#24 Bethany Bayless: How creating an authentic brand attracted her ideal customer

Does building a brand ever feel elusive? Learn how to develop one that both reflects your passion and attracts and retains your target audience. In this episode, Bethany Bayless of Wildwind Lane shares her journey of transforming her business through strategic branding and diversification. 

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Transcript

Bethany Bayless (00:00)

I knew how important branding yourself was. I knew how important having a very strong both visual appeal, then also choosing what you choose to talk about, choosing your vibe, that whole thing was so important to a successful business. your brand attributes. So what words do you want to describe your business? What are the things that you want your business to feel like?

If somebody looks at your business or your paper or your flyers or whatever it is, what do want them to feel about you? What do you want to communicate at a glance?

the biggest thing that you can do in business and what

business you have, you have to define your target audience.

Tiffany (00:40)

Welcome to Main Street Makers, a bi-weekly podcast that features real local small business owners who have transformed their passions into profitable businesses. Learn from fellow small business owners on how they overcome challenges, find opportunities, and create thriving operations that make our neighborhoods more vibrant, connected places to live. I'm Tiffany, and this podcast is brought to you by Nav the business credit platform that believes every small business owner deserves the chance to succeed.

Now let's get to this week's show.

Tiffany (01:10)

Hello and welcome to Main Street Makers. We're here with Bethany Bayliss and we're so glad that she decided to join us because her business is super fun, super exciting, and we really just want to hear all about it. So welcome.

Bethany Bayless (01:29)

goodness, thank you Tiffany. And thank you for that amazing hype. I'm like, yes, that's the nicest thing someone could say about me.

Tiffany (01:35)

You

Yeah, well, it's all true. So you own Wild Wind Lane, which can you tell us a little bit about it?

Bethany Bayless (01:48)

Yes, so Wind Wind Lane is a company that I started after, it's a long story how I got there, but I essentially wanted to encourage moms in their motherhood journey, because motherhood is hard. And part of my story is that

I was a public speaker and MC for many years and then got pregnant with my first child and then ended up knowing that I would have to kind of slow down a little bit. But I slowed down a lot because I ended up having my son in May of 2020 at the peak of the pandemic. And so, yeah, it was like boss level of having a child in the midst of a global phenomenon and really struggled with.

motherhood in general, because it's hard. You need a village and your village is in lockdown. went through my journey with all of that and decided to go back to school for graphic design and illustration because my job as a public speaker just went away. Like it just completely went from making a lot of money to making zero dollars. So from that, Wild Wind Lane emerged and was birthed and it is a small sticker and stationary company.

We seek to cultivate kindness with something as small as a sticker.

Tiffany (03:03)

That's fantastic. ⁓ Yeah, I had my daughter in February of 2021, so I feel ya. It's brutal.

Bethany Bayless (03:11)

Yeah, not

for, yeah, it was not the best. That's for sure.

Tiffany (03:17)

How did you decide to blend physical products with design services? Because sounds like you have several different income streams. So how did you decide that?

Bethany Bayless (03:27)

you hit the nail on the head because that's exactly what it is. Because of my story, because of going from having a very lucrative speaking business and having so many places that I was speaking, it ultimately was just one income stream. So I made a decent amount of money for a really long time. And then when it dried up, my one income stream dried up.

And was really hard. I mean, it was a hard time. And thankfully my husband and I knew that was going to happen to an extent. We waited to have kids until, cause I'll be very transparent. I was the breadwinner in our family for many years because of my speaking. We waited to have kids until he got a job that could sustain both of us, especially as a speaker where if I'm having a maternity leave, like I don't.

I don't want to have to, and I said I would, I would strap him to me and just keep doing it, you know? But unfortunately, all those opportunities dried up. So I knew when I pivoted and I created my new business and I went back to school for graphic design, I knew that I wanted to have more tools in my arsenal just in case one of them failed. And so I have very purposely in this season of my life developed many income streams and some of them are product-based businesses. So ⁓ product-based parts of my business. So my stickers and stationery and tote bags and all of those physical products are just one income stream. I actually have seven income streams now, because I want to make sure if one dries up or in business, you know, it's feast or famine sometimes.

