Latest / The Growth Class with Phil Masiello / Operational Focus Strategy: Simplifying Complexity to Scale One Brand with Emma Crepeau

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Operational Focus Strategy: Simplifying Complexity to Scale One Brand with Emma Crepeau · The Growth Class with Phil Masiello

• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Hey everybody, and welcome back to the Growth Class.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Phil Massiello, your host for the show.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: And today we have a great uh female entrepreneur, uh manager, uh turnaround artist, whatever you want to call her.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but Emma Crepo is an experienced retail and e-commerce executive.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: She's taken over uh as the CEO of Jack Archer, and she took it over, I guess, about a year ago, and she's based in New York, but she's previously served as the chief growth officer for the apparel brand Roan.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, she's been focused on brand expansion uh and she's very smart as a merchant.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh she's got a tremendous background.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to tell it because that will take away the mystery.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: So let's bring Emma in and let's hear her story and how she did it and how she does what she does and where she's heading with Jack Archer.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Emma, thanks for taking the time to come on the show.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, Phil.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, my pleasure.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: My pleasure.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's an interesting story.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: I loved the conversation we had about um what you're doing and how you did it.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was a a really complicated, or it sounded sort of as a complicated task, but it seems that you're bringing clarity uh to what you've been tasked with.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: So why don't you give us a little bit of a background in you know, background in you and then how you got to where you are today?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, of course.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So um I've spent most of my career in retail.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, as you can tell, I'm British.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I started my career in England.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: I worked um for nearly a decade for a British activeware brand called Sweaty Betty.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um think of it as a the it was the Lululemon of the UK, um, an incredible brand, probably one of my fondest experiences that I've had.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we took that through to an acquisition.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'd moved over to New York and we sold to Wolverine worldwide.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I then joined Roan.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um at Roan, I was responsible for all of the channel execution as well as marketing.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and again, that was incredible.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we really expanded our retail presence, um, expanded wholesale, and we actually launched Women's.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Roan was historically a men's brand.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Women's launched a couple of years ago, and they've had great success there.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so you know, when I was thinking about my next step, um I was either going to launch my own brand, um, but then this opportunity at Jack Archer came about.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it I have learned more in the last 12 months than I think I've learned my entire life.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: So it has definitely been an incredible experience, but also a very difficult experience.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, nothing like learning while you're being thrown to the wolves in the fire.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's that'll uh that'll toughen you up pretty quickly and and get you uh on board to learn.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: So uh but explain that whole thing because uh they they brought you in.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: It was a bigger, more complex sort of organization, and you it it appears that you've sort of streamlined it to bring clarity to what you're doing.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: So why don't you why don't you go into that a little bit?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because I thought that was a really interesting part.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean it's really unique.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: So Jack Archer was bar part of a portfolio.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and all of the portfolio brands um were very small Shopify businesses initially, and they were purchased as part of a portfolio with the idea that through tech, automation, AI adoption, that they could all scale.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um and when they brought me in, the idea was that Jack Archer would separate um and become its own entity, but actually the decision was made that Jack Archer would become the focus.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, that came with its own nuances, as you can expect, as we inherited everything that was associated to the portfolio business.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and within the portfolio, there was a lot of different brands.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: We had a drone company, we had a supplement company, we had some apparel, but there wasn't much uh consistency or ability to utilize the different operational and logistic setups for each of those businesses as one.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: So actually, it was incredibly complex.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so for the first six months, um, I unfortunately had to dedicate most of my time to deprecating the entire portfolio so that we could focus on Jack Archer.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And you can imagine the complexity when you have such a variety of businesses to play with.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes, it's been quite the journey, but we are currently in a position where we've really streamlined and built the foundations and the cost structure, which is one of the most important things to support just Jack Archer and not 50 brands.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: It reminds me of, I mean, there were so many of these consolidators out for the last few years.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it started with Amazon.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody thought, oh, we can consolidate all these brands that are selling on Amazon, small brands, and we'll take them over.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it's the same process systemically that we can build.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: And they all went bankrupt.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think there's any of those consolidators out there.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then they tried to do it with Shopify.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: But the problem is, you're 100% right.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like every every type of business, whether it's, you know, when you go from supplements to fashion to to uh you know any anything else, it's such a different mindset and you have to have different controls and different measurements.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's not as simple as saying, well, we understand how to and I I've made this mistake personally with you know building my own brands.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's not enough to say, well, we're good marketers or we have this special talent, so it'll work.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: I uh we can do consumer products really, really well.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: We can market things really, really well.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: But I, you know, when we got into the fashion business, I, you know, as operators, it was not good.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's a completely different business.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell And that's the thing.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I um just got back from Vietnam.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um we spent a week there visiting suppliers, um, our production partners, and the complexity behind developing a fashion line, an apparel line is so much more than people often think.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And if you think about the brands that stand the test of time, whether it's a Nike, um, you know, they're continuously innovating and they are spending so much time and headspace and resource in how do we keep ourselves relevant?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: How do we make sure that people want to keep coming back to us?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think that's when you've got multiple brands, that's really hard to do.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's really hard to stay close to the consumer and understand what they're looking for if you're doing it for 50 businesses at one time.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes, you can automate some processes, some logistics if you've got a similar product, um, but you can't automate brands.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: You can't automate how a customer feels.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: No, no.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I think when you deal with fashion, it puts a different complexity because you you you can't just think about what customer feels about your product today, but you have to you have to think about what your customer is gonna feel about your product in 18 months.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: And you're dealing with factories, you're you're almost a soothsayer, you're trying to think like what colors, what styles, what's the trend, what are people gonna be doing 18 months from now?
