Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / The story of the youngest black-owned & female founded business to be stocked by Sephora and being named Forbes 30 under 30, with Trinity Mouzon Wofford, Founder of Golde

Transcript

The story of the youngest black-owned & female founded business to be stocked by Sephora and being named Forbes 30 under 30, with Trinity Mouzon Wofford, Founder of Golde · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Trinity for Female Startup Club.
• 0:12
  Hi guys, welcome back to another episode of Female Startup Club, the podcast for women in progress to learn and be inspired by successful female founders and women in business from around the world. Joining me today is Trinity Muzan Wofford, the founder of superfood wellness company Gold. They produce approachable, effective wellness essentials for inner and outer radiance that are powered by single origin turmeric. Yum! Yum!
• 0:40
  Trinity's a young powerhouse with a great story to share. She was the youngest Black founder to have a brand stocked in Sephora at just 23 years old and was named Forbes 30 Under 30 this year. We speak a lot about her journey in building this brand as a Black female founder, her learnings from along the way with her co-founder slash fiance, and some great insights into the world of wholesale. This is Trinity Muzan Wofford for Female Startup Club.
• 1:09
  I usually start by getting everyone to tell me a little bit about the business and what it is before we get into the nitty gritty. Yeah, for sure. So I am the co-founder and CEO at Gold. We are a Brooklyn-based health and beauty brand powered by superfoods. So Gold makes everything from superfood face masks to latte blends, really to just help you feel like your best self inside and out.
• 1:38
  Sounds really delicious. I've seen a lot of yummy looking recipes on your website. Yes, yes. The yum factor is definitely important to us. Yeah, for sure. What made you want to start the business?
• 1:53
  Yeah. So I have been into wellness for a while. I grew up in like sort of a wellness-y family, right? Like my grandmother ate all organic and all that good stuff. But I didn't get really super into it until I was a teenager and,
• 2:10
  And, um, my mom who has an autoimmune disease, um, switched over to seeing this more sort of holistically minded physician and saw an incredible improvement in her symptoms. And, um, that was really, um, a pivotal moment for me and made me say, okay, well, this is my career path. Then I
• 2:35
  practice medicine and, and, um, do it through this holistic lens. And, um, so all was well, you know, I, I, I went down to NYU for, for college, you know, I was raised upstate. Um, and then, um, as I was finishing up, um,
• 2:51
  college, I found out from my mom that she had to stop seeing that doctor because she actually couldn't afford it anymore. Um, because you know, here in the States, a lot of things aren't covered by our health insurance system, including anything that's like, not just like cut and dry prescription medications. Um, so I had this realization that, um,
• 3:14
  that I didn't really want to practice medicine if it wasn't going to be for everyone. So I graduated and wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with my life, like any good 22 year old. And I ended up kind of like falling into a marketing career in the city. I was working at a tech startup. So like,
• 3:42
  Super fast growing, very small team. They had just closed their series A in funding, which I had no idea what that meant at the time. But I, you know, I was thrown into that world. And I really, really loved it. So, you know, I had that going on, but I still...
• 3:58
  you know, in the back of my mind, knew that I wanted to get back to that mission of wellness and accessibility. And, um, the missing piece there sort of was, um, my high school sweetheart, uh, who's now my co-founder, um, you say he grew up in family business. His parents have a candle factory in upstate New York where we both were raised. Um,
• 4:21
  And so he had that window into small business and entrepreneurship and kind of gave both of us the context that one day we could do something like that. So that's really kind of everything that was moving around in my brain and in my life that brought me toward the idea of, I think, having the guts to to launch gold.
• 4:48
  Yeah. And I mean, not only did you guys have this like perfect recipe of, you know, small business experience and like high growth startup experience, but you also had this like young drive because you launched the brand at like 23 or something. I think I read, which is absolutely insane. That's so cool. I definitely think that was a big chunk of secret ingredient being young enough to be so fearless. Yeah.
• 5:14
  I think that like that naivety that it'll all work out is very powerful. Yeah. I think you go into it being like, Oh, well, you know, like, what's the worst case scenario? Like just go back and get another job. Right. Yeah, exactly. I think that's the beauty of starting something when you're young is that, you know, like, okay, well like worst case scenario, I'll just move back home and my parents will be a little annoyed with me. But like,
• 5:40
  I can see the path out of, you know, failure. So I think it was really beneficial for us to know that we had that little bit of safety there. Yeah, absolutely. And...
