Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / How this brand amassed 30,000 5 star Amazon reviews, with Bug Bite Thing Founder Kelley Higney

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How this brand amassed 30,000 5 star Amazon reviews, with Bug Bite Thing Founder Kelley Higney · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  This is Kelly Higney for Female Startup Club.
• 0:12
  Hi everyone, Doon here. Today I'm joined by Kelly Higney, the founder of Bug Bite Thing. You might have seen her wowing all the sharks on Shark Tank a few years ago. Bug Bite Thing dedicates itself to offering customers a chemical-free, eco-friendly solution that effectively alleviates the discomfort, stinging, itching and swelling caused by insect bites and stings.
• 0:38
  In three years, it's quickly become Amazon's number one selling product for insect bite relief with more than 30,000 positive reviews. The revolutionary tool initially gained nationwide recognition in 2019 when founder Kelly and her mum appeared on ABC's hit show Shark Tank. The duo successfully secured inventor and entrepreneur Lori Greener as their business partner.
• 1:06
  In this episode, we're chatting about how she brought this product to market globally after experiencing its wonders firsthand, why you don't need to be an inventor to create something magical, the 30,000 plus five-star reviews that she has on Amazon, and what a brand protection program is and how it's helped her.
• 1:26
  And while I've got you here, I just want to say a huge thank you for tuning into these episodes every week. As of today, we're in the top 1% of all podcasts globally, and I am just beyond thrilled about it. I literally can't believe it. I'm so grateful that you're putting me into your ears to hear these incredible founder stories, because without you, the show wouldn't be possible.
• 1:51
  And the other really cool thing I want to quickly mention is to anyone who's listening that bought our course, The Ads MBA by Female Startup Club.
• 2:00
  As you know, with every sale, $30 is donated to the Malala Fund that fights for girls' rights to 12 years of free, safe, quality education. And as of last week, we were able to process our very first donation with them. All thanks to you. So a very special thank you from the bottom of my heart for making that possible. Female Startup Club exists on the mission to empower women, and everyone taking part in the course is empowering not only themselves, but women and girls all around the world.
• 2:30
  But that's enough of my updates. Let's get stuck into this episode. This is Kelly for Female Startup Club. Kelly, hi, hello, and welcome to the Female Startup Club podcast. Hi, thanks so much for having me on today. I'm so excited to dig into your product and what you've been building. And I always love to start by getting you to introduce yourself and tell us what your business actually is.
• 2:55
  Sure. My name's Kelly Higney. I'm the founder and CEO of Bug Bite Thing. Bug Bite Thing is a suction tool that removes insect saliva and venom from bug bites and stings. So you stop producing the reactions that's caused from the irritant, the saliva and the venom. So you can get immediate relief from the itching, stinging, swelling caused from mosquito bites, bees, wasps, ants, and other biting insects.
• 3:21
  I wish I had this growing up. I grew up in the bush in Australia where there are so many bugs, so many mosquitoes. This would have been amazing. Yeah, we'll have to get you out one. Yes, 100%. For sure. Where does your entrepreneurial story start? Where does this journey begin?
• 3:40
  Yeah, I never thought I would be the bug lady, but I'll take a step back and we'll get into it. So back in 2013, I had the opportunity to relocate our family from California to South Florida. I come from a long line of entrepreneur women. My grandmother started her own company. My mother had her own company. And I actually got the opportunity to learn to take over the family business, hence the move.
• 4:07
  And one thing we were not prepared for when we moved out here were how bad the mosquitoes were and how bad it would impact the quality of our life. Never in a million years, I've always suffered from mosquitoes, but not to the magnitude of what was happening to us out here in South Florida. And most people.
• 4:27
  What was really happening was I had a six-month-old daughter at the time, and her reactions were horrendous. One bite, when I would take her outside to go get the mail or whatever, would turn into golf ball-sized welts. And what do you do? You have to keep applying creams over and over. My child was six months at the time. They were full of chemicals. She was putting things in her mouth.
• 4:50
  So I was really struggling. So I was researching extensively because none of the over-the-counter creams were working on anybody in my family. And I discovered this little known suction tool. It was sold through some industrial first aid kits overseas. And the premise behind it was it actually eliminated the problem because it removed the irritant. And what a lot of people don't realize, it's your own body producing that reaction to the irritant. So if you can get the irritant out...
