FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
What's Working with Cam Marston - Season 7 Episode 38
(upbeat music) - Hello again, welcome to What's Working. I'm Cam Marston. As always, thank you so much for joining along in today's show. What's working is the show focusing on the workplace workforce marketplace trends, identifying things that are shaping the business world around us. We try to dig deep into the trends. With somebody who's on the edge of them in such a way that we can learn something about them and apply them to our world. I, our show today is gonna get into a subject matter that I admittedly know very little, if not nothing, about. However, the lady that you'll talk to, her name is May May, by the way. The lady that I'll talk to here momentarily has created an online business of products and services using a lot of social media to a section of our society that is big and thriving and I know nothing about. And I'll tell you more about May May when we get her on the line here after this upcoming break. It's interesting to go back through previous shows as I watched the headline, the news headline and to see a little bit of what's going on out there. And I'll give you a couple examples. Not long ago, we had Rob Lightbrown on the show. Rob runs Crown Weather Services, which is a subscription-only weather service. I was very fascinated by this because I can pay 99 cents and get the updated app or the more aggressive app for some sort of weather thing. But Rob offers a subscription-based email weather service that you can actually, you'll get an email from him on a regular basis about what's going on with the weather. And it's kind of high-end. It's more expensive than normal, but he offers a deeper insight. And I've subscribed to it. And as a result, he's got a section of this weather service that says here's what I really think is going on. Here's what the national predictions are, et cetera, et cetera. But here's what I think's going on, not as if there's some sort of conspiracy theory about the weather, at least not yet. But he gives you some clear insight into what the trends beyond what the weather radars are showing may suggest. And I mention him because as I record this, it's really in the center of hurricane season down here on the Deep South on the Gulf Coast. And Rob has predicted that at the end of the current week in which I'm recording this thing, we're gonna begin seeing storms forming in the Atlantic that are gonna threaten the Eastern Sea Board and the Gulf Coast. And I remember him talking about this and him making these predictions. And as I'm watching this, sure enough, it's beginning to come about. Interestingly enough, as I was talking to a banker last week, you can't get certain types of insurance while there is a named storm anywhere nearby. So a lot of these people that hold off on insurance are taking Rob's weather forecast and saying Rob predicts that there to be a named storm in the next 15 days, two weeks, they're going ahead and applying for insurance, whereas they can't get it once that storm has been formed and is now a named storm. So we begin to see a little bit of the intricacies of this weather service. The other thing that I've been watching is the non-compete issues of the FTC, Federal Trade Commission, that's right. Wendy Bitzer was on the show not long ago back in June and she was talking about the non-competes that the federal government under the Biden administration was saying these are unfair. Non-compete agreements are holding back workers and those now are in the headlines as they have been stopped, I think by some sort of court in Texas and this issue over non-compete agreements in the workplace continues to bubble to the surface, likely gonna lead in a big suit or trial of some sort. I'm unsure how all this stuff plays out. But these two guests in particular have predicted things that are currently bubbling up in the headlines and frankly, I think it's just cool to learn about these things and then see them come back. When we get back, we'll have Mame paper crafters, this whole society outside of my realm of paper crafters and the world that she's created because of it. I get her name from a lead or an introduction from Business Alabama Magazine. We'll be right back after this break, you're listening to What's Working, I'm Kim Marston. (upbeat music) - This is Seth Churniak, Vice President of Branch Development for the Jeffrey Matthews Financial Group. If you are an experienced financial advisor wanting the freedom of independence but aren't sure making that jump is right for you, we should talk. Jeffrey Matthews has developed a successful program for advisors who don't want to be 1099 contractors and don't want to pay for their own overhead. We're looking for advisors who want the freedom to run their business the way they see fit with the support that comes with a W-2 firm. If you're interested in joining one of our branches or if you want to open your own branch as a full-time employee, let's chat. Our compensation plan is one of the most competitive among all W-2 firms, big or small. Reach out to us today at JeffreyMathews.com, connect with me, Seth Churniak on LinkedIn, or click the link in the podcast. - Jeffrey Matthews Financial Group, member FINRA, S-I-P-C. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - You're listening to what's working. I'm Cam Marston. Again, thank you for joining us. On the other side of a Zoom call today is Mame Helms. She is the chief boss of two organizations, one called Mame Made It, and the other one is Mame Events. I think like you, you're gonna be surprised at the size and the scope of this business. It's been off of my radar, that doesn't mean anything, but I think we'll learn that Mame's got a tiger by the tail with what it is that she does. Mame, first and foremost, thank you for your time and welcome to what's working. - Thank you, I'm excited to be here. - Tell me about Mame Made It, what it is that you do, where it came from, and I'm prepared to be shocked, quite frankly, I'm prepared to be shocked. - You probably will 'cause it's gonna sound very simple. Literally yesterday I said to my husband, can you believe I do this for a living? But this is what it is. I teach paper crafting on YouTube, and my YouTube channel then links to our online store, where I teach how to use those products, everything that we sell, everything we carry, and then our viewers can purchase those items that I use in video to create what I've taught them to create. And my favorite thing is teaching, so we started with YouTube, transitioned to mamemadeit.com, which is our web store that ships all over the world. And you mentioned in Mame Mame Events, it's also where we do our classes, we do a lot of online classes and in-person classes. So we have those two.coms that we run, all based off of YouTube. - So we're gonna get into social media. I have personal challenges with social media. I can't seem to get it to work for me, like you get it to work for you. But let's take a step back before we get into those tactics. Where did this business come from? This sounds almost like something that's surprisingly spring out of the pandemic. - Am I anywhere correct on that? - Actually, no, this business came from a house fire, which is so interesting. So we, in 2011, we lost everything we owned in a fire in our home. And prior to 2011, I had been kind of a fan of YouTube. You know, YouTube, what was it, 2008, it started. And I've been watching paper crafters and artists and things that I loved. And I remember saying to my husband, I think I could do this. I think I could have one of these channels that they're having. But we lost our house in the house fire and we moved into this apartment. And in that apartment, we had nothing. I mean, we had empty closets and I mean, we rented furniture and we built our house back and thank the Lord for insurance. You know, we were good, everything's good. But my therapy had always been my crafting. So here I am in this apartment with nothing but the walls to look at. And I remember one morning looking at the ceiling and we had popcorn sealants, I'll never forget. And I was making cloud images in the popcorn ceiling. I was that bored. And I'm good. This can't stay this way. This is bad, you know. I had a full-time job, but my weekends were just gone. So I walked out into the living room and I said to my husband, I wanna start a YouTube channel. And he was like, okay. - So this is 2011, YouTube is in existence, but it's certainly not what it is today. So interesting. So keep going, 2011, I wanna start a YouTube channel. - Yeah, so I wanna start a YouTube channel. And he's like reluctantly okay, and he gave me rules. He said, you can, but you can only focus on it on Saturday mornings and you need to be done by noon because we had teenage boys and they all slept till noon and it would interfere with family life, okay? So I said, those are good deals, I'll take that deal. 'Cause I'm an early riser anyway, so it was good. So I needed a craft room. And because like I said, we had nothing in any closets. I said, can I have that four by six closet in the hallway that was like a utility closet? And he's like, you certainly can. And so I set my craft room up in that closet. It's still on my channel. There's still videos. The tour of the closet, it's all there. And that's where I started. I didn't have power in the closet. I ran an extension cord. - No kidding. - Yeah. - And that's where I started. And the reason I tell you this is where it started is because our .com actually happened from the viewer. Like in 2011, none of this was happening. People weren't doing videos and linking and affiliating. There was none of those words existed. You know, we were like a partner. YouTube partner wasn't a thing. Like we were just uploading. We could only load 15 minute videos and you had to earn that right. I want to say you had to have a thousand subscribers to get 15 minute videos. - Yeah. - And everything was very different. And I never did it to earn a living. I did it as my therapy. - No kidding, you had an outlet. I've read something somewhere when you have a talent and the talent doesn't get recognized, it becomes a need. And you had, it was a need in you. That's very accurate. I had to do something. I could not lay there with nothing to do. And so the beginning of it was trying to figure out what my channel was, you know. I've always wanted to teach. I never went to college to teach. It was always a dream I had and I couldn't do it. I couldn't make it happen for different reasons. But I thought I can teach paper crafting. And actually I had taught crafting in retail stores from when I was like 19 years old. I had been a craft coordinator, craft teacher at a store called Peace Goods way back in the day. I'm showing my age here. But I just wanted to get into