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So often, jewelry business owners think that they have a sales problem. When the reality is that sales problem is a symptom of a marketing problem. And I'm diving into that today.

How to identify if that's your issue in your business and what to do moving forward. And if you'd like my eyes on your business this year, then the Jewelry Business Academy is the place to do it. You can go to JewelryBusinessAcademy.

ca to learn more and book in a connection call and see if you and your business are a good fit for the program. But within the Jewelry Business Academy, you are going to get my eyes on your business every single week. You are going to get the exact systems and strategies and frameworks that I have used in business and my clients have used to successfully scale their jewelry business to six figures and beyond without burning out.

And you're going to get so much support. So if you're ready for that season of expansion and growth in your business, head to JewelryBusinessAcademy.ca to learn more.

My name is Robin Clark and I'm a jewelry designer turned jewelry business coach and podcaster. I'm the founder and CEO of the Jewelry Business Academy, the host of the Jewelry Business Academy podcast. And I help women around the world scale their jewelry business to six figures and beyond without burning out.

If you're a jewelry business owner looking to break through to the next level, then my coaching program and podcast are for you. You will get lots of actual tips to level up your business, your mindset and your life. So grab your notebooks and let's dive in.

Hello and welcome back. It is great to have you here today. And I'm looking forward to really diving into this topic with you all about sales and marketing because as a jewelry business owner, you know, I speak to business owners every single week.

And I see a lot of people saying that they have a sales problem in their business. And a sales problem can be very stressful. It can induce a lot of anxiety.

It can make you feel like you're not good enough. It can make you feel like your business isn't good enough like this. Issues with your designs.

It can cause a lot of financial stress in your business and in your life. It is not fun to have a sales problem. It is also not fun when your sales plateau for months on end and you just can't seem to like get through to the next level.

So if you think that you have a sales problem, what I typically see people do then is they just kind of go into hustle mode and try to do everything they can to like drive those sales. And the reality is that when you have a sales problem or you think you have a sales problem, it is actually generally from what I've seen from all my experience and all the business owners I've worked with and spoken to when they think they have a sales problem. It's typically actually a marketing problem.

It is a problem with their messaging. It is a problem with connecting to their community. It is a problem with helping people connect to their brand and to their jewelry.

It is not a sales problem. The sales is just a symptom that you're going to get when you don't have good marketing. The sales is kind of like the the effect that that you're going to have in your business if you don't have that marketing in place to be driving those sales.

So, you know, if you are listening to this and you've been thinking that, hey, I have a sales problem because I can't seem to drive sales. It's probably most likely going to actually be a marketing problem because the content that you're putting out there is not connecting to your community. The content that you're putting out there is not making people want to follow you and join your community because it's not authentic.

And it's very easy to tick off the content box when it comes to your business content and be like, hey, I'm posting every day. I'm being consistent. I'm doing all this.

But if the type of content that you're putting out there isn't going to help people connect to you, help build that no like trust factor, help people connect to your brand, well, then it's going to be really, really hard for you to drive sales. And if you're just constantly putting out sales content, that is going to make people put a wall up as soon as they start consuming that content. And they're not going to even allow themselves to connect to your pieces if you are constantly selling to them.

So keep that in mind. You know, I spoke about this a few weeks ago actually on Instagram and it got such a big response because so, so, so many jewelry business owners struggle with sales problems at some point in their business and recognizing where the root cause of that problem is is so, so crucial. So when you recognize that it's actually a symptom of a marketing problem, then, you know, you can start working through that.

You can start coming up with a solution and a plan in your business. And generally, when you are posting consistently, putting in the work and just not seeing sales and results in return, it does mean that you have a content problem. People aren't able to connect to your brand.

They aren't able to connect to you and it can be very frustrating, very overwhelming. It can lead to burnout and it's not a path that you want to continue on. It's not going to get you where you want to be.

You do want your content to be driving sales. You do want your marketing to be driving sales. And what's really important to recognize is that at different stages of your business, the impact of your marketing is really important.

