Tara Shelton: There was soil like everywhere and pebbles everywhere. So they were like, eh, you gotta go. It was a sure thing on Facebook. I could spend a certain amount of money and I could get them in the door. It was easy. It was a formula. It was ideal. Now that's not happening. I think people are a little bit dirty and rude. Well, the people I know, anyway.
[Voiceover]: Welcome to Add to Cart, the podcast that Express delivers all you need to
Tara Shelton: know in the fast moving world of e commerce.
[Voiceover]: Every month, Nathan Bush from 12 High
Tara Shelton: and an E commerce industry expert will share the news, research and insights that you need to know to keep you at the top of your game and
[Voiceover]: of course, keep your customers.
Tara Shelton: Adding to Cart.
[Voiceover]: Hello and welcome to Add to Cart. My name is Nathan Bush, host of Add to Cart and director at E commerce talent agency E Suite. Now, giving gifts, we know, is a tricky business. And trust me, one time I came back from a U.S. trip with a bright purple hat for my wife. My colorblind eyes thought is a real stylish blue and she hates purple. And that's why I regularly fall back on the old Faithful. A bunch of flowers. But there's a new kid on the gifting scene, apparently. The succulent. Why? Because flowers die, of course. And that was the idea behind my guest today, Tara Shelton's business, Little Suckers, a succulent gifting business with a very strong pun game. I thought my puns were good. That is next level. Tara started out four years ago doing same day delivery of beautifully packaged succulents in her local area, then expanded to deliver nationally and is now focused on the DIY branch of her business that grew from COVID a build your own terrarium Terrarium bar in Sydney. In this chat, Tara shares her best alternatives to Facebook ads, how building a brand personality that aligns with your own personal makes perfect sense, and why she believes creativity comes from constraint. So, thanks to our partners, Shopify plus and Signet, here's our conversation with Tara Shelton from Little Suckers. Tara Shelton, welcome to Add to Cart.
Tara Shelton: Hey, thanks for having me.
[Voiceover]: Pleasure. Pleasure. Now, I came across your business mainly because of the imagery on your site. The photograph is spectacular. Can you give us a little bit of a rundown on what you do?
Tara Shelton: What? Yeah, sure. So I own Little Suckers, which is a succulent and cacti gifting business. And we also do workshops. We have a space in Sydney, Neutral Bay, and we teach people how to make terrariums.
[Voiceover]: Terrariums. I've always wondered how to actually say that.
Tara Shelton: Yes, there's Terrain like people say terrariums and terrariums, but it's terrariums.
[Voiceover]: Terrariums. All right, good. Now cacti. Selling cacti online.
Tara Shelton: Yeah.
[Voiceover]: That can't be easy.
Tara Shelton: No, it's not. Yeah. And when they say build a scalable business, it's a bit hard too. But yeah, sending plants has been a challenge. Like usually we initially started as a same day business where we use drivers, so that was okay. But now that we ship nationally, it's something that we've had to overcome.
[Voiceover]: Gotcha.
Tara Shelton: Yeah.
[Voiceover]: And why cacti?
Tara Shelton: Well, the whole premise of the business is around the concept because flowers die. So the business started literally as a bit of office banter. There's a business in Sydney called Little Sucker. Sorry, Little Flowers.
[Voiceover]: Yep.
Tara Shelton: And Little Suckers was just a piss take on that business. We said, how funny if we did Little Suckers because flowers die. And then, you know when you have a good idea, like the whole world kind of stops and we're like, that's actually a really good idea. So we worked it out like really quickly, like, could we do this? How much would it cost? How much could we sell them for? Blah, blah, blah. And we pretty much launched. Yes. Same day delivery, succulents instead of flowers. Same price as little suckers, $35 and kicked it off with that. So that's why we send them, because they're a great gift. Instead of sending flowers, they die. Succulents last as long as you neglect them.
[Voiceover]: And they're on trend, right?
Tara Shelton: Very on trend. Like we started four years ago, so we were at the forefront. I think now everything Kmart, like printed succulent, this and that. So that's good.
[Voiceover]: That's awesome.
Tara Shelton: Yeah.
