64. What’s Working for Wholesale Right Now with Katie Hunt

EPISODE 64 TRANSCRIPT // INTERVIEW WITH KATIE HUNT

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Hey, Katie, I’m so excited to welcome you to the buyer side chat. Thank you for being here today.

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Katie Hunt: Hey, Kristen, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): I’m so excited, so like just to set the scene here for everybody listening. We okay. It’s been 45 min of us dealing with tech issues. We’ve been trying to figure it out. Katie’s whole computer like, did a restart. My computer froze. Then it. It’s like, been a disaster. And but it’s also just like how businesses and.

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Katie Hunt: And has it.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Yeah. So we just were like cracking up hysterically, and we’re trying to pull it together. So.

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Katie Hunt: We’re also very serious business ladies here that are.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Yes.

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Katie Hunt: Casters.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Follow me for business tips and advice when I don’t even have my own shit together. Just kidding. I do sometimes.

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Katie Hunt: We do. It’s just, you know, stuff happens and you gotta roll with it and figure.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Totally.

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Katie Hunt: Hey, so, yeah.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): And look.

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Katie Hunt: Here.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): That that’s that’s actually like the fun part of business. Sometimes the those like messy middle parts, when you.

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Katie Hunt: Yeah.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Is the fun. So anyways, I think most of my listeners probably know you, and or have taken one of your courses, but if they’re new to you. Can you just say, like, Hey, a little bit about you, your background. You have a really impressive background. So just do a little a little intro.

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Katie Hunt: Yeah. So hey, friends, I’m Katie Hunt. I am the CEO and founder of proof to product. I’ve been coaching product based businesses since 2,011, and what I mainly help them do is sell wholesale. So I work with brands. I help them start, and also scale the wholesale side of their business. We’ve got people selling to the big box key accounts all over the world. We’ve got people selling to indie shops worldwide.

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Katie Hunt: Selling a wide range of products we’ve got. My roots are in the stationary world, but we’ve got people in our community that sell candles and home decor, and of Harold and jewelry and all sorts of consumer gift items. So, yeah, we’ve been doing this a long time. We’ve helped a lot of people, and I’m a firm believer that strong businesses take time to build, and we need to build strong foundations that will serve us well in the long run.

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Katie Hunt: and so you won’t find me talking about. Here’s you know how you’ll make a million bucks overnight, or here’s the quick way. Here’s the easy button. We do have frameworks that we offer. We have templates that we offer that will help you expedite the process, but ultimately, like anything building a wholesale business just requires a lot of hard work and tenacity and follow through. So you know, we’ll provide that safe space to ask a lot of questions, and so that you don’t trip over the things that we all trip through as we were growing.

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Katie Hunt: but at the same time you know, you still gotta go do that hard work, too, but it’s a it’s a good spot to be so. Our community is super special, and we’ve been doing this long time, and it’s fun to play a small part in their growth.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): That’s amazing. I think, like one of the most

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): challenging things right now, I would say, is that there’s a lot of noise out there in this like coaching space around the quick fix, or I work 2 HA week, and I made $100,000 in sales like Follow me for tips on how you can do the same when it’s not really. That’s really not the way that it is, and that’s probably not how they actually got there.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): And so I think, just the world, the industry needs more people like you or people need to just go to you. You know, to really learn in a way that’s sustainable. And that’s something that I like preach, too. It’s like

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): building those foundations is not sexy. It’s not the shiny new thing.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): but it’s the thing that’s gonna have your business outlasting far beyond the latest trend. Or if Tiktok goes away, or whatever insert whatever thing is the hot thing like you have to have those foundations. I think that’s really amazing. And side note. You personally have that

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): backed up from your own experience, which I think is, you know, a huge thing. So I’d love to just like hear a little bit about like prior to proof to products like, what was that path like for you?

