Welcome to the Gang Craft podcast, where we dive in deep to all things business, wellness, creativity and activism for artists and entrepreneurs. We talk with impactful, female driven companies and founders for an inside look at the entrepreneurial experience, where you'll come away with tangible steps to elevate your business. Are you ready? I'm your host, Phoebe Sherman, founder of Girl Gang craft artist and designer and marketing obsessed. We're here to learn together how to expand our revenue, implement new organizational techniques, and cultivate about business practices as we work towards creating a life doing what we love. Let's get started.

Hello. Hello creatives. Phoebe here. Welcome back to the Girl Gang Craft podcast. Today we have Madison Page on the podcast and we'll hop right into her info in a moment. But it's an update. If you're in the Salem area, it is wild. I call it Witch Vegas. It is a very spooky time and if you are here or in the area or wanting to come into the area, I will be set up in person October 19th, potentially another day. We'll see. We'll see how I do emotionally, physically, spiritually after two dates in October. Normally I just stick to two. Like that is plenty for me. Maybe we'll pick up one anyways. My advice for coming into Salem is to take a train. Take the train. Don't drive. Parking is wild. It's a nightmare. Yeah. Come say hi. Come shop in person. What else is going on here? Our holiday gift guide app closed tomorrow. If you're listening to this on launch day. So October 18th, our holiday gift guide is a curated, shoppable guide that is live on our site from November 8th to January 8th. And it's a really cool thing to be a part of, especially if you're not near our craft fairs or you just want a little extra visibility this holiday season and the gift guide gets passed around. My friends share it with their offices, their community, and everyone who's involved shares it with their folks. And it just like is exponential. And I'm not just saying that. Just my friends. Look at the gift guide. Lots of people look at the gift guide. But I do think it's fun to really see when my friends actively share it. We've even done Secret Santa with some of my friends, and one year me and one of my besties literally got the same candle for each other from Modern Theory, and it's like an empowered women candle. You both got it for each other, which I just think is so marvelous and cute and I do once the gift guide is live. I do suggest you use that for your little secret Santa your gift exchanges. It's a really great way to make sure you're supporting them on small businesses this holiday season, and you can be a part of it on our website. We'll make sure we leave that link in the notes. We've been doing it for, what, four years now? I guess since the pandemic. So four years of a holiday gift guide. What else? We have a couple new products here in Ggc HQ. Our tulip hair clip is one of them and it's one that I've been working on this whole year. I'm seriously learning to work with factories, and manufacturing has been a learning process for me. I was hoping to get the tulip Claw clip launching in spring. Obviously scented that tulip, but here we are in the fall and tulips can be worn in the fall too, y'all. So that is made out of cellulose acetate, which is really cool. It's a plant based plastic alternative. So check that out on our shop. We of course have our stickers that are newly launched. We have a couple of girly pops for Kamala. We have our new political signs as well. Good witches and witches for Kamala Harris. So those are really fun and spooky and important. I'll throw in a make sure you're registered to vote here. Please make sure that your friends and family are registered to vote and that they're planning on voting. What else? We are sliding right into event season. Yeah, really? Really. Seeing our first event is Sacramento, November 16th. So then at Salem, I'm not going to go through all of our event dates, but they exist on our website Sacramento, Salem, Providence, Oakland and Malden. So really exciting to circle back to Sacramento and our own venue this time. And our first event in Malden is coming up. We are excited. And if you want to see growing craft in your city next, let us know. Maybe more cities are on our horizon. Okay, I think that's it for now that I want to chat about. Before we dive into the episode, make sure you're following us at Girl Gang Craft. Me personally @phoebesherman and subscribe to this podcast and our newsletter. Please and thank you. That allows you to be first up to know about everything that is going on and opportunities for you. Okay, let's get into this episode with Madison. Madison Page is a business growth specialist, top rated business podcast host, and industry leading online community builder. She helps brands build a ride or die online community so that you can stand out and sell out your products and launches. Her genuine spirit, high energy and nine years of experience in the social media world. Supporting thousands of businesses in their growth journey equips her to bring you high level, practical tips as your newest, best growth bestie. Listen to our podcast, Small Business Growth Podcast on Spotify. Let's get into it. Oh, hello. Hello. Hey, Madison, welcome to the podcast.

Madison
Thanks so much. I'm so excited.
To be here.
Phoebe
So excited to have you tell us who you are and what you do for work.

Madison
Yeah. Hi. My name is Madison Paige. Most people call me Maddie. I am a business girl specialist for startups, brand artists, makers, anything like that that you are making products and selling products. I help people build Ryder Die communities on social media. So you know how to stand out and sell out through social. I have my own podcast called the Small Business Growth Podcast, and I've helped over 400 business owners intimately, really helped grow their business to where they want it to be.
And thousands more through the podcast as well.
Phoebe I love it. And how did you get started having your own business?
Madison Yeah, my story is kind of crazy. I kind of always have been an entrepreneurial kid. I bet I could list a million businesses I had as a kid. I was making bracelets, I had lemonade stands, I was doing dog walking, I was babysitting, I was making like slideshows at 12 years old for weddings. Like, I have just always been this kid that needed this project.
