0:14

Hi, I'm Ryn at Commonwealth Holistic

0:16

Urbanism in Boston, Massachusetts, and

0:18

on the internet everywhere. This

0:20

week we're continuing Kat's series on herbal

0:23

businesses. If you missed it, the first one was

0:25

last week about an herbal products business.

0:28

This time the focus is on herb shops

0:30

or herbal apothecary shops with

0:32

or without a tease Hasting bar. What

0:35

do you do in that job? What do you need to learn

0:37

to do it? Well, listen onward

0:39

and hear katya's thoughts. We hope you like

0:41

it. And by the way, if

0:43

you are dreaming of an herbal business, we can

0:46

help. We have a whole herbal business

0:48

program to guide you through start to finish, even

0:50

if you have no experience running a business at all. And

0:53

we can teach you all the herbal skills you'll

0:55

need as well. You'll find [email protected]

1:02

Today. Let's talk about running

1:04

an herb shop . And next

1:06

to that I also , um, think

1:09

about a tea bar because a lot of

1:11

herb shops have tea bars in them. You

1:13

can of course, run a tea bar without an herbs

1:16

shop , and we'll talk about that a little bit as

1:18

we go along. Um, you can run an

1:20

herbs shop with no tea bar , absolutely,

1:22

but it is, it is also common that

1:24

people do both or maybe think about

1:27

both while they're figuring out exactly what

1:29

they wanna do. So , uh, it seemed

1:31

reasonable to kind of put these two in

1:33

the same category together. So

1:37

first of all, let's talk about what you would do every

1:40

day in this job. And there

1:42

is like , uh, just some general administrative

1:46

stuff, right? You're gonna order stuff,

1:48

you're gonna order the products that you want to sell

1:50

, um, which means

1:52

you're gonna need to know what your community wants

1:54

to buy. Okay, well that's gonna need some

1:57

research. Um, and also

1:59

part of the ordering stuff is like stocking

2:01

the stuff, inventorying the stuff, making

2:04

sure that you know what you have, that you know what you

2:06

need. Um, basically

2:09

where you're talking here about a lot of administrative

2:11

spreadsheets to just to keep yourself organized.

2:14

There are software programs that will do that

2:17

for you or a lot of

2:19

it for you. There's no

2:21

software that will display things nicely on

2:24

a shelf for you. Um, or like

2:26

put your little tags on it. Um, and

2:29

even if you are using an

2:31

inventory tracking system , um,

2:34

whether that is a spreadsheet, whether that

2:36

is through your point of sale software

2:39

or somewhere in the middle, even if

2:41

you are using that kind of system, there will still

2:43

be days once a quarter, for

2:45

example, maybe once a month, but probably once a quarter

2:47

where you just have to physically

2:51

take an actual inventory to make

2:53

sure that your actual physical

2:55

products match what you have in your system.

2:58

Every so often. It just is a good idea to do

3:01

that because sometimes they're

3:03

not the same. Now, if your inventory system

3:05

is in your point of sale software

3:09

and you only sell things through

3:11

your point of sale system , um, that

3:13

is like your little square card

3:16

reader or , um, you

3:19

know, whatever, whatever company you

3:21

use for that square is a very popular one.

3:25

Um, it's like your little checkout , um,

3:27

console, right? If

3:30

that is the only way that you sell things and

3:32

you never give a friend a free sample

3:35

or take something home because you

3:37

needed it and you had it on the shelf, then

3:40

your inventory will go very quickly. But

3:42

if you tend to sell

3:45

in , like in your shop and also at

3:47

a farmer's market, or you

3:49

maybe give away free samples sometimes or whatever

3:51

else, then your inventory, you

3:54

might wanna do it a little bit more regularly simply because

3:57

you can get the numbers off a little easier. Oh

4:00

my goodness, we have just launched right into

4:02

administrative headaches, very

4:05

first thing in this topic.

4:08

Um, but listen, that's probably

4:10

fair because Onne

4:12

and nerve shop is a lot of fun.

