Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / How Sarah Lee & Christine Chang introduced the K-beauty phenom to the world through their cult brand Glow Recipe, and the one-step-at-a-time approach that lead them to profitability 3 months in

Transcript

How Sarah Lee & Christine Chang introduced the K-beauty phenom to the world through their cult brand Glow Recipe, and the one-step-at-a-time approach that lead them to profitability 3 months in · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Episode 12 with Christine Chang and Sarah Lee.
• 0:18
  Hey guys, welcome back to Female Startup Club. If you've been following along on my Instagram, you'll know how excited I was to be recording this next episode with Sarah Lee and Christine Chang, who are the founders of Glow Recipe.
• 0:32
  You've probably seen this brand on social media. Their Instagram has more than 725,000 followers at the time of recording. Or maybe you've heard about their most loved watermelon sleep mask, which sold out seven times consecutively and amassed 5,000 person waiting lists at the time of launch.
• 0:50
  In today's episode, I got to chat to Sarah and Christine about the wild ride they've been on over the last few years and what it's been like to build a brand at this scale. It's packed with the good stuff and loads of advice for other entrepreneurs, and I'm just so chuffed that this interview came about. Shout out to Lucy from Mecca, who helped to organize this in celebration of the launch of the brand's ultimate intro kit, Glow Babies, which has six of the best-selling minis to get you started.
• 1:18
  We ended up having a few tech issues, so bear with us while we have a bit of a giggle throughout the ep. And in the end, we ran out of time to do the six quick questions, but it'll be back to business as usual for the next one, so don't worry. And while I've got you here, I wanted to touch base and let you know about something I've been working on for the past few months.
• 1:36
  Female Startup Club has partnered with a leading performance marketing agency to create our very first course. It's the ultimate learning tool for mastering Facebook and Instagram ads and scaling your business profitably. And it's almost ready to launch. For now, that's all I can say. But if it tickles your fancy, head to the website www.femalestartupclub.com and subscribe so you're kept in my loop.
• 2:01
  Let's jump into this epic episode. This is Sarah Lee and Christine Chang for Female Startup Club. So let's get started. Before we get into the mix and go back to the very beginning of where this all started, can you paint a picture of your brand where it is today? So how big you are, the team, some top line facts just for everyone who will be listening. So I can start. Um...
• 2:28
  Right now, Glow Recipe skincare is actually three years old. The anniversary is in May. So we're actually still a very young brand. But Glow Recipe as a company is five and a half years old. And we started off originally as a D2C site that really focused on curating natural and clean K-beauty.
• 2:47
  And that heritage still continues with low-resby skincare because we're very focused on ingredients. So a lot of our skincare is food-powered, it's fun, it's sensorial, and it really speaks to this overarching philosophy that we want to disseminate, the K-beauty approach to skincare, which makes it really about that self-care movement versus something that's more of a chore, something that feels overwhelming, or something that's rigid and has to be X number of steps. And so...
• 3:18
  We actually were just talking about the anniversary and pinching ourselves that within three years that we were able to really come together with our global community, especially on social media, and create this dialogue around skincare. I mean, this year we recently launched, for example, Real Glow Gang, which is a private space just for our community members. Of course, anyone's welcome to join, but it's an extension of very much our philosophy, once again, where we want to create
• 3:47
  really authentic spaces and conversations around skincare. And I think that over the years that our community has been a big part of how we've made our decisions, how we've made product development decisions, and having a space where we can interact with them that way has been really, really meaningful. So this year as a whole has been off to a really amazing start. We are a team of 30 people in New York, and that's where our offices are right now. Everyone, of course, is working from home.
• 4:17
  And it's a really great group of people that we call them content creators and storytellers, everyone in their own right. So it's a really bright, diverse group of people that bring a lot of ideas and a lot of collaboration. And right now we are in Sephora in the U.S. and in England we're in Cult Beauty. And then we're in Mecca in Australia and DuBois in Germany.
• 4:42
  So still very much in the early days of our global expansion. And it's interesting to also see a lot of customers from all over the world ping us and ask us, when are you launching in our country? When are you launching in this region? So we're working on it. But right now, it's just a really exciting time for the brand.