Sometimes you're making a lot of money in one part of your business and not as much in another part. But then that same part that's super beefy one time of the year is going to dwindle down and not give you as much. It's going to be famine. And so I've known that in my business for many years. Even when in my speaking career, there would be times I would be speaking six months out of the year and then have a three month break where I wasn't making money in that three months because I wasn't speaking places. And so I would always kind of hoard my feasting.

so that I would have it in time of famine. It's a concept that has served me really well. And so now in my business with my seven streams of income, it's a lot like motherhood, actually, I like to say. Because I went from having one kid to having two kids. And not that children are, you we're not diversifying our children or anything like that. But what I'm saying is, in motherhood, I have one kid and I found out when I had the second kid,

So much of my time was making sure each child was okay, then switching to the next. So be like, okay, you good? You have your bottle, you have your snack, you're happy, you're content, great. I'm going to the screaming toddler now. Toddler, do you have your goldfish? Do you have your apple juice? You're good? Awesome. Now going back to the screaming baby. it's time for something else. And it's so much of building up one so that it's good and running on its own and that we're going to the business part now.

And then going to another income stream, building that up so it's running on its own and then kind of making sure that each of them are okay and then revisiting them, building them up, finding a new income stream if you need to. And so I am really grateful that each year of my business, as I develop these income streams, I have just become more and more successful in my business as a whole because I want a very well-rounded, well-fed business baby and the income streams really helps that.

Tiffany (07:11)

I love this metaphor, it's so perfect, it's fantastic. No, I think it works. Yeah, so for people who want to expand their income streams, do you have any advice for adding more?

Bethany Bayless (07:15)

It's flawed, but you know, it breaks down to a point. Well, I have some qualifying questions because what kind of business are they looking to go into? Because there's so many ways to make money now. There are so many ways to make money. And I think for me personally, what I decided to do was I said, okay, this is something I'm passionate about. This is something I really enjoy doing. In fact, when I went back, when I had my son, I really struggled with postpartum depression and anxiety and I turned to art as a form of therapy. Like I would be up late at night nursing my son, just drawing on my iPad, working through just the really hard, difficult seasons. And so it became something that I find a lot of joy in. It's something I love to do. I could sit and draw on my iPad for hours and hours and hours and find that a good use of my time.

Yeah, because it has multipurposes and mental health and all those things. So find something that you are passionate about, that you want to do, and then on the other side that you can make money doing. And so when those two things merge together, it's a really beautiful area that keeps your interest. And I have ADHD and I know a lot of creatives do. And it's like, what makes me happy that can make money?

and what keeps my interest for a long time. And sometimes I look around my office and see all the things that I'm doing and I just go, what if this was all just a hyper fixation? What if I wake up one day and I'm just like, you know how the stickers are? This and that is what I think. And so I kind of keep it as a challenge of, okay, how do I keep my interest? What are these things that I can keep doing and being creative in my business? Because business can be so incredibly creative. Even if you're not a...

crazy red glasses wearing pink obsessed graphic designer like me, business isn't creative in whatever business you're in. And I think it's really important to find those ways to keep yourself interested, to keep developing and doing things new and being original and all of those really great things that comes alongside business as well. And then start developing ways to make money.

I am super grateful for an area where I can make money in so many different ways and not have the pressure of if I don't make money here, I'm not going to give up because this isn't my only basket that I'm putting my eggs in. Right? So my product based business is not always the number one seller for me. It's not always the one bringing in the most amount of money but I am able to pivot and to find other ways to make money and then to just treat it all like an experiment. So there's a lot of areas of my business where like, we'll try this. We'll see if it doesn't work. Well, I just found one way that it's not gonna work. Just like Thomas Edison with the light bulb. He tried a thousand different ways to make a light bulb and people goes, well, you failed a thousand times. He goes, no, I found a thousand ways not to make a light bulb.

