AP 1120: How Do I Grow and Sell More Product Without Overwhelming Myself (and Compromising Quality)?

AP 1120: How do I Grow and Sell More Product Without Overwhelming Myself (and Compromising Quality)

Pat Flynn:
What's up everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to episode 1,120 of AskPat 2.0. You're about to listen to a coaching call between myself and an entrepreneur just like you. Today we're speaking with Sarah Murphy, who has a website called Alchemilla, like Alchemist, because she's an herbalist and she's discovered some amazing things that could help for skincare and eczema, like skin conditions, and she's come up with these amazing recipes to help, that really actually help people, that remove pain in their lives.

Pat:
She wants to grow this business, she wants to scale, but she also wants to keep doing the thing that creates the product and not just sort of be a people manager. So how do we scale? How do we manage our supply chain as we scale? Yet, how do we make sure that we don't compromise the quality and effect what the product does to the customer and all that stuff. She feels like she's the only one that could do this, and that's often a case where you're growing and you're doing well and this could either work for you or it could burn you out. We've got lots to talk about today. Again, her website's Alchemilla, A-L-C-H-E-M-I-L-L-A.co; just check out the show notes on askpat.com and we'll point you in the right direction.

Pat:
You're going to hear about something called the sausage tree today. I didn't know what it was until I looked it up, and it's not bad. It actually helps a lot of people, so you'll see, you'll hear about it. Just stick around, and here she is. This is Sarah.

Pat:
Sarah, welcome to AskPat 2.0. Thanks so much for being here today.

Sarah Murphy:
Hello, thanks for having me on the show.

Pat:
i'm really excited. I can't wait to dig in. Why don't you start by helping us learn a little bit more about you. Who are you and what do you do?

Sarah:
I'm a herbalist and I live in Cornwall in the Southwest of the UK. I run Alchemilla.co.

Pat:
Alchemilla.co, really cool. How long have you been doing that for?

Sarah:
I've been doing it for about ten years now, but I've had a bit of a rebrand lately, so I'm feel in some respects that I'm starting again, as you do. Yeah, I've had quite a big learning curve this last year, putting myself out there and trying to build the business in a more serious way. Yeah, it's taken me a bit by surprise because some... I've managed to grow my list and I'm kind of at a stage now where I've done all of the things that people advise you to do, grow your email list and get your website sorted and attend online events, et cetera, and I'm garnering an audience, but I'm kind of a bit stuck with what to do with them next.

Pat:
Okay. I'd love to get into that today for you, obviously. Before we do though, I'm curious, when you said that you made a shift to get a little bit more serious about your business, tell me the difference between what it was before and then sort of what did you do to turn things up afterwards?

Sarah:
At the moment, it's a local business. I see people on a one-to-one basis here. I really like that, but I've sort of begun moving into online publishing and looking at doing some ebooks, and I thought it'd be quite a good idea to reach out to a wider audience. Through revamping my website, I had a number of people in the USA actually contact me about some of my products and services and I was given an opportunity to be a presenter on an online health summit. I thought, "Oh, yeah, great. This is a brilliant idea," not really thinking it through.

Sarah:
I took part as a presenter thinking that I was going to get me some good attention and overnight a thousand people signed up to my email list, so I have all of these people and I've woken up to a million emails. Then I'm thinking, "Oh, my goodness, I've got all of these people and left them hanging because I don't actually know what to do with this new audience now."

Pat:
Is that the dilemma right now, you've started to gain this attention, sort of where do we go from here? You're kind of lost?

Sarah:
Yeah. Actually, there are two things. My business is products and services, so I thought it might be quite an interesting experiment to do some Skype calls with people in the US who had purchased my products to find out a little bit more about what they were looking for and how I could sort of serve them better. I've been sending quite a lot of products to the US now, but it's got to a point where, because I've intentionally grown this audience, I'm stuck; I'm the the sole person working in my business, and it's getting to a difficult stage to make those products and get them out to the people that need them.

Pat:
There's a little bit of constraint in terms of the fulfillment of these products. You're sort of starting to see it's taking up a lot of your time. Is that correct?

