Proof to Product
Katie Hunt
Ranked in the top 1% of ALL podcasts, the Proof to Product podcast is your trusted resource for sustainable business growth - especially if you make and sell physical products!
Join Katie Hunt, each week as she shares strategies & solutions to enhance your sales & marketing so that you’re building a business that supports your best life.
If you’ve ever asked yourself can I make money selling physical products? Am I ready to sell my products wholesale to stores like Target, Anthropologie, Nordstrom or Barnes & Noble? When should I consider hiring a sales team or sales reps? Can I really turn my passion into profits? Whether you’re a just starting out on your business journey or you’ve been at it a while growing an empire, this show is for you.
Proof to Product is like on-demand business school for product sellers spanning a wide range of industries. Whether you’re in home decor, apparel, beauty, food & beverage, hand-made items, jewelry, consumer gifts or the stationery world, you’ll gather new ideas each week to help you grow your profit, build your team and lead with integrity.
Host Katie Hunt and her guests bring you actionable ways to expand your product line, manufacturing overseas, optimize your e-commrce websites on Shopify, Faire, Etsy, Abound, Tundra, Squarespace or in brick & mortar locations. How to start or scale wholesale sales including pitching stores, wholesale outreach, trade show exhibition, working with sales reps, managing inventory, warehousing product, sales systems, wholesale follow-up strategies and working with key accounts. Marketing strategies for small businesses including content creation, leveraging tik tok and instagram tactics without feeling burned out, why you can’t rely solely on social media for sales and why email marketing systems on platforms like Klaviyo, Flodesk and Active Campaign are so powerful. Listen in as Katie and our guest experts help you strategize and tackle your biggest business goals.
Host Katie Hunt brings a unique perspective to entrepreneurship. Since 2011, she’s helped thousands of product brands get their products on the shelves of their favorite retail stores through her Paper Camp program (www.prooftoproduct.com/papercamp). Prior to that she worked in the corporate world for over a decade leading business development and marketing teams. She has two MBAs - one in finance and one in marketing. And, she owned & operated her own product based business for over 8 years, selling her products to stores throughout the world from her garage. Katie knows the struggles you face as a product based business and she’s here to pull back the curtain and share her best kept secrets so that you don’t have to learn things the hard way.
Find our free trainings & resources for product based business owners at www.prooftoproduct.com/resources
Join Katie Hunt, each week as she shares strategies & solutions to enhance your sales & marketing so that you’re building a business that supports your best life.
If you’ve ever asked yourself can I make money selling physical products? Am I ready to sell my products wholesale to stores like Target, Anthropologie, Nordstrom or Barnes & Noble? When should I consider hiring a sales team or sales reps? Can I really turn my passion into profits? Whether you’re a just starting out on your business journey or you’ve been at it a while growing an empire, this show is for you.
Proof to Product is like on-demand business school for product sellers spanning a wide range of industries. Whether you’re in home decor, apparel, beauty, food & beverage, hand-made items, jewelry, consumer gifts or the stationery world, you’ll gather new ideas each week to help you grow your profit, build your team and lead with integrity.
Host Katie Hunt and her guests bring you actionable ways to expand your product line, manufacturing overseas, optimize your e-commrce websites on Shopify, Faire, Etsy, Abound, Tundra, Squarespace or in brick & mortar locations. How to start or scale wholesale sales including pitching stores, wholesale outreach, trade show exhibition, working with sales reps, managing inventory, warehousing product, sales systems, wholesale follow-up strategies and working with key accounts. Marketing strategies for small businesses including content creation, leveraging tik tok and instagram tactics without feeling burned out, why you can’t rely solely on social media for sales and why email marketing systems on platforms like Klaviyo, Flodesk and Active Campaign are so powerful. Listen in as Katie and our guest experts help you strategize and tackle your biggest business goals.
Host Katie Hunt brings a unique perspective to entrepreneurship. Since 2011, she’s helped thousands of product brands get their products on the shelves of their favorite retail stores through her Paper Camp program (www.prooftoproduct.com/papercamp). Prior to that she worked in the corporate world for over a decade leading business development and marketing teams. She has two MBAs - one in finance and one in marketing. And, she owned & operated her own product based business for over 8 years, selling her products to stores throughout the world from her garage. Katie knows the struggles you face as a product based business and she’s here to pull back the curtain and share her best kept secrets so that you don’t have to learn things the hard way.
