Episode 9 - Cost of Staying Stuck

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Hope Yoder (00:00.034)
Welcome back. I'm Hope Yoder, and this is the Embroidery Prophet Podcast. Today I want to ask you a question, actually, two questions, and I want you to be really honest with yourself. Number one is where are you right now today as you're listening to this podcast in your embroidery journey? All right. Question number two Where were you six months ago before you were listening to this podcast? If the honest answer is

Pretty much in the same place than this episode is for you. Today we're gonna talk about the cost of staying stuck. Not just about the money, but the cost that nobody talks about. I want you to think about somebody that you know who stayed in a relationship too long. Maybe it was you or maybe it was a friend. They're one to ten years deep into a relationship, and they knew in the very beginning it probably wasn't a good fit.

You know that little voice that you hear, but they stayed anyway. They stayed in the relationship, meaning they stayed stuck. Staying stuck in your embroidery business is almost the same as staying stuck in a relationship. Every month you're trying to figure it out all on your own. And then all of a sudden you look back and think, I wasted all of those years. And then you think, where would I have been today if I made a different choice? If I didn't stay.

Stuck. The cost isn't just what you're not earning today. It's who you're not becoming. And you know what, you guys, you cannot reach a gold standard, that high level that you want to reach if you have nobody to show you what that is. If you're trying to figure it out on your own, you know what? You don't know what you don't know. And I've got a story in a moment to tell you about myself that'll hit home.

You know what? A client may leave with their order and you feel really good about it. You feel like, man, I nailed it. And your client may feel differently. They may get it, look at it, and go, maybe they're not feeling the love. They don't feel the excellence. They may just think that it looks like the last place they went. And you know what's gonna happen? That client probably.

Hope Yoder (02:22.899)
Isn't gonna tell you that they don't love it, that you didn't nail it. What your client's probably gonna do is go away and you're never gonna hear from them again. And that's not what you want. You know, something else that could happen is your embroidery work shows up at a network meeting where your client's there and you're there, and you're in that meeting, new prospective clients, and then bam.

You see that work that you did early on, and you think, that's not really a good reflection on who I am and what I want customers to see. Guys, your embroidery is your reputation, and it could be walking into the same room you are. I want to tell you a story about myself. And when I think about this, I'm almost embarrassed to tell you, but this might hit home, and it's true.

So early on in my commercial embroidery career, I did something that I honestly thought was super smart and I thought it was a time saver helping me make more money. But when I look back, my gosh, you guys, I cringe. All right, you ready for my full disclosure? Absolutely true story. So for me, early on, I decided I was gonna use a topper on every left chest polo because I could tell the difference. Now, if you're not sure what a topper is,

It's that clear, water soluble c feels like saran wrap. And you're gonna put it onto your hoop after your garment is hooped, and it creates a little space so that the embroidery thread doesn't get sucked down or sink in. Now, if you use a topper, you know that it's gonna disappear when you wash it. And so instead of getting really fancy with removing it because nobody had shown me that workflow or that process.

I thought I was clever and I have a little thermal printer and I made these little stickers that said something cute like, I'll disappear when you wash me the first time. And I actually placed that sticker right over their polo. So I took my hands and I removed the topper, threw it away, but all the little pieces that got stuck behind there, I slapped a sticker on it. And you know what? I thought I was being helpful. I thought I was being clever.

Hope Yoder (04:44.93)
But what I was doing is I was actually taking a shortcut instead of doing the right thing. That's not the brand that I was trying to build. But you know what? Nobody told me that. And I figured it out myself that this was the thing to do. But I was a hundred percent wrong. I wasn't working at a higher standard. I was just trying to figure it out on my own. And I want to tell you if that's what you're doing right now at this moment.

And that's okay. But what's not okay is staying stuck right there. Most dangerous mistakes are the ones that really aren't obvious. They're the ones that you deliver confidently because you don't know that they're mistakes yet, like using the wrong stabilizer. And maybe a client washes their shirt and it looked great when it left your studio. But what if they sent you a text saying?

It looks like this all puckery after I washed it for the first time. Or maybe you have hat embroidery and you're new to it and something just doesn't look right, but you have no idea why or how to fix it. Or maybe handling client communication poorly when something goes wrong. The cost of the client that never gets back to you, they just disappear. You know what? You can't fix all.

