In today’s episode you’ll learn:
- How to transition from employee to entrepreneur
- Growing your business online organically
- The importance of authenticity in building customer relationships
- Tips for taking product photos at home
- Nicole’s tips on how to get your creative juices flowing
Where to find Nicole, and the books and podcasts she talks about on the show:
Podcasts:
The Small Business Big Marketing Podcast with Timbo Reid – https://smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/
Seize the Yay – https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/seize-the-yay/id1437134631
My Favourite Murder – https://myfavoritemurder.com/
Where to find her
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/fatmangocreative/
Website – https://fatmangocreative.com/
Transcript
Dahna Borg
Hi, and welcome to The Bright Minds of ecommerce podcasts. I’m Dahna, founder of Bright Red Marketing, your ecommerce advertising specialists.
Today, we’re here with Nicole from Fat Mango Creative. She is a self-taught earring designer and maker who has in three years built a successful business selling food themed earrings. In 2018. She started her creative journey as an outlet from a stressful corporate job. And in April 2021, she was able to leave her full time job and step into her business full time. Her designs are focused on food colour, and empowering people to express themselves through fun, quirky accessories that create connections and put a smile on your face. In today’s episode, she shares her journey of turning a hobby into a growing business, how she markets her business with no paid media, the creative process and the mindset challenges she has faced while scaling. So let’s get into it.
Welcome to Episode 27.
Dahna Borg
Hi, and welcome to The Bright Minds of E-Commerce Podcast. Today we’re here with Nicole from Fat Mango Creative. Welcome, Nicole. So good to have you on the show.
So tell us a little bit about how Fat Mango Creative started.
Nicole Gould
Sure. Well, I started Fat Mango Creative and 2018 it was just purely just started as a hobby business, I was actually making handmade cards. And someone said to me, you know, like you should put these on Etsy. See, I think people would like to buy them. So I’ll put these cards up and kind of discover this whole world of handmade. At the same time, I kind of connected with some earring makers that were kind of doing cute pennies and earrings, and thought, Oh, this is really fun. I’ve always really struggled to find really cute fun earrings that didn’t irritate my ears and thought you know what I’m gonna have a crack at I’d be designing some earrings. I’ve never been like, particularly arty at school, I had no background in design, nothing like that, but just got really excited about it and kind of very selfishly just wanted to make something for me, that wouldn’t, you know, infect my ears because I’ve got such sensitive ears, and was cute and fun. And they really like food, sort of themed earrings. I love dressing it with cute dresses that had like 30 prints on the little pineapples of watermelons and wanted earrings to match. So it sort of started like that. Long story short, I ditched the handmade cards and started making earrings. Put them up on Instagram, people started loving them. I was connecting with an audience of people that like the same sort of thing. And it’s kind of just evolved from there into a business and yes, making these sort of food themed street themed, fun, bright, colourful earrings.
Dahna Borg
Yeah, for anyone who hasn’t seen Nicole’s products, they are amazing. Like just so fun. Like you can’t help but be happy looking at them. So definitely have a look.
So obviously your business has gone from like a hobby to a fully fledged, huge business. Tell us a little bit about that process of change. Obviously, it’s not just as simple as making some products handmade. And now I’m, you know, selling out my Christmas orders. Tell me a little bit about that kind of process of growing the business and the lessons you’ve learned in that.
Nicole Gould
Yes. What was really interesting, it kind of just started as a hobby. I never approached it as business, I guess, as such, and I just started making things that I loved. And I think that has really been kind of a key to all of this and things growing so much is that I was making from passion and making products that I really, really loved and believed in and being able to do that it does get you through the tough times of business, I guess because you know, you’re really passionate about it, you really believe in it and you love it. Yes.
So with the business starting off doing some market stalls, being on Instagram, I got really good feedback from people. So I guess I was able to tweak my designs accordingly. And really started to create pieces that I love to make, but also that people were really wanting as well.
