Catherine Langman:
Well, hello there. It’s Catherine Langman, back again with another episode of the Productpreneur Success Podcast. Today I’m really excited to welcome my really good friend, Lou Duggan from Cake 2 The Rescue onto the show. How are you going?
Lou Duggan:
Thank you for having me. I’m really good. I’m excited.
Catherine Langman:
We’re super excited to have you here and really excited to talk a little bit about your journey with Cake 2 The Rescue and learn about some of the things that maybe didn’t go so well, and some of the things that have really gone very well, and share some of those experiences and strategies with our listeners.
Lou Duggan:
Perfect. There’s always a lot of mistakes before you have success, so there’ll be plenty to talk about.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, learning experiences or lessons.
Lou Duggan:
For sure. Growth.
Catherine Langman:
Totally. So, before we kick into some of that, how about you start by telling everyone, what is Cake 2 The Rescue? What do you do in your business?
Lou Duggan:
Sure. So, I have a company called Cake 2 The Rescue. It’s an online E-commerce business that sells all over Australia and we also have a business in New Zealand. Basically, we make it a lot easier for parents to pour their love into a homemade birthday cake by providing them with a kit with everything they need to make that cake at home. It’s basically my job to make sure that it’s a lot easier to make something at home by not having to run around and gather all the things. Perhaps someone’s not a creative person but they’re good at following instructions, or perhaps they’ve had that dream of making a homemade cake and they’re just really intimidated by it or they feel that they don’t have the time. And so, we created these kits. There’s about 200 plus designs now in the range, for the last eight years. We send everything they need to their home and we provide all that support they need.
Lou Duggan:
I guess the main reason really for starting the business was that I was that real Martha Stewart person when my kids were little and I know a lot of people aren’t. And we just wanted to pass on those skills. I just saw how much my kids loved homemade cakes. I remember my mother making a homemade cake and what it meant to them and just really making sure that everyone could offer that to their kids. But the biggest thing really particularly that’s come from it now is that it’s really about teaching parents about imperfection and that the cake doesn’t have to be perfect, and that really it’s about that love that you pour into it and that kids value love and time and they’re the only two things a kid needs. So now, it’s a lot of really encouraging people to be imperfect in the way that present their things. You don’t need a three-tiered masterpiece made by someone else.
Catherine Langman:
No.
Lou Duggan:
Your kid will love a cake made by you so much more.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Lou Duggan:
It doesn’t matter if there’s crumbs in the icing and it doesn’t matter if you needed three wines to get you to through it. It’s just that fun thing, that your child will always remember the love you poured into that cake and it’s up to me to support that journey.
Catherine Langman:
And giving the parents the confidence, I guess, just to have a go as well.
Lou Duggan:
Absolutely.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Lou Duggan:
Actually, the parents inspire me the most. They place a lot of trust in me when deciding to buy a homemade birthday cake. You’ve got your own ego, you’ve got your child’s expectations, and you’ve got what your friends will think if you don’t do a great job. And I take that responsibility really seriously. Nobody wants to really look silly in front of their friends, and so literally everything I do and every decision I make in my business is to make sure that I honor that trust that they’ve placed in me and that I don’t let them down, and that what we say we do is genuinely what we do and that they will be successful. When they are successful, it’s the absolute joy of my job. It’s every single day going on to Facebook and watching people be successful with our kits and the way it makes them feel about themselves. It’s the thing that drives me the most, but it’s also-
Catherine Langman:
It’s pretty special.
Lou Duggan:
It’s really special and it makes me love my job but it also makes me take my job very seriously.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, that’s so cool.
Lou Duggan:
Yeah, so that’s a bit about us, yeah.
Catherine Langman:
That’s awesome. I know a little bit about some of the designs that you have in your collection because of course my daughter, the last time I did have a party for her, she needed to choose and search through them all and pick something that would go with the theme of the party and all of that sort of stuff. So I guess, I mean, in some respects, that could open up a lot of pressure for the parents if they went straight to Google and just looked through all of the crazy designs that people are buying.
