The Sweet Side of Gifting: [ Part II ] with Chelsea Martin on Episode #0205

Intro [0:00]
EA Interviews Episode 205. Inspiration, transformation, success stories, and the Imperfect Action Round seven days a week. Join Mario Fachini for today’s Expert Authority Effect Interview.

Mario Fachini [0:13]
Do you like delicious food? Do you love increasing sales? Because I am excited to have Chelsea Martin, the co-owner of Noms Bake Shop here. You might recognize the name from the last episode with her husband, Trevor. They have such delicious cookies that you can use to increase your profits. And I don’t know about you, but making more money and eating good food sounds good to me. And if you want some real fun, you can even check out the unboxing video where they were kind enough to send me one of their custom boxes. And I dove the heck into it and it was phenomenal. But I want to dive right in and bring her up right after we thank our sponsor. Chelsea Martin.

Sponsor – Free Business Book Publishing Course [0:59]
Every business needs a book, including yours. Visit FreeBusinessBookPublishingCourse.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Once again, that’s FreeBusinessBookPublishingCourse.com.

Mario Fachini [1:14]
Here she is ladies and gentlemen, the lovely Chelsea Martin. Chelsea, how are you feeling today?

Chelsea Martin [1:19]
I’m doing awesome. Thank you for having me.

Mario Fachini [1:22]
I’m excited to learn your perspective on your company. It was great talking with your husband, Trevor. But I want to know a little bit more about your backstory and your perspective on it. Because you guys are up to some sweet things, if you will. Well, I did that. And I want to know, where did you get the idea from it?

Chelsea Martin [1:45]
Oh, gosh. Well, my backstory is a little bit different. As you know, or as some of your listeners may have heard from Trevor, my husband. He grew up with these cookies in the household, his father was a retired computer programmer, or is one now but at the time, he would also is kind of a side hobby, bake a lot. And they became well known in the neighborhoods and kind of in the community surrounding them. As you know, the cookie man, I guess, the guy that brought the delicious cookies to the lacrosse practice or over the holidays to neighbors for the baskets, or like holiday baskets and things like that. So Trevor, my husband and his two sisters, Allison and Andy, they all grew up with these cookies around them. And I kind of make a joke about it, because I think that they lived a little bit in cookie denial as far as how good these cookies are, because they were so used to them. So they might have like a little bit of a cookie snob factor to them, but they didn’t know how good they were. So, you know, flash forward quite a bit later, when my husband and I met, we were dating for a little bit, and he went on a family vacation with me and his parents were kind enough to send a basket of baked goods and treats and everything along with us to give to my family. And they went nuts. I’m not sure how much Trevor gave you but my family or at least my parents are entrepreneurs in the valley in Phoenix and have been for several decades. So they are, I kind of make a joke that they’re kind of like one to six, as far as world domination, they go from A to Z real quick. And so they, you know, had, I want to say seriously a bite of one of the, you know, treats and they were like, “You need to sell them.” “His dad needs to sell them. He needs to get out there and you need to be doing this, you can go sell somewhere in the valley or start a business.” And that’s just the way that they think. And it was very sweet at first, for lack of a better word. But we weren’t necessarily ready to drag his father out of retirement quite yet. But they kept pushing about it. And Trevor came to a spot in his career where he did have a little bit more time now to devote to possibly building this out. So we sat down with his dad and kind of mapped out what this would look like. And it started very small. With him just selling in call centers in Phoenix. Really just as kind of for fun, like once a week going with a table with you know, cookies packaged and going to farmers markets and getting to get out of the house and chat with people. And then it grew a little bit to doing pre ordering of holiday baskets and things like that. And as Trevor stepped in, he has a very entrepreneurial spirit about him. He is the same way where he goes in and he loves looking at businesses and he kind of has that just thing in his blood about wanting to build things and fix things and so he stepped in with his father and started mapping out what it would look like to really scale this up. Simultaneously we were outgrowing the home kitchen. And there’s certain laws associated with that in regards to shipping if you’re under cottage law. And so once we started to…

Mario Fachini [5:12]
I want you to elaborate on that, because I’ve heard of it, but I’m not sure everyone knows all about it. What’s your limit? So if someone wants to start a business in food services, how far can you grow before you need to do something different?

Chelsea Martin [5:30]
Well, I think it’s dependent on a couple of different factors, whether that’s employee numbers, and I can’t speak to that off the top of my head only because we actually still had a very small number of employees. But…

Mario Fachini [5:44]
That’s good.

Chelsea Martin [5:45]
Yeah. And it was, I mean, we still are kind of small, but at the time, it was really, you know, six people, five people, because it was his father, him, his sister, me and a couple of people. So…

Mario Fachini [5:56]
I want to touch on that too, because a lot of people think, I know, in Metro Detroit, with the big three car auto manufacturers, there’s big buildings downtown, just like most major cities, but I remember when I started, people always started a business. I started the business and this is back in 2000, to 2004, 05, 06 and 08, you know, everyone always goes, “When do you start your business?” I’m like, “Which time?” But I went full time in 08. And, you know, I was really excited. I went all in and, you know, I’m doing this. This is what I’m doing for the rest of my life. And they’re like, “Well, where’s your building at?” And business is not a building, and it’s not a number of employees. I know more and more businesses doing serious revenue. And there, I’d be hard pressed to say five or 10 employees, and they’re the most profitable, depending on the industry, if you have a restaurant, it’s different. But you don’t need 50 to 100 employees just to pull off what you’re looking to do anymore.

