Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / DTC vs Retail; Decision Making Frameworks & High-Value Content over Product Related Content with Branch Basics Co-Founder Kelly Love (Part 1)

Transcript

DTC vs Retail; Decision Making Frameworks & High-Value Content over Product Related Content with Branch Basics Co-Founder Kelly Love (Part 1) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Kelly Love for Female Startup Club. Hello and welcome back to the show. It's Dune here, your host and hype girl. Today we are doing another follow-up episode with Kelly Love, co-founder of Branch Basics.
• 0:27
  We first had Kelly back on the show in January 2021, and it is a wild story. I highly recommend a listen, so go back and listen to all the crazy stuff that has happened in her journey so far. In this episode, we're going to be chatting through Kelly's biggest lessons over the last 15-ish years when it comes to her decision-making framework and a lot of stuff around social media and content.
• 0:57
  So many good things packed in here and if you love this episode as much as I did recording it, be sure to let us know by sharing it on Instagram or dropping into our Facebook group with 4,000 other like-minded female founders and small business owners. Alrighty, let's get into it. This is Kelly for Female Startup Club. Kelly, welcome back to the Female Startup Club podcast. Welcome back to the Female Startup Club podcast.
• 1:22
  Thank you. I'm so excited to reconnect. I am so excited too. I always find it so interesting listening back to these episodes from like, you know, three years ago to like listen to the insights and listen to where we're at. It's so interesting. And I'm so excited to bring you back on for the part two.
• 1:42
  Thank you. Thank you for having me. Your story first time around was so juicy, so many different challenges and so many kind of like crazy ups and downs. And everyone should be going back to listen to that episode before they start here.
• 1:57
  I spoke to you in January 2021, and I guess I wanted to kick off the episode with just going through a couple of like, what are the highs and lows been since then? I know that, you know, you'd gone through such a crazy journey. You had built this brand. You had amazing customers. You raised a million dollars. You were doing all the things. Then it kind of all crumbled. Everything changed. You closed the business down for a little bit. Started again. Yeah.
• 2:23
  grew to this amazing, I think in 2022, I read you did something like 27 million in revenue, crazy stuff. What's been going on for you since 2021? I'm like, I'm trying to think, okay, 2021, what year is it now? I'm like, everything's such a blur. It must have been like mid pandemic, right? Like 2021 was still a pandemic kind of year. Well, certainly when I was living in the UK, it was alive and well. Yeah, it was.
• 2:53
  And I have always worked from home, so it kind of all runs together. And that time was obviously a hard time in a lot of ways. But for us as a business and revenue, it was actually a really good time.
• 3:13
  year for us because everyone was cleaning. I can imagine. It feels like a business that was thriving during COVID. Yes. And we're direct to consumer. So we didn't have the whole retail arm to worry about. So that was actually really nice. But yeah, there's a lot that's been going on. And mainly what comes to mind just from a business perspective is just how much our team has grown and the growing pains and just adjustments that come with that.
• 3:42
  Where were you at at that time to like where you are now in terms of the team? I'm trying to think. I don't know exactly where we were at that time. But I know we've hired like at least 10 people in the last few years. And we're like 25 now. And then we have a lot of contractors that we've hired as well.
• 4:00
  So it just feels so different than our early days of for so long running the company with like Allison, Marilee, myself, and then our two partners that are our CFO and CEO. And then our like first marketing hires, she's still with us. And, um,
• 4:17
  It just has been an adjustment going from like all of us making collective decisions to really trying to, you know, have a org chart with making everything as efficient and organized as possible. So it's just been interesting, but it's been good. Upskilling and people management. Yes. It becomes a people management journey from there. Exactly. What's the biggest kind of like department in the company now? Still marketing.
• 4:47
  Our brand marketing team. And I mean, yeah, it's really kind of like our brand marketing team, partnerships, operations, finance, and then, you know, our e-commerce and creative design teams. So that's kind of the bottom.
