411 | How To Get Better At Selling Your Products In-Person with Karen Sawyer-Meehan, Pier Six Press

Sep 16, 2025

Join Karen Sawyer-Meehan, the creative mind behind Pier Six Press, a vibrant stationery brand, as she shares her insights on the art of in-person sales. With a background in retail, Karen offers tips on viewing sales as a service rather than a pushy tactic. She emphasizes greeting everyone, reading body language, and building lasting relationships at trade shows. Plus, discover how personal loss led her to embrace her bold artistic voice and authenticity, making her brand truly stand out.

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ADVICE

Greet People And Let Them Lead

Greet and engage people when selling in person to create connection and opportunity.
Read body language and let customers lead the conversation to avoid pressure.

INSIGHT

Selling Can Be Ethical

Ethical selling separates small makers from big-box pressure-driven retail.
You can sell from service and care instead of aggressive profit-first tactics.

ANECDOTE

A Small Interaction Reached Nordstrom Leadership

Karen described a retail interaction that reached Nordstrom leadership after a customer praised her service.
Treat everyone well because you never know who they know or where connections lead.

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Do you struggle with the idea of selling your products?

I am hearing from a lot of creative entrepreneurs who are telling me that they feel uncomfortable with in-person sales. They're worried about how they'll be perceived. They don't want to be seen as pushy or overbearing by their customers.

I'm hearing this with online sales too, but it's particularly heightened right now with in-person sales because we have a lot of people who have been doing summer craft shows and also in-person trade shows on the wholesale side of things.

I wanted to bring today's guest on to talk about sales in person and how you can push through some of these feelings of discomfort and show people what you've got and why they need to buy it.

Today's guest is Karen Sawyer-Meehan, Pier Six Press, which is a stationery and gift brand known for its bold design, vibrant colors, and high-quality craftsmanship. Now, Karen is one of my Advisory Board members. Advisory Board is my private mastermind, and this is a topic that she and I were chatting about privately on our Voxer chat, which is where folks talk to me one-on-one.

We were talking about how this would make a great podcast episode and how Karen had a lot of great insights to share with you all.

During this episode, Karen shares her journey from art school and retail sales, building a brand that stands out, to embracing empathy, bold colors, and authenticity, and the handmade artistry behind her brand.

She shares her real, honest take on ethical selling, why genuine connections matter more than ever in retail, and how learning to trust your own unique artistic voice, and how that has transformed both her business and her confidence.

If you have been struggling with feeling salesy, finding your creative style, or wondering how to connect your values with the products that you're selling, this episode is for you.

Today's episode is brought to you by our Proof to Product resource library. It's where you can get your hands on our free resources to help you start, streamline and scale your business in your own way and at your own pace.

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