What you don't see. And if nobody shows you, how are you going to get better? Now, when I mentioned the communication poorly, I do want to tell you something. I was talking to someone doing some private coaching the other day on the phone, and we were talking about communication. And I just made the comment that you know, you want to get everything clear and concise to your client.

The least amount of words, you don't want to send the long emails and several of them because that annoys business owners. And she stopped me for a moment and she goes, What do you mean by that? And so I just want to give you this. This is a free tip, really nothing to do with this episode, but here it is. Think about when you've been in a restaurant, okay? And you you don't want to cook, you don't want to clean up, you just want someone to wait on you and you want to sit and have a good time.

Hope Yoder (06:57.465)
So you go to the restaurant, you know what you want in your head before you get there. So the waitress comes up, you place your order, you're very concise and detailed. You want the chicken and you want the sauce on the side. Now that waitress looks at you and she says, What chicken is it? Do you want it fried or do you want it broiled? Did you want the sauce on it? Do you want it spicy or mild? And she starts asking you a bunch of questions.

And you get really frustrated inside because you just told her exactly what you wanted. You're tired. You don't want to chit chat with anybody. You just want them to bring the food to you and enjoy it. Well, if you're sending a lot of emails back and forth to your client and they're a business owner, I'm gonna tell you right now, they do not have time for that. So come up with your own system so you can communicate well because that is part of your exceptional service. All right.

Back to you can't fix it if you know it's not broken and nobody shows you the answer. Something I've discovered along the way is embroiderers who figure it out faster really aren't the most talented or experienced embroiderers. They're the ones that learn from someone who's already made that mistake. They're the ones who've paid for speed. That investment will pay for itself faster than anything else.

So if you're figuring it out alone, taking two years of ruined garments, using the right stabilizer, underpricing your orders, what if you could compress that into two days with someone right alongside of you sharing everything? You know what, you guys, that's not an expense. That is the number one fastest way to get a return on your machine investment. I want you to hear from someone who made that investment.

She's a real student with a real name and more importantly, real result. I want you to watch this video from Alicia Pate. Now, Alicia is the owner of Pate Ranch, and she's a former one of my students. Listen to what she had to say while she was at the event. Hi guys, my name is Alicia Pate, and I'm the owner of Pate Ranch. And I had a successful business already with lasers and UV printers.

Hope Yoder (09:20.131)
And one of the things that I wanted to do this last year was add an embroidery machine. I got the machine, it was great, but I found it overwhelming coming from the laser world. And it's been sitting there a while and I've had it on my plan to take a class. And so I knew that Hope Yoder was great in the embroidery space, and this was really a place that I wanted to come to learn. And so I flew out here from Texas. This has been a great experience. I needed the class and training that was like get you running type mode. I didn't have time.

To do YouTube videos or testing my own stuff. I really need to come to a class that taught me all the basic things, the tips and tricks that no one wants to tell you online, so that when I leave and get back to my shop next week, I'm up and running on making a new product. This class, hands down, has been that for me. It's been one of the best training sessions that I've ever had. We've hit business topics, we've hit tips and tricks that no one tells you.

We've talked about basics for you know all of the things that go under and above the embroidery things, hats, the left chest, you know, the sweatshirts, the puff. It's been a great overview. I've been very impressed. It's in a very professional environment. There's four to six people that are in the class, depending on how she hosts it. So you get a very tailored, almost like a boutique, one-on-one, it felt like really.

And it's been a wonderful experience. And anybody who asks me about, you know, where can I go to get embroidery training, this has definitely hands down been great for me. So I just want to say, you know, seek out hope if you're looking to join a place where you can learn more about your embroidery machine. And the other thing is I don't have the same machine she has. So the things we're learning are diverse across multiple commercial machines. So anyway, check out Hope Yoder and her embroidery training as it's top-notch. Thank you.

All right, you guys, that was Alicia. And since she's been a while since she's been to my event, we reached out to her and we asked her a few questions about her experience from the Embroidery Prophet Academy. So here was a first question. We asked Alicia, how did you feel before the academy? And I'm gonna read this verbatim. Alicia said before taking your class, I was really struggling with the overwhelming fear of messing up.

Hope Yoder (11:40.227)
I had a great machine, but I felt paralyzed by the different stabilizer options and I kept getting frustrated by puckering and thread nesting. Alicia says I was basically guessing my way through every project, which meant I only stuck to really simple safe designs because I didn't want to ruin the expensive ones. Wow, you guys, you may identify with Alicia.