Lou Duggan:
Honestly, Google and Pinterest are like the bane of every mother’s life.
Catherine Langman:
I think so.
Lou Duggan:
I always say to people, I mean, “Yes, you can go on to Cake 2 The Rescue and buy a kit from us and know that whatever you choose will be safe and you’ll be able to create it.”
Catherine Langman:
Exactly.
Lou Duggan:
But if you’re not going to Cake 2 The Rescue, then what I always say is, “You go onto Google by yourself.”
Catherine Langman:
Yes, exactly.
Lou Duggan:
“Find five cakes that you perceive you may be able to make and present them to your child as options. Never stand in front of a computer and say, ‘What cake would you like?’ and press the search button.”
Catherine Langman:
No, I made that mistake.
Lou Duggan:
You are guaranteed a disaster.
Catherine Langman:
10 years ago I made that mistake with my oldest son. He was obsessed with Top Gear, the TV show-
Lou Duggan:
Yes. Oh, wow.
Catherine Langman:
… and he really wanted a Range Rover like Jeremy Clarkson would drive.
Lou Duggan:
Wow.
Catherine Langman:
I was like, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Never again.
Lou Duggan:
And the ones on Google are not only a Range Rover but it’s built and it’s on top of a three-layered cake-
Catherine Langman:
Exactly.
Lou Duggan:
… and it has flashing lights and it makes a zooming noise if you press a button on the bottom.
Catherine Langman:
Ridiculous. So, much safer to go to Cake 2 The Rescue’s collections and show those. So, you’ve been around for several years now.
Lou Duggan:
Yeah.
Catherine Langman:
I can’t remember, how many years has it been now?
Lou Duggan:
2012 we launched the company, so eight years.
Catherine Langman:
Fantastic.
Lou Duggan:
Yeah, it’s a long time.
Catherine Langman:
So, in a minute we’ll talk a little bit about one of the main strategies that have worked really well for you. But before we get to that, maybe talk a little bit about something that perhaps didn’t work so well in the early days and a mistake that you wish you might not have made at the time.
Lou Duggan:
For sure. Probably the biggest thing was when we started eight years ago Facebook really didn’t have that many rules and you were able to very quickly build an audience. And we built our audience through lots of Thermomix competitions. It was the stage where Thermomix had just gone nuts and you were doing lots of share for share, like for like, follow all the companies, do all the things in these big, mega competitions. And you could get yourself 1,000 new members in one night on Facebook.
Catherine Langman:
Jesus.
Lou Duggan:
We really became obsessed with growing the scale of Cake 2 The Rescue and building that big audience. And you’d do it through funny memes, and lots of discounts, and giveaways and all these types of things. And it really did build a big audience, but I’m really not sure it built an engaged audience who were ready to convert to sales. It didn’t build trust. It didn’t build a devotion towards our products, or our brand, or who we were. All it really did was build a really big Facebook page. The funniest thing is that that way of building it, I think Cake 2 The Rescue has just rolled over either 57 or 58,000, I can’t remember which the number is.
Catherine Langman:
Holy cow.
Lou Duggan:
But what I can tell you is it has only grown by about 12,000 in the last three or four years. That’s 45,000 were done in the first four years. But what I can also tell you is as an engaged audience, I would say only 7,000 of that community are genuinely engaged. And so, by growing it in that way where we weren’t developing that sense of community and that sense of people who really love what we do and what we’re about, they weren’t there for that reason. And so therefore, it really didn’t serve its purpose.
Lou Duggan:
It also meant that if you want to make changes… We had to put up pricing at one point. Our pricing was really wrong at the start and when we then went to put up pricing they didn’t have that trust or belief in us to understand why we would do it. Therefore, they just saw it as shoving your price up. We didn’t have that trust built with them to justify our behaviors. And so, that had a massive impact on that page as well. So, it definitely was a huge mistake to develop it that way and not to base it on our own merit and just take our time when we were doing it. So, I would say that was the biggest mistake that we made.
