S2E3: Creating and Selling Merchandise with SLP Belle Ormiston

In this episode, we talk with speech pathologist Belle Ormiston about her journey in blending creativity with the discipline of speech pathology. Belle's entry into entrepreneurship began as an endeavor to fill a gap she observed in the market during the global pandemic—an absence of merchandise that connected and appealed to speech therapy professionals.

The creation of her product line, Bee the SLP, marked the beginning of a new chapter.  Continuing as a full time speech therapist at a local pediatric hospital in her city, Belle is balancing her day to day work with entrepreneurship.  Finding a company she trusts to print and fulfill orders, she is able to focus on design and direct sales with her products. 

This episode delves into the realties entrepreneurs face, from the frustration of copycats to the challenges of balancing a primary career with a second business. Belle's honesty about these experiences will resonate with many listeners who may be considering their own entrepreneurial ventures. She discusses the importance of foresight in product planning, particularly for seasonal items, and the critical role of professional advice, like engaging a CPA, to navigate the complex world of business management.  She also shares how she draws inspiration for her creative designs.

Enjoy this episode with Belle Ormiston that is energetic and inspiring and will open your mind to creative ideas within the field of speech pathology!   

Also, if you haven't done so already, follow our podcast!  You will be the first to know when new episodes release.  We would also love for you to leave a review and rate our show.  The Speech Source appreciates your feedback and support!  Follow here!

Links mentioned in this episode:
Check out Belle's IG page here! - https://www.instagram.com/beetheslp/
Shop Bee The SLP here! - https://beetheslp.com/

Follow Kim and Mary on IG here! - https://www.instagram.com/thespeechsource/
For more information on speech, language, feeding and play - visit The Speech Source Website - https://www.thespeechsource.com/

Also, if you haven't done so already, follow our podcast! You will be the first to know when new episodes release. We would also love for you to leave a review and rate our show. The Speech Source appreciates your feedback and support! Follow here!

Follow Kim and Mary on IG here! - https://www.instagram.com/thespeechsource/
For more information on speech, language, feeding and play - visit The Speech Source Website - https://www.thespeechsource.com/

Transcript

Kim : 0:00

On this episode we have Belle, or Mastin. We are so excited to talk to Belle today. She's gonna tell us all about one how she became a speech therapist, but also what she has created on the side of working full-time as a speech therapist in the world of products, which we are so interested to learn about. So thank you for being here, belle, and welcome Thank you guys.

Belle: 0:23

I'm so excited to chat and get to know my products and a little bit about me. I went to the University of Texas for my undergrad and then LSU for my graduate school. I knew I wanted to be a speech therapist in high school. I was just one of those that just knew and that's what I wanted to do. And I just knew I wanted to do something to help people give back. And that's how I got into the speech world. I grew up outside of Fort Worth, a little suburb, and I am in that area now. Was your?

Mary : 0:58

first job out of graduate school with your current employer.

Belle: 1:03

So I started out of private practice and I was there for two years, which I had an awesome time there. It was so hard to leave, especially when you have a really good group of therapists and a family. But with my business growing, I was like I need just like a little bit of flexibility, which is why I moved into this current role, doing more home health than being in a clinic for 10 hours a day.

Mary : 1:31

You work for a hospital where you do home health and did you feel like part of your decision to move was also because of restrictions about having a business and being in private practice that prohibited your business growing?

Belle: 1:49

No, that's a good question. I didn't leave for that reason, thankfully, my previous. They are super supportive. I actually still do t-shirts for them and do their like clinic t-shirts and all that stuff. No, it wasn't that. I just needed a little bit more flexibility where, if I had a client cancel, I could come home, design something or maybe fulfill an order, where, of course, in a private practice, you're there all day. So, yeah, that's why I switched, just to have that breathing room and the back to back. To be quite frank, like it just burned me out, and I was a new grad too. So doing that for two years and seeing patients, as you all know, turning them out, is so tough.

Mary : 2:36

I agree, I never thought that I would drive around and see patients at their homes, but it just gives me time to think during the day. I never had time to think when I was an employee, so, belle did you start creating products to sell?

Kim : 2:55

It sounds like right away when you started working.

Belle: 2:59

Yeah, so I graduated in 2020. I started BVSLP in July, so just three months after the height of the pandemic. I was just like, yeah, let's make this more crazy and create another thing. But, to be honest, I did not see it going in the way that it is now, and I guess in July it'll be four years, which is crazy. But yeah, I started right away.