Sarah:
Yeah. Obviously, everybody wants to grow the business, and I think this is a crucial thing for a lot of people to bear in mind that you're going through the steps, but kind of half believing that it might work or it might not because you've been doing it for a few years and some things are a bit hit and miss, some things work, some things don't. When it really works and it really takes off, it's actually quite scary, especially when you're the only person in the business and you're thinking what do I do next? Now what? Shall I focus on my products?

Sarah:
For example, I've got a product, it's called sausage tree cream, which I know; it is a real thing. People think of it like a joke product, but actually I've rated really highly in SEO for it because it's such a unique [crosstalk 00:05:39].

Pat:
Did you say sausage tree cream?

Sarah:
Yeah, sausage tree. Actually, a lady in America who buys from me regularly went to the Epcot Center recently and she sent me an email with a photograph to say that they've got a sausage tree in the Epcot Center. It's her little boy that sent me a picture.

Pat:
That's crazy. That's really neat that you're sort of becoming an authority for that particular product—SEOs going well, so we don't have a worry about getting the word out there. The word is out there. Now, it's just coming back and you're starting to get a little bit... Let me ask you, what are you scared of?

Sarah:
Do you know, that is a really good question because I was so excited to do the online summit. Because it's my area of expertise and I love talking about what I do, but the attention, it was really quite overwhelming to sort of be, not famous overnight—I don't mean it like that—but to have so many people interested in what you do and then to realize, "Oh, my goodness, how am I going to serve these people without letting them down?"

Pat:
First of all, congratulations. This is a great problem to have, right? A lot of people would love to be in your situation. Just be proud of getting there. Hopefully, you feel, amongst all the craziness, a little sense of accomplishment as well, because I don't want you to not be reminded that you are doing great things here and this demand is as a result of the hard work that you've put in up to this point, so I hope you feel a little bit proud of what you've been able to accomplish.

Sarah:
Yeah, I do. Actually, they did ask me to be a presenter again this year and I almost said no, because I thought, "Oh, my goodness, what am I going to do next?" I'm really thrilled that they've asked me, but, again, how am I going to maximize that opportunity? I've been given a platform, I've got a product, I've got a service, and I've got a small audience. Really, what's the next step? What advice would you give me?

Pat:
I want to ask a few more questions, is that okay, before I give advice, because I think advice can sometimes be given without understanding where the other person wants to go very often. My goal here is to understand what you want first because, in this opportunity, what's really neat is you have options at this point. You could potentially start to hire a team. You could build a factory. You could become so famous that you and your unique sausage tree cream could be featured on Oprah, right? It could just go gangbusters. That's one direction.

Pat:
The other direction is, on the other extreme, do you need to change anything? Can it be exactly the same? You just have more attention in a bigger waitlist, which on one hand, would just make the demand even higher and, as long as you are fulfilling those expectations that I'm just a one person team, I don't plan on changing that because this is the lifestyle I enjoy, but I'm here to serve as I get to create, so there's just a giant waitlist and people just have to be okay with that; that is something that is not uncommon too.

Pat:
I have a good friend of mine, he's in one of my programs. His name is Kyle. He has an eBike business. eBikes are very complicated, it takes a long time to build, and he can't serve everybody who wants his business, but he has a giant waitlist and he gets to them on... He wants to serve everybody, but he can't unless he were to build a giant factory with loads of people but he doesn't want that in his life; so he's totally okay with letting people know, "There's high demand. There's only so much of me to go around and I'll get to you when I can. I promise I will eventually, but things have been going so crazy."

Pat:
It sounds like it's going similarly for you. High demand. So I want to know if you could fast forward to two years from now, what does this business look like for you? Also, the other part about this is, sometimes when we start seeing success like this right away, we think we have to continue to go bigger and bigger and grow because it's like new opportunity, never had this before, like let's keep going. Oftentimes, I find these entrepreneurs who do that without thinking ahead and then they have this multimillion dollar company that they're just completely unhappy with.

Pat:
I want to know, where do you want to be? What do you want your life to be like? You have the option to build it in any way you want at this point. I'd love to hear your response to that.

Sarah:
You've made some really good points, actually. Just last weekend we went to a small local fishing village, and there is a lady there who has a café. It's just one room and she has a queue outside of the door. She just loves what she does. She just sells cakes. We said, "Why don't you get the room upstairs?" She said, "Why would I do that?"

Pat:
Yeah.