• 5:19
  In turn, your body doesn't produce those uncomfortable symptoms and reactions. So of course, I'm thinking there's no way this is going to work because why isn't it available and why isn't it everywhere? So I ordered one in, not thinking much of it, and got bit on the way to my mailbox and I got to try it. And...
• 5:37
  I was dumbfounded, shocked, completely shocked after years of dealing with these bug bites and it affecting our quality of life. My daughter was having to be on antibiotics regularly because she would get a skin infection called cellulitis from bug bites. So...
• 5:53
  I had this tool and in 20 seconds, all of the irritation, all the swelling, everything was just gone. And I was like, well, that's odd. Why is this not here? And I could not drop the idea. So I started doing some testing. I market research. I started trying it out on friends and family to make sure it wasn't just me that was getting the same response. And it was, it was really effective on all the other people that I was trying. So I had to
• 6:22
  figure out how to make this available here. It would not leave my head. And so that's kind of the beginning of what started this idea. And so...
• 6:33
  being the entrepreneur and growing up an entrepreneur family, we were able to track down the factory that was producing this product. I pitched to him and I explained, this product needs to be available everywhere. Why doesn't, you know, every mom that's suffering who doesn't have anything for their children, why is this not available to them? And we aligned. He saw that I was really passionate about my vision and I was able to secure exclusive distribution rights for the product for the United States.
• 7:01
  I branded it bug bite thing and I began selling it. Amazing. So that's kind of where the journey begins. Yeah. Gosh, I love that. I'm interested to know about this guy. When you say you got the exclusive distribution rights, what does that mean for the partnership side of things? Is he your business partner or do you pay him royalties for everything sold? What does that setup look like?
• 7:25
  It's very differently now because we're three years into this process and now we're partnered. They've converted their factory. They're now Bug Bite thing headquarters in Europe. So they're only selling our product now, our branded products. So we're partnered with them on a different level now. Now we have global distribution rights. We team up together on both sides of the world and we were launching globally this year.
• 7:48
  So was he like, you know, just a small manufacturer? He was creating this product that wasn't branded. It was for some kind of local use. Some industrial first aid kits that was being sold in some industrial... I think, you know, the idea was always to make this a household product, you know, and because it works. The product was invented by a doctor over 30 years ago, and it's just never gotten the attention it deserves, in my opinion, because...
• 8:15
  And because it was so impactful on me and my family, and after, you know, really getting started with launching this business and learning everything that came with it, I, you know, it just, it never, it was never about...
• 8:30
  Selling a product for me was always about I have this tool and nobody knows about it. And it's it's it works. So my entire mission for starting this brand kind of came out of a drive and a passion of something I really believed in. And I think that's what kept me going. Absolutely. Amplifying that message and helping people on a larger scale.
• 8:53
  I mean, I love it. I love it so much. Yeah. Yeah. I always love to ask about the money piece, especially in the beginning when you were just getting started. Are you able to share what kind of capital you needed to get started and how you were financing the brand in the beginning?
• 9:10
  Sure, I'll tell you, I am very grassroots. So I didn't have a lot of money. When I started this, again, I was learning my family distribution company. So once after, I'll rewind the story, once we landed exclusive distribution rights for the US and I branded it, I literally started selling it as a side business in conjunction while I was learning my family owned company. I wanted to test the market. I had to do things smart. I started selling them at my daughter's bake sales.
• 9:38
  Um, every Friday I would get up there and I had to start, I had to start something. And so I was selling them at my daughter's bake sales. And my first little taste of, you know, the demand was when I started getting tracked down in her parking lot of the preschool. Um,
• 9:53
  Not during the bake sale for people trying to flag me down to buy more bug bite things because they needed one for the golf bag or they're, you know, they're fishing, you know, for their boat or whatever. So that's when I got a really good, I did a lot of market research during that period. And once I realized I had something really viable and the response from the consumer on a smaller level was really good, that's when I decided to make that big leap and
• 10:19
  My mom told me that if I was going to do this and I was going to go full force, I had to do it smart. So my husband and I actually made a huge sacrifice. We sold our house and we moved into a rental because again, this was a new business. So I needed to make sure that we could afford our bills while I was going to.