Belle: 3:26

I'm just always been that person that has 20 jobs and starting my first job, I'm like, okay, I have one, so let's keep going. I just, oh, what can I do? What can I do? And I wanted it to be speech related because that's what I know best and love Shark Tank. I was like, okay, what can I create? What can I do? And, yeah, I just developed this idea. I knew there were other products out there with t-shirts and stuff like that, but I never saw just simple something that I would wear myself. So I just got to creating that way and it just kicked off from there, because I just started with stickers and then one design and then now it's crazy a lot.

Kim : 4:12

Can you take us through the beginning to the end of the process of creating a product, because I'm so curious about that process.

Belle: 4:22

Yeah, what's funny is I'm not a creative person. I've never considered myself like I don't draw, I don't. It just wasn't me. I never was like, oh, I'm creative.

Belle: 4:34

But I kind of just opened up Canva one day and I knew that I wanted to go towards just doing simple stuff, not only because I like it, but because I'm not a designer out here. So I was like, okay, we got it. What can I do? I can do some like color schemes. I can make things look pretty and have the aesthetic. So, yeah, I'd go on Canva, go through color schemes, maybe just start out with the simple speech pathology, switch up fonts, move things around and, yeah, just try to see what's trending too, no matter how cheesy that sounds. What are people liking, what are people wearing? And I noticed that very just simple crew neck designs were blowing up now, still now, but three years ago I just did one design that just had speech pathology just across it and had two colors, and just those are my only products. So just that's how I create it through Canva. And then, trying to figure out what's exciting, I have a Taylor Swift inspired one Everyone is obsessed with, which I'm so glad because I'm obsessed with her.

Mary : 5:47

What do you do after the design process? Do you have a printer? And then the shipping and packaging. How does all that work?

Belle: 5:54

Yeah, that's a good question. I actually only ship out stickers and baudrill from my current office location, but I have a printing provider that I essentially just upload the design I created to what the crew neck looks like and I'll upload it, push save, send it to my printing provider and they will print and ship out to the clients or whoever purchases it.

Kim : 6:23

So you're not having to keep track of boxes and shipping labels and what gets out. It's going through the printer and that probably takes a lot of the load off, I would guess.

Belle: 6:35

No, absolutely. When I do explain that I don't have most of the products here for me, I'm like, oh, it's easy, it's fine, but I don't actually realize how much time I'm putting in to the business. I'm like, oh, it's not that, it's maybe 10 hours a week and then I start tracking it for my husband. We'll be like are you just spent six hours designing that and uploading it to this crew neck and this t-shirt and this mug and this type of stuff? But yeah, it's really nice. And I think that is how I still hold a full-time position as a speech therapist.

Mary : 7:08

Then everything is made when it's ordered, then so then you don't have to hold some kind of inventory. All I'm really familiar with is like monogramming or I feel like monogrammers, will maybe purchase a set amount of inventory and then monogram it, but this is actually completely different when you have a printer doing it all for you.

Belle: 7:30

Yeah, exactly, and I do know some people use the cry cut and stuff like that. I do make my own badgerals here and stickers and stuff like that, but it is really nice to not have the inventory. Going back from when I told y'all I just had one design. I did physically order crew necks and I had boxes of crew necks because I didn't know that there's another system out there. My husband and I was like get to work, like here we go, pack those crew necks, and every time I'd like hit order and would get inventory and like hope I sell these. If not, then I'm out money. But then I figured out, using a printing provider is where it's at and you don't have to spend as much time shipping and can focus more on more designs than just one and you don't have to worry about losing money that way too.

Belle: 8:25

I do have an Etsy shop. I started on Etsy and then a year and a half maybe two years late no, a year and a half later I switched to my own website, but I still have the Etsy running where people can still purchase. So two sources of people traffic too, because Etsy is nice, because it brings in the customers. If someone just types in speech pathology shirt or QSLPC FY gift. It'll pop up a few of my products, or maybe someone else's Whereas my own. I had to direct my own traffic Instagram and creating a following so they would buy from my website.

Mary : 9:01

I know that Etsy does take a cut, obviously because they are doing your marketing for you, so do you feel like that cut is pretty significant? Or there is a tipping point where you felt like, ooh, what was the point, where you felt like I need to own this outside of this one platform?