Chelsea Martin [6:56]
You really don’t. And it’s…

Mario Fachini [6:59]
Good for you for staying… keeping it the way that is. That’s awesome. It’s actually better.

Chelsea Martin [7:04]
Well, thank you, I think it’s a very interesting comment to that you make because as we’ve grown, and I will kind of circle back to that. But as we grew into a commercial kitchen and things like that, we did start to get more of that. I don’t know, it’s I guess validation, for lack of a better word. But really, it was more like people saw that we had a kitchen and they’re like, “Wow, you’re doing amazing.” And really on the business owner side, and it’s not to say we’re not doing amazing, but on the business owner side, we’re seeing how much room we have that we need to grow or where we need to go from here. You know, we’re seeing all the things that we need to do. And a lot of people see a building, and they’re like, you made it you know, you’re you’re in the big time now. And so it is…

Mario Fachini [7:50]
You’re going… we just went from XYZ profit margin to a less of one because now there’s this new expense.

Chelsea Martin [7:57]
Exactly, that is exactly what’s happening with this behind the scenes, we’re like, “Okay, this is actually quite a big iceberg or whatever.” You know, and a lot of people are really seeing that almost as you’ve made it. Whereas really a lot of things that I’ve learned in this because Trevor, like I said, he is in his blood, he’s an entrepreneur. I was not. In my blood, I was not an entrepreneur.

Mario Fachini [8:21]
Really? Even with your parents being so? He had mentioned they’re on the cruise industry.

Chelsea Martin [8:27]
Yes, they actually… they had started a company that partnered with a lot of cruise lines. And this was in the late 90s. And so they ended up really work in the travel industry and partnering with travel companies to provide memberships or loyalty programs for various companies. But they ironically with the cruise industry, they’re based in Phoenix, Arizona. So it’s kind of funny, but they… I think growing up I had this idea that to be a business owner, you almost had to invent something. Because in my eyes they had invented a business model or a membership or this unique, innovative way to partner with cruise lines that hadn’t been done before. And in my head, you had to do something that hadn’t been done before. And so I guess I had wrapped my brain around that in a way that it was an invention or a thing that was just completely new. And I wasn’t really interested in that. I just never saw myself as an entrepreneur looking for the next thing or the next business. I was going to start… I might have seen myself more as a professional or an independent professional, but not necessarily building or owning a business and so it took… it’s a very interesting dynamic because I was I’m like a perpetual student. You know, much my parents dismay. I was in college way too long and I… but I love checking things off…

Mario Fachini [9:58]
I bet I can top you.

Chelsea Martin [10:01]
Okay, well, that would make me feel better. But I love, I love knocking things off a list and completing it. And there’s not really that list that doesn’t really exist the same way. You have to make your own list as an entrepreneur. And that is a little bit… that was a little bit terrifying for me, you know? Flash forward now, I cannot see my life any different in regards to… I can’t see myself working for someone. I can’t see myself not working with my husband. And I can’t see myself not wanting to build something. So it’s funny because I just didn’t have that in me. He taught me a lot of that and I learned a lot from him. And then, you know, I also pull the reins back on him every once in a while too. So, it’s kind of funny. But yeah, I mean, it wasn’t… It is interesting that I am in a weird way following in my parents footsteps in regards to they’re married and built something together, my husband and I are married, built something together, even though that’s not necessarily the path I saw.

Mario Fachini [11:10]
Well, it’s great that you’re doing it and that you can do it together. And that’s one of the things I noticed about business early on is like, it’s something you can put your heart, soul time, energy and money and have the rest of your life. Now, some people argue, you want to make an exit, and you want to build it to sell it. But the reality is you do because you want the business to be at a level that it sells a bowl, but you don’t… It doesn’t mean you have to sell it, it just means you structured it in a way where it’s desirable by someone other than you when everything… When you’re the linchpin, you know, you don’t have a business, it’s you. You can be self employed, you’re an entrepreneur, you’re entrepreneurial, but you can’t sell it. And that’s a big issue that a lot of people have when you’re taking an asset. You know, even where you have it right now, I have no doubt with the systems. And I got to ask you about the packaging, but with the systems and stuff you already have in place, and the packaging and all this stuff, if you wanted to, it’s already desirable. It doesn’t require you or Trevor to be doing any… It doesn’t fall only on the two of you. You could tell everyone all the secrets, the whole process and someone could take it over. That’s where most people don’t get their business because they do whatever. And I don’t want to pigeonhole any industries. But I’ll pigeonhole one — web design, because that’s where I started with. And it’s what also led me to want to develop my own software to that point of being an inventor. I was still entrepreneurial, but you know, I wanted to invent… I didn’t want to invent things. Well, there’s actually a lot of ideas I’ve had, it’s just that when I see a problem, I automatically create solutions. But the web design, there’s so many people say I’m a web designer, but the whole business falls on them. And when I’m coaching people, you have to reframe to “I’m the CEO of a web design company.” Which means you could have 10 or 20 other people doing the web design, whether you’re doing it or not. There’s a big difference there.

Chelsea Martin [13:17]
Right.

