<![CDATA[ZYMBOL: Blog]]> http://www.zymbol.net/ ZYMBOL Copyright 2024 by ZYMBOL <![CDATA[How a Symbolic Doodle Became a Business and a Movement]]>
Phyllis Smith wrote a great article here:
https://www.ewomennetwork.com/blog/ewomennetwork-1/post/how-a-symbolic-doodle-became-a-business-and-a-movement-159

Here's a highlight of the article:
 
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Serendipitous Symbols


PHYLLIS SMITH: You have been a member of eWomenNetwork for a while and I know we’re going to get into how eWomenNetwork helps support you in your business. You’ve got quite a story about this doodle that has transformed and started a movement. Tell us the inspirational story behind Zymbol.



DANE SHORT: It’s very serendipitous how it started. When I was in college about 9 years ago, my lovely mother, Sally Shorts, was randomly doodling one day and she decided to write down the phrase “love is all you need”. But what she did is she stacked each letter on top of the next and then put a peace sign on top. She loved the way her doodle looked, and she decided she was going to send it off to be cast as a pendant for herself. When the pendant came back she had randomly taken it off at some point and my sister and I saw it sitting on its side and we noticed that there was a K popping out of it. Since there’s no K in the phrase “love is all you need,” it got us curious and motivated to look for more letters. 
 
 
As we sat down, it ended up covering every letter of the alphabet as well as every number hidden within her doodle of, “love is all you need”. Which was super random, but what we decided to do was design this line of inspirational jewelry with the concept being – when you wear or gift a Zymbol it can represent any message you want because it contains every letter of the alphabet. 
When I put my Zymbol on every morning I’ll think about what message I want that day, whether that’s a positive affirmation or something that I’m grateful for. You and everybody else out there that is listening can be wearing the exact same design, but it’s going to represent a completely different message to the person that has it on. 
 

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Selling a Story

PHYLLIS SMITH: Let me ask you this. Were you an entrepreneurial type or what inspired you to take it beyond?


DANE SHORT: Yeah. I was in my senior year getting my degree in marketing. I had been studying businesses and was in that marketing mindset. It was the Thanksgiving before I was going to graduate that she doodled it a couple months before. I talked to her on the phone every once in awhile and she’d say, “Oh, I just made this doodle and it looks so cool.” She’s a very creative and artsy type, so she is always making things and piecing them together. Both my sister and I had been talking to my mom and we didn’t quite know what to expect. When we got home to visit and saw the piece it was kind of striking. We then proceeded to find the letters and everything, and I think I was in a mindset that this is a product that really could represent something special to anybody whether that’s a 9-year-old or a 90-year-old. 

 

 

The serendipitous fact that it happened during my senior year, getting my degree in marketing, before that I had done a few entrepreneurial things. I had a lawn mowing business in high school and stuff like that, but jewelry was pretty far away from my radar at that point in time. It ended up being the way things funneled through.    

It’s kind of funny, my mom was downtown in Durango, CO where we’re from. Right after we had left and found the alphabet in the pendant she was walking downtown, and she saw one of her friends and they were talking, and she looked at mom’s necklace and said, “What is that? That’s really a beautiful piece.” She was like, “Oh, it’s a doodle that I created to say, “love is all you need”, but my kids were just home, and we ended up uncovering every letter in the alphabet in it. The lady kind of looked at it and kind of perplexed she said, “So, my grandchildren’s names are in that?” My mom kind of thought for a second and said, “Yes, your grandkids names are in this.” That was kind of an “ah ha” moment for her. As we started discussing that and I started talking to some of my professors that I was thinking of starting a business around this. I think this would be something special to do.
PHYLLIS SMITH: Yeah, absolutely. Let’s talk about the process that didn’t work and finally what did work.