• 10:38
  you know, quit my other job to do this full time. So we took the money that we had sold from our house and I invested in my first batch of inventory. There were 30,000 pieces and that was supposed to last me all season. And about a month into taking this on full time, I had to start teaching myself the ins and outs of social media marketing. I didn't know anything. You know, this was a new e-commerce business was new for me.
• 11:02
  My background is in distribution and international business and marketing, but not for consumer products. So it was new. So I was taking Udemy classes. I was teaching myself how to navigate through social media. I literally started with $10 on Facebook and I just kept reinvesting that back in. And it was one...
• 11:25
  It was Mother's Day weekend, 2018. And that was when I was full force. And somebody had brought it up in a mom group. And a bunch of people, because again, I started in my own backyard. So it was just local community members. But it was a very authentic thread. And somebody had mentioned our product saying it was a local mom trying to get the word out. And a reporter happened to see it.
• 11:49
  And they came out to my house, CBS 12 News, and they came out and they did a whole piece on me selling these little tools from my house within my rental house. I had packing stations set up in my kitchen. And so it aired. And then the next day it got syndicated to like all these news stations in the U.S. There was probably about 20, 30 news stations. And I sold out of all of my inventory in a week.
• 12:13
  Oh my God. And then I didn't know what to do because I was like, oh my gosh, like, okay, there really is a demand once people realize what it was, what it did. And, and then that's when I had to start navigating. Okay. Now there's the skepticism that's coming. Now there's this, how do I overcome those? And that's when I started really learning about my product and what resonated with people
• 12:36
  That's when I added 100% money back guarantee because I wanted people to feel confident in purchasing my product. We still have that to this day, you know, and we sell millions of bug bite things at this point. But I still believe in the product and, you know, we don't get enough returns. There's enough people that this is life changing for that. It just keeps spreading, you know, by word of mouth, just like it was for me. It was life changing.
• 13:00
  I love a money back guarantee. It makes you feel so secure. And I know it's part of like, you know, some brands really do offer it and it's part of the strategy or whatever, but it really does work. Like I had to do it out of necessity. I was trying to just get people to try my product because I knew if they tried it and they used it, it would be a game changer because I knew I knew what it was doing. And I had enough feedback of the people that tried it that I just needed to get it in people's
• 13:30
  Right. Absolutely. So you have this crazy week where you sell out of 30,000 units of stock. You are in your house, presumably packing this stuff yourself. You don't have a 3PL fulfilling orders for you. How do you carry on that momentum and take it further and keep it going, especially with no stock?
• 13:54
  Well, the stock situation was the first problem. I had to get that resolved right away because nobody could have predicted that. That is just a viral situation that happens and you can't predict that, especially in a startup. To be 100% honest with you, since I launched Bug Bite Thing and that initial thing took off, we still are having to cushion our projections every year for growth and we're still off.
• 14:21
  So it's promising. There's so much more untapped. We haven't even scratched the surface, in my opinion. So I think there's a lot of potential with our product and brand. And, you know, the good thing about our product is it belongs everywhere. You know, it doesn't discriminate against age, race, anything. So it belongs for anybody that truly suffers from bug bites or stings. Mm-hmm.
• 14:45
  For sure. Yeah, everyone, literally everyone can have it. Every single household. I love that. Every single person can have it and they need multiple because, you know, the product is most effective when used as soon as you notice a bite. Because again, it's your own body producing that reaction. So you always want to keep them around like eyeglasses, throw one in your glove box, your purse, your diaper bag, you know.
• 15:06
  Absolutely. But it's also a benefit for you because what do you do if you're out and you get stung by a bee? I always ask people that are skeptical about our product. Or what happens if you have a child that you're out at a park and they get stung by a wasp? What do you do?
• 15:20
  Yeah, totally. You got a child screaming in pain, stinger sticking out. You have to stop everything. You run in the car, load them up in the car seat. They're screaming, they're swelling. Now you have a tool. You could just take it out of your purse, suck out the venom and they can go keep playing. And that's what's happening with our customers. And we have over 30 or 40,000 reviews on Amazon now that are all just positive, life-changing situations like that.
• 15:50
  I want to get to the Amazon reviews thing because I was browsing and I'm going to come back to that in a second. I just had one quick question before we go on with marketing. Does it work on animals? My mom's dog got bit by a bee the other day and the poor little thing was just, you know...