Lou Duggan:
The other mistake, for me, was not really ever having a true marketing strategy or plan in place. It was kind of just running around frantically doing everything, newsletters, and Facebook posts, and competitions, and giveaways and randomly giving people money to do an advert for you with no real measurement or any kind of understanding of: what was the impact of that? In the initial stages you do magazine things and I remember one year my husband and I sat down at Christmas and were like, “Let’s make Cake 2 The Rescue explode this year.” And I think we’d committed, because we’re only a small business, we were like, “We’re going to spend $5,000 on these two articles.” One was Babyology and one was Mum’s Lounge, I think it was called at the time. “And they’re massive companies and will do this big advert for us and we’ll get each of them to do it.” And we did. I think we ended up spending nearly $6,000.
Catherine Langman:
Holy cow.
Lou Duggan:
But it was a one-off thing where they one-off talked about us and, yes, we had the SEO behind it as a long-term link, but we couldn’t afford to get them to talk to us again. So basically, all these people heard about us once.
Catherine Langman:
Once.
Lou Duggan:
And everyone knows in marketing that someone has to hear from you, what, seven to 10 times-
Catherine Langman:
I know.
Lou Duggan:
… before they may trust you or make a decision. So we’d literally, unbeknown to us, we thought we were taking a big risk to blow up our company, but actually we just flushed it down the toilet because we spent such a large amount of money on one voice when I think how many times we could have spoken to people in $100 lots with that $7,000 and really nurtured a community.
Catherine Langman:
That’s right.
Lou Duggan:
I look back on that now and that was a really silly mistake that we didn’t understand that just screaming, “Here we are,” to 200,000 people without any substance was ever going to have any impact because you don’t make a personal connection with that human being by just grandstanding statements. And so, that was probably the last of the really expensive mistakes we ever made. I never did that again.
Catherine Langman:
Good.
Lou Duggan:
I learned my lesson very quickly.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. And you’ve worked really hard on developing that overarching marketing strategy and how to pull it all together-
Lou Duggan:
Absolutely.
Catherine Langman:
… a bit more cohesively.
Lou Duggan:
Definitely.
Catherine Langman:
So, let’s talk a little bit about how you did then manage to move forwards and build the really engaged audience that you do have now. Because, one of the things that I talk about a lot is that one of the mistakes that people make, and I mean, this is a mistake in E-commerce but in any business really, is not having an audience to sell to and not taking the time to build that audience. And so, you’ve spoken a little bit about that early on, making the mistake about the way you went about trying to build and attract that audience. But I see it a lot and I think these days, when social media is really difficult for a lot of people to get that engagement organically and you’ve managed to do it. So, let’s talk a little bit about that. What did you do?
Lou Duggan:
Yeah, so it’s really, the minute you realize that people buy from people is the second your business changes forever. I mean, I think a lot of people like an E-commerce business because you can be kind of invisible behind it. There’s a perception that you just put this stuff up online and as long as your website looks pretty and your prices are good, then people will buy from you. But actually, maybe in the first space of websites and E-commerce where there weren’t many but at a time when… I never remember the stats, but people say the stat of how many marketing messages you receive a day. The time are gone where people buy something just because the price is okay. The competition is too high. And really what it is, is that people buy from people that they like.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Lou Duggan:
That is a dangerous thing to say to someone because a lot of people say, “Well, why will they like me? Oh my gosh. Well, they might not like me.” And it is a terrifying thought. “Well, why would they like me more than they would like someone else?”
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, true.
