🔵 Email newsletters and follow-ups 🔵 Social media 🔵 Personal outreach or customer experiences 🔵 Honestly, I don't have a strategy Curious what's working for you. 👇

𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗮 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗛𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗚𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗠𝗲 𝗦𝗶𝘅 𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘀 @Caroline Fransz a member of this group runs a crochet community. She calls her members Hookers! Which already tells you she knows exactly who her people are. (And she's hilarious!) Her recent post joked about the possible side effects of learning to crochet: • Buying yarn for projects you haven’t started. • Saying “just one more row” at midnight. • Collecting unfinished WIPs. • Calling the yarn stash an “investment.” • And eventually referring to yourself as a hooker in public. I read it and immediately started creating a 12-Step 'Recovery' Program for merch that would be fun: Project bag: One Stitch at a Time Row counter: One Row at a Time Stitch-marker tin: Emergency Hooker Supplies Project tags: Still Working My Program / It’s Complicated / On a Break Crochet notebook: My Recovery Plan — for recovering all those unfinished WIPs. Tool pouch: One Stitch at a Time — Hooker Survival Kit None of those ideas came from browsing “best merch for crocheters.” They came from the culture she had already created. The language. The habits. The inside jokes. The things her people immediately recognize as theirs. The products aren’t the idea. Her community is. Sometimes the best product ideas are already sitting in the way your customers talk. What’s one phrase or inside joke that would immediately tell your customers, “this was made for us”? Don’t give me a product idea. Give me one phrase, joke, habit or problem your clients, customers or members understand that an outsider probably wouldn’t. Let’s see what might be hiding inside it.

Four businesses have content they already use with clients: A — A 40-page workbook people are meant to complete in order B — 30 questions a consultant pulls from depending on what comes up in a meeting C — A seven-step process that only works if you follow the steps in sequence D — 50 prompts people can use individually whenever they get stuck Which ones make sense as a physical card deck? And which ones would you leave alone? Give me your picks: A, B, C or D—and tell me why. And then, have a listen to Episode 004 of Merch Marketing for Entrepreneurs & Business Owners: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐓𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐏𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭: 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐬 Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts

I am so glad you're here. If you've ever spent money on branded products that went nowhere — got ignored, tossed, or quietly ended up in a drawer — this is where that stops. This community is built for business owners, brand builders, and marketers who are done treating merch like an afterthought and ready to use it as a real strategic tool. Here's what to expect: In the Classroom you'll find four core modules walking you through how to think about merch strategically — from choosing the right product to building loyalty and revenue. Each one is short, direct, and built around real decisions you'll actually make. Download the worksheets. Use them. In this community expect real conversations, honest answers, product feedback, sourcing questions, and examples of merch that works — and merch that doesn't. No fluff. Just strategy. I've spent 30 years creating over 1M products for brands from founder-led companies to Netflix and Coca-Cola. Everything I teach comes from what actually works in the real world. Now let's talk about you. Drop your answer below — one or all three: 🎯 What kind of business are you building merch for? 🎯 What's the #1 problem you've had with branded products in the past? (Too expensive? Wrong product? Nobody used it? Not sure where to start?) 🎯 What would a win look like for you in the next 90 days? Would you like a 1:1 chat with Barbara? Just send me a DM or post it in the chat when you introduce yourself, and I'll send you the link to book a personal call to help you get started with merch.