Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 6 Quick Questions with Tara Bosch, founder of Smartsweets (part 2)

Transcript

6 Quick Questions with Tara Bosch, founder of Smartsweets (part 2) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  Welcome back. Here are the six quick questions. So question number one is, what's your why? Why are you doing what you're doing every day? My why in the beginning was my Oma and the conversation I had with her. And it very quickly became, I think,
• 0:30
  my why became feeling like and really realizing that everyone in their lives at some point has struggled with eating something they love and feeling bad about it. Women in particular with body image and self-esteem and just seeing the impact that Smart Sweets is having on people's lives.
• 0:56
  That was so powerful to me where like someone would go to the candy aisle and be like, I cried. And now we get invitations to weddings. And so that very quickly became the why that there is everyone. This is a universal feeling. And it's so much more than enjoying candy. It's giving people back that joy that they had when they were a kid enjoying something so special to them.
• 1:26
  and really empowering them in their lives that they can have the foods they love and feel good about it. And then that snowball. So feeling confident and making the decisions that make you feel like you're living your best life. So yeah, that's the why now and still my own love course. That's so cool. Very special. Question number two is what's been your favorite marketing moment so
• 1:55
  My favorite ones are kind of, ironically, the funny ones, or sometimes the ones that don't go as planned. And in the early days, we would always say, okay, we'll come up with a hypothesis. If you have an idea, it's a hypothesis. Let's test it in a small way. If it lands, great. Play it bigger. If it doesn't land, then we take the golden nuggets and learnings and move on. So we did this campaign because our product is,
• 2:22
  high in fiber, but it's really easy on your tummy and digestive. And typically traditional sugar-free candy uses loads of sugar alcohol that causes digestive upset. So we launched this campaign, which we thought was genius at the time, called We Shit You Not. And we sent like shit emoji pillows to all of our influencers and retail partners, like literally posters with a shit emoji next to
• 2:51
  the bag of smart suites, which didn't really make a whole lot of sense in terms of like what you want to be associated with. But at the time, Beth and I thought this campaign was just like, be like next level of genius. What was the feedback? Most retailers didn't take it because I make sense like it's a shit emoji next to like the food product, even though we were saying this will not make you shit.
• 3:20
  But some consumers, I think they thought it was funny. We thought it would go viral and all these things, and it didn't. But it gave us a good memory. A good story, for sure. Question number three is, what's your go-to business resource? You've already shared so many good ones. But if you had to kind of pick a book, a podcast, or a newsletter that you're tuning into. Oh, yeah, that's a good one. Hmm.
• 3:48
  you know, I think in the beginning, one book that was hugely, hugely impactful to me, and I would literally rip out pages and just I still have them like highlighted and now like framed, just because this had such deep impact on me. The book's name is so cheesy. And like,
• 4:09
  I don't like it, but the content's amazing. It's called How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis. And it's just so powerful because it really just breaks down for you that it's not this far success and the impact that you wanna create in the world is not a far-fetched idea that is really within your arm's reach if you just have the determination, the grit, and the persistence and all of these things.
• 4:37
  And so I clung to those words when I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing and just feeling terrified. I love that. We're going to link it in the show notes for anyone who wants to check it out. I'm going to add it to my reading list as well. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM and PM rituals or habits that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated? Yeah, it's changed a lot since the beginning of Smart Suites.
• 5:08
  part of my day. However, one thing since the beginning that was always served me so well in the morning, but especially at night, I would just sit there and lie at night and just stare at the roof and just reflect on what I was grateful for that day and like how lucky I felt to have the gift from the universe or God or whatever it is you believe in to be on this journey.
• 5:36
  I just like could not believe it that like, wow, this is actually my life. I actually get to build this candy company and, and just having the gratitude for that always brought me back to like in the hardest and like darkest of days, just being like, you know what? I am like being in gratitude and then putting it out to the world and saying, you know, I've done everything I possibly could have done today. And,
• 6:04
  Now it's, it's the universe has a larger plan and that there's always, everything's happening for you, not to you. I found to be so powerful and to always think everything's a opportunity hidden in disguise. And it always, always has been. So yeah, bringing yourself back to gratitude, I found so hugely helpful.
• 6:30
  I love that. So true. So true. Question number five is what's been your worst money mistake and how much did you lose? I think the worst mistake I would say, which again, I don't, I, in hindsight, I'm like, it's not really a mistake and there being an opportunity hidden in disguise. We got some really great people involved in smart tweets through it. But when I was launching the first manufacturing run,
• 6:59
  everyone would say to me, make sure that your projections aren't outlandish. Make sure that they're realistic. Make sure that they're realistic. So I made sure that I felt they were realistic and they ended up swinging way too low. And so then I was in this position a month after launching being like, shit, I don't have capital to do another run that's larger. I can't access more debt financing. And so the convertible note we did
• 7:29
  was really because I took too small amount of debt financing. So I would say, yes, have realistic projections. But the thing that you also have to have is like, what if things go really, really well and make sure you're planning for that scenario as well. Great piece of advice. Love that. Very cool. Thank you.
• 7:54
  And question number six, last question. What is just a crazy story you can share from the journey of building this business, good, bad, or otherwise? Yeah. Oh gosh. So many. That's the magical thing about startup life. I feel like it's like, it's, it's so crazy. It's truly a rollercoaster. One hour you're like, woohoo. And the next hour you're like in the depths of despair. But I feel like the, um,
• 8:24
  Yeah, this serendipitous moments and just the crazy things. We were like, how is this even real life right now? Make it so fun. One thing that was pretty serendipitous and just crazy was that we were still very small in Canada only. I think less than 100 stores. A producer from Fox Business reached out and was like, we would love to do a feature on you and Smart Suites.
• 8:54
  can you come to New York and film the segment next week? And that was like needle in a haystack because we did not exist in the world. I was like shocked. I was like, I was just in complete shock. But again, leaning in and saying yes to opportunities when they present themselves. So we were like, yeah, of course. Went there the next week, filmed the segment. And like 10 minutes later, I got an email from the global confectionery buyer at Whole Foods saying,
• 9:23
  we would like to discuss a global launch. And from that email, at first I thought it was spam or junk mail or something because Whole Foods doesn't just come and knock on your doorstep and offer a global launch. You have to go find the buyer, grind, do regional, all these things. And that led to our nationwide USA launch less than a year later at Whole Foods. And the buyer came to find out, he doesn't need to watch Fox,
• 9:53
  He actually hates Fox. He was just scrolling through the channels and it just happened to be on. So that's one of those moments of just like, it's too crazy to be random. And it felt like just a nudge from the universe being like, just keep going. And that was consistent the whole journey. Whenever things just felt like really, really hard and how are we going to possibly solve this?
• 10:21
  there would always be a nudge from the universe in small ways or big like this one, where it would just be like, we got you, keep going, keep going, and just kind of helps to shepherd us along.
• 10:34
  And I really believe that, you know, it speaks to the testament of just having a really good product that people can instantly be like, I recognize what this is. I'm on board. We see the mission and you have a great product. So we love it. And, you know, these things, of course, come from that. You have to have a good product. A thousand percent. Yeah.
• 10:56
  Tara, this was so cool. Thank you so much for coming on Female Startup Club and sharing your journey. I am in awe of what you're doing and I can't wait to continue to watch you crush it. Ditto. Congrats again on your adventure and what you're creating in the world and the amazing impact that you're having in all of the listeners' lives. So yeah, thanks for having me on. Thank you so much.
• 11:23
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 11:47
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 12:10
  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.
• 12:27
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 12:51
  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.
• 13:14
  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.