Lou Duggan:
But really, what people like and what I’ve really learned what people like is they like honest, down-to-earth humans. They like people who are just like them. So yes, we can have the Instagram pages of that incredibly beautiful life that people create, this perfection. But from my point of view, and perhaps from my demographic and my price point, my price point is around everyday people. It might be some people might be buying a Mercedes and a cake kit, that’s definitely true. But the majority of people are the everyday people and they relate to an everyday person. And so, being an everyday person and being honest with them about who you are, why you have your business, what your mistakes you make, when you make mistakes, and giving them the entire version of yourself, make them relate to you and want to be around you.
Lou Duggan:
And so, the minute I became the face of the business as the person who does all the design work, probably looking from the day that I started the business by myself… I split up with my business partner and I was required to step into the marketing. It really, really terrified me. But the funniest thing is that the minute I did, they related to me so much because it wasn’t just a marketing stint, it was an actual human being. And we actually did make the move of putting them into a Facebook Group.
Catherine Langman:
I see.
Lou Duggan:
That works for some people and not for others, but certainly for us it worked massively because all of the people that were making those cakes weren’t just posting them in that bit of the Facebook page that you don’t really see unless you go looking for it. They were actually interacting, and talking, and supporting each other. I was doing a lot of live videos and chats. And, yes, a lot of cooking videos and a lot of that kind of thing, but I also started to mold my community with my attitudes and that focus on imperfection, and the beauty of a homemade cake, and that you didn’t have to be in the Cake Moms Group where everyone’s pretending they’re a home baker but they’re actually creating all these masterpieces. Then when you go to their profile, they actually have a cake shop.
Catherine Langman:
Oh my Lord.
Lou Duggan:
Or they’re selling cakes or whatever they are. We created a genuine group of people who are just trying to get by once you’re making a cake for the kids.
Catherine Langman:
That’s it.
Lou Duggan:
And it might not be perfect. And so really, it was really that, that moment of deciding to show up, to be authentic, to commit to my community.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Lou Duggan:
The other thing about having a community is that they get to really see how you connect with other people. So for my job, for my business, as I said, they have to trust me and they have to believe that what I say is what I mean and that I walk the talk. And so, if someone would ask for a design on the page and they hear me going, “Do you know what? That’s just going to make you cry your eyes out. That’s a huge mistake. You shouldn’t be doing that. How about we’ll make it this way and this way, and then you’re going to be able to do it without feeling really stressed and really upset.” Or I’ll say, “That’s an ivory icing. Don’t choose the chocolate cake. Go with the vanilla. You’re just going to get crumbs in your icing.” And I’m willing to show the down sides of my kit-
Catherine Langman:
Potential pitfalls.
Lou Duggan:
… and be really open and honest with them about that. And so, they trust me then and they understand that I’m out to have their back and I’m not just going to say yes to get the sale. And so, you build that community within it and they trust each other. So, when they’re talking to each other all the time, you just have that beautiful synergy of they can see each other boosting each other up.
Lou Duggan:
But there’s a couple of things I would say that were massive within having a community and one of the first ones is every week I have a, “Welcome to the group,” message. So basically, Facebook will say, “Here’s all the people who’ve joined your group this week. Would you like to welcome them?” My welcome message is very specific and it sets massive tone for the group. And so it says, “Hello. Hello, I’m so excited you’ve decided to be part of our gorgeous community. You’re going to absolutely love it in here. It’s full of beautiful kind people raising each other up, throwing perfection out of the window, just for the love of a homemade cake for their child. So, settle in, have a look around, get comfy. And we are just so excited to have you.”
Catherine Langman:
I love it.
Lou Duggan:
It’s beautiful in that they just feel so enveloped, and they feel so welcome, and they’re so shocked that you even know their name or any of those things that, of course, Facebook allows you to do.
Catherine Langman:
Yes.
Lou Duggan:
But for me, from a psychological point of view, what it says is, “You don’t need to be perfect to be part of this group. You don’t need to be perfect to buy a cake from this group. It’s okay to buy one and do an okay job with it. It’s not okay to be mean in this group, so don’t come in this group-“
Catherine Langman:
And be critical.
