Welcome to Episode 81 of the Indie Business Podcast! Today's Indie Story introduces you to Ayanna Jackson of Arbria Creations, in San Leandro, California. While Ayanna has a full-time job, which she enjoys, she has always had the itch to have a business of her own. As she encouraged her daughters to pursue their dreams, she realized that she was not pursuing hers. She decided to change all that, and Arbria Creations was born.
Ayanna makes all of her products herself, and is fortunate to have the full support of her husband and daughters, each of whom helps in some capacity in her business. You'll love learning how Ayanna has changed her business model to accommodate the realities of the pandemic. And for those of you with a full-time job and a business, you'll enjoy hearing how she manages to integrate work, business, and family without losing sight of herself. Enjoy my interview with Ayanna NOW!
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Episode Show Notes
Here are the topics discussed in this episode, with time stamps to help you find the information that interests you most:
- The story of the Arbria brand name. (starting at 2:24)
- How Ayanna “took the leap” to entrepreneurship, and integrates working her full-time job and leading her business. (starting at 5:58)
- Best selling products. (starting at 10:54)
- A typical day for Ayanna — doing all the things during a pandemic. (starting at 11:49)
- Ayanna's self-care routine. (starting at 16:24)
- How leading a business is setting a positive entrepreneurial example for Ayanna's daughters. (starting at 17:35)
- How Ayanna educated herself before starting her business. (starting at 23:56)
- How Ayanna sells her products, and how things have changed since the start of the pandemic. (starting at 27:59)
- How Ayanna ensures that her customers get to sample products they have never tried before. (starting 34:30)
- How Ayanna uses social media to connect with customers and prospects, and market her business online. (starting at 35:55)
- What Ayanna sees for the future of Arbria Creations. (starting at 41:13)
- Ayanna's advice for people who want to keep their full-time jobs, but want to start a business of their own. (starting at 42:55)
- What Ayanna expects to see from her traditional job as the pandemic begins to wind down. (starting at 49:47)
Resources and Links Mentioned in this Episode
In this episode, Ayanna and I mentioned the following resources.
- Arbria Creations Website
- Arbria Creations on Facebook
- Arbria Creations on Instagram
- Education: School of Natural Skincare
- Education: Formula Botanica
- Social media marketing app: Preview
- Social media marketing app: Hootsuite
- Inspiration from Dolly Parton to start your business: 5 to 9 with Dolly Parton
Important entrepreneurial insights from Ayanna
Let's unpack some of the most significant business insights Ayanna and I discussed in this episode.
1. Self-care is critical
Ayanna says that Saturday is her “making day,” the “fun” day of the week, and Sunday is her self-care day. She reminds us that, while our busy lives make it easy to skip self-care, in the end, taking care of ourselves is the most important thing we do in our lives.
2. Scheduling
It was great to hear how Ayanna schedules everything so her life can run as smoothy as possible. Having a schedule frees her to enjoy her life more because everything has a specific time when it will get done, leaving the other times of the day for her to do whatever she wants to do. It's so interesting to see how the discipline of a schedule may seem limiting at first, but it's actually so freeing.
3. The pandemic pivot
Before the pandemic, most of Ayanna's sales came through physical events. With the onset of Covid-19, however, she quickly pivoted to online sales, and had decided she will not look back. Ayanna said she never envisioned that she would stop participating in physical events altogether, but now that she has seen the growth of her business through online sales, and that she can host virtual sales events, there's no reason to go back to the days of recruiting her entire family to help sell products in person at shows.
Win a bottle of Multi-purpose Body Oil
Want to in a bottle of Arbria Creations Nourishing Body Oil?
Here's how to win! Do these 3 easy and fast things by 11:59pm on Saturday March 28, 2021, to be entered to win:
- Follow @indiebusiness on Instagram
- Follow @arbriacreations on Instagram
- Tag a friend on this Instagram post announcing this podcast episode
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