[Voiceover]: And when you talk about the office that you came up with, the idea, you run or ran a marketing and creative and branding agency. And so the idea, I can just see it because being from ad agencies, I can just see where the idea comes from and the creative people that you get around you. When it came to going, great idea, let's get this happening. What was the thing that surprised you most about going from idea to actually execution?
Tara Shelton: Well, I had a product business before Dream and Do, so I did know a little bit about it. I guess what surprised me, well, first of all, we kind of got kicked out of our office because like couriers were coming up every five minutes and there was soil like everywhere and pebbles everywhere. So they were like, eh, you gotta go.
[Voiceover]: I'm just picturing this office full of cacti and big hats. And tequila just lying around everywhere.
Tara Shelton: We had a succulent launch party and it was hilarious. We all dressed up as succulents. I've got to find those photos somewhere. It was so funny. And it was at a Mexican place. But yeah. So I think I learned quite quickly about the practicality of ideas. So I'm a big ideas person, obviously being creative. And I guess now I have more empathy for my clients because I'd be like, you can do this and you can do that and you can do this. So I had this brilliant idea to hand stitch packaging. So. So the packaging had like hand stitched embroidery in it.
[Voiceover]: Wow.
Tara Shelton: Because it was like tactile and the whole concept was like, we're creating these tactile things. And so I had literally a team of people who I'm paying marketing salaries hand stitching the packaging and coming in on the weekend to get ahead and inventing their own little light stitches because their hands were hurting so much. And Andrew, my husband, were like, you are not factoring their time into this, like this little back of the envelope business plan you've done.
[Voiceover]: And they're like, I just came here to do Facebook ads and all of a sudden I'm stitching.
Tara Shelton: And so I think like, look, this is not going to work. You've got to let that one go. And yeah, so I think, like, the practicality of ideas has been probably the biggest, best lesson when I started. Little suckers.
[Voiceover]: So what are the things you've changed the most from first going to market to where you are now with little suckers?
Tara Shelton: A lot's changed. So initially it was $35, same day succulent. They were boxed up, but again, like this bloody soil, like it was tipping out. So then like, what can we do? Eventually got to the solution where I would mix clag glue because it was non toxic. So this was another process with pebbles and make this like cement pebble mix and put it on top and let it dry. So it didn't tip with the couriers. Oh, gosh. But so I guess what's changed is we are national now. So we were Sydney same day and we were Melbourne same day. National was brought on from COVID when our events got shut down. The events were like the biggest part of the business. And yeah, that got turned off. So I was like, okay, let's get national going. So that was a really good push. There are some states we can't ship to due to customs laws. But yeah, I guess the business evolved from being like an experience as well. So it's gifting. But then when I wanted to send terrariums that was even more of an issue because of all the layering. I was like, well why don't we do an event where people come and make their own like loliba style. They can make whatever they want. And we did that as a little pop up and it was super, super popular. So that grew and grew and grew and like we'd have like 400 people come on a weekend to make a terrarium, which is amazing. Which has then led me to having my own permanent space which now I can do private parties and corporates and stuff. And then from that we've had a brand activation kind of come to us as well, which is good because that's, I do like enjoy that. So like shopping centers, Westfield, Darling quarter, stuff like that saying, can you come in and do an event for us? So yeah, I guess it's evolved in that way. And then how I want it to evolve further is kind of becoming like a more fashion led non plant pieces, so merchy kind of things like cool T shirt that says stay at home, plant parent or plant mama slippers or plant accessories like where you can dress up your pots and things like that.
[Voiceover]: It makes total sense because even though you are selling greenery, essentially your photography and your style is very much the style of a fashion label.
Tara Shelton: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
[Voiceover]: How did you come up? So if anyone hasn't seen it, if you want to pause and have a look at the website, go to the About Us page. There's a fantastic picture of a gentleman there with his legs spread open and a cacti. Yes, a prick. Well, well placed. And I think your Instagram has a few others as well. From a branding perspective because that's your background. How did you land on that brand personality?
Tara Shelton: Oh, it's easy because that's my personality. I'm a bit dirty and I'm cheeky and I like to have fun with things. So yeah, I think people are a little bit like, they respect brands that take risks. It's not for everyone. Like I said, my husband, he's a great support but he, we often get into arguments like he's like, you can't swear. Like he once did my redid my website, helped me redo it and took all the swear words off and I was like, what? Where did all the swear words go? He's like, you can't like, it's just not, you just can't be swearing like that. I'm like, I'm like, you're not My customer. You're not my customer. He's like, thanks a lot. Like you're not.
