Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / Lessons learned after these women had to shut their business down and start over, with Branch Basics Co-Founders Allison Evans & Kelly Love

Transcript

Lessons learned after these women had to shut their business down and start over, with Branch Basics Co-Founders Allison Evans & Kelly Love · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

0:00
This is Alison Evans and Kelly Love for Female Startup Club. Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. I'm your host, Doona Rasheen, and joining me on the show today are two of the co-founders behind Branch Basics.
0:23
Alison Evans and Kelly Love. Branch Basics are a non-toxic cleaning products company that were created with the most sensitive in mind. They clean powerfully using only the highest quality plant-based ingredients. In this episode, we're talking about the importance of having a true purpose and mission to drive you forward in business, what happened when they went through a really tough time in their business and had to close down, and the key learnings for anyone who might be considering going down the path of white labeling a product.
0:52
As always, please do subscribe and rate and review the show to help other ears find us. This is Alison and Kelly for Female Startup Club. Alison and Kelly, hi and welcome to the Female Startup Club podcast. Hi. Thank you. We're so excited to be here. Yes, thank you for having us. I'm so excited too. I always love to start by getting you both to introduce yourselves and what your business is.
1:19
Sure. I'll take it first. My name is Allison Evans, and I'm sitting here in Texas, part of the United States. I feel like I have to say that since you're such an international dude. And we co-own a company called Branch Basics.
1:37
Yeah, so I'm Kelly Love and Allison and I are best friends from college. We met at University of Texas in Austin and actually founded Branch Basics with her aunt Merrily as well. But I currently live in Jackson, Mississippi, where my husband is from. So we are all over the place and Merrily's in Texas as well.
1:57
All over the place. It seems like that's totally the norm these days, though, with everything going on with the pandemic. I want to go back to life before you started Branch Basics to find out what was happening in your lives that was leading you down the path of entrepreneurship and why you were starting this business in the first place.
2:15
Yeah, well, first I realized we didn't even answer the question about what is Branch Basics or what we do. So for your listeners, we sell non-toxic cleaning products, but we really view ourselves as a lifestyle wellness brand built on education. We are very passionate about all things healthy living and love to educate, you know, not just on cleaning related stuff. So, but we actually sell a non-toxic concentrate that can be diluted with water and replace dozens of cleaning products.
2:44
Amazing. Amazing. So good. I'm sure all the people in America know about this. I wish it was in the UK. It looks like a game changer for the house. One day, one day. Yes, we would love to get internationally. Got to figure that out. But I'll roll into answering the second. That was good, Kel.
3:05
So, yeah, we never set out to be entrepreneurs. We had absolutely no business background. This is literally a passion project turned like, you know, honestly, there was a day where Kelly and I were like, you think this could really make money? Like, hmm, I hadn't really thought about that.
3:23
I mean, we were so naive. We were like 22 years old and just out of college, no business background. But we had experienced what we have kind of coined our, you know, internally as the power of pure. And that was when...
3:40
We went to go live with Marilee in the Texas Hill Country and her home was completely free of all toxic chemicals. And we both kind of have our stories of how that revolutionized our health. For me, I had been diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome, tons of cysts all over my ovaries. And then that was in high school. And then fast forward to...
4:01
college or university, I came down with mysterious pain from basically head to toe that was debilitating and left me on a slew of drugs and painkillers and muscle relaxers, antidepressants. And then my aunt Merrily came along and told me about how toxins can actually impede our bodies from naturally healing, which is what they are inclined to do. And so I had nothing to lose and I was feeling so hopeless. So I ditched my toxins.
4:26
Well, I was going to say, but she started asking questions like, what are you eating every day? What laundry products are you using? What cleaning products are you using? And personal care products, these things that Allison nor I as her roommate, like had ever thought about in relation to our health.