Mario Fachini [13:18]
And I think a lot of people confuse entrepreneurial with self employed, and there’s people that go, “Have you ever thought…” Simple question. Have you ever thought about starting your own business? “I don’t want to run a corporation.” I never asked you if you want to run a corporation. I asked if you want to start your own business. You complain about your job every day. It seems logical. I didn’t think that was too intimate of a question, if you will, it seems kind of common sense to me. So I’ve been on both sides of it too. And you’re definitely in the right spot now. So what were you doing before in… what was the transition to go full throttle into this?

Chelsea Martin [14:05]
What I was doing before was not related to cookies in any way, shape, or form other than eating them. I actually write before I live or write for I met my husband and I lived in LA at the time, I just finished grad school and I had gone to grad school for a couple years and I had a vast array of careers from obviously being a student. I also worked at the coroner’s office on cases, which is not related to cookies in any way. And I also ended up shifting and moving into teaching. One of the things that I really love is writing and one of my degrees is in English and Writing. So I ended up getting a Master’s in Education and teaching a little bit and I met my husband while I lived in LA. So I actually ended up moving back to Phoenix and kind of dropping everything there. Well, not dropping any students don’t worry, it was in the summer. But I ended up moving back to Phoenix. And so when I did move back, I moved back into a marketing role in corporate marketing, which was at my parents’ company. And that was something I was very familiar with. My mother heads up most of the marketing or headed up most of the marketing in their company. So I learned a lot from her in general, under kind of just her being my mom. And then I had worked part time on and off throughout college with her. And so I just kind of shifted into that role temporarily. And as Noms started to grow, they ended up having a need for just another person. So we had kind of come to Jesus meeting. And Trevor said, “I think we need you.” And that was a big moment for me. Because even though it sounds kind of silly, because you’re ultimately at the end of the day working for your parents, it was a moment of WOW, I’m about to kind of… I felt like walking the plank a little bit where you were, like, I’m about to walk away from this very familiar role. And to be honest…

Mario Fachini [16:16]
Safe and secure.

Chelsea Martin [16:18]
Yeah, and it’s a paycheck that is coming every week as long as I do the thing, and then I’m going into nothing, and it’s not written and there’s no list. They’re like, “Figure it out.” You know? And so that was exciting, but really, really terrifying for me. So I did have quite a bit of a strange background to getting here. But ultimately, it’s still marketing. And I was really excited because it is something that is fun and resonates with me. It’s really cool to be part of a family company, different family company, but still my family, a family company and building something together. And then ultimately, marketing. It is different, you know, between companies, but it’s about a human connection. And it’s about, you know, finding your target audience and really trying to connect and make something, make a message resonate with them or find a solution to their problem. And that’s what we’re doing, is just with a new company, and this time, it’s you know, mine. So it’s very exciting.

Mario Fachini [17:24]
Excellent. Well, I appreciate you for sharing that. We’re gonna thank our sponsor real quick and come back for more.

Mario Fachini [17:48]
So Chelsea, tell me about the naming. How did you pick the name for your big shot?

Chelsea Martin [17:58]
Okay, have you heard this story before?

Mario Fachini [18:01]
I have not. And there was a few questions I wanted to make sure I asked. One of them was about the packaging. And one of them was about the name because I know it’s Noms Bake Shop. But when you get the package and everyone listening, you should. It says something else LLC.

Chelsea Martin [18:19]
It does. That’s… Oh, good catch. Okay, so I thought maybe somebody prompted you on that. It is a…

Mario Fachini [18:25]
No, I literally was eating all of them. And I was like, question to ask Chelsea.

Chelsea Martin [18:32]
Well, okay, so, you know, like I had said before, this was kind of just a… Originally, this was not I say, this sounds strange to say it this way, like we were trying to get his father out of the house. But really, this was a, you know, kind of side project originally to just have Trevor’s father kind of go and sell cookies and, you know, small kind of side project type of thing. And we still needed an LLC to do that. And I just remember at the time, I still worked at a different company, and Trevor had sent me a text message and he said, “We just had to come up with something.” Right then and it was that moment. And he said, “What about what if we do Nomaste?” And he said, but we spell it N-O-M, like the Cookie Monster like nom, nom nom.” Like a play on words. And I was like, “Cool. Cute.” I’m running by to a meeting and that was like, that was it. You know? Had I known where we would be years later, I would have maybe given that just like a little bit more thought before saying Cool. Cute. Let’s go. Because I…

Mario Fachini [19:44]
Would you have still went to the meeting?

Chelsea Martin [19:46]
I might have pulled back on the meeting. Yeah, I don’t know.

Mario Fachini [19:50]
I think it works. It really does. But when I saw it, I shared some with my sister and brother in law and I was telling some other people. And my sister has been a fitness instructor, and she’s done a lot of stuff in the health and wellness space. And so part of me was like, I got to kick up sales here to sell around a cookie. But these things are epic. She has to try them. But then, you know, like I said, I was looking through it. And I was like, she’d appreciate this too. So I actually used it. And so thanks for that. And I know you have similarity in that regard. But I had a feeling that’s what it was, a play on words. He didn’t say anything, it was after, after the fact eaten, eaten all of them.