Lou Duggan:
… “saying mean stuff because you won’t last for a second. You can feel safe here so you don’t have to feel at risk. And everyone in this group will be nice to you because I’ve just told them that they will be nice to you.” So, it actually is an amazing thing and it sets the tone for the group, for all the new people. Because if new people arrive, it’s quite hard to set the tone and to make sure that everyone is banded together. So, definitely setting the tone regularly and consistently and you being extremely consistent with your brand really helps people to feel safe.
Lou Duggan:
The other thing about the group is they arrive in the group and they start skimming the timeline and they have nine touch points instantaneously. Instantaneously. So, they go into the group and the first thing they might see are four or five people all making their own cake and they’ve done it.
Catherine Langman:
Yes.
Lou Duggan:
It doesn’t look perfect-
Catherine Langman:
No.
Lou Duggan:
… but it looks good enough, which also makes them feel good. Then they see all my nice comments and support. Then they see all the other nice people saying nice things. Then they see the tone of the group and then they see me doing lots of little videos of how to things easier and within maybe a couple of the ads the message says, “You don’t have to buy straight away. Get comfortable, look around.” It’s not pushy. And so, they immediately trust, they immediately have social proof and it all happens immediately.
Lou Duggan:
So actually, as my funnel has gone on, every single part of my funnel points to the group. It doesn’t point to the website, it points to the group so that they build all of that trust. And then from the group, they go to the website. People might say that that’s a risky thing because you shouldn’t have too many links and hoops to jump to get to buying your product, but I believe that that group converts them so well-
Catherine Langman:
Well, that sense of community.
Lou Duggan:
… and that they all feel so supported in there.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. I think-
Lou Duggan:
Absolutely.
Catherine Langman:
Thinking about it as a community rather than just labeling it an audience I think is really powerful because then it goes both ways.
Lou Duggan:
Yes.
Catherine Langman:
It’s not you just-
Lou Duggan:
Absolutely.
Catherine Langman:
… talking to this amorphous group.
Lou Duggan:
And an added benefit of it is that now all of those people, not only do I feel a sense of responsibility to them, but they feel a sense of responsibility to me. They see what I do for them and therefore they want to support me.
Lou Duggan:
So if I stuff up someone’s kit, say there are six lots of fondant and I forget to put one thing in, or some glycerin, or whatever it is, they’re so much more accepting of my apology. They’re so much more accepting of error and of being flexible because they know that my heart is in the right place. They know that I work hard for my community and they know that I care. And so therefore, a mistake is just a mistake.
Catherine Langman:
And they probably know you’d fix it.
Lou Duggan:
Yes, absolutely. And so, it’s been great for that. It was great for the space we’re in at the moment with COVID-19 and it was so good for that because I was able to go on and say, “Okay, so here’s how I feel. I’m worried that they’re going to close me down and therefore I’d like you to order your kits now. I’m also worried that I’m going to look like an absolute idiot if they don’t close me down and I’ve asked you to order your kits and then you’re going to think that I was just pushing for orders. So, I don’t even know whether I wanted to come on and say it, but all I do know is if I don’t tell you and they close us, you’ll be devastated and I’ll be really regretful that I didn’t. So, I’m just going to say it. I’m going to encourage you to order and if I’m wrong, I apologize, but I would rather know that you have your kits than don’t.”
Lou Duggan:
And all of those little messages there, they believe me and they’re happy to take that on board and they’re grateful for it. But it comes from the trust of the community and them knowing that everything I say is the truth and it comes from my heart. So, it’s a massive, huge human connection with everything to my business. 1,000 percent.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, and it’s such an immediate demonstration of your brand values too. So, it just-
Lou Duggan:
Absolutely.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, so many good things about it.
Lou Duggan:
Yeah.