• 5:04
  the majority of what the groups look like. And is it all still entirely remote or you do have an office somewhere? We do have an office in Minneapolis, Minnesota. That is where our CFO and CEO are. And so that's kind of where the bulk of our employees are, but we really still have a good amount that are spread out all across the country.
• 5:28
  So every, you know, coast to coast. Um, and then I'm in Mississippi, Allison and Marilee are both still in Texas and different cities. So one of the most difficult things, honestly, that I'm still struggling with and I've struggled with for a long time is just, I wish we were all together in the same city. I just feel like it would be so much easier to create content and we'd make decisions quick, you know, more quickly and we'd grow more quickly. Um,
• 5:55
  So that has just been hard. You know, I'm in Mississippi where my husband's from. We love being here. We're a family. But that is constantly something I'm thinking about. Like, do we need to just all move and be together? You know, it would be nice. Would you do that?
• 6:12
  Would you move? I would. My husband's not there yet. The seed is planted. Yes, yes. Well, so, I mean, I'm kind of jumping around, but, you know, Marilee Allison and I have always dreamed since the beginning, you know, since we all came together and had this vision of creating this company, we've always dreamed of having a physical place where people can come experience.
• 6:34
  like what we're talking about, you know, so almost now, you know, now that we've built this brand, like I think of it as a brand experience, you know, a lot of people will build retail stores. And I'm like, no, we want to build an experience where people can come stay in a place that is truly clean and eat truly clean, organic, whole, real food.
• 6:53
  And wear clothes that have only been washed in branch basics that have no fragrances, no synthetic chemicals, no mold, potentially, you know, from people's potentially moldy homes. And experience what we experienced at Merrily's and then be motivated to go home and toss the toxins.
• 7:12
  Oh my God, that sounds amazing. And yeah, immediately I was like, oh, it sounds like that experience when you went to live with Marilee. She's your auntie, right? Or she's Alison's auntie. She is Alison's aunt, yep. And you went and stayed with her during that time, which is, you know, the beginnings of this whole journey. Wow, that sounds amazing.
• 7:29
  I feel like we're going to do it. What year is this happening? When is this on the vision board for? Well, it's pretty awesome. We're at a point now where our team and our company and our model is all just running. We're in a good place. We found good partners. And our operations team has our fulfillment center and our manufacturing all just rolling. And our e-commerce engine is just running.
• 7:58
  And so Allison, Marilee, and I really do get to kind of step back and think about, okay, what is it that we want to do? Like, what project do we really want to pour our hearts and our time and energy into? Yeah.
• 8:13
  As a stepping stone to get to that dream, we have just recently done something we're calling the 10-day stay. And we're taking people for 10 days. Marilyn has found that 10 days is just like an amazing time period when you can really see a shift. And there's something about the blood, the cycle of the blood.
• 8:35
  with 10 days. And so anyway, we were taking people for 10 days and doing what I just described, like putting them in an environment that's been deep cleaned with branch basics. We give them all fragrance free personal care, organic cotton clothes that have only been washed in branch basics, organic cotton bedding that has been only washed in branch basics, um, and only organic, whole real food and lots of fresh air, you know, go to bed early, like,
• 9:05
  minimum screen time. And it is incredible what we've seen already just with the four people we've done it with. So we're very excited. Oh my God, sign me up. That sounds incredible. I know. I mean, like asthma from, you know, a 39 year old who's had asthma since she was five, three days in, has not had to use her inhaler since her asthma's gone. She was using it six
• 9:36
  addicted to sugar, like had to have candy in her purse at all times, like on the hour was the first night she was dreaming about donuts and cakes. And literally was like hallucinating, looking at her plate of, you know, macrobiotic food. And she
• 9:55
  three days in has not had a craving for sugar sense, like has not even had a bite of fruit because she's trying to like really, really not knock this addiction for good. But she, I mean, she feels so happy. She feels like has more energy than she's ever had. It's just incredible. Like what can happen?