4:16

Uh, and it's probably

4:18

good to just like imagine

4:20

the administrative headache part first,

4:23

get that outta the way so that we can just focus

4:25

on the fun parts because all

4:28

this administrative stuff, the ordering, the

4:30

stocking, the inventory, the whatever it

4:32

is, it is stuff

4:34

you fit in, in the downtime

4:37

in between the fun parts of the job. Um,

4:41

so it's not the end of the world,

4:43

but there's a little bit more. We should just get

4:45

outta the way. Um, you will

4:47

also need to do some

4:50

technology management . So

4:52

that'll be your point of sale system. If

4:55

you also sell on your website, you'll need to have

4:57

your website set up. If you do

4:59

not sell on your website, but you have a

5:01

website just to let people know that you exist and

5:03

like share , um, information about

5:05

the shop, then of course you'll have to manage that as well.

5:09

Um, yeah, there's sales taxes

5:11

and there's, you know, the different

5:13

payment processing stuff that

5:16

you need to do, and yet

5:18

that's also a pain. But

5:22

all of these things are

5:24

things that you will , you can do in

5:26

like an hour a day or

5:29

an hour and a half a day if you

5:31

just chip away at them and it doesn't even have to be

5:33

a whole 90 minutes back to back . You could do like,

5:35

I'll do 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes

5:37

in the afternoon if I need a little extra time, I'll

5:39

do it after we close, whatever. These

5:41

are the sorts of things that you'll do , um,

5:44

you know, during that lull in the afternoon when

5:47

no customers come in for example, or

5:49

early in the morning before the shop is open, however

5:52

you organize your day. All

5:55

right , all that, all that admin

5:57

stuff is outta the way. Now we can

5:59

talk about the fun parts of running

6:02

an herb shop or a tea bar or

6:04

both. Um, and

6:06

those fun parts are community

6:09

building. Now, this

6:11

is going to be like really

6:13

nourishing to you if you're

6:16

an extroverted kind of person who really

6:19

like , um, is fed

6:21

energetically by talking

6:23

to people, especially about things that you're passionate

6:26

about. If you are more

6:28

on the introverted side, this part might be

6:30

a little challenging for you. But

6:33

making friends with all

6:35

of your customers is really

6:37

important because this

6:41

is the way that, that , like,

6:43

this is your market research. This

6:45

is how you know what you should stock.

6:47

This is how you know what direction

6:49

you should be moving in with your, the

6:52

stuff that you're putting in for sale in

6:54

the store, or

6:56

how you're gonna know, oh, maybe it is time to add

6:58

a tea bar to my herb shop or whatever

7:00

else. Some other kind of products

7:03

that you don't carry that, that now

7:05

you're starting to hear a lot of chatter

7:07

about and you're thinking, oh, maybe I should look into that. Making

7:10

friends with your customers is

7:12

how you are going to know all

7:14

that stuff. Plus making

7:17

friends with your customers makes loyal customers,

7:19

right? So chatting with them, plus

7:21

they're gonna have questions and you're gonna answer their

7:23

questions and they're going to

7:26

want your opinion about things and all that

7:28

other stuff, all that chit

7:31

chat , I think

7:33

probably that takes up the most of

7:36

your day. And so if

7:38

you're a person who really enjoys the administrivia,

7:41

the all of the details, and

7:44

you find that chatting with people

7:47

makes you feel like you're being distracted from

7:49

the real work , um, that

7:52

doesn't mean that you can't run an herb shop . It just means

7:54

that maybe you need to hire a

7:57

person who loves to be really

7:59

chatty, knows a lot about herbs, and

8:02

can do that, that community chat

8:04

kind of work. And you can do

8:06

the administrative kind of work. On

8:09

the flip side, if you are the

8:11

person who loves chatting with your community,

8:14

then this part of the job is gonna be the fun part

8:16

for you. You might actually wanna hire

8:18

somebody to do that administrative stuff, and

8:21

in the beginning you should probably do it yourself just

8:23

so that you really have your head in all parts of

8:25

your business. But as you grow, that's

8:28

a reasonable thing to hire somebody to

8:30

do. Um, and

8:33

also it's a little bit easier to hire

8:35

somebody to do that administrative kind of work because

8:38

it doesn't require as much specialized knowledge

8:40

about herbalism. Um, lots

8:43

of people have a lot of knowledge about spreadsheets

8:45

and ordering and inventory and stuff like that because

8:48

it's kind of the same or very

8:50

similar regardless of what the products

8:52

are. But the community

8:55

communication, the the relationship

8:58

building with your customers, that is also

9:00

going to, that's not just gonna require like enjoying

9:02

talking with people, but it is also going

9:04

to require , um, herbal knowledge

9:07

to be able to do that. Also,

9:10

some other fun things will be , um,

9:13

this aspect of interior design.