• 5:03
  Yeah, really exponential growth. And so now that we've got like kind of the top line, let's go back to the very beginning of how you guys met and why you decided to start a beauty e-commerce platform and business together. Yeah. So we started Glow Recipe about five and a half years ago. It was 2014. And prior to that, we were both in marketing and product development in L'Oreal. So we
• 5:31
  each worked about, you know, 9, 10 and 11 years in different brands and rotating between different functions and really were trained for the marketing role and, you know, how much we contribute to the business in terms of, you know, that perspective really comes from our L'Oreal days. I do think that every step of the way affects the next step. And that's kind of how we build our foundation for our careers.
• 6:00
  When we started out, we were already friends for a really long time. We met back in Korea, in L'Oreal, Korea, and we built our friendship based on our passion for beauty and just sharing what we were going through as junior marketers at that time. And without planning this together, we coincidentally ended up in New York around the same time as well, which was very unique to find. And
• 6:28
  I ended up being transferred to the New York office in L'Oreal. Christine was here for her master's. She missed working for L'Oreal. She ended up coming back to the office and we were colleagues again. So quite often we would catch up and talk about our days from work and talk about the company and overall the beauty industry. And one day, this was earlier in 2014, we were just catching up and,
• 6:55
  over wine and sheet masking as all new ideas come from. We were thinking about how, you know, our jobs kind of evolved into really focusing on product development and looking at five, 10 years down the road. And the fact that we were looking at Korean beauty as the next big thing, we were thinking how amazing that was and how surreal it felt because we were both Koreans and, you know, kind of felt,
• 7:22
  It was interesting that we were kind of that middle person, you know, taking the Korean beauty technologies, but, you know, launching them under the L'Oreal brands. And then we had this aha moment where we felt that, you know, we could actually do this in a faster speed, but also help the brands in Korea that don't necessarily have the expertise or experience to go overseas, especially the U.S. market, the most saturated and, in a way, complicated market in beauty industry.
• 7:51
  with the different ethnicities and all different skin types and tones. And, you know, we kind of saw that this was a unique opportunity for us because we were the only two Koreans in the company, actually, at that time, of 10,000 employees in the office that had this bilingual, bicultural, but also beauty backgrounds in both Korea and the U.S. And so we just had this moment and thought, okay, we could do this ourselves, bring in
• 8:19
  Korean brands, real time, utilize our network in Korea because we knew the insiders of the beauty industry in Korea too. And that's kind of how you have your hands with the first, in market trends and formulations and whatnot. So we decided to quit our jobs and create Glow Recipe. We came up with that name to really provide the best recipe for glowing skin and glow is the skin ideal in Korea.
• 8:49
  So we started our website, Glorecipe.com at that time, with the mission to curate the best beauty technologies and formulas, along with education from Korean beauty. And it was all focused on clean skincare. At that time, we used the language harsh-free, because clean wasn't the word that we were using as a category, but it really meant no parabens, no toxins in general, no synthetic dyes or fragrances.
• 9:18
  really natural skincare products that focus on really amazing stories, ingredients that were really rich in antioxidants. So we were passionate about it and we started curating brands. I think the first time we flew out to Korea, we came back with nine new contracts with exclusive brands that we were able to partner with. And that's how it all started. But it was very nimble, bootstrapped. It was just the two of us
• 9:48
  We had maybe an intern or two in the beginning to help pack our boxes from our office. But that's how it all started. And then it evolved, of course, over time. But yeah. A lot of questions I get asked about when I'm going to talk on podcasts with people is about the startup capital needed in the beginning. Did you have to put a lot of your own money in to get started? Well, we put in $25,000 each of our own savings.
• 10:17
  And we are still bootstrapped and independent. So over the years, you're right. A lot of startups, a lot of entrepreneurial endeavors have, it's quite normal for many companies to take on investment. And that's not to say we haven't explored an example being when we were on Shark Tank at the end of 2015, the entire program is about funding. But.
• 10:42
  As amazing as that experience was, we actually got three investment offers on the show that day from three of the sharks and ultimately ended up shaking hands with Robert. But after months of, you know, after the show and going back and forth with his team, we realized that the goals that we were looking for in an investment partner was a little bit different. So we amicably parted ways.
• 11:07
  So that was the closest we've ever come to getting investment. But it's not to say once again that we wouldn't consider it in the future. I think that it just once again has to be a strategic partner because from day one, we've been very careful about our cash flow, our spend, how we approach certain investments and resources. And because of that, we've been cash flow positive since month.