Sarah:
It does put things into perspective, because she's not a shark. She makes enough money. She loves what she does. She doesn't want to be bothered with any staff. Everybody, she's the talk of the town. Really, her cakes are amazing. People come on holiday and they just go to her shop just to buy a cake. I think I would... I don't really see myself going into a huge multimillion business that is going to overwhelm me and cause me to burn out because I live to serve my customers.

Pat:
Yes, you don't want that.

Sarah:
I do like to you know, go out foraging, and do all these other things.

Pat:
Yeah.

Sarah:
When I've got time to do it. I am finding that at the moment that I'm getting further and further away from nature and more and more in front of the computer screen, and it's not making me feel great. I think my idea is, at the moment, I've been looking at outsourcing the sausage tree cream because I'm currently making it in my kitchen, and being somebody who is really obsessed with quality control, that's a good thing in one way because I know that each batch goes out and I've made it, but I have found a small herbal co-operative who, like me, are a very small business and they only manufacture for herbalists. I'm looking at outsourcing to them because I know that they can sort of keep up with the next level of demand. I would absolutely love to get loads more pictures from people in America with them outside with a sausage tree.

Sarah:
At the moment, I've got people in Israel, there were some people from Australia, places where the tree grows actually, and it's an endangered species I believe. I think it would be good to make use of this crop and source the ingredients directly from the people that grow and farm. It would be an ethical business. I think my main focus at the moment is the sausage tree cream mostly because it is my cash cow.

Pat:
Yeah.

Sarah:
That is the thing that it may be one week I might not have as many customers in the clinic as I would like, but the sausage tree cream is still going out. I think that would be something that is manageable if I could outsource it to another person.

Pat:
Yeah, I think when it comes to outsourcing it, that often can overwhelm a lot of people too for a number of reasons. Number one, you spoke on this, it's just like, "I can't imagine somebody else putting their hands on this because it's my baby and I care so much about the quality," so just make sure that when you do look for help or somebody else to help get their hands on it to help deliver to your customers, that you just have those standards in place; you are just so involved in the beginning to make sure it's the quality that you want, so that you can get your time back afterwards.

Pat:
I was going to recommend slowly getting into having some other help outside of just you doing it yourself because you're likely seeing your time being spread very, very thin, and I was going to ask you if you felt like you were losing out on why you got in on this in the first place, and you've already said you haven't been foraging as much as you'd like to and it's been...

Pat:
We don't want that. We want you to do what you want to do because I think that's reflected in the product, in the customer experience, and all that sort of stuff. I'm here on your website, Alchemilla.co, and it was one of the first things that came up in the search engines for sausage tree cream. I'm going to read a little bit more about that because it's very interesting to me. I've never heard of that before. I think it's really smart to focus on that product being the cash cow and just, again, focusing on the sort of manufacturing efforts of that and making sure it's to your level of quality.

Pat:
When you consider the growth of the business, what else are you worried about? You said you're worried about the quality of the product. As you get to get more attention, what else are you scared of? What else are you worried about?

Sarah:
I think the dilemma is that, because I get so many stories from people that it's helped, and I see there's a picture on my website of a little girl, when I saw her, she couldn't go to sleep and so sad; when you see a child that's upset like that and then the next time she came she was all bouncing around with her toys. You think that's just because... It's so nice to help people like that and to see it on a personal level. My goal is really to get it to people that need it. I really to want to do that without overwhelming myself.

Sarah:
I do like the manufacturing side of things. I think I've kind of done things backwards. I've gone on the health summit, got all of this attention and really not thought, as you have crystal clear pointed out to me, now what do I want from my business? Why am I doing that? Am I doing it just because everybody says this is the thing to do or is it because it's the right thing for me? I think the learning curve this year has been that I've done all the "right things," but the only factor that I haven't taken into account is my happiness, I suppose.

Pat:
Here's the truth, if you don't consider that, imagine the business growing and getting to a point where you just absolutely don't want to wake up and deal with it anymore, then you're not going to help the people anymore.

Sarah:
It defeats the object of why you start working for yourself in the first place.