DANE SHORT: Yeah. It took a while for us to realize how much of a story driven product Zymbol is. If you were to see the design in a store, for example, you may be able to see the marketing materials and see, I think the alphabets in here, but until you hear the story of my mother’s doodle and how you can wear it and how you can gift it, it’s hard to get that concept across. That was kind of a hard lesson learned. Initially, it was let’s run some ads in some magazines, let’s do banner ads, and we’re talking 2010 here, so google AdWords, banner ads. We were all over that and it was not quite enough to connect on an emotional level of what Zymbol is.
Our next big step was to go after stores, right? You have a product that you need distribution. Let’s go into some gift stores. We had been in a few local mom and pop shops and it was selling. Well, we decided to invest a little bit more in that and go set up at places like Dallas Market Center where you must put quite a bit of money in on the front end there. We went and met with some buyers who liked the product. We started writing some orders and a couple months into that the product wasn’t selling. We’re talking to some buyers and store owners and we come to figure out that the buyer loved the story because they heard it from us, the buyer was not the person in the store telling the story, it was the person in the store who didn’t know what the story was. So, only in the mom and pop ss people knew how to tell the story and to this day those are the stores that it sells in. It really was kind of a crawl, walk, run, sprint scenario.
What I ended up doing was rather than try to figure out some genius marketing plan it was what can I do to make the cash register ring today. What that is, is arts and crafts show, face to face, go set up a booth, sell to people. I remember the first show we did.  I live in Austin, TX now in a little small town about a half an hour north of Austin. I think it was $15 to set up there and I think we sold one piece for $25. And that was set up by some high school kids that had beaded macaroni jewelry and stuff like that, but it was kind of my first introduction of selling face to face and understanding how to tell our story, and how to sell the product and so it’s really been a fun journey. We’re really lucky to be where we are right now and kind of ended up getting on some other stuff.
  What I ended up doing was rather than try to figure out some genius marketing plan, it was what can I do to make the cash register ring today.  
PHYLLIS SMITH: Yeah. Also, your business model created a challenge for you because the buyer needed to have the story to understand it. It sounds to me, by going to craft fairs you’re integral to selling it. At what point can you pull back and allow this to unfold and take place? Is it kind of like you’re getting it out, getting it out, so the more people who wear it – those will be the people who tell the story.

DANE SHORT: Yeah. I guess I have a few part answers to that. At one of the shows, I think it was the 4th show we did, I was still trying to decide is this a product that customers even want. I was getting my booth set up and this couple came by from Australia and I still didn’t quite have our table set up, but they had seen our banner and were kind of like, “Will you tell us about that design?” So, I proceeded to tell them the story and the lady started crying as I was telling the story, she was so touched by the concept of my mom doing this doodle and the meaning behind it and her being able to set her daily inspiration. They ended up buying some bracelets and they came back and asked if we would mind if they tattoo the design and I of course was like oh, absolutely. And they kind of threw me off a little there and I just said, “If you all ever do it please send us a picture.” I gave them my email and half an hour later they came back, and the lady had tattooed on the back of her neck and the man had it on the back of his arm.
PHYLLIS SMITH: What?!?