The impact that your marketing is going to have is going to be different. If you are just building your audience from scratch, you're just starting out. Well, it's going to take a little bit longer to build that no-like trust factor with your community.

It's going to take longer for you as an individual to find your voice and to be comfortable showing up authentically on social media. And on the other side, you could be a business owner who's been in business for five, six, ten years and you are still struggling to really connect to your community. And honestly, that is such a key.

When people feel connected to you, they want to buy from you. When they feel connected to you, they want to support you. They want to be a part of whatever it is that you're selling.

So recognizing that and then recognizing too that the warmer your community is, the faster you're going to start seeing results when you do start creating content. It's going to help them connect to you, get to like you, get to know you, get to trust you. And I've seen this in the Jory Business Academy with my clients.

They get given the exact five pillar content framework that you need to create content that drives connection and sales. And it's really incredible to see the results that they get and not only in terms of sales in their business, but how it enables them to actually step into who they truly authentically are and let go of those masks and let go of that perfectionism that they've been holding onto so tightly in their business. And when you let go of the perfectionism and you let go of those masks, it enables you to show up as you are.

It enables your community to see you as you are, to see the real raw behind the scenes, what it's like being a business owner, what you're actually doing in your business. And that is what helps them connect to you. People don't connect too perfect.

They don't connect to this image of this lowy jewelry business where everything's perfect. That's not actually what people connect to, but that's the majority of content that's put out there by jewelry businesses is that clean, polished, finished look of everything's great, everything's perfect. And so it's really hard for business owners to start to embrace who they really are, what they're really going through and actually start sharing content there with their community.

And as I was saying within the Jory Business Academy, I've had clients come to me and say, yeah, I'm going to join the program, but I'm not doing video and I'm not doing this and I'm not doing that. And I'm just like, yeah, okay, that's fine. Come on, join us.

And within two, three weeks, they are doing video and they're loving it and they are creating content and they enjoying the process because there is such a difference when number one, you know what type of content to be creating and you know how to start creating it. And number two, you start recognizing that your voice, people want to hear your voice, they want to connect with you, they want to see you. And once you start embracing that and then see the response that your community has, I've had clients who've been in business for years and have hidden their face for years and they suddenly like, hey, all these people are messaging me and they're so excited to see me finally after all these years of like buying from me and they just feel so much more connected and it is driving more sales.

So really embracing that, showing up authentically, really looking at your marketing strategy and your social media strategy and how is the content that you're putting out there actually going to connect with people and how is it actually going to drive sales? So I hope this is helping anyone who has been feeling like they have a sales problem in their business because you know, it's just a symptom. It's just telling you like, hey, something's not right here. And there are a couple of other issues that it could be.

So if you're really confident in your marketing and you know that your content is really connecting to your community, they're really engaged, but you're still not driving sales, well then that's a sign of something else being the root cause and that's something that you want to look into. It could be your collection. It's unlikely to be pricing.

People always think it's pricing first. Pricing is like one of the last causes of the sales issues and I've seen that with business owners who have tried to price compete with other business owners to drive sales instead of value compete. When you price compete, you do not stand a chance.

When you value compete, it's so, so, so easy and it's so easy to build that connection with people and get them buying from you, even if your prices are significantly higher than other very, very similar jewelry because people buy from people that they know, that they like and that they trust. And so keep that in mind when it comes to pricing and it comes to your designs and all of that. Keep the focus on what it is that you're wanting to put out in the world.

Keep the focus on the designs that bring you joy and focus on connecting to your community first and foremost before even selling to them. Connection drives sales, community drives sales and to really, really keep that in mind as you head into this new year with your business. And you know, what I found really interesting is seeing clients within the jewelry business academy who have shared with me how they didn't realize how much control they had over which jewelry pieces were being bought and when they didn't recognize that they had so much control over which pieces are the best seller and which pieces are slow movers.