And I loved it. And my family bought into an adventure resort when I was 12 years old. We do whitewater rafting, ziplining, paintballing, cabins, camping and it scratched the itch that I needed to want to be a full time entrepreneur for my entire life. By the time I was 14, I was answering phone call reservations. 16 I was the operations manager of like a staff of 50, and I just jumped right on in.
And it really just sealed the deal that I wanted to run a business forever. I couldn't imagine working for somebody else and having that be dictated for me. So I went to school. I went to college for business management and marketing. I did a blog in college because again, your girl needs a project at all times. If I don't have a project, I get a little bored.
I started a blog sustainability, kind of all natural living, things like that. And it started to work and it was like OG influencer, I was a blogger, all right? Like it was before. That was really huge. To be an influencer on the Amazon links, all of that. I was a blogger and I was selling products on my blog and it started to take off.
And so much so that in my college town, other businesses were like, hey, what are you doing? Your social media is working. You're doing all of these things. So I started social media management, and then it turned into coaching people, how to do social media and how to just kind of grow their business. Because in order to be successful on social media, you need a lot of business foundations.
And now I have been coaching businesses for about four plus years on how to grow on social media, whether it's brick and mortar, whether it's online product services, whatever. But I mostly kind of work with product based businesses, whether you're a startup, whether you're a maker, you're an artist. I help you build that community, which is kind of that stand out point is how you are successful online.
My framework is all around building this community that is so obsessed with your brand.
Phoebe I love it. Adventure camp. Yes.
Madison Oh my gosh, it's wild. It's a blast. Which is why I live in my bus now is because I was not ready to give up the adventurous lifestyle. But I like the freedom of my business that I have, and I live out of a mini school bus and kind of travel around with my boyfriend and my puppy.
Phoebe I love it. Okay, what is your sort of structure of your business look like today? Are you meeting with clients more one on one? Do you have classes and courses? Yeah. To more. I have a little.
Madison Bit of everything. My podcast is really where the hub of my community is. The Small Business Growth Podcast. I put two episodes out a week and I love hanging out with people there. And then I have my podcast, which is where a lot of people find me. It's where my community is. I'm on Instagram at this is Madison Page, and then my programs.
People work with me intimately for 3 to 6 months, and I really help them either get to consistent sales or scaling up to $500,000 of sales. And I do corporate consulting as well. So it's a lot of very intimate time. I like getting in the weeds with you. I really like you coming to me. And whether you are starting scaling or just want me to come in and help you with your social strategy from a corporate level, I love to be like, all right, show me the numbers.
Let me see what's going on. Let me see what your strategy is. What are you like here? What is your vision here? And I'm really in the weeds with you. I do have a passive course, but the majority of my clients, I work really, really intimately together. And I have some shorter term stuff. I have like a VIP week, but mostly I am teaching you curriculum like science based strategy in order to make social media make more sense for you and really have kind of that strategy, that system there for you.
Phoebe So one of the things is that I wanted to talk about today, which you talk about one of your podcast episodes, and I think we really have very similar communities. I mean, we also have some service based folks too, but obviously the maker artist community is a common place. I was just on her podcast as well a second ago, and then we're switching and we're doing a little back to back.
But why do you think folks who are selling in-person at craft fairs have a hard time translating that to the online space? I hear all the time that some of you listening, even myself, I sell my product well in person and then online. It gets a little tricky. What does that disconnect? What do you think we're missing over here on the social media world?
And that actually driving sales online when it maybe is easy in person.
Madison For sure it is easier in person, doesn't mean that it's incredibly easy, but it is easier in person wise because people come credit card in pocket, like ready to tap their Apple Pay and like ready to buy. They are showing up and in their head they're like, okay, I might buy some fresh flowers, I might get a new ring today.
Maybe I want some of these things and it allows you them to show up and they're like, okay, they're ready to shop, they're already there, they're ready to shop. Whereas online, how do you consume content? You're sitting on the couch, you're in line somewhere. Maybe you are at a stop sign. Don't tell the police, whatever that might be.
You are in the middle of doing something, you are doing something else. And a lot of times it's like filling gaps or you're swamped on the couch, you're disassociating and you're just like, ready to chill, to bring somebody from that chill in between busy life to let me go get my credit card, let me get my Apple Pay going in order to get there, is a very different switch.
Plus, they don't have that added push of the personal connection that they see in person, online, or the feeling, the seeing, the tasting, the smelling of your product. When people can pick up a product and be like, oh, I love this, immediately they can feel it. They can see the quality of it, they can get the texture of it makes a very big difference than when they're looking through a screen.
And you have to create that online. We have to focus on building that personal connection through building community, as well as giving them all of those senses that they can have answer those questions and build that on social so people can still get that experience and build that ecosystem of sales online. Why would somebody want what you have?
What are the benefits of it? What does it feel like? Is it going to be greasy? Is it going to be whatever soft like what are the feelings, the textures. And you have to build that online with that personal connection piece, because you can build personal connection and community through social media kind of makes that market energy that you feel that craft for energy really like, oh, I just wish people could find me and be like, wow, I love this like they do in person.