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: Because it takes it takes forever.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not like beauty, where uh we if we manufacture in the in the States, we can we can develop a product, bring it to market within three or four months, test it, see how it goes.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's not like that with fashion.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and even the big brands, you know, Nike stumbled, they changed the CEO, he thought he knew something because he came from a different background, didn't understand what they really were, they stumbled, and then you've got Under Armour that I think spread themselves so thin trying to get into all these different businesses, and they're you know, they stumbled, and Kevin has to come back and be the CEO again and try and sort of rebuild that that brand.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think they got away from what made them fantastic, you know.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I think to that point as well, it changes.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and that's sometimes the struggle as well.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you mentioned fashion.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I I always laugh at the the Bourbon brown trend and the butter yellow trend that happened last year.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: I never had anything that was Bourbon brown, and now my nails are Bourbon brown.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's my new favorite colour, but next year it'll be something else.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: The 90s fashion is coming back in, and men's is a bit easier as you you are wearing a quarter zip.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Men like quarter zips and polos and teas, but regardless of that, things change.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so you can't stand still.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter if you're the biggest brand out there, like a Lululemon, the, you know, that they're going through it right now.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: You have to keep challenging yourself and innovating.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and that's hard.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's really hard.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: No, I think men are a little simpler.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: The only reason I'm wearing this, it's not that I like quarter zips.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm wearing it because my daughter goes to UCLA and they were out there this weekend, and my my other daughter was out there this weekend, and she she brought it back for me.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I happened to have it in my office, and uh it got a little chilly because it's 78 degrees here, and the air conditioning kicked on, and I'm not ready for that.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I'm not ready for the air conditioning to kick on.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's only one day, it's gonna get cold again, so I I got a little chilly.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, no, but you're you're 100% right.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Men are a little bit easier and simpler because they don't change that much.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: And frankly, in my opinion of doing of marketing, you're really talking to women about uh men's clothing, men's fashion.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like men, very few men are truly making the decision about what they wear.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: They may buy something, they may go home with it, and their girlfriend or wife may go, uh, are you really sure you want to wear that?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden it goes back and they get something else, you know, and and uh um, you know, like I I think I was telling you, there's there's times when I just walk into my closet and there are clothes there, and I go, and I look and I go, Oh, that looks nice.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: And and and my wife and and my daughter go, Yeah, well, we were out and we saw them and they would look good on you.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: You go, oh, okay.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I can tell you my husband has never done that for me, nor would he attempt to, but you're right.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's I mean, we get so many reviews um on our jet set of pants.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh one of one of our hero products, and so many reviews from men saying, My wife bought me this and she loves them on me, and that's why I wear them.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: So it it really is um key.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think with men as well, though, they they're more loyal, but they're harder to get because they don't care as much about shopping.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, when we think of our brand and the reason why we've built the brand, we're very much trying to simplify style so that every guy can look and feel great, but it's not hard for them.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's not hard for them to do.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: So for the guy who doesn't want to shop, we can make it really easy for you to do so.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it resonates.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: It does resonate because um I know, you know, my husband doesn't go out for a shopping trip.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's I don't think he's ever done that.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so it's just how do we make this really easy?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that goes to everything we design.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: We always say to the merch team, we need a problem.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: What problem are you solving?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so an exciting development we've got coming out in a couple of months.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: We spoke to our customer and we said, what annoys you about your shirt?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so many people said that unless you get a tailor-made shirt, there's not many options for different lengths.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so we said, great, we'll introduce different lengths.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we looked competitively, and you know, not many people did it, and especially um, there were not many people who did it at a re reasonable price.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so we do try and approach it in that way.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: What do men find annoying?