4:42
Yeah, we're like, we've done these things our whole lives. Everybody uses Clorox and high VOC paints and uses Splenda. You know, back when Splenda and 100 calorie packs were like the thing to stay skinny. So it was just like a mind-blowing kind of time. And anyway, I went to go live with Marilee. And just those two months living with her completely revolutionized my health. I was able to reverse polycystic ovarian syndrome, be able to get pregnant naturally, which I was told would never happen. I was completely out of pain.
5:10
And it was all because of the way that we started eating and cleaning out our environment. And then Kelly, you can share just how that transformed you. Yeah, so I was the healthy one, but just really intrigued by all this. I was a health promotion major in college and thought I wanted to start a Pilates studio after college. And.
5:28
Went and lived with Marilee just to learn more about how to cook healthy food and just health in general. And I all of a sudden didn't have painful menstrual cramps anymore and dry, itchy eyes. And I had been going to acupuncture and getting massages for like muscle aches and all that muscle aches went away. So things like that made me realize, OK, these.
5:49
Things that we all just think are normal because they're so common don't really have to be normal. It's just because we're all exposed to this stuff every day. And if we get that out of our lives, then these things just disappear. Yeah.
6:01
So both of us, Allison and I were like, Marilee, you know so much, she knows so much because of healing her son. He was told he would never recover after being exposed to high levels of now banned pesticides that just completely wrecked his immune system, detoxification abilities, brain, everything that the doctor said he would never recover and essentially be a bubble boy for the rest of his life. And she just refused to believe that and believed that there had to be a way
6:30
and knew a lot about food as medicine already, but really through the journey of his recovery, discovered how much the chemicals and our everyday products have on our lives. And so she was just a wealth of knowledge. And we were like, we've got to get your brain on the Internet. Like, we've got to start a company somehow and get like everything that we've learned this summer. Like, we want all of our friends and family to know.
6:53
Basically, people wouldn't one day say like, why didn't somebody tell me this? Like that was the whole goal of starting the company so that we could get this information out. You may think it's crazy, but like it's off our backs. We told you, you know, in a much more loving manner than that. But it was really started out of a passion to educate people on removing toxins from the home, not just buying a cleaning non-toxic green cleaning product from the store, bringing in your home and thinking that it's all healthy sitting next to your Windex, creating.
7:21
creating this chemical soup in your home's air. So we just started really understanding the importance of removing all toxic chemicals. And yeah, never sat out to sell soap. We started focusing on just the soap and people have loved it. And that's been the biggest blessing of it all is that we happen to sell a soap that kicks ass now. So that just like perfectly supports this, you know, the mission and our message. So.
7:43
And so how did you actually go about starting the business? Was it, you know, your aunt was having her own kind of mixes of chemical free cleaners in the house and you guys based a formulation of that? Or what was the process to actually coming up with a product?
8:00
Yeah, so we actually started off as a retail store selling a variety of different products. So it was originally called Three Branches Healthy Living. And the whole concept was just to sell like the top vetted product in each category that Merrily had approved. So the best air purifier, the best infrared sauna, the best water filter system, supplements, cleaning products, you name it. And this was in 2009. Yeah.
8:28
And it just was really overwhelming for people. This was like not as popular or mainstream as it is today. And people were like, where do I start? And so we kept finding that cleaning was such an easy first step for people. And it made such a big impact in the air quality. And a lot of times people can notice such a change so quickly because they might normally get, you know, runny eyes or sneeze or cough a lot or get headaches when they're cleaning. Yeah.
8:57
And so anyway, we at first just kept the cleaning product as part of all the other products. And we were originally selling it under a different brand, the manufacturer's brand. And they happened to offer private labeling. And so we kind of really just eased our way into it. Like Allison said, we had no business experience. We did not start off originally trying to formulate something on our own.
9:20
Marilee had a long history with this product with her son and other chemically sensitive clients that she had consulted. And so we just set out to like start an agreement with her, like to private label that. And then turns out that started picking up and we decided to focus on just the cleaning product and drop all the other products since we could really build our own brand and not just be a retailer.
