Episode 266: Creating a versatile range of clothes and accessories to inspire confidence with Carolina Giraldo of Carolina Lifestyle
In retail, most businesses are working with transient staff and it's not always the easiest thing to train. In today's episode, Fiona chats with Carolina Giraldo of Carolina Lifestyle about the importance of understanding why you create the products, where you create them, and who is behind the creation. Tune in!
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
On Transparency
Marketing
What kept Carolina going
Preparation for recession
Books, Apps, or platforms that helped Carolina
What's next and how to connect with Carolina
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
“The love of doing beautiful clothes, helping a lot of people on the way, creating many jobs, and seeing people thriving and developing themselves personally and professionally while they work at Carolina keeps me going, it’s the love for what you do.”
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Welcome to episode 266 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast. This is an interview with a small business owner. This one is interesting in terms of the way that this business has been built and the origin story of the person behind the brand, which I find fascinating, and it’s such an interesting part of the business because it differentiates brands from one another, especially in saturated markets.
Before we get stuck into that, there are two things. I wanted to remind you that group coaching is officially open for applications. You can find all the information over at MyDailyBusinessCoach.com/groupcoaching. We always have such an interesting varied group of business owners in all of our group coaching programs.
One of my favorite things about what I do in my business is to connect with all these people and see them grow over the course of the twelve months, both as people and also together as a group. It's a lovely way of fostering community and cultivating friendships, particularly if you are running a business where it's either just you or where you have a minimal staff or you feel that you would love some peers to bounce ideas off. All the information is over at MyDailyBusinessCoach.com/groupcoaching.
The other thing I'd like to do is acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians on the lands in which I record this podcast and meet all of my wonderful guests and that is the Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respects to their elders, past, present, and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. Let's meet this episode’s interview guest.
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I'm bringing you an interview that I did with a wonderful founder, Carolina Giraldo, who is originally from Columbia. Columbia features as a huge part of her business, which she runs out of Australia. Carolina came to Australia quite some time ago. When she came to Australia, she did not know a word of English. She has since been able to not only just build a business but to be able to build a business that has been hugely successful in retail and eCommerce.
She has over nine boutiques across New South Wales and Victoria. She has a wonderful origin story about why she decided to create this business, how she created that, how she was able to work with familiarity and bring in her family and all of her community that she had grown up alongside in Columbia into this Australian fashion business. There are many things that we discussed from what it's been like to go through a retail business, which is largely bricks and mortar through the pandemic, and to not only keep 1 or 2 shops alive but to keep nine boutiques alive and open more.
Also, how she has been able to take in so much of her Colombian culture to create an Australian lifestyle brand and what it means to her to put herself out there as the figurehead and the founder of her business. This is something that a lot of people struggle with and Carolina is honest and open about how she has done that and why she has maybe shied away from it in the past. It's my absolute pleasure to bring you this interview with Carolina Giraldo, the founder of Carolina Lifestyle.
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Welcome, Carolina, to the podcast. How are you?
I'm good you, and you? Thank you so much, Fiona, for having me.
I'm good, thanks. I'm glad we're finally here. We're talking about the year that we've had and trying to get this interview happening but, for small business owners, that's every year it seems like. Everything's always going on.
Every week.
Where are you joining us from?
I'm at our head office here at The Grounds of Alexandria in Sydney.
Beautiful. It looks so sunny, I hope it continues. Sydney had a shocking year weather-wise.
Lots and lots of rain. It's been tricky here but here we are and we can't wait for spring and summer, it’s down the corner. We had a little bit of a glimpse of it, the weather was fantastic in Sydney.
Same here in Melbourne. All our Northern hemisphere people whose reading are going, “Shut up. We're going into the cold part of the year.” Yes, we have had that ourselves. We're here to talk about your business, Carolina Lifestyle. What is the business? Why did you start it? When did you start it? What do you think is the main purpose of your business?
Carolina Lifestyle is a lifestyle brand. We have a beautiful range of clothing, accessories, giftware, and homeware. 80% of what we sell comes from our factory in Colombia, South America. That means that we have traceability across the range. I've been working with the same people from our community back in Colombia where I'm originally from. The main purpose of the brand is to create pieces that make us all feel amazing when we wear them, when we give them, or when we put them in our homes. It's all about the feeling with our pieces that are unique to our customers and always looking for that happiness.
Thank you so much for that run-through of the company. I'm wondering, with your beautiful accent, you mentioned you're from Columbia, how did you end up in Sydney?