Catherine Langman:
So, if you were to give one or two pieces of advice to someone starting out about how to either adopt this sort of strategy, what would you pass on to somebody else who’s kind of early days in their business at the moment?
Lou Duggan:
Yeah. So, and this is going to make people flinch a little bit, show up. Show up on social media. I know I’m an extrovert. It’s an extremely easy thing to me to say, but show up in whatever way you can. Whatever you can give to show your personality. If it’s not in a video straight away, but it’s the way you talk, be really open and honest. Be vulnerable, be passionate in how you talk about your business or how you talk about your community.
Lou Duggan:
Be very, very human. It’s really, really important that your brand has a personality. Decide what your personality is and stick to it. Don’t jump your personality around. And so, that really lets people know who you are and what you’re like. People want to see your face, they want to see who you are. They want to see what you feel like and what you do like and that’s really, really important. In those early stages, I mean, I’m not saying to everyone you should start a group because the last thing you want to do is start a group with no people. You know what I mean?
Catherine Langman:
Yes.
Lou Duggan:
So, you have to kind of build into that kind of community and that type of thing, but being personal and present on your page and being very responsive to people who do seek it. Encourage people to engage with you, absolutely. That definitely is a massive part of it and showing that human connection is absolutely huge. It’s also, coming from that is that transparency and huge lay on customer service.
Lou Duggan:
Customer service is everything, absolutely everything. Because, so much of online sales is, especially those big companies where they’re selling clothes or all those kinds of things, they don’t care if your child’s birthday’s on Friday and it’s not going to arrive. So, I accept my customers’ orders. I ask them when the birthday is and if it’s not going to arrive I contact them and ask them to update or to upgrade their services.
Lou Duggan:
So basically, customer service is something that will always set you aside from everything. And when you call on the phone, if something goes wrong, I call up and when I do it I’m slightly shaking because I’m thinking, “Are they going to shout at me?” But actually, someone is far more likely to shout at you in a DM-
Catherine Langman:
True.
Lou Duggan:
… than they are person to person.
Catherine Langman:
That’s so true.
Lou Duggan:
And so, it diffuses the situation and they just can’t believe that you’ve taken the time. I think we’ve lost the art of offering service and so when people receive genuine warm service, whether it’s through email, or whether it’s through Facebook, or whether it’s through whatever it is.
Lou Duggan:
When little kids make our cakes, I actually ask the parents for the name of the child and then I just quickly press it onto video and I send the kid a video message to tell them how impressed I am by them because I know, as Baker Girl Lou, it’ll mean a lot. Then it takes me 10 seconds and then I post it in the comments. Then the child has this message from the lady who runs the page telling them what a great job they’ve done.
Catherine Langman:
How cool is that?
Lou Duggan:
It’s all those little things.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Lou Duggan:
But what’s necessary for all of that is to have a framework behind you. So, my second piece of advice is to get your ducks in a row.
Catherine Langman:
Yes.
Lou Duggan:
So, I actually did this with the gorgeous Miss Catherine Langman a couple of years ago. I found Cath’s Productpreneur Program and basically, I’m an A scholar student type of human being, so I literally went from right from the start to right to the end of her course and literally put every single thing in place-
Catherine Langman:
You did.
Lou Duggan:
… all my funnels, all my marketing. I made sure my website was exactly how it should be, did all of the hard work to put all of that framework in place. I committed to a weekly newsletter. I committed to my daily posts on social media. I still have my first spreadsheet that each day I had to tick off to say that I’ve done all the basics. Because, sometimes when you get stuck into a new project or you get flustered by deliveries or whatever it is, you miss just the basic six steps and those six steps might be like 10 minutes of work.
Catherine Langman:
Exactly.