Pat:
Completely, so just put in checks and balances for yourself, whether that's a meeting every week with just yourself reflecting on how the week has done, what did you do that was great that you could be grateful for and excited about, what were the parts that maybe you wish you didn't do that you could potentially hand off? That just kind of keeps you going into the next week or into the next month if you do it monthly with yourself to just stay on track. It's very, very easy as a business owner to just lose sight of the destination and just see the next turn, if you will, and the next stoplight, the next opportunity.

Pat:
I'm really excited for you. I think hopefully this helps validate that you are doing the right things. Let's just be aware and be conscious about the next steps. I think that, with the sausage tree cream, there's no better answer than because it helps people. You've gotten a great product and, if you could get other people on board with you to also do it for the same reasons, then the business will become successful and do what it is that's going to do for you and for others too.

Sarah:
I think it's just about taking back control. It's exciting to get orders, and even the local health food shop has said, "People have been coming in and asking for this cream," but then the frightening reality is I can't keep up with this. It's making sure that you're in control of things and it's not keeping you awake at night that you are, you should be at the stove making more because you've got orders on the next day.

Pat:
Right.

Sarah:
I think that's the things have run away with me a little bit, and I'm in sort of need of help. Yes, I do want to grow and, yes, I do want to get the cream out to people, but at the same time the balance is very fine to make sure that it's a work/life balance and it's not just completely overwhelming your life.

Pat:
You're going to continue to get more exposure with the search engines helping you and these summits. I would still encourage you to do them. Some people don't even know this solution exists, so I think it's just from an education perspective, not even for selling product; it's really important for you to do that. It's going to grow. I just want you to tell me how you feel when you have a thousand people on your wait list and you can only make a batch for a certain percentage every single day. Tell me what's going through your head to help you control that anxiety.

Sarah:
It just sounds bizarre, doesn't it, that you're scared of success in a way.

Pat:
It's a very common thing, so you're not alone. Absolutely, it's different. It's weird. It's because it's not how we were taught when we were young how things should be, so it's almost a defense mechanism to sort of not go down the successful route.

Sarah:
You self sabotage.

Pat:
Yeah.

Sarah:
Yeah, I think that's the thing that I'm dealing with at the moment is it is on a personal level of how do I deal with actually succeeding.

Pat:
How are you going to deal with it?

Sarah:
I don't know. That's why I'm ringing you.

Pat:
Yeah. What's the story you're telling yourself when you see hundreds of people in line waiting for your product and you just can't serve them all at that very moment, you will get to them, but what's the story you're telling yourself?

Sarah:
I think it is partly a money thing because you are always, when you start a business, cashflow is always a concern isn't it?

Pat:
Of course.

Sarah:
Having to build a business is, "Oh, this is great. I've got to this level, but now I've got to reinvest everything that I've made to go up to the next gear," so you're kind of back at square one again. That happens again and again and again and you think, as things are growing, sometimes there never seems to be any cash in the pot so you began to get this mentality of where is the money coming from for the next project instead of getting to a level of where that's comfortable for you.

Sarah:
Now, I think this problem with the outsourcing is obviously they're not going to make ten parts for me. They're going to want kilos or large orders, which is what I want to happen, but is that going to affect the money that comes from that could have been spent on the dispensary, on the services, on building. Do you see where I'm going it's making the right choice, I think. You've really helped to clarify that today because I think this is where I've been muddled in the past is getting really clear on what you want your business to look like.

Pat:
A clear vision is so important. We can't, in this moment, answer all the questions right now. It's going to take some time to reflect. It's going to take some conversations with people around you who know you and the business, and whatnot, to really get to those answers. There's this quote that sort of, so "vision without action is a daydream, action without vision is a nightmare."

Sarah:
Yeah.

Pat:
Right, like that speaks directly to what we're talking about right now. You took action. This is not a daydream. This is not a wishful business for you. This is happening, but action, taking action like you are, without the vision is a nightmare and we don't want it to turn into that nightmare or the thing that you hate to wake up to or the thing that's causing you stress, because you were providing an amazing service helping serve others and your happiness is so important in the health of others too. My homework for you would be to get very clear on what you want this to look like.