• 10:14
  When we give our bodies the chance to be in this environment. Oh my God, that sounds just so amazing. And nourished, you know, so well nourished because a lot of times we try and make these changes when we're just hustling and bustling and it's hard to really nourish our bodies and to give our bodies rest and rest.
• 10:34
  And so we're just trying to provide people the opportunity to do that, knowing that that's not real life every day. But if we can just pause and just give ourselves that time for 10 days, like when you really think about it, like people spend so much money and spend years trying to get better. And it's like if you can just like...
• 10:57
  slow down and take care of yourself and prioritize this for 10 days, like look what can happen. You know, it's pretty incredible. That sounds amazing. It also sounds like a Netflix show, which I'm very excited about for you. I know we, I'm like, I want, this needs to be, this needs to be all filmed. You mentioned something a moment ago, you know, around like kind of your decision-making and making these decisions together. And it's actually the first biggest lessons bucket that I want to jump into, because I think that,
• 11:26
  you know, as entrepreneurs, especially when you're in the early stages, you're kind of starting to learn, you know, this decision making formula that you need to flex over time and get reps in to be, you know, faster decision making and better decision making. And it's kind of only with the power of hindsight that you can really identify, was that a good decision or a bad decision? What did I learn from that decision? And how do I develop that?
• 11:49
  a framework moving forward, even if it's kind of just more like an intuitive in your mind framework going forward to be able to make these decisions and get good at it. So I want to kind of jump into, you know, you as, you know, a co-founder of this business and the decisions that you've had to make, the big decisions over the years. Obviously, there's millions of small ones too, but I was thinking we could start, you
• 12:12
  When you're thinking about the decision to close the business down in 2015 to reformulate and kind of go through that journey, how did you make that decision? Was it easy? Was it tough? Was it a group decision? What was that process like? Yeah. Oh, it was a tough one because we had so much history with this product and we loved it. And we had so many customers that loved it and so many chemically sensitive customers that said, I don't...
• 12:40
  I don't know what else I'm going to use. I can't use anything else that doesn't make me react or feel sick. But at the same time, we knew that we would not be able to grow the business with the product that we were not able to be fully transparent about when we're sitting there telling everyone, look at your ingredient labels. If it doesn't have an ingredient label, that's a red flag. If they're not being transparent, that's a red flag. And so
• 13:05
  Being hamstrung in that way was a huge factor for us. And then we honestly got into a situation where we started...
• 13:15
  manufacturing with other people. And one thing led to another where there was kind of just all these like just disastrous type things happening where kind of relationships and the people we, it was more so the people that we had gotten involved with that started creating turmoil.
• 13:37
  And we were just like, we're done. And they were trying to attack us because we're not going with that formula. So then they start coming after us and attacking our character and attacking our products. And we were just like, this is all too much. We weren't in a place where we could defend ourselves.
• 13:57
  the product and defend everything ourselves because we didn't own it and because we didn't know everything about it. And even though we had toxicology testing and we're so confident it was safe, we were not the manufacturers of it and we did not create the formula. And, um, and so
• 14:14
  We were kind of forced to in a way. And honestly, we're so grateful that happened, you know, because we would have never had the confidence. And I may have mentioned this on the last episode, but we would have never had the confidence to stop selling that and go try and create something on our own. Because we're not business women. Like the three of us were not like business students that were like, we're going to start a business and this is how and here's our, you know, business plan.
• 14:41
  It was like, we want to tell the world that removing products with harmful chemicals out of your home and foods with harmful chemicals can change your life. And an easy first step is cleaning products. And that was our passion. Our why is to help people. And so anyway, we went out on a limb. We shut it down. And we...
• 15:06
  went through a really, really challenging time of letting our employees go, telling our investors that we were shutting down, not knowing that we would for sure find a formula that would, or be able to create a formula that would meet all of our criteria and standards, but hopeful that we would. And then we get audited. It was like, you know, when it rains, it pours. Like we get audited randomly by the government. So then we're having to pay all this money out.