[Voiceover]: Keep your cacti to yourself.
Tara Shelton: Yeah, exactly. I think just knowing our customer, knowing that they respect brands that take a bit of a risk, knowing you're not for everyone. And I think people are a little bit dirty and rude. Like, well the people I know anyway,
[Voiceover]: that cuts through it. Absolutely.
Tara Shelton: Yeah. So it's just there's so many pun, Fantastic pun opportunities for succulents as well and we're pretty famous for that with our cards like happy sucking birthday. And when the gay marriage vote was coming out, we did suck for a suck. Oh, suck who you wanna. And that was really cool. That's awesome. Yeah, we just go for it and. And yeah, it's a lot of fun.
[Voiceover]: Is that from someone who's been in branding for a while? Is that advice that you regularly give your clients is that if you create a brand that really reflects the founder's personality, you're going to set yourself up for success in the long run?
Tara Shelton: Yeah, I think it helps because until you're a huge company it's very hard to create a brand outside of yourself. Like it is a natural reflection. So yeah, when I do a brand I do like to make it reflect that person. Especially when they're showing up and selling it. It just doesn't fit if like, if I wrapped up in a suit, like just wouldn't. Yeah. And you know there are others that are more conservative and like they have to say that's cool but I don't really, that's not really me. And I'm like, yeah. So yes, I do think it should reflect yourself starting up for sure or it should reflect your customer. So I do have a big client who are two guys who run a female protein business and yeah, it's not them but it's totally their customer and I guess they have me, so there's a piece of me in there.
[Voiceover]: So if it's not your natural personality, it's your customer's personality, it's your customer. It's best to try and get some help to kind of.
Tara Shelton: To find someone who's your customer. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
[Voiceover]: Makes total sense. We've talked a lot about B Corp retailers on past episodes of Add to Cut and our packaging partners Signet are playing their part. They recently helped nail polish brand Sienna Byron Bay achieve B Corp status and 99% plastic free orders from start to finish by switching from bubble lined mailer bags three years ago to Signet's G Army protective packaging. Not only is Sienna's practices better for the environment, it keeps the nail polish better protected. Visit Signet to find out more. Now you mentioned before that everything went a little bit nuts during COVID and this isn't your first gifting business. What did you see in the gifting category during COVID Oh, gifting category. Or even for little suckers?
Tara Shelton: Yeah, a lot of people were sending gifts during that time because there was a lot of support messages going out. A lot of like, sucks, we missed out on Europe sucks, we missed your 40th, sucks, your wedding got canceled. Like crap like that. Suck you Covid suck 2020. So there was a lot of that and especially Melbourne, they obviously got hit really hard. So a lot was going there. So yeah, that's what I saw. A lot of support messages going out in that time, which was really, really nice actually. And then the explosiveness of DIY kits, so people wanting to do stuff at home. So the build your terrarium at home was really cool. And then a lot of corporate team building things which a lot of corporates engaged us to host sessions for them to bring teams together on zoom and build a terrarium on zoom. So yeah, that's what I saw during that time.
[Voiceover]: That's cool. And I get the feeling that Covid really opened up the opportunities for gifting, like the everyday gifting. You don't have to wait for the big events like the Mother's Day, the Father's Day, the Christmas. It's almost like the. Just because. Do you have any tips for other businesses who might go, we really need to push this gifting envelope a little bit harder all throughout the year. How do you do that without being too pushy?
Tara Shelton: I think it's just like coming down to that person's value values on, you know, showing your friend you care, being there for them in their ups and downs. And I personally love to be that person. So I, I have a picture of myself where I like to support my friends through good times, bad times, emotional times. So, you know, I've got a lot of friends having kids and it's a very emotional time when you take like your maternity leaves over and you go back to work. So I sent my friend a gift during that time. So there's always opportunities for gift giving and I think if you can align it to your customers values of them being the type of person that shows up for their friends and family through all occasions or life events, then I think that makes it easier.
[Voiceover]: Yeah.