• 5:56
  How's the, um, you know, navigating the relationship of being a co-founder and having, um, your fiance now, right? Yeah. Um, I actually work with my fiance too. We've, we've been building business together. Um, and I love to hear what other people find of the, of the situation. Yeah, it's such a good question, you know, and I get the question very often of like,
• 6:19
  I don't know. I'm thinking about going into business with my significant other. Should I? And my answer to that question is always, if you have to ask, you already know. I don't think it's for everyone. And I don't think that's a sign that you have like a not strong relationship or anything, but I think it's a lot to put on your relationship to be really just in it 24 seven, because you live together, you work together, you don't like,
• 6:48
  Ultimately for us, I think it has really strengthened our personal relationship because it forces a certain level of maturity and empathy that you, I feel like you can kind of like skirt around when it's like just your significant other, but like there's such an intimacy to starting a business with someone that when you have that and you have the personal relationship, you just have to be like so honest and so respectful all the time because you just can't.
• 7:16
  There's no room for like being in a tiff for the day because then like your business isn't happening. You could not be off. Oh my gosh. And so, okay. So you guys have this moment. You're like, yep, we're going to go all in. We're going to essentially quit our jobs and we're going to start this business together. Did you know specifically what you wanted it to be in the wellness sector at that point? Or like, how did you come up with the idea of being like, yeah, this is what it's going to be?
• 7:47
  Um, I mean, I think that it's definitely evolved. So when we first launched, we launched with a single product, our original turmeric latte blend. And when we first started out, we actually were like, yeah, we're going to focus on turmeric. That's going to be the thing. And this was in 2017 that we launched. And what was funny was like, we had seen that turmeric was getting more popular, but it hadn't hit that like, you know, skyrocketing that happened in 2017 and into 2018.
• 8:17
  a little caught off guard by the level to which suddenly consumers were like, I need to have turmeric in my life. I want to try this product. Um, so that was great. But we also found that, um, the other reason why people were coming to gold was because they loved our ethos around wellness, which was really like, you know, I was looking at my own experiences as a consumer in the wellness space. Right. And I was feeling very caught between this like,
• 8:42
  crunchy granola stuff that I'd grown up with. Um, I come from like Birkenstock land. Okay. So, um, and then the other side of it, which was like, so luxe and prestige and like $75 powders. And like, even if it did appeal to me, I definitely couldn't afford it. Um, and so I just, I wanted to do something in the middle there. So I think
• 9:05
  you know, we had the interest because we were doing turmeric, but then the larger fascination with the brand and our product offering seemed to really be this new perspective. And we found that over time, we wanted to be able to apply that perspective more broadly because there was so much value in saying that like wellness should actually feel good. It shouldn't be punishment.
• 9:32
  Yeah. You want to, you want to drink the drink and enjoy it and drink the green drink and enjoy it and not screw up your face at it. Yeah. I totally get that. Absolutely. And that's so then what happened? Like, did you guys go out and raise money? Was there startup capital involved that you guys had? You know, I mean, even at 23, I didn't have any savings. Like that's for sure. Um, what did you guys do?
• 9:55
  Yeah. So I, I had a little bit of savings because I had been working at a fancy tech startup and I was like, I'm one of those people that's like obsessively frugal. You know, I would like be, I would like tell my coworkers about like my grocery budget of like $50 a week. And they'd be like, how are you living? You're like tinned tuna, ramen noodles. Yeah. I was like,
• 10:20
  Very from an early age, which is interesting. I haven't really like revisited that. But like once I was making like a real salary, I was like, oh, my God, I only have to pull out like two thousand dollars a month, which is like, you know, I think a thousand bucks was going toward like my half of the rent and the other thousand was like anything else.
• 10:41
  Um, and so I did have a little bit of savings, not a ton, but so, um, Isay and I, I think we maybe just put like a couple thousand dollars into it total between the two of us and just went with it. Um, to be honest, we didn't really know anything about investors. The
• 11:06
  through Issei's family. And they have the opposite of an investor-involved business. They started pouring candles in their garage. And now 20 years later, they have this very successful business that they've scaled very slowly and very profitably the whole time. So they always told us, no, don't ever get investors. It's a terrible idea. So we were like, yeah, it's just going to be the two of us. We're just going to sell some turmeric, see what happens as long as we can pay our rent. And that was the plan.
• 11:36
  they were like the definition of bootstrapping a brand. And you were also like, yeah, but I've worked in a high growth tech startup. So maybe like, maybe I want to power it up. Yeah. What's interesting though, is like, I think my experience at that startup also kind of turned me off of venture capital a little bit. Cause that was really true classic, like tech VC. And it just, I didn't,
• 12:05
  Gold has always been, and the point of it was always to have something that was very close to me. And I saw what a business looked like when it got like incubated right out of the gate and then like raised a lot of venture money. And it just always felt like it wasn't, it felt like the founder didn't have like the ownership that they wanted to have, like the level of just complete. Like there was all, there are always other cooks in the kitchen. Yeah. And someone pulling the puppet strings. Yeah.