• 11:33
  of our business, which is very early on. And that's given us the luxury to really take a step back and make sure that if we do potentially consider any partners down the road, it would have to be a strategic partnership where we're looking for other aspects in partnership outside of just funds. So I think that approach today has served us very well. And especially in a time like this where, you know,
• 12:03
  you know, so much is changing and so much is pivoting. I think our continued approach of always being scrappy, but creative and figuring things out has actually served us quite well during this time and that kind of umbrella value of how we operate also has been a good foundation for our team to pivot together.
• 12:32
  Yeah. And I think as well, like I was reading something that you wrote in another interview about how people can get swept up in the fact that you guys have a really amazing experience.
• 12:44
  glossy Instagram now and glossy website and everything looks really like perfect. But if you go back to the early days when you guys were really hustling and you see what you were doing until three in the morning, packing the boxes and writing the notes and sending out the hundreds of emails to all the influencers and the editors, you know, people kind of forget that part of the story and that part of the journey. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think having had that experience though,
• 13:12
  makes us really grateful for what we have today and our team members and not taking anything for granted. But also knowing so in depth what goes into every facet of the business is has been good grounding for leading the company today. Yeah. And I think for any new entrepreneurs that might be listening to your podcast, I think it's important that everyone thinks, you know, because it's not what you see. You know, there's a lot of behind the scenes.
• 13:40
  I actually was answering one of the questions for, you know, how I built the business. And that's exactly what I said. It's like, you can't, you know, it's like one step at a time approach. Like you need to be resilient and patient and stay focused on, you know, what matters for your business. And there's a lot of, you know, hardship along the way too and ups and downs, but everything kind of builds up together and creates one beautiful story at the end of the day.
• 14:09
  Yeah, absolutely. Do you think that as a kid, you had an inkling that you would have your own business one day? So personally, I always wanted to have my own business. I didn't know what it would be. Honestly, I had too many interests, you know, whether it's music or art or, you know, marketing, beauty, whatever it might have been. I was very interested in so many different fields and industries.
• 14:35
  But I think everything happens for a reason. When we started both interning for L'Oreal in Korea and started working for the company and learning about marketing and developing products, we were never bored any single day because within L'Oreal, there are over 35 brands. And so you basically move from one brand to another to get new experiences. It almost feels like you're moving to a new company.
• 15:03
  And so that kind of equipped, you know, for me, that really equipped myself to be adaptable, easy to adjust to new environment, but also never get bored, you know, of being in one company because everything just seemed to be so fresh and challenging and exciting all the time. And the company trained us to be more entrepreneurial, interesting, even though it's a large company. So I think that kind of built that.
• 15:28
  everything to, you know, this foundation that we had when we started our own company. But yeah, we always dreamed that one day we'll have our own companies. And do you think that there was like an aha moment of when you realized that you were going to make the watermelon product in the beginning? Because I know that you, um, you both talk about your grandmother's putting watermelon on your skin and that was always something that was part of your story and your tradition. But do you remember the moment when you thought, oh my gosh,
• 15:59
  I think it was a combination of several moments. So wanting to recreate some of the experiences that we're able to have by traveling back to Korea and getting these amazing facials and treatments and finding these products on the ground and distilling what that meant. So a Korean facial essentially gives you not only exfoliation, not only extraction, not only hydration, but all of them.
• 16:23
  and you walk out feeling glowy and your best, like your best self. And how do you bring that to a jar basically? And so we had worked with our chemists,
• 16:37
  that we had found for some time to get to the formulation. I think we actually did over a thousand submissions because we kept pushing for this duality of how do we get this perfect hydration? How do we get this dewy-ness and glowiness from it and makes your skin bouncy? But how do you still also exfoliate and bring in these elements that should be part of a, that should technically be part of a longer facial into this overnight mask experience?
• 17:03
  It took a very long time because we had such high expectations for it. Plus, watermelon hadn't really been used in skincare as a hero ingredient before our watermelon mask. And now fruit is very prevalent in skincare, which is great to see. But it was a passion point for us because watermelon was something that our grandmothers used to use on us when we were growing up. Sarah and I both had this experience. And in the hot summer months of Korea, it would be used as a skin soother and healer.