Belle: 9:23

Yeah, that's exactly why I switched over to trying to push more sales to my website. Because of these transaction fees, seller fees, all that. It kept growing and it just kept increasing, maybe every six months or so, and I was just like man, this is a bummer because I'm working so hard on this and while they do direct traffic, what's a way that I can stop this? Because then I have to keep raising prices and I don't want to do that because I'm selling to people like me who are speech therapists, and that's no fun. So I tried to cut through the middle man and just do a website.

Mary : 9:59

Yeah, how do most people find you currently?

Belle: 10:08

I think from Instagram, or I do the Tisha convention and I did Asha once. So some of the conventions and social media for sure has pushed traffic my way. Giveaways to have helped try to learn some speech therapist and see my stuff and yeah.

Mary : 10:33

Oh my goodness, this is so fascinating.

Belle: 10:35

Oh my gosh, y'all are sweet. Y'all make me feel like this is cool, but I'm just like no, I'm very curious about.

Kim : 10:41

I know Instagram. People are following you, but how quickly did it grow? Did you just have a few friends buying stuff? And then it was there one moment where there was a big influx.

Belle: 10:53

Yeah, and it all goes back to that crew neck that I created and I sent a message to a few of my grad school friends hey, anyone want to purchase this crew neck? Like? I sent like a sample of it and a few of them did and then posted on Instagram. And, yeah, I literally started with an Excel document of okay, this one wants a medium, this one wants a small. Okay, I'm going to send it out this way.

Belle: 11:24

And then on Instagram I started doing giveaways of just that crew neck and it drove so many people to my page that it made me realize, oh, I don't think there is something else that has similar design. I know there are other speech therapists who sell stuff, but I didn't see my design or my aesthetic or whatever. I was like okay, maybe this is something. Because I did a giveaway and it got 2000 followers and I was like what is this? This is crazy. But I started out by going this is so crazy. I started going to Nishla Instagram and looking and following all the people on there because I know they were SLPs and a lot of SLPs have SLP in their bio. So I just checked okay, they have SLP in their bio, follow. And I just went all the way through and followed all these people just to gain a little bit of traction. That was in the beginning too, the first six months or so, so yeah, Wow and okay.

Mary : 12:27

Your photos are beautiful. Your page is so bright and happy. Is there a certain app or something that you use to take your photography? Because taking a picture of a shirt is actually really difficult.

Belle: 12:41

No for sure You're so right. Starting out, this is all like fine by the sea my pants. I didn't know what I was doing. I'm a speech therapist, not a social media girlie. I don't know business stuff, taxes, all this type of stuff. Anyways, to go back to the photo, no, I just use my iPhone and try to find good lighting or find spots in my house and I'm like, oh, that's cute, I have flowers here. I guess I'll hold up my sticker and take a picture and hope that it looks good, but I know that I have to take a picture before, obviously, the sun goes down and that's the only way I can get a decent picture. So that's my only tip.

Mary : 13:20

I am so impressed. I cannot do that. You have an eye, definitely you have an artist's eye. One question I have with your artist abilities is when you design something A, it's hard to put something out there that's yours and that is your creation. And then, b part of putting something out there is realizing that we live in a world where we are surrounded by dupes. We are surrounded by people who might take that design and run with it. What do you think about that and how do you navigate that with your own designs?

Belle: 13:57

Yeah, that's a good question. I definitely struggled I think more in the beginning with that and had my feelings hurt and just kept why are they using this? Why are they using that, especially on Etsy? Because if you type in speech pathology shirts or whatever, a lot of those sellers are not speech therapists selling that stuff and to me I'm like no support a speech therapist, come on. Why are you taking my design and creating it?

Belle: 14:24

But previously it really did hurt my feelings. I was like how do I message them? How do I get this off? But now I think I'm at the place of if people choose to purchase from me, that's awesome, and if they don't, that's okay too. I just had to let go let God on that, because I think the more I saw other people creating similar things or create a similar brand, all power to them, especially if they're a speech therapist, but more so talking about the Etsy sellers and we're not, that's more of a bummer to me. But yeah, I tried to just push it away. I've actually had people copy the exact same design and I'll send a message sometimes be like hey, I noticed, this is very similar. Just so you know, I'm a speech therapist just trying to make a little extra on the side. I'd really appreciate if you take this down. I have some people who were very receptive to that and said yes, of course, so sorry, took it down. And then some other people being like not even responding, and I'm like okay, cool.

