(Small Business Superstar) How to get sales from one Facebook live!

This week’s Small Business Superstar is Toria from Wild Iris Boutique in Ironbridge.A little bit about Toria’s amazing business…Wild Iris Boutique is an independent shop in Ironbridge stocking jewellery, fashion, and gifts. On top of being a beautiful shop full of amazing products, Toria has also added an “Artist of the Month” feature where she promotes local talented artists and they also hold special evenings such as book clubs, well-being evenings, craft evenings, and many more, creating a real sense of community. Toria also works closely with local charities to give back and help those who need it.What one marketing thing made a difference to their business? Going live on Facebook! Showing products and more of the boutique. Then a virtual shopping event featuring local artists and all the products available.What difference did it make to them and their business? People interacted and watched all the content. So many orders! Created an income whilst the boutique couldn’t be opened. Took one weeks’ worth of takings in ONE NIGHT!Where you can find ToriaWebsite: wild-iris.co.ukFacebook: @wildirisironbridgeInstagram: @wildirisironbridge Transcript below Hello, and welcome to the very first Thursday, proper Thursday episode. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I'm really excited about this. So I have told you what it's about, but let me just briefly go over what the scenario is here. As I said to you, my little special episode last week, and my small brands that I was tired of seeing lots of examples of marketing that wouldn't necessarily work or worn as realistic to small business owners. And when I talk small business owners, I am one of those small business owners. Like there is a huge percentage of us who were there at that small business level. So I wanted to bring in amazing small business owners who are doing phenomenal things and not like the crazy, amazing stuff, but like just showing up and doing something and it's having an effect in their business. And also I wanted to bring in people who were doing things that I wanted to give you the confidence to do them as well. Now, at the time of me thinking about all this about feeling fed up about all these people going, Hey, I am seven figures in three minutes, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, rubbish. Um, something else happened in my world and the two things together inspired me for this. So one that happened where I kept getting all these people irritating me. And the second thing that happened was an amazing member of my Academy did a Facebook live and basically blew my mind in terms of what she got and how she came across. That inspired me, that I had to bring her on. And there we go. Out of those two scenarios came this new Thursday episode. So today it is my absolute pleasure. So welcome Toria from mild Iris in Ironbridge. How are you doing Toria? Toria: Not too bad. Thank you. How are you? Teresa: I am really good. I'm very excited about this episode. I am super excited to hear what you did and what results you got. But first, let's start off by you sharing with my audience, who you are, what is it you do, and how you got to do the thing you do. Toria: So I opened Wild Iris boutique in Ironbridge last year, so July, 2019. Um, I've spent about 15 years in retail prior to that working for the big boys started on the shop floor as a sort of part-time job at U-day. Fell in love with sales, worked my way up the ladder, and eventually ended up running, um, the whole retail estate from the operations perspective. And however, after two redundancies in the space of three years, I just decided enough was enough. Um, I, wasn't going to have my heart trampled on again, and I've got that much experience working retail operations. It really gives you a sense of every single aspect of retail. It's one of the few jobs that touches every sector, every section of the sector. Um, so I thought, okay, I'm going to do this on way, and I'm going to try this on my own. And if it fails it fails but I can do this on my own, on my own terms, um, and create something that ticks all my boxes. Teresa: And do you know, let me just pause you there for a second. I have my own business and I know how scary that was. I could not imagine the fear in getting a business that has a building and you have to buy products to put into that building and everything that comes with that, because that feels like way more risk than what I took. You know, because ultimately I just sold my brain and that was as much investment I needed really. Whereas this, for me, this feels really scary. Was it terrifying? Toria: It was beyond terrifying. I was absolutely paralyzed by fear for so long and the whole run-up, you know, I, I, I found out about my redundancy in the April. I didn't leave until the May and I didn't open the boutique until the July. And that period in between was such a roller coaster of emotions. One day I was absolutely flying high, going to networking meetings, meeting suppliers, thinking, "Yes, I've nailed this. I've got something really special." And the next day my inner saboteur is just crushing me. So yeah, it was my husband I felt sorry for to be honest. Teresa: Yeah. It's not bad enough for us. Like they have to be able to receiver of the whole thing. So just explain about the shop and about what's the things you sell in there and your kind of ethos around it. Toria: So I knew when I was creating a brand, I wanted it to be different. I wanted to stand out from the crowd and I wanted to be an independent, independent, you know, there are so many independent businesses and so many can fall into the trap of becoming a carbon copy of another shop they've seen in another part of the country and they just want to replicate it. And I didn't want to do that. So, um, Originally, I never really wanted to go into fashion. However, it seemed to seem to be very much desired in the area. So there was, there's no way really for clothes in the immediate vicinity. So went into fashion. My longterm passion is in jewelry. That's what my, my many, many years of retail experience were in. Um, so knew I wanted to focus on jewelry, but knew I wanted to be so much more than that. I wanted to be a destination. I wanted to create a tribe of loyal followers who enjoyed coming to see the boutique can see what was new. So I came up with the concept to dating an artist of the month focus as well, because I really wanted to promote local talented artists who were creating amazing things, but didn't know how to get them to market. So I created the artist of the month focus, um, and I also created a lot of groups within the boutique as well. So we have, um, regular. Well, when it's not COVID we have regular, um, book club meetings. We have regular wellbeing evenings, and craft evenings and different things like that. Um, and always have something different going on. So, um, and then having spent some of my career in the charity sector as well, giving back to society is hugely important to me. So before I even opened the boutique, I made. Um, relationships with local homeless charities and offered my services to clothe any women who were ready to get back into the world of work to actually clothe them ready for their interviews and give them mentoring and support, um, and mock interviews and things like that as well. Teresa: That is just, that is so good honestly, like, and this you're literally like, I'm literally in the very beginning of, of doing these interviews and you already have prove to me why this is so valuable. Because in your world where you are, and the difference you're making is huge. Like that is massive. That also you've took something and thought of how else can I add value around this? Which is great, because ultimately you could just look at this as a I'm a shop you can come in and buy stuff and. Instead of just doing that, it was, how can I feature local artists? How can I then create more of a tribe around it? Because already, like, I love the fact that the book things, I love, the fact of, you know, coming in and obviously, you know, that is, is huge. Because as a small business and as an independent shop, you need that tribe. Because you're also very lucky, by the way, if you're listening to this, I know my biggest audiences in the States. I want you to Google Ironbridge because you're just going to love it. Like it's a very historic, it's a beautiful time. And it also happens to be literally minutes from where I live. So that means I can go and physically go and have a look at things which is ace. But so let's just talk about COVID because you are a retail shop where people go in and buy. So COVID here. Tell me where your head was at. Toria: Um, at the point when COVID hits, they locked down starting on the 23rd of March. And that was approximately three weeks after we'd reopened from two weeks of closure due to flooding in London bridge as well. Um, we were already off to a really shaky start this year. Locked down here, and...