As the business grew, I was able to be quite flexible with my job. And I dropped down to working part time. In order to do that we obviously had to do a lot of planning, planning out our releases as to when they were going to be so that we could manage that drop in income from my full time job and top it up with income from the business. So that was a new thing. But we just didn’t put any pressure on ourselves to kind of do that within any timeline or any time frames. We just let it evolve naturally and just tested some things and just took it step by step. And I think it’s easy to kind of look at a business and go oh, wow, it’s just all blown up overnight, but it has been it’s been nearly four years of really hard work in testing in trying in talking to my audience talking to the people that purchase from me taking that feedback on board tweaking, to kind of grow the business into a point where Yeah, I could leave my corporate job, my corporate government job that I’d be in for 10 years, had an amazing salary and was able to really live that very confidently and step into this kind of new world of having my own business and to have it thrive.
Dahna Borg
Yes, that’s fantastic. I think that’s probably the wisest way to do it, I get really scared when I see people in business groups being like, I just quit my job, I’m gonna start my business now. That always scares me a little bit. But I think it’s fantastic that you kinda had that process of kind of slowly scaling back. You’ve got more time to invest in the business, you know, and really kind of building it up that way.
Nicole Gould
Absolutely. And I think it was really hard because as soon as people start seeing a business do well, you know, we show the orders with busy people. So we leave your job, how come you haven’t left a job yet? Why haven’t you left a job? What are you doing, and it’s really hard to kind of sell it that it’s actually not that easy. Like, sure if my husband was like a millionaire. And I could just quit and do whatever I wanted to do all day. But this was about building something that was financially sustainable. And it’s, it’s a difficult thing to do when you’re making everything yourself, and you have to take it bit by bit and kind of quiet that noise. But it’s okay. Just because I haven’t quit my job yet, it doesn’t mean that I’m not doing an amazing job, it doesn’t mean that my business isn’t growing and where it wants to be. Like, we just have to take it step by step. Because if you pull out from that, when you step away, and you don’t have that beautiful salary being dropped in your bank account, every fortnight it is so, so scary.<laugh>
Dahna Borg
Put pressure on it too. And then, then there’s pressure on the business and you can’t kind of just go with the flow and see how it’s gonna work out. Like you kind of force it to do something that’s maybe not ready to do just yet.
Nicole Gould
Absolutely. And then that’s when you start making decisions based on fear and emotion instead of, you know, logic and sense, and it’s a scary place to be. And it’s not one that I wanted to go to. So I thought, you know what, I’m just gonna keep my job. And I was, yeah, really fortunate that they let me cut down to part-time, which was just doing five days worth of work in four days. And then I had <laugh> fat makeup, but it made all the difference. And just having that one whole extra day that I could focus really helped me to build it to a point where I could go. Okay. So later I’m stepping into this now full time, which yes, it’s exciting.
Dahna Borg
<laugh> That’s wonderful. So tell us a little bit, obviously you were on Instagram, you were at markets and things. How did you kind of find your first customers online?
Nicole Gould
It’s crazy. You know, I just started kind of putting content out there, chatting on stories and people found me, I guess, through using some hashtags, I did some collaborations with some, I approached some clothing makers that made fun sort of kooky clothing that I thought would have my ideal audience and was lucky enough to secure some collaborations with them where I did, you know, matching earrings for their outfits. And that gave me access to their audience in a really nice organic kind of way and just sort of growing from there.
But I’ve spent a lot of time really getting to know my customers, building relationships, and then I’m grateful because they have just organically shared my business as well with other people who like this sort of thing.
Dahna Borg
Amazing. I love that. I think that works so well for your business as well. And what are your kind of best marketing strategies now that you are, you know, obviously so much more established?
Nicole Gould
Look, I think the power of video, I know that everybody at the moment is it’s all about reels and reels, reels, and people hate them. People love them, but just being able to get on video and put your face there, building that human element is just so important. People buy from people and that’s really what people are looking for when they’re shopping is a small business. They’re looking to connect with the person who’s making those pieces.
So being up there being on video is I would say is the number one thing. If you’re in a small business, a product-based business so that people can get to know you is super important and just kind of showing it all, showing the good, bad, the ugly, the great days, the times when you’re struggling as well. So that people feel really connected to you and to your brand feel like they’re part of the story, I guess.
Dahna Borg
That’s fantastic. Do you do any kind of like paid media or anything or is it all very organic?