Kim : 15:25

As your business grows, you're going to encounter more people like that, and that's just part of growing and people becoming aware of you and what you're doing.

Belle: 15:35

Yeah, absolutely, and I think too, as I'm sure y'all can agree to but finding this SLP Insta community is so cool. At the end of the day, those are the people that I know support me and support what I'm doing, and I want them supporting other creators too. And yeah, just trying to find that corner of people who support you and want you to grow and want you to succeed.

Mary : 15:59

It sounds like the timing of your business was also really important that you started your business with COVID when everyone switched to virtual. And then I remember when him and I were at a clinic and the dress code changed because they had some company shirts. But then I remember when they added in the dress code may wear SLP merchandise, because it became so big and so popular that everybody wanted to wear your designs with jeans or something or scrubs or whatever, yeah.

Mary : 16:35

Yeah, but I love that it really shifted in our field to wearing those kind of things. How much do you feel like the timing or having the right market was important for you starting your business?

Belle: 16:50

For me it was the luck of it's just luck that happened, but I am super grateful that it did switch to more of a virtual type of world, and I think so too with COVID. A lot of people were home doing telehealth, and I don't know about you, but I was shopping a lot more during COVID. So true.

Mary : 17:12

So true yes.

Belle: 17:14

So that is one thing that I did know people were doing. That did push me to continue, because I'm like, okay, if anyone's like me, I am shopping, I am buying a lot of stuff and hoping to go back into the clinic. But, yeah, I think the shift in SLP gear has just blown up and I do feel really fortunate and thankful for everyone who's following the, anyone who's purchased or anyone who's like to post. It really is awesome.

Kim : 17:46

What do you feel has been one of your biggest learning curves? I know that you talked a little bit about the design and then their printing. Is there anything that you've had to really learn and figure out? As far as the selling piece?

Belle: 18:02

Yes, if I could go back, I would take any business course. I would take tax courses, like no one taught us any of this stuff in grad school no kidding, because we're speech therapists. But you think about how many of us do become business owners and how many of us do switch into that, and I really wish I could go back and if it was undergrad or grad school or anything, taking a business course, you never know because I had to just learn it all on my own and, of course, with my personality, I wanted to do it all my own. Oh, I can handle it. I can do it all on my own. I can do it all.

Belle: 18:45

And over this past year I've been trying to do that work life balance thing that people say is really good for you. So, yeah, I think with designing and printing, one of the biggest things that I wish I learned previously was that work life balance, not always having to do every single thing on my to do list in that one day, having some type of business background and, honestly, even like creative design background. How cool that I've been if I knew that, because I just had to learn Canva, which I think is a really good tool for any business owner or creator and they make it so easy for you to. I've been trying to be like okay, maybe I should push myself a little bit more and do more intense drawing and creative type of stuff, but your girl just is not creative and can't draw.

Kim : 19:38

Thank goodness for Canva we have heard that over and over again but also, I think, even the tech piece. You had to learn how to put all your product onto your website, but then also how to figure out how people can purchase from your website. There's a lot of learning in that process.

Mary : 20:00

Did you hire someone to design your website and set it all up, or did you do that yourself?

Belle: 20:06

I did it myself. I bought a website package and did the uploading code type of thing. This is the same thing where I'm like even if I purchased it, I still don't know what I'm doing. You know, how do I upload this? How do I upload that? It's so complicated, isn't it?

Mary : 20:24

Oh yeah, we paid someone. Yeah, I can't, even.

Kim : 20:27

And since then we've really tried to go back and figure out how it works. But I think having that foundation of it set up was a huge piece off of our plate because I don't know if I would have known where to start with that. So I'm very impressed with so many people that we have had. Come on. They're like Nope, I built my website, like wow.

Mary : 20:48

What we learned about websites, too, is that, hey, I didn't realize there are so many different types of websites that you can get, and then the type of website has to match the function that you want it to serve. So, for you, you have so many products and you're going to be really doing a lot of purchasing and e-commerce on your site. What type of website do you have?

Belle: 21:15

Yeah, so I use mine through Shopify and that's how I connect all my products and design the color schemes and stuff like that. But everything through Shopify, which I've just done a lot of YouTube and figuring out, okay, is this how I do this so someone can click and purchase, and it's a lot of trial and error. I did not know what I was doing. I still do not know what I'm doing, but I'm trying and going on year four this year. I'm just like okay, I feel a grasp at least how to manage a business, finally hired a CPA. It's taken me this long.