• 17:33
  And having had that, those kind of traditions be part of our growing up process, we wanted to make sure that we pay tribute to that ingredient and that story, because it is part of our beauty heritage and how we became so interested in skincare as well. And being able to leverage this anti-inflammatory, mineral-rich, amazing superfood in this way and tell the story and educate on the ingredient we thought was meaningful as well for skincare
• 18:03
  I think in order to get efficacious skincare to date at that time, it was more about these clinical brands or doctor brands or different approaches that perhaps weren't as accessible and approachable. And by having a fruit hero ingredient with an active that people understood, but wanted to know more about AHA, pairing the two and bringing this duality of results, but also ingredient stories was a big part of
• 18:30
  I think the success of the watermelon mask and some of that initial inspiration of the watermelon rind being used as a skin soother was also part of the packaging design. So the packaging looks like a melted ice cube because that's how the watermelon rind was used as an ice cube alternative. So I was thinking through, I think all of these facets really helped catapult the product initially. And we were blown away when
• 18:59
  it sold out and had a wait list at launch because that was not what we were expecting at all, but it was a great way to launch La Recipe as a brand. I want to get into talking all about the marketing in just a moment, but I want to ask first about your relationship as co-founders and obviously extremely close friends and what's it been like? Yeah. We've been friends for 15 years or even more. So it's been
• 19:27
  This has been a really long time. And I think that's also why the co-founder sort of relationship has been smooth from the very beginning, because I think we already had, you know, trust and understanding of each other. And we also had similar backgrounds with, you know, working L'Oreal and marketing divisions. So even though we had, you know, crazy busy schedule from the very early days of our business, I think what really helped was efficient communication because, you know,
• 19:57
  we didn't have to add a lot of context to what we were trying to convey. Everything was very quick and easy. We still today sit together. Now we're off the office, but when we're back in the office, we have a shared office where the desks pretty much attached to one another. And I think that that, in addition to, you know, being very honest with one another and open about, you know, feedback or any sort of thoughts that we have in mind and being transparent,
• 20:27
  is the key to, you know, create partnership because, you know, I think that as a company grows and we've heard this from other entrepreneurs or partnerships, as a company grows, your team will grow and, you know, you do have to somehow divide up your projects or what you oversee. Of course, all the big decisions are made together and anything that involves a lot of budget, for example, we always make sure to discuss before decisions are made.
• 20:57
  that's kind of our promise to one another. But I think, you know, when it's so busy and you have to make quick decisions and if somebody is traveling I think there's this underlying understanding once again, that, you know, we're going to be flexible with allowing the other person to make some quick decisions. And that actually helped us, you know, free up some time when we're traveling because when you're in a different time zone,
• 21:23
  It's really hard to be in communication with your entire team for the whole time. So in a way that helped us, if anything, because you can make things move quickly and not delay because of your travel schedule or because you're waiting for something else or your boss is not around. So the team has to hold off on anything before moving forward. We never had to deal with those issues.
• 21:50
  And I think oftentimes when co-founders also have very different backgrounds, for example, you know, if somebody is a CFO and if another person is in charge of, you know, marketing, there's always going to be a level of misunderstanding just because you have different perspectives and backgrounds. And for those types of partnerships, I think you add such amazing value in your own unique way, but you do need to communicate even more with one another just because you have different perspectives.
• 22:20
  In our case, we think pretty similarly in most things that we decide on. So I think, again, things have been moving really quickly and helpful because of that. And a team understands that too entirely. And even though we now have separate projects for different accounts and sometimes products, we still make all the decisions together. And the team knows that when I'm traveling, for example, they can go to Christine and vice versa.
• 22:49
  That's so great. And I think it really is different to a lot of companies in that you're right. Usually it's a different skill set, whereas you guys have some similarities and some overlap, which kind of lends itself to the success of decision making and the vision.
• 23:04
  I want to talk about the beginning of the watermelon sleeping mask, like when you were launching it and going into that process. Obviously, Sephora played a key role in launching that product line with you. How did that come about? And what advice would you give other businesses who want to launch with huge beauty stores like the Sephora's of the world?
