Latest / Serious Lady Business / From Laid Off to Living the 7-Figure Life: How Elina Built a Thriving E-Commerce Brand
Transcript
- Leslie Youngblood (00:01) Welcome to Serious Lady Business. I'm Leslie Youngblood, your host, feminist and founder of Youngblood MMC, a marketing media and content agency. Excuse me, I'm going to redo that because I got something in my throat. We'll cut that. All right. In three, two, welcome to Serious Lady Business. I'm Leslie Youngblood, your host, feminist and founder of Youngblood MMC, a marketing media and content agency. Today, I would like you to meet Elina Pantaleyeva. Elina is the founder of DudeWoof. a fast growing wellness brand for doodle dogs. After being laid off from her tech project management role in 2023, she turned a personal setback into a launch pad, building DudeWoof from scratch with no outside investment. In just one year, she grew an engaged community of 35,000 doodle lovers and took the company past 600,000 in revenue, fueled by hands-on, human-first community building. Her customers didn't just buy from her. They became part of the brand story. And today, DudeWoof is on track to hit $1.5 million in its second year. Elina brings a relatable practical perspective on rebuilding after a career pivot and offers real world insights into growing a brand with limited resources, deep customer connection, and unwavering scrappiness. Elina, welcome to Serious Lady Business. Elina - Dood Woof (01:24) What an intro. Hi, Leslie. Leslie Youngblood (01:25) What a journey. I am so stoked to talk to you today. And I don't believe we've really had an e-commerce brand founder on the podcast before. So I just cannot wait to dive into this. I'm a big dog lover too. So anytime we can talk about pups and dogs and all that good stuff, just brings me delight. And so we're talking today about living the seven figure life. how you built this thriving e-commerce brand with community and influencer marketing. But I'd like to, of course, start at the beginning with you. Take us back to that day that you were laid off, and how did that moment spark your shift into entrepreneurship? Elina - Dood Woof (02:10) Yes. So it was 2023, March 2023. And I guess kind of the good thing is that the company was going through a lot of layoffs. So this was the fourth round. So I had a chance to kind of prepare in my head that at some point I'll probably get laid off. It was a startup. So I already kind of before I got laid off, started thinking about what I wanted to do. And I created this product. was like these affirmation cards. And then I realized I didn't know how to sell that product and I didn't really care that much about it. just, didn't know what to do with it, honestly. And so I read this book, I got laid off and then I read this book around that same time and the book talked a lot about instead of choosing the product that you're gonna create, first choose the audience that you're gonna serve and then talk to them and ask them what their challenges are. Leslie Youngblood (02:46) No, you're good. and Elina - Dood Woof (03:06) And then from there, you can create a product for that audience. And I'm like, okay, that makes so much more sense to me. So I was like, all right, time to figure out what avatar, what audience I'm going to create. And I looked at my dog and at that time I knew I had to make organic social media because I didn't have money for paid ads. And I was like, okay, well, I've never made a reel. I've never done anything really on social. But I think that a good entry point would be to do this with my dog. Leslie Youngblood (03:10) Yeah. right. Elina - Dood Woof (03:35) And so he's a doodle. So I decided on doodle owners as being my audience and started posting on social, started getting into these. I'd go on Facebook and just type in doodle owner Facebook groups. And I'd post in there like, Hey, would anyone be willing to talk to me about the challenges of having a doodle? And some people responded like a handful. And so we met for like 15 minutes and the number one challenge was that they get tangled and matted easily. So I decided to create a product that specifically solves that pain point for doodles. Leslie Youngblood (04:10) love it. And what was the name of that book, Elina? Do you remember? Elina - Dood Woof (04:13) 12 months to 1 million. Leslie Youngblood (04:15) my gosh, and you totally did it. I mean, it's like maybe almost like 24, but I love that. Okay, everybody will put that in the show notes too, 12 months to 1 million. I love that. Elina - Dood Woof (04:24) It's funny, yeah, it's funny because I read the book and now was on, just decided I wanted to join his community, was on his podcast ⁓ after I hit that and like now he's in Austin, he literally just texted me, it's just funny how the world just kind of works. It's funny, it's just funny. Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (04:43) Yeah. I'm friends with the author of that book that really changed your life. you're such a, I know that any coach, any author, or anybody doing the founder thing in general is on a mission to change lives or make a difference with their target audience. And that's why I think that must be so fun for him and for you to, you know, to see equally. ⁓ And so did you always see yourself as an entrepreneur before these layoffs were coming or was this completely, totally new and you just didn't want to go and interview for jobs again after potentially knowing what might be coming down the pike at your current position. Elina - Dood Woof (05:21) I didn't realize that I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. But looking back, I always was. So in college, I would buy things off Craigslist and sell them on eBay. So my family immigrated here when I was three. So lot of ⁓ stability was super important in my family. So I never got to really see anyone be an entrepreneur. But when I got laid off, I almost took that as a sign from the universe. I was 27. single, no kids, I'm like, okay, I was ever gonna do something, it'd probably be right now. So I was like, all right, let's figure it out. Leslie Youngblood (05:59) That's amazing. And I also love too that you started with these affirmation cards and you had an idea, a great idea, but then you felt, I don't know, it's not sitting right with me. And then, know, realizing, I should do with my dog. And what's your dog's name? Remind me. Elina - Dood Woof (06:16) His name's Mr. Leslie Youngblood (06:18) Mr. Oscar, I love it. So you and Mr. Oscar. And I think that makes so much sense because we have such emotional ties to our pets, especially, I mean, I'm a dog and a cat lover, but I have two dogs. And so I just, and we have a puppy. So I'm like extra like dog crazy right now. Cause I'm like, he's my little baby now that I don't have, my kids are bigger. But I think that is so important for people to note that you can have a great idea, but if you don't have an emotional connection behind it or like a mission behind it. then pivot away from it and find maybe something else that resonates that you can go all in on that feels right to you. And so was Mr. Oscar like the next thing that you immediately thought or were there other ideas that you were maybe thinking about pursuing? Elina - Dood Woof (06:55) Yeah. It's the main shift is, and I think this is such a good idea for any business is choosing the audience first. So that's like the main shift. So I was like, okay, who, what, what kind of person am I? And it's a lot easier if the audience that you choose is some, someone that you are, or it's a transformation you've already done. Like if you've lost a hundred pounds, like you could do that. Like it would be really hard for me to sell. anything to divorce dads, but I'm a doodle owner. And so also the benefit of this is you don't need to be an expert. It helps. Probably if I was a groomer, that would give me more credibility. the way that I brand myself is I'm a doodle owner just like you. And this is a problem I have. I didn't like what was on the market. I didn't like the ingredients. Basically, took everyone on the, documented my journey of bringing this idea to life. And it's, I didn't realize it in the moment, but it, it, what it creates, it's called the underdog story. So it's like people almost like follow along and they want to support you cause you're, you're the underdog. There's all these other big brands and you're trying to create this natural, this better product and explaining why it's better and like why you're doing this. And so that just brings attention and people want to. Leslie Youngblood (08:14) Mmm. Elina - Dood Woof (08:32) random people will just find you. Leslie Youngblood (08:35) that emotional connection, it almost reminds me of like, well, that's why reality TV is so popular. Where people are interested in people and people's journeys and people's stories and want to root, like you said, for the underdog or for, you know, the upstart to disrupt the industry, right? And you always have to be an outsider to disrupt something. And I think, like you said, that is so something people can get behind. Were you nervous to share that and to step into that role for the organization? Because I hear a lot with the work that we do with founders. Like, ⁓ don't like putting myself out there. I don't know what to say. I, you know, yeah, I know I have to share my journey, but I don't know how. Tell us a little bit about how you navigated that, Elina. Elina - Dood Woof (09:20) So funny, I just made a post about why founder-led brands increase growth 10 times faster. Yeah, because it is nerve-wracking and people realize that. basically what you're saying is when you put your face in front of the camera as the leader of the brand is, I'm accountable and if this sucks, I'm accountable for this. And people subconsciously... Leslie Youngblood (09:25) Yeah, 100%. Yes! Elina - Dood Woof (09:48) They see that and they're like, okay. And then they also like that this person is like, they're close to the actual product. Like it's not my marketing team that's making all this stuff. It's even if it was like if you, people perceive it as like the founder is there. They like know what's happening. It's, it's a humanized thing versus just computer screens. So people are, you know, people had issues with leaky bottles when I first launched my product. they DMed me and they're like, hey, I don't want to leave you a bad review on Amazon. But like this happened because they, it wasn't just some like, yeah, like it wasn't just some huge, yeah, some huge brand. So there are other ways to grow a business, but putting your face in front of it gives you a lot more trust. Like people trust you more and way faster. Leslie Youngblood (10:23) knew you. Knew you? Talking head. Thank Elina - Dood Woof (10:42) ⁓ I mean you could do blogs, it's just going to be a lot harder to gain that trust. And then as you grow your business and if you ever want to sell, there's something you'll have to think about because you don't want to be like the sole. When you sell a business, you want the person that wants to come and buy it. They don't