This week’s episode of the Creating Superfans podcast is all about GIFTING! Strategic generosity is one of the most powerful ways to create a “wow” experience for a customer and elevate the emotional closeness of a relationship. It’s not just about the gift (literal or figurative) or its cost; it’s about the thought, effort, and time that went into it. At least it is when it’s done correctly.
I share my best practices and common mistakes to keep in mind as you search for the special gift, as well as some specific product ideas.
Don’t forget to download my new gifting guide here for over 75 gift ideas! I hope you find it helpful as you look for the perfect present to WOW your recipient and show them how much you care about them.
Listen to the Episode
Show Notes
3:26 – If it has your logo on it, it’s an AD, not a gift
5:10 – One of Brittany’s favorite gifts she received as a seven-year-old
6:10 – Another one of Brittany’s favorite gifts she got as a teenager
7:35 – A gift Brittany got a few weeks ago from a client that absolutely WOWed her
11:33 – Some great ways to honor your employees, courtesy of John Ruhlin
12:12 – Gifting does NOT have to be expensive. Sentimentality and thought can double the value of a gift.
13:20 – Don’t ignore 90% of the calendar
14:35 – Avoid these common gifting mistakes
16:10 – Unique gifts
17:38 – One of Brittany’s favorite gifts, a guest book
18:28 – Closing gift idea for realtors
19:13 – More personalized gift ideas
22:05 – A cool way to make an impact with a special card
22:46 – A gift card, but elevated
24:45 – Love on the ones they love
25:57 – Highlight the recipient’s hobbies
27:57 – Make sure the gift you’re giving aligns with the relationship you have with them
28:27 – The most bizarre gift that Brittany received from a client that made her scratch her head
29:46 – All of the gifting websites that offer subscriptions to save you money
31:49 – Brittany’s snarky gift that she made on Zazzle to get back at a coworker
32:57 – Check out Brittany’s interview with David Wachs, CEO of Handwrytten
Download the Gifting Guide here.
Transcription
Brittany Hodak [00:00:02]:
Hello, and welcome to the Creating Super Fans podcast where you learn how to turn your customers and employees into superfans. I’m your host, Brittany Hodak, and I’m a speaker, author, and entrepreneur obsessed with all things customer experience. Here’s the thing. We’re living in an experienced economy right now, and regardless of the size or age of your company or even the products or services you’re selling, one thing’s for sure. If your customers aren’t telling their friends about you, you’re in trouble. If you wanna create super fans, being great is no longer good enough. You’ve got to be super. This is the show that teaches you how.
Brittany Hodak [00:00:47]:
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Creating Superfans podcast. In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about something that I get asked about a lot, and that’s gifting. Now this is always a hot topic, but it’s especially top of mind this time of year. I’m recording this episode on Cyber Monday. Obviously, so much focus and attention on gift giving and buying right now. This also happens to be just a few days before my 40th Hey. And people have been asking me, what do I want? What do I want? So gifting very much on the mind, and I’m thrilled to share this episode where Where I’m gonna tell you the top things not to do when you’re giving gifts, the things that you should be doing, and I’m going to give you more than a dozen ideas of gifts that are sure to delight your clients, your family members, your friends, your employees, anyone on your list. So if you want some major Santa Claus cred, listen to this episode.
Brittany Hodak [00:01:43]:
It’s gonna start right after a quick word from today’s sponsor. If you’re looking for a proven system to make more impact and income, I wanna highly recommend that you talk to my friends at Brand Builders Group. Brand builders group are the best in the world at helping people find their uniqueness and building on it to monetize their personal brands. Right now, Brand Builders Group is offering free brand strategy calls to everyone serious about taking their personal brands to the next level. Just visit freebrandcall.com/brittanyhodak to request your call. I’ve been a customer for 5 years, and I can tell you the team is absolutely incredible. You may have even heard cofounder Rory Vaden on a past episode of this podcast. They’ve created a system that really will help you get clear on the shortest path to grow your impact, your influence, and your income.
So go to freebrandcall.com/brittanyhodak today to schedule your free strategy session. Now if there’s 1 page in my book, Creating Super Fans, that has been the most controversial this year, It is page 143. I know that because I have had several people both in person and over the Internet, Like, come at me for page 143. And 143 simply says this. If it has your logo on it, it’s an ad, not a gift. Now this is from a chapter that’s all about gifting called you get what you give, And the point that I’m making is that there is a difference between swag and gifts. Oftentimes, we confuse the 2. We conflate them.
