team. Ashley LeSeur, I apologize if I'm pronouncing that last name incorrectly, noted that some attendees were less than excited to be meeting with the women. Basically, they thought it was kind of dumb, which is a whole nother podcast episode about dismissing women in business. But hey, we'll leave that for another day, okay?

A deal was decided. And the rest is history. This cup is still in high demand in 2023. And I only use the 30 ounce on because the 40 ounce is just too big for me. And I have to force myself to refill and like actually get up from my desk to go get some water out of the 12 colors that are available on Dick's website, which again is the store that I get mine from. And this is only one store, okay, they're available in other places, nine of the 12 are sold out both locally and for shipping. Okay, so nine of 12 colors are gone. And they just came out, they've been out for less than a week. Again, this is the same cup, but a different marketing strategy. Stanley is not a new company, they have a loyal fan base and typical customer in this case, their customers didn't want these cups. They tried something new, even after being skeptical, something they may have thought was dumb. And now they're selling out nationwide, possibly world wide.

So why do you care about this? What does this mean for you? Well, ultimately, you just keep testing and experimenting and figuring things out until they work. Did you try one marketing technique and it didn't work for you. There's a few reasons for that. Some of which could be mistakes, timing or other reasons. But it could just mean that for that product or offer. It wasn't the right option. What's most important about all of this is that you don't give up. Marketing is a whole lot of fuck around and find out. And when you do find out and it's working, you double down and you keep moving, you're going to fail over and over and over and over again. Only 25% of small businesses make it to 15 years or more. And I can confidently say that it's not necessarily because they're better at what they do. It's because they don't give up.

I'm going to say what I keep saying again and again. This is my little Brooke truth bomb of glitter and love, which is rather appropriate given that I have glitter all over me right now. You can be the best at what you do, but if you can't market yourself and sell your services, you won't be doing it for long. Skills won't necessarily keep you in business. Being able to articulate what you do effectively, sell what you offer consistently, and to keep going and figure out what works for you will keep your business moving forward.

I'm going to say that again, ready, you can be the best at what you do. But if you can't market yourself and sell your services, you won't be doing it for long. Skills won't necessarily keep you in business. Being able to articulate what you do effectively, sell what you offer consistently, and keep going and figure out what works for you will keep your business moving forward. I said that twice. Because I know when I'm listening to podcast, I will go back 30 seconds just to hear truth bombs again, because sometimes I need to hear it more than once for it to sink in. Can I get an amen?

Resilience is an absolute must have skill if you're going to be in business. And if you didn't hear my episode all about failure and resilience. Go to boldwithbrooke.com/ 097 to hear more. We have to be able to try something, fail at it and not take it personally. Get curious about it. Hmmm... Okay, well, that didn't work. Let's tweak something and try something else. Stanley didn't change the cups. They didn't do a new handle, they didn't do a new lid. They changed the target market. Designers didn't change the pleather, they changed the name and the overall message. It went from being seen as cheap to being seen as sustainable and environmentally friendly. The meat people didn't change the chicken nuggets much. They changed the name and the message. And then they covered them in sauce instead of dipping them in sauce like the kiddos do, which is funny because I did things anyway.

I once heard that Scotland's national motto was fuck around and find out but in Latin, and I was like, I knew there was a reason I loved Scotland. I found out later that's not true. Someone had lied to me on the internet. Shocking. But damn, I feel like it's a motto We should all embrace. I tell my 18 year old son all the time, because he gets so frustrated when things don't work out the way that he wants. When his grade doesn't happen the way he wants in college, when a friend thing doesn't work out. Oh my gosh, we talk about this endlessly. The secret to life that I wish someone had told me sooner is that no one really knows what they're doing. We're all just moving through life, trying something new, finding out what works and what doesn't. And what might work one day, the next day, it may not. So we figure out something new. And that's okay, too.

When it comes to your marketing, I will always share what I have done and what has worked for me. But when it comes to your business, always remember that you are the boss, you make the rules, you can create a business that fits into your life perfectly, instead of creating a life that fits into your business perfectly. I know some people that only market on Instagram and have been running a successful business for a very long time. And I know other people that aren't on Instagram at all, and run a multiple seven figure business without using Instagram whatsoever. I know some people that rent just a podcast and make a lot of money doing so. And I know some that wouldn't touch podcasting with a 10 foot pole. I am happy and really, really excited to share what I love about marketing and what works for me. I've helped so many of my students see massive improvements in their own businesses from 10 exiting their average client investment to booking more clients than they ever thought possible. Ultimately, you make the rules. I'm just here to educate you and cheer you on and encourage you to fuck around and find out in your own marketing.

Thank you so much for spending some time with me today. It's always an honor to show up in your earbuds or your headphones or speaker, however you listen - if you loved this episode, can you please head over and leave a review, just go to bold with book.com/itunes you can even pause it right here. And come on back. Thank you so much in advance. If you didn't like the episode, it's cool. Don't worry about leaving a review. We'll just say goodbye and part ways here. I can't wait to watch your business or I am here cheering you on and ready to help you move forward. Whether it's with bold marketing, Academy, marketing membership with lots of courses and customized help or one on one please reach out and let me know how I can help. Have an amazing rest of your day. I can't wait to work with you. Bye. Thank you so much for joining me today and listening in. You can find all of the show notes for this and every episode over at bold with brooke.com/podcast where you can also find all the links or resources mentioned. I can't wait to work with you have an amazing rest of your day.