want to feel like they have to run everything. They want to feel like it's kind of set up. So that's something for you to think about way down the line, not in the beginning. Leslie Youngblood (10:58) Thanks. Yeah, well, right, sure, but like- Totally like you can't be the business can't be dependent on you. mean, you are needed to be the face and grow that business. But then, of course, is a natural order of business. You get to a point where you have a team. You're still maybe the face, but it's like itch. If you're building a healthy business, it should be able to function without you. And that also means potentially expanding the brand and building out, you know, not just you being that focal point. But I think that is so wonderful and fantastic in how you really led. with yourself out there and it must have been scary. Like you said, it puts you on the line. The buck stops with you. And I think that is something that you said there is that you are on the hook for it. And that is terrifying. Even if you are a business owner, you've been running your business for years and you have a successful business, to put your face out there like in that really... like naked type of way, I think is what people, you know, get really stepped up against. But I love that you shared that journey and with them because you decided to create ⁓ a detangler for doodles and you had no, and correct me if I'm wrong, like tell me you had no CPG, consumer packaged goods experience before that. So tell us about the process, like tell us about the research, tell us about the testing, tell us how long it took to really create new products. Elina - Dood Woof (12:31) Hmm. So I started reaching out to manufacturers and literally Google. So people think it's like this whole thing. I'm Googling dog shampoo manufacturers. Leslie Youngblood (12:39) Google. Like, so dog shampoo manufacturers, that's what you would put into Google? I love it. Elina - Dood Woof (12:47) Yeah, and I would just go to their contact. This is what I do with every single product that I've released. I go on Google. All right, now Chat GPT can even find manufacturers for you. And then you go on their contact page and then you literally just type in, hello. It's good if you have a website ⁓ just to show a little bit of maybe you already kind of exist. But like, hello, thinking about starting this, would love to hop on a call. Leslie Youngblood (12:57) Yeah. Sure. Mm-hmm. Background. Mm-hmm. Elina - Dood Woof (13:15) or something like that. There's a couple key questions you ask, but I'm not gonna get into it. You can ask Chachu PT for it. And then you talk to a bunch of manufacturers and you tell them what you're looking for. A lot of times they'll ask you for any similar products ⁓ or I did research. There's some ingredients that I wanted in my product. I knew I had to be all natural. And for me specifically, everyone told me they couldn't create it. And that's why I didn't exist. I wanted an all natural. Leslie Youngblood (13:20) Sure. Mm-hmm. Thank Elina - Dood Woof (13:44) or like filled with natural ingredients, no silicone, like all that just very, very clean ingredients you can pronounce. And then somewhere like ninth page of Google, literally ninth page, there's a smaller manufacturer that I talked to and they were like, like, let's do this. And so we, so the way I think of it is if we were able to go to the moon, although there's conspiracy theories about that, but if you're able to go to the moon, if we go to the moon, then like you can legitimately create anything. Leslie Youngblood (13:59) Wow. Right. Elina - Dood Woof (14:13) Like there's no reason that you can't create literally anything. ⁓ So. Leslie Youngblood (14:18) Yes, I love that mindset. mean, that is so true. You think this doesn't exist, but I always think, well, this house didn't exist until somebody's like, we should build a house or everything in this world exists because somebody had the idea and it didn't exist before and they probably received pushback because it had never been done. But when you look around you and like, yeah, we can send people to the moon and you're telling me we can't create an all natural doodle detangler. Get out of here. There has to be a way. And I just think that is, and you have to, again, have that. Elina - Dood Woof (14:42) Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (14:47) ⁓ conviction and consistency to get to that ninth page of Google, to keep asking when people are telling you no. And so were you always like determined in your professional endeavors, Elina? Like how did, were you know, trying to get to somebody that was like, yeah, we can figure this out. Was that something that you struggled with or like everybody keeps telling me no, maybe I'm, maybe this isn't the right product. Tell us a little bit about your mindset there. Elina - Dood Woof (15:17) It's really hard to believe in yourself in the beginning. It really is. So instead of, this is what I always think, instead of forcing yourself to believe in yourself, you almost have to like, like think about it. Your brain has no data to support that you can actually do it. So it's so normal that you're not going to believe in yourself. You've never done anything like this. So I, you essentially like train your brain by keeping promises to yourself and other areas of life. So I told myself I would wake up at 7 a.m. every day and go to the gym five days a week, like little micropromises like that. maybe this is ooh, maybe it's not, but your brain starts to think of you as like, okay, this is