We want to bring that online. And that's really through building that ecosystem of sales, making that personal connection and sharing all of the different senses and what it's like to actually own your product, feel your product, where your product whatever online as well.
Phoebe So what are some of those ways that we can get folks excited about our products?
Madison Yeah, I would say the number one thing is don't be afraid to create content that's like product placement content. That's how does your product plays into their life. Whether you are selling clothing and you're like, this is how I'm styling it. This is how you wear this to a date night, to brunch, to shopping at target with the girls, or if it's a candle, like, here is my evening routine on how I like my candle, how I journal, how I do these different things.
How is this candle placing into or this product placing into your routine into your day? How are they using it? So it kind of sets that scene. And this takes a strong understanding of your ideal customer. How would they use your product? When are they lighting your candle? When are they putting your earrings on? Where are they wearing that clothing?
Where are they going? What different places? It's using the proper messaging and associations with other things and products and routines in order for people to say, oh, okay, this is a business that I really attribute to this is a business that I also like. This is a product that fits into my life because they're showing it with these other things.
That paired with the senses, is if there is if you are selling a product like skincare, skincare and candles are two things that are hard to translate on line skincare because it's a high involvement product. I am lathering that on my face. I need to know what it smells like, what it feels like, what are the ingredients? Is it going to clog my pores?
Is it for the oily skin? Is it for dry skin? Whatever. I need to see that texture of that skin care. If it's a candle, I need a really good map out of what it smells like, how it really is going to make my room feel. Having imagery in that messaging as well as having like a really good map out of the actual scent profiles.
So it's kind of pairing, how is this going to fit into my life? And giving that essential information on your stuff that they can immediately get without subconsciously understand in person? You need to map it out a little bit for them online.
Phoebe And what are some ways that we can get people excited about, like a launch, for instance. Let's say people are putting things out to crickets or low sales. What are some ways that we can sort of boost that launch sale.
Madison For sure. Yeah, one of the biggest things that I see is that people don't want to talk about their launch too much before it's actually launched, but 90% of the energy comes prior to the actual launch. If you want people to show up at the launch, you got to talk about it a couple of times at least, before you actually are saying this is launching a problem that I see as people saying, okay, it's out there, go and buy it, and maybe they say, hey, we're launching tomorrow, come and show up.
And then they launch it and they say, okay, it's live. You need to build that energy for days, maybe even a week or two plus prior to actually launching it, because people need to see something on average seven times to even notice it, up to 18 to 24 times to really fully understand what it is. So I'm not saying you need to talk about it 2030 times, but sending out an email, putting a couple of posts out there, building the mood board around what this collection really is and building that energy prior to actually launching it.
And something that I think a lot of people really miss is that when it comes to engagement or when it comes to launching, so they say, oh, well, nobody's ever in my DMs or oh, like, there's never any energy around my launch. But how are you building that energy? You are really training your audience to engage with your launches, to engage with your social the way that you want them to.
So if you are kind of lazy around your own launches and you're just like, oh, you're afraid to sell, this is going to be out there. I've been putting so much time and effort into it. Would love if you showed up and supported me. That is going to be perceived as meek on the other side of the phone as well.
If you are showing up and you're saying, oh my gosh, you guys are going to love this, here's the mood board. This is the best thing I've ever done. I have so much energy in my DMs around it. You guys are loving it. People are feeding off of your energy if you're excited about it. If you're showing other people excited about it, more people are going to be excited about it.
Excitement is an exchange when you bring it, more people bring it as well. It's just like having that one person in the friend group when you're like on a night out that's pumped and you know that person is bringing energy and you're like, okay, she's the cheerleader. That person is bringing the energy you need to be that person for your own brand, for your own launches.
So pairing, talking about it for a lot of days, sharing multiple like this is for these people. Or like here's a cute little moodboard. This Pinterest photo encapsulates everything to do with this launch, giving some sneak peeks kind of gamifying your launch prior to it even being live is number one is key. You have to talk about it.
I say at least 5 to 7 times minimum in your different areas prior to launching. Or on the other end of it is you have to bring that energy if you aren't feeling it, or even if you are, if you have one DM, you're screenshotting that DM and you're putting it out there and you're saying, wow, this person so excited about it.
I know you guys are excited. I'm excited too, and kind of keeping that energy going. It's really on you to bring the energy to your own social, to your own launches. Another multiple.
Phoebe Yeah, I think that's so good. I mean, I think the launch thing is so key, and I think a lot of people are realizing that the launch system is better than having your items available all the time. That's not meaning. That is to say that you can't also have your items available afterwards, but creating the scarcity around how many you have creating this sort of like, okay, you really need to be on the computer at this time because this is when it's launching.
I think that's really potent. I think a lot of people are scared about that, because they don't want people to see if they're not all sold out. I think the excitement part is also really scary because even for myself, it's hard to talk about your products and be excited about them all the time because you don't know how many people are going to buy into them, or that class is going to get full, or if like you're sort of excited about this product, it's just hard.