That's a long story but I will summarize it. Years ago, I didn't speak a word of English. I always wanted to run my own business or work in a business. It was obvious to my family that I needed to get into business, I needed to speak English. Australia was an option. I arrived with a suitcase full of dreams and hopes. I was 19, turning 20. I arrived in this beautiful country, did everything from scratch, went to an English school, went to a university here, had a couple of jobs before I started my business, and that's how everything was born and my life here was born.
That must have been tough, especially years ago when the internet is just starting. You don't have Google Translate or anything else to help you.
You don't have Google Translate and you don't have GPS. The GPS probably came out five years after that. There were thick and big maps. You had the old dictionary in a book. You didn't have WhatsApp. My family is still all in Colombia. This constant contact that we have now is fantastic. I talk to them every single day, a few times a day because we have WhatsApp and FaceTime. Life has changed a lot and it makes it easier. I'm close to my family and it makes it easier to have them in my life every day.
You mentioned before that 80% of your products are made in Columbia and you have complete transparency over that whole process, which is something that is missing a lot of the time. I work with a lot of people who have product-based businesses. Especially as you get bigger and you decide to go offshore, it could be hard, especially over the last few years, to have that transparency.
On your website and through your marketing, you are also passionate about not just having it internally but showing it to the customer the whole manufacturing process. Was that always part of the plan? Is that something you've done more recently? More and more customers want to know that information. How did it come about? Especially in the last few years when it's more customer-led, have you ever grappled with how much to show? How do you go about that?
Thank you for asking that. That is the essence of the business. Our people are part of the whole business. You can have the most amazing product to sell but if you don't have the people behind it, it would be tricky for the business to take off. That's my personal view. For us, people have always been the basis of the business
The story with the guys in Colombia is close to my heart. I grew up in an area similar to the lower North Shore here in Sydney. A lot of the guys that work now in my factory used to work in a little shoe repair factory next to my grandmother's house. When I was a little girl, I used to sell chocolates, brownies, and all sorts of things to them. I've always been a hustler and I always had some business running when I was a little kid. I considered them part of my family. We've been through everything together.
Since I was a little girl, I had contact with them. I never thought that life is going to take us this way, which I ended up a few years after buying that factory, and then that became the Carolina Lifestyle factory. I have a personal relationship with them. Another important part is our product is handmade. There’s a lot of love and dedication that goes into making a perfect handmade product and that's why I feel so proud to show it. Having that transparency set us apart from the rest.
We try not to make as much as we can of our product in Colombia with our people. It has energy around it. Also, you see the customers embracing it. To put it in perspective, through the pandemic, there was this sentiment during and after, “I want to know where my stuff comes from.” You want to go to your local fruit shop and you want to know where you limit your money.
I have a story. There is a little Latin deli in our town and I love shopping with them. It's a little family business. It’s the joy on their faces. Instead of going and doing a massive shop in a supermarket, I do it with them, and I know the effect that has on their little business. I feel the same has happened with my business. People know the story and they become familiar, through our social channels, with the people behind the product, and that connection is amazing. It's something that I feel proud of.
Rightly so. In terms of the marketing of that specifically, and I know putting you on the spot here, you've grown up with these people, you're also speaking the same language, and you're from the same culture. Have you shown that story through images and video on your website? Has that come about naturally?
Was it something that you started putting more into your marketing plan? Do you have any advice for somebody who potentially is manufacturing in a country that is not their native country and how they can show those people and show what's happening in a way that aligns and connects with their audience who are buying the end product if that makes sense?
Yes, it came naturally because people were generally intrigued at the beginning, like, “It's made in Colombia. Where is Colombia?” A lot of people here in Australia didn't even know that Columbia is in South America. They go, “Cambodia?” “No. Columbia, South America.” I was like, “I need to show them that there are real people behind this.” That started naturally. One thing that wasn't that natural is I didn't put my name on a lot of things. People didn't realize that there was Carolina behind it. Also, the pandemic hit.
You've had the business since 2011, is that right?
Correct.
It's only recently that you put your face and your name out.
Only in the last few years. I didn't put my face into everything. I was a little bit hesitant until the pandemic and then that completely changed the way we do business pretty much. I thought, “This is the time when I need to show that there is a person here that runs this business that is suffering like everyone else.”
Everyone back home was even helping with the material. They were amazing. Through time, they became part of who we are and how we do things. The same here at the office, we're all in this together. When I come into the office and someone is wearing one of our tops, which they do all the time, it's fantastic because we showcase that across all our media channels and it completes the picture for our customers.
