Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / GEMS: Celebritizing yourself with Marea Wellness founder Monica Grohne

Transcript

GEMS: Celebritizing yourself with Marea Wellness founder Monica Grohne · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:09
  There's something in parallel to the brand that's happening, and that's your personal kind of growth explosion. And I don't know when this totally comes into the picture, but let's bring it up now. So I looked at your account recently and I was like, holy shit, you've kind of gone from, I don't even remember what, but I feel like the last time we spoke, maybe last year, things were really different. And then now you're kind of creeping up towards 200,000 followers on Instagram and you're like,
• 0:38
  And you have a lot of content on there. You've positioned yourself as an expert, as someone who is an authority in the space. Can you kind of paint the picture from where you were last year, where you are now, what's happened, and then how that kind of has trickled in to build the brand? I kind of joke about this because at the beginning of this year, I was like, I'm manifesting a celebrity partner.
• 1:03
  Okay. And then I was like. I was like, I think I just made myself the celebrity. Yeah, it's definitely you. So at January 2023, I only had 3,000 followers personally. What? Currently. Right now, it's April 17th. I have 180,000 plus followers.
• 1:27
  And people... Oh, my God. I love this. And when people are like, everything's too saturated. It's too hard to grow. You're like, wait, let me tell you. Yeah. Well, that's the insane part. And also people are like, you paid for followers. And I was like, I didn't pay a dime. Like, no, no. So fall of last year, I started talking in my personal account. I turned 33 last fall. And I started to notice a lot of changes in my body. At the same time, I was trying to conceive...
• 1:57
  and was hyper aware of what was going on. My cycles, like was tracking everything, was super anxious about the whole process, which is probably why I didn't conceive. But anyways, just noticed a lot of changes in my body and I started to share about it. And I started to dig back into a lot of the research that I'd been in before I started Mireya. So that led me to like Dr. Stacey Sims and going back and reading her book. And I realized I wasn't eating enough protein right?
• 2:25
  And my muscle mass was changing really drastically, which for women, this happens as we age. It's harder to hold on to muscle. And muscle is an endocrine organ, which is crazy. Shit, I didn't know that. Yeah. So I started sharing about it. I've watched a lot through your content, I should just say. This was some, like...
• 2:48
  Most I'd ever gotten engagement on my personal. People were DMing me, asking me questions. How are you eating more protein? What does it look like to eat more protein? What kind of protein? How much? And I was like, whoa, I'm literally one of those people. Yeah.
• 3:02
  Yeah, but I mean, you're not alone. Like it just was such a hot moment. And then you started to look at like the well and good wellness trends for 2023. And they were all saying protein. And I was like, Oh my God, like, this is like a thing. And so as people were asking me all these questions, I was like, Okay, I just have to like give the people what they want. This is what I'm learning about. I'm just going to share as I learn.
• 3:27
  And I decided for January, because the most common question was like, how are you eating? What are your meals look like? Show me what you're eating. I was like, I'm going to show people what I'm eating every day for 30 days. And so I did this series for the next 30 days, you and I are eating meals with at least 30 grams of protein because 30 grams of protein is the muscle protein synthesis threshold for women. That's how much you have to eat to like maintain your muscle in a meal.
• 3:56
  It's a lot. It is. But when you get used to it, it's like, it's not. It's really not. But it just went wild. Within the first week, I was at like 10,000 followers. And then like the second week, it was like 50,000 followers. And I was like, oh my God, what have I done? I've created a monster. Yeah.
• 4:23
  That is crazy. And okay, wait, let's just pause here. So you're creating the videos. They're like recipe videos, some exercise kind of videos. Are you like hashtagging? Are you doing all the best practice stuff as well? Or you're just kind of thinking about like the content and the audio? Are you on stories like every day? Let's just think about the posting schedule here.
• 4:44
  For one minute. For me, it was like really focused on posting daily. I was pretty much doing that for Mireya before. But now all of a sudden it was on my personal page and I realized it was just growing way faster. So it was always reelsed.