It's hard to when you aren't guaranteed to see those results. It's almost like you're faking yourself. Oh, I don't know. Do you have anything to say about any of that?
Madison Yeah, for sure. And I do think like it is hard, especially in the beginning when you're trying to get to that consistent sales mark of Matty. I can only show up so stoked for so many days in a row before I'm like, and nobody else reciprocating before I'm like, okay, maybe I shouldn't be so stoked about this. Yes, you can fake it during a launch.
More than anything, you don't have to be that high energy that 12 out of 1030 days out of the month. You can just do it for those. If you can just bring it for like 3 to 5 days around your launch, and I want you in the morning to sit down. And every morning, or maybe the first day is write down, oh my gosh, I sold out within an hour.
I had so many people so stoked about this. My DMs were blowing up. The tracking noise on my phone was going off time after time after time. Holy cow, I'm so excited about how this collection went and either if you have to rewrite it, if you have to read it, if you have to listen to a voice recorded and listen to it in the morning to bring that energy and show up as if that's happening, because if we show up as if it might not sell out, it probably isn't going to bring the same amount of energy in return.
If we show up and we say, this is going to be the best damn thing that has ever came out there, and people are going to love it, and we show up with that energy as if it's happening. It'll happen more often and we see this in people's first launch. We see this in their first launch that does really well where they're like, oh my gosh, they're so excited.
They have like all of these DMs. They have all of these stories going out of like, oh my gosh, I'm overwhelmed. You guys are crushing it. Like, go and buy it. We're sold out. If you show up with a similar energy before that's actually happening, it'll happen a lot sooner for you. I'm not somebody that's like Woowoo Energetics all the time.
When it comes to launching, you need to be confident on what you're selling. I can show up and sell my courses. I can show up and sell my stuff because I know what I'm selling. I know that is freaking awesome. And whether these other people think that it's not, it's on me to tell them how great it is and to share that experience and to show, okay, look at how cute this is.
Look at how you can pair these. You're going to love it. This is all of the benefits, the features, all of this. But if you have that energy and you come forward excited about it, excitement is contagious. If people come to you and they're excited, if you're in a group of people and they're kind of like who like they're kind of melancholy and they're kind of like, did you do?
And then you're in a group of people that are stoked on life. Don't you think that that excitement is kind of going to breed in a different way when it comes to launches? Launches are the first thing when you're getting to consistency sales online that you want to master. Why? Because they are inevitably going to be the days that you get the most amount of sales.
So if you can master sales for 3 to 5 days of how to launch, start to get those immediate sales. And like you said, having that scarcity, they're having it. These are limited edition drops. And it doesn't matter if you don't sell out the average business. Look at Kendra Scott. Look at Anthropologie. Look at all of these other people.
They don't sell out right away. And that's okay because they have that inventory there. But having that scarcity is key upfront. And so you can have if you have a small batch, make five of them. It's already low inventory. Make five of them. If you sell three that's great. And you're able to kind of feed off of that okay.
We only have three of these left. We have the small batch there. So a yes, it's a lot of how you show up, how confident you are in these things. And it is a little bit of fake it till you make it for 3 to 5 days. But the more you fake it till you make it for those 3 to 5 days and it isn't faking it.
If you have a strategy, you know that this is working. You know that there's a method behind this for those 3 to 5 days. If you can just put this face on that, you have the best, most sold out business. And then for the rest of it, we try to figure out, okay, how do we sell the rest of this now and then we can kind of go from there.
But when you're first getting to consistent sales, that launch time is huge. Because if you can be really, really I mean, I have clients that I help them grow from. Their sales are already successful, but they become more successful when they can show up with this as well. And all across the board, if you show up in this light of this launch is going to rock.
My products are awesome. It'll come a lot sooner for you. Kind of a rant, kind of a pep talk, but that is my say on those different things. If you can bring that energy for 3 to 5 days that you have literally the best business and everybody's going to love it and it's going to be incredible. It's going to come sooner than if you show up and you're like, ooh, maybe nobody will buy this.



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And I think that's such a huge mindset shift. And it's really challenging and challenging. And launches can really be exhausting and they can really be draining. Do you have any suggestions about how to keep this excitement for 3 to 5 minutes? I mean, 3 to 5 days feels tangible. Yeah. Also, the 3 to 5 days before a launch seems good to you if you don't have to worry about seven days after, like let's say your cart is open, you still have to continue through that and you're checking hours and it's hard.
And we all know core sales are different too. Sometimes those sales come at the very last day to so that but I guess it's a different, different ballgame. What do you do to keep yourself feeling excited through a launch?
Madison For sure. And I think something about launches is when you're trying to get to consistent sales, it's hard because it is you bringing energy, and it kind of feels like you're putting it out to the void. You're like, here we go. Let me bring all of this excitement. I'm stoked on it. And it can last those 3 to 5 days.
And then you're like, okay, Maddie, what is going on here? I don't really know if I can do much more of this. I do think writing down what it's like to feel like it is that high energy can kind of change your energy. They're reminding yourself that especially if you're in like a launch and in the first whatever.