• 16:06
  Having a horrendous time. It is, it is. And that's, it's a first aid tool. So technically it does work on animals. We don't market it because there's a learning curve. Again, we're trying to penetrate the consumer market first, but we also need to do more research. So I, you know, I want to get testing on animals to make sure they're,
• 16:25
  Like our clinical trials are done on mosquitoes and humans, not pets. So, but in theory, you would need to get, be able to use suction. So you would need to either shave the fur or, you know, the animal has thinner skin, maybe wet it down to be able to get an actual suction, but it's a suction tool. Yeah. So interesting.
• 16:44
  When you look back over the last three years, what are the kind of key factors that have kept that growth going along? And like those key tipping points to kind of, you know, I mean, 30,000 reviews. That's crazy. I think the number one thing I can say is I listen to my customers. We are, Bug Bite thing is 100% consumer focused. Yeah.
• 17:08
  Everything is about our consumer. When I started this, it was just me. And I had to get all of the people that were using our product to turn into my advocates for me because I didn't have the funds or the capital to blow this up on a big level. So we really started organic and we have a really loyal following. So, you know, the way that we treat our customers, they're inclined and they tell 10 more people about the product. And that's what's kept this going.
• 17:34
  And it works. It's better. It's more effective. You know, it's, it's solving the problem versus masking it over and over with creams. For sure. Okay. 30,000 reviews. I want to ask you for Amazon, what's the strategy there? And you know, how do you actually drive people to leave a review or is it literally just, you don't say anything and people are happy to leave a review?
• 17:57
  So thus far, we haven't done anything proactively to solicit reviews or get any reviews. Just to put things into perspective, before, so last year was the first year we had a season since we had aired on Shark Tank. So that was our first real sample of what...
• 18:14
  the shark tank effect would have on us. We went from like, I think it was 3000 Amazon reviews to over 40,000 in like a year. So the amount of interest and, you know, life change, I mean, this all happened within a year, we had maybe 3000 before this last year. So this year, it really blew up by word of mouth. And you know, if you go through the reviews, you know, the ones that
• 18:38
  like they're life changing. You know, it's where has this been my entire life? I've suffered my entire life. I'm constantly having to get antibiotic creams. I, you know, last time ended me up in the ER because of the reaction. I mean, and so this is, it's helping people. So I think that's what drives me to be so passionate. I see all the feedback. Totally. And it's such a big driver. I imagine it must be so thrilling to see those kinds of things. Tell me about Shark Tank.
• 19:08
  Surreal. You know, I'll say this and I say it till I'm blue in the face. I'm self-taught. OK, so I taught myself social media marketing. Shark Tank actually discovered one of my ads from doing that organically. And they reached out and encouraged me to audition for the show. So, again, anybody can do this.
• 19:29
  Anybody that has drive, passion, thinks things through, has smart ideas, takes one foot in front of the other, there's an opportunity is what I'm saying. I didn't, you know, I didn't, it could have happened to anybody. But Shark Tank was a blessing. It was definitely a huge platform to really launch our product on a national level.
• 19:49
  You know, we were so fortunate to get interest from all five sharks. We partner with Lori Grenier. So she's our business partner. And she's just been an incredible mentor, role model. She's really helped, you know, give me the confidence to have a voice and keep going with what I'm doing because it's working. I start again, I'm self-taught. So the confidence level when I'm dealing with some of these really experienced and reputable CEOs, you know, it's a learning curve for me.
• 20:19
  Absolutely. For sure. I can't even imagine. What are the kinds of things that Laurie helps you with when it comes to mentorship? Like you said, like, how does it actually work? These relationships?
• 20:32
  I think it works a little bit differently for everybody. You know, our company, I mean, Lori, we utilize Lori when we can utilize Lori. I mean, she's a huge asset. She uses the product. She believes in the product. She knows it's helping other people. And, you know, and she's just got a wealth of knowledge on business and contracts and, you know, some of the stuff that we're getting into now on a bigger level, you know, big
• 21:02
  to branch into. So it's nice to have somebody who has that much experience be on your side. Yeah. Gosh, I bet. Yeah. We've spoken about lots of the good stuff and, you know, lots of the success that you've had, but obviously entrepreneurship is difficult and it's hard. Can you share some of the flip side of your experience? What are the kinds of challenges that you face or some of the learnings that you've had to overcome? Yeah.