Kim : 21:58

And it sounds like you're definitely in a place to need that guidance with a CPA, and I think that comes along with growth, you figure out what you need and what you can do on your own where you need the help.

Mary : 22:12

With retail, there's always that lag time of the designer having the idea and then you create the design and then you do all the formatting. What's your lead time? Your page has lots of Valentine's things now, but you obviously did not create those in January.

Belle: 22:31

Yeah, I'm learning to do things beforehand and chunk my to do list beforehand, and that is another learning curve that I had to understand. So I had that work life balance of not one day before February I'm doing every single design and uploading it and spending 10 hours, but now I'm doing about two months before. So I think I did the Valentine collection, designed it like in December and had it ready to go the first week of January. Because then you think about people want to wear it on Valentine, so you need to post it a month before. And it's a learning curve of knowing, okay, when do I post it? What's the best date? When is it going to get the most traction? Are people even going to purchase it if I post it the first week of February? Most likely not, because they're going to think that it's not going to arrive in time.

Mary : 23:23

That's true. So then you're thinking a month before the holiday is when you're launching your collection.

Belle: 23:28

Yes, yeah, launching and then a month before the launch would be like the designing or like thought process of it. I usually spend my weekends trying to do that. Not every single weekend work, life balance but yeah, I'll try to spend five hours sitting down thinking about some ideas and crank those out.

Mary : 23:46

What do sales do for your business and how do you decide? Okay, it's gonna be 15% off, or 20, or this is the frequency of how often you run sales. It's so hard because some stores I'm so guilty of this too. If you run a sale too frequently then you're like oh no, I'm not buying full price, it's just gonna be discounted later. But then you don't wanna miss out. So how do you balance the whole sale idea?

Belle: 24:15

It's so tough and I think, being a one woman business too, I'm just like trying to figure out the best way to do that. I do run a decent amount of sales or have people who have promo codes for customers to use, because I do understand this day and age Like it is tough to buy things, especially grad students too, who maybe want a T-shirt to wear to clinic, or I like developmental norms, clipboard and stuff that's just helpful for grad school. But yeah, I do try to do a few big sales. A year.

Belle: 24:55

I think I have three or four big sales and then smaller ones would be like 10 to 15% off, and it's mainly based to. I wish I could do a 50% off sale, but then that would be me paying for their clothing item, and I think that's too what some people don't understand. Oh, why is this? I have to pay for the crew neck and the shipping on top of that, so it has to have a little bit above that for me to at least make maybe a little bit on top of the sale price or even just the normal retail price.

Kim : 25:28

And really you having the company ship it out is saving them on time too, instead of it being shipped to you and then from you to them. So all of that goes into play when you're putting a price on things. They're getting it faster and not having to wait.

Belle: 25:46

I know, in this day and age too, with Amazon, you're like why is my package not here, like yesterday and I would. So it's hard, like at least for me. Sometimes too, I'll buy something from a shop and I sit not here already. But I'm like, okay, not everything has to be Amazon in a day or two, but I am grateful that most of my stuff does get to a customer within a week or up to maybe eight, eight days or so.

Kim : 26:14

You're four. You're seeing how it's all working and flowing. Where are your thoughts and dreams going with this?

Belle: 26:21

I think my biggest dream would be to actually become part-time SLP and not do full-time, and have this part-time as well, so I can focus a little bit more on some other ideas that I've been wanting to see my business move towards. It's hard working full-time and knowing I have all these really fun ideas of different products that might not even be clothing, but I can't work on that right now because I just don't have the time. But yeah, big dreams to at least go part-time being a speech therapist. I don't think I ever wanna not be a speech therapist, because for me that's why I'm doing be the SLP, that's why I got into this, and for me I always want to know what therapy is still about and still be serving patients, because that's my why. At the end of the day, it's not creating t-shirts and crewnecks, no matter how fun that is. I do love serving our patients and doing that as well. Yeah, dreams.

Mary : 27:25

How do you think about success as an entrepreneur? So often it's not like a Shark Tank episode, where it's this one moment in time and then there's this huge influx and everyone validates that this is wonderful. But how did you figure out whether this was going to be a good business and it was going to be a business that people wanted?