Find our free trainings & resources for product based business owners at www.prooftoproduct.com/resources
Episodes
Mentioned books
May 15, 2025 • 44min
395 | Navigating Profit Margins, Burnout, and Tariffs with Jessica Totillo Coster, eCommerce Badassery [Part 2]
We are back with part two of my conversation with Jessica Totillo Coster, covering the State of the Product Industry survey. You can listen to part 1 by heading to prooftoproduct.com/394. During part two of my interview with Jessica, we cover how product-based businesses are making money in their businesses, including the percentages of those that are selling wholesale vs retail vs licensing. We talk about how many revenue streams product business owners have, their gross revenue versus net revenue, what people are actually paying themselves, and the importance of paying yourself. Friends, if you are not paying yourself, you should. We have a podcast episode that helps you figure out how to start paying yourself. We also discuss Jessica and I's thoughts on burnout in the industry, just generally as a whole, but also how to handle balancing real-life struggles while running a business. I really appreciate Jessica taking the time to sit down with me to talk through this. She was a huge help as I was crunching the data and assessing the numbers. I do think this survey and the data will help all of us grow stronger businesses together. You can get the full results of the survey at prooftoproduct.com/2025survey. Today's episode is brought to you by our Is Wholesale Right for You private podcast! This free 12-part audio series will help you decide whether wholesale is a good next step for your specific business. After listening to this audio series (in less than an hour), two things will be true. You'll know whether you want to pursue wholesale for your product business, and you'll have the confidence and action steps to get started with wholesale. Sign up for the private podcast today! SIGN UP You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/395 Quick Links: Free Wholesale Audio Series Free Resources Library Free Email Marketing for Product Makers PTP LABS Paper Camp
May 13, 2025 • 35min
394 | How Product Business Owners Are Leveraging (and Missing Out On) Email Marketing with Jessica Totillo Coster, eCommerce Badassery [Part 1]
I’m loving all the feedback that we're getting about the State of the Product Industry survey. Last week, we released two podcast episodes. One was an overview of what the report was saying, what the different stats were, and then the second episode I covered 10 opportunities that all of you should be harnessing as we continue into 2025. Because we got such great feedback, we're going to keep this going. I asked Jessica Totillo Coster to come and analyze the survey data with me. Jessica has been on the podcast several times in the past (episode 195 & episode 319). If you're new to her, she's an e-commerce and email marketing strategist specifically for boutique owners and product entrepreneurs. She and I share a lot of the same values when it comes to building product brands, so I'm really happy that we were able to have this conversation and dissect some more of the survey data. If you want the full report, head to prooftoproduct.com/2025survey. We talked for a long time, so we had to split this into two parts. Today's episode is part one where we discuss the correlation between having a large number of skews to overall sales revenue, the shocking statistics of business owners who don't have their own website, Jessica's thoughts on how product based business owners are using or not using email marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy, and also why it's important to have your own email list, which email marketing platforms are best for product sellers. They drive the most revenue, and if you're not using email marketing, you need to be. Part two of our conversation will be up on Thursday this week, so tune in to that because we are diving into the financials of product-based businesses, and it's pretty fascinating. Today's episode is brought to you by our Is Wholesale Right for You private podcast! This free 12-part audio series will help you decide whether wholesale is a good next step for your specific business. After listening to this audio series (in less than an hour), two things will be true. You'll know whether you want to pursue wholesale for your product business, and you'll have the confidence and action steps to get started with wholesale. Sign up for the private podcast today! SIGN UP You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/394 Quick Links: Free Wholesale Audio Series Free Resources Library Free Email Marketing for Product Makers PTP LABS Paper Camp
May 8, 2025 • 18min
393 | 10 Opportunities for Product-Based Businesses: State of the Product Industry Survey with Katie Hunt
Explore the intriguing insights gathered from 400 product-based business owners about income, profits, and marketing strategies. Discover 10 key opportunities for growth in the industry, emphasizing the importance of community support and education. The conversation highlights financial milestones and profit margins as essential factors for success in entrepreneurship. Plus, learn about an exciting upcoming coffee chat with Emily Ley, sharing her experience in scaling her business!