Tara Shelton: And then there's also the type of Gifts where you, there's no occasion, but the product makes you buy it. Like you're like, oh my God, that's so, so and so I have to buy that. You know, my sister loves Frida Kahlo so. Poor thing, she has Frida Kahlo everywhere. Because every time someone sees something Frida Kahlo they're like, oh my God, Rosa will love that.
[Voiceover]: You know, you become that person.
Tara Shelton: Yeah. And I guess that's the plant thing. Like once you're not known as a plant parent, then you're gonna get hit with little suckers stuff.
[Voiceover]: That's so true. There's such a cult around plants and greenery and how do you find your customers? How do you acquire new customers? You mentioned there that you have a high reliance on physic, you know, on your physical store and your events. And obviously that's a Sydney based. But being national, how do you widen out that new audience to find those plant mothers?
Tara Shelton: Facebook obviously like is the lifeblood of many businesses, but unfortunately things are changing. And I know that a lot of people are being affected by some unknown force at Facebook where their ads aren't working as well and I know that I'm one of them.
[Voiceover]: When do you feel that started?
Tara Shelton: So probably three months ago. Around that time and speaking to other people, it's the same. It's becoming way more expensive. They're not getting the results they used to. So I think it helps being a marketing person because I'm like, all right, well Facebook didn't exist 10, 12 years ago. What do we do then? You know, so back on the pr. PR works really well for us. And yeah, just thinking about, you know, nurturing your email as well. Influencers, I mean, that's hit and miss. But like thinking about that and I guess just trying to get your customers to come back offering them more things. And I guess the best people in marketing would have heard of the book Purple Cow. And I think the best thing to do to acquire new customers is to do cool shit. So I find my events maybe like it was a sure thing on Facebook. I could spend a certain amount of money and I could get them in the door. It was easy, it was a formula, it was ideal. Now that's not happening. So I'm like, okay, all right, well I have to create something that is going to get in broadsheet, is going to get people clicking, like clickbait really for your own business. So even if you start thinking like that and develop a product that is clickbait for your business to get them there, then you're going to get that traffic. You can retarget it. So that's kind of my plan now. I'm going to think of some special events. So like terrariums and tarot readings, Tequila tasting and terrariums. Just unusual things. Maybe like, I don't know, live prick drawing or something.
[Voiceover]: Oh, there's so much you can do there that's cool.
Tara Shelton: But like, you know, get people like, and like clicking again. So yeah, I think the best way to get new customers is to be innovative, be different.
[Voiceover]: How do you keep your creative mindset when you have orders flowing in, you've got events to run, you've got a business to go. Like you can get in the operations headspace pretty quickly. Right. How do you stay creative?
Tara Shelton: I hate the operations headspace so much. So I think I distract myself with the creative. I have too many ideas. It's distracting and it's frustrating because you can't do them all. So I don't know, I just am creative. I did it for a living for so long. So my brain is wired that way to think that way. But I just guess I always just challenge what I see to come up with an idea or I cross pollinate. So I like go, okay, imagine if, okay, that company over there is doing this. What could we do in our business that's similar but it's a different industry. So that's kind of what I do. I look at what others are doing and then I like twist it. Yeah, to come up with ideas. But it's not an issue for me to be creative.
[Voiceover]: So then the problem being that you've got all these ideas but you can't bring them all to life. How do you prioritize? Which are the good ones or the fun ones?
Tara Shelton: Yes. I guess viability, you know, costing it out and then getting feedback on the ideas. So I'll put it on stories and I'll do it that way. So like just had like with the terrarium and Tarot, I just like had an idea for an event. Terrarium and Tarot Psychic suckers. What do you think? And then I had a yes, no, and I had like 200 people click yes, 30 people click no. So I'm like, okay, that's cool. So I started googling tarot readers. So I probably do like a little pilot and then take it from there. So always think of the idea, see if there's money in it, get feedback, do a pilot, learn from it and roll it out.
[Voiceover]: That's a great idea.
Tara Shelton: That's What I do. And then now doing product, I just mock them up on Photoshop, put on Instagram and again get feedback. Like, see how many likes I get. If I get comments, people tagging, I'm like, okay, this could sell. And then maybe I'd even do like a pre order special. So say like Alibaba's 200moq, maybe I try and sell 200 pre order, get my moq in there and then go from there. So like pretty. Because I back myself with my own money and stuff. Like I have to do it like that.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, that's cool. Do you ever. Are you ever concerned about putting your ideas out there too early that someone might steal them? Or are you confident enough in your brand that you go, I'm pretty much the only one that can pull this one off?