Belle: 27:49

That's a good question. I think what's hard is measuring success. I think in our field, we are the type of people I'm not speaking for everyone but we just want to go and keep going and keep getting better and keep succeeding, whether that in our job as a speech therapist or, currently, mine with this business. What's hard for me, too, is drawing that line and knowing when to take a breath and knowing that it's okay that I don't have to keep moving forward, whether that for me meaning more followers or more purchases or more ways to improve my business. It's tough. I always want to succeed more and I want to grow and see the business grow, but at the end of the day, I need to protect my mental health too and try to find ways. I don't know what do y'all do to try to find ways to? Okay, I can't keep going. It's hard to find that work-life balance of just stopping and breathing and realizing, okay, I need to slow down. I don't know. I'll take all the advice because I need the help.

Mary : 29:04

You're gonna have to listen to this season, because that's why we're asking everybody. I know and I think we'll- say it.

Kim : 29:09

Nobody has an answer and they're like balance is such a vague word when it really comes down to trying to define it. But I think everybody has seasons. I think is what most people talk about. But I think what's so great about being a speech therapist is and Mary and I talk about this a lot when the business side of things seem overwhelming or you're feeling like you're just not getting somewhere or you can't make that judgment of what feels successful, I always fall back on. Like after I see a patient I'm like this is where my passion is and this is where I can see success. I can easily see success in my day-to-day job and that's encouraging. And then I feel like you get to be creative with the business side and so I always have to fall back on that. This is where I put a lot of my energy originally into working and I can understand how to find success there. But the other side, it's just really hard to make that call. I think. I don't know, mary, do you have any other?

Mary : 30:14

I don't know if that was a good answer. That's on that. I have no idea. I know, I don't know. I think it's really hard. What is success? And maybe it's because the speech pathologists were so numbers driven, accuracy, trials, whatever percentage. Once you do a launch, do you make a number goal for yourself? Do you say, okay, I really wanna sell a hundred of these sweatshirts, I wanna sell a thousand of these stickers, whatever the number is, but do you set those kind of goals for yourself to validate that it was successful, or do you just put it up and see what happens?

Belle: 30:48

I'm the second one girl.

Belle: 30:50

I'm like put it up see what happens, hope that it is successful and honestly, I never know For me. I'll create a collection and a design and I'll be like, oh, this one's gonna be great, everyone's gonna love it, and I'll get fewer sales than I was expecting. And that's where disappointment comes in and that's why I do try to not put a number or a goal on sales, because that just makes me feel really not accomplished, not successful. So I try not to put a number on it. I try to just post it, know that I like it and I'm proud of it. If I'm proud of whatever I created, then I'll just say, okay, that's okay, I'll wear it, you know.

Belle: 31:38

So I try not to. I try not to and, like you were saying, finding that balance of still pushing yourself and trying to strive to be better for me, create more products people want, or even creating products that support different communities and can advocate for other communities. Trying to find that balance, I think we all are. It's tough and I think it's driven in our SLP brain and our personalities are just we're crazy people and it takes a lot to stop and realize that you don't have to do the next thing on the list and take a breather go walk outside.

Mary : 32:19

This was going to be my last question, but I'm just gonna ask it now. Is? What is your top seller, and did that surprise you, or was it something that you expected?

Belle: 32:31

It was my first design that I had always done. That always was my top seller until my SLP scope era's, taylor Swift era's design blew up and I'd never had a design like blow up before. I would have decent amount of sales, but I never had one just explode and I'm really proud of that one, like I said earlier, because I'm a major Swift. Yeah, that one's my best seller.

Mary : 33:02

I love it. I saw you do primarily comfort colors. Yeah, I do?

Belle: 33:08

I think I saw more comfort colors.

Belle: 33:11

No, I do have a normal t-shirt that's like Bella Canvas and then the comfort colors option. Because price differences are pretty big too, I try to have at least one, like I have a Gildan crew neck and then a Bella Canvas that are more on the lower side and the comfort colors obviously are more expensive because the quality is just a little bit better have you had anyone that has helped to mentor you through this whole process or kind of been a bigger encourager that you can pinpoint, as I really needed this person to make this happen.