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Katie Hunt: Yeah, you know, thanks for bringing that up. Cause I do think I offer a really unique perspective in this coaching world. Having had a brand, having had a corporate background. I have 2 Mbas, one in marketing and one in finance, and I’ve been coaching for a really long time with a strong track record. So I’m not just somebody that popped on the scene and was like, I did this one thing really well. And now I’m gonna teach you how to do it, too. Like I have built the business, grown it 200% year over year.

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Katie Hunt: I had a product brand called kelp designs. I ran that brand from 2,008 until 2,016,

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Katie Hunt: I started proof to product in 2,011. So at 1 point in my career. I had an intense day job.

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Katie Hunt: I had 2 businesses that I was running on my own, and I had 2 babies at the time that were under 2 years old, and it was frickin bananas like, I look back and I’m like, how in the world did I do this, you know, but it goes to show that, like the things we pour ourselves into will succeed if we continue to follow through. And I’m not saying it’s easy. You know, everyone’s gotta got their own path to where they’re trying to go. But

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Katie Hunt: you know I was determined I was determined to leave my corporate job. I was determined to have flexibility for my family, and so, anyhow, I I was in the corporate world for a long time doing business development marketing like I said I had those 2 Mbas. I was climbing the corporate ladder. I got my start with my paper brand when I got married. It’s a common story in the paper world made my wedding invitations, made gifts for our bridesmaids that were personalized, stationary.

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Katie Hunt: and my mom turned to me, who’s like the ultimate entrepreneur, and she said, Well, if you’re gonna do this, Kate, you should like really do this. And I ended up registering for the National Stationary Show, which is a large. It was a large international trade show that was for that industry, and within 6 months of starting this business I flew in blindly and exhibited and sold my products to the wholesale market. And I tell my story in my podcast and in our programming that, like, I made a lot of mistakes. I went in. There was a lot that I did not know.

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Katie Hunt: and that’s natural when we’re starting a business. But you know, I started telling my story so that others would avoid the mistakes I made. And that’s how proofed a product came to be. So the product brand started in 2,008

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Katie Hunt: went to that trade show in 2,009 I wrote a blog post for a friend about like mistakes I made, and what you can avoid. And then I found myself just getting a slew of emails from people asking me the same types of questions over and over. And so then, in 2,011 is when proof to product started. And I said, Let’s all put our brains together here like I have unique experiences. You have unique experiences.

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Katie Hunt: Also, I was looking around the industry, and my peers were such incredible, talented artists, and I was self taught. So I was learning a ton from them about how to set up my files, and how to manufacture my products and all these things. And here I am dispensing my business advice about P. And l’s, and you know all these things that they didn’t want to look at. And so we got together. And it really, we started a community from the start, and I brought in different people to share their knowledge and experience. And

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Katie Hunt: we started real like grassroots. Back then zoom wasn’t a thing. Webinars weren’t a thing. It was literally teleconference calls, and people would have to put Star 3 to like, unmute themselves and ask a question.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Love it.

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Katie Hunt: It was wild Kristen and I mean it was before Instagram, too, so we were just getting word out through like Twitter and other stuff, and so, you know, fast forward and to 2,016. That was the year I had my fourth baby, and I decided like so, and I was traveling to speak on stages everywhere. And I decided, something’s gotta give here, like.

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Katie Hunt: I now have 4 children under 6 and a half, and I have 2 businesses. I did not have the day job anymore. I had left that, but it was still too much. And so that’s when I made the decision to stop manufacturing for my product business, so that had a really nice 8 year run and then go all in on proof to product. And now, you know, we’ve expanded to helping tens of thousands of people sell wholesale. And our podcast is just an incredible resource for folks that

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Katie Hunt: maybe can’t take our programming yet, but want support. So yeah, I’m really proud of the impact that we’ve made for.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Dumb.