Lou Duggan:
But if you commit to them every day. And so now, I guess Cake 2 The Rescue runs basically on the community, and on feedback, and on recommendation, but also on those basic frameworks. I know that my site converts at the rate it’s supposed to work at. I know that my newsletter reminds people that we exist every week. I know that my socials keep people interactive. I know that my customer service and my asking people to review after they’ve bought a kit allows my Google star ratings to keep going.
Lou Duggan:
But they’re all happening mostly automated now. And what that does is automation allows you the freedom to be creative. It allows me the time to nurture my community because I know all those things are being done in the background. It allows me time to do a little video for a kid who’s done a beautiful job with a cake who’s only 10 years old. And that’s what the automation does. It provides a framework, which is your base model to allow you to then go searching for opportunities and fun things and creative ways to grow and market your business. And so, that’s the two things for me.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Lou Duggan:
And you can’t have one without the other-
Catherine Langman:
Not really.
Lou Duggan:
… because there’s no time.
Catherine Langman:
No.
Lou Duggan:
You can’t create a lot of time to do that unless you put that framework down underneath it, especially as your business grows. In the early days, all of your time must be committed to building community and building trust because that’s what will convert those first sales.
Catherine Langman:
Exactly.
Lou Duggan:
But after that, the framework. I mean, I can’t believe my business is eight years old and I put the framework in six years in. Just when I think about it now and the peace of mind that it’s provided me. It provides you a peace of mind.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, you get to enjoy that time more now, don’t you?
Lou Duggan:
You do.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Lou Duggan:
You do. And that you know that those wheels are always turning to bring in those basic sales and that you are the flourish on the top.
Catherine Langman:
That’s it.
Lou Duggan:
You are the bunch of flowers that are making everything that bit more and giving people more than they expect. So, they would be my two major things that I would say.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah, I really love it. So, something that I’ve been talking with a few clients about recently is trying to encourage them to get onto social media a bit more and especially doing some live videos. I know that’s difficult for some people who are a little bit more on the introverted end of the scale.
Lou Duggan:
For sure.
Catherine Langman:
So, if you are a little bit like that, it’s definitely something that’s possible to do without having to be blushing behind the camera. You can put the focus on the products and talk about things in a way that doesn’t make you the person that the spotlight is on, so to speak.
Lou Duggan:
I think one of the secrets is not putting any weight on it as well. So, in other words, not spending a whole week building up to it, getting your hair done-
Catherine Langman:
Gosh, no.
Lou Duggan:
… saying, “Oh, I’ll have to have my eyebrows fixed,” and “I’ll have to put my makeup on and the lighting needs to be right.”
Catherine Langman:
Nah.
Lou Duggan:
All of those things-
Catherine Langman:
People don’t care.
Lou Duggan:
… actually remove the human to human contact.
Catherine Langman:
No.
Lou Duggan:
People just want you.
Catherine Langman:
That’s it.
Lou Duggan:
So literally, you grabbing the phone in your hand. The weirdest thing, and it is because I’ve got used to it, is I don’t actually plan my Facebook Live before I turn it on. I just turn it on. So, I know what I want to talk about. So I think, “Oh, I must tell customers about that,” and I literally go to Facebook Live and press on. Now the reason I do that is because it’s not scripted. It doesn’t-
Catherine Langman:
And you don’t overthink it.
Lou Duggan:
… look like you’re being salesy and when people see you thinking they know it’s authentic.
Catherine Langman:
True.
Lou Duggan:
They can see you thinking about what you want to say next. I often look away from the camera while I think and then turn back and speak.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Lou Duggan:
And so, it’s much more of a conversation and less of a-
Catherine Langman:
It’s a bit more-
Lou Duggan:
It’s less of a-
Catherine Langman:
… normal, isn’t it?
Lou Duggan:
Yeah.
Catherine Langman:
Normal conversation.
Lou Duggan:
More human to human. That’s what feels genuine and people like that because they can see that what you’re saying is what you mean instead of a script.
Catherine Langman:
And I think people want the-
Lou Duggan:
So, don’t feel that you have to do that.