If you're having like 50% off for those five days or you are launching a course or whatever that is, that you have something for a set period of time, 25% of your sales normally happen in the first day, 25 in between, and the last 50% of your sales happened in the last 24 hours. So understanding that if you are letting yourself die out as soon as the launch happens, then all of a sudden you are kicking yourself in the foot and losing 75% of the possible sales.
So if somebody doesn't buy the first day, it's okay. I've had plenty of launches that nobody buys the first day, but I'll sell out by the end of it. And that's because you can keep that energy there, which it's hard to do. It's easier said than done, and I think, yes, writing it down for sure. Second is having a strategy that you are confident in what you're doing is actually working.
I think where it gets really frustrating is when you're like, I don't even know if what I'm doing is the right thing I should be doing, or if it's actually going to get me there. If you at least have a plan, if you at least have a what, why and how behind what you're doing, it definitely helps. Launching is one of my favorite things to teach, because you can see a very immediate shift.
If you have been nurturing for so long, you're posting on social, you're putting this stuff out there. If you just add sales strategy. Forbes seven days, these seven days around the launch, you'll start to see that momentum really quickly, because that is the time that you are really putting all of that sales strategy into it. So I think launching understanding that if you can bring that energy three to 5 to 7 days, whatever you can give, that your sales can increase very quickly, whether you have 300 followers, 505,000, whatever.
You can see results on those launch days. And also understanding kind of detaching from which again, is very hard to do, detaching from the outcome of your launch and thinking of it more as an experiment. Change something up. If you are launching something the exact same every time and it's not working for you, it's going to keep not working.
If it didn't work the first time, it's not going to work the second, the third or the 10th time that you try it. Thinking of this, I had somebody say to me once, we should think of our business as a college project. Like when you were in college, you didn't really care or like high school or whatever. You didn't really care about the outcome of that.
Yes, you wanted an A or B sounds good, but if your experiment worked or if it didn't, if it was inconclusive, it was inconclusive and you were like, dang, okay, now I have to write about it. If we can bring that kind of detachment to our business, which is hard to do because it's our baby, it's our passion, it's our love child that we have put so much time and energy into.
But if you can really work on that detachment and have more curiosity as to like, okay, why didn't this work? I have this strategy. If you already know you have a strategy and you did it this time and you were like, okay, why didn't this work? Let's try it a second time and say, oh, I posted more testimonials prior to this launch and it did work better.
Oh, this time I talked to way more about the style and the use and how to use my product, and it worked better. Okay, now how can I keep adding on to that? So it's almost taking your launches, especially when they aren't working or even when they are, and adding one little piece, changing one little piece at a time and seeing what is changing, what is working for you.
And if you don't have a strategy around a launch, if you don't know what your phases of your launch are going to be, what you should be posting before, during and after that is step one. Learning the strategy around launching. Step two is detaching. How can we detach this and just get curious around what is working for your launches?
Phoebe Can you give us a little insight into the steps of the launch?
Madison Yeah, I think prior to it's all intrigue, getting people excited like intrigue. What is it going to be? I think a mood board giving a mood board to your collection. So if your collection is whatever ferry Summer Wonderland, you're putting some cute little photos out there from Pinterest together and saying, if this is your vibe, this collection is going to be for you.
Prior to you're saying if this is something that you love, or if you are somebody that wants a summer that looks like this, put four little emojis out there. A lot of people, 90% of people are visually motivated. So we can visually put kind of a collection, a theme, a vibe to our launch, say this is the type of vibe that it is, announce it like, okay, we're putting this stuff out there.
This is the vibe. This is the vibe show. We're putting a new line of X, Y, and Z out there, maybe a day or two before you actually release show that excitement. We start with intrigue. We switch to excitement. We say, wow, you guys are so stoked about this, I love this, I love that you love it. I love that all of this excitement is happening.
Then you launch it. You want to launch at peak excitement with your audience, almost to the point where you're like, I've been talking about this a little bit too much. People might be sick of me and then you want to launch it. Then when people are in, your DMs are so stoked. You launch it, you open cart and then you have to keep that going, that excitement going, okay, thank you for buying.
People are buying immediately. We have three of these left. This is low stock on this one. Or if nobody's buying you're just saying wow we had people on our website. Wow you guys are loving this launch. I'm so excited that this is out there. And then we switch to scarcity. So intrigue, excitement and then scarcity. We kind of want to move through that.
And that scarcity is we have three left. We have our whatever first ten people to buy get X, Y and Z incentive. And it's almost over. Kind of switching over to that scarcity is okay, where if you don't have actual scarcity, how can we make it? Is it with an incentive? Is it with low inventory? Is it with everybody that buys until Friday?
Get something for free and adding that level of scarcity. So we start with intrigue prior to launching, and then we move into excitement in the middle of the excitement, peak excitement we are launching, keeping that excitement going, moving into scarcity.
Phoebe I love that switching a little bit. I know on the podcast too, you mentioned the seven types of content. Yeah. Would you like to go into that?