crafting. So that's what I did. I started doing paper crafting. And that's it, it snowballed. And let me tell you, my business happened because it had to because of my viewer. My viewer made our business happen. - So what were you making in that closet with that extension cord with this very simple YouTube stuff? Did you have a camera? You weren't using your phone at that time. - Phone. - You were using your phone. - I always use my phone. At one time I tried, I have a new camera we're fixing to transition to 'cause I'm, I call it the big girl camera, I'm scared of those. But anyway, I've used my phone. And back then, think about what phone it was. What was it in 11? Was it a nine? No, it wasn't even a nine, I don't know. But what I've always been taught was, you'll never own a camera that has the same quality that your iPhone does 'cause it's always on the cutting edge, right? I'm an iPhone person, an Apple person 'cause they make sense to me. And that's what I use with my phone. And taught myself how to edit. I taught myself every, actually no. YouTube taught me everything. - Yeah. (laughs) That's a good way to say it. So what were you making in that closet? What was the first thing you recorded that your viewers said, oh my gosh, you're the savior, I need you? What was-- - Oh my gosh. I don't think they've said that yet. I hadn't got there. (laughs) - There aren't many people in history that have said that. A couple, but they're very notable. But nevertheless, what did you make that made people really want more? - In the early days, I cannot tell you what it was. I think in the early days, it was so new that it was just intriguing. No matter what we did, people were watching it. In the nowadays, you have to have the killer title and the killer thumbnail and the killer topic. You had to have the thing that makes them just long to click on your video 'cause the pool is so big. - Yes, yes. - Back then, somebody wanna learn how to make a card, a greeting card, there was very niche, you know? - Yeah. - So I don't know what it was back then, but the community was so different, not better or worse, my community now is fantastic, but the community was so different because they just wanted to watch you do something. Like it was a very different YouTube. - It is, it surprises me the success and perhaps this still exists. I'm well gone from this, but the unboxing videos. I want to see you open your computer and talk about it. I want to see you open this and talk about it as you open it. And it sounds like you almost touched into something different. People wanted to see you doing something. So let's take another step back. You describe it as paper crafters. Give me a very broad sense of what that is. - We are people who love paper. There are people out there that love fabric and there are people out there that love wreath making and it can train, there's people who love baseball cards, you know what I'm saying? There's a passion, right? - Yeah. - Paper crafters have a passion for paper. - Yeah. - We're, listen, if you ever watched my channel, I'm sorry, but this is the truth. I like to smell paper, I like to pet paper. We open mini boxes every Thursday night, we open every paper pack, we flip through, we do an art and we love every second of it. Like it's an endorsement rush. I guess we love it and-- - Oh gosh, I can relate. It's not as much paper for me, but books. I love to get a hardback book. I've decided. I'm done with trying to read on a tablet. I'm done with trying to read on my phone. If I don't have that hardback book in my hand, it's just not satisfactory. And I tap it with my thumb to hear that thump. (laughing) - That was so funny 'cause what we do when on video, it's hard to show someone the quality of paper and we tend to tap it or flick it or fold it to show them the quality. - Yeah. - You know, in real life you can touch and feel, but on YouTube it's very different. So we've come up with a lot of ways to demonstrate that. I think that's fascinating. I wanna, we're coming into break right now and I wanna come back and talk a little bit more about the different types of paper. This is a conversation I think I will enjoy, as well as what you've learned about your viewer since 2011. Have they changed, is it the same person that clicked on it in 2011 still out there? Are you finding the demographic for lack of a better term changing and who's consuming your stuff? There's a lot to go through here. I'm gonna really enjoy this. You're listening to what's working. I'm Cam Marston. On the other side of the Zoom call from me right now is May May Helms. Her company is May May Made It. You can find that online. We'll get into more as we get back from this break. (upbeat music) - This is Billy Stitt. I perfected my Baker recipe. I'm behind my live music stage at my little restaurant in Fair Oop, Alabama. We have custom made smokers and small batch bacon made just for you. If you're looking for the best bacon in America that has been cured, smoked, and even serenaded by songwriters, you definitely need to try Billy's Small Batch Bacon, www.billyspaken.com. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - We're back. You're listening to what's working. My name is Cam Marston. I'm glad you're on this show. With me, you're tagging along. May May Helms is on the other side of a Zoom call. We're talking about her company's May May Made It and May May Events. It was born in a closet with an extension cord, and now it's a really big thing. May May, prior to the break, I asked you, who is your customer? And is it the same as the one that clicked on the YouTube channel in 2011? Tell me what's changed about your customer. - I love this question. They are the same that clicked on it in 2011. Literally some of them are literally the same, like they've been here that long. - Yeah. - But the consumer has changed. My community is still tight, tight knit. We're close, we love it. We love each other in crafting. But the viewer on YouTube has changed drastically since 2011. Like I was telling you, you know, back in the day, we could, we only could put up 15 minute videos and that 15 minutes you had to squeeze everything into it or you had to do these parted videos. It was very different world then. Now, I think with the popularity of short form content, the viewer needs me to get there quicker, faster, and in a hurry. Everything's quicker, faster, and in a hurry. So we try, it's a little difficult to, to be as fast as people want you to be. But then again, you've mentioned demographic, which is my favorite word, demographic. My demographic is 65 and up. And I wanna make sure I say that to people because what's so cool about that is, I'm not really teaching the masses. I'm teaching my community. And that's what's important in your social media journey. You have to know your community because although I'm not throwing out, I mean, we do short videos and TikToks and blah, we do all of that. But those are not where our viewers thrive. Those are more, let's reach out to the new folks and see what, if they like what we're doing. But my viewers are tech savvy, 65 to 80 year olds. And they are passionate about what we do. And they are, they and we consider themselves family. Like our community is amazing. - And is that where the May May events comes in is when you gather online? - We love it. So we do online events, which are fantastic. We use Zoom, by the way, we have to use a Zoom room because that's really the way, the only way we can come together in person online is in a platform where we can see each other and have video and things like that. But our in person events, they're very intimate events because if you think about it, so we've got like 380 some thousand YouTube viewers. And when we do an online class, we can sell anywhere from 300 to 500 tickets depending on the class. - So you sell tickets for people to join your Zoom call? - Our online events, whatever they are. Like our last event, for example, we just finished an event last week. We did a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday event where we had a 10 a.m. Zoom call and then a 130 class. It was a three part project where we did a class every day to create this project. And in the morning, we had that Zoom call as a prep for the class. Are you good? Have you got all your stuff ready? Is there any questions we can answer? And we kind of hung out for about an hour and a half. Then we break for lunch, then we come back for the class. And that's an event because it's a three day event. But I also have single classes, people just purchase that are prerecorded and done, you know, that they can pick up. But the thing about the online event is we can have so many more students because there's no airplane tickets, there's no hotel rooms, there's, you know, they can do so much. Where with our in person events, we have, right now we're capping at about 100 students in person, which is really good for me and my staff too because we're very, very hands on. Like we, that event goes all week, starts on a Monday, ends on a Friday. It's eight a.m. in the morning till nine p.m. at night. And me or a member of my staff are there pretty much the whole time. So it's a, that's a very physical, physical event. - So tell me where these events are held. - Love this, ready for this? In Chilton County, we're in Clanton, Alabama, okay? We have what's called the Clanton Performing Arts Center and Conference Center. They also tag that on. And we have, it's about a 3,000 square foot room that everybody here uses for our vendor events and for expos and things like that. And we reserve that space twice a year and we have a crop floor, which this is gonna blow your mind, okay? Because people who don't know what a crop is, people who do are like, I'm singing their language with people who don't. A crop is where, as a paper crafter, I would pack up my supplies and I would rent a table at an event and I would go and set my craft room up there with 99 other crafters and I would spend a week crafting at my table and making friends with other crafters. This is how we do that. - And it's spelled C-R-O-P, a crop floor. - Crop. - And people will walk by at these events, identify what you're doing, talk to you about it, y'all gab, you get along and they buy from you at that table? - They, actually, because we're doing it in Clanton, they come to our store. So we're only three minutes from the location. We use that location for the room, for the size. We also teach classes there, so they end up, I think we teach 90 students at a time, they are 90, we'll have five teachers, 90 students each teacher and that way every student can take every teacher's class. - Yeah. - It's pretty amazing and it's our favorite time of year. And you wanna know the name of it, ready for this? Crafter Cropolis, that's what we call it, Crafter Cropolis. And the reason is