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Katie Hunt: Brands.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): I think, like impact is really kind of the root of all businesses that have longevity, because it’s it really goes back to like, what is the impact you want to make as a business owner doesn’t have to be what society tells you you should do. But like, are you making an impact for your family? Is it for your community? Is it to support other people in business like, what is the impact you want to make? Is it sustainability. There’s so many things. But having kind of that vision and rooting yourself in your values, I think, is

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): so important, and you had that guiding you through all the way from when you were doing your business, you know, like starting your business and just leaning into this mentorship side, like, I think if that’s it’s really inspiring for me as somebody who’s newer on the this mentorship space. I’ve been doing it for 3 years now, and you know, in conjunction with Boku. And so I’m kind of at that stage of like juggling the things.

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Katie Hunt: Yeah.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): But that thread of like this lights me up. To actually see other people succeed is just. It’s so important having their like best interest. So I love that you share that story, and it’s inspiring and and I love how many people you’re able to help and support. So I’d love to just pick your brain for a little bit of time here and talk about

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): like what is going on in the industry right now. I know you are, you are. So this podcast is airing in early July. I don’t know when your state of the

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): industry surveys gonna come out. But I I know that at least on the the people that I’ve been talking with there is this kind of unsettling feeling right now. Things have shifted the pandemic really drastically changed the way buyers buy, and things are just feeling, I think, a little uncertain and different now, and I’m.

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Katie Hunt: Oh, yeah.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Yes.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): you know what you’re seeing on your side, what you’re feeling, what you’re hearing, and I’d love to just like talk through that. What’s different. And what are we gonna do about it?

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Katie Hunt: Yeah, no, I love this conversation, and I think we need to be having it more often with more folks from different perspective perspectives in the industry. And the reason I say that is because I feel like we’re in a recalibration zone right now, you know, before the pandemic things were on the rise. Things were going well. People were pretty stable in terms of their growth. It wasn’t like

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Katie Hunt: fantastic growth, but it was, you know, slow, stable growth. Exactly.

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Katie Hunt: And then we have the pandemic. And the pandemic was weird, because

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Katie Hunt: in a lot of ways it escalated many product based businesses. There was a surge of let’s support small. Let’s support local. Go out and support these folks, order online shop in person. But from a distance, you know, there was. There was a lot going on to support small business. In addition, the Government, at least here in the Us. Was providing subsidies and things. So

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Katie Hunt: a lot of the people I worked with saw record years in, you know, 2020 through 2022 ish, you know, and

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Katie Hunt: that became their new sense of normal.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Yeah.

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Katie Hunt: Exactly their new baseline.

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Katie Hunt: But it was not a true baseline in a lot of ways. It was a weird zone of like the world is just strange right now, baseline. And so now in, you know, 2023 and 2024. We’ve seen this again. Recalibration back to kind of pre pandemic numbers.

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Katie Hunt: the funding and the loans, and some of that stuff has run out. Consumers are spending less because they’re not sure what’s going on. There’s an election year in the United States this year, which is causing people to hold their dollars a little closely, trying to figure out what’s happening there. So. And we know this. We’ve seen this through history of like election years are slower for retail. And you know.

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Katie Hunt: so all of this kind of clashing, clashing, and like combined together. It it makes for really like questionable, like, like, big question marks around everyone’s head. Of what does this mean? And then I will also add to, you know, you go on social media, and you see a lot of

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Katie Hunt: shops closing, or you see a lot of brands saying that they’re pulling back in certain areas, or they’re discontinuing certain types of products because they just can’t make them anymore. I will also say, during the pandemic, we saw a lot of shortages, supplies, we saw supply chain issues, you know we saw rising costs which then we had all the brands had to fluctuate, you know, rise prices to accommodate that. So it’s been a lot of transition and a lot of pivoting. And now, in the last like year and a half.

