The Nouveau Podcast
The Nouveau Podcast: Your guide to building a thriving local small business.
Join entrepreneur Meredith Waguespack, owner of Sweet Baton Rouge® for insights, inspiration, and actionable advice with over 14 years in the retail industry. We'll explore data, marketing, community, and more, all with a touch of French charm.
Let's pop the cork on your entrepreneurial success!
The Nouveau Podcast
Episode 22: The Data Don’t Lie: Using Numbers to Fuel Your Mission
In the second step of our Small Business Audit, we’re showing you how to look past simple sales figures and connect your data directly to your mission and core values.
Your brand is more than just a product. We discuss how clear vision—like Sweet Baton Rouge®’s commitment to community and comfort—allows us to grow sustainably (like our 49% retail sales increase over 2024 YTD!) and confidently invest in marketing that matters. Remember: Marketing is saying one thing 100 times, not 100 things once.
We dive into:
- Connecting Your "Why" to Your Sales: How to find patterns in your data that reveal why customers truly purchase from you.
- The Product Catalog Audit: Using bestsellers to narrow your focus and create a core product line that defines your brand.
- Case Study: The Cracker Barrel Backlash. We analyze why their short-lived 2025 logo redesign failed. This is a crucial lesson on what happens when a visual identity betrays the brand’s mission, memory, and core customer values.
You'll learn how to use numbers to reveal the human side of your business, build lasting community, and move with steady momentum until your business truly blooms.
Connect with Meredith:
I am a mom to three, big maw maw to seven. I've been married for 18+ years, counting the days down to the BIG 20 so we can open up a great bottle of wine.
My husband and I also own a wine bar in our town we live in, called Library Wine & Provisions.
I am the founder of Sweet Baton Rouge®, a local Louisiana business I created from scratch with no marketing plan, just a little grit and lots of geaux! This business will hit 15 years in October and by far has been my most professional career doing what I love, marketing. I have built systems and habits to stay consistent and vision focused on our goals at hand. In 2024 I started a second business, Petey’s Press, to bring all of our production in-house to screen print as our business has always been centered around locally designed & printed t-shirts.
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