Brittany Hodak [00:03:26]:
We think they’re the same thing, but they’re not. Now you can create very nice swag for someone, but if it has your logo on it, don’t the fact that it is actually swag. It’s an ad. Now, like, if someone gave me a car with their ad on it. I might well drive it around, but I would be driving around an ad because a logo makes it an ad. It makes it swag. Swag can be useful, certainly, but in this episode, we’re not talking about swag. We’re talking about gifting because when something has your at or when something has your logo on it, not only does it become an ad, it becomes about you.
Brittany Hodak [00:04:05]:
You’re giving somebody something that is your brand. Gifting should be about the recipient, not about the company. So in this episode, I’m gonna give you not just some principles to follow for how to give great gifts, but also some ideas of gifts that you can do so that you can create a systematic heatable gifting strategies so that it doesn’t become a heavy lift. It doesn’t become something that you dread or that you feel really anxious about. They become something that you can truly automate or have someone on your team handle to know that you are crushing the gift giving game all the time regardless of whether it’s for your employees, for clients, or just people in your life that you love. Now, first up, I wanna ask you, what are some of the really great gifts you’ve gotten throughout your lifetime? Personally, professionally, Take a moment right now and think about a really great gift. In my book, I share a couple of examples of really great gifts that I received. One was from my grandmother.
Brittany Hodak [00:05:10]:
I was probably 7 years old, and I remember sitting at the Christmas tree and opening this box That was a big box. It was like the kind of box you would hide in when you were a little kid, and it was just every single art supply you could ever imagine. Construction paper and scissors and glitter and tape and markers and paint and glue and just, like, all of the things that I loved more than anything in the world. It was like she had gone down the aisle at Walmart and just, like, stuck out her hand and knocked everything off into a box. It was Amazing. And I played with that, like, all that stuff for months. Like, I remember thinking, am I gonna run out before next Christmas like I may have enough craft supplies to make it a whole year. Now that was an incredibly memorable gift because it spoke to my favorite thing in the world, which was being creative, and it was something that, you know, felt just Extremely extravagant.
Brittany Hodak [00:06:07]:
Like, I don’t know how much she spent, maybe 40, $50, you know, back in the, like, late eighties, early nineties. Whatever it was, it was just it was incredible, and I’ll never forget that. Another great gift also that I write about in the book was courtesy of my high school boyfriend, Christian. Christian got me this giant teddy bear, and it was really cute. And I was like, oh, what a what a cute teddy. And then as I, like, looked Closer, there were dozens of gifts on that teddy bear. Like, he had gone and bought a cute hoodie and put the hoodie on the bear, but the hoodie was my size. And the hoodie the, bear was wearing one of those, like, backpacks that were so popular, in the late nineties where it was like a purse, but it looked like a little tiny backpack.
Brittany Hodak [00:06:52]:
It had one of those, and inside of it was, like, nail polish and jewelry and CDs, and the bear had a bracelet on, and the bear had, like, a cute little Brett in its hair, like, all of these things that he had bought and picked out and then, like, Put them on this teddy bear that he styled. It was, like, so much fun. Think about the best gift that you’ve ever received. There is a very high likelihood that much like those 2 gifts. There was a lot of thought behind it. It resonated because it connected to something unique about you. Now you don’t have to know a lot about your clients or their families to create these really awesome moments. Probably the best gift I’ve received this year came from a client of mine.
Brittany Hodak [00:07:35]:
Shout out to Clint and Hannah at Ruoff Mortgage. A few weeks ago, I did an event for Ruoff, and I mentioned that my sons were very excited about the fact that my hotel room was next to a minor league baseball stadium because I travel a lot. And one of the things that my boys always ask when I’m FaceTiming with them is to show what’s outside my window. They’re always like, mom, open your window. I wanna see where you’re at, and we talk a little bit about whatever state or city that I’m in. So outside of my window was this minor league ballpark, and the kids were asking all kinds of questions about, like, who the team was and, you know, Like, if they were in the the same division of any of the teams that we play, and I was like, guys, I don’t know. I got here at midnight last night. Like, I I just know that it’s a ballpark.