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Katie Hunt: that recalibration zone is uncomfortable for people, because we’re reestablished. In my opinion, we’re reestablishing a new baseline, and it’s a lower baseline than what they saw during the pandemic. But it’s actually seems to be on par with like what was pre pandemic. And so

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Katie Hunt: a couple of point of views here for people that hopped in during the pandemic. They’re feeling a drastic drop in, you know, revenue and profit the people that were in it before the pandemic. They’re seeing a drop, but they’re also recognizing. Oh, this is kind of on par with our past data, if they have it. And so

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Katie Hunt: I don’t know. I don’t mean to talk at you about this, but these are just some of the things that I’m seeing where it’s like kind of resetting our expectations around it. And I think those that have been in business longer are having a little bit of an easier time with it, but it is messing with the mindset of a lot of business owners who are, you know, worried about the future of their business, and feeling very much in the messy middle of things and trying to make smart decisions, educated decisions about what’s next for them.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Yeah, I think the mindset piece is is huge, because no matter how long you’ve been in business, you still.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): even if you know what’s happening. It’s still like, Oh, my God, this is happening. But I think it’s a really interesting point to talk about where you started in business. If you started during the pandemic versus Prior. You have some history to look back on, and I’ve been talking so much with the clients. I that I work with one on one, just about looking at your trends and really analyzing

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Prior. And during because there’s been election like, we’ve had a lot of things that have happened since the pandemic or right before it, and the election years in and of itself

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): drastically impact.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): retail the retail industry. And just looking at

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): okay wins. It’s gonna historically balance out. But I think something that I’m

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): I am seeing. And I’m curious. Your thoughts on, too, is just when you see that growth, or had that growth rather in 2020 or 2021? If you were one of the more fortunate businesses that did see growth, I know saw a lot of people did not.

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Katie Hunt: Yeah, you’re right?

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Yeah, if you’re full, we’re fully online. You probably had growth. And if you were brick and mortar, you probably had a really much more challenging time. Expense wise if you weren’t able to get a loan, but regardless if you saw success and you bulked up your team, or you added, more software, or you expanded, you know whatever in whatever ways your expenses expanded. And now the demand has shrunk. But your expenses have probably

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): probably gone up because everything continues to cost more year over year. And so it’s that push and pull of.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): do I let go of this?

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): When’s this? Gonna when’s this gonna turn around, you know, when are we gonna start to see that upswing? And I don’t know if you’re seeing that, too. But that’s just kind of. I think the the uncomfortableness of what’s happening right now.

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Katie Hunt: Yes, absolutely. I think

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Katie Hunt: the anticipation of not knowing.

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Katie Hunt: Is always a yaki place to be in our lives or our businesses, and if we had a crystal ball, if we could like.

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Katie Hunt: see what the future held. You know it would make decision making as entrepreneurs so much easier. But we can’t. So I I’m seeing what you’re seeing, too, and I’m seeing a lot of folks scaling back on team. I’m seeing them be more conservative with the products they’re manufacturing. I’m seeing buyers being more conservative with the products they’re bringing into their store.

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Katie Hunt: I even seeing a lot of I’m talking to a lot of retailers who are ordering from the same brands that they know will sell well. They’re not willing to take the ex extra risks, perhaps with a new brand right now, because.

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Katie Hunt: you know, nobody wants to take any unnecessary risks at this point. I will say

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Katie Hunt: people are still buying, and people are still selling, and I think there’s a lot of doom and gloom out there on the Internet. That makes it feel like nothing is going well.

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Katie Hunt: And that is just not true. There are but.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Things are.

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Katie Hunt: That are growing year over year that are doing well. They’ve remained stable. They’ve remained conservative with their expenses. They’ve remained thoughtful in how they’re approaching their business decisions.

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Katie Hunt: And I’m saying that from the knowledge of working in a lot of people’s businesses. But I’m also saying that from the report that we’re running right now, which is the state of the product industry report. And I, I don’t have the final results at this point, because it’s still open for people to submit responses. By the time this airs it’ll be closed and we’ll have the results.