9:16

Um, and like artistic display , uh,

9:19

an herb shop . If you think

9:21

about like what an herb shop should be

9:24

in your mind, maybe you

9:26

are envisioning something.

9:29

I mean, I can just think of different herb shops I've been in.

9:31

There's one in Cambridge that has an

9:33

almost Scandinavian like feel

9:35

in its decor. Um, it's

9:38

very light. The wood

9:40

is all very like blonde , pale

9:43

colored wood. Um, and

9:46

that the whole store is also

9:49

very bright. Um,

9:51

none of the shelves are too high, which

9:54

allows light to really move

9:56

throughout the store really well. Um,

9:59

and everything has a very modern

10:01

feel, even though of course the products being

10:03

displayed are often very traditional.

10:06

The building has a very like

10:08

clean, modern kind of look. Um,

10:12

there was this really great

10:14

herb shop in central Vermont where

10:17

I used to live , um, and

10:21

it was called Mug Wart , and

10:25

I can't remember the name. It's, it's not there anymore.

10:27

We always just called it mug warts, but

10:29

it was mug and something. And

10:33

um, that shop was

10:36

like, all the walls were painted

10:38

really dark forest green, all

10:40

the wood was like dark walnut, you

10:43

know, deep tones of wood. Um,

10:47

and in addition to herbal products,

10:49

there were also a lot of

10:51

like handcrafted

10:54

, um, kind of witchy things

10:57

that were really cool, like wreaths

10:59

and um, like

11:01

things that had a very natural appearance

11:04

in their, in their

11:07

artistic design. Like things for your

11:09

home that, that are pretty, and

11:11

also kind of on the theme of herbalism or

11:14

in the metaphysical kind of theme. And

11:17

the person who designed that,

11:20

that shop was

11:22

really like, really had

11:24

an artistic flair, did a beautiful,

11:26

beautiful job. Um,

11:29

and so you can think about what

11:31

do you want your shop to look

11:33

like? Part of running

11:36

an herb shop is making

11:38

it a destination that people want to

11:40

go to any , you can buy

11:43

anything online these days. And

11:45

so if you're gonna have an actual physical

11:47

shop, then there needs to be

11:49

a reason for people to go there. And

11:51

that reason is that

11:54

it looks cool. Maybe it has

11:56

a certain scent when you

11:58

walk in, like the smell of the herbs.