Belle: 33:44

Yeah, I would probably say the Instagram community and the people that I've met and have supported my product from the very beginning. When I had 20 followers, I had people supporting me and purchasing myself and posting. I had some creators with a very high following that I would be like hey, can I send you a free t-shirt if you post on your page? And just those people. Christy voice I don't know if y'all follow her she was like the first like SLP influencer or Instagram. She was like yeah, of course I'll do that. And I was just always so grateful because in the beginning, you're just trying to do anything to kickstart your brand and have people follow you and buy your stuff and support you so you can become successful. So definitely a lot of those influencers who, very beginning if didn't make any sense to me. I'm like why are you supporting me? But we're always so kind. And of course, my husband too. He was out there, like I told y'all, packing orders, doing all the work while also being a teacher. So that's really hard too.

Mary : 34:52

How does the customer service work? Do you feel like that's a lot of your time answering questions that people have, or do you have to deal with angry customers just because of shipping times, or whatever it may be? But how does that work?

Belle: 35:11

Yeah, like I say, I'm the owner, I'm the shipper, I'm the IT, I'm the customer service. I'm just a one man show. So I'm just trying to survive and I try to lead with grace too. For people who do send me messages and maybe aren't so happy with something oh, this is damaged, this is broken. For me, I'm like oh my gosh, you should not have a damaged item, let me send you another one. Or hey, I never got the stickers in the mail. I really needed this for a gift. And for me my immediate response is I'm so sorry, let me get you those stickers, let me resend them to you.

Belle: 35:45

So, yeah, customer service does take up a decent amount. If some customers get damaged items or items that maybe weren't the wrong one sent to them, it's tough. But thankfully I haven't dealt with people extremely mad at me. So just try to lead with grace. I'm like all right, I hear you out. I don't like when I get something that's damaged in the mail, or I don't like when I get something that's wrong either. So I'm like that's fair, let me help you out.

Mary : 36:12

You are putting your whole self out there. You're designing, you're the HR and the customer service. How do you make it not feel so personal and maybe have to get thicker skin or ways that you've had to grow in order to have such a forward-facing business, with yourself at the center of it?

Belle: 36:36

I think one of my biggest things was I didn't post myself that much on Instagram and I tried to shift my Instagram narrative towards just the products. I don't typically put a lot of my personal life and details and stuff like that on my page. When I do, I get a really nice response. So I'm like maybe I should do this more. But for me I think it's more kind of separating and doing that work-life balance, which is hard when your work is at home, and trying to find the balance there. I'm sure you guys deal with that too, running your business.

Kim : 37:16

It's encouraging to see how successful you've been to do that, because that is what we prefer. Also to try to keep personal a little bit more separate than our speech source stuff. Sometimes you feel like that's not the way to make it grow, because people are so interested in seeing the people behind it, and I get it. I think there's an important piece to that, but it's great to see how you have been able to be so successful and try to keep that separate. Everybody's different and I think that goes along with what you feel comfortable with and your personality and you should be able to make that decision based on what makes you feel comfortable. So I'm glad it's worked out for you, thanks.

Belle: 37:54

Yeah, and I think, too, we hear a lot. You have to show your face in order to grow or to get yourself out there. You have to share this, you have to keep sharing, you have to keep sharing and, just like you said, I think, whatever works for you, just stay true to it and push through, because there's a lot of those outside voices and being on social media, there's a lot of comparison to am I doing enough, is this enough here. But, yeah, just trying to find that balance. I think for me, it started during my CF. I, like, from the beginning, drew the line with bringing work home and never wanted to do my notes at home or evaluations at home and leave work at work, and I was very strict because I just knew that's what I needed to do, and I tried to carry that over into this business as well. I'm not perfect, though, so I'm still trying to figure it out and make it work.

Kim : 38:49

How did you come up with your name so cute? Be the SLP.

Belle: 38:54

My best friends call me B, just like the letter B, just from my name, belle and yeah. So I just tried to do a play on that with the little bug which, like I'm not, I don't love bees, but I save the bees. I'm not a big insect.

Mary : 39:12

Did you design your own logo and canva too?

Belle: 39:16

Yes, I did. Yeah, it's so cute. Thank you.

Kim : 39:20

I took off the last few years too, so you lucked out there Now.

Belle: 39:24

I love all the bee stuff and all my friends and my mother-in-law. They will get me bee design type of stuff if they see it. So it's so cute. Love the design, love the fake bee, but yeah, not a big bug fan.

Kim : 39:36

That's funny yeah. So, these have just been fun questions we've been asking all of our guests. But you're super busy with your full-time job and also this business that you're running at the same time. What do you try to do for just some time for you, some self-care time, if you get it?