9:44
But fast forward a few years and we were picking up, we started, you know, had some bloggers write about us. We had a big Dallas Morning News newspaper segment clip or whatever. And we decided, OK, this is really like getting some traction. Let's not just private label and be one of many private labelers of this formula. Let's get an exclusive licensing agreement. And so we brought in legal help and worked out a contract, got an exclusive licensing agreement.
10:14
Did a friends and family million dollar fundraising round and we rebranded. We were cranking, we were rocking and rolling. And then it just kind of all came crashing down because we realized that the formulator that we were private labeling from had not been honest, even in the legal contracts. And so we had different, I guess, opinions on what like natural things.
10:37
You know, since that's not really a regulated word, we were promoting this the way that she had told us, which was non-synthetic, you know, no synthetic. So anyway, without getting into the details, it became clear that we needed to formulate on our own and be able to have a formula that we could be fully transparent with because that formula was proprietary to her.
10:59
And so we went through a huge learning curve and decided... It was a disaster. It was a disaster. We shut down everything. Oh, I can hardly, like, as Kelly tells it, I feel this, like, physical reaction in my body where I'm like, it's when you tell something that was so bad, it's amazing how good it can sound. Like, you're like, oh, those were some lessons learned, you know, but we're like, we...
11:24
It was painful. It was painful. How did you, like, how did it come to your attention that it wasn't what you thought it was? Yeah, I mean, basically, the more we grew, the more people started questioning the product. And eventually we just kept pressing and pressing and not getting clear answers. And it kind of just all unfolded. Right. So she hadn't really shared the recipe with you guys.
11:53
Right. There was a proprietary blend that we knew was plant based. And honestly, it was our naivete because it was the same formula that had been used with Merrily's most sensitive clients, year after year clients that could never use anything at Whole Foods. You know, so we being so young, we were trusting. Well, we knew it was non-toxic.
12:16
We did have testing to verify it's not toxic and safe, you know, and toxicology testing. But yes, it was a very big lesson learned of, you know, to really be able to stand by and grow and set a strong foundation to be able to successfully grow and scale the company. I mean, you really need to know what you're working with, what you're offering to the public. So at the same time, it was such a blessing for us because, you know,
12:45
I don't think the three of us would have said, oh, let's go work with a chemist and try and make a cleaning product. You know, so it really, it really ended up being what allowed us to get started. And it's just, it was, yeah, it was a tough lesson. Sounds like a really tough lesson. And obviously there was such an evolution there. When you had to, you know, when you were going through all this, did you say at some point you had to fully shut the business down and stop everything?
13:14
Yes. In 2015, we decided to discontinue selling the product and let our customers know that. And we tried to refund as much as possible, but we were not in a position financially to be able to refund everyone that wanted a refund. And yeah, we had to let our employees go. We had about 10 employees and it was really, I call all of our investors, you know, who are our
13:44
It was a really difficult time. I mean, I remember one night, Alice and Marilee and I are just all on the computer day and night trying to talk to customers and investors and just handle everything. And I fainted. Like I literally fainted. Like I fell to the ground. And Marilee, I mean, just was like a walking zombie. Yeah, it was not pretty. It was a rough time.
14:10
It's good to be told and good to be heard because, you know, there's rarely a business that is doing well and growing that hasn't been through something pretty tumultuous. I mean, maybe ours is a little more dramatic. We joke that we didn't go to business school, but we sure as heck have paid our business school many times through life's lessons in this growing this company. Yeah.
14:33
So for you guys, obviously the key learning here would be that, you know, if you're growing a business and scaling it, you need to have your own formulations and you need to be aware of what you're truly selling to your customer. But what were some of the other learnings that you got out of that process and that time?