Nicole Gould
All organic, I’ve never done, I’ve never worked like paid any influences. I haven’t run any ads. I haven’t done any of that sort of thing. It’s all just been organic and through sharing my, my customers, as soon as my customers tag me, is something I share the picture, you know? And I think I’ve been really grateful and very lucky in that respect that my customers love to share their purchases online. And that then allows me to share really organically with my audience, like real people who were buying my product. <laugh>
Dahna Borg
Amazing. And I believe you do all your own product photography, is that correct?
Nicole Gould
I do. I’m very lucky. My husband Mitch is pretty handy behind the camera, like product photography before it was always like landscapes for things like that. So it’s kind of been a bit of a learning experience, but yeah, we do it all ourselves in house, which I’m really lucky for. <laugh>
Dahna Borg
That’s so good. Do you have any styling and photography tips you can share with people for those that are also taking their own photos or trying to take their own photos?
Nicole Gould
Look, I think the biggest sort of misconception maybe about photos is that you need big fancy cameras and all of that, but you really don’t. Phones are amazing nowaday days. And as long as you can get things set up, you know, with good lighting, that is a real key. You can take amazing photos and amazing videos just on your phone. You don’t need all the bells whistles. You know, you can grab a great lighting setup for about a hundred bucks, probably from, even from Catch of The Day. Kmart, things like that. Just get your products lit really, really well. And you can do most of it on your phone.
Dahna Borg
That’s good. I know that’s something that a lot of businesses struggle with and, you know, professional photographers are, you know, worth their weight in gold, but they charge for their services. And you know, when you’re starting out, it can be especially hard. And a lot of people see it as a big entry, uh, barrier of entry to, you know, starting their business. So it’s good to know that there are people out there that are, you know, very successful taking their own photos.
Nicole Gould
A hundred percent. And I think, look at a tip I guess, if you are going to, if you just feel like it’s too hard and you wanna work with a professional photographer make sure they’re experienced in photographing your type of product or provided earrings for photo shoots. And if you’ve got photographers that are really great at photographing clothing and people, but aren’t so good at being able to capture, you know, these teeny tiny accessories and it’s not in their mindset, you don’t always get the photos back that you were kind of hoping for. So it’s really important to choose that person very, very wisely and make sure they’re experienced in dealing with your or particular type of product. It would be my advice if you are gonna outsource it.
Dahna Borg
I totally agree with you. I’ve had a couple of clients over the years that have done various forms of jewellery with very, very small details, whether it’s engraving or just, you know, similar to what you do, where, you know, the details are really important. And so many photographers just, they’re not specialists in that. And anything collective is infinitely harder than taking a photo of, you know, a tub of bath products or something. So very, very good advice.
Is there anything you’d wish you’d done or known in the earlier days of your business that would’ve made growing now easier?
Nicole Gould
Look, I think it’s easy. Isn’t it to look back in hindsight. I think, I would have changed this, this and this, but I think the biggest thing for me would have been around my mindset and how that really impacted how I worked and probably how I impacted how long it took for me to have the confidence to kind of leave my job and move into my business full time, particularly around perfectionism. I really struggled. I’ll say I struggled. It’s, it’s always a challenge with kinda that, I guess what I call perfectionism paralysis, where you just, you can’t move forward, that need for things to either look perfect or be perfect prevents you from being able to move forward with something. And I think it’s hard in the design space. You know, you can always be constantly tweaking your design and doing more and more and more to it, but it just gets to the point where it’s kind of like those things aren’t benefiting your product anymore.
You’re just getting stuck in this, in this kind of perfectionistic mindset. So I worked with a mindset coach over three months and that was one of the things that we worked on. So I really wish I had looked at that sooner.
I think also it was for me, I had a mindset around money and feeling this kind of guilt around making money with things that some people might perceive as kind of being shallow. <laugh> in a way of the earrings. I’m not changing the world with a pair of earrings and, you know, we’re them what I sell my products for and all of that. And it was a challenge for me. I’d grown up seeing my mom work really, really hard for everything that we had. You know, she was a single mother. She would clean toilets, clean people’s houses, iron people’s clothes to make not much money at all.