Belle: 39:55

I do try to do hot yoga at least three times a week, so that's like my only type of way that I can decompress, not think for a second, because my brain is just always to do this, this, what's next? So it is a really good way that I've learned that I can also get a workout in and decompress a little bit too.

Kim : 40:18

Yeah, okay, cooking. Do you have a go-to favorite dinner? That just makes life easier sometimes.

Belle: 40:26

I am a big Trader Joe's fan so I love their quick meals. I like getting the kale pesto the kale pesto with the cauliflower, noki and veggies. It's so quick.

Kim : 40:40

If you were not a speech therapist, what would your dream job be?

Belle: 40:45

I always wanted to work at anthropology or own a coffee shop. So, like, how about a coffee shop in anthropology? Oh, that would be perfect. That's the goal.

Mary : 40:58

I can see that for you, with all of your merch in there. Oh my gosh.

Belle: 41:03

Goals man, I love anthropology.

Mary : 41:06

We just pass as a profession. I think we have the universal love and addiction for coffee all of us.

Belle: 41:14

I think I have about four cups a day, which is probably not good, but yeah, I think it just fuels everything in me and it's in my blood and I can have it at 8 pm and I don't feel anything. I wish.

Mary : 41:30

I'm just too old for that now.

Kim : 41:32

I'm going to cut myself off by noon and Belle, that will change that.

Belle: 41:37

Don't tell me that Okay.

Mary : 41:39

I have one last question for you. You told us that you're a Swiftie and that really inspired your design. How are you best inspired when you're creating your designs?

Belle: 41:52

I love Pinterest, so I go on Pinterest and just browse and thankfully it curates it to my designs already, so I'll see gain inspiration from maybe bigger stores that are creating crewnecks that are similar and I'm like, oh, that's a really cool idea. That'd be awesome if it had speech language pathology instead of how they did their design. But yeah, and try to get color schemes that way. But yeah, I get super inspired by Pinterest and, honestly, just seeing people whatever they're wearing too in this day and age and I try to create designs that way and formulate it obviously to my own design and own color scheme and stuff like that. So, yeah, so this is my big one.

Mary : 42:40

Actually, I want to ask this question too you do have a social media following. That is, their buyers as well. They're not just followers, but they're buyers of your products because they believe in you and they love your products. Do you ever pay for Instagram ads or social media ads?

Belle: 42:57

Yeah, I do, maybe like once a month, like $10 and that's it.

Mary : 43:04

Do you see a big boost from it, do you think?

Belle: 43:07

I think it's worth it. I probably should do more, but I do try to like not put a ton of money into it, because you just never know which way it's going to go. I see the most impact from giveaways and I continue to do those, and I think I see more like I would spend more money on free products or I tell people this because I don't do a lot of ads. I'd rather give away products to people and spend my money that way than just spending it and giving it to Facebook.

Mary : 43:44

Yeah and they get to see your design see the quality probably ride off all kinds of perks there. What are the criteria for your giveaways? Do you find that there are certain things that you must have as criteria?

Belle: 43:59

Yeah, the simpler the better and like the less intense things that you need that the participant needs to do, the more people participate. So typically I'll just say follow my account on Instagram and then tag two SLPs and that's it, and so it's easier that way for people to participate and feel like they do have a chance of winning. And I do actually give away stuff in the giveaways. I know a lot of people are like give away, do they actually get this stuff? But you can ask all the previous winners. They actually get the stuff and it's super fun. And, yeah, the simpler the better. For sure, If I do have multiple accounts, I try to keep it to being like four or five max if I do a big giveaway, because I noticed with a lot of those big account giveaways that you follow 25 people. It's a lot of work. I just want a free item, so try to keep it simple.

Mary : 44:58

And then how do you pick the winner? Do you use a certain app for that?

Belle: 45:02

Yeah, there's an app that I just plug my giveaway link in and it'll do a little spinny wheel and it'll pop up with two options. Obviously, if someone doesn't respond, then I have a second option to reach out to. So yeah, a little app giveaway picker app.

Kim : 45:18

Thank you so much for spending your time talking with us today. I feel like you are just a wealth of information, especially with the product side of things. I don't want to say like nobody's doing that, but I just think what you're doing is so unique and it'll be very interesting. So thank you for sharing all that you're doing.

Belle: 45:34

Yeah, thank you guys for having me. This is so fun.