Tara Shelton: No, I think anyone can do it, but I just don't think that should stop you. It is a risk that someone will copy it and do it, but that's the Internet. Like so just. You're better off trying and doing it. Yeah. So. And there's a lot of factors that go into. Like, someone can't just do it like that. I lucky I have a business that's four years old that has context. So someone say these plant lady slippers. Someone could say it, do it. But does it make more sense to buy it from little suckers? Yes. Like it's got the. It's already exists, you know, it's got the trust, it's got the community, it's got the brand. So I guess I just trust myself with that. And I try not to copy people. Like it doesn't feel good.
[Voiceover]: I suppose when you've got so many ideas already, there's no point copying, is there?
Tara Shelton: Yeah, no, it's tempting because like Pinterest is so good.
[Voiceover]: Yeah.
Tara Shelton: But yeah. Nah, people will copy it and I see it all the time with my clients, like from Dream and Do. But you just gotta have faith. You gotta keep moving. Don't bother looking and wasting time. Keep going.
[Voiceover]: Yep. On your LinkedIn, I was talking. Sorry, one of the questions on there. I was at a wedding, actually, I'll tell this story. I was at my brother's wedding last weekend. No. Yeah. And I read your LinkedIn out. No, I. I was best man, so I had to give best man speech and the MCs were jing me up all week. Like we're having little friendly barbs. He's like, I've got a good one for. I'm going to get you on your intro. I'm like, you can't get me. You're all right. He read out my whole LinkedIn intro in front of, like, 160 people at a wedding. And I stepped up there really early, and I just had a glass of red wine in my hand, and all I could do was just stand up front awkwardly while it went on for, like, five minutes.
Tara Shelton: Oh, no, that's so embarrassing.
[Voiceover]: This is so embarrassing. Yeah, I think I drank two glasses of red wine while I was reading it out. But going back to y' all again,
Tara Shelton: you're gonna read mine?
[Voiceover]: Yeah. So here we go.
Tara Shelton: I need wine.
[Voiceover]: So in yours, you mention. I love this quote, creativity will come from constraint. What do you mean by that?
Tara Shelton: Yeah. Oh, because you're forced to think of other things. Like Covid's a perfect idea. Perfect examples of where innovation happened for many businesses. You know, often when a business goes bankrupt, like, the next idea is the best idea. I think startups have such good creativity because they're limited with resources. Like, if they can't afford Facebook, what else are they going to do? And that was where creative thinking comes in. And I think a lot of people who don't have privilege, like, look at all the rappers and all their stories. We've had nothing and what they have now because they were constrained with what the resources they had and they're motivated. But, yeah, and, like, growing up, I had three little sisters, and we weren't, like, poor by any means, but, like, we didn't have loads of stuff, and I think that really helped us be creative. Like, my. My dad was like a home builder, so he'd, like, build places and sell it. So we spent, like, lots of time in, like, hardware shops. So we'd be getting nails and playing shots with, like, little nails and, you know, like, you just do that. Or, like, making cameras out of toilet paper and making the film and making ATM machines and the money and.
[Voiceover]: Yeah.
Tara Shelton: So I think, yeah, like, it forces you to go, okay, what have I got? What can I sell? How can I make money? Yeah. So I think that it's true. It comes with constraint.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, that's a great one. I love it. One of the things you mentioned before was Pinterest, and obviously we're seeing a huge, like, the Pinterest bandwagon just keeps rolling forward and almost like a silent juggernaut behind the scenes. What do you do on Pinterest?
Tara Shelton: Well, I do collect inspiration on there. I've heard it's really good for advertising. So, like, if you have a visual business, be on Pinterest it will get you like click throughs. But I haven't personally experimented with that yet. I don't know. I think Pinterest is really hard because it's so easy to just like fall into the trap of a trend. It's almost got it, you know, like we say Google it, it's almost got its own language now, like, oh, that's so Pinterest. Or like Pinterest worthy interior.
[Voiceover]: Yeah.
Tara Shelton: Yeah. I do think you have to be careful with Pinterest because there's such a style.