So repurposing our failure as productivity and being productive in finding the things that make us money, that work, that we can streamline, that we can build up and keep testing it over and over again. And when we face those areas of failure, just using it as a lesson to keep propelling us to learn more and make, again, a more well-rounded business.

Tiffany (11:03)

Yeah, that's such fantastic advice because I think a lot of people go into business thinking that they're kind of stuck with one thing. So opening up your mind is kind of exciting because there are so many possibilities. So, Etsy versus your own online shop, which one has been most effective?

Bethany Bayless (11:25)

So I'll be just so transparent here. My Etsy store is not a huge moneymaker. Like it is not something that is like I will quit my job and just have an Etsy shop. And I think that's really important when diversifying your income anyway is again, not to put too many eggs in one basket, but what I do like about Etsy and I see it as two different ways of marketing my business. So with my online store, it is all direct.

So I have an online store so that I can send people who meet me at markets. I can send people on social media, really wonderful podcasts I'm on like with you and amazing people. And so I have a website, it adds credibility. It is a way for me to sell direct to the people that I am bringing in. I will say Etsy has its own foot traffic. Etsy has its own algorithm. It has its own game that you have to play.

its own little ears you have to scratch to make sure that it is happy and content. ⁓ But I have made more money some months and less money other months, but I do my best to keep those listings as optimized as I can. And that's kind of one of those things that if I kind of like I'm setting up these income streams, right? If I revisit my Etsy account, there's always something that I can be doing to make it more.

visible to make it more seen to add the SEO there's tools that I can use to integrate in order to work on the Keywords and they're changing and trying to keep on track on top of all those things and that I have more goals when it comes to my Etsy shop of okay I need to start Doing it on Pinterest as well. I need to start Making ways for people to see it. I to add product every single month because the algorithm likes that I need to change

So kind of being informed and figure out what makes Etsy tick is so incredibly different than what makes my own website tick. Because I will say the traffic that I bring to my own website is from meeting people at craft fairs or directly from social media, which is its own algorithm and the content beast and figuring out all of those things. So it's hard to compare the two. And people will often ask,

Should I have an Etsy shop or should I have a website? And my answer is always you should have both because you want to make sure people can find you. And if they find you on your own website, that's great. But oftentimes people will find you through the foot traffic on Etsy that provides its own thing. And you shouldn't have just an Etsy shop and you can have just a website if you want to. That's fine. But I also think that you might be limiting yourself

for people for ways to fight you. But it's all a matter of opinion. And it's also a matter of where do you want to spend your time? Because both take very different kinds of time.

Tiffany (14:25)

Yes. Yeah. a YouTuber. She was saying that she has made probably 10 times more on her website than on Etsy. So I don't know.

Bethany Bayless (14:35)

because

she's probably bringing people to her own website. And I think that you have to have a website if you're an influencer, if you have a very good way to send people somewhere, if you're doing YouTube, if you're doing Instagram and you're doing well on those things, or if you just, know, like we all hope for, hope that that one reel goes super mega viral, then that'd be great. But to have a landing page, a website is incredibly, incredibly important.

Tiffany (15:01)

Yes. Yeah. And I think that spans across business types too. Just having somewhere that people can land.

Bethany Bayless (15:07)

⁓ absolutely.

Absolutely. Which is one of the reasons I love, I still do a lot of website design because I know how important websites are for people and they add credibility in so many ways. I mean, I just did one for a college counselor and it adds so much credibility to what she does and how she's able to refer people and makes her look so professional and so, devir is the word that came to me.

I'm spending too much time on TikTok. I'm sorry. then I also just did one, I just did a website for a sewing coach who teaches people how to sew and the possibilities that are coming from her own website are incredible. And the ideas that she's able to generate is she could do online classes, in-person classes, ⁓ courses or workshops or running a live course or having a community or

Tiffany (15:37)

awesome.

