Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / SUMMER ‘23 - 6 quick questions with Babba Rivera, Founder of Ceremonia (Part 2)

Transcript

SUMMER ‘23 - 6 quick questions with Babba Rivera, Founder of Ceremonia (Part 2) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  Hey, it's Dune here. I'm recording this quick message to let you know that over the next few weeks, we'll be playing some of our favorite episodes from the past year while I spend some time with my best friends and family back in my other home, London. If you missed these episodes the first time around, they are so good and packed with so much value. I know you're going to love them just as much as I did recording them. See you soon. Bye. Welcome back. Here are the six
• 0:39
  So question number one is, what's your why? Why do you wake up every single day and work on Ceremonia? My why is definitely this desire for representation and to really be part of the change that I wish already existed and hopefully be the founder that I could have looked up to when I was a young girl. Love that. Love that. Question number two is, what's been your favorite marketing moment so far?
• 1:10
  We have many, but I think the most recent like holy crap moment was this last Hispanic Heritage Month. And Hispanic Heritage Month is mid-September to mid-October. And we celebrated it by entering Sephora. And they gave us a billboard in Times Square with a photo of me and a quote as to why Latinx Heritage Month is so important to me.
• 1:38
  And to top it off, we felt like we have to celebrate this monumental moment with our community, which is where it all started. And we had a Shiva, which is this like Colombian party bus, take everyone from downtown Manhattan all the way to Times Square. And with a Latin, like American DJ playing like Bad Bunny on repeat all the way.
• 2:03
  And then we showed up at Times Square, we see the billboard, and then we storm into Sephora to experience the ceremonia tower inside of the store. And we had this like big sign that said the future is Latinx. And it just felt this like, I think that was one of those moments where I was like, this is so much bigger than hair. It's so much bigger than me. This is a movement. And our win is the entire community's win.
• 2:32
  Wow. What a profound moment, a really profound moment to be able to see that and celebrate that with other people around you who are just as excited. How exciting. I love that. Yeah. Question number three is what's your go-to business resource? If you have to think about like the books or the newsletters or the podcast that you're consuming at the moment. I love reading. It's hard with two small children. I have, you know, two kids under two, but I'm
• 3:00
  reading is my best form of inspiration. I love reading books that are either philosophical, like sort of like self-help book that are sort of like mind expanders or management books that are about almost like biography from like a founder. That's my sweet spot. What are you reading at the moment?
• 3:26
  Right now I'm actually reading about the Spotify journey. I don't know if the book has hit the US yet. I bought it when I went to Sweden for work and it's called Spotify from within. And it's this very investigative journalism and breaking down every step of the success of Spotify. And it's so inspiring.
• 3:48
  I'm like sweating while I read it because I'm also like so stressed for him. I'm like, oh my God, like he deserves all this success. Like it was not easy. Oh my gosh. I'm going to add that to my list of when it's available here to order that. That sounds amazing. Thank you. It's so good. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals or habits that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated? Yeah.
• 4:15
  Yeah, for me, it's all about the balance between motherhood and career. And those are my two greatest priorities in life right now. And I think of them as very complementary to each other. And my family life is a grounding force for my career self. And my career self makes me a better mom, too, because I feel like I fill my cup and I show up to my family fulfilled.
• 4:43
  And excited. So I'm really focused on that. So my mornings are usually dedicated to the family. We're up pretty early. I make steel cut oats, which takes like 20 minutes to make. And I have my little baby on her bouncer, like the six months old. She's just like looking at me like this while I'm cooking the oats.
• 5:03
  And I prepare breakfast for my toddler. Then I wake her up. She's a bit of like a heavy sleeper. So I have to like wake her up with a little head massage. And I don't know, it's just such a lovely, I was never a morning person like this, but it's just, it just brings me so much joy.
• 5:20
  And then the best part is that by 8 a.m., she's out the door to go to school and I get an hour for me before I usually start my workday. And that's when I can do a Peloton workout or a yoga class or I take a steam sauna, a shower before I'm done.
• 5:42
  Yeah. And I usually just have my little baby on her bouncer, literally just like outside the steam sauna. And I'm like, hi, I'm still here. Cute. My gosh. Love that. Question number five is what's been your worst money mistake? I know we talked about no mistakes, but what's been your worst money mistake and how much did it cost you? Oh, worst money mistake.