12:01

Um , maybe there is a certain kind of

12:03

music playing, maybe there is whatever,

12:05

like it , there is a vibe and people like

12:07

it. Um, and

12:10

so part of your job if

12:12

you run an herb shop , is creating that

12:15

vibe, like thinking

12:17

about how it's gonna

12:19

look and how it's gonna make

12:21

people feel because of how

12:23

it looks. And unlike all the sense , sense

12:27

stimulus, you know , all the visual aspects

12:30

, the things that you can hear, the

12:32

things that you can smell, the things that you can touch, all

12:34

those aspects of the design. So

12:37

if you love artistic display,

12:39

if you love interior design,

12:42

if you just are super artsy, this is gonna be like

12:44

a very fun part of the job for you. Um,

12:48

and that none of that really has

12:50

to cost a ton of money. Um,

12:53

you know, paint costs, what it costs. But

12:55

then after that you can thrift

12:58

your, your display shelves. You

13:01

often can get them , um,

13:03

like at auction or secondhand from

13:05

other shops. You can build

13:07

them, you can like,

13:10

you can get Ikea shelves to display

13:12

everything in . There are a

13:14

million Instagram accounts that show

13:16

like sort of , um, home

13:19

design and set up and a lot of

13:21

that you can use for ideas for your herbs

13:23

shop too. And they show you all kinds

13:25

of cool tricks about how to build

13:28

a cabinet using like

13:30

cheap, easy materials. And even

13:33

if you don't know how to use power tools, they

13:35

, um, there's so many resources

13:37

for interior design to

13:40

show you how to do that. And doing the

13:42

build out yourself is gonna save you a

13:44

lot of money , um, if you don't

13:46

have to hire people to come do that for you. So

13:49

, um, and also

13:52

it makes it yours in

13:54

general. In general, in business, I

13:56

always advocate for doing as much

13:59

yourself as possible just because that

14:01

way, like

14:03

when you run a small business, part

14:07

of what people are there for is the product,

14:09

whatever it is. But people are

14:11

also there for you. They're there for

14:14

your spirit, your energy, your

14:17

heart that infuses every part of your

14:19

business and that can't be replaced by

14:21

someone else. And so yes, you

14:24

can hire somebody to do the build out , but it's gotta be

14:26

your vision and it's gotta really

14:30

like reflect your energy in

14:32

that space or you can do it yourself and

14:35

then it not only reflects it, but it is it because it was your

14:37

hands that did it too, right? Either

14:39

way, a cool design is gonna be

14:41

important to get people coming back. Um,

14:46

now let's talk just for a little bit about this

14:49

combination idea. Um,

14:52

so a lot of times people who have

14:54

herb shops also expand

14:57

into a tea bar . Um, the

14:59

idea is now there are two reasons for people

15:02

to come to the shop. Um,

15:04

a lot of times they'll have like a library area

15:07

as well, so people might

15:09

be there drinking their cup of tea,

15:11

doing a little bit of herbal research, and then

15:14

making their purchase. Um , and

15:16

maybe the research that they're doing is gonna help them

15:18

decide what they want to purchase. Um

15:21

, a lot of herb shops

15:23

also have custom blend bars. So

15:26

they would have like a wall, a

15:28

wall of verbs like we have behind us here.

15:31

Um, and then

15:33

they will like either allow customers

15:35

to custom blend or they would have somebody

15:38

who would do the custom blending for the customer

15:40

, um, so that

15:42

a customer could come in with a formula and say,

15:44

oh, I wanna make , I wanna blend up

15:46

this formula, see what it's like. Can,

15:49

can we blend that up? Um, and

15:54

then that can also happen at the

15:56

tea bar too. You could custom blend a formula

15:58

and then make it as hot tea right

16:00

then and serve it to the person as well. So

16:03

there's a lot of different ideas here of

16:06

ways that you could play with it. If

16:08

you were coming from the other direction and

16:11

you wanted to start a t bar first, then

16:14

again, the idea here is we

16:17

want to create a space that people want to

16:19

be in, and we want

16:21

to have a reason for people to be there.

16:24

So yes, you're amazing, wonderful

16:26

tea , but also if you have a big library

16:29

of herbal books, yes, you

16:31

could also have a library of other things like

16:34

just cool fiction or literature or poetry or

16:36

whatever. Um, things for people to like

16:39

enjoy while they're there. Uh

16:41

, a big shelf full of different

16:43

games is also a great idea. Um,

16:46

the longer that people sit and play games, the

16:48

more tea that they're going to drink, right? Um,

16:51

so there's just lots of different ways

16:54

that this can go.

16:57

And I think that is one part of

16:59

the appeal. There are so many different

17:02

options if you have a

17:04

sort of physical space like this , um,

17:08

you can even host community events. And

17:11

that is gonna move me kind

17:13

of into the, the big

17:16

piece of advice I have for people

17:18

who are gonna run an herb shop . And

17:21

that is recognizing that

17:23

an herb shop is a community

17:25

center. You

17:28

might not think of it that way at first. You

17:30

might just be thinking, I wanna provide high quality

17:32

herbal products to my community. Or

17:35

you might be thinking , um, I

17:37

I just love the idea of spending

17:39

all my time in an herbs shop and I have

17:42

exactly the ideas of what it would look like, and

17:44

I think it would be cool and all the people would like it. Um,

17:47

you know, whatever all those ideas are.

17:51

But the central core

17:53

of the function of an herb

17:56

shop is community center. And

17:58

this is true in a way that no other store

18:01

really has. You can go

18:03

to a clothing store, you can go to a grocery store,

18:05

you can go to a, I

18:08

don't know , home furnishing

18:10

store, whatever. They're not community

18:12

centers. There are places where people go, they buy

18:14

a thing, they leave, they probably don't

18:17

know. The people at the checkout counter, they probably don't

18:19

know. Like they don't, it's just not

18:21

relevant to them . That's not true

18:23

in herbalism. Herbalism

18:27

inherently is a community activity.

18:31

Now, the community

18:33

may be spread out, some people may not see

18:36

each other very often, but

18:38

it has always been a community activity.