• 21:28
  There's a lot of them. I mean, for one, entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. It can take a huge impact on your mental health, your physical health. If you don't set those boundaries and figure out a good method, home work-life balance for yourself, you can burn out. It's real.
• 21:47
  And that prevents you from being able to hit your goals in your company. So that's something that I struggled with early on. So I feel like it's something I constantly work on to get better. My business is my other child. You know, I've got my two girls and I've got my business. So I try to give them all the, you know, the attention they need to succeed. So being split, you know, between being a mom and a CEO, and it's a challenge. So if you don't figure it out how to...
• 22:16
  make yourself have inner peace and hit what is most important to you, then what are you doing it for? That's my question, you know? Absolutely. Another piece of advice I can give people is don't be afraid to pivot. If I didn't pivot 50 times, this wouldn't be at the magnitude it's at. If I would have listened to people who said, this is never going to work as a one SKU item. This is never going to work at the retail level as a one SKU item.
• 22:41
  product item. You're never going to be able to compete and launch as a brand with one item. So many times. And I didn't listen because I was listening to the consumer demand. They were telling me they wanted it. They were telling me how life-changing it was. So why was I going to listen to the background noise? I had to figure out what worked for my business. And ironically, after I was able to create the demand, the retailers came to us. So I'm going to be
• 23:09
  You know, don't think business is always just one way. There's unique things you can do with every business. Every business is unique. And I think there's a lot to be said about following your intuition and that gut instinct versus, oh, you know what? You know better than me. Perhaps I should do what you say. I source marketing agencies. I was literally, I was trying to get my product out there because I knew the demand and
• 23:35
  But nobody was seeing it the way I was seeing it. It wasn't a passion for them. They weren't going through and reading the testimonials. They were seeing how much numbers they could get back on return of ad spend, but they were missing the whole point. So until I took that back and really started understanding what resonated with our customers, why were they responding that way? How can I fix that response with credibility? How can I repurpose real people's experiences so other people knew they were authentic?
• 24:04
  So that's when I started to be creative with my marketing. And again, it just became because I didn't have the funds. I'm self-taught, you know, I did this all from my house and I figured it out, you know, was it the fastest way? Probably not. But I think if I didn't go through this experience, I wouldn't, we wouldn't be and have the infrastructure and the roots that we have going into, you know, this brand.
• 24:27
  Absolutely. In the future. Yeah. I was reading something about you. It was in an interview I read online that you have a brand protection program. Can you talk about what that is and why it's important? Yeah.
• 24:41
  Sure. And again, every company runs differently, but for us, it was critical. It was imperative. So because I'm not the inventor of the product and it's been circulating around the product, you know, it can be replicated. So it came down to really building a strong brand for us and offering a quality product.
• 25:02
  with quality materials, eco-friendly. I wanted to put out a really good product. And my concern was because of the price point, we would get knocked off. We would get blown out of the water before we had a chance. So I kept the product out of distribution for the first three years. And I did that on purpose. I didn't sell to small mom pop shops. I didn't sell through distribution. I sold on my dot-com and I focused on my Amazon business.
• 25:28
  And we worked on getting ourselves into Amazon programs wherein there's a lot of programs that Amazon offers to brands that maybe have counterfeit issues or that would need to protect their IP. There's transparency programs where you can put unique 3D barcodes on the back of your product. So when you do go into distribution, you can figure out where your product's going. So I wanted to get all of that set up.
• 25:52
  the infrastructure portion first before we really released it and launched it. This is the first year now that we're, three years into it, that brand enforcement program that we're gonna be selling to retail on a big level. We'll be in over 25,000 locations this year at retail. Yeah, I know. Oh my God.
• 26:09
  I know. And we're going to be launching in 25 countries this year. So I'm super excited. Holy moly. Yeah. That's crazy. I know. I'm hoping we pop up out of the middle of nowhere. So
• 26:25
  People are going to be like, oh, overnight success. And you're going to be like, it took me a few years to get here. It took four years of nonstop work. No, that's my biggest struggle. I didn't, you know, it becomes a, you have to, I have to stop myself. I get really, really wrapped into my work because I, there's so much that needs to be done still. And I have to constantly be reminded by my mom, you know, who's a business owner for 30 years.