because I didn't want it to be just paper crafting and we have people, last event, we had diamond painters, we had, we also include fabric. My friend Penny owns our local sewing store, it's called Sew Charming and she does fabric classes, we do paper classes, we have quilters, we have, we had acrylic artists in the past, we've, I mean, you name it, we've had people who crochet for the week, they knit for the week, they just sit and enjoy themselves and it's our favorite event. - So they come from, how far are they traveling to come to Chilton County? - You name it, let me tell you. We pretty much hit every corner of the US, every event, but this last event, what I thought was so incredible, we had one lady who's military and they were stationed in Korea and she flew from Korea to attend the event. - Shocked, that someone would come that far. - That's not it though. We also do, we used to do before, pre-COVID, we did cruises, so we did May May Cruises and we would teach on the ocean and all that. We had people from the UK that would fly to Miami to get on a ship and go with us. We've had, in my store, in my store, we have a map where people pin when they come in, we've got Scotland, Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, all of the local, well, I think there's like four states in the US that have not visited yet, like up in the Midwest. - Can you send me a picture of that map? I'd love to put that map. - I love it. - Attached it to the podcast of this thing. - I'd love to send it. - I'd love to see that picture and to put it as a part of the podcast version of this show. So the travelers, are they meeting the same demographic 65 plus? - Typically, they really do. - Yeah. - Yeah, and they get along, and I suspect that they've made friends amongst themselves. They reach out to one another saying, are you gonna go to the next one? Are you gonna be there? I look forward to seeing you. - Okay, we have what's called pod people. All of them are like, I can't believe you're telling our secret. So what happens is you come to our events and you either bring friends, and so you take your table and we put your tables together and we create a little pod. And then as you meet more people, the next event, you're like, hey, can you pod us with these people and we pod everybody up? And last event, I think we had one particular pod was about 12 tables, eight to 12 tables. I can't remember exactly how many students were in that pod, but we jokingly call them pod people and it's, you know, we love that. - They get along and they go out and dinner and they drink and whoop it up late at night. - Yes, honestly, and right here in our small town. - I love that, Amy. - My favorite thing is that they come right here to Clayton and I'll tell you something. They love Clients in Alabama as much as we do. They, as a matter of fact, they're really more well versed in it than we are because they research it so hard before they come and we've done things like, we've done walking tours downtown. We're like, on one of the days, we're like, if you want to go on this walking tour, we had one of our council members, our city council members do a walking tour with them and take them around and we had just recently gotten an arts and entertainment district here in Clayton. And so we were really showing how we're thriving and growing that way. And there's a lot going on in this little town and we're happy to be a part of it. We try to spread the love. - Is it safe to say, Maymay, that when you walk the floor, you are a celebrity in that room. And they are eyes wide and they want to get selfies with you and they want you to touch their products and all that kind of stuff? - I don't want to say that to you because I'm just going to tell you something. I'm just, Maymay, Helms from Clayton. Now, I'm just doing this behind a phone and a camera. You know what I'm saying? But I will say to you, I take a lot of pictures. I sign a lot of autographs. We, I sit at people's table. I would tell you too, I don't know if I've said this, we're a faith-based business. And I'm going to tell you, we sit at tables and pray, we cry, we have, you know, we have therapy sessions with each other. And, you know, we really do have a close-knit community, but I don't call myself a celebrity. That's not me. - You won't call yourself a celebrity, so I'll do it. Maymay, Helms is on the other side of a Zoom call with me. She's a celebrity out of Clanton, Alabama. Her business is Maymay made it, as well as Maymay events. There's a whole world out there that I'm just learning about. We'll be right back after this break. (upbeat music) - This is Seth Churniak, vice president of branch development for the Jeffrey Matthews financial group. If you are an experienced financial advisor wanting the freedom of independence, but aren't sure making that jump is right for you, we should talk. Jeffrey Matthews has developed a successful program for advisors who don't want to be 1099 contractors and don't want to pay for their own overhead. We're looking for advisors who want the freedom to run their business the way they see fit with the support that comes with a W-2 firm. If you're interested in joining one of our branches or if you want to open your own branch as a full-time employee, let's chat. Our compensation plan is one of the most competitive among all W-2 firms, big or small. Reach out to us today at JeffreyMathews.com, connect with me, Seth Churniak