Bethany Bayless (16:02)

All these things, you have to have a website as a landing page to send people and then you're able to get creative even within that too. So I totally agree. But also if I don't have a hundred thousand followers, which spoiler, I do not, Etsy tends to be another algorithm that I can play that game in order to get some money from it.

Tiffany (16:30)

Your brand has a very distinct aesthetic. How did you develop your design style and your brand identity and how would you recommend others do the same?

Bethany Bayless (16:41)

This is a huge topic. We could have seven episodes on this alone because I went back to school. I think that was one of the best decisions that I made for myself was when I was a speaker and I was doing so many other things at the same time, I wanted this knowledge so badly because I knew how important branding yourself was. I knew how important having a very strong both visual appeal, then also

choosing what you choose to talk about, choosing your vibe, that whole thing was so important to a successful business. And I just remember that little 25, 26 year old Bethany who wanted to define who she was and to figure these things out. And it took a very long time for me to do that. And when I went back to school for graphic design, didn't really meet, I liked drawing on my iPad. And I was like, I think graphic design sounds fun.

And I went back to school and it was a whole other thing in and of itself. So I was taking classes that talked about how to develop brand guidelines, how to develop a very strong visual suite, if you will, and learned so much from these very structured, graded classes. And then I also interned at a

professor-led but student design agency within the college that I went to. And I was a part of that for about a year and learned so much even more of how important it is to define a lot of these things for your brand and your business. And so I am really grateful that I had that opportunity to put more official education towards that.

but it is also something that you, there are so many courses, there's so many places out there, so many people educating on the importance of these things. And so for me, my personal brand, it was interesting. I developed it a little bit while I was in school. I did get some feedback from it, but I knew that I wanted my brand to be happy, to be colorful, to be...

encouraging and exciting because I think that's so much of who I am as a person anyway, but I knew I wanted my brand to look a lot like me and I started developing those things and so I think it's really important for someone to, this is what I do with my clients frequently, is we sit down and we define your brand attributes. So what words do you want to describe your business? What are the things that you want your business to feel like?

If somebody looks at your business or your paper or your flyers or whatever it is, what do want them to feel about you? What do you want to communicate at a glance? And so for me, again, the colorful and the bright and the happy and pink just blew up at me for some reason. just like pink was what I wanted pink and yellow and orange and all the happy bright colors and ⁓ really, really just

pressed into that. So hardcore. And I think that's also my personality type. Where I was like, this is what I want to do. I'm going to do 110 % this. So when I am the brand of Wildwood Lane, I mean, I have a pink tent that I use at my pop-up shops. And I tell people, look for the pink tent because you'll find me. And then my tent broke and I had to get a gray one. And people were like, I could not find you. was like, because it's not.

So I'm going to go back to my pink tank because it was so part of it. again, Wild One Lane, I knew that I wanted to spread encouragement, to spread light, to spread kindness, to spread happiness to moms specifically. And so again, that's why I pressed into that very hard. And then also, I think it's really important to define your target audience is huge. Like the biggest thing that you can do in business and what

business you have, you have to define your target audience. And I knew from the very beginning, moms, moms, I want moms, because moms is where I am right now in my life. I need moms and I want to encourage moms. And so like I have little stickers, you know, this is my very first sticker I have right here. It says mama, llama. And it's just like a happy holographic little sticker. And so when I can define my target audience and I knew

that I really wanted moms, I wanted someone probably within my age demographic. So millennial moms were really who I decided to target as my target audience. And so what do millennial moms like? What are the millennial moms into? Like, are these the moms shopping at Target and anthropology and all of these places? And let me tell you, my first days of motherhood,

in the pandemic when we finally started, were able to go into stores, I would slap a mask on myself and go into Target for a Starbucks because that's all I could do. Like that was my form of entertainment. I found so much serotonin and dopamine hits from just walking into those beautiful red gates of possibility of things that I could buy. And so I knew that I was probably targeting moms who shopped at these places and what are these places making? What are the things that bring us

happiness and joy and what are we attracted to? And the more that I saw what other people were doing, I'm like, okay, how do I develop that for my own business? How do I find what women, moms, millennial moms are wanting these days? And then one of the best things too is to go and test that, right? So if I think, okay, I think moms like happy things. I went into glass cups because I knew that.

