Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / What’s an angel syndicate, first hires & what happens to 60% of girls when they hit puberty with Taran Ghatrora, Co-Founder of Blume

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What’s an angel syndicate, first hires & what happens to 60% of girls when they hit puberty with Taran Ghatrora, Co-Founder of Blume · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Taryn Gattroura for Female Startup Club.
• 0:12
  Hey everyone, it's me, Dune, your host and hype girl. Today I'm chatting with Taryn Gattroura, co-founder of Bloom. We're talking through the decisions she made early on to completely pivot the brand in a new direction, how to finance your company using an angel syndicate, what happens to 60% of girls when they go through puberty, and who her first hire was.
• 0:35
  If you haven't heard of Bloom before, it's the outspoken skin, body, and period collective for Gen Z and beyond. Made with gentle, safe, and effective clean ingredients, their community-curated self-care essentials are made for all skin types with sensitive ones in mind. Bloom celebrates real skin as they continue to amplify acne positivity, healthy skin, and skin barrier protection.
• 1:01
  This women-led team of 11 is on a mission to make periods and self-care easier and healthier while smashing taboos about acne periods, puberty, and sex ed. Nothing is off limits.
• 1:14
  At the end of this episode, Taryn talks about the importance of network and surrounding yourself with other female entrepreneurs who are building businesses. And that's why we are launching our private network for women who are building product based e-com businesses. So if that's you, pop your name on our wait list to claim a founding member spot when we launch at femalestartupclub.com forward slash wait list. Let's get stuck into it. This is Taryn for Female Startup Club.
• 1:44
  Taryn, hey, hello. Welcome to the Female Startup Club podcast. Hi, I'm so excited to be here. Me too. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us today. I always love to start by getting you to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what your business is.
• 2:02
  Absolutely. So my name is Taryn and I am co-founder of Bloom. Bloom is a direct-to-consumer startup that creates self-care products. All of our products are vegan, cruelty-free, and most important of all, they're effective.
• 2:19
  And we started Bloom to change the stat that 60% of women told us that they could pinpoint their self-esteem plummeting as they went through puberty. And so we really wanted to create a brand that not only makes products, but also changes the narrative and bashes taboos and stigmas and ultimately changes the stat. So we always show real skin in our campaigns. We never retouch photos.
• 2:44
  We do lots of education, everything from sex ed to skincare education. We do things like meditation Mondays on our Instagram. And yeah, really just our whole mission is geared towards building self-confidence and self-esteem through products that truly work and that you can trust, but also shifting the narrative. That stat is so crazy. It's so much higher than I would have thought.
• 3:12
  Yeah, most, like what we found out was that most girls drop out of, like the age group that they drop out of STEM fields. So science, technology, engineering, and math, the age group that they drop out of those fields is between nine and 12. And it's not the same for boys. So it's just like...
• 3:32
  When I think back to being a teenager and like when I got my first period, like started to get acne, the insecurities that I felt, it definitely affected my hobbies and just things that I was looking forward to. Because it kind of in some ways, like if you're not getting the right education at that time, or like if you're not talking about those things, it can kind of hold you back from anxiety.
• 3:55
  playing sports or, you know, that kind of thing. So I think, you know, it's definitely not the case for everyone, thankfully, but it is something that's super common. And I, with like the school system in the U S and everything, only nine States across the U S mandate medically accurate sex ed to be taught to students. So that's another big thing as well. Yeah. It's pretty. Nine. Did you say what? Nine. Yeah. I don't know what it's like in the UK, but
• 4:23
  pretty abysmal in the U S so yeah, it's interesting, but I think, you know, in some ways things are getting a lot better and you see like all of these amazing educators on Tik TOK now, which is fantastic. Like gynecologists, dermatologists. Um, but then at the same time on, on the flip of it, there's like this, like, you know, so much use of like,
• 4:43
  Instagram filters and retouching and Photoshop and all of that as well, which contributes to that stat that we talked about. So yeah, just wanting to let Bloom to be like a voice in that world and really meeting our community where they are and supporting them through that time period.
• 5:00
  Yeah, totally. Wow. Can you take us back to the time when this was just the aha moment? Like what led to, were you reading about this statistic? Were you asking people like, what made you actually think like, oh, this is what we're going to start here? Yeah. So we actually started a slightly different version of the company before we launched Bloom. And so how that company started was
• 5:28
  I was in law school and I was in my third year. I was actually in the UK. I was in Wales and I lived there for three years. And yeah, in my final year, I was learning about girls in developing countries missing school due to their period and not having access to education.
• 5:48
  like the right hygiene products. And so like, this was kind of like a thesis where it was like optional topics that people could pick, but because I was like focused on human rights at the time, I had kind of just ended up like choosing this topic in a roundabout way anyway. So I stumbled upon this topic and then I was super shocked to find out that it was like 25% of girls in, in developing countries that
• 6:09
  were like experiencing this, obviously it has huge repercussions on like their future and everything. And through that, because I like was going down the rabbit hole of learning about that, I then also started reading about periods in North America and just the lack of transparency around ingredients in pads and tampons, especially around this time, which was like 2016, 2017. Mm-hmm.
• 6:32
  And so I started a subscription box company. I called my sister with this idea and started a company where we were delivering organic pad and tampon subscriptions just in Canada because it was hard to find those products at that time. They weren't that accessible. And so we were still students. We were bootstrapping the company.
• 6:52
  Packing boxes in the evening. I moved back here, like back to Canada shortly after and just was working on the company with her. But we still had our jobs and everything. And we were like using our credit card debt to fund the company. And so that was kind of the first aha moment that started happening.
• 7:08
  me down this path of starting the company. And then through that, we had surveyed our community, found out that stat, found out that it was actually congruent with a larger study that the American Medical Association had done. So that's kind of what led us to starting Bloom because our community had shared with us other products that they wanted to see in the personal care space.
• 7:31
  to fill white spaces and just like there was they loved the boxes that they were receiving so much every month but because we were so close to that community we did so much like research talking to them about what else they'd want to see from us.
• 7:46
  Got it. So was this the first version of the company? Was it still called Bloom? Like, did it look the same or was this like totally different business? It was a totally different business. Got it. Right. And how many customers are we talking about? Like, was it, had it kind of started to take off or was it kind of in a point where you were happy to be like, yeah, okay, we're going to pivot and start the next thing?
• 8:09
  So, I mean, it was a real business. Like, I think we were doing like maybe $30,000 a month in revenue, which is obviously a lot smaller compared to Bloom. But at the time, because we had bootstrapped it and we were students, like it felt like a very real business to us. Yeah. Especially because like we didn't expect it to be anything, you know. So it was actually really, really hard and not an easy decision to do.
• 8:33
  like shut down that business and start Bloom, I remember it actually being like the hardest thing ever. Like we were so nervous, but what we did was we built Bloom in the background while we were still very much running that company. And then once Bloom was like ready to go and be launched, we wrote like a letter to our customers and actually we still offer pads and tampons. So they were able to like switch over and we just like grandfathered people's pricing and gave them like
• 9:01
  you know, special discounts if they had been with us before and everybody was really supportive and excited. So it worked out. Wow. Holy moly. That's so cool. I'm really interested to understand more around like how you actually made the decision. Like what was the lever to pull to be like, yeah, okay. We think there's a bigger opportunity here versus this thing that's already seemingly doing quite well. Yeah.
• 9:25
  Totally. And that's like when I look back and I'm like, I don't even know how we, it was honestly like a bit of a gut feeling, but also from talking to our community, just kind of having a vision of what Bloom would look like versus the company we had. So it was like, you know, knowing that to reach more people, we wanted to.
• 9:45
  launch more of like, okay, an example is when we were talking to that community of customers and asking them more of what they wanted, they were asking for things like, okay, when I get my period, I also break out and I get acne, but I want an acne spot treatment that isn't going to bleach my pillowcase or like dry out my skin. Cause most acne treatments on the market are like benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid, or they're like sulfur based, like they kind of crack all over your bed.
• 10:12
  And so we set out, we spent a year and a half creating an acne treatment that you could wear under makeup that was actually oil-based, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial. It's like such an incredible product. And then they asked for a natural deodorant that was unscented, which surprisingly...
• 10:32
  You would think that there was a lot more of those out there, but most of the natural deodorants that were available were with fragrance or scented in some way. And so our community actually helped us shape that first line of products. And because we could tell that these were things people really wanted and that we wanted as well, it just felt like the right decision. Wow. That's so cool and so interesting. I love that for you.
• 10:58
  what kind of money did you need to get started to invest into, you know, this year and a half of developing the new products that you were going to release? And how were you financing that in the beginning? Great question. So for the first business, it was, I think we started with like $5,000 between myself and my sister. And
• 11:22
  we used our credit card debt or like parents let us use the basement to like pack our boxes and everything. So I think we're very fortunate to, we weren't taking a salary basement. Yeah, exactly. We're super fortunate that our parents let us live at home rent free at the time and use their basement and all of that. So I think, I mean, how we funded it was with our part-time jobs really, and then our credit cards and stuff. So
• 11:51
  We funded that business that way. And it was honestly, we didn't use a lot of money. It was very bootstrapped. And then we just tried to recycle all of the revenue each month. And then when we knew that we were pivoting the business, we did go out to raise some financing. And actually, this incredible angel investor, his name's Armando, we met him in San Francisco. And he just really believed in what we were doing even before we had launched Bloom. And he gave us...
• 12:19
  the funding along with like some of his community. So they did like basically an angel syndicate, which I'm not sure if you know what that is or like if your community does, and I'm happy to dive in a little bit to that. Yeah, please do. So basically what it is, is there's a website called AngelList and it's actually really cool. It's kind of like crowdfunding, but it...
• 12:38
  like the investment appears as one line on your cap table. So it's almost like a private crowdfunding in a way. So Armando has like a group of other investors that he knows and they, and together they invest in different startups. And so I,
• 12:54
  they formed a syndicate to invest in ours, basically. So they created like an investment vehicle where, you know, maybe there's an angel that has like 10K, not 250. So they're able to contribute that, but still invest in our company. So everyone in the syndicate contributed different amounts.
• 13:09
  And it added up to 250K. So that amount is what really helped us get the business off the ground. So we used it to create the website, launch the first round of products, which had much simpler, more affordable packaging than the products we have now, that kind of thing. And so what that can look like is using label stickers instead of screen printing, for example,
• 13:32
  Right. For the first iteration to just save money. Right. Yeah. So we were able to make that 250k go a really long way. And that's how we had the money to first launch the business and get it off the ground. Wow. When you say you met this guy in San Francisco, how did you meet this guy? And like, did you have to meet loads of different people to find him? Or was it just one of those serendipitous moments where right timing, right place kind of thing? Yeah.
• 14:00
  Yeah, I mean, it's yeah, it probably sounded really strange the way I worded that. But it was through so we did this tech accelerator. And the tech accelerator was called 500 Startups. So lots of people have probably heard of that one. There's a couple big ones in in the valley, like Y Combinator. So we were in 500 Startups. And what they do is they actually introduce you to
• 14:23
  different mentors and investors. And Armando was one of the mentors that they had introduced us to. He had actually done the program for his own startup a few years earlier and then had like sold it and he's building another company now. So there's just a lot of incredible entrepreneurs that we met out there that have this
• 14:41
  wonderful pay it forward mentality where they truly want to see you build something that you believe in. And, you know, of course, if they believe in, they, they would invest. And so that was kind of the experience we had. And I just remember like meeting him, telling him about the business. And actually, I think there was another entrepreneur who had introduced me to him as well. She was a female founder and he had invested in her company a while before, but yeah, he, he,
• 15:05
  I've since introduced him to other like entrepreneurs in my network and, you know, he's supported them in ways or invested and, you know, as is, is that whole community, I would say of so many wonderful people.
• 15:18
  Wow, that's so interesting. And I love how you went from bootstrapping this business and doing really well, but then you've totally pivoted and been like, hey, we're actually going to raise money. We're going to go down a completely different pathway this time and see where it takes us, obviously, to great places, growing a lot faster, I imagine. Yeah.
• 15:40
  I want to talk about that kind of early time where you had obviously customers that had come from your original business through to the next phase of the journey. But how did you then, you know, spread the message further and get it out there even further to the new network of people?
• 16:00
  Yeah, it's a great question. I think lots of different ways for sure. I mean, we did in the early days, especially, but also now we did a lot of education. So we built a whole sex ed program, lots of content. I think Instagram's been a huge channel for us for sure.
• 16:18
  in those early days when you were sort of trial and testing all the different things, what was it that was driving kind of that significant growth and putting you forward into like, you know, leaps forward instead of incremental steps forward?
• 16:31
  I think press helped a lot too. We did get a lot of press in the early days and that just helped us get the word out. People, I remember people were telling us, like, I see Bloom everywhere. And like, we were so surprised at the reach that we were getting. So yeah, press for sure. And our Instagram, we didn't do a lot of like sponsored posts. We did do like some paid ads and things.
• 17:01
  So that was really exciting. Oh, my gosh, that's amazing. Yeah, it was really fun. It was a dream come true. It was pretty incredible. But I will say at that point, we had raised like more funding. Right. Because you did a seed round in 2019, right? Yeah, exactly.
• 17:18
  Let's talk about taking over the subway. What's the kind of cost to do something like that? Like huge scale, you know, mass exposure. I'm sure there's thousands and thousands of people that go through that subway, whichever subway station it was every day. What's it like? Yeah.
• 17:34
  Yeah, I mean, it was scary because it was definitely the biggest marketing expense we had ever invested in. So that was that was for sure scary. I think in terms of like the creative and everything, it was just so much fun, like putting it all together, seeing the brand really come to life on the subway. So that was cool. Yeah, that was just incredible. Around the same time we had.
• 17:56
  like a press event party in New York for our sex ed campaign. So I think the timing was just really great because we got a lot of coverage. So that was very cool. Yeah, I mean, it was definitely our biggest marketing investment ever. So it was all kinds of nerves, but it was also just very celebratory. Our team was so excited. It was super, super cool to see.
• 18:18
  Wow, amazing. That would be so much fun. When you look back at just after that time, were you able to see the ROI, you know, straight away? Or was it more something that was a brand building piece that led to, you know, more press, more, more everything else over time?
• 18:34
  Yeah, that's such a good question. I think it was a bit of both. Like it was a gradual ramp up, but we definitely saw like our CPMs fall and like lots more people were searching for the brand. And I think over that period of time, like we, like with all of our efforts, we kind of had a big marketing push across a lot of channels and we definitely saw an increase in sales at that time. I think also like the ads were up for quite some time. I think
• 19:03
  a little bit longer than we even expected. So that was quite cool. Yeah, I mean, even just for like a while after the period of time that they were supposed to be running, people were texting me saying that they were still seeing the ads. So I think like that was really cool to see as well. I think they just kind of the way that Subway ads work is...
• 19:22
  They don't take them all down at once. It's like as the cars come in, like some ads go down. So I think for all brands, they just some of the ads live on the subway for a little bit longer. So that's just a cool, nice thing. That's so cool. So this was in 2019. When you think about, you know, from 2019 to now, what have been those key moments of growth or like the key turning points in your business moving into the next level? Yeah.
• 19:51
  Key turning points in business. Such a good question. I think like hiring the right people on the team, like just really finding the people that truly believe in the mission and are just incredible and so much better at certain things than Bunny and I. That's definitely just a milestone, I think, for any business and a huge turning point.
• 20:12
  Because you really can't do it all alone. And like for so like for quite some time, it was just Sunny and I. And so I think that's a huge thing. Going into retail for sure, because we started to become omnichannel and not just DTC. And that's obviously a big turning point, like being in Indigo, Urban Outfitters. And then just last month, we launched in over 500 stores in Ulta. Oh, yeah. So congrats. Yeah.
• 20:36
  Thank you. Such a big one. And it makes such a difference to like, you know, our approach to marketing and everything, like lots of things have to change, but.
• 20:47
  obviously, like very pivotal in our growth as well. And then I would say probably new product launches because we haven't launched many new products since we launched the company. We've only done, I think, one real product launch since our original line. And so what's so exciting is that for the rest of this year, we're launching like back-to-back products that we've been working on for like two years. So I think...
• 21:11
  Some of our most exciting times are to come. And during the pandemic, we really wanted to just be there for our community, be there for our team. And we didn't necessarily want to launch tons of products. And so we held a lot of our launches and just worked on them and refined them. And so we're super excited that those will be launching soon. Yeah, I'm excited. I can't wait to see.
• 21:35
  I want to just go back to you were talking about the team and the importance of the people that you bring in. I'm always curious, who was the first person that you hired and what have been some of those key people that you've brought in in terms of role? Yeah, that's a great question. I think the first role that we hired for was actually social media.
• 21:54
  And that's because it was just such a key. Like it's something that for me, I think it's so important for Bloom. Like our community really interacts with us there. They talk to us. They get educated about our products. It's just such a huge channel for us. And so Instagram, I was spending a lot of time on in the early days. And so our first hire was really focused on that. And it just took so much off my plate. But also she was so incredible that really it gave the community the attention that
• 22:22
  they deserved, you know, at that time. And so that was awesome. I think that was like, yeah, I don't know if a lot of people would make that their first hire, but for us, it was the right one. And then that first hire, she also focused on like partnerships as well. So Bunny and I continued to do like the other things like the operations and the product side and all of that. And then from there,
• 22:46
  I think other key hires, I think definitely like ahead of growth and ahead of email marketing, like those were big ones. Partnerships I mentioned, we have an influencer lead now. Wholesale, of course. Customer service. Yeah, so many key roles. Yeah. When you were talking about your partnerships, what are some of the partnerships that have been most successful and most exciting to you?
• 23:13
  Oh my gosh. My favorite partnership we've ever done is with an artist named Sarita Walsh. And she's a designer and she's also an artist. And we created this water bottle with her art on it. And it's kind of like an old school Nalgene bottle. And it has like
• 23:30
  all of these beautiful shapes and self-care like reminders. So it's almost like you can have it on your desk. It's really beautiful. Yeah. It's so nice. It like reminds me to drink water and stretch and all of that. And our community absolutely loved it. It sold out twice. We're waiting for a third restock.
• 23:49
  Um, yeah, so that's probably been my favorite partnership. She was so great to work with. Her art is just so, so incredible. Yeah. So that one was probably my most favorite. I love that. Sometimes we can get caught up talking about all the highlights, all the good stuff that's going on. But obviously as an entrepreneur, there are so many hurdles. There are so many challenges. There are so many mistakes. Is there a time you can share when things haven't
• 24:18
  are we going to keep going kind of thing? Yeah, I mean, all the time. So I think it's sometimes hard to think of a specific example. But let me think about that. It just happens so much. I feel like as a founder, you're constantly problem solving, like just on a daily basis. There's always something. Totally. I think this year has been really tough with COVID.
• 24:43
  the supply chain issues. And even now with, you know, I know the media is kind of talking about COVID like it's over or just like the pandemic, I guess, but it very much from a business perspective, we're still seeing a lot of the effects. The ports are very backed up. Lead times are longer.
• 25:04
  And MOQs, which are minimum order quantities, have gone up. So for an example of that would be, you know, in the past, if you were to order a certain type of packaging, the minimum order quantity might be 10,000, but now they've upped it to 50,000 because they just have so much demand and prices have gone up. Yeah, it's honestly...
• 25:24
  I think that those things have been really tough on the operational and supply chain side this year. And even the cost of like certain raw materials has gone up, things like that. So I think definitely still seeing the after effects of the pandemic in that sense, for sure. And just a strain on like global supply chain. So that's been very tough, like planning for that because forecasting, you know, as a small business that's growing globally.
• 25:48
  can already be quite tricky. But, you know, when you throw these kind of supply chain issues into it, it's like, okay, do we overstock our bestsellers? Like, do we, like, how do we think about order quantities? Do we change the packaging up? Like that kind of thing. So that's been quite challenging. Do you have to also then think, oh, we might have to raise our prices or do you have to be like, we just have to sink the cost and, you know, hope we can move forward? Like what's the kind of...
• 26:14
  standard thing to do here in a time that's obviously not standard? It's a good question. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. I think for us, we are kind of waiting to see if things stabilize a little bit or if, you know, some of these price increases are permanent. Yeah.
• 26:30
  In some other ways this year, we've actually become more efficient at Bloom because we've just been able to streamline. We took some time to just streamline other parts of our supply chain more and our shipping and our fulfillment. So for us, the cost kind of balanced out in that sense.
• 26:46
  But, you know, if things kind of continue to trend in this direction, then I'm not sure. Like, I'm really hoping that we don't have to raise any prices. So we'll see. And this is across the board, right? Like, it's not just affecting you as a brand and as founders. It would be affecting everyone who's, you know, got a supply chain overseas. Yeah.
• 27:04
  Yeah, exactly. And that's, I think like from what I'm hearing, it is like every space, like, I don't know if you've heard, but there's like a lumber shortage and things like that. So hopefully, you know, it's just the way things are right now. And then they'll obviously start to get back to a better place. But yeah, I think it's also, there's lots to learn from this time period as well. And, you know, just lots of things that maybe we all took for granted before that we can appreciate so much more going forward. I feel like I shop local a lot more now.
• 27:34
  I was just going to say that. Yeah. Yeah. I'm much more mindful of like, who's behind the businesses that I'm shopping from and, you know, wanting to really support small and local businesses as much as I can. And that's felt really good, especially because being a small business owner myself, I know how much it means.
• 27:53
  Absolutely. And I think making more intentional choices overall, it's just you learn more about brands, you get educated on what your contribution is to the planet based on what you're buying, all that kind of stuff. And I think that it's so true now that we're starting to understand that so many small brands are suffering. You need to really support by putting your dollars there so that our favorite brands don't go away. Totally.
• 28:22
  Where is the business today in terms of size of the team, how big you are, what's kind of coming up that you can shout about and let us in on?
• 28:33
  Yeah. So we have a team of about 10 people right now. We are launching, I think the most exciting thing is that we're launching more retail relationships and products for the rest of the year. So we've really been working hard on these launches. And I feel like for me, what energizes me the most is launch days. And honestly, a lot of people on our team too. It's what we look the most forward to. It's just so exciting seeing people's reactions and getting new product in their hands and hearing what they think of it. And
• 29:03
  We've really been working hard to create products that we feel like are truly filling white spaces that don't already exist and can just like add to our line for people with sensitive skin and acne. Because that's really what most of our products are geared towards. And they just provide a lot of hydration and like calming for people.
• 29:22
  like sensitive skin issues in general. And our products are like very much anti-inflammatory and use ingredients like black cumin seed oil and chamomile. So all of our products have that common thread in mind where we're really focused on creating products that are great for people with sensitive skin and an acne prone skin as well. So yeah, that's what's up on the horizon. Super excited about this omni-channel approach and expanding retail as well.
• 29:51
  For sure. Absolutely. Will you have to go towards like another raise in the near future? Or are you able to keep using the money from 2019 to push you forward in addition with your revenue? Yeah, great question. Right now we're not raising more money. We feel like we can kind of continue to grow from here without doing another fundraise, but that might change in the future.
• 30:16
  Cool. What advice do you have for women who are earlier on in their entrepreneurial journey and need a little bit of words of wisdom?
• 30:27
  Yeah, great question. I think the advice that I always give that's helped me the most. So two, I think the first one is just like, always go back to your why, like when in doubt, really having a strong mission has helped me continue because I think the what often changes and the world especially now changes so quickly that, you know, having a strong why is so important because it's what really keeps you going every day, keeps you rooted and
• 30:54
  like just, I think for me, like helps to like prevent burnout and everything. So that's been the most important. And then second, I think that like, I wouldn't be here if I hadn't surrounded myself with other incredible entrepreneurs, because just having their support, knowing you're not alone, sharing those experiences, the wins, the highs, the lows, I think that
• 31:18
  it really does take a village. So true. So just surrounding yourself with the right people. And of course, that's not just entrepreneurs, the other people in your life that you love that you support, and they support you. And then for me, like I said, it's also been a game changer to have incredible founders in my life as well, because it just makes you realize that you're not alone and that everything's going to be okay. And others have gone through this before and
• 31:48
  Okay, so at the end of every episode, we ask a series of six quick questions, some of which we might have covered, but we just cover them quickly all the same. So question number one is, what is your why? Why are you doing what you're doing?
• 32:03
  Yeah, I mean, my why is the one I told you at the beginning to change the stat that 60% of women can pinpoint that their self-esteem plummets as they go through puberty. And I just really want girls and women to be able to focus on the things that they're passionate about as they grow up and not be as stressed about their period or their appearance and all of these things that society like makes feel very taboo as if they're not okay to talk about because they are.
• 32:33
  Mm-hmm. Question number two is, what do you think has been the number one marketing moment that made the business pop? Gosh, that's such a good question. I don't know if this was the number one, but it was pretty up there. Gigi Hadid found our deodorant. We don't know how, but she posted it on her Instagram as one of her pregnancy favorites and like the only deodorant that she used throughout her pregnancy. Yeah.
• 33:00
  I saw that. So cool. It was honestly unreal. Our team absolutely freaked out because we just don't even know, like it wasn't sponsored. We didn't gift her nothing. Like we just woke up to that one day and it was very, very exciting. And it was a pretty major marketing moment because all these press outlets wrote about it and they've been like writing about her self-care routine and her skincare routine. And it's just been really cool to see Bloom included in that.
• 33:26
  Oh my gosh, that's so cool. Did you actually see it yourself? Or did you get like a random text from someone being like, oh my God, look. My sister actually called me and she like, her voice was shaking. So it's like, oh my gosh, is everything okay? And then she told me and yeah, it was, it was so exciting. We were screaming. Oh, that's so cool.
• 33:48
  Question number three, where do you hang out to get smarter? What are you reading or listening to or subscribing to that others would benefit from knowing about?
• 33:58
  That's a good question. I would say, yeah, I love podcasts for sure. And books. So especially in the early days, sadly, I don't feel like I have as much time now to read as many books as I did. But I read a lot of startup books. And I still do. I love, love, love reading founder bios.
• 34:21
  Um, shoe dog by Phil Knight, the founder of Nike is my absolute favorite. I always go back to that one. Um, so yeah, books for sure. And then I would say podcasts. I love how I built this, which I know is a really popular one for founders, but yeah, I would say podcasts and books. Such a good place to hang out. Also love podcasts and books. Do you have any favorites?
• 34:44
  Oh my gosh, so many. So at the moment, I'm really into My First Millions with, or My First Million rather, with Sean Puri and Sam Parr. Sam Parr is the founder of The Hustle and Sean is a guy who sold his company to...
• 35:02
  He founded Bebo and he sold it to I don't remember who. And now he's the CEO of Twitch, I'm pretty sure. And so they just have these really cool stories with like all sorts of cool people. Really loving that. What else am I loving at the moment?
