From Punchline to Powerhouse: Heather Zeitzwolfe Turned Her Swatch Store Around Part 2

Anytime you get to talk to Heather, you have fun, for real!
Joins us as we discuss life lessons in business and how to make lemonade out of lemons! (and how she turned the worst store into one of the best stores!)

She's a great story teller and has a great sense of humor about herself and life!
She never shoves her vegan lifestyle down your face. She's always gracious and happy to answer any and all questions....

Heather Zeitzwolfe: Savvy Frugal Vegan 

"Compassion starts on our plates because we are what we eat."

Heather is a passionate speaker and advocate dedicated to helping people transition into veganism and adopt a plant-based diet. Her mission is to challenge the status quo and encourage others to think differently, particularly regarding veganism and ethical living. Heather guides people toward embracing the benefits of veganism and provides the tools needed to maintain a cruelty-free lifestyle.  She is dedicated to animal rights, equality, and justice, inspiring others to make compassionate choices.

Heather is a GenX'r, nerd, doll collector, film geek, cat mom, entrepreneur, AI enthusiast, content creator, Tofu Wizard, and podcaster. She lives each day, sharing laughter and positive energy.

Heather Zeitzwolfe, the Savvy Frugal Vegan, empowers individuals and entrepreneurs to embrace a compassionate, plant-based lifestyle through in-person and virtual coaching, workshops, retreats, and events. A dynamic speaker, activist, and YouTuber, Heather’s mission is to support one million people in adopting and maintaining a healthy, affordable, plant-based diet. She challenges the status quo, encouraging others to rethink their diet, ethics, and environmental impact, all while making vegan living fun, accessible, delicious, and impactful. 

LINKS: 

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@SavvyFrugalVegan

Website: https://www.savvyfrugalvegan.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/savvyfrugalvegan/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SavvyFrugalVegan

It’s a Plant Based Party (Sign up to be on the live panel):  REGISTER for the event to get the participation link. (You can register for future shows as well - see all the dates when you sign up) https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcvce2ppzgvHdODn3Z8gbdsSajuQibA02Ea