• 12:33
  Yeah. And so, I mean, that's not always the case and like, we'll get into that, but like, I, to start out, we were very much like, no, we don't like, I'm not going there. Um, we just wanted to like have fun and make a product that people would like. And, you know, we didn't need a whole bunch of money to live off of. Our plan was not to like figure out how to build a multimillion dollar wellness brand. Like it was not even remotely in a far off corner of my brain.
• 13:00
  That's so cool that you were like, yeah, we're not really like thinking that big right now, but you know, then it grows into that and it becomes this huge thing that you wake up one day and you're like, oh shit, look what we did. Right. And I don't mean to say that in like, you know, I think it's such...
• 13:18
  bullshit when people are like, yeah, I don't know. I just like started with $500. And the next thing I knew I had this like multimillion dollar company, like not there were steps involved, you made conscious decisions, right? So there was a certain point that we reached, which I think was like,
• 13:33
  one year in where investors started to reach out and they started to kind of like paint this picture for me of like, think bigger. Like, what if this was a multimillion dollar company? What would you do? What would that look like? And it was literally the first time that I had considered it. It wasn't, I wasn't thinking about like, oh, I'm going to build like the Glossier Wellness. So there was a moment there where I really kind of got put on that like turn gold into a CPG venture backed
• 14:02
  But ultimately, I just, it didn't feel right for me at that time. It felt like too early to be jumping into that because we had started as a bootstrap brand. I felt like I needed more time to really see that out.
• 14:17
  before I like brought other folks in. So we kind of just let it grow organically, but we were very tactical about growth. Once that, once we got to kind of that one year mark, cause we were thinking about, okay, we want to build out a team. So it wasn't like, okay, I just woke up and it was big and I had no idea, but it definitely wasn't like our plan from day one.
• 14:42
  Yeah, and I imagine as well, like, you know, building a brand that's going to be stocked in retailers around the world and that kind of thing, you also have to, like, have cash flow to be able to pay for orders and pay, you know, for the manufacturer to produce these huge quantities. And I was reading, you know, you're stocked in places like
• 15:01
  Sephora and Urban Outfitters and Goop. And I imagine these are the kinds of brands who are placing huge, huge orders of your product. So since that time, that year mark in, has it evolved that you've had to take on
• 15:17
  you know, investment from other people or have you thought about like, or have you taken on business loans or something like that? Right. We do a mix of things right now. So, um, we just closed actually a very, very teensy tiny, uh, like angel round from a few folks, which was like just a nice way to build out a little bit of cushion. Congratulations. Yeah.
• 15:39
  Thank you. Thank you. Which is great because it's like, you know, like you're saying, it's a cashflow game. So even if you're profitable at the end of the year, there are moments when you've just spent like $50,000 on product and you haven't sold it yet and you don't want to be at zero in the bank. So that was really helpful. We didn't really have to give up much equity for it because we raised a pretty small amount. And then outside of that, we've done a lot of like
• 16:06
  fairly short-term working capital loans. We've also, when we had our first big purchase order, which was like, I don't know, like $5,000 or something like that, we had friends and family factor that agreement for us. So they would put up the five grand
• 16:23
  And then we would pay them back like, I don't know, like $5,100 or something like that once that retailer paid us a few months later. So when it was in its early stages, we could really leverage friends and family for like small checks like that. As it's gotten bigger now, having that small equity raise is really valuable. And we're also now exploring all these different options because
• 16:49
  There's so many now, like there's so many different places that you can get like working capital or like inventory funding or all these pieces. So I am very open to raising more money from investors, but I want to be very thoughtful about doing what's truly right for the business and not just sort of like whatever is the like trending solution at the moment because...
• 17:13
  I mean, we've seen this crazy fallout, right, of like a lot of these like overfunded venture backed brands that were like the industry darlings two years ago when I first started talking to investors. So I'm like very hesitant to kind of just do whatever like the people are telling me to do, because like two years ago, they were telling me to raise like $10 million. And now they would never tell me to do that at this stage.
• 17:36
  Yeah. I imagine like the conversations from two years ago to now would be so vastly different based on the landscape. What was your experience like going into those meetings? And, you know, as a woman, as a black woman, what were the conversations like and how was the experience?
• 17:57
  Yeah, it's a really good question. I mean, I think that I came into the space as the like female founder narrative was really blowing up. So I don't think I ever had much trouble on that front because whether it was coming from a genuine place or not, investors were very aware of the fact that they needed to bring in female founders. So that was kind of a done deal. I think also that applied to some extent
• 18:24
  to me being a black woman. But what was interesting is I found that it was very hard to get people to close. And I noticed that like,
• 18:35
  people would say that my business, which was like profitable revenues doubling every year, you know, 100 plus retailers, you know, including Sephora, whatever, they would say that we were too early. But then I would see that they had invested in like a pre-revenue business from like a white woman founded brand. So in the moment, like I would have these, I would have these really great conversations, right? They're super excited. They're very enthusiastic, but like they couldn't pull the trigger on me.