And I have had a client, well, I've had a few, but one in particular that's popping to mind was doing a sale of one of a kind pieces that she wanted to just get rid of that weren't hadn't been moving for a while. And so we implemented a really aggressive sale strategy where you get content, you know, exactly what content to be posting every single day leading up to that during and after a sale or promotion. And that the content that we're sharing is really, really connecting to people.

It's really answering all their questions without them having to ask. And within her sharing some of these pieces that hadn't moved for months that she was not even going to sell, creating content that helped people connect to them. They sold within five minutes, which is really incredible.

And it shows the power of marketing, your marketing controls, who's buying your marketing controls, what is being bought, how quickly it's being bought. And you really have the power to drive sales in your business. So really embracing that and recognizing that you do have that power and not giving it away is so, so important as a business owner, but also recognizing that just ticking off the content box every single day is not going to cut it.

You have to have content that is strategic, that is intentional, that is connective, if you're wanting to see those types of results. And what's really incredible is that when you are posting content and it starts really driving sales and you can see that, you can see that reflected in your sales, that gives you those dopamine hits that you need in your brain to be like, oh, I really like doing this. And then you start building momentum and, you know, you build momentum in terms of how easy it feels to start creating content and sending emails and stuff that people really connect to and that is driving sales.

And then the sales will increase in momentum as well because, you know, you're going to get better and better and customers are going to get more and more and more connected to you and to your brand. And you ideally want to create a brand that people are obsessed with, that people are telling their friends and family about, that they're telling stories about you, that they're telling stories about your business. You want to create a brand that people are obsessed with because then it is so easy to sell, it's so easy to create that community.

And it's great as a business owner as well because business can feel lonely and having that community around you can just make it feel so much more worthwhile than just shipping out products. So really having that community, really seeing the impact that your business and your jewelry has on the lives of people around you and the people who are buying from you is so, so important. So you know, if you are feeling burnt out when it comes to content creation, if you are scrambling to post with no real strategy, instead of feeling overwhelmed and comparing your business to others, you need to focus on learning how to create connection content in your business.

You really want to focus on learning how to connect to your community, to your jewelry and how to drive sales through your content. So if that's something that you're wanting to embrace this year, then the Jewry Business Academy is the place to do it. It is the most expansive container for jewelry business owners wanting to scale their business in a way that feels good, in a way that is supportive to their long term life goals.

And you're going to get absolutely everything that you need to do that effectively within the Jewry Business Academy. You're going to get all the systems and strategies and tools and knowledge and support that you need. You're going to get weekly calls with me.

So my eyes are going to be on your business every single week to help guide and support you. And what I'm really proud about this online training and the whole program is that it has been very carefully developed to support the implementation of what you're learning. So it's one thing, learning strategies and stuff that you need to implement in your business.

And it's another thing actually implementing it and executing it effectively and actually seeing results. And that's what we really focus on in the Jewry Business Academy is making sure that you are executing it and implementing it properly so that you can see big results. And so that sounds like something that you are excited about and you're ready for a season of growth.

Then head to JewryBusinessAcademy.ca and you can book in a connection call and we'll see if you and your business are a good fit for the program and then dive right in. So I hope you enjoyed this episode today and I hope it's helped you get clarity as to whether you have a marketing issue in your business or if it is something else, if there's another root cause that you think could be the issue, then you definitely want to look into that because fixing those little root causes is how you are going to scale your business.

And if you did enjoy this episode, I would love to hear from you. Tag me on Instagram. It's Robin Clark Coaching with a screenshot of the episode you're listening to.

I would love to hear from you. I love hearing from business owners who are listening to this episode. And if you are enjoying the whole series of podcasts from the Jewry Business Academy podcast, if you could take two minutes to go and leave us a five star review on Apple Podcast, that would be incredible because it will help us continue to grow and expand and ready to support Jewry Business owners as they are scaling around the world.

So I'm going to leave it there for today, but I am ready looking forward to our next few episodes and we have some really incredible guests coming on the show this year. Stay tuned for those and I will connect with you on Instagram.