on LinkedIn, or click the link in the podcast. - Jeffrey Matthews financial group, member FINRA, S-I-P-C. (upbeat music) - I have neglected to say it, but I need to include this. Mame Helms was introduced to me from Business Alabama Magazine. She was featured in one of their magazines recently and I reached out to the editor and said, "Hey, can you introduce me to this lady?" He did, and now she and I are talking on this show, what's working, Mame, I find people who have a language unique to their business very interesting, and immediately I think about people who love wine, and they have a vocabulary around wine that I find entertaining. I can't even begin to try to adopt it, but I love to listen to them describe things that they're passionate about using a language that's unfamiliar to me. So I'm gonna toss that ball your way, Mame. Take a deep breath and describe for me your favorite types of paper. - I love that you asked this question because there is a difference in paper. People think, paper's paper. We actually love card stock. So when I talk about paper, my viewer knows I'm really talking about card stock because paper in and of itself can't build what we build, but card stock is where we thrive. And if you aren't in this world, you don't realize the number of manufacturers who are making these beautiful card stock collections for us and how their looks and they fold and they crease and they glue well together. And it's so much fun to play with. But if I have to pick a favorite, I'm gonna tell you that my favorite card stock is always something called cover stock. So cover stock is more of a rigid card stock. Card stock is measured in pounds, which is interesting. Well, here in the US, European, it's GSM. So it's a little bit different and they actually do feel different. But we love a good 110 pound cover stock. So if anybody's listening today and they understand it, they know exactly what I'm talking about. If not, here's how you can imagine it. It's somewhere between a cereal box and card stock. It's somewhere between there, closer to card stock, but it's a beautiful, fun to work with product. - Yeah, and are there boutique paper makers out there that you enjoy much like they're boutique wineries, boutique, whatever, and you work closely with them. I'm not gonna find their stuff in Office Depot or Office Max or Staples. - Actually, I'll tell you what's even more interesting and I'm glad we're talking about this. The product I use is not even found in the big box stores. Like you're not gonna go to one of your local craft stores and find it. You have to go to somebody like me or like a mom and pop kind of craft store because it is so boutique. Matter of fact, we do a live show on Tuesday afternoons on our website that we call Craftique where we offer heavily discounted craft products for an hour in like a claim sale and we call it Craftique because I literally curate what comes in my store based on these boutique sellers. I mean, we could name so many names, but you'd be surprised how many people are making their living design and card stock and the ephemer that goes with them. - No kidding. - So there's, we have one segment remaining, half the segment and I have nearly 17,000 questions, but let's get into what people are gonna find on your website, may, may, made it and how you're using social media to support your business. It's a conversation we've had on this show a number of different times and I'm very curious of what your recipe is for this. - So on my website, you're gonna find anything from glue to scissors to trimmers to tools, paper, actually, anything I show you in a video, we're gonna have it on our website or some version of it. For me, social media is the soul of my business. Everything I do starts in some form of social media and what I learned early on is the most important thing with social media to me is a schedule and consistency. For the viewer, they, it's always referenced it like this. You remember when we were young, I'm sure we're close to the same edge. We were young, Thursday night TV was the thing. Remember that? - Must see TV. - No one missed Thursday night TV. You knew, you scheduled around it, you knew when it was coming on. It's the same way with social media and once you, once you build your audience, which we'll talk about that in a second, but once you build your audience, they wanna watch everything you do but they need to know when you're doing it, you know? I have viewers that set alarms for our shows, you know? I've literally been in my store, had a viewer in and I was five minutes out from a show. Her alarm went off and she said, "Man, man, you've got five minutes." (laughing) - And she's standing next to you. - She's standing next to me and I'm like, "All right, I gotta go get ready." But they, it's important they know when and then how to find you. Of course they need to know that. So we have a schedule on our channel. Now my schedule has changed over the years and as I get older, I can't keep up quite as much as I was doing before, but that schedule's important. Consistency is the next thing. If you tell them you're gonna be there on Thursday nights at 6 p.m., you need to be there on Thursday nights at 6 p.m. If you can't be there, you need to let them know. You will lose an audience when they can't find you. They won't search for you that long. - So they're looking for your, for lack of a better term, schedule integrity and