• 19:04
  And it kind of took me a while to really sit with the fact that like part of that was because I'm black founder and like there's just more for me to have to prove compared to the average white founder. Yeah.
• 19:18
  I am very interested to see what is going to shift now in the landscape, now that there is such an overt response to, um, you know, trying to bring more diversity, um, specifically black voices into entrepreneurship. Um, definitely had a lot of investors reach out in the past two weeks. I can say that it must be a weird feeling to, to be like, um, Hey, I didn't hear from you like a month ago.
• 19:47
  Like it's quite timely. I mean, but it's really awesome. But then it must be strange. I was reading your article that you wrote for the Huffington Post about, you know, it's a strange time for black-owned businesses at the moment. And there was something that you wrote that was in my mind. And it's something like it can be challenging to separate the profound from the performative. And I was like, yeah, I imagine that's like,
• 20:15
  An interesting thing to wrap your head around. What have the experiences been for you? You know, it's interesting. I read, I can't remember who said this,
• 20:29
  But someone, a black woman was talking about this and she said, and the question that she was asked was like, do you think that these people are actually being sincere or are they just making these pledges and whatever, because they have to. And she said, I don't care if they're being sincere or not, as long as they're doing it. You know, like I don't.
• 20:50
  If we're getting black people where they need to be, where they've always deserved to be, but where they've been held back from being able to get to, I don't care if a white person is doing it because they feel like it's just going to look good or like they have to do it.
• 21:05
  Um, which I thought was a really interesting point. Um, that like at the end of the day, a lot of these initiatives are around like folks in power doing what like they know they have to do as opposed to, um, really feeling it deeply that it's the right thing. Um, but at the end of the
• 21:28
  a couple of black people on like the executive board of company, they're going to be the ones to do it fully with their heart. And they'll hopefully encourage the non-black folks around them to see that perspective a little bit more deeply and understand it. But yeah,
• 21:43
  Maybe that first step is inherently a little bit superficial. And maybe we kind of have to say, okay, well, I'm not like congratulating you on this because like you should have done this long time ago, but this will create momentum towards positive change.
• 22:01
  Yeah, and from being something that could be perceived as a shallow, you know, moment can be authentic change and authentic difference in like culture and business. Yep. Yeah, exactly.
• 22:20
  I want to talk about some of the milestones that you've had in your career. I was reading that you were the youngest black woman, um, to be stocked by Sephora. Um, you've also been bulbs, 30 under 30. You've had this like amazing track record. Um, and, and you just, you know, you're really young. It's so cool. It's so impressive. And I want to talk about how you've kind of like grown into this, um, entrepreneurial woman. Oh,
• 22:51
  Yeah. Um, it's interesting because people often ask me like, are you celebrating these wins? Like when it's like, oh, 30 under 30, whatever. And I'm like, no, I just like went right back to work. Um, and I think that like maybe a part of that is unhealthy. Like I should pause and say like, yeah, you really did that, you know, but I think
• 23:12
  and maybe this is just consistent for founders, but like my eye is always on the next prize. And it's not so much like a prize for me, but it's a prize for gold and the team of people that are now working to build it, which is like so cool to me. Like, you know, this company was me and my boyfriend for like a very long time. And to now have like multiple people who are like standing beside us and like just as enthusiastic about it.
• 23:43
  That's like, if you were going to ask me, like, what's like the most exciting thing about this? It's like that seeing these other people come in and like carry this with us is so cool. Um, so I think I really spend a lot of time celebrating their wins and the, and the team's wins, um, more than I do like my own personal ones. Um, yeah.
• 24:06
  Yeah, I think. But I mean, I guess to answer your question, though, about like this journey to this point. Right. Yeah.
• 24:16
  I think I've always had that like entrepreneurial sense in me. And I've always wanted to have a platform to share my voice. I've always been sort of a nurturer and a leader. So it's exciting for me to be able to speak out about accessibility and wellness, about inclusivity and entrepreneurship. That's really, really cool.
• 24:47
  I, you know, I never had like a, um, a very clear directive as a child of like, this is what I'm going to do. But I think all those things were always in me. And now I have this incredible channel, positive channel to like unleash those energies and support, you know, change in the world.
• 25:06
  Yeah, absolutely. And you have also just such an amazing community. It seems like you've got this posse of people who are just so, so there for it. When I was looking through your personal Instagram and your brand Instagram, I really felt that.