Madison Yeah. So the seven types of content is one of my frameworks that I have really developed over the years. When I started social media management, I was doing it for them and I was like, okay, I need to like in order to teach this. Like in my head it was just this. These are things I needed to post in order to teach it.
I needed to make it into a framework. So I needed to understand what it was. And while I was in school for business management and marketing, I was learning all of these different things. So I was learning the four types of buyers why people buy, what motivates them to buy, as well as I was learning the buying cycle, the buying process, people find you, they love you, they want what you have, and then they buy.
What I did was I basically meshed all of these things together of like, okay, why people buy and where they're at in the buying cycle and created seven different types of content. So you are positive every single time that you post on social media that somebody is buying from you, or at least getting closer to buying. If somebody isn't buying when you hit post, they are at least moving from a cold lead to a warm lead or a warm lead to a hot lead, whatever that is.
You are always confident in every single post. You're no longer like throwing the spaghetti at the wall and being like, let me hope that somebody like that one, because I thought it was kind of clever, you know, that what you're putting out there, it works. My seven types of content is something that I teach all of my clients, but they all move under the process of some content is made to grow, some content is made to nurture your audience and your community and make that connection.
And some content is made to sell. What the majority of people do is they only post content that is behind the scenes. This is me making my product. This is me packaging my orders, which is nurturing slightly, but there's no depth to it. There's no real message there. And then they post content to okay, go and buy it.
Okay. Now it's out there going by. Or it's like, look at how great this is. Look at this pattern. I love it so much. Go and buy it. Those are two of the seven types of content. Is selling content and personality content sharing who you are a little bit. So you're only really speaking to 28% of your audience.
If you're only posting two of the seven types of content, what we have to do is we need deeper topics, as what people are really missing is they're missing the educational points. They're missing what values you have as a business owner. They're missing kind of those deeper elements, those topics that you want to speak about. And that is what creates kind of that buy in.
You need to tell them again how to use it again. The education points, the frameworks, the ingredients, why you use the ingredients and all of those different things, how it fits into their life. The seven types of content is its own framework, but really understanding that you just have to get deeper than just, here's my product, go and buy it.
Look at how cute this is. Look at this new pattern. Look at this new whatever. I created this new saying that I put on this shirt. It is why do we do this? Why do we stand for these things? Why do we choose it? So the why, the how, the what kind of adding a lot of different bits and pieces into the messaging that you're creating.
Phoebe I love it, I'm like taking notes.
Madison Yeah, you're good, I love that I.
Phoebe Am I literally ran out.
Like I'm just running so hard.
So like, I mean, I love that, I love a framework, I love a framework, and I think it's so important. And I was listening to your episode the other day too, and I love to share my personal experience, too. What happens for me is we do so much that my apparel gets put in last place. Yeah, and it is challenging to have energy again.
Here's this energy portion when I'm management team and doing my podcast and throwing events and teaching classes to also market my apparel. Yeah, but it is so important to do it. And it's kind of the origin story of our brand also. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's about time management setting aside that time to do it, making sure it's a priority.
But I think that job for the apparel stuff is lacking where it's not necessarily lacking with our other content. So I've been personally thinking about like, how do I bring more depth into what I'm talking about our Divinity sweatshirt or talking about how our business was started with our uterus pain, blah, blah, blah. And I think a lot of people are in that same place, maybe not to the same thing where they're doing all of these revenue streams that I am, but everyone's doing a lot.
Everyone's doing too much. We need to prioritize this depth of content, and I think it's easy to throw up a carousel. It's easy to do a trending audio, and we forget about the buying journey. We forget about, like, how are we nurturing people? How are we getting people to find our page? How are we getting them to connect with us?
And then how are we telling them they're missing the sales strategy, which we talked about this launching. A lot of people are missing doing email marketing, period. Yeah, which is so important. But I think conceptualizing this process as a creative process and a scientific process. Yeah, I think that merging is just missing. And a lot of our community, I think it is helpful to have these sort of checklist.
Okay. What is this piece of content actually doing? What is the point of this? Or looking at your own content and thinking, okay, what is missing here? What pieces are missing here? Or like, am I just doing what other people are doing, or am I just service level, putting out a piece of content and checking them out? And regardless, having structure behind the piece of content and not caring about the engagement, putting your phone down afterwards, not seeing how it's going to thing.
Yeah, knowing that this piece of content is part of your strategy and part of the customer journey, I think is so important.
Madison Yeah. And I think a lot of times, a lot of what you just said is so true. I mean, all of it. But what is so important to understand is social media is a gift, even if I don't think it's wonderful for society, I don't think it's wonderful for people's mental health. I don't think it's great for people in general, for business owners.
It's a gift and we are given this platform that millions of people are already active on for hours a day, and you are given this platform to be able to create for free. And yes, you can pay for it. Yes, there's monetary elements, you can pay for ads, you can pay for reach, you can do all of these things.
But at the end of the day, you can build this business for free. I truly can't even imagine building a business, especially the business I have now without social media. I have no idea how I would do it. I would have to rework a lot. So we were given this gift, and I think a lot of people first see themselves as a creator or as a maker.