[Voiceover]: Yeah.
Tara Shelton: And if, again, if you want to stand out, if you want to be different, you shouldn't really be using it. But I do do. I do use it to kind of pull my ideas together and. Yeah. Just be inspired, I guess. But luckily I've been trained to not rip something off, but to critique it in a way. Like, why does that work?
[Voiceover]: Yeah, it's a good tip. What you said before is go into Pinterest even if you're not a regular user and search your brand or your product and just see what comes up. Because if rubbish is coming up, it's probably a really good opportunity to own the visual narrative on it. You can do it pretty quickly.
Tara Shelton: Yeah. And I think it's cost effective. Ads.
[Voiceover]: Yep. Now we've mentioned a little bit about events and events for retailers are often just seen as extra effort and they are a lot of work. What's your, your secret to running a great event?
Tara Shelton: I think events are kind of crucial now. Experiences are crucial to retail because of online. So you want another reason to engage customers and to make money out of a shop. Really, my secret? I don't know. I'm a natural party person. I love parties. I was, I was thinking the other day I bumped into my godmother at the gym and she was like, remember when you did my son's Power Ranger party? And I was like, what? Oh my gosh, I remember that. And I wore a swimming cap to make myself look like a Power Ranger.
[Voiceover]: What color Power Ranger were you?
Tara Shelton: I was pink, obviously.
[Voiceover]: Of course. Of course.
Tara Shelton: But I think just being like a natural host makes for a good party.
[Voiceover]: Yeah.
Tara Shelton: So, yeah, I always think about the hawk, like, yeah, like I said, coming up with a cool idea. Alcohol is always good. However, a lot of people aren't drinking these days, so I find I'm getting older in that sense because I'm like, do you want to drink? They're like, no, we don't drink. I'm like, oh, no. Why? Like, are you sick? Are you Pregnant. So I'm like finding I have to get kombucha and stuff because there are a lot of non drinkers so definitely showing my age there because any like free drink, I'm there. So yeah, music, drinks, collaborations, like, like I said, interesting mixes of things make for a good event and probably doing something that like the tarot like people like interested in but they probably wouldn't
[Voiceover]: go, yeah, I think that's a really good tip. Is like something that's interesting but it's not like you fully have to commit or go in with all the hardcore people. It's like I can dip my toe
Tara Shelton: in here and see your toe in like. So for example, if you're like, oh, I've always wanted a tattoo but I probably wouldn't go and get one. Don't know what I get. Imagine if I did like you know, three little succulent tattoos, like little tiny ones on your wrist. Yeah, go. Awesome. I might do that actually.
[Voiceover]: Put it in your Instagram stories and see what response you get.
Tara Shelton: Tattoos and terrariums, literally. I could have a tattoo artist doing like little suckers like so I think, yeah, dipping people like getting people into things that they wouldn't usually experience. Like you said, fully commit to.
[Voiceover]: When Australian fashion brand Age wanted to set up its own international omnichannel presence, they wanted to focus on mobile intuitiveness and flexible payment types. And of course they turned to Shopify plus. In just a few weeks after implementation, they saw their e commerce conversion rate soar by 135%. It's the stuff E commerce streams are made of. They also saw a reduction in bounce rate, increased pages per session and a longer session duration. Now they are ready to take on the world. To read more of Age's story and see other case studies, visit the customers section on shopify.com. Lastly, I think there's a bunch of questions here, but I think the one that I want for you is advice for others, especially those who come from a marketing or an agency background because there are lots of ideas people out there and as you mentioned, it's like executing is a whole different thing to having the ideas. What advice would you have for people, creative people especially, who have ideas and are thinking they've got the idea that they want to bring to life? What advice would you give to them?
Tara Shelton: Make sure it's viable, otherwise you're just going to waste your time. So do your numbers, see if there's profit in it. You need like a 60% margin at least because of advertising. So a lot of people do their cost of goods sold to work out their margins. But you've got to add in marketing.
[Voiceover]: Yep.
Tara Shelton: So think about that. Think about how you're going to grow it if there's enough money in it. Can you pay yourself?
[Voiceover]: Yeah.
Tara Shelton: Because that is one thing you can make. Like you can make a good business, but can you take a salary from it? Like, that's hard. Really.