• 6:05
  So I don't know if it's so much a money mistake, but I guess a business mistake that almost made me go bankrupt. It almost folded my last business. So when I was running my brand marketing agency,
• 6:20
  I had a really bad accountant who was, I was going for cheap versus good. And I really had to pay my dues. So he advised me in the wrong way, or maybe he misunderstood my business. I don't know. Bottom line is that he had set it up in a way where I was not able to, it was set up in a way where it was always meant to be a one woman show.
• 6:46
  which was never my ambition. So then when I started hiring people,
• 6:51
  He never told me to get workers' comp insurance or something like that. I don't know. It's not a thing in Sweden. And I'm an immigrant here in the US. I was like, what is this? So suddenly I get this penalty letter that says that I now owe the government, I don't remember how many thousands of dollars per week that I haven't had workers' comp insurance. And I had had people on payroll for like a year and a half.
• 7:21
  And it was like per employee per week. And I was just like doing the math and I was like, okay, obviously we're going to pay it. And then I do the math and I'm like, actually we can't. And I look at my bank account and I'm like, ah, and I also had no savings at this time. All my money was tied in my stock options at Uber. So I like, I had no wealth and I was about to pull my hair out. But yeah,
• 7:49
  Luckily, I found a really incredible accountant who is a woman. And she helped me through these and helped me write like a letter for forgiveness and sort of like explain the situation that I had been, you know.
• 8:06
  wrongly advised and that as much as I you know want to pay this penalty it would mean that my business would go bankrupt and 10 people would lose their jobs and I'm asking if there is an alternative way and like I am a first-time founder I am an immigrant that like you know it's like all these things I don't even remember exactly how she worded it but she really
• 8:31
  did an incredible job and then we got a response and they reduced it to like I think I had to pay like five hundred dollars oh my god that is so full-on wow okay lesson learned good accounting I know this is good accountant like literally like your numbers like yeah wow you can't mess that one up
• 8:54
  You can't mess that one up. Holy shit. That's crazy. That's crazy. And the last question is another crazy one. It's just what is a crazy story, good or bad, that you can share from this journey in building your business? That one was already crazy. So I don't know if you've got another one. I mean, another crazy one is that I launched Ceremonia out of the NICU. Out of the what?
• 9:23
  NICU, what is it called? What does NICU stand for again? Intensive care, like natal, like, yeah, yeah.
• 9:34
  Basically the ER for babies. So my, I was highly pregnant when I started working on ceremonia and I had this amazing plan that I was going to launch ceremonia. And then a month later I was going to give birth and I was probably going to go over. So it was going to be a month and a half more likely because I,
• 9:55
  I said that, right? So that was my plan. And it was all going to be Yeah, and it was all going to be perfect. What happened instead is that my daughter came five weeks early. So I go into very sudden labor. And I have my daughter, she ends up at the NICU because she's five weeks early. And then
• 10:17
  She was completely healthy. She just needed, you know, more supervision, et cetera. So like, just want to point that out there and she's a healthy two year old today with a strong will. But bottom line is I was in and out of the NICU and this was during COVID. So when my husband was going in to say hi to the baby, I had to be in the waiting room. We couldn't even go in together.
• 10:39
  It had to be, you know, one at a time. Oh my God. And, you know, full shield and masks, like not what you expect your motherhood journey to be like. And I think because I was so...
• 10:52
  I was so high on life that I had become a mother. I was so proud and I was so obsessed with this little baby. I didn't have space for negativity. So I was like, no, life is awesome. I'm a mom. My baby is here and she's alive and she's getting the best care possible. So we're sticking to the ceremonial launch plan. Don't worry.
• 11:12
  And I am doing an interview with Forbes, like my launch interview with them out of the waiting room at the NICU. And like when I tell this story, it sounds so crazy. And like, everyone is like, oh my God, like, was the baby okay? Are you okay? Like, we were all okay. It was just this weird, like...
• 11:32
  unlock of a superpower. I really felt like unstoppable. And yeah, I love being pregnant. I love giving birth. I love being a mom.
• 11:43
  And it unlocked an incredible source of just like power for me. Magic. It's amazing. Wow. That's another crazy one. That's powerful. My gosh. Superwoman. Cool. Do you have more?
• 12:03
  Oh my gosh, Babba, this was so much fun. Thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show and share your journey. Wow. I'm just so impressed. So amazing. Congratulations on everything that you've achieved so far. Thank you so much for having me and for doing this. Honestly, this podcast is so important and this is exactly what we need more of. So thank you for doing what you do.
• 12:33
  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.
• 12:57
  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.
• 13:20
  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.
• 13:35
  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.
• 14:00
  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.
• 14:22
  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.