In terms of giving advice and in terms of how much they show, it is a hard one. As a business owner, there are so many hats that you need to wear and many challenges. That is a challenge because most businesses just operate and they have a preferred manufacturer overseas and they've been doing business with them. It's hard to go into someone else's factory, “Can I do this? Can I take photos of all your employees?”
We are in a privileged position in which we own the factory. I don't have any investors and I don't have anyone apart from my team that is amazing at what they do. We feel that this is all our business and everyone treats it like that. It is a unique position that we found ourselves and I think that life took us there. I didn’t think that selling those brownies to these guys was going to end up now and we've been working together for over ten years.
The one thing that I will suggest is always to look after your people. Yes, you are contracting with that company but look after the people. Try a way to look after the people. They're people as well. At the end of the day, they're working for you. At Christmas, for example, we do a massive Christmas party at the beginning of the year. We do back-to-school kids for all the kids in the factory. We help out with university staff with books and things like that. We constantly try to think of how we can make their lives better. What goes around comes around and we would all benefit from it.
I like the idea that you're, thinking of everyone like a family, we're all in this together.
With the good and the bad. Nothing is perfect. I'm not perfect, I'm far from it. I'm blessed that I have a fantastic thing running this business in Colombia as well as here in Australia. We have good days and we have bad days. It is the combination of all that, that makes this journey of Carolina Lifestyle interesting. We don't have two days that are the same. Every day is a different challenge but if we tackle it as a family, we can get through it.
I love that mentality. The brownies must have been pretty good that you sold, in the beginning, to keep people on site. We are hearing a lot about a global recession. Here in Australia, prices are rising massively on every single thing. I know a lot of my clients that have freight, customs, and shipping, everything is going triple what it used to be.
I'm wondering because you started this at the end of the last global financial crisis or a roundabout and I know you started this a lot smaller than where it is now, what do you think has kept you going when things have gotten tough? You're an established business now. Yes, going into a recession is scary for anyone regardless of how long they've been in business.
Are there any things that you would suggest for people who are maybe a couple of years into the business and are scared about everything that's coming out in the news? What's kept you going through all the hard times and challenges that you must have faced over the last more than a decade in business?
I have a clear answer to that. What kept me going is the love that I have for what I do. I’ve been doing this business for over ten years now. For the first 5 or 6, I call it struggle land. It was difficult. I had a different business model and it was hard to manage it. The love of doing beautiful clothes, helping a lot of people on the way, creating many jobs, and seeing people thriving and developing themselves personally and professionally while they work at Carolina keeps me going, the love for what you do.
I'm married to a fellow entrepreneur. We get a lot of people coming to us and asking for advice. They want to start a business. The first thing that we ask is, how much do you love doing this? If you're going to do it only for the money, it's difficult. You need to do something that you adore because that's what’s going to get you to the bad times. In the good times, everything works. It's in the bad times when your resilience is checked and tested.
I could not agree more. There have been many times that I've finished my day and thought, “I can't believe I get paid to do this. It's enjoyable. Even my husband and I have these conversations sometimes about, “If you won the lotto, what would you do?” He always says, “You would not stop working. You would find something.”
I'm with you. I get up every single day and I'm so happy to come to work. I have two little kids. If you ask me what I want for their future, one thing, and it’s for them to find what they love to do because everything else will come after that. Once you find your passion, that’s it. My husband is super passionate about it. I come from a family where everyone is a doctor or a lawyer. When I look at them, everyone loves what they do. The example that they gave me has been fantastic. Find what you want to do and everything else will follow from there.
There's a quote, I can't remember who said it, but it's, “Find what you love to do and you'll never work a day in your life.”
I mentioned it a lot. I could not agree more with that.
We spend both our best age, our best years, and also our health. Our body is in its best years whilst we are at work. To do eight hours a day somewhere that you don't enjoy would be horrible. I used to not enjoy the place that I was at before I started my business. I love that you talked about that.
You are in a product-based business and a retail-based business. How have you managed all of outside of what we've talked about? You’re being super passionate, loving, and everything else. There has been a huge amount of changes that have come as a result of COVID like supplier delays even. I imagine that there'll still be delays even though you own the factory and you have that complete connection and people are not spending or spending more online than in-store.
Bringing up the recession, I don't want to be a Negative Nancy but people are holding back from spending and we see quite often this whole lipstick effect that people will spend if it's under $50 but they won't spend above that. They'll give themselves little treats throughout a recession like lipsticks but they won't necessarily spend on bigger items.