DANE SHORT: They were just that struck by the story and the concept that, people tattoo, you know, people’s names or an inspirational word all the time, Zymbol the meaning can change and evolve with them. So it’s this tattoo that they now have their personal meaning in it, but it’s never going to go out of style. I was so touched by that in the sense that someone would get our design tattooed, my mother’s doodle. That’s when it gave me the confidence that this is a product that can impact people’s lives in a positive way. We ended up posting those pictures and I think at the time 10 other people from our Facebook page said I also have this tattooed, and to date we have over 70 people that have tattooed the design. Which is absolutely crazy.
Moving back around on your answer. The whole thing when we decided that the stores weren’t working, and the shows were working well because we were telling it face to face was how can we tell this story to the most people at the same time. The obvious answer to us was QVC. We had set our sights to getting on QVC around 2013. We had met somebody that was a host for home shopping network.  She loved the product and said she was going to take it to HSN and present it. We were over the moon about that. What ended up happening is she didn’t know the story, so the buyers didn’t get it and ended up shooting us down.
She luckily knew someone over at QVC, so when we went to do the presentation at QVC I told them we can do this presentation, but I need to be the one that goes there so I can do it myself. Fortunately, we met with the buyers out there. They ended up accepting us and over the last couple of years we have had 13 appearances and we’ve been a best seller for the last couple of years. It’s really been a great platform because I can interact with the host there, tell the story live, demonstrate how it works and really that’s the evolution from the doodle to the small arts and crafts shows to failing in stores to eventually getting it on QVC which has really been a big win for my family and me. 
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Tue, 19 Jun 2018 11:50:43 GMT
<![CDATA[Zymbol on LOVE YOUR BRAND YOU Podcast]]> Inspiration Through Perception: The Story Of The ZYMBOL™ on LOVE BRAND YOU Podcast  On today’s episode we learn about the story behind the brand ZYMBOL™.  Dane Short started his first business days after graduating from UNLV with a degree in marketing.  Dane took a ‘doodle’ that his Mother, Sally Short created, and developed a line of inspirational jewelry that went on to become a best-selling item on QVC.   The ‘doodle’, better known as ZYMBOL™, contains every letter of the alphabet and every number hidden within it.  Hear how this remarkable family story led to the jewelry line and inspires the stories and memories for people worldwide as each individual embodies their own perception and meaning in their personal ZYMBOL™ piece.  Listen in to our conversation about the evolution of this family brand and our discussion of shared alignment for staying true to the values of your brand’s foundation to grow the business and legacy you desire. 

Listen in here... just press PLAY!

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Wed, 04 Apr 2018 16:28:54 GMT
<![CDATA[MARCH SPOTLIGHT]]> Meet Stella Sanchez, Founding Zymbologist
 
Last month we opened enrollment for people to join our family as a Zymbologist. The response has been better than we anticipated and we are thrilled to hear some success stories coming in from our founding members!

Each month we will put the spotlight on a Zymbologist that has grown their business and made a positive impact on the world.

First up, Stella Sanchez.

Stella was one of the first people to enroll and has hit the ground running. She held her 1st Show & Tell outside of Dallas where she did $1,048 in sales! The result? A big commission check for Stella and a TON of free jewelry for her Show & Tell host! Her successful launch party motivated her to sign up as a vendor at 3 upcoming events and she’s scheduled 2 more Show & Tells.      GO, STELLA, GO!!

After Speaking with Stella here are a few tips on how you can replicate her successful launch…

First, Stella reached out to her friends and found the perfect person to host her launch party. She worked closely with her host to invite as many people as possible.

Once the date was set Stella prepared for the show by personalizing the Zymbol Story into her Zymbol Story. This is key! A good story connects hearts, drives empathy and inspires action. As a Zymbologist your personal story will be a huge part of your business. Incorporate the story of Zymbol’s creation with why you decided to become a Zymbologist. Speak from the heart! What does your Zymbol represent to you? Do you change your message daily or wear Zymbol with one special meaning? Make sure to TRACE your message on the gift card to show people ‘how it works’.

After sharing your story encourage the group to talk about different messages their Zymbol could represent. Give them ideas - daily affirmations, mantras, names, dates, intentions, etc. Pass out gift cards and pens so everyone can TRACE a message.

Share any stories you have about personally gifting Zymbol to get them thinking about who to buy for. Since people of all ages and all walks of life wear Zymbol it could be anybody they know! Do they know someone with an upcoming birthday, wedding or another special occasion? Could Zymbol provide inspiration to a family member who’s going through a rough patch? Talking about our Buy + Give program and intention booklet is a great way to highlight that Zymbol is more than a piece of jewelry. 

The best way to get started is to GET STARTED! The more shows you do the better you’ll become at crafting your story. Remember, there are videos and PDF’s in the training center of your back office that go into more detail on how to set-up your first Show & Tell. If you have any questions reach out to your mentor or email info@meridane.com.

Stella has offered to answer any questions you have for her as well! Her email is: stella.zymbol@gmail.com
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Wed, 07 Mar 2018 08:51:33 GMT