14:50
Yeah, I would say that, yeah, you know, transparency. And as my husband said, he was getting his MBA as we were going through this. It's an entrepreneur school in Austin. And they teach that the main reason businesses fail is because of a people problem, whether it's vendors, whether it's an employee, whether it's a partner. And he was like, you are literally showing me this is true because merely Kelly and I have never had any issues. Like, thankfully, thank God we have gone through heck together and we have stayed strong because
15:20
but we've made some bad hiring choices. We've made some bad trust vendor choices. And yeah, so that was a big thing, people person and just really vetting people that you work with, no matter where they are on the chain. But then also, I think the fact that we now are lucrative and growing, and we never thought, I didn't think this would happen. I didn't think we could come back from it. Yet we never lowered our standards. I mean, so many different formulators, chemists,
15:46
would say, well, you just want a unicorn. Like what y'all want, y'all standards are too high. We have to use this sort of preservative. You know, that just doesn't work. And, you know, that's why the industry doesn't have anything like you're talking about, you know? And Merrily really taught us like, just don't take no. I mean, just keep pressing forward. Like, don't be dumb, you know? But at the same time, like remain hopeful and keep trying out new avenues, even if it takes, it took us 18 months. Like we thought we're gonna lose everybody by the time we come back. And if it were up to me, I probably would have cut some corners.
16:15
But she was like, nope, no corners cut. I mean, and she's the wise older, you know, one in the group. Well, and she was basically, you know, we based our formulation off of the chemically sensitive, you know, kind of the canary in the coal mine principle of if it's safe enough for them, then it's safe enough for everyone.
16:32
But yeah, to your original question, that's when we started actually working with formulators. So we do not have like a chemistry background ourselves, but we knew what we wanted in terms of efficacy because obviously...
16:48
you know, it's got to work. Like it can be safe all day long, but if it doesn't work, then people aren't going to continue using it. So we had high standards and knew exactly what we wanted in terms of, you know, it's got to work in this way, this way, not leave a residue, you know, not irritate the eyes, not irritate the skin. So we made very clear
17:06
like brief, I guess, you know, for the chemist. And we worked with several different chemists at one time instead of putting all of our eggs in one basket and tested literally over a hundred formulations. And I mean, I had my towels out
17:21
you know, the $1 towels from Ikea. I just got a ton and I literally put like mustard, chlorella, you know, tomato sauce, olive oil, you name it, like 10 different stains and tested all the other, you know, cleaning products on the market with each sample that we had gotten. And then I would go in my shower and close the door and spray it and see if it made me sneeze and cough. I'd literally hold my eyes open and spray it in my face and see if it burned my eyes.
17:50
So we did a lot of like, just, I don't know, some crazy stuff there. That's so cool though. I love that. At this point, I'm wondering how you're financing all this. Obviously you've had a friends and family round at this point, you've got investors. You are also refunding all of your customers and you're now having to pay for a new formulation, which obviously wasn't in the original plan. I'm guessing that.
18:14
you know, more than a hundred formulations sounds like a lot. And then obviously placing an order or that kind of thing. How are you, how are you financing it? Well, the beautiful thing about all the formulations and working with the chemists is they were all willing to work with us contingent on getting the manufacturing contract out of it. So they all formulated and sent us the
18:41
that we had confidence in. We put a little bit of a money to like upfront just to get a bulk sample so we could send it out to friends and family and get feedback on it. But so this time, Allison and I were both pregnant. And when we finally decided on a formula, we were both like getting close to our due dates where our first girls are a month apart.
19:04
And so we knew that we were going to have to have help to relaunch the company successfully, that Marilee, Allison and I couldn't do it alone. And we ended up talking to several people and friends and networks and partnering with these two men that are now are, you know, the five of us are partners and they help run the operations and finance and day to day. And yeah.
19:27
The five of us joined forces and committed to each putting up a little bit of money to get like a first PO in. And we just did it very bare bones and like bootstrapped. So we had originally kept our original website that we had built once when we had that original funding. And we had like our Instagram channel and everything we had kept. And even though it was about two years ago.