How are you preparing for this? Do you have any advice for other people in retail, particularly as we're about to go into our busiest season? People have got this a little bit of fear mindset around, “Every time you turn on the TV, it's bad news financially. Are people going to spend as much as they usually would? We're going into the biggest quarter of the year. What if it all doesn't work out?”
My biggest advice is to stay positive. It's hard but I have tremendous confidence in our product. We have a good following. I'm not a high fashion brand. My customers see the value in my range because when they come to us, they know that they can wear the thing in many different ways. That is a timeless piece. It is not fast fashion that they cannot wear the year after. They see a clear value.
We also have a generous rewards program and that's one of the things that I am proud of. It’s one of the things that makes me proud because I learned about our people across the stores and across the factory. They are the base of the business but we wouldn't be able to exist without my customers. I see our relationship in two ways. As soon as I could, I created a generous loyalty program that gives the customer points every time that they spend with us, and that goes to future discounts.
You are saying thank you to them every time they come to you. Our customer return rates are pretty high so they keep coming back to us. We have almost fifteen stores now and we don't have a massive warehouse because we keep the cost of inventory low and we try to keep it exclusive. That’s another advantage that I have because I have my factory so then I control all my MOQs and that allows me to have a good turnaround of designs.
The value that a customer can receive in our product as the economic climate changes are important. Stay positive because, at the end of the day, we are in a privileged nation. There are a lot of other countries out there that are way tougher than us. We’ll see what happens. The media speculates a lot. Unfortunately, the ones that suffer from that speculation are all small businesses like ours. They're waiting to see what happens.
We moved to London, my husband and I, in 2009, during the global financial crisis thinking, “We'll be fine.” It impacted the UK. I remember coming back to Australia and people were like, “It's a global financial crisis.” I felt like Australia went through it pretty easily in comparison to other countries. Let's hope it's the same again.
Another thing I wanted to ask about that is in terms of practical things that people can do. I'm putting you on the spot. One of the things that you guys sell is leather bags and accessories. I have noticed that you're also doing additional things to that like different straps. You could have one bag and then you could be using different straps for it to change it with your fashion or whatever mood you're in. Have those things always been part of your plan or did you do add-ons later on? Do you feel like they have helped in terms of the overall success financially of the business?
If people are out there now and they've maybe got a couple of product lines and they're thinking, “I want to add something that's more accessible to people.” Have those things helped the business, adding things like bag straps or different things you could do with your accessories with your overall main collection?
They do and they have always been part of the whole strategy. I'm not a high-end fashion brand, I'm a lifestyle brand, and all those things are key elements of a lifestyle brand, a nice pair of shoes, a nice strap, a nice pair of sunglasses, or a beautiful hat. That decor of what I'm trying to achieve with what we do. The way it works has a lot to do with the styling. I have an amazing team and everyone's trained in how to style our outfits. It works because it works backward with the pieces of clothing that we have. It tells the same story. It's a compliment to the story that I'm telling you. It’s like, “This outfit is great but then if I want to finish it off with a pop of color, I will add one of those straps.”
For example, leather is amazing because you want to finish off an outfit with a beautiful piece, or with a beautiful accessory that also shows its quality. You don't want to finish an outfit with a cheap handbag. It's part of the story. When you look at the prices, everything is within reach. For a couple of hundred dollars, we have a beautiful handbag that will last five years. That's what I always tell the customer.
With my handbags, when I'm around the stores, I show them and say, “I've been wearing this since it was a sample. Look how good it is.” People love that. For example, the scarves are add-ons to the range but they're carefully designed to go back with the tops that we have as our core tops. Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, it's all thought out. It's not an afterthought. You have how many stores?
We have 13 at the moment and we have 2 more. We have one in Melbourne coming up. We have one coming up in Armidale.
How do you decide where to open? How do you make sure that you are not having it too close to each other? Do you work with commercial real estate? Do you do that yourself internally with a general manager? Do you work with somebody else to advise where your next store should open?
I have a general manager and her name is Cleo and she's fantastic. We complement each other well. I do a lot of the creative side of the business, a lot of the marketing, and she helps me with all the operations, all that other side of the business that requires a lot more structure. It's the decisions that we make together.
Where do we open stores? We've been lucky with that. In my plan, I thought I'll have one store and then my kids will go to a local school and that was it. In the initial plan, I never thought that I was going to end up with many stores and things were going to develop like that. That was not part of the plan. Opportunities started to come and then I was like, “This is working so we might as well take advantage of the opportunity.”