• 23:26
  So the launch for was absolutely a really big part of that. And they're, they're amazing partners and we're lucky to be working with them because they're so great at incubating empty brands. I think another facet of that launch that really took us by surprise, but also really helped overall was the fact that it had such viral virality on social media. And what I mean by that is it was this virtuous cycle where a
• 23:52
  influencer or a blogger or a YouTuber would post about it on social media. And they would see such engagement with that post in particular, because people were craving to know more about the watermelon mask. It was visually arresting on your feet. And we had thought through this process, whether it was like the grip of the jar in your hand, how that would look on your shelf feet, how that would look on your vanity, because that is very much part of the skincare process. Like of course, efficacy is king, but
• 24:21
  Those additional elements are what we experience as skincare users when we go through our self-care process. So it was thought through, but the way people responded to that created this virtuous kind of storm on social media where we were seeing more and more people posting because they were getting such great engagement from it. And I think in the beginning days, that really helped with boosting its profile on social media and getting the word out there and eventually getting.
• 24:49
  in a very short time getting to a sold-out waitlist status. Advice for brands- About 5,000 people. Yeah, so it's several thousand. Incredible. It's mind-boggling. Of course, we had to rush to make another production because we had no idea that it would sell out so quickly. For advice for brands that are entering into a partnership with a big retailer, I think that as with any partnership, communication is key. And I know that sounds quite...
• 25:19
  you know, of course, communication is key, right? But what I mean by that is not everyone is in your shoes. Not everyone has been an entrepreneur. Not everyone is leading a startup or a smaller brand. So if there are challenges as a startup or a smaller brand that you need to have addressed or you need to have understood to make the partnership go smoother, I think it's in your best interest to really over-communicate that. Give your partners plenty of context as to why you can't or can't
• 25:48
  execute something or whether something's not in your budget and try to find ways through it, your discussion. And in our early days, I think this is a big part of why we were able to hold hands with Sephora and create such a successful launch was because we really did loop them into the discussion every, every step of the way.
• 26:11
  Amazing. And when you guys were going through that launch and you said there was all of the influencers and people on social media posting about the product, was your initial strategy just send it to as many influencers as possible and do some gift for posts and see how it goes? Yeah. So we didn't send it to everybody. We just sent to over 600 people, but that included editors and influencers. And
• 26:40
  we put together a list of people that we thought were very relevant and potentially would write about us or speak about us, you know, given their, you know, past content. So that actually list came from our research, very, very diligent research that we spent a lot of time on actually prior to sending out the products because we wanted to
• 27:05
  make sure without a PR agency or any third-party vendor, and we were doing this all ourselves, we wanted to make sure that our efforts are, we have some ROI and we know that if you personalize communication and even the skincare routines and products that we send to them, and the recipient would know that we've been reading their articles and we've been watching their YouTube videos and it comes across pretty clear that we have.
• 27:33
  then there's a higher chance that they would write about us or talk about us. So that's why we wanted to really understand these beauty experts or gurus who would fall in love with our products, potentially just based on what they have been talking about. And that's how we, I guess, targeted them. Even though the number was big, we had a customized communication, an email, DM, whatever that platform might have been,
• 28:00
  you know, very much customized to each individual. And because of that, we got a pretty high response rate. About 30% of them responded, which was huge for us at that time. And from then, you know, we really started to build special relationships with each individual because it was so, it meant so much to us. We were so grateful for anybody who even took the time to respond to us and was willing to try our products.
• 28:30
  And then from then, the huge sort of milestone for us in the very beginning was when Refinery29 wrote about one of our products from a first-person review standpoint. And that really moved the needle. I mean, she really, really actually loved the product. She took photos of before and after and how her skin was radiant after one use and over time.
• 28:58
  She talked about the texture. It was very passionately written. And I think that also is why, you know, people were really interested in trying our products. And because of that article, we actually got a ton of traffic. And one day, our entire site was sold out. And that trickled to, you know, other media outlets picking up that article. And it just became, you know, it really put us on the map in a whole different level after that was posted. Yeah.
• 29:26
  Wow. And was that before you guys went on the Shark Tank episode? Yeah, it was before. This was around three months in. So it was very early on. Our inventory level was much smaller than, of course, when we were on Shark Tank. But that really put us on the map to the beauty gurus or obsessed advocates out there. And then I think the meaningful aspect of Shark Tank was we were able to...