They want to be the person they love. The reason they started their business, especially in the maker world, is because they love the product and they love either. Maybe it was a hobby for that, maybe they embroidered, or maybe they did pottery or whatever, and then they made it into a business, whereas they were that artist first, and then they're adding this other marketing business owner hat, whereas in business it is a mix between art and science.
There is science there and there is a creative process there. So we kind of have to find that mix, but you have to have the art behind it and you have to have the strategy in order for it to work. So many creators, crafters, makers, whatever business owners in general almost try to add this business owner hat onto this hobby or onto this activity that they love to do, whereas it kind of has to be flip flops.
The moment you start the business, your priority is getting people to buy and to see your brand. It is that and it's one of my pet peeves of marketing is like, there's a lot of audios out there of like, I hate social media, like, here's my stupid piece of content for the day. But at the end of the day, you're like docking this gift that you've been given that that is the major focus for your brand.
So I think the mindset shift alone of instead of social media being this like pastor in the background that you have to do without social media, how are you making sales? And if you have an answer other than markets, other than markets, but online sales markets are fantastic. But for online sales, how are you doing it if you don't want to do SEO, if you don't want to pay for ads, if you don't want to do all of these other things, or have a brick and mortar store, you need to have a social media presence.
It's part of society at this point, finding a strategy that works for you. If you are feeling like social media is daunting is like over consuming of your life, it's frustrating 100%. A lot of times you don't have a strategy that really works for you and for your own brain, or you just don't have like the science and the why behind all of it.
If right now I asked you why did you post that? Or like what was the intention behind it? Did you have like what stage of that buying cycle are you in? Most people would say, Maddie, I have absolutely no frickin idea because I just put it out there. Whereas when you know those, it's not adding anything to your plate.
It's actually just making what you're already doing stronger. So if you are feeling this like daunting element behind social and yes, there's so much to that. Like you said, we have such a long to do list, especially if it's a side hustle. If it's not your full time gig, your life, it is busy. Life is busy 100%. But social media, honestly, if you were doing nothing else other than making your product and posting quality content on social media with a strategy, I would be happy because you're social media.
At least putting a piece of content out there can make you feel like somebody is either getting closer to buying, finding me, or wanting to at least check out my website when it comes to that frustration, I think finding is like not everybody's strategy is going to work for you. I'll be the first to say that I teach a very community based, heart based strategy that, like, you are going to be a part of your business.
I don't want to say you're the face of the business, but people are going to connect to you as a business owner. If that's something that you are like, absolutely not. I can teach you other ways, but I think you're missing out on a major strategy. There's other people that say, absolutely don't put your face behind your social.
You just need to post four times a day. And that's good. That's not my strategy. My strategy is very intentional, very methodical. You have to find somebody that you like the way they market or you like their ideals, their values, and learn a strategy that you feel like really works for you. With science, with strategy. And then you can morph it into what feels really good for you.
Phoebe I love that, yeah. Let's see, how do you balance it all? How are the ways that you take care of yourself and your. Yeah, okay.
Madison And I want to disclaimer that 100% that a I don't have kids. I do this full time. I've been doing it full time for a long time. I have literally been a business owner or a manager since I was 16. When I was working at my family's business, I was working 17 hour days. I was burnt out. I had the longest to do list, the highest expectations on myself.
And when I started this business, I said it was enough and I wasn't going to do that. Value, freedom and balance in your life. No matter if you have a product based business, a service based business, whatever, you deserve to have time outside of your business. What I think is incredibly important as a business owner is to build your identity as anybody, build your identity into who you are as a person, your values, your interests, your hobbies outside of your accomplishments, which I think is really hard for a lot of us, and something I am still working on is when that launch doesn't work, you can look at it and be like, right, I'm still
an incredible person. I have my self-worth elsewhere. But why did this not work? And look at it from that curiosity point and that strategy point of like, what did I do here that like just didn't really work as well? I think taking care of yourself outside of it and building an identity separate from being a business owner, this goes for moms, this goes for anybody.
I sank my identity into my family's business, and when I chose to step away from it, I realized I had no idea who I was outside of it. I had to build that own identity, my own self-worth, outside of these things that I was doing and trying to accomplish. Because at the moment that it goes away, it's just like an athlete.
When they have played a sport through college since they were five years old, that last game, their senior year of college, they're not going pro. They're like, who am I? What am I going to do? This was my life. This is what I put so much into, taking time for yourself. When you see your self worth outside of your achievements, it makes you want to prioritize that balance a little bit more, prioritizing whatever it is.
If you like to go for walks, if you like yoga, if you like all of these other things, how I do it is going to be different than how you do it, because I like different things than you do. I value different things. For me, I love a good slow morning, so I have my little routine that I do in the morning.
I do a meditation, I do gratitude, I read 5 to 10 pages of a book. Maybe I'll check out what's going on in the news, maybe a little bit, and I'll do a morning routine. I'm really into kind of the health and wellness and all natural lifestyle stuff. So I have a lot of supplements and I do yoga.