May 6, 2025 • 29min
392 | Revenue, Teams, Tariffs, and Trends: The State of the Product Industry in 2025 with Katie Hunt
Discover the latest insights from a comprehensive survey on the product industry. Rising costs and tariff changes are reshaping how brands operate. Delve into trends impacting revenue and team dynamics, as well as shifting consumer behaviors. The discussion highlights the necessity for businesses to pivot and adapt strategies in this fast-evolving landscape. With key data and real-world examples, this conversation offers valuable guidance for navigating current challenges and seizing future opportunities.
Apr 29, 2025 • 24min
391 | Selling Your Excess Inventory with Melodie van der Baan, Max Retail
Do you have excess inventory that you have no idea how to move? On today's podcast, we have Melodie van der Baan, cofounder of Max Retail. It's a platform designed to help independent retailers and brands easily sell their excess inventory online. During our conversation, Melodie shares how she started out as a sales rep, and then how she owned her own retail store in Palm Beach and how the challenges she faced with unsold inventory inspired the creation of Max Retail. She shares how Max Retail integrates seamlessly with popular sales platforms like Shopify, Square, and Lightspeed, and the innovative ways that it gives new life to seasonal or aged inventory through a vast network of e-commerce channels. We also talk about the importance of inventory management, staying adaptable in uncertain markets, and why a strong partnership between brands and retailers is more crucial than ever. Today’s episode is brought to you by our Proof to Product LABS coaching program. This is a coaching program specifically built for product-based business owners, with members from across industries and across the globe. We have member-only events inside of LABS, so request your invitation to join below! REQUEST YOUR INVITATION You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/391 Quick Links: Free Wholesale Audio Series Free Resources Library Free Email Marketing for Product Makers PTP LABS Paper Camp
Apr 22, 2025 • 37min
390 | How Trump's Tariffs Are Affecting Small Business Owners with Emily Ley, Simplified®
Today's episode is an important and timely one. It is a conversation about resilience as small business owners and what we can do or how we navigate things when we are backed into a corner by forces outside of our control. Our guest this week is Emily Ley. She is the founder of Simplified®, a wildly successful brand of planners and organizational tools that many of you know and love. She also happens to be one of our Paper Camp alumni. You have seen Emily's products in Target, Walmart, Staples, and independent boutiques worldwide. But behind the scenes, like so many product-based business owners, Emily has been navigating massive shifts in things like the global supply chain, rising costs, and now devastating tariffs. Her company has paid more than $1,170,000 in tariffs since 2017. With the newly announced 150% tariffs as they stand as of recording this today. She is facing over $1,000,000 more in fees this year alone, and Emily is not staying quiet. Earlier this month, she filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump Administration, the first legal challenge to these unlawful tariffs, and she's doing it with the support of the New Civil Liberties Alliance. This is a huge moment, not just for her brand, Simplified®, but for every small business owner who relies on international manufacturing to keep their products on the shelves of stores and their teams paid. In this episode, Emily and I discuss her journey from launching Simplified® in 2008, to finding the right manufacturing partners and, ultimately, becoming an unlikely but powerful advocate in the fight against these trade policies. We also talk about the emotional toll that this takes, the behind-the-scenes fears and tough decisions, the support from her customers and community, and the risks that were involved in her taking a stand, again, not just for her business, but for all of ours. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to say that if you are a product-based business owner and you're listening today and you are feeling the weight of these new tariffs, you are not alone. Inside our LABS community, we have been having real, honest conversations about how to navigate this, everything from raising prices to pausing production to exploring new manufacturing options. If you need support or strategy, or just a sounding board from people who truly understand what you're going through, LABS is here to help. You can learn more at prooftoproduct.com/labs. You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/390 Quick Links: Free Wholesale Audio Series Free Resources Library Free Email Marketing for Product Makers PTP LABS Paper Camp
Apr 15, 2025 • 15min
389 | Communicating Price Increases to Your Retail and Wholesale Customers with Katie Hunt