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Transcript

0:06

I'm just so happy to have you. So hi everybody. My name is Elaine. I am here. Captivate the mic. I am here with the magnificent Fabulous. Heather Zaitzwolf, who I'm so grateful. She's so busy running three different companies that she took time out of her busy schedule to be with us. Because Heather, you are just such a delight. I was watching this thing. There's a new documentary with Will Ferrell and his best friend who transitioned. Oh yeah. From a man to a woman and that the previews, who isn't a big Will Ferrell fan, right? And so one of the things I was going down the Tik Tok rabbit hole of Will Ferrell and because I love how he supported his friend and they did this cross country thing Will Ferrell talks about how he had graduated college and he was doing open mics and going up in LA. And he said to his dad, I think I really want to try this comedy thing. And his dad said, okay. Look, it's really hard. Like it's really, it doesn't just take talent. It takes a lot of luck. And so if you try it for a while, it's okay if you have to give yourself permission to quit. There's nothing wrong if it doesn't work out if you quit. And Will Ferrell said that gave him some space and it helped him not feel so, and this is my word, desperate. I didn't say that, but that's how I felt about so much of who I was being running around New York was a little bit like, it was, I was, I'm sure I came across as a desperate, crazy lady. Sometimes I was committed and focused and grounded I just love what he said about he had some space. And that's where the funny can happen. That's where funny shit just happens. Cause he was just being truthful in the moment instead of trying to push or force and that's Heather. That's what I think about you that you are such a loving, brilliant woman. And every time I get to be with you in person, I'm better for it. And you're so creative and yes, you're a brilliant, the thing you're doing. I like to think of you as a fractional CFO. You have space for yourself. You have space for everybody else. Even though you are so committed to your lifestyle, if someone Was next to you eating a rack of lamb and fo gra and all the things you're not a jerk about it. And so you make me think of Will Ferrell. So that is, oh, that is a compliment. Yes. Okay. I love that. Truth be told, I'm tired, but, I have learned in this. And this business that I started like when I was a little tiny kid it's showtime. It's showtime. I te tabled this weekend and I'm like, I kept telling everybody at my table, it's showtime. We've got to put on the face. It's it doesn't matter what's going on out in that other world. You're here now. You gotta like, Put it on turn it on and it's not a fake thing. It's just I'm putting yourself to 11, you know that yeah, I love it. There's that, Judy Garland, right? She somebody said she was, they were in her dressing room with her. This is towards the end of her life. And she was in a house coat and she was just doing her makeup and just and all of a sudden, it's time and she went Yeah. She brought it, she brought that presence and and you learn how to do that. She's a professional. She's a professional, and and you learn that as a clown, as a clown, you were a clown with your parents, which I think is so freaking fun. And if you don't know Heather Zes please everybody, you need to go follow her. She's doing the sas. I almost said sassy. I am sassy. I'm so sassy. And it's so I'm the savvy frugal vegan, but I could have easily been called the sassy cheap vegans, Let's call her sassy cheap and savvy frugal. And I have learned a lot about eating and the planet and making choices, not just in order to get into a size six pair of jeans, which is how I lived my life for a long time. From your choices have repercussions and they affect the globe. Can you just tell us really quick about the swatch Store story, because I think this is such a magnificent story of leadership and creativity. Oh, okay. I thought it was going to be talking about my style my time in New York yeah, we're going to be doing that too, but I just, the swatch thing popped in my head and I just think it's just, there's so many good things Okay. I was between jobs and I found out that the Swatch store here in Portland, Oregon, it was still in existence at the time, was looking for someone to manage the store. And I'd been a project manager and I'd never been a store manager, and I was a huge Swatch fan. And so I. Got the job in the, it turned out that the store was like one of the worst performing stores in the country. And so I had my challenge of okay this business started in Portland, probably I think five years prior. And They had a, great year, the first year. And then every year it went down from there. And it was the laughing stock of stores. Yeah, it was, Oh no. The laughing stock of swatch stores in America. Yeah. It was like the ugliest. Stepchild or whatever, it was just like, Oh, them, so I put on my market research hat, which I'd been in that field for many years and was like, okay, I want to get to know the staff, stepping into the situation where there's an existing staff and they've already been doing things a certain way. They're not getting paid a ton of money. So it's not like they're like, they've got a lot vested into it. But and then I got to know all the people that came into the store. We had some regulars, we were in downtown Portland and, you had your homeless people that would show up. You'd have the people that all they wanted to do was just chit chat and never buy anything. That mixed bag of this is, it was like, cheers. Like people would come in and just hang out, except for they wouldn't buy anything. So I had to discover what it was that people wanted and then find creative ways to draw more people into the store. So it wasn't just these quote unquote regulars that weren't ever going to buy anything. They were like, Oh, I'm just coming to see what it is. It's okay, I know you're never going to buy anything. Had a background in advertising as well. So it was like, okay, how can we merchandise the store and kind of switch things up and make things more fun? And, we bent the rules in some ways, cause they had, certain things We were supposed to present in a certain way, and I just found what people liked and filled the store with more of those types of things. And we got the sales up. So it ended up being the best, the first year I was there, it was the best year that store had ever performed. And it was something that people were just shocked. And then they allowed me to go to other stores that were. Fledgling. Anyways. And I helped them, they were struggling. Yes. And I helped them. And so I got to travel a little bit because of that. And wasn't the laughing stock anymore. So it was really great. And I, the employees said I was like the best manager they've ever had. I think because I listened to them and I was going to say, you've told me how you would go in and talk to them and actually listen to what was important to them, which helped them then buy in to the new work culture. Yeah, exactly. And so I gamified things. I, it was every day was like, just this like dorky games that we would do about around quotas. And I had parties in the store and I had no budget. So it was all about being creative and luckily watches a. It's a kind of a quirky kind of brand and so they even have this vibe called, they call it the vibe. It was like a swatchy vibe and so it's like around like being yourself and being weird was It was all part of it. And like they were doing an ad campaign where they had women on roller skates with bright Afros that were like pink and blue and stuff. And I was like, can I get ahold of those? Can you send me some of those Afros? And so they sent them to me. And so I did some events around that and I was just stand out. So I was like the circus barker, I'd be out there Hey, come on in, blah, blah, blah. And bringing people in. And then we had a local news channel that was walking by. I'm like, Hey, come on in. And, then I got on that, like a commercial thing. And I just, it was all just being very open marketing. I love it. And he turned it around. Thank you. I love that story. Thank you. I just think it's such a, there's so many great moments of being creative and listening and saying, okay, I have no budget. What can I do? And throwing things against the wall and see what's going to stick. And You were so good at it. You became like this regional superstar. Cause that's just who you are, Heather. That's who you are. And, because we were the lonely store that was not doing well, they didn't really want to give us a lot of the new products and the new product was like what collectors wanted and everything. So then I discovered Oh, wait a minute. Swatch has this huge warehouse of old stuff and the vintage swatches were My clientele really wanted. And so we started stocking a lot of that stuff. So we had stuff that people could not find anywhere else. So that made it very cool. Exclusive. I love it. We love exclusive. For that. OK, awesome. All right. Thank you, my friend. I love you madly. I appreciate you. Okay, bye. Bye, sweetheart.