And it’s always really stayed with me that you have to just go over and above with how hard you are working to make money. And it’s not always the case in business. You can create something that you love. And it’s not about not about the time necessarily that it takes that I guess, builds the work into it. So it was kind of getting around that.
And it was something I was concerned about moving into my business full time was that I feel this need to work, work, work, work, work, work, work all the time and not allow myself to relax because I was meant to be doing this full time. And I guess working on that mindset to be like, you know what, it’s OK to rest just because you’re not working all the time doesn’t mean you’re being lazy or you’re not a hard worker.
So I really wish I had probably worked on those things a little bit earlier. It would’ve made my life a lot more enjoyable during the process of all of this, but now that we’re here, I guess it’s, it’s good for moving forward because I don’t feel that pressure to be perfect. And I don’t feel like I have to be just going at full throttle all the time or else, you know, I get this overwhelming kind of guilt. So there’d be two things, I guess. <laugh>
Dahna Borg
That’s amazing. I totally agree with your process and all that. I think too many people get stuck in business and just focus too hard on work, work, work, work when realistically the joy of being in your own business is you, you have that freedom and flexibility. You don’t have to work the nine to five. So I think it’s amazing that that’s kind of where you are at and that we can share that with everyone.
Nicole Gould
Yes. A hundred percent. And I think it’s got real ebb and flow, you know, there’s days where I’m pumped out and I’ll do a big day and I feel like I’ve really achieved it, but it’s coming from a different, a different place. It’s not coming from this place of guilt and burden. Like I have to work hard cause I’m not, if I don’t do, you know, 15 hour, days or 12 hours, and I’m not working hard enough, you know, it’s coming from a different place of wanting to do it rather than having to do it.
Dahna Borg
Good, yes. The excitement of a launch or something rather than I have to have, because the internet says I have to hustle, it’s a hundred percent it’s doing the work for the right reasons.
Nicole Gould
Absolutely. Yes.
Dahna Borg
Obviously your job involves a lot of creativity. Can you share a little bit about your creative process and how you stay inspired?
Nicole Gould
Sure. I think my creative process, it’s not particularly, you know, mind blowing or anything. I just will have an idea pop into my brain and just feel this overwhelming need to create it. So for example, we might be standing in the supermarket and I see, you know, a packet of Vovos and think, oh my gosh, I haven’t seen those since I was a kid. I love those. I need to make some earrings and go home and, and start that sort of start that process of designing, drawing everything out, putting it in illustrator, having it laser cut and then creating that piece. So it can come from something like that.
Sometimes I’ll have a dream about a particular type of food. Think, yes, I really need to make that into mirroring. People really need to be wearing paddles on their ears or whatnot.
But I think one of the biggest inspirations is my customers and how they, once they receive a product and then they interpret that. I’ve got this beautiful customer name’s Juliet and, and she is just amazing. So she bought a pair of my carrots and she sent me this big email saying that she wore, wore the carrots out, down to the shops and she described herself that she looked like a walking casserole. Cause she had a dress on that had some little carrots and peas or as well. And she said to me, do you know what, Nicole, these might just be carrot earrings, but these earrings, they create conversations as a woman over 60 I’m often lost in society. People don’t see me, but when I’m wearing these, it creates conversations. And I feel seen. People notice me, it gives me the opportunity to connect with others.
And I was like, whoa, <laugh>, that is just like, that is amazing that a pair of carrot earrings can do that can make somebody feel that way. And that just inspires me to let me know I’m on the right track. And it inspires me to create more pieces because they create conversations and they help people feel connected with others, which funnily enough is exactly what edible food does. <laugh>
Dahna Borg
I love that. I mean, early in the recording, you said that, you know, your business isn’t, you know, changing the world. I would question that and say that it is <laugh>, you know, even just the joy of putting on fun earrings is enough, you know, sometimes to people having a hard day and putting a little bit of sparkle and something quirky in their ears is enough to make someone’s day. I would call that changing the world.
Nicole Gould
Well look, you know, I you’re right. <laugh>
Dahna Borg
It’s not, you know, you’re not doing, you know, huge million people at a time kind of world change, but I think sometimes the most powerful change is the person by person change.