We're like all about our beverages as moms and we just love a happy little dainty thing. That's just for us. That makes us feel like we are a person even though we are covered in bodily fluids of a baby. I just want something to make me feel happy and special. And like this thing is very breakable and I want something breakable. Gosh, start it. ⁓ And so

Again, I'm taking a very long time to answer your question, but I think those things are really important when it comes to developing your brand and your aesthetic. And then on top of all of that, knowing I'm so different than other people. And I know, like I have had people come up to my tents and when I test, going back to testing those things, the best way I can test out this assumption that I have is to get that market research. And that's one of the reasons I love craft shows.

I love going out in the public. I love talking to people who interact with my products. So I know is this something that they are resonating with? Is this something they find funny? And my, one of my favorite things to do, even though craft shows are a lot of time, so it makes me a little cranky because I'm spending a lot of time, eight hours going to set up at a very hot or rainy day and having people come look at my stuff and there'll be people who come up to my tent and be like, much pink. It's like,

Well, you are not part of my target audience. And I'm okay with that. I am not everybody's cup of tea. People listening to this podcast are like, my gosh, would never, I would never have that mural in my office. Cause you're not me. You don't wear red glasses and wear pink banana jumpsuits cause you think it's fun. And that's fine. Let's embrace that difference. And so I know they're not a part of my target audience. And it also, I don't take that as a hit. If someone doesn't resonate with my stuff.

They're not a part of my target audience. And I'm totally okay with that because the people who are, are immediately attracted to it. They immediately see the value in it. They love paying 20 plus dollars for a glass cup. That's going to make them feel dainty and happy. And those are the people that I am trying to sell to, not the people who don't resonate with my target audience.

Tiffany (24:59)

Yes, that's, that's lovely because yeah, you don't have, you're not supposed to sell to everybody. That's not going to happen.

Bethany Bayless (25:07)

No, if you sell to everybody, you're going to sell to nobody.

Tiffany (25:10)

Yes, exactly. That's great. ⁓ So what advice would you give to other creatives who want to turn their art or designs into a sustainable business?

Bethany Bayless (25:21)

That is a very big question. It's like, what have I? Well, I mean, it's a big conversation, right? And I do have a lot of people asking me, okay, I want to make money with this. I have to do this. And I have to tell them it is a long journey. It is not something that will happen overnight. And I had a woman come to me for a website design once.

Tiffany (25:22)

Aside from all of the other advice, aside from all the other advice you've already had.

Bethany Bayless (25:48)

And she, think was just trying to make money at something other. And I see the need in that. see so many moms and why small business is important for women and moms who specifically want to stay at home with their kids. It's such a beautiful thing and such a privilege and an honor to be able to do that. It is an honor to be able to stay home with my children and not, I understand that not everyone is able to do that. And so to have my small business to be making money with it is such a

labor of love. It is like raising a child. it is like creating. And I just talked to one of my best friends, just found out that she was pregnant and her first child is six years old. And she just found out she was pregnant with her second. But in between those two things, she built her business. She's a therapist and she built her business. And we were talking about it and you know, there's this age gap, which, you know, some might see it as an age gap, some might not. And

She for a really long time didn't know if she was going to have a second. And then when she did, she was like, you know, I just realized that my business was my second kid. Like my business was my second child. And I was like, that's beautiful because it is such a labor of love. It is like creating something. It will not happen overnight. You are going to be working so many hours for zero dollars an hour. There is so much.