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: And how can we make it easier for them to dress and dress well?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you have to make it easy for men.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're sort of a simple breed.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: No, but it it brings up a good point.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: It it the two things that I think uh did really well uh over the last or two brands that I think did really well over the last couple of years.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: One was Untuck It, where guys like to wear their shirts untucked.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: And but but they were right in the fact that most shirts are not cut.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: And it was as simple as just the cutting the bottom differently and to make it look uh less messy.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then the other one was um uh the t-shirt company.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: I can't remember the name of it now, where they were saying, uh, you know, oh I'm fat, you're not fat, it's uh true classic.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, true classic.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: You're not uh you're not fat, it's the it's the t-shirt.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Personally, I don't think that it's the it's it does the job.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: I bought one, but I I don't think that it stands up to what their brand message is, but you know, a lot of people do, and they bought them.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but I f I think there's other t-shirts out there that are better still, you know.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: But uh yeah, they simplified it.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Same thing with the um with you know the sock company about you know, we buy these socks and we donate a pair.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: They're easy to those are easy message points and and for men, and you can you can sell it.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: Then there, you know, but when you started getting into, I think the um uh those, you know, uh subscription models where you know you tell us what you like and we'll send it to you every month.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think that got a little wonky for guys because it's like, no, I don't like this, you're pushing me, you know.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: So uh that didn't work out as well as I think they thought they should have.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: But what's interesting is there's another company out there called Taylor, T-A-E-L-O-R, that uh is doing rent the runway for men.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, that's kind of an interesting thing.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh to I'm interested to see how that plays out.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: I can see it for women, but men, I don't know.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how that's gonna play out long term.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think it is interesting.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is why you always have to innovate and stay close to your consumer.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: I uh people often say, well, how are you trying to approach marketing?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I say, well, it's not really about what I think, it's about what the customer thinks.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's constantly saying, How can I speak to you?
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: How where do you hang out?
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: And what do you have that's missing?
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Granted, you know, Henry Ford said it very well.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: If I'd asked, they'd have said a faster horse.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: So you you do need to challenge that perspective, but I think it can help you ground the way that you speak to the consumer and make you and help you make more sensible decisions.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest risks for a retail company is to have too much inventory.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and especially with the seasonality shifts and even if there's subtle trend changes, a product can very quickly go out of date.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't want to be sat on it.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so you really need to have a good filter to think through, okay, this is where we should expand the collection versus this isn't right for our consumer.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: No, 100%.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: You have to stay, I think that was the message we were talking before the show about this Eddie Bauer bankruptcy.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and I was interested in it because from a perspective, something that I preach to entrepreneurs that, you know, you can start up today, you can have a great message, but you have to stick with it.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: You have to keep your eye on the customer, you know, you have to deal with the changes, you have to deal with the changes in the market.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if you take your eye off the ball, I don't care how long you've been in business.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: And here's a classic example a hundred-year-old company and they're they're bankrupt because they lost sight of the changes in the market, they lost sight of who their customer is.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's not debt this time, it's not that they took on, you know, private equity and it wasn't any of that.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: It was complacency, 100%.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that that's happened uh time and time again.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: And if you get complacent and just start going through the motions and not, you know, changing, I think the same thing happened for a period of time with J.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: Crew, and you know, they're sort of bouncing back.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that happened a bit uh a few years ago.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: So Yeah, fashion I think fashion is one of the most difficult uh uh one of the most difficult categories because it changes so much, especially for women.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: Especially for women.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: And it's and you have to really you have to have somebody who's really on top of it who can really think about it and and is has a passion for it.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh or else you can get, you know, you can fall by the wayside very easily.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean it's incredibly competitive.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's always new players coming in.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um you can think that you're the the top of the market, but especially with the internet and digital and the ease of people entering the market now, that that's only get going to get harder.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um with AI, you can build a website in 30 minutes and you can start, you know, testing things.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so even more than ever, we're going to have to be on the edge of our sea, like being challenged by um every everyone on how do we get better, how do we keep driving that incremental improvement to what we're doing.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think even more importantly, feedback.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: I I always say sometimes you can be in businesses and people aren't open to feedback.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: They're not open to hearing, you know, from others what is or is not working.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so for us as well as a business, we're trying to stay close to that because when you're in it, you can kind of miss what's happening outside or how you're being perceived.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to just stay close to that.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: I it's amazing to me how many people that are founders, CEOs, that don't uh want to hear about the don't want to hear from the customer about what they're upset about.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'll give you, you know, I used to, when I when we had the beauty brand and when we had shaving, I used to call five or ten customers every week that had the biggest problems.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, and I try and preach this to uh, you know, CEOs or founders or whoever that I'm coaching to say, you know, just call.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: And they're they're totally afraid.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I always think, what are they gonna what are you afraid of?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: That you're on there's a phone between you, right?