I'll do different workouts or I'll go for a walk or something like that. But really having your own time, like I tell myself, I work 10 to 4 every day, not negotiable, am I? Most of the time answering messages by 8:00 am? Yeah, I am, but I non-negotiable work from 10 to 4 and what I like to say is be structured when you can be so when you don't want to be, you don't have to be.
You can be structured. I tell myself, I work 10 to 4, but if one of my friends on a Wednesday says, hey Maddy, I'm going out to lunch, do you want to join me? And I've been structured and I feel like my calendar is okay. I will say yes because I've been so structured on those other days. So when I didn't want to be, I can say, yeah, sure, I'll go and get lunch with a friend, but it's giving yourself structure where you can, when you can.
And if that's one hour a day, once your baby is in bed and you are able to sit down that one hour, we want to make sure it is as effective as possible and be structured in that one hour when maybe tomorrow your baby's a little fussy before bed. You're not able to do it. You still feel good because you were able to at least do it yesterday.
Finding the structure, finding the time management that works for you, as well as having things outside of business. Something I've been working on is trying to figure out how to because my business is on my phone, how to detach from it on the weekends and the evenings and all of this. And it's a hard thing to do because I see the notifications pop up, I see all of these other things and you're like kind of constantly on it.
So trying to find different ways that work for you, that sets boundaries, that allows you to do it. So setting your own calendar, being structured in your calendar in whatever time you are given or that you have that you can a lot, even if it's an hour or a week or two hours a week, like those two hours, you are so zoned in and you know exactly what you're doing, having kind of those routines, but also knowing that you have this life outside of it and you have this self-worth outside of it.
You have these values. You have all of these other interests that you can also utilize to decompress. And a lot of times it's in that decompression and those restful times that we're actually able to build our business or have better ideas or actually do better for everything else that we're building.
Phoebe And that's the core benefit of running your own business. You do have time for stuff outside, and hopefully you love your business. And I think the more burnt out you are, the more you don't like your business. Make time for the other stuff. I mean hopefully, most likely. That's one of the reasons why we're doing this. Like I went to the beach on Wednesday because it was 85 degrees and I cleared my water.
Yeah, maybe I'm working on Monday for Memorial Day and SAT or whatever, figuring out your give and take and like, give yourself space to do these other things. And exactly what you said, like I have the best idea is when I'm at the beach or like in the shower or like a long drive or something. This is also working because, yeah, it's sort of holistic.
Our business is us, vice versa. And you like channeling good ideas or being open to receive good ideas. That's really cool. And part of it too. I like to say going to the gynecologist is also part of my job. You know.
Madison Like my job, I'm going to get my eyes checked or yeah, I go to the gynecologist like it's something I have to do. Like you said, go to the grocery store. You said on my podcast as part of your CEO day, because we do have to eat at some point.
Phoebe Yeah, we have to do all these things. We have to take care of ourselves. Yeah.
Madison And it is why we have a business is for that freedom. And I like to call it kind of free. Preneur lifestyle is having this balance, and I think a lot of people start their business for that. But it gets lost. They get lost in the source and everything else. You have to come back to it and your business isn't too far gone to get there.
No matter where you're at, you can always start to build that in. You need to have a process to it. You need to figure out what that looks like for you, kind of follow like get some ideas of how that works and kind of build that freedom back into your life.
Phoebe Yeah, and there might be seasons when you're busier than other times too. But as long as you're like over crafting and sort of, yeah, I don't know.
Madison This is Memorial Day weekend and honestly, I'm stoked to work all weekend. I don't have anything going on. I had an opportunity to it. I feel a ton of motivation right now. I feel a lot of inspiration. I feel like I have a lot of ideas and things I want to implement. So I probably will work on Saturday, maybe on Monday for sure, because I don't have anything else to do, so I might as well.
And I'll hang out with my friends all day Sunday. And that's what I want to do. And having that ability that right now, if I want to be structured on Saturday, that's fine. But next week, if somebody calls me and says, hey, Friday, like I'm doing this thing, I can say, yeah, because I felt good about what I've been doing and I don't feel like I have to be that guilt free time away from your business is good, and understanding those times of hustle, even though I'm all about balance, there's weeks that I'm overloaded 100%, and there's weeks that I'm like, I could have probably done more this week, but it's okay and it all
balances out.
Phoebe Okay, well, this has been amazing. Thank you for joining us, Madison. Can you tell our listeners where they can find you?
Madison Yeah. Listen to my podcast. It's the Small Business Growth podcast. You'll see me. I'm in a little daisy field right there. Or come hang out with me on Instagram at this is Madison Page. You can see all of my stuff there. You can get my links. You can check out my boss and my puppy and yeah, so I would say Small Business Growth podcast check out there.
I put out new episodes twice a week every Tuesday and Friday and come hang out with me on Instagram. I could post 100 Instagram stories a day because I feel like it's just so dang fun. Yeah, that's for you and finding.
Phoebe Thank you so much for your time.
Madison Yes, you're so welcome. Thanks for having me.

Thank you so much for listening to the Girl Gang Craft podcast. Head to GirlGangCraft.com/podcast for Shownotes and more. See you next time.