• 15:35
  to, um,
• 15:37
  the legal team and the, you know, finance team, whatever, accountants. And, oh, it was such a mess. Our accountant, like, all of a sudden basically had, like, a midlife crisis and left his family and went to go, like, start growing marijuana and, like, lost all of our documents. Like, it was like, this is a movie. This is crazy. What is happening? Everything was, like, felt like we were just, like, under attack. You had the bad juju.
• 16:06
  Yes, it was not a great time. But again, I look back and I'm just like, oh my goodness, so many lessons learned. And I'm just so thankful we stuck it out because we would not be here today. There were definitely times where we were like, feeling like we wanted to give up. But I will say, gosh, I'm so thankful that we have the three of us because I think if it would have just been me, I don't know if I'd be here today talking to you.
• 16:36
  you're down one day, but someone's able to, you know, be your hype girl, lift you back up. And then the next day you're able to, you know, do that for, for one of your co-founders. That's, yeah, I guess a real blessing to have, you know, strong, strong women in your life. You're able to lean on. Yes. It is such a blessing. And the three of us are still so close
• 16:57
  You know, even though I know a lot of times, you know, people that go into business together, like best friends or whatever, and that it may not be a good thing. But I'm very thankful the three of us are still very, very close.
• 17:09
  Yeah, I love that for you. Another question I wanted to kind of talk about or a topic that I wanted to talk about within the decision-making kind of section is, you know, you are, and you've traditionally been a digital native brand, you made the decision to kind of be D2C and not go down the retail pathway, which is such an interesting kind of model, I guess. Now we're seeing so many of these omni-channel brands and big D2C brands turn to retail. And when we think about like,
• 17:39
  as entrepreneurs, that ability to be, just stay laser focused on our goals and laser focused on like the direction that we choose. When I think about, you know, someone coming to you like a Target or a Whole Foods or these kind of like dream retailers knocking on your door and having that temptation of being like, should we do this? Should we go for it? And like,
• 18:01
  whether you turn that opportunity down or switch focus and kind of move in that direction, because of course, it's like, sometimes it's hard to say no, you're like, Oh, this is amazing. This is huge. It's transformative. How do you kind of approach those decisions, especially choosing like to be a D2C brand? And is it always an automatic no? Or is it still a discussion that you go through? Yeah, great question. So I
• 18:26
  There have definitely been temptations along the way. And we've gotten approached by different retailers knowing that we would probably need to rethink like our product offering because we are a concentrate and it's a higher price tag. You kind of need some explanation. And that's why the direct to consumer is such a nice channel. Like one of the reasons, because we can explain our product, we can show that it,
• 18:55
  it breaks down to make X number of bottles and it actually comes out to be less expensive than a lot of ready to use cleaners. But if you're just walking on a store shelf and you see like a $60 bottle, you're like, what? I'm not buying that. So we would probably need to adjust our product offering. But anyway, and these guys knew that and we could talk about all that.
• 19:26
  keeping our heads down, staying focused on growing the direct-to-consumer channel first and growing that brand awareness so that when we go into retail, we feel ready and confident because we know that is
• 19:40
  retail can be the single biggest risk and also the single biggest reward, you know, like, and so we want to make sure we are ready. And it's a totally different, like infrastructure requirement, like from our team, like we don't have anyone currently in our team that deals with wholesale or, you know, works with buyers and all that stuff. So
• 20:02
  We just knew that we're not ready for it. And we knew that there's so much more potential that we, an opportunity that we have with D2C and that retail will come and we'll, we'll know when we feel ready and we just haven't felt ready yet. And we're, we're getting closer now. I was saying, you know, that now we have all these teams and like,
• 20:21
  We've made so much progress with our operations team and fulfillment and all of that, that we are getting closer. But now it's that debate of like, okay, do we go to Amazon first or do we try and go straight to Costco or Target? You know, because Amazon, you know, in a lot of ways is an easier or kind of like more natural next step because it's still online. We can still educate the consumer.