Chelsea Martin [20:38]
Well, the only reason I make that joke is that we got so many people that just either they mispronounced it because they were calling it ‘Nomast,’ ‘Nomaste.’ I don’t know that N-O was really getting them. And then they thought we misspelled Namaste. So that was also a problem, especially for somebody that English is a big part of their life, it was a little bit challenging to have to think that people thought we couldn’t spell. And then the final thing is they did think we were healthy. And I mean, our cookies are good. I’m just not sure if they’re healthy. So we would get a lot of inquiries from yoga studios, or…

Mario Fachini [21:19]
Okay.

Chelsea Martin [21:20]
Different… gluten free. And we do have a couple like dietary restrictive cookies, like gluten free or vegan.

Mario Fachini [21:28]
Have you ever considered putting protein in them? Because I’ve heard of protein cookies before? But are you even trying to do any of that? Are you strictly staying in the direct mail and gift market?

Chelsea Martin [21:40]
So when we first did start, that was a huge passion for me as I really, really wanted to do that. But as we started to grow, I think a big goal for us is let’s do one thing, and let’s do it really well. And let’s lock this in. And then let’s start to explore some other things. And so for me, I think a protein line or protein cookie line would be amazing. And I know, I have all the faith in the world with this team that they could make an amazing protein cookie that would just like, blow the other ones out of the water. But I think just in an effort to really make our brand really strong and well known and just keep it very cohesive and streamlined, we have kind of tabled that for now. But eventually, maybe one day we’ll circle back because that’s definitely something I think would be… it would be really great.

Mario Fachini [22:33]
So if someone has never done direct mail, or they’ve only done postcards and direct mail, or they’ve never done any type of marketing with food, why do you think they should? And how much more effective would you say it is?

Chelsea Martin [22:47]
So I think direct mail is very interesting, because I think just like anything else, like fashion, even our world goes in waves, and it kind of you know, cycles back to these things that used to be, you know, archaic. So I think at some point, email marketing became the thing. But I don’t know if you’re anything like me, I know with my work email, I try to keep it as sacred as possible. But my personal email, currently right now has 10,000 emails that are unread in it that are… I don’t want to say junk, because technically, I either opted in, I bought something from those people or you know, but it’s all email marketing solicitation at some kind of meeting request to something. You know? They’re trying to get you. And we’ve all played with, like the email subject lines, what to do, what not to do, things like that. But ultimately, at the end of the day, it’s really challenging to cut through the noise when you are prospecting, you know, I’m not talking necessarily reaching out to clients that you’ve already established. But if you’re trying to get the attention of somebody that’s completely new, that’s never heard of your company, or you necessarily and you just want to have a meeting or a call, I mean, a subject line can only go so far and everybody sees through these things now. We all know when it’s automated, we all can can kind of read the cadence or the opener that says, “You know, I was told to reach out to you about this.” And you know…

Mario Fachini [24:10]
No you weren’t.

Chelsea Martin [24:11]
Yeah, exactly.

Mario Fachini [24:12]
Or the RE: I think they are, the reply.

Chelsea Martin [24:16]
Yes.

Mario Fachini [24:17]
And I’m like, I was doing a lot less, we go super productive and profitable. But this doesn’t ring a bell. What am I replying to? And I look and you can tell you know, they got my attention with the subject line but you open it and it’s like name does not compute in the you can tell it’s a template and like good for them for taking a class on email marketing subject headlines, but you lost it at you know, you didn’t have me at hello.

Chelsea Martin [24:44]
Right. And I think the other challenge with that is, you know, when I see something like that, I don’t feel necessarily duped, but I don’t feel like…

Mario Fachini [24:53]
Excited to talk to him.

Chelsea Martin [24:54]
Special… Yeah, I feel like I got entered into some sort of automation that’s tons of different people. So it doesn’t really matter who’s reading this. And it doesn’t matter if it gets ignored.

Mario Fachini [25:04]
Or what about the real cards on the holidays like Christmas and stuff? It’s like, “Oh my gosh, I got one.” Or a birthday. And it’s like, “Ah! Oh, it’s the guy from the vendor show a year and a half.” Cool. So knowing something. Great, awesome. Thanks.

Chelsea Martin [25:18]
Oh, I know, I need a better social life. Because I think I just get the holiday card for my dentist right now. But I think… Well, so, but the point is, with direct mail, it does get your attention. And I think it does. Even if you are prospecting, even if you are trying to get more clients, it is so much more special because it lands on their desk, it’s in front of them. And yes, you could send you know, a postcard that’s salesy or something like that, and it can get tossed, but it is going to for a second be in their hands. With us, our goal is to elevate that to another level. And that’s where I do think gourmet gifting comes into play. Because if you get a box of cookies on your desk, and it has, you know your name on it and it has a note from this person that says it would be great to connect with you, you know, can we set up a time for a chat or something or even using the cookies and saying, “Let’s have a call over cookies.” You know, something just fun. It’s just different and refreshing. And there’s… it’s really hard to not feel a little bit special that somebody did take that extra step in the time out of their day specifically to address these to you and have them shipped directly to you, just to try to have a conversation with you. And that’s just speaking on prospecting, of course, there’s all these other things like, you know, client appreciation, or the holidays or special events during the year for your clients or, you know, there’s just so many options for gifting and direct mail I do feel is making a comeback because of that. So, and right now more than ever, everyone is trying to find new ways to connect, because we can’t connect in person.