• 29:54
  really be able to tell the story about Korean beauty and the amazingness of the Korean beauty technologies to the people that have never even heard of the term K-beauty. You know what I mean? There were people, you know, tuning in from all parts of the nation that have never even heard of the category, never were interested, but for the first time, they really opened their eyes because of that episode. So it was a whole different level of, you know, outreach, but a
• 30:23
  you know, different milestone. And I also think what you guys do really well, and I know that I get this from personal experiences, I get quite overwhelmed with the language and all the things. And, you know, it comes across as quite daunting, I think, when you're trying to explore particularly a new category of skincare, but you guys do a really good job of educating and talking in easiest to digest language and everything's
• 30:48
  not overwhelming. And I also think that's something that's super important when you're trying to get a new market and a new audience involved. Yeah, exactly. Thank you. Education is a key strategy of ours because we really do believe it's needed to enjoy your skincare and really contextualize your routine and how you approach it every day. So whether it's on YouTube or Instagram, it's always been kind of a key focus for us. So
• 31:19
  Our content team spends a lot of time making sure that these education elements are pushed out regularly and that everyone has access to them. I want to talk in particular about your community. What do you think in the beginning you were doing differently to other brands? And what are you doing now that's helping your community keep evolving and growing and innovating? So in the beginning, we very much involved them in a lot of our decision making, whether that was marketing.
• 31:48
  taking them along via stories when you're traveling to Korea to curate products and asking them, do you want to see this versus this? What do you guys think? And just really keeping that dialogue open and transparent. And they also weighed in on our curation decisions, what type of products they wanted to see, what type of categories were of interest to them. So I think they're very used to being involved and we treasure that involvement because it's so important for...
• 32:17
  a small business to have that sense check and that pulse from their customers. Another example being when we had our first Soho pop-up that was 2017, we then asked our team, where would you, our community, where would you wanna see the pop-up next? And the overwhelming response was LA. So the following year, year after, we actually opened the pop-up at the Grove in LA because we had that feedback in mind.
• 32:44
  And that also extends to products as well. When we initially launched the Blueberry Balance Gentle Cleanser, which was our first cleanser, along with the watermelon mask, people loved it. But there was feedback on the format of it in a tube versus a pump. So within a year, we actually moved to a pump packaging format, which I know is not a usual timeline for brands to respond. But for us, once we were seeing that type of feedback, people were taking it.
• 33:12
  seriously, we took it seriously as well and we acted immediately on it as a team. And I think that that type of nimbleness is appreciated by our community. And these days that community conversation is very actively still via Instagram, DMs, emails, but we also wanted to create that space for discussion, hence the Real Glow Gang account that I mentioned earlier, which is really a safe space for all of us to just have open, fun,
• 33:41
  unfettered conversations about skincare. So the topics can range from anything from something like, what's your favorite active? And like, how are you using it to something like, oh, if your skincare routine is a movie, what type of movie would it be? Or what's the title of the movie? And then people will wait. And it's just really a great space for us to have even more raw interaction in our community.
• 34:05
  It feels very inclusive. You mentioned the pop-ups and that you've had them built into your marketing strategy, I guess, since the very beginning, and they look like so much fun. I was loving the bucking banana. What's the primary objective for these events? Is it a key sales channel or is it to learn and get direct feedback from your customers? Or is it just to give back to your customers and create
• 34:30
  that sense of community and spirit offline versus being solely online? Yeah, I think it's a mix of those two. But also I think, you know, we want to make sure there's always a way to create buzz. And, you know, having a pop-up store that is your digital experience coming IRL was really important because we are a digitally native brand. And we think about, you know, how to always stay digitally first.
• 34:58
  But at the same time, we're a beauty company. When it comes to skincare products, it's important that the community has the opportunity to test, try, feel the texture, smell the scent, and also interact with us in person and have that engaging moment. I think that really makes a very special moment and really helps to also get everyone on board with the brand. And to have people's faces,
• 35:26
  always helps to also be more invested in the brand on a personal level and understand what the brand is all about. We also think of it as an opportunity to get our team to be as creative as they can be. It's almost like a creative outlet because we have a team of very creative individuals and each and every team member, regardless of their role or function, has a very creative idea in terms of how things that are digital can come to life in person and
• 35:56
  This is a way for us to also challenge ourselves to say, hey, what's next? You know, how can we make sure that we surprise the industry and our community with something that, you know, is out of the box, surprising and also delightful at the same time and come up with a new completely new concept than what we did last time? And then lastly, how do we make sure when we do have these interactions and engagements with our community in person that we're really maximizing this opportunity, whether it's through education?