Nicole Gould
Yes, absolutely. You, you know, you spot on and I think to have an email like that come through from this customer and another customer recently that had just given birth and her husband had bought a pair of my hard-boiled egg earrings. And it was so special to her because throughout her whole pregnancy, they didn’t know whether they were having a boy or a girl and they just described the baby, they just called it the egg. And it was like, their little joke was like their egg.
So after she gave birth, that was her push present, a pair of my hard-boiled egg earrings. I thought, oh my God, I love that. So it’s really, that’s something that really keeps me inspired is when my customers sending messages or emails like that, it just, it constantly blows me away. It keeps the creativity alive.
Dahna Borg
That’s so wonderful. Before we wrap up, is there anything else that you think we haven’t covered that you would like to share?
Nicole Gould
I think that pretty much, you know, really, really covers it all. I guess it’s just, it might look on the outside that it’s easy and you know, you just wanting along making things to having fun, but there’s a lot of hard work and that goes into it behind the scenes and just taking things slowly bit by bit is really key and kind of not getting drawn into that, that hustle, hustle, hustle, and just taking it step by step and having that confidence to just kind of treasure your own path and block out the noise. It’s just the most important thing. I think it has been for me in building my business.
Dahna Borg
Fantastic. And a wonderful note to end on. So now we’re just gonna ask you the last couple questions that we ask everyone. Do you have any strategies or habits you follow each day to help you stay on track?
Nicole Gould
Yes, look, I’m a very organised person, overly organised! Which probably helps me stay a bit creative. So every morning I get up, I have my coffee and I look at my whiteboard of exactly what I need to get done for the day. So I set out my list the night before of my tasks for that day. I’ve got like my longer term goals, my short goals, my weekly goals, my monthly goals, and I’ve got it broken down into a week. So I go through, have a look and I just stand there I guess, and sort of vision myself going through all those tasks, completing them successfully and getting it done. It’s a, <laugh> probably sounds a bit weird, but that really sets me up for a very successful day. And I feel organised in control, which then gives me a bit of brains to be creative at the same time, once I feel like everything is kind of in its place and taken care of.
Dahna Borg
Fantastic. Do you have a favourite business book?
Nicole Gould
Terrible. I actually don’t. You know, I don’t have a lot of time to read <laugh>, but I do love listening to podcasts and I have a lot of time to do that while I am making. So for me, that is separate places of sitting down and reading a book.
Dahna Borg
<laugh> That’s fantastic. What are your favourite podcasts, business or just entertaining?
Nicole Gould
I love podcasts called The Small Business Big Marketing podcast. It’s fantastic. They interview different business owners each week. I find that really inspiring and I always learn a lot. I love another podcast called Seize the Yay. I dunno if you’ve heard of that.
Dahna Borg
I have heard of that one. Also, the name just makes me happy.
Nicole Gould
It’s really fantastic. And then look, my indulgent one is a podcast by these two girls in America and it’s called My Favourite Murder and they run through different <laugh> different crimes and things like that. So that’s sort of my, my one for when I just need to completely zone out and not be doing anything too business related.
Dahna Borg
Fantastic. I cannot believe how many people we’ve had on the podcast that like crime podcasts. I’m too much of a sook, I can’t deal <laugh> but I would say more than 60, 70% of our guests have suggested, at least mentioned off air that they like crime podcasts. <laugh>
Nicole Gould
I’m proud to mention it on air. I don’t necess if I’m working at night because I do get a bit freaked out. Like it’s just like a morning, wake up cup of coffee, put on a murder podcast.
Dahna Borg
It’s daylight. I can see outside. <laugh>
Nicole Gould
Exactly.
Dahna Borg
Fantastic. And how can people visit you if they wanna find out more?
Nicole Gould
Well, look, you can come and find me on Instagram. I’m always on there at Fat Mango Creative, or you can find my earrings and beautiful products at fatmangocreative.com
Dahna Borg
Fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us. It’s been a pleasure.
Nicole Gould
Thanks for having me.
Dahna Borg
Thank you for listening to the 27th episode of the Bright Minds of E-Commerce Podcast.
Don’t forget we load all of the links and show notes onto our website. You can find everything at brightredmarketing.com.au/episode27
The link will also be in the episode description. Thanks so much for listening.