Mario Fachini [26:57]
I have to agree about the direct mail. It’s such a… it is so much of a better way to connect. And I’ve told all my authors one of the greatest things about doing a business book, it’s physical, you can send it to them. It’s not a postcard, it’s not a thing. Now when you send them that with some food and a handwritten note, or one of the things I say is take a sharpie inside of the book with your cell number for prospecting. Phenomenal. But for a client, it’s that touch point, it’s that follow up. It’s that how do you keep the relationship going at a high level? And, you know, I want to ask you, how many people… how many people have you noticed not only enjoyed your cookies, but also we’re telling other people about it, and you’re seeing referrals?

Chelsea Martin [27:49]
Oh, yeah, well, I think, so we’ve definitely had referrals from clients that have experienced our cookies and used us for maybe prospecting. And they’ll email me and they’ll circle another person and say, “Hey, you know, this is so and so I just want to introduce you to because they’re looking to do something like what I’m doing.” Or they’re introducing me to the person saying this is the company we use for prospecting. And it always makes me feel extremely happy because of course, it’s very, you know, rewarding to hear that people do find value in your products. I think the biggest referral, not program, but biggest referral, like thing that we’re seeing is when people are receiving our cookies as a gift. So it’s like, you know, this box right here, it says Noms, right? Normally, most people send this with their logo to somebody. And so they’ll say, you know, “It would be great to connect with you.” Or you know, “Thanks so much for meeting with me.” Please enjoy these treats.” — Or something and it has their logo on this box. That person is like, “Where do I get that?” Or, “How do I do this? This is a really cool gift idea.” And so that’s where a lot of our referrals come from — are people that have actually received the gift. And again, just like any other referral, it is really rewarding to see because that means the other thing and not to get too much in the weeds. The other thing about gift giving is the person buying the gift is not on the receiving end of the gift. So it’s very satisfying when the recipient of the gift likes it as much as the person that bought it online with those beautiful photos. That means it’s arriving, you know in the quality that we want it to arrive because I don’t know there are definitely some instances that we have received, you know food or things that don’t arrive as beautiful as you would like and that’s why the packaging and that whole experience is really important because your recipients don’t often… you don’t often see how the gift arrives and it’s really important to us that it arrives beautiful for your recipient so that you look good and of course obviously we want to look good too. But it’s most important that they have this really great experience with it because it is connected to you.

Mario Fachini [30:06]
I can attest to that. Because when I opened mine, and I had fun shooting the unboxing video because they were delicious. And the revelation I had, I was like, “Okay, I’m going to cut this short because I’m going to enjoy eating these.” And then I just… I don’t need to turn the camera off to enjoy them. And I did. But what was cool is you had my logo on the top of it and everything. And I knew you customized it for me. And not only could you do a custom logo, but you could also, I mean, if you were prospecting someone, you could even send it to say, “How cool would it be to have your prospects logo on the top and engrave that message on the top?”

Chelsea Martin [30:44]
Yes.

Mario Fachini [30:45]
I mean, that’s like a hook line and sinker.

Chelsea Martin [30:47]
Right. Yeah, we’ve done some… So like for some of our clients, they send boxes with their logo. And it’s amazing because people repurpose them, they use them, you know, for…

Mario Fachini [30:59]
It’s a beautiful box, you absolutely can.

Chelsea Martin [31:01]
But the other great thing is, it leaves a huge impact if you also are trying to get somebody’s attention if you send them something with their logo on it or their name, because people love seeing their logo as well. So, um, you know, there are so many different ways that you can customize our gifts and like you said, we have lasers in-house, we do all of our customization in-house. And that means that, you know, whether it’s one box or 1000 boxes, they can all have different names on them with the same logo, they can have the same picture on all. It can be modified however you want. And it’s easy to do and very quick. So that’s, you know, a big part of our gift giving is that we want it to stand out, we want it to be seamless, and you know, not excruciating, where you have to order it three weeks in advance to get customization or there’s you know, that kind of lead time, we want you to be able to have a meeting with somebody and have a really great, you know, have a really great meeting and then want to send them kind of a follow up that says, “Hey, it was amazing meeting you.” And that arrives two days later, instead of you know, two weeks later.

Mario Fachini [32:06]
Yeah, I will say again, I was impressed with, I mean, I saw the email, it’s like, “Hey, we want to send you a gift.” And I just quick shot back my address and thought, you know, they’re gonna send something like a lot of people do. They love being on the show or love watching the show, listening, whatever. The next day it was here, I’m like, “Okay, how did they do this?” And I have to ask you, do you have multiple facilities around the country? Or do you just literally have everything from Arizona and overnight it?

Chelsea Martin [32:38]
Right now it’s just from Arizona. We don’t overnight everything. Sometimes we’ll overnight, but we do use our carriers 1 to 3 business days. So depending on how close you are.

Mario Fachini [32:48]
That’s still super quick for a wide range, because I thought… I was like there’s no way, there’s no way and I was like checking timestamps on the email, I’m like, “Okay, well… I go, “This thing had to have been sent in the middle of the night to even make it.” And I’m just trying to figure this out.

Chelsea Martin [33:06]
These are trade secrets. We can’t tell you which carrier pigeon we used. But it’s a fast one.