19:50
And in that, in the downtime, Alison and I would post every now and then to our Instagram or like write a blog post and like give some updates to our customers. So we weren't like completely MIA or silent. But at that time, we then started just using our website again to let people know we were coming back and then did a pre-order. Wow, that's incredible. How many customers did you have from like the first time around that you're able to re-tap back into? Yeah.
20:19
Oh, man. I know. I'm what was I want to say we had like an email list of like 20,000. Yeah. Right. So you had a really good starting base to to re-tap into and people who are obviously still wanting you to come out and deliver this new formulation because they loved what you were doing the first time around.
20:40
Yeah, I remember our social media. I mean, Instagram is so much bigger than it was then. But back then we had 8000. And it was, you know, it was a good number. So yes, we were definitely not like relaunching from square one, you know.
20:56
Totally. I love to get into the marketing to find out, you know, what you were doing in those kind of early days, even if we go back to, you know, 1.0 version there. What were you doing to actually get people to know about your brand and how has that evolved over time?
21:13
You know, I think that as our CEO puts it, the more we talk about our product, the less we sell. And the more we talk about health in general and give tips and share our passion, the more product we sell.
21:26
So honestly, again, like it really is just like, there's a higher power because we knew so little going into it. And I really, I think that the model for us has just been, it's proven that the passion, if you're led by that passion, like things will follow. Our passion is the only reason that we had the desire to even come back from that mess that we were in. I mean, we wouldn't have put in the time for like,
21:55
something else that even if we knew it could make our money back, like I didn't have the energy to go through like that heartache again and just, you know, giving all that up. And so I think it really comes down to us, just our desire to share information and what we know has been helpful for us. And so many of hundreds and hundreds of Merrily's clients and even our old customers. So I don't know if that's answering your question the right way, but basically content, our own content and then also content,
22:22
working with others to, you know, other bloggers and influencers. That's really been the approach all along. And,
22:31
In the early days, blogging was just kind of taking off. And so we got our product to a few big bloggers in the health space because we had gone to some events like trade shows and health conferences and got a booth. And so we met some people at those conferences and then met some other vendors as well. And just through that network and through those original blog hits, that really got customers for us. And then...
22:59
Let's see, we did not do like a lot of traditional advertising, like in magazines and things like that. It really was just kind of more kind of like the word of mouth approach, but through influential people like bloggers and then eventually Instagram and Facebook.
23:14
That's amazing. Wowee. And so today, if you look at your marketing and what kind of drives sales and what acquires new customers, is it still that approach of you put out content that is educational and informing people about healthier ways of living or, you know, non-toxic ways of living in the home? And then that is still what's the biggest driver? Yeah.
23:35
Yes. And we also send out a lot of free product. So we, that is like, we put a lot of marketing dollars into just sending free product to people because our product speaks for itself. And thankfully we have a very high repeat customer rate and we have a very high customer referral rate. And so like both above industry standard. And so
23:56
We, yeah, have just put money into like reaching out to people one to one, like directly and sending them products. And then also the ones. So anyone that markets branch basics for us, like we want them to actually love it. Like we want it to be a genuine push and we want them to use it before they share with others. And so it's.
24:17
We really let them tailor their message. You know, we don't tell people what to say and, you know, make sure you cover this and that. Like we trust that they know their audiences and their friends and let them tell about their own experience with the product and with our educational content as well. We have so many people that say like, oh, I just love getting y'all's emails because I actually read every article, you know.