• 25:23
  They're incredible. Like I can't, I'm not over it. I could do a whole podcast just talking about those guys. Like they're the coolest. Like I see them, like I did an Instagram post on Gold's feed. I don't know, yesterday or something like that. And like someone asked a question about like, hey, like I want to make that matcha loaf recipe that you guys posted. Can I sub in like honey for maple syrup? And someone else responded and was like, yeah, I did, it was delicious. And they were like, thanks.
• 25:53
  And I was like, this is incredible. Oh my God. You guys are just like so on it and so excited. I just, it's, I love it. That's the thrilling part. And that's probably where you are like, yeah, I can pat myself on the back right here. Cause you guys now talk between each other. That's really cool. Yeah. That kind of leads me to the next sort of things that I love to talk about on the podcast, which is marketing.
• 26:16
  in general and how you find your customers in the beginning and how you also then shift from that beginning pool of kind of loyal people who found your brand, discovered you and have been loyal ever since to now, you know, fast forwarding where you're acquiring at scale. Yeah. Yeah.
• 26:33
  So we are still very early on in our customer acquisition journey, I would say, because we've been largely self-funded. We've really lied on organic word of mouth, but sort of like...
• 26:48
  I think what we've done over time is we've started to guide that organic word of mouth because we found that it's so effective and it's really affordable. So we just kind of create programs to encourage folks to share with their community. We are starting to run ads soon. We were supposed to start them like a couple of weeks ago, but then like this whole crazy thing happened with support, black owned business and gold.
• 27:15
  blew up and we sold through all our inventory. So I just like my, that's amazing. It's a great problem to have, but like, you know, my, um, our ads agency keeps like checking in with me every week and it was like, Hey, are you ready to start? I'm like, I still don't have any product. I'm
• 27:37
  We started off just like word of mouth. We had an Instagram. I was like, all I had, like the wherewithal to do. And we found that over time, folks became interested in our brand and they wanted the opportunity to they wanted to like join this community that was sort of like organically growing.
• 27:57
  And so we ended up creating an ambassador program, which has been extremely, extremely successful for gold. So, um, I don't know what we started off with, but now we have like 75 people that rotate through on a quarterly basis, um, on our ambassador program. And, um,
• 28:17
  we really just kind of welcome them into this like inner circle. Um, and they get some perks, but like mostly it's like that community piece and that belonging. And like, we found out recently that like, they have like a whole group chat, like, like, they're all of more zap. Oh my God. Um, chatting. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Um, but so,
• 28:41
  they are really incredible at like sharing like, Hey, this is my favorite product. This is what I like to do with it, whatever. Um, and we're really for the ambassadors, we really tend to recruit like everyday girls, not people with like, uh, thousands and thousands of followers. Um, people who are, um,
• 29:00
  just sharing their real life with their real friends and like maybe like a couple hundred people who follow them outside of that, who like, you know, found them, whatever. And their engagement is incredible. And they're so good at creating that content. And then,
• 29:15
  That spurs the folks in our broader community who aren't ambassadors to also want to join in and like share their favorite like matcha latte recipe and things like that. And so like it's really this very organic sharing opportunity. Typically, you know, the past couple of days have been so weird. So like our feed's been a little bit different, but typically our feed is like almost just like 100 percent UGC.
• 29:40
  And so I think folks are like really excited to like tag us and see if they like get in our stories or like get on the feed. And like, it's just it's very, it's extremely collaborative. And that's been extremely valuable for building the brand and building out that early stage acquisition at like a very cost positive rate.
• 30:02
  Yeah, well, it sounds like a really nice little community to be part of. And so, like, do you pay them to be ambassadors or do you, like, how do they, like, how does it work? Yeah. So they basically get...
• 30:18
  they get like a welcome shipment of products. It's not necessarily every product though. They get like whatever, um, you know, maybe what's new or like our like favorite standbys, whatever. Um, and then they get a gift card to the site on any given month that they make at least one sale. So as long as you drive at least one person with your link to make a sale, then they get
• 30:42
  a gift card to the site that's like equivalent to like about like one product. Um, so basically they're able to, as long as they're active and sharing, they're able to get, um, a lot of gold goodies, um, for free or at like a massively reduced price point. But it's not like,
• 30:59
  We're not like showering them with gifts. We're not like paying them thousands of dollars. It's very organic. And I think that's important because the point of it is not like, I'm going to pay you a shit ton of money so that you'll say something because then whatever you say is going to be so... Um...
• 31:16
  It's going to feel like such a transaction. Yeah. It's got to be like a product that you just genuinely want to use month on month. So therefore you're like, hey, I actually want to tell you guys about this. Like, and I want to be able to get more product because I love it.