Pat:
Everything becomes so much easier at that point from the decisions you make, the clarity, that you're understanding that, "Hey I have a lot of people waiting for this, and I am okay with that because I am doing a service to the people who are at the front of the line right now and I know I'm going to serve everybody. If I were to grow bigger or go faster, the quality wouldn't be as good and I wouldn't be as happy so that's out of the question. I am doing what I can now," and the cashflow becomes easier, understanding where to reinvest becomes easier at that point, because then you would know that even if an opportunity came for you to a hundred X this with getting a factory and hundreds of workers, you're like, "That doesn't fit in my vision."

Pat:
You can easily say no in confidence without that anxiety and just that roadmap is so important, so that would be my request and homework for you is to get to that vision and understand it.

Sarah:
I think, yeah, you've made some really good points. I'm actually going through in my head and I'm looking at all the people I'm thinking that it's quite clear. Again, just going back to this, a little restaurant at the bottom of the road here, which is the complete opposite of the other person I talked about. He doesn't let anybody in. He doesn't like dogs. He doesn't like children. He doesn't like tourists, but he has a four tables and the wait list is... Everybody wants to go in there because it's so quiet. They have a lovely meal. They got really good attention, service, and by the way that he lives his life, but he's always busy.

Pat:
Imagine that woman that you're talking about with the cake place, what if her store was in every corner, would she be able to be there in every corner and serve cakes? Would every corner be sold out? Probably not, because it would be just oversaturated at that point. Not that you would get there, but yeah. Anyway, I think we know what to do, right?

Sarah:
Yeah. You've really helped me today. You really raised some valuable questions.

Pat:
Good. That's why I'm here, and thank you for being open, being vulnerable. Likely people are going to listen to this by the way and then head on over to Alchemilla.co, so you're getting even more eyeballs now, just so you know.

Sarah:
I know, God.

Pat:
I think the story you're telling and why you're doing it is just so commendable, thank you, and I hope everybody else listening is encouraged by this. Where else can people... Do you have any place online, social media wise, where people can follow up and just kind of get a pulse on what you're up to and what's going on?

Sarah:
Yeah, I've tried to pull back on that a little bit because that was another thing that was taking up a lot of my time. I thought it's better to streamline and just stay on one platform. [crosstalk 00:24:10].

Pat:
Good. Don't even tell us then. Don't even tell us.

Sarah:
Okay, it's out there.

Pat:
We'll put links in the show notes for everybody, then Alchemilla.co and then remember sausage tree cream. I didn't think I heard it right the first time and then I looked it up and I was right. It's sausage tree cream. Now, I want to see what this sausage tree looks like. Anyway, thank you so much.

Sarah:
[crosstalk 00:24:31], actually. I'll send you a sample pack.

Pat:
You're awesome. Thank you so much. I appreciate you for that, and good luck. You got this. Well done.

Sarah:
I really appreciate you. Thank you. You've just been an inspiration over the last few years, and you are part of the reason that I'm here where I am today, so thank you very much.

Pat:
I appreciate that. Thank you, Sarah. Take care. You got this.

Sarah:
Thank you, bye bye.

Pat:
All right, I hope you enjoyed that coaching call with Sarah from Alchemilla.co, just .co, and her sausage tree cream. Really, really interesting, super sweet woman and I wish you all the best Sarah. Thank you for coming on and sharing what's been going on and helping others at the same time. We appreciate you for that, and best of luck. Looking forward to catching up with you again in the future.

Pat:
If you're listening to this and you're like, "Man, I wish I could get coached like Sarah did today from Pat," you can potentially. If you go to askpat.com and fill out the application there on that page, that puts you in with the rest who have submitted and we might reach out to you in the future to see if you can get you on the show, share your business a little bit, but mostly help you and help others who are listening who may have the same problems in their business too.

Pat:
Thank you so much for everybody who has submitted. It doesn't mean you're out if you haven't heard from me, even within the last number of months. I may reach back out to you. I often go back to earlier submissions too if I'm looking for something new. Yeah, just—it's not going to happen unless you try so make sure to go to askpat.com and try. Please, if you have the opportunity, please leave a review on AskPat on Apple podcasts or wherever you might have access to podcast and, of course, hit subscribe if you haven't already.

Pat:
We got a lot of great content coming your way. Here we are as we come into mid year. Appreciate you. Hope your year is going well. You are reaching your goals and, if not, catching up to them because we're about halfway through the year here, which is incredible. Thank you for being a part of it with me. I appreciate you so much. As always, #TeamFlynnforthewin. Peace.