Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 6 Quick Questions with Dorian Morris, Founder of Undefined (part 2)

Transcript

6 Quick Questions with Dorian Morris, Founder of Undefined (part 2) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

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Welcome back. Here are the six quick questions. So question number one is, what's your why? Why are you doing what you're doing? Being in the industry for a while, I've seen a lot of the areas for opportunity. And I think
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to change their mindset because, you know, I am a small player, but if the L'Oreal's and Estee Lauder's of the world were to invest in conscious capitalism, that will be a game changer for small business, women-owned business, black owned business, LGBTQ business, like it can change the economic landscape. And so, although I'm starting, you know, with one brand, one vision, I think there can be a trickle down effect across the industry and give people access to high quality products. Like,
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We all deserve it. Yeah, we do. We all deserve that. Question number two is what's been your favorite marketing moment so far? Oh, well, I mean, there hasn't necessarily been marketing moments because I haven't necessarily marketed. So that's a tough one. I think it was really exciting to see my brand on shelf at Target. And interestingly enough, so...
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In a lot of the stores, the Target on their own accord, not related to me whatsoever, they create these little light boxes that have my products and Shea Moisture products, which feels like a full circle moment because that's who I used to work for at Sundial. So it was like I used to be an employee of this company. Now my products are merchandised right next to them at Shelf at Target.
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So like that is kind of powerful as well. That's so cool. And I don't really ever talk about this, but coming out of business school, I actually had a job offer at Target to be a beauty buyer and I turned it down for General Mills. And so it's also kind of a full circle moment that, you know, now I am pitching to and doing business with the people that wanted to employ me. Love it. Love it.
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Number three is what's your go-to business resource in terms of a podcast or a book or a newsletter? Actually, well, so I, again, I'm very curious. So I like to read a lot. I think I follow beauty independence daily releases because I think it does, they do a really good job, like Rachel and team, she's the editor, a really distilling, um,
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What I, as an indie beauty entrepreneur, need to understand in terms of trends, what other businesses are doing, what's happening in the retail landscape, they create original content, but they also consolidate content across the space. And so that has been an invaluable resource. And they also have a weekly, it's not really a podcast, but like a weekly webinar where they bring on leaders across the industry to talk about specific topics. And I find those really valuable.
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That's amazing. Is it a free newsletter or? Yeah, it's, uh, so they have, well, yes or no. So, uh, the newsletter is free. It's freemium. I think you get like, I don't know, five free ones a month, um, that you can access. And then there's also a paid portion. Um, the weekly webinars are free. Like tomorrow, it's every Wednesday. Um, and they're actually kind of fun because Nader, their founder, he's kind of a cornball and he's very like, uh,
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Well, it's kind of an acquired taste. He has unique humor, which can be kind of inappropriate, but I kind of like it. And so tomorrow it's focused on the evolution of retail.
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They'll have people talk about, you know, what's happening in retail. Last week it was how to drive business via TikTok, which is a very important channel for beauty. And so it's these it's these topics that are actually really important and they bring really cool people to really tell their brand story. Also, I hope it's not going to get me in trouble for saying this to your point about is it free?
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My little hack for those that are, you know, scrappy actioners like myself, for platforms that have a freemium, open it in a private browser because then they'll never know how many you've seen. Good little tip there for everyone listening. Don't tell anyone. Don't tell anyone. Or don't tell them. Don't tell them I told you. Don't tell them. Yeah.
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Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated? Yeah. So I would say the ritual that has been a game changer is my gratitude practice, which I've been doing for a couple of years now. And the way the practice works is either in the morning or at night, I typically do it at night. I reflect on what I'm grateful for for the day. And I actually keep a running list in my phone.
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And it actually changes your mindset and reframes how I think about life. Cause I'm looking for things to be grateful for, um, because your thoughts determine your reality. And so that has been amazing. It's also like my diary because, because I have a note tracker on my phone, I can scroll down and be like, what was I thinking about three years ago today? And so it'll give me kind of a snapshot into like what was going on in my life. And it's not just business stuff. It'll be like personal stuff. And like yesterday, um,
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And I have an accountability circle that I share with some of my sorority sisters and my best friend. And it'll be little things like, oh, I'm grateful for the last kingdom because the main character is sexy. So like it's little things like that or business stuff. But also I do in the morning. It'll help frame me up for the day. So I haven't done it for today. But if I had, I could have been like today. I'm grateful for clear articulation so I can nail this podcast.
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And so it'll help, you know, prime me for what I need and it'll help me manifest it. Because again, I'm very spiritual. I also listen to a lot of tarot and astrology, which is my guilty pleasure. Like that's how I unwind.
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I love that. I need to get onto this like grateful, gratefulness in my phone situation. Cause I want to like look back. That's, that's really cool. Very good. Well, there's something to writing things down either in a journal or like, you know, in a digital context, because I think you solidify it when you actually see it. I agree. I agree. A hundred percent. Question number five, what's been your worst money mistake? Okay. I think, I think,
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Early on in my sourcing strategy, a lot of the manufacturers that I would engage were actually other brands who I would meet at trade events. So, um, I was at, I think, I don't know, it was Renegade maybe in San Francisco and the neighbor next to me had these soap brand and her soaps were like flying off the shelf and I'm like, let's partner and create a CBD soap. Cool.
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I had done that same thing with a manufacturer out of Brooklyn. I was doing a Brooklyn event. And my learning was be careful who you partner with because they tried to extort me.
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And it was like this very strange situation where they wouldn't give me my empty packaging. And so I think just be careful and like read the signs, like the red flags in terms of who you partner with, because it can, you know, it can have downstream effects. Oh, my gosh. And what was the kind of like if you had to put a number on the loss?
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What was the loss? Oh, it wasn't huge. I ended up paying them, but it was like, okay, you're extorting me for like, I don't know, maybe it was like $300 just to get my inventory that I shipped them because we weren't going to do any additional runs because there was like a product issue. And so I'm like, we can't continue. And like, oh, well, if you want your packaging, give us money. And I'm like, cooperates like that. But I recognize that karma is a bitch. So yeah.
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That's not how I choose to operate. And the universe will, you know, do what the universe does. If you don't, you know, ask professionally. Gosh, holy moly. Last question. Question number six. What is just a crazy story you can share, good or bad, from your journey in business? Crazy story. Oh, I don't know. Yeah.
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Ah, well, I mean, I think I've had a crazy journey. I'll say one crazy good thing. I operate by closed mouths, don't get fed. And so there's this amazing, we'll call her an influencer dermatologist called Dr. Dre. And I follow, I'm not listening to my astrology and tarot YouTubes. I'll watch her YouTubes because they're very informational about, she gets down to like the nitty gritty on skincare. And so I saw in one of her YouTubes that she had like a PO box and I'm like,
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I'm going to ship her some products just blindly. And so I shipped this product out and she fell in love with sun serum and like posted about it a couple of times. It's now had over a hundred thousand views. And that's what drove basically my inventory to be in a situation. And so,
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It was random. It was free. And you never know. So take those shots because you're always, you know, you're going to, what is it saying? You're going to miss 100% of shots you don't take. So yeah, just do it. Love it. Dorian, thank you so much for taking the time to come on Female Startup Club and share your journey and all your insights and learnings. I'm so stoked to see what happens next for you. Thank you so much. This has been so fun to chat with you.
9:58
Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
10:22
And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
10:45
As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.
11:02
Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
11:26
And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
11:49
As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that. Thank you.