With everything going on in the global economy right now, there have been a lot of discussions about price increases. It's been a hot topic in Paper Camp, in our LABS community, and even in my Advisory Board mastermind. People are asking about how to raise their prices, if they should raise their prices, and also how to communicate those price increases with your customers, whether you're selling retail or wholesale. And it's a great and valid question. I understand why people are asking it right now. So I'm bringing back an episode that we aired in 2022. It's called How to Communicate Price Increases with Your Customers, and this is honestly more relevant now than when I first aired this episode. With increasing tariffs and practically everything getting more expensive, a majority of you will need to increase your prices. I want your businesses to survive for the long haul. I want you to thrive. I want you to be building a profitable business that will continue for a long time. Understanding when it's time to raise your prices and how to do that is going to be a critical piece for you maintaining your business. I hope you find this episode helpful. Today’s episode is brought to you by our Proof to Product LABS coaching program. This is a coaching program specifically built for product-based business owners, with members from across industries and across the globe. We have member-only events inside of LABS, so request your invitation to join below! REQUEST YOUR INVITATION You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/389 Quick Links: Free Wholesale Audio Series Free Resources Library Free Email Marketing for Product Makers PTP LABS Paper Camp
Apr 8, 2025 • 31min
388 | Leveraging Funding to Expand Your Business with Zeba Parkar, Treleaf
Zeba Parkar, the founder of Treleaf, shares her journey in crafting stunning laser-cut trellises while navigating the complexities of business funding. She discusses the pros and cons of leveraging debt for growth, highlighting strategic ways to use loans and grants. Zeba emphasizes the balance between spontaneity and planning when expanding through trade shows, and offers insights on effective cash flow management. This engaging chat reveals the importance of understanding financing options and the power of responsible borrowing for entrepreneurs.
Apr 1, 2025 • 7min
387 | 2025 State of Product Industry Survey Now Accepting Submissions
It has been almost one year since we conducted our 2024 State of the Product Industry survey, and we are back doing it again. So from now until April 11, our 2025 State of the Product Industry Survey is open, and we wanna hear from you and all of your physical product-based business owner friends. You can head to prooftoproduct.com/2025survey to share your responses with us, and I encourage you to do it sooner than later and then help to spread the word. As a recap, in last year's survey, we found out a lot of information. We asked about annual revenue, take home pay, the revenue streams that people were utilizing, how much help people have within their business, tech tools that they use day in and day out, and so much more. Last year, we had 925 people respond, and this year, our goal is over 1,000 participants. We're going to dive into many of the same questions and topics that we tackled last year, and I want to do a year-over-year comparison of how things have shifted. We have also added new topics and questions based on some of your feedback, including how many people are full-time in their business or whether it's a side gig. We’re also asking whether the business is the primary source of revenue for the owner, how businesses are adjusting for tariffs and current economic conditions, whether sales are up or down compared to last year, plus future plans for sales, marketing, and operational strategies. Head to prooftoproduct.com/2025survey to take the 10-minute survey and please share with any other product-business owner friends! Quick Links: Free Wholesale Audio Series Free Resources Library Free Email Marketing for Product Makers PTP LABS Paper Camp
Mar 25, 2025 • 9min
386 | How Do I Align My Product Release Cycles with Wholesale Buying Seasons with Katie Hunt
When should I release new products to the wholesale market, and how do I align my release cycles with wholesale buying seasons? I get these questions and more about product release cycles all of the time. In fact, this has been a hot topic in this round of Paper Camp, our coaching program about wholesale. If our Paper Camp students are asking about release cycles, I know that many of you have similar questions too. So we're going to talk about wholesale release cycles today on the podcast. Before we dive in, if you missed this round of Paper Camp, I highly recommend that you join the waitlist for the next round, which will run later this year. You can get on that waitlist at prooftoproduct.com/papercamp. Paper Camp is our wholesale coaching program where we teach you our four-part framework for building a profitable and sustainable wholesale business. Over the course of four weeks, we will ensure that you have your wholesale foundations in place, and we'll tackle growth strategies for your product line, your sales tools, wholesale marketing, and even trade shows. Every week's lessons build upon the next, and we lay out clear milestones so that you know where to focus first, second, and third. Plus, we do weekly coaching calls, and you get to connect with other product creators in our class community. It's an incredible combination of coursework, coaching, and community that's truly built to help you thrive with wholesale. SIGN UP FOR THE WAITLIST You can view full show notes and more at http://prooftoproduct.com/386 Quick Links: Free Wholesale Audio Series Free Resources Library Free Email Marketing for Product Makers PTP LABS Paper Camp