• 20:47
  One of the things that's really important to us is that customer relationship and even Amazon will lose a lot of that. And so that's why we haven't been quick to jump on the Amazon train.
• 20:58
  But back to like the earlier question, one of the reasons why we felt like we weren't done yet when we shut down the company is because we've always been passionate about our mission and what we believed in. And we believed we have such a valuable message to share. Like we know that the education and the message that we have to share can change lives. And we've never doubted that. We're so confident in that. And so yeah.
• 21:26
  knowing that we have the ability to educate and share that information direct to consumer is what has kept us there. And we've really wanted to make sure our products are like ready before we go to retail and not just like whip something together or whip up a new product offering or a new label that makes sense for the retail shelves or new bottle package. But like really give that opportunity.
• 21:54
  the time and thoughtfulness and attention that deserves. And like, gosh, it's hard to, to formulate products that are really, really clean and that fit our standards. So, I mean, you may have seen, we've come out with dishwasher tabs that are plastic free, and we've come out with a new gel hand soap. And even
• 22:16
  those two products like took us a lot of time to formulate and even our dishwasher tabs like we're still making tweaks too because that's a really hard product because everyone has different water and different what dishwasher type um so that was really tricky but anyway my point is is you know we feel like we need to spend the time up front getting our product offering really really nailed down
• 22:41
  before we go into retail and take on that risk so that we don't just like get on an end cap and we're celebrating like, woohoo, we got in. And then all of a sudden, like this problem arises or this problem arises and then we lose that chance. Right. I guess, yeah, it's like two separate businesses almost because it requires such different teams and logistics and operations. If you were to think about, you know, if you were starting a brand tomorrow, or if you were thinking
• 23:11
  Do you recommend kind of just focusing on D2C or would you focus on both from the get-go? Like, would you kind of like... I recommend D2C. And we've talked with multiple brand owners and founders.
• 23:26
  that have just been really impressed and like congratulatory, I guess, for us like staying D to C because we do have that customer relationship. Like we own that customer relationship and we, we have the ability to like grow our following in so much more of a way that, you know, retail shelves don't offer. And yeah,
• 23:55
  Yeah, we view ourselves as a lifestyle brand more than just a consumer packaged goods brand. And that's what's creating our loyalty and, you know, to the point where whatever product we come out with next, like we feel like we have this customer base that wants it, you know, and because they trust us. And so there's just a lot of advantages on top of the margins and the logistics that comes with C2C.
• 24:23
  And in the ability to kind of test things out more quickly, like we can test things out in a way that is like a low hanging fruit or a low risk scenario. Let's say we wanted to do a limited time offer like we did that last year, for example, with a candle. We did a beeswax candle because we talk a lot about fragrance free and.
• 24:46
  A lot of people struggle with giving up their fragrant candles. So we wanted to offer a beeswax candle that gives you that ambiance and the feel of lighting a candle, but actually purifies your air instead of polluting it. And so we did a small test run and they sold out super fast and people loved them. And so now we are like gearing up to launch that in the fall with like a larger manufacturing run.
• 25:15
  So it's just a nice like way to be able to test things out in a low risk scenario and prove out the concept before you kind of like we're big believers in trying to prove the concept before trying to prove scale. Yeah, I love that. So key. Customer feedback loop, test, iterate.
• 25:33
  Yeah. Evolve, launch. Yep. Before I segue, I'm going to use that as a segue to go into kind of the next biggest lesson bucket I want to talk about, which is like content and social media, which I know is very much like your bread and butter and things that you love within the business. But I just wanted to quickly ask you.
• 25:50
  on that kind of topic of testing different ideas, I noticed on your website, you have that $5 trial kit. And I just wanted to know, like, is that kind of something that is a big, you know, driver to acquire new customers by giving that ability to offer something to test out at a very low price point? And like how, just that kind of strategy there? Yeah. You know, we, we,
• 26:15
  have it, I would not say it like we do sell a good amount of it, but I would say we by far have more people that just jump into the starter kit. And we offer a 60 day money back guarantee. So we tell people if you are not satisfied, if you don't love it, like let us know and we'll refund you or we'll work with you.