Mario Fachini [33:12]
Well, it’s impressive. And I think I’ll be able to get one answer with you with the Wheel Of Whatever, then I’ll ask you, because I’m going to save it for that. So thank you for sharing what you have. We’re going to jump to the Wheel Of Whatever and come back with the Imperfect Action Round. But I know exactly what I want to ask you because it has to do with the cover of it. And the question for you is how the heck do you do those lasers?

Chelsea Martin [33:44]
How do we do them?

Mario Fachini [33:45]
Yeah, I know, you said you have laser engraving machines. But I mean, it was really impressive. It was like you’re not sending that stuff out and clearly didn’t take a week to do. Is there limitations to what you can do with it, or…

Chelsea Martin [34:01]
Um, yes and no. I think so, just like anything, you kind of start to improve and adapt from it. So when we first got one laser, we got one laser machine because my husband, he had such a great vision for this, as far as saying, “I don’t want to outsource this. I want this to be as quick as possible because that is valuable to people.” And that’s what that was our goal. And so he was really great about going out and saying, “Okay, I think it’s important we have a laser.” Which I think is every man’s dream to say but it’s so he you know, pushed for this laser and we got this laser in-house. And so we started to learn it, we have a designer on staff and she’s kind of you know, messed with all of the settings and really became the master of the laser. And so in doing that, obviously you start to learn different settings and ways to improve the etching or now we have, you know, logos that people have that have kind of a gradient of color in it. And we learned how to, you know, etch deeper and deeper into the woods so that it looks, it still reflects that because a lot of people don’t think about, you know, color being transposed onto wood is going to be kind of a black or white situation. But with the depth of the laser going in, it can actually cause like a gradient in and really add that depth of the color that would be in a logo. And so she’s messed around with it a lot. But I will tell you, he got that one laser in, and we went from, you know, maybe 5%, or something of our boxes being wood boxes. To I would say it might even be more than half and a half, I can’t tell you off the top of my head. But…

Mario Fachini [35:45]
Wow.

Chelsea Martin [35:46]
It is insane how many people to the point where our first holiday season with the laser machine, we took turns pulling all nighters, because we could not physically have enough time to fulfill all the orders. Because we had that laser machine going 24/7, and so somebody had to sleep there to take the lids off and put the lids back on. So the next year, we got five more. And so now we have lots of lasers. And just over the years, you know, with that, comes learning, new software and technology. And so now as far as limitations to me, I don’t think we have some but I’m sure that the challenge will be accepted. Right now we can even laser a photograph. So if you sent me a photograph of your dog, it can be lasered on there, just you know in kind of that sepia tone or whatever, because it’s on wood.

Mario Fachini [36:38]
Oh, that would look epic. You’re right because the old fashioned looking photos are that brownish color to begin with. That would look real cool.

Chelsea Martin [36:49]
It’s really cool. So there’s… I mean, they keep surprising me every time. So they’re definitely always working to see you know what new things we can do. And then of course, there’s other things like people do, you mentioned, doing another logo or somebody else’s logo, you know, we have some people that reach out wanting to laser both sides of the lid, because maybe they want to put a message or something. But then they also think, “Okay, well for display, they might want to use the other side with their logo.” Or, you know, just something like that. So there’s a lot of different ways people have tried to like customize the gifts and make them their own.

Mario Fachini [37:22]
Have you ever considered different types of wood for the boxes?

Chelsea Martin [37:26]
Yes, when we first… There was all a lot of trial and error. So the first time we got these, actually the lids that we had for our boxes wouldn’t match properly, it was not working, whatever the mix of the wood was, which, that would be our Facilities Department. He is the master of knowing all of the materials. But it was not etching. So we actually had to go back to the drawing board, get completely new, and tapping on this, like as if you can see it. But going back to the drawing board in and getting completely new lids made just for those boxes just because of that. So we definitely learned a long way or the hard way a couple times. But we got there.

Mario Fachini [38:07]
Yeah, it looks phenomenal. And I was blown away with the whole aspect. I mean, they’re delicious. But I didn’t even know that. But it was like, prompt, quick, prompt, quick, same thing. It was super fast. The lid looked awesome, they were delicious. And then I’m not gonna give everything away. I want everyone to try them. But I was just blown away, because I’ve done gifting. And I’ve received gifting, and it’s pretty normal for business truthfully. But it was just like, this is impressive. I could tell you took it to a different level. So…

Chelsea Martin [38:43]
Well, thank you.

Mario Fachini [38:43]
Nice job.

Chelsea Martin [38:44]
I think… And that’s the goal. That means a lot to us. Because I think you know, like you said gifting is normal. It happens in business, whether that’s just the holidays, or you know, gifting is part of business. I think it’s really cool when people do understand the value of gifting, because sometimes you have to educate people on that. And that might not be new, or that might be a completely new ballgame for them. They’re used to kind of just doing holiday gifting. But even for the holidays gifting is normal. The challenge is when you’re a company and you have 45 people or 45 different companies that you want to send gifts to, what happens is, you know, you often end up sending something fairly impersonal. And it’s the same thing to everyone.