24:40
Oh, that's amazing. Wow. I will say too, just prioritizing customer service. And I know so many companies say this, but gosh, even just me reaching out to certain companies recently, I'm like, get back to me guys. Like, I'm like, you have no excuse. You know, I mean, we are, especially when you're paying high dollar for something, it is like top priority for us. Like we will push aside other hires. Like we,
25:05
answer all questions. And I'm telling you, Dune, like most of them are not about cleaning products. It is like, we have a leak under our cabinet. Who, who should I call? What kind of grout should I use for this? We have, the fires are coming. Where's the air, air purifier. We'll help people order air purifiers. Like we have literally become sometimes borderline, like health practitioners where we've had to like draw lines. Like we can't get recommendations on that. But,
25:28
But we really pride ourselves in helping people just create a healthy space and remove obstacles from their lives. And I think in turn, people then want to say, oh my gosh, you have to at least follow branch basics or, you know, or they want to support even us as a smaller company and they want to gift our product as gifts for the holidays. So it all comes back, even though it's not directly us talking about our product. I truly think the reason that we've been able to grow and capture our audience more is because we don't focus on our product. Yeah.
25:57
Yeah, that's so interesting. Yeah. And to your point about customer service, I mean, it is so important to take good care of your customers and it will, you know, just in the long run, it'll pay back for itself, you know. Where is the business today and what does the future look like?
26:16
So today we are just direct to consumer, online only through our own channel and our two main products, really our liquid concentrate and our powdered oxygen boost. And then the concentrate is what's mixed in all the other bottles with water. And so we love having that direct line of communication with our customers because, you know,
26:41
One, like we both said, we love to educate about other things, not just cleaning product, but also our product needs some education and explanation around how to use it. Since it's one thing that literally you can use to like clean your baby, but also your toilets and your laundry and all the things.
26:58
And so it's hard. You can't really get that across when someone's just walking by a bottle and sees it on a store shelf. But eventually we do want to go into retail. But our philosophy is kind of like build our brand awareness as much as possible and go into retail with that brand awareness and just knock it out of the park. And so it is, you know, in the future.
27:20
We're also trying to start on new products, but we at the same time don't want to just have a bunch of SKUs because really, like I said, our concentrate takes care of so many products. We don't want to just like have a bunch of different cleaning products because it doesn't make sense for our model. But things like dishwasher detergent or wipes, those are in the in the works. Amazing. So exciting. My next question is for both of you. What advice do you have for women who have a big idea and want to start their own business?
27:50
I mean, I think you. OK, so for us, it has been such a blessing to have each other. If you can do it with someone that you really love and trust, we actually think that that's been. Operative word is trust because you can love a lot of people and then you go into business with that.
28:11
And it's been, that's been so amazing. Cause really that's exactly what I was going to say. It's like, I could not have done this alone. I was going to say, I don't know if we would have gotten through everything we've gone through if I was alone.
28:25
Yeah. And not to say we're just huge company. And so this may not apply to us. Hopefully we will be one day, but it's like the phrase it's lonely at the top. Like I think is really true. And I think the bigger you get doing something alone like that. And I mean, while it's so exciting and can be a huge, you know, bombshell lucratively to own the majority of your company, like there's no, there's nothing I would trade to, you know,
28:50
have done this alone. So I think finding someone to do it with you, to share that passion, to share the exciting successes and to share in the hard times. Yeah. Yeah. And I was going to say too, just passion obviously is so key. Like having a mission beyond just the product, having like a bigger mission.
29:08
that really drives you when things do get hard. And then just getting started. Like I tend to be a perfectionist and want to have everything in place before actually just like getting started and testing things out. And I think a lot of times that can hold you back from growth because, you know, really just get started and get the feedback along the way and learn as you go instead of feeling like you have to have it all figured out before you start.
29:38
Yeah, 100%. I totally agree with that. Yeah. And then something I was going to say earlier.
29:44
I mean, in the beginning, Allison and I were doing everything, like wearing so many hats. Marilee was still consulting. And so she was contributing to a lot of the content. But Allison and I were literally like making all the purchase orders, trying to figure out how to do like even set up a business legally and do taxes and fulfilling all the orders, like handwriting, you know, all the and then making all the labels and putting
30:13
packaging everything and then it got to the point where we were like okay we can't we're
30:21
it wasn't a ton of orders, but it was enough to where it was taking up all of our time. And we were like, okay, we're really going to grow this. Like we've got to start outsourcing some help because we were not able to even market or do anything else and grow our company because we're just trying to like stay afloat and get the orders out. So I think you have to really be mindful of like when to bootstrap and do it all yourself, but then also when to grow so that you can
30:47
you know, take that leap of faith and know that it's going to help you grow your business.