• 26:36
  So because of that, I think that's also a reason why people jump into the starter kit. But also we work with a lot of influencers and that's one of our biggest marketing avenues. And the influencers that we work with are often promoting starter kits. Like we focus our effort with them, our coupon codes with them.
• 26:59
  on starter kits. And so that's the majority of our first time customers, you know, trying that. Because also with the shipping, you know, the free shipping $39 and over kind of is a barrier to that $5 trial kit, but it is there if we need it. And you know what, a
• 27:21
  love ordering trial kits to give to friends and family. So they'll order like a multiple at a time and then hand it out to their friends and family and spread the word. So that's been really nice. Oh, I love that. Because people get hooked on it and they love it and they toss the toxins and then they go to their friends' houses or their family's houses and they're like, oh my goodness, this stuff is so strong.
• 27:43
  And so they want to try and get their friends and family on board with French physics. That's like next level word of mouth marketing. That's like, no, I can't just tell you about it. You need to experience it and go from there.
• 27:54
  Let's switch gears and talk about content and social media. You have such a huge audience. You have such a huge reach across Instagram and TikTok and probably a lot of other channels too. But I wanted to kind of start on the content bucket for this course that you have called Toss the Toxins and kind of what the impact of that has been introducing that. I know like to give everyone listening a little bit more perspective, you mentioned earlier you're like a lifestyle brand online. Yeah.
• 28:21
  I can see why your content does so well and why you have such a big audience because you just provide such high value videos that aren't screaming about the product or it's necessarily not linked to the product. It's about ways that you can incorporate different hacks and kind of things into your life to, you know, remove the toxins out of whether it's, you know,
• 28:41
  the beauty cabinet or the kitchen or whatever. And I can see why that content just does so well. So I wanted to talk about the toxins course and kind of how you came up with that and what the impact has been. Yeah. Well, thank you for bringing that up because that is a passion project. Marilee, Allison and I, you know, we are thrilled when people buy branch basics. We're really thrilled when you tell us the toxins. And, um, and by that saying, we just mean, you know,
• 29:11
  going through your home and getting the products that have harmful chemicals out. A lot of times we'll start to buy new cleaner products, but still leave old ones lying around or have stuff shoved in the back of our cabinets and drawers and
• 29:30
  in closets and in our garage and in our laundry room that we may not even use anymore, but it's impacting our air quality. And so whether you're using it or not, we just want to encourage people and empower and equip people to, first of all, just think about the products that we have in our home. Because so often we don't really, we just kind of look at what it's used for and we bring it in and we don't really...
• 29:54
  look at the ingredients, but then also like, which ones are we actually using and not? So when Marilee was healing her son of his,
• 30:08
  you know, so-called irreversible brain and immune system damage. She realized that all of these products release, you know, volatile organic compounds into the air, VOCs, when she was walking down the cleaning products aisle at the grocery store. And you can smell all those. You can probably smell them now just thinking about walking down that aisle. You know, and those are sealed and closed. And so it hit her.
• 30:36
  that even the stuff that she had been hanging on to, like perfumes and nail polishes and different things, were hindering her son from his turning point for recovery. And when she got out that last box of stuff, that's when he was finally able to come in and stay inside. And so...
• 30:57
  Her son fully recovered. She started consulting clients, you know, for 30 years. And no matter what the health concern, it always, she always came back to just starting with removing the products with harmful chemicals. Better air means better health. So when we can improve our home's indoor air quality, we're going to have a better
• 31:15
  It improves our health. And we kind of just boiled it down to this concept of removal and tossing the toxins. And so often we think about, okay, what supplement can I start taking? What air purifier should I buy? What things should I add to my life? And we're trying to just get people to think, okay, let's just simplify. Let's take things away. Let's give the body a break from all this stuff. And we're not asking you to throw it away.
• 31:44
  Like if, you know, in our course, we have one of our videos is about just putting things in a stair light box container. So like a big plastic bin with the lid and just putting it outside for, for a month and see how you feel. And so you don't even have to get rid of it, but at least get it out of your, your space. And, you know, I, I,
• 32:07
  totally acknowledge that oftentimes going around your house and putting stuff in a box, like that's the easy part or can be it's the replacing that often feels overwhelming. And so that's one of the reasons why we love our concentrate model for cleaning, because it provides the opportunity to easily replace dozens of different cleaning products with like one concentrate and one oxygen boost powder. But
• 32:33
  for all the other stuff, we have resources, we have blog posts, we have a list on our website and on our course website. And then we have a Slack channel for community and for support where you can say, Hey, I, what makeup do y'all use? Or I'm, you know,
• 32:50
  I'm feeling this. My husband really doesn't want to get rid of his deodorant. Have y'all found anything like, you know, a guy's deodorant that you love? Like, it's just really cool creating this space for people to have a community that are wanting to make these changes. And so it's not just the education, but it's also the community. And it's just, it's been really great and valuable.
• 33:13
  And I feel like, you know, in a place like a Slack group and those kind of like closed communities, that's where you can also just get so much interesting content that filters across into your, you know, content that lives on social media and things like that. I'd love to understand a little bit about, you know, your strategy when it comes to Instagram and TikTok and TikTok shop, if you've started using it and kind of what your approach is to those channels.
• 33:38
  Yeah. So we, it's funny you said all that because we're actually in the process of putting together content based on some of these individuals that have gone through our course and telling their stories. And they're so fired up about their lives being transformed that they want to inspire others. They want to encourage others and share their story. So it's been really cool to just connect with these people and see
• 34:07
  you know, how we want to create like an army. It's like as they're experiencing this transformation and they want to tell their friends and family and then they tell their friends and family. And that's how we want to eventually, you know, create a movement around this.
• 34:21
  But yeah, as far as TikTok and Instagram and Pinterest go, we actually have really focused on Instagram for so many years that we were kind of just now really getting more serious and more like planful about TikTok and Pinterest.
• 34:38
  We actually had a team update today with kind of some exciting just growth on those channels. But Instagram has been our platform that Allison and I have gotten on for years and are very comfortable with now. And it's funny because we're like, we're not influencers. Like we don't want to like,
• 34:58
  feel like we have to like create content out of our lives all the time. But at the same time, we really want to share what we do because we want to help people. And so I think people really can tell that it comes from a genuine, authentic place and they just want to see what we do in our lives, like how we, how we're able to, how we,
• 35:16
  feed our families and buy cute clothes that are not toxic and, you know, just all these different things. And so we really just view it as like getting on and sharing our lives. Like we've never had like a real strategy other than that. And I think really what we've just been trying to figure out and balance over the years is that the balance between brand and influencers, because we don't want it to build the brand
• 35:44
  You know, on Allison and I being, you know, quote unquote influencers, we want the brand to have its own, you know, credibility and standing and all that. So it is a balance, but it has been really cool to see the growth and the potential that
• 36:05
  the social media community has when we get on and share about lifestyle stuff. Because when I look at other brands that maybe have really beautiful, buttoned up, picture perfect feeds, it's beautiful and it's awesome. But typically, there's not near as much engagement and near as much following as the ones that have the real life kind of feel to them.
• 36:34
  So we're able to offer both. Yeah. I think in today's world, we're kind of moving away from polished. People want the real, just like the actual, you know, the actual stuff. So true. If you had any advice to give, you know, an early stage founder about social media and about content and organic content, what would you say to an early stage founder who's just kind of getting started, who's overwhelmed with all the things, but, you know, knows the power of,
• 37:03
  social media channels like Instagram, like TikTok, like Pinterest? What would your advice be? Yeah. I would say like, get on there and share yourself. Like you're like, not just outsource it all to a team, but like you yourself as a founder, not that you have to run it and post everything and, you know, be the one completely managing it, but get on there and be real and be authentic, share the struggles, share the wins.