the kind of person that when she says something, she's actually gonna do it. And then kind of little by little, like you show up on Instagram, you post every day, you post three days a week, whatever your commitment is, you do it. And then somehow randomly, you'll get a D, some person will follow you and maybe they'll comment like, this is really cool. And you're like, where did they come from? And then still you're like, I only have 10 followers. ⁓ Like how am I going to do this? But you keep doing it. You keep showing up because you made those promises to yourself. And then not only does your brain start to believe, actually believe in you and, but also because you're doing those tasks, you're actually starting to see results or by doing those things, you're gathering data points in order to determine that it's time for you to pivot. Like people don't even start, so they don't even give themselves an opportunity to pivot. Like they don't have enough data points, but if you pivot, like that's not a failure. That just means you actually did something and gathered the data points in order to decide that you're gonna pivot. Leslie Youngblood (16:54) I I love that so much I cannot even tell you because I think... entrepreneur or every person that maybe wants to start something like, I don't know how to, you know, build a company. I don't know how to be an entrepreneur. But it's like, well, of course you don't because you don't have the data in your brain from your experience, but you don't need that specific data like to start. You can start by doing those other things in your life and your brain neuroplasticity. That's not woo woo. That is science. And you are retraining your brain through those other activities to prove to yourself that you can do this. And I just love that so much. So you You found your manufacturer, you guys are working on DudeWoof, and eventually you create the product, and it became a number one new release on Amazon. Walk us through what it was like to make that happen, Elina. Elina - Dood Woof (17:56) Yeah. Well, when you start documenting your journey on Instagram or wherever you document your journey, like in public, people kind of start coming out of the woodworks to follow you. And then my goal was to get people on an email list so that I could get them in two places. So a lot of my call to, and there's also ⁓ studies that show that email to sale is the highest conversion. It's kind of hard to get people Instagram to sale. So Instagram to email to sale, that's the thought process behind it. Leslie Youngblood (18:24) sure. Elina - Dood Woof (18:29) But yeah, so then I had a specific, you know, I was documenting my journey, people were getting excited and I didn't just like put my product on Amazon and then be like, okay, now this is here. You know, there was a whole launch plan that I had like getting people excited, kind of little breadcrumbs to get people like, okay, 9am this day, like mark your calendars. Did I know if anyone was going to buy it? No. But I had a discount code and then enough people were bought into the journey just from me emailing and showing up that it triggered the algorithm. We got number one new release and that was cool. That was really cool to see because you don't actually know what's going to happen. Leslie Youngblood (19:08) Do you remember like the very first sale, like the feeling behind it or was it on Shopify and you get like the ding or was it, you know, on Amazon and like came through like, ⁓ we're onto something. Elina - Dood Woof (19:19) Yeah, I remember there was like a decent flood in the beginning and I was, I, so I had one month left to pay rent. Uh, so I was like, I gotta make this work. This is also what pushed me to like really, really show up. I do not recommend people ask me all the time, like, should it, should I quit my job? I do not recommend that. I think that if you, the best way to do it is if you can get yourself to actually start your thing while you have a job, then. Leslie Youngblood (19:31) Wow. Elina - Dood Woof (19:49) Your employer could essentially be your first investor in the business because the income that you get there is ⁓ going to can go to your business. It's really, really, it's honestly really stressful to not have cash flow and try to grow something, especially if you do a product space business where you have to buy inventory upfront. Anyways, I do remember the first sales and I especially remember people messaging me saying, Hey, like your discount code didn't work, but I. Leslie Youngblood (19:52) Yes sure. Mm-hmm. Elina - Dood Woof (20:18) still bought your product because I wanted to support you. And that's when I realized like the power of bringing people along the journey is like, they're, they want to buy from like the brand, which is in that case, it was me. And they're willing to like not even use the discount code just cause like they're like, I brought them on this journey and now this is like the peak of it happening. And they're like, we want to see you succeed, which is crazy to me to think that random people online. feel like that but. Leslie Youngblood (20:50) Yeah, that is, it's kind of like a little miracle. I mean, I know it's like business and capitalism, but it really is quite remarkable when you get feedback like that and you're like, me? Really? And I just think that also those speaks Elina to the power of that ecosystem that you were able to build and that community of customers and to have people that aren't going to write a nasty review because your promo code didn't work. They're going to actually reach out to you and say, you know, and the, that all comes back to that solid foundation of community. And I think so many brands. Elina - Dood Woof (21:03) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Leslie Youngblood (21:26) Don't do that or don't see maybe the value of it. Don't do it or too busy or just too, you know, they're doing things differently. And I think that is just, I think a testament to the success of you and Dude Woof because you did that. And, and so I just think that is the coolest thing when you put yourself out there and there's always going to be something that doesn't go right, right? With the launch is going to be a promo code that doesn't work or you're going to sell out too fast or, or all the things. Elina - Dood Woof (21:51) Yeah. Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (21:56) people and customers in a community that sticks by you of strangers across the world on the internet that just follow you because of the internet ⁓ is quite ⁓ remarkable ⁓ for sure. ⁓ So tell us more because you're talking about this really great point of this funnel, This, ⁓ you know, Instagram to email to purchase and the email to purchase is the highest conversion. so, ⁓ and then, you know, I'm a marketer. So of course, I think in terms of like marketing is like, Elina - Dood Woof (22:00) Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (22:26) and then you own that person's data. Whereas if Instagram went away tomorrow and you have 500,000 followers, you lose all of that community, right? So you want to... Yeah, I can't... ⁓ you get hacked. I had that happen to somebody, a founder that I knew, and they were like, what do we do? And Meta is... Elina - Dood Woof (22:28) Yeah, exactly. And that happens all the time. Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (22:43) wretched at having a human help you in any way shape or form. And so you're really stuck in a place. And so to ensure that you're balancing Amazon with those community driven channels like TikTok, Facebook and email as well. Tell us more about how you balance those three ⁓ and specifically, know, because TikTok is very different from Instagram, different from the Facebook community. Tell us a little bit to Elina how you have structured those strategies ⁓ in order to grow. Elina - Dood Woof (22:47) Yeah. So Amazon's interesting because the reason people don't like it, there's pros and cons to everything, but the con of Amazon is they don't give you customer data. So someone buys on Amazon, you don't know who bought. So the... What I do is I collect the customer data upfront. So if I run an ad ever, always do it to a landing. A lot of people run ads straight to Amazon. I run it to a landing page where they have an option to give me their email. If they don't, then my pixel still kind of captures at least some of their data. And then they can go to Amazon after that. That's one thing. I also have a Facebook community for Doodle Owners. And in order to join the community, ⁓ one of the questions is to get an email. ⁓ So I get my target market, which is Doodle Owners, emails through that. And then now what we're starting to do, I would send like updates to my list, but I'm actually starting to put together like a newsletter, which is, I just want to add as much value to the community as possible. So we'll be doing that. ⁓ Leslie Youngblood (24:23) ⁓ huh. Elina - Dood Woof (24:26) and then just value, value, value, because A, because I want to, but then from like a marketing psychological perspective, if you give, give, give, when you ask, people want to give you, give to you as well. So there's that as well. So the more value I can give people, A, great, and then B, when I actually Leslie Youngblood (24:39) Yeah. Mm-hmm, yeah. Elina - Dood Woof (24:49) have a request which is, hey, on this launch day, would be like a really trigger the algorithm essentially. People are like, hell yeah, like she's given me some, like psychologically, like subconsciously I mean. They're like. Leslie Youngblood (24:55) Yeah. Yeah. Yes, yes, for sure. Well, you're tying that. It's just what you're doing naturally, but I think it makes so much sense, like psychologically, because people, you don't want to be like a needy per like, buy for me, buy for me. And like, what's your reaction to that? No, thank you. Like sales car or car salesman, like no. But if you're like, here, here, I'm helping you. Here's all this great stuff. Wow. Thank you so much. You get me. You're solving my problem. I like you. We have a relationship. I want to buy from you and not. Elina - Dood Woof (25:14) Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (25:29) you know, this imitation brand or down the street or I want to continue to come back from you. And so it just is I feel like the way that business should be like that essentially at its core. That is how business is like you are helping people. You are solving their problem and building a relationship with them. How do you do that? Through value, through sharing, through, you know, all the things that you're doing. And that's how you really build something that thrives. And I think that, again, is a testament to why you're able to grow so quickly. So, Elina, I want to go back to when you had one a month of rent and you're just about to launch. And in the early days of DudeWoof, did you think about getting an investor? Did you get an investor? Like tell us a little bit about that funding journey because like you said, it's really smart to stay at a job that can essentially be the