Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Steve & Dawn Woodburn. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Steve & Dawn, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
Both Steve and Dawn’s work ethic is grounded in their upbringing and family dynamics. Dawn was raised by parents who valued hard work, as her mom was a nurse and her dad worked in sales his entire career. She saw you must put in the effort to receive the benefits, which she took to heart in her long career as an Executive Assistant. Steve came from a family of small business owners, a challenge that will either make or break you. He saw the efforts his grandmother put into the successful pharmacy she owned, his dad’s struggles to grow a business during a recession and his brother’s lifelong ownership of a traditional printing company. Both Dawn and Steve took these lessons to heart and put them to the test when they began creating their brand and products, Marvelous Moosey Adventures. After a successful launch, the landscape changed as their manufacturer first lost a shipment of books then declared bankruptcy, just prior to the pandemic hitting. They both believed in their product and when the world opened up, they started exhibiting at festivals, putting their work ethics to the test through long days of standing and talking to hundreds of children and adults. Their hard work though has paid off as they start 2024 energized and ready to hit the festival circuit and find other avenues to spread joy and kindness through their moose with blue hooves, Marvelous Moosey.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Honestly, creating a moose with blue hooves and developing a brand around him was totally out of left field for us. Dawn had given Steve a plush moose for his birthday one year (because he blows his nose like a moose…she says!) and they started posting pics of the moose on social media doing different things. Our friends told us we should do something with the idea so we came up with the concept for the moose to be unique and have blue hooves. Writing the children’s book to tell his story and creating the packaging to look like an old-time suitcase followed.
The thing we love most is interacting with children and families at the many festivals we exhibit at each year. To see the faces of the children as we give them the :30 second synopsis of the story and watch them hug Moosey just melts our hearts. The idea for moose costumes came about out of the blue as well, but now they are a popular item and add another revenue stream to the business. We’re working on our second book which will add new characters into the mix, each of which will have something that makes them unique and marvelous as well. It’s important for a business not to stagnate and to always be looking for new ways to add value to what you are doing.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
A sense of curiosity and a desire to always learn new skills are imperative when starting a new business. Curiosity helps you see what’s possible and using the knowledge you already posses along with new skills you acquire will turn those dreams into reality. While both Steve and Dawn had branding and marketing experience, creating a product and new brand involved learning about trademarks, patents, manufacturing processes, financing and building a website from scratch. Taking classes, watching videos, reading articles and conversations with those in the know helped us to make the right decisions in growing our business.
Another area that might not seem as important as others is to surround yourself with positive people, those who want to see you succeed. Running a small business takes an enormous amount of effort and sacrifice, a path most people won’t take for fear of failure. For those of us who take on the challenge of running a business, we need to make sure the family, friends and others we spend time with root for our success. Don’t let the naysayers get to you and undermine your vision. There’s a saying that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Make sure those people will be there for you through thick and thin.
And always remember, failure is part of your journey. Inventor Thomas Edison, failed over and over again when perfecting the light bulb, but reportedly said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” If one way doesn’t work, try another and if that doesn’t work, keep searching for ways that will. You deserve to achieve your dreams and overcoming failure(s) puts you one step closer to making that happen.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
Our business is at a point where we need to find new avenues through which to sell our products. We’ve always self-financed our business, not wanting to encumber ourselves with debt or business partners who might not have the same objectives as us. And while this gives us the freedom to do things our own way, it also limits us to pursue the really big, audacious goals we have. Selling our products at festivals has proven to be the best sales channel for us however, as the economy has slowed people have become more frugal and are spending on necessities vs. splurging on gifts. We’ve dipped our toes into the retail market, but with that comes new challenges of on-demand inventory, financing that inventory, lead times, returns and for our business, the fact we really need to pitch it in person for people to understand the concept. We’re looking at other ways we can gain traction including adding our products on Amazon or other online retailers, upping our website game through SEO, discovering niche markets for our brand and finding smaller boutique retailers to sell through. We’re also open to collaborating with other similar businesses and finding a two-way street to help one another grow and expand.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.marvelousmoosey.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marvelousmoosey
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marvelousmoosey
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-dawn-meyer-woodburn-50a50915/