• 37:32
  and share, you know, life and connect with your audience and, you know, ask them what they're thinking about a product that you're thinking about or their feedback on something and engage with them. I think so often we can get wrapped up in all the day to day business stuff. And I'm, I mean, I'm guilty of this too. Sometimes I'll just be like, oh, I'm so busy. And I like, I feel like I haven't been on social media in a while.
• 38:02
  Um, but I just have seen the value when I do take that time to get on. And I've thankfully gotten to a point where, um,
• 38:15
  it's just become more natural. And so I would say that too, is like I totally get the whole like feeling of like, this just feels awkward or like, this is not me, but it does get more natural. And I honestly just get on there and talk, act like I'm like talking to a friend or act like I'm talking to myself. Like I don't even think about all the different people in the different scenarios.
• 38:36
  Like if I were to think about like my father-in-law watching me, I'd feel like awkward and embarrassed. But like I just get home and just talk and I think about the people that want to hear this. Like that's what, you know, my mind is focused on. It's just like I know there are people that that want to hear this and that would benefit from it. And and if I believe that I'm offering something that's truly of value, then I'm going to do it.
• 39:02
  Where I did not like for me personally was just sharing things that I felt like were kind of the Instagram things to share or like my cute kids or whatever. And that I kind of got burned out about. And I'm kind of like, nope, I'm just going to share when I feel like it's actually valuable or I want to or I have something I really want to say.
• 39:26
  Yeah. And I think as well, like for me, I always say like, and you kind of touched on this, not so much when it comes to like your father-in-law, but like you're speaking to the people who want the help and are looking for it. But I also think of it like, you know, if you impact just one person, like we get caught up in this like, oh, we need to...
• 39:42
  I have a mass approach and thousands of people need to get the message and all this kind of thing. But actually, if you speak to this one person that actually needs that information and you help that one person and you compound that over years of reaching another one person here and another one person there, like it's so powerful to help one person. And when you just think of like that one person who needs it.
• 40:03
  I think that makes it less scary. And you're so right that it's awkward in the beginning, but if you just get those reps in, like eventually it becomes more comfortable and second nature. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And
• 40:17
  It is so interesting to see when we talk about our product versus when we talk about all the lifestyle stuff. I mean, even just like breaking it down to just basic numbers, like on views, like the views on our content that is about.
• 40:36
  healthy lifestyle education, healthy living is so much higher than when we're just trying to like, say, here's what our product does, or here are some key features of our product, you know? Um, and so, um,
• 40:50
  I absolutely am a believer in trying to like bring in more of like a bigger purpose and a bigger message than just talking about your product all the time. People will get fatigued about that. And I'm sure all of your followers, you know, your audience knows that. But I just want to confirm that that is definitely true or that's definitely like true to us or what we've seen.
• 41:12
  So totally. I always ask myself as well. And I say this to, you know, my, my coaching clients, it's like, think about your own consumer behavior and your own behavior on social media. Like you don't want to see a brand being like, Hey, I've got one, two, three, four, five features. You want to be like, Oh, cool. Like, this is a really interesting piece of content that I'm like going to stop scrolling to view. And then maybe I go deeper into that journey and learn more about this specific brand. Right. Totally. Yeah. Wait, I love that you just said go deeper into that
• 41:43
  One of the ways that we think about
• 41:47
  our business model is like, we like to sneak our way into people's homes with the cleaning product, but then talk about like all the other healthy living things, you know, it's like the cleaning products, our way to get in the door. But then, um, you know, we hope that they start thinking about like other things that they can be doing other changes they can make. Um, and that's when they want to come back for more and they come to our blog and, um,
• 42:13
  Um, you know, it's just like they find it to be a wealth of information and then they share that content and then, you know, just keeps the flywheel going. Totally. Transformation. I love it. Gosh, you've said so many gems inside these biggest lessons buckets.
• 42:35
  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.
• 42:59
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• 43:22
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