then when you show up, you've gotta be, "Man, man, you can't look at the camera "and say, you know, I'm a little bit, "I got a little bit of the flu today, "to touch the flu, so I'm only about half speed." You gotta be on, much like a late night TV host that Jimmy Fallon has to be on every time. - We have a little different setup though because it's my community. They understand and they, and I'll tell you, YouTube's a little different. YouTube viewers want to see the real you. They really do. They wanna see, okay, so three years ago, this weekend, I lost my mother, she was a victim of COVID. And that was difficult, you know, navigating social media because I didn't know how to tell them when to tell them and listen, these viewers, my mom was their mom 'cause we brought it all out, you know, we're a family for everybody. So they needed to experience grief with me. They also had a loss. - Unbelievable, yes, I understand it in concept but I'm not sure I've ever felt that personally. You've created something remarkable. Let me ask you this. - I think so too. - You're now in the business. May, may, may, may, may, events. You've got a lot of logistics, product ordering, inventories, things like that. Are you able to scratch your creative itch the way you still need to? - Yeah, 'cause here's what's interesting. So when paper crafting became my career, I added other hobbies. It's just so funny. And I think other people do that too. Like if you turn your passion into a career, you still have that time that you need to feel. So what I've done is I do my paper crafting, you know, as my nine to five and then I quilt as my hobby. And now I've taken up golf, which is a whole other thing, which is so fun. But it's like, my paper crafting is my job, but also my community challenges me so hard. They're like, okay, you did that, but I wanna do this. Can you make that happen? - No kidding. - So there's always a challenge. - So there's always a puzzle that you're working on that your community throws to you. Yeah, and are they able to reach out to you personally and say, hey, are you that close with them that if they, they get stuck on a project or they've got a question, they can reach out to you personally? - They actually can. And that's, I think that's what makes everything up. It's scary for people to think you've got that many subscribers, but they can reach out to you personally. There are some levels of reaching. And what I mean is like, they know my email box is too full. If they need to hear from me, they email my assistant, right? But we also have someone who manages our social media. She handles our, we have a Facebook group, we have a Facebook page, we have Instagram, we have TikTok, and so people can reach us there too. And she monitors all those comments as well as our YouTube comments. So we don't, we try to let no question go unanswered to the point that there's been times I've done video calls with someone who couldn't get their cricket to work right. And I'm trying to help them get through a step of their cutting machine. I have no problem with that. I want to be their source. And I feel that business owners should be that way anyway, because if I want you to buy my product, I want to be here you come to, to learn about that product. You know, I want to be your source. And I think we've done a good job with that. We have, we have a phone line, we have a land line. They can call us. We have email that is answered nine to four. We have, you know, messaging. You can reach out to us in so many different ways. And they do, and we love that. - What is your staff size? - Right now we have nine. - Nine. - Nine, and my husband and I, but he does buying, he does accounting, he does all of that. He came on, he came full time with us in 2015. - Yeah. - So he, so nine of us and then he and I. - It's maymaymaymadeit.com and maymayevents.com. Is that correct? - That's correct. - When a talent goes unrecognized, it becomes a need, Maymay. And you have, you, you, you hid your talent and then you've decided to recognize it and look at where you are now. What a story. What a delight to meet you, Maymay. Thank you so much. - Thank you. Thank you. - Folks, check her out. Find links to all this in the podcast notes. You can find those podcasts at what'sworkingcam.com. I'll be right back after this break with 7-5. You're listening to what's working. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (dog barks) - I'm Joey Mason. For four years, my goal has been to produce the best farm-to-table products I've ever eaten. I've done just that at our on-site USDA facility in Grand Bay, Alabama, allowing us to ship directly to your door. This is true farm-to-table. Visit us at masonheelsfarm.com to see all that we have to offer. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Goodness gracious, that was fun. The lady is a dynamo. If you could have seen her on the other side of the Zoom call, she looked perfect. She, uh, full of energy and enthusiasm. The word is charisma, absolutely oozing with charisma. And in the break, I went to the website and started looking up this cardstock paper that she was talking about. And I found one called Cartabella. Cartabella design or cardstock in natural blue linen. There must be, I don't know, 10, 12 different colors. It's a dollar a page and it's 12 by 12. It's not what you would find at the big box stores, just like she said. And perhaps there's more deeper into the website that I couldn't find. It's interesting to find these craft types of things. It's the world of Etsy. And the things that you find at these craft shows that I enjoy going to and meeting the artists and things like that who seem to take great pride in these small, pre-quantity production things. Maymay has elevated these people into an audience in a world that I'm sure, I'm sure Cartabella, I'm just picking one off the website here, is appreciative of the world that Maymay has created. It's an example of something we've bumped into on this show perhaps in the past. Of these niche businesses, these niche revenue opportunities, that this just hidden from people like me. I didn't know about this perhaps because the demographic is 65 and older, but it's not landed in front of me. And the community that she's developed is also very important. And it's something that, frankly, I'm gonna talk about this later in the fall. Something that I'm trying to create in a division of my own business, beginning next year to create a community of people who are undergoing some transformational training programs that we are working, in fact, spent a great deal of time on this yesterday, working to create for managers and leaders in what I hope will become a community of people who have undergone this training and who can bond with one another over the training and the sharing of the learnings one another creates through some sort of online portal. My demographic will definitely not be 65 and older. I need them in the workplace. That's the value of it. But the goal is to create some shared experiences that they can relate with one another as they go through this and begin to apply their new trainings. Again, they'll be more about that as we go along. Maymay, if you're listening, that was a treat. That was an absolute delight and I'm glad to have found you. If you wanna find more about Maymay, you can find it on the podcast. I'll have links, I'll have the picture of the map that I told you about. And you'll find that podcast at what'sworkingcam.com. You can also find it on your major podcast platforms. I read this morning that the Kelsey Brothers famed NFL players, one of which who dates some sort of singer. I see that with facetious tone. Have just been given like a $100 million contract for their own podcast. Let me assure you, my dear listener, that this podcast that I'm referring to is not a $100 million per year product. We're working towards that. In fact, a dollar per year would be nice. You're listening to what's working. Find that podcast at what'sworkingcam.com. Find me on social media, click, like, whatever. And if you wanna go to the Apple podcast site and evaluate the show, we'd love that too. You're listening to what's working. We'll have another show next week. Have a good week, everybody. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) As you likely know, this show originates as a radio show, broadcast across the state of Alabama, and it continues to grow in both radio listeners and market. After it's formatted for radio, we then turn it into this podcast. Please share it with those you think would find it interesting and subscribe to the podcast on my YouTube page where you can leave messages and your thoughts in your comments, and I'll certainly get back in touch. Finally, if you're a fan of the show, please offer a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify. You can find my book called What Works on Amazon.com. In it, I highlight the top 10 ideas from the first 200 episodes of the show. Mind you, they're not the top 10 best episodes. They're the top 10 best ideas. Many times, the same ideas are brought up again and again by different guests, and we dig into those ideas in such a way that they'll be easily applicable for your business. Simply go to Amazon and enter my name, and you'll find What Works as well as my other books. Chapter titles include how to find an itch, innovation, building teams, and so forth. To learn more about the workshops and seminars I offer, go to cammarston.com. There you can view clips of my work, view workshop titles, view my reviews, case studies, customer lists, it's all there. If you'd like a free copy of one of the chapters of my book, enter your email address at the bottom of the homepage at cammarston.com. And from that side, you can email me directly. I always love to hear from you. You'll also find me on social media, find cammarston on all the social media platforms, and you may need to enter the numeral one. There's one other cammarston out there, then that numeral one distinguishes me from him from time to time. So if you're unsure if it's me or not, enter that numeral one after my name, then it should do the trick. On a more personal and less professional side, I record weekly commentaries that air across Alabama on Alabama public radio twice each day on Fridays called Keeping It Real. They've won statewide and national awards. They're simple observations on the world as it goes on around me. And they're only a few minutes long. They're a passion. You can find them on the same podcast app you're using to listen into this. Finally, if you're interested in advertising on this podcast or the radio show, reach out. I've worked hard to cultivate a specific listener, and I can tell you all about 'em and I have many different options for helping you reach in 'em. Thanks again for listening. We'll have another episode available soon.