Sydney Airport came to us and said that they love the offering. We started with appeals so that's how the relationship started. I never went there and asked, “Can I have a store here at the airport?” It didn’t even occur to me. Also, big retailers like Sydney Airport and Westfield recognized that we have a different product and that's why we've been building successful relationships with them.
In retail, it's all about the retail mix that they have. We are a good part of that mix. When the opportunities come, they also contact us. We do know where our customers are located so we are aware of the Omni-strategy. When the store has the same stock as online, it’s fantastic for our customers because they feel like, “I can order it online but if it doesn't work, I know where I need to go.” That works well. It's an expensive exercise but we have managed our way to do it with our resources and the help of nice landlords.
Nice landlords, you don't often hear those two words put together but that's great. You talked about this general manager who's been amazing. It sounds like you love your staff whether the Australian people, those in Columbia, or anyone else that's helping. Outside of your partner, who you mentioned is also an entrepreneur, have you had any mentors, books, or documentaries? Is there anything that you've ever watched or consumed that you're like, “That was instrumental in my business journey as helping me?”
My husband is amazing, he believed in me since day one. He's been amazing through the whole process of the business. As you can imagine, both running businesses, a lot of our dinner talk is about what's the next big idea. We’re picking each others’ brains of what we think of the next plan. He's been fantastic.
Scaling Up was fantastic for someone starting a business. I try to read quite a bit when it comes down to business and how to improve. There are many that I can mention. It’s keeping that appetite for knowledge when it comes down to improving your business. Once you think that you master something, something else is up. It's that constant knowledge that you need to keep learning that will help you to continue to run your business.
I could not agree more. You've got these thirteen stores. You've got your in-house head office team. You've got staff overseas. How do you keep track of all of that? Do you have incredible platforms or are there particular software systems that you could not run the business without? Even if you had 3 people working in each store, that’s for almost 40 people to keep track of, talk to, communicate with, share, and get to understand the style for the next collection. How do you, process-wise, run that part of the business? Do you have any apps or platforms that have helped you?
We use Deputy for all the rostering and staff. We use Shopify for our website. We use point of sale as well and that has all the inventory in it, which is fantastic so we have total visibility of the stock. Also, Teams. Through Teams, we connect all the different stores, head offices, factories, and everything. We use those a lot.
What are you most proud of? It sounds like there are quite a few things but what are you most proud of from your journey so far in this business?
Going through the pandemic, that's probably one of the things up there. Going through that pandemic, I was eight months pregnant, and I thought that everything was going to fall apart. Seeing everyone giving the best they had to get through it together is amazing. Seeing all the work and the opportunity we create makes me incredibly proud. It’s all the work and opportunity that we create for many people. Our business does make a difference in people's lives and that makes me proud.
Thank you for sharing that. I wanted to ask because you mentioned the pandemic as one of the biggest things that you've gone through, all of us, but you're proud of. When you said at the start, “I had to put myself out there more as a result of the pandemic,” was there anything that helped you get yourself out there more? I know lots of people struggle to put their faces out there. Lots of people struggle with putting their photos of themselves on their websites. How did you work through that? Is there anything that helped you with that?
It was just a feeling, it’s now or never. You have to do it. They want to know who the owner of the business is. I had no option. I had to do it. How much do you love the business that you have to put your face there? I love it with all my heart. I did get training to do some videos and stuff and that helped.
I got a professional videographer from Channel 9 and she was fantastic. She came and gave me a lot of tips and things. I believe in honesty and she said, “This is what you're doing right. This is what you're doing wrong. This is how you can improve.” Getting someone like that is an investment and that helped. Like anything, practice makes perfect. It's not perfect and it's never going to be perfect but natural and genuine makes perfect in this world. In my work, I don't want to have it perfect. I was doing life on Instagram or Facebook and then I made a mistake in English or I fall. This is what makes us real and that's what people love.
With that person from Channel 9, is that somebody who does that freelance?
Yes, her name is Shelly Horton.
I’m going to put that in the show notes because I'm sure people are reading going, “I want to have her.”
She was fantastic. What is next for you and where can people connect with you if they are reading this and thinking, “I want to know more about Carolina or the brand.” What's coming up and where can they connect?
They connect through our social media channels. I manage Instagram so please do follow me on Instagram, I'm @CarolinaLifestyleLabel. I show a little bit of my life there, the team, and everything that we are preparing so it's quite a nice platform. We have an exciting season. We're going full swing for spring and summer with lots of dresses and lots of new arrivals with a massive range to get everyone prepared for Christmas. We’ll keep creating beautiful clothes that make us all feel good when we wear them.