Brittany Hodak [00:08:17]:
So I’d mentioned this to Hannah the morning of my gig, and she said, oh, those are the 10 caps. That’s where, our local team plays, and our, mascot is Johnny Appleseed. And I was like, oh, that’s so fun. And she said, if you’ve got time, You can go get some merch for the boys. And I said, oh, you know what? I’m not, I’m not gonna have time because, I’m, like, leaving right after, right after I speak. So, anyway, I forget about it. A couple of days later, after the event, A box shows up from Hannah and Clint and the team at Ruoff, and it was an entire box filled with 10 caps merch. Hats, shirts, like, all these cute little things for the boys, which was an amazing gesture in and of itself.
Brittany Hodak [00:09:05]:
Right? But There was a note inside made out to Kadoh and Jones, my sons, saying, Kadoh and Jones, we heard that you like baseball. We hope one of these days you’ll get to come to Fort Wayne and see the 10 caps play. Did you know our mascot is Johnny Appleseed? A mascot’s job is to get everybody excited about the team. That’s kinda like what your mom does. Your mom came and got everyone on our team excited about creating super fans, and now we’re gonna have our best year ever in 2024. Thanks for letting us borrow your mom. We had such a great time. We hope to see you soon.
Brittany Hodak [00:09:42]:
Love your friends at Ruoff Mortgage. And I’m paraphrasing, though, because I don’t have it in front of me, but I feel like I have it memorized because of how many times I’ve told that story in the past couple of weeks. Now that is the way that you create a magical moment, whether it’s for your employee, whether it’s for a partner, a customer, by creating something that connects your story to theirs, by making someone a hero at home. I have had people send me very luxurious gifts this year. I I’ve been incredibly fortunate. I work with some of the most generous people in the world. I can’t think of a gift that I’ve received that meant as much as those shirts and hats and goodies for the team. Number 1, because they were for my kids.
Brittany Hodak [00:10:35]:
Number 2, Because it connected my story to the client’s story, in this case, Ruoff Mortgage story. So Think about the most impactful gifts that you’ve received, and think about the most impactful gifts that you’ve given. What are the gifts where someone has said, wow, that really made a difference or something that really stuck with them. What are some of these things that these gifts have in common? Well, Number 1, like I said, they connect your story to theirs. Look for ways to incorporate a customer or an employee or a friend’s interests or hobbies outside of the office. What are some things that you know about them that allow you to create a gift that’s going to elevate one of their hobbies? What do you know about their family members? What is it that you could get to make someone a hero at home just like that gift made me a hero at home? One of my dear friends, John Ruhlin, wrote a great book about gifting. It’s called Giftology. And in the book, he talks about some of the things that he’s done over the years that have been incredibly popular, Things like having not just an employee’s car detailed, but their spouse’s car detailed, paying for a cleaning service to make the home look amazing, to acknowledge perhaps extra time that someone’s spending at work, having food delivered or catered in For a family, again, as a nod to the fact that that person that they love gives so much of their time to your business.
Brittany Hodak [00:12:12]:
Now one thing that I think a lot of people get wrong about gifting is thinking that it has to be incredibly expensive or elaborate. And while certainly, you know, a nice, Luxurious gift is is fun from time to time. You don’t have to spend money to make an impact. In fact, a thoughtful letter or even an email is sometimes the very best way to show appreciation. I bet you can recall a time in your life when you receive a note from someone that completely changed not just your day, But maybe the trajectory of your entire week. Heck, maybe it changed the trajectory of your life. Sending a note to someone Doesn’t cost much at all. In fact, it takes almost none of your time.
Brittany Hodak [00:13:02]:
When’s the last time that you send a nice handwritten note to someone, letting them know that you appreciate them or recognizing something that they’ve done. Think about all of the ways that you can impact someone’s life without spending a lot of money. Now, obviously, You can recognize them on their birthday, on major holidays. But one mistake that a lot of people make around gifting is They only rely on the big holidays. Maybe you’re wishing somebody a happy Thanksgiving, a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, a Happy Hanukkah, all of these, you know, November, December, early January holidays that kind of blur together. And while it is nice to acknowledge people on your team, or in your sphere of influence around the holidays. There are also, like, 330 the other days of the year that you can acknowledge people. Reach out to them on their half birthday.