Catherine Langman:
No, that’s right. And people, they’re more interested in the information that you’re talking about. They’re not sitting there watching you and criticizing what you look like or how you come across or anything like that. So, it’s really not about us.
Lou Duggan:
And if you do it seven days in a row, say you did it for seven days in a row, by day seven, you’re done.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. You’re over it now.
Lou Duggan:
That whole thing, that whole thing about what you thought. I mean, I’m now at the point where, as I press Facebook live, I lick my finger and wipe last night’s mascara off from under both of my eyes, quickly check my boobs to see if I’ve got a bra on, and if I haven’t, I throw an apron over the top-
Catherine Langman:
That’s so funny.
Lou Duggan:
… so that people can’t see underneath.
Catherine Langman:
Yep.
Lou Duggan:
And I quickly tuck my hair behind my ears and I start. And that’s it.
Catherine Langman:
I love it.
Lou Duggan:
That’s what reality is.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah. That-
Lou Duggan:
That’s human to human contact.
Catherine Langman:
Another example, I guess sort of along a similar line was last week I had Vicki from Bubblebubs on the show and she mentioned how she couldn’t do her expos at the moment. So, she sort of set up an expo stand and put the camera on, her phone camera on a tripod I suppose, and pretty much demonstrated her products to Facebook Live the way she would at an expo. And they just invited questions because lots of people in that sort of a market, they have questions before they consider buying. They just ran it like that and it was really, really successful. And so, there’s lots of different ways that you can jump on Facebook Live and really build that trust in that audience without having to-
Lou Duggan:
People love unboxing.
Catherine Langman:
They do.
Lou Duggan:
You know the unboxing?
Catherine Langman:
I know.
Lou Duggan:
People love unboxing because you can see it and you can see-
Catherine Langman:
That’s right.
Lou Duggan:
… the scale of it and what it feels like. And when you’re a person who’s passionate about what you sell, they get to hear you talk about it and they get to hear you. I have this thing with some of my cakes because a lot of my cakes have got a character theme.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Lou Duggan:
And I’ll be like, “Ooh, and now…” I’ll be gushing.
Catherine Langman:
It’s like a little-
Lou Duggan:
“Here’s Little George.”
Catherine Langman:
… person.
Lou Duggan:
Can I [inaudible 00:34:54]? Yeah. I’m so obsessed with it. And they can see how much I love it. And therefore, they become loving it. So yeah, unboxing is a really good way to start. It’s a really good way to start.
Catherine Langman:
Fantastic tip. That’s so good. So, I think to finish us off, I just wanted to say thank you so much for coming onto the show today and sharing your pearls of wisdom. There’s some fantastic ideas there that-
Lou Duggan:
My pleasure.
Catherine Langman:
… yeah, really will help people on their journey and probably people who have been in the business for a little while as well as people starting out. So, I think there’s lots to learn from what you’ve shared today, which is awesome.
Lou Duggan:
Perfect. I’ve really enjoyed it.
Catherine Langman:
Oh, that’s so cool. So, just before we do go for today, I do want to let all of the listeners know if you are not already a member of my Facebook Group, you should join in there. Lou’s definitely in there. And the Facebook Group is Rockstar Productpreneur. I will link to that in the show notes. I will also link to Cake 2 The Rescue and you’re on Facebook and Instagram as well as your group. Do you want me to link all of those there on the show notes as well?
Lou Duggan:
Yeah.
Catherine Langman:
Yeah.
Lou Duggan:
Yeah, that would be awesome. The group’s probably the most fun place to hang out.
Catherine Langman:
It’s definitely a fun place to hang out. So, get your bums in there and check it all out, especially if you’ve got kids. You’ve got to show them these cakes. All right. Thank you, listeners, for joining us today and thanks again to Lou Duggan from Cake 2 The Rescue.
Lou Duggan:
Thanks for having me.