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: They can't hit you, they can't punch you, they can't do anything to you except yell at you.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, uh so just if they're yelling at you, put the phone down and listen to them yell, let them yell, and then get them back on, and then thank them for being so honest and and start getting into a conversation.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: What you'll find is that you'll probably convert 60 or 70 percent of the negative ones back into the business because you're you're happy that they called, but you'll find out so much about what what's wrong with your company.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: You'll find out if your website didn't work, if your shipping's not working, if your packaging's not working, you'll find out so much in a very short period of time.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: And what's the big deal?
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what can they do to you except yell at you?
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what are you afraid of?
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's so true.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: I had a brilliant, so I read every review that goes through our website.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: We have an automated sync, so we see them um fire through.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: And we got a scathing review um a couple of months ago.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so I said, I'm going to reach out to them and have a conversation with them.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and he was the most wonderful individual.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we ended up resolving his issue.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we sent him an extra pair of pants um to apologize for the inconvenience because he was going on a trip and he wanted everything ready for the trip.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Whilst he was on that trip, he sent us pictures of him wearing Jack Archer on the trip.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then when he got back, he sent sent me a card um thanking me for taking the time and saying he's a customer for life now.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I think those engagements and being open to, hey, your company isn't perfect.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: There's always things you can do.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: But now I've made a friend.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and he sends me little bits of feedback.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: So it's, you know, getting your customers in a room and in a place where they feel they can be honest will help us improve and do better.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because I know there's so many businesses who have disappointed me.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: I just haven't gone back out of principle, which is so petty.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: But it's true.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, the service wasn't good enough.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was disappointed with the quality, no one responded to me.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, well, there's other businesses.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: There is other brands to go to.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so that you have lost me as a customer.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: And that's a dangerous thing because the silent um customer is the is the worst because they're not going to tell you what they think is wrong.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: They're just going to leave.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really difficult to look at your churn and try and figure out how to get those people back and sending some sort of personalized message to them, which I think is another great use of AI, because we can actually send personalized messages to people that are churning to try and figure out why and what they didn't like and take that to heart.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: But you're 100% right, you know, and and with that example you just gave about the the gentleman that you satisfied.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, here not only did he come back and say he's a customer for life, but you got an image from him, and you I'm sure he sent you an email or whatever.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got an endorsement that you could put on your website, you could put it on your social media, so now you've got a you know a user-generated endorsement.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And reviews are one of the biggest drivers of conversion.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, I know it's funny a lot of luxury brands don't have reviews, and I always think that's interesting.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: I personally wouldn't actually never buy.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, being in the industry, I know that it doesn't make sense.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think when uh the first thing I do is where are the reviews?
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: What are other people saying?
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's going to be the most honest description of a product.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so we really try and encourage reviews coming through to our website because we know that it will drive conversion, but it will also give us feedback on was the fit right?
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do we need to relook at what are people not happy with and how we how can we make sure that when we innovate this collection, we do it better?
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, reviews are critical.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I always look at the ones.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's the first place I go.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: I don't listen, I don't look at the fives, the fours, or the threes.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: I just go to the ones and the twos because I want to see what the real problems were.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of times, it's it's small things.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, the package arrived late.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, this was late.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: This, you know, the I want to know, is the product any good?