• 31:32
  Yeah, I mean, when these people rotate out of the program, they keep buying. Like, they're not like, oh, well, I just like did it because I was getting it for free. They're literally like, they are customers. And that's oftentimes now where we're recruiting people from. Like, they've bought a few times from us. And then we're allowing them to join the ambassador program. So like, we really...
• 31:50
  I don't want to create these sort of like weird levels between like the ambassadors, which are these like super like fancy people with like tens of thousands of followers, whatever, and then like everyone else. Like the ambassadors are our customers and our customers see themselves in our ambassadors. And so that content is so relatable and it really works. Yeah, 100%. I wanted to ask you about...
• 32:18
  Like, you know, when you have your retailers and I think you mentioned before, you've got like a hundred plus retailers who stock the brand in the early days, how did you make sure that people were actually like going in and buying those products so that the retailers would keep ordering through your products? Because like, I imagine you could just like get a stockist on board, but then if no one knows about your product and no one buys it, then they're like, okay, well that didn't sell through. Yeah. Do you have to have a strategy to that?
• 32:48
  You do. That's also such a good question, because I think that a lot of folks, maybe even myself included in the very early days, you say like, oh, well, like I'm in this retailer now. So like, here's a million dollars for me. Right. And meanwhile, it's like, no, no, no. You have the shelf, but now it's your responsibility to make sure that inventory turns and you need to create a reason for the buyer to not just like replace you with something else.
• 33:14
  And in the beginning, we really took anything that came our way. So like any retailer that reached out to us,
• 33:22
  And most of it was that way. We didn't really, we were still working at our full-time jobs in the very beginning. Um, like there was no time for us to do a lot of heavy outreach. So a lot of it was coming in inbound and anyone who reached out to us, we'd say, Oh yeah, like we'll put it on the shelf as long as it's not like totally not a fit. But there were some times where, um, we were
• 33:53
  I remember we actually like we flew out to LA to go like visit all their stores. And it like wasn't merchandised. Well, they had it because it wasn't just this was a beauty store. But because it wasn't ingestible. And this was so new, like this was still like maybe early 2018 2017. So like beauty is wellness, like very new concept. They had it merchandised next to like,
• 34:17
  chips and candy and stuff like that, like the little fun stuff near the register. So there was no like and there was no shelf talker. There was no there was no context for the customer to even understand like what they were looking at, which was actually like a turmeric blend that they should put in like their morning smoothie or like make a latte with to like help their skin glow. And so we really did our best to try to get them on board. But then also when we talked to the staff.
• 34:45
  I actually remember like the manager of one of those stores, like trying it and being like, yeah, like I like McDonald's. Like this is not like my thing. And I was like, fuck, like this is not going to work. You're like, okay, well shit. Well, and sometimes that's just the case, right? Like if the team is not on board and they don't care about what you're selling and they don't even like it. Yeah. You're not going to sell it. It's really hard. Yeah. Yeah. And so yeah,
• 35:13
  Luckily, I mean, they placed a big order and like we got paid off of that. And I think they just, you know, never sold through it because they never put the love into making it happen. And there was only so much that we could do as at the time, a team of two, like we didn't have like, you know, these like salespeople to just like come in and work it. So I think there is like, there is a point where I think,
• 35:38
  if you have to spend like tons and tons of money getting your product to sell in that retailer, it might not be a fit and it might just not be a fit right now. Like maybe you're a little ahead of the curve and you're,
• 35:50
  what often happens is like the buyer is very on trend, but then like the consumer or like the like store staff is like, even just like six months behind that. Right. So, but then there's that lag and like your new product hits the shelf and the people who work in the store are like, what the fuck is this? Yeah. Yeah. They've got to have the education too.
• 36:12
  Yeah. And so I think brands can do a lot for that education, but there also just comes a point where it's just like, it's not even profitable to like keep sending someone to educate a constantly rotating staff that like, isn't super excited about your product.
• 36:28
  Yeah, there's a lot of moving parts there. I hadn't even thought about the turnover of staff. So you have a great manager of the store and then if that manager of the store leaves, you know, then what? Oh, wow. Yeah, crazy. And what about like did you ever have to do like point of sale flyers or things for the customer in store? Yeah.
• 36:51
  Yeah, I mean, I think that shelf talkers are super, super valuable. Just like some like cute little postcard that like the store can put like in like a little like stand up thing. I don't know. What do you call those things? But like got it. Yeah. You know, like just something simple. I know what you mean. People don't need like you don't want to.
• 37:10
  Customers, it really depends on the store experience, right? So let's think about the little indie shop that you go to versus this mass retailer. When you're in the little indie shop, it's all about discovery. You're taking your time. You're picking things up. You're reading the story. So it's also more of an opportunity to share more information and
• 37:35
  Um, but like in the mass retailer, there are like thousands of products. You're literally just here for toothpaste and somehow like this other product has to catch your attention and like draw you in very quickly. So like, I think the way that you strategize really depends on where you're sitting and what that customer is expecting from you.