• 36:27
  or some sort of a meet and greet session with ourselves or our influencer friendlies, or do we make this into some sort of a master class with skincare or like minded brands? So we've held classes with other makeup brands for a full, you know, get the glow from skincare to makeup finish, um, class. We've also had it with a fashion brand. I think we partnered with DVF actually.
• 36:53
  And we invited, you know, makeup artists or facialists or other influencers and YouTubers to really speak to their expertise and what they're known for, but in our space. So, you know, every day there was something new to learn about. There's something interesting going on at the pop-up store. There was something really exciting. So, you know, we didn't want that person to just come by once and shop and leave. We wanted her or him to come back.
• 37:20
  and just have a good time and, you know, spend time with our team. I think something that you guys do really well, and which is how I came across to you in the very beginning, was when you post your behind-the-scenes content on Instagram, like being in the factory in Korea and showing the experience of the watermelon and cutting it up and how it goes in the big pot thing and everything.
• 37:43
  really showing that side that I think that a lot of people don't really know too much about if you don't work in the beauty industry. So I think that's where I kind of came across you guys. And I definitely feel that in your content and what you guys are creating. Yeah. Thank you.
• 38:00
  I've also seen you have some programs online, the referral and the rewards program, and also the Glow Pro program. Is that a key part of your marketing strategy? Right. So it's part of our overarching CRM program, which includes Glow Miles, which is our loyalty program. And then part of that has a referral arm where we reward customers who connect us with their friends. And if the friend purchases it.
• 38:25
  The customer who referred gets $15 in credit and then the new customer gets $15 as well. It's just really been about rewarding ambassadorship. And I think ambassadorship takes form in very diverse ways these days, whether it's someone who wants to post about our brand on Instagram or someone who wants to talk about it on their stories or someone who wants to refer our friend through email.
• 38:50
  So there are many faces to it, but we call this as an umbrella, our Glow Gang. So our community name is Glow Gang and hence reflected in the Instagram account that I mentioned earlier. And it's really about creating fun, different touch points for them. So this type of CRM program I know is quite commonly done, but I think what's unique or more unique to our Glow Gang program is that, for example, on the real Glow Gang site, if
• 39:18
  we have a new launch. So for example, the toner launch that just went live a little over a week ago, we actually exposed it to our blogging members first. So they got the first preview. We also did a lab sample program with them where they had access to getting a sample first before anyone else. And so these types of parts are really reserved for our community members that
• 39:44
  once again, are super involved and passionate about the brand. And it's just our way of showing that appreciation and engagement. So I think our social media strategy has really worked for us. That's probably one of the key drivers, actually, of our growth and awareness. And it's a platform that we use for creating the buzz for any new launches or projects. And the growth that we're seeing with our Instagram, for example, has been phenomenal. I think that
• 40:12
  We actually saw this stat from a research company where they looked at all of the skincare brands.
• 40:22
  in Sephora and some other retailers. And we were definitely the top skincare brand with the highest growth in terms of followers and also highest growth in terms of engagement. That was really interesting to see, but we have been on the top of the ranks for quite some time. And when we look back at how we had 200,000 followers in January of last year, and right now we're over 700K,
• 40:49
  we more than tripled during this time. And I think that we were able to really just grow our community in a way that was organic, but also that we're really genuinely excited about what's to come next as a brand. And the reason why our social media strategy has worked for us is because I think that we were able to really keep it authentic and tell our story in the most organic and real way.
• 41:17
  and also real time. We utilize our social media channels for telling our story, but also giving them tutorials, giving our audience tutorials on what we know. And I think that when we were traveling too, we kept it really open saying, Hey guys, we're traveling to Korea. What do you want to see next? And whenever, you know, we got responses, we actually addressed them right away or responded to them like with another post that was a response, for example.
• 41:43
  We kept, you know, transparent marketing as one of the tools too. So for example, when we launched the Pineapple Bright Sea Serum, we, you know, a lot of people loved what the texture did and what the formula did to the skin. But there were some people that weren't really satisfied with the scent. And, you know, it comes from the fact that, you know, it's a blend of natural pineapple juice with pure vitamin C, L-ascorbic acid.
• 42:12
  and people can be subjective in terms of what that scent could be. And that sort of led to some online conversations and our community sharing these very constructive feedback about how the scent could be improved and optimized. And there was an influencer, Kathleen Lights, who spoke about it too, saying, I love the formula, I change my skin, but I don't like the scent. And she actually kept it very real, once again, on her YouTube channel.