Mario Fachini [39:27]
Because you need a lot of them. It’s right and one or two it’s like, “Oh, I got…” You know, it’s kind of counterintuitive because you go, “Oh, I got hundreds of customers or hundreds of clients or hundreds of whatever.” Or thousands or tens of thousands and it’s like what can I get that fits in the budget that we can do this whole thing and it’s kind of counterproductive you’re almost better not doing anything if you’re gonna do a sloppy.

Chelsea Martin [39:50]
You don’t want to do something that… I mean, I don’t think anyone would receive a gift basket and say, you know, “Wow, like they could have done better.” You know, I don’t think that they think that way. I do think everyone thinks it’s a great gesture. But what happens is, you’re sending 45 gift baskets for the holidays, and you’re receiving 45 gifts, you know. So we are still a gourmet gifting company, but we wanted to kind of just change it up a little bit, give you something different. And then also add that extra special touch of making it customizable, so that you could put somebody’s name on every single one, they can all be different. And that person thinks, “Wow, I got delicious cookies. But so I’m actually going to eat them.” It’s not, you know, necessarily the freeze dried salmon, which if you like that, that’s fine. But, if you like cookies, that’s also great. And then it comes in this box that I can either reuse or it says my name, like they actually went out of their way to etch my name on it, you know, I am important enough that this was that extra step. And, you know, without giving away too much, it’s not really that hard for the sender to do. That’s our job, is to make it very easy. But it really does add that extra special feeling of, you know, they thought of me and went a little bit extra, like an extra step, you know, than just sending the same fruit basket over and over.

Mario Fachini [41:15]
Yeah, the cookies are not a problem at all. I can attest to that. And we got to thank the sponsor. But I want to ask you your favorite flavor before we do.

Chelsea Martin [41:25]
Okay, so my favorite flavor is… I have to go with this even though I have a million of peanut butter and jelly. And that is because I worked really hard to get that cookie in our line. And my sister in law, she’s the head of baking and I think she listened to me say this so many times that finally you know, I had a special event a couple years ago and to celebrate she gave me a bunch of peanut butter and jelly cookies. And I think I ate so much. I actually think I had my first cookie blackout where I was like, “Where am I?” Because I was so excited. So it would be… It would just be wrong to not say that’s my favorite, but there you know just like anything. You know, if it’s breakfast I might have a berry shortbread and if it’s dessert, I might have a chocolate crinkle, but peanut butter and jelly has a special place in me.

Mario Fachini [42:19]
The chocolate crinkle ones are crazy good.

Chelsea Martin [42:21]
They’re so good.

Mario Fachini [42:23]
For me it’s a tie because I dove into the berry shortbread because we were talking about it. And then I did the unboxing video. And the berry shortbread was just magic and but I’ll tell you I think for me it’s a tie between the chocolate crinkle because those were…

Chelsea Martin [42:41]
Those are two I think I recommend for people that you know when they’re saying, “Okay, what should I try”? Because of course, you know we have the normal classic flavors. We have a chocolate chip or an oatmeal raisin but you know what makes Noms, Noms? And of course in our logo itself is the berry shortbread cookie, because that’s our flagship cookie. And I think it’s like, you know, an adult pop tart or something it has that same…

Mario Fachini [43:03]
Trevor was mentioning it’s not that hard shortbread either. And it’s not…

Chelsea Martin [43:06]
Right.

Mario Fachini [43:07]
It’s a soft one.

Chelsea Martin [43:09]
It’s very buttery and soft. It’s amazing and I don’t usually like fruit anywhere near my desserts or cookies, but this and the peanut butter and jelly and things like that. It’s so good. It’s balanced so well. That shortbread has this like almond, you know, and it’s amazing. So it’s hard to find a cookie I don’t like but that’s the great part is there’s one for everyone, whether you’re kind of the fruit and like the lemony side or you like the peanut butter chocolate side.

Mario Fachini [43:41]
You got me thinking about all that stuff. Now, we have to thank our sponsor, but they’re very delicious. And you mentioned a few flavors I didn’t get to try. So you want to talk about that too, because I’m sure those are good as well. But we’re gonna thank our sponsor and come back for the Imperfect Action Round.

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Mario Fachini [45:30]
And we are back with the Imperfect Action Round. Chelsea, are you ready to take Imperfect Action?

Chelsea Martin [45:36]
I really thought I’d be ready.

Mario Fachini [45:39]
60-second rapid fire answers. First question, what is the fastest path to the profits?

Chelsea Martin [45:46]
Giving. I think giving and not expecting things in return help yield a lot of relationships and connections and opened a lot of doors to things that you wouldn’t have imagined if you were just narrowly focused on yourself.

Mario Fachini [46:00]
That is correct.

Chelsea Martin [46:03]
Good.

Mario Fachini [46:04]
I’m teasing. There’s no right or wrong answers. There’s just the truth of you. But I agree. I wholeheartedly agree. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way for them to fix it?

Chelsea Martin [46:18]
The biggest problem, I think, is people trying to sell in their gift. I mean, I think, you know, again, going back to giving and not expecting anything, obviously, when you’re prospecting, your goal is to meet people and make connections and set meetings and things like that. But when you come out of the gate, and the person gets cookies, they’re very excited to open it. And they’re like, “Let’s have a…” You know, “We are the best company in the world for your ‘blank’ needs.” You know, “Please contact me now to set up a call to do this.” I think people are already like, “Ugh, you know, like, I don’t want to engage with this because now I know I’m getting the hard sell.” And so I think you know, the way to adjust that is just saying, you know, “Hoping to sweeten your day.” Like, “Let’s connect soon.” Or something like that, that just really is a little bit more…

Mario Fachini [47:03]
Subtle.