investor for your business until you are in a place where you can go all in and essentially not have to worry so much about that, whatever shape or form. Food trap, investor. Elina - Dood Woof (26:26) Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (26:28) Small business loan. Tell us a little bit about how you navigated that. Elina - Dood Woof (26:33) Yes, I did not get an investor then. did not even, I probably didn't even have the capacity to even think about that, honestly. Let's see, what did I do? So at some point I started joining other e-commerce communities and learning from them. then once you put yourself out there, just like how I'm talking about building my community of Doodle owners, once you start networking for your own community, you... Somehow you meet people at the right time and it's just like kind of crazy how things come together. But I met someone and he taught me about just like about cash convert cash cycles, et cetera, and how to know my numbers. And the best thing I ever did was really figure out specific numbers of my business because that allowed me to take calculated risks. So like taking debt, which is not something Leslie Youngblood (27:28) you Elina - Dood Woof (27:29) I would not recommend doing that in the beginning until you have a proven product that sells. But then after you know your product is selling and it's stable, taking debt on that product and then using your profits to reinvest into more business, more growth is like, ⁓ it's a strategy. So I did take on inventory financing, which is a form of debt. they give you a lot of cash upfront and then you kind of pay it back in payments. Instead of investors, that's the route I took. Leslie Youngblood (28:02) Well, I think that something that really blew my mind when I was in my professional journey and even my entrepreneurial journey, I guess it's kind of separate. Like before I was an entrepreneur and you read, debt's bad, don't take on debt, it's ruining Americans, and right? And then I was reading, I think it was when I read Richard Branson's, ⁓ biography or autobiography. And he talked about how he took on debt to, I don't know, his business, essentially Virgin wouldn't be where it is today without him taking on debt. And I was like, wait a second, but isn't that bad? Why would why would what? And then I was like, it's not called debt when you're in business. It's called capital or it's you know, it's like investments or it's you know. And so it's like, how do you how do these conglomerates become these conglomerates? It's because they took on calculated risk and calculated debt. So it's like you said, like you're not just I had an idea I'm gonna take out this giant loan. It's like you had a product, it was proven, you learned how this, you know, connection like. brought this light bulb to you and you're like, ⁓ yes, this makes sense. Now I can do this. This is how this is how it's going to be. This is the process. So you're doing it in a very, you know, strategic way in order to grow the business. And I think that's what, again, how would you know that if you didn't want to be an entrepreneur? Right. And like, yes, you don't want to be swimming in credit card debt because you have a shopping habit. But when you have a business, there may be a time where you need to go down that route or talk to an investor. Right. And that's the thing. I think there was even a clip we shared today. where it's, bootstrapping, you may need to take out a loan. Investor, you may have an advisory board and then you have other people chirping in your ear. There's no right or wrong path, it's just what is the right path for you and it's great to have those options in place to help you push your business and bring this important product, important idea to life. Elina - Dood Woof (29:51) Yeah, I agree and it frees up cash in the moment, is like, there are points where my business wouldn't have been able to survive, you're growing for products, you're growing, so you need to buy so much more, but you don't have like the cash to do it. So there's like, what are you gonna do? Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (29:55) I just... I'm not kidding. Yes. Yeah. Right. It's like the chicken or the egg. Yeah. What do I, how do people do this? What, do I do? And so you, and you know, and you have a massively successful product product, right? And so people might think, she's just swimming in money over there. And she, know, and 1.5 million, 600,000 in the first year. Like, wow, that's amazing. But it's like, no, no, no. There's so many line items beneath that. And like things that go along with it where it's not just you're living on easy street. It's still the grind. You're still growing and building and making tough decisions. on how and where you want to take the business. So I really love that reality to share with people. And so I want to now pivot to social media and talk about influencer marketing, Elina, and tell us a little bit how influencer marketing specifically, the role that played in your growth, and did you find more success with micro influencers versus larger names? Tell us about that. Elina - Dood Woof (31:05) Yes, so I think that working with influencers, so in the beginning, I want to preface this, like everything I'm talking about, I didn't just start off and did all of this at once. That's unrealistic. As the business, you want to focus on, want to, you you're the, you're the. Leslie Youngblood (31:19) her. Elina - Dood Woof (31:24) you're the person that's doing most of the stuff or all the stuff, so