18:42

Herbalism is about helping people. It

18:44

is not just about helping yourself. It's

18:46

not just about like living all

18:49

by yourself on your homestead with no

18:51

one around you, and you're just gonna take care of yourself

18:53

with all those plants. No way. There's

18:55

too many plants, <laugh>, like you would, you

18:57

would have so many plants that after the first

18:59

year you would be like, well, I have to start

19:01

taking care of other people because I've got way too

19:04

many plants here, right? Um,

19:06

but that is, that is just the reality of herbalism.

19:09

It's, it is about community. It

19:11

is about building

19:14

connections, supporting the

19:16

health of the community, supporting the wellness of

19:18

the community, the growth of the community. And

19:21

that is true in the literal sense, like

19:23

with the , with a cold and sniffles

19:25

and scraped knees and all those things. It is true

19:28

in the sort of larger metaphorical

19:31

sense when we think about the health and

19:33

the strength and the growth of a community

19:36

as, as a large organism. So

19:39

when you are thinking about your herbs

19:41

shop , think of it intentionally

19:43

right from the beginning as a community

19:46

center, think

19:48

about every person who comes into

19:50

your shop as a member of

19:52

your community and that

19:55

you want to bring them to

19:57

your community. You want to make space for them

19:59

in the community, and you want them to feel

20:01

that there is space for them in the community.

20:05

And the cool thing about this is

20:08

that , um, like

20:11

two , two things are gonna be true here simultaneously.

20:14

The stronger that you can make that community

20:16

connection with each of your individual

20:19

customers, the stronger that

20:21

your business will be and

20:24

the stronger that your community will

20:26

be. Like, if your business

20:28

as an herb shop owner is strong, your

20:31

community will be strong because

20:35

they are the same thing. It is the care of community.

20:37

It is the strength of community,

20:39

is the connection of community that

20:42

you are actually building there. Okay?

20:45

So that is the first thing. The stronger you make

20:47

that connection, the stronger your business will be. But

20:49

also the people who are

20:51

your customers, the people who are coming in,

20:53

they crave that connection actually,

20:57

that like your customers are

20:59

herbalists at all stages of

21:01

their educational journey. And

21:05

like, it does not take very long, like

21:09

down the path of realizing

21:11

that you're really into herbs, that

21:14

you start seeking community. Like

21:16

you might get into it by yourself and be like, I don't know,

21:18

there's no herbalists around me. But really

21:21

fast people seek out community

21:24

just because that's what the plants, that's

21:26

what the plants are like, that's what herbalism is. It

21:28

is synonymous with community, okay? So

21:32

you wanna build that community connection for

21:34

the health of your business, for the health of your community.