Brittany Hodak [00:13:59]:
Send them a Valentine and say how much you love getting to work with them. Send note on Saint Patrick’s Day saying how lucky you are to have them. You know, the list goes on and on and on. There are dozens, if not Hundreds of social media holidays, whether you like, you know, pizza or hamburgers or donuts or Doctor Pepper. There is a day for everything. I actually don’t know if there’s your pepper day, but there should be. If not, we’re gonna make that happen because I love Doctor Pepper, and I would love to celebrate an official Doctor Pepper Day. But think about all of the things that you can do to make someone feel the love.
Brittany Hodak [00:14:35]:
Now I’m gonna get into some very specific ideas and some of my favorite gifting tools. But first, I wanna cover some things that you shouldn’t do when you’re gifting. Number 1, I already covered it. Don’t, don’t, don’t put your company logo on a gift that you’re giving because you don’t want it to be about your company. You also don’t want somebody to receive something and feel like it’s transactional. Like, they’ve given you a gift, and they’re, expected to then, like, make a referral or spend more money with you. Never ever give a gift with expectations attached. A gift with expectation attached is a bribe, not a gift, so don’t do that.
Brittany Hodak [00:15:14]:
And then finally, one last thing, don’t give a gift if it’s going to create a lot of work for the recipient, unless you know it’s something that they will welcome because to them, it’s not work. So, like, you can get somebody a LEGO set if they love LEGO. Don’t get somebody something that has, like, 417 steps that’s, like, something that their kids see the picture of the box, and they’re like, oh my gosh. I’m gonna have this amazing new toy, and then they have to spend 4 hours assembling it. Don’t do something that creates a lot of work. If you wanna give somebody, like, a puzzle or Lego or something else that you know that they’re going to enjoy, great, but, otherwise, don’t send gifts that aren’t assembled. So with all of those, all of those best practices in mind, things that you should do, things that you shouldn’t do, let’s talk about some specific gift ideas. I’ve actually just put together a brand new free resource of super gifting ideas.
Brittany Hodak [00:16:10]:
You can download this right now at brittanyhodak.com/gifts It’s totally free, and the reason that I’m giving you this tool is because I want you to have ideas that are fun, that will wow your customers, your employee, your family members, and your teams. Now one of the things that I love is the idea of unique gifts, something that’s unlike anything, People are gonna have from anyone in the past and unlike anything that they would make on their own. So, for example, if you are to take a photo of someone and turn it into a custom flag for their front yard or a puzzle or a tea towel for them to hang in their kitchen or a beautiful piece of art for them to hang on their wall. That’s always away to win, thinking about a way to add uniqueness to a gift. Now, I’m gonna give you some rapid fire ideas that I think are really fun in the personalized gift ideas. One of my favorite personalized gifts, and I have gifted this to many people, is the idea of a personalized guest book. If you have people staying at your home, it’s such a fun thing to have those people write a note in your guest book When they say, I got this idea several years ago.
Brittany Hodak [00:17:38]:
My husband and I did, like, 10 days in Hawaii, and we were staying at an Airbnb. And there was a book Where everybody who had stayed there had written, like, tips and ideas and things they loved about the island going back, like, 25 years. Like, we were looking at these, books from the nineties where people were talking about celebrating their, you know, wedding anniversary history and all of these fun things. It was so cool to see, like, the history of not just that home, but, like, the island around the home. And so that’s where I have the idea for guest books. And now one of my go to gifts is getting it personalized, whether that’s, like, monograms or the address written on it, but a guest book and a nice pin for people to have so that anyone who stays with them can sign this book. This is a great book if you, are dealing with people who are are in a home. So maybe you’re a mortgage loan originator.
Brittany Hodak [00:18:29]:
Maybe you’re a title agent, maybe you’re a realtor. These are really great, like closing gifts. Another really fun gift that you can get that’s personalized are personalized doormats. I have one of these outside my house. I got it from Personalization Mall, And I got one that is, like it’s a big doormat, and then it has a, like, base under it so I can actually change out the mat. So I’ve now printed seasonal ones of my family. So I’ve got, the idea initially was that I would, like, have four, and I would rotate them out 4 times a year. But now I think I’m gonna just, like, keep making new wins perpetually because my kiddos are still so young that, like, Last year’s Christmas picture, I love it, but now I’m like, oh, I want a new one with this year’s Christmas picture.