• 37:57
  Yeah, and I imagine like for you in particular, your branding is part of that strategy because you have this amazing, colorful, bright, eye-popping packaging that I really, really love. It looks so great. I was watching one of your like unboxing videos of pulling out the little sachets and I was like, oh, that looks really good.
• 38:18
  Thank you. We just, um, you say, and I do like all the, well, it's mostly you say, but I assist in the design process for all the packaging. And we just did a big redesign of all of our latte blends. So I'm glad that it's been well-received so far. Wow. Yeah, definitely five stars for me. What advice do you have for women who want to start a business or have a big idea?
• 38:49
  people really think about why they're starting this business and what their goals are for it. As I spoke to earlier, this wasn't necessarily something that I was as clear on in the beginning. It can evolve. It's okay. But you should have a sense of whether or not you're trying to... I don't know.
• 39:10
  like bake cookies and like sell them on the weekends, or you're trying to like have like a massive startup that employs hundreds of people. And you don't like you, you don't have to, and you really shouldn't overly analyze how you're going to get there from the very beginning because,
• 39:26
  But with that plan in place, you can much more easily navigate the questions that are going to come up around like, how am I going to figure out cash flow? Is that going to be investors or is it going to be taking a loan from like my uncle with like an extra 10 grand in the bank? Right. And I find that like so often people get like really stuck on questions like that. Like, I just don't know what to do.
• 39:51
  But oftentimes the answer sits in like what you're actually hoping to do in the long term and like where you see the business going. So I think if you can start with that, that will really help to like inform all the decisions, all the little decisions that you're going to have to make over the next several years. Yeah, like revert back to your original kind of like that's the end goal. How does my answer work?
• 40:17
  go on to that. Exactly. Thank you so much. I love that advice. We are up to the six quick questions that I ask to every woman. Ready? Yes. Great. Number one is what's your why? Accessibility. Getting your products accessible to everyone? Yeah. I mean, and it's not even just the products. It's...
• 40:47
  it seems to be, it's like revealed itself as a guiding mission throughout my life, whether it's, you know, mentoring earlier stage founders who are looking for advice on how to get started or thinking about how to take wellness products into like the 20 to $30 range and not the like 50 to $70 range. I just think that's the future.
• 41:12
  Yeah, I agree for sure. Number two is what's the number one marketing moment that's made your business pop? Ooh, wow.
• 41:24
  Number one marketing moment. Something that's really worked for you guys where you've woken up one day and been like, wow, that really kicked butt. That did well. Honestly, the past two weeks of this movement to support Black-owned businesses has been ridiculous. The level of visibility and attention and enthusiasm and like new customers that we've acquired recently.
• 41:50
  Like we literally 10 X our business overnight and sustained it, um, which is a little scary. That is so cool. Um,
• 41:59
  it's crazy. Like it literally went to the point where like, I was like, Courtney Kardashian was like listing us off. And I'm like DMing with her, like saying like, thanks so much. She's like, oh yeah, of course. Like what is happening? Oh my God. That's incredible. I mean, it's ridiculous. Wow. It really like, all of a sudden I'm like, you know, like my favorite, like one of my favorite tennis players was like shouting us out. I was like, what?
• 42:24
  You know, so that which was really just kind of being there and being ready for it, like being known as a black owned brand and having, I think. You know.
• 42:38
  broad, like, market fit, you know, like, we're a black owned brand, but like, anyone can use our products. So like, if you are a non black person trying to support a black owned business, and like, you're looking for something that'll work for you, gold is a great fit. So I think we kind of were like, in the right place at the right time. So like, we didn't like,
• 42:58
  We didn't feed anything to make that happen, but just like all of our hard work over the past three years. But that has by far been the most explosive moment of our business thus far. I don't think I could take another explosion like that for a while. It's like a true step change in the way that your business has grown, like literally overnight. It's just so incredible. Amazing. Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? Oh, yeah.
• 43:25
  I like to talk with other female founder friends. Um, I like to talk a lot with, um, Issei's family because they're entrepreneurs and they've been at it for so long. And so even though they have at this point, a very different business from ours, they just understand those like universal life lessons of like, how do you deal with like,
• 43:52
  someone who's copycatting you, right? Or like, how do you deal with a super angry customer who's like, just totally like, cannot be, you know, calmed down, right? Like, there are like these universal things that doesn't matter if you're doing online sales or like wholesale, you know,
• 44:11
  they just come with experience. And so I find it really valuable to talk to someone who's like 20 years in and is like, oh yeah, don't worry about it. Here's how you handle it. On to the next. Yeah. And like, you're not going to remember this in 20 years time. Like, don't let it get you down.