21:36

And the people who are coming to you

21:39

also want you to build that community connection. They're

21:41

like ready made for it. They're

21:44

going to look to you as a guide, as

21:46

a peer, as a role model, as a

21:48

counselor, as a friend, on the path. They're

21:52

going to see in you all

21:56

of the things that they are trying to achieve, which

21:59

is pretty cool. Um,

22:02

sometimes there's some weight

22:04

to that. Like if you

22:06

are PMSing and you

22:08

are having a really terrible day and

22:11

some customer comes in and they really want

22:13

you to be a role model in that moment, and

22:15

you really want to just crawl underneath

22:18

a blanket and never be seen again

22:20

, okay? There

22:23

are challenges to being a community

22:25

leader, but

22:27

most of the time it

22:30

is exciting that people are going

22:32

to come in and want

22:34

to build some relationship with

22:36

you based on where they are in their

22:38

herbal journey and where you are in your herbal

22:41

journey. Um, and

22:43

every single time that you strengthen

22:46

those connections, even just a little bit,

22:49

you are strengthening the whole

22:51

community. So

22:53

it's, I mean, it's cool because

22:57

you, you run a business so

22:59

that you can feed yourself and pay

23:01

your mortgage and you know, all those kinds of things. But

23:04

it's pretty amazing to run a business that like

23:07

is literally growing community

23:10

as you also sustain and

23:12

support yourself. That's

23:14

cool. Now, maybe

23:16

this is news to you. Maybe this is the first

23:18

time that you're thinking about an herb shop

23:21

in these terms, or

23:24

maybe this is actually what brought

23:26

you to the work, right? Maybe it is

23:28

exactly this that made

23:30

you want to pursue having

23:32

an herbs shop . Either way,

23:36

the reality of of

23:38

being a community center, a community

23:40

hub is gonna give you a lot

23:42

of direction in terms of the kind of education

23:45

that you'll need. Um, and even

23:47

in terms of how you literally set

23:49

up your shop, if you

23:51

are thinking about your space physically

23:54

as a community center and not just as

23:56

a store, then like

23:59

the arrangement of shelves and

24:02

chairs and I mean, you will have chairs,

24:05

right? Like a lot of , a lot of stores do not

24:07

have chairs or like just a , a seating

24:09

area. Whereas you

24:12

could think of like a, if you've ever been to a

24:14

yarn shop, they often have

24:16

a couple of couches for people to just sit around and

24:19

knit. Um, yarn shops are community

24:21

centers . And so if

24:23

you're thinking in those terms, when you're thinking about how

24:26

you're gonna lay out your space, yes,

24:28

you're gonna need space to display all your products

24:30

and you're gonna need some community space

24:32

as well, space for people to sit down, look

24:34

at a book, do a thing, talk to each other, talk

24:37

to you, you know, whatever. Okay?

24:40

So this, this concept of

24:42

a community center is going to guide your

24:45

education. It's going to guide your physical

24:47

setup in space. It's going to guide the products

24:49

that you sell. It's going to guide

24:52

the events that you plan at your

24:54

space as well. Um,

24:56

but so for now, let's talk about what

24:58

are you gonna need to know? What education are

25:01

you gonna need to know to do this job? Obviously

25:04

you're gonna need to know some herbs and

25:06

you're gonna need to know some product making . Now,

25:09

some people who run an herb shop do make

25:12

their own product line that they sell in

25:14

the shop. That's fantastic. Some

25:16

people don't do that. Some people

25:20

build the shop and they carry other

25:22

people's products. Both are

25:24

completely valid models. Some

25:26

people move back and forth between the two models.

25:29

Some people do a little bit of both. They

25:31

carry other people's products and they make a few

25:33

of their own products as well . So

25:36

there's no like one right way to do that. You

25:38

just pick what feels good and comfortable to you. Um,

25:42

but okay, you'll need to know, you'll

25:44

need to know the herbs. You'll need to know the products. Even

25:47

if you aren't making the products, you still need to

25:49

know what all the products are and

25:52

how they are made and what

25:54

the benefits are of one over

25:56

another because that will help you choose what you

25:59

wanna stock in your store. That's

26:02

not gonna be enough though. You're also

26:04

gonna need to know, like really

26:07

solidly the community level of

26:09

herbalism. So you'll have to be very

26:11

solid at that sort of intermediate work.

26:16

Um, and, and that's

26:18

because as a community leader,

26:20

people are gonna in and they're gonna ask you questions.

26:22

They're gonna tell you things and they're

26:25

gonna kind of expect you to know how

26:28

to, how to do things with the products that

26:30

you have. Now, there's

26:34

a little bit of GMP

26:37

and FTC trickiness there.