Brittany Hodak [00:19:13]:
So not probably, like, the most eco friendly the way that I’m doing it, but personalized doormats are so fun so that you can have a welcome mat that has your family’s picture on it. Another really fun one, especially if you’re giving a gift to people with kids, you can make personalized connect 4 games. They’re so much fun. Like, you can have it have the name of the family. So all of the kids, in the family or something fun about that family can actually be carved into the Connect 4 game. Such a fun, thoughtful gift. If you know somebody is into games, you can customize just about anything. They have custom pickleball paddles, custom picnic sets, anything that you want for the kitchen so so easy.
Brittany Hodak [00:20:02]:
Now, another thing that I like to do when it comes to customization is customizing common gifts. So you can take something that’s, like, pretty common and make it extra special with a dash of personalization. So let’s say you have somebody who loves plants. You can get an ordinary planner and really up level it with customization, whether that’s, like, a vinyl label that you make yourself or one that you order from Etsy or a vendor. You can really elevate that planner, and then it becomes the centerpiece of your gift. So maybe you have the planner, but you also give people, like a Home Depot gift card or a set of new gardening gloves or gardening tools or an apron, like putting together custom gifts around one personalized thing. Speaking of personalization, did you know you can create personalized wrapping paper? I didn’t, but I do now, and I cannot wait to order to wrap all of my kids’ Christmas gifts in. Like, I cannot wait to see their little faces on Christmas morning when they open gifts wrapped in pictures of themselves.
Brittany Hodak [00:21:10]:
Personalized candles are another great gift. You can order them on the Yankee Candle website plus a lot of other, like, personalization mall type website websites. You can make a personalized video box filled with chocolate or other treats so that when the recipient opens it, they see a video of you playing with whatever message you choose while they enjoy their delicious chocolates. If you like the idea of a personalized video but you don’t wanna spend quite so much, Another thing that I’ve been doing a lot recently, Hallmark has a new line of cards with a QR code inside. So it’s like a thank you card that you send, but the recipient can scan a QR code and watch a video from you. And you can also pass the link around. So if you have, like a bunch of people in the office who all wanna record, like, a quick video greeting. You can make a custom video greeting with lots of different participants sharing photos or videos.
Brittany Hodak [00:22:05]:
It’s a lot of fun, and you can find the cards, like, everywhere Hallmark cards are sold. So at your grocery store or the Hallmark store in the mall, That’s a really great way to send a personalized video that’s really inexpensive. Now let’s say that you need a gift, like, right now, a last minute gift. You wanna do something special, but you don’t wanna give a gift card because a lot of times when you give somebody a gift card. It says, I really don’t know that much about you, or I’m just doing this to, like, check the box because I’m supposed to give you something. Right? Like, oh, I forgot it was teacher appreciation day. Like, here’s a gift card. So we wanna avoid gift cards when we can.
Brittany Hodak [00:22:46]:
So what are the things that we can do instead, or what are some of the things that, while they might fall into that gift card category, feel a little more personal? Well, one is that you can make a donation to someone’s favorite charity on their behalf. That’s a great way to show them that you’re thinking about them and also that you’re doing a little bit of good in the world by paying it forward. Another thing you can do, instead of just a, you know, plain gift card that they can use anywhere, treat them to a professional card detailing or cleaning service. If they have a pet, maybe you can get them a package for their favorite doggy daycare or a groomer. Now as a parent, I know that I am constantly spending money on things for my kids. What about getting a gift card to a family activity place, whether it’s like a Dave and Buster’s or a trampoline jump park or some other place that the family can do something together. You can also pair up gift cards to make them seem more like a I’m curating an experience for you and not just like a last minute thrown together. So let’s say, dinner and a movie.
Brittany Hodak [00:23:53]:
You could get somebody a gift card to a theater and also to a restaurant. And, yes, that’s still a gift card, But it’s much more personal seeming to get somebody a gift card to a restaurant they’re going to enjoy in a movie theater than just giving them, like, a $100 gift card to to AmEx or a $100 or to to Amazon or a $100 AmEx gift card. When in doubt, think about the things that you know about somebody. What have they said? What have you what have you observed them doing? Like, do you know that they love coffee? Do you know that they love breakfast? Do you know that they love playing games? What are the things that you can do to make a gift card feel a little more personal, even if that’s the only route you can go at the last minute. Now here’s another idea. We’ve talked about this a little bit already. Love on the people they love. Love on the people that they love.