Thank you so much for sharing your business story and it's been a pleasure chatting with you.
My pleasure, Fiona. Thank you so much for having me.
See you.
Thank you. Bye.
Bye.
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What an interesting story and an unusual story from the origins, from growing up around a particular factory, and then, one day, owning that factory and it being a huge part of your business that you run on the other side of the world. Thank you so much, Carolina, for coming in and sharing all of your information and sharing how you built this, the resilience, and the things that have got you through. It's always fascinating to hear the ins and outs of a business and, particularly, of somebody who has had to start again and start from scratch when they're creating a business.
In a different sense but living overseas even in a familiar type of culture can be hard to try and get things off the ground. My hat goes off to Carolina for doing that so well and persevering and bringing all of this love and all of this information and quality of products from Columbia through to the Australian market. If you are interested in checking out more about Carolina, you can find all the information over at Carolina.net.au and you can go through it and have yourself a bit of a shop.
Two things stood out for me and I'd love to know what stood out for you. One was the emphasis on knowing where your products come from. If you check out the About page on Carolina.net.au, you'll find the whole story and you'll have beautiful imagery there, it's emotive. It’s understanding why they create the products they do, where they create them, and who is behind that creation.
I loved that she talked about how this has become even more important as a result of the pandemic. I predominantly work with people who are transparent about the supply chain of what they do and where their products are made. It's become even more important to share that information and to have a story about your business so that you can differentiate yourself. More and more, there is competition everywhere. I love that point.
The second thing that I liked is that Carolina talked about how all of the staff are trained on how to style all of their products. I've worked in retail and the training can be something that people are excited about but they're like, “I don't even know where to begin to do this.” We have staff that comes in, spends a season, and leaves.
A lot of the time, in retail, you are working with transient staff so you're working with students or you are working with people that are maybe working part-time or people that come in for Christmas casuals. It's not always the easiest thing to train staff. I love that she talked about, “All of our staff are trained on how to style.”
It's not that they feel uncomfortable if somebody asks them how to do that. It's not that they then have to refer to the manager because that's the only person that understands it. There's training and an onboarding process to make sure that everybody who joins that company and is selling knows how to style it and how to sell it.
When I worked at a large accessories company here in Australia, one thing that I was charged with looking after when I first started was their retail training guide. Previously to coming on board, it had been pretty stock standard, it was barcodes, images, and maybe a bit of information about the materials and then the managers were able to come to more retail briefings. They were just the managers and it wasn't physically possible for every single one of the hundreds of staff to come into the head office and learn that information.
We had to find a better way to give that information to staff. The retail training guide went from being a whole bunch of barcodes and pretty stock standard images that weren't that exciting to look at of product to an actual magazine. We had trend reports in there. We had a full-time trend forecaster in the company. It was like, “Why aren't we giving that information about these are the shoes and this is what people are wearing them with?”
We had a whole bunch of street-style images and then we had a whole bunch of interviews with the designers and the design team. Why did they come up with this? How does this fabric work? How to clean it? We had key talking points about each collection so that if people were stumped or if they'd come in for maybe their first shift in ages, they could flick to that collection, find three quick key talking points, and then go and talk to somebody in the store.
We could all sing from the same hymn sheet whether you are in the head office or whether you are out in one of the hundred-plus stores that we had. If you are in retail and if you are increasing your staff, I would urge you to look at, “These are the people that are at the cold phase, they are the ones that are selling your product.” You want to make sure that you're spending the time on training them and onboarding them properly.
If you sell your products to stockers, similarly, you can be getting in touch with the stockers to give them quick tips or maybe to talk to them or be like, “We're doing a bit of a briefing,” or, “I created these videos,” or, “We'd love to bring you into the showroom and show you around,” so that they can do the best job of selling your product for you. It's something that I do feel gets missed quite a bit. Particularly. the faster you grow, which can seem amazing and successful, sometimes the more likely that this stuff gets missed. I love that she brought that up.
If you're interested in checking out Carolina, you can go over to Carolina.net.au. Thank you so much for reading. As this is the last episode before Christmas, I hope that if you do celebrate Christmas, you have a wonderful Christmas. Likewise, if you are in the middle of Hanukkah, which I know ends on the evening of the 26th of December 2022, I wish you a happy Hanukkah, Mazel tov. Thank you so much for reading. I'll see you next episode. Bye.