• 26:49
  who's also an entrepreneur, who also has the same brain as me. It's not, you can space it out. You know, every year we introduce something new and that keeps our brand relevant. You don't grow too quick because then we can't figure out where the, you know, the issues come in. So we're, even though we're growing quickly, we're doing it steady and thought out.
• 27:09
  Mm-hmm. Considered. Yeah. Have you had any issues with the brand protection program or, you know, in terms of people ripping off your product, that kind of thing? Not since we've been able to get into these programs. Again, their brand enforcement, look into all the programs, especially with your Amazon business and also who you're going to be selling to. So like for us, we kept, like I said, we kept it out of distribution. We still,
• 27:39
  you know, some wholesalers and smaller businesses and mom pops, we know we'll be able to tell if they're breaking any of our policies, you know, if they're breaking our map policy, which, you know, they're selling under for the, you know, advertised price that we're allowing. If they're posting it on, we don't allow any of our wholesalers to sell on third party websites like Amazon or eBay.
• 28:01
  But again, we'll be able to enforce those by ordering in a product and being able to see our unique barcodes and other ways of measuring that who ordered it and who's violating our policies. Okay, got it. So interesting. I love that. I've never spoken about that on the show before.
• 28:17
  Yeah, I think it's important. I think it's important. I'm sorry, I say that, but every brand should really, when they're, if you're a new business and you have a really good product and you need to protect it before you just open it up and get excited to sell to everybody, if there's a demand,
• 28:35
  Do it smart. Take a step back and vet. You know, we make sure all of our retail partners, even the small mom pops now, they have to have a brick and mortar location. They have to have they have to understand our our business model. They have to follow our brand guidelines. There's there's procedures. Yeah.
• 28:51
  We were not quick to just sell it to anybody that wanted it because I knew from experience, from my husband's previous positions, my mother's previous positions, I knew that the second you open it up without a good brand enforcement program, your pricing gets destroyed, your product quality gets destroyed. It can end up in places in liquidation sites, pallets, and now you destroy the integrity of your pricing before you even have a shot.
• 29:17
  And retailers don't like that. Other big online wholesalers don't like that. So creating a strong brand enforcement program is really wise. Really key. It sounds like for sure. Yeah. Where is the business today? What does the team look like? What's the scale? I mean, I know you just said you're about to launch into 25,000 retailers. I know. Absolutely nuts. But paint the picture for me. Like, where are you today? Yeah.
• 29:41
  So I'll paint the picture. So again, two years ago, I was doing this all out of my garage. Okay. So I'm packing orders out of my garage. We get, we, we go on Shark Tank. Shark Tank airs. We film in June. It airs in October. And so we relocated from my garage to like a 5,000 square foot office facility, which was supposed to last us three years.
• 30:04
  We made it through one season, outgrew that space. So we secured a second facility. And now we're very quickly outgrowing this facility. So we went from me and another gal at my house to, we have about 30 employees now. And we're in two facilities, but we're looking into a temporary third until we can move into one big, big facility.
• 30:25
  Holy moly. Yeah, there's a lot happening. Lots going on. Lots going on. I always ask at the end of every episode, before we jump into the six quick questions, what is your key piece of advice for women who have a big idea and want to start their own business?
• 30:44
  Don't be intimidated because there's always ways to create your own business, your own unique way. Like if somebody else has another idea, that's okay. But again, with Bug Bite Thing, we built our business off of our consumers. So anybody can do that. If you build a loyal following and you offer them quality products, you give them excellent customer service,
• 31:06
  they're going to keep coming back. So don't be intimidated on reaching for the stars, thinking bigger. I think for me, even personally, I didn't give myself enough credit for what I had done. And I was still thinking really small. I didn't, you know, I didn't know this could be a global brand at the time. I was literally thinking I was going to be selling these at bake sales. Yeah.
• 31:29
  So you never know. Don't be intimidated by what you read. You can create your own destiny. It's your own business. You could do whatever you want. Love it. What do you think your, like the best advice you received from your mom and your grandma? The best advice, and I still use it every day in business, is figure out how to make things a win-win-win.
• 31:49
  My take on every problem, situation, anything that happens, I figure out how is this going to be a win-win-win for all parties. And that piece of information has gotten me really far in our business.