Brittany Hodak [00:24:45]:
Now this could mean putting together a cooking class opportunity. This could mean a wine tasting trip. This could mean talk tickets to a Comedy show or a concert. This could mean creating a family road trip basket ahead of a holiday and giving people, you know, easy Games to play and art supplies and knickknacks that are gonna keep people, busy in the car. Also, think about some of the things that you can do to show that you’re thinking of everyone in the family. So can you get them, like, matching pajamas? Can you create, like, a, s’mores gift where you’re giving them either, like, a fire pit or some other smaller thing for them to put the fire in and then engraved, there’s probably a technical name for it, but, like, marshmallow holders, like, the the sticks that you roast marshmallows on, things like that along with chocolate and graham crackers. Like, what are the things that you can do that get the entire family involved into book. Now we talked about this again a little bit before, but another gifting grand slam is to highlight their hobbies.
Brittany Hodak [00:25:57]:
What do you know about someone that can allow you to come up with a really, really cool gift? Maybe they love to grill. You can get them a personalized grill set. Maybe they love to travel to national parks. Did you know you can get personalized national park posters or you scratch off every time you go to a national park. They’re really, really cool. Maybe they love to write. Think think about all the great gifts that you can get for writers. And if you don’t know that much about them, if you’re like, ugh, like, I just don’t know this person that well, Think about some of the things that just make life easier in general that you can get.
Brittany Hodak [00:26:38]:
Like, Can you get someone a nice coffee maker or cocktail maker or iced tea maker? Can you upgrade their luggage? Can you get them, like, charging valets for their house? I have a theory that there would be fewer divorces in America if people had more charging stations for their devices. I think a lot of arguments with We’ll start over, like, whose turn it is to charge their Apple Watch or their phone or their AirPods. So think about some of the things like that that are pretty much universal. And then finally, think about just, like, fun things that you would love to have but you would never buy yourself. Because I’m recording this on Cyber Monday, I’ve been getting all of the crazy emails just like everybody else this week. And something that I’ve almost pulled the trigger on for myself and I Like, could not justify doing it, are the video camera bird feeders. Like, they look so cool, and they have ones where, there’s, like, AI in the camera, and it’ll tell you the bird. So it records the bird for you, and then it says, like, this is a blue jay or whatever.
Brittany Hodak [00:27:41]:
Like, they seem So cool. I’m not gonna buy 1 for myself, but, like, maybe at some point, I’ll get one of those as a gift. Think about those types of things that you’re like, I can’t really pull the trigger on this yet for me, but wouldn’t it make a great gift? Most importantly, when you’re thinking about the gifts that you’re giving, ask to yourself. Is this going to make someone feel appreciated? Is it going to bring them joy? And then is it in alignment with the relationship you have with them? You don’t want to, like, give somebody something that’s, like, so extravagant that they are uncomfortable. You also don’t want to give somebody something that, Like, is the other direction, right, where you’ve done, like, 1,000,000 of dollars of business and they send you, like, a key chain or something. So you wanna make sure that it feels right, and you also wanna make sure it’s relevant. I’ve gotten some really bizarre gifts in the past that while I appreciated the thought, I was kind of Scratching my head as to, like, why it was sent to me. Someone sent me a sword once, not that long ago, actually.
Brittany Hodak [00:28:38]:
And it turns out they send everyone a sword because they’re, like, really into swords. But, My thoughts were, like, a, I did not know you could send a sword via FedEx, so that was something I learned, and, b, This person knows I have 2 small kids, and they just sent me a literal sword to hide up top, in my the top of my closet and give it away to, like, My brother or someone the next time I see him to get it out of my house. So make sure that you’re thinking about the recipient, both your your relationship with them, and also, like, the life they have and what is relevant to them. Now I told you you can get my free gifting guide@brittneyhodak.com/gift. That’s brittneyhodak.com/gift. As part of that guide, you’ll get Literally, like, I think it’s close to a 100 ideas in here. We say 75 plus, but I think it’s, like, more than that, with links that can take you directly to the website of some of my favorite tools, and some of my favorite gifts to buy, but, also, I wanna share some resources with you. These are all things that I’ve used in my business that are super helpful.