• 44:26
  Yeah. Perspective is very valuable. Oh, I love that. How nice that you have them as a bit of a sounding board. That's really lucky. Number four is how do you win the day? And that's around your AM and PM rituals that keep you feeling happy and fulfilled and successful in life.
• 44:45
  I love a good routine. Nothing gives me more satisfaction in my life. I am very much a morning person. So I wake up very early, like five or six usually. And I always try to start the day with like...
• 45:01
  two big glasses of water because I always wake up dehydrated. And the easiest thing to do is just like drink a bunch of water then. And then like, you're good. And you just need to keep drinking water at a normal level instead of like, otherwise, I just feel thirsty, like the whole day. I'm thirsty right now. Me too. I like don't have any water at my desk. Um, so yeah, like tons of water, like right in the beginning of the day. Um, and then
• 45:27
  Monday through Friday, pretty consistently, I make a smoothie for myself and for Issei. And like the basis of it is like always the same. There's like celery and lettuce and like some frozen fruit, but like I'll switch it up a little bit. And that's great, too, because it's super hydrating. And you also have gotten in like all your nutrients, all your veggie, all your fiber, right?
• 45:52
  And that kind of like takes a little bit of the pressure off for the rest of the day, in my opinion. Like, you know, it's not like, oh, I had a smoothie. I'm going to let loose. But like, I just feel like, okay, if I don't eat like more super nutritionally dense foods, I still am going to feel really good. So that's like kind of my morning situation. Evening, I try to...
• 46:18
  Once I like log out of my computer, whatever time that is really just be done, like not get back on my phone and check email or anything like that. I'm also just like not a nighttime worker. I know a lot of people do like their best work at 11 o'clock at night and that's not me. So I'm pretty good about like. Just log off.
• 46:40
  help Issei with like cooking dinner. He's the, he's the chef in the house, not me. And then just like, I don't know, usually I just like zone out to Seinfeld or something, just like something so light and simple and like. Lol. Yes. You need the lols. I'm a bit like that.
• 47:00
  I also live by a green juice every morning. I just love having as much green things as possible. And even though I eat a lot of veggies for lunch and dinner, I also just feel like, okay, no matter what, if I had that juice, I'm good.
• 47:15
  Yeah, exactly. So like if it ends up being like, oh, shit, I don't have time to really like make a lunch. I'm just going to have like a rice bowl with some pickles. I'm not like, you know, because it's not even like a like wellness shamey thing, because I think that gets a little weird. But it's just like I just need fiber. You know, like, yeah, I need it. Meanwhile, a rice bowl with pickles is like literally that's heaven. I want that for dinner. That sounds so good. Thinking about that now. Yeah.
• 47:41
  I'm thinking about that. Question number five is, if you only had $1,000 left in your business bank account, where would you spend it? There have been so many days like that. That's like not a faraway dream for me. That was like very recently. I would spend it on...
• 48:08
  team. Um, and I know it wouldn't go that far, but like having someone who can even just like part time, like help me like get through emails or anything like that to like make me more effective is so valuable. And that's oftentimes like, that's not necessarily like a super expensive, like salaried person, but just like making yourself more efficient so that you can go in and do the work. And I'm used to like, I, I worked for free for gold for a very long time.
• 48:38
  I think I'm happy to do that. I'll work, you know, around the clock if I have to. So if I can just make myself a little bit more efficient so that I can get it done. Great. Great. Love it. Get the admin sorted. Yes. And question number six is how do you deal with failure? Yeah.
• 49:03
  Failure is tough, man. Like you can say all the nice things about how it makes you stronger and you move past and whatever. But like when you really do feel like you've failed, it's hard to not feel angry and ashamed.
• 49:19
  I think that my definition of failure has really shifted over the past couple of years with gold. Like the things that used to really get me upset, like, oh, my God, a production run is ruined or something like that. I'm like, oh, that's not my deal. Like we can figure that out. That's not a failure to me anymore. That's just like the usual. So I think like I've kind of strengthened that muscle of like dealing with crisis.
• 49:47
  Um, but something that really feels like a failure, like, man, like we tried out this thing and it didn't work out. Um, I think it's totally natural to be like, man, that sucks. And to like acknowledge that it sucks and not just be like, no, we're just going to push through it. Um, you well, obviously that's what you have. You don't have a choice. Um, but I think it's okay to like, to like sit with it and feel it. Yeah. It's natural. Yeah. And accept it.
• 50:16
  Wow. Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast. This was fab. I really appreciate it. Oh, I had the best time. It was a really great way to start my day. Oh, great. Love that.
• 50:35
  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.
• 51:00
  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.
• 51:22
  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.
• 51:39
  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.
• 52:03
  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.
• 52:26
  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.