• 42:41
  So what we did was we worked on optimizing the scent. And when we were ready with the rollout, we announced it on our Instagram. We said, you know what? Thank you for your feedback, you guys. This is why it's important that, you know, we hear your feedback. And that's the most important for us. And Kathleen Lights, thank you for your feedback, too, that you shared with your audience. And we actually talked to her before we announced it. And we said, can we use your post actually to announce this optimization?
• 43:11
  to again keep it real and share it with the world that we listened to not only her but everybody else that was sharing this feedback and that got such amazing you know reception from our audience and I think that's one of the reasons why our community is you know loyal to us in so many ways yeah and I love how you're also um
• 43:35
  you know, jumping on new platforms. I saw you had a really fun TikTok account, which I love, and I love all the recyclable ideas. It's such a fun way to express the brand there as well. Yeah, thank you for that. TikTok has been really exciting. We just recently launched a couple of, a few weeks ago, and the engagement has been phenomenal. Yeah, we have a great mix of Gen Z and millennial audience. And I think,
• 44:02
  It was just time for us to be present there on TikTok. What are the kinds of challenges you're facing? Because obviously you've gone through the initial growth of finding your customers and finding your audience. What are the kind of challenges now as essentially a really big business? Challenges of running our business, you mean? Yeah. Yeah, so I think, you know, every day there's some type of challenge, whether it's small or big.
• 44:33
  I think right now, overall, we're in a good place where we're really focusing back on our roots, which is being digital. And that's who we are as a brand. And during this time, I think we had to adjust in new ways of working and brainstorming new ideas to come up with ways to connect online versus IRL 100%.
• 44:56
  Right. So I would say it's less of a challenge, but it's definitely something that we had to be nimble and be flexible and switch around and shuffle our strategy to be more relevant from the current times. Hi, Christine. I mean, tech issues. We were just talking about,
• 45:22
  challenges of running a company. And then, so I think as founders, one thing that we are constantly faced with, and we will probably see more challenges of is, is how we hire. And it's going to be a bigger focus as we grow, you know, because we have to, we have to have new hires from all different levels, you know, from senior to junior to interns. And, you know, when you have people that are so amazing on their resumes,
• 45:52
  the next step is to really think, is this person going to be the right fit for the company? Culturally, that's always going to be something to think about because each and every individual will impact the overall culture in such an immense way. And we've experienced that in the past. So whenever we hire somebody new, it's important that we take the steps to be, you know, take due diligence measures, really go through reference checks, but also at the end of the day,
• 46:22
  listen to our guts and, you know, really see if this person could be the right fit. I mean, personally, I really want to hire people that I can be inspired by as well and something that I can learn from. Doesn't matter what level this person is. You know, I think that having a fresh new perspective always gives something to the table. So, you know, in their unique way, I would love to find more people that can add value
• 46:50
  Whether it's being creative or being analytical, you know, it can be whatever is right for that role. But I think that's going to be an ongoing challenge going forward. And what advice do you have for other entrepreneurs listening who are either in the journey or wanting to start their own business? Yeah.
• 47:14
  For me, I think one of the key pieces of advice would be to just really find your network and your tribe. And what I mean by that is, you know, personally, like personally wise, I'm actually quite introverted. So finding my own network over the years has been a personal challenge for me.
• 47:31
  And I think that what I've come to realize is that really you can't do it alone, whether that's finding an amazing co-founder like Sarah to help you grow and help you get there faster or to find people that are in similar positions. So, for example, other founders, other female founders, other entrepreneurs, whether it's through networking events or other kind of avenues and really connecting and trying to find resources.
• 48:01
  these these people who will be there for you to support to give you ideas to give you inspiration is a key thing as an entrepreneur that you will need to continue to feel yourself because it can get quite lonely and it can the highs are high and the lows can be low so having that sense of emotional support I think has been amazing well thank you guys so much for taking the time and
• 48:26
  I'm so excited to hear it all recorded once I've figured out the little tech hiccups. I am sorry about the hiccups, but thank you for your time.
• 48:39
  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.
• 49:04
  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.
• 49:26
  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.
• 49:43
  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.
• 50:07
  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.
• 50:30
  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.