26:40

What you can say in

26:43

person to a person who is asking you a

26:45

question in your shop has

26:48

a little wiggle room, but what you

26:50

can say on a website or in print

26:52

, um, or like

26:55

in an advertisement ha

26:57

, that has to be compliant

26:59

with GMP and FTC

27:02

regulations. Um, because in

27:04

the end you are a product seller. Even if you didn't

27:06

make the products, even if you are wholesaling,

27:08

like reselling products that you have wholesaled

27:11

, um, you

27:13

still are required in

27:15

those regulations to be , um,

27:18

totally compliant. Wow, I really

27:20

don't like the word compliant, but it is, it's

27:23

the right word here. Um, so,

27:26

okay, so in all of your online

27:30

presence and any printed presence,

27:33

you are going to meet those regulations

27:35

100%. But

27:38

people are just gonna ask you, do you like this

27:40

one or that one? Do you like I

27:43

tend to run dry. Should I choose this one or that

27:45

one? I , um, I,

27:48

I don't like ginger, but I have a

27:50

lot of nausea. Is there something else I could get

27:52

instead? You know, like all these kinds of questions that

27:56

are just gonna help people know what they

27:58

wanna purchase, you're

28:01

gonna need to know answers for that. So

28:03

you really, being solid with

28:06

community level herbalism is

28:08

gonna be really important. Um,

28:11

also it will be important for you to

28:14

be very solid on

28:16

herb drug interactions and herb safety

28:19

because people will have questions

28:21

about this. Most people today

28:23

are taking at least one medication

28:26

and they don't necessarily know if

28:29

it's safe to try this herb or

28:31

that herb or whatever. And so they

28:34

will ask. So it's really important

28:36

for you to , to feel very comfortable,

28:38

very solid in answering those kinds

28:41

of questions. Now, I

28:43

talked about the GMP and the FTC

28:45

guidelines in terms of your online presence

28:47

and in terms of , um,

28:50

your printed materials. That's, that

28:52

is gonna include your labels. So if you

28:54

create any of the products that you sell, then

28:57

the labels that you make also have

28:59

to be GMP and FTC

29:01

compliant. If you have

29:04

a T bar . In addition, there

29:06

will be a few extra things through the

29:08

FDA that you will also need to be solid

29:11

on. You'll need to have a , a

29:13

food serving , um, certification.

29:16

You will need to have some extra inspections

29:18

because you will be serving prepared

29:20

foods, even if it's just tea. If

29:23

you, you , you know the story if

29:25

you give a mouse a cookie, right? And then he is

29:28

the story, it's a children's book and then mouse

29:30

keeps wanting more things to go along with the

29:32

cookie, right? Okay, well if

29:34

you have a tea bar , you're gonna want some snacks to

29:36

go with it, right? <laugh> , then that

29:39

kind of goes down the line. So , so there

29:41

will be a few extra things if you do

29:43

that, that you will need to , uh,

29:46

also know about , um,

29:49

with regard to food service, that's

29:52

fine. It's not super challenging, you

29:54

just gotta do the steps. That's

29:56

true of the GMP and the FTC

29:58

stuff too. People feel intimidated by it.

30:00

It's actually not challenging.

30:03

You just have to do all the steps. Um,

30:06

so okay, we do all the steps, that's fine. And

30:09

then regardless of exactly how

30:12

your particular shop is going to look , um,

30:16

you are going to need all of the marketing,

30:19

all of the , um, you

30:22

know, newsletter, word of mouth kind of

30:24

stuff. Also the networking and

30:26

the community building skills to run a

30:29

community center, right? A, a

30:31

shop that is so much more than a shop all.

30:35

All right , so then if you are studying with us,

30:37

let's talk about the courses that you're gonna

30:39

need to get all of that education.

30:42

The first thing is the Herbal Business program. That

30:45

is going to give you all of the

30:47

marketing, all of the GMP,

30:49

the FTC, all of the newsletters,

30:51

all of the basically everything

30:53

that you're gonna need to get

30:55

this shop up and running and to

30:58

be successful in the community building. So

31:01

that'll get all of your business knowledge

31:03

taken care of, but you're also gonna need the

31:05

herbal knowledge. So for an herb,

31:07

for an herbs shop or a T bar or a Combined

31:10

Herbs Shop t bar , that's gonna be the Family

31:12

Herbalist program, the

31:14

Community herbalist program. Together,

31:16

those are gonna give you all the herbs,

31:19

all the products and how to make them all

31:22

of the community level sort

31:24

of intermediate, moving

31:26

towards advanced even , uh, work

31:29

that will help you support your community

31:31

and answer all of the questions that come

31:33

in the door. You are never gonna have to worry about

31:35

like, Hmm , I hope they don't ask me anything too hard.

31:38

'cause you'll know it all already. You

31:40

are also gonna want the Herb

31:43

Drug Interactions and Herb Safety course

31:45

that's really gonna get you very, very

31:48

comfortable with all of the

31:50

drug interactions that you're gonna need to worry

31:53

about, including, it's

31:55

gonna help you learn how to research

31:58

into the future so that when new drugs come

32:00

out that haven't been invented yet,

32:03

you are gonna feel very comfortable knowing how

32:05

to figure out is this gonna cause

32:07

an interaction with this herb or not.