Chelsea Martin [47:04]
— Reserved. And yeah.

Mario Fachini [47:07]
I like that. And I totally get what you mean with the, “We need to connect now.” Can I at least enjoy the treat first?

Chelsea Martin [47:15]
Right.

Mario Fachini [47:16]
And you don’t want to feel guilty for it to like, “Wow, this is incredible.” But if I take it now, am I complicit? I don’t know.

Chelsea Martin [47:25]
Exactly.

Mario Fachini [47:27]
Number three, what is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

Chelsea Martin [47:32]
I think for us, at least felt that it’s being authentic. It is being personable, and really being there for your clients, including if there are mistakes. And I like to say that we don’t make mistakes, but I think any company with a lot of clients, sometimes, you know, there are hiccups along the way. And I think that I’ve found a lot of times with our clients, if there’s any sort of mistake or a delay, for instance, in delivery, reaching out to them, and saying, “Hey, here’s what’s going on, here are solutions.” You know, or just owning it, I think is really important. And I think a lot of people try to almost sweep that under the rug and pretend like you don’t make mistakes. But I think owning that and being accountable, it brings that human element to your customer saying we care about you, we’re going to make this right. Yeah. And I think that that helps provide lifetime value than being kind of that corporate machine. You know, so I think when our customers, when they call, there are times that I’ve answered the phone that they’re like, “I didn’t know you were gonna answer.” And I know that they don’t realize that we’re a small company, because we put on an error that you know, because we are capable of fulfilling a tremendous amount of orders, but we are still a small family owned company. And I think that really works in our favor, because we still do have that human element. And when you call I might answer and you might just talk to me or you might talk to another one of our team members. But we’re all here and we’re all just hands in ready to help.

Mario Fachini [49:01]
That’s great because you’re making it happen. And like I was saying earlier, you know, people don’t get it. You don’t need 500 people in a call center just to be successful and…

Chelsea Martin [49:11]
Right.

Mario Fachini [49:11]
You know, it freaks people out. Hiccups will happen, but I just got to say this when you said hiccups, I was like, well, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

Chelsea Martin [49:23]
Exactly.

Mario Fachini [49:25]
Alright, so some books, what books have helped you on your journey?

Chelsea Martin [49:30]
Um, okay, so one of the books, I don’t know if this would even resonate, but one of the books…

Mario Fachini [49:36]
Just honesty that’s all I ever asked. That’s the only requirement I have for guests.

Chelsea Martin [49:42]
I read a book called Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. I don’t know if you’ve read it, but it is a lot about creativity, which I think for me, why it resonated so much was it talked a lot about fear getting in the way of you actually taking action with things and you know, coming from a place where I was saying that I am not naturally just an entrepreneur in the… or at least, you know, it didn’t feel like I was hardwired that way. A lot of times, I would find myself saying, you know, what are all the reasons that something couldn’t work. And I think that that is important to think of when you’re making a game plan. But I sometimes would let fear stop me. And that book was really powerful, and explaining how fear can actually live inside you. But still, you can accept it and acknowledge you have it, and then move forward with it. And that has helped me a lot with growth and in business tremendously, because it’s also new and everything is… It feels like sometimes you’ll look at another company or another person or another business owner and be like, “Wow, you have it all together.” And it just seems like, do I not have it together? Or you know, and I think I started to learn through that too, that it’s okay to say, you know, “I’m not sure, I as long as I’m working towards my goal, and as long as I’m honest with myself authentic with people, Im only going to grow from there, even if you’re, you know, fearful.” But that book really helped me kind of navigate that and accept that.

Mario Fachini [51:14]
Excellent. Well, I’ve have heard of it. I haven’t read it yet. But I appreciate the recommendation. Where would you like people to learn more?

Chelsea Martin [51:22]
So our website is www.GetNoms.com That’s G-E-T-N-O-M-S dot com. So not ‘mother.’ Not ‘get moms.’ Butwww.GetNoms.com is our website. That’s where you can go and kind of see all of our products. You can even customize gift boxes for yourself. Drop your logo on there, things like that. We’re also on Instagram and Facebook. Our Instagram is this same as our URL. So just @getnoms. And there you can kind of find some more behind the scenes, footage, some meet the team posts, things like that and kind of interact with us on a day to day basis.

Mario Fachini [52:00]
Well, I appreciate you for sharing it has been a pleasure. And thank you for giving us the other side of the story. It was great with Trevor, but loving what you’re doing with the company and the people you’re helping and congrats on your success.

Chelsea Martin [52:15]
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. It was really fun.

Mario Fachini [52:18]
Well, Expert Authority World we have another great episode here today. I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a great day. God bless.

Sponsor – Free Business Book Publishing Course [52:26]
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Mario Fachini [52:59]
Hey, thanks for listening to today’s episode. I hope you got a lot out of it. I know I sure did. If you haven’t done so already, I invite you to subscribe to the show. And also be sure to check out EAInterviews.com for complete show notes, the full interview video experience, links to the resources we mentioned, and more. Have a blessed day and I’ll see you tomorrow.