30:53
When honestly partnering with people that don't necessarily think like you and have different personalities like Kelly and I compliment each other so well. She is definitely more of like wanting to like push us forward in certain new ways and try new things. Like I am one. It's like I kind of get stuck in the micro. You know, she's more macro minded. And so, yeah, just having that checks and balances in order to even push into new realms. Love that. Love that for you guys. Mm hmm.
31:20
We are up to the six quick questions part of the episode. So I'm going to run through them with both of you. I'll run through, Alison, I'll go first with you and I'll run through the six and then Kelly will go through with you. Ready to go? I'm ready. Great. Question number one is what's your why?
31:38
My why is just my family, my kids. Like that's how I stick to health, you know, things every day that I do for my body. Yeah. My family. Question number two is what do you think's been the biggest marketing moment that's made your business pop? The number one marketing moment.
31:56
Marketing moment. I guess I can't think of exact moment, but I think it's when we just have partnered up with amazing influencers and basically share in their work and what they've done to build their audience and get to ride on that. And I can think of several times where it's just been a huge fun hit for us and then those customers become our lifelong customers. Amazing. Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? What are you reading? What do you listen to? What newsletters are you subscribing to?
32:27
Hmm. Um, currently Kelly has partly to do with this. I am super into our thoughts and our brain and how our thoughts and our limbic system can change our entire body. So I'm like soaking everything up when it comes to like mental health from like a faith perspective all the way to science. And yeah, every night after the kids go down, I'm like in it. So do you have any reading recommendations? Yeah.
32:54
I'm currently doing a program called DNRS, which is a pretty like it's been around for a while, but it's how to change your limbic system dealing people that deal with chronic pain. And so DNRS would be a great resource for people. And then there's another 800 page book that Kelly printed out for me by someone named Michelle Stridham, who takes it. Who's that? Who is a actually she's in South Africa.
33:19
a medical doctor, but she also puts things into like a Christian perspective. And as a Christian, it's been really exciting for me to see how like faith and science can come together. So her name is Michelle Stridum. She has all these YouTube videos. Anyway, really into that. And Dr. Caroline Leaf, who is, um, Austro-Australian and South African. Anyway, she's great.
33:41
Amazing. I will link them all in the show notes for anyone listening that wants to check them out. Question number four is how do you win the day? And that's around your AM and PM rituals that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated and productive.
33:56
I get up really, not really early. I just, I don't sleep very much. And so I tend to get a lot done, I found. And thankfully I've been feeling better. So that's been really exciting. It's not just getting up because I don't feel well. And I'm just a planner. Like I have to have organization. Like we have systems in place with our kids. And my husband and I sometimes feel like we're running, like we have like standard operating procedures. He's like, do we have an SOP for that?
34:21
Because if we don't, they win and they take over. And so we're very into Montessori and like, you know, trying to get more structure and organization. So, yeah. Love that. Question number five is if you only had a thousand dollars left in your business bank account, where would you spend it? Gosh, yeah.
34:41
There's so many things running through my head right now. Gosh, we couldn't even have any help or hire help. It would, I guess it would just be Kelly and Marilyn, me shipping out product on our dime. Like that's probably what we would do is we would just be on Instagram. Thank God it's free social media. We would just be hitting up social, doing IG lives, telling people about toxins and sending influencers free product on our dime and hoping people just came.
35:08
Amazing. And last question, question number six is how do you deal with failure?
35:14
Hmm. Just having hope. I mean, my faith plays a big role in that because I'm thinking about what we did when we failed. Just pressing forward and not just cliche, but really trying to find the positives and look at the big picture instead of micro tendencies. So yeah, just the power of like positivity and thankfulness for what is actually going right in those times. Amazing. Thanks.