32:10

And then of course, all of our courses are

32:13

updated regularly. So

32:15

as new drugs are invented, don't worry. There'll

32:18

be new , new material in the Herb Drug Interaction

32:20

Course and in all of our courses, whenever

32:22

we add updates, you get all the updates

32:24

for free automatically in your account. So

32:26

you don't even have to think about it, it's just gonna be there

32:28

for you magically. Cool. And

32:32

then a few other things that you're gonna wanna know

32:34

that , uh, we won't teach you , um,

32:37

because they're , they're personal for

32:39

you. Um, going back to that artistic

32:42

side of things. Now, believe

32:44

it or not, this is one of those places where

32:46

social media really can help

32:48

you. And I would say if you

32:50

don't have a shop yet and

32:52

you're just dreaming, or if you do have a

32:55

shop but you want to redecorate, it could be

32:57

either one of those. This

32:59

is the only time I think I will ever say

33:01

this. You will probably never hear me say this

33:03

again, but just this one time. Schedule

33:07

yourself a little time every week to

33:09

scroll through Instagram, not Facebook,

33:11

not the other ones, Instagram specifically. Maybe

33:14

Pinterest. Also those, those

33:16

two. And specifically

33:18

be looking for pictures of interior

33:21

design that really speak

33:24

to you. And you can

33:26

put in search terms like Cottage

33:29

Core or Herb Cottage or Herb

33:32

Witch or what , whatever your

33:35

style is, you know, just

33:37

put in some words that are relevant

33:39

to that and then just scroll.

33:42

And every time that you find something that you like, take

33:44

a screenshot of it or save it so

33:46

that you can get back to it or like pin it to

33:49

your own Pinterest board or whatever. And

33:54

in the beginning you're just gonna look

33:56

at all those pictures, just save the stuff you

33:58

like. But then later come back and look

34:00

at the stuff that you have saved and

34:02

see if there are themes developing. If

34:05

you always tend to have

34:07

like a really modern, light,

34:10

airy picture saved,

34:13

right? All the pictures that just sort of have

34:15

that trend in them, okay?

34:18

That's telling you something about your

34:20

design style and how

34:22

you want to like bring

34:24

this shop into the world, right? Whereas

34:28

if you are always taking

34:30

pictures, like saving pictures of

34:32

like dark wood and

34:35

lots of plants with like vines hanging

34:37

down and you know that kind of aesthetic,

34:40

then great, that's telling you about how you

34:42

wanna show up in the world. And the cool thing about this

34:45

is that there's no like class

34:47

you have to take. You don't have to pay anybody

34:49

to help you develop your aesthetic. This

34:51

one, this one and only thing, <laugh>

34:53

, you can really just get the feel

34:56

for it , um, by scrolling

34:58

through Instagram and Pinterest. And then once

35:00

you've really like fully

35:03

saturated yourself in inspiration,

35:05

then you can start designing and thinking

35:07

about, okay, well I tend to like these things,

35:09

but now let's talk specifically about which color

35:12

it should be and you know, all that kind of stuff.

35:15

And so this is really the one and only time

35:17

that I will say schedule

35:19

some time to scroll because it is gonna help

35:21

you when it comes to the actual tangible

35:23

part of setting up your shop. So

35:27

there you go. That is everything

35:30

you need to get started thinking

35:32

through your herb shop . Maybe also

35:34

a tea bar if you have questions.

35:37

If you aren't really sure where to go, like,

35:39

oh , you're like, oh great, Katya , that was fantastic,

35:42

but I'm not really sure what to do next. Just

35:44

drop us an email. You can find [email protected].

35:48

You can email me directly at [email protected].

35:53

We're always happy to answer questions and

35:55

help you figure out what your next step is.

35:58

That's it for this episode of the Holistic

36:00

Herbalism Podcast. This show is

36:02

produced and edited by us, Rin and Katya

36:05

. If you like what you hear, check out

36:07

our online herbalism school. Our courses are

36:09

taught primarily by video lessons you can watch

36:11

at your own pace. Each has

36:13

an accompanying MP three so you can take your

36:15

learning on the go . There are PDF

36:18

files of quick guides and key information. Every

36:20

lesson has integrated discussion threads where

36:22

you can ask your questions and get a faculty response

36:25

within a day. Courses come

36:27

with access to a lively community space, kind

36:29

of like social media, but herbal and therefore

36:32

better. Plus access

36:34

to twice weekly live q and a sessions. And

36:37

all of this is yours for lifetime access.

36:39

There's no ticking time limit for

36:41

you to take in the material, so take

36:43

your time. You'll find everything we

36:45

[email protected] and wealth herbs.com.