Now, the next question I asked her is Alicia, what changed after you visited the academy? And here's what Alicia said. She said, after the class, the mystery completely vanished. And I finally got to that aha moment. I stopped guessing and actually understood the system behind getting a clean professional stitch every time. The biggest change for Alicia was the confidence boost.

She said I knew exactly how to hoop tricky fabrics and match the right stabilizer, which meant I could finally sit down, brush start, and actually enjoy the process instead of holding my breath the whole time. I don't know about you, but I've held my breath and I've even said a prayer, you guys, when I was first starting out. Now, the next question that we ask Alicia was, what would you tell Alicia?

People thinking about coming to the academy realistically, what could they make in the first three to six months once they go home? Here's what Alicia said. If a student is serious and actually applies what you teach, making anywhere from $500 to $2,000 a month within the first three to six months is totally realistic. The biggest profit killer starting out is wasting expensive blank items.

Because of bad hooping or using the wrong stabilizer. Alicia said, because your training completely skips that costly trial and error phase, a student can confidently start taking orders from local business sports teams or holding holiday gifts right away without throwing their margins in the trash. I love that. Without throwing your margins in the trash. So that's how Alicia felt after going home.

Hope Yoder (14:00.121)
I was really glad to hear she thought five hundred dollars to two thousand dollars every month. That's pretty darn good. And I think the first thing that I told Alicia when she left and that whole class was, Hey, you guys, when you leave the first week, I want you to try to spend one hour a day for the first five days just embordering anything so you don't lose that muscle memory. All right, we asked Alicia one more thing.

And we ask her how long would it take you to reach the same skill on your own? And Alicia said realistically, at least a year or two of frustrating, inconsistent trial and error. And that's assuming that you don't get discouraged and just give up. Trying to piece together the exact matrix of fabric stretch stabilizer, hooping tension, and digitizing by watching random, conflicting YouTube videos is exhausting.

What you package together, hope, in the Embroidery Profit Academy saves people from a massive amount of weekend failures and ruined projects. If you're multitasking, stop and come back to me. Because here's what Alicia said. Don't discount getting yourself out there and marketing your new skill. If clients don't know what you can do, they're not gonna order. So stop holding your breath. This is what it's about.

The training gives you the confidence, but you still have to show up and tell to people. Both matter. I want to thank Alicia for taking the time to write that to share with us all. Now, here's a couple other testimonies from people during the event. They're probably on day two of the three days, and here's what they had to say. Hey guys, I'm

Hope Yoder (15:52.313)
We have had a fantastic

to my colleagues the first evening that I had already got my money's worth just from the skills we learned that first night. days two and three, we taught or we learned so much more and it was phenomenal.

Phenomenal. I can't wait to take these skills back to my business. we did so many things, including left chest logos, puff balm, how to design in software, just complete game changers, and it's definitely gonna take my business to the next level. So I highly recommend this class. Hope is a phenomenal instructor. She's witty, she's funny, you're gonna have a good time and you're gonna make some friends in the industry, as well as walk away with so much knowledge about embroidery. All right, guys.

I want to speak directly to you right now, if I may. If you've listened to a lot of the episodes, then you probably know more than most embroiderers figure out on their own. And I want to take this opportunity to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting me and listening and all those reviews. They mean the world. But you guys know that knowledge without application is just information. Information without guidance is just guessing.

So six months from now, where will you be? You guys are gonna be somewhere. The question is, where? Are you still gonna be in the same place? Are you gonna be making the same mistakes, doing the same work? Or are you gonna invest in yourself, invest in your company, and raise your standard and build something that you're super proud of? Staying stuck costs you. It's the time that you're never gonna get back. It's the client who leaves all.

Hope Yoder (17:39.043)
Quietly and they never say why. It's the reputation that you're not working on right now to build. It also means the version of yourself you're capable of becoming if someone who would just show you that standard. Are you guys ready to stop guessing and start growing? Well, there's two ways that you can work with me. One is in the group setting of the Embroidery Profit Academy right here in Sarasota, Florida.

Or if you have the budget and you want to work all alone so we can get right to you and all the needs to grow your business without the wait, without the other students, you can work with me one-on-one. Now both of these courses exist because I wish someone had given me that opportunity when I was starting out. I had been embroidering for years, but I hadn't done it commercially. And honestly, that's a whole other ball game. So you guys don't wait six months and be in the same place.

Come join me. Thank you guys for listening. I'm Hope Yoder and this is the Embroidery Profit Podcast.