you just can't do all of this. So as the business grew, I started working with influencers. And what I realized is that influencers really de-risk your business. Because when I'm the one posting, it's only me sharing the product. But if I have hundreds of people posting, the chances that eyeballs see it, and if something happens to my account, ⁓ it's OK, because they're still, well, it's not. It's okay-ish because there's more people posting about it. So once I kind of had that idea that it derisks your business is when I started, okay, how do I get like a lot of people to be talking about my product? And I, to do that, I used micro influencers. So within influencers, think what people, when they don't work with them, what they don't think about this, but there's, I say there's two types of influencers. There's ones that are like, ⁓ Leslie Youngblood (31:55) Bye. Elina - Dood Woof (32:23) advocates, so they have a lot of trust in their audience. So in my space, the dog space, it'd be like vets, groomers, and then there's entertainers. So these are like funny dog accounts that have 80,000 followers while your vet could have 3000 followers, but that vet has a lot of trust with his audience. So he has 3000 followers, but he has a lot of trust. So when he says like, Hey, like this is a good product, people are actually more willing to buy than this random golden doodle that's like jumping through tape. Leslie Youngblood (32:30) Mmm. Elina - Dood Woof (32:53) or something, don't know, it's just like a video that I recently watched. ⁓ with the micro influencers is great for a business because they have smaller following, they want to grow as well, they want to have content to post. they, like you send them free product, like you could just send them free product, some of them. And like what I do is I don't pay anyone upfront, I send product and only if they actually like it. Leslie Youngblood (32:54) Yeah, yeah. Sure, I love those videos. Elina - Dood Woof (33:21) then I invite them to become part of my affiliate program because I don't want them posting if they A, don't like the product. But what I also noticed is a lot of times they'll post about the product anyways. They do join my affiliate program, but they would have posted regardless because they want content to post because they're a smaller account. So that was kind of interesting. I didn't really know that before I started doing it. Leslie Youngblood (33:21) Mm. Yeah, I think that's great. And I also, because you have an affiliate program and you're sending them the product for free, but also... with marketing and we worked in the hospitality space and there's influencers that want thousands of dollars to do like a single reel. And it's like, well, let's go to maybe a micro influencer. So if you're focusing on micro influencers, not only are there communities, they have more of that trust built in, but more of like an engaged community, but also it's probably not as expensive of like a marketing spend for you to work with them. And so I think that there's so much to be said, like you don't have to, even if somebody listening wants to be an influencer, You don't have to have 20,000 people following you on a channel to get collaborations with brands that you love because the audience you're building, as long as they're engaged and you're being true and being that authentic person, you're going to have something really special there. And so I think that's really fantastic. And I do love the silly dog accounts, but I probably would not be as likely to buy again as I would from my vet or somebody that I trust in that dog space. So I think that makes perfect sense. Elina - Dood Woof (34:47) Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (34:52) Elina, tell us a little bit about maybe what was one memory that sticks out that was maybe the hardest lesson you learned in that first year of building DudeWoof. Elina - Dood Woof (35:06) The lesson I learned was how long it takes to build an audience. in the beginning, nothing happens for a long time and most people give up. But it just, takes time. It takes time to build trust. It takes time to start from zero when you have nothing. Like if you have no other audience anywhere else. I'm building like a personal brand right now and I'm doing the same exact stuff. This is funny. Like the parallel, parallel, parallelity of that. ⁓ But so the sooner you can start building a brand, like start, get an account created and start, choose your person and just start making content. Leslie Youngblood (35:30) Yeah. Yes. Elina - Dood Woof (35:53) that would attract that person, even if you don't have a product yet, like that's the part that takes the longest. So start with that as soon as possible. ⁓ Cause that will, your product will take a lot quicker or your service that you're creating. Leslie Youngblood (36:06) Yes, I think that is fantastic advice, a tough lesson. But again, we think, you know, from the outset where you see all these influencers and these thought leaders and people on stages and, you know, talking to us through our screens and you think, ⁓ they, they took off and you know, whatever, but it's like, no, it takes time and consistency to get to those audiences. And like you said, to build those communities. And it can be so disheartening because you think I'm 60 days in or 90 days in, and it feels like nothing's happening, but it's like, Elina - Dood Woof (36:35) Yeah. Leslie Youngblood (36:36) of like hockey, you know, hockey stick growth, you know, and so you do have to keep going and that's, like you