Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 6 Quick Questions with Maggie Winter, Founder of AYR (part 2)

Transcript

6 Quick Questions with Maggie Winter, Founder of AYR (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. The question number one is what's your why? Why are you doing what you're doing? Clothing has the power to be transformative and at its best, it can make you feel like the best version of yourself. And our company's mission really is to create confidence through clothing.
• 0:29
  I love that. And it's so true. When you put on a great outfit or like your new favorite dress or the most comfy pair of pants and you feel great, you're like, yeah, I can tackle anything. Absolutely. So true. Question number two, and I'm sure we know the answer to this, but maybe you'll have to either give us the next best answer if it is this. What has been your favorite marketing moment so far? Can't be the Oprah thing. We have to go for the second best.
• 0:56
  I'm going to say that it was catalog and specifically it was this September catalog that we shot on Max and her granny in downtown Manhattan.
• 1:10
  And it was the best performing one. It was the best day. It was the most fun. And her granny is 87 years old. She's run the New York City Marathon twice. She has three grandkids. She is so charismatic and captivating. And I loved that that came through in the pictures on the page and that our audience also celebrated her.
• 1:34
  For anyone listening, you can go to the website right now and see Max's granny all over the website. She is on the product pages. She's in the editorial content. She is a really cool cat. Very charismatic looking. I love that. That is so cool. And that's part of building a business, right? Is just doing the stuff that truly brings you joy and just has fun. It doesn't need to be serious and stuffy. It can just be fun. I love that. Great.
• 2:03
  Question number three, what is your business, go-to business resource when it comes to a book, a podcast, or a newsletter? It's a podcast, just like this one. Honestly, I think that, especially as a female founder, I think women connect so beautifully when they are just in conversation and sharing stories. And I think that this kind of format lets people –
• 2:29
  speak, you know, sort of more intimately or more casually. And those are the stories I'm interested in hearing. Like I want to, if we're at drinks or coffee or lunch, like I want to hear what's going on with you for real. Like I don't want the social media glossy experience. Really, I want the real talk. And I find that in mediums that are more
• 2:54
  filtered or more edited, like a book, for instance, you know, it's got to go through an editor and a publisher and we really are going to clean it up. I kind of like the mess and I kind of like the behind the scenes and I like hearing the voice. So I think that podcasts are the best way to hear these startup stories. Second best only to having that lunch or having like a conversation on the phone with a friend who's doing it.
• 3:22
  Any recommendations that we need to immediately download? Oh, my gosh. I listen to so many and probably a lot of the same ones that everybody else does. But I like –
• 3:36
  how I built this is gold standard, of course. But I like Dear Media has a lot of women focused podcasts. And I love Lauren Bostic's podcast. I really do. I listen to all the episodes. Pia Barancini had a really great podcast. And she has got a new one now too, I think. But she had one that ran for like one season. And I downloaded all the episodes. And I listened to some of them more than once. Because I like that casual vibe of friends talking to each other.
• 4:05
  And especially in a pandemic world, I miss that. And so the more casual, the better. And I love, I also love it as a replacement for office banter. I miss sitting around my coworkers and chatting. To me, it's a nice rhythm to hear.
• 4:26
  I love that. Very cool. We're going to link those in the show notes for anyone who wants to check them out. Question number four, how do you win the day? What are your AM and PM rituals that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated? At the end of the day, the thing that you don't get more of is time. And so you've got to spend your time well. I can't say that I have like the best rituals, but what I do have, I have the best people around me. And I think that
• 4:52
  For me, a day where I feel understood and supported is the best feeling I could have. And to have that on the team and at home
• 5:05
  no matter what happens in between, that's the best. And so just I'm always investing, I think, in trying to learn about communication and to work on trusting communication, being really well understood, and being a source of support for the people around me. So it really is about spending time with people that give you energy. Don't take it, right?
• 5:28
  Amen. I love that. And I'm all about that vibe. All about it. Question number five, what's your worst money mistake?
• 5:40
  Buying too much inventory and buying the wrong inventory. And I mean, I would be horrified to give you a number, but let me just tell you, it has more zeros in it than I'd want to have. Is there a specific time? If we're thinking not collectively and we're thinking like summer of this year, we ordered this box of jeans. What are we talking? Do we have any specific examples?
• 6:07
  It was really the first five years that we existed. We were buying product that wasn't always and making product that wasn't always a fit for the marketplace. And the good and bad thing is that I guess the fewest people see your biggest mistakes because you're making them early.
• 6:26
  but your audience is also smaller and you can exit that inventory in ways that don't spoil your customer experience. But we learned a lot, I think, about product and about our audience in those first five years. Making product is a quite –
• 6:45
  intense process with a long lead time to it and so you're not able to take learnings from yesterday and apply them tomorrow the way that you can in other parts of the business it's just a slower it's a slower cycle and now we're in a place i think where all those learnings have been ultimately good investments because they've brought us where we are and if you like where you are you can't be too mad about how you got there right
• 7:12
  A hundred percent. So true. Everything from yesterday leads you to today. Question number six. Last question. What is just a crazy story you can share, good or bad, from your journey in building air? Crazy story, good or bad. Okay. Let me think about that one for one second. Take all the time you need. No rush over here. It can be a business fail. It can be a great customer review that was super impactful. It can be...
• 7:42
  something weird happening. It can be a trip somewhere. Okay. I've got one then. So my best, best moment personally was that we ended up DMing with Nancy Myers, who is just the best, best, best filmmaker. She's made like all of our favorite movies, like the holiday and it's complicated and the,
• 8:06
  Father of the bride, on and on and on and on. And she's such a hero of ours. And we ended up DMing with her. And she liked the brand and liked the product. But we really regard her. She's in our company's imaginary Mount Rushmore, right with Oprah.
• 8:23
  Because she writes female characters so beautifully. She's worked with so many iconic actresses. And she is just, oh, those are like comfort movies. We make comfortable clothes. But she makes like the comfort movies that we love to watch. And you never know who you're going to get to meet in this world where you have just, you know, a little phone and an account. And we got to meet a hero. And that was really cool.
• 8:49
  I love that. And shout out to Nancy. That is so cool. Love that for you. Amazing. Oprah, Granny and Nancy Meyers. That's our pantheon of ultimate air girls. That's your hype crew. I love that.
• 9:05
  Maggie, this was so much fun. Thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show today and share your incredible journey. And I'm just so excited. I'm so excited to keep watching you grow. You guys are just crushing it. Thank you so much. Thanks, Drew. We'll make sure to get you some air for your next flight. Thank you.
• 9:29
  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.
• 9:54
  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.
• 10:16
  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.
• 10:33
  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.
• 10:57
  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.
• 11:20
  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.