35:38
All right, Kelly, your turn. Are you ready? Yes. I feel like I'll have a lot of the same answers, but we'll see. We'll see. Totally get it. Oh, come on. Give her different questions. That's not fair. Question number one is what's your why?
35:56
So there really is so much suffering out there. And Alison alluded to it earlier. Like we hope to just prevent people from saying, why didn't someone tell me? So honestly, we just want to help people. And we believe that what we have to share is valuable for people. Totally. Question number two is what do you think's been the number one marketing moment that's made your business pop?
36:25
So going back to 1.0, like you said, which is really the start of everything, the Wellness Mama blog, Katie Wells, she did an amazing post about us. And I think that really put us on the map. Amazing. Power of influential people. Yeah. Question number three is where are you hanging out to get smarter? What do you read? What do you listen to? What are you subscribing to?
36:54
Yeah. So I love the podcast, How I Built This with Guy Raz. And I also love like health related podcasts. So Wellness Mama is one that I still follow. And then like Allison said, a lot of the mental health and how important and powerful that is mindset is for our health. So Dr. Caroline Leaf as well.
37:20
Amazing. Can't wait to check her out. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM and PM rituals that keep you feeling happy and motivated? Well, lately I just fall asleep every time I put my daughter down to bed. So I have not been doing a lot of self-care.
37:41
Um, but honestly, I am the worst about taking care of my skin. And we just did an event with Follain, Tara, and the founder of Follain convinced me, just a really encouraged me to take the time like at night in the morning to take care of my skin and not see it as like just this quick rush through, but like a way to like kind of
38:05
pamper myself and really enjoy that time. And I've been doing that this last week and it has been so fabulous and I can really see the difference in my skin. So doing a nice skincare routine. Amazing. It is a nice self-care moment. I agree. Question number five, if you only had a thousand dollars left in your business bank account, where would you spend it?
38:29
I was thinking the same thing as Al. I was thinking just send out as much product as possible to people and do all the free things like Instagram Live and recorded Zoom videos and things like that. So, yeah.
38:46
Amazing. And last question is, how do you deal with failure? So it's easy for me to say, oh, like, I'm just gonna, you know, focus on the positive and whatever. That is definitely the goal. But I admit that I am one of those people where, you know, the negative voices, like even if there's one negative comment, but 1000 positive comments, like I will like,
39:10
I don't know dwell on that negative and it's really hard for me but at the same time I am a very like optimistic positive person so I can quickly change my mindset and see all the positives and view it as a learning lesson and so really just trying to not worry about what other people think because I think that's where like the failure part comes in is I worry too much about how I look to other people so I start to just really check in with myself and remind myself like look I'm
39:37
I know my heart. I know my intention. I know how much I poured into this and focus on what I know to be true. And just like literally tell myself out loud, like, no, don't believe that. Like, stop, Kelly, stop. Don't go there again. Like I'll literally talk to myself sometimes. So just reminding myself that like, don't get wrapped up into like the outward perspective of what other people might think.
40:03
I love that. And I like the idea of saying it out loud. My inner critic can definitely be a big brat a lot of the times. She can creep in every day. Oh gosh. Thank you so much, Alison. Thank you so much, Kelly. I've really loved chatting with you and I love how you've obviously gone through such a journey. You've overcome crazy adversity and
40:27
and you've really come out on top and still shining bright. And I just love that. And I love that you're able to talk about that and share that with other founders and people who, you know, look at brands and think that everything's been glossy and rosy, but of course there are hurdles that come with, with any journey. So thank you so much for sharing that.
40:44
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. No, you're an inspiration. I can't believe you've done so many podcasts in such a short amount of time. And it feels so easy and fun to talk to you. And we're all three wearing white turtleneck sweaters.
41:02
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.
41:27
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.
41:49
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.
42:06
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.
42:31
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.
42:53
As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favourite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.