Proof to Product

How do you run a high-volume wholesale business with a tiny team, and still make room for the work you love? Katie Wilson has been in the greeting card and gift industry since 2008, and her brand, The Good Twin, is 95% wholesale and stocked in more than 1,500 independent shops around the world.She and her partner Scotty also run Crush and Touch Art Supply, a neighborhood art store and gift shop in Los Angeles. You’ve heard Katie talked about the shop side on the podcast before in episode 129, episode 316, and episode 317. This time she focuses on the brand: why wholesale is still her main revenue stream, how she keeps orders moving, and which products she’ll never cut. This episode was so juicy, we had to split it into two parts!In part 1, you’ll learn:Why Katie chooses to keep wholesale as The Good Twin’s primary revenue streamHow a tiny team handles high-volume wholesale orders with strong systems, and why she keeps fulfillment in-houseHow to spot trends in product cycles and categoriesHow to balance making money from your work with projects that fill your creative cupWhy you should think twice before discontinuing a bestseller, even if you’re tired of looking at it years laterToday's episode is brought to you by our Retailer Roundtable interview series. To make a strong first impression with wholesale buyers, we need to do a few things well. We need to make it easy for stores to purchase from usWe need clear pricing and terms and conditionsWe need to build strong relationships with our customersAll of that gets easier when we listen to our customers. This on-demand interview series gives you a window into what buyers want and need from you, and it's only $27. You can get access to it at prooftoproduct.com/roundtable.You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/466 Quick Links:Free Wholesale Audio SeriesFree Resources LibraryFree Email Marketing for Product MakersPTP LABSPaper CampMentioned in this episode:Take the free quiz!Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz

"How did you get your products into so many stores?" Melissa Gullatte hears this question often. Her business, Gracefully Made Art, started with original paintings and wedding invitations. After her first daughter was born, she pivoted to officially licensed collegiate and sorority gifts. She took Paper Camp in spring 2023, thinking wholesale would be a nice side channel. Three years later, wholesale is two-thirds of her revenue and she's in more than 1,000 stores.In this episode, you'll learn:How collegiate and sorority licensing works: applying school by school, getting each product category and every piece of artwork approved, and planning six months to a year ahead of launchHow Melissa landed Ole Miss after two years of rejectionsWhy sorority licensing opened up a national market when collegiate products sell regionallyHow she prices for wholesale first, with royalties of 12 to 20 percent built in, then sets her retail price from thereWhat tactics got her into 1,000+ storesHow she keeps retailers reordering, and why fewer SKUs helped her business growToday's episode is brought to you by our Retailer Roundtable interview series. To make a strong first impression with wholesale buyers, we need to do a few things well. We need to make it easy for stores to purchase from usWe need clear pricing and terms and conditionsWe need to build strong relationships with our customersAll of that gets easier when we listen to our customers. This on-demand interview series gives you a window into what buyers want and need from you, and it's only $27. You can get access to it at prooftoproduct.com/roundtable.You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/465 Quick Links:Free Wholesale Audio SeriesFree Resources LibraryFree Email Marketing for Product MakersPTP LABSPaper CampMentioned in this episode:Take the free quiz!Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz

How do you decide what to make next, what to cut, and where to put your limited time and money? For Elizabeth Rees, founder of Chasing Paper, the answer has come from her customers for nearly 13 years. She shares how customer feedback shaped her product format, her materials, her wholesale approach, and her newest line, and why she checks every instinct against the data before acting on it.In this episode, you'll learn:Why Chasing Paper sold wallpaper in panels instead of rolls from the start, so a customer with a small project could spend $60 instead of $250 and buy in at any budgetHow launching with two materials, Standard and Luxe, worked like an accidental A/B test, and why Elizabeth discontinued the lower-priced option about nine months in instead of continuing to explain the differenceHow Chasing Paper treats wholesale as a customer acquisition channel, drop-shipping for retail partners and using those placements to build brand trustWhy the trade program, where repeat rate, average order value, and lifetime value run three to four times higher than direct-to-consumer, became the reason to launch fabricWhy deepening relationships with the customers you already have can matter more than constantly finding new ones, and why a small team has to be selective about new channelsHow Elizabeth pairs instinct with data, and why one source of truth for attribution keeps her team from cherry-picking numbers to support a hunchToday's episode is brought to you by our Retailer Roundtable interview series. To make a strong first impression with wholesale buyers, we need to do a few things well. We need to make it easy for stores to purchase from usWe need clear pricing and terms and conditionsWe need to build strong relationships with our customersAll of that gets easier when we listen to our customers. This on-demand interview series gives you a window into what buyers want and need from you, and it's only $27. You can get access to it at prooftoproduct.com/roundtable.You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/464 Quick Links:Free Wholesale Audio SeriesFree Resources LibraryFree Email Marketing for Product MakersPTP LABSPaper CampMentioned in this episode:Take the free quiz!Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz

Dorothy Belshaw has spent more than three decades in the gift, home, and trade show industries. She's led some of North America's biggest markets—from NY NOW to Atlanta Mart, and Las Vegas Market.Earlier this year, Dorothy partnered with industry veterans William Lacey and Karen Olson to acquire NY NOW through Rockview Management Group and bring the iconic 100+ year-old show into its next chapter.In this episode, you'll learn:What changes when a trade show is owned by a small, industry-embedded team instead of a large company What she and her partners changed in their first few months, and how the summer show performed How they're rebuilding category depth, including Home returning as a primary category and Handmade coming back under external jury How multi-line agency partnerships re-engage the reps who are already in stores year-round What NY NOW is doing to bring buyers back from the Northeast, mid-Atlantic, northern Midwest, and eastern Canada Why Dorothy believes buyers can't build a full assortment digitally, and what that means for your booth What support is being built for newer and smaller exhibitors, and how to make an impact in a smaller footprint What the strongest brands at the show have in common: evolving product, early commitment, and follow-up Why Shoppe Object and NY NOW are on different weekends for Winter 2027, and the plan to get back to the same datesToday's episode is brought to you by our Retailer Roundtable interview series. To make a strong first impression with wholesale buyers, we need to do a few things well. We need to make it easy for stores to purchase from usWe need clear pricing and terms and conditionsWe need to build strong relationships with our customersAll of that gets easier when we listen to our customers. This on-demand interview series gives you a window into what buyers want and need from you, and it's only $27. You can get access to it at prooftoproduct.com/roundtable.You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/463 Quick Links:Free Wholesale Audio SeriesFree Resources LibraryFree Email Marketing for Product MakersPTP LABSPaper CampMentioned in this episode:Take the free quiz!Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz

Most product-based business owners do their strategic planning late at night or in the car with ten spare minutes. Or they make a big list of everything that needs fixing and try to work on all of it at once. Either way, a few months go by and it's hard to tell whether the business is headed where you want it to go. In this episode, I walk you through a five-day exercise, about 30 minutes a day, that ends with one clear priority for your quarter and a plan to get there.In this episode, you'll learn:The two patterns that keep owners from planning — the Firefighter, who's too busy reacting to look up, and the Juggler, who makes a little progress in five directions instead of real progress in oneWhy looking back at the last 90 days, not the whole year, is the first step before you plan anythingHow to take your business temperature by rating your product line, your sales and marketing, and your systems and operations from one to five, and why your lowest score usually points to your biggest opportunityWhy you pick one priority for the quarter, not three or five, and the question that helps you choose itHow to break that priority into three monthly milestones and a first step small enough to take in the next 48 hoursHow LABS members are using the exercise to make real progress in their businessToday's episode is brought to you by Proof to Product LABS, our membership for product-based business owners who want to keep growing after the basics are in place. Inside LABS, you get coaching, our full training library, and focused sprints throughout the year to help you make real progress on one thing at a time. CEO Week, which is what I'm walking you through today, is one of those sprints. We also have an upcoming Black Friday / Cyber Monday sprint so you go into the holidays with a plan. We're opening enrollment to LABS this week, and our next CEO Week kicks off October 12th. Come do it with us!JOIN US IN LABS NOWYou can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/462 Quick Links:Free Wholesale Audio SeriesFree Resources LibraryFree Email Marketing for Product MakersPTP LABSPaper CampMentioned in this episode:Take the free quiz!Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz

I've been having a lot of conversations lately, both private and public, about Faire. Some of you love the platform. Some of you hate it. And a lot of you are somewhere in the middle, trying to figure out your next move. Should I get on Faire? Should I get off? Should I let it run on cruise control?There's a lot of noise right now, and a lot of nuance to every situation. Here's the part that gets missed: most of our Paper Camp students and alumni sell on Faire, and most of them are not paying commission on the large majority of their orders. There's no trick to it. They use Faire as a checkout, not as a sales strategy.In this episode, you'll learn:What Faire genuinely does well Why I have no problem with Faire's commissionsThe two best ways brands use FaireThe four things Paper Camp alumni specifically do consistently with Faire that helps keep more money in their pocketsHow one Proof to Product client pulled abandoned cart and past order data to build a personalized three-day campaign for a single store, and landed a $2,500 orderThe one question to ask every time Faire rolls out something newToday's episode is brought to you by our Retailer Roundtable interview series. To make a strong first impression with wholesale buyers, we need to do a few things well. We need to make it easy for stores to purchase from usWe need clear pricing and terms and conditionsWe need to build strong relationships with our customersAll of that gets easier when we listen to our customers. This on-demand interview series gives you a window into what buyers want and need from you, and it's only $27. You can get access to it at prooftoproduct.com/roundtable.You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/461 Quick Links:Free Wholesale Audio SeriesFree Resources LibraryFree Email Marketing for Product MakersPTP LABSPaper CampMentioned in this episode:Take the free quiz!Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz

When you're deciding which products to add to your line, you probably think about sales data first. But that's only part of the story.Amita Nair has built Amicreative into a cohesive, intentional brand by making product decisions from four angles: financial performance, design aesthetic, what customers actually want, and whether the product fits her brand voice.In this episode, she walks through how she's learned to say no to products that make business sense but don't fit her story—and why that clarity matters.In this episode, you'll learn:The four lenses for evaluating new products: data, design, customer voice, and brand alignmentWhy Amita chose to add aprons instead of expanding into oven mitts (and what that decision reveals about brand strategy)How licensing and product can coexist—and which one might take priority at different stagesThe role of peer community in making better business decisions and avoiding costly mistakesWhy "I can add this" is different from "I should add this"How starting with a small, cohesive product line scales better than chasing every opportunityReady to build a product line that's both profitable and true to your brand? If you're in the early stages of deciding which products to develop, or if you're mid-line and wondering whether that new category makes sense, LABS gives you access to the peer community and resources you need to make those decisions with confidence. REQUEST YOUR INVITATIONYou can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/460 Quick Links:Free Wholesale Audio SeriesFree Resources LibraryFree Email Marketing for Product MakersPTP LABSPaper CampMentioned in this episode:Take the free quiz!Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz

Today I'm talking with someone I've admired for a long time— artist, author, illustrator, and creative entrepreneur Lisa Congdon.Lisa has been building businesses around her art for nearly 20 years, and in this conversation we talk about something that I think a lot of established brand owners will relate to, and that's what happens when you've built a successful business but you realize it's no longer the business you want to run.Lisa recently made the decision to close her retail business after 20 years, not because it was failing, but because she wanted more time and space to make art and pursue the work that really energizes her.I appreciate how intentional she was about that decision.She didn't just burn everything down and hope for the best, like some of us feel like doing every day, but she looked at her finances and considered other revenue streams.She created a plan and gave herself and her team a runway.We also get into how Lisa developed a recognizable artistic point of view, why making work that actually means something to you can create a stronger connection with your customers, and the difference between trend-driven, trend-agnostic, and trend-informed.There are so many good nuggets in this conversation about building a product brand that works commercially while still staying true to your creative voice and knowing when it's time to make a change.Today’s episode is sponsored by our Unlock Buyer Secrets Interview series. To make a strong first impression with wholesale buyers, we need to do a few things really well:We need to make it easy for stores to purchase from usWe need to have clear pricing and terms & conditionsWe need to clearly communicate and add value at each touchpointWe need to focus on building strong relationships with our customers.And all of this becomes infinitely easier when we actively listen to our customers. This on-demand interview series will give you a competitive edge by providing an exclusive window into what buyers want and need from you. And, the best part, it's only $27 bucks.Get Access to the Unlock Buyer Secrets Interview SeriesYou can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/459Quick Links:Free Wholesale Audio SeriesFree Resources LibraryFree Email Marketing for Product MakersPTP LABSPaper CampMentioned in this episode:Take the free quiz!Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz

What happens when one client makes up 85% of your income, and then that client cancels the contract? For Melissa Hyatt, that moment became the reason she built a business with several ways to earn. Melissa shares her path from design director at Waverly Fabrics to running her own stationery and watercolor brand, and how a sketch on a piece of copy paper turned into a line of watercolor kits that has sold more than 1,000 units.In this episode, you'll learn:Why Melissa decided never to rely on one client again, and the five revenue streams she built instead: wholesale, teaching, licensing, art commissions, and direct-to-consumerHow her first wholesale account came from a former Waverly colleague's referral, and why the network you already have mattersWhy she limits commissions and in-person classes to avoid burnout, and how that burnout led her to turn her teaching into a productHow adding a higher-priced product raised her average order value, brought in new types of stores, and led to in-store teaching opportunitiesThe inventory lesson from her first big trade show orders: she under-ordered brushes, shipped a few weeks late, and not one retailer canceledToday's episode is brought to you by our Is Wholesale Right for You workshop. Wholesale is not the only way to make money selling your products. Selling in bulk to retail stores that order multiple times a year instead of relying on one-off direct-to-consumer sales— yes please!Whether you are brand new to wholesale or you've hit a sales plateau, this free 25-minute on-demand workshop will give you actionable steps that you can take to strengthen your wholesale sales and marketing right away.SIGN UPYou can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/458Quick Links:Free Resources LibraryFree Email Marketing for Product MakersPTP LABSPaper CampMentioned in this episode:Take the free quiz!Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz

What did it cost you to not do Paper Camp last round?Not what it costs to join the program — we'll get to that. I'm talking about the other number. The invisible one.The wholesale orders you didn't land because your pricing wasn't dialed in. The reorders that never came through because you weren't sure how to follow up and you didn't know what to say, or when to send it. The stores that passed on your line because your minimums didn't align with industry standards.The nights you spent Googling "how much should I charge for ___" instead of just knowing the answer off the top of your head or having a place to go and ask.Those missed opportunities cost you real money. But they don’t show up on your profit and loss statement. No one sends you an invoice for the money you left on the table.In this podcast episode, we're putting a number on it.Today's episode is brought to you by our Paper Camp program. Paper Camp is our wholesale coaching program where we teach you everything you need to know to build strong wholesale foundations. Over the course of 4 weeks, we tackle your product line, sales tools, and marketing plan, and we even talk about how to exhibit at trade shows if that's what you want to do. We start with your product line and go into everything from how often you should be releasing new products to ensuring that your numbers are sustainable for the wholesale market and their price for profit.Then we move into sales tools you must have for selling wholesale so you make a strong first impression with buyers like catalogs and your terms and conditions. Then, we cover marketing strategies and ways to reach various store owners. Each week's teachings build on the previous week, and we host weekly live engaging coaching calls to answer all of your questions. We will open enrollment for our next round of Paper Camp soon, and we sell this program out every time we run it. Join the wait list and you’ll get early access to enroll.ENROLL NOWYou can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/457 Quick Links:Free Wholesale Audio SeriesFree Resources LibraryFree Email Marketing for Product MakersPTP LABSPaper CampMentioned in this episode:Take the free quiz!Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz

"My business is too young for this." If you've ever said that about wholesale, this episode is for you. Sherry Lam joined Paper Camp with fewer than 20 SKUs, a handful of inconsistent accounts, a full-time day job, and a brand-new baby — and decided that was exactly the right moment to build her wholesale foundation. She went from 3 shaky accounts to more than 50. This is her story, in her own words.In this episode, you'll learn:Why Sherry started wholesale with fewer than 20 SKUs — and how starting early with the right foundation paid offHow she grew from 3 inconsistent accounts to more than 50 while working a day job and raising a babyHow doing wholesale correctly early on turned a "maybe this is a hobby" question into a real revenue streamHow to vet whether Paper Camp is right for you: free resources, the podcast archive, and talking to alumni before you investWhy she came back and took Paper Camp a second time — and what had changed, from Faire's growing role to new outreach normsWhat the alumni community looks like after the course ends, especially for solo foundersAbout Sherry:Sherry Lam is the founder of Sherry's Palette, where she designs greeting cards, enamel pins, art prints, and more. She built her wholesale business from 3 accounts to over 50 while working a full-time day job — and she's offered to be a resource for anyone on the fence about Paper Camp.Paper Camp is currently open for enrollment, which only happens twice a year!SIGN UP FOR PAPER CAMP NOWYou can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/455Quick Links:Free Wholesale Audio SeriesFree Resources LibraryFree Email Marketing for Product MakersPTP LABSPaper CampMentioned in this episode:Take the free quiz!Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz

I know you have a lot on your plate right now. You've got products to make, orders to ship, and about a hundred decisions that you're making every day. I do not take it lightly that you are spending time with me today and I want to thank you for being here. Today's episode is a short, focused, throwback episode designed to give you one thing that you can do today to move your business forward. No fluff, no filler, just ideas that we've shared in the past that will benefit you today. Let's dive in!You can listen to the full episode here: http://prooftoproduct.com/412 Quick Links:Free Wholesale Audio SeriesFree Resources LibraryFree Email Marketing for Product MakersPTP LABSPaper CampMentioned in this episode:Take the free quiz!Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz