Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 6 quick questions with Elle Liu, Founder of Eucalypso (part 2/2)
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome back. Here are the six quick questions. So question number one is, what's your why? Why are you doing what you're doing? Yeah, so my why is that I want to inspire people to make more eco-conscious positions in the things that they're purchasing, especially when it comes to sleep and wellness, right? I think
- 0:29People take their sleep so seriously. They take their wellness so seriously. And to combine that by purchasing things that are more sustainable, that are good for you, I think can have a huge benefit to you, your life, as well as the environment. And so for me, I want to keep making products, whether that's with Eucalypso or outside Eucalypso. That's eco-friendly. That's kind of my North Star is to make things that are sustainable.
- 1:00Question number two is what has been the number one marketing moment so far? Oh, the number one marketing moment. So I think our number one marketing moment, we were featured on HGTV, who had dedicated an entire article to us. And that I was not expecting that at all. They were super nice about it and randomly reached out to me. And it had actually brought a lot of attention to me.
- 1:25not only to Eucalypso, but the idea of sustainable bedding and eucalyptus bedding. So that was super exciting. And I think we had a lot of great customers who came through that. The one thing I'll touch upon here is that actually most of our customers are not here because we sell eco-friendly products. They're here because they're looking for a solution to night sweats or active breakouts. And so to have that kind of shiny moment in the sustainability space, I think it's always really exciting.
- 1:53Yeah, I love that. It's like they come because of this problem, but then the sustainability factor is there as well. And it like makes everyone feel really good about their choice and like keeps them a coming back talking about it. It's like a talkability moment. I love that. That's very cool. I've actually heard that before is like, I don't remember who was telling me, but they were saying that people like to think that sustainability is like where their purchase power is. And like, that's why they buy something, but actually it's not, it's the secondary thing. And it's like,
- 2:20there's always something actually ahead of that, the problem, I guess. And then sustainability comes, but people like to think that they lead with sustainability, but in like actual reality, they don't. Yeah, to actually compliment that, I also heard that people who try to shop sustainable or like sustainable shoppers, they take longer to make a purchase. So apparently they usually come to your website like five to eight times before they make a purchase. Unlike, you know...
- 2:49I guess, non-eco-friendly shopper. I don't know what they're called, but I just thought that was interesting as well, right? It takes them much longer to make a decision about what they're purchasing. I guess they need to make a really educated decision that feels very like confirmed sustainable brand. 100%, yeah. Very cool. Question number three is, what's your go-to business resource when it comes to book, podcast, or newsletter?
- 3:16Yeah, my go-to. So I try to listen to a lot of podcasts. I love podcasts because I don't have a mentor and I don't really have like a huge network of entrepreneurs. And so when I listen to podcasts like yours, I feel like I know all these people. They always get such great advice. So I listen to your podcast, obviously. I love How I Built This by Gary Raz. I think that's just so fun to listen to always.
- 3:39And then I also listen to the Modern Retail Podcast. I think those are probably my three go-to when it comes to the entrepreneurship space. Oh, I feel so honored. I think they just all bring different things to the table of founders at different levels and experience, which I really like.
- 3:58And then I try to read a lot of books also kind of in the same space. I'm not very diversified, but I've actually recently been reading this book by this kind of personal hero of mine. Her name's Jamie Schmidt, and she started Schmidt's Naturals and ended up selling her company for like nine figures or something. And so I've been loving that book. I just kind of pick up whichever people who inspire me and see what they're up to and read what they're reading.
- 4:25Very cool. I love that. I'm going to check out her story. I don't know that one. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling happy and motivated and successful?
- 4:39Well, the first thing is I sleep on my eucalypso sheets. So I'm making that extra refresh plug for myself. No, I'm just kidding. But it does feel really great. The way I usually start the day is I always start the day by writing what I need to do that day. So I have a huge list. I actually have it in front of me. I always have like a million things on my list and like things to do. And I just start by crossing it off and start like tackling the easiest things to do.
- 5:08So for me, list making is a huge thing. And then, you know, I get my morning tea and I just kind of try to get everything I can out of the way in the morning. And at night, I always take some time to unwind. I try to read these books that I've been trying to get more into and just really unplug from cell phone and anything like that.
- 5:30Love that. I actually just started using, I don't know if you've heard of it, the Productivity Planner by Intelligent Change. They're the people who do the five minute journal. And it's like, for people who like to take lists, but like they break it down into more like, you know, core priorities, because I find like sometimes I just get swept up in so much of the like admin and emails and things like that. Totally, yeah.
- 5:52put on the back burner, the most important thing that's going to take the longest. And then by the end of the day, I'm like, I didn't do that thing that I just should have done first. So it's like helping me prioritize and like be more productive on the things that like really shift the needle and move me forward. And so far I'm loving it.
- 6:07I'm the exact same way. I also love how we both have ours handy, like just in case, you know, we need to stay on track. Sometimes I'll be like downstairs or upstairs and I'm like, oh my gosh, where's my list? What am I supposed to be working on? I love that. Question number five, what is the most important spend of a dollar for you right now in the business? The most important spend of a dollar? Um,
- 6:34I'm going to go back to what I was talking about before with the bottom of the funnel marketing. I think that's always the most impactful is when you have people who's demonstrated their interest in your product, you want to hear more about it. So for me, that's kind of email marketing and just making sure that we're retargeting marketing and anything like that. Because I think when it's really...
- 6:58important to reach out to people who's demonstrated interest, right? They were saying how it takes someone eight times seeing your name or your product to where to kind of really like click in their head. And so if you think about that, it's taken all of these people so many times of seeing your name or your product that they actually showed interest. And that's kind of one of the nicest compliment a customer can pay you. The least you can do is to spend your dollar and make sure that you're really taking care of them.
- 7:26I love that so much. That is so nice. Please take care of your customers. I agree. I'm with you. Question number six. Last question is what's been a major fail that you can share and how did you deal with it? A major fail.
- 7:44That's a good question. I feel like I need to think about that. So I think a major fail for us. Oh, actually, it's actually very top of mind. So I am very hands-on. I design all the products myself. I do everything myself, essentially. And for me, you know, a huge part of betting is the color and our customers take our colors. Yeah.
- 8:05selections very, very seriously. And so we've got requests for a pink color, like a cute pink color forever. And I'm not the biggest fan of pink setting for me. It's just like, you know, cutesy girl room. I like much more neutral kind of sophisticated color ways.
- 8:25Anyway, so I was like, no, instead of doing a pink, we'll do kind of like a pink beige mix, you know, because I like beige, pinky beige. It's kind of cute. So it's kind of a dual tone color. And in sunlight, it's much more of a beige, but in darker lights, I thought it was brilliant. I thought it was so cute.
- 8:43Our customers hated it. They are like, I don't get this color. This is not, this is, why did I get beige? I ordered pink. Why did I get pink? This is like way too beige. Like all of these questions. And so we've been in the process of trying to kind of like come out of this color for a while now because of my mistake. So I guess the lesson learned is to always do your market research, make sure that you're testing. I think I just got way too excited with this color. So now we released,
- 9:12a separate beige and a separate actual pink that we call Whisper Pink. And people are much happier. When you order pink and you receive pink. Do people love the Whisper Pink? They do. They really do. They are like, this is the color I'm looking for. But it's so funny because now that we kind of sold out of this like pinky beige color that we've had, I have so many customers reaching out and be like, I love that color. Where can I get it? I'm like, no. It's not coming back. It's not coming back.
- 9:40Exactly. That is so funny. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. At least there wasn't a lot of like wastage where you just couldn't sell through it and it was going to be like, you know, I don't know, had no, had no life. Totally. Yeah. At least you sold out through it, but that, that money spent on those inventory probably could have gone to better things.
- 10:06Got it. So the learning here is listen to your customer and test. Exactly. And think about where you're spending your money. I love it. Oh my gosh, Elle, thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your journey so far with Eucalypt. So I'm so excited to see your new colors that are coming out and please keep in touch. Thank you so much, Doom. Thank you for having me.
- 10:35Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
- 11:00And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
- 11:22As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that. Thank you.
- 11:39Hey, 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.
- 12:03And 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.
- 12:26As 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.