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Katie Hunt: But it’s been fascinating to see it’s such a wide spectrum of brands and retailers who have submitted, who, like

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Katie Hunt: every revenue track, is on there, and seeing the different variations in their take home pay, and how many people they have on their teams and their the different technology they’re using to streamline things. It’s just really fascinating. And it’s a good reminder that there’s no one particular way to grow a successful business, that it’s gonna look different for everybody. But I do want to encourage folks to say

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Katie Hunt: businesses are still growing right. Now, this is not a season where everyone’s declining.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Yeah, I think I’d love to hear your perspective on

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): during these slow times from from my perspective. This is the time to just trust in your brand, trust in your abilities as a business owner, the leader of your business, to like.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): reevaluate what you’re doing, and be really strategic about what niche you can own, what product? You can just really stand behind, what things are working, what things are not working, just evaluate the crap out of your business and really look at, what do I need to change now? So that when things do turn.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): or what business is untapped potential for you right now, because, like you said, people are still spending. Buyers are still buying because there’s still money circulating. People are just being a little bit more strategic about their own personal spending, habits and buyers being more strategic than ever, but like setting that foundation right now, so that you’re the one that comes out on top at the at the on the other side of it. I’m curious.

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Katie Hunt: Yeah.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Thoughts on some things that brands could do right now, when it does feel uncertain

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): to kind of set themselves up for success on the other side, or even right now, like untapped potential.

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Katie Hunt: Yeah. So one of the things I do with my clients is, I take them through an exercise called taking our business temperature. And it’s that audit process that you’re talking about. We’re analyzing what’s working, what’s not working where we have the highest profit margins which products are doing the best which customers are our best customers, like, we’re really doing a deep dive into all aspects of the business, and from that I then will work with them to say, Okay, here are the opportunities that you need to be seizing.

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Katie Hunt: And I’m always recommending that people do more

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Katie Hunt: of what’s currently working. And I think in these uncertain times. It’s natural for folks to want to. Oh, let me try this new thing, a new product category, or a new revenue stream, and that is not what I recommend. I recommend that you focus on the things that you’re already doing

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Katie Hunt: and go deeper into them. So if you have a specific product category. That’s doing really well for you make more skews there. If you’re working in a revenue stream, that is, you know, 70% of your business. Let’s do more to build that business further. Let’s not try to spread ourselves too thin. I I know that diversification sounds sexy, and I know that businesses that are very large are always diversified, meaning. They’ll have multiple revenues.

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Katie Hunt: new streams to help when offset when certain things go slow, but for smaller brands

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Katie Hunt: diversification will slow down your progress so much.

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Katie Hunt: I would very much rather that you dive deep into one revenue stream and get that systematized. Get it profitable. Get that sales engine running, and then you can layer in a new revenue stream on top of that. But I will say the biggest mistake I see folks making, especially the smaller brands right now is they’re trying to do too much. They’re trying to sell online to re direct, to consumer. They’re trying to sell wholesale. They might be dabbling in licensing. Maybe they’re taking on custom work because

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Katie Hunt: they know that that’s quick and easy money, whatever it is. We’re seeing a lot of folks that manufacture products that are getting into brick and mortar retail spaces, and some of those decisions may be the best choice for some of those brands. But also I don’t want anyone chasing arbitrary numbers or setting goals for themselves, like I wanna open a brick and mortar shop because they’re seeing other people do it. I want them to really focus in on what their personal goals are and their personal needs.

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Katie Hunt: And then also keeping in mind. Let’s get one revenue stream going. Get one engine going really? Really? Well, optimize it so that we’re maximizing the profit there. And then we can layer in the next thing. But

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Katie Hunt: you know.

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Katie Hunt: Kristen, like, if we’re trying to do all those different things direct to consumer online and wholesale and everything.

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Katie Hunt: we’re spreading ourselves too thin, and we’re not going to get traction in any one of those things. So going back to your initial question, something people can do right now is definitely audit, like you were talking about. Audit your business and see what’s working and then focus on one revenue stream that’s already working really well for you, and see how you can expand there. So in the wholesale world, for example, I’m telling my clients, let’s look at who your top 20 of wholesale customers are looking at this from the manufacturer side.