• 5:00
  And it was the same format with the same intro. The intro, I think, was a huge part because you say for the next 30 days and people are like, great, I want more of this. I'm going to follow because I want to see the next 30 days. Easy. Like I said, protein. Everyone wanted meals with more protein. So that was like easy. But I think the fact that it was recipes –
• 5:22
  That's a highly saved post regardless, right? You see a recipe you want to do, what do you do on Instagram? You save it. And the algorithm loves saves and shares. So people were sharing, people were saving, people were sharing the recipes to their stories. So I think that just like triggered this perfect storm on Instagram where they were like, this girl is sharing great content. And they just kept pushing. Yeah.
• 5:46
  Oh my gosh. Love it. So the 30 day challenge, where does that lead you at day 30? Anxious and thinking, what the hell do I do next? But I was like, okay, I have this audience who's primarily women. The age group is mostly, it's like 24 to 45, which is right on the money for, you know, the brand as well.
• 6:14
  And I, in a handful of the recipes also talked about the connection to your menstrual cycle with the foods I was using in the recipes. So I started to talk about cycle syncing your food within the protein recipes. And those posts were getting a lot of engagement. And so I was like, people are into the hormone talk. I'm going to do another 30 days.
• 6:37
  Where I focus on for the next 30 days, you and I are doing things to support our hormone health. And I was like – And that's where I started seeing your videos. And maybe also because I'd had this period thing that I'd posted, I must have been getting fed –
• 6:55
  Hormone talk. Hormone health stuff. And I started – because I actually don't scroll on Instagram. I don't, like, go through my feed. But whatever the first video that pops up, I'll, like, see and, you know, either share it to a friend and blah, blah, blah. But your video was, like, constantly popping up as, like, my first video in my feed. And it would be, like, hormone health. And I'd be, like, that's relevant to me. Let's talk about it. Yeah.
• 7:18
  Yeah. Okay, right. Oh, wait. So wait, just to pause here for a second. Okay. So this happens in January. You get to however many, you know, how many followers are you up by end of Jan? I don't even remember. Probably like 70K. Okay. Very high. Are you talking about Mireya during this time at all? And what are you seeing the impact on the brand at that time? Yeah. So in my stories, I was like just sharing my life.
• 7:48
  And part of my everyday life is drinking the Mireya PMS Elixir, which is a drinkable or drinkable multivitamin. So I'd share that and I'd get questions. You know, people would be like, what is this? You know, what does it do? Whatever. And I'd do like the screenshot, like show the question, answer the question kind of thing on stories. And was starting to notice some traction and some crossover. So in my mind, I'm kind of like, okay, great. I need to keep...
• 8:19
  integrating this one like it's going to be great for the brand and two it's very authentic to my story so yeah I started I started to talk about it and integrate it for sure
• 8:30
  As the hormone month went on, it was very natural. Every day wasn't going to be about Mireya. I think there was like one or two days that it was incorporated into like a recipe or a smoothie or a sleepy girl cocktail. And that was when I started posting the sleepy girl cocktail, which is...
• 8:49
  our product and tart cherry juice. And I also would post my whoop data. So my sleep data off of my whoop after taking that for a night. And it is insane, the deep sleep that I get after I drink this. And so people could see, like, it wasn't, you know, artificial. It was like truly my sleep data. The nights that I took that was insane. And everyone was like, what is a sleepy girl mocktail?
• 9:20
  I want to get our sample packs into these people's hands. And so I just like went on stories. It was literally, I think like 1030 at night. I was going to bed. I just mixed up my sleepy girl mocktail. And I was like, if you order in the next 48 hours, I'm going to refund. Initially, I said five orders in the next like 48 hours of our sample packs. And all of a sudden, we just started getting like so many sample pack orders. And I was like, oh, wow.
• 9:47
  And I was like, I didn't even like say I was going to like, it wasn't free. People were still paying for it. I was like, use this code because I wanted to know who'd seen it. And so there was a specific code that got them like 10% off. And then we got like over 100 orders in 48 hours for our sample pack. Sometime in the like next 24 hours, I was like, I'm upping it. Like I'm going to refund 10 orders. And it like went off again. And I was like.
• 10:17
  Oh, my God. And the conversion rate, I don't know the conversion rate, like, exactly from sample packs to subscribers. But so many of those people have now subscribed. And they're in my DMs being like, I love this product. I use it every day. I'm so glad I found you. Like, it's helping my sleep. It's helping my energy. I love it so much. And I'm like, whoa, that was so cool. Oh, my gosh. The power of social media still blows my mind.
• 10:46
  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.
• 11:11
  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.
• 11:34
  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.