[Voiceover]: It's so often the thing people forget. Right. It's like probably the most important thing yourself.
Tara Shelton: And you get really depressed after a while if you don't pay yourself. There has to be a period of time where you draw the line and go, no, like, I can't. I've got to like pay myself. So, yeah. Figure out if that business can do that and then I guess just start small is what I would say and do some. Do some tests and go from there. Yeah.
[Voiceover]: Beautiful. And really important question. What's the secret to a good terrarium? Terrarium. I can't even say it. I can't even say it properly. Terrarium.
Tara Shelton: Terrarium. Terrarium. Oh, the layers. Layers. The layers are what makes a terrarium, I think. So doing some interesting color combinations of layering and then accessories. So once you've completed it, like planted it and put in your pebbles and all that how you style it. So like I've got some crystals, like some rose quartz and you know, you can put that in there and then like really cute little figurines, like park benches with little people on them and people do cool dinosaur ones and.
[Voiceover]: Oh, that's cool.
Tara Shelton: Yeah. So I think like accessories and layers.
[Voiceover]: You could do Lego and terrariums together.
Tara Shelton: We do do lego. We have Lego. I know, that's awesome. I know. Yeah, yeah. So there's like this base Lego that we have so people can do like a Mars kind of one. So yeah, creating like a little world is fun.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, that's nice. Yeah. Cool. All right, so what's next for yourself and little suckers? What's on the horizon?
Tara Shelton: Getting my shop cranking, so doing like, because my little suckers space has been open for a couple of months, so I just want to get that like going like again, making it. Sure. All my events are like really well booked and then launching my non living range. So yeah, doing like T shirts and pajamas and all that.
[Voiceover]: Brilliant. And the space, the space is really cool. I've only seen in photos I haven't actually visited. If people want to check out the space, where do they go?
Tara Shelton: So if you're in Sydney, you probably know the Oaks In Mutual Bay, which is a pub. So it's literally opposite the pub on Military Road. Yeah, Military Road, Mutual Bay. You can check out our website. There's two neon signs in the window so you can't miss it. And it's really bright and fun and we do parties and it's a really, really cool event. You should come.
[Voiceover]: Brilliant. If people want to know more about Little Suckers, we'll get in touch with you.
Tara Shelton: Yep. Contact me. I'm up for anything.
[Voiceover]: Beautiful.
Tara Shelton: So yeah, just contact me and can have a chat. Yeah.
[Voiceover]: Cool. And Little suckers dot com. L I double T L E S U double C E R S. Yes dot com.
Tara Shelton: Yes.
[Voiceover]: Awesome. Tara, thank you so much for sharing everything and can't wait to see the. The tarot and terrariums come out and tattoos and tequila. Oh my goodness. So much to do here. So good. Awesome. Thank you.
Tara Shelton: Thank you so much. See you.
[Voiceover]: What I love about Tara and what she's created with Little Suckers is that it is 100% her and 100% unapologetic. It little Suckers is Tara and Tara is Little Suckers from the saucy photography on the website where some cacti are very carefully placed to the tone of the events. Little Suckers doesn't try to be everything to anyone. I mean, if you're not them, that's okay. And it's fair to say that if you shop with Little Suckers you probably could be friends with Tara as well. And while it may never be the biggest business in the world, to me that sounds like a nice community to be part of and a fun business to run. To finish up, I have three resources for you. Firstly, if you're a first time listener of Add to cart and you want to stay up to date with new episodes, head over to addtocart.com and you can sign up for our weekly newsletter. We'll let you know every time a new episode drops as as well as giving you my three takeaways from each episode and a link to the transcripts so you can know that this is an episode that you want to dive straight into. Secondly, if you want a weekly roundup of the best e commerce case studies, tools and research, sign up to the High Five Friday newsletter which is delivered to inboxes at 8am every Friday morning. I read all the e commerce news and send you the bits that I think you can take action from. Sign up at 12 high 12h I g h.com au high 5 and the last thing, if you are looking to explore your next e commerce opportunity, head over to esweettalent.com we are a dedicated e commerce talent agency connecting the best e commerce talent with the fastest growing brands. Check it out out. Sign up to the email and get in touch with me if you want to discuss your next move. Until next time, thanks for listening and keep those customers adding to cart.