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Katie Hunt: which stores make up the top 20% of your business meaning they buy the most from you. They buy consistently and regularly. And what could we do more? How could we increase our average order value with them? How can we increase the frequency in which they’re purchasing from us. So those little tweaks can make a huge difference in your overall revenue and your overall profit. So those are just 2 quick things that come to mind, of things that people can do right now.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): But they’re perfect things. I feel like that was I’m like, yes, yes, yes, I’m clapping back here without like I didn’t want to put the audio in. But I’m like 100%. I love this so much because it’s very, very easy.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): especially as brands that are creators. Now, I’m not a creator. I don’t manufacture my product. I don’t teach people how to do wholesale. It’s that’s not what I’ve done, but I still I have a gift box business. I love product. I’m a buyer. I love product. And so it’s really easy to like, want to just do the next creative fun thing or be like. That’s the solution that I I don’t have it. Let me chase this shiny object

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): when really you have a gold mine in front of you with untapped potential, and particularly those that top 20% of your wholesale accounts like, look back

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): a year, 2, 3 years back, you might have a massive account that you thought kind of moved on from you that actually might love to hear from you right now, because they’re like they’re trying to figure out how to get their business going, and they used to buy a ton of product from you.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): You were one of their top sellers, and they evolved, and they brought a new brands, and you slowly phased out, but they might be like, yes, this is the perfect time to bring bring someone back. So it’s like really looking at what’s working right now. But I also think what’s worked for you in the last, like 4 or 5 years that would align with what’s working right now. So like not something totally random that feels outdated, but like

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): expanding your historical view to your point earlier, like back to pre-pandemic like what worked then.

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Katie Hunt: Yeah.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Taking a look at it, I.

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Katie Hunt: I’m so glad you brought this up, because that is one of the things I work on with my clients, too. We have a whole process that we teach about 90 day follow up. So if somebody hasn’t ordered from you in the last 90 days, let’s do a check in. We’re in a relationship based business here. And you know, looking back even further than the 90 days. But the 90 days intended to keep us like top of mind as we continue.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): 100%. And so.

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Katie Hunt: So I agree with you like looking back at past accounts and seeing who might have fallen off, and why they might have fallen off. And how can we revive that relationship and build it further? How can we show them the new products that have come out since then? Yeah, absolutely tap into past data for that kind of stuff, too.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Yeah, I love that. I think

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): I think that that’s like nail on the head. That’s really at the end of the day, what all of us are always trying to do is like streamline. Your business simplify, to really maximize, like slow down to speed up. Now is this, maybe a slow period for you. So use that wisely, so that you’re able to like speed up and and get back your business back on track.

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Katie Hunt: So glad you brought that up, too, because there are going to be like

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Katie Hunt: that is the evolution of a business. It’s not always full steam ahead. We do need quiet times to reflect on. Is our vision still the same? Are we still working towards the same goals that we set out like, I mean that reflection. Time is also great time to build those engines, to build the systems in place, to do more of what we want to do so. I don’t know. I I we definitely need those slowdown periods as well as the speed up periods.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): And also, too, for your own mental health. So it’s like, if you’re listening to this in the summer months.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): you know on you’re pitching brands for Q. 4. So you’re obviously like, deep in that period, but also

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): in most of the United States. At least, it’s gorgeous out like this is the time to also take care of yourself, and so, if you have the luxury of you know 3 to 6 months of cash reserves in your bank, which I you know, if you’re being a profitable business owner, that’s what you should be striving for.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): If you have a little bit of flexibility, and you can be focusing on Q. 4, and like those big growth periods. But also, if you need to pull back to give yourself some mental like. What’s the word? Some mental health moments in the summer? You should do that, too, because it’s like

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): ye. There’s this tendency when business is really good, to hustle and just keep pumping it out. And then there’s this tendency when business is not good, to work harder than you’ve ever worked, and then, all of a sudden. You’ve never baked in any time for you as a human being to rest. And so there’s like this fine line between how how much to rest and how much to to work. And there it’s that fine balance. I think we’re probably all always struggling to find.