help that you're going to need when it comes to taking care of so many things around the house. And that's to mom specifically, but to artists specifically, we are in a day and age where it is so much easier to make money with your art. So I don't want to discourage people who want to make money with their art because it is so possible. We are not the starving artist generation any longer. We can make good money.

with our business of an art business, but it will not happen overnight. Just like our art style did not happen overnight. I have spent the last five years building and learning and reshaping my art to just define my signature style, what stands out for me and who I am. And that work is just as important as the building of your business, of defining yourself as an artist, of finding your style, of getting better.

taking classes, taking courses, taking education. We live in such a day and age where you could probably get an art degree online if you wanted to. And there's so many raising resources. There's so many people that you can follow and learn. And I've had such a privilege of being able to meet some of my art heroes and to tell them how they changed my life just by putting out art tutorials or putting out business tutorials and how to create your, your art into a business. And so,

My suggestion and my advice is to grow slow. And that's what somebody told me. And one of the best things like don't have this pressure that you're going to have to make six figures from your business tomorrow because it's very unrealistic and it's very unsustainable. And even now I am in probably my son is five. So this journey started when he was a baby. He will be six in May. And it has taken all that time to not only define who I am as an artist,

but you then even just start scratching the surface of what I can do with my artwork. And then find all the things that you can do and choose, make very clear decisions on where you wanna start. Do you wanna start in a product-based business? Cause not everybody who makes money from their art, even some people don't even touch physical products. Like some artists have no wholesale business or anything like that.

and they're making a very good living at not doing that. ⁓ And so again, I would say find the things that you want to do, things you can make money at, and then just keep going and push through the sludge and push through the times of creative burnout and push through the times that you're like, I just suck as an artist and nobody loves me, because we all feel that way. And surrounding yourself with community.

of people who can say, know what? Yes, we all feel that way. If you want to keep going, you can. If you want to quit for just today, I give you permission and then just start up again tomorrow. It's fine to keep doing that. ⁓ And then I will also say, and again, this advice was given to me very recently and I just think about it every single day. It lives rent free in my head. And that is you defined what success means for you.

So what does success mean for you and your business? And understand that that definition is constantly changing as you are growing, as you are in new parts of your life, as you are able to do more, you have more capacity, you have more time, it's always gonna change. And so for me, like I said, my very first definition of success for my business was to make enough money to cover one day of daycare for my son so I could

build my business so that I could have dedicated time towards my business. And I was successful in that for a while. I was successful. I had one client. I was trying and crashed and burned in so many ways, but was still successful because I was making enough money to cover one day of daycare a week for my son. My definition of success looks really different now, five years later, or three years later.

And it is something that I struggle with. Like I don't always feel like I'm super successful. ⁓ But then I take a look at my life and I go, okay, my definition of success right now is I want to make enough money to be able to stay home with my kids so that I can contribute to my family's finances and a specific amount. Like I can put a number on that. How much do I want to pay myself a month? And

I even, you I had someone come up to me and goes, I just want to make $600 a month. Then I could quit this job and I could just, if I just made $600 a month. So that is now your definition of success. If your definition of success is I want $600 a month, take a step back and make those micro goals. Okay, how am going to get there? How many experiments am I going to conduct until I'm finally at the point where I'm making $600 and then you're going to surpass that and you're going to have to redefine your success even further once again.

Tiffany (32:32)

Yes, I love that. I love all of that. it's always changing. you're going to have to be flexible. And yeah, I love that sort of that approach. Well, thank you so much for all this advice. I feel like there are so many pieces of advice that makers could get out of this, but also any small business owner could.

get lots of wisdom from everything that you shared. So thank you so much for sharing your journey.

Bethany Bayless (33:01)

Thank you so much for having me and thank you for listening to my long-winded answers. I could talk forever on this.

Tiffany (33:08)

That's our favorite kind of answer. We love it. Yes, we love it. Thank you so much.

Bethany Bayless (33:10)

Yay!

Thank you.