• 32:02
  Love that. A win, win, win. Focus on the win, win, win. Yeah. Very cool. Okay. We are up to the six quick questions part of the episode. I asked you every woman on the show, some of the things we might've touched on already, but we still go through it. Yep. Question number one is what's your why? Why do you do what you do?
• 32:21
  I want people to know that there is a better, more effective, chemical-free option to get relief from bug bites and stings. This should be the first line of defense, not something that you're having to reapply over and over that has chemicals. Yeah, I'm so into that. So into that. Question number two. It makes sense. It does make sense. It makes total sense. Question number two is what's been the number one marketing moment that made the business pop?
• 32:51
  I think I'll refer back to that first mom group. That was my first little taste of it. And again, that was very grassroots and organic. It was just because I was selling them in my own backyard, in my own community, and that they all were rooting for me. And I think a lot of brands miss that sometimes or think that that's not an option anymore. And it totally is. I'm living proof of that. The power of moms on Facebook.
• 33:18
  You never know. You don't underestimate us. You never know. The mom groups are no joke. A hundred percent. Definitely don't underestimate. They are no joke. And they know when you're lying. So it's never been about selling the product. It's just been about educating. That's been the biggest thing for me.
• 33:38
  Question number three is where do you hang out to get smarter? What are you reading or have you read that you recommend or podcasts or newsletters? I read everywhere. I online articles, business articles. My mentality is the more scenarios I can read about of how other businesses have navigated a situation. Yeah.
• 34:00
  bring those insights that I've learned from them mixed with my own ideas. And I usually can get some really good, solid directional moves for the company with that. I'm also a part of Forbes Council. So some of my other fellow council members, we do these articles that, how do you handle customer service with an angry customer? And there's these little
• 34:21
  snippets and, you know, other successful business owners and things that are part of the Forbes Council will contribute. And I love reading those because obviously I, you know, I have my own ideas, but they have, there's 10 different people who are all have really good ideas too. So why not, you know,
• 34:40
  read everything and the very best version. So love that. Yeah. Question number four is how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling successful and motivated and happy?
• 34:56
  I listen, I'm a huge believer in music therapy. So every morning I listen to my classical music. It's classical concentration on Amazon music. And that starts my day, turn something on in my brain to get me focused on my day ahead. I always do that. And then every night, my husband and I, we go in the jacuzzi and that's our turn it off from work. We're not allowed to touch our phones after the jacuzzi. And yeah,
• 35:21
  That's it. So those I make it a habit every single day. I force myself. And at the end of the day, I always go, was it worth it? And every time it's like, yes, it was. That was my one second to myself. I'm constantly being tracked down by my team and I'm very involved in the business. So I forget to take care of myself sometimes. I mandate it.
• 35:45
  I mean, I'm so into this jacuzzi vibe. I was actually talking to my husband about why don't more people have jacuzzis? Like it's therapy. They're awesome. It shuts everything off. It's good. I don't know. I love my jacuzzi every night. That was that was I wonder if you could turn it into a bit of an ice bath situation from time to time.
• 36:06
  you know, tip in some ice to get cold therapy. Yeah. Have some cold water shock therapy. Love that vibe. There you go. Question number five is if you only had a thousand dollars left in the business bank account, where would you spend it?
• 36:22
  I would say social media because again, I started with $10 on social media and it was the creativity of how I changed the words and the verbiage and the copy and what I was displaying. It was that mixture of what cracked the code to really resonate with our customers to get them to try it. And I think I would go right back to those grassroots and do the same thing over
• 36:52
  And last question, question number six is how do you deal with failure? What's your mindset and approach? I think it is a mindset. I don't think of failure as an option. I pivot. So anytime somebody says that didn't work, I go, okay, we pivot. It's not a failure. It's a learning experience that you pivot and get better for the next time. So how many times could I have said I failed that bug bite thing? I mean, I launched to the wrong demographic at the beginning. I mean, there were so many. We sold out of inventory. There was a lot of mistakes.
• 37:21
  But what I did from those failures is I pivoted and I got better and I figured out solutions to avoid those mistakes in the future. Amazing. Kelly, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show. I am super, super excited for you. And I can't wait to see you all over the world in all the places. Thank you. Oh, not ready for that yet. No. I'm so grateful for having you on the show today. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.
• 37:53
  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.
• 38:17
  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.
• 38:40
  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.
• 38:56
  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.
• 39:21
  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.
• 39:43
  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.