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Katie Hunt: Oh, my gosh! So one of my clients she one of she’s in my mastermind. We went through this exercise with her because she wasn’t taking breaks in the summer when her kid was off for summer break, because that was a big wholesale buying time. And so she we looked at her data points, and, like October, was a really slow month for her, like holiday orders had gotten out. She could still do some stuff in November for any last chance type, wholesale accounts and things.

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Katie Hunt: So she started booking her family vacations in October, and because that was what aligned with the business and also her family schedule. Her child

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Katie Hunt: was younger, so it wasn’t a school issue. But my point is like she found a time that most people would not pick October to like, take time off and go on traveling. But it worked for her, and it worked for the business. And so you know whether it’s summertime whether it’s fall. Whatever works for you definitely build in that time for you to recharge, because you’ll be a better business owner. You’ll be a better human friend, all of the things. If you have that downtime too.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Yeah. Well, I think that’s a perfect like bow on it. I could talk to you for another hour, but I wanna be respectful of your time. So I am just so grateful that you shared this. I think it’s gonna really help a lot of people and resonate, particularly at this time that this is airing cause. It’s just that peak.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): that peak, wholesale time middle of the year. There’s still so much potential left this year. So you know the the second that election ends. I think we’re gonna see holiday picking up. And so I feel like things are gonna things. If feel things feel uncomfortable right now they’re gonna get better.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): And I feel like you share a lot of tips to help people get there. So please share how people can find you if they’re not following you already any resources that could support people on this. I know you have some really great resources to help people figure out if this is even the right path for them.

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Katie Hunt: Yeah, absolutely. So I wanna mention a couple of things that may help your audience. First, we have a private audio series called is wholesale right for you, and I’ll walk you through a number of questions that help you identify whether or not it’s the right step for your brand. So this is for manufacturers that are already selling direct to consumer and kinda debating whether or not wholesale is the right path for them.

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Katie Hunt: and, like everything I do. This is like concrete stuff. It’s not Fluff. It’s not just like motivational. It’s like you need to have these things in place to be successful with wholesale, and it will be a really great starting point for you, so you can get access to that at proof to product.com slash, private pod. That’s Po D at the end, and we’ll give that to Kristen to put in the show notes. The other thing is, we are going to be running our 40 fourth round of what we call paper

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Katie Hunt: Amp.

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Katie Hunt: Which the name is a little bit misleading, but it is our wholesale intensive. It’s a 4 week program, where we teach you our framework for how to sell wholesale.

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Katie Hunt: We start with your product line. Then we talk about sales, tools and terms. Then we go into marketing, and we even talk about trade shows. If that’s something that you want to do, so we’ll lay it all out for you to make it really easy for you to scale wholesale up. But if you’re interested in joining that, wait list that’s at proof to product.com slash papercamp. And again, I know the name paper camps it. It means it’s only for paper people. But we actually have a wide range of people that come through it. It’s just like.

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Katie Hunt: but how do you change the name of a program after you’ve run it 44 times like that?

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): I know. I think you do. I? I feel like you can’t like. It’s just iconic now. So it’s like.

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Katie Hunt: I know it’s hard, just.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Keep explaining that it’s for more than just paper people.

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Katie Hunt: And you know, people.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Still! Welcome.

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Katie Hunt: They are, they are, and they’re, you know, our roots are there. So it makes a lot of sense. But we’re helping. It’s really fun. It’s fun to have jewelers and kennel people and all sorts of brands in there. So food and beverage that’s been a really fun avenue as well. But those are those are some ways you can find me. The other one is our. Podcast. It’s called proof to product. And we’ve got over 340 episodes there for you to binge. Listen when you’re ready. But it’s basically business school for product brands. So yeah, love it.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): Love it. All the links in the show notes definitely follow Katie. And right after this, we’re recording for your podcast.

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Katie Hunt: Yes, we are.

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Kristin Fisher (bocu): You can check out that episode, too. So thank you so much. This was amazing. I appreciate you.

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Katie Hunt: Thanks. Kristen.