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: I don't really care about your specific issue where I ordered it on a Monday, it didn't get there till Friday, and they said it would be there by Wednesday.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that stuff happens.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's nothing I can do about that.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't control USPS, you know.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it's uh it's it's it is funny.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, reviews are important.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they've been important, you know, but I think people have become skeptical.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: And what's funny is that Amazon came out with this AI tool that runs through reviews and looks for the fake ones and tries to get rid of them.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then the other thing it does is it consolidates the reviews.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: So if somebody goes there, it'll it'll consolidate the messaging pretty quick.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: So now people go, oh, people generally like this.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: The only problem is there seems to be a problem with fit.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: So don't choose uh the size you are, choose a size down or something like that.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's uh which I thought was pretty pretty smart of them to do.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I mean it is really helpful because again, a product can actually be a very good product, but you might just need to size up and knowing to do that in this type of style can be helpful dependent on how people like things fitting.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, AI is just really streamlining the ease of being able to get information.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so it actually puts more pressure on retail brands because people can source before it was all the internet's introduced, ah, people can just search what they want on Google, but now they can in real time query all of the options that come up, source the best um one, get it at the cheapest price, um, which is another reason why I think the market's going to get more competitive because people aren't prepared to pay those highest price tags for a product which is comparable.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's why brands like Quince are just growing so quickly now.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: People are conscious of what they're spending.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, oh, no question about it.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: I also think clarity of message, you know, when you have something that's got a very clear message and a very uh distinct customer and they're focused on that specific customer, they do a a a lot better uh than, you know, there's a lot of brands out there that just think they sell to everyone and they're just their message is cloudy and it doesn't really work very well.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so those are the ones that usually don't that that don't stick around.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, you're spreading yourself too thin.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to her, you know, what's your biggest piece of advice for me right now?
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um and she said, focus.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you pick two things.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: Other people in the business might have some other ones, but you pick two things and you're relentless with it.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: You you you all of your attention goes there.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think it's true because it's very easy and naturally, you know, entrepreneurs get excited about things.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, we can do that, we can do that.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but actually, yes, focus, you know, do what you're trying to do very well because if you spread yourself too thin, you're never going to be the best.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: You're never going to break through.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I just I'm laughing because I just had this.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: I I sp I do a lot of work with the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University and some of the accelerators and incubators.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: I I do speak to a lot of entrepreneurs.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I did this speech the other night, and I said, you know, you have to think about what you're not what you're gonna say no to.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: So because it's just as important as what you're gonna say yes to, because entrepreneurs, startups, founders, we have a tendency of chasing the next bright, shiny thing.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: And you have to choose your battle.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to look at your your where your business is and say, I'm gonna focus on whatever, whatever's leaking right now, whether it's leads, whether it's, you know, churn, whether it's whatever, and focus on that till it gets solved and then move on to the next thing.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you try and do five, six, seven things at once, you do none of them well.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: And and that, you know, the last eight months for me has been hyper focus, get the cost structure in place, get the foundations ready for scale.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because if you scale without that in place, you'll quickly run out of cash.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: You won't be able to sustain it.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that has been the utmost priority.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, my CFO, he probably you know has nightmares about my voice asking different questions.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we've got ourselves in a healthy position now, and uh, and now for us it's it's brand.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, how do we make sure we are differentiated?
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: We we've thought about our positioning, but is it refined?
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Does it break through?
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: That data feedback loop with our customers, what are they looking for?
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: How can we become the brand of choice for them?
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so I'll be speaking with a lot of customers over the next few months to understand that better.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we're just about out of time.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: Any parting words that you want to get across?
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: Anyone who wants to go and buy from jackarcher.com?
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, any of you guys out there that are listening, you want to uh upgrade your wardrobe or get your wife involved, wife girlfriend involved to take a look at it, find out what will look good on you?
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I would say that we hired the most incredible product lead and the new product she joined in September, so the new product that she has developed is only just starting to come out.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I tell you, we are working with the best suppliers.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: The product is fantastic.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so please do come try us.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we are worth the risk.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think one of the other things I would say is, you know, for people who are wanting to set up their own brand or are currently doing it, um, there have been so many times over the last few months where I've thought, what am I doing?
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's so stressful.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, we've pressed forwards, and I think it's it progress is not loud.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: You you don't see it suddenly turn a dial or a silver bullet and it just flips on.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: It compounds over time.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so stick with it because everyone thinks brands come out of nowhere, and they rarely do.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: Most successful brands had a whole journey of sleepless nights before they started to become known.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, progress takes time, it compounds over time.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but be persistent, be relentless because um it's fun.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's fun.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's fun when it happens.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: I know you're busy.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for taking the time to come on.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: We really appreciate you sharing what you're doing with us.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it was uh it was a great story.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Phil.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: It was wonderful to speak to you, and I'm sure I'll speak to you soon.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: I hope so.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Enjoy the rest of your day.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: Me too.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.