Brittany Hodak [00:29:46]:
So one of my favorite things to do is subscribe to things that are going to save me money on shipping, so very much like Amazon Prime, but for gifting. So the 3 that I have subscription to that I, like, will probably forever have a subscription to. Number 1, it’s called the celebrations passport, and Celebration’s path support is 1 800 flowers, but it’s also a lot of other brands too. It’s Personalization Mall, which I’ve mentioned a couple of times. It’s Harry and David. It’s Popcorn Factory and, like, quite a few other brands too. They’ve got, like, a fruit delivery service. So celebrations passport, it’s, like, $20 a year.
Brittany Hodak [00:30:26]:
I think maybe they just raised the price to $25 a year. But you can ship for free to anyone from any of those sites, and you don’t have to pay a processing fee. So, literally, like, for what it costs to send flowers one time, You can send flowers to as many people as you want without a processing fee and without shipping for a whole year, so totally, totally worth it. Make sure you get the celebrations passport. Number 2, uncommon goods. Uncommon perks is what they call their, like, Amazon Prime model. Same thing. You get free shipping on all of your orders for an entire year for $20.
Brittany Hodak [00:31:03]:
After you do 2 or 3 orders, it’s gonna pay for itself. And if you’re not familiar with Uncommon Goods, I really, really love it. It’s like a cross between Etsy and Brookstone. There are some, like, very artistic things that are very, like, you know, bespoke by fine crafts spin craftspeople, but then there’s also, like, techy stuff and cool stuff. So Uncommon Goods .com is a great website, and uncommon perks is a great program. And then the third one that I love is Zazzle. So Zazzle is a website where you can buy licensed stuff, but also, like, make custom stuff. So if you wanted to put, like, a funny saying on, merchandise, you can do this.
Brittany Hodak [00:31:49]:
Fun story. I one time had, a coworker call my ideas vapid, which I thought was, You know, there were, like, a lot of levels to what I thought, but one of them was I thought it was hilarious because I was like, who uses the word vapid? And so I, being snarky, took the word vapid and designed it to look like our logo and then sent it, like, made shirts that said vapid to, like, Everybody on the senior management team and told them what a jerk this person was. And I did that on Zazzle. You can print a lot of things, and for $20 a year, you can get free shipping with Zazzle Plus. They also have a premium membership that’s $50 a year. So that’s a really great one, not just to be petty and, like, make silly things to send to colleagues, but also if you wanna buy, like, a sense thing and personalize it. So you can buy, like, a Snoopy thing and personalize it with somebody’s name or a Disney thing and personalize it with somebody’s name. Handwrytten.com.
Brittany Hodak [00:32:57]:
I interviewed their CEO in a previous episode. We’ll link it in a show notes, But they are a great website for sending handwritten cards at scale. You can actually upload your own handwriting so that the notes are written in your handwriting. But it’s all done, using using technology. Like, it’s like a pen writing it out, not printed. So that’s a great one as well. So I hope those gifting resources help you, and I hope that these gifting ideas have helped spark some ideas of things that you can do to recognize and love on the important people in your life, whether it’s your employees, whether it’s your customers, or whether it’s just friends and family members that you love and wanna say thank you to this holiday season. I would be remiss if I did not say That one other great gifting idea is my book, Creating Super Fans, How to Turn Your Customers Into Lifelong Advocates.
Brittany Hodak [00:33:53]:
It’s available in a beautiful full color hardcover edition, an audiobook that I narrate, and an ebook. It’s available everywhere books are sold, and it makes a great gift. Gosh darn it. Thank you so much for tuning in to this week’s episode of the Creating Super Fans podcast. I’ll be back next week with an all new episode filled with tips to help you turn more of your customers into super fans. Alright. That’s all the time we have for today’s episode of the Creating Super Fans podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in.
Brittany Hodak [00:34:27]:
Now remember, If you’re a super fan of today’s episode, you can help us out in a big way by leaving a review and a rating wherever you get your podcast. It may seem like a little thing, but it can make a huge difference in helping others discover the show. Now until next time, remember, super fandom is a two way street. Show your love for your customers and your always, and they’ll love you right back. We’ve got an exciting show lined up for next week, so I hope we’ll see you right back here. Bye