• 35:19
  I don't know. I'm reading books that aren't business related, more just books for joy, like easy kind of chick lit books. And I love it. I love reading for pleasure. It reminds me of holidays. I totally agree. I feel like with the pandemic and everything, I've been like less able to like, just be constantly like, you know, reading work related things. You need a bit of an outlet, I think, because also it gets a bit, your day is just like,
• 35:46
  Learning, learning, learning, like growing, growing, growing. And you need to do things that are good for the soul. Exactly. Yeah, I agree. Question number four on that note is how do you win the day? What are your AM and PM rituals or habits that keep you feeling happy and successful and productive and motivated? That's such a good question.
• 36:09
  mornings, I actually have had a morning routine since law school. And I've honestly like, would not be me without it. So for me, it's just, I do morning pages, which is, I got it from the book, The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. And I write, I free write for like three or four pages in the morning and just do a big brain dump, which just helps me feel more clear before I start the
• 36:35
  I'm a really big fan of breath work. So it's not something I do every day because honestly, like sometimes I just don't even know like I want to be, but I try to meditate or do breath work most mornings. And then of course, like huge coffee drinker. It's like the first thing I do. And then I actually read a page of the daily stoic in the morning and I write in my five minute journal. So it kind of sounds like a lot, but really all of that doesn't take me longer than 20 minutes. And I pretty much just do it all in bed.
• 37:05
  Other than that, I think like walking my dog throughout the day and getting some sunshine. I try to do walking calls as well. So I'm not just on Zoom all day. That helps. I love playing tennis. Yeah, I feel like those are the things that got me through like work from home in the pandemic for sure. Like the dogs definitely helped.
• 37:24
  Totally. I love that you mentioned the five minute journal. Shout out to Alex and Mimi. Love their products. Love them a lot. So great. Mimi's coming on the show soon. Cool. Oh, do you know them? Yeah. They live in London, right? Yeah. Yeah. They're friends of ours. We're lucky to know them. They're such lovely people. Such an incredible journal that they created. It's so, so good. No, it's so good.
• 37:50
  Question number five is if you received $1,000 of no strings attached grant money, where in the business would you spend it? I would probably try a sponsored influencer post because we haven't done one in so long. And I...
• 38:08
  I'm just so risk averse with it, but I feel like, honestly, it's the way to go. Like, I feel like it would work for some people, but it just feels like a bit of a gamble because sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. So I would probably test with like an influencer that I really love and trust their recommendations. Amazing. Love that. And question number six, last question. How do you deal with failure? What's your mindset and approach when things don't go to plan?
• 38:37
  Oh man, it's always hard. I think even when you know that like this journey is going to be full of failures and rejections, it's still hard when it happens and it's difficult, I think, not to be hard on yourself. How I deal with it though is honestly,
• 38:53
  I just try again. And of course, like if it's not that particular thing, like the thing that I failed at, I'll just try again and like another aspect of the business. And I think it's just about like every time you get knocked down or punched in the face, getting back up. And like, I feel like this COVID year has taught me that more than ever, because I definitely think we've seen more hard times in the business than ever.
• 39:16
  ever before. So yeah, I think also just giving yourself the grace to rest when you're tired. And you know, just if you need to call it a day that day and go do something fun and just like go have a barbecue or like laugh with some friends and then start fresh the next day, it's okay to do that. And I think that's also something I learned this year where it's like, okay, you're not going to get to inbox zero every day. You're not every day is not going to feel accomplished. Like, I think
• 39:44
  This year was definitely a blessing that way. And so many founders I've talked to seem to have experienced the same. And that's been a really good learning. Yeah, the inbox to zero, it's a vague dream. It never happens for me anymore, ever. I don't know how I ever did. Oh, my gosh. You have to really carve out some time to do it. Yeah, as the business grows, I think it's just that's not a reasonable goal. Totally. Yeah.
• 40:12
  Taryn, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show today and share your insights and your learnings and everything that's going on with Bloom. I'm so excited to keep watching you bloom. Thank you so much. It was so much fun to chat and I hope I get to meet you one day. If I ever come out to London, I'll definitely shoot you a message. Yes, and vice versa.
• 40:37
  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.
• 41:01
  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.
• 41:24
  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.
• 41:41
  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.
• 42:05
  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.
• 42:28
  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.