Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 6 quick questions with Sophie Baron, Founder of Mamamade (Part 2)

Transcript

6 quick questions with Sophie Baron, Founder of Mamamade (Part 2) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  Welcome back. Here are the six quick questions. So question number one is, what's your why? Why do you wake up every day and work on Mama Maid?
• 0:19
  I do this because I know that parents deserve better and we deserve better products and our kids deserve better. And so being able to connect with other parents with similar age children who are getting that support that they need for Mama Maid, who can't live without us, you know, who are buying extra freezers just to be able to hold more product. It's an incredible feeling and is the main reason why, yeah, I have to just keep going. I love that.
• 0:48
  Question number two is in your journey building this business, what's been your favorite marketing moment so far? I actually would say, again, and not just because of the theme of this episode, but I would say that first Cedars campaign that we ran was just, it was an incredible way to build validation and authority and trust in the brand because we got our customers that were really buying into what we were doing. And then from a kind of like profile standpoint,
• 1:15
  professional peers point of view, also kind of getting welcomed into this kind of startup ecosystem because it was very validating in that way. So yeah, I would definitely say that Cedar, that first Cedars campaign for sure. Love that. Amazing. Question number three is at the moment, what's your go-to business resource? Like what are you reading in terms of newsletters or books or podcasts that keep you kind of up to date and, you know, learning?
• 1:43
  I guess I've actually recently stopped reading too much business stuff. I've actually been trying to tap into more of my creative side because that's ultimately what I love doing. That's like where I get my energy from. And I felt like I was getting very bogged down in the kind of like running a business stuff or like.
• 2:05
  yeah, I just wasn't getting enough of my like creative side of my brain going. So I've been listening more to podcasts about like creative writing and trying to incorporate more of that into my life to try to balance things out a little bit more. So I actually haven't, I've been actually purposely avoiding this. I love that though. Obviously. Obviously. No, I'm kidding. So for creative writing, like, do you have a recommendation? Sounds really interesting.
• 2:30
  I have been listening to, there's this amazing woman, Penny Winter. She is Australian. She's Australian, but she's been living in the UK for years. And she has a podcast called not, I think it's called not too busy to write, which is just people who have busy lives like me, like you, who just make a point out of their day to sit and write. And for me, it's just been fascinating. Cause I think, I always think of like, okay, this is my job and this is all I'm doing. And then I feel sort of like, oh, but I want to, there's other things I want to be doing. And so,
• 2:58
  Yeah, it's just nice to hear how people balance their busy lives, I think, in a way that's not about like business work-life balance. It's much more about feeding that creative part of your soul. Oh, I love that. I'm going to check that out for sure. Thank you. Great recommendation. 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 self-care loved?
• 3:26
  I love that. I've been, I put a lot of pressure on myself over the years to have that kind of like perfect routine. But when you have like two small kids, I feel like it's really hard to have every day look the same. So instead I've been thinking more about like overall, like weekly things that I want to do more of. And so for me, that is
• 3:44
  Yeah, making sure I have that time to do kind of more of that creative writing stuff that I feel like fills me up. So like journaling or something like that, making sure I make time to speak to the people I love, making sure I have time to just like be quiet by myself because I'm very much an introvert who needs that. And yeah, just kind of giving into the reality that every day is going to be a bit hectic. But if over the course of the week, I kind of tick those boxes, it helps me keep a bit more stable.
• 4:10
  Mm, absolutely. I feel like I'm the same. I need a lot of like quiet time of just like being by myself. I used to not be like that though. I changed during COVID. I realized I was a lot more introverted than I thought I was. I get like really overstimulated, which I never, ever experienced before. So I've actually started to go to these sensory deprivation pods. I feel like I'm sort of obsessed. It's like a floating tank. Yeah, it's an Australian thing actually. Yeah. Yeah. I haven't done it before. Yeah.
• 4:39
  Oh my God. It's, you're literally just like in pure darkness, no distractions, no sounds. Um, yeah, I need to, I need that. Like I, I get so overwhelmed by like, my senses just get very overwhelmed. Yeah. I need to try that. I've, I've looked into that before. That sounds so cool. Question number five, what is your worst money mistake in the business and how much did it cost you?