said even before, like that mindset as an entrepreneur is the hardest thing and you know, you can't let your brain trick you into thinking that you don't know what you're doing or you're not going in the right direction because things aren't on the outside appearing different quite yet because they are. They are. Elina - Dood Woof (36:39) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Yeah. No, nobody actually like knows what they're doing. I'm constantly just like experimenting right now. I'm doing a new form of like AI, these funny talking, talking dog videos. And I'm really just collecting, I'm doing things and then collecting data points. And that gives me the ability to decide, all right, should I keep going or should I pivot to something else? But you have to start, you have to start. Leslie Youngblood (37:04) What? Yes. Yes. Yes. Right, you just have, that is the trick, right? there was, I think the president of Shopify, I can't remember his name, but he just said the other day, everybody has ideas in the shower, right? But like everybody's an entrepreneur, but the difference between that person that has these ideas and a true entrepreneur is you're taking action. Like you have to take that action ⁓ to do something and to learn and pivot. And there's no such thing as failure. You're just collecting data. Like you said, I love that so much. Cause I feel like that also, takes the emotion out of it, where I feel like with women, we can be more emotionally attached to our failures than men, where we don't succeed at a business or our launch doesn't take off the way you expect, we think it's because I stuck, it's because I stink, whereas a man would be like, well. The timing wasn't right, right? And it's like external where we can take it on a little bit more personal. And that's not true. It has nothing to do with us. It's like you're collecting the data and you're making a decision based upon that data. And then you just keep going. You just have to keep going. And so I think that is really brilliant. What advice, Elina, would you give to somebody who's feeling stuck in a job or facing a layoff right now? ⁓ What would you say to them? Elina - Dood Woof (38:41) if you're stuck in a job. It's a lot harder to do that. Easier said than done, but try to start, not try, start your thing. Start building an audience. That's what I would do is I'd start building an audience while I have this job because it, like, I know what it feels like to be like, I'm going to quit tomorrow. Like this sucks. It's really stressful not to have income and cashflow coming in when you're starting something new. You operate from a scarcity mindset versus. having that cash flow gives you the ability to be more in abundance mode. there if you operate in a scarcity mindset, there's a risk that you'll make certain decisions that you based on like short term short term jet that you'll regret like taking on clients that you know are in a good fit and then you're just kind of stuck with it or just other things. So if you're stuck in the nine to five, that's what I would do. If you're getting laid off already. Leslie Youngblood (39:34) Mm-hmm. Elina - Dood Woof (39:45) I would probably, it's a bit harder because you're splitting time of finding another job versus being an entrepreneur. Regardless of what you're at, the first thing I would do is start building an audience. So that would be my advice. Leslie Youngblood (40:01) Yeah, I love that. think that's brilliant. Now tell us Lena, what is next for you? How do you see your brand evolving beyond where it is today and everything that's ahead? Elina - Dood Woof (40:11) Yeah, so brand-wise, I'm excited. We have a couple more products in development right now for next year. And one of them, it's so cool. It's gonna go viral on TikTok, so I don't wanna share it too much. Yeah. Yeah. And then personally, I'm excited because I've been using a lot more AI in my business and I see how much... Leslie Youngblood (40:27) follow DudeWoof on TikTok. We'll put the link in the show notes. Make sure you're up on that for the drop. Yay. Elina - Dood Woof (40:41) learning these different tools and learning how to stack these tools together, how much friction that's removed from my business. There's so many tools, people just get really overwhelmed with them, but I'm like obsessed with AI. So I've been coaching brand founders on how they can improve their processes using AI. And so that just, makes me so happy to see like certain, just how much easier life is for them knowing that these tools even exists and how to combine these tools together to. their workflows. Leslie Youngblood (41:11) Mm-hmm. I love that. That's fantastic. And as we wrap up, Elina, tell our audience, everybody listening right now, where they can connect with you, follow you, learn more about the coaching, learn more about DudeWoof, follow on TikTok. Even though we'll drop all these in the show notes, tell us a little bit. Elina - Dood Woof (41:24) Hahaha Yeah, the best place to reach out to me or follow me is on Instagram, it's ecom with Elina. Leslie Youngblood (41:35) and we'll also link that in the show notes. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Elina. It was a fantastic conversation. I learned so much. My head, I feel like it's gonna be downloading all this fantastic information and I'm getting that book. I love a good book recommendation. ⁓ And so thank you so much for joining us. We are so excited to watch you and do both continue to soar. Cheers. Elina - Dood Woof (41:49) Yeah. Thank you for having me.