• 5:04
  where to begin um I like like look back at all the expenses that I wish I could get back um I regret paying influencers as much as we have paid influencers um is the truth I think
• 5:19
  being mindful of why you want an influencer to be paid. So if it's, for example, there's a specific kind of content you would like to have created, I think it's very worthwhile. But in my experience, it does not always translate into a return on your investment. And oftentimes if they love your product, they will just post it because they're happy to have it in their lives. So I know it's a fine balance because obviously I want to like support people whose careers it is to create content. But as a brand who's young,
• 5:49
  I do feel like we've wasted quite a bit of money on influencers, though we wouldn't be here without them. Most of the great influencer support we've gotten is from just genuine fans who I suspect would have kept posting for us anyway. So I don't know, a bit of a controversial take, but yeah.
• 6:07
  No, but I see it. I see it. What's a like dollar figure of like an influencer you worked with ballpark that, you know, it just didn't drive any ROI. Like, are we talking like a thousand, three thousand, $10,000 campaign? No, no. So like we've done things like that where I do feel like it's been great and we've gotten the content and they've gotten paid and we continue to work with them. But we've also paid influencers like 6,000 pounds for a reel that...
• 6:32
  But yeah, we have some, like, we basically see it as like, there's some influencers that are content creators, and we have them on retainer and are amazing for us. And it's a love, love situation. And other influencers where it's been like, we've paid a bit more because they have bigger audiences. And I just, I don't know, you need to have that connection, I think, with one another for it to really work. Yeah.
• 6:54
  I actually love that as an idea, having the content creators who actually really do drive results and actually do really love the product and have a more organic vibe to promoting the content on a retainer where you just work with them ongoing. Like you find those kind of unicorn creators and then they're just like part of the business and part of your strategy.
• 7:12
  Yeah, exactly. It just works better because then you get that actual solid messaging. And yeah, 100 percent. Question number six. Last question. What is just a crazy story you can share in building this business? Good, bad or ugly? On the topic of influencers, actually, we had one influencer who's a big celeb. She's got like over a million followers.
• 7:42
  The money actually made it into our account. So we were a bit sort of tight on funds. Yeah, a bit stretched. And she posted for us. And we made so many sales in one night, which like you think would be amazing. But it was actually like one of the most stressful experiences I've ever had because we genuinely weren't sure if we'd be able to fulfill the orders. Oh, my God. It was like we...
• 8:07
  Yeah, I'll never forget that moment where I was like, is this going to be what puts us out of business? Like we sold so much product that we can't actually sell. Like we can't actually fulfill them. And so we'll have to cancel. Like it was just this like crazy moment. Like how many orders? What are we talking?
• 8:21
  As in like the month, I'll tell you, like I can remember exactly. So I think in December that year, we were doing like 45K in monthly sales. And then that January, because of how many times this one influencer posted, we went up to like 70,000 pounds in sales. So like it was like almost double overnight, which like we...
• 8:45
  We just weren't set up. And we just didn't, it wasn't like in any version of any model, was that something that was going to happen? Oh my God. It's like everyone's dream, but it becomes so stressful. It actually like, it exposed a lot of weaknesses in our, in our supply chain, in our production. In a way it was a blessing because we've, we've come back from that a lot stronger and we were able to kind of fix a lot based on that. But it was, yeah, it was. And we actually had a new starter like that week. And I feel like she came and it was just like,
• 9:14
  everything was was madness and she's still with us so she obviously wasn't scared off but yeah that was like one of these stories where you just don't think about it when you have a physical product it costs you something to make it so if you're not able to make it it yeah it's and and it's kind of a
• 9:31
  sense of like on paper, that sounds amazing. You partner with an influencer, they blow your brand up overnight, literally. But then the reality of the working capital needed to fund those orders is something you actually have to be so like, you don't want just like crazy influencers that work straight away from day one. You need to build that foundation and you need to build your supply chain so that you're kind of able to fulfill. That's so wild. I, um, yeah, crazy. I love that for you, but also, wow. Yeah.
• 10:00
  Honestly, it was like looking back at it. I love it for me. It was hilarious. Like we did it. We were there on like around the clock and we made it work. And it's such a great like, yeah, I have a startup story. But it was one of the most like stressful weekends, I think ever. Just also just for what it exposed in the business in terms of what we weren't really equipped for.
• 10:20
  It was definitely a kind of like learning the hard way, but it was a good, good thing in the end. Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much for sharing that story. And for all of the insights on this episode, I've absolutely loved chatting with you. I cannot wait to see you inside magic so we can go even deeper on the process and the document and all the other bits and bobs that haven't been on the show. Thank you so much, Sophie. No, thank you. It's been fun. And yeah, I'm looking forward to joining the crew on magic.
• 10:53
  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.
• 11:17
  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.
• 11:40
